Since 2008 I have been on this awesome journey to actually have the gospel making sense and being revealed to me. Well... where it actually does not make sense at all. Not to my intellectual mind, that is, but where my spirit rings out in a sounding YEEEEEEEES! I have been given glasses that helps me unlock every strange verse in the New Testament. Yup. That might sound arrogant, but I always believed that God throughout the Bible wanted communion with people. His whole heart was always to communicate and make himself known. The problem was us, hiding like Adam and Eve. He never went anywhere. He even clothed Adam and Eve - first thing after they turned from him and hid themselves. He was still there - in all of his grace he takes care of them. Without them deserving it at all. And then Christians force this idea of a judging God, a God that judges sin, onto the Hebrew Bible. To me he was Gracious all the way through.
But it still was not until 2008 where I by revelation completely understood that I can't work for God to like me or keep me in grace - nor in salvation. I could go and do every sin in the book and still be saved. But there is so much more to all of this, and me being me, I will not be able to lay it out systematically, but I will share pieces of insight.
Here are some things to think about...
John Crowder writes in Mystical Union, "Religion conveniently gives you a myriad of excuses for bad behavior.
"It's ok. We're all still sinners." No, you're not.
"Well, nobody's perfect." The Bible says you are.
"We'll all struggle this side of heaven." You're already seated in heavenly places.
"I'm only human." Not if you're a Christian.
"Of course, we all sin every day." What Bible verse says that?
Some would criticize us for preaching what they assume to be perfection theology. they would say the gospel is not this simple. That our efforts are still necessary to "kill the flesh" or to overcome the old self.
My answer is this: I am not just preaching perfection - I preach perfect perfection! This is not the old-school "sinless perfection" theology that the early Wesleyans and the holiness movement preachers advocated. Those guys said it is impossible for a Christian to sin. And a lot of that developed into a do-it-yourself, clean-yourself-up legalism. Nor are we preaching self-righteousness. Just the opposite. We are talking about God-given righteousness that manifests in an easy, happy, holy life. We're not saying it is "impossible" for a Christian to sin. But we are saying that you don't have to sin another day in your life because you are now completely evil free living because you are thoroughly cleansed of evil. You are not a sinner."