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law versus grace

Hebrews Pt 48: The Bondage of Law vs. The Holy Freedom of Grace

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[Gal 4:21-31]  Many Christians struggle and continue to live in bondage, because they mix together two TOTALLY DIFFERENT covenants, the Old Covenant of Law and the New Covenant of grace. In this lesson, we’ll examine yet another striking contrast between the Old Covenant (law) and the New Covenant (grace), as portrayed in Galatians 4 by a bondwoman (Hagar) and a free woman (Sarah):

  • The one, law, produces bondage. The other, grace, sets people free to enjoy God and His blessings of grace, which produces holy freedom and holy living.
  • The true purpose of the law is to provoke a sinner’s sin nature, thus increasing and strengthening sin, driving the sinner in desperation for deliverance to The Savior.
  • Why it is important for Christians to cast out law (which is living by the flesh) and decidedly live by The Spirit, by faith, according to the grace of God.

Note: while this lesson explores the powerful truth that Christians are absolutely not under law but under grace, we will get into much greater depth in our next teaching series, “You Are NOT Under Law, Because You Are Under Grace”.

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Hebrews Pt 46: The Terror of The Law

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[Hebrews 12:18-21]  Most Christians think that God is impressed with their efforts to please Him by what they DO. In this episode, we’ll see that the focus on OUR “do for God” is actually self-righteous, contrary to faith and evokes the terror of the Lord. Also:

  • Why it is that when Israel said to God, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do” (Ex 19:8) it was one of the more arrogant, self righteous statements in all of the Bible.
  • How that law ultimately brings, death, condemnation and judgment.
  • The great scriptural difference between law and grace.
  • How that law provokes sin, bringing death and condemnation.

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The Biblical Reasons Why Christians Are NOT Under Law

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A visitor to our website responded to our article, Not Under Law: What the “Struggle Verses” of Romans 7 Really Mean by writing:

The problem with this article is that you don’t understand history, which gives you a false understanding on how to interpret scripture.

The God of Israel gave the instructions (the law, the first 5 books of the bible) to Israel at Sinai setting a precedent on how to know if a prophets is of God or not.
The law is the standard to the rest of the scripture.

So to have the understanding that Paul seeming says we are “not” under law but under grace, would mean that Paul is a false prophet and should be stoned according to the God of mt Sinai.

Paul is not above God, and he has no authority to change what God said at mt Sinai.

So question really isn’t law and grace.. but:

Is Paul a false prophet?
Or
Are “you” misinterpreting Paul?

Since others may be making the same mistakes that our visiting friend has, I thought I would share my response to his concerns in this article:

Many well-meaning Christians believe they are still under law, yet are ignorant of what the law really says. Galatians 4:21 (NKJV) says: “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?”
…

The Biblical Reasons Why Christians Are NOT Under LawRead More »

The Biblical Reasons Why Christians Are NOT Under Law Read More »

Hebrews Pt 18: The New Covenant: The I WILL of God (Heb 8:11-13)

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Ask the average Christian exactly what the New Covenant is and you are likely to get bewildered stares, or wild guesses. How tragic it is that the majority of Christians have no idea what the New Covenant is! Yet Jesus bled and died to institute it. In this episode, we introduce Hebrews 8:11-13, the I WILL’s of God of the New Covenant. We discuss:

  • The huge difference between law (the Old Covenant) and grace (the New Covenant)
  • How Satan’s “I WILL’s” led to his fall and how the greatest lie of all is “I will make myself like the Most High”.
  • How this same lie has been used by Satan through the ages and is used to paralyze Christians.
  • The New Covenant is not all about your “I will’s” but God’s I WILL’s alone — and HE gets it done!

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Hebrews Pt 01: Intro

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This is the first installment in our Hebrews the Glory of the New Covenant series. In this introduction, we cover:

  • Hebrews has a lot to do with covenants. What is a covenant? Why would God make a covenant when He has perfect and infinite integrity?
  • The Old Covenant: the covenant of law. Based on man’s performance and proves man to be a sinner and a failure.
  • The New Covenant: the covenant of grace. Hebrews is chiefly about the New Covenant. It is based on the perfect person and finished work of Jesus Christ.
  • How the New Covenant offers “so much more” than the Old Covenant.
  • The importance of the context of Hebrews
  • The warnings of Hebrews
  • Therefore, consider Jesus.

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Does Blessing Precede Obedience?

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By Mark VanOuse

A friend of mine raised a very good question: Does blessing really precede obedience?

The question came up in the context of my saying that one of the greatest things I’ve learned in my Christian life is the vast difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. How that, as Christians, we are not under the Old Covenant of Law, blessings or curses given based on our performance, but under the New Covenant of grace, granting us blessings from God based on Christ’s performance. “In other words”, I said, “under the New Covenant, the blessing precedes our obedience. We obey because we are blessed in Christ (Eph 1:3), not the other way around.”

That statement threw him off. He emailed me and said, “Why is this ‘God blesses us, and then we respond in obedience’ idea not more clear in Scripture? You would think God would want it to be clear. I would like to hear your answer to that.”

Here, then, is my response: …

Does Blessing Precede Obedience?Read More »

Does Blessing Precede Obedience? Read More »