Hi today, I just wanted to share on some statements Christians make without knowing what it really means. I hope this will help you to understand your liberty and perfection in Christ.
“He must increase, I must decrease”
The maxim “he must increase and I must decrease” is an old covenant one. John made that statement in the capacity as the last of the prophets of the Old Covenant of Moses. What is means (at the time he said it) was the law was coming to its end and a new era under the grace of Jesus. It does not mean that Jesus must appear more in my life and that I must decrease in my life. There is no such thing. Colossians 3:1 tells me that I have been raised with Christ and I am hidden in Christ. There is no me anymore. Only Jesus. Colossians all tells us that there is religious or unreligious. We are defined by Christ, he is all in all.
“Heaven and earth passes away”
The terms “new heaven” and “new earth” do not refer to the future, we are already living in a new heaven and new earth. The terms refer to the passing of the Old Covenant to the New. You are already living in “a new heaven and new earth”.
“Generation Curses”
Do you know that both Ezekiel and Jeremiah states that generation curses will end? Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah spoke about a day when it comes to an end. It ended when God established the New Covenant on the cross when Jesus took the sour wine. Now if it is even mentioned in the Old Covenant, why are we stilling telling people that it applies on believers, in the 21st century?
“We need to be spiritually disciplined in order to be transformed”
Transformation does not begin with you being disciplined. Can a leopard by being discipline changed its spots? Can we being in Adam be transformed when we feed Adam? We already have been transformed, we used to be in Adam, now we are in Christ. We have already been transformed, it is now a matter from glory to glory. We are transformed by beholding Jesus, not our discipline. If we can be transformed by human effort, Christ died for nothing. Better go to gym than church then.
“We must obey the 10 commandments. Only the ritual law was abolished”
The very fact Christians gather to worship Jesus on a Sunday every-week is proof the law ended. Otherwise we would be worshiping him on a Saturday. Keeping the Sabbath is part of the 10 commandments. Sunday is not the new Sabbath. Sunday was the day he rose from the dead. Jesus died and was buried on Friday. On Saturday he was in the tomb resting. On Sunday he rose, and appeared to many people, walked more than the distance allowed by the law. So Sunday was not observed by him as Sabbath. It is the first day of New Creation. It is our day. So the 10 commandments was also abolished.
“It is the prosperity Gospel!”
There is no such thing as the prosperity Gospel or the poverty Gospel. There is only the belief that God wants to bless you abundantly and financially or he wants to make you poor. Therefore the issues become clear, the question now becomes “are you bad mouthing God or not.”
“Set your minds on things above means you are not to think about worldly things like money and ambition”
Jesus did not come to change the mind-set of the Jews about God, he came to give them his mind through the miracle of new birth. The failure to understand the grace message is not due to mind-sets, but that you don’t have New Creation mindset. We now have the mind of Christ. That is what it means by setting your mind on things above. It does not mean that we are always thinking about heaven. It is knowing you are already seated in heaven while we sojourn this earth in our mortal body. You are already seated in heaven, now let your mind catch up to that fact.
“Preaching that you don’t have to keep the Law is antinomianism”
You don’t go against the Law by telling people, you can’t keep the Law. You cheapen the Law by telling others you can keep the Law. It’s called hypocrisy. It’s way worse than antinomianism.
“Grace is a licence to sin”
I find that the greatest enemy to understanding the grace of God, is that we tell people it is a licence to sin. Let’s face it, before you come to Christ, do you sin? Yes. Can you not sin? The answer is no, this is because you are a sinner. A sinner sins. It is what he does best. It is his nature to do it.
Can he be righteous? No. So when it comes to being after made alive in Christ, can a believer sin? Yes. Can he not sin? Yes. Hence grace is given to people who are already once sinners but now saints – who now can sin or not to sin. Grace is no more licence to sin nor not to sin.
One thing is right – grace has now given you the licence to be free from sinning. Before that happened, you are a sinner, you cannot but sinned. Hence Paul’s letters are written to people who are now made alive and thus have the liberty to sin or not. You didn’t have that liberty in the past. You do now. It’s licence to sin and also to behave righteously.
One thing for sure is this.
It is licence to be alive.
” Anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven”
Matthew 5
“Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
For a long time, I had the words “these commands” to be the 10 commandments. I was wrong. Jesus is referring to what he was about to say next.
“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
There is only one “righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.” This phrase is a reference to the righteousness that comes from observing the law of Moses. The righteousness that exceeds it is the righteousness of the Father.
Hence Jesus concludes the “sermon on the mount” by saying seek first HIS righteousness.
The commands here thus mean “seeking his father’s righteousness”, that is how you become the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus said the same thing when he called John the greatest among the prophets of the Old Covenant but the very least in the New Covenant is greater than John.
This righteousness is apart from the law and is a gift to those who believe. Romans 3:21-22.
“God only forgives us when we confess our sins”
Colossians 3
12-14 So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you.
Paul tells us that we are to forgive completely and quickly as Christ who had forgiven us. If we are told to forgive completely, why do we teach people that God has not completely forgiven us?
“The sermon on the mount is about the new standard that God wants from us”
No… it has always been what the Law wanted for us….
Have you ever called someone an idiot?
Have you given people less than what people ask you?
Have you ever looked at woman with lust?
Have you ever even failed in letting your yes be yes and no be no?
Has the thought that “if you had more money or better things your life would be better” ever crossed your mind?
If your answer is yes, congratulations, you are a murderer, thief, adulterer, false witness and a covet. You just broken the 10 commandments.
Tell me is there a provision that these sins can be forgiven in the Law of Moses?
Can the blood of lamb and bulls provide forgiveness for these sins?
Can these sins be forgiven by confession?
The clear answer is no.
What makes you think, you are saved to obey the law. You are saved so that the law’s relationship with you ends and your relationship with your Saviour begins.
“Our sinful nature is still with us .. that is why we still sin”
Colossians 3:9
9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
I just love this verse. Notice you can (by your will) lie despite your old self (flesh) is already taken off and in Colossians 2 taken away on the cross. This means the fact you still sins does not mean you still have a sinful nature or negates that you are still righteous.
Paul is now saying because you have died with Christ and that your old self is taken away, do not lie. In other words, we must act out of true identity and who we already are.
Today we teach people we have the flesh and are still walking in it. You do not walk in the flesh anymore. You used to walk in it. You are already walking in the Spirit. Because you have been taught otherwise, you equate sinning as walking in the flesh. Walking in the flesh is defined by Paul in Romans 7 as satisfying the sinful desires aroused by the law.
You are no longer under the law, you are under grace. You already died to the law, when you were crucified with Christ. People read Galatians 2:20 as if it is a self martyring verse. You should read the verse before it and after it to see it’s context. Here it is:
Galatians 2:19-21
19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Through the law I died to the law.
Think about that.
“If we do what is right, we will be seated and rule with Christ”
I love Colossians 3. It tells me I am already seated in Christ. Then it gives me a list of things I must put to death and things I must let go. It tells me because I am seated with Christ, I should let all these things go. It does not tell me I must let all these go, then I get to sit with Jesus.
This means that I am act as who I am truly am. I am holy, blameless and dear loved. My behavior and my character must match who I already am. I don’t behave to become who I am. I behave to match who I already am. That is powerful.
SO IS RIGHT BELIEVING!
Decluttering Religion. 