Category: legalism

Heart Service #10

Monday, May 5, 2014

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is the key to being delivered from and guarded against today’s apostate Christendom.

One of the earliest (if not the first) divinely-inspired epistles Paul wrote is the book of Galatians. Galatians 2:20,21 encapsulate the epistle’s theme: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”

Although our physical bodies are living, breathing, and moving, we Christians are technically dead before God (Romans 6:6,7). Hence, we cannot stay in these physical, sin-riddled bodies forever: they, unlike our redeemed souls and spirits, cannot enter heaven (1 Corinthians 15:50). Thus, these flesh-and-blood bodies must be redeemed from sin, death, and corruption (Romans 8:23; 1 Corinthians 15:42-58; Philippians 3:20,21). God left us in these mortal bodies so we could temporarily function on earth (until He comes to get us at the rapture). While these flesh-and-blood bodies are aging and perishing, we have in us “the life of Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:10,11). Positionally, our souls have never been more alive! Practically, we need to, by faith in God’s Word to us, apply that life! Again, we must think the way God designed Christians to think (Romans 12:1,2).

Galatians says we do not “frustrate [hinder] the grace of God.” Our positional righteousness (eternal view) had nothing to do with our performance but rather everything God could do for us through Jesus Christ (grace). Likewise, our practical righteousness (daily view) has nothing to do with our performance (inhibitions, restraints, self-reformation) either. If we must keep rules and regulations in religion for us to live the Christian life, then God’s Word says, “Christ is [present tense!] dead in vain [for nothing!].”

Again, our practical righteousness depends solely on God’s grace, everything He can do for us through Jesus Christ….

Heart Service #8

Saturday, May 3, 2014

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is the key to being delivered from and guarded against today’s apostate Christendom.

Religion—that is, ceremonies, rites, rituals, et cetera—is very appealing to our flesh—that is, our natural tendency to rebel against God’s Word and will. Israel was guilty of “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness” and having “not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:1-3). The Apostle Paul knew this firsthand. When he was a Jewish religious leader—and a lost man!—he had done more religious works than probably anyone else in his day. Read his “worthless religious résumé” found in Philippians 3:4-6. If anyone could brag about all his achievements in religion, it was Saul of Tarsus!

Now, writing as a saved man—that is, saved from himself, his useless religion, his sins, eternal hellfire, and Satan’s policy of evil—the Apostle Paul informed: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (verses 7-11).

On the road to Damascus, in Acts chapter 9, Saul of Tarsus had died to self, and he submitted to God’s righteousness. Jesus Christ Himself appeared to Saul from heaven, and he relied exclusively on the Gospel of Grace revealed to him there. Over 30 years later (the context of Philippians), Paul was still attempting to fathom Christ’s resurrection life given him….

Heart Service #7

Friday, May 2, 2014

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is the key to being delivered from and guarded against today’s apostate Christendom.

The moment we trusted exclusively Jesus Christ’s bloodshed, death, burial, and resurrection as the sufficient payment for our sins, we received the very life of God Himself. We died with Christ, we were buried with Him, and we were resurrected with Him (verses 3-11). God could do nothing with our flesh, our ability, so He killed it. He made us a “new creature [in Christ]” (2 Corinthians 5:17), a new type of humanity, identical to Adam’s righteous standing before the fall!

Follow the logic, the way God thinks, how He would have us to think. It is senseless for us Christians to return to our old identity in Adam, to think those old, vain, sinful thoughts that only lead to wrecked Christian lives. It is senseless to place ourselves under any law-based system: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). The Bible says sin will dominate your life when you return to religious performance, whether it be the Mosaic Law, a church’s law, a preacher’s law, my law, your law, any system that makes you the issue.

The verse that follows today’s Scripture says, “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (verse 18). How do we have victory in the Christian life? We already have it in Christ by God’s grace! Jesus Christ paid the price to liberate us from sin’s dominion. “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:22,23). Dear saint, if you want the eternal life, God’s life, you already have in Christ, to be brought into your experience, it is through Jesus Christ our Lord, not through you!

Oh, the wonderful grace of God….

Heart Service #5

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is the key to being delivered from and guarded against today’s apostate Christendom.

How should we deal with daily sins as Christians? Religion says, “Confess your sins (either to a priest or directly to God), and then follow our church’s/denomination’s ‘code of conduct’ to do better next time.” They even direct us to obey Bible verses such as the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. While these religious people are often well-meaning, they overlook a simple fact: It was our performance that got us into those sins in the first place, so we must look beyond ourselves, beyond our capacity, to have victory over daily sins. We must go back to the basics of the book of Romans, its first five chapters, and re-learn the simplest doctrines of grace.

Delineated so clearly in Romans chapters 1-5, the Gospel of the Grace of God—“Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3)—plainly declares that we sinners do not and cannot please the God of the Bible. As sons and daughters of Adam, we have no natural, internal capacity to do the works that He wants done. Moreover, we naturally do not have the attitude and motives that He accepts when those good works are accomplished. Despite all our “piety” (“goody-goodiness”), God’s righteous verdict concerning mankind, us, is “Guilty!” (Romans 3:19).

In the context of today’s Scripture, our Apostle Paul already discussed salvation from sins unto eternal life (Romans chapters 1-5). Today’s Scripture is a highlight of the second section of Romans, chapters 6-8, which focuses on daily Christian living. The serious Bible student would never conclude that Romans chapters 6-8 teach that we must follow rules and regulations to make ourselves accepted of God, to have victorious Christian lives, for it would go contrary to what the previous five chapters taught. If we are to have victory over daily sins, we look not to our religious performance, but we recall how God worked to save us unto eternal life (today’s Scripture)….

Heart Service #3

Sunday, April 27, 2014

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is the key to being delivered from and guarded against today’s apostate Christendom.

Dearly beloved, we avoid today’s apostate Christendom by hearkening unto today’s Scripture, a verse that, had Christendom followed, could have prevented them from winding up in the mess in which they are today! They rejected “that form of doctrine which was delivered [them]” through the Apostle Paul. Like Israel in Jesus’ day, Christendom still prefers to follow the traditions of men (Mark 7:1-13). Sinful man never improves anything God does; he only spoils it.

The Romans were pagan Gentiles, lost and going to hell. The, they heard Paul’s Gospel of Grace—Jesus Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3,4)—and they believed it with their heart (today’s Scripture; Romans 10:10). They were no longer slaves to sin and Satan, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:11)! It was not their efforts, their struggles, that saved them from their sins, so it would never be their performance, their struggles, that caused their Christian lives to operate. Religious rites, rituals, ceremonies, program-building, organization-forming, denomination-starting, that was not the Christian life, the grace life, the life of Christ living in and through those who believed His grace doctrines revealed in and through Paul. Nay, those were counterfeit good works.

“With the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Romans 10:10a). Just as we were saved unto eternal life by trusting Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork at sufficient payment for our sins (today’s Scripture), so we trust Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork (His resurrection life) as our means for victory over daily sins. Only God Almighty can see into our hearts (2 Chronicles 6:30; Psalm 26:2; Romans 8:27; Hebrews 4:12; et al.)—He is most certainly capable of seeing who has faith in His Word to them, and who is merely religious (fleshly, living in their own strength). He can see if it is truly “Christ liveth in us” (Galatians 2:20), or just vain religious tradition….

Religion, Riches, and Robbery

Friday, April 4, 2014

“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (2 Peter 2:3 KJV).

Do not let religion “take you for a ride,” for you will end up paying for the trip!

In recent years, news stories involving “filthy rich” bishops, priests, and ministers seem to have become more prevalent. Only after they are caught, they “apologize” for their multimillion-dollar mansions, exotic trips and vehicles, and other lavish expenditures using “church money.” The “peon-parishioners” are forced to contribute to “God’s work” by giving, and, in return, they are reassured that their “merit” will reap “eternal benefits.” Religion is the world’s most profitable business indeed!

Dearly beloved, we must, must, MUST exercise great caution when giving to any ministry or local church. Remember, Jesus sternly rebuked the “thieves” who defiled His Father’s house, the Temple (Matthew 21:12,13; Mark 11:15-18; Luke 19:45-48; John 2:13-17). Our Lord Jesus said these religious leaders “devoured widows’ houses” (Matthew 23:14; Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47). They did not think twice about taking everything they possibly could from the common Jews! Before the Apostle Paul was saved, as one of these religious leaders, he (as Saul of Tarsus) confessed that he “profited in the Jews’ religion above many [his] equals in [his] own nation” (Galatians 1:14). We read about false religious leaders swindling the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 11:13-20).

In the context of today’s Scripture, the Apostle Peter reminds his Jewish audience that just as the Holy Spirit operated through holy prophets, Satan operated through false prophets (2 Peter 1:19–2:3). These teachers of “damnable heresies” fell into the trap of materialism (1 Timothy 6:6-10) and coveted their converts’ possessions—they preached “feigned” (worthless/fake, but nice-sounding) words. The Prophet Micah, writing circa 750 B.C., reported, “The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money” (3:11).

God’s grace is not against giving (2 Corinthians chapters 8-10); God’s grace is against tithing (forceful giving). We give “cheerfully” (happily; 2 Corinthians 9:6,7) to sound grace Bible churches and ministries, but, most importantly, we give carefully!

Bible Study 102 #14

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

The only verse that tells you to study the Bible also tells you how to understand the Bible!

Throughout Paul’s epistles, we discover “mysteries,” what Scripture calls “the hidden wisdom” (1 Corinthians 2:7), truths that had been “hid in God” (Ephesians 3:9), but which the risen and ascended Lord Jesus revealed directly to Paul, and finally to us via Romans through Philemon (Romans 16:25,26). Unfortunately, this mystery dispensation, the Dispensation of Grace, is still a mystery to most—today, Satan, not God, hides it. God kept Pauline doctrine secret in order to destroy Satan’s work (1 Corinthians 2:6-8). Now, Satan keeps Paul’s doctrines secret to hinder God’s work—ironically, Christendom cooperates!! Centuries of church tradition and denominationalism still cause many to view Paul as an “extension,” a “supplement,” to Peter and Israel’s other 11 apostles. Paul is not understood as our apostle (Romans 11:13), a unique apostle, but rather an apostle who did and taught exactly what Peter and the 11 did.

The agency associated with Paul’s ministry (the Church that Body of Christ) is not clearly defined (we are thought to be Israel’s “extension” or “replacement”). The Gospel of the Uncircumcision that Paul preached is not distinguished from the Gospel of the Circumcision that Peter preached. Legalistic doctrine such as repentance and water baptism for salvation, tithing, Sabbath day keeping, and confession of sins that Paul spoke against (because it belongs in Israel’s program rather than ours) is still held by many denominations today. Ignorance about spiritual gifts (which Paul corrected) still severely afflicts Christendom. Confusion involving prophecy and us still abounds (even though Paul exhaustively wrote that we are not related to prophecy).

Indeed, the mystery is still a mystery, and what a shame! This mess is to be expected, for the verse after today’s Scripture warned, “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness” (2 Timothy 2:16). A “simple” failure to understand the Bible dispensationally has introduced a literal inundation of false teaching. God foresaw Christendom’s current dilemma almost 20 centuries ago, but the solution was (and still is) ignored….

Bible Study 102 #8

Thursday, March 13, 2014

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

The only verse that tells you to study the Bible also tells you how to understand the Bible!

When Scripture says we Christians are “workmen” (today’s Scripture), Ephesians 2:10 (“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”) and 1 Corinthians 3:9 (“For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building”) explain that God has saved us unto eternal life so we could join Him in accomplishing His will (which we could not do when we were lost, headed for eternal hellfire, participants in Satan’s policy of evil).

Recall that God has a two-fold will: save all people from their sins and Satan, and then save all Christians from all false doctrine (1 Timothy 2:4). Satan has a two-fold will that counters God’s: hide the Gospel of Grace from all people, and hide sound Pauline (grace) doctrine from all Christians. Religious tradition—a non-dispensational approach the Scripture—furthers Satan’s policy of evil, for it keeps lost people lost, and it keeps Christians ignorant of God’s will, His Word to them.

Satan, “the god of this world,” “hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,” by causing lost people to ignore Paul’s Gospel and trust in their own religious performance to gain a right standing before God (2 Corinthians 4:3,4). Moreover, Satan misleads Christians to introduce into their lives everything but God’s grace to them in Christ—the wrong “Jesus” (His earthly ministry in Matthew through John, rather than His heavenly ministry as revealed through Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon), the wrong “spirit” (law rather than grace, Romans 6:14 cf. Romans 8:15), and the wrong “gospel” (Israel’s kingdom gospel rather the Gospel of Grace of 1 Corinthians 15:3,4) (2 Corinthians 11:3,4).

We Christians are “workmen” when we “study… rightly dividing the word of truth,” and our faith in those verses causes the Holy Spirit to bring them to life in our lives, thus aligning us with God’s will for us….

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Should Christians observe Lent?“

On Your Christian Life

Monday, March 3, 2014

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6,7 KJV).

If you are seeking victorious Christian living today, you can find it today!

Where do we obtain the power for Christian living? Christendom greatly emphasizes “Kingdom building,” terminology obviously derived from the Four Gospels (Matthew 3:2, Mark 10:14,15, Luke 12:31,32, et cetera). We hear it constantly: “Follow Jesus” (the implication is to obey and apply to our lives His Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7, or Luke chapter 12, or John chapters 14-16, et cetera). Others tell us to keep the Law of Moses (Ten Commandments) for Christian living. Despite all that performance and effort, very few ever actually realize the life God has for Christians because of the confusion as to what it is and because nearly all of the activities that are presumed to be God’s life for us is everything but it!

Today’s Scripture summarizes both soul salvation unto eternal life and soul salvation unto daily grace living. How did we “receive Christ Jesus the Lord?” By our works? By keeping rules and regulations; performing rites, rituals, and ceremonies; repeating prayers; making God promises to do better; et cetera? NAY! Verse 5 says, “[our] faith in Christ.” Our Christian life operates exactly like our soul salvation from hell was accomplished—by grace through faith in Jesus Christ’s performance (Romans 3:22-26; Romans 4:3-8; Ephesians 2:8,9). As we were saved from the penalty of sin (eternal hellfire), so we can be saved from the power of sin (fleshly living, living for ourselves): it is all Jesus Christ’s work!

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). We are accepted in Jesus Christ because of what He did (His grace to us), and our lifestyles are acceptable to God when we allow Jesus Christ to live His life in and through us (the grace doctrines revealed in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, which we study, believe, and apply to life). That is the key to victorious Christian living under grace!

*These past seven devotionals, “Original 7 Expanded Again,” are advanced versions of our “Original 7” devotionals arc and our “Original 7 Expanded” devotionals arc: all 21 build on each other. Onward we go in maturity! 🙂

A Holy Nation #9

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

“For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45 KJV).

Today’s Scripture summarizes a book most burdensome to many.

When JEHOVAH God first proposed the Mosaic Covenant, Israel declared, “All that the LORD hath spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). After that Covenant of Law was delivered and before it was ratified, Israel again affirmed, “All the words which the LORD hath said will we do,” and “All the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exodus 24:3,7). After the 40-year wilderness wanderings (due to Israel’s disobedience), the new generation of Israelites echoed, “And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us” (Deuteronomy 6:25).

The Israelites, like any descendants of Adam (sinners), wrongly believed they could actually do everything that God commanded them, that they could actually be separate from the pagan Gentiles around them. They believed they could be righteous—that they could have a right standing before God—by keeping hundreds upon hundreds of divine laws. Even today, millions of souls in “Christian” churches and groups have “revived” this legalistic system—a system that God has already deemed a failure because man is naturally unrighteous. Religion (even the Mosaic Law) merely reforms the outward activity (behavior), not the inward nature (the root of the behavior). Man’s nature must change if he is to keep God’s laws.

As the centuries passed, Israel’s corrupt religious leaders polluted God’s pure Law system first given through Moses, by inserting their (manmade) rules and regulations. Eventually, it did not involve honoring JEHOVAH and having faith in Him (His original intention): it became a monotonous system of religious busyness that made people appear godly (and yet, God was not in their hearts). This was the vain system that Jesus condemned in His day (Matthew 23:1-36, Mark 7:1-23, et cetera). Israel used the Law, not as a means for proving God’s righteousness, but for demonstrating their self-righteousness (the Pharisees, for example).

Let us learn the lesson that Israel will one day learn….