The Most Misunderstood and Misapplied Bible Verse

Hello, welcome to Self Talk. I'm Dr. Ray Self, your host as usual. I'm very grateful for you subscribing and following me for this podcast. This show is going to be a little bit different. There's a bible verse that has caused too much confusion, too much misinterpretation, and it really has a very large impact in our life. This verse, when properly applied, is going to give you peace and it's going to, it's going to give you understanding of your relationship with God; but misunderstanding this has caused division in the church, misapplication, a lot of shame, a lot of condemnation, and a lot of stress so stay tuned for today's show. I think it's going to be very interesting and again, God bless you and thank you so much for listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self.

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Folks, here we go again, another episode of Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. Actually, this is my 123rd episode. Thank you for my faithful fans, haha, or faithful listeners, I really appreciate you. I'm doing this for you, I'm just trying to get a message out which I think will help people expose schemes of the enemy, bring freedom, glorify Christ, that's what I'm trying to do and I really hope this show is a blessing for you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for each person listening to this podcast. I pray, Father, that your Holy Spirit would just download to them what they need to know. Touch them with your Spirit right now as I'm talking, Father, touch them with your Holy Spirit. Give them a fresh anointing, give them peace that passes all understanding, Father. And Lord, we just give you praise, we give you honor and I just thank you, Father, for everyone who has subscribed and listened and downloaded this show, it means a lot to me and I hope, Father, it means a whole lot to your kingdom in Jesus’ name, amen.

So there's a verse that um, I kept- hang my hat on, and I, the more you read this verse and the more I talk about this verse, the more significance this verse had. This may be the most important verse in the Bible and I want to, I want to read it to you and I want to hopefully bring some clarity to you that I think can help you and maybe help you with your walk, give you a little more peace with God and maybe just a little more understanding because it's such a, it's such a vital verse. So let me, let me read this verse to you, it's in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8. Now this is uh, Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus and he says for by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is a gift of God and of course, the following verse, 9, not as a result of works, so no one can boast. So in this verse, he's talking about salvation, how we got saved and how this salvation is not of ourself. 

Now, and it is a gift, this is hard to get into our spirit and the reason it’s hard for this verse to get into our spirit - now just listen to me, hear me out - is that everything we are wired to believe in growing up, what we're taught, what's ingrained in us, that everything in life has a cost. Anything you want. It could be a good grade at school, there's a cost to that - you have to study, you have to perform well on a test. It could be a, working a good job. Well, the cost of that is you better have had a good resume and you better have been equipped and you needed to be hired. Maybe you drive a nice car, there was a cost to that. Maybe you have a nice house, there's a cost to that. Maybe you wear nice clothes, there's a cost to that. Whatever you eat, there's a cost to that. There's a cost to everything. There's a price for everything, and we work hard to earn and pay our way through life do we not? We, we go to school so- get a good education so we get a good job so we can pay things including our bills, be able to pay our mortgage, uh, pay our grocery bills, you know, if you’re older like me, put your kids through college.

And everything we do involves money and earning; earning. We have to earn it. You work to earn or you, maybe you own a company so your company can earn but everything is about achieving and earning. But then all of a sudden, God has something for us and he says you can't buy this, you cannot achieve this and that just doesn't make sense and what he has for us is the greatest gift that has ever been given to mankind; it's the gift of salvation. Salvation. What is salvation? It comes from the Greek word sozo but salvation is eternal life, that's a big deal. Eternal life. Hear me. Eternal life, living forever in heaven. That is a really big gift. Also, the gift of salvation means you are forgiven of your sins. You have no condemnation, you have no shame. According to the word of God, it says by his stripes we're healed. We have, we have provision for physical healing we have provision to be no longer be ashamed. We have - and the coolest thing is, we now because of salvation, have been given the right and the privilege to have a relationship with God.

You see folks, God is holy, God is righteous, God is the perfect, perfect judge of the universe. He's not this big teddy bear who just loves everyone. He does love everyone but you got to remember he is perfection. He is holy, he is righteous; and multiple scriptures talk about he's also a judge and he also is a lawgiver. In his law, it says the wages of sin is death. You sin, you die. Well, but how are we going to get around that? What are we going to do? How can we, how can we handle that? Somebody save me please because I've sinned, and if you're listening to me, you've sinned too. We've all sinned. The bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We've all sinned and so, and sin not only has a consequence but it separates us and keeps us from a relationship with God. 

But then here comes Jesus, here comes Jesus, and this is a, a thing that, that I love about Jesus. We, of course, you know the story, how he sacrificed himself on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. The wages of sin is death, the law says if you sin, you die. So Jesus voluntarily, which is very critical, voluntarily gave his life in exchange for your life and my life if I believe and accept that. In other words, I was sentenced to die, you were sentenced to die because of your sins. I was sentenced to die and go to hell, you were sentenced to die and go to hell because of your sins, because we serve a righteous and holy God. God is righteous and holy but then Jesus, but then Jesus said hold on. Wait, wait, wait. I don't want to sin. God, please don't send Ray Self to hell, please. I will offer my life in exchange for his; and he says Mary, John, Joseph, Mary, whoever, whoever is listening to me, Michael, Jesus said don't send Michael to hell, don't seem Jane, now, don't send Susan to hell; I will exchange my life for them. Take my life instead. That's what he did he sub- he substituted himself, he took my punishment, your punishment, what, what we rightfully deserved according to God, upon his own body; and he did it voluntarily. That's very important because if Jesus had not volunteered, if he, God would have been murdering his own son and then God would not be righteous.

I ask my students sometimes this question I said well how could God cancel out our sin and still be a righteous judge? I mean, you, you know, we're guilty. Well, so if we're guilty, how does he forgive us when we're guilty? Well, Jesus is the answer to that because Jesus voluntarily offered up his life and paid the price for us. Therefore, God can forgive us and because God can forgive us, I can now have a relationship with him. I can be adopted by him, I can be a joint heir with Jesus Christ, heirs to the kingdom of God. And I have this, I'm saved and salvation is a whole benefit package but you could go back to, go back to this verse. I want you to look at, listen to this: “for by grace you have been saved through faith.” This incredible gift of salvation comes to us through our faith, now, faith in what? Yeah, there's a lot of things I believe in. Um, you know, I believe the sun's going to rise in the east, okay? And that's a pretty good faith. I believe the chair I'm sitting on is going to hold, hold up my weight, that's pretty good faith; but you see, when the bible says in Ephesians “by grace you have been saved through faith,” that means your faith my faith and what I just told you that Jesus paid the price for me and for you. He substituted himself for us voluntarily, he paid the price for my sins and then he rose again on the third day and that's really critical because what you have to understand is when Jesus rose from the grave on the third day, if you have faith in this and you believe this, the Bible says in Romans 6 and several other places you have risen with Jesus.

Now, this resurrection with Jesus, that means you come out of the grave and all this old dead stuff is gone. You have been washed completely clean, you are a new creation. I'm not trying to preach to you in this, you know, podcast, but you see, when the bible says, and Paul said by grace you have been saved through faith. Grace means this is God's enablement. Some people say grace is God's unmerited favor it is but it's also God's enablement, through grace. This is God's power, through the power of God’s grace that comes to us through true faith. When I believe that Jesus, and I believe in my heart that Jesus died on the cross for me and rose again on the third day, when I believe that and I accept that, okay? Then the grace of God comes, okay? And it saves me. The grace of God saves me through my faith. And it is a gift. Why is this important? Because you cannot buy it. You cannot earn it, no matter how good you are, no matter how much you give to the church, no matter how many good wonderful things you do, no matter what you do, your works according to the scripture, this is- it's not a result of works verse, 9, not a result of work so no one can boast. There's nothing you can do to purchase salvation, to buy salvation, to earn salvation, to achieve salvation other than believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, he went to the cross, paid the price for your sin and your condemnation and your guilt took your guilt, took your guilt. And we were all guilty, took your guilt, took my guilt on the cross and then rose from the dead on the third day.

I believe this with all my heart and I know and when I believe this, something happens to me and that, what I remember, this is many, many years ago, folks, when I believed this, I changed, I became another person. You know, it's not just- salvation is not just a theory, it's not just a, a lifestyle, although that-, it's good to have that, salvation is life changing. Ray Self became another person, then I got baptized with the Holy Spirit which is a whole nother level.

But you see, this is a gift of God, it's free. If, well, I say it's free but it's really not free. It costs Jesus's life, that's the price of salvation. But the reason I'm emphasizing this and the reason I want to talk about this is because our human nature wants to achieve it. We have to achieve it. You know, if I'm just good enough. If I, if I can just be good enough. Let me tell you something, salvation can't be bought because it's too expensive. You can't buy the life of Christ. You can't put a price tag on the life of Christ. Salvation cannot be earned, it's too, too priceless. Salvation cannot be achieved, it's unachievable. Salvation has to come as a gift. The bible says here it is, the gift of God. It's a gift, it's a gift, and the only way we get this gift is accepting Jesus Christ - what he did on the cross for us, believing with that and when you accept that, then God sends his Holy Spirit into you. The moment you pray this prayer, God will send us… and, and, this prayer of salvation, and ask for it, God will - and you believe - God will send his Holy Spirit into you, and he changes you. But the cool thing is he gets rid of all this condemnation and guilt and shame and sin and consequences, all this, and his gift, and it’s free!

Why do I, why am I emphasizing that? Because so many people, they start off by faith and then they get into I have to, but, but, but, but, but I have to do this and, and I've got to do this and I got to make sure I live this way and I got to make sure I wear the right clothes and the right jewelry and not wear, not do this and not do that and, and all of a sudden, we start off on the right foot but end up on the left foot and all of a sudden, I've seen this time and time and time again, people are saved by the grace of God as a free gift and all of a sudden, in order to, to, to really get right with God, to, to really get in God's good standing, they start trying to achieve, achieve their status with God, achieve their relationship with God, achieve their salvation. It was given to them as a gift but then all of a sudden, the church says wow, yeah, you're saved by grace, but… No, there's no buts about it. in the book of Ephesians, Paul addressed this issue and, and, to me made it very, ver,y very clear; and he talks about the Galatians. He got so angry with them that at one point he calls them uh, bewitched, and he says “Oh foolish,” - in verse 3, chapter 3, verse 1 of Galatians, Paul said “Oh foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you… before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” Verse 2, Galatians 3, “This one thing I want to find out from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” Oh f- “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by faith?”

So what they've done is they began by the Spirit which, like a lot of us do, but then they went right back into working. Now what the Ephesians were doing is they were going well yeah, yeah, yeah, I know we've been saved by faith and I've got the Holy Spirit now because I believe but, but we better get back into some of the Moses, Mosaic law and make sure everybody's circumstance, because - circumcised, not circumstance - circumcised because, ouch, haha, because if you really want to have it right with God, you better do this, this and this. And you see, the point is when we start trying to earn our rightness, earn our favor - and I see people do this all the time - what you're actually telling God is Jesus, what he did on the cross is not sufficient. We need to add some things to it, we need to add some more cost to it, we need to put some human cost to what Jesus did. Human costs, like the Galatians wanted to be circumcised. It may be the cost - I've seen in some of the country churches will make sure if you're a woman you, you never ever, ever, you know, wear pants because you got to be right with God. You've got to do this or maybe you think your tithing is going to make you right with God. Tithing is a great thing to do but that doesn't earn you your righteousness or your salvation, amen?

You see, we do good things. Faith without works, just in the Book of James said we do good things because of our salvation. We do not do good things to earn our righteousness, to earn our way with God. Because of what Jesus has done, we should live holy because of what Jesus did for us. We should respond with good works. My good works and your good works does not gain you the… your righteousness, your salvation. And it's, it's, it sounds like it's so simple but people mess it up. Some years ago, I was talking to the pastor of a large Church and I'm sitting in his office and he, he said to me, “you know, you know, Dr. Self, I just got to make sure I get to heaven.” And that told me immediately he had no understanding of this verse. “I just got to make sure I get to heaven,” and I'm thinking well so what exactly is it you're going to do in your own strength and your own ability to get to heaven? Tell me the formula you're going to come up with to get to heaven. You get to heaven by your faith, by the salvation of God, by your faith in Jesus Christ. That's how you go to heaven, your faith. You see, you're saved by grace, by grace through your faith, not of works; but our nature keeps thinking - now this pastor's nature was thinking this “Well yeah, I, I, I'm saved, but, but in order to really get to heaven I got to make sure I do this, this and this.” He probably had a list of 10 things he's got to do to make sure he can punch his ticket to heaven.

That is exactly what Paul was talking about. That's works, that is works, works, what they call - many people would call it works of righteousness. So let me go back to this again, and why am I talking about this on my podcast; and the reason I'm talking about this on a podcast is because this, this type of thinking causes people to constantly live in fear, stress and condemnation that they're never quite measuring up, you know, they're constantly on the edge of, of losing their righteousness and their right standing with God.

Verse 9. We're saved, in verse eight, we're saved through faith, not of yourselves. Verse 9, it's not as a result of works so no one can boast. So your salvation is nothing that comes from- it does not come from your good looks, the, your good life, your money, how many times you read the bible, that doesn't save you. It's uh, good stuff to do. What saves you is only the grace of God through your faith in Jesus Christ. Now, and Paul was addressing this in the book of Romans, now, because we've been saved, we should live accordingly. You don't live holy to get saved, you live holy because you are saved, and Paul said- you know, there's people out there that are so afraid of grace, “oh my gosh, if I talk too much about grace I'm just, I'm telling people they can live however they want to live so we can't talk too much about grace because that's just giving people a license to sin.” No, it does not, it does not. Paul addressed this, Romans 6:1 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so the grace may increase? May it never be. How can we who die to sin still live in it?” He said how could you possibly continue in sin because you have grace? You, you, sin in you has died. Then he also says um, the death he died, Jesus died, he died to sin once and for all that the life he lives, he lives to God. So verse 11, Romans 6, “Consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body.” Okay? And then he goes on verse 14, Romans 6, “Sin shall not be the master over you, you're not under the law but under grace.” Because of grace, because of the power of grace, sin is not my master, I'm not controlled by sin, okay? Sin has been defeated, therefore, I'm not living in sin anymore.

Now, my lifestyle doesn't save me, the life of Christ saves me, but because of the life of Christ, my response is to understand I've been saved again, I've been born again, I'm recreated and I don't have to sin because I have power over sin. I have victory over sin. Does that make sense? So, so many people are just like the Galatians. They start off by faith and then they start trying to earn it, they start trying to buy it and achieve their rightness with God. Let me tell you something, God will never love you more than he loves you now, or less than he loves you now. God loves you period. He loves you period. I, we are saved by grace, by the grace- it's a gift. It's a gift, it's a gift. So I want to take, I want you to relax, take a deep breath. but also, you know, you don't have to make sure you do everything right. “Oh my god, I've been all messed up.” When you have the revelation that you've been saved by grace, not by your works, through your faith, you will have victory over sin and living that righteous life. A life that is pleasing to God should come natural for you. It's, it's, it's our answer, it's our gratitude. Jesus gave his life for us, why would we want to keep sinning? I mean, I mean, it was- didn't he do enough for you? Sin- you have victory over sin, you have power over sin, and let me tell you something, will you answer for sin? Absolutely. Sin- grace is not a license to sin, we have to answer to God, we all have to answer to God, Amen? But remember this, I want you to relax. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you've been saved and that's it, that's it. You've been saved. 

Now, because of this wonderful salvation, we have an obligation to live the best life that we can and you can only do it with the help of the Holy Spirit, with the help of the Holy Spirit. We have an obligation to live righteous, to live holy, you know, to give to the poor, to, to live an honest integri- life full of integrity. We have a, an obligation to do that and we can do that knowing that sin has no more power over us and knowing that we also have the Holy Spirit to help us to walk the walk of a Christian. It takes the work of the Holy Spirit in us. You know, um, we have an old nature that still wants to live our old lifestyle. Then, but we have a new nature that we're born again that enables us to live according to what God would have us live. So again, you can't buy it, you can't earn it, you can't achieve it, but you can live a holy life because of what Jesus did for you. It's a response, it's something we do in gratitude, it's something we do because we want to. It doesn't make us get to heaven, it doesn't punch our ticket, no matter how good we are, that doesn't punch your ticket to heaven. Jesus did that for you and it's a free gift. We're saved by grace, it is a gift of God through your faith, amen?

I know this has been a little bit of bible talk, but I just think that maybe somebody listening to me here can get some pressure off of them, get some condemnation and shame because the devil loves to come back and try to undo the cross of Christ and put condemnation, shame and guilt and you're not measuring up, you're not living up to the right standard, you, you think you're saved, blah, blah, blah. I was given a gift. I was given a gift and I still believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, amen? And I know he died on a cross for me and if you believe he died on a cross for you, I know he rose from the dead, I know I rose with him. The Bible says we have risen with Christ and that's it, and that's it, and that seals the deal, and it's a wonderful deal. You can't earn it, it's too expensive. So fight your nature and think that you know you're going to earn your right standing with God, no, Jesus already did that for you; but because you have righteous, because you've been made righteous- in, in Corinthians, he who knew no sin became sin that you might be made righteous. Righteous means in right standing. Jesus made you, put you in right standing with God. Jesus did that and he's not going to undo that. He finished the work. 

Now, because you're in right standing with God, you should live pleasing to God. Grace is not a license to sin, that's what Paul was talking about. Don't be afraid of grace, Jesus died so we'd have the grace of God. It's a wonderful thing, it's a wonderful thing, amen? So I hope this has blessed you. Thank you everyone for listening to me. A little bit of a different type of show but you know, truthfully who I really am is a bible teacher, that's what I do, amen? So we've got some great shows and great interviews coming up. Please share this, I need- we need some more downloads. Share this with people, tell people about it, share it in social media, you know. You can share the podcast. Be sure, subscribe- write a review. Now, go to, you know, go to the um, there's a website for the podcast and it's kind of a funny name but it's, it ties into my college, you know, I'm president of International College of Ministry, you all know that. Go to icmcollege.org/self-talk, then you can get right into the podcast website, you can get on my email list and we'll have some special offers for you. There's a store there, I've got my books, we've got courses you can purchase, we also have a store where you can get t-shirts and caps and coffee cups, all that kind of stuff. The reason I'm saying that is it helps us keep doing the show. This show is expensive, it also helps us with our scholarship fund that we give away. Last year we gave away fifty six thousand dollars in free education so people, who are called of God- so please help us. I love you so much, thank you, this is Dr. Ray Self and God bless you.

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Hey thanks again for listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. It's always an honor and a privilege and a thrill, you know, when we get comments and uh, you know, responses. Just had some responses to the podcast this last couple of days so do me a favor, email me at drrayself@gmail.com. d-r-r-a-y-s-e-l-f gmail.com with show ideas. What would you like me to talk about? What would bless you? What, what would help you? And also, if anything I can do for you, drrayself@gmail.com, d-r-r-a-y-s-e-l-f gmail.com. Again, check out the podcast website, icmcollege.org/selftalk and last but not least, check out International College of Ministry. If God's called you, the, your phone is going to ring continually until you answer your call. If you have a call of God on your life, you need to get equipped. Maybe you have a bachelor's and you want to finish your master's, maybe you have a master's, you want to get your doctorate, maybe you never have any college education at all, well we can give you life experience credits, up to 30 credit hours we can award you. We're affordable. You say “well, I want to do it but I just don't have enough money”, we have scholarships, we can help you. “I don't have enough time”, you work on your own schedule. It's online, you set your own schedule. We're accredited by ACI, recognized by the Florida Department of Education as a ecclesiastical school. Anyway, check it out, you know, maybe this would help you. Matter of fact I know it would. You got degrees, and we have degrees in Christian Counseling, we have degrees in ministry, theology also prophetic ministry and now we're adding praise and worship. So, love you much, um, thanks for listening. Again, this is Dr. Ray Self and you've been listening to Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self. God bless you.