Behold, all you who kindle a fire,

Who encircle yourselves with firebrands,

Walk in the light of your fire

And among the brands you have set ablaze.

This you will have from My hand:

You will lie down in torment. Isaiah 50:11

We are all born Pharisees … because we are born with a SIN nature … a “Self Indulgent Nature“.  We naturally think we know what is best for us and we naturally do the things that will give us the best or cause us the least pain as we try to “cope” with life by our own reasoning.  We have inherited the knowledge of good and evil from Adam which gives us the ability to distinguish good from evil but we lack the wisdom from God to actually know what is the “best” and do not have the Spirit of God to do what is best.  Most people think that sin is only dealing with their immoral behavior but really sin has infected our very soul making all our thoughts, desires and actions self serving by default; leading us to rationalize that our motives and actions are good enough to please God as long as we don’t leave any dead bodies in our wake. 

In order to know what is “best” in this world you must be “born again” by the Holy Spirit of God which brings the Truth into your life.  The Truth is the person of Jesus Christ!   You must establish a relationship with Jesus Christ to order to know Him and receive the truth about what is “best” for your life and the life of others and all of creation.  But to know Jesus, you must also know yourself and know that without Him you are a slave held captive to your “stinking thinking” of sin.  Repentance from sin (a change of mind about who you are and no longer want to be – a person lost in sin and death) and faith in Jesus Christ (a change of mind about who you want Jesus to be to you – your Lord and Savior freeing you from sin to eternal life) are the same Spirit of Grace that are present and necessary to bring a born again Salvation in Jesus Christ.  As my friend says “The Truth will set you free but it will piss you off first”.

Sin can fool us to think we are pleasing God if we are trying to please others but God didn’t say to try and please Him or others but to “love” Him and love others.  Someone we think we are doing great works that please God if we are trying to save the planet or save the whales or save people from some social injustice.  Our Self Indulgent Nature, SIN, can even deceive us to believe that if we strive hard enough and do enough good works in the name of God that we can overcome all that is wrong in the world and establish peace on earth among men.  This kind of self deception is called “Legalism”, justifying your actions in the name of God by a righteousness that is based on your own reasoning.  Like Cain, the self righteous bring their works to God and expect Him to be impressed with what they have done and approve of their effort. 

The Legalist mocks and hates those who bring to God a “simple testimony of praise for God’s mercy and grace” because they consider this a “lesser offering” or even a “pointless offering” compared to their great works.  The Legalist does this because they think it’s a competition of works by which we prove our love for God and we prove that God loves us.  The Legalist does not realize that it’s the acknowledgement of God’s goodness that opens up the well spring and storehouse of God’s Blessings and Grace upon us.  Note, I am not talking about vain words of praise from a person that is not living the life of Jesus Christ but I am talking about the testimony of a person who is trusting and obeying God and has tasted the goodness of His pleasure … this is the offering that is pleasing to God!

Cain was a Legalist and he held his brother Able in contempt because in his eyes his brother Able did less work and Able offered an inferior sacrifice to God compared to his sacrifice … yet God approved of Able’s blood sacrifice and rejected Cain’s grain sacrifice.  Able’s offered the blood of an animal which was like offering his own blood, his life, his self indulgent nature (sin) upon the altar of God’s forgiveness, to be burned up and purified by God’s consuming fire of love.  But Cain did not want his sin forgiven by God and even after God reasoned with Cain about his rebellious attitude and gave him a chance to repent, Cain did not listen to correction  from His creator.  He did not want to humble himself and admit that it is better to obey God than to offer sacrifices. 

And this is the issue with a Legalist, they think their abundance of their works proves that they love God and it also proves that God loves them because they have become prosperous by their works.  They twist the concept of what it means to love God into a competition of who can do the most works for God based on the measure of their own making.  They are driven to impress others of their love for God by their works and to judge others by their works instead of being “content” to enjoy the love and Grace of God and fellowship in joy with other believers.  They war against God’s Grace because it insults their competitive sin nature to wait on God, allow God to work and admit that God can orchestrate things better than they can.  They want to be seen as the king of the hill shouting the loudest not the servant at the foot of the Cross.  In essence, they are willing to offer the works of their hand so they can be praised by God but not the praise from their lips for what God has done for them.

On the other hand, those in the camp of Grace see Gods consuming fire as a place where God consumes their Self Indulgent Nature (SIN) … a place to die to self, be free from the love of self in order to gain the love of Christ.  It is a place to have their self righteous works burned up in order make room for the righteousness of Christ so they can boast in His work, especially the victory on the Cross!  Those who are abiding in God’s Grace see God’s consuming fire as a place of justice, comfort, protection, order and strength where hate, fear, sin, pride, misunderstanding and death are destroyed forever.  To those trusting in the Grace of God, His consuming fire is a place of warmth and rest to their soul because they know that God is burning up vain works of man, like dross of sin and exposing the works of faith done by Grace to the glory of God.  God’s fire gives off the light of purpose and meaning for life to the seeker of God’s Grace and it burns brightly with the promise of eternal life for those who have eyes to see!

But those in the Law stay their distance from God’s fire, because they are in fear of having their self righteousness works burned up and thus losing the justification for their life.  They are consumed by a fire of pride and arrogance toward others as they walking by a light of their own reasoning claiming to serve God.  And like Saul they even justify the murder of those who they label as enemies of the Law as though they are helping God by ruling in His place to rid the world of those who don’t proclaim the Law as their means for Salvation.    

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks  – Acts 9:5

Jesus told Saul that by persecuting the body of Christ, Saul was persecuting Jesus Christ.  Saul was acting like an ox, going in the wrong direction, purposefully pushing against the “pricks”, the goad … which is a sharp stick used to steer the ox.  The analogy is we are like an ox in our natural sinful state and the Holy Spirit “pricks” our conscience to remind us we are sinning and going against God.  Sometimes it take the 2×4 of God’s grace to knock us down, onto our back side, so we look up to see what is really going on in this world.  When we become “born again” we turn from being an ox that is prodded along to the slaughter to being a sheep who are lead by the good Shepherd to green pastures and still waters.  Note, the ox is prodded by a sharp stick, like a pain in the rear while the sheep follows the good Shepherd by keeping their eyes on Him, who leads from the front.  If you are one of His sheep and you are too weak to go on, then Jesus will carry you and if you become stubborn and stop following the good Shepherd then Jesus will come to discipline you and try to turn you around.  If you are one of His sheep and you refuse to follow Jesus or be carried by Him then Jesus will drag you into the Kingdom of Heaven if necessary! 

– Rogersings

How to Spot False Grace Teacher

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