Do you know why many believers today have a confused perspective of God? What would cause believers to think that God is sometimes angry with them, but at other times pleased with them? Why would some believers think that their heavenly Father would actually punish them with sicknesses and diseases when it would be unthinkable for them to inflict such draconian measures on their own children? What accounts for this apparent schizophrenia that exists in the body of Christ today? I submit to you that this confusion stems from what is called Galatianism. Galatianism is essentially a mixture of covenants. It is the intermingling of teachings about God which contain a little bit of the law as well as a little bit of grace. The church in Galatia was struggling with this, and from the severity of Apostle Pauls tone to the Galatians, it is obvious that Paul regarded this issue very seriously. Allowing Mixture Perverts The Gospel Of Christ That is why Paul had to be firm with the Galatians. By allowing grace to be mixed with the law, the Galatians had perverted the gospel of Christ. Paul had preached the gospel of grace to them, but after he left, some Judaizers came and told them lies like, yes, it is good that you are saved by grace, but it is not enough for you to just have Jesus. You must also know and abide by law of Moses to be pleasing to God. In essence, they were saying, grace is good, but grace must be balanced with the law. So they talked the Galatians into things like the Ten Commandments and told them that they had to be circumcised. Pauls response was to pronounce a double curse on those who preached the false gospel to the Galatians! His tough stance towards those who preached mixture represents the heart of God today. You Cannot Balance Grace With Law In most places today, the problem is not pure law. You will not find pure law in Christian churches. What you will find in many places today is a mixture of law and grace. You will hear teachings that combine the old and new covenants. You will hear things like, yes, you are saved by grace, but now that you are saved, you had better not take it for granted. You have to start living a holy life by keeping the Ten Commandments. This is called mixture -- you have a little bit of grace and a little bit of law. Many believers think that this--balancing law and grace--is all right. However, the Lord has shown me that what man calls balance, God calls mixture. My friend, you cannot balance law and grace. Your justification is either entirely a work of His grace or it is by your own works. His grace will be nullified when you add even a little mixture of mans own efforts to be justified. This is serious. God hates mixture. While most people have no problem with agreeing that they have been saved by grace, they are nevertheless still subjecting themselves to the law. They are depending on the works of the law or their obedience to the law to earn, merit, and deserve Gods blessing. When they do well in their own estimation, they expect to be blessed. But when they fall short and fail, they heap on themselves guilt and condemnation and expect to be punished. In the new covenant, God doesnt want us to be blessed when we obey the law and cursed when we fail. Doesnt such a system sound awfully similar to the old covenant? Grace is the undeserved, unmerited, and unearned favor of God -- the moment you try to merit the free favors of God, His grace is nullified. In the new covenant God wants us to be blessed on account of His Son and what He did on the cross. It has nothing to do with our performance or ability to keep the law. Those trying to be justified by their law-keeping still have an old covenant mentality, even if they profess that they are in the new covenant. They have reverted to the old system that was based on works and obedience, rather than trusting in the new system that is based on faith and believing. When there is mixture between the old and new covenants, between the covenant of law and the covenant of grace, you lose both and the benefits of the two covenants are nullified! How do we know this? What is the scriptural basis for this? Lets look at what Jesus said: Mark 2:22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins. Thoughts On Grace By Pastor Joseph Prince.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 15:04:32 +0000
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