a door opened...

"When I first discovered living the Christian life by grace through faith, it was like a door opened and I began to see the world through different eyes -- eyes full of child-like wonder and awe. Every song that I heard was God’s sonnet of love written to me. Every breeze that I felt on my face was him gently caressing the skin of his beloved child. Every moment of every day began to take on purpose and meaning, and God began to speak to me in ways that he never had before."

Pauls gospel...

"While the apostle (Paul), makes use of all the terms employed by the other writers, such as redemption, propitiation, peace, and the like, descriptive of Christ’s sacrificial death, there is one peculiar to him, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD, which very frequently occurs. Though announced in the prophets, and indirectly alluded to by Peter and John in their use of the designation “the Righteous One,” it is specially found in Paul, who uses this abstract expression to describe the atonement in relation to divine law."

by George Smeaton

checkpoints n hoops

"Paul refuses to set up an arbitrary set of checkpoints against which Christians are to measure themselves; he refuses to erect hoops through which believers must jump. Rather, he simply prays to his heavenly Father and asks him that these believers may pursue what is best."

D A Carson - A Call to Spiritual Reformation - Baker - 1992(Quoted by Terry Virgo - God's Lavish Grace - Monarch - 2004 - p136)

PLAN A

I Corinthians 15:10: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

Grace is the opposite to legalism...when we preach grace, its hard to be legalistc or controlling....

We can see from the above scripture, Paul had an affinity for the word "grace", and grace itself....here he mentions the word 3 times in 1 verse....

'spose we are learning from Paul all over again...I heard Michael Eaton say at a conference down in Cape Town, South Africa that by AD 100, most church fathers had stopped preaching the Pauline Gospel/Epistles...thats radical, thats where law has come in (obviously among other places)...

I believe God is taking His church back to PLAN A...PLAN FREEDOM...PLAN GRACE...

The curse of legalism...

"What is legalism? It is any attempt to earn approval from God with our imperfect actions, rather than accepting and being pleased with the approval that he freely offers us because Jesus has earned it for us with his perfect sacrifice. Legalism is always doomed to failure because we are imperfect and the God that we seek to impress is perfect. It robs us of peace and joy.

Arthur Wallace, in The Radical Christian, writes ``Legalism is [...] Satan's most effective means of infiltrating and undermining the work and witness of the church.''and Terry Virgo, in Restoration in the Church, writes ``The devil realizes that undermining the very character of the gospel is far more effective than opposing it blatantly because he then reduces it to the level of an irrelevant religion.''

SAY NO TO A MIXED MESSAGE !

The GOSPEL SAVES believers, Christians, the saved...

The Gospel Saves Believers (Romans 1)

Romans 1:16-17 for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the gospel a righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."

We are asking the question, how does the gospel save believers? Not: How does the gospel get people to be believers? When spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel does have power to open people’s eyes and change their hearts and draw them to faith, and save them. That’s what is happening on Tuesday nights and Wednesday nights this summer. People are being drawn to Christ through the power and beauty of the gospel.

But I am stressing what Paul says here in verses 16 and 17, namely, that "the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." Believers need to be saved. The gospel is the instrument of God’s power to save us. And we need to know how the gospel saves us believers so that we make proper use of it.
Notice the link between verses 15 and 16: "So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome." Who is this "you"? Verses 6-7 tell us: ". . . among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints." So he says in verse 15 that he is "eager to preach the gospel" to these called, loved, saints whose "faith is being proclaimed all over the world" (v. 8). Why? Verse 16: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (literally: who is believing) namely, you. And, namely, you Bethlehem believers.

I say it with Paul: I, John Piper, am eager to preach the gospel to you who believe – exactly to you who believe – because this gospel which is laid out in the book of Romans is the power of God to save you. You believers need to hear the gospel in order to be saved. And Paul labors mercifully for 16 chapters to tell us the gospel and how it works to save believers.

John Piper

The bible...the message of Jesus.

"The bible is the message of Jesus...its the message of through Him we live, the message of through Him we have righteousness, the message of through Him we've died, the message of through Him we've been punished, the message of through Him we are obedient because of His obedience...that is the gospel, thats the Word of God..its Gods reasoning...how does God reason, how does God think about you....Gods reasoning about you is all based in Jesus....its not based on your works."

Bertie Britz in Deeper Insights into the Fulfillment of the Law

a most important discovery...

"The Gospel of the Grace of God is the MOST IMPORTANT discovery I've made in studying the Bible since receiving Christ as Savior. It explains the PLAN OF GOD and how He's working in the world and through His Church today. "

gee this quote hits the nail on the head for me....my life and understanding has so radically changed since coming to "see" the gospel of Gods grace...it has changed the way i look at...

1.other believers
2. the unsaved
3.my marriage
4. my wife
5. my child.
6. the church
7. the Lord

I feel that God is changing the very things that i always struggled with and never seemed to have victory over...i remember someone saying to me once that we are being faithful with what God has given us when we make concerted effort to change those things in us that are not Godly...you see, change is good, when it is God doing it...i have come to understand that i am being faithful when i believe that God can make those changes, that i believe that He will complete the good work in me, when i believe i am the righteousness of God in Christ...when i believe these things then i am being faithful....i am being full of faith...not doubting....that doesn't make me passive...it gives me much hope....hope for change, change i see taking place....now the effort i make has a different motive....not to make God happy with me, its just to be who i already am....

thank you Lord for your gospel of grace...

FAITH WORKS

"Faith always looks at problems in the light of the promises ... He knew that God could keep His promises (because of His power) and He knew that He would do so (because of His faithfulness). He was fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why, Paul adds, namely because He belived God's promise; "It was credited to him as righteousness".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" -

The gospel...

"The gospel is all about God's righteousness (see Romans 1:16-17) - and how it's freely given to all who believe. It would seem "logical" to the human mind that submitting to God's righteousness would mean trying as hard as we can to attain to it. But yet it's utter foolishness! If a person is trying to attain to righteousness by their own works, they have not submitted to God's righteousness. It can only be received in one way - as a FREE GIFT!"

by Joel Brueseke of Grace Roots

Proverbs 28:1

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion.
King James Bible
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
American King James Version
The wicked flee when no man pursues: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
American Standard Version
The wicked flee when no man pursueth; But the righteous are bold as a lion.
Douay-Rheims Bible
The wicked man fleeth, when no man pursueth: but the just, bold as a lion, shall be without dread.
Darby Bible Translation
The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion.
English Revised Version
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
Webster's Bible Translation
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
World English Bible
The wicked flee when no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
Young's Literal Translation
The wicked have fled and there is no pursuer. And the righteous as a young lion is confident.

but the righteous
tsaddiyq (tsad-deek') just -- just, lawful, righteous (man).
are bold
batach (baw-takh') to hie for refuge; figuratively, to trust, be confident or sure -- be bold (confident, secure, sure), careless (one, woman), put confidence, (make to) hope, (put, make to) trust.
as a lion
kphiyr (kef-eer') a village (as covered in by walls); also a young lion (perhaps as covered with a mane) -- (young) lion, village.


So there you have it......"THE RIGHTEOUS ARE AS BOLD AS A LION"

The Cross

"When the cross is no longer obscured, but graphically seen,the Spirit of God moves amongst us and does miracles. When the cross is obscured, and it is a mixture of law and grace, you kinda gotta get the blessings by keeping certain standards, then human effort comes in, the Spirit of God's power decreases in our midst and confusion, condemnation, wrath, intimidation and witch craft is in operation."

Rob Rufus

in Him through faith.

""There is now no condemnation for those who are IN Christ." (Rom 8:1). To be "in Christ" means to be in relationship to Him through faith. Faith in Christ unites us to Christ, so that His death becomes our death and His perfection becomes our perfection. Christ becomes our punishment (which we don't have to bear) and our perfection (which we cannot perform)."

John Piper

Who is Christ IN you?

"I was thinking over the New Covenant and the following came to my mind: it is easy for most believers (myself included) to see God in the majesty of creation and to see Christ in an eloquent speaker or affluent Christian businessman. However, what we, as believers, really need to learn is how to see Christ in ourselves - warts, freckles, ugly second toes and all. I have heard preachers ask “Who is Jesus to you?” but that isn’t really the question that should be asked: the real question that we need to address is “Who is Jesus IN you?” When we truly begin to see Christ in ourselves, the reality of the power available to us will come to light. I sincerely believe that this is the key to every believer walking in total victory; the power to overcome sin, the power to become prosperous, the power to receive healing - unless we begin to see Christ in us at a personal level, all of these things appear as an outside intervention and, therefore, something we must yet attain. If we don’t eventually see Jesus in ourselves, even the best New Covenant teaching can become just another layer of theology relegated merely to the soulish realm."

Peter Youngren

Call me crazy...

"Call me crazy, but I believe we are in an era of unparalleled opportunity to see increasing numbers of believers set free from a mixture of law and grace. How? By the continued, uncompromised advancement of the message of grace revealed in Jesus Christ. And I’m not talking about a clever new way of presenting the gospel. I’m talking about the gospel of grace preached with no additives, creating an environment where the veil is torn, all systems of mediation have been removed, and a new era of unobstructed access to the Father is being shouted from the rooftops. "

Jim Hoag of Mission Now

You ARE righteous!

"You are righteous! You are not righteous one day, then unrighteous the next. You are righteous. Stop condemning yourself!"

Ray McCauley

What righteousness qualifies you for

"If you are in Christ, his righteousness not only saves you, it also qualifies you to receive amazing gifts of the Holy Spirit."

Terry Virgo

Keep on...

KEEP ON RISING...KEEP ON PREACHING THE GRACE OF GOD...KEEP ON FOR HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS...the word says, blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness, i tell thats for preaching HIS righteousness...not try to attain to it...

The word of His grace, builds us up and givs us our inheritance (Acts 20:32)...Thank you Lord