“Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.” (Mark 8:14–16, ESV)
When the revelation of God is right in front of
you and you begin to hold a “Jesus Seminar” voting on which words are his or not
you are in trouble. The religious moralism of the Pharisees (the religious right) and the irreligious libertine liberalism (the libertine left) are dangerous challenges to believing the gospel. Jesus commands us to beware so that the gospel can take root in us. God saves sinners. God propitiates his own wrath through the gift of his Son and adopts us as sons. Grace is like the arms of the Father reaching deep down inside us having removed the wrath that alienated us so that he can live life from our hearts without the stones of sin and weights of skepticism that burden us. Real grace forgives and set us free to live righteously because we love God and are thankful. It is rooted in a gospel understood through reasonable preaching that becomes faith by means of the inner working of the Holy Spirit taking what we understand and turning it into encounter with the Living God.
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