Tag Archives: Christ

Aug 6 2009

It takes 2 to tango..


Yesterday I learned the discourse at GraceConversation.com is no more. What began as sincere effort for two theological camps within the churches of Christ to have a civil conversation about apostasy ended abruptly with a verbal smack down by Mac Deaver.

My hat is off to Jay Guin who hosted the discussion at OneInJesus.info for his hard work to make the conversation between “Conservatives” and “Progressives” a possibility. I was not surprised that it ended as it did.

On the “Conservative” side, first Greg Tidwell bowed out citing health issues and the business of being a preacher. Then Phil Sanders stepped in to take Greg’s place. Now Sanders is “too busy” and Mac Deaver decided it was “pointless to continue”.

Both Todd Deaver and Jay Guin (especially Jay) articulated their views and challenged the views of the “Conservatives” with clarity, charity, and consistency. It was clear to this observer that the conversation was not going to accomplish very much shortly after the first exchanges by the two sides. The “Conservatives” were unable to state solid biblical evidence for their views and their inconsistencies were glaring.

The series of posts by these five men generated perhaps more comments, including my own, than any blog within the scope of churches of Christ. In the comments the “pattern” (pun intended) continued. Traditionalists stated positions, many of which cannot be supported by Scripture, that were well worn in the 60’s. And, with some exceptions, those on the “Progressive” side won the day with more reasoned conclusions and more Biblical foundation.

My conclusions are the following:

  • GraceConversation.com was not about grace. It was a discussion between two theological schools of thought, neither of which fully comprehends God’s grace. (In Jay’s defense, it was stated from the beginning that the conversation was to be centered on apostasy, with both sides agreeing that a Christian can be saved, and then lost, the only disagreement being when or how).
  • Behind all the talk, the whole of the discussion centered on one issue, instrumental music in worship in churches of Christ. The whole discussion can be summed up in this neat package. The traditionalists believe people who have a piano in worship are lost and the progressives don’t. That is what the whole debate was about.
  • It is a tired subject and will not be resolved. There is not one verse of Scripture that addresses musical instruments either being used or not being used in the assembly of New Testament churches. Traditionalists decide arbitrarily what is sinful and what is not based on their church history, and personal preferences. It is better for them if they can find a proof text but it isn’t necessary to have any to doom those they disagree with to hell.
  • Both the tradiditionalists and the progressives believe that at some point God may damn a born again Christian, one side just believes God is more patient than the other. Neither can say at what point God decides to zap a Christian back into a non Christian status. So, the conclusion is clear. According to Greg Tidwell, Phil Sanders, Mac Deaver, Jay Guin, and Todd Deaver, staying saved depends on how well a Christian performs, and not upon the ground of the work and worth of Christ Jesus our Lord.
  • The light of God’s truth is shining in the fellowship of believers called “churches of Christ”. I have seen many signs of hope in the past decade. Just look at how far we as a people have come away from fear and a legal system, and many, many of our dear people are tasting the fresh, life giving grace of God in Jesus Christ.
  • I long for a day when if the average church of Christ member is asked the question “Are you sure you are going to heaven?” they well be able to give a quick “Yes!”answer based on what Christ accomplished for sinners. Until that day comes I will keep holding up Jesus and the salvation He purchased with His own blood as the only ground and hope of helpless and hopeless sinners.

I love and have the utmost respect for Jay Guin and Todd Deaver. It has never been necessary for a man to agree with me, or I with him, for me to love him deeply and respect him as a fellow follower of Jesus. We agree much more than we disagree. I sincerely hope to be out yonder in eternity with Greg, Phil, Mac, and Jay and Todd. I wish God’s best to each man and hope they live long, healthy, happy lives.

Finally, I realize that I am in a razor thin minority within the “brotherhood” of churches of Christ. I deeply appreciate so many of you who while disagreeing with me have embraced me with love and patience and have encouraged me to continue to preach Christ. I hope that every reader of Grace Digest will clearly understand that disagreement does not necessarily mean estrangement. My dearest friends on earth completely disagree with me on some theological points, and I with them, but our common trust in Jesus makes us one, and nothing else can. Thanks for reading and for your comments.

for Jesus,
Royce

Aug 1 2009

Religious but Lost


Scales

“And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15)

In the whole of the New Testament narrative, so far as the record shows, only one Pharisee was finally saved, Nicodemus.

The consistent record of the Bible is that legalists despise the message of grace. The most religious people of Jesus’ time were the Pharisees. It was this ultra-conservative troupe of zealots who could not, and would not, allow the king of human self righteousness to be dethroned.

It was not the drunkards, thieves, whores, and murderers who crucified Jesus, it was legalistic religious people who cried out “Barabbas” when given the choice of who would be crucified or released, and they cried out “Crucify him!” in reference to Jesus.

Not much has changed in my view. The true, unvarnished message of the grace of God to sinners, as revealed in the Bible, is offensive to the legalist church member. It was true in the first century and it is true in 2009. This is why the gospel, (if taught correctly), is offensive. (Romans 9:33, 1 Peter 2:8) Paul highlighted this truth saying:

 “But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed” (Galatians 5:11)

All Paul would have had to have done to stop the persecution was add works to his message of salvation. Sadly, many people have and are doing that very thing.

The “flesh” is God’s enemy today just as it was in Paul’s day. If you attempt to pry self righteousness out of the angry hands of religious zealots they will fight with every resource available to stop you. The grace of God is a direct threat to the seat of power, the human ego.

You will not win a debate with a legalist. The only way to deal with hypocrites is to keep preaching Christ alone as the way to God, and that sinful men are reconciled to God only by His life, death, and resurrection, and there is no salvation apart from faith in Him.

The salvation of sinners is what Jesus fully accomplished over 2,000 years ago. Jesus plus 0 is sufficient. Jesus plus anything is too much.

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20)

Central to the gospel is that God has set right (past tense) what was wrong with man because of sin. God in Christ reconciled man to God. What the person who depends a little or a lot on his own performance is attempting to do has already been done. When Jesus said “It is finished” (John 19:30) “It” was finished. The “It” of John 19:30 is the work of setting sinners right with God, it is the “work” of salvation, it is the ground of justification, it is the promise of sanctification, and the resurrection is the promise of glorification.

It is often said of salvation “There is God’s part and man’s part” and that is a true statement. But, Jesus did “man’s part”. What sinful man could never do was live in perfect obedience to God and without sin. This has always has been and still is God’s standard, He will not accept less. This is the life Christ freely gave the Father on behalf of wicked sinners. It was the perfect sacrifice, without even one blemish.

That was the positive side of Christ’s work. Man’s sin is offensive to God and must be punished; He can’t overlook sin and still be holy. Christ took every sin of every sinner upon him and the Father poured out his fury against sin as Jesus’ human body was beaten, his blood poured out, in his humiliation and suffering, until he breathed his last breath, my sins and yours were being punished. “It is finished!” A perfect salvation is complete.

Now God can declare a wicked sinner “not guilty” and still be just and holy, the sin has already been adjudicated. And, even more wonderful, God can declare that undeserving sinner “righteous” because a perfect life was given on his behalf.

This is indeed “Good News”, but not for the legalist. He demands credit for his own goodness. He is unwilling to embrace this love story of the grace of God, and is offended by it. May God open the eyes of their understanding that the light of the good news my shine in their hearts before it is too late.

For Jesus,
Royce

Jul 30 2009

Are you still living on the plantation?


slavery

While driving to my office yesterday morning I was listening to the late Dr. Adrian Rogers on my car radio. He was preaching from Romans chapter 6 verses 5-11:

“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

He used the following illustration which was very powerful and helped to make clear the meaning of the text.

In January of 1863 President Abraham Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation” was made law. Instantly, every slave in the named states and territories were legally free. Every one of them had the legal right to walk out of the master’s house and off the plantation.

Many of the freed slaves did leave the plantations to afford themselves of the rights and opportunities other citizens had enjoyed for many years. What a wonderful thing that people, some of whom had never known anything but slavery and serving others at the expense of their own well being and freedom, were suddenly free!

In spite of this wonderful historic event, many slaves continued in their servitude and their lives did not change at all. They either did not know they were free, or heard the news and it seemed too good to be true, or they were afraid of losing the security they had as slaves.

How sad to be legally free and yet still living and working on the plantation for the slave owner, living every day as a slave just as before.

How many Christians are still living on the plantation? Before we became Christians every one of us were enslaved to Satan, to do his bidding. But, when we became Christians, just as the American slaves, we were instantly legally free from the slavery of sin and the devil. How?

The reason we are free is found in the passage above. A dead man is not bound by any law and is not under the rule of any authority. When Christ died as our representative, we died with him.

“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”

We were “crucified with him” so the truth “One who has died has been set free from sin”. When he died, we died, and when he was raised we were raised with him, and because he lives forever, so shall we.

Believer’s baptism is the perfect picture of the reality. In the watery grave we are saying publically that the old man is dead and is buried and the new man is raised to live the new life Christ gives. It is not baptism but what baptism pictures that is most important. Exactly in the same way it is not the power and blessing of the bread and wine in communion but what they picture that gives life to the dead and frees from the law of sin and death.

There is no reconciliation without representation. Just as “In Adam all die”, “In Christ all are made alive”. “By one man (Adam) sin entered the world and death by sin so that death has come upon all men.” In the same way, those who have Christ as their representative are made eternally alive.

The Truth has set us free and we are free indeed! Don’t stay on the plantation.

For Jesus,
Royce

Jul 25 2009

I wonder….?


studying-mainFull_Full

I wonder…how did Christians make it, and flourish, for hundreds of years without

  • cell phones
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email
  • computers
  • Christian books
  • Bibles
  • commentaries
  • Sunday school materials
  • cars
  • Christian colleges and universities
  • church buildings
  • missionary societies
  • preacher training schools
  • youth ministers

Well, as you can imagine, the list could be very, very long.

Long before the printed page, (mid 1400’s the first Bible was printed) and even before most of the New Testament was written, the church was doing just fine. There were a few copies of the law and the prophets available but not to the average person. Even for several years after the printing press turned out the first Bible, God’s word was not widely distributed for several years.

I wonder….if we had the Internet, phone connections, and all of our printed material suddenly vanish, would we be able to continue ministry? Now, before you waste good comment space, I am not against any of the above things, I am all for all of them. What I am doing is raising the question, Do we rely too heavily upon everything else at the expense of the most important? I wonder….

Paul’s prayers for the churches he wrote to bounce about in my head. Phrases like “..asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,  fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God“. He desired that the believers “grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus“. And, after listing his remarkable credentials, he told the Philippians “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith”.

The primitive plea of churches of Christ (and other Restoration Movement church’s) and the ideal today is to restore the sort of Christianity we read about in the New Testament. And yet, we largely rely on how we do what we do on Sunday morning, and how well we do it, as the calling card of who we are to a watching world.

Knowing Christ is different than knowing about Him. Am I…, are we getting to know Him? Are we witness, or are we going on hear-say?

To become a “disciple” requires “discipline”. Getting in the Word until it gets into me, making myself pray as I ought, saying and seeing only what He approves, and caring like He cares about others is not learned easily. But it must be learned if we will follow Jesus. Will we do it? Will Ido it? I wonder…

Royce