You Want Revival? Here's How...

Sunday, 23rd August 2009

Many churches around the world are experiencing stagnation and would like to see a revival in their congregation.

Well, there are two sure ways to cause a revival.

The first way is to preach the grace gospel unashamedly and radically. Paul says that he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is the power of God unto the salvation of man (Rom 1:16). That is why we see churches like NewCre experiencing radical and phenomenal growth.

The second way is to preach the law, and in particular, the keeping of the Ten Commandments. You will likewise see a great "revival"... but this time around... it is of sin.

Before you shout "Heresy!", may I refer to the following passage found in Rom 7

7 For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."
⁸But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.
⁹Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
¹⁰I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

Paul said that he would not have not what was covetousness until he was taught "You shall not covet", and that his sinful passions were aroused by the law (Rom 7:5).

Before his Damascus experience, he was a Pharisee who knew every single one of God's laws inside out. Yet, because back then he did not yet have the revelation of what Christ had done for him, he ended up futilely struggling to keep these laws and found that he ended up doing the things he was not supposed to and not doing things he was supposed to (Rom 7:15-20).

He only realised how deadly the law was after his conversion, and that is why he said that "the strength of sin is the law" in 1 Cor 15:58 and called it "the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones" in 2 Cor 3:7.

I had lunch with a fellow grace-believing brother three days ago, and he brought my attention to an article entitled "Do We Need the Ten Commandments? written by the senior pastor of a megachurch in Singapore. (I have extended courtesy in not naming this particular pastor because to his credit, he also extended courtesy in his article in not naming a pastor of another megachurch when making reference to him).

Well, the answer to that is it all depends.

On the one hand, if we want to live the victorious zoe life that Jesus has come to give, the answer to that is no, because in the New Covenant, God writes His commandments in our hearts, and not on stone.

On the other hand, if we want to experience what Paul experienced in struggling with the very sins that the law was supposed to help us to deal with, then go ahead and hold on to those Ten Commandments.

After all, God gives all of us free will.

As for me and my household, I choose the former.

As for that megachurch pastor, your intentions may have been good, but the approach is wrong. You should be exalting Christ of the New Covenant rather than the Mosaic Law of the Old. If you see a great "revival" in your congregation, please do not be surprised and blame God for it later on.