Discover the More Abundant Life in Christ

Mark VanOuse

Hebrews Pt 03: Don’t Neglect So Great a Salvation – Chapter 2 (part 1)

/

Our podcast study, “Hebrews: the Glory of the New Covenant” continues into chapter 2. In this podcast, we cover the first part of the chapter, examining:

  • The problem of neglect and drifting away.
  • This isn’t about bad news: it is great news: we have so great a salvation!
  • Jesus was made lower so that He might taste death for everyone
  • The reasons why the grace of God required Jesus to taste death for everyone.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS

Hebrews Pt 03: Don’t Neglect So Great a Salvation – Chapter 2 (part 1) Read More »

Hebrews Pt 02: God Expressing All Through His Son – Chapter 1

/

In this podcast, we study Hebrews chapter 1. We discover:

  • God Himself is the start of Hebrews, just like Genesis 1:1
  • God is a speaking God and now speaks through His Son, Jesus.
  • Jesus is the full and perfect expression of the Father
  • The “so much” better of the New Covenant described in Hebrews begins.
  • The greatness and excellence of the Son. Here in Hebrews 1 is some of the clearest teaching in all the Bible about divinity of Jesus Christ.
  • The point of all this is that Christ is all. Christianity is not about “how to be a Christian” it is about Christ and faith in Christ alone.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS

Hebrews Pt 02: God Expressing All Through His Son – Chapter 1 Read More »

Hebrews Pt 01: Intro

/

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS

Hebrews Pt 01: Intro Read More »

Not Under Law: What the “Struggle Verses” of Romans 7 Really Mean

/

By Mark VanOuse

[Note: a podcast of this article is available by clicking here]

Bring up Romans chapter 7 and most Christians immediately think of the “struggling with sin” discussion of verses 14 through 24. They therefore conclude that the chief subject of Romans 7 is about struggling with sin. Worse, they buy into a false theology, based on an improper reading of this chapter, that Christians are stuck “struggling with sin till the day they die”.

Nothing could further from the truth. Romans 7 is one of the clearest statements in all the scripture that those in Christ are not under law. That thesis is found in the first 6 verses of Romans 7. It is a natural continuation of the thought developed in Romans 6 that those in Christ are united with Him in His death at Calvary and therefore dead to sin. Romans 7 picks the same theme up and makes the revolutionary point that we are also dead to the law. …

Not Under Law: What the “Struggle Verses” of Romans 7 Really MeanRead More »

Not Under Law: What the “Struggle Verses” of Romans 7 Really Mean Read More »

Podcast: Not Under Law: What the “Struggle Verses” of Romans 7 Really Mean

/

When most Christians think of Romans 7, they think that this chapter deals chiefly with struggling with sin. Nothing could be further from the truth. In this podcast, we take a close look at the entire chapter, particularly the theological verses of 1 through 13. When we take a look at this chapter in its full context, the real meaning of the “struggle” verses of 14 through 24 becomes crystal clear.

The results will surprise you. You’ll see what the relationship is between law, sin and the sinner on one hand and grace, freedom and the saint is on the other.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS

Podcast: Not Under Law: What the “Struggle Verses” of Romans 7 Really Mean Read More »

Part 6, “So Why Do I Do the Sinful Things I Do?” (part 2)

/

This is part 6 and the conclusion of our series, “Living in the Reality of Perfect Sanctification”. In this lesson we continue answering the question, “So why do I do the sinful things I do?” as we delve into the following topics:

  • Another of Satan’s key tactics: to attack who you really are in Christ.
  • God is the only “I AM”
  • Our “I am” is out His “I AM”
  • The Christian life is a walk of faith, not to “become” but out of who we already are in Christ.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS

Part 6, “So Why Do I Do the Sinful Things I Do?” (part 2) Read More »

Part 5, “So Why Do I Do the Sinful Things I Do?”

/

This is part 5 of our series, “Living in the Reality of Perfect Sanctification”. In this lesson we delve into the following topics:

  • Do Christians have a “sinful nature”?
  • What the difference is between the “sinful nature” and the “flesh”.
  • How that a sinner sins because they have a sinful nature versus the fact that a saint sins, contrary to their god-given holy nature, because they are deceived.
  • A saint sins because they are trying live under law, rather than living under grace.
  • How Adam and Eve sinned, even though they didn’t have a sinful nature or a sin consciousness.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS

Part 5, “So Why Do I Do the Sinful Things I Do?” Read More »

Does Blessing Precede Obedience?

/

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 »