No Punishment for Grace-age Believers

Many believers think God will sometimes punish them with troubles. Then some others claim “the Devil is after me or my family.” They erroneously think they are on a ‘performance-based merit system.’ Sadly, I’ve seen the wreckage in the lives of such believers and in their families.

The fact is that every grace believer’s life is secure. For you are securely “sealed:

3 For ye are dead, and YOUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD. Colossians 3:3 (KJV)

13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard [and received] the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also AFTER THAT YE BELIEVED, ye were SEALED with that holy Spirit of promise, Ephesians 1:13 (KJV)

The consequential FACT of the above verse is that the Devil Cannot Get To You As A Grace Believer except you may believe his lies to deceive you. These lies most often come through the false teachings and traditions of the many religious sects of organized Christendom… whether the ‘hierarchical churches’ or the ‘fundamentalist/evangelical,’ or the ‘charismatic’ variety. We see this particularly if a believer has come through any of the Pentecostal sects that sometimes chase demons, etc., assigning more power to Satan than the Lord Himself. They have a hard time learning grace and unlearning their past because they’ve often lived by their ‘outer experiences of the flesh,’ not by faith alone. God’s pure grace works unseen… by faith alone.

Such troubled believers obviously either have not heard the truth of the “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) or they do not yet believe the truths of Paul’s “gospel of the grace of God.” They obviously don’t understand the believer’s secure grace relationship with the Lord today. Today, we live under God’s pure (100%) grace.

14 … ye are not under the law [of blessing and cursing], but under grace. Romans 6:14b

Many are victims of religion’s lie that teaches the merit system for blessing or cursing, as it they can earn blessing and avoid the punishment of God inflicting troubles upon them. They cling to religion’s ‘Performance-Based Acceptance System’ that says; perform and you will be blessed or, fail and you will be cursed. Yes, this was the case for Israel under the Law. But today we live under and by God’s gracethe ‘free gift’ program of God. These deceived folks don’t yet appreciate the total sufficiency of Christ’s cross-work whereby He alone is The Meritorious One who on our behalf Merits Salvation and Eternal Blessing To Us… on the basis of our faith in Him and His Cross-work.

The fact is that today, under pure grace, God takes no account of our sins and sometime failures at living the Christian life as we know we should. This is because during today’s age of “the grace of God” we live under God’s free-gift grace program; we are not under the performance requirements of Israel’s Mosaic Law or Jesus’ elevated ‘laws’ of “the sermon on the mount.” Today the Lord takes no note of our failures or any religious performance of rituals and rites. They have no bearing upon our salvation. Thus, Paul wrote;

5 But to him that Worketh Not [one who does NO religious or good works], But [rather] BELIEVETH On Him [Christ] That Justifieth The Ungodly, his FAITH IS COUNTED For Righteousness. 6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God Imputeth [Counts] Righteousness WITHOUT [good] Works, 7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD WILL NOT IMPUTE [COUNT] SIN. Romans 4:5-8

6 And if by grace, then is it NO more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. Romans 11:6 (KJV)

What about those troubles that come our way? What do they mean? Aren’t we being “chastened”? It is only the children of Israel that the Lord may chasten them.

Chastening belongs only to Israel. Paul’s epistles for us today do not mention chastening at all. The grace-age believer’s trials are not indicators and not as result of our shortcomings. Our troubles are common to all men, simply proving we are living in a fallen temporal world. Paul wrote this to all men as grace believers:

13 There hath no temptation [no trial of suffering that has] taken you but such as is COMMON TO MAN: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also Make A Way To Escape, [So] That Ye May Be Able To Bear It. 1 Corinthians 10:13 (KJV)

That “way of escape” is to turn our hearts to trust Him in the midst of trials, whereby His Spirit in us will help us to endure all things. Thereby we, as all men, have troubles.

For Jesus said concerning the suffering men encounter in the world.

33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33 (KJV)

Both Jesus’s words to Israel and Paul as the Apostle to ‘all men’ of all races say the very same troubles that come upon all humanity also come upon believers. Jesus said this to the lost sheep of the house of Israel:

45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on [both] the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on [both] the just and on the unjust. Matt. 5:45 (KJV)

So, God does not suspend the laws of nature’s gyrations and the human events, calamities and disasters. They can come upon His believers as they do upon all mankind, without distinction. He does not exempt believers from sufferings that are common to all men.

Yet, God uses the common sufferings of believers profitably, to mature them and to produce His glorious righteous expression in and through them … in the face of suffering.

17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 2 Corinthians 4:17 (KJV)

17 And if children [of God], [we are] then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him [endure by His life in us], that we may be also glorified together. Rom. 8:17 (KJV)

The fact is that no regenerated believer will ever see the angry face of God because Jesus bore ALL our sin taking upon Himself the ultimate wrath and punishment of God in the form of suffering and death… for us

21 For He [God the Father] Hath Made Him [Jesus] to Be Sin For Us, who knew no sin; [so] that we might be made the righteousness of God in him [in Christ]. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV)

So, God’s love, grace, forgiveness, and “Spirit of life” is ours…. by grace through Faith In His Words – these blessings are Freely Given to Usnot because we in any way earned His favor.

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that NOT of yourselves: it is the GIFT OF GOD: 9 NOT of [our good of religious] WORKS, lest any man should boast. Eph. 2:8-9

Not only are we saved by grace through faith, but also, we learn to daily WALK by grace through faith. Having “Christ in you” … then you have His eternal life, eternally, never to be lost. We are to walk as wise and righteous saints of God, not as self-seeking egoist.

To all this talk of God’s free-gift of pure grace, some might say of God’s FREE GIFT; “Well, if salvation is so freely given, won’t people just feel free to sin.” But isn’t it true that people already sin without seeing God’s grace? No worry. The truth is that Seeing God’s Gracious Love & Grace Lavished Upon Us So FREELY actually tends to Constrain the believer’s Heart so as to Want To Walk In Righteousness Trusting Him.

14 For the love of Christ constraineth [Grk. synecho, holds, compels] us…” 2 Corinthians 5:14a (KJV)

Sooner or later, we must value the unseen eternal blessings that we have in Christ by faith more than the seen temporal offerings of this life on earth.

18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18 (KJV)

20 For our conversation [Old English for ‘Citizenship’] Is In Heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21 Who shall change our vile [sin-laden] body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious [purely resurrection] body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Philippians 3:20-21 (KJV)