Grace - The 3 Options

Hi Everyone,

I'm convinced that when someone hears the true Gospel of Grace, they are left with basically three options:

1.  They believe what they're hearing is too good to be true and ultimately reject it as heresy.  "It can't be *that* easy", they think to themselves.  It sounds so foreign to what they've always heard, that they label it instantly as "impossible".  Joy is short-lived and soon gives way to man's effort toward holiness:  holiness being the idea that they must be on constant vigil to seek out sin in themselves.  They continue striving toward holiness and righteousness, and pray and fast for revivals.  The supernatural to them is mysterious and difficult.  Other Christians are "Super"-Christians and produce signs, miracles, and wonders easily, while the rest of Christendom must work hard to be used by God.  In their heart, Christ's effect has been supplanted, because they are experts at addition:  Christ + Performance = Something that pleases God.

2.  Those in the second option receive what they're hearing joyfully because they're tired of option one, and they continue to receive revelation of how good the Gospel is.  "It all makes perfect sense" is something they commonly think to themselves.  They see Christ and His benefit everywhere in the scriptures.  They experience freedom for the first time and their freedom doesn't cause them to sin more; rather, because they experience God's love at levels never thought possible, sin and temptation simply fall away--they no longer have to exercise "self-discipline" to maintain their behavior.  And when they do mess up, they begin to realize they did so because of a false belief, not a sinful nature.  They can differentiate between behavior and identity and seek to change the way they think...to see themselves as fully equipped and fully righteous in Christ.  They're enraptured with God's goodness and see Trust and Rest in Him as the greatest way to live.  They cease to strive to be holy and righteous because they begin to understand that God has made them to sit with Christ in heavenly places (See Eph. 2:6, KJV).  They have a great desire to share this Gospel of Grace and to them, nothing is impossible.  They begin to move freely in spiritual gifts as they realize that Jesus in them can do anything.  They have become "Revival" because they now see and experience the SOURCE OF LIFE IN them.  (Webster's 1828 Dictionary:  revival -- "recovery to life from death"). Condemnation and guilt manipulation no longer can be used against them to affect behavior change.  Never again do they tithe to be blessed, but now they tithe because they are blessed and they trust God to provide more for them to continue to bless others.  They've stopped twisting God's arm to beg for provision.


The those who fit into the third option concern me the most.  Honestly, it's where I see most lives hurt in the most despicable way.

3.  They are very similar to those in the second option and can even be described in the exact same way as those in option two, but for them, things begin to change.  They experience persecution from those who've chosen option one.  They're told to find and return to legitimacy in the customs and traditions they've always held.  They go from having been released as a worker, to be a lover, and then to return to their work, because everyone else around them is working, too.  And that's simply *how* it's done.  They may even still struggle with a sinful habit; the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:13) tells them that Jesus is not enough, that they need to sweat and get back to effort and striving.  They return to striving toward holiness and righteousness because they didn't fit into the established religious system after they heard and believed the Gospel of Grace as taught by Jesus and Paul; so, they return to the Gospel of Grace as taught by the Church.  Because they begin to lose the joy and freedom they felt, they lose the desire to communicate the Gospel to others.  This includes supernatural ministry.  They begin to think that the power of God can no longer flow through them.  Jesus, the Originator of the Gospel, the very One Whose ministry of grace produced supernatural healing in those who heard with faith, no longer finds a joyful, willing, partner.  That person has listened to those in option one and has forgotten that he was never qualified in and of himself--it was Christ Who freely qualified him.  (Second Corinthians 3:6 -- [It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not [ministers] of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive.)

I know many people talk about the grace movement and are concerned about those who go "to far" with grace.  I agree that there are those who have ignored clear scripture on precisely how we are saved, but my concern lies elsewhere:  I am concerned about those who are in option 3.  How they must hurt.  The stifling they must feel.  They've experienced freedom and wonder, but system of the world (christianity motivated by old covenant principles) has sought to bring them back into line and disqualify them from receiving freely.  The institutional church and its far-reaching systematic authority puts hurdles in our paths and demands submission and obedience before any blessing may be pronounced.  Those who were free have been brought back under "control", only to give in to the illusion of legitimacy.  They now experience only a loveless marriage.

Simply put, I vote that we all select option two and stay there.

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - Not What We Expected

Hi Everyone,

Here's a quote from Malcolm Smith:

"We were born two thousand years after [the covenant between Jesus and God the Father] was made.  We were born into the family of Adam, crippled by the lie and ignorant of the covenant.  We lived in darkness with a distorted image of God, never knowing of His love or of His designs of love toward us.  We lived in our wilderness, lost and dead to God....  But He never gave up His pursuit of us, and finally we were summoned by the Holy Spirit to hear the Gospel.  We believed we would hear the words of an angry God; instead we were stunned by the words of His love and forgiveness.  Our track record of rebellion and disobedience had been forgiven, dismissed in the covenant made before we were born in our representative head, the Lord Jesus.  And all the riches earned by the Lord Jesus were turned over to us; we have become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus.

We are not treated as individuals in isolation; we do not have a private covenant with God.  The covenant was made, its terms and promises made sure in Christ 2000 years ago; in all that He did, He acted for us and as us.  The Gospel called us to personally enter the covenant because we were in Christ when the covenant was made.

Our decision was our response to the covenant that divine love had made:  to say yes to the yes of Jesus, the covenant head, to die in His death to independence and disobedience, confessing Him as Lord and in Him submitting to the Father.  It meant nothing short of a death and resurrection, actually changing families.  We died to being part of the family of Adam, the old man, to being included into the royal household of the new Man.  Such a response meant incurring the wrath of the family of sin and darkness that we were once a part of.  They would, in fact, treat us as they treated Jesus.

This takes place by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.  We, who live two millennia from the making of the covenant, are united to Jesus, our covenant head, and made part of His history, partaking of His life.  We take our place at the royal table along with the royal princes and, basking in the love of our Father, we eat the meal of covenant."

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - Covenant Meal and Friendship

Hello Everyone,

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope this post finds you well and comforted in the presence of family and friends.  I know there are certain joys and certain challenges we all face at this time, but it is my sincere wish that you know of the peace between you and our heavenly Father.  I would like to discuss briefly two elements of the covenant from which we benefit.

The word "friend" is something we've lost true meaning of.  I know people who boast of the number of "friends" they have on Facebook, but we all know that most of those are acquaintances at best.  We should only consider friends as those we find trustworthy with the intimate details of our lives.  True friendship is something that lasts over a lifetime, even though we easily throw people away as they are no longer useful to us.  Consider the following quote from Malcolm Smith:  "From the making of the covenant, the two parties would be described as friends.  The word friend has been greatly cheapened in the language of our Western society; but in societies where covenant making is practiced and understood, there is no higher honor than to be called a person's friend, for it announces a covenant relationship."

And since we all will be having some sort of meal this evening, let's consider the meaning of the meal that happens as the end of the covenant.  "To eat with someone at any time was a kind of covenant, and it had a far greater meaning when placed at the end of the making of a covenant.  The meal declared the covenant, as the two representatives would eat of the same bread and drink of the same wine telling the world that they were one, partaking one of another" (Malcolm Smith).

Psalm 23:5 says "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies."  I want you to know that this is a covenant table.  It's also the king's table.  I want you to understand that you are partaking of the life of the king; you have his life, his authority, and his friendship.  Sin has been removed and the God whose love needs no covenant has made a covenant with Himself in Christ Jesus and called us as beneficiaries of the new covenant.  If God needs no covenant to love you, then there is no sin you could commit that would separate you from Him.

May you know that since you have believed, you are at rest and at a position of honor at the table of the family of God.

Happy Thanksgiving and...

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - There are no 'ifs' in God's love

Hi Everyone,

Below is a post from a blog I follow (weblink at the end).  Enjoy, and know that you are loved!

Grace=Peace

Jeremy

"The core experience of Jesus, the moment that sustained him through his brief life on earth, happened at his baptism when heaven was opened, he saw the Spirit of God descend on him like a dove, and the voice of the Father said: "This is my Son,whom I love; with him I am well pleased." The knowledge that he was loved by the One who matters most was, for him, the primal spiritual fact.

You, too, are God's deeply loved one. God loves you. This forms your core identity. You are God's beloved daughter, God's beloved son. You are God's child, and God loves you. As you embrace God's love and follow after him, this love turns from a theoretical thing to an experiential reality. You can know, viscerally, that you are greatly loved by God.

The nature of this enduring, unfailing love can be expressed like this: "God does not say, 'I love you if...' There are no 'ifs' in God's heart. God's love for us does not depend on what we do or say, on our looks or intelligence, on our success or popularity." (Henri Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life, 68) God's love is not conditional.

A conditional statement is an "if... then" sentence. Most human "love" is conditional. Recently I received an anonymous note from a woman in my church which broke my heart. It was a prayer request, and read: "Please pray for me. My husband thinks I am too fat." It seems her husband would love her if...  "If you lose more weight then I will love you." How sad. How ungodly. 

Fortunately for us God's love is not like that. His love for you is not dependent on your performance or your appearance. As this great, central biblical truth descends from your mind into your heart and becomes your core identity and reality you will find yourself sustained through all of life's incomplete relationships.

There are no 'ifs' in God's love."

(http://www.johnpiippo.com/2012/11/there-are-no-ifs-in-gods-love.html)

Grace - Jesus Re-Presents Us

Hi Everyone,

"The old covenant is the covenant that was made with Israel at Mount Sinai through Moses, their representative.  It was the covenant of the law of the Ten Commandments, the sacrificial system of offering up lambs, bulls, and goats to cover the sins of the people; the mark and seal of membership in the covenant was the circumcision of the male.  The new covenant is called new because it made all that went before it old and of no more use as a means of salvation.  It was not just another covenant that improved on the previous one, as this year's automobile model is an improvement over the last year's.  The word "new" means new in kind, that which has never been thought or dreamed of before.  This covenant is mediated by the Lord Jesus and established in His blood.  Membership is in being sealed by the Spirit of God, who writes the law on the heart and in the desires of men and women." - Malcolm Smith

Something we've forgotten, and I've mentioned this recently, is the reality of covenant.  It is not the exchange of material possessions, but rather the exchange of a life.  The representative of each party involved in the covenant represents his people, his tribe, his family, etc.  Being of the same blood and family of those he represents, he literally EMBODIES those he represents.  His position is not an easy one, because the terms of the covenant rest upon him--he carries the responsibility to fulfill the terms of the covenant.

We come from a very individualistic society, so this is not easy for us to fully comprehend, but a person entering into a covenant can never be an individual; his very life represents the lives of all those included with him.  Think of David and Goliath.  In 1 Samuel 17, Goliath challenges the Israelites to choose a man for themselves.  He says that he and the Israelite they choose will represent their respective nation, and if the Israelites' representative wins, the ENTIRE nation of Philistines would be slaves to the nation of Israel.

Goliath and David literally BECAME their respective nation.  The entire histories and the futures of their people were at stake and the whole war would be ended by a fight between two men.

This illustrates in part how we are saved through Jesus.  Not only saved, but it shows us how we are to walk.  The Bible says that we died with Christ!  As a human, Jesus wraps up all of humanity into Himself and represents all men.  Jesus, born under the law, is our representative man, who takes upon Himself the full penalty for our failure to obey the covenant through which we were represented by Moses.  It is thus that the old covenant is ended, and the power of the Spirit has now raised Jesus up from death and us with Him!  The challenge we face in all this is the issue of faith!  We not only have to place our faith in Jesus for salvation, but we should also, by faith, believe that our perfect representative has caused us to be completely righteous.  How are we completely righteous?  Because our representative, Jesus Christ, is completely righteous.

I pray that you will see that your Representative has perfectly represented you--He has perfectly fulfilled the terms of the covenant which came through Moses.  You have been re-presented back to the Father through Jesus.  May you place your complete faith in the reality of your righteousness and sanctification, perfectly and once-for-all completed in Jesus.

"The Gospel of the covenant is presented by God to man, not as a point to begin negotiations, but for humans to accept or reject.  Love has accomplished the incredible, and all humans can do is either receive with thanks or establish themselves in their rebellion forever by refusing." - Malcom Smith

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - Jesus Is Better Than Milk

Hi Everyone,

Take the time to watch this video.  You won't be disappointed!

http://thecity.org/message/jesus_is_better_than_milk

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - From Shadow to the Light

"If you spend all your time looking at shadows, you will perpetually be in the dark.  The Light has come and it is Jesus!"

Hi Everyone,

I've made an observation and I have a question:  I've noticed that we, as people, generally like to have a list of what we should do and should not do.  I know that I am very much like this.  When someone is explaining something to me, I want the bottom-line facts.  I want to sift through the extraneous details and get to the information that I need in order to take action.  Tell me what you want me to know and to do!  I suspect that many of us have been trained to be this way--we want to know what we should do AND what we should not do!  That's very important to us, because we don't want to get things wrong.  So here's my question:

Adam and Eve were commanded NOT to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  How were they pleasing God if they didn't know what to do and what not to do?

I hope you get this question, because that screams at me!  Adam and Eve were to never take action based on knowing whether what they were doing was right or wrong.  I think we would agree that this life, based on the knowledge of good and evil, was far below God's ultimate plan for the life we are to experience.

Herein lies the problem:  we look to the knowledge of good and evil to decide what to do.  We think that makes us pleasing to God and that He desires to help us obey a list of dos and don'ts.  We constantly evaluate ourselves using the Ten Commandments.  We are ignorant that those are only a shadow.  Consider the following verses:

"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship." Heb. 10:1

"The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." Matt. 4:16

"These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ." Col. 2:17

So, I would like to propose that we start looking to the life of Jesus in us, and this only, so we can see Him working in us and experience the partnership between us and Him as He lays hands on the sick and raises the dead through us.  He is our holiness, so we are perfectly holy.  He is our righteousness, so we are perfectly righteous.  Our mind needs to see that every need we have is fulfilled in Him.  There is no sinful habit that can withstand the life of Christ in us.  As long as we have some sort of list of things to do and not to do, we are not moving in faith.  You are pleasing and acceptable to God in the Beloved.  Make Him the focus; not yourself.

I pray that we all will stop looking at shadows, but rather see Christ in us and us in Him.

"In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.  For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ."  John 1:4, 16-17

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - Now That Faith Has Come, the Law Is Obsolete

Hi Everyone,

Something lost in the memory of our society is the truth that covenant determines relationship.  This is also true of how God relates to us.  If we rightly divide the word of truth, then we will see that under the old covenant, God had to relate to a sinful people as a Holy and Righteous God had to:  He blessed those who did good; He cursed those who did evil.  Let's remember that "good" as defined by God's commands is actually perfection--not merely right behavior.  The self-righteous seek to justify themselves, but they misunderstand and ignore the requirement of perfection, focusing on achieving "good" or "right" behavior.  In the same way that we rightly divide truth and correctly understand the purpose of the old covenant with it rules and regulations, we must also see that God now relates to sinful people through Jesus through the new covenant.  People are reconciled to Himself and He is no longer relating to us through the law, since Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law on behalf of all people.  He reconciled the WORLD to Himself--faith has now come and...

the former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless, for the law made nothing perfect, and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.  Hebrews 7:18-19 (See also Gal. 3:10; James 2:10; and James 4:17)

In Matthew 9:16-17 we read about the danger of combining old and new garments and the placing of new wine into new wineskins rather than old ones.  This represents the mixing of old and new covenants.  It does not work; in fact, it's deadly to do so.  Why is it dangerous to mix old and new covenant teachings?  It is here that I make my strongest point in this email:

The mixing old and new covenant teachings will produce the following:

You will begin to believe that God contributes to our problems--that He causes or allow sickness as judgment and punishment.

You will be unsure of God's Will and will never be able to be in faith.  Your "faith life" will be a rollercoaster of faith and unbelief.

You will be focus on your problems, empower your enemy, and will be unable to see the solution.

You will judge people rather than minister to them--your salt will have lost its saltiness.

You will prescribe works to people as a solution to get God to move on their behalf.

You will be in perpetual confusion and experience unending condemnation and guilt.

God demonstrated to us His righteousness (See Romans 3:25) which has now become the very righteousness of those who have faith in Jesus (verse 22).  I find that most Christians do not believe that they are completely righteous, which adequately describes the righteous of Jesus.  In other words, we are just as righteous as Jesus is, because HIS righteousness is our righteousness.

I write these things to you in hopes that you will have the righteousness that comes by faith:

Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.  For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  Galatians 3:24-26

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - From Death to Life

From Death to Life: Aaron's staff was a dead piece of wood until it blossomed when God brought life to it and confirmed his priesthood; Jacob thought Joseph was dead until God raised him to a position to save his family and all of Egypt; Isaiah was undone until God cleansed and commissioned him; Peter knew he was a sinful man worthy of death--Jesus restored him and made him to fish for men; Jesus, himself, knowing He would die and be raised by the power of God's Spirit, rebuked satan's wisdom and did only what he saw His Father doing; Paul strived to please God until he realized that he had to die and be resurrected with Christ. As Christians and ministers, let us always see the life of God as our source, and never chose to live life and do what we do out of our own life and strength. We died, and the life we now live is by faith in Christ's life in us, given to and for us.

Grace - Hebrews: Consider Jesus, Part 7 - Moses Goes to a Bible Conference

Hi Everyone,

In Hebrews 1, we are introduced to the Son of God (unnamed, but understood by the writer and us as Jesus) sent from heaven above to men.  In Hebrews 2, we see Jesus in the flesh, a little lower than the angels, Who tasted death for all of us, and Who is now seated as the Son of man at the right hand of the Majesty on High.  But in Hebrews 3, this Apostle and High Priest of our faith is revealed as Christ Jesus (KJV & NKJV).  God's anointed one (the Christ) has become our Savior (Jesus).

So now, just as in Chapter 2 we are to heed the message we've heard, so now, in Chapter 3, we see that the message is a PERSON.  We are to give heed to the Person, Christ Jesus, Who IS the Gospel:  Consider Jesus, Who is the faithful Son over the house of God (us, the believers).

Of course, the writer also pays tribute to Moses.  After all, Moses had been a faithful servant to the house of God, but Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, because of Who He is and what He did.  So now it gets really interesting:

Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear His voice...." - Hebrews 3:7

So what's interesting about that?  The writer is quoting from Psalm 95 and has taken an event in the past and presented it in the present.  He didn't say "as the Holy Spirit said", but "as the Holy Spirit says"!  I'll explain later why that's so interesting.

Back to Moses:

Although Moses was a faithful servant, he made mistakes.However, Jesus has greater honor as a faithful Son and the One Who perfectly fulfilled His ministry.  Before Jesus, Moses had been the the apostle to the people and at the beginning, the high priest.  It was through Moses that God initiated the sacrificial system and book of law:

For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you."  Hebrews 9:19-20

Certainly, Moses deserves some credit:

• Moses conversed with God face to face (Numbers 12:8).
• Moses entered into the very presence of God (Exodus 34:30).
• Moses was shown the true heavenly things (Exodus 25:40).
• Moses constructed the tabernacle as he was commanded (Hebrews 8:5).
• Moses even shared in Christ's sufferings (Hebrews 11:24-26).

But then, Moses went to a Bible Conference:

Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.  Matthew 17:1-3

As Oliver Greene says:

"The greatest Bible Conference ever held took place that day on the Mount of Transfiguration--Christ the eternal Son of God, Moses to whom God gave the Law, and Elijah the chief of prophets!  Moses stood on the mountaintop, less than the Son but sharing in Shekinah glory that clothed them all.  Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were lighted with the glory of God--but the honor and glory Moses shared was but a reflection thrown upon him from the glory of the most glorious One--the only begotten of the Father, the Pearl of great price, the Jewel of all jewels"

I hope this has been a blessing to you and helps you to understand why we must move from old covenant mentality to the glory of the new covenant reality.

Until next time,

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

http://jdkrider.blogspot.com/2012/10/grace-hebrews-consider-jesus-part-6.html