...it would be selfish and prideful NOT to live a life positioned in the experience and desire, and regular consciousness of HIM lavishing HIS love (i.e ACTING it out) towards US (since WE are the objects of HIS love)!
Sure, the cross is the u...ltimate demonstration of His love for us, but like everything provided in the cross, receiving the fullness of it by faith alone should be an ecstatically exciting lifelong journey - Calvary didn't just leave us with a "party-pack" of goodness, it actually opened the door and provided free access into the engine-room of creation and life itself - ALL OF HIM IS MADE AVAILABLE!
Increasing in His Glory is impossible, if all we hearing is God saying "Go", and we shut ourselves off to His constant whisper of "Come".
When God said He resists the proud, I don't believe He was referring to those who refuse to take instruction (legalists thrive on instruction), but rather, He was referring to those who do not know how to receive unconditionally (all the while aware that there is no expectation apart from believing and trusting).
Understanding His grace towards mankind and His love for us, will help us let go of a dictator-mindset of God, and position us to increasingly consume the limitless goodness of all He is and has, whilst fully knowing we ourselves have earned none of it (yet being at peace with that truth) - this is true humility!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Cheating On Jesus!
Extracts from an article by Santo Calarco:
"Legalism does not necessarily mean “you need to keep the law to be saved!” That is not what the New Testament calls legalism.
In Gal 3:1-5 Paul defines legalism as human attempts to combine what Jesus did on the Cross for us with obedience to the law in order to gain or maintain relationship with God: “Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing … after beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort” Gal 3:2-3. New Testament legalism is not salvation by law, but Jesus plus obedience to the law in order to maintain relationship with God.
Until Christmas Eve 2008 I believed this very error. I reasoned that God wanted me to keep his law as a believer as a love response to what he did for me on the Cross. Although this was correct and I still maintain this position, it became polluted. I began to “fine tune” my approach to law and grace and taught that although the law played no part in my justification it did have a part in my sanctification. Then I realised that this was the very heresy that Paul confronted in both Galatians and Romans. In Galatians 3 Paul was talking to saved believers who introduced law into their relationship with God as a basis for on-going fellowship. Re-read Gal 3:1-5 slowly and carefully and you will see this.
In essence Paul says that victory over sin comes as we remember who we belong to. Is sin your master or Jesus? Is the law your spouse or Jesus? See Rom 6:1, 2, 14, 16, 18-19 cf. Rom 7:1-5. Paul discusses victory over sin and tells us that the key is in our perception of who we belong to. Identity determines behaviour!
The law does not have a part in my sanctification. Any attempt at trying to combine Jesus and the law was bigamy and adultery – cheating on Jesus! I was not going to produce holiness through any combination of Jesus plus the law. In fact trying to combine faith in Jesus plus obedience to the law to produce victory over sin would result in further sin!
If we try and keep the law to produce holiness whilst at the same time remain married to Jesus we will fail. We are in fact cheating on Jesus. Paul tried this himself. He speaks about his own Christian experience with Jesus and says that as he tried to stay married to Jesus and to the law in order to experience victory over sin he only failed more and more.
In our pursuit of holiness [as a fruit in our lives] we need to remember that we are only married to Jesus and that we have died to our former spouse (7:4). And the good news of sanctification is this: regardless of my attempt to keep the law of God, my relationship to God remains totally in tact because I am married to his Son; regardless of the result I am never condemned in his eyes! As I remember and practise this truth then holiness [as a fruit] will surface. As I remember that my partner is my Saviour and I spend more and more time with him – then his Spirit will transform me from the inside out and the RELATIONSHIP, and NOT the law, will change my behaviour – Grace is indeed amazing!
"Legalism does not necessarily mean “you need to keep the law to be saved!” That is not what the New Testament calls legalism.
In Gal 3:1-5 Paul defines legalism as human attempts to combine what Jesus did on the Cross for us with obedience to the law in order to gain or maintain relationship with God: “Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing … after beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort” Gal 3:2-3. New Testament legalism is not salvation by law, but Jesus plus obedience to the law in order to maintain relationship with God.
Until Christmas Eve 2008 I believed this very error. I reasoned that God wanted me to keep his law as a believer as a love response to what he did for me on the Cross. Although this was correct and I still maintain this position, it became polluted. I began to “fine tune” my approach to law and grace and taught that although the law played no part in my justification it did have a part in my sanctification. Then I realised that this was the very heresy that Paul confronted in both Galatians and Romans. In Galatians 3 Paul was talking to saved believers who introduced law into their relationship with God as a basis for on-going fellowship. Re-read Gal 3:1-5 slowly and carefully and you will see this.
In essence Paul says that victory over sin comes as we remember who we belong to. Is sin your master or Jesus? Is the law your spouse or Jesus? See Rom 6:1, 2, 14, 16, 18-19 cf. Rom 7:1-5. Paul discusses victory over sin and tells us that the key is in our perception of who we belong to. Identity determines behaviour!
The law does not have a part in my sanctification. Any attempt at trying to combine Jesus and the law was bigamy and adultery – cheating on Jesus! I was not going to produce holiness through any combination of Jesus plus the law. In fact trying to combine faith in Jesus plus obedience to the law to produce victory over sin would result in further sin!
If we try and keep the law to produce holiness whilst at the same time remain married to Jesus we will fail. We are in fact cheating on Jesus. Paul tried this himself. He speaks about his own Christian experience with Jesus and says that as he tried to stay married to Jesus and to the law in order to experience victory over sin he only failed more and more.
In our pursuit of holiness [as a fruit in our lives] we need to remember that we are only married to Jesus and that we have died to our former spouse (7:4). And the good news of sanctification is this: regardless of my attempt to keep the law of God, my relationship to God remains totally in tact because I am married to his Son; regardless of the result I am never condemned in his eyes! As I remember and practise this truth then holiness [as a fruit] will surface. As I remember that my partner is my Saviour and I spend more and more time with him – then his Spirit will transform me from the inside out and the RELATIONSHIP, and NOT the law, will change my behaviour – Grace is indeed amazing!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Good Works/Fruits!
Eph 2:8-10 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Paul is pretty adamant in stressing the point that we are freely positioned into Christ as a GIFT by His GRACE (through Faith and not works or any effort on our part).
He goes on to say that we are HIS WORKMANSHIP, created IN CHRIST JESUS.
For centuries many have taken it upon themselves to emphasise the "GOOD WORKS" part of this text, and while I completely agree with this fact and truth, I'm emphasising "HIS WORKMANSHIP" and "IN CHRIST JESUS" (I do this because while it is true that God does indeed have wonderful, powerful, liberating works in store for us to be PARTAKERS of, Paul's previous comment eludes to the fact that our works OUTSIDE OF Christ Jesus is actually a dead fruit since our lives are to be found IN Him) - Paul tells the Collosian church that our "lives are hidden in Christ", so it is IN CHRIST that we will discover our good works.
"Workmanship" (Poy-ay-mah in the Greek) refers to being a product or fabric of something/someone, so until we discover who we are as a joint fibre (having the DNA and fullness of Christ Himself engraved into our very fibre) our efforts will be in vain and strenuously laborious. Scripture is pretty clear here that we were not just created, but actually created IN Christ Jesus.
It is very easy to use scripture to control people who are searching for truth, and effectively this is what the church has been subject to at large for centuries, especially when the bible does refer to our participation and outward fruits as such. But what is God actually looking for?
Mar 12:41-43 "And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums.
And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box."
Jesus looks at out heart.
In Mark (as seen above), we see a whole lot of people doing a good work - i.e giving financially to the Lord. Of course to an onlooker judging this, the fruit of giving is clearly visible, yet Jesus points out that the right motive/heart makes the difference.
So how do we get this "Heart/motive"?
Friends, there are indeed many awesome works for us, but I struggle with the term "working FOR Jesus", when in fact "It's no longer we that live, but Christ that lives in us". Our works and fruitfulness are expected to naturally ooze from us, since they are embedded in the fibre of who we are (IN CHRIST JESUS) woohoo!!!
As we saturate ourselves with the truth of a completed work (the gospel of Jesus Christ), we begin to grow in revelation of this powerful reality (our freedom), and a willful response to what we begin to hear spoken in us by Holy Spirit (who is tasked to lead us into all truth), will allow Christ Himself to manifest (through powerful and awesome good "works") - it's not us who work FOR Him, it's Him who works THROUGH us.
Revelation of the gospel will empower us far more than sheer will-power could ever, and as we hear Holy Spirit, let's respond to what He is saying (I simply encourage you).
So let's Press into the finished works of Christ (The Gospel) - soak in it, be saturated with it and drink it up...His pure, undiluted love for you!
Eph 2:10 cannot be read as an instruction to go work, but rather a calling to find our lives which are IN CHRIST (which naturally engraved within it's DNA are the works prepared beforehand).
Be blessed and encouraged!
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Paul is pretty adamant in stressing the point that we are freely positioned into Christ as a GIFT by His GRACE (through Faith and not works or any effort on our part).
He goes on to say that we are HIS WORKMANSHIP, created IN CHRIST JESUS.
For centuries many have taken it upon themselves to emphasise the "GOOD WORKS" part of this text, and while I completely agree with this fact and truth, I'm emphasising "HIS WORKMANSHIP" and "IN CHRIST JESUS" (I do this because while it is true that God does indeed have wonderful, powerful, liberating works in store for us to be PARTAKERS of, Paul's previous comment eludes to the fact that our works OUTSIDE OF Christ Jesus is actually a dead fruit since our lives are to be found IN Him) - Paul tells the Collosian church that our "lives are hidden in Christ", so it is IN CHRIST that we will discover our good works.
"Workmanship" (Poy-ay-mah in the Greek) refers to being a product or fabric of something/someone, so until we discover who we are as a joint fibre (having the DNA and fullness of Christ Himself engraved into our very fibre) our efforts will be in vain and strenuously laborious. Scripture is pretty clear here that we were not just created, but actually created IN Christ Jesus.
It is very easy to use scripture to control people who are searching for truth, and effectively this is what the church has been subject to at large for centuries, especially when the bible does refer to our participation and outward fruits as such. But what is God actually looking for?
Mar 12:41-43 "And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums.
And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box."
Jesus looks at out heart.
In Mark (as seen above), we see a whole lot of people doing a good work - i.e giving financially to the Lord. Of course to an onlooker judging this, the fruit of giving is clearly visible, yet Jesus points out that the right motive/heart makes the difference.
So how do we get this "Heart/motive"?
Friends, there are indeed many awesome works for us, but I struggle with the term "working FOR Jesus", when in fact "It's no longer we that live, but Christ that lives in us". Our works and fruitfulness are expected to naturally ooze from us, since they are embedded in the fibre of who we are (IN CHRIST JESUS) woohoo!!!
As we saturate ourselves with the truth of a completed work (the gospel of Jesus Christ), we begin to grow in revelation of this powerful reality (our freedom), and a willful response to what we begin to hear spoken in us by Holy Spirit (who is tasked to lead us into all truth), will allow Christ Himself to manifest (through powerful and awesome good "works") - it's not us who work FOR Him, it's Him who works THROUGH us.
Revelation of the gospel will empower us far more than sheer will-power could ever, and as we hear Holy Spirit, let's respond to what He is saying (I simply encourage you).
So let's Press into the finished works of Christ (The Gospel) - soak in it, be saturated with it and drink it up...His pure, undiluted love for you!
Eph 2:10 cannot be read as an instruction to go work, but rather a calling to find our lives which are IN CHRIST (which naturally engraved within it's DNA are the works prepared beforehand).
Be blessed and encouraged!
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