There is no record against you

Ps 130:3
If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?

1 Cor 13:5
(Love)... keeps no record of wrongs.

Col 2:13-14
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

2 Cor 5:18-19
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

GIG 200 - Special Celebration Edition - Highlights Part 2

The festivities continue this week as we celebrate our 200th Growing in Grace Podcast with some more highlights from past programs!

gigcast.graceroots.org

"Even though those unworthy worms didn't deserve it..."

So reads the first part of John 3:16, as apparently translated in some Bibles.

But my Bible actually says something like, "For God SO LOVED THE WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son..."

Why did God give? Why was the price paid? He gave and He paid the price because He so loved the world! The gift of eternal life that we've received from God truly did cost Him something, but the price was joyfully paid (see Heb 12:2). And now that the price has been paid, walk in the beauty of it and enjoy it!

Some people walk around as if God's grace, though given freely, is "cheap" unless we grovel before Him, always reminding Him and each other how "unworthy" we are to receive it. Of course, it's not that we should not be thankful for grace! In fact, the best way that we can show that we are truly thankful for the gift is to walk freely in it!

My son is three years away from getting his driving permit. (Lord have mercy!) ;) Let's just say that when he's able to drive, we have the means to buy him a car. He's done nothing to deserve it. We paid the price for it, entirely. He gets in the car, drives five miles and then stops and calls us and says, "Mom and Dad, I'm really not worthy of this gift you've given me. Thank you so much!" Great, he appreciates the gift! But then during the next five miles, he keeps on thinking about how unworthy he is, and he stops again and calls us to tell us again how unworthy he is, and how thankful he is for the car. This then keeps up for the rest of the time that he owns the car!

Am I being a bit over the top with this example? Maybe. :) But it's to point out that that's how some people see the gift of grace. They live day in and day out as if they need to keep reminding themselves of their unworthiness in order to truly appreciate the gift. But just as we wouldn't give our son a car with the hopes that he would keep on understanding and groveling before us about how he didn't deserve it, but rather we would give it to him so that he would simply enjoy it, God hasn't given us the gift of His life so that we would continue to feel unworthy. Even though we truly didn't deserve it, He didn't pay the price so that we would remain stuck in a mentality of unworthiness before Him, but rather so that we'd have a brand new life in which we see how much He truly LOVES us and how He has crowned us with glory and honor, and how He VALUES us!

People don't give gifts hoping that the receivers of the gifts will stay with the mindset that they didn't deserve the gifts. True giving is given joyfully and out of a true willingness to give! God gave the ultimate gift as the ultimate giver! To walk as a unworthy worm before Him is to not appreciate and understand the gift! In fact, it takes away from what the gift has truly provided us with! To appreciate the gift of grace is to walk in its fullness, which means understanding that we are PRECIOUS and VALUABLE to God, not unworthy worms.

GIG 200 - Special Celebration Edition - Highlights Part 1

We're celebrating our 200th Growing in Grace Podcast with a look back on highlights from the past programs that have led up to this memorable occasion! It's been a lot of fun to have you sit in with us on our casual conversations as we discover together what true freedom is all about. We'll continue with our celebrating for the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for more highlights to come, and of course we're looking forward to many more great chats in the future!

gigcast.graceroots.org

To flush it out or to flesh it out?

Interacting with people who for various reasons haven't understood or believed the gospel of the finished work of Christ is not always necessarily a black and white process. I think the Apostle Paul showed that in his various dealing with others. Not that we always look to Paul and his ways of handling confrontation and debate as "the" ways for us to handle it, as he had his own personality and his own calling from God, but I for sure can say that I've gleaned a lot from him.

When speaking with others who are not walking in the freedom of the gospel, do you nip it in the bud quickly or do you take time to reason things out? Do you flush it out or do you flesh it out? I think it all depends upon getting a feel for where the other person is coming from.

At times Paul spoke harshly to and about those who rejected the gospel by putting any sort of confidence in the flesh - in their own fleshly attempts to become justified or remain justified. He would trample underfoot those who "trampled the Son of God underfoot." He flushed them down the toilet. He didn't really hold back at all. "Beware of dogs!" he said in Philippians 3. "Beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!" Those definitely aren't "tame" words. He had serious words for those who put any confidence in their own actions.

Read on in Philippians 3 and see how Paul said that he would have every reason to put confidence in his own actions, but yet he chucked it all aside and he counted it all as loss and traded it in "for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord... and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ..." He, of all people, would be the world's number one contender for putting confidence in his own deeds, but he knew that in order to have Christ he had to renounce it all. Therefore he had very harsh words for those dogs, those evil workers, those mutilators of the flesh!

On the other hand, there are those who he took time with. Instead of flushing them down the toilet, he fleshed it out with them. I see a form of the phrase, "he reasoned with them," at least seven times in the book of Acts. For example, "...and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, 'This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.'" (Acts 17:2-3). "And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God." (Acts 19:8).

In these seven instances (and of course not only in these seven instances), there were people who heard Paul out and were persuaded and joined with Paul and the other believers, or at least wanted to hear more, and there were people who flatly rejected what he had to say. But at times, "some were hardened and did not believe," and Paul and his disciples withdrew from them. At times, people started mobs in reaction to Paul's "reasoning," and Paul and his friends ended up getting brought before rulers and thrown out of cities. Other times Paul stayed with the people for weeks, months or even a couple of years.

I said at the beginning that we don't necessarily follow Paul and all of his ways of dealing with those who hear and receive or reject the gospel. I think that to try to be a copycat of Paul is a huge mistake. The point here is that we can gauge where other people are at, and our response to them is not black and white. It often depends upon each given situation, and it's often a good thing to take time to get to know where someone is coming from rather than using a preconceived "speech" or way of handling things. Our own unique personalities play a big part as well. And most of all, obviously, we rely on the fact that we only go where God brings us and as we rest in Him we let His life in us do the confronting, persuading, reasoning, etc.

"Believing all the lies to keep the dream alive"

I spend so much time
Believing all the lies
To keep the dream alive

Those are lyrics from a song from the 80's by Billy Idol, Eyes Without A Face. I'm intentionally ripping those lyrics out of the context of the song because they speak to me in another context that others will probably relate to in one way or another.

In this case the lies I'm thinking about are those of legalism and religion and the 'dream' I'm referring to, whether consciously realized or not, is the delusional and fruitless fantasy of self-preservation. I'm thinking of the lies that are preached and taught - and believed - to keep the dream alive of having people remain allegiant to any given church or ministry. Those who preach these lies end up believing them themselves, and it's all rooted in the protection and preservation of "their" ministry, "their" church, "their" institution, "their" cause. Manipulative lies are taught about "tithing, "hierarchy," "covering," "church membership," "behavior modification" (performance-based acceptance), etc, in order to keep the masses loyal to a certain leader or ministry.

Two thousand years ago, the Pharisees were a prime example of this, being hard nosed about keeping people strictly under God's law, and even adding myriads of additional rules, laws, interpretations and traditions on top of it all. And of course during the past 20 centuries, this has moved into the church setting. I fully understand that sometimes these legalistic lies are taught because the teachers and preachers honestly don't know any better, and are simply teaching what they themselves have been taught. But I'm talking about those who are caught in the very tangled web of self-interest and self-preservation, who purposely teach manipulative lies in order to "keep the dream alive," with the dream being the success and growth of whatever system or institution they've created and built.

This is also true in many other areas of life, such as in household situations and other family matters and relationships, finances, jobs and vocations, social activities and so on. Whatever the case, the pursuit of self-preservation is very often the root of the legalistic and religious lies that keep people in bondage and keep them from experiencing the freedom for which Christ has set them free.

Not one to remain stuck only on criticism of the system, I offer up a solution or two to all of this, and I look for input from others as well! My main focus would be to keep on remembering that we were bought with a price, and that we are not "our own." Our "ministries" are not our ministries. They are the work that God Himself is doing in and through us for the good of everyone, not for our own individual self-preservation and self-centered success and prosperity. God didn't "purchase" us so that He could keep us in chains but so that we'd be free! This is also our "ministry" to one another. It's not about building "a ministry." It's not about coming up with ways (lies and manipulation) to keep people faithful to US so that OUR dreams stay alive. It's about building one another up (edifying) and ministering to (serving) one another!

Any thoughts? (including additional criticisms, solutions)?





:)

Divine Enablement

"Grace is the divine enablement, by the life of Jesus Christ in us, for us to be all that we've been called to be and do all that we've been called to do." - Steve McVey

GIG 199 - If Not Law and Rules Then What is the Source of Living the Christian Life?

For the past several weeks we've been getting pretty heavy into discussions about God's Law. We've discussed the purpose of the Law, and how it is the ministry of death and condemnation, and how being under the Law is bondage. We then talked about how Jesus came to FREE us from the Law! For those not familiar with all these things that the New Covenant scriptures say about the Law, this may leave some scratching their heads and asking questions such as, "If the Christian life is not about keeping God's law and it's not about following rules, then what is the motivation and the source of living the Christian life?

If we say that Jesus came to deliver us from the Law, and all we talk about is God's love and grace, won't that cause people to want to go out and sin and live reckless lives? Is that what grace does? (Do we really have the gall to make grace out to be so cheap and powerless and insufficient?) The Law, which is good and holy and perfect, had one main problem. It could certainly lay down its demands of perfection - but yet it had absolutely no power to help anyone live right! Grace, on the other hand, is the ever-sufficient power of living the Christian life. To take it even further, it's not that grace enables the flesh to live a better life, but through God's grace we have died to the Law in order that we may have true life - the very life of Christ in us! Therein lies the power and the motivation and the source of the entire Christian life!

Special Note: Next week marks our 200th Growing in Grace program! To celebrate, we'll spend two or three weeks running highlights of our past programs. This should be a lot of fun as we look back on some of our conversations that have hopefully been a source of grace, freedom and life. Thanks so much for listening and for all your encouraging words!

gigcast.graceroots.org

Doubt without works is dead

We've all heard it said at one point or another (and probably more often) that James' words "faith without works is dead" (James 2:20) means that faith is a work, or at least that in order for our faith to be legitimate we have to add works to it.

But James doesn't say, "if you say you have faith, then do something to prove it." Rather I believe his sentiment in his words, "Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works" (James 2:18) is simply this: Your actions simply show what is already true and alive in you. If you try to "add" works to faith, then it's not really faith through which the works are produced! It's dead works!

If you truly believe something, your actions will naturally reflect your belief. This applies to all people, regardless of any relationship with the Lord. If a burglar believes (has faith) that he can get away with burglarizing a house, his actions will justify his faith. If a man believes he can get a better job or career by going to college for four years, his actions will show his faith to be genuine. If you believe the bogeyman is under your bed, your feet won't get anywhere near the floor until the light of morning!

On the same token, doubt without works is dead as well! If a person doubts that he is worth anything to God or to other people, his actions will go right along with the doubt. If he doubts that his gas tank has enough gas to get him to the next town, he will put gas in it before driving that far. But it's not as if a person says, "I have doubt," and then he goes about trying to add doubtful actions to try to prove his doubt to be true! You don't add works to doubt in order to prove it. Again, the works (actions) simply go along naturally with what is already true. If you try to "add" works to doubt, then it's not really doubt through which the works are produced! It's dead works!

Do we really understand this?

We don't add works to faith to try to prove it. Our lives in Christ are not a matter of going about trying to prove our faith by doing good works. Our lives in Christ are based upon taking God at His word... believing Him... having faith in Him... and allowing the "works" (accompanying actions) to be worked out naturally as we rest and trust in Him.

Jesus became a curse for us and Jesus became sin for us

Abraham believed God and God accounted that to him as righteousness. That is the blessing of Abraham. Christ became a curse for us so that we might receive the blessing of Abraham. Also, Christ became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him! It's through nothing we've done... It's all what He has done! Your sins are not counted against you. You are not cursed. By faith, you are counted as righteous.

2 Cor 5:21
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Gal 3:5-14
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? — 6 just as Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith." 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them shall live by them."

13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

It blows people's minds that the law is the ministry of death and condemnation!

It blew my mind when I first saw it and understood it, so I can understand why it blows the minds of others. Recently I've had interaction with others that drives home the point.

It's right there in the Bible. Loud and clear! And yet many people have never heard it or at least have never understood it - or simply not believed it. The Apostle Paul calls God's Law "the ministry of death" and "the ministry of condemnation" (see 2 Cor 3:7-9). I've written about this before, and I'm sure I'll write about it again, so I won't get into the full meaning of it right now. I just want to show how this essential gospel truth is hardly even known in the church!

A listener of our Growing in Grace program, who also became a Facebook friend of mine, recently wrote these words on his Facebook page:

This blow me away, what was engraved on letters of stone, the 10 commandments and Paul calls them the ministry of death, wow! and a ministry that condemns men. Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ, the truth is, the Law justifies no man.....sigh.....what a freakin relief.

On Facebook you can "like" someone's comment. (You can click a little link that says you "like" what the person has shared). So I "liked" his comment. He responded to me:

You should Joel, you did a podcast on it...man that was powerful....I never seen that before.

Nowadays I simply take it for granted that this is the truth - that the Law was the ministry of death and condemnation. And sometimes I forget that this is new news to so many people - even people who have been Christians for a long time!

"I never seen that before."

My friend and Growing in Grace cohost, Mike Kapler (Kap), was sharing with me yesterday about a conversation he'd had with some people at church recently. Long story short, he was sitting in on a certain class, and they began getting off of the particular topic of the class and began talking about our identity in Christ. Kap began sharing that Paul called the Law the ministry of death and condemnation. One of the women in the class spoke up and said, "I've never heard that before."

I don't know how long she's been in the church, but my point in all of this is that these are essential truths that should be known by anyone and everyone who has come to know Jesus (and has died to the Law in order to be married to Him - [see Rom 7:1-6 and Gal 2:19-20])! WHY is Law taught as part of the Christian life when the Bible says the exact opposite?!! WHY is today's church in such a state that stuff like this is so revolutionary when it should be the norm? Rhetorical questions. As I said at the start, I understand it. I get it. And that's why we need to keep on sharing the truth that breaks down all these falsehoods!

You are who you are, not who you're not

I think I've shared this before on this blog, but these are notes I wrote down about 2 1/2 years ago. I was reading through some old stuff today and came across this.

----------

12/30/06 God doesn’t ask me to be “on fire” for Him. God doesn’t ask me to be “radical” for Him. Rather, before I was born again He told me I must die, and then He could come and raise me up to a brand new life and join His life with mine. So the life I now live is not a matter of me being radical or on fire for Him, but rather His radical life expressing itself through me – in whichever way He wills. The life I live in this earthsuit I live by faith. I most certainly don’t live by my own might or power or by my own attempts to live a powerful or radical life, or even a sincere, dedicated life. That sounds “unChristian,” I know! But as I let go of my own attempts at living any part of the Christian life, another Life takes over, with more power and dedication than I could ever come up with.

The gift of God that is in us, which Paul reminds Timothy to “fan into flame” (2 Tim 1:6), isn’t necessarily going to have an outward appearance that’s radical or sensational or impressive to other people, even to other Christians. Understand, I’m writing from the perspective of an introverted person who has tried in the past to live the extroverted, radical, effervescent Christian life, trying to prove to others that I’m “on fire” for God. I had faith – deep faith – and looking back, I can now see that my true faith was expressed in ways that weren’t always noticeable by others. But since I had come into a church culture that seemed to take greater notice of those with more visible and expressive demonstrations of faith, I prayed and tried very hard to have the same passion as others and for the Spirit to manifest Himself in me with the same sort of outward demonstration. Again, I now see that I really did have a deep faith, but at the time I didn’t think that was true. I wondered when the time would ever come that my faith would grow and I could truly be more expressive with my faith. When would I ever truly be “on fire” for God?

Thank God that I finally came to an understanding of who I really was. Or better said, I came to a better understanding of who Christ is in me.

The way that the life of God will be expressed in each of us individually will be different.
You can’t be what you’re not. Be who you are!

GIG 198 - Freedom Comes Not Through Law But Through Faith

Christians, declare your independence from the Law! Many Christians, it seems, have not realized that Christ set them free from God's Law. But since it's the truth, we might as well know and understand it so we can live a life of independence from the Law and of true freedom in Christ!

There are over 600 Laws in the Bible. So which Laws are we talking about here? As everyone knows, there are two covenants - the Old and the New. In the Old, we see that there are laws that are broken into three categories: sacrificial laws, dietary laws... AND what is known as "moral laws," or The Ten Commandments. Most Christians have no problem with the understanding that we don't live by the old sacrificial and dietary laws. But as we check out Paul's words in Galatians this week, we find out what he has to say about the latter set of laws, which many Christian seem to think are there for us to live by. If you see things that way, you may be surprised at what the Bible actually says about that!

In short, let's just say that walking by Law means that we are in bondage! To walk according to God's promise - to walk according to freedom - means to walk by faith, not law. We are children of faith and of the promise, not children of the flesh and bondage!

Next week: If our lives in Christ are not to be by Law, then what is the motivation and source of good works and righteous living?

gigcast.graceroots.org

Close to God (repost)

This is something I first posted almost 3 years ago (here) when this blog was still fairly new. Matthew's latest blog post, Wake the Sleeping Christians, which he posted on his blog here and on the Grace Roots discussion forum here, along with the comments on that forum, reminded me of this post so I thought I'd repost it.

--------------------

9/5/06

Yesterday I was listening to a tape of an old pastor of mine, named Mark, from 1997. He was talking about an ad he'd seen in a magazine, advertising Hosanna music. He explained that he and his wife are huge Hosanna music fans. They love that kind of praise and worship music. Well, the ad had a picture of a mountain, next to a picture of a Hosanna tape. The caption read something like, "Which will get you closer to God?"

So which will get you closer to God? Praise and Worship music, or climbing a mountain?

"Now wait a minute," Mark said. And I can remember his sarcastic grin like it was only yesterday. "I thought that Jesus came 2,000 years ago to bring us close to God!" He went on with something like, "And you're saying that now we can just bypass all that and listen to a Hosanna tape and be there in just a matter of seconds?!?!" You have to know Mark and his humor to get the full gist of his critical wit.

Anyway, this tiny break from the overall theme of the sermon had a huge impact on my soul yesterday. You know the feeling in life when nothing's really getting you down, and you feel like overall things are fine and you don't necessarily feel the need to release any heavy burdens - but then you hear or experience something and a heavy load that you didn't even consciously realize was there is suddenly lifted off of you? That is what I experienced while listening to Mark's humorous criticism of the ad he saw. The truth of what he was criticizing hit me in an instant.

And it's something I already knew... but yet the way I was trying to live wasn't representative of what I knew. I think subconsciously, even though I know that the person of JESUS is who already brought me close to God, and that NO experience on this earth, whether P&W music or prayer or good works - or anything at all - can bring me close or maintain that closeness with God, I was still trying to get close to God by the things I was doing, or by waiting for Him to do something "great" (tangibly or visibly) in my life.

Not that we don't want those feelings of closeness with God. Not that we don't want to experience it with our senses. Not that worshiping Him with music can't bring about great feelings and great praise for Him. But in the day-to-day, in the moment-by-moment living of life, we have been brought near to God and we remain near to God, solely by the blood of Jesus.

I poured out a great deal of emotion yesterday. :) Funny how something little like that, not even spoken with the intention of causing an emotional reaction, can cause such an emotional reaction! But I was balling - almost finding it hard to breathe! See, in the absence of "feeling" close to God we can often lose our perspective of the truth, that we are truly near to God all the time. We may consciously or subconsciously begin to try to create superficial atmospheres or experiences which we think will "bring us closer" to God, and when those things fail (to produce emotions, or feelings of closeness) it's very easy to think (again, either consciously or subconsciously) that something is wrong in our relationship with God. Our weaknesses and other failures in life just add to it. And for me, even though I know the truth, that Jesus alone is what has made me right with God and keeps me right with God - I still go off into that land where I have feelings of uncertainty about where I stand with God.

But this little bit of truth, presented as a sarcastic criticism of a magazine ad, caused MOUNTAINS of weight to be lifted off of me! Jesus alone has brought us near to God.

Here are just a few more examples of what Jesus accomplished for us by His blood – things that we could never do for ourselves. We have been purchased with His blood (Act 20:28). We have peace with God through His blood (Col 1:20). We have been sanctified with His blood (Heb 13:12). We have been justified by His blood (Rom 5:9). We have been redeemed by His blood (Col 1:14). By His blood, we have the forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7). We have been cleansed and purified, and our sins are taken away by His blood (Heb 9:22-28). And "we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus" (Heb 10:19).

All these things are God's gift to us - not our gifts to Him! We have no offering that comes anywhere close to the blood of Jesus.

People Are People

People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully
People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully

So we're different colours
And we're different creeds
And different people
Have different needs
It's obvious you hate me
Though I've done nothing wrong
I've never even met you
So what could I have done

I can't understand
What makes a man
Hate another man
Help me understand

People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully
People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully
Help me understand

Now you're punching
And you're kicking
And you're shouting at me
And I'm relying on your common decency
So far it hasn't surfaced
But I'm sure it exists
It just takes a while to travel
From your head to your fist

Birth, Not Performance, Determines Identity

Title of Chapter 5 of Bill Gillham's book What God Wishes Christians Knew About Christianity:

"That Birth, Not Performance, Determines Identity"

Your identity in Christ is solid and secure, not because of what you do or don't do, but because you've been reborn as a new creation!

From the book:

A toad is not a toad because it croaks and eats bugs. I wouldn't recommend it, but you could eat bugs till you croaked, and it wouldn't turn you into a toad. A toad is a toad because it was born a toad.

You're a human by birth. Your mom didn't pause between labor pains and pray, "Oh, God, please let it be a human!" Birth determined your human identity. This holds true in the spiritual realm as well. As a spiritual product of Adam, you are a sinner by birth (Romans 5:19a). Your performance has nothing whatever to do with your acquiring this identity...

...When witnessing to lost folks, I used to tell them that if they could live a perfect life they would go to heaven, but since they've already blown that one, they need a Savior. Although a person can come under conviction and get saved via this method, my theology was wrong. Even if it were possible for man to keep God's Law perfectly, he would still go to hell because of the spiritual identity he acquired at birth.

The point here is that we inherited our sinful identity from Adam, just by being born. And now we've inherited a brand new identity - righteous, holy, alive to God - just by being spiritually reborn! Your identity is by your birth, not by your behavior or performance.