Old School? To me Old School is not about style. It is a message. The Old School message is a man-centered, performance-based-righteousness message and focus: What do you wear? Where do you go? Are you living right? Is your list of sins the same as mine? This message tells people that if they have any confidence in their salvation, they just dont know how bad they are! It is a message of faith-in-me, not faith in Christ. It is a message of fear, condemnation, guilt, shame, duty and obligation. It doesnt know how to inspire people to live lives of love and gratitude. It dangles righteousness in front of believers like a carrot they are never really allowed to have. It says: If you try hard enough, come here faithfully enough, give enough, wear the right clothes and do what we tell you, you just might get into Heaven. It has never preached on our New Covenant in Hebrews 8:10-12, but prefers the Old Covenant of the 10 commandments. It prefers the Old Covenant external pressure of rules to the New Covenant internal leading of the Spirit. It focuses on us getting to Heaven more than bringing His kingdom and will from Heaven to earth. It cannot preach grace without measure. It always preaches grace, but or grace if. It a fault-finding, critical, angry and harsh message. The Gospel is good news. If youve ever received good news, you know how it feels. The Gospel is Jesus taking the sin of the world (2 Cor. 5:21) and Gods curse of punishment on sin (Gal. 3:13) and giving us His righteousness as a gift we receive by faith, not works. The Gospel is Gods promise that, because He has imputed ALL of our sin and its punishment to His Son, He will not impute sin to us, punish us or ever remember our sins (Romans 4:4-8, 2 Cor. 5:15-21; Heb. 8:10-12; Heb. 10:10-14; Heb. 12:23). The Gospel is that our righteousness does not rest on the shifting sand of our performance, but on immovable rock of the finished work of Jesus! The Gospel is that because Jesus has made us perfect forever (Heb. 10:14), God will never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5). Now there is some good news! This Gospel is so good that itll make the Old School crowd go crazy and feel compelled to add some fear, some shame, some limits on it. But there is no condemnation to those in Christ (not even a little). There is no fear in love (perfect love casts out fear ). 1 John 4:18. Whoever believes in Him will NOT be put to shame (Rom. 10:11). Our faith has put us at PEACE with God. Rom. 5:1 Hes not even angry with us...we are at PEACE with God. He is for us, not against us. The Gospel of grace is not a new message. It was Pauls message and was lost for a 1,000 years until the Reformation when Martin Luther began the process of restoring the new covenant bedrock of righteousness by faith to the church. The Old School message is still trying to add something to Jesus perfect sacrifice. He saves us. We dont save ourselves. Our good lives and our love are simply our way of saying thank you to the One who did it ALL...the fruit of His presence in us. Our good lives are not our way of trying save ourselves - He is the Savior.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 13:15:51 +0000
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