The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are love and light. Jesus, the son, is “the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him.” (John 14:6) Jesus is the Word. The Bible is not the Word, but the story of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells the entire story of man, when interpreted correctly has no contradictions, no mystery, and is completely undiluted good news.  The story begins in the Garden of Eden and ends with freedom for all that believe. It essentially paints the picture of why Jesus came to cut the final covenant with our Father ending the Mosiac Covenant.

“In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him  and nothing was created except through him.  The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. (John 1;1-5) Jesus is the word. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the light that ends darkness.

Most of us who share pure Grace, have heard the argument that you must mix the Old Covenant with the New Covenant, nothing could be further from the truth. Certainly we share the Old Testament, however,  we will never preach the law. From the beginnings of the Moisac Law being taught it led to death. Immediately 3000 people were killed out of self righteousness (See Exodus 32) and the death toll continued to rise until our savior Jesus Christ came to set the captives free. (Luke 4:18) Preaching the law leads to death, but the Gospel leads to life!

This may surprise many people and cause debate among others, but the Gospel has nothing to do with religion. The Gospel is defined as the “too good to be true news.”  The Gospel isn’t exclusive for one group, the Gospel is for everyone that has ears to hear. When Jesus originally told the Apostles to go and proclaim the Gospel (See Mark 16:15) He used a word that had never been said before. A totally new word and with an entirely new idea. The idea that we can’t do anything to earn salvation except believe in the one sent.

Religion takes the emphasis off of what Jesus did and adds lists of things we need to do to stay in God’s favor and His family. To our flesh, many of the ideas that religious teachers teach sound good. Religion pounds home a works based system in order to please God. We are to told we need to turn off our TV’s and radios to achieve holiness by our works. This works based teaching is the opposite of what Jesus  taught us to proclaim. Jesus, himself  called the teachers of the law hypocrites (Matthew 23:13) and sons of the devil. (Matthew 23:33) This rhetoric is damaging to everyone, it fills people with unworthiness, guilt, shame, and condemnation. It isn’t the Gospel and it is driving the masses away from the freedom found in Jesus. Recently I was reading an article about one of the worlds most successful pop stars whose parents are both pastors. During her youth she was sent to church camps where the leaders would “pray the gay”out of all the kids. Well guess what? Trying to please God by following the Law produced the same guilt and shame that it did in the Old Testement and under the Old Covenant.

Remember Moses who came down from the mountain with a list of commandments that the Israelites needed to do to stay clean on there side of the Covenant? He was not allowed to go into the promise land. It took two men, Joshua and Caleb, who came from a different Spirit to lead them home. The symbolism of what was to come is wonderful. This isn’t bashing of Moses. Moses cut a Covenant with God and couldn’t live up to his side of the agreement and of course God was able to. So it took two other men to guide the Israelites into the promise land (Israel). This is wonderful because the promise land was just a symbol of the royal family, God’s family! Just like Moses, our own efforts cannot get us home. Only the Father and His son, Jesus can do that and the God did. Remember, God is 3, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. A Covenant is between two. Just like marriage covenants when man or woman are involved things often go sour. So, who better  to cut a final covenant than the Father and Jesus for us. They can’t break it because it is the perfect Covenant and because we are God’s children. We are nowand back in the promise land, the royal family. God has brought his children home once and for all!

Back to the pop star, we were telling you about. As a result of the law being preached she struggled with her sexuality until she realized in her late twenties that God loves her no matter what.

The Gospel of Jesus, the New Covenant we benefit from defies everything our flesh tells us, and our hearts skip for joy. We no longer need to worry about not being pleasing to God. We get to spend our life in total freedom, enjoying the wonderful life we have been given. We get to enjoy the desires of our heart. We no longer have to sit around desperately trying to please a God who already sees us “as complete.” (Colossians 2:10) “and as His masterpiece.” (Ephesians 2:10) 

“2 Timothy  2: [15] Do your best to present yourself approved to God , a worker who does not need to be ashamed of rightly dividing the word of truth. [16] Keep away from profane and foolish discussions, which only drive people farther away from God. [17] Because their message spreads like cancer.” The good news is these verses that Paul wrote to Timothy, who by today’s definition would be considered a pastor, only solidifies the need to proclaim the Gospel and not preach the law.

In verse 15, Paul told Timothy “Do your best to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, of rightly dividing the word of truth.” The good news is believing in Jesus is enough!  (See John 3:16-18, Romans 3:22 and dozens of other New Testament and Gospel references) Paul told Timothy not to be ashamed of proclaiming Jesus and not himself by rightly dividing the word. Take note in John 1 the “word” is not capitalized because the “word” in this scripture means story. Katy and I referenced this at the beginning of the blog, “Jesus is the truth.” (John 14:6)

In verse 16, Paul told Timothy to “keep away from profane and foolish discussions, which only drive people farther from God.” The “profane” Paul is referring to is not the s-word, or the f-word, are words that deny what Jesus did. The foolish part is proclaiming we need to do something to be pleasing to God. Just like the Mosaic law,  our efforts to please God who is already pleased only separates us from the freedom we have in Christ.

In verse 17, Paul said to Timothy “their message spreads like cancer.” Their message being one that denies Jesus and is back under our efforts leads to death. Which like the pop star Katy and I referenced earlier, had experienced years of turmoil because the law and not brace was being preached.

Looking at 2 Timothy again with aclear understanding of the power of cross and resurrection, this passage reads “Do your best to continue to believe in the too good to be true news about Jesus, and don’t be ashamed to share the story of Jesus. Keep away from discussions that deny that Jesus finished the law, and foolish list of things you need to do to be pleasing to God.  Those crazy teachings only seperates others from the freedom they have in Christ. That message leads to death and the Gospel of Jesus leads to life!”

We don’t preach the law, we share the Gospel. “We do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.” (Galatians 2:29) 

“For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2Corinthians 3:17) The word freedom in this verse is the Greek word “eleutheria” and means to live without fear of punishment. What an amazing gift! Jesus and the Father have brought us back to God’s family! No more law to live up to, no more self condemnation when we think we have messed up.

“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2Corinthians 5:18-21) Hallelujah! We are ambassadors of reconciliation, we are not ambassadors of guilt, shame, condemnation or works. Any message that places works ahead of what Jesus has done, is not the Gospel. You are part of the royal family when you believe in Jesus, regardless of wether the world thinks you are doing something that keeps you out.

Freedom, freedom and more freedom in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is what we proclaim. Katy and I are jumping with joy as we share the Gospel of His unmerited favor and kindness to the world.

In Good News,

Kurt & Katy Adkins