2015 – A Year Of Great Change (Part 5)
Remember – great change begins with how you think.
If you mess up and think that you are excluded from fellowship with your heavenly Father as a result then you will think thoughts associated with condemnation with all of its crippling and paralyzing effects.
That’s why we need to hear the truth of God’s word again.
Colossians 1: 19 – 23
19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. 21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. 23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
The good news is that condemnation is not the result that our heavenly Father intends for us. The good news – the best news – is that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
We have been declared forever righteous because we have been clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. As a result, if we mess up we don’t have to think condemnation, but we can continue to think righteous. And that radically impacts upon how we speak, act, and live.
1 John 3: 20 – 22
20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
Amplified
20 Whenever our hearts in [tormenting] self-accusation make us feel guilty and condemn us. [For we are in God’s hands.] For He is above and greater than our consciences (our hearts), and He knows (perceives and understands) everything [nothing is hidden from Him].
21 And, beloved, if our consciences (our hearts) do not accuse us [if they do not make us feel guilty and condemn us], we have confidence (complete assurance and boldness) before God,
22 And we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we [watchfully] obey His orders [observe His suggestions and injunctions, follow His plan for us] and [habitually] practice what is pleasing to Him.
What pleases him? Only one thing! Faith! Simply believing the truth of God’s word.
Jesus said, “Only believe…..” He said that for a reason – to keep it simple and uncomplicated.
As long as sin is preached and the weaknesses and failures of the old nature are continually highlighted in the Church, rather than faith and the strengths and possibilities of new creation living, then the fullness of God’s purposes for His people and for the people of the world can never be fully accomplished. And that would be a tragedy.
Paul said the only foundation upon which the church can be built is Jesus Christ himself.
1 Corinthians 3: 10 – 11
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Remember, the new is in the old concealed and the old is in the new revealed, the new is in the old contained and the old is in the new explained. A lot is made of the laying of the foundation of the temple in the old covenant, the temple being the place where the presence of God resided. However, in the new covenant we are told that believers are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that God’s presence now dwells in us.
1 Corinthians 6: 19 – 20
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Paul said that Jesus himself is the foundation for the New covenant temple that we are.
In Haggai it says that the foundation of the rebuilt temple was laid on the twenty fourth day of the ninth month.
Haggai 2: 18 – 19
18 ‘Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid—consider it: 19 Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you.’”
It is interesting that this year of great change – 5775 – began on Rosh Hashanah which fell on the twenty fourth day of the ninth month 2014.
I believe that the great change will arise from the revelation that the foundation of the temple has already been laid – that when Jesus cried out, “It is finished….” it really was finished. Salvation, healing, and deliverance have been provided for all.
Everything that has been provided is received by faith and faith alone, and our right to receive is based solely upon what Jesus has already accomplished on our behalf.
Jesus became sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in him, so that we can now enter and stand in God’s presence without a sense of fear, guilt, shame, condemnation, or any other negative emotion. That is the foundation for new covenant life.
Jesus said that the wise man digs down deep and builds his house on the rock – on a solid foundation. We often have to dig through a lot of religious tradition to get to the foundation that is Jesus.
The religious leaders brought the woman caught in adultery to Jesus and reminded him of what the law said should happen and demanded to know what he said about it. I’ve seen people bring their family or others to church in the hope that the preacher will get up and lambast them for their sin. But where is the good news in that?
It is time to lift up our eyes and see as God sees because great change begins with a new perspective.
We need to know that at the very moment we receive Jesus as our Saviour, and simply believe that He died and paid the penalty for our sins, that He rose again on the third day having done all that was necessary as our substitute to turn away God’s judgement and release His mercy – that as soon as we begin to confess His Lordship over our lives, at that very moment we receive His nature, and we become the righteousness of God in Him!
When Jesus told the adulteress that he didn’t condemn her and to go and sin no more he wasn’t just saying that she she should be more careful and make better choices in future. He was declaring her righteous, and he was painting a prophetic picture of what he had come to accomplish on behalf of all fallen men and women everywhere.
Sometimes we need a reminder that Jesus didn’t come to condemn, but to save.
Haggai says that the glory of the latter temple will be greater than the former. We are that temple. Christ in us is the hope of glory.
The redemption that God has provided ion Christ covers every need – perfectly restoring fellowship between man and his heavenly Father, so that there is no longer any sense of guilt, and all the sins of the past are forgotten. That is good news. That is the best news.
We can expect great change as Jesus builds his church on the foundation that he himself has laid. The glory is here, and where the glory is there is salvation, there is healing, there is deliverance, there is supernatural transformation, there is great change.