No If's, And's or But's

Romans 8:4 – “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

You’ve probably heard the phrase “No if’s, and’s or but’s”, most likely from your…parents!  It means “No excuses!  If you don’t mow the lawn, you can’t go to the movies, no if’s, and’s or but’s!”  Sound familiar?  Maybe so, however, the way I’m thinking about this phrase is entirely different.

In Deuteronomy 28:2, it says, “And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.”  In the Old Covenant, this was the “if and then” condition…if you do this, then God will do that.  But in the New Covenant of grace, we no longer live under the Old Covenant where performance determines the blessing.

In fact, grace means undeserved, unmerited favor.  God freely gave us His blessing at salvation, it’s no longer based on what we “do”.  In the Old Covenant it was do, do, do – in the New Covenant it’s done, done, done!  I don’t know about you, but I’m having more fun living in the done, done than in the do, do!  Just sayin’.

In Romans 8:4, Paul tells us exactly how we relate to the Old Testament blessings that were under the law.  He says, “The righteousness of the law is now fulfilled in us…”  That’s awesome.  That’s powerful.  Why?  Because of God’s gift of righteousness that has been imparted to us, all of the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 are “fulfilled” in us.  Wow, that’s amazing!  So now every one of those blessings are yours simply by accepting that you are “the righteousness of God” in Christ Jesus. 

No if’s.  No conditions.  No performance.  Nothing for you to do but receive.

No and’s.  No Jesus AND anything, it’s Jesus, period.  You don’t have to add anything to Jesus, it’s yours, it’s fulfilled.   

No but’s.  No “Yeah Pastor Joe, BUT I did this and that”.  No “Yeah, BUT, you don’t know what I did”.  It doesn’t matter!

There’s no if’s, and’s or but’s.  You are blessed!