Embracing Complete Grace and Unconditional Forgiveness

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Surely, if we just beg God for mercy, then he will hear us and love us.

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But that's really not what the New Testament says.

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It says that all of that work, all of that covering all of the expiation, the dismissal of guilt and sin, is already a done deal of guilt and sin is already a done deal.

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Think of the difference that makes in terms of how you step out of the house tomorrow.

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When you step out of the house feeling guilty, feeling defeated, feeling that you can't live up, I mean, you're going through the Ten Commandments and thinking I can't live up to the majority of these.

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You're going through and watching Christ's example and saying, man, I can't carry this man Like not even a fraction of it, which is an honest answer.

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By the way, at any point in your life, it's completely honest for you to say, hey, man, I can't live up to that.

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Not only are we covered, not only are we encouraged to walk in these ways, despite our own behavior and our own failures.

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We're not supposed to be walking out of the house with a sense of like, yeah, I guess God loves me and so I'm going to pray and I feel pretty good about it.

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But the reason I really feel good about it is because yesterday I gave my offering and I helped an old lady across the street and I helped this person in need, or I gave this person a break, or I forgave this person, and now you want to take that performance, right?

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You want to take that performance, your performance, and be like, oh okay, see, so I really am worthy of God's love today.

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So I'm going to walk boldly because, hey, like I did it, I deserve these blessings, I deserve all of it Wealth, health, finances, love, friendship, just things going my way, right, like I am now, like the appointed one, right Because I've done something that I've worked against the flesh in some way.

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I really think that's where we get into trouble.

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When we think that way, we're really looking away from what Christ has done and what's the big deal about it?

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I mean, isn't it good to do the right things and follow God's word?

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Sure, but the question I put to you is in what direction does that causality flow?

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In other words, do you, as a human being with free will, decide that you're not going to commit sin X, y and Z today?

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Is that your decision?

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I mean, we are taught we have free will, right?

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So it would seem it's just as simple as that.

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But let me give you an alternative.

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This is the Jimmy James Johnson alternative view on that.

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When we pledge ourselves to Christ, when we confess him as our Savior and the Holy Spirit comes to live in us, I would argue at that point, everything that we do that goes against the flesh is in fact a fruit of that Spirit's inhabiting our spirit.

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Only through the Holy Spirit's habitation can we live in us.

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Do we have the resolve, the discipline to overcome a sinful urge, are frequently offended when we're trying to follow a rule or% of us and not for the other 1% of us.

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And many of us are infuriated by that Because, I mean, it's all the things that you might say in that case it's not fair, it's not fair, it's not equitable, it's not justified, it doesn't set a good example, it doesn't create any accountability, it detracts from the legitimacy of the justice process.

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So there's a whole lot of downsides to that, and if we were sticking strictly to the human domain, that would be just a very frustrating situation, and that's the situation we frequently find ourselves in.

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But if we look at it from God's perspective, for one, let me suggest to you that God wants you to be bold in spite of your failings.

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I mean, just sink your teeth into the power of that.

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See, only in your relationship with God, only through what's being taught in the Bible, do you get that type of opportunity.

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Because, just as a regular human being, if there's a rule or there's a law and everybody's supposed to follow it and you're not generally rewarded for that right, at the very least people are going to be hating on you and they're going to be pissed off and they're going to be like yo, like why does Jimmy get to go get away with this and Johnny doesn't?

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But see, in the kingdom, the faith in Christ's forgiveness brings honor to Christ, so that actually pleases him.

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So when you walk out tomorrow morning and you say, hey, I'm being bold today, not because I gave $100 to the poor yesterday or because I refrained from cheating on my spouse or because I told the truth in a difficult situation, no, the idea here is that the day after your worst behavior, the day after you've just I mean God says all sins are equal right, so you could have really went off the deep end.

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And that's another thing too about often as Christians, when we talk about examples of missing the mark or falling into sin.

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Usually we reference very mild examples.

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And why is that?

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Why are we referencing the mild examples?

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And why is that?

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Why are we referencing the mildest examples?

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I mean, the mildest examples are going to be the ones that are the easiest to fluff off or justify.

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Or oh, I can be forgiven for a little road rage yesterday.

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Like, yeah, god, yeah, he forgives you, yeah, you're good, we love you.

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Yeah, no, I'm he forgives you, yeah, you're good, we love you.

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Yeah, no, I'm not talking about that.

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That's not the limit for Christ's love.

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There's nothing in the Bible that says, oh, yeah, that forgiveness.

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By the way that I mentioned to you, that doesn't.

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Carjackings and abortions no, there's no parenthetical, there's no add-on, there's no appendix to explain all the exemptions for that.

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So let's just go to the deepest end and try to swallow it, because most people will not say out loud that Christ died for all of our sins.

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See, we could talk about the normal, the average, the everyday sins, the little things, the little lies, the little omissions, the little cheats, the little shortcuts, the little shortcuts.

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But you know, I mean, you know me, jimmy, james Johnson played like that.

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We need to go ham.

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We got to go in deeper than that, and it doesn't matter if you're a person that's committed these other things.

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So let's go to extreme.

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Let's talk about murder and not like any justifiable murder or you're at war or nothing like that.

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I mean just a depraved, pre-coordinated, premeditated murder just for one's own greed or revenge, when nobody's going to come around and say, oh yeah, that was great.

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No, this is like just something cold-hearted, something ugly, something we may call like psychopathic, even if we may not mean that clinically.

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Did Christ say that wasn't covered?

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No, is there some place in the Bible where Christ was like hey, like my blood, like it covers a multitude of sins, but not all of them?

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So, like just to say it out loud and, believe me, it sounds weird to me, because I'm obviously not walking around saying this, nor am I a murderer.

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But if somebody's watching this and saying, well, look, jimmy, yesterday I committed a murder or yesterday I did something that really hurt someone, and this is not like a polite topic, something we're just going to banty about in Sunday service, no, this is ugly, this is a felony, or this is a violent crime, or I'm victimizing somebody or I'm abusing somebody.

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All these people are still in Christ's family, right?

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And that's one of the challenges for us, because, for one, we want to say that all of our stuff is covered.

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Well, what I did is not a big deal, so of course that's covered.

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But that guy, that girl, the murderer, the rapist, the doctor who operated on 50 people without a license and 10 of them died, there's all these horrific circumstances and happenings.

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I mean we need to only turn on the news to get more than our fill of them, right.

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So those are happening and those are real people.

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Some of them may be Christians, I have no idea.

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I'm going to venture that at least some murderers are Christians, because being a Christian doesn't exempt you from whatever temptation.

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Greed, lust, hatred those things don't magically go away because you're a Christian, right.

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So there are Christians in our midst that are engaging in things that, even if it weren't for the advice of their attorney, they would not be bringing up in Bible study on Sunday.

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And why?

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And why?

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Because nine out of ten of us have been taught and are trained in this idea of partial forgiveness, a partial covering, or really this circumstantial covering, of our sins and our behavior and things that fall short of God of our sins and our behavior and things that fall short of God, that under certain circumstances, certain things we do are not that bad.

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And then there's all the other people, supposedly, that are just beyond the pale.

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God's not going to—I mean, maybe he'll forgive them and they won't go to hell, but he's not really expecting anyone to forgive them or let that go, or consider that like quote the biggest deal.

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Then we're forced to say, wow, that actually extends to that person.

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She murdered somebody, he murdered somebody.

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This person disfigured somebody for life.

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This person was drunk, driving and killed a family.

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What claim to boldness in the Lord do they have?

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I mean, really let that sink in.

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Can you really say, as a Christian or someone that believes in the Bible, or somebody that's just navigating, or someone that believes in the Bible or somebody that's just navigating?

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I'm not a teacher, I'm not a preacher.

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I am just navigating these things and talking them out with you and hoping that you call in text in, leave a comment, so that we can open up these types of discussions, because I believe that we really need to have them.

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There's so much healing that needs to be done and indeed there's so many things that we can take hold of.

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We have so many more successes to come, particularly when we can accept this level of forgiveness.

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Come out in this boldness and this courage every day and try to align our thoughts and deeds with the Holy Spirit that now indwells us.

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But to whatever extent we fail in our behavior, in our performance, we still come out with that same boldness because it's not on us.

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It's not about what you did yesterday.

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I have to say it again.

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It is not about what you did yesterday.

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Your ability to walk in boldness is not based off of your behavior.

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It's not based off of what you did yesterday, what you said, what you thought, the ways you drop the ball, big or small, it's completely irrelevant, which of course, is very odd to us as humans, because we're really not wired that way.

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We have a society and it's based off of rules and laws and consequences for things that we're doing.

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So it's hard to then just put on our Christian hat and say wait a minute.

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You mean that's not the dynamic that God has laid out for us.

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There's no connection between our failings and our ability to justifiably call upon Christ's name with the ultimate courage that we are just babies.

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We're just children of God and surely he is not going to turn us away is in no small part the idea that you continue to walk blessed, loved, protected with the fruits, despite your sins, despite your failings.

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Now I know some people will say, well, jimmy, no, that doesn't quite feel right.

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Or like, are you saying that the people can do whatever they want and then they still get all of God's blessings?

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Honestly, I don't know all the answers to that, but on one level I would say yes, god's blessings are not based off of our performance.

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If they were, we would all be in very sad shame.

Embracing Complete Grace and Unconditional Forgiveness

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