Living In Grace

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

LIVING IN GRACE

Heb 10:15-18

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16 "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." 17 Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." 18 And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

NIV

We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us; thus, we know this testimony. We know this covenant. We know deep down within the very core of our being the law of God. We know how we are supposed to live, but are we living in the manner God desires us to live? We have deep within us the whole of the word of God for if we have read it, it is somewhere within the banks of our memory. However, that is not the law that God has put on our hearts. He has not put all the requirements of the law that was given to Moses within our hearts. That law required a daily sacrifice for our sins, and the Holy Spirit testifies that God will not remember our lawless acts of sin anymore. Because we are forgiven, we are forgiven forever. It is difficult for us to understand how God will remember our sins no more. It is difficult to think that God would not remember anything, for he is God and knows all things. Because we humans cannot come to the place where we will not remember the offenses of others against us, we have a struggle thinking that God, who knows all, including our hearts and minds, would say that he will not remember our sins. That is grace personified, a grace we humans are incapable of having within. Still, to consider, as we have before, that we are absolutely free from the penalty of sin for all eternity. Although we do not know eternity yet, what we can know is that we are free from that penalty for the rest of our lives. Jesus paid the price for our sins by that one and final act of sacrifice with his own blood so that by the blood of the Lamb all sin has been forgiven. That means past, present, and future sin. This does not mean we are free to go and find every possible way to sin. That is not the freedom we have to live in. Of course, we want to live to please God. After all his laws have been written on our hearts. We know right from wrong. We know what sin is, and we make every effort to avoid it, to avoid those temptations, although at times we fail and fall short of that mark. Our efforts are not perfect because we are weak humans. Why then do we build a façade of perfection for other people. We do see some Christians living as though they never sin, giving off that super spiritual appearance of being holy and righteous. Is not pride a sin? Is not self-righteousness a sin? We know we do not hold any illusions of perfection because of our humanness, our weaknesses, our failures, and our inability to forget the sins of those who offend us. Even that sounds terrible to think someone offended us. Because we think we are offended might be due to thinking more highly of ourselves than we should. “How dare you hurt my feelings; don’t you know who I am”? Yes, we are human, and praise God, although we offend Him, He will not remember it. He will never bring up our sins before us, ever. Even when we stand before him for the last and final judgment, He will not remember our sins, but because we are in Christ, because we remained faithful to Jesus, He will say, “Enter into my rest, good and faithful servant”. That is living in the freedom of His grace.