The True Test of Your Gospel
09.30.09
The True Test of Your Gospel
Each person’s belief in the Gospel is influenced and shaped by their exposure to it, by the extent to which their mind has been renewed and unfortunately also by the earthly traditions they still hold on to. [Mar 7:13 making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have delivered.]
Paul the apostle, who wrote most of the New Testament, preached a gospel that was revealed to him directly from God. [Gal 1:11 And, brothers, I make known to you the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not according to man. 12 For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it except by a revelation of Jesus Christ.] This Gospel is known as the Gospel of Grace.
[Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Gal 1:6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel.
Phil 1:7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.
Acts 14:3 Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
Acts 20:32 “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.]
There is a flood of Grace hitting our planet at the moment, with millions and millions of people waking up to the truth that we are not justified by observing the law or living up to some moral standard, but simply by believing in Jesus Christ. [Rom 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law.]
Just like Paul the apostle prophesied in Galatians 4 however, those who believe in this Gospel of Grace will be persecuted by those who want to be justified by their own works. [Gal 4:29 But then even as he born according to flesh (Ishmael the son born out of the flesh, which represents the works of the law) persecuted him born according to the Spirit (Isaac the son born out of the promise, which represents Grace), so it is also now.]
And here is the true test of the Gospel of Grace: If the gospel you are preaching does not put you in danger of being misunderstood by the legalists (people who claim that your level of righteousness depends on your level of law-obedience), in the fact that they might think you are saying that people can just go out and sin as much as they want, then you are not preaching Grace to the extent that Paul was preaching it. Because true Grace lifts the law off believers so completely that according to the legalists, it sets us free in more ways than it SHOULD. Legalists believe that the moment you lift the law off a believer, that he or she will simply run out and begin to live in full blown depravity and fall into all kinds of wickedness. But they forget that we have a born again spirit on the inside of us that DOES NOT WANT TO live like that!!
Paul had to defend the gospel of Grace in the same way. We can see from the “question and answer – manner” that much of the book of Romans was written in, that he was countering many of the questions that the religious crowd of the day was throwing at him. They were probably accusing him of preaching that the believers, because they weren’t under the law anymore, could go out and sin as much as they want! Here was Paul’s reply:
[Rom 3:8 Why not say, then, "Let us do evil so that good may come"? Some people, indeed, have insulted me by accusing me of saying this very thing! They will be condemned, as they should be (GNB).
Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? 2 Let it not be! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
Rom 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under Law, but under grace? Let it not be!
Gal 5:13 As for you, my friends, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another (GNB).]
Therefore if Paul, the champion apostle of the New Testament (that was preaching the true Gospel of Grace) had to defend the Gospel against these accusations and was persecuted by the legalists for preaching this Gospel, then we should be considering that perhaps something is wrong if our Gospel is NOT making the legalists of our day rise up against us…
Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe
www.NewCovenantGrace.com
What really stood out to me in this message was the ‘annointed comment’ you made, ‘according to the legalists, it sets us free in more ways than it should.’ Radical! I would type my response in an unknown tongue if I knew how to spell it, I love it, we are so truely much more limitlessly free than in this life we will ever comprehend it to be! Love you love you love you!
The world isn’t made a better place by simply believing in Jesus.
I know it sounds strange…bear with me…There’s a thin line between living in grace and being useless to the body of Christ, and living in grace and actually making a difference in this world, fulfilling your role in the body.
One thing these ‘law-preachers’ do is make the world a better place, they get the word of God to counties unimaginable, they get people to give to the hungry, look after the poor, heal the broken, even if the motives are wrong (righteousness by deeds). but what do ‘grace-preachers’ do? do they help in feeding the poor? do they support evangelism? Do they give to the hungry? or do they simply preach freedom from the law, the end.
I believe true freedom in Christ should prompt you to a life of serving and evangelism. The danger here is that too many people get stuck in this “i am free” mindset and become useless to the body of Christ.
I hope this makes sense.
Hi Lionel
Thank you very much for your comment. It’s great to see that you too are a person that actually wants to SEE the children of God make an impact in the world, and you are right: It will never happen through Christians simply sitting in pews feeling good about themselves because they now understand Grace.
Grace is the foundation, but Grace has 2 components:
1) Acceptance: Grace gives us the revelation that we are unconditionally loved an accepted by God and that He relates to us not on the basis of our own level of obedience or good works, but on the basis of the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ.
2) Empowerment: Grace empowers us to do greater exploits for God than we were ever able to do under the law, but is is now the Holy Spirit living THROUGH us, and not us trying to accomplish it in our own strength.
Unfortunately many Christians are sitting at the bus stop of knowing they are going to heaven, but are too comfortable staying there and never move on to the second component of Grace.
Law preachers unfortunately don’t make the world a better place, because the Law robs people of confidence before God, always makes them feel unworthy. They are serving under a covenant of DEATH (2 Cor 3:7). By only DOING the right things, it will never lead us to believe the right things, but if we keep on immersing ourselves in the right beliefs (GRACE), sooner or later good works will begin to flow as a result, a FRUIT.
Watch this space in the next 2 weeks – I have written 2 articles pertaining specifically to WORKS. The first one talks about why “Holy Living” is still important and relevant in the life a of a Grace believing Christian, and the next one talks about the impact of our actions in Heaven & eternity.
Thank you for your comment.
In Grace
Andre
Cool thanks. 2nd component of grace, i like it!
I would definitely want to see more “grace preachers” preach on the 2nd component then. I don’t see this happening at all… as soon as preachers preach any kind of ‘deed’ or ‘rule’ like an outreach, or serving request or giving or any kind of command you have your grace-extremists (my own word, lets call people who never get to the 2nd component or grace this) jump up and shout “i am free, i am bound by no law”, “i am free, i have not to do anything”.
i guess personally I’ve been burnt by people who are so “free” in Christ and Grace their freedom actually leads astray, hurts or confuses others.
Hi Lionel,
I think the key to the 2nd component is in Colosians
the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; Col 1:5-6 (NKJV)
that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; Col 1:10 (NKJV)
A revelation of the Grace of God is staggering, and will motivate people to bear fruit, if it doesn’t then maybe they havn’t really understood the gospel, which seems fairly widespread.
Awesome Steve!! Well spotted, yes it is easy to once again slip back into passivity after you have received the revelation of Grace and think: “Now I understand Grace, now I am mature.”
If you have been fully established in the revelation of Grace, and you want to eat some solid spiritual food, I would encourage you to check out http://jglm.org/ which is the website of John G Lake Ministries. The current overseer of this ministry, Curry Blake, says the following: “Your level of spiritual maturity is not determined by the amount of Bible that you know, but by the amount of Bible that you actually put into practice in your life.”
His ministry has blessed me and helped me to see more clear and how simple it actually is that we as children of God were meant to walk as Jesus did, to heal the sick and raise the dead!!! Curry has already raised 9 people from the dead and personally seen over 70,000 people healed.
Hope it blesses you too!
In Grace
Andre
Hi Andre, Steve, Lionel. I am a UK citizen living in South Africa. I stumbled on your site by googling ‘obedience under the New Covenant’ following a statement made by our pastor. I have enjoyed it.
My thoughts: Grace alone has the power to put us in living connection with the One who alone is truly righteous. We then share in His very life. That life is inherently righteous, of course. Built in is God’s ‘virtue set’ of love, wisdom, patience, etc. I believe that as we learn to receive the full measure of His Grace, having fully seen our need for it, and realising we are new creations in Christ, the good works will start to happen naturally. ‘Good works’, entered into for the wrong reasons, may simply give people a comfortable ride to hell, or cause Christians to continue living in the flesh.
The Law taught as demands may produce an apparent result quicker than grace, but in reality it is better to wait for the real thing, works stemming from grace. This route alone will bring the required Kingdom fruit.