Galatians 5:16-23 - We walk in the Spirit; it is not a work. The works of the flesh are all of these evil things… The flesh cannot work for God, it can only sin. Verse 17 tells us that the flesh and Spirit war against each other. It is the Spirit that fights the flesh. The Spirit must be the one who gains victory over the flesh, not our old man.
The fruit of the Spirit is singular. Christ is made these things in us. God has only given one gift to meet all our needs. God has only one answer to every need: Christ Jesus. Do you pray for wisdom? I Cor 1:30 Christ is our wisdom. Do you pray for love or peace or meekness? God will not give us meekness apart from Christ. It is Christ who is the answer to your need, not just one of His character qualities.
Anything you want to know about God, you must learn it through Jesus Christ. Do you want to know about God’s view of sin? Look to Jesus Christ on the cross. You want to know about God’s love? Look at Jesus Christ and the price he paid for all of us when we didn’t love him. You want to know about God’s wrath? Look to Christ. You want to see God’s mercy? Look to Christ. You want to see God’s power? Look to the resurrection of our Lord.
He is the fruit of the Spirit. Do you think you need more love? Do you think you need more Joy? More longsuffering? More gentleness? No, you need more of Christ. Jesus Christ is the fruit of the Spirit. He is what you need. All nine qualities come together with the Savior. The Holy Spirit doesn’t give us anything new. He only points us to our Lord and to what He has said and done already.
What is fruit? What is the purpose of fruit? To taste good? Fruit is good to eat, but it also contains a seed. The seed has life in it. Fruit gives more life, abundantly more. The fruit of the Spirit is the life of Christ, and that life must come out through us. That life will produce abundantly more of itself.
We are crucified in Him - Rom 6:6, we are quickened in Him - Eph 2:5-6, and we are complete in Him - Col 2:10
I Cor 1:30 - we are IN Christ Jesus
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Easy-Believism vs. Lordship Salvation: Who’s Preaching Jesus?
It seems like everyone loves to label everyone else. People have told me to stay away from certain believers because they preach an “easy-believe”, false Gospel. They are said to be sending people to hell with false assurance of salvation. This is also known as “easy-prayerism”. On the other hand, the “easy believers” tell me that those doing the name-calling are the ones preaching the false Gospel of Lordship salvation. This false Gospel is said to require people to name every sin they’ve ever committed and turn from each one or else God will not accept them. Basically, God won’t accept you until you change your life.
After talking to many believers on “both sides”, and comparing their teaching to the Bible, I’ve come to some conclusions. Here it is… both extremes are guilty of the same thing – preaching a humanistic salvation of works.
Those on the extreme “easy believe” side of the spectrum will meet a person, ask them if they want to be saved, and then lead them in a prayer. Basically it is just a choice to go to heaven. They leave out the Spirit of God in the work of regeneration. They make salvation no more than a prayer - magic words of asking Jesus into your heart. The ‘client’ might not even understand what is going on. They don’t want to go to hell so they repeat a canned prayer. The soul-winner gives them a handshake and moves on, never to see that person again. But John 16 says that Holy Spirit evangelism will convince of sin, righteousness and judgment. Good preaching will drive someone to Jesus Christ as their only hope. I’m glad to say that I know people who are labeled “easy-believers”, yet they are in fact preaching a true Gospel.
On the other hand, many who preach against “easy-believism” are guilty of preaching a works Gospel. They preach a hyper-repentance-ism that causes a person to look to themselves and fall into despair. Their message does not point someone to the Lord Jesus Christ, but to the person’s ability to repent and believe. A person can become so focused on having the right ingredients of repentance and faith that they take their eyes off of the Savior. A person in this condition of despair may remain there for days, months, or years, or maybe for their entire life. They live in misery, knowing that they are sinful and separated from God, but unable to repent and believe enough to be accepted of God. Yet others may respond to this preaching by “getting saved” (notice this lingo doesn’t say anything about Jesus Christ). Since their salvation was a result of their focus on themselves (their correctly measured amounts of repentance and faith), they try to live the Christian life by their own abilities. This either results in pride of their Christianity or a realization of failure of their own power to live for God. Since their salvation was based on their own works, they reject their salvation experience and ‘try again’. Anyway, advocates of this teaching are usually known as preachers of Lordship salvation. Again, I can say that I know people with this label who are not to this extreme and are actually preaching a true Gospel.
Jesus Christ is the message of the Gospel. When we lose sight of this, we fall into errors like ‘easy-believism’ and ‘impossible-believism’. Preach sin, righteousness, and judgment and the Holy Spirit will drive men and women to the cross as their only hope of salvation.
After talking to many believers on “both sides”, and comparing their teaching to the Bible, I’ve come to some conclusions. Here it is… both extremes are guilty of the same thing – preaching a humanistic salvation of works.
Those on the extreme “easy believe” side of the spectrum will meet a person, ask them if they want to be saved, and then lead them in a prayer. Basically it is just a choice to go to heaven. They leave out the Spirit of God in the work of regeneration. They make salvation no more than a prayer - magic words of asking Jesus into your heart. The ‘client’ might not even understand what is going on. They don’t want to go to hell so they repeat a canned prayer. The soul-winner gives them a handshake and moves on, never to see that person again. But John 16 says that Holy Spirit evangelism will convince of sin, righteousness and judgment. Good preaching will drive someone to Jesus Christ as their only hope. I’m glad to say that I know people who are labeled “easy-believers”, yet they are in fact preaching a true Gospel.
On the other hand, many who preach against “easy-believism” are guilty of preaching a works Gospel. They preach a hyper-repentance-ism that causes a person to look to themselves and fall into despair. Their message does not point someone to the Lord Jesus Christ, but to the person’s ability to repent and believe. A person can become so focused on having the right ingredients of repentance and faith that they take their eyes off of the Savior. A person in this condition of despair may remain there for days, months, or years, or maybe for their entire life. They live in misery, knowing that they are sinful and separated from God, but unable to repent and believe enough to be accepted of God. Yet others may respond to this preaching by “getting saved” (notice this lingo doesn’t say anything about Jesus Christ). Since their salvation was a result of their focus on themselves (their correctly measured amounts of repentance and faith), they try to live the Christian life by their own abilities. This either results in pride of their Christianity or a realization of failure of their own power to live for God. Since their salvation was based on their own works, they reject their salvation experience and ‘try again’. Anyway, advocates of this teaching are usually known as preachers of Lordship salvation. Again, I can say that I know people with this label who are not to this extreme and are actually preaching a true Gospel.
Jesus Christ is the message of the Gospel. When we lose sight of this, we fall into errors like ‘easy-believism’ and ‘impossible-believism’. Preach sin, righteousness, and judgment and the Holy Spirit will drive men and women to the cross as their only hope of salvation.
Jesus Only, Jesus Everything: Me-ward... My Testimony
It took me two years, from first realizing that I was separated from God, until the time I finally understood the Gospel message (The Gospel, I’ve come to see, is Jesus Himself). I searched for what I could do to get God to forgive my sins. I tried to feel sorry for my mistakes and sins. I tried to get upset enough so that God would forgive me. I went to church, I prayed, I read the Bible. But it just all didn’t seem good enough. The leaders of the church that I was attending told me to repent of my sins and believe in Jesus Christ. So I tried to repent. Repent means “to turn”, so I tried to turn from my sins. They said that if you repent and believe in Jesus then you will be saved. So I spent my time trying to get those two ingredients – repentance and faith. But no matter what I did I just didn’t feel like I had enough of those two ingredients.
That last paragraph might sound confusing and just plain weird, but here comes the good news. After two years of this nonsense, I came to a point of desperation. On Friday morning, August 21, 1998 I was kneeling by the bottom bunk bed, frustrated, confused, and just plain tired out. I came to a point of saying something like “I can’t do it! I can’t believe! I can’t repent! I can’t do it!” then I finally saw it. God had me where He wanted me. He opened my eyes. Of course I couldn’t do it! Jesus did it all; there’s nothing left to do. His payment on the cross took care of everything. There’s nothing good in me; He is the only one that is good. At that point I saw Jesus only, and He was everything for me. I don’t remember what I said after that, besides “Thank you!”. I accepted His free gift, and the gift was Himself. He died for me on the cross and now offers me His life. I finally realized that I was looking for the wrong thing this whole time. I was looking to “get saved” and I ended up “getting Christ.” Getting ‘saved’ came along with Him, but that wasn’t the main focus.
You see - Jesus Only, Jesus Everything. I had a consciousness of this. I John 5:11-12 – “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”. Life is Jesus Christ’s life in us.
This is where we mess up the gospel. Rom. 6:23 “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. What does the verse say? The focus is on Jesus Christ, He is the gift of God. It’s not a changed life but an exchanged life. The new birth is not a change of the natural life, but an engrafting of the one and only true life, Jesus Christ. There is only one fruitful life in the world, and that life is Jesus Christ. The new birth is receiving that life that I did not have before.
God does all the work so that He can have all the glory. Is it any different after salvation? Should not this example and testimony be the life of a Christian AFTER salvation also?
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Jesus Only, Jesus Everything: Me-ward – The Problem of Sin (Romans 5:12, 18-21)
So far Paul has been talking about ‘sins’, but now he switches his focus to ‘sin’. There is a great difference between the two words. Sins are what we do, but sin is what we are. We inherited a sin nature, which produces sins. The blood of Christ has paid the penalty for our sins, but our teaching must not stop there. We are a sin factory. The factory must be dealt with, and we will see in chapter 6 that this is by the cross.
I have a two year old son. He resembles me, he inherited my nature. I had a dog when I was younger. My dog did not inherit my nature. It doesn’t matter if he’s a good dog or a bad dog, or if he tries to act like me. He will never be called Mr. Spangenberg. My son will, because I have given to him my nature; his life has come from my life. My dog died several years ago without ever attaining Mr. Spang status. But my son will never lose his Mr. Spang status.
How does one get their hereditary nature? They must be born into it. So then how does one lose their hereditary nature? They must die. I was born a sinner. My human body is a sinner’s body, a sinning body. Since I came in by birth I must go out by death. To pray “God cleanse my heart” is a major error. Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart is desperately wicked.
We wonder why we can’t overcome our problems. We make a decision for Christ, and two weeks later we fall back into the sin. We try and try harder. We determine and determine more. We use our will to serve God, and then we only fall deep into failure. In chapter 5 Paul tells us that Jesus is the answer to this problem, the only answer; but we have to go to chapter 6 to see HOW He is the answer.
I have a two year old son. He resembles me, he inherited my nature. I had a dog when I was younger. My dog did not inherit my nature. It doesn’t matter if he’s a good dog or a bad dog, or if he tries to act like me. He will never be called Mr. Spangenberg. My son will, because I have given to him my nature; his life has come from my life. My dog died several years ago without ever attaining Mr. Spang status. But my son will never lose his Mr. Spang status.
How does one get their hereditary nature? They must be born into it. So then how does one lose their hereditary nature? They must die. I was born a sinner. My human body is a sinner’s body, a sinning body. Since I came in by birth I must go out by death. To pray “God cleanse my heart” is a major error. Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart is desperately wicked.
We wonder why we can’t overcome our problems. We make a decision for Christ, and two weeks later we fall back into the sin. We try and try harder. We determine and determine more. We use our will to serve God, and then we only fall deep into failure. In chapter 5 Paul tells us that Jesus is the answer to this problem, the only answer; but we have to go to chapter 6 to see HOW He is the answer.
Monday, June 8, 2009
To the first commenter on my first blog entry :-)
Hold your horses buddy :-) I've commented on Romans 5:1-11. You're jumping all over the book, especially to chapter 12 and further. In the book of Romans Paul lays out an excellent progression of a life starting from no knowledge of God, through salvation and eventually to the Christian life and church life. I’ll get into more of this in further blog entries. Here is what I see as a shortened outline of the book:
Chapter 1 - talks about the existence of God; we have no excuse to disregard Him.
Chapter 2 – we are all guilty before God. The Jew and the Gentile are both guilty of breaking God’s law.
Chapter 3 – “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom. 3:28)
Chapter 4 – An example of faith – Abraham
Chapter 5 – Christ’s blood takes care of our sins, gives us a relationship with the Father, and takes care of Satan’s claim on us.
Chapter 6 – We have died with Christ, and now He lives through us. The depth of the power of the cross.
Chapter 7 – An example of trying to live the Christian life in your own power.
Chapter 8 – Living in the Spirit
Chapters 9-11 – this is like a parenthesis in the book, where Paul switches focus to talk about Israel.
Chapter 12 and following talk about Christian living and church life. Paul switches from talking about the individual to “brethren” in 12:1.
Chapters 6-8 are sometimes neglected in preaching and teaching. Preaching is often for unbelievers to be saved (Chapters 1 – 5), and then jump to Christian living and church life (Chapters 12 and following). We cannot skip over chapters 6-8. Sadly, the reason these chapters are skipped is often because the preacher doesn’t understand them. But skipping these chapters produces carnal saints.
Chapter 1 - talks about the existence of God; we have no excuse to disregard Him.
Chapter 2 – we are all guilty before God. The Jew and the Gentile are both guilty of breaking God’s law.
Chapter 3 – “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom. 3:28)
Chapter 4 – An example of faith – Abraham
Chapter 5 – Christ’s blood takes care of our sins, gives us a relationship with the Father, and takes care of Satan’s claim on us.
Chapter 6 – We have died with Christ, and now He lives through us. The depth of the power of the cross.
Chapter 7 – An example of trying to live the Christian life in your own power.
Chapter 8 – Living in the Spirit
Chapters 9-11 – this is like a parenthesis in the book, where Paul switches focus to talk about Israel.
Chapter 12 and following talk about Christian living and church life. Paul switches from talking about the individual to “brethren” in 12:1.
Chapters 6-8 are sometimes neglected in preaching and teaching. Preaching is often for unbelievers to be saved (Chapters 1 – 5), and then jump to Christian living and church life (Chapters 12 and following). We cannot skip over chapters 6-8. Sadly, the reason these chapters are skipped is often because the preacher doesn’t understand them. But skipping these chapters produces carnal saints.
Jesus Only, Jesus Everything: Satan-ward (Romans 5:1-11)
Satan has probably come to you and said, “you have sinned, and you keep on sinning. You are not capable of serving God.” How do you respond to this? We tend to look to ourselves to try to prove him wrong. We say “no, you are a liar. I am capable of serving God. I CAN overcome sin and live for Him.” So then we try to live better, but to no avail. We fall again and again. Satan comes and tells us again, “you cannot live for God, you keep sinning and God cannot use you.” We cannot prove him wrong. He is right, we are sinners, and we will keep sinning. He has accomplished his goal; he has tricked us into looking in the wrong direction… to ourselves. When we look to ourself we are rendered ineffective for God.
Revelation 12:10-11 says that Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He is the accuser, not only before God, but before us. He accuses us day and night. No one has overcome satan by looking to themselves to prove him wrong. This passage says that they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. Only the blood of the Lamb can overcome him. We have to understand the value of the blood. I John 1:7 says that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Jesus Christ is our only defense against the attacks of the wicked one. He is everything to us, and we can count on His blood’s power when the devil comes to attack us.
Revelation 12:10-11 says that Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He is the accuser, not only before God, but before us. He accuses us day and night. No one has overcome satan by looking to themselves to prove him wrong. This passage says that they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. Only the blood of the Lamb can overcome him. We have to understand the value of the blood. I John 1:7 says that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Jesus Christ is our only defense against the attacks of the wicked one. He is everything to us, and we can count on His blood’s power when the devil comes to attack us.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Jesus Only, Jesus Everything: God-ward (Romans 5:1-11)
We often think along these lines (subconsciously more often than not) - "Today I have been pretty good. I haven't had any road rage. I haven't hurt anyone. I haven't had any immoral thoughts. In fact, my Bible reading was better than normal. I really felt good about myself and pretty close to God. So now I have better access to God. I can pray and God will hear me, because I've pleased Him today." Or we might think along these lines - "Today I yelled at the kids. I also had several immoral thoughts this afternoon. In fact, I haven't even read the Bible. God won't hear my prayers, I won't even bother trying to pray. Maybe tomorrow will be better."
Can you relate?! I've caught myself living this way many times. We easily forget that we come to God on the basis of the finished work of the Lord Jesus, and never on the basis of our attainment. We have access to God through Jesus only, not through our "righteous living". Jesus is everything to us and for us in regards to our relationship with the Father. He ripped the veil of the Temple in half, giving us access to the Holy of Holies, and we still think that we have to earn his favor.
We must value the blood of Jesus the way the Father values it. If not, then we will fall into deep despair over our sin. Many new Christians have this experience: The Holy Spirit convicts them of sin and their separation from God. They turn to Christ as their only hope, and they experience the new birth. Then, without warning, the Holy Spirit starts to point out particular sins in their life. There is sin that they never saw before. The sin seems so overwhelming and horrible. Their conscience has been awakened by the Spirit of God. They fall into despair and depression. They begin to doubt whether they are saved. They think: How can I be saved when I am so sinful? This is where Satan wants them. They are in no state of usefulness to God. Colossians 1:20-21 says that we were once enemies in our minds by wicked works. But Jesus has reconciled us to God. If that Christian would see the value of the blood of Christ, they would thank God for the complete forgiveness. God is satisfied with the blood, and so they should be too. The price of their sin is fully paid.
Our relationship to God is through Jesus only. There is nothing we can do to make our relationship better. We are sons of God. Jesus is the firstborn of many brethren. His life is grafted into ours. He is everything to us!
Can you relate?! I've caught myself living this way many times. We easily forget that we come to God on the basis of the finished work of the Lord Jesus, and never on the basis of our attainment. We have access to God through Jesus only, not through our "righteous living". Jesus is everything to us and for us in regards to our relationship with the Father. He ripped the veil of the Temple in half, giving us access to the Holy of Holies, and we still think that we have to earn his favor.
We must value the blood of Jesus the way the Father values it. If not, then we will fall into deep despair over our sin. Many new Christians have this experience: The Holy Spirit convicts them of sin and their separation from God. They turn to Christ as their only hope, and they experience the new birth. Then, without warning, the Holy Spirit starts to point out particular sins in their life. There is sin that they never saw before. The sin seems so overwhelming and horrible. Their conscience has been awakened by the Spirit of God. They fall into despair and depression. They begin to doubt whether they are saved. They think: How can I be saved when I am so sinful? This is where Satan wants them. They are in no state of usefulness to God. Colossians 1:20-21 says that we were once enemies in our minds by wicked works. But Jesus has reconciled us to God. If that Christian would see the value of the blood of Christ, they would thank God for the complete forgiveness. God is satisfied with the blood, and so they should be too. The price of their sin is fully paid.
Our relationship to God is through Jesus only. There is nothing we can do to make our relationship better. We are sons of God. Jesus is the firstborn of many brethren. His life is grafted into ours. He is everything to us!
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