Humans believe sin can separate us from God but sin is actually the thing that drew Him near; it's where Grace abounds. Because of Grace, all evidence is not admissible in His court. Whatever you think keeps you from being reconciled to God has been dealt with by Him. Now, it's simply a matter of you believing it in your heart and confessing it with your mouth, so you can be free from it.
Despite the popularity to mix law with Grace in society, which denies God's legal justification to accept you, Love always wins. Don't get me wrong, for those who roll their eyes whenever they hear someone speak on grace. I love His law but won't use it to incarcerate others. There is a distinction in a boat and the wake it produces. The boat produces the wake, not the other way around, so if you knew who you were in Christ, you'd delight in His laws as you moved through life.
Not optional: Followers of The Way reckon ourselves and others as acceptable, placed in right relationship with God because His justification is a judicial reckoning in His court.
He made Christ who knew no sin to [judicially] be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God [that is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious loving kindness]. 2 Cor 5:21 AMP
Believing with the heart will change your mind. Speaking with your mouth creates the environment for change. Although simple and His yoke is easy, it's not easy to believe with your heart. Changing your mind into a Grace mindset IS the cross between our ears! It's illogical (to human calculation) that your neighbor could be equally accepted by God. Believing with your heart the Son of Man was raised from the dead by God requires you to identify what exactly Jesus did. Without the remission of Sin, then He was just another good man.
Forgiving others is counter-intuitive to what "seems" right. From human argument, we hold grudges, unable to flow in the kind of love that sets captives free. Without accepting His love is unconditional, we can't give it unconditionally, presenting ourselves to the world as His offspring.
Forgiveness doesn't come natural to flesh because it assumes natural consequences must be set aside. Someone out of sync with Spirit assumes they're the prosecutor; they lie in wait to introduce evidence because that's how they live, circumstantially.
Imagine a man jumping from a tall building; who'll fall to his death unless he supersedes the law of gravity with the higher law of aerodynamics. Unless he "grows wings" he will die naturally. Christ supersedes the law of gravity by carrying us up with Him to His equal. As gravity is to the law of gravity, Christ is wings to the law of aerodynamics. The law of sin and death no longer has it's sting.
God lowered Himself to become a man, then offered Himself as a permanent sacrifice to judicially become sin on our behalf; He was buried and raised from the dead by Creator God. The transformed mind accepts this love and gives it unconditionally because we are His offspring. The circumstantial mind fails to accept truth because it doesn't understand how Grace effects natural consequences. Since we're all living in earthen vessels, ALL our human natures think circumstantially. The cross reckons this old man as dead, as a judicial ruling. By faith, we accept the ruling of the Court.
The truth is that if it rains on the just and the unjust (those who are morally upright and those who oppose Him) then so is His love given to those who love Him and are unrepentant (Matt 5:45). If you love only those who love you what reward do you have? If He loved only those who loved Him, then He'd cease to be God.
David Roberts,
an ambassador sent by God
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