Answering Questions about Grace...

I am often asked about our bold teaching on the grace of God at Valley Church. Having had the pleasure of many conversations with folks who have sincere questions or concerns about this “radical” grace message, I wanted to offer the following in an effort to briefly address a few of the most common questions I encounter. I hope your heart is encouraged by this…

Question #1
Aren’t you afraid that an over-emphasis on grace will lead to imbalance in your teaching and discipleship?

This is a common one, and I appreciate the heart behind it. The Scripture is abundantly clear that God is love, and we affirm that the supreme manifestation of God’s love is His grace. At Valley we emphasize that grace is not merely the entry point of the Christian faith – but the entire point. We believe that Jesus came as one “full of grace and truth.”

This does not imply that grace must be “balanced out” with truth – as some well-meaning folks may assume. The reason for this is that by definition, grace is radically imbalanced in our favor! Grace and truth don’t “balance each other out” – rather, they fuel one another harmoniously! Simply put, grace IS the truth, and the truth IS gracious! This is the foundation of the gospel itself – that God, based upon absolutely no merit of humanity but solely because of His divine love – has chosen to provide forgiveness and new life for us totally free of charge!

This reality is not merely a creed we affirm in order to go to heaven when we die. The gospel of grace is the basis for living our daily lives as believers! The bottom line is that grace – fully understood and embraced – has the power to produce a life-transforming quality of gratitude designed by God to manifest in transformed living.

Question #2
If you emphasize God’s grace so heavily, isn’t there a danger of doing so at the exclusion or expense of other doctrines or attributes of God?

The answer to this question is no. If a church or a pastor is truly teaching grace, then they will of necessity also be teaching sound doctrine and the attributes of God. Grace is the central theme of the Scripture – with Jesus Christ being the central character – and all of our doctrine and understanding of God and His saving work revolves around this.

For example, grace cannot be understood without also teaching the holiness of God and that fact that God requires holiness of His people. Because we could never attain to that standard of holiness in and of ourselves, we are made holy by grace. Neither can grace be taught apart from God’s justice – since Christ’s work on the cross not only sets sinners free from the condemnation of sin, but does so by completely satisfying God’s wrath against our sin. Likewise, grace is intimately intertwined with God’s sovereignty, since He alone initiates this grace-based relationship with humanity through the message of the gospel. This list of theological connection goes on and on...

Key doctrines such as the trinity, the sinfulness of mankind, the work of Jesus Christ, the formation and mission of the church, the salvation of humanity, the future bodily return of Jesus, etc. are all inextricably connected to grace. These are all co-equally important doctrines, but they all revolve around and resolve in grace.

Additionally, a robust grace-centered theology carries with it many practical benefits in the lives of believers. Grace enables a Christian to understand and live from the wellspring of their new identity in Christ. Only when a person understands and abides in the reality of who they are in Christ (totally by grace through faith) can they begin to bear the fruit of life-transformation by the Spirit’s power.

Discipleship isn’t a regiment of religious effort with some “grace thrown in” for whenever we blow it. Rather, grace is the foundational underpinning of every fruit that the Spirit produces through the believer in the discipleship process.

Question #3
What about the hard challenges Jesus made with regard to laying down our lives, taking up our crosses and following Him?

Rightly interpreting the mesmerizing words of Jesus is of critical importance for accurately applying them to life. Throughout Jesus’ teaching, we see a mixture of harsh demands with bold offers of grace. For example on the one hand we read things like “if your eye causes sin gouge it out,” “be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” and “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” On the other hand, Jesus makes statements like “neither do I condemn you,” “come to me all who are weary and heavy-burdened,”and “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

So what’s the deal? Is Jesus teaching different things depending upon what mood he happens to be in? Paying careful attention to context makes all the difference in the world. Jesus came as one born under law to minister to those under law (Gal. 4:4). He came to His own (Jews), but they largely did not receive Him (John 1:11). During this time under the Old Covenant, the best a rabbi could offer his disciples was to say “If you want to follow me, carefully observe the way that I live – and then copy me.”

We cannot forget that much of what Jesus taught was carried out under that old paradigm. In Christ’s harsh and demanding teachings, he was largely trying to get the Pharisaical minds of the day (including some of His own disciples who had been influenced by that mentality) to recognize their utter desperation under the demands of God’s holiness and His law. In the passages where Jesus is offering grace, He is intentionally pointing all those with ears to hear to the reality that grace was the alternative.

In other words, if you wanted to enter the kingdom, you could try one of two routes. You could try through self-righteousness and law-keeping (and fail). Or you could cast yourself wholly upon the riches of His grace (and succeed). While the “come and die” passages of Jesus were prevalent during His earthly ministry under the law – something radical happened at the cross in which all of that was changed forever.

Never in any of the New Testament epistles is there a plea made for a disciple to “come and die.” Instead, New Covenant discipleship revolves around “reckoning” ourselves already dead to sin and alive to God through Christ (Romans 6:1-14; Galatians 2:20,etc.). To “reckon” means to “count or consider it true by faith.”

At Valley we teach that believers in Christ are entirely new creations by grace (2 Corinthians 5:17). This means that we have already died with Christ and there is no dying left to be done! Specifically, Christ is now to live through us rather than us living for Him. That this is true is indisputable when we understand Jesus’ parable of the vine and the branches in John 15.

Just after the dinner feast on the night he was betrayed, Jesus took a towel and washed His disciples’ feet – informing them that He was about to depart from them to a place where they would eventually follow Him. After promising to send the Holy Spirit in His place, Jesus then pointed His disciples toward a vineyard in order to communicate the way in which the paradigm for discipleship was about to change under the New Covenant that He had just instituted at the original “Lord’s Supper” in the upper room.

By giving them this illustration, Jesus was affirming what I alluded to above – that the Christian life was not like the Jewish life. The goal would no longer be to strive under the arduous burdens of the law in order to please God or “live for Him.” Rather, His New Covenant disciples would now “abide” (rest securely, make their home in) Him and trust Jesus to produce “fruit” through them.

This illustration is indispensible for our understanding of and participation in New Covenant discipleship. Branches don’t produce fruit – they just get the privilege of “bearing” it…or “showing it off.” It’s the Vine that produces the fruit – as its nourishing sap flows into the outer extremities of the branches. As a believer in Christ, you have already died and been raised with Him. There is no dying left to be done…only living! It is unfortunate that many believers have misunderstood this transformative reality for so long!

Question #4
Don’t you fear that emphasizing God’s grace will lead people to abuse it as a license to live sinfully or selfishly?

Not for one moment do I fear this! Paul said that the power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). In other words, it is not grace-based living that encourages more sin, but law-based living! Is it possible that a person could take advantage of grace by abusing it as a license to sin? Of course it is possible! By definition, grace is always open to the possibility of abuse.

But let’s be honest. When is the last time you ever felt like you needed a license to commit sin? The fact is that we don’t need a license to sin! We do it quite well without even a learner’s permit! We were born into this world as professional sinners and we intrinsically know how to commit sin quite easily. In fact, we’ve had this ability since long before we ever had any concept of grace or law in the first place!

Here is what the vast scope of the New Testament actually teaches about the place of the law and its effects upon our lives:
- The law is not for the righteous, but the unrighteous (1 Tim. 1:8-10)
- The law shuts up our excuses and makes us more conscious of sin (Rom. 3:19-20)
- The law cannot justify a person (Gal. 2:16)
- The law cannot impart life (Gal. 3:21)
- The law will never be kept by anyone other than Jesus (Matt. 5:21-29; James 2:10)
- The law arouses sin and makes carnality more powerful (Rom. 6:14, 7:5, 8)
- The law curses and condemns humanity (Gal. 3:10;2 Cor. 3:7-9)
- The law is totally fulfilled in Jesus (Gal.4:4-5; Matt. 5:17-18; Rom. 8:3-4)
- The law and faith cannot be mixed (Rom. 10:4;Ga. 3:25-25; Gal. 5:18)
- The law is something that believers are dead to (Rom. 7:4-6)
- The law is not something believers are to look to (Gal. 3:1-13; 5:2-4)

In reality…it is GRACE (not law) that teaches us to live godly lives! (Titus 2:11-14, 2 Cor. 12:9).

So back to our original question: Do I fear that grace-based teaching and practice will be the cause of more carnality or sin among believers? Absolutely not. But I know Scripturally and experientially that law-based living will and it is happening right before our eyes in the American church.

For decades, we’ve been hearing preachers shout about how to be more “radical for Jesus” as we are pulverized by works-based theologies of discipleship. For years we have seen the saints beaten over the head with Old Covenant regulations such as “tithing” 10 percent of their income – and the result is that the average evangelical believer gives just 2-3% of their income to the work of the Lord.

Simply put, law-based teaching produces more sin, more selfishness and more carnality than any power in all the world! But when people are living by grace – immersed in an attitude of gratitude for the life they have been given freely in Christ – they bear more fruit, are more generous with their resources and are so focused on the beauty of Jesus that they are not even thinking about their next carnal endeavor!

You want radical? Grace is radical! And grace is the antidote to sin – not high-pressure rules and regulations. If you’re struggling with the typical try harder, fail, confess-your-sins-and-try-again cycle that has become all too common for many disciples, I invite you to plunge into the deep end of the pool of God’s unfathomable grace with us at Valley. We gather Sundays at 8:30am, 10:00am and 11:30am – and we also offer dozens of additional growth opportunities each week for the whole family…

You can also check out our messages online at www.valleychurch.com and discover much more about God's grace in my new book THE GOSPEL UNCUT: LEARNING TO REST IN THE GRACE OF GOD (available at Amazon.com, Christianbook.com, Barnesandnoble.com and other great retailers...)

Jesus My Advocate...

As a youngster, Jesus my "advocate" was basically explained as follows:

I was in a courtroom and God my Judge was angry with me over my sin. He was ready to condemn me in his righteous anger, but Jesus my "lawyer" stood up to defend me. "No God, please don't strike him down! Remember...I died for his sins!"

I now know that this is a complete misunderstanding of Jesus as my Advocate. Satan is my accuser, not God! Jesus doesn't sit at God's right hand reminding the Father that I'm forgiven. He sits at the Father's side in harmony with Him and the Spirit, speaking together with ONE voice to the reality that The Godhead (Father, Son and Spirit) remember my sin no more!

That Jesus is my Advocate means He stands as a testament to my righteousness against Satan's accusations and lies. He is my Advocate WITH the Father, not AGAINST the Father as though God were doing the accusing! The entire Trinity is FOR me! And God is FOR you too!

Rejoice in that today!!!

THE BOOK IS FINALLY HERE!

IT'S FINALLY HERE! You can pre-order "The Gospel Uncut" directly from Westbow Press at the following link. E-books that are readable in Kindle and other e-readers will be available soon from Westbow, Amazon and Barnes and Noble dot com! I hope you enjoy it. For those of you who are local to Vacaville, I will have some available that you can get directly from me as well if you'd like!

http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000482559/The-Gospel-Uncut.aspx

Endorsements for the Gospel Uncut!!!

I am SO grateful for the following endorsements of my soon-to-be-released book THE GOSPEL UNCUT... Thank you Drew and Ralph...


"What if everything you've ever dreamed of in your relationship with God is already yours to enjoy? What if you just don't realize how good you've got it? That's the radical message in The Gospel Uncut by Jeremy White, a pastor who is not afraid to proclaim the gospel of grace, plainly and without compromise. Read this book to see you are clean and close to your God. Read this book to relax and enjoy your Jesus. He loves you so!"

Andrew Farley
Bestselling author of "The Naked Gospel" and host of "Andrew Farley LIVE" on Sirius XM


Everyone looks for that just-right book, the one that will quickly illuminate and invigorate, and which will resolve odd questions that have plagued for years. This is that book. I’m not kidding. “The Gospel Uncut” is truly a treasure that is both breathtaking and timely! Jeremy White skillfully leads the reader out of tangled wonderings about God, and into the clear and easy rest and love that Jesus offers to all. If you’re looking for treasure, get this book!

Ralph Harris
Author of "God's Astounding Opinion of You" and President of LifeCourse Ministries.


And thanks to everyone for your patience as the book is in its final stages of production... :)

Grace and Peace,
Jeremy

Is Your God Too BIG???

I know, I know. That title sounds halfway blasphemous and wholly ridiculous. In fact if you are a believer in Christ you have probably heard the exact opposite question posed: “Is your God too small?” This inquiry seems to surface quite often in sermons, books and conversations (the implication being that your faith in God is probably much weaker than is deserved by an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Being).

Of course in a literal sense it makes no sense to wonder whether God is too big. If God is indeed the all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-present Deity described in the pages of Holy Writ – then He is far “bigger” than our wildest imaginations can conceive of. But therein lies the dilemma.

Often our acceptance of the fact that God is all of those “big” things brings with it an unconscious assumption that He is “too big” to really bother with the average things we struggle with. God, we assume, undoubtedly cares about things like keeping the planets in alignment and solving the world’s biggest problems – but He’s probably not nearly as interested in the comparatively mundane challenges we face. That disappointment you were hit with yesterday, those frustrations happening in that relationship, or the unfulfilled dreams you are tempted to abandon are burdens you carry alone, assuming they aren't significant enough to bring God into the midst of.

The arrival of Jesus in the manger…and 33 years later on the cross, affirms beyond words that God indeed cares about our perceptions of Him. The very idea of God becoming man reveals to us something HUGE about the heart of God – that He is willing to make Himself “little” enough for us to intimately connect with.

Throughout the life and ministry of Jesus, we see God passionately involved in the "mundane" affairs of everyday life – from solving the problem of poor planning at a wedding feast to speaking out on behalf of a sinful woman accused of adultery to inviting little children to approach Him freely (an act uncommon for a distinguished rabbi of His day). At every juncture, Jesus reveals to us the reality that God is not only casually interested in the “little things” of our lives – but intensely interested.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:26-30:

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"

In this passage Jesus is encouraging His followers to trust in God’s provision – but He is also pointing out the fact that the Creator cares about the little things, and deeply so!

What kinds of problems are you facing today? Are they financial? Relational? Emotional? Spiritual? Do you sometimes unconsciously feel as though inviting Jesus into the center of these things must be some kind of nuisance to Him – as though He’s got bigger fish to fry?

Whatever the burdens you carry, Jesus invites you to find in Him the rest your soul is longing for. Ask Him to help you begin to more consciously practice His presence. Be aware that He is not only there WITH you, but also there FOR you – to bring every care and concern of your heart. You are never a nuisance to this God who loves you so much He would rather die than live without you. Rejoice in that reality and REST in Him today.

Off of the Auction Block

How do we objectively determine the value of something? Only by whatever the highest bidder is willing to pay for it. For example, if I want to sell an item on Ebay for $100, but the most I can get someone to offer is $30 - then what does this tell me about the value of my item? It tells me its worth $30. No matter how sincerely I might believe it to be worth $100, the actual value is equivalent the highest bid. In other words, whatever the market will bear.

Let's apply this concept to who we are as human beings. The Bible says that God "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). This act of "giving" by God is elsewhere described in the Bible of an act of "redemption." The Biblical verb "to redeem" basically means "to purchase out of the slave market of sin." The picture God is painting is that at one time, each of us were on an "auction block" of sorts - pimped out by our former slave-driver, Satan and his cohorts - the world-system and the flesh.

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). When Christ gave His life to redeem us from that slave-market, He was making some very bold statements - one of which was regarding our VALUE to God. I've heard preachers say that telling someone they are valuable to God is just a bunch of "pop-psychology". They say that people need to feel and know how wretched and disgusting they are in order to relate properly to God.

Make no mistake that the Bible is very straightforward about the fact that before we place our trust in Christ, we are identified as "sinners". This means that "sin" was the core of our identity and because of this sinful nature, our behavior often flowed out of that sinfulness. While that's not a pretty picture, its an honest one. But its against this very dark backdrop that we begin to really understand the love of God for what it is!

God does not love us in some theoretical or theological sense in which He merely tolerates our disgustingness. Rather, while we were STILL sinners - right in the mix of all our grime and guilt - God loved us completely. In fact, He loved us to the point that He would rather come and die than live without us for eternity! Now THAT'S love!

What is more, the very moment we place our trust in Christ He irreversibly washes away that "sin nature" and all the guilty deeds produced by it - re-creating us so that we become as righteous as Jesus Himself is! "God made Him who had not sin to BE sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (1 Cor. 5:21).

So let me get this straight: God loved me while I was still a sinner. He loved me so much that He shed His own blood for me on a cross. He crucified my old, sinful nature with Himself and created within me a brand new righteous nature at the core of who I am. He not only has forgiven my sin, but made me alive together with Christ.

If you don't think these realities say something about my value to God, I'm not sure we're reading the same Bible! The grace of God is NOT pop-psychology or empty self-esteem. It is the reality that God - out of sheer, undeserved kindness toward me - paid the highest price imaginable to redeem me as His own. Does this affect my self-esteem? Of course! But it's not a self-help program. It's a mission of redemption where the highest Bidder paid the highest price to purchase me from the auction block of sin. And it reminds me of something that religion could never teach me: Jesus didn't come to make naughty people nicer - He came to make dead people ALIVE!

Jesus is the highest Bidder! He won the war for my heart. And I have this life and all eternity to love Him for it! How about you? Where do you get your sense of value? From the fleeting opinions of men or the rock-solid redemptive price Jesus paid for you?

Rest in that today and every day!

DO versus DONE

My friend Ralph Harris recently wrote...

“It is finished” didn’t mean ‘until you sin some more, and then you’ve got to re-start the heavy burden, accountability and repentant lifestyle all over again to make sure everything is cool between you and me.’ Right? It meant that after THIS, you’re going to live out of what I’ve done and given to you, because there’s nothing MORE. Okay? You’ve got it all, and it’s all really good!

I couldn't have said it any better myself (which is probably why I quoted Ralph...duh!). The longer I am a Christian - and the longer I serve as a pastor - the more obvious it becomes to me that there are essentially two competing gospels in the world. They are the gospel of "DO" and the gospel of "DONE".

The gospel of "DO" says..."Suck it up, earn your way, prove yourself, atone for your sins, you should be ashamed of yourself, can't you do anything right?, hope that God will accept you, keep striving, behave properly, try harder, keep the rules, don't rock the boat, don't ask questions, promise to do better".....well, you get the point!

The gospel of "DONE" says "It is finished - there is no barrier between yourself and a joyous, love relationship with Me. It's all a gift. The only thing you 'do' to receive it is believe it."

You ask, "Believe what?"

Jesus responds...

"Believe that when I died on the cross I intercepted the death penalty that your sin brought upon you. (Romans 5:8)

"Not only has the debt been paid, but canceled altogether. I'm not mad at you." (Romans 5:9)

"When you choose sin, I hurt for you, because I love you and have so much more to offer you than empty promises. But mad? Nope! Justice has already been served." (Romans 8:4)

"You no longer have to live with that shame hanging around your neck." (Isaiah 54:4)

"We are forever okay, you and me." (Romans 5:1)

"And that resurrection you've heard about? I did that for you too." (Romans 5:10; 6:4)

"Your need didn't stop at forgiveness. You needed LIFE as well. When you trust in me, you are agreeing that your old, sinful nature died with me and that you have now been raised to new life with a new spiritual nature!" (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 2:20)

"You are 'in me' and I am 'in you.'" (Ephesians 1:13)

"This is permanent. This never changes. Not based on how you feel. Not based on how you perform. Never. The pressure's off. You are a brand new person inside, based upon my objective work - not your subjective feelings." (Ephesians 1:14)

"Deep down, you want exactly the things I want." (Galatians 5:17)

"Sure, you face temptations, and sometimes you take the bait." (James 3:2)

"This is why you feel so terrible when you choose sin...precisely because you are new at the core. If you weren't new, you wouldn't care as much about sin, except for how the consequences might negatively affect you. You don't always perform perfectly, but you are obedient from the heart. You struggle in your thought-life, but the attitude of your heart is now righteous, and I know the difference!" (Romans 6:17; Hebrews 4:12)

"Abide in me. That means 'rest'. And you will bear much fruit. I produce it. You bear it. Deal?" (John 15:5)

This, my friends is the gospel of DONE... Grace and peace to you!

P.S. ...and one thing Jesus might add... "This new life is best experienced in the context of transparent, Christian community. Some people call this 'church'. Even if you've been wounded by 'organized religion' or don't believe that safe communities like this exist...they do! I can lead you into one. Seek and you will find. I love you."