By Gary Deddo

Sometimes I hear expressed a concern that we emphasize grace too much. The suggested corrective is that we should counter-balance teaching about grace with teaching about obedience, righteousness and other obligations mentioned in Scripture, especially those in the New Testament. I have been reflecting on this concern and think I might have something useful to offer concerning the nature of grace and our response.

For a related article entitled “Grace and Obedience,” click here. Also see Joseph Tkach’s cover letters in this issue and one published in September.

Part one: the nature of grace

A legitimate concern

Those who worry about extending “too much grace” sometimes have a legitimate concern. Sadly, some people teach that because we are saved by grace and not by works, it makes no difference how we live. For them, grace means no obligations, rules or expected patterns of relationship. For them, grace means that pretty much anything goes since it’s all forgiven beforehand. This erroneous view sees grace as a free pass—carte blanche permission to do whatever one wants. In my experience, most people who hold this view, or something like it, don’t go quite this far—they seem to know that there are some limits. However, some people do hold an extreme, and I believe unbiblical, view of grace.

Living without or against any laws or rules is known as antinomianism. This problem has been written and preached about throughout church history. Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was a Christian martyr under the Nazis, called it “cheap grace” in his book The Cost of Discipleship. Antinomianism is addressed in the New Testament. Paul referred to it when addressing the accusation that his emphasis on grace was encouraging people to “continue in sin in order that grace may abound” (Romans 6:1, NRSV). Paul’s reply was short and emphatic: “By no means!” (v. 2). Then a few sentences later he repeats the charge against him and answers it: “What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (v. 15).

But what is the real problem and solution?

There was no ambiguity in Paul’s response to the charge of antinomianism. Those who argue that grace means anything goes because it’s all covered are mistaken. But why? What’s gone wrong? Is the problem really “too much grace”? And is the solution to counter-balance grace with something else? Is that how Paul and the rest of the New Testament writers understood the problem? Was that how they sought to remedy it? I think the answer to both questions is clearly, “by no means!” The whole of the New Testament revelation, founded in Jesus Christ himself, identifies the nature of the problem and its solution quite differently. Paul did not change his message of grace and warned against those who would, especially in his letter to the Galatians.

Rather than being “too much grace,” the real problem is a misunderstanding of both grace and obedience. Ironically, those who worry about “too much grace” hold the same misunderstanding about grace as those who have no worries at all and so go merrily on their way without giving further thought to living a life of faithfulness to Jesus Christ and the instructions given in the New Testament. Their misunderstanding of grace trips them up and undermines their ability to live a life of joyful obedience in the freedom of Christ—a freedom and joy that both Paul and Jesus talk about.

It took me many years to get to the bottom of this issue, and I didn’t get there without a lot of help from others who I learned from, some in person and others through their writings. So let me now try to lay out what I found.

The problem is not too much grace nor is the solution to counter-balance grace with an equal insistence on obedience, works or service. The real problem is thinking that grace means God makes an exception to a rule, a requirement or an obligation. That is a common, everyday misunderstanding of grace. If grace involved merely allowing for exceptions to rules, then yes, a lot of grace would simply yield a lot of exceptions. And if God was said to be all-gracious, then, we could expect that for every obligation or responsibility God would make an exception. The more grace, then the more exceptions to obedience. The less grace, the fewer exceptions allowed. A nice clean proportion. If we have to allow some room for grace in this scheme, then the only question is where to put the balance between grace and requirements: 25/75? 50/50? 75/25?

Such a scheme perhaps describes the best that human grace can achieve. But note that this approach pits grace against obedience. It puts them at odds with one another—always pushing and pulling one another; back and forth, never really settling down since they fight against one another. Each one undoes or negates the other. Being in perpetual contradiction they have no hope of ever getting along. And so folks assuming that “this is just the way things have to be,” experience this tension within themselves. Externally their lives might look like a teeter-totter, tipping now on one side and then on the other. But fortunately such a scheme does not represent God’s kind of grace. The truth about grace sets us free from this false dichotomy.

God’s grace in person

Question: How does the Bible actually define grace? Answer: Jesus Christ himself is God’s grace to us. Paul’s benediction that ends 2 Corinthians refers to “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace is what God freely gives us in his incarnate Son, who in turn, graciously communicates to us God’s love and restores us to fellowship with God. What Jesus does towards us reveals to us the nature and character of the Father and the Holy Spirit. Scripture tells us that Jesus bears the stamp of God’s exact character (Hebrews 1:3). It says that “he is the image of the invisible God” and that “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Colossians 1:15, 19). He who has seen him has seen the Father and if we know him we will know the Father (John 14:9, 7).

Jesus explains that he only does “what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19). He tells us that only he knows the Father and he alone reveals him (Matthew 11:27). And John tells us that this Word of God, who has existed from the beginning with God, took on a human existence and has shown us “the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” While “the law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” In fact, “from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” And this Son who has existed in the heart of God from all eternity “has made him known” (John 1:14-18).

Jesus is God’s grace to us—revealing in word and in action that God himself is full of grace. Grace isn’t just one of the things God happens to do every now and then. Grace is who God is. God gives us his grace out of his own nature, the exact same character we meet in Jesus. He does not give out of a dependence upon us, nor does he give because we somehow obligate him to extend his good gifts to us. God gives grace because he has a giving nature. That means that God gives us his grace in Jesus Christ, freely. Paul calls grace a free gift from God in his letter to the Romans (5:15-17; 6:23 NRSV). And in his letter to the Ephesians he memorably declared: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NRSV).

All that God gives us he gives freely out of his own goodness, out of his desire to do good to all that is less than and other than himself. God’s acts of grace have their source in God’s good, freely giving nature. So God continues to give freely of his goodness even when it meets up with resistance, rebellion and disobedience from his creatures. In response to sin, he freely gives his forgiveness and reconciliation in and through his Son’s atonement. God, who is light and in whom is no darkness, gives himself to us freely—in the Son, by the Spirit, so that we might have abundant life (1 John 1:5; John 10:10).

But was God always gracious?

Unfortunately it has often been explained that God originally (even before the Fall) agreed to give of his goodness (to Adam and Eve and then to Israel) only if his creatures fulfilled certain conditions (obligations) that he set out for them. If they didn’t, he would not extend much of his goodness to them. He especially would not extend forgiveness and eternal life.

This erroneous viewpoint sees God as having a contractual, if you-then I relationship with his creatures. That contract has conditions or obligations (rules or laws) that humanity must meet in order to receive what God is offering. According to this view, God’s primary concern is conformity to his rules. And if we don’t measure up, God will withhold his best from us. Worse than that, he will give us what is not good, what leads to death, not life; now and in eternity.

This erroneous view sees law as the deepest thing about God’s nature and thus the most fundamental aspect of God’s relationship with his creatures. He wills what he wills and only blesses upon our fulfillment of his will specified by certain obligations. This God is essentially a contract God who has a legal and conditional relationship with his creatures. He conducts that relationship in a slave-master way. In this view, God’s freely giving of his goodness and blessings, including forgiveness, is far from the essence or nature of this God. From this perspective, Jesus is viewed as showing us only one particular and isolated aspect of who God is. Jesus, in fact represents an exception to God’s rule and will, nature and character, not the fullness of God’s divinity. Jesus, then, only reveals and demonstrates what is non-essential to God’s nature and character. Regarding Jesus in this way ought to alert us to a serious problem.

Of course, if law actually was the most fundamental feature of God’s relationship to us, then grace could only be an exception to law. But, especially given the new covenant, it is clear that law is not the most basic way that God relates to us now. It never has been. God is not fundamentally sheer will or law. This is most clearly seen looking at Jesus who shows us the Father and sends us the Spirit. It is clear when we hear from Jesus about his eternal relationship with the Father and Spirit. Jesus tells us that his nature and character are identical to that of the Father’s. Indeed the Father-Son relationship is not one of rules, obligations or the fulfilling of conditions in order to earn or deserve benefits. The Father and Son do not have a legal relationship with each other. They have not drawn up a contract with each other where if one fails to complete his part the other will not fulfill his part. The idea of a contractual, law-based relationship between the Father and the Son is an absurdity. The truth, revealed to us in Jesus, is that their relationship is one of holy love, faithfulness, self-giving and mutual glorification. Jesus’ prayer in John 17 powerfully reveals that those triune relationships are the foundation and source for all God does in every relationship since God always acts according to who he is—because he is faithful.

As we read Scripture carefully, it becomes clear that God’s relationship with his creation, and even post-Fall with Israel, is not contractual—it is not one of conditionality. An important point to remember, one that Paul is clear about, is that God’s relationship with Israel was not fundamentally one of law, of an if-then contract. God’s relationship with Israel began with a covenant, a promise. The Law of Moses (the Torah) came in 430 years after the inauguration of the covenant. Given that timeline, law could hardly be regarded as the foundation for God’s relationship with Israel.

In the covenant, God freely pledged himself and his goodness to Israel. And as you will recall, it had absolutely nothing to do with what Israel could offer God (Deuteronomy 7:6-8). Remember that Abraham was someone who did not know God when God pledged to bless him and make him a blessing to all the nations (Genesis 12:2-3). A covenant is a promise—it is freely chosen and freely given. “I will take you as my people, and I will be your God” said God to Israel (Exodus 6:7). God’s pledge of blessing was unilateral—established from his side alone. God gave the covenant as an expression of his own nature, character and being. Its establishment with Israel was an act of grace—yes, grace!

A careful review of the early chapters of Genesis makes it clear that God does not relate to his creation according to some sort of contractual agreement. First, creation itself was an act of free giving. There was nothing there that deserved or earned existence, much less a good existence. God himself declares: “And it was good,” even “very good.” God freely extends his goodness towards his creation, towards what is far less than himself, giving it life. Eve was God’s gift of goodness to Adam so that he would no longer be alone. In like manner, God gave Adam and Eve the garden and the good purpose of keeping it so that they would experience fruitful and abundant life. Adam and Eve fulfilled no conditions before these good gifts were given freely by God.

But what about after the Fall, when sin entered? What we find is that God continues to give of his goodness freely and unconditionally. Was not God’s pursuit of Adam and Eve, giving them an opportunity to repent following their disobedience, an act of grace? Consider also how God provided animal skins for their clothing. Even their expulsion from the Garden was an act of grace, to prevent them from taking of the tree of life in their fallen state. God’s protection and provision for Cain can only be regarded in the same light. We also see grace in God’s protection of Noah and his family, and in his pledge of the rainbow. All these acts are of grace—freely given gifts of God’s goodness. None of them are rewards for fulfilling some kind of even minimal legal contractual obligation.

Grace as unmerited favor?

It has often been said that grace is God’s unmerited favor. Strictly speaking this is true. But given what we think it implies, it is just barely true. What is false about it is the assumption (almost always lurking in the background) that God originally intended for us to merit his favor. That is utterly false. God did not originally plan on us meriting his favor, but then gave up as he saw us fail. God did not abandon Plan A: Merited Favor for Plan B: Unmerited Favor. No—God never, from the foundations of the earth, wanted a contractual, conditional relationship with us. He never wanted a master-slave relationship. [1] Rather, he wanted all along for his children to have a relationship with him that mirrored as much as possible the relationship God the Father has with his Son in the Spirit.

God always freely gives of his goodness, of himself to his creatures. And he does so because of who he is, eternally and internally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All they do towards creation is an overflow of their inward life together. The acts mirror externally who God is internally, and so give him glory. A legal and contractual relationship with God would not give the triune creator and covenant-making God glory, but would actually obscure it, even deny it. It would make God into a mere idol. And idols always enter into contractual relationships with their appeasers because they need their worshippers just as much as the worshippers need them. They are mutually dependent. So they mutually use one another for their own self-centered ends. The only question is which “side” will win. The outcome of that competition is largely dependent upon which side is strongest, more powerful, and slightly less dependent than the other. But such a relationship is exactly what the God of the Bible completely repudiates. God is no idol and does not want the kind of contractual, conditional relationship with his people that idols demand. Idols must be appeased, but not the God of Israel and of our Lord Jesus Christ. [2]

The smidgen of truth hidden down under the saying that grace is God’s unmerited favor is simply that we don’t merit it. But the implication almost always accompanying that idea is false! God’s favor or blessing (his freely given goodness) was never meant to be merited. You can “unmerit” God’s blessing, but you can’t merit it and you never could. For if God extended his goodness to us because we merited it, that action would not be motivated by God’s own nature and character. Such goodness would not be freely given by a good God. Favor earned is not favor freely given. It is not grace!

The graciousness of grace demonstrated

Grace does not just come into play when there is sin, making an exception to some law or obligation. God is gracious whether there is or is not sin. In other words, God does not need sin to be gracious. However, grace continues when there is sin. So it is true that God continues to freely give of his own goodness to his creatures even when they do not merit it. He, then, freely gives forgiveness at his own expense of reconciling atonement.

Even when we sin, God remains faithful because he is faithful, just as Paul says: “If we are faithless, he remains faithful” (2 Timothy 2:13). Because God always is true to himself, he persists in extending his love and in pursuing his holy purposes for us even when we rebel and resist. This constancy of grace shows the depth of the freedom that God has to be good toward his creation. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly….But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6, 8 NRSV). Indeed, the special character of grace shines forth when it shines out in the darkness. And so we most often speak of grace in the context of sin. There is nothing wrong with that. But the problem comes when we think God’s favor was originally to be earned in a legal arrangement with him. Sin can’t stop God’s free giving of his goodness. He remains constant in character, nature and purpose. God is not dependent upon us to remain true to himself. We cannot make God freer than he is, nor by our rejection of his goodness can we take from him his freedom to be gracious.

So God is gracious without sin and God is gracious with sin. God is faithful in being good to his creation and maintaining his good purposes for creation. And we see this most fully in Jesus who cannot be stopped from completing his atoning work by all the forces of evil arrayed against him. Those forces cannot prevent him from giving up his life so that we could have life. No amount of pain, suffering and utter humiliation could deter him from carrying out his holy, loving purposes to reconcile humanity to God.

God’s goodness does not require evil to be good. But when it comes upon evil, goodness knows just what to do: overcome it, conquer it, and vanquish it. There is no such thing, then, as too much grace.

Part two: our response

In part one we looked at the nature of grace and saw that it is an expression of God’s own being as seen in Jesus Christ. This time we look at the connection of grace to the obedience that is our response to God’s freely given goodness.

So why the law (or any other commands)?

Given what we saw about grace, how then do we regard the Old Testament law and Christian obedience under the new covenant? If we remember that God’s covenant is a unilateral promise the answer more easily falls into place. A promise does call for a response from the one to whom it is made. However, the fulfillment of the promise does not depend upon this response. [3]

There are only two options here: to trust (have faith or believe) in the promise or not. The Law of Moses (the Torah) described for Israel much of what trusting God’s covenant should look like during its pre-fulfillment stage (prior to Jesus Christ). God graciously provided for Israel ways to live within his covenant (as it was expressed in the old covenant). The Law of Moses also described ways that were distrustful of God’s covenant promises to Israel. But what the Torah did not do is to prescribe how Israel might earn God’s favor and blessing—its purpose was not to define how to get God to make a promise and then how to keep him faithful to it.

The Torah was freely given by God to Israel. It was meant to help Israel. Paul calls it a “tutor” (Galatians 3:24-25 NKJV). And so it should be regarded as a good gift of God’s grace to Israel. The Law of Moses is given inside and under the old covenant, which was the covenant of grace in its phase as promise (awaiting the fulfillment in Christ within the new covenant). It was meant to serve God’s freely given covenant purpose to bless Israel and make her a channel of blessing to all nations.

God, remaining faithful to himself, desires the same kind of non-contractual relationship with those who live within the new covenant fulfilled in Jesus. He freely extends to us all the blessings of his atoning and reconciling life, death, resurrection and ascension. We’re offered all the benefits of his coming Kingdom. And even more, we are offered the blessedness of being indwelt by his Holy Spirit. But the offer of these gifts of grace of the new covenant calls for a response—the same kind of response that Israel was to give: faith (trust). But under the new covenant we trust in the fulfillment of God’s covenant rather than in its promise.

So what difference does the response to grace make? It is in answering this question that confusion often arises. If we are to benefit from the promise we must live on the basis of trusting it. This is what is meant by “living by faith.” We see faithful living exemplified by the Old Testament “saints” in Hebrews 11. Yes, there are consequences for not living out of a trust in the covenant promised or the covenant fulfilled. Distrust in the covenant and in the God of the covenant severely limits one’s experience of the covenant benefits. Israel’s distrust cut her off from the source of her life—her sustenance, health and fruitfulness. Distrust blocked her relationship with God to the point where she was unable to receive much of anything from God. And God did not want that, because he is gracious! Thus in Scripture we find strict warnings describing the dire consequences of living in ways that deny God’s faithfulness to his word of promise, thus preventing his people from receiving the freely given grace of God. Instead of blessings, what his faithless people receive is sometimes referred to as “curses.”

But even such warnings given to his people can be regarded as gifts of God’s grace. If God did not care about Israel and would just as soon cancel his covenant, there would be no reason for him to warn her at all. He’d just let her go and be done with it. But one of the consequences of living as if you were not in the covenant is not undoing it, not nullifying it, and not making God change his mind and go back on his promise. God cannot be tempted to be unfaithful to his promise.

God’s covenant, Paul tells us, is irrevocable. Why? Because God is faithful and will keep his covenant even when it costs him dearly! God will never go back on his word; he cannot be forced to act uncharacteristically towards his creation or his people. Even in our distrust of the promise we cannot make God to be untrue to himself. This is what is meant by God doing things “for his own name’s sake.”

Israel’s disobedience did indeed result in bad (even dire) consequences. But all of these occurred within the covenant, under God’s grace. Under the old covenant, God never abandoned Israel—never went back on his covenant promises. From time to time, God renewed his covenant with Israel, always leading up to the fulfillment of the covenant in Jesus Christ.

And it is the same under the new covenant. All the instructions and commands we find there are meant to be obeyed by faith in God’s freely given goodness and grace. That grace reached its high point in God’s self-giving and self-revelation in Jesus. To be enjoyed, God’s good gifts must be received, not rejected or ignored. The imperatives (commands) found in the New Testament describe what receiving or trusting in God’s grace looks like for the people of God living after the establishment of the new covenant.

Where does obedience come from?

So where then does obedience come from? It arises out of a trust in God’s faithfulness to his covenant purposes fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The only obedience that God is interested in is the obedience of faith—faith in God’s constancy, in God’s faithfulness to his Word, faithfulness to himself (Romans 1:5; 16:26). Obedience never was and never is an attempt to fulfill conditions to get God to be faithful, to make God more likely to be good, to get God to be (freely!) gracious. Obedience is our response to grace. Paul is clear on this—especially where he tells us that Israel’s failure was not that she did not fulfill certain legal conditions of the Torah, but that she “did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works” (Romans 9:32 NRSV). Paul, a law-keeping Pharisee, came to realize the astounding truth that God never wanted him to work up a righteousness of his own through keeping the law. What good would that be even if it were possible (which it is not)? Compared to the righteousness that God intended to give him by grace, compared to having a share in God’s own righteousness given to him in Christ, it would be garbage (or worse!)–see Philippians 3:8.

All along, God intended to share his own righteousness with his people as a gift of grace. Why? Because God is gracious! (Philippians 3:8-9). So how do we receive this freely given gift? By trusting God for it, by having faith in his promise to provide it. Trying to work for or earn that gift—trying to meet certain legal conditions, trying to conform to specified obligations in order to earn God’s blessings actually indicate distrust. They indicate unbelief in God’s freely given grace.

The obedience that God is looking for is motivated by faith, hope and love for God. The calls for obedience described for us throughout Scripture, the commands found in the old and new covenants, are those of grace. They are not conditions of grace. If we believe in God’s promises and trust in their fulfillment in Christ and then in us, we will want to live in, under and by those promises, as if they are indeed true and trustworthy. If we are not living in a way that expresses trust in God’s grace—his being good to us even when we don’t deserve it—then we’re not really trusting in God’s grace!

The obedient life is a trusting life. A disobedient life is one that is not trusting or perhaps does not (yet) want what is promised. Only obedience that arises out of faith, hope and love gives God glory, for only that kind of obedience bears witness to the truth of who God actually is, as revealed to us in Jesus Christ.

God will continue to be gracious to us whether we receive or resist his grace. Of course part of his graciousness will be to resist our resistance to his grace! That’s the nature of God’s wrath as he says “No” to our “No” to him in order to reaffirm his “Yes” to us in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:19). And God’s “No” is just as strong as his “Yes,” because it is an expression of his “Yes.” Those who do resist God’s grace will not experience the benefits of living by faith. However, they will not, by that unbelief, stop God from being true to himself, from being the gracious God that he is.

Grace makes no exceptions!

It’s important to realize that God makes no exceptions to his good purposes and holy aims for his people. Because he is faithful, God will not give up on us. Instead, he loves us to perfection—the perfection of his Son. God intends to glorify us so that we perfectly trust and love him with all that we are and have, and so live out our trust in his graciousness to the full. Doing so means that our distrusting hearts will be done away with so that our lives perfectly reflect our trust in God’s freely given goodness. God’s perfect love will love us to completion by justifying us, sanctifying us and finally glorifying us. “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6).

Would God be gracious to leave us, in the end, less than whole? What if heaven were filled with individuals for whom exceptions were made—allowing for a lack of faith here, a failure of love there, a bit of unforgiveness here, some bitterness and resentment there, a mite of jealousy here and a mote of selfish pride there? What would that be like? Well, it would be just like it is here and now, but forever! Would God really be gracious to leave us in such an “exceptional” condition for all eternity? No he would not! In the end, God’s grace allows for no exceptions to his ruling grace, to the rule of his love, to the sovereignty of his loving will—because otherwise he would not be gracious.

What can we say to those who abuse God’s grace?

How might we answer those who say that they can do whatever they like since we’re under grace and not law? Perhaps we can point out that living a lawless life that is devoid of trust in God, resists the grace of God. Perhaps we can help them understand that to presume upon grace is to not receive it, and thus to experience few of its benefits.

As we disciple people in the way of Jesus, we should help them to understand and receive God’s grace, rather than to misunderstand and pridefully resist it. We should help them to live in the grace that God is extending to them right now. We should help them to know that no matter what they do, God will continue to be true to himself and true to his good purposes for them. We should help them to trust in the fact that because God loves them and is gracious in his own nature, character and purpose, he will resist any resistance to his grace so that one day we all might fully receive and thus live by his grace and so gladly take on joyfully the “obligations” of living in grace, knowing the privilege it is to be a child of God with Jesus Christ as our elder brother.

Several members of GCI’s US Church Administration and Development (CAD) team met recently in Denver for planning meetings. During the meetings, led by CAD director Dan Rogers, it was announced that Greg Williams (below left) will be serving as CAD’s Associate Director and Charles Albrecht (below right) as Assistant Director.

GCI president Joseph Tkach, who attended the meetings, commented: “We look forward to an orderly transition going forward as Dan Rogers plans to retire in January 2015. At that time, Dan will be ‘passing the baton’ of CAD director on to Greg.”

In the video below, GCI leader John Halford talks about the challenges of growing old gracefully, which includes changing the way we participate in Christ’s ministry.

View on YouTube at http://youtu.be/VyWVmwiyOqE.

This update is from church planter and district and church pastor Heber Ticas concerning the GCI church that he and his team planted two years ago in Los Angeles. For an earlier update, click here.

On October 20 we celebrated our second anniversary. We are grateful for the Lord’s grace—we had 116 in attendance including 14 from the mother church. Our journey has been one of great joy, fears, hard work and a lot of faith. I thank the Lord for the team he has given me. They have joyfully participated in the Lord’s mission to our community.

Through our participatory ministry, we have been privileged to help many people encounter the risen Lord. Not all have responded positively, but many have and in that we rejoice. Loving our community with no strings attached has been our ministry model. One example is a sister who sheltered an abused mother in her home. Another is the care we gave to sister Julia who was drawn to our church through our outreach of passing out free bottles of water on the street. Julia attended our initial launch service and has been part of our church family ever since.

Last February, Julia was diagnosed with stage-three stomach cancer. She had to endure difficult surgery that included removal of her stomach. Several weeks later I was privileged to accompany her to an appointment with her oncologist. Her doctor informed her that they were not able to remove all the cancer and that they felt that it was fatal with only six to twelve months before the cancer claimed her life. God’s love for Julia has been unwavering, but he allowed us to be the bearers of that heavenly love. We share that love as we pray with her, have fellowship, encourage her and provide financial support to purchase her expensive meals that are fed through a tube. We have witnessed her most difficult moments, but we thank God for his grace as we have seen her recover most of her weight in the last six weeks.

We ask that you join with us in mission to our community by keeping us in your prayers. Please pray for our team, in particular for Enoch Palacios, our associate pastor, and David Chicas, one of our ministry leaders. I have delegated most of the everyday ministry duties to these men. Please pray that the Lord gives me wisdom to recognize the right time to release the ministry fully to these leaders. I plan to do so by our third anniversary.

We are happy to report the official launch of Grace Communion Fellowship on October 20. As we reported earlier, this church plant held three preview services in September and early October. Now they are meeting weekly as a new GCI congregation in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles, California.

About 95 people attended the first service. Of those, about 25 were visitors from neighboring GCI churches, helping out with this service. Thus church planters Angie and Saddie Tabin had about 70 new people attend who had been “gathered” through outreach to the surrounding community over the last 16 months. Although the Tabins primary focus has been reaching the Filipino community, there were quite a few Caucasian and African-Americans in attendance. It looks like God is planting a new multi-ethnic church!

Please pray for this new church. Here are four prayer requests:

1. For Angie and Saddie as they invite and train some of the new people to take on some of the responsibilities that members from other GCI churches have been temporarily filling.
2. For people to be open to gathering in small groups so they can be taught how to be disciples of Jesus.
3. That people will continue to attend. A typical church plant loses about 50% of those who first begin attending. Pray this will not be the case with Grace Communion Fellowship. Pray that they will not only stay but also invite friends and family so that the church will grow.
4. That our new members will begin carrying the financial load of the rent, advertising, etc. Having sufficient funds to pay the pastors of the new church would be a huge blessing.

This update is from GCI-USA regional pastor Ted Johnston.

It was my pleasure and privilege to participate in a worship service on October 5 in which Rannie Childress was installed as the senior pastor of the newly-chartered GCI church in Attalla, Alabama (congratulations, Rannie!). Also participating were district pastor Dennis Wheatcroft, former district pastor Tom Mahan and Rannie’s former pastor Bob Miller. Our thanks to each of these pastors for their role in preparing Rannie for his new responsibility.

You may recall Rannie’s story from an earlier Update post. This post continues that story, telling now how God led GCI Birmingham pastor Bob Miller to partner with Rannie and other members in first starting a Bible study, then planting the new church in the town of Attalla, east of Birmingham. A primary focus throughout has been to minister to men in nearby residential addiction-recovery programs. The story is told by Bob and Rannie in the video embedded below. By way of background, here are excerpts from what Bob wrote recently in his Birmingham church newsletter:

The Attalla church plant became a chartered congregation of GCI on September 11, 2013. It will be called New Outlook Christian Fellowship…. When I reflect back on how all of this came about, it’s an amazing story. We were trying to meet a need and were not following any carefully thought-out plan. It’s a though we were being carried along by the Spirit to an unknown destination… Our GCI church planting motto is: All kinds of churches for all kinds of people in all kinds of places. Three years ago Grace Covenant Fellowship (and a year later, Good Hope Community Church) began providing financial support for a worship service in a community called Hokes Bluff. We had no idea what might develop from this mission outreach… [though we] wanted to reach out and serve men who were in drug and alcohol recovery programs. God blessed those efforts, and in April the church moved to Attalla—a much closer location for those in recovery to attend…. Little did Rannie and I know 24 years ago when we first met—in prison—that we would one day serve in ministry together—let alone raise up a new church. We feel humbled and honored to be a part of this process.

Posted on YouTube at http://youtu.be/VeJtebW5Xag

Our thanks to Bob, Rannie and the other members of the congregations who sacrificially parented this new church. You have faithfully followed where the Spirit led. We are excited to think about what God will yet do in and through the Attalla church.

Here is an update from Angie Tabin on progress of the GCI church that she and her husband Saddie are planting in Los Angeles, California.

We have now held three “preview services” to give the people we have been contacting a feel for our new church, which is reaching out to Filipinos in and around the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles.

We’ve been holding preview services every other week at the American Legion Hall in Eagle Rock. About 100 people (including 10 children) attended the first service with the numbers less than that at the next two as those attending from nearby GCI congregations that are helping us launch returned to their home services. Several of the new attenders have urged us to begin weekly services—we plan to begin doing so in late October.

It is evident that those attending these services experienced God’s presence through songs, fellowship and food. One new contact received Christ as Savior when one of our core team members shared Christ during the refreshment period. Another contact gave a testimony, calling on the audience to support us in what we are doing. We had met her during a time of great trial, having just lost both her husband and sister. She was quite depressed. So we prayed with her and read Scripture. Now she is passionate about sharing Christ with others. She even told us that she wants to be a pastor some day! Another new contact commented: “I would like to support you. I will give my tithe here; even more than my tenth, for I was encouraged and inspired.”

In the preview services we have given sermons on various topics related to faith in Christ and the mission, vision and core values of our new church. We have named it Grace Communion Fellowship. Though our mission has been focused on reaching Filipinos, it looks like we’ll need to amend it—the new people attending have been a mixture of ethnicities and races.

We have made these contacts by various means, including distributing fliers and bottled water, but most new contacts have come through meeting people one-on-one since moving here from the Philippines. We are facing many challenges, but we are thankful to God that he is the “owner” of this new church—he is the Master Church Planter. Please pray that God provides us with more core team members from our new contacts. Up to this point, we’ve been borrowing team members from GCI’s New Hope and New Life churches located nearby. We are grateful for their support during this launch period. We also are grateful for the support given by the GCI district church planting network formed here in Southern California. They have been giving us essential financial, spiritual and logistical support.

As to our future plans, we will seek to follow where God leads. Our strategy has been to meet Filipinos first. However, since many of them are in biracial marriages, we are connecting with multiple races. And so we seek to help them all know that they are included, accepted and loved.

As soon as our congregation is stable and God provides a pastoral leader to care for this new flock, we plan to move to another place to plant another church. However, that move is probably a year or more away. First we need to get this church up and running and equipped with a “DNA” for joining Jesus in his missional work. I told the audience in one of our preview services that we are not here to be “saved, seated and satisfied,” but to share the blessings by knowing God and making him known. Our unchurched neighbors are our brothers and sisters in the Lord, so may we all be bold in sharing Jesus with them.

We are truly excited to witness what the Lord is doing in the lives of these people. Isn’t it amazing that we can join in this most important work there is—making Jesus known. He is our All in All!

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For additional photographs from these preview services on FaceBook, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/Socal.GCI/. For an earlier update about the Tabins, click here.

This article was written by GCI regional pastor Ted Johnston in 1996 for the benefit of congregations he was pastoring in western Colorado. It is a tribute to GCI’s second Pastor General, Joseph W. Tkach and a reminder of our denomination’s amazing journey of change out of legalism and into grace.

Joseph W. Tkach became the Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) following the death of Herbert W. Armstrong in 1986. Mr. Tkach began his tenure continuing the administrative policies and doctrinal teachings of his predecessor. In the 2/14/86 issue of The Pastor General’s Report (PGR), Mr. Tkach wrote: “God has laid a solid foundation through Mr. Herbert Armstrong. Our responsibility now is to begin building the superstructure.”

In the early months of his administration, as reflected in subsequent PGR articles, Mr. Tkach concentrated largely on the fiscal/organizational needs of the church. But as Pastor General he also had to deal with doctrinal matters. In the 1/28/87 PGR, adhering to the doctrine established under Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Tkach reconfirmed the church’s opposition to birthday celebrations. In the 2/10/87 PGR, however, he took exception to the church’s long-held position that the church, just before the tribulation, would flee to a specific place in the Middle East ─ the “place of safety.” Mr. Tkach assured the church that God offers protection to his people, but encouraged a less extreme, dogmatic position on the subject.

Perhaps the early traces of the theme that opened Mr. Tkach’s understanding on the subject of the covenants can be found in the 3/10/87 PGR where Mr. Tkach wrote on the subject of grace. He showed how grace is illustrated by the New Testament Passover observance. In the same issue he also cautioned the church about being overly dogmatic regarding the chronology of Old Testament Passover events ─ matters of historical rather than theological significance.

In the 3/18/87 PGR, Mr. Tkach followed his discussion of grace by introducing his first major doctrinal change. It involved correcting the church’s position on the meaning of Jesus’ broken body. Rather than seeing Jesus’ beating as payment for “physical sin,” Mr. Tkach showed how the broken body of Jesus, together with his shed blood constitute his complete sacrifice for our sins. This understanding was fundamental to describing, in the same article, a change in the church’s former position on healing and the prohibition of using medical doctors. He wrote, “Jesus’ broken body has far more significance than only our temporal physical healing….Seeking medical attention and having faith in God need NOT be opposites!”

With these letters in early 1987, Mr. Tkach was leading the church to emphasize the centrality of grace in the person of Jesus Christ. This would prove to be an important beginning toward confronting, some eight years later, the church’s deeply ingrained legalism. But there was a long way to go ─ Mr. Tkach continued to believe that certain requirements of the old covenant were binding on all Christians. For example, the 3/24/87 PGR clarified how members should unleaven their homes as part of the church’s required observance of the Days of Unleavened Bread.

In the 6/24/87 PGR, Mr. Tkach upheld one of Mr. Armstrong’s teachings, stating that women should generally not wear makeup. This same issue was revisited, however, in 11/88 when Mr. Tkach reversed himself, allowing women to wear makeup if they wished. Mr. Tkach’s concern for women was illustrated again in January 1988 when he began to write on the role of women in the church ─ particularly within the family structure. He saw a need for the church to modify its views regarding the role of women to more accurately reflect the teaching of Scripture.

In the 4/12/88 PGR, it can be seen that the church under Mr. Tkach’s leadership continued to believe that old covenant laws should be administered in the church. A brief article notes that the land Sabbath law, though not seen as binding on Christians in a specific way, is to be practiced by each individual “according to his own unique circumstances.” Statements like this were characteristic of the church’s practice of picking and choosing among old covenant requirements, doing the best it could to apply them to the 20th century situation. It was not always easy.

In the 8/2/88 PGR, Mr. Tkach began to explore the church’s teaching on the nature of the gospel and the commission of the church. He emphasized that preaching the gospel and feeding the flock are equally important aspects of the church’s commission. This served as somewhat of a corrective to the church’s historic emphasis on preaching to the world as “the first commission.”

In the 10/25/88 PGR, Mr. Tkach wrote about the importance of getting rid of prejudice ─ his concern about racism in the church is beginning to surface. Then in the 11/22/88 edition he writes more about the doctrinal change on healing which by this time is leading some to leave the church.

In the 1/17/89 PGR, Mr. Tkach announces publishing of the booklet “Who Was Jesus?” providing a definition for the gospel that emphasizes the historic role of Jesus. This contrasts with the church’s past definition of the gospel as “the good news of the soon-coming Kingdom of God.” Mr. Tkach wrote:

I believe this will be one of our most vital and important pieces of literature as we continue to do the job of preaching and teaching the full gospel of Jesus Christ ─ the unparalleled good news about the salvation of mankind through Jesus, and His prophesied Second Coming to establish the Kingdom of God.

At this time Mr. Tkach was evidently thinking a good deal about who true Christians are and what God requires of them. In the 1/31/89 PGR, he wrote:

A true Christian will be striving to obey what God teaches in His Word to be His will. But even in that, he will not be doing it for the purpose of appearing righteous, or to make others think he is righteous. We all realize, of course, there are some things that should not be eaten and that our appearances should be appropriately modest. Yet we must look at the substance, not just the form. The true Christian will be obeying God because Jesus Christ lives in him…That means he will be obeying God from the motivation of love, of true concern and feeling for the well-being of others…If love is not present, all the obedience in the world is of no lasting value!…What is the difference between true Christians and “professing Christians”? Though both may be striving to keep God’s commandments, the true Christian obeys God in love and in humility. He does not think of himself as spiritually superior to others.

By this time, many errors were being found in Mr. Armstrong’s writings. In the 2/14/89 PGR, Mr. Tkach writes that Mystery of the Ages (Herbert Armstrong’s final book) and certain other literature published by the church were being removed from circulation, “It is critically important that God’s church never be in the position of continuing to put out what may be misleading or inaccurate material once we have become aware of it. God expects us to continually be growing in understanding and knowledge.” This proved to be a very unpopular announcement among many in the church.

In the 3/28/89 PGR, Mr. Tkach returned to the subject of God’s grace, writing about the relationship between grace and obedience, “Our indebtedness to God for His indescribable grace should motivate us to strive to show ourselves eternally grateful, to devote ourselves to pleasing Him, to following Him, to living by every word He speaks.”

In the 5/22/89 PGR, Mr. Tkach continued to uphold what Mr. Armstrong had taught on the subject of tithing, noting that a Christian who fails to pay a full 10% is “robbing God.” But in the 6/27/89 issue, Mr. Tkach was beginning to be troubled about the Church’s long-held emphasis on speculative prophecy. He wrote that we “need to take the focus off fruitless speculation and assumptions about prophecy.” In the 12/5/89 PGR he asks, “Is our faith founded upon our understanding of the fulfillment of specific prophecies, or upon the truth of the death, resurrection and promises of Jesus Christ?”

Continuing to write about members’ attitudes toward people outside the church, he wrote in the 10/2/89 issue that we should not take a “superior-inferior attitude toward other people.” Some in the church, however, could not shed this attitude. In December 1989 a large splinter group, the Philadelphia Church of God, was formed under former WCG minister Gerald Flurry. A polarization within certain parts of the church was beginning. Yet, the biggest changes lay yet ahead. It should be noted that in the PGR announcing Flurry’s disfellowshipment, a brief article upholds the Holy Days saying, “Christ’s death did not put an end to…keeping Holy Days.”

In May 1990, Mr. Tkach’s emphasis on the centrality of Christ found expression in a new understanding about the chronology of the Old Testament Passover and how that compares with the chronology of Jesus’ last supper and crucifixion. That same month, in the 5/15/90 PGR, he wrote:

God has led me and many other headquarters ministers to examine our focus and approach to our understanding of God’s Word. We have had to admit that we have indeed tended to “major in the minors.” That is, we have often given more attention to the speculative, the details and spiritual trivia ─ rather than to the great concepts and truths revealed to us by God…Some have fallen into the trap of trying to place a human leader on an equal level with God…they have placed Mr. Armstrong ahead of the Bible…They stand on traditional understanding instead of the Bible, and they cease to change error when it is discovered. Of what does the foundation of the truth God has given us consist?…The central core and theme of all our commission, all our Work and all our lives is Jesus Christ…Let’s realize that we have tended to overly emphasize the “works of the law” in spite of the clear teaching of Jesus and Paul. Obviously, as Jesus and Paul said, this does not mean we are directed to “do away” with the law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17). But I feel God is leading us to achieve balance in our approach.

In the 7/24/90 PGR, Mr. Tkach took on the issue of race directly, pointing out that interracial dating and marriage, though not always wise from a sociocultural perspective, is not defined by the Bible as sin. Then in the 8/21/90 PGR he once again clarified the commission of the church, noting that proclaiming a prophetic warning message is not its primary mission. In the 11/14/90 he noted that the gospel is not a “10-nation/save-your-skin” message.

By this time, defections from the church were mounting and in the 12/11/90 PGR, Mr. Tkach notes how members are leaving over the following doctrinal changes: 1. Removal of Mystery of the Ages from circulation. 2. Allowing medical treatments. 3. Allowing makeup. 4. Allowing birthday celebrations. 5. Seeking accreditation for Ambassador College. 6. Not calling interracial marriage a sin.

Certainly these changes troubled many. But in the 1/22/91 PGR, Mr. Tkach introduced a change that would prove to be even more momentous. In this issue he introduces the church’s new official teaching regarding the phrase “born again.” Previously the church had taught that Christians are not born again until the resurrection. Now the church would teach that a Christian is born again at conversion through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. This restatement would prove to be a major influence on the church’s understanding of many related subjects as will be seen in the progression of changes that followed.

In the 3/20/91 PGR, Mr. Tkach called for comments from the ministry on the booklet U.S. and Britain in Prophecy in anticipation of reprinting it after revisions. It was later determined that the booklet contained so many historic and doctrinal errors that it was never reprinted by WCG.

The speed and significance of doctrinal change in the Worldwide Church of God was mounting by this time. However, Mr. Tkach had not yet confronted the basic old covenant/new covenant issue. In the 4/24/91 PGR, for example, he published a clarification on when Sabbath “holy time” begins and when it ends so that there would be uniformity of approach to Sabbath keeping in the church. It is clear that the church continued to see old covenant requirements as, in some way, binding on all Christians.

In the 5/7/91 PGR, Mr. Tkach took up what would become a recurrent theme: the present aspect of the kingdom. He noted that the kingdom is not only future, it is both present and future.

In the 7/16/91 PGR, Mr. Tkach began to address the church’s Christology. Rather than upholding the church’s past teaching that Jesus “qualified” to be Savior by struggling through his life to “overcome sin,” Mr. Tkach began to understand that Jesus was both fully man and fully God and was never “at risk” of sinning during his human lifetime. He also noted that Jesus is uniquely the eternal Son of God and that man’s destiny is not to become a “God being” (implying equality with God) but to become an immortal child of God.

Mr. Tkach’s study of Christology led naturally to a study of the nature of God. In the 12/17/91 PGR he announced a new statement of beliefs including this about the nature of God: “The church affirms the oneness of God and the full divinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” He notes that this understanding is different than the doctrine of the “trinity” since the statement does not use the word “person” for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The 1/28/92 issue of the PGR addressed the accusation that the WCG is becoming “just like all the Protestants.” It refutes this assertion by saying, “the Sabbath, Holy Days and our other distinctive doctrines will always keep a wide gulf between us and most Protestant churches.” Mr. Tkach continues in the 4/21/92 PGR by writing about the Holy Days, asserting that they are to be kept but in a way whereby they are transformed in Christ. He writes, “For Christians, the festivals are no longer Old Testament Holy Days. They have been transformed in meaning to teach us about the gospel ─ God’s past, present and future work in Jesus Christ for the salvation of the whole world.”

In the 5/12/92 PGR, Mr. Tkach discusses plans to involve the membership more directly in the work of ministry and in evangelism. In the 8/4/92 edition he writes again on the centrality of Jesus Christ. In the 8/18/92 PGR, he announced publishing of the new booklet God Is…, discussing the church’s acceptance of the basic Trinitarian formulation of the nature of God.

By September 1992, Mr. Tkach was beginning to grapple with a highly volatile subject in the WCG ─ the role of the Ten Commandments for Christians. He was not yet able to see the Ten Commandments as the heart of the obsolete old covenant. Yet, in the 9/15/92 PGR he wrote, “People need more than just to be told to keep the Ten Commandments.”

In the 11/10/92 PGR, Mr. Tkach began to address an issue that would prove to be a watershed in his thinking. Following up on his Feast of Tabernacles sermon, he wrote about his belief that true Christians can be found outside the WCG. He would say later that he did not know how this could be ─ how could there be true Christians who did not observe the Sabbath and Holy Days? He did not know; he simply, from his personal experience, believed it to be true.

In the 12/8/92 PGR, he wrote about personal evangelism and community service projects, calling on the WCG to end its “self-imposed isolationism from the world.” The following month another splinter group, the Global Church of God, was formed by former WCG evangelist Rod Meredith. Defections from the church began to increase.

In the 3/17/93 PGR, Mr. Tkach wrote on another reoccurring and important theme ─ a Christian’s identity in Christ. Then in the 5/5/93 edition of the PGR, the church clarified its position on voting. The article explained that while the church itself does not participate in politics, it does not teach any longer that voting is a sin. The same issue also notes that it is not wrong to use the cross as a symbol of Christian faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The cross is not to be worshipped, but neither should it be disparaged as sinful as the church had previously done.

The 7/13/93 PGR contained a rebuttal to the accusation that the church is doing away with the Sabbath and the Holy Days. It discusses the New Testament use of these days, noting how the church’s “paradigm shift in perspective ─ from emphasizing Old Testament symbolism to expanding new covenant promises ─ reinforces the relationship of the Holy Days to redemption in Christ.”

In the 7/27/93 PGR, Mr. Tkach writes again on the nature of God, clarifying the language used by the church in its statement of beliefs. He writes, “We must teach that there is one God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit… They are distinct, but not separate.” In the 8/10/93 issue he writes about the full divinity of the Holy Spirit. He also shows how the word “person” in traditional Trinitarian statements has led to confusion and non-biblical conceptions about the one God. In the 8/24/93 issue he uses the word “hypostasis” instead of “person.” He writes, “Our teaching is that God is one Being, existing eternally in three hypostases: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

The 12/1/93 issue addresses the rumors that “we are doing away with the Sabbath or doing away with the law.” It responds, “We all know that the Sabbath began with the creation account, and that God’s creation of humans is completed in salvation.” As 1994 begins, the issue of the Sabbath as being part of the obsolete old covenant has not yet been addressed.

In 12/15/93, Mr. Tkach calls for a month of special prayer, fasting and spiritual rededication: “Let us pray for the faith in Jesus Christ to do what God wants…” In the 12/29/93 PGR, writing about spiritual renewal, he emphasizes the centrality of Christ, writing: “There is so much to do, and we need God’s power and strong, vibrant faith in Jesus Christ. Let’s go to our knees for the faith, the humility, the zeal, the courage and the power of his Spirit to do all that he has in store for us to do.”

In the 4/13/94 PGR, he writes about the value of observing the Sabbath and the Holy Days, noting that, “The Worldwide Church of God is one of the few churches that observe the annual Holy Days.” In his letter he emphasizes the use of the Holy Days to celebrate the gift of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

In 4/26/94 he writes explicitly about Christians outside the WCG, “We should understand that we do not form all there is of the true church of God.” He also writes, “We are also committed to upholding and walking in all the ways of God, including the observance of the Sabbath, the fourth of the Ten Commandments, as well as the annual festivals…”

In the 5/25/94 PGR, he defines the gospel as “the good news of human salvation and eternal life in the kingdom of God through the death, resurrection and return of Jesus Christ.” Then in the 8/30/94 PGR he talks about salvation by grace alone, noting that our love for God motivates us to obey the law. He notes that the [ten] commandments “are not done away or abolished. They remain as standards that all Christians ought to strive to meet…The law defines righteousness, and it is by the law that we know that we have fallen short and sinned.” In mid-1994 Mr. Tkach was clearly struggling to understand the place of the law in light of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

In the 10/18/94 PGR, Mr. Tkach returned to his musings on Christians outside the WCG and how it could be that some true Christians did not observe the Sabbath and Holy Days. In so doing he makes a fundamental statement, noting that the Sabbath is not the sign of a Christian’s identity:

There are lots of Christians, not in our fellowship, who are indeed truly converted, who possess the Holy Spirit and strive to obey Jesus in all he has given them to understand. There are Christian churches, congregations and Bible societies that are also, just as we are, doing God’s work in this dark world…..God has also given us understanding and respect for the seventh-day Sabbath and the annual Holy Days, something he has not given most other fellowships….At the same time we must not condemn and reject Christians God has called into other fellowships and given other tasks. I have explained before that the Sabbath was given as a sign of the special covenant relationship between God and his people, Israel. But the sign of God’s people in the New Testament is the Holy Spirit in them, expressing itself in love.

He addressed this subject again in the 11/2/94 and 11/15/94 PGR’s.

The 12/6/94 PGR is historic in that it contains the last overt effort of WCG to enforce an old covenant ordinance as a commandment. With a growing awareness of the impact of rising taxation in the U.S. and elsewhere, Mr. Tkach writes that it is OK if members figure their tithe on their net rather than their gross income. But tithing, in accordance with the old covenant model, continues to be seen as normative for Christians. It is only a couple of weeks after this that the biggest change of all is presented to the church by Mr. Tkach. In the 12/21/94, 1/5/95 and 2/1/95 PGR’s, he writes extensively about how the old covenant ended at Jesus’ death and resurrection and is distinct from the new covenant. He explains that the requirements of the old covenant are not binding on Christians, including requirements for Sabbath and Holy Day keeping, distinctions regarding clean and unclean meats and requirements to triple tithe according to the old covenant formula. Rather, for Christians, what God requires is found in the new covenant ─ the law of Christ.

What is covered in these three PGR’s regarding the Sabbath is made even more explicit in the 2/15/95 PGR where Mr. Tkach, Jr. asks, “Are Christians required to keep the seventh day as ‘holy time’? The answer is no.” The full implications of the church’s new teaching has been realized and faced. In the 3/15/95 PGR, Mr. Tkach wrote:

Our worship services on the Sabbath and on the festivals are not held on those days by commandment, but by choice ─ a choice that comes through the freedom that we have in Christ. We have “died to the law through the body of Christ” (Romans 7:4) so that we may belong to another—Jesus Christ—the one who has been raised from the dead so that we might bear fruit for God. “By dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code” (verse 6). In Christ, we are free to hold worship services whenever we choose. Our choice now rests primarily on our own tradition, not on any requirement of the law.

Looking back on this momentous process of change, in the 5/18/95 PGR, Mr. Tkach notes what is evidenced in this paper—a gradual process of incremental change led to a major awakening and an abandonment of the church’s historic legalism:

By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, I came to see these things over a period of years. It was not easy for me, but it was necessary if I was to be faithful to Jesus Christ…I have not set the pace for doctrinal change. Jesus Christ has. As I was convicted by Christ, I told the church everything the Holy Spirit led me to understand. Even last year [1994], I still did not understand what I understand today. Some of you know I was still preaching that we would never change our position on the Sabbath, the Holy Days, tithing and unclean meat as late as last October. By that time, I had come to see clearly that there are true Spirit‑filled Christians who were not Sabbath‑keepers, and I had explained that to the church. But I did not yet understand how such a thing could be. I only knew that it was true…But when Christ led me to understand the simple and pure biblical truth, it was…like a veil of blindness being lifted. I found that the Holy Spirit had given me a sense of peace and courage to teach the truth about this matter, even though I knew it would not be popular.

Now some people want to accuse me of “planning these changes for decades,” alleging that I had an “agenda” from the beginning to make all the changes we have made. What astonishing nonsense! All I can say is that if I had been working from a prearranged agenda of changes, I certainly would have chosen a slower pace of introducing them to the church. What I did was to teach what Christ led me to see at the pace he led me to see it, and I am the first to admit that I certainly did not foresee all the implications of some of those things. Looking back now, I can see that one thing led to another….At the time Mr. Armstrong died, I believed fully that what he had taught was fundamentally true. I had absolutely no idea that we had been wrong about the role of Sabbath and Holy Day observance. To me, this was the fundamental, bedrock issue of the Church of God. But God has now shown me and the church that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the fundamental, bedrock “issue” of the Church of God….

We made Christ of no effect through our old covenant perspective of the Sabbath. Faith in Jesus Christ, in our view, was not sufficient. It had to be faith in him plus Sabbath observance. And we interpreted the Bible according to that perspective, even when the Bible did not say it, and even when the Bible flatly refuted it. We interpreted the Bible with a Sabbatarian bias, and that bias obscured the true Reality ─ the One of whom the Sabbath was only a shadow. We had not understood that Sabbath and Holy Day observance is an issue of form and not of substance. Now, on the other side of the coin, some people have thought that if a Christian is to avoid legalism, he or she must stop keeping the Sabbath. But I hope we can see that this would be just another form of legalism. In Jesus Christ, we are not limited to nor restricted from any day, time or place of worship. We worship God in spirit and in truth, and therefore we are free to worship at any time or place we decide to do so….The future is indeed bright for the church, because Jesus Christ is faithful.

On September 23, 1995, having finished his work of leading the Worldwide Church of God out of legalism into the pure and glorious light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Mr. Tkach died. His son, Joseph Tkach, Jr., succeeded him as Pastor General.

Sam Butler pastors GCI congregations in Grand Rapids and Ravenna, Michigan and serves as one of our district pastors. Until recently, Sam’s Grand Rapids church met in the Roosevelt Park community where for several years they ran a food pantry that served dozens and dozens of disadvantaged families. Though many were blessed by this outreach and Sam and the congregation became well known in the community, their efforts did not lead to the hoped-for multiplication of new disciples of Jesus.

This past spring, Sam began looking for a new focus community for the congregation. He discovered the nearby town of Wyoming with its community-based program called One Wyoming. The program brings together church leaders, school officials and local government leaders to help end poverty in the community, to plant new churches and to mentor school-age kids. As Sam became acquainted with its leaders, an opportunity arose for GCI to offer the GenMin Journey with the Master (JWM) emerging leader training program to community teens. Sam asked Greg Williams to facilitate that training and three sequential weekend training events were arranged.

Sam has now been asked to help One Wyoming train mentors of school children. Also, Sam’s congregation has relocated to Wyoming, meeting at an elementary school at the invitation of the school’s principal. There is much work to be done, but forward movement is occurring and Sam is working closely with his church leaders as they seek to discern what their next steps should be. They would appreciate your prayers as they enter a new season of reaching out to the community to join with Jesus in his disciplemaking ministry.

By Gary Deddo

Following centuries of debate, it seems that Christians still have not settled on how best to speak about the connection between grace (faith in God’s grace in Jesus Christ) and obedience. Biblically grounded Christian teachers certainly recognize that salvation is God’s work and that it is received by faith. They also recognize that the resulting life with Christ involves obedience. The problem arises in how to affirm the one without denying (or severely qualifying) the other. The challenge is avoiding either lawlessness (antinomianism) or works-righteousness.

Both-and?

Most recognize the validity of both grace and obedience (faith and works). Rather than going the “either-or” route, most embrace some form of the “both-and” approach. However, this approach typically has little to say about the “and”—about how grace and obedience are actually connected. The result is that grace and obedience are artificially laminated together or stacked on top of one another. It is as if they are put into a room together and told to “get along.” Following this approach, efforts to correct perceived errors on one side typically involve emphasizing the other. If the perceived problem is too much works, then grace is emphasized. If it’s too much grace, then obedience is emphasized. In similar fashion, various ministries emphasize one or the other, depending upon which they think is more dangerous or prevalent. I find that the result of this approach is a sort of “seesaw theology” where the connection between law (works) and grace (faith) remains vague if not altogether absent.

In contrast, I find that the Bible deeply relates and integrates grace and obedience as fundamental to Christian faith and life. For example, in Romans 1:5 and 16:26 the apostle Paul says that bringing about this integration was the goal of his ministry. In 14:23 he says that any obedience that does not spring from faith in grace is sin! Hebrews 11 offers illustrations of people who obeyed God “by faith.” Then in 1 John 5 we are told that God’s commands are not burdensome because of the victory of faith in God’s grace (vv 3-4). Jesus himself reminds us that his burden is easy and his yoke light (Matthew 11:29-30) and that we are God’s “friends,” not his slaves (“servants”—see John 15:15 The Message). Then in Galatians, Paul tells us that “faith is made effective through love” (5:6 NRSV, footnote).

The nature of “AND”

There are dozens of places in the New Testament that clearly establish this connection between grace (faith) AND obedience (love for God and for others). But how does the connection work? What is the nature of the AND? It is found in the person of Jesus who alone embodies fully the character, mind, attitude and purpose of God. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ and the essence of that faith is trusting in Jesus as God in person according to who he is and what he has done. Faith is thus our response to who Jesus is in person, word and deed. We put our trust in God because of who Jesus Christ is. And he himself is the grace of God towards us. Jesus is the gospel. He is our salvation. And we receive all the benefits of who he is as we trust in him and cast aside (repent of) all rival objects of trust. We then enjoy our union and communion with Jesus as our Lord and God. Our lives are united to him and we share in his life, participating with him in all he is doing and will do in our relationship of trust (faith). We have our being by being in fellowship and communion with Jesus, receiving from him all that he has for us, and he taking from us all that we give him. In that union and communion we are transformed, bit by bit (2 Corinthians 3:18) to share more of Christ’s own glorified human nature, his character. We can count on this on-going gracious work of Christ by the Spirit even if much still remains hidden (Colossians 3:3) and we remain mere earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Our view of Jesus

The problem is that people have too small a view of Jesus and thus a restricted faith in him. Though they trust him for future salvation (getting into heaven), that’s pretty much it. However, when we look closely at scripture, we see that Jesus is both Savior and Commander. Jesus saves us by grace and also commands things of us. We know that our obedience to his commands does not earn us salvation, so why is obedience important? Perhaps we think that we must obey simply because our Commander says so—because he is big and powerful and we had better obey or else! Approached in this way, obedience becomes an act of sheer will in response to the might and seemingly arbitrary will of God. This is the obedience of a slave.

The problem with this approach to obedience is that it reflects a shrunken conception of Jesus and what he offers. We need to see all of who Jesus is and all of what he offers if we are to grasp all of what we can trust him for. We begin by understanding that Jesus is Lord of the whole cosmos, the entire universe; Lord of all reality. And he has a good and loving purpose for it all. He is redeeming all things and will renew heaven and earth. He is Lord and Savior over every aspect of human life and has a purpose for every dimension of our existence. It is all to be a channel of his blessing to us and through us to others. All of it, every relationship, is meant to lead to life and life abundantly. Even our eating and drinking is to reflect the very glory of our life-giving God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Every relationship is to be a fruitful gift exchange that contributes to a fullness of life and so a fullness of love. Jesus’ authority extends into every aspect of created existence, into every dimension of life at every level: mathematical, physical, chemical, biological, animal, human, social, cultural, linguistic, artistic, judicial, economic, psychological, philosophical, religious and spiritual. And all this has its origin in fellowship and communion with God through Christ. This relationship with God through Christ works its way into every avenue of life under his redeeming lordship. God’s grace has to do with everything. That’s the foundation of a Christian worldview.

So everything we receive from God we pass on to others to contribute to God’s universe-wide purposes. This is especially true in our relationships. We receive forgiveness of sins—renewing grace to start again with hope. We receive God’s generosity providing us all the fruit of the Spirit. We receive comfort, love, transforming power and a purpose and direction in life to be a sign and witness to the grace and goodness of God. We become witnesses to the truth and holy loving character of God. And all these things point to eternal life—life with God as his beloved children in holy, loving unity.

Trust and obey

Our faith is a trust in God through Christ for all these things, not just for “going to heaven” someday. Every command of God and our every act of obedience is keyed to some aspect of what we can trust God for. We forgive because we have been and will be forgiven. We love, because we are first loved by God. We love our enemies because God first loved us and also loves (wants his best) for his and our enemies. We can be generous because God is generous with us. We can be truthful and honest because God is truthful and honest and will bring out the truth in the end. We can be creative and helpful because God is creative and helpful to us. We comfort others in their grief because God comforts us in our grief. We can be patient because God is patient with us. We can be peacemakers because God is a peacemaker. We can pursue justice and right relationships at every level, because God is just and righteous. We can be reconcilers because God is a reconciler. All our doing by faith is participating in what God is doing through Christ and in the Spirit. That means all we do is fellowship and communion with Christ. We never act alone—because we are never alone but are united to Christ as his brothers and sisters and members of the family of God.

Imperatives flow from indicatives

We obey by faith when we see all of who Jesus is in any given situation, trust him to be faithful in that situation and then act as if he will be faithful. That is, we act on our faith in who he is. You will find that, connected to every command in Scripture is some kind of reference to who God is and what he can be trusted for. Seeing the connection between what God can be trusted for and what he then directs us to do generates the obedience of faith. James Torrance spoke of this by saying that every imperative of grace is built on a foundation of an indicative of grace. The reason there is always a connection is because all of God’s commands to us (the imperatives) arise out of his own character, heart, nature and purpose, including everything he has done for us in Jesus Christ (the indicatives). God is not arbitrary—his will for us always is informed and controlled by his nature and character as the Triune God who came to us in Jesus Christ that we might have fellowship and communion with him in holy love.

So faith in God’s grace arises out of a trust in God because of Jesus Christ and obedience to the God of grace arises out of a trust in God because of Jesus Christ. Thus faith and obedience have one and the same source—the faithfulness of God in Christ. They both are a response to who Christ is. They both have the same Trinitarian, Incarnational theological source. They both are the fruit of a trusting relationship with God through Christ in the Spirit.

Guidelines for preaching/teaching

Here are guidelines that I’ve developed to help keep grace and obedience together in Jesus:

1. Never call for an act of obedience without first showing what we can trust God for that which corresponds to that call for action. Always look for the indicatives of grace that are the foundation for the imperatives (commands) of grace in every biblical passage.
2. Always indicate the character of the gracious, saving, redeeming Commander. Never present God as a merely a commander with a strong will disconnected from his heart, mind, character and purpose, which we see in Jesus Christ. Always begin by answering the foundational question, Who are you Lord? Doing so makes our preaching and teaching truly Trinitarian and Incarnational.
3. Never simply preach to a person’s will or power of choice. Behind every act of will and choice is a desire, a hope, a love, a fear, a trust or distrust. That is, behind every act there is belief or unbelief, trust or distrust in God. Preach to persons’ hearts, their affections, their yearnings concerning the character, purpose and heart of God and his desire for our fellowship and communion with him. Preach what God can be counted on; trusted for. Feed people’s faith, hope and love for God. Obedience will flow out of that.
4. Do not preach: “If you…then God.” Doing so tempts people into legal obedience and works-righteousness. Instead, preach: “Since God in Christ by the Spirit…then you ____.” Or, “As you do x, y or z out of trust… you will be receiving what God offers us in Christ.” For example, say, “As we confess our sins we experience the forgiveness that God has already given us in Christ.”
5. Present obedience as “going to work with God”—as an act of fellowship with God that involves us in what the Spirit of God is doing.
6. Preach obedience as a “get to” not a “have to.” Preach it as the privilege of a child of God, not the grit-your-teeth duty of the slave of a willful God.
7. Do not seek to motivate others on the basis of trying to close a supposed “credibility gap” between the “reality” of this fallen world and an ideal that we suppose God hopes for. It is not our calling to build the kingdom or to make God’s ideal actual. Rather, preach the reality of who God is and what he does (and has done), and the calling we have to participate with God in making visible a bit of that reality. With this approach, our only choice is to affirm and participate in the reality that God has established in Christ by the Spirit or to deny and to refuse to participate. We have no power to change that reality, but only to choose whether or not we will freely participate.
8. Preach and teach the grace of God as a finished work—a reality that we can count on even if it is hidden for now. Do not teach it as a potential that God has made possible if we do x, y or z—God is not dependent upon our actions. Rather, he invites our participation in what he has done, is doing and will do. Preach like Jesus did: “The kingdom of God has come near, so repent and believe in that good news.” Preach like Peter did: “Since God has made Jesus Lord and Savior, therefore repent and believe.” Notice that the desired action is always presented as a response to who God is and what he has done.
9. Never preach as if God cannot be more faithful than we are—as if God is limited by what we do or don’t do. Paul says that, “If we are faithless, he [God] remains faithful” (2 Timothy 2:13). We may miss out on being involved, but God will still accomplish his good purposes. God does not need us, but he delights in having his children involved in what he is doing. We were created for fellowship (communion, partnership) with God.
10. Do not grant reality-making to human actions, as if what we do makes “all the difference.” Christ alone gets that credit. Our actions, whether they be great or small (as small as a cup of water, or a mustard seed of faith), amount only to a few loaves and fish to feed 5000. They are no more and no less than embodied signs, pointing to the coming kingdom of God. We are mere witnesses and our sign-acts are partial, imperfect, temporary and only provisional. But by God’s grace, the Spirit uses even these meager things to point people to Christ so that they may put their entire trust in him according to who he really is.
11. Realize that you will have to trust mightily in the unconditioned grace of God to bring about the obedience of faith in order to preach and teach this way and not succumb to the temptation to revert back to making it sound like God’s grace is dependent upon our response (and thus conditional upon our action).
12. Know that you, like Paul, will not be able to prevent some from trying to take advantage of this grace (even though taking advantage of it is not receiving it, but rejecting it!). You will also be accused by some, just like Paul was, of encouraging sin and disobedience (antinomianism)! But Paul did not change his message of grace under the pressure of such accusations. We must not attempt to prevent this rejection and abuse of grace by changing our message to a conditioned grace or an arbitrary obedience, as happened in Galatia. Making that switch would be a denial of the gospel of God in Jesus Christ.

I hope you can see how I think this biblical orientation brings together grace and obedience in an organic, personal and integrated way so that there is no “either-or” separation, nor a simplistic seesaw “both-and” juxtaposition of two different things. Those who love and trust God through Christ in the Spirit as Lord of the universe will desire to be faithful to him and with him in every dimension of life here and now, even in our current fallen condition.