Category Archives: Grace

What the Bible says about Grace

Don’t Bat an Eye at 40 Lashes

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So in the Old Testament Law of Moses, given to the Jews while they were in the “Promised Land” God says in Deuteronomy 25:3 that you may give a man up to 40 stripes [lashes].  Just to be safe the Jews made it a tradition to only lash someone 39 times in case someone counted wrong.  This sort of thing amuses me greatly.  Let’s obey the Law for righteousness, unless we can make a new, and improved Law.

I prefer the New Testament doctrine of grace, but often this gets screwed up to create new and improved grace, too.  If you’re adding or subtracting from the Bible to help it where God needed some clarification that you happen to have the perfection to offer, you’re probably a bit over-confident.

Grace, it’s what’s for breakfast, lunch & dinner.

From My Dad: Grace

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This was something my dad sent me by email that I thought was worth passing along to the Internet:

There are a great many Christians who do not understand what God intended by the word ‘grace’:

  • To the Calvinist, grace is something God forces on you.
  • To the Arminian, God offers a salvation by grace that is yours to both choose and to lose.
  • To the Open Theist, grace causes God to have the best of intentions, but if it doesn’t work out that way, He just can’t help it, and He didn’t know it wouldn’t work out, but at least you can relate to Him better because He’s more like you in those respects.
  • To the Charismatic, grace is real if and when you can feel it, to the extent it’s revealed to you.
  • To the Legalist, grace means that God isn’t quite as uptight and picky as He once was, but you’d better not forget that He’s still pretty uptight and picky – so get to work!

But to God, grace is an infinite aspect of His character, which is now the reigning principle, by which He enables and motivates all that we do, and in which we are to grow now, and which is so truly awesome that He will show – visibly demonstrate – His grace to us for all eternity.

I Call Shenanigans on Legalists

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I’m tired of hearing folks beat up other believers over some thing they need to be doing.  The latest one I just watched part of (until I couldn’t take any more and had to shut it off) was about how Christians need to be really overt and blatant about being Christians on Facebook or MySpace.  I’m not sure how your religious status on Facebook ties into your actual walk.  I am sure how your life and status updates in general can reflect your walk, but I’m pretty sure that they’re not the things that show your spiritual growth.  I love the idea of folks wanting to see passion in the lives of believers, but what about growth?  Growth is not just that you can quote Bible verses to people.  Growth doesn’t mean how intense you are about others “living according to the Bible” (by which they almost always mean rigid rules and standards).  Growth has very much to do with what Peter closed his second Epistle with:

You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There are subtleties in these last two verses that make me want to scream and shout at legalists.  The apostle is warning the readers to watch out for those who twist God’s word to their own destruction in the verses leading up to this thought.  He warns them with this in full view so that they would watch to not be carried away by the error of unprincipled men.  In the context of Paul there are two ways I have seen people take the message out of context: 1) Paul really was a closet legalist and wanted to see people burdened by the Law  or 2) Paul was too gracious (as in Romans 5 & 6).  Here’s the real deal: If you’re not being accused, like Paul, of saying people should be liberated to sin because you’re teaching grace like Romans 5 & 6 state clearly, then you’re not preaching grace appropriately.  And like Paul writes in those very same chapters: sin should not abound because grace is a motivator and motivates us to stop sinning and to be living a life of abundant abiding.  The measuring stick is not the Law, it’s grace.  Grace is a tough measuring stick because it is infinite.  Deal with measuring growth by grace like Peter suggests: grow in your understanding of it.

If you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not just by studying to be better, but by pursuing Him and His grace, you will grow in a measurable way: in context of grace.  Grace, as a motivator, leads us to righteousness, but it doesn’t lead us to a rigid system that burdens and beats up.  Grace leads to conviction unto relationship, legalism leads us to guilt and more flesh based works to try to make up for past failings.  I call shenanigans because there is no good deed that goes unpunished in a legal system.  Its not good enough.  It isn’t meritorious, it isn’t paying God back.  Grace is always sufficient.  Always.  Because its our justification in Christ that brings about our measurement in grace, it always measures up infinitely.

Christ when speaking to the woman at the well in John 4 talked about living water.  The woman at the well was obsessed with getting that living water and which well it came from.  Christ was referring to spiritual things that brought life abundant.  When legalists bring out their rulers for success and growth I scoff.  I used to have one of those rulers.  I used to pull it out, measure myself by it in front of other believers, and then go back to my sinning in private.  The legalist has outward works to judge by, but the heavenly minded believer doesn’t even see the ruler.  The legalist can sin in private without being caught (until they’re being caught and are then found in scandal) while the grace based believer finds himself out of fellowship and quickly comes back to the Father through the past forgiveness of sins due to the totally adequate work of Christ on the cross.  The legalist is constantly looking back wishing with regret that he had never sinned before while the gracious believer is constantly looking back at awe that the Lord forgave such a sin as the ones the believer committed.  One would give anything to change the past, the other sees that Romans 8:28 is true: God can use anything, even shenanigans, for good.  Give up the Law my Christian friends and the rulers that come with it, instead walk by faith in grace, grow in your knowledge of Grace, because it gets it definition, its source, and its motivation from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Substitutionary Atonement: One for All

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This year I’ve really gotten into watching baseball.  I think its in part because of my brother-in-law Kurt’s excitement for sports and my grandpa’s love for baseball.  Baseball is a pastime in this country and I am a fan.  I live near the Colorado Rockies’ stadium in Denver (20 minutes or so away) and I keep track of their activities with some regularity.  This last Friday their head coach, Clint Hurdles, was released from his position and was replaced by their bench coach as the interim coach.  This change is one I don’t agree with as a fan, but they didn’t ask me.  Here’s where the theology comes in: the first basement Todd Helton, a believer, was interviewed and had this to say:

“We should be held just as accountable as anybody. Obviously, he takes the sword for us.  He didn’t have any bad at-bats, he didn’t throw any bad pitches. He’s the same manager he was two years ago [editor: when the Rockies went to the World Series]. We realize that. We realize that ultimately we are the reason he got fired because we played bad baseball. We definitely feel responsible.”

There are times when one person takes the fall for a group.  Christ, being the only acceptable sacrifice for the sins of mankind made the sacrifice.  We all deserved the penalty for our not ‘playing well’ – there is no minor leagues for real life where you get to figure out this being a human thing and then bring it to the big game.  Instead you get to screw up in front of everyone, blow it miserably in front of anyone, and ultimately stand before God as having failed to live up to His glory (Romans 3:23) – accept if Christ took your place in judgment on the cross.  Then you were identified with His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seating.  The Rockies players know that they were saved from being dropped into the minor leagues because of their coaches sacrifice.

We know that without the sacrifice of Christ we would have nothing to stand before God with that would give us any confidence.  Instead of the worry of judgment for punishment, we look forward to a judgment for rewards.  One where heaven will become a place for a bride and the bride groom.  It will be a perfect game, one with no outs, endless innings, and no injuries.  Oh, and I think that there will be no stealing of bases 😉

Propitiation in Marriage Counseling

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This afternoon I saw a twitter message from PWilson (Peter Wilson) regarding a rough day counseling a couple.  Then at Bible Study we went over I John 4:8-12.  As we hit verse 10 it hit me like a charging pachyderm that counseling a couple (or individual) in sin may just need to start over at the beginning.  It is our tendency to start counseling in the middle of the problem.  Start by making sure that everyone knows how everyone feels.  The problem is that its the middle of the problem.

To start correctly you need to start at the beginning: are both parties believers?  If that’s a no then you’re going to have to address that first.  I will let the counselor figure out how to deal with presenting the gospel as the core issue in the case of an unequally yoked couple.  After establishing the salvation of both people the next and most important question is this: do they both know who they are in Christ?  If the believer doesn’t understand who they are in Christ then its very, very easy to only see who they are in the flesh [Romans 1 looks really different from Romans 5].  Go over the Unfathomable riches in Christ (AKA The 34 things) with the couple.

Propitiation is the term used to describe the accomplishment of Christ’s work on the cross from God’s perspective.  From our perspective we’re saved and redeemed.  From God’s perspective His righteousness is satisfied through the totally adequate work of Christ on the cross.  If that sounds familiar it is because Grace can be defined as the unlimited, unmerited blessings of God through the totally adequate work of Christ on the cross.

The fundamental question that the believer must ask when confronted with the sin of himself, herself, or others is this: if God is satisfied that the sin has been paid for, why am I still focused on it?  It isn’t that sin doesn’t hurt, but it is that the penalty for the sin has been paid for.  The flesh wants to look at the flesh, but the Holy Spirit calls us to look to the heavenlies for a God-centric focus [see: Colossians 3:1-4].  The past cannot be changed, but it can be paid for – is it?  Sins can be confessed, forgiveness can be asked – has it been asked for?  Did God forgive it? Why can’t I?

Believers have to be given the key to walking without sin.  Counseling unto reconciliation is awesome, but if you take them that far you need to walk with them until they recognize that they must continue to set their mind on things above so that they can be free from the bondage of sin through reckoning [See Romans 5-6, specifically 5:21, 6:11].  Reckoning isn’t a psychological game you play, it is the recognition that having been identified with Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seating (Ephesians 2:5-6, Colossians 3:3).

I have talked with two specific elders who do counseling at our church and they both have shared this concept with me, but it was the sequence of Peter Wilson and I John today that spurred me to put this to written form.  Two marriages, that I know of, have been resolved, restored, and grow in Grace to this day because of the principles outlined above.  I hope that this might be helpful for you, Peter and the entire body of Christ.

Preserving the Unity

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Recently at Bible Study I had the opportunity to teach through Ephesians 4:1-3.  The verse reads, “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” in the King James version.  What struck me about this was that I had failed to endeavor keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace on so many occasions that I was hardly qualified to speak on the topic from experience.  Instead I would have to humbly teach with examples of past failure: my life being an example of what not to do.  Without going into every failure, which could take far more time and introduce too much confusion, I abandoned unity because I had learned that doctrine divides and that good doctrine was to be prized above all and at the cost of anything.  While I’m still passionate about doctrine, the Lord has humbled me with the doctrine of Grace and its application in my own life.

You see Paul doesn’t start chapter 4 on its own, instead he starts it after a prayer that outline believers as family.  And before that he outlines who the individual is in Christ.  Nothing about the context of Ephesians allows for my radical and aggressive departures from various churches due to doctrinal differences.  Paul reminds the believer in 4:1 that he should be walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which he was called.  What calling is that?  The life of Christ being lived out through moment-by-moment relationship.  Each believer is called to this relationship with God first and foremost.  That way the life of Christ can be manifest in a daily walk.

Paul, not wanting to stop with the profundity that is a walk that is worthy of our calling, hits the believers up with an immense request in verse 2, “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;”  BAM!  Its as if Paul was shooting for the very foundation of the fleshly nature and goes in for the kill: no more pride.  Pride is what hits me and causes me to want to be right and dogmatic about things.  I have dear friends who have endured this pride and still love me (and my family) despite this intensity.  My parents told me growing up that I should consider being a lawyer because I loved to argue.  Over time my love for arguing has disappeared.  I’ve seen the arguments tear people down, destroy relationships and ruin church bodies.  It is not that the doctrine was not important, it was, but that the way that things were discussed rapidly escalated to the point of injured soldiers who were wounded from once friendly fire.

Paul writes that the believers should be lowly or humble, meek or gentle.  With patience the believers should forebear or tolerate with love.  Love!  I hate the term tolerance because it is so often used outside of the context of love.  We tolerate neighbors with house colors and decorations we don’t care for, but we don’t often love them.  Worse is that in the church we could ignore love and simply tolerate brothers and sisters whom we should know intimately enough that we could pray for them without ceasing (I Thes. 5:17), and as the Lord does things in the life of the body we never stop rejoicing (I Thes.5:16).  What wound can be caused between friends when they’re gentle and humble with one another?  What blow struck with the slowness of patience can be described as cutting and haughty?

It is with this attitude of moment-by-moment relationship, walking in a manner worthy of our calling, being humble, gentle, patient and tolerating in love that we are called to then endeavor or preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  If I were to say, “Hey brother (under the Father Eph.3:14-15), I have been walking with the Lord and meditating on His word and contemplating this doctrine for a while (in patience), and I think that we don’t see eye-to-eye and I would love to spend some time going over God’s word with you to see what He says about it so that we can preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” then you would say that I have come with a noble and yet humble attitude.  I didn’t come with a sledgehammer, but instead with graciousness and love.

Doctrine is critical.  It is the clear delineation of what should be God’s revealed truth.  But doctrine does not give us the right to depart or destroy others in the body at the onset of a disagreement.  Yes, there are biblical grounds for separation.  Yes, there are times when believers should part ways because one or more of the parties involved are not behaving in a manner worthy of the calling, but we don’t jump to that conclusion with haste.  We rest in Christ, we seek to preserve the unity.

The Greek for the word preserve or keep there implies a guarding or maintaining of something that is whole, to prevent the decay of that thing.  Unity is fragile, but in Christ it is not only positionally existent, but very easily possible for Him to preserve.  The Holy Spirit has preserved His word for thousands of years and there is not much of a chance that you or I could ruin that.  We’re called to a life that is rich and abundant together.  Consider that togetherness the next time you start to feel your blood pressure rise.  Consider tolerance in love.  Consider the opportunity you may have one day in the future where your failures could be offset by the illustration of God’s work in your life to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The Essence of Religion

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A quote from my Uncle, Eric Peterman, who puts things in a way I can really enjoy and understand them:

The essence of religion (and there are all colors) is to avoid the necessity of actual grace by contriving means by which I avoid offending God and by which I please God. In short, in that view I try to out-Grace God.

Grace needs to be amazing.  So amazing that we’re in awe of it.  If we try to live the Christian life without ‘using’ Grace we miss the point that it is the very life system by which we operate.

For You Have Not Come to a Mountain…

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Hebrews 12:18-24 is a powerful passage describing the contrast of the Old Testament Law with the New Testament position that the saint has.  The author of Hebrews writes with great brilliance as He points out the opposite nature of the Israelite at Mount Sinai and their relationship to the Almighty God and the saint’s relationship with the Almighty God in the New Testament.  One involves trembling, a sense of conviction and separation and the other a comfort and certainty.

Tonight at Bible study we looked at this passage and I was so impressed by the visual descriptions.  The graphical theology in this text is not unheard of in Hebrews, the author uses descriptive language to instill rich images in the mind of the reader, but this particular passage shows the weight of the Law in contrast to the waiting on the Lord.  When you read this passage meditate on God’s unfathomable presentation of who He is in both places yet how God’s work through Christ changes who we are in the heavenly place.  This is awesome.  We are sanctified by the blood that allows us to be present with the judge of all humanity.

Fundamentals for Maturity

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As I’ve grown in my walk with the Lord there are a list of concepts that I have found to be revolutionary and rooting in my walk:

  1. Identificaion Truths
  2. Positional Truths
  3. Abiding
  4. Hermeneutics
  5. Understanding of Covenants and Dispensations

Identification Truths
This is the concept that is presented strongly in Romans 6 and various other places confirm and expound on the idea that we were identified with Christ in His crucification, death, burial and resurrection. We were identified with Christ and so we therefore are not slaves to sin. We still will sin due to our bodies being strapped to the sin nature but that is why Paul writes that we should reckon our bodies dead. Instead of focusing on the flesh we should set our minds on the things above (Colossians 3:1-3).

Positional Truths
This is the concept that my position is in Christ. Right now I’m hidden with Christ (Colossians 3 again) and no matter what I do in this human body I am baptized into Christ and cannot be seperated from Him. My relationship with Christ should be consuming and not my keeping track of my condition. My condition is what I’m experiencing now on the earth. My position is perfect in Christ due to my identification with Him, but my condition can at times not match my position. However, as we walk in fellowship with Christ we will have our condition match our position. This is the process of sanctification, there is no hindrance to our sanctification we will be conformed to the image of Christ, even if we have ‘Jonah’ moments where we walk in the flesh and try to walk away. Ephesians 2:10 says that God has good works planned for us, which means that even if he needs to bring about a large fish to relocate us, get a donkey to talk to us, or bring us to the bottom of things in our condition, He is sanctifying our lives and conforming us to the image of Christ!

Abiding in Christ
Instead of trying to figure out what righteousness looks like in a to-do list fashion we should be focusing on our relationship with Christ. This guarantees us a righteous walk and that we will exceed any set of rules or laws that we may be able to construct. Instead of trying to live down to laws, which only put us into bondage, we need to abide in Christ (see John 15) and this will produce the fruit of Christ in our lives. Don’t get distracted by junk that you can do, but instead be focused on Christ who will do pure and rewardable things in your life!

Hermeneutics
This is a consistent and methodical approach to reading and understanding scripture. Inconsistancy in interpretation is one of the major reasons that there are differences in believer’s theology (that’s a rather obvious statement, sorry). Paul tells us that we need to be united in our doctrine and I think that one of the big issues that I see today in the church is that we don’t recognize that the author of scripture (the Holy Spirit) had one intended meaning for what He inspired through the human writers. I have written about hermeneutics before, you can read it here.

Understanding of Covenants and Dispensations
Understanding the major sections of scripture and the agreements God made with mankind helped me get a feel for the plan of God for the world. Understanding the Noahic covenant was critical in grasping God’s plan for grace, capital punishment, God’s provision for eating meat, and God’s faithfulness in not destroying the world with another flood. Then you learn about Abraham’s covenant, which is really God’s covenant with himself to Abraham and his descendents. After that you learn about God’s covenant with Israel, God’s covenant with David and then the New Covenant in Jeremiah. Grasping these covenants, seeing who they relate to, when they relate to and how they fit into the timeline of scripture is awesome and something I suggest every believer study and grow in.

From there you can grow in many, many areas because of God’s word being so amazing, but those things really helped me grasp my relationship with God and helped me understand the Bible more wholely. Reading scripture (or listening) and understanding what your reading makes it easier to grow as well as discern when others are teaching law or mis-understanding God’s word because you know what it means with certainty because you have a consistent method and a broader knowledge of the Bible.

Resting in Him,

Randy Peterman

I’ve Been Transfered, Thankfully

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In Colossians 1:12-14 Paul writes of our position being transfered from a domain of darkness to a domain of light:

giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
(Colossians 1:12-14)

This passage is in the middle of a recording of a prayer that Paul regularly prays for (at the very least) the church in Collosae [starting in verse 9]. Paul has already prayed for their spiritual growth and for their walk to be maturing, but then he gives thanks to God for a list of important things: God’s qualification of us to be sons (and daughters) that we might be inheriters of God’s Holiness. Paul continues to be thankful for our having been transferred from the domain of sin, the flesh and ultimately being children of Satan to being in the domain of Christ (how just happens to be our redeemer). Paul’s last bit of thankfulness is tied to our redemption in that we can be thankful for the forgiveness of sins.

In short I think there are several applications of this passage, but one that really stands out is that due to God’s work we are set aside into His Holiness so no matter what we do, we have God’s holiness that surrounds us. Since we have that holiness, since we have our sins forgiven we need to walk in that holiness, but if we somehow fail to walk in that then we need to not dwell in guilt, shame and self flagilation, and instead we need to return to our focus on God and His Holiness. We are transfered and the legal documents required of us to be heirs is done, signed, sealed and official. You can’t undo your salvation and God’s grace is completely sufficient. He’s not looking at your forgiven sins, why would you?