Bible-Man or Jesus-Man?

One of the most important verses in all of the Bible is John 5:39...

Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of me". The Pharisees and scribes were Bible scholars, but they missed the Messiah, Who was the Author.

I love the Bible. I love the Word of God. I believe it is all inspired (God-breathed) and "inerrant in the original", and that we should let it "dwell in us richly".

But having said that, here are four reasons why John 5:39 is such an important verse:

1. Relationship is more important than raw data. Dictionary definition of "Data": Factual information, especially information organized for analysis or used to reason or make decisions. Jesus is not data. He is our Shield, Defender, Advocate, Savior, Lord, Brother, Friend, and Beloved. A relationship to Him is even more important than info about Him.

2. A Guide is more important than a Guidebook. Don't think of the Bible as "The Owner's Manual", used for fixing up your life. See Jesus on every page, lovingly guiding as you walk this road of life arm in arm.

3. Life is more important than Lists. I love Bible lists as much as the next guy. The Kings of Judah, Wells of the Bible, Furniture of the Temple, etc. But Jesus said, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:10) We can't say, "He who reads the Bible every day, has life". But we can say, "He who has the Son, has life". (1 John 5:12)

4. Spiritual understanding is more important than scholarship. The "scholars" of the Jesus Seminar, or some Time Magazine article on who Jesus really was, are often blind. They are brilliant scholars, but "The natural [unregenerate, unsaved] man cannot understand spiritual things, for they are foolishness to him. He cannot understand them for they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

If we miss Jesus, then searching the Scripture is worse than worthless. It's "always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the Truth" (2 Timothy 3:7). But if we search the Scriptures for Him, then we will know Him Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

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Was Pope John Paul II A Great Spiritual Leader?

I liked Pope John Paul II. He was kindly, charming, hard-working; a genius who spoke many languages, and he shared some of my own views on moral issues, such as the evil of killing our unborn, so I'm grateful for his influence in those areas.

And I wouldn't judge his final destination, heaven or hell, because it's God Who saves, by grace through faith, and none of us knows what may happen, even on a death bed.

But was John Paul a great spiritual leader? Particularly in this website about Grace, I must say "no", for three reasons:

1) He taught and supported a religion of "grace" plus works. The Bible says clearly that if works is added to grace for salvation, it's no longer grace ("But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace." --Romans 11:6)

Look at some excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (this is the "new" "modern" "open-minded" one...you should see the Traditional One!):

". . Baptism is the first and chief sacrament of forgiveness of sins because it unites us with Christ, who died for our sins and rose for our justification, so that 'we too might walk in newness of life,'"(Catechism of the Catholic Church, par. 977). [note this first of seven sacraments obtains the forgiveness of sins]

"In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere 'to the end' and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ," (CCC, par. 1821). [note "as God's eternal reward for the good works"]

"Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification." (CCC, par. 2010) [note we not only merit for ourselves, but for others]

And since the Catholic Church obviously teaches that salvation includes man's works, then it follows that the failure of man's works can destroy that salvation and damn him again, after he's been "justified". The solution: more works! Read the following:

"Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as 'the second plank (of salvation) after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace." (CCC, par. 1446).

Acts of penance may be such things as prayer, saying the Rosary, reading the scripture, saying a number of "Our Father's" or "Hail Mary's", doing good works, fasting, etc.

Hold on, I gotta breathe in some fresh air of the Word of God, here:

"You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:1-3)

2) John Paul also affirmed the Council of Trent, even traveling to Trento, Italy for the 450th Anniversary of the Council, and giving his approval. Among many other unbiblical teachings, the Council of Trent curses with damnation all of us who teach salvation "by grace through faith, not of works". Excerpts can be viewed at http://www.carm.org/catholic/trent.htm .

3) Like many false teachers, John Paul was deceptive in his public speeches, opening the gates of heaven to almost anyone from Protestants to Buddhists, Hindus, etc., ignoring the words of Jesus, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Whether by deliberate deception, or personal confusion, John Paul spoke out of both sides of his mouth when it came to whom are children of God. At best his sloppiness has caused masses (no pun intended) of people to miss the pure beautiful gospel of faith alone, by grace alone, in Jesus Christ alone. At worst, he deliberately said whatever itching ears wanted to hear, in order to win the crowds.

Either way, he could not qualify as a great spiritual leader.

Let me say, I have a particular love for Roman Catholics. I was once a member of the Roman Catholic Church myself, and my wife Michele was raised Roman Catholic. Many of our family members are of that faith.

If you are a Roman Catholic, or anyone who thinks that heaven can be earned by Sacraments or good works of any kind, I have terrific news for you. Jesus died on the cross for sins. He took the penalty for the sins of His people. He was buried and rose again from the grave, to give eternal life to all who will believe on Him and trust that His work on the cross was enough...who will believe that He meant it when He said on the cross, "It is finished." Whoever will may come to Him. God calls all men everywhere to repent, to change their minds. No works can earn it. It's a free gift of God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

Atonement or Redemption?

A little important theology today. I've noticed from time to time that there is a little confusion about the idea of atonement. In the Old Testament, "atonement" refers to the covering of sins by, for example, an animal sacrifice. Because of this, we tend to think of our sins under the New Covenant as being "covered". Nothing could be further from the truth.

Merely "covering" a sin meant that the sin was not taken away, that it was almost literally "swept under the rug" to be dealt with in the future. This meant two things:

1. The sin still had to be dealt with.

Hebrews 10:4 says, "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." So it was only "covered" for a time. Only when the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ was enacted by the Cross, were these "covered" sins of the Old Testament saints finally dealt with, retroactively, being "taken away" by their Messiah, Who took those sins upon Himself, exchanging it for His righteousness.

2. The sacrificial "covering" had to be repeated over and over (literally ad nauseum, if you can imagine rivers of blood from the sacrifices).

Only the past sins of Old Testament saints were "covered" by blood sacrifices. So there was no end to the rivers of blood. Over and over and over, as new sins were committed, the sacrifices had to be repeated.

But praise God, when the final Sacrifice was made by the Lamb of God on the cross, all the sins (past, present and future) of all the Saints of all time were "taken away", replaced by the righteousness of God, Who will "remember their sins no more", Hebrews 8:12.

In Theology this is called the "Substitutionary Atonement", and there's where the confusion comes in. "Atonement" here is, I believe, a bad choice of word, since it's not a "covering" as in the Old Testament. Thank God, He has taken away our sins "once for all" (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 10:10; 1Peter 3:18)!

That means your sins are forgiven. All of them. Past, present, and future, if you are a born-again child of God. No need for condemnation or questioning God's love for you, or wondering if your sins will ever be "uncovered". They can't be, because they never were "covered", they were taken away! Redemption, not atonement.

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Our New Internet Radio Program

A blessed opportunity has come our way. Starting today, I will be doing a weekly 15-minute Internet radio program called "Grace For Life". It will broadcast once a week on Grace Walk Radio (www.gracewalk.org).

[Note: Gracewalk Radio has since been discontinued by Gracewalk Ministries, but archives to my broadcasts are still available at http://www.graceforlife.com/radio.html]

As of this writing, it will be on Tuesdays, but I found out that one of the unique things about Internet radio is that it's almost impossible to set a fixed time of day for a pre-recorded program. So we are archiving the programs on this Grace For Life web site at www.graceforlife.com/radio.html "for your listening convenience" :)

Take a listen, and come on back.

We appreciate your prayers for the new radio program, and for this web site. Thanks!

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

What Is A Christ-Centered Life?

Here's a quote from John Reisinger's fine series on Ecclesiastes, from www.soundofgrace.com :

"One of the tragic mistakes that people commit is to think that alcohol, drugs, and pornography have produced the wicked society in which we currently live. It is actually the other way around. Our society has produced those things as essential means to kill the pain of an empty and futile life. If our culture, believing as it does, did not have drugs, booze and unbridled sex as distractions, it would finally find suicide the only acceptable option."

Wow. Seeing Solomon try to find the right "thing" to center his life around can't help but make a Christian thirsty to have a Christ-centered life. But what does that mean?

As important as it is to "preach Christ", there is more to being Christ-centered.

No matter how much we learn about Christ from His Word;
no matter how many verses we memorize;
no matter how diligently we "study to show ourselves approved, workmen who don't need to be ashamed, cutting straight the Word";
no matter how much we "preach Christ and Him crucified";
no matter how heartily we "serve" Him...
we will still have missed it...if we don't

--spend time with Jesus,
--commune with Him,
--walk with Him,
--talk with Him,
--bask in His presence,
--gaze on Him
--enjoy Him,
--accept His acceptance of us,
--love Him as our Beloved, and
--believe the incredible truth that we are His Beloved.

Then we are along the road to being Christ-centered.

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Man, Movement, or Monument?

Here's a terrific slice of an article from an online friend, Joe Terrell. In addition to being Pastor of Grace Community Church, Rock Valley, Iowa, Joe is a blessed hymn writer. Here's the article slice:

"Preaching Christ will deliver us from becoming a mere religious movement. Someone once said that all organizations go through three stages: "The Man (who founded it), the Movement (an organization that carries on under the momentum the man generated), and the Monument (a dead organization which may bear the name of the founder but has little or no connection to him or his vision.)

"The only thing that preserves the church from such a fate is that 'the Man,' (in this case, the Man, Christ Jesus) is continually revealing Himself from generation to generation. This revelation is accomplished through the preaching of Christ. When Christ is preached, the Spirit of God takes those things of Christ, shows them to His elect and a new generation is joined to Christ.

"When Christ is preached, we are never dependant on the momentum of one generation to carry the work of the gospel into the next generation. When Christ is preached, every generation is a brand new work, full of the vitality and energy of the Man who founds it, the Lord Jesus Christ." -- by Joe Terrell, www.rvgrace.com

Thought you'd enjoy that.

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Saints In The Hands Of An Angry God?

Question: When is God angry with His children, born-again saints of God?

The answer: Never.

Now I know you've been taught that He's angry, directly or by implication. Admit it. You may even think when you are sinful or disobedient to the Word of God that God sees you as "wicked", and everyone knows "God is angry with the wicked every day", right?

Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon, "Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God" in the 1700's, and the picture has been applied to believers and has stuck...

...with those who don't understand the difference between a Sinner and a Saint. Or who don't understand the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

Oh, how the devil loves confusion. He loves confusion between the biblical concept of a "saint" as anyone who is a born-again child of God, and the Roman Catholic nonsense that a "saint" is someone who meets some elaborate criteria of the Mother Church, and is "voted in". The devil loves confusion between the Old Covenant (which Hebrews 8 says failed in bringing righteousness because of man's inability to keep the Law) and the New Covenant, in which God puts His laws in our hearts, fulfills those laws in Christ on the cross, declares us righteous, and forgives us of all our sins, past, present and future.

Yes, the devil loves confusion.

So it's no surprise (though a crying shame), that children of God think that God is angry at them when they fall short and sin. And otherwise fine Christians who mean well perpetuate this ridiculous notion, without one shred of support from the New Covenant scriptures!

And so Christians often run away from this angry God, instead of toward Him, when they fail. They won't look Him in the face, because they think it's a face of anger. What a tragedy.

This is not the place for an extended exegesis ("drawing out") of the subject in the scriptures. But here's a challenge for those who doubt what I'm saying: Search the epistles of the New Testament for any teaching that God is ever angry with His children.

By the way, don't think the passages on God's chastisement are regarding some kind of punishment out of anger. Study them closely, and you will see they involve loving gentle correction, from a loving Father, who just wants his kids to be in close fellowship with Him. No condemnation, no unforgiveness, no bitterness, no anger.

Like a daddy teaching his 1-year-old to walk, while the kid keeps wobbling, staggering, and falling...sometimes painfully in the wrong direction, but often into a laughing Daddy's arms for a big hug.

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What Is Our Highest Motive?

Measuring up?

I was listening to some instruction on the difference between secular psychology's "Behavior Modification" and Biblical change of behavior. It was pointed out that the important difference is motive, and I couldn't agree more. However, a chart was drawn on a white board showing two motives. Behavior Mod's motive was portrayed as "pleasing self". The motive for biblical change was shown as "glorifying God".

So far, so good. But it occurs to me that there are at least two other motives that should be mentioned. One is bad, one is good.

First the bad. There is a common motive among believers that I often call performance-based Christianity. It says, "I will obey (even though I don't really want to) because otherwise God will withhold His love and favor. I will earn God's love and favor by this behavior." And if I do pretty well, I have a right to be proud. And if I don't "measure up", I'm discouraged. But I'm always measuring myself by "the yardstick" of performance.

A dreadful way to live, and all too common. The solution? BAMM! An explosion of again understanding the love of God for His children. Of understanding that my performance doesn't affect His love for me. He loves me when I obey, and He loves me when I don't. Because I'm His Beloved.

Well, then why bother obeying at all? If I'm "in good" with God either way, why torture myself with obedience at all?

Good question. And that leads to the highest motive of all. The motive of LIFE! It's what occurs when Galatians 2:20 is in operation. "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives through me." When Christ is living His life through me, I can't help but follow Him, love Him, obey Him, glorify Him, experience Him, rejoice in Him, die for Him if need be.

That's why we want the fullness of His Spirit, and we want to walk according to the Spirit. That's why we want to spend time with Him, gaze on Him, meditate on Him and His Word, know Him better and better, and have a heart of surrender toward Him. That's when His Life is manifested in us. That's when He lives His life through me.

That's the motive of Life, the highest motive of all.

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50/20 Vision

Jacob Sees Joseph Again

Just a reminder of what Joseph said to his brothers, after their awful treatment of him, selling him into slavery, and telling his father Jacob that he was dead. Years later, as the virtual ruler of Egypt, and after saving his family (the budding Israel) from starvation, he said, "...you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good..." (Genesis 50:20)

Have you come to see that yet, in your own life?

It's just another glittering facet of the Brilliant Diamond that also says, "God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love Him, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

But you might think the Romans passage implies that evil just "happens", and God cleans up the mess. No, grasshopper. He meant it for good. The evil is part of His plan, even as He hates the evil itself. His thoughts are greater than our thoughts, and His ways are higher than our ways, and he has decreed the end from the beginning.

Praise Him even when evil comes. Count it all joy. He knows what He is doing.

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Manual or Immanuel?

There are few words that I find sweeter than "Immanuel". It means "God with us", and refers to the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:23). And not only is He with us, He is in us. "Christ in you, the hope of glory", the Bible says (Colossians 1:27). What is so beautiful about that? Simply that He is so attainable. We can fellowship with Him at will. And that fellowship is the partaking of the Manna that our spirits so hunger for, when we are in touch with even our own spirit.

Fellowshiping with Jesus is the most precious purpose for the Bible. Jesus said to the Pharisee crowd, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify of Me." (John 5:39)

The Bible is not a Manual. It's not primarily a book of rules, a how-to book, an "instruction manual" for living. It is the written Word of the living Word, Jesus Christ. And those of us who love Him will profit most if we go to the Word to meet Him, Immanuel, God with us.

"Come to the Word for one purpose, and that is to meet the Lord. Not to get your mind crammed full of things about the sacred Word, but come to it to meet the Lord. Make it a medium, not of Biblical scholarship, but of fellowship with Christ. Behold the Lord." -- Norman Douty