TD Jakes - The Illumination of His Grace
I’m going to go into Romans. I have preached around this area, and I will continue along this path I spoke about this Sunday. However, I am going to go a little bit deeper than I could in a preaching setting; I can do more in a teaching setting than I could before. So, we are going to go to Romans 8, and let me see where we want to start—verse 14 would be really good: «For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.»
This verse is what I have been preaching about this week: «For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.» «For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.» «For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.» Glory to God, we will stop right there for now. I want to talk about the illumination of His grace. The illumination of His grace is important because grace can be present yet not illuminated. We need grace to move forward—not just grace in terms of mercy, but grace in terms of empowerment, grace in terms of inheritance, and grace in terms of understanding who we are in the Kingdom of God; this is, in fact, a grace all by itself. So, we will deal with that today, and I believe you will be blessed by the Word of God.
I believe it was Charles Spurgeon who mentioned visiting an elderly lady living in a hut—no water, no electricity, her needs not being met. She was impoverished and in a terrible situation. He noticed a document pinned to the wall, and when he read it, he discovered it was from the employer who had employed this woman, now deceased, who left this woman a home and provisions for the rest of her life. However, it was just hanging on the wall, because the woman couldn’t read it. This illustration sets the stage for where we are as a contemporary 21st-century church. God has left all kinds of blessings for us that we are not benefiting from because we aren’t reading the Word of God. We go to church and listen to preachers for encouragement but not for empowerment. What I want to do is to illuminate this for you so that you can read and better understand who you are as a child of God.
Excuse me for being laborious in this Bible class, but my hope is to take us beyond the baby food of everything being all right and into the more meaty substance of why I have a right as a child of God to expect certain things in the Kingdom of God and how that is transmitted to us. This scripture is quite significant for that: «For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they shall be called the sons of God.»
Before this text, he has discussed not walking in the flesh but walking in the Spirit. He’s trying to help them understand that everything they will receive is a result of their relationship with the Spirit of God. Why is this important? It is crucial because he’s writing to the Romans, who were primarily Gentiles. There were some Jews living in Rome, as well as various religious sects, but for the most part, the Romans were Gentiles. The Roman Empire had taken over almost everything. Later on, we will see in history that Great Britain took over almost everything and colonized all over the world, but before Great Britain did that, Rome had done it. It had colonies of power and influence that extended its authority into areas like Jerusalem and other places that were under the dominion of the Roman Empire, just as some Caribbean islands were once under the sovereignty of Great Britain. Similarly, Jerusalem was under the sovereign power of Rome.
The Romans were not Jews and did not embrace the Jewish religion, but they had politically overthrown them and had power over them. Paul is now going to the oppressor, as it were, to evangelize, and Paul is a citizen of Rome, though he is by birth a Jew. When he is writing to the Romans, he does so because they had not previously entertained the possibility that they could be a part of the lineage of God and connected to Him. He is introducing to them the notion of sonship. Had he been writing to the Jews, he would not have needed to discuss this, as you will remember from Exodus, when God was delivering the children of Israel from Pharaoh’s hand: «Israel is my son, my firstborn.» FOR thousands of years, they understood their relationship with God, though that relationship was often expressed under the bondage of legalism and rules.
When Paul says in verse 15, «For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption,» he distinguishes the bondage of legalism from the selection or election of adoption. This is a continuation of what I taught last week when discussing Hagar and how we are children of the promise, as Isaac was—in other words, we were born free, liberated, and set apart. This premise runs throughout the New Testament and becomes difficult to understand, especially in the Pauline epistles, if you do not begin to grasp the conflict of the time, as they understood that the Gentiles were embracing Christianity more readily than the Jews were. The struggle became how much Judaism should be placed upon them: should they eat certain meats, abstain from certain meats, or be circumcised? These were the debates among the early apostles, and Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles. He is explaining to them that they are not just followers of God or disciples of God, but their relationship is more intimate—they are the sons of God because they are led by the Spirit of God.
Then he goes on to say that they are not under bondage; they are not under legalism. They are not sons through the flesh or through bondage, through ceremonies, rituals, or routines—no, no, no. He said they have received the spirit of adoption. Adoption expresses the tenets whereby we are included in the family, even though we are not genetically connected to it. When we think of adoption, we think of adopting a child—finding a child in need of a parent and making them a part of the family. That is a good illustration. But another, seldom-used but equally relevant illustration is marriage. In a traditional marriage, for example, my wife was a Jamison when I married her, and she became a Jakes. I adopted her into the family through the rights of marriage, and because of that, she is now Serena Jamison Jakes.
If you understand that whole rite of adoption, this is what Paul is addressing in Romans. He is talking to us about adoption: «For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, 'Abba, Father.'» The feeling, on one hand, expresses that we are adopted. The term «Abba,» which translates to «Daddy,» conveys the feeling of a newborn baby’s cry. It reflects the experience of being born again, that we are born again and adopted into the royal family because Christ has extended God’s grace by drawing the Gentiles into the family. So, you could say, «I am in the family now.» Yes, I am in the family. You might ask, «How did you get in the family?» I was adopted by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has adopted me into the family, and now that I am adopted into the family, that comes with certain rights and privileges, certain authorities that I did not have before, certain influences that I did not possess previously. It also ties me into the commonwealth of Israel.
When we talk about the commonwealth of Israel, this wealth is first and foremost the wealth of being fingered by God—identified, pointed out, favored, preferred, and selected by God. Not just by birth, because selected, adopted children are chosen. He selected me by His grace and brought me into the royal family that I might have an inheritance. However, like the woman I mentioned at the beginning of the Bible class, if I don’t understand that I have been elected into the family, that I am selected and adopted into it, I could be living in a shanty while there is a house left to me. I could be without water and electricity, while all of that exists for me, but because I don’t read the Word of God, I go to church, but I don’t really read the Word of God, and the promise is hanging on the wall.
I’m living beneath my privilege when I could be more, do more, have more, and see more if someone would unlock or illuminate His grace to me in such a way that I begin to understand what is mine. Okay, now, my children, let’s talk about this, because from here He begins to go, and if children, let me read this: Romans 8:16–17. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Let me stop there; I want to get into that for a minute. I’m excited, so I’m trying to give you everything. It was the Spirit itself that bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. If you are a child of God, you have to know that inside yourself. It’s not up to me; it’s not up to what people say or what they think. You know in your heart, in your spirit, that you are a child of God.
If you take a minute and go over to Acts 10:44, you will see where Peter was preaching to the Gentiles. While Peter was yet preaching, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them that heard the word. They of the circumcision were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was also poured out upon the Gentiles. They heard them speak, and it was undeniable that the Spirit had filled them. He said, «Can any man forbid these men water, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?» Then they baptized them in the name of the Lord. They had to take them in because they had now been adopted. The Spirit reached around their religious ideologies and ideas and filled them.
While Peter was yet talking, he didn’t even lay hands on them; he didn’t even lay hands on him. Peter really was doubtful of the authenticity of the Gentiles' experience; he had an aversion for it. I’ve been teaching this for a while, and I’m trying to get it to sink into your head. But God didn’t ask Peter to lay hands on them. While Peter was yet preaching, He just reached around him and filled him with the Holy Ghost without getting permission or meeting with the board or talking to the committee.
Now the Spirit of God has borne witness with their spirit that they are the children of God, which is exactly what this text is talking about. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Do you have that witness? Do you have that assurance? Do you have that testimony of the Holy Spirit bearing witness with your spirit that you are legitimately a child of God? Not just a church member, not just somebody who thinks well of God, not just somebody who has pleasant thoughts about God, but somebody who really understands that you have been adopted into the royal family.
Now, come on, let’s go into verse 17, because this is when it really, really gets good. And if children, then heirs of God. He says if you have been adopted into the family, that doesn’t just mean that you get to sit down at the table and eat and that you’ve got a bedroom in the house; it also means that you are heirs of God. You are an heir of God. It also means that because you have been adopted into the royal family, God has left you an inheritance. It’s your inheritance to be blessed, to prosper, to heal, to go forward, to have access to God, to be able to be heard, to be included in the family. You remember when the woman came to Jesus and said, «My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil.» Jesus said, «It is not meat to give the children’s bread to the dogs.»
All of that is erased in this text because that person who was considered a dog, an alien, or outside of the covenant has now been brought in. Now you can eat the children’s bread right at the table with the children because now you are sons of God. She was wanting healing, and Jesus described healing as the children’s bread. When you start talking about being an heir, He’s saying, «I fixed this bread for the kids,» and the woman says, «Okay, even the dogs can eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.» Jesus said, «I have not found so great faith in all of Israel,» and here this woman was a Gentile. She said, «Okay, let the children have the bread; I just need a crumb.»
She had so much faith in what the children were eating that she said if she gets a crumb of it, her life would never be the same. Dig deep into this and understand that this Gentile woman, an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel, set apart, had so much faith in the God that the children of God already have that her faith is more exceptional than the children’s. It’s like this: if you’ve been good parents and raised your children, they don’t have anything to compare you to, so sometimes they take you for granted. But some other child next door might say, «I wish I had that experience,» and your children can’t relate to it because they have nothing to compare it to.
Paul is now bringing in the neighbor’s children to the table and setting them down not only to experience what it’s like to have a family but also to be an heir of that family. It could be possible that you’re like that woman, living in the shanty in your health, in your mind, in your spirit, in your finances, in every area of your life, not knowing that right up on the wall is a will that has been left to you, reserved for you all kinds of things that you’re not enjoying because you don’t understand that you’ve been adopted into the royal family and that because you are sons, now you are an heir of God. Remember the whole song we grew up singing in the Baptist church: «Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine»? You remember that? «Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine, heir of salvation, purchased by God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story; this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.»
Did you understand that you have been adopted into the royal family, that God has a plan for your life that exceeds anything you have ever imagined? Run quickly over to 1 Peter 1:3-4. I’m going to read it out of the New King James Version: «Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.» God has so much reserved in heaven for you. Now, when it says reserved in heaven for you, I don’t want you to read that heaven is the inheritance; He’s saying it’s reserved in heaven for you. «Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.»
If it’s mine in heaven, it will be mine down here. «Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.» Loose what you have reserved for me in heaven. «Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done.» When you start reading about the Kingdom of God, you’re reading about the inheritance that God has for you. If you’re walking in the Spirit, if you’re not walking in the Spirit, maybe that doesn’t mean anything, but if you’re walking in the Spirit.
Now let’s go to Acts 20:32 for a minute. «So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.» Now bear in mind, we’re talking about the illumination of His grace. Paul says in Acts 20, he’s getting ready to leave them, and he said, «I commend you to God.» He’s turning you over to God. He’s been teaching for three years. He ceased not to intercede for them, to pray for them with tears both day and night, and now the time of his departure is at hand. He’s not getting ready to die, he’s getting ready to leave, and he said, «I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up.»
That’s what the Word of God does when you study it, when you learn it, when you read it, when you can regurgitate it, and most importantly, when you can understand it. I’d rather you understand it than be able to quote it. It is able to build you up and give you—there it is! Take it! He’s offering it to you right now! He’s offering it to you right now. «Here’s my peace, not the peace of the world. Here’s my joy, here’s my abundance, here’s my provision, Jehovah, I’m your provider.»
Here it is! I’m offering to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. It is the Word that is able to build you up. It is the Word of God that is able to build you up. It’s not there to make you dance. You might dance, but God is not giving you the Word for you to dance; He’s giving you the Word to build you up, to do construction on your life, and sometimes reconstruction on your life. That’s what the Word does; it reconstructs what was torn down. It’s able to build you up. You need to be built up. Get in the Word! Your faith needs to be built up. Get in the Word! Your confidence needs to be built up.
Get in the Word! Your power needs to be built up. Get in the Word! The word He said is able to bear you up; it is the word that gives you an inheritance in Christ. It unlocks the inheritance for you. Why do you think we call it the New Testament? Have you ever noticed that a will is called the last will and testament? In other words, whoever has willed this to you has given their testimony to you; this is their will toward you, their last will and testament. So when someone dies, you go to the lawyer’s office, and he pulls out the will and reads you the last will and testament.
That is what this is; this is the New Testament. The last will and testament is offered up to you. It’s more than just a book. For instance, if you go to the lawyer’s office and he pulls out the paperwork and reads you the last will and testament, the last will is written, but it is not the written part that is what you inherit. What is written unlocks what you inherit. If I will my children the house and the lawyer reads the document, saying that he willed them the house, they don’t walk out with just the paper without understanding that it is through the paper that they gain access to the house. We have run off with the book, but we’re not getting what the book says belongs to us.
So, when Jesus dies, at the Last Supper, He says that the New Testament is in His blood. «Take, eat this bread; do this in remembrance of Me. This is My body that was broken for you. Take, drink of the cup; this is the New Testament in My blood.» What does that mean? Hebrews clarifies it and makes it quite clear; it says that the testament is not enforced until the testator dies. I have things willed to my children right now, but they can’t have them. You know why? Because I’m not dead. When I die, it will be theirs because the testament is not enforced until the testator dies. When Jesus died, everything God willed to me became accessible by His grace. You are not just a church member; you are not just a Christian, a Baptist, a Methodist, a Catholic, a Presbyterian, or a member of the Church of God or the Church of God in Christ. No, it is deeper than that; you are an heir of salvation. All of those names I just mentioned can be traced back a few hundred years, but 2,000 years ago, He finished His will and testament and willed it to you. The more you study the word and take it seriously, the more you discover what is yours.
If you don’t study the word of God, you’re going to be like the old lady in the neighborhood who does without, while the testament hangs on the wall and she won’t read it. This is why Bible class is important, because it helps illuminate God’s grace in your life so that you might grow thereby and be strengthened by it. Illuminate, shine a light on it so I can see it; make me understand who I am in Christ Jesus. We spend most of our time wrestling with who we were and almost none of our time walking in who we are. We expend most of our energy praying about where we were. We were aliens, without God in this world. Didn’t you just hear what I read to you in Ephesians? But you who were far off are now brought near; He has adopted you into the family. When are you going to cry, «Abba, Daddy! I’m in the family!» Rest in the blessed assurance that you belong to Him, and rest in the fact that He provides for His children. Things like healing, prosperity, peace, joy, and love are just the children’s bread. They are coming to you because of your relationship with Him.
Now, because of your relationship with Him, every blessing emanates from that relationship with God. So, it is not about chasing the blessing but rather the blesser; not the healing but the healer; not the prosperity but the one who wills you to prosper. It is only because of your relationship with the giver that you become a recipient.
Go back to the prodigal son, and I’m almost finished. Look at the prodigal son living as if he were not who he was, out in the hog pen feeding the swine. He would have filled his belly with that which the swine ate, and then the Bible says this amazing illuminating word; it says he came to himself. He said, «Wait a minute! I’m living like an alien. I’m living as if I’m separated from the commonwealth of Israel. I’m living like I’m not who I am.» He came to himself, and the moment he did that, the very next words he spoke were about his father. «How many servants in my father’s house have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger? Even the servants in my father’s house are not hungry, and I am a son. I will arise and go to my father.» He said, «I will arise and go to my father,» not to my blessing; not to the fatted calf or the ring, but to my father, because everything else I receive comes as a result of being in relationship with Him.
He said, «I would be better off as a servant in my father’s house than to be disconnected like this.» Daddy, I’m coming home! I’m not coming for the fatted calf or the ring; I’m coming back to You. The fatted calf, the ring, and the robe are all the benefits of coming back to You. So in our text tonight, in our Bible study, when we say we have been adopted, we are heirs and joint-heirs. It sets in levels that just by virtue of being adopted, I am an heir, and it connects me with the legitimate Son, making me a joint-heir with Him so that there is no distinction between what He receives and what I receive. The substratum of the text is that because we are tied together, we are joint-heirs. He says that if you suffer with me, you shall reign with me.
Paul says, «Oh, that I may know Him in the fellowship of His suffering and in the power of His resurrection.» Then he concludes, «I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.» Everything that you need comes from within you. You want healing to come from within because what God has done—you’re healed in your spirit before you are healed in your body. You have peace on the inside before you have peace on the outside. It starts within before it comes out. It is happening right now; you prosper on the inside before you prosper on the outside. Your wealth is on the inside, your dignity is on the inside, your healing is on the inside, and your promotion is on the inside. It is revealed to us by His Spirit.
Let the Holy Spirit speak to you as I close this Bible class today and illuminate how God has designed your life differently than where you are right now. Let’s bring ourselves into divine alignment with what God has spoken over our lives. My time with you tonight has been for the illumination of His grace, that you might see, and having seen, might go to Him, Abba, and walk like the child of God you are, moving like a king’s kid. I am teaching so that you might come to yourself, and you’re going to do that by understanding this testament that the testator has left you. So, every time you receive a blessing, no matter what people say, tell them, «It’s in the will!» You’re driving the car? It’s in the will! You’re jogging around the lake? It’s in the will! You have peace in the storm? How did you get that peace? It’s in the will! I’m an heir; I’m an heir. It’s in the will! Didn’t you read the will? I’m more than a conqueror; it’s in the will!
Bible class is what I love to teach. I love preaching, but Bible class is what I am passionate about because teaching causes you to understand what has been willed to you. Take this prosperity, take this healing, take this blessing, take this comfort, take this joy; it’s in the will! If Christ isn’t worried, why are you? You are a joint-heir with Him. If He’s not afraid, why are you? You are a joint-heir with Him. The Bible says we are accepted in the Beloved—not trying to be accepted; we are already accepted in the Beloved. And this, my brothers and sisters, is the illumination of His grace. May that grace change your perspective and bring you from the outside of the house into the household of faith, into the Kingdom of God. May it take the drug dealer who feels uncomfortable in church, pulling him from the outside and adopting him into the royal family until he feels comfortable sitting at the table with the king’s kids because he’s an heir of salvation.
I know you’ve been out there without hope, without God in this world—feeling unworthy. Christ wants to adopt you into the royal family, and all you have to do is let Him into your heart right now. If you let Him into your heart, He’ll change your life. Some of you have been in church for years, but you’ve never been in Christ. You’ve experienced church, but you haven’t experienced Christ. He wants to adopt you; He’s chosen you. He said, «You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, that you should bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.»
I want to end this Bible class praying for you, that the grand wealth of this word will be illuminated in your spirit in such a way that a hunger will begin to build in your heart to know more and read more of this will, this testament, and that Christ in you is the hope of glory. May you understand this, and may it strengthen you and undergird you, easing the angst that rises within you because you are no longer in bondage, no longer living in fear, and no longer trying to be good enough to earn salvation. Salvation you have received, and because you have received it, you’re going to walk in the newness of life and in the power of God.