I’m reading The Grace Outpouring at the moment which tells the story of what Roy Godwin has had the pleasure of watching God do in and around the Christian retreat centre, Ffald-y-Brenin. It’s an easy read, but a wonderfully deep book, touching on many areas of our faith that are increasingly relevant as we adjust to living as disciples of Jesus in the post-christendom 21st century. The following excerpt is Roy’s summary of the gospel Jesus preached – the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

So what is this good news of the kingdom? The message is actually much more than “You can have your sins forgiven.” God has chosen to enter time and space, to destroy the works of the evil one, who had usurped, by man’s invitation, the rule of God over the earth. This unfolding of God’s purpose on earth involves the created order as well as individuals. His reign has started, and it’s here on earth. The kingdom of God has come, it’s been activated, all things are being redeemed. This is the good news.

When the Father raised Jesus to life and exalted him to his right hand and gave him all power in heaven and on earth and the name that is above every name, that every knee should bow, it meant that all the existing powers on earth were now called to yield to him (Philippians 2: 6– 11). When the kingdom of God is released on earth, those other rulers and principalities have to bow, they have to yield; their power is broken.

Jesus did not preach about a kingdom that was way off in the future but one that is in the here and now, in the present. It has drawn near, he said, and it is among us; it has come, and it is amazing news for all who have ears to hear. The fullness is yet to be seen, but right now, where we are, heaven can touch earth.

The disciples were to declare the very same gospel of the kingdom as they went from town to town. He had called them to be with him and to declare the kingdom in power. They were told to bind and loose and to heal the sick as part of their kingdom mandate.

Godwin, Roy; Roberts, Dave, 2012. The Grace Outpouring: Blessing Others through Prayer (p. 151). Emphasis mine.

I’m reading The Grace Outpouring at the moment which tells the story of what Roy Godwin has had the pleasure of watching God do in and around the Christian retreat centre, Ffald-y-Brenin. It’s an easy read, but a wonderfully deep book, touching on many areas of our faith that are increasingly relevant as we adjust to living as disciples of Jesus in the post-christendom 21st century. The following excerpt is Roy’s summary of the gospel Jesus preached – the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

So what is this good news of the kingdom? The message is actually much more than “You can have your sins forgiven.” God has chosen to enter time and space, to destroy the works of the evil one, who had usurped, by man’s invitation, the rule of God over the earth. This unfolding of God’s purpose on earth involves the created order as well as individuals. His reign has started, and it’s here on earth. The kingdom of God has come, it’s been activated, all things are being redeemed. This is the good news.

When the Father raised Jesus to life and exalted him to his right hand and gave him all power in heaven and on earth and the name that is above every name, that every knee should bow, it meant that all the existing powers on earth were now called to yield to him (Philippians 2: 6– 11). When the kingdom of God is released on earth, those other rulers and principalities have to bow, they have to yield; their power is broken.

Jesus did not preach about a kingdom that was way off in the future but one that is in the here and now, in the present. It has drawn near, he said, and it is among us; it has come, and it is amazing news for all who have ears to hear. The fullness is yet to be seen, but right now, where we are, heaven can touch earth.

The disciples were to declare the very same gospel of the kingdom as they went from town to town. He had called them to be with him and to declare the kingdom in power. They were told to bind and loose and to heal the sick as part of their kingdom mandate.

Godwin, Roy; Roberts, Dave, 2012. The Grace Outpouring: Blessing Others through Prayer (p. 151). Emphasis mine.

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N.T. Wright reflecting on what his parting words to his family would be – Look at Jesus!

I’m going to say at the outset that not all traditions are bad – some traditions are enriching, valuable parts of what it is to be human and live in fellowship with other humans. As a fairly new Father, one of the things I can’t wait to do is establish family traditions that will give my family a sense of unity and history as we go through life together. So this is by no means an anti-Tradition rant for the sake of it.

However, there are other traditions that aren’t so good. For example, there’s an old story about a newly married couple and their first roast dinner.

Watching his wife prepare the joint of meat, the husband bemusedly watched her cut two inches from either end of the meat and threw it in the bin. Thinking it an awful waste, he asked her “Why have you just cut those ends off?”

“That’s just how my Mum taught me to prepare a roast. She’s done it all her life, and I never thought to ask her why,” she replied as she carried on seasoning the meat.

“Fair enough,” the husband said. “I don’t want to cut across family traditions. After all, Mum knows best!”

A year or two later, they were visiting the wife’s family for Sunday lunch and he saw his mother-in-law cutting the ends off the joint. As she threw them in the bin, his curiosity was piqued again. “I’m just wondering, why do you cut the ends off the joint? I know you’ve done it your whole life, but I can’t see why!”

“You know, I’m not sure,” the mother-in-law replied. “It’s something I picked up from my Mum, and I never thought to ask her why.”

“I don’t want to cut across family traditions, but I can’t help thinking it’s such a waste throwing the ends away like that. Do you think your Mum had a reason?”

“I’m sure she did. Now you mention it, I’m curious too. I think I’ll ring her and find out.”

So the mother-in-law picked up the phone, called up her mother and the whole room waited as the phone rang. After a while, the Grandmother picked up the phone.

“Hi Mum, how are you?” asked the mother-in-law. “Look, we’ve just been here talking about how you taught me to cook a Sunday dinner.  Well, we realised that I don’t know why you always used to cut the ends off a joint of meat before sticking it in the oven. Could you tell me the reason?”

“Oh, of course dear, that’s easy! When I first got married to your father we couldn’t afford a very big oven, and the joint of meat was just too big to fit in. So I used to cut the ends off so that it would fit through the oven door. I guess I got into the habit of doing it. Even when we got a bigger oven years later, I just carried on doing it without even thinking!”

I’m pretty sure this never actually happened, but it illustrates a very important point about tradition. There are traditions that end up robbing people of what could be theirs. The tradition in the story above is a silly example, but it illustrates how a tradition cheated three generations of a family out of all the meat that was theirs to enjoy. In the same way, I believe that the 21st century church has inherited traditions invented over the centuries that have taken them away from the purity of the gospel. They are traditions that pull Old Covenant principles and practices into the lives of those who have been redeemed under the New Covenant in Christ’s blood.

One of Jesus’ criticisms of the Pharisees is that they created traditions and valued them over the word of God. The trouble is that these traditions made the word of God of no effect (Mark 7:13). Where these traditions were accepted, they literally choked the life out of God’s word so that it wasn’t able to have the full effect in people’s lives.

The traditions we have accepted in the church do the exact same thing in the lives of believers today and rob us of our full inheritance in Christ. We fail to realise that there is a profound disconnect between the covenants and that you just can’t mix law and grace and still expect the promises of God to be of full effect in our lives.

In all the years I’ve been writing on this blog there have been many things I’ve heard from preachers and read in books that have challenged these traditions, but I’ve held back from sharing them here out of fear of what people might think. In doing this, I’ve realised  that I’ve been bowing down to the very traditions that nullify the word of God and make it of no effect in my life. Well, it’s been going on too long.

I believe God is leading me into a process of detox where the traditions are going to be challenged and chucked out. So, this is me serving notice that I am going to share what He shows me, paying no heed to what people may think or say. The religious traditions have been binding me for too long, and their time is up.

Let the freedom break out!

I’m going to say at the outset that not all traditions are bad – some traditions are enriching, valuable parts of what it is to be human and live in fellowship with other humans. As a fairly new Father, one of the things I can’t wait to do is establish family traditions that will give my family a sense of unity and history as we go through life together. So this is by no means an anti-Tradition rant for the sake of it.

However, there are other traditions that aren’t so good. For example, there’s an old story about a newly married couple and their first roast dinner.

Watching his wife prepare the joint of meat, the husband bemusedly watched her cut two inches from either end of the meat and threw it in the bin. Thinking it an awful waste, he asked her “Why have you just cut those ends off?”

“That’s just how my Mum taught me to prepare a roast. She’s done it all her life, and I never thought to ask her why,” she replied as she carried on seasoning the meat.

“Fair enough,” the husband said. “I don’t want to cut across family traditions. After all, Mum knows best!”

A year or two later, they were visiting the wife’s family for Sunday lunch and he saw his mother-in-law cutting the ends off the joint. As she threw them in the bin, his curiosity was piqued again. “I’m just wondering, why do you cut the ends off the joint? I know you’ve done it your whole life, but I can’t see why!”

“You know, I’m not sure,” the mother-in-law replied. “It’s something I picked up from my Mum, and I never thought to ask her why.”

“I don’t want to cut across family traditions, but I can’t help thinking it’s such a waste throwing the ends away like that. Do you think your Mum had a reason?”

“I’m sure she did. Now you mention it, I’m curious too. I think I’ll ring her and find out.”

So the mother-in-law picked up the phone, called up her mother and the whole room waited as the phone rang. After a while, the Grandmother picked up the phone.

“Hi Mum, how are you?” asked the mother-in-law. “Look, we’ve just been here talking about how you taught me to cook a Sunday dinner.  Well, we realised that I don’t know why you always used to cut the ends off a joint of meat before sticking it in the oven. Could you tell me the reason?”

“Oh, of course dear, that’s easy! When I first got married to your father we couldn’t afford a very big oven, and the joint of meat was just too big to fit in. So I used to cut the ends off so that it would fit through the oven door. I guess I got into the habit of doing it. Even when we got a bigger oven years later, I just carried on doing it without even thinking!”

I’m pretty sure this never actually happened, but it illustrates a very important point about tradition. There are traditions that end up robbing people of what could be theirs. The tradition in the story above is a silly example, but it illustrates how a tradition cheated three generations of a family out of all the meat that was theirs to enjoy. In the same way, I believe that the 21st century church has inherited traditions invented over the centuries that have taken them away from the purity of the gospel. They are traditions that pull Old Covenant principles and practices into the lives of those who have been redeemed under the New Covenant in Christ’s blood.

One of Jesus’ criticisms of the Pharisees is that they created traditions and valued them over the word of God. The trouble is that these traditions made the word of God of no effect (Mark 7:13). Where these traditions were accepted, they literally choked the life out of God’s word so that it wasn’t able to have the full effect in people’s lives.

The traditions we have accepted in the church do the exact same thing in the lives of believers today and rob us of our full inheritance in Christ. We fail to realise that there is a profound disconnect between the covenants and that you just can’t mix law and grace and still expect the promises of God to be of full effect in our lives.

In all the years I’ve been writing on this blog there have been many things I’ve heard from preachers and read in books that have challenged these traditions, but I’ve held back from sharing them here out of fear of what people might think. In doing this, I’ve realised  that I’ve been bowing down to the very traditions that nullify the word of God and make it of no effect in my life. Well, it’s been going on too long.

I believe God is leading me into a process of detox where the traditions are going to be challenged and chucked out. So, this is me serving notice that I am going to share what He shows me, paying no heed to what people may think or say. The religious traditions have been binding me for too long, and their time is up.

Let the freedom break out!

]]>

I know it’s the middle of May, but I’d like to share a bit about a Valentine’s Day with my wife where I got it completely wrong. We had talked a bit about what we wanted to do to celebrate the day together, and my wife made it clear that what she really wanted was to have a night out. In the end, we didn’t manage to  find a baby sitter, so she then said that she’d be happy with a posh ready meal from a supermarket so that we’d be free to spend the time after dinner not cleaning up the kitchen. She left me responsible for working out what we’d eat, which is where things started to go wrong…

Looking for inspiration, I started googling for Valentine’s meal ideas, and several blogs made the reasonable-sounding point that Valentine’s Day is the time of year we get to show our loved ones just how much they mean to us by pushing the boat out in the kitchen. I realised that my wife is absolutely worth taking the time and effort to cook something extra special. I wanted her to know just how much I love her, and darn it, I was going to show it with my kitchen skills!

I got researching recipes, sketching out menu ideas, and generally getting excited by how my wife would be overcome with emotion once she saw how much effort I was prepared to exert on her behalf. Come Valentine’s Day evening I got back from work, headed to the kitchen (leaving my wife with the baby she’d spent the whole day looking after), and got cracking. I made sauce from scratch, chopped vegetables, and even got the meat out of the fridge early so that it could warm up to room temperature for more even cooking. While she was getting our daughter ready for bed, I lit candles and set the table, making sure the mood was just right. Come 8:00, it was all ready!

Imagine my confusion when we sat down to dinner and I found out that none of it had blessed my wife. What’s more, instead of seeing love expressed toward her, she saw someone who hadn’t listened to her at all. You see, she had made it very clear what she wanted – me and my attention. She wanted to spend an evening not worrying about domesticities, so that we could relax together in each other’s presence. Instead, she received a husband who arrived home from work, left her to look after our daughter on her own, then spent the best part of the evening ignoring her while I got on with preparing something she had never asked for. I’ll be honest, she needed to tell me where I’d gone wrong a few times, but thankfully my wife is incredibly gracious, loving and patient with her thick-headed bloke.

After that evening, I vowed to learn to listen to my wife better. I’ll then be able to show her my love by giving her what she really wants and not something of my own invention, spurred on by what everyone else says a romantic gesture should be. Not that there’s no room for planning surprises and taking initiative in that way, but if I’m told what my wife would prefer, I really would listen to her.

Until this weekend, when I found myself doing it again!

My wife had been ill just before the weekend, and her stomach was still a bit fragile so she just wanted something that would fill it up without stirring it up. Meanwhile, I was thinking “Well, she was ill yesterday, and she seems a lot better today, so let’s make up for it by cooking her something special!” Again, I got researching recipes and started presenting her with ideas, when she repeated what she wanted. I realised what I was doing and told her “Sorry, I’m doing it again – I’m so eager to show you my love by doing special things for you that I don’t stop and think about whether you actually want it or not! I’ve heard you now, so I’ll cook you something simple.” Then it hit me that this is exactly how we treat God.

So often, we are filled with a passion to show God how much we love Him and how much He means to us. So we start planning grand gestures and looking for ways we can serve Him. Before we know it, we’re busy doing things that we imagine will bless His heart and bring Him pleasure, but rarely take the time to really find out whether He actually wants those things from us. Even though the motive is our love for Him, we can end up missing the mark and not pleasing Him as we really want to. We need to slow down, spend time with Him and ask Him what it is that He wants, which means we really do need to learn how to hear His voice. This way, we can spend our time wisely, genuinely blessing His heart.

In the same way my wife had made it clear what she wanted, He has shown us in the Scriptures what it is that pleases Him, and in some future posts I’m going to write a bit more about what it is that pleases God. For now, maybe it’s a good time to get alone with God and ask Him to show you what He wants from you, right now at this moment. Tell Him you want to please Him, but you need to know how, and then trust that He will show you because He will!

]]>

I know it’s the middle of May, but I’d like to share a bit about a Valentine’s Day with my wife where I got it completely wrong. We had talked a bit about what we wanted to do to celebrate the day together, and my wife made it clear that what she really wanted was to have a night out. In the end, we didn’t manage to  find a baby sitter, so she then said that she’d be happy with a posh ready meal from a supermarket so that we’d be free to spend the time after dinner not cleaning up the kitchen. She left me responsible for working out what we’d eat, which is where things started to go wrong…

Looking for inspiration, I started googling for Valentine’s meal ideas, and several blogs made the reasonable-sounding point that Valentine’s Day is the time of year we get to show our loved ones just how much they mean to us by pushing the boat out in the kitchen. I realised that my wife is absolutely worth taking the time and effort to cook something extra special. I wanted her to know just how much I love her, and darn it, I was going to show it with my kitchen skills!

I got researching recipes, sketching out menu ideas, and generally getting excited by how my wife would be overcome with emotion once she saw how much effort I was prepared to exert on her behalf. Come Valentine’s Day evening I got back from work, headed to the kitchen (leaving my wife with the baby she’d spent the whole day looking after), and got cracking. I made sauce from scratch, chopped vegetables, and even got the meat out of the fridge early so that it could warm up to room temperature for more even cooking. While she was getting our daughter ready for bed, I lit candles and set the table, making sure the mood was just right. Come 8:00, it was all ready!

Imagine my confusion when we sat down to dinner and I found out that none of it had blessed my wife. What’s more, instead of seeing love expressed toward her, she saw someone who hadn’t listened to her at all. You see, she had made it very clear what she wanted – me and my attention. She wanted to spend an evening not worrying about domesticities, so that we could relax together in each other’s presence. Instead, she received a husband who arrived home from work, left her to look after our daughter on her own, then spent the best part of the evening ignoring her while I got on with preparing something she had never asked for. I’ll be honest, she needed to tell me where I’d gone wrong a few times, but thankfully my wife is incredibly gracious, loving and patient with her thick-headed bloke.

After that evening, I vowed to learn to listen to my wife better. I’ll then be able to show her my love by giving her what she really wants and not something of my own invention, spurred on by what everyone else says a romantic gesture should be. Not that there’s no room for planning surprises and taking initiative in that way, but if I’m told what my wife would prefer, I really would listen to her.

Until this weekend, when I found myself doing it again!

My wife had been ill just before the weekend, and her stomach was still a bit fragile so she just wanted something that would fill it up without stirring it up. Meanwhile, I was thinking “Well, she was ill yesterday, and she seems a lot better today, so let’s make up for it by cooking her something special!” Again, I got researching recipes and started presenting her with ideas, when she repeated what she wanted. I realised what I was doing and told her “Sorry, I’m doing it again – I’m so eager to show you my love by doing special things for you that I don’t stop and think about whether you actually want it or not! I’ve heard you now, so I’ll cook you something simple.” Then it hit me that this is exactly how we treat God.

So often, we are filled with a passion to show God how much we love Him and how much He means to us. So we start planning grand gestures and looking for ways we can serve Him. Before we know it, we’re busy doing things that we imagine will bless His heart and bring Him pleasure, but rarely take the time to really find out whether He actually wants those things from us. Even though the motive is our love for Him, we can end up missing the mark and not pleasing Him as we really want to. We need to slow down, spend time with Him and ask Him what it is that He wants, which means we really do need to learn how to hear His voice. This way, we can spend our time wisely, genuinely blessing His heart.

In the same way my wife had made it clear what she wanted, He has shown us in the Scriptures what it is that pleases Him, and in some future posts I’m going to write a bit more about what it is that pleases God. For now, maybe it’s a good time to get alone with God and ask Him to show you what He wants from you, right now at this moment. Tell Him you want to please Him, but you need to know how, and then trust that He will show you because He will!

I know it’s the middle of May, but I’d like to share a bit about a Valentine’s Day with my wife where I got it completely wrong. We had talked a bit about what we wanted to do to celebrate the day together, and my wife made it clear that what she really wanted was to have a night out. In the end, we didn’t manage to  find a baby sitter, so she then said that she’d be happy with a posh ready meal from a supermarket so that we’d be free to spend the time after dinner not cleaning up the kitchen. She left me responsible for working out what we’d eat, which is where things started to go wrong…

Looking for inspiration, I started googling for Valentine’s meal ideas, and several blogs made the reasonable-sounding point that Valentine’s Day is the time of year we get to show our loved ones just how much they mean to us by pushing the boat out in the kitchen. I realised that my wife is absolutely worth taking the time and effort to cook something extra special. I wanted her to know just how much I love her, and darn it, I was going to show it with my kitchen skills!

I got researching recipes, sketching out menu ideas, and generally getting excited by how my wife would be overcome with emotion once she saw how much effort I was prepared to exert on her behalf. Come Valentine’s Day evening I got back from work, headed to the kitchen (leaving my wife with the baby she’d spent the whole day looking after), and got cracking. I made sauce from scratch, chopped vegetables, and even got the meat out of the fridge early so that it could warm up to room temperature for more even cooking. While she was getting our daughter ready for bed, I lit candles and set the table, making sure the mood was just right. Come 8:00, it was all ready!

Imagine my confusion when we sat down to dinner and I found out that none of it had blessed my wife. What’s more, instead of seeing love expressed toward her, she saw someone who hadn’t listened to her at all. You see, she had made it very clear what she wanted – me and my attention. She wanted to spend an evening not worrying about domesticities, so that we could relax together in each other’s presence. Instead, she received a husband who arrived home from work, left her to look after our daughter on her own, then spent the best part of the evening ignoring her while I got on with preparing something she had never asked for. I’ll be honest, she needed to tell me where I’d gone wrong a few times, but thankfully my wife is incredibly gracious, loving and patient with her thick-headed bloke.

After that evening, I vowed to learn to listen to my wife better. I’ll then be able to show her my love by giving her what she really wants and not something of my own invention, spurred on by what everyone else says a romantic gesture should be. Not that there’s no room for planning surprises and taking initiative in that way, but if I’m told what my wife would prefer, I really would listen to her.

Until this weekend, when I found myself doing it again!

My wife had been ill just before the weekend, and her stomach was still a bit fragile so she just wanted something that would fill it up without stirring it up. Meanwhile, I was thinking “Well, she was ill yesterday, and she seems a lot better today, so let’s make up for it by cooking her something special!” Again, I got researching recipes and started presenting her with ideas, when she repeated what she wanted. I realised what I was doing and told her “Sorry, I’m doing it again – I’m so eager to show you my love by doing special things for you that I don’t stop and think about whether you actually want it or not! I’ve heard you now, so I’ll cook you something simple.” Then it hit me that this is exactly how we treat God.

So often, we are filled with a passion to show God how much we love Him and how much He means to us. So we start planning grand gestures and looking for ways we can serve Him. Before we know it, we’re busy doing things that we imagine will bless His heart and bring Him pleasure, but rarely take the time to really find out whether He actually wants those things from us. Even though the motive is our love for Him, we can end up missing the mark and not pleasing Him as we really want to. We need to slow down, spend time with Him and ask Him what it is that He wants, which means we really do need to learn how to hear His voice. This way, we can spend our time wisely, genuinely blessing His heart.

In the same way my wife had made it clear what she wanted, He has shown us in the Scriptures what it is that pleases Him, and in some future posts I’m going to write a bit more about what it is that pleases God. For now, maybe it’s a good time to get alone with God and ask Him to show you what He wants from you, right now at this moment. Tell Him you want to please Him, but you need to know how, and then trust that He will show you because He will!

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Grace is one of those things that can be very difficult for our religion-addicted brains to grasp. From the cradle to the grave, we’re told by the world that we get what we work for, and that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and in all honesty we’re not generally communicating a better message in the church! I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that taking hold of and believing the gospel of pure grace has been the biggest challenge I’ve had in my walk with God. There’s just so much confusion and effort-based preaching that I’ve taken in, and even delivered, over the years that it can all seem a bit too good to be true.

If this sounds a bit like you, I’d love to commend The Naked Gospel to you. I have had this book for a really long time, but finally got around to reading it while I was on holiday recently. Within the pages of this brief and easy-to-read book, Andrew Farley takes aim at the very foundations of law-based religion and the compromised mixtures of law and grace that are so prevalent in the church today. Having shown the impotence of the law to lead us into the life God desires for us, he then shows us how the New Covenant founded on Christ’s blood is infinitely better than what was given to Israel on Mount Sinai.

Using modern-day illustrations and Scripture to challenge widely-held beliefs that fall short of the New Covenant, Farley has written a fantastic guide to the true gospel that is all of grace. Along the way, he presents clearly and persuasively the truth of our identity in Christ, the futility of human effort in serving God, the true purpose of the Law, why it is no longer binding on believers in Christ today, and how we go on living in grace day-by-day.

I read The Naked Gospel in three or four days, and I found it an incredibly encouraging and faith-building read. At the end of the book, I was much less impressed with myself and much more impressed with Jesus, which can only be a good thing! I intend to read it again, going through much slower, so that I can get my mind renewed and be even more amazed at what Christ has done and continues to do in my life by grace.

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering “What is so amazing about grace?”, get this book and find out for yourself. Your religious pre-conceptions will be challenged, but bear with it and you may well see the way to freedom in Christ more clearly than you have before.

]]>

Grace is one of those things that can be very difficult for our religion-addicted brains to grasp. From the cradle to the grave, we’re told by the world that we get what we work for, and that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and in all honesty we’re not generally communicating a better message in the church! I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that taking hold of and believing the gospel of pure grace has been the biggest challenge I’ve had in my walk with God. There’s just so much confusion and effort-based preaching that I’ve taken in, and even delivered, over the years that it can all seem a bit too good to be true.

If this sounds a bit like you, I’d love to commend The Naked Gospel to you. I have had this book for a really long time, but finally got around to reading it while I was on holiday recently. Within the pages of this brief and easy-to-read book, Andrew Farley takes aim at the very foundations of law-based religion and the compromised mixtures of law and grace that are so prevalent in the church today. Having shown the impotence of the law to lead us into the life God desires for us, he then shows us how the New Covenant founded on Christ’s blood is infinitely better than what was given to Israel on Mount Sinai.

Using modern-day illustrations and Scripture to challenge widely-held beliefs that fall short of the New Covenant, Farley has written a fantastic guide to the true gospel that is all of grace. Along the way, he presents clearly and persuasively the truth of our identity in Christ, the futility of human effort in serving God, the true purpose of the Law, why it is no longer binding on believers in Christ today, and how we go on living in grace day-by-day.

I read The Naked Gospel in three or four days, and I found it an incredibly encouraging and faith-building read. At the end of the book, I was much less impressed with myself and much more impressed with Jesus, which can only be a good thing! I intend to read it again, going through much slower, so that I can get my mind renewed and be even more amazed at what Christ has done and continues to do in my life by grace.

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering “What is so amazing about grace?”, get this book and find out for yourself. Your religious pre-conceptions will be challenged, but bear with it and you may well see the way to freedom in Christ more clearly than you have before.

Grace is one of those things that can be very difficult for our religion-addicted brains to grasp. From the cradle to the grave, we’re told by the world that we get what we work for, and that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and in all honesty we’re not generally communicating a better message in the church! I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that taking hold of and believing the gospel of pure grace has been the biggest challenge I’ve had in my walk with God. There’s just so much confusion and effort-based preaching that I’ve taken in, and even delivered, over the years that it can all seem a bit too good to be true.

If this sounds a bit like you, I’d love to commend The Naked Gospel to you. I have had this book for a really long time, but finally got around to reading it while I was on holiday recently. Within the pages of this brief and easy-to-read book, Andrew Farley takes aim at the very foundations of law-based religion and the compromised mixtures of law and grace that are so prevalent in the church today. Having shown the impotence of the law to lead us into the life God desires for us, he then shows us how the New Covenant founded on Christ’s blood is infinitely better than what was given to Israel on Mount Sinai.

Using modern-day illustrations and Scripture to challenge widely-held beliefs that fall short of the New Covenant, Farley has written a fantastic guide to the true gospel that is all of grace. Along the way, he presents clearly and persuasively the truth of our identity in Christ, the futility of human effort in serving God, the true purpose of the Law, why it is no longer binding on believers in Christ today, and how we go on living in grace day-by-day.

I read The Naked Gospel in three or four days, and I found it an incredibly encouraging and faith-building read. At the end of the book, I was much less impressed with myself and much more impressed with Jesus, which can only be a good thing! I intend to read it again, going through much slower, so that I can get my mind renewed and be even more amazed at what Christ has done and continues to do in my life by grace.

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering “What is so amazing about grace?”, get this book and find out for yourself. Your religious pre-conceptions will be challenged, but bear with it and you may well see the way to freedom in Christ more clearly than you have before.

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God has challenged me on my intellectual pride recently. I have a constant temptation to think that I have to understand everything, and that the route to spiritual growth is the ability to remember and regurgitate Scripture and doctrine. Maybe it’s because I’m someone who reads a fair bit of theology and Christian literature. Maybe it’s because I’ve been known to preach and teach in various contexts. Maybe I’m just a bit of a know-it-all! I don’t really know the root of it.

What I do know is that this tendency has held me back. I will often sense God reminding me of a scripture, or a particular aspect of doctrine or faith, and my knee-jerk reaction is “I know that!” While it can sound like I’m acknowledging what God is saying, I’ve started to realise that this is my pride saying “I already know this. I don’t need to hear that again, so tell me something new!” I’ve been unwittingly rejecting the day-by-day bread God has wanted to give me from His word.

Being a bit thick-headed, it took God pushing back for me to finally see what I was doing. The last time I told Him “I know that!”, He lovingly responded “No you don’t, Jon. If you knew it, I wouldn’t need to tell you. You need to stop telling me you know things just because you’ve heard it before, or even because you’ve preached it before. Trust me when I tell you something, and please listen to me!” If ever there was a word to cut through the fog of pride, it’s that one!

It’s so important to realise what you do and don’t know. There’s a reason Jesus said we must become like children when describing how we enter the Kingdom. Children aren’t in the place of being experts or teachers. On the contrary, children are learning everything new for the first time. It takes time for them to pick things up, and a father knows both what his child needs to learn and when they have learned it. I know that with my daughter, I don’t have to teach her how to sit up or walk any more – she’s already mastered them! Likewise, God, the perfect Father, knows exactly what we need to learn at each point and, as His children, we need to be ready to receive exactly what He wants to give us at each moment.

So here’s my new posture. There’s all kinds of things I think I know. I’ve studied and read a lot, but one of the things I’m finally learning is that there is so much I don’t know. There is so much about grace, faith and who I am in Christ that I still need to receive and meditate on. If God speaks to me about something, I’m going to take it on faith that I need to hear it and take time to meditate on it and get my mind renewed. Yes, I want to grow in wisdom and understanding, but wisdom starts with the fear of the Lord and knowing that there’s so much still to learn. So instead of feeling like I need to master truth, I want to focus on knowing Jesus who is the truth, and then let truth master me.

God has challenged me on my intellectual pride recently. I have a constant temptation to think that I have to understand everything, and that the route to spiritual growth is the ability to remember and regurgitate Scripture and doctrine. Maybe it’s because I’m someone who reads a fair bit of theology and Christian literature. Maybe it’s because I’ve been known to preach and teach in various contexts. Maybe I’m just a bit of a know-it-all! I don’t really know the root of it.

What I do know is that this tendency has held me back. I will often sense God reminding me of a scripture, or a particular aspect of doctrine or faith, and my knee-jerk reaction is “I know that!” While it can sound like I’m acknowledging what God is saying, I’ve started to realise that this is my pride saying “I already know this. I don’t need to hear that again, so tell me something new!” I’ve been unwittingly rejecting the day-by-day bread God has wanted to give me from His word.

Being a bit thick-headed, it took God pushing back for me to finally see what I was doing. The last time I told Him “I know that!”, He lovingly responded “No you don’t, Jon. If you knew it, I wouldn’t need to tell you. You need to stop telling me you know things just because you’ve heard it before, or even because you’ve preached it before. Trust me when I tell you something, and please listen to me!” If ever there was a word to cut through the fog of pride, it’s that one!

It’s so important to realise what you do and don’t know. There’s a reason Jesus said we must become like children when describing how we enter the Kingdom. Children aren’t in the place of being experts or teachers. On the contrary, children are learning everything new for the first time. It takes time for them to pick things up, and a father knows both what his child needs to learn and when they have learned it. I know that with my daughter, I don’t have to teach her how to sit up or walk any more – she’s already mastered them! Likewise, God, the perfect Father, knows exactly what we need to learn at each point and, as His children, we need to be ready to receive exactly what He wants to give us at each moment.

So here’s my new posture. There’s all kinds of things I think I know. I’ve studied and read a lot, but one of the things I’m finally learning is that there is so much I don’t know. There is so much about grace, faith and who I am in Christ that I still need to receive and meditate on. If God speaks to me about something, I’m going to take it on faith that I need to hear it and take time to meditate on it and get my mind renewed. Yes, I want to grow in wisdom and understanding, but wisdom starts with the fear of the Lord and knowing that there’s so much still to learn. So instead of feeling like I need to master truth, I want to focus on knowing Jesus who is the truth, and then let truth master me.

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The wait-a-bit tree by Quintin Abrams

In Southern Africa there is a tree, actually more like a bush than a tree that is called the wait-a-bit-tree. It is called this because if you walk too near it, it has thorns all over its branches that latch on to your skin.  It’s awful, as you have to unhook those thorns trying not to rip your flesh.  So, one has to wait a bit to get untangled.

I am reminded of a scripture which says (Hebrews 12:1)  Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Created For His Glory by Glen Scrivener

God creates from fullness not need.  His glory is not about demanding but giving. From the Father’s eternal begetting of the Son comes the logic of creation’s in-time manufacture.  Creation is not the first time God has to relate to another.  Instead, creation finds its origin in His already-outgoing nature.

Hearing One Side Of A Story by Frank Viola

I remember it well. A zealous but naïve follower of Jesus in my mid-20s. That was me.

One of my friends had been part of the church to which I belonged. He had recently moved to another city and joined another group. He called me on the phone from the other state to unload. He told me how he had been mistreated by this other group. And he singled-out one particular person who was (according to him) the source of his pain.

As I listened to him vent, my blood began to boil. I was angry at this group . . .  and I was angry at the particular person who mistreated my friend.

The Art of Being a Jerk Online by Frank Viola

Jerk: Slang . a contemptibly naive, fatuous, foolish, or inconsequential person.” Not a cuss word. Source.

According to recent studies (you know, the same ones that show that research is known to cause cancer in rats), if two Christians disagree with one another online for more than three consecutive days, there is a 97.3% chance that one of them will end up calling the other a “child of Satan” or a near-equivalent.

With that in mind, here are nine sure-fire ways to perfect the art of being a jerk online…

These two posts by Frank Viola have been used to highlight how I have recently been seeking out gossip and scandal online. It’s no real secret that there is some controversy about spiritual abuse circling some reformed charismatic church groups in the USA. While I’m not criticising those who are sharing their stories of what they endured at the hands of some believers, reading these two blog posts I realised that I have sought out gossip about these groups that I was already a bit suspicious of.

Everything I was reading confirmed what I’d already been thinking about these groups, so I uncritically accepted the reports and built up an unholy sense of self-righteous satisfaction in seeing these people exposed. I remain convinced that these stories coming out now are a part of the Lord’s discipline and refining of His body, but I have never suffered at the hands of those being talked about and it was simply wrong for me to indulge in deliberately dwelling on the stories and assassinating my brothers in my heart.

Thankfully, I didn’t indulge in posting about these directly. I feel a huge sense of relief that I read these posts before giving in to the temptation to do so!

Hebrews 10:26 by Escape To Reality

I get asked more questions on Hebrews 10:26 than any other verse in the Bible. Evidently, this is a verse that troubles many Christians:

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left (Heb 10:26)

Wow! That looks scary! Let’s take a quick survey. Please put your hand up if you have lived a sinless life since accepting Jesus as your Savior. Hmmm. I don’t see any hands. I have been saved for decades and – if I’m honest with you – I cannot say my performance has been flawless throughout that period. I’m pretty sure I sinned this one time back in 1987…

Ha! It’s easy for me to make jokes. I’ve been set free. I no longer mine at the pits of religion with condemnation. I’m drawing from the wells of salvation with joy!

A month or two ago, me and my daughter discovered a fun game. She’s still a baby, just starting to recognise certain words, and one of the phrases she’s already picked up is “1, 2, 3!” I’ve said this to her since she was a couple of months old to let her know that something was about to happen – you know, random tickles, attempts to help her to sit up, being thrown into the air, that sort of thing

One day, my wife showed me what happens when we hold her in our arms and count to three. She pushes herself back for us to catch her and rock her in our arms! I was sure that she wouldn’t do it if I was holding her out of fear that I wouldn’t manage to catch her like Mummy did, but I decided to give it a go. Lo and behold, as soon as I said “Three!”, she pushed herself back, in full confidence that I would catch her and make sure she was safe.

The look on her face as I caught her was absolutely precious, and was a large part of the fun of the game, but do you know what really touched me? It was that she had complete trust that I, her Daddy, was there and would make sure that nothing bad would happen to her. As this flooded my heart, I sensed the Lord telling me that this is what thrills His heart too. Nothing thrills God more than when we are in the middle of circumstances and trials that seem difficult, and instead of clinging on for dear life, we just lean back into His arms in total faith the He is willing, able and ready to catch and bear us up.

Since then, in the last couple of weeks or so, there’s now one of two things my daughter will do when we count to three. One time she may throw herself back as she has been for the last couple of months, but the new thing she has learned is to throw herself forward, going in for a big hug! If the trust and faith of throwing herself back filled my heart with joy, just imagine what the freely given hug of my daughter did! Trust is good, but loving affection is even better!!

As I’m writing this, I get the sense that there are people who will read this who need to hear God counting to three. It might be that you need to lean back and let Him bear you up, going against every instinct you have telling you you’ll fall and hurt yourself. Fight this instinct and just let yourself go in complete dependence on Him. Or it might be that you really need to lean in to Him, expressing a heart of love and devotion to Him, finding a new intimacy again as you embrace Him and He embraces you.

Whichever one you need to do today, get alone with Him, hear Him calling you and show Him you love and trust Him.

Ready? 1… 2… 3!

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A month or two ago, me and my daughter discovered a fun game. She’s still a baby, just starting to recognise certain words, and one of the phrases she’s already picked up is “1, 2, 3!” I’ve said this to her since she was a couple of months old to let her know that something was about to happen – you know, random tickles, attempts to help her to sit up, being thrown into the air, that sort of thing

One day, my wife showed me what happens when we hold her in our arms and count to three. She pushes herself back for us to catch her and rock her in our arms! I was sure that she wouldn’t do it if I was holding her out of fear that I wouldn’t manage to catch her like Mummy did, but I decided to give it a go. Lo and behold, as soon as I said “Three!”, she pushed herself back, in full confidence that I would catch her and make sure she was safe.

The look on her face as I caught her was absolutely precious, and was a large part of the fun of the game, but do you know what really touched me? It was that she had complete trust that I, her Daddy, was there and would make sure that nothing bad would happen to her. As this flooded my heart, I sensed the Lord telling me that this is what thrills His heart too. Nothing thrills God more than when we are in the middle of circumstances and trials that seem difficult, and instead of clinging on for dear life, we just lean back into His arms in total faith the He is willing, able and ready to catch and bear us up.

Since then, in the last couple of weeks or so, there’s now one of two things my daughter will do when we count to three. One time she may throw herself back as she has been for the last couple of months, but the new thing she has learned is to throw herself forward, going in for a big hug! If the trust and faith of throwing herself back filled my heart with joy, just imagine what the freely given hug of my daughter did! Trust is good, but loving affection is even better!!

As I’m writing this, I get the sense that there are people who will read this who need to hear God counting to three. It might be that you need to lean back and let Him bear you up, going against every instinct you have telling you you’ll fall and hurt yourself. Fight this instinct and just let yourself go in complete dependence on Him. Or it might be that you really need to lean in to Him, expressing a heart of love and devotion to Him, finding a new intimacy again as you embrace Him and He embraces you.

Whichever one you need to do today, get alone with Him, hear Him calling you and show Him you love and trust Him.

Ready? 1… 2… 3!

A month or two ago, me and my daughter discovered a fun game. She’s still a baby, just starting to recognise certain words, and one of the phrases she’s already picked up is “1, 2, 3!” I’ve said this to her since she was a couple of months old to let her know that something was about to happen – you know, random tickles, attempts to help her to sit up, being thrown into the air, that sort of thing

One day, my wife showed me what happens when we hold her in our arms and count to three. She pushes herself back for us to catch her and rock her in our arms! I was sure that she wouldn’t do it if I was holding her out of fear that I wouldn’t manage to catch her like Mummy did, but I decided to give it a go. Lo and behold, as soon as I said “Three!”, she pushed herself back, in full confidence that I would catch her and make sure she was safe.

The look on her face as I caught her was absolutely precious, and was a large part of the fun of the game, but do you know what really touched me? It was that she had complete trust that I, her Daddy, was there and would make sure that nothing bad would happen to her. As this flooded my heart, I sensed the Lord telling me that this is what thrills His heart too. Nothing thrills God more than when we are in the middle of circumstances and trials that seem difficult, and instead of clinging on for dear life, we just lean back into His arms in total faith the He is willing, able and ready to catch and bear us up.

Since then, in the last couple of weeks or so, there’s now one of two things my daughter will do when we count to three. One time she may throw herself back as she has been for the last couple of months, but the new thing she has learned is to throw herself forward, going in for a big hug! If the trust and faith of throwing herself back filled my heart with joy, just imagine what the freely given hug of my daughter did! Trust is good, but loving affection is even better!!

As I’m writing this, I get the sense that there are people who will read this who need to hear God counting to three. It might be that you need to lean back and let Him bear you up, going against every instinct you have telling you you’ll fall and hurt yourself. Fight this instinct and just let yourself go in complete dependence on Him. Or it might be that you really need to lean in to Him, expressing a heart of love and devotion to Him, finding a new intimacy again as you embrace Him and He embraces you.

Whichever one you need to do today, get alone with Him, hear Him calling you and show Him you love and trust Him.

Ready? 1… 2… 3!

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Just over 16 years ago, I was a confirmed cessationist. I grew up in an evangelical Anglican church, and things like prophecy, tongues, signs and wonders just weren’t a part of my experience of the Christian faith. Then, at a youth holiday run by Crusaders on the Isle of Wight,  I was filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time. Suddenly, I felt that God was no longer remote and distant, but right there with me, filling me. Tongues were no longer weird, miracles were to be expected from the hand of our almighty loving Father, and I accepted the idea that God now spoke today apart from, though never in contradiction to, the Bible.

However, to start with, it was much more the case that I was comfortable with the idea of other people doing these things. It was a little while before the thought of doing them myself became something I could do myself. I desperately wanted to get going, especially with prophecy, but I just didn’t know how to. Then I read Surprised By The Voice Of God by Jack Deere.

As a recovering cessationist, with some lingering questions from the way I used to see things, I found this book incredibly helpful because Jack Deere had made the exact same journey himself. Formerly a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, he found himself questioning his former cessationism and re-evaluating what he believed about prophecy and the voice of God speaking outside the Bible. This book is the result of that study, as well as the fruit of putting into practice what he learned.

A good chunk of the book is spent reviewing the voice of God as talked about in Scripture and throughout church history, coming to the conclusion that the Bible itself indicates that we should expect to hear the voice of God outside of itself. A particularly good chapter is “Confessions of a Bible Deist”, exposing the mindset of those who believe that God spoke in the Bible and the rest is up to us. These chapters of the book did a lot to resolve the lingering doubts and concerns I may have had about whether it was biblical to expect to hear God today.

The remainder of the book is chock-full of helpful practical guidance and advice about how to start learning the language of the Holy Spirit and launch out into ministering prophetically to one another. Firmly picking up the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, Deere shows that this ministry isn’t the reserve of a select few, but the birthright of all believers to exercise. He tackles various issues of how to avoid abuses of prophetic ministry, as well as reasons why you may not be experiencing God speaking to you.

Throughout the whole book, Deere emphasises the necessity of keeping close to God in prayer, fellowship and the Word. As such, I believe this is the perfect introductory book for anyone looking to learn how to hear God and start moving in the prophetic. Since reading this book, I have taken a lot of the principles I learned herein to lead seminars and home group meetings about getting going with prophecy, and have often found that people have started prophesying for the first time as a result.

Get it, read it, stick close to the Lord, and get activated to share the word of the Lord!

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Just over 16 years ago, I was a confirmed cessationist. I grew up in an evangelical Anglican church, and things like prophecy, tongues, signs and wonders just weren’t a part of my experience of the Christian faith. Then, at a youth holiday run by Crusaders on the Isle of Wight,  I was filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time. Suddenly, I felt that God was no longer remote and distant, but right there with me, filling me. Tongues were no longer weird, miracles were to be expected from the hand of our almighty loving Father, and I accepted the idea that God now spoke today apart from, though never in contradiction to, the Bible.

However, to start with, it was much more the case that I was comfortable with the idea of other people doing these things. It was a little while before the thought of doing them myself became something I could do myself. I desperately wanted to get going, especially with prophecy, but I just didn’t know how to. Then I read Surprised By The Voice Of God by Jack Deere.

As a recovering cessationist, with some lingering questions from the way I used to see things, I found this book incredibly helpful because Jack Deere had made the exact same journey himself. Formerly a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, he found himself questioning his former cessationism and re-evaluating what he believed about prophecy and the voice of God speaking outside the Bible. This book is the result of that study, as well as the fruit of putting into practice what he learned.

A good chunk of the book is spent reviewing the voice of God as talked about in Scripture and throughout church history, coming to the conclusion that the Bible itself indicates that we should expect to hear the voice of God outside of itself. A particularly good chapter is “Confessions of a Bible Deist”, exposing the mindset of those who believe that God spoke in the Bible and the rest is up to us. These chapters of the book did a lot to resolve the lingering doubts and concerns I may have had about whether it was biblical to expect to hear God today.

The remainder of the book is chock-full of helpful practical guidance and advice about how to start learning the language of the Holy Spirit and launch out into ministering prophetically to one another. Firmly picking up the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, Deere shows that this ministry isn’t the reserve of a select few, but the birthright of all believers to exercise. He tackles various issues of how to avoid abuses of prophetic ministry, as well as reasons why you may not be experiencing God speaking to you.

Throughout the whole book, Deere emphasises the necessity of keeping close to God in prayer, fellowship and the Word. As such, I believe this is the perfect introductory book for anyone looking to learn how to hear God and start moving in the prophetic. Since reading this book, I have taken a lot of the principles I learned herein to lead seminars and home group meetings about getting going with prophecy, and have often found that people have started prophesying for the first time as a result.

Get it, read it, stick close to the Lord, and get activated to share the word of the Lord!

Just over 16 years ago, I was a confirmed cessationist. I grew up in an evangelical Anglican church, and things like prophecy, tongues, signs and wonders just weren’t a part of my experience of the Christian faith. Then, at a youth holiday run by Crusaders on the Isle of Wight,  I was filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time. Suddenly, I felt that God was no longer remote and distant, but right there with me, filling me. Tongues were no longer weird, miracles were to be expected from the hand of our almighty loving Father, and I accepted the idea that God now spoke today apart from, though never in contradiction to, the Bible.

However, to start with, it was much more the case that I was comfortable with the idea of other people doing these things. It was a little while before the thought of doing them myself became something I could do myself. I desperately wanted to get going, especially with prophecy, but I just didn’t know how to. Then I read Surprised By The Voice Of God by Jack Deere.

As a recovering cessationist, with some lingering questions from the way I used to see things, I found this book incredibly helpful because Jack Deere had made the exact same journey himself. Formerly a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, he found himself questioning his former cessationism and re-evaluating what he believed about prophecy and the voice of God speaking outside the Bible. This book is the result of that study, as well as the fruit of putting into practice what he learned.

A good chunk of the book is spent reviewing the voice of God as talked about in Scripture and throughout church history, coming to the conclusion that the Bible itself indicates that we should expect to hear the voice of God outside of itself. A particularly good chapter is “Confessions of a Bible Deist”, exposing the mindset of those who believe that God spoke in the Bible and the rest is up to us. These chapters of the book did a lot to resolve the lingering doubts and concerns I may have had about whether it was biblical to expect to hear God today.

The remainder of the book is chock-full of helpful practical guidance and advice about how to start learning the language of the Holy Spirit and launch out into ministering prophetically to one another. Firmly picking up the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, Deere shows that this ministry isn’t the reserve of a select few, but the birthright of all believers to exercise. He tackles various issues of how to avoid abuses of prophetic ministry, as well as reasons why you may not be experiencing God speaking to you.

Throughout the whole book, Deere emphasises the necessity of keeping close to God in prayer, fellowship and the Word. As such, I believe this is the perfect introductory book for anyone looking to learn how to hear God and start moving in the prophetic. Since reading this book, I have taken a lot of the principles I learned herein to lead seminars and home group meetings about getting going with prophecy, and have often found that people have started prophesying for the first time as a result.

Get it, read it, stick close to the Lord, and get activated to share the word of the Lord!

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The preacher at my church this week referred to Hebrews 12:15 as part of his message. The author to the Hebrews says: “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God…”

There is a very real danger that this life is spent failing to obtain the grace of God. It’s frighteningly easy when you think about it. There’s two basic ways it can happen, though most people only really give attention to one of them.

The most widely noticed way of missing the grace of God is to live in licence. This is where you crack on with living your life without worrying for a moment about whether you’re doing the right things or the wrong things. As long as you’re enjoying things, forging ahead with what you want, it’s all A-OK! In this way of living, you are the centre of your own universe, your very own God around which everything else orbits, and for whom all things exist. With only yourself as your vision, you miss the grace of God because you’re not even aware of needing it! Or else, if you are aware of God’s grace, you treat it as your own personal Dimplomatic Immunity card – carrying on with living to please yourself, flashing the “Under Grace” card if your own conscience or anyone else ever challenges you on it.

That seems fairly straight forward and obvious as a way of missing out on grace, but there’s another way that isn’t often called out for the evil that it is. It’s the polar opposite of living in licence, and it’s all too common in Christianity. It’s the way of legalism – living as if your standing before God all depends on you.

Where licence is often ignorant of God’s grace, legalism is also ignorant of God’s grace. People stuck in legalism spend their lives trying to live according to ideas of right and wrong. They passionately avoid the bad and seek to do the good, always keeping one eye on themselves to check how they’re doing. If they’re doing well, they feel like God is shining down on them and getting ready to pour out abundant blessings. If they’re doing badly, they’ll be in a deep slough of despond, certain that God is ticked off and just waiting for a chance to whack them for what they did wrong most recently. This leads to a manic-depressive, bi-polar faith where you can be up one minute and down the next.

Legalistic people miss out on the grace of God because they’re so wrapped up in themselves that they variously think they don’t need it (when they’re doing well) or don’t deserve it (when they’re doing badly). Either way, they’re not looking to God as the very source of their life, but rather to what they do or don’t do. This is such a subtle way of missing out on God’s grace and it can take years to de-program yourself from dead, works-based religion.

I have read Hebrews many times with a legalistic mindset, reading warnings to not miss the grace of God and renewing my efforts to not sin in my own strength, seeking to avoid licence at all costs. If you’re like I used to be, it’s important to remember that the author of Hebrews wasn’t writing to people who were in danger of licence. They were in danger of returning to the synagogues and temple worship of 1st century Judaism, a system devoid of God’s grace in the New Covenant as the author has been expounding it up to this point.

So what does it mean to obtain the grace of God? Pure and simple, it means seeking, finding and walking with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Obtaining grace sets those stuck in licence free from a slavery to sin that they’re not aware of or willfully ignoring. It sets the legalist free from their slavery and drudgery that sees sin and danger everywhere it looks. Both the legalist and the libertine are trapped in self-centred ways of looking at the world. If there’s a space for Jesus in their universe, it’s placing Him in their orbit as a crutch to make them feel better when needed. When we obtain grace, we’re set free from placing ourselves at the centre and Jesus becomes the centre around which we gravitate.

We live seeking Him, talking with Him, worshipping Him and looking to please Him. We make Him our pursuit, no matter what life brings our way. When things are going well, we remember that our every breath comes from Him and that He is our life. When things aren’t going so well, we don’t lick our wounds, sulk, wonder if we did something wrong and start begging for God’s forgiveness just in case. We remember who we are in Him, that we are already forgiven in Him, that there is no condemnation for those who are in Him and that He is our righteousness. We are picked up by His grace and moved forward by the power of the Holy Spirit. Knowing His love and grace toward us, we are progressively liberated from the sin that dominates us when we live under licence or legalism.

When we obtain grace, Christ Jesus is our all in all. Our very identity is built on Him and Him alone, leaving us free to know Him in intimate, loving fellowship. There is no better way to live!

The preacher at my church this week referred to Hebrews 12:15 as part of his message. The author to the Hebrews says: “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God…”

There is a very real danger that this life is spent failing to obtain the grace of God. It’s frighteningly easy when you think about it. There’s two basic ways it can happen, though most people only really give attention to one of them.

The most widely noticed way of missing the grace of God is to live in licence. This is where you crack on with living your life without worrying for a moment about whether you’re doing the right things or the wrong things. As long as you’re enjoying things, forging ahead with what you want, it’s all A-OK! In this way of living, you are the centre of your own universe, your very own God around which everything else orbits, and for whom all things exist. With only yourself as your vision, you miss the grace of God because you’re not even aware of needing it! Or else, if you are aware of God’s grace, you treat it as your own personal Dimplomatic Immunity card – carrying on with living to please yourself, flashing the “Under Grace” card if your own conscience or anyone else ever challenges you on it.

That seems fairly straight forward and obvious as a way of missing out on grace, but there’s another way that isn’t often called out for the evil that it is. It’s the polar opposite of living in licence, and it’s all too common in Christianity. It’s the way of legalism – living as if your standing before God all depends on you.

Where licence is often ignorant of God’s grace, legalism is also ignorant of God’s grace. People stuck in legalism spend their lives trying to live according to ideas of right and wrong. They passionately avoid the bad and seek to do the good, always keeping one eye on themselves to check how they’re doing. If they’re doing well, they feel like God is shining down on them and getting ready to pour out abundant blessings. If they’re doing badly, they’ll be in a deep slough of despond, certain that God is ticked off and just waiting for a chance to whack them for what they did wrong most recently. This leads to a manic-depressive, bi-polar faith where you can be up one minute and down the next.

Legalistic people miss out on the grace of God because they’re so wrapped up in themselves that they variously think they don’t need it (when they’re doing well) or don’t deserve it (when they’re doing badly). Either way, they’re not looking to God as the very source of their life, but rather to what they do or don’t do. This is such a subtle way of missing out on God’s grace and it can take years to de-program yourself from dead, works-based religion.

I have read Hebrews many times with a legalistic mindset, reading warnings to not miss the grace of God and renewing my efforts to not sin in my own strength, seeking to avoid licence at all costs. If you’re like I used to be, it’s important to remember that the author of Hebrews wasn’t writing to people who were in danger of licence. They were in danger of returning to the synagogues and temple worship of 1st century Judaism, a system devoid of God’s grace in the New Covenant as the author has been expounding it up to this point.

So what does it mean to obtain the grace of God? Pure and simple, it means seeking, finding and walking with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Obtaining grace sets those stuck in licence free from a slavery to sin that they’re not aware of or willfully ignoring. It sets the legalist free from their slavery and drudgery that sees sin and danger everywhere it looks. Both the legalist and the libertine are trapped in self-centred ways of looking at the world. If there’s a space for Jesus in their universe, it’s placing Him in their orbit as a crutch to make them feel better when needed. When we obtain grace, we’re set free from placing ourselves at the centre and Jesus becomes the centre around which we gravitate.

We live seeking Him, talking with Him, worshipping Him and looking to please Him. We make Him our pursuit, no matter what life brings our way. When things are going well, we remember that our every breath comes from Him and that He is our life. When things aren’t going so well, we don’t lick our wounds, sulk, wonder if we did something wrong and start begging for God’s forgiveness just in case. We remember who we are in Him, that we are already forgiven in Him, that there is no condemnation for those who are in Him and that He is our righteousness. We are picked up by His grace and moved forward by the power of the Holy Spirit. Knowing His love and grace toward us, we are progressively liberated from the sin that dominates us when we live under licence or legalism.

When we obtain grace, Christ Jesus is our all in all. Our very identity is built on Him and Him alone, leaving us free to know Him in intimate, loving fellowship. There is no better way to live!

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