Religous Spies

[StriperAddict]

Upsetting to some, liberating to many.

Or, should the words some and many be interchanged??

Be encouraged,
Or warned,
depending on which aisle you choose to sit ...

-Walt
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Religious Spies

In the early church, religious spies were everywhere.

Paul writes in Galatians 2:5-4,

“This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.”

What were they spying on?

They were spying on those who embraced the truth that righteousness (total forgiveness of all sins by God and complete innocence before God – as if one had never sinned) came by grace through faith in Jesus.

These religious spies were spying on the freedom the grace-believers had in Christ.

What was the freedom the believers had in Christ?

They were free from having to meet certain religious and moral expectations to be right with God.

They were free from having to have certain spiritual experiences to be right with God.

They were free from having to follow specific disciplines to grow in their relationship with God.

They were free from having to seek daily forgiveness from God.

They were free from having to try to get close to God.

They were free from having to live by a list of religious rules to grow in their relationship with God or be right with God.

They were free to enjoy a close, loving relationship with God as Abba, Father because of what Jesus did for them on the cross.

They were confident they were Abba’s loved, forgiven, righteous, accepted, and innocent sons and daughters.

This freedom scared the religious leaders because they thought grace would lead to wild, careless, apathetic living.

So the religious leaders sent religious spies to spy on the grace-believers’ freedom in Christ.

The spies’ assignment was to go undercover and appear to be grace believers.

Their goal was to gather information about the grace of Jesus that was being taught and to gain influence among the believers to get them away from grace and under a rigid system where believers must live according to the daily spiritual disciplines and expectations mandated by the spiritual leaders.

They were told that unless they live according to the disciplines then they can’t grow in their relationship with God, be close to God, or stay in fellowship with God.

Much is the same today.

Yet, there is one major exception...the religious spies are no longer spies.

Those who were religious spies in the first century church or now the leaders of churches and ministries.

They are not undercover, they are out in the open.

They are outwardly seeking to get people under a rigid system of daily disciplines and requirements, convincing the people that these disciplines and requirements are necessary for forgiveness from God and closeness to God.

The spiritual truths of grace are no longer the means of spiritual growth.

Spiritual disciplines have replaced spiritual truth as the means for spiritual growth.

Believers have been taught much about spiritual disciplines and very little, if at all, about the spiritual truths of grace.

Consequently, most believers are not experiencing freedom in Jesus.

They have no idea what freedom in Jesus is.

They are in bondage to a set of spiritual disciplines and expectations, but they do not know it.

Unfortunately, their relationships with God revolves around adherence to a set of daily spiritual disciplines rather than on the cross of Jesus.

When they practice the disciplines they feel good about their relationship with God and close to him.

However, when they fail to follow the disciplines, if just for one day, they feel guilty in their relationship with God and distant from him.

They have no idea they are completely forgiven of all sins for all time.

They have no idea that they are righteous before God and close to God.

They have no idea that they live by the faithfulness of Christ to them when he loved them and went to the cross for them (grace).

They have no idea they are filled with the Spirit of Christ, rather they are trying to be fully devoted followers of Jesus.

They are trying to be “all in for Jesus” rather than understanding Jesus went all in for them (grace).

They are living by their faithfulness to the disciplines and expectations given to them by their leaders.

During the time of the religious spies, Paul and others stood up for the gospel of grace that leads to freedom in Christ (Galatians 5:1).

We must do the same today.

We must not give in to the religious leaders of our day who are failing to communicate the good news of grace to millions of believers.

We must lovingly, gently, and clearly communicate the gospel of grace so the good news of grace will be experienced by those in our generation and preserved for those in future generations.

The spies are no longer among believers, they are now leading believers in full view.

Let’s love them and share the gospel of grace with them and with those they lead.

- Brad Robertson
gracereach.org

 

[Israel]

Though I might be a bit wary (myself) of entering into any responsibility for preserving the gospel for "future generations"...I am glad, and see to agreement there's far more than enough occupation in the present with that final sentence.

 

[StriperAddict]

Romans is the book that declares our freedom. Galatians is the book that says we have to defend and fight to keep our freedom. There are always those that are going to call us FROM Jesus, TO "other things" with the promise that we can get more, do more, find more, BE more. What heresy!
In Christ, we have it ALL, everything for life and godliness by grace and NONE of our religious self sufficiency! Why? Because we have God living inside us. What more could we possible need?

There is one interesting albeit funny translation of Gal. 3:1, that reads, "You dear idiots of Galatia, who saw Jesus Christ the crucified so plainly ... who has been casting a spell over you? I will ask you one simple question: did you receive the Spirit of God by trying to keep the Law or by believing the message of the Gospel? Surely you can’t be so idiotic as to think that a man begins his spiritual life in the Spirit and then completes it by reverting to outward observances?

And we too can be foolish to think those religious observances bring us any closer to Christ than the cross and resurrection have made us.
A look at Rom ch 5-8 and Galatians is contending for the faith, that, unfortunately, gets drowned in rules which never highlight the intimacy of Father with His kids. Beware the wolves that bark at the lamb led to the slaughter ... yet which the Lamb, in the wisdom and kindness of God, became eternal redemption for us in Christ.

 

[StriperAddict]

Another thread I came across this morning adds to the mix, enjoy ...
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You're in the Room of Grace! Grace! That word appears 122 times in the New Testament. The Judaizers in the apostle Paul's day hated it. They feared what it would do if it got loose. "Paul, you can't tell them this!" they said. "These people are immature, lazy and have little religious background. They'll abuse it as soon as they can. They'll live Christianity-lite. These people are weak and want to do whatever they want. And believe me, what they want is not good." Paul responds, in essence, this way: "You'd have a great point, if it wasn't for two truths. First, these people have a new nature. They have Christ in them. They're not who they were. They don't want to get away with anything. They want to enjoy Him, and can't find a way to do that within your ugly system. "Second, they have the Holy Spirit, who is able to correct, encourage, rebuke, and challenge. They have God, you know."

If you're looking for compliance, you can get that without God. Just wield enough power and people will do what you want them to. At least as long as you're around. But when you're out of sight, eventually—inevitably—they'll revert to what they've been denied. The real trick is to allow the desires of the new heart to come out and have a run of the joint. We're hardwired for heartfelt obedience. We have to be religiously badgered into compliance, which leads to eventual disobedience. Only bad theology can do that.
Sin and failure is all we think we have until new life is wooed forth. We need others to show us God beautifully, without condemnation, disgust, and unsatisfied demands.
We long to obey Him. It makes our souls sing. We've just been goaded so long, we've learned to shield ourselves from religion. We'll fight that kind of authority just for the fight. It's what the Law does in any form. It makes rebels of people who want to love and be loved.

The Cure, Chapter One, Two Roads

 

[Israel]

I was thinking about these matters of grace, new life, Christ as our life...even to a recent discussion of honesty, inclusive of intellectual honesty, truth and lies, blindness and sight. Life and death. And differentiation.

I seem no longer able to consider anything outside of a certain...context, and that context worthy of all attention...Christ. I can find nothing that enters my mind as not fit grist for His mill for the separating of wheat from chaff. Yet, He does not grind chaff, it's reserved to something else. And how any pure kernel must yet endure His grinding before it be fit for bread. How very small Christ becomes for entrance into a heart without annihilating it.

I think of Paul's expression of this in "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live..." and all that follows...

Not "not knowing himself"...but knowing himself as something now different...dead, yet alive...and that life alone is of the One, and all owed to One coming to abide. It is not loss of identity...but contrariwise...an identity purposed from before the beginning of time he knew (Paul knew) was to be made his...as true. I don't think this can be much separated from "I am what I am by the grace of God"... a true coming to rest in himself with his fashioning. Delivered from any striving or "trying to be"...to being...in the "I am". It was all too wondrous for him, yet it didn't silence him...and I am at this point persuaded he came to a realization...only faith speaks...legitimately. So that he would even say

We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;

And in such is a coming to know:

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

What speaks contrary is allowed for a time with grace and mercy extended to it that by God's work in such tearing down what is appointed to know there is only standing in Christ...might be sobered. It is enough we submit to such demolition in ourselves...and fitting...lest we be found as otherwise

For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Yes, we co-labor here with God to these agreements. And we learn of a propensity to rebuild, as such warning is not without necessity...of things having an appearance of expediency...that are clearly not.

But Christ would not leave us there, and so we learn to treasure..."Those whom I love I rebuke and chasten".

But this is enough for now.

And the Lord bless you for the abundance of occupation you find in the grace of God.

If such glory can be seen in a place of temporary opposition...how much more glorious when temporary is no where to be found?

 

[StriperAddict]

Yes and amen, I long for the temporary to never strain that which is eternal. Not that it could anyway! ??