World Impact Ministries / Peter Youngren

Seeing, but not seeing, is a common problem. Christians see that Jesus carried their sins, but they still don’t see themselves righteous; Jesus bore their sickness, but they have a difficult time to see themselves healed. We see that Jesus has become our righteousness, redemption, wisdom and sanctification, but somehow we still look for all of the above. Out of one side of the mouth we say, “God has given us everything in Christ,” and out of the other side we claim to be a very “needy people”. On the one hand we agree with Jesus that if we drink the water He gives we’ll never thirst again, while on the other we say, “Lord, I’m so thirsty for you”. Do you see the contradictions? Is this schizophrenic life normal Christianity?

When I wrote my latest book, “My Muslim Friends,” I anticipated some backlash. We Christians often view Muslims as aggressive, but we don’t always realize that we can be pretty aggressive ourselves.  Well, my expectations have been realized.

Her wizened face expressed bewilderment; “I don’t understand, who are you talking about?” I was taking a stroll with some of our team members in the outskirts of Bali’s capital, Denpasar. This was the third person I had stopped to talk with and her answer proved to be the same as the previous two responses.

Almost all Christian publications carry frequent articles about Israel and ours is no exception. Topics typically range from political support for the nation of Israel in its current military struggle, to encouraging Christian tourists to visit, to articles that promise blessings to those who bless the Jews.

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Israeli - Arab war that dramatically changed the map of the Middle East, initially tripling the land governed by the nation of Israel. The conflict in 1967 was preceded by months of escalation of tension culminating on June 5th by the Israeli Air Force destroying 400 aircraft of Syria, Jordan and Egypt; most of them on the tarmac. Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula after four days of battle, and when Jordan and Syria joined Egypt, Israel counter attacked. By June 7th Israeli troops had captured Jerusalem’s old city and had taken control of the entire West Bank. By June 10th both Jordan and Egypt had accepted a cease-fire, while Israeli forces had also captured the Golan Heights. Syria accepted a cease-fire by June 10th.  The war left 679 dead Israelis and an estimated 21,000 dead among the Arab nations. Thousands of others were injured.

“Professional help” is the cure most often suggested when someone has been involved in a moral failure.  In other words, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the word of God is for the little daily challenges, but in a serious dilemma professional help is the answer.  I don’t for a moment minimize the common sense one can gain from professional counseling.  Human wisdom is not to be despised, but it is not a cure for sin.  The apostle Paul reveals that the cause of sin is a lack of grace.  Laws, rules and reliance on self make us prone to sin, while grace causes us to reign over temptations. (Romans 5:17)  Sin doesn’t have dominion over us when grace is abounding. (Romans 6:19)

If the current Christian scene were a football game, I’d say we are in the fourth quarter and if you look at the scoreboard legalism has an insurmountable lead over grace. This has been an ongoing battle for 2000 years; the legalism of the Pharisees vs. the unmerited, undeserved, unearned favor of God presented by Jesus. There is a line between those who uphold the traditions of men based on merits versus Jesus the friend and transformer of sinners. The Council in Jerusalem (Acts 15) dealt with this ongoing conflict where certain “Judaizers” wanted to lay more “burdens” on the new believers.  That time the truth prevailed, and it was agreed that we are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.  In Antioch, the same battle continued as Paul had to publicly rebuke Simon Peter and his spiritual mentor Barnabus because they were slipping into legalism instead of standing by the message of Christ alone and grace alone (Galatians 2).

Revolutions or reformations are not needed in every generation; it is only when things have gone so far that the very foundations of people’s belief systems need to be challenged. Martin Luther lived in such a time. The predominant Christian religion of his day was selling salvation and the forgiveness of sin for monetary gain in the market place. Are we due for another reformation, or as I often call it, a gospel revolution?

I have just about seen enough articles, teaching albums, etc. advertised under titles like “Greasy Grace”, “Crazy Grace”, or “Grace Gone Wild”. While I am sure that just about everything can be abused, even grace because the Bible says so. These three titles that warn against the grace message don’t have a clue and often have little or no knowledge of what the message is. Instead they build up a phantom and an attack that their imagination has created. It goes something like this: “Those who preach a radical message of God’s grace are people looking for a low commitment, a low level Christian life where anything goes because sin is tolerated (after all, Jesus paid for them).” Often writers are connecting the message of grace with general moral decay in the church and in the world. I used to have this opinion of grace teaching myself only seven or eight years ago. I had never really heard the message but just assumed that people who would preach that all sin, past, present and future had been paid for by Jesus, couldn’t be doing anything good with their sermons, in fact they must be something negative (creating a license to sin).