Confessions - PUTTING YOUR FAITH IN THE RIGHT PLACE

Main message: Put your faith in what Jesus has already finished, not in your own performance; live from the gift of Christ’s finished work (acceptance, forgiveness, righteousness) and enter the rest that authentic faith produces.

Key points:

• Old-covenant faith is law-centered: trust often rests on human performance, producing a cycle of obedience → failure → sacrifice and a motivation of fear and earning acceptance.
• New-covenant faith is grace-centered: faith trusts Christ’s finished work (“It is finished”), receives promises as gifts, and lives from the identity and acceptance already given in Christ.
• Practical differences: when you fail under the new covenant you receive forgiveness and snap back to what’s finished; when you succeed you attribute the life of Christ in you, not your own achievement.
• Rest is the proof of authentic new-covenant faith — not inactivity but ceasing from self-effort as the source of righteousness while still praying, choosing, and following the Spirit.
• Warning: many Christians are new-covenant in position but live by old-covenant practice (mixture), which produces tension; a daily relationship with the Holy Spirit is key to living from grace.

Scriptures mentioned: Galatians, Romans, Ephesians, Hebrews, John (Jesus’ “It is finished”)