A wise and mature Christian teacher recently commented, "I am concerned that in running from legalism, we don't become totally antinomian." * * * By "legalism," my friend meant the notion that we can obtain God's favor through our own record of obedience. "Antinomian" is a double-jointed word from two Greek words meaning "against law," and it refers to that error which twists God's mercy into a license to sin. Both errors are as old as the New Testament. Some first-century Jews tried to make circumcision and observing the Torah conditions of salvation (Acts 15), and some Gentiles tried to … [Read more...]
GRACE & RULES
A gracEmail reader in the West writes, "If we don't live under law but under grace, then what about God's commands? Somehow law, rule and command all seem like synonyms to me. I feel beaten down, struggling to feel worthy. I also can't find an official list of God's commands and everyone I talk to has a different list." * * * Laws, rules and commands are quite necessary to an ordered life and a peaceful society. God's commands are "holy, just and good" (Rom. 7:12). But they can be misused and abused. Laws were never intended as a stairway to heaven -- for every one of us eventually stumbles … [Read more...]
GRACE AND RESPONSIBILITY
A gracEmail subscriber asks what responsibilities we might have if we are saved totally by God's grace. * * * Indeed we are saved totally by God's grace -- we do not deserve any part of it. The gospel is the "word of his grace" (Acts 14:3; 20:32). Yet "responsibility" is a good word for our activities, for everything we do is in response to what God has done already. We dare not receive God's grace in vain (2 Cor. 6:1-2). Nor dare we ever rely on our own performance for right standing with God, which frustrates his grace (Gal. 2:20). Anyone who professes to trust in Christ for salvation, … [Read more...]
GRACE’S RESPONSE & FAITH’S FRUIT
A gracEmail subscriber asks: "How do verses such as 1 Peter 1:22 (you purify your souls through obeying the truth); 2 Peter 1:10 (make your calling and election sure); Acts 2:40 (save yourselves from this perverse generation) and Matthew 7:13, 21 (not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" to Jesus will be saved but those who do the Father's will) fit in with salvation by grace through faith?" * * * The key to these verses and others like them is to remember that grace calls for a response, and that God empowers those who are truly saved to make such a response as the fruit of their faith. We thus … [Read more...]
FOLLOWING JESUS
We call ourselves Jesus' disciples, but what does that really mean? Solid character that can withstand life's storms develops daily by hearing Jesus and doing what he says (Matt. 7:24-37). Using the Sermon on the Mount as a summary of Jesus' ethical teaching (Matt. 5-7), such obedience involves particulars like the following: Be happy when judged falsely for doing right (5:11-12). Let the Jesus-light shine through your good deeds so others will praise God (5:16). Treasure what lasts and have lasting treasure (6:19-24).Trust God and don't worry (6:25-34). Instead, ask, seek and knock, for God … [Read more...]
STAYING ON COURSE
Captain Francesco Schettino was more than two miles off course when the 114,500-ton Costa Concordia hit a reef this January 2012. The impact sent more than 4,000 passengers on the luxury cruise ship into a panic. It sent a still-unknown number of them to their cold and lonely deaths. There is a reason for rules. In a world filled with hazards and threats, they define the approved course. They show the way that is safe. They mark the path we can trust. Our confused society has given rules a bad rap. Torah, the Hebrew word for "law," means "instruction"--always given, by the way, for the … [Read more...]
GOD’S ‘POEMS’ (2)
April/May 1997 -- Yesterday we noted Paul's use of the Greek word poema (from which we get "poem") to describe God's workmanship in Creation (Rom. 1:20) and in his New Creation in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:10). I described the divine handiwork in Creation, which we experienced recently in California. It aawed us into silence and then elicited outbursts of adoration. God's "poem" in his New Creation awed us as well these past eight days. For four days at Pepperdine, we joined an estimated 5,000 believers who packed the Fieldhouse twice each day to worship God in song and to enjoy soul-stirring … [Read more...]