Guests on the Gospel of Grace Podcast

This week, Mike and Joel were the guests on a podcast by Timothy Virge called "The Gospel of Grace Podcast."  We had a great time talking about a variety of things, centered around the good news of God's love and grace.

431. Devoting Yourself to God?

Sometimes in the effort to demonstrate a love for God, people will feel the need to exercise some sort of outward devotion or dedication. It can involve time and neglect of the body, and lead to false humility. Often the purpose for this is to reassure themselves that they really do have a love for the Lord. It's an effort to show God and others that the "proof is in the pudding."

But like so many other things about the Christian life, we can easily get it backwards. Realizing first that it was God who did the demonstrating of His love for us and has declared devotion to us. Real devotion to God will occur not from our desire to show it but from discovering blessing has been given to us while we were unworthy and void of any devotion. It's simply a willing response to a love without condition.

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This week's GIG Bite - A bite-sized chunk of this week's program.

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426. The Nature of Grace: Once Bestowed, Never Withdrawn

God's act of grace towards mankind was an action completely independent from us, not dependent on us. Any failure of dedication or devotion on our part does not cause the withdrawal of bestowed grace under the New Covenant. Whether before or after the cross, one could never establish righteousness before God through our self-efforts and devotion. It's something we've been gifted with through the blood of Christ and the covenant established between Him and the Father. The entrance of grace did not arrive through a revolving door.

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This week's GIG Bite - A bite-sized chunk of this week's program.

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422. The Nature of Grace: God Acting Freely

What was the reason for God to give you His Spirit? "We have been given the Spirit who is from God so that we may know and understand the things freely given to us by God." (I Cor 2:12). No requirements, promises or obligations to fulfill. His extension of unconditional grace towards us originates from His nature of love. Grace is uncaused by us as recipients. The act of grace in our lives is rooted completely on the one who gave it, not on the receiver.

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This week's GIG Bite - A bite-sized chunk of this week's program.

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421. You Are in Christ, Not the Flesh

Regardless of whatever struggles you've had physically, with the body or even the mind, the scriptures declare as believers in Christ we are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit. That doesn't mean we won't be challenged with opportunities to do wrong. But we're under grace and not works of the law. The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. God has equipped us with His Spirit. Stop trying to battle the flesh and allow Him to do it for you.

Just as we did last week, we wanted to refer again to a couple of previous podcasts in which we talked about "the flesh," as these episodes may be helpful in understanding more about where we're coming from this week:
Episode 405. The Destruction and Removal of Sin
Episode 406. What is the Flesh? (The Good, the Bad, the Ugly)

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This week's GIG Bite - A bite-sized chunk of this week's program.

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181. Nothing Can Separate Us From God, Who IS Love

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The New Testament writers point out that nothing can separate us from God's love and that God is love. So... what can separate us from God Himself? Nothing! God's love is unconditional - it has no conditions. He loves us. Period. He showed it to us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us - the ungodly. Somehow some people have gotten the idea that now that we're Christians, the things we do or don't do will keep us from God. But nothing can separate us from God! Nothing can separate us from His love! His perfect love should cast aside all fears and worries that we'll ever have our fellowship with Him broken. Through His love and by the finished work of Christ - and by nothing we've done or not done - we remain in perfect, unbroken fellowship with God.