- We have favor and acceptance before God that is a free gift - we didn't have to do anything to earn it, don't have to do anything to keep it, and couldn't do anything that would make us lose it.
- We can sin and fail and know that we are still in His grace, still delighted in and smiled upon by God at all times - we can't outsin the grace of God.
- We never have to feel inadequate or lacking or not good enough - we are already complete in Christ and perfect before God as a free gift, not through anything we did or earned.
- We can come boldly to the throne of grace to receive help when we need it - we never have to feel we need to "clean up our act" before we can approach God.
- We can be sure of God's blessing in our lives without needing to do one single thing to earn or get those blessings - they are already ours because we are in Christ.
- We can relax, knowing there's no pressure on us to perform or to change or constantly improve - we are alright in Jesus right now as we are.
- We can enjoy security, knowing nothing we do will cause us to fall out of His favor or make Him reject us - we are in His favor and right with Him by Christ's performance and not our own.
- We can be sure of His loving closeness to us and know that nothing that happens and nothing we do will separate us from Him - our relationship is one of perfect fellowship (union) at all times.
- We can trust that when bad times do come in our lives, He is not inflicting them on us or punishing us through them - Christ was already punished for us, there's no punishment left for us.
- We can know that the Holy Spirit will never point out our faults or bring them up again - He always convicts us of our righteousness. before God - we never have to be afraid that God will rebuke us.
- We can rest, knowing God will never get angry with us for anything we've done - He is at peace with us and is pleased with us constantly on the basis of Christ's finished work.
- We can know there's nothing we have to do to maintain this covenant, keep it going, or keep it from failing - Christ put us in it and maintains it for us by His works.
- We can enjoy freedom, knowing we are completely free of all requirements before God and not expected to keep rules that we in ourselves can't keep - Christ already kept the law for us.
- We can know that when we fail, absolutely nothing has changed in our relationship with God - we are still in perfect fellowship, for that's based on Christ's work for us, not our own work.
- We can rest knowing that even if our behavior never matches our true spirit identity (and it won't until heaven!), that we are still completely accepted by God as right with Him!
- We can know that we are not required to produce fruit or live this Christian life - Christ lives it in us and will work in us to bring out the fruit of righteousness in His time.
- We can trust that we are not resistant to God - sin uses law to produce rebels but God uses grace to produce righteous,obedient children whose nature is to love, and this is all a gift from God
- We can know that everything that happens in our lives will be worked out for good, including all hard times and even our mistakes and failures - His grace overrides any problem or failure.
- We can know that God never relates to us on the basis of our own works or effort but always on the basis of Christ's work and effort, and that makes our relationship secure.
- We can know that our sin and our old self are gone forever and that we are righteous, new creations (alive with His life) forever because of all He's freely done for us - His work is finished.
- We can know that we'll never be lacking or inadequate before Him - He has made us complete in Christ and perfected us forever, and we are not deficient in any way.
- We can know we are loved and accepted and right with God for free, that God never sees us as a loser or a failure or a disappointment but only as His dearly loved child - forevermore!
With love,
