Grow In What God Can Do For You

But grow in grace… – 2Pe 3:18

Grace, just like faith, is not a topic or theme that can be exhausted in a 10-part WhatsApp series. Grace is multifaceted and multi-layered. It’s a thread that runs through from Genesis down to Revelation. In God’s dealings with Man, His actions have always been positively disproportionate.

But only the discerning are aware of this gracious principle of God.  If God actually follows the so-called “law of sowing and reaping” (which, strictly speaking, was referencing seasons), none of us would be where we are today.

His Grace – giving us what we don’t deserve; and His Mercy – NOT giving us what we do deserve has been the overriding factor in our lives, long before we even got saved. Exceptional persons under the Old Covenant like Moses, David, Jonah, etc. knew this principle and exploited it to full effect. They saw beyond the bulls and the goats or the rules and the regulations to know that God was not really dealing with them based on their actions.

Contrary to our perception of the Old Testament, people didn’t really die immediately they transgressed; if that were really true there would have been no one left in Israel for the Messiah to come through. Nevertheless, many never saw it that way; and even today, many Believers still think God’s favour to them is proportional to their acts of spiritualty.

That’s why we hear testimonies like, “I went on 21 days dry fasting and God answered me!” or “after 10 years of barrenness, I decided to sow my car into the church, and I got pregnant that same year!” Seriously? A car for a human life? Even in our “thanksgiving” we insult God’s graciousness; and by doing so, we place a cap on what He can do in our lives.

God wants to receive ALL the glory. There’s a limited set of blessings that your ‘diligent’ Christianity qualifies you for. But blessed is the one who’s wise enough to step into the sphere of God’s unmerited favour; where what they get is overwhelmingly disproportionate to what they do. Where they offer a thousand bulls, and get a trillion dollars in return (Solomon); where they ask to build a temple, and have their dynasty established forever (David); where they believe God for children, and God counts it as Righteousness (Abraham).

This ‘unfairness’ of God is available to all. But only those who are discerning will enjoy it to the fullest. Some people simply believed God for salvation and stopped there. But others who realise this principle affects every facet of life have decided to “grow in (this) grace” and have opened themselves to receive the unmerited, unqualified, disproportionate and ‘unfair’ blessings of God.

May that be your portion in Jesus name.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

The Difference Between “Work”, “Work” and “Work”

...Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. – Php 2:12

But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? – Jas 2:20

I know your works... – Rev 2:2

...but if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. – Rom 11:6

The role of “works” in our salvation was the fundamental issue that led to the schism of Protestantism from the Catholic Church and continues to be the sticky point of irreconcilability between the two today. Even among Protestant circles, the debate still rages as to the place of “works” as proof/seal/evidence/requirement (take your pick) of salvation. The scriptures don’t seem to help either because, (as can be seen in our opening verses), it uses the term “work” rather fluidly.

This theological/philosophical dispute has in no small measure acted as a stumbling block to the Gospel message. Nevertheless, the Believer in Christ is not a theological or philosophical construct; the Believer is a new creature! Note that the Bible didn’t say he or she is a new “being” or new “person” (as some modern translations try to put it in order not to sound Frankenstein-ish), but a new “CREATURE” or new “specie”. Therefore, we cannot judge or assess the Believer as though they were regular human beings.

Eph 2:10 says, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” That means the “works” that we are looking for is not something the Believer does but something that is already created in him! 

Asking a convert to “prove” their salvation is like asking your newborn baby girl to prove her womanhood. She doesn’t have to prove anything. All it takes to be a woman is embedded right there inside her 2 kilograms of flesh. Just keep feeding her and one day, you – and the rest of the world – will know that you gave birth to a woman!

We know that we’re to work OUT our salvation, but you can only work out, what’s already IN you, (which God does, Phil 2:12). Is there no “work”, then, necessary for salvation? Oh, there’s one work alright. And here it is:

“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.” – John 6:29.

Have you believed?

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Legalism, Liberty and Licence

...turning the grace of our God into licentiousness. – Jud 1:4

There’s a marked distinction between living under the Old Testament and under the New that we have to be aware of. Under the Old, holy living is legislated from the outside in; that’s why it is full of rules, instructions and regulations. How to dress, how not to dress, what to eat, what not to eat… in fact, it had over 600 regulations that aimed to cover just about every aspect of life.

The New Testament functions under a different paradigm. Prophesying about the New Covenant, Jeremiah said, “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.” (Jer 31:34).

But even though it’s not New Testament practice to legislate morality, many churches and Pastors today still find it necessary to put in place some form of regulation in order to keep certain excesses in check.

But the truth is, the Newman in Christ is not controlled from the outside with rules; rather he or she is led from the inside by the Holy Spirit. Rom 8:14 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Controlling people from the outside will only lead to LEGALISM, which results in bondage and back to the Old Covenant that Christ liberated us from.

Unfortunately, not all Believers yield to that said inward controlling of the Spirit. Just like in the early Church, some Believers interpret this newfound liberty as opportunity to live, dress and drink as they want. This is what the Bible calls licentiousness – using God’s grace as excuse to live unchecked.

This balance is what the Believer has to keep continually. We’re free from legalism > we have full liberty in Christ > but liberty does not mean licentiousness. That’s the balancing formula.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

OverINDULGENT Christians

So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? – Rom 6:1 (MSG)

Over 90% of Christians today are Catholics, half of them just aren’t aware of it. They may be Good Catholics (Roman Catholics), or they may be Bad Catholics (Protestants) but, historically speaking, are all Catholics nonetheless. And though this fact has been forgotten, or is taken for granted, we’re often reminded of our prior singleness through vestiges of similarities that remain today – in our liturgy, in our dogma... and in our thinking.

One of the core reasons why the Reformation (the movement that established Protestantism) started was the Catholic Church’s practice of the sale of “Indulgences”. An Indulgence was a form of remission, granted by the pope, for sins committed. The origins of this practice started when the Catholic Church – even though it acknowledges the sacrificial death of Christ for sin – still insisted that sins committed by members must be paid for by some form of Works such as fasting, floggings, pilgrimage, or charity.

Over time, it made it easier to pay for said sins by making the payment literal! Instead of self-punishment, you just simply buy the absolution. Hence the introduction of “Indulgences”. The sale of Indulgences became so full-blown a merchandising outfit that some parishes became major Indulgence purchase centres! And though the proceeds go to the Pope, the middle salesmen had their own cut and became extremely wealthy.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before people started buying Indulgences for sins they had not yet committed! And therein lay the gripe of the early reformers like John Wycliffe, John Hus and Martin Luther – a fight that brought about the Reformation and break from the Mother Church.

So, here we are today, four centuries later, children of that bitter ecclesiastical divorce, supposedly cut clean from the behaviour and creed of the “Bishop of Rome”; yet whenever the doctrine of comprehensive FORGIVENESS is taught, the next thing that Believers start thinking is, “You mean I can sin tomorrow?”. It’s the real-world rephrasing of Paul’s question to the Romans, (why does “Rome” keep cropping up in this discourse of ours?), “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

The answer, of course, was “God forbid!” (Rom 6:1,2). To Paul, the question reveals a faulty understanding of the Gospel message. We’re not doing that ‘sin’ thing anymore; You were once darkness, but now are you light in the Lord: walk [therefore] as children of light;  (Eph 5:8).

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

The Church’s F-Word

There’s a word that we seem to have all agreed must not be mentioned around children. Not because the word is bad in itself, (if it were a bad thing we couldn’t have even entered this realm in the first place), but because children may not be mature enough to handle it. They mustn’t hear us talking freely and openly about it because such undue exposure may tempt them into damaging and wrongful behaviour. At least that’s how we reason it.

When I say “children” here, I am of course referring to spiritual children – not our physical tots and teens. Also, the “realm” I mentioned above refers to the spiritual realm – God’s kingdom – not this physical world!

So what is this word that ‘mature’ Christians know about but will not discuss when spiritual ‘babies’ are around? Well, the word is: FORGIVENESS – full, unqualified, complete Forgiveness.

The Bible doesn’t say that the Believer is temporarily forgiven, or that we’re partially forgiven. The Bible states that we are forgiven, period. This was the thrust and message of the Apostles in Acts right from Day 1.

In Acts 2:38, Peter says to the crowd, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Again in Acts 10:43 43  Peters  says of Jesus, “To him (Jesus) give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins.

After His Resurrection, Jesus told His disciples that the message they were to preach was “repentance and remission of sins” in His name.” (Lk 24:47).

In two separate epistles, Paul defines “redemption” as “the forgiveness of sins”. (Eph 1:7 and Col 1:14. See also Jer 31:34; Act 5:31; 13:38, 39; 2Co 5:18-21; Heb 8:12-13; 9:9-14).

Why then is this basic fact of the Gospel not being proclaimed in our message? You guessed it correctly, because we believe that immature Believers will handle it wrongly and go into licentiousness.

This is an unfortunate encroachment of human wisdom on God’s Word. The Bible never hid this from believers – mature or not; in fact, John brazenly proclaims to young Believers, “I write unto you, LITTLE CHILDREN, because your sins ARE FORGIVEN you for his name's sake.” (1Jn 2:12).

The power of the Gospel message lies in its forgiveness. If we present the Gospel scripturally in the first place, we wouldn’t need to resort to human wisdom and scare tactics to keep our new converts’ behaviour in check.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN