https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca Wed, 22 Apr 2026 04:24:08 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3756/divide-it https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3756
“Orthotomeo” is Greek for ‘rightly divide’, or ‘making a precise, straight cut, to dissect.‘ We are told to precisely cut or dissect the Word of Truth. Are you doing this? I think we read the Bible too rapidly, to get our chapters in so we can feel holy. Why should we divide the scriptures? Why does Paul tell us to separate the scriptures from each other? And which ones should we separate? What is it about the scriptures that they need to be separated? Why did Jesus say to not put new wine in old skins? Why would that destroy the wine??? Did you think that Jesus was just waxing poetic when He said this? Was He wasting His breath with words that had no real meaning? Why is not dividing the Bible hurting you spiritually? I am not saying to throw out parts of the Bible. I am saying to keep parts of the Bible away from each other, to understand which part we are under and which part we are not under.

We can rightly divide the scriptures, wrongly divide them, or not divide them at all. Do the first one!! Too many people divide them into too many parts. This is wrongly dividing them. Jesus only mentioned two parts: the old and the new. What are they? The old cloth and new patch, the old wine skins and new wine, and the new covenant in His blood as opposed to the old covenant, or the law of Moses. These are the two dispensations of the Bible.

What did Paul say about this? Romans 7,6 says that we died 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. Wow !!! When was the last time you were told to die to the law of Moses because it binds you? To serve in the new way of the Spirit means to have life from God. Believers exist as new creatures by faith in Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit. To serve in the old way is to read laws from the outside, instead of being renewed from the inside by grace through faith.



The Old Testament was for Jesus. The New Testament is for us. Adam sinned, so God made a way back to Himself. He introduced the gospel in advance to Abraham. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness. After this, God gave the law of Moses.

The law was a system of commandments and sacrifices. The commandments showed us what to do, and the sacrifices showed us we couldn’t do it. The law shows us that we are sinful and cannot obey the law.

Enter Jesus. Jesus came, not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. He was the only person who ever lived who did not break the law, so he never needed to sacrifice for His own sins. In fact, the perfect Lamb of God became the sacrifice for all sin. After he did away with all sin by the sacrifice of Himself, He said, “It is finished.” That’s when God nailed the written code to the cross and ended the first dispensation of the old wine skin. But there are still many people who say “the old is better.” The old is not better, it’s hopeless. The new covenant is the only everlasting way to life. The New Covenant started when Jesus died, Hebrews 9:16 & 17. It was published through the preaching of the apostle Paul, Titus 1:3. Think of it this way. When Jesus died He left us an inheritance. Not money or material things, but His perfectly lived life and payment for our sins. This is what qualifies the believer to go to Heaven. If you still live for the old covenant, it’s like you are denying the inheritance of the new covenant.



Enter us. Now that the old is gone and the new is here, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. We do not need to be supervised. God is our Father, not our Boss. We obey as children, out of love. We do not earn God’s love by works. Christianity is not a religion derived from the teachings of Jesus Christ. It’s the bringing back of fallen mankind through the actions of Jesus for those who believe. Christianity is not a list of do’s and don’ts. It is the new life given by grace through the actions of the only Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now then, can you see the folly of trying to abide in the two covenants at the same time? Can you see that living this way denies Jesus and His cross? Live for the new way, the way of grace through faith. Realize that in Christ there is a righteousness that is apart from the works of the law. This God given goodness is for those who just believe!!!]]> Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:18:10 -0330 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3755/boasting https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3755
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Romans 3:27-31

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.



Here is a passage that legalists use to justify following the law. Their false interpretation goes against the entire context here. They claim that Paul is teaching us to establish the law of works in Romans 3:31. But Paul is saying just the opposite. He is telling us to establish the new law of faith, or the principle of faith, which says we are saved without works, see Rom. 3:28. In this section, Paul is telling of two laws, the law of works, which is the old covenant, and the law of faith, which is the new covenant. The new testament is a fundamental axiom which is accepted as truth by genuine believers. The new testament nullifies the old testament. You cannot have both! The word “new” automatically replaces the word “old”. This is only common sense!

If someone earns salvation by his own obedience and goodness, this gives him the capability to boast. Salvation by works enables people to glory in themselves; but Rom. 3:27 says that in Christianity, boasting is excluded. Here is another reason to reject legalism and accept grace. It is more godly, humble, and thankful to believe in salvation by faith in Jesus without works. A major principle of Christianity is this….. law observers are boastful; believers are humble. Be humble by letting Jesus do the saving.

We cannot trust Christ, and at the same time trust ourselves. Our efforts to save ourselves are futile. We can only place our trust in Jesus to save us. This is the law of faith and the principle of true salvation by which the trusting person is redeemed . This is because of his belief that Jesus is the only Savior. The law of faith is Christianity; the law of works is Judaism. Judaism ended with the death of Christ.

The reason why I speak so much of faith in God’s grace is that I am maintaining the gospel. Right in Rom. 3:28 it says, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” Paul is concluding his theology. He is stopping at grace, and sustaining the gospel. We must also preserve the gospel by maintaining grace.

Notice Paul says that we are justified apart from, or without the deeds of the law. The NIV translates it, “apart from observing the law”. This weakens the phrase because the word for “observe” is really ergon in Greek. Ergon means: to toil. So we do not have to “toil at” obeying the law to be saved. We are saved apart from our efforts. We do not labor under the law, we just believe the gospel in our heads, and this is what saves us. Since Jesus chose Paul to bring the gospel to light, Titus 1:3, I believe the letters of Paul are the most authoritative writings concerning the gospel, and should be received as such.

God never intended to choose Israel, and condemn the Gentiles. God always was, and always will be the God of everyone, both Jews and Gentiles. God offers salvation to all, freely, through faith in Jesus. The primary reason the Jews were chosen was to bring Jesus into the world. God had to choose a people through whom the Messiah would be born. This one God only justifies one way. The Jews must come to God through faith in Jesus, and so must the Gentiles. There is no special favoritism herein.

So we do not nullify the law of faith, we establish the principle that a man is justified freely through Jesus. We do, however, nullify the law of works, as Rom 3:27 says. The idea that a man can save himself is just wrong. Christ is the end of the law, so that there can be a righteousness that is by faith, as Paul later reveals in Rom. 10:4.

The law is ended for the believer, but it continues for the unbeliever. This is another way we establish the law, it continues as a tutor that leads people to Christ. Without the law, there is no sin. And where there is no sin, there is no need for a Savior. So we bring out the law as a tool to reach the unconverted. They see their sin in the law, and are convicted as sinners. When this happens, we present Jesus’ sacrifice to the lost , and salvation can happen if they trust Christ. If the unconverted refuse to trust Jesus, then their law continues for them, as the holy accuser and silencer of every Christless soul.

So be wise. Enter into grace by faith and escape the just accusation of Sinai. Calvary, where the law died, is the hill for me, and I hope for you too. Amen.]]> Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:09:34 -0330 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3754/the-devil-is-a-donkey https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3754 Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:31:12 -0330 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3753/joke https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3753  
God sees things that we are not even aware of. The reason why people do not go to hell, is because of God’s mercy in Christ. There is nothing about our lives that contribute to salvation. There are things in our lives that could justifiably damn us; things of imperfection. Thank God that He doesn’t damn the imperfect. He could, you know, but He doesn’t, if we believe the Gospel. If someone doesn’t believe he is imperfect, that is the same as saying he does not need to grow. Are you finished growing in Christ? Are you just as good as Jesus in your flesh? If you are honest you will say “no.” Christianity is the only faith, that believes in a personal God, which doesn’t try to indebt their God through works. It’s foolish to think you can indebt your own God. That would place your God underneath you. Unfortunately Christianity is becoming more and more legalistic. Pastors everywhere are constantly harping on works. They are mixing the old with the new, to a bad ending.
 
God does, however, consider habitual rebellion to be unbelief. Those clear cut cases of the impertinently ungodly reveal people who are not serious about God.
 
But even the serious are imperfect. Even the best Christian, if there is such a thing, is worthy of hell in and of himself. The only reason that a person can be self assured is because of deception. We should place our assurance not in self, but in Jesus.
 
Why am I saying this? So that you will trust entirely in the cross and be happy. You cannot be happy with even a little self assurance. This leaven will spoil the whole lump. There are only two sets of people - Jesus the Perfect and all the rest of us. A person who thinks that he deserves Heaven, only does so because he does not look at his own life closely enough. Religious legalists have trained themselves to look away and judge others. But God wants us to realize our own desperate need for the work of Jesus on the cross. He wants us to know, to really know, that it is only because of Jesus that we go to Heaven.
 
Do you know this? Or do you kind of split up the credit? Do you give a portion of the credit to yourself for God’s salvation? If you do, then stop it. Trusting in the only Savior for all your salvation is what you should be doing. And to trust in Jesus is not taking some credit, as some erroneously say. Faith in the cross is not trying to earn salvation. It’s just the exact opposite. It’s admitting that only the work of Jesus can save us.
 
There are all sorts of people who might be reading this. If you deny a personal Creator God, I am not trying for your soul right now. We must go back to the ant, the bird, and all the tiny machines in this world that prove a Creator first. We must stop being willfully blind and foolish before we can see that God made us. If you are capable of reading this, then you are not a fool. This means that deep inside you really believe in the Maker. You are suppressing it. Let it out before your conscience becomes too numb to see the truth of creation.
 
The only reason you deny a Creator is because you are looking past too many things. You think you can see the big picture, but you should be looking at little things. You should ask yourself, “How does the bombardier beetle work?” “Why is there a fragrant flower and a nose to sense it?” Try to see the thoughts of God behind creation. This may help you to believe.
 
But if you do believe in God, this blog is for you. It’s for you to help you see that God is too big to owe you anything. So enter His rest and trust in what Jesus has done. This is the only way.]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:03:30 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3752/romans-101-4 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3752
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.



God laid in Zion the stumbling stone of Jesus. God did not say that He put the rock of offense in another place, only in Israel. The stumbling stone is said to be lying in the Jewish homeland because Israel tries to attain salvation by works of the law, and not by faith in Jesus alone. Israel finds it hard to let God save; instead, Israel tries to save itself. The legalistic church also tries to save itself, and so Jesus has now become a stumbling stone for much of the so-called church. The legalistic church has abandoned the gospel for fellowship with Israel, and has thereby made Jesus Christ its enemy.

Those who are unsaved are outside of God’s blessing and fellowship. The unsaved are in this miserable state because they do not believe in Jesus. Paul prayed that Israel would be saved. He prayed this because Israel was unsaved.

Since Romans 10:1 clearly says that Israel is unsaved, how can anyone call Israel “the chosen people”? How can God’s people be unsaved and under His curse? Obviously, they cannot. The chosen people of God is now the church. This truth is revealed in many places in Paul’s letters. If Israel is still God’s people, then why does Paul petition God for the salvation of Israel if Israel was saved? Israel needs salvation today. They need to be delivered by the blood of Jesus just as the Gentiles are. Salvation is the same for everyone. We must all come to God by faith in Jesus apart from works. This gospel, preached by Paul, was the reason why Israel sought to kill Paul. When you hear the phrase, “Pray for the peace of Israel,” it doesn’t mean to ask God for a cessation of earthly war. It means to pray for the salvation of Israel, for the peace with God that can only come from simple faith in Jesus’ cross.

Israel has a zeal for God. Their fervent enthusiasm for God is not based on knowledge, however. Israel has no recognition of the truth, and so despite their sincerity, they are yet unsaved. This shows us that no amount of sincerity can make us right with God. Even though people think they are correct, this doesn’t make them correct. This is what it means to be deceived. If someone’s genuine feelings can save them, then Jesus is not necessary. But we know that Jesus is the only Savior, and so feelings, however sincere, can never save from hell. If Israel cannot be saved because of its sincerity, then no heathen nation can be saved without the gospel, even though they truly believe in their false ideas of God. Sincerity does not save, Jesus does. A person can be sincerely wrong.

Goodness can only come from God, for only God is good. Israel tries to set up human goodness out of ignorance. Legalists of any ilk are also guilty of this error. People cannot be good. To obtain one’s own goodness, separate and alone, is impossible. In order to be saved, people must submit themselves to God’s goodness, and let themselves be made good by faith without works. This is the gospel. This is the truth. If someone does not know of God-given goodness, acquired by simple faith in the cross, they will try to establish their own righteousness through ignorance. But there is no such thing as private righteousness. All goodness comes from God, and is freely credited to the believer.

Seeing that goodness is not private, meaning that it does not belong to any particular person, we must seek goodness from outside of ourselves. The gospel is God’s way of imparting goodness to people. Hearing and believing produces goodness. Not just hearing anything, or believing anything. We must hear the one thing needful. We must believe the one thing needful for salvation. Jesus and Him crucified is the one thing needful. Hearing of Christ and trusting in that story produces salvation. Following the law of Moses does not produce salvation. Christ is the end of the law, in order that there may be righteousness by faith. If the law was not concluded, then real Christianity could not exist. Hearing and believing, and the very existence of such a wonderful salvation mechanism, necessitates the end of the law.

Christ set out to fulfill the law for us, and after living the only sinless life, He laid down that perfect life in our place, as payment for sin. This satisfies God and clears the believer of all guilt. To try to appease God with human effort is a denial of all Jesus has done. Jesus terminated the law after He accomplished it. The perfection has come; we need not try to improve upon Jesus. So rest in Jesus, and let Him save you from everything that defiles body, soul, and spirit.]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:12:37 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3750/the-right-time https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3750
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.



At just the right time Messiah died. Someone will claim to be Messiah in the future, but it will be the wrong time according to Daniel. Prophecy declares Jesus of Nazareth to be the one and only Messiah. All others are fakes and phonies. Daniel 9:25 and 26, written in 607 B.C., is proof positive that Jesus is the Christ. A commandment went forth, a decree of King Artaxerxes, to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. This happened in 444 B.C., and was the beginning of the countdown to Messiah’s sacrificial death. Daniel says there shall be seven weeks, or 49 years, allotted for the rebuilding of the city and the wall. History tells us that this happened under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra in troublesome times. This 49 year period unmistakably pinpoints the start of the countdown because only once in history was Jerusalem rebuilt in 49 years. The next period of time is threescore and two weeks, or 434 years. After the city and the wall are finished, until the arrival of Messiah the Prince, there will be 434 years. When the 434 years are completed, it says Messiah will be cut off, but not for Himself. In other words, Messiah will die for the sins of others. This brings us to the time of Jesus of Nazareth. Messiah had to come 2,000 years ago. Then the prophecy says that the people of another prince that will come,i.e. the Romans, will destroy the city and the sanctuary. This happened in 70 A.D. by General Titus.

Sir Robert Anderson figured out the total period of 483 years, when the decree was issued until Messiah died in his book The Coming Prince. Here are his findings:

“From 444 B.C. to 32 A.D. is 476 years; 476 x 365 is 173,740 days; from March 14 to April 6 (the day of Christ’s triumphal entry) is 24 days; add 116 days for leap years, and you get a total of 173,880 days, or 483 years. Since the prophetic year of the bible is always 360 days, the 69 sevens of this prophecy in Daniel (69 x 7 x 360) is 173,880 days! And so the time given by Daniel from the “commandment to restore and build Jerusalem” to “Messiah, the Prince” comes out perfectly – to the very day.” Since God has pinpointed Jesus as His Christ through time restriction, let us now examine why He died for us.

It says that Jesus died for the powerless, and that is what we are. Only false doctrine and sinful pride would deny the fact of our total inability to save ourselves. We are without the strength to make it right with God. We are weak, sinful, feeble, impotent, sick and without strength. Can you admit this about yourself? If you can, then you can have Jesus as your Savior. If you can’t, then your human pride will stop you from having faith in Jesus, for to trust Jesus is to distrust yourself.

Romans 5:6 also calls us ungodly. The Greek word means even more; it means irreverent. To be ungodly is one thing. Maybe weakness causes ungodliness to our dismay. However, to be irreverent is another thing. This means that we have a distaste for God. We are impious, profane and willfully unholy. This is whom Jesus died for.

This doesn’t mean that God leaves us in a state of Satanic behavior. This would not support the fact of the Father heart of God. No, He not only saves us by grace, He changes us by grace, so that we are like Him in this world. To believe that God leaves us in rebellion would be a denial of the new creation in us. Nobody is perfect, but we should all be perfecting in life.

If there were such a thing as a perfectly righteous man, rarely would someone die for him. It would be a scarce thing. So this lowers our chances for someone to die for us. Jesus must be incredibly loving to die for us. God exhibits His love, His affections, and His benevolence by sending His Son to die for the irreverent. God’s kind nature and charity are introduced in Christ. God’s love is scripturally linked to His Son’s death.

If someone thinks he is righteous, this means that Christ did not die for him. Of course, He did die for him, but the sinner’s unwillingness to confess his evil cancels Calvary for himself. Remember, Christ died for sinners. Christ did not call the “righteous” but sinners to turn to Him.

We receive God’s love by confessing our sins and believing in Jesus. We admit God’s love by agreeing with the gospel. Trying to earn salvation takes away from God’s love, for God showed His love by dying for sinners.

It is easy to get saved. Just admit you’re a sinner and believe in Jesus. It is easy to change for the good. Just trust God to do it when He creates in you a new nature. We are saved by grace, and we are changed by grace. All this happens when we trust in the good news of Jesus.]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:37:34 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3748/wrong-reason https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3748
First of all, Christians do not believe in any present tense blood sacrifices. It says in the Bible that Jesus was sacrificed, once for all time. It is finished, so don’t point your finger at us in self-righteous indignation.

God is not, nor was he ever, in heaven demanding death and blood because he is angry and only violence will quell His indignation. If you understand God to be like this, your condemnation is deserved. How dare you make God like you. You think the worst of God because you think others are like you. But you are the angry one, who’s only satisfied when you hurt someone else.

I heard of a person who was filled with lust for women. So, because he became that way through many wrong decisions throughout his life, he thinks Jesus is like that too. People always project their own sins onto other people.

The sacrifice of Jesus was the only solution to a big problem that we started. Sin came into the world, and death through sin. Do you admit that death exists? Do you admit that this is a problem for us? Some people who believe in the false science of evolution actually glorify death and make death the mechanism by which mankind becomes better. Tell me, who is the evil person now? It is evil to believe such a thing.

But if you’re thinking is correct, then you will believe that death came into the world through one man’s sin. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The cross is the solution for our universal problem of sin and death. The cross is God’s mercy, not His anger. Only people who have minds that have been corrupted by evolution, false beliefs, and sin would think of God in these terms.

I know your objection to the Garden of Eden. You blame God for sin. You say that anyone would have sinned in such circumstances. Here’s another example of your ignorance. I’ll tell you something you never considered. Did you know that Adam and Eve did not have a sinful nature? That was only given to them after their sin. You cannot compare our condition with those of Adam and Eve’s. We all have sinful natures because we inherited those from our first parents. But Adam and Eve did not have such a disadvantage.

They did have, however, a whole world to do anything they wanted. A whole world’s worth of choices, enjoyments, and pleasure. They only had one tiny prohibition. Just one. Not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Their sin was truly a sin indeed. God warned them that they would die on that day, and spiritually they did. Physical death also started on that day. Their sin was a sin of the highest rank because they had such an advantageous position, and they blew it. God had to put one condition - just one, however small, to create something called free will. It was the best case scenario for free will. Without free will, we would’ve just been robots who could not really love. But Adam and Eve sinned and created death.

God could’ve said, “To Hell with you!” and given up on us. But instead, he became a man himself, called the Second Adam. He fulfilled the law, and lived the only perfect life ever. And in mercy, He died in our place to pay for our sins. He rose again on the third day to give life to anyone who would just believe this story. And you call this evil. You call this a religion of blood. Well, your blood is on your own head. You have heard, now you’re accountable. You’d better believe in Jesus before it’s too late. You will find His story in the New Testament of the bible.]]> Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:28:19 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3747/the-first-jew https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3747
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about – but not before God. What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”



Abraham was the first Jew, the one whom Israel called ‘father”. It is strange that the one Israel holds up as their progenitor, the one so highly esteemed by them, was the first believer. Abraham totally contradicts Israel’s method of salvation by works. They should use someone else to lift up and take pride in. Paul, in Rom 4:1, calls Abraham our

forefather. He is the first Christian, for he was the first to trust in imputed righteousness.

What did the patriarch of Israel discover about the matter of salvation? Is the teaching of Jesus Christ something new, or does it go back to the beginning? If Abraham was declared righteous because he was good enough, then he had something to boast about, but not before God. No man can boast before God. We can boast before men. We can deceive people into thinking we are fit for heaven, but we can’t fool God. So what did Abraham find out? First, we must realize that the promise of salvation through faith, and credited righteousness, was before the old covenant, before the law. So the promise out-ranks the law, and is it’s superior. The old testament part of our bibles is not just old covenant law, it is also a more ancient, more important revelation of righteousness by faith. This is what Abraham discovered – the gospel. The gospel was before the law, and the first Jew was declared righteous not by the law, which didn’t even exist yet, but by faith in the promised seed of blessing, the coming Messiah that would give His life for the sins of the world. If Abraham didn’t have the right to boast before God, then surely we do not have that right. Let us never praise self, but rather give all our praise to Jesus, the only Savior!

People will say this, and books will say that, but what do the scriptures say? They say that we are righteous because we believe, and because God credits goodness. This is what the scriptures say, and this is what we must say also.

People want to follow the law, at least in part. They feel that they should contribute to their salvation. They try to outwardly obey the tablets of stone, even though the tablets are faded away (2 Cor. 3:7-11). These people exist in the past. They follow the ministry that brought death. The ten commandments is the ministry that brought death (2 Cor. 3:7). God made the face of Moses shine, and then fade when he came down with the tablets, to show that this ministry of death was only temporary. Like Moses’ face, the old law also faded away, to make room for the ministry of life. Believing in Jesus, and being saved by Him, is the ministry of life. Abraham saw Jesus’ day and was glad. He was also made righteous by his faith in Christ’s ministry.

The glory of grace should blind us to the glory of law (2. Cor. 3:10). When you put grace next to the ten commandments, you can only see grace, you cannot see the law. The glory of Jesus Christ surpasses the glory of Moses, so that Moses no longer has any glory. The ten commandments have faded away. The grace of forgiveness in Jesus will never fade away. This is why we are given righteousness by faith without works.

The hope of grace makes us both humble and bold. We are humble because Jesus saved us and we did not save ourselves by our own goodness. We are bold because we stand firm in Jesus’ righteousness and not our own, and Jesus never fails. If we will not shipwreck our faith by placing it somewhere else, we will finish the race.

Abraham foresaw the justification of the Gentiles by faith, howbeit in a shaded way. The gospel was announced in advance to Abraham, and he believed it, and was considered righteous (Gal. 3:8). When God told Abraham that “all nations would be blessed through you,” and when Abraham believed God, Abraham was saved. Abraham believed in the Messiah to come. And anyone who wants, can also have justification by faith in Jesus the Messiah.

In this portion of scripture, faith is opposed to works. Paul, through the inspiration of Jesus, is announcing the good news. He is saying that we can be saved the same way Paul was saved, the same way Abraham was saved, and the same way everyone is saved, by faith without works, by simple trust in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. So we say, “Christians believe God, and it is credited to them as righteousness.” Amen.]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:09:48 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3746/death https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3746
The Old Covenant was God’s perfect will. It went unfulfilled until the last Man. Jesus was the last Man in the Old Covenant. God knew that we could never do His will so He did it Himself, through Jesus. After Jesus lived for 33 years, the number of completion, God considered the law fulfilled by Jesus. In order to end the law and replace it with grace, Jesus died. A covenant is only established when someone dies. He died to end the law, while He bore our sins. Jesus rose from the dead and was declared to be the Son of God with power. He now lives to give eternal life to all those who simply believe this story. Jesus died to close the book of the law. It is finished. So why do you keep opening the law to try to fulfill it? It is finished. Are you saying that it is not finished? Are you denying what Jesus has done?

So Jesus died for you. Remember this the next time you are tempted to brag about how holy you are. God demands perfection. That’s why God expelled Adam and Eve from the tree of life. When they sinned, they died. Their spirit was cut off from God and oneness with God was broken. But in Christ we are made perfect again, through what Jesus has done. Now we can fellowship with God. Now simple believers have living spirits and oneness with God. We are back in the Garden, we are saved! Can you see the folly of self righteousness? Can you see the glory of Jesus? Enter God’s rest my friend, and know the peace that passes understanding. We do not need to understand why we feel so good. We only need to believe that Jesus is our Savior.]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:56:44 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3745/how-we-react https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3745
Sometimes, as Christians, we can get dismayed by all the things that unbelievers say about Jesus. Sometimes we can even get mad at them, and lash out. It seems that, in these last days, every person has his own opinion about who Jesus is. It is rare to hear of the objective Jesus. By objective Jesus, I mean the Jesus we can clearly see from the New Testament; the Jesus that is not subjective, from one’s own thinking.

The objective Jesus is the Savior of the world. He is the Person of the four gospels, the Person who Paul preached. Paul said in Galatians 1:8, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”

So, how do we react when someone preaches another Jesus? If we remember the quote from this singer, we will be happier people who are not easily upset when folks blaspheme. If we get mad too easily, we betray our own position. Only people who are weak in their faith, get rattled and angry. But if we remember that those poor people who say wrong things about Jesus have never known God’s love and kindness, we can have pity on them instead of anger.

Christians have the advantage of knowing the love and peace of God. Non-believers do not have such an advantage. They can only see things from the despair of being lost and confused.

Here’s a good way to view the unsaved. View them the way Paul viewed unbelieving Israel. Be sorrowful over their lost condition. Pray that they will be saved by believing in Jesus, just as Paul prayed for Israel. When these lost souls see your confidence and love, this will draw them closer to salvation, instead of pushing them further away from the faith.

This is the faith summed up: Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, He was buried, and on the third day He rose from the dead, according to the scriptures. By simple faith in this truth, you are saved.

P.S. If you want to know who that singer is, Email me or send me a message.]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:47:31 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3743/thief https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3743


Was the thief on the cross a member of a church? No. Was he a Calvinist? No. Was he baptized? No. Did he speak in tongues? No. Was he filled with a life of good works which contributed to his own salvation? No. Did he work in the fields even for an hour? No. Was he saved? Yes!!

The salvation of the thief on the cross has shown us how simple being saved really is. It is a refutation of anything that adds to the simple gospel message. The thief minimizes what is really necessary for salvation. His example gets rid of non-essential issues, as far as salvation is concerned. He shows us the one thing needful.

Remember that moments before, this thief was reviling Jesus. He was actually attacking Jesus along with the other thief, Matthew 27:44. It seems that Jesus doesn’t hold a grudge. It seems that Jesus understands that we are sinful people and is willing to accept anyone who will come to Him, no matter the timing.

All the righteousness of Jesus was transferred to this unworthy thief. In order for this man to be with God in heaven, he was perfected by the cross of the One which was only a few feet away. How does this work? You can spend a lifetime looking into it and never exhaust the wonders of the knowledge of imputed righteousness. Somehow because Jesus lived the only perfect life, and because He died in our place as our sin bearer, this satisfies God when we believe it.

What did this thief demonstrate to acquire the same salvation that every other believer has? Luke 23 has the account. There were two thieves. The thief who was not to be redeemed asked Jesus to save them. He said that if Jesus was the Christ, He should save Himself and both the thieves. He thought that salvation was earthly and maybe even political. This is how the first century Jews believed. They thought that the Messiah was going to destroy the Romans and give Israel the kingdom. But Jesus said that His kingdom was not of this world. If it were, the disciples would fight. Christians would do well to remember this. Jesus doesn’t want zealots, He wants believers.

The unsaved thief was asking Jesus to not die for sin. If Jesus would have saved His human life, we would have been lost. For the price of sin would have been left unpaid. This was a satanic request from the unsaved thief. Satan was giving his last effort to stop the Lamb of God from dying for the world. Jesus ignored this request and the thief perished. But the saved thief answered the unsaved one.

The saved thief said that the unsaved thief was not fearing God. The bad thief didn’t reckon his situation. He was a sinner, dying for his crimes. He was ignoring his fallen state. Do you do this? We all need to know that we are sinners deserving of death. This is the first step to being saved.

Then the saved thief said that Jesus did no evil. He said that Jesus didn’t deserve to die. We all need to realize that Jesus is the only One to not earn death by sinning. Jesus gave His life away as the Lamb of God, without blemish. This is the second step toward salvation.

Then the saved thief spoke to Jesus. Jesus, although beaten terribly, bearing the sin of the world, and forsaken by God for us, was yet willing to talk with this thief. Do you look down on those in prison? Do you think you are better than thieves? Are you too holy to talk with them because you go to church on Sunday and they do not?

The thief simply asked to be remembered by Jesus when Jesus went into His kingdom. This shows that the thief believed death was not the end for Jesus. This is the third step.

Do you see it? It’s the gospel right here. Step one, believe that you are a sinner. Step two, believe that Jesus was the innocent sufferer. And step three, believe in the resurrection of Jesus. I do not believe the thief understood all this. But Jesus saved him anyway!

Jesus told the thief that he would be with Him in paradise. He was forgiven. Imagine how he felt. The full weight of all his sin was gone. He could cry tears of joy, right there on the cross. He could die in peace, knowing that for all eternity, he would be in Heaven. Jesus saved that man in his last hour, just because he asked to be remembered.

Jesus, thank you for being so kind. When it’s my time, please remember me too. I know you will. People, don’t be harsh legalists who try to earn salvation. Don’t be unkind, even to a bloody, no good thief. Because if you are, you are not resembling the One you claim to know. And lastly, if you add ceremonies, doctrines, works or religion to salvation, you are only placing unbearable burdens on your own backs. The measure you use will be measured to you again.]]> Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:07:19 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3742/hard-heart https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3742
A person can give an audience to the gospel; he can understand the report about God’s Son and His work on the cross, and still indurate his heart toward God. The Holy Spirit’s voice discloses the truth of grace to men and women, but it is the decision of people to either believe or become spiritually hardened. Never cause yourself to have an unfeeling, stubborn heart of unbelief. Rather, believe God’s word and be healed.

Many times the Israelites provoked God in the wilderness; once for bread, when God sent them manna; again for water, when Moses struck the rock; again when they made the golden calf of idolatry; again, when they refused to believe Caleb and Joshua’s good report and then refused to possess the land; and other times as well. We must never disbelieve God’s promises as they did in the provocation, when Israel initiated God to anger for forty years. Instead, let’s hear the Holy Spirit’s voice and believe.

We must never scrutinize God, for the Almighty is not pleased when we carefully inspect Him as if to critique His nature and will. God gets angry at such behavior, because the testing of the Lord shows a heart that roams and wanders away from the truth. The way of Jesus, which is His mode of operation, must be known by those who are His. The way of the Lord is that road to Calvary, where our High Priest was sacrificed for our sins and where we receive the robe of righteousness as a gift, to cover sin, and clothed with God’s imputed goodness. May our hearts not ever be out of the way, but may we know the grace of God, and believe His great promise about His Son.

That whole generation of accountable ones went astray. A whole population saw what God did, and yet rebelled. Think of all the miracles they observed: the parting sea, the pillar of fire, the manna from heaven, the water out of the rock, and many others, and yet they were deceived and left God.

In verse 11, God did not declare this terrible oath out of joy, but anger. God, with vengeance and wrath, swore that those unbelievers, for we will see that their problem was unbelief, would never enter His rest. The abode of God, which is His rest, will never be entered into by the unbeliever in Jesus Christ, but wrath, indignation, and eternal fury will be his sad possessions forever and ever.

See to it that you do not have an evil heart of unbelief, or of no faith. All lewdness, badness, harm, maliciousness, and wickedness come from the unbelieving heart. Unbelief is the problem in our context, so have faith and be secure. Unbelief causes people to turn away from God, so have trust and live. Unbelief cancels our rest, which is God’s rest, so accept the gospel and be free.

We must see to it that we do not lack saving faith. God will not believe for us. He offers salvation, but it’s our responsibility to receive it by faith, apart from works.

To commit the sin of apostasy is synonymous with unbelief. The heart is called evil because of unbelief. To disbelieve the gospel is to fall away. A person removes himself from grace the moment unfaithfulness fills the heart. See to it that you always believe. The power to believe or not believe is in your hands.

Instead of doubts and fears, encouragement should be the watchword of the day. God gently invites us to His side. We are called near by the blood of Jesus. This means that it is Christ’s sacrifice that brings our acceptance with God, not our sacrifices. Hopeful consolation should be ours every day, otherwise sin will harden us. We must understand grace, or the offenses of the flesh, through the frustration of our failure, will delude us and render us to be stubborn souls that cannot receive the free gift of life in Christ.

Encouragement, through the good news of free salvation in the blood, is the way to a soft heart of faith. A soft heart of faith is

opposite to a hard heart of disbelief.

Holding fast to the confession of our faith is our responsibility. We must set out to meet the definite goal of final salvation. Some preach only beginnings, saying that salvation is secured at the starting point of faith. Others only touch on the endings, harping again and again about the need to endure. But scripture teaches grace and continued grace. Christians start with grace when they accept the gift of eternal life. Christians must continue in grace as this verse teaches. Grace is for the believer, so continue in grace as this verse teaches. Grace is for the believer, so continue in this confidence.

What does it mean when it says, “continue to hold onto the confidence?” I believe this confidence stands for the trust that we have for Jesus; the trust that says, “Jesus will bring us through.” If we continue in the confidence, or in the assurance that we have a Savior, we shall be finally saved, if not, then salvation will be lost to us. We are saved, we are being saved, we will be saved.

The confidence that Hebrews 3:14 is referring to is a confidence in the Lord. This is verified by Phil. 1:6. If we are confident that God will carry on what He began in us, then He will. If we let go of our confidence in Christ, because of whatever life hands us, then the good work will cease, and beginnings will be all we have.

All stability is found in Christ. You cannot fall while fixing your eyes on Jesus. It’s up to you! The end is not very far away. Life is fleeting and our respective vapors are

quickly disappearing. So trust in Christ with continuity. Keep the trustworthy Jesus in memory, for He lived and died for us, and then He lived again, never to return to the grave, except to call us out of ours, in resurrection life! Amen.]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:26:11 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3741/jesus-the-man https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3741
By Joe La Bianca



Hebrews 2:14-18

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

“The children” are people. God views us as children who are loved. If God didn’t love us children, He would not have taken such drastic measures in becoming flesh and blood. If the children were something else and not flesh and blood, then God would have become something else to save us. The fact that we are flesh and blood is the reason God became a man.

In order to destroy the devil, who held the power of death, Jesus had to die. In order for God to die, He had to become “die-able”, so He became a perishable man. When Jesus died for us, He was the only person who did not deserve death, for He never sinned. Since the payment for sin is death, and since Jesus never sinned but died anyway, Jesus redeemed death and now holds the title to it. Now Christ can give eternal life to whomever will just believe in Him. When Satan owned death, he used his ownership against us and lowered us to hell, but Jesus uses His ownership differently. Satan used to have the power of death, for he was the author of death. But now Jesus owns the power of death because He defeated death. Thank God that He is love and that He doesn’t use His great advantage over us in a satanic way. Instead, He shares His resurrection with the faith-filled person.

We are released from the bondage of the fear of death. Before the cross, we were forced to taste our own death; but since Jesus tasted death for us, we are freed from the fear of death. When an unbeliever thinks of death, his exceeding terror of it fills his heart. The unbeliever is a slave of fear, because he knows that he has to die. The Christian is free and the fear of death has been removed. We are not terrified at the prospect of dying, though a Christian may be apprehensive. Wariness about death is not a sin, but if a Christian has a phobia or irrational persistent fear of it, then he should check his faith.

The King James Version translates verse 16 this way, “Verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.” This verse is proclaiming that Jesus is the seed of promise, not an angel (Gen. 22:18). The word “seed” means a man. Jesus is the last Adam. I believe that Jesus had no genetic connection to either Joseph or the virgin Mary, for He started the human race anew. Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus. But this miracle was small in comparison to the fact that God created the already fertilized egg inside her. A virgin can possibly have a baby today, by means of artificial insemination. However there is no way that mankind, with all his knowledge, can create life out of nothing. And if someday man makes some kind of life, it would only prove that life must come from intelligence. But man will never be able to create life out of nothing as God did. Man must use preexisting material. So the fiat (out of nothing) creation of God will never be duplicated. I looked at the words used for pregnant in the original languages when the virgin birth was addressed. The words in both Greek and Hebrew do not necessitate that Mary was the genetic mother. The words mean, to be pregnant as viewed from without, or pregnant, to cling onto. Mary appeared pregnant to others, and something clung onto Mary’s womb. But it never defines exactly what clung to Mary’s womb. I suggest that the entirety of the human nature of Jesus is from above and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has two natures, human and divine. The divine part of Jesus has always been. The human part was begotten on a particular day. Remember that God said, ”You are my Son, this day I have begotten you.” This is the real miracle of the virgin birth. If Jesus had Mary’s genes, He would not be called the last Adam by Paul. But the thing created by God in the womb of Mary was not half from God, half from Mary. It was all of God and Mary was merely the honored vessel by which Emmanuel would come in to the world. Otherwise you have the problem of original sin that was passed on to Jesus. The Roman church tries to avoid this problem by saying that Mary was without sin. This is calling Mary God. Remember that Jesus asked, ”Why do you call me good? There is only one that is good, God.” Jesus didn’t mean that He wasn’t good. He called Himself the Good Shepherd. If Jesus wasn’t good, His sacrifice is worthless. Jesus was rebuking the man who call Him good because he was using that word too lightly. The Roman church calls Mary sinless because they say that for Jesus to be sinless, His mother had to be. But what about Mary’s parents? Wouldn’t they have had to be sinless too. The Roman church never goes there. And what about David, who was in Jesus’ genealogy? We know he sinned with Bathsheba. You must even go back to Adam with this false reasoning. If Adam didn’t sin, we do not need Jesus as Savoir. Do you see the trouble one gets in to when false doctrine is believed upon? But enough about Mary.

The reason why the whole world would be blessed through Abraham is because by his offspring would come the one Man in all the world’s history that could and would make atonement for sin by His death. Since Jesus has the only life that is sinless, he used His perfect life to conquer death by dying for all others. Only a spotless lamb could die. This is why Jesus is the only Savior. All others have sinned. Jesus alone is holy and good. Jesus is the One who blesses all nations, and time itself has absolutely testified to this truth. Look around the world and see the blessings of Messiah Jesus. He is the One in whom the Gentiles trust, just as the scripture foretold.

Here in verse 16 is yet another statement in the book of Hebrews that says Jesus is no angel. If someone, namely a Jehovah witness, says that Jesus is an angel, you can rest assured that the Bible declares that He is not. He is truly God and truly man. Jesus was fully man, in every way, though never ceasing to be fully God. He had to be made like us in order to understand our needs, live our life, and to become our sacrifice. God needed that one perfect life, and Jesus lived that life. Now all those who believe in the work of Jesus are given the goodness of Christ as a gift. Jesus knows, first hand, what it is like to be tempted, so this enables Him to be merciful. Jesus suffered when He was tempted, and so do we. It is true that Jesus never yielded to temptation and thus never sinned, but He still felt pain and suffering because of the temptation.

Jesus relates with us. His attitude toward us is sweetened when we suffer and so He helps us. His atonement also gains for us the good will of God. Jesus appeased the Father’s justice on the cross and has taken away our sins.

In a body that was just like ours (except for sin, of course)Jesus turned aside the wrath of God by taking upon Himself the punishment that was due to us. The body of Jesus really took the punishment for sin and so God’s justice was meted out on Christ. Death is the penalty for sin and God’s justice demanded the administration of the sentence. The sentence is fulfilled in Christ. Hallelujah!

Do you ever feel shame over your temptations? Did you ever think that God must be angry with you because of your temptations? “If I really were a Christian,” you say, “I would not be going through temptation.” How wrong this is. Even Jesus was tempted. Instead of being angry with us, it says in Hebrews 2:18 that because He was tempted and suffered from it, He can now help those being tempted. Christ wants to show us mercy and help us in our weakness. What a God! What a lover of our souls!

Instead of worrying and doubting God when we are tempted, we should realize that the aid of Jesus, and His willingness to help is there for us. Jesus experienced the sensation of temptation and therefore knows what we go through. He is always there to relieve us and

bring us to victory.

Jesus never sinned, for He never gave in to temptation. This is what qualified Him to die for us as the perfect Lamb of God. Jesus atoned for our sins and made peace between us and God. During this time, when Christ lived on earth and fulfilled the law for us, He became familiar with what all humans go through in temptation, howbeit never yielding to it Himself. So Jesus also acquired empathy for us and a compassion that only experience would give. Never forget that Christ is our helper in life, not our condemner. Amen!]]> Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:35:59 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3740/mean-ones https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3740 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:32:47 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3739/carrying-your-cross https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3739


Carrying your cross is comforting. What does it mean to carry your cross? I know Christians that incorporate carrying their crosses into their relationship with God. They make being saved a very hard thing, and think that it is God who gives them their crosses. Listen well! God does not give us the cross, the unbelieving enemies of Christ do.

Every time you are persecuted, whether by word or deed, you are carrying your cross. Never blend cross carrying into your relationship with God. God would like nothing better than for your life to be free from persecution. But it won’t because the world hated Jesus and it will hate you too.

God doesn’t persecute us, the world does. Your relationship with the world is one of death. We are the stench of death to the rebellious, but the fragrance of life to those who are being saved. So how is it comfortable to carry your cross? The next time you are verbally or physically harassed by the world, keep in mind that they harassed Jesus too. If they hated the Master, they will hate the servants. You are going through the same thing Jesus did, and this is a source of encouragement.

You are doing something right to gain the ire of the world. But never ever try to be persecuted by being obnoxious. Your beating will be deserved in that case. But if you are preaching the gospel and are persecuted for it, you are blessed.

The gospel is not your church doctrines, or religious ideas. The gospel is simply this: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and on the third day He was raised to life, 1 Corinthians: 15. If a person believes this, they are saved. Keep it simple, and by doing so, keep it understandable. Your message should be free of burdens, unlike the Pharisees. Don’t place any extra burdens on the backs of Christians, the world will do that for us. If you think that being saved is bearing burdens from both God and the world, then this is too much weight for anyone to carry. Being saved is not a burdensome thing as far as God is concerned. And the burdens of hate and persecution that come from the world, God will give us the strength to carry.]]> Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:01:11 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3735/living-for-god https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3735


Do we live for God in constant worry? Should we always question if we are right with God? Does God want us to be unsure of our salvation? This is a message for perfectionists.

I think we should let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. Ask any perfectionist and they’ll tell you they are not happy. They cannot have peace. This should tell you it’s not the way.

Peace! What is a peace that passes understanding? Well, it’s a peace without knowing how it could be there. How could I have peace with God? I know myself, all my faults. How could God and I have peace? I don’t have to understand. I receive the peace of Christ that goes beyond my understanding.

I believe that Jesus earned my eternal life. We cannot achieve our own salvation by being good. If we could, then Jesus would not have died. The Father would have said to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane that there was another way. He would have saved Jesus from the cross. But the Father said that there was no other way. He said this 3 times to Jesus. Three is the number of completion, so the Father completely ruled out all other ways besides the cross of Jesus.

Do you realize what you do by doubting that you are right with God once you have believed in Jesus’ cross? You are saying to the Father that Jesus isn’t enough. You are saying that the Father lied to Jesus in the garden. What is the real sin here? Is it not being perfect, or doubting what Jesus did?

I am not talking about those who are living in habitual sin. Those people are not serious with God. They do not believe. But don’t confuse being humans of dust with rebellion towards God. We are all still dust and we will never reach the place where we have arrived.

Can you honestly say that you are all done growing in God? If you can still grow that means you’re not yet perfect. We will always grow in grace. God will not send us to hell because we are not perfect in the way we live.

Tell you what. Forget about your life until the Holy Spirit clearly convicts you. Stop being the Holy Spirit. Let Him do His work. And when He does convict you, confess, be restored, be grateful, forget it, and move on.

Too many times you say it is the Holy Spirit convicting you when it’s just your own insecurity. Did you forget that the Holy Spirit is our Comforter? Remember that God loves you so much that He acquired your salvation through the death of His Son. Remember this and enter your rest.]]> Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:18:53 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3725/have-you-heard https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3725


Ephesians 3:2. Have you heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to Paul for you? This is a strange sentence, isn’t it? What does this mean? Well, let me give my opinion on the matter so you can either accept or reject it.

I want to know if you’ve heard about some really good news. I want to know if anyone has ever told you something very important. I want to know if you listened to the person who tried to tell you. I want to know if you started hearing it, but you stopped because you thought that you knew what they were going to say. Maybe some preconceived notion stopped you from giving audience. Maybe someone told you something wrong and you rightfully stopped listening. I’d like for you to give me a chance to tell you something that you may never have heard of, something wonderful for you.

God gave Paul a story that is very easy to understand, and at the same time, very deep. Paul had been given the Gospel, and he dispensed it to the world. This is the story of your need, God’s meeting your need, and your reception of God’s provision. Paul was the first person that God revealed this mystery to. God did this for you.

Let me tell you the mystery. First of all, we all need forgiveness. This is a fact, whether or not we believe it. We need forgiveness because we have done wrong, at one time or another. If you think you have never done wrong, you may as well stop reading now.

Second of all, God has provided our forgiveness through the actions of a Person. We could never earn forgiveness, and so God sent Jesus to earn our forgiveness for us. This is the meaning of the grace of God. Grace means undeserved kindness, and it is found in Jesus. Jesus the Christ is our representative before God. We could not affect our own forgiveness, so Jesus took the punishment we deserved. He was born of a virgin and so started the human race anew, without sin! Jesus lived the only good life. A religious person cannot believe this. Even the average Joe thinks he’s going to Heaven because he is good. But the fact is, all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Only Jesus is good. Good Jesus died in our place and received our punishment when he bore our sins. He rose from the dead and verified everything He said and did. He alone conquered death.

Third of all, how do we receive all this good stuff? Is it by becoming religious? No! Is it by trying to earn forgiveness and denying all that Jesus has done? No! Is it by pushing all this out of our minds and ignoring our need? No! This is how to receive forgiveness and a new life. All you have to do is believe the story. When you believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose again, you are completely forgiven, no matter how you feel. Your happy ending is certain, and this knowledge will help you overcome the hardships of life. All you must do is continue to believe, and God will do the rest. This is the message that was given to the apostle Paul for you.]]> Wed, 20 May 2009 11:29:48 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3724/white-paper https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3724


Romans 7:13 – 20

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. We know the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.



In order that sin might be recognized, the commandments of the law of Moses made sin exceedingly sinful. A white piece of paper shows the blackness of ink most clearly. If the paper were black, the ink would not be seen. So it is with the law. The law is good and sinfulness is evil. If the law weren’t good, mankind would be able to hide their sin in the law. But the law is holy, and we are shown to be sinful by that holy law. God wants to shed light on our sinfulness so that we can identify ourselves in truth. We cannot be saved without realizing who we are. The world tells us we are good inside, that all we need is knowledge of this human goodness. Jesus testified that we are evil. That’s why the world hated Him, and still hates Him today. The irony is, in admitting our sin, we become victorious through the grace of the Savior of sinners. The law enables us to see the truth of our sinfulness.

The next several verses show the relationship between the law and our sinful-nature. They speak of the utter impossibility of salvation outside of Jesus and in ourselves. I have heard teachers say that these verses in Romans 7 are referring to believers in Christ, and the normal Christian life. They are wrong. These verses talk of an unspiritual slave to sin, and his relationship to a holy law. They speak of someone living after the flesh, and not the Spirit, before he was delivered by Jesus. They speak of every human outside of Christ, except for children and people insane from birth.

The unspiritual legalist wants to be good, but he cannot be. The law that he tries to follow is non-carnal (or not of the flesh); it is concretely spiritual and regenerated. But Paul, before he was saved by Jesus, was fleshly, weak, and trafficking in sin. He was beneath the weight of sin, under sin, and inferior to sin. How could he obey the holy law? Even though his mind wanted to obey, his body did not. This caused him to feel wretched and to ask, “Who can deliver me from my death body?” Then Paul thanked God for Jesus Christ, his deliverer.

People who try to obey the law are miserable. They do not understand their failing, fallen lives. They want to do good, but instead they do evil. They practice the very things they hate. They should repent of trying to obey the law and turn to Jesus for His merciful, gracious power. Jesus will give the simple believer power through His Holy Spirit. Only mere believers can have victory over their sins. Only mere believers can love who they are, for they are new creatures in Christ. They are God’s workmanship. They love what God does in them.

People do not get saved in order to try and obey the law of Moses. God, by His grace, writes the law in their hearts. God changes their natures by grace through faith in Jesus, and makes new books of them. They do not obey outer books, they are inwardly changed to be living epistles. They are given the divine nature as a gift, and are enabled to love, which is the fulfillment of the law. The goal is not to try and obey exterior commandments. Our only goal is to trust Jesus, and then He makes all things new.

If a legalist feels bad about his poor performance in life, he is really agreeing that the law is good and he is evil. If he would just believe in Jesus, and accept his inability to earn salvation, he would be saved. But unfortunately, many legalists ignore their internal warnings and sear their minds in a false assurance of self-goodness.

Jesus wants to kill the sin that is living in us in order to save the people he made. It is sin, living in us, that damns us. It is sin, using our bodies as a house and cohabitating with us, that is damnable. All we need to do is confess our sin and Jesus will kill our sin. He cuts it out in a spiritual circumcision.

But it is important to realize that the way we live on earth is separate from our standing in Christ. That is not to say we can live in sin and be saved, for Paul said that

“those who practice such things ( sins listed in Galatians chapter 5) will not inherit the kingdom of Heaven.” Paul used the Greek word PRASSO which means, practice. He did not use the singular word. Paul used the plural word. An act of singular sin that has been confessed is cleansed by God. So don’t be fearful unless you are living in habitual sin.

Yet all this aside, God sees believers as perfect in Christ when they simply believe. Here is the proof. In Ephesians chapter 5 it says that Jesus gave himself for the church to make her holy, cleansing her with water through the word to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or blemish, but holy and blameless. See all those words that speak of perfection? It is Jesus doing all that. Jesus did all the work. Read it and see that it is Jesus making us holy, blameless and without blemish when He “gave Himself”, a reference to His cross. All we do is believe the word, which is the gospel. Now if it is Jesus doing all this, making us absolutely perfect in God’s sight, our imperfect lives on earth must be something different. So, we are perfect by faith, and we overcome the world by this same faith, however imperfectly.

If anyone thinks he is perfect, he is blind to reality. No one is perfect, but Jesus gives us His perfection when we believe the cross. Both our imperfect lives on earth and our perfect standing in Christ are preserved by faith in the cross. All this is the work and grace of God. Still we must believe. This is our part. Perfect standing is called imputed righteousness, and overcoming the world is through the divine nature given by grace. The sinful nature is to be resisted.

Nothing good lives in the sinful nature. The sinful nature will keep us unable to perform what is good. The desire to do good will not be enough to carry out goodness. We are prisoners in the sin-nature. The only thing to do is to trust Jesus and have Him create a new nature inside of us. This nature is not a human work or an earned state of being; it is an invisible miracle performed by Jesus when someone only believes in Him. Jesus cleans His fish after he catches them. We do not make ourselves acceptable before going to Christ. Otherwise why would we need Jesus? We already made ourselves acceptable.

When Paul says, “It is no longer I who do it,” (that is, I who keep on sinning), “but sin living in me,” he is showing that an unsaved man cannot stop sinning, even if he wants to. But the saved man is told to not live according to the sinful-nature. Only regenerated people can choose to live according to the Spirit and not the sinful-nature. This proves that Paul was talking about his past life in Romans 7, and not his life as a Christian.

And how does one get the Spirit of God? By believing what we’ve heard, Galatians 3. So faith in the story of Jesus is the answer to life.

The unbeliever’s mind might very well want to be good, but his members, which are the parts of his body, war against the laws in his mind. He knows the commandments but cannot do them. The resident sin in the uncircumcised heart of the heathen goes against his mind and makes him feel wretched. Who can save this miserably unhappy person from himself? I am here to say that Jesus Christ the Lord is the only Savior of people. He will cleanse and change the heart by grace, when someone simply believes in Him!!]]> Thu, 28 May 2009 00:04:36 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3717/tabernacle https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3717
Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lamp stand, the table and the consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s rod that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the place of atonement. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.

When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings - external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

The first room of the tabernacle, or the cloth hut, had in it: the candlestick, which had seven branches and was used to give nightly light for the priests seven days a week; the table, on which the shew-bread sat; and the consecrated shew-bread, which consisted of twelve loaves, standing for the twelve tribes of Israel, and that was replaced every Sabbath with new, fresh bread. This room was the Holy Place, where the priests performed their daily duties.

Behind the curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place. The curtain was made of blue, purple, and scarlet, with cherubim worked into its fine linen, see Ex. 26:31. The colors of this curtain tell a story. The room is where God and man met, and only once a year. Blue stands for God, for men look to heaven for the God of grace and peace. Scarlet stands for man, for Adam means red man. And purple stands for God and man meeting, for blue and red make purple. Jesus is also represented here, as the God-man. Hebrews also called the body of Jesus, the curtain in chapter 10. Jesus is also our priest, or go-between, occupying a place between God and man, as purple is between blue and red.

Two handfuls of incense were to be burned on the gold altar in the Most Holy Place, once a year on the day of atonement. Lev. 16:13 reveals the probable reason for this. The smoke from the incense would conceal the mercy seat where God manifested Himself. This would prevent the high priest from seeing God and dying. The list of items found in the Most Holy Place in Heb. 9:4 refers to the day of atonement. The gold-covered ark of the covenant had inside of it the manna from heaven in a jar, which fed the people of Israel in the wilderness, the staff of Aaron that budded, showing that God had chosen Aaron and his sons as priests, and not the other tribes, and the stone tablets of the ten commandments.

The entire ark of the covenant, with its relics of the first Mosaic covenant, was covered with the mercy seat. This shows us that God always intended to make the new covenant of Jeremiah 31. God covered the entire first covenant with the mercy, grace, and blood of the better second covenant. Mercy triumphs over judgment. The mercy seat of propitiation is above the law.

The cherubim, or heavenly creatures, were built into the mercy seat, and their wings overshadowed the seat as they gazed downward, toward the place that God dwelt on the propitiation.

The atonement cover, or the mercy seat, is where God came to meet with the high priests. This special seat is where God dispensed mercy to sinful man. This seat, once sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice, became the seat of favor and grace, as it covered the tablets of law that were disobeyed. Now we can see what the Bible meant when it said that after Christ died on the cross, the veil of the temple, that separated the holy place from the Most Holy Place, was torn in half.

Jesus took His blood and sprinkled it over the mercy seat of Heaven and atoned for the sins of all who would believe in Him. The law, the Levitical priesthood, and the heavenly manna are all covered in the blood of Christ. Everything is under the blood of atonement and we are healed by the wounds of Jesus.

The people of the old covenant had no idea about the fellowship one could have with God under the new covenant, for the way into communion with God had not yet been disclosed. The restrictions placed upon the people, and the way in which the high priest had to approach God, was clear enough for anyone to grasp. God was, for all intents and purposes, unapproachable. But in the new covenant, God invites all who will, to come and sup with Him, through faith in His Son.

What a difference there is between the old and the new. The old was clouded with mystery, and bounded by many rules and laws, that only one man, once a year, could blindly enter the presence of God. The new is an open invitation to have fellowship with Abba Father, and is also a covenant of spiritual vision, for we can see the light of the gospel, in the face of Christ. Why do so many Christians follow God legalistically, in an old covenant way? Instead, they should realize that the only way to God is by grace, through faith in the cross of Jesus.

At its best, the law of Moses and the accompanying rituals of the priesthood are only shadows. How can a ceremony clear a conscience? How can a formal act, prescribed by law, bring peace to our inner being? They cannot! Only the greatest act of love can bring about the greatest results of reconciliation. No greater love has man, than that the Son of man lay down His perfectly lived life for those He graciously considers to be friends. This, and only this, can clear our consciences. Our awareness of right and wrong has been washed clean by the blood of Christ. We are clear of conscience because Jesus thoroughly straightened it all out. My good works do not have the slightest effect on the blood of Jesus poured over the mercy seat. I cannot add to my hope by my works. If I had to depend upon myself, either partially or totally, I would not have a clear conscience. But because Jesus is my Savior, and because He can never fail, I trust in Him and I am clean.

Many people think that the reformation took place in the time of Martin Luther, but it did not. Here in Hebrews 9:10, it says that the reformation happened when Jesus abolished the law, after having fulfilled it, and then rectified our relationships with the Father. Jesus set it right with God, that’s why He is the only Savior. Jesus’ death on the cross is our reconciliation with God. If you can, believe that all is well with God and yourself through the acts of the Savior. If you can’t, I am sorry. Maybe you will think differently when time has proven to you your inability to reach God by human effort. Receive a clear conscience today, by faith. Believe in the grand gospel of grace and have a hope that will never disappoint. Trust in Jesus and rebel against any notion that says, “It is not finished!” Jesus accomplished your salvation for you, all you must do is willingly receive it by faith, and then instinctively grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ our risen King! Amen!]]> Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:35:09 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3715/the-measure-of-faith https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3715
Romans 12:3

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.



Paul realizes that his teaching was given to him by grace. Grace is God’s unmerited love and acceptance through Jesus. Paul doesn’t approach us through legalism. Legalism is trying to earn heaven with human goodness. This cannot be done. Paul realizes that whatever he is, whatever he does, and whatever he teaches us, must be through the agency of grace. Grace is the only channel through which any godly thing is accomplished. Paul instructs us not by the forceful hand of legalism, but by the loving grace of God.

If we give God our lives, God will only be pleased by a cheerful giving, for God loves a cheerful giver. So if your walk with God is an unpleasant endeavor, you may as well quit. If your Christianity is a hard thing, check yourself to see if you are in the faith. Hard Christianity is really false legalism. The yoke of Christ is light and easy. Christianity is not a burdensome faith. Jesus attaches Himself to us with His yoke ( a neck frame coupling animals for pulling loads ) and guides us through life. And don’t forget that Jesus does the work, we are just along for the ride. Our faith holds us to Jesus.

What is it that Paul tells us by grace? Does he tell us to think highly of ourselves, the way someone trying to earn salvation would think? Does he tell us to think like a legalist, like the self-righteous church-goer who considers himself better than others? No! Instead, Paul tells us to think in just the opposite way!

Christians do not esteem themselves overmuch, as the Greek expresses. They are not arrogant or vain because Christians realize that all that they have has been given to them. It is necessary to think this way in order to remain thankful and humble.

Legalists are among the most thankless, prideful people in the world. They live in a fantasy. They think they’re righteous when they’re not.

The exercise of the believer’s mind ought always be one of soberness and gratefulness, never one of high-mindedness and pride. This is because God has given them the very faith that saves.

Some take this to mean that believers have no active role in salvation; and that God saves people apart from volunteered faith in the good news. But people must be willing to believe in Jesus. They must accept the gift of faith willingly.

God gives all people the measure of faith. People decide where to put that faith. This faith is bestowed, for we could not believe without God’s grace.

The Greek for “measure” is “metron”, and it is defined as a “meter”. So God has given us 39.37 inches of faith, which is equal to one meter. Only joking!

Yet all kidding aside, God has indeed given us all the limited portion of faith, according to the meaning of “metron.” We have one stride of faith, and if we take that stride we will have another to take, in this way we will finish the race. No one has unlimited faith, for all that is needed is a mustard seed amount. A small amount of simple faith in Jesus will accomplish great things. Our small faith gets us a great Savior.

When we are persuaded by the gospel, when we believe in the truthfulness of God concerning His only Son, we are putting that meter of faith in Jesus and are saved. This small amount of faith is a gift. The grace of God in Christ is a gift. Our salvation is a gift. We are just selfish receivers of God’s great generosity.

When Jesus rebuked the disciples by calling them “ye of little faith”, “little” in Greek meant “incredulous.” They were skeptical of Jesus and this is why Jesus was stern. Mustard seed faith is totally different. The word “little”, when referring to the smallest seed, which is the mustard seed, is “micros”, and it means small in size.

Since so much has been bestowed upon us, how could we think of ourselves more highly than we ought? Only a fool would take credit for a gift. Only ungratefulness would produce such a response.

Matthew 17:20 says, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, ‘Remove hence to yonder place’; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Why did Jesus say that such a small amount of faith is all that you need to do great things? Because you do not need a lot of faith to believe. God’s existence is evident through creation, prophesy, archaeological discoveries proving the truth of the bible, the gospel and it’s logic, the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment, and many other things I cannot name here.

Let me simplify. If you believe the gospel with tiny trust, nothing shall be impossible for you. Jesus didn’t mean a mere physical moving of mountains (for that would accomplish little and even do more harm than good), but the humanly impossible victories which can only be done on a spiritual level. And one day the spiritually invisible shall become the eternal, when we finally behold Him, the sacred Lamb of God, who makes all things possible, both now and forevermore!]]> Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:06:09 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3708/false-humility https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3708
by Joe La Bianca



Col. 2:18

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility

and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize.

Such a person goes into great detail about

what he has seen, and his unspiritual

mind puffs him up with idle notions.



The legalist delights in himself. His humbleness is false because the self praise that must accompany his legal relationship with God precludes the possibility of humility. In other words, a person who points to himself and his supposed goodness is inherently puffed up and therefore void of true humility. How can anyone say, “Look how wonderful I am,” and at the same time claim true humility? How can such a one even admit his need for a Savior?

The truly humble person is he who admits his sin and trusts solely in the saving act of Christ on the cross. He rightfully gives God all the credit for his salvation and changed heart, though he does choose to believe. This, God will not do for him. But God will give him the faith so that he can choose just where to put it. Are you putting your faith in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

The falsely humble legalist does not merely hint at his goodness, he is very bold in his assertions of righteousness. There is not a question in his mind that God will accept him based on his own good life, so he vehemently attests to his merits. The rules-oriented person faithfully delights in his service to God. But real faith delights in God, not in works for God.

The combination in the phrase “delight in humility” is contradictory. A person who is lowly of heart does not glory in his lowliness. A true believer never delights in his humility. He is never proud of being humble. The “I’m-good-enough-for-heaven” folks trust in their performance to please God. They say the good they’ve done will cause God to be merciful to them. They are forgetting a very important thing. The wages of sin is death. No matter how many good things a person does, he nevertheless will be paid his death earnings because of sin.

Sin owes us death, and by ourselves, without the Divine Substitute, we must receive our due payment. Death is separation. When the body dies, the spirit separates from it. When the spirit dies, it is separated from God. This is the second death that the bible refers to.

Jesus died for our sins and took upon himself the transgressions of every living soul. This is why Jesus said, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus was separated from God on the cross when He bore our sins. So Jesus tasted both our physical and spiritual deaths. Without Jesus we must face those deaths alone. With Jesus both deaths are redeemed. Since we’ve been given the righteousness of Christ when we believed the gospel, even our physical death is paid for, hence resurrection day.

But it was impossible for Jesus to stay dead because, judiciously, Jesus defeated sin by His perfect, sinless life, and consequently, could remain unpaid of any death wages. So He paid for our sins by dying, and rose again through the power of His holy, indestructible life. The earthly life of Jesus is indestructible because of it’s perfect holiness. After remaining dead for 3 days (3 being the number of completion), Jesus raised Himself up by His own authority. So Jesus completely tasted death for all people. Then He raised Himself up.

This is how Jesus could have come alive again. It was by His holiness which defeated death. Since Jesus never earned death by sinning, death couldn’t hold Him down. Jesus is the only human who never, ever sinned. This is also why Jesus is the only way. No one else ever lived a perfect life. So all die outside of Jesus. We are either in Adam or in Jesus, the Last Adam. All that are in Adam die. All that are in Jesus live. By the way, this does not apply to children. God views kids as innocent.

When we trust Christ, our historic moral record is clean because we are recipients of the goodness of Jesus by faith. Those not trusting Christ receive payment for their own sins, by sin. And sin loves to deal out eternal death, cheerfully.

As far as salvation is concerned, there is no difference between someone who spends their life in philanthropic endeavors and a serial killer. There is no difference between a “good person”, who trust’s self, and an evil person. This is because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, not the glory of each other. There is a great difference between the two. You may measure up well with another human, but we must compare ourselves to God, not man. This will help us to see that we are sinful and then be enabled to call on the Savior.

So maybe you are better than your neighbor. Big deal. That doesn’t matter anyway. In fact, we shouldn’t even be comparing ourselves with each other. That will never produce anything good. Either we will be prideful and think we are better than others, or we will be envious of others. Compare yourself with God, and see your great deficit. And then let God erase that shortage by the cross of Christ.

Either salvation is a gift or it is not, we can have no compromise here. There are those who are very productive in good deeds and yet are unsaved because of their lack of trust for the cross of Christ. You see, good deeds can never take away sin. There are also those not nearly as productive and are, even still, saved and on their way to heaven. It is possible for a heathen to pray more than a Christian, but that doesn‘t matter. Praying doesn’t save, Jesus does. Some unsaved people are very active in benevolence, while some Christians, though still changed in nature, have lesser levels of fruitfulness; 30, 60 or 100 fold.

We cannot base acceptance with God on productivity. The man who works one hour in the fields got paid the same as the one who bore the heat of the entire day. God is generous and gives eternal life to all who will receive it.

Do you want to get paid, or do you want a gift? Sin will pay the wage of death, which is separation from God forever. God’s gift is eternal life, through Jesus, which is the opposite of eternal death. We must be given our life, we can never earn it. Life isn’t something we can create with works. Life is given from God. It comes through faith in Jesus. We can only earn death from the sins we commit. We cannot earn life. Jesus is the only one who can give the gift of life.

Legalists treat life as something to earn, but life from God, in heaven and throughout all eternity, is a gift. Christianity is the only faith that represents life as a gift through faith in a savior. There is only One admitted Savior in the history of the world. Be humble and receive the gift of eternal life by faith in that Savior. Pride will try to earn its own way. False humility will try to cover up the feeble attempt to earn.

If you buy into the hypocrisy of self-salvation, you will disqualify yourself for the prize of heaven. Be careful to put no confidence in self, for it is possible to become a castaway if you do. The deceptive self-trusters will even use, in a wrong way, the bible to cheat you out of salvation. Those who serve the law, rather than God, are cold-hearted observers of a written code. They don’t obey the law and yet they want us to follow that impossible system as well.

Salvation is settled only if we continue in the good news of grace. But the whole thing comes tumbling down when we compromise with the do-it-yourself crowd. “Do-it-yourself” means that we don’t need what Jesus did. It is an insult to the Spirit of grace and a consideration of the blood of Jesus as ineffective.

If a man preaches works, while professing the Name, he does it without reason and with no foundation to his argument. Jesus is synonymous with grace. Jesus is Savior and saviors save. An inflated intellect is the inevitable result of self praise. But the truth of the matter is that we have nothing we haven’t received. Everything we have has been given. True, we had to willingly receive salvation, but that’s as far as our role goes. Remember, salvation is a gift that is offered free of charge, and faith is the hand that thankfully receives it.

Here is a thought on how impossible it is to be good enough for heaven. God only wants spotless lambs, so if you want to work your way to Him, you must have a spotless, absolutely sinless life. Also, if you can live, holy and perfect, unstained by sin, then death would have no hold on you, for the wages of sin is death, and you, like Jesus, can have the power to take up your life again in your own resurrection. You can also be another savior, for if you wanted, you could give your perfect life for others. Of course this is impossible, for all have sinned. But I make this point to show how much folly there is in legalism. You’d be well served by giving up your aspirations of self salvation and accepting Jesus as your only victorious Savior, for He is the only One.

The reference to the worship of angles in Col. 2:18 is an allusion to the law of Moses as Galatians 3:19 says. Let’s read it. “ What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.” The law was added by angels until the first advent of Jesus. After Jesus fulfilled the law, the law ended. Now and forever, Christ is the end of the law so there can be righteousness by faith. Since Christ accomplished the law, there is no longer any need for the law of Moses for believers, just unbelievers. Unbelievers need the law to lead them to Christ. But if someone is Christ’s, he is no longer under the supervision of the law. Jesus fulfilled the law in His earthly life. God now has that one life which He can credit to others. What a great salvation we have. God gives us the perfect score of Jesus when we just believe. God also changes our hearts by that same faith. Inside and out we are renewed by grace through faith!

So, we see that those who follow the law for salvation invariably become puffed up with their own unspiritual interpretations of scripture, i.e., the Talmud, and even go as far as to delight in their own goodness and humility, thus becoming ungodly and prideful. We see that this doctrine is held by every living soul outside of Christ and is so appealing to the flesh that Paul even warned Christians to not let them make us disqualified for the prize of heaven. But unfortunately Judaism has crept into the church. I fear for those who do not understand that we must never mix the old with the new. All we get from that are ruined wine-skins, and badly torn cloths, if you know what I mean.

Whether it’s someone on the street that trusts in their own supposed goodness, or a religious person who thinks that salvation is a ceremony of liturgy, or even a good deed doer that trusts in those deeds, they all pale when contrasted with the only sinless life. It was lived by our generous Savior, who gave all that He acquired as a gift to the believer. He earned salvation for us.

Trust Jesus and live in joy, for He alone can raise us from our deaths and continue our happy existence for all eternity.]]> Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:29:36 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3704/jesus https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3704
by

Joe La Bianca



Col. 2:16

Therefore do not let anyone judge you

by what you eat or drink, or with regard

to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration

or a Sabbath day.

Let no man judge you. Firmly decide not to let their decisions about you matter. Someone may say that you are not doing “it” the way they want. They may punish you in their own mind by deciding that you must not be a Christian because of what you do or do not do. If you listen to them, then they will win. Instead, consider their conclusions to be utterly worthless. You will find that religious people are your biggest critics.

By religious, I mean any one who tries to earn salvation by works. You will find these people in many a religion and/or church, whether traditional or evangelical. Never be moved away from the happy conviction of freedom through faith in Jesus.

When a person calls your salvation into question, they are really placing doubt on their own salvation. Jesus said that we are to judge not, for the measure judgmental people use will be “sling-shotted” back upon themselves, and they will be required to obey their own harsh, censorious determinations.

You can eat whatever you want; you can drink whatever you want; you can go to a festival or choose to not go; you can consider one day as holy to the Lord, or everyday as special. In Christ we are free to be who God has made us, and there is now no longer any outward code to obey. In the past, God outlined shadows and pictures of how things would be in Christ. Once Christ came, there was no more need for the shadows. The reality is Jesus and we should focus our full attention on that reality.

There are so many that have so much to say concerning our lives. They misuse the bible doing it. But the truly scriptural person will focus on Jesus and Him crucified. Jesus is the answer, not some subjective opinion from a judgmental heart. You’ve trusted Jesus to save you? Now trust Him to take care of your life. We do not need to be guided by legalistic people; we have the loving Holy Spirit to guide us.

We should trust God to change a person’s heart, and if someone is going off into obvious, grievous sin, we should, in a humble and gentle way, try to restore them, in love, knowing that we ourselves are saved by grace and liable to fall as well. Love one another as God’s grace enables, and as our faith in Him is expressed. The only thing that counts is faith expressed by love; faith in the person and work of Jesus, and love, which is the natural outcome of faith. Col. 2:17

These are a shadow of the things that were to come;

the reality, however, is found in Christ.

A shadow is a dark outline of the light that is being blocked. Jesus is the light of the world, and the fore-shadows found in the Old Testament pointed in a dark, mysterious way, to Jesus. Now that the clarity of Christ, through His brilliant light, has arrived, the forecasts of Jesus are fulfilled.

Don’t get me wrong, there are clear, unambiguous prophecies of Jesus, which point unerringly to His Messiah-ship. There are also types and pre-figures of Jesus, that give indication to Christ’s arrival and ministry. We are told in this passage of scripture to concentrate on the reality; the actually-existing-Jesus. Don’t go in reverse when so much progress has been made. Why look at a shadow, which is blocking the light, when you can view the brilliance of the glory of God in the face of Christ?

When the ritual replaces the relationship, then the shadow of unreality is crowding out the pure message of good news. When the forms of religious rites become more important than Jesus, Jesus then becomes secondary, and you know that’s not where He wants to be. Liturgy can easily become a legislated, outward rule, that never touches the heart of the matter. Jesus is the heart of the matter.

Is Christ your reality? Is His life, death, and resurrection a rock solid actuality? Or is Jesus just a person in history; the founder of a religion who was swallowed up by time? To many, Jesus is a figurehead with little to do in the lives of these nominal professors. He is a symbol on a church wall, ignored because of the distractions of Christ-less sermons. You can preach with giant tablets of stone rigged up behind you, and never know God. Some hear of Jesus and then go out of the service, totally oblivious to the true, simple gospel.

To the heathen, life is spent seeing, touching, experiencing, but never believing. We must take Jesus into our every day, by faith. When we are happy, may we thank Christ. When we are sad, may we trust Christ. When we are feeling far away, may we know, by faith, that Jesus draws near to us when we believe in Him.

We can’t see God, but we can see that He is here by what He left behind. I am referring to creation with it’s minute wonders and it’s magnificent vastness. We can’t see God, but we can know His presence through the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised to be with us till the end, so let us realize this and know His reality in our lives. Every day, give thanks to God; every day, trust in His love through Jesus; every day, long for His appearing, and this longing faith will purify, even as He is pure.

We are saved by grace through faith; grace, because God was merciful and kind in giving His Only Son, who became our sacrifice and righteousness; and faith, because we believe in the mercy and kindness of God in Christ. There are no other elements to salvation. God’s side is the grace side, and ours is the faith side. God offered and now we must simply accept. Salvation was meant to be easy, for the difficulty in salvation falls on the shoulders of the One doing the saving, not the helpless ones who need saving.

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, “What about my righteous life? What about all my good deeds and the sin I resist? What about witnessing and separation from this evil world?” To these I answer, we are God’s workmanship, not our own workmanship. The answer is not in focusing on ourselves, for self-righteousness must be forsaken before any one can be saved. The answer is to look to the Author and Finisher of salvation. Besides, there are too many “ My’s and I’s ”

in your complaint. You are focused on the wrong person. Look to Jesus.

We are not required to do any works to be saved. We are not required to do, we are recreated to be. I have a feeling that to many, works are more important than Jesus. “Look at me, God, see how wonderful I am?” you say. If you were so wonderful, God would not have had to see His Son die. You insult the Spirit of grace when you point to yourself. Look to Jesus lifted up. That’s the way, the only Way.

God’s grace not only saves us, God’s grace also changes us to be new creations in Christ. But our changed lives are in no way the same as our perfect standing in Christ. You must separate the two. Or else salvation is in different measures of holiness or the lack thereof. At the end of the day, we all get one denarius each, for believing!

We must be careful to give God all the glory and put no confidence in our flesh. Sins are dangerous to our eternal souls, but just as malignant is the self-confidence of a legalistic heart. Be careful to avoid self in all its forms, and to trust only in Jesus, the Person and the work on Calvary.]]> Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:41:05 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3703/repent https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3703




We’ve been hearing false teaching about repentance for years. Now, so many are thinking that they must clean up their lives before Jesus will accept them. But tell me. How can someone clean up their life without the power of the Holy Spirit? Well, tell me! You cannot!! So why do people preach a legalistic form of repentance? Because to them, their performance is the thing that ingratiates them to God. WHAT HOGWASH!! WHAT A DENIAL OF THE WORK OF JESUS!!

If you could clean up your life before you come to God, then why would you need Jesus? And if you do not have the Holy Spirit before you are saved, how are you supposed to clean up your life before you come to Jesus? All someone needs to do to understand the true meaning of repentance is read the definition in a bible dictionary. Here is the definition of repentance : to be sorry, to rue, to return or turn back, to regret, to reconsider, ruefulness.

So we see that repentance means that someone is sorry for their sins. It doesn’t mean that someone removes their sins; that’s Jesus’ work. As a matter of fact, repentance realizes that we cannot help ourselves, but only Jesus can. Of course we must repent before we are saved, but only in the correct sense of the word. How could someone come to the Savior if they do not see their sins and feel sorry for them? They cannot!

How many people have been turned away from Jesus because a legalist preached to them. These seekers felt conviction for their sins, the truth that they cannot be righteous, and the fear of God’s judgment. The Holy Spirit made this person ready to trust in the Savior. And some religious zealot messed everything up with their ideas of how to get to God. The poor seeker hears from this person how he must forsake all his sins and obey Jesus to be a Christian. The poor seeker knows he can’t do it, so he leaves. He never heard the GOOD NEWS, only a self-righteous man’s views. And the saying is proven yet again, “ the blind will lead the blind and both fall in a ditch.”

Paul didn’t preach repentance as many understand it today. Paul said that all we must do to be saved is believe that Jesus died for our sins and rose again. Why listen to Paul? He is the one that Jesus chose to reveal the whole truth to us. See “The Claims of Paul” in the archives of my blogs at www.myspace.com/joelabianca.

Stop thinking of salvation in terms of performance. That is the mistake of every religion - from Judaism, to Eastern cults, right down to the legalistic church. No, our faith in Christ is greater than man’s puny attempt to change his life. Jesus is the only Savior. He is the One who earned Heaven. Our simple trust in His cross is what changes us. When we just believe, we are changed inside, with the perfection of God given goodness, and out, through the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the world. All this is by grace, and is the gift of God. So stop thinking that you must save your soul before Jesus does. Repentance is only turning to the One who can save. Remember, Jesus cleans His fish after He catches them.]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:16:46 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3695/mediator https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3695


Hebrews 9:11-15

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance - now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

The writer to the Hebrews calls Christianity, “the good things that are already here.” This is a good way to view our faith. Remember this when you hear some preacher heaping guilt, rules, and burdens upon your back. Remember that our faith is “the good things that are here.” Do not feel guilt because you are blessed of God. You are blessed because you’ve believed the Son of His love. You are blessed because salvation is by grace apart from works, apart from obedience to the law. After all, the gospel means the good news. We have a faith of good news, good things, a good Shepherd, and whatever is lovely, peaceful, and of good report. So reject the prevalent teaching of legalism in these last days.

When Jesus came to earth, He prepared Himself as the lamb of God, by living without sin. After He fulfilled the law of Moses, right down to the jot and tittle, He then offered Himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for sin. Jesus’ life was the only sinless life ever lived, and He submitted to death even though He didn’t have to, for the wages of sin is death, and since Jesus never sinned, He never earned His death wages. Did you know that death entered the world only after Adam and Eve’s sin? Mercifully, Christ was willing to die for us, as our substitute. We, however, though deserving of death, receive Christ’s life and righteousness instead. How gracious is the Lord Christ!! This is why I love God. I do not try to love God to gain His acceptance. That’s insulting. How can someone try to love anyway? Either you love or not. And I love God because He first loved me in Christ.

After the reconciling act of the sacrifice of Jesus, He sprinkled His own blood seven times on the mercy seat of heaven. Seven is the number of perfection. The work of Christ was finished on the cross, and no one could stop Jesus from taking His finished work, His blood of redemption, before the glory of the Father, as the justifying proof of His love. Just as God accepted the shadows of the earthly sacrifices before Messiah came, He much more willingly accepted the eternal blood of the new covenant, sprinkled on the atonement cover in heaven. The blood covered the book of the law that was inside the box!

What’s better, the blood of animals, or the blood of the only Son of God? Animals have no righteousness of their own, and though they have a semblance of innocence, they are not moral agents. The Son was a free moral agent and lived His entire earthly life free from all guilt. The righteousness and absolute innocence of Jesus, makes His blood of utmost value to God. The blood spilled out of the body of an animal cannot bring eternal redemption, but the Son of Man’s blood brings a perpetual ransom to those who continue to believe. Hebrews 10:4 says in no uncertain terms that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. These are the animals used in the sacrifices on the day of atonement, and so we see that the day of atonement did not take away sins, for it was a shadow of the real sacrifice, which is the eternally redeeming blood of Christ. The animal sacrifices of Israel were antitypes of Jesus. An antitype is a foreshadow or hint beforehand of a true reality. The reality is found in Christ.

You see, Christ became a curse for us so that we could be saved from the curse of trying to obey the law for salvation. People mistakenly believe that all the wonderful benefits of being in Christ Jesus are to be constantly worked for and earned. This defeats the very purpose of Jesus our Savior. Remember that Christ is the Savior, and we are the saved.

Christ, our cure, is our entrance into the blessings of God. When Gal. 3:13 says that Christ became our curse, it means that Jesus was willing to be hung on a tree and fulfill Deut. 21:23 where it says that anyone who is crucified is under God’s curse. Jesus was under God’s curse when He was hung on the tree. He took our curse upon Himself and we are given the blessings of Jesus in exchange. Pretty unfair, isn’t it? Be thankful for the loving grace of Jesus.

To believe that you can earn salvation takes away from what Jesus did on the cross. Do you want to diminish the great cross of Christ? Do you want to cancel grace for yourself? Then add your supposed self merit to the salvation equation. Jesus took the cup that God the Father gave Him, and drank it to its bitter end. God didn’t get you the cup of redeeming love. He gave it to the only One who could drink it, Jesus! This is the love of God and the greatest act of love ever done. On the third day Christ rose from the dead to justify everyone who would simply believe what they’ve heard about Him.

Those under the first covenant were made only outwardly clean. The consecration of the “law followers” didn’t reach their hearts, they only knew God, and were known of God, on the surface. The ashes of a perfect red heifer or young cow were to be mixed with water and sprinkled on the ceremonially unclean for outward cleansing. The blood of Jesus sprinkled on our hearts cleanses us from inward sin and enables us to boldly approach the throne of grace.

If water and young cow ashes could somehow cleanse someone who broke a regulation, so he could be outwardly clean, how much more can the spotless lamb of God’s blood cleanse our minds from real acts of the hell-worthy kind, so that we can fellowship with God. It says that God cleanses our consciences from dead works. This means that the evil deeds we have done should not bother us anymore. I know they bother a lot of people, but try to not let them. God cleanses both our hearts and minds. Our hearts are cleans with the new godly nature that comes by grace. And our minds are cleansed so that we need not feel guilty about our lives. God takes care of it all. He makes us perfect on the inside, and able to overcome on the outside, howbeit imperfectly. All this is by grace through faith in the cross.

Our guilty consciences are cleansed by the offering of the body of another. Christ’s unblemished sacrifice cleanses our consciences if we just believe in His cross. You would think that our guilty minds could only be relieved by the acts of righteousness that we have done ourselves, but not so. We cannot erase sins with good works. We can do good works forever and still be stain with the sin that only the blood of Jesus can remove. Jesus heals our standing with God and removes our sins with His blood when we believe.

The ashes of the heifer, mixed with water, were sort of a ready-made sacrifice. If someone touched a dead body, and became defiled, all that was necessary was to sprinkle this portable, made-in-advance sacrifice on the person, and they were made outwardly clean. Christ’s blood, in like manner, is our instant access forgiveness when we sin. But Jesus’ blood cleanses all the way to the heart and mind, releasing use from guilt and renewing our inner man. This is better because we are both cleared and empowered by Jesus.

Our consciences instantly approve, or condemn the lawfulness, or unlawfulness of our actions. This is what has been cleansed by the actions of Jesus. Our moral sense has been purified by the blood of Christ. We no longer feel obligated to God for our salvation. Jesus performed the saving work for us. We no longer feel it is our duty to save our souls by works, for Jesus saved us when we believed what we’ve heard when we were confronted with the gospel.

The unblemished blood of Jesus is our confidence before God. Jesus is without rebuke, and by grace, so are we. Jesus is without blame and by grace, so are we. Jesus is without spot, faultless, and perfect and by faith, so are we. Jesus has already presented us holy, spotless, and free from accusation, by Christ’s physical body through His death on the cross. This blessing will be lost if we don‘t believe it, so continue to believe, for that is all He asks.

All we must do is trust that Jesus will do all these wonderful things for us and it will be done.

Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant because of His precious, perfect blood. No other person could become a mediator of this covenant because all others beside Jesus Christ are sinful human beings. This includes Mohammed, Moses, Buddha, Mary, Confucius and all other religious leaders. Jesus is the world’s only Savior. All religions outside of Christ are unsaved, without God, and without hope in this world.

Who are those who are called by God? Many. Many, in this context means all who will. God does not choose people to go to hell. This is a false doctrine which portrays God as evil. Those in hell are there by virtue of their own guilt, not some supposed eternal decree. Every soul may receive the promised eternal inheritance of heaven if they will just believe in Jesus. Christ, our ransom, has set us free from our sinful guilt. Christian salvation is a salvation from the sins we committed under the law. We are not partially ransomed by the offered body of Christ. We are, by our faith and God’s grace, fully redeemed from our guilty lives. Jesus set us free from a sure hell, and pardoned us gracefully. So receive the gift of the offered body of Christ, and by so doing, receive an eternal inheritance that we can never, ever deserve. We receive it by believing. Amen!]]> Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:10:18 -0230 https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3693/correction https://indiegospel.net/joe-la-bianca/blog/3693


Why would you correct somebody? What is the motive behind your correction? Is it necessary to correct them? What kind of corrections are you making? Is your life one big correction? Does your theology require you to correct almost everybody about almost everything?

You correct people because you feel the need to. The motives for doing this are many; some are good, some are bad. But even the good motives can be bad. You could correct someone with good motives, when the correction is unnecessary, even wrong. I have a feeling that lots of corrections that people make are unjustified and hurtful.

I am talking about religious corrections here. You correct people either because you care for their souls or because of self righteousness. The former has good motives, the latter doesn’t. Of course you think it’s necessary to correct people. Otherwise you wouldn’t do it, unless for self-righteousness’ sake. But did you ever think that some of your efforts to remove errors from others are not needed? Maybe most of them are not required.

Lots of times we want to change people to be like us. I don’t know why. We know ourselves best, so this should be enough for us to not want this. We also want people to be like Jesus for salvation. Is that the way to be saved? No! The reason Jesus is the Savior is because no one is like Him. If we could be saved by imitating Christ, then we are saving ourselves. But if Jesus is the only perfect Person who died in our place, then He is the only way.

Let me get down to it at the risk of making you mad. Do not try to convert someone to your church. They can turn to your church and it will not help them. We are told to turn to Jesus the Savior, not to religion. Do you realize this, or have you been so indoctrinated by your church that “church” and “Jesus” are the same things?

The more you believe, the less of a chance you are right. The less you believe, the more of a chance you are right. If you must have all sorts of requirements for salvation, you have gone off the path. There is only One thing needful. You must cherish the pearl of great price and let everything else go.

Let me tell you what the pearl is. The pearl is a tiny sentence about the biggest, greatest thing. If we believe this simple sentence with tiny, mustard seed faith, we own the pearl.

This is the pearl: Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and on the third day He rose from the dead, according to the scriptures. This is the only thing that really needs correction.

I know that many of you do not believe this, but I am trying to reach those who will believe.

When I say that you do not believe this, I mean that you do not believe only this. You add to the gospel all sorts of things, even things found in the bible. You do not rightly dissect the bible.

You think that if the bible says it, you must be under it. If that is so, you’d better be familiar with all the laws of Moses. You’d better not pick up sticks on Saturday. You’d better sprinkle yourself with a mixture of water and cow ashes if you kill a fly.

When you add to the gospel, you think you are right because of the scriptures that talk about a changed life. But you are wrong because of this reason.

The effects of salvation, i.e. good fruit, love and the like, are just that, the effects of salvation. The change of life comes as a result of something else. The something else is faith. The change of life is not the same as our perfect standing in Christ. God sees us as perfect and we can never improve on that. But where our earthly lives are concerned we should always be growing in grace. If you make the way you live the mechanism by which you are saved or stay saved, you are not a Christian. You are a legalist more in line with Judaism. This is why the legalistic church can accept Judaism into it’s fold. But believers in Jesus would never accept any form of Judaism.

We do not run to the tutor, we run to Christ. The law is the tutor and it instructs us that we need the Savior, by showing us we sinned. If you stay with the tutor to earn salvation by works, you are blinding yourself to the truth that the law is trying to tell you.

Listen to the law tell you that you’re a sinner. Then run to the forgiver of sins, Jesus the Christ.

Limit your corrections. Don’t expand the gospel. Don’t say, “Full Gospel” and then stick in all sorts of things. You dilute Jesus that way. You take salvation away from yourself and your hearers when you add to what Jesus has done on the cross.

What is the gospel? Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead. Believe this and God is satisfied. And if someone disagrees with this simple truth, correct them!]]> Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:55:26 -0230