"There is a dangerous and entirely baseless sentiment abroad which assumes that every teaching of Christ must be binding during this age simply because Christ said it. The fact is forgotten that Christ, while living under, keeping, and applying the law of Moses, also taught the principles of His yet future kingdom, and, at the end of His ministry and in relation to His cross, He also anticipated the teachings of grace. If this three-fold division of the teachings of Christ is not recognized, there can be nothing but confusion of mind and consequent contradiction of truth."
– Lewis Sperry Chafer, Grace

There are three separate systems that Jesus taught while he was here on earth: The law from Moses, the law of the Messiah's kingdom, and the teachings of Grace.  It is very important that these three systems not be mixed and this is why:

A misunderstanding about the system God is expecting us to live by today can stop a Christian's effectiveness in the world.  We can expect that Satan would use these misunderstandings to frustrate the work of Jesus on the earth today.  Not only this, but attempting to live by an inappropriate system can lead to a frustrating life as a Christian instead of the promised abundant and victorious life (even in physical suffering.)   So, which system are we in now?

It is important to know that the system that we now live under was described in the upper room by Jesus to his disciples (John 14), and later, was explained in the doctrine of the New Testament by the disciples.  Paul was the one who was given the greatest work in this area of Bible-writing.  The system that we live under can be called:  "Grace."  The age we live in is often called the "Age of Grace."  But why would following one of the other systems have such a bad affect on Grace?

Both the law from Moses and the law of the Messiah's Kingdom are legal systems.  Grace, on the other hand, is not.  In fact, attempting to follow a legal system with Grace, corrupts the both systems (Galatians 2: 18-21).  One of the key elements of legal systems is that they condition the government’s favor on your performance (Leviticus 26).  You have to fulfill "your end of the deal."  Christianity, however, does not work like this.  Your blessing is based on Christ’s performance (Romans 8: 3, 4) .  The closest thing to "your end of the deal" is that you must believe and accept his work for you (John 6: 29).  If you attempt to do anything to secure your position with God you fall away from Grace (Galatians 5:4).

Christians can be confused by false teaching.  Some of these false teachers may not even realize that that is what they are, but even if they don’t, we are told as believers to watch out for them.  False teachers teach wrong things about Jesus; why He came and what He did.  These teachers seem like very good people and are nice on the outside.

Live by Grace and live in victory.  For more information on this read “Grace” by Lewis Sperry Chafer.

For most of my life I was confused when I read the Bible.  It was difficult to understand what God was expecting of me.  It seemed to depend on where I was reading as to what God really wanted of me.

I remember when I finally understood Galatians and Romans for the first time and how it completely altered my life.  I knew that I had come upon a very important understanding regarding Grace and Legalism and that it had powerful consequences in me.  Still, I was confused as I read the Bible.  How could the Bible be promoting so many rules, and not be suggesting that I follow them like a law to make God happy?

About two years ago, God, in his providence, planned for me to stumble upon the works of Miles J. Stanford on the web.  Miles describes a big problem that he was witnessing in Christianity at the time regarding an appropriate understanding of something called Dispensationalism.  I know it must not be a huge topic, because my word processor can’t even spell check it; however, this used to be an important topic 100 years ago and I believe that it is very important for us today.

Mr. Stanford lead me to another Bible teacher named Lewis Sperry Chafer.  Dr. Chafer was the founder and president of Dallas Theological Seminary.  He had a great deal of important things to say about Dispensationalism.  I plan on talking about this subject at length on this blog, but for now, I wanted to explain the connection that it has with understanding what the Bible says to us personally.

An important thing to remember about the Bible is that even though all of the Bible was written for us, not all of it was written to us.

It is very important to remember this when reading the Bible.  Context of what you are reading is an issue.  When you read the Bible, try to remember who is talking and who they were talking to.  Were they writing to Christians or were they writing to the Jews before Christ?  Another important thing to remember is: Was this written before or after the Holy Spirit was given to reside in people?  When Jesus is speaking, is he talking to a Jewish person, to a Gentile, or to his very soon to be Church leaders?  I think you will find an amazing thing.  Jesus said very different things to different people at different times that often sound contradictory.  They weren’t contradictory at all as it turns out.

I hope that on this web site we can discuss some of these seeming discrepancies together as believers and see the truth that God has for us about what he means.  It has become a big eye-opener to me.

Over the years that the Bible covers, God worked with humanity in different ways.  The three great government systems that the Bible discusses are:

• The Law of Moses
• The Kindom Law of the Messiah
• The Teachings of Grace

I plan to discuss these different government systems on other posts.  The important point today is to remember to not read every verse as one that is written to you.  Some of the verses were written for people of other times to follow.  Pay careful attention to the context: who is talking, and to whom.  And, as always, make sure you check out what I am saying against what God’s Word says, and then let me know.  If I’m wrong about something I will need your prayer and help too.