Christian Cataracts - Steve McVey

Sometimes people with failing vision have been known to pretend to see better than they do. They find it hard to admit that they can't see clearly. That’s what a Christian legalist does. In an effort to keep up appearances, those blinded by legalism profess all the more loudly about how clearly they can see. They go through religious motions, but with each passing day their view of the Divine Lover’s face grows dimmer. Those actions which were once animated by His indwelling life and which were motivated by love now become religious routine. They have traded a Person for performance.

They read the Bible, but it doesn’t read them. They say prayers, but don’t pray. They watch and listen, but no longer see and hear. They are more than willing to tell everybody around them how to walk, but don’t have the vision to know where they are going themselves. They are “blind leaders of the blind.” (Matthew 15:14)

The source of legalists’ behavior is not love for Jesus Christ, but dead, religious duty. They believe they can gain God’s favor because of what they do. The miss the point altogether that it isn’t a certain behavior that brings God pleasure. God is pleased only by faith. (Hebrews 11:6)

Those blinded by legalism typically get hung up on the technicalities of the religious rules they deem obligatory, but have lost sight completely of the things that are really important. They argue over incidentals that have no eternal value. They are missing Jesus!

Jesus spoke to them in Matthew 23, telling them the way it is. Eugene Peterson paraphrases the scene in The Message, when Jesus said to them,

You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment- the absolute basics! – you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?

Much of Matthew 23 is filled with the renouncement of Jesus against the legalism of the Pharisees. Their obsession with rules above relationships was the definitive evidence of their blindness. They were missing the whole point, says Jesus.
Have you become blinded by legalism? Some might argue that a Christian can’t be a legalist. They understand the word to refer only to those who hope to become a Christian by their works. While that certainly is one expression of legalism, it isn’t the only way a person can act as a legalist.

The Apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the Galatians because of the threat of legalism in their church. False teachers had come into the fellowship there, teaching these young Christians that, along with Christ, they needed to embrace the law. Paul wrote to them to say, “No! Your life isn’t built around the law! Your life is in Jesus Christ!” He asked them, “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” (Galatians 3:2)

Paul wasn’t writing to them because he was concerned that they might misunderstand salvation. He knew they had believed the gospel and received God’s Spirit. How could they become confused about what it takes to become a Christian? They had already become Christians! His concern for them was that, as Christians, they might become ensnared in legalism.

The Pharisees were not believers in Christ. The Galatians were. It’s possible to be a legalist whether a person is a believer or non-believer. Do you want to clearly see the spiritual reality of Christ? Then allow the Great Physician to remove your cataracts of relgious rules and regiment. When you do, you'll find yourself singing with new understanding, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see!"

Abiding in Christ

John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing

Sin separated mankind from God. Jesus Christ came and removed this barrier called sin, by taking the sins of the whole humanity and the punishment for it, upon Himself. This is GOOD NEWS (gospel), but only HALF the news.

Escaping hell by the removal of the sin barrier is only one aspect of being born again. Sadly, this is the carrot (escape from hell and ticket to heaven), being offered to people to get saved. So once a person has the assurance that his sins have been forgiven and is on the way to heaven, then they may go and live as they please. For such people, there is nothing more to Christianity after they are born again.

How can this error be corrected? By preaching the WHOLE GOOD NEWS, which is, “he that believes in Him should not perish, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE”. (John 3:16). Everlasting life is the part of the gospel that is either misunderstood or not given enough importance.

In the gospels, Jesus said several times that He has come to give LIFE (zoe - Greek-the very life of God) and that He HIMSELF IS THIS LIFE. In John 17:3, He says, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Eternal life is not something that you attain somewhere in the future, but rather, it is having Jesus Christ Himself or His zoe life in you, RIGHT NOW! Not only that, it is to KNOW God and Jesus Christ (have an experiential knowledge). Jesus came to restore the connection with God that Adam lost, by giving us His very life in us. Adam, by his disobedience, experienced death or lost that spiritual connection with God. Jesus, through His obedience, came to restore what man lost in the Garden of Eden, chiefly among them, a relationship and fellowship with God.

The Bible says, he that is joined to the Lord is ONE SPIRIT. When we are born of God, He makes us a brand new creation (one which never existed before). This new creation or creature has the very life of God in it. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me, said Paul. It is His life that we are living by, as a new creation. Our old self died by co-crucifixion with Christ.
Not only does God take up literal residence in our bodies, but we are placed into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit (I Cor 1:30, Rom 6:3). So, we, the branches, are connected to the true vine Jesus Christ, by His work of regeneration. The branches do not struggle to produce fruit, but the life from the vine flows through the branches to produce fruit. As the true vine, our Lord is the source of life and strength and fruit. There is a relationship of complete dependence between the branch and the vine. The vine supplies life-giving nourishment to the branches. Apart from it, the branches have neither life nor fruit

So, does this life flow automatically through us producing the fruit? We saw that we are connected to Him by His work. Why then, do we not sometimes see fruit in our life? Jesus said that the key to seeing fruit in your life is not by you struggling, but by simply abiding in him. What does abiding in Him mean? Abiding in Him is, going beyond our positional placement in Christ. It is a life of having an experiential fellowship and intimacy with Him. We, as the branches are the physical and visible manifestation of the life of Christ inside us. It is our choice and responsibility to let this life flow through us by have a relationship and intimacy with Him. This experience of abiding in Him is, trusting Him and allowing Him to flow through us and not trusting in our self efforts to produce fruit. We can choose to let Him live through us or trust in our ability, holiness and good works to produce the fruit.

Is there a labor involved in abiding? Yes! The bible says that we have to labor to enter into His rest (Heb 11:4) To rest means to rest from our labors, trust and rest in His finished work and His life in us to produce the visible manifestation of fruits. His work is perfect and there is nothing left for us to do, but enter into this rest. This is done by knowing the truth, believing the truth, renewing our minds to the truth. – the truth that Christ took away all our sins (not some, but all), He gave us His very life(eternal life) and is living right now inside us, we have a new nature (His nature), He has made us holy, righteous and blessed us with EVERY blessing in Christ Jesus. HAVING THE RIGHT KNOWLEDGE IS VERY IMPORTANT! Knowing this truth makes it easier in our labor to experience the rest. Knowing this truth makes it easier to have a constant fellowship and intimacy with Him. Does this happen overnight? Absolutely not! In this modern day and age there are so many things to distract us and occupy our time. Even in the midst of our business, we need to make a conscious effort of being aware of Him. He is with us all the time - when we drive, at school, at work, when doing our chores etc. He NEVER leaves us, even when we do something wrong. He is with us. We need to cultivate His presence and talk to Him all the time.(this is “pray without ceasing”).

Abiding is our obligation; fruitfulness is God’s concern. The True Vine is the Author, the Source and the Finisher of our faith. We should be seeking His fellowship, and leaving the fruit to Him. Holiness is one of the fruits which will happen as a natural byproduct of us fellowshipping with Him. Sometimes we may find ourselves, straying away from His presence and not communicating with Him. At such times, do not let guilt, condemnation and frustration take over you. But rather, simply start communicating and fellowshipping with Him again. This is the labor, that is involved on our part and we may find ourselves straying away quite often at the beginning. But as we go along in our spiritual journey, by His grace, these straying moments will become less and less and more and more His life will manifest through us.

Can You Go Too Far With Grace? - Steve McVey

Those who are afraid of the message of the grace walk have sometimes suggested that you can go too far with grace. They're afraid about getting "out of balance" with the message. It is from out of that unfounded fear that this lie finds expression. The fact is that grace is a Person. His name is Jesus. So to say that you can go too far with grace is like saying that you can go too far with Him. It simply isn’t possible.

"But if you teach grace the way you are, people will think it's okay to sin," some have said to me. That kind of fear shows a lack of understanding about what grace does in a person’s life. When God’s grace really takes hold of us, it does the exact opposite of encouraging sin. It causes us to draw near in love and faith to God, which is where we find a greater desire to walk in a way that honors Him.

Read the full article here.

What's wrong with knowing good and evil (eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil)?

God did not want man to live by knowing what is good and evil, or right or wrong, and thereby doing good and avoiding evil (this tree represents the LAW - what to do and what not to do). God knew that man, by his own strength, will power and determination would always fall short. Instead, He wanted man to live off of the tree of life, (which is the very life of God in us). Adam and Eve were created in the very image and likeness of God (they were already like God) and they had the very life of God in them. But man chose to become (like God) what they already were (like God) by their own self effort. God had made man perfect and saw that His creation was GOOD. Yet man wanted to become like God by knowing good and evil and then doing the good thing (keeping the LAW). Only God is capable of doing that and that is why He wants man to live by His life inside of us. Satan deceived man into thinking that he could become like God, independant of God by His own self efforts, when in reality man was already created like God. Satan himself tried this when God has already placed him(satan) in a very high position. Lucifer was the covering archangel over the mercy seat, he was right there, infact above the mercy seat where God sits. But he was not happy with that, he wanted to ascend above God and become like God by His own self effort. In other words he want to be something that God had already made him to be and he wanted man to do the same. This same deception of Satan is still working in the church today.

Let's fast forward some thousands of year. Jesus Christ came to reverse what happened in Eden. He came as the last Adam and as our representative fulfilled every LAW perfectly, took our sins and died for them and rose again victorious and is in His glorified body at the right hand of the Father. His perfect sacrifice has made us holy, righteous, sanctified and perfected for ever(heb 9 and 10). Paul says that "I am crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me." We had a co-crucifixion with Christ 2000 years ago. Now it is no longer us, but Christ HIMSELF is living in us by the Holy Spirit. We are to live by His life (tree of LIFE) in us leading us, animating our actions and thoughts. We are freed from the LAW (knowing good and evil and thereby doing good and avoiding evil). All religions basically teach a set of moral principles (good and evil) and command men to become holy by observing those. But true biblical Christianity is not living by laws or moral principles, but living powered by the very life of God in us. Jesus said several times in the N.T. that He has come to give us life and that He is that very life. When He comes inside of us, the Bible says, we become one spirit with the Lord. We are a brand new CREATION, holy and completey righteous. The Bible says we are "complete in Him". Now mind you this spiritual act has taken place in our spirits (which is our true self). God is a spirit and sees us in the spirit. Now God, by His one perfect sacrifice, has made us Holy. We look at our five senses and our thougts and conclude that we are unholy, and are trying to become holy by keeping the law and by our own self effort. This is the deception that Satan is still playing in the church 6000 years later. Eve was not tempted to do something bad, she was tempted to be like God or godly. This is what is being preaced is that we have to become godly by obeying rules and commands, when God has already made us godly and holy. He obeyed on my behalf perfectly and when I believe in Him that obedience or righteousness is imputed to me. We have the very DNA of God in our spirits when we are born of Him (born again). We need to live out of this new identity that God has given us and let His life in us (which is holy and righteous) manifest in our minds and bodies. We have to renew our minds to this spiritual reality of what took place at the cross (our co-crucifixion) and the reality of His life now in us. It's NO LONGER I, BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME. Just yield to him, moment by moment and you will see an automatic transformation in your actions and thoughts. The price has been paid for the redemption of our souls and bodies, but our souls(mind, will and emotions are being renewed) and our bodies will be changed in the future.

Look at yourselves as how God has made you. Righteousness has been given to you as a gift, not by our doing good or avoiding evil. If righteousness could come by our works, the Bible says, then Christ died in vain. He needn't have come and died. You may say that if we don't have any laws then we won't have any guiding principles in our life. We don't need the law, but the very life of God in us becomes our guiding principle. The bible says that the law is not for the righteous. Let's trust God to be who He is and His perfect work He has done in us. As we behold ourselves as He has made us to be, we will be changed in our souls and bodies, from glory to glory by the indwelling Spirit of God. Let's get away from Satan's deception of "I am not holy, blessed etc...but I will be by knowing good and evil, right and wrong and then doing the right thing." "I will become holy by my fasting and praying and Bible reading, I will become blessed by obeying and sowing and reaping." NO! I will read the Bible, pray and fast to know Him and what He has done for me by His finished work and to grow in that relationship. I will give money to the work of God and the poor because I am already blessed by God, NOT to become blessed. You see the difference is very subtle and satan is using religion to trap people in his mindset of "I am not, but I wlll become what I do". This is what Paul preached against and Christ railed against the religious people of His day who woudn't come to Him (the eternal life), but was trying to get eternal life by searching the scriptures to see what to do and what not to do(John 5:39 and 40). I am afraid that the modern day church is doing the same thing. Instead of focussing on Jesus who is our very life and living by His life and our new identity, the church is focussed on 10 steps to this, 7 steps to holiness, prosperity etc. Religion is all about what YOU must DO,DO,DO, but real christianity(GRACE) is about what HE HAS DONE IN YOU. Next time you listen to a preaching, check how many times Jesus is mentioned in that preaching. Paul says that "we preach Christ crucified"- that's it. JESUS is the answer, not religious or biblical principles. Would you trust and yield to Him to let Him live His life throught you?

Having A Form Of Godliness - Steve McVey

There are multitudes of people who appear godly at a casual glance. They go to a church building every week. They carry their Bibles and even read them at home. They give their money. Nobody can deny that they certainly possess a form of godliness. But upon closer examination, it can be seen that the focus of their message, their ministry and their mindset isn't at all on the cross of Jesus Christ. Their obsession is on themselves. On their behavior. On whether or not it's right or wrong to do this or that. On where Christians can go, what we can say, how we should worship, what we can eat or drink or watch or participate in. The list of preoccupations with anything - with everything - other than the finished work of Jesus Christ is endless within this group.

Read the full article by clicking here.

Religion is a Headache

Your Sins are Forgiven!! (A Fresh look at the cross)

Luke 7:48 ……Your sins are forgiven

What is the good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ? The good news is that “YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN”!!

This statement has become a cliché in the church. To understand this statement, it is necessary to take a fresh look at the cross. What happened at the cross?

Sin separated man from God by the disobedience of one man, Adam. Heb 10:1-4, 11 says that the old covenant, which was a type and shadow of the real thing, had a sacrificial system for the atonement of sins. Because, the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins, it could not make anyone perfect. If perfection could be achieved by that system, then there would be no need to offer the same sacrifice again and again. So people were constantly conscious of their sins. They could never have a perfect or sinless conscience (Heb 9:9; 10:2). The priest had to offer sacrifices for himself and the congregation continually.

Now contrast that with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, which is the real thing. He was offered ONCE for the sins of many (Heb 9:28). He entered the most holy place with His own blood. How does the ONE sacrifice of Jesus and His blood compare with that of the sacrifices of the old covenant? (Please pause and think about each of the following points)

1. His ONE sacrifice has PUT AWAY SIN FOREVER (Heb 9:26; 10:12)
2. His blood has provided remission or forgiveness of sins (Heb 9:22)
3. His blood has cleansed our conscience (Heb 9:14; 10:22)
4. We HAVE BEEN sanctified ONCE FOR ALL(Heb 10:10)
5. We HAVE BEEN perfected FOREVER (Heb 10:14; 12:23)
6. Because sins have been remitted, there is no need for another sacrifice (Heb 10:18).
7. Because sins have been taken away by His one sacrifice, He is now SEATED and not standing anymore to offer more sacrifices (Heb 10:11-12).
8. He has obtained ETERNAL REDEMPTION (Heb 9:12)

We have received eternal, not momentary, redemption (Heb. 9:12). One sacrifice was made for all sin forever, and we have been perfected forever. Isn’t that awesome news?

So does that mean Christ forgave all our sins (past, present, future sins)? You better believe that Christ has forgiven all your future sins too, because he died for our sins once; 2000 years ago; before we were born or committed any sin. All our sins were future sins when he died. God is not bound by time as we are. When we believe in Jesus and His finished work, we receive the forgiveness for all our sins that He has already provided 2000 years ago. He did this purely by His grace, not because of any of our good deeds or confessions or sin consciousness or introspections. Rather, based on Heb 10:2, we should have no more sin consciousness, because of his perfect sacrifice, which has done a perfect work in the area of sin. We have eternal redemption, which is eternal forgiveness of our sins (Eph 1:7 and Col 1:14). 2 Cor 5:21 says that, He was made sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Beloved, righteousness is a free gift that He has given us - not by our own works (Rom 5:17, 18). Forgiveness of sins and the free gift of righteousness (apart from law/works) is the gospel that Paul preached, that was given to him by direct revelation by Jesus Himself (Acts 13:38; Gal 1:12).

He has taken away not only our sins, but the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2; John 1:29). This is the good news that needs to be shouted from the roof tops. The sin barrier has been removed once for all. God has reconciled the whole world to himself through Christ and is not imputing anyone’s trespasses anymore (2 Cor 5:19). Christ took the punishment for sins of the entire humanity.

Beloved, are you willing to see yourself as God sees you today, forgiven, holy, righteous, sanctified, and perfected because of the PERFECT sacrifice of Jesus? Quit trying to add anything more to his finished work by your religious works. It is an insult to His finished work. He doesn’t even remember your sins anymore (Heb 10:17; Ps 103:12). Jesus said, “It is FINISHED”. Do you believe?

YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN!