The Growing Grace Revolution - Steve McVey

Wonderful post from Steve McVey. Here are two excerpts:

"The rule of legalism in God's church needs to be overturned. It has had the limelight long enough. It has been tried and found wanting. Many of us have determined to speak up for Christ and speak out against that which opposes Him from behind a religious mask. Revolution seems to be a good word to describe what God is doing among Christian these days."

....

"Here's a radical idea: Let's behave like Jesus, even if the Pharisees don't like it. Let's just love people indiscriminately. Let's love them regardless of their behavior. Let's love them whether they are pimps or preachers -- whether they are crack-heads or corporate heads -- whether they are drug addicts or deacons, whether they are moral or immoral. Let's just love them all!"

Read the whole post here.

Three Things That Revolutionized My Christian Life

By Michele Rayburn

There are three things that have revolutionized my Christian life and walk: God’s unconditional love, God’s total forgiveness, and a Christ-centered life.

1. God’s Unconditional Love

“We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

This one thing alone revolutionized my Christian walk…knowing that God loves me no matter what. I do not feel insecure in His love for me. I am not afraid that He will stop loving me. And because I believe that I am secure in His love for me, His love compels me to keep pressing on, and I am better able to experience the blessings that come with it, namely the fruit of the Spirit…the love, joy, peace.

2. God’s Total Forgiveness

When we understand God’s total forgiveness, then we will be set free to receive His love. I think it would be almost impossible to receive God’s love if we do not believe that we are totally forgiven of past, present and future sins.

The Lord said that He will “remember our sins no more”. He paid for our sins. He is not looking to condemn us over and over again when we sin for “there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1). And “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

Our sins are not just temporarily covered, but we have been permanently redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. He will not hold our sins against us. So we should walk in the joy of His forgiveness.

3. A Christ-Centered Life

We need to realize our new standing in Christ, that we are new creations, righteous, holy, Saints, “no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Gal. 4:7; see also Romans 6:6-23).

2 Corinthians 5:17, 21 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new….For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

When we “fix our eyes on Jesus” rather than on our sin, when we reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord, sin will not reign in our mortal bodies (Romans 6:11-12).

A Christ-centered life, rather than a sin-centered life has given me the spiritual strength that I need to live for Christ.
.
.

Denying The New Creation (Transcript)

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says a wonderful thing about what God has done in the life of the believer.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Let me ask you this: Are you one of the Christians who are afraid of the New Creation? I believe a lot of Christians are. And so they deny it.

They don’t mean to deny it. When you quote them 2 Corinthians 5:17, they don’t say, “I know the Word of God says we are a New Creation, but the Bible is wrong.”

They don’t say, “Ol’ Paul the Apostle slipped up on that one. He didn’t know what he was talking about. He got a little puffed up with himself and went too far.” They don’t say that.

But they still deny the New Creation. They still deny 2 Cor. 5:17. And it’s sad, because I believe it affects their relationship to God. Why that is we’ll talk about in a little bit. But first...

Why would anyone deny the New Creation? I believe it’s for two main reasons, and in both of those reasons these people mean well. I give them all the benefit of the doubt. If they knew what they were doing, I don’t believe they would do it. They love the Lord, they love His Word, and it would sadden them to think they were actually going against the Word of God.

So what are the two reasons Christians deny the New Creation?

1. It just isn’t taught much by the church in general.

The church is filled with bad anthropology. Anthropology is the study of man, and good anthropology is biblical anthropology. And good anthropology rightly divides the word of God by distinguishing the difference between what man is like BEFORE the New Birth and AFTER the New Birth. BEFORE regeneration and AFTER regeneration.

Now pretty much all Bible-believers will teach that the Holy Spirit comes into a Christian when they’re born again. That’s not the issue. We all agree on that. The bible says, “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” (Rom. 8:9)

But what about the believer themselves. Are they changed or not? Are they a New Creation or not? Your answer to these questions tell whether you have right anthropology or wrong anthropology.

What the Scripture teaches is that we ARE a New Creation. And this is just part of the New Covenant promised by God through the Prophets, and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Listen to the prophet Ezekiel in fortelling the coming of the New Covenant:

Ezekiel 11:19 "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh."

Ezekiel 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

Now those who teach against the New Creation will say things like, “We’re just Sinners. We’re no different than that pagan guy across the street there.”

But is that true? Not according to the bible.

You see, the bible makes a distinction between what we ARE and what we DO. Of course we sin at times, even as Christians. The flesh wars against our new spirit, our new heart, and sometimes we are deceived by the world, the flesh and the devil, and we make wrong decisions, and we sin against God, our Savior. And that’s an awful thing.

But when we do that, we actually are not behaving as ourselves in our new nature, we are going AGAINST ourselves. We are acting against what we really ARE after God has given us a new heart and made us a New Creation.

That’s why you will never see in the New Covenant Scriptures Christians referred to as Sinners, but over and over you will see us referred to as Saints.

Again, not because we don’t sin, but because that’s not who we are, that’s not our identity, that’s not our nature anymore. And so our goal is to walk by the Spirit, not just the Holy Spirit, but our own new spirit as well.

See, we are now one spirit with the Spirit of God. He has joined His spirit with ours. And He wouldn’t do that with our old sinful spirit. He gave us a new spirit, made us a new creation, and then joined His precious Spirit with ours. That’s exactly what it says in 1 Cor 6:17, "But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him."

But this isn’t taught much in the church, even though it’s as clear as can be right there in Scripture.

And that brings up the second reason why I believe well-meaning Christians deny the New Creation.

2. They think it takes away the glory due to God alone.

And that's why I give them the benefit of the doubt. We want to glorify God. Every believer ultimately wants to glorify God. We should give glory to God alone.

Since He did it all by grace, we can take no credit for it.

But suppose an architect built a magnificent building, and no one would admit it was a magnificent building because they didn’t want the building to get any credit? Silly, isn't it?

That’s how it is with God and the New Creation. It doesn’t take away from God’s glory to acknowledge the miraculous wonderful thing He has done in our hearts...it actually GIVES Him glory!

To deny the New Creation, to look at believers as just Sinners, is to deny what God has done AND WHAT HE IS DOING.

The True Story of an Ex-Con

Let's take a look at a passage here. I want to tell you a little story. I love to tell this story. If you've heard it before, bear with me.

There's a Pastor at Palo Alto Bible Church. He's passed away now, but his name is Ray Stedman. And he tells the true story of a time when a man came into his congregation who had just gotten out of prison.

And when he was in prison he had bcome a Christian. But he had not had much time to grow, and he came to Ray Stedman's church, and sat himself in the middle of this wealthy and educated congregation. And Ray Stedman tells the story of what the man told him afterwards.

As Ray Stedman was preaching from this passage in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 6, verses 9 through 11...let me go ahead and read the passage, and then I'll tell you what Pastor Stedman said.

"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."

Now as Ray Stedman was going to read this passage, he asked the congregation, "Would you do me a favor? As you hear yourself in these roles, in these identities, would you just stand up, so that we might just see what the work of God has been in the life of this congregation? As I read these, would you just stand up?"

And he began to read.

Now meanwhile, this ex-con is in the audience, and he's thinking, Man, I'm in the wrong place. Look at all these people. Smart. Educated. Money. These are not my kind of people. I don't know what in the world I'm doing here.

But as Ray Stedman read these things, the congregation began to stand up one by one. "Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves..."

And one by one the congregation began standing up, because these are things that they once were. "...nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God."

And by the time he got finished, virtually the entire congregation was standing up. And the ex-con looked around and said, "These are my kind of people!"

Well, why did he say that? Because he realized that these people, in their hearts, in their identities, had once been no different than him. But look at what verse 11 says, "such WERE some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

You see, these are the kinds of things that we were before we were made a new creation.

A Few More Scriptures

But now I’d like us to look at a few more scriptures which demonstrate that you are a New Creation.

2 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."

Now let's look at Romans Chapter 6, verses 1 and 2, "What shall we say, then? Shall we sin so that grace may abound?"

You see, Paul had just gotten through explaining that we're saved by grace, that it's a free gift, that even though we have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that even though the wages of sin is death, that as a free gift God has forgiven our sins, and declared us righteous in Christ (that's in Romans Chapter 5).

Now he says, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?" See, that was the logical question asked by his audience. Well, gee, if the more we sin the more grace abounds, should we continue in sin?

He says in verse 2, "Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" You see the logic there? Our old man, our old spirit, our old nature, was put to death on the cross and we became a new creation.

And Paul is saying, "Certainly not. We shouldn't continue in sin. We're a new creation now." Verse 3 says, "Or do you not know, that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism [that's talking about the baptism that the Holy Spirit baptizes us into the Body of Christ] into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

That's that new creation. That's why he says in Romans 6:6, "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin."

See, we were crucified with Christ, our old man, and became a new man, a new creation through Christ.

Now he says in verse 11, "Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves [that means 'choose to believe', 'consider', reckon yourselves] to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As we reckon ourselves dead to sin, as we realize that we have been crucified and are dead to sin, we take on a whole new view of what God has done. And we realize that we are a new creation. Only then can we "not let sin reign", verse 12.

"Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body." See it says, "Therefore...[because we're dead to sin and alive to God in Christ...therefore] do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in it's lusts."

It's only when we understand that new creation that we really understand how to not let sin reign in our mortal body.

Verse 6:14 then says, "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law, but under grace." See, it's all of grace. We were made a new creation by grace, we have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit by grace, we were made one spirit with Christ by grace, We are a New Creation!

Why Do We Need This Truth?

Why do we need this truth? Because how else will we not let sin reign? By sheer will power? By the Law?

Paul explains in Romans 7, verses 13 through 25 how impossible that is. The very thing he wants to do, he can't do. The very thing he doesn't want to do, he finds himself doing. Why? Because that's what we do when we walk by the flesh, when we don't understand our new creation.

And as he point out, sin is in us, in our members, but it's not us!

But I don’t want to wander too far off our subject. Let me just mention one other scripture that indicates clearly that we are a New Creation:

Gal. 2, starting at verse 19, "For I through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God."

How'd that happen, Paul?

"I have been crucified with Christ. It's 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."

You see, we've been crucified with Christ. We're new creations now.

So what’s the harm of just flippantly saying “We are still sinners just like that unsaved guy over there”, and attempting to be humble by saying that? What’s the harm, if it makes me humble?

1. It’s never humble to deny the work of God in the new creation, in the New Covenant.

It’s never humble to deny what God has said and done.

The mantra you will hear goes like this, “A high view of God, and a low view of man.” Well, that's not scriptural, that's not rightly dividing the Word of God. Of course we should have a high view of God, but to have a low view of man is to deny what God has done. We give a high view of God partly because of the wonderful thing He has done in the new creation.

2. It makes sin seem natural to the believer.

We don’t see it as a foreign entity and we don’t see our sins as going against our nature, and so we neglect the path of walking by the spirit.

If we don’t see ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God, how can we reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God? (Rom 6:11)

3. It robs us of the joy we receive when we realize the amazing thing that God has done for us and in us.

When we realize that we’re not just forgiven, as wonderful as that is, and that we are also made new, we will marvel even more at this marvelous Christ who redeemed us.

And we have a taste of the joy that is to come when even the sin which dwells in our members is done away with, and we can be not only a New Creation in our spirits, but in our bodies as well.

So, don't deny the new creation. Embrace it and praise the Lord for what He has done.

Denying The New Creation

This week's message on Grace Walk Radio:

Denying The New Creation

Grace For Life radio archives are here.

Memories Of Our Silver Anniversary

June 2, 2009

Ukrainians Think America Is Crazy To Go Socialist Route

I have a friend (who was my Pastor way back in the late '70's) named John Frye.

He mentors young Pastors in Ukraine (formerly ruled by the Soviet Union).

He has some very interesting things to say about his Ukrainian friends' view of what's currently happening in America:

http://www.jesustheradicalpastor.com/in-ukraine

Please read.

THe Subtle Legalism Of Dominionism

This week's message on Grace Walk Radio:

The Subtle Legalism of Dominionism

Grace For Life radio archives are here.

Acceptable or Accepted?

This week's message on Grace Walk Radio:

Acceptable or Accepted

Grace For Life radio archives are here.

The Legalistic Tendencies of the Puritans (Part 2)

Part 2 - by Michele Rayburn
(Part 1 is here)

It seems as though Thomas Watson had an unhealthy preoccupation with sin, causing him to heap unnecessary condemnation upon himself, and leaving little or no room for himself or other Christians to experience the grace of God toward their sinful condition.

It seems as though Watson was collapsing under the weight of his own heavy yoke.

I was quite thrown by the words Watson used to describe God’s behavior toward His children. "A godly man loves the menaces of the Word. He knows there is love in every threat."..."God...mercifully threatens us, so that He may scare us from sin"..."There is mercy in every threat"...???

Was Watson’s definition of “menace”, “threat”, and “scare” different from that of today? Is it to be interpreted differently, or did he really mean what he said?

Then I thought, “Where is the Scripture to support his belief that God menaces, threatens and scares His children from their sin?” The Scripture that Watson used to support how the believer “loves the threatening part of the Word” I found to actually be supportive of how God regards His enemies in Psalm 68:21, and regarding evil in 1 Kings 3:26 and Zechariah 5:1, and not supportive Scripture regarding the believer.

So, it became increasingly unclear to me as to who Watson was talking about...the Christian or the unbeliever. It seemed he was mixing the two. How God uses the Word on the unbeliever and how He uses the Word on His children is quite different.

How God speaks to the unbeliever, or brings the unbeliever to repentance through His Word is different than how he teaches His children to grow in that grace by which they have now been saved.

Watson says, for instance, ”The Word has a double work: to teach us and to judge us. Those who will not be taught by the Word shall be judged by the Word.” Was he talking to the believer here regarding being judged, or the unbeliever? Or both? I’m guessing he meant the unbeliever because it refers to “those who will not be taught by the Word”.

Watson says, "We do not want sin covered, but cured. We can open our breast to the bullet of the Word and say, 'Lord, smite this sin.'" I am not sure what kind of remedy for his daily sin he is looking for here. The sins of the people of Israel were “covered” in the Old Testament by the blood of bulls and lambs.

Under the New Covenant, our sins were not “cured” but the Lord did “smite this sin” on the cross with His own blood. “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all...” (Romans 6:10)

As Keith Green sang, “The work is already done.” Our sins are no longer temporarily “covered”, but now we have been permanently “redeemed” by the blood of The Lamb.

There is no “cure” for sin in our daily life but in Romans 6:11-14,17-18 it says, “...reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord...do not let sin reign in your mortal body...present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead...for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace...though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

And 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 says, “...our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

And finally, Galatians 5:16 says, “...Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

Watson says, “The Word is a spiritual mirror through which we may see our own hearts...When the Word came like a mirror, all my opinion of self-righteousness died.”

That is true, but the Scripture goes further. It says in 2 Cor. 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

When I read the Word I do not feel threatened, because I love and trust the Lord. I feel challenged to grow in His grace...but not threatened.

I do not need to be scared away from sin. I am already repulsed by it, because I have been given a new nature. I am a new creation in Christ who is alive to God and dead to sin.

- Michele
.
.
.

The Legalistic Tendencies of the Puritans (Part 1)

Part 1 - by Terry Rayburn
(Part 2 is here)

Since there are certainly a large number of Christians who read the Puritans, I wanted to make some comments about the Puritans in order to bring attention to a form of Legalism that they are prone to, largely because of their Covenant Theology.

No one likes to pick on such esteemed men as the Puritans, but Grace is too important to neglect the subtle spiritually-detrimental influence that the Law-based message of the Puritans can bring on an unsuspecting reader.

The following link is to a fairly representative message from Thomas Watson, entitled "A Godly Man Is A Lover of the Word":

http://www.puritansermons.com/watson/watson2.htm

I urge you to read it before reading comments by me in this post ("The Legalistic Tendencies of the Puritans, Part 1"), and by my wife Michele in the next post (Part 2).

Part 1, Comments by Terry:

Warning: Sin-centered Christians will not like the following comments. But sin-centered Christians love warnings, so I knew it would be an attention-getter :)

Watson, like other Puritans in general, thought he was being Christ-centered by being sin-centered.

This is a result of his not cutting straight (rightly dividing) the Word of Truth.

He didn't understand that the Old Covenant was made obsolete by the New (Heb. 8).

He didn't understand that sin shall no longer be master of us because we are no longer under Law but under grace (Rom. 6:14).

While he acknowledges grace in a vague way, his *focus* is on himself and his sin. This is unbiblical under the New Covenant.

Our *focus* is to be on Christ, and walking by His Spirit. Keeping our eyes on Him, fellowshiping with Him. Not examining our spiritual navel 24 hours a day to see if we're more sinless than we were yesterday, and wringing our hands and hankies when we're not.

"If we walk by the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). The love of Christ constrains us to walk this way, and the love of Christ is grown in our hearts and minds as we look on Him, not our fleshly wretchedness.

And the Puritans didn't get it, because they were reactionaries, reacting to a decadent immoral secular English church. And they reacted with a law/sin-focused life and study.

They rightfully gloried in the greatness of God, and this is the one value of reading the Puritans, but it's a big mistake to go to them for tips on Christian living.

They are the Emperor who has no clothes. Greatly admired, almost worshiped like they were Christ himself, they were Law/Sin nerds who never got out of Old Covenant thinking, and into the bright light of Gal. 5:1, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage."

And yet, I mean no disrespect to them as men. They were influenced by their peers and their times.

But we are in another time, friends. A time in which we have an opportunity to bring the light of the New Covenant to a generation of believers who still think that their performance is the point.

A time when we can shake off "Religion" and replace it with Christ Who is our Life (Col. 3:4), and leave "Religion" for the World.

A time in which we can build true "...fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 Jn. 1:3), because "...the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanses us from all sin." (1 Jn. 1:7)

We all want "true revival". But true revival is happening now in the hearts of those who understand the radical nature of Grace, who understand the freedom which is in Christ, and I don't mean Antinomianism.

The Performance-Based Believer can never have the revival he thirsts for, because his *focus* is himself, and he doesn't even know it.

He thinks he still has a wicked heart, and doesn't realize that he's been given a *new* heart, a heart of flesh to replace the heart of stone. (He has no idea what Paul means in Rom. 7:17, when he says, "...it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.")

His goal in a good sermon is to be "convicted", so that he can head back to his laboratory of Performance and maybe get it right this time.

"Tetelestai!" It is finished! He has done it! Life conquered Death! Our sins, beloved are *all* forgiven. We are free to take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on the Author and Finisher of our Faith.

And the Catch-22 is that then we will sin less.

And it's all of Grace.

That's the New Covenant.