The Naked Gospel: Truth You May Never Hear in Church (18 page)

5. What would you say to someone who was hesitant, or even fearful, to surrender his or her daily life to Christ?

6. The Bible tells us to continue to live our lives in Christ in the same way we received Christ as Lord (Colossians 2:6). What was your attitude in receiving Christ as Lord? How is it similar to the attitude you can have as you live your life in him?

1. How do you think a solid understanding of the New Covenant will impact your attitudes and behavior on a daily basis?

2. Which of the two main reasons to avoid sin do you believe could be most effective in your life—because we are not designed for sin, or because there are consequences to sin?

3. Return to the quiz on
pages 27-28
. Review each item carefully. Are you now able to discern why each quiz item is false?

4. Of everything God has granted us through the New Covenant, what means the most to you personally? How might it affect your relationship with God in the long term?

5. The New Covenant message is radical and powerful yet surprisingly simple. Why do you think it’s not taught more clearly in churches today?

Sidelight 1
(from
page 62
):
Fulfilling the law is something that God
did
in Christ. Its fulfillment isn’t an ongoing event in the lives of believers today. God set us free from the law, so that we’re not under it or supervised by it (Galatians 3:25).

The Holy Spirit isn’t motivating us to keep the Mosaic law, nor do I think we should consult the law as our guide for daily living. This is why we have the Holy Spirit in us instead: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Galatians 5:18). Furthermore, if God were motivating us to adhere to the law, it would be the entire law, not part of it. Imagine what the Holy Spirit’s tutelage would be like if he were motivating us to obey hundreds of Mosaic regulations.

I believe it’s quite clear that believers should have
no relationship
with the law. Romans 7 explains that we’ve died to the law, and we’re now married to Another. God views a return to law-based living as spiritual adultery. Living by rules is cheating on Jesus!

Sidelight 2
(from
page 73
):
The fruit of the Spirit is a beautiful phenomenon. The expression of Christ far exceeds any human notions of morality or ethics. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve made the mistake of choosing to “know” right and wrong.
They entered the realm of morality and ethics in which they could judge good and evil. Rather than living from the Life that gave them breath, they chose
control.

The original sin didn’t outwardly appear to be evil, nor would it be ridiculed today. It might even be praised today, just as we applaud those who seek what is “right” in their own estimation. We call it integrity and self-discipline. But God wasn’t pleased with the first humans’ decision to enter the realm of right and wrong.

God intended us to be dependent on him with no concern for morality and ethics. Adam and Eve were only to know this: the life I display is God’s life. With that, they were to be satisfied. But the story of the fall is that they weren’t satisfied. They were tempted to settle for a substitute. That substitute is something we call morality and ethics today.

Where does this leave
us?
Christ lives in us for the same reason that God gave life to Adam—so we can be dependent on Christ with no regard for any other means of living. As Adam could once say, and as the apostle Paul stated, we also can now say: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

If we get life from the Spirit, then we’re not designed to live by the Jewish law, religious rules, a moral code, or even Christian “principles.” Receiving and transmitting Christ’s life is superior to them all.

Sidelight 3
(from
page 80
):
As Galatians informs us, Jesus was born under law. As Hebrews tells us, the Old wasn’t replaced by the New until Jesus’
death.
Therefore, the gospels are a history of Jesus’ interactions with Jews
before
the New goes into effect. Any belief system that doesn’t take this into account will leave a Christian bewildered. Trying to mix Jesus’ teachings directed to Pharisees and zealous Jews with the epistles will inevitably result in confusion.

Jesus tells his audience to cut off their hands, to pluck out their
eyes, and to be perfect just like God. He tells them that their righteousness must compete and win against the Pharisees’. He says that they must first forgive others in order to be forgiven. In short, Jesus is
discouraging
his contemporaries as they seek to achieve righteousness through the law. He does this so that he can later grant them perfect righteousness as a gift through his death and resurrection.

Sidelight 4
(from
page 80
):
Acts is not a series of doctrines designed to instruct the church on daily living. Instead, it’s a history book detailing the apostles’ travels and the impact God had on the early church.

So where might we go wrong by using it to form doctrines? As examples, one might erroneously arrive at these doctrines by relying on events in Acts: (1) when a person believes unto salvation, they should expect a tongue of fire to descend on them; (2) if a person lies about how much income they are setting aside for the church, they may end up falling dead; and (3) speaking in foreign human languages is immediately exercised on salvation. Although these events occurred in Acts, it doesn’t mean they should be taught as
doctrine.

The early church era was a time of transition. God was performing wonders in order to announce that Yahweh could now be found through the person of Jesus Christ. Imagine the momentum it would take to present an entirely new covenant to those who had experienced the Old for so long. Likewise, God moved in powerful ways to initiate his gospel among the Gentiles who had no prior covenant at all.

The sparks that flew in the early church were something special to behold. To expect them today
with the same intensity
will certainly result in disappointment. That level of display is simply not needed. We now have a written record of God’s Word that has been translated into many languages of the world. The message
has now spread nearly worldwide. In many places (though not all), teachers of the gospel are welcomed with open arms. This certainly wasn’t the case in the first-century church.

I’m
not
saying that any spiritual gifts have been extinguished from use. I’m merely making the point that one shouldn’t expect to form doctrines broadly applicable to all Christians from the historical events in Acts.

Sidelight 5
(from
page 92
):
Taking the Ten Commandments away from a believer can be spiritually akin to taking a safety blanket away from a child. The child may feel insecure, but removing the crutch is essential to helping them become mature. It’s natural for adults to feel insecure when something we’ve seen as a foundation for our lives is figuratively yanked from us. But realizing our release from the law is an essential step toward Christian maturity. The apostle Paul minces no words in making freedom clear to the first-century church and to us today.

The law was never intended to serve as a foundation for the Christian life. We have no right or scriptural basis by which to select portions of the Mosaic law and claim that these should supervise believers. Paul teaches that believers are led by the Spirit and are not under the law. Thus, even the Ten Commandments are not designed to guide our daily living. The Ten Commandments are described as a ministry of condemnation that brings death. Who wants that in their life? We’re also informed that sin gains an opportunity through commandments, including the “Big Ten.” The law causes sin to increase, not decrease. Therefore, we can expect
more
struggle and
more
sinning if we adopt the law as our guide for living. Conversely, our release from the law directly results in a release from sin’s power. Apart from law, sin is dead.

But we shouldn’t ignore the purpose of the law today. The law is holy and perfect, and it has a particular use in the world today.
It’s designed to convict sinners of their depraved state. It shows the dirt on the face of humanity, but it can’t offer a solution. Only Jesus Christ cleanses us from the sin that the law reveals.

Although the law plays an important role in the world today, it has no place in the life of a believer. The Spirit living in us is God’s superior replacement for the work of the law. In fact, what the law couldn’t do in its inferiority, Christ has already done through placing us in perfect standing before God. Our calling is to break free from the law and cling to the Spirit alone as our guide for daily living.

Sidelight 6
(from
page 119
):
If a surgeon were to cut your body open on an OR table, of course they would
not
find the power of sin inside! In the same way that we can’t visually locate our spirit or soul, the power of sin is also invisible. Every day it busily delivers messages to us.

Just as Jesus was tempted with thoughts, the world and sin itself tug at us by appealing to our five senses. Receiving sinful thoughts from a third party is no indication of your own nature or true desires. In recognizing the power of sin operating through the body, we can account for temptation, yet still understand that we’re new. We can agree with God that the old self is gone and that our struggle isn’t against ourselves.

Sidelight 7
(from
page 122
):
Believers still sin, but
not
because of the old self. The old self has been crucified and buried with Christ. If you’re now in Christ, the spiritual person you used to be has been obliterated. The new you has been raised and seated with Christ. You’re an entirely new creation, and there’s nothing sinful about the core of your being. Your righteous human spirit is where Christ lives.

Some expository teaching on Romans dances around the reality of our crucifixion with Christ. The reason that some hesitate to
come right out and say that our old self has been obliterated is that we still sin. We feel it’d be hypocritical to teach that the old self has been removed when we ourselves still struggle with sin. But the apostle Paul was no hypocrite, and he provides us with two solid reasons for why we still sin.

The first is the presence of sin, a power that lives in us but is not us. The power of sin is not the old self. The power of sin
controlled
the old self. The old self was a slave to sin, while the new self is not. Likewise, the flesh is not the old self either. The flesh is all of the programming (mind-sets, attitudes, reactions) that builds up over time as a person allows sin to operate in his or her life. When we’re made new in Christ, those memory banks of how to cope with life are still in the brain. We can still resort to walking according to the flesh.

So the old self has been annihilated, but two interdependent operators are still at work to sway the believer toward unbelief. This is why we still sin. If expositors would teach the presence of sin and the flesh alongside the teaching of our old self as crucified, buried, and gone, they wouldn’t need to worry about anyone presuming that they teach the heresy of sinless perfection.

Sidelight 8
(front
page 123
):
Some use Paul’s statement to the Corinthians, “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31 NASB), as fuel for the die-to-self theology. But in context,
this passage has nothing to do with the old self and the new self.
Instead, it is simply Paul’s defense of his apostleship. He is merely saying that he puts his life at risk on a daily basis, even encountering wild beasts in Ephesus. He is obviously referring to the
physical
dangers he has encountered. This is no basis for a die-to-self theology.

In Matthew 16:24, Jesus says, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (NASB). This verse is indeed an invitation to lose one’s life. And this is precisely what happens to Christians
at salvation.
We lose
our former life as we are crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20). So for a Christian to go on trying to continue to “die to self” is to ignore the exchange of the old self for the new self that took place at salvation.

The bottom line is that Christians don’t need to die to self. Instead, we need to grow in our awareness of who we are at the core. In this way, we walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.

Sidelight 9
(from
page 125
):
“It’s just semantics” is a response I often hear when presenting the truth about our new self and why we still struggle with sin. Actually, it’s not! A Christian who thinks they still sin because of the old self is fundamentally misled about their nature, their true desires, and what the work of the cross accomplished. The bottom line is that we’re not fighting against ourselves. This is significant, since Jesus taught that a house divided against itself will not stand.

The truth of our identity in Christ has very practical applications. When we say no to sin, we’re
not
saying no to ourselves. When we reject sin and choose to express Christ, we’re living out our destiny and fulfilling our deepest desires. Although the flesh is ugly and sinful, we aren’t. Although the power of sin is crafty, devious, and sinful, we aren’t. We’re clean, and our hearts crave what God desires for us.

Sidelight 10
(from
page 165
):
I am aware that at first glance Hebrews 6 and 10 also appear to communicate either judgment or potential for loss of salvation for the believer. I will address both passages thoroughly in my upcoming book centered on Hebrews. Here I will simply note that the author of Hebrews is addressing “enemies of God” who tasted the rain of the gospel falling on them but did not drink it in. They kept on sinning by committing the only sin mentioned in the first ten chapters of Hebrews—the
sin of unbelief in the gospel. No other type of sinning is brought up in the epistle before these warnings are issued. From the context, it is evident that the author is addressing those who currently teeter on the fence, while true believers are “not of those who shrink back” (Hebrews 10:39).