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" In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace... " - Ephesians 1:7 This is usually the side of grace that most Christians think of. It's so commonly understood, that it's often taken for granted...as if grace would cause God to permanently close His eyes to all wrong behavior from everyone . ( This idea is NOT grace, though, and it's not even what the doctrine of forgiveness  is about. ) Because it's just assumed  that God will always forgive people when they do wrong, we've lost the concept of how serious sin really is. This isn't good - because when you forget how devastating sin is, you'll also forget how awesome it is to be forgiven! Remember this: Forgiveness is always free to the RECEIVER, but it always costs the GIVER. Yes, being forgiven is wonderful. Yes, forgiveness is freely offered to every sin you'll ever commit. And yes, forgiveness instantly eradicates all gui...

" Grace " - If there's a word that's become divisive in Christianity today, this is it. Why would a beautiful concept like the grace of God be such a source of contention among believers? Why is there so much disagreement about what God's grace is  and what it does  for us? I believe the answer is found in 1 Peter 4:10 - " As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace  of God. " Pay attention to Peter's description of grace; he says it is " manifold " - or " many-sided ". God's grace doesn't do just  one thing, it has many different sides to it. But when you listen to a lot of ministers, you sometimes only hear one of these sides being taught. This is because many preachers have a deep understanding of one  of the roles of grace...but also an ignorance of any other sides. Sadly, this kind of partial knowledge among spiritual leadership causes them to focus only on...

Sanctification. Have you ever heard this term mentioned in church? This is another important Bible teaching that is poorly-understood, and even misunderstood by a lot of Christians. There are even a lot of pastors  that don't quite have a correct understanding of what it means to be sanctified . Set Apart To put it simply, when you sanctify  something, you separate it ( or "set it apart" ) from other things for a special purpose or use. A simple illustration happens every day when you get dressed. When you walked to your closet this morning and pulled out the shirt that you were planning to wear, you sanctified  it. That shirt was separated from the others for a specific purpose  - you were going to put it on. This is the most basic meaning of the doctrine of sanctification. While  redemption  and  justification  are  legal terms , sanctification is a  ceremonial  word. Whenever it is used in the Old Testament ...

" For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified  freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus... " - Romans 3:23-24 Just like redemption , justification is another doctrine that too many Christians can't define. Even though it's one of the may benefits of salvation, it's simply not taught with any depth in a lot of churches. As a result, many believers don't know what it means to be justified . I would be willing to bet that, if they were pressed on the issue, they couldn't say if they really were justified with any certainty. In its simplest terms, justification is another legal term.  It is translated into English from the Greek word is dikaioo. This word refers to a person that has been accused of breaking the law, but are found innocent in a court of law. When this person leaves the courtroom, they leave justified  of those charges. They have been proven in the right , and are legally unaccountable f...

" Let the redeemed of the LORD say so. " - Psalm 107.2 " For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. " - Job 19:25 What do you believe about "redemption"? What does it mean to be "redeemed"? Redeemed from what? Did you know there was a price tag for your redemption? It's a sad truth, but most believers have no idea how to define redemption - even though they call the Lord their Redeemer. Most believers have heard the two verses above, but don't grasp the beautiful concept of redemption for themselves. If someone asked you why God is your Redeemer - could you describe this concept to them? Redemption - A Legal Term Redemption is the English translation of the Hebrew word geullah . This is the legal term used to describe a person  buying back something that was lost or taken away. Specifically, this was almost always something that was lost due to debt ....something that was collateral for an unpa...

Let me close out our discussion of righteousness with a story from a few years back. This illustrates the concept that I've come to call "The Believer's Bill of Rights" - as well as why so many people are living below these rights. Facing A Problem... I used to have a co-worker in the Quality Office that I was employed in - we'll call him Joe. Joe wasn't actually an employee in the Quality Department - he was a maintenance technician. He came to work in my office after a back injury restricted him to light duty.   This man was a fellow believer, and we often discussed spiritual matters while we worked. Although we disagreed on some doctrines ( Joe was a Baptist ), there was genuine dialogue between us...fueled by his strong desire to grow in faith. Often, we would pray together for different people in the shop, and see dramatic results as those prayers were answered!  But Joe was under an enormous amount of pressure from his back injury. It was com...

Have you begun to see the amazing gift   that God gave us when He made us righteous? This righteousness is literally the gift that keeps on giving! Everything we are, every promise that God gave us, and everything we're called to do.... righteousness by faith  is the key to it all! Let's quickly go over a few more of these rights that we have because of our right-standing in Jesus Christ. The Right to Joy "Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy all you upright in heart!"  - Psalm 32:11 " Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful. " - Psalm 33:1 " But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God; yes, let them rejoice exceedingly."  - Psalm 68:3 The righteousness of faith is the key difference between biblical joy  and what we commonly refer to as happiness. When you understand your permanent position of righteousness, it'll produce joy no matter what circum...