Grace killers

In Romans 14 there are some guidelines for disagreeing as Paul and Barnabas did in Acts 15 and doing it in the way that magnifies God’s grace.

“There are two tendencies in relationships among Believers that destroy grace,” says Jordan. “One is we see ourselves and compare ourselves among ourselves. In II Corinthians 10 Paul says ‘they that compare themselves among themselves are not wise.’

“The tendency is competition. I look at you, see what you’re doing, and I try to live up to that and I try to exceed you, and I try to do that, and we try to compete with one another. That gives us prejudices and makes us prone to judge one another.

"There’s this legalistic requirement that we all have to be the same. One homogeneous unit where we can smooth the thing down. That’s what legalism does. It says, 'Everybody’s got to be just like everybody else and everybody’s got to be just the way I say everybody’s got to be.'

“That is a grace killer because what grace does is it releases you in Christ and it sets you free and in a competitive environment of comparing yourself one with another.

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“The other kind of thing is rigidity and trying to control you by manipulation and intimidation. The fear tactics and the threats and the things that try to bind you and control you and so forth. This thing about control on one hand and competition on the other—what those things do is they don’t allow you to live in an atmosphere where disagreements—legitimate disagreements—and you’ve heard me say time and again, ‘I’ve got a right to my views and my convictions and you’ve got a right to yours.’

“If I’ve got a right to my views, you’ve got a right to yours. If I’ve got the liberty to hold my convictions, I have to give you the liberty to hold yours just by virtue of claiming my own.

“How do you do that graciously? Well in Romans 14 there are 4 basic things here. In the first four verses, No. 1 the issue is accepting one another in Christ: ‘Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.’

 “Somebody who’s weak in the faith doesn’t understand everything you do yet. They hadn’t grown as far as you. It’s somebody who’s your brother in Christ but has some difference of opinion on non-essential things.

“The verse says, ‘Receive him.’ Don’t receive him just so you can tear him up! How are you supposed to receive him? Look at chapter 15:6: ‘That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

“Now how did the Lord Jesus Christ receive you? Unconditionally, didn’t He? On the merits of who He is, not on what you did?

“You’re to receive the brother as God for Christ’s sake received you.  Look, the stronger brother isn’t to despise the guy over here, isn’t to hold him in contempt and compare himself as being so much better that the brother over here who doesn’t understand that. He hasn’t gotten as far out of legalism as you have.

“It says, ‘For God hath received him.’ You see, that’s the key. It’s not you receiving him; God received him.  That’s the point and that’s the thing you can’t forget and if you remember that, it will take care of the rest.

“Romans 14:4 says, ‘Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. You see, the goal is acceptance and the basis of our acceptance is God’s grace; receiving one another as God for Christ’s sake received us.

“When someone professes and confesses faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work, then you accept them. And you accept them as brethren. You accept them just the way God accepted them and that’s in Christ.”