FROM FAITH TO FAITH

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). Only the Gospel message has the power to save the souls of men and women. It will transform you. It will make you a new creation. It will give you everything that you need to serve God. Knowing the Gospel is about knowing Jesus—knowing the good news about who He is, what He has done for you, what He is doing for you and what He will do for you.

By focusing on the Gospel and learning to love Jesus Christ, we become new people. The Word of God transforms us. God makes us new creatures, and we are pleasing to Him on the basis of Jesus Christ.

Concerning the Christian life, the Bible says that that we live “from faith to faith” (Rom. 1:17). Paul goes on to say that the righteous shall live by faith. Living by faith is living for Jesus. Thinking about Christ, looking to Christ and seeking to please Him in all that we do.

The Christian life begins with faith and ends with faith—therefore it is about faith all the way through. We walk hand-in-hand with a loving, compassionate Savior who is interested in everything that we do. He is our God, our Shepherd, our friend. With Him, life is always worth living.

Make Jesus your life. Live entirely for Him, seeing Him as the total reason for your existence (Philippians 1:21). By doing that, you are living life the way that it was meant to be lived and you are fulfilling your purpose. Trust in Jesus every day. Look to Jesus every day. He will never let you down. All the way through, the Christian life is about focusing on and thinking about Jesus and doing what He wants you to do.

Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

THINKING RIGHT

We need to believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news. That is what the word “Gospel” literally means: good news. If we have heard the message of redemption through Jesus Christ so many times that it does not fill us with joy, then it is time to step back and begin to reassess the way that we think about it.

By reflecting upon the nature of sin—especially our own personal sin—and the goodness of God in bringing us completely from sin to salvation, we will be ignited with spiritual joy beyond measure. It is all about thinking about Jesus the right way, and thinking about Jesus, period.

The key to living for Jesus is thinking the right way. So many believers think in terms of doing things: reading the Bible, going to church, praying “enough.” While these can all be tools to help us in our relationship with God, and we certainly are not going to grow close to God without them, thinking about them primarily is akin to getting the cart before the horse, as they say.

What we need to realize is that what we think is the most important thing about us as far as determining our behavior and the habits by which we live our lives. By thinking correctly about Jesus, we will live correctly. Christianity—true discipleship, following Jesus—is not about what you do as much as it is about what you think. If you think about Jesus on a daily basis—thinking about His love, His grace, what He has done for you and wants to continue to do for you—then your life will follow suit. You will be in the correct lifestyle if you are in the correct mindset.

So live for Jesus. And realize that living for Jesus starts with thinking about Jesus. Think the right way about Him. Believe that He loves you. Believe that He knows your name, that He knows you intimately and loves you. He loves you more than anyone has ever loved you. Keep Christ in mind and your life will follow.

     Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

CALVINISM: “LIMITED ATONEMENT”

We continue our look into the doctrines of “Calvinism” because we want to examine what the Bible teaches and we also want to defend the Gospel message against teachings that we believe corrupt it.

Calvinism is basically summed up in five points known as the TULIP: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. We have an article on Total Depravity, one on Unconditional Election, and now we turn our attention to “Limited Aronement.” And it is as silly and wrong as the other two. All of these dark doctrines basically stand or fall together, and one leads to another.

The easiest way to describe the doctrine of Limited Atonement is to say it teaches that Jesus did not die for everyone. Right there, all Gospel believers should turn it off and reject it outright. Any doctrine that says Jesus did not die for everyone or that God does not love everyone—Calvinism teaches both of these—should be rejected explicitly. Even a simple perusal of the Gospel story would show the utter fallacy of such thinking.

The Bible teaches the universal love of God for everyone and that Jesus died for everyone. Both are taught clearly enough for anyone to understand it. Everyone can be saved.

Calvinism teaches that our Lord died only for what they call “the elect.” Of course, we recognize that the Bible talks about the elect, but what the Bible means by it is not what Calvinism or “Reformed Theology” does.

The most familiar verse in the Bible has to be explained away in some fashion by the Calvinist. The clear meaning of John 3:16 is exactly what it says. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Notice the words “the world” and “whosoever.” Whosoever believes in Jesus will not perish, but have everlasting life. Why? Because Jesus died for the world. The verse means exactly what it says.

Limiting the atonement of Christ to a group that God supposedly chose before they were even born is not only a distortion of the Gospel, it is a denial of the Gospel. No, our Calvinistic brothers and sisters likely do not intend to do that. But that is what they are doing.

According to the inspired apostle John—God speaking through him, in other words—Jesus died “not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). When he says “not for our sins only,” he is referring to believers. But John says He not only died for us who have accepted it, He died for the whole world.

Calvinism says that John means Christ did not die for “us Jews only,” but for people of all races. Although that is true, that is clearly not what John meant here. You cannot limit what John said to fit your theology. Jesus died for all.

Paul said, to people who had never even heard the Gospel before, that God commands “all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). If Jesus did not die for “all people everywhere,” then what good would it do for “all people everywhere” to repent? Limited Atonement is simply at variance with the Gospel call. Therefore, it is not the Gospel. Calvinism is not the Gospel.

The great invitation of Jesus is for everyone: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:30). This invitation is not “limited” by anything other than one’s willingness to come to Jesus, a decision that is made by the individual. Jesus is not inviting all to come knowing full well that some cannot come.

Think of that. Calvinism teaches, directly or indirectly, that Jesus invites everyone to come knowing that not everyone can come. Only “the elect” can come to Him. This is silly, foolish and dangerous teaching.

The Bible begins by telling us that all men and women are created in the image of God (Genesis 1: 26–27). And it ends with a universal call to all who were made in His image. All. Revelation 22:17 says anyone who wants may come and take the “free gift of the water of life.”

The requirement is to be spiritually “thirsty,” not to be “one of the elect,” fortunate enough to have God love you. It might feel swell to think that you are one of “the lucky ones” who are loved by God, but that feeling is of the devil. Everyone is loved by God.

God did not create people in His own image just to send them to hell. Everyone is created in the image of God. This the Calvinist will affirm. But being created in the image of God is the same as saying being loved by God. The Calvinist cannot say to everyone, “Jesus loves you. Jesus died for you.” Because he or she does not believe that. They do not believe that Jesus loves everyone and they do not believe that Jesus died for everyone. Let that sink in and think about what that means.

What we see the apostles of Christ, following in the steps of Jesus, doing in the Book of Acts is preaching to everyone. And they preached to everyone that by choosing to accept and follow Christ, they could be saved. Calvinism makes it out to be some sort of game where we preach to everyone, but we know that only “the elect” can come. “But we don’t know who the elect are,” the Calvinist says, “and that is why we preach to everyone.”

This is nonsensical, unnecessary, and again, ridiculous. You tell everyone to come to Christ, believing that not everyone can come to Christ. Nonsense. We preach the Gospel to all because all can be saved. The truth is, we try to persuade people to be saved (2 Cor. 5:11) because we know that they can be saved.

Limited Atonement denies all of this. To say that the blood of Jesus and the death of Jesus is “limited” in its scope is totally false. They say that the power of the cross must be limited in the number of people to whom it applies, or else it is limited in its power. “If Jesus died for everyone,” in other words, “and everyone will not be saved, then His death accomplished nothing.”

What they cannot see, or will not see, is the freedom God has given to everyone to accept the accomplishments of Christ at the cross for themselves. Salvation is accomplished by Jesus, and it does not become a human “achievement” just because there is human “acceptance” involved. Everyone but the Calvinist seems to understand this clearly.

Jesus’s death is not “limited” at all. The only limits in the matter come from an individual’s unwillingness to accept the free gift of salvation. Everyone can choose to accept Christ.

Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:4 that God “desires all people to be saved.” Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:9 that God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” If Limited Atonement is true, none of the apostles knew about it.

Many of those who espouse Calvinism are highly educated and intellectual and know a lot about the Bible, generally speaking. But it is how they are obsessed with intellectualism and how that affects the way they interpret the Bible that is a serious problem, in my judgment.

They have to spend the bulk of their time explaining Scriptures away using complex “theological logic.” There can hardly be any debate over the fact that Calvinism is a complicated—and I would say convoluted— system that does not make sense to the “common people who heard Jesus gladly” (Mark 12:37). Anything that complicates the Gospel, a message that is simple—and simple for the purpose of reaching everyone—is not a good system of thought.

The Gospel deserves better than that. The Gospel is simple. It was designed by God to be simple and it was designed by God to be for everyone. And it is for everyone.

1 Timothy 4:10 calls God “the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” We must not overthink what Paul says here but believe exactly what he says. He is saying exactly what it sounds like he is saying because that fits with his theology and his practice.

Paul preached to everyone that they could be saved and if they rejected salvation, he blamed it on them, not on the fact that they were not “elected” or “predestined.” Saying that God is “the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” does not refer to God “choosing to save some and not others.”

It means that God is willing to save everyone, and does save everyone if they will believe and accept the Gospel. That is what it can mean, that is the only thing it can mean, and that is what it does mean. Therefore everyone can believe in and accept Christ.

Christ died for everyone who will trust in Him and obey Him. Jesus tasted death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9). He is the source of eternal salvation “to all who obey Him” (Hebrews. 5:9). Something that can be received by everyone has to be offered to everyone. And equally true, something that is offered to everyone has to be available to everyone.

Calvinism makes God out to be a deceiver. “Offering” salvation to everyone, but not really offering it to everyone. But the truth is, the offer of God is sincere. And those who are condemned before God will not be condemned because He did not “elect” them. They will be condemned because they rejected what God has done for them.

God proves His love for all sinners because Jesus died for us, and His grace has appeared to everyone (Rom. 5:8, Titus 2:11). Sin is a universal problem (Rom. 3:23), and therefore the remedy is a universal offer and solution (Rom. 10:13; 2 Cor. 5:19). Limited Atonement puts the love of God into what is perceived by them to be a nice little theological box. But it will not fit in that box. Calvinism must be rejected.

Yes, we are aware of what the Calvinistic answer to much of this is: “If Jesus died for people who will go to hell, then His death did not actually accomplish anything. He merely died to make salvation possible, but we actually save ourselves by choosing to receive it.” And, frankly, that is silly. The Gospel does not need that kind of human “help” to exalt and magnify the work of Christ.

One does not have to go to extremes in any way, shape or form in order to answer the egregious doctrine of Limited Atonement. The reality is this: God’s sovereign plan of salvation means Christ came into the world to save sinners, all of humanity are sinners, and He died for all. The plan also means that it is freely offered, and can be rejected. The free gift is bought and paid for by Christ, but it must be accepted by the believer on the Giver’s terms. God does not do the accepting for you.

I can offer you something that is completely free and still require that you accept it. Everyone would understand this if we were talking about money. For example, if someone said to you, “I will give you $1 million if you will be at my house tomorrow morning at 8 AM to pick it up.” You would not argue about that being illogical. You would not even consider for a moment that it is illogical. You would not enter into a debate with the giver about how that would mean you are earning the money if you have to show up at his house at a designated time.

You would not argue at all. You would likely be too excited about getting the money. But just because you went to the house at that time—i.e., accepted the gift on the giver’s terms—does not mean you earned $1 million. So it should not be confusing at all to say that God has the free gift of salvation accomplished and paid for, and you can have it if you are ready and willing to receive it.

The grace of God has appeared to everyone (Titus 2:11). God desires the salvation of everyone (1 Tim. 2:4) because He “so loves” the world (John 3:16). He wants none to perish, but wants all to be saved (2 Pet. 3:9). Christ is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the entire world (1 John 2:2).

Limited Atonement teaches that everyone for whom Christ died will be saved. He died only for the elect, and therefore, if Christ died for you, you will definitely be saved because God will give you faith and make you a believer. There are so many ways to refute this ridiculous doctrine, many of which are found in the verses we have cited.

But the death blow to the entire idea is found in 1 Peter chapter 2: “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1).

Notice that Peter speaks of some who “deny the Lord who bought them”—that is, Jesus died for them—and they bring upon themselves destruction. Even though Jesus bought them, they rejected Christ and would be lost if they continued in their “denial.”

Limited Atonement, like all the other points of Calvinism, is a hard-core and ridiculous denial of Gospel truth.

    Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

CHRIST: THE NEW DAVID IN EZEKIEL’S PROPHECY

The prophet Ezekiel had many important things to say that are applicable to the believers’s life. He, of course, did not prophesy primarily to us concerning our day, but to the ancient nation of Israel as they were in bondage to the Babylonians. But He made many messianic promises that were fulfilled in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We learn much about our Lord from some of the things that Ezekiel had to say.

God, through Ezekiel, gave warnings and rebukes, as well as promises and encouragement. God was going to bless the remnant of His people. But Ezekiel looked beyond an imminent return to the physical land of Israel to a time when God would gather His people together under a new leader. This new leader was called by God, “David, my servant” (Ezekiel 34:23, 37:24).

This prophecy is unique in many ways. For one thing, David had been dead for hundreds of years. Therefore, the prophet was not speaking of literal David, as though God were going to bring him back from the dead to rule over God’s people. David is used as the example because he was a faithful king and shepherd. Someone was going to come from David’s kingly line to rule over the people of God as no one ever had before. He would be similar to David in some respects, and the people knew who David was.

But Ezekiel was talking about Jesus, not about David. The name Jesus would not have meant anything to them at the time. But David did, and his name conjured up images of faithfulness and loyalty in leading God’s people. David was a type of Christ, he pointed to Christ, and yet, Christ was the far better man. And leader.

Jesus was not going to be an earthly king like David was. Not ruling and reigning on a literal throne in the literal city of Jerusalem. Jesus, we now know, was and is a spiritual king (John 18:36). But He is the faithful leader of God’s people. He is the loving Shepherd of God’s people. And centuries before He was born, the prophet Ezekiel, by the inspiration of God, saw that Christ was coming and what He would do.

The New Testament calls Jesus the “son of David” many times (Matthew 1:1; 20:30; 21:9; 22:42; Romans 1:3), indicating that He was a descendent of King David, and therefore could fulfill the prophecies concerning one of David’s descendants ruling over God’s people (2 Samuel 7:12-13; Psalm 89:3-4; Isaiah 9:6-7; Jeremiah 33:17; Luke 1:32-33). But He would rule in a much different fashion. Christ rules and reigns in the hearts and lives of His people. God is far more interested in being in a personal relationship with His people than He is in physical, material and military kingdoms.

David was a shepherd and he understood shepherding. He wrote, after all, one of the most famous passages in the Bible—the 23rd Psalm. There he said, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” He knew about a personal relationship with God. He did not know as much about it as we do now, having received the revelation of God in Christ. But he loved the Lord and he was close to the Lord. And he was a type of Jesus in that Jesus Himself is the good Shepherd over the people of God (John 10:11, 14).

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city of David. And he was the royal heir to David (Matthew 1:1, 2:1). His faithfulness to God is far more marvelous than anything David ever put together in his relationship with God. And Christ’s ability to rule over and lead God’s people could never be compared to anyone else’s rule and reign in any literal sense. There is no one like Jesus and there never has been anyone like Jesus.

Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism (Matthew 3:16). Just as Samuel was sent by God down to the house of Jesse to anoint David as king (1 Samuel 16:1-13), Jesus is the Christ, the real anointed one of God (“Christ” literally means anointed one). Everything concerning David’s kingship was a picture of what was coming in the future.

David was a sinner like the rest of us. He was a man of flesh, but he was also a man of faith, which points to the fact that no matter how badly we may mess up our lives, we can always repent and be faithful to Jesus and live our lives in a way that is pleasing to God. God’s forgiveness is deep and real, and He uses flawed individuals who make the decision to put their faith in Him. He can do this because the one that David foreshadowed and pointed to—Jesus—was a sinless and perfect man who lived and died for us.

So while David was a faithful king over God’s people, Jesus is the eternal, perfect Shepherd-King over the spiritual kingdom of God, where He rules and reigns forever. David ruled for forty years (1 King 2:11). Christ rules until the end of time (1 Corinthians 15:24).

Christ Jesus is the “David” that Ezekiel was talking about, not only because He was from David’s kingly line, a real descendent of David physically, but mainly because He was chosen and anointed to be the one who was adored and exalted by God to reign at His right hand over God’s people (Colossians 3:1-2; Hebrews 1:1-3; 12:1-2). Jesus is ruling and reigning now in the kingdom of God. In Peter’s Pentecost sermon in Acts chapter 2, he interpreted the prophecies concerning Jesus ruling on David’s throne as being spiritually fulfilled in His reign at God’s right hand in heaven (Acts 2:29-36).

So Ezekiel’s prophecy was far deeper and more meaningful than just a “new king.” Jesus would be a completely different KIND of king. And He would rule over a united kingdom, which David’s earthly, united kingdom only pointed to. Israel was physically and militarily united under David. But all of God’s people, both Jews and Gentiles, are united in Christ (Galatians 3:28: Ephesians 2:14-22). So what Ezekiel saw in his vision and gave in his prophecy was far more than just a new king, but an entirely new relationship with God through someone who could not only lead us as king, but represent us as priest. And transform us by His Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27; 37:26).

God accomplished something through Jesus that could never have been accomplished under an ordinary man like David. The Son of God has done what the old covenant could not do. He takes our sins away completely and makes us new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Everything is new when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior—as our “King.”

Our relationship to this new “David” is not a political or military one. We live in His spiritual kingdom, the church, the body of Christ. This is what God has been working toward since the Garden of Eden, and, properly understood, throughout eternity: a personal relationship with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ.

                    Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

LOVING BECAUSE HE LOVES

The Bible does not command emotions, but it does command love. So biblical, Christ-like love is more than a feeling. It may involve feelings and lead to feelings, but it is a decision to put the well-being of others above our own. It is doing for others exactly what Christ has done for us– thinking of them first.

This kind of love is only demonstrated by the believer whose dependence is upon Christ. We look to Christ as our example, because He loved us when we did not deserve to be loved. And we still don’t, yet He still does. God’s love was fully shown when “Christ died for us” even “while we were still sinners” (Rom. 5:8).

This kind of sacrificial love stands in contrast to the way that the world views love. This is not something that you “fall into.” It is a decision of the will. We decide to love others, whether we feel like it or not. God’s love for us shown in Christ is not a feeling. It was a decision to take care of us. So this is the way that we are to treat others. We are to “walk in the path of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us” (Eph. 5:2).

Without love, the best deeds we can do mean nothing (1 Cor. 13:1-3). And true, Christian love is defined by how it deals with others. Paul wrote that “love is patient, love is kind...love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4,7).

Christ-like love “covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8). It will overlook the faults of others, and it will cause God to judge us with the same mercy and kindness that we show to others (James 2:13; Matt. 7:1-2). You can never love “too much.”

The greatest thing in the world is love. Because “now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). Yes, if you dedicate yourself to loving Christ Jesus and loving others because of your love for Him, then you will be doing exactly what we are supposed to do on this earth. Loving God and loving others, Jesus said, is what God’s intention for us has always been (Matt. 22:36-40).

We are to love others because our God is love. He defines love. Christ is our salvation, our covenant, and He is our love. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). Nothing shows that we belong to God and receive our life from God like love does.

Without this reflection of God’s nature in our lives, we cannot claim to be followers of Christ. “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). It is easy to see the logic. God is love itself. Jesus is love embodied. If we claim to be united with Him by faith, which is what being a Christian really means, then we will be people of love.

Let God’s amazing love change you and flow through you to other people.

     Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

DEPARTING TO BE WITH CHRIST

What is death like for the Christian? It is a departure to go and live somewhere else. It is moving from one location to another. That is all it is. It is not something to be feared, it is something to which we should look forward. Until then, we live for Christ for as long as God keeps us on this earth.

To leave the body in death is to go and be with the Lord, something that Paul said was “far better” than remaining on earth (Phil. 1:23). Nothing that this world can offer compares to what the believer has now and will have in Christ Jesus eternally. This is why it is so important to set our mind on things above (Col. 3:1-3). We should lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven rather than on earth (Matt. 6:19-21).

The reason that we think this way is because we know that to be “absent from the body” is to be “present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). We are either here on earth or in heaven with Jesus. There is no other place for us. If we are not here, we are there. So when a believer dies, it means that he or she is with the Lord.

Because of the resurrection of Jesus and the promises that He makes, we know that the end of earthly life is a peaceful transition into the presence of Christ (1 John 3:2). There will be no sorrow or suffering there. It is a perfect place prepared for people who have been made perfect by the love of Jesus.

Jesus has promised that He will return from heaven to take us to be where He is (John 14:3). Why do Christians say things like, “This world is not my home”? Because our hearts are wherever Jesus is. He is our treasure, and where our treasure is, our hearts will be (Matt. 6:21). We look forward to heaven because we want to be with Jesus forever.

The reason that we do not sorrow “as those who have no hope” is because the promises of Christ are our consolation that we will live forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Focusing on Christ is the greatest adventure in life. We are free to serve Christ for the rest of our lives because we know we love Him and want to be with Him forever. He is our life, and eternal life with Him is what true existence is.

The best is always yet to come for the Christian. Serve Him faithfully for the rest of your life, looking forward to being with Him forever.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

THE WONDERFUL CHRIST

He is the most important man who ever lived. He had the greatest impact on the world that anyone has ever had. The Son of God came into the world to save sinners. And that is exactly what He does. He is a “friend of sinners” (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34). And those who will admit their sin—the fact that they have transgressed the will of their Creator, Almighty God—will find in Him the best friend they have ever had. No one has ever loved or cared for you like Jesus does.

“This comes from the Lord Almighty as well— the Lord of hosts is wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom” (Isaiah 28:29). The Lord is perfect and wonderful in every way. The things He knows, the wisdom He shares, the things He has done for us, the things He is doing for us presently, and the things He will do for us in the future and eternally all speak to the wonderful love and magnificence of Jesus.

One of the things that Christ’s earthly life reveals to us is that all of His works are good and mighty and wonderful. He makes no mistakes. He does no wrong. We often hear believers say that “God is good all the time.” And that is a totally accurate statement. It is impossible for God to do something that is not good.

A woman was healed by Jesus from an infirmity she had been dealing with for eighteen years (Luke 13:10-17). Luke described deeds such as this as “glorious things” being done by Jesus. His deeds were glorious and wonderful because His heart was glorious and wonderful. And these things are still true.

Our Lord is wonderful. Nothing can compare to Him. You will never exhaust beautiful things to think about Him. Set your focus today on Christ. Think about His wonderful nature. His unfailing love. His marvelous goodness. The magnificence of His person. Fill your thoughts with these things. The things of Christ.

     Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

SAVED.

Everyone who does not have Christ is lost. What a terrible thought to be separated from God! That is what lost means. Being lost means that you will be separated from your Creator if you do not remedy the matter by being saved. Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).

What Jesus wants to do is save you. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:17). To be saved is to be rescued by Jesus. And it is a very simple process.

Some people wonder if they can be saved. But this is a foolish way of thinking. Anyone can be saved because Christ came to save anyone who so desires to spend eternity with Him in heaven. If you will repent of your sins – which means to turn away from sinning on purpose, and decide to live for the Son of God – and trust in Christ as your Savior, you will be saved. “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” the Bible says.

Jesus does not try to save you. He saves you to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25). That means that He saves you as fully as anyone could ever be saved. All the salvation that you need is found in Jesus. All that the word salvation encompasses is in Jesus. He is not enough. He is more than enough. He will bring you from captivity to freedom, from being lost to being saved.

Do not look away from the Cross of Jesus Christ. Do not let go of the hand of our tender Shepherd Jesus. He will save you. He is willing and He is able to save to the uttermost. Be saved. There is no reason not to. God wants you to be saved.

Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

THE LORD’S SUPPER

Jesus established the Lord’s Supper on the night He was betrayed and arrested. It is a memorial to the death and resurrection of Jesus, pre-pictured and foreshadowed by the Jewish Passover meal.

It was during a Passover celebration with his disciples that Jesus took bread and gave it to them. He said, “This is my body, which is given for you; remember me when you do this” (1 Corinthians 11:24). After they had finished eating, He took the wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; whenever you drink this, do it in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). It is a sermon of sorts, because every time we partake of the Lord’s Supper, Paul said, we proclaim the return of Christ until it happens (1 Corinthians 11:26).

The new covenant of Christ was sealed with His blood. Jesus died to save us and to initiate the covenant that was prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31. Because Jesus died for us, we do not live under a law system where we depend on our ability to get things “right.” We live in a relationship of love and acceptance with the Christ who died for us.

As sinful creatures often do, the Lord’s Supper had been corrupted by the church in Corinth, and Paul wrote to them to correct those abuses. To partake of the bread and the cup means that you believe in Christ in a personal relationship and you realize that it is a “participation in the blood of Christ and in the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:16).

Partaking of the bread means that we are one in Christ (1 Corinthians 10:17). There is a serious warning from the apostle about taking the Lord’s Supper in an “unworthy manner” because it displays a failure to seriously and soberly “discern the body” (1 Corinthians 11:27, 29). So believers are warned to “examine themselves” before participating (1 Corinthians 11:28).

This command is not meant to drive you away from the Lord’s Supper. On the contrary, it causes you to look away from yourself and your sin to Christ, to put your faith in Him and to recognize your unity in Jesus with every other believer. You honor the sacrifice of Christ’s body on the cross, and you honor the unity of Christ’s spiritual body, the church.

Being a part of this memorial to Jesus has tremendous significance and power in the Christian life. But it is a simple memorial to be done in a simple way: in appreciation for what Christ has done for you and in appreciation for what He has done for all of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus is the “bread of life,” the giver of eternal life to all who put their trust in Him (John 6:35, 48, 51). One of the most challenging things our Lord ever said was that we as believers eat His flesh and drink His blood. If we do, we are in a relationship with Him and have eternal life (John 6:54, 56).

Jesus was not talking about the Lord’s Supper when He spoke of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. But the metaphor He used there points to the same thing to which the Lord’s Supper points: we are saved and sustained by the finished work of Christ. We feed on Him by having faith in Him in a daily relationship of trust and obedience. This is where our spiritual sustenance comes from.

All of these things are about “communion” with Jesus and with one another. And they point to the eternal communion we will have with Christ and His people in heaven (Matthew 26:29; Revelation 19:9).

So the Lord’s Supper is a concrete way to remember and celebrate the salvation that we have in Jesus and the unity that we share with one another. It is a beautiful act of faith that is done in remembrance of and in honor of Jesus. It points to the fact that Jesus died so that we can have our sins forgiven (Matthew 26:28), and it establishes the new covenant which His blood has brought about (Luke 22:20).

The church that was established by Christ in the New Testament “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). We do the same thing today because we want to share fellowship with one another and celebrate the blood of Jesus that makes that possible (1 John 1:3).

Assembling together in faith and sharing in the Lord’s Supper encourages us to continue serving Christ (Hebrews 10:25). We are to draw closer to Christ, and we are to appreciate one another and draw closer to one another in the unified body of believers (Romans 12:5). And that is what the Lord’s Supper is all about.

             Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT

Near the end of his life, Paul summed up the way that he had lived by saying that he had fought the good fight (2 Tim. 4:7). He saw his life as a battleground. Every day was a fight to do what was right.

Paul knew, as we should all know, that there is a devil and many demonic forces in association with him looking to destroy us and keep us from following Christ. “Be alert and vigilant because your enemy the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).

The devil was after Paul, but the devil was not going to stop him from fulfilling his mission. Rather than looking at the devil, Paul looked to Jesus. He kept his focus on Jesus and he endured tremendous suffering and adversity for the name and cause of Christ Jesus. Paul was no superhero. He was a regular man who depended on the same strength that is available to us.

The only “secret” that Paul knew was to focus on Jesus. By focusing on Christ, he was able to live his life for Jesus, to sustain his faithfulness over the course of his Christian walk. He did not look back or turn back to the world because he had truth and he had the power of Christ.

You can have the same thing. Fighting the good fight of faith means to continue to trust Jesus no matter how hard things get. We need to realize that life is not, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be, a picnic or a walk in the park. We are in enemy territory, and living for Jesus is difficult. So difficult that we cannot do it ourselves. We must rely on the power of the living God. Everything that we need is already ours in Jesus. What we must do is stay connected to Christ by faith.

Your life is not going to be easy, but you can fight the good fight. Paul not only did it himself, but he told others to do it. “Fight the good fight of faith,” he told Timothy. And he would say the same thing to us. This is God’s cause. Fight. Fight for what is good, fight what is evil.

Realize that you do not fight against other people, other humans made in the image of God (Ephesians 6:12) but against the spiritual forces of darkness in this evil world. And we fight for the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ by staying close to Him, and depending upon Him rather than upon ourselves. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4).

       Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

CALVINISM: “TOTAL DEPRAVITY”

Those who hold to the Calvinistic doctrine of “total depravity” go too far in their interpretation of the fallen state of humanity. This view contradicts many plain Bible passages, as well as causes some to think that they cannot exercise their will and their choice to make things right with God through Jesus. Which everyone can do.

The fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden must be taken seriously, because it has resulted in the corruption of everyone’s mind and will to an extent (Romans 5:12, 19). We go much too far, however, when we imply or state that because mankind is “fallen,” that therefore means that they/we cannot do anything good, not even make our own choice about whether or not we will follow Christ. Without God choosing for us, “total depravity” teaches, we cannot accept Christ. Think of that. Is that what the Bible really teaches? That people are so evil they cannot even exercise their choice to accept Christ? Is that what you really think? Have you read the book?

“Total depravity” is where “Calvinism,” a false system of belief and teaching, starts. There are five basic points to Calvinism and this one is the first. It teaches that a person who is not saved is so corrupt that they cannot choose to believe in Jesus. This, of course, contradicts many Bible statements and examples concerning people who exercised the human choice God has given to all of us to make our own decisions about whether or not we will receive or reject Christ.

It is true that the Bible says that there are “none who seek after God” (Romans 3:11). This is why Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). But He would not have had to seek and save the lost if the lost had already been “elected” in advance as individuals to be saved. That is totally illogical and silly. Jesus came to seek people who had already been chosen? Then that is not real seeking. He just “pretended” to seek according to Calvinism. No they do not say it that way, and most of them probably do not realize that is the logical conclusion of their views. But it is.

No, the truth is Jesus is seeking to save everyone who is lost. Which necessarily means that everyone can be saved. God seeks us first, but He seeks us through the Gospel message of Christ, not by making our decisions for us. That is not “seeking.”

Rather than interpreting Paul’s statement and the Old Testament quotation from which it comes—“there are none who seek after God”— as indicative of a complete and total, utter depravity on the part of all individuals, we should do better than that. Paul clearly meant it as an indictment of those who reject God for themselves, particularly those who reject the Gospel, since the Gospel is what the Book of Romans is about.

To understand the Bible, you must interpret statements in their context. And in the context, Paul had already noted the fact that Gentiles, although without the Law, can “do by nature what the Law requires” (Romans 2:14). Before they come to Christ, they are not “totally depraved” as Calvinists teach it.

It is certainly a Bible truth that we, at our core, do not care about God while we are living in rebellion against Him. Until we are confronted with the power of the Gospel, no one comes to Jesus. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). And the Gospel is a message that people are free to receive or reject. When a person hears the Gospel, they are not so corrupt that they can’t understand it or receive it unless they have been “elected” by God in advance. We are corrupt and sinful, but Calvinism uses this Bible truth to catapult into things that are NOT true.

The same man who wrote Romans chapter 3 told a group of unbelievers in Acts 17 that God created all of us so that we would “seek Him and find Him, because He is not far from any of us.” What is the matter with Paul? Can’t he keep his “theology” straight? Well, the fact of the matter is, Paul wasn’t worried about being a “dignified theologian.” He was a simple man of faith, following Christ and sharing Christ with everyone because he knew that everyone can be saved.

So, according to Calvinism, God created mankind so He could elect some to salvation and to elect others—whether “passively” or “actively”—to damnation in hell. Paul, however, said that God created mankind to seek Him and to find Him. Which means that they CAN find Him. He would not be expecting us and requiring us to seek Him if it were impossible for us to seek Him.

So the two ideas must be balanced. There is a sense in which there is none that seek after God. That describes the sinfulness of humanity. But Calvinism wants to “help the Gospel out” by taking it further than Paul intended. Paul said that people can seek God and find Him. Everyone can do that, not just some He “chose” in eternity past while NOT “choosing” others.

Without the Gospel, we cannot seek God. But with the Gospel, we can. The grace of God allows us to. God has predestined that those who will choose to trust in Jesus will be saved. Anyone can do that. But we don’t deserve salvation when we believe. We never deserve salvation. We are saved because God graciously saves us if we choose to believe. Grace enables us to be saved, but it does not coerce us to (Acts 17:30, 34).

Calvinism likes to rely on verses like Genesis 6:5, which says that the thoughts of mankind’s hearts was “only evil continually.” They say that that is literally true of everyone. But they are wrong. Noah, who lived in that corrupt society, is described as “a man of righteousness, blameless in his generation” who “walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). Was he just a puppet whom God made to walk with Him? Of course not. The thoughts of HIS heart were not ONLY “evil continually.” He willingly sought after God.

Abraham’s faith was credited as righteousness (Genesis 15:6), and he made his own choice to follow God (Genesis 22:18). Job is described as "blameless and upright" (Job 1:1). Daniel is also recognized for the fact that he was not corrupt (Daniel 6:4).

These people were not robots. They were people who knew right from wrong and made the decision to do what is right. To say that people cannot choose to do right and accept Christ is against the Bible and against any rational notion of human psychology and behavior.

If people cannot choose to do right, then why should unbelievers be punished for breaking the law? Even human law is not “totally depraved,” because it does not hold people responsible for things they cannot help. A traffic accident where someone’s life is taken, for example, is far different from someone willfully taking another’s life. Why does human law make that distinction? And we are supposed to believe that God Almighty does not make that distinction? That God condemns people for doing something they cannot do unless He does it for them? And that He chooses not to do it for everyone?

Maybe the lawbreaker has not been “elected” by God, and therefore he cannot do anything good, so he constantly does bad and breaks the law. If it is not his fault, why should he go to jail? But even Calvinists say it IS his fault. Because they know, as we all know, that everyone has the capacity to choose to do right or wrong in their lives. And they have the capacity to choose to accept Christ as their Savior, as well.

The Bible does not teach that EVERYTHING people do is evil. We have all done enough evil to be lost and we all need a Savior. But it is NOT true that mankind cannot choose to do things that are right. And it is certainly not true that one cannot choose to accept Christ.

There is a call to mankind to repent and this necessitates a human response that we can choose to make (Acts 17:30). Christ’s parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-8) illustrates that people hear the same Gospel message, but they choose to respond to it differently. Some choose to receive it and some choose to reject it because everyone has the capacity to do both (Hebrews 4:7). We make the choice who we will serve—God or the devil (Joshua 24:15).

A biblical and simple view of the corruption of mankind through sin reveals that we can only be saved because God is gracious enough to save us (Ephesians 2:1, 8). But this is not the “depravity” of Calvinism. Calvinism says you are so corrupt that you cannot choose to follow Jesus unless God makes that choice for you. Which means you really make no choice at all.

But mankind does not possess a complete inability to do any good whatsoever. “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They demonstrate that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them” (Romans 2:14-15). This statement was made by Paul before he wrote that there are “none who seek after God” and he was talking about people before they receive Christ and who had not received Christ. Paul certainly did not believe in Calvinism’s “total depravity.“

The correct view of the Bible is to say that all people have been extremely affected by sin, but they still have the image of God in them (Genesis 9:6). All have the ability to accept His salvation (Revelation 3:20). Jesus Himself said that those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” will be filled (Matthew 5:6). He was talking to the general population.

Even after the fall of man, and in spite of it, God has graciously endowed all with the capacity to do good and to make independent choices about following Christ.

        Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

YOU MUST BE FAITHFUL UNTIL THE END

You cannot quit. You cannot receive Jesus and live like the world. You cannot accept Christ, serve Him for a while and then go back to the world. If you do, you will forfeit salvation.

We must be devoted to Christ for the rest of our lives. While we cannot live perfectly, we can live faithfully. That is something that we can decide to do and must decide to do. God does not save those who return to the devil’s side.

The Bible tells us that we must “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). That fight is ongoing for the rest of our lives. We cannot quit the fight. We are also admonished to “run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2). Endurance means that you keep on going until the end.

If what Jesus said about Himself is true, then His very nature demands sustained faithfulness. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). The truth is, He IS the way, and you cannot quit going His way if you expect to have life.

Jesus said of His followers, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). This means at least two things. The only way that we can do the work of God and be His people is by the strength that He provides. Without Him, we can do nothing. And it also means that we must remain in Him. You cannot remain in something you never had in the first place. And He would not tell us to remain in Him if it were impossible for us NOT to remain in Him.

The spiritual and biblical declaration that “he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13) is definitely true and should be accepted and taught by everyone who claims to be a Christ follower. If someone thinks they do not have the strength to be faithful, then focus on HIS faithfulness. If you want to stay saves, He will keep you saved. “The Lord is faithful; He will give you strength and guard you from the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3). But He will not do this for those who do not remain in a faithful relationship with Him.

Only those who are “faithful, even to the point of death” will receive the “crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). There is no heaven, no eternal salvation, promised to those who quit. But, since quitting on Jesus is a choice, that means you don’t ever have to do it. You can decide to stay faithful. And if you have gone away from Jesus and have stopped following Him, then you can decide to come back and He will receive you.

Jesus’s parable of the talents teaches that the Master will say to some, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21). Obviously, if you have not been faithful to Him until death, you will not hear that. Faithfulness to Jesus is required for salvation. You SHOULD do it, you MUST do it, and you CAN do it. Start from where you are and decide that you will be faithful to Jesus for the rest of your life.

        Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD

What does the Bible teach about the “Angel of the Lord”? Not angels in general. That is another discussion. No, there is someone in the Old Testament who is consistently called “THE” Angel of the Lord. Who is He and what do we learn from Him? Well, it’s in the Bible, so you know it has something to do with our Lord Jesus Christ.

People have been talking about the identity of this person for centuries. There is no doubt that there is some mystery involved as to exactly who He was. But He is definitely a prominent figure in the Old Testament narrative, and there is much to learn, I believe, upon a closer look. It is not something to argue about. It is not merely a theological doctrine. It has something to do with Jesus, and anything that has to do with Jesus, I want to know about.

He is definitely different from other angels. The word angel means messenger, and angels are created beings who go forth to do the work of God. Again, the Bible has much to say about angels. But this situation is unique. This individual, the Angel of the Lord, is not just an ordinary messenger. He speaks and acts with divine authority. There is something very different and unusual about Him.

One clue as to His identity is the fact that He is referred to as the Lord. While that may not be as cut and dried as to His identity as it sounds, it is definitely a clue.  Hagar met this Angel of the Lord when she went into the wilderness, and she said to Him, “You are the God who beholds me” (Genesis 16:13). We also see this Angel making covenant promises with divine authority. And He is portrayed as being omniscient—that is, knowing all things.

It was the Angel of the Lord who spoke at the last moment to stop Abraham from offering Isaac. He said to the great patriarch, “For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Genesis 22:12). That sounds like far more than other angels we read about in the Bible.

In the story of Moses at the burning bush, great insight appears to be given to the Angel’s identity. At first, it is the Angel of the Lord who is speaking to Moses, but then we are quickly informed that it is the Lord Himself who is speaking. Because when Moses asked who He was, He said: “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Now, it is possible that the Lord was simply speaking through the Angel of the Lord, but the interchange here of the Angel of the Lord and God seems to suggest that this is God Himself.

The Angel of the Lord here also requires Moses to remove his sandals because he is standing on “holy  ground” (Exodus 3:5). Such a directive supports the fact that this was the presence of God in the burning bush. It was a sacred time. No other Angel spoke this way about being in His presence.

In the wilderness, when Moses was leading the people to the land of promise, the Angel of the Lord was in the driver’s seat. He was the one leading Moses and the Israelites. He proceeds behind them as a pillar of cloud and fire to protect them from the Egyptians (Exodus 14:19). So He was the one who led the people of God. He did not just deliver messages to the people of God or help the people of God, but He led them. He was a mediator and He had judgmental qualities that only God should possess. So He was not just a protector, but He was a very important leader.

One of the most amazing references to the Angel of the Lord takes place in one of the prophet Zachariah’s visions. The angel was an advocate for Joshua, the high priest, in a courtroom against Satan. Satan accuses Joshua, and the Angel takes Joshua’s sin from him and replaces his “filthy clothes” with clean ones (Zechariah 3:1-7). So consider what that means. The Angel of the Lord has the ability to cleanse one from their sins. To make people clean and whole and purified. Something that we see Jesus doing in His ministry upon this earth.

We see the balanced character of God in the Angel of the Lord, because we also see Him as a deliverer of God’s judgment and wrath. King David committed sin and the Angel brought judgment upon Jerusalem, which was only restrained by the authority of God (1 Chronicles 21:15). God is a God of judgment, and this is portrayed by the actions of the Angel.

So the indication is that the Angel has two responsibilities: to judge and to deliver. John the Baptist said of Jesus that He baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11). In other words, the Son of God is either your Savior or your Judge. This seems to be foreshadowed in the work of the Angel of the Lord.

Therefore, it is not surprising that many Bible students and teachers take the position that the Angel of the Lord was a pre-incarnate (before He became a man in Bethlehem’s manger) appearance of Jesus Christ. Theologically that is called a Christophany. Is that who the Angel of the Lord was? Was this Jesus Himself before He became known as Jesus and became flesh and blood and lived on this earth an entire human life?

If so, this explains many things. It explains why He is the only Angel who accepted worship. And it explains why He speaks with authority, has the authority to judge, and is an agent of divine wrath, and yet is also not the same being as God the Father.

What we see the Angel doing in the Old Testament, such as giving Gideon the power that he needed (Judges 6:11-24) and making the divine promise of Samson’s birth (Judges 13:3-22), is definitely consistent with a foreshadowing of the ministry of Jesus, which we see later in the Bible.

It is also very enlightening to notice that the Angel of the Lord is not mentioned in the New Testament after Jesus was born. Why is that? Is it because the role that He played before He became a human was no longer needed AFTER He became a human? That He represents us and does the things that the Angel of the Lord did in the Old Testament now as God in the flesh?

What we definitely learn from the Angel of the Lord is that God has always worked in the lives of His people in the same way that He works now. He warns against rebellion against Him and forgives those who turn away from that rebellion. He has always done mediatorial and sacrificial work that is akin to the work that Jesus Himself did.

If the Angel of the Lord is indeed Christ before He became Jesus of Nazareth, then we must not make the colossal mistake of thinking that Jesus is an “angel” like other angels. Again, the word Angel means messenger, so He could just as easily be called the Messenger of the Lord. If the Angel of the Lord is Jesus, He is far more than an angel like Michael or Gabriel and all the other angels who are created by God. Jesus is not a created being. Jesus is the Son of God. He is the eternal “I AM.” He is far more than a “deified angel.” He is literally God in human form. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift and the way that He relates to us through His Son Jesus Christ.

                Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

SERVING CHRIST IN ALL WE DO

We are called by God to trust in Christ, to love Christ, and to express our love for and trust in Christ by serving Him faithfully throughout our lives. Since Jesus is what human existence is about, it would only make sense that we exalt Him as Lord of our lives by doing what He tells us to do.

No one could be offended at Christ’s requirement that we serve Him and serve others, since He first came into this world to serve us. His whole life was lived in service to others. He was thinking about you every day of His life. Everything He did was to serve you. He said that He “came not to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45).

God, you see, cares about people. And that is why serving others in His name is what pleases Him. Do you want to please God? Then be humble and serve “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40). That is the way to be pleasing to God.

We should be concerned about what glorifies God. He is Almighty God. He deserves to be glorified. And we glorify Him by letting Him change our lives. Instead of living selfishly, we are to live a life of good works (Eph. 2:10). That means doing good instead of evil. Doing what is right instead of what is wrong. Being like Jesus and going about our lives doing good in every way that we can (Acts 10:38).

We should love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). And we should let His love permeate everything about our lives, so much so that it overflows to others. Glorifying Him by serving others is what we are here to do (1 Peter 4:10-11).

Being a servant of Christ is about commitment. It means committing ourselves to living for Him and loving Him for the rest of our lives. A relationship with Christ is not about performing duties or going through religious rituals in a prescribed way. It is about adorning our lives with the celebration of Christ, rejoicing in who He is and sharing His mighty name and all that it represents with anyone who will listen. It is about being sincere before Him and living to please Him.

The call to serve Christ is the call to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1). Everything that we do is to be done with God in mind. All of our acts of service are the “true worship” that Jesus spoke of in John 4:23-24.

Everything that you do at home or on the job or in your community or in assemblies with other believers is your spiritual service of worship. We serve Christ by doing what we do “from the heart, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23). Do everything out of love for Jesus.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

DECIDE TO BELIEVE IN HIM

You believe in God by choosing to believe in God. It is a decision that only you can make. No one can make that decision for you, but no one can stop you from making it. Always remember that.

You can decide to believe in God anytime you want to. And believing is how you interact with God. Faith in Jesus is how we serve God and please Him.

Faith is the foundation of the Christian life because it is the only way that we can focus on Jesus Christ. To focus on God’s Son, you have to believe in Him.

Consider these words from the 11th chapter of Hebrews about faith: “Now faith is the substance of things we hope for, the evidence of things we do not see. For by faith the forefathers  received a good testimony. By faith we know that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by things which we see with our physical eyes. By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice to God than his brother Cain did. By doing this, he demonstrated that he was a righteous man, and God accepted and testified of the gifts that he offered. By his faith, Abel still speaks to us through the things that he did, even though he himself is dead. Enoch walked with God and was taken away to heaven so that he did not go through death here on earth. When people sought him, he was not found because he had gone to be with the Lord. Why? Because he had this testimony: he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:1-6).

Simply put, faith is where it’s at when it comes to our relationship to God.

Salvation is from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17). That is, everything about our relationship with Christ is based on trusting in Him and loving Him. It begins with faith and it ends with faith.

Jesus is the author and finisher—the beginning and the end, the source and the goal—of our faith. “And so because we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses who demonstrated to us what it means to live by faith, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entraps us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. We can only do this by looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne” (Heb. 12:1-2).

This means that living for God begins with faith and it ends with faith. You start by believing in Jesus and you end by believing in Jesus. You believe in Him until you leave this world.

And believing in Jesus is a decision. It is putting all of your trust and all of your heart into accepting that He is who He claimed to be. Accepting Christ means to give Him your life. You turn everything over to Him.

Your life and my life is to be about Jesus. And by living our lives for Jesus, we believe God and we are ready to meet Him. Jesus is the one who can get you in. He is the one who seeks us. He is the one who can and will save you.

Without Him, we are lost. There is no hope without Christ. But with Christ, everything is going to be fine. Everything will be alright. If you have Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you will go into the next life and live forever in bliss and glory. It is Christ who is salvation.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

NO CREED BUT CHRIST

Beware the “Church” that Requires You to Accept a Human “Creed”

Creeds. Human statements of belief. The Nicene Creed, the Apostles’ Creed, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, the Augsburg Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger Catechism, the Shorter Catechism, the 39 Articles of Faith, and so on. All man-made and all unnecessary.

Man-made denominations often require you to agree to their “creed” or doctrinal statement before you can join their fellowship of believers. You have to agree with what they say is the Bible’s true teaching.

Certainly, you cannot blame a group for wanting its leaders to agree with what it believes about church doctrine. But to teach or imply that one who does not adhere to some man-made creed is not a true Christian, and therefore cannot be accepted into the fellowship of God’s community of believers, is wholly incorrect. That is the spirit of the world, is it not?

Christ is our creed. That should be the perspective from which we view interpreting the Bible and living the Christian life together in the fellowship of God’s family. “No creed but Christ” is a wonderful slogan, but it means nothing if we do not really apply it. But what does it mean?

“I believe” is what the Latin word credo, from which we get the English word “creed,” means. So to say that Christ is our creed means that He is what we believe. He is our faith. Remember He said, “I am the truth” in John 14:6. Remember Paul said that we live “by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us” (Galatians 2:20).

No creed but Christ means that our statement of faith is a person. We believe in Jesus the person. It is not that we believe certain things ABOUT Him. It is that we believe in HIM. We trust in HIM. We love HIM. And everyone who loves Him and trusts in Him is on the same side that we are on and is part of the same group that we are part of.

Having Christ as our creed means that we put our trust in Him and have Him as the unity of our faith. We build our community and our unity around Him, personally. It is the same as saying, “I am a Christian only,” as opposed to saying I am a Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, etc. Christians is all we should be and Christ should be our only creed.

It also means that the Christian life is not about believing a complex system of doctrines or knowing anything about “systematic theology.” It is not being concerned about what “historic Christianity” teaches as much as it is about being united with Jesus in a living communion of faith. It is about knowing, loving, and following Christ rather than focusing on believing the right “things.” And no one can tell me there is not a difference. We see people all the time who are focused on their denomination’s doctrines, but have no interest in talking about Christ Himself. This is what must change. Christianity is about Christ.

Our creed should be Paul’s creed: “I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Union with Jesus. Loving Jesus and living for Jesus. That should be the focus of our faith.

The Christian life is defined by Christ in us. It is not defined primarily by “what we believe.” The world has seen enough of “Christians” who “believe correct doctrine,” but who do not have the Spirit of Christ in them. Christ lived for us so that we can live for Him. He took our sins so that we can take His righteousness.

We exchange places with Christ in the eyes of God. We get to live the life of righteousness because we are united with Jesus. That is why He is our belief, our faith, our creed. We do not depend on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6). We do not get caught up in empty and vain philosophies and traditions of men. “Don’t let anyone take you captive with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in human form. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority” (Colossians 2:8-10). We trust in Christ “in whom lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). That means Christ is our creed.

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Jesus’s words here make it clear that there is only one path and it is not a system, it is a Savior. It is not a plan, it is a person. Or to say it another way, the system is the Savior and God’s plan is the Person. Jesus is God’s plan of salvation. What we must believe is in Christ. Period. Someone trusting in their church or their own understanding does not accept who Jesus is or what the good news of Jesus is about. The true Gospel will cause you to trust in nothing but Jesus.

He is the Way

Jesus is the only way to the Father. That is the same as saying He is the only way to heaven. He does not just enlighten our path, He IS the path. We are not looking for directions, we are looking for a deliverer. It is true that those who trust in Jesus will seek to follow His lead and His direction. We have pointed that out many times. But it is only by focusing on Christ Himself that we can follow Christ. When it comes to the basis of our faith and what it is all about, Jesus does not point to a way, He IS the way. Jesus stands alone in a world of competing philosophies, ideologies, and “paths.”

He is the Truth

Outsiders often ask why can’t Christians agree with one another and work together? And the answer is very simple. Christianity, to many, means a religion where you believe the right things and go to the right church. But what Christianity really is is a personal relationship with a man named Jesus. He does not just speak and teach the truth, He IS the truth. And by knowing Him, the truth, we will be made free from sin, self, Satan and from human doctrine (John 8:31–32).

He is the Life

The life that Jesus gives is union with Himself. He told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Again, He does not just give life, He IS life. There is no living without Him, and there is no true life without Him. Being united with Christ through faith and trust in Him gives us victory over the struggles of life here and now and takes us to eternity to live with Jesus forever (John 10:10; John 16:33: 3:16).

Paul chose to focus on Christ as his doctrine. He told the Corinthians, “I did not come to you with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony about Christ.” Instead, he says, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). For Paul, Christ was his creed. He was determined to preach and focus on nothing but Christ. There is no reason for believers to be divided over anything if we all love and follow Jesus.

Faith rests on the power of God, not on human wisdom or the ability to decipher puzzles and put together “orthodox” systems. You cannot focus on a man-made system and on Jesus at the same time. We must resist the constant temptation to “assist” the Gospel with our personal opinions and ideas. We must resist the temptation to “editorialize” on the Gospel in any way. We must not add to or take from God’s message, which is Jesus.

Let us lay our self-sufficient intellect in the dust. It is not impressive to God and it should not be impressive to you or anyone else. We are not here to show how theologically intelligent we can be. We are here to lead the world to Jesus. He is the only way of salvation. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

This declaration means that Christ is the only way. Which means that FOCUSING ON Christ is the only way. It is not our “busyness” for Jesus. It is not our works. It is Christ and Christ alone. Other things will flow from faithful allegiance to Christ as a person, but the emphasis must be on Him. And the unity must be in Him. And in nothing else.

The only thing that matters is, do we love and trust Jesus, and are we seeking to please Him with the way that we live. Christ. He is our creed.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

UNION WITH JESUS CHRIST

Union with Jesus Christ is the Gospel. When the true Gospel of Christ is preached and taught, people will know that they can be united with Christ in a relationship of continual intimacy and love. This is not “theology” as that term is usually used. This is a sustained life of spiritual connectedness to “the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). It is connection to our Lord and Savior on a daily basis by faith.

There are numerous metaphors employed in the New Testament writings to describe this wonderful relationship that is available to us in Jesus. The Bible was not written to confuse you. It is given to lead you to Jesus. And that is why simple metaphors are used to illustrate divine truth about Christ.

Jesus used a very simple metaphor, comparing Himself to a vine and His people to branches connected to that vine. “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

The point is that all we are called to do is abide in a relationship of faith and love with Christ Jesus. If we do, living for Him will take care of itself. Focus on Christ and the fact that you are one with Him rather than focusing on “being a better Christian.” That will take care of itself if you focus on Jesus.

Those who accept Christ and sustain their faith in Him in a personal relationship are “a new creation in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17). Our past no longer matters. We are freed from self, sin and Satan in order to serve the Savior. We can focus on where we are going from here with Jesus, not on where we have been.

When we believe that we are united with Jesus, and our trust is in Him, then we are crucified with Christ and “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

Because Christ lives in us in a relationship of love and dependence upon Him, we have access to every aspect of His saving work and we possess all spiritual blessings in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Being “in Christ Jesus” refers to a personal relationship with Him where we depend completely on Him and nothing else. When we do this, we are joined to the Lord, we are united with Him, and we become a temple of God because Christ lives in us by the presence of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17, 19).

Let your identity be found in Christ. He is what matters. He is your salvation and your sanctification. He is everything that you need. Focus on Him every day of your life. You cannot go wrong by keeping your faith and your attention focused on Jesus, the man.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

CHRIST IS EVRYTHING

To read the New Testament to try to find a pattern of form and function for the New Testament church is a mistake. This is where many believers and groups have gone astray. That is not their (the New Testament books) purpose, nor was it ever their purpose. One will seek in vain to find a clear pattern for how to do all things “church” and organization in the Book of Acts and in the Epistles.

The purpose of the New Testament writings is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Once you begin to look for anything other than a personal relationship with Him—how to develop and sustain it—you have gotten distracted into the realm of human philosophy. Systems and patterns and organizations are built upon human reasoning.

The Book of Acts and the Epistles can be used to “support” anything anyone wants them to if they misuse it and “teach” people who do not have a good foundation in the doctrine of Christ. That is why there are so many different religious groups all claiming to follow the same Bible, who do not agree with one another. Jesus has been lost in the process. The focus must be kept upon Him or you strip the Bible of its power. The POWER is tied to the PURPOSE. You must read the Bible for the correct purpose—learning about and knowing Jesus.

The Bible talks about many things that have turned into “isms” among believers instead of being ways to focus upon Jesus personally. Since the Bible talks about sanctification and the kingdom of God and prophecy and Christians assembling together, people build human institutions around these doctrines. They become the dogmas of denominations and people are confused in the process. The reason that there is so much division in the religious world is because of a refusal to stop focusing on things like the second coming or the end times or speaking in tongues or baptism or church organization.

If we would steadfastly stay focused on Christ, the kind of division that we see in the world of Christendom would be impossible. None of these doctrines matter in and of themselves. They do not stand alone, and the moment you begin to be distracted by them, which manifests itself in thinking about these doctrines specifically separated from Christ Himself, then you play into the hands of the enemy, who wants you to think about anything other than Jesus.

Consider that there is so much talk today among Evangelicals about the “Kingdom of God.” It is certainly true that the Bible has much to say about God’s kingdom. Old Testament predictions and prophecies were made concerning it and the New Testament speaks of it as something coming up soon (Matthew 3:1-2; 4:17; Mark 9:1), then turns to speaking of it as a present reality in the epistles (Colossians 1:13).

But as the story unfolds, and as more revelation is given throughout the New Testament record, we come to see that the kingdom of God is not an “it” at all. It is Jesus Christ Himself. That’s right. What is the kingdom of God? It is Jesus. He is God’s rule and reign and revelation.

He said the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). Yet, the only thing within the believer is Christ (Galatians 2:20). And so we should see it and view it in that way. We don’t need books or denominations built solely around a metaphor. We need to trust in Christ and focus on Him and Him alone. Then we will be living in the kingdom of God.

Consider a doctrine such as justification. Much ink has been spilled over the doctrine of “justification by faith alone.” And entire denominational systems have been built around this phrase, this doctrine, this “it.”

For a long time now, many believers in Christ will not accept as a brother or sister someone who will not speak emphatically about “justification by faith.” But where does the Bible say that we have to use that terminology? Where does the Bible speak of justification by faith as though it were a thing in itself? It is not.

Justification is Christ. That’s what we should be talking about. We should be listening, not to whether or not a person uses our particular brand of denominational nomenclature, but whether or not they talk about Christ. I want to hear someone say how wonderful Jesus is, and how much they love and trust Him. I don’t need to hear their thoughts, particularly, on “justification by faith.”

And then there is the doctrine of “sanctification.” Much debate and discussion has been engaged in over this concept. Is sanctification synonymous with salvation? Or is it something that occurs subsequent to salvation? And while people argue over that and divide and separate themselves into different camps, it is easy to see that sometimes the Bible speaks of sanctification and salvation synonymously, and sometimes not.

But when you look at the overall doctrine of sanctification, then you see that it is not an “it” at all. It is not a “thing.” It is not even, properly understood, a doctrine that stands alone. It is Christ. He became our sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30). Those who are in Christ, who love Him and share fellowship with Him and focus on Him, have their sanctification. The Holy Spirit lives within them and transforms them into the image of Christ.

They are not doing it themselves. They are “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). And as they behold Him—keep their focus on Him—the Spirit of God changes them into the image of Christ. Sanctification is Christ in us. It is being set apart because we have accepted Christ and He lives within us and we live in Him.

If you argue about sanctification as a doctrine in and of itself—which Christians and “churches” and denominations have done for centuries—then you will be separated from other believers over something that was designed to make you think about Jesus. Not about being “right on sanctification.”

And then there is the “indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” Does He dwell in us through the Word of God? Or does He dwell in us personally and directly? These are foolish, foolish questions. The Holy Spirit is not a doctrine. The Holy Spirit is not an “it” or a “thing.” The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the “indwelling of the Holy Spirit,” is Christ.

The Holy Spirit is in us to form Christ within us (Galatians 4:19). He “testifies” about Jesus (John 15:26) and leads us to think about Jesus. How do you know that you are being led by the Spirit? If you are thinking about Jesus. If you love Christ, then the Holy Spirit is working in you. You have had your “encounter” with the Holy Spirit if Jesus is in you and you are focused on Christ. There should never be a doctrine or an argument or a denominational division over “how” the Holy Spirit dwells within us. It should simply be a matter of Christ. Thinking about and loving Christ. That should be what we are doing and thinking about and talking about.

And what about the celebrated “baptism of the Holy Spirit?” Has there ever been an “it” or a “thing” or a “doctrinal dispute” that has divided believers in God’s community as much as this one has over the “baptism of the Holy Spirit?”

Of course the Bible talks about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, because the baptism of the Holy Spirit makes you one with Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). Some say it is something that only happened to the apostles. Some say it is something that happens when you accept Christ. Some say it is something that happens subsequent to receiving Christ that gives you strength to live for Jesus. And therefore, people are seeking an experience.

And they are asking questions like “how do I know if I have been baptized in the Holy Spirit?” If you receive Jesus and trust in Him and live for Him, then you can be sure that all things which God works through the Holy Spirit has happened to you. All of the things and works He is to do in your life has been done if you are loving and focusing on Jesus. The Spirit is leading you, but you don’t have to think about Him leading you, because He is leading you to think about Christ.

If you are constantly thinking about and talking about the Holy Spirit, then you have nothing in common with the apostles’ doctrine and preaching in the New Testament. Because they talked about Jesus. They preached Christ. If the Holy Spirit is truly in you and working in you, in other words, it will not be manifest in jumping church pews and falling down and speaking in blather that you have psyched yourself up to speak. There are people who love Jesus who participate in all of those things, but they still have nothing to do with the Holy Spirit.

That kind of “manifestation” is not of the Holy Spirit and is divisive among believers. Because not all believers can have that “experience.” No two people, in fact, can have the exact same emotional reactions to something, even if they are similar. Some are very emotional, others are more intellectual and stoic. This has nothing to do with Christianity. These things do not matter.

What matters is love for Christ and focus on Him. The mark of the Christian is not “speaking in tongues.”  The presence of the Spirit in an assembly of God’s people is not “felt” by certain ones, as they say. I have known of situations where churches preached Jesus and focused on Jesus, and yet, because they did not jump and shout, some would say “I don’t feel the presence of the Holy Spirit here.”

Dear friend, anywhere where Jesus is being exalted and talked about and loved, the Holy Spirit is there. So stop thinking and talking about and arguing about and building denominational dogmas around “baptism of the Holy Spirit“ and start talking about Jesus. He is the one we can all unite around. It is “HE who baptizes in the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33) and that is all you need to know. That is the focus of the Holy Spirit – HIM. Jesus. Christ our Lord.

And we need to be careful concerning doctrines about the person and nature of Christ. What the New Testament leads us to do—if you just stay with what is taught in it—is to focus on Christ. The person. To love Him and to grow in your appreciation of who He is, and what He does and what He has done and what He will do.

In a relationship with another human being, for example, you do not have to understand everything about that person. You want to know their personality and the things that they like, and what pleases them, but you do not sit around and argue about the nature of their circulatory system. Or argue about whether they are introverted or extroverted. You don’t get involved in “things” or doctrines or concepts about them. Instead, you just focus on THEM.

Welcome to true Christianity. That is what it is all about. When you focus on Christ, you don’t argue about how to understand His incarnation or His divinity. The “proper way” to think of it, or the “orthodox” position on the virgin birth or Christology as it pertains to the essence of His being, will not be under constant discussion. Denominations have been built around “oneness” versus “Trinitarian” doctrines. These are not “things,” friends. Christ is a person. He is the focus and the center. He is our doctrine. He is the New Covenant. He is what it is all about.

All of us must strive to do a better job of focusing on Jesus and leading others to focus on Jesus. Let’s talk about HIM. Let’s be in love with HIM. A simple person who bows at His feet and annoints His feet with precious oils, and yet understands practically nothing “theologically,” is far more pleasing to God than “theologians” excited about things that engage their curiosity and entertain their intellect, but who never focus on loving Jesus Himself (Luke 7:36-50).

When God is leading, and you are really being directed by Him, then He is leading you to the feet of the Master. The Savior. The Son of God. That is where your attention will be. You will not be talking about earthly kingdoms or the “signs of the times” or “wars and rumors of wars.” These were things that were mentioned during a preparation time. When Jesus was revealing who He is.

Now that we have a completed revelation of Him, both IN the word of God and personally AS the word of God, then our attention and focus should be entirely on Him. God does not lead you to a “thing” or an “institution” or an “organization” or a “denomination.” He does not lead you to a certain position on the “issues.” He does not lead you to what men call “orthodox theology.” Where has all of this gotten us? Where has it led? To endless divisions among the saints of God and endless distractions away from the beauty and glory and majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ.

People want to talk about the Second Coming, and they will build doctrines around the Second Coming and denominations around it. But what is the return of the Lord? It is the return of THE LORD. Paul writes in the Second Thessalonian epistle that Christ is coming to be glorified in His saints (1:10).

The purpose of His coming is that it is HE who is coming. But rather than talking about the wonder and splendor and the majesty of Jesus that we enjoy now, and how the return of Christ and the end of the world will be that time when people will see Christ in all of His beauty and glory—rather than enjoying Him now, and looking forward to enjoying Him even more forever—we would rather talk about who the “antichrist” is or what the situation in Iran or Russia or some other place has to do with the “prophecy“ of the Scriptures.

The answer is nothing. Thinking about world events and what they mean is a distraction. This is the reason that Jesus gave no signs of His return. He was leading people to focus on Himself. So all of these “isms”—premillennialism, preterism, dispensationalism, pre-tribulation versus post-tribulation “rapture,” etc.—are a foolish waste of time. And they are a distraction from what is important and what matters. That is Christ and Christ alone. Only He matters. Not prophecies or doctrines. But Christ.

We are talking about the focus of our lives. We are talking about what our lives are all about. There are people who are worried and distracted about “many things“ (Luke 10:41-42), and who are thinking about ideas and concepts concerning “doctrine.” Don’t do that. Think about Christ. Because biblical knowledge alone—and especially speculation when it comes to certain mysterious “prophecies” in the Bible—will distract you from a living reliance on and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Some who have all of these doctrines in their minds and “know” so many things have no personal development and growth in Christ. They can sit around and talk about doctrines all day, but talking about Jesus is a foreign concept. People are too often uncomfortable talking about Christ Himself. Watch them. Observe. They can talk about “doctrines” in the Bible, but when it comes to the splendor and majesty of Jesus Himself, to which the Bible points, it is as though their tongues have been taken from them. They have nothing to say. Why? Because that is not what they have been thinking about. They have not been thinking about Christ. When you think about Christ, you will talk about Christ. It’s as simple as that.

Watch when a renowned “prophecy expert” comes to speak somewhere. Watch when someone comes to talk about how to “live your best life” or the “financial promises of God.” Watch how notebooks come out and people receive these teachings with eager anticipation.

Listen when a writer talks about how the current president is “God’s chosen man” to lead us into whatever it is they believe is coming. Watch when they talk about the things going on in Palestine, and when they talk about how Israel as a nation from a fleshly standpoint is possessive of the “chosen people of God.” This is what they want to talk about.

Go in and start talking about the fact that he who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as Jesus Himself is pure (1 John 3:3) and how the hope of Israel and the hope of the Gospel and the hope of the world and the fulfillment of prophecy is Jesus the person, and the interest will subside among many, if not most, believers. The excitement over Jesus Himself is not there. But the excitement over doctrines and ideas and things and isms is always there because it appeals to the fleshly nature.

Someone offers an objection, though, that Hebrews tells us to leave the elementary things about Christ and move on to maturity (Hebrews 6:1). But if you think that loving fellowship with Christ, and focusing on Christ, is what the Hebrews writer meant by “elementary things,” then there is your problem. You do not see what the depths of Christianity are all about.

They wanted to return to the very things you are obsessed with. They wanted to return to doctrines and ideas and concepts, while the Book of Hebrews, as well as every piece of writing in the New Testament, was leading them to Christ the person. When you have the wonder and amazing joy of Christ Himself—when He, the person, is your focus—you have moved on to “maturity” and are where you are supposed to be.

When Jesus came to raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11), Martha ran out to meet Him, and she told Jesus that she believed in the resurrection. She was talking about the doctrine of the resurrection. “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her. “I know he will be raised again at the last day,” she replied. And then do you remember what Jesus said to her? “I AM the resurrection and the life.”

Do you see how our Savior took her from a doctrine to a person? He brought her focus from a “belief” to Himself.  She believed in the resurrection at the end of time, and that is a good thing. But what she needed to understand was that believing in Jesus Himself is what matters. Always move from the doctrinal to the personal. It is not about believing the right things, it is about knowing the right person.

All things are in Christ. You are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10). He is to be formed in you. That is the true gospel of Christ and that is true Christianity. Imbibe from the fountains of men and focus on their shallow doctrines if you wish. But you will only be a Christian of depth and maturity when Jesus alone is what matters to you.

                   Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

MARRIAGE, DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE (1) — LAYING THE GROUNDWORK

God does not deal in guilt. The devil does. And yet, when it comes to considerations concerning marriage, and, particularly, divorce and remarriage, many believers are bound by guilt and overcome with despair. And what many religious  leaders teach does not help or bring any light on the matter. It just causes more guilt and confusion.

In this series of articles about marriage, divorce, and remarriage (MDR), we will seek to provide some biblical clarity on these issues. Believers need to be focused on Jesus, and when you are distracted by worry over certain doctrines because of things that misguided people have taught, then we need to deal with that and get that out of your head so that you can return to a Christ-centered focus on His grace and His love as you move forward with your life.

One of the most common errors in some circles on this matter is the teaching that if a person gets remarried after a divorce then it is possible for them to “live in sin” with their new spouse. Some even refer to this as an on-going state of “living in adultery.” Did Jesus or the apostles teach any such thing? No, they did not.

Listen to some preachers and teachers talk, to some of the self-assigned “defenders of the faith,” and you will find a doctrine that goes like this: If a Christian woman, who is faithful to her husband, starts being abused by him verbally and even physically, and she divorces him for those reasons, she can never get remarried as long as she lives. She may be twenty-five years old when she has to leave the marriage because of the abuse. Doesn’t matter. To legalistic “Bible teachers,” she can never, with God’s approval, get married again. That is what these brethren believe.

They also believe this: A young man and woman get married right out of high school, and it doesn’t work out. Neither of them committed adultery; they were just too immature when they married, and so they divorce and go their separate ways.

The young woman later finds a good man, they get married and have five children. Years later, she and her husband come to Jesus Christ for salvation and decide to live the Christian life. According to these teachers, this couple would have to get divorced to even become Christians because they are “living in an adulterous marriage.”

You have to repent of your sins, after all, to be saved, and since—according to these teachers—this whole marriage is a sin (because you can only get divorced if your spouse “cheats on you” sexually), then in order to repent of their sins, they must divorce. They are “not married in the eyes of God” but are only “living in adultery.”

But they have five kids! Doesn’t matter. It would not matter if the couple had been married for sixty-five years and had twenty grandchildren. Legalism doesn’t care what it does to people’s lives. It’s all about obeying “the rules.” The man-made rules.

People with good sense hear this and think, “Who could possibly believe this foolishness?” But believe me, they claim to believe it and they do believe it. And they preach it and they break up families over it.

They also believe this: If a man divorces his wife because he doesn’t like her anymore, he can never get married again. But if, instead of divorcing her, he murders her, then he CAN get married again, because he “has no living wife.”

Very few of them are honest enough to admit that this is what they believe, unless you press them hard on it, but it is. They cannot avoid this position, because it is the only logical conclusion to the positions they have taken.

According to them, the fact is, his wife is dead (even though he is the one who killed her), and death is, according to their doctrine, one of the only two reasons God gave for a marriage to end (adultery being the other one). So regardless of how she died, she is dead. And if he repents of his sin of murder, he can marry again and be perfectly fine in the sight of God in his new marriage. And even if he does not repent of the murder, his new marriage is still an acceptable marriage in “the eyes of God” even if he is not saved.

Maybe through a “pen pal program” in the prison, he meets the right woman and marries her. That is acceptable to God. So the man who murdered his wife can get married again, but the woman who divorced her husband because he was abusive can never get married again.

So this horrible view, ultimately, says it is better to murder your spouse than to just divorce them. I am telling you, these kinds of MDR doctrines are nuts.

That is the fruit of the belief that “God gave only two reasons for a marriage to end: adultery or death.” If your marriage did not end for one of those two reasons, then you can never get married again. If your marriage did end for one of those two reasons, then you are good to go. Provided, that is, that you are not the one who committed adultery.

You see, the “guilty party” who committed the adultery can be divorced by his or her mate, and that mate is free to go and find a new husband or wife. But the “guilty party” (another man-made term) cannot repent of their adultery and decide to do better in a future marriage. They can never get married again. Why? Because to do so would put them in a position where they would be living in an “adulterous marriage.”

Now, even people who don’t study the Bible know what adultery is and that it has to be committed against a mate. If two “unmarried” people have sex, no one would say that they are committing adultery. You have to have a mate to commit adultery. You have to be married to commit adultery. Two single people cannot commit adultery. They commit fornication. But only someone with a spouse can commit adultery. If a person has no spouse, then they cannot commit adultery against the spouse that they do not have.

It is difficult to keep a moderate attitude when dealing with something so foolish, and I hate to lay it out in such plain terms because it shows the utter stupidity to which these views lead. But it must be done. Anything that leads to an illogical conclusion is not a logical position. Any teaching that leads to error is erroneous teaching. We will consider this matter further.

    Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

GROWING UP IN THE LORD

Choosing to trust in Christ for your salvation means choosing to accept Him as your Savior. It means to believe that what He did for salvation, He did for you. And when we receive Him as Savior, we receive Him as Lord. You entrust your soul to Him and your life to Him and try to live the way He wants you to live. No one does that perfectly, but we can all do it faithfully.

So being saved means being a disciple of Jesus. A disciple is someone who learns from and follows another. Therefore, the Christian life is not something where you remain in spiritual infancy. If we are truly following Christ, then we will be growing in our relationship with Him. Because we are to “grow up in Christ” (Eph. 4:15).

Being a mature Christian, growing up in the Lord, is not something that we accomplish by our own good deeds or self-effort. It is depending upon God every day of our lives, rather than on ourselves. Without Jesus, we can do nothing (John 15:5). And that includes growing in the Christian life. Only His power can do that in us and through us, but it only will when we allow it to.

A tree must have strong roots in order to grow and produce fruit. The nourishment and power is found in what we are rooted in. The power is found in a personal relationship with Christ Jesus. Focusing on Christ and loving Him. If we are rooted and grounded in Him, we will grow up in all things (Colossians 2:7).

How does this growth take place? Growth happens naturally when things are healthy. We need to be healthy in our walk with Jesus. We need to focus on “sound doctrine,” which literally means healthy teaching (2 Tim. 1:13; Titus 2:1).

Focus on the teachings of Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to apply them in your life. Depend on Jesus to give you the strength that you need every day to please Him. And, of course, diet is essential to growth. So we are to “desire the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word” so that we may grow up in our relationship with Christ (1 Peter 2:2-3).

By maintaining intimate dependence upon Jesus daily, we will grow as believers individually. And when you have a group of individuals growing up in Christ, then the body of Christ is built up. The fellowship and community of believers grows by individuals growing into maturity. The goal of walking with Jesus, in principle, is always to “reach the unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, coming to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

When we grow spiritually, it shows that we are rooted and connected to Jesus. A believer who never learns and grows does not represent a personal relationship with Christ to others. We will bear fruit if we abide in Him as the power source of our lives and that is what proves that we are His disciples (John 15:8). Start from where you are and grow in Christ by feeding on Him and His word daily, walking in faith, and keeping Jesus at the center of your thoughts. This is the life that glorifies Him.

     Bryan Dewayne Dunaway