Hello, I am excited to know for myself and I am glad to tell you that because of Grace you win in life! I will be reading from the Message translation, there is going to be a lot of scripture and it is my hope that by the time you finish meditating on these scriptures that you will know without a doubt that because of Jesus and His finished work you are destined to win!
For to long I have found that Believers make sin and sickness two separate issues. How do you feel about it? When Jesus was on the earth he went about doing good and healing the sick. When it comes to Sin and sickness God treats them as one. In Matthew we read what Jesus had to say about this;
Matthew 9:1-8 (The Message)
Who Needs a Doctor?
1-3 Back in the boat, Jesus and the disciples recrossed the sea to Jesus' hometown. They were hardly out of the boat when some men carried a paraplegic on a stretcher and set him down in front of them. Jesus, impressed by their bold belief, said to the paraplegic, "Cheer up, son. I forgive your sins." Some religion scholars whispered, "Why, that's blasphemy!"
4-8 Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, "Why this gossipy whispering? Which do you think is simpler: to say, 'I forgive your sins,' or, 'Get up and walk'? Well, just so it's clear that I'm the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both. . . ." At this he turned to the paraplegic and said, "Get up. Take your bed and go home." And the man did it. The crowd was awestruck, amazed and pleased that God had authorized Jesus to work among them this way.
“I forgive your sins or Get up and walk”, if Jesus looked at both in the same way then why wouldn’t you? When Jesus was on the cross he was separated from God took the curse of the law, bore our sins, sickness, and sorrows. His death paid the ransom for us all and His resurrection delivered our redemption. Is it easier to have Faith to believe that your sins are forgiven than it is to believe that God wants you to be healed and whole? You might say but Brother Bryant you don’t understand. You may be right, I don’t understand, when Jesus was alive the religious leaders of that day believed the opposite. They believed that Jesus had the ability to heal the sick but not the authority to forgive sins. Why have we as Christians made this so complicated? Is it because we have lived for to long with the teachings mixing law and Grace? Is it because of teachings that state Jesus took away all sin? For those who teach this I believe is dangerous. God said because of Grace he will remember your sin no more. That does not mean that there is no sin or sickness in this world. The effects of sin and sickness are still apparent in the world but be of good cheer God says be not of this world because of Grace you are a new creation. Let’s take a minute and read in Romans;
Romans 5:12-21 (The Message)
The Death-Dealing Sin, the Life-Giving Gift
12-14 You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in— first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.
15-17 Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man's sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God's gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There's no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?
18-19 Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.
20-21 All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.
It is because of Grace you have the ability to be Christ conscious and be delivered from the law and sin consciousness. This includes sickness and so much more!
Let’s read more in Romans;
Romans 4:6-9 (The Message)
6-9 David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man:
Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off, whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.
Fortunate the person against whom the Lord does not keep score.
Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don't we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?
In Psalm David says it this way;
Psalm 103 1-6 (The Message)
1-2 O my soul, bless God. From head to toe, I'll bless his holy name!
O my soul, bless God, don't forget a single blessing!
3-5 He forgives your sins—every one.
He heals your diseases—every one.
He redeems you from hell—saves your life!
He crowns you with love and mercy—a paradise crown.
He wraps you in goodness—beauty eternal.
He renews your youth—you're always young in his presence.
6 God makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet.
God makes everything come out right! How you might ask? Paul was asked the same question in Romans and answered it this way;
2 Corinthians 5:21 (The Message)
How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.
God gives you the power to overcome. It is not by your power, for to long once the law was given it was by your works and by your own strength trying to get good enough for God. Because of Christ in you, you have the ability to overcome sin. Where I am weak, He is strong! Again Paul states it this way in Romans;
Romans 6:12-14 (The Message)
12-14 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God.
If you had been kidnapped, bound, left to die and unknowingly to you the ransom had been paid you would die not knowing that you were free. The law is a ruthless slave master, and brings death. Grace is freedom, and brings life!
I am going to close with this verse in 1 John;
1 John 2:15-17 (The Message)
15-17 Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.
God wants you to live life knowing that because Grace wins, you win! Don’t let anything keep you from embracing what God through Grace has done for you. Be declared fit before God! Not by anything that you have done except for believing in what Jesus has done, receiving your salvation and everything God has promised. His mercy and Grace endureth forever!
God Loves You!
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