The Ten Commandments and the New Covenant Believer...

Exodus 20


And God spoke all these words, saying,
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

"You shall have no other gods before me.

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

"You shall not murder.

"You shall not commit adultery.

"You shall not steal.

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

"You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s."

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die." Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin." The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

2 Corinthians 3

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Now for those who claim that the Holy Spirit was given to help us obey the Law, to empower us to keep the Old Covenant, they must be crazy. It is so clear that the ministry of the Spirit is something separate and completely different from the Old Covenant, perhaps that's why God chose to call this the NEW Covenant. It is a whole new system, built on different and better promises, in that these promises depend on Christ's work and not on our obedience to any commands or standards. It is such an all-encompassing and vastly superior system that the old crumbles away to nothing as the temporary prop it was meant to be. You see, Jesus disarmed evil, that is, Satan and his principalities, by cancelling the written code that stood opposed to us. When our record of debt was cancelled on the cross, God no longer opposed us because our sin was completely removed.

If you try to incorporate any part of the old system, the law, that is the knowledge of good (morality), you will be blind to the truth of who Jesus really is and what he has done. You will nullify faith, because the law is not of faith. The Law KILLS faith,and faith, my friend, is your only hope. No amount of earnestness or zeal or striving will help you draw any nearer to our God who is perfect and holy, not able to bear any amount of sin in his presence. And no amount of fear or grovelling on your part will change that, only simple trust in the loving kindness of Jesus whose sacrifice has been examined and accepted by the Father. So if you will not accept the sacrifice God has called perfect, there is no hope for you. If you truly accept the sacrifice, you will not feel the need to add anything AT ALL to it yourself. You will not feel compelled to pay him back by your love or gratitude, by your songs of worship, by making hard choices, by tithing or going to church, by being in relationships with people you don't like, to clean your house or submit to your husband or love your wife, etc,etc,etc...

So what will be your motivation to live righteously and shun sin? You won't need motivation to behave yourself anymore! Because you will be free.

God of Second Chance or Chances???

It may be a sign that I'm a little overwhelmed with being a mother that I find Veggie Tales so thought-provoking, or maybe it's just that I'm pretty careful to point out legalism to my kids in order to teach them the truth about grace...anyway, in the past I've thought quite a bit about the idea that comes out in Jonah, the Veggie Tales movie. I'm certainly not bashing Veggie Tales haha, but of course there is some moralizing that they do which is pretty Old Covenant sometimes. To be expected...Anyone who grew up learning Old Testament Bible stories in Sunday school will be familiar with that practice.




At first my line of reasoning was that God doesn't give us a second chance, but infinite 'chances', then I realized that was totally a legalistic mindset. There are only 2 chances in this life, the first is Adam , the second is Jesus. With a law mindset we are constantly begging God for just one more chance to do it right, to make up for our sin, to change. We want forgiveness for our past sins but we want to continue on to try harder next time. This is the kind of mentality that causes Christians to teach that we need to continually confess sin, repent, and rededicate ourselves to be holier or grow in sanctification. The law provided infinite chances to bring your sacrifice, to shred your clothes and put ashes on your head, to commit to doing a better job of obeying God.

But in Adam, we are doomed to fail every time no matter how many chances we get! Our nature is sinful through and through, we cannot meet God's standard no matter how many times we get our slate wiped clean, no matter how hard we try, even if we pray and fast and beg God for strength to obey. We will always fail, we will die trying and failing and falling short.

So God in his wisdom decided not to give us infinite chances, but instead to give us only two chances. The first chance was Adam...and he failed. The second chance is Jesus, and he completely succeeded in accomplishing every single thing the Father desired! So now, every single one of us has access to a second chance! Our second chance is Jesus, and as soon as we receive his righteousness we are placed into an unbreakable covenant, the one chance we needed, the chance to believe in the one who leaves nothing up to chances but is able to fulfill every promise he's made.

Some think that grace means unlimited chances to try to keep the law better,that God will sanctify our efforts somehow. But that is not grace. Grace is Jesus, and the only way to access that grace is by throwing yourself on him completely, not looking for any other 'chances'. Are you satisfied that Jesus passes God's inspection? If he doesn't, there is no hope for any of us.

God gave mankind only two chances, don't you think he took special care that we wouldn't be able to blow the second one??? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!!!!!

Happy Easter! (Amazing Love, Lou Fellingham)

Well, we woke up this Easter morning to a beautiful sight! In some parts of the world people have to be content with daffodils and tulips, little girls in sun dresses, or maybe backyard barbeque...Well, not us! We have a real snow storm.



Of course, this brings a certain verse to mind...don't you think?

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

If we are willing and obedient we will eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:19)! God saw his people suffering, covered with sores, pathetic but still going through the motions of bringing sacrifices and obeying the law. He was not happy! He invites his people to come reason with him, in the whole book of Isaiah he goes back and forth between the Old Covenant and the coming New, showing the curse and pain that come through the Old, showing the glorious freedom and goodness that will come through the New. Let God reason with you! He will show you how much better is his New Way, Jesus! Then you will be willing and obedient, the obedience of faith in his Son, the kind of faith that turns joyfully away from the law, repenting of dead works to trust in Jesus' finished work. And together we will learn to live in the good of all he has accomplished for us.

Anyway, here's a song I found by one of my all-time favorite singers in the world, Amazing Love.

Responding to the New Covenant

The Old Covenant clearly laid out how to respond to God, God was very specific in his directions to the Israelites. Beware of those today who say they are preaching New Covenant but are still informing you of how to 'respond' to God by specific actions on your part. Beware of 'application' that tells you exactly what you should do or how to 'obey'. This is always indicative of a mixture of the old into the new, and don't be surprised if this mixture explodes your poor little wine skin. It's very messy when that happens, and be sure the ones who preached the mixture to you will be nowhere in sight when clean-up time arrives!

I'm very disappointed in certain ministries and preachers who I respect, disappointed that after having heard them preach the glorious gospel they now weakly back down ashamed of the gospel. They go back to preaching balance or application or response, basically they can't trust God's people to Jesus but feel the need to push them to behave in certain ways. This makes me so sad...

There is only ONE response to the New Covenant: BELIEVE IN JESUS.

Just believe. To all you who are weary and heavy laden, come to Jesus, he will give you rest! Don't go to anyone who offers you anything but rest, it may sound holy and admirable but it's a lie and will steal your joy. Get established in grace, in his gift of righteousness and you will begin to find that you will work harder than ever before in the calling your Father has put on your life, but miracle of all miracles! It won't be you, it will be the grace of God within you, the Spirit of Jesus himself!!!! Lay down your dead works and your self-righteousness and receive freely all that Jesus has won for you.

I'm preaching to myself here...I need to hear this over and over and over and over...and it's good, it gets better every time!

If you haven't already checked out Rob's latest series Being Established in the Gift of Righteousness I highly recommend you do! I believe many of them are also available on GraceStream TV (video) which you will notice is available right here or at Dynamic Love Ministries.

Law: License to Sin

I'm not sure why people never think of law as a license to sin but that's what the Pharisees and other religious leaders used law for. They were constantly trying to justify actions and beliefs that God hated, including accusing Jesus of sinning! They literally used the law to get away with murder (first Jesus, later the Christians).

Jesus took many opportunities to set them straight and time and time again. He was constantly trying to show them that to truly know the Father they should take their eyes off the law and put them on himself. The law was given as a guardian until Jesus came, but when the Father came many legalists chose the guardian over their own father!

Over and over, the religious people missed the point of the law, and still today they are doing the same. They continue to focus on whitewashing their tombs, on cleaning the outside of their cups and dishes, on preaching laws that keep people far from God trembling in fear and shame, on following rules and regulations instead of receiving and sharing God's love and mercy provided in the finished work of Jesus. They puff themselves up with a false sense of spirituality because they think it pious to choose the bad news over the good news, and they are deeply suspicious and condemning toward anyone who lives in the joyful simplicity of faith in God's good heart of love to his children.

"And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"— so that they might accuse him. He said to them, "Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Matthew 12:10-12

"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Matthew 23:13-36

Legalism has never produced anything good. It can only produce death, hypocrisy, and self-deceived fools. Believe me, I know what it's like to be a legalist, I remember it well! If you believe that the law is a means to produce any good thing in you, you are setting yourself up for woe. You will not and cannot please God through obeying the law and he is never impressed by your attention to details and technicalities. He is looking for one thing: FAITH.

In the New Covenant, faith IS obedience!

"Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."
John 6:28

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20-30-31

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." Romans 1:15-17

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." Romans 4:5-8

"This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." 1 John 3:19-24

I will say it again! Faith is obedience! When we believe in Jesus our belief is credited as righteousness, we are pleasing God so much, he is so happy with us! When we believe in Jesus, our sins are no longer counted against us! When we believe in Jesus, we are born again by the Spirit so that the life we live in the flesh is by faith in the Son of God, not by adherence to the law.

Oh yes, I know it's not clear enough yet so I will say it, you won't find faith is impotent like the old husband law. The law of Christ, the law of liberty, the law of faith, the law of the Spirit of life!!--yes, it will produce many good things in our lives in God's good time. In fact, it the only way anything we do will not be burned up in the fire as hay and stubble. Only faith can produce anything that lasts.

Now you can safely and confidently take your eyes off yourself and your performance, go ahead. Now you can let go of your striving and enter his rest. Now to him you can give all the glory forever! We are yours Jesus!

"Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen." Romans 16:25-27

The Serpent in the Church

I know, I know, same old stuff! I just am having a hard time understanding why believers want to cling to the Law. Why is it we have such a difficult time throwing ourselves at the mercy of Jesus? Why do we still think that we are somehow lacking, that we have not really been created in God's image, that we need to become like God by our own effort?

Adam and Eve were perfect, had perfect standing before God and perfect fellowship with God. They were created in God's own image!!! And yet they fell for the lie when the serpent came to them saying "don't you want to be like God?", they decided that God's word pronouncing them to be in his image was not enough and they decided that having the knowledge of good and evil ( MORAL LAW) would be able to make them more godly.

And so sin entered Adam's race through the seemingly good desire to be more godly
and our perfect standing and perfect fellowship with God was broken. God provided temporary forgiveness through the shedding of the blood of animals so that man could still have some semblance of relationship with his Creator. But the reason the blood of animals had any power was because of the blood of Jesus which would be shed at the right moment in history, once for all. God had a plan to completely destroy the power of Satan, and that plan was to forge a new covenant with man that was completely unbreakable!

This covenant was ratified by God the father and God the Son, Jesus, who became human in order to break the curse of sin and the law (which is the power of sin, not the other way around 1 Cor. 15:55-57) BECAUSE JESUS IS THE MEDIATOR OF THIS NEW COVENANT IT CAN NEVER BE BROKEN BY US. We enter into the new covenant simply by agreeing that Jesus may be our representative, by putting our trust in him. This, my friends, is the simple good news that we call the gospel!

So, Scripture is clear! We are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), we are the righteousness of God ( 2 Corinthians 5:20-21. I hope we can all agree that we've been reconciled back to God and our original position in Adam before the fall has not only been restored but it has been restored permanently without any fear of our breaking the covenant this time...once again...because of Jesus...

Now, though Satan can never ever affect our relationship with God the way he did with Adam, he can still tell us lies which, if we choose to believe them, will produce unbelief in God. This unbelief will drastically undermine the level of freedom and power we walk in. In fact, unbelief will lead us to live according to the flesh under law rather than by the Spirit, and it will cause us to sin.

The saddest thing about this is that most of the church seems to be falling for the same lie Adam did! The serpent has slithered his way into the church and he is still expounding the benefits of the Law! After being restored back to our Creator's original design, we are still tempted to believe that we need the knowledge of good and evil, the moral law (the ten commandments!) to perfect us, faith in Jesus is far too simplistic.

I don't believe that the Law was given to reveal the character of God, for one thing, there is no evil in God. And if that were the case, the law would have been given to Adam and Eve in the very beginning. The law was given to reveal the fallen character of man,to uncover sin, to provoke sin, to make sin spring to life(Romans 7:4-6, Romans 7:9). Jesus was given to reveal the character of God!

"And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known." John 1:16-18

Do you really believe this? We could not intimately know God through the law which came through Moses, in fact, any of the Old Testament people who knew God knew God by faith. Though for hundreds of years the Jews worked to obey the law and thereby know God, Scripture tells us that no one saw God until Jesus. The law was not given to reveal God to us, the law actually separates us from God by producing fear in us (Hebrews 12:18-21), it perpetuates death and curse, it can only uncover our sin and it keeps us in bondage as slaves(Gal. 4:1-7).

Jesus came to reveal God to us for the first time (as fallen man) and he came to do battle with sin and the law (which are the weapons that armed the devil against us Col. 2:13-15), to die through the law to the law (Gal. 2:18-20), to cancel the written code that stood against us, to become the end of the law for all who believe (Romans 10:4), because he did not come to condemn the lost but to save them and the law could not save us! That's why Jesus came with truth and grace, not the law!

So next time the serpent comes to you extolling the beauty and wonder of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, why don't you pass...why don't you take the bread and the cup and feast on the love of Jesus? The serpent doesn't belong in the church anymore.

Better than Eden

But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;
there they dealt faithlessly with me.
Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with blood.
As robbers lie in wait for a man,
so the priests band together;
they murder on the way to Shechem;
they commit villainy.
In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
Ephraim’s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.
Hosea 6:7-10

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:15-17

Lately I've been thinking a lot about Adam, I mean the first Adam. I've often wondered why God gave the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Or more accurately, I've wondered why he put the tree there in the first place knowing that Adam would disobey one day. Now when I want to know something, I ask God! At one time, I would have just ignored my questions and told myself there are some things I can't know, but now I feel free to ask any question I want assuming that God will reveal answers to me at some point.

I think I may be starting to understand the 'why' of giving one command. I think it was a test of faith. Without a command, Adam would have been in relationship with God more out of necessity or ignorance, it would not have been rooted in faith. But by giving the one command, God wove a trust factor into the fabric of his fellowship with man. Because of the command, Adam could only remain in unbroken intimacy with God as long as he believed in God's honesty, love, and goodness. There was a covenant between Adam and God that depended on Adam believing God. As we all know, Adam broke this covenant and as the representative of mankind he broke it on our behalf as well.

Since that time, God has always desired a restoration of the relationship with man, a relationship where he would be loved for who he truly is, where he would be believed in. He desired a new kind of covenant that would be unbreakable, but Israel was always asking for covenants they arrogantly thought they could keep...they had no desire for an unbreakable covenant that would never make use of their self-righteous efforts. But peppered throughout the history of God's people there are those who stand out as highly favored of God, men and women who simply heard God's voice and believed him. Men and women like Abraham , Moses, Deborah, Esther, David, Daniel...they even received revelation by foreshadow of a different kind of covenant and put their hope in the mercy of God.

In Abraham's life we see some of the most amazing foreshadowings of both the old and new covenant. He entered into a covenant with God that he did not ratify himself, but was ratified on his behalf by God (Genesis 15) which is a picture of the way the new covenant would be ratified. Also, in the story of bringing Isaac to be sacrificed in obedience to God's command, we see an amazing picture of the redemption that would come through Jesus and his sacrifice. Abraham even believed that Isaac would have been resurrected from the dead!

In the covenant of circumcision (Genesis 17), is a foreshadowing of the covenant God would make with Israel when he gave the law to them through Moses. Circumcision would later be commanded in the Law (Leviticus 12:2) but it becomes clear in Galatians that circumcision is no longer necessary in the new covenant.

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh— Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart."
Jeremiah 9:25-26

I believe God is speaking loud and clear in all of this:

"YOU WILL NEVER BE SAVED THROUGH YOUR OWN FLESH, YOUR OWN EFFORTS!!!!!
TRUST IN ME!!!!!!!"

So I say all that to say this: we have it better than Adam and Eve. I know they were created without sin, perfect. But only one sin ruined it all for everyone. But in the new covenant we are born again into the perfection of Jesus Christ who will never never ever sin! We can never fall from the high place where we've been seated with Jesus! We enter in by faith, but even if we sin we will not be cast out.

There would be no need to cast us out, we have already eaten from the Tree of Life!

So stop dreaming of Eden and the good old days haha, we have it so much better now!

Does Grace Come Through Anything We Do?

Now, since I framed my question in such a way to make answering the question easy (I think), I'll put a few twists in to show you why I asked it. In case you're feeling a little slow today, the answer is "NO, grace does not come through anything we do".

Sometimes I'll be innocently, ok, not innocently, reading through a blog and something small will jump out at me and I have to respond. In this case, I was reading a post about having family worship, certainly an idea I'm not opposed to at all. But this little sentence came out:

"I've enjoyed seeing the grace that God has poured out on my own family through doing this and I know He desires to pour that same grace on other families."

{incidently, can anyone tell me if I need to source this quote? I didn't want to draw negative attention to that blog if it wasn't necessary...}


Right away, I knew it was wrong. Of course, I've heard lots of teaching on 'means of grace' or similar ideas. The general idea is that through reading the Bible, through prayer, through fellowship, through church, through meditation, through fasting, or through any other conceivable discipline or action on our part, God gives us grace. One small problem: this concept doesn't exist in the New Covenant (hint: the new covenant is the better covenant).

This kind of 'grace', the kind that God pours out in response to something we do, is not unmerited, and therefore, is not grace at all. It is wages, it is something we earn at least in part. It is similar to the Old Covenant formula of 'obey = blessing'.

Don't believe me? Check out Bible Gateway and see what a search on "grace through" brings up.

And from his fullness we have all received,grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
John 1:16-17

Grace comes only ever through Jesus and his work.




But didn't we already know that?

The Hybrid 'Gospel'

A hybrid is the combination of two or more different things, aimed at achieving a particular objective or goal.

I was recently listening to Rob preach the gospel...again...and as I was thinking about the differences between the Old and New Covenant, it struck me that much of the church is teaching (and I was taught some variation of this in many different churches) neither Old or New Covenant but a different 'covenant' altogether, a mongrel hybrid. This is more than just mixing a little Old with New, it's almost a permanent breed of religion that is stripped of even the fading glory the Old Covenant had (see 2 Corinthians 3:7-18). I would venture so far to say that it is a false and heretical religion, based on doctrines of demons.

What am I saying? Well, if we taught only Old Covenant, at least there are still some blessings available...right? I mean, as someone once commented to me, mercy was built into the law, there were sacrifices and provisions made for sin so that some blessing was still attainable, albeit in order to obtain them a person still had to have faith in God and his love. If we teach the New Covenant, it is only a million times better, since there is a permanent provision made for us to receive one blessing after another with no chance at all for receiving any curse since the foundation of everything in the New is the perfect righteousness of Jesus. He fully fulfulled the law--that is, he both rightfully earned every single blessing, as well as received every single curse and punishment,even death!

But men have not been satified with either covenants God has offered us, so they have taken it upon them selves to draw up a new contract thinking God will be impressed. Because the gospel is foolishness in their eyes, they have mixed the old and new together and produced a monster, a weapon that all the hordes of hell have taken up with joy and are using to maim and slaughter millions of people, believers and unbelievers alike.

This covenant says we must obey some of the laws of the Old, especially the 10 commandments, but they make it harder, adding in Jesus' sermon on the mount, so now we must not even hate our brother in our hearts or it is murder, we must not look at someone with lust or it is adultery...and they go on to apply this logic to the rest of the 10 commandments. If we fail, of course God will forgive us! IF we repent, show appropriate godly sorrow, feeling appropriate guilt and shame (to be differentiated somehow from the condemnation of Romans 8...), confess our sin sincerely, crawl to the throne of grace where Jesus reminds us of the nails that we personally drove into his hands and feet and beg mercy, which of course he will not deny us--that's the good news!!! We are forever and eternally indebted to him for his sacrifice, his 'free gift' comes with eternal strings attached and we are his pitiful puppets. Now worship him you dirty rotten worms!!! Where's your joy??? What's wrong with you people??? Aren't you thankful?

Can you see the twistedness of mixing the two covenants in this way, taking both the new and old testament out of context? This kind of teaching is neither Old or New Covenant, but 'another gospel', a gospel that is no gospel at all! (Galatians 1:6-7) I'm amazed at how often proponents of this legalistic religion want to turn this verse and point it at the ones preaching a new covenant grace message! How sadly ironic! The whole book of Galatians is aimed at man centered legalistic perversion of the true Gospel. When Paul says "this gospel is no gospel at all" he's saying plainly, "your 'good news' is not good news at all!".

There is a simple litmus test to know if you're hearing the true gospel. Is it simply and clearly the best news you've ever heard? If it is and you receive it ,it will naturally begin to produce all the glorious fruits of the Spirit in your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. Those fruits of the Spirit are listed in GALATIANS, that is no coincidence! They are FRUITS of the Spirit, NOT WORKS OF THE FLESH, which are also evident: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. (Galatians 5:16-26)

This hybrid 'gospel' is no gospel at all, it is mostly bad news with a little bit of patronizing 'good news' mixed in to confuse the people who've bought into it. This 'good news' is used to make people feel guilty so that they're easier to manipulate and control. Their gospel is that you are terribly dirty all the time, but Jesus still condescends to love you and give you the occasional blessing, but if you suffer from disease and poverty and your marriage falls apart and your children die, it is no less than you deserve, being the lowly worm that you are, and Jesus has no obligation whatsoever to bless you so be thankful for the few he has given you and stop whining. IT'S A LIE. It sounds very humble and spiritual, but it is not humble to not boldly come to the throne of grace and receive everything we need, choosing to suffer instead, IT IS UNBELIEF.

The Father is obligated to bless us, to save us, to heal us, to love us, to comfort us, to provide everything we need, because he has obligated himself, HE HAS PROMISED. What is the requirement on our part to receive all this? It is believing in Jesus and asking in faith. NOW THAT'S GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will not be ashamed of the Good News! I will joyfully preach it anytime I get a chance, and it is so refreshing to my soul when I do. I haven't written anything like this for a long time it seems, but it feels really really good...and I know it will stir some people up a bit. Trust me, I hope it does stir some of you up...to faith!