Note To Self - You Can't Earn This

Jesus didn’t say, “Earn this” from the cross. He said, “It is finished.” 

The message of Jesus is a message of Grace. 

And so many people and Christians don’t really understand what Grace really is… and so they go through life aiming at the wrong targets and they feel shame and condemnation and live under a fear of failure?…

They live performance-oriented, perfection-driven lives and they end up discouraged and depressed, because they feel like they can never measure up… no matter how hard they try, they just can’t seem to “earn this”…

And so lets be clear this morning… You can’t earn this. God’s love, God approval, God’s favor… You can’t earn it…. But you can have it… By grace through faith.

Grace= the unmerited, undeserved, unearned kindness and favor of God. 

Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 

Isaiah 64:6

Our best efforts apart from Jesus are worthless.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grace is when you get what you DON’T deserve.

John 10:10 I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].

Romans 3:24 All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 

Galatians 4:4 When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

By Grace We Have Been Adopted

Galatians 4:4&5 God sent forth His Son… that we might receive the adoption as sons. 

By Grace We Have Been Adopted

Galatians 4:4&5-6 God sent forth His Son… that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 

7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 

A slave has a master.

A son has a father.

You’re an Heir

Galatians 4:7 You are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 

Romans 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,

We have to understand and believe based on what Jesus has done, so we can walk in all that Jesus has won.

You don’t have to earn it, but you do have to endorse it, you have to believe it and stand for it.

Holy Spirit 

Galatians 4:4 When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons,God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son nto your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 

NOTE TO SELF: I CAN’T EARN THIS