Christo-Centric; The Voice of Alexander!

This is NOT my write-up, these are the Anointed words of a Seasoned Teacher of Scripture, a True Friend and brother, a Man of God indeed. PLEASE, Patiently study it over and over again, and when you are done, study it again! You will be transformed; That's a promise.

His name is: Osahon ALEXANDER Idiaghe. Add him on Facebook!

IN DEFENSE OF THE GOSPEL OF GRACE

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: - Eph. 2 vs. 8

A gift is an offering given to someone without any strings attached. The character of a gift is that it is FREE. Free, meaning it has no conditions to be met before receiving it from the side of the person receiving it. If I say I have a gift for a friend and I tell him that before receiving the gift he has to do something for me first, I’ve just messed up the idea of the gift been free. Anything you do to get a gift like paying even the smallest amount of money to get it is no gift at all. That character of being FREE is what makes it a gift!

God’s gift of Salvation is far greater than the gifts human offer to themselves. Agreed, to receive a gift there must be a willingness but it is not so with the matters of Salvation. The spiritually dead man can’t desire (will) the things of God. That is the problem. The human nature by default runs from God (Rom. 3 vs. 10-18). Even the faith needed to receive the gift of Salvation supplied by Grace is also a gift from God (Rom. 12 vs. 3)

If you tell people that Jesus died for ALL the sins of humanity BUT should be very careful not to commit the “unpardonable sin”, then Jesus didn’t die for ALL sins. What you are offering people is not a gift but bondage and confusion. Well did I hear someone asking about the Jewish people Jesus had brawl with about His healings (Matt. 12 vs. 31-32)? Please study the context of that statement. If we now have peace with God through Jesus Christ and the Gospel means “GoodNews” and you are afraid not to commit the “unpardonable sin”, then you don’t understand what Jesus came to do! The only person to have committed the unpardonable sin is the DEAD without Christ! Yes! Those that entered into the eternal realm without Christ. There is no repentance in the grave. Salvation was designed for the living and hope is only valuable in this realm of time. This is why we should at all time keep praying and living a life of witnessing for The LORD. The greatest sin ever committed is the crucifying of the Son of God, yet the same Son said “Father forgive them, for they know not what they have done”(Luke 23:34).

The opening Scripture above has a lot to say about how a man is saved. Traditionally a lot of preachers are fully aware that we are saved NOT because we prayed the sinner’s prayer, neither because we attended Church nor gave to the needy but we are saved purely by God’s grace. It’s His will and desire. It has NOTHING to do with me. As a matter of fact I didn’t beg Him to save me neither did I desire His provision. Actually we were just living our lives and doing our thing not caring if He is “up there” (Rom. 3 vs. 10-12).

Scriptures say we were dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2 vs. 1B). The dead can’t feel, touch, smell, hear and handle spiritual realities because they are foolishness to him (1 Cor. 2 vs. 14) and God’s Salvation is a spiritual reality. This is the sad reality of our state.

Nevertheless the Gospel of Grace has so much heated the spiritual polity of the Church simply because some people believe that the Gospel of Grace is a message of “it doesn’t matter how you live your life for there is grace!” others say “it’s a message from the pit of Hell because it gives people license to sin!”, others vehemently reject it because it has punctured “their ability” as they can’t just imagine God telling them that “My Son has done it all, only believe and receive” and some somehow are found to always quote Romans 6 vs. 1 which says “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? The truth of the matter is that 70% of believers don’t even know the context why Paul asked the question. As a matter of fact it was Paul who was actually quoting what people said after listening to his message.

If people continue in sin, Grace WILL still abound! These entire messages that seem to imply that sin is greater than God and His grace are no messages at all! God is not powerless and handicapped when it is the matter of sin! Sin cannot stop God’s grace. If sin can stop God’s grace, then we are all hopeless and helpless. It takes Grace to stop sin! And not the other way round. Beliefs like “if you stop sinning then God will give you grace” and if you depart from evil then God will bless you” is not biblical! Grace is the blessing. It is what empowers us to live the life of God. 

The truth of the matter is that we don’t understand the power of the sin nature. Sin has kept man under an eternal bondage. The sin nature has its system and thought pattern, those under it can’t think outside the sin nature. It is only spiritual death that terminates it and there is a greater eternal damnation awaiting people if they are not rescued by God Himself!

There is nobody who truly understands the Gospel and its simplicity that will not also believe that the WHOLE Message of the Church is the Gospel of Grace! There is NO other Message for the Church except the Gospel of Grace. Jesus says “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel…… (Mk. 16 vs. 15) God didn’t send some people to preach eschatology, financial prosperity, healing, the anointing, Holy Spirit, Church Growth, the prophetic and the likes. God said preach the Gospel. Brother Paul in the Book of Act spoke of himself declaring the WHOLE counsel of God (Act 20 vs. 27).

Humanity is bankrupt with the pillars of our consciences mixed in the lie of “knowing what is good and evil”; man’s moral fiber has been soiled in sin – an eternally deadly and dreaded disease without any humanistic solution. Man has advanced in science and technology, art, law, and fashion but has not been able to proffer solution to the problem of evil. Sin is a worldwide phenomenon being accepted by all and even those who chose not to call it sin. Every man born into this world through the agency of natural conception is a victim of this disease. This explains why Jesus Christ, being the only man ever born without the agency of another man is unique. Unique in the sense of mission and origin. 

When Jesus said we should preach the Gospel, He actually meant that the Gospel is the ONLY Message that saves, transforms humanity into the true picture of God. It’s a Christo-Centric Message because it centres on Christ – it’s the Message of Christ and Him Crucified – Christ being the eternal thought of the Father. The Message of Grace is not about the life, saying and times of Jesus, it’s about the PERSON of Christ. Buddhism is about the teachings of Buddha, so also all the religions of this world with their founders.

The Gospel of Grace punctures men’s pride. Ever since the fall of man, we have been trying to reach God by “doing something” like good deeds, regular worship attendance, giving, praying five times a day, fasting and many more. These activities are good but it is funny because God calls it dead works because we are trying to use it to get His approval but it can never get it because He has said “for all have sinned and come short of His glory”. That “come short” is the real problem and His holiness demands a complete glory, not half measures, not 99.9% glory but a 100% glory.  

Take a look at the word “holiness”. We have been taught that holiness means separation from sin or separated unto God but my question is this – what is God separated from? Sin? If yes, then where? In Heaven? Because there is no sin in Heaven. God’s holiness is Who He IS, it’s His character. When we talk about God’s perfection we are talking about His holiness. A lot of holiness Christians have reduced His holiness to mean just “separation from sin”. This act is sin itself! God’s holiness does not only demand that we don’t fornicate (even in thought) but that our mind MUST be in its right frame, it demands that we can’t even fall sick because falling sick means that we are coming short (of His glory). 

The Old Testament high priest can’t have bruises on his skin, fever, headache, eczema in his skin, cough and other little diseases otherwise he will die in his ministration onto The LORD. He must be spotless. Only Jesus represented this perfection. The Book of Revelation says no sickness, sin, wickedness, evil thought, anything evil which includes diseases and affliction will enter into Heaven, this is because all these things represent imperfection – this is His holiness. So to tolerate sickness and not tolerate sin, is sin itself!

Grace says God has taken care of all the troubles that sin brought in – only believe and receive by faith. The Gospel is so simple that it is extremely easy to fall from its simplicity. If you study the Book of Acts of the Apostle, you will find Paul and the other Apostles always telling the people to simply believe in Jesus.

A man is not saved by confessing but by believing in his heart – for you are declared righteous by believing in your heart (Rom. 10 vs. 10). The confession that follows is the natural response of what has happened in your heart and find out from Scriptures what it says about the righteous!

Some believe that God has already done it in eternity, so it’s now left for you to finish the race. But checking Scriptures, we discover that this position is anti-Christ. These people who make this claim believe that this “Grace Message produces laziness” because the emphasis is always on Christ and truly that is God’s target – making Christ the epicenter. Grace empowers us in the real sense. Paul did much more than the others and he credited it to God’s Grace (1 Cor. 15 vs. 10). Grace is the only antidote to the yoke and burden of religion (Matt. 11 vs. 28, Act 15 vs. 10)

It’s a normal thing to hear a lot of preaching and warning against the Message of Grace. Going through some congregations, one easily hears something like this – “be careful of those who say you can sin because there is grace”, “be careful of that message that says once saved, always saved it doesn’t matter”, “watch out for those who say God has already forgiven you your past, present and future sins” and a lot more.

There is the reality of all manner of sin in the Church BUT the Gospel of Grace is not responsible for it! Titus 2 vs. 11 – 14 says “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (vs. 12) Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; (13) Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; (14)  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

So the revelation of Grace is to empower us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Grace has empowered us to Look for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

This same Grace teaches you that Jesus Christ gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. So it’s Grace that is purifying us, saving us, making us unique and passionate about doing good works while this same Grace is telling us that this same “good works” is not our access into Heaven or His Presence BUT by Himself!

From the above we see that we are not sanctified or purified by our sin confession neither are we redeemed by our good works – its Jesus that is doing it even without our knowing it. This is the definition of the High Priestly Ministry! The High Priest redeems us from all iniquity, and purifies unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works!

I have a question for those who say that the Grace Message gives people license to sin - who gave Adam and Eve license to sin, which “Grace Message” did Cain hear before killing Abel? What about Lamech, the fourth generation son of Cain who killed a man and told his wives Adah and Zillah that “if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly himself shall be avenged seventy and sevenfold” – Gen. 4 vs. 23-24. “Humanly” speaking does it not appear that it was God Who has been giving people license to sin against Him? Imagine God protecting a murderer like Cain and God slaughtering a lamb to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve! We need to know that there is a super-abundance of wickedness in humanity.

However those who vehemently preach against sin love the Church and they want the best for the Body of Christ but still I’ve discovered that many of them don’t understand the Holiness of God. God’s holiness does not demand sin confession but DEATH! I’ve studied the position these guys have taken and how they treat sin and have concluded that these guys don’t understand the holiness of God at all! Adam and Eve died when they sinned against God! His holiness totally detests sin! I have seen how some sin-hating believers vehemently detest homosexuality and lesbianism more than fornication and adultery (pause here and check your own heart if this is not true), even the presence of sin has softened our heart to some certain sins while boiling with anger over some. This act itself is SIN! God’s anger over sin doesn’t waver any day any time.

Someone once told me that these grace preachers cheapens God’s hatred for sin and I told him that it’s you guys that cheapens the Sacrifice of Calvary and grade sin. There is a consistent message about sin from Genesis to Revelation – DEATH! – not confession!

What people don’t understand about the Gospel of Grace is where to put God’s justice and still balance it in the scale of Grace and Mercy. There are some of us that are so God’s justice (judgment) conscious (with a perversion) and there are some who are so God’s love conscious (with a perversion).

How do I mean? Some actually believe that God with punish you for every sin you commit and what they actually have in mind is – “The sins you committed KNOWINGLY” but the holiness of God demands that you pay for your sins and there is no such thing as “knowingly and unknowingly”. You have to be in your right senses to commit sin! It is this kind of belief that denies what Jesus did on the Cross. I am not saying that sin doesn’t breeds death. Sin causes pain, sorrow, it destroys homes, trust, family and friendship and brings sickness (especially unforgiveness).Sin is Sin! When it comes to the issue of sin “innocence” won’t even save you. Mother Eve was deceived 1 Tim. 2 vs. 14 - but she too also collected death! This is the effect of sin and not to be taken to mean the Justice of God. The Justice of God has been satisfied by Jesus Christ – DEATH! We won’t partake of the second death – Now that is Justice served!

Again there are those who say word like “God loves me the way I am. Yes in reality God loves us the way we are, but His love is an affirming and transformational love. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Eternal Life transforms into having an outward manifestation of what is inside. It’s the laboring with birth pangs till Christ is formed in us! That is the working of LOVE! .

The truth is, if the “way you are” is not Kingdom Representation, the work of Love is to Change that outlook. Love liberates and set free! It’s not the perverted kind of God’s love that homosexuals and lesbians are declaring over the television and the internet while remaining in their perverted state.

Grace is not mercy neither is mercy the same thing as Grace. Mercy is receiving the very opposite (consequences) of what you did. If you killed you ought to pay with your life. It’s life for life. Mercy shows up NOT to overlook your sin (for mercy is not the overlooking of sin) but to give the opposite of your sin, and that is life! Remember Justice is crying and shouting that that sin be paid for and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ is presented, thereby pacifying the claims of Justice while the guilty is declared NOT guilty! – Rom. 8 vs. 31-39. All of these are the provisions of Grace! Again Grace shows up to empower us not to continue in that path of wickedness! Now we can now walk in the newness of life.

Another area where Grace Preachers have been accused of “preaching it doesn’t matter” is the area of forgiveness. How are we forgiven? Is it through our sin confession?

From Genesis to Revelation there is no where scripture says we are saved by confession. John the Baptizer said “behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin (plural) of the world – Jn. 1 vs. 29. Hebrews 9 vs. 22 says ………without shedding of blood is no remission. Under the Old Covenant animals were always killed for sins. This has been very consistent from Genesis to the Cross of Jesus Christ. In Paul’s entire message he always used the past term “forgiven”. (Search it for yourself). The only guy that used “confession of sin” was John in First John chapter one and it is not enough to build a doctrine on, because a word is established in the mouth of two or three witnesses and John here is the ONLY person talking about “sin confession”. Again the Jewish people only confessed their sins once in a year on the Day of Atonement, how much more now that we are now saved through the eternal blood of God’s Son!

Yes our past, present and future sins have been dealt with and paid for. Jesus died for our sins more than two thousand years ago (past), I am in the now (present) and IF (not when) I sin against God, its His Sacrifice that will still speak for me (future). There are many unborn who will come into this earth realm who will definitely hear the Gospel and will believe and receive Him as their Lord and Saviour – that is futuristic! There is no more Sacrifice for sin anymore except to believe and accept that we are “forgiven” like Paul always used it in his epistles.

And now if anyone says “well since Christ has paid it all let me just go ahead and start sinning”, that person never truly encountered Calvary. That is the heart of stone speaking. Every born-again believer has a new heart, the heart of stone has been taken away. The born-again does not look for license to sin rather they have license to rebel against the old nature! They have a revelation of what happened on the Cross of Jesus Christ.

I am yet to meet a believer in Christ who says it doesn’t matter how they live because there is grace. Those looking for excuse for their sin are not believers. The truth is the Church has always been a mixture of all kind of people and to complicate matters we are the ones who call these people Christians simply because they are “faithful in tithes and offerings”, “they are good choristers”, “always faithful in prayer meetings” and the likes. This is not to say that believers don’t fall into sin.

The issue of righteousness is really a big deal! A lot of people have different understanding of righteousness and what it means to be righteous. Some say righteousness means to “do right” but how can you know what is right to do in the sight of God when you are a product of “evil and good”? – This is pure religion. 95% of those who define righteousness as “right doing” are the same people who do right to earn points and right standing with God. There is this air of feeling godly after performing a good act. How can your righteous deeds earn you a right-standing with God when He has declared you to have “come short of His glory”?

The Gospel reveals “the righteousness of God…….” (Rom. 1 vs. 17). The righteousness that the Law couldn’t supply. Righteousness – This is right-standing with God without our own effort. This issue of Righteousness was extensively dealt with by Paul in the Book of Romans. A proper understanding of the Gospel of Grace will settle the issue of the Finished Works of Christ like Heaven, Hell, Holiness, Righteousness, Peace and the likes. 

There are some believers who know they are born-again but are not sure of Heaven – why? - it’s because they were groomed by those who are not also sure of their Salvation, when they preach Bible themes like Salvation, Hell, Heaven, Rapture, and Sin, they put the hearers in a state of not being sure of who they have become and where they are going. But the Gospel presents security and assurance to the hearers. The believer CAN be 100% sure of where they are going!

We have heard enough of condemnation! That message of condemnation is natural! One doesn’t need to be a Christian to hear it. It’s in the office, on the street, in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Baha’i, and all over the world, BUT the Gospel of Jesus Christ is GoodNews! The world is yet to hear it! Let’s understand it! Let us allow the Spirit unveil its beauty to us before we mistakenly become anti-Christ!

Shalom!

Osahon Alexander Idiaghe

(kingdomcomeinc1@gmail.com)