A Gospel Tip from The Gospel Coach: CAUTION!! Don’t Walk On the Thin Ice of BC Thinking
Posted By admin on September 3, 2010
Experience the Power of the Gospel of the FINISHED work of Christ!
We have a lot of modern day Pharisees in the church. LOTS of them! They try to tune us into God through a BC mindset. Jesus never got angry at sinners, but he did at the Pharisees and religious leaders. He called them hypocrites, ‘white washed tombs,’ etc. But he got angry at the Pharisees — the most religious people of his day! Let’s look more closely at WHY this was true of Jesus.
(1) ANCIENT PHARISEES WATERED DOWN GOD’S LAW
Pharisees were guilty of watering down the law, and mixing it with grace. God showed grace and mercy in the Old Testament, on many different occasions — but NOT through the law. The law was ABSOLUTE! It was not to be messed with. Paul says the purpose of the law was to declare everyone guilty before God (Rom 3:19). “There are none righteous, no not one.”
The Pharisees had messed with the law. They had watered it down so that the most committed people (themselves) could live by it. Again, they had wrongly mixed LAW and GRACE.!
Jesus says came to fulfill the law. He came to show us what the law really said, and he preached it in all its glory. Thus Paul says Jesus was a minister of the law — to reveal the truth of God (Rom 15:8). Circumcision means law; truth means the gospel of grace. It’s like he wore a WHITE hat when preaching the gospel (which was mostly in his parables), — and a BLACK hat when he was preaching the law.
When Jesus preached the law, people ran and hid, like Adam did in the Garden after he ate from the forbidden tree. “If your hand sins, cut it off!” — “If your eye looks at something bad, pluck it out!” — “If you look at a woman with lust, it’s the same as committing adultery with her!” — “If your righteousness doesn’t exceed that of the Pharisees (the most religious people) you’re not getting into heaven!” — “Be perfect as God is perfect!” Statements like these don’t make us feel like falling at his feet and worshipping him as Savior!!!
(2) MODERN PHARISEES WATER DOWN GOD’S GRACE
Most Christians are just outright legalists, living by laws, rules, precepts, principles, etc. They live in AD, but in a BC mentality. They are modern day Jews in their thinking. They are modern day Pharisees. They know the law much more than they have any conception of the gospel of Christ’s finished work. My goal as THE GOSPEL COACH is to help change this reality.
Those that are not outright legalists MIX the Old Covenant with the New Covenant — which both Jesus and Paul say NOT to do.
Ancient Pharisees mixed grace with the law; us more modern religious folks mix law with grace. Both are equally guilty before God. If Jesus were here today, he’d be as angry at many of us as he wsa with the ancient Pharisees. He would nickname us ‘white washed tombs.’
I repeat this often. Paul says that repeating things is ‘safe’ — or good for us (Phil 3:1). The Jews had a DUTY to live by the Old Covenant law; our DUTY is to live by the New Covenant gospel of grace.
Legalism, as defined by Webster, is a strict adherence to law, or to any form or system of rules, methods, procedures, or standards. We are legalists if we DON’T live the Kingdom reality of the gospel.
We live in the Kingdom of Self more than the Kingdom of God. We are like the ancient Pharisee: “Lord, I don’t these things . . . Lord, I do these things…” He lived in pride of self. The Publican wouldn’t even look to heaven when he said, “Lord, be merciful to me . . .” He lived in humility and need for God and his Kingdom.
DO WE REALLY INITIATE THE THINGS OF GOD’S KINGDOM?
In Romans 11 being counselors of God. How do we counsel him? We do it all the time in our prayers. We counsel God as to what he should do in every situation. Paul also says something else we do is to try to give to God, so that he is obligated to respond to us by answering our prayers. The greatest bondage in this life is to think that you can obligate God by what you do and say! Yet, this is preached often!
We depend much more on our earthly performance than we do on the finished performance of Christ for us. We wrongly gain meaning from what we DO — how we perform — not from who we ARE in him. We think it depends on our sowing, praying, giving, confessing, reading, church attendance, etc., etc. We think like ancient Pharisees.
We have a BC mindset! We live backwards, living by earthly principles and precepts to try to achieve heaven’s rewards. It’s nothing but spiritual bondage.
OR DO WE ONLY RECEIVE FROM GOD, NOT INITIATE?
Paul calls us ‘sons of obedience’ if we believe and live the gospel of Christ. Romans 10:16 says we should ‘obey the gospel.’ We obey when we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, not our obedience (II Cor 10:5). We seek to know nothing except Christ crucified for us (I Cor 2:2). We know that he took our sin on himself, and put his righteousness on us (II Cor 5:21).
As I say a lot, God has given us ALL things of his Kingdom. Paul asks, “What do you have that you have not received?” (I Cor 4:7). Our response is to fall on our knees and tell God thank you. Paul says, “In everything give thanks” (I Thes 5:18). At its core, worship is simply having a constant attitude of gratitude toward God.
DON’T LIVE LIFE UNDER A MODERN DAY CURSE
Paul said to the Galatians: “Who bewitched you?” — “You began in the spirit, but you’ve regressed to a life in the flesh, doing works by the law.” This describes living in AD in a BC mentality. It’s the daily life of most Christians — modern day Pharisees. FLESH can’t ever possibly be pleasing to God (Rom 8:6-8), only FAITH can (Heb 11:6).
The Jews were under a curse in the Old Testament because they didn’t keep the law separated from everything else, and didn’t keep all of it (see Deut 6:25, Jam 2:10). But we are also under a curse in the New Testament if we don’t keep the gospel separated from everything else (Rom 1:1), — and if we don’t live by it exclusively (Gal 3:10). Again, our DUTY is to live the New Testament gospel!
GOSPEL TIPS are meant to show you how we experience power in life if we live in the gospel, which Paul calls the power of God (Rom 1:16). This is the constant message of the New Testament, but we can’t see it if we wrongly continue to mix it with the Old.
We cannot experience abundant life in Christ living in BC thoughts and attitudes — anymore than we can access the internet using an old typewriter.
About the Author
ROGER HIMES, THE GOSPEL COACH Minister, Counselor, Lawyer, Life Coach. http://www.TheGospelCoach.com By gospel coaching, you can live life at least 50% in less than a year — because of God’s enabling power in the finished work of the cross! Email: RogerHimes@TheGospelCoach.com Subscribe to GOSPEL TIPS BY THE GOSPEL COACH. Send email to: SubscribeGospelTips@TheGospelCoach.com. Recent GOSPEL TIPS are available on the website.
