Grace Changes You

Christ himself has brought peace to us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations.

—Ephesians 2:14a,15a (NLT)

Why do you keep striving to be good enough, and then feel condemned when you aren’t perfect? Jesus saved you from the treadmill of never being good enough when He exchanged His holiness for your sin. He ended the system of rules and regulations, but the mindset of having to prove you are good enough didn’t end. Only the Holy Spirit transforms your thoughts and renews you in the spirit of your mind. Only He changes your mindset from a works mentality—where you can never be good enough—to a grace mentality—where you are at peace in His love. He changes you when you surrender this works mentality, and choose to believe that grace has made you a new creature. When He took your sin, He assigned His righteousness to you. You are saved because He saved you. You can't save yourself by trying to be good enough. You can't make everything right by what you do. The change that affects your action takes place in the renewing of your mind—in the way you think. By faith, you believe that the grace of Jesus has the power to accomplish in your mind what He imparted to you at Calvary.

^“Suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ,” Paul told the Galatians, “and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God” (Galatians 2:17-19, NLT).

Paul said that when he tried to keep the law, it condemned him. Die to a works mentality, because it will defeat you. Don't rebuild the old "system"—don't allow who you were before Jesus saved you to determine who you are now.  In His grace, you are free from sin’s condemnation because the consciousness of sin was the system of the old law. Jesus’ grace gives you a consciousness of righteousness so that when you sin, you are convicted instead of condemned. You have the assurance of forgiveness instead of the lie of condemnation that you can never change.

“This is the only work God wants from you,” Jesus once told the disciples. “Believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29, NLT). The only work God wants from you is to believe in Him. Have faith to believe that the grace that changed you at Calvary, now changes the way you view Him—that it changes the way you think. Get off the treadmill. Rest in His love and grace. He does the work in you. Not you.

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

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