Errors of the modern church

"Everything depends on you"

or "you have to put yourself on the cross" or "God can't use you unless you are 100% submitted to Him" (meaning you are disqualified if there is even a sliver of anything you have inadvertently held back from Him even in ignorance)

Our grace flows from the dying of Jesus, not from our own perfect obedience to Him. We have already died with Christ. We died with Him. This is a fact; it is, in fact, the very foundation of our salvation, the very core of the Gospel message. It is by the death of Jesus that we are dead to self. Not by our own efforts or our own act of will. It is by identification, period.

Romans 5:10
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Romans 6:3
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Romans 6:4-5
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection

Romans 6:10-11
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Philipians 3:9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (--in other words, we do not simply put ourselves to death; our "death" is nothing more than conformity to Christ's death, which is enabled and empowered by Christ's death. It is our identification with Christ's death, not our own power to put ourselves to death. The resurrection life flows naturally and directly from this identification with the death of Christ.)

Colossians 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

1 Peter 2:24
Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

"Unmerited favor"

Our grace is as the result of the forgiveness of sins, the purging of our sins, the peace we enjoy with God as the result of being in His Son.

Acts 20:28
Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

Now, analogy time... If you went to a car dealership, and your dad, who is a billionaire, arranged beforehand with the dealership to pay in full for their best model SUV with all the latest features, the luxury edition, custom ordered with your favorite color, and gave you the receipts for the transaction fully notorized and complete with all the details printed out, and you show up at the dealership to pick it up, does it matter if you show up at the dealership dressed in a 3-piece suit with your hair all nice and your nails freshly manicured and your shoes polished? Or is the only thing that counts whether or not you can prove you are the son who the father purchased that car for?

Does the dealership have any right to criticize the way you look or the clothes you wear or the fact that you don't look rich enough to buy that car? Do they have any legal right to withhold that car from you, since it's all been paid for and your identity as the beneficiary of that purchase is without question? Do they have any right to make you pay fees or monthly payments on that car? Or is it yours outright? Do you have to work for that car your whole life and hope that maybe some day you'll be good enough to go and drive it off the lot and take it home? How would your dad feel if you came home to him and told him you didn't take possession of the car because you don't deserve it? Did your dad not already pay for it?

So on what basis are you deserving of that car? On the basis of your own ability to pay for it? Or on the basis that your dad already paid the price for it?

Would your dad think you were being a better son to him if you refused to take home the car that he paid for, if you wasted his money and did not take the thing he paid for? Do you not believe for one minute that one of the reasons your dad bought that car for you was to see the look on your face as you drove that amazing car and were filled with the joy that his gift brought you? Would your dad think you were an extra great and smart and wise son if you stayed at home and didn't even go to the dealership to take possession of the gift he bought you, if you wasted his gift and refused it and told him you can't afford it, even if your dad also paid the DMV fees for life and paid the car insurance company for a lifetime pre-paid insurance policy that you never needed to pay for? And free daily car wash service and free gas for life? But you refuse it?

Okay, so would it be correct to say that you don't deserve to take possession of that car that is fully paid for?

But you know that the word "deserve" and the word "merit" are the same exact thing?

So in the same way, if you repeat over and over again that "grace is unmerited favor" then what you are saying is that you don't deserve it.

You do realize that your human brain is wired to reject anything that it is told that you don't "deserve?" It is part of human psychology; it is the way God designed us, a built-in morality. So calling grace "unmerited favor" is actually a clever strategy of the devil to get Christians to unconsciously reject God's favor.

Your favor in God's sight is because of your position in His beloved Son!

Over and over again, the Bible tells us of God's love and acceptance and pleasure in His Son.

Matthew 3:17
And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Matthew 17:5
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”

Why is that important? Because we are IN Him!

Ephesians 1:6
to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

1 Corinthians 1:9
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Galatians 4:6
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

Colossians 1:13
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love

1 John 5:11
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

1 Corinthians 1:30
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption

2 Corinthians 1:20
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

2 Corinthians 5:19
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Ephesians 1:4
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

Ephesians 1:7
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

Ephesians 1:10
that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.

Ephesians 1:11
In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will

Ephesians 3:12
in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.

Philippians 3:9
and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith

Colossians 1:19-20
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Colossians 2:9-15
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

1 John 2:24-25
Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.

Romans 4:22-25 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.

1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

1 John 3:1-2
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

"The devil will take over the earth before Jesus returns"

Matthew 28:18-19
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"

Jesus here is connecting His authority in heaven and on earth, directly, through the use of the word "therefore," in which He is sending His disciples out into all nations to make disciples. This strongly implies that He has delegated that authority.

We have plenty of evidence that Jesus did indeed delegate His divine authority to His disciples. For example, even the exclusive, divine authority to forgive sins was delegated...

John 20:23
"If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

So we can be confident that we do have His authority over the principalities and powers of the earth, and that by our activity of making disciples of all nations we are depriving them of their ability to exercise rule and authority upon the earth. We have the power, authority, and the mandate to disrupt their activity and to take their territory away from them. Does that sound like Jesus is sending us out to just slowly and inevitably fail in our mission? Does that sound like the devil still holds authority over the earth and that he will ultimately prevail?

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:11-13
11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

So if it is not God's will that any should perish, and if we are told that by our own holy conduct and godliness we can hasten the coming of the Lord, that seems to imply that we are working toward God's will, which is that all should come to repentance. Therefore, it is incorrect to have an eschatology that expects the world to fall into the hands of the evil one. Because the return of our Lord Jesus is apparently connected here with God's will that all should come to repentence, not with evil prevailing upon the earth.