The Offense of the Cross

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV

So many times we hear, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” The sentiment is that in ourselves, we are nothing…and THAT is true.

Before Christ, we are lost, dead, and hopeless. But we lose something important and we deny the scripture when we continue to refer to ourselves as sinners after we become born again.

Our Creator, God Himself, in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ, left the beauty and perfection of heaven to walk the dusty, lonely, and painful road to Calvary so that we can share in the inheritance of eternal life and live in joy, peace, and victory here on earth. He took on hunger, pain, rejection, temptation, fatigue and more so that we no longer have to remain sinners…so that we can be new and righteous through Him.

So no more should we refer to ourselves as sinners. By His grace through our faith in Him, we are no longer sinners, but we are His children, co-heirs with Christ, and will rule and reign with Him in eternity.

We are blessed.

We are righteous.

We are victorious.

We are healed.

We are justified.

We are delivered.

We are free.

We are loved beyond measure.

But we are NOT sinners.

We don’t practice sin.

Denying scripture and referring to ourselves as sinners creates a sense of defeat. It constrains our faith and opens the door to Satan to fill our minds with doubt about God and about who He made us to be.

You see, God loves you enough to die for you and He wants you to go out into the darkness of the world and reflect His love. He wants you to be the conduit for His Spirit and in His power go into your world as His representative.

He has given you access to His power, through His name, to heal the sick (Matthew 10:8) and have the boldness to tell others about what He has done for you and about His love, grace, holiness and about their opportunity to choose His righteousness and eternal life for themselves. (Mark 16:15)

If you keep thinking of yourself as a sinner, then it is much more difficult to reflect Jesus Christ (who was never a sinner) and the victory that you have in Him.

By telling ourselves that we are still sinners, we retain an old covenant mindset which keeps us focused on us and our sin rather than on Him and what He has done.

Let us stop being sin-minded and be Christ-minded. By keeping our minds on Him, we become closer to Him, more like Him, and we can walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16)–We can walk in victory (1 Corinthians 15:57)–We can reject sin (Galatians 5:16), and we can truly love others (John 4:8) and witness boldly to sinners. We can show them something much better than what they have and they, too, can become new creatures in Him.

Through the faith He gives us—the faith we exercise, we are saved and we are righteous. (Ephesians 2:8)

So, we are no longer sinners….BECAUSE we were…

Saved.

By.

Grace.

Praise to our Holy Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ!