The Free Grace Study Bible

A project that I've been working on for a few years now is The Free Grace Study Bible. I decided to start linking to it here in the posts in order to give updates and share my progress, and also so that a link to it will always be in the posts that show up when scrolling through my past posts on a cell phone. Just some free advertising for Jesus! I'm sure the Calvinists and the Lordship Legalists won't like it, but that's okay. They are welcome to comment if they like, but since their false views can't stand up to the scrutiny of open dialog and debate from a biblical perspective, I doubt they will say much if anything here. If they do comment, it will most likely be one of those "hit and run" comments that I've seen through the years from the Legalists who come here expecting an easy victory until they realize that they're talking to someone who actually knows their Bible, and then they run away scared like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs! At that point, they will most likely pick an easier target or simply write paper doorstops from ivory towers. But I digress. . . I'm having too much fun with this!

The Free Grace Study Bible also includes my personal translation of the New Testament, which I've simply titled the "Free Grace Translation." Thus far I've translated Mark 1:1-22 and John 1:1-8:39. I started with Mark 1:1-22 thanks to Bill Mounce (see my post on that here), although he's a Calvinist and a Lordship Legalist and he generally promotes that error. (For more resources showing the error of Calvinism, see my Free Grace Library.) After translating Mark 1:1-22, I shifted to focus on translating The Gospel of John. I'm currently working through translating it verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter. This has been a slow process. I could translate The Gospel of John much more quickly if I didn't add in the Bible Translation Notes and the Free Grace Study Notes. But I decided to add those in (at least for the Gospel of John) in order to preemptively respond to any naysayers who might otherwise want to disparage the translation, not from a biblical basis, but rather due to a Calvinistic bias disguised as objectivity. By providing Bible Translation Notes and the Free Grace Study Notes, it helps to show the solid biblical basis for my translation and why in many ways it is an improvement upon the more well-known and "popular" Bible translations, such as the revered King James Version. I'm undecided as to whether or not I will provide detailed study notes for the entire New Testament, because (as I mentioned) adding them in really slows down process! I've found that translating verse-by-verse can actually be done quite quickly, whereas adding in the study notes slows down the process exponentially. As I continue translating, I will most likely shorten the Free Grace Study Notes and prioritize Bible Translation Notes focused mainly on syntax and grammar.

My prayer is that God will bless this project and that The Free Grace Translation & Study Bible will be a blessing to many, and let's remember (as Augustine said) that "Grace, unless it is free, is not grace." And if some people aren't particularly fond of Augustine that's okay, he wasn't right on everything. Here's the apostle Paul saying the same thing more pointedly: "Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:24).