And we can take it much further than that when we go to the throne of grace.... We will never have broken fellowship with God because nothing can separate us from Him. The one who suffers the most from not walking in the TRUTH is us. But we have the Holy Spirit for such times to always remind us we ARE the righteousness of God IN Christ and have blood bought rights IN the Beloved.
We are accepted because of Jesus for salvation (by grace through faith) and for our ability to work out our own salvation meaning we are working OUT what Jesus has already worked IN .., not based on how well we can "get back" into fellowship.
Jesus makes us saved and sanctified. Not us. (By grace through faith)
FOR THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS HAS SET US FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH.
When we don't know this truth and live it., we are open to the enemies LIES of condemnation and our confusion. The enemy lies and counts on us (in our flesh) to depend on our flesh and not on JESUS and His gift of righteousness to us. The enemy wants us to look at our flesh and not the born again new creation we were made in Christ. The old is gone...the new has come.
But the devil wants us to look back and not look away to JESUS.
The enemy wants us to look at ourselves and our own righteousness shown out in our flesh., and go to God on the grounds of our behavior - our old manner of living. NO>>> There IS NO CONDEMNATION for those who are IN CHRIST JESUS. The condemnation we feel is from the world...the flesh...the devil. Not from God.
When we go to God or ask of Him on the basis of ourselves for ANYTHING we have NO claim on it because we do it from our flesh. And the flesh is apposed to the Spirit and vs/vs. That is why many Christians are not walking in victory and many sleep.
The fellowship with God IN CHRIST is not severed nor can it ever be., it's our sin., guilt and shame that causes us to move away from God. But we are not bound to that old manner of life anymore. We are and have been SET FREE... And it's Jesus who gives us any right to come to the throne of grace and find help in time of need. (not our willingness to admit and take on shame and guilt and sorrow payments) Jesus already took those things on Himself at the Cross.
Grace means unmerited unearned love and favor and we don't have that based on how sorry, mournful., wretched., miserable we feel taking on that fleshly DUE by punishing ourselves.... we are only righteous based on what Jesus did on the cross. We cannot pay for it with our self loathing much like Catholics do trying to carry their cross down an imaginary path of passion before being nailed to the cross themselves.
Gal.2:20 [SUP]20 [/SUP]I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
When a believer gets a hold of this major truth of God's LOVE and GRACE in their daily lives., that is when they begin to understand the height and length and breath of the love of God IN Christ. And that is what God wants us to KNOW because when we know we are loved unconditionally., We walk in confidence., we are motivated....constrained and restrained IN THAT LOVE of God. We begin walking in the truth and are able to deal with the fiery darts of the wicked one.
He has no power over us but what we yield. Romans 8:1-9
8 Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus.
[SUP]2 [/SUP]For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.
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3 [/SUP]For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [[SUP][
a][/SUP]the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [[SUP][
b][/SUP]subdued, overcame, [SUP][
c][/SUP]deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice],
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4 [/SUP]So that the righteous
and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live
and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].
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5 [/SUP]For those who are according to the flesh
and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on
and [SUP][
d][/SUP]pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit
and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on
and [SUP][
e][/SUP]seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit.
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6 [/SUP]Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that [SUP][
f][/SUP]comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].
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7 [/SUP][That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot.
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8 [/SUP]So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please
or satisfy God,
or be acceptable to Him.
[SUP]
9 [/SUP]But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you]. But if anyone does not possess the [Holy] Spirit of Christ, he is none of His [he does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God].
When you meditate on these and other truths about our standing in Christ., (and there are many) the Holy Spirit ministers to us and out of our belly shall flow rivers of living water. This also reminds me of the washing of the water of the Word. The work of the Holy Sprit ministering to us about Jesus. It always goes back to JESUS. And this is not legality but REDEMPTION.
Bringing Holy Spirit JOY and peace.... THE JOY OF THE LORD IS OUR STRENGTH. AMEN!!