Unmerited Favor (13 page)

No! A thousand times no! Paul himself answers this question in Romans 7:12 when he states that “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” But, while the law is holy, just and good, it has
no power
to make you holy, just and good. The law is like a mirror. All that a mirror can do is tell you the truth and point out your deficiencies. If you look in the mirror and the person looking back at you is ugly, dirty or imperfect, is it the mirror’s fault? Of course not. The mirror is just doing its job. Likewise, that’s what the law does. It shows you God’s perfect holiness, justice and goodness, but at the same time, it also exposes your imperfections and your inability to meet God’s standards. And in the same way that you can’t use a mirror to clean the dirt that it has exposed off your face, you cannot use the law to remove the sins that it has exposed and make you holy.

In the same chapter, Paul explains further why the law had to be nailed to the cross:

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.

—Romans 7:14–15

There is no doubt that the law from God is pure and spiritual, but Paul shows us clearly that the law did not stop him from wanting to sin when his flesh was stirred up by it. Notice his anguish when he says in verse 19, “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”

If you fully subject yourself to the law, it will drive you to the end of yourself and you will come to a place where you have a crystal clear revelation that in and of yourself, you can’t save yourself!

So what was Paul’s solution? In his exasperation, he cried, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
⁸
Those who
fully
subject themselves to the law instead of lowering it to such a standard that they can delude themselves into thinking that they can fulfill the law will truly experience what Paul experienced. The law will drive you to the end of yourself and you will come to a place where you have a crystal clear revelation that in and of yourself, you can’t save yourself!

Notice that Paul’s cry is for a person. He asked, “...
Who
will deliver me from this body of death?” His answer? “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
⁹
The solution is not found in objects—the two cold and impersonal pieces of stone on which the commandments were written. It is found in the person of Jesus! You can’t have a relationship with cold pieces of stone, but you can have a relationship with the person of Jesus! Your answer is found in Christ and Christ alone! Even when you fail, His blood makes you righteous, just and good. You are perfected by His grace (unmerited favor) in your life.

My friend, when Jesus died on the cross, He paid the full price for your sins. He took upon Himself the full penalty for
all
your sins. But He did not remove your ability to be tempted, to have sinful desires or to have sinful thoughts. As long as you are in your present body, you will experience what Paul himself experienced. You will experience temptations, sinful desires and sinful thoughts. That is the truth and Paul was not afraid or ashamed to talk about it. If Christ died to remove sinful actions, thoughts and deeds from us, then with all due respect, He failed because we all know that we can still be tempted to sin today. The law can’t stop sin. Only a revelation of His grace can.

The Power To Sin No More

The solution to these temptations, sinful desires and thoughts is found in the very first verse of the next chapter: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
¹⁰
(By the way, some Bible translations, like the New King James Version, go on to say “who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” This was added by the later Bible translators. In the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament available today, the Greek simply states, “
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
”)

You may experience temptations and sinful thoughts from time to time, but right in the midst of that temptation, you need to know this: There
is
therefore
now
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Notice that this verse is in the present tense. Right now, even if at this very moment, sinful thoughts are going through your mind, there is no condemnation because you are IN CHRIST JESUS! Are we then to sit still and entertain those sinful thoughts? Of course not.

Sin cannot take root in a person who is full of the consciousness that he is righteous in Christ. You cannot stop birds from flying over your head, but you can certainly stop a bird from building a nest on your head. In the same way, you cannot stop temptations, sinful thoughts and desires from passing through your mind, but you can certainly stop yourself from
acting
on these temptations, sinful thoughts and desires. How? By confessing at the very moment of temptation that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!

You now have the power of Christ to rise above your temptation and to rest in your righteous identity in Christ apart from your works.

The power of Jesus to overcome every temptation kicks in when you remain conscious that even at the point of temptation, Jesus is
still
with you and that you are righteous in Him apart from your works!
¹¹
When you do that, you reject the condemnation for the temptation that you faced. You now have the power of Christ to rise above your temptation and to rest in your righteous identity in Christ apart from your works. That, beloved, is the overcoming life in Christ!

I have received so many testimonies from people who have been set free from destructive habits. These are sincere and precious people who desired to experience breakthroughs but did not know how to. However, once they learned about righteousness that comes from Christ apart from their works, they began to confess that they were still the righteousness of God every time they felt tempted. And bit by bit, the more they started to believe that they were righteous in Christ, and the more they refused to accept the condemnation for their past mistakes and for their present temptation, the more they became set free from the very addictions that bound them!

A brother from the US, who has been listening to my messages for some time, wrote to share that he had been addicted to pornography and had lived a lifestyle of sexual immorality since he was 14 years old. Although he had accepted Jesus when he was 18 years old, he continued to struggle with this aspect of his life. This is what he wrote:

As a result of some bad influences and some of my own bad choices, I became a pornography addict and began to lead a sexually immoral life at the age of 14. I got saved when I was 18 years old, but I still struggled with those kinds of thoughts and some old, bad habits. I tried everything to break free from immorality and lustful thoughts.

Then, I heard Pastor Prince’s message titled, “Good Things Happen To People Who Believe God Loves Them.” I listened to it over and over again, and for the first time, God’s love became consistently real to me. I was able to receive God’s unconditional love over and over again, and it healed my heart.

God’s love has set me free
! Thank you so much for the message that your church sends out to the world. It is truly changing lives!

The revelation that God loves him
unconditionally
despite his failures and imperfections was what helped this brother break free from habits that had gripped him for many years. God does
not
want you to sin because sin will destroy you. But even if you have failed, you must know this: There is no condemnation because you are IN CHRIST JESUS and your sins are washed away by His blood! When God looks at you, He does not see you in your failures. From the moment you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, God sees you
in
the risen Christ, seated at His right hand! As Jesus is spotless and without blame, so are you! God sent His Son to die on the cross for you
while
you were still a sinner. Obviously, He does not love you only when you are perfect in your behavior and thoughts. His love for you is unconditional!

Another dear sister from my church wrote to share about how the Lord had thoroughly transformed her life. She used to frequent nightclubs and pubs regularly, spout vulgarities, take drugs, stay away from home, and get involved in illegal activities such as theft and peddling pirated software. During this time, she was often depressed and even entertained thoughts of suicide. Finally, she hit rock bottom and felt that everything in her life had gone wrong. She could hardly convince herself to live on. It was during this period that her sister brought her to New Creation Church and she was impacted by the gospel of grace. This is her testimony:

I was introduced to grace for the first time and
learned that God does not despise or condemn delinquents like myself
...I was amazed as I began to see Christianity from a new light for the first time.

To cut a long story short, I challenged the Lord one day to prove His existence and love for me and He did just that. Within a span of two weeks, I was completely won over by Jesus and gladly accepted Him into my life. As what people always say, the rest is history.

I would like to testify that it was GRACE and not the LAW that drew a great sinner like me to God. Over time, the Lord transformed me from a delinquent into a lady who is so in love with Jesus! He did not modify my outward behavior immediately when I was still a baby Christian. Instead,
He poured His love and grace abundantly into my life, which eventually transformed me from the inside out.
Grace may not produce immediate results, but the fruits are sure and permanent!

Just when family members had given up their hopes on me, my Daddy God did a miracle by changing me effortlessly from within into a new person! Everyone around me marveled at the change when they saw the works of God in my life. I am a walking testimony of God’s existence and grace! Hallelujah!

It is vital for you to receive the gift of no condemnation because that is what will give you the power to overcome your weaknesses, destructive habits and addictions.

Praise the Lord, isn’t this an awesome testimony? This sister was rescued at the lowest point in her life because she realized one powerful truth—God does not despise or condemn her. He LOVES her and it was this revelation of His love and grace (unmerited favor) that turned her life around completely!

Beloved, it is vital for you to receive the gift of no condemnation because that is what will give you the power to overcome your weaknesses, destructive habits and addictions. If you believe that God condemns you for your failures, would you run to Him for help?

Look at how Jesus gave a sinner the power to sin no more. He defended the woman who was caught in adultery. He looked tenderly into her eyes and asked her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
¹²

You see, the Ten Commandments, in all their pristine holiness, cannot make you holy and cannot put an end to sin. The power to stop sin from destroying your life comes from receiving the gift of
no condemnation
from Jesus. Your Savior, who has fulfilled the law on your behalf, says to you, “Where are those who condemn you? NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU. Now, go and sin no more.” This is grace, my friend. This is His unmerited favor! The law says that God will not condemn you only
if
you stop sinning. However, Grace says, “I have taken your condemnation on the cross.
Now
, you can go and sin no more.”

Romans 6:14 says that “
sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace [unmerited favor].
” If you are still struggling with sin, it is time to stop depending on the law. Fall upon His unmerited favor like Paul did. When you know that Christ has made you righteous apart from your works, and that He has perfected you by His unmerited favor, that will give you the ability to overcome every sinful temptation, habit and addiction in your life!

Right now, when you reach out to your Savior Jesus, God sees you as perfect in Him. He does not condemn you for your past, present and even future mistakes because all the mistakes that you will make in this life have already been nailed to the cross. You are now free to sin no more, and experience victory and success over every sin and bondage in your life!

Chapter 11: Transforming The Next Generation

When I was the president of my youth ministry, I used to preach hard and strong messages, telling my youths, “You’ve got to love God! You’ve got to love the Lord with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul!” All that time, when I was preaching this to the young people, I was wondering to myself, “How in the world do I do that?” I would look at myself and check my heart, mind and soul—did I really love the Lord that perfectly? How could I expect my youths to love the Lord that way when I knew that I myself had failed? At that time, I was not established in the new covenant of grace yet. I did not know that by preaching that way, I was actually placing all my youths under the law because the sum total of the law is to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.
¹

Let me ask you this: Has anybody ever been able to love the Lord with all his heart, mind and soul? No one. Not a single person has been able to do that. God knew all the while that under the law, no one could love Him that perfectly. So do you know what He did? The Bible says, “For God
so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...”
²
I love that little word “so.” It speaks of the intensity with which God loves us.

When God sent Jesus, He was effectively saying this to us: “I know that you can’t love Me perfectly, so watch Me now.
I
will love you with all My heart, all My soul, all My mind and all My strength.” And He stretched His arms wide and died for us. This is what the Bible says about what Jesus did on the cross: “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God
demonstrates His own love toward us
, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
³

When you are overflowing with God’s love, you will fulfill the law effortlessly without even trying.

My friend, the cross is not a demonstration of our perfect love and devotion to God. The cross is God’s demonstration of
His
perfect love and
His
perfect grace (unmerited favor) toward us, for it was while we were
still
sinners that Jesus died for us. He did not die for you and me because of our perfect love for God. He died for you and me because of HIS perfect love for us! Let me give you the Bible’s definition of love to make this even clearer for you: “In this is love,
not that we loved God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
⁴
Beloved, that’s the emphasis of the new covenant of grace (unmerited favor)—HIS love for us, not our love for Him!

As we raise up a new generation of believers, let us raise up a generation that is impacted by God’s unmerited favor and that boasts in His love for us. When we receive His love for us and start believing that we are His beloved, look at the result that 1 John 4:11 spells out: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Notice that the love for one another comes after our experience of His love for us! It stems from an overflow. You cannot love others when you have not first been filled by His love. And when you are overflowing with His love, you will fulfill the law effortlessly without even trying because God’s Word tells us, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore
love is the fulfillment of the law
.”
⁵

Flee Temptation With The Knowledge Of God’s Grace

We do not need to impose the law on our young people, thinking that without the law, they would go out and sin. Joseph was only a young man when at 17 years old, he was sold as a slave in Egypt. He lived many years
before the Ten Commandments were given
, yet look at his response when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him. Referring to God’s unmerited favor in his life and how the Lord had promoted him, Joseph said, “There is no one greater in this house than I...How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
⁶

Joseph was not governed by the Ten Commandments. He acted based on God’s unmerited favor in his life. He had a living relationship with the Lord. Do you know what Joseph did after he said what he said to Potiphar’s wife? He ran away from the woman. Similarly, I believe that young people who are full of Jesus will have the courage to run away from temptation! There is nothing wrong with running away from temptation. Joseph ran away from Potiphar’s wife because he did not put confidence in his own flesh to resist temptation. He ran away before he could change his mind!

In fact, the apostle Paul’s instructions in the new covenant are to FLEE from youthful lusts and to pursue God’s righteousness instead. He tells Timothy, “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace...”
⁷
If Internet pornography is a temptation, then let’s teach our young people not to put confidence in their own flesh to resist temptation, and to flee from it instead. Parents, at the same time, you can make pragmatic changes by placing your home computers in the living rooms and not in your son’s or daughter’s room. This is parenting with grace: You can trust your teenagers, but you can also teach them not to trust their flesh, and to flee from temptations!

Teenagers and young adults who are dating, learn to flee from temptations like Joseph did. Don’t go to dark, quiet places or lock yourselves alone in your rooms where raging hormones can bring you further than where you want to go. God designed sex to be enjoyed within the marriage covenant. He is not robbing you of fun. He loves you too much to see you go from one broken sexual relationship to another, and end up feeling used, cheated, manipulated, cheap and empty. He loves you too much to see you at risk of or suffering from sexually transmitted diseases. He loves you too much to see you go through an unwanted pregnancy and become a parent before you are ready.

You are precious in His sight and I want you to picture His destiny for your life. His destiny for you is to enjoy a blessed marriage with someone you can give yourself totally to, and with whom you can have a blessed family with beautiful children in due season. Trust Him—don’t rush into having sex before marriage. He will make all things beautiful in His time. Also, know this: No matter what your past is like, there is therefore now no condemnation. His blood washes you whiter than snow and you have a new beginning in Him!

Encountering Jesus Leads To Fulfilling The Law

Youth leaders, parents and fellow ministers, it is vital to give our young people a picture of what God’s heart for them is in the new covenant. When our young people have an encounter with the person of Jesus and receive His love, His love will lead them to fulfill the law. They will learn to love themselves and not inflict harm on themselves by experimenting with sex, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and other destructive activities. Grace brings about a restraint that is supernatural. Grace is our hope for transforming the next generation.

We need a whole new generation of youth leaders who have a revelation of God’s unmerited favor burning in their hearts. Only grace can transform our young people. Throwing laws at them will only stir up their flesh to rebel. But just one encounter with Jesus, just one drop of His unmerited favor, and I can guarantee you, our young people will never be the same again. Think about your own life. How were you first impacted by Jesus? Was it through the law or was it His grace in your life that touched your heart? We all began our relationship with the Lord because we were impacted by His love and grace. Let us then continue in that grace.

Paul warned the Galatians against turning back to the law after beginning in grace. He said, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace [unmerited favor] of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to
pervert the gospel of Christ
.”
⁸
Paul takes this very seriously. He calls any gospel apart from the gospel of grace (God’s unmerited favor) a
perversion.
Attempting to be
justified
by the works of the Ten Commandments is a perversion of the gospel of Christ.

Don’t start with grace and end up with the law. Don’t start with the new covenant, only to turn back to the old covenant!

Paul asked the church in Galatia point-blank, “...Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh [self-effort]?”
⁹
Paul was saying to them, “You began by believing in His grace, why are you now depending on your works? That is foolishness! You should be continuing in His unmerited favor!” These are strong words by Paul. Don’t start with grace and end up with the law. Don’t start with the new covenant, only to turn back to the old covenant! There are those who say that they are not justified by the law, but believe that they should keep the law for sanctification. My friend, both justification and sanctification come by our faith in Jesus’ finished work alone.

“Pastor Prince, how would I know if I have gone back to the old covenant?”

It is actually very easy to identify the difference between old and new covenant teachings. Just ask yourself if the teaching is putting the emphasis on what
you
have to do or what
Jesus has done
. Does it make you introspective, always looking to
yourself
and how you fared or failed? Or does it make you turn your eyes
away from yourself
to look upon Jesus?

When you are established in the new covenant of grace, you will experience a tremendous sense of confidence and security in Christ. When your confidence is in His unmerited favor and not your performance, you will not feel as if you are constantly jumping in and out of His favor and acceptance.

It is unfortunate that some believers have put themselves back under the old covenant without realizing it. Sometimes, they feel that God is on their side, but at other times, they feel that God is far away from them. Sometimes, they feel that God is satisfied with them, but at other times, they feel that God is angry with them. All these feelings are based predominantly on their own evaluation of how
they
have performed, how
they feel
about themselves, and not how God sees them. Because there is no new covenant scriptural basis for such evaluations, they end up arbitrarily deciding if they are deserving of God’s blessings and favor in their lives or not, when in fact, they actually have access to His blessings all the time, simply because of Jesus and His finished work at the cross.

Defeated By Our Lack Of Knowledge

When I was a teenager, I used to belong to a Christian fellowship group. We would sing this song which you may be familiar with. It went like this: “Is He satisfied, is He satisfied, is He satisfied with me? Have I done my best? Have I stood the test?

Is He satisfied with me?”
¹⁰
Let me just say that 10 out of the 10 times that we sang this song, I would always believe that God was
not
satisfied with me. When we look to ourselves, all there is to see is the inadequacy and futility of our ability and performance. In and of ourselves, we will never meet God’s standard for Him to be satisfied with us. We will always fall short!

When we look to ourselves, all there is to see is the inadequacy and futility of our ability and performance.

You can imagine how condemned we felt each time we sang this song. After all, we had never been taught that God was satisfied with His Son’s sacrifice at the cross, and we did not understand what the new covenant of grace was all about. We were young and zealous for God, but defeated by our lack of knowledge. How I wish we could have read a book like the one you are holding during those times. It would have saved us from our constant sense of inadequacy and failure!

With all due respect to the songwriter, whom I believe had the best intentions when he wrote the song, this song is not based on the new covenant of God’s unmerited favor. It negates the cross, instills fear and places the emphasis back on you— what
you
must do, what
you
must perform and what
you
must achieve for God to be satisfied with you. But the question to ask today is not if God is satisfied with you. The question that we need to ask is this: Is God satisfied with the cross of Jesus? And the answer is this: He is completely satisfied!