Destined to Reign (30 page)

On the contrary, Paul affirmed the Corinthians and told them, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
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He spoke positively to them, assuring them that they “come short in no gift” and that they would be confirmed to the end, and “be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ”
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. Isn’t that amazing?

Wrong Doctrine Is Worse Than Wrong Behavior

Now, notice the stark contrast between Paul’s treatment of the Corinthian church and the Galatian church. To the church in Galatia, he said, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you…?”
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Further on, he says again, “Are you so foolish?...”
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Paul was angry! He was upset with what was happening in Galatia and he made it clear that he was not happy at all with the Galatians. Most people would expect Paul to be more upset with the believers in Corinth, but he was not. His intense reaction toward the church in Galatia reveals
what is of priority to God
. It is clear that in God’s eyes,
believing the wrong doctrine is worse than exhibiting wrong behavior
!

In case you didn’t get it the first time, let me say it again: To God,
wrong doctrine is far worse than wrong behavior
! When it came to wrong behavior in Corinth, Paul was cool and collected toward the believers. He was able to handle their wrong behavior because he knew that the grace of God was able to take care of their spree of wrong behavior. That is why he was able to speak positively to them, even telling them, “I thank my God always concerning you for the
grace of God
which was given to you by Christ Jesus…”
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But when it came to wrong doctrine in Galatia, he rebuked the believers there because they nullified God’s grace by mixing it with the law.

In the very first chapter of Galatians, Paul says, “I marvel...”or as you and I would say today, “I am appalled…” What appalled him? Paul continues: “I marvel that you are
turning away
so soon from Him who called you in the
grace of Christ
, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”
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Paul was angry because the Galatians were turning away from the “
grace of Christ
” to “a different gospel”, and because there were some people who wanted to “pervert the gospel of Christ”. Paul had preached the gospel of grace to the Galatians, but he found that there were Judaizers who introduced elements of the law to them, mixing God’s grace with the law. Do not belittle this problem. It was a serious problem and it made Paul very angry. Since Paul was full of the Holy Spirit and his anger was Spirit-inspired, it would benefit us to really understand why the mixture of law and grace angered him.

Grace Is The Solution To Wrong Behavior

Imagine that you have a pile of dirty laundry in your living room and every day, the pile grows bigger. The stench from the pile gets stronger and more unbearable as each day passes. Is this a big problem? Well, it depends. As long as your washing machine is working, it will not be a problem for long. No matter how much dirty laundry you have, as long as your washing machine is working, there is still hope. The dirty laundry only becomes a problem if you destroy or get rid of the washing machine. Without a washing machine, the dirty laundry that is piling up certainly becomes a big problem. What are you going to do with all that dirty laundry if you don’t have a fully functioning washing machine?

You see, the dirty laundry is “wrong behavior” and the washing machine is “grace”. Now, don’t get me wrong, we certainly don’t want our homes to stink. But if you have wrong behavior, as long as there is grace in the church, grace will teach and give you the power to overcome your wrong behavior. But if there is no grace in the church, or if grace is mixed with the law and nullified, then what hope is there for overcoming your wrong behavior?

Allowing Mixture Perverts The Gospel Of Christ

That is why Paul had to be firm with the Galatians. By allowing grace to be mixed with the law, the Galatians had perverted the gospel of Christ. Paul had preached the gospel of grace to them, but after he left, some Judaizers came and told them lies like, “Yes, it is good that you are saved by grace, but it is not enough for you to just have Jesus. You must also know and abide by the law of Moses to be pleasing to God.” In essence, they were saying, “Grace is good, but grace must be balanced with the law.” So they taught the Galatians things like the Ten Commandments and told them that they had to be circumcised. Paul’s response was to pronounce a double curse on those who preached the false gospel to the Galatians! His tough stance toward those who preached mixture represents the heart of God today.

You Cannot Balance Grace With Law

“Pastor Prince, you believe in grace while I believe that you must keep the law to be justified. Does it really matter if I believe differently from you?”

Well, it mattered enough to Paul for him to pronounce the double curse. Many believers do not think that it is a serious matter to have mixture. But our response to the mixture of law and grace should be in alignment with Paul’s — He was appalled that the Galatians were mixing law and grace.

In most places today, the problem is not pure law. You will not find pure law in Christian churches. What you will find in many places today is a mixture of law and grace. You will hear teachings that combine the old and new covenants. You will hear things like, “Yes, you are saved by grace, but now that you are saved, you had better not take it for granted. You have to start living a holy life by keeping the Ten Commandments.” This is called mixture — you have a little bit of grace and a little bit of law. Many believers think that this — balancing law and grace — is all right. However, the Lord has shown me that
what man calls balance, God calls mixture
.

My friend, you cannot balance law and grace. Your justification is either entirely a work of His grace or it is by your own works. His grace will be nullified when you add even a little mixture of man’s own efforts to be justified. This is serious. God hates mixture.

While most people have no problem with agreeing that they have been saved by grace, they are nevertheless still subjecting themselves to the law. They are depending on the “works of the law” or their obedience to the law to earn, merit and deserve God’s blessings. When they do well in their own estimation, they expect to be blessed. But when they fall short and fail, they heap on themselves guilt and condemnation, and expect to be punished.

Grace is the undeserved, unmerited and unearned favor of God — the moment you try to merit the free favors of God, His grace is nullified.

In the new covenant, God doesn’t want us to be blessed when we obey the law and cursed when we fail. Doesn’t such a system sound awfully similar to the old covenant? Grace is the undeserved, unmerited and unearned favor of God — the moment you try to merit the free favors of God, His grace is nullified.

In the new covenant, God wants us to be blessed on account of His Son and what He did on the cross. It has nothing to do with our performance or ability to keep the law. Those trying to be justified by their law-keeping still have an old covenant mentality, even if they profess that they are in the new covenant. They have reverted to the old system that was based on works and obedience, rather than trusting in the new system that is based on faith and believing. When there is mixture between the old and new covenants, between the covenant of law and the covenant of grace, you lose both and the benefits of the two covenants are nullified! How do we know this? What is the scriptural basis for this? Let’s look at what Jesus said:

Mark 2:22

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“And no one puts
new
wine into
old
wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the
wine is spilled
, and the
wineskins are ruined
. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

What was Jesus referring to when He shared on the new wine and old wineskins? He was referring to the mixture of the two covenants. The new wine represents the new covenant of grace, while the old wineskin represents the old covenant of law. Have you seen old wineskins before? They are brittle, hard and inflexible. That’s the law. It is inflexible. And when you pour the new wine of grace into the old wineskin of the law, you will lose both because the wineskin will be ruined and the wine will be spilled. The virtues of both the old and the new covenants will be cancelled out and lost.

I can’t understand why many believers are still trying to balance law and grace. If you are for the law, be for the law completely. If you are for grace, then be for grace completely. It is impossible to balance the two of them! That is why Jesus also said:

Revelation 3:15–16, KJV

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I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:
I would thou wert cold or hot
.
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So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth.

For years, I have heard preachers preaching that in Revelation 3:15–16, Jesus was referring to people who are not “red-hot for Jesus”. Have you heard that expression before? And what does being “red-hot for Jesus” mean? Traditionally, we have been taught that it means that you are reading 10 chapters of the Bible a day, witnessing to your colleagues and attending every prayer meeting you can find! To be cold means just the opposite — you stop doing these things entirely.

The verse has always been preached as though it were about our actions and behavior. But Jesus said that He would rather we be cold or hot, and not lukewarm. This wouldn’t make sense if He was referring to actions and behavior, because wouldn’t being lukewarm for Jesus still be better than being completely cold? So why would He want the church of Laodicea to be cold (if they weren’t hot)? Come on! I always tell my church this: When you come on Sunday, don’t forget to bring your brains along! Don’t just take in everything you hear. You have to test the message and make sure that it is consistent with the gospel of Jesus. The gospel simply means “good news”. So if what you are hearing is not good news, but instead deposits fear, doubt, judgment and condemnation in your heart, throw it out, my friend, because it’s not the gospel of Jesus.

Be Hot Or Cold, Not Lukewarm

Now, would you like to know what Revelation 3:15–16 really means? The two verses would only make sense when they are interpreted in the light of the mixture of the covenants of law and grace in the church of Laodicea. The Lord was saying that He would the church be cold — entirely under law, or hot — entirely under grace. You see, if you were at least completely under law, it would lead you to despair and into the saving arms of Jesus. The law would unveil to you your sinfulness and inability to keep the full measure of it, and this would cause you to see your need for His grace.

But when you have mixture, where you believe in grace, but still hold on to the law, you neutralize the convicting power of the law to bring you to the end of yourself so that you will cry out for the grace of the Savior. That is why you cannot be cold and hot at the same time, or be for both law and grace at the same time. The moment you attempt to balance grace with the law, you neutralize both and each covenant is robbed of its full effect in your life. You become lukewarm because of the mixture, and God hates mixture because it robs you of the power to reign in life through the abundance of His grace! You cannot put new wine into old wineskins. You will lose both!

Trying to balance grace with the law robs you of the power to reign in life through the abundance of His grace.

This is exactly what Paul was saying to the Galatians when he explained to them the purpose of the law:

Galatians 3:24–25

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Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
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But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

The law was our “tutor”, or according to the King James Version, our “schoolmaster”, to bring us to the end of our own efforts and to Christ. The law is an impossible standard for man to keep. The Pharisees brought the law down to a level where they could keep it. They really thought that their works, their reading the Scriptures and their loud prayers could justify them. But when Jesus stepped onto the scene, His harshest words — He called them a “brood of vipers”
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— were reserved for these very legalists. He brought the law back to its pristine standard. According to Jesus, once you fantasize about a woman, you are guilty of adultery. Once you are angry with a brother without cause, you are guilty of murder.

“Pastor Prince this is an impossible standard. We will all fail!”

Exactly! Finally, you are getting it. Jesus was showing us the true standard of God’s law and holiness. It is impossible for man to keep His law! If you are
not
for grace, then make sure that you are entirely “cold” — completely under law. Don’t mix law and grace. When you put yourself completely under law, you will find that the law will be your tutor to bring you to the end of yourself. When you finally acknowledge that you cannot save yourself, you will turn to the Savior and His grace will fill your heart. You see, when you think that
you can
, His hands are tied and He cannot. But when you know that
you cannot
, that’s when HE CAN! Get it?

Can You Save Yourself ?

Before a lifeguard attempts to rescue someone who is drowning, he will wait for the person to give up on his efforts to save himself. If the person is still struggling, with his hands flailing and legs kicking everywhere, a well-trained lifeguard will not come close to him just yet because he knows that he will be pulled down and both will drown. So even though the lifeguard wants to save the drowning person, he cannot until the person has exhausted his strength and gives up trying to save himself. Then, the lifeguard immediately grabs hold of him and brings him to safety.