The Cost of Freedom

It is amazing how relentlessly Christians often want to fight for the right to live under legalism. I recently wrote a blog about how readily many Christians become angry when they're told the best news they could ever hope to hear - namely, that we don't have to live by religious rules anymore. Rules we never could keep anyway.

Pastors, be advised: There is a price to pay for teaching people that they are free. Some have lived inside, what my friend Paul Anderson-Walsh calls, "St. Shawshanks" for so long that the thought of freedom outrages them.

I've been reading Grace In Practice: A Theology of Everyday Life by Paul Zahl. Here are his on-target thoughts on the matter:

Whenever I say "the law has no future: or observe the impotence of the law to create the virtues it requires, including for Christians, objections start to fly. These objections claim that such a negative gloss on law as I am suggesting is antinomian. "Antinomianism" is the formal word for any teaching that is critical of law or undermines or overturns the law. Antinomianism is regarded as the opposite of of law and order, which would turn a religion such as Christianity into an excuse for "license," which usually means sexual libertinism and promiscuity, not to mention drug use, thievery, casual violence 'a la Mad Max, "Girls Gone Wild," and a total breakdown of law and order. It is safe to say that whenever grace is preached in relation to the law, preachers of grace are -- wrongly -- labeled "antinomian." Ironically, being accused of antinomianism is a sort of badge of honor for those who preach the doctrine of grace, because this reaction means that the doctrine of grace is hitting home. The accusation means that grace is making law-bound people uncomfortable.

To suggest that the Law is faulty, as I recently did in another blog raises the ire of some, despite the fact that Hebrews 8:7 plainly says it is faulty. It is important to understand that "grace teachers" aren't saying the law is faulty in content. God's Law is perfect in content. The fault of the Law lies in its capability. Its assessment of our shortcomings are right on the mark, but its ability to lift a finger to help us is at zero.

For that reason, the Law is yesterday's news. Grace publishes the good news that the whole rules-keeping, impress-God-by-what-you-do game has ended. The Referee got tired of the whole thing and abruptly called off the whole game. Now it's time for the post game party, where the winners (and we all are) celebrate.

Freedom -- turn that word over in your mind again and again. Ironically, our freedom cost Somebody a great price. I refuse to insult Him by downplaying the efficacy of His payment. The value of our freedom is directly commensurate to the price He paid. So "stand firm in freedom" and don't let any sniveling, wrinkle-browed, pointy-fingered, Reverend Ebenezer steal what you've been given.

You're free. Free to live in abandon to Him. Free to run barefoot through the fields of grace. Free to be yourself without self-consciousness about how you look to others. Do it. Just do it.

Things I Never Said

Someone came to me recently after I had spoken about our freedom in Christ and said, "I don't agree with you that it isn't important to read the Bible and pray." "I never said that reading the Bible and praying isn't important," I responded. "I said that when we turn those things into laws, we rob ourselves of the blessings we can know from the Bible and prayer."

It always amazes me to see the capacity people possess to misunderstand the teaching of grace. It really shouldn't come as a surpise though. Everybody who has every taught the pure, undilluted grace of God has been misunderstood.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), "Let us do evil that good may come"? Paul never said that we should do evil so that good can come from it, but he apparently taught grace in such a strong way that some people thought that's what he was saying.

Others thought he taught that sin didn't matter and that since grace covers it all anyway, it was okay to go ahead and sin. He answered that one in Romans 6:1 when he said, "What shall we say then? Shall we keep on sinning since grace abounds? Perish the thought! How shall we who died to sin keep doing that very thing???"

The great Bible expositor, Martyn Lloyd Jones wrote:

The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel.

Whew! I'm glad to read that a man of his stature said that! It encourages me to stay the course, knowing that I'm not alone in the misunderstandings I've experienced through these past 17 years I have been teaching this amazing and radical grace of God.

It seems that the most common misunderstandings that have been "slanderously reported" against me are that I am teaching:

1. It doesn't matter how we behave.
I've never said such a thing because I don't believe that statement to be true. It does matter how we behave, but our behavior must flow from the indwelling Christ. Anything else is just "dead works" regardless of whether we are preaching sermons or getting drunk. It's not the activity that defines its value; it's the source of that activity that makes all the difference.

2. The Old Testmanent Law is bad and grace is good. Antinomianism is a word often used by those who studied somewhere just beyond the point of Sunday School and think they've nailed those who teach grace. It means to be "against the Law" and I'm not. I've never said the Law is bad. I have said that the Old Covenant of the Law is now obsolete, but I'm not the first one to say that. Hebrews 8:13 says, "When [God] said, 'A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear" (emphasis added)..

The Law is out and grace is in! That's what God's Word says! Furthermore, the Apostle Paul said, "you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ". Was he lying? Of course not. The Law isn't bad, it's just faulty.

That's right - it is faulty. I have no doubt that if a person trapped in legalism reads this, he will be breaking out in a rash about now. But, wait. Do we believe the Bible or not??? If so, please read this verse and tell me what it means:

Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, 'Behold, days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.'

The whole book of Hebrews is about how the new covenant is better than the Law.

3. The grace walk is a passive lifestyle. When people have accused me of teaching this I find it laughable, considering the schedule I keep. The grace walk isn't a lazy lifestyle. It is an active one, but our activity is animated by Him and not by hyper-active, religious flesh. What the legalist calls motion is often nothing more than religious commotion. I have done more under grace than I ever did living as a legalist, but it's not me, but Christ who lives in me who has done it. I could never have made happen the things He has done through me. No, the grace walk isn't passive, but it can appear that way to those who are afflicted with the chronic-Christian-convulsion syndrome they believe they need in order to prove their "commitment to God."

4. Because of grace, we need to be "soft on sin." I've never said anything of the sort. Sin is why Jesus died. I've never said we should be soft on sin, but I have said that we should be soft on people who have sinned. By that, I mean that we should be long on compassion and short on criticism. I have never said that it is never appropriate to confront sin in the lives of other people. I have said that if we do confront their sin, it should be with tears of love that overwhelm them. I have said that, except for rare occassions, we should have earned the right to speak into their lives. I have said that we should realize that they have done nothing we aren't capable of doing too, apart from the protecting grace of God in our own lives.

Do you know what the worst sin is? Somebody elses. Of course, I'm using sarcasm here to make a point and the point it this: "Let him that thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall." Be careful what you say and how you act toward those who have sinned. It might come back to bite you one day.

Our default setting needs to be to love people who have sinned. That doesn't mean we love sin, just that we are being Christ to those who have.

Those are a few things I never said. Are there others you have been falsely accused of saying as you have shared the message of the grace walk? Don't be discouraged. The accusations prove that we are on-track and are declaring God's grace in its glory.

Watering Down The Gospel

Perhaps the worst aspect of legalistic preaching is the way it waters down the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word gospel means "good news" and nothing could be further from being good news than the message that we have some part in either entering into salvation or living the life once we have become a Christian. We can only live the Life in the same way we entered, by trusting Christ.

Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians to address the matter of how we are to live the Christian life. Some people think Galatians was written to defend the truth of salvation by grace and not by works. That isn't why the book was written. The Galatians were already Christians. How could they be confused about what that meant? Their confusion was about how to live the Christian life now that they were believers.

A group of Judaizers had come into the church telling these saints that, while they were indeed saved and on their way to heaven, they had to do their part in the meantime. Their part, said these legalists, began by being circumcised.

Paul wrote the church and called them idiots (see Galatisns 3:1) for falling for such foolishness. He asked them, "Have you had some sort of spell cast on you? You became a Christian without doing a single thing, but now you think that what you do is an important part of growing in your life in Christ? Did you become a Christian by anything you did or didn't do? No? Then what makes you think that now you are a Christian, what you do has anything at all to do with receiving God's blessings?? Does God work in and among you because of what you do or because you simply trust Him?" (You can read this challenge from Paul in Galatians 3:3-5.)

The gospel is the fantastic news that you and I have been made righteous because of what Christ has done. We don't have to do anything - just believe it! Paul wrote in Romans 1:16-17 that the gospel is the power of God to salvation and that in it the righteousness of God is revealed. For anybody to preach that there is something we must do before or after we become a Christian in order to be righteous is to water down the pure gospel of Jesus Christ and to insult His finished work at the cross. The righteousness of God is a gift, not a goal we have in life. (See Romans 5:17)

To think that we can become more righteous by doing all "the right things" is to "nullify the grace of God," according to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:21. In fact he says that a person makes Christ Himself of no effect by thinking that what we do has anything to do with the gospel at all. (See Galatians 5:4)

The next time you hear a preacher saying that there is something you need to do to become more righteous, I hope an alarm goes off in your heart. Not everybody who says they believe the Bible is preaching it. Legalism is very subtle at times. Remember that a diluted gospel is a polluted gospel, which is no gospel (good news) at all. Don't fall for a watered down gospel being preached by those who claim to believe the Bible.

The gospel is the good news that you are 100% righteous because of what He has done, not because of anything you need to do. You don't have to do anything. You will find that you want to do some things, but that is a different story altogether.

Ministry at America's Keswick

I am speaking this week at America's Keswick in Whiting, New Jersey. America's Keswick has been here for 110 years and is known for its focus on experiencing the victorious Christian life by relying on the indwelling Christ. It started in the Keswick area of England, then was established here over a century ago.

Hudson Taylor, F.B. Myer, Alan Redpath,and others revered speakers on the subject of grace have ministered at Keswick. One of my favorites who was a big part of the early days was Charles Trumbull, who wrote the little book Victory in Christ. I must have given away a hundred of those books when I began to understand my identity in Christ.

The theme for the week is "Think Victory." On Sunday night I spoke on the topic, "Victory Is A Gift, Not A Goal." Then Monday, my topic was "Victory Comes From Living In the New Covenant and Not The Old Covenant." Last night, I talked about "Accepting Grace and Rejecting Guilt" as I shared the message of total forgiveness.

In addtion to the conference ministry, American's Keswick also has an addiction recovery program called Colony of Mercy. I spoke to the men there early yesterday morning. I always enjoy speaking in that kind of environment because I know the guys have reached bottom and are ready to receive truth.

Last night, after the service, I met with a group of about ten ladies in their seventies and eighties. They have met together for several months, studing through Grace Walk. It was so encouraging to me to hear their stories of how their lives have been transformed by the message of who we are in Christ. One lady said she had been coming here to America's Keswick for sixty years and that my message is the one she heard taught here when she was a young girl.

The grandson of the founder of Keswick is here. He is 83 years old. I was told that he said what I'm teaching this week is "right on target" with the historical teachings of Keswick. That was an encouragement to me, since I've long respected the Keswick movement.

I leave here on Friday and will go to Atlanta, where we will visit with our children and grandchildren. We will all be together on Sunday. It's been quite a while since our whole family has been able to get together, so I'm looking forward to that.

On another note, I will soon be posting information about the plan for reaching into Swaziland. Things are coming together there.

Does Grace Encourage Sin?

The message of grace is a scandal to the religious mind. The idea that the unrighteous can get off scot-free galls the self righteous. After speaking in a church about the truth that the sins of our lifetime have been completely forgiven, somebody said to me, “I believe that kind of thinking will weaken people’s love for Christ and cause them to not take sin seriously.”

Her viewpoint isn’t uncommon in the modern church. Grace scares people. “Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.” The fear is that pure grace is dangerous. After all, if people get the idea that all their sins have been completely put away, won’t that encourage them to become carnal? Not according to Jesus.

There is a passage in Luke 7 that teaches the truth about the power of complete forgiveness. Jesus is eating in the home of a Pharisee when a woman known to have a bad reputation comes to Him. She brings a box of perfume and, as she weeps, takes her hair and washes His feet with the perfume.

The Pharisee sees this and thinks to himself, “If Jesus was really a man of God, he would know what kind of woman this is and he wouldn’t allow it.” Knowing what the man was thinking, Jesus said to him, “A moneylender had two debtors. One owed him ten times as much as the other. Neither could repay, so the man forgave them both. Which of them will love him more?”

“The one whom he forgave the most,” the man answered.

“You are exactly right,” Jesus said, “and the same is true of this woman. I entered your house and you didn’t wash my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair. You haven’t kissed me once, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet” (Luke 7:44-46).

Then Jesus answered this Pharisee and every other person who thinks that pure grace encourages sin. He said, “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little” (7:47). What caused this woman to love Jesus much? It was the realization of how much she had been forgiven.

The greater the forgiveness, the greater the love. That’s what Jesus said. So to teach people that all the sins of their lifetime have been forgiven will not cause them to sin. It will cause them to love Jesus more! We don’t have to be afraid that grace encourages sin because it doesn’t. (See Titus 2:11-12)

The sins of your whole lifetime have been forgiven. (See Colossians 2:13-14) The idea that the sins we haven’t even committed yet have been forgiven is an offense to some people because they’re afraid it will encourage a careless lifestyle, but that isn’t what the Bible teaches. As Jesus said, the greater our understanding of forgiveness the greater the love.

The obstacle that most people have trouble getting past in accepting the reality that all their sins have been forgiven is the idea that future sins could already be dealt with, even before we commit them. I remind you though that when Christ died for our sins, He died for all of them and we hadn’t even been born yet. If Christ could take every sin we would commit upon Himself at the cross before we had committed a single one of them, why couldn’t he forgive them in the same way? He can and He did. Your sins are forgiven. Not just some of them, but all of them.

What if every sin of our lifetime is already forgiven? What difference would that make in how we lived from day-to-day? I can tell you the difference: it would free us to take our eyes off ourselves and put them on Christ and on others. It would deliver us from self-consciousness and sin-consciousness.

The fact is that our sins have all been forgiven. That won’t cause anybody to run wild. The Apostle Paul answered that objection when he said, “If all this about grace is true, does that mean we just sin like crazy because we know it’s all covered by grace?” He answered his own question, “God forbid! How can we live in sin if we have already died to it? Or don’t you understand that every one of us who have been placed into Jesus Christ were with Him when He died? The reality is that when somebody dies, they are free from sin and we died!” (See Romans 6:1-7)

We can relax when it comes to the fear that grace will cause people to sin. It won’t do that. Instead it will cause those who understand the scope of forgiveness to love Jesus more and to take their eyes off themselves and live freely in grace.

Kick The Law Out!

I was recently listening to a teaching by Åge Åleskjær, my friend in Norway (and pastor at Oslo Christian Center) and heard him teach about Sarah and Hagar. I have spoken from that text many times, but Åge pointed out a truth that I had never seen which really needs to be understood in the modern church world.

You remember that in Galatians 4:24, the Apostle Paul said that that Sarah and Hagar's lives are allegories that teach us about law and grace. Isaac is the promised son, miraculously provided by grace, and Ishmael was a son of the flesh, produced by Abraham's own self effort.

In Genesis 21:10, Sarah told Abraham concerning Hagar: "Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac." The NT lesson here is obvious - law and grace cannot live peaceably in the same house (life or church). There will always be conflict between the two.

The interesting aspect of this passage that I hadn't seen is the timing of it all. Two verses prior to Sarah's admonition for Abraham to "kick that mother out, and send her son with her" the Scripture tells that "the child [Isaac] grew and was weaned." When he reached the place where he stopped needing milk and could now eat solid food, it was time for Hagar and Ismael to go.

The implication is that when a person matures to the place where he advances from milk to "the meat of the Word," he will understand that the Law must be totally driven out of his way of living. The word cast ("Cast out the bondwoman.") means to hurl with great force. There can be no tolerance or patience with legalism in our lives.

Sadly, those trapped in legalism see themselves as having reached a level of maturity that the rest of us haven't achieved. The truth is that they are still babies. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:25 that we don't need the Law as a "nanny" anymore. We have Christ and He is enough!

We can determine something about the level of our Christian maturity by how connected we still are to religious rules in our lifestyle. When I was a young child, I had to be told to brush my teeth and bathe. Nobody has to tell me that now. The same is true as we mature spiritually. Some churches are nothing more than child-care nurseries where Christians are treated like babies, being told exactly what they should do and not do in every area of life.

It's time for us to grow up and start acting like who we are. We have only one mother and her name is Grace. It's time to kick Mrs. Law and her obnoxious son (the works of the flesh) out of our lives.

When Isaac was weaned, they had a big party. (See Genesis 21:8) Moving from the babyhood of legalism to the maturity of grace is a reason to celebrate. Kick the Law out of your life and live in grace. God knows it's time.

What Do You See When You Look In The Mirror?

Mickey sees his creator. Is that what you see? We have been created in our Father's image, but many don't see their true identity. Instead, they see somebody else, who has been defined by the opinion of others, by their present circumstances, past experiences, etc. You are who God says you are. We can see ourselves as He sees us, because that's who we are!

Pray About the Fire In Swaziland

I just got off the phone with Bill Mial, my friend in Johannesburg, who told me that a raging fire in Swaziland has destroyed 8% of the country this week. People were literally running for their lives. High winds caused 80% of the country to be severely affected by heavy smoke even if it wasn't burned.

Please pray for the people there. I found the article below on the Internet by googling "fire in Swaziland."

We are still working on the plan for the Grace Loves initiative there. I'll provide you with details as we finalize them.


Johannesburg - South African fire fighters may cross the border into Swaziland to help their counterparts battling a forest fire fuelled by strong winds, Working on Fire said on Friday.

Co-ordinator Val Charlton said the South African fire fighters had been called to help fight a three-day forest fire that had gutted a plantation near Piggs Peak in the northwest part of Swaziland.

"Ground-based crews are on standby at Nelspruit, waiting authority from South African immigration officials to cross the border," she said.

South African fire fighters would use fixed wing aircraft and helicopters to help their counterparts in Swaziland, she said.

The manager of Peak Timbers, Zama Kunene, said the fire started this week and had been fanned by high winds.

Meanwhile, Working on Fire crews were fighting a fire near the central Drakensberg town of Winterton.

Provincial co-ordinator Carol Hudson said the fire was threatening local settlements.

Firefighters were using helicopters to put out the blaze, she said.