Mark Maulding - Author

𝙂𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙁𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙖𝙮 - 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙂𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙚

When Good Friday comes, what if we can celebrate more than we realized? 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ, the God-man, willingly gave Himself for us when He told His Father, “Not my will, but yours be done.”Then He went to the cross. Amazing grace was in full display that day.

For we who believe, Jesus Christ died FOR our sins. How many of those were in the future when he died on that bloody wooden cross? ALL of them, of course! Do you know how the Bible defines sin? Romans 14:23 tells us, “Whatever is not from faith is sin.” Any and every moment we are not depending on God, we are sinning.

This means that as a believer in Jesus, there will never be a sin that our Heavenly Father will hold against you. He will never be angry with you. He will never turn away from you. He will never punish you. He will never leave you. You are so forgiven that before we sin the next time, Jesus’s death says, ”ALREADY FORGIVEN!” Guilt says, I did something wrong. All your guilt before God is gone!

Good Friday also means that when Jesus died on the cross, something incredible was done TO us. Shame says, I am somebody wrong. There is something wrong with me! When we were born, there was something wrong with us. We were born sinners and were spiritual zombies who were dead on the inside. Forgiveness is great, but it was not enough. God had to remove the person you were born as.

That is why the Holy Spirit wrote so clearly in Romans 6:6 and Galatians 2:20 that the dead sinner was crucified with Christ on the cross. As Jesus was dying, that person you once were was dying with him, not your body, of course. The wrong spiritual identity that defines every person died with Jesus. His death says, “NEVER COMING BACK! Shame has ended forever!

When we take time on Good Friday to remember Jesus and His cross, let’s make sure we also remember that because of our forgiveness and co-crucifixion with Him, that was the end of guilt and shame!

Mark Maulding, President and Founder
Grace Life International

𝘼𝙧𝙚 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝘼 𝙎𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘼 𝙎𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙧?

In God’s Best-Kept Secret, I ask a question similar to this. Can a Christian BE a liar, a thief, an alcoholic, a drug addict, an adulterer, or a sinner? The short answer is, though Christians can lie, steal, get drunk, do drugs, commit adultery, and commit all kinds of sins, those behaviors don’t define them. What Jesus has done is what defines them. In fact, the reality is that if they do do those things, they are still what God calls them, saints. Saints who are sinning, but they are not sinners! In Christ, we only have one identity, not two, and it’s a Kingdom identity.

What about 1Timothy 1:15, where Paul states, “This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’—and I am the worst of them all” (NLT).
Isn’t Paul saying that even though he is a Christian, he is still a sinner? No, he’s not saying that at all. The verses before and after tell us he was speaking of his life before he became a Christian.
This doesn’t mean Christians don’t sin. It just means sinning doesn’t define them as sinners. In other words, though you were saved by grace, you are not a “sinner saved by grace.” You are also not a sinner and a saint. You are just a saint.

Saint literally means a holy person, and it is used over sixty times in the New Testament to make sure we know who we genuinely are in Christ.

In God’s family, He doesn’t define us by our behaviors. He defines us by our birth. Our first birth made us sinners. Our new birth through faith in Jesus made us saints!

When my children were young, I heard a big commotion with yelling and running. My son, Ben, was chasing his younger brother, Christopher, and yelling, “You’re a tattletale! You’re a tattletale! I’m going to get you!” Ben had been disciplined by my wife because Christopher told her something Ben did, and he wasn’t happy about it.

Somehow Christopher’s little legs were going so fast that Ben’s long arms couldn’t catch him. But Ben kept yelling those same words at him until Christopher finally yelled back over his shoulder, “I’m not a tattletale! I’m a truth teller!” To have the last word, Ben said, “Well, you’re a truth teller who tattletales!”

That’s like what God says about us. We are saints who commit different kinds of sins, but we are still saints!

Though we may not feel like a saint when we sin or because we feel broken, we are who our Father says we are because of Jesus!

This is what the Holy Spirit wrote to the Corinthian church, which had several sin issues. Notice it was not only written to them but to everyone, including those who have faith in Jesus today, like you and me.

To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. 1 Corinthians 1:2

Let’s all thank Him. “Father, though I don’t always act like it, or feel like it, I thank you that you say I’m a saint. I choose to believe this is who I am in Christ. Amen.

Mark Maulding
President and Founder
Grace Life International Christian Counseling Center
(Author, "God's Best-Kept Secret")

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FREE 1-Hour Webinar + Grace/Identity Classes Email from Next Monday, Aug. 25! Leading Christians Into the Life-Giving Power of God’s Grace TWO TERRIFIC UPCOMING EVENTS! Free One-Hour Webinar Four Root Causes of Our Struggles and How to Overcome

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FREE 1-Hour Webinar + Grace/Identity Classes Email from Whoops! Here's the Missing Link Leading Christians Into the Life-Giving Power of God’s Grace TWO TERRIFIC UPCOMING EVENTS! Free One-Hour Webinar Four Root Causes of Our Struggles and How to

Join us for two transformative events aimed at leading Christians into the life-giving power of God’s grace. Our FREE one-hour webinar on August 25th will explore the four root causes of our struggles and how to overcome them, featuring insights from Mark Maulding's 30 years of counseling experience. Don't miss the opportunity to invest in your spiritual growth with our Advanced Discipleship Training starting September 15th. Together, we will uncover the powerful truths of being loved by God and learn to live the grace life.

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