THE REST OF THE STORY
We celebrated Easter last week. Now, let’s take a look at the “Rest Of The Story,” as Paul Harvey would say.
Have you ever wondered why Easter Services traditionally end with the stone being rolled away and Jesus rising from the dead?
That was just the beginning of the story. We rarely hear what happened after Jesus exhaled the last breath from His earth suit.
In our Easter message, we reported that the instant Jesus gave up His earthly residence, several things happened:
The Veil in the Holy of Holies that separated the Jews from God was torn in half from the top to the bottom because Jesus had fulfilled all of the Law and rendered it finished and done away with.
That is why Jesus declared that He, not performance, is the only way to God!
“Jesus said to Him, I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE; NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER BUT BY ME!”
(John 14:6)
Just as Jesus prophecied, by being lifted up on the cross, He would draw all men, Jews, and Gentiles to Himself.
Meaning that He made eternal salvation and everlasting life with Him possible for everybody.
All of Jesus’s great and precious promises and every Word He spoke were guaranteed with His blood.
(2Peter 1:1-4)
All people were saved at that instant, and all that is required to receive eternal salvation and all of Jesus’s great and precious promises is to believe and believe in Him.
(John 3:16-18, Romans 10:9-10, John 6:28-29)
WE WERE GIVEN THE FAITH OF JESUS!
When Jesus exhaled the last breath in His earth suit, we were given the free gift of His Faith! Since we received Jesus’s faith, it is complete and eternal. It can not be multiplied, grown, added to, built, divided, subtracted from, or improved in any way; it is perfect.
“SIMON PETER, a servant and apostle (special messenger with a special message) of Jesus, to those (all who choose to believe and believe in Jesus) who HAVE (past tense meaning already) received like precious faith with ourselves in and through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus.”
(2Peter1:1)
NOTE: Peter declared that our faith comes through what Jesus did, not what we do!
Several insanely wealthy televangelists made their ill-gotten gains by having their subjects try to build their faith by hearing and hearing their messages, buying their books, videos, and tapes, watching their programs, and making huge contributions to their ministries. They sold their givers on a blatant misinterpretation of a scripture in the tenth chapter of Romans, which says that we get faith the first time we hear and receive the Gospel.
THE STATE OF GRACE BEGAN
Now, because of the price that Jesus paid, all who choose to believe and believe in Him enter into the State of Grace. By this Grace, we are saved and blessed and receive everything from Him.
I read about GRACE all of my life. Many years ago, when I was just beginning this ministry, I was led to write a message about it.
It was then that I realized that I did not know the definition of GRACE. I knew that the traditional definition of unmerited favor was inadequate to describe the precious vehicle by which God saved us. Calling GRACE unmerited favor is like calling a Lamborghini a cup holder.
I asked Holy Spirit to show me how He wanted me to define Grace. I was led to a library that I had been working from, where I found several dictionaries, and I had my Strongs concordance and the voice of Holy Spirit guiding me. The essence of what I learned is this.
GRACE is God’s willingness, ability, and power, which HAS done for us, those things we can not and will not do for ourselves. KABOOM.
JESUS TAUGHT US THAT GRACE IS ALL WE NEED TO OVERCOME ANY SITUATION OR PROBLEM!
REMEMBER THIS MESSAGE TO PAUL AND US DIRECTLY FROM JESUS, THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
“There was given me (by the evil one) a THORN IN THE FLESH, A MESSENGER FROM SATAN To rack and buffet and harass me, to keep me from being excessively exalted. I called upon the Lord three times, besought Him about this, and begged that it might be taken away from me.
But He said to me, My GRACE (My willingness, ability, and power which has done for you the things that you can not or will not do for yourself) is enough for you sufficient (more than enough) against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully; for My strength and power are made perfect and show themselves most effective in your weakness.“
(2 Corinthians 12:7-9)
GRACE is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us. We receive it freely by believing and believing in “The One Whom He Has Sent.
Receive yet another declaration from Holy Spirit to us via our anointed, appointed teacher, Paul:
“And you (all people) who were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
But God, being rich in mercy (God’s mercy and love created the state of Grace) because of the great love with which he loves us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Jesus—by GRACE, you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his Grace in kindness toward us in Jesus.
(Ephesians 2:8-10)
FOR BY GRACE, YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED THROUGH FAITH, And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
(Ephesians 2:1-10)
Good works do not earn us anything in this life and are not a requirement for receiving blessings or salvation from God. However, we do them to demonstrate our faith in and love for Jesus. That is why He created us to do them. Faith produces good works.
Go back and reread that declaration from Holy Spirit.
It means that God loves us so much that He saved us by the sacrificial death of Himself in the person of Jesus. And that because we are saved by His amazing GRACE, not our works or performance, we are able and commissioned to do the good works that He planned and prepared us for before we were created. Is that cool or what?
AMAZING GRACE!
“THEREFORE, SINCE WE ARE JUSTIFIED (found not guilty, declared righteous and in right standing) with God THROUGH FAITH (living in this present moment, joyfully celebrating the receipt of all of Jesus’s great and precious promises, regardless of what we see, hear, touch, smell or taste) LET US GRASP THE FACT THAT WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS!
THROUGH HIM, also we have access by FAITH INTO THIS STATE OF GRACE IN WHICH WE STAND! And let us rejoice (re-joy ourselves) and exult in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the GLORY OF GOD!
Not by anything we do but by HIS GRACE, we enter into the permanent state of GRACE.
Religion hates Grace. It insists that we earn (as if that were possible)our status with God through our behavior. Religion has even condemned God’s Grace by creating the term “greasy grace,” implying that there is a limit to God’s grace. Nothing that God has given us is in any way limited. Calling Grace “greasy” is a slap in the face of Jesus, who paid for it with His blood.
GOD’S IS SEATED ON THE THRONE OF GRACE!
And Holy Spirit has invited us to come and visit it boldly!
“In as much then as we have a great High Priest Who has already ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus, let us hold fast to our pronouncement of faith in Him. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses, infirmities, and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.
Let us then FEARLESSLY, AND CONFIDENTLY, AND BOLDLY DRAW NEAR TO THE THRONE OF GRACE, THAT WE MAY RECEIVE MERCY AND FIND GRACE TO HELP IN EVERY SITUATION.
(Hebrews 4:14-16)
Many more stunning supernatural events happened after Jesus “died” on the cross. We will examine some of them in our next teaching.
END OF TEACHING
