18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. – Isaiah 1:18 NASB 25 “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, […]
I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been doing a lot of stuff though – preaching and pastoring a church, working a “bivocational” full-time job, finishing up a new book, and just taking some time to do some reading and thinking off-line. So, I’m sorry to have been so absent here! Blessings to everyone who […]
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They […]
When I talk about grace (which is pretty much all the time), I sometimes get some helpful advice from people who want to clean up my message. Grace doesn’t just mean that God forgives us, ha ha ha. Grace means that God empowers us to actually be righteous. It is righteousness gasoline. They seem to […]
15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. 16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would […]
There is a transformation that happens to us right exactly when we believe. However, it is not the transformation we were looking for, having been immersed our whole lives under the threat of the law. The real change is a shift in trust away from self to God. If the change were a change in success at keeping the law instead of a change of trust, why would we need the new testament imperatives?
You either operate under threat of punishment or you operate under unbreakable one-way love. These are two different universes, two different kingdoms. Which do you believe is true?
If Jesus’ mercy was expressed for killing a fly or stealing a dollar, then His mercy would work only for such shallow easy sins. Justice and mercy would kiss no further. But His expression of mercy is that we should obey God all the way until it kills us, and love our enemies and forgive them from the heart while they are murdering us.
It is the persistent love of God which keeps beaming at us regardless of our performance or degree of transformational success which transforms us.
This is exactly how behavioral righteousness works under the gospel. People think the basis of the gospel is moral pressure because it is written that it many times results in righteous behavior. However, the basis of the gospel has nothing to do with this.