And then we wonder why those listening don’t want to know Him!

“Whatever we believe about love, we believe about God.” So says Darin Hufford in his book The Misunderstood God and it is profound truth. God is love. If your definition of love has been filtered through our fallenness and twisted by religion, you will inevitably end up with a screwy picture of God. This is the chief reason why so many people who claim to know God are miserable. They have been told that God values us as servants and that He relates to us as a general relates to a soldier. “Relationship” for them is not about enjoying life together but following orders. It’s a monologue rather than a dialogue.

Tragically, a mixed-up view of God’s love has a devastating effect on relationships with others. For instance, there are those who worry that they may be loving their spouses or their children too much. They fear they may be turning their loved ones into idols and incurring the jealously of a vengeful God. Here’s Hufford:

I am always mystified when I hear people boastfully say, “I love God more than my wife.” The only way to love God more than your spouse is to love God through your spouse. Your husband or wife would be the direct recipient of the love.… The God who is love loves it when we love.… God is never in competition with your love for people! Any time you love a person, you are not far from God. (p.54)

Then there are those who love their family too little, possibly because they believe that family distracts from some higher calling, such as ministry. Nothing could be further from the truth:

Your love for people is the evidence that God is living inside you.… It shocks me to see so many people who honestly believe that God desires a separate and secret relationship with them aside from their family members. Many men will lock themselves in their prayer closets while their wives are in another room watching the kids alone. I call this adultery. (pp.54-5)

Religion has sold us a bunch of lies about the love of God. We have been told that God is envious, distrustful, needy, angry, distant, and that He keeps a record of wrongs. Fall for these lies and it will de-humanize you. You’ll waste your life trying to force-fit your dreams and desires into a religious mold and you’ll be utterly miserable. If you’re already miserable, or you just want a clearer picture of what God is really like, I recommend that you read Hufford’s book:

God never envies anyone or anything. He never desires to take for Himself what others have. Instead, He longs to give away all He has… He keeps no record of the wrong things you’ve done because He refuses to call you by the name of your past… God always perseveres, proving He is who He claims to be. He stands through the storm and walks through the fire simply to express His love for you. He will never fail you, never fall short, never fall out of love, because He’s made of love, the very source of it all. (pp.208-210)

(If you like that, you’ll find other nuggets from Hufford over on GraceQuotes.com.)

The Misunderstood God is a two-punch book. The first punch – who is God really? – is a knockout blow. Hufford’s response to 17 lies taught by religion will leave you with a good sense of just how deeply God loves you and that alone is worth the price of admission. However, the second punch – how do we experience His love? – left me hanging.

The unwritten rules of love

Paul famously prayed that we would know the measureless love of God, for it’s in knowing His love that we truly live. So how do we come to know His love? Hufford says that God’s love is experienced in loving people. “When you truly love someone unconditionally… that flame of love inside your heart is God” (p.205). Okay, well how do you come to love someone unconditionally? According to Hufford, that kind of love comes as a result of knowing how much God loves us: “When I finally got it and knew that I knew that God was crazy about me for no other reason than that I was his son, I began to love others” (p.200). So the love of God is experienced in loving people, but the love for people only comes when you already know the love of God? Hmm. I am reminded of questions involving chickens and eggs.

Hufford’s examples shed no further light on this. Many of his stories revolve around his love for his children. Well I have found that it’s easy to love your own kids; the hard part is loving your neighbor’s kids, particularly when they are throwing a wild party in the wee small hours of the night. Jesus said, “Love your enemies” but how do you do that? How do you love those who condemn your ministry and write nasty things on your blog?

If I was an Old Covenant preacher, these sorts of questions would not trouble me. I would simply say, “You had jolly well better grow in the love of God, you lukewarm creature you! And you had better love your neighbor while you’re at it. Otherwise you’re in big trouble!” The Old Covenant, despite its faults, provides clear rules telling us what to do along with carrots and sticks to get us to do it.

But in the New Covenant we tread the unmarked path of freedom. We are given an invitation and a Guide… and not much else! When it comes to love there are no rules – “all things are lawful” – just opportunities. For a newly liberated slave all this freedom can be overwhelming. Tell me God, what I am supposed to do? And the God who loves you enough to die for you will respond, What would you like to do? Crumbs! This is most unexpected. Well, Lord. I want to do whatever pleases you. I want to decrease; you must increase. And God will do a face-palm.

Imagine if you married someone who spoke like that. I want to do whatever you want to do dear. It’s not about me, it’s all about you. That would be fun for about a week. I just want to be used by you. I just want others to know how much I am committed to you. Then your heart would break.

Happily lost in an undiscovered country

Jesus didn’t come to recruit servants but to give us abundant life founded on the Father’s unconditional love. For those of us used to being told what to do, this new life can be a little bit scary, but in an exciting sort of way. To paraphrase Star Trek, the love of God is an undiscovered country. It’s an adventure tailor-made by Him just for you. Paul said the love of Christ surpasses knowledge (Eph 3:19). His love is so great it’s not reducible to rules or books. It’s easier to say what the love of God isn’t like, as Hufford does in his book and Paul does in 1 Corinthians 13. God is not proud, rude or self-seeking. He is not easily provoked and He thinks no evil of you. In short, God is nothing like the evil picture painted by religion. But when it comes to discovering the fullness of what God is like, well that’s the Great Adventure of Life!

When it comes to experiencing the love of God I don’t have all the answers – I don’t even have the questions! But I know I would rather be lost in His arms of love than found in the shackles of the loveless law. If that’s where you want to be as well, then The Misunderstood God will certainly help you get there.
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The gospel of grace is such a matchless message that any time we preach something different, we are giving less than our best. “But Paul,” you may say. “There are so many needs.” Then preach the gospel! Need healing? Then let me tell you the good news of Christ. Are you facing financial difficulties? Here’s the gospel. Are you worried, frustrated, confused and lost? Then I have good news for you!

Good news agents

Paul said he was shameless about the gospel because it was the only message empowered by God to save those who believe it. We need to have the same attitude as Paul. We need to realize that we are called to be good news agents and nothing less. So let’s clear the shelves of old covenant clutter – all that stuff that says we have to jump through hoops to be accepted/blessed/holy/etc. – and make room for the new and better message of grace: Jesus has done it all!

To help you proclaim the gospel, I want to highlight the top 12 new covenant claims made in the Bible. You can use these claims in your advertising. Two-thousand years of market research has proven that they work. How did I choose these particular scriptures? Well, to be honest, some of them are simply my personal favorites. Others are those that have drawn a positive response from readers over at GraceQuotes.com. I’m not claiming that this list of verses is in any way definitive so feel free to add to it in the comments underneath.

The Top New Covenant Scriptures (in reverse order)

(12) I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Rom 1:16, NIV)

Salvation in the old covenant hinged on your perfect law-keeping performance; in the new, salvation is a work of God. This is why it’s called good news – it’s an announcement of a finished work. It is the declaration that God’s saving power is available to all who would receive it. And what power! It can literally turn a sinner into a saint, or a dead man into a living one…

(11) I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. (Joh 5:24, NIV)

Prior to the cross we were subject to the law of sin and death but now there’s a new law in town! The law of the Spirit of life means we can live free from sin and all its fatal effects. Jesus didn’t merely save us from our sins; He gave us new life. How do we enjoy this new life? By trusting in the one called Mr. Grace…

(10) And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (Joh 1:14, KJV)

If Jesus only brought truth, we would all be dead meat, but since He came full of “grace and truth” we have abounding life! Truth without grace (e.g., old covenant law) is a hammer; but truth with grace is good news for the poor and needy.

(9) I’ve never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love! (Jer 31:3, MSG)

Most people are surprised to find this scripture in the Bible, but that’s what everlasting love is. It is love that never quits. As Paul said, “Love is patient, love endures.” That means God will never give up on you! He loved you into existence, He loved you when you were a sinner, and He will always love you. You cannot exaggerate the love of God. What does this have to do with the new covenant? Everything! The new covenant expresses the loving-kindness of our Father. Since God never changes, this explains why the new covenant is sometimes called “the eternal covenant” (Heb 13:20).

(8) “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. (Is 54:10, NIV)

See? I told you it was an eternal covenant. Unlike the old covenant which stands on the brittle promises of men, the new covenant is underwritten by the unshakeable oath of God. You can take His words to the bank! And that probably explains why Isaiah 54:10 is the most popular prophecy on GraceQuotes.com.

(7) God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:21, NIV)

You’ve got to love the math of the new covenant: How many sins did Jesus commit before He was made sin? None. And how many righteous acts did we do before we were made righteous? None. God did it all! We are merely the grateful beneficiaries of His mighty work.

(6) If God is for us, who can be against us? Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son—will he not also freely give us all things? Who will accuse God’s chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty! (Rom 8:31-33, GNB)

In the old covenant, the law stood against us but in the new, God is for us. God is for us! God is for us!

(5) How great is God’s love for all who worship him? Greater than the distance between heaven and earth! How far has the LORD taken our sins from us? Farther than the distance from east to west! (Psalm 103:11-12, CEV)

Preachers who are confused about what happened on the cross will look at this list and say, “You are not emphasizing sin enough!” That’s because it’s hard to talk about something that Jesus has done away with. Jesus is here; our sins are there. They have been removed as far as the east is from the west. This is what it means to be completely forgiven! In the old you examined yourself for sin, but in the new you examine the Lamb without blemish. You want to fix sin? Then preach grace. Grace is the cure for sin.

(4) 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. (Gal 2:20, NIV)

That’s the key to Christian living right there. It’s not about sweating for Jesus or improving the flesh, but resting in His finished work. Reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to Christ and live!

(3) Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through Christ, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer. (Eph 1:3, GWT)

I have listed the top 12 blessings of the new covenant elsewhere. Rather than repeat them here, I’ll just echo Paul who says that we have been blessed with everything! If God has already given us His Son, what will He withhold from us? Nothing! (I love answering rhetorical questions raised by the gospel.)

(2) Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me–watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly. (Mt 11:28-30, MSG)

I’d rather be married to Mr. Grace than that old perfectionist Mr. Law. Incidentally, this paraphrase of Jesus’ words is one of the most popular scriptures on GraceQuotes.com. Nice work Eugene Peterson!

(1) The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luk 4:18-19, NIV)

And that year of favor will prove to be the longest year in history! It’s 2000 years long and counting. It will never end!

What did I miss?

There are so many great scriptures that are not on this list. (If you’re wondering what happened to John 3:16, wait for my next post!) If you think there is a scripture that definitely should be included in the Top 12, let us know in the comments below.
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All well and good. But what about the other point? Shouldn’t we turn from sin when we come to Jesus? You would certainly think so judging by the popularity of this verse:

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chr 7:14)

Thank God for the cross that changed everything! In the old covenant, God’s blessings were conditional on you humbling, praying, seeking, and turning. (Phew! What if you only did three of those things? Would you get three-quarter forgiveness?) But in the new covenant, God’s blessings are poured out on us on account of Jesus:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Eph 1:3)

Here’s a question to see if you have been paying attention. If we have been blessed with “every spiritual blessing in Christ,” what blessings remain for us outside of Christ? None! Starting with salvation, every blessing comes to us by grace through faith. Every. Single. Blessing.

So with Jesus as our secure foundation, how do we define repentance? Since I have compared the old- and new covenant definitions in another post, I just want to give you a simple picture. Here it is…

In the new covenant, repentance literally means change your mind. Nothing more, nothing less. It is not something we initiate so much as it is a response to the good news. When Jesus said, “Repent and believe the good news” (Mk 1:15), He was literally saying, “Change your unbelieving mind and believe the glad tidings of the kingdom which is at hand.” We don’t repent to manipulate God into bringing his kingdom down; we repent because His kingdom is already at hand. (The King has come!) We don’t repent to get forgiven; we repent because we are forgiven. (He remembers your sins no more!)

In the old covenant, repentance implied a turning from, as in “turn from sin.” But in the new, repentance means a turning to, as in “turn to God.” Here’s Paul:

First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. (Act 26:20)

Do you see why the new is better? Under the old, you could turn from sin to… more sin! For instance, if you managed to turn from some nasty habits, your religious flesh would soon get puffed up with pride. Just look at the Pharisees. I doubt anyone repented (i.e., turned from sin) as much as they did. But in the new, there is only one direction to turn, and that is towards God. And as we turn towards Him, we inevitably turn from sin. This is why we don’t find Paul praying like this: “I keep asking God to help you reprobates turn from your stinking sin”! No, Paul prayed that we would know Him better.

As we change our minds and come to walk in the revelation that Jesus is lovely and God is good and He thinks we’re special, we find that the things of this world grow strangely dim. We walk away from sin effortlessly because we are captivated by something, Someone, infinitely better.
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Jesus lived under law

Jesus lived at the crossroads of two covenants. As humanity’s representative He came to fulfill the old law-keeping covenant in order that we might relate to God through a new and better covenant forged in His blood. Since the new covenant could not begin before He died, Jesus lived all of His pre-cross life under the old covenant of the law:

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. (Gal 4:4-5)

Jesus was born under law, circumcised by law, and presented in the temple according to the law. Every Jewish person that Jesus met was also born under law. We need to keep this in mind when we read the red letters of Jesus.

What law did Jesus preach?

To those under the law, Jesus preached the pure and unadulterated Law of Moses. When religious people came to trap him with theological puzzles, Jesus would respond with, “What did Moses command you?” (Mk 10:3). If someone asked, “What is the greatest commandment in the law,” Jesus would provide an answer from the law (Mt 22:36). In His law-keeping ministry, Jesus honored the Law of Moses:

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. (Mt 23:2-3)

Since the law-teachers often made Jesus angry, we might conclude that Jesus was opposed to the law. He was not. Jesus had no problem with what the Pharisees were preaching. “Do everything they tell you.” What really burnt His toast was their hypocrisy – they weren’t practicing what they preached:

Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. (Joh 7:19)

Why did Jesus preach the law?

Like every grace preacher, Jesus esteemed the law and the purpose for which it was given. The law was given to silence every mouth and hold the whole world accountable (Rms 3:19). The purpose of the law is to make us conscious of sin and reveal our need for a Savior.

Since Sinai, the Jews had had fourteen centuries to learn what the law would teach them – that the flesh is incapable of dealing with sin. However, the law-teachers and Pharisees had ring-fenced the Law of Moses with their traditions and interpretations. By honoring their traditions ahead of the law, they diluted the law and removed the key to knowledge. As a result, the menace of sin was not fully recognized and the self-righteous weren’t silenced.

If the law had been allowed to do its proper work, the Jews would have been primed and ready for a Savior. Every one of them would have had an experience like the one Paul describes in Romans 7. “Nothing good lives in me. Oh wretched man that I am!” Live under the condemning ministry of the law and you will inevitably come to this question: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” If the law-teachers and prophets had done their job, then the entire nation of Israel would have gathered outside that stable in Bethlehem in eager expectation. “He’s here! The Savior has come!” they would have said. “The One who will deliver us from the curse of the law and reconcile us to God has been born. Glory to God in the highest!”

Sadly, it didn’t happen. Since the law-teachers had been negligent, Jesus had to do their job before He could do His own. Before He could save the world from sin, He had to preach the law that made sin utterly sinful. Before He give Himself as the answer, He had to make sure we were asking the right question. Who will deliver us?

So Jesus became the greatest law preacher of all time. As the prophet Isaiah had foretold, He made the law magnificent. He lifted up what others had knocked down and raised the standard to glorious levels of perfection. Never again would mankind be without excuse. You want to know what God expects? Just read the Sermon on the Mount. In it Jesus says that God demands perfection and nothing less.

How did Jesus preach the law?

Preaching the red letters of Jesus is a bit like drinking whatever you find in the laundry. If you’re not paying attention – if you fail to distinguish His life-giving words of grace from His death-dealing words of law – then you could really do some damage. Don’t believe me? Then consider these red letters:

If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Mat 6:14-15)

This is one of the most-quoted passages in the Bible and it is vintage law. It is a killer scripture. It is not good news. This verse should make us shudder for it says that our forgiveness hinges on our ability to forgive others and we are poor forgivers indeed. Men sin against us repeatedly. Have we honestly forgiven them all? What if we miss one? And what do we say to those who have been raped and abused? What do you say to a young child who has been molested? “Sweetie, you need to forgive that evil man otherwise God won’t forgive you.” That’s not grace. That’s the condemning ministry of the law in full bloom. How do you forgive the unforgiveable? You can’t! Then you’re in trouble. The law condemns you as an unforgiver. Now you’re beginning to recognize your need for grace and this is a good thing.

Any time you read a conditional statement from Jesus, you should interpret it as law. “Do not judge and you will not be judged” (Lk 6:37). That’s good advice but it’s also law. To avoid something (judgment) you have to do something (don’t judge). It’s a blessing you have to pay for. And anytime Jesus makes a threat, you should interpret that as law as well. “Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment” (Mt 5:22). That’s bad news for anyone with a brother!

The law is not for you

Jesus came to reveal grace but those who are confident of their own righteousness are incapable of receiving it. They don’t see their need. What they need is the law and Jesus gave it to them in spades. But Jesus’ larger purpose was to give us His life and His righteousness. So He also told stories about God justifying sinners and shepherds finding lost sheep. Then He went to the cross fulfilling the law on our behalf that He might be the end of the law for all who believe (Rom 10:4).

Jesus’ came to set the captives free and give sight to the blind. The law sets nobody free. But the law does reveal your need for a Great Deliverer.

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- 5 ways Jesus revealed grace
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- Rightly dividing the word: How to read your Bible without getting confused

The cross changed everything. Prior to the cross everything pointed forward to Jesus and His redemptive work. Everything after the cross celebrates His finished work and invites you to rest.

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Rest assured that God never changes. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8). But judging from the feedback I’ve received, some of you are having trouble wrapping your heads around the idea that God can change the way He relates to us without changing His nature. Yet there are many examples in the Bible of God acting differently in different circumstances. Most notably, God changes the way He relates to us in covenant. If this puzzles you, look at the table below which compares God’s behavior before and after Mt Sinai (when the 10 commandments were given):

God’s Behavior Before and After Mt Sinai

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Doesn’t it strike you as odd that a loving God acts one way one time, but a completely different way another? If it does, then you’ve never raised children. Go find a loving parent and ask them, “Did you spank your kids when they were little? Do you still spank them now that they’re grown?” Do you see? The same loving parent relates to their children differently depending on how the children wish to relate to them. Under the old covenant, God chose to restrain His heart of love towards the Children of Israel in order that they might see the dangers of sin and recognize their need for a Savior.

God has always loved us with an everlasting, and therefore, unconditional love. He blessed Abraham and told him, “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendents” (Gen 17:7). Even while the Israelites were under the temporary law-keeping covenant, God’s true and unchanging nature would occasionally be detected by prophets like Jeremiah (31:3) and Isaiah (54:10) – not to mention David who lived as if the old covenant wasn’t as real to Him as God’s loving-kindness (Ps 51:1, 63:3,KJV). This is why God said of David, “Now there’s a man who knows my heart.”

That old covenant – the one where God chose to make His love conditional on the Israelites’ performance – is long gone. We live under a new and better covenant where the heart of God is clearly seen in the way He relates to us. And how does He relate? Through the pure and unqualified grace that comes to us through Jesus Christ. If you want to know how much your heavenly Father loves you, look to Jesus who died for you and now lives for you.
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In my last post I presented seven pieces of evidence proving that God’s love for us is unconditional. How, then, are we to account for those scriptures that say things like “God loves those who fear him” and “God loves those who keep his commands”? What about the scripture at the top of this post where God Himself declares that He is a jealous God who loves those who love Him but punishes those who don’t?

Before we proceed, I hope you will agree that it is impossible to be jealous and love unconditionally at the same time. I’ve heard some interpret the verse above in terms of “righteous jealousy,” meaning jealousy is an ugly sin when you do it but when God does it, it’s okay. That makes as much sense as trying to justify “righteous adultery.” (See my note in the comments for more.) It’s difficult to put a positive spin on jealousy when God makes plain the frightening consequences of spurning His love:

“Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and His anger will burn against you, and He will destroy you from the face of the land.” (Deu 6:14-15)

Let’s not play with words – jealousy is a terrible thing. It is pouty, bitter, resentment that stems from an insecure and anxious heart and is revealed in threats that seek to shackle the object of its so-called love. Jealousy will make you possessive and controlling. Is this how God is? If you look at the characteristics of love listed in 1 Corinthians 13, you will see that jealousy is the exact opposite of Godly love. Jealousy is impatient, unkind and envious. It is self-seeking, easily angered and keeps a long record of wrongs. Is this how you picture God?

Jealousy or agape – which is it?

Does God love us unconditionally or does He love us with a jealous love? Does He love us regardless of what we do or does He love us because of what we do? You cannot have it both ways. It’s one or the other. I hope it’s clear from my previous post and 1 Corinthians 13 that God is not a jealous God at all! He is not insecure, He is not anxious, and He does not use threats to make us love Him. In truth, He is patient and kind, He is not easily angered, He does not delight in evil and He keeps no record of wrongs. Indeed, He is the very definition and Personification of love (1 Jn 4:16). We would not know what love is except that He’s shown us His love.

So what’s with these threats in Exodus and Deuteronomy? Was God playing with words when He told the Israelites that He was a jealous God? How are we to account for these contradictory images of His nature? As always, the answer is to interpret scripture through the finished work of the cross. If you fail to read your Bible through the lens of the cross, you’ll end up confused and believing all sorts of nonsense about the character of God.

One nature, two covenants

The cross basically divides the Bible into two covenants, the old and new. Under the old covenant (the 10 commandments), if you did good you got good, but if you did bad, you got bad. Everything – even the love of God – was conditional on your performance. But under the new covenant we are blessed with “every spiritual blessing” because of Jesus (Eph 1:3). Everything – forgiveness, righteousness, holiness, and health – is given to us by grace and is received by faith.

The cross really did change everything, but – and this is the important bit – it did not change the nature of God. He is eternal and unchanging and He did not have a change of heart after the cross. He did not think, “Well that first covenant I came up with was a disaster, so I’d better try something new.” No, the new covenant was God’s plan from the very beginning. This is why the Bible refers to the new covenant as the “eternal covenant” (He 13:20) while describing the old covenant as temporary and now obsolete (2 Cor 3:11, He 8:13). The old covenant was not a practice run while God was still figuring things out. It was a temporary arrangement whereby He deliberately restrained His heart of loving-kindness toward the Israelites so that they might become aware of the magnitude of their sin and their dire need for a Savior (Rm 3:20, Gal 3:24). When Jesus came He fulfilled the requirements of the old covenant law on our behalf and offered Himself as the one-time sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. For the Israelites who lived under the old covenant, the cross was something to look forward to. But for us who live under the new, the cross is 2000 years in our past.

Read your Bible through the lens of the cross

When you read scriptures that seem to say, on the one hand, that God is jealous and controlling, but on the other, that He loves us with an everlasting love and died for us while we were yet sinners, you have to ask yourself, which covenant is this describing? The jealousy statement at the top of this post comes right smack in the middle of the 10 commandments so there should be no doubt that it belongs to the old covenant. This statement does not describe the true nature of God at all. Rather than frame our understanding of God’s character through an old covenant scripture that says God is jealous, we need to interpret scripture through our understanding of God’s heart as revealed first in Jesus and then in the new and eternal covenant under which we live. Do that and you will get a consistent picture of your heavenly Father who loves you unconditionally. Do you know how many times God is described as jealous in the new covenant? Not once. Like the prodigal’s father, your heavenly Father loves you regardless of your behavior. Indeed, He loves you more than He loves His own life. How do we know? Look to the cross!

If you’ve been told that God is a jealous God, you will always wonder whether you’ve done enough to merit His affection. You will hesitate to love your spouse and kids for fear of making Him envious. If you think God is anxious and insecure, it’ll make you anxious and insecure and before you know it you will be a jealous lover too. But God is not jealous and He is not schizophrenic. He set His love on you before you were born and He draws you even now with His loving-kindness.
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Related posts:
-    Does God give and take away?
-    God doesn’t change; We do
-    Top 12 blessings in the new covenant

But seriously, do you fear that Jesus might remove your name from His book? Is this something that concerns you? It shouldn’t.

The most important book in the universe

If you haven’t heard, the Book of Life lists all those who are saved for eternity. Revelations chapter 20 speaks of a day when the books are opened and the dead are judged according to what they have done. But in terms of your salvation, only one book matters and it’s the Lamb’s Book of Life. If your name is not in this book, you’re cooked:

“If anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Rev 20:15)

I don’t want to belittle this. It’s very important to make sure that your name is recorded in this book. (If Jesus knows you, you’re in!) But if your name is already recorded in His book, should you be worried about being blotted out? Under the old covenant, the answer seemed to be yes!

“The LORD replied to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my Book.’” (Exo 32:33)

Under the old covenant, your performance mattered a great deal. You were blessed if you were faithful, but condemned if you weren’t. This meant that people were very conscious of their behavior. They knew that their sins could lead to dire consequences. Under the old covenant you might even pray for your enemies like this:

“May they be blotted out of the Book of Life and not be listed with the righteous.” (Psa 69:28)

But we don’t live under that old sin-conscious covenant. We live under the new and better covenant of God’s grace. Under grace, your performance affects your standing before God not one bit. Jesus did it all. We are not blessed because we are faithful but because He is faithful.

Mixing covenants

So why are Christians afraid that Jesus will blot their names out of His book? Their fear stems from an old covenant interpretation of a new covenant promise. I am sure you know the promise I am referring to. It is found in the exhortation Jesus’ gave to the church in Sardis:

“He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but will acknowledge his name before My Father and His angels.” (Rev 3:5)

Here Jesus gives us a wonderful assurance of our eternal salvation. He is promising that He will never blot out our names. Never means never! Yet some read this as if Jesus might yet do the very thing He promised not to do. (If Jesus has promised He won’t do something, but you think He might, isn’t that a bit like calling God a liar?)

Someone with an old covenant mindset looks at this verse and sees only conditions for salvation. They think, “I have to overcome to qualify. If I don’t overcome, I’m going to be blotted out.” To read the verse in this way is to dismiss the cross and make the grace of God of no effect.

But someone with a new covenant mindset looks at this verse in a completely different way. They think, “Jesus has overcome the world and now lives in me. I don’t overcome to qualify – I am qualified by Christ and I now carry His overcoming nature. This is not some test I have to pass, but a wonderful promise regarding my inheritance.” (See 1 Jn 4:4, 5:5, Jn 16:33, and Col 1:12.)

God has perfect knowledge. When He added your name to His book He knew everything you had done and everything you were going to do. There is nothing you can do that will surprise Him, nothing that would cause Him to shake His head with disappointment and say, “I made a mistake adopting that one.” The good news is that God doesn’t make mistakes. When He added you to His book it was for all eternity.

The new thing

There’s only one thing of yours that God promises to blot out, and it’s not your name – it’s your sins:

“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” (Isa 43:25)

God promised to blot out all your sins and He did that already. This was the “new thing” foretold by the prophet Isaiah (43:19). Under the old covenant, men’s sins were counted against them. But when Jesus met all the demands of the law at the cross, all your sins were blotted out. Your sin is no longer being imputed to you (2 Cor 5:19). Why did He blot out your sins? He did it for His own sake, because He loves us, and so that we might be reconciled to Him.

If your name is in His book, you have nothing to fear on Judgment Day. If all your sins were blotted out at the cross, then there is no sin left that could get your name removed from His book. This is the gospel of grace. It was new news for Isaiah, is old news for us, but is still good news for everyone.

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Related posts:
- Why repentance is like football
- Rev 3:21: To him who overcomes
- Php 2:12: Fear and trembling

I’ve never heard Malcolm Smith preach, but I get the sense he’s been preaching radical grace longer than some of us have been alive. If you want to learn some of the insights he’s acquired in his grace walk, then read The Lost Secret of the New Covenant. This book is possibly the definitive introduction to the new covenant. It’s outstanding.

Many of us are not intuitively geared to think in terms of covenants and this affects the way we receive the gospel. We may confuse covenants with contracts, but they have little in common, as Malcolm Smith explains:

“A contract is the exchange and passing of property, possessions; a covenant is the exchange of persons. The contract says, ‘This is now yours,’ while the covenant says, ‘I am now yours.’ So God does not merely promise His impersonal blessings; His blessing is the gift of Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit.” (p.252)

In Lost Secret, Malcolm Smith unpackages the key ingredients of covenant – the oath, the meal, the sacrifice, and, most importantly, the representative. Each party in a covenant has a representative. Who represents humanity in the new covenant? Jesus, our Advocate, Mediator and High Priest (1 Tim 2:5). The first thing you need to know about the new covenant, is that you played no part in setting it up:

“The new covenant is not made with us as individuals. It is a covenant made by God the Father with God the Son.” (p.75)

The new covenant is out of our hands and guaranteed by God Himself. This makes it an eternal, unconditional and unbreakable covenant for God cannot lie. In this arrangement we are like crippled Mephibosheth being shown kindness by King David because of a covenant made before we were born. We are the beneficiaries of Jesus’ sacrifice and God’s own oath. Dead religion is based on the worthless promises of imperfect men, but we stand on the unshakeable oath of God Himself. It is His promise-keeping – not ours – that provides a “firm and secure” anchor for the soul (Heb 6:19). What relief! What freedom to know that our eternal security rests in Him:

“I had always thought of my relationship with God as being between God and me… I cannot tell you what it meant to know that my relationship to God was based on and dependent upon Jesus, who was acting as me.” (p.224)

The single most important thing I learned about covenant from this book is that God doesn’t need one. He doesn’t need a covenant to prove His commitment to us, but He makes covenant in order that we might clearly see His eternal lovingkindness. The gospel is the good news of God’s love expressed to us in covenant. Why did He make a covenant where He forgives all our sin before we were even born? Because He loves us with no strings attached! There is no other explanation.

The Bible is full of covenant stories that help us understand the new covenant. Consider the Gibeonites who were Israel’s enemies. Through deceit they managed to trick Joshua and the Israelites into making a covenant guaranteeing their lives (Jos 9). As Israel was in covenant with God, the result was that Gibeonites were now also in partnership with God. When five Canaanite kings attacked Gibeon, the Gibeonites appealed to their new covenant partners for help. And you know what happened next; God intervened with one of the great miracles of all time and stopped the sun from going down. Gibeon was saved (Jos 10). This shows us that God’s covenant love is unshakeable, even to those who don’t deserve it. From the moment you put your trust in Jesus, you’re in God’s care forever. Just look at how vigorously this truth is expressed in Scripture:

“For He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]” (Heb 13:5, AMP)

In Lost Secret, Malcolm Smith delves into the rich meaning of words like hesed (the lovingkindness of God as expressed in covenant) and agape (love that originates in the heart of God and is unaffected by the loveliness or unloveliness of the object of its affection). These words are essential if we are to understand the new covenant. Afterall, God is not human. He doesn’t love in the way humans love. We completely miss the gospel when we conceive of God as loving only those who are lovely or saving those who deserve saving. The good news, from start to finish, is God’s idea.

“From the very beginning, the initiative for our salvation has come from God. Humankind has not asked Him for salvation, nor have we shown any desire to be saved. The newly fallen couple in the Garden of Eden did not show any signs of repentance… ‘men loved darkness rather than light’.” (p.118)

One of the great themes in Lost Secret is how God has always loved us with red-hot, unconditional love. He didn’t have a change of heart after Calvary. The Old Testament is peppered with declarations and promises of God’s forgiveness and lovingkindness. Even before the cross God was reaching out in love to covenant-breakers like David, who murdered Uriah. David lived under the unforgiving law of Moses. David should have been stoned to death for his sin, but he appealed beyond the law to the covenant heart of God:

“Have mercy (hesed) upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of your tender mercies…” (Ps 51:1)

And God did! David lived, even though his  sin still had consequences. All through the Bible – both testaments – the unconditional lovingkindness of a God who is love is shown to undeserving, sinful people. His love is greater than any covenant, but is most clearly revealed in the new.

Lost Secret is really two books in one. The first half is describes the new covenant, while the second half tells us how to live in that covenant. There is practical instruction on how to work out your salvation, how to overcome temptation, and how to put on Christ. But ultimately this is more than a how-to book. The main takeaway of Lost Secret is the call to know God and revel in His love. Wherever we are in life, His unshakeable, unchanging, and limitless love is the true north by which fix our position. What is the purpose of the new covenant? To reveal His love that we might know and enjoy Him:

“It is a shock to many who would settle for a life of serving God that, above all else, He fervently desires our friendship. He desires us infinitely more than we desire Him… He would rather die than not have you with Him. This is the wonder of the message of covenant.” (p.279)

To a religious mindset that worships a distorted image of God, this is scandalous, even blasphemous. But for the rest of us, this is the greatest news in the world!

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Related posts:
- See all E2R’s book reviews here
- Watch out for the dogs of law
- Top 12 blessings in the new covenant
- The badness of David versus the goodness of God

(a) servant of God,
(b) a friend of God, or
(c) a son of God?

When Samuel Mathew posed this question on his Facebook page yesterday, I was so surprised at the results, that I had to repost on E2R’s FB page as well. (Before you read on, answer the question for yourself. How do you primarily relate to God? As a servant, a friend or a son?)

So far about 30 people have responded to the FB polls. To my astonishment, less than half picked (c) “son of God.” And so, once again, Facebook has provided a brilliant answer to one of the world’s most pressing questions:

Why is the world still a mess, even though Jesus did everything He came to do, 2000 years ago?

The problem may not be what you think. It’s not legalism, condemnation, or even sin. The root cause of the problem is that the majority of people do not identify with God as their Father. They relate to Him as something other than sons. That is, they have an orphan spirit. Those outside the church are like the prodigal son, while many of those inside the church are like the elder brother. Neither received their father’s love. Both trusted in their own labor and had little confidence in the grace and provision of their loving father.

There may be only two kinds of people in the world: sons and orphans. Which are you? The devil’s plan is to get you confused about your identity. He will try and sow doubt by asking, “if you are the Son of God…” (Mt 4:3). To the degree that you are uncertain about your sonship, to that degree you have an orphan spirit.

I will probably write more about this some other time, but the FB polls have fired me up. I couldn’t sleep for thinking about it. So many of you are evidently victims of identity theft! I can’t stay silent while the devil runs off with your birth certificates, so below are 10 reasons why (c) is the best response to the question above. Even if you serve a God who is your best friend, first and foremost you are a son of God. And this applies equally to the ladies, for we are all one in Christ (Gal 3:28).

(I was greatly helped in preparing this list by the excellent series currently being preached by Martin Steel at Harbourside Church. If you want to learn more about the Spirit of Sonship, I highly recommend that you download his podcasts for the Sundays beginning 5 September 2010.)

Top 10 reasons why I am a son of God first and foremost

(1)    The Holy Spirit says so. “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (Rms 8:15).

(2)    Do you really need more reasons? Come on now! Paul thought this was such an important truth that he said it twice. “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, ‘Papa! Father!’” (Gal 4:6, MSG). God Himself calls you son. (You wouldn’t want to call God a liar now would you?) And He makes it possible for you to call Him Papa!

(3)    The Bible says so – in many places (see Gal 3:26, Rms 8:14, Heb 12:7, 1 Jn 3:1 for starters).

(4)    The Old Testament prophets longed for the day when God’s people would be called “sons of God” (Hos 1:10). They thought it applied to the Jews, but Paul says it includes “even us whom He also called” (Rms 9:23). Jesus came to reveal the Father (Mt 11:27). This is what makes the new covenant new. Sonship – not servanthood, not friendship – is the pinnacle of redemption. Not even Adam and Eve were identified as sons! Because of Jesus we have come closer to God than when we started out in the Garden. How awesome is that?!

(5)    We are to be servant-hearted, but not servant-minded. Someone with an orphan spirit readily identifies themselves as a servant of God. It sounds noble, but it insults the cross and the Spirit of grace. Servants work for wages. But we live under grace! Besides, there are no wages (other than death for sin). Sons are shareholders, not employees. We don’t work because we have to, but because we are wholly invested in the success of the family-business.

(6)    A servant doesn’t know his master’s will, has to be told what to do, and then relates to God on the basis of what he does. If he does good, he thinks God loves him more. How sad, how utterly tragic to be enslaved to such a demonic doctrine. A mature son is nothing like that. He has the mind of Christ (1 Co 2:16), is clothed with His righteousness (Is 61:10), and relates on the basis of the Father’s love first shown to him (1 Jn 4:19). A servant waits on God. A son just does what he sees His Father doing (Jn 5:19).

(7)    Servants suffer from performance-anxiety. Even friends may worry thinking they have to pound on doors in the middle of the night merely to borrow something (Lk 11:5). But sons need not worry, for our “heavenly Father knows we need all these things” (Mt 6:32). Our Father – not our master nor our friend – delights to give good gifts to those who ask Him (Mt 7:11). Only sons are secure.

(8)    True, Abraham was a friend of God (Is 41:8) and we are friends if we do what Jesus says (Jn 15:14). This is a good thing and something to treasure. But sonship is better by far! Sons have “full rights” of access that friends lack (Gal 4:5). Sons have an expectation of intimacy that servants and friends do not enjoy. My kids are with me 24/7 (it’s the school holidays). In contrast, I only see and enjoy my friends occasionally. Wouldn’t you rather walk with God enjoying His presence continuously? As a son you have full rights to do so!

(9)    Sons are heirs. I have an inheritance and it’s the entire planet (Rms 4:13). All the cattle on all the hills and all the blessings of Abraham are ours, paid for with Jesus’ blood. Indeed, we are co-heirs with Christ (Rm 8:17). Our share is no less than Christ’s!

(10)    What will it take to fix this broken, poisoned planet? A revelation of the sons of God (Rms 8:19)! In the garden God gave us a planet to keep. We lost it, Jesus got it back, yet we still act like it belongs to the devil. It is OURS! Jesus paid a very high price to redeem it for us. Creation is not waiting for the church to rise up. Neither is creation waiting for God’s servants or His friends to rise up. Instead, creation waits for the sons of God to rise up and say with authority “this is my planet and I’m taking it back!”

If you’re still having trouble wrapping your head around this, look to Jesus. Did Jesus describe God as His (a) Master, (b) Friend, or (c) Father? That’s an easy question! Under the obsolete law covenant, God was Master. Under the Abrahamic covenant, God is our Friend. But under the new covenant in Jesus’ blood, God relates to us as our Father!

And don’t water this down by saying that God is “all of the above.” He’s no more “all of the above” than you are “all of the above” to your own children. My kids will serve many employers and have many friends, but they will only have one earthly father. That’s me! I am thrilled beyond words to be identified as my children’s father because it is my unique privilege. I hope they will be equally thrilled to be identified as their father’s children. It makes my heart soar when they call me Papa. I’m less thrilled when they call me “your majesty.”

He is our Father! Yes I serve Him and yes He is my closest friend. But service and friendship stem from my secure position as His adopted son. There’s nothing I enjoy more than being with Him, knowing Him, walking with Him and talking with Him. Every day with Him is an adventure!

When you have a revelation of your sonship, it will change the way you pray. You will pray for the smallest things, because if it matters to you it matters to Him. But you will also ask Him for big things, because God has promised you the nations! You won’t hold back like a waiter or a friend – you’ll come running in to Papa knowing that He loves to give good gifts to His children.

Paul prayed, and so do I…

“…that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.” (Eph 1:18-19)

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Related posts:
- By which gospel are you saved? The gospel of grace!
- Does God give bad gifts?
- Top 12 blessings in the New Covenant

In the Charisma article, Prince recounts a life-changing experience he had back in 2000. He was visiting Canada when he turned on the TV and saw a minister preaching hellfire and brimstone. He asked God, “Why do you allow ministers like that on television?” He heard the Lord reply, “It is because ministers like you don’t want to be on television.” Seven years later and Joseph Prince Ministries started beaming onto our TV screens.

If you haven’t heard him preach, you’re missing out. Joseph Prince is an amazing preacher of the gospel of grace. Listen to him and you will come away with a fresh revelation of the goodness of God, the majesty of Jesus, and the perfectly complete work of the cross. I have heard him preach (on TV) numerous times. Perhaps this just reflects where I’m at with my walk with God, but my usual reaction is one of appreciation, both for his gift and the One who gave it.

I posted some of my favorite Joseph Prince quotes here a few months ago, but below are 20 of his all-time best exclusively on the subject of grace. None of these have appeared on E2R before. I’ve taken these 20 pearls of wisdom from three sources; Prince’s two books Destined to Reign (DTR) and Unmerited Favor (UF), plus the Charisma article mentioned earlier. Enjoy!

Joseph Prince: Top 20 Grace Quotes

1.    “Grace is not a theology. It is not a subject matter. It is not a doctrine. It is a person, and his name is Jesus.” (DTR, p.24)

2.    “The central tenet of the new covenant … is the complete forgiveness of sins!” (UF, p.171)

3.    “God’s forgiveness is not given in installments.” (UF, p.194)

4.    “Old Testament prophets call your sin to remembrance, while New Testament preachers call your righteousness to remembrance. Old Testament preachers tell you what’s wrong with you, while New Testament preachers tell you what is right with you because of what Jesus has done, in spite of what is wrong with you.” (DTR, p.220)

5.    “What man calls ‘balance,’ God calls ‘mixture’.” (UF, p.103)

6.    “The moment you accepted Jesus, God have you an eternal ‘A+’ for your right standing with Him.” (UF, p.313)

7.    “For the believer, God’s throne is not a throne of judgment. It is a throne of grace, a throne of unmerited favor.” (UF, p.298)

8.    “It is the gift of no condemnation that gives people the power to sin no more. Unfortunately, many have flipped the order. They say, ‘Go and sin no more, then we will not condemn you.’ There is no power in that. Experiencing the grace of our Lord Jesus gives people the power to stop sinning.” (Charisma)

9.    “The Bible says that sin shall not have dominion over you when you are not under law but under grace. So if you are living in sin, you are definitely not under grace.” (DTR, p.167)

10.    “Grace brings about a restraint that is supernatural.” (UF, p.147)

11.    “When you fall in love with Jesus, you will fall out of love with sin.” (Charisma)

12.    “Let me teach you how to discern if the grace teaching that you are hearing is doctrinally sound. When you hear the new covenant of grace preached, it is always Christ-exalting. It always reveals more and more of Jesus… There is no grace without Jesus.” (DTR, p.32)

13.    “It’s actually very easy to identify the difference between the old and new covenant teachings. Just ask yourself if the teaching is putting the emphasis on what you have to do or what Jesus has done. Does it make you introspective, always looking to yourself and how you fared or failed? Or does it turn your eyes away from yourself to look upon Jesus?” (UF, p.148-9)

14.    “Our part in the new covenant of grace is to simply believe!… We are to believe in Jesus!… In the new covenant, there is nothing for us to do but to believe!” (UF, pp.167,169)

15.    “In the end times people will not be anti-God, but they will be anti-Christ… That is why, in these last days, we need more preaching about Jesus, His finished work and the new covenant of His unmerited favor.” (UF, p.170)

16.    “The gospel is simple, and it takes theologians to complicate it.” (UF, p.13)

17.    “God sent His Son to die for you while you were still a sinner. Obviously, He does not love you only when you are perfect in your behavior and thoughts. His love for you is unconditional.” (UF, p.138)

18.    “God will not punish the believer again, not because He has gone soft on sin, but because all our sins have already been punished in the body of Jesus.” (UF, p.151)

19.    “Once you receive Christ, you are standing on favor ground. You are no longer on condemnation ground… In His eyes we are all His favorites.” (UF, p.315)

20.    “People sometimes ask me, ‘Pastor Prince, if you don’t teach the Ten Commandments to your church, what is going to govern them?’ My friend, the Lord Himself will govern them!” (UF, p.37)

Related posts:

The following is a special guest post from my friend Ryan Rufus:

The Fear of God in the New Covenant

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2Ti 1:7)

We need to keep this scripture in mind when we talk about the fear of God. God doesn’t want us to have a fearfulness of Him. Our relationship with Him, and consequently our relationship toward others, is one of power (God’s empowerment), love (God’s love) and a sound mind (a supernatural sound mind).

“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because He first loved us.” (1Jn 4:15-19)

According to this scripture it is wrong to fear God’s judgments! If we fear God’s judgments it means we don’t understand His love!

“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb 12:28-29)

Let us have grace to serve God acceptably. What’s acceptably? It’s faith! It takes faith to acknowledge who He is. A reverence and a godly fear is about seeing God – the magnitude of His being and ascribing that greatness to His name. It’s not taking the greatness for yourself and it’s not playing down who God is. That would be the opposite of grace – i.e., self righteousness.

The fear of God that the Self Righteous have is that God will judge them for not being righteous enough. The fear of God that the Christ-righteous have is that God has qualified them to share in the Kingdom and that He is on their side and they therefore cannot be shaken or moved and that this awesome God will judge their enemies with fire! It’s not saying let us serve God because if you don’t He will judge you with fire, but let’s not be afraid to serve God because God is on our side and will judge our enemies!

The context of Hebrews 12 is that the saints were being persecuted for their faith and feeling like giving up because the opposition was too much. But the writer is saying, see who God is, how great He is, that He is on your side, that you’re in an unshakable kingdom, that your God is a consuming fire.

You’ve got God and heaven for you, backing you! When you see that, you will have the boldness to serve God the way that He has called you to serve Him – with boldness and confidence in His grace and power and authority. To see this is to “fear God.” To not see this is to have no “fear of God.”

When we read these letters it is essential that we ask two questions: What is Jesus saying in light of the finished work of the cross? And who is he speaking to? If we fail to rightly divide the word we can end up getting the wrong message. For instance, consider what Jesus says to the church at Sardis:

“I have not found your deeds complete” (Rev 3:2).

The issue of deeds comes up in several of these letters. At different times Jesus says, “I know your deeds,” or “your deeds are incomplete,” or “I will repay you according to your deeds.”

So what are these deeds that Jesus is talking about?

If we were living under the old covenant, we would no doubt define these deeds in terms of the 10 commandments plus the other 600 or so sundry Levitical laws. Today some might say they are the deeds that “prove repentance” or they are works of obedience, as in, “we should do what the Bible says.” Okay, but do we obey everything in the Bible including the law? If not, how do we know when our deeds are complete? At what point is repentance proved?

No, Jesus did not go to the cross so that we could get the chance to work for our salvation. Some people think Christianity is about rules and regulations, but that’s not grace. No, Jesus “worked” so that we would not have to. He died, so that we might enter his rest unencumbered by the heavy yoke of religion.

Someone once asked Jesus, what must we do to do the works of God? Jesus replied,

“The work of God is this: to believe in the one he sent” (Jn 6:29).

What is our divine occupation? It is believing in the finished work of Jesus and “working” that out in our lives to the point where the supernatural becomes natural and our broken world is restored. This was no one off claim either. From the very beginning of his ministry Jesus consistently preached, “repent and believe the good news” (Mk 1:15).

What does Jesus want you to do? He wants you to repent and believe the good news. And he wants you to tell other people the good news so they have a chance to repent and believe too.

If you think that is too simple, that we also obey Jesus’ commandments, consider what he commanded us to do:

“And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ… ” (1 Jn 3:23)

Here in the church at Sardis was a group of people who heard the good news but had not repented and did not believe. They were busy doing churchy stuff but it was all dead works. They had a reputation of being alive but Jesus wasn’t fooled. “You are dead. Wake up!” I call them the church of the living-dead, but really they were just dead.

Are you surprised to learn that there are unbelievers in the church? You shouldn’t be. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian. You can preach, prophesy, cast out demons and perform signs and wonders without ever knowing Christ (Mt 7:23). It’s not going to church or leading a church that counts, it’s whether you have repented and put your faith in Jesus.

In all the letters to the New Testament churches there are sections either addressed to unbelievers or warning the saints about the influence of unbelievers among them. The letter to the church at Sardis is no exception. How do we know for sure there were some unbelievers in the church at Sardis? Because Jesus said they were dead and in danger of judgment.

What message did Jesus have for the sinners in Sardis?

To the unbelievers at Sardis Jesus said, “remember what you have heard; hold fast and repent” (Rev 3:3, KJV). What had they heard but the gospel? What work did he want them to do? He wanted them to grasp the good news, hold fast to it, and repent.

Jesus compares repenting to waking up. Twice he tells them to “wake up!” Paul used similar language when he told the Romans to put aside their “deeds of darkness” and wake up from their slumber (Rms 13:11-12). To repent is to wake up, to come to one’s senses and return to the Father (1 Cor 15:34, Lk 15:17).

Jesus warned the Sardisians, “if you don’t wake up, I will come like a thief.” This is a warning of impending judgment. The zombie sinners at Sardis had heard and rejected the good news. They were playing church and rejecting the grace of God. In his mercy, Jesus was giving them another chance to say “yes” to him before it was too late.

This is the same message Jesus has for religious people everywhere. Stop playing church. Wake up and obey what you heard before it’s too late. Repent and believe the good news.

But this church wasn’t a completely lost cause for among the sinners were a “few” saints. We know this because Jesus clearly distinguishes a second group within the church who had not “soiled their clothes” and who were considered “worthy.” How do we soil our clothes? By trying to make ourselves righteous (Is 64:6). What makes a person worthy in God’s eyes? Being clothed with Christ and his righteousness (Is 61:10).

What message did Jesus have for the saints in Sardis?

“They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.” (Rev 3:4-5)

Those who preach a works-based gospel – which is no gospel at all – have used this verse to burden Christians with unholy demands for religious works. They say things like, “you’ve got to perform for Jesus lest he find your deeds incomplete.” Or they say, “if you don’t overcome to the end, Jesus will blot out your name from the book of life.” Honestly, it’s as if the cross made no difference at all!

Why would Jesus – who nailed the law to the cross and died so that we might live free from its demands – suddenly turn around and start laying law on his church?

In this passage Jesus gives Christians the most wonderful assurance of their salvation. He says, “I will never blot out their names from the book of life.” To this the confused preacher replies, “Watch out Jesus might be tricking us, he might yet do what he just said he would never do.” It’s ludicrous!

Jesus not only died for us but he lives for us that we might be holy and blameless. The riches of his love for us are not bound up in threats and conditions. He “performed” so that we don’t have to. Just as Jesus “worked” on our behalf, so he has overcome on our behalf:

“In the world you have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:33)

If you are in Christ, you have already overcome the world because he has overcome the world (1 Jn 4:4). Trials and tribulations may entangle and overcome sinners (2 Pet 2:20), but they cannot overcome you. You may not feel like an overcomer. The circumstances of your life may be trying to tell you that you are not an overcomer. But they are lying. They are speaking from a worldly point of view. We are from God and he says we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us (Rms 8:37). The world may rise up against you, but Almighty God is for you! The entire world may try and condemn you but God himself justifies you (Rms 8:33).

The next time circumstances or people try to lay guilt on you saying you must do this and that to overcome, respond with this: “I believe that Jesus is God’s Son. In him I have already overcome the world!” (1 Jn 5:5).

The good news is not that you have to work hard to rescue yourself. The good news is that God himself has rescued you and qualified you and brought you into the kingdom of the Son he loves (Col 1:12). God looks at you clothed with Christ and says, “you are worthy and your deeds are perfectly complete!”

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Related posts:
- The Laodiceans (complete series)
- Forsaking your first love: What was the Ephesians’ problem (Rev 2:1-7)
- Holding fast in Thyatira: The seductress vs the Savior (Rev 2:18-29)

So what’s all this about forsaking our first love?

In Revelations 2:4, Jesus accuses the Ephesian church of forsaking their first love. Sometimes this verse is used by preachers and songwriters to promote our love for God. “Remember your first love. Remember how much you loved Jesus at the beginning and go back to that. Love him like you used to.”

I totally don’t get that.

Imagine if someone said that to me about my love for Camilla. “Remember how you loved her in that first year and go back to that.” Sure, we loved each other with all our hearts. But since then our capacity for love has grown. Our hearts have gotten bigger and we love each other more deeply. Why? Because we’ve been through stuff. We’ve had babies together. We’ve faced death together. To go back to our first love would be a step backwards.

It’s the same with Jesus. I know and love Jesus more now than I ever did. We’ve been through some stuff, he and I. We’ve walked on the water and chased off demons together. We’ve been to the mountain-top and the valley floor. We’ve faced death together. He has always known me completely but each year I learn more about him and his limitless love for me.

Do you understand me when I say that every year Jesus just gets bigger and better!

For Jesus to say to the Ephesians that they had forsaken their first love, that they needed to repent and do the things they did at first, tells us that there was something seriously wrong with this church.

So what was wrong?

For those who equate “love” with “works”, it’s obvious that the Ephesians had lost their zeal. Perhaps their prayer meetings were lifeless. Perhaps they went about their works of service without any real enthusiasm. Sadly it’s not hard to find churches like this today.

The usual remedy is that churches like this need to straighten up and fly right. They need to confess their sin of apathy, repent and get earnest for Jesus. If they don’t, bad things are going to happen. Lampstands will be removed. Preach a message like this and soon the church will be back out on the street witnessing as if their lives depended on it. However, they will be zealous, but joyless. They will be earnest, but fruitless. And in a year or two they will be worn out and lifeless once again.

No, the real problem with the Ephesians was that they had lost something of their understanding of God’s love for them. They had forgotten that they were beloved sons of God. They were a busy church but their works were based on their love for God rather than His love for them.

Why do I say this?

In writing to the Ephesians Paul prayed that they would know the love of Christ (Eph 3:18). He did not pray that they would grow in their love for Christ. Some people think we are filled with the nature of God to the degree that we love God but that’s not what Paul said. He said we’re filled to the degree to which we know the love of Christ.

John, the beloved disciple, was at one time a member of the Ephesian church and he was famous for reminding people of the Father’s lavish love toward us. “Love comes from God” (1 Jn 4:7). “Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us” (1 Jn 4:10). Our love flows out of, and is a response to, his love. He is our love-source.

In Revelations 2:4 Jesus says to the Ephesians, “You have left your protos agape”, your foremost or primary love. What is the source of our protos agape? It is a revelation of Christ’s love for us.

Why do I say the Ephesians had become religious? Because Jesus commends their hard work but then says they’re not doing the things they did at first. So they’re working hard but to some extent is the wrong sort of work.

From this we can conclude that the Ephesians were a hard-working, non-loving church. That sounds a lot like a church that’s coming back under the law. They may have started out with grace but they are now trying to attain their goal by human effort.

Paul once told the Ephesians that they were seated with Christ in heavenly places but by the time of John’s revelation it seems they had forgotten this. They’re no longer resting, they are striving. In a sense they have fallen from that seat of heavenly rest to a place of earthly works. They have fallen from a great height of grace. They have become known for their works, not His. Like the Galatians they have perverted the gospel and are no longer living by faith. Like the Laodiceans they have mixed law with grace and ended up in a lukewarm muddle.

What’s the solution? Like the Galatians and the Laodiceans, they need to repent. They need to change their way of thinking. They need to change their theology. They need to do what they did at first which was presumably trust in the goodness and love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

What is the lesson for us?

We are called to be shining exhibits of God’s grace not tarnished testimonies of human effort. Like the Ephesians we need to do the work of God which “is believe in the one he has sent” (Jn 6:29). Faith in God is not displayed in human effort but in Holy Spirit power. We are called to reveal Christ not ourselves. A church that is walking in the revelation of God’s awesome grace will be seeing the the captives freed and the dead raised. The poor may be getting food parcels, but they’ll also be getting the good news preached to them and it will be setting them free. The sick may be getting hospital visits but they’ll also be getting healed by believers who believe that they have authority to heal in Jesus’ name.

Jesus warned he would remove the Ephesians’ lampstand from its place. The lampstand refers to the church itself (Rev 1:20). Jesus’ warning applies to any church that tries to mix human effort with Divine grace. You cannot put the new wine of grace in a wineskin of human performance without something breaking. Eventually something will have to give.

It may be that the Ephesian church was in danger of fading into irrelevance. But I like to imagine that in this church there were some young nobodies who still knew the love of Christ and who were troubled by the increasing emphasis on performance and manipulation. In my experience it’s usually the older generation that calcifies and becomes religious. (God preserve me as I get older!) If the church didn’t corporately repent, perhaps these young nobodies went their own way and started a new church in some other location and left the old folks to their religious works. If so, the lampstand would have literally moved from its place.

A healthy church, like a healthy marriage, is one that has not forgotten its protos agape. It stands on the bedrock of Christ’s love for us. If your church (or your marriage) is not like that, then pray what Paul prayed:

I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, so that you, together with all God’s people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ’s love. Yes, may you come to know his love – although it can never be fully known – and so be completely filled with the very nature of God. (Eph 3:17-19, GNB)

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Postscript: If you’re wondering how we celebrated our anniversary, we’ve just returned from a very stiff 4 hour hike up and down some muddy hills. The perfect day!

Related posts:

- The Laodiceans (complete series)

- Incomplete deeds: The zombie church of Sardis (Rev 3:1-6)

- Holding fast in Thyatira: The seductress vs the Savior (Rev 2:18-29)

Implicit in this logic are two ideas which are opposed to Christ and the finished work of cross. The first idea says, “I can atone for my sin ” and the second says “my secure position in Christ is dependent on what I do rather than what He has done.”

While it is important that we clean up our messes and take responsibility for our actions, there is nothing we can do to earn God’s forgiveness. There is a time and place for the confession, but the Christian never has to confess their sins to stay forgiven. Jesus forgave all our sins at the cross (Col 2:13). Contrary to what many believe, the Holy Spirit never convicts the Christian of their sin. He convicts sinners of their unbelief and He convicts the righteous of their righteousness (Jn 16:9-10).

So what are we supposed to do when we sin?

Repent! To repent means to change your mind, to agree with God, and to see things from His point of view. Repentance is not feeling sorry for yourself. Judas was so sorry for his sin he killed himself, but he never repented. Repentance is not a feeling of remorse; it’s a change of mind. The fruit of repentance will be seen in what you do after you change your mind.

But isn’t confession a part of repentance?

If it is, it’s only a small part. The problem with confession is that it can be introspective and sin-oriented. But we are called to be Christ-conscious, not sin-conscious. Confession of sin makes us aware of our badness but true repentance comes from a revelation of God’s goodness (Rms 2:4, KJV).

Those who insist we need to confess our sins sometimes point to Psalm 51 as a model prayer. This psalm was written after David committed adultery. You could say it’s a psalm of repentance but it bears little resemblance to what some people call repentance. For instance, in this psalm David makes 24 statements either appealing to, or describing, the goodness of God. Here they are:

1. Have mercy on me, O God,
2. according to your unfailing love,
3. according to your great compassion,
4. blot out my transgressions.
5. Wash away all my iniquity,
6. cleanse me from my sin.
7. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts,
8. you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
9. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean,
10. wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
11. Hide your face from my sins,
12. blot out all my iniquity.
13. Create in me a pure heart, O God
14. renew a steadfast spirit within me.
15. Do not cast me from your presence,
16. or take your Holy Spirit from me
17. Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
18. and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
19. Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
20. the God who saves me…
21. O Lord, open my lips…
22. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
23. In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
24. build up the walls of Jerusalem.

David also makes 4 statements that refer to his sin:

1. For I know my transgressions,
2. and my sin is always before me.
3. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,
4. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

What do we learn about the character of God from this psalm?

We learn that He is merciful, His love never fails, and He has great compassion; He washes away and blots out our sin; He cleanses us and makes us whiter than snow; He hides His face from our sins; He desires truth and teaches us wisdom; He creates a pure heart within us and He renews our spirits; He doesn’t cast us from His presence but He restores, sustains and saves us; He desires to show us His good pleasure and favor.

And what do we learn about David’s sin of adultery?

Very little. David doesn’t even identify it (although it comes up in the title). David refers to his sin generally, but more than four-fifths of the character statements in the psalm pertain to the goodness of God. This is not introspection; this is active, living faith in a good God who forgives and makes things new.

And the amazing thing is that David lived under the inferior law covenant which condemns. Jesus had not died for his sins, yet David still had confidence that God’s loving-kindness is greater than the sin which stands against us. This is an amazing revelation! In spite of the law which prescribed death as a just punishment for sin, somehow David was aware of God’s grace that was given “in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” (2 Tim 1:9).

David should have died for his sin. Instead, God forgave him (2 Sam 12:13). Even before the cross, God’s heart was inclined towards those who trusted in His goodness and mercy and who repented.

How much more then, should we, who live under a better covenant of no condemnation, trust in God’s grace when we sin? David lived under a covenant of death (2 Cor 3:7), but we relate to God through an everlasting covenant of peace (Is 54:10). Not only has God forgiven all our sins but He chooses to remember them no more (Heb 8:12). Why would we want to remind Him of our sins by confessing them?

To confess sins in the hope of getting forgiveness or getting free from condemnation is to act like a sinner. But God says we’re not sinners. He says we’re righteous. Once we were darkness but now we are light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). Once we were not a people but now we are the people of God (1 Pet 2:9).

God has justified us and God is for us. Nothing – not even our mistakes – can separate us from His love. So stop condemning yourself and start thanking Him. Stop dwelling on your badness and start trusting in His goodness.

To Abraham and his descendants God promised greatness, fruitfulness, great reward, world-reaching blessing, and more (see Gen 12:2-3, 15:1, 17:4-8, 22:18).

To those who kept the law God promised long life, fruitfulness, abundant prosperity, protection, and more (Deut 5:33, 28:3-13).

In addition to these wonderful promises, there are at least 12 awesome blessings God promises to His people exclusively under His new covenant of grace. Here they are in no particular order:

1. God forgives all our sins (Matt 26:28, Acts 13:38). Our sins are not merely covered by the blood of bulls and goats, they are paid for and taken away by the Lamb of God (Jn 1:29). At the cross, justice was satisfied. His forgiveness is perfectly complete.

2. God remembers our sins no more (Heb 8:12, 10:17; Jer 31:34). In terms of justification it’s as if we never did them.

3. God promises never to be angry with us again (Is 54:7-10). Unlike the obsolete covenant of law, the new covenant is an everlasting covenant of love and peace (Is 54:10, 55:3). God will never stop doing good to us (Jer 32:40).

4. God qualifies us (Col 1:12). It’s no longer a case of what we do (under the law covenant) or who we’re related to (under the Abrahamic covenant). It’s who we trust.

5. Jesus takes hold of us and never lets go (Php 3:12, Ju 24). Nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rms 8:39). Consequently we can speak of our hope as a “firm and secure” anchor for the soul (Heb 6:19).

6. God credits us with the perfect righteousness of Jesus (2 Cor 5:21). Righteousness is not earned, it is received (Rms 5:17). Because of Jesus’ sacrifice our status before God is “perfect forever” (Heb 10:14).

7. God gives us the Holy Spirit to teach us (Jn 14:26), empower us (Acts 1:8) and remind us of our righteousness (Jn 16:10). We no longer need priests to mediate for us, for now we can all know the Lord (Jer 31:34). We are His royal priests (1 Pet 2:9).

8. God is for us (Rms 8:31)! God justifies us and there is no more condemnation (Rms 8:1). When we sin, Jesus doesn’t judge us, He defends us (1 Jn 2:1). His grace enables us to overcome sin (Tit 2:12). He abundantly supplies all our needs (Ph 4:19) that we might enjoy life to the full (Jn 10:10). God’s favor is unearned and unmerited.

9. God is with us (Ez 37:27)! Because of Jesus the door to the throne room is always open (Heb 4:16). We can approach Him with freedom and confidence (Eph 3:12).

10. God empowers us to overcome the enemy (1 Jn 5:4). We have His delegated authority over demons and disease (Mk 16:17). We live under His divine protection (Lk 10:19). We are destined to “reign in life” (Rms 5:17).

11. God offers us His rest (Heb 4:10-11). Under the old covenant it was do, do, do. Under the new covenant it’s done, done, done (Jn 19:30). We are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph 2:6).

12. God gives us eternal life (Rms 6:23).

What must we do to inherit these promises? Trust in Jesus. Bet your life on Him. Take the crown off your head and lay it at His feet. Choose to believe what the Bible says about Him, that He died for the sins of the world – including yours – and rose victorious from the dead. Let others know that He is your Redeemer and King. Ask Him to fill you with His Spirit that you might know Him more.

If you’ve not done any of that before, how about right now?

Related posts:

The title of the book – A Matter of Life and Death – stems from the idea that the Bible is dangerous if handled incorrectly, that “the Bible can actually do harm rather than good if it is wrongly or partially understood.” This is because the old covenant is a ministry of death while the new covenant is a ministry of Spirit-life (2 Cor 3). If we fail to rightly divide between these covenants we may inadvertently partake from the death-giving ministry.

The first part of the book distinguishes the two ministries and introduces a number of filters or Biblical truths through which we should read the Bible. These filters help to ensure that the truth and purity of the Word is preserved. The author provides an example from the popular teaching that when you sin you give the enemy a legal right to interfere with your life. Breaking off this demonic access may require a special ministry or prayer and fasting. But according to Duncan if you filter this teaching through the lens of the cross, you will see that it cannot be true. Although it’s never a good idea to sin, all our sins have been forgiven at the cross. The devil has no legal demands on any Christian under any circumstances. He may accuse us and we may believe his lies, but lies they remain. The only way a Christian can be harmed is if they are unacquainted with the finished work of the cross: “Can you be cursed? If you believe you can, then I suppose you can! If you believe you cannot, then you cannot!” (p.78).

Much of the book unpackages what it means to be a Christian, to be made righteous, to be justified, to be qualified by God and to be in fellowship with others. Reading the manuscript for this book one thing which really struck me was how much the author makes of the Christian conversion. A Christian is “literally a new breed on the planet, something that did not exist before the cross.” Duncan says that the most underestimated aspect of the Christian experience is the transformation that takes place when we are born again.

“It is the most significant event that can ever take place in a believer’s life. We are made new, we are made sons, we are made royal priests and we are made kings who were meant to reign. We are new creatures, something that has never existed on the planet before, born again, spirit-filled beings on sanctified steroids, supernaturally enabled with the power and righteousness of God running through our veins!” (p.111)

When God qualifies as sons, He automatically qualifies us for ministry.

“There are no levels; there are no favourites; there are no super heroes. We’re all qualified; we’re all heroes.” (p.184)

So who is this book written for? It’s written for all who want to see the power of God demonstrated in their world.

This is not a book written for quiet reflection. This is a book written for action. This is a book for those who believe Jesus died to set people free in every sense of the word. The book has a rough and ready look to it which is consistent with this application. I can imagine a church leader buying copies of this book for everyone in his leadership team or congregation then saying, “let’s go through this and see what needs to change around here.” The church that does this will find itself growing in its confidence of God’s goodness and His willingness to use ordinary believers for extraordinary deeds.

Honor is not something we talk about much in our independence-worshipping culture. Most of us are focused on our private relationships with God and have a hard time recognizing spiritual authority. The result, according to Silk, is that “we are cut off from the flow of Heaven” (p.75).

There are two signs that show we don’t get the honor-thing. (i) We build churches around teachers and pastors and (ii) we think our sin and mistakes are more powerful than God’s heart for us.

Heaven’s order

Ephesians 4:11 tells us that God has anointed some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. Silk describes these fivefold anointings in terms of what each might do at the scene of a car accident (see pp.53-55):

The pastor applies first aid, dispenses blankets and water. He gathers vital sign information, talks to everyone about their emergency contact details and brings a sense of calm to the situation.

The teacher studies the scene to see what caused the accident and what might be done to ensure accidents like this don’t happen again. The teacher concludes that drivers would benefit from more training and continuing education requirements.

The evangelist asks everyone “If you were to die as a result of your injuries, would you go to Heaven or Hell?” He speaks to the crowd of onlookers: “There are no guarantees that you will make it home safely. Do you know where you would go?” He then leads people to Christ and trains them to lead others.

The prophet knew there was going to be an accident because he had a dream about it the previous night. He walks around the crash scene rebuking the spirit of death and calling out the destiny in various people. He discovers who’s in charge of the crash scene and discerns whether this is God’s chosen leader or not. If he finds no one in charge he will appoint a leader.

The apostle releases the healing touch of God into the scene. He tells testimonies of how he has witnessed the power of God at other accident sites. The faith of the listeners rises and they too begin to pray for healing. The apostle starts a school for those who arrive at car accident scenes and sends them all over the world to do signs and wonders.

There is a Biblical order to the fivefold ministries:

“In the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.” (1 Cor 12:28)

According to Silk, this order is significant. Apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church (Eph 2:20). Why? Because their anointing is focused on perceiving what is going on in Heaven and bringing that to earth. Absent apostles and prophets and you will get a church that is built on a dysfunctional earth-to-heaven model. For example, a church built on a teacher will tend to focus on what God has done in the past and miss what He is doing now. In a church built on a pastoral anointing the people and their needs will be the main priority.

In the Biblical model the priorities are apostles (heaven), prophets (spirit world), teachers (articulating the kingdom) and workers of miracles (the supernatural activity of the believers). Heaven’s design for leadership is based on a team of diverse anointings that work together in a culture of honor to release heaven on earth. The results can be seen in places like Bethel Church, when Silk pastors. There the supernatural is a normal part of every day life. In the book Silk recounts many amazing testimonies of how God has healed the sick and delivered the oppressed.

Sin and restoration

If you’ve been in a church even a little while chances are you’ve encountered a leader who fell in sin, who then repented and needed to be restored. According to Silk, much of what passes for restoration these days is nothing more than punishment; an attempt to control the offender and bring them back into a relationship with the rules. This is earthly wisdom which leads to shame which attacks our identity. Shame says, “You didn’t fail; you are a failure.”

What is true restoration?

“An old meaning of the word ‘restoration’ is to find someone with a royal bloodline who has been removed from the throne and then restore the person to that throne – to a position of honor.” (p.99)

Silk recounts a number of stories of restoration based on the principles of honor and love. They are essentially testimonies of Christians being reminded that they were once darkness but are now light (Eph 5:8). Restoration is about helping people clean up their messes and live as children of light. The stories of restoration in this book are mind-blowing. I have never come across anything like them before but as soon as I read them, and saw their fruit, I thought, “this is how Jesus wants it done.”

Last month Danny Silk preached at our church and he was very good. He has that special gift of making us laugh at the absurdity of our sin in wanting to control others. You come away thinking, “Now I see what I did was not only wrong but really dumb. Thank you Lord for showing me. I don’t ever want to do that again.” But my complaint then is the same one I have of this book. Tell us more! Both the sermon and the book were far too short.

Destined to Reign is a distillation of 10 year’s worth of preaching by Prince at New Creation Church in Singapore. The cover may give you the impression that this is some kind of self-improvement book, but it isn’t. This is a book celebrating our Great King and all that He has done on our behalf.

In this book Joseph Prince takes aim at the mixing of law and grace that has continued since the time of the Galatians. He says, “even though the law is holy, just and good, it has no power to make you holy, just and good” (p.16). The purpose of the law is to reveal our need for a Savior. When we mix law with grace we lose the benefits of both. He notes that the 10 commandments were kept hidden under the mercy seat inside the Ark of the Covenant. They were not for public viewing, yet today we put them on posters and hang them in our churches and Sunday Schools.

This practice of mixing law with grace gives rise to what he calls “schizophrenic Christianity”. A schizophrenic Christian is one who says:

“Sometimes God is angry with me, sometimes He is happy with me. Sometimes He blesses me, sometimes He curses me. Sometimes God cares for me, sometimes He leaves me. Today, He prospers me, but tomorrow, He may give me poverty to humble me. Today, He heals me, but tomorrow He may give me a disease to teach me a lesson. Today, He forgives all my sins. Tomorrow I am responsible for my sins.” (p.37)

In other words, God is good, but only sometimes. People who think like this are living between two covenants. They are not rightly dividing the word of truth. They are living as if the cross did not make any difference.

The main clause of the new covenant, according to Prince, is found in Hebrews 8:12: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Christians are perfectly forgiven. There is no sin the Christian is not forgiven of. Yet many Christians live as if this were not true. They give or work because they think they need to strive to remain forgiven. This is tantamount to saying that the blood payment of Jesus was not enough.

Like Paul, Joseph Prince is strongly opposed to mixing grace with human effort. He says there is nothing we can do to qualify ourselves.

“This is the true ministry of any new covenant Bible teacher or preacher – he seeks to unveil Jesus to you and qualify you by the blood of Jesus. He does not come to unveil your faults or bring your sins to remembrance to disqualify you from entering God’s presence and enjoying His blessings. That is what an old covenant preacher does.” (195)

Some books convey just one great revelation, but Destined to Reign covers everything from forgiveness to faith and healing and communion. Inevitably there is some repetition, but the lessons of grace probably need to be repeated. Many good questions are raised in the book. For example, “Is God judging America?” Answer: No. America and its sins have already been judged at the cross.

Although this book covers a lot of ground, mostly it is about Jesus and how we can find Jesus on every page in the Bible. Studying Jesus’ comments made on the road to Emmaus, the author reasons that we don’t read the Bible to find out what to do and what not to do. We study the Bible to see all the things said in the scriptures concerning Jesus. A great strength of Destined to Reign is how it reveals Jesus and the new covenant in the elements of the old covenant – the five burnt offerings, the Ark of the Covenant, etc. You will never look at Leviticus the same way.

If you have ever studied business at university you will know that the definitive economics text was written by Paul Samuelson and the definitive introduction to marketing was written by Philip Kotler. In years to come I believe people will view Destined to Reign by Joseph Prince in a similarly authoritative fashion. It will be recognized as a classic introduction to the subject of grace. I highly recommend it.

I also recommend the Destined to Reign Devotional which presents the main book in daily bite-sized chunks. I actually bought the Devotional book first and each morning I fight the temptation to read more than the current day’s reading. You can also access these devotions online for free here.

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Related posts:
- Top 20 Joseph Prince quotes
- Top 12 blessings in the new covenant
- The Naked Gospel, by Andrew Farley