Hi everyone...my name is Joe and I'm going to share a bit about me here before diving in to this subject of grace vs. law, which I have actually come to believe is foundational to truly understanding Christianity and what our faith is all about.
I am the product of a Christian home, I have grown up in the church...my dad was a pastor for much of my life and from a very early age I was taught about Jesus, the ten commandments, how I needed to say my prayers and ask forgiveness every night, and that I had to read my bible every day and try to live by the ten commandments...does that sound familiar to anyone? I know for me that was what Christianity was...trying to live right, reading the bible and asking forgiveness for things that I had done wrong. If I didnt then I might end up in hell....I was worried that God was angry with me, that I wasnt quite good enough and that I didnt measure up - that I couldnt measure up!! I thought that every time I did something wrong I was all of a sudden not good enough anymore.
Christianity was always a chore for me - something that was never easy to do. People call the gospel good news, but what's so good about that? Nothing really if you ask me...well that was basically my Christian experience and that of most people I have talked to as well up until about a year and a half ago when one of my closest friends stumbled across the teachings of Joseph Prince (look it up - I guarantee you will be blown away!) and we began to study, discuss, debate, argue (yes...full out yelling matches more days than not lol) and gradually change our thinking and way of living as we began to understand truly how amazing and awesome the grace of God really is.
As I began to get a revelation of his grace my worldviews were challenged, everything I thought I knew about Christianity, who I was, who God was, all of my mindsets and understandings of the Bible, God, Christianity and more were all challenged and ultimately blown to bits by what I discovered as I studied. As part of my studying I formulated a few key questions that I wanted answers to, and I looked to the Bible to find those answers...I am going to share just a couple of them with you here in hopes of stimulating some discussion, and hearing what other people think...
I) Is it possible to live under both grace and law?
II) Why does the law exist then? Is it in any way necessary or applicable for those who are under grace?
As I said there is much more that I could include, but this is a good start anyway...I will say one thing here before finishing this post and starting
I hit post before I was done...:(...anyway, I was going to say there is one more thing that I will mention as food for thought before jumping into it...
Why is it that we believe that no matter how many good deeds we do we can't move ourselves to a place of righteousness - however we also believe that one single bad deed is enough to move us out of that place of righteousness back into unrighteousness? Our righteousness is purely a GIFT OF GOD - in no way at all based on our deeds - good or otherwise. Think about it, study it...its true!
Dont forget to check out my posts on Grace or Law coming up...thanks all and God bless!
