Grace Reign

By Pieter Swart

The word grace means "unmerited favor from God." We were saved by the grace of God, which came through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. We did not deserve to be saved, but we receive it freely in Jesus Christ. Grace also has a greater meaning, which is "God's ability working in and through the heart of man." The Spirit wakes us to the revelation of Christ living in us. In other words, He is the life that gives us the ability to do things we cannot do in our own strength. He comes and lives the Christian life through us. Grace means that Jesus has provided everything for a victorious life. Jesus has done the work on the cross and in His resurrection. If I believe it in my heart, it will come to pass: this is grace and faith working together. Grace does not stop the day you are born again, as many believe. We started in grace, and we will finish the walk by grace. The moment I try to be perfect in my own strength, I have placed myself under the conditions of the Old Covenant Law. Even though you are born again you enslave yourself anew by trying to be perfect and trying to qualify for the promises. Law is what you do in self-effort, while grace is what Jesus has done for you. Therefore, the law demands and grace imparts. What you need is the impartation of His grace into your heart. Whatever you need in this life, whether it is strength, love, provision, wisdom, or healing, it is imparted from Christ into your heart - this is grace. The law demands righteousness by self-effort, if we fail we are condemned. It hardens the heart and stops the flow of grace. God made us righteous by the finished work of Christ for the purpose of His grace flowing into our hearts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Word Alive Press
• Release date: Jan 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781770691698

Book preview

author

chapter one

making grace void

Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered. (Luke 11:52)

In this passage, the word Woe means anguish, affliction, and despair on those who close the door to knowledge (truth of the gospel) and hinder those trying to enter into truth. Lawyers in this context are the teachers of the law in Jesus’ day. They hindered the true gospel from being presented, keeping people in bondage to the law. This angered Jesus. He wanted His people to receive truth and experience the power of the kingdom.

You are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us—and indeed I could wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you! 1 Corinthians 4:8 (emphasis mine)

This is such a powerful statement from Paul. Can you imagine yourself saying, I am full! I am rich! I reign as a king! In the above scripture, exclamation marks are used because Paul was shouting, You are already full! You are already rich! Paul spoke to the Corinthians in this way because they were in danger of straying from this truth by the influence of puffed up people. 1 Corinthians 4:6-7 in the Amplified Bible makes this clear:

Now I have applied all this [about parties and factions] to myself and Apollos for your sakes, brethren, so that from what I have said of us [as illustrations], you may learn [to think of men in accordance with Scripture and] not to go beyond that which is written, that none of you may be puffed up and inflated with pride and boast in favor of one [minister and teacher] against another. For who separates you from the others [as a faction leader]? [Who makes you superior and sets you apart from another, giving you the preeminence?] What have you that was not given to you? If then you received it [from someone], why do you boast as if you had not received [but had gained it by your own efforts]? 1 Corinthians 4: 6-7 (AMP, emphasis mine)

Teachers and leaders in the Corinthian church began to boast in their own efforts and they were inflated with information, but not according to truth and grace. Their pride in this had brought divisions or, as Paul called it, parties and factions into the church. Pride through self-effort and boasting in works of righteousness are a product of legalism. Envy and jealousy are close family to pride. This will divide the church so that it cannot function as a kingdom. Paul shouted to them that they were already full, already rich, and that they reigned as kings not because of their works, but because they received it freely by faith in the finished work of Jesus. By grace through faith, they received it. Today, legalism is the main reason why the church is divided. It puts the focus on performance in the flesh and the flesh is full of pride, envy, and selfish ambitions.

And indeed I could wish that you did reign. This statement by Paul shows his disappointment with their error. They reigned as kings, but could not function as such because their minds had been polluted through mixing law with grace. Their wrong thinking stopped them from living in the fullness and riches of grace. In 1 Corinthians, chapter one Paul made this statement,

I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift. 1 Corinthians 1:4-7 (emphasis mine)

The testimony of Christ was confirmed in them, meaning that the riches and fullness (grace of Christ) that was deposited in them had manifested. However they lost it—it has become void in them. Paul urged them in the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians not to be influenced by the wisdom of the world and the legalism of the Jews, instead reminding them of the power of the message of the cross.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18 (emphasis mine)

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of humanwisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 (emphasis mine)

The message of the cross reveals what Jesus has done for us. It is grace in demonstration. The power of God (Kingdom) is released when we believe the message of the cross. There is no place for persuasive words of human wisdom in the Kingdom.

Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God [is] not in word but in power. 1 Corinthians 4:18-20 (emphasis mine)

Jew and Gentile

There were factions among the Corinthian believers because of human wisdom. This came from Jewish believers who were saved but still hung onto laws of the Old Covenant, who forced these laws on the Gentiles in the church. The law was not written for the Gentile; it was written for the Jew. The Hebrew law was given only to Israel and ended in Christ (see Romans 10:4). The purpose of the Hebrew law was to lead Israel to Christ. It caused Israel to be conscious of sin, and it even caused sin to increase.

About Israel, Paul says:

Who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises. Romans 9:4 (emphasis mine)

About the Gentiles, Paul says:

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh —who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Ephesians 2:11-12

The law was always a barrier between the Jew and the Gentile. Therefore Jesus not only fulfilled the law, but also abolished the law. Who are the Gentiles? Gentiles are all the people in the world who are not born into a Jewish family and are not brought up in the Jewish culture with its traditions. In other words, the whole world apart from the Jews are classified as Gentiles.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, [that is], the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man [from] the two, [thus] making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. Ephesians 2:14-16

Jesus abolished the law in His flesh and it has no effect on who has the revelation of God’s grace, whether Jew or Gentile. Jesus made one new man created in His image, therefore born again people are new creations, and not Jews or Gentile. But even though you did not grow up in the Jewish culture, the law has an effect on you if you focus on self-effort rather than Christ in you. However, the written law is still among us; it is not abolished as written. It is abolished for those who believe in Jesus and His finished work, but for those who does not believe, it is still written. Many preachers and teachers are ignorant of the purpose of the law and do not understand grace and therefore mix the law with the gospel. They send the message that, in order to qualify for righteousness, a person must be subject to the works of the law. The Jewish believers in Paul’s day believed in Jesus, but still believed that righteousness came through the law, and they tried to push the Gentiles into being subject to the law. This was never God’s plan and purpose for the law.

There is a deception concerning the written law that had an effect on believers in Paul’s day. This deception continues in our day, especially in those who do not understand the Good News of Grace.

The key to this deception is: Seeking to establish righteousness by self effort. This is the reason why Paul says to the Galatians:

Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Galatians 3:3

Self-righteousness says, I do not need the grace of Jesus Christ; I will reach it by my own effort. There are no difference between self-righteousness and pride. Jesus eats and had company with the sinners because they needed mercy and grace. The power of Jesus could not work among the Pharisees because they were self-righteous. Paul had to address the same problem in each of his letters to the churches. Paul was called to the Gentiles, and not to the Jews. Although there were Jews among his followers, the majority were Gentiles. Imagine what kind of an apostle Paul was! Two-thirds of the New Testament reveals to us his knowledge, which was also manifested in power. He preached the Gospel and it was confirmed with demonstrations of the Spirit. He had an impact in the lives of his followers and even he could not prevent the poison of the law that certain teachers brought among his followers when he departed.

To the Ephesians’ elders, Paul gives this warning:

For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. Acts 20:29-31

If people taught under the ministry of Paul were being influenced by the law so easily, it shows how deceptive the works of the law can be and how easily people can be influenced. As a believer in Christ, the law has no effect on you—this includes the saved Jew. You are free of the law, but if you are ignorant of grace, it will poison your faith walk. You will relate to God on the soul level, and not with the spirit. The Bible is clear that sin works on the conscience. And a sin conscience is coming from the law, because the law is the knowledge of sin.

Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law [is] the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. Hebrews 10:1-3 (emphasis mine)

The Conviction of the Gentiles

The law was given to Israel for the