Law Archives - Colin Dye

Saturated by the Spirit of Grace

Colin Dye — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 09:00:11 +0000

"I preached grace even stronger than before. I preached grace, grace and still more grace!"

At the beginning of our venture into cell church, I looked at the shallow response so many people in our church were making to the challenge I presented. I realised we needed a generation of people who were saturated in the Spirit of grace. I began to preach grace in a much more emphatic way. Some cell leaders complained, ?Since you began to preach so much about grace?, they said, ?Our cell members have become lazy!? Can you guess how I responded to this? I preached grace even stronger than before. I preached grace, grace and still more grace! Do you understand why? It was because I knew the second part of Paul?s testimony.
Paul did not only give God glory because he had been saved and called to be an apostle, but he also gave God the credit for inspiring him and empowering him in his ministry. In effect he said, ?I am what I am by the grace of God?, and, ?I can do what I can do by the grace of God!?
Rightly understood, grace never produces lazy, fleshly Christians but workers, sold out for Jesus! Paul was so grateful for what Christ had done for him. His deep experience of the grace of God inspired and motivated him to live a life 100% dedicated to Christ. The same grace that saved him was now working dynamically in him, empowering him to labour tirelessly for the kingdom.
Grace teaches us – it shapes our lives – to be like Christ. Grace sets us free from sin?s power and directs us towards God?s holy glory. This is the motivation leaders must inspire in their members. Good workers for the kingdom of God are workers permanently infatuated by Christ. That?s why pressure tactics, guilt trips, blame games and naming and shaming people, never work in ministry. Manipulating people by these means cannot produce the kind of willing response that God requires of his people.
Serving God is an honour and a privilege that can only be enjoyed by true lovers of God. The rest is dull, legalistic and dead religion. In the gospel God says, ?Come as you are? while the church too often says, ?You are not acceptable until you change!?
The grace message states that God is looking for heart transformation, not behaviour modification. As long as we judge people from the outside, whether believers or unbelievers, we not only deny the gospel but we repel the very people the Spirit of grace is seeking to reach. God is looking for outrageous lovers and passionate warriors ? not religious lawyers and judges.
From the book, “People with a Passion”, by Colin Dye

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Landmark Christian freedoms cases to be heard in European Court

Colin Dye — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 14:06:43 +0000

Dear friends,Please?could you pray?for four cases that are going before the European Court of Human Rights today?

Four British Christians who claim they were sacked because of their religious beliefs will attempt to prove they have been discriminated against because of their faith at Europe’s highest court on Tuesday, in a landmark case.

They include two women who claim they were asked to remove necklaces with crosses on them at work, a relationship counsellor who refused to counsel gay couples, and a registrar who would not conduct same-sex civil partnerships.

The European Court of Human Rights will investigate whether there has been a breach of Article Nine of the European Convention of Human Rights, their right to freedom of religion.

A close-up of the necklace worn by British Airways employee Nadia Eweida, 58, outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, where she is appealing against a ruling which cleared British Airways of discriminating against her by asking her to stop wearing a cross at work.

(I have copied below the Newsletter of “Christian Concern”)

They have huge significance for the freedom of normal Christians like you and I to be able to manifest Christian faith and live in line with Biblical teaching.

The Christian Legal Centre is supporting two of the cases (those of Shirley Chaplin and Gary McFarlane).
We firmly believe that when we pray, God acts. Please bring these cases before the Lord in prayer:

Pray for wisdom for the judges
Pray for the protection of the four Christians involved (Shirley Chaplin, Gary McFarlane, Lillian Ladele and Nadia Eweida)
Pray for God?s favour in the outcome

Go to?this page?for more details on the cases.On Tuesday 4th September, the European Court of Human Rights will hear four landmark cases from the UK, the outcome of which will have implications for freedom of thought, conscience and religion across Europe.

At issue is the freedom of Christians to express their faith publicly and to live in line with historic, mainstream, biblical Christian teaching.

The Christian Legal Centre (sister-organisation of Christian Concern) is directly supporting Shirley Chaplin and Gary McFarlane, whose cases will be heard alongside those of Lillian Ladele and Nadia Eweida.?For an introduction to the issues, please download the summary documents below. Official documents relating to the cases are also available below.

Action:

Email your MP about the cases using our simple online tool >
Donate toward the cost of the cases >
Please pray?

Introduction to the Issues
Briefing Document: Shirley Chaplin & the Wearing of the Cross >
Briefing Document: Gary McFarlane & the Clash of Rights >

Latest Submissions to the Court

Final submission to the European Court of Human Rights by Mrs Chaplin (14/08/12)

Final submission to the European Court of Human Rights by Mr McFarlane (14/08/12)

The Government’s Official Position
HM Government’s Submission to the European Court of Human Rights – Chaplin & Eweida (14/10/11)?
HM Government’s Submission to the European Court of Human Rights – McFarlane & Ladele (14/10/11)?

The Case of Shirley Chaplin – Official Case Documents
Main document summarising Mrs Chaplin’s complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (08/12/10)
Submission by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali to the European Court in support of Mrs Chaplin (20/07/11)
HM Government’s submission in the cases of Chaplin & Eweida (14/10/11)?
Mrs Chaplin’s reply to the Government’s submission
Final submission to the European Court of Human Rights by Mrs Chaplin (14/08/12)

The Case of Gary McFarlane – Official Case Documents
Main document summarising Mr McFarlane’s complaint to the European Court of Human Rigts (29/10/10)
Submission by Lord Carey of Clifton to the European Court in support of Mr McFarlane
HM Government’s submission inf the cases of McFarlane & Ladele (14/10/11)
Final submission to the European Court of Human Rights by Mr McFarlane (14/08/12)

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The Curse is Lifted!

Colin Dye — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:18:54 +0000

Jesus Christ carried our curse on the cross so that we could enjoy the blessing of God.

Jesus was made a curse for you so that you might receive the blessing of the Spirit freely into your life.

One Bible teacher explained what he called the divine exchange: ?The evil that was due to us came upon Him so that the good due to Him could come upon us.? This means that we have been set free from every curse and receive the blessing of God. But in order to enjoy the blessing of God we need to line up our mindset with God?s goodness, believe Him for His promises and walk in obedience, which is the path of blessing. This is only possible as we surrender to the Holy Spirit who is the blessing and promise of God.

Key Thought

Jesus was made a curse for you so that you might receive the blessing of the Spirit freely into your life. The curse of the law is gone forever and you can live in all the promises of abundant blessing as you follow the Lord.

Prayer

Thank you, Lord Jesus that you carried every curse of mine on the cross and you have opened up the way for the blessing of God to come into every area of my life.

Discipleship Steps

God has called you to walk in the path of blessing. The curses of disobedience have been removed and in place of them you have received the blessings of obedience ? the obedience of Jesus Christ Himself. Now you must turn away from every action, thought or attitude that clings to the past way of life under the curse. To live in the freedom of God?s blessing takes a life of persistently yielding to the Spirit. Be conscious of this as you go about your daily affaires.

Read: Galatians 3:10-14

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Do not abuse the Grace of God

Colin Dye — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:47:57 +0000

Tears of sadness…love and grace can be abused…

God holds us on our honour, that we should not abuse this grace and to continue in sin, but that we will receive his grace with immense gratitude and love – so much so, that we will obey him when he says to us “Go and sin no more.”

But the truth is, we all still fail and, in one way or another, abuse the goodness and kindness of God by not turning away from the things we should. This fact alone should make us quick to hear and slow to speak.
What is the answer to the abuse of grace in the life of a Christian? Many preachers would say that we should stop preaching grace and let the people have a little more Law. Let them feel a little fear, a little condemnation. But, the answer to the abuse of grace, is not Law, but more grace!
Grace is all we have. Nothing else will ever help us out of the weakness of our fleshly inconsistency. John Newton had it right, “‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.”

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Life in the Spirit

Colin Dye — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:14:00 +0000

A representation of Moses breaking the stone tablets

It is important to understand the significance of the life we are called to live in the Spirit. This means that we are made holy by what the Holy Spirit produces in us and not by our human effort. Holiness does not come from ourselves, but from Christ?s nature in us.
We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit and surrender to his leading, but we can never initiate holiness or live up to it in our own strength. Some people wrongly argue that if we kept the right rules and regulations we would become holy. But rules and regulations can never make us holy.
Only the Holy Spirit can do that. If it is impossible to be saved by keeping the Law of Moses, then it is equally impossible to be made holy by trying to keep that same law. In fact, we have been gloriously set free from the law in all its forms and applications.
We have been joined to Christ by the Holy Spirit. We are now under the law of Christ, or ?in-lawed to him? (1 Corinthians 9:21). He now directs our lives by the Holy Spirit. This is where the inclination and the power to change come from. Just as we are saved by faith and not by works, so we are motivated and enabled to live a holy life by the Holy Spirit.
We follow his promptings in our hearts. It has nothing to do with our self effort. However, it is important to avoid some wrong conclusions that people can mistakenly draw from these facts.
Holiness requires our active co-operation
First, there is the wrong conclusion that because the Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the new life in us, we don?t have to do anything at all to become holy. That is not the case. We must believe and act on our faith by putting off the old and putting on the new. We trust and obey the Holy Spirit. We must actively cooperate with the Spirit as we walk in holiness. God is not going to do it for you, nor is he going to do it through you.
Rather, he will enable you to do it. You must choose to live for God and walk in his ways. But you can only be successful as you rely on the Holy Spirit to enable you to do it. Next, there is the wrong view that because we are not under the Law of Moses it means we don?t have to live a holy life. Some even teach that because God?s grace covers all our sin we can live as we like! Paul had to deal with this error, but look closely at his reply: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Sin cannot keep you from grace, but grace will keep you from sin.
Grace is not a license to sin. It is how we conquer sin. Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Grace covers all our sin and deals with it completely, but we must never use this fact to cover up our sin or justify our sinful actions. The apostle Peter teaches strongly on this point.

Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.? 1 Peter 2:16

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Freedom from religion

Colin Dye — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:13:39 +0000

Freedom from religion

Jesus came to set us free from the bondage of religious teaching that continues to hold us captive to sin ? always more to do, always more sins to be forgiven, always more repentance needed. We have been saved from ?the uttermost to the uttermost? ? from the state of uttermost sin and condemnation to the state of uttermost salvation. This uttermost salvation of total forgiveness is guaranteed by Jesus Christ our heavenly High Priest.
Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7:25
Once we are saved, our relationship with God is on a totally different footing. We now live under the blood of Jesus. Through the blood, God becomes our Father, and no longer deals with us according to the principle of the law. Through the blood, the condemnation of the law is removed forever from our lives. As a loving, heavenly Father, he draws us closer and closer to his heart, and leads us out of the works of darkness so that we can enjoy fellowship with him in the light.
In other words, we were cleansed once for all at the cross and the blood of Jesus keeps on cleansing us as we walk in the light with him. When we sin, we bring it to the light, with full assurance that the blood is cleansing us and removing any hindrance to our fellowship with God. We own our sin in his holy presence only to disown it in the light of his grace and forgiveness. We never allow guilt or sin-consciousness to have a resting place in our hearts. We maintain a clear conscience before God by walking in the light of his love. This is true repentance ? we reject our sin and embrace who we are in Christ.

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Ministers of the New Covenant

Colin Dye — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:01:48 +0000

One of my greatest desires is that I might become a truly competent minister of the New Covenant

One of my greatest desires is that I might become a truly competent minister of the New Covenant ? someone who is so taken up with gazing at the surpassing and permanent glory of Christ, that the Holy Spirit is free to transform my heart to be like him.
That way the people around me might just get a glimpse of his glory also. The letter of the law always kills, bringing condemnation and guilt, but the life-giving Spirit always directs our attention to the perfection and fullness we possess in Christ. This is the ultimate spiritual attraction. That?s why Jesus offended the religious as he drew sinners around him.
Grace is not a doctrine or a theological statement – it?s a person, called Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Once you see him and taste his goodness and kindness, your heart is his forever. There is nothing too big or too small he could ever ask you to do that will meet with reluctance on your part. Your greatest joy and pleasure is in pleasing him. These are the amazing effects of grace and the cell vision is nothing without them. Once deeply experienced, grace produces willing and passionate people who love the cell vision because it gives them the opportunity to be effective workers for Christ.

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Grace means we have nothing more to pay!

Colin Dye — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:45:17 +0000

Some will teach grace to a limited extent. They agree that we are saved by grace, but they quickly re-introduce the law to ?balance? grace with discipline. But you cannot successfully mix grace with anything ? it must be all grace or it is simply not grace at all. Unlimited grace means that the good we receive from God is totally unmerited and free. If we contribute to our salvation, even in the slightest detail, then grace is no longer grace.

We are forgiven by grace, accepted by grace, saved by grace, sanctified by grace and we serve by grace. It is grace from start to finish

Grace is not a good offer, a bargain deal or a cheap way of gaining something priceless in itself. For grace to be grace it means we pay nothing. Christ takes full responsibility for 100% of the payment. That is exactly what he achieved for us on the cross. His cry of triumph rings down through the ages, ?It is finished!? No more debt to pay, nothing more to do to qualify for God?s favour. We are now and forever a part of God?s kingdom by faith in Christ.
We are forgiven by grace, accepted by grace, saved by grace, sanctified by grace and we serve by grace. It is grace from start to finish. Think what this means in practice. We love God because he first loved us. We live right because we have been accepted by him and not in order to be accepted by him. We forgive because we have been forgiven, we live free because we have been set free and we serve God because he has served us.
All we do for Christ is based on our response to his grace and not in order to gain his favour. Paul knew this and made one of the most profound grace statements in the entire New Testament when he wrote,
For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
1 Corinthians 15:9-11

People with a Passion, a landmark publication

Paul was the first to admit that in himself he was unworthy before God. No-one disagreed! They were suspicious of his conversion to Christ and outraged that he was now claiming apostleship on the same level as the 12 apostles of Christ. Perhaps you feel completely unworthy and inadequate when it comes to the challenge of the cell vision. Maybe you have to face both internal and external doubts about your suitability to serve Jesus. Look how Paul dealt with it.
He was as amazed as everybody else, absolutely blown away by the kindness of God in taking a self-righteous, bigoted and arrogant persecutor of Christ, and making him the primary New Testament apostle to the Gentiles. All he could say was ?I am what I am by the grace of God.? He owed it all to Christ. We must learn the same lesson. Only when we are equally overwhelmed by the mercy and grace God has shown to us will we be ready to serve him willingly and joyfully. Only then will we be willing to take on something as radical and demanding as the cell vision.
From the book “People with a passion“, by Colin Dye.

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The Glory of the New Covenant

Colin Dye — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:32:31 +0000

The cup of the new covenant

Why do we live under the inferior conditions of the old when we have been brought into the glorious liberty of the new? Many Christians struggle with guilt and condemnation. They fight a losing battle against sin and burn themselves out by continually trying and failing to live the new life. God wants you to discover who you are in Christ, to learn how you live in the new way of the Spirit and to leave aside the Old Covenant of works.
Recently, I upgraded my mobile phone and entered into a new contract with my service provider. The new phone is far better than the old one. I have better access to the internet and to social networking. I have far more credit for free calls. Overall, the terms and conditions of the new contract are far better than the old one, which has now been annulled. Needless to say, I have discarded the old phone. It is disconnected and I am no longer using it.
In the same way, God has given us a new contract, or covenant. Its terms and conditions are far superior to the old. He wants us to enjoy all its provisions and benefits. And yet, so many of us are still relating to God under the inferior terms of the Old Covenant ? even though it has been completely superseded by grace and is now totally defunct!
Jesus came to make everything new. He gave us a New Covenant and along with it, a new life, a new hope and a new relationship with God made possible only through the blood of Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross, he opened up the way for us all to come into close and intimate relationship with God. The Gospel of Matthew records that at the moment of Jesus? death the veil of the Temple, which separated humanity from the presence of God, was torn apart from the top to the bottom (Matthew 15:38). This was physical proof that the New Covenant was under way. From this moment onwards, it was possible for every child of God to live in glorious liberty and in full assurance of forgiveness of sins.
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body ? Hebrews 10:19-20
The Bible shows us that God relates to humanity by means of covenant. He gave many covenants, each with different terms and conditions depending on the particular lessons God was teaching us at that time in history. We can trace these covenants from Adam to Noah, from Abraham to Moses, leading finally to the New Covenant in Christ. All these covenants build up to and find their fullness in the final covenant: the New Covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus.
Much of the New Testament is dedicated to teaching the superior provisions of the New Covenant, comparing and contrasting them to the inferior conditions of the Old Covenant, now made obsolete by Christ?s death on the cross. The New Covenant reveals God?s grace in all its fullness. The Old Covenant focussed on the works of the Law. And yet, legalism in all its subtle yet deceptive forms is still the single greatest problem in churches all over the world.
Everywhere I go, I find people struggling with sin and the guilt and condemnation that legalism brings. This is tragic. God has made abundant provision for us to escape the bondage of the old way of the letter of the Law and to live in the liberty of the Spirit enjoying all the blessings of the New Covenant. We are called to live in the Spirit knowing that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The old works of the Law bring nothing but bondage and always end in despair.
THE NEW COVENANT OF GRACE HAS RE PLACED THE OLD COVENANT OF LAW

It is important to get to know the provisions of the New Covenant and how we can live in them at all times. This is how you escape from the bondage of the conditions of the inferior covenant of the Law of Moses. We are going to note three of the most basic differences between the Old and the New. My purpose is to show you the glories of the New and I pray that, once you see this for yourself, you will never again try to live for God through the bondage of the Old Covenant of Law.
1.The Old Covenant was based on works of the Law; the New Covenant is based on pure grace received by simple faith

This is one of the most important facts to grasp about our new position in Christ. It is all about God?s grace and has nothing to do with human effort. Under the Old Covenant, blessing was based on merit. Moses said: ?The one who does these things will live by them? (Romans 10:5). God gave the Law through Moses and it pronounced blessing on the obedient and curses on the disobedient. This sounds all very fair and just, but the problem is that the Law finds us all guilty before God. We are all under the curse of the Law because of our sin, ?for there is none righteous, no not one? (Romans 3:10), indeed, ?all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? (Romans 3:23).
But, in Christ, there is no curse. He carried every curse of the Law on the cross, so that we might enjoy every blessing of God activated in us by the Holy Spirit.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ?Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.? He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. ? Galatians 3:13-14
The Old Covenant was based on works; the New Covenant operates by faith. Faith is the only condition we must fulfil to enjoy the benefits and blessings of God. Faith is not a work, it is simply trusting God. It is responding to God?s grace with a simple ?yes? spoken from our hearts. It is opening our hands to receive the gifts of God.
God wants you to understand just how perfect his provision is for your life through Christ. He forgives you freely by his grace. It has nothing to do with what you deserve or can earn by your own merits. God calls you to depend totally on the merits of Christ ? his perfect righteous life and his precious sacrificial death on the cross.
The glory of the New Covenant is this: Christ has already fulfilled every condition for your complete blessing ? body, soul and spirit. These blessings include total forgiveness of sin, freedom from inherited bondages, deliverance from every curse over your life, prosperity and every provision for the life and health of your body.
Many teachers today bring us back under the bondage of the Law by insisting that there are conditions we must fulfil in order to be saved, to stay saved or to know we are saved. They rob us of the assurance of the simple faith which rests at heart of the gospel. The Law says, ?Do these things and live?, but the gospel says, ?The righteous will live by faith? (Romans 1:17).
This principle applies to every provision of the New Covenant. We are saved by grace, healed by grace, made to prosper by his grace ? it is all the favour of God received by simple faith in Christ. Whatever need you have, learn to trust in the abundant provision of his grace for your life. I meet many people struggling with the bondage of trying to fulfil the conditions legalistic teaching has placed on them before they can be healed, or come under God?s favour or receive God?s blessing of abundance.
Legalism teaches that in order to be healed or to prosper we must first do, such and such. And, if these blessings do not come, it is entirely due to some fault or weakness in us. This kind of teaching puts us back under the Law and brings nothing but bondage. The glory of the New Covenant is this: Christ has already fulfilled every condition for your complete blessing ? body, soul and spirit. These blessings include total forgiveness of sin, freedom from inherited bondages, deliverance from every curse over your life, prosperity and every provision for the life and health of your body. The next difference between the Old and the New shows us how all this became possible: through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross.
2. The sacrifices of the Old Covenant provided temporary cover for sins; in Christ, your sins have been forever removed by the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the cross

There was never any permanent solution to the problem of sin under the Old Covenant. The sacrificial system provided temporary cover which had to be renewed annually. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. Sacrifices for sins offered by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement protected God?s people from their sins for 12 months only (Leviticus 16). The fact that the same sacrifices had to be repeated the following year showed that this was not a permanent solution to the problem of sin. In fact, each year the ritualistic sacrifices were in response to God?s annual reminder that another payment for the debt of sin was due (Hebrews 10:3).
What a tragedy it is that many of God?s people live like that today. They never enter into the joy of the complete and eternal forgiveness of the New Covenant made in Christ?s blood. They live under the perpetual reminder of their sins – always more to be done, more to be repented of, more to be forgiven. Some people are under the impression that God?s forgiveness comes in instalments and that they are only forgiven if they are living right, doing right and ?keeping short accounts with the Lord? by endlessly confessing their sins and wallowing in introspection, continually feeling bad for their failures.
This is sheer bondage and legalism. Christ has totally purged our conscience from all our sins, and we serve him in total freedom knowing all our sins have been forgiven. The writer to the Hebrews repeatedly shows the superiority of the New Covenant to the Old by pointing to how God has totally dealt with our sins through the sacrifice of Christ, made once-for-all on the cross. Read the following verses carefully and drink in their meaning ? your conscience is cleansed by the blood of Jesus and you have the full assurance of total forgiveness in Christ!
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! ? Hebrews 9:14
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. ? Hebrews 10:22
Jesus ended all sacrifice by his one and only sacrifice on the cross. His death so completely dealt with sin that we will never again rest under the guilt and failure of our sins. Instead, we look to the cross where that perfect sacrifice was made according to the will of God.
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 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. ? Hebrews 10:10-12
Look again at the glory of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant had no permanent solution for sin. They were brought up again and again, year after year. But God, in Christ, has so completely dealt with all our sins, weaknesses and imperfections that he will never remember them again. He has forgotten every single one of our sins. We will never have to stand before God to be judged guilty for any single thing that we have ever committed. He has forgiven us everything!
?This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.? Then he adds: ?Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.?? Hebrews 10:16-17
This brings us to another great difference between the Old and the New. It is perhaps one of the most glorious differences. The Old Covenant could never change a person?s heart. It only made demands. But, in the New Covenant, God changes us from within.
3. The Old Covenant was faulty; it could never deal with our sinful hearts. The New Covenant transforms our hearts.

The Old Covenant was written on tablets of stone; it was all about the letter of the Law. It worked externally and commanded external actions. The New Covenant, on the other hand, works in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. God writes his laws on our hearts and on our minds. This means he gives us a new nature that is soft and sensitive to his will. We delight in his will and find that his requirements are not burdensome or external to our new nature. We find a new capacity within us to love God and to follow him in true heart obedience.
The Old Covenant was given by God for one specific purpose: to show us that we could never be righteous through our own efforts. No matter how hard we try, we fail every time. In Christ we find unconditional acceptance and new life. That is why Paul says, ?the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life? (2 Corinthians 3:6).
The Old Covenant was not God?s final word to us. Its only purpose was to bring conviction and to show us our need of a Saviour. God was always planning something better for us, which the Law could never provide. When Christ came, the Old Covenant became obsolete and once the New Covenant was activated through Christ?s death on the cross, the Old Covenant passed away forever. It was a temporary provision and fulfilled its purpose but it was always limited in what it could do for us. The new covenant is a better covenant (Hebrews 7:22) because it is founded on better promises (Hebrews 8:6).
The glory of the New Covenant is the glory of Christ himself who set it in motion. We do not come to the Mountain that burned with fire at the giving of the Law, we come to the mountain of grace, called Cavalry, where Christ died and released the glory of God into our lives.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. ? John 1:14
Now, beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed, by the Spirit working in our hearts, into that same image ? the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now we cease from our own efforts. We no longer try to make ourselves acceptable to God, or work to earn his blessing and favour. We simply surrender to the Holy Spirit and allow him to direct our lives. We no longer try to be what we are not, but simply become day by day who we are in Christ.
Once we understand the fullness of joy and the abundant provisions of God?s grace in the New Covenant, we will never again try to live according to the demands and conditions of the Old. We are free forever from the burdens of the Old Covenant and enjoy God?s unlimited favour and celebrate our absolute freedom in Christ.

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From Glory to Glory

Colin Dye — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:29:55 +0000

The Glory of the Old Covenant was a fading Glory

God is looking for heart transformation not behaviour modification
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18
Many preachers today focus almost exclusively on behaviour change. They are always telling us what we have to do to be blessed, to overcome our failures and to achieve the favour of God. we have to pray more, repent more, give more, do more, and so on. while behaviour and lifestyle do matter, the problem with moralistic preaching is that it simply does not work. People are soon discouraged when complex life issues are met with simplistic action based solutions. In the end, these are never effective and only leave us burnt out, feeling like inadequate failures.
There is absolutely no doubt that the New Testament calls us to extraordinary levels of holiness, purity and Christ-like obedience. But, it also makes clear that this supernatural lifestyle is totally impossible through our own efforts and can only happen through the power of God.
In the New Testament, every command about what we should do is always preceded by the revelation of who we are in Christ. Identity comes before activity, love before obedience, belief before behaviour and transformation of heart before transformation of life.
Before Jesus ever tells you to change the way you live, he gives you new life. Before he calls you to tackle any specific expression of sin in your life, he fills you with his love, his grace and his peace. He lets you know that in him you are totally and unconditionally loved and completely accepted by the Father. In fact, he ministers to you personally all the benefits of his perfect work on the cross before he calls you to lift one finger relating to behavioural change.
The woman caught in the act of adultery is a brilliant example of the way Jesus interacts with you. The story is simple. A sinful woman was brought to Jesus and he forgave her all her sin instantaneously, totally and freely. She had absolutely no preconditions to fulfil, no prior agreements to enter into, no good behaviour pledges to make before Jesus would forgive her. All she had to do was to look to Jesus and hear his final verdict on her life: I do not condemn you! That’s grace! Pure, 100% grace. And, she received it by simple faith. She just looked to Jesus and believed.
Jesus took upon himself all your sin, all your law breaking – every wrong thing that you have ever committed or ever could commit. he died in your place on the cross and, in exchange for your sin, gave you his own perfect righteousness.
The mob was about to stone her for her adultery, but Jesus forgave her! Imagine the impact of that. Jesus, the judge of all the earth gives his final verdict over her life – not guilty! No condemnation! There is no higher court of appeal that could ever overturn that verdict. Nothing could ever change her standing before God. She is forever free from all guilt, judgement and condemnation. It had absolutely nothing to do with her actions or behaviour. If that were the case, she would have been condemned as a guilty sinner along with the rest of us. Those who wanted to judge her (the mob) couldn’t and the only one who could judge her (Jesus), acquitted her. This is exactly what Jesus has done for you if you simply, like this woman, have trusted in him. As a believer in Christ, you stand 100% righteous before a holy God, by his grace – not by your efforts or by what you deserve in yourself. Jesus took upon himself all your sin, all your law-breaking – every wrong thing that you have ever committed or ever could commit. He died in your place on the cross and, in exchange for your sin, gave you his own perfect righteousness.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21
From the moment you first believed in Jesus, you became the righteousness of God in Christ. This is God’s perfect righteousness that can never be spoiled or destroyed. It has nothing to do with anything you have ever done, or anything you could ever do – good or bad. But it is everything to do with what Jesus has done for you. He has given you the free gift of his perfect righteousness.
This means that never again do you need to fear God’s judgement or punishment for your sin. Never again will you have to work at getting God’s approval or blessing. You are already blessed and highly favoured in God’s beloved – Jesus Christ.
Do you sometimes feel guilty that you have not done what you should have done? Are you sometimes burdened by the fact that you have let the Lord down? Well, remember God’s attitude towards you is constant and unchanging. He has already made up his mind about you – he loves you and wants to do good to you and to bless you – not because you deserve it or ever could deserve it, but because Jesus has paid the highest price imaginable so that you could be set free. You have been redeemed by Christ’s own precious blood.
Total pardon and a changed heart

Jesus pronounced over this adulterous woman a total pardon for her entire life of sin. His words were beautiful music to her ears producing deep relief and unbridled joy in her heart. The burden of a lifetime of sin rolled off her back. Now she was ready for the second word Jesus spoke to her: go and sin no more! This second word was equally as powerful and liberating as the first. He had just spoken as the Judge of all humanity and had pardoned her for everything. Now as the Creator of the world, he spoke new creation life into her soul. This command was not a legalistic word. Legalism teaches you what you have to do to be acceptable to God, but it never helps you do it. The law tells you what you have to do in order to be holy, but it does not help you to actually to become holy. Grace operates in a totally different way. God first makes you acceptable through faith in Christ and his atoning death on the cross. He first declares you righteous by faith. Then he calls you to live for him. We do not try to live a righteous life in an attempt to make ourselves acceptable to God, but we live right because we have already been accepted by God. We do not serve by trying to observe an external code of behaviour, but by the power of the Spirit working within us. When Jesus tells you to do something, he enables you to do it. He activates the power of the new creation within you giving you the capacity to live as he calls you to live. Jesus spoke new life into this woman. He changed her heart, and from that moment on, she had a new power at work within her. Her encounter with Jesus changed her desires, her motivation and the entire direction of her life. That is what it really means to be born again and receive new life from Jesus. The Old Covenant was a covenant of works based on law. It had nothing to do with the grace of God working in people’s hearts. God gave the law to show us it is impossible to serve or live for him through our own efforts. That’s why it says in 2 Corinthians 3:6 – “the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.” The giving of the law as recorded in Exodus 19 was glorious. God himself came down and manifested his glory on Mount Sinai. But his glory was terrifying to the people. They felt themselves unworthy to approach God. But they promised to obey the law and declared themselves able to do it. But, a few pages later in the Bible we read of the golden calf and the dreadful sin they committed by rejecting God in favour of a graven image. The rest of the Old Testament shows the total failure of God’s people to keep God’s law and make themselves acceptable to God.
God’s attitude towards you is constant and unchanging. he has already made up his mind about you – he loves you and wants to do good to you and to bless you – not because you deserve it or ever could deserve it, but because Jesus has paid the highest price imaginable so that you could be set free.
The greater glory of the new covenant

Now, in the New Covenant we have boldness to enter the presence of God and live there! We look on God’s glory in the face of Christ and are being changed from glory to glory. We have left the repelling, feeble and fading glory of the old and we embrace the welcoming, energising and transforming glory of the new. We leave aside the old way of trying to please God and constantly failing. Now we take up our position in Christ and believe his declaration over our lives – “you are accepted in the wellbeloved.” One of the greatest blessings in a believer’s life is that we are new creations in Christ. Old things have passed away and everything has become new! This means that a dramatic, creative and lasting change has taken place. This is the glory of the relationship we have with God in New Covenant.
The glory of the New Covenant is permanent, the old passes away. It is a greater glory than anything the Old Covenant could produce. Christ lives in us. They never knew the indwelling Spirit of God in the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is sufficient for all our needs empowering us to live in the presence of God. The old leaves us outside the blessing of God, struggling to enter into it through our own merits. In the New Covenant, we live by the merits of Christ. The Old Covenant brings bondage leading to death because it locks us into the downward spiral of defeat and despair. But, the New Covenant gives us life and freedom through the Spirit who lives in us. The Old Covenant, at best, modified people’s external behaviour because the law only judges and condemns. But, the New Covenant gives grace and forgiveness leading to a new life based on heart transformation, not behaviour modification.
Changed by looking at Jesus

Stop trying to change yourself, trying be different, to become what you are not. This is fleshly human self-effort. It is totally useless and absolutely unnecessary! You are already being transformed from within. You are not what you were because you are now in Christ. This has nothing to do with your efforts or your actions. It is totally and 100% the work of God. He has totally re-created you in Christ. Now, you are a new creation.
The secret lies in learning to be conscious of Jesus and his glory in you. Everything that Jesus has accomplished belongs to you. In him you have wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption. Christ is your life because your life in now hidden with Christ in God. That means you are acceptable to God at all times, no matter what is going on in your life. You do not fall in and out of favour with God depending on how well you are doing as a Christian each day.
One of the greatest blessings in a believer’s life is that we are new creations in Christ. Old things have passed away and everything has become new! This means that a dramatic, creative and asting change has taken place.
Always focus on Christ and his righteousness, never on yourself. You are complete in him. You are righteous in him. You are perfect in him. Stop trying to add to the perfection of Christ’s work on the cross as if it was an incomplete work that has to be supplemented by your own efforts. The more you see who you are in Christ and the more you meditate on all that he has done for you and in you – the more you will be transformed into his image. Understanding who you are in him will lead you into the breathtaking levels of conformity to Christ in your daily life.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18
Many preachers today focus almost exclusively on behaviour change. They are always telling us what we have to do to be blessed, to overcome our failures and to achieve the favour of God. we have to pray more, repent more, give more, do more, and so on. while behaviour and lifestyle do matter, the problem with moralistic preaching is that it simply does not work. People are soon discouraged when complex life issues are met with simplistic action based solutions. In the end, these are never effective and only leave us burnt out, feeling like inadequate failures.
There is absolutely no doubt that the New Testament calls us to extraordinary levels of holiness, purity and Christ-like obedience. But, it also makes clear that this supernatural lifestyle is totally impossible through our own efforts and can only happen through the power of God.
In the New Testament, every command about what we should do is always preceded by the revelation of who we are in Christ. Identity comes before activity, love before obedience, belief before behaviour and transformation of heart before transformation of life.
Before Jesus ever tells you to change the way you live, he gives you new life. Before he calls you to tackle any specific expression of sin in your life, he fills you with his love, his grace and his peace. He lets you know that in him you are totally and unconditionally loved and completely accepted by the Father. In fact, he ministers to you personally all the benefits of his perfect work on the cross before he calls you to lift one finger relating to behavioural change.
The woman caught in the act of adultery is a brilliant example of the way Jesus interacts with you. The story is simple. A sinful woman was brought to Jesus and he forgave her all her sin instantaneously, totally and freely. She had absolutely no preconditions to fulfil, no prior agreements to enter into, no good behaviour pledges to make before Jesus would forgive her. All she had to do was to look to Jesus and hear his final verdict on her life: I do not condemn you! That’s grace! Pure, 100% grace. And, she received it by simple faith. She just looked to Jesus and believed.
Jesus took upon himself all your sin, all your law breaking – every wrong thing that you have ever committed or ever could commit. he died in your place on the cross and, in exchange for your sin, gave you his own perfect righteousness.
The mob was about to stone her for her adultery, but Jesus forgave her! Imagine the impact of that. Jesus, the judge of all the earth gives his final verdict over her life – not guilty! No condemnation! There is no higher court of appeal that could ever overturn that verdict. Nothing could ever change her standing before God. She is forever free from all guilt, judgement and condemnation. It had absolutely nothing to do with her actions or behaviour. If that were the case, she would have been condemned as a guilty sinner along with the rest of us. Those who wanted to judge her (the mob) couldn’t and the only one who could judge her (Jesus), acquitted her. This is exactly what Jesus has done for you if you simply, like this woman, have trusted in him. As a believer in Christ, you stand 100% righteous before a holy God, by his grace – not by your efforts or by what you deserve in yourself. Jesus took upon himself all your sin, all your law-breaking – every wrong thing that you have ever committed or ever could commit. He died in your place on the cross and, in exchange for your sin, gave you his own perfect righteousness.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21
From the moment you first believed in Jesus, you became the righteousness of God in Christ. This is God’s perfect righteousness that can never be spoiled or destroyed. It has nothing to do with anything you have ever done, or anything you could ever do – good or bad. But it is everything to do with what Jesus has done for you. He has given you the free gift of his perfect righteousness.
This means that never again do you need to fear God’s judgement or punishment for your sin. Never again will you have to work at getting God’s approval or blessing. You are already blessed and highly favoured in God’s beloved – Jesus Christ.
Do you sometimes feel guilty that you have not done what you should have done? Are you sometimes burdened by the fact that you have let the Lord down? Well, remember God’s attitude towards you is constant and unchanging. He has already made up his mind about you – he loves you and wants to do good to you and to bless you – not because you deserve it or ever could deserve it, but because Jesus has paid the highest price imaginable so that you could be set free. You have been redeemed by Christ’s own precious blood.
Total pardon and a changed heart

Jesus pronounced over this adulterous woman a total pardon for her entire life of sin. His words were beautiful music to her ears producing deep relief and unbridled joy in her heart. The burden of a lifetime of sin rolled off her back. Now she was ready for the second word Jesus spoke to her: go and sin no more! This second word was equally as powerful and liberating as the first. He had just spoken as the Judge of all humanity and had pardoned her for everything. Now as the Creator of the world, he spoke new creation life into her soul. This command was not a legalistic word. Legalism teaches you what you have to do to be acceptable to God, but it never helps you do it. The law tells you what you have to do in order to be holy, but it does not help you to actually to become holy. Grace operates in a totally different way. God first makes you acceptable through faith in Christ and his atoning death on the cross. He first declares you righteous by faith. Then he calls you to live for him. We do not try to live a righteous life in an attempt to make ourselves acceptable to God, but we live right because we have already been accepted by God. We do not serve by trying to observe an external code of behaviour, but by the power of the Spirit working within us. When Jesus tells you to do something, he enables you to do it. He activates the power of the new creation within you giving you the capacity to live as he calls you to live. Jesus spoke new life into this woman. He changed her heart, and from that moment on, she had a new power at work within her. Her encounter with Jesus changed her desires, her motivation and the entire direction of her life. That is what it really means to be born again and receive new life from Jesus. The Old Covenant was a covenant of works based on law. It had nothing to do with the grace of God working in people’s hearts. God gave the law to show us it is impossible to serve or live for him through our own efforts. That’s why it says in 2 Corinthians 3:6 – “the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.” The giving of the law as recorded in Exodus 19 was glorious. God himself came down and manifested his glory on Mount Sinai. But his glory was terrifying to the people. They felt themselves unworthy to approach God. But they promised to obey the law and declared themselves able to do it. But, a few pages later in the Bible we read of the golden calf and the dreadful sin they committed by rejecting God in favour of a graven image. The rest of the Old Testament shows the total failure of God’s people to keep God’s law and make themselves acceptable to God.
God’s attitude towards you is constant and unchanging. he has already made up his mind about you – he loves you and wants to do good to you and to bless you – not because you deserve it or ever could deserve it, but because Jesus has paid the highest price imaginable so that you could be set free.
The greater glory of the new covenant

Now, in the New Covenant we have boldness to enter the presence of God and live there! We look on God’s glory in the face of Christ and are being changed from glory to glory. We have left the repelling, feeble and fading glory of the old and we embrace the welcoming, energising and transforming glory of the new. We leave aside the old way of trying to please God and constantly failing. Now we take up our position in Christ and believe his declaration over our lives – “you are accepted in the wellbeloved.” One of the greatest blessings in a believer’s life is that we are new creations in Christ. Old things have passed away and everything has become new! This means that a dramatic, creative and lasting change has taken place. This is the glory of the relationship we have with God in New Covenant.
The glory of the New Covenant is permanent, the old passes away. It is a greater glory than anything the Old Covenant could produce. Christ lives in us. They never knew the indwelling Spirit of God in the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is sufficient for all our needs empowering us to live in the presence of God. The old leaves us outside the blessing of God, struggling to enter into it through our own merits. In the New Covenant, we live by the merits of Christ. The Old Covenant brings bondage leading to death because it locks us into the downward spiral of defeat and despair. But, the New Covenant gives us life and freedom through the Spirit who lives in us. The Old Covenant, at best, modified people’s external behaviour because the law only judges and condemns. But, the New Covenant gives grace and forgiveness leading to a new life based on heart transformation, not behaviour modification.
Changed by looking at Jesus

Stop trying to change yourself, trying be different, to become what you are not. This is fleshly human self-effort. It is totally useless and absolutely unnecessary! You are already being transformed from within. You are not what you were because you are now in Christ. This has nothing to do with your efforts or your actions. It is totally and 100% the work of God. He has totally re-created you in Christ. Now, you are a new creation.
The secret lies in learning to be conscious of Jesus and his glory in you. Everything that Jesus has accomplished belongs to you. In him you have wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption. Christ is your life because your life in now hidden with Christ in God. That means you are acceptable to God at all times, no matter what is going on in your life. You do not fall in and out of favour with God depending on how well you are doing as a Christian each day.
One of the greatest blessings in a believer’s life is that we are new creations in Christ. Old things have passed away and everything has become new! This means that a dramatic, creative and asting change has taken place.
Always focus on Christ and his righteousness, never on yourself. You are complete in him. You are righteous in him. You are perfect in him. Stop trying to add to the perfection of Christ’s work on the cross as if it was an incomplete work that has to be supplemented by your own efforts. The more you see who you are in Christ and the more you meditate on all that he has done for you and in you – the more you will be transformed into his image. Understanding who you are in him will lead you into the breathtaking levels of conformity to Christ in your daily life.

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