God's Part And Man's Part In Salvation

By John Reisinger - http://www.soundofgrace.com/

God and man must both do something before a man can be saved. Hyper-Calvinism denies the necessity of human action, and Arminianism denies the true nature of the Divine action. The Bible clearly sets forth both the divine and human essential in God's plan of salvation. This is not to say, as Arminianism does, "God's part is to freely provide salvation for all men, and man's part is to become willing to accept it." This is not what we said above, nor is it what the Bible teaches. In order to understand what God's Word really says, and to try to answer some straw dummy objections, we will establish the subject one point at a time.

ONE: A man must repent and believe the gospel in order to be saved. No one was ever forgiven and made a child of God who did not willingly turn from sin to Christ. Nowhere does the Bible even hint that men can be saved without repentance and faith, but to the contrary, the Word always states these things are essential before a person can be saved. The one and only Bible answer to the question, "What must I do to be saved?" is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

TWO: Every one who repents and believes the gospel will be saved. Every soul, without any exception, who answers the gospel command to come to Christ will be received and forgiven by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Philip Bliss put the truth to music when he said, "Who-so-ever will, forever must endure..." If we can be absolutely certain about anything, we can be sure that Christ will never void His promise to receive "all who come to Him." As old John Bunyan said, "Come and welcome" is the Savior's eternal word to all sinners.

THREE: Repentance and faith are the free acts of men. Men, with their own mind, heart, and will must renounce sin and receive Christ. God never repented and believed for anyone - and He never will. Turning from sin and reaching out in faith to Christ are the acts of man, and every man who so responds to the gospel call does so because he honestly desires to do so. He wants to be forgiven and he can only be forgiven by repenting and believing. No one, including God, can turn from sin for us, we must do it. No one can trust Christ in our place, but we must personally, knowingly, and willingly trust Him in order to be saved.

Now someone may be thinking, "But isn't that what the Arminian teaches?" My friend, that is what the Bible teaches–and teaches it clearly and dogmatically. "But don't Calvinists deny all three of those points?" I am not talking about or trying to defend Calvinists since they come in a hundred varieties. If you know anyone that denies the above facts, then that person, regardless of what he labels himself, is denying the clear message of the Bible. I can only speak for myself, and I will not deny what God's Word so plainly teaches!

"But haven't you established the doctrine of free-will and disposed of election if you assent man must repent and believe and it is his own act?" No, we have neither proven free-will nor disproved election since it is impossible to do either. We have merely stated exactly what the Bible says a man must do in order to be saved. Let us now look at what the Scripture says a sinner is able to do and what he is not able to do.

FOUR: The same Bible that states man must repent and believe in order to be saved also emphatically states that man, because of his sinful nature, is totally unable to repent and believe. All of man's three faculties of mind, heart, and will, which must be receptive to gospel truth, have neither the ability to receive such truth nor even the desire to have such ability. In fact the exact opposite is true. Man's total being is not only unable to either come, or want to come, to Christ, but every part of his nature is actively opposed to Christ and truth. Rejecting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is not a passive non-action, but a deliberate volitional choice. It is deliberately choosing to say "No" to Christ and "Yes" to self and sin. No one is neutral in respect to God and His authority. Unbelief is just as much a deliberate act of mind, heart, and will as is faith. This is what Jesus meant in John 5:40 when He said, "You will (you are deliberately making a choice) not to come to me." Yes, unbelief is an act of the will. In fact unbelief is active faith, but unfortunately it is faith in myself.

To believe and preach points one, two, and three, without also preaching number four is to grossly misrepresent the gospel of God's grace. It is to give a totally false picture of the sinner and his true need. It shows only half of the man's sin. It misses the most crucial point of a lost man's need, namely, his lack of power or ability to overcome his sinful nature and its effects. The gospel which is concocted out of this view is only a half gospel. It is at this point that modern evangelism so miserably fails. It confuses man's responsibility with his ability, and falsely assumes that a sinner has the moral ability to perform all that God has commanded. The cannot texts of scripture are either totally ignored or badly twisted by this perversion of the true gospel of God's saving grace.

Please note a few texts of Scripture that dogmatically state some things that a lost man cannot do:

Man cannot see - until he first be born again. John 3:3.

Man cannot understand - until he first be given a new nature. I Cor. 2:14.

Man cannot come - until he first be effectually called by the Holy Spirit. John 6:44,45.

We do not have space to go into all the cannots, but these three are sufficient to show that a sinner absolutely cannot (notice it is not will not) come to Christ until God first does something in that sinner's nature. That something is what the Bible calls regeneration, or the new birth, and it is the exclusive work of God the Holy Spirit. Man has no part whatever in regeneration.

FIVE: The new birth, or regeneration, is God giving us the spiritual life that enables us to do what we must do (repent and believe), but CANNOT DO because of our bondage to sin. When the Bible says man is dead in sin, it means that man's mind, heart, and will are all spiritually dead in sin. When the Bible speaks of our being in bondage to sin, it means that our entire being, including our will, is under the bondage and power of sin.

We indeed need Christ to die and pay the penalty of our sin, but we just as desperately need the Holy Spirit to give us a new nature in regeneration. The Son of God frees us legally from the penalty of sin, but only the Holy Spirit can free us from the power and death of our depravity in sin. We need forgiveness in order to be saved, and Christ provides complete forgiveness and righteousness for us in His death. However, we also need spiritual life and ability, and the Holy Spirit provides it for us in regeneration. It is the Holy Spirit's work of regeneration that enables us to savingly receive the atoning work of Christ in true faith.

God is a triune God, and no person can understand "so great salvation" until he sees each blessed Person of the Godhead playing a distinct and necessary part in that salvation. No man can declare the "glorious gospel of grace" and leave out the Father's sovereign electing love and the Holy Spirit's regenerating power as essential parts of God's work in saving sinners. To speak of God's part in salvation as only being one of providing forgiveness and man's part as being willing to accept it is to ignore both the Father's work of election and the Spirit's work of regeneration. This not only makes man a full partner with God in the work of salvation, it credits man with playing the decisive roll in the deal.

How dreadful, and ridiculous, to give Christ the glory for His work on the cross, and then give sinners the credit for the Father's work in eternity (election) and the Spirit's work in our hearts (regeneration). It does great dishonor to the Sovereign Spirit to say, "The Holy Spirit will perform His miraculous work of quickening you unto life as soon as you give Him your permission." That's like standing in a graveyard saying to the dead people, "I will give you life and raise you up from the grave if you will only take the first step of faith and ask me to do it." What a denial of the sinner's total spiritual inability. Amazing!

The root error of the Arminian's gospel of freewill is its failure to see that man's part, repentance and faith, are the fruits and effects of God's work and not the essential ingredient's supplied by the sinner as man's part of the deal. Every man who turns to Christ does so willingly, but that willingness is a direct result of the Father's election and the Holy Spirit's effectual calling. To say, "If you will believe, God will answer your faith with the New Birth," is to misunderstand man's true need and misrepresent God's essential work.

SIX: The Scriptures clearly show that faith and repentance are the evidences and not the cause of regeneration. Suppose a man who had been dead for twenty years greeted you on the street one day. Would you conclude that the man had gotten tired of being dead and decided to ask a great doctor to perform a miracle and give him life? I'm sure you would, instead, exclaim in amazement, "Man, what happened to you? Who brought you back to life?" You would see he was alive because he was walking and breathing, but you would know these were evidences of a miracle having been performed on him from without and not the results of his own power or will. Just so when a spiritually dead man begins to perform spiritual acts such as repentance and faith; these spiritual fruits show that the miracle of the new birth has taken place.

Let me illustrate this with a biblical example. Acts 16:14 is a clear proof of the above. By the way, as far as I know, this is the only place in the New Testament that uses the phrase opened heart, and the Bible gives the whole credit for this opening to God's power and not to man's will. Modern evangelism does the exact opposite and credits the opening of the heart to the power of man's free will. Remember that we are not discussing whether man must be willing to open his heart. We settled that under points One, Two, and Three. We are now looking for the source of power that enabled man to perform that spiritual act. Arminianism insists that man's free will must furnish the willingness or power, and the Bible says that the Holy Spirit of God furnishes that power or ability in the new birth.

Let us examine the one text in Scripture that uses the phrase "opened heart" and see if it agrees with our previous points:

And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. (Acts 16:14)

The NIV says:

The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.

First of all we note that Lydia did indeed attend or listen to the words of Paul. She gladly heard and willingly believed his message. As we have already shown, she had to do this in order to benefit from the gospel and be saved. Lydia's attending, or hearing and believing, illustrates points One, Two, and Three above, and refutes Hyper-Calvinism (which says the elect will be saved regardless of whether they hear and believe the gospel or not). Lydia did indeed choose to believe, and she did it only because she wholeheartedly wanted to. She did not do it unwillingly nor did God hear and believe for her. It was her own response and it was a most willing response.

Next, we notice exactly what God did. We see here demonstrated what God must do before Lydia can be saved. (l) He provided a salvation of "by grace through faith" that could be preached. Obviously the things spoken by Paul were the gospel facts concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and surely this Lamb is God's gracious provision. (2) God also brought the message of His provision to Lydia. He sent a preacher to tell her about this great plan of salvation. God went to a lot of trouble to provide such a gospel - He gave His only begotten Son. He went to great ends to provide such a preacher as Paul - read about it in Paul's testimony in Act 22.

It is at this point that Arminianism departs from the Bible and proceeds to apply human logic to the above truths. They tragically fail to look at the rest of the biblical text and see that God must do something else. (3) God must open Lydia's heart (or give her spiritual life) so she will be able to believe. Her natural mind is blind, her natural heart is averse to God, and her will is in bondage to sin and spiritual death. Only the power of God can free her from this graveyard of spiritual depravity. The giving of this life and power is solely the work of God. Notice that the Bible explicitly gives God alone the credit for Lydia's heart being opened. If you do not see that in this text then you simply cannot read:

....whose heart the LORD OPENED...

Notice also how clearly the Holy Spirit teaches us the relationship between the cause and the effect in the conversion of Lydia. God was the One Who opened Lydia's heart, that is the cause, and He did so in order that she might be able to attend to the truths that Paul preached, that is the effect. Now that is what the Word of God says! Do not bluster about dead theology or throw Calvin's name around in derision, just read the words themselves in the Bible. If you try to deny that the one single reason that Lydia understood and believed the gospel was because God deliberately opened her heart and enabled her to believe, you are fighting God's Word. If you try to get man's free will as the one determining factor into this text, you are consciously corrupting the Word of God.

God's grace not only provides salvation, but His power also gives us the ability to both desire and receive it. He works in us both to will and to do. His working in us to will is the new birth, and, I say again, this work of regeneration is totally the work of the Holy Spirit.

The moment we lose sight of this distinction between being saved by faith (the act of man) and being born again by the Holy Spirit (the act of God), we are heading for confusion and trouble. We will be convinced that man is able to do what the Bible emphatically states he is unable to do. The necessity of the Holy Spirit's work being thus theologically denied, it will not be long before it is ignored in actual practice. This is the plight of modern day evangelism. Since they are convinced that the new birth is within the power and ability of man's will, their man made methodology has become far more important than the theology of the Bible. Organization and advertising become the absolute essentials to success while the necessary work of the Holy Ghost is all but forgotten. It is true that lip service is given to the need to "Pray for the Holy Spirit's guidance," and cards asking people to promise to pray every day are always sent out months in advance of the big campaign. However, some people are not sure if the promise to pray or the other pledge (to give money) which is always included (only your gifts can make this great campaign possible) is the most important to the success of the campaign.

But that's another subject for another day.

My Grace Is Sufficient For Thee

CHARLES SPURGEON TELLS THIS STORY:

The other evening I was riding home after a heavy day's work; I felt very weary and sore depressed, when, swiftly and suddenly as a lightning flash, the text came to me: "My grace is sufficient for thee." I said, "I should think it is, Lord," and burst out laughing. I never fully understood what the holy laugh of Abraham was till then.

It seemed to make unbelief so absurd. It was as though some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry, and the River Thames said, "Drink away, little fish, my stream is sufficient for thee."

Or, it seemed like a little mouse in the granaries of Egypt, after the seven years of plenty, fearing it might die of famine. Joseph might say, "Cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for thee."

Again, I imagine a man, way up yonder on a lofty mountain, saying to himself, "I breathe so many cubic feet of air every year; I fear I shall exhaust the oxygen in the atmosphere"; but the earth might say, "Breathe away, 0 man, and fill thy lungs evermore, my atmosphere is sufficient for thee."

Oh, brethren, be great believers! Little faith will bring your souls to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your souls.

(His Victorious Indwelling, Charles H. Spurgeon; Nick Harrison, Editor; Zondervan; p. 314)

Is Time A Great Teacher?

Hector Berlioz was a French composer, 1803-1869.

Interesting-looking, as you can see from his portrait above.

I have no idea if he had any interest in the Word of God.

But something he said makes me think again how important the Word of God and the Holy Spirit are to the believer.

Here's what Berlioz once said:

"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all of its pupils."

Well, "time" isn't that great of a teacher, actually.

It sometimes amazed Paul the Apostle how little spiritual maturity and knowledge some of his hearers had acquired, after years of living as a Christian.

But it reminds me that although it does take some time to learn and grow -- with the Word of God, with communing with the Lord through His Spirit, and with prayer and meditation  -- yet if we spend that time, it's astounding what we can learn and how we can grow before "time" kills us pupils.

If we are pupils of the Lord Jesus Christ, He can be our "great teacher".

And whether our lives are short or long by normal standards, we can learn of Him (that's what discipleship is, really) deep and precious things that time alone can never teach us.

And the joy and wonder that comes from that makes even our final departure from this world a glorious and complete reunion with the One we have spent so much time with already.

Do You Know What Diminishes The Glory Of God?

1 Corinthians 10:31 is a commonly spoken verse:

"Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

In my experience, when that verse is spoken, there is a message that is usually implied.  The implied message is this:

If we *don't* do what we do to the glory of God, then God's glory is diminished.

But is that biblical?

I didn't think so, so I dragged out my old 15-pound Concordance...

Just kidding.  I simply surfed to my favorite online Bible search engine at

http://olivetree.com/cgi-bin/EnglishBible.htm?version=nasb&help=search

to do a search of "glory" in the Bible.

Here's what I found, or rather couldn't find.  I couldn't find a single verse in the Bible where there was *anything* that could diminish the glory of God.  Nothing that could tarnish His glory.  Nothing that could in the slightest way keep Him from being glorious.  Nothing that in any way could subvert or undermine His glory.

In fact, I found plenty of evidence that His glory is not only intrinsic to His being, but that in His very creation, through the fall of man, and on into His Providential future, He is glorified even by that which is in opposition to Him!

I won't belabor you with all the verses.  Look them up :) 

By the way, one of the most wonderful things that glorifies the Lord is His Grace:

"...to the praise of the GLORY of His grace..." -- Ephesians 1:6

So, what diminishes the Glory of God?

Nothing.

"...to whom be the glory forevermore." -- Galatians 1:5

The Trap of Theology (And How To Avoid It)

Full disclosure: I love Theology

I really do.  I love the grand sweep of the great doctrines of the Bible.  And I love exploring the intricacies of the fine points of those great doctrines.

I love digging down and teaching and discussing and even splitting hairs.

Now if you are a Christian and say you don't care about Theology at all, I have two things to say:

1. You *should* care about Theology.  It is, after all, the study of God and things related to Him.

2. You really *do* care about Theology in some ways, you just may not realize it, or admit it.

For example, if I said to you that Jesus was not born of a virgin and did not rise from the dead, you would (and should) react with at least a little horror and say, "What? Of course He was born of a virgin and rose from the dead!"

And thereby you betray both your interest in, and caring about, Theology.

The Trap of Theology

I say all that to say this: there is a trap that we can easily fall into when we take an interest in Theology.  And the trap is this:

We sometimes prioritize Theology over the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

We don't want to.  We don't mean to.  But we do.

It's a vicious circle that may go something like this:

Step One - We know or learn a doctrine and think it's true and important.

Step Two - Someone disagrees with our view of the doctrine.

Step Three - We lovingly and spiritually seek to correct them.

Step Four - They refuse to be corrected.  In fact they have the audacity to argue their view to us.

Step Five - We abandon our reliance upon the Lord to change hearts and minds; drift into walking according to the flesh; let the wretched fool we are "discussing" the doctrine with have a piece of our mind; declare them (in our mind) a fool and likely reprobate; swell our heads in pride that we know the truth and they are too stupid and unspiritual to "get it", while we "who are spiritual" do "get it".

Although that is thankfully an exaggeration most of the time, it makes the point that we sometimes throw the Lord overboard in order to "defend" His honor.  We sometimes quench the Spirit and dispense with the fruit of the Spirit, in order to win an argument about our understanding of what the Spirit has inspired in His Word.

Remember what the Lord inspired in 1 Corinthians 13?

If we have not Love (the fruit of the Spirit), all our theological arguments don't keep us from being "nothing" and it profits us "nothing".

"...though I...understand all mysteries and all knowledge...I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:2)

Winning a theological argument can sometimes be simply a "desire of the flesh".

"But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." - Galatians 5:16

Let's first guard our loving spiritual relationship with our our beloved Lord and Savior (Ephesians 1 thru 3) and then we may speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).

Preaching Christ

"Do not tell people how they ought to feel toward Christ.  Preach a Christ that will make them feel as they ought." - P.T. Forsyth

Jesus Loves Me And Theologians

A theologian is one who, when you remark that Jesus loves me this I know, demands to know what you mean by Jesus, what by loves, what by me, and what by know.  For asking such questions theologians are supported in oriental luxury in the seminaries, and respected as educated and intelligent men.

Although those words were written by me, I freely stole the concept from the brilliant and often hilarious popper-of-pompous-balloons, H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), who once wrote:

"A metaphysician is one who, when you remark that twice two is four, demands to know what you mean by twice, what by two, what by makes, and what by four. For asking such questions metaphysicians are supported in oriental luxury in the universities, and respected as educated and intelligent men."

Anyway, Jesus loves me, this I know.

By the way, I would never wear that tee-shirt that says,

Jesus Loves You - But I'm His Favorite


He told me it was our little secret.   :)

Grace Is Not An Afterthought

Grace has been defined as the "unmerited favor of God".

It's that wonderful free gift by which we are saved and given eternal life, and all our sins are forgiven.

But it occurs to me that some think Grace was an idea God had after sin came into the world.

Sort of like, "Oh my!", said God, "I must do something about that!"

No.  Not at all.

Grace was before time.  Grace was "invented" by God before there was ever a single sin committed to be forgiven by Grace.

Really?

Look at 2 Timothy 1:9,10:

"...who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity [literally "before the times of the ages" - Young's Literal Translation],


"but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel..."


If you are already a believer in Jesus Christ, know this: you and the Grace by which you were saved were part of God's plan for you before the world even began.

You don't have to understand it.  In fact, you can't fully understand it.  That's okay.  The beauty of it is just as beautiful.

If you don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior, I beg you to believe in Him today.

He died on the cross for our sins.  He was buried and rose again from the dead on the third day.  He proclaims that whoever will come to Him, He will not reject.

Whoever WILL, may come, Jesus said.

Come to Him now.  He will forgive your sins.  You will have eternal life with Him.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

If you would like to read more about Him, you might want to start with the Gospel of John from the Bible:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1&version=NASB

Behold, He Makes All Things New

The First Sunrise of the New Year 2009

compiled by Michele Rayburn


Behold, He makes all things new...a New Covenant, a New Creation in Christ, a New Identity in Christ...


Psalm 40:3  He has put a *new* song in my mouth. Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lord.


Psalm 96:1  Oh, sing to the Lord a *new* song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth.


Isaiah 42:9  Behold, the former things have come to pass, And *new* things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.


Isaiah 62:2  The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a *new* name, Which the mouth of the Lord will name.


Isaiah 65:17  "For behold, I create *new* heavens and a *new* earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind."


Jeremiah 31:31  "Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a *new* covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah."


Ezekiel 11:19  Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a *new* spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh.


Ezekiel 18:31  Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a *new* heart and a *new* spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?


Ezekiel 36:26  I will give you a *new* heart and put a *new* spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.


Matthew 26:28  For this is My blood of the *new* covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.


Mark 14:24  And He said to them, "This is My blood of the *new* covenant, which is shed for many."


Luke 22:20  Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the *new* covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."


John 13:34  A *new* commandment that I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.


Romans 6:4  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in *newness* of life.


Romans 7:6  But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the *newness* of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.


Romans 12:2  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the *renewing* of your mind...


2 Corinthians 3:6  God...who also made us sufficient as ministers of the *new* covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.


2 Corinthians 4:16  Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being *renewed* day by day.


2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a *new* creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become *new*.


Galatians 6:15  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a *new* creation.


Ephesians 2:14-15  For He Himself is our peace...having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one *new* man from the two, thus making peace...


Ephesians 4:22-24  ...put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be *renewed* in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the *new* man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.


Colossians 3:9-10  ...you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the *new* man who is *renewed* in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.


Titus 3:5  ...according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and *renewing* of the Holy Spirit.


Hebrews 8:8  "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a *new* covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah..." (Jer.31:31)


Hebrews 8:13  In that He says, "A *new* covenant," He has made the first obsolete.


Hebrews 9:15  He is the Mediator of the *new* covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.


Hebrews 10:19-20  Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a *new* and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is His flesh...


Hebrews 12:22-24  But you have come...to Jesus the Mediator of the *new* covenant...


1 Peter 2:2  ...as *newborn* babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby...


2 Peter 3:13  Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for *new* heavens and a *new* earth in which righteousness dwells.


1 John 2:8  Again, a *new* commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.


2 John 1:5  And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a *new* commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning; that we love one another.


Revelation 2:17  And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a *new* name written which no one knows except him who receives it.


Revelation 3:12  And I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the *New* Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. And I will write on him My *new* name.


Revelation 14:3  And they sang as it were a *new* song before the throne...


Revelation 21:1  And I saw a *new* heaven and a *new* earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.


Revelation 21:2  Then I, John, saw the holy city, *New* Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.


Revelation 21:5  Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things *new*."


Morning Has Broken - sung by Cat Stevens

Legalistic Thinking vs. Grace Thinking

I thought a very simple illustration of how legalistic thinking differs from grace thinking might be helpful to you, for your own life or to help others.

A Pharisee, who was a lawyer, asked Jesus a question to test Him (Matthew 22:36).

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"

Jesus answered,

"'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

This is a pretty familiar passage to many Christians.

How The Legalist Thinks

Very simply put, here is how a Legalist reacts to that passage in his unfortunately bondage-ridden mind:

All right! There's a couple of commandments I can sink my teeth into! I'm going to buckle down and do my best to follow those commandments! If I can follow THOSE commandments, I'll be in effect following ALL the commandments!

"I'll work hard to follow them! I'll read my Bible diligently, pray at least a half-hour a day (I think I'll use the A-C-T-S Method...Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), and see what I can do to serve my neighbors!

"Commandments and obedience, that's what it's about! After all, doesn't God deserve it?

You get the idea.

And if you're thinking, "What's wrong with THAT?", please read on.

After another round of "buckling down" to obey those commandments, the Legalist will think one of two things:

(1) "I've done pretty well this day [week, month, etc.]! At least better than Joe and Sue over there! All right! I'm gonna keep up this obeying stuff!", or

(2) "Oh no, I've failed again! What a total jerk I am. Am I even saved? I've confessed that sin a thousand times! How can I even face God? He must be VERY disappointed in me. Probably even angry. And why not? What a low-down skunk I am."

And he doesn't go to the Lord right away, because he is too ashamed and doesn't "deserve" to.

Self-righteousness or Despair. The two pendulum swings of the Legalist.

How The Grace Thinker Thinks

"Wow! It's all about love, isn't it Lord?! You loved me first, died for me on the cross and are now living in me!

"It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me!

"I never could, and still can't, follow Your commandments perfectly enough to earn Your love and favor, but You did it for me when You nailed the commandments to Your cross and I died to the Law in You!

"You forgave me all of my sins, even the ones I haven't even committed yet! How wonderful and loving and gracious You are!

"I'm free! Free to follow You without condemnation, as You live your life in me, and work in me to will and to do for Your good pleasure!

"The more I understand the depth and breadth and length and height of Your love for me, the more I love You Lord! I can't help it!

"I love You because You first loved me, and You're showing me more and more how great Your love and grace really are!

"And as You fill my heart with love, a Fruit of Your Spirit, I find I love my neighbor too! It's a miracle!

"Thank you Lord! I confess those sins I've foolishly fallen into today, but I can face You freely because I know You've already forgiven me, and just want me to walk in fellowship with You, warts and all! How really great that is! No condemnation! Free!

"I DO love You, and I DO love my neighbor, because You're pouring out Your love in my heart even now!"

Final Comments

Should we sin, then, so that grace will abound? Paul the Apostle anticipated that question.

Because if all our sins are forgiven already, why not live like the devil?

If we're born again, Paul reminds us that we are a new creation. We've died to sin, and in our new heart, our new spirit, we love Christ and hate sin.

So now when we sin, it goes AGAINST our nature. And that's what happens when we walk by the flesh.

When Christ came into us to indwell us, we became "one spirit with Him" (1 Corinthians 6:17).

So now when we walk by the Spirit, we not only walk by the Holy Spirit, we also walk by our own new spirit! And when we do that, we will love the Lord and love our neighbor.

It's not about commandments. It's about love.

That's biblical Grace thinking.