Nothing good but God’s enablement
If you were to ask if Jesus fulfills the Old Testament,
- then all probably would raise their hands to affirm this.
But if you were to ask, “How is God’s grace is the Aroma of Christ?”
- you probably would get some hesitant and unsure answers.
Last week, I explained how God’s grace is the Aroma of Christ.
- That the just shall live by his faith.
How can we be the Aroma of Christ when our faith is built on who we were?
- There is nothing good dwells in me, in our sin nature
- The Apostle Paul said Romans 7 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
- I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!
- So then, with the mind – serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
- Not shirking off responsibility, not denying the facts
- But stating the truth in love that Jesus Christ delivers us from sin & death
- Only then can we be the grace that is the Aroma of Christ.
We need to use the set of Biblical truths to form the principle of Grace from God.
1 Corinthians 15:56-57 NKJV The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
- thanks = Charis = grace
- CHARIS is translated many different ways throughout the New Testament.
- It is that which guarantees victory through our Lord Jesus Christ
Ship sea, sea ship. Church world, world church.
We need to use the set of Biblical truths to form these principles
- This means drawing the right implications and significances from the meaning of relevant scripture.
1 Corinthians 15:10 NKJV But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
- The Apostle Paul knew who he was and all the authority that came with the new covenant.
- He didn’t deserved it.
- It was a gift from God.
- True humility is not a debasing of self or a hatred of self or our accomplishments.
- It is simply an awareness that all that we have and are, is the gift of God.
Therefore, only those of us who acknowledge God and understand God’s grace can operate in true humility.
- This includes testifying of the Lord’s work in our lives.
- This shows our gratefulness.
- Saying everything is a testimony is like saying you have a can of Air freshener and not using it
- Unless it is used, no one will know its fragrance.
- The Just shall live by faith
- All our talents, abilities, and callings are a direct result of God’s grace.
The letter to the church in Rome.
The book of Romans is the Apostle Paul’s scholarly explanation of the New Covenant, where he reveals how God deals with us through His mercy and grace instead of through our works of performance.
- It’s what Scripture calls the Gospel!
- good news of everything Jesus did for us in His death and resurrection.
- It offends so people because contradicted a lot of Old Testament ideas that many people hold even to this day.
Romans 1:1 NKJV Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
- The Gospel had such a radical connotation that it seemed too good to be true.
- People could not accept that this had any association with God, that good news like this could never come from God.
Romans 1:16 NKJV For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
- The power of God unto salvation included the forgiveness of sins but also healing, deliverance, prosperity, joy, and peace!
- Paul said that the Gospel releases the power for everything you need.
- All you have to do is believe and receive.
There’s no better place to understand these things than the book of Romans.
- If Romans isn’t one of your favorite books, then you do not have a revelation of the true Gospel.
- Romans is where you really get a solid foundation and begin to mature in these things.
Hebrews 4:11 NKJV Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
- We have to labor against the flesh to rest in God’s grace
This labor is not “works” that earn us God’s favor.
- These are works of faith.
We don’t have to study the Word to get God to love us;
- He already loves us and His grace reconciled us to Him.
However, we do have to study God’s Word to renew our minds and convince ourselves of the fact that God loves us.
- We don’t have to go to church to obtain God’s grace, but because we have God’s grace, we need to go to church to keep our hearts from being hardened.
This is the principle, God’s grace alone doesn’t automatically guarantee success.
- God’s grace that brings salvation has been offered to all people (Titus 2:11), but not all people are saved.
- This is not because it isn’t God’s will for them to be saved (2 Peter 3:9),
- or because there is a lack of God’s grace;
- it’s because not all people put faith in God’s grace, not our “goodness”.
That reality of God’s grace must be mixed with faith to release its power.
- God’s grace is consistent toward everyone,
- but not everyone will reap the benefits of God’s grace,
- because not everyone will labor as Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 15:10 and Hebrews 4:11 as I showed earlier.
Paul acknowledged God’s grace as the source of everything he had and was,
- but he allowed God’s grace to have its full effect in his life through seeking God.
An understanding of the truths in Romans transformed today’s church
- Reformation Martin Luther.
Romans 1:17 NKJV For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
- That is taken from Habakkuk
Habakkuk 2:4 NKJV “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.
So, I pray that God will give you a supernatural understanding of the book of Romans.