SOLA GRATIA (Grace Alone)

SOLA GRATIA (Grace Alone)

In salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by His grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.

We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature.

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In this I affirm completely.

Interestingly, very few people put "Grace alone" and this verse together. James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 "..."God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

The sin of pride keeps one from receiving Grace through faith. God gives all mankind the gift of faith so that they may turn to Him and be saved. Yet, if ones heart is hardened and proud God resists that person in their attempt to do works that would save them. We owe God to great a debt to be able to pay off. The wages of sin, which is revealed by the Law, is death. But the Gift of God is Life. This Life is sustained by God's Grace toward us. We do nothing, except in response to what God has done, accept we are dead in our sins and humbly ask for mercy and Grace. God gives grace to the humble. That is a promise.

Click here for the rest of this series

Be blessed,

iggy

N.T Wright on Heaven

I have been heavily influenced by N. T. Wright. Now, saying that I may not agree on all points. Yet, one point I see that he is great at is getting to the point of some things most just take for granted... and often being so granted are just plain wrong.

The debate on "Hell" will go on, though I think that if one can wrap their mind around the proper teaching of the bible on Heaven, they will begin to grasp why the common idea of Hell needs to be looked at.

Bob Hyatt pointed to an interview with N. T. Wright that I think will help many start to understand why "BIBLICAL" understanding is important.

Be blessed,

iggy

Spirtual DNA....

Here is a post by Chris Pajak...

All I can say is... AWESOME! LOL! THANKS!

the iggman

Merry Christmas... great video.

Performatism: post-postmodernism

Performatism: post-postmodernism


Disclaimer: I know that this is very much over simplified, yet there is not much out there on this topic.

I wrote about the next thing beyond postmodernism… and I saw two different things happening at the same time.

Pragmatism and Performatism.

Most are familiar with pragmatism.

Here is a bit, (as it is still developing) on Performatism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Postmodernism

In a book on City as landscape: a post-postmodern view of design and planning (E&F Spon, 1986], Tom Turner argues that:
The modernist age, of "one way, one truth, one city", is dead and gone. The postmodernist age of "anything goes" is on the way out. Reason can take us a long way, but it has limits. Let us embrace post-postmodernism—and pray for a better name.
"Performatism" was coined by Raoul Eshelman, as a term to describe or replace the term "Post-Postmodernism". He goes on to describe it as "a new epoch in which subject, sign, and thing come together in ways that create an aesthetic experience of transcendency"...a place where meaning is created.[1] See also his other works.[2]
Mikhail Epstein also argues that "Post-postmodernism witnesses the re-birth of utopia after its own death, after its subjection to postmodernism's severe scepticism, relativism and its anti-utopian consciousness". Post-postmodernism has also been described as renewed faith.[3]

Here is a bit more on the subject and the “change” that is coming.

“The way out of postmodernism does therefore not lead through the intensified search for meaning, through the introduction of new, surprising forms or through the return to an authentic origin. Instead, it must take place through a mechanism completely impervious to postmodernism's modes of dispersal, deconstruction and proliferation. This mechanism, which has been making itself felt with increasing strength in the cultural events of the last few years, can be best understood using the notion of performance. Performance in itself is, of course, not a phenomenon new or unknown. In Austin's speech-act theory it refers to a language act that does what it promises ("I now pronounce you man and wife"). In the sense of an artistic event in the modernist avant-garde, a performance foregrounds or "makes strange" the border between life and art; in the happenings and performance art of postmodernism it integrates the human body or subject into an artistic context. The concept of performance I am suggesting here is, however, a different one. The new notion of performativity serves neither to foreground nor contextualize the subject, but rather to preserve it: the subject is presented (or presents itself) as a holistic, irreducible unit that makes a binding impression on a reader or observer. This holistic incarnation of the subject can, however, only succeed when the subject does not offer a semantically differentiated surface that can be absorbed and dispersed in the surrounding context. For this reason the new subject always appears to the observer as reduced and "solid," as single- or simple-minded and in a certain sense identical with the things it stands for. This closed, simple whole acquires a potency that can almost only be defined in theological terms. For with it is created a refuge in which all those things are brought together that postmodernism and poststructuralism thought definitively dissolved: the telos, the author, belief, love, dogma and much, much more.”

Source: http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0602/perform.htm

Now to break that down to be a bit more “user friendly”, If you buy a razor that advertises the “closest shave ever” it will deliver that promise. Or if you buy a car that has the “best gas mileage” it will deliver just that... The best gas mileage you ever got!

In it is also the idea of part become part of the bigger or whole picture. In that many make up the one… singular become the plurality. It is also about seeing people as a whole person. If one looks at the single person in all their complexity, they will be seeing the person as a whole being and how they fit into the big picture.

Now, if we take this into the context of Christianity and faith… it has many incredible and some scary ramifications.

People will fall between the pragmatic and the performativity of their religion… whatever works and what ever performs and get results and the people see real results will be the future of all religions and faiths.

People will still justify if it works it must be true.

Now, as a person of faith in Christ Jesus, I see that this is no problem in how I approach my faith, yet many will not find that their faith is stable to withstand the ideals of “it does as it promises”.

So, does a fundamentalist who shouts that the devil is everywhere… and that wearing a suite is more respectful to God than wearing jeans to preach in have a chance in the future… most probably as they will stay in the pre-modern/modern view… yet will see that even less people are listening to their “old truth” and searching for “eternal truth” that has been around and proven.

The difference between “old truth” and “eternal truth” is that one is based on a reinterpretation and return to scripture (which is not bad) in the 16th century, and “eternal truth” is something that has and is and will always be. In that the truth from the “eternal” is more “holistic, irreducible unit that makes a binding impression on a reader or observer.”

If we as Christians do not look very close at our beliefs and doctrines we will find churches losing more people as the “promises given” have not given the results. If for an example your church promises that God heals, you better produce that fruit. Or, say that you teach your doctrine will change one’s life then the fruit better follow suite from the promise. If you preach prosperity, then your church better be getting very rich!

Yet even more I see that a person will seek out to see that they can be a part of a bigger picture that is making a difference. They seek to be a part of the whole. In that we need to help bring people into the bigger picture and understanding of being part of the Body of Christ.

Now, I see where the real struggle will be is that the fundamentalist will be seen as not matching what they stand for.. and to survive as people of true faith, we must better represent what or Who we stand for. Otherwise, people will look as us and see a fraud or a representation of Jesus Christ.

Now, here is the “eternal truth”. Man is dead in his sin. He will always “sin” and die, unless these issues are dealt with. You see the promise is of the resurrection that is in the future… yet we also experience this resurrection now in that lives are changed.

Churches better see men and women becoming more and more like Jesus. To be not reaching to become more “god-like” (meaning we seek to be divine and “like-god” as the serpent seduced Eve with.) but to reach to be the fully human God created us to be and that Jesus was and is. (Yes, Jesus is fully God and it seems I have to state this as some will think I am talking human potential and this is like that, but not anything like it… it is not about humans become more and better “sinful” humans… but that we are becoming the New Human that is born of Heaven as Jesus was and we are to realize our New Human potential as we are “in Christ”.)

We are being transformed in to the image of Christ by the renewal of our minds… for now as we are still in the perishable body, we must be changed now in our thinking. Later we will be clothed in the imperishable.

The idea that what we teach must be able to work in the lives of those we teach must be based on these “eternal truths” that before creation Christ Jesus was “the plan” for the “us” and that we would be placed in Him at just the right time.

It is now more than ever we must depend on the Holy Spirit to guide us.

I hope to develop these thoughts more fully as I see we are fast moving from the “post-modern” to the “post-post-modern” and into this Performatism.

For a more down to earth hands way of getting this is to look at people's lives like Mother Teresa... or Shane Claiborne. To me these are people who walked or still walk as they believe... their performance of their faith matches their faith.

We must start to learn what it means to love one another... as we have just begun to learn to love God. This means we must attempt by God's power to do this... even if it is not done well but to do it over and over until we can transcend what drags us down. In a biblical sense also to learn what it means to become overcomers... and that by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.

Great Quotes: N.T.Wright

What does the church do when faced with this huge swirling set of cultural movements and tensions? Most of us learned our trade, learned Christianity, and learned to preach and live the gospel within the resolutely modernist and industrial world. Some branches of Christianity, it is true, have managed to hold onto a premodern way of thinking and even of living, holding the modern world, let alone the postmodern world, at arm’s length. But most of us traditionally have articulated the gospel to people who thought and felt as modern people, particularly as “progress” people—people who thought that if they worked a little harder and pulled their weight a bit more strongly, everything would pan out. That modernist dream, translated into theology, sustains a sort of Pelagianism: pull yourself up by your moral bootstraps, save yourself by your own efforts. And since that was what Martin Luther attacked with his doctrine of justification by faith, we have preached a message, of grace and faith to a world of eager Pelagians. We have announced a pure spiritual message, uncorrupted by political and social reflection.

That looks fine to begin with. If you meet a Pelagian coming down the street, give him Augustine or Luther. But there are two problems with this procedure. First, of course, it is not what Saint Paul himself meant by justification by faith, but that is another subject for another day. Second, with the move to postmodernity, most of our contemporaries already, and all of them soon, will not be Pelagians any longer. Those who have abandoned the smokestack economy for the microchip, those who have denied all objective knowledge in favor of a world of feelings and impulses, those who have abandoned the arrogant Enlightenment “I” for the deconstmcted mass of signifiers, those who have torn down the great metanarrative and now play with different interchangeable stories as they come along—those who live in this world, which is increasingly our world, are not trying to pull themselves up by their moral bootstraps. Where would they pull themselves up to? Why would they bother? Who are “they,” anyway? Goal, motive, identity—all of these have been undermined by the shifting sands of postmodernity.
Faced with this situation, many have tried—some are still trying—to deny the presence of postmodernity, to retain the modern world in which we felt so comfortable and in which (whether we realize it or not) we preached a modernist gospel. Many want to turn the clock back, culturally and theologically.

It cannot be done.

My proposal to you is that we should not be frightened of the postmodern critique. It had to come. It is, I believe, a necessary judgment on the arrogance of modernity, and it is essentially a judgment from within. Our task is to reflect on this moment of despair within our culture and, reflecting biblically and Christianly, to see our way through the moment of despair and out the other side. ~ N.T.Wright The Resurrection and the Postmodern Dilemma
(Originally published in Sewanee Theological Review 41.2, 1998. Reproduced by permission of the author.)


Read the whole article here.

Doug Padgitt and a stolen bit from my other blog site.

First off those at mychurch.com will notice that this was a comment in the last post. But since this blog is originally at Blogger.com, not everyone has read those comments.

I finally listened to Doug Padgitt on Way of the Master Radio... and first off... Todd Friel is truly a rude individual. Doug did a great job. What I noticed is that this will of course be touted as Doug is a heretic and a win for their side... but I see that Doug pointed out the issues that are in the so called "systematic theology" that Todd was pushing on that site. I do wish Doug expounded a bit on the difference of Todd's version of "systematic theology" and true "systematic theology" as Todd just pieced about four out of context quotes of Jesus and ran them together in a sick display of proof-texting that only showed that Todd was proving his own preconceived doctrine.

Now, I do also wish Doug (who I admit sounded a bit arrogant, yet truly under the conditions was way beyond being gracious to Todd's rudeness) also unpacked a bit more on the idea of the narrative story that he believes... I do get that "Heaven is not a place" in the sense that Doug pointed out to Todd, yet confess it is a bit hard to wrap one's mind around if all you know is the view that Todd has been taught and which as Tony Jones pointed out about 90% of Christianity believes... so I do see Doug could have slowed down and walked Todd through this a bit.

Yet, that being my only real critique that thing that is being touted is that Doug stated that a Muslim or Buddhist will enter the New Creation... in other words that he stated that someone can be saved without Jesus. To be truthful, after listening to it twice I did not hear Doug say that. I heard that all men will be judged the same. I also heard that we are to lead people to Christ Jesus. I do wish Doug connected the thoughts.

Now we are dealing with people who have an escapist mentality and theology... they believe in the "Left Behind" theology that truly even distorts the traditional "Rapture" theology. These people do not see that judgment is a good thing that will set things right... and Doug alluded to a bit stating that anything that is not of God will be purged... (Sorry I can't remember the exact phrase he used).

The flip side is that if one is on the other side of this judgment then you will be purged also.

Interestingly, Todd used the word "destroyed" when talking about people being judged... I see that if Todd believes that in his own "systematic theology" then he is a heretic as a person cannot be "destroyed" and be "tormented forever" for a destroyed person does not exist!

Which leads me to these thoughts which were a bit in the same vein as the conversation lead my at mychurch.com site.

I find it interesting that much that is taught in Romans 9 is that some are created for wrath and some are created for mercy... and then most Calvinists stop at verse 18 or 24... yet in the next few verses, Paul does the punchline and states that those very vessels of wrath did not seek God and found Him, while the vessels of mercy had God and now were to be judged by God.

What that means is that many are being deceived that they are vessels of mercy by definition of Calvin when in fact it is about Jew and Gentile being made into one man and the Jew thinking he is saved by being a descendant of Abraham by blood and have turned faith into works, are now vessels of wrath, while the Gentiles which were considered the vessels of wrath, are not vessels of mercy! And this all by Grace!

Again, it is in this subtle misunderstanding that I see things go askew with Calvinism.Now, as I stated, I see Arninianism having some quirks also... and many lean on works to maintain salvation which negates Galatians chapter 3 or really the whole book of Galatians as well the bulk of Paul's writings.

Still I see both as branches of Christianity, and in a sense both polluted by Gnostic/Platonic dualism which makes the whole a little warped as it over emphasizes the existing heaven and hell as eternal destinations and goal of our faith over salvation and eternal life in the New Heaven and New Earth... I just see that many are trapped in a faulty theology that denies that Hell will be cast into the Lake of Fire and in one breath state men will burn forever and the other that they will be destroyed... it can't be both... but that is what is taught...

The New Creation, that we are now a part of as of the Resurrection and are called by Paul as believers... is the continuation and regeneration of all Creation being restored to and maybe beyond its original glory... I see that like we are resurrected and clothed in the imperishable it will still be us, that this will still be the earth and heaven only also clothed or purged of all evil and sin and what a glory that will be to behold.

be blessed,
iggy

A Letter from a gay man changed by Jesus Christ

Scot McKnight posted this letter from a man who was gay and a Christian. He talks of his struggles yet as you read it you will see that as he was lead by the Holy Spirit, he was lead out of the gay lifestyle. This is a message of hope that is in Christ.

I might add this is not the fruit of "emerging" though he recommends a Rob Bell book, it is solely the victory of Jesus Christ in a person's life as lead by the Holy Spirit.

Here is part of the letter...

"I came back into “church fellowship” through a man I met at a gay bar. He was actively gay at the time, separated, with one child, and deeply committed to his own walk with Christ. He and I never had sex. After several years, he became celibate and continued Christian outreach to gays. I was part of that outreach and had become celibate myself. I felt the Lord calling me to celibacy, at least for a time, after the painful breakup of the two “long term” relationships."

You can read the whole letter here

Be Blessed,
iggy

What the "Exchanged Life" is Not

Some have asked me what this "exchanged life" is that I often talk about. Though I openly admit I do not agree with their doctrinal statement on some finer points, the teaching of the "Exchange Life" is profound when one realizes what has happened to them when one is in Christ. Now here is what the "Exchanged Life" is not. Taken from Clarification of the Exchanged Life by Exchanged Life Ministries of Texas

Blessings,

iggy

The "Exchanged Life"...

• is not a new teaching.
• is not sinless perfection.
• is not a life of passivity.
• is not a self-help teaching.
• is not an undisciplined life.
• is not a second work of grace.
• is not a counseling technique.
• is not an improved "old man."
• is not in any way deifying man.
• is not instant change in behavior.
• is not a formula for self to imitate Christ.
• is not peace through changed circumstances.
• is not dying to self (wiping out our personality).
• is not a guarantee that circumstances will improve.
• is not overlooking or approving sinful behavior (promoting license).
• is not a guarantee that emotions will line up consistently with truth

Forgiveness

Luke 5:17-26

One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, `Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, `Get up and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . ."

He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.

Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today."


In my reading and prayer today I wanted to share something that would bless my readers. In that I read this passage which always amazes me as Jesus forgives some one's sin and is rebuked for it. Jesus knows the heart of man and the darkness that dwells there. He asks a question which in all honesty I am not sure of the answer... "Which is easier: to say, `Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, `Get up and walk'?"

Maybe it is the translation from Greek to English and in that we lose something.

I rarely read commentaries... I may read a theological book yet unlike in my younger days when I would pour hours into commentaries I found most the time they really give me much insight... That is not bragging, but more that often I find that the commentary may point somethings out yet the "thing" I am looking for they do not touch.

For some reason I turned to Henry's Concise Commentary which stated:

17-26 How many are there in our assemblies, where the gospel is preached, who do not sit under the word, but sit by! It is to them as a tale that is told them, not as a message that is sent to them. Observe the duties taught and recommended to us by the history of the paralytic. In applying to Christ, we must be very pressing and urgent; that is an evidence of faith, and is very pleasing to Christ, and prevailing with him. Give us, Lord, the same kind of faith with respect to thy ability and willingness to heal our souls. Give us to desire the pardon of sin more than any earthly blessing, or life itself. Enable us to believe thy power to forgive sins; then will our souls cheerfully arise and go where thou pleasest.

I do like what Henry has to say, yet I still felt unsatisfied. I see that we are to press in to Jesus who will give us favor and will heal our souls... and sometimes our bodies. Yet, the point I see missed is that Jesus want us to live in a way that enacts forgiveness on others. The teachers and religious leaders of the taught that only God can forgive sins... and Jesus shows them that He the man, (yes God in flesh, but still a man) can and will forgive the sins of others. The title "Son of Man was the human title of Jesus... it was not a reference to His deity... He does show that He is as able as God to forgive others.

In that I see we need to beseech God for the forgiveness of others also.

Later in Luke 4:36-37 Jesus teaches more on the topic of forgiveness...

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Part of our salvation is giving away the forgiveness we have been given.

Jesus gives grave warning in a parable to those who choose not to live a life of active forgiveness...

Matthew 18:21-35

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

"The servant fell on his knees before him. `Be patient with me,' he begged, `and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. `Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, `Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.

When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. "Then the master called the servant in. `You wicked servant,' he said, `I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

My prayer is that one will seek and find the forgiveness God offers at the Cross of Jesus... and in that find a new life of walking in that forgiveness by the Power of the Resurrection... that you the reader be brought and immersed into a deep understanding of the forgiveness of God.

I pray this also for myself for I know I fall short in giving away the forgiveness God gave me. I have come to learn that I cannot forgive others in my own strength. In these short comings one must fall on the merciful grace of God and by Him and through Him in the person of Faith in Christ, walk out our salvation... Trusting God to be the One who forgives others in and through you.

Blessings

iggy

More on a day or prayer and fasting for ken Silva

This last week I have been praying about how to do the day of prayer and fasting for Ken Silva.

Originally the idea is that whether one is for him or sees that what he is doing is harming the Body of Christ, that we all pray a prayer of blessing.

The reasoning is that Jesus taught us to do so.

Luke 6: 27-31

"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Ken has decided to hate others and curse them… and in that mistreat them. I intend that Ken be blessed…

Here is the kicker on all this. If you agree with Ken then you have nothing to lose! In fact pray for him to be blessed immensely! I am in full agreement as for one to be blessed, from God they must be humbles by God to receive the blessings.

I am sincere in that I want Ken to be blessed… and I pray in all earnest that he receives the fullness of God’s best for him.

As far as a date to do this. I have not decided on one. In fact I sense that if I did pick one, someone will say I am being a hypocrite and showy in that I am letting everyone know I am doing this, yet I see a good thing in our uniting in this.

So, I am still praying on that note… yet I think at least this far I see next week that maybe we all can set aside a day and fast and pray for God to bless Ken Silva who has declared that many of us are his enemy and also that he is at war against our God… (Ken has stated that I am not saved and serve a different god… I may agree in the last part of that as I think I serve a different God from the one of wrath, war and hate that Ken seems to declare is sovereign.)

If you think that you want to join me in this and want to pick a specific date, email me. iggy@wwdb.org

Blessings,
iggy

SOLA FIDE (Faith Alone) pt 2

SOLA FIDE (Faith Alone)

Justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. In justification Christ's righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God's perfect justice.

We deny that justification rests on any merit to be found in us, or upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ's righteousness in us, or that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate church.

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Of all the topics say that of the Person of Jesus Christ Grace is by far my favorite. Yet, within that very statement I cannot escape that Jesus Christ is the embodiment of Grace itself if not the very Personification of Grace manifest. (That sounds rather pious and highfalutin yet I am a bit without vocabulary to unpack that as I desire).

Grace is taught by some to be in types… Common and special Grace. They claim that there is one grace that God has for creation that basically cares for it… and the other is the Grace that saves… To that I say bull-pucky!

There is but one Grace, and that Grace is Our Lord and Savior. It was through Him that all creation came. Jesus being full of Grace and truth was the very filter through all creation passed that made all things “good”. Grace abounded in all things as God was to be known in the very creation itself as the first chapter of Romans tells us. But it was man who choosing to worship creation instead of the Creator that we see that even in this perversion, Grace abounded as God, who is Holy and Just, showed mercy instead and let these fallen creatures live though they deserved swift punishment.

God is perfectly Just and in that could have uncreated all things as easy as He spoke it all into existence.

Grace was there before creation for Jesus being full of grace and truth was in the Father before all creation and Grace will be forever as God is eternal.

To divide Grace into “parts” misses that there is a flow and unity that comes from the very first spoken words of God, which were the first “words” of the conversation that would begin full of grace and truth as God spoke the things of creation into existence, and it is even now that Grace holds back the wrath of God for it is by Christ we are saved.

As we come to Jesus and are placed into His Body, we are then immersed in His Grace and Truth and in that are filled and overflowing with His Grace. We define mercy as not getting what we deserve and Grace as getting what we do not deserve, yet that is just a thimble of the reality that grace is. It is a great place to start, yet in its fullness Grace is yet to be realized until the Resurrection and all are set to right, and then Jesus hands all things back to the Father, and God is all in all…
The Bible teaches us that it is by Grace through faith that we are saved not of works that any man should boast. It is that we realize that we are beyond the scope to be so filled with the rightness of God, that we too flow with Grace and truth and need to be rescued from our very selves.

We must see that without God’s grace we are unable to satisfy our own desires, let alone satisfy all the holiness needed to be accepted by God as His equal, for that is the desire of the fallen man, that he be equal with the One who created him. A man must find that he is bankrupt of all hope in himself to save himself, and now, put all hope into One who has fulfilled all that God required to please Him… His Son, Jesus Christ. We have but one faith, and that is in the Hope Who is Jesus Christ who died, was buried, rose again and ascended to the Father and now sits in Glory and mediates all things on our behalf.

May the Grace of God overflow and overwhelm you today!

iggy

God at Work or Just Me? Tozer Devotional

God at Work or Just Me?

To apply pressure, a person projects himself or herself into the minds and consciences of people made in the image of God and forces them psychologically to do something they have no particular reason for wanting to do. They are not basically interested in it and have no satisfactory reason for doing it, but they are under pressure. If they do not have a reason for doing what they are going to do, they will not know why they are invovled. Then when they get out they will not be sure that they were in, and so the whole process makes for weak, spineless religion. This violates the law of human nature, which dictates that all valid acts must arise from a natural urge or from a convinced mind. An example of a natural urge is when you are hungry. You may be very hungry, but your hunger does not have a high intellectual content in it. Nobody needs to stand up and say, "Now, all you who are hungry raise your hands." You know you are hungry, and you just go out to eat. Hunger is a natural urge. Another legimate reason for an act is a convinced mind. I am convinced that I ought to do something, and I do it because I have a conviction that it ought to be done. Those are the only two reasons for doing anything. If I force people under psychological pressure and steamroll them into doing something because they are too weak to resist, I have violated their nature. Our approach to getting people out of the rut, then, must not be to pressure them to do something they don't want to do. Instead, we must present the truth and let the Holy Spirit prompt them to want to escape.

Prayer
Lord, my greatest offensive weapon is prayer--believing, trustful prayer. I want to be Your instrument but keep me from trying to do what only You can do.
Scripture
. . . Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:— John 16:7-8

Thought
Can we trust the Holy Spirit to convict of sin, to reveal Christ, to open the minds of people to understand spiritual truth? If He doesn't do it, it doesn't get done despite all our efforts.

Grace is not a "Bar of Soap"

I was looking as some stats and noticed where some "hits" on this blog came from.

And I came across someone using this picture to express what grace was all about.

Truly this person has no clue what the Grace of God is all about.

Grace is not a bar of soap to be taken out only when one sins. That is almost an insult to what Grace is. Grace is the substance in which all things are held together. Some call that common grace, yet there is nothing "common" about it.
God created all things through Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 8)

Since all things were created through Jesus, we must realize that all things were originally created in Grace and Truth as Jesus is full of Grace and Truth. (John 1:14)

So Grace is in its fullness literally Jesus Christ.

From this knowledge of Grace, we now see that God is drawing all things back to Himself in Jesus Christ. For the Bible teaches, "For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all." 1 Cor 15: 27-28)

Grace comes from and is Jesus Christ. It has from the original creation until even now in the New Creation that began when the stone was rolled away.

I searched for a picture that might actually represent what Grace is. I came up with a few... yet, I realized there is only One Picture that truly represents Grace in its fullness. That is the Picture of Jesus Christ. From His preincarnation in the Father... to when the Father began the Great Conversation when he Spoke, "Let there be..." and it was... through Christ Jesus.

To the many stories and antitype throughout the scirpture that are the shadows... to the reality of Jesus' birth, life, death on the Cross... to the Resurrection as His Kingdom was ushered in, to the Ascension and now as he sits in His Glory and we await His return to bring His Kingdom in its fullness.

The Picture of Jesus is the very Picture of Grace itself...

To say Grace is nothing but a bar of soap that we use to wash ourselves on occasion is truly shameful and honestly a sin.

We are washed by the Blood... shed by Jesus... as He being Grace showed us Grace in action.

I hope that no one reduces Jesus to a bar of soap... for He is Life itself and apart from Him there is no Life.

blessings,
iggy

Walking Through Romans pt 12: Romans 8:18 - 39

Walking Through Romans pt 12: Romans 8:18 - 39

8:18 For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us. 8:19 For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly but because of God who subjected it – in hope 8:21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now. 8:23 Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 8:24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance.
8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 8:27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will. 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, 8:29 because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
8:31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 8:32 Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? 8:33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 8:34 Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 8:36 As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 8:37 No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I see that suffering is something that most Americans do not relate to. To many think that the cable TV going down or not having a hot shower in the morning… or running to late for work that you can’t stop for a latte is suffering.

Yet, saying that there is a suffering deeper in the heart of man that many may cover with such things.
Paul’s sufferings were both physical and mental as he was often on the defense of his teachings, and even of his very life as some sought to bring him down in some way even at times subjecting him to stoning.

Some countries the physical sufferings we here cannot fathom… yet in all this, Paul states that “our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us.” This Glory is Jesus Christ Himself.

Because of man who gave over his dominion of the earth and creation as a whole to Satan, the creation cries out in its own suffering. We often do not think of the creation as suffering yet Paul states: “the whole creation groans and suffers together until now”

What more we too groan in these bodies of decay, and hope for the Resurrection where we will receive new imperishable bodies.

Many place their faith in the idea that we can understand through rationalizing and science proves God’s word. This places God’s word in subjection to the process of science. Science itself is not bad, yet if one uses it to prove God I see something wrong. It is like saying that man is capable of understanding God if he gathers enough info. It is saying that God is not beyond mans finite mind and mental capacities and placing ourselves as equal if not above God.

If one then believes the Bible then as he does research finds once again God’s word to be true, then science in subject to God’s word.

The contrast to all of this though is the understanding that it is Hope we are saved. It is the Hope that in placing our faith in the finished works of Christ Jesus we find salvation. We do not see this at present, or at best may get a fleeting glimpse that passes in a moment. Yet, we who place our hope in Jesus press forward in this hope with endurance until this hope is fulfilled.

Paul goes one that in the same way we press on in endurance by hope we also do not know how to even pray. As one who is so far from perfection we must depend on the Holy Spirit to interpret our own inward groanings. As the Holy Spirit does this He intercedes on our behalf. It seems God has thought of everything doesn’t it?

As we are in Christ Jesus, the Father works His will and purpose and works all things together for our good.

God knowing that there would be those who would be in Christ, also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. God also by making Jesus the firstborn of the New Creation, now has made a way that we also will be brothers and sisters born into this same New Creation we have in Christ Jesus.

Before we were predestined we were called. In that we either answer “No.” or “Yes”. We must come to the point were we have not where else to go as the disciples stated to Jesus (john 6:68).

I see that many miss this and struggle for years to realize this crucial point, that we are dead in our sins… and as we come to Christ, we place our sins in Christ and our dead in Christ, but alive by His resurrection and given New Life.

As we walk forward in perseverance, we walking in Hope… this Hope is Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13) Yet also in this calling and do His will and good works, we find that we are justified. Justification is not a one shot deal at the Cross… as we are given Grace, Mercy and Love to give away, we also are given Justice to give away.

Our God is for us. Many suffer from bad teaching that tells them that “God hates sinners” and if a person is honest, they know they are sinners. If a person listens long enough to this sort of bad theology, they then begin to not live in victory, but focus on their own fruit. They do not realize that all men are bad trees and thus bear bad fruit. It is God alone who bears Good Fruit as He alone is the Good True. By listening to the lies, they become in bondage to a performance or shame based faith. They fall from grace to works and again if honest enough find they no matter how hard they try, they will always fall short.

That is why it is crucial to understand God’s Love. God is for us. If God justifies a man, who can say God is wrong? No one can condemn you because Jesus sits by the Father and intercede for you. I think Jesus trumps everyone else in this game.

It is this great love for us God has. Nothing can separate us from it. In Christ we are secure and immersed in the greatest love of all.

Never let anyone tell you that God hates you because you sin… It seems that God loves sinners most of all. For He loves them so much that He sent His Son to die in their place. All in hope that we come to trust God in His love for us and find true comfort from our sufferings and even more that we grow into the image of Jesus.

Blessings,
iggy

More misinformation on the propagation highway: Greg Gilbert versus Brian McLaren

More misinformation on the propagation highway: Greg Gilbert versus Brian McLaren

“…McLaren misses what is perhaps the most astonishing surprise of the New Testament story: that Jesus filled the roles of the Davidic Messiah, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, and Daniel’s Son of Man, all at the same time! That McLaren does not see this, or at least does not hint at it in his books, is all the more surprising because he is so careful otherwise to situate the story of Jesus in the narrative of the nation of Israel. The Suffering Servant of Isaiah and the Son of Man of Daniel 7 are not insignificant themes in the Old Testament, and neither were they insignificant ideas in the Jewish mind of Jesus’ day. How McLaren could ignore them so completely—not to mention the startling role they play in Jesus’ own self-understanding—is nothing short of a mystery.”

This is just one of the many points of misinformation and redirection. Greg Gilbert actually states that McLaren agrees with things like the atonement… yet twists things around such as in the case of the quote above to mean that McLaren is stating he really does not believe this after all… and that is called propagation and a lie.

What Greg Gilbert is doing is what he is actually saying McLaren has done! He takes what McLaren states then acknowledges it, then negates it.

And what Greg Gilbert ends up with is… a gospel “of "getting your butt into heaven,"… and a focus on the eternal the leaves us with nothing here and now of Jesus. And that is the point McLaren is making. Gilberts in this article confirms what McLaren is saying is true!

Now, anyone who has actually bothered to read Brian McLaren’s books will see that McLaren believes in an eternal life! Much of the books I have read states that and many of the lectures I have heard by him are nothing but mini N. T. Wright summaries… AND NO ONE WILL SAY N.T.WRIGHT DOES NOT BELIEVE IN AN AFTERLIFE!


So, once again we have people who admit McLaren is orthodox… and teaches the very things that many say he does nto… and in this case after doing that… Gilbert affirms what McLaren has set out.

I wonder why the focus is that one must try so hard as to redirect us from things that Jesus taught us to do NOW such as loving our enemies… as why would we need to if all our focus is on the eternal and not NOW.

So, as far as fairness, this may be one of the fluffiest propagation pieces I have read… but as far as grasping anything that is actually taught by Brian McLaren… it is a big miss…

If it was not so sad that someone has to write lies about another… it would be hilarious.

Be Blessed,
iggy

Walking Through Romans pt 11: Romans 8: 1-25

Walking Through Romans pt 11: Romans 8: 1-25

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 8:2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 8:3 For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 8:4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

8:5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 8:6 For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, 8:7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8:8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. 8:10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. 8:11 Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.

8:12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh 8:13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children. 8:17 And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) – if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

8:18 For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us. 8:19 For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly but because of God who subjected it – in hope 8:21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now. 8:23 Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies8:24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance.

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There is a lot to cover here in this chapter... so I will be cutting it in half. We ended in chapter 7 with this thought:

“Romans 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

The main purpose of chapter seven was to bring us to the end of our “self”. We come to the point of recognizing that we are doomed sinners… and though we thought the Law would save us, we found it only revealed more of our sin!!!! We are caught in a “body of death”. This is the same “covenant with death” that Isaiah talked about in Isaiah 28: 15 – 18:

“You boast, "We have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place."
So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.

I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.
Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the grave will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it.”

We are dead… that is the wages we pay for sin… our own death. Yet, the Good News is Jesus Christ! Now we serve the Law of God with our mind and serve the law of sin with our bodies. This does not mean we go out and just enjoy sin with our bodies, but that before our bodies ruled our minds… pleasure is the greatest thing the body desires. It is an incredible pleasure seeking machine!

Now in chapter eight Paul begins to explain the “how” we are no longer a slave to sin! Though he stated it in Romans seven clearly, he is breaking it down more for us here.

Here we are trapped in a body of flesh… this earth suit that we walk in on earth. God designed in beautifully and as David says in the Psalm, “fearfully made”. Yet, it is that we in our minds can see “good and evil” and even desire to do “good” we still cannot keep a sustained “good” as we fail and fall into the evil.

Once one realizes that when we are not in Christ there is no condemnation one is free of sin!!! This allows a new focus and direction moving from “self” to the “other” or more so now, a focus on the Eternal One. This is actually more than just a focus as that implies that “we” are the center. Jesus Christ now has become the center if one comes to Him and then enters Him and He in them.

Many talk as if we must master the flesh… in a sense we must, yet it is in the how of that where many miss the main point. They will run to “self help books” or counselors, (both which are fine, but don’t think they are the “answer”) they will go to pastors or friends or TV or radio talk shows… all In hope to see if they can become better people… but that is like putting turtle wax on a dead man’s bones… we just get a shiny dead thing. It might look pretty, smell better or whatever but it is dead.

In Christ we have New Life. This Life is not originating from us but from God Himself through Jesus. You see, God condemned and killed the flesh in Jesus at the Cross. Our flesh still fights against God in that it is corrupt and is condemned so that the Law is fulfilled... That means my dear Brothers and Sisters that we still will die… and yet even some teach that Christ will return and we will rise in our bodies, yet we will be transformed in a twinkling of an eye! (1 Cor 15:52) So, at the moment our corrupt perishing bodies will be changed to glorious new ones! The perishable changed to the imperishable!

The flesh is condemned in its fallen state, yet we live in Christ Jesus!

Yet, here we are now… learning to live as New Creations still trapped within these corrupt bodies. In that we must learn to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh. I see that this can only be learned as there is still a contrast between the fallen nature we have in the flesh and the redeemed nature we share in Jesus so what we think about is the important think… Do we still think of how to fulfill the desires of this corrupt body or do we now seek something much richer? As we walk in the flesh we come to know only death, yet as we walk in the Spirit we find Life. The flesh seeks its own so cannot seek the things of God.

Now, be careful that we do not fall into the trap of Gnosticism where we see the flesh as evil and that we must kill it… or tame it or whatever… the flesh is already judged and condemned. Yet, God made these bodies. We are redeemed and even these bodies as corrupt as they are still Gods! We are to give them to Him as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). We now bear in us this reconciliation of the profane and the sacred. The marriage of the Holy with the fallen.

This is the importance of the incarnation… that the Holy God became a man… clothed in flesh as we are, yet born fully alive. The Holy God came to earth to redeem us, in that Jesus “appeared” as we do, yet being born fully alive from heaven was able to overcome sin. What an amazing plan that was!

Now, we are not condemned as we are not just our bodies… sin is condemned in us. John states it this way:

1 John 3: 3-6:

“Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”


The Scripture is clear here, “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness.” In Christ Jesus you are already dead to sin as your body is already dead!!!! Yet, the Spirit is YOUR LIFE. We have no life but Christ Jesus when we are in Jesus.


We are adopted in to His family… we are now Children of God… God has now become our Father.

Now, we come to the idea of suffering which is lost on most Christians today. With all the “good life” or “name it and claim it” or “blab it and grab it” mentality it is hard to understand that we now must partake in the sufferings of Christ as part of our walk. That can vary from persecution of others because you are a Christian to dying for Jesus on the mission field. In all of it we suffer for a Name… this wonderful Name of Jesus. Yet, ever in our new focus is this new found glory we have in Jesus… We may suffer now but the Glory to Come is much greater and in that we must place our vision and ever press forward.

You see this world waits as a woman who is about to give birth... with moans and groans knowing that great love is to come, must bear with the pain for a time and pass through it to enter into that state of motherhood. Creation too waits for the revealing of the Sons of God because in that it too has its redemption.

Now many think “getting saved” is all about going to heave… and that is very sad and rather a selfish view. In fact by our redemption all creation is redeemed also… and in that we are revealed, Creation is restored!

Many also place their faith in their own understandings or in what they can see… if they can read it and understand it then they place their faith in it. This can be a part of gaining insight, yet really it is in that we do not see that we have true faith… it is in not yet seeing our Hope we have Hope! If you can see it then it is not Hope… but to walk in the trust of another’s word, that is Hope that their word is true and able to give you all they have stated.

In that we must endure in this Hope so that we can one day see it in all it’s Glory!


Blessings,
iggy

Romans 3:21 – 26 a closer look at forgivness

Romans 3:21 – 26 a closer look at forgiveness

Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all[h] who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (NKJV)

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I know I am doing the series on Romans, yet the other day someone was asking a bit on my position that we are all forgiven but that does not mean we are all saved. This view is traditionally known as universal atonement. This is not the same “Universalist reconciliation: though I see that all creation has been reconciled is what the scripture teaches. (Romans 5:10) Yet, I do not see that because all have been forgiven or reconciled that all will be eventually saved… I think that that is a logical leap that comes from not understanding the difference between the Cross and the Resurrection and what they accomplished.

I have written a bit about this in my post called; ~ emerging thought in Montana ~: Universalism: Why I do not agree

All mankind was forgiven at the Cross… all the past sins and in that moment all sins from that day on would also be forgiven. If this is not true then no one’s sins are forgiven unless Jesus goes back to the Cross for each and every one of us. Hebrews states this in chapter 9: 11-15:

“11. When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.
12. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.
“The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

This is the end of the Old Covenant which entered us into the New Covenant which was promised in Isaiah 28: 15 – 18:

“You boast, "We have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place."
So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.
I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.
Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the grave will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it.”

Isaiah 42:6-9 is a fascinating passage that runs parallel with Romans 3 it states:

"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you."


And what are the new things God declares? Well that is what the bulk of Isaiah is about!!! Yet we rest on this verse in Jeremiah 31:31-34 to show the how He will do this.

"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, " declares the LORD.
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

The writer of Hebrews also alludes to this passage.

Hebrews 8:10 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Hebrews 10:16 "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."


This is the New Covenant. We are no longer under the Old and subject to death if we turn to Jesus. Forgiveness is given at the Cross… it was given once for all… here is a quick study on the verses that use this phrase.

• Romans 6:10
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

• Hebrews 5:9
and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him

• Hebrews 7:27
Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

• Hebrews 9:12
He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

• Hebrews 9:26
Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

• Hebrews 10:1
[ Christ's Sacrifice Once for All ] The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

• Hebrews 10:2
If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.

• Hebrews 10:10
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

• 1 Peter 3:18
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,


Jesus died once for all mankind… He did not die over and over for everyone as they come to Him for forgiveness which is what some teach without realizing that they do…

The question I ask is this… If Jesus died once, then all sins are forgiven, past the ones present and the future ones to come… how many of your sins were future in relationship to the Cross?
The answer is obvious. All of them would be future to the Cross. The Cross is a fix place in time that lasts eternity. So, the logical conclusion is that all sins are forgiven. Yet, we then still have the problem of salvation. Yet, that comes with the Resurrection of Jesus.
Romans 5:8-11:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

When we accept that we are forgiven at the Cross and then go to the Living Jesus of the Resurrection we find in that reconciliation… we are then reconciled. The door of heaven has been thrown wide open, in that moment we are saved through His Life.
People miss this in its very simplicity, yet without we have a partial Gospel. We only have a dead Jesus on a Cross… who dies for us every day over and over so that we can be forgiven… and that is not what God intended. He gave His Son “once for all” at the Cross so that we could no longer have to fulfill the covenant with death Adam signed. The Covenant of Death no longer binds us, unless we stay committed to it even though it no longer holds us. This is like a wife who clings to her dead husband and carries him around and insists she is still bound to her marriage… it is sick and it only glorifies Death. God glorified Himself in His Son, so that we could have Life. The old is gone, the new has come… and I say Glory!

Blessings,
iggy

Dealing with Discontentment: My personal journey

My journey is not about discontentment in The Body, rather what part do I play in the True Body versus those who are playing churchianity?

Now that may sound a bit harsh, as many are sincere in the belief... and I applaud anyone who can stay within a "man made structure" and work for the Lord within... I had done that a while myself.

Yet, I find that true contentment is only found in the Person of Jesus Christ. As He lives His Life in and through me, I may not like the situation, yet must rejoice that whatever the Master sees fit for me to do, He is doing and I am privileged to be used by Him.

So many people focus on their own lives and have never truly found His. They stop at the Cross and received forgiveness but never press in deeper to receive His Life...

Romans 5:10 states: "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!"

We are saved by the Life of Christ... in that we must then be dead... and I see that many are still living their own life and have not realized that they must come to the realization they must give up... simply come to the end of themselves. As a good friend of mine states, "If you come the the end of your rope, grease that sucker and let go. There you will find God."

So, I agree their are many that are discontent, and many that even may come here still searching for something to fill the void in their heart... and all I can say is that we need to not only follow Jesus to the Cross, but to His death, burial and Resurrection and in that find a New Life... as New Creations... and rest in that Truth.

We will always dis agree in our fellowship... we will always not see things exactly, and that is as it should be... I am sure my ears and my toes experience much different things as they are part of my own Body... so I think the same with Christ Jesus' Body...

So, if this site fosters discontentment, rejoice! If God brings one here who is discontent then they may be here to find His Life... and in that find their being Him and realize what part of the Body they may be...

Blessings,
iggy

Great Quotes: The Wrong Kind of Teachers

The Wrong Kind of Teachers
By A.W. Tozer

The newborn Christian finds himself alive with a sweet, enjoyable kind of life that he accepts naively, almost unconsciously. To him everything is simple and immediate. He knows no intermediary. Christ is to him on an infinitely higher level what its mother is to a baby--warmth, nourishment, protection, rest and an object of satisfying affection.

Right here is where the wrong kind of Bible teacher can do his damage. The first thing he does is to destroy the new Christian's simplicity. He introduces something between the Christian and Christ. He makes him Biblo-centric instead of Christo-centric. (And there is a difference, let no one deceive you.) The Spirit-anointed Bible teacher will so teach the Word as to keep it transparent, so as to allow it to be what it always should be, a kind of burning bush which God indwells and out of which He shines in awesome splendor. The beholder sees the bush, it is true, but the object of his interest is the Presence, not the bush. The wrong kind of teacher gets so technical about the bush that the fire dims down and the light ceases to fall on the Christian's face.

That is what the gentle cynic meant when he said "before he has met too many Bible teachers."

As for "too many church members" spoiling the new Christian's happiness, it is the result of disillusionment pure and simple.