Law vs. Grace

While I work on another post for my series, I thought you might enjoy this. I have to give credit to Chuck Missler.

Law versus Grace

The law is perfect, that’s why imperfect men cannot keep it. (Psalm 19 & 119)

The law is holy, that’s why sinners are condemned by it.

The law is just, that’s why it can’t show mercy to the guilty. Showing mercy is not just.

The law condemns the sinner, but grace redeems the sinner.

The law reveals sin, but grace atones for sin.

By the law is the knowledge of sin, by grace is the redemption from sin.

The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

The law demands obedience, grace bestows and empowers us to obey.

The law says do and do not, grace says it is done, it is finished.

The law says continue to be holy, grace says it is finished.

The law curses, grace blesses.

The law slaves the sinner, grace makes the sinner alive.

The law shuts every mouth before God, grace opens the mouth to praise God.

The law condemns the best man, grace saves the worst man.

The law says pay what you owe, grace says “I freely forgive you all.”

The law says the wages of sin is death, grace says the gift of God is eternal life.

The law says the soul that sins, it shall die, grace says believe and live.

The law was done away (fulfilled) in Christ, grace abides forever.

The law puts us under bondage, grace sets us free.

What Are The Consequences of Sin?

I am continuing my series on the relevancy of The 10 Commandments. You can read part one here, part two here, part three here, and part four here.

In summary, keeping The 10 Commandments will make your life here on earth easier, but you cannot earn your salvation by keeping them. You earn no points with God, and He doesn't stop loving you when you break them. None of us is able to keep them perfectly and so they were never given to show us how to be saved. They were actually given to show us how miserably we will fail and are in dire need of a Savior. Christianity is about freedom. God came to set the captives free. We have been slaves to sin, we had no choice. But God sent His Son to redeem us (buy us back) and His Spirit to empower us to conquer sin.

Some may think I'm condoning sinning since I preach grace. I say you have the choice to battle sin in your life and rise above it (and it is God that gives you this ability). I say you have the choice to be free from it. But many don't and God still loves them the same. I truly think that those people are ignorant of the power that God came to give them, to break the bondage of sin. If you are one that justifies all your actions by saying, "it's okay, God has to forgive me", I question whether you are really saved at all. If you have any concern about pleasing God, then you probably are saved.

No, I don't preach liberty in the sense that you think. We have liberty in Christ to live free, joyful, peaceful lives, but the paradox is that this liberty is stronger the more we submit to His will and not our own. After all, we were bought with a huge price, our lives are no longer our own. (I Corinthians 6:19-20)

So what are the consequences of sin?

1. Repercussions from this world.

2. It opens the door to the devil.

3. Our flesh grows stronger.

4. Our soul is tarnished.

Think about the world we live in. If you steal, you suffer consequences in our society. You risk being injured or killed by your victim. You risk being arrested and convicted by our justice system. Let's talk about adultery. The natural consequences of this world we live in are such that your marriage will most likely fall apart, you may lose your children, you will definitely ruin your witness with your children, your chances in another marriage are greatly diminished, and you may catch a disease.

Secondly, sin opens the door to the devil. If he knows you bow to temptation easily, he will ruthlessly tempt you all the more. He also likes to throw scriptures in your face (used wrongly, of course) to beat you down and condemn you. He will tell you you're not worthy, unloved by God, and make you even question your salvation and entrance into heaven.

Now for the third category, we have the flesh. That is the part of ourselves that wants to do wrong. Before we're saved, we are slaves to it, but God sets us free, if we believe on Jesus. Unfortunately this part of us doesn't go away. It hangs around and tempts us. If we continuously give in, it grows stronger and stronger and becomes harder to resist. (I give more detail in my last post, click here to read.)

I will explain point four in detail next time. It will take a bit of space.

What are not consequences of our sin?

1. God stops loving us. (See Romans 8:38-39)

2. God punishes us.

3. God is unable to bless us or protect us. (Now it may seem that way, because you have opened the door to the devil, but God is able to do whatever He sees fit. Read all the Old Testament stories where people were in direct disobedience to God, yet He showed them grace, especially Ahab in I Kings 20. Ahab was a wicked king, but we see God calling to him, helping him win a battle, even in the midst of his sin.)

4. You can lose your salvation. And this is the controversial one. Some believe that there is a point where you can sin and lose your salvation. I don't believe that. Some believe that if you are one that has reached a high level of maturity, in Christ, and genuinely know what you're doing, you can reject your salvation. I'm still not sure about this one. But I do know that in general, people mess up, some mess up really, really badly. They still believe in the work that Christ did on the cross, they are not in danger of losing their salvation.

Tune in next time where I explain Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death. Does this contradict what I have presented here?

I also encourage you to read through Romans and Galatians in light of what I have presented here. Don't take my word for it. Search the scripture for yourself.

Lazurus

Last post, I promised to list the consequences of sin, but I feel I need one more example of how we can choose to live a free, peaceful, joy-filled life, or choose to be bound up in strongholds.

Let's look at the story of Lazarus, in the Gospel of John, chapters 11 and 12.

The story should be familiar to you. Jesus was friends with Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. Lazarus became sick and his sisters asked Jesus to come, since they knew that He had healed so many. Jesus waited a bit and then came, but by this time, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus came up to the tomb and commanded Lazarus to come out of the tomb. My focus is on verse 44, of chapter 11.

And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

I want you to notice the three states that Lazarus was in.

1. He was dead.

2. Then he was resurrected, but was bound with graveclothes.

3. He then was loosed from the graveclothes, and therefore fully free.

We can go through these stages as well. We are dead in our sins, until we believe on Jesus. We are then given eternal life, our spirits are made new (II Cor. 5:17), we are saved. It is as if we have died, were buried, and have resurrected, with Christ. (Romans 6:3-6) Now at first we are still bound by our graveclothes, this means our fleshly desires are not done away with. We have to learn how to resist these lusts, and as I said last post, we don't have the willpower, this power only comes from God. It is through reading the Bible and starving our flesh that we grow stronger and can resist.

Now we can live the rest of our earthly lives in that bound up state (and unfortunately a lot of believers do, because they don't know the freedom they have), but that is not what God wants for us. He wants us to be free from these constraints. This will only happen when we get to know God better (through prayer and reading of His Word) and realize what being saved really means. It happens when we learn that God has put His Holy Spirit on the inside of us, to empower us to overcome sin. It happens when we learn to yield to the Holy Spirit.

Now if you are walking around your whole life, bound by the graveclothes, does that mean you are dead? No, you are alive, like Lazarus, you just won't live a full, complete, abundant life. You will be hindered.

This is what I mean when I say that Christianity is about freedom. God want you to be free--truly, wholly, completely free. Being saved is not about a ticket to heaven, it is about so much more.

I just finished reading Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris, and it was so wonderful. In it, he illustrates this concept. He shows that before we're saved, we are chained to our flesh (that is the part in us that wants to disobey God). At this point we have no choice but to be a slave to it and obey it. But once we are saved, the chains are broken, we are free, but that flesh doesn't go away. It is still around (as long as we're on this earth) and will tempt us. We must fight our flesh, attack it, deny it and kill it (Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:24) with the power of the Holy Spirit that comes through diligent, continuous time in God's Word. But too many people actually feed their flesh (and I love his cartoon drawings of this--this little guy bringing a feast to this monster). They think that since we've been freed by the Cross, it's okay to indulge the flesh, but that's not true. When we feed the flesh, it becomes bigger and stronger and pushes us around all the more. We actually need to starve our flesh, so that it will become weak. It will never be completely gone until Christ returns, but if we keep it weak, it's tempting us won't be nearly as hard to resist.

What state are you in right now? Are you still bound up? Need help to be set free? Let us know.

Freedom Part 2

This is a continuation of related posts. You can read the first installment here, and the second here.

God wants you to be free--wholly, utterly, completely free.

God's laws bring you freedom. (Now before you think I'm contradicting my last post, read on.)

Think about it, if you obey the seventh commandment, "You shall not commit adultery" you will be free from diseases, heartache, strife, guilt, and more, for example.

Rules actually give us freedom. When you follow a budget and set rules for yourself with your spending, you are free to buy bigger ticket items, go on family vacations, relax in your retirement age, etc.

The problem is that we cannot, in our own power, keep God's law.

The law was given for a few different reasons, but one of those was to show us how utterly we can't keep it!

Romans 5:20a

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.

Now that's not to say that God's law is evil.

Romans 7:7,12

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not!...The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

Keeping the law will make your life more peaceful, as I mentioned previously, but it is not how we are saved.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

But as I said, we have no power to keep that law. The law shows us that we cannot save ourselves, we need a Savior. When we believe on Jesus, His Spirit actually indwells us and empowers us to overcome sin.

I Corinthians 3:16

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

See also John 14:17, Romans 8:9, Romans 8:11, Ephesians 2:22, II Timothy 1:14, and James 4:5.

And we get a brand-new spirit. Our spirit is recreated, in the likeness of Christ

II Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

You are no longer a murdering, lying, adulterer. You are now clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

Isaiah 61:10

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.

You do, however, have a choice (the freedom) to live in your old ways. You can choose the abundant life God has for you, or not. You can choose peace and joy, or misery.

Jesus says, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)

You don't have to live that abundant life, if you so choose. You can choose to live in hell here on earth.

Read this parable of The Lost Son, from Luke 15.

¹¹ Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. ¹² And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. ¹³ And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. ¹⁴ But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. ¹⁵ Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. ¹⁶ And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
¹⁷ “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! ¹⁸ I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, ¹⁹ and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
²⁰ “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. ²¹ And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. ²³ And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; ²⁴ for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
²⁵ “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. ²⁷ And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’
²⁸ “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. ³⁰ But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
³¹ “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. ³² It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

Your sins are forgiven you (if you believe on Jesus Christ), God loves you. He wants you to come home, He wants you to choose the abundant life He has for you. You are not kicked out of His family. You may think that true freedom is doing whatever you please, but true freedom actually comes from submitting wholly to the Lordship of Christ.

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

I will explain next time the consequences of living a sinful life, and it's probably not what you may think.

Freedom

This is continued from my post on The 10 Commandments.

You see, a lot of people have the wrong idea about Christianity and about God. They think Christianity is about a list of rules, of do's and don'ts. They imagine God up in heaven, just waiting to strike anyone that gets out of line.

And so when I ask if The 10 Commandments are relevant I expected to get one of two answers. One group will say they are not relevant because they don't want the guilt of not living up to them. The other group will say, yes they are relevant because they are God's Word and He can only love those that keep His law.

But that is not the truth.

Christianity is about freedom.

One of the reasons God sent His Son into this world was to set you free.

He wants to set you free from addictions--to alcohol, to drugs, to pornography, to food, to approval. He wants to set you free from anger and depression. He wants to set you free from anything that is mastering you, that holds you down--fears, worries, anxieties, lies, and much more. He wants to set you free from guilt and condemnation. He wants to set you free from being used and abused. He wants to set you free from hell--the literal hell and hell on earth.

Most people have this perception that Christianity is about keeping a set of rules because that is what all the other world religions are about. And unfortunately many Christian pastors perpetuate this myth, as well. If you are in a church that tells you that God can't love you unless you are doing everything to a tee, then you need to find a new church.

This is called legalism and religion and I hate both. Jesus hates both, as well.

Read these passages where Jesus confronts religion and religious people. (The Pharisees were the some of the most religious people of Jesus' day.)

Matthew 9:10-12

¹⁰ Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
¹² When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Matthew 12:1-8

¹ At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. ² And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”
³ But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: ⁴ how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? ⁵ Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? ⁶ Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. ⁷ But if you had known what this means,‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Matthew 23:25-28

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
²⁷ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

It is religion that says you must clean yourself up in order to be accepted. God says He loves you, while you are a sinner, and you've done nothing to deserve it.

If you are a Christian and you're reading this, you may be thinking that I am promoting sinful living. You may be thinking that I'm preaching a brand of Christianity that lets people just do as they please, because God will continually forgive, over and over. Stay tuned for the next installment.

The 10 Commandments

I posed a question on Facebook the other day about whether The 10 Commandments are relevant to us today.

Some said yes, some weren't sure.

I also asked everyone what they thought were the consequences for breaking any of the commandments.

Well, my answer on relevancy is two-fold. On the one hand, your life on this earth will be smooth and happy if you keep to these commandments. But on the other hand, keeping them earns you no points with God.

What?!?

Does that mean we can just go out and steal, cheat, and lie, all we want?

Stay tuned for the next installment.

(If you want to read the list of commandments, they are found in Exodus 20:1-17.)

Love

I've been thinking a lot lately about the love of God.

There are many that want to define God's love, but not all are correct.

Some would say that the love of God is never to confront issues. These are the, "don't judge me" types.

Others say they are walking in God's love and say they love you, but their actions don't prove it. Their actions, actually, contradict their professed love. They don't keep their word, etc.

So, I have been thinking a lot lately about what God's love is really all about.

The verses that come to mind are John 3:16, Romans 5:8, and I John 4:9 - all talking about God's love for us and His ACTION that proves it.

This makes me think of James 2:14-17. Faith without works is dead. I say love without action is false love.

I heard a great definition of truth--when the word and the deed become one. I love that. God promised to send His Son and He did it. The deed proved His word. His action proved His love for us. So for love to be true, it must be a joining of word and deed.

Jesus didn't come into this earth and start going around telling everyone how much He loved them. No, He served them--He healed, He cast out demons, He taught, He fed.

Jesus did tell His disciples of the Father's love for them, but never told them He loved them (as far as the Bible tells us). This speaks volumes to me. Obviously, people around us need to hear words of love, but much more important are our actions. Are they actions of love? Are we keeping our word? Do we operate with integrity?

On this same note, Jesus said that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. Our obedience proves our love and faith (it is not, however, how we are justified). (John 14:15)

I love what Joe McGee has to say about saying the words, "I love you." He says, "that didn't cost you anything!" It's true, it costs nothing to say those words. It costs you to serve and show love by your actions.

I heard recently that to children, love is spelled T-I-M-E. I think that is the absolute truth. Your time costs you much, much more than just saying a few words about love to your kids.

So if we show love by our actions, should we ever confront?

Luke 17:3

Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

Read Matthew 16:23, Mark 8:33, and Luke 4:8 - all the same story of Jesus rebuking Peter, who unconsciously was allowing himself to be used by Satan. And John 2:15, where Jesus drove out the merchants from the temple--he used a whip!

We have to confront, out of a motive of love, to help bring to light issues that people need to change. All of our relationships in this world should be bringing all of us to a higher level of character. Our marriage should be helping us build character. Our children should motivate us to model character, as we teach them character. From time to time, we need to bring wrong character into the light, to say that certain actions are not acceptable, otherwise we are enablers, and will be held accountable.

So, this image of Christ as a pushover, always calm, nice guy, is wrong. Did you know God feels anger and feels hate?

Ecclesiastes 3

¹ To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:
² A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
³ A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
⁴ A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
⁵ A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
⁷ A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
⁸ A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.

What are your thoughts on this?