What was your life like before you received Jesus Christ.

My life on the surface was really good.

I had a great family, lots of love and support, many friends, and opportunities to do most anything.

But even as good as it was, there was still something missing.

I felt empty on the inside.

Peter described what I was experiencing to a T.

He called it “an empty way of life.”

Maybe you’ve experienced the same sense of emptiness.

Well hear is the good news.

Jesus Christ redeemed you from that empty way of life

Not with silver of gold, but with his precious blood.

And then he filled you with his very life.

In Christ, you are no longer empty on the inside

And your new life has substance and is filled with meaning and purpose.

And that’s good news.

Categories: Righteousness/Justification Salvation

In Christ, you have redemption through his blood.

This is yours right now.

And it was delivered to you as a gift of grace

But what does it mean to have redemption.

It means that…

Jesus Christ’s death on the cross delivered you from the power and punishment of sin.

It means that you have forgiveness of sins.

You see, you, like all of us, were once a slave to sin.

Sin was your master. You followed the ways of the world. You lived to gratify the desires of the flesh.

But no more.

Christ paid the debt.

To release you from sin’s control and from sin’s power.

In other words, you have been set free by the blood of the lamb.

You have been redeemed.

Categories: Forgiveness/Repentance Righteousness/Justification

You have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus.

Which means, right now you are alive in Christ.

All your sins have been forgiven and you are righteous in his sight.

It also means that you are now seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Your future with Christ is guaranteed.

And when he comes back, you will stand as a trophy of his grace.

Paul put it this way.

“So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Wow! You are a recipient of the immeasurable riches of God’s grace.

And one day, in the coming ages, God is going to show you off to world because you were saved by that grace.

Categories: Salvation Grace Righteousness/Justification

As a believer, you are not under law, but under grace.

Many take this as a license to sin, including many Pastors and Bible teachers.

And instead of shouting this glorious truth from the rooftops, they hide it under all kinds of rules and regulations, because how else will people be motivated to live holy lives.

But that’s not what the Bible teaches.

When you were under the law, lost, you were under the power and dominion of sin.

A slave to sin.

But no longer.

Through the saving grace of Jesus, you’ve had a heart change.

And having been set free from sin, you have become a slave of righteousness.

Being under grace is not a license to sin. And don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Being under grace is the path to righteousness.

And that’s good news.

Categories: Law Grace Sin Righteousness/Justification

Have you ever described your life like this?

“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate?”

Well you want to do right, you just don’t have the ability to carry it out.

Well if so, you are in good company.

Paul struggled in exactly the same way. And so as every other human being who has ever lived.

It’s called the problem of man the fact that we come into this world captive to sin.

The harder you fight to break free, the stronger sin’s grip on your lives becomes.

Paul’s experience led him to throw up his hands in frustration and cry out…

“What a wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?”

Well here is the answer.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Categories: Righteousness/Justification Jesus Christ

At one time in his life, Paul believed that he was faultless as to legalistic righteousness.

Now that changed when he took a good look at the law.

Specifically, that 10th commandment which says, “You shall not covet.”

When he did, something strange happened to him.

The sin living in his members used the commandment to produce all kinds of covetous desires in Paul.

Sin sprang to life inside of him.

And as he wrote in Romans 7:11, “sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”

Paul thought he was right in God’s sight through his works of the law.

But through the law he discovered the truth his need for the saving work of Jesus.

How about you. Has the law shown you your need for Jesus?

Categories: Sin Righteousness/Justification Jesus Christ

Do you want to bear fruit for God?

Well yes, of course. But the question is how.

Well it can’t happen trying to live up to the law.

Paul explained why.

“For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.”

Our sinful passions are aroused by the law, plain and simple.

Put a sign on a fence that says “Do not look through this hole” and you will see people lining up to look through the hole.

That’s just the nature of the flesh.

Well here is the good news.

You have been released from the law and now you belong to him who has been raised from the dead – Jesus Christ himself.

Trust him, and you will bear fruit for God.

Categories: Christian Living Righteousness/Justification New Covenant

According to the law of Moses, marriage is for life.

A man and woman are bound to each other as long as they are both alive.

But when one dies, the other is released from the law and is free to marry another.

Now Paul uses this illustration to explain a key point of the Gospel.

You were once married to sin and death.

You were bound to that relationship by the the law.

Now the only way out was through death.

And here is the good news. You died with Jesus Christ.

And the law can no longer hold you as a prisoner of sin.

As Paul wrote in Romans 7:4, “You died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead.”

Categories: Jesus Christ Identity/Self Image Righteousness/Justification

God redeemed you and sanctified you to live His life through you.

As a friend of mine says: “Jesus Christ gave his life for you, to give his life to you, to live his life through you.”

Now his life is more rewarding, more fulfilling, and more satisfying than anything the world will throw your way.

Here is how you can know for sure:

“Therefore, I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Categories: Righteousness/Justification Christian Living Jesus Christ

Here is a good word.

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control your body in holiness and honor.”

Now God sanctified you once and for all through the shed blood of Jesus.

You are holy in his sight, set apart for his purposes and glory.

Which means your body is now meant for the Lord. To be used to express His love and grace to the world.

Sexual immorality misses that mark. It sees people as objects, and it floods the soul with guilt and shame.

So when it comes to your body, Remember this:

It is a temple of the Holy Spirit,

And you can trust him to control it in holiness and honor.

Categories: Sin Christian Living Righteousness/Justification