Paul's Passing Thoughts

“Sin wants to primarily do two things: create guilt leading to self condemnation, which readily submits itself to the ‘moral’ authority of others, especially religionists, and also wants to create fear…Where there isn’t any guilt, authorities driven by control lust will create guilt through false accusations and misinformation…We dwell among those who are enslaved by a lust to enslave others.”

Every generation decries the former one resulting in the present generation rolling their eyes and thinking, “Oh, brother, here we go again.” Yet, in our day, we must consider the idea that history is at a crossroads. Why? Because reason itself is under attack. Tyrants are demanding that we reject what is evident to all. The attempt is to completely overturn reality as we know it followed by an insistency that the common person knows nothing and is out of touch with reality. Yes, supposedly, even gender as we know it is not true.

This is nothing new as history has been dominated by the philosophers since the beginning of the ages. The Bible states that a knowledge of evident reality is created within each person born into the world. This can be ascertained through a careful reading of Romans chapters one and two. Philosophers have always been the dominate force behind cultural policy, not priests. Yet, the vast majority of professing religionists assume some dichotomy between philosophy and religion. To the contrary, the assembly of Christ, the ekklesia, is the only body of faith that can claim that dichotomy. The Catholic/Protestant debate is a world philosophy debate dressed up in Bible verses. “Sola Scriptura” is the pinnacle of historic propaganda. A cursory reading of the Reformation documents reveal that it was a world philosophy contention; nothing more, nothing less. EVERY Sunday sermon finds its roots in Platonism, Thomism, or a confused mixture of both. If you try to argue otherwise, you simply don’t know what you are talking about.

For the most part, world philosophy seeks to challenge the ability of the individual. Expertism flows from this resulting in a slight of words that conflates “authority” being a superior knowledge of something and authority that compels people to act a certain way regardless of their personal conscience. Indeed, some people know more than others about certain things, but we are talking about the difference between equipping the individual for self-rule versus ruling over the individual.

Some philosophies proffer the ability of the individual to rule their own lives. Those philosophies were responsible for the birth of America. Perhaps second to the paramount “Sola Scriptura” ruse is the idea that America was founded on “Judeo-Christian” values. The founding fathers of America were in league with all kinds of different men and the unifying principle was the ability of the individual, not religion. In fact, the primary organizing principle was the separation of church and state. Beyond the tyranny of the British, the straw that broke the camel’s back was the tyranny of the pilgrims who were puritans and also Calvinists. Separation of church and state is the separation of church and authority to protect the freedom of the individual to live by their own conscience. That is, the works of the law infused into every individual ever born into the world.

“That’s why church has always been good at pointing out sin, but weak on how to prevent it; because church is consumed by sin itself and filled with control lust. Plus, it poses itself as a cure for guilt, which is obviously a lucrative business to be in. The more sin there is in the world resulting in guilt, the more church is needed and rewarded financially, while it does nothing to prevent sin. You may want to ponder that for awhile.”

So, what drives people to want to control others? Answer: SIN. In the Bible, sin is described as an entity that is controlled by a desire to enslave others. Is this where slavery comes from? Yes. According to the Bible, SIN has an addiction: control. If you interpret reality accordingly, you will understand more clearly what is going on in your world.

“No, no,” you say, “sin is the breaking of God’s law!” It is, but that’s really the primary action promoted by sin to gain control. This is sin with the little “s,” we are talking about the Biblical sin with the capital, “S.” The endgame of Sin is to enslave, lawbreaking is just the means to that end. So, Sin wants to create sin, both real sin, and false sin, leading to guilt and subsequent condemnation. Guilty people are very easy to control. It makes them inferior by their own assessment, and willing to be ruled over by others. Those who are particularly consumed by Sin’s desire to control others are a minority in the world (see, “politics” and “ruling class”), not that most people, by nature, struggle with the desire. However, basic goodness inherent in things God creates overcomes that desire more than not. Yes, the idea that God created totally depraved humans, or that something God created could fall into total depravity, is an idea concocted by Sin in order to achieve more control. People, indeed, sin, but instruction on how not to sin in no way helps Sin’s agenda to control. That’s why church has always been good at pointing out sin, but weak on how to prevent it; because church is consumed by sin itself and filled with control lust. Plus, it poses itself as a cure for guilt, which is obviously a lucrative business to be in. The more sin there is in the world resulting in guilt, the more church is needed and rewarded financially, while it does nothing to prevent sin. You may want to ponder that for awhile.

So, what does the Bible have to say about all of this?

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why is your face gloomy? If you do well, will your face not be cheerful? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Genesis 4:6,7

Sin is “lurking” or some translations, “crouching” at the door. What is it waiting for? Wrongdoing. Sin uses this to condemn people in order to control them. Notice the contrast, which can be paraphrased this way: “Sin desires to master you (enslave you), but you must, instead, master it.” How do we master sin? Paul stated it this way: as Christians, we need to strive in keeping a clear conscience before God. Of course, that’s the practical application, and not the gospel per se, which we will get to shortly.

Sin also uses a truth about sin; in fact, God will judge sin eternally. This is at the center of all fear. All fear is centered in death, and death equates to standing before a holy God in judgment. Unfortunately, Cain did not follow God’s counsel and Sin was able to use Cain’s wrongdoing to create a greater unhealthy desire within Cain. Murder is the nuclear version of control. However, what I want to point out is Cain’s paranoia immediately after he murdered Able.

Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to endure! Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and I will be hidden from Your face, and I will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” So the Lord said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him seven times as much.” And the Lord placed a mark on Cain, so that no one finding him would kill him.

Genesis 4:13-15

Sin wants to primarily do two things: create guilt leading to self-condemnation, which readily submits itself to the “moral” authority of others, especially religionists, and also wants to create fear. Authorities other than God seek to first condemn in order to create guilt, and then offer a remedy for the guilt and fear. Where there isn’t any guilt, authorities driven by control lust will create guilt through false accusations and misinformation. The most significant example of our day follows: you are guilty of racism by virtue of being white. This is nothing new; it is the secular version of the Original Sin church doctrine and the origin of every caste system existing on earth.

Here is the gospel: Christ died on the cross to change the believer’s relationship to the law. Christ established a spiritual death and resurrection to change a person’s relationship to the law. That’s the gospel.

And Sin uses God’s law to bring about the condemnation. God’s law is the Bible and the wisdom and imperatives therein. Here is the gospel: Christ died on the cross to change the believer’s relationship to the law. Christ established a spiritual death and resurrection to change a person’s relationship to the law. That’s the gospel. The relationship to the law is not relative to Christ alone, but is the driving force behind sanctification; that is, the intimate relationship between the believer and God’s word. Believers fulfill God’s law through acts of love without fear of condemnation. Belief in Christ creates an act by the Spirit that baptizes the believer into the death of Christ. Hence, like any dead person, they are no longer under the jurisdiction of any law. Secondly, however, the believing person is resurrected with Christ as a new person.

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Romans 6:1-14

There you have it. You are either under law or under grace. These are two different relationships to the law. One relationship can only condemn to the degree one violates the law. The other relationship to the law uses the law to learn how to offer our bodies to God as living sacrifices. I am saying all of this to make the following point: Sin uses God’s law to further condemn people in order to enslave them. Sin is all about slavery. Therefore…

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

1Corintians 15:56

The sting of death is fear of judgement. Fear of judgment comes from a guilty conscience. A guilty conscience comes from condemnation. And Sin is all too happy to use the word of God “unlawfully” to condemn people in order to control them. This is religion in a nutshell. This is church in a nutshell. It’s a unlawful use of God’s law to control people.

We know that the law is good if one uses it properly [other translations, “lawfully”]. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

1 Timothy 1:8-11

CLEARLY, religion in general and church in particular keeps people under the condemnation of the law in order to control them. If there is “NOW NO condemnation for those in Christ,” as the Bible states, there is no need to fear any man or bow to anyone but Christ. And that is the crux, while the secular world uses other things to condemn people other than the word of God like “white guilt.” And, if you buy into the idea that you really don’t understand realty, you can be condemned through unlimited means. In economies with high unemployment, companies tend to be unmerciful tyrants accordingly. The gospel fully explains the pagan-state of ancient times, the church-state of medieval times, and the corporate-state of our present time. We dwell among those who are enslaved by a lust to enslave others.

The gospel of Christ fully explains what we see trending in our present culture.

paul

I have been very busy of late doing my version of church: everyday living that’s not tagged with a particular time and place. Those of us who believe in justification by new birth emphasize the fact that worship is all of life. When you are truly born again, you don’t go anywhere, in particular, at a commanded time, to get more Jesus or to “worship.” Everything you think, say, and do is your worship. lately, my worship has been more hours at work as a Medication Technician leaving me with few opportunities to blog. This new addition to my worship (career) requires a lot of focus and leaves me without an inspiration for something to write even when I get time. That is, until today when my inspiration was lit up when a ministry associate sent me the following link, Lynda Randle: How God’s People Must Respond to Racial Division in Our Nation.

It is my assertion that the evangelical church is completely antithetical to the heart of God, and this article is just more evidence. A MAJOR theme in the Bible is unity and a call to God’s children to be peacemakers. Per the usual, what flows from the church is both illogical and divisive, and the aforementioned article written by “Christian” musician Lynda Randle is no exception. No surprise, then, that the article was published by Answers in Genesis who built a giant boat museum and call it a box (ark). The whole premise of the museum is to prove that Noah built a sea worthy ship, when in reality, the ark (Hebrew for, “box”) was nothing more than a huge floating box. And so it is with the mindless church. Calling a boat a box is indicative of church logic across the board. Answers in Genesis, and their museum which in no way, shape, or form resembles a clear description of the ark in the Bible, is just more shameless church commercialism while scolding those who believe in the American Dream and its supposed “consumerism.”

The problem with writing any article like this is a temptation to get side tracked with other elements of the church’s massive hypocrisy and contradictions. This article is about its race-baiting as a way to cause division in the face of the Bible’s warning against participating in factionist activities like gossip. With that said, let us examine the article, which is framed by 3 major points that she makes.

First point, “Understand that racism isn’t dead.” That, of course, is a lie. In a country the size of America, the existence of something doesn’t make it a systemic problem. Leprosy exists in America; that doesn’t make it a pandemic. It’s not just a lie because racism was brought back by the Obama era, racism was so dead that it was not even successfully brought back to life. Systemic racism is clearly a false narrative being pushed on our society to cause division because a unified culture is hard to control, and the church, per the usual, is all in when it comes to tyranny.

Secondly, hold my beer, America was supposedly founded on Judeo-Christian principles, but 245 years later racism is alive and well? Huh? This can be added to a list of, “What the hell has the church been doing in America for 245 years?” Recently, the president of the flagship seminary of the SBC bemoaned biblical illiteracy in the church. Say what? People have been going to church three times a week or seven if there’s a tent revival and they are yet biblically illiterate? The church itself admits that it is a failure. Much like the Democrat Party, it creates the problem and then claims to be the solution. For certain, it calls its own members totally depraved sinners saved by grace and then claims to be the solution for “present sin.” What a wonderful business to be in when you can create your own supply and demand. Racism is just another sin for the church to add to its inventory.

Furthermore, on this point, like ALL race-baiters, Randle suggests that prejudice is unique to the black community. No, the Bible makes it clear that condemnation overall is systemic in the world as a whole. To suggest that racism, a word that, in and of itself, implies prejudice against anyone who is different in any way, is an organizing principle in America unique to the black community, is just an ignorant point of view meant to deliberately stir up strife.

On the second point of the article, Randle suggests we “Expand our Circle of Friends.” She was born in 1962, which only makes her 8 years younger than me. Hence, she is a liar who knows that in the 80’s no one cared about race or even gave it a second thought. Again, racism failed to even make a comeback; it’s a false narrative propagated by tyrants, because supposedly, government control is the only hope for controlling racism. People are totally depraved and must be compelled to do good by ruling authorities, which somehow are moral by default. This is why church craves a return to the church-state that formed its founding principles.

On her third point, she states, “Welcome diversity at Christian events and in leadership.” To suggest black pastors are not visible leaders in the evangelical church is absurd. And like many pastors, they create unflattering headlines way too often. She also puts the responsibility on white churches to be diverse, which is totally disingenuous. Even a child knows that black churches are just as segregated as white churches. In addition, there are Latino churches, Korean churches, Chinese churches, and the list goes on and on. Yet, the article states, “There have been many times when Randle was the only person of color to speak or perform at a Christian event.” So, what of it? From time to time Susan and I visit the church of the black pastor who married us and we are the only white people there. So what? It doesn’t mean he’s racist.

Race-baiting isn’t a problem IN the church, it’s a problem WITH the church along with many other problems inherent with the unregenerate. Race-baiting is just another sin in the church inventory of “present sin” to be saved from. The inventory must be large in order to “make the cross bigger and not smaller.”

As time moves forward, the church will identify sin more and more in the same way that the secular world identifies sin. That’s because, like the world, the church is in the condemnation business which creates a supply and demand for authority to compel people to be good.

That is, however they define the good according to a reality they also create.

paul

thechurchlie.net

With Martin Luther, and Protestant orthodoxy, sanctification is the progression of salvation through the “ordinary means of grace” obtained only through church membership.

According to John Calvin, and his three classifications of elect, the “called” are church members, and those who persevere to “final justification” remain faithful to church until the end. The fact that Protestantism is salvation by church membership and thus adds multitudes of mediators other than Christ is not arguable.

Moreover, Protestant scholars are fond of saying the “ground of justification” is Christ’s perfect law-keeping. How is that a justification apart from the law? Hence, Protestantism is a blatant false gospel that denies justification by new birth and Christians who are righteous as a state of being rather than a mere legal declaration.

Protestantism was created in a church-state and for the express purpose of church-state. The Pilgrims came to America for the freedom to do church-state better than the Church of England. The Pilgrims were Puritans who were Calvinists. Their tyranny was a primary catalyst for the American Revolution.

It is once again time to remind everyone that America was NOT founded on Judeo-Christian principles. It was founded on Individualism and the individual’s ability to self-govern and the state’s responsibility to protect that right.

I have written many times about the man who led me to a relationship with God. His name was Mark Cline, and you can read about him here. No matter who you are and what your relationship is with God, He intervenes in your life. That is how I define God’s sovereignty. Life is largely determined by our own self-will, but influenced and dictated at times by God’s sovereign interventions. Be sure of this: though we rarely know what God is up to; He is always up to something. Sometimes, it may be 40 years later before we understand what His purpose was in some event; that’s what this post is about.

“Grace” is one of those words that Protestants throw around without really understanding what it means. Again, there is a huge disconnect between what Protestants believe intellectually and how they function. Americanism totally confused the church for the better after the American Revolution. Intellectually, it led to a closer understanding of the new birth, which Protestant orthodoxy rejects according to its Augustinian Neo-Platonist roots. However, the order of traditional church worship, which speaks to the “ordinary means of grace,” remained intact and has paved the way for a return to authentic Protestantism via the New Calvinism movement. Here, please note the functioning definition of “grace” according to Protestant orthodoxy: it always means “salvation.”

Hence, clearly, church order of worship is a continuing means of salvation because ones salvation is a process, according to church orthodoxy, and not a one-time finished work in the individual. The latter is very bad for recurring monthly revenue. Church, whether Catholic or Protestant, claims that Christ’s passive and active obedience to God was a one-time finished work, but that one-time finished work must be continually applied to the “believer’s” life in order to maintain salvation. Accordingly, does this not mean the focus is a maintaining of salvation rather than an outward focus on loving God and others? Of course it does. Watch the church testimony in general; any questions?

Though I would not have applied the following truth to the situation I am getting ready to share, it is apropos to the writing at hand. But first, what is the biblical definition of the word, “grace”? Simply stated, it is love in action. In every Bible verse where the word “grace” is used, you can replace it with “love” and it will work in the sentence. And of course, salvation was the ultimate act of love by God. Love, salvation, and grace are synonymous words with the intended use determined by context.

When I was a young pastor, I was called on by a mentor to accompany him to visit a young couple who had just lost their three-year-old son in a tragic accident. He was accidently struck by a vehicle driven by the father’s best friend. My mentor, in an attempt to comfort the couple, stated that God might have used the tragedy to save the child from a worse fate that God knew was going to happen. Of course, yes, I agree with you, the assertion in that particular case was a colossal fail. My mentor at the time was speaking of tragic grace, or God using a tragic situation as an act of love. The notion of tragic grace has merit; let me share such a case.

Mark Cline was a devoted member of the world renowned Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, TX during the 80’s. He was 20-something, single, and the epitome of what every father would want for a son-in-law. Like many at Prestonwood, he adored the celebrity pastor, Bill Weber. As an alcoholic womanizer, I was also drawn to the charismatic preacher and would rarely miss one of his Sunday morning sermons regardless of suffering from severe hangovers. Mark had brought me to a point of believing in God, but I was unwilling to relinquish the life I was living to follow God. You see, the knowledge that salvation is synonymous with a new life initiated by God is intuitive within every living being with a conscience. A mandate to make changes in your life in order to be saved is an idea that misses the point entirely; people know that if you want to become a child of God, and ask him accordingly, he will remove the desire and enslavement to your present life. People don’t want to change the desires. They don’t want to change masters. I was told by the Prestonwood deacons that I didn’t have to make any changes in my life to say the sinner’s prayer and be saved qualifying me to become a member at Prestonwood. A commitment to changes, they said, as a prerequisite to salvation, was salvation by works. Even as an unregenerate narcissist, I knew more about the gospel than they did. I knew that if I wanted to become God’s child, he would change my heart miraculously, and subsequently, desires. I didn’t want to lose those desires that drove the things in my life that I loved. I didn’t want to love other things, and I knew that change was an initiation by God, not me. That doesn’t mean we are not participants, it means we participate as new creatures recreated by God.

Fact: church orthodoxy denies recreation of the individual. That would diminish sin, and as a business that survives on the principle of supply and demand, sin is the supply side of the economic package. The logical conclusion of church orthodoxy follows: degree of sin is directly related to degree of growth. Therefore, church orthodoxy redefines the new birth as mere joy experiences in the salvation process and not a change in one’s state of being. A “sinner saved by grace” is yet a “sinner,” which is biblically defined as unregenerate.

Nevertheless, I saw Prestonwood as a sanctuary city when I was ready for a new life in Christ. I had it all planned out: I would wait till I was too old to party and then give my life to Christ. I would give Christ the leftovers of my life, and I thought that was even a good deal for God.

I was definitely a project in Mark’s life. For every ten times he would invite me to do something, I would accept the invitation. Yet, he never relented in pursuing a friendship with me. He called to inform me that he had obtained tickets to the Cowboys/Redskins game of that year. He may or may not have been a football fan but knew I was a football fanatic. He mentioned that he was having minor surgery, but would be fully recovered for our trip to Arlington Stadium for the game. He would never recover from the surgery; the surgeon, who had worked 18 hours before Mark’s surgery without a break, made a critical error that killed Mark on the operating table. Mark was put to sleep for the surgery, and awoke in glory right on time, but far too soon for the world’s sake.

Mark was one of those people who is an exemplary picture of health. So, it kind of blew my game plan out of the water regarding salvation on my time schedule. If Mark’s exemplary life was unpredictable, how much more was mine? His death served that purpose in my life, but was a small residual outcome of the massive impact Mark’s life had on others. Many lives he had impacted showed up for his funeral resulting in a traffic quagmire for several city blocks around the funeral home. Bill “Billy” Weber delivered the eulogy.

During that very time, behind the scenes, and only known to a few people who kept silent, Bill Weber was living a secret decadent life. The stunning hypocrisy of it was masterfully documented in a “D Magazine” article published in 1989. Even more telling was the familiar story of how fallen pastors expose the church for being a mere salvation-selling marketing machine that only serves the religious elitist crowd on the backs of the working laity class. True to the Protestant Platonist tradition, pastors are the philosopher kings, elders and deacons are the warrior class, and the laity are the producers. The church is the antithesis of the one body in Christ biblical picture. Instead, it is a picture of Plato’s Republic.

One cannot venture to even imagine how badly this would have devastated Mark. The scandal was revealed shortly after Mark’s death. I thank God he didn’t live to see it. I thank God that his testimony wasn’t relegated to someone who was foolishly deceived by a snake oil salesman. Mark’s death is the perfect picture of a tragedy that is also grace, and…

…salvation from church.

paul

Tomorrow is so-called, “Easter Sunday.” Many people who do not normally “do church” will put on their Sunday best and make an appearance. It is ok that they do not really know why they do it because the ones who normally attend church don’t know either. This is not to say church-goers don’t think they know, but they don’t. In addition, this is not to say they wouldn’t have some canned answer to the question, but it wouldn’t lineup with their functioning religiosity.

Passover is about the end of sin; Easter Sunday is about atonement, or a mere covering for sin. Here is the problem with understanding the Bible: it is not too deep and mysterious, it’s too simple. Let’s start with the term, “family of God.” If you simply understand that “family” really means “family,” You know more than most Bible scholars already.

To be saved is to be a child of God. You know, like a child that is a member of a family. And, that child is born into that family. The concept of family is indicative of the true gospel and how Christians should function as Christians. Biblically, and historically, Passover is a family affair; the church had to make it an institutional affair. This is the difference between being free from the condemnation of sin because you are born of God, and a weekly atonement (covering for sin) via temple worship. If people understand they are free from sin, they don’t need to purchase weekly salvation. This is why church is big business regardless of its dreadful testimony. The grocery store in town may be owned by the mafia, but if it’s the only store in town, you are still going to buy your groceries there. After all, no one wants to starve to death. As the saying goes, “sex sells,” but nothing sells like no fault eternal salvation.

Imagine if Easter Sunday was something people celebrated at home in recognition of how God made the new birth possible. The institutional church couldn’t have that as it obviously wouldn’t be good for the salvation market. And, the idea that someone is permanently indwelled by the Holy Spirit suggests they are capable, which speaks to individualism as apposed to collectivism, and that is a disaster for the salvation industry. In essence, it completely destroys supply and demand. The more sin, the more demand for necessary salvation. Without sin, the church is out of business. Think about it; church has a vested interest in sin, and the headlines show that clearly.

As a young zealot, and among other young zealots, the question was always: “How can we return to the power of the first century church?” Problem was, we were looking for the answers within the context of institution. Christianity is a family and functions as a family. Functioning as a literal family is not a preferred mode, it is a living statement concerning the true gospel. Christians functioning as family speaks to the ending of sin and justification by new birth, church speaks of atonement and a need for progressive salvation. To attend church is to identify with a false gospel. It is a covering of sin; not an ending of sin. It is not an exodus from slavery. You can only belong to one master or another; Christ or Egypt. These are the only two state of beings in reality.

Therefore, indeed, the family of God should recognize the Passover, and the fact that we are partakers of the exodus from slavery, and what made that exodus possible. We know the early assembly of Christ recognized the Passover for at least 200 years or longer until the church intervened.

Again, it is too simple. The apostle Paul spent his whole ministry fighting against “justification by the law.” The new birth changes our relationship to the law. The new birth is a “righteousness manifested apart from the law.” Sin is defined as a violation of the law. This is also part and parcel with condemnation; to be “under sin” is to also be “under condemnation.” “Under law,” “under sin,” “enslaved to sin,” and “under condemnation” are interchangeable terms for the exact same thing. “Under grace” is NOT remaining under law with grace being a covering for sin. That’s church, and that’s a false gospel. “Grace” is God’s love in action; you are under the jurisdiction of God’s love in action, not the law. The same law now informs our love for God and others without any condemnation.

Romans chapters 6, 7, and 8 explain this in detail. Being under grace doesn’t mean we are under no law, it’s just a law without condemnation; it is not a “ministry of death.” God uses it to sanctify us, not to convict us of “sin and the judgement to come.” It is best stated that Christians do not sin, but rather fail to love. We fail to love because we are weak, not because we are still enslaved to sin. We are rather “enslaved to righteousness.”

We partook in the exodus out of Egypt. And indeed, we should recognize that yearly. But not in church.

paul