Wishing for a new you in this new year? You’re already new.
Transcript
Today, we are going to take a “Posture of Peace” by being empowered by grace.
Posture is a short, audible fist bump to remind you God is with you in everything. Together, we’re going to be emboldened to take a daily Posture of perfect peace.
Okay, listen to this beautiful truth from Romans 6. I’m gonna be reading a chunk of scripture today. We as the Posture community have talked about this scripture before, but I felt like the Lord was leading me back there today. So I wanted to share it with you. Just lean back and soak this in. Be washed by the water of the word.
Romans 6:3-11. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death. We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him, for the death that He died, He died to sin once for all. But the life He lives, He lives to God. So you must also consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
And in the middle of all that we have to get done today, I want us to remember who we have been called to be. A great thought to have every morning is that no matter how you go through your day, whether it’s awesome or not so awesome, God is absolutely unchanging in how He loves you. He’s gonna smile when He looks at you. He’s going to be joyful when He thinks of you, because He has only one reality. All He can ever see, all day every day is the beauty of who you are in Jesus. That is His singular focus, and it can be our singular focus as well. God is not frustrated, exasperated or disappointed with you because He’s confident that He has replaced your old self with Jesus. Even if you’re not yet confident in that truth, you are a new creation, it’s who you are.
Sometimes people get nervous when we talk about grace, because they think what is being preached is an enabling gospel. They’re concerned that people are just being enabled to sin more and not feel bad about it. But the grace that we have been given through Jesus Christ is not enabling, it’s empowering. It empowers us to be dead to sin, it empowers us to be made into the image and likeness of God. It empowers us on our worst days and on our best days. It sounds radical because it is. So instead of being skeptical about grace, allow yourself to bask in the radicalness of this truth.
Jesus did not come so that you could be a better version of yourself. He came to die as you so that you would be raised as Him and share in the same relationship that He has with Father God. You are walking today free, empowered, and totally loved and accepted by God. And you can trust this truth because it’s a relationship that God initiated with you. You didn’t initiate this, you can’t initiate it. You can only receive it. So receive it today. If you’ve entered into this new year, wishing for a new you, you’ve got it. You’re a new creation. The old is gone. Grace is your fuel. It empowers you. Condemnation does not empower you. Legalism does not empower you. Self-righteousness does not empower you nor does perfectionism or pressure. Grace and peace are yours today.