Once a person realizes what sin is, a sense of helplessness and fear sets in because sin is so heavy, so ever present, and so unconquerable. Knowing that we are being dragged toward the pit of hell by our own selfishness, we scream within for release.
This inner struggle to be free from self is motivating all of humanity because 1) every human is created in God's holy image (Gen. 1:26; John 1:9) and 2) every human is born a slave to sin (Rom. 7:14). Hence, the inner struggle in every unregenerated man is between that which wants to fulfill its created purpose to be holy and that which wants to rebel and do its own thing (Rom. 7:14). As this struggle becomes more evident in people's lives, they will become more and more frustrated with their own unhappiness (Rom. 7:15 24).
The dilemma then is that every man has two spiritual influences pulling in opposite directions within him: 1) a godly conscience to do right because he is created in God's image (John 1:9, Romans 1:19) and 2) Sin because he was born a descendant of Adam (I Cor. 15:22). Whether people realize it or not, this inner struggle to be free from self and at peace with God through obedience affects everyone.
We Christians who understand the nature of Sin should understand the source of human unhappiness. But non Christians do not understand why they are unhappy. So they turn to sex, drugs, materialism, hobbies, religion, civic involvement, or whatever to fill their inner need for true satisfaction and peace but they never find it outside of Christ.
Unhappiness, unfulfillment, and Sin--how can someone break free? We can't save ourselves by being "better." We can't escape via worldly pleasures and distractions. So what is someone to do? Jump off a bridge? No, for the great, good news of Jesus Christ is that while we can never rid ourselves of the frustration and pain of sin, JESUS CAN AND WILL TAKE IT ALL AWAY if we will just allow Him to! (John 1:9).
Faith is the belief in the unseen as fact. Sin is the will to do our own will. When we let go of our own life and give it totally to Him, HE SETS US FREE. Free from sin (the self will). Free from worry about tomorrow (we don't know what tomorrow holds but we know who holds our tomorrows). Free from concern over our physical circumstances (well off or poor, sick or well, we know He loves us and will bring us through).
In Christ there is total freedom to serve God at His will for His pleasure rather than the frustrating self will of Sin and fleshly pleasure.
To many, this may sound crazy, for if we can not do anything by our own power to be set free from sin, how can God do this for us? The answer is found in one wonderful word: GRACE. This one part of the character of God makes all things possible.
At the point of sin's greatest despair God says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, least any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8 9). This verse is the basis for our study on GRACE. We are going to look at it in depth to fully understand just what God's amazing grace is.
First, "not of works" tells us that our works (doing better, changing our bad habits to good ones, etc.) can never save us. If they could, we would be saving ourselves, boasting before God of what we have done and how good we are. From our study of sin we can see that "saving ourselves by good works" is self justification, void of faith and thus sinful.
Next, "by grace are ye saved through faith" shows there must be faith to be saved. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand" (Romans 5:1 2). We see then that God's grace comes to us not by our works but by our faith, for without faith grace can not be in effect.
Third, notice that "our" faith is "not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." God gives us our faith as a free gift. There is nothing we can do to earn this faith, but once God gives it to us it is ours and we have the responsibility to exercise it.
God's mercy is also involved here because we can never deserve this free gift of faith. Through His mercy, He gives us the faith so we can believe and have access into His saving grace giving us power over sin.
We need God's grace because we are totally helpless to save ourselves and be at peace with God. God's peace is needed to have peace within. Peace within is need because it stills the motivating drive of humanity which leads us to seek satisfaction through drugs, sex, do goodism, etc. This frees us to believe that "God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6). This means that God Himself becomes the rewarder and the reward. Knowing Him becomes eternal life, happiness, joy, and total fulfillment of every human desire (John 17:3).
At this point we should take a little space to talk about this faith through which saving grace comes. As Ephesians 2:8 and Romans 5:1 2 have shown, the grace which God wants to give us can not come unless there is faith. This kind of faith is called "saving faith" and is a gift from God. However, there is a specific way this gift of faith comes to us.
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Romans 10:13 14). "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).
God's gift of faith comes to us by personal contact between a "preacher" and a listener with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Be it through a sermon, a Sunday school lesson, a personal witness, or reading the scriptures or other material under the influence of the Holy Spirit, there is always contact between two persons. There must be a hearing of God's word within the "ear of the heart."
This is why personal evangelism is at the heart of the great commission in Matt. 28:19 20, "Go ye, and teach."
Faith comes by hearing. But we also need to know what, or who, this faith is in. Under our discussion of the nature of faith, we said that faith is only valid or real when it is based upon true spiritual reality. Based upon scripture, we pointed out that Jesus is God and that He is the only complete spiritual reality. Thus, saving faith is belief in the fact that Jesus is Almighty God (Rev. 1:8, 17 18; Isaiah 44:6).
The gift of faith God gives is the revelation of the spiritual "mystery" of Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. It is the fact that the very identity of God has been kept secret from mankind (Judges 13:18) that has necessitated preaching (I Cor. 1:21).
Reading the Bible without the anointing of the Holy Spirit will not tell anyone who God is. The world is full of intellectuals and simpletons alike who have read the Bible from cover to cover and are more confused now about who God is than before they read it. God's gift of faith is simply to tell us WHO HE IS so that we may believe in Him!
We can not call on God by His name unless we know who He is. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13). Someone has got to preach to us with the anointing of the Spirit working in our heart to reveal to us that Jesus is our Lord and our God (John 20:28). We can't find this out on our own for it is a gift. As Jesus told His disciples, "unto you it is GIVEN to know the mystery of the kingdom of God" (Mark 4:11).
Romans 16:24 26 sums it all up. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But is now made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith."
It is God alone who can reveal Himself to us (Luke 10:22) and give us saving faith the faith that believes Jesus Christ is God Himself come to live and die among and for mankind. "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, raised up into glory" (I Tim. 1:16). We Christians believe this and accept it as spiritual fact by faith. "Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience" (I Tim 3:9). "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of the mystery among the gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).
In covering "saving faith," there is one more major ingredient we need to look at. In the verse "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," we have covered the words "call" and "name." Now we need to cover the word "Lord."
The saving faith God gives us in knowing Himself (Jesus) is not an intellectual thing, it's a heart thing. Not only is Jesus God He is also Lord. We must not only believe in Christ's deity but also submit to His Lordship. Notice, I did not say we have to accept His Lordship. I said we must submit to it.
Jesus is Lord, and sinners are in rebellion to His Lordship because they are their own lord. They need to surrender their wills to Christ and ask Him to accept them. Sinners do not "accept" Jesus; they submit themselves to His authority and Lordship and follow Him. If they don't, they remain in rebellion and thus at war with God (Matt. 12:30). To call upon the name of the Lord within the context and meaning of scripture is to cry out in surrender to Jesus as Lord. If we do not come under the Lordship of Christ, we do not have saving faith and resultant grace.
Consider the following verses on Lordship. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus....thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9). "Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:39). "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him" (Col. 2:6). "As ye became followers of us, and of the Lord" (I Thes. 1:6). "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name [Jesus is Lord] under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13).
Has God through the Holy Spirit revealed Himself to you? Do you know who He is? He is Jesus Christ the Lord (Deut. 6:4). Have you received God's gift Himself? Have you bowed before Jesus and said, "My Lord and my God?
As we go from our study of faith into our study of grace, keep in mind that without faith there can be no grace and thus no salvation. "Therefore it [salvation] is of faith, that it might be by grace" (Rom. 4:16). "We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand" (Rom. 5:2).
What is grace and what is it for? Let's answer the last part of this question first. Grace is for us; that is to say, it is not against us. The Law is against us, and the heart of the Law is works. The Law kills, but grace gives life (II Cor. 3:6)
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith [in the Lordship of Jesus] without the deeds of the law" (Rom. 3:20 28).
This is the best news we will ever hear! When we were rebels fighting God's will for our lives, we were His enemies. We owed Him a great debt for all the trouble and destruction we had done to His Kingdom. A debt that included the murder of Jesus for it was our Sin that put Him on the cross. A debt we could never pay off.
This is why there is no such thing as purgatory, because the sin we've committed can never be "worked off." Yet God demands that our sin and debt be paid! Dilemma, dilemma? No! "Mercy and Grace," shouts God's love!
God says that if we will only admit our sin, say we are sorry, and turn from it to serve Him, He will lay all our sins against Him on the very one we murdered, Jesus, who is God Himself. "And they shall look upon ME whom they have pierced" (Zech. 12:10). "For he hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (II Cor. 5:21).
"But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (for by grace ye are saved)" (Eph. 2:4 5). "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross" (Col. 2:13 14). Therefore salvation from our Sin and from eternal death does not come to us by good deeds or keeping any law, but by God's mercy and grace.
Saving faith is a wonderful gift but it is but the stepping stone of access into the fountain of God's grace! Grace pays the debt, the grace that is the precious all powerful BLOOD of Jesus Christ! The power that breaks the bonds of sin, death, and hell is the blood of Jesus poured forth to pay for your sin and mine, and take away our rebellion to God's love. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God" (I Cor. 1:18).
Salvation is God's--in totality (Psalm 3:8). It is not for purchase, barter or sale! It has no price fixed upon it because it is priceless, not cheap. It is God's gift, which is Jesus, who is God, and God is not for sale! "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation....And the Word was God...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (Isaiah 12:2; John 1:1 & 14)
The nature of grace is the nature of God Himself. God's grace expressed in Jesus Christ is the greatest expression of God's love, and "God is love" (I John 4:8). So what is our definition of grace? It is simply JESUS! "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" (Titus 2:11). "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17)
Just as the nature of Sin is the "I desire" within the heart of each of us, Jesus the express image of the invisible God is the nature of grace (Heb. 1:3, Col. 1:15). "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom [heart] of the father, he hath declared him" (John 1:18).
We are saved by Jesus (Acts 4:12), we are saved by grace (Eph. 2:8). Are there two "saving agents?" No, for Jesus and grace are one and the same. God's grace appeared when the Word of God became flesh!
Grace is a simple little word, but it has a very specific meaning within the context of the Christian theology of redemption. To grasp this meaning, one needs to understand the Greek and Hebrew words which are translated as "grace" in the Old and New Testaments.
The examination of the original Greek and Hebrew words for grace reveals that these words can be taken several ways, but "unmerited favor" is not one of them. To most Church people, this is surprising because the standard phrase given from the pulpit as the definition of grace is "God's unmerited favor." But this is not correct.
The Old Testament Hebrew word "chen" is translated into several English words such as "precious" (Prov. 17:8), "pleasant" (Prov. 5:19), and "grace" (Gen. 6:8). In the New Testament, "charis" is the Greek word translated "grace" in Eph. 2:8, "gift" in II Cor. 8:4, and "favour" in Luke 1:30. In and of themselves these Greek and Hebrew words do not imply anything unmerited (a negative term). They do imply or state "free" (a positive term) as a free gift or free grace, but there is a vast difference between free and unmerited.
"Charis" (grace) is a gift freely given by God. God's gift and God's grace are the same as made manifest through the revelation and mystery of Himself in Jesus Christ. A simple word study using a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, which includes Hebrew English Greek dictionary, gives a true definition of grace. God's grace is: "The divine influence upon the heart [the person of Christ at work], and its [His] reflection in the life [the things He causes us to do].
Grace is "The divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life." This means that grace is a divine power within a person which causes him to act right. Grace is God's action. Grace is not "God's unmerited favor" because grace is not an attitude.
Grace is the active force of the person of Jesus Christ living within us to keep us saved and in victory over sin. Grace is not an attitude of God by which He "copes" with our sin.
Grace has power, and it works. This is why the scriptures say, "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). Grace is the divine influence the will of God, and its reflection in the life the doing of holiness. This is what Ephesians 2:10 is telling us. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Paul is telling us that grace brings about action, and that if there is no action there is no grace! If grace is in our hearts, Jesus will be doing the works of the Father!
Listen, the concept of grace being unmerited favor could not be farther from truth! John 1:14 states that JESUS was full of "GRACE and truth." The same Greek word is used here as in Ephesians 2:8. Are we to then assume Jesus needed unmerited favor? Of course not! Jesus was being described in this verse as full of "God's power (the divine influence in its totality) and all truth." And rightly so "for in him [Jesus] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9).
Luke 2:40 states, "And the child [Jesus] grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him." Here again the same Greek word "charis" is used. How ludicrous to think that the incarnate Word of God needed "unmerited favor!" This verse is saying that the power of God was upon Him.
Look at Acts 4:33. "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all." This is not talking about "great unmerited favor," but great power/great grace. The terms are synonymous!
Charis" is used in several ways. One is "favour" (a positive term). But to arbitrarily connect the word unmerited with "charis" (favour) is not within the meaning of the Greek and is totally unbiblical! Unmerited IS connected with MERCY (something undeserved) but not with grace.
Again, grace can be connected with free, but as we stated earlier, free and unmerited have vastly different connotations.
Let's look at Luke 1:28 where the angel told Mary she was "highly favored," two positive terms. The word "favored" in the Greek here is "charitoo" from the root "charis." If we are to accept the "grace = unmerited favour" concept, the angel would have been telling Mary she was "highly unmerited favored." For Mary to have received highly unmerited favour would have meant that God had chosen the most wicked, unholy, unfaithful woman He could have found to be the mother of Jesus.
How opposite this interpretation would be from the true meaning of scripture. Mary was chosen and "highly favored" because she was so pure, wholesome, and full of FAITH!
FAITH brings favour and grace! Wickedness and rebellion do not bring favour and grace but disfavor and the judgment of God. Grace then is merited favour because of FAITH, not unmerited favour because of SIN!
Please don't misunderstand! I am not saying we can earn or be owed God's grace by anything we do. We are saying that we first receive Saving Faith as a gift of God and that because of that gift (faith in and peace with Jesus as our Lord), God sees us "favorably," "clean," and "righteous," which then merits His free grace (abiding person, and power) in our lives (Titus 2:11 14, Eph. 4:7, Romans 5:13 17).
It is vitally important for us to realize that a Christian is a saint, not a sinner. Because of the blood of the Lord Jesus, we, through faith in that blood, have been made actually clean and righteous. God does not make believe we are righteous. He actually makes us righteous (I John 3:3 10; I Peter 4:1 2; Phil. 3:9).
When Romans 3:10 says "there is none righteous, no, not one" it is saying there is no sinner who is righteous in his own right or by his own actions. In contrast to this, I John 3:7 says that a child of God is actually righteous, "even as he [Christ] is righteous."
Grace is the holy power of God working within a person's heart and out through his physical life causing him to live free from the domination of sin. Without this grace which empowers us to live a life of holiness, we would not make it to heaven for only clean living, holy people will be allowed in heaven. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14).
The grace of God is the power of God unto salvation from, and victory over, sin. Those individuals who have become partakers of God's grace are not white washed sinners. They are new creations from the inside out. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Cor. 5:17).
It is the saints who will inherit the Kingdom of God. A saint is someone who has become a new creature after the image of Christ. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son [Jesus], that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24).
Only the power that is in the grace of God can change a sinner into a holy saint. Romans 5:19 states that as through Adam all humanity was made actual sinners, through Christ all can be made actually righteous. "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you...For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:10 11,14).
The grace of God, His power and influence in our lives, is that which makes us His by radically changing us within. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (I John 3:9). "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world" (I John 4:17).
We are saved by grace, the power of God working within our heart, which causes us to live righteously. By being born of the Spirit we lose the love of the world (self) and gain the love of righteousness. We become like minded with our heavenly Father. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (I John 2:15).
Thank God for His grace, His divine influence, for it is the only way I can be changed in my heart from a selfish sinner to a Christ like saint. And that must happen to be a part of His Kingdom. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it" (I Thes. 5:23 24).
We in the Church today need to quit listening to those who rape the gospel of its sin purging power! The liberal church of our day is adopting two half truths, which makes them lies. These two lies are part of the humanistic gospel of self interest. They are 1) that sin is the willful transgression of the revealed will of God and 2) that grace is the unmerited favour of God. These two teachings, especially when used in conjunction with the false doctrine of unconditional eternal security, have constituted the "license to sin."
I once heard Kenneth Copeland say over the radio that "people don't need a license to sin, they have been sinning without one just fine." He stated this to counter the assertion by some that he preached a "permissive" gospel. Well, however "cute" this statement was, he missed a vital point. Yes, people have been sinning just fine without a license, which is exactly the problem! GOD DOESN'T WANT PEOPLE SINNING AT ALL, with or without a license! And He surely does not deal with sin by simply ignoring it (i.e. seeing Jesus and not our Sin by some unmerited favor)!
God does not send "sinners" to hell for sinning and then turn around and send "Christians" who are sinning to heaven because He has ignored or made believe they were not. If people don't need a license to sin because they are already doing it, then why are so many in the church insisting on fabricating doctrines that give people the excuse to sin under the pretense of "God's love!"
What a travesty to God's holiness and the all powerful, sin destroying power of the sanctifying blood of Jesus Christ! "For this purpose the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works [both the root and fruit] of the devil [Sin]" (I John 3:8).
These devilish lies misrepresent God and mislead people. These two half truths produce two results. First, people who are actually sinning and breaking God's holy moral code don't think they are sinning because they don't "think" or "feel" that what they are doing is wrong. They say, "My smoking pot is not sin because God has not 'revealed' that to me. When God 'tells' me it's wrong I'll quit." They merrily continue on their way to hell.
Second, once people see they're sinning they use the second excuse which is, "Hey, I'm saved by grace (unmerited favour) so I don't need to worry about going to hell. God doesn't see my sin any more, He just sees Jesus. After all, we all sin everyday in thought, word, or deed. And don't forget, one sin is just as bad as another, you know. I'm just saved by God's unmerited grace, and how unmerited it is, too, because I sure do sin a lot!" Those of this mentality are also deceived and are still on the road to Hell!
God's grace is not His unmerited favour. It is exactly what it is stated to be in Ephesians 2:8 10, THE DIVINE INFLUENCE UPON THE HEART AND ITS REFLECTION IN THE LIFE.
Grace is God at work, Christ at work, the Holy Spirit at work! Through faith in the Lord Jesus we have access into the grace, PERSON, AND POWER of God (I Peter 1:5). It is that power from the crucified and risen Lord of lords that is eternal life.
Our power over sin, our light and eternal life comes to and through us by the indwelling Holy Spirit of Christ. "He that has the Son has life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (I John 5:12).
Do you know what sin really is? Have you repented of your sin? Do you understand faith, in particular saving faith? Has God given you that faith as a gift, the faith that is in Jesus as your Lord and God? Have you told Jesus you love Him supremely and that you will follow Him for the rest of your life? If the answers are all yes, then be assured that the Grace of God (Jesus) is at work in your heart giving you eternal life! For the gospel of Christ is the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24).
Once we have become partakers of the heavenly gift, we must remain faithful (yielded to His Lordship) so that the life and grace of Christ will remain (Gal. 2:21). As we abide faithful, He keeps us. And the eternal life abiding in us at this moment through the Holy Spirit will be ours irreversibly and completely at Judgment Day (Heb. 12:15, Romans 8:23 25, I Pet. 1:3 5 & 9, I John 5:13, John 15:1 16).
There is nothing amazing about a God or a gospel that only winks at sin and pretends we are saints. But how amazing to know that God Himself can take up residence within the heart of a person sanctifying him in spirit, soul and body (I Thes 5:23)! GOD'S GRACE IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR OUR SIN. IT IS THE EXTERMINATION OF OUR SIN!
Now when we sing "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound," we can truly understand just how amazing it really is! How amazing that God through His gift of faith and free grace can transform a human being to conform to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29)! That's amazing grace.
We can also be very grateful for God's true unmerited favour that He has bestowed upon us through His MERCY in giving us the gift of faith in the first place.
By this time you should have come to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the first three parts of this book. You should have developed a knowledge of and deep love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
With this background we will begin to explore the most despicable bunch of lies that Satan has yet attempted to pawn off on the body of Christ under the guise of "Christian faith." We call it THE GOSPEL OF SELF INTEREST.