Building on the Foundation

Modern Christianity has developed a catch-all word to excuse themselves from keeping God’s law. A word, to be sure, that is actually found in the Bible but is grossly misunderstood. My purpose with this post is not to fully explore all the avenues of grace and its most significant component (for that would take all day and then some) but merely to define and, applying a bit of logic, establish its connection to the law and establish which law. Starting out, we are going to establish a definition of grace. Webster's 1828 dictionary defines grace as GRACE, noun [Latin gratia, which is formed on the Celtic; Eng. agree, congruous, and ready. The primary sense of gratus, is free, ready, quick, willing, prompt, from advancing.] 1. Favor; good will; kindness; disposition to oblige another; as a grant made as an act of grace 2. Appropriately, the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him. 4. The application of Christ's righteou...

  Isn’t it awe-inspiring when we think of God’s great mercy? When we realize that God can forgive the worst of sinners and pardon the worst of sins if only we humble ourselves before Him and repent? Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Mat. 12:31-32). The unpardonable sin is beyond the scope of this post, but let’s think about the rest of that statement for a moment. “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men.” I’m sure we’ve all committed terrible sins, whether in deed, in word, or in thought. And yet God overlooks all of those when we repent and change! Several stories in the Bible illustrate this fact, that God’s mercy knows virtually no limit. One of my favorites has always been th...

  The Lawlessness Of Modern Christianity Are modern Christians under God’s law or any law at all for that matter? How does Christianity function as a lawful society if there are no laws? If we are following laws, whose laws are we following? God’s or man’s? A section in the Bible heavy with discussion of the law is Romans chapters 6 - 11. It’s a large section of scripture to cover in a single article, so we’ll break it up over a couple. The thing we need to remember when we start looking at anything in the New Testament is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.¹ and The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.² If Christ is the same forever and His word will stand forever, that leads us to look at something fundamental. Who Was the “God” of the Old Testament? When we start looking at the law and whether it is still applicable to us or not, we run into a prevalent dilemma and one that we must necessarily answer befo...