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SCOTTY TODD
EMBRACE THE GRACE
I want to minister to you the embrace of grace. It’s not only that grace embraces you, but you need to also embrace the grace.
Hebrews 13:9
9: Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.
The word established means to be “confirmed”. Other translations say you need to be “strengthened” with grace. He goes on in this verse to say, “not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.” If you’ve read the book of Hebrews you know that he is writing to people who were being lured back into the law of Moses, and were thereby falling from grace. And he says that the heart cannot be strengthened with meats and the observances of the law, but the heart needs to be strengthened by grace.
In the message of the finished work there are two primary facets. And in those two there are many parts, but I want to speak on those two primary areas. One is the legal side and the other is the vital side. The legal side is the negative side; the death side, and the vital side is the positive, or the life side of our redemption. One without the other causes the other one to fall apart, so we need them both.
Everybody has probably put together a jigsaw puzzle at one time or another. If I were to go into your home with a jigsaw puzzle and dump all the pieces out and then take the box away, you’d be in major trouble. Why is that? Because you need a picture of something to make all the pieces fit. That’s why you can’t only preach pieces; you’ve got to also preach the whole picture, and see the picture. You can’t make all the pieces work unless you see a whole picture of something finished. The gospel shares with us a picture of the finished work of Christ.
On the negative, or legal side Christ finished everything for us. But on the positive side, or the life side, we need to see that it is also something he does. Christ HAS NOT empowered us with the ability to mimic his life. It is He Himself, in fact and reality, that lives in and through us. And that is the way the Christian life works. We are all called to be ministers of reconciliation. We are to go out and go in with this message: HE HAS DONE SOMETHING, AND HE IS DOING SOMETHING.
LEARNING TO REST IN HIM
Now I want to share some pieces about the negative side. If you don’t learn to rest in the FINALITY of the cross you will never be able to rest in the REALITY of the resurrection. Both positions are rest. The work has been done: rest. The work is being done: rest.
The church practically worked me to death. It almost killed me. One thing after another was put on me to do. The biggest of all was that I was supposed to act like Jesus. I can’t even act like my wife! She is the most moral person that I knew before we were walking with the Lord, and she still is. But I can’t even copy her. Well, do you think I have any hope of imitating Jesus? We were never meant to imitate Jesus. God doesn’t need a mimic. He wants a vehicle. He doesn’t want a close representation of Him, He wants to live THROUGH our lives. He wants to reach out THROUGH our hands and touch people. He wants to reach out THROUGH our mouth and talk to people. He wants to walk THROUGH our legs and get to people. He wants to use us as a physical and spiritual being to communicate HIMSELF to other people through our lives. And if he is unable to do that, then we are crippled.
Lets look at Hebrews 2 and talk about identification for a little bit. We need to understand identification.
Hebrews 2:16-17
16: For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
17: Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
When it says, “it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren” it’s talking about identification. He made himself exactly like us. He identified Himself with us in our fallen condition. It’s very simple, but it’s absolutely necessary to see this. God did not give Jesus some higher, angelic nature, but He was made LIKE us. He took on a body LIKE all mankind. He had a body like ours. He got tired. He understood what it’s like to be human. He came to understand, for instance, why we grieve. God never knew firsthand, experientially why we grieve, why we hurt, what it’s like to grow up from an infant, into young adulthood and to know all of the things we feel. He saw and felt all of the struggles that you and I have. He identified Himself with us, and He became so much like us that He could understand “where we’re coming from”.
Also, in verse 17 he uses the word “reconciliation.” Now turn over to Romans 3 and we’ll talk about a big word called “propitiation”. The word “reconciliation” is from the same root word as the word “propitiation”.
Romans 3:21-26
21: But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22: Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24: Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood [that is, faith in his death] , to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26: To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
First of all, what the word propitiation means is a turning away of the wrath of God. Christ, through his death, served as the propitiation, or the instrument that turned away God’s wrath from mankind, so much so that God is not mad at the church today. Did you know that God has not been angry with you one day since you’ve been born again? Now this will shock you, but God’s not even angry with the world. Do you know why? It’s because “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,” (II Co. 5:19). God is not holding the sins of the world against them. It’s because He was in Christ, turning away His wrath from mankind, on to Christ, who became our propitiation. So the anger is over. The warfare is over. There is no war between us and God.
The second thing that it means is that Jesus has taken all sin. Propitiation means that Jesus turned away ALL wrath and He took away ALL of the sin. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past.” Hebrews 9:15 says the same thing: “For this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament…” Now let’s look at it for just a moment.
When I tell people that God is not holding their sins against them any more, they’ll say, “Well, I know that He brought me up to date when I got saved, but I’ve sinned since I’ve been saved. What about my sins after I’ve been saved?”
We know from Romans 4:15 that where there is no law there is no transgression. Where there was no law there was no sin imputed. Death was still working, but there can be no sin against a law when there is no law. Sin was in the world before Moses. So people were still dying the death, but their sins were not held against them. In Leviticus 19 they agreed. They said, “Okay, we’ll do what you tell us to do.” And he said, “Now you’re under Law.”
The only reason the Old Testament priesthood was set up was so that it could deal with sin. Because sin was the separator between God and man. Under that old system, when men sinned against God, their sin was covered by the blood of an animal. God honored that blood. He covered or atoned for what they did with the blood of animals. They agreed to do something, broke their agreement, and an animal’s blood had to be shed to cover that. But that blood never did do away with those sins. They were only covered. They were covered all the way up until Jesus arrived on the scene.
When Jesus became a propitiation for sin, he went all the way back and got all those sins that were under the Law, from the time that the law came in and men’s sins began to be held against them, and He cleaned everything, all the way back. See those Old Testament saints died in faith. But there sins were still there, only covered, but not paid for. What Christ did was he went back as far as the beginning of the law and cleaned all of that, then He reached clear out into the future, and cleansed every sin that would ever be committed by men in the future. That’s why God is not holding men’s sins against them. Because He has cleansed ONE TIME, by ONE SACRIFICE he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. God cleansed everything in the past and everything in the future.
You never have to worry again about being a disappointment to God. Never again think, “God is so disappointed with me. I’ll tell you why. He loved sinners. He hates sin. He loves homosexuals. He hates homosexuality. He loves divorcees. He hates divorce. He loves people, so He paid for what they do. When we hear the message, sometimes we think that God is saying, “You’re righteous - I say you are so let’s pretend.” Or, “You’re holy. Let’s just make believe you are.” We call God a liar when we think that. God is not in the self esteem business. He’s not teaching New Age. He calls you righteous and holy because He knows how the work got done. He sees you as you really are. You see yourself in a performance mode. He sees you as you really are, in Christ. Let me say again how important it is for you to understand what propitiation means: Jesus has turned away the wrath of God, and He has taken away every sin that you could ever sin.
In Romans 4 the Word tells us,
Romans 4:22-25
22: And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
23: Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
24: But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25: Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
In verse 25, where the KJV says “for” write above it “because of”. That’s what it means. He was delivered because of our offences and he was raised again becauseof our justification. You need to understand that God is the one that initiated all of this. God initiated this identification of you with the work of Christ. That’s why He can look at you and see you righteous because He knows what He did to cause that to be a reality. That’s why you need to also see it and know why it’s a reality.
See, God did not raise Jesus from the dead until you were justified. He was delivered into death because we were sinners, and He was raised from the dead because we had been made just. That’s what justification means: to be rendered innocent. Because all the sin back through time had been taken care of and all the sin forward into time had been taken care of, so God says, “Now you’re just.” That’s because that’s what you are! Jesus was not raised from the dead until you were justified.
Now go on reading in Romans 5.
Romans 5:1
1: Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
“We have peace….” There’s no more war. The word translated “peace” in this verse means “to be set at one again.” It means to reconcile two parties that have differences, to bring them back together again. It’s not talking about the aura of good feelings, or consolation or comfort we feel some times. It’s not talking about that. That’s what he’s talking about over in Philippians when he talks about the peace of God keeping your heart. But in this verse he’s talking about us being “set at one again” with God. There’s no more war. God is not holding anything against people because of what Jesus has done.
Did you know that Iam constantly asked to go and minister different places to help people get there act cleaned up. It’s not enough just to be told God’s not holding your sins against you. It is important to establish that fact: that God’s not angry with you, that your old man was crucified with Christ Jesus, and it’s all because of God’s great love for you. It’s the love that he showed us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It’s not that we love God but that He loved us and gave His son for us. We need to know that, but that alone does not change our behavior. That alone does not change our conduct. That alone brings confusion to the mind of the saint who says, “If God’s done all that, why am Ithinking the way Iam? Why am Istill doing the things that Ido?”
THE PROSTITUTE AND THE KING
Let me use an illustration to try to clear up the situation. Suppose a king were to give a blanket pardon to all of the prostitutes in his kingdom. There is now a total pardon, total release from guilt, nothing being held against them, nothing on their account. You know what you have now? A lot of happy prostitutes! See, hearing what God did for you, and that you’re free from guilt because of what’s been done will make you happy but it won’t change your lifestyle. You’re a new creation, but you’re living in a body of dust. The Spirit of God lives in you. He is light, so in you is no darkness at all because you’re in him who is light. But just knowing what has been done will not change your lifestyle. And just knowing that the king has decreed pardon will not change the prostitute. Because she still has a mindset that says, “I’ve got to earn my living.I’ve got to make my way for myself. I’m glad for what the king has done, but I’ve got to make my way in this world.”
This is why there is a separation in consciousness between the Lord and his people. Because we validate and acknowledge what He has done, but we’re perplexed as to why things keep happening the way they do.
Now here’s the answer. Let me tell you what the king does. The king goes to the prostitute who now has no criminal record; she’s cleared - she can’t be jailed for anything because there are no charges against her. He goes to her and he says, “Iwant you to become my wife.” See, the prostitute can never clean her life up because she’s got to make her own way - until she marries the king. When she marries the king she has come to the end of having to make things happen for herself. He’s got all the clothes for her. He’s got all the food - she’s taken to the banqueting table. She says, “How could you love me? You know what Iam?” He says, “No, you’re not that anymore. Ipardoned you. Iwas the one that did it. There’s no spot in you. You are altogether fair. What Iwant you to do is be my wife.”
Why does he do it? Just to make her clean up her act? Just to make her change her behavior? NO! The king says, “Iwouldn’t marry you just to change you.” People in churches are worked to death with this idea that all God wants to do is get your life cleaned up. He wants you as his wife! He wants to be wed to you! It’s because he loves you! He knows about your past, but it’s all gone because He did away with it. And then he took you to himself. See, this is what the book of Hosea is all about. He told us ahead of time what He was going to do, and now he’s called you to himself. Not so you could just barely squeak by in life, but to bring you into his very courts, to introduce you into his very lifestyle; to bring you unto himself! So that you can live life with him. That’s why we must have a message that declares more than information. Information will tell you what has happened, but a RELATIONSHIP will deliver you.
Look into John 11 with me. There are some very familiar scriptures here.