The Rich Young Ruler

Remember the rich young ruler in who came to Jesus and asked Him what he needed to do to inherit eternal life? Well therein lay his problem: He wanted to DO something to inherit it. So Jesus gave Him the law.

Mar 10:17 And when He had gone out into the way, one came running up and kneeled to Him, and asked Him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 18 And Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good? No one is good except one, God. 19 You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother. 20 And he answered and said to Him, Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth. 21 Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him and said to him, One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven. And come, take up the cross and follow Me. 22 And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved, for he had great possessions. (MKJV)

This young man thought he had it made. He had obeyed all the rules since he was a child. But Jesus, knowing that law keeping will never justify anybody, raised the bar EVEN HIGHER and told him to go sell everything he had! The law will always tell us that we lack something, that we haven’t done enough and that we can do better more. It’s a relentless task-master which was designed to bring people to the end of themselves so that they would throw their hands up in the air and say, “I can’t do it! Lord help me!” The law was never designed to justify anybody, only Jesus can do that!

Gal 2:16  yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (ESV)

Hands and Eyes

It’s always interesting to watch the reaction of people (who claim the necessity of observing to the finest detail everything that Jesus said) when asked why they haven’t chopped off their hands or plucked out their eyes yet.

Mat 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. (ESV)

Jesus’ audience was Jews who were still under the law. For a few centuries (before He came onto the scene) the only teachings these people had known were from the Scribes, the Pharisees and Sadducees. Over the years these religious groups had watered down the severity of the law to a standard that any normal person could observe if they just put a reasonable amount of fleshly effort into it. It was these “diluted” rules that Jesus was referring to when He said “You have heard it said…” He came however to return the law to its original intended purpose, to remind people that it was a ministry that brought death (2 Corinthians 3:7). The religious groups taught that if you just refrained from the physical act of adultery you are actually okay. But the true standard of the law stipulated that the mere presence of lust in the heart was enough to destroy a person.

Jesus, Preacher of Grace

When it came to sinners and those who humbled themselves, Jesus offered a different message. He always had grace and compassion for people who had come to the end of themselves and who didn’t rely on law keeping for their justification. Jesus knew that He would soon be ushering in a new order, a new way of relating to God, a New Covenant. But because His own people (the Jews) were heavily steeped under the law, Jesus in numerous instances extended grace to non-Jews, who readily humbled themselves in order to receive from Him.

Just think about the Samarian woman at the well (John 4) who had five husbands. Jesus did not judge or condemn her and His approachability in spite of her less than perfect behavior allowed her to recognize Him as being the Savior. Through this grace extended to her, she later shook that entire area, causing many to come to Christ.

A woman from Canaan came to Him once to deliver her daughter from the oppression of a demon (Matthew 15). He reminded her that He didn’t actually come for the Gentiles (who were called “dogs” by the Jews), but only for Israel, and that it wasn’t good to throw the children’s bread to the dogs (give what only belonged to Israel to the Gentiles).

Mat 15:26 But He answered and said, It is not good to take the children’s bread and to throw it to dogs. 27 And she said, True, O Lord; but even the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ tables. 28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith! So be it to you even as you wish. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. (MKJV)

She humbly admitted that her natural descent disqualified her from asking His help, but her faith bolstered her to say that if there were any left-over blessings that could possibly fall from God’s table to the ground, that she would gladly receive it. She (and consequently her daughter) received God’s grace in spite of their incompatible lineage.

Then there was the woman who was caught in adultery (John 8), about to be stoned by the self-righteous crowd. Jesus told her that He didn’t condemn her, which was what empowered her to “go and sin no more”. With God, acceptance and love always precedes correction.

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Gal 4:2 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (ESV, emphasis added)

This is why He said:

Matt 5:17 Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfil. 18 For truly I say to you, till the heaven and the earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in any way pass from the Law until all is fulfilled. (MKJV, emphasis added)

It says “…until all is fulfilled.” But what does this mean? Until what is fulfilled? Another translation sheds light on it:

Matt 5:18 Heaven and earth may disappear. But I promise you that not even a period or comma will ever disappear from the Law. Everything written in it must happen. (CEV)

Everything written in the law had to come to pass (it had to “happen”) before the law could be considered as fulfilled, which is exactly what Jesus did: He fulfilled every single part of it. And when a contract is fulfilled, we don’t need to destroy it (“I did not come to destroy…”) or throw it away – we can keep a copy of it stored away somewhere for later reference. But that doesn’t mean it has any binding, legal power over us anymore!

Think about it, if Jesus didn’t live according the law’s requirements and also endorse this way of living to His fellow Jews, He would have been a hypocrite and He could not have been able to make the claim He did in Matt 5:17-18, saying that He would fulfill all of it.

Jesus also preached the Kingdom and grace, but only to those who were humble and open enough to receive it. It was a rare occurrence to find a Jew in those times who was not too immersed in the law of Moses that they couldn’t receive God’s grace. To the law ridden mind, grace simply doesn’t make sense!

2 Cor 3:13 We are not like Moses, who had to put a veil over his face so that the people of Israel would not see the brightness fade and disappear. 14 Their minds, indeed, were closed; and to this very day their minds are covered with the same veil as they read the books of the old covenant. The veil is removed only when a person is joined to Christ.15 Even today, whenever they read the Law of Moses, the veil still covers their minds. (GNB)

There is a distinct difference in ministering to someone who prides themselves in trying to keep the law and to someone who realizes that they are totally unable to maintain this rigorous level of morality. When those who are heavy handed with the law are confronted by an even higher standard of the law, they come to the end of themselves and they realize they need a Savior. But someone who is humble enough to know that their best efforts are like dirty rags (Isaiah 64:6), doesn’t need to be confronted with the law first; they are already in a place where they can just receive Jesus.

In the next article in this 2 part series, we will look at some examples where Jesus preached to people who were under the law, and to those who humbled themselves to receive His grace.

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And there, locked up in prison, John the Baptist started losing hope and faith. He became so discouraged that he sent two of his disciples to enquire of Jesus:

Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matt 11:2-6 ESV)

John himself had previously witnessed to the fact the Jesus Christ was the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, even baptizing Him in the Jordan River. He had probably even personally witnessed Jesus performing some miracles, but his attention was now turned on the fact that Jesus hadn’t delivered him from prison. If Jesus was supposed to be the Messiah who came to establish God’s kingdom, why didn’t He bother to rescue John from prison? John had allowed himself to become offended by what he thought Jesus was supposed to do while failing to pay attention to what Jesus was doing.

Lots of Christians today allow themselves to become offended when they don’t see their prayers answered. We know that it’s always God’s will to heal, bless and prosper us – but that’s not the issue here. It’s when we don’t see our prayers answered that it’s important for us not to shift our focus away from what we know God’s will to be, and to press in regardless. We live by faith, not by sight. And when we become discouraged, Rom 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word. So when this happens we simply need to direct our focus back to the Word (Jesus). We need to remember that there is an enemy who battles against us and he doesn’t always leave at our first command.

It’s also a fact that God’s will does not always come to pass. If it were true that everything which happens on the earth is God’s will, then it means that God approves of all the wars, famines, violence, abuse, hurt and all the other vile things that is taking place on the planet as well.

Least in the Kingdom

Jesus told His disciples:

Truly I say to you, Among those who have been born of women there has not risen a greater one than John the Baptist. But the least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of Heaven is taken by violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. (Matt 11:11-13 MKJV)

And then in Luke 7 we see He adds a little extra bit:

For I say to you, Among those who are born of woman there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. But he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. (Luk 7:28 MKJV, emphasis added)

Now think about it, what made John the Baptist so great? What made him greater than all the other mighty prophets in the Old Testament? Think about Moses and all his exploits. Think about Elijah, Samuel, Jeremiah, etc. Why would Jesus say that John the Baptist is greater than all of them? Because what makes a prophet great is his message. All the other prophets said “Jesus is coming.” But John the Baptist got to say: “Behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.” He got to say “Jesus has arrived!!” And that’s what made him greater than all the other prophets.

And then Jesus also said: “But he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” So what’s going on here? Well, John the Baptist, as great as He was, was not in the Kingdom yet, because He wasn’t filled with the Spirit. So any Christian, after the cross, who gets to be filled with the Spirit and gets to partake of the Kingdom, is greater than John the Baptist. This changes everything!

When we realize what privileges we have been given in this life, it changes the way we think, talk, pray and also everything we do! It influences the way we approach every situation in our lives because when we are confident of the fact that He who lives in us is greater than he who is in the world.

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Nowhere in the entire Bible does it say that we need to “participate in communion” or “take communion” or “attend communion” or “hold communion”. Let that sink in for a bit.

The following verse in the King James Version is closest that the Bible comes to saying this:

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (1 Cor 10:16 KJV)

All the other translations say that we Share in/Participate of/Partake of/Fellowship with the blood and body of Christ. All these words can be used interchangeably with “communion”. So to have communion of the blood and the body means to literally partake of/share/participate in it. It’s not something we can “take” or “hold”.

Just to illustrate the point, let’s replace “communion” with “partake” and use it like most Christians would use it in a sentence today:

“John, are we going to attend the partake service tonight?”

“When was the last time you took partake”?

“We are having partake tonight, you wanna join us?”

“The church up the road is holding partake next Sunday, I think we should go check out how they do it.”

In the first century the Christians ate together every day and while they were breaking the bread and drinking wine (which formed a natural part of their diet), they remembered/discerned the body and blood of Christ. This is what it means to eat the bread and drink the cup in a worthy manner and to experience the benefits of what Christ accomplished for us, which includes walking in full, divine health.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. (1 Cor 11:27-30 ESV)

For centuries all across the world the wonderful privilege of partaking of the Lord’s body and blood has been reduced to a ceremonial rite filled with fear, self-consciousness and religiosity, largely because of a misinterpretation of the above verses. So what then does it mean to eat and drink in an unworthy manner and bring damnation or judgment upon oneself? Well, the answer is found in the very same verse: “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

It simply means to not discern the Lord’s body while eating the bread, resulting in us not walking in fullness of health and possibly dying prematurely, which is what happened with some people in Corinth. Jesus didn’t simply purchase our salvation at the cross, he also purchased our healing. In fact, the same Greek word (sōzō) is used interchangeably in the Bible to talk about being healed and being saved.

It’s God’s will for all His children to live a long, healthy life, but we have an enemy who is constantly on the prowl to bring condemnation, damnation, judgment and destruction on us. So when we are troubled with sickness the bread serves to help us remember how the body of Christ was broken for us to purchase our healing (so that our bodies don’t have to be broken/sick) and how we can receive the healing and health which has already been freely given to us. The power does not lie in the bread and wine itself – they are merely symbolic. They are purely a tool to direct our minds to the power of the real substance of the body and the blood of Christ Himself. This is also the reason why it’s good to break bread every day, because in doing this we are reminded daily of how divine health was purchased for us. By meditating on this compelling truth we are empowered to start walking in its reality in greater and greater degrees.

So why bother to get the terminology right? Simple: by using the word “communion” incorrectly (saying that we can hold or have “it”) we reinforce the notion that it’s an event or an object, some kind of special occasion that we get to indulge in from time to time. The modern day church has even thought up a name for this type of religious rite: It’s called a “sacrament”, meaning that in certain denominations only members of the clergy (ordained church leadership) are allowed to serve the bread and the wine. “Normal believers” are not allowed to defile the table by touching the bread or the wine before it is handed to them by a deacon or an elder.

But when we use the word correctly (saying that we have communion WITH/partake OF the blood and the body of Christ) it brings about an entirely new mindset, in that it serves to remind us of our existing unity with God. It’s a quality/trait/attribute that every Christian possesses. So whenever we eat the bread and drink the blood we are reminded of this unity, which stirs our faith and allows us to receive from God that which is already ours.

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Think of the biggest sin you can commit. God’s grace is bigger than that.

If a person’s heart is bent towards sinning, then they will see this statement as something that gives them the opportunity to find out which sins they can indulge in without overstepping their moral boundaries. They will constantly be on the lookout for ways to push the limits of what they are allowed to do and what not. But when our hearts are set upon loving Jesus, then we’ll see this statement as something that comforts us when we do accidentally make a mistake.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

Proponents of grace all over the world have been accused of promoting a message that will cause Christians, especially immature ones, to indulge in a lifestyle of irresponsibility and immorality. This approach seems to stem from the perceived human need to have our lives governed by rules, or more eloquently called “principles”. But essentially they are the one and the same. Both demand conformance to a mandatory standard of morality.

Fortunately a better way was paved for us to live by, namely to live a life led by the Spirit. And when we are led by the Spirit, there are no ethical codes or laws that have any command over us.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Gal 5:18 ESV)

Read this verse carefully again. Does it state anywhere that not being under the law means that we can live immorally? Of course not, but this often happens when people read the Bible looking intently for rules to obey. The New Testament is full of commands, but they were never given to be a replacement for the Old Testament law. The Christian life is not about adhering to rules; it’s about harbouring a relationship with our Father. So whenever we read a command in the New Testament, we need to see it as an example of what a life can look like when we are engaged in an active relationship with our Father. We will walk around in love automatically as the fruit of the Spirit flows out to the world around us.

Read the above Bible verse again. Noticed that it has a first half? The mind that is bent towards rule-based living is often so offended at the last part of the verse that they normally miss the glorious implications of the first half. The Spirit is an infinitely better guide than the law! When Jesus ascended into heaven He didn’t tell His disciples that He would be sending them new principles to guide them into all truth (John 16:13). No, He promised that He would be sending the Spirit!

Now it’s a known fact that some people do abuse grace and use it as a license to sin. But just because some people abuse grace, it still doesn’t make grace wrong. Even in the first century this phenomenon already occurred:

What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks (our Scriptures warned us this would happen), who beneath their pious skin are shameless scoundrels. Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license – which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master. (Jud 1:4 MSG)

The main difference between doing good works under the Old Testament and under the New Testament is the motive for doing them. Under the Old Testament they were compulsory and obedience was non-negotiable. Under the New Testament good works are a result of being in a relationship with God and we want to walk in them. They are a by-product of being led by the Spirit. Grace is actually an infinitely stronger motive for doing good works than the law (or any other principle-based approach), because it comes from within us whereas the law shouts at us from the outside.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that having denied ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live discreetly, righteously and godly, in this present world… (Tit 2:11-12 MKJV)

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under Law, but under grace. (Rom 6:16 MKJV)

The way that grace teaches us to do all these things is by giving us boldness in God’s presence. When we know that His love for us endures unwaveringly, even through our biggest failures, we are empowered to get up faster when we do happen to stumble, but we are also endowed not to want to fall in the first place. It becomes natural for us to live morally when our hearts are postured towards returning to God the love that He keeps on flooding over us every day. The key ingredient for maintaining a high level of morality is not to focus on maintaining a high level of morality, but to concentrate on a love relationship with our Father.

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Being a mechanical engineer, I am somewhat of a practical guy and therefore I knew there always had to be a purpose behind everything that happened. For years and years I would offer my wisdom to people who were going through a tough time: “Everything happens for a reason.”

That was until my eyes opened to the truth of Grace and the New Covenant. The Holy Spirit started shaking my beliefs and praise God I am the kind of guy that (still) enjoys being “shaked”!! So naturally after a while when I pulled out this magical phrase of wisdom to try and console somebody again, the following question popped into my mind: “So if everything happens for a reason, WHO is responsible for it?”

My little magic phrase went POOF! out the door and I knew this was one of those “major-crossroad-types-of-issues-that-was-about-to-change-everything” moments. After I found out that God was not behind all the pain and hurt in the world, and that He’d actually given the authority and the power to bring heaven to earth to ME, I realized that I much bigger had a part to play in the lives of the people around me.

I was part of a world wide problem: A generation of passive pew sitters who popped into a church meeting every Sunday and participated in all the church’s programs and activities to the best of my knowledge, without making a dime of impact in the lives of the people within my sphere of influence, apart from nagging them to come to church with me, to dump condemnation on them for their poor choices and to preach to them about how God loves them but never demonstrating it to them with the power of God. The truth is, I never even knew that God could do miracles through ME!! Me, a sinner who can’t even obey God’s word myself?

I had to undergo almost an entire brain transplant to get rid of all the trash I had accumulated through the years. I took months and months of being washed with the word of God to begin to understand my identity in Christ, and what privileges that bestowed on me.

I had to come to the end of myself and find out that all along it was Christ who wanted to live His life through me…

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Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Rom 1:18-31 ESV, emphasis added)

Again, Paul’s specific use of the word “unrighteousness” is a clear indication that this portion of scripture is addressed to sinners (unbelievers) and not to saints. Paul constantly refers to “them” in these verses, whereas he would normally refer to “us” and “we” when addressing issues pertaining to believers in his letters.

We see from verse 24 onwards that after repeatedly and fruitlessly attempting to reveal Himself to an unbeliever through His wondrous creation (verses 19-20), God would “give up” such a person to their own fleshly lusts, which would sometimes lead to men burning with desire for other men and women for other women (verses 26-27). So for someone to become a homosexual, they had to have made a conscious choice again and again to deny God’s existence. Their heart had to have been as hard as stone at some stage. The only point in God “giving them up” like this would be for the destruction of their flesh (just like Paul commanded that certain men had to be handed over to Satan – see 1 Cor 5:5 and 1 Tim 1:20), in other words to bring them to such a state of helplessness and despair that they would not have any other avenues of fulfillment to explore other than to accept Jesus into their life.

Homosexual Christians

So now a homosexual person becomes born again, what now? Well just like any other sinner, their spirit is instantly transformed into the image and likeness of Christ (Eph 4:24), they are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph 2:6), they receive remission of all their sins (Heb 8:12) and they are filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13). Their spirit is 100% holy from that moment on for all eternity. But their mind is not.

Our minds are trained to think according to the desires of the Spirit that lives in us, whether it is Satan or the Holy Spirit. Before a person is born again, their mind is programmed and trained to operate according to the desires of the devil. Thought patterns and habits are deeply engrained, depending on the level of surrender of the person to the evil which dwelled inside them. But when they are born again, this evil nature is circumcised out of them (Col 2:11) and buried with Christ (Rom 6:3-4). They are given a completely 100% righteous spirit man on the inside (Col 3:10). The only thing left to do now is to retrain or “renew” the mind (as Rom 12:2 calls it) according to the desires of the Holy Spirit who now lives inside them. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen overnight.

Habits which might have taken years to form (in the case of homosexuals there are distinct mannerisms, thought patterns and strongholds) most often take a good while to disappear. The rate of outward behavior change is directly proportional to the rate of mind renewal, which is directly related to the amount of time we give ourselves to communion with God through prayer, Bible study, listening to preaching on Grace and Righteousness, spending time in fellowship with other believers etc. What we previously spent time and energy on to put into our minds, we need to spend time and energy on to replace with new beliefs and convictions. Mind renewal is one of the things which God commanded us to do:

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Rom 12:2 KJV)

If God had to renew our minds as well when we were born again, we would have become zombies. But He didn’t – He left us with the choice.

What if a Born Again Christian Decides to “Become” Gay?

This is the same as a Christian who decides to start using drugs, or to start stealing, or lying, or committing adultery. It’s simply a sign that there is a part in their mind that has not yet been submitted under the authority and Lordship of Christ:

… pulling down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ; (2 Cor 10:5 MKJV)

These thoughts may have been suppressed due to external pressure to conform to certain moral ethics or to start reflecting the “holy lifestyle” which is expected of Christians after they have come to Christ. Then, once the dust storm died down and the person neglected to give himself/herself to renewing their mind in this area, it is quite possible that the evil desires (which was programmed into their mind by the (now dead) evil nature which lived inside them before) could start rising to the surface again. If left unchecked a Christian can definitely fall back into their old ways. The only difference is that they now force the Holy Spirit (who lives inside them) to be a witness of whatever they do. Sin doesn’t make Him leave, since sin was conquered at the cross. But it does quench Him and grieve Him, since He is not allowed to manifest Himself in and through that person to the extent that He wants to.

The Cure

Homosexuality is simply a stronghold in the mind. It’s not natural. Like all the other sins mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 it does not belong in the life of a believer. But also, like all other sins, it has already been forgiven. There is now a vast ocean of Grace that covers all the mistakes that God’s children make as they discover their true new identity. For some it takes a simple few years of unlearning and reprogramming to start oozing with Holy Spirit love. For others it takes years of hard fought battles, long troubled roads, endless nights of anxiety and the loss of friends and family to start reflecting God’s light in their lives. And it all happens as we realize that He loves us.

Our identity and security is found in His unconditional acceptance, in the chambers and hallways of His love where we find that any habits, beliefs and attitudes in our lives that does not reflect Christ actually becomes meaningless and irrelevant. There is no anxiety about morality with our God – there is only welcoming arms. There is no fear of punishment, there is only perfect love (1 John 4:18).

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The pro-homosexual group write off the New Testament scriptures that speak out against homosexuality as being non applicable to us today, saying that those verses were written during a time when cultures were different, much like women who were not allowed to speak during church meetings. They say that people are born this way and there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. On the other hand the anti-homosexual group loves bashing their rivals with these very same scriptures, threatening them with the danger of hellfire for refusing to repent from their wicked ways. This seems to be the one moral matter that there can’t be any agreement on.

Let’s take a look at some of those scriptures:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor 6:9-10 ESV)

Firstly we need to notice that homosexuality is mentioned in the same list as theft, idolatry, drunkenness, and the other sins mentioned in this portion of scripture. So to say that it’s not a sin is to say that all the other issues mentioned in this list is not sin either. So there it is.

But does that mean we can bash someone who practices homosexuality and threaten them with hell if they refuse to stop doing it? Let’s read what the very next verse says:

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor 6:11 ESV, emphasis added)

The key to understanding this portion of scripture is found in the first sentence of verse 9: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” Since we become righteous when we are born again, it means that Paul was referring to unbelievers in this list. There is not one single verse in the entire New Covenant that refers to a born again believer as a sinner. That is because we are defined by who lives in us and who we belong to and not by our actions. If we put verses 9-11 together, then by implication it says that before we were washed, sanctified and justified, we were known as unrighteous, idolaters, drunkards, homosexuals and thieves. All sin falls into the same category – there is no distinction.

Our actions are simply the fruit of who lives inside us. We are either children of God or children of the devil:

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10 ESV)

The context of 1 Corinthians 6 is that some of the Christians were sleeping with temple prostitutes and Paul was reminding them that since the body of a believer is actually the temple of the Holy Spirit, they shouldn’t take what belongs to God and make it part of a harlot. Not once did Paul mention that the Holy Spirit left or abandoned them while they were having sex with the temple prostitutes. No, what happened was that while they were committing these stupid acts, they were forcing the Holy Spirit to be a witness! He had to watch while they were doing it! The Holy Spirit and the spirit of a believer becomes “fused” together after salvation, so much so that the Holy Spirit couldn’t leave even if He wanted.

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.  (1 Cor 6:17 ESV)

So if we say that a believer can go to hell, it means that the Holy Spirit would have to go there with him.

Can Someone be Born a Homosexual?

Let’s look at the hard facts. There is not a single person on the planet who has ever been born with the “external plumbing” to support this argument. God didn’t physically design men’s bodies to be able to cope with the hammering of long term intercourse between two males. Similarly, women have not been endowed with the natural means to be able to satisfy one another sexually. The relationship between a husband and his wife is an image of the bond that exists between Jesus and His Bride (Eph 5:23-28 and Rev 19:7-8). Nowhere does it say that Jesus is preparing for Himself a groom. He is the Groom!

There is a breathtaking depiction to be found in the physical way that God created a man and a woman and in how they procreate. A woman is made with a womb into which the seed of the man has to be received. On the tip of the man’s penis (yes I just used the p-word!) God etched the sign of His covenant with Israel. The love between the man and the woman culminates when the man pierces the protective layer of skin in front of the womb, causing the woman to bleed. He then places his seed inside her and she conceives and brings forth life.

In the same way Christ shed His blood when He entered the holy of holies for us and tore the veil which separated man from God. Christ was the first man to walk the earth filled with God’s seed (Mary conceived a child directly from the Holy Spirit, not from a man). And through this miraculous act God made it possible for Himself to insert His seed into people again so that there can be millions of people walking the earth filled with God’s seed. When we allow this seed to germinate and bring forth fruit, we give birth to God’s life in the earth!

Additionally the fact that gay couples can’t conceive children contradicts God’s command in Genesis 1:28:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen 1:28 ESV)

There were five points listed here that summarized God’s purpose for creating mankind. He told them to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, to subdue it and to have dominion over it. God had just created man in His own image and crowned him with glory. God’s purpose for creating man was to fill the earth with His glory as mankind obeyed these five instructions. God even gave up the privilege of creating more people (He never created another human being after Eve) and gave the command to Adam and Eve to make more people. 60% of God’s original purpose (three out of the five points) for creating man was for them to reproduce! It’s therefore simple to see that by being homosexual a person definitely misses one of God’s main purposes for their life, since we fill the earth with God’s glory when we, as Holy Spirit filled believers, reproduce.

It’s due to these grounds that it’s unthinkable that God would “make” someone gay. It would be cruel to assign to a person a certain sexual inclination but allow them to be born with a body that’s not suited to the task of having God’s glory fill the earth.

In Part 2 of this series we will take a look at Romans 1:18-31 and also the issue of “What if a Born Again Christian Decides to “Become” Gay?”

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In the same manner that each of us has a choice to enter into different levels and depths of relationships with various people in our lives, similarly each one of us has the choice to determine how deep we want our relationship with our Father to go. Unfortunately for many people it takes some huge crisis in their lives for them to ever reach the place where they get to the end of themselves and look past their own achievements, talents and abilities to the Giver of all good things, who has been waiting patiently on the side lines for them to come to Him for acceptance, love, power, blessings, security and happiness. God will never force someone to love Him. God will never revoke our freedom to practice and live out our free will.

The beauty of any intimate love relationship is that is comes through mutual consent. Both parties decide to make a deep commitment by which they choose to direct their decisions, energy, devotion, care, loyalty and love to benefit the other person. God has already proven His love towards us in this regard:

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10 ESV)

We were God’s enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life! (Rom 5:10 GNB)

God gave what He treasured most as a token of His love towards us. In fact, God never has to do a single thing ever again to prove how much He loves us. It’s now our privilege to believe the good news of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and by faith enter into a living relationship with the Father.

What has to happen in your life for you to take the Red pill? Don’t allow yourself to become just another statistic for who it took some major disaster in your life to make you reach the point where you snapped out of the fakeness, deception, temptation and empty promises of this world and finally allowed God to shower you with His love. Take some time away from the buzz of your routine, sit down and ask yourself whether you are really content with the depth of your relationship with God. The ball is in your court.

In Grace
Andre van der Merwe

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Yes it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything new at my website (www.NewCovenantGrace.com) and I apologize for that. But it’s not that I haven’t been busy…

I’ve been openly accused of slandering against the church, of preaching a wayward doctrine, of hurting and abusing the Body of Christ, of being rebellious and also operating in a spirit of “independence” (if there is such a thing) by people over the past few months. And in case you’re wondering,  I’ve never been better

There are two main aspects that govern the way we live out our faith:

1) The message we preach and listen to
2) The system in which we receive that message

Our faith is drastically influenced by the way we receive the gospel. There is no biblical premise for the pattern which is found in nearly every local church today, where the only gifts on display (week after week) is that of the Pastor and the worship leader. All the other believers (who have the SAME Holy Spirit) in that place are reduced to submissive spectators who are passively pew sitting their way to heaven.

If we are all  Royal Priests who can freely minister unto God, have you ever thought about why only certain people are allowed to minister as Priests unto other PEOPLE? Why is there a breed of  “special, anointed and called” people who get to do ALL  the ministering during Sunday services? Why are they being paid to do what EVERY Christian is supposed to do?

There is a specific purpose why the Bible uses the image of Christ being the Head of His Body. No single member in the body was ever designed with the purpose of translating what it thinks the Head is trying to say to the rest of the body. Each member of the body was created with a nerve directly connecting it to the Head. Jesus said that He Himself would build HIS church.

In today’s church world there is an illegal system of control that elevates certain people who are supposedly ”called into ministry” above other “normal” believers, resulting in the distinction between two classes of Christians: Those who get to minister (the “called” and “anointed” ones) and those who need to be ministered to (“normal” believers).

The Reformers did well in opposing the religious doctrines of the dark ages, but sadly passed the Roman Catholic division between clergy and laity straight into the Protestant movement. The gospel of righteousness through faith was almost fully restored as a result of the sacrifices of these people, resulting in the restoration of the revelation that every person could minister as a priest unto God. But unfortunately not every person could be trusted to minister as a priest unto other people. This privilege was reserved for a special breed of Christian, a phenomenon which is still practiced by the largest portion of the Body of Christ today.

People think that as long as they preach the correct message, then the system in which they preach doesn’t actually matter. The truth is however that our faith is shaped by the way we receive the gospel: if you tell a lion in a cage that he is free, then you might have a happy lion… but he is still stuck in a cage.

In order to address this imbalance in the Body of Christ, we have started a new “sub-website” called http://newcovenantgrace.com/organic-church/

If you are ready to explore “the next step” in your faith, why not subscribe to our newsletters on this new website and let us know what you think about it? It might just rock your world… However if you are content with attending structured church services and you have never felt the desire to explore the vast expands of God’s grace outside the boundaries of a local church, then we recommend that you DON’T visit our new website, since it might quite possibly just anger and frustrate you.

Explore the many other websites and blogs that also teach on this subject (http://newcovenantgrace.com/organic-church/resources/) and download all our articles for free as PDF documents that can also be forwarded to other people.

FREEDOM!

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