Series: Grace is Greater

Romans 5:12,15,17 NLT When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (15) But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness to many through this other Man, Jesus Christ. (17) For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ.

Three Types of Parents:

✓ Fear-based Parents

• Fear cannot be the starting point in our role as parents. We are afraid and intimidated as parents so we in turn, pass fear along to our kids.
• Fear-based parenting is the surest way to create intimidated kids.

✓ Performance-based Parents

• Never feeling like you measure up to your parent’s expectations is not a fun home to grow up in if you’re the kid.

✓ Grace-based Parents

• God is parent (Matthew 6 – “Our Father…”)
• God is a God of grace

Ephesians 1:2 NKJV Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Revelation 22:21 NKJV The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

• Grace does not lower the standards in our homes, it raises them.
• Rules not tempered by grace block relationships with our children and lead to rebellion. On the other hand, relationships without rules don’t result in grace either.
• Grace based parenting is simply treating your kids the way God treats you.

Grace Based Parenting

1. Grace-based parents give their kids the freedom to be unique.

Ephesians 2:10 NLT For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

• Be careful of trying to make moral or biblical issues out of your arbitrary preferences.
• The boundaries that God sets for us have nothing to do with Him but everything to do with us.
• Everything changes when we let God’s grace take over.

2. A grace-based parent gives their kids the freedom to be vulnerable.

Colossians 4:6 NIV Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

• Create a home where our kids don’t have to wear a mask.
• Our homes need to be a safe place for our kids to work through all the dangerous and fragile stuff in their lives.

3. A grace-based parent gives their kids freedom to be honest.

Hebrews 4:16 NIV Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Ephesians 4:31-32 NLT Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. (32) Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

• High Control parenting happens when we leverage the strength of our personality against our children’s weaknesses to get them to meet our selfish agenda.
• The best way to make sure they speak respectfully to us is to speak respectfully to them.

4. A grace-based parent understands their kids are not perfect.

• Discipline, correction, and boundaries are all forms of grace.

Hebrews 12:5-8 MSG So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either. (6) It’s the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. (7) God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, (8) the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God?

• Home must be a place where disappointments are tolerated and where hurts are endured and where mistakes never mean the end of a relationship.

Jesus gives us the freedom to be unique, vulnerable, honest and to make mistakes.

In order to parent with grace, you must first receive God’s grace for yourself.

Romans 5:17 NIV For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

• We were not sinners because we have sinned; we were sinners because Adam sinned.
• Because of Adam’s sin, death began to reign in the earth.

Our lives are wrapped up in those of our ancestors. (Adam)

Reign – to possess or exercise power and/or authority

If you are living a life of defeat, of being defeated by sin, by perpetual guilt and condemnation, by sickness, by anxiety attacks, by financial lack and by broken relationships, you are not living the life that God intended for you.

Based on the authority of God’s Word, you are destined to “reign in life” as a king, to have kingly dominion over all your challenges and circumstances.

• You are called to live above the circumstances of life and not trampled by them.

Romans 5:17 GNB It is true that through the sin of one man death began to rule because of that one man. But how much greater is the result of what was done by the one man, Jesus Christ! All who receive God’s abundant grace and are freely put right with him will rule in life through Christ.

1. The key to reigning in life through Jesus Christ is in receiving not achieving.

In the world, we are taught that if you want to achieve something you must work for it. The world’s system of success is based on the twin pillars of self-effort and diligence.

God’s ways are contrary to man’s ways.

Man thinks that for God to bless him, he needs to deserve, earn and merit God’s favor and blessings by his own effort. Man thinks that God’s blessings are based on his performance and good works.

Notice, He promised that when we receive God’s abundant grace, we will reign in life. He did not say when we achieve grace and our own righteousness, we will reign in life. But we are taught to live life based on a system of achievement.

• We are driven to “do, do, do”, forgetting that the basis for Christianity is actually “done, done, done”.

What we do is to take the world’s system of achievement and apply it to our Christian life. Instead of depending on God’s grace for His favor and blessings to flow, we depend on our self-efforts to try and deserve God’s favor and blessings.

We are made righteous in the New Covenant not because we do righteous deeds, but because of Jesus’ obedience on the cross.

There is nothing that you and I can do to deserve His blessings, for they are based entirely on receiving Jesus and through His finished work, the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.

Hebrews 10:11-14 NKJV And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. (12) But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, (13) from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. (14) For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

2. The work is already finished, so get somewhere and sit down with Him!

According to the law, the Priest who served in the Tabernacle or the Temple never sat down. They were always moving performing their priestly duties on behalf of the people. The reason this is so is because their work was never finished.

The way that we can know that our sins are fully dealt with is because of the fact that Jesus sat down. It was a violation of the law for the High Priest to sit down at all.

Only Jesus’ work is a finished work.

Ephesians 2:4-8 NKJV But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (7) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (8) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

All of the work of Redemption has been completed for us and this means that we can stop depending on our self-efforts to earn and qualify for God’s blessings in our lives.

Perfected – to make complete or make perfect by reaching the intended goal.

Stop depending on your own self–efforts to earn and qualify you for God’s blessings on your life.

3. We do not labor in life to be blessed; rather we have the power to labor because we are blessed!

We can do everything in life diligently and work hard but here is the key: our trust cannot be in those things. It must be in what Jesus has done for you.

For example, if you are a student, study hard. Make straight A’s to glorify God. But don’t trust in your intelligence or qualifications to bring you the blessings of God.

God’s grace does not make us lazy and unproductive. On the contrary, it make you labor more abundantly for His glory.

1 Corinthians 15:10 NLT (10) But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out His special favor on me–and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by His grace.

In the New Covenant, God’s way is to bless you first, and the knowledge of His blessing, gives you the power to labor more abundantly.

Self-effort will rob you of reigning in life by His grace. You cannot earn your salvation, your healing, or your financial breakthrough by your own efforts. If the greatest miracle – being Born Again – comes by grace through faith, and not by your works, how much more the lesser miracles such as healing, prosperity and restored marriages.

Colossians 2:13-15 NIV When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, (14) having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. (15) And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Because of the cross, the price for sin has been paid, the judgment executed, the anger toward sin exhausted, the veil torn away and the way to intimacy with God opened.

Our God came, died a cruel death on the cross and paid the full debt of sin with His own life so that you and I can reign in life today.

4. If the debt is paid, why are you still trying to send in payments?

When you have fulfilled your debt to the bank for the mortgage of your house, you should stop sending payments because the debt has already been paid!

In the same way, quit trying to pay the debt of sin to earn God’s favor because the debt has already been paid! Receive the abundance of God’s grace and the gift of righteousness and reign in life through Jesus Christ!

Romans 5:12,15,17 NLT When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (15) But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness to many through this other Man, Jesus Christ. (17) For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ.

Romans 6:14 NLT Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 NLT (55) O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? ” (56) For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. (57) But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

• Trying to overcome sin with your own self-effort always results in your defeat.

The more you and I try to keep the law and not sin, the worse it becomes.

The more you try not to sin, the more conscious you will be of sin.

For example, if we are told not to think about a purple dinosaur, what is the first thing that pops into our minds?

The man that struggles with lust that gets up in the morning and says to the Lord, “Lord, give me victory today. Help me not to lust after women. I do not want to lust, so help me not to lust today. I will not lust. I will not lust. I will not lust…”

What happens? The first person he sees will be a beautiful woman with a skirt on and what will be his first thought? It will probably be a lustful thought. His mind is occupied with lust.

The woman who tries to walk in love towards that co-worker that gets on her last nerve says basically the same thing, “I really don’t like her and she says some of the craziest things, but I am a Christian and I will do my best to love her. I will love her, I will walk in love towards her…”

The moment she gets to work, the co-worker says, “Good Morning,” and immediately the thoughts flood in saying, “That was so fake… she is such a hypocrite…”

• People who are under guilt and condemnation are doomed to repeat their sins.

Romans 7:18-21 NLT And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. (19) I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. (20) But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. (21) I have discovered this principle of life–that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.

Romans 7:24-25 NLT Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? (25) Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Once we have sinned, most of the time, we feel so guilty and even begin to despise ourselves that we begin to think that even God is mad at us and doesn’t like us very much either.

The trap in this is then the enemy will try and deceive you into thinking that since you have already blown it and since God is already upset with you, why not go ahead and just keep on sinning.

Paul said in Romans 6:14, “Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.”

When you put yourself under the law, the moment you are tempted, you condemn yourself, and in that state of guilt and condemnation, you are more likely to follow through with that temptation and sin.

Romans 8:1-2 NLT So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. (2) And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

Learn that to be tempted is not sin. If it was then Christ Himself was a sinner just like we are but we know that is not true.

Hebrews 4:15 NIV For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet he did not sin.

• Sin does not stop God’s grace from flowing, but God’s grace will stop sin from flowing.

Romans 5:20 MSG  All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.

We are in no way implying that you should sin more and more because of the abundance of God’s grace.

We are saying that it is through this super-abundance of God’s grace that we receive the power to overcome sin and live free.

• Victory over sin comes only when people encounter the super-abundance of God’s grace.

Romans 5:17 AMP For if because of one man’s trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God’s] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

Let’s look at the power of grace in Jesus’ ministry:

John 8:1-11 NKJV But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. (2) Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. (3) Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, (4) they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. (5) Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” (6) This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. (7) So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” (8) And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. (9) Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. (10) When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” (11) She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

Jesus set the woman free from condemnation and then told her to go and sin no more.

The freedom from sin rests in the truth that in Jesus, you are not condemned and through God’s grace, you have the power to overcome sin.

Colossians 2:13-14 NIV When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, (14) having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

Jude 1:24-25 NLT Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault. (25) All glory to Him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.

Ephesians 2:4-7 NLT But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, (5) that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) (6) For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. (7) So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all He has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

Romans 5:12,15-17 NLT When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (15) But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness to many through this other Man, Jesus Christ. (16) And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. (17) For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ.

Who Is Your Husband?

Romans 7:1-3 NLT Now, dear brothers and sisters–you who are familiar with the law–don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? (2) For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. (3) So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.

1. The law is a bad husband.

• The law is overbearing, critical, judgmental and mean spirited.
• The law always points out what you did wrong and not what you did do right.
• The law just sits around the house all day and criticizes all that you do and never lifts a finger to help you do anything.
• The bad thing about this husband is that he is always right.
• What Satan does is take the law and accuse us based on that.
• The one good thing about the law is that it shows us the moral standards that are wrong and it is designed to show us that we need Jesus to deliver us from sin.

2. The law is a husband that can’t make you any better.

The law does not have the ability to change us. In other words, we cannot read something in the law and then simply because it says it, have the ability to stop doing whatever it says that we are doing wrong.

Romans 3:20 NLT For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

Romans 3:28 NLT So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

• The only thing that separates Christianity from every other religion in the world is that it is based on grace through faith and not through works.

Every other religion says that you have to do something in order to please this deity. God says, “You just have to come to me and believe that I did it all.”

Christianity is about what has already “been done” and not by “your doing.”

• We are not saying that right, good works are not necessary but we are saying that your motive cannot be to try and get God to be pleased with you or to pay Him back.

3. The law is an impotent husband.

The law can never produce anything in you. The law had no power to help you do what is right.

Romans 8:3 NIV For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

4. God brought you someone else to marry.

• Marriage is as long as you both shall live. The law is never going to die. The plan of God had something even better. God decided that since the law could never die, then you could die.

Romans 7:4-6 NLT So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the One who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. (5) When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. (6) But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

• The law was your first husband and you have been released from your first husband so that you can be married to Christ.
• We have died with Christ so that I can be released and marry someone else.

As a believer we have been released from marriage to the law so that we can be married to Christ.

Romans 7:4 MSG So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God.

5. Fall in love with your New Husband.

Think about this: You used to be married to a critical, faultfinding, overbearing, mean-spirited husband. You used to be married to a husband that always sat around and pointed out everything you did wrong and never lifted a finger to help you do anything.

But now you are married to a loving, compassionate, kind, and forgiving Husband. Now you are married to a Husband who doesn’t look at what’s wrong but points out what is right in Him. Now you are married to a Husband Who believes you can be better, you can do all things In Him and then gives you the power and ability to do them

Here is how you move to defeat sin in your life: Fall in love with Jesus. Long to know Him more. Hunger for His presence.

How would you wives feel if your husband came to you and said that because he had been reading the Bible and he found out that committing adultery is wrong in the law and therefore he decided that he was not going to commit adultery?

Or, how would like your husband to say, “That when you walk in the room I am smitten by you and I love you with every fiber of my being and you will never have to worry about me committing adultery.”

Ephesians 5:2 MSG Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.