Grace Roots Podcast

57. Reminders of What God Has Done for Us Through Christ

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 16:00:00 -0600

I'm part of a fairly new Facebook page called Religion Free Movement on which various grace teachers share nuggets of grace, and start conversations that help us to build one another up in the love and grace of God. I recently asked the group to "remind me of what God has done for us through Christ and His mercy and grace," with the intentions of using their comments to make an uplifting, encouraging podcast. Well, here is the podcast with all of the encouraging comments about what God has done for us in Christ!

By the way, if you're not a part of this group on Facebook, feel free to join, and invite friends as well!

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56. What Does It Mean to Believe in Vain?

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Sun, 10 Nov 2019 12:00:00 -0600

Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the gospel that he preached, and he told them that they are saved by this gospel - "if you hold fast that word which I preached to you - unless you believed in vain." (1 Cor 15:2). This is a verse that scares many people, causing them to worry about whether or not they have believed in vain. Later in the chapter, Paul also used phrases such as "our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty" and "your faith is futile."

What did Paul mean by all of this? Was he laying down conditions to having true faith? Was he questioning the faith of the Corinthians? Should people who have believed upon Jesus worry whether or not their faith is futile or in vain if perhaps they have fallen or sinned to much?

Fortunately for us, there's this thing called "context." If we keep on reading, we can see exactly what Paul is talking about. Good news for those who worry about this: This has nothing to do with a person having faith and yet failing in their behavior. Paul was not addressing sinful behavior in this passage. Take a listen to this podcast as I show how Paul was highlighting the resurrection of Jesus. Everything in this passage in 1 Cor 15:1-19 is centered around whether or not Jesus rose from the dead. Everything about preaching in vain, believing in vain, holding fast to that which Paul preached, etc, has to do with whether or not Jesus really rose from the dead.

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55. What's Right With You?

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 14:00:00 -0500

Much of the teaching and preaching in the church today is focused on telling you what's wrong with you, and they will give you all kinds of rules, laws, steps, principles and plans so that you can fix all those things that are wrong with you. Of course, it's not only preachers and teachers, but other people as well. Parents to this. Authority figures. Even friends do this, as well as other church people.

Is this what life is meant to be about? Focusing on what's wrong with you and always trying to fix, fix, fix whatever is wrong? Is a focus on sin the focus that we're supposed to have in the church? When we focus on what's "wrong" with us, it generally yields the opposite of what we intend! We hope it will yield changed lives, fruit, righteous living, etc, but all it really yields guilt, despondency, fruitlessness.

What about focusing on what's right with you. I don't mean the various things that you do right. Rather, I mean focusing on the reality of who God has made you to be - righteous, holy, blameless, His beloved child, precious, etc - all apart from anything you've ever done. What if you believed these things about yourself (just as God believes these things about you), rather than fixating on fixing what you think needs to be fixed!

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54. Hebrews - A Contrast of Covenants

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Wed, 3 Apr 2019 02:00:00 -0500

These days we may take many things for granted regarding our understanding of Jesus and the New Covenant, but 2000 years ago the Jews were faced with quite a challenging decision to make. They had to choose between the covenant that they had known and had been walking in for centuries, which was based upon their promises to God to keep various laws, rules and rituals... and a brand new way in which the laws, rules and rituals were made obsolete, and replaced with faith in a Person, Jesus the Messiah. The writer of Hebrews called this way "a new and living way." He said it's a "better" way. He wrote his epistle to the Hebrews to explain the New Covenant to them, and to contrast it with that old way in which they'd been living for a long, long time.

The writer explained to them how the old way was was merely a shadow. Laws, circumcision, rituals, etc, were all merely shadows, but had no substance to them. The substance would be found solely in this Person - Jesus, with their old way being done away with. The centuries-old Levitical priesthood, with all the offerings and sacrifices that went along with it, had ended, and was replaced with the superior Priesthood of Jesus. Their precious covenant was said to be "weak" and "useless," and the writer was telling them of "a better hope through which we draw near to God."

All of this would be difficult for many Jews to accept. They had a choice: remain in the old way that didn't work, or choose the new and living way. They would be familiar with everything the writer wrote about. The Jewish and law-based terminology, along with all the covenant talk, would be very well understood by them. But they were faced with which way they would go. Which covenant... which way... would they choose? If we can understand some of this background regarding the circumstances that the Hebrew people were in back then, then we can better understand the message of the book of Hebrews.

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53. God Designed You to Be You

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 09:00:00 -0500

It's very important for you to be who you are. God has designed you the way that you are, and He placed you exactly where and how He wanted you to be in the body of Christ. He has done this joyfully and with great care! So you get to be who He created you to be, and you don't need to be who someone else is or who others expect you to be, and other people don't have to be who you think they should be! The body of Christ is a very diverse body, made up of many, many different parts. Rest in who you are. Look to God to work in and through you, and to be faithful to accomplish in you all that He has set out to do.

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52. The Gift of God's Righteousness

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 12:00:00 -0600

This time I'm doing a teaching that's a bit longer than normal for the Grace Roots podcast, although it's a very simple teaching. The Apostle Paul reveals to us that the righteousness of God is something that we can never earn or maintain through keeping God's law or through our good works. The good news is that while we were sinners, and had never done anything good, and had never done anything right, God made us right by giving us His very own righteousness. This could never be accomplished through the law. It's something that can only come from God. He gives it to us freely, by His grace, through faith, not our works.

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51. Is Everything in the Bible Written to Us Directly?

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 14:00:00 -0600

For this episode of the Grace Roots podcast, I'm including a short clip from a recent Growing in Grace podcast that I do with my friend Mike Kapler. If you'd like to hear the entire message, it's found here.

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50. If You Think You Can Keep God's Law, You've Watered It Down

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 12:00:00 -0600

There are many people who say that as believers in Christ we are to keep God's law, including the Ten Commandments and many other Old Testament laws and commandments. In this podcast, I make a bold statement: God's law is not doable, and anybody who thinks they can actually keep God's law has watered it down to a point that may seem doable to them. They have effectively changed God's law, making it into something that is not!

You see, the standard of God's law is not just that you "do your best" or "try hard" to keep it or parts of it, but rather than you keep it perfectly - and not just some laws, but all of it, in its entirety. You must keep it perfectly. So if you think you can actually keep the law, or even "do your best" to keep it, you've watered it down into something that it's not.

I encourage you to accept God's free gift of righteousness, that comes by grace, through faith, apart from His law, and give yourself over to His life in you, rather than making it about your own efforts.

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49. Faith in Christ Means You Have Rested from Your Works

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 09:00:00 -0500

There's nothing you can do to get yourself right with God or keep yourself right with God. There is no work that you can do to earn or maintain righteousness. The only way to be righteous is to receive the free gift of God's righteousness, by grace, through faith. Faith in Christ means you have rested from your works.

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48. I'm Not Ashamed That I'm Righteous Apart from What I Do

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Tue, 5 Dec 2017 11:00:00 -0600

Paul boldly declares in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ..." Why is he not ashamed? What is this gospel (good news) that he is not ashamed of? Many people don't know what he is truly talking about, because they quote Romans 1:16 without quoting the next verse along with it. To many believers, being "not ashamed of the gospel" means "not ashamed to stand up for righteous, godly living. While there's nothing wrong with that, that's not the gospel! Paul explains in Romans 1:17, "For in it (in the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith..." He goes on to explain in Romans 3:21-22 that this righteousness of God comes apart from the works of the law. It comes "through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe."

This is the gospel (good news) that Paul is not ashamed of. He had formerly been quite proud of his own righteous performance, but then when the revelation of Jesus and the gospel came to him, he counted his own righteous performance as dung and rubbish so that he could be found in Christ alone. He had formerly persecuted the church for saying that righteousness came from God apart from the works of the law, and now he himself was being persecuted for preaching that. Paul was preaching the gospel - God's righteousness given freely as a gift to all who believe - and he was making a bold, unashamed stand for it.

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47. Have You Believed in Vain? (No, You Haven't!)

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Thu, 7 Sep 2017 10:00:00 -0500

A certain verse that often scares people, or at the very least makes them wonder about the condition of their own faith, happens to be a verse that should actually be a source of great hope.

1 Cor 15:1-2
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you — unless you believed in vain.

At first glance, the words "if" and "unless" may make it seem as if there's a condition by which one's faith is actually genuine. But really, the condition isn't about the person's faith being genuine. It's really about the genuineness of the thing that the person has faith in. The people that Paul is writing to do have faith in Christ. So why would he suggest that perhaps their faith would be in vain? Some teach that if they've believed in Christ, but have gone back to a sinful lifestyle, then their faith has been in vain. But that's not at all what Paul is talking about here.

The real point is about whether Christ was raised from the dead or not. Some were saying that there is no such thing as the resurrection of the dead. If that's the case, then Christ was not raised from the dead. And if Christ was not raised from the dead, then they are believing in a man who died, and that's the end of the story! If Christ was not raised, then their faith is in vain. It's empty. It's futile. There's only hope for them in this life, but there's no hope beyond that.

That's really the whole point here. This is about whether people believe in a man who lived and died, or whether they believe in a man who lived and died and then rose again! You can rest assured that your faith is in a resurrected Christ, and you yourself also rose together with Him.

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46. Sins Not Purged by Our Sorrow; Only by the Blood of Jesus

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0500

Our hope really is founded upon nothing less than the blood of Jesus and His righteousness! We can do absolutely nothing to take away or purge our own sins. Jesus Himself has already done it and has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high! (Heb 1:3) We may feel varying degrees of sorrow for our sins, but no amount of sorrow can purge our sins. No amount of pleading with God to take away our sins can actually take away our sin. Again, it's already been done! It's been done once for all through the sufficient sacrifice of Jesus.

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45. Be Who You Are in Christ's Body and Let Others Be Who They Are

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0500

"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ." (1 Cor 12:12 NIV)

The worldwide body of Christ is one unit - one body - although just like a human body it is made up of many different and diverse parts that all have different and diverse functions. The Spirit of God has placed each member exactly where He has seen fit to place them. In the church today, some people feel pressure from other people to function in ways that are contrary to how God has made them to be. This leads to much confusion and frustration, and to a body that doesn't function very well.

There is one Spirit and one Head to this one body, but again, the one body is made up of many different parts. Be who you are in Christ's body and allow others to be who they are. This is how the body is meant to function, and it functions well this way!

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44. Saved by Grace Through Faith Apart from Works

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Fri, 4 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0500

We are saved by grace, through faith, apart from works. If our works have anything to do with it, then it's no longer grace. When we were saved, we were saved despite having had bad works. Now, we still have bad works sometimes, but those bad works don't "unsave" us. Otherwise, it would no longer be grace by which we're saved. We're saved either by grace or works, but it can't be both.

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43. Jesus Is the Guarantee That We're Saved to the Uttermost

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Wed, 2 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0500

A few podcasts ago I talked about how our promises are no guarantee, but God's promise is. The oath that God made to Himself, written about in Hebrews 6, is where our hope lies. It's a hope we can cling to with certainty! Hebrews 7 brings up the oath again, after showing how the Law was "weak" and "unprofitable," and it could make nothing perfect, so therefore it was "annulled." Something better came along, based upon God's oath rather than being based upon the repeated sacrifices of the law or our works. This oath makes "Jesus guarantor of a better covenant." (Heb 7:22). There had formerly been a ministry of mortal priests, offering sacrifices day after day, which could never make anyone perfect. But through the one offering of Jesus, who lives forever, all our sins have been taken away and we have been perfected forever.

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42. The Power of an Endless Life: Jesus Perfects Us Forever

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 10:00:00 -0500

Under the Old Covenant, there was priest after priest after priest who continually offered sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice - all of which could never do a thing to make anyone perfect! The reason many priests were needed is because they were prevented by death from continuing on. So no perfection could come from the Levitical Priesthood.

One reason the New Covenant is different - and better - and in fact does away with the Old Covenant, is because the Priesthood is "according to the power of an endless life," referring of course to the life of Jesus. While no one could be made perfect or right through the many sacrifices performed under the Old Covenant Levitical priesthood, through the one perfect sacrifice of Jesus we have been perfected forever.

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41. How Jesus Supersedes and Does Away With the Old Covenant

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 14:00:00 -0500

In the book of Hebrews, we're reminded that Jesus is "High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek." Just who is this Melchizedek? Very little is said about him in the Bible, and yet He is very significant when it comes to Jesus and His priesthood, which is far superior to that of the Levite priesthood. In this podcast I talk about what all this means, and why and how Jesus is not only superior to the Old Covenant, but does away with it.

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40. Our Promises Are No Guarantee, But God's Promise Is!

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 08:00:00 -0500

Salvation is not based upon our works, abilities or promises to God. What we have in Christ is a surety and a hope and a steadfastness that is not based upon ourselves, but rather is based upon God’s promises and His works. If our salvation has anything to do with our works or promises, then it cannot be of grace and it cannot be of God’s promise. God, who cannot lie, made an oath to Himself, and this oath is our guarantee. Our promises to God are no guarantee! God’s oath, however, is where our hope lies. This is a hope we can cling to with certainty. "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast."

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39. We're Righteous Through Christ's Performance, Not Ours

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 10:00:00 -0500

On a recent Growing in Grace podcast (#603) we talked about how believers are identified as righteous apart from their behavior. Faith-based righteousness isn't a matter of pursuing righteousness through what we do, but simply through believing what Christ has done. Here I share a snippet from that podcast in which I talk about this. We've been justified, cleansed, made righteous and made holy (sanctified) through the blood of Jesus, not through our own performance. Do yourself a favor, and spare yourself the anxiety, depression and fear that can result from thinking that it's up to you to gain or maintain a certain level of righteousness. Believe instead in the finished work of Christ.

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Clash of the Covenants - new book from Mike Kapler

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Thu, 11 May 2017 11:08:00 -0500

The brand new book, Clash of the Covenants - Escaping Religious Bondage Through the Grace Guarantee, from Growing in Grace co-host Mike Kapler is now available for Kindle on Amazon! Remember, you don't need a Kindle in order to read. Download the Kindle app on your computer, tablet or smartphone.

GOD IS NOT YOUR PAROLE OFFICER, HE BROKE YOU OUT OF PRISON!
Have you been robbed by religion? Have you ever wondered where you really stood with God? For everyone trapped in a mindset of wondering whether God is angry or disappointed with them due to a lack of performance or dedication, help is on the way. In fact, it already arrived more than a couple thousand years ago.

Christian churches are filled with people who have been hearing Bible teaching built upon a foundation of mixing together two very different covenants that are not alike. Frequently embraced in most Christian circles, the practice of combining the old and new covenants has resulted in a diluted version of the gospel. This religious formula has caused many to avoid the institutional church altogether, often puts them in a state of confusion, and leaves them hungering and thirsting for a new identity of righteousness, unaware it has already been provided.

The current reality of unconditional love, peace, freedom, forgiveness, and everything else that is good, has been gifted to us by God's grace through the finished work of Jesus Christ. This is the message most people have been longing to experience, but it may require a complete change of mind from a lifetime of traditional church doctrines that have left many drowning in guilt and feeling as though they are in a state of bondage. God has provided a way of escape from the burdensome religious business—it is through a New Covenant where it is impossible for us to fail, because Jesus is the mediator and guarantee of this better covenant, and it has been established on better promises.

38. What an Exchange! Jesus Became Sin - You Became Righteous

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 13:38:00 -0600

On this week's Growing in Grace podcast (#587) we talked about how Jesus Became Sin and You Became Righteous. Jesus didn't become sin through His own sinful behavior. As completely righteous as He was, He became sin. In the same way, you didn't become righteous through your own righteous behavior. Even with all the sinful behavior you've ever done, you became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! Here's a short snippet from the podcast.

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37. To Attempt to Be Righteous Is to Be Ignorant of God's Righteousness

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 10:27:00 -0600

On this week's Growing in Grace podcast (#586) we talked about How to Be Righteous. Hint: It's not about what you do! Here's a snippet from the podcast in which I brought up how Paul talked about those who were ignorant of God's righteousness. How were they ignorant of God's righteousness? They attempted to be righteous by their own works, as opposed to receiving God's free gift of His own righteousness.

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36. You Are the Part of God's Body That He Wants You to Be

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Thu, 2 Feb 2017 13:38:00 -0600

God has placed you in the body of Christ exactly where He wants you to be. There are some members of the body of Christ whose work is highly visible and recognized by others. There are some members whose work is barely, if at all, seen by others. Ultimately, our applause comes from God, not from man, so I hope to encourage you to keep on being who you are in Christ, whether you are highly visible or barely seen.

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35. There No Longer Remains a Sacrifice for Sins

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Thu, 7 Jan 2016 13:04:00 -0600

Many people stumble on a verse that is unfortunately taken out of context: Heb 10:26 "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins..."

The point of the book of Hebrews was to show the superiority of Jesus and His one sacrifice through which sin was taken away and through which God remembers our sins no more, over the Old Covenant system in which sins were never taken away and in fact were only remembered! Hebrews 10:26 isn't saying that Jesus' sacrifice doesn't apply to people who sin willfully. That would contradict the whole point the writer was making! Rather, as we look at the verse in context, we see that the point is that Jesus' one sacrifice does indeed apply to people who sin, and that there is no other sacrifice that they can turn to.

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34. What Christ Became for Us

graceroots@gmail.com (Joel Brueseke) — Thu, 5 Nov 2015 11:58:00 -0600

There are various things that many believers are trying to earn or gain by their efforts, that are really a gift that God has given us. In fact, Paul writes that Christ Himself became these things for us: Wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. In Christ's name we have been (past tense) washed, sanctified and justified, and it's not by our works or efforts but it's "by the Spirit of our God"!

This 2 minute podcast is a snippet from a past Growing in Grace podcast entitled "The Gift of Sanctification."

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