God’s Love Grace and Mercy Applied—R Fritz
These are terms God invented for us to understand him and his motives. God loves us and is “LOVE.” Grace and Mercy are terms God uses because he sees our heart and even though we have sinned, he wants to help us to be able to move on with repentance with our goal of being righteous as Jesus Christ is righteous. We cannot become righteous on our own, we might think we are righteous but that is us (our human knowledge) telling us we are right. Until we know God, we do not know God’s righteousness. Grace and mercy are applied when we are righteous.
Righteousness is the measurement that God uses. Matthew 5:20 says and this is Jesus speaking “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” That is the bar set by Jesus Christ to enter Heaven.
The question I ask is how do we become righteous. The answer comes in Ephesians 4:20-24 and says “But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” The new man is Jesus Christ which turns us into the spiritual man when the Holy Spirit was sent created like God in righteousness and true holiness. The Holy Spirit in us knows righteousness because it is God. The Holy Spirit teaches all things and when we choose to give our will to the Holy Spirit, we become one and learn God’s righteousness.
It is that being one with the Holy Spirit that changes your life. That is the start of you overcoming your past. The Holy Spirit is going to be the one that shows you your past and the lies that were told to you by Satan. The Holy Spirit is the one that breaks the back of the lie, and the truth is shown to overcome that lie and to show that Satan was behind it. I say that because the Holy Spirit just revealed something to me. We do not understand until the Holy Spirit gives us that understanding. We always have the ability and choice to overcome Satan or to keep going down the road we are going.
Your relationship with the Holy Spirit and you wanting to improve that
relationship with praying and studying the Word are your actions that will show the Holy Spirit whether you are serious about being righteous. We might forget God sees all and knows all, there is no hiding anything. He is the God of wisdom. Ephesians 1:17 says “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:” We should ask for wisdom which comes from God, with that comes knowledge of God.
The Holy Spirit was given to teach us all things. It was also given to give us a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which if we choose to give the Holy Spirit our will, our obedience comes with it. I am saying it is not easy to give all your will to the Holy Spirit. It is a trust but also, I have found your past gets in your way with Satan using your past to feed you lies that fit what you are thinking. Satan uses your past and moves it into your present, and it fits into a neat package that you cannot see as a lie.
You might ask why God lets these things happen. One answer is we are not ready to truly know God or ready to deal with what we need to. We have to get to a point in our life where we cannot find a way to overcome what life throws at us. When we as a human, cannot overcome life we start to look at other ways to overcome our problems. Now you are ready to hear about Jesus Christ. The deeper you get with the Holy Spirit the more is revealed to you about your past at the right time in your life. I am showing this so everybody understands that getting the Holy Spirit is the start of righteousness, we have to live the righteous life, it is not automatic. We have to die daily according to Paul in 1Corinthians 15:31,34 and it says “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.” Paul is telling us that he dies daily. Every day is a start over. We need to remember who we are in Christ. When we arise, the next morning be that new creature in Christ being righteous and spiritual. This is something we need to do every day of our life.
Grace is God’s tool to give favor or divine influence to all men. Titus 2 11-12 says “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;” This talks about the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to “all.” God’s grace is used by him and is not automatic to people except in salvation. Those that need grace need to ask boldly. Hebrews 4:16 says “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we mat obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” We must speak boldly in prayer or cry out to God when we need it.
There are men who want to misuse God’s grace and teach others to use it to try and cover up their sins. Jude 1:4 says, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, (lustfulness) and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” We cannot use God’s grace it belongs to God. He decides how and who gets grace.
God loves every one of us. We need to be righteous. Mercy and grace are applied when we boldly come to him with prayer. We need to understand that if we sin, we will not automatically be given grace, which is up to God. If we sin, we can certainly ask for forgiveness. Prayer is what shows God your heart. Every one of us has a lot to be thankful for. God Bless.
