Galatians 1:1-12 Early in 2025, I began a new series of Sunday School lessons on the book of Galatians. The following is a sermon I preached to introduce the series. Background The first four books of the NT are known as the Gospels. These tell the story of the coming of the New Covenant as … Continue reading Freedom of Grace, Part 1
Adam, created perfectly and placed in a perfect environment, discovered that, when dependent upon his own free will, could not make a decision for righteousness. How then can fallen man living in a corrupt world be expected to do what Adam could not?
Many people will argue that God gave man the gift of free will in the Garden of Eden. A close study of the story of the temptation of Adam and Eve may indicate a more sinister source.
Because God is the main character and the focus of the story of Bible, every Scripture should be interpreted in light of God’s grace and glory. When that focus changes, the interpretation of Scripture will suffer, leading to a weakened or corrupt interpretation and an incomplete and/or ineffective understanding of what God intended for us to know.
God never changes. He does not love you more today and less tomorrow. He does not love you more when you are good and less when you are bad or disobedient.
He does not love you more when you succeed and less when you fail. His love for you does not change with time or circumstances.
Remember the old chorus "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus"? Maybe it's time we revised some of the words.
In the discussion of repentance, there is an undue emphasis on sin as its focus, and little or no emphasis on the true focus of repentance, namely, Jesus Christ.
Repentance is about much more than confession of sin. In fact, the focus of repentance is not our sin, but worship.
When we think of the word repent, typically our next thought is of sin. We say or hear things like “Repent of your sin” or “If you want to go to heaven, you must repent of your sin” or “Salvation requires men to repent of their sins.” There are at least two problems with such an understanding of repentance.
The concept of repentance is so common in our language and so integral a part of our concept of salvation that the meaning of the word has become blurred and even skewed from its original meaning.
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