Thursday 13 December 2012

What is it all about ?

Radical grace preachers will say, "Of course, the gospel is all about grace. It is all about Jesus. It is all about the goodnews. It is all about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus .. "
I will tell them, I do not deny it. But Jesus did not tell us to preach it in this way. It is because if the gospel is all about "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus only", He would not remind us to keep His words or do His words. He would command His disciples to preach 'me, me, me.."; but why did He tell them to do the will of His Father, do His words, do His commandments, do good to thy neighbour, do His works, do hunger and thirst after His righteousness..?
  • Mat 5:6 KJV  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
  • Mat 7:21-24 KJV  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  (22)  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  (23)  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.  (24)  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
  • Luk 6:46-48 KJV  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?  (47)  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:  (48)  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood (false doctrine) arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. (Hence, Jesus said clearly that He would not just want us to have right believing, right faith, right miracles, right preaching, or right confession only; he wants us to have right doing with His words too, because right doing would prove that we are His true disciples on the rock of salvation.)
The kingdom of God is about doing the word of God
In fact, Jesus did not preach that the gospel is about 'me, me, me only'; He preached that the gospel is about 'do His words, do His words, do His words always'. Radical grace preachers will argue, "If we preach all these doing, isn't we preaching self-effort?" I will tell them, Yes, there is self-effort. I have mentioned that 'self-effort' is not a totally banned effort in the New Testament. You won't find the Bible saying that all self-effort is evil. Of course, we don't work our own salvation but we need effort to repent and do His words. If we do His words, we love Him and honour Him; otherwise, we betray Him and do not love Him. That's why the Lord has told us many parables to do His words and commandments, ie. to
  1. do diligence (in dividing the word of God - like the wise virgins), 
  2. do investment (in God's values in the heart of the people - like the wise stewards), and 
  3. do good (in the kingdom of God and in the churches - like the sheep) - Please read Matt 25 again. 
A good disciple is the one who will do the word of His master
We may deceive others by keep saying that we preach 'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus only' or we always call 'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus only'. But the Lord knows that we do not truly love Him. We love ourselves and use His name to impress others. We tell others not to do His words and commandments, so that they will, in the end, do our own words.
  • Joh 14:15 KJV  If ye love me, keep my commandments.
  • Joh 15:10-14 KJV  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. ..  (14)  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
I can understand the heart of a master only after I saw some kung Fu movies. There was an old master who taught every skill to his disciple only to discover that his disciple was only interested to use his name to get more membership and riches without really practising the skills. Yes, in this case, the disciple may argue that he has high regard for his master's name or his master's kung Fu; but he would never have the real interest to practise the skills. He has deceived his master by doing nothing about the skills of his master. Similarly, the disciples of Jesus Christ could have tried to deceive the Lord too if they would just want to prosper without doing the His words.

Of course, I don't practise Kung Fu and I am not a Kung Fu fan. I am just using it as an illustration. Please don't radically conclude that I am having a Kung Fu's spirit just because I used its illustration. Of course, the gospel is not about doing the Kung Fu; it is about doing God's word.

They will argue, "When John The Baptist called the people of Israel to repent and be baptized, he did not want them to do it because they needed to be holy or to turn from their sins. He called them to repent, or to "defect" because the saviour would come. Hence, repentance is just an indication to turn to God without any relation to sins ..."
I will tell them,

Ding dong between preaching grace or preaching repentance?
Radical grace preachers do not preach repentance. Although they insist that they have always preached repentance, they have no conviction to preach it. We know that they could never preach repentance; they could only 'ding dong' between grace and mind changing philosophies. If we know their doctrine, we will know that they love radical grace, not radical repentance. They strongly believe that the goodness of God will lead them to repentance without any preaching of repentance. Hence, it is clear to us that they would not preach repentance. However, many of their followers are confused about preaching of repentance and doing of repentance. They were deceived to think that repentance is just mind changing without turning away from sins. 
    
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