2. The True Gospel
"The Saving LIFE of Christ"
Religion peddles forgiveness - often competing to offer a cheaper gospel with a bigger benefit.
"You're saved now! So you can murder, commit adultery, lie - just like King David - and it makes no difference at all. All your sins are forgiven: past, present and future. "
And how did they get this? They believed Jesus rose from the dead and said the "sinner's prayer". One little ritual and, VOILA!, you're good for eternity.
Nice.
But false.
Totally false.
"A Forgiven Corpse Is Still Just A Corpse"
The only thing "forgiveness" impacts is your LEGAL STATUS before God.
Before we are saved we are dead in our sins. If you only experience forgiveness, you're just a forgiven corpse. How good is that??! A forgiven corpse is, after all, still just a corpse.
The True Gospel doesn't say you are saved by the death of Jesus. You are saved by His Life. Romans 5:8-10 teaches that we are reconciled to God by the death of his Son. But then it says that, now that we are reconciled to God, we are SAVED BY HIS LIFE!
The True Gospel always involved an entry into a real RELATIONSHIP with Jesus - in the Spirit. Through Jesus, through "The Mystery Of Christ", we are truly "saved by His Life".
"Grace: Nothing Short Of God's Gift of Himself To Us"
The traditional definition of "grace" is "God's Unmeritted Favor". This definition focuses on His forgiveness. But grace is much more than just forgiveness - or even friendship with God. Reconciliation - friendship with God - is marvelous. But we are called to live in "mystical" or "spiritual" union with God - and that is our heart's desire. Jesus called this "abiding in the vine" - abiding, or living, in Him. And He has pledged to live with us. Can you see how this is much more than just "forgiveness"?
"What Sort Of Marriage Is This?"
I know many foreigners who live in seperate countries or regions of the country because their job is their first priority. They can open their document box and show me their Certificate Of Marriage, but what kind of marriage is this? Yet many Christians are not confortable with the idea of a "mystical" or "spiritual" relationship with the Lord. The idea of "abiding in Him" - or of Him living in us - is an intellectual and theological concept for them - not a living reality. Religion bribes you with forgiveness, and then marries you to the "church" or "sect" to which you belong. And whenever you talk about prayer as experiencing the joys of "mystical" union with Jesus, they think you're creepy. I wonder if their marriage stinks, too.
"It Is The Gift Of God"
Take the most famous verse regarding grace:
"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. "
Now, which are you more likely to "boast" about, the fact that you're not going to hell as you deserve to, or your good works"? Obviously, when it comes to boasting, it is our good works of which we would boast. This shows that our new life is the life of Jesus in us - not our own inherant goodness. That is why we do not boast. And this is what grace is all about.
So, if you want to remember this easily, think of the verse this way:
When you read "gift of God" think of God as the gift. I know that the verse means that salvation and our new lives are God's gift to us. But, truly, God is giving Himself to us. If not, what would it all be worth anyway? Not much. We delight in the God who is our life. It's not just obeying God that makes us happy. It is union with God - as tongues of fire touch our mind, heart and body and he enters us. In this we have a surge of divine love, joy and power to live a whole new way. It is "the gift OF GOD".
"Call His Name JESUS"
God told Joseph to name the chose child "Jesus" because he would "save us from our sins". Sad to say, I never understood this as a rellgious kid. Only recently did the obvious hit me. Jesus (Yeshua), comes from the hebrew verb YASHA. This word means "to save". But more specifically it means "to set free".
So here's a crystal clear picture:
The Israelites were saves in Egypt - a picture of our old life of slavery and bondage to sin and guilt. When God saved his people he LIBERATED them. He set them free from bondage. And Jesus sets US free from bondage to the things which used to destroy us, destructive regrets, and the condemnation under which we used to live.
"How Free?"
Let me tell you how totally free you are, In Jesus. My mother had a dream. And in this dream there was the complete absense of evil. Most of us cannot even imagine this feeling. We're always conscious of evil - out there. And no matter how delighted we might be in many ways, that sense of evil lurking out there still sort of spoils our party. You probaby can't even remember your eariest childhood when, perhaps, you might have had a small taste of that innocence. But even though God equips us, in Christ, to battle evil as valiant spiritual warriors, in Christ evil is competely banished. We can take refuge in Him and experience compete and absolute freedom from evil. This far surpasses forgiveness alone. This is what we have when we are "saved by His Life" - not merely forgiven.
"Religion Is THIN SOUP, At Best"
By now the fantastic power of the true and living Gospel is shining bright in our hearts - in very sharp contrast with the THIN SOUP religion has to offer. Religion tends to peddle "forgiveness". The true Gospel totally transforms your world as you are reconciled to God - yes - through the death of His Son. But now that we are God's "friend", you have so much more as we live a totally new way as we are "saved by His Life".
Grace is not an intellectual or theological concept. Grace is God giving Himself to us. The word for "grace" is "charis". The word for "gifts" is "charismata". When God gives Himself to us we experience a spiritual transformation, are "born again" into a totally new life, and receive "gifts" as part of Jesus flowing through us in mystical spiritual union.
His very Name means "freedom" - and the freedom is absolute as we experience spiritual union with Him. Our relationship with Him is a FACT, not a FEELING. But we are set free from sin, IN PRACTICE, through the exercise of faith, and "waiting on God", so that we can let this freedom become a spiritual reality in our lives.
Religion and theology don't help us stop sinning. They give no PRACTICAL help. We are taught and mentored, by spiritual teachers, the Word Of God, and the leading of the Spirit, how to make spiritual union with Jesus a living, functioning, practical reality in our lives.
The True Gospel spreads a feast before us. Religion is THIN SOUP - at best.
"What Will We Explore Next?"
We could go on and on about the differences between the True Gospel and the twisted, perverted version of the gospel religion tries to sell us. But it's better to take each rich topic and explore it, dive into it, and truly enjoy as much as we can possibly grasp. There's truly no end. You can explore this New Life until the day you die and the horizons just expand as you go deeper in. It just gets BIGGER. God just becomes more and more awesome to us.
Jesus had a problem with the Pharisees because they bound heavy burdens on people's backs but did not lift a finger to help. We'd mentioned that the True Gospel shows how we gain very PRACTICAL help as we are delivered from our old sinful and religious ways to live a whole New Way in a very real RELATIONSHIP with Jesus our Lord. Let's explore what that looks like!
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