Gregg's Rest Stop (From Law to Grace in a Person)

Published: Mon, 04/28/14

Gregg's Rest Stop

April 28, 2014

Journey in Christ

From Law to Grace in a Person

This past Thursday evening, I had the humble privilege of teaching our Law & Grace lecture to our five advanced discipleship students. This Rest Stop presents a part of this teaching. We can already see from our key verse above that the law was something given but grace was Someone who came. *Grace is a Person and His name is Jesus.* We can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through grace, but we can never have a relationship with Him through the law. The law leads us to have a love relationship with Him, not a legal relationship with Him. LAW The law system that pervades the minds of each person born into our fallen world originated with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I also refer to this tree as the Tree of the Knowledge of right and wrong. With any law system, a person seeks what is right so as to then do it, and to know what is wrong so as then to not do it...all on their own, independently of God. Therefore, a law system is an achieving system. The ultimate law system is God's Ten Commandments, the heart of the Old Covenant (Testament). This is the ultimate achieving system. The LORD God said, "If you obey My commands I will bless you; if you disobey my commands I will curse you." (Deuteromony 28:2, 15) We all are born disobedient to God's holy commands, totally incapable of achieving any one of these commands. However, Jesus came from glory to be born under the law with us so that He could became a curse on the cross for those of us who receive by faith His salvation. When the fullness of time has come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. (Galatians 4:4) Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. (Galatians 3:13) Jesus came to rescue us from being under the law and to raise us to be under grace! For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14) GRACE Grace did what the law could not do, provide us forgiveness of our sins. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a offering for sin. (Romans 8:3) Salvation includes forgivenss, but also includes a miraculous heart transformation! Through your union with Christ on the cross, you died to the Law so that you could be married to Christ! This is the intimate relationship you can only have by grace! You were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead. (Romans 7:4) CLOSING Because of the profound law-mentality we are all born with, it is a challenge to teach law and grace. Some people initially hear that I am throwing out God's holy law when I say We are no longer under law but under grace (Romans 6:14). God's Word says that our striving to live under a external law system has been transformed through the cross of Christ to be an internal "law system" of grace, whereby God's holy law, His character, is now written on our hearts. We no longer need to strive to live up to external laws. We are now free to live out of the law of love inside our hearts in the Person of grace -- the indwelling Jesus Christ. Where the law is an achieving system that has done is job to lead us into grace, a miraculous receiving system...receiving all the resources of Christ through our marriage union with Him! PS, Next week's Rest Stop will address how we practically appropriate this moment by moment reception of God's grace through the indwelling Christ. The Rest Stop will seek to clearly and concisely address questions we all may have: "What about good works? How can I do good works without having a standard to go by?" "How can I know if I am living according to the flesh or by the Spirit?" "How can I know when I am receiving from the resources of Christ in me?" "How can I know when Christ is living through me?" The single answer is profoundly simple and simply profound!

About

Biblical discipleship thru

Counseling

Teaching

Training

Gregg Gibbons

Pastoral Director

Michael Chalmers

Training Director

Kellie Boggs

Fellowship Director

Joy Gibbons

Ministry Assistant and women's ministry coordinator

Carole Blyth

Board member and women's ministry coordinator

Paul Crews

Board member and Pastor Mountain Creek Baptist Church

Florence Colby

Board Member and Exec Assistant

at US Endowment of Forestry

Dave Loser

Board Member and Chaplain with Corporate Chaplains of America

Carolyn Kennedy

Staff discipleship counselor

Randy Garrick

Board Advisor and

CFO Engineered Systems Inc.

Dawn McClendon

Board Advisor and

school teacher in Durham NC

Marty Price

Board Advisor and Pastor

Pendleton Street Baptist Church

Journey in Christ website link

Partnership

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you for your partnership in the gospel (Philippians 1:3, 5).

YouTube link below of my ministry commissioning service that included testimonies from several partners, including Bobby Richardson, former 2nd baseman for the NY Yankees.

3-minute discipleship video

Please contact me to learn more about partnering with me.

Ministry News

Teaching

Gregg is teaching at the Haven of Rest mission in Anderson on Monday evenings.

Joy, Carole, and Carolyn are teaching weekly Bible studies for all female employees on-site at a heavy equipment manufacturing company.

Gregg and Michael are teaching weekly discipleship Bible studies for employees on-site at a textile production plant.

Training

Michael and Gregg recently leading our 8-month Advanced Discipleship Training class with 5 students.

Announcement!!!

Board member Dave Loser has launched a Spartanburg ministry for Journey in Christ! Dave will be teaching a Grace Life Conference May 1-3. Contact Dave or me for more details. Flyer below.