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830. Things Seldom Heard in Church: Keeping Commandments – New Covenant Style

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This week, we look at a couple of verses—from 1 John chapter 2—that the legalistic mindset will focus upon outside the context of the New Covenant. It’s a perspective based upon a mixture of law and grace which comes from sources who believe “maintaining” salvation involves the working of our own efforts instead of the work of Christ alone. They’ll pitch salvation as a gift apart from works, but then try to sell you an extended warranty, suggesting you can forfeit so great a salvation based upon your actions. It’s nothing but complicated double-speak.

John writes about keeping commandments, but he isn’t very specific in listing them out. Covenant clashers would try to have us believe he is referring to the Ten Commandments and may selectively throw in a few extras for good measure. If John was encouraging believers in Christ to embrace a stone tablet ministry of commandments, then he not only contradicted the Apostle Paul, but also would have contradicted himself in this very same letter. Peter and Paul stated the commandments which came through Moses were burdensome and unbearable. Jesus said the same thing. But John said the commandments he was referring to are not burdensome. Either John disagreed with them … or (and let’s go with this) he is referring to something different as it relates to the New Covenant.



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Outrageous Grace

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Friend, I wanted to pass along my most recent message from last Sunday that I shared at my church, Living Word Church. I pray you’re super encouraged as you watch […]

Outrageous Grace

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Friend, I wanted to pass along my most recent message from last Sunday that I shared at my church, Living Word Church. I pray you’re super encouraged as you watch (or listen) and your eyes are set on Jesus!! The first 10 minutes of the message was an exhortation about how “God is our source” […]

825. Listener: “Why Don’t They Teach Us Right?” A Conversation About Church Inc.

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This week we have a spontaneous heart to heart about church denominations and the wide variety of different perspectives and teaching available. How did we get to this place where elements of both law and grace seem to be the norm? 

This is a bit of a foundational introduction into upcoming podcasts where we’ll talk about some things that are seldom heard or taught in most churches—but should be.



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824. New Covenant Context: Believers Righteous – Unbelievers Not

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Imagine receiving a lengthy letter containing many pages and then focusing on just a couple of sentences. This is what happens frequently with individual Bible verses. It’s commonplace to set aside a few verses contained within a New Testament letter from an apostle—which are assumed to be saying something that gets translated into a doctrine or some type of religious theology.

In the meantime, the bigger point is missed because we’re thinking in terms of a lone verse or two instead of the bigger picture, which is the gospel of grace. We continue the emphasis on context in 1 Corinthians Chapter 6 … as we look at a couple of verses used by those on the legalistic side of the fence to bring doubt and uncertainty into the hearts and minds of believers in Christ.



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823. New Covenant Context: Galatians Chapter 5

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It becomes very easy to be misled or to misunderstand the truth of the gospel when becoming fixated with a Bible verse or two. Quite often we assume there is a complete thought encompassed within a verse or a short passage, and then we try to tie it into other solitary “island verses” within the pages of the Bible … which are surrounded by an ocean of other passages. Copy and paste them together and POOF! You’ve got instant indoctrination. The goal becomes trying to “prove” one’s pre-assumed mindset about the dogmatic doctrines they have been taught. Regardless of what one believes, anybody can do this … and it’s a common practice in the world of religion.

This week, we look at a short passage contained within the 5th chapter of Galatians that is often considered by covenant clashers as a not so veiled threat by the Apostle Paul regarding their eternity and their works. Considering the new covenant context about everything he said in his letter up to this point over several chapters, Paul is attempting to reassure people, not to suddenly shift gears and scare them into going from grace back to trusting in their works.



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822. Memorizing “Verses” While Missing the Context of the New Covenant

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“But what about this verse!” It has become common practice to view the Bible through individual Bible verses. What was meant as a method to reference the writings more easily can often turn into tunnel vision when it comes to the complete truth contained within the New Covenant of Jesus. A verse or two by themselves can turn into being used as a memorization technique, which sounds like a good thing to do—but the context is more important than any one verse which can often lead people into false assumptions and misunderstandings.

Individual verses can be used as “topics” for sermons, while the pastor may have little or no understanding about the gospel from a New Covenant perspective. We’re working toward a short passage containing a few verses in Galatians chapter 5 which is often used to bring people back into a works mentality … and leaving them in a state of confusion when it comes to God’s grace.



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820. “How Can I Know That God Has Forgiven Me?”

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Imagine realizing that God isn’t angry with you, is not disappointed with you, is not counting sins against you, and loves you perfectly and unconditionally. Finally, peace and rest, without fear of wondering if you’re okay with God or that God is okay with you. And then it happens. Religious, legalistic, and yes, even Bible-verse-quoting folks from the land of self-righteousness invade your territory, seeking to take away the seeds of grace God planted within you.

They’ll come up with all kinds of different ways to convince you (from the Bible!) that you’ll need to repeatedly keep seeking more forgiveness from God. They somehow think there are methods and formulas which are more effective than the blood of Jesus—which was shed one time. It’s time to stop and ask ourselves a question … why do you think Jesus’ blood only needed to be shed once, and not over and over again?



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814. The 800 Club: Looking Back – The Clash Between Paul and James

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The final program in our Looking Back series revisits the subject of the apostles Paul and James … and the question of whether they were in disagreement and had different points of view on the subject of justification. We did a 21-part series on this last year.

The common mindset in the world of Christianity is that Paul and James had to be in agreement in order for the Bible to be considered completely valid. Whether coming from a legalistic perspective or one that is more based upon grace, both camps will arrive at that same assumption while trying to explain conflicting statements from the apostles in a way that fits into their narrative or doctrinal perspective. But both will also need to bend, twist and reshape Bible verses to fit the theology—whatever that happens to be. And although the explanations may vary, the purpose remains the same … convince ourselves that Paul and James could not have possibly been opposed on such an important issue as justification. Is it based upon grace? Works? A combination of both?

However, maybe there is a bigger picture to see. We quickly offer a number of things to consider on this topic—which may once again cause some of us to not only arrive at a different point of view, but to shift our thinking to an entirely different paradigm—which involves backing away from the verses for a view of the bigger picture.

Since this episode is essentially a summary of our original series, you may wish to take some time to go through the original series itself, which took place during Podcasts 778-799 (except episode 786, which was a Christmas episode).  Click here for the first episode, and then click "Newer Post" at the end of each post for each subsequent episode.  Or you can listen to the entire series via our YouTube playlist.



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812. The 800 Club: Looking Back – Repentance and What It Means Under Grace

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We grace renegades often get accused of not talking about repentance enough. That’s really not accurate, but what comes to mind when you hear the word repent? If you’ve spent at least a few weeks in a church building, most likely you’ve been under the assumption that to repent means to stop sinning and start living a better and improved moral standard. That’s great advice, but is this the core of what repentance is supposed to be about? We revisit the meaning of repentance in the Greek and how this ties into what Jesus was trying to get the Jewish people to do when He told them to “repent and believe the good news.”

The gospel isn’t about attaining right-standing with God through what we do … or what the Jewish people were attempting to do by the works of the law. Repentance involves a change of mind by realizing the more excellent ministry of the New Covenant—which ended a religious merit system—and to begin trusting in what Jesus did to bring us to a place of righteousness and perfection.



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How Condemnation Holds Us Back

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Guilt and condemnation is such a trick of the devil, yet I lived buried under it for decades and I’ve spoken to so many friends on my grace journey this past 9.5 years who are also in the process of digging themselves out. Many have said, Wow, I never realized that I lived under so […]

How Condemnation Holds Us Back

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Guilt and condemnation is such a trick of the devil, yet I lived buried under it for decades and I’ve spoken to so many friends on my grace journey this […]

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