Phases and Stages of the Gospel – Part 2

I see certain main categories of the grace message emerging, as follows:

Unionist

The focus on the belief that God lives His life in-and-through us; we can do nothing apart from Him. We have the illusion that we are in control of our lives, when we are not. This approach is thoroughly Biblical and focuses on the divine nature and the Holy Spirit. The emphasis shifts away from what we can do for God, onto what He has already done for us through Christ; as well as the continued work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Unionist message is freeing because it does not put standards and obligations upon people. This is the main focus of Bible teachers such as Major Ian W. Thomas and Norman Grubb.

I will admit that my transition into grace was through my own revelation of this Unionist message – even before I’d even heard of grace preachers and their message. The unionist message has brought me a lot of relief from religious demands, but I wonder what its benefits are and whether there is a downside to it all. I, like many others, got off on a tangent of believing God for things - I have Word of Faith to thank for that. So I believe that placing expectations on God can meddle with the purpose of the unionist message. This message is meant to bring freedom and peace, rather than become a means for insecure Christians to become obsessive about performance and achievement; believing that they can have, be or do something that they don’t already experience in their life.

Righteousness

This is the focus of grace teachers such as Joseph Prince, Bertie Brits, Steve McVey, Paul White, et al. This takes us away from the focus on our own efforts to be right with God and, in accordance with scripture, emphasises the redemptive work of the cross. Just like with the Unionist message, the righteousness message veers away from imposing standards, obligations, rules and principles on the believer and looks to the cross and the right-standing we have through Christ, once and for all. This is a very liberating message and brings an enormous sense of relief to the guilt-ridden, anxious believer.

Like many other believers, my appreciation of righteousness had become diluted through the traditional approach of the church, which asserted that we are all righteous in Christ – but it is up to us to ensure that we no longer sin and we strive to serve and obey Him. After my encounter with the Unionist message, I began to re-discover this incredible righteousness message which I could not apprehend and appreciate before.