The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: God is good, but I'm struggling. He's a way maker, but I'm lost. He can fix it, but I'm broken. That's called backwards Christian soldiers. You're talking in the wrong direction.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans says before the Lord can change your circumstances, he needs to change your perspective. So you've got to be believing what God says, not what you feel. This is The Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Who do you think you are? Dr. Evans says you can't really answer that question until you recognize the spiritual authority God gave you and start using it. He'll tell us how to do that today as we join him in Romans chapter five for today's lesson.

Dr. Tony Evans: Every Christian has a crown on their head because you were saved to reign. In verse 17, verse 20, and 21, he uses the word reign. The word reign means to rule or to exercise dominion. So today I want to talk to you about ruling by grace. Many people, Christians, are POWs, prisoners of war. They're held hostage behind enemy lines by sins and illegitimate circumstances that have handcuffed them and won't let them go.

Far too many Christians find themselves, rather than reigning, being reigned by an illegitimate force, person, place, or thing that holds them hostage, only to discover that praying more doesn't change it, reading the Bible more doesn't change it, wishing it to be better doesn't change it, more religiosity doesn't change it. But they keep going through the process, hoping one day the illegitimacy will be removed.

But according to verse 17 of Romans 5, it says, "Those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through Jesus our Lord." That is, you will exercise authority, rule, and dominion over that which is illegitimate in your life. Now let's review what grace is.

Grace is the inexhaustible supply of God's goodness where he does for us what we could not do for ourselves, do not deserve, and could never earn or repay. It's his unmerited favor. So you shouldn't be surprised when I read this scripture, the word gift kept coming up. The gift, the gift, the gift, the gift, because grace can only be given, it cannot be earned.

Now to understand this, Paul the apostle, who wrote the book of Romans, goes into deep theology. I want to try to make this as simple as I can given the depth and complexity of his statement. To understand how your life is supposed to work, you only need to know two people: Adam and Christ. He contrasts the two of them. He says by the one sin of Adam, by that one, he says death came to all.

So let's deal with Adam number one. When Adam number one sinned, the repercussions of his sins like a virus infected and affected the whole human race. Because of Adam's sin, it says all die. You say, "Wait a minute, that's not fair. That's not fair to blame me for what Adam did thousands of years ago so that I have the repercussion."

Well, wait a minute. If one of the offensive linemen from the Dallas Cowboys jumps offside, they don't just make that player go back 10 yards. The whole team is penalized 10 yards because while the whole team didn't jump offside, they are connected. You and I have an ancestor named Adam to whom the whole human race is connected.

And because of his sin, because we were connected by humanity—Adam, Adam means coming from the earth—humanity was connected in Adam as our representative head, so when he got penalized, the race that came from him received the penalty of him. But I hear another objection. The other objection is, "I don't like the connection. I didn't ask to be associated with Adam. I didn't ask to be connected with him."

Well, for those of you who want to make that argument, he says in verse 12 there came death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned. So without Adam you got a problem because Adam didn't just do what he did, you do what you do. So you can't just say because Adam I die. No, because Adam and you and me, because all have sinned and come short of God's standard.

So it's not just our tie to Adam, it's our tie to ourselves. As a result of sin from Adam and in us, death has been transmitted to the whole human race. Let's review the definition of death in the Bible. In the Bible, death means separation, not cessation. It doesn't mean the ending of anything. It means something is separated. You and I are made up of three parts: body, soul, and spirit. When death occurred, all three parts experienced a separation.

When Adam sinned, he was separated from God. He was put out of the garden. So there was spiritual death that occurred. He didn't die physically the day he sinned, he only died spiritually. He lived for hundreds of years after that. Every person born into this world is born spiritually separated from God, spiritually dead, the Bible says.

Then there is the death of the soul. The soul is you. It's your personality. It's your personhood. So the soul is separated from itself. That's why you enter into conflict with you. That's why your emotions and your mind often don't get along with each other. You think one thing and you feel another thing and you can't get them on the same page because there is a death of the soul that exists.

And then ultimately there is the death of the body. When the body dies, it doesn't stop existing, the soul just leaves it. There is a departure into eternity. There is a separation between the immaterial and material parts of your humanity. So death in the Bible means separation, not the ending of anything. He says from this once Adam and our sin that reflects that we were just like Adam, death reigned. It ruled. And it does rule.

But then he introduces a second person and he calls him the one. He says even though death came through that one, he says in verse 15, I love these two words: much more. Somebody say much more. Did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound to many. So he comes up with the word one again.

In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 22 and verse 45, Jesus is referred to as the last Adam. So he's given the name Adam too. There is the first Adam, there is the last Adam. The first Adam brought death, the last Adam brings life. And that last Adam is Jesus Christ. Adam transferred a sin virus to the human race. Jesus transfers a righteousness to all who come to him.

To understand this, you have to understand what happened on the cross. On the cross, the sins of the world were paid for by the sacrifice of Christ. But that's only half of what was finished. Let me tell you the other half. The Bible says that when Jesus came, he fulfilled all righteousness. That is, he satisfied all the demands of God perfectly. He was without sin. He spent 33 years of his life fulfilling every commandment of the Old Testament.

So everything that the Old Testament demanded, he fulfilled. So when he said "it is finished," not only were sins paid for but the law was satisfied. So every demand of God that would require perfection was in Christ fully satisfied by his death on the cross, including the payment for the sins of the world. Therefore, when you receive Christ, you not only have received the payment for your sin but you've also received the righteous satisfaction of the law of God because Christ satisfied the law completely.

In fact, he satisfied it so much that Hebrews chapter 10 verses 12 to 14 says when he finished satisfying it all he just sat down. He chilled because all the demands of God were met by the work of Jesus Christ. So the last Adam abounded, that is overruled, the sin transfer of the first Adam while simultaneously satisfying the law of a holy God perfectly.

And where is this Jesus right now? If you have accepted Christ, he's in you. Or to put it in the words of Ephesians 2:6, you are seated with him in heavenly places. And so he says it is this last Adam that what was granted to you, verse 17, is the gift of righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it this way: "He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

It's a credit. In the first Adam, sin was credited to us and therefore all sinned. In the last Adam, righteousness was put on your credit account and it's a perfect score because Jesus is without sin. So everybody under the sound of my voice who's accepted Jesus Christ has a perfect righteousness operating inside of them. But if you don't know that or if you don't believe that or if you don't operate based on that, then you will be in the new Adam while operating out of the old Adam ancestry.

Guest (Male): Dr. Evans will share a story that perfectly drives that point home when he continues our message in just a moment. First, though, I want to tell you about the follow-up book that goes along with Tony's current series. It's called Anchored by Grace. We're helpless to make it to heaven on our own. But God has provided a way for us to do that through the incredible gift of grace that Dr. Evans has been talking about.

As you make your way through the devotions in this book, you'll learn how to avoid the traps that restrict or cut off the flow of grace in our lives and discover why we're more likely to change as the result of God's work on the inside than our work on the outside. We want you to have this devotional book as our gift, along with a copy of Tony's current 12-message series The Magnificent Grace of God.

Just visit TonyEvans.org, make a contribution, and we'll say thanks by sending both of these resources your way. Make your request today. Tomorrow is the final day we'll be offering this special package of resources that specifically explores the depth of God's grace to us. Visit TonyEvans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our resource team members help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. We'll get back to the second part of our lesson right after this.

Dr. Tony Evans: I want to invite you to join me for the trip of a lifetime.

Guest (Male): Tony Evans invites you to journey with him through Israel this October.

Dr. Tony Evans: We're going to gather together with many of our friends to survey the sites of the Holy Land.

Guest (Male): You'll visit the site of the Sermon on the Mount, tour the old city including the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, and the Garden of Gethsemane. You'll overlook Nazareth, stand on the Mount of Olives, and walk the road where Jesus made his triumphal entry. Along the way, Tony will share messages that will give you new insight into familiar Bible stories.

Dr. Tony Evans: Not only will we have a great time in his word together, we'll have a great time being together with so many of who love the Lord and who love his word.

Guest (Male): There's a lot more on the itinerary. Visit TonyEvans.org today to get the details and register before space runs out. Don't miss this chance to add whole new dimensions to your faith. Visit TonyEvans.org today.

Dr. Tony Evans: Looking forward to meeting you for a glorious time on our journey to Israel. Well let's hear more from Dr. Evans now on The Magnificent Grace of God.

Jesus has already done what you are trying to do. Let me ask you a question. If I told you I just paid off your car, I told you I just paid off your car, whatever you owed on your car, I paid it off, would you still be sending in payments? If you're still sending in payments, that means you don't take me seriously. You don't believe you're challenging my integrity.

If you knew I could pay it off, I told you I'd pay it off, I got a receipt that says I paid it off, and you stay in payment. See what we got is a lot of Christians still sending in payments about something that's already been paid off. And so when you understand this grace, 1 Corinthians 1:30 says that Christ is your righteousness.

In fact, chapter 5 verses 8 to 10, God demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, you're already saved, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. Watch verse 10. "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more," there's that word again, "having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."

His death gets you to heaven because it satisfies the sin question. But his life delivers you on earth. See we know about the substitutionary death, but not too many people are living based on the substitutionary life. That he ever lives to make intercession to deliver his people by his grace from anything holding you illegitimately hostage.

So that you are now ruling your life and not your circumstance, not your addiction, not your sin, it is no longer ruling you. Why? Because you got something inside of you that's much more. Jesus Christ in the life of the believer has veto power. That's why Romans 8 says it is the son who sets you free. It's not you who set you free. It says he who has the son, the son will make you free indeed. He talks about the son doing it for you, not you doing it for yourself.

That's what grace provides. It provides the flow from Jesus in the life of the believer to overrule anything or anybody holding you illegitimately hostage. So the question is, if Jesus is the conduit for me to get this grace and I've accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior and as my sin bearer, the question now is how do I get the grace to flow?

How do I get this thing gushing out of me so that I am now overruling what was ruling over me, holding me illegitimately hostage? I want you to back up to chapter 5 verses 1 and 2. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Verse 2, "Through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exult in hope of the glory of God."

Now let me read verse 2 again so that you get it. "Through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exult in hope of the glory of God." The only mechanism that God has for getting the grace to flow that gives you the crown of ruling in your life over anything holding you illegitimately hostage, he says is faith.

So the day you got saved was merely an introduction to grace. What if after my introduction I said it's time for the benediction? If all you left with was the introduction, you would have not gotten the meat of the message. You would have just gotten started with the message. Many Christians get started with Christ but miss out on the meat of the relationship of Christ because they only get introduced by faith.

He says what faith does is it introduces you to grace but then he adds a phrase: "in which we stand." In other words, you're not only to be introduced to grace, you're to learn to operate by faith to take you to grace. Faith must be an operating mechanism, you stand in it. Romans 1:17 says the just shall live their lives by faith. Faith must be a lifestyle, not merely an introduction to a moment.

Your time here this day is an introduction to grace. When you leave here, you're supposed to be living by faith so you access more grace. Now it is at this point things get tricky because one of the reasons we live in defeat is we're believing the wrong thing. Stay with me here. If you believe wrong you're going to operate wrong.

So I want to give you now what the faith belief system is for accessing more of God's grace operating in your life so you can stand in it, not merely be introduced to it. Everybody here who's saved has been introduced to it. But he says now I want you to operate by it, stand in it. This is now how you roll.

The Bible says in Colossians chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 that Satan was disarmed by Jesus's sacrifice on the cross. That is he was defeated. So if you're going around talking about what the devil is doing to you, you just deny what God said Christ did to him. Which means you're operating on a lie which means grace can't flow because it's not faith in the truth.

Remember Jesus brought grace and truth. So you've got to be believing what God said, not what you feel. You've got to be believing what God said and not what somebody else told you that contradicts it. That is because there is no sin or circumstance that you face that Christ has not already had to face and overcome in all manners tempted as we are.

So he has every category of life that you and I have been through, but yet without sin. Romans 16:20 says that Satan is under your foot. In Joshua chapter 10 verses 20 to 27, Joshua has defeated these kings and he tells his soldiers to go out and to put their foot on the necks of these enemy kings. What did that mean? It meant to bring them under subjection.

Paul takes that principle and in Romans 16 verse 20 says that Satan is under your foot. In other words, you should have your foot on his neck. Okay? So what that means is he should be under your control, you should not be under his control. Okay? But the only way he can be under your control is that he's under Christ's control because Christ is the standard and the righteousness you're depending on to defeat him, not your own ability.

Which means you're going to have to reverse how you say things. You can't say things like you used to say. You can't say, "God is good but I'm struggling. He's a way maker but I'm lost. He can fix it but I'm broken." That's called backwards Christian soldiers. You're talking in the wrong direction.

No, no, "I'm broken but he's Mr. Fix-It. I'm struggling but he's more than able." In other words, you must start with who he is, not start with where you are. You don't deny where you are. You don't deny the sin or the circumstance. You acknowledge it, you confess it, but that's not where you end up. You end up with he's under your feet because he's under Christ's feet. Which means one major thing: here it is, you must view yourself differently.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans, talking about the dramatic changes that begin with that important shift of perspective in a message called Ruling by Grace. As always, copies are available to review on your own or to pass along to a friend. Check for details today by visiting TonyEvans.org.

Of course, it's also available as part of Tony's complete series on The Magnificent Grace of God, a collection of 12 messages packed with bonus material we haven't had time to bring you on the air. As I mentioned earlier, it's yours with our thanks when you visit TonyEvans.org and make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station.

Along with the series, you'll get the companion devotional book Anchored by Grace. This special grace package will only be offered through tomorrow, so be sure to make the arrangements before time runs out. You can do that right now at TonyEvans.org or reach out to our resource center by calling 1-800-800-3222. Team members are on hand 24/7. That's 1-800-800-3222.

How do you respond when someone who owes you nothing gives you everything? Find out tomorrow as Dr. Evans takes a look at what happens inside us when we learn how to live under the incredible grace of God. Be sure to join us.