Is salvation a once and for all time deal? Is it a case of once saved, always saved? What does the Bible say? Some verses say yes, while others say no. How do we reconcile these apparent inconsistencies?

Well, it’s quite easy when you realize that there are more than 100 scriptures guaranteeing the eternal security of the believer. Those in Christ are eternally secure.

And how many scriptures say otherwise? Not one. There are only scriptures that are misunderstood or taken out of context and which are sometimes used to frighten Christians. Like this one:

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. (Hebrews 6:4–6, NIV)

These words were not written to Christians; they are a warning for those who reject Jesus. In context, this warning was directed to those Jews who witnessed the ministry and death of Jesus Christ, and then carried on as though nothing had changed.

Imagine what it would’ve been like to see Jesus heal the sick and raise the dead. Imagine watching him feed the 5,000 with a boy’s lunch or cast demons out of the oppressed. The first-century Jews were privileged above all people to have a front-row seat to the supernatural ministry of the Son of God.

And yet despite seeing all these things and hearing the gospel straight from his lips, most did not believe him. “I have come in My Father’s name,” said Jesus, “and you do not receive me” (John 5:43). The Jews saw the Light of God and tasted the heavenly gift, but they shut their eyes and wanted nothing to do with him. Hence the warning of Hebrews 6.

Consider Jesus

In Hebrews, we are invited to “consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession” (Heb. 3:1). In other words, look at Jesus. Consider who he is and why he came. Don’t be one of those who:

• have heard the gospel but have not responded with faith (Heb. 4:2, 11)
• are slow to learn and dull of hearing (Heb. 5:11)
• remain unacquainted with the teaching about righteousness (Heb. 5:13)

If you are like those Jewish unbelievers who rejected Jesus, the message of Hebrews is:

• pay much closer attention to what you have heard (the gospel) (Heb 2:1)
• don’t neglect God’s offer of salvation (Heb. 2:3)
• don’t be one of those who has an evil and unbelieving heart (Heb. 3:12)

This message had special relevance for the Jews because of the hard lessons set by their forefathers, who hardened their hearts and died in the wilderness (Heb. 3:8–11). “Don’t be like them.” They never entered God’s rest because of unbelief (Heb. 3:19).

Restless unbelievers

It’s important to remember that Hebrews, like the epistle of James, was written to a broad Jewish audience. The author was writing to both encourage Jews who were believers (e.g., Heb. 12:1–2) and warn those who were still making up their minds (e.g., Heb. 3:8, 12).

Two audiences mean two messages. And it’s important to distinguish these, otherwise you could end up taking someone else’s medicine.

Warnings like “how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Heb. 2:3) and “do not harden your hearts” (Heb. 3:8) are plainly not meant for believers. Believers don’t have “evil, unbelieving hearts” (Heb. 3:12). With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at Hebrews 6:

Those who have once been enlightened…

Jesus is the Light of the world who gives light to everyone, including those who prefer the darkness (John 1:9, 3:19).

…who have shared in the Holy Spirit…

The Jews saw Jesus ministering with supernatural signs and wonders. Many experienced healing and deliverance, and some even saw the risen Lord. They tasted the powers of the coming age, and yet they turned their backs on the Lord.

and then have fallen away…

This is not talking about believers who stumble in sin, but unbelievers who come short of the grace of God (see Heb. 12:15). In context, it’s referring to those who witnessed Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but turned back to the old ways of the temple. They had more faith in the sacrifices of dead animals than in a risen Savior.

It is impossible … to be brought back to repentance

Those who have hardened their hearts to the gospel are well and truly lost. To hear the good news of Jesus and scorn him is fatal, for salvation is found in no other name (Acts 4:12). God has no Plan B. No back-up savior is waiting in the wings to rescue you. It’s Jesus or nothing.

They are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Put your faith in religion and dead works (e.g., sin confession) and you are essentially saying Christ’s sacrifice was insufficient. Jesus needs to die again. Once was not enough. It is a shameful dismissal of God’s Son and his perfect sacrifice.

Better things, beloved

But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. (Hebrews 6:9)

The author of Hebrews, now addressing his fellow believers, finishes on a positive note. “I am convinced that you are not like those who turn their backs on God’s Son. I know you have received the blessings that accompany salvation.”

And so we have!

—

Ever wondered about the “What about” scriptures? Check out our list of “tricky scriptures” or visit the Grace Commentary, your free verse-by-verse study guide.

If you enjoyed this article, but still have questions, these may help:

• Can you lose your salvation?
• Will I lose my salvation if I keep sinning?
• What if I deny Jesus?
• Faithful unto death? What if I’m not?
• What does it mean to be disqualified for the prize?

The Grace Bible series is growing leaps and bounds. Check out the latest update. And if you have German or Danish friends, let them know about these new translations – which are free thanks to the support of our patrons:

What do you do after you sin? Your answer to that question reveals a lot about your faith.

For instance, if it is your practice to sacrifice animals when you sin, you might be a first-century Jew. If it is your habit to go into a booth and confess to a priest, you might be a modern-day Catholic.

And if you deal with your sins by confessing them one at a time, you might be just about any kind of Christian. Or Muslim, Buddhist, or Sikh.

Every religion offers solutions for managing sin. “When you sin, you need to (insert activity) to make things right with God/Allah/the universe.” But here’s something you won’t hear – none of those solutions work. All the remedies offered by religion ultimately fail. How do I know?

We still have sin.

The cure for sin

Think about it, if we could cure sin, we would’ve done it by now. But we can’t because there is only one remedy for sin, and that is the cross of Christ. “The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Hopefully, you know that.

Christian, when you sin, there is nothing you need to do or can do to fix things with God. Of course, something must be done, but Jesus already did it and nothing you do can improve upon what he did.

God does not relate to you on the basis of your disobedience but on Christ’s obedience. Which seems unreasonable, but that’s why it’s called grace. Because of Jesus, God does not hold your sins against you. That’s the good news.

But what do you make of this verse:

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, (Hebrews 10:26)

Some use this passage as a whip to keep people in line. “Sin on purpose and God will condemn you. Sin and you will fall out of the kingdom and lose your salvation.” Which means the cross is not a remedy for sin. Better get back to those human solutions, like confession and penance. And if you do get caught sinning, make it look like an accidental sin. Apparently, those are fine.

No, that’s not what this verse is saying.

First, pretty much all sin is done on purpose. All sin is wilful. Second, when you stumble in sin, Jesus doesn’t condemn you; he speaks in your defense (1 John 2:1). Hebrews 10:26 is not talking about Christians who sin, wilfully or otherwise, but those who refuse to recognize Jesus as the ultimate solution to sin. Let’s take a closer look.

For if we go on sinning wilfully….

Who is “we”? The author of Hebrews is not referring to “we Christians” but “we Jews” or “we Hebrews.” (The clue is in the title.) It was the nation of Israel that received the knowledge of the truth and rejected it. The Son of God came preaching the gospel of the kingdom, but they did not receive him (John 5:43).

What is wilful sin?

Although different kinds of sin are mentioned in the letter to the Hebrews, wilful sin in this context refers to the rejection of Jesus. It is the sin of unbelief. To be a wilful sinner is to have an evil and unbelieving heart (Heb. 3:12). It’s rejecting the Savior God sent and relying on yourself for salvation. It’s trying to relate to God through Moses rather than Jesus.

The Jews had a sophisticated sin-management program. When you sinned under the old covenant, you relied on the blood of bulls and goats to atone for your sin. This system did not actually remove your sin (Heb. 10:4), but it kept you going until the final solution for sin was revealed, namely the Lamb of God who carried the sin of the whole world.

When Jesus appeared to do away with sin once and for all (Heb. 10:12), the old system of bulls and goats was rendered obsolete. Yet some Jews refused to recognize Christ’s sacrifice. They returned to the temple as though nothing had changed. They preferred the altar to the cross.

After receiving the knowledge of the truth…

Once you have heard the good news of Christ’s death on the cross, there is no reason to rely on your own sin management program. You don’t need to sacrifice animals or visit a priest or confess your sins one by one to be cleansed. You just need to realize that Christ’s sacrifice is the once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin (Heb. 9:26).

What to do when you sin

So what should you do when you sin? A faithful response would be to say, “Thank you, Lord, that you do not judge me according to my sins. Thank you that you carried all my sins on the cross, including the sin I just did, because you love me. Thank you for your grace which helps me to live free from sin.” Then reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Now, the last bit.

There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

If you try to manage your own sins, perhaps through sacrifices, penance, or confession, you’re basically saying that the cross was not enough or that Jesus’s sacrifice was insufficient. This is foolishness. This is blasphemy. If the blood of Christ can’t cleanse you from all sin, nothing can.

A preference for the altar over the cross persists whenever we think we have to bring sacrifices or do things to get God to forgive us. This mindset comes straight out of manmade religion, and it does not work.

The gospel of Christ reveals a much better way to deal with your sins. See the cross; your sins are there.

Thank you, Jesus.

—

If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy these:

• Does sin hinder my prayers?
• Does God love me when I sin?
• How does God deal with me when I sin?
• Will I lose my salvation if I keep sinning?
• Are all sins forgiven – past, present and future?

Read Hebrews 10:26 in context on the Grace Commentary, your free verse-by-verse study guide.

Are you a teacher? Check out E2R’s treasure trove of teaching resources.

You may have noticed audio clips appearing at the tops of articles. If you prefer listening to reading, I’d love to know what you think of these. Audio clips are included FREE with new articles here on E2R, but you can also access my complete Audio Library + early releases on my Patreon page.

When talking to people about universal salvation and inclusionism, I have noticed that a lot of energy is wasted because people can’t agree on the meaning of words. Consider the word “all.” It’s a little word that can lead to big arguments, because all means all…

…except when it doesn’t.

In Scripture, “all” can be interpreted at least five different ways depending on the context:

1. Sometimes all means “many people” but not literally every single person

Here are some examples:

Jesus said to the twelve, “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake” (Matt. 10:22a, ESV).

In the temple courts, the Jews tried to create trouble for Paul by saying, “Men of Israel, listen. This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place” (Act 21:28a, NASB).

The disciples were persecuted by many and Paul preached to many, but not all.

2. Sometimes all means “not just the Jews but the Gentiles too”

Consider Simeon. He was one of the first to realize that Jesus was the Savior of both the Jews and the Gentiles:

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. (Luke 2:30-32)

In his first letter to Timothy, Paul said something similar:

We have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. (1 Tim. 4:10)

Paul was not saying that all people are saved. He was saying Jesus saves all who believe – both Jews and Gentiles. This was good news for Timothy, whose father was a Gentile.

3. Sometimes all means “all people of a specific group”

In Romans 4, Paul talks about believers who share the faith of Abraham, before adding that Abraham is the “father of us all” (Rom. 4:16).

Abraham is not literally the father of all people – he wasn’t the father of Adam or Adolf – but “he is the father of all who believe” (Rom. 4:11).

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:22)

Some interpret the words “all will be made alive” as meaning all humanity will be raised and saved. However, in the very next verse, Paul clarifies that those who are raised by Christ are only those who belong to him.

4. Sometimes all means “all are invited” (even though all may not come)

Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).

Jesus draws all, but not all are drawn to him. Jesus invites everyone, but not everyone comes. Jesus is the light of the world, but some prefer the darkness.

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. (Tit. 2:11)

Salvation is offered to all, but not all receive it.

He came as a witness … so that through him all might believe… Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:7, 12)

Every single person who believes in the name of Jesus has the right to call themselves a child of God.

Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Rom. 5:18-19)

When Adam walked away from God and aligned himself with the devil, he took the human race with him (Rom. 5:14). But through one act of righteousness Christ undid Adam’s transgression.

Does this mean all people are now saved and that humanity is righteous? No, for Paul says the gift that comes by grace overflows to the many (not all) and on account of the gift “many (not all) will be made righteous” (Rom 5:15, 19).

5. Sometimes, all means all people everywhere

This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. (1 Tim 2:3-6)

God loves the whole world and he desires all to be saved. His love is universal and indiscriminate. He does not favor one group above another; he favors all. He favors you!

Occasionally, “all” means trouble

We can get into error when we build a theology on a single word like “all” or “world” or even “Savior.” As we have seen, even simple words can have multiple meanings depending on the context.

Rather than lifting one or two verses out of context and shouting “all means all,” how much better to engage with the Scripture itself and allow the Spirit of Truth to guide us back to the true message of the gospel.

Jesus died for all and God offers grace to all people. Forgiveness, freedom, life in abundance are given to us on account of Jesus. That is the good news of great joy that the angel said is for all people (Luke 2:10).

—

More articles about universalism and inclusionism:

• Inclusionism – what harm is it?
• 10 reasons why the doctrine of inclusion is not good news
• 12 ways the doctrine of inclusion misleads
• Grace is inclusive but inclusionism is not grace
• 50 scriptures inclusionism can’t explain
• First Adam vs Last Adam
• Is humanity righteous?
• Did all die with Christ?

Longer notes about inclusionism:

• The Central Claims of Inclusionism
• The Doctrine of Inclusion: Why it Appeals, How it Misleads
• Was Humanity Raised With Christ?
• Last Adam’s Greater Work
• Inclusionism is Not Foreshadowed in the Old Testament, by Ed Elliott
• Did the Early Church Fathers Promote Inclusionism?

Looking for a grace-based study tool? Check out the Grace Commentary, your free verse-by-verse study guide.

Sign up to get weekly grace by email:

One of the worst things we can do for our children is repeat the lies that religion has taught us.

Manmade religion says that our children are born bad to the bone and repulsive to a God who supposedly loves them.

Religion tells our kids that if they follow the rules, obey their leaders, and deny their God-given dreams and desires, he may save them from an eternity in hell.

What nonsense.

How much better if we teach our children about the One who loves them no matter what color or shape they are or whether they are good or bad or whether they excel at school or spend years in detention.

How much better if we help them discover and cultivate the incredible gifts an amazing Creator has hidden inside them.

How much better if we reveal a heavenly Father who is pleased to bits with them and who wants nothing more than for them to experience his love and share his amazing grace with others.

One of the greatest gifts we can give our children is a better picture of God. Our children don’t need to be taught that they are born bad. They need to be shown that they are deeply loved and wonderfully made.

Great expectations based on God’s great promises

Your children will rise no higher than your expectations of them, so have great expectations. Be convinced that God knew what he was doing when he entrusted them to you.

Don’t fall for the lies of manmade religion but declares the good promises of God over your children.

Your children…

1. were shaped by God (Job 33:4, Ps. 100:3, Ecc. 11:5)
2. were fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14)
3. were known to God before they were born (Ps. 139:15–16, Jer. 1:5)
4. are known to God now (Matt. 18:10)
5. are gifts from God (Ps. 127:3, Jas. 1:17)
6. are arrows in the hand of a warrior (Ps. 127:4)
7. are blessed and not born for calamity (Is. 65:23)
8. are watched over by God (Ps. 32:8, 121:8)
9. are defended by God (Is. 49:25)
10. are a crown in your old age (Pro. 17:6)

If your family has been touched by tragedy and loss, have no doubt that your baby is with the One who said “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

And if your teenagers have strayed from the path, pray with the confidence that God knows exactly where they are and he loves them even more than you do.

In this world there are some who seek to harm our children. But greater is he who made us and watches over our children than he that is in the world.

—–

Extracted and adapted from Paul’s ebook, Original Sin: What Does the Bible Really Say? available on Patreon.

More articles about children and parenting:

• What Happens to Babies Who Die?
• Are Your Children Natural Born Sinners?
• 50 Phrases to Say to Your Kids

Looking for a fun way to promote the gospel of grace to children? Check out the full-length Chocolate Gospel video…

You are welcome to download and share this video provided you don’t alter it

​
Get the ebook. Get it on Kindle. Get Chocolate Gospel tracts.

Don’t miss the fun. Sign up to get weekly grace by email:

Many years ago, a friend of mine was invited to speak at a church.

He sat in the front row as an honored guest and joined in the praise and worship. But before he was introduced as the morning’s speaker, he watched in disbelief as the host pastor stood up and began criticizing the congregation.

“This morning’s worship was pathetic. Half of you didn’t show up to the prayer meeting, while the rest strolled in late with your lattes and scruffy jeans. It’s disgraceful. You’re lukewarm and God is sick of you. Some of you need to take a long, hard look at yourselves and ask, ‘Am I really a Christian?’”

Stung by these harsh words of criticism, some people hung their heads in shame. But not my friend. He leaped onto the stage, took the mike from the pastor, and began undoing the damage.

“Your heavenly Father is not sick of you. He loves you with a love that never quits. He does not care how loud you sing or what you wear. He rejoices over you with singing and he thinks you are wonderful.”

As my friend continued to proclaim the good news of God’s unconditional love, heads lifted and people began to smile. Gone was the shame and condemnation. The room began to fill with praise to the Lord.

When I first heard this story, I was amazed by my friend’s bravery. But on reflection, the part of the story that sticks out is that this was a church where people were brow-beaten by their pastor.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd but when this shepherd beat the sheep they responded as though this was normal. They probably thought, “Yes, I am a miserable excuse for a Christian. I do nothing well, and I imagine God is disappointed with me.”

If I’m being totally honest, I have said things that brought guilt and shame to people. I didn’t yell and rant, but as a young pastor, I would sometimes preach at people in the pursuit of godliness. Which is nuts, when you think about it. Bullying people to make them holy is like trying to trying to teach an infant to walk by yelling at it.

(Sidebar: I have written elsewhere on bullying in the church. Bullying in the form of preaching law, pulling rank, shaming people publicly, and making threats is far too common. Tragically, much of it is considered normal.)

I thank God for people like my friend who confront this kind of condemnation and speak up for those being abused. I also thank God for people like the Apostle Paul who refused to let the Judaizers burden the New Testament church with law.

We did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. (Galatians 2:5)

It takes the courage of Jesus to speak against the lies that keep people from drawing near to God. And it takes the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to remember that our battle is not against flesh and blood.

The host pastor in that story was not the bad guy. He was just misguided and probably overworked. Like the people in his church, he needed to be set free.

Paul said he dedicated his life to preaching the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24). Is there any greater occupation?

You’re probably wondering what happened with my friend. Sadly, I don’t remember the rest of the story. It was a long time ago. But based on similar experiences I’ve heard, I imagine my friend did not get a return invitation.

Which is a shame, because what he was preaching was what the world most needs to hear.

—

If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy these:

• The Accepting Church
• 8 Signs of Hyper-Grace Churches
• What Makes a Church a Family?
• Why We are Not a Red-Letter Church

Feed your faith. Get weekly grace articles straight to your inbox:

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15), but what are his commandments?

Someone confused about grace might think his commandments are the Ten Commandments. However, the Ten Commandments are part of the Law of Moses, and the Law of Moses is NOT the Law of Christ.

Ten Commandments ≠ Commands of Jesus

Here is one of the commands of Jesus:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (John 13:34)

There are two things to know about the commands of Jesus: First, the command of Jesus is a new commandment. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you.” The command of Jesus is not the old command of Moses. Nor is it a revamped version of that old law.

Second, it is a new kind of commandment or a new kind of law. It’s like the law of gravity – it works whether you try to keep it or not.

Consider these differences:

The old vs the new

You may say, “But the command to love one another is not new. It’s straight out of the old covenant. It’s the royal law which says ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Lev. 19:18). Jesus himself quoted this law.”

Indeed, Jesus sometimes quoted the old laws when speaking to people who lived under the Law of Moses. But to his disciples, he gave a new commandment. See if you can spot the difference:

Under the old law, you had to provide the love. You had to love God and your neighbor, and if you failed, you were cursed. Bad news.

But the new command of Jesus is a new kind of commandment. Now we love others with the love we have received from God (1 John 4:11). Love is not something to manufacture; it is Someone to receive. When we receive from the abundance of the Father’s love, we are empowered to love others.

A word from John

Now let’s skip ahead about 40 years. Here’s the apostle John writing a letter:

Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in him. (1 John 2:7–8a)

What is the old commandment that John said was new? It’s the command that he and the other apostles received from Jesus many years earlier. It was the old “love one another” command with a new twist as – “I have loved you.” It was new for them and it remains new for many people today.

Many Christians are trying to live under the old law of Moses, and they are miserable as a result. They’re doing their best to love God and others but they fail often. The problem is they are trying to keep the commands of Moses when they could be resting in the commands of Jesus. They don’t know that what the law requires, grace provides.

A business parable

Imagine you work in a toxic workplace where workers are regularly abused by management. No matter how hard they work, they receive harsh reviews and are underpaid. To get ahead, you have to engage in office politics and do whatever it takes to make your numbers look good.

It’s a miserable place to work.

Then a new owner takes over and everything changes. The new boss treats her employees like family. She invests in them and helps them succeed. Workers struggling with health issues receive first-class care, and those suffering burnout are sent on long sabbaticals.

Before long, the workers are happy and productive, and the business is thriving.

Now imagine there is one holdout employee who insists on doing things the old way. He over-promises and under-delivers. He criticizes his co-workers and talks himself up. At meetings, he pushes failed policies that never worked and no longer apply. Such is the churchgoer who prefers law to grace. He lays down the law, condemns those who fail, and generally makes life miserable for everyone.

The new creation is not about trying harder to do what no one ever managed to do. The new creation is a new humanity imbued with new life.

It is the indwelling Spirit of Christ that keeps his own commands. It is the relentless love of God that empowers us to love others as Christ loved us.

The commands of Jesus are not fulfilled by self-effort but by Christ living his life through us.

—

If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy these:

• The Old vs the New Covenant
• Keeping God’s commands
• How to Read the Commands of the New Testament
• Is “Love your Neighbor” Part of the New Covenant?

The Grace Bible series is growing in leaps and bounds. Check out our mid-year update.

Feed your faith. Get weekly grace articles straight to your inbox:

Like fashion, religious superstition changes with the seasons.

One year, it’s all about blood moons and astronomical phenomena. “Jesus is nearly here!” Then it’s about Israel and Russia. “Armageddon is upon us!” Well, this season, superstition has a new catalogue, and it concerns the proper way to address Jesus.

“Hey, Paul. You forgot to say ‘Lord’ Jesus. Are you unsaved?”

Sorry, I meant to say the Lord Jesus.

“You really ought to say Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t forget the Christ.”

I kid you not. These are actual comments I get on social media regularly. If I refer to my Lord and dearest Friend as just “Jesus”, I get in trouble.

Pro tip: It’s perfectly fine to say just “Jesus.” Yes, he is the King of kings, but this isn’t Buckingham Palace. There is no rule that says you must recite all his titles every time you speak of him.

But don’t take my word for it. Learn from the New Testament writers who occasionally referred to just “Jesus”:

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. (1 Th. 4:14)

Hmm. Perhaps the Apostle Paul wasn’t really saved.

The author of Hebrews did this all the time. “But we see Jesus…” “Consider Jesus…” “Fixing our eyes on Jesus…” “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant…” (Heb. 2:9, 3:1, 12:2, 24).

Is Jesus Lord of all? Of course! But he won’t get upset if you don’t mention his titles every time you talk to him. I promise. It’s in the Bible.

What about Yeshua?

Lately there has been a new trend sweeping social media—or rather, an old trend making a seasonal return—and that is the habit of referring to Jesus as Yeshua, Yehoshua, and Yahusha. Perhaps you have seen these names.

You might have also seen YHWH, or YHUH, which some use as alternative names for God. Never mind that Jesus told us to call God our heavenly Father (Luke 11:2).

I have seen variations of these names many times over the past few weeks. It’s like a Phonetic Pandemic.

There are historical reasons behind some of these names (Jesus was probably known to his Jewish friends as Yeshua) but there are no spiritual reasons for using them.

If you think you will become a more spiritual or enlightened person by adopting the correct Hebrew phonetics, then you are departing from scripture. If you think your prayers will get fast-tracked to the top of the queue if you use a “sacred name”, you’re fooling yourself.

Some use these names to promote a return to the law-keeping of Judaism. “The real Yahusha kept the commandments and honored the traditions, and so should you.” Beware this grace-killing message! It leads straight to dead works an unbelief.

The New Testament was written in Greek, and the apostles consistently used Iēsous, the Greek form of Jesus’ name. Iēsous became Iesus in both the Latin Bible and the 1611 edition of the King James Bible. Then English speakers began swapping I’s for J’s and we ended up with Jesus. “Jesus” is not a mistranslation of Iēsous. It is simply the modern English descendant of:

Yeshua → Iēsous → Iesus → Jesus

Did you know the name “Jesus” appears nearly 1,000 times in the New Testament (depending on which translation you are using)? In contrast, his titles “Lord” and “Christ” appear about 700 and 500 times respectively.

Those other names—Yeshua, Yehoshua, and Yahusha? They are never mentioned. Not once.

Pronunciation Is Not a Spiritual Gift

If you are a Hebrew- or Aramaic-speaker and you are more comfortable saying Yeshua than Jesus, by all means say Yeshua. But if you are more concerned about names than knowing the person of Jesus Christ, you’ve missed the point.

There is no magical power in saying mystical names that supposedly have some historical significance. The power comes from knowing the Person of Jesus Christ. This is why we preach the simple gospel of Jesus Christ—so that people might come to know the Savior and be saved.

Wherever the apostles went, the boldly proclaimed the good news of Jesus. They did not delve into special names or complicated phonetics. Whether speaking to Jews or Greeks, they preached Jesus. We would do well to follow their example.

I’ll leave the last word to my friend Pastor Jeremy White, who recently posted this on Facebook:

The obsession with “secret names,” special pronunciations, and linguistic elitism often reveals something deeper: People drift from the simplicity of the gospel and start searching for hidden knowledge that makes them feel spiritually superior. That’s Gnosticism, not Christianity. The good news of Jesus has always been gloriously accessible to ordinary people in ordinary languages. Which is probably why the apostles preached Christ boldly across the Roman world instead of stopping every sermon to conduct a Hebrew pronunciation workshop.

The good news reveals Jesus, and Jesus is so much bigger than his name.

—

If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy these:

• How Sexist is Your Bible?
• The Two Books Your Pastor Reads
• Do NIV Readers have a Sinful Nature?
• Which Bible Commentaries are Grace-Based?

Looking for a grace-based study tool? Check out the Grace Commentary, your free verse-by-verse study guide.

Feed your faith. Get weekly grace articles straight to your inbox:

Jesus said, “It’s not enough to hear my words, you need to act on them” (see Matt. 7:24).

Okay, but what sort of action did Jesus have in mind? What words are you supposed to do? You need a good answer to this question lest you be like the foolish man who built on sand and lost his house.

Christ’s challenge to act on his words comes from the well-known Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders, which he delivered at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Some people read this parable as a call to earn your salvation:

To be saved, you have to do everything Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. You have to turn the other cheek, love your enemies, never get angry, go the extra mile, forgive those who sin against you, don’t worry, don’t judge, and don’t sin. Fail to do all these things and you are doomed to destruction.

This is pure law. It is not good news. It is bad news because if you try and do everything Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount you will fail, your conscience will condemn you, and you won’t be saved.

Others take a different approach. They say, “We must do everything Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount to become mature believers.” But no one was ever saved or sanctified through their law-keeping or good works (Rom. 3:20). Pretending to live by law will not make you a mature believer. It’ll just make you miserable.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Matthew 7:24)

When Jesus refers to “these words of mine,” he’s not talking about some law. He is referring to what he has just said about doing “the will of my Father” (see Matt. 7:21). And the will, the work, and the command of the Father is to believe in the Son he sent (John 6:29, 40, 1 John 3:23).

Do you see? This is really good news. You don’t have to struggle and strive and hope your best is good enough (it isn’t). You just need to trust that everything that needed to be done to save and sanctify you was accomplished through the Son God sent.

Who is the foolish man?

The foolish man is the one who hears about the will of God but doesn’t do it. He hears the good news of grace but doesn’t believe it. Instead of trusting in the finished work of the cross, he’s trusting in his own works. And this is why he falls.

A wise person builds on Jesus, the Righteous Rock, but a foolish person builds on the shifting sands of self-righteousness. Refusing to believe that every blessing is freely ours in him (Eph. 1:3), they strive to earn the acceptance, salvation, and favor of God.

No one wants to be a fool. We all desire wisdom and Jesus tells us how to get it. “If you want to be wise, do the will of God.”

In other words, don’t just hear the good news; believe it.

Like the Jews who heard the Sermon on the Mount, many of us have heard that we must work to prove our worth to God. But the only work that God is looking for – the work that accompanies our faith – is that we believe in his Son.

This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. (John 6:29)

Wise or foolish – which are you?

This week I posted something on Faceook that proved to be far more controversial than I imagined: “What is the work of God? Simple – believe in Jesus.”

Oh. My. Word.

More than 20,000 people saw that post and judging by the angry comments it attracted many of them did not think that believing in Jesus is the work that God desires. Oh no, they said. Believing is just the beginning. We also have to repent, confess sins, die daily, love our neighbors, tithe, keep the commands, surrender, prayer regularly, and do all the other things in the Bible.

Which makes me wonder how they might have reacted to Jesus when he first uttered the famous words of John 3:16. “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Let us be clear: A foolish person is someone who either doesn’t believe or believes that believing is not enough – which is to say they don’t believe.

A foolish person works because they have not seen the work of Christ. A foolish person worries that when Jesus returns their shortcomings will be exposed. A foolish person has no peace and no confidence because they are not walking in the will of God.

In contrast, a wise person believes, which means they don’t toil and strive to save themselves or make themselves holy. A wise person trusts, which means they are settled and at rest. A wise person has confidence and looks forward to the day Jesus will return.

The foolish person trusts his works, but the wise person trusts in Christ’s finished work.

—

If you enjoyed this article, here are more like it:

• What is the law of Christ?
• Keeping God’s Commands
• Why are we not a red-letter church?
• How to Read the Commands of the New Testament
• Why ‘count the cost’ doesn’t mean what you think it means

Get weekly good news sent straight to your inbox:

Why do you go to church? Why do you serve on the ministry team? Why do you visit the sick or those in jail? Why do you go on mission trips and sponsor hungry kids? Why do you host visitors? Why do you lead a Bible study?

I suspect if you put these questions to a group of people, you’d get a range of answers. You might find that some good deeds are done for bad or mixed-up reasons. For example, “I serve to earn favour with God.” Hmm.

But what if you put these questions to yourself?

Ask yourself, “Why do I serve? Perhaps you serve because of this passage:

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. (Romans 12:11–13)

The word for fervent means “to boil.” It’s to be hot or enthusiastic. Which reminds me of something Jesus said to the Laodiceans: “I wish that you hot” (Rev. 3:15). It’s better to be hot than lukewarm, but what does it mean to be fervent or hot in this context?

How to be fervent in spirit?

Here’s what it doesn’t mean. Being fervent does not mean busting your hump for Jesus or running yourself ragged. Nor does it mean working your fingers to the bone or burning the candle at both ends. Notice we are to be fervent in spirit, not fervent in flesh.

Yet some use these words to whip people into action. “Look at what Jesus did for you. What will you do for him?” This kind of talk is usually followed by an invitation to sign up for a host of programs or outreaches.

The problem with this is that natural zeal never lasts. And no matter how hard you work, there is always more to do.

This is why so many faithful saints are exhausted. They’re worn out from working too hard for Jesus. They have good hearts, but like the hard-working Ephesians, they are in danger of wandering from their first love.

It is a mistake to read Romans 12:11 without first reading Romans 12:1:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (Romans 12:1)

Fleshly enthusiasm is a response to the carrots and sticks of dead religion, but spiritual enthusiasm is a response to the mercies of God. Carnal enthusiasm is a response to guilt, but real enthusiasm is a response to grace.

Some say, “It is my Christian duty to serve.” Yuk. That’s guilt talking. Don’t you know that “duty” means obligation? You are not a Levite taking your turn in the tabernacle. You are a high-born son or daughter of the king!

Before we proceed, complete this statement as honestly as you can. “I serve because __ ”

If you are serving out of a sense of debt or duty, it might be time to hit the reset button. You don’t want to end up like a worn out Ephesian wandering from your first love.

We don’t serve to earn God’s favour or man’s approval; we serve because we have received the mercies of God. Knowing how much God loves us, we can’t help but serve so that others might know his love too.

In Ephesus, Apollos was known as someone who was fervent in spirit (Acts 18:25). In other words, he ministered with the enthusiasm that comes from knowing the love of God. He did not serve to earn, gain, or win anything for himself. He served because he knew the Servant King.

Which brings us to the last part.

Serving the Lord

The Christian who is walking in grace serves as unto the Lord. But what does it mean to “serve the Lord”? It’s not as if God actually needs our service. He’s quite capable of running the cosmos without our help.

We serve the Lord by serving the people he died for. You don’t have to be a preacher, missionary, or deacon to serve the Lord. You can serve him a thousand different ways. You can be an inmate on death row and serve the Lord. Like Paul.

Why do you serve? The best answer is, “I can’t help myself. The love of Christ compels me to help others in the place God has put me and with the talents he has given me.”

Imagine a world where everyone did that.

—

Ten years ago this week, I asked if anyone wanted to join me on Patreon. The following people said yes, and ten years later, they are still with me. For supporting me during the production of 12 books, 500 articles, and 10,000 Grace Commentary entries, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the following supporters:

The most controversial verse in the most controversial book in the Bible is probably this one:

Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. (James 2:17)

What did James mean? Was he contradicting Paul, who said we are justified by faith alone and not works (Gal. 2:16, Eph. 2:8–9)?

There are three ways to read this verse. First, there are those who say James was confused about the gospel of grace and therefore we shouldn’t listen to him. His letter was included in the Bible to show us how some people misunderstand grace.

This view comes from Martin Luther, who famously took a dim view of the letter from James. In the 1522 edition of his German New Testament, Luther wrote:

St. James’s epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.

In other words, don’t take James too seriously, said Luther. His half-baked revelation is more Jewish than Christian.

Then there are those who, like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, say James complements the message of Paul. John Calvin famously said that faith alone justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is never alone. In other words, faith in Christ will lead to good works, and those works prove that one has faith in Christ.

The problem is that James is not talking about “good works” as many understand them. (Calvin was thinking of self-denial, patience, prayer, devotion, etc.) James is talking about salvation (Jas. 2:14), justification (Jas. 2:21, 24–25), and being made right with God (Jas 2:23). If your faith lacks works, says James, you won’t be saved, justified, or made right with God.

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? (James 2:14)

What are the works that accompany faith?

To answer this question, we need to remember that James was writing to Jews who believed in God. “You believe that God is one” (Jas. 2:19). The religious Jews were God-fearing, but for the most part they did not believe in the Son God sent. Their faith in God was dead and useless because it was unaccompanied by the work of God, which is this:

This is the work of God – that you believe in him whom he has sent. (John 6:29)

James encourages us to be doers and not merely hearers of the word (Jas. 1:22). To be a doer of the word is to receive, with humility, the word of truth (the gospel) that can save our souls (Jas. 1:21). It’s receiving, accepting and believing the promises of God regarding our salvation.

If faith is a noun – the state of being persuaded that God saves you by grace alone – then believing is the verb or activity that flows from that persuasion. We do not believe in order to create faith. Rather, believing is the action that reveals our faith.

Having the same spirit of faith… we also believe. (2 Corinthians 4:13)

James does not leave us guessing when it comes to works of faith. He says we need to submit and draw near to God (Jas. 4:7–8). We need to humble ourselves and receive his grace (Jas. 4:6, 10). We need to hold onto the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ (Jas. 2:1).

To back up his exhortation to believe, James points his Jewish readers to a familiar example: “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Jas. 2:23). Which is the same thing Paul said on more than one occasion (e.g., Rom. 4:3). James and Paul were very much on the same page when it came to the works of faith.

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. (James 2:26)

In the same way, the spirit gives life to our bodies, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ imparts life to our faith. Faith comes to life when we believe the life-giving gospel. As we allow the word to take root in our hearts, we receive the life of Christ and are born again into new and everlasting life.

James wrote to a religious audience who thought they could impress God with their deeds. James called them out on it before challenging them to be doers and not just hearers of the word.

His message remains just as relevant today. If you are a religious sort of person who believes in God and does good works, but you don’t accept that Jesus is the Risen Lord, your faith in God is dead and useless. It is not a saving faith.

As Keith Green famously said, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger.” You have to be a doer of the word and be born again. You have to put your faith in God to work and believe in the Savior he sent.

Despite what Luther and others thought, James had much to say about grace and all of it was good.

—

More articles about James

• James 1:5 – How to Get Wisdom from God?
• James 1:27 – Pure Religion
• James 2:8 – What is the Royal Law?
• James 2:17 – Faith Without Works is Dead
• James 2:24 – What are Works of Faith?
• James 5:15 – Conditional Forgiveness?

You can also read my verse-by-verse commentary on James on the Grace Commentary. It’s free!

Get weekly grace by email:

Children and teenagers sometimes hear things that are not true. “If it doesn’t hurt anyone, do it.” “If you don’t get caught, it’s not really wrong.” “If you don’t get a lot of ‘likes,’ you’re not cool.”

If one of my kids repeats some bad advice they’ve picked up, I usually say, “Did Daddy tell you that?” Because no, Daddy would never tell them to do something dangerous, crazy, or foolish.

I want them to know Daddy is wise. Daddy loves you. You can trust what Daddy says more than what you read on a thread somewhere.

Which brings me to this:

Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Matthew 7:24)

Seems simple, right? Do what Jesus said and you’ll be safe as houses. You’ll be eternally secure and you’ll stand when the storms come.

Only it’s not simple, because people can’t agree on what Jesus said.

The words of Moses and the words of Jesus

What did Jesus say? What are “these words of mine”? Your answer to that question depends on which covenant you are under.

If you were a Jew listening to Jesus preach the Sermon on the Mount, you might think “these words of mine” are the Sermon on the Mount. Which is to say, “these words” are the laws that Jesus has just outlined. For example:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27–28)

Here we have the words of Moses (“You have heard it said”) followed by the words of Jesus (“But I say to you”). If you were Jewish, you would have no doubt that Jesus was preaching a harsh, new law. Indeed, you would be shocked because no scribe or rabbi would dare add his own words to the law. But Jesus did.

If you were a Jew living in Biblical times, you would be wise to obey Jesus words. Why? Because you would soon realize that no one can keep the law that Jesus preached. If you tried, you would fail and then you would realize your need for grace.

Sadly, some people today think that the Sermon on the Mount was written for them. They insist, “We must do everything Jesus said to qualify for the kingdom.” To which Jesus responds:

Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

Anyone who makes an honest effort to live by the law will be brought low by this verse. You may keep the law better than most, but I guarantee you that you’re not in the same league as Sam the Scribe or Phil the Pharisee. These guys were pros!

But the good news is that we do not live under the Law of Moses. We live under grace.

What are the words of Jesus?

“These words of mine” are not referring to the whole sermon Jesus preached, but the words he has just spoken:

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. (Matthew 7:21)

When Jesus says “do these words of mine” he’s saying “do the will of my Father.” That’s the context. Verse 24 comes right after verses 21, 22 and 23 where Jesus is talking about people who didn’t do his Father’s will.

Do you see? Jesus is not talking about the words of Moses or keeping the law. He is saying those who don’t do his Father’s will are going to be sent away.

And what is the Father’s will? It is that we believe in the Son he sent:

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:40)

Indeed, this is not just the will of God, it is also the command of God:

This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ… (1 John 3:23)

Many believers are hearing two messages. They hear they are saved by grace, but they also hear “You must obey everything Jesus said.” Since Jesus sometimes preached law to those who lived under the law, the result is confusion and insecurity.

Jesus does not give us a long list of requirements for entering the kingdom. Instead, he calls us to repent and believe the good news that he is the Son sent from the Father to save us.

The world is full of lies, but Jesus speaks a truth you can stand on.

If you are trusting in him, you can have confidence that you will stand when the storms come. And if you are resting in his righteousness, you can be assured that your righteousness far surpasses the DIY righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

And if someone says “you must do what Jesus commanded,” you can reply, “The will and command of God is that we believe in his Son.”

Period. The end. Amen.

—

Read this verse in context on the Grace Commentary, your free verse-by-verse study guide.

Have you added Escape to Reality to your home screen?

I know of a woman who is angry with God. You might think she is angry because she has lost a child or suffered some injustice, but no. Her anger is not based on any particular hurt.

This woman has served the Lord for decades. If we were comparing resumes, hers would be longer than yours. And this is why she is angry. She has served faithfully for years but God has not rewarded her for her service. The ledger is unbalanced and God owes her big time.

Or so she says.

Sadly, she is not alone. The church is full of “faithful soldiers” who have toiled for years, reaped nothing, and now they’re angry. “It’s not fair,” they say. “I gave God the best years of my life. Where is my reward?”

I used to battle these sorts of thoughts. For ten years, I worked my butt off as a pastor of a church in Hong Kong. I could not fathom why the blessed thing didn’t grow. Where was the return on my investment?

I now realize that what I thought was “faithful service” was actually an unholy alloy of ambition and insecurity. To some degree, I was operating with a mindset that said, “I need to prove myself through service” and “If I do more, God will bless us.”

There is nothing wrong with hard work and service – I love hard work! But we’re fooling ourselves if we think we can earn divine favor. If you believe God will reward you for your sweat and toil, you’re heading for disappointment. And then maybe anger. And then bitterness.

Why are you kicking against the goads?

Some people are angry with God, while others imagine God is angry with them. In either case, the hostility is all on their side. Our Father’s heart is always for peace. He sent his Son to show us that his desire is always for reconciliation (Rom. 5:10).

If you are angry with God, you need to ask yourself why. Maybe it’s because you’ve been sold a lie. Maybe you have heard a message like this: “Give to God and he will give to you. Be faithful, and God will bless you.”

Although it is blessed to serve and give, God is not your employer doling out rewards for service. In the economy of grace, it doesn’t work that way.

If you have no peace with God, you need to recognize that something is amiss. But don’t panic. Help is at hand.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1)

You might have read this verse 100 times, but if you are angry with God, that probably means you haven’t received it in your heart. You need a reset.

Start with first principles. To be justified by faith means you accept the gift of God’s justification. It means discarding tired notions of performing-to-be-blessed and resting in your Father’s favor.

What happens when we trust God 100 percent? We have peace.

How can I have peace with God?

Peace does not come from within and peace is not something we can earn or manufacture. True peace comes from the God of peace, who releases peace and joy by revealing himself and his righteousness.

Just as anger and frustration are fruits of the flesh, peace is a fruit of righteousness:

The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17)

Some are angry and frustrated because they are trying to make themselves righteous or more righteous when God offers them his righteousness as a gift.

If you are angry, bitter and disappointed because of unmet expectations, stop what you are doing. Turn around. Go back to the beginning. Renew your mind, surrender your ambitions, and learn to receive by faith the gifts of his grace.

—

No one has a complete handle on the goodness of God, but some people have deep revelation into key aspects of the gospel. If you want to know about the righteousness that comes by faith, it’s hard to go past E.W. Kenyon. And if you want to know about radical acceptance, I can think of no better teacher than Brennan Manning. This is why you need the Grace Masterclass. The Grace Masterclass is a collection of the very best teachings, insights, and illustrations from great authors on the gospel of grace. It’s available now on my Patreon page.

Escape to Reality is your roadmap to Real Life. Get weekly grace by email:

Manmade religion thrives because we are ignorant of God’s word.

Religion tells us that repentance means “turn from sin,” so we get busy turning from sin.

Religion tells us that confession means “review your sins,” so we get busy reviewing our sins.

Religion tells us that holiness means “avoid sin and sinners,” so we do that too.

And the result is an irrelevant and disengaged church that is riddled with unbelief and devoid of the supernatural.

How much better if we listened to God and spoke his language. How much better if we viewed the Bible as useful for training in righteousness instead of looking to manmade tradition.

Take the word “holy”, for example. Do you know what this word means?

Look up the word holy in a dictionary and you will see that it means sacred, consecrated, or religious. But these are poor definitions that do not describe a holy God. God is not religious.

Holiness means wholeness

To say that God is holy is to refer to the wholeness, fullness, beauty, and abundant life that overflows within the Godhead. God lacks nothing. He is unbroken, undamaged, unfallen, completely complete and entire within himself. He is the indivisible One, wholly self-sufficient, and the picture of perfection.

Holy means whole or complete. At least, that’s what the word originally meant, but we changed it to something else.

Under the old covenant, the Israelites were commanded to avoid unclean things and to distinguish between the holy and the profane (Lev. 10:10, Eze. 20:7, 22:26). This fueled the notion that holiness means being separate from sinners and the world in general.

(Sidebar: Jesus, the Holy One, was the friend of sinners. He touched them, laid hands on them, and ate with them. Jesus didn’t pray that we would be taken out of the world, but that we would be sanctified in it (John 17:15-18). True holiness runs from nothing.)

A famous 19th century evangelist once said, “Holiness is moral perfection, and nothing short of moral perfection, or moral rectitude, is holiness.” Many eastern gurus would agree with him. In many of the world’s religions, holiness is the result of rule-keeping and good behavior.

The problem with these definitions is they promote dead works and self-trust. If fourteen centuries of the law-keeping covenant taught us anything, it’s that people cannot make themselves holy. We might as well try and climb to the moon.

John Wycliffe on Holiness

The English word holy comes from the Old English word halig which means whole and hale. When John Wycliffe and his associates began writing the first English Bible in the fourteenth century, this is what the word holy meant to them. It meant wholeness, completion, or perfection. When the earliest English translators wrote about a God who is holy, they understood that they were writing about a God who is whole and perfect in every way.

Wycliffe was a brave man who was persecuted for his convictions. In defining holy as whole, he was departing from the Latin tradition of defining holy as set apart.

Latin meaning of holy: set apart
Middle English meaning: whole

Sadly, Wycliffe’s interpretation didn’t stick. Ask any English-speaking churchgoer today what holy means and they’ll likely give you the Latin interpretation rather than Wycliffe’s.

A Biblical definition of holiness

John Wycliffe was all well and good, but what does the Bible actually say? We get some insight into the true meaning of holiness by looking at the Old Testament. The passage below is the first time in the Bible that God is described as holy:

For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy. (Lev. 11:45)

The Hebrew word for holy is the adjective qadowsh which is related to the verb qadash and the noun qodesh. The first time any of these words appears in the Bible is in Genesis:

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. (Genesis 2:3)

If we want to know the true meaning of holiness, it will help if we consider why God made the seventh creation day holy.

When God made the stars, planets, trees and animals, it was good but not holy. It was not until Day Seven that God looked at creation and said, “This is particularly good day. I’m going to sanctify it and make it holy.”

What made the seventh day more special than the rest? Look at how the seventh day is described in Genesis:

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed his work which he had done… (Gen 2:1-2)

The seventh day was a holy day or a holiday because the work of creation had been completed. The world was whole and perfect and good in every way. To be holy is to be wholly whole, completely complete, and perfectly perfect.

Life as one long holiday

Adam and Eve began their new lives on a holiday, and so did you. The day you began your new life in Christ you were made whole and holy. The new you is complete in him (Col. 2:10).

Which means you do not need to waste your life examining your navel for sin. Nor should you run from sinners. (Can you imagine Jesus doing that?)

Your heavenly Father is holy and you carry his holy DNA. What does that mean? That’s for him to reveal and you to find out.

The life God intends for you is one of joyful discovery. It is learning to live loved (because you are loved) and being holy (because you are holy). It is growing into who you already are in Christ.

The Christian life is not striving to perfect what he started; it is resting in his finished work and holidaying in his holiness.

—

Jerome of Stridon was a monk who lived in a cave and slept on a rock pillow. Jerome had a short temper but managed his anger problem by beating himself with a rock. Jerome is more famous for writing history’s most influential Bible, the Latin Vulgate. When it came to defining “holiness”, Jerome borrowed heavily from the idol-worshipping cultures of his time. John Wycliffe and others went in a different direction, but it’s Jerome who still shapes our thinking today. If you want to dig deeper, check out my 20 page study note “The True Meaning of Holiness: From St. Jerome to John Wycliffe and Back Again.” It’s available now on Patreon.

Many believers know that God has forgiven them, yet they withdraw, self-punish, or strive harder when they fail. They’ve heard about the unconditional love of God, but they act as though they must atone for their mistakes.

If you are asking, “How could God forgive me?” or “Have I done enough for God?” you may be exhibiting symptoms of spiritual slavery. Don’t panic. Freedom is here:

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)

Two spirits are mentioned in this verse: a spirit of slavery and a spirit of adoption. Some people say these spirits are mindsets, but there may be more to it than that. What are these two spirits? Let’s start with the easy one.

What is the spirit of adoption?

The “spirit of adoption” refers to the Holy Spirit:

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6)

When you came to Christ in faith, you received the Spirit of Christ. One sign of the indwelling Spirit is that we see God as our heavenly Father. This happens because the spirit of adoption, a.k.a. the Holy Spirit, teaches us to cry “Abba! Father!” In other words, he shows us that God is not a judge to fear or a distant and capricious deity. He is our loving Father who hears the cries of his children and provides for our needs.

Note 1: Abba is the Aramaic word for “father.” It is a word of familial intimacy, not unlike Papa (which is how some Bibles translate it).

Note 2: We don’t say “Abba! Father!” in a formal way, but we cry it out. It’s a cry of intimacy and love. It’s crying, “Father, I trust you because I know you love me and will never leave me. I know that whatever trials I face, you will be with me, and nothing will ever separate me from your love.”

Note 3: The Spirit of Christ within us does not cry “stop sinning” or “work harder” but “my Father!” These are the words God wants to hear.

What is the spirit of slavery?

The “spirit of slavery” or the “spirit of bondage” refers to the demonic lie that God is not your Father. He’s a judge to be feared and a tyrant to flee from. When the serpent tempted Eve in the Garden, he misrepresented the true character of God and the result was slavery and death.

A spirit of slavery is behind the demonic temptations of license and legalism. The licentious spirit says, “If it feels good, do it,” while the legalistic spirit says, “If it makes you good, do it.” Submitting to either lie will leave you enslaved and fearful.

How do we discern the difference?

Paul provides a simple test to discern between the spirits of slavery and sonship. The spirit of slavery promotes fear and anxiety, which are forms of bondage. In contrast, the spirit of adoption, a.k.a. the Holy Spirit, inspires you to cry out to your Abba Father.

Slavery example 1: The religious legalist worries, “Have I done enough?”

Slavery example 2: The licentious sinner wonders, “How could God forgive me?”

But when you know you have received the spirit of adoption, everything changes. You won’t hold back in fear, but you’ll come running to your Father to receive his love and grace.

So pause for a moment and ask yourself this important question:

When I stumble and make a hash of things, what usually happens next?

Whenever fear drives you away from God instead of toward him, you are listening to a spirit that does not know him as Father. Christians don’t struggle most with sin—they struggle with believing God is truly their Father even when they fail.

If you tend to run from God or try and fix things yourself, you may be under the influence of a spirit of slavery. This is not good. Renew your mind and believe what God’s word says about you. Learn to see yourself as God sees you.

Believer, you have received a spirit of adoption and by him you can cry out to your Father for help in your hour of need.

—

Question of the week: “Paul, I’ve heard the Grace Commentary is free. How do I get it?”

Answer: “Visit thegracecommentary.com to access more than 10,000 entries covering most of the New Testament. And yes, it’s totally free!”

Everything here – and on the Grace Commentary – is free thanks to the support of readers like you.

Have you ever noticed how some of the parables of Jesus have strange, uncomfortable endings?

Take the parable of the Unforgiving Slave (Matt. 18:23–35). It’s a story about a king who forgives the astronomical debt of one of his slaves. It’s a parable that illustrates the unconditional grace of God and everybody loves it.

That is, until they get to the end.

A quick recap: A king learns that one of his slaves owes him a whopping 10,000 talents. Since the man cannot repay the debt, the king orders that the slave and his family be sold into slavery. The slave prostrates himself, begs for a little more time, and promises to repay the unpayable debt.

Moved with compassion, the king decides to forgive the debt. Which is to say he bears the loss. He takes the man’s debt and makes it his own. It’s a stunning act of grace.

Who is the forgiving king?

Of course, no earthly king would act this way, but this is what our compassionate King Jesus has done for us. We owed a debt we could not pay, but on the cross the Forgiving King bore all our sin and cleared all the charges against us (Col. 2:14). He did this because he loves us and because he wants us to be free.

Back to the story. You would think that the forgiven man would be radically changed by the king’s grace. But no. The rotten fink goes out and throttles a colleague who owes him a piddling amount. When the colleague is unable to repay him, he has the man thrown in prison.

The man’s harsh behaviour is reported and he is summoned to the king a second time. The king marvels that the man was not able to show others the same mercy that was shown to him. Then this happens:

And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. (Matthew 18:34)

Suddenly, this is not such a nice story anymore. “Hand him over to the torturers?!” (Some Bibles say tormentors or jailers.) It’s a real head-scratcher.

Is Jesus saying that God’s forgiveness is unconditional until it’s not?

Or grace is free, but you have to prove you were worth it?!

Some read the parable as a law of conditional forgiveness. “God has forgiven all your sins, but if you don’t forgive others, he will hold your sins against you.” In other words, if you harbor unforgiveness in your heart, God will harbor unforgiveness against you. Which would make God guilty of the very sin for which he was judging you.

This is not what Jesus is saying in the parable.

God is not fickle. He does not change like shifting shadows. He does not forgive you one day only to torture you the next. On the cross, he dealt with our sins once and for all, and nothing we do can ever change that.

Who are the torturers?

There are no torturers or tormentors in the kingdom of God, but there are torments outside it. The torment of the unforgiving slave is self-inflicted for sin and pride are their own punishment. He will bear the weight of his impossible debt for as long as he refuses grace.

What can the king say to such a man? There is only one thing: “You reject grace? Very well, you shall have law. In the way you have judged, you will be judged. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Off to jail with you!”

The tragedy of the unforgiving slave is that his condemnation is wholly self-inflicted. He would rather hold onto his debt than receive the gift of the king’s mercy. He prefers law to grace and this is why he suffers.

Such is the fate of all who reject grace. The self-righteous are not tormented by God but by their own stupid pride and the burdensome demands of the law.

The torments of self-righteousness

God wants us to be free so he wipes the slate, forgives the debt, and invites us to his banqueting table. But the self-righteous refuse to come. They foolishly cling to their burdens and then wonder why they are suffering.

The wrong way to read the Parable of the Unforgiving Slave is to imagine that God will punish you if you fail to forgive, or that Jesus delivers underperforming Christians to the tormentors.

The truth is far better. The Forgiving King has forgiven all your sins, including your many failures to forgive.

If you are tormented by a past hurt you can’t let go of, come boldly to the throne of grace to receive help in your hour of need (Heb. 4:16). There you will find the strength to forgive and the freedom to move on.

In the new covenant, we do not forgive to be forgiven. We are already forgiven and God holds nothing against us. And as we receive the grace of God, we find ourselves able to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us.

—

Extracted and adapted from Paul’s new book The Parables of Jesus.

“Am I really okay with God? If God has forgiven me, why do I still feel like I’m on trial? If I’ve been set free, why don’t I feel free?”

These are the kinds of questions asked by those who don’t fully appreciate what it means to be justified.

What does it mean to be justified?

To be justified means that God has declared you not guilty of sin. (The original verb dikaioō means “acquitted” or “to render innocent.” See the Grace Commentary entry for Romans 3:24.) You were condemned as a sinner, but by the grace of God you have been declared innocent of all charges against you.

As preachers like to say, “Justification makes it ‘just as if I had never sinned’.”

To be justified means the chains that bound you have been removed, and the prison doors have been opened. The sentence of death has been commuted and you have returned to the land of the living. You have been set free.

So being justified or declared innocent is a very good thing. Here are three things you need to know about being justified.

1. We are not justified by anything we do

One of the great lies of religion is that you can clear your slate. Be good, work hard, and God will accept you. It’s an oft-heard message, but it’s not true.

Your good works don’t make you good.

Some people think they can earn a “get out of jail” card by keeping the Ten Commandments. Nope. “No one is justified by the law before God” (Gal. 3:11).

In fact, trying to earn justification through your good works and morality will only drive you further from salvation (see Gal. 5:4).

Imagine a prisoner on Death Row. Every day, he makes his bed and sweeps his cell in the belief that doing so will earn him a pardon. What a fool! He could have the tidiest room in the prison, but he’s not going anywhere.

In the same way, you may be the most moral or holy person around, but your morality and holiness cannot save you. Like the prisoner on Death Row, you need outside help.

2. We are justified by grace

The pardon you and I both need comes not because we are good but because God is good and he has paid our redemption price. You are not justified by your incomplete works but by Christ’s finished work. You are not justified by your sweat but by his blood (Rom. 5:9).

All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24)

Imagine our Death Row prisoner, waiting to die. He has no hope, then one day the pardon comes and his door is opened. He is free to go. He may say, “But I am filthy. I haven’t shaved in days and I stink to high heaven.” These are irrelevant details. The pardon has been given. The matter is decided and the case is closed.

In the same way, you may be the most immoral sinner around, but justification is offered to you as a free gift, paid for by Jesus. There is only one thing left to do.

3. We receive justification by faith

Just as the prisoner must walk through the open door, we must receive by faith the gift of justification. We must abandon all attempts to save ourselves and put our trust wholly in the One who is “the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. (Romans 3:28)

Imagine our Death Row prisoner hears the good news of his pardon and says, “I can’t believe it. It’s too good to be true.” Take care Mr. Prisoner, for you are on the cusp of a life-changing moment. Act as though the pardon were a lie, and nothing will change. You will stay in your cell the rest of your days – even though the door is wide open.

So it is with those who insist on “working for God” in a misguided attempt to “prove their salvation.” Freedom has been offered, but they remain incarcerated in unbelief. They may go to church three times a week and tithe all they get, but they are as lost as the most unregenerate sinner.

Your actions reveal your faith. Either you will trust in God’s grace or you will work. Either you will receive the gift he offers, or you will bring gifts for him.

Pro-tip: drop your sacrifices, quit your striving, and say, “Thank you, Jesus. Your blood has redeemed me and your grace has set me free.”

In Christ, you are free. Live free.

This is what it means to be justified by grace.

—

The Grace Commentary is growing fast. Thirteen New Testament books are now 100 percent complete and the others are well underway. Click the graph below for an update on our progress and to see feedback from readers:

Got questions about God, life and everything? Check out our growing list of FAQs.

Get good news sent straight to your inbox. Become a subscriber today:

What is Jesus telling us? “He’s saying the kingdom of God is like a treasure or pearl and you have to give up everything you have to gain it.”

Really? But didn’t Jesus say the Father was glad to give us his kingdom (Luke 12:32)?

I’ve heard people use these parables to say we must count the cost before making a commitment to follow Jesus. Like the rich young lawyer, you must sell everything you have and give it all away. Strangely, those saying you must sell it all often haven’t sold anything. Something doesn’t add up.

Others say we must make sacrifices, not to earn salvation, but to secure heavenly promotions or special anointings. “Real Christians, like ministers and missionaries, pay the price.”

No wonder the church has a bad reputation. Some of us are acting like hypocrites – “Sure, I could give it all up if God really wanted” – while others are singing like Sinatra – “I paid the price and did it my way.”

I hope you know this already, but just to make sure we’re on the same page, the parables are not about what you give up for God, but what God gave up for you. Jesus Christ is the man who gave everything he had to gain a treasure, and he is also the merchant who came seeking the lost and sold all he had – his very life – to redeem us.

Many Christians read these parables and worry “Maybe I haven’t given up enough,” “I’m not committed enough,” or “real Christians sacrifice more than I do.” But these parables aren’t about the sacrifices you make. They are about the great sacrifice Jesus made.

He’s the hero of the story. You knew that, right?

But wait, there’s more. Read them together and you will see that the parables of the Treasure and the Pearl form a beautiful symmetry. The “treasure” is an Old Testament symbol for the nation of Israel, while the “pearl” is a New Testament symbol for the new Israel, the church.

What is the Treasure?

In the parable, the treasure represents the people of God. In context, the disciples would have understood that Jesus was referring to the nation of Israel, God’s “treasured ones” (Ps. 83:3). At Mt. Sinai, God had promised Israel, “You shall be my treasured possession among all peoples” (Ex. 19:5a).

Abraham’s descendants were called to be a blessing to the nations (Gen. 22:18). But Israel withdrew from the world. Instead of shining like a beacon of God’s favour, the nation became like a hidden treasure.

So Jesus, the man from heaven, came to the field (the world) to uncover the hidden treasure (Israel). For three years, he revealed the kingdom of God by healing the sick, delivering the captives, and preaching good news to the poor. He did these things to remind Israel that they were God’s treasured possession.

But Israel’s leaders did not care. They responded to Jesus with disinterest and even tried to suppress his ministry. They were the treasure that did not want to be found.

Jesus lamented their folly. He knew that God’s purposes would come to pass one way or another, but the unbelieving Jews were writing themselves out of his story. With a heavy heart, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation that will bring forth its fruits” (Matt. 21:43).

And so it happened. God’s kingdom was given to a new Israel—the church. After the cross, the church became God’s treasured or chosen nation (1 Pet. 2:9).

Who is the Pearl?

Pearls were the most valuable objects in the ancient world, yet pearls are conspicuously absent from the Old Testament. The Jews prized gold, silver, and precious stones, but not pearls.

By the time of Christ, however, pearls had gained wider acceptance. Jesus mentioned pearls in his sermons (Matt. 7:6), and women wore them as jewellery (1 Tim. 2:9).

A pearl is a picture of redemption. Just as a pearl forms from an injury within an oyster, God is making something precious out of wounded and sinful humanity. He is making a new species in Christ called the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). Just as the treasure symbolizes Israel, the pearl signifies the church—something once foreign, now made holy and precious.

The wrong way to read the parables of the Treasure and the Pearl is to think you must pay a great price or make great sacrifices to enter or advance in the kingdom. But the good news is that Christ gave everything he had to ransom you and all the blessings of heaven come freely to us through him.

Why did God do it this way? Because he loves you and sees you as priceless.

In his eyes, you are the treasure and the pearl of great value.

—

If you liked this, you will love Paul’s new book, The Grace Bible: The Parables of Jesus. With more 1200 entries covering every verse and phrase in every parable Christ told, this easy-to-read book cuts through centuries of confusion to reveal the grace at the heart of Christ’s most powerful teachings.

Do you feel condemned even though you know that you are forgiven? Do you feel the pressure to perform even though you know about grace? Do you struggle to reconcile God’s grace with your own effort?

These challenges are faced by those who are not fully acquainted with the law of the Spirit of life

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:2)

The entire human race lives under one of two laws. In Adam, you were governed by the law of sin and death, but in Christ, you are governed by the law of the Spirit of life. A new law signifies a new king. Formerly, you were a captive of sin, but now you belong to God.

Okay, sweet. But what does that mean for your everyday life?

What is the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2)?

The law of the Spirit of life refers to the rule or influence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. As new creations, we get to live in union with the Spirit of Christ, and the main way his influence is felt is through the outpouring of the Father’s love in our hearts.

The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5)

The love of God is like air for us. We need it to live and the Holy Spirit gives it to us.

God’s love inspires us to trust him, be our true selves, and tell others the good news. When the love of God captures your heart, you will no longer use words like “debt,” “duty,” and “responsibility” to describe your Christian walk. Living religiously is a drudge, but living righteously becomes easy when we are empowered by the Spirit of the Father’s grace.

When you were born again or put into Christ, you received his Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. The Spirit of Christ poured out the Father’s love and set you free from the law of sin and of death.

What is the law of sin and of death?

The law of sin and of death refers to the rule or influence of sin and its destructive effects. In the same way a sheriff is the law of a town, the world is in thrall to the rule of sin (Rom. 6:14, 20. “Sin entered the world… sin reigned through death” (Rom. 5:12, 21).

Sin is like a force of nature pulling you down into the Adamic life of independent living. It does this by feeding our fears, tempting our flesh with counterfeit pleasures, and spreading lies about our identity and our needs. It gets us living by our knowledge of good and evil.

Sin would have you believe that there is something wrong with you or that you must fix yourself. Sin will leave you sweating on the treadmill of self-effort and wearing a mask that hides your brokenness and shame.

What does it mean to be free from the law of sin?

A believer has had a change in master and this changes everything. Formerly, when you sinned, you were condemned by the law as a sinner. Now, when you sin, you do not reap the condemnation of the law, but the righteous affirmation of the Spirit of life.

There are still consequences to sinning, but punishment and condemnation are not among them. Saint, you are one with the Lord. Nothing can separate you from God’s love.

Which is really good news!

What is your part in this? You must believe that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” If you do not believe – and sadly, many Christians don’t – it will be as though nothing has changed – even though everything has changed.

Imagine an albatross that doesn’t know how to fly. It has enormous wings, but it walks everywhere. This is not what God intended for the mighty albatross.

The non-flying albatross is a picture of the Christian who lives as though they were still under the law of sin and death. When they stumble, they condemn themselves and try to do better next time. This is not what God intended for his sons and daughters.

Many Christians live like grounded albatrosses—they’re free in Christ, yet still walking under a law that no longer rules them.

God has set you free so that you might live under the law of the Spirit of life. So renew your mind and learn to conform to the new reality of the new creation. Change the way you see yourself. Learn how to walk in the spirit. You have been set free from the power of sin, which means you can live free and fly!

In Christ, we are no longer captive to our lusts and appetites. The heavy weight of the law that crushed us has been removed. Unburdened and unbound, we have nothing to prove and everything to live for.

—

Read this scripture in context on the Grace Commentary, your free verse-by-verse study guide.

Walk in the freedom that grace brings. Get our weekly messages by email:

Few parables have generated as much controversy as the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus told this story to a lawyer who was asking questions about how to inherit eternal life. In the story, a traveler from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked by brigands and left for dead (see Luke 10:25–37). What is it about? What is Jesus saying?

Allegory or literalism?

Early church fathers such as Origen and Augustine believed the parables were allegories riddled with layers of meaning.

According to Augustine, the traveler represents Adam, the brigands are the devil and his angels, Jerusalem is heaven, and Jericho is the waxing and waning moon. The inn symbolizes the Church, the innkeeper is the apostle Paul, and the beast of burden represents the incarnation of Christ.

Phew!

Augustine and the allegorizers go too far, say some. If we can write our own meanings onto the stories, we can make them say anything we want.

And we do.

For centuries, the parables of Jesus have been used to promote legalism, liberalism, existentialism, rationalism, feminism, pietism, postmodernism, universalism, and every other kind of –ism.

The remedy to this sort of abuse, said Reformers like John Calvin and Martin Luther, is to read the parables at a surface level only. Resist the temptation to allegorize and don’t look for hidden meanings because there aren’t any.

The Good Samaritan, said Calvin, is about being kind to your neighbor. Nothing more. But if the parables have no deeper meaning, they cease to be parables, and Jesus is just another moralizing rabbi.

Surely, both viewpoints are in error. If Augustine and the allegorizers go too far, then Calvin and the literalists don’t go anywhere at all.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan, like the stories of the Prodigal Son and the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, can be read two ways, depending on whom you identify with. If you see yourself as the fallen traveler, you will read it as a parable of grace. You will say, “Thank you, Lord, for being the true Good Samaritan who rescued me.” Your takeaway will be, “Go and reveal the Good Samaritan by showing mercy to the lost and the hurting.”

But if you identify with the Good Samaritan—that is, you see yourself as an essentially good person who does good works—you will read it as a parable of law. Your takeaway will be, “Go and show mercy to everyone, even your enemies.” And you will fail, because they’re your enemies. Like the nervous lawyer looking for loopholes, you will worry that your good works are not good enough to merit eternal life.

Which they aren’t.

Eternal life is received, not earned

Well-meaning preachers urge you to “be like Jesus,” but none of us are like Jesus. We all fall short.

But the Parable of the Good Samaritan reveals that Jesus accepts us as he finds us. He heals our hurts and lifts us up. Like the fallen traveler, we don’t have to do anything except receive his mercy and grace.

If this message of receiving is hard to grasp, consider what Jesus did next. After telling the parable, he went to Bethany to visit Martha and Mary. One sister toiled while the other sat at his feet and received, and Jesus praised the latter for choosing the thing that mattered most (Luke 10:38–42).

The life Christ offers is not something to earn but a gift to receive. We will either receive it like the wounded traveler, or we won’t take it at all.

—

If you liked this, you will love Paul’s new book, The Grace Bible: The Parables of Jesus. With more 1200 entries covering every verse and phrase in every parable Christ told, this easy-to-read book cuts through centuries of confusion to reveal the grace at the heart of Christ’s most powerful teachings.

Get weekly grace by email:

If you have been waiting for a grace-based guide that covers ALL the parables Jesus told, your wait is over. My latest book, The Grace Bible: The Parables of Jesus, has just been released.

In this comprehensive book, every parable Jesus told is explained through the lens of grace. From the biggies – The Good Samaritan, The Wicked Tenants – to the littlies – The Tower Builder, The Warring King – all your favorites are here.

This easy-to-read book cuts through centuries of confusion to reveal the liberating grace at the heart of Christ’s most powerful teachings. With more than 1,200 entries covering every verse in every parable, The Grace Bible: The Parables of Jesus, uncovers the new covenant truths that have been hiding in plain sight.

The Grace Bible: The Parables of Jesus is the perfect addition to your grace library and makes a great gift for friends and family. And pastors.

On Amazon, the new book is available in three formats – compact paperback, easy-to-read hardcover and Kindle. It is available in other countries from these booksellers. Why not grab a copy for yourself and another to give away?

“Finally, a study Bible that stays faithful to scripture and true to the gospel of grace.” – Nate Tanner, L3 Ministries

We are living in a time of great awakening. All over the world, religious blinders are falling off those who have been kept in bondage. A church dulled by toxic mixture is waking up to the realities of the new creation.

In short, people are thinking for themselves, and this is a very good thing.

It’s an awakening that, for many, begins by asking questions. Why do I think this way? What does the Bible really say? Is it possible I have allowed myself to be misled?

When we open our minds to the Spirit’s revelation, we become primed for transformation. If all goes well, the result is repentance – a radical change in mindset that leads us in a new and better direction.

But it doesn’t always happen. Deconstruction should lead to reconstruction, but sometimes it just leads to rubble.

You took apart your faith. Now what?

I have seen countless people come out of Egypt only to settle in the wilderness. They’ve left, but they haven’t arrived. They’ve abandoned religion, but they haven’t embraced truth. Some have decided there is no truth or there are many truths, which is the same thing. Which reminds me of something GK Chesterton said:

Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

It is good to discard the lies, but we must never abandon our quest for truth. So for those who are in transition, here is a reminder:

Truth is in Jesus. (Ephesians 4:21)

Truth is not a manmade construct subject to revision and debate. Truth is in Jesus, which is to say that Jesus is the measure of all things and by him all things are known (1 Cor. 8:6, Col. 1:16). Everything must be interpreted through him.

Loins girded with truth

If you want to know the truth about yourself, the world, or the meaning of life, you will find it in Jesus. The truth that is in Jesus frees us from the illusions of this flawed and fallen world (John 8:32).

Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth (Ephesians 6:14)

To be girded with truth is to interpret all things through the reality of Jesus Christ. It is being renewed in the spirit of your mind and refusing to conform to the broken reality of this evil age.

Truth is the first piece of spiritual armor listed in Ephesians 6 because truth is a belt on which everything else hangs. If the enemy can deceive you or somehow distract you from the truth, your other armor won’t matter.

The devil will attack your grasp on truth by assailing you with lies—“Did God really say?”—and by telling you there is no truth—“There are many truths. There is your truth and my truth.” He will try to untie your belt of truth by glorifying doubt and uncertainty. The best response to his schemes is to take his lying thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).

Of course, straying from the truth is nothing new. Something like this happened in the church at Antioch when certain men from the circumcision party arrived and started preaching law. They misled Peter and Barnabas and might have done terrible damage, but Paul wasn’t afraid to speak up:

I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel (Galatians 2:14)

“Not straightforward” means they weren’t walking straight. They weren’t acting consistently with the revelation of grace. They were basically saying, “You are not good enough for God. To join the inner circle, you need to become more Jewish.”

A similar message is sometimes heard today. “To be a real Christian, you need to step up, count the cost, and make the sacrifice. To really shine, you must be in full-time ministry or on the mission field.”

These calls for blood and sweat lead to dead works and Christians operating outside of their unique giftings.

And then there is the other version. “To experience authentic Christianity, you need to throw out everything you’ve been taught about God, abandon the ‘box church,’ and scorn anyone who calls themselves a pastor.” Which is really just law with a new label. Graceless messages of this kind are far from the heart of Christ.

Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

If you would stay girded with truth, learn to ignore those who aren’t living in accordance with the truth of the gospel.

We did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. (Galatians 2:5)

The truth of the gospel, or the word of truth, is the good news about Jesus Christ the Living Word. It is the undistorted message of Christ (Gal. 1:7). So here are three questions to ask yourself that will determine whether you are standing firm with your loins girded by truth:

• Does the message I’m hearing inspire me to trust God more?
• Does it cause me to fix my eyes on Jesus and be led by his Spirit?
• Does it encourage me to walk in his grace?

If you answer yes to these questions, you can be confident that you are well girded with truth.

—

Learn how to put on the full armor of God on the Grace Commentary.

Did you know there are more than 1,000 FREE articles about grace and truth here on E2R?

The parables of Jesus have twists and turns that can leave you scratching your head. Why does Jesus say “Come as you are” in one parable but “Count the cost” in another? And what are we to make of the king who murders his enemies or the one who hands his slave over to the torturers?

For 2,000 years, readers have interpreted the parables of Jesus three ways:

1. Read the parables as allegory

Early church fathers such as Origen and Augustine believed the parables were allegories riddled with layers of meaning.

Take the story of the Good Samaritan, for example. A traveler from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked by brigands and left for dead. According to Augustine, the traveler represents Adam, the brigands are the devil and his angels, Jerusalem is heaven, Jericho is the waxing and waning moon, the inn symbolizes the Church, the innkeeper is the apostle Paul, and the beast of burden represents the incarnation of Christ.

Phew!

Augustine was a classic allegorist who saw hidden meanings in everything. According to his fertile imagination, every detail, right down to the oil, bandages, and money, symbolized something else.

Do all these little details really matter? Does everything represent something else?

When Jesus explained the Parable of the Sower to his disciples, he focused only on a few key elements, namely the seed and the soil. He said nothing about plowing, rainfall, or other factors relevant to farming because those details had no bearing on the lesson he wanted to teach.

2. Read the parables as morality tales

Augustine and the allegorizers go too far, say some. If we can write our own meanings onto the stories, we can make them say anything we want. And we do.

For centuries, the parables of Jesus have been used to promote legalism, liberalism, existentialism, rationalism, feminism, pietism, postmodernism, universalism, and every other kind of –ism.

The remedy to this sort of abuse, said Reformers like John Calvin and Martin Luther, is to read the parables at a surface level only. Resist the temptation to allegorize. Don’t look for hidden meanings because there aren’t any.

The Good Samaritan, said Calvin, is about being kind to your neighbor. Nothing more. But if the parables have no deeper meaning, they cease to be parables, and Jesus is just another moralizing rabbi.

Surely, both viewpoints are in error. If Augustine and the allegorizers go too far, then Calvin and the literalists don’t go anywhere at all.

3. Read the parables as lessons for Israel (not us)

These days, it’s fashionable to interpret the parables of Jesus solely within their historical setting. That sounds reasonable, but it often leads to dismissing them as Jewish stories rather than Christian ones. “Jesus was speaking to Jews, not Christians,” the argument goes. “The church didn’t exist before the cross.”

Yet in a sense, it did—it was right there in the community of Jesus and his followers. The same disciples who heard the parables later built the church and wrote letters peppered with references to them.

Are the parables Jewish or Christian? Like Jesus and the disciples, they are both. They are rooted in Jewish soil yet blossoming with new covenant truth. Every parable still speaks with wisdom and relevance today.

Two questions to unlock the parables

To properly interpret the parables of Jesus, we need to ask two questions. First, to whom was Jesus speaking? Some parables were specifically meant for religious leaders who were hindering people from entering the kingdom of God. Obviously, harsh words for them are not meant for you.

Second, how do Jesus’ stories fit within the larger context of his message and ministry? Jesus’ listeners lived under the heavy yoke of the old covenant. But Jesus was not another rule-giver recycling old religious slogans. He was the Savior sent by God to announce the good news of the kingdom.

Any interpretation that turns the parables into moral lessons or law-keeping instructions can be dismissed. Jesus wasn’t just another rabbi trotting out the tired “work hard, do more” mantras of the old covenant. He was the Son of God, inviting us into the freedom and fellowship of the new creation.

Stories of the new covenant

The parables of Jesus revealed a new message for a new era. The proof is in their many twists and reversals: a rebel son is welcomed home with a party, a rich man is tormented in Hades, and outcasts are invited to a banquet.

These stories were unlike anything the rabbis and religious leaders taught. Rebellious sons were supposed to be punished, wealth was meant to signify God’s favor, and outcasts weren’t invited anywhere.

Jesus told stories in which Samaritans and women were heroes, crooked managers were praised by their bosses, and laborers who worked only one hour got the same pay as those who worked all day. Who’d ever heard of such things?

It was as if Jesus was saying, “Everything you’ve heard about God is wrong.”

God is not a merciless judge counting all your sins; he is a forgiving king who pays your debts and sets you free.

God is not an unapproachable sovereign; he is a generous host who welcomes all to his banqueting table.

God is not a distant deity who doesn’t care; he is a compassionate father who watches for your return, runs when he sees you coming, and falls on you with hugs.

For too long, the parables of Jesus have been used to promote dead works and self-righteousness. Do more. Be nice. Try harder.

And what if we don’t? “God will bind you hand and foot and throw you into the outer darkness” (the Wedding Feast). “He will bring you to a wretched end” (the Wicked Tenants). “He will say, ‘Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire’” (the Sheep and the Goats).

Sheesh.

Jesus said his yoke is light and easy, but apparently his parables are hard and heavy. Something doesn’t add up.

When sermons on the parables sound more like Moses than Jesus, you know something is wrong.

—

Extracted from Paul’s forthcoming book The Parables of Jesus (March 10, 2026). Read a sample chapter now.

Do you sometimes feel that life is so overwhelming and complicated that you don’t know how to pray?

Do you worry that your prayers are ineffective and muddled?

If you do not know how or what to pray, here is some good news:

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. (Romans 8:26)

We are frail creatures, often broken, discouraged, clueless, in despair, infirm, weary, and ailing. What is God’s response to our weaknesses? He helps us. “The Spirit also helps.”

The Holy Spirit is not a fault-finder who condemns your weaknesses. He is the Comforter and the Encourager who gives you grace in your hour of need. You have a great Helper in the Holy Spirit. You will never have a need greater than his ability to help.

But how, exactly, does the Holy Spirit help us?

How does the Spirit help us in our weakness (Romans 8:26)?

He intercedes for us.

To intercede is to plead or make an appeal on behalf of another. He speaks up for you. And if that weren’t enough, Paul adds that Jesus also intercedes for us (Rom. 8:34). You have a personal intercessory team speaking up for you – Jesus and the Holy Spirit! What a team!

For those of you taking notes, the original verb hyperentygchanō is a compound word made up of the words entygchanō (intercede) and hyper (super). The Holy Spirit is our super-interceder. We don’t know how to pray as we should, but he prays or speaks on our behalf.

And he’s really, really good at it. Interceding on your behalf is his super-power.

No prayer books in heaven

I know many people find comfort in prayer books, but you don’t need one to pray effectively. You just need to realize that the Holy Spirit is in you and with you interceding on your behalf.

Which is really something.

You may be terrible at praying, but he’s really good.

You may not know what to pray, but he intercedes on your behalf with perfect knowledge.

People sometimes ask me to write prayers for them. I’m happy to help those who have never prayed before, but Christian, if you need help with your praying let me introduce you to the Super-Interceder!

So please, no more worrying about praying the right way or with the right words. Even the best pray-er you ever heard only had a partial understanding of the circumstances. The Holy Spirit, in contrast, has the complete picture. He helps us to pray for things we don’t yet know or see. He aligns our prayers with the Father’s will (Rom. 8:27).

With groanings too deep for words

Creation groans (verse 22), we groan (verse 23), and the Spirit groans (verse 26) because the world is not as it should be. Creation is enslaved, our friends and families are hurting, and our bodies are failing with age. We groan for all that is wrong with the world, and we yearn for the restoration of all things.

The Spirit groans because he cares for you. He knows the trials you are going through and the glory that is coming. He groans as if in the pains of labor until Christ is fully revealed in you (Gal. 4:19).

Prayer is talking with your heavenly Father. Prayer is the antidote to fear and worry. But don’t ever think that God won’t hear you because you are praying wrong or not praying enough.

You may not know what to pray, but you never pray alone. You can trust the Holy Spirit, the Super-Interceder to speak for you with perfect knowledge and perfect love. He knows what to say and he is interceding on your behalf.

Trust him. He’s got this.

—

Extracted from my commentary on Romans.

Have you added Escape to Reality to your home screen?

Get good news sent straight to your inbox:

Have you ever noticed how often we sing about freedom? “I’m so glad, Jesus set me free.” “My chains fell off, my heart was free…” “Would you be free from the burden of sin?”

We sing freedom songs all the time, but what is freedom? And how is it that so many Christian’s don’t feel free? They may sing about it, but they don’t live it.

Obviously, they won’t feel free if they are living under the law or heeding the lies of manmade religion. But you can be under grace and still feel trapped or enslaved.

Which is kind of weird, don’t you think? To be set free but not live free doesn’t make sense. It means something is wrong.

Part of the problem is that some have said that freedom is licentiousness (“I can do what I want no matter what anyone says”) or freedom is independence (“no one tells me what to do”). But licentiousness leads to bondage while independence diminishes our humanity.

If you have heard that freedom means living for yourself, take care that you don’t end up in bondage to your appetites. Biblical freedom isn’t doing whatever you want; it’s being released from sin’s power so you can live as God intended.

What is a Biblical definition of freedom?

True freedom has two aspects. We have been set free from something so that we might be free to do something. Here’s the first part:

For he who has died is freed from sin. (Romans 6:7)

Those who are in Christ have been freed from sin. You were not freed because you kept the law, made sacrifices, or did the right things. You were set free the moment you came to Christ in faith. You remain free by reckoning yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11).

But what does it mean to be freed from sin?

To be freed from sin means you no longer have to listen to your old master. In Christ, you are free from guilt, condemnation and judgment. You are free from the demands of the law and from the bondage of others’ expectations. You are free from the fear of failure and the unholy need to prove yourself. You are free from end-times anxiety and eternal insecurity.

What a blessed relief to be free!

That’s just the first part. Just as we are free from, we are free to. And this second part is the best part.

What does it mean to be free (Galatians 5:1)?

It was for freedom that Christ set us free… (Galatians 5:1a)

In Christ, we are free to rest, to trust, and to live in the love of God. We are free to approach God without fear and to bear his fruit. We are free to walk with the Lord in daily fellowship. We are free to live righteously and enjoy the wholeness of a holy life. We are free to choose, to connect, and to create. We are free to dream, to live large and to live generously.

In short, we are free to be who God made us to be.

But you will never experience these freedoms unless you are fully trusting the Lord. A choice must be made. In Christ, you are free indeed. But if you choose to walk in the old ways of the flesh, you’ll be like a liberated prisoner who returns to the jail that once held him.

The freedom to choose

The freedom to choose is one of the greatest blessings of the new creation, and we don’t talk about it as much as we might. In your old life, you walked after the desires of the flesh because they were the only desires you had. But having been placed into Christ, you have become a partaker of his divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

In other words, you can choose to be led by the flesh (right back into bondage) or by the spirit (in the liberty of the new life). It’s a whole new way to live as Paul describes in Romans 8.

The gospel of grace is transformational because it sets us free. But there are three ways we can get this wrong. We can:

1. Confuse freedom with license
2. Use our freedom to rebel against others or put them down
3. Fail to exercise our freedom to choose and remain captive to the flesh

If we use our freedom to indulge the flesh and criticize those who think differently, look differently, or vote differently, we’ve missed the point of grace. Jesus did not call us out of darkness so that we might win arguments or parade our superiority. “I’m walking in grace better than you are.” Jesus set us free so that we might experience God’s love and draw others into the Father’s embrace.

Grace doesn’t just free us from guilt, fear, and condemnation—it frees us to rest, love, and live fully alive.

—

Many Christians struggle because they lack clarity about grace. Inside Paul’s Library (on Patreon), you’ll find:

sermons that strip away religious fog
study notes that make Scripture come alive
exclusive articles that challenge old assumptions
bonus materials that help grace sink in deep

Paul’s Library is for those who want to see grace clearly and live free.

Just three days left.

My new book The Parables of Jesus is coming out soon. This is just a gentle reminder that you have until the end of this week if you would like to get:

• an advance reader copy (pdf) of my new book (for $10 supporters and up)
• an ARC + your name included in all versions of the book ($25+ supporters)
• an ARC + a hardcover book signed by the author – me! ($100+ supporters)

These bonuses are my way of saying thank you to monthly supporters who partner with me in sharing the good news of grace.

Because of readers like you, I am able to write full-time about the grace of God and give away most of what I produce. Without the support of readers, there would be no Grace Commentary and no Escape to Reality.

You already follow my work, so you know the heart behind it. If 2026 feels like the right moment to support the work more directly, I’d love to have you join the supporters’ team.

Don’t delay: this special offer expires Saturday January 31, 2026.

Paul

Reading the Bible through the lens of grace changes everything. Often I find myself reading familiar scriptures and thinking, “I never saw it this way before” or “Jesus is talking about himself, not me.”

This happened a lot while I was writing my book on The Parables of Jesus. Consider the parables of the tower builder and the warring king. Here’s the first one:

For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ (Luke 14:28–30)

For years, I thought Jesus was saying we need to count the cost of discipleship before signing up as his followers. It’s obvious, right? He’s saying, “Don’t think about becoming my follower unless you intend to do the work that will take you all the way to the finish.”

Only, that’s not what Jesus is saying. It is the opposite of what he is saying.

This parable of the tower builder is about the folly of starting something you can’t finish and the lesson is don’t start what you can’t finish. Don’t even try, because if you do, you will fail. Guaranteed.

Discipleship isn’t hard. It’s impossible.

The unbearable cost of discipleship

Being someone’s disciple was a big deal in Biblical times. Some people said, “I follow Paul” or “I follow Apollos.” And there were always those who said, “I follow Jesus” (see 1 Cor. 1:12).

It must have come as a great shock to the original twelve disciples to hear Jesus say, “You cannot be my disciple” – and he says it three times in this chapter:

You cannot be my disciple unless you hate your family and your own life. You cannot be my disciple unless you carry a cross. You cannot be my disciple unless you give up all your possessions. (Luke 14)

Jesus gave impossible standards to show us that where he was going (to the cross), no one can follow. He wanted to show us that the price for our redemption is greater than we can bear. Only he can pay it.

Jesus said his yoke was light and easy, but religion says the opposite. “Only those who endure trials and persecutions are genuine believers. Only those who make sacrifices are worthy of salvation.”

Don’t you find it interesting that none of the epistle writers exhort us to carry our cross? Instead, they remind us, “You died with Christ” (Col. 2:20), “We died with Christ” (Rom. 6:8), and “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20).

For those of us on this side of the cross, this is good news. This is the gospel of grace! You don’t need to count the cost because Jesus already paid it all.

If you are worn out from trying to perform for Jesus, or are weighed down by the sense that you can never quite measure up, take this truth to heart: He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion (Php. 1:6).

You can’t finish what Jesus started

Here’s the second parable, the one about the warring king:

Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. (Luke 14:31–32)

Both stories make the same point, which is don’t start what you have no hope of finishing. Just as it is foolish to start a war that you will lose, it’s foolish to think you can make yourself a disciple of Christ. You can’t do it.

No cross you bear and no sacrifice you make can ever substitute for the cross of Christ. No one can save or sanctify themselves. No one can say, “It is finished,” except Christ alone.

Someone who relies on their own strength to save themselves is like a king who goes to war against a much stronger army. You are going to lose. So give up, surrender, and ask for peace.

Those who come to God carrying crosses and boasting about all they have sacrificed will be turned away. But those who come empty-handed, trusting in the sacrifice of the Son, will be welcomed, justified, and received into the family of God.

—

If you liked this, you will love my new verse-by-verse study Bible on The Parables of Jesus.

The Parables of Jesus is the latest, thrilling installment in the Grace Bible series. As far as I know, it is the only grace-based study Bible that covers all of Christ’s parables. It’s 315 pages of rich verse-by-verse commentary that will leave you breathless at the wisdom and grace of God.

Sounds good. When can I get the new book?

The new book comes out in two months, but supporters can expect Advance Reader Copies (pdfs) in early February. That’s a full month before the book goes on sale.

How can I get my name in the book?

Easy – become a monthly supporter today. Not only will you get instant access to my personal library of study notes, ebooks, and classic sermons, but for a limited time you can also get these bonus options:

• $10/month: Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of my new book a month before release
• $25/month: ARC + your name in the acknowledgments of the new book
• $100/month: ARC + you listed as a co-editor + a signed copy of the new book

This year, for the first time ever, I’m also offering a super-bonus for our top supporters:

• $250/month: ARC + your name listed as a co-publisher in the acknowledgments + gold foiled, limited edition hardcover with a blue ribbon bookmark personally signed by the author

I’ve never done a special edition book before, and I can tell you this one looks amazing. And no, you won’t be able to buy it anywhere.

Why should I put my name in your book?

Because more people will hear the good news of grace if you do.

Monthly supporters are the reason why everything on this website is free and why people in nearly every country are hearing the good news without charge. Without the support of readers like you, there would be no Grace Commentary, no Grace Bibles, and no Escape to Reality.

Supporters are partners in this ministry, and I intend to thank them publicly in my new book.

Can I list my church or business name instead?

Yes, provided your church or business does not conflict with the gospel of grace. Just drop me a line and we’ll make it happen. This is a great way to be publicly associated with the message of grace.

Who endorses the Grace Bible?

The Grace Bible is my best-selling book for a reason. Leaders from a variety of denominations have called it “a priceless resource,” “a must-have,” and their “go-to source for studying scripture from a new covenant perspective” (sources).

Amazon readers have called it “a verse-by-verse wonder,” “by far the best commentary Bible” and “the Bible commentary I’ve prayed and waited for.”

How do I get my name in the book?

Sign up as a monthly supporter on Patreon or a Donorbox and you’re good to go. Being a supporter is easy and you can cancel at any time.

But don’t delay: this special offer expires January 31, 2026.

Paul

Have you ever noticed how Jesus said his yoke is easy and light, but sermons on his teachings often sound hard and heavy? Something doesn’t add up.

Take his parables, for example.

The parables of Jesus may be the most influential stories ever told. Millions of people know them. Each week, the parables are taught from pulpits and in Sunday School classes all over the world.

The parables reveal the kingdom, yet they are often hijacked to preach dead works and self-righteousness. Apparently, the parable of the Good Samaritan is about being kind to others, while the parable of the Shrewd Manager is about giving to the poor.

There is nothing wrong with being kind and generous, but Jesus did not come to rehash religious clichés.

Some use the parables to portray God as angry and uncaring. Apparently, he’s asleep (the Friend at Midnight), he’s mean but malleable (the Unjust Judge), and he murders people (the Wedding Banquet).

Nope.

Jesus was not an old covenant preacher frightening people with pictures of a scary God. He was the herald of the new covenant, which is why his stories were full of surprises and reversals.

They were new. They were different.

They were unlike anything we’d heard before.

Stories of the kingdom

Through his stories, Jesus described a right-side-up kingdom where prodigals are received, tax collectors are justified, and outcasts are invited to feasts. It’s a kingdom of justice and peace, of heaven on earth.

The disciples once asked Jesus why he spoke in parables. Why not speak plainly?

Jesus replied that many people were not ready to receive what he wanted to tell them. He could have spoken plainly about the kingdom of God, but they would not believe him or remember what he said. Tell them a good story, however, and they would remember it for life (see Matt. 13:10–13). Stories stick.

Jesus spoke in parables because stories disarm us. Facts and arguments may leave us unmoved, but who can resist a story about a starving prodigal, an unforgiving servant, or a poorly dressed wedding guest? Stories slip past our defenses and pierce the heart.

But only if they are told right. Which they often aren’t. To twist the stories of Jesus into an anti-grace message is surely one of the greatest harms ever inflicted.

I have read many books and heard countless sermons on the parables of Jesus, and I have found few that interpret these stories through the lens of the new covenant. Most preach dead works or mixture. “Get busy for Jesus.” “Prove your faithfulness through endless praying.” “Turn or burn.”

Yecch.

We need to take a fresh look at the parables of Jesus. We need to read them through the lens of grace.

We don’t need a parable to tell us to be good to our neighbors, but a parable may reveal that God longs to be good to us.

Nor do we need a parable to tell us that God’s kingdom is valuable and worth everything you have, but a parable may reveal that you are precious to God and that he will gladly give up everything he has to win you.

If grace and truth came through Jesus (see John 1:17), then his parables must be full of grace and truth—and they are. The parables of Jesus are the most enduring stories ever told because they reveal what we desperately need to hear. They unveil the true nature of God and the relentless love and grace he has for all of us.

Mark your diary

For the past ten years or so, I have been working on a grace-based commentary titled The Parables of Jesus. It is the latest book in The Grace Bible series and probably the most exciting project I have undertaken. When I started, I had no idea how big it would grow, but the more I dug into these timeless treasures, the more I found.

The Grace Bible: The Parables of Jesus covers all of the parables Jesus told. The book goes on sale on March 10, 2026, but you can read a sample chapter, or pre-order the Kindle version now.

If the parables of Jesus leave you scratching your head – What did Jesus mean by that?! – this is the book you’ve been waiting for.

—

In my next email, I will tell you how you can get an advance copy of The Parables of Jesus and get your name listed in the acknowledgements!

Why is it that the older you get, the faster time flies? This year went by in a blink. What happened? Quite a bit actually:

• 250,000 new words were written for the Grace Commentary
• we published grace-based study Bibles for four New Testament epistles
• I wrote a grace-based commentary covering all the Parables of Jesus (coming soon!)
• many grace articles and words of encouragement were shared with hundreds of thousands of readers
• thousands of books were given to leaders who are growing in grace
• I wrote a little book called The Grace Revolution (you can get it here.)

Grace is a funny thing. Grace gets you to drop your burdens, rest, and breathe freely. Grace removes the pressure to perform and that’s wonderful. But that’s not all grace does.

As you abandon old mindsets and fix your eyes on Christ, it’s like you grow wings. You’re still resting, but now you’re soaring with the eagles, seeing everything more clearly and covering more ground than you ever could in your own strength.

Truly, the grace of God is marvelous!

You may have noticed that nearly everything in the list above is available free of charge. Monthly supporters make it possible for me to write full-time AND to give away most of what I create. Without the generosity of these wonderful partners, there would be no Grace Commentary, no Grace Bible, and no Escape to Reality.

So, on behalf of all my readers, I want to give a huge Christmas “thank you” to our official supporters:

Co-publishers: Abundant Life Church (SD), Bill Fowler, Edward Bauchou, Christopher Gordon, and Tobias Callenius.

Co-editors: Randy and Julee Armstrong, Michael and Julie Lipparelli, John Williams, Jon and Shannon Bonner, Helen Kearney, Denise Kaitala, David Slayback, Anne H. Hoover, James Barron, Charles Carson, James Orcutt, and Wayne Jones.

Supporters: Ed Elliott, Leah Mahoney, Mel and Clare Sanders, John Ikard, Amanda Henderson, Don Beeson, Tom and Kay Stocking, Tony Vogel, Erika and Klaus Degen, Julia Vockrodt, A&C, Marshall Kim, Michael and Kim Vizza, Erik Grangaard, Derrick Darden, Jason Whitaker, Keith Forwith, Henry Yeo, Dottie Hicks, Steve and Sandra McCollom, Kenneth Crum, Janice Best Bright, Keith Pinke, Diane Peterson, Bruno Dammann, Kathy Haecker, Brandon Petrowski, Ron Roudebush, Jack and Dawn Price, Paul and Chantale Roxanas, Sam Bouwer, Sarah, Ted and Georgie Nelson, Craig Hodgins, Bonnie Weaver, Geraldine Pickard, Mathew Stokes, Charles Law, John Nankervis, Elaina Tinnell, Jude Taylor, Chris Nelson, Dreier, AJ, Betti Mash, Loren Weideman, Stephen Dennis, Jef Johnson, Kwaku Agyen, Cindy Sokal, Terry Tripp, Magnus Johansson, Peter White, Lou Reyes, Frank Lewis, Denise and Dennis Capra, Steve Roy, Kris Page, Craig Dighton, Marshall Peters, Jill Scales, Lalen Almeda, Ben Dailey, Darryl Smith, Dana Carver, Christine Duckett, Aditya Endy, James Davis, Oladipo Awoyinfa, Michael Pierce, LeadPro Systems, Andrew Chan, Joneen Gentilini, Starr Stephens, Rose Casto, Michael Scroggs, Joe Langley, Wendi Wineland, Kurt Boyd, Moses Kawuma, Jon Onabowu, Jan Botten, Wayne and Angela Jones, Waynne Noel, Bill Shoemaker, Phil and Nelly, Henry Lindo, Ricky Wafford, Noemi Marcos, Butch Morrison, Robert Zupcic, Cameron McLane, Hank Niewola, Paul Woodrich, John Weber, Terryn Adams, Liz Collard, Gennie Sinday, Marc Lopez, Greg and Raelene Race, James C Hunter, and Andrew Robertson.

I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the members of our new Grace Bible Ambassador’s Club.

Christmas is a time of hitting pause and reflecting on just how much our heavenly Father loves us and has blessed us. As we sing in the carols, he is truly “God with us”.

Camilla and I trust you have a wonderful Christmas with friends and loved ones, and a blessed new year to come.

Paul

PS: In the new year, I’m going to offer readers a chance to get their names in my new book. This is something I haven’t done in six years, so it’s a rare opportunity. I’ll tell you more in a few weeks, but if your name is on the official supporter’s page when we go to print, you’ll be in the book.

We who preach grace are sometimes accused of ignoring the Old Testament. But no one could ever make this claim about the Apostle of Grace.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul quotes the Old Testament more than 60 times. He quotes the Ten Commandments and many of the prophets. He does this to show that the old covenant foreshadowed the new covenant. Promises made then, said Paul, were fulfilled now in Christ.

Old Testament: promise made
New Testament: promise kept

That’s pretty simple, right? Yet some don’t see it. Because Paul quotes the old covenant in the new covenant, they get confused. They come away thinking we must obey the Ten Commandments or that God loves some people but hates others.

Take this verse for example:

Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” (Romans 9:13)

Jacob and Esau were the two sons of Isaac, and apparently God hated one of them. Because God’s picky. He has favorites. He accepts some and rejects others. He predestines some for salvation, and if you’re not part of the elect, you have no hope.

Perhaps God hates you too. Perhaps he will reject you. It’s not fair, but God is sovereign. Whatta you gonna do?

Honestly, people who say such things – it’s like they’ve never heard the gospel of Christ!

God loves Esau

Jesus said “For God so loved the whole world” (John 3:16). Which means Esau is loved. Jesus said so.

Jesus also said, “Whoever comes me, I will never cast away” (John 6:37). So you do not need to fear God’s rejection.

In another article, I ask, “Why did God hate Esau and love Jacob?” The truth is, God loved both men and their tribes. He loves everyone.

A better question is, why does Paul quote this old line from the book of Malachi?

The old covenant in the new

Paul quotes an Old Testament prophet to make a new covenant point, which is this:

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. (Romans 9:6)

Someone who witnessed the brutal crucifixion of Jesus Christ might conclude that God had failed the nation of Israel. God had promised a Deliverer, but Jesus had died and Israel remained under the Roman boot.

“But no,” says Paul. “It’s not God’s word that has failed; it is unbelieving Israel who failed.” God’s word was a reliable road map, but Israel had taken a wrong turn. “Their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?” (Romans 3:3).

God’s promises are true whether you believe them or not, but you will never benefit from them unless you believe them. Just as Esau rejected his birthright and missed out, you can cut yourself off through unbelief.

This is what had happened to unbelieving Israel. They cut themselves out of God’s promises. But don’t think for a second that this proved God was unfaithful or that he had rejected Israel (Rom. 11:1–2).

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (Romans 9:14–15)

Some say that God chooses some people and rejects others because he is sovereign and mysterious. He is harsh because he hardens some and smashes others like a potter smashes pots. It’s not true. God is not unjust. He is merciful.

Scholars tie themselves in knots trying to explain why God hates some people (like Esau) or hardens others (like Pharaoh). Paul pre-empts these conclusions by saying, “There is no partiality with God” (Rom. 2:11).

The God Jesus reveals loves all, and the God Paul writes about in Romans offers mercy and grace to all (Rom. 11:32).

When Esau traded his inheritance for a bowl of lentils (Gen. 25:29–34), he turned his back on the promises God had given to his grandfather Abraham. It was a monumentally foolish act that foreshadowed the Jews’ rejection of Christ. But even though Esau rejected God, God did not reject him (see Deu. 2:5, 23:7–8).

Nor has God rejected you.

You may have made some monumentally stupid decisions. Perhaps you have even said, “God, I don’t believe in you.” But God remains faithful. He never changes.

No matter what you’ve done or how far you have wandered, God believes in you. His love and grace are beyond our comprehension.

—

Romans has been called the most Old Testament book in the New Testament. In the bonus materials that accompany this article, I list every single Old Testament author and scripture quoted by Paul in his monumental letter. Check it out now on Patreon.

Parts of this article were extracted from The Grace Bible: Romans.

Check out our recent articles, FAQs and sign up to get grace by email:

Here’s the one question I get asked more than any other: “Paul, can you recommend a grace church in (insert small town name I’ve never heard of)?”

Usually I can’t help people so I direct them to Ted Nelson who curates the Locate Church Ministries database. But any database is going to be incomplete. What we need is a simple way to tell for ourselves whether a church preaches grace or some unholy mixture of grace and works.

Of course, every church claims to preach grace to one degree or another. But a pure grace church or ministry doesn’t mix the new covenant message of grace with old covenant law and dead works.

Here are…

Ten signs of a grace church

Grace churches and grace ministries typically proclaim…

1. Jesus and nothing but Jesus—because whatever your need, Jesus is the answer (Php. 4:19); the Son is the clearest revelation of the Father’s character (Heb. 1:3); he is the reason for everything and the meaning of life (Col. 1:15–20); knowing Christ and who we are in Christ is how we grow (Php. 3:8, 2 Pet. 3:18)
2. the unconditional love of the Father revealed through Christ and his sacrificial work on the cross (Rom. 5:8)
3. that all your sin—past, present and future—was carried by Christ on the cross, and that in him, you are eternally forgiven (Col. 1:14, 2 Cor. 5:19, Heb. 10:11–12)
4. that all God’s blessings, including salvation and sanctification, come freely by grace and are received by faith (Eph. 1:3, 2:8, 2 Pet. 1:3); the emphasis is on receiving and bearing fruit rather than striving and producing (John 15:5, Php. 1:11, Col. 1:10)
5. that living under law is a form of unbelief that leads to bondage (Gal. 3:12, 5:1), and to walk by faith means trusting God from start to finish (2 Cor. 5:7, Php. 1:6)
6. that only the grace of God can empower us to say no to sin and live holy lives (Tit. 2:11–12)
7. that in spiritual union with the Lord, the believer is as righteous and holy as Christ (John 15:5, Eph. 4:24, 1 John 4:17)
8. that your old self died with Christ and cannot be improved or reformed (Rom. 6:2–3, 6); your born-again self is one with the Lord and can never be lost (John 10:27, Rom. 8:38–39, 2 Cor. 1:21-22)
9. that every believer is part of the body of Christ and has spiritual gifts and an inheritance in the Lord (John 17:10, Rom. 8:17, 12:6, 1 Pet. 4:10)
10. that the new covenant began at the cross, rendering the old covenant obsolete (Luke 22:20, Heb. 8:13)

Perhaps the easiest way to recognize a grace church is that feels like family. Churches that get grace become knitted together in love (Col. 2:2). Or maybe it’s the other way around. Churches that are knitted together in love, attract the grace of God.

In either case, a church that is established in grace will not feel like a business, a platoon, or a scout group. It will feel like family.

—

More like this:

• 8 Signs of Hyper-Grace Churches
• 8 Signs a Church Doesn’t Get Grace
• What is a Grace Bible church?
• What Verse Should they Display in Churches?
• Is there a Grace Revolution?
• The Most Influential Grace Preachers of the 20th Century

—

Your Christmas sorted…

The perfect gift for someone new to grace
The Gospel in Ten Words is the book I recommend to new believers and people who are starting out in grace. In a word, it’s about the believer’s identity. In Christ, you are holy, righteous, royal, and so much more.

The perfect gift for the visual learner
Stuff Jesus Never Said is full of paintings and drawings from the great masters and Bible illustrators. This award-winning book draws a line between what you may have heard and what Jesus actually said.

The perfect gift for your Mom, wife and daughter
In The Silent Queen, I tackle tough questions like these: Should women stay silent in church? What did Jesus think about women in leadership? Should women submit to male leaders? Is infidelity the only excuse for divorce? Are wives really helpmates? Why should you never compare yourself or your wife to the excellent woman of Proverbs 31? This multi-award-winning book demolishes the lies that keep women silent and sidelined.

The perfect gift for the Bible student, pastor or you
This unique study Bible emphasizes God’s unconditional love, the finished work of the cross, and the believer’s identity in Christ. It draws a line between law and grace and the old and new covenants. Passages that may cause fear or confusion are interpreted in the light of the gospel. If you have ever asked, “How do I read this scripture through a New Covenant lens?” The Grace Bible is for you.

For years, readers have been asking, “Paul, why don’t you make your study notes publicly available?”

Well… your wish is my command. This weekend only, you can get my ebook Original Sin: What Does the Bible Really Say? for just one dollar.

Tell your friends.

Paul

PS: What’s it about? For 2000 years, Augustine’s doctrine of original sin has taught that you were a natural born sinner, stained with Adam’s sin. From the moment you drew your first breath, you were hostile to the things of God and hardwired to sin.

This teaching is both unbiblical and illogical. Like smoking, original sin is harmful to your health. In my ebook Original Sin: What Does the Bible Really Say? I cover the following:

• What is the Doctrine of Original Sin?
• Scriptures Used to Support Original Sin
• Scriptures that Refute Original Sin
• The Religious Origins of Original Sin
• Ten Reasons Why Original Sin Cannot be True
• Are We Born Spiritually Dead?
• What is the True Significance of the Virgin Birth?
• Where Does a Sinful Nature Come From?
• Do Christians have a Sinful Nature?
• Why are Children Selfish?
• What Happens to Babies Who Die?
• A Message for Parents

We all have a narrative about God and how he relates to us. If your narrative says you and your children are stained by Adam’s sin, and that you have to jump through hoops to avoid eternal condemnation, you need a better narrative.

Religion says you are born bad and God hates you, but the Bible says you are fearfully and wonderfully made and your heavenly Father loves you. Original sin conveys a message of “sin with us,” but the gospel proclaims a better message of “God with us.”

Get the book.

If Bible verses were medicines, some verses would be wonder drugs. Or maybe miracle cures. Like this one:

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

This single verse has the power to change your life. If you receive this truth in your heart, it will bear much good fruit. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look. The following is extracted from my book The Grace Bible: Romans.

Therefore means “Because of what God has accomplished through Jesus Christ our Lord” (see Rom. 7:25).

Many believers are burdened with guilt and condemnation. They’re stuck in Romans 7 when they could be in Romans 8. They’re under law when they could be under grace. They’re weary from walking after the old ways of the flesh when they might be frolicking in the new ways of the Spirit.

Now means you can be free from condemnation right now.

Some say, “When I stop sinning, I will have no more condemnation.” That’s old covenant thinking. In the new covenant, we start from the place of no condemnation. We receive God’s grace and are empowered to stop sinning. “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:11).

No condemnation means you have nothing to fear from the judgment of God or the penalty of sin. Sin brings death, and the law brings condemnation, but the grace of God raises the dead and justifies the sinner.

Adam’s disobedience brought condemnation to the human race, but Christ’s obedience brings life and justification (Rom. 5:18). In him, you are justified and declared innocent of all charges (Rom. 3:24). If God is for you and Christ defends you, who can accuse you (Rom. 8:33, 1 John 2:1)?

Condemnation. The original noun katakrima means “a guilty verdict.” Because of Adam, humanity received condemnation (Rom. 5:18), but those in Christ have been justified and declared not guilty.

In Christ Jesus. You were in Adam; now you are in Christ Jesus. You were in the flesh; now you are in the spirit (Rom. 8:9). The moment you put your faith in the Lord, you were transferred out of the old humanity and into the new creation family of God.

The word “union” does not appear in many English Bibles, but our union with the Lord is mentioned hundreds of times in Scripture. Paul refers to our spiritual union with phrases such as “in Christ,” “with Christ,” and “with him” (e.g., Rom. 6:4–6, 8, 11, 8:17).

We are alive to God and have eternal life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11, 23).

The grace and kindness of God are found in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:7), and his forgiveness is found in Christ Jesus (Eph. 4:32).

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1), we are justified in Christ (Gal. 2:17), and our salvation is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:10).

Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:39). We have freedom and are sanctified in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:2, Gal. 2:4).

We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).

The faith and love of God are found in Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 1:14).

In Christ we are brand new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17). We are complete in Christ (Col. 1:28) and blessed with every blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

All the glory goes to God because it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:30).

—

Read Romans 8:1 in context on The Grace Commentary. Get answers to your questions about God and grace.

Get grace by email. Yes, email. It’s still a thing:

Do you perform miracles? Do you heal the sick and raise the dead? Because if you’re not, you may not be a real Christian. That’s according to some people. But not me.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe the life we have in Christ is supernatural, and I pray for the sick.

But if you love the Lord and have never healed the sick or raised the dead that does not make you any less of a Christian. The newest, least supernatural believer is 100 percent righteous, holy, and eternally secure in Christ.

So what are the “greater works” Jesus said we would do? And how do we do them?

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. (John 14:12)

At the time he said this, Jesus had:

• turned water into wine (John 2)
• had a word of knowledge for a woman at a well that led to a Samaritan revival (John 4)
• healed a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years (John 5)
• fed 5,000 hungry people (John 6)
• walked on water (John 6)
• given sight to a man born blind (John 9)
• raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11)
• preached, prophesied, and told parables

We can imagine the disciples’ shock when Jesus said, “You will do these and greater works besides.” What are the greater works?

The usual answer is that Jesus was referring to works that are greater in scope. He did a few miracles in one place over a short time. His millions of followers have done countless miracles across the whole world for hundreds of years.

But I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind. Jesus said we would do:

1. The works that I do (e.g., healing the sick, raising the dead)
2. Greater works

He did not say we would do more works, but greater works. He’s talking about two kinds of works.

1. “The works that I do, you will do”

When Jesus sent out the disciples, he gave them the authority to do what he had been doing.

Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. (Matt. 10:1)

Later, he repeated the exercise with seventy disciples (Luke 10:1). The disciples returned saying that they had done what Jesus commissioned them to do.

The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.” (Luke 10:17)

Jesus said it – “The works that I do, you will do” – and the apostles did it. We can too. We don’t do the works to prove we are real Christians. Rather, we get to do them because Jesus said so.

Jesus didn’t retire after he ascended to heaven. The works he did – proclaiming liberty to the captives, opening blind eyes, delivering the oppressed – we can do because his Spirit lives within us. It’s a promise to believe, not a test you must pass.

2. “Greater works also”

Jesus said, “Because I go to the Father, you will do greater works also.” He was saying, “After I’m gone, everything will change.” And in Acts 2, everything changed:

• Before Pentecost, the disciples did the works of Jesus
• After Pentecost, the disciples did greater works

In addition to healing the sick and delivering the oppressed, the early Christians released the life of the Holy Spirit – something that had not been possible before the Spirit was given. They co-laboured with the Lord to make new creation believers.

This is how it happened: believers preached the gospel, people responded in faith, and the Holy Spirit made them new. He transferred them out of Adam’s family and put them into Christ. This is the greater work.

Before the cross, no one could be born again or born of the Spirit. After Pentecost, thousands of people turned to God in faith and were made new. Eighty years ago, E. W. Kenyon wrote about the greater works in his book New Creation Realities:

We are doing greater works than the Master did in his earth walk, because we help men spiritually. We bring them the Word of life and they are recreated; they come into the family of God. We help them pass out of death unto life.

Every person Jesus fed, hungered again. Every person Jesus healed, eventually died. But every person who is born of the Spirit, has everlasting life and fellowship with the Lord.

What are the greater works Jesus said we would do?

With the aid of the Holy Spirit, we can make people new. Here’s E. W Kenyon again:

Our ministry is almost an unlimited ministry; his ministry was a limited one. Jesus healed men’s bodies. We, through the grace of God, heal men’s spirits. He raised men from the dead to die again. We show them that they were raised together with Christ. He fed the hungry with loaves and fishes. We feed the spiritually hungry with his own wonderful words.

A sick person who is healed will eventually die, but someone who has been made new by the power of God will never die (John 11:26, Gal. 6:8). Being born again is a greater work than merely being healed or delivered.

You may not have healed anyone or raised anyone from the dead, but if you’ve told someone the good news and they responded in faith and were born again, you have done a greater work.

All this is to the glory of Jesus Christ who gave us his life-giving Spirit. It is the Spirit of Christ who gives life to the dead, makes us new and does greater works through us.

—

E.W. Kenyon had an enormous influence on the Word of Faith movement and indirectly on the modern grace movement. In the bonus materials that accompany this article on Patreon, I list some of his more influential books and share my favorite E.W. Kenyon quotes.

Check out our recent articles, FAQs and sign up to get grace by email:

Escape to Reality is proclaiming grace everywhere thanks to the support of our readers.

Have you ever wondered why some people never respond to the gospel?

You tell them God loves them, that he holds nothing against them, and he’s longing to share his life with them, and you get nothing. It’s like they’re asleep.

Well, apparently, that’s God’s doing:

Just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day.” (Romans 11:8)

“Stupor” means numbness and is sometimes translated as “slumber.” According to Paul, who was quoting Isaiah, God makes people spiritually numb or sleepy. He shuts their eyes and closes their ears so they neither see nor hear the good news.

John said something similar:

For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.” (John 12:39–40)

Who blinds the eyes of unbelievers? Apparently, God does.

But before we start jumping to conclusions about the sovereignty of God, let’s look at how this same prophecy appears in other places. Here’s Jesus:

In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.” (Matthew 13:14–15)

John said of the unbelieving, “God blinded their eyes,” but Jesus said, “They have closed their own eyes.” Big difference.

Interestingly, Paul echoes Jesus when talking to the Jewish leaders in Rome:

The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, “Go to this people and say, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.’” (Act 28:26–28)

Was Paul contradicting himself?

Romans 11: God shut their eyes.
Acts 28: They shut their own eyes.

There is no contradiction. When Jesus and Paul (in Acts) say, “They closed their eyes,” they are saying, “Those who shut their eyes and ears to God’s goodness become insensible and hard of heart.”

And when John and Paul (in Romans) say, “God blinded their eyes,” they are saying, “God designed a world where unbelief has consequences.”

In his wisdom, God leaves no middle ground between faith and unbelief. Those who trust him get grace in abundance, but those who shut their eyes and ears to God’s goodness become insensible and hardened (Eph. 4:18–19). As a consequence of their unbelief, they become creatures of instinct, captive to their appetites (2 Pet. 2:12). God allows this to happen so that they might come to their senses and see their need for a Deliverer.

Here’s one more verse we must consider:

The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

The devil does not go around poking the spiritual eyes of people – he’s not that powerful. But everything he does is designed to keep us in the dark. The good news is the darkness cannot overcome the light.

God does not blind people or put them to sleep. Far from it. Instead, he calls us out of darkness into his wonderful light so that we may shine and show the way for others:

But now, up on your feet – I have a job for you… I’m sending you off to open the eyes of the outsiders so they can see the difference between dark and light, and choose light, see the difference between Satan and God, and choose God. (Act 26:16–18, MSG)

Awesome!

—

Read this verse in context on the Grace Commentary, your free verse-by-verse study guide.

Get answers to your questions about God and grace.

Everything here is free thanks to the support of our readers.

My scariest movie moment happened at a drive-in theater in 1986. I was in a car with some friends, watching a new release called Aliens. Seen it?

We had no idea what the movie was about, so imagine our shock when a man eating a meal began choking and convulsing violently. I won’t describe the horrifying thing that happened next—just in case children are reading this—but we screamed in absolute terror.

In space, no one can hear you scream, but they sure heard us that night at the drive-in.

I am reminded of that horrific scene when I read these words:

So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. (Romans 7:17)

What does it mean to say, “Sin dwells in me”? The mind boggles. Is Paul describing a sin nature, a sin parasite, or some kind of sin… alien?

Before we answer that, let’s look at a couple of other interesting phrases in Romans:

1. Our old self was crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with (Romans 6:6)
2. Who will set me free from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)

If you don’t have a whole-Bible theology, you might think that you have a sin virus inhabiting your sinful body giving birth to sinful fruit. You might think you have two natures inside dueling for supremacy. You can keep that sin nature subdued for a while, but one day it’s going to burst forth like a freaky you-know-what.

Let me put your mind at rest.

Christian, you do not have a sin nature or a sin virus inside you. The only thing that dwells in you is the mighty Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9, 11).

When Paul says, “Nothing good dwells in me” (Rom. 7:18), he does not mean, “Something evil dwells in me.” He means your flesh is incapable of living the good life that God wants for you:

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. (Romans 7:18–19)

Our body of sin?

Perhaps you have heard that your body is bad, sinful, or unsaved. It’s not true. Your body belongs to the Lord. It is the holy temple of the Holy Spirit.

When Paul speaks of the “body of sin” (Rom. 6:6), he is referring to our physical or mortal body, a.k.a. our body of death (Rom. 6:12, 7:24). Our physical body is the battleground where we engage with sin and experience its deathly effects (Rom. 6:13, 19, 7:5, 23–24, 8:10).

Your body connects you to the world where sin resides. Sin tempts us through our natural senses, and it is with the members of our body—our eyes, hands, tongues, etc.—that we sin.

Our body parts or members are not sinful, but they can be used for sinful purposes (Rom. 6:13). When the old desires of the flesh collide with the new desires of your spirit, the conflict is waged in your members (Rom. 7:23).

Is my body saved or unsaved?

Like the law of gravity, the law of sin affects our bodies. But this does not mean your body is evil. Your mind and body are gifts from God. They are tools that can be used as instruments of righteousness or unrighteousness (Rom. 6:13).

Some may say, “My spirit is saved, but my body remains unsaved,” which is like saying God only does partial salvations. How can we glorify God in our bodies if they are unsaved (1 Cor. 6:20)? How can we present our bodies as holy sacrifices to the Lord if they are unholy (Rom. 12:1)?

When Paul refers to the “sin which dwells in me,” he is simply saying that the influence and effects of sin are felt in our physical bodies.

Sinful passions… work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death (Romans 7:5)

Your enemy wants you to be double-minded and uncertain about this. He wants you to think that you have two natures dueling inside you, or that parts of you are unsaved and need work, or you are infected with sin virus and there’s nothing you can do about it. When you stumble, he will say, “Your behavior is bad because you are bad.”

It’s not true. You are not a bad person. You are not even partly bad.

Your body belongs to the Lord

Learn to see yourself as God sees you. One with the Lord, you are as holy and righteous as he is. No sin dwells in you, and your body is the glorious temple of the Holy Spirit.

Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. (Romans 6:6)

Your old self was incapable of resisting sin. But the person you used to be died with Christ so that you might walk in the new and better way of the spirit (Rom. 6:4–6). Put it all together and Paul is saying something like this:

Something happened (your old self was crucified), and now something needs to happen (your body needs to be rendered ineffective as an instrument of sin), so that something else will happen (you will no longer be a slave to sin).

Paul is not saying your body needs to be destroyed (you still need it). He’s saying use your body to serve the Lord (Rom. 6:13, 21–22, 12:1).

—

Read these passages in context on the Grace Commentary and discover the treasures of grace. The Grace Commentary is your go-to source for answers to common questions, like these:

1. What is the word of God?
2. Why say a man is justified by works and not faith alone?
3. How will God repay us according to our deeds?
4. Why didn’t the religious leaders stone Jesus like the stoned Stephen?
5. Why did Paul call himself a bond-servant if he knew he was a son?
6. What is a measure of faith?
7. How do we work out your salvation “with fear and trembling”?
8. What is the significance of David’s Key?
9. What does it mean to refer to “the God of hope”?
10. What are the works of faith?

Israel is again in the news. The endless cycle of violence in the Middle East leaves us wondering, “When will it all end?” So it’s understandable that some take comfort from this verse:

… and so all Israel will be saved. (Romans 11:26)

Which is a remarkable promise given the indifference Israel showed to Jesus.

The descendants of Abraham were highly favored. They had the promises of God, the law, and the prophets. They had all the Old Testament signposts that pointed to a coming Messiah. Yet when Jesus came, they rejected him and cut themselves off from God’s favor.

Israel’s rejection of Christ broke Paul’s heart:

For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites… (Romans 9:3–4a)

The unfaithful nation of Israel cut itself off through unbelief (Rom. 11:20). But was there a hope that one day the nation would be saved? That depends on your definition of “all Israel.” Is Paul referring to ethnic Israel, the nation of Israel, or spiritual Israel? This question has been debated for centuries. Here’s a summary of the different viewpoints:

“All Israel” means ethnic Israel

According to some, “all Israel” means ethnic Israel – the biological descendants of Abraham – because that’s who Paul has been talking about in the preceding verses. “A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (verse 25).” Ethnic Israel had rejected Christ, so it must be ethnic Israel that is ultimately saved.

But if all Israel is ultimately saved, why would Paul want to trade places with them? Why would he give up his salvation for those who are going to be saved anyway?

Something doesn’t add up.

“All Israel” means the nation of Israel will be restored

Some believe that Paul was alluding to a future restoration of the nation of Israel followed by the immediate return of the Lord. Well, the nation of Israel was restored in 1948, and Jesus has not yet returned.

I am old enough to remember people saying that the Lord would return within a generation of Israel’s restoration – that is, by 1988. You can add that one to the long list of fraudulent end times prophecies.

Or perhaps the Lord returns first and then the nation of Israel is restored. Maybe. My view is that when the King returns and all the kingdoms of this world become part of his kingdom (Rev. 11:15), we won’t be too concerned with what is happening to individual nation-states.

“All Israel” means the whole world will be saved

A Universalist reads Paul’s promise as an indicator of universal salvation. All Israel means all Arabs, all Syrians, all Iranians, and everybody else must be saved because anything less would be unjust. But again, Paul. If everyone is going to be saved, why would he offer to trade his salvation away?

“All Israel” means God’s promises are fulfilled in the body of Christ

As always, context is king. In the middle chapters of Romans 9–11, Paul is not making prophetic statements about the future of Israel; he is saying that God’s promises to Abraham remain as good as ever.

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel. (Romans 9:6)

On the surface, it might seem that God’s promises of deliverance and blessing had not come true. Jesus had come and gone, but Israel was still oppressed by its enemies. However, all through Romans, Paul argues that God’s word had come to pass and that the covenantal promises of God were fulfilled in spiritual Israel.

A true Israelite, says Paul, is someone who shares the faith of Abraham and has been circumcised inwardly by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 2:28–29, 4:11–12). A true Israelite believes God raised Jesus Christ from the dead (Rom. 4:24).

A tree of all nations

In Romans 11, Paul paints a parabolic picture of an olive tree. It’s a tree with Jewish roots (Rom. 11:17–18) and multinational branches. Some of the original branches had been broken off (the faithless descendants of Abraham), and wild branches had been grafted in (Gentile believers).

The tree represents the multicultural family of God, which is composed of both Jewish and Gentile believers.

God’s word has not failed

Everything promised to Abraham and his descendants is coming true in the new creation family of God.

… and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” (Romans 11:26–27)

There is indeed hope for the nation of Israel, and it is the same hope that God offers to all of us. This hope of salvation is realized in Jesus, the Deliverer from Zion, who bore all our sins.

In Christ, you are part of the “Israel of God,” and in him, you are loved, accepted, forgiven, and well and truly saved.

—

Read these scriptures in context on the Grace Commentary, your free verse-by-verse study guide.

Get grace by email. Subscribe today:

If Romans is the greatest letter ever written, then chapter 8 is the greatest chapter in the greatest letter. It’s the Everest of Paul’s monumental epistle.

In Romans 8, Paul makes several amazing claims about the gospel:

• God frees us from sin (Rom. 8:2)
• God raises us from the dead (Rom. 8:11)
• God adopts us as sons and makes us his heirs (Rom. 8:17)

Having made these claims, he hits the pause button to ask, “What then shall we say to these things?” (Rom. 8:31). In other words, What do you think? What does it mean? What conclusions can we draw?

And then Paul answers his question by asking…

5 questions every believer should ask

These five questions ought to be the first questions we ask when we come to Christ. And they are questions we should return to again and again, for they keep us in the grace of God.

These five questions are awesome. But don’t panic. This is not a test. These are rhetorical questions with obvious answers.

Q1: Who can be against us?

If God is for us, who is against us? (Romans 8:31)

“God is for us” means your heavenly Father is totally committed to your success. Boom!

Some fear that God is against us, but the Scriptures declare that he is for us (Ps. 56:9, 118:6). Knowing that God is on your side and you can’t lose gives you confidence to take risks. You’ll walk into the lion’s den with a holy swagger and face the furnace without fear. You will say, “God is with me, I will not be burned” (see Is. 43:2).

Who is against us? No one, obviously, because anyone who picks on you is picking on a child of God. This does not mean you won’t encounter opposition. But those who oppose God’s children are picking a fight they cannot win. Those who rise against you will come from one direction and flee in seven (Deut. 28:7).

Q2: What good thing will God withhold from us?

He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

Paul’s letter to the Romans could be called the Christmas Epistle because it reveals God’s good gifts to us, including justification (Rom. 3:24), righteousness (Rom. 5:17), eternal life (Rom. 6:23, 8:11), perseverance (Rom. 15:5), spiritual gifts (Rom. 1:11, 12:6), the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5), and his own Son. There is no good thing that God withholds from us.

Q3: Who can accuse us?

Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? (Romans 8:33a)

Any accusations against you come from one of three sources: your conscience, the devil, or the world. You can be sure that no accusation comes from the One who is for you and justifies you.

God’s throne is a place of grace, not judgment (Heb. 4:16). Should any accusations come against you, you can be confident that a mighty Advocate will speak in your defense (see next verse).

Q4: Who can condemn us?

God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? (Romans 8:33b–34)

God is in the justifying business, not the judging business. He doesn’t condemn you for being wrong, but he removes all your sins, declares you innocent, and adopts you into his family.

Since God is for you and justifies you, no one can condemn you or bring a successful charge against you (Rom. 8:1, 33). In Christ, you are eternally unpunishable and uncondemnable.

Q5: Who can separate us from God’s love?

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? (Romans 8:35)

No one can come between you and Christ’s love for you. If all the lawyers of the world were to present undeniable evidence of your wrongdoing and wretchedness, your Savior would still love you, defend you, and say, “You are mine.” If you were the only sinner who ever lived, he would still go to the cross for you.

The Good Shepherd will always come for the one lost sheep.

—

The Grace Commentary is a great place to find answers to common questions, like these:

1. What is the sin leading to death?
2. Why was Paul eager to remember the poor?
3. How do we test ourselves to see if we are in the faith?
4. What does it mean to fall from grace?
5. Will God erase me from the Book of Life?
6. What does it mean to say “the women are to keep silent”?
7. Why did Jesus tell the high priest he would see the Son of Man in power?
8. What is “another gospel”?
9. Why does John say we are living in the last hour?
10. Why did Jesus tell the disciples to pack swords for their trip to the garden of Gethsemane?

Add the Grace Commentary to your home screen today.

And while you’re add it, add Escape to Reality to your home screen too.

Every day there is more evidence of a worldwide Grace Revolution.

Just check out the booming increase in the number of sermons, books, podcasts, and videos about grace. Grace preachers and teachers are springing up everywhere, and it is only a matter of time before we see a corresponding increase in the number of grace churches.

A good question to ask is why? Why is a Grace Revolution happening now?

The roots of the current movement can be traced back for decades. Influential grace preachers and teachers have been laying a foundation for at least 70 years. But only recently, in the last 15 years or so, has the grace movement burst into life.

The current Grace Revolution shares some similarities with the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. Just as the Reformation needed fuel for the fire, the current Grace Revolution came about because the conditions were ripe.

Is today’s Grace Revolution the Reformation of our time?

Four factors that preceded the Protestant Reformation were: (1) a deepening spiritual hunger for truth, (2) widespread distrust of the institutional church, (3) a growing appetite for critical thinking and challenging authority, and (4) the invention of a disruptive new technology (the printing press).

Similar forces have played a role in shaping the modern Grace Revolution:

1. A growing spiritual hunger grows in a world of crisis

In an era marked by war, pandemics, inequality, environmental degradation, political turmoil, anxiety, and information overload, people are searching for truth they can stand on and hope they can hold onto.

2. Declining trust in the institutional church

Fifty years ago, two-thirds of Americans had confidence in organized religion. By 2024, that number had dropped to less than one-third. Scandals, corruption, secularism and perceived hypocrisy have fueled a growing distrust of religious institutions (source: Gallup).

3. The rise of critical thinking and spiritual questioning

The global spread of education and the democratization of knowledge have encouraged people to ask questions and re-examine long-held religious assumptions.

4. New technology has made it easier to reach large audiences

New technology (e.g., self-publishing, YouTube, podcasting, social media, email newsletters, crowdfunding, community platforms, online courses, etc.) has made it possible for reformers and grace preachers to reach global audiences without relying on traditional pulpits or gatekeepers.

A movement of nobodies

The modern Grace Revolution shares some similarities with the Protestant Reformation, but it differs in one respect: The Grace Revolution is a grass-roots movement. It does not have a central headquarters or leader, and it is unlikely to spawn new denominations.

The Reformation gave us Lutherans, Calvinists and Wesleyans, but the Grace Revolution, with a few exceptions, is a movement of nobodies. By “nobodies”, I mean people who are flying under the radar.

Take me, for example. When I started writing about grace, I had just stepped down from being a pastor. I had no pulpit, no platform, and no best-selling books next to my name. All I had was an email newsletter that I occasionally sent to a handful of pastor friends.

Even now, I remain a nobody. I live in one of the most remote nations on earth (New Zealand), I don’t preach, and I say “no” to virtually every request for an interview. Yet every day, God gives me words that help people all over the world. All glory to God.

Who introduced you to grace?

Whenever I meet brothers and sisters in the Grace Revolution, I like to ask, “Who was instrumental in the early days of your grace walk.” Almost always, they reply, “You wouldn’t know them. They’re nobody famous.” Often it’s a pastor of a small church in some Podunk town, or it’s an elderly minister who is now retired.

Sometimes I look up these “nobodies” to learn more about them. More often than not, I learn that they have no platform, no books, and no hordes of followers. They don’t have a reputation for greatness, but they have a great grasp on grace. They are mature believers who shine with the love of the Father.

And by the grace of God, they are changing the world.

The thing about us nobodies is that we have no choice but to rely on God. We don’t have the reputation, resources, or political capital to do anything else. In the economy of grace, being a nobody is an advantage.

To learn more about the similarities between the Reformation and the Grace Revolution, check out my new book The Grace Revolution: Who, What, When, How and Why. Supporters can download it from my Patreon page.

Does God choose some people to be saved and condemn the rest? Does God harden the hearts of some so they can never come to repentance?

You might think so after reading this verse:

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. (Romans 9:17–18)

You may recall the story. Moses said, “Let my people go,” Pharaoh stubbornly said, “No,” and the outcome was destruction for Egypt and liberation for Israel.

And apparently, Pharaoh’s intransigence was all God’s doing.

Who hardened who?

The story of Pharaoh comes to us from Moses. On several occasions, Moses tells us that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (see Ex. 4:21, 7:3, 9:12, 10:1, 14:4). But Moses also said that Pharaoh hardened his own heart:

• When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart (Exo. 8:15)
• Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go (Exo. 8:32)
• When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants (Exo. 9:34)

What’s going on? Pharaoh is not the Lord. Was Moses confused?

Old Testament writers sometimes said that God hardened hearts (e.g., Jos. 11:20). But people harden their own hearts by resisting the Holy Spirit and yielding to the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13). It is pride that hardens hearts.

Pharaoh was a tyrant who rejected the word of the Lord. Pharaoh had a front-row seat to some of God’s most dramatic signs and wonders, yet he closed his eyes and hardened his heart. He refused to believe what he was hearing and seeing.

Who raised who?

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up… (Romans 9:17)

This makes it sound like Pharaoh had no choice in the matter. Pharaoh was God’s puppet. But the Scripture that Paul is quoting is this one:

But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you my power and in order to proclaim my name through all the earth. (Exo. 9:16)

There’s a difference between “I raised you up” and “I allowed you to remain.” The true meaning comes out more clearly in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures), where the original quote reads like this:

And for this purpose hast thou been preserved…

God could’ve removed Pharaoh at any time, but he didn’t. In his mercy, God preserved Pharaoh’s life. Because that’s what God does. He preserves and saves people. God gave wicked Pharaoh multiple opportunities to repent – that’s mercy.

The tragedy of Pharaoh’s wickedness is that many people lost their lives. But what Pharaoh meant for evil, God turned around for good. Because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness, the whole world heard about God’s powerful signs and wonders. We still talk about them today.

God chooses mercy

The WRONG conclusion to take from this is that “God saves some and damns the rest.” Paul never says this. Instead, he says:

So then he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. (Romans 9:18)

Which is to say that God is free to show mercy or harden hearts, and he chooses mercy.

I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. (Romans 9:15b–16)

God abounds in mercy

It’s amazing how often people get this wrong. They lift a scripture out of context and come up with all sorts of screwy ideas about God’s divine lottery. But if you read everything in context, the message of mercy comes across loud and clear.

In the middle chapters of Romans, Paul recounts the stories of Israel’s history to remind us of a great truth: God is merciful. “The Lord your God is a merciful God” (Deu. 4:31). Indeed, God abounds in mercy (Eph. 2:4).

Those who have been raised under a merciless law imagine God to be harsh and unforgiving. They imagine God is picky and punitive, punishing unrepentant Pharaohs and the profane.

But the God Jesus reveals is not like this. “He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Ps. 103:8). It is on account of his mercy that we are saved (Tit. 3:5).

The Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. (James 5:11)

He is a God of mercy, not hardening.

—

Read this scripture in context on the Grace Commentary, your free verse-by-verse study guide.

Learn more about the riches of God’s mercy. Get weekly grace by email:

Grace = divine aid
Revolution = a turn or change

A Grace Revolution means the church is coming into the freedom that grace brings. It means believers are resting in Christ’s finished work, instead of striving in their own strength. They’re walking in step with the Spirit, rather than trudging along in the old habits of the flesh.

There have been many Grace Revolutions or Reformations throughout history. But over the last 30 years or so there has been a modern Grace Revolution. Check out this graph:

Over the past 30 years, there has been an explosion of grace-based literature. In the early 1990s, you were lucky to see one new book a year. Today, more than 50 new titles on the gospel of grace are released annually, and that number is rising fast.

As of mid-2025, there were over 400 books listed on Amazon with both “gospel” and “grace” in the title—a staggering number. Most of them had been published in just the last five years.

Once upon a time, authors would send me their grace books to review on Escape to Reality. However, about ten years ago, I had to say “Stop” because there were simply too many to read.

It’s not just books.

It used to be that if you wanted to watch or listen to a sermon about grace, you had to get your hands on a VHS tape or audio cassette. As recently as twenty years ago, there were fewer than 100 podcast episodes on the gospel of grace. Now there are more than 4,000.

Twenty years ago, there was no YouTube. Now there are more than 225,000 YouTube videos with the words “gospel” and “grace” in their description.

When I started Escape to Reality, there were only a handful of grace bloggers and I knew them all either personally or by reputation. These days, there are countless bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, and social media influencers all proclaiming the message of grace.

Which is super-encouraging.

If you’re looking for grace-based teaching, you’ll find no shortage of books, videos, and articles to help you grow. And while grace-based churches are harder to find, it’s a strong beginning.

When you think how far we’ve come in the past few years, we can only get excited about what is still to come. The Grace Revolution is gaining momentum and bearing fruit all over the world.

If you would like to learn more about the Grace Revolution – why it’s happening and who the influential players are – or if you want to see sources for the numbers I just presented, check out my new book The Grace Revolution: Who, What, When, How and Why. Supporters can download it for FREE on my Patreon page.

Over the past few years, many have spoken of a “grace revolution” that is sweeping across the globe. There has certainly been a grace awakening in my own life, but is it true to speak of a worldwide grace revolution? How would we know? What does a grace revolution even look like?

I have written a book that answers questions like these and more:

1. What is the Grace Revolution?
2. How to measure the Grace Revolution?
3. Who were the influential players in early stages of the Grace Revolution?
4. When did the modern Grace Revolution begin?
5. Why is there a Grace Revolution?

My new book is called The Grace Revolution: Who, What, When, How and Why? and supporters can get FREE in several ebook formats. At this stage, I have no plans to print it.

In the book, I discuss how the modern grace movement has been growing like bamboo. I also discuss the foundations of the movement and the key figures behind it.

Tell your friends,
Paul

Who told you about grace? Who told them?

The message of grace came to you via a long line of preachers and teachers. It began with Jesus and the apostles. Then others passed it on to someone who passed it to someone who passed it to you. Truly, you are proof of the enduring power of this message.

Have you ever thought about all those preachers and teachers who came before you? Have you ever wondered who laid the foundations of today’s grace movement?

After years of asking questions and digging deep, I’ve compiled a list of the most influential grace preachers and teachers from the past 70 years. The list includes names you may recognize, like E. W. Kenyon, Lewis Sperry Chaffer, and W. Ian Thomas. It also includes many you will not.

I’m not talking about the hundreds of people who are preaching grace now, but the smaller number of influential grace preachers who preceded them. The full list is available free on my Patreon page.

Click here to read it and let me know who I’ve missed.

Grace and peace,
Paul

Join the Grace Revolution. Become a subscriber today:

You can learn a lot about people by the way they talk.

People who have been apprehended by the grace of God talk about Jesus, love, and faith. They use words like “favor,” “freedom,” “rest,” “righteousness,” and “life.”

In contrast, those who bear the heavy yoke of dead religion speak of sin, debt, and obligation. They use words like “duty,” “strive, “command,” “penalty,” and “punish.”

The keywords of grace and law are easy to recognize, for they are the languages of two tribes, the old and new creation. A believer who is walking in their identity as a child of God is easily recognized because they do not talk like a slave of sin. They have learned to speak the new language of the new creation.

Which makes it all the more curious that Paul, the apostle of grace, should say this:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation… (Romans 8:12)

For those of us who speak the language of grace, this is a jarring statement. “We have an obligation.” What obligation? Some Bible translations say, “We are debtors.” What debt?

How can the man who said “Owe no one anything” in Romans 13, speak of debts and obligations in Romans 8? If forgiveness means the cancelation of debts, what debt remains?

As we will see, Paul is saying something good and inspiring. But first, let’s look at how some misuse this verse to promote dead works:

We are debtors to God who have been called to live in a holy way. We cannot sit around and merely receive God’s gifts. We are obliged to say no to the flesh and put it to death.

This sounds true because Paul talks about putting to death the deeds of the body in the next verse. But it’s totally wrong in the sense that it shackles you with this idea that you owe God and you can repay him through proper living.

In the economy of grace, there are no debts to be repaid, and you are not obligated to repay God for his kindness (as if you could).

It’s an invitation

In this obligation verse, Paul is calling us to walk in the new life that God has given us. Just as a bird must fly and a fish must swim, the children of God are called to shine as sons of God (see verse 14). You were a pauper but now you’re a prince, so act like one. Those in Christ are royalty, so reign.

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh… (Romans 8:12)

Don’t look at your old life with any sense of obligation or nostalgia. There is nothing for you back there. Your only “obligation” is to embrace the freedom that Christ Jesus purchased for you.

Do you see? Paul is not holding some debt over our heads; he’s calling us to live the life that is ours in Christ.

God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” (Romans 8:14–15, MSG)

But wait. This is not the only time Paul talks about obligation:

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. (Romans 1:14)

Here’s another verse that can be hijacked to promote dead works. “Look what Jesus did for you. What will you do for him?”

Our religious flesh loves this kind of talk. “I’ll do anything for you, Lord.” But fall for this and you will fall from grace. You’ll come under the condemnation of the law. “If you’re not witnessing to at least one person a week, you’re not a real Christian.”

Yuk. When we hear stuff like that, we need to remind ourselves that we are NOT under obligation to the flesh – especially not religious flesh.

Compelled by love

Why did Paul feel obliged to preach the gospel to Greeks and barbarians? He felt obliged for the same reason parents feel “obliged” to nurture their children or husbands and wives feel “obliged” to care for one other. They can’t help it. They are motivated by love, and it is their very great pleasure to serve.

God did not demand, require or obligate Paul to preach the gospel, for grace comes with no price tags. It was the love of Christ that compelled Paul to tell others the good news. He did not care whether he was preaching to civilized Greeks or illiterate barbarians, intellectual giants or provincial bumpkins. He just wanted people to know that God loved them.

Again, it’s the bird and fish thing. We children of God do what we do because we are the children of God. We don’t run after sin (it’s not in our nature), but we shine with the Father’s love (because it is in our nature). As new creations, we have new instincts, new desires, new dreams.

So rest, relax, breathe. You have no debt to repay and there’s no obligation you must fulfill. There is no expectation that you must be another Paul or that you must do this or that. There’s just a glorious opportunity to exercise your God-given gifts and be who you truly are in Christ.

When you are resting in Christ and basking in your Father’s love, you will shine with the light of his glory. It’s inevitable.

—

Have you added Escape to Reality to your home screen?

Read this verse in context on the Grace Commentary, your free verse-by-verse study guide.

Here’s a question I have for the Jehovah’s Witnesses who knock on my door. “If you believe that only 144,000 people will go to heaven, why are you diminishing your chances of salvation by trying to save me?”

Turns out, the JW’s have an answer for that question: a two-tier salvation plan. The elites or “the elect” make it to heaven, while the rest of us remain earthbound for eternity.

Jesus and the apostles referred to “the elect,” and for 2000 years, people have been asking, “Who are the elect”?

I’m not here to criticize the JWs, but to illustrate that different groups offer different interpretations of “the elect.” The JW’s say the elect are the top 144,000 anointed believers, while Calvinists say the elect are those sovereignly chosen by God. Here’s John Calvin writing in Institutes of the Christian Religion (3:21:5):

All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation.

In other words, God chooses some to be saved and those lucky few are called “the elect.” I guess Calvin thought he was part of the elect, but what about the rest of us?

The elect = the chosen

Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? (Romans 8:33)

The original adjective eklektos, which is translated here and many other places as “elect”, means “chosen.” In fact, that is how the word is sometimes translated in Scripture: “Many are called, but few are chosen (eklektos)” (Matt. 22:14). So the verse above can be read as, “Who would dare to bring an accusation against those whom God chooses?”

Who does God choose?

Peter addressed his letter to those “scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen” (1 Pet. 1:1). Who are the chosen? Does God choose some and reject the rest, as the Calvinists say? Does he choose only a tiny proportion of the human race, as the JW’s say?

Saint, I have some good news for you. You have been chosen by God.

God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation… (2 Thessalonians 2:13)

If you have responded to the gospel call, you have been chosen.

But note: choosing you does not mean that God has rejected your neighbor, your workmate, or anyone. The kingdom of God is not some Ivy League college with a cap on admissions.

God’s salvation call goes out to the ends of the earth – no one is excluded. You can be sure that the Lord receives ALL who come to him.

… the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. (John 6:37)

Did God choose me or did I choose him?

Both! In a manner of speaking, “the chosen” choose themselves by responding in faith to the gospel call. But since the Lord initiates the call, it’s accurate to say we are God’s chosen.

What about this verse:

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world… He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself… (Ephesians 1:4–5)

Predestination does not mean that God chooses some and rejects others. It means God had a plan.

The original word for predestined (proorizo) is made up of two words: pro, meaning fore, and horizo, meaning horizon or boundary. The God who sees the end from the beginning knew who would respond to the gospel. Before time began, he wrote their names in the Book of Life (Rev. 17:8).

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom he predestined, he also called; and these whom he called, he also justified; and these whom he justified, he also glorified. (Romans 8:29–30)

Some say that we are unable to move towards salvation. “Being dead in sin, we can’t do a thing. It is all God.” Salvation is indeed all God, but it is still up to us to repent and believe the good news (Mark. 1:15).

Who qualifies to be included in the elect?

We are all qualified by grace. The only ones who are excluded are those who exclude themselves by rejecting the grace of God.

Formerly, you were without God in this world (Eph. 2:12), but the moment you put your faith in the Lord, you crossed over from death to new life (John 5:24). You became a new creation, part of the elect and God’s chosen people.

But you are a chosen people… Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9–10)

In the New Testament, believers are referred to as “the called of Jesus Christ,” “the chosen,” and “the elect.” These are all different labels for the family of God. They do not refer to top-tier performers or elite-level Christians.

We are all one in Christ.

—

This month on my Patreon page: enjoy a classic sermon on grace from a man who trained over 1,000 missionaries, a video update on my next book (featuring a special cameo!), exclusive bonus materials for our series on the Patriarchs, and news on grace resources being shipped to Africa.

Sometimes, life knocks you down so hard that you feel like a lowly worm and that the whole world is out to get you. “Everything is against me,” said Jacob after he lost his wife and his son. But the good news is that God helps the lowly:

“Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you,” declares the Lord… (Is. 41:14)

It may shock you to hear God calling Jacob a worm, but it should reassure us to hear God refer to himself as “the mighty One of Jacob” (e.g., Is. 49:26). Here is what a certain Victorian preacher said about that:

What a combination! Thou worm Jacob, the Mighty One of Jacob! A worm united to Omnipotence! What is so weak and worthless as a worm! What is so mighty as the Mighty One of Jacob! I want to tell the story—not of Jacob, but Jacob’s God; not of a man, but the all-sufficient God displacing man and substituting his own infinite fullness.

That preacher was A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance and the trainer of countless missionaries. In 1899, A.B. Simpson preached a series of sermons entitled “But God.” In it, he examined how the grace of God changes the lives of people like Jacob.

If ever there was a man that deserved to be called a worm, it was the supplanting son of Isaac. And yet this was the man whom God selected from among all the patriarchs to be head of Israel’s tribes and the real founder of the covenant people to whom was committed the oracles of God. Therefore, Jacob is more especially fitted to set forth the grace of God than any other of the Bible characters.

While preparing my series on the Patriarchs, I stumbled across Simpson’s brilliant sermon “The God of Jacob.” It’s a zinger.

God chose this man to prove that there is no class of humanity so hard, so hopeless, as not to be within reach of sovereign grace, indeed, that God loves a hard case and that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” If there is someone reading these lines who is discouraged about himself, remember Jacob, and then remember Jacob’s God, the One that could choose a worm and make him a prince with God and with men.

In his classic sermon, A.B. Simpson tells the story of how God’s grace turned Jacob the Sinner into Israel the Patriarch. (I highly recommend reading the whole sermon. I have edited it for modern readers and will post it on my Patreon page.)

Simpson says that everyone comes to a crisis point – “one night of loneliness, one hour of deep trouble” – where God reveals himself to them as he did to Jacob at Bethel. From that moment, we know God is real and that he is our Friend. In our crisis, we choose whether to trust him and rely on him.

“The greatest need of every human heart,” says Simpson, “is to know the resources and sufficiency of God.” Our greatest need is to quit relying on ourselves, and trust fully in his grace.

God is good – we all say it. But knowing that God is good to me and that he longs to reveal his goodness every day is something we may have trouble believing.

“Surely his goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,” said the Psalmist, and we say those words too. But saying and knowing are different things. We need to preach this good news to ourselves until we are fully assured and totally convinced, otherwise we’ll take the long, hard route of Jacob.

I’m no better than Jacob. I have low moments of worry and fear, just like anyone. And I know that life would be better if I daily took God at his word.

The ruin of the human race came by discrediting and doubting God’s word to our first parents. ‘Has God said?’ was the fountain of all sin. ‘God has said’ is the foundation, therefore, of our restoration.

Happily, God never leaves us in our lowly, doubting state. When we worry and tremble, he does not wash his hands of us and walk away. Our heavenly Father stays with us. He remains faithful even when we are not.

Such is the mighty One of Jacob.

—

When Camilla and I took over the pastoring of a church back in 1999, everyone thought it was a good idea – everyone, that is, except me. I thought picking me was a terrible idea for many reasons. For starters, I had never been to Bible School. But it all worked out, and in hindsight, I can see God was training me for everything that followed.

When God calls us in a certain direction, it’s natural to come up with reasons why it’s a bad idea:

Moses: “I stutter” (Ex. 4:10)
Gideon: “I’m a nobody” (Jdg. 6:15)
Jeremiah: “I’m just a kid” (Jer. 1:6)
Peter: “I’m a sinner” (Luke 5:8)

It seems that God delights in picking unqualified people. He chooses the wrong guy or girl, and then he shows us what he can accomplish through the wrong guy or girl.

Surely, the best example of picking “the wrong guy” was Saul the Pharisee. Saul hunted Christians for a living, yet God picked him to build the church. Amazing.

Sidebar: Some of the disciples Jesus picked were the wrong gender, yet God chose them to be the first evangelists of the resurrection and leaders in the early church.

These days, there is a lot of pressure for would-be ministers to get educational qualifications. You gotta have a Ph.D or a D.Div. You gotta be certified. A good education is important if you want to be a surgeon or an engineer, but ask yourself which of the following sentences is in the Bible:

“I was made a minister, because I earned a certificate.”
“I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace.”

The second sentence comes from Ephesians 3:7. Paul was an educated man but when it came to ministry he relied solely on God’s grace.

By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Paul never said, “I studied for years under the original apostles until they taught me everything they knew.” Instead, he said the leaders in the Jerusalem church “recognized the grace that had been given to me” (Gal. 2:9).

(Incidentally, this is what leaders do. They recognize and call out the gifts God has given to every believer. They help others work out the dreams God has placed in their hearts. More here.)

Training is valuable and learning from others will help you avoid repeating their mistakes. But don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot exercise your gifts unless you have the right education, the right connections, and the right gender. Such a mindset would have been totally foreign to the early church.

For we are God’s fellow workers… according to the grace of God which was given to me (1 Corinthians 3:9–10)

In the old covenant, only Levites could serve as priests. But in the new covenant we are all royal priests.

In the old covenant, only some were anointed to serve. But in the new covenant, we are all anointed and his anointing teaches us all things (1 John 2:20–27).

In the old covenant, the priestly caste was recognized by their outer adornments. But in the new covenant, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit to lead and guide us.

As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1 Peter 4:10)

Let no one disqualify those whom God has qualified. Let no one tell you that you must earn their approval before you heed the call of God.

Get trained and learn all you can, but don’t ever think you are qualified on account of your effort or disqualified by your reputation, pedigree or gender.

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly (Romans 12:6)

What a privilege it is to be called and qualified by God! From our limited understanding, it may seem that God sometimes picks the wrong people. I certainly thought that when I found myself leading a church in Hong Kong, and I’m sure there went plenty who thought Saul was a terrible choice for apostle.

Truly, God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows the gifts he’s given us and all he asks is that we trust him to reveal himself through us to others. Don’t look for the approval of people. Fix your eyes on the Lord and rest. He will do the rest.

You are qualified by the Lord. And the same grace of God that empowered the apostles, empowers you (Rom. 12:6).

—

Are you a teacher? Check out E2R’s treasure trove of teaching resources.

Have you added Escape to Reality to your home screen?

You are qualified; now grow. Get grace by email straight to your inbox:

The three Patriarchs of Israel represent three types of people. Abraham is the believer, Isaac is the fearful, and Jacob? Well, he was the sinner.

Don’t get me wrong—I love Jacob. But from the moment he was born, he was labeled a trickster, and a trickster he proved to be. He deceived his brother, fooled his father, and fleeced his uncle. If a man’s character is measured by his behavior, Jacob was arguably the most flawed of the three Patriarchs.

And yet, God blessed this sinful man. Which is good news for us because we are all sinners in need of grace.

Grace for sinners

We pick up the story after Jacob has fled his home (see Gen. 27:43). After deceiving his father and taking his brother’s birthright he spends the night at a place he will call Bethel. He dreams of angels ascending and descending between heaven and earth. In the dream, he hears God speaking to him:

I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and I will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. (Genesis 28:13–15)

If you have been following our series on the Patriarchs, you will recognize this as the same promise God made to Abraham and Isaac. It is a promise of unconditional blessing. It is a promise of grace, filled with divine “I wills.”

Whenever you hear the “I wills of God,” you know that you are in the Land of Promise.

The promises of God

We should note that Jacob has done nothing to deserve these promises from God. If anything, he deserves punishment for his sins. But God’s grace is unaffected by our performance or pedigree. God blessed Jacob—and he blesses us—simply because it pleases him to do so.

Now, imagine you are Jacob hearing the voice of God. What do you do next?

I like to think I would be overwhelmed with praise and thanksgiving. The direction of my life has just changed. I was cursed, but now I’m blessed, and all this is to the glory of God.

But that’s not what Jacob does. Oh no. “Jacob made a vow” (Gen. 28:20). Like many people who want to experience the favor of God, Jacob tries to make a deal.

If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God… and of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to you. (Genesis 28:20–22)

What a scandal! What an insult! Instead of receiving the promise of God, this sinner responds with a promise of his own.

“I’ve got a better idea. If you do this for me, then I will do this for you.” And then he invents tithing.

By offering a counter-proposal, Jacob basically accuses God of being a liar. “I don’t accept your promise. Here’s mine.” It’s a wonder Jacob remains standing. It is testament to the patience of God that lightning does not fall from heaven and fry this blasphemer!

Jacob the Sinner becomes Jacob the Self-righteous

Making promises to God might sound spiritual, but it is one of the greatest manifestations of ego and pride. Who are we to bargain with the Creator?

But I’m not judging Jacob because we’ve all been there. In moments of zeal or fear we say things like, “God, I promise, just do this one thing for me and I will…”

Jacob’s self-righteousness isn’t surprising. What’s surprising is that God isn’t the least bit offended. He overlooks Jacob’s snotty arrogance and keeps his promise. God keeps his word, not because of Jacob, but in spite of him.

Which speaks volumes about the amazing grace of God. Not matter how sinful or self-righteous you are, God loves you and wants to bless you. You may reject God’s promises or try and match them with your own, but he will not quit on you because grace won’t let go.

Fast forward two decades and Jacob is an older, wiser man. He returns to Bethel where he meets God again. What does the Lord say? Does he rebuke Jacob for his earlier arrogance and wasted years? No. The Lord repeats his promise:

I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation… and kings shall come from you. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I give to you and your descendants. (Genesis 35:11–12)

This time, Jacob does not respond with stupid promises of his own. He doesn’t bargain or try to earn it what God has given him. He receives the promise, worships God, and sets up a pillar as a reminder of God’s presence and grace.

The lesson of Jacob is not that God blesses promise makers, but that he—the Lord—is both Promise Maker and Promise Keeper. This is the revelation of grace.

The gospel is not an invitation to do things for God, but an announcement of what he has done for you. We’re not blessed because of our deeds or words; we are blessed when we receive by faith the favor God wants to give us.

“Paul, I already know all this. I know I’m blessed on account of God’s grace.”

Great! Make sure you don’t forget it. Learn from old Jacob and build a pillar or write a note or paint a picture. Do something, anything, that helps you remember who God is and what he has promised.

—

Learn more about how Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob heard and responded to the grace of God in the bonus materials that accompany this article on Patreon.

I have a confession to make. I like gangster movies. Everything I know about organized crime I learned from watching movies like The Godfather, The Untouchables and The Road to Perdition.

If these movies have taught me anything, it’s that success in the criminal underworld requires dedication, service and years of unflinching loyalty. I learned this from one of my favorite movie gangsters, Lefty Ruggiero, in the 1997 movie Donnie Brasco:

Keep your nose clean, be a good earner, follow the rules, and who knows? Maybe one day they open the books, you get straightened out, become a wise guy, a made guy.

Strangely, this is how some people see their future in the kingdom of God.

They think that if they serve the Lord faithfully for years, one day, when the books are opened, they’ll get called up and accepted as full members in the family of God. They’ll get promoted and be recognized as a “made guy,” one of God’s capos.

It would be funny, except this mindset has enslaved many of our brothers and sisters. Like Lefty, they’re waiting for a call that never comes.

In the movie, Lefty’s tragedy is that he has been a loyal soldier for years yet he has never been called up by the skippers. As a result, he’s frustrated and bitter. He feels used and overlooked. Which is how you would feel if you had invested your life in a system that failed to reward your years of service.

Sound familiar?

Manmade religion holds out the promise of promotion in order to enslave the free. Religious gangsters say, “Work hard, keep your nose clean, and maybe one day you’ll be called up, recognized and rewarded.” In other words, you have to serve and prove yourself if you wish to be numbered among those who are…

…the called of Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:6)

Who are “the called” of Christ (Romans 1:6)?

This is one of those questions that can lead to division and debate. Ask a theologian, “How do I become the called of Christ?” and you may get a long speech about predestination, prevenient grace, and sacramental participation. Yawn.

The truth is far simpler. “The called of Christ” are believers. That’s it.

There are many references in the New Testament to “the called.” This is not some elite club of super-Christians. “The called” is simply another name for the family of God.

What is the call of God?

Have you heard the call of God? Here it is:

Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:22)

If you hadn’t heard the call of God before, now you have. You’re welcome.

Some people like to say they found God. It is more accurate to say they responded to his call. They heard the gospel – the call of Christ – and responded in faith.

Who gets called?

For too long, the world has been afflicted with the lie that says God calls only a select few. It’s not true. Through the gospel, God calls ALL OF US to himself, Jew and Gentile alike. Paul told the Athenians, “God declares to all that all people everywhere should repent” (Act 17:30). God’s call is universal.

(If you need to see this in scripture, check out Rom 9:24, 1 Cor. 1:24, and 1 Tim. 2:3–4.)

Sadly, not everyone responds to the call of God, but those who do are known as “the called of Jesus Christ” or simply “the called” (Jude 1:1).

The call of God is not based on your merits but his grace (Gal. 1:6, 2 Tim. 1:9).

His call is not based on your work, but Christ’s finished work.

His call is not based on your faithfulness, but his faithfulness.

So discard those gangster notions about trying to prove yourself or becoming a made guy. You were “made” the moment you were born again. In Christ, you are a brand new creation.

Pay no attention to religious gangsters who use threats to extort money and service from others (e.g., Matt. 23:14). If gangster movies have taught us anything, it’s that working for gangsters is always a bad idea. The story of Lefty Ruggiero does not end well, and your story will not end well if you think you must be a loyal soldier to win your Father’s approval.

He is God your Father, not the godfather.

—

From the E2R Archives: What makes a great Christian movie?

Got a question about a tricky scripture? Check out The Grace Commentary.

I don’t say this enough, but those who preach the good news are the most beautiful people on earth.

Just imagine how different your life would be if someone hadn’t told you the good news of God’s grace. I was raised as a PK (a Pastor’s Kid), so it was inevitable that I heard the gospel early. But some people live their whole lives without hearing the good news. How sad is that?

If you know that God provides salvation, healing, and deliverance, it is because someone was kind enough to tell you. How grateful we are that someone brought us the good news of the God who loves us, accepts us and makes us his own.

How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!” (Romans 10:15)

“How beautiful” is an expression that means “How welcome” or “Thank God you came!” I imagine this was the reaction that Peter experienced at the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:44–45) or Paul got in the house of the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:31–34).

Maybe you have seen this reaction in others. Maybe you told someone the good news and they said, “Thank you, I really needed to hear that.” In that moment, you were a beautiful preacher.

Beautiful good news preachers

Imagine a world full of beautiful preachers. Imagine behind every pulpit there is a beautiful preacher preaching good news of good things. Imagine every time you sit next to a believer on a plane, you hear about the kindness of God. Imagine on every street corner or social media feed there are people proclaiming God’s grace.

It’s hard to imagine, right?

So here’s my question: Considering all the Christians in the world, why aren’t there more beautiful preachers? The answer is in the verse:

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!

A beautiful preacher brings good news of good things. They do not bring bad news of bad things. They do not preach condemnation, damnation, and judgment.

“Good things” are the blessings of God that are revealed in the gospel: his unconditional love, radical acceptance, the complete forgiveness of all our sins, the gift of righteousness, peace, joy, intimacy, fruitfulness, and eternal life. These are the good things proclaimed by beautiful preachers.

Ugly bad news preachers

There was a time in my life when I thought that people would not appreciate the good news unless I first told them the bad news. So I became a bad news preacher. I preached bad things like guilt and condemnation. Then I realized something – the world does not need more bad news.

Jesus said, “Preach the good news in every nation.” He did not say, “But preach the bad news first.”

Now I tell people the good news of God’s good things. I tell people how much God cares for them and what he has done for them. I tell them about the love of God revealed in Jesus.

Some people get upset when I do this. They say, “You’re not telling them the whole picture.” “You haven’t mentioned sin, guilt, or punishment.” “You’ve said nothing about hell and judgment.”

I want to reply, “Those are bad things. They are not good things.” Instead, I usually say, “There’s no bad news in the good news” and leave it at that.

So, two takeaways:

First, take care who you listen to. Beware the ugly feet of those who preach condemnation, damnation, and judgment. It’s true that Jesus occasionally spoke of judgment to self-righteous people who thought they knew God’s heart better than he did. But most of the time, Jesus revealed grace. He preached good news of good things to people who were hurting.

Second, if you want to be a more beautiful preacher – one who bears the fragrance of Christ – make two lists. Make a list of good things (all the blessings of God that are ours in Christ) and a list of bad things. Then, when you talk to people, only use the first list.

“But Paul, how will people know about sin and guilt if I don’t tell them?”

They already know. Most people know they are not perfect. Most people live with constant reminders of their weaknesses and flaws. They don’t need you to tell them they are broken. They need to hear that God loves them just as they are, that he accepts them, and that he can heal them and make them whole.

Whether you are on a pulpit or a plane, whether you have a platform or a page, tell people the good news of good things.

Do that, and you will be a beautiful preacher.

—

Did you know we have recently added 100,000 more words to The Grace Commentary? The Grace Commentary is your go-to resource for grace-based Bible study. Add it to your home screen today.

Did you know there are nearly 1,000 FREE articles about grace here on E2R? Sign up to be notified of new articles: