Category: The Gospel of the Grace of God / Paul’s Gospel

NO Bible Ignorance in the Midst of Tragedy! #14

Saturday, January 18, 2025

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

In light of the recent New Orleans terrorist attack just a few hours away from my home, we are delighted to dispel the associated Bible ignorance….

While God was speaking prophecy (unfolding His purpose and plan for Earth’s restoration; see Acts 3:19-21, Matthew 25:34, and Luke 1:70), He was withholding mystery (keeping secret His purpose and plan for Heaven’s restoration until He revealed it to and through the Apostle Paul; see Romans 16:25,26, Ephesians 3:1-11, and Colossians 1:24-27). God is currently forming the Church the Body of Christ, using anyone and everyone who will trust exclusively Paul’s Gospel: “Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). This is His heavenly people, who will one day occupy Heaven’s governmental offices in accordance with Colossians 1:16-20.

“And [Father God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together [in seats of authority] in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6,7) “Which [mighty power] he [Father God] wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:20-23).

Here is how God deals with the pollution of sin in the heavenly places referenced in Ephesians 6:12. When no one else wishes to trust Paul’s Gospel, the Dispensation of Grace will close, and Christ will return to take the Church which is His Body back to Heaven to reign (see 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). As long as the Church the Body of Christ is not ruling in Heaven, conditions in the heavenly places will not improve….

NO Bible Ignorance in the Midst of Tragedy! #11

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

In light of the recent New Orleans terrorist attack just a few hours away from my home, we are delighted to dispel the associated Bible ignorance….

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11 explains how “life… is in the blood.” Although sin results in spiritual death (our separation from God—Romans 6:23), blood makes atonement (the condition of being “at one”). The centuries of Old Testament animals’ blood sacrifices were but types, shadows, or previews of Jesus Christ’s sinless shed blood on Calvary (see Hebrews 10:1-22).

When JEHOVAH God, Jesus Christ, took on human flesh so as to reign over the nation Israel, He was overwhelmingly rejected for 33 years before finally being crucified in unbelief. The leaders of that apostate nation exclaimed, “We have no king but Caesar!” (John 19:15). Father God in His wisdom then took Christ’s shed blood to redeem (buy back or purchase from sin) an earthly people—the very people, Israel, who had slain Him (see Hebrews 9:1-28)!

Through Pauline revelation, we discover Father God can also redeem another people—His heavenly people, us, the Church the Body of Christ. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;…” (Romans 3:23-25). “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;…” (Ephesians 1:7). “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:…” (Colossians 1:14).

It is the redemption of these two groups or entities (the nation Israel and the Church the Body of Christ) that forms the heart of Father God reconciling Earth and Heaven to Himself in Colossians 1:16-20….

NO Bible Ignorance in the Midst of Tragedy! #10

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

In light of the recent New Orleans terrorist attack just a few hours away from my home, we are delighted to dispel the associated Bible ignorance….

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Our present universe is quite far from that original perfect system its Creator intended. Even if we knew no Bible verses whatsoever, we could easily see and conclude that something is just not quite right! With the passage of time from Genesis chapter 3 onward, scientific experiments corroborate how conditions are indeed worsening. Chaos, confusion, blindness, ignorance, darkness, disintegration, decay, decomposition, and death have become more widespread. Man has struggled for millennia to reverse this downward spiral—relying on his flawed intellect in an attempt to solve his endless problems—but he has failed so miserably. Yet, this exercise in futility does not deter him from trying and trying again using his long-time methods (the definition of “insanity!”).

Colossians chapter 1 expands upon Genesis 1:1: “[16] For by him [God’s dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ—verse 13] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: [17] And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. [18] And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. [19] For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; [20] And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”

Here is what lies at the heart of Father God’s plan to restore this fallen creation to Himself. Though sin currently runs rampant throughout the heaven and the earth, it is a temporary situation. His plan of reconciliation starts with “the blood of [Christ’s] cross” (verse 20). We must go back to Calvary, the worst tragedy of all time….

NO Bible Ignorance in the Midst of Tragedy! #9

Monday, January 13, 2025

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

In light of the recent New Orleans terrorist attack just a few hours away from my home, we are delighted to dispel the associated Bible ignorance….

Just as Adam and Eve decided to “play the blame game” in Genesis chapter 3—“God made me this way!” and “The Devil made me do it!”—so sinners lash out against these two entities today. The blame actually falls upon Adam, as both Romans and 1 Corinthians affirm. “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam!] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:21,22); please note how this context is physical death (Adam) versus physical resurrection (Christ).

Someone is sure to cry out in objection, “But is it not ‘unfair’ for God to punish us because of Adam’s sin?!” We are much swifter in our reply: “Romans 5:12-21 teaches that, though we suffer because of Adam’s disobedience, there is a balance because God is equally ‘unfair’ in blessing us because of Christ’s obedience! He reckons what is true of Adam as naturally applicable to us, yet, when we believe on Christ’s finished crosswork as sufficient payment for our sins [Romans 5:1-11; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3,4], He considers what is true of Christ as naturally true of us.”

If God really does seek our best interest, if He actually does care about His creation, then what are we to make of this fallen world? Will such conditions ever get better? When? What is taking so long for improvements? Though these seem like profound questions, they actually have ridiculously simple answers. Alas, people tend to “darken counsel by words without knowledge” (Job 38:2), relying on man’s “wisdom” to incessantly move their lips and mouths when they have no spiritual capacity whatsoever to comment on the things of God. They need to do far less talking and far more Bible study!!!

For creation’s problems to be solved, four parties must take their rightful places….

A Life That Will Please

Saturday, January 4, 2025

“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” (Galatians 2:20 KJV).

Today’s Scripture tells us who alone can live a life pleasing in God’s sight!

Everyone does “good” deeds. Yet, doing “good” is not necessarily good. For instance, people often do “good” just to receive praise/reward, make up for their wrongs, feel good, et cetera. Furthermore, despite our “good” deeds, we have plenty more bad ones! Pride, lying, evil thoughts, being a false witness, and being contentious are some of the things the LORD hates (Proverbs 6:16-19).

Mankind cannot even keep 10 simple rules from God. However, religion continues to urge us to keep seven sacraments, utter various prayers, give assorted offerings and “tithes,” attend numerous feasts and festivals, and perform sundry other tasks to “hopefully” please God and avoid hellfire. Whether we attempt to keep a church’s laws, our laws, or God’s laws, our flesh is far too weak to ever measure up. Just look at what God’s religion did to Israel—how much worse some man-made religion does to us!

As Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul was a Pharisee, a religious leader of Israel. He was a nitpicker concerning Law-keeping, and yet, after his soul salvation, he admitted that all of his religion was “but dung” compared to Jesus Christ’s righteousness (Philippians 3:3-11). Even for the Christian, to live a perfect life is impossible (read of Paul’s miserable existence in Romans chapter 7). Paul had to forsake his vain religion and learn today’s Scripture: the Christian life is NOT the performance of the Christian, but the Lord Jesus Christ living and working in the Christian, as the Christian walks in an intelligent understanding of God’s Word to him or her!

If we trust a Saviour who will save—the Lord Jesus Christ—and trust a Book that will teach—the King James Bible—we can redeem the year for the great God and our Saviour, “who loved [us], and gave himself for [us]!” 🙂

A Saviour Who Will Save

Thursday, January 2, 2025

“…Jesus Christ of Nazareth… Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:10,12 KJV).

Today’s Scripture tells us who alone can save man from the everlasting hellfire he deserves!

A frequent objection made against Christianity is that every religion has “good” members, and to ignore them and limit heaven to a few Christians is unfair. This is a defected notion. How does one arrive at a definite conclusion when there is no one standard to gauge everyone’s “goodness?” They are “good” according to whom, according to what standard? Remember, relative morality actually does not help the sinner—he may be a “better” sinner than another, but he is also a “worse” sinner than yet another, and whether “better” or “worse,” he is still a sinner!

The God of the Bible has a simple method for determining righteousness. Today, He sees two types of people—saints and lost people. While both groups were born in sins (Ephesians 2:1-3), “shapen in iniquity [in the womb]” (Psalm 51:5), and “condemned already” (John 3:18), only the saints have come to realize their lost state. Job asked in Job 9:2, “How should a man be just [righteous, acceptable] with God?” Saints have come to the acknowledgement that they needed God’s righteousness, that they had a massive sin debt that they could never satisfy, that their “righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6), that they could never possibly make themselves right before a holy God (He is the standard; Romans 3:23). The lost people, however, do not realize they are lost, for they believe their religious works “score points” with God and make up for their sinful deeds (2 Corinthians 4:3,4). They ignore the finished crosswork of Jesus Christ as sufficient payment for their sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4).

Saints have come by faith to Jesus Christ, whose name literally means, “Anointed Saviour” (cf. Psalm 2:2; Matthew 1:21). As the writer of the book of Hebrews said, “[Jesus] is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (7:25). Literally, no world religion has such a “Saviour” as Jesus Christ!

Redeem the Year!

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17 KJV).

What great advice for 2025!

Despite 2,000 years of Bible schools and seminaries, 2,000 years of a completed Bible canon, 2,000 years of Bible reading in churches, several decades of “Christian” television and radio, and a decade-plus of widespread use of “Christian” websites, how sad that Bible ignorance is still quite extensive (it is as if God never gave His Word to start with!).

Frankly, the Church the Body of Christ needs to wake up! The verse previous to today’s Scripture says, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (verse 14). Paul, loosely quoting Isaiah 60:1, reminded us that the spiritual ignorance that gripped Israel in Isaiah’s day seized Christians in his day—and it still grips Christians 20 centuries later. Feel-good sermons, enjoyable “worship” services, and rites, rituals, and ceremonies will NOT solve this problem—they exacerbate it!

“[God] will have all men to be saved…” (1 Timothy 2:4a). Do you want this New Year to count for God’s glory? First, you need to get saved from sins and hell! You need to become a Christian by trusting in and relying on Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as sufficient payment for your sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). That is only part of God’s will for you, for 1 Timothy 2:4b continues, “[God] will have all men… to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” Now, God’s will for your Christian life is daily, personal Bible study to renew your mind, so your faith in those verses can cause God to work in your life—it will be His life, thus making you “perfect [spiritually mature], throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

Today’s Scripture urges us to buy back the time Satan has robbed from God (time created for God’s glory). By faith, we need to make that time glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by applying His Word, particularly Paul’s epistles of Romans through Philemon, to our lives. Have a good year in Christ! 🙂

You can download our free “One-Year Bible Reading Schedule.”

See our archived Bible Q&A: “What Scriptural advice can you give me for the New Year?”

The Word Was Made Flesh

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” (John 1:1,14 KJV).

On this Christmas Day, we reflect on the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

The candidate who could solve man’s sin problem had to meet two requirements. He had to be God, and He had to be man—a “God-Man.” It had to be God, because God’s righteousness had to be satisfied, but it also had to be man, for it was man who had sinned. God’s righteousness was offended, since “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But, it was also a man who had sinned, “As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

Consider Philippians 2:5-8: “Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” In short, heaven’s best—Jesus Christ—came to save earth’s worst—us! In summary, Jesus Christ was born to die for us.

Brethren, the salvation that we enjoy today in Christ could not be possible without the shed blood of Christ on Calvary’s cross, and the shed blood of Christ could not be possible without the incarnation of Christ! God is a Spirit (John 4:24), and in order for Him to shed sinless blood, He had to first have blood. Thus, it behooved Jesus Christ to take upon Himself the form of a man. It was at this time of year that God the Son entered the virgin Mary’s womb, possessing a body that was conceived by the Holy Ghost.

Remember, “The Word was made flesh” (today’s Scripture) so we could have an opportunity to be “made the righteousness of God in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Merry Christmas!

*Adapted from a larger Bible study with the same name. It can be read here or watched here.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing #5

Saturday, December 7, 2024

“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:14-17 KJV).

The final verse of the classic Christmas carol highlights today’s Scripture.

“Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King!”

Religion has done an excellent job (wrongly) teaching us that God likes to rehabilitate humans—that He wants to make us quit doing certain things (“fleshly”) and make us start doing other things (“churchy”). What a very shallow, and actually a false, perception. God wants to do much more than what we could ever do by ourselves.

For good works to reign in our lives, God has to kill us! As sinners, in Adam, we are dead in our trespasses and sins, no life in ourselves (see today’s Scripture). Nothing we can do in our own strength will ever change our (sinful) nature in Adam. However, God offers us death to Adam and a new identity through Christ at Calvary. When we trust that Jesus Christ died for our sins, in God’s mind, we died to sin, too. Christ did not simply die for us but as us. Romans chapters 5 through 8 describe the victory is in Christ, not in Adam or in ourselves. Success is by the power of the Holy Ghost working with the grace doctrines we study and believe, not in our struggles to do right. And so, “Christ [is] formed in [us]” (Galatians 4:19).

Something about which the angels cannot sing, but we can, should, and do! 🙂

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing #4

Friday, December 6, 2024

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Romans 5:8-11 KJV).

The fourth verse of the classic Christmas carol highlights today’s Scripture.

“Come, Desire of nations come
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Oh, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart!
Hark! The herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”

Angels can sing about God’s operations, but, unlike us humans, they cannot sing about salvation in Jesus Christ. When we read today’s Scripture, there should be leaping for joy! The God of creation, the God of the Holy Bible, the God of Christianity, has attempted to mend the broken relationship between Him and us. He has done everything to save us from our sinful selves and our utter foolishness. He can do no more than Calvary. Those merits of Christ’s finished crosswork cannot benefit us individually unless we individually appropriate them by faith. There is no merit in our faith, but there is immeasurable merit in what Jesus Christ did. We either agree with God by faith that Calvary’s finished crosswork is enough, or we ignore it and continue on our way to eternal hellfire. Simple indeed!

Reading from 2 Corinthians chapter 5: “[19] To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. [20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. [21] For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Do we agree with God by faith?

Saints, please remember this work of the ministry requires monthly financial support to operate (Galatians 6:6; Philippians 4:16-17; 2 Corinthians 9:6-7). Those who prefer electronic giving can donate securely here: https://www.paypal.me/ShawnBrasseaux. Anyone who wishes to donate by regular mail can visit https://333wordsofgrace.org/contact-us-mailing-address-for-donations/ for details. Thanks to all who give to and pray for us! Unfortunately, since our ministry audience is so large and our ministry staff is so small, I can no longer personally respond to everyone. Thanks so much for understanding in this regard. 🙂