One of the fascinating things you observe more and more closely about life and the world as a Bible student is how Satan counterfeits what’s God’s—His words, His plans, His person, on and on.

As I pointed out last week, in Deepak Chopra’s new book on dying he dishes out the core New Age lie that says “who you meet in the afterlife and what you experience there reflect your present beliefs, expectations and level of awareness. In the here and now you can shape what happens after you die . . . Ultimately there is no division between life and death—there is only one continuous creative project.”

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In a Q&A period following an online Bible study last Wednesday, Southern California preacher John Verstegen (www.helpersofyourjoy.org) was asked about the Apostle Paul’s admonition in I Cor. 9 regarding a Believer’s “prize” and striving for an incorruptible heavenly crown.

Verstegen answered, “It’s all going to be glory for us (out there), but it has to do with the ability to take God’s Word and function with it here, and hence when we get there we’ll be put into a position that is parallel to that capacity and functioning in grace developed here.

“By the way, I should say as well, that even when we’re there in the heavenly places we will continue to grow and develop in our capacity to serve. We’ll be studying and learning forever. Learning will never end. The Word of God is eternal in nature. Your soul and my soul—you and I will be learning forever.”

Because of this reality that the Believer’s heavenly reward is dependant on their standing in grace, Satan seeks most of all to deceive Christians away from even grasping the concept of true grace, thereby preventing it from operating in any meaningful way in their lives. This is, in fact, the thrust behind the all the world’s religions!

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As Jordan once outlined grace in a sermon, “Grace exalts the Lord Jesus Christ as nothing else can because it holds up His work at Calvary and says, ‘That’s the answer! That’s it!’

“God’s grace enables the Believer to recognize that sin has been successfully dealt with, and totally conquered and vanquished, and you don’t have to be under its control. Rather, you can walk as a son. You can live and be who you are in Christ, not who you are in yourself.

“People say, ‘Well, what you need to do is know yourself.’ Really?! I mean, I know me too well! What I want to know is who God has made me in Christ. The answer isn’t get to know me better.

“Human wisdom says, ‘If you just understood your personality better and your temperament better.’ If, for example, you’ve got a phlegmatic temperament, understand the strengths and weaknesses of it and then you’ll know how to deal with things.

“Listen, the way to get victory isn’t focusing on you; it’s focusing on what God’s given you in Christ. That’s the path of victory.

“If I’ve got a sin in my life, I’m not threatened by it, thinking, ‘Oh no, I got to bring this thing in before the Lord and make Him understand.’ He’s already taken care of it.

“I can judge it, identify it, say, ‘There it is,’ and I can be accountable for it, and I can change my mind about it. I can say, ‘That thing doesn’t belong in my life!’ and I can put it off. Paul says, ‘Put off the old man and put on the new man.’

“You’ll never get the victory in your life over sin until you put it off and put on the new. You can’t just put off, put off, put off; it’ll just keep coming back, finding a way home and replacing itself with some other bad thing.

“But when you uproot it, throw it out and put the righteous activity in its place—stop sin, produce good works—then you’ve got victory.

“You check Paul’s Epistles and you’ll find the principle is ‘put off and put on’ and it’s never anything else. That’s why there isn’t any victory over sin in confessing sin. You know, there’s this idea about the ‘positive confession business’ or going to the confessional booth like the Catholics do.

“You go and confess that sin and you make a deal with God. You beg Him, you plead with Him, and you claim whatever, and you get Him to forgive you. But you know there’s never any victory over sin in that. Never is. That never stops you from sinning. It just doesn’t do it. You check your life; it doesn’t do it.

“What’s going to stop you? I’m not talking about not identifying it—confess means to say the same thing—but under the law you did it for one reason and under grace you do the same good work for a different reason.

“I’m not identifying the sin in order to get His forgiveness—I’m identifying it and dealing with it because I am forgiven! It’s a different motivation, and it’s a motivation that will give you victory because the sin has been dealt with and therefore you can put it away.

“Grace puts you on the spot. Grace demonstrates who you love; it manifests your heart. It shows who you love. He said, ‘By love serve one another.’ Not because you have to. Old man Bob Jones used to say that what you do in the dark is what you are. You know what he meant by that? He meant that whatever you would do—what would you do today if you knew you could do anything you wanted to do, bar nothing and never have to give account of it?

“I’m saying nobody would ever know it, nobody would ever hold you in account of it, nobody would ever punish you for it in any way? You could do anything you wanted to do and never face a judgment, never face an accounting, never have anybody call you on the carpet about it?

“Instinctively when you think about that, you think about that bad thing you’d do that you don’t do because if you did, it would get you in trouble.

“You know what grace does? It says, ‘Okay, no judgment. Judgment’s gone; it’s passed. I want you to do this because you love me.’ You say, ‘What can I do?’ The answer is, ‘By love serve one another.’ And you go around singing, ‘Oh, how I love Jesus.’ Well, if you loved Him, what would you do? Didn’t He tell His disciples, ‘If you love me keep my commandments’?

“That’s the sonship position you have in grace. Walk under grace and serve God out of love and gratitude, doing it motivated by what He’s given you in Christ.”