(This message series is inspired and excerpted from Heaven is Now by Andrew Farley)
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. (Hebrews 10:19-23 NLT)
“Grace is a word we’ve heard thousands of times in our lives, especially in church. We think grace means we aren’t punished when we should be. We think grace is there to pick us up when we’ve fallen. While these are true, I’ve found that grace has no depth to it apart from a solid understanding of what heaven calls “the new covenant.” Without an awakening to this covenant, our understanding of grace will be limited to what we know or feel is true about the character of God. We will walk in grace only to the degree that we feel God is gracious toward us. The result is that our view of God’s grace may be way off base without us even realizing it. But through the new covenant, heaven defines grace in precise terms for us. When we have our senses awakened to the new covenant, we perceive exactly how God demonstrated his grace toward us. And it’s grace we can sink our teeth into.” (pg. 22)
“God helps those who help themselves.” – The second most quoted verse from the Bible; EXCEPT, it’s not in the Bible at all. It is a quote from Benjamin Franklin.
What is your understanding of grace? Do you find yourself acting in ways that might suggest you believe Ben Franklin’s view of a conditional grace?
Heaven’s Perfect Standard
The old covenant was the Jewish law that God gave to Israel. It consisted of about 613 dos and don’ts. Scripture tells us that the law never saved anyone (Rom. 3: 20; Gal. 2: 16; 3: 21). The law was intended only as a shadow, a picture of the Christ to come (Col. 2: 17; Heb. 10: 1). It’s true that many looked to the law for hope of salvation, but in the end they found that the law only brought condemnation and death (2 Cor. 3: 7). Today, the law serves as a tool for unbelievers (1 Tim. 1: 8– 11). It makes us humans aware of our sin problem (Rom. 3: 19– 20). Within ourselves, we have no adequate response to heaven’s perfect standard. The law’s strict demands make it quite clear that we fall short:
21 Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. 22 But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ. (Galatians 3:21-22 NLT)
The law doesn’t encourage or praise us. Being under law is like being married to an abusive perfectionist. Even if you please your spouse and only stumble in one way here or there, they treat you as if you’re a good-for-nothing, sorry excuse for a human being. They act like you’re guilty of disregarding everything they’ve ever asked of you: “whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles in one point is guilty of all” (James 2: 10). Being under law is like being under a curse, because “cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law” (Gal. 3: 10). The law is an all-or-nothing proposition. If anyone invests in the old way of the law, they are “obligated to obey the whole law” ( 5: 3).” (p. 23) Have you ever found yourself saying, “God I’m doing all the right stuff, what’s up?”
For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. (Galatians 5:4 NLT)
Heaven’s New Way
Heaven wanted earth to see that, apart from divine intervention, there was no real hope. Then, at the appointed time, the powers of heaven ushered in a new covenant that put God’s faithfulness to himself on display: “since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself” (Heb. 6: 13 NASB). God swore to himself that Jesus would be our priest forever (7: 21– 22). He promised that he would never leave us nor forsake us (13: 5). He promised to be faithful to himself. He became our guarantor of a better covenant (7: 22). Here’s what God himself says about this new covenant: “It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors . . . because they did not remain faithful to my covenant.
. . . I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Heb. 8: 9– 10). Did you notice what the new covenant is all about?
This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people.27 For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. (Colossians 1:26-27 NLT)
It’s about heaven’s solution to our faithlessness. It’s about God rigging everything by placing Christ’s desires in our hearts and minds. It’s about God’s commitment to be our God forever. Here, God is the initiator. All we can do is respond with belief and a “thank you.” How did we make it appear so difficult?
Celebrate Security
“Most Christians who worry about their eternal security have imagined some scenario in which they commit a particularly heinous sin or get caught in a series of sins. Then their lack of faithfulness takes center stage in God’s decision to axe them. But through the new covenant, heaven is announcing that the work of Jesus is now on display at center stage. When we place our faithfulness to God in the limelight and believe it to be a potential cause for loss of salvation, we are confusing the new covenant with the old. The whole point of the new way is to eliminate the faithfulness problem under the old way, “because they did not remain faithful” (Heb. 8: 9). Heaven declares that “if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Tim. 2: 13). To disown us would be to disown himself, because he resides in us forever! Heaven wants us to celebrate our security. When we allow the work of Jesus to take center stage in our lives, we adopt a heavenly perspective in the midst of our earthly circumstances.” (p. 26) God’s not ready and waiting to axe me! How will this revelation impact your life?
Heaven Speaks [What Jesus might say if He were sitting right here]
“I brought the law into the picture so that Israel would sense their sinfulness apart from me. To this day, my law holds everyone accountable to a standard they cannot possibly meet. My law silences all who truly confront it. There is simply no response after encountering its perfect standard, because it curses you for not keeping all of it. But I have called you to feel the glorious freedom of my grace. If you are in me and I am in you, I have freed you from the all-or-nothing curse of the law. The law is not your ticket to life in me. You’ve been transferred out of the reign of law and into my kingdom of grace. By faith you have received the promised inheritance of my Spirit. This promise was given long before the law came on the scene. I wanted to show you that, entirely apart from law, you are made whole in me. Since the day I came to live in you, I’ve been leading you toward freedom. I’ve called you away from rules and regulations to enjoy an exhilarating new motivation— my Spirit in you. My new covenant is not about how much commitment or dedication you are able to muster. I have already witnessed the best efforts any humans can make. No, this new covenant is about my best efforts on the cross and through the resurrection. You are called to enjoy the fruit of my labor. This is what makes the glory of my new way more brilliant than the old. You are as safe as I am, and our Father will never disown us. I will always love you.” – Jesus (inspired by Romans 3: 19; 5: 20; 6: 14; 7: 7; Galatians 3: 10, 17, 21; 5: 1, 18; James 2: 10; Hebrews 4: 10; 6: 13; 1 John 4: 17.) (p. 27) Share your thoughts.
Awakening to Heaven [A sample prayer to close.]
“Thank you, Jesus, for calling me out to the freedom of your grace. I can see the purpose of the old way, and I am so grateful for the new! Thank you for rescuing me from an impossible standard and making me perfect through your sacrifice. You have delivered me from the curse of the law and shared your very self with me by your Spirit. Any false hopes I had under an achieving system can now be replaced with a genuine hope in you. Thank you for walking with me in this journey and holding me tightly along the way. I love you too.” (p. 28)
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