The God of Second Chances | Devotional by Tony Evans

Have you ever looked back and wished you had done things differently? You can't change the past, but I'm here to tell you that God wants to change your future. Don't listen to the voice of discouragement. Give your mistakes to God and watch Him use you in ways you never imagined. After all, He is the God of second chances.

Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative, chaplain of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, and author of over 100 books, booklets & Bible studies. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 1,300 US outlets daily and in more than 130 countries.

[davidhill]

Thank you Lord for never giving up on me!

[Riya_njoying]

I am waiting for Him to come and stay in my heart forever and let my sins be washed out and my heart be purified with Your thoughts. Oh God, don't leave me, turn miseries into Miracles, show me the path of Light and Love.

[Dobbie]

We serve a wonderful Savior! Though your sins be as Scarlett they will be white as snow! Though they be red as Crimson they shall be as wool! We can go and God will reason with us!He will walk with us if we draw close to Him! 🔥 Amen -Isaiah

[BigJake]

Thank you Dr Evans I got baptized this morning bc of your sermons and a move of God in my heart ❤️ I've never felt more free than now To God be the Glory

[prateekgavaskar]

I really messed up, please give me a second chance god

[albertybarra]

Pray for me i walked away from GOD and i lost my family and my job. Now im starting to lose my job. I hope and pray i haven't lost my salvation. Alcohol and drugs led me astray. Im deppressed and lonely .I need jesus but i feel he has given up on me. Your prayers would be so appreciated thank you.

[brendacaceres]

Hallelujah for my second chance. You're my Lord, Father, Rock.

[jonathanzimbizi]

Amen God is a God of second chances indeed...thank you very much.

[philosophytoday]

God has a way of using you in spite of yesterday

[BARRY]

Wonderful message brother and so needed, love the work you do for the Lord!

[albertybarra]

Thank you my brother in Christ oscar and everyone that has had mercy on me. Thank you for not judging me im my worst judge on earth. Thank you for praying for me i will pray for all my brothers and sisters in Christ GOD Bless!

[StephenClarkDobson]

Amen. I love to hear Dr. Evans preach and teach!

[MaxineAGGuess]

Amen. God is always on time. God please use me this 2019 and show me the way! ❤️

[WalterKerr]

Once again dear Brother, I am indebted to you for the wisdom from the Lord that you speak. Thank you dear Lord.

[dennisray]

Praying for another chance with broken relationship 💔

[treenagrant]

So true... 💖💛💚💜💖💛💚💜
Amen...
Praise God...

[pedrofonseca]

The Lord brought me here...so glad I watched this....I drank the other day and I'm on parole....I had to drop a urine sample 2 days later...dont know if I'm dirty or clean on the test yet but I have been praying for a second chance and asking Him to have mercy on have confessed and will repent no matter what....God I love you....please forgive me and give me that second chance to do well in my life and live for You♡

[jackmehawkins]

Martin Matthew Lewis Kenneth Allen Jeffrey

[ajlouviere]

The divorce and remarriage for adultery doctrine is based solely on the supposed guilt of the wife in Matthew 5:32, and Matthew 19:9. However, the wife in Matthew 5:31-32 is clearly not guilty of fornication because the Jews that Jesus was speaking to were still living under the law, and if fornication was discovered, there was a moral obligation to report the offender according to Deuteronomy 22:13-24. The wife, who would have been found guilty of fornication, was subsequently stoned to death, according to the law, which had still governed the Jews up until Christ's death on the cross. The same for a woman caught in adultery, according to Leviticus 20:10. How could a wife, guilty of fornication, or adultery, under the law of Moses, be given a writing of divorcement and be caused to commit adultery with whosoever marries her, that is divorced? Jesus is clear, in these examples, that the wife is not guilty of fornication, but is still caused to commit adultery if she marries another man now that she is divorced. This is the only way that Matthew 5:31-32, and Matthew 19:9 keep harmony with Romans 7:2-3, and 1 Corinthians 7:39. Please use wisdom when living in any situation against what the scriptures command.


The ancient Jews called the betrothed (engaged) "husband" and "wife" according to Deuteronomy 22:23-24, Matthew 1:18-25, and Luke 2:5-7. 


Deuteronomy 24:1-4 (Moses's precept of divorce and remarriage) was never for fornication or adultery. Allowing those guilty of fornication and adultery to remain living and become a prospect for remarriage was against the law of Moses in Deuteronomy 22:13-24 and Leviticus 20:10, which commanded that those who were found guilty of fornication and adultery be put away from Israel, and stoned to death. 


The law of Moses was not given to the world, only to the Jews. From the exodus, to Christ's death on the cross, the law of Moses governed the Jewish people. But when Jesus died on the cross, he caused the Jews to be dead to the law of Moses so they could be joined to Christ under a New Covenant. This is what Jesus's fulfillment of the law of Moses, including Deuteronomy 24:1-4 (Moses's precept of divorce and remarriage), means. Paul gave several warnings to Christian believers against keeping the law of Moses over following Christ and his commands under the New Covenant with Christ. Keeping the whole law is no longer possible for those in Israel and that is why Christ prophesied that the temple would be destroyed. These scriptures make it clear that if you choose the law over Christ, that you must keep the whole law: Romans 7:4, Galatians 3:1-9, Galatians 3:10-29, Galatians 4:1-7, Galatians 4:21-31, and Galatians 5:1-15.


The phrase "sexual immorality" being used in Matthew 5:32 and Matthew 19:9, in place of "fornication", creates conflict with what is written about fornication and adultery in Hosea 4:13-14, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and Galatians 5:19-21.


Being unequally yoked to unbelievers is not a cause for divorce, once two become one-flesh in a covenant of marriage, according to 1 Corinthians 7:12-14. Many one-flesh covenant marriages between unbelievers are recognized by God in the scriptures, most notably the marriage covenants between Herodias and King Herod's brother Philip, Potiphar and his wife, Ahab and Jezebel, and Ruth to her deceased husband Mahlon by Boaz when he took her to be his wife. 


Some are teaching that 1 Corinthians 7:15 implies that those who are abandoned by the unbeliever, are "no longer bound" in a one-flesh covenant of marriage. The reason this is in conflict is due to the way they word it, which gives it an entirely different meaning, and context. 1 Corinthians 7:15, says, "15But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace." As you can see, the actual scripture says "not under bondage, " which means that the husband or wife is not enslaved to sin with the unbelieving spouse, and is free to worship Christ in peace. Subsequent translations have changed the words to imply that they nullify the marriage covenant, when this is not at all the case. The issue that this creates is with 1 Corinthians 7:10-11, which says, "10And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: 11But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife." As you can see, those who claim 1 Corinthians 7:15 has the Apostle Paul giving permission to remarry do not understand that the abandoned husband in 1 Corinthians 7:11 is expected to also remain unmarried, in order to be reconciled with his wife. The theory that 1 Corinthians 7:15 nullifies two as being one-flesh in marriage puts the Apostle Paul directly at odds with Christ, by implying that he has issued an opposing command only four scriptures later.


The other false claim that is being widely used is that 1 Corinthians 7:27-28 is referring to a divorced man and a virgin woman who has never been married. This has been taught for some time in churches as to refer to anyone who is not currently in a marriage, including the divorced. This is a very false assumption, and puts these verses in a different context that is at odds with both the teachings of Christ and of Paul. We see Paul refer to virgins, which signifies the unmarried who have never before been wed, which is the proper context here. We see Paul saying clearly that it is good for virgins, which is also speaking to never before wed men here, "that it is good for a man so to be." He goes on to say, "Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife." Who is he referring to here? Men who, like himself, have never married. The word "bound" in these verses is a clear reference to betrothal (engagement) and not to marriage. The ancient Jews were considered bound as husband and wife during the betrothal (espousal/engagement) before becoming one-flesh in a covenant of marriage, through consummation. This is affirmed by the context of the term "bound" seen in Numbers 30:3-7. The Jewish couples in ancient Israel who were betrothed (engaged) were also bound together until death either by execution for fornication, or by other causes. Then Paul says, "But and if thou marry, thou has not sinned", which is who? The men who had never married in the congregation at Corinth. So he begins with the first two verses, speaking exclusively to men that have never married. If they were married, they were bound to a wife, but if they never betrothed or married, or if they were widowed, they were not bound. Paul then says, "and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned", which is speaking directly about virgin women, who have never been married, within the congregation, not divorced women. Notice that verse 34 says, "There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband." Paul speaks plainly when he says "there is a difference between a wife and a virgin." Paul goes on to say, "But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry." This is again speaking of a single, never before wed man, of youthful age, with a virgin bride who has become of age to bear children "let them marry." Paul then says, "Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well." This is referring to the man who decides it is better not to marry, but to stay betrothed (engaged) to his wife, under the present distress, by saying that he "hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin." Paul then says, "So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better", which means that those among the never before wed in the congregation do well if they choose to marry their betrothed virgin, and those who are also never before married do better if they choose not to, under the current climate. For proper context of the word "bound", let's look further down in this chapter to verse 39, which says, "39The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 7:39). For so long, these scriptures, between verses 25-38, have been twisted and used to enable divorce and remarriage, by wayward churches and teachers, and have caused many to stumble and to be trapped in unlawful unions.


The use of the woman at the well, in regard to marriage, falsely implies that Christ was endorsing remarriage after a divorce. This teaching is in defiance of Matthew 22:23-28, which shows a woman who had been widowed seven times, and entered into each subsequent marriage without any scriptural conflicts with God's law of marriage (one-flesh covenant) seen in Genesis 2:23-24.


Mark 10:1-12 is the same biblical record of Matthew 19:1-12, which both record Christ's teaching that day beyond the Jordan. There is no mention of the words "fornication", "writing of divorcement", or "divorced" in Mark's Gospel, because Mark was not written to the Jews (as Matthew's Gospel was), but to evangelize the Romans and Greeks, who had no knowledge of the law in Deuteronomy 22 or Deuteronomy 24. All of these facts draw a clear understanding that remarriage after a divorce, under the New Covenant with Christ, is a scripturally false and baseless teaching.

[albertybarra]

Sorry i meant im starting to lose my health to. Albert ybarra