My friend, today, we are under the new covenant of grace. God doesn’t want us under the old covenant of law anymore, where we are blessed only when we obey the law and cursed when we fail to. He wants us living completely under His grace—His undeserved, unmerited, and unearned favor.
We also need to understand that the moment we try to merit His free favors, His grace is nullified. In the new covenant, we are blessed on account of His Son and what He did on the cross. It has nothing to do with our performance or ability to keep the law. So don’t be like those people who profess that they are in the new covenant, but still have an old covenant mentality by trying to be justified by their law keeping. Like Paul, recognize the problem with mixture. Don’t let it get into your heart because the consequences are serious—when you think you can still save yourself, God’s grace cannot flow. You cannot earn, work for, or merit His grace.
Beloved, all of God’s grace and blessings are wrapped up in Christ and Him alone (see Rom. 8:32). Whatever it is you need today, turn to your loving Savior. See how He has accomplished everything for you to freely receive from Him the breakthrough, healing, protection, wisdom, and supply you need.
Today’s Thought
I believe that I am made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by my perfect obedience to the law. Jesus alone is the basis for my acceptance before God and my receiving His blessings
.
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You for showing me that You want me to live only by Your grace today. I ask You to eradicate in me the erroneous belief that I have to work to earn my salvation or Your blessings. I acknowledge that there is nothing I can ever do to earn Your love and blessings in my life. I humbly receive the abundance of Your grace and believe with all my heart that Christ alone is my righteousness. I thank You that You have already given me all things in the gift of Your Son, Jesus, including whatever it is I need today to reign victoriously. In Jesus’ name, Amen
.
“I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
G
ALATIANS
2:21
But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners
.
R
OMANS
4:5
NLT
Today’s Scripture
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
M
ARK
2:22
H
ave you ever wondered what Jesus was referring to when He shared on the new wine and old wineskins? He was referring to the mixture of the two covenants. The new wine represents the new covenant of grace, while the old wineskin represents the old covenant of law. Have you ever seen old wineskins? They are brittle, hard, and inflexible. That’s the law. It is inflexible. And when you pour the new wine of grace into the old wineskin of the law, you will lose both because the wineskin will be ruined and the wine will be spilled. The virtues of both the old and the new covenants will be cancelled out and lost.
I received a letter from Kirsten in Florida whose experience with mixing law and grace was similar to the Galatians. When she received her salvation at the age of seventeen, she experienced unconditional love for the first time in her life as God’s mercy and grace washed over her. In the beginning, she said that church was a joy as they worshiped, shared, and prayed. But within a few years, she succumbed to a works mentality and began searching the Scriptures to discover what she needed to
do
. Having lost her joy and peace, she was tormented by thoughts of “not doing enough for God.”
Kirsten’s hope was reignited when she chanced upon one of my television broadcasts. She said, “That tiny spark of hope later burst into flames and set me free. Wow! God’s grace is real and it doesn’t depend on my ‘doing enough for Him.’ No more works that are motivated by guilt and shame that left me exhausted, overwhelmed, and drained. My peace and joy returned a hundred-fold, and I was able to relax and enjoy my relationship with God, my family, and my church.”
That wasn’t all. Her revelation of God’s grace put a newfound peace and rest in her heart such that when the economic downturn in 2008 wrecked America financially and affected her family, she chose to rest and believe that God would provide for her family. “I prayed one morning for God to give us something that day based solely on His grace and not our efforts,” she said. “Less than thirty minutes later, my husband’s former employer called him and asked if he wanted his old job back! My husband now earns as much as he did in his best year prior to the downturn. God’s grace is
amazing!
”
Beloved, don’t allow a mixture of law and grace to invade your heart and mind. God hates mixture because it robs you of the freedom, peace, and joy that come from resting in His Son’s finished work. It robs you of the power to reign in life through the abundance of His grace! You cannot put new wine into old wineskins. You will lose both. But if you just focus and meditate on His grace and goodness toward you and your family, like Kirsten, you will see His grace abundantly provide for you.
Today’s Thought
I will not live under a mixture of law and grace because it robs me of the power to reign in life. That comes only through receiving the abundance of His grace and gift of righteousness alone!
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You that Your new covenant of grace is all about how much You love me unconditionally and what Jesus has accomplished for me. I thank You that I don’t have to live under a set of inflexible laws to try to do enough works to love and please You. I believe that as I depend on Your grace and enjoy my relationship with You, You will give me the right inward motivation to walk in Your love, wisdom, and peace in all areas of my life. I believe that I have the power to reign in life through the abundance of Your grace! Amen
.
… how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
H
EBREWS
9:14
Today’s Scripture
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace
.
G
ALATIANS
5:4
KJV
W
hat comes to mind when you hear the phrase, “fallen from grace”? Today, when someone sins, ministers say that the person has “fallen from grace.” Yet, interestingly, when the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, he
never
told the Corinthians that they had fallen from grace despite all their sins.
Today’s Scripture gives us the true definition of “falling from grace.” It tells us that to fall from grace is to fall into the law, that is, to try to be justified by obeying the law. Notice from here that
grace
is the high ground. In other words, when you are under the law, you have fallen from your high ground of grace. In the same way the mercy seat in the ark of the covenant is positioned
above
the Ten Commandments, so falling from grace is to go back to the Ten Commandments.
I want you to know what the Scriptures really say about falling from grace so that you don’t rob yourself of the power to reign in life. When you fail, don’t have this idea that you have “fallen from grace” and then try by your own efforts to get back into “the good graces” of God. No, God’s grace cannot be merited, earned, or deserved. It can only be received. And you become a good receiver of His grace that empowers you to reign in life when you come to the end of yourself—to the end of your own efforts to save yourself. When you see your need for Jesus and receive and rest in His finished work (especially when you have failed), that is when God’s undeserved favor—His saving grace—is unleashed in your life.
Miriam, who lives in Texas, found this to be so true in her life:
Pastor Prince, I was a believer for a long time but was very frustrated in my Christian walk because I was not living a victorious life. I was angry at the church, angry at God, and questioning what this life in Jesus Christ was about. I was also angry with my family, particularly my son for his rebellious behavior. According to the teachings I’d received and what I was doing to obey them, everything was supposed to be smooth going
.
I started taking early morning walks and pouring my heart out to God. I told Him how frustrated I was and asked Him to show me where I’d gone wrong. I also told Him that I couldn’t love my son for what he was. I asked God to love my son, because even though I couldn’t, I knew He could
.
I gave Him all my anger and started to see improvements in those areas where I had struggled. I told God I just wanted to live the life Jesus came to give me, because I didn’t believe Jesus went through the horrible death for me to live a defeated life
.
Shortly after that, I read a book of yours and realized that I was living under a mixture of law and grace. I began learning to keep my eyes on Jesus’ finished work and to rely on Him for the kingdom life. No one had ever taught me the grace of our Lord Jesus and the love given to us by Father God through the finished work of His Son, and I had never understood what living a new creation life in Christ Jesus was
.
I’ve since learned that it’s not about my trying to believe or my trying to be good to earn God’s grace. I’ve learned that it’s a free gift, and my response now is always, “Thank You, Father God, for loving me so much and giving me this abundance of Your grace and the free gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ.” Your teaching of the grace of our Lord Jesus has changed my focus to see Jesus’ love and finished work. My heart’s desire is to be the light in the world, representing Jesus in spirit and in truth, and to be transformed into His image by the Holy Spirit from the inside out!
And praise God, my relationship with my son has been restored because I allowed Father God to love him. Now, I always see my son through His eyes
.
My friend, just as Miriam did, it is time for you to come out of mixture, confusion, and defeat. It’s time to break free from the crippling grip of all that has held you back. How? By falling into the arms of grace. Grace is the high ground that God wants you standing upon. Only the grace of God has the power to get you out of the cycle of sin and failure. The good news is, you can embrace the undeserved, unearned, and unmerited favor of our Lord
today
and begin to have dominion over sin!
Today’s Thought
The good news is, I can embrace the undeserved, unearned, and unmerited favor of our Lord today and begin to have dominion over sin!
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You that by Your grace, You are breaking the grip of all that has kept me bound and freeing me more and more to live an abundant life. I acknowledge that I can never meet the law’s unyielding standard and that only Your grace has the power to get me out of the cycle of sin and failure. I believe that as I embrace Your undeserved, unearned, and unmerited favor today, I will begin to have dominion over sin! Amen
.
For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace
.
G
ALATIANS
5:4
NLT
Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way
.
R
OMANS
5:9
THE MESSAGE
“knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”
G
ALATIANS
2:16
Today’s Scripture
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ
.
R
OMANS
10:17
NASB
H
ave you ever felt like you needed more faith? Have you ever looked at yourself and told yourself that if you just had more faith, you would see your financial breakthrough or healing?
My friend, I have good news for you today: faith is not a struggle. The Scriptures show us that the
hearing of faith
and the
works of the law
are total opposites (see Gal. 3:2, 5). And since the works of the law are about our self-efforts,
there is no self-effort in faith
.