"Beware of dogs...." Philippians 3:2

Believers, by grace, examine what you are hearing in your local church and beware of preachers of a false doctrine. Consider Romans 4:25- "Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was raised back to life to prove that He had made us right with God!"

Also consider Hebrews 10:12- “But our High Priest offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then He sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.”

A single sacrifice for sins that avails forever.

Is Christ crucified (all our sins- past, present and future- forgiven) and raised back to life (proving He had made us right with God) the foundation for everything that you are hearing in your local church? With every demand made of you, even the demand to overcome sins and addictions, is CHRIST presented to you as Saviour from sins or are you expected to go and "stop sinning" by yourself to get God to bless you and perhaps consider you for eternal life?

Are you bogged down by sins and addictions and their consequences? The one teaching the message of Christ says: Christ will save you from your sins, as it is written in Matt. 1:21-

“She will give birth to a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus (The Lord is salvation), for He will save His people from their sins.”

His way of saving is the same as it was in the gospels. He never asked anyone to first go and fast or sow seed or asked whether they had sinned before He showed them His salvation. His salvation is without terms and conditions. He is Saviour, even Saviour from sins.

But preachers of a false doctrine never point you to Christ as Saviour from sins. Right from the pulpit, such throw Satan's fiery darts of accusations at the people e.g. "You are still fornicating/wearing wig/watching porn/not paying tithe/whatever....How can God bless you?" They put the burden of your salvation, even salvation from sins, on you and not Christ.

Such "ministers" condemn sinners for their sins (as if you just love to wallow in sin and are not trying hard to live right!) and say you have to save yourself from your sins or else God who sent His Son to save us from our sins will punish you for the same sins that He sent His Son came to save His people from!

Like the Pharisees did with the woman that was caught in adultery, such drag you to Jesus and tell you to expect wrath and judgment. But Christ has none of these things for the sinner who looks to Him for salvation. He has only salvation. See His way with the woman caught in adultery and throughout the gospels: His salvation (from acts of sin, sickness, lack, even physical death and the second death) is free and without terms and conditions for all who come to Him; His saving you is not dependent on whether you sinned or paid your tithe but on His finished work. Only believe. John 3:16.

In a bid to discredit the gospel which is Grace and only Grace, these false “men of God” say "righteousness by faith in Christ" is a license to sin and that we Grace children just want an excuse to continue to lead sinful lives. Their message goes along the line of “Yes, you are saved by grace but you still have to obey the Ten Commandments….or else...” These ones either do not yet know the severity of God's law so that they think they can keep it or they are agents of Satan!

How come some are agents of Satan? Telling people that they can be godly (be like God) by obeying the law is how to keep people under the dominion of sin, “For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:14. This is the same strategy that Satan deployed on Eve in the garden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a picture of the law which gives the same knowledge. The letter kills, just like the eating from the tree. See Paul’s typology on the forbidden fruit and the law in Romans 7 (MSG version.)

Believer, see how much grace children “want to sin:” can you imagine having so much regard and awe for God's law that you feel guilty and condemned for the sin of erroneously responding with ‘12 o’ clock’ when it was really 12.02 after someone asked you for the time?

Can you imagine feeling great guilt for using hyperbole in a sentence, even when everyone understands that what you said is not to be taken literally, e.g. feeling condemned for saying "he spilled water all over the floor" when the water didn't really cover the entire floor?

That should give some insight into how much regard we grace children have for God’s law and how much we “want to sin.” The law is not bothered about why you sinned or whether it was a mistake or a little joke. Every sin will be punished to the uttermost.

Before Grace found us, many of us had been trying so hard to fulfill the law so much that it brought us to the end of our tethers- no matter how hard we tried, we could not. This is the exact purpose of the law: to show everyone up as guilty before God. See this in Romans 3:19-20:

"19 Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. 20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are."

Also Galatians 3:19- "Why, then, the Law [what was its purpose]? It was added [after the promise to Abraham, to reveal to people their guilt] because of transgressions [that is, to make people conscious of the sinfulness of sin], ..."

Believer, let’s be for the law for the purpose for which it was given: the law was not given for us to keep in order to attain righteousness. The law was given to show how sinful we are.

See the Spirit-inspired words of Paul, a former Pharisee of Pharisees who, before His encounter with Christ, "obeyed the Law without fault" according to Philippians 3. He counted all of his efforts at law-keeping (his righteousnesses) as DUNG (King James Version) so that he could gain Christ. See Philippians 3:

2 "Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. 3 For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, 4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!

5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6 I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.

7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith.”

Believers, “watch out for those dogs.” King James Version says “Beware of dogs...” Beware of the “people who do evil”; those who tell you to count on your own righteousness through obeying the law and not righteousness by faith through Christ. Isaiah 64:6 has a name for righteousnesses that proceed from keeping the law: filthy rags; “a menstrual rag” is the literal translation from the original Hebrew text.

This is the crux of the gospel— righteousness by by faith in Christ. This is right believing. Right Believing always produces Right Living.

In Christ, good works are not CONDITIONS for salvation; they are EVIDENCES of our salvation. Christ does it all. This is why we say: “It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.”