The Do Better Gospel of Christendom.
More often than not, what is preach from the pulpits as the gospel today is the badgering of people to “do better” preceded by the gaining of salvation by grace. The badgering follows the gaining of salvation to the maintaining of salvation. Try harder! Pray longer! Read the Bible more! Go to church more! Tithe the10%! Be more committed! Stop sinning! Be as good as you can be! All this “striving to do” though appearing to be noble is “bad news” to people who are trapped by the guilt-laden expected expectations culture and condemning religious environment they live in that causes them guilt and shame because they feel they are to blame for being unable to measure up. This type of preaching is not the “Good News” gospel.
The “do better” mentality, and the lifestyle it creates is far removed from God’s good news “Gospel of Grace” that Jesus lived and revealed the fullness of to Paul for the Church. Jesus was never bound by bitterness, hatred, lust, fear, or jealousy, nor to the expectations of the religious culture or environment of His day. He was never anxious about His status nor worried about His position or about what the religious people of His day thought of Him. He never resorted to manipulation or coercion of people to get them to believe His way or to satisfy the lust of the flesh.
He went about doing good, healing, delivering and calming the storms of life, loving everybody everywhere, eating with sinners and befriending them, in spite of the religious hierarchy of religion. He was known as a friend of sinners. He did not play the shame and blame game with sinners, He did not lay a guilt trip on them, they were not judged nor feel condemned in His presence. Even when rejected by His contemporaries, Jesus lived with no self-rejection or inferiority complex. His intimacy with His heavenly Father was enough. He could even face the devil personally and not fail because He trusted the identity and acceptance His Father had given him. This identity also did not give Him a spiritual superiority complex that is predominate in the religious culture.
Jesus was effective in verbalizing His message because He lived what He verbalized!
A life in Christ is a life that is not at the mercy of circumstances nor the religious hierarchical rules? Is that the life that people reject?...I think not! Promoting of such is to accept the another gospel that Paul warned us against, that complex, complicated system of theological dogmas and behavioral requirements the Galatian believers were falling back into, the...“false gospel”, with the bondage its rules and regulations offers. It is erroneously called gospel…“good news.” And the understandable response has been and is, “If that’s good news, keep it. It is not for me thank you.”
The gaining of salvation is by Grace and the maintaining of salvation is by Grace. The working out of salvation is because of Grace, it has nothing to do with keeping it!
The “do better” mentality, and the lifestyle it creates is far removed from God’s good news “Gospel of Grace” that Jesus lived and revealed the fullness of to Paul for the Church. Jesus was never bound by bitterness, hatred, lust, fear, or jealousy, nor to the expectations of the religious culture or environment of His day. He was never anxious about His status nor worried about His position or about what the religious people of His day thought of Him. He never resorted to manipulation or coercion of people to get them to believe His way or to satisfy the lust of the flesh.
He went about doing good, healing, delivering and calming the storms of life, loving everybody everywhere, eating with sinners and befriending them, in spite of the religious hierarchy of religion. He was known as a friend of sinners. He did not play the shame and blame game with sinners, He did not lay a guilt trip on them, they were not judged nor feel condemned in His presence. Even when rejected by His contemporaries, Jesus lived with no self-rejection or inferiority complex. His intimacy with His heavenly Father was enough. He could even face the devil personally and not fail because He trusted the identity and acceptance His Father had given him. This identity also did not give Him a spiritual superiority complex that is predominate in the religious culture.
Jesus was effective in verbalizing His message because He lived what He verbalized!
A life in Christ is a life that is not at the mercy of circumstances nor the religious hierarchical rules? Is that the life that people reject?...I think not! Promoting of such is to accept the another gospel that Paul warned us against, that complex, complicated system of theological dogmas and behavioral requirements the Galatian believers were falling back into, the...“false gospel”, with the bondage its rules and regulations offers. It is erroneously called gospel…“good news.” And the understandable response has been and is, “If that’s good news, keep it. It is not for me thank you.”
The gaining of salvation is by Grace and the maintaining of salvation is by Grace. The working out of salvation is because of Grace, it has nothing to do with keeping it!
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