righteousness – Page 6

702. Born Identity: You Are Righteous

May 12, 2019 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Sadly, most believers in Jesus Christ have been taught they are identified as sinners and have failed to realize the gift of God’s righteousness that has been inherited by faith, apart from works. The Jewish people pursued righteousness under the law by trying to keep the Ten Commandments, plus 603 other commands and rules from the law which came through Moses. Yet they never attained a state of righteousness through that law. Nobody was righteous under that system… not one. On the other hand, Gentiles who weren’t even chasing after right standing with God attained righteousness by faith. We have been gifted with His righteousness. In Him, we are in a state or condition that is acceptable to God because of what Jesus did for us (and not what we do for Him). It is not progressive, nor does it increase or decrease based upon our performance or behavior. Growing in our understanding of this grace that has been poured out upon us - and abides in us - now empowers us to outwardly reflect the light of Jesus Christ.

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700. Podcast 700 – Growing in Grace Highlights

April 28, 2019 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Just a couple of months ago we celebrated 14 years of the Growing in Grace podcast. This week we hit another milestone - our 700th Growing in Grace podcast! To create a special edition of the podcast, both Mike and Joel have dug into the archives to share some "highlights" from past Growing in Grace podcasts. We truly enjoy sharing our hearts every week regarding this wonderful gospel of grace, and we hope you enjoy hearing these gospel nuggets.

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694. Delivered from Bondage (The Law of Commandments)

March 17, 2019 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Continuing with our short series on “The Law is Not of Faith.” In the book of Galatians, Paul uses the women of Abraham (Sarah and Hagar) as illustrations while comparing the two covenants - the Old and the New. One gave birth to a child of promise (Sarah) and the other came from Mt. Sinai and gave birth to bondage. We know this is where the Mosaic law was given birth - including the Ten Commandments. It was something the Jewish people were freed from because of the child of promise. Religious doctrines which encourage us to live by the old commandments from that covenant have missed the point… we can’t live by something that is unable to bring life or righteousness to us. There is no passage that states we should abide by certain laws while others have expired. There is no exhortation in Scripture that trying to keep the commandments from the previous covenant will improve morals, reduce sin, and bring sanctification. In fact, we find the opposite within new covenant writings. We have something better in Christ: It’s called faith (and the law is not based upon faith).

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693. Children of Inheritance – Not Slaves Under the Law

March 10, 2019 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Continuing on our current thread that "the law is not of faith." The Apostle Paul continues to explain and reveal the significant differences between law and faith in Galatians Chapter 4. Those who had formerly been under the law of Moses were described as slaves held in bondage. Jesus was born of a woman under that same system of law in order to redeem those who were under the law. This would result in the slaves becoming children... heirs of the promise. Paul would continue to show that most people who want to live by the law have no idea what the law says and requires (they had the impossible task of doing all of it). The child of slavery came through Hagar, symbolizing the Old Covenant at Mt. Sinai where the law was given - it gave birth to spiritual bondage. But the child of promise came through Sarah, symbolizing the freedom of grace and faith found in the New Covenant. Both Jew and Gentile believers are now children of the free woman.

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692. A Life of Faith Apart from the Law

March 3, 2019 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Faith. Grace. Righteousness. Forgiveness. Life. Salvation. These are gifts we’ve been delivered into since God established a New Covenant where both Jew and Gentile have been invited into the covenant - Christ Jesus is that covenant that has been given and established after the cross. These things were not attainable for those Jews living under the religious system of the Mosaic law from the Old Covenant. Their efforts at trying to abide by the many commandments fell far short of the requirement. The new way came by an oath or a promise. The premise of most Christian church doctrines tragically resembles a train-wreck where law and faith have crashed head-on, leaving people in a state of anxiety, pain, fear and bondage. Our program this week covers many of the differences between the law of works compared to the ministry of faith and grace… and why we should avoid the mixture.

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Top Picks of 2018

December 30, 2018 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Happy New Year from the Growing in Grace podcast! We'll return in 2019 with brand new weekly Growing in Grace episodes, but this week's topic is the Top Picks of 2018. Mike and Joel have both independently selected two of their favorite episodes from this past year.

We'll start with this pick from Mike: Dead to Sin, Alive to Righteousness. (Podcast 655).

"This is one of my personal favorite Growing in Grace podcasts in 2018. It quickly and simply covers a handful of topics that are commonly misunderstood within the vocabulary of legalistic religious circles:

Under grace, can we just go out and do whatever we want?
Sin, repentance, and struggles.
Understanding who you are: The righteousness identity of a believer.
Already forgiven and sins taken away."

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Joel's first pick comes from a 17 part series that we did called "Summarizing the Scripture." As we were nearing the end of the series, we did an episode called Contradictions or Different Covenants? (Podcast 645).

"I like this episode because it's a great summary of the differences between the Old and New Covenants, and we talk about why did Jesus often taught works-based teachings that seem to contradict the essence of the New Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, it was up to the people to keep the covenant, but all they ever did was fail. Everything in the New Covenant is based on the finished work of Jesus and God's oath that He made to Himself, and not the works of the people. It always confused me why Paul seemed to teach righteousness as a free gift that we receive apart from works, and yet Jesus seemed to teach that it was all works-based.

What I eventually came to understand is that Jesus was teaching the Old Covenant to those who were under it (Israel), for the purpose of showing them that they were not keeping it (and could not keep it), and they instead needed to turn, by faith, to this other covenant that was based upon God's oath to Himself and not their ability to keep a covenant with God."

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Next, from Mike, The Golden Rule: A Spiritual Death Sentence (Podcast 658).

"Here is one of my top 5 favorite Growing in Grace podcasts of 2018. It takes a traditional mindset 'head-on' with the subject of The Golden Rule as stated by Jesus:

'So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets' (Matthew 7:12).

Traditional Christianity has mistakenly mixed this law from the Old Covenant into church tenets and creeds. With one sentence He summarized the entire law which nobody could keep and it brought a sentence of guilt, bondage and death … not life. There is a better way."

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Another of Joel's favorites from 2018: The Gospel Is the Gift of God's Righteousness. (Podcast 665).

"Back to the basics with this one. We talk about questions such as What is the gospel? and How does it differ from the 'bad news?' The 'bad news' is that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but yet the 'good news' - the gospel - is that God justifies ungodly people by gifting them with His very own righteousness. The gospel reveals the righteousness of God that is given as a gift to those who do nothing but believe. Those trying to attain righteousness by their own works don't find it, and yet it's given freely to those who aren't even trying. This episode is one of my favorites because it's a great reminder to me that I have nothing to boast about before God, and I can stop trying to perform for God in order to attain or maintain right standing with Him. I've already received it, solely as His gift to me."

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We hope you enjoy our year end picks! Do you have any favorites? If you'd like to hear more, check out the "Most Popular Posts" in the column to the right, which lists the most viewed posts on this website in the last year.

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680. 1 John 1:9 (Part 4) No Longer Asking for What Has Already Been Given (Forgiveness)

December 2, 2018 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

This week we reflect on a relatively small number of scriptural passages which confirm our forgiveness in Jesus Christ. It’s “forever forgiveness” that occurred through one righteous act at the cross of Jesus Christ. His blood not only brought a permanent forgiveness of all sins (past, present and future), but cleansed us from all unrighteousness. The work of Jesus has already brought us the gift of justification, righteousness and sanctification. In him we are new, alive, clean, holy, perfected and so much more. In addition to our previous programs in this series, part of our goal is to help believers understand that the context of 1 John 1:9 was not meant for us to keep trying to remember all of our sins, mistakes and shortcomings in order to try confessing all of them be forgiven again. The church has failed to realize this keeps people in a sin consciousness which Jesus came to free people from. It only brings a temporary emotional release from guilt, leaving people with a false identity by thinking they are just sinners who can’t seem to overcome. A better way to living in victory is placing faith in what Jesus did, and that it was more than enough.

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670. The Letter of the Law Vs. the Spirit of Life

September 23, 2018 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

When believers fall into the trap of getting focused on improving behavior, it often leads them back into a place of bondage rather than the freedom Jesus came to give us. Your behavior will never reach the perfect standard God required under the law of commandments given to Israel. Trying to follow those rules and statutes only caused sin to increase. The letter of the law killed, but we now live in a New Covenant of the Spirit, which gives life. The power of grace found within the Spirit of God who lives in us is a very different ministry than what Israel went through under a system of works which did not lead to righteousness within their hearts. On this week’s program, our encouragement is to abandon the attempt to mix Old Covenant commands with New Covenant grace … because in spite of what the religious world has been teaching, they are not compatible.

669. Paul’s Testimony: I Stopped Trying to Keep the Law of Commandments

September 16, 2018 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

The title of this week’s program is an obvious paraphrase, but it isn’t far off from what Paul explained when it came to being freed and delivered from the Mosaic Law with its burdensome commandments. He found out that what he thought would give life had actually proven to bring death and despair, while causing sin to increase. Today many believers will get up in front of the church and talk about how they used to do bad things and now they work on doing good things. To be clear, pursuing sin will never be a profitable venture - less sin is a good thing. But this was not Paul’s testimony. He didn’t boast about how he used to murder and then stopped after he was saved. He emphasized that we’ve been made a new creation, and the value of getting to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection. God’s life in us, has caused us to pass from death into life in a New Covenant that isn’t based upon our ability to a meet certain standard of rules and regulations. Instead, we live by the righteousness of faith with the power of Jesus Christ abiding in us.

665. The Gospel Is the Gift of God’s Righteousness

August 19, 2018 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Something commonly found in our Christian vocabulary is the word gospel. But just exactly how is it defined from a scriptural perspective? Ask a room full of believers what the gospel is, and it’s likely you’ll receive many different answers. So even something as commonplace as “the gospel” is often described in many different ways. This isn’t necessarily always a bad thing, but often our personal perspectives about what we think the gospel is will sometimes contradict what other believers think. Can’t we agree on something that should be so simple? In order to drill through all of the traditional fluff, we take a look at a foundational passage from the Apostle Paul as he reveals the primary meaning of the gospel, and how it differs from the “bad news” that was in place before Jesus came along.

663. Reigning in Life

August 5, 2018 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

When the focus of our belief in God is merely built upon good and evil—trying to avoid evil and working at doing good—it will not set us free, nor will it help us to do what is good and right. Instead our mindset should be on the person of Jesus Christ and God’s love and grace. Once we begin to understand that we died and were raised with Jesus Christ—and have received His life in us—we can begin to experience the gift of righteousness that will allow us to be more aware and conscious of what He accomplished on our behalf. A deeper revelation of the gospel and the finished work of Christ will help us to escape whatever bondage empty religion will try to burden us with.

661. Living in Grace and the Will of God – Part 2

July 22, 2018 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Christians have often been working from a mindset that has encouraged them to continually seek the specific “will of God” in our everyday lives. It sounds religiously correct, and it will preach pretty good during Sunday sermons, but in some instances, it may lead people into a type of bondage that leads to fear and worry. There’s nothing wrong with seeking guidance from the Lord regarding specific situations in our lives. But you need not fear as to whether you are in God’s will as a believer in Christ.