The Believer’s Identity in Christ

 "For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." I Corinthians 15:21-22

"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Romans 6:3-4

Chosen by God

Ephesians 1:4

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

(are you in Christ? 'There is therefore now no condemnation for you.')

Saved by grace

Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

(are you in Christ? you HAVE been saved. Past tense. You have eternal life now. He did not save you partially, He saved you completely. Accept it in faith.)

God is  satisfied

1 John 2:2

and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

(Christ did not atone for (cover ) sins. Christ TOOK AWAY sins. Propitiation took place.)

Reconciled to God

Romans 5:10

For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 

(forgiveness of sins did not happen because you ask God for it. while we were enemies of God, that means, while we were sinners, God reconciled us to Himself.)

Redeemed

Ephesians 1:7

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

(in Christ you HAVE forgiveness. It is part of your identity. Stop asking for what you already have and start thanking Him for buying you back with precious blood)

Freed from the Law

 Romans 7:4

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

(are you in Christ? then you are dead to the law and are now alive in grace. There is a huge difference between law and grace. One brings life and the other brings death. (Romans 8:2)

Totally forgiven

Colossians 2:13

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 

(are you in Christ? Then God has forgiven all your sins. That is the only way you could have ETERNAL life)

Totally cleansed

 1 Corinthians 6:11

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

(This passages starts out by pointing out the identity of unbelievers, then Paul says that that is what you (believers) WERE. Notice the tenses Paul uses here. Very important to 

to understand that as a believer, you have been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, you have been set apart and in the eyes of God it is just as if you never sinned.

Titus 3:5

he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,

Made holy and blameless

Colossians 1:22

But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation

(what a wonderful statement from God through Paul to us. God reconciled us to Himself through Christ to present us to Himself without blemish. Remember what also was 

without blemish? The lamb used for sacrifices in the Old Testament, and The Lamb who was crucified on a cross. Our identity as believers is one of no accusation, no blemish

set apart.

Hidden with Christ in God

Colossians 3:3

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Clothed with Christ

 Galatians 3:27

for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Sealed in Christ

Ephesians 1:13-14

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Given Christ’s righteousness

 2 Corinthians 5:21

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

(the great exchange; God did not only take away all your sins but He gave you something in place of that sin, He gave you His Righteousness.)

Romans 5:17

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

Justified 
( Just as if you have never sinned)

Romans 3:23-24

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Safe from the wrath of God

 Romans 5:9

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 

Made at peace with God 

Romans 5:1

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

(We will never experience  peace with God until we come to rest on the peace of God)

Freed from condemnation

Romans 8:1

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

(The Law is what brings condemnation. In Christ we are free from the Law)

Sanctified- made holy 

Hebrews 10: 10

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

(‘sainthood’ is not something that happens after you die and a bunch of men decide to make you a saint but it is something we have in Christ, here and now)

 1 Corinthians 6:11

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Made perfect forever

Hebrews 10: 14

For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Totally accepted 

Romans 15:7

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Translated out of darkness into light

Colossians 1:13-14

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Ephesians 5:8

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 

From death to life 

John 5:24

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Ephesians 2:1,4-5

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, .......But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 

Born again 

1 Peter 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Indwelt by the Holy Spirit 

 Romans 8:9

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

Made into a temple of the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 6:19

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

Made into a new creation 

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

 Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Made children of God 

John 1:12-13

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Adopted into God’s family 

Romans 8:15

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 

Galatians 4:4-5

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

Made heirs of God 

Galatians 4:7

So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

In fellowship with God 

1 Corinthians 1:9

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I John 1:3

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

Made into a holy and royal priesthood 

Revelation 5b-6

1 Pet. 2:5,9

you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ....

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Given total access to God

Ephesians 3:12

n him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

 Hebrews 10:19-23

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful

Made complete 

Colossians 2:9- 10

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

We have been given everything 

Ephesians 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ

2 Peter 1:3

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

The Exchange Life: What about 1 john 1:9?

The Exchange Life: What about 1 john 1:9?

What about 1 john 1:9?

What about 1 john 1:9?

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Do we have to ask God for forgiveness every time we sin?

In my opinion a lack of basic understanding of the finality of the Cross of Jesus Christ is what causes this confusion of forgiveness.

The death / sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross resulted into two major things.

1. It took away the sins of the world. Don't let that pass you by, He did not cover sins but took them away.

2. His death ushered in a New Covenant.

One of the things we miss in Christendom is that God does things differently from us.

His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.

According to the bible, what is God's way of forgiving sins? It is and has always been through sacrifice.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)

The writer of Hebrews then goes ahead in Hebrews 10 to talk about the sacrifice Jesus made of Himself and concludes with this verse.

Then he adds, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. (Hebrews  10:17,18)

There are numerous passages in the New Covenant that talk about the death of Jesus Christ having taken away the sins of the world, one time and forever.

·        And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.( Hebrews 10:10)

·        But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26)

·        He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.( Hebrews 9:12)

·        The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. (Romans 6:10)

·        That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19)

These are just some of the passages of the New Covenant (there are more) which state that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was for propitiation of sins. His sacrifice did not cover sins for a while but took them away forever.

God concluded this New Covenant in Hebrews 8:12 "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

 So with all this evidence, when you come across a passage like 1 John 1:9, the only passage of its kind in the New Covenant that talks about asking God forgiveness, should that not raise a red flag in your mind?

A lot of headache would be avoided if or when we come to understand that the entire bible is written for us, but not every verse is addressed to us or written about us.

 In 1 John, the last living Apostle was addressing a concern that was brought to his attention about the church in Ephesus; a group had crept into that city and was corrupting the minds of the believers. This group was called the Gnostics.

1 John 1:9 is in response to 1 John 1:8 "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us".

The Gnostics were claiming that sin wasn't really sin, it was just an illusion. Do you as a believer in Christ claim that you have no sin? Do you as a believer possess The Truth (Jesus Christ)? Why then do you think that John was addressing you in this verse?

 The same writer, Apostle John, goes further in 1 John 2:1 to address believers; "My dear children, I write this to your so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One."

  So what about 1 John 1:9?

The only sin that will be held against us is the sin of unbelief (John 16:9), so think about the cross when you ask for forgiveness from God. Do you believe that Jesus Christ accomplished what He came to do on the cross?

In my opinion, asking God for forgiveness is more of a sin than the sin you are asking God to forgive you of, because it is a clear sign of unbelief in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished on the Cross.

So the next time you kneel down to confess your sins, why don't you confess what God has done first before you confess what you have done? If you confess what God has done you will come to the same conclusion that I have. That God was in Christ reconciling the world to Him; in Christ, not counting our sins against us. He does not remember your sins, so which sins are you asking Him to forgive?

The other thing I want to talk about is sin itself. Most if not all of the people who hold onto 1 John 1:9 claim to be believers in Jesus Christ. These are people who claim that they have been saved and they have eternal life.

We have so watered down sin, that the true consequence of sin has been lost in all these religious practices.

According to the bible, the consequence of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

 So according to people who hold onto this verse, every time they sin, they lose their eternal life and after they confess and ask God for forgiveness and God somehow forgives them, they regain their ETERNAL life.

Do you truly see how ridiculous that sounds? Eternal life lasts forever or it is not eternal. And the life we have in Christ is eternal not because of what we do, but because of the eternal consequences of the cross.

We must rest in the finished work of Christ instead of trying to improve upon it. If not, like the Israelites who because of unbelief never entered the Promised Land, most of us, saved, born again, Christians will die in the desert and never enter our Promised Land (Jesus Christ and His finished work)

1 John 1:9, confession booths, asking God for forgiveness will never take away your sins. Only the cross of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that He made of Himself 2000+ years ago would. Put your trust and dependence in what He did, not in what you through religion are doing.

True faith in Jesus produces a thank full heart.

Luke 17:11-19

"Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" So when he saw them, He said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And so it was that as the went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?" And He said to him, "Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well."

Ten were cleansed from their disease, only one returned with a heart full of thanksgiving. Many people might call out to Jesus to be healed, but who will return to give Him thanks? Jesus told the Samaritan leper that his faith had made him whole. All ten had been cleansed, but only one had been made whole. Only those who come back to Jesus and thank Him for what He has accomplished, are made whole. Faith in Jesus produces a thank full heart. Do you have a thankful heart? Have you been made whole?

Having your physical needs met does not make you whole. You are made whole when you come to the one who can heal your body and your soul.

All ten were cleansed but only one was made well. The implication being that Jesus is more interested in healing the soul.

The New Covenant

New Covenant

“The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant...”

I believe that this is one of the most untaught and maybe the most misunderstood lessons or doctrines in Christendom today. And yet, in my opinion, it is the most dynamic and most important doctrine for us, on this side of the cross, to get hold of.
When we don’t understand that we have been freed from one Covenant - the covenant of the law - and are now the beneficiaries of a New Covenant - The Covenant of Grace. When we don’t understand that there are two ways we can live - the old way or the brand new way, we become double-minded, unstable and are easily tossed around.

Some or most Christians try to live in both Covenants. Not only is this an impossibility, but it is dangerous. This practice of mixing the old and the new, not only waters down the stringency of the law and its consequences but it also makes light of the power of the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
Many Christians are confused because they lack a proper understanding of the New Covenant. Many have studied and know different aspects of the gospel such as sanctification, justification, forgiveness, reconciliation, righteousness, identity in Christ, etc. But for most, these are just separate and independent doctrines with nothing connecting them. The New Covenant brings all these doctrines together. The New Covenant is the glue that holds all these doctrines together in Christ.

Hebrews 8:8-13
“But God found fault with the people and said: The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to my covenant, so I turned my back on them, says the Lord. But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already. And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
“By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.”

We learn about the New Covenant from the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews I hear is one of the least read epistles, not sure why.
Lets start from Hebrews 8:9, it will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors, speaking of the New Covenant. So whatever the old covenant was, God says here that this new covenant is not going to be like that one. Be ready, then, for something brand new, something very very different.
The Old was a conditional covenant but because our ancestors could not keep their end of the bargain, they could not remain faithful, God turned His back on them.
If we are not careful, we call ourselves new covenant believers, we call Jesus our High Priest but we reach back and grab hold of old.

 "I said my prayers today...God's face is on me" " I used His name in vain.. He turned His back on me."
"I served at the homeless shelter...His face is upon me." "but coming home I cursed at the driver who cut me off... His back on me again".....

The conditional presence of God.... because they were unfaithful God turned His back on them.
That is the Old Covenant and God says that this New Covenant is going to be unlike the Old. The New Covenant is unconditional, as we will see. God made an oath with Himself and we are the beneficiaries of that.

So why did God institute a New Covenant? After all, there was an existing Covenant that had its basis on the Ten Commandments and the laws of Moses. Here is the reason;

Hebrews 8:7-8“For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.”

God found fault with the people not with His law or commandments. The people could not keep the laws or the commandments. The Old Testament is in effect a summary of man's unfaithfulness and God's faithfulness. The Israelites could not keep their end of the bargain with God. Take for example the commandment that Moses brought down from the mountain for them the first time, the first of the commandment was, thou shalt not worship any other God but me. Moses went back up the mountain to receive the tablets and by the time he came down the people were worshiping an idol....God found fault with the people so He set aside the Old Covenant;

Hebrews 7:18-19
“The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.”

The former regulations, meaning the Law and the Old Covenant, were set aside because they were weak and could not make man perfect. Actually, according to the writer of Hebrews, the Old Covenant was useless. Don’t just skip over this passage to something else. God’s requirement for mankind is 100% perfection (be perfect, just as the Father in heaven is perfect) but here this writer is telling us that the Old Covenant made nothing perfect because it was weak and useless. In the New Covenant, though, we have been made perfect in Christ. (Hebrews 10:14)

Are you still trying to get close to God through the law? Are you still trying to perfect your flesh through obedience to the law? Actually the law was never put in place to make you right with God (Galatians 5:4). 
God in His love and mercy introduced a better way for us to draw close to Him... The New Covenant in Christ. In this New Covenant we can boldly enter His throne calling Him Abba Father. In the Old Covenant, the people could not get close to God. In fact, they would be killed on the spot if they tried. So if we understand that God has set aside the Old which was weak and useless and has instituted a New which is better and by which we can bold draw near to Him, why are we still dabbling with the Old?

The New Covenant contains better promises than those of the Old. These promises are unconditional in nature and rest solely on the faithfulness of God for their fulfillment.

Hebrews 8:6
“But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which He is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.”

Hebrews 9:15
“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance - now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

So let us look at what God prophesied through the Prophet Jeremiah and fulfilled in Christ. Let us look at the eternal promises of the New that are ours. Let us look at the better promises that we now inherit in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Hebrews 8:10-12
“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘ know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

In this new, unconditional covenant, we have a new heart, God's laws of love are written on our heart and not on tablets of stone as they were in the old covenant.
We can now call God, Abba, Father, and not just the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The curtain that separated God from the people has now been torn down.
In the New Covenant we have a personal relationship with God, everyone of us who is born again has God living in our hearts.
And God crowns these promises with the best of them all; "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Perfect, unblemished lamb, God's wrath was satisfied to the extend that He says He remembers our sins no more. The next time you knell down to ask God for forgiveness of some sin that you just committed, I pray this verse comes to your memory. God says that He does not remember that sin, so get off your self righteous knees and start thanking Him and rejoicing in the fact that Jesus Christ took care of that sin 2000 years ago.

Jesus Christ through an oath is The High Priest of The New Covenant, by His blood we have a better Covenant.
Hebrews 7:20-22

“And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: ‘The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever.”’ Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.”

As I said earlier, if we are not careful, we call ourselves New Covenant believers, we call ourselves ministers of the new covenant, we call Jesus Christ our High Priest then we reach back and grab hold of the law of Moses. The same law that disqualifies Jesus Christ as a priest. Hebrews 7:14 "For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests." Jesus Christ could not be a priest because He was of the tribe of Levi....this covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors....The New Covenant is different and better. We have a better High Priest.

We are under a better covenant, ushered in with precious blood and mediated by a New High Priest, one who meets our needs...
Hebrews 7:26-28
“Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.”

For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law. (Hebrews 7:12)

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. (Galatians 5:18) 

In Christ we have a New High Priest and a New Covenant and a New Law. Law written on our hearts and not on tablets of stone. Jesus Christ is our High Priest and the scripture above says that when there is a change in the priesthood there must also be a change in the law. Are you still hanging on to the old? Who is your High Priest, Aaron or Jesus Christ? If Christ, then we have to understand that we are under a different law and not the law of Moses.

In Christ we have a High Priest who meets our needs. Let us look at some of the ways He meets our needs;

1. We have a High Priest, Jesus Christ, one who is holy, Hebrews 7:26-28 says, what did He do for us; Hebrews 10:10 'And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.'
Did you catch the tense in that verse? Past tense, “have been” made holy. In Christ, in the New Covenant, you have been made holy. That means God has set you apart for His work.

2. We have a high priest, one who is blameless. What did he do for us? Ephesians 1:4
'For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.'

Therefore

Romans 8:1

“there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.”

Do you know what condemned us? The Law of the Old Covenant. But when God says that He sees us as blameless, it is because Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law and the Old Covenant. He then, with His death, ushered us into a New Covenant, in which there is no law to condemn us. We are blameless in the sight of God because we are in Christ.

3. We have a high priest, one who is set apart from sinners. What did He do for us? 1 Corinthians 6:11 “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
We were sanctified, that means set apart, made holy. Anything else that we try to do to make ourselves 'progressively' sanctified is outside of what Jesus Christ did. Faith in Christ is accepting what He has done for you and resting on it, instead of trying to add to what God said is finished.
Are you trying to improve on a master piece?

4. We have a high priest, one who is exalted above the heavens. What did He do for us? Ephesians 2:6 “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”  
If you are in Christ, were is Christ? Seated at the right hand of God the Father. So are you in Him this very moment not when you die but right this moment. 1 John 4:17 "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world."

5. Jesus Christ, such a high priest meets our needs one who is perfect forever. Hebrews 10:14-11

“Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Hebrews 10:11-14

Looking through all these promises and what Jesus Christ did for us, one thing is glaring true, they are all unconditional. God did not say that He will not remember our sins when we apologize or when we tell Him how sorry we are for breaking one of His laws. God did not say He will give us a new heart because we behaved righteous. God did not say He will make us holy because we prayed without ceasing. God did not say that He will make us perfect in His sight when we read our bibles daily. God did all these because of our High Priest who offered for all time one sacrifice. God looked at that sacrifice and was satisfied. That sacrifice covered all sins, from the Cross back to Adam and forward to eternity.

With all these promises and guarantees from our Lord, it is interesting how ‘God fearing Christians’ will read some of these and then go out and try to improve on them.
If God says that you have been made holy, how much holier are you trying to get? If God says that He will not remember our sins any more, what exactly are we trying to get Him to do every time we ask for forgiveness?

Hebrews 10:17-18
Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.”

Ephesians 1:7-8
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”


There is nothing more important than understanding the New Covenant. There are two parts to that understanding. The first part has to do with what Jesus accomplished on our behalf. The second part is all about His purpose in the New Covenant. Jesus fulfilled the Old and instituted the New in order to make us ministers of the New. As His body on earth, we have the incredible privilege of sharing the truths contained in the New Covenant with our families and friends.
There is nothing special or unique about being a minister. It is simply allowing Him to work through us by the Holy Spirit, making ourselves available to Him. We are, by definition, ministers of this New Covenant, new creations in Christ, and ministry is no more difficult than letting His love overflow into the lives of those around us.
2 Corinthians. 5:19
“that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting men’s sins against them.”
This is the most comforting and liberating news known to man.....
God did count men’s sins against them, the verdict was guilty the penalty was death. Christ took it for us and died in our place. And now has ushered us into this new relationship with God in which we are loved unconditionally and accepted totally. We are loved and accepted not because of what we do but because of what Jesus Christ did on our behalf. The Christian’s faith is in Christ and what He did not in us and what we can do for God.

---