New Covenant Grace

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Category Archives: Righteousness

Dead to Sin and Alive to God!

There used to be a guy who walked around in my body, calling himself by my name.  He was evil, an enemy of God (Rom 5:10) and forced my body to run around after each and every wicked desire that he had. He used my body as a slave for his unrighteous ways (Rom 6:16), the lusts of his flesh. He filled the memory banks of my body with the recollections of his foolish exploits and accustomed my body to his fallen habits. The members of my body were the instruments of his sinful actions, leading down a road which would eventually culminate in death.

But then came that glorious day when this old man was plucked from his comfortable flesh dwelling. Just like the Israelites of old received a snip on the tip, this sinful man was cut out and disjoined from the house he had tried to claim for himself. He was transported back through time and joined together with millions of other evil spirits like himself. This combined mass of dark, depraved, ghastly beings was transformed into an ugly beast, called sin. And before this creature could even attempt to flex a muscle, it was nailed onto a cross on a hill with Jesus of Nazareth (Rom 6:6). This creature consumed the body of Jesus for itself, trying to revive it, but it was too late. The body of Jesus had been broken and battered beyond repair by his torturers. And with Jesus’ final breath, he plunged the creature into the kingdom of death. Thus, the body of sin died (Rom 6:4).

In the wake of that old, sinful man who was pulled from my body, appeared a magnificent, faultless spirit man in it’s place, created perfectly in the image of the resurrected Christ (Eph 4:24). This perfected spirit man was fused together with the Spirit of God Himself (1 Cor 6:17) and this glorious, entwined Spirit man was inserted into my body. I AM NOW THIS NEW SPIRIT MAN.

The old has gone, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17). It is Christ who now lives in me (Gal 2:20) and I in Him. And since it is not I who live anymore, but Christ Himself, I am unable to sin, since Christ cannot sin (1 John 3:9). The blunders that I now make are not my own, but are the responsibility of the sinful habits that still dwell in the unrenewed parts of my mind (Rom 7:17); the confines that have not yet been illuminated by the light of grace. I am unable to corrupt myself, since Christ cannot be corrupted (1 Pet 1:23). I am a victim and a slave of His righteousness (Rom 6:18).

But still, everyday I find that the memory banks (the unrenewed mind) of my fleshly body tries to oppose my new, righteous desires (Gal 5:17). Since my body and mind previously received intensive training in how to sin, it seems to have developed a will of its own. But it is losing the battle bit by bit. I am influencing and renewing it everyday with the life of Christ that is saturating my entire being (Rom 12:2).

The person whom you now see walking before you is a perfect, righteous, sinless man (Heb 10:14). I am the delight of my heavenly Father. Jesus is my Brother (John 20:17). I am blameless in God’s sight (Col 1:22). I have no affiliation with the sinful man who previously occupied this body.

I am the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor 5:21)

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Misunderstood Bible Terminology Pt1

Misunderstood Bible Terminology

In this message we’ll take a close look at some Bible terminology that can easily be misunderstood if not read through the perspective of the New Covenant. Many of these verses, especially from the epistles of the apostle John, have been used as a whip to beat the church back into obeying the Old Covenant Law. A good understanding of Grace and Righteousness would go a long way into clearing up the fog surrounding these topics of discussion, such as the terms “fellowship”, “practicing truth”, “committing sin or lawlessness”, etc.  Undivided attention and prolonged concentration is strongly recommended for this one.
Fellowship
It is commonly believed that whenever a believer messes up in regards to their moral behaviour, that they fall out of fellowship with God and that they need to confess their sins in order to restore such “fellowship”. However when viewed from this perspective the term “fellowship” (better known as “fellowshipping with God” in Pentecostal circles) would then refer to a feeling of intimacy that comes and goes depending on our ability to perform at our best. This is not what scripture has to say, in fact not even once in the entire New Testament is the word “fellowship” described in this manner, specifically when it pertains to our relationship with God. The term “fellowshipping with God” is not even used once in the entire Bible. It is a phrase that has been conjured up by people to refer to their own quiet time with God and through the last few decades it has been twisted by legalists to make believers feel guilty and stand accused of being “out of fellowship” with God if they didn’t allocate a certain amount of time per week to prayer and Bible study. On the contrary, here are a few examples of how the word “fellowship” has been used in Biblical terms:

[2 Cor 6:14b ...For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?] Take note how these opposing entities are contrasted with each other: righteousness vs. lawlessness, light vs. darkness, Christ (anointed) vs. Belial (worthless) & believer vs. unbeliever. It says that such opposites can not have fellowship with one another, meaning they are not compatible. Just as Christ can not have fellowship with Belial, in the same way a believer is not to be considered by the same measure as an unbeliever. If a person is therefore out of fellowship with Christ it means that they have not been born again and they fall under the same category as darkness, Belial, and lawlessness in the above verse.

[1 Cor 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord]. We were called into the fellowship and therefore when we put our faith in Christ we are now in the fellowship.

[1 John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth]. This verse makes it abundantly clear that the apostle John is talking about our position in Christ, not our behaviour. We can not say that we have fellowship with God (in other words that we have been born again) if we walk in darkness (which means we have not actually been born again), because then we would be lying. In simple English: You cannot say you are a Christian if you have not been born again!!

Practicing Truth or Righteousness / Walking in Darkness
Now of course the pessimist or legalist would say, “Yes but what about the parts in the previous verse that says “WALK in darkness” and “PRACTICE the truth?” The answer is simple: once again this is not referring to our own works of righteousness, in fact it has nothing to do with our behaviour. The terminology used by the apostle John for being born again is to “practice righteousness” or “practice truth” or “walk in the light” (we will deal with “walking in the light” in the next chapter).  [1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him].
In contrast, when John talks about those who “commit sin” or who “practice lawlessness” or “walk in darkness” he is referring to the unsaved. This principle stays consistent throughout all 3 of John’s epistles. Predominantly however these verses have been read through a legalistic point of view, causing much perplexity in the body of Christ.

Committing Sin or Lawlessness
Another shining example is 1 John 3:4-9: [1 John 3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin]. Once again John is referring to the unsaved here. Whenever the New Testament refers to those who “commit sin” or “practice lawlessness” it does not have the same meaning as under the Old Testament when people were still judged according to the Law. The only sin in the New Testament is not believing in Jesus. (Read the article “The Unforgivable Sin” at our website in “Message Archive” page).
Verse 5 depicts God’s answer to mankind’s problem of sin – He took our sin away and placed us in Christ where we now are completely forgiven and seen as though we’ve never even committed a single sin! Read verse 5 again in this context. Is the light beginning to go on yet?

[1 John 3:6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him]. This verse mentions another “buzz” concept, namely to “abide” in Him. It’s really very simple to prove that this also refers to being saved and not to our own efforts to maintain a good standing with God. Simply do searches for the word “abide(s)” on any Bible software program and study the results.
Verse 6 further says that whoever sins has not seen God or does not know God, which implies not having a relationship with Him. Many (if not all) sincere Christians who have had an intimate relationship with God for decades still make mistakes every day of their lives despite their best efforts. If this verse meant that they are disqualified from their relationship with God if they sin even once (because it doesn’t say “sin a hundred times” or “sin four times per day”), this would amount to nobody on the entire planet being able to maintain a stable relationship with God. Clearly therefore this is not the context of this verse. Let’s look at the subsequent 3 verses (comments added in brackets):

[1 John 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness (which means to be saved) is righteous, just as He (God) is righteous.  8 He who sins (an unbeliever) is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.  9 Whoever has been born of God (a believer) does not sin, for His (God’s) seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God]. The key here is verse 9. How is it possible that a believer can not sin if we’re all too aware of how many mistakes we make? Simply because John is not talking about our behaviour! He is still using the same terminology to differentiate between being saved or not. Read verses 7 – 9 again and let it sink in. In verse 8, if John meant that anybody who commits an act of sin is of the devil, it would imply that all Christians are of the devil. Clearly this is not what he meant.
There are 3 main reasons why Christians can not be called “sinners” anymore, the first being because they are no longer under the Old Covenant Law. And since there is no more Law to break (and sin is defined as breaking the Law) consequently their mistakes can no longer be called “sinning”. [Rom 4:15b ... And where there is no law there is no transgression].
Secondly everybody on the planet person is either a sinner or a saint. Not once in the entire Bible mention is made of a “neutral” position somewhere in the middle. We either have God as our Father, or the devil.
Thirdly the born again spirit of a Christian is 100% righteous and will remain 100% righteous for all of eternity in spite of less than perfect behaviour during his / her remaining time on the earth. If this were not the case, then there would be no other way to explain the following “contradicting” verses:

[1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives].

Now compare these 3 verses against the following “seemingly” conflicting verse:

[1 John 3:9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God].

The only explanation is that in the first 3 verses, even though John used the word “we”, he was in fact not referring to believers, but to unbelievers. As a shepherd and a preacher he was identifying with the lost in an open display of God’s love, saying “We have all sinned, we all need to repent”. Instead of bashing and ridiculing the unbelievers openly, he was tactfully saying something along the lines of this: “(v8) If any person claims to be without sin, they are deceived and the truth (Christ) does not live inside them (because Christ said “I am the TRUTH, the way and the life). (v9) But if such a person (a sinner) acknowledges they are sinful and in need of a saviour, God who is faithful will forgive them ALL of their sins and wash them clean of ALL unrighteousness (implying that they are now clean forever). (v10) However if any person claims they have never sinned, they make God into a liar and willingly reject the truth of His word.” Take these 3 verses and compare them verse by verse to the actual verses above.
Think about it this way: What does a person have to do to be born again? They have to confess they are a sinner, admit that they need a saviour and put their faith in Christ (Rom 10:9-10). Therefore if any person claims to be without sin before putting their faith in Christ, they are deceived and blinded to the truth. This is the heresy that John was countering in this epistle. (For a more elaborate explanation on 1 John 1:9, please read our previous message “Should Christians Confess Their Sins to God?” on the “Message Archive” page of our website).

In our next message we will continue destroying these religious doctrines that have crippled the church for too long. We will look at what Jesus had to say about those who “practice lawlessness” in Matt 7:23 as well as take a look at what the apostle John meant when he talked about “obeying commandments” in  1 John 2 and 3.

In Grace
Andre van der Merwe

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Not Just an Old Sinner

Although it is true that believers once went by the name “sinners”, the same can not be said of a born again Christian anymore. After the crucifixion, throughout all the New Testament scriptures, the term “sinner” consistently refers to a person who has rejected God, choosing to live in subjection to the carnal desires of their sinful nature. It clearly talks about a person who has NOT been born again.

Well known Grace minister, Steve Mcvey (www.gracewalk.org) writes the following:
The primary project for most Christians in the modern church is to reduce the number or frequency of sins in their lives. It’s a sin management program that they devote themselves to with great zeal and sincere commitment.
It all sounds so good on the surface. That’s the subtlety with legalism. It sounds right to the religious ear despite the fact that it contradicts and ignores what the Bible teaches. It sounds so right to some that to become Godly requires that we work hard to change our bad behaviors and replace them with good ones. To them it’s all about diminishing the number of sins that we commit and increasing the number of good things that we do. But Godliness doesn’t come from that. Godliness is not the absence of sin.
The truth is this, the reason you’re godly is because the Spirit of God lives in you… Since the Holy Spirit came into your spirit, and your spirit is the core of your identity (you ARE a spirit, HAVE a soul and LIVE in a body), then you are holy, you are Godly, because God’s Spirit is inside you. It doesn’t have to do with resisting sin, or giving into sin. The truth is, you’re just as Godly whether you sin, or don’t sin. Your identity isn’t established by what you do. It is established by what He has done!

Let’s look at a few examples of verses dealing with this matter in the Bible:

[Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us]. This verse clearly says that while we WERE still sinners, Christ died for us, which by implication means that a believer is not a sinner anymore.

[1 Tim 1:9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers...] There’s quite a lot happening in this verse:
Firstly It says that the Law (including the 10 Commandments) was not made for a righteous person, referring to a person who has been born again and who has received the righteousness of God as a free gift, making that person perfect for ever in His eyes: [Heb 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified] (KJV).
 Furthermore this verse says that the Law was made for ungodly people and sinners and it also calls these people “lawless”. That is because under the New Covenant it is not those who fail to obey the written moral code of the Law that are considered to be “lawless”, but instead those who refuse to accept the free gift of salvation offered by God, who turn their back on His Grace and harden their hearts against the compassionate promptings of the Holy Spirit to repent and be saved. These people will retain their status as murderers, adulterers, liars, etc. because they refuse to accept the pardon for these sins that is freely offered by God to all those who choose to believe in Him.

Another scripture that proves this principle is the following: [1 Cor 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God]. Verse 9 says the “unrighteous” will not inherit the kingdom. And then it goes on to describe a list of deeds done by those who have not been forgiven their sins, in other words those who did not put their faith in Jesus to be reconciled with Him. And then in verse 11 we see the key to unlock this portion of scripture: Paul says “such WERE some of you”. And then he goes on to describe what happened to those who put their faith in Jesus, saying they WERE cleansed and justified, meaning they now stand clean, innocent and forgiven before God. Isn’t that amazing?

This serves to confirm that whenever the Bible (after the cross) talks about a sinner, it speaks about a person that has not been born again. Let’s look at 3 more scriptures:

[Jam 5:20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins]. This verse says that a “sinner” can be saved from death and his sins be forgiven if he is turned from the error of his way.

[1 Pet 4:18 Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”]. This verse is squarely in support of 1 Tim 1:9 (above) and it clearly contrasts the “righteous” with the “sinner & ungodly”.

The next verse nails it: [1John 3:9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God]. This confirms that a born again Christian can not be labelled as a “sinner” according to their level of good or bad works, because it’s a no-brainer that everybody makes mistakes almost everyday of their lives! And yet this verse says that whoever has been born of God (born again) cannot sin, because their identity is not based on their level of adhering to the 10 commandments but instead it is based on the finished work of the cross!

Therefore we can conclude that a born again person HAS received the righteousness of God as a gift and HAS BEEN sanctified (in their spirit) and can therefore not be referred to as a sinner anymore, even if their behaviour does not always reflect this. Yes we do not always live in 100% obedience to God, but that does not influence the fact that God still sees us as completely righteous, forgiven, sanctified and holy. And obviously to those who believe we are saying that Christians can now just go out and sin as much as they want, we are not implying this at all.

In Grace
Andre van der Merwe

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Renewing Your Mind

At salvation our spirit was created 100% righteous and holy, in the image of Christ. The last part of Eph 4 talks about our behavior towards other people and v24 says that just as our inner man (which is of course the born again spirit)  has already been created according to the very image of Jesus, we should now also let our actions reflect this change that’s occurred inside us. [Eph 4:24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness].
There is nothing we can add to this perfect work which God accomplished in us. He did however tell us one way to transform ourselves:
[Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God].
This is also why we are told to set our minds on the things above [Col 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth], because the more we think God’s thoughts, the faster our minds will be transformed. When we still had an old sinful nature on the inside, we followed after its desires and trained our mind to think according to its lusts. But now that we have Christ living inside us, we need to re-train our mind to think according to the new nature. As our old sinful thought patterns then begin to starve, our mind will come more and more into agreement with our born again spirit.

Now you may be asking: “Isn’t it blasphemy to say we want to think God’s thoughts?” No, definitely not. I am not saying that we should become God; I’m saying we begin to think like Him.
“And how do we do that?” Well I’m glad you asked that question. Before anybody speaks, the words they say had to have been thoughts in their mind first, which they then speak or write down, thereby giving life to those thoughts and making them known to others. And since we have God’s thoughts written in His Word and available to us, then by reading the Word we can know what God’s thoughts are. Many people are waiting for God to speak to them when He has already written them a letter. So if you want to begin to think God’s thoughts, read and meditate on His Word – simple as that! Begin to understand how He sees you, familiarize yourself with the New Covenant, the New Creation, the atonement, your authority as a believer, how to hear God’s voice and much more! If we truly want our faith to become effective, we should reach a place in our life where our first thought is always what the Word of God says, and not “What does God’s Word say?”

Don’t be condemned by the following statement, but read the following words through the lenses of the New Covenant, and remember that the Holy Spirit is living inside you and that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Here we go: It’s not just knowing scripture that serves as proof that our minds have been renewed. [James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves]. The amount of Word that we actually begin to put into practice in our lives is a measure of the degree to which our minds have been renewed. If we’re not doing it, it means we don’t believe it. People will know what we believe by the fruit we bear, by the things we do. Actions speak louder than words.

There are generally 2 groups of Christians: Firstly there is the group that grew up under the Law. They always expected God to punish them if they made a mistake, and their minds were trained to think legalistically: Do good – get good. Do bad – get bad. So they trained themselves to always try and do more, live better and be more holy. Secondly there is the group that grew up outside of church, who lived with a disregard for any moral code, running blindly after the desires of their sinful nature. This group trained their minds to think in terms of self preservation and self gratification. Depending on what age you were when you got saved, generally most people have lived according to one of the above ways for the better part of about 20 years of their life.
Both these groups now have to come to terms with Grace and begin to retrain their minds to relate to God according to the way of the New Covenant. And there are two ways of doing this:
They can either choose to spend another 20 years attending church Sunday by Sunday and hope that their pastor is doing a decent job, and have him/her renew their minds for them on Sunday mornings. Then during the week they would go back to their normal life and live as though God didn’t exist and then finally, after about 20 years they would maybe begin to understand the revelation of Grace.
Or they can make a decision to get stuck in the Word of God, learn discipline, listen to sermons, worship God extravagantly, go to conferences and seminars and have their minds renewed in a couple of months or years. They can then spend the rest of their remaining life reaping the fruit of this season of their life, a season where they purposely dedicated themselves to re-training their mind to think according to the truth of God’s Word.
Nobody said it would be easy initially, but we can be assured of this: Once we dive head first into the ocean of God’s realm, of His Spirit and His Life, a passion for Him will begin to overtake us and we will find it becoming easier and easier to renew our mind.

Why do we need to renew our minds? Let’s read the second part of Rom 12:2 again: [Rom 12:2b ... that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God]. The world is tired of clever arguments and philosophies about the existence of God. [1 Cor 2:4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God]. We prove God’s will to the world by demonstrating His kingdom in power by healing the sick, freeing the oppressed, setting the captives free.

[Acts 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him]. Since Jesus is perfect theology and He healed ALL, then it is God’s will for ALL to be healed. We also know that it’s God’s will that ALL be saved: [1 Tim 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth].


In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus prayed the following: [Matt 6:10b ... Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven]. The very fact that He prayed these words serves to prove that not everything that happens on the earth is God’s will, or else He would not have prayed “let Your will be done on earth”. So from these words spoken by Jesus, we see it is God’s will for everything that is happening in heaven to also be manifested here on earth and to have the will of the Father done in the earth. Because we know in heaven there is no sickness, no poverty, no corruption, no death, no suffering, etc. So by simply looking around us we can easily see where God’s will is NOT being manifested, and in that situation we can be the hands and feet of Jesus, making known to the world that it is in fact God’s will for them to be healed, to be saved and to be delivered from bondage. This is how we prove the will of God to the world; the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Hallelujah!

In Grace
Andre van der Merwe

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