This is a message to all those who rely upon themselves. Jesus died for you. Did you hear me? Jesus died for you. Isn’t that enough for you to see that self reliance is a sham? Are you trying to receive salvation in return for your services? If you are, hear this well. Jesus died for you. Jesus died for you!!! Maybe if I keep on typing it over and over again, you will understand. You know what I’m going to ask. Why would He die if you could earn it. He earned it with His death. He ended the law with His death. The Old Covenant was God’s perfect will. It went unfulfilled until the last Man. Jesus was the last Man in the Old Covenant. God knew that we could never do His will so He did it Himself, through Jesus. After Jesus lived for 33 years, the number of completion, God considered the law fulfilled by Jesus. In order to end the law and replace it with grace, Jesus died. A covenant is only established when someone dies. He died to end the law, while He bore our sins. Jesus rose from the dead and was declared to be the Son of God with power. He now lives to give eternal life to all those who simply believe this story. Jesus died to close the book of the law. It is finished. So why do you keep opening the law to try to fulfill it? It is finished. Are you saying that it is not finished? Are you denying what Jesus has done? So Jesus died for you. Remember this the next time you are tempted to brag about how holy you are. God demands perfection. That’s why God expelled Adam and Eve from the tree of life. When they sinned, they died. Their spirit was cut off from God and oneness with God was broken. But in Christ we are made perfect again, through what Jesus has done. Now we can fellowship with God. Now simple believers have living spirits and oneness with God. We are back in the Garden, we are saved! Can you see the folly of self righteousness? Can you see the glory of Jesus? Enter God’s rest my friend, and know the peace that passes understanding. We do not need to understand why we feel so good. We only need to believe that Jesus is our Savior.

Have You Heard?

Ephesians 3:2. Have you heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to Paul for you? This is a strange sentence, isn’t it? What does this mean? Well, let me give my opinion on the matter so you can either accept or reject it. I want to know if you’ve heard about some really good news. I want to know if anyone has ever told you something very important. I want to know if you listened to the person who tried to tell you. I want to know if you started hearing it, but you stopped because you thought that you knew what they were going to say. Maybe some preconceived notion stopped you from giving audience. Maybe someone told you something wrong and you rightfully stopped listening. I’d like for you to give me a chance to tell you something that you may never have heard of, something wonderful for you. God gave Paul a story that is very easy to understand, and at the same time, very deep. Paul had been given the Gospel, and he dispensed it to the world. This is the story of your need, God’s meeting your need, and your reception of God’s provision. Paul was the first person that God revealed this mystery to. God did this for you. Let me tell you the mystery. First of all, we all need forgiveness. This is a fact, whether or not we believe it. We need forgiveness because we have done wrong, at one time or another. If you think you have never done wrong, you may as well stop reading now. Second of all, God has provided our forgiveness through the actions of a Person. We could never earn forgiveness, and so God sent Jesus to earn our forgiveness for us. This is the meaning of the grace of God. Grace means undeserved kindness, and it is found in Jesus. Jesus the Christ is our representative before God. We could not affect our own forgiveness, so Jesus took the punishment we deserved. He was born of a virgin and so started the human race anew, without sin! Jesus lived the only good life. A religious person cannot believe this. Even the average Joe thinks he’s going to Heaven because he is good. But the fact is, all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Only Jesus is good. Good Jesus died in our place and received our punishment when he bore our sins. He rose from the dead and verified everything He said and did. He alone conquered death. Third of all, how do we receive all this good stuff? Is it by becoming religious? No! Is it by trying to earn forgiveness and denying all that Jesus has done? No! Is it by pushing all this out of our minds and ignoring our need? No! This is how to receive forgiveness and a new life. All you have to do is believe the story. When you believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose again, you are completely forgiven, no matter how you feel. Your happy ending is certain, and this knowledge will help you overcome the hardships of life. All you must do is continue to believe, and God will do the rest. This is the message that was given to the apostle Paul for you.

Compromise

When someone believes the gospel, which is a simple trust in Christ crucified and resurrected, they are sometimes accused of being compromisers. This is a vague accusation, for these accusers never specify what exactly is being compromised. The person who believes that the work of Christ is all-sufficient and that all one must do is trust in Jesus’ work, is certainly not compromising. He is trusting entirely in Jesus and is putting no confidence in himself. He is lifting up the Son of Man so that others may be drawn to Him. He is glorifying the actions of the Son of God when He came to earth to live the perfect life that we couldn’t and then take our place in death. How is this compromising? This is actually the opposite of compromising, because it exalts Jesus to the highest place. Sometimes religious people place too much focus on their own lives and try to earn salvation. We must realize that Jesus earned our salvation for us. No one can get God to owe him salvation, for who has given to God that God should repay him? Once a person simply believes that Jesus died for their sins and rose from the dead, that person is saved. God will then enter that person’s life and by His grace give the person a new nature. This is the work of God. All we must do is believe and let God take care of our lives. If you are worried about how you are living, then cast that burden on the Lord. We are told to cast our burdens on the Lord. For the last 25 years my number one concern is being right with God. So now I am casting this burden on Jesus and I refuse to worry about it any longer. If I can’t cast my number one burden on Him than I can’t cast any burdens on Him. So I encourage all who read this to enter God’s rest, to fulfill your one responsibility of tiny mustard-seed faith in the great work of the cross, and watch God make of you a good tree that bears good fruit. Remember, we are His workmanship, not our own workmanship.

What do you think of when you write a Christian song? What thoughts are you trying to convey with your music and lyrics? I’d like to share with you what I used to think about and what I think about now. I’ve been writing songs for 30 years, and Christian songs for 25. My first Christian songs were an effort to get people to be like me. After all, I repented of my sins, I went to church, I was on fire for the Lord, I had my ideas of the issues and concerns of the day, so I tried to convey a strong spirit of self-righteousness, while leaving out the one thing needful. I really couldn’t write anything else back then, because I didn’t have the Gospel in my heart. But now I write about the wonderful cross of Christ. I try to focus the attention of the listener on their need for the Savior and the simplicity by which they can be saved. Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of subjects to write about, but I believe that we must approach these through the simplicity of the Gospel. And the Gospel is simply this: Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, He was buried, and on the third day He rose from the dead according to the scriptures. If a person simply believes this, God will take care of the rest.

(Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.) Paul starts all his letters like this. The phrase “grace and peace” conveys the essence of Christianity. It conveys what so many are not preaching. It conveys just the opposite of what false religion conveys. False religion, or legalism, (for many of today’s religions are so often legalistic,) conveys uncertainty, doubts, and unfinished business. For the works-oriented person, salvation is an unfinished business. They admit that Jesus finished something on the cross, but to them salvation isn’t finished until they perform. What does this say about the work of Jesus? It says that it’s either supplemented or supplanted. To supplement is to add something to make up for a default. Let me tell you there is no default in the cross of Jesus. To supplant is to take the place of. Let me tell you that no one can take the place of Jesus. I’ve told you what “grace and peace” is not. Let me tell you what it is.

Grace is Jesus and him crucified. Grace is Jesus coming down from heaven to, first, do the will of God as the only person who ever fulfilled the law, and second, grace is this perfect person becoming a curse for us on the tree. The only person who did not merit the curse of God because he fulfilled the law, in grace became a curse for us anyway. This is what satisfies the Father. This is what brings peace to us and God. When we just believe this simple message, we are made right with God and given peace.

Christianity is the only faith of its kind. This is because Christianity is the only faith where God does the work of salvation, and man receives salvation as a gift. All other faiths try to get God to owe them salvation in one way or another. But God could never be indebted to anyone. When a religion turns legalistic in its theology, either partially or totally, that religion is trying to get God to owe them salvation, either partially or totally. Their mistake is in not realizing that salvation is entirely a gift. It isn’t that we are not required to believe, for we are told again and again in the New Testament that we must believe to be saved. But in order to receive the free gift, one must believe that there is a gift to receive. So receive the free gift of salvation by grace through faith, and know the grace and peace of God.