Thursday, August 28, 2014

Who are we to condemn?

     We have no right to condemn anyone because we are not 

perfect ourselves. No one has a perfect behavior except 

Jesus. When you become saved or born again, you now 

become holy in Christ(see 2Cor 5:21) but that doesn't make 

your behavior perfect. In terms of behavior, we are all the 

same in God's eyes. The difference comes in only when 

accept Christ or not i.e become born again or not. For saved 

christians - when God sees you, He doesn't see any sin in 

you. Why? Because when you became born again, Jesus' 

Spirit came and dwelt inside of you. In other words, the Holy 

Spirit now lives inside of you. When this Spirit dwells in you, 

you are not accused or condemned at any moment. Jesus is 

full of love and mercy, not condemnation(see Rom 8:1). The 

main reason people still condemn others is because they are 

still law conscious. As a child of Grace(Jesus), law is no 

longer your concern.         

      We focus so much on people's behavior and spend time 

going around telling people "do this, don't do that" instead of 

telling people to simply accept the love of Jesus. The truth is 

that God is not concerned about your change of 

behavior; God is concerned about your change of heart. 

So, I won't judge any of you or tell you to do good. All I would 

say is "just open your heart to Jesus and be yourself". 

Period! 

        There is something bad I used to do my entire life(I'm 

sorry I can't tell you what it was.LOL). I tried really hard to 

stop doing this thing but I couldn't. On October 5 2013, when 

I surrendered my heart to Jesus(i.e became born again), I 

thought this terrible act was going to stop but I kept doing it 

over and over. In fact, I was addicted to it. I kept saying 

"Acha you can do this, Acha you can this"; instead of saying 

"Jesus you can do this". Imagine a saved christian still trying 

to overcome a particular bad element. And every time I did 

this thing, I felt really guilty(because of the law). Three 

months later, on January 1 2014, I went down on my knees 

and said "Lord Jesus, please help me. I have tried to stop this 

'thing' but I just can't. I know I am now holy in you but please 

help me to stop doing this 'thing' which constantly makes me 

guilty. In your holy name I pray". Ladies and gentlemen, 

Believe me when I say that ever since then, I stopped doing 

that particular thing. The two mistakes I did were: first, I never 

presented this particular problem to Jesus in prayer and 

secondly, I wasn't supposed to feel guilty because when you 

are in Christ, you are not under any law(I'm not saying you 

should do bad). So here is my conclusion to the story: when 

you try so hard to stop sinning, stop trying and let Jesus in. In 

other words, let go and let God. One surprising day, you will 

find yourself not doing that particular sin anymore; naturally. 

No one would have to tell you to stop. It would happen 

naturally. That is the power of Grace(Jesus). 

      My dear friends, do you now see how powerful Jesus is? I 

am not making this story up. This is a real life experience I 

went through. When I surrendered my heart to Jesus in 

October 2013, even if I passed away the following day, I 

would have still made it to heaven. Even though I still did bad 

things(including now), I would still make it to heaven. You 

know why? Because people go to heaven for accepting 

Jesus; not for sinning(bad behavior). Christ brings you to 

heaven based on your change of heart; not your change of 

behavior.  


           

Thursday, August 7, 2014

How does Grace deliver you from trouble?

       The question we need to ask ourselves is "where do we go 

to when we are in trouble"? or "what do we do when we are 

faced with a serious problem"? Let me break this into different 

examples: you robbed a bank and you still feel really bad 

about it, you have been trying to overcome your addiction to 

pornography or fornication or adultery but you are still not able 

to, you blackmailed someone and the person was sent to jail, 

you are suffering from alcohol and drug abuse addiction, you 

scammed a business client and made millions of dollars in the 

process, you are trying so hard not to lie or cheat on your 

spouse, you are suffering from inferiority complex and feel like 

committing suicide at all times, you are so generous and 

people take your kindness for granted, you hate yourself so 

much and wish you were never born, you feel like a failure, 

your children stress you out and you feel so depressed, you 

are suffering from a terminal disease or sickness(e.g cancer, 

aids), you murdered one, two or more people and feel really 

bad about it, you are a drug dealer or drug addict, you are 

always sad and annoyed, you didn't accomplish your life goals 

at your age and you feel really depressed; etc etc. The list 

goes on and on but one of you reading this may be in one of 

the above categories. The question still stands "what should 

you do"? 


           First, the obvious thing is not to give up. Jesus is full 

of hope, love, and joy; and wouldn't want any of his people to 

give up. Let me make something crystal clear: God can 

forgive anybody; I mean anybody. That is how much God 

loves us. Regardless of what bad thing you have done, 

Jesus(God the son) is still willing to forgive you. All you have 

to do is to come to him in prayer and surrender your heart to 

him. Ask him to help you and he will transform you. The 

transformation process doesn't just happen overnight; it will 

take a while and you will be amazed.  Don't try to change 

yourself, come to Jesus and He will change you. The 

tendency is that when you try so hard by your self will, you 

keep doing the same mistakes and then end up giving up. But 

if you let the Holy Spirit(God's spirit) to take charge, you will 

be amazed. The Holy Spirit empowers you naturally to do 

good.  When you are faced with a serious problem such as 

one of the above mentioned, don't run away from God; 

instead run to God. God does not condemn anyone; He is 

instead your source of joy. Present your problem to God and 

sincerely say "Father, I know you can hear me. Please help 

me to get rid of this problem. I know you can and I trust in 

you, in Jesus' name I pray, Amen". The moment you say that 

from the bottom of your heart, God has already started 

performing His miracle in your life.

          Let us take a look at our present day situation. Let us 

assume a father loves his son so much and the father would 

do anything for his son to be happy. The son also knows how 

much his father loves him. Now, if the son is in trouble or 

has done something bad, would he honestly run away from 

his father for fear of condemnation? Would the son escape 

from the father's house because he thinks that the father 

would punish him? My guess is 'no'. Any son in his right mind, 

who understands how much the father loves him would run to 

daddy when in any trouble, right? In the same way, if we 

understand that God loved us so much by sacrificing His only 

begotten son(Jesus) for us, then we should understand that 

He would never condemn us; but would rather help us. We all 

know that God loves us so much that he sacrificed his only 

begotten son for our sake(see Jn 3:16). Now, why 

would a King sacrifice his only son if he didn't love us so 

much? Think about it. Why would a man do that and then 

condemn us again? God is full of love and mercy, not 

condemnation. That explains why God's word is called 'Good 

news' not 'condemnation news'. So, if you are suffering from 

drug or alcohol addiction, or from anger and depression, 

present your problem to him and sincerely ask him to help 

you. God is willing to help only if we allow him to. Recall that 

God doesn't force anyone to come to him. The father is free 

and if we are made in his image, we too are free. So, God 

has given us a freedom of choice but he is hoping that we 

would use our freedom to choose him, not the devil. 

Therefore, I challenge you not to give up on God because his 

Grace(love and mercy) is more than sufficient. 

                           
                              * Grace = Jesus *
       

The adulterous woman.

          Let me use a good example is the bible to explain to 

you that God does not condemn but rather loves and forgives.  

In other words, this will show you how grace(Jesus) has 

delivered and will continue to deliver you from trouble. 

In Jn 8:2-11, we learn of a woman who committed adultery 

and was caught. Now, God's law commanded that this 

woman be stoned to death. So, the teachers of the law and 

the pharisees brought this woman to Jesus to see whether 

Jesus will follow the law. First of all, Jesus was the only holy 

man among all of them because he had never sinned or done 

any wrong thing. Therefore, Jesus was the only person 

qualified to judge this woman by stoning her to death but he 

chose not to. Jesus, so full of Grace(love and mercy) decided 

not to follow the law. The pharisees asked him "the law of 

Moses commanded us to stone such women, now what do 

you say?" He responded with a very intelligent statement 

which was "…let anyone of you who is without sin be the first 

to throw a stone at her"(Jn 8:7). They all felt guilty and threw 

their stones away. Jesus walked up to the woman and asked 

"woman, where are they. Has no one condemned you"? And 

she responded "no one sir''. Then Jesus said "neither do I 

condemn you; go and sin no more"(Jn 8:11). 

         As you can see, Jesus(God the son) does not condemn 

any one. Why then should we condemn ourselves and run 

away from him? When you find yourself in a serious mess, 

come to Jesus and he would tell you something similar to 

what he told this woman "neither do I condemn you, go and 

sin no more". This implies that Jesus(Grace) does not 

condemn anyone but forgives easily and helps us out of 

trouble with an inexplicable supernatural power.  


Grace in the home.
     
     Someone once asked this question over TBN channel and 

I quote "when our children behave poorly, should we just seat 

back and pray for grace to take charge"? This is quite a good 

question and here is the answer: pray for grace to take 

charge but set some ground rules. What happens is that 

grace will give you the wisdom to better handle your kids. 

There is no better way of handling your kids besides the 

grace of God(Jesus). So yes, Grace took over the situation 

and is now working through you to bring up your kids in the 

fear of the Lord. 

      Now, the law said "whoever spares the rod hates his son, 

but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him"(prov 13:24). 

But remember, we are not under any laws what soever but 

strictly grace(see Rom 6:14).  So we don't have to follow this 

particular law of sparing the rod. However, Grace(Jesus) that 

lives inside of you might tell you not to spare the rod and 

spoil child. The reason I said might is because Grace has so 

many wise ways of doing things but the law has one 

particular way of doing something. The law will tell you to be 

stern and strict with your child in order to discipline him but 

Grace might tell you to be stern and strict with your child(but 

not necessarily). Remember, Grace is wisdom from God. So 

Grace might say "go ahead and let him stay in jail for a short 

while so he can feel the other side of lifeor Grace might say 

"no he has suffered enough and he has already learned a 

lesson, bail him out". That is how the power of Grace 

operates. It always works out for good and does it with mercy. 

Remember, Grace is a person; that person is Jesus. And as 

you know, Jesus is full of love, mercy, and wisdom. 


My personal situation:

     There is something bad I used to do my entire life(I'm sorry I 

can't tell you what it was. LOL). I tried really hard to stop doing 

this 'thing' but I couldn't. On October 5 2013, when I surrendered 

my heart to Jesus(i.e became saved), I thought this terrible act was 

going to stop but I kept doing it over and over. In fact, I was 

addicted to it. I kept saying "Acha you can do this, Acha you can 

this"; instead of saying "Jesus you can do this". And every time I 

did this thing, I felt really guilty and condemned(because of God's 

law). Three months later, on January 1 2014, I went down on my 

knees and said "Lord Jesus, please help me. I have tried to stop this 

'thing' but I just can't. I know I am already holy in you BUT please 

help me to stop doing this 'thing' which constantly makes me 

guilty. In your holy name I pray". Believe me when I say that ever 

since then, I stopped doing that particular 'thing' and it happened 

naturally.

      The two mistakes I did were: first, I never presented this 

particular problem to Jesus in prayer. Secondly, I was trying on my 

own(self-effort) instead of depending on God(Grace-effort). 

Thirdly, I wasn't supposed to feel guilty or condemned(see Rom 

8:1) because when you are in Christ, you are not under any 

law(and I'm not encouraging anyone to do bad). 
  
      So here is my conclusion to the story: when you try so hard to 

stop sinning, stop trying and let Jesus in. In other words, let go and 

let God. No one has the right to condemn you. One surprising day, 

you will find yourself not doing that particular sin anymore; 

naturally. No one would have to tell you to stop. It will happen 

naturally. That is the power of Grace(Jesus).   

      Therefore, stop saying "I can do this". Instead say "by God's 

Grace(Jesus), I can do this".  We should understand that there is a 

difference between self confidence and Grace(Christ) confidence. 

Self confidence comes as a result of our self effort or self will to 

do something but Grace confidence is the confidence from God 

which makes you bold enough. So, true boldness comes from 

Christ confidence, not self confidence. I am a living testimony to 

that. I was a very shy person from birth. In fact, I must admit that I 

am very weak person by nature(those who know me really well 

can testify). But here is the thing: with Jesus, that weak spot in me 

is not even noticed; not anymore. And one of the bible verses that 

really inspired me in this aspect was 2Cor 12:9 which says that 

God said "...for my power is made perfect in weakness". Wow! I 

thought God worked well only with strong people. But this verse is 

telling us that even those of us who are weak, God's power is made 

perfect in them. Therefore, it is okay to be weak but don't use your 

weakness as an excuse not to carry out God's wonderful mission. 

With Him, all things are possible(Matt 19:26). God's Grace will 

deliver you from trouble especially when you are weak. Amen!

            

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Arguments against Grace.

        Many people would argue against the gospel of Grace by 

using scriptures such as the following: Matt 5:17, Rom 7:12, 

Matt 23:2-3  etc. There are many others but let me focus my 

explanation on these three:


Argument 1:  -   Did Jesus instead fulfill the law?

      According to Matt 5:17, Jesus said "do not think that I 

have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not 

come to abolish them but to fulfill them".  Now, if you read this 

statement literally, it seems as though Jesus was telling us to 

follow the law which is not the case. Jesus was not saying 

that we should fulfill the law. First of all, what He meant was 

that He came to fulfill the law by Himself. Jesus did not say "I 

have come for you and I to fulfill the law". Instead, He was 

saying "I have come for I to fulfill the law"; which He did

Secondly, God gave the law in order to show us our 

mistakes(sin issues), not to correct our mistakes. The law had 

so many do's and don'ts(about 613) which no man could ever 

follow. The fact is that the law had to be fulfilled(see Lk 

22:44). Because the law couldn't be fulfilled by any man, 

Jesus(God the son) came to fulfill the requirements of the law 

and then gave us Grace in place of the law. Therefore, we are 

no longer under the law but under Grace(see Rom 6:14).  

       So tell me, if Jesus has already fulfilled the law, why are 

we still trying to fulfill the law? If we are still following God's 

laws, what we are saying is that Jesus failed in fulfilling the 

law and therefore, we need to do everything in our power to 

accomplish it. What we are saying is that Jesus failed in His 

mission. The only way we can commune in fellowship with our

heavenly father and have dominion over the earth is to rely on 

His Grace, not to rely on His law(which is already fulfilled). 

Therefore, we are no longer under the law but we are under 

the Grace of God. 

                    * Jesus = Grace & Holy Spirit = Jesus everywhere
                                            Therefore, Jesus = Grace = Holy spirit                


            As a born again christian, your guide is no longer the 

law. Your guide is now the Holy Spirit. Someone would ask "if 

the Holy Spirit(Grace) still guides you to do the good things 

required by the law, what then is the difference between the 

law and the Holy Spirit(grace)? That is a very good question 

and now, let me answer that: the difference is that when you 

disobey any of God's laws(i.e by mistake or not), you would 

be punished(hell) by law and condemned; but if you disobey 

the Holy Spirit(Grace/Jesus), you would not be punished and 

condemned. Instead, you would be easily forgiven because 

Jesus(God the son) is full of love. Now, have I said we should 

purposely disobey the Holy Spirit because we know Jesus 

has already forgiven all of our sins? Have I said we are free to 

do bad things because Jesus(Holy Spirit) will forgive us after 

all? No! The Holy Spirit(Jesus' Spirit) empowers us to do 

good but in case we do something bad, forgiveness is already 

made available because Jesus' blood washed away our past, 

present and future sins(evidence in Jn 1:29). So, what we 

need to understand here is that the law is very strict and 

condemning but grace(Jesus or Holy Spirit) is more lenient 

and understanding.  



Argument 2:  -  Is the law holy?

           According to Rom 7:12, Paul said "so the law is holy, 

and the commandment is holy and righteous and good". Now, 

at this point many folks will begin to argue that Paul has told 

us to follow God's law because it is holy. The question is "why 

would Paul tell us in Rom 10:4 that Christ is the end of the 

law, but he is now telling us that the law is holy and righteous 

and good"? Isn't there a discrepancy in his explanation? 

Permit me to make this crystal clear. The law itself is holy 

but does not make us holy. Apostle Paul is explaining to us 

that in as much as the law is holy, by itself, it does not make 

us holy. It is grace the makes us holy. Let me prove it to you. 

One verse further, the bible says "Did that which is good then 

bring death to me? By no means. It was sin, producing death 

in me through what is good…"(Rom 7:13).  This verse means 

that it was sin that brought death to us through what was 

good(the law). In other words, sin brought death to us 

through the law. So you see, even though the law is holy, it 

does not make us holy. Why? Because it is too perfect to be 

kept. In other words, we uphold the law(see Rom 3:31

because it is too perfect to be kept by any man besides God 

the son(Jesus). That is why we must rely instead on Grace.   

         Here is the question:  If the law doesn't make a man 

righteous, does it mean that there was no righteous man in 

the old testament? Permit me to answer that.  Folks in the 

Old testament were under the law but the law never made 

them righteous. Some of them could have been made 

righteous by God only because they asked God for 

forgiveness(which required animal sacrifices). Therefore, 

under the law, you must ask for forgiveness in order to be 

righteous(or make it to heaven) but under Grace, you don't 

need to ask for any forgiveness when you do something bad 

because Jesus' blood has already forgiven us, and we will 

make it to heaven regardless. However, I am not encouraging 

anyone to sin. We naturally avoid sin not because of God's 

law; but because of God's love, through His Grace. The thing 

is, in case we sin by accident, God has already forgiven us 

because of the blood of Christ. As you can see, folks in the 

old testament were suffering from condemnation(guilt from 

the law). They needed to do so much to get righteousness but 

today, all we need to do is to sincerely accept Christ's love 

and mercy(Grace). Period!

         The bottom line is that if you want to follow the law, 

then you need to follow all 613 of them. You can not follow 

some and tell God that you have tried. Nope! It doesn't work 

like that. God is the perfect God and therefore as a follower of 

the law, you must follow all 613 do's and dont's. The bible 

says "for the person who keeps all of the laws except one is 

as guilty as a person who has broken all of God's laws"

(James 2:10). In other words, if you go against one 

law, then you are guilty of all others. But guess what, there is 

a simple way out of all these. Quit following the law and follow 

only Grace(Jesus). Under Grace, the Holy Spirit would 

guide you on what to do. One of the reasons most of us still 

don't believe in this is because most of us still don't 

understand the power of the Holy Spirit. Until you sincerely 

submit your heart to Jesus, you wouldn't really understand the 

influence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Remember, the Holy 

Spirit in simple terms means "Jesus everywhere". So, if you 

sincerely believe in the power of Jesus, then you should 

believe in the power of the Holy Spirit.  


Argument 3:  -  Was Jesus for the law?

      Jesus said  "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit 

in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything 

they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not 

practice what they preach"(Matt 23:2-3). If Christ is the end of 

the law(as written in Rom 10:4), why then was He telling 

people to obey the teachers of the law and do everything they 

told people to do? Is Christ really for the law or against the 

law? 
     

        That is a very good question and here is the answer: 

Jesus had to fulfill the requirements of the law(as seen in Matt 

5:17). So He taught the law and followed the law. But during 

the last supper, He declared His accomplishments of the law 

by making a new covenant with God. This new covenant is 

called "Grace". So Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law; 

then gave us Grace in place of the law.     


        In Mk 10:19, Jesus said "you know the commandments: 

you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not 

steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not cheat, 

honor your father and mother". Why on earth would Jesus be 

talking about law when we are not supposed to be under the 

law anymore? First of all, we need to understand that Jesus 

was teaching within the boundaries of the law. When Jesus 

was teaching the law, He was referring to people under the 

law(those at the time); not to us who are now under His 

Grace. Jesus' teaching of the law implied that as people who 

were under the law, those were the things that they ought to 

be doing. The bible even says that everything that is said in 

the law is only for those who are/were under the law(see Rom 

3:19). Recall that Jesus Himself was under the law. This can 

be proven in the following scripture: "…God sent forth His son 

made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that 

were under the law"(Gal 4:4-5). So you see, if Jesus was 

born under God's law, why wouldn't He teach His father's 

law? Please listen carefully: the Old covenant was not bad; on 

the contrary it was good but the people couldn't keep it; 

because they were too many(over 613). Therefore, Jesus had 

to fulfill all the requirements of the law because no one in the 

history of the law was able to fulfill it and then, He replaced 

this law by making a new covenant with God; symbolized by 

the last supper. This new covenant was Grace


             * ...Whatever the law says, it says to those under the law(Rom 3:19) *


     The law is the only covenant the people knew at the time. 

Now that we know of Grace, which is easier and more 

relieving, why are we going back to the law? Jesus fulfilled the 

law so that we could live freely under Grace(be led by the 

Holy Spirit). Why are we still trying to fulfill something(the law) 

which Jesus has already taken care of? 

     The bible says "…since the new covenant is established 

on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with 

that first covenant, no place would have been sought for 

another. But God found fault with His people saying 'the days 

are coming declares the Lord, when I will make a new 

covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of 

Judah' "(Heb 8:6-8). As you can see, this verse is explaining 

that God found something wrong with the law; the law(old 

covenant) couldn't be fulfilled by any regular human. Knowing 

this, God sent Jesus to fulfill this old covenant(the law) and 

make a new covenant(Grace) on behalf of the entire world. 

The question now is "why did the law have to be fulfilled"? 

Why did someone have to follow all the requirements of the 

law for it to be abolished"? Simple! Because God is a 

covenant keeping God. If God makes an agreement with you, 

He will keep it; God does not lie or break promises. Jesus 

said "...everything must be fulfilled that is written about 

me in the law of Moses..."(Lk 24:44). As you can see, Jesus 

clearly pointed out in this verse that the law had to be fulfilled.  

Someone had to fulfill this agreement(old covenant of law) 

before it could be replaced with Grace. And only Jesus could 

do so; which He did. Hallelujah!  

      Also, the reason Jesus was teaching the law to those who 

were under the law(everyone at the time) is because He didn't 

want to break the law(see Deut 4:2 & Deut 12:32); because 

He Himself was under the law. Jesus had to teach the law 

perfectly in order to fulfill its requirements.  


       Argument 4: - Jesus didn't specify anything against law 

      Another argument against this gospel of Grace is the fact 

that all through His ministry, Jesus was teaching the law and 

therefore, people think that is what we need to continue 

doing. As I said earlier, Jesus was teaching the law because 

everyone at the time was under the law and also, He had to 

fulfill God's law before replacing it with Grace.

     Now, the question is "all evidences against the law 

are found in books written only by Paul; not Jesus Himself. So 

how do we really know that all those scriptures for Grace are 

supported by Jesus today"? That is a very good question and 

I used to ask myself that as well. Recall that Paul the 

apostle(formerly known as Saul) was a former murderer 

personally called and chosen by Jesus Himself(read Acts 9:1-

31). Why would Jesus go all the way to pick a murderer to do 

His work? Why did Jesus not just appoint a non murderer or 

one of His believers? That, my friend, is a special calling. The 

bible says "but the Lord Jesus said to Ananias, 'go! this man 

is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the gentiles 

and their kings and to the people of Israel' "(Acts 9:15). As 

you can see, Jesus specifically chose Paul to spread His 

gospel of Grace to the world(and that is why more than two-

third of the new testament was written by Paul). So, in other 

words, Jesus wrote the gospel of Grace through Paul. Jesus' 

Spirit(the Holy Spirit) was with Paul and inspired him to write 

all these wonderful scriptures(good news) of Grace. 

Therefore, when Paul says "sin shall not have dominion over 

us for we are not under the law but under Grace"(Rom 6:14), 

we should know that this is coming from Jesus Himself. When  

Paul says "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to 

everyone that believes"(Rom 10:4), we must know that this is 

definitely coming from Jesus else, Jesus probably won't have 

allowed such serious claims in the new testament scriptures.     

       By explaining and exemplifying the law, Jesus fulfilled a 

prophecy of the messiah. This prophecy can be found in Is 

42:21 which is: "the Lord is well pleased for His 

righteousness' sake; He will exalt the law and make it 

honorable". So, Jesus exalted the law by teaching and 

following it but He fulfilled it and had it replaced with Grace. If 

you further read this verse, the prophet Isaaih said "but this is 

a people robbed and plundered, all of them are snared in 

hole, and they are hidden in prison houses…"(Is 42:22).  

The words 'prison houses' here show that the law put the 

jews in serious bondage and captivity. But guess what? On 

the last supper with His disciples, Jesus made a new 

covenant with God(on behalf of the jews and everyone) to set 

us free from this prison; this bondage of the law. Hallelujah!!! 

So tell me. Isn't this Good news? This more like perfect news. 

Why is that? Because we didn't do anything to merit such a 

gift. O wow!     


*...for sin shall no longer be your master because 
                                                              you are not under the law but under grace*
                                                                                                                      Rom 6:14