There are people with Christian morals and then there are moralistic Christians. What’s the difference and which are you? People with Christian morals are humble, just, and compassionate Moralistic Christians are proud, corrupt, and indifferent People with Christian morals traffic in servanthood, peace, and impartiality Moralistic Christians are self-righteously superior, power abusers, and bigoted Who …
A parable about you, Jesus, and some other friends* (A summary of Romans 1-3)
A friend who's a new follower of Jesus asked me to give him some input on how to read Romans. I shared this simple parable on how to outline the first three chapters. Thought I'd share it here. You and four friends won tickets for a trip to Hawaii on an ocean liner. On the …
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How To Know If You’re A Legalist (Three tests and a test case) Part 4 of 4
Some other observations about legalistic types from the story of the Prodigal's big brother: They tend to miss the party: “He refused to go in …” (Luke 15:28) Lots of legalist-leaning Christians are like that. They may be, in one sense, “holy,” but it’s never a happy holiness. They’re too busy keeping their halo on …
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How To Know If You’re A Legalist (Three tests and a test case) Part 3 of 4
Now that we've looked at the three tests to identify legalism: rules, reasons, and resources, I propose a New Testament test case. A test case of a legalist – The son who missed the party (Luke 15:11-32) We’ve all heard the prodigal son parable. The youngest son couldn’t wait for his dad to die, so …
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How To Know If You’re A Legalist (Three tests and a test case) Part 2 of 4
In part 1 I said there are three factors to consider in measuring our legalistic tendencies: rules, reasons, and resources. We covered the rules factor and now we're on to the other two factors... The reasons… The second factor in diagnosing the legalistic disease has to do with our reasons for obedience to certain laws. …
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barney wiget 