Destined to Reign (5 page)

You are the righteousness of God in Christ, period!

There are many believers who are very sincere about keeping the law and earning their own righteousness, but I’m sorry to say this: They are sincerely wrong. God’s way is by grace. Righteousness cannot be earned by good works. It can only come as a gift. A gift is no longer a gift if you have to work for it.

For example, if I gave you a brand new dazzling red Ferrari on the condition that you pay me US $20,000 every month for the rest of your life, is the Ferrari really a gift? Of course not! How can it be a gift if you have to pay or work for it? That is double-talk! But that is what some people are preaching today. They say that God gives you the gift of righteousness, on the condition that you keep the Ten Commandments for the rest of your life to remain righteous. Now, is this a real gift? Come on, when God gave you the gift of righteousness, it was a real gift. Stop trying to earn it with your own works. God’s gifts to us are unconditional!

Start believing that righteousness is a gift in the new covenant! Many believers are defeated today because they are trying to earn their own righteousness by their law-keeping and good works. My friend, righteousness is a gift because of what Jesus has accomplished on the cross for you. All your sins — past, present and future — have been washed clean by His precious blood. You are completely forgiven and from the moment you received Jesus into your life, you will never be held liable for your sins ever again. You have been made as righteous as Jesus not through your behavior, but by faith in Him and His finished work on the cross
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.

There is nothing that you can do that will make God love you more and there is nothing that you can do that will make Him love you less.

Perhaps you are saying, “But… but… I didn’t do anything to become righteous!” That is exactly right. You did nothing to become righteous. And Jesus did nothing to become sin. You are clothed not with your own righteousness, but with Jesus’ perfect righteousness. It is a gift that He purchased for you with His own blood! Therefore, righteousness before the Lord cannot be earned. Your righteous standing or right standing before Him can only be received as a gift. Today, your right to be righteous is a blood-bought right! There is nothing that you can do that will make God love you more and there is nothing that you can do that will make Him love you less. He loves you perfectly and He sees you clothed with Jesus’ righteousness. So begin to see yourself clothed in Jesus’ righteousness.

License To Sin?

“But, Pastor Prince, if you preach that one is forever righteous before the Lord apart from his works and law-keeping, won’t people go out and live a licentious life? Won’t it give people a license to sin?”

Another fantastic question! Let me begin by asking you this: Have you noticed that people are already sinning without a “license”? We all have the same goal of wanting people to live a life of victory over sin. Allow me to make this explicitly clear in black and white, so that there is no doubt:

I, Joseph Prince, am vehemently, completely, aggressively and irrevocably AGAINST SIN!

Sin is evil. I do not condone sin. A lifestyle of sin leads only to defeat and destruction. So while our goal is the same, where we differ is the “how” of getting to the victorious life. Some think that it is by preaching more law. I am convicted that it is by preaching the grace of God.

When you visit our church, you won’t find a congregation that, having received the good news of the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, wants to run off and start living in sin. Of course not! In fact, some of the top business people, management executives, entrepreneurs, lawyers, accountants and consultants in my country attend our church, and you will find a congregation that is deeply in love with the person of Jesus. You will hear wonderful and amazing testimonies of how marriages have been restored, how huge debts that had run into the millions have been supernaturally cancelled, how terminal diseases have been miraculously healed and other awesome testimonies that the good news of Jesus brings!

Sin loses its appeal when you encounter the Person of grace, Jesus Christ, and realize all that He has blessed you with and done for you on the cross. You begin to realize that you have been given this great gift of righteousness and that you did nothing to deserve it. You did nothing to earn it and you did nothing to merit it.

Now, what happens? Does this encounter with Jesus cause you to want to go out and sin? Of course not! On the contrary, it will cause you to fall in love with Jesus all over again. It will make you a better husband, a better father, a better housewife, a better student. It will make you someone who desires with all your heart to guard the glory of our Lord Jesus by living a life that is victorious over sin, by His grace and strength! The preoccupation with Christ instead of with self, will cause you to start reigning in life through the one, Jesus Christ — that is the Gospel Revolution! The Word of God says, “Awake to righteousness, and sin not.”
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The more you realize that you are righteous, the more victory you will experience over sin! Wake up every morning and give thanks that you are the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.

The Final Restoration

Down through the centuries, God has been restoring His truths to the church, and I believe that the last and final truth is the person of Jesus Christ and all that He has accomplished on the cross. The revelation of the
finished work
of Jesus will get stronger and stronger in the end times, and man will begin to enjoy the full benefits of the new covenant of grace.

Jesus did not die on the cross for us because any one of us deserved it. We all deserved hell’s fire, but we have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. The word “redeem” literally means to buy with a price. The price here is Jesus Himself. He gave Himself up as a ransom for you and me. He gave Himself up, so that you and I can receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness to reign in life. It is all about Jesus!

It is time for the church to stop backing away from grace and to stop worrying that it might be too controversial. Study the Scriptures and begin to see for yourself that this is the power of God to salvation. Stop backing away from grace!

Discerning The Gospel Of Grace

Let me teach you how to discern if the grace teaching that you are hearing is doctrinally sound. When you hear the new covenant of grace preached, it is always Christ-exalting. It always reveals more and more of Jesus. It always unveils the beauty of Jesus and the perfection of His finished work on the cross. Jesus is always glorified when grace is taught. There is no grace without Jesus!

So don’t be too easily impressed just because somebody tells you that he preaches grace. The Word of God tells us to test everything. God wants us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves
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. Even as you read this book, I don’t want you to take my word for it. I want you to crack open your Bible and study the Word of God for yourself, and see the grace of our Lord Jesus in the new covenant coming alive. Grace is not a doctrine. Grace is a person and His name is Jesus. Therefore, there is no grace teaching without Jesus Christ. You cannot separate Jesus and grace! If someone keeps dropping the word “grace” in his sermons, but there is no exaltation of Jesus and His finished work, it is
not
the gospel of grace.

Similarly, to further discern if what you are hearing is the gospel of grace, note that grace does not point to your efforts, your performance or your doing. It makes nothing of man’s self efforts and points completely to Jesus’ efforts and what He has done. The law makes one self-conscious. It is always asking, “What must I do?” But grace makes one Christ-conscious. It is always asking, “What has Jesus done?”

Your part is to only believe on Jesus Christ, and when you believe, you are blessed and made righteous!

Under law, the burden is on you to perform. Under grace, the burden is on what Christ has performed on the cross. That is why Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, for My yoke is easy and light.”
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Jesus was not speaking to people who were tired and weary from their secular jobs. He was talking to people who were weary and heavy laden by the requirements of the law of Moses. The yoke of the law is hard and heavy. Jesus came to reveal grace, and the yoke of grace is easy and light because it involves none of you and all of Christ. He has borne the burden of sin on your behalf. Under grace, your part is to only believe on Jesus Christ, and when you believe, you are blessed and made righteous! Isn’t this amazing grace?

The new covenant of grace is so powerful that there have been attempts to pervert the teaching on God’s grace. There are so-called preachers who are preaching a “grace” that is not of God! They believe in “universal salvation” and claim that because of God’s grace, all will be saved, even without believing in Jesus.
This is a lie from the pit of hell
! No man can be saved except through our Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life
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. No man comes to the Father and receives eternal life except through Jesus! There is no grace without the person of Jesus. The teaching of “universal salvation” is a LIE that dishonors Jesus and negates His work on the cross! True grace always makes Jesus the center of everything. It is all about Jesus!

It is time for the church to tear down these fences of controversy around grace and start unveiling more and more of Jesus. This is the heartbeat of my ministry — the unveiling of Jesus and seeing more of Jesus, His loveliness, His perfection and His grace. It is all about bringing the “amazing” back to grace!

When believers don’t understand that God’s grace is His undeserved, unearned and unmerited favor, they will depend on their own efforts to keep the law of Moses to deserve, earn and merit His favor. Similarly, when believers don’t understand that righteousness is a gift, and that it is about “right standing” and not “right doing”, they will depend on their own efforts to earn this gift.

Pulling Down The Fences Of Controversy

My friend, you are destined to reign in this life. It is our Lord’s good pleasure to see your marriage blessed, family blessed, storehouses overflowing with more than enough and your body full of the resurrection life of Jesus!

Begin to see that the devil has entrenched fences and built strongholds that are so fortified that today, they are like thick walls. These thick walls surround the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. By the grace of God, we are going to pull down these thick walls, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Let’s pull down these strongholds that have robbed believers of their destiny to reign in life. Start receiving the treasures that were purchased for you by the blood of Jesus, and begin reigning in every area of your life!

It is our Lord’s good pleasure to see your family blessed, storehouses overflowing and your body full of the resurrection life of Jesus!

Chapter 4: We Have Been Robbed!

“Sometimes God is angry with me, sometimes He is happy with me.”

“Sometimes He blesses me, sometimes He curses me.” “Sometimes God cares for me, sometimes He leaves me.” “Today, He prospers me, but tomorrow, He may give me poverty to humble me.” “Today, He heals me, but tomorrow, He may give me a disease to teach me a lesson.” “Today, He forgives all my sins. Tomorrow, I am responsible for my sins.”

Welcome to schizophrenic Christianity! This is what many believers are hearing and believing today: Sometimes God is good, sometimes He is not! Sometimes He is happy, sometimes He is not! They are tossed to and fro, never anchored on the rock of Jesus Christ. Such believers are living between two covenants — the old covenant of law and the new covenant of grace. They believe in a mixed message that tells them that there are times when God is angry with them and times when He is happy with them.

When you ask them, “When is God happy with you?” they will say, “When I do right.”

When you ask them again, “Does that mean that when you do wrong, God is angry with you?” they will say, “Yes! God is angry with me when I do wrong.”

My friend, those who believe that God is sometimes angry with them are still living under the old covenant of the law and not under the new covenant of grace. Under law, God demanded righteousness from man. Under grace, God provided righteousness for man. Under law, everything depended on man and his obedience. But under grace, everything depends on Jesus and what He did on the cross. The law demands, but will not lift a finger to help, while grace imparts and has accomplished everything on your behalf.

Have you noticed that in the old covenant based on the law of Moses, it was all based on what YOU had to
do
and
not do
? Just count the number of times the phrase “
you
shall not…” appears in Exodus 20 where the Ten Commandments were given. Compare this with the new covenant of grace where the Lord says: