God's grace is the foundation of our freedom, a sure gift made available to us again every morning.

Every mistake we make is covered.

Every sin is forgiven.

And my hope is that as we center our hearts and minds around God's grace,

that His forgiveness and mercy open a pathway to true freedom for us today.

Welcome to the First 15 podcast. Our scripture for today comes from 1 Corinthians 15, verses 56 through 57.

Scripture says,

The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We live in a world built on transaction.

We give and we get.

We only receive what we earn or deserve.

We're hired and fired based on our abilities and performance. We commit our lives

to this system of cause and effect, relishing the days of success and wincing at the thought

of failure. And often as believers, we take this system of works we've grown so comfortable

with and apply it to our relationship with God.

We operate with God much like we operate with an employer.

We think if we can go to church, give God our money, spend enough time with him in the morning,

be happy and help people, then God will like us.

If we can stop sinning, then God will love us more.

But God's ways are not like ours.

The New Testament names this transactional relationship with God as living under the law

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