ARE YOU MIXED UP? - PASTOR JOSEPH PRINCE

“By Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.” Acts 13:39 To understand the grace of God, it is essential you understand the differences between the old covenant of law and the new covenant of grace. To help you accelerate your understanding of law and grace, I want to share with you one of my favorite scriptures. I have preached this verse around the world, from Hillsong Conference in Sydney, Australia, to Lakewood Church, in Houston, Texas. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. —John 1:17 The law was given through a servant. Grace and truth came through the Son. The law talks about what man ought to be. Grace reveals Who God is. In the first miracle of Moses, he turned water into blood, resulting in death. In the first miracle of grace, Jesus turned water into wine, resulting in life and celebration. The letter (the law) kills, but the Spirit gives life (see 2 Cor. 3:6). Under the law, God demands righteousness from sinfully bankrupt man. But under grace, God provides righteousness as a gift. Now, which covenant would you like to be under? The answer is obvious! The truth is, through the cross at Calvary, all who believe in Jesus and acknowledge Him as their Lord and Savior are under the new covenant of grace. Yet today many believers are still living in confusion, and get law and grace all mixed up by holding on to some aspects of the law and some aspects of grace in their Christian beliefs and walk. Jesus said you cannot put new wine into old wineskins. The new wine will ferment and break the wineskins, and you will lose both (see Matt. 9:17). In the same way, you cannot put the new wine of grace into the old wineskin of the law. One will cancel out the other (see Rom. 11:6). Under the law, God said, “I will by no means clear the guilty, but I will visit their sins to the third and fourth generations” (see Exod. 34:7). But under grace, God says, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more” (see Heb. 8:12). There has been a change! Can you see with absolute high-definition clarity that there has been a radical change and it is all because of Jesus? Choose to live wholly under the new covenant of grace today, where through Christ’s perfect finished work at the cross, you have God’s righteousness as a gift, and God’s own Spirit of life leading you to victory over areas of defeat.