Being A Revolutionary

Martin Luther is remembered as the Reformer responsible for the start of the Protestant movement. But his original intention wasn’t to establish anything new. His desire was for reformation – a re-forming of the church so that it would again be an expression of what He understood the Bible to say that the church is intended to be. He had no interest in being seen as a rebel against the church. He wanted to be a facilitator of change, but in spite of all he could do to avoid it, he began to be seen, not as a facilitator, but as an instigator who refused to leave well-enough alone. Be advised: that’s a risk you will run if you become of part of the grace revolution that has begun in the church today.

Self-righteous, religious folks can’t stand grace for at least one reason. It takes them completely out of the limelight and gives all the glory to God. Tell the church leaders in Luther’s day that people’s good works didn’t move them one inch toward salvation and, like Luther, you would have been considered a heretic.

Today this fundamental fact about salvation probably makes sense to everybody who reads this. After all, the Protestant Reformation was five hundred years ago and the issue has long ago been settled. Works have nothing to do with salvation. Every Christian knows that. Though it was a controversial matter back then, that fact is a no-brainer in the church world today.

It’s a slightly different grace related issue that will get you into trouble with many in the church today. It’s not about salvation, but about sanctification – how a person becomes holy and then lives a holy lifestyle. Tell many at church that works don’t define salvation and they’ll say a hearty “Amen,” but tell them that the Christian life isn’t defined by works and you’d better take a step back and prepare yourself for the verbal lashing that is likely to follow.

Protestant denominations today have lapsed right back into the same errors that stirred Luther to action in his day. The difference is that the controversy then surrounded what it took to become a Christian while today the issue revolves around what it takes to become a "good Christian." It’s the same battle, just a different battleground.

To suggest that Jesus is the answer in both instances may seem obvious, but when you look at the message given in the modern church world, an unbiased observer would hardly come to that conclusion. Ask almost anybody in almost any contemporary congregation what a good Christian is and then listen as they describe all the things that person will be doing. They may have learned that at church but it sure didn’t come from the
Bible.

The fact of the matter is this: Christianity isn’t about what we do. Neither entering nor living the Christian life revolves around doing. It has only to do with Jesus Christ and nothing else. I didn’t say we won’t do anything so please don’t read into my words something I haven’t said. Of course Christians do, but we don’t do to be good Christians. We do precisely because we are good Christians. We’re good Christians, not because of anything we may do or not do, but because our good God has put His good Spirit in us where He lives and defines us, giving us our very identity. Your goodness has nothing to do with anything you do. It’s because of what He has done.

I can almost hear the voices now: “People may misunderstand what you’re saying and think works don’t matter at all!” That’s a risk anybody takes who teaches the pure grace of God, but it is a risk that must be taken if we’re going to avoid diluting the truth of the gospel. To make grace clear, we just have to run the risk. I've shared the following quote numerous times, but it warrants posting again:

The great Bible expositor, Martyn Lloyd Jones wrote:

The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel.


I hope you’ll begin to find yourself more and more addicted to grace and a biblical understanding of what it means to relax and simply allow Christ to live out His life through your lifestyle. If you get antsy when somebody like me talks about works not being the foundation of Christian living, keep studying the subject.

Works -- it always has been a hot topic in the church. It was the subject that triggered the revolution that led to reformation in Luther’s day and it’s the subject that the growing grace revolution hinges on today, five centuries later. Despite the fact that the Apostle Paul himself said that works and grace are impossible to mix, those who speak out boldly against works-righteousness as the basis of Christian living had better be prepared for resistance. The religious world hasn’t changed since Paul’s day or, for that matter, even Luther’s day when he addressed the subject as it relates to salvation.

Some have argued that “going too far with grace” can cause people to grow lax about sin in their lives. They imagine the Summer Youth Trip at the Local Community Church turning into a “Girls Gone Wild” video. That kind of assumption is totally ungrounded in reality. It ranks right up there with “There’s a boogey-man under my bed.”

Grace doesn’t cause people to go wild in sin. That’s a ridiculous idea perpetuated by two groups of people: (1) Those who are fearful because they don’t trust the Holy Spirit inside other people to lead them and (2) those who are afraid that they will lose control over other people if they actually begin to believe this grace teaching is true.

You can’t go too far with grace. That’s like saying, “don’t go too far with Jesus.” Paul wrote in Romans 5:17 that it is by the abundance of grace that we learn how to reign in life. The real threat to the church isn’t that we will go too far with grace, but that we won’t go far enough. Paul told Titus that the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodly behavior and empowers us to live like the righteous people we are. Show me somebody who is sinning and calling it grace and I’ll show you somebody who is telling a blatant lie. They’ve embraced disgrace and have given it a slanderous new name.

Do you feel an inner defense mechanism suddenly kick in when somebody like me starts to talk about how works aren’t the basis of the Christian life? If so, I encourage you to ask yourself why. Is it because you’re afraid that grace might cause people to become lazy or even passive? Grace won’t do that. The Apostle Paul commented on his own level of work when he said, “I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Paul was willing to put his works ethic in the Christian life up against anybody. What was it that he said gave him such a strong motivation for works? It was the grace of God at work in him. You don’t have to be afraid that grace will make people lazy. True grace never does that. To the contrary, it motivates us toward authentic righteous works as opposed to mandating artificial religious works that only masquerade as being righteous.

Grace is the only way to experience the life your Father wants you to know and enjoy. I need it. You need it. Everybody else needs it. Will you get onboard and join the grace revolution? You may not make fans in the religious world but I suspect that heaven will stand and applaud when you do.

One of the chapters in the "Lies" manuscript I'm working on right now

We've all been told at times that Christ wants to have first place in our lives. Although this is a statement that sounds true at first glance, closer examination will show it is actually a statement that can set you on a wrong course in your grace walk. Christ doesn’t want to be first place in your life. He wants you to recognize Him as all of your life.

If Jesus Christ wants the first place spot, what comes second? What about third place? What comes after that? The whole concept is absurd because it implies that our lives can be divided into compartments, with Jesus being one of those compartments.

To understand this point, think about your physical life for a moment. What would you think if I were to suggest that breathing should have first place in your life? What if somebody else said that having a heartbeat should be number one in your life? Maybe someone else could argue, “No, your circulatory system should come first, then breathing, then heart beating.”

It’s a ridiculous discussion because your body is a whole, unified entity. You can’t prioritize which is most important. Your physical health will give expression to every one of those actions in your body. They all work together as they express your normal state of health.

In the same way, our lives are indivisible when it comes to the effect of Christ’s presence within us. We can’t divide our lives into marriage, parenting, career, hobbies and so on. All of those areas make up our lifestyle as one unified life and Jesus is the source of our attitudes and actions in each of those areas.

Jesus Christ isn’t first place in your life. He is your life. He is the essence of who you are. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:4, “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” He described life in Philippians 1:21 by saying, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Note that Paul didn’t give Jesus a high place in his life. Paul realized that the very core of his existence was his union with Jesus Christ. He said it this way in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.”

So, there it is. Paul said that he didn’t have a life apart from Jesus Christ. That’s true for you too. While it may sound admirable to say that we want Him to be number one in our lives, it misses the point of our union with Him altogether.
Christ wants to be the life of your family, the life of your career, the life of your hobbies, the life of your finances, etc. Do you see the point? He is your everything!

We do ourselves a disservice when we think that Jesus is a part of our lives, even if it is the number one part. He is the substance of everything that you are. He is our very essence.

You know you’re on the right track in your thoughts when you find yourself seeing your marriage relationship in a way that it is Christ living His life through you, expressing His love and life to your mate. Parenting becomes an expression of His life when we know that it is He who is loving and guiding our children through us. You have a right understanding of priorities when you know it’s Him who animates your activity at work.

When we know the truth, we stop thinking of Jesus holding first place in our lives and we begin thinking of Jesus being the source that animates every place in our lives. His isn’t number one. He’s the whole list!

Jesus In The Visual Arts

I’ve never considered myself to be particularly “artsy.” Melanie drug me to the Museum of Art in Atlanta to see Monet’s work. I went with her to the Rykes Museum when I spoke in Amsterdam. I saw paintings done by the Masters. I understand that they are masterpieces. I sincerely tried to get it, but I just didn’t get it.

I stood staring as if I knew what I was looking at, hoping that the beauty would emerge like one of those three dimensional pictures that become clear if you look at it long enough. But nothing happened. “The depth of conflict overpowers you,” one observer noted as we stood together staring at a painting. “I can hardly bear it,” I answered. But I didn’t get it.

Elvis on velvet or “Dogs Playing Poker” – I recognize a little talent there. But Surrealist paintings by Jean Arp? Or Expressionism by Max Beckmann? French Fauvisme by Matisse? I’m sorry. Speak Swahili and it will make more sense to me.

However, one day I read a book that had a tremendous spiritual impact on me. It was a book about art – a particular piece of art. The book is The Return Of The Prodigal Son, by Henri Nouwen. The whole book is a description of the insight given to Nouwen by the Divine Lover as they sat together at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg while Nouwen visited Russia.

While he sat for hours looking at the masterpiece by Rembrandt, the Divine Lover started him on a long spiritual adventure. As he watched the changing light and shadow on the painting as the day progressed, the art became the voice of His heavenly Father showing Him that the painting was really about him.

The voice of the Divine Lover drew Nouwen’s attention first to the younger son. It was there that he learned about returning home and what it means to be a son. Then his attention was directed toward the elder brother who stood by with clasped hands and a closed heart. It was through his presence in the painting that Nouwen heard the Beloved Voice speak to him about the levels of rivalry and doubt in his own life. And, at last, he was drawn toward the father in Rembrandt’s painting. There he learned lessons about loving unconditionally and about how to receive those who have wandered far away from home.

Nouwen concluded his writing about what the Divine Lover said to him through Rembrandt:

"When four years ago, I went to Saint Petersburg to see Rembrandt’s "The Return of the Prodigal," I had little idea how much I would have to live what I then saw. I stand with awe at the place where Rembrandt brought me. He led me from the kneeling, disheveled young son to the standing, bent-
over old father, from the place of being blessed to the place of blessing. As I look at my own aging hands, I know that they have been given to me to stretch out toward all who suffer, to rest upon the shoulders of all who come, and to offer the blessing that emerges from the immensity of God’s love."

Throughout history, our loving Father has used artists to enable us to gaze into His own face more clearly. Michelangelo poured himself into his work for the glory of God. Other artists have created works for His glory alone.

In our own day, there are Christian artists whose work become showcases for the glory of God. Only eternity will reveal how the Divine Lover has reached out to tenderly touch lives through the paintings of these artistic oracles of His love. In their work is a subtle expression of the lovely face of Jesus.

Perhaps the beauty of art is a sneak preview of the beauty which awaits us in the honeymoon home our Divine Lover is preparing for us at this very moment. In our own day, we have Thomas Kinkaid, known as the Painter of Lights. He indeed does point us to The Light. I have stared into some of his paintings and wished that I could go there. I’ve felt like I’d like to step right into the picture, if possible.

C. S. Lewis describes this experience in The Weight of Glory. He wrote:

"We want something else which can hardly be put into words – to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it . . . . At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendors we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in."

Music, movies and art are three of the most common cultural icons that identify our contemporary culture. The Divine Lover longs to speak to you through these modern mediums in order to show His love to you. By understanding that He speaks through creativity, the Holy Spirit will be able to teach you how to hear His unassuming voice within the culture of your routine lifestyle. Practice the discipline of seeing the face of your Divine Lover in the midst of contemporary culture. He takes delight in surprising you with manifestations of His presence and love.

For My Grandchildren - Jeremy, Jonathan & Hannah

Jesus saw you playing in the snow and loved watching you have fun! :)

Want to watch a TV interview I recently did in Canada?

Steve McVey discusses the fact that God the Father didn't pour out anger on Jesus while He was on the cross. The Father was IN the Son, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them. The cross was curative, not punative! Watch the program to hear the full details.

Click here:

Steve McVey on Encounter with Peter Youngren

Does The Holy Spirit Convict Unbelievers of Their Sins? No

How are we to pray for a friend or family member who doesn’t know Christ? If you follow the example of most believers’ prayers, you’ll pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them of their sins so that they’ll become open to the gospel. No one would object to the motivation behind that kind of prayer, which is the salvation of loved ones. But are we really praying according to what the Bible says the Holy Spirit will do when we approach it that way?

The answer is no. It is pointless to hope or pray that the Holy Spirit will convict an unbeliever of the things they are doing wrong. He’s not going to do that for one simple reason: Their sins are not the problem. You see, the specific sins — the detailed misbehavior — of a person who isn’t trusting in Jesus Christ is just indicative of a deeper problem.

The Holy Spirit isn’t going to convict unbelievers of their specific sins because that wouldn’t meet the deepest need they have. Their biggest problem isn’t their misbehavior. He’s going to convict them of the one thing that ultimately matters — their unbelief in Christ. That’s the core issue.

John 16:8 tells exactly what the Holy Spirit will do in regard to the conviction of the world. Jesus said, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:8-9).

The word “convict” in this biblical context doesn’t mean that He finds them guilty, as we might normally think of when we use that word. The word in this context means “to convince” and that’s what God wants to do. God’s Spirit will convince an unbeliever of his unbelief and he will come to see the necessity of believing in Jesus Christ. In comparison to that, nothing else matters. Compared to unbelief, behavior is just incidental.

I’ll give you an example. When I was in high school, I worked in a nursing home. Part of my responsibility there was to take the bodies of men who had died and bathe and clean those corpses, to get them ready for the funeral director.
When I bathed them, shaved them, and dressed them, I would put their dead bodies in a geriatrics chair and tie them to the chair. There they would sit until the funeral home would come to pick them up and take them to the morgue. Without wanting to sound disrespectful, I can honestly say that, after I finished with them, most of those guys looked better than I’d seen them look in years. Everything looked right about them, but they had a big problem. They were dead.

That’s exactly the way it is with the life of an unbeliever. His sins, as serious as those things might be, are really symptoms. You might as well forget praying that the Holy Spirit will convict an unbeliever of his addiction to drugs, or her addiction to alcohol or promiscuity or anything like that. If a person doesn’t know Christ, he has one consuming need, and that is his unbelief.

Sometimes the most glaring characteristic of an unbeliever in our minds may be his misbehavior. We may see a person acting in a way that would be considered morally offensive to many and we cringe to see such behavior, but that isn’t the big thing to God. He knew how we would all behave when He gave Himself for our sins. His concern now is that we believe on Him and enter into the experience of knowing our sins are forgiven and living out of the fullness of His indwelling life.

So we may think, since a person’s bad behavior is the most urgent thing to us, that God’s Spirit sees them the same way and that His main concern is about how they are acting. That’s just not the case so we might as well not pray based on that faulty assumption. The idea that the Holy Spirit convicts an unbeliever of their sins is false. He will only convict an unbeliever of one thing, and that is his unbelief in Jesus Christ. He will show that person where he stands so that he can enter into the experience of knowing God through Jesus.

We all know people who haven’t trusted in Jesus Christ. When we pray for them, let’s not pray that they’ll be convicted about taking drugs or drunkenness or immorality or anything like that. Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them of their unbelief, because that is His ministry. When we pray for them in that way, we are appropriating a truth of the Bible that can make an eternal difference in somebody’s life.

(This article is taken from my working manuscript, 52 Lies Heard In Church Every Sunday. It will be released January, 2011)

Asking God For Forgiveness

It is no longer necessary for you to ask for forgiveness for your sins. In fact, it insults the finished work of Jesus on the cross when we do ask. It implies that the matter isn’t finished although Jesus clearly said that “it is finished.” Doesn’t the New Testament teach that we are to still ask for God’s forgiveness? This is where it becomes important to “rightly divide the word.”

When did the new covenant of grace begin in the Bible? Many would say it started at the beginning of Matthew, yet the covenant did not actually start until the death of Jesus. The covenant of grace was the last will and testament of Jesus Christ. The age of grace could not become operative until Jesus died. The writer of Hebrews said:

For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives (Hebrews 9:16-17).

Both Scripture and common knowledge demonstrate that a will does not become functional until the one who made it dies. Given that fact, which covenant was in operation during the whole lifetime of Jesus? Of course it was the covenant of law. Jesus lived under the Old Testament. (The words "testament and "covenant" mean the same thing.)

Remember that the purpose of law is to raise the awareness of sin among those who embrace it. (See Romans 5:20) Living under the covenant of law, the words of Jesus often reflected that covenant. Such is the case when he discussed the matter of forgiveness. In Matthew 6:12, when responding to his disciples’ inquiry about how to pray, concerning forgiveness he said, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” He elaborates on forgiveness under the law system in verses 14-15 by saying, “For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive you your transgressions.” This was the law in action — if you want God to do something for you, then you must first do something to cause Him to act in your behalf. Under law, if there is even one person whom you have not forgiven, then you can’t be fully forgiven yourself. If you aren’t fully forgiven, you have no hope of heaven.

When asked about forgiveness, Jesus answered according to the law. Yet in His personal relationships, he always acted in grace. An example of His approach is illustrated by the woman in John 8 who was caught in the act of adultery. When the scribes and Pharisees pointed out that the law of Moses commanded that adulterers be stoned, Jesus didn’t dispute the law. He simply suggested that their application of the law include themselves. After His challenge that the sinless one among them cast the first stone, the crowd dispersed until no one was left except the woman who had been caught.

Having acknowledged the validity of the law at that moment, he went on to demonstrate gracious forgiveness toward the woman by asking, “‘Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you? And she answered, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more.’” This incident is so typical of the Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry. He utilized the law to raise the awareness of sin and then demonstrated grace by His own behavior.

Under the covenant of law, one was not totally forgiven but must receive ongoing forgiveness in order to remain in a guilt free state. Yet at the cross, God poured out all His forgiveness toward those who are His. We don’t need to ask anymore! Paul described total forgiveness in Colossians 2:13-14.

And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.


Because of His finished work at the cross you have been acquitted for the sins of a lifetime! If you believe that your sins are still being forgiven one at a time as you ask for forgiveness, a troubling question must be answered. What happens if you die with just one sin in your life which you haven’t thought to ask Him to forgive? The truth of Scripture is that before we were ever born, God saw our lives and identified every sin that we would commit. The “certificate of debt” is a list of the sins of our lifetime. Jesus carried those sins to the cross with Him and God canceled the debt. Every sin of our lifetime has been forgiven — past, present, and future! The empty tomb put a smile on the face of God which has never gone away.

Are you still living as if you were under the Old Testament by constantly asking for God’s forgiveness? Those days are over and finished! Rejoice in the truth that you are totally forgiven. The old covenant is forever gone. The writer of Hebrews said:

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the lord, When I will effect a new covenant, With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God,
And they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ For all shall know me, From the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more (Hebrews 8:7-12).

The day described in this passage is the day in which we live! When grace rules, we will see God as One who has forgiven us for every sin of our lifetime! The cross of Jesus was God’s final word about our sins. So let's stop acting like it wasn't by continuing to ask Him to do something He's already done - forgive us.