When the Word is taught correctly, it always brings freedom, joy and peace; never pressure, condemnation and guilt. A while ago a young minister shared with me about when he was working on staff for a mega church… the leader of the church would often check to see if his staff were meeting their goals. He was a very ‘results orientated’ leader. He asked this young minister, “how many people have you led to the Lord this week?” The young minister swallowed deep, and said, “one, pastor”. The pastor looked at him with disdain and disappointment and said, “do you think that Jesus is happy with your performance? “No pastor”, the young minister said, feeling like a failure, and feeling rejected by Jesus.
Jesus was actually rejoicing over him with singing and dancing; not because of his performance, or lack thereof, but because the young minister was His child… but, the young minister felt dejected, condemned and dismayed. When a doctrine, a program, or a mindset is not established in grace, it is a strange, unscriptural doctrine, program, or mindset, and it misrepresents Jesus and the New Covenant.
The New Covenant is a covenant of grace…the message of grace is a message of freedom and power, it makes those who have a revelation of it strong and all of God’s blessings are imparted through the message of His grace, which He provides as the spiritual inheritance given to all of His holy ones. Under grace, ALL blessings are gifts, not eared rewards! Grace assures us that Jesus is pleased with us apart from works or achievement.
In Deuteronomy 28, the Old Covenant Law said that ‘IF’ you were 100% obedient, you would be blessed, but if you failed, even in the slightest way you would be cursed with indescribably horrific curses. People like to read the blessings of obedience, “blessed in the city, blessed in the field, the head and not the tail…”, however, the Old Covenant condition for these blessings was 100% obedience. A few verses down it says, “‘BUT,’ it shall come to pass, if you ‘do not’ obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully ‘ALL’ His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that ‘ALL’ these curses will come upon you and overtake you: Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country…”
New Covenant grace gives freedom from the ‘obedience doctrine’.
Yes, obedience is good, and we should desire and make every effort to obey the Lord, but the ‘obedience doctrine’ says far more than that… it teaches that we will be rewarded for obedience and punished for disobedience, embraced for obedience and rejected for disobedience, and please God for obedience and displease and sadden Him when we are disobedient. Family, that is Old Covenant, Law doctrine… in the New Covenant we are accepted in Jesus, we are embraced, rewarded, and celebrated by the Father apart from our works.
Jesus fulfilled the Law on our behalf… He PERFECTLY obeyed ALL of the Law, then He took on ALL of the curses of the Law listed in Deuteronomy 28 in our stead on the cross… ‘read the curses sometime!’ In Christ we are now redeemed from the curse of the Law and endowed with the blessings. The blessings are ours because of Jesus, not because of our obedience, but because of His! (By the way, outside of Jesus, you could not qualify for even one blessing… you do however qualify for all of the curses). Thank Jesus for GRACE!
Obedience is a fruit of our union with Christ. We are enabled to be led by the Spirit, by GRACE through His power. We do not strive to obey to qualify for the blessings that have already been freely given… we just receive them by grace through faith, now that is real freedom! Thank You Jesus for Your grace!
In His amazing love, Nick
