Your Unbreakable Union with Christ
Some Christians understand their union with the Lord but only half way.
“Sure, God is with us, but sometimes he isn’t. He comes and he goes.”
It’s true that in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon certain people at certain times, but that was then and this is now.
Jesus said the Holy Spirit abides with us and makes his home with us (John 14:16–17).
By home he means home. You are not a motel room for the Lord. You are a walking, talking, living, breathing temple of the Holy Spirit. He is not going anywhere.
“Are you saying that the Holy Spirit is with me even when I sin?”
Yes! Christ’s love for you and his union with you is stronger than any sin.
Under the old covenant, sinning was your fast track to disunion. If you sinned you risked being cut off from the people of God.
Jesus said if your hand or eye causes you to sin, get rid of it (Matt. 5:29–30). Why did Jesus preach self-amputation to those born under the law? Because under that covenant it made sense to talk about removing those parts of the body that might contaminate the whole.
Thank the Lord the old covenant is gone! We are not under law but grace, and this is good news for the members of the body of Christ.
When we sin, Jesus does not cut us off; we remain members of his body. This totally changes the way we look at sin. Under the old covenant we were restrained from sin through mortal terror but in the new we are restrained by love.
Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! (1 Cor 6:15b)
Look at Paul’s warning about prostitutes. Behind the warning—don’t do it—there is a surprising and reassuring affirmation of union. Paul is saying it is possible, though not advisable, to unite the members of Christ’s body with prostitutes.
Do you see it?
Earthly marriages may break and fail, but your union with Christ is unbreakable.
Sin cannot break it.
Addiction cannot break it.
The stupidest decisions you might ever make cannot break it.
This should not be taken as a challenge to see what you can get away with but as a stunning declaration of Christ’s absolute commitment to love you and stick with you no matter what.
This is what changes us—not the weak influence of the rule, but the relentless and determined passion of his love.
The love of God is the greatest force in the universe. Sin wilts before it. When you encounter the undaunted and unending love of Christ, it changes you.
You no longer want to sin.
The passing pleasures of this world lose their appeal because you have found a love that is truer and better by far.
Extracted from The Gospel in Ten Words.
___________
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Escape to Reality 
Love this post. I have recently started listening to the audio Bible which is a very helpful way for me to get my dose of His Word in. I started at the beginning since I have never been able to make it all the way through the OT.
Paul, it has been challenging listening to the OT laws, statues and harshness and how The Lord told Moses and the Israelite’s that all off His laws an statues needed to be kept forever and until the 3rd and 4th generations. I am no Bible scholar, but I can see why Jews have such a hard time accepting the NT and Good News Gospel of Grace. As well as why it’s so easy to mix law and grace, when you hear forever that sicks with you if you are hearing such harsh consequences if you don’t perform works of holiness before the Lord. Nonetheless, I keep praying and shifting my mind to take in the OT through the lenses of grace so I can not turn back to the questioning that I have worked so hard on in the past year with your ministry and Joseph Prince’s ministry.
This new post is a wonderful reminder of the truth I know about our Lord and the love He has for us. It’s the ambiguous feelings about the way God was portrayed in the OT that had me confused and fearful towards God in my earlier years. I have always loved God and wanted to be in relationship with Him, but was always looking into alternative ways to believe in Him since the Harshness of the OT was a hard pill to swallow…
Dear Angela,
When God says “forever” and in the New Testament He goes on to tell you that the law has been nailed to the cross and completely abolished, then you know that that’s the end of His intended forever. I believe that “forever” expires once God introduces something else, actually someone else (GRACE) in it’s place. Blessings dear Angela
Thank you! Much needed insight. 🙂 I appreciate you taking the time to respond. God bless you!
Angela – The OC is not gone. Matt 5:17 is explicit. The term …”the law…”, is not the original Aramaic – Paul, Jesus, Luke & others would have spoken. Never to give way to Greek & Latin translating. The term, “the law” was introduced in a systemic fashioning btw 170AD & the time of the Sinaiticus/Vaticanus (325 -369). Constantine, Alexander I + Gregory & Augustine…
Rom 10:4 [org. Aramaic] “For Mashiach (Messiah) is the goal of “(written)Torah” for everyone who believes on Him”. God did not do away w/ written Torah. The written Torah is “who” & “what & the same time. It’s the Word become flesh John 1. The traditions of men have distorted it to the point of blurring “written Torah” (God said) & “Jewish oral traditions” (man-made).
Creating the term “the law”, has given life to pretext made from context, for the purposes of (sin) human nature. Man’s control over men…there’s food for thought__comments please
The Law is not gone, but those who are in Christ are dead to it.
Thank you all for your responses. I’m making my way through the OT and there are times I’ve got to turn it off. It’s harsh, hard and hard to comprehend in comparison to the Good News. Especially when God is commanding death of people for not following His commandments. And the part that I have to stop for a break is when Moses is telling God’s chosen people that if they don’t follow the Torah, then they will be cursed with horrible curses. It’s no wonder why the Jewish people are fearful of believing in Jesus, they have had generations of of the law fearful cast on them with the promise of curses and death if they didn’t follow it. I’m working through it and will always hold steadfast to the Gospel and grace of God no matter what. Stoning, slaves, killing of men, women and children to take over land, keeping the young girls for themselves that were spared from the trampled leftovers of their vengeance in the name of a the Lord is hard to grasp. Nonetheless, I know the God I serve is an amazing graceful and merciful God. In some ways, the savage ways that were commanded by the Lord in the OT given by Moses reminds me of these extremist with Isis. It’s no wonder why the self proclaimed “peace loving” Muslims who follow Islam like the Torah and hate the NT Christianity. Now I’m not comparing our Lord Jesus or God to that of these savages like ISIS , because They are nothing like this. But Im trying explain the way the OT comes across and I think its why there are so many atheist and agnostics. It’s hard to comprehend such harsh “love” from God in the OT. We can’t blame people for being confused or for trying to please God with works. It’s all through the OT. It takes a ton of transformation in the mind from tons of generations of the planting of the Torah.
Good post, Angela. I think the reason a lot of Christians give up is because they are beat over the head with messages from people who don’t know how to rightly divide the covenants. It makes God seem schizophrenic and bi-polar. You never know what he is going to do. If one has a heart to please God and hears this mixture constantly it can be like a heavy weight around your spirit. Someone said (maybe Paul here) that if you feel that God is putting harsh demands on you then there is something wrong with your theology. One of my favorite things about Paul Ellis is how he talks about how everything in the Bible is the Word of God but not everything is for us. When I read the Bible through the lens of grace so many things are clearer.
And Paul, I truly appreciate teachers of the Good New, Gospel and amazing grace of God like you, Joseph and others who are steadfast on making sure people truly understand the Lord’s amazing grace. I’m a point in case example, that it takes listening to it and meditating on it constantly to truly stay in it. Because the flesh and the enemy of our soul works endlessly to try and get us back to self examination by works of the law. It truly is a spiritual battle. So thank you Paul Ellis, you are a blesding. God bless you all!
Thank you Bob! I agree with that you say. Jesus was prophesied all throughout the OT, so that is very helpful. I believe that had we not known the extent of our sinful nature, we very well could have lived disillusioned to the real implications of our sin to others and ourselves. I also believe that our finite minds are like filters to the infinite mind (mind meaning the word, thought and understanding) of a completely perfect and Holy God. Nonetheless it’s still hard to grasp the commands of our holy God to kill others to take over lands in the name of the Lord. It’s what man has been doing ever since creation. Many years ago when I was in college I was deeply pursuing my inner desire to prove that spirituality and science were never two different realities, but that science only proves the very existence of God. He is the make up of everything and science is just a way to measure His entire creation. I was also on my way to linking quatum mechanics to the way of measuring our spiritual existince. We can’t see microscopic scales of measure amongst other forms in the physical sight of the human eye, but it sure doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. When someone is determined to disprove God, I think to myself that these people are essentially on a mission to disprove their very existence. God’s spoken word brings order to matter and how amazing is His creation. So to tie back my comment to Pauls post, we are truly unbreakable from Christ when we we fully realize that we are nothing a part from Him. My finite mind may not understand the harsh commands in the OT, but I have faith in the awesomeness of God. Without God we would not know love for God is love and His love and passion is what (I believe) moved Him to create us. God’s Word in the Bible is written through flawed man, therefore it was written from a place of fearful desire to please an infinite God. The lenses of Grace are very much needed Bob to filter out the terror and fear no doubt. Shalom!
Thanks for sharing, Angela. It is inspiring to get a glimpse of what our loving Father is doing in your life. I just wanted to share a few thoughts on this discussion.
The Hebrews wanted the law and boasted that they kept it, as many of us do today. Full strength law is harsh. Watering down law with grace to manufacture some weaker version is man made. The choice that has been set before us is life or death. The harshness of the law and the death it produces teaches us that we will only find life through His grace. Which is why so many of us, such as yourself, would never want to go back.
Blessings
Thank you LJP! What you say is awesome 🙂 This is exactly what Joseph Prince teaches. It just makes sense…and I just haven’t come to that part of the audio Bible and/or gathered that directly from the scriptures. But does it make sense…absolutely!! The one part that I DO get from what I’ve been thru so far in the OT is that The Lord did always refer to the Hebrews as “stiff-necked people” and that could definitely show why the law had to be placed. Noah was not perfect, but he did listen to the guidance and calling in him by The Lord. I’d comfortably say that Noah wax mist definitely led by grace as well as Moses and the Hebrews when they were drawn out of Egypt. But just like the stinky flesh loves to do thru mankind, they had to do things (as we still often and most of the time do still) learn “the hard way.” Goodness this has been some wonderful conversation. Thank you everyone!!
Hello Angela,
We Gentiles were not even part of the Old Covenant Law given to Israelites. The OT was given FOR us but not TO us.
Ephesians 2: 11-19 says: Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands– remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.
See also Eph 5:8 and Rom 11:11-24.
Nizam-
Thank you for taking the time to write this out. I find it very helpful. When put into this perspective, it makes much more sense! God bless!
A timely word for this unstable world. I need to go back and read the Gospel in 10 words. Good book!
Wow! Paul, you remind me of the words of the Apostle Paul, Romans 8:38,39
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NIV).
I enjoy your posts every time. Happy New Year! I am looking forward to getting inundated with God’s passion through your posts. Not many blog posts out there are this thought-provoking as yours. God bless you
The Love you found now will come very strong for you, if you find out that you are aloud to do what you want (what they so called sin) but you don’t want to. That you find out that it was only a disire to do it (because it was forbidden). But now you may do it you don’t want it at all.
But again; I Think you cann only findout if you realy feel free first to do it, and then find out it was only a desire, but I realy don’t want it.
I think it is necessary to go that far. But it is also dangerous because it cann also led to Lawless.
good stuff Paul,i cant tell you how old it gets when people [ especially certain catholics] will argue this to no end. Chris V can witness to that
Amen! His ways are higher than our ways. He’s not a fickle human. When He says He loves unconditionally, there really are no conditions. Why are men troubled by this?
Salvation is life – His life.
When we are saved, we no longer live (Gal 2:20), having become one spirit (1 Cor 6:17) with Him. Jesus came to give us life (John 10:10). “He who has the Son has the life; He who does not have the Son does not have the life” (1 John 5:12). We are saved by His life (Rom 5:10). It is the Spirit that gives life (John 6:63). It is no longer your life, but His, and His life is eternal. For anyone to be separated from God, He would have to deny Himself, and that is impossible 2 Tim 2:13
Yes and Amen!
I have seen several topics(not here) posted where some suggest that our sin separates us from God. The Grace message has caused a change of mind on this subject. However recently I have come to ask a further question about the term “separate” in the sense of “who” is doing the separating? God or man?
God to Adam….”Who told you that you were naked?” God does not leave us but our sin “may” cause us to pull away from Him. So from that perspective there may indeed be separation but it’s not God doing it.
Adam’s union didn’t break because he didn’t have one – he never had the Holy Spirit. He was invited to put his trust in the Lord but he chose not to.
Exactly. Amen.
Excellent point, Felix. But this is where the rubber meets the road. This is where WHEN WE SIN we can stay in the same old covenant / law mindset and feel sorrowful, guilty, and separated from God. If we beg for forgiveness and say to God how horrible we are and feel like it takes time to get back in his good graces then we will not grow. Speaking for myself – when I really screw up I force myself not to feel guilt or shame and not act like my fellowship with God is even the tiniest bit broken. This specific new mindset has brought more manifestation of God’s favor in my life than many, many years of trying really hard and confession of sin. Dare to agree with God and say: My sins and my lawless deeds we (you and me, Lord) will remember no more!
“My sins and my lawless deeds
we (you and me, Lord) will
remember no more!” what a confession! GBU.
Bob,
that’s what Romans 12:2 “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” is all about!!! Excellent.
Blessings and Thanks!!!
Warren (South Carolina, USA)
This is the most beautiful and assuring commentary about the love of God ever written! WOW! I REALLY NEEDED THIS! I’ve been living in do much fear and insecurity of my salvation and God’s love for me and so discouraged, lacking joy in my walk with God…but as I read this my heart was flooded with His peace and assurance…I am His, and He is mine…forever…no matter what!! ❤
Thank you, dear brother!
Brother Amen, that is truth I see to stick as glued to God as God is to me and all who believe as well as those that do not yet, For i see it is the kind love of God given to us by Son in his death first all are forgiven 100% by Son’s death fro all alone. As now Father waits for us to turn from unbelief first born in, to belief to see this amazing freedom given us in his risen Son to lead thank you as I see all who do believe come to see this in continued belief to Col. 1:22-23 and then see Romans 5:10 saved by his life after reconciling his death is was for us to be forgiven by Father to be able to live in us to teach us this truth you s[poke hee in your post to thank you
Dear Paul,
First of all thank you for following the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life. This action greatly blesses my life and by faith I believe millions of others as well.
Ecc 11.1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. I fully believe and agree, “This is what changes us—not the weak influence of the rule, but the relentless and determined passion of his love.” Thankfully I wept upon reading this post. And our Father collected those tears in a bottle. PS 56:8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
But…… the thing that gets me to this day about “It’s true that in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon certain people at certain times, but that was then and this is now.”, is the apparent lack of the full knowledge of God on my part. My mind is pricked with the following scripture. Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Any time things are different in the new covenant compared to the old covenant, my mind says “that should not be” Jesus is part of the triune God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe that the Father is God, Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God. One mind/heart to my understanding. So how can it be that the One God who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever manifests himself in what I understand, in apparent conflict, in the old covenant compared to the new?…
This post may help.
This goes into my archive to help those that might believe this way but honestly if that is what people believe there is no reason to bother believing!
After 30 years of only being fed a half gospel of Jesus saves I fully enjoy the other half of the gospel of Jesus is that he keeps us. Saves and keeps I now can finally rest in my heavenly father’s arms.
Restrained by Love, I love that…Good News, Good News. Thanks Brother Paul
My heart is filled with joy and reading this makes my mind blowup.. Thank you God for using Paul to speak to us and revealing the truth to us. My mouth is shut and my heart is speaking now with full of joy. Praise be to God. Keep on posting Paul. Happy New Year
This is magnificent. What manner of love is this. Yes it is God. More grace brother Paul.
#GraceLife #Love #GraceOverLaw #RichardHopeCityChurch #Accra #Ghana #Africa
Truth thank you needed this Today. when you have his Love Sin isn’t fun anymore. It’s not in our Nature. Thanks!
I would love to have several of your books and am willing to buy them. I have never figured out how to get them free. I LOVE YOUR MESSAGES. Shirley Reed, 54 Leadville Road, Charleston, WV 25312. THANKS
There are four ebooks that are given free to every subscriber. If you didn’t get yours, please see this. Regarding my gospel books, full details can be found on the publisher’s website.
Please, be careful not to declare the OC being gone or nailed to the Cross. Folks are mixing up a systemic mis-translation, begun as early as 170 AD. Continuing in Greek – Latin to English. Through the time of Sinaiticus/Vaticanus…& beyond. Let’s discover together__
Matt 5:17; Jesus did not come to put away the “written Torah” – this is impossible; a NC was given yet, the OC remains. Rom 10:4 [org. Aramaic] confirms; “For Masciach: Heb for (Messiah) is the goal of (written) Torah” [not “the law”] for everyone who believes on Him”. Gal3: 25 -29 further connects this__ God is the Word, “written Torah” is both title & person.
Through the mis-representations of re-writes & translators, “written Torah” & “Jewish oral traditions” have become blurred to look like “the law”. This is in contradiction to not a jot or title…Matt 5:18-19 is explicit.
“Jewish oral traditions” (man-made) are the issue, not “written Torah”.
What has been nailed to the cross are the charges that once stood against us (Col 2:14). Jesus said he came to fulfill the law and he did this in his sacrificial death. Whether you believe the jot or tittle remark (Matt 5:18) refers to the old covenant age (the law has gone) or the current age (the law endures), Christ is the end or fulfillment of the law for all who believe. In any case, the Christian has died to the law and thus has no relationship with it (Rom 7).
Torah means the collected teaching of God(not just the rules portion) especially those written down by Moses. However the Law(rules, codes of conduct) given at Mt Sinai are clearly the first covenant per Deuteronomy 4:13 & 9:9, Hebrews 8:8-13.
The Torah stands forever but God chose to give a better covenant based upon better promises with humanity. Why bother with a new covenant if nothing was wrong with the old one? Hebrews 8 says that the first was faulty. God did not suddenly find everything He had spoken before(Torah) to be wrong but that the first covenant(collection of rules/laws) depended upon the flesh to work and the flesh could not continue or abide in it. Jesus brought us something greater and stronger than the old rule system of make your flesh obey in order to have life and communion with God. Jesus gives us life and communion freely, accessed through faith in Him.
So many of us christians today do not realize the truth you mentioned in this article. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are one with God, just as Jesus prayed in John 17, that we would be one with Him, as Jesus was one with his Father. If we could come to accept this truth and live in it, knowing we are forgiven and nothing can separate us from the love of God, we would get much further in showing the loving Father to a hurting world.
Thanks for the post. Reading the bible through the Lens of God makes me rest in the vineyard. Its about drawing a clear line in your heart . Either U are saved forever or U were never saved, either u rest or u work. Besides no one can serve two masters. Paul I want to know if some of your books are available in Ghana. Thanks.
You can get all titles in electronic format (Kindle and PDF). All purchase options for all titles can be found here.
Just a comment on the harshness of the old testament.
I too sometimes struggle with how God dealt with people under the old covenant. But I think it is difficult for us to fully appreciate what took place then having never lived it and being so far removed from it historically.
If nothing else, the apparent harshness of the OT should make the new covenant that much more awesome and amazing. It is really a full pardon from death row if you think of it.
Naz
God’s love as I see this today comes with a death sentence, as revealed all through the First Testament, (not Old Testament) to me, the see the first and Second as one married as Son and Father are joined as one
Adam by free choice chose death as was told would be if he ate from the tree, yet Father gave temporary Mercy for him to see he is not God, yes has the knowledge yet is not God and when he decides to be dead to his flesh alive self and sees he is dead in Spirit and truth
Needing new life in at that time before the Christ was here yet, To have belief in his coming fro them one day as Job said this in Job 19:25, being dependent on the Christ to come here and first reconcile all to himself unto Father who sanctified Son and rose him from the grave in Flesh and blood that was dead for three days, is alive and never will die again, he did that once to take all sin away for Father to be able to in Son’s risen life to lead you, me and all who are willing to believe, Father in risen Son holds up to stand in Faith as in the Patriarch’s of the first Testament shows us all Hebrews 11 the Faith and by this Faith belief willingly God will hold you up, if you are able to willingly be dead
So God’s love has a death sentence. I die to me and be alive in the risen life of the Christ leading me by Father in Spirit and truth only where no sin can occur ever today after the cross, because all sin was condemned then to
Romans 8:3Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Thank you as I see to be dead to my first born self flesh, in this I dead I do not lead
Ephesians 5:30-32: “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
I remember at one time reading the verse “What God has joined together, let no man separate” and realizing that, along with earthly marriage, it applies to our union/marriage with Christ. For me, it was a reminder not to let any teaching or influence of man ever sway me from the truth of my unbreakable union with God.
Awesome reminder Jennifer.
Blessings and Thanks!!!
Warren (South Carolina, USA)
Just what I needed to go along with this dinner here.
Love you Paul!
This is the most beautiful post I’ve read of yours! Just soooo comforting and fills my heart with love and peace. Thank you so much!
Thank you, Paulette. Our immutable union with Christ is one of the greatest gifts, yet few Christians are aware of it.
That is very powerful,
GOD bless you saint.
John 14:16….Jesus tells us He will send us a Comforter, that He may abide with us forever. This is something I have been studying, and I do believe it is the same as what Jesus said when went back to Heaven. He said then that He is with us always, even unto the end of the world.
I have seen things where the subject of words like “may” is discussed. That He “may” abide with us forever. Does “may” indicate the purpose of the Spirit, if you get what I am saying? As in, He is sent to us so that He WILL IN FACT abide with us forever?
Love this.
This breathes SOooooooooooooooooo much life