Grace Thoughts

Guest (Male): Hello friends, welcome to Grace Thoughts, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelley. Grace Thoughts has been dedicated to preaching a clear gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelley.

Tim Kelley: Now there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. We were condemned, captive; now there is no condemnation. It is not because we will never do another thing wrong. No, there is no condemnation because we were placed in Christ Jesus.

It is not that we are never going to do anything wrong. I will do something wrong maybe by sundown or bedtime. My attitude is going to be bad, or something is going to get funky with me in the next 10 to 12 hours. I can guarantee it. So, there is no condemnation because I have been placed in Christ.

Now, I love this. It says, "for the law of the spirit of life." The word "law" there is nomos, and that can be translated or used different ways. In this particular way, and a lot in the first seven or eight chapters of Romans, it is used as a governing principle. It is not the law of Moses as we would usually know it; it is the governing principle.

So let's use that term. For the governing principle of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the governing principle of sin and death. Before I met Christ, I was under the government of sin and death. I could not escape that government. I belonged there, I lived there, and I earned that place. That is where I was, under the law of sin and death at the whim of my past, my past programming, and the world's system.

Whatever it was that programmed me to make me who I was before Christ, I was underneath the government of sin and death. But now, because I am placed in Christ, He put me in a new government: the law of the spirit of life. Isn't that great? He says you are no longer under the government of death. I have changed the government because you are no longer a slave; you are a son. I have changed the government in your life to a government of life for every Christian for the rest of your life.

Second Corinthians 2:14 says, "But now thanks be to God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place." The Christian now does not fight for victory; he fights from victory. That is a good statement. We do not fight for victory because He always causes us to triumph because we are placed in Christ.

Does Christ ever not triumph? Does Christ ever lose? No, He triumphs in everything He has done. They even crucified Him, and He rose on the third day. He triumphed. And because I am placed in Christ, He causes me always to triumph. So I look at life now not as fighting for victory; I am already victorious. Bad things may happen to me, but all things that pertain unto life and godliness are already mine.

We are raised together with Christ in the heavenlies. We are preserved to the end in Christ. All spiritual blessings are ours. We are presented perfect. I love that part; that is another message in Colossians 1:28. All in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. Lastly, Colossians 2:9 says, "For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body."

Think of what that just told us. In Christ, all that God was was in that human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ. You also are complete with your union in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. All that God was was in Christ. And we also, because we are in Christ, all that He has becomes ours.

That word "complete" is a non-translatable word that doesn't carry over into English well at all. It is the word pleroma. It is all the qualities of holiness, the sum total of divine powers and attributes. It is a divine flow of life from heaven as a source. Not a filled glass, but the source of water that fills the glass. It is the faucet that is filling the glass. That is a constant flow so the glass is always overflowing. That is Jesus. That is our union with Christ.

Lightfoot, an old Greek scholar, says his pleroma is transfused in you by virtue of your incorporation in Him. Thus, the church is regarded as the pleroma of Christ because all of His graces and energies are communicated to her. Isn't that an incredible gospel? No wonder Paul said it is a glorious gospel.

How do I get my needs met then, Pastor? I draw close to God because I draw close to Jesus, because He is the fullness of God. I struggle with sin, but I hook up with the vine. I do not have sin issues; I have a relationship issue. My sin issue is simply a relationship issue with the fullness of God. I do not reduce Jesus to a therapist. I simply lift Him up high as my pleroma, as the Lord of my life.

I am not minimizing counseling or psychiatric help. I really am not. I can only speak from my own walk with God for three decades. It is an imperfect science for me, and I am still learning. I will be learning until the time I go home to be with Jesus. But the greatest corrections of my life have happened usually in the morning hours with my Bible open in the quietness and a heart that has been humbled before God on purpose.

The Lord begins speaking to me and showing me things about myself and about others that I need to know. He fixes me. It is like a spiritual chiropractor; He gets me back in alignment again. That can almost happen every day for me. He is always fixing me and always speaking to me. Everything you need in your Christian life, my friend, is already yours.

When I was born again, you got all of who God is, and I got all of who God is. Now it is mine to discover, to dive into, to investigate, to see His life in the scriptures, and to look into my intimacy through prayer. I have my whole life to uncover the riches of Christ. That becomes my great adventure. It is a life above life. I can live a life that has a source above what is happening with the dust of the earth.

I want to look at one more keyword. "Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." Then verse six says, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

The word "perform" is the word epiteleo. It means to complete to full or to carry on to its way of full completion. I was studying justification and sanctification, and I used the Webster's 1823 dictionary. When you looked up the word "justification," the first sentence was, "An act of God's grace." Then you look up "sanctification" and it starts the same way: "An act of God's grace."

Justification, Him declaring us righteous, is an act of God's grace. The whole process of Him making us like Himself, our spiritual transformation, is still an act of God's grace. It has to be. If not, when I get to heaven I could say, "Pretty good, huh God? I will just keep my crown, thank you, because I earned it." No, I give my crowns back to Christ because, at that moment, I know I have earned nothing.

Everything I have, any victory over sin, any successes in my life, any ability to say no to certain things, any family blessings, it is all a work of God. My justification is grace; my sanctification is grace. Sometimes we like to substitute moralism, asceticism, or self-denial for true spiritual transformation. We think somehow when we teach our behavior to live by a certain Christian moral creed, that is spiritual transformation. Often times, it is just plain old religion.

Ephesians 4:22 says to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Put on your new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. If I put on new clothes, I have to take off my old clothes. I take off my old garments, and He dresses me in a robe of righteousness.

I am not who I used to be. My values and my priorities have changed. What is important to me, where I want to go, and how I view success has changed. Kenneth Wuest says God promises us to take this work and bring it to a successful conclusion. Marvin Vincent says He carries us, epiteleo, to completion.

God takes Tim Kelley and says, "I am going to get Tim Kelley to the finish line." Throughout my life, as imperfect as I am, I am going to fail in this area and fail in that area. But because I am in Him, because I am as righteous as He is because of His death on the cross, He is going to keep working with me and keep forgiving me. He is going to carry me to completion. When I stand before Him someday, I will be perfect, unashamed, holy, and blameless because He is the one who got me there.