Scandalous Favour預覽

  FAVOUR WILL CHASE YOU DOWN

‘All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God’ Deuteronomy 28:2 NKJV

Imagine yourself being chased down and overtaken by the incredible list of blessing found in Deuteronomy 28. 

The list is AMAZING: 

Blessing in the city; in the country, on your children, in your career, on your businesses, in your home, on your food, as you come in, as you go out. God will also defeat any enemies who attack you. They will come at you on one road and run away on seven roads. God will order a blessing on your storehouse and your workplace; He will bless you in the land that He will give you. God will also make you holy.

Wow! What a list of blessing to be chasing you down. 

But what is the prerequisite? In this passage, Deuteronomy 28:1 says by “being careful to do ALL of His commandments.” 

It was the condition in the Old Covenant. You had to earn it. You had to be very careful. You had to get everything, absolutely everything, right, or you could expect a curse - and the list of curses that follow in the passage is so terrifying, and conjures such fear, that all would surely become pretenders at holiness.

The New Covenant, however, is not based on fear but rather on unconditional love. 

It is a covenant of grace, unmerited and unearned favour! It is a covenant that pronounces us completely forgiven, guiltless, and washed whiter than snow, qualified despite our many weaknesses by faith in Jesus’ endless grace. It is a covenant whereby we receive the righteousness of God as a gift and NEVER by our human effort or works. 

As such, the scripture tells us that NOW under the New Covenant ‘ALL the promises of God are YES to US who are in Christ Jesus. And we gratefully say Amen!’ - 2 Corinthians 1:20.

ALL means ALL, and this includes the blessings of Deuteronomy 28. Yet with none of the curses and none of the fear motivation. Just blessings are chasing us down as we put our complete faith in His Grace. 

Under the Old Covenant, we would be cursed unless we fulfilled ALL the commandments. And this is impossible. There is not one single person reading this devotion who does not sin.

‘If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’ 1 John 1:8 NKJV

So, if the favour is by our works, we will always be perpetually under a curse. Sadly, for many, this is true because they are trusting in their works and not His grace. 

Yet favour is now a free gift to us because Jesus became cursed in our place. 

‘For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.’ 2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

Jesus qualified us once and for all so that ALL the blessings will be a huge YES to us. 

So, we say AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!

Sadly, many will not say AMEN when Jesus gives you a scandalous unmerited YES of qualification for a blessing. Many seek to qualify blessing by the works of the flesh. 

Just like Abraham’s son produced by human effort, persecuted his other son born of grace alone. It is still the same today, ‘As he who was born according to the flesh (Ishmael) persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so, it is NOW’. Galatians 4:28 NKJV. 

Pride hates this kind of teaching. The flesh loves to glory in its self-righteousness, and the self-righteous will always attack anyone who dares to believe for a blessing on their life that is based on pure unmerited favour. 

Always be gracious with those who are self-righteous but NEVER adopt their thinking.

See yourself as wrapped up in Jesus’ gifted righteousness. See your life as pursued by unearned blessing. A blessing that comes upon you and overtakes you. See your qualification as Christ alone. Jesus is speaking YES over you to all His blessings, say AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!

Beloved, all things are possible with God, and all things are possible to the one who believes.