A Bunch of Rubbish or Jesus?

"Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they're interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ's praise as we do it. We couldn't carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God's law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God's law Book.

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness.

I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back." Philippians 3:2-14 (The Message)

I could write my own version of this. While I don't think I was very successful at living up to all my self-righteous standards as a legalist, I did try. And I do think that others viewed me as spiritual, godly, etc... So here's my take on the pedigree I've torn up and thrown in the garbage in exchange for the far more glorious life of enjoying intimacy with Jesus:


Born into a Christian family, attended church since a baby, passionately sang worship and praise to God as far back as I can remember, prayed for lost souls with many tears, shared what I thought was the gospel with many, fasted, kept a spiritual/prayer journal, served faithfully and sacrificially in the church, served others by providing free childcare, cooking meals, etc.., tithed and gave money beyond the 10%, read many many spiritual books, read and studied the Bible, confessed sins regularly to God and others, was sorry when I made a mistake or wasn't consistent in my spiritual disciplines and committed to being more faithful, tried to be humble and submissive to my husband, submitted willingly and joyfully to 'spiritual authority', was very careful about what I listened to, read, or watched in the way of media to make sure it was glorifying to God, worked at trying to grow in all the fruits of the Spirit, acknowledged weakness and failures and sought God sincerely to help me change and do/be more like Jesus.


ALL THESE THINGS I COUNT AS RUBBISH. ALL.

They gained me NOTHING! In fact, the more I did the more self-righteous I became. This self-righteousness alternatingly gave me the high of success and the low of condemnation and failure. And I was addicted to this cycle, couldn't feel godly or spiritual without it.

But I've given it all up and am more than satified with Jesus Christ who has given me his perfect righteousness and completely unearned! I don't need any of those things any more to make me righteous, more holy, more pleasing to God, even more mature. What I need, is initimacy with Jesus. End of story.

You see, all those things can be done on my own. And while I was doing them on my own, 'letting' God help me a little if he would, rather then deepening my intimacy with him I was actally distancing myself from him, cutting myself off from grace and nullifying faith. It makes me wonder...who was more distant from the Father, the prodigal or the older son? The prodigal seemed to have a better understanding of his father's character and love than his older and supposedly more faithful brother.
I've been the older brother but I don't want to be suspicious of my father anymore. I don't want to work for him as a slave, not revelling in his love or enjoying the benefits of sonship.

As for my list of good (more like dead) works, it becomes of no use to me anymore. Everything I was ever trying to gain I've found in Jesus.

Dear On-Fire Christian...

Dear On-Fire Christian(/legalist):

First of all, I have to say that as infuriating a conversation with you can be at times, I really do love you. And I understand where you're coming from because that is where I have come from. Maybe that's why your words are so frustrating to me, I remember so clearly not so long ago living the 'life' you're living, speaking the same words to people, feeling the self-righteous rush of satisfaction when I thought I'd pleased God with my 'ministry'. I remember how good it felt to have said the right thing at the right time to someone who obviously needed my help to do better or be better, to get their life in order. What a high you can get from giving someone the answer to all their problems, the exact prescription they need, what they need to do to get what they want in life, to get closer to God, to become more holy and righteous and respectable in the church. Yes, I remember...

So thank-you for your good intentions, I appreciate your sincere concern and care. But you needn't waste your time worrying about me! I admit I don't go to church right now, I even admit that I don't want to go to any church I know of. I admit that church is either mind numbingly boring or alternately infuriating to me and I avoid going like the plague. I say 'church' with your idea of church in mind; the so-called organized church of any and all shapes, sizes, denominations,systems, theological slants, or various creative versions of it. And I don't think less of anyone who is part of that church, if you enjoy it then more power to you! I'm glad you can, and part of me wishes I could too...I'm sad that for me the 'meeting together' happens less often and regularly at my house or someone else's, on the phone or online...

It's a little lonely sometimes, and sometimes I dream of packing up and moving far away to live closer to people who know what we're talking about when we say 'gospel' or 'grace' ! But we belong here, here with the chickens and ducks, rabbits and cats, one dog and four children...and no grace church. But as lonely as ever I get, I can't come to your church and sit by while everyone is slowly crushed to death by the weight of the law, either by a little law or much more. Don't tell me all proud of yourself and your church that you only mix in a little bit, that really won't impress me. I'd rather you went the whole way and preached the entire Old Covenant and left Jesus completely out of it, you're tarnishing his Good Name, the name I love. So if you think you can guilt me or in some way manipulate me to go to church, yours or somewhere else, I think you might sooner convince me of my need to go to synagogue. Honestly I stay away from your church out of respect, I know I won't fit in there. I know I might get up some day in the middle of your service and scream because I can't take anymore of that bull dung (I forego using the appropriate word out of respect for you). See? Now you made me cry. I can't stop thinking about all the words you spoke to me, words of condemnation though you don't even know enough to see it. Condemnation is second nature to you in your spiritual world. You are the serious christian, and now, thank God, I am not. I'm just a beloved son of God with whom he is well pleased.

And I don't spend even a second of my days anymore worrying about the right or wrong of what I'm doing. I'm not busy trying to get close to him, to try and figure out his will about what I should be doing. I'm not anxiously trying to please him and there are no special conditions I need in order to worship him or experience his presence. So please forgive me if I politely ignore your advice to seek his face, to pray and ask him to show me his will, as though you already know exactly what his will for me is and what I should be doing. In fact, if you're right, why do I need to pray? You already graciously told me exactly what his will for me is, and if I don't do it then you can continue to graciously pity me because I must be miserable in my rebellious disobedience to your christian rules and regulations.

I don't mind you pitying me, really I don't. I am happier and freer than I've ever been in my life. I don't want to kill myself or divorce my husband, and attribute this largely to have gotten out of the horrible guilt system that we call the church. I am part of a happy church now, one that will hopefully materialize here physically some day soon...which is, after all, why we moved here in the first place. But it's hard to be in such a hurry when I'm resting in God, knowing that his timing is good and perfect. I'm sorry that it freaks you out to see me so calm and peaceful when you think I should be striving and working. How can I even tell you that I'm happy in God and he in me? You have no category for such a statement, you wouldn't even know what I'm talking about, it would just worry you more that I'm so casual about 'sin' and 'righteousness'. But you miss the passion I have for the gospel! Passion and burning joy in the truth that we have already been given everything need for life and godliness in Jesus! I lack nothing. I am excited to grow and learn more in grace, to receive more and more glorious revelation of what I've received, but I LACK NOTHING!

So though I love you very much on-fire christian, I will not join you in YOUR lack. I am not judging you, you have admitted your lack with your many different words and arguments and I can see that you want me to join you in your lack and your striving to be filled by God. You will never find what you seek as long as you are operating by old covenant strategies. There is only one way to have God and his loving blessing on your life and that is only faith in Jesus, not ever ever ever ANYTHING you may do. Not prayer, not fasting, not worship, not obedience of any sort...and conversely, not praying, not fasting, not worshipping, not obeying can never remove the loving blessing of God on your life once you have received him by faith.

But I too would love to talk more. I would love to talk about the gospel next time we talk, to revel in the goodness of God's love for both of us, instead of worrying about the knowledge of good and evil, trying to figure out right and wrong. Has that ever helped anyone do better or meet God's perfect standard of righteousness? I have probably heard thousands of such sermons and teaching over my lifetime and can tell you it never did me any good. I spent my days up and down between self-righteous triumph and suicidal self-hatred according to my perception of how well I obeyed the church's (God's?) law for me. Ironically I am still respected as a very godly person in many of my past circles because I was such a legalist! I hope that God uses my past legalism to give me some credibility when I meet these people and with you now that I am able to share the good news!

Sorry for my long long rant, and I apologize for rolling my eyes so much as we talked on the phone, I hope I will remember not to do that if you ever come over and talk in person...

Sincerly,
Jul

Peace! Based on HIS Righteousness !

The peace we have with God is not dependent on our performance but on the righteousness of Jesus. Peace is the emotion that is in the heart of man when he knows he has no debt. We have no debt before God because wherever we fell short of righteousness by our works, Jesus supplied our deficit, as a gift. The reason we have peace is simply because we measure up to the standard of God. We couldn't say that until Jesus (the Son of God) climbed onto our side of the scale and balanced the whole thing out between us and God. Never do we need to feel that we come short of holiness, righteousness or any standard of qualification. We can have the peace of God – we don’t come short in JESUS.



Jesus gave us His peace not as the world gives but true peace He gave us.. The peace that the world gives is purely based on the “if you pay you don’t have to worry” basis. The peace of Jesus (the peace that He has) is based on the fact that Jesus is perfect before the Father, in His likeness and image.



HE GAVE US HIS PEACE!!!

Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither



Bertie Brits

Justified By His Faith--Bertie's First Post!

The greatest thing God is concerned about is if you know that He loves you. His love for you is not merely contained in day to day emotions based on your performance. His love has been manifested in one act that is the solid foundation from where we can experience his love for us. That act is simply what Jesus has done on behalf of man. We rest our minds in the fact that He has died the death of the law man, the man that seeks righteousness and justification by His works, and that He was resurrected for our justification. With this truth in place we will never run short of righteousness, holiness or any godly attribute because by this truth God makes his dwelling in man and in such a way we see God live in our lives.



In the following scripture we can see the working of this great love which is that we are justified by His faith. His faith brought the justification and our belief in that gives us access into this wonderful truth.

Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Bertie Brits

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.

Grace: But Shouldn't We Work Out Our Salvation With Fear and Trembling? (part 1)

I don't know about you, but I've had this snippet of Philippians 2:12-13 thrown at me a fair amount. It happens in response to the gospel, you know, the entirely good news of eternal righteousness (right standing with God) that is not conditional on man's performance/obedience but is solely conditional on faith in Jesus' perfect and finished performance/obedience. Often when we bring grace into a conversation, we get an immediate response that begins with 'BUT', and believe me, I've contributed my share of 'buts' and still do on occasion! Some of the passages I want to deal with are ones that were big 'but' passages for me on my journey into grace, a few that I want to deal with I don't at the moment understand well myself; all the more reason to tackle them with my excellent and ambitious Teacher.

So, in this post I want to talk about about a particular 'BUT' passage that people have used to try and bring balance to the gospel. Why oh why do we seem to need a little bad news make the good news more believable??? Anyway, here are the verses:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

(ESV Philippians 2:12-13)

As you may have noticed, I emphasized the words "work" and "fear" in the title of this post. That's because these are the two words that I've generally heard emphasized when hearing these verses taught or preached on. I suppose I must have heard quite a few preachers bring them up over my years growing up in the church (3 mandatory services a week as well as special events like conferences and church camp) and then as an adult in various churches/church events and books or recorded preaching. And like I said, it's come up in conversation as well...

I have a few different issues to talk about, but I guess I'll start with the words themselves. For the word 'work out' (in the Greek this is one word) I'm not going to get into the Greek meaning since I think that this is a fairly reasonable translation. I don't want to get too complicated so I decided to try to understand what 'work out' means exactly in the context of Scripture and the New Covenant. There is definitely a connotation in the Greek of us doing some work, and if you read the verses in it's larger context Paul describes what working out our salvation may look like. Here are the next few verses:

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (ESV Philippians 2:14-16)

I think my first reaction to the idea of working is a sort of panic or fear. I easily can feel that this is in opposition to grace, to the gospel. And there is a kind of work that is in complete opposition to grace, these are called 'dead works' (Hebrews 9:14) But there are questions that can help differentiate between dead works and the good works that characterize a believer's life: What is the source of the work? And, what is the purpose of the work?

Dead works (mentioned in Hebrews) are produced when a person in their flesh (the source of the work) tries to attain righteousness (the purpose of the work)by obedience to any law or rule (as the Jews had done since receiving the Law of Moses). This is seen clearly in Romans 4:1-5 (ESV):

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 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."

And also in Romans 9:30-32:

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone."

These passages clearly show that work that originates in the flesh in response to the Law in order to achieve righteousness or justification will not be able to attain justification before God. (And in Galatians 3 we can see that righteousness similarily cannot be maintained through works of the law.)


But it is clear in Philippians and elsewhere that we as believers do work! It is very interesting to see, however, that these good works that our lives demonstrate are always mentioned in a context of grace! That because the source of true good works is Jesus (grace!) and his power that has been given to us as his brothers, beloved sons of God. This is seen right in the passage we've been looking at.

"...work out your salvation with fear and trembling..." is immediately followed by "...for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work his good pleasure."

Can't we see that God is the source, the one who is constantly energizing our work, who is ever the power that is transforming us and causing us to work out, or live out, our salvation? He wants us to experience the fullness of the provision he has made for us in salvation. And (if you read the next verses) he wants the whole world to see our salvation being worked out so that they are drawn to our light...Jesus!

And that is the purpose of our works under the New Covenant, that men would see our good works and be drawn to the source of the power that has enabled us to live in freedom, not the slavery of Law and sin that so darkens and defeats the rest of the world. The purpose is not to attain or maintain holiness or righteousness because these works are fruits of the righteousness that is found in Christ, who has been given as a free gift to any who would receive him through faith by grace.

Here are a few more verses that help us to see the that the source of true good works is grace (as opposed to being dependent on our self, guilt, fear, or righteousness motivated efforts):

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. (ESV Ephesian 2:8-10)

We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. (ESV Colossians 1:28-29)

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (ESV 1 Corinthians 15:10)

To me it is very clear that when we preach grace there is no 'but'. The good works that will lead people to see the Jesus of the Gospel in our lives are an effect of grace, not separate or contrary or even in tension with the true Gospel. They are the natural out-working of the resurrection life of Jesus that has made our spirits alive and also bring life to our natural bodies (Galatians 2:20)so that we can continue to bear the fruit of the Spirit in this earth and so attract more people to our glorious loving God.

So to sum up, to work out our salvation does not mean that Jesus' work is not completely finished, that we must add our work to his work since "... he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6) But to work out our salvation simply means to cooperate with God in the freedom of our sonship as he works in us, as he gives us the desire and the power to manifest the fullness his life and salvation as a light for the whole world to see. And this kind of work proceeds from faith (and needs no coercion, guilt/fear manipulation), it now being our desire to do good because we are good, through being restored to our original design (in God's own image!) when we entered into the new covenant.

I hope this is helpful and actually makes some sense to those who have begun receiving revelation of God's glorious new covenant of grace! Please feel free to ask questions or add your thoughts in the comments. There was a lot more I could have written, but I tried to keep it somewhat short and simple (don't know if I managed this though). I've decided to talk about the 'fear' part, which is fairly straight forward, in a separate post coming up soon.

Personal Holiness

Did you ever notice that sometimes religious people make up new terms that sound really spiritual and good? What I'm realizing more and more that often these terms are veiling something, they are decieving and are designed (not usually by men but by our enemy the devil) to help us believe a lie. We believe because it sounds like it's something God would say somehow.

I grew up in a holiness church, don't worry if you have no idea what that means hehe. I've very thankful for my upbringing so I hope no one takes this the wrong way...Anyway, personal holiness was a popular topic, often thrown in with talk of sanctification. Today I was just vacuuming (again!) and for no apparent reason God just put the term 'personal holiness' into my mind and then 'self-righteousness'. Then he turned on the lights and I was amazed I missed something to simple.

Self=Personal

Righteousness=Holiness

Is this glaringly obvious to anyone else???

If you think there's a Biblical reason to define the two diffently, I'd love to know about it. Right now I'm just not seeing 'personal holiness' as something we're called to as believers...I mean, I'm not seeing it in the Bible.

More on the Breaking of Bread (communion)

Recently I found a great blog called "See the World Through His Heart" through a comment someone left. He's got some amazing revelation on grace and recently wrote about communion. If you have time, read what he wrote and think about in which manner you come to eat and drink of the Lord's body and blood...

I believe that as we recover the worthy manner in receiving Jesus' body and blood, people's eyes will be opened more and more to the reality of the true gospel, and to the precious gift of God's righteousness given to us only by grace through faith. We need to get back to the simplest and most powerful expressions of our faith and allow the Holy Spirit to build his kingdom with supernatural power through us, and stop relying on our intellectual arguments and meager efforts.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." Romans 1:16-17

It's time to boldly come to the Lord's table and eat and drink without fear or shame, our confidence is not in our flesh but in Christ's. Our joyful confidence will be a sign and testimony to everyone who sees us and may we never apologize to any legalist for our boldness before God.

I'm Blaming Jesus for My Sin

I was just reading a blog and my eye caught the title of another post entitled "Blaming Others for Our Sins" and immediately the thought went through my head 'that's it, I'm to blame my sins on Jesus'. I only glanced through the article a little, it was linking to another article which I thought was not so good, or at least it completely misses the point.

It's not that I think we should blame other people for our sin, the article (I think rightly) says that this is a way of trying to justify ourselves. But I don't think blaming ourselves will help, then we end up feeling condemned, guilty, and ashamed. We feel the need for atonement and justification if we start 'taking the blame' for our sin, which, if we are already believers, will only highlight the fact that we really don't have faith in the finished work of Jesus, why else would we be running back to the cross expecting to find a suffering Saviour still hanging there, newly nailed up by our most recent failure?

When we blame Jesus for our sin we realize we are free and clear. He's taken ALL our blame, he was made to be sin for us. The answer to our finger-pointing problem is to come out from under the law and receive mercy from our father in heaven, mercy triumphs over judgement. Believe that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, a righteousness from God apart from works of the law and you'll stop worrying why you sinned and start thanking him he's is not counting your sins against you. You have a righteousness that is by faith from first to last and cannot be tarnished by your mistakes, no matter how terrible they may be. When you realize Jesus has been blamed for all your sin and God is not pointing the finger at you, you begin to relax and stop pointing the finger at anyone else.

So I'm blaming somebody else for my sin, after all, that's what he wants! Next time you feel condemned for something you did wrong or didn't do right, point your finger to Jesus and say "He took it and he's already been punished for it... IT IS FINSHED!!!!!"


You are free.