Holiness, It's What I Long For! (Well, don't do that.)

I inwardly grimaced when the worship leader led us all to sing:

Holiness, holiness is what I long for
Holiness is what I need
Holiness, holiness is what
You want for me, for me.

What's my problem with that chorus? It's because it asks for something we already have! We don't need holiness. We have it right now! The reason so many people squeeze their eyes closed and sing like they're begging God for holiness is because they think they aren't holy based on how they've acted, felt and thought lately. But it's not about that at all.

If you think holiness has to do with moral perfection, I encourage you to take a look at the New Testament Church in Corinth. To say that these people misbehaved is an understatement. Inside that church there existed divisions, drunkenness, jealousy, immorality and many others sinful behaviors.

The Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthian Christians a letter and here is how he began it: “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling …” (1 Corinthians 1:2). Paul said the Corinthians were “sanctified in Christ Jesus.” He knew about their behavior and even addressed it later in his letter, but Paul knew something that many believers today don’t understand. Our behavior does not determine who we are! These Corinthians were saints, regardless of their behavior. They were saints, even if they were “saints behaving badly.” Their holiness didn’t have a thing to do with what they did or didn’t do.

Paul reminded them a little later, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). He says that it was God’s doing that they were in Christ, and that Christ is their sanctification, or holiness. Again we see that the Corinthians were already holy in God’s sight.

Paul made very clear how we have become holy. God did it through Christ. As the writer of Hebrews put it: “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).

It is by Christ’s work that we have been made holy. What about places in the Bible where the Scripture seems to teach that we are to seek holiness? Consider, for example, Hebrews 12:14: “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” What does the verse mean when it tells us to “pursue” sanctification (holiness)? The answer has to do with what we mean by pursuing it.

If you define “pursuing sanctification” as getting better and better at keeping rules, you will find yourself right back in legalism, but we have already seen that rules-keeping is not the meaning of holiness.

To pursue it means that we act diligently to agree with God concerning what He has said about us and we act like it’s true – because it is true! You have Jesus Christ and He is your holiness. So we are pursuing sanctification or holiness when we are living out of the reality of His indwelling life. We grow in the expression of holiness in our thoughts and attitudes and even in our actions, but we don’t become more and more holy. You are holy. That is what you are!

Dealing With Sins In Our Lives

Based on the widespread popularity of the topic in books in Christian bookstores and the constant focus in sermons and Bible studies within the church world, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that the most important subject among believers is sin. Sin management often seems to be the reason for public ministry and to be the most important goal many who follow Jesus have embraced for their lives.

Overcoming sinful actions in life consumes the thoughts and energy of many sincere Christians. They are completely dedicated to stopping the wrong things they do and replacing those actions with actions that glorify God. While their motives are certainly pure, their goal and focus is completely misguided.

We are not called upon in Scripture to direct our attention toward our sins and exert our energy on eliminating them. In fact, to take this approach not only won’t reduce sinful actions; it will increase wrong behavior in our lifestyles. The truth of the matter is that the Bible teaches we aren’t to focus on sins at all, but to focus our undivided attention on Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul dealt with the subject of our focus by warning the churches he established in grace not to make sins their focus, but instead to look to Christ. To the Colossian church, he wrote, “Set your mind on the things that are above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). He warned the Roman church: “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).

To try to overcome sin by focusing on it has the exact opposite effect that we want in our lives. If we are fixated on what we do wrong and trying to figure out how to conquer the bad behavior, we will always come to some sort of plan that involves our own willpower and determination. When that happens, it doesn’t matter how sincere we might be, we are setting ourselves up to fail. Taking an approach that contradicts what the Bible says about our sins won’t work despite the fact that we are sincere and even ask for God’s help. He will not help us with our method, but will instead let us fail until we come to the place where we are willing to learn and accept His answer concerning our sinful actions.

Any approach we take in overcoming our own sins through self-discipline is legalistic because it stirs up within us the false hope that there is something we can do to defeat it. The reality is that we don’t have to conquer our sins because Jesus Christ already has defeated sin. When we try to do what He has already accomplished we are then denying the sufficiency of His grace in the matter and are attempting to utilize a legalistic method to do it ourselves. Legalistic methods doom us to failure. Paul wrote that, “sinful passions are aroused by the law” (Romans 7:5). He warned the Corinthians who were trapped in sinful behavior that, “the strength of sin is the Law” (1 Corinthians 15:56).

Legalistic attempts to overcome sins by self imposed rules and self-determination are to sins what gasoline is to a flame. It won’t stop it but will make matters worse. The only way to enjoy victory over sin is to rest in the victory that is already ours because of Christ’s finished work. He defeated sin once and for all. Transformation comes to our lifestyle when we simply believe that reality and stop trying to do something that He has already done. We simply rest in His victory and direct our attention to Him. When we do that, the sins that have wielded power over us fall aside into impotency.

Forgive & Forget?

What about this matter of forgiving and forgetting? Are we really required to forget the wrong things others have done to us? That’s not what the Bible teaches. Not even God does that. You may have raised your eyebrow in doubt about that statement, but it’s true. The Bible doesn’t say that He forgets our sins. It says that He doesn’t remember them. Although many may think the two are the same thing, they aren’t.

To forget means just that. It means we have no ability to bring to mind the forgotten thing. How could we possibly do that with some of the terrible hurts we’ve suffered in life? It’s not possible. What we can do though is to not remember. As I’ve said, there’s a big difference.

What does it mean to remember? Look at the word itself. It is comprised of two words: “re” and “member.” “Re” is a prefix that means, “to return to a previous condition” or “the repetition of a previous action.” The word “member” means, “one of a group; one that belongs, a part of the body.” So the accurate and literal meaning of the word “remember” is to return something to a previous condition by making it belong to or join again. If I cut off my finger, the doctor may be able to re-member it if I get to him with it in time.

The Bible doesn’t say God forgets our sins. People sometimes talk about the “Sea of Forgetfulness” many have heard mentioned at times, but that phrase is not in the Bible. The idea was taken from Scripture and it is found in Micah 7:19 where it says: "He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." That’s probably where the idea of a “Sea of Forgetfulness” comes from, but note that’s not what the Bible says. It says He will separate our sins from us forever. He doesn’t forget but he does remember them no more. In other words, He will forever refuse to join our sins to us or our past guilt to Himself. He will not remember them!

To illustrate the literal use of the word in a positive way, think about what Jesus said at the Last Supper to His disciples. When they partook the meal together, He told them, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25, emphasis added).

What did He mean by that? He meant, “As often as you partake of this communion meal in the future, do it in a way that you are appropriating the reality of your connection to me.” He wasn’t telling believers that when we take communion, we are to think in our minds and pretend that we are there watching His crucifixion. He is telling us to re-member, to affirm by faith that we are inseparably joined to Him and we affirm that reality again and again when we partake of the elements. Again, we are affirming and yes, even experiencing, our union with Him on the cross, in His burial and now in His resurrection life.

So our Father does not remember our sin anymore. Being omniscient means He knows everything so He hasn’t given up His omniscience and forgotten our sins. He simply refuses to ever “member them” to us or to Himself again.

That’s what we are to do when it comes to forgiveness toward others. Do we forgive? Yes, but not because we must. We do it because we have been forgiven and now have the ability and the desire to forgive those who have hurt us.

Do we forget? No, but neither do we “remember.” We release those who have hurt us from all obligation they have toward us and we refuse to join the offense to us again. Don't beat yourself up because you haven't literally forgotten about it. We may never forget, but as we walk in ongoing forgiveness the event itself will have less and less emotional impact on us when we think about it. We will come to a place where, although we haven’t forgotten, we don’t feel the pain of the situation anymore because we have been healed.

Will The Truth Set You Free? Not exactly...

The suggestion that the truth will set you free is another one of those statements whose untruthfulness can be seen from several vantage points. First, and foremost, the problem with the statement is what it leaves out. To suggest that the truth will set you free is only a partial quote from Jesus Himself. What He actually said, in its totality, is “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

Truth alone has no ability to bring about any change in our lives. The Pharisees proved that. Although they knew their Bible as well as anybody in their day, their knowledge of biblical content did nothing for them. To them, Bible study was an end unto itself. In other words, they studied the Bible to know the Bible. As strange as it may seem, that is a terrible reason to study Scripture. In fact, it can make a modern day Pharisee out of you!

We don’t study the Bible to learn its contents. We study the Bible to know its Author. It is only as the Scripture leads us into an experiential knowledge of our God that it has fulfilled its purpose in our lives. Remember that Jesus told the Pharisees, “These are they which testify of Me” (See John 5:39) If you’ve found something other than Jesus Christ through Bible study, you’ve missed the point. Again, we don’t study the Bible to learn it. We study it to learn Him.

The modern church world has taken the idea that the truth will set you free and has mistakenly believed that learning the propositional truths of Scripture will change us. Because of that viewpoint, they’ve turned the Bible into a handbook of religious guidelines. Ask them if the Bible is a book of guidelines for life and most will say no, but watch the way the application of Scripture to people’s lives is made in sermons and Bible studies and you’ll come to a different conclusion about what they really believe.

There is often much application about what we are to now do that mentions nothing about knowing our Savior more intimately. Some may call this sort of teaching “practical,” but I think a better term for it could be “Christianity Lite” because its emphasis is so heavy on religious performance and so light on Christ Himself.

Unless many find a biblical “principle” of some sort and then show how that principle should guide our actions, they think the teaching isn’t practical. In reality, the demand for “practical teaching” in the church world today is a subtle mask for an underlying hunger to do something as opposed to knowing Someone. There’s certainly nothing wrong with understanding the practical ways that Christ wants to express Himself through our daily lifestyle, but the problem that often exists is that “biblical principles” are taught in such a way as to suggest that the aim of “Christian living” is to do right and nothing could be further from the truth. Remember, it’s about knowing Him. All the “doing” will flow from that. When we reverse the two, we end up with nothing more than dead religious works, regardless of how admirable they may look to everybody around us.

We have not been called to live by biblical truths. We have been called to live by The Truth, who is the indwelling Christ. He is our life-source and animates our daily actions, not religious determination to act on information we might have learned. At times when I have shared a message from the Bible that focuses on Jesus Christ and somebody tells me that they wished the message had been more practical, I shudder. Where did we ever get the idea that telling people what to do is a better way to teach the Bible that showing them who their God is? Jesus came to reveal the Father to us, not to tell us how to live. If that was His purpose in the world, doesn’t it seem reasonable to argue that that’s a good purpose statement for those who profess to follow Him?

Many think that if we build our lives around biblical principles then we’ll experience the life God intends for us. The result is that there are a multitude of religious programs designed to help us learn the content of the Bible. We are largely a generation of Christians who think that the better we learn the Bible, the better life will be. “Christian education” has become a matter of memorizing Scripture at the novice end of the spectrum and parsing Greek verbs at the advanced end. But if that’s the only thing that has happened, the result is a person who has some degree of Bible education but still hasn’t been set free to really live. Studying the Bible is not enough. We must engage with the Spirit of Christ through the Scripture to find real freedom. Facts only enlighten us. The Truth emancipates us!

God Didn't Change Your Life

The claim that God changed your life at salvation leaves the false impression that there was something about you that simply needed an overhaul. It suggests that He cleaned up our lives, fixed what was wrong, and straightened everything out for us. We flatter ourselves if we think that’s the case.

Mankind wasn’t merely a group of sin-sick people who needed religious medicine before Christ came. As we have already seen, we were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). There’s nothing you can do for a dead man. He’s dead. You can bathe him, dress him up, and prop him up, but when all has been done, he’s still dead. A dead man needs just one thing – resurrection.

The idea that God changed your life typically is interpreted to mean that it’s a behavioral change that happens at salvation. We used to be sinful acting unbelievers but now we’re walking the straight-and-narrow. The old timers used to call that experience “getting religion” and they were right. Religion is about changing our behavior but grace is altogether different. While faith in Christ most certainly changes a person’s behavior, the gospel is much more than that.

Isaiah 40:31 says, “Yet those who wait for the Lord shall gain new strength.” The Hebrew word “gain” can be translated “renew” or “substitute.” When missionary Hudson Taylor was reading that verse and studied that single word, it transformed his life. In the days ahead he coined the phrase, “the exchanged life,” because he saw the reality that our lives aren’t merely changed at salvation, they are exchanged. What I normally call the grace walk, he called the exchanged life. They both mean the same thing. When we hear and believe the gospel, our Father takes the person we were, puts that person to death, and gives us a brand new life in its place. It is His Life we receive!

The person you were before you were a Christian died and was exchanged for a new life in Christ. At the cross Jesus Christ absorbed into Himself everything bad about us, including our old identities in Adam. When we trusted in Him, we receive everything good about Him, including Christ Himself.

In Romans 6:6, Paul said, “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin would be destroyed.” There it is: the old man died. Romans 6:3 says, “Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus, were baptized into his death” (emphasis added). We died with Him. The New Testament says this over and over again.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Colossians 3:3-4

Do you see the importance of making this distinction between your life being changed at salvation versus it being exchanged? The former would suggest that now you are simply an “improved you,” which isn’t at all the case. You are a new you! Every residue of the old sinful spiritual DNA you inherited from Adam was crucified. It is dead and buried! You have been raised to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4) because Christ is your very Life-Source now.

This understanding of salvation puts the finished work of the cross in its proper perspective. Jesus didn’t come to straighten up the mess Adam made. He came to undo the damage done in the garden by totally reversing its effect in our lives. In Adam we became sinners, but the finished work of Christ does much more than change us by cleaning us of our sin. His work took our old Adamic life and put it away forever. Hebrews 9:26 says that He came to “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”

Your sins aren’t just forgiven now. They’re gone! In the wonderful imagery of the Psalms, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). The apostle Paul explained how God did this: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Look carefully at what this verse says. Our Father took our sins and gave them to the sinless Christ — the basis of our forgiveness, taking our sins away and separating them from us as far as the east is from the west. But that’s not all! He also took the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and gave it to us! That’s the basis of our justification, our verdict of “not guilty” before the Supreme Judge of all. There again you see that God’s work in Christ is not just a “change” but a total exchange. Debunking the lie that God changed you and embracing the full truth about the matter will liberate you to rise up to your full potential as His transformed child.

Does God Speak Only Through The Bible?

To suggest that our God speaks to us in any way outside the Bible is to walk on thin ice with many people. Make no mistake about the fact that your Father will never speak to you in a way that contradicts what the Bible says, but the teaching that He only can only speak to you when you read the Bible is a lie that will prevent you from hearing Him at many other times. Our God speaks in many ways and if we have the ears to hear Him speak in those ways we will find unlimited opportunities to hear His voice.

He can speak to us through nature. Have you never heard Him declare His greatness as you stared into the night sky filled with stars? He speaks through music. Remember the times your heart has been stirred as you’ve listened to somebody sing a particular song that you knew was speaking directly to you? He certainly can speak to us through other people. Haven’t you ever talked to a friend in a time of need, and found that they had said something to you that helped? Maybe they gave you advice or encouraged you in some way, and you believed you heard the voice of the Lord in it?” He can speak in too many ways to list. He speaks through culture, through art, through circumstances and in countless other ways.

The viewpoint I’m offering here may provoke some people to think that I’m diminishing the value of the Bible, but I am not. What I am doing is magnifying the ability of our Father to make Himself heard to us. Don’t limit Him by your perspective because you’ll do yourself a great disservice.

The Bible itself affirms the fact that God speaks to the human race in other ways. The Psalmist wrote: The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world (Psalm 19:1-4).

The Scripture says that the heavens declare the glory of God. As this Psalm says, there is no audible voice, but “their utterances” go out “to the end of the world.” The voice of the Creator comes through the heavens. It’s the Lord speaking, declaring His glory to us through nature. In Romans 1:18-21, Paul says that the whole world can see God through the things He has created. The evidence is undeniable.

However, there is much more. Hebrews 1:1-2 says, God, after He spoke long ago in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

The Father’s ultimate expression to us is through His Son, Jesus Christ. Our God hasn’t stopped speaking. He is still speaking to us because Christ is the Word of God and He lives and is still active. Remember how John described Jesus in the beginning of his gospel?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. . . . And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Who is Jesus Christ? He is the living Word of God who has taken on a human nature and body, now the Word of God made visible and audible. And this same Jesus, now risen and glorified, lives in you and me!

One major reason it’s important to know that God speaks in many ways is because if you believe the lie that He only speaks through the Bible, then the only thing it takes to cause you to be deaf to hearing God speak is for the enemy to keep you from reading the Bible. But if you understand that your Father speaks in a multitude of ways then you can go through your day with your eyes and ears wide open, and you hear the divine lover, your Heavenly Father, the Lord Jesus, speaking to you in many ways throughout your day. Don’t fall for the lie that God only speaks through the Bible. He does speak that way, but if you restrict yourself to that alone, you’ll miss hearing His loving voice many times throughout your day.

Lie #37 You Need An Accountability Partner

(Here's the last section I wrote yesterday as I was working on the manuscript, 52 Lies Heard In Church Every Sunday.)

I realize that I’m really getting out into the deep water with this one, because I’m criticizing a strong current fad. It is vogue and fashionable now in the church world to teach people that they must have an accountability partner, but there are some real problems with how this is understood and practiced, assuming your concept of it fits the general view of its meaning that I’ve encountered in many places.

If you’re not familiar with this concept, an accountability partner is usually the title for somebody you meet with every week and you divulge your darkest secrets. You tell them about your greatest struggles, and they hold you accountable to make sure you are living in the right way and doing the right things.

The way this practice is promoted is that you are supposed to give your accountability partner a license to be hard on you, to demand answers, and jump on you if you are falling short. You have to be truthful about your deepest darkest sins. You have to reveal any and everything, from whether or not you read your Bible enough this week, to whether you have had had your quiet time or had dirty thoughts. You have to be totally “transparent,” which is the word you hear over and over. And remember, “transparent” literally means that you can see everything. Here you see one of the limitations of such a stringent set-up: The value of an accountability partner is no better than your willingness to be honest with the person you are talking to. The reality is that only you and God will know the truth about that.

Now that may not be the way you think of the term “accountability partner,” but as I travel and speak in a lot of places that is how I often hear it presented. The matter I’m discussing here isn’t the idea of having a good friend with whom you can be honest and who encourages you by calling forth the best for you. The essence of what I’m challenging here is accountability. Affirmation that helps you grow in your love for Jesus is a different scenario altogether.

The truth is you don’t need somebody to police your daily lifestyle. You don’t need somebody to evaluate you about whether or not you are doing the things you think you need to be doing. Do you hear the legalistic undertones of that? It’s always about “I should be doing this or I should be doing that.” Or, that “I must be avoiding this or that. I need you, my friend, to put on a sheriff’s badge every week and sit down with me, challenge me, and ask me if I’m doing those things or not. Hold me accountable.” It’s an admission that “I need you to make me do the right things and avoid the wrong things, because otherwise I’ll do the wrong things.”

Once you look at it that way, you can see that this is an extreme action to take. Now, if you have a specific area of life where you are having trouble making a change; an area where you want encouragement — fine. Ask a trusted friend for help, because that will be an honor for a true friend. But to say I need it as a lifestyle because I can’t live an ordinary Christian life is a sign that there are far bigger things wrong.

The idea of an ongoing accountability partner is just not a fit with the grace walk way. Put this into perspective: We all need good Christian friends. The Bible has a lot to say about our role to help, encourage, and counsel one another. Maybe you have a person in your life you have called an accountability partner, but you don’t have the kind of relationship I’ve already described. Instead, you have the kind of relationship where you meet together to encourage each other and lift each other up, and you pull each other up toward your best. If so, that is good! We all need to be encouragers, and we need encouragers in our lives.


TAKE A FRESH LOOK AT THE SCRIPTURES
The common idea of an accountability partner is a cheap counterfeit of an authentic relationship based on trust and encouragement, and it actually gets in the way of our applying that kind of relationship. We do need each another. God has built us so that we are not meant to live out our lives alone. The New Testament speaks often about the positive effects we have on one another. For instance, Paul wrote, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

On another occasion, he said, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor. . . . Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:10,15).

To the Thessalonians, he wrote, “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1 Thessalonians 5:14).
The writer of Hebrews encourages us, “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

I believe that if you read those verses carefully and notice their prevailing tone, you’ll agree that they sound very different from the heavy-handed “accountability partner” concept. Ask yourself: How would you like to be the recipient of other believers’ attention in the way those verses describe? Of course you would! Who wouldn’t want to be treated that way?

But the accountability partner movement comes across more like the secret police. It’s simply Pharisaism in modern dress.

Is there ever a time when it is appropriate to correct each another, to tell each other when we’re wrong? Yes, there is – assuming that we have the kind of relationship with each other that makes it a perfectly acceptable expression of authentic love. Paul described it this way: “And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to admonish one another” (Romans 15:14).

Yes, there are times when to tell each other when we’re wrong is an expression of love. If you’re going the wrong way, it’s a blessing and an act of loving ministry for somebody to tell us we’re going in a dangerous direction. The Old and New Testaments agree on this. One proverb says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy” (Proverbs 27:6).

However, no matter how much the Bible discusses the blessings of the help we can offer one another, the best truth of all about this is that God has already given us the best Encourager possible -- the indwelling Holy Spirit. Jesus said these things as He predicted the coming of the Spirit: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever, that is the Spirit of truth …” (John 14:16-17).

We have the Holy Spirit in us. We have the Holy Spirit to guide us. He is the one who will show us when we are not living up to who we are in Jesus Christ. He is the best accountability partner you’ll ever have in life.

The word translated “Helper” is the Greek word parakletos, from which we get the term, “paraclete.” It means “one who comes alongside” to help and strengthen. It can mean a defense attorney, or a counselor. That is the role of the Holy Spirit. Think about it: You have God Himself, that is, the Person of the Holy Spirit — Christ’s empowering presence — in you to counsel, teach, correct, strengthen, and help you. What a difference that could make, if we were more aware of the resources God has already made available to us.

CLARIFY YOUR THINKING
Don’t think I’m suggesting that it’s not good idea to have a friend with whom you are completely honest. I haven’t said that nor do I believe it. However, I do challenge the assertion that you need an accountability partner, in the sense that there is somebody that you need to always be accountable to about confessing your sins and vulnerabilities, and answering to whether or not you’ve done the right or wrong things. I believe that is a perversion of the biblical truths about the help we should give each other. And even more serious, it can obscure the even greater truth that the Holy Spirit is your accountability partner. He will nurture and lead you, and encourage you onward and upward.

Finding Contentment Wherever We Are

Contentment with where we are in life is a great blessing. A scene from an old TV program illustrates the point well. The following is a conversation between Jed Clampett and Cousin Pearl in the television program "The Beverly Hillbillies." The conversation took place right after Jed discovered oil had been struck on his land.

Jed: Pearl, what d’ya think? Think I oughta move?

Pearl: Jed, how can ya even ask? Look around ya. Yore eight miles from yore nearest neighbor. Yore overrun with skunks, possums, coyotes, bobcats. You use kerosene lamps fer light and you cook on a wood stove summer and winter. Yore drinkin’ homemade moonshine and washin’ with homemade lye soap. And yore bathroom is fifty feet from the house and you ask, “Should I move?”

Jed: I reckon yore right. A man’d be a dang fool to leave all this!

In a fallen world whose very matrix for life revolves around having, doing and being more, how is to a believer to find contentment? How do we experience a heartfelt satisfaction with life in a world that so works against that very thing? God has not left us without biblical examples and guidance for finding contentment despite the forces of life which work to the contrary.

The Apostle Paul lived in a turbulent environment that was hardly conducive to a life of contentment. If contentment came from circumstances, he didn’t stand a chance. He said that he had been imprisoned, beaten more times than he could count, and was often in danger of death. He had been stoned, stranded out in the middle of the ocean for a day and night, sometimes went without sleep or food. He knew what it was to sleep outside, exposed to cold weather. (See 2Corinthians 11:23-27)

In view of these things, Paul made a striking statement in Philippians 4:11 when he said, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” How could he learn to be content, considering the kind of lifestyle he experienced? “I have learned to be content,” he said. What lesson taught him that?

What would enable him to write a letter from prison telling his friends, “Even if I am executed here and now, I’ll rejoice . . . join me in my rejoicing. Whatever you do, don’t feel sorry for me” (Philippians 2:17 The Message). Later in Philippians 3:1, he wrote, “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same thing again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.” Then again, he wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (4:4)! These were the words of a man who thought he was on death row.

The Key to contentment is a calm confidence in Jesus Christ. When the world around us seems to be crumbling, we can know that our contentment in life doesn't come from the external world around us, but from Him. Don't seek to draw life from the external, but know that your life source is in the Eternal. With that view in mind, we can find contentment wherever we may find ourselves.

Just How Plain Spoken Should We Be?

I'm an easy going guy. I like to laugh and joke and play. I stayed in trouble as a kid in school because my teachers often failed to appreciate my humor. My yearbooks all have notes where other students referred to me as "the class clown."

When it comes to teaching about God's grace, I think it's important to be known as a loving person. Religion makes people mean spirited but grace doesn't do that to us. Grace nurtures the heart of Jesus in our attitudes and actions.

The question arises though, "Is there ever a time to be harsh? To be so plain spoken to the point that we run the risk of being called unkind?" I think there is. If you were to see an old woman being beaten up by a thug, would you become angry? If you were to witness a child being abused by an adult, would you become angry? The fact is that there are times when it's inappropriate not to be angry and not to speak plainly.

If we're known for being angry and harsh all the time, that's an indicator that something's not right somewhere in our attitude and paradigm. But, conversely, if we don't ever rise up and speak boldly, something is wrong there too. When people are abused, love compels us to not only care but to be passionate in our response.

There is no greater spiritual abuse that exists than that of religious legalism. Modern day Pharisees are just as dangerous as they were in Jesus day. The word "Pharisee" means "those separated" (Abrahams, Studies in Pharisees and the Gospels) and refers to the sect in Jesus day who judged and condemned people because they didn't live up to the standards the Pharisees believed were expected by God. Pharisees were authoritarian, arrogant and autocratic in the way they deal with other people. Jesus encountered them many times.

Paul deal with the Judaizers in Galatia. They were similar to the Pharisees in numerous ways. Perhaps they were even more subtle and dangerous because they didn't openly oppose Jesus like the Pharisees did. To the contrary, they argued that if the Galatian Christians wanted to really be godly and grow spiritually there were things they must do to make spiritual progress. The starting point was that they should be circumcised, they told these Christians.

Both Jesus and Paul were outraged by these religious abusers and held back nothing in the way they spoke about them and to them. Here's what Jesus had to say to the Pharisees:

Matthew 23:15-17 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? (The Greek word translated "fools" in verse 17 is the word moros, from which we get the word "moron.")

Matthew 23:27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. (NASV

Remember, these words were from Jesus, the One the Bible says came from God, "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14)

Then there was the Apostle Paul, arguably the most powerful Christian in the history of the church. Here's what he said to the Judaizers whose heavy handed ways threatened the message of grace among the Galatians:

Galatians 1:8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! (NASV) The word “accursed” is the Greek word anathema and means "to be condemned to destruction; to be damned.”

Here's the way another translation says it:

Whoever tells you good news that is different from the Good News we gave you should be condemned to hell, even if he is one of us or an angel from heaven. (God’s Word Translation)

Speaking of the big emphasis on circumcision the Judaizers had, Paul wrote:

Galatians 5:12 I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. (NASV)

An older version says:

I would that they that unsettle you would even go beyond circumcision. (American Standard Version)

Get the point? I like the Old King James Version, which says that Paul wished they "were altogether cut off."

"You like cutting things off?" Paul asked. "Then keep cutting until there's nothing left to cut off!"

Another time he encountered these legalists, he called them "dogs." In Philippians 3:2, he wrote, Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. (NIV)

Okay, here's the point we must get: Grace doesn't mean that we have to act syrypy-sweet in how we relate to every person. There are times when we need to speak up and speak out. There's a time to be bold and plainspoken and when innocent people are being abused, that's the time! There are indeed still "dogs" and "morons" out there hurting God's children and there's nothing wrong with you pointing that out. In fact, love demands it.

You Might A Legalist When . . .

You have so many restrictions on yourself that you can get turned on by Minnie Mouse.. then again, maybe I'm just "violating my conscience" :)

Free Will Isn't As Free As We'd Like To Think

Do you remember when you first began to consider the claims of Christ? Up until that time, you didn’t seek to know Him. Maybe you had no interest whatsoever in spiritual things. Maybe you held a sense of religious respect toward Him, but following Jesus wasn’t high on your list of goals.

Then things changed. Do you remember when you found your thoughts moving, not away from Him, but toward Jesus? You found yourself thinking in ways you had never thought. Your interest in Christ began to grow until you were actually attracted to Him.

What brought about the change? Was it some spiritual virtue within you that had been lying dormant until now? Not according to the Bible. Remember the passage already quoted from Romans 3. Unless the Holy Spirit begins to draw people to Christ, “they never give God the time of day.” Jesus, Himself, said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him . . .” (John 6:44).

You are a believer because the Divine Lover enticed you by His love. He miraculously stirred you to life and caused you to want Him. You would have never wanted Him on your own. It is His love alone that initiates and consummates our salvation.

Jesus loves you enough that He supernaturally seduced to you Himself. By revealing His beauty and his passion for you, He loved you until you loved Him right back! You are a Christian for one simple reason – Jesus Christ decided that He wanted you and wouldn’t give up until you were His.

What about your will in salvation? Don’t we exercise our own free will? Consider how the following marriage metaphor might help in answering that question.

Suppose a husband has a desire for physical intimacy with his wife one morning, but she’s not in the mood. However, he knows her well and understands what it takes to “put her in the mood.” So he determines to change her mind through the course of the day.

He has heard Gary Smalley say that “love making begins in the kitchen,” so he washes dishes after mealtime, telling her to relax, that he’ll handle it all. He has heard James Dobson teach that women want to feel valued, so he expresses sincere verbal appreciation for his wife. He remembers reading where Tim LaHaye suggested that women want romance, not just sex. So he leaves a red rose and a love note on his wife’s pillow before she goes to the bedroom that night.

All throughout the day and the evening, this husband diligently expresses love to his wife in non-physical ways. He takes these steps because he sincerely loves her. However, he does want a particular response from her. He acts toward her in ways that he knows she will understand as expressions of love from him.

That night, he holds her in his arms. He begins to tenderly kiss her. . . Maybe I should stop there. Do you know what happens then? Her will is changed. Because of her husband’s love for her and the effective ways he has expressed it all day, she finds that her will has been changed to align with His will.

On the next morning, after being ravished (see Proverbs 5:18-19) by her husband’s love, the question may be asked. Whose will was it that determined how the events of the night before unfolded – his or hers?

It’s true that she exercised her choice in the matter. However, the fact is that her will had been taken captive by her husband’s love until it became one with his will. You might say that his seductive love refused to be satisfied until her will was “brought to life” to align with His.

Jesus loves you so much that He orchestrated the details of your life to guarantee that your will which was “dead to Him” would be made alive. He gave you a will to know Him or you never would have wanted Him at all. The Bible says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

Are You Qualified?

Do you qualify to be a conduit through which our triune God can extend His grace in this world? Don’t think for a moment that it's the people who have worked out their spirituality to the place where they’re in a different league than you who are better suited to be ambassadors of agape. The truth is they are more like you than you may want to know, but you need to know it because, by knowing that there are no Super Saints, you may be more likely to believe that God can bless you in advancing the cause of His grace in this world.

One guy said to me, “If you only knew the things I’ve done, you’d know why God couldn’t use me.” “Really?” I asked. “Are the things you’ve done worse than murder? Adultery? Stealing? Lying? Drunkenness?” Read the list of those mentioned in Hebrews 11, the “faith-chapter” that lists those set forth for us as examples of faith from biblical history. Look at their lives individually. They did everyone of those things and more.
As you consider their sins, remember that the sinful things they did were, for the most part, after they had been called by God and began to follow Him. So don’t try to fall back on the yeah-but-my-sins-were-done-after-I-trusted-Christ excuse. So was theirs.

Check out that list in Hebrews 11. Then go back and look at the things the Old Testament tells us about what they did. After doing that, you may be inclined to ask, “Is this the best God can do if He wants to give us a list of people who had great faith and were mightily used by Him?” Yes, it is. So don’t think God can’t use you.

Don’t believe for one minute that anybody who sets himself up above you today, as if he has some spiritual advantage you don’t have, is telling you the truth either. This whole idea of there being super-saints in the church today who are somehow different from the rest of us is an enemy tactic meant to discourage us from thinking God can work through us. When we see them we may feel like we don’t measure up, but just remember looks can be deceiving. In spite of the way some religious leaders present themselves to us, the truth is that people are just people. We all have the same kind of struggles, doubts, temptations and weaknesses.

If you doubt that, then ask yourself again why God listed the kind of people He did in Hebrews 11. Maybe there’s a higher quality of saints in the world today? Maybe back then He listed them because there weren’t so many good examples as there are today? Yeah, right. You know that’s not true. People have always been the same and God has never looked for perfect people through whom He would work. He only looks for people who will completely trust Him – nothing else. You might not be able to clean up your act the way you’ve wanted to in the past but He isn’t asking you to do that. He’s just asking you to trust Him. You can do that much, can’t you?

I’m not suggesting that the gifts the Spirit has given to the church don’t distinguish some in ways that are different from others. We are each unique. What I am saying is that there are no second-class citizens in God’s kingdom and that you don’t have to think for one moment that you lack anything that would keep you from rising up at this very moment to be a powerful expression of holy love. In Jesus Christ, you have been made complete because you have all of Him and in Him resides the fullness of the Godhead.

Make no mistake about it. You're qualified. Just go now and dispense Love and watch what happens. You'll be amazed.

Freedom Fighters, Stand Strong!

We're done with it. The worn out, tired, legalistic approach to the Christian life that many of us have known for most of our lives has been tried in the balance and found wanting. Some of those legalistic habits have become a part of the doctrine of the modern church by simple osmosis.

Particular practices have been so embedded in the culture of the contemporary church world that it has become almost impossible for many to know what is a legitimate part of the church and what is man made tradition that has been added on along the way. When something is done long enough and has been sanctioned by the religious powers-that-be again and again, those things reach a place of privilege where it almost seems blasphemous to question them, but they must be questioned if the grace revolution is to succeed.

Over time it isn’t unusual for sacred cows to disguise themselves as sacred doctrines and to question them risks accusation and attack from those who find great comfort in the familiar and don’t want the predictable world in which they are well vested to be knocked off kilter by the silly nuisance of truth. The truth is that sacred cows aren’t sacred doctrines, but are idols. Grace revolutionaries are those who are willing to pull the mask off these sacred cows, exposing their hideous faces to the light of biblical truth. We don’t do it out of malice, but because we love our God, His Word and His church. They don’t die quietly, but they must die if the grace of God is to have free reign in His church again.

Change is coming to God’s church. It must and it is. The growing grace revolution will gain momentum as we each come to grip with our own understanding of God’s grace and see it be clarified and fortified by the Spirit of Grace Himself.

My goal isn’t to tear down, but to build up. I have no desire to be negative, but what are we to do when the threat of graceless discipleship sentences multitudes of Christians to a lifelong struggle accompanied by the constant self-condemnation inevitably joined to that struggle? Religion causes people to keep working to reach a destination they don't know they've already been miraculously transported to by grace.

Don't tell me I sound unloving. That used to work on me, but I'm past that now. I've seen too many massacred saints loved by Jesus and yet martyred by legalism. My love for them trumps my admitted displeasure at being criticized and misunderstood. So you can keep it to yourself. We grace revolutionaries are done with trying to play nice with the Pharisees. Lives are in the balance and we don't have time or interest in those silly games anymore.

I don’t want to be known for the things I’m against, but for the things I am for, but . . . A person who loves flowers will hate weeds. A person who loves health will hate disease. A person who loves grace will hate the things that take its place. That’s not unloving. That is love in action. Grace isn't a sicky-sweet expression on our face and a lilt in our voice and a wimpified attitude that turns us into religious pushovers. Our Jesus turned tables over in the temple and then used a whip to drive out those who desecrated God's house. So don't let anybody lay some false sense of guilt on you because you have the gall to show holy boldness. Religion will remind you to "stay in your place" but grace will turn you loose on the world.

The very nature of revolution is the uprooting and overthrowing of existing ruling powers in order to establish a new authority. That’s what must happen in the modern church world if we are to continue to make an impact on the world with the gospel. Legalism must be uprooted and supplanted with the message of pure grace. We're not going to do the goose-step march of the godzis anymore. Like it or not, we are going to walk in grace and all the freedom encompassed in that walk.

There has been an undercurrent of change that has been rising to the surface in the hearts and minds of many Christians lately. A generation of believers is emerging who believe that the performance based, let’s-just-rededicate-ourselves-and-try-harder, approach to the Christian life has had its day in the sun and its time has ended. We believe the chance of injecting life into the dead corpse of legalistic religion is a hopeless cause and believe that God’s answer is to restore grace to the center stage of His true church. We're here and want to be clear: we aren't going away.

Here we stand and we can do no other.

Being A Revolutionary

Martin Luther is remembered as the Reformer responsible for the start of the Protestant movement. But his original intention wasn’t to establish anything new. His desire was for reformation – a re-forming of the church so that it would again be an expression of what He understood the Bible to say that the church is intended to be. He had no interest in being seen as a rebel against the church. He wanted to be a facilitator of change, but in spite of all he could do to avoid it, he began to be seen, not as a facilitator, but as an instigator who refused to leave well-enough alone. Be advised: that’s a risk you will run if you become of part of the grace revolution that has begun in the church today.

Self-righteous, religious folks can’t stand grace for at least one reason. It takes them completely out of the limelight and gives all the glory to God. Tell the church leaders in Luther’s day that people’s good works didn’t move them one inch toward salvation and, like Luther, you would have been considered a heretic.

Today this fundamental fact about salvation probably makes sense to everybody who reads this. After all, the Protestant Reformation was five hundred years ago and the issue has long ago been settled. Works have nothing to do with salvation. Every Christian knows that. Though it was a controversial matter back then, that fact is a no-brainer in the church world today.

It’s a slightly different grace related issue that will get you into trouble with many in the church today. It’s not about salvation, but about sanctification – how a person becomes holy and then lives a holy lifestyle. Tell many at church that works don’t define salvation and they’ll say a hearty “Amen,” but tell them that the Christian life isn’t defined by works and you’d better take a step back and prepare yourself for the verbal lashing that is likely to follow.

Protestant denominations today have lapsed right back into the same errors that stirred Luther to action in his day. The difference is that the controversy then surrounded what it took to become a Christian while today the issue revolves around what it takes to become a "good Christian." It’s the same battle, just a different battleground.

To suggest that Jesus is the answer in both instances may seem obvious, but when you look at the message given in the modern church world, an unbiased observer would hardly come to that conclusion. Ask almost anybody in almost any contemporary congregation what a good Christian is and then listen as they describe all the things that person will be doing. They may have learned that at church but it sure didn’t come from the
Bible.

The fact of the matter is this: Christianity isn’t about what we do. Neither entering nor living the Christian life revolves around doing. It has only to do with Jesus Christ and nothing else. I didn’t say we won’t do anything so please don’t read into my words something I haven’t said. Of course Christians do, but we don’t do to be good Christians. We do precisely because we are good Christians. We’re good Christians, not because of anything we may do or not do, but because our good God has put His good Spirit in us where He lives and defines us, giving us our very identity. Your goodness has nothing to do with anything you do. It’s because of what He has done.

I can almost hear the voices now: “People may misunderstand what you’re saying and think works don’t matter at all!” That’s a risk anybody takes who teaches the pure grace of God, but it is a risk that must be taken if we’re going to avoid diluting the truth of the gospel. To make grace clear, we just have to run the risk. I've shared the following quote numerous times, but it warrants posting again:

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.


I hope you’ll begin to find yourself more and more addicted to grace and a biblical understanding of what it means to relax and simply allow Christ to live out His life through your lifestyle. If you get antsy when somebody like me talks about works not being the foundation of Christian living, keep studying the subject.

Works -- it always has been a hot topic in the church. It was the subject that triggered the revolution that led to reformation in Luther’s day and it’s the subject that the growing grace revolution hinges on today, five centuries later. Despite the fact that the Apostle Paul himself said that works and grace are impossible to mix, those who speak out boldly against works-righteousness as the basis of Christian living had better be prepared for resistance. The religious world hasn’t changed since Paul’s day or, for that matter, even Luther’s day when he addressed the subject as it relates to salvation.

Some have argued that “going too far with grace” can cause people to grow lax about sin in their lives. They imagine the Summer Youth Trip at the Local Community Church turning into a “Girls Gone Wild” video. That kind of assumption is totally ungrounded in reality. It ranks right up there with “There’s a boogey-man under my bed.”

Grace doesn’t cause people to go wild in sin. That’s a ridiculous idea perpetuated by two groups of people: (1) Those who are fearful because they don’t trust the Holy Spirit inside other people to lead them and (2) those who are afraid that they will lose control over other people if they actually begin to believe this grace teaching is true.

You can’t go too far with grace. That’s like saying, “don’t go too far with Jesus.” Paul wrote in Romans 5:17 that it is by the abundance of grace that we learn how to reign in life. The real threat to the church isn’t that we will go too far with grace, but that we won’t go far enough. Paul told Titus that the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodly behavior and empowers us to live like the righteous people we are. Show me somebody who is sinning and calling it grace and I’ll show you somebody who is telling a blatant lie. They’ve embraced disgrace and have given it a slanderous new name.

Do you feel an inner defense mechanism suddenly kick in when somebody like me starts to talk about how works aren’t the basis of the Christian life? If so, I encourage you to ask yourself why. Is it because you’re afraid that grace might cause people to become lazy or even passive? Grace won’t do that. The Apostle Paul commented on his own level of work when he said, “I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Paul was willing to put his works ethic in the Christian life up against anybody. What was it that he said gave him such a strong motivation for works? It was the grace of God at work in him. You don’t have to be afraid that grace will make people lazy. True grace never does that. To the contrary, it motivates us toward authentic righteous works as opposed to mandating artificial religious works that only masquerade as being righteous.

Grace is the only way to experience the life your Father wants you to know and enjoy. I need it. You need it. Everybody else needs it. Will you get onboard and join the grace revolution? You may not make fans in the religious world but I suspect that heaven will stand and applaud when you do.