The deadly cocktail of mixing Law and Grace for the believer

It is becoming a better known fact to many Christians that they are not to serve and live for Christ through the Mosaic Law (Ten commandments and Old Testament commands) but rather to properly understand by revelation and subsequent life transformation the New Covenant, purchased by Jesus Christ our great High Priest!
Should this be news to you then you really really do need to look into this and study the fact that as a believer in Christ you are ‘no longer under law but under Grace’ and to fully begin to live in this reality.
For the purpose of this blog I want to assume that you know this. However I also want to assume that like me you may be finding the subtleties of living in the fullness of life that Christ has purchased for us sometimes elusive. Let me give you an example from my own life...
By and large I understand and can preach New Covenant realities for the child of God, our freedom in Christ, our great privileges, the fact that we are no longer under the curse of the Law, that Christ was the END of the Law and so forth. That means that God accepts and receives me as His son on the basis of the blood of Christ – His atoning sacrifice and not on my own merits. I understand that as I have started (under Grace – unmerited favour by the mercy of God) then so am I to continue ie. That Grace is not just the means of my Justification but is also the means of my Sanctification and to fulfil my destiny!

Along the way though I have discovered though that I can still end up living in a subtle fusion of Law and Grace

when revelation begins to wane or fleshly living starts to creep up and bite me from behind! Paul told the believer that there ‘is now NO CONDEMNATION’ for those in Christ Jesus....

how often have I told myself that I am living and believing correctly under Grace by the Spirit of God only to have to re-evaluate when the crippling power of condemnation or a sense of failure starts overtaking me. Its only when the effects of living under this for a while accumulate and overwhelm us that we realise that the cumulative effect of even a small amount of ‘Law based living’ will eventually cripple us like a pebble in the shoe of a weary traveller

. Perhaps you feel a sense of unworthiness and an inability to move into the calling and prophecies that you have received?

Maybe like me you have discovered that 'starting' is the easy part and you have lapsed back for seasons, even unconsciously, into adopting the Old Covenant approach of 'do and live' again rather than the life-giving 'live and do' of Grace?

By Grace we understand that we entered the Kingdom by faith (through Grace) apart from works and as such must continue in this manner, not abandoning Grace in favour of once more earning God’s favour and acceptance through our own efforts – surely the great default of many of us.

A revelation of Grace through a renewed mind appreciates that even a little bit of Law based thinking for the believer will bring condemnation and guilt and fail to lead us into the Spirit led and filled life we desire.

It takes one rotten apple to spoil the barrel. What I have discovered is that much of this Law based thinking comes through 'old defaults' from our past. We lurch back toward ‘human performancisms’ rather than allowing ourselves the right to receive by faith what we don’t deserve and enjoy the full rights as sons – unmerited favour and position by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection – apart from works.

Its the subtle mix of Law and Grace based living that is the most difficult animal to catch and the most dangerous

It takes time to realise that as a believer there is no such thing as a balance between Law and Grace! We must go the whole way and cast out the slave woman Hagar (a ‘type’ of the Law) and embrace fully living as a child of Promise after Isaac (a ‘type’ of Grace) Cast out the Slave woman Paul told the Galatians! It sounds so harsh but this is what we must do to any ‘law based’ thinking. So if you catch yourself trying to earn God’s favour, or battling with a Spirit of condemnation due to feelings of unworthiness or other PERFORMANCE related means of living for God and possessing your inheritance then STOP and reconsider.

You start by Grace and you must continue by Grace. Your faith is the key.

Will you believe the scandalous freedom you have in Christ or not? Will you accept him and the New Covenant in all its fullness or not? Don’t think that by mixing Law based and Grace based living you can hedge your bets. No, it will ruin you.
Learn to identify what is going on in your mind by the fruit of your life. Condemnation, feeling a failure, fed up, drivenness...all BAD! Hope, courage, assurance, buoyancy and joy ...all GOOD!
Watch your life transform in Christ by living in and through the Gospel of Grace today in all its fullness, leave no stone unturned and identify those places where you have tolerated that deadly mixed cocktail of L & G for too long. Discover the difference!
JS.

Willow Creek website blog entry by J Shiels

A 'Guest Blog' response on a Willow Creek website in response to request for giving advise to young leaders (by Jason Shiels)

FIND LINK BELOW,

http://www.willowcreekevents.org.uk/leadership/lessons-for-young-leaders-you-are-never-too-young-to-start-jason-shiels/

My Quietness

A poem by Amy Carmichael


O Thou who art my quietness, my deep repose,
My rest from strife of tongues, my holy hill,
Fair is Thy pavilion, where I hold me still.
Back let them fall from me, my clamarous foes,
Confusions multiplied;
From crowding things of sense I flee, and in Thee hide.
Until this tyranny be overpast,
Thy hand will hold me fast;
What though the tumult of the storm increase,
Grant to Thy servant strength, O Lord, and bless with peace.