510. The Ten Commandments in the New Testament
The Truth and the Lie
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life … Continue reading 
Sowing, Reaping and the Golden Rule
From the beginning of time there have been two worldviews, two trees, and two ways live. One is karma (you reap what you sow), and the other is grace (you reap what someone else has sown). This world runs on karma: Do good, get good. Do bad, get bad. But the kingdom of God runs […]
Letter to Pastor Tullian: Keep Preaching Grace!
I am deeply saddened hearing news of Pastor Tullian’s resignation as Senior Pastor from Coral Ridge church.
My heart goes out to him as he faces the consequence of his choices.
God knows, we’ve all fallen morally.
Some of us are in the public eye. Others aren’t.
I’ve failed morally many times, yet God’s grace always picks me back up. Jesus’ blood washes me clean once again and I get on the horse and ride again.
God knows, a recent study showed 30% of Christian men admitted to moral failure here in Cambodia.
But if we are all to resign after failing morally, who would there be left?
There is no one righteous. Not even one.
Where do we draw the line?
Correct me if I’m wrong, if we are saying a man is only fit to preach the gospel and lead a church if he is morally upright by human standards, then aren’t we missing the whole point of grace? Aren’t we missing the gospel?
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
- Romans 3:23
This is all about obeying the law.
We are saying that the position of leader in a church depends on our own ability to live a moral life.
This is all about obeying the law!
But all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
According to Isaiah, compared with the righteousness we have received from God as a free gift – our own righteous acts are like filthy rags!
Not even our sin.
Our righteous acts!
If we can only lead a church if we are righteous by our own acts then NO ONE is able to lead a church…
As the only reason any of us are righteous is because of Christ in us.
I’m sure if we delved into the secret lives of pastors NOT ONE would attain the moral standard God requires.
NO ONE would be fit to lead!
This is why we depend on Christ.
It is He who makes us righteous.
He is our holiness, righteousness and redemption.
It is He who makes us fit to lead. Not by ourselves. Christ in us makes us righteous.
Leaders of Coral Ridge church: we are not morally righteous by our own acts.
Pastor Tullian is, if anything, more qualified to preach from the puplit, as he knows what it is to depend on the grace of God!
Seriously, what secret sins are church leaders keeping to themselves?
Where do we say “You did that, so you can’t lead,” and “You did that, so you can’t lead.”
Watching porn? Fantasizing over a congregation member? Cross Dressing? Having homoerotic desires?
Who draws the line?
Jesus drew the line – in the sand. And what did he write?
He who is without sin cast the first stone!
There is no one righteous. Not even one.
And if the church is saying we are only fit to lead a church because we have obeyed certain laws and managed to live righteously by human standards – then that church is living according to the law.
On its website, Coral Ridge acknowledged that Pastor Tullian
…admitted to moral failure, acknowledging his actions disqualify him from continuing to serve as senior pastor or preach from the pulpit, and resigned, effective immediately.
Disqualifying him to serve as senior pastor or preach from the pulpit.
Who says?
God?
Or man?
This smacks of legalism.
We are only fit to preach from the pulpit if we manage to live upright lives and obey the law.
Legalism!
Law!
And under The Law no one can stand.
There is no one righteous. Not even one.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace.
We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has gone to his own way.
Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love.
Pastor Tullian will be aching in his heart.
Let’s all gather round him and nurture him back to seeing himself as God sees him – holy, rightoeus and perfect – because of Christ’s sacrifice.
Nothing we do can altar the way Jesus sees us.
Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love.
Pastor Tullian – you are still a Senior Pastor in God’s Kingdom.
You are still an anointed preacher, a gifted writer and a great man of God.
You are still a warrior for Christ, saved by grace and righteous by faith.
Perhaps God has taken you out of a church that appoints its pastors depending on their own self-righteous acts, rather than on their honest preaching of the grace of God from the valley of their own shadow – where, if we are brave enough to admit it, we all visit.
Whatever happens, God’s grace is sufficient for you.
His power is made perfect in weakness.
From this trial you will grow stronger and the message of grace will reach far and wide.
I leave you with the words of Paul:
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.
- Philippians 1:12
Bless you brother.
Wishing you a fast and powerful recovery.
Amen!
Filed under: Grace
509. Engraved on Stones: The End of the Ten
It’s a man-made doctrine that says that the Law is broken up into sections (moral, civil, ceremonial, etc.), and that part of it was done away with but yet in the New Covenant we’re supposed to keep a certain part of it. The scriptures do not declare such a separation or distinction in the law of God. The Law of God is a package deal. The Apostle Paul called the law the ministry of death that brought condemnation. Paul also explained why they no longer have glory and came to an end, to be replaced with a more glorious and permanent ministry of the Spirit.
Absolutely, perfectly, completely free!
Not sure if I told you before…but I’m an actor.
As an actor who’s used to memorizing whole Shakesperian roles there’s nothing I enjoy more than memorizing God’s word.
I memorize whole chapters.
All books even!
I can recite Philippians to you off the top of my head, together with books like Isaiah 53 (The Sufffering Servant Song) certain chapters of Hebrews, chunks of Romans etc.
I’ve recently started to record them.
I only record the ones I know by heart.
Anyone can read from the bible and record but a lot of work goes into memorizing chapters and books. And on that memorizing journey you get a lot of insight, too.
Once I’ve learned a chapter my favorite place to recite it to myself is in the sauna after a workout.
Don’t ask me why!
I guess because it’s so quiet, and usually empty, so I get the place to myself.
At the moment I’m reciting Romans 6.
You can listen to the recording here.
I love Romans 6.
I love the way Paul repeats over and over again that we have been set free from sin.
Have a listen and see.
It happens in verse 7.
Anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Then again in verse 18.
You have been set free from sin.
Then again in verse 22 !
You have been set free from sin.
I think Paul was trying to tell us something!
And it doesn’t take a genius to work out what Paul was trying to tell us:
You have been set free from sin! 
We are free.
Free from sin.
Absolutely, perfectly, completely free.
Amen!
Filed under: Grace
It is Well With my Soul
I was exposed to this hymn at the weekend.
I mean, sure, I’d heard it before, sang it before, but this was the first time since my ‘grace’ revelation.
It seems the writer – Horatio Spafford – had had a grace revelation, too.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
My sin, not in part but the whole.
Old Horatio knew his sin had been dealt with once for all.
He knew that all of his sin, past present and future was crucifed on that cross with Christ.
He knew, just as Paul teaches, that he had been set free from sin.
He knew that he was approved by God.
Approved and beloved.
As we are.
No wonder it was well with his soul.
It is well with my soul, as well!
Do you know that all of your sin was crucified with Christ?
not in part, but the whole
Is it well with your soul?
Filed under: Grace
508. The Love Motivation
To Give Or To Get?
I want to talk about a simple yet deep message that has been on my heart for the past few years. In life, there are two big motivators: wanting to give and wanting to get. The self-existence, as I refer … Continue reading 
3 amazing facts about God’s Grace!
I was excited to receive a message on my Facebook page today from a sister in Christ who’s had a revelation of God’s radical grace.
As I was responding to her message I realized there are 3 amazing things we should know about God’s grace.
- No Fear!
Do you think God wants us to live in fear?
There is no fear in love but perfect love drives out fear – because fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears is not made perfect in love.
– 1 John 4:18
How are we made perfect in love?
We are perfect in love when we have no fear.
When we know our salvation is secure…
When we know and understand how wide and high and long and deep is the love of Christ…
When we understand that nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love…
When we realize that we can no more limit God’s grace than we can set a time limit on eternity…
When we know that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ…
And finally when we are assured that we can never, ever be punished for our sin ever again.
There is no fear in love but perfect love drives out fear – because fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears is not made perfect in love.
– 1 John 4:18.
- Change Your Mind!
A question that comes up a lot with people who oppose the ‘hypergrace’ movement is repentance. People seem to think that hypergrace teachers are against repentance. Not true! It’s not that we’re against repentance, it’s just that we’re against using the word in the wrong way. The biblical word in Greek was metanoia which means ‘to change your mind.’
Biblical repentance means to change your mind about God’s grace.
Tweet that!
Martin Luther thought the same. He said –
Metanoia signifies a changing of the mind and heart – not only a change of heart but also how it is changed, that is by the grace of God.
Amen!
An article on Metanoia Ministries website says this:
The Reformation saw the new church fathers begin to go back to the Classical Greek. Both Luther and Calvin wished to remove the concept of penance from the meaning of repentance. Repentance meant “to change the mind.” Specifically—to change our minds about Christ.
This ties in with Paul. In his letter to the young church at Philippi he said he was a ‘perfect’ Pharisee. He obeyed all the laws. He was legalistically perfect:
Circumsized on the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, of the people of Israel, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As for zeal, persecuting the church. As for legalistic righteousness – perfect!
– Philippians 3:6
Which leads us nicely on to —
- The Law is Rubbish!
When Paul discovered he was ‘righteous by faith’ he called his law-obeying ‘rubbish’:
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of knowing Christ. More than that, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him – not having a righteousness of my own that comes from obeying the law but that which is through faith in Christ – a righteousness that comes from God and is by faith!
– Philippains 3:7-8
Paul ‘changed his mind’ about his legalistic righteousness. He used to think his self-earned righteousness was perfect. But now he considered it rubbish compared to being ‘righteous by faith.’
This was Paul’s ‘grace’ revelation!
He realized that nothing he could do could add to the righteousness God had given him – as a free gift.
Summing up –
We too, like Paul, have to change our minds about our own ability to be perfect.
We must rely totally on Christ and His grace.
If we think we can ‘get in God’s good books’ by ‘being good’ and stopping sinning we are trusting in our own ability rather than in Christ’s cross.
But, if we ‘change our mind’, admit we have no chance of getting in God’s ‘good books’ by ourselves and rely totally on God’s grace, then we are free.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!
– Galatians 5:1
If we think our place in Heaven depends on our ‘being good’ we have lost all sight of the gospel. We are trusting in ourselves rather in Christ.
Summing up then, we cannot win, keep, or earn our place in Heaven…but thanks be to God! He loves us and He has saved us to be with Him forever.
Hallelujah!
Amen.
Filed under: Grace
God and Ant Man
I watched Ant Man yesterday.
It was brilliant.
Really fun.
Great story, superb dialogue, awesome action sequences. You’ll love it!
But it also carries the Gospel message.
Scott has just got out of jail. He’s a thief. Not a common robber but a high tech ‘cat burglar’ with a Masters Degree in electrical engineering.
It’s a real normal guy becomes super-hero story – the hero’s journey.
Scott’s got a daughter – Cassie – who he loves dearly but his ex-wife tells him he can’t see his daughter until he pays child support.
Scott complains he can’t find a job, to which his ex-wife replies:
You’re a hero in her eyes. Be the person she already believes you are.
And that’s us and God!
To God, you are a hero.
He already sees you as a hero.
We may see ourselves as sinners and failures but that’s not how God sees us.
God sees us as His beautiful children.
Not only that, He sees us as mighty warriors for the kingdom of God.
Heroes!
Look at Gideon. God calls him a mighty warrior, and Gideon’s like: “Who? Me?”
Let’s see ourselves as God already sees us:
By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who have been made holy.
– Hebrews 10:14
He sees us as perfect and holy.
If only we could see ourselves that way.
Surely great things would happen in our lives, in the lives of those around us and in the Kingdom of God.
Like Scott in Ant Man, let’s be the person God already believes we are!
Filed under: Grace
Are You Lukewarm?
Here’s a favorite question of some preachers: “Are you a lukewarm believer?” You’d better have a good answer because if you’re not sure – “Am I lukewarm?” – Jesus may spew you out of his mouth. What does that mean? He’ll reject you, you apathetic Christian! You may think you’re saved, but if you’re not […]
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