Justin J. Petrick

One of the greatest barriers to experiencing God’s love is living in fear of God sending His judgment and wrath on us when we sin.  In fact, when we speak of God’s super-abounding grace (Romans 5:21), we nullify God’s grace in our lives when we live under the Law or in other words: when we are conscious of sin (Romans 3:20, 4:14).

To understand this, we will look to the only two stories in the Bible where Jesus credited an individual as having ‘great’ faith: the centurion with an ill servant (Luke 7:9) and the Canaanite women with the demon possessed daughter (Mathew 15:28).  When you read these two stories, you get individuals who are polar opposite.  You have an authoritative, powerful warrior and you have a home-making mother.  What in the world would these to individuals have in common that would give them great faith? I mean, they could not be more opposite?  The only factor that these two individuals had in common is that they were gentiles.  Gentiles were not conscious of the Jewish Law, or the Ten Commandments.  It was not ingrained in their culture.

The reason the centurion and the Canaanite woman had great faith is because they were focused on Jesus instead of the Law.  When they saw Jesus, they saw grace.  When you focus on your works and how good you are, or not, you have a Law mentality and it nullifies the free gift of God’s grace and it’s power in your life.  Gods grace nullified the Law and has made it void (Hebrews 8:13).  This is because God’s grace will always be greater than your sin:

Romans 5:21 (KJV): Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound.  And where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: (21)That as sin hath reigned until death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Your sin is covered by the blood of Jesus.  Stop living a works mentality by associating God’s love for you based on how you act, but live in surrender to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).  By living to the obedience of Christ, you live in belief of the finish works of Jesus that came through Him being obedient unto death when He died on the cross and resurrected.  When you surrender your heart to Him is when you give Him permission to change it because you give up control.  As He changes your heart the more sensitive to the Holy Spirit you will become, the more of God’s nature you will have, the more ANY type of sin will repulse you because it will not be in your nature…..or ‘natural’.

But my friend, this can only happen when you take your eyes off of the Law and place them on Jesus alone.  When you see the true nature and love of Jesus, you will see grace and it will be super-abounding in your life.