On This Day: When Grief and Longing Meet Predestination

   Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:26-29)

   Yesterday, amidst all the smoke and mirrors of this wildfire season, my daughter reminded me of how we love to explore outdoor places with cameras in hand, seeing things that would be unnoticed to us if we were on a determined hike to a chosen destination. At such times, the aim is not to arrive somewhere on a route, but to make the route itself the world we want to explore.

   And so it is that the “golden chain of salvation” demands a keep-stopping-and-looking mindset, not to arrive at a theological conclusion that trumps all others, but to focus on the beauty of words that stand out in such glorious colors, and lighting, and richness, and… LIFE!

   One of the most difficult things for me in meditating on God’s word is keeping in mind what I have already learned as necessary to understanding what I am learning now. This difficulty is heightened by the fact that I am now looking at words that people love to fight over (one side more than the other, as I see it).

   With that in mind, God presenting my heart with “those whom he foreknew” (talking about the saints, believers, God-lovers, God-called) tells me that the children he has been talking about who join with creation and the Spirit in groaning out our griefs about present sufferings, and our longing for future glory, need to know our Father in heaven as not only sovereign over the moment, but sovereign from eternity to eternity.

   What I mean is that our grief in suffering during this life of conflict in the world is fully taken into consideration by God, not as an afterthought he is struggling to deal with, but as a part of the whole plan of God to have a people of his very own.

   And I mean that the longing we have for the glory to be revealed is not something God has promised now that his Plan A got messed up, but something he “predestined” for “those whom he foreknew”.

   The point being that, as we face the sufferings of this present time, and we join with creation in feeling like we are in the pains of labor with the hope of eternal life coming to fruition, it isn’t only that God foreknew his children and we are to just keep that in mind as he helplessly leads us through trials and tribulations that have surprised him.

   No, it is that the foreknowing of his children led to “he also predestined” them. He gave them a destiny. He gave a destiny that cannot be shaken by all the present trials and tribulations that cause such unjust suffering in his foreknown ones.

   And, the destination is not only about a place, as wonderful as that will be, but about a personal attachment to God in which we are restored to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ so that Jesus will be our firstborn brother over his brotherhood of siblings.

   Can you see through this camera lens of meditating on God’s words how comforting it is to know that, in any suffering we experience in Christ, and all the unfulfilled longings we have for the glory that will be ours when Jesus returns, knowing our Father in heaven is working “all things together for good” in the present time, while leading us to the fulfillment of his purposes settled in eternity, is exactly the comfort and encouragement we need to keep setting our minds on the Spirit instead of the flesh?

   Even though I had imagined I would complete this section of the trail called “predestined” in one go, I am so thankful that God put his hand on my shoulder and made me turn around to look at a few things I had already passed so I could see the golden chain of salvation in a clearer way. That will now be on my mind all day as I endure the smoke of this wildfire season, the threats against Jesus’ people, and the longing for when I will be like Jesus when I see him as he is.

 

© 2026 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

On This Day: Foreknown as Fully as it Means

   And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)

   From a young age, conflict shaped how I listened to people tell me what they believed. I wanted to know why they were sure what they believed was better than what another person thought was true. After all, relationships would be affected, and the truth mattered more than picking sides.

   Beginning at the age of 7, I had already settled that believing in God had more going for it than not believing in him. Sixty years later, this same way of thinking has convinced me more than ever that the Bible is the word of God, that the Holy Spirit helps us understand it, and, when we quit imposing our own preferences onto the sacred words, we discover that God delights to share his thoughts with those “who tremble at my word”.

   So it is that my travels through Romans 8 have helped me appreciate more than ever the contrast between life in the Spirit vs life in the flesh, and that the Spirit’s work in God’s children is what enables us to truly understand “the mind of Christ”.

   When this brought me to what it means that the Holy Spirit’s intercession for God’s people “according to the will of God” results in the “all things work together for good” for God’s beloved children, and how that connects with Paul’s “for” that segues into the “golden chain” of redemption, my chief interest was to understand God’s choice of words by what HE means by them.

   What I already shared in the box is the essence of what the words mean. But this is where hearts get exposed. When God shows us the words he breathed-out as Scripture, do we see a humble child within us seeking to “live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”, or do we see a self-willed toddler stamping its feet because it doesn’t like being told what to think on the matter?

   On one side, this is specifically addressing whether we will let God be God and say that he “knew” his people “beforehand”. Will we let ourselves rest there, no matter how mindboggling it sounds to us. Or do we need to hold off on our submission to God until we feel good about it? You know, like it’s still really all about us.

   On the other side, this addresses the growing trend to make the Bible mean what we read in, not what we read out. So many people say God says something when it isn’t even stated. It’s what they say the culture of the time meant, or what they say a word could mean, or what they impose from today onto back then. Or the classic “bait and switch” where they claim that if it says “this” it must mean “that”. And, with a mind trained to listen to why people believe what they claim, I can tell that the “that” is not the “this”!

   All that to say that the word “foreknew” was written to “the saints”, the born again, believers in Jesus Christ, disciples, the beloved children of God. It is a word breathed out by God into Scripture to feed the souls of his children. And receiving what God means by it affects everything.

   Anyone who would say that, if grace abounds where sin abounds shouldn’t we sin more to get more grace, needs a good visit with the one who foreknew us.

   Anyone who says that a born-again child of God can lose their born-againness needs to stop and meditate on what “foreknew” means from God’s perspective.

   Anyone who knows they have repented and trusted in Jesus for salvation but lives in constant fear that they aren’t really loved because they’re not very good needs to stop and listen to this breathed-out word of God: “foreknew”.

   And anyone like me who, as a young teenager was traumatized out of getting baptized because I wasn’t a “good enough” Christian, and was constantly told what a “gutless wonder” I was for believing in Jesus, and who has lost some of the most precious people in the world to me because of trauma bonding to people who don’t know how to love, we can bring all that brokenness, all the wounding, all the trauma, all the attachment-pain, and sit at the feet of Scripture where “foreknew” “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

   Yes, this was never intended to be a theological debate. In one word it tells us that God knew his children as beloved children before creation. That takes in the real history of what kind of lives we have lived and what kind of people we have been because God not only knew, but he knew US!

   And it takes in the real history of the world from creation, to now, to Jesus’ return, and the eternity beyond, with this unchanging reality that, before it all began, God “foreknew” his children. Period. Forever. Settled.

   Now, can we put aside all our arguments, all our traumas, all our insecurities about church fights over words, and talk to our Father in heaven about how we are opening our hearts and minds to receive this word as breathed out by God, and accept that we are known now and forever because we were known as God’s beloved children beforehand?

   Whatever we need to lay at the foot of the throne of grace, the help we will receive to receive God’s word is worth whatever inner turmoil we must face to find our rest in Jesus, and to let his word “dwell in you richly”.

   

© 2026 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When the "Since" of Justification is Ours

   But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 4:23-5:1)

 

   I was surprised to discover that “since we have been justified” is ONE WORD in the Greek! All the grammar is in the form of the word. That means that the word “since” isn’t stated, but is necessitated by the grammar. The NASB translates it, “having been justified by faith”. The sense is clear, that justification is something that has happened and is now in effect.

   The Bible Sense Lexicon definition of justified is, “to be or become judicially vindicated as having complied with the requirements of the law (of God).” This is the wonder of the gift of salvation, that sinners are no longer viewed as sinners, but as “the righteousness of God”. The verse I shared in the box is from II Corinthians 5:21, and it makes clear what Jesus became for us (sin), and what we become in him (the righteousness of God).

   But what this brought up for me is my aged-view of life in the church where so many people have professed to have faith in Jesus Christ but have no experiential peace with God.

   This has been a mystery to me, how people can say they believe in Jesus but are constantly challenging whether God loves them, or their sins are forgiven, or they are accepted in the beloved, or so many other ways of saying, “We don’t believe we are justified by faith”!

   The sad thing in my mind is that anyone who genuinely has faith in Jesus Christ is in a state of peace with God because of this justification by faith, and yet so many do not let themselves rest in that peace. Some won’t even entertain the thought that this is their right in Jesus Christ our Lord. They are too busy trying to measure up in church activities to feel accepted and loved. Or trying to suppress childhood trauma or other painful life experiences as if having “a broken and contrite heart” somehow nullifies the work of Christ to give them peace with God!

   Or (the one that took me a very long time to admit), that some people in the church actually do not want to live publicly as a justified believer in Jesus Christ and so the “God doesn’t love me” stuff is just a diversion, blaming God for the fact that they actually love the world more than him. 

   I can’t describe all the possible scenarios of why someone would profess faith in Jesus Christ and yet not live in experiential peace with God through the objective reality of peace with God through Jesus’ redemptive work.

   However, each of us can assess whether we have embraced this reality Paul describes in genuine faith, or whether we are arguing against it, resisting it, avoiding it, or struggling with hopelessness about how we could ever feel it as true.    

   My testimony is that God has spent decades showing me that he will resolve whatever we need as we seek him in his word and prayer about everything. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17), so building up our faith in what God has accomplished through Jesus’ salvation work comes by meditating on what is written in the Scriptures and applying it to everything going on in us and around us.

   And yes, sitting down for half an hour to read from Romans 1:1 up to Romans 5:1 (and keep going) so we can see for ourselves how certain it is that sinners of every kind can be justified by grace through faith is certainly a good thing to do. It’s not that reading Romans 5:1 repeatedly will build up our faith, but that reading the context, and reading other Scriptures that speak of the same things, and telling God we believe him even where we don’t understand, will keep building up our faith as we take these things to heart.

   Do you know peace with God in the way Paul describes? Praise him that he alone could accomplish and apply such a wonder. Do you feel like a stranger to this teaching that you become “the righteousness of God” by faith because Jesus became sin for us? Praise God that it is true anyway, and tell God how much you are hungering and thirsting to know this righteousness. He promises to satisfy that hunger and thirst, and a big part of doing so is simply convincing us of what he has already done. 

 

© 2026 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The Only Way to be Justifiably Righteous

   But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:21-25)

   With the proliferation of influencers trying to tell us what the Bible does and does not mean, and the ongoing controversies over every topic of the Bible, one thing is standing out very clearly: some people show what the Bible says and means and use Scripture to interpret Scripture, while others show what they believe the Bible means and then treat their opinions like that’s what the Bible says.

   Sometimes these contrasts are evident simply because a topic is popular and we can tell which sides use “the whole counsel of God”, and which sides add and remove without regard for what God breathed out in his own words.

   And no one seems to spend more time at center stage than Paul. And Romans? Well, let’s just say that the government’s hatred of Romans speaks for itself!

   All that to say that, as I journey through Romans 3 and consider what Paul teaches about justification by grace through faith, I have this very sad marveling feeling that people can “tamper” with God’s word so freely as they do. Yes, Paul’s teachings in Romans can feel like trying to hold a fist full of sand without anything falling out. No sooner do we think we got the last thought straight when the next one sends sand flying everywhere!

   Okay, long introduction, sorry (kinda), but I think that happens when we hang around Paul. Some thoughts are just not ready for a period, if you know what I mean. Anyway…

   What stands out is how clear God’s word is when we let it speak for itself. And when we pay attention to the relational dynamic of what stands out any given time we are in the word, we discover that the Holy Spirit is teaching us the very things God has in mind for us in our walk with him.

   Which brings us to this focus on “the righteousness of God”. It has helped me for a long time to consider that holiness relates to nature and righteousness to character. Holiness is God’s nature, who he is, while righteousness is about his character, how he expresses himself. The two cannot be separated, but keep that in mind as we go through this. God is holy. He expresses his holiness in righteousness. And apart from redemption in Jesus Christ, that would be a terrifying reality!

   However, the main point has to do with our experience of the righteousness of God. It shines out from God whether we see it or not. It “has been manifested apart from the law” in the work of Christ and the preaching of the gospel. The Law and the Prophets bore witness to the righteousness of God, including its distinction in the new covenant in Jesus’ blood. And it is experienced by sinners “through faith in Jesus Christ”.

   The addition of “for all who believe” is a huge theme in Romans. There is no distinction in how sinful we are, both Jews and Gentiles, and there is no distinction in how people are saved. This is why Paul already said,

   For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)

   Do you see that? Paul says that in the gospel “the righteousness of God is revealed”. In Romans 3 he is getting back to this, that it is about the righteousness of God, how it is revealed, how it is manifested, how it is experienced. And our starting point is that it must deal with the fact that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

   We will get to this explanation shortly, and all through Romans, but this is the wonder we should consider, that Paul is talking about a gospel he is not ashamed of because it is all about how the holy God has acted in righteousness to make it real that his righteousness can become ours.

   To the Ephesians he would write, 

   For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

   To the Corinthians he would write, 

   For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (II Corinthians 5:21).

   But this isn’t just theology, or doctrine, or correcting all those tamperers who mess with God’s words. It’s about whether you and I know that we have become the righteousness of God through faith in the good news that God has given us a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

   Because, with all God did to provide redemption in Jesus’ blood, and communicate all about the new covenant in his word, it would be awful if we missed the wonders of the gift because the haters and hecklers don’t have it.

   So, how’s your faith-attachment to Jesus doing?

 

© 2026 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

On This Day: From Justice Denied to Justice Satisfied

   Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
    and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

   And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. (Acts 8:32-35 in context of Acts 8:26-40)

   What did you feel when you read that line, “In his humiliation justice was denied him”?

   Jesus' “humiliation” summarizes all the unjust ways he was treated, culminating in the shame of death by crucifixion. Paul described it like this,

   though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).

   Isaiah’s prophesy set the stage to explain how the injustice against the Messiah would bring about the justice of God against our sin. Since “the wages of sin is death,” the Messiah would suffer the injustice of dying to save us from the just (and deadly) condemnation of our sins.

   Part of the reason this stood out so strongly this morning is the current movement to attack God’s “injustice” against his Son. The “More Christlike” cult claims that this portrayal of Yahweh is not Christlike enough. To the proponents of this teaching, it is not like Christ to do something so unjust to someone as to cause them to suffer for someone else’s sins. In their minds (not God’s), Isaiah’s revelation of Yahweh is not Christlike enough and needs to be corrected. I spent considerable time slogging through one of the books this cult has published and found it a horrible example of the New Testament warnings about false teachers.[1]

   The other reason this stood out is simply the realization of how hopeless we would be if God did not “put forward” his Son “as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:25). Propitiation means for one person to bear the justice of God against another person. God gave his Son “to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10).  

   These Scriptures are talking about “In his humiliation justice was denied him.” In Jesus’ suffering, justice was denied him because he was bearing God’s justice against the sins of others. And it is only because “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (I Peter 2:24).

   So, when Paul wrote that, “It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26), he was summarizing what Jesus did through the injustice against him. He willingly bore our sins (the injustice of a man being humiliated in crucifixion when he had done nothing wrong), so that God’s justice was fully satisfied and we could be forgiven.

   One of the most awe-inspiring expressions of this is, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21). That’s what Isaiah spoke about 700 years before Jesus died on the cross. God fully satisfied his justice against our sin by pouring out his wrath upon his Son, and that means God is fully just to make us righteous with his own righteousness.

   Please be guarded against anyone claiming that there is something wrong with God punishing his Son for our sins. Jesus went willingly to the cross. He willingly suffered our condemnation. God’s love for us is without question, and so is his genius in making a way of salvation that turns sinners into saints. His plan was to have a people in his own image and likeness, and satisfying his justice against our sin was a necessary part of the plan from before time began.

   And please allow your heart to rejoice in the so great salvation we have in Jesus Christ. Included in Isaiah’s prophecies about Jesus was this glorious expression:

   Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:11).

   Jesus felt the unjust “anguish of his soul” in suffering for us, but he saw the very thing for which he died and was “satisfied”. “It is finished!” And because Jesus came to “bear their iniquities”, we can be one of the “many” who would “be accounted righteous”.

   And if all that amazing weaving together of truth in the divine tapestry doesn’t lift your soul with wonder and praise, perhaps you first need to be the “blessed are the poor in spirit” who admit you are the sinner who needs such a Savior as this.

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] I was asked to read the book by Brad Jersak titled, “A More Christlike Word” in which the author claims the Bible is not Christlike enough and he and his helpers are a much better authority about Jesus than the prophets (like Isaiah). I had already considered Brad Jersak to be a false teacher from listening to him being interviewed, and going through his book solidified that conclusion. The fact that he also says that the God of the Old Testament (Yahweh) is not Christlike enough, and the Way of the church Jesus is building is not Christlike enough, secures Brad Jersak in Paul’s warnings about false teachers, and the “More Christlike” movement as a cult that is leading people away from both the “word” and the “Word” of God.

  However, in an attempt to resolve the conflict with the people who asked me to read the book, I spent over 5 months making a “journal journey” through the book, honestly assessing what the author taught, and honestly responding with what I was reading for myself. You can find my 102 blog posts about this book under the label of “Countering Counterfeits” on my blog.

   Here is a link to the first entry titled, A Journal Journey with Brad Jersak’s “Different” Jesus – Day 1: https://in2freedom.blogspot.com/search?q=A+Journal+Journey+with+Brad+Jersak%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%9CDifferent%E2%80%9D+Jesus+%E2%80%93+Day+1

The Old Gospel that Protects From the New

 The new trend in handling “the gospel” (the good news of salvation) is to relate to it in self-justification instead of in self-denial. People who do not want to be saved from their sin self-justify why God is okay loving them with their sin intact. 

The original way (the genuine way) was to see the gospel as the good news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.[1] Sinners would hear this good news and feel such poverty of spirit over their sinful condition that they would call out in mourning and meekness, with a hunger and thirst for the righteousness they did not have, and cling to the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope of being saved from the condemnation of their sin and into the adoption as sons of the living God.[2] 

The new way of relating to the gospel is to treat it like Jesus came into the world to find good people to help be better. Now we have “good” people (by their standard, not God’s) admitting they have a few things they need help with (only the ones they admit to) and claiming Jesus is here to help them do better, to feel better, to get healing for the hurt feelings of life, and to just love everybody the way they are. 

The original way of the gospel called people to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Christ.[3] The denial of self came when people heard the good news and knew they were the sinners Jesus came to find.[4] This gave them hope because admitting they were sinners meant their hearts were open to the Savior. By admitting their sin, they found themselves being found by Jesus.[5] And being found by Jesus meant they were now entering the very life God created them to experience. 

The new way of the gospel calls people to self-justification, rejecting the conviction of the cross, and inviting Jesus to follow them through life helping them and their mates feel good about themselves. You know, participation ribbons for everyone no matter how well or poorly they actually ran the race. 

So why is the original gospel “good news of great joy”[6], while the new gospel (which is nothing new at all) is the scariest thing in the world? Or, put another way, why is the original gospel filled with the message of life while the new gospel is condemned and anyone who preaches it, “let him be accursed”?[7] 

The answer is in Jesus’ words, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”[8] The new gospel is designed by Satan, the thief, who uses it to steal, kill, and destroy people in the condemnation of their sin for their utter destruction. The original gospel is the means by which Jesus gives life of the “abundantly” variety. 

The new gospel is actually a deception called “cheap grace”. Grace is central to the good news of salvation, but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus his death in our place; it costs us dying with Christ and being buried with him in order to be raised into the newness of life in the kingdom of God.[9] 

“Cheap Grace” is the belief that God is so loving and gracious, and he has done all the work of salvation through Jesus Christ, that there is no judgment on God’s children for anything they do wrong. The belief is that God’s grace does everything, and we are not expected to address or deal with the sin in our lives because Jesus “paid it all”, and there is nothing more to do (only partly true). 

This was something the church faced way back in the first generation of believers after Jesus’ death and resurrection. God was teaching his church that, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,”[10] and the leaders had to deal with the challenge, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”[11] And what was the answer to such an absurd question? “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”[12] 

You see, it was absolutely true that, when Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and when he comes to sinners now through the original gospel, the grace of God in the gospel super-abounds in relation to even the very worst of sinners so that anyone can hear the good news and know there is more than enough grace to cleanse them from any amount or degree of sin. This is why it is noted in God’s word that it was people like the prostitutes and tax-collectors who were repenting of their sins and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord. They understood that God’s grace was super-abounding over the horrible regrets of their sins. And that grace drew them to leave their sin and love the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The point is that this grace gives people hope of cleansing from sin and acceptance with God, not condoning of sin and a nod and a wink from a manmade grandfatherly figure who let’s the kids get away with what the parents have forbidden. 

One way to think of the accountability of the original good news is that the salvation by grace through faith fully saves a person without any contribution of good works at all, but when the dead sinner is made alive in Christ (like spiritual CPR), the newness of life in the abundant life of God’s kingdom calls them to live as obedient children of God rather than disobedient children of the evil one. 

My point in sharing this today is simply that I have been watching the new gospel[13] make inroads into groups who call themselves Christians. It is nothing new. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians and his letter to the Galatians address this false gospel in great detail. The apostles also make repeated warnings about the false gospel all through their writing of God’s breathed-out words. 

I am at the point of pleading with people to please measure your heart and mind against the original gospel, the genuine gospel. Have you experienced Jesus Christ delivering you out of the domain of darkness, leaving behind your sin, and transferring you into his kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, or are you trying to convince yourself that God sees enough good works in you that you don’t actually need the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross? 

If any of your security for salvation rests in anything at all that you have done or are doing, it is a false gospel. But if you have trusted in Jesus Christ alone to save you, and you know that he has done everything required of God for you to have eternal life, then I “urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,”[14] by walking with God’s children in “the obedience of faith”.[15]

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] I Timothy 1:15

[2] Romans 8:1-2, 15, 23; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5

[3] Luke 9:23

[4] Luke 19:10

[5] The three parables of Luke 15 show the joy of God when Jesus finds sinners and brings them home.

[6] Luke 2:10-11

[7] Paul condemns any new and divergent and progressive gospels as utterly contemptible in Galatians 1:6-10 because they make people think they are saved when they are still in their sins.

[8] John 10:10

[9] Romans 6:3-4

[10] Romans 5:20

[11] Romans 6:1

[12] Romans 6:2

[13] The “new gospel” is actually an oxymoron because “gospel” means “good news” and this new gospel is the worst news ever. The original gospel gives life by grace through faith, which is good news of great joy, and the new gospel, which is no gospel at all (because it is not good news) secures people in the condemnation of their sins and the judgment of God over their sin.

[14] Ephesians 4:1

[15] Romans 1:5; 16:26

The Missing Doctrine of Experience

What is your doctrine of experience? We are quite familiar with the idea of taking the things we see in Scripture and summarizing them into doctrines, what we believe captures the essence of what God has breathed-out on any particular matter.

What then is your doctrine regarding experience? Have you settled what the Scriptures say about people experiencing the things God has revealed so you know how to view experiences in your own life, and how to be fair and true as you consider what other people testify about their own experiences of God and his word?

Now, as is the case with every belief we discuss, there are the three positions to keep in mind. Two positions are the pendulum-extremes where people emphasize some of the Scriptures involved and neglect others. In the middle is the plumbline where people seek to live by the whole counsel of God on the matter.

With respect to the doctrine of experience, the three positions look like this (the plumbline position in the middle, the two pendulum extremes on either side):

The reason I raise the question is that most of the focus I have heard on such things is a battle between the two pendulum-extremes. Those who know that experience without doctrine is wrong imagine that the only other option is to have doctrine without experience. Those who know that doctrine without experience is wrong imagine that the only other option is to let every experience count as doctrine.

Of course, when we seek to live by the whole counsel of God instead of the bits and pieces we may prefer, we realize that all the doctrines of God speak of experiencing God in the ways described, and so our doctrine of experience must express how experience fulfills sound doctrine.

Have you ever considered how much of the Bible we would need to cut out if we removed anything that described an experience? Gone is Moses’ burning bush experience; gone is the Israelites crossing the Red Sea on dry ground, and Peter walking on the water. Remove experience from God’s Book and we can’t expect healing for the brokenhearted,[1] liberty for the captives, recovery of sight for the blind,[2] or anything else someone would have to describe as an experience once the breathed-out words of God were fulfilled in their lives.

In fact, since the four gospels and the book of Acts are primarily descriptions of experience, what are we to do with them if there should be no experience corresponding with the work of God? Clearly the experiences described in these breathed-out books are “according to sound doctrine,”[3] or God would never have presented them with his approval. So, why would we want to dissociate our experiences from doctrine on one side, or deny the experiences described by doctrine on the other?

What we believe in our doctrine of experience must include an identification of whether or not the doctrines of Scripture demand or deny experience. Does the doctrine of God (Theology, Christology, Pneumatology) speak of impersonal bits of information, or does it speak of a person who wants to be known by experience? Does God tell us he is love just so we can have an objective understanding of what he is like? Or does he reveal every facet of his love so that we “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”?[4] Both comprehending and knowing the love of Christ are descriptions of experience Paul was praying would happen in the churches.

What about the doctrine of the church (Ecclesiology)? Does this doctrine describe in textbook fashion the answers we need to pass a test on doctrine, or does it describe the things we should expect to experience as the church of the living God? When we read the description of the church being devoted to one another in brotherly love,[5] or having hearts knit together in love,[6] or people making every effort to keep and maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,[7] do we sit around feeling good about ourselves that we know these soundbites of doctrine, or do we sit around loving one another as brothers, testify to healing and maturing relationships within our churches, and glorify God for uniting the children of God in a way that only the Holy Spirit could accomplish through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus?

If the doctrine of the kingdom of God reveals that the kingdom is about “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”,[8] is this for impersonal information alone, or so that we could describe experiences of growth in righteousness, experiencing the peace of God that transcends understanding,[9] and feeling filled up with Christ’s joy so that our joy is also made full?[10]

I’m sure you can gather how I would answer all such questions. My doctrine of experience is that all the doctrines of Scripture describe corresponding experiences. Those that apply to the present life of the church in these last days ought to be described in our life experiences. Even the doctrine of suffering in the church will result in experiences of the church suffering throughout the ages. Both the denial of doctrine in our experiences, and the denial of the experiences that fulfill the doctrines, should be rejected in favor of seeking and living the very things God’s breathed-out doctrines reveal.[11]

Now here’s a new one going around: popular teachers on the no-experience side of doctrine teach their disciples that, if someone claims to experience something the Bible says we should experience, they are automatically lifting their experience up to the level of the breathed-out Scriptures, which could only mean that their claim to experience must be unbiblical (even though it is what the Bible describes as an experience of the Christian life).

Because these teachers often seem preferable to the weirdos who exalt experience independent of doctrine, many are deceived into thinking we must judge and condemn anyone who testifies of an experience, even when that experience matches what is described in sound doctrine.

The encouragement I want to present from my place in the body of Christ is that we are to welcome and seek every experience the doctrines of Scripture tell the church we ought to experience. When our experiences match what is described in Scripture, we are not exalting our experiences to the level of Scripture, but exalting Scripture as the breathed-out words of God that have awakened our faith to trust God for the very things he reveals in his word, and provided the corresponding experiences that are just as his word describes.

Let me share some examples so it is somewhat clearer what I mean by this.

When God’s word gives us the doctrinal truth that, “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear”,[12] we are invited to bring our fear-based identities into the real experience of God’s love until we can testify that the perfect love of God has cast out our fear. We can also minister to people with this doctrinal hope that, if they allow themselves to hunger and thirst after this righteousness of love,[13] that they will most certainly be satisfied with the love they long for, since it is God’s love that is promised.

The apostle James gives us the doctrinal teaching about the elders praying for people’s healing, with the promise that the prayer of faith will make people well.[14] The only way we can look at this is as doctrine teaching us to expect experience. The doctrine tells the sick person to go to the elders. This means that a sick person in a specific church will go to the specific men who are elders among them, ask for healing, experience the men anointing him or her with oil, laying hands on them, and praying for their healing. All that is experience. At the same time, when the prayer of faith is offered to God, and God answers the prayer, the person will experience the healing that is described in the doctrine.

It is no small thing to me that I once had reason to go to the elders of the church we were in at the time and ask if we really believed what James had written. The pastor said we did (whew!). My wife had experienced some debilitating paralysis after the birth of our second child, and we felt desperate for God’s help. We took God at his word, believed the doctrine as it is taught, had the men come, anoint, lay on hands, pray, and, while they were praying, my wife felt a tingling sensation going through her body. By the time the men had finished praying, she was able to go up the stairs, pick up our little girl, and carry her back down the stairs.

How do I explain this? Simple. The doctrine of Scripture told us God’s will on the matter; we acted according to the breathed-out words of God, and, when we did so, we experienced the answer to prayer described in God’s Book. This has never made us elevate our experience of answered prayer above the Scriptures that taught us what to do, but neither has it taught us to treat the doctrines of Scripture as though knowing what they say is enough. While there are times when God tells people his grace will be sufficient for them (something they should also experience, by the way),[15] we still knew that the doctrine given to us by James was something we wanted to experience, and it is no dishonor to God to testify that this is what happened for us.

The doctrine of leaders equipping the church for ministry as described in Ephesians 4 will turn into experiences where specific elders in specific congregations provide distinctive training and equipping in real life situations so that specific people now know how to do the kind of ministry that builds up the body of Christ.[16] Congregations will then speak of the experiences that have come to their church where specific circumstances of need have been met by specific people doing ministry to those needs so that people are built up in the Lord. Congregations will be able to gather together in prayer meetings, and small groups, and church fellowships, and Sunday gatherings, and give testimonies of how specific acts of ministry drew people to Christ, or delivered them from oppression, or brought healing to their broken hearts, so that everyone gives thanks to God for his glorious gift to the church.

I know that God does not want us to live by sight. That’s sound doctrine. Instead, we are to live by faith; also sound doctrine.[17] However, when we live by faith (the experience of faith, not just the beliefs we share with demons[18]), there are things that must be experienced in order for God’s promises to be fulfilled. Will some of those experiences take place at the return of Christ rather than in the here and now? Yup; just like the doctrines make clear. However, our hope in what we will experience then arises from the revelations of God’s word that tells us what God’s people have experienced of him in the past, and our faith in what he says we can experience right now in this foreign land of the world.

For practice, when you get together with other believers, look at passages of Scripture you have been studying and consider what the Scriptures tell you to expect to experience as a result of your faith in what is written. As you seek God for the genuine experience of what he describes in his word, accept that both extremes of the pendulum will likely judge you as being with the other guys. This may result in us experiencing the same ridicule and judgment as Jesus our Lord experienced when he walked this earth, both of which also happen to be just as the revealed doctrines of God have already described.[19]

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] Psalm 147:3

[2] Luke 4:18-19

[3] Titus 2:1

[4] Ephesians 3:18-19

[5] Romans 12:10; I Peter 1:22

[6] Colossians 2:2

[7] Ephesians 4:3

[8] Romans 14:17

[9] Philippians 4:7

[10] John 15:11

[11] I’m referring to the doctrines relating to the church. There are doctrines relating to the lost, and to Satan and his demons, that will be experienced for sure, but not by those who have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

[12] I John 4:18

[13] Matthew 5:6

[14] James 5:13-18

[15] II Corinthians 12:7-10. It should be noted that, Paul’s testimony is a description of what he experienced in his relationship with God.

[16] Ephesians 4:11-16

[17] II Corinthians 5:7

[18] James 2:19

[19] Isaiah 53 revealed what people would think of the Messiah God sent, how they would treat him, and the victory of God in providing salvation.