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Naked Grace

By Jeremy Myers
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Naked Grace
https://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/775113715-redeeminggod-naked-grace-an-interview-with-lucas-kitchen.mp3

(#AmazonAdLink) I interviewed Lucas Kitchen today about his book  (#AmazonAdLink) Naked Grace. In this book, he tells the story of how he discovered the truth about grace, and why it is so important for you and I to learn these truths as well. If you have questions about eternal life, the message of the gospel, what it means to follow Jesus as a disciple, or how grace helps us defeat sin in our lives, listen to this interview.

Also, make sure you get a copy of Lucas’ new book, (#AmazonAdLink) Naked Grace. And while you’re at it, get his other books on gospel-related issues, such as:

  • (#AmazonAdLink) Salvation and Discipleship: Is There a Difference?
  • (#AmazonAdLink) Eternal Rewards: It Will Pay to Obey
  • (#AmazonAdLink) Eternal Life: Believe to be Alive
  • (#AmazonAdLink) Thomas: Hero of the Faith

In this interview with Lucas Kitchen, we discuss questions like this:

  • When did you first come to start asking questions of eternal significance?
  • How did you first come to understand the truth about Grace?
  • How does a proper understanding of how to receive eternal life help you in life and ministry?
  • Is free grace a license to sin, or does it actually help us get rid of sin?

As you listen to this podcast, you will discover that there are many similarities between your own story and that of Lucas. Make sure you listen to the end where he tells you how to reach out to him and find more answers to your questions.

Also, go visit his websites to connect with Lucas:

  • SimplyBelief.com
  • LucasAnswers.com

God is Redeeming Books, Redeeming God, Redeeming Theology, z Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, eternal life, free grace, gospel, grace

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Legalism: The Biggest Threat to Church Unity

By Jeremy Myers
55 Comments

Legalism: The Biggest Threat to Church Unity

There is no greater threat to the unity of the church than legalism.

These are strong words, but history, tradition, experience, and Scripture reveal that where legalism spreads, disunity prospers.

Thankfully, God has provided an antidote to legalism through the free gift of eternal life which is received by grace along through faith alone in Christ alone.

legalism threat to unityJust as legalism breeds disunity, love and unity flourish where grace and faith multiply. The more we emphasize grace and faith, the greater our unity will be. For this reason—and simply for the sake of the truth—a strong stance on the simplicity and freeness of eternal life by grace alone through faith alone is essential.

To see this, it is important first of all to know what legalism is.

Legalism Defined

Lots of people have heard about legalism, but few know what it is. Here is a basic definition of legalism:

Legalism is when people use the law of God in an attempt to gain favor with God.

legalism definedAt it’s core, legalism believes that God is angry with humanity, and that the way to make God like us again is to obey His laws. And if everybody could just obey God’s laws all at the same time, then God might love us and be happy with us again, and blessings from heaven will flow down upon us once more.

So at it’s core, legalism has some seriously faulty views about God, about sin, about the law, and about how people can get into a good relationship with God. All of these faulty views are what makes legalism so dangerous and divisive.

Legalism is Dangerous

Legalism is dangerous because it begins with the premise that God is mad at us and He gave us His law so that we could get back into His good favor.

But if Jesus tells us anything about God, it is that He is NOT angry with us. To the contrary, He loves us deeply and longs for nothing more than to reconcile us to Himself (2 Cor 5:19). It is not He who needs to be reconciled to us, but we to Him. In other words, He is not the one who has abandoned us; we have abandoned Him. It is not He who left us, but we who left Him.

By sending Jesus to this earth, God bridged the divide that we placed between Him and us. Out of His great love for us, He has come to where we are, because He knew that we would never (and could never) come to Him.

But the basic premise of legalism contradicts all this. Legalism teaches that we have offended God so deeply that He is angry with us… He even hates us… and so we must try to please and appease God by doing things He likes so that maybe, somehow, hopefully, God will love us once more.

Not only is such legalistic theology terribly wrong, it becomes terribly divisive.

Legalism is Divisive

Legalism is divisive because as soon as one person thinks that they are starting to obey God’s law and make God happy with us again, that person begins to think that the reason God is still angry with the world is not because of his or her sin, but because of everyone else’s. So if everyone else would just clean up their life and start obeying God, then God will start to love us again. As soon as legalists begin to make some headway in their own life in the “Obedience to the Law” department, they set themselves up as a manager in the department, and try to get everybody else to follow the rules as well.

But this isn’t the most dangerous or divisive element to legalism. What makes legalism so divisive is that nobody actually thinks they are legalistic.

Though there are countless Christians who are legalistic, you will never meet anyone who claims to be a legalist. This is what makes legalism so sinister. It sucks the life out of Christians who believe they stand for the truth of Scripture and the Gospel. Legalism run madly toward death, all the while thinking they are pursuing life.

legalism and obedienceSince nobody believes that they are legalistic, everybody believes they have a healthy balance between law and grace, between faith and good works. A legalist then, is anyone who places a greater emphasis on law and good works than you do. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we criticize those who take grace too far. Those people are licentious, we think. They place too much emphasis on grace and in so doing, give people license to sin.

In this way, since only “other” people are legalists, and each of us is only trying to get people to obey God and live within the principles of the Kingdom of God, the hidden legalist in each of us (myself included!) becomes judgmental, critical, and divisive in our treatment of others. Legalism tears Christians apart because it sets up laws and rules as the means by which we maintain relationships between one another and between ourselves and God. And part of the divisive nature of legalism is that nobody can agree on the rules that must be observed. Everybody has different rules and regulations that must be maintained in order to fellowship with someone else.

Legalism’s Antidote

So what is the cure? What is the fix? What is the antidote to legalism?

Since legalism is so sinister, and since it is so hard to define, one might think that combating legalism is not worth the effort. Some might be tempted to think that it is not legalism that divides Christians, but the struggle against legalism that causes the problems. If some people are legalistic and others are licentious, wouldn’t it be better, for the sake of unity, to just throw up our hands, shrug our shoulders, and say “Live and let live”?

No, I don’t think so. Why not? Because Scripture seems intent on combating legalism wherever it is found. If legalism is one of the greatest threats to Christian unity, and legalism is found in every one of us, and Christian unity is something we should strive for, then legalism is worth fighting against.

In fact, it could be argued that much of the New Testament was written to combat legalism. Jesus fought against the legalism of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The apostles fought against legalism in Acts (e.g., Acts 15), and the Apostle Paul fought against legalism in most of his letters. So if they fought against legalism, we should to.

breaking the bonds of legalismHow? Most people try to combat legalism with a different form of legalism. I have seen arguments break out between a behavioral legalist and a doctrinal legalist. The first person thinks we make God happy by what we do, while the second person argues that we make God happy by what we believe.

I think it is time to back away from all of these rules and regulations, and look at how the Bible seems to combat legalism. And how is that? By emphasizing grace as much as possible.

One reason legalism is so divisive is that Christians seem so intent on putting limits and restrictions on grace. The moment we set limits to God’s boundless grace is the moment we wrap ourselves in the dark bonds of legalism, but the moment grace is unleashed and unchained, legalism shrivels up and dies.

So what is the antidote to legalism? Grace. Radical grace.

Do your best to never limit or restrict grace in any way. Let grace be extended to point of shamefulness. Let us live indiscriminate, shocking, outrageous, scandalous, senseless, irrational, unfair, irreligious, ridiculous, absurd, offensive, infinite, free grace.

Let us live life as a contest to see who can be the most gracious, loving, kind, and forgiving, and teach others to do the same. If we are going to follow the example of Jesus (and of God), we must extend grace to the point that people accuse us being friends to tax-collectors and sinners, to the point that they complain of how we allow people to get away with anything, of how we liberally shower blessings upon friends and enemies alike, and how we even show love and mercy upon those who wish to do us harm.

Such outrageous grace is what God shows us, and how we can live toward others. This kind of grace is the antidote to the legalism in all of us.

This post was part of the November 2018 Synchroblog.

Here is the list of other writers and authors who contributed to this month’s Synchroblog. Go read them all to see what others think about church unity.

  • Heathens and Heretics – Glenn Hager
  • What have we Become? – Rocky Glenn
  • Unified Through Life – Jordan Hathcock
  • How Can Churches Exemplify Unity in a Divided Country? – Mike Edwards
  • Practicing Unity – Tim Nichols
  • Christian Unity – Joseph A.

God is Redeeming Theology, z Bible & Theology Topics: church unity, Discipleship, eternal life, free gift, free grace, grace, law, legalism, synchroblog, Theology of Salvation

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Are good works necessary for eternal life?

By Jeremy Myers
15 Comments

Are good works necessary for eternal life?

Lots of people wonder about the role of good works in the life of the believer. While I agree that good works are important, I do not believe that good works are the necessary result of faith, nor do I believe that good works are necessary to gain entrance into heaven.

What Happens if You Don’t Have Good Works?

Some claim that while good works do not help a person gain eternal life, if a person does not have good works, then this proves that they never had eternal life in the first place and will not enter heaven with God in eternity. (To see some quotes from people who believe and teach this, check out the lesson “Good Works Cannot Prove Eternal Life” in my online course on the Gospel.)

good worksBut this is the same thing as saying that good works are a necessary condition for entering heaven.

When good works are a necessary result of faith and justification, then good works become a condition for glorification and entrance into the eternal kingdom.

If someone has faith in Jesus, but they do not have the good works that some people think are necessary, then according to some systems of theology, those people will not enter into glorification.

In such a system, human effort and good works have entered into the chain of events so that if a person does not have the necessary good works, that person will not be glorified.

It is obvious that the only real difference between a person who has faith and good works and a person who has faith without good works is the good works.

If Good Works are a Necessary Result of Justification, then they are a Condition for Glorification

If someone teaches that only those who have both faith and good works will end up in heaven, this means that they see good works as a condition for entering into heaven and final glorification. In such theology, the chain of events is this:

Justification → Good Works → Glorification

In such thinking, if a person does not have the necessary good works, the entire chain unravels. The person will not get glorified because they apparently were not justified.

So the logical conclusion is that if good works are a necessary result of justification, then this makes good works a condition for glorification.

The following logical syllogism may help clarify this further.

1. If a, then always b (where b is something a believer is responsible for).
2. If a and b, then g.
3. Not b.
4. Therefore, neither a nor g.

If good works are a necessary result of justification, this syllogism would be read this way:

1.  If one is justified (a), then one will perform good works in life (b).
2.  If one is justified (a) and it has been proved by works (b), then one can be sure that one will get to heaven (g).
3.  One does not have the necessary works (not b).
4.  Therefore, one is neither justified (a) nor is going to heaven (g).

According to this logic, if a person does not have good works, he or she will not make it to heaven. And if a person does not make it to heaven, then he or she was not justified. So, a person who does not have good works is not going to heaven.

Logically then, the belief that good works are a necessary result of justification is equivalent to the belief that good works are a condition for entrance into heaven and glorification.

good works are necessary

Yes, Good Works are Important!

None of this means that good works have no place in the life of the believer. As I point out in my online course on the Gospel, good works are essential in the life of the believer for many things. But good works are not necessary to gain glorification into heaven, or to prove that we have truly been justified.

If we want to maintain the gospel truth that eternal life is by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, then we must hold to the biblical truth that good works do nothing to help earn, keep, or prove eternal life.

The Gospel According to ScriptureWant to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

God is Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, eternal life, faith alone, faith and works, free grace, glorification, good works, gospel, justification

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God’s Offer of Eternal Life is not Easy to Believe

By Jeremy Myers
35 Comments

God’s Offer of Eternal Life is not Easy to Believe

God’s offer of eternal life is simple … but it is not easy to believe.

The simple offer of eternal life in the Gospel is that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply believes in Jesus Christ for it.

Simple, right?

But not easy to believe.

It is not easy to believe that God’s free gift of eternal life is by grace from first to last.

eternal life hard to believe

True grace is something completely foreign to the way life works or to the way most people think. Humans are unaccustomed to grace. We are told almost from birth that nothing is ever free, that there is always a hidden catch, and that we should always read the fine print.

So when the gospel is presented to us and we are told that eternal life is the absolutely free gift of God to anyone who receives it by faith in Jesus, and that there is nothing we need to do or even can do to earn it or keep it, most people start a get a little suspicious.

They start to look for the fine print.

They start to search for the catch.

The free offer of eternal life seems too good to be true.

So we go looking for the fine print, the footnotes, or the hidden conditions.

Sadly, there are far too many Christians who are more than willing to provide the fine print and explain the catch.

“Oh yes,” they say. “Eternal life is free, but you have to love God in return and obey what He says in Scripture in order to prove you have it.”

Others say, “Well, you need to understand, if you truly are a Christian, your life will have the good works to back up your claim. If you don’t have the good works, then this means you are not truly a Christian.”

Then there is this argument: “Eternal life is free, but before you can receive it, you have to fix up your life, seek after God, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, prepare your heart for faith, and pray the sinner’s prayer.”

To all these sorts of teachings, and countless similar ideas, the gospel in Scripture says “No! Eternal life is a free gift of God.”

Eternal life is by God’s grace from first to last.

There are no works needed to gain eternal life, keep eternal life, or prove you have eternal life.

Eternal life does not require you to reform your life, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus, get baptized, seek God, or pray a prayer.

Just receive eternal life as a free gift from God by believing in Jesus for it. That’s it!

It’s that simple … but it’s not easy to believe

hard to believeThis is why the free offer of eternal life is a problem for most people.

It sounds too good to be true.

It sounds too radical.

It sounds like it’s taking grace too far.

Since the gospel of grace is opposite to the way the rest of life works, many people have great trouble accepting it.

So almost without fail, when people first begin to grasp the implications of the freeness of God’s grace in the offer of eternal life—that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply and only believes in Jesus for it—they begin to ask questions.

One of the most frequent questions is this: “So if eternal life is free and all I have to do is believe in Jesus to get it, does this mean I can go sin all I want?”

A man recently posed the question to me this way, “Are you saying that I can believe in Jesus for eternal life, but I can still sleep around, and steal from people, and even murder anyone I want to, but I still get to go to heaven when I die? I don’t have to stop sinning? I don’t have to read the Bible? I don’t have to go to church?”

While many Christians would answer “No” to these questions, my answer is always, “Yes!”

eternal life is freeNo ifs, ands, or buts.

Without qualification.

Absent of all fine print, footnotes, or hidden conditions.

Yes, I know.

If I say that grace allows you to go sin all you want, you now are beginning to wonder if I am a false teacher who promotes licentious living.

You have probably heard rumors that teachers like me exist, but have rarely (if ever) encountered one in public.

Pastors often preach against “those grace teachers,” but few people have ever really met one.

This is because most so-called “grace teachers” still include a lot of “ifs, ands, or buts” in their teachings about grace. So the true “grace teacher” is viewed as a bit of a legend, sort like leprechauns and elves.

But I have now exposed myself as one of those mythical monsters that people are warned about by their pastors. Even still, you might be thinking I do not mean what I say.

But I do.

Since grace is free, you can go sin all you want.

I will explain this idea more in future blog posts, but if you absolutely must know NOW what I mean, take my course on the gospel. It explains all this (and more) in great detail.

The Gospel According to ScriptureWant to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: eternal life, free grace, gospel, grace, sin, soteriology, Theology of Salvation

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All Religions Are the Same

By Jeremy Myers
23 Comments

All Religions Are the Same

all religions are the sameIt’s true what they say: all religions are the same.

And make no mistake, I am including the Christian religion in with that. All religions are the same, including the Christian religion.

All Religions are the Same

All religions have at their core the idea that God is mad at the world and people have to do certain things to make God like them again. Usually, the good things that God wants us to do involve wearing silly hats, eating certain foods, and listening to some person talk for an hour before we give him money. This is true of any religion, whether Jewish, Muslim, Rastafarian, Santeria, Moorish Science Temple, Hindu, or… dare I say it? …Christian.

If you took away the hats, the robes, the names on the buildings, and some of the titles for “God” that different groups use, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between most of the world religions, …including Christianity. 

The objection to the claim that all religions are the same is that “Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship! It’s a way of life!”

Right.

Few Think They are Religious

But do you know that this is what almost every person of every religion says? Almost nobody of any “faith group” thinks they are in a religion. If you ask the average “religious” person if they are in a religion, no matter what “religion” they follow, almost all of them will say, “No, I am not not in a religion, I practice a way of life.” 

Nevertheless, almost everybody is in a religion, including most Christians. Most people believe God is mad at them for something they did or said, and they are doing certain things to try to make God happy again. The core of religion is that we can somehow pleas or appease God by our own good behavior or beliefs. If you believe that, then you are part of a religion, even you bear the name “Christian.” 

Of course, I do consider myself a “Christian” in the sense that I am a follower of Jesus. I just think there is a vast difference between what has come to be known as Christianity, and what Jesus actually intended.

And when it comes down to what Jesus intended his followers to be and do, and what the religions of the world do (including the religion of Christianity), there are a few major differences. There are things that sets Jesus and His followers distinctly apart from all religious groups in history, including those religious groups that bear the name “Christian.” 

What Separates Jesus from All Religions?

So what sorts of things separate Jesus followers from all other religions in the world?

all religions are the sameWell, I will tell you one thing that doesn’t separate us…. good works. You sometimes hear Christians say, “We are more generous, loving, kind, and forgiving.” That’s crap.

Sure, it’s true sometimes. But in my experience, some of the most forgiving, kind, and generous people I know are of some religion other than Christianity. Many of them are atheists.

You can always find another religious group that is behaves better than many Christians. 

So, it seems to me that the main difference between Jesus and every man-made religion in the world (including the Christian religion) boils down to one word: grace. But not the watered down grace you hear preached from pulpits and described in books.

No, the one thing  that separates what Jesus revealed to the world and what we see in all religious groups is one thing: indiscriminate, scandalous, shocking, outrageous, senseless, irrational, unfair, irreligious, ridiculous, absurd, offensive, infinite grace.

If you don’t hold to this kind of grace, it might be because you are part of a man-made religion, even if you call yourself “Christian.” 

I am someone who came out of the Christian religion and now follows Jesus on the way of grace.

As a reader of this blog, you are probably similar. Together, we challenge some of the ideas and practices of Christianity. We raise questions about what Scripture really teaches, what God is really like, and what it means to be the church in the world today. We look for ways to reveal the scandalous grace of God to the world, raising questions about justice, righteousness, forgiveness, and love. 

All religions are the same, which is partly why I am not part of any religion. I do follow Jesus, but try to do so in a religionless way. How about you?

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Christianity, Discipleship, following Jesus, free grace, grace, religion, Theology of Salvation

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