Grace Triumphs over Law: The Scripture That Changed My Life

Copyright © 2014 JT Johnston.

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Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-2872-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2873-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2871-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014903966

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/11/2014

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Capitalization and Numbers

Introduction

Chapter 1 A Change in the Priesthood

Chapter 2 A Change in the Covenant

Chapter 3 The Same God of Love

Chapter 4 There is No Law

Chapter 5 But Now, a Righteousness from God

Chapter 6 What is Salvation?

Author Inquiry

Dedication

To Jesus Christ and the furtherance of His Kingdom.

Preface

These truly are exciting times to be in Christ and full of the Holy Spirit. In these last days the Spirit of the living God is being poured out on all flesh. Apostles, prophets, pastors, elders and teachers alike are all beginning to preach in one accord of the love, mercy and grace of our God and Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grace Triumphs over Law was inspired by the Holy Spirit to set the people of God free from the bondages of sin and the Law. It is a gift from God to His children to bring hope, love, joy, and peace in an age full of doubt and fear.

For years God has been teaching me of His new covenant founded in the redemptive blood of Jesus. I received the calling to write this Christian guide by the Holy Spirit one night during worship service. There was true motivation and insight as God directed me to put on paper the wonders of His glorious word. The truths of the good news of the glorious gospel of Christ were unfolded before me by God the Holy Spirit to show the usher out the Law and the usher in the New Covenant of grace. All past teachings from the Holy Spirit came flooding back into my soul as the writing commenced. Never at a loss for words, and never experiencing writer’s block, the Spirit brought clarity and understanding onto the pages at a rapid pace.

Many scriptures are cited and referenced to bring together the promises from God concerning the New Covenant. Make no mistake, it is God’s will for us to accept and believe this new and blessed covenant. He brought these passages together to show His concern for His church to live under grace, and not under law.

I encourage the reader to reference various translations of the Bible, and other resources as well, concerning passages of scripture quoted, and ideas and truths presented, pertaining to said scriptures.

Grace Triumphs over Law is a Christian handbook and guide to a free and blessed life under the New Covenant through Jesus Christ our Lord. It was written and left as-is, without professional editing, to bring to life the frailty of all humanity. You are sure to find grammatical and punctuation errors, but, this is a point illustrated within the pages. When imperfect humans expect perfection from the other imperfect humans it brings to life a paradox that is most perplexing and completely irrational to say the least. I would rather you concentrated on the subject matter than the correctness of speech, grammar, or punctuation.

May God open your heart of love and grace as you read and enjoy the blessed message of love He is trying to convey to you through this, and all of His writings, to all human beings.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of the Living God for salvation from the penalties of sin for those who believe and receive it as a free gift from God the Father and for the ability and opportunity to put down on paper the truths He has taught me through the Holy Spirit. It is to His glory and His kingdom that I wrote concerning the wonders of the mysteries of His completed work on Calvary when He said, It is finished. I love you so very much. Thank you for everything.

I would like to acknowledge those who have contributed so much to allow me to be able to write this book. To my dear unnamed friend, who has supported me both monetarily and spiritually as I was learning the truths that Jesus was showing me through His Holy Spirit. Thank you for listening to all my babblings as I struggled to put away the old way of thinking and allow God to teach me His way instead of religions’ ways. To Joel and Janice Boley who allowed me to stay in their home and helped support me during my time of need, thank you for your love and understanding. Thank you to my son, William and his wife Rachel as they supported me while Grace Triumphs over Law was being written. Their loving hearts allowed me to spend time writing that would have otherwise been taken up pursuing a career, instead of Christ and His kingdom. Thank you to my son Tim who is always there for me as a confidant, helper, and friend. And to Darleen Johnston who has been an avid supporter and encourager while the book was being written. Finally, thank you to those who contributed financially to the project to bring it to fruition. All of you are near and dear to my heart, and I bless you in Jesus’ name.

I would like to acknowledge that the doctrine, theology, and interpretation of the scriptures, presented in Grace Triumphs over Law, are not necessarily the beliefs held by those listed herein. We enjoy loving each other in spite of these differences. Such is the way of love; such is the way of God.

Capitalization and Numbers

Throughout Grace Triumphs over Law there are words capitalized that normally would not be used in this manner.

The word Law is capitalized to show reference to the Old Covenant, and the uniting all laws from that covenant, under one word. When speaking of various or many laws from the Old Testament or the laws of man, capitalization is not applied. Old Covenant and New Covenant are capitalized as well to show God’s contracts with and promises to His people, the same as we would capitalize New Testament and Old Testament.

Out of respect for God and to clarify which He or Him I am speaking of, all references to God have been capitalized including these words.

Whenever Word is capitalized it is referring to Jesus as the Word as taught in the gospel of John chapter 1.

When speaking of the Son, as in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, capitalization is used but not in the case of the only begotten son.

I have used the numeric form of numbers when dealing with verses contained with the text. Other numbers fewer than 100 have been spelled out as is proper, but I wanted to distinguish between speaking of the verse number and just a general number. All quoted scriptures retrain the original verse numbers due to continual reference back to previously quoted verses. This enables the reader to verify the soundness of statements made concerning the scriptures without the distraction of looking up the verses from other sources.

Introduction

There was a point in time when God and His salvation plan were very foreign to me though I had heard it preached all of my life. God was sovereign but far removed from demonstrating His love for His people in a real and living way. One day while reading Hebrews the Holy Spirit opened my heart and my eyes to see the New Covenant in the way God intended it to be understood and not according to the rules and edicts handed down by man for generations.

Grace Triumphs over Law will guide you through the promises of God made to His children through the introduction of a new and living Will we call the New Covenant. Proof is given to show the uselessness and weakness of the Law for salvation, and the necessary abolition of the Law when a covenant of grace replaced it. We now have a new high priest, appointed to serve in a temple not built with hands, and He remains a High Priest forever after the order of Melchizadek.

We will explore a love relationship with God based on His great and eternal love toward us as demonstrated when He canceled all our sin debt through the death of His son, Jesus. Because of this, there is freedom from rules, regulations, ceremonies and religious rites for all Christians. Righteousness through Christ, and not through works, will be emphasized and scripturally referenced again and again.

The topic of salvation, or being saved, is an exciting section and may uncover the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ in a way that was previously hidden by traditions made by men and creeds passed down through the ages.

Grace Triumphs over Law is for Christians and non-Christians alike. It will bring to light the simplicity of the good news from God to all mankind. No condemnation, no judgment; only freedom, grace, and truth through Jesus Christ our Lord.

CHAPTER 1

A Change in the Priesthood

Hebrews 7:11-12 (11) If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need for another priest to come—one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? (12) For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law. (NIV)

I decided to start with the life changing scripture instead of making you wait through endless chapters to discover what the Holy Spirit used as a starting point to bring me out of the darkness and into the light. But first, a little background of where I came from so you will be able to understand the changes brought about through reading, study, and prayer.

By the grace of God I was born into a Christian family. My father, Robert P. Johnston, was a protestant pastor all my life until his untimely death in 1997. Though he was not raised in a Christian home, while in his later teens, he heard the Word of Truth and accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior in 1950. Within a year he had applied to Louisville Bible College in Louisville, Kentucky and began his studies there in 1951. He worked full time in a factory in Louisville, as did my mother, while they tried to raise my oldest sister in this environment. Often my sister would stay with my grandmother and grandfather in La Grange, Kentucky about a half an hour away. Because of his diligence, he was able to lead his father and mother to Christ as well; at which time my grandfather entered Louisville Bible College at age fifty one and preached at a small country church most of the remainder of his life.

Dad had an evangelistic ministry in that he would go to small churches that were hurting or on the verge of closing the doors. He was known for rattling a few cages and getting people fired up to serve God instead of being complacent and a pew warmer. We stayed at most churches for two years and then moved on to the next town. This made him very popular and very unpopular to the local towns-people. As I heard said a few times, You either love him or hate him, and this was due to his unwavering dedication to Jesus Christ and His church, which always came first in his life. If this is your situation, don’t feel bad for you’re in good company. King David prophesied about Jesus in Psalm 69:4 that they hated Him without a cause.

I never knew my dad to be the Holier than thou type. He would not let people call him Reverend, Pastor, or Priest as a title, but instead he preferred to be called Brother Bob or Bro. Bob as was his style of abbreviating it. I’m not going to pretend that he was the expert on the scriptures but I am amazed at how much he did know and committed to memory due to his study of the Bible on an almost daily basis. I can say that as he learned deeper truths, his teaching reflected new insights. As he learned more about the Holy Spirit, he accepted what the Bible teaches and ran with it. The same could be said about other scriptural subjects as well.

There was much to overcome in theology from my childhood and I would like to share some of these false teachings with you. One of the non-denominational churches’ creeds is No creed but Christ and no authority except the Bible. We were led to believe there were no traditions and yet all were required to wear a suit jacket and tie when serving from the podium or at the communion table. When I tried to teach a better way, I was reminded how Aaron, the first high priest, was required to wear a breast plate made of gold and jewels, along with his very expensive robes and outer garments. My contentions were that I have but one High Priest. His name is Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God and I’m sure that whatever He is wearing is just fine with His Father. My next point was that though Aaron was required to wear these garments, he did not pay for any of it. These were provided for him. I told the leaders that if they provided me with a jewel inlaid, gold breastplate that I would wear it. That would have been some serious bling back before bling was popular. Following this line of thinking, I stated that in 1 Peter 3:3, women are told not to wear fine clothing or gold jewelry and not to wear their hair in such a way that it would bring attention to themselves. James chapter 2 teaches us that we tend to judge on the basis of how well dressed someone is and that we dishonor God by doing so. The poor are to feel as welcome, accepted and loved as the rich. If everyone is dressed to the nines the poor may feel out of place. 1 Samuel 16:7 states that man looks at the outside while God looks at the heart. I told the leaders we should be dressing up our hearts, figuratively speaking, before coming to meet with the saints. Even though I expressed my belief through scripture, my thinking was unaccepted. So we see that dressing in costly array is to make mankind feel good about themselves and has nothing to do with godliness. Besides, the priestly garbs were part of the Old Covenant, not the New Covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ is our covering (propitiation or mercy seat) under the New Covenant.

I was brought up to believe the Holy Spirit is with you but that the gifts of the Spirit had died along with the original Apostles and those on whom they had laid their hands to receive spiritual gifts. This took a long time to overcome. I gained freeing knowledge over this theology through much studying while trying to prove my insistent Pentecostal wife wrong. In the end, I found out she was right. Thanks Dar.

Growing up in a protestant church I learned that grace was a story. Since most of this book is about God and His infinite grace, I would like to share this supposedly true story with you.

"There was a professor who taught Sunday school at his local church back in the days of horse-and-buggies, top hats, and long dresses. This man taught teenage boys and was trying to help them understand the grace of God. It happened to be near the end of winter when snow begins to melt and the earth starts to bring life back to the plants. Billy, one of the boys from the professor’s class, had just made an ice-ball out of the melting snow. As he observed the professor walking down the street in his top hat, Billy just couldn’t resist and let one fly. His goal was to send the top hat sailing. Instead of hitting the target, he caught his teacher in the ear, dazing him for a moment, which indeed caused the top hat to tumble over into the slushy snow. The teacher’s ear was still ringing and stinging as wet, cold snow ran down inside his overcoat; he turned and saw Billy, his student, as he rounded the corner of a house to hide.

His first instinct was to confront the boy but then he remembered his lesson from Sunday regarding grace. Instead of punishing Billy the teacher decided to go to the local store where he purchased a fishing pole, knowing that the child had none and had wanted one for quite some time. As the professor approached the home where the boy lived, he could see Billy peering through the curtains, but when he rang the doorbell Billy was nowhere to be found. The professor handed the fishing pole to Billy’s mother and asked her to make sure that Billy received it upon returning. He then returned to his home.

Later that evening as the professor sat at home he heard a knock on the front door. As he opened it, there stood Billy with the new fishing pole. With his head hung low he proceeded to tell the teacher that he was the boy who threw the ice-ball and had hit the professor in the head. The professor assured him that he already knew this when he purchased the pole. He reminded Billy about the Bible lesson they had on Sunday and how they had talked about how much God loves us and that grace is something we need and not what we deserve. To this, Billy responded, ‘Like a fishing pole?’ The professor said, ’Like a fishing pole.’"

This is a great story, to be sure. Unfortunately it was never a reality in my family. There are five children in our family, three girls and two boys, born girl, boy, girl, boy, girl. I’m number four in line. As Preacher’s Kids or PKs (a most ghastly title) we were scrutinized at every turn by the members of the church. When speaking with most Christians, the consensus seems to be, the pastor’s children should be perfect at all times. We were the first ones, other than our parents, to be judged by the masses. Needless to say, we were made to toe-the-line by a hard handed woman, our mother, who had no training in child rearing. We used to call her Sarge and she liked the title. There were almost no instances of grace being applied, for any mistake, that I can recall. The end result was always a spanking or some other form of punishment, such as, standing with your nose in the corner or kneeling and touching your nose to the floor with your hands behind your back. That is why I said that, to me, grace was a story I heard from the pulpit.

We were taught that the Ten Commandments were a way of pleasing God and when you broke His laws, He did not like you any longer and you were going to burn in hell after too many infractions. We were taught that you can lose your salvation if you push God too far by sinning, yet no one knew exactly where the line was drawn or how much sin was too much. Remember the tent meetings and revivals of the 1950’s and early 60’s? Everything was hell-fire and brimstone and it brought about a sense that God hated us and couldn’t wait to punish anyone who sinned. There were slogans like, Repent or perish, Turn or burn and many other unscriptural statements trying to frighten or guilt you into heaven. These are tactics of Satan to defame the name of a loving God. This is the reason the world has such a dim view of Christians and our belief system because we have been preaching the wrong gospel, or in reality, no gospel at all. I could go on and on about my childhood and many things that were taught to me that were wrong, but let’s face it, there are plenty of pastors out there teaching wrong concepts so let us move on the things that are right. With the help of God and His Word (Jesus; John 1:1) and His Holy Spirit, I intend to show the realities of the glorious gospel He continues to teach me.

I would like to make it known that I love my parents. They did the best they could for the knowledge they had. The Holy Spirit impressed upon me that you cannot be taught wrong and do it right. You can’t be taught false doctrine and believe truth. As my parents continued to learn better, they did better, both in their personal and spiritual lives, as well as in teaching others. By the time they passed away I saw two people who really loved God and had learned to hear from Him and obey. And yet I do not believe that either one of them had a real grasp of God’s grace.

Because of this type of teaching I never felt as if God loved me. I have served Him all of my life, sometimes out of duty, sometimes out of fear. There were few times that I served Him because I loved him. As a child, I was at the building where the church meets, often. When I was young I would go through the pews and pick up papers, put pencils in the holders along with offering envelopes and visitor cards. Many times our family was responsible for janitorial service at the meeting place of the Saints. Every time there were church dinners or special functions it was mostly my dad and his children doing the setup and teardown of tables and chairs. While growing up I would witness to my best friends and all of them were led to the Lord and accepted Him as their Savior. At age thirteen I worked in a bus ministry that required hours of service every Saturday to call on new and existing bus ministry families to encourage coming to church and we provided the transportation. It was mostly children who rode the bus each Sunday. Since the bus ministry brought in so many new people there was a shortage of teachers and helpers. I began to teach Sunday school along with an older teen, but I was the instructor due to my knowledge of the scriptures. Finally we had to split the first grade class because we had over 30 students in the class, so my assistant took half and I took half. At age fourteen I began to lead singing in Junior Church and I belonged to the church choir as well as a youth choir. As time passed I taught Junior Church, prepared communion, cleaned and whatever else needed to be done. I installed a new sound system and built a sound booth for the operator. I began playing the piano for worship service as well as leading the worship and preparing the bulletins each week. After my father left one church I filled in as pastor for a while until they hired a full time pastor.

During all this time I had no peace with God. I was sure that if Jesus were to return He would leave me behind due to the fact that I was not good enough. I lived in guilt every day of my life because I knew every day that I am a sinner. I had been taught to feel guilty by the constant input that I should be righteous on my own power or else I would be in trouble with God. This was something I simply could not achieve. The older I became, the more I hated this God for expecting something from me that I could not give; perfection. My soul was in constant torment as I struggled against my religion versus flesh. I had no concept of grace, mercy, forgiveness, or love. To this day there is nothing that chokes me up as much as when I consider being truly loved because it has been such a fairy tale to me most of my life.

I could tell many stories of abuse by Christians and being mistreated by those proclaiming to be followers of Christ. I saw so many heartaches and headaches that my father endured for the Name that I told myself I would never be a pastor or preacher; but God had other plans. As a child I could not comprehend being told to live by the laws of the Old Covenant without wavering while people in the congregation were allowed to tell lies, bring false witness, commit adultery, embezzle money, work on Sunday and break any and all commandments while I was being told to Be holy for God is holy. (Leviticus 11:44) These crippling events are nothing in comparison with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore I would rather go forward and talk about the good things and not dwell on the past. I’m sure you get the point of the ungodly teachings and examples I received from the church during my formative years. Let me say for the record that I love you all and wish the very best for you. As brothers and sisters in Christ we can hold nothing against each other. I try to start every sermon with the words of Jesus from John 13:35. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (ESV) He meant it and so do I. Love each other. It is the only thing we, as Christians, have to offer the world and the only way they will know that we truly are His disciples.

It is much harder to unlearn and relearn than to learn the truth the first time out. When I moved from Florida to Illinois I was made fun of because of my southern accent. I had to train myself to say wash instead of warsh. I had to make a conscious effort to think about the words I