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Are you impervious to performance? Say what? The essence of the meaning of the word impervious (or impermeable) is: too not allow something to enter or pass through: and to not be bothered or affected by something! Are you allowing the tyrants of legalism and performance based religion to permeate your heart and mind?

What bothers or affects you most? To whom or what are you giving your true loyalty? Is it your soul, your core beliefs or your relational honor? Does any law other than the Royal Law of Jesus’ Love permeate authentic you? God is calling us to a faith that is resistant and watertight above all else.

The issue I wrestle with more often than I would like to admit is being impermeable. I cannot allow the Law of works/performance to penetrate or have entrance and passage to my belief system. It’s as if the law of performance uses ‘sleight of hand’. It does!

We must always remember that our adversary employs deceitful craftiness with evil stratagem against us! Be assured, we always have the upper hand in any and all battles we face. Following is our Biblical stratagem! It will never leave us defenseless! The only ‘but’; in whom are we placing our faith-that choice will always remain ours?

Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” (Matt. 22: 37-40, Msg)

“Paul contrasts the futility of the law of works in its clumsy effort to improve human behavior with the amazing revelation of the life of our design redeemed in us, in Christ!  He uses the words, “law,” “flesh” and “works” vs. grace, “spirit” and “faith” to give reference to the dynamic of the success of the cross.

The promise is concluded in the person of Christ; unveiled in human life!

Galatians 3:21 No, the law does not oppose God’s promise; it emphasizes the desperate need for a Redeemer to release righteousness in man as his life; something the law would certainly not be capable of! Had it been possible for man to be justified by the law, the promise would be unnecessary. 3:22 Scripture concludes that all men without exception are in the same predicament, they are imprisoned to sin.

Now faith brings the promise of immediate release within everyone’s reach! Jesus Christ makes it possible for all to believe what God believes concerning their righteousness and restored innocence.

Galatians 4:5 Jesus’ mandate was to rescue the human race from the regime of the law of performance and announce the revelation of their true sonship in God.

4:6 To seal our sonship God has commissioned the Spirit of sonship to resonate the Abba echo in our hearts; and now, in our innermost being we recognize him as our true and very dear Father.

5:1 Christ defines your faith; he is your freedom from anything the law could never free you from! Find your firm footing in this freedom. Do not let religion trip you up again and harness you to a system of rules and regulations!” Toit, Francois Du (2012-07-02). Mirror Bible (Kindle Locations 3601-3611). Mirror Word Publishing. Kindle Edition.

It's not who we were when He called us, it's who we become after He called us that matters. Everything we are is 'grace'! On our own merits, we cannot receive this life, for even receiving it is a gift of grace. "The grace to grasp grace is grace". A system of belief based solely in the Gospel of Grace will remain impermeable to any onslaught you and I will ever face!

This grace is impermeable and enables us to discover who we really are. It empowers us to live in our true identity-to be our true self and live out of the heart Jesus gave us. 'To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting,'' E.E. Cummings. Live today in the grace to be who He is making you to be!

Live impermeable in Grace! Ron Ross