GIG 217 - God's Acceptance of Mankind / Sins Taken Away

We're taking a look this week at God's acceptance of us apart from our behavior - the unconditional love and grace of God for all of mankind. It's His love that sent Jesus to the cross, and it's the cross that showed His great love for all. When Adam fell, God didn't change - Adam changed. God didn't hide from Adam - Adam hid from God. In His passionate love, God pursued Adam and made the way for all of mankind to be saved. The issue isn't whether or not God loves and accepts people. The sins of all of mankind were dealt with at the cross. They have not only been covered - they have been taken away.The issue is whether or not people have believed and have received the gift of life that God freely offers.

gigcast.graceroots.org

Growing in Grace Together - Double the Trouble! - Andrew Farley and Jim Robbins

I recently spoke with two people who are walking in their gifts of expressing and teaching the truths of the gospel of the pure grace of God. On Monday I posted Part 1 of my interview with Jim Robbins, author of Recover Your Good Heart and today I posted the final part (Part 3) of my interview with Andrew Farley, author of The Naked Gospel. I think you'll be truly uplifted with the words of wisdom these two men share! Part 2 of the conversation with Jim Robbins will be posted next Monday.

gigcast.graceroots.org

GIG 216 - How Jesus the Man Did the Things He Did

During His time as a man upon the earth, Jesus said and did a lot of things. How did He do them? Did He speak great words and perform great works because He was God? He Himself said, "I can do nothing of Myself." So if He did nothing of Himself, how did He do the things He did? The scriptures reveal that He didn't do the things because He was God, but because God was with Him.  Jesus had an abiding relationship with the Father, and the Father did His works through Jesus.  In the same way, we can do nothing of ourselves, but Christ who abides in us does His works in and through us!

gigcast.graceroots.org

Hanging With the Stoners and Party People

This morning I received an email from a friend who is struggling with some issues in life and has taken part in some group settings with other people who are dealing with various other issues and struggles. I had previously told her that I'd heard from other people that the particular program she has attended has been very helpful to them. It's a setting in which people feel they can be real, honest and open, and are accepted and not condemned while they work through their issues, and where God brings healing.

In this email, my friend told me that she's found that to be true. She said it's "a great place to be yourself and feel completely accepted. It sort of reminds me of high school. I always found more acceptance from the stoners and party people than anyone else. Now, as a grown up, it still holds true!! LOL I think it's just because we have no place to judge. We know how imperfect we are, so who are we to judge?"

I remember a former pastor from several years ago talking about this. In short, he asked what it is about bars that draws people together. What is it about the local tavern that makes people want to leave the comfort of their homes and come and spend time together.  To many 'religious' people, the answer is simply, "so they can go get drunk." Now, that of course has truth to it! And yet I think that's very shallow and it goes much deeper than that.  People do this more for the fellowship than anything else. They enjoy one another.  They do it for the comradery and mutual acceptance of one another.

People have one basic need in common.  Wherever you go, no matter who you run into, this is a need that we all have - to feel loved and accepted.  The love and acceptance of God and the love and acceptance of others goes a very long way in fulfilling an otherwise very deep void.  Having this void filled changes everything.  Am I exaggerating?  I don't think so.  Do you know someone who is struggling with an addiction or with low self-esteem or with any of a whole host of other struggles and issues in life?  If you can get to the root of it, I believe you'll very often find that that void is there.  It hasn't been filled with truth of the pure love and acceptance of God and/or it hasn't been filled with the love and acceptance of others.  In some way, shape or form, it's missing.

And so, the end result is the opposite of a heart filled with love and acceptance.  Guilt, shame and condemnation block the way, making it hard to fill the void with the truth of love and acceptance.  It may be the guilt, shame and condemnation that others put on them, or it may be self-inflicted, or usually it's a combination.  Either way, they keep struggling to fill the void but they keep trying to fill it with the wrong things because the truth continues to be blocked. And since the truth is blocked, the lies keep on flooding in.

Jesus came to unblock the truth.  He came to remove the veil that covered the truth.  He didn't look "over there" at sinners and shout over to them, "You'd better change your ways or God's gonna get you!"  No, He went to where they were and He embraced them.  He went into their homes and ate and drank with them.  That's pretty significant!  To sit down at someone's table and 'sup' with them was a sign that you accepted them.

Did Jesus spend time with the stoners and party people (harlots, tax collectors and sinners) for the purpose of getting stoned and partying (in the sense that they were partying)?  I don't think so! But I do believe He hung out with them and ate and drank with them to show them that the kingdom of heaven was for them just as much as it was for the law-touting, self-righteous, finger-pointing religious people.  In fact, He told them ("the chief priests and the elders of the people"), "Assuredly I say to you that tax collector and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you."  Why?  Is it because they got their acts together and cleaned up their lives?  No, it's because they believed the good news.  The self-righteous people thought God accepted them because of their righteousness, but Jesus proved to the harlots and sinners that God's acceptance of them wasn't based at all on their behavior.

They believed Him, and the self-righteous people didn't.

Growing in Grace Together - Andrew Farley - The Naked Gospel - Part 2

This week I continue my conversation with Andrew Farley, author of The Naked Gospel. Sometimes the words of Jesus are difficult to understand, especially when compared to the New Covenant concepts given by the Apostle Paul. Andrew talks about putting the cross at the center of our understanding of the words of Jesus.  As Mike and I have talked about several times, even recently, on the Growing in Grace podcast, often Jesus was raising the standard of the law, saying things such as, "be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect," "cut out your eye if it causes you to sin," "your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees," etc.

And so in this week's discussion of The Naked Gospel, Andrew talks about how we can either water down Jesus' words and take them to mean that He was simply trying to get us to "do our best" at the things He said, or we can take His words literally and understand the larger point, that the law was pointing out our faults, and through Jesus' very own words we find that we can't do what He was saying to do - therefore setting us up to receive the gospel freely, and not by what we do or don't do.

All of this, then, leads up to chucking aside our own efforts and instead we find a new and living way.  It's not "Moses 2.0," as Andrew calls it (an upgraded version of Moses, or the Law), but rather a life in which Moses is gone and we're actually inhabited by the Spirit of Jesus Christ Himself.  A life in which we're in union with Him - united with Him in His death, in His burial and in His resurrection.  We're not copying or imitating Christ.  We're not trying to be like Him.  Rather we're living from His very life that indwells us.

You'll be greatly encouraged this week as Andrew once again clearly describes the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, and the difference between the old way and the new and living way.

gigcast.graceroots.org

More on the essence of life in Christ

In a sense, it would seem that this post is a follow up to my last post, Love and Grace, the foundation and essence of Life. But in actuality, all of what is below was my response to a friend's comments on a Facebook link that I had posted.  My response became longer than usual so I decided to post it as a blog post as well.


I used to see grace as merely the means by which I'm forgiven when I sin, and as God's help to me to help me overcome sin. In other words, the Christian life was, in essence, all about “not sinning,” or at least about “living right.” It was about right vs. wrong, good vs. evil. I “especially” relied upon grace when I saw that I had fallen short of His standards.

But I've come to see grace as so much deeper than that. Whereas the law-based life that the Jews were under was about living up to God's standards, the Christian life is no longer about that. Rather, the Christian life is about the fact that while all of mankind fell short, Christ came to redeem and restore, and the believer stands complete in Him in this regenerated life. I've come to see grace as the very essence of the Christian life. The foundation of the Christian life is not about avoiding evil and doing good. Those things are the fruit of growing in grace, but not the essence of the Christian life. The very essence and foundation of the Christian life is a union with God that has absolutely nothing to do with our behavior, good or evil. It's a union in which we, by grace alone, have become a new creation – being able to freely partake in the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4). We are fully accepted (Eph 1:6), fully complete in Him (Col 2:10), fully perfected in God (Heb 10:14) because of this gift of life and the union that we have with Him. We have died and we no longer live, but our life is now Christ-in-us (Gal 2:19-20).

I'm bringing it all up for a reason, to get to what I'm wanting to say here. Our identity – our spiritual identification with God – our union with Him – His life in us – is the essence of our life and is the foundation of our life. The essence of our life is not rules and commands, or principles and admonitions. The essence and foundation of our life is not “not sinning” and it's not “right living.” It's not trying to figure out what is right and what is wrong so that we know how to live. The foundation of the Christian life is not morality. ANY religion can set forth rules of morality, and most of them do!

I say all of this to lay the foundation of what I believe life in Christ is about. Again, it's union. It's Christ-in-me. It's sonship. It's grace and agape-love. All of this is what life in Christ is. It's the gift of righteousness and holiness. And it's what we have and experience freely, by grace alone. Our behavior didn't earn any of this and our behavior doesn't take away from any of this.

And so that is the foundation and essence of life in Christ. From this essence comes fruit. From this essence comes action, and not passivity. From this union comes a response to God's life in us. And this fruit, these works, this response – is all actually His working that He Himself does in and through us! We are able to respond to Him because He Himself is at work in and through us.

And so... I'm not at all saying that we ignore the various New Covenant principles. What I'm saying is that we live by the very life of Christ in us. We don't live “by the Bible.” We live by the actual life of Jesus Christ who indwells us. It may very well be that Christ-in-us directs us individually or corporately to various biblical passages to guide us in our union with Him. I love when He does that! I love when the written word comes alive like that. And yet so many more times God speaks to us and guides us in ways that have nothing to do with Bible verses! In general, I don't see the Bible as a general “guidebook” or as “basic instructions before leaving earth.”

My main point here is that Christ Himself – the living Person inside of us – is our life and is our 'compass' and is our navigator. He Himself will never lead us down the wrong path. And indeed, He has created us as a body that is also a union – with Him and with one another. I don't believe that the purpose of Christians meeting together regularly is so they can find out all the stuff to “do” and “not do.” I think the purpose is to build one another up in Jesus Christ Himself – the Person – and to encourage one another in Him. In doing so, we can most certainly “spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” And it's a result of having our hearts established in grace (Heb 13:9), not a result of teaching 6-point “how to live the Christian life” sermons each week.

And so, what about a woman who is thinking about having an abortion, or a man who is having an affair? It's very easy to tell them the “rules.” It's very easy to say “don't do that” or “stop doing that.” There may on rare occasions be a place for that. There may be that rare occasion in which those words hit them in such a way that they're reminded of who they really are. But virtually 100% of the time there are underlying, foundational issues that need to be addressed, and I believe it's all rooted in our true identity in Christ, not in “right vs. wrong.” And all of this takes time! And it takes relationship. It takes a no-condemnation approach. Among closely bonded friends, there may indeed be a place for speaking stronger words, as Paul did in a few circumstances. And again, in general there may be a place for sharing principles with one another. But overall, I don't believe our daily lives in Christ are about that at all.

As for the issue of feeling guilt – I don't believe that that's God's way of showing us that we're heading in the wrong direction. Christ came to take the guilt of our sin away from us. Apart from Him, we were guilty. But because of Him, our guilt and shame has been taken away completely. The 'gut' reaction of many people is, “won't that just cause people to go out and sin, if they know they won't have to feel guilt for it?” To the contrary, if a person is truly built up in the unconditional love and grace of God, they're not going to want to keep on sinning, they're going to have a built-in desire for righteousness, since that's their true identity.

If the focus continues to be on guilt and sin, it's hard for our minds to be renewed daily in the truth of our new, true identity of holiness and righteousness. And here's the point I'd really like to make in all this. God Himself is not depending upon us feeling guilty in order to get us to live according to our righteous nature. Rather, He's depending upon His very own life that is at work in us! In my personal experience and in my understanding of New Covenant life according to the scriptures, feelings of guilt and shame have never been a good catalyst for righteous living. But as I'm built up in my solid and true identification and union with God Himself, who is love and grace Personified, then I'm much more able to live from that union, which again, will never lead anyone down the wrong road.

GIG 215 - Change the Way You Think About How You Relate to God

Picking up on what we talked about last week, about the true meaning of repentance, and building on it a little this week. Stop thinking you relate to God through your behavior, and start believing that you relate to Him through the good news!

Also: In case you haven't heard, Joel has started a new "Growing in Grace" feature called "Growing in Grace Together." All the programs will be posted here! Check out the first two programs that have already been posted, featuring John Lynch (coauthor of Bo's Cafe) and Andrew Farley (author of The Naked Gospel).

gigcast.graceroots.org

Love and Grace, the foundation and essence of Life.

"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"
(Luke 2:14)

With these words, "a multitude of the heavenly host" praised God as they declared God's goodwill toward mankind at the birth of the Savior of the world.  God has always had goodwill toward mankind.  His deep, passionate love for all of mankind has never, ever changed.  Even the separation that came about because of sin never changed His love for all of mankind.  In fact, He so loves all of mankind that He gave His only begotten Son as the way to completely close that separation. Whoever believes in Him has eternal life!  Even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  That is love!

And in His great love and great sacrifice, God Himself has made the way for "whosoever will" to have an everlasting relationship with Him.  The message of the angels was a declaration of God's goodwill toward man, and our message, as Christians, to the world is also God's goodwill toward man!

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 counting men's sins against them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Cor 5:18-19

Our message to the world is not "turn or burn."  Our message is not "get your act together."  Our message is not "stop sinning" and it's not "change your behavior."  Our message to the world is, "God loves you so much that He was in Christ reconciling you to Himself, not counting your sins against you!"  That is good news, and that is our message to the world.

Our message is not, "you'd better make sure you have a personal relationship with Jesus."  Our message is, "you get to have a personal relationship with Jesus!"  There is a huge difference between those two messages.  A completely different foundation.  The first foundation is fear-based, as in, "God's gonna get you if you don't walk with Jesus."  The second foundation is based on God's agape-love, as in, "God loves you so much that He is absolutely passionate about YOU, and He is absolutely passionate about wanting an eternal relationship with you!"  Jesus words, "No one comes to the Father but by Me," are not a "condition," but rather a blessed hope!

Many in the church have sadly made the gospel into a threat rather than making it out to be the promise that it is. They've not always presented a God who is "longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."  And what is this repentance?  It's not "changing our behavior," because changing our behavior will never, ever be good enough to save us!  Repentance is changing from unbelief to belief.  God waits patiently for people to come to faith.

And so the foundation of salvation is not a fear-based message and it's not a message about us changing our behavior.  The foundation of salvation is God's agape-love.

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)

It's God's kindness and love toward man, and not by our own works through which we've been saved.  It's not through our own so-called "repentance" (stopping sinning and starting to to "good"), but rather it's the through the "washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" - a work that God Himself does in us when we believe.  Again, true repentance (Greek word 'metanoia') means a change of mind, a rethinking of things.  If repentance means changing our behavior, and that type of 'repentance' is what saves us, then we've been saved by our own efforts and changing, and not by God's kindness and love, and not by the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit.  So true repentance that saves is a change of mind that brings a person from unbelief to belief, and thus to the regenerative work of God.

The gospel is more powerful than we make it out to be.  Trust God and trust His good news!  He'll work things out in you that you never could've dreamed of if it were up to you to change your behavior.  His love and grace are not only the foundation of the Christian life, but His love and grace are inextricably woven into every last aspect of it!  Once it truly grips you, you can never go back to a performance-based life, or living day to day with a focus on sin and on changing your bad habits into good habits.  You find that it never worked that way and it never will!  When you find that the foundation and essence of your life is God's love and grace, it will be impossible to escape you that there is something far more powerful at work in you that can never be drummed up by your own willpower or attempts at 'good Christian living.'

Growing in Grace Together - Andrew Farley - The Naked Gospel - Part 1

This week I begin a three-part chat with Andrew Farley, author of the book The Naked Gospel (thenakedgospel.com). Andrew talks about the overall theme of the book, "Jesus Plus Nothing," and gets into such topics as:

-Whether or not the Christian has any more relationship with the law (including but not limited to the "Ten Commandments")
-The Old and New Covenants
-The fact that we're dead to sin
-Jesus' words in which He elevated the standards of the law, and what this means to us on this side of the cross
-How we are now motivated, not by law, but by the new heart and spirit that God has given us
-Much more!

If you're a regular listener to Growing in Grace, you'll notice that Andrew's heart and mind is that same as ours on all of these things!  Listen in as Andrew presents the straightforward truth of The Naked Gospel.

gigcast.graceroots.org

GIG 214 - Repentance Means to Change Your Thinking

The word "repent" has traditionally been taught as a word that means "change your behavior." "Repentance" is taught as a necessary part of being saved. But if repentance means that we have to change our behavior in order to be saved or in order to keep ourselves saved, then doesn't that mean that it's our own works/effort that saves us?

What does it really mean to repent? We'll get into that this week on Growing in Grace.

gigcast.graceroots.org

Growing in Grace Together - John Lynch, Coauthor of Bo's Cafe

This week I'm happy to present a new feature on Growing in Grace, in addition to my regular weekly podcast with Mike Kapler. "Growing in Grace Together" will feature informal conversations with various people, simply chatting with them about their own grace journeys.

For this inaugural edition, I speak with special guest John Lynch, coauthor of the new novel Bo's Café (boscafe.com), a book he wrote along with Bruce McNicol and Bill Thrall.  In short, Bo's Café is a book that will help people who are struggling with a performance-based life, and with various issues in life that never seem to get resolved. Even after hearing all the "right" things preached and knowing all the "right" things to do, we find that our lives are still mucky and falling apart, and we live with guilt and shame - and yet we make ourselves appear nice and shiny to others as we wear masks and as we hide our guilt and shame well, presenting ourselves to others as the person we wish we would be, rather than being real and genuine with others about how things really are on the inside.

As John shares, we need to find a place where "the worst about me could be known and I'd discover that I'd be loved more and not less in the telling of it, and just that alone would start breaking my shame that would allow me to enjoy this health."  Listen in as John talks about the various characters in Bo's Café, and how they come to find that Christ-in-them is enough, as He works in and through them - not with quick fixes to their problems, and not through well-laid-out and well-lived-out rules and principles, but rather as they learn to be vulnerable with one another and as they learn to trust in God's grace to work powerfully and dynamically in them through the safe - and often messy - place of genuine relationships.

gigcast.graceroots.org

Repent and BELIEVE the good news

I was first going to title this, "If I had an 'altar call.'" But it turned out to be much more about what "repentance" is.  I'll leave it as I wrote it, but I just thought I'd explain my first few words about the "altar call."

First off, let's get it straight that the only "altar" I would be talking about is your heart, not a group of people flocking down to the front of a church sanctuary.  We are the temple of God.  We don't "go" to one.  The Holy Place of God is YOU!  And who says it would have to be me, or who says that it would have to be a pastor or someone with a "title" in the church.  If I had an "altar call" in the heart, let it be about a body of people all helping one another out.

And just what would this "altar call" be?  Are we talking about getting your act together and changing your behavior?  Are we talking about doing something to get yourself right with God?  Are we talking about dedicating or "re"dedicating yourself to God or to living better?

None of that is what I'm talking about.  If we could get together and speak heart to heart with one another about "repentance," here's what it would mean to me.  Repentance (metanoia) means a change of mind - a rethinking of things in the heart.  Jesus said, "Repent, and believe the good news."  So we would get together, and instead of asking one another how good we're doing at living the Christian life, or what behaviors we need to change in our lives, I'd rather have the discussion revolved around these questions:

Have you been believing the lie that you're not accepted by God because of your poor behavior or performance?

Have you been walking in guilt and shame for the things you've done?

Have you been holding others to a standard that you yourself cannot keep?  And even if you feel you've kept that standard, do you really think that that's what the Christian life is about?

Have you had various expectations of yourself, or do you feel God has had expectations of you, that you've failed to live up to, and those failures are keeping you from intimacy with Him?

Have you seen God as judgmental, condemning and angry towards you?

Have you felt weak and burdened, and you feel it's up to yourself to make yourself strong and to bear these heavy burdens?

Have you been believing the good news (and that it really is good news) or have you been believing the lies of performance-based acceptance and sanctification?


As these questions are asked and discussed, I would hope for the conversation of our hearts to turn to:

Let's renew our minds daily to the good news.

Let's repent of the whole idea that it's up to us to maintain our salvation or to sanctify ourselves, and realize that God Himself has saved us to the uttermost and that He has already sanctified us and has already made us complete in Him!

Let's repent of the whole idea that we need to work on all our issues in order to present ourselves to God, and remember that He Himself is at work in us, living His very life in and through us to will and do to according to His good pleasure.

Let's repent of dragging around our heavy loads, and of being rushed to "grow" into something mighty for God, and instead let's slow down and rest in Him, walking in His "unforced rhythms of grace."

Let's repent of wearing masks and acting all cool as if we've got it all together.  We don't have it all together - none of us - and as we act like we do, it's sort of like a virus that spreads, and before you know it we've got everyone wearing fake, plastic smiles and talking fake, happy talk, when inside we're dying!  Let's be safe for one another to share our junk with one another without condemning one another and pointing our fingers.  Let's be real with one another and help one another work through our issues rather than walking with a false notion of "repentance" (changing our behavior), thinking that if we only change our behavior, things will be all better.  Let's REPENT of the idea that that's what repentance is, and realize that it never works anyway!

Let's repent of struggling and striving to get our acts straight before God, and allow His love and grace to work in and through us over a period of time, again as we work through these things together gracefully, and to let His love and grace work out those changes that we really do need in our lives.  Yes, it's often very beneficial and profitable when our behavior changes - but it's not up to "us."  God began a good work in us and God IS faithful to complete it!  We think that if we change good enough for Him, He'll accept us.  But He knows we can't do squat for Him, so He faithfully does it all and is so gracious to let us come along for the ride... and to ENJOY the ride!  The Christian life is not meant to be a struggle.  We rest in Him and He produces His very best stuff through us.

Let's repent of wallowing around in guilt, shame and condemnation.  Jesus took ALL our guilt and shame, and He came into the world not to condemn but to SAVE.  So let's repent of all of this, and let's begin walking in the fullness of His salvation!  Again, let's repent of making it about our performance, and let's walk in His ongoing work in and through us.

Let's repent of making life in Christ out to be some moral crusade.  We can't change ourselves, never mind the rest of the world!!!  If we realize that it's only by God's faithful love and grace working in and through us that our lives change and we bear His fruit, then what in the world are we doing placing all these moral expectations on everyone else in the world???  Instead of protesting the sins of the world, let's bring to them the very message that saved us, the message of reconciliation, by which we ourselves have been saved and kept by grace alone.

So let's repent of making this about us, and let's understand it's all about Him.  And let's understand that since it's all about Him, and HE is all about US, then we have a win-win situation at work here!  It really is good news!  Let's repent and believe the good news!

GIG 213 - Faith, Works and Dead Works

"Faith without works is dead," says James. We talked about that a little bit last week, and we'll talk about it a little more this week. We'll dig into the idea of how faith and works work together, so to speak, and we'll show how we believe this phrase from James does not mean that we do works in order to "prove" our faith or in order to make our faith genuine. We'll also talk a bit about how "works without faith are dead works!" (See how we cleverly moved the words around a bit). ;)  Anyone, even people without faith, can do good works.  People can be good imitators, and their imitations can appear very close to the real thing, and yet just as an imitation is not the real thing, in the same way people can do works that appear really, really good, but are nevertheless dead works.

gigcast.graceroots.org