grace makes you free

​There was a time when we could make reference to grace and although we didn’t fully understand it, we didn’t misappropriate it.  Without grace none of us could become truly free.
 
Romans 6:14 Sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.
             
Israel did not know right from wrong when they were in bondage to Egypt. So, when God gave the law to Moses it gave the people a“sin consciousness”.  No matter how hard they tried, they could not get free of their sin.  The law revealed just how naughty they were but it made no provision for deliverance.  So, the law gave knowledge of sin but it could not stop the act of sinning.
 
Romans 5:20 The law was introduced in order to increase wrong doing; but where sin increased, God’s grace increased much more.
 
God wanted His people to know that they were sinning and then come to understand He was going to do something about it once and forever.  Grace did not manifest until Jesus rose from the dead, before anyone could become free thedevil had to be dealt with.  No one could keep the law because they all had the nature of satan, man’s tie to the devil had to be broken.  The devil had the power of death, he could continually keep men separated from God.  When Jesus rose from the dead he stripped the devil of his power to divide man from their original Father.
 
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
 
When grace is properly applied you are saved from your evil nature and the influence of the devil.  No man can become free until his very nature is changed.  God’s grace is His supernatural power that instantly changes us from a child of wrath into a child of God.  The key to having grace living and working in your life is faith, we are saved by grace through faith.  There is no application apart from faith, grace without faith is compromise.
 
Romans 14:23 Anything that is not based on faith is sin.

If grace is compromised it makes you free in your mind, but freedom is of the spirit not the flesh.  We do ourselves no service when we use grace to justify our sin.  True freedom is the ability to do whatever the Lord requires of us.  If you’re a debtor to your flesh, you need His grace to set you free.  If you cannot commit your life to the lordship of Jesus, you are not free.  If you cannot love your enemies and forgive those who wronged you, you are not free.
 
Grace is amazing, it transforms us into a person we can never become on our own.  When a man is imprisoned he follows the law of the penitentiary for fear of punishment.  When a man is under grace he obeys the Lord because it’s His nature and he loves it.

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