The Superabundance of God’s Grace:

This is also from Jo.seph Prin.ce’s book Des.tined To Rei.gn:

“Accusations Against Grace

In the book of Romans, Paul said, “What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1-2) Obviously Paul was misunderstood and accused of telling people to sin more so that grace may abound.  This is the same accusation that has been levelled against me.

But Paul never said, “Let us sin more so that grace may abound,” and neither have I.  I want to make this explicitly clear again: I, Jo.seph Prin.ce, am vehemently, aggressively and irrevocably against sin!  Sin is evil and it leads to destructive consequences.

I am on the same side as everyone who is against sin, only with this difference:  Some believe that victory over sin is found in preaching more of the law, but I find that in the Scriptures, victory over sin is found in the preaching of God’s grace.

Let’s read what Paul said in its context: Romans 5:20:  “²⁰ Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound.  But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.”

Have you noticed that the law entered so that sin might abound?  It clearly means that the more you preach the law, the more sin will abound.  After all, the strength of sin is the law.  Therefore when you see sin and preach more of the law, you are literally adding wood to the fire.

The Superabundance Of God’s Grace

In saying that “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more”, I am preaching the same message that Paul (it is good to be in Paul’s company) preached.  What Paul meant, which is also what I mean, is this:  Sin does not stop God’s grace from flowing, but God’s grace will stop sin.  Ask yourself which is greater, your sins or God’s grace?  The answer is obvious.  God’s grace is always greater!  In fact when you read “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” in the original Greek, it actually says that where sin abounds, grace “superabounds”.  So where there is sin, God’s grace is in superabundance!

We cannot be afraid to preach grace because it is the only power to stop sin in people’s lives.  When you fail, instead of feeling guilty and condemned, receive the superabounding grace of God that tells you that you are still the righteousness of God!  It is His superabounding grace that will rescue you from that sin.  Those who wallow in guilt and condemnation are the ones who have no ability to overcome their sins.  Since they believe that God’s grace has departed, what hope can they have?  Victory over sin comes only when people encounter the superabundance of God’s grace.  It is His grace that has made sinners righteous!

God’s Justice Is On Your Side Today

“Pas.tor Prin.ce, how can I be righteous when I have done nothing right, and especially when I have just failed?”

I will answer your question if you can tell me this:  How could Jesus be condemned as a sinner when He committed no sin?

Jesus took all your sins upon Himself on the cross.  And once your sins have been punished, it would be “unrighteous” of God to demand payment for your sins again.  He cannot punish your sins twice!  Yes, it is holy, right and just for God to punish sin.  But having punished sin on the body of your substitute Jesus Christ, God will not demand punishment for your sins again, precisely because He is holy and just.

So if you understand that God’s justice has already been executed at the cross, you will see that today, as a new covenant believer under grace, God’s holiness, God’s righteousness and God’s justice are ON YOUR SIDE demanding your acquittal, deliverance, healing, prosperity…  God’s justice today demands that you have and enjoy all the benefits of the cross.

Don’t miss out on this powerful revelation.  This is the gospel of Jesus!  Because all your sins have been punished in the body of your substitute Jesus Christ, God’s righteousness is on your side demanding your justification and forgiveness.  That is why, even when you fail, God’s grace will superabound and swallow up your failure.  It has been paid for on Calvary.

The Bible says that “if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins”. (1 John 2:1-2)  Jesus is your Advocate today and He demands your acquittal.  His blood has been shed and He became the propitiation (mercy seat) for all your sins.  When God looks at you, all He sees is the blood of Jesus that makes you completely righteous.  Hallelujah!”

The Contrast Between The Law and Grace:

This is from Jo.seph Prin.ce’s book Destined to Reign:

“I want to show you two Bible stories that effectively contrast law and grace.  These stories are found in Luke chapters 18 and 19.  In Luke 18:18-23, we have the story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Now, think about this question for a moment.  What should the right evangelical answer be?

The right evangelical answer should be, “Believe on Me and you will inherit eternal life.” But that was not what Jesus said to him.  Instead, Jesus gave him the Law of Moses, saying, “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honour your father and your mother.’” Jesus gave him the Ten Commandments.  Why?  Because the young ruler came with pride, believing that he could do something to earn and deserve eternal life.  Whenever you come boasting in your efforts, Jesus will give you the Law of Moses.

Now, listen to what the young man said in response to Jesus, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”  Amazing!  This man actually claimed that he had kept all the Ten Commandments from his youth!  Like the Pharisees, some people really think that they are able to keep all the laws of Moses, not knowing that they have lowered God’s law to a place where they think they can keep it.  Jesus came to bring the law back to its pristine standard – not only must there be an outward adherence to the law, there must also be an inward adherence.  Jesus showed that God’s law is beyond man’s own efforts.  The young man was probably expecting Jesus to compliment him on his law-keeping, and was feeling really confident of himself.  But notice what Jesus said to him.  Instead of complimenting him, He said, “One thing you still lack.”

You see every time you still boast in your law-keeping, Jesus will find something that you lack.  In this case, He told the young man to sell all that he had, give it to the poor and follow Him.  The young man had boasted that he had kept all the commandments, but now, Jesus was giving him the very first commandment:  “You shall have no other gods before Me,” (not even money) (Exodus 20:3) and look at what happened.  The young ruler walked away, sorrowful.  He was not even able to give one dollar to the Lord!

Think about the amazing privilege to follow Jesus, Jesus gave the man an opportunity to follow Him, but the man could not because he could not bear to part with his wealth.  In all his boasting, he could not even keep the very first commandment.

My friend, if you come to the Lord full of self-righteousness, boasting in your ability to keep the law, He will show you that, according to the law, there is “one thing you still lack”.

Grace opens your heart

Now, let’s go over to Luke 19:1-10.  Jesus walked into Jericho and a crowd gathered to see Him.  Then, as He passed by a sycamore tree, He looked up and saw Zacchaeus, short, little Zacchaeus who had climbed the tree hoping to catch a glimpse of Jesus as He walked by.

Zacchaeus was a corrupt tax collector, a sinner.  But instead of giving him the Ten Commandments, Jesus showed him grace (undeserved favour) and invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ house.  Of course, the people in the crowd were displeased and they said, “He had gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”

Now, observe hat happened at Zacchaeus’ house.  Before the dinner was over, Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”  Jesus smiled and said, “Today, salvation has come to this house.”

I believe it was the Holy Spirit who put these two stories side by side.  I don’t believe they happened chronologically.  I believe that the Holy Spirit placed them in this divine order to show us the contrasting effects of being under the covenant of the law and being under the covenant of grace.

When the rich young ruler came boasting in his own law-keeping, Jesus answered with the law.  And the young man could hardly give a dollar to Jesus and walked away sorrowful.  But in the very next chapter, when Jesus gave no law but showed His grace, it not only opened Zacchaeus’ heart, it also opened up his wallet!  Can you imagine this?  It opened up the wallet of a corrupt tax collector.  That’s truly the power of grace!  It leads one to true repentance.  When you experience His grace, you can’t help but be generous.

After Jesus lavished His unconditional love and grace on Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus’ heart overflowed with the undeserved, unmerited and unearned favour of God.  He knew deep in his heart that as a sinner and corrupt tax collector, he did not deserve to have Jesus come to his house.  All He had hoped for was to catch a glimpse of Jesus from the sycamore tree, but God’s goodness far exceeded his expectations.  And just as Peter was brought to his knees when he saw Jesus’ goodness, Zacchaeus was led to repentance when he experienced Jesus’ goodness.  You see, the law condemns the self-righteous, but grace will transform the sinner.

Unlike the young ruler Zacchaeus did not come to Jesus boasting in his law-keeping.  He knew that he was undeserving and that is why Jesus was able to shower grace on him.  In the same way, many believers today won’t allow themselves to receive grace from the Lord because like the young ruler, their trust is in their own righteousness and law-keeping.  When you depend on the law, the law will be given back to you to expose the areas that you are lacking in.  Once you think that you have perfectly kept the law, there will always be “one thing you still lack”.

The role of the law is to bring you to the end of yourself, to bring you to a place where you know in no uncertain terms that you cannot do anything to deserve God’s salvation, blessings and favour.  Our heavenly Father is waiting for us to give up on our own efforts.  The moment you begin to repent from all the dead works that you have been doing to try and qualify for and deserve God’s acceptance and blessings, God will lavish on you His abundant grace – His undeserved, unearned and unmerited favour.

(The word “repent” is the Greek word metanoeo, which according to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, simply means to “change one’s mind”.  Because we have been influenced by our denominational background as well as our own religious upbringing, many of us have the impression that repentance is something that involves mourning and sorrow.)

God is after inward heart transformation

“But Pastor Prince, if I give up on keeping the Law of Moses, what is going to govern my behaviour and ensure that it is acceptable to God?”

You don’t have to worry about how your behaviour will be governed without a consciousness of the law.  The Word of God says that grace will teach you – “For the grace of God… has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts…” (Titus 2:11-12)

Grace is a teacher and it taught Zacchaeus.  Do you remember his response after he experienced the abundance of grace?  He said, “I give half my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”  It is grace that leads people to true repentance.  Grace does not result in superficial behaviour modification, but inward heart transformation.

It is not fiery preaching on God’s judgement that leads us to repentance.  It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.

Get hold of anointed teachings, and hear more and more about the grace of God, His finished work and His goodness.  Start “changing your mind” – from putting yourself under the old covenant of law to seeing yourself enjoying the undeserved favour of God under the new covenant of grace!”

The Divine Exchange:

This is only part of (Sermon # 176 Part 1 of 3) Why you can expect good things to happen to you, by Jo.seph Prin.ce:

“Today I want to share with you something that is a culmination of all that we have heard the past few months.  What is the attitude that we ought to have?  If God has made us righteous through Jesus’ blood, what is the attitude we ought to have?

What is our lot in life?  Since Adam fell, the consequences of the fall, the effects of Adam’s sin, has brought in all the D’s, you know, destruction, disease, death, depression…  It’s come upon men, now, man is you and I, the ground we stand on is called cursed ground, it’s like there is a cloud over your head and it’s raining all the time.  You know, everywhere he goes, the rain follows him…  It’s like he is always under depression.

What happened was that God loved us so much, that God could not leave us in this state, of death…  God sent His Son Jesus.  What was the purpose of sending Jesus?  No listen carefully, God sent Jesus to take our place – what does that mean?  That is actually half the gospel – Many places we are only hearing half the gospel.  In my previous church I heard for many years only half the gospel – how Jesus died for my sins, how Jesus came as my redeemer, as my saviour, but the Bible says that when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, God brought them out to bring them in.   God didn’t bring them out to wander in the wilderness.  God brought them out of bondage to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey.  Many believers are out but they are not in…They are wondering, wandering in the wilderness…  So, they are not here, nor there…

This is half the gospel – that Jesus took our place – the other half is this:  that God put everything that you deserve – now if we stop right now… There is no end to what you and I deserve, we can say that depression, failure, poverty, curse, everything…  Because of Adam’s sin and our sin, everything that you and I deserve, Jesus came to take.  The other half is – all that Jesus deserves – you take…

In a covenant it is called an exchange – where the two parties will take each other’s place.  This is what happens in a covenant, Jesus takes our place and we take Jesus’ place, now listen carefully, now you are no more on cursed ground.

This is what happened to Jesus at the cross:  All that you deserve, Jesus became, and God did not even spare His Son, because if He (Jesus) took our place He had to suffer like a sinner, He had to die and He never sinned – he never was a sinner.  So God gave Jesus everything that you deserve – did Jesus become sin because he sinned?  Did you become righteous because you did righteous deeds?  No!  How did Jesus become sin?  He received our sin – how did you and I become righteous?  We received His righteousness.

Christianity is not what you renounce or what you do, because all of this still speak of self… It is not what you renounce or what you do, Christianity is what you receive…   Salvation begins when you receive.  Christian life is continued by receiving.

Now, what happens is this:  Many Christians are on Jesus’ ground, favoured ground, grace ground, the light shines on you, while darkness fell on Jesus…  God turned His back on Jesus, so that God can face you and never leave you or forsake you, in the countenance of God is life and light forever more and His presence is joy.  The Bible tells us in the Old Testament that the back of God is the curse, in fact there is a verse that says sickness, and inflammation is behind Him, I think it tells you that in the book of Job.  So God turned His back and Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  He cried this so that you and I know that he was forsaken at the time, and He called His Father for the first time, “My God.”   He never called Him, “My God,”  it was always, “My Father,”  so that you and I can call God, “Father…”

The divine exchange took place – this is how much God loves you and me.  God loves us so much that God gave Jesus to take everything that we have, but don’t forget that is half of it, so that we can take everything that He has and that He deserve.  Now because of what Jesus has done, listen carefully, you and I, we are on grace ground…  Are you supposed to bow your head, look depressed, look sad, and expect bad things to happen?  No!  If you still expect bad things to happen, if you are still depressed, if you still act like God doesn’t love you, doesn’t care for you, you are actually pushing away all that Jesus did for you.  You are still saying that, “I am the old person,” when actually the divine exchange took place, and this is where most Christians are missing it.  Most Christians miss it right here!  They look at Jesus and say, “O, Jesus you died for my sins, O, Jesus you are my saviour, O, Jesus you are so good, so lovely…”  But then they do not know what has happened to them.

They are standing on grace ground, where ever you go is favoured ground, you can be walking with a colleague, side by side at the workplace, but the guy is on cursed ground and you are on favoured ground, and the favour of God is with you everywhere you go.  So God told me to tell you this, He wants you to have this attitude towards life, even this coming week, there is a word that He is going to give you in a while’s time, but the main thing is this, He wants you to face life believing that everything that Jesus deserves, you will get.  It will be good for you to take time, today if you can, to take time to think, “If God really treats me the way that He treats Jesus, what can I expect to face this week?”  You know, you and I, we do not know what is going to happen, we can say, Pastor Prin.ce no one knows what is going to happen in the future.  Correct!  But I can tell you my future; I will get whatever Jesus deserves.  This week I will get whatever Jesus deserves…  “Are you saying that there will be no trouble in your life?”  No, even when trouble comes, because Jesus deserves deliverance from trouble, peace in the midst of trouble, I will get that.

“Pastor Prince, I don’t think you are that smart to receive this kind of success, this kind of church success and your career success…”  You know what, I agree 101% with you, but you know what?  It’s not what I deserve, it’s what Jesus deserves.  Do you think Jesus deserves this kind of success?  Well, he gives me what He deserves…

So once you think like that, once you focus like that, the devil has nothing on you.  The devil wants you to focus on what you deserve, do you understand?  You see this is the word God told me to give you, write it down somewhere, you know the things of God are simple but powerful, this is what God said;  “Tell the people, expect good things to them, not because they deserve it, but because I love them.”  Once again, “Expect good things to happen to you, not because you deserve it, but because God loves you.”

You see if you think you deserve it because today you are extra holy, allright, you gave money to the poor or you went to do some charitable work or you got involved with more work in church or whatever…  You think you are extra holy, you know something, the devil will find something wrong and he will pull that little string and the whole thing will unravel.  But…  You say that; “It’s not because I deserve it that I expect good thing to happen this week, it’s because Jesus loves me…  God loves me,” you know what?  The devil has nothing to pull, when it’s God’s love in your life.  Amen?  Praise the Lord!”

Gobsmacked:

Yesterday I took baby G to the paediatrician – something that does not happen often as he is generally really healthy, but he’s been puking once a day since Thursday afternoon and we decided to rather have a doctor look at him even though he didn’t really look sick in general.  I explained to the doctor that Baby G didn’t have much of an appetite especially after puking and that he wasn’t even interested in breast milk, which is still his all time favourite meal and up to this past weekend he’s never refused to nurse before.

Well, it turns out baby G has a post nasal drip that makes him nauseous and that causes the loss of appetite and puking in the late afternoon or early evening.  After the check up the doctor wanted me to sit down and got quite stern with me.  He seemed offended and angry and he demanded to know why I was still nursing baby G.  I think at first I must have just stared at him, because I could not understand why he was acting this way.

The doctor then told me that there is no nutritional benefit in nursing baby G at his age anymore and that there is also no more immunological benefit in nursing him at this age and that I should stop immediately.  I did not even argue with this doctor because I was so surprised and taken aback by his tirade.  His final comment to me was, “are you going to be one of those moms that nurse their child until he is in grade 5?”

In the afternoon when baby G was taking a nap (after nursing him to sleep) I searched the internet on whether it is still beneficial to nurse from 16 months onwards and I must say, I could not find any evidence of what this doctor told me is true, as a matter of fact all the articles I read were the complete opposite.

Why is there so much opposition and criticism if you want to nurse your baby after a year?  This is not the first time someone’s asked me this and most of the time I get the feeling they disapprove, but I must say this was the worst reaction so far.  I cannot understand why he reacted the way he did.  I didn’t actually sit and nurse baby G in front of him…  Why did he take it so personally?

Before having baby G I never thought of breastfeeding much.  I guess I always wanted to try to breastfeed because I heard that its really good for a baby, but I had an operation on my left breast at the age of 19 and my midwife did warn me that there would be a good chance that I would not be able to nurse.  Since I believe God healed me of infertility by getting pregnant I also believed that God would heal my breast so that I can nurse and I must say I have had no problems nursing from my left breast.

When I saw there were no problems with milk production or nursing I set myself a goal of nursing him to 6 months at least or until he was well established with eating solids.  The 6 month old mark came and went and I had no desire to stop and neither did baby G, and as a matter of fact there was no real reason to stop.  We went through a stage where baby G bit my nipples a bit, but I always immediately removed my nipple from his mouth and stopped nursing him.  He quickly realized that it was not beneficial for him to bite me and he hasn’t bitten me in such a long time.

I must say Baby G is definitely a picky eater, and we do struggle to get him to eat a proper meal.  Apparently at the crèche it is no issue, and I must say I’m glad he gets 2 meals there and that I don’t have to struggle to get him to eat those meals.  So nursing has always been a bit of a conscience soother for me – to know that if he doesn’t want to eat solid food, but he does nurse means that he will not go to bed hungry.  I guess that was one of the things that upset me so yesterday, because suddenly I was doubting myself and wondering if I’ve been doing my baby harm, by nursing him instead of forcing him to eat solid food.

The fact that I’m still nursing has complicated things with regards to us trying for number 2, because my cycles are incredibly irregular and I suspect that I’m actually still not ovulating, even though I do get AF.  I’ve taken OPK’s a few cycles (not all) and I never got a positive test.  Once on CD21 the test was almost positive, but it was my last one and I did not want to buy a new pack, so I decided to assume the next day would be the LH surge.  Two days later AF arrived.  So that cycle was only 22 days and most of my cycles have been short, but I’ve also had one cycle of 36 days, but none of 28 days.  Even though I long to be pregnant again, that desire is not so strong that I want to stop nursing baby G, because it is obvious to me that he is not ready to stop emotionally and I do not want to force it on him if he is not ready.  I trust that God can and will make me pregnant even while I’m still breastfeeding.  I mean it’s not impossible – it happens quite often, so why can’t it happen to me?

I think I’m rambling a bit so I should rather just stop.  What I meant to say with this post was that I’m surprised by the doctor’s reaction, and very disturbed by it.  Why is it so unacceptable in modern society to nurse one’s toddler?  I’m not talking about the controversial nursing in public, because I never do that – just nursing a couple of times a day in private is also frowned upon…

Picture Of Pure Grace:

I want to share this message out of Jo.seph Prin.ce’s book Des.tined to Rei.gn:

“Pure Grace from Egypt to Sinai

When God liberated the children of Israel from the bondage of slavery in Egypt; He did not do so because they had kept the 10 Commandments.  The 10 Commandments had not even been given yet.  The children of Israel came out of Egypt by the blood of the Lamb.

The Lord showed me something a number of years ago that ushered me into the Gospel Revolution.  I was sitting in my living room, just spending time in the Word, when He spoke to me and said, “Son, study the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Mount Sinai for this is a picture of pure grace.  Not a single Israelite died during this period although they murmured and complained.

I had never heard anyone preach that before and neither had I read it in any book  So, feverishly, I turned to that portion of the Scriptures, trying to find someone who had died, so that I could prove God wrong!  Have you been there before, trying to prove God wrong?  Well, you can never succeed, and indeed, I could not find any Israelite who died even though the people murmured and complained.

Even though God had rescued the children of Israel from their Egyptian slave masters by performing great signs and wonders, the children of Israel failed to honour God, and murmured and complained over and over again.  When the Egyptian army came thundering toward them from behind and the Red Sea was before them, the children of Israel cried out to Moses saying, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?” (Exodus 14:11)

That was a complaint against God, and murmuring and complaining are sins.  But what was God’s response?  He opened up the Red Sea and they crossed over to dry land on the other side, safe from their enemies.  Even after God had brought them safely to the other side of the sea, the murmuring continued.  At Marah, they complained about the bitter waters.  What was God’s response?  He made the bitter waters sweet (Exodus 15:23-25).  In the wilderness, they cried out against Moses, when they were hungry.  What was God’s response?  He rained bread from heaven (Exodus 16:2-4).  But still the children of Israel complained.  When there was no water again, they cried out against Moses saying, “Why is it you have brought us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3)  What was God’s response?  He brought water out of the flinty rock.

Study the Bible yourself.  You’ll find that every time the children of Israel murmured and complained, it only brought forth fresh demonstrations of God’s favour, supply and goodness.  Why?  Because during that period, the blessings and provisions they received were not dependent on their obedience or goodness.  They were dependent on God’s goodness and faithfulness to the Abrahamic covenant, which was a covenant of grace.

The Exchange Of Covenants at Mount Sinai

Then something tragic happened right at the foot of Mount Sinai.  In Exodus 19:8, your English Bible says that the people cried out to Moses, saying, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”  In the original Hebrew text, this is actually a statement of pride.  They were saying, “All that God requires and demands of us, we are well able to perform.”  In other words, they were saying, “God, stop assessing or blessing us based on Your goodness.  Start assessing, judging and blessing us based on our obedience.”  So they effectively exchanged covenants, from the Abrahamic covenant which is based on grace, to the Sinaitic covenant which is based on the law.

All this while, God was with them and had fought for them.  He opened up the Red Sea, rained manna from heaven and brought water out of the flinty rock, even though they kept murmuring and complaining.  But the moment they said those prideful words, God had to change His tone.  He told Moses to instruct the people not to go near the mountain, for “whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.”  (Exodus 19:12)

Why do you think God changed His demeanour here?  It was because man presumed on his own strength and entered into a covenant based on his obedience.  This is what we call self-righteousness.  Since the people wanted to be judged based on their performance, in the very next chapter, God gave them the 10 Commandments.  From then on, since they boasted that they could do all that God commanded, God had to asses them based on His laws.  He would bless them if they kept His commandments, but they would be cursed if they failed to do so.  What the people did not understand was that they had to obey all of the 10 Commandments perfectly because if they failed in one, they would be guilty of all (James 2:10).  You see the law is a composite whole and God does not grade on a curve.

Now, let’s see what happened when the children of Israel placed themselves under the law.  After they boasted that they could fulfil all that God commanded of them, the works of the flesh were immediately manifested. They broke the very first commandment – “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3) – by fashioning a golden calf and worshipping it as their god! (Exodus 32:1-8)  Isn’t that sad?  So be careful when you boast of keeping of defending the law because the works of the flesh will follow soon after.

From that point onwards, every time the children of Israel murmured and complained, many of them would die.  Observe this:  Before Sinai, none died.  After Sinai, the moment the murmured they died.  Before Sinai, every failure brought forth a fresh manifestation of God’s favour.  But now that the Israelites were under the covenant of law, sin had to be punished.  Their blessings and provisions depended on their perfect obedience, and every failure and sin would result in judgement and punishment.

That is why the law of Moses is called the ministry of death and condemnation.  It is an inflexible standard that had to minister death and condemnation to the Israelites whenever they sinned.  You would think that after 2000 years people would learn, but there are believers today who are still using the same refrain as the children of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai.  They are bragging, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

We Are No Longer Under The Old Covenant

Can you see what the Lord was showing me?  The Israelites’ journey from Egypt to Sinai was a picture of pure grace.  It was not dependent on their goodness but His goodness, not on their faithfulness but His faithfulness.  Before the law was given they were under grace and nobody was punished even when they failed.  But immediately after the law was given, nobody was spared when they failed.  The good news is that we are no longer under the old covenant of law.  We have been delivered from the law through Jesus’ death on the cross.   Because of Jesus Christ, we are now under the new covenant of grace, which means that today, God does not assess us based on our performance, but on His goodness and faithfulness.

Why are there believers today living as though the cross made no difference?  Instead of enjoying the new covenant of grace, they are still fighting to be under the old covenant of law and the 10 commandments.  I declare to you that the cross of Jesus did make a difference.  If you are still trying to live under the law, trying to be justified by your obedience to the law, you are effectively negating what Jesus has already done for you on the cross!

Under the old covenant, God said, “I will by no means clear the guilty.”  (Exodus 34:7)  However, in the new covenant, God says, “I will remember your sins no more.”  (Hebrews 8:12; 10:17)  Can you see the contrast?  It is the same God speaking, so what happened?  The cross happened, my friend.  The cross made the difference.  Today, God does not remember your sins or hold them against you because He has already judged them in the body of His Son.   Believers get confused when they do not realize that the cross has made a difference.  Consider this:  If we are still supposed to be under the 10 Commandments as many argue, then what did the cross of Jesus accomplish?

Grace Has Done What The Law Could Not Do

“Pastor Prince, are you insinuating that there is something wrong with the law?”

No, off course not!  There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the law.  As Apostle Paul said, “What shall we say then?  Is the law sin?  Certainly not!  On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law…”  (Romans 7:7)  I am saying exactly the same thing that Paul said.  It is through the law that we have the knowledge of sin, but that is all that the law can do.  It exposes your sins.  It cannot cover, cleanse or remove your sins.  The law was designed to show forth our sins to bring us to despair and lead us to the realization that by our own efforts, we can never save ourselves.  It was designed to show us that we all need a Saviour who can cleanse and remove our sins.  That is the purpose of the law.

While the law is holy, just and good, it has no power to make us holy, just or good.  Only Jesus’ magnificent grace and the splendour of His love can make you holy, just and good.  And His blood has already made you holy, just and good!  God has already done what the law could not do.  How?  By sending His own Son to be condemned on your behalf, so that you could be made the righteousness of God.  That is your position today – you are made righteous in Christ.

With the advent of the new covenant, the Bible says that God has made the old covenant obsolete.  (Hebrews 8:13)  Stop fighting to hold on to something which the Bible has declared to be obsolete!  The law condemns the best of us.  Even David was condemned under the law and I personally esteem him to be the best of those under the old covenant.  The law condemns the best of us, but grace saves the worst of us.  Under law, if you break one law, you will be guilty of all.  By the same token, under grace, if you do one thing right, and that is to believe on the Lord Jesus, then you will be justified from all!  (Acts 13:39)”

16 Months:

Gosh, our precious boy is getting so big!  It feels like we can see him grow.  Here are his measurements on 30 April 2013:

Weight:  10.41 kg

Length:  80 cm

Head circumference:  48.5 cm

His personality is really showing now, he is really a little chatterbox who talks all the time!  I can see at the crèche when I drop him off or pick him up that the other little ones in his class don’t say much, but Baby G doesn’t shut up for a minute!  Everyone at the crèche absolutely adores him, and he gets away with things that the other kids don’t!  He sure has a way of charming people into doing what he wants!  For instance, the other kids need to sleep in the camp cots at specific times, but Baby G never sleeps in his.  It’s used for storage of chairs and toys.  Baby G plays all day in the class room or outside, depending on the weather, and the other day when I went to fetch him 2 bigger boys were competing for his attention, both wanting to play with him.

Sleeping:  It’s only on a rare occasion that Baby G naps at the crèche.  Most days he naps from about 13h30 or 14h00 for the first time, but then he will sleep easily for 2-3 hours, but he does wake up 2-3 times in that time, so it’s not continuous.  It’s happened that we’ve had to wake him up at about 17h30, to feed him and bathe him, so that he can go to sleep again at 19h00.  This is a routine that works well for me, because if he does nap at school he often falls asleep after 12h00 and then I have to wake him at 13h00 to take him home.  If that happens he will not nap again for the day, and he is often cranky and tired by 16h00 or so.

Night time sleeping is so much better!  He’s had a lot of nights where he either slept through or woke up for the first time around 5h00 or just before.  That is the time that DH gets up for work, so I think it’s his routine that causes this, but we are also seeing improvement in this habit lately.  If he does wake in the early hours of the morning baby G will often talk a bit by himself and fall asleep again soon after.  I’m really glad about this because it is starting to get cold at night and it’s not been very pleasant to get up and nurse him.  Last winter I moved baby G in bed with us, but that meant that I really did not sleep very well at all, because baby G would wake up or cry out numerous times during the night and I don’t want that again this winter, so I’m hoping that he will start to sleep through every night now in his own cot.

Eating:  Baby G eats really well at the crèche, it’s only on the odd occasion that they tell me that he did not eat well.  The porridge he eats in the morning is more than what he used to eat all day here at home, and then he eats another bowl of veggies for lunch, so we are really pleased with that.  Dinner time is still a bit of a struggle, but I think that is because baby G nurses a lot in the late afternoons and early evenings.  That is the time of day that he still drinks the most breast milk.  We give him fruit, cheese or yogurt to snack on and he loves to feed himself now, and most of the time he doesn’t mess a lot either.

Teeth:  For 4 months baby G did not get any new teeth but this past month he made up for it.  He’s had quite a lot of teething symptoms, you know the toxic poo’s and nappy rash that comes with it especially, and I could at first not understand why the teeth are not coming through.  Until last week when I noticed that he has 2 molars at the top already, and we just could not see them!  He also cut one lateral incisor at the bottom last week and it seems there is another canine at the top that is almost ready to cut.

Favourites:  Baby G has a new obsession – shoes.  At first he loved to try and walk with his one foot in one of DH’s or my shoes.  Then when it got colder we bought him a pair of sho shoes and he loves his own shoes now.  (He also  has a pair of crocs.)  If I ask him; “where are your shoes?” he will run and fetch them for me to put on.  He calls them “koete”, which is I think a combination of the words “voete” (feet) and “skoene” (shoes).  This morning when I dressed him, he got his shoes out first and he was holding them saying the word koete over and over again.  So I said, skoe-ne, skoe-ne… and he would repeat koe-te, koe-te, after me and it was so cute! He would show me the shoes when he said koe-te, and press them against his feet, showing me that they need to go there.

Another favourite is to shower with daddy every night.  If DH asks him if he wants to shower he will drop everything and he will run to the bathroom, often times he’ll pull on his clothes, to try and get them off.  Yesterday morning DH wanted to shower and I was still in bed with baby G nursing him, and when he heard the shower he stopped immediately, got off the bed and ran to the bathroom.  Nursing is still one of the best things for baby G, so if showering ranks higher than that then he must really love it! (The next picture looks the way it does because of the steam in the shower)

Milestones:  Baby G loves to run, and he especially loves to run away from us.  He also thought up a game – he would bring the TV remote to DH and ask; “Ta?” and when DH wants to take it he will pull it away and run away, screaming with laughter.  He sure has a sense of humour.

He is more and more affectionate – about 2 months ago he started to give hugs and last week I got a kiss for the first time.  Last night I showed him twice how to blow a kiss to his daddy when it was time to go to bed and after the second time he pressed the back of his hand against his mouth and then blew on it.  So cute!  Daddy was really impressed!

Baby G has figured out how to pull and push our dining room chairs around and then climb on them to get to high places he cannot reach.  A few weeks ago I walked into the kitchen and there he was on the chair pressing the buttons on the microwave.  He must have moved the chair at least 4-5 metres by himself, around the breakfast nook in the kitchen, because I did not move the chair there and neither did DH.

I’ve noticed that baby G is starting to interact when I read him his books.  He shows me pictures and then says things like; “mamma,” if there is a picture of a mommy with a baby, or he says ha-ha-ha, when he sees an elephant, because of the rhyme, “Oom Olifant”, where I say ha-ha-ha in the rhyme.  He loves his books and often times he will pick one up and bring it to me to read to him.

Baby G also loves to entertain us – most nights just before bed time he climbs onto the coffee table and starts to dance and sing for us.  He is a bit shy so he dances and sings a bit, then  he gets shy, and we have to encourage him to go on, which he usually does.  I must see if one of the videos we took of him is good enough quality to post on Yo.u Tu.be so that you all can see.

Firsts:  There was a photographer at the crèche this month, so we got our first school pictures.

You Are Spotless:

I love this Dai.ly Gra.ce Inspi.ration from Jo.seph Prin.ce I received today.  Is once again on righteousness, and I want to share it with you:

Song Of Solomon 4:7 7You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you.

Jesus tells us His bride, “You are all fair, My love, and there is no spot in you.” But our reply to Him tends to be, “Me? All fair and no spot? You don’t know me, Lord!” Do you really think that God doesn’t know you? God sees reality like no one else sees it. He sees the perfection of His Son’s finished work in your life. By one offering of Himself at the cross, Jesus has perfected you forever! (Hebrews 10:14) You have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21) And you will never find any spot in this righteousness that Jesus died to give you. So God wants you to see yourself righteous—all fair and spotless in Christ. Every day, be conscious of your righteousness in Christ. Say, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ. There is no spot in me whom He has perfected with His blood.” When you do that, you are honoring Jesus and His finished work. If you are conscious of your sins, then you are not honoring the work of Christ. You may think that you are being humble or holy by being sin-conscious. But do you know that the Bible calls sin-consciousness an “evil conscience”? Hebrews 10:21–22 tells us that since we have Jesus as our High Priest, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience”. What does the writer of Hebrews mean by “an evil conscience”? If you read the beginning of the same chapter, you will find that he is talking about a “consciousness of sins”. (Hebrews 10:2) Paul calls it a “conscience seared with a hot iron”. (1 Timothy 4:2) The Greek word for “seared” here is kauteriazo, and it means to carry about with you a perpetual consciousness of sin. So don’t carry with you an evil or seared conscience. Your lifetime of sins has already been punished fully in the body of Jesus at the cross. Be conscious, instead, of your perfection and righteousness in Christ. Because of what Jesus has done for you, you can boldly declare, “I am all fair. There is no spot in me!””