Brad Robertson: Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2020 7:19 PM
Did you know the Bible teaches that if you are in Christ you are free from the Ten Commandments and the bondage it brings?
Yet this is exactly what the Bible teaches.
It seems absurd, even heretical, to view the Ten Commandments as something we need to be freed from and that can put someone into bondage.
It seems the commandments, if obeyed by someone, can lead to freedom.
But that is the problem.
The Bible teaches that no one can obey the Ten Commandments (Romans 3:9-20).
We have all sinned and broken the Ten Commandments (Romans 3:23). |
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Brad Robertson: Posted on Thursday, August 23, 2018 8:25 AM
1 Corinthians 9:19-22 says,
“Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. |
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Brad Robertson: Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2018 1:50 PM
The
Spirit of God desires to reveal to you what God has prepared for those who love
him.
About
this revelation, 1 Corinthians 2:9 says:
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart
has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
The
revelation that God through his Spirit wants to give you is not something
conceived in the mind or heart of a person...no person could dream, invent,
develop, create, or design what God has prepared for you.
What
God has prepared is beyond the heart and mind of mankind. |
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Brad Robertson: Posted on Saturday, July 7, 2018 5:51 PM
Paul says in Galatians 5:1:
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
The context of this verse is that Jesus, through his death and resurrection, freed the Jewish people from slavery to the law in seeking to become righteous (right with God, innocent before God).
In Galatians, Paul teaches that righteousness comes simply by grace through faith in Jesus and not by following the Law of Moses.
As a result, Paul exhorted the believers in Galatia to not let any leader or teacher convince them to return to the slavery of the law from which Jesus redeemed them. |
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Brad Robertson: Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2017 8:41 PM
Romans 14 and 15 teach grace believers to limit our liberty with love. But why? In Romans 14-15, liberty is the freedom to make lifestyle choices, since we are not under law but under grace, in areas the Bible remains silent.There were believers in Rome who were publically using their liberty in grace to live in a way that was harmful to others. This wasn’t an immoral lifestyle they were living, but it concerned grey areas as well as matters of the Mosaic Law, specifically days and diets mandated by the Law of Moses that were abolished through the death of Jesus. |
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Brad Robertson: Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2017 8:37 PM
We will live controlled by the labels we wear. The labels we wear will control our thoughts, emotions, desires, attitudes, and decisions.
We label ourselves according to our problems, addictions, sickness, race, hurts, past, social status, gender, political party, denomination, and the list goes on and on and on. How we label ourselves completely controls our lives.
How did Jesus label himself?
Jesus labled himself as loved one of the Father. The Father's Beloved.
Therefore, he lived a life of love. |
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Brad Robertson: Posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2017 10:58 AM
After they were established in the truths of grace by Paul, the believers in Galatia abandoned their freedom in Christ, which is complete forgiveness and acceptance (righteousness) with God by grace through faith in Jesus alone.
They deserted grace (Galatians 1:6).
They set aside grace (Galatians 2:21).
They returned to enslavement to their... religious system... rules... rituals... and regulations to earn God's acceptance and forgiveness. In doing so, they fell from grace (Galatians 5:4).
They turned away from all God had freely and fully done for them through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and were trying to earn God's acceptance and forgiveness through religious activity and morality. |
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Brad Robertson: Posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2017 10:45 AM
It seems absurd, even heretical, to view the Ten Commandments as something which can put someone into bondage. It seems the commandments, if obeyed by someone, can lead to freedom. But that is the problem. No one can obey the Ten Commandments. We have all sinned and broken the Ten Commandments. The penalty is death. As a matter of fact, the more someone tries to obey the Ten Commandments the more they break them (Romans 5:20, 7:7-25). Paul makes all of this clear in Romans.
In 2 Corinthians 3:6-9, we discover that the ministry of the Ten Commandments is to bring death, condemnation. |
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Brad Robertson: Posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2017 10:29 AM
The Prophet Isaiah looked forward to a time when the Messiah would come, empowered by the Spirit, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. What is the year of the Lord’s favor (Isaiah 61:2)?
Grace!
Grace would flow from the lips of the Messiah.
What did the Prophet Isaiah say would be the impact when the proclamation of grace by the Messiah went out among the people? One of the impacts of grace, among many others, was freedom for those held captive! In Luke 4:16-19, the Messiah, Jesus, came into a Jewish synagogue and read from Isaiah 61:1-2. |
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Brad Robertson: Posted on Sunday, June 25, 2017 3:18 PM
Following one of our services, when I was a pastor, a first-time visitor told me,“This church is not a Spirit-filled church.” I replied, “What do you mean by a Spirit-filled church?” She responded, “Well it is dead. No one raises their hands in worship. No one claps. People just stand there...lifeless. The Spirit is not present. It’s just a dead church.”
Many times we hear people saying their church is a “Spirit-filled church”. Churches even market themselves as a “Spirit-filled church.” By this they mean their church has an emotionally moving praise and worship service facilitated by the praise band where “the Spirit is free to move” and where people outwardly worship God in song. |
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