Law vs Grace
or Works vs Faith
to Obtain
Eternal Life
By Harry A. Peyton
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
DEDICATION (2)
INTRODUCTION (3)
CHAPTER 1 LAW VS GRACE DEMONSTRATED AND REVEALED
IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN (3)
What Did the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil Represent in God’s Plan Of Salvation
Why Did the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil Bring Death
What Did the Tree of Life
Represent in God’s Plan of Salvation
God’s Promise of Eternal Life Was
Fulfilled in the Seed of the Woman, Who Was Christ
CHAPTER 2 GOD’S GRACE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
PORTRAYED BY ANIMAL BLOOD SACRIFICES (10)
God’s Animal Blood Sacrifice for Sin After Adam and Eve
Were Cast Out of the Garden Of Eden, Abel’s Animal Blood Sacrifices, Noah’s
Animal Blood Sacrifices, Job’s Animal Blood Sacrifices, Abraham’s Animal Blood
Sacrifices, Isaac’s Animal Blood Sacrifices, The Lamb Offered Up At Passover,
The Goat Offered Up On The Day Of Atonement
CHAPTER 3 GOD’S GRACE IN THE OLD COVENANT (14)
The Mosaic Law System and the
Pharisees
God’s Offer of Eternal Life in the Mosaic Law System
The Entire Mosaic Law System Had to Be Abolished, So
Eternal Life Could Come Through Christ
CHAPTER 4 GOD’S GRACE IN THE NEW COVENANT (21)
How Did the Mosaic Law Doctrine of Salvation Enter into God’s New Testament Church
Holiness: The Believer’s Loving Response to God’s
Grace
God’s Three-Fold Purpose in Giving His Holy Laws to
His Old and New Testament Children
CHAPTER 5 THE FALSE LAW DOCTRINE
OF SINLESS
PERFECTION FOR SALVATION (34)
Scriptures Christian Pharisees Use to Teach Their
Doctrine of Sinless Perfection for Salvation
The Sins Christians Commit: the Sins of the Spirit and
Sins of Omission
BIBLIOGRAPHY (59)
ENDNOTES (60)
Copyright May 30, 1996 by Harry A. Peyton under the title of “The
Doctrines Of Christ.”
A Note from the Author: Since Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
gives His Salvation and His Word to all freely (Rev 22:17, Mt 10:7-8), this book,
and all other books, written by Harry A. Peyton are given without charge, and
can be accessed through the Internet at the following address: http://www.DoctrinesOfChrist.com. Therefore, fell
free to copy it in digital or written form, and share it with others. Since
this book is copyrighted, the author forbids any alteration of its contents,
and the reproduction of it in any form for Marketing Purposes. This book may be
placed on anyone’s web page, as long as my website address is attached to it.
The
author believes that the Word of God is infallible in the ORIGINAL
LANGUAGE it was written in, and all translations of the Bible regardless of how
good they may be are NOT. Since the author has implicit faith in the infallibility
of the Word of God, the author has formed his beliefs firmly on the truth of
the Bible. This author uses the ancient ANTIOCHIAN LITERAL-HISTORICAL METHOD OF
INTERPRETING THE BIBLE, which was used by early Christian Prophets and Apostles
of the Bible.
I
definitely believe that the ancient Alexandrian Allegorical Method of
spiritualizing scripture, which was made popular by the ancient Jewish
philosopher Philo Judaeus (13 BC – 50 AD) and later used by the Ante-Nicene
Catholic Priests, especially Origen and his student Clement of Alexandria (200
AD), is an abomination to our Lord. Therefore, all scriptures will be
interpreted in a literal exegetical fashion, unless the language used and the
context demands a spiritual interpretation.
All CAPITALIZATION and ITALICIZATION in QUOTES used in this book
is always MINE. All Biblical quotes used in this book will be in dark red, and from the New King James version of
the Bible, unless another version is stated as the reference. The vast majority
of all translations of the Bible, as well as Hebrew and Greek Lexical
definitions and grammar, will come from BibleWorks computer
software program version 7.0. The author in most
places will quote verses from the Bible instead of commenting on a verse and
giving a reference; for He believes that the written Word of God’s has greater
power to inspire and enlighten a heart to understand and act upon truth, than
the elegant oratory or writings of any man.
If this book has been a
blessing to my beloved readers, and they would like to send an offering to the
author, feel free to do so. If anyone wishes to send any biblical or historical
materials to the author, my address is: 148 Little Creek Hills Rd.: Alto, NM
88312: Phone # 575-336-2800: Email address: DoctrineOfChrist@Hotmail.com.
Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior came to give Eternal Life to all
who will enter into a covenant relationship with Him through the New Birth, and
walk with Him in Spirit and Truth. This book is designed to reveal the absolute
truth pertaining to God grace,
which is given freely to all who will believe into Jesus’ death, burial
and resurrection through the New Birth. It is dedicated to all the courageous
men, women and children of the present and past centuries, who loved the Lord
Jesus Christ and believed His Truths. I would especially like to acknowledge
those who suffered social scorn, loss of income, loss of property,
imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom for their faith in Christ’s New Birth
message and their monotheistic belief in Jesus’ Supreme Deity.
INTRODUCTION
As my
dear readers and I examine the Word of God
pertaining to the salvation Almighty God provided for lost humanity through the
peerless death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
we will discover that it was in the mind of God before the creation of the
world. Who among God’s people would knowingly rob God of His deity? Yet, this
is what some do when they rob God of His foreknowledge. One of God’s many
attributes is that of omniscience, which means He knows everything. God’s
foreknowledge is not predestination, for God’s never predestine Lucifer or
Adam’s fall. This came about from their freewill. The doctrine of
predestination of individuals is a lie from hell!
Because
God has foreknowledge, He knew how the world would begin before He ever created
it, and He knows how it will end. Nothing can happen in the world that will
take God by surprise. Our God is truly an omniscient God. In Acts 15:18 the
Bible stated: “Known to God from eternity are all
His works.” The
prophet Isaiah also confirmed this truth when he wrote of God’s foreknowledge
saying, God declared: “The end from the beginning and from ancient
times things that are not yet done” (Isa 46:10). The
prophetic Word of God explicitly called the Lord Jesus Christ, the “Lamb
slain FROM the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). The
expression “The foundation of the world,”
definitely refers to the creation of the world, as can be seen in the following
passages of scripture: Psa 18:15, 102:25, 104:5; Isa 48:13; Mt 13:35; Jn 17:24; Heb 1:10, 9:26.
The
apostle Peter gave us some insights into God’s predestined Lamb, when he boldly
declared that we were redeemed, or bought out of the slavery of sin, not by
gold or silver but by: “The Precious Blood of Christ, as a Lamb
without blemish and without spot”(1Pe 1:19). He
then went on to say that Christ, as the sinless Lamb was “Foreordained
BEFORE the foundation of the world” (vs 20).
Paul, like Peter and John, spoke of God’s predestined Lamb, when he told the
church that God: “Saved us…
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus
BEFORE time began” (2Ti 1:9). God’s grace and has always been and forever
will be in the Lamb of God. When I meditate on the meaning of the above
scriptures, all I can say is that God is truly awesome.
All of
the above scriptures without dispute teach that God had in the past, and has in
the present, and will forever have in the future, only one plan of salvation
for mankind, and that is Calvary. God ordained, before time began, that
the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ would be the only way sinful mankind
could ever receive His grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Therefore, the Precious
Sinless Blood of God’s heavenly Lamb was the ONLY WAY any
man, in ANY
AGE, could ever have their SINS REMITTED.
All
the animal blood sacrifices of the past, from the time God slew and skinned
some animals in the Garden of Eden to clothed Adam and Even naked bodies, which
was a type of God making an Atonement for their sins, to Abel’s animal
sacrifices, to all the Patriarchs’ animal blood sacrifices, such as Job who: “OFFERED BURNT-OFFERINGS” for his children every morning, “for Job said: ‘It may be that my sons have SINNED” (Job 1:1-5, JPS Holy
Scriptures published by the Jewish Publication Society). Yes all these
Patriarchs KNEW that animal blood sacrifices was the only thing God accepted as
Atonement for their sins. All of these sacrifices in the
days of the Patriarch and during the time of the Law of Moses pointed to
Calvary, even though majority of God’s people did not have this great
revelation; or in other words, they did not fully comprehend what those animal
sacrifices really represented and how they pointed to Calvary (Hebrews 9:22; 10:1-18). Many of God’s Old Testament prophets prophesied about Calvary (Psa 22:1-18; Isa 53:1-12, 1Pe
1:10-12).
Conclusion: The Word of God definitely proclaims, for all to
read, God ordained before time began that the death, burial, and resurrection
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, would be the foundation in which Eternal
Life would be offered to all of mankind. God in EVERY COVENANT He
made with mankind included Calvary in it (Gen 8:20-9:9; 15:9-18). The
apostle Paul speaking of the Old and New Covenant boldly proclaimed that Jesus:
“is the Mediator of the New Covenant, by means of death, for the redemption
of the transgressions under the First Covenant, that those
who are called may receive the promise of the Eternal Inheritance….
Therefore NOT even the First Covenant was dedicated without BLOOD. For… WITHOUT shedding
of BLOOD there is NO REMISSION” of SINS (Heb 9:15-22). Our Savior stated
this truth of salvation this way: “this is My BLOOD of the New
Covenant, which is shed for many for the REMESSION of SINS” (Mt 26:28).
Therefore, no one in any age could be saved without encountering Calvary.
Since Calvary is the highest
revelation and expression of God’s Grace, and it was in the mind and plan of
God before the foundation of the world, did God reveal and demonstrate His plan
of salvation to mankind in the Garden of Eden by means of the Tree of Life?
Could the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life symbolically
reveal and demonstrate the doctrine of Law verses Grace? How does the Bible
define the doctrines of Law verses Grace or Works verses Faith? What is the
real difference between them? How did some of God’s people in both the Old and
New Covenant, move away from God’s doctrine of salvation by grace to Lucifer’s
doctrine of works? Can a believer be saved if he or she believes in the
doctrine of works? Did the early Church have a double standard, or in other
words, one standard for the Jewish Church and another for the Gentile Church?
Is the doctrine of Sinless Perfection for Salvation a doctrine of grace or
works? These are some of the questions that will be answered in this book.
CHAPTER 1
LAW VS GRACE
DEMONSTRATED AND REVEALED
IN THE GARDEN
OF EDEN
Did the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life play any
significant role in God’s plan of Salvation? If they did, then what did they
represent? What message is God communication to mankind through Moses by
telling us about these two trees that played such an important part in the
lives of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? If we can find a scriptural answer
to all the above questions, then we should be able to love and appreciate God’s
plan of salvation in a great way.
The apostle John declared
that the Tree of Life was and is a literal tree. He wrote: “In the middle of its
street, and on either side of the river, was the Tree of Life, which
bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The
leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations”
(Rev 22:2).
Since the Tree of Life is a literal tree, the Tree of Knowledge
must also be a literal tree. In fact, all the trees in the garden were literal
trees (Eze 31:3-9).
Now why did God designate
two of these trees with very significant names? Why did God called them by
these names, and what did these literal trees really represent? Now God told
Adam not to eat of the literal fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, for if he did he would surely die (Gen 2:16-17). God did not tell this to Eve, for according
to verse 18 Adam was alone
in the garden. Eve was not made from Adam’s rib until verses 21-23.
Lets also ask, why did God
give Adam a Law, and why did God place the death sentence on mankind
if He violated this Law? In other words; “why did God place this Law Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden in the first place?” God definitely could have
left this tree out of the garden if He wanted to. So why didn’t He? What
message is God communicating to us by His actions here? Let us mediate on this
for a minute. Since Scripture interprets Scripture, lets allow the Bible to
answer the above questions for us.
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Represented the
Law of God: Did not Moses, when giving the Law, tell God’s children that the Law of
God would give them a knowledge of
what was good and evil in God’s sight; the good being life
if they keep it perfectly, and the evil being death if they violated or spurned
it. Moses said it this way: “See, I have set before you today life and GOOD, death and
EVIL, in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and
His judgments” (Deu 30:15-16). Paul spoke of the Law the very
same way when he wrote: “The Law is the KNOWLEDGE
of sin;” and “What
shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I
would not have known sin except through the Law. For I would not have known
covetousness unless the Law had said, ‘You shall not covet” (Rom 3:20).
Solomon called the Law of
God the knowledge of God and compared it to wisdom. He told God’s
children if they sought after it: “Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find
the KNOWLEDGE of God” (Pro 2:5-6). He went on to say: “The fear of the LORD is
the beginning of wisdom, And the KNOWLEDGE of the Holy One is understanding”
(Pro 9:10).
The apostle John said the same thing this way: “Whosoever committeth sin
transgresseth also the Law: for sin is the transgression of the Law”
(1Jn 3:4, KJV).
Let us
examine the way Eve described the Tree of Knowledge, and see if the Word of God
describes the Law of God the same way. The Bible says: “So when the woman saw that the tree was
good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree
desirable to make one WISE, she took of its fruit and ate” (Gen 3:6). According to the Bible, this
literal tree was “good for food.”
Jesus
compared the Word of God to food when He said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceeds from the mouth of God;” and “The bread of God is He [meaning Himself, the Living
Word] who comes down
from heaven and gives life to the world…. I am the bread of life. He who comes
to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (Mt 4:4; Jn 6:33-35). The apostle Paul also
compared the Word of God to food, and taught that it would give the child of
God the knowledge of good and evil. Paul wrote: “You have come to need milk and not solid food. For
everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the WORD of
righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of
full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses
exercised to DISCERN both GOOD and EVIL” (Heb 5:12-14).
The Bible also stated that
the tree was “pleasant to the eyes.” David said the same thing about
the Law of God. He wrote: “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your Law”
(Psa 119:18;) and “The Commandment
of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psa 19:8). The Word of God also
declared that the tree was “to make one WISE.” David connected wisdom to
knowing and keep the laws of God. He wrote: “The Law of the LORD is perfect,
converting the soul; The Testimony of the LORD is sure, making WISE the
simple” (Psa 19:7). Solomon said the same thing, when he wrote: “For the LORD gives WISDOM;
From His mouth come KNOWLEDGE and
understanding” (Pro 2:6).
Therefore, according to all
the above passages of Scripture: “the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil must represent the Law of God.” This is the only
interpretation that I can see, which makes any sense. It is the only
interpretation that is in complete harmony with the Word of God and God’s plan
of salvation. God wanted His children to live by faith in Him. God wanted His
children to love and trust Him, as their loving Father, and not relying on the
Law that brings death, when one violates it. Paul said it this way: “Therefore the Law is
holy, and the Commandment holy and just and GOO. Has then what is
GOOD become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin,
was producing DEATH in me
through what is GOOD” (Rom 7:12-13). So with this truth in
mind, what is the message God is communicating to mankind through this Tree of
the Law? Let us read on!
Now someone might ask, why
would God deprive Adam and Eve of Eternal Life for breaking one Law? They only
committed one sin? According to the Word of God, if one violates just one
commandment of the Law, he or she is guilty of violating all the commandments.
James, the half brother of our Lord taught this truth this way: “For whoever shall keep the
whole Law, and yet stumble in ONE point, he is guilty of all” (Ja 2:10). Paul taught this same
truth this way: “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse;
for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone
who does not continue in all things which are written in the book
of the Law, to do them” (Gal 3:10).
Paul also declared: “For as many as have sinned
without Law will also PERISH without Law, and as many as have sinned in the Law
will be judged by the Law, (for not
the hearers of the Law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the Law will be justified”
(Rom 2:12-13). Therefore, the Tree of the Law demands the death sentence for
everyone who commits sin, even if
it is only one sin. The Law can only declare sinless human being innocent
and worthy of Eternal Life. The Bible teaches us that God
promised Eternal Life to everyone under the Old Covenant, who could keep or
fulfill the whole Law perfectly, and death to anyone who violated one of His
Laws.
Let us compare the above
truths to Adam and Eve’s sin. According to the Bible, the immortality that Adam and Eve had was based on two conditions: FIRST, they had to continue
to eat from the Tree of Life (Gen 3:22-24). SECOND, they could not eat
from the Tree of Knowledge (Gen
2:17).
As long as they did these two things, they had no sin or were living in a state
of sinlessness. They were living by faith and trusting in God’s love and
provisions. They believed God’s Word was true and they lived by it.
In
concluding this section on the Tree of the Law, it appears to me that it was
God’s intention from the beginning that Eternal Life could only come from the
Tree of Life, and the fruit from this Tree was given to mankind freely or
without cost. In other words, the privilege Adam and Eve had of eating from the
Tree of Eternal Life was given to them freely, for they did nothing to earn
this privilege. It was given to them by God’s love and grace.
We also know from the Word
of God that Adam and Eve had to obey God’s Law, if they truly loved God and
appreciated His gift of Eternal Life. If they did not, then they would lose
God’s gift. This truth not only can be applied to Adam and Eve, but to God’s
children in both the Old and New Covenants, for no one is going to heaven that
does not agape loves God.
Therefore,
I must ask again, why did God demand perfect obedience from Adam and
Eve, and later their descendents, if they wished to have Eternal Life? God
being omniscient knows that mankind is not capable of perfect obedience;
in other words, mankind is capable of being holy but not sinless, so why does
God demand it from us? Since the entire scenario of what happen in the Garden
of Eden is a beautiful picture of God’s plan of salvation, the answer can only
be found in what the Tree of Life represented. With this in mind, let us
examine the Tree of Life.
Now, the Bible explicitly
teaches, the Tree of Life was a literal tree (Rev 22:2). As long as Adam and Eve ate from this tree, they had
Eternal Life or were immortal. So, what does this tree represent? The Word of
God is very emphatic about what Eternal Life is, who it is, and how we can
receive it. The apostle John spoke of it and declared: “This is the promise that
He has promised us – Eternal Life…. And this is the testimony: that God has
given us Eternal Life, and this Life is in His Son. He who has the Son
has Life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have Life. These things
I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may
know that you have Eternal Life, and… we are in Him who is true, in His Son
Jesus Christ. This is the true God and Eternal Life” (1Jn 2:25; 5:12-13,
20).
Since Eternal Life is
in Christ, how did God restore access to the Tree of Life for lost humanity?
The Bible is emphatic about this also, for only by means of the Grace of
Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection that God made Eternal Life available
to the human race. The Bible says it this way: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of
the Law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone
who hangs on a TREE)” (Gal 3:13). This tree on which our Savior
was nailed represented the Law, or in other words, it was the Tree of the Law of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The Law demanded death
as the payment for sin. This why the apostle Paul also declared: “You, being dead in your
trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together
with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting
of requirements that was against us [meaning the Law], which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the
way, having nailed it to the cross”
(Col 2:13-14); or in other words, Jesus nailed our sins to the Tree of
the Law. Therefore, Christ was nailed to the Tree of the Law, so He could redeem
us from the curse of death, which the Law demanded for all who do not keep the
Law perfectly or live a sinless life.
Now the only way Christ
could redeem us from the curse of death and give us Eternal Life was by
fulfilling all the requirements of the Law. In other words, Jesus, as the son
of mankind, had to live a sinless life to redeem mankind from sin, since the
Law demanded perfect obedience or sinlessness. The apostle Paul described the
sinless perfection of our Savior this way: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize
with our weaknesses, but was in all
points tempted as we are,
yet WITHOUT SIN” (Heb
4:15). The apostle Peter said the same thing like this: “Who committed NO SIN, nor was deceit found in His mouth” (1Pe
2:22).
The Law of Moses said
it this way: “Your
LAMB shall be WITHOUT BLEMISH, a male of the first year…. It is the
LORD's Passover…. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you
are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you” or I will
save your life from death (Exo 12:5-7, 11-13). Peter speaking of our Savior as God’s
Passover Lamb declared: “For indeed Christ, our Passover [Lamb], was
sacrificed for us” (1Co 5:7); and “You were not redeemed with
corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct
received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a LAMB WITHOUT BLEMISH and WITHOUT SPOT. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1Pe 1:18-20).
The apostle John said the same thing when he called Jesus: “The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world” (Rev 13:8).
The only being who could
satisfy the requirements of the Law was the Lord Jesus Christ; for He is the
only being who has ever lived that was totally and completely sinless. If the
precious blood of Jesus had just one spot of sin in it, the entire human race
would have been hopelessly lost. But because of the perfect obedience of
our Savior, the requirement of God’s Law has been fulfill or satisfied. Therefore,
it was always God’s intention or plan that Adam and Eve and all of mankind
should be redeem by the blood of the sinless Lamb of God. Whereby mankind could
have access to the Tree of Life through the precious, holy, sinless blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why God in His infinite wisdom and foreknowledge
demanded perfect obedience or sinlessness from mankind to receive Eternal Life,
knowing that only Christ could fulfill this demand.
Paul stated the above truth this way: “For
as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s [perfect] obedience many will be made righteous….
So that as sin reigned in death, even so GRACE might reign through
righteousness to Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 5:19, 21);
and “For the Law of the Spirit
of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of sin and death. For
what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh [man’s sinful fleshly nature], God did by sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the
flesh” (Rom 8:2-3).
Paul also declared: “If
there had been a Law given which could have given Life, truly
righteousness would have been by the Law. But the Scripture has confined ALL
UNDER SIN, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those
who believe…. Therefore the Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ,
that we might be justified by FAITH” (Ga 3:21-24). To reiterate, since the Law required
perfect obedience or sinlessness, every Jew realized that they were dome to
death, with no hope of Eternal Life. The only Law that gave any of God’s Old
Testament children any hope of Life was the Law of the Passover Lamb, which
revealed God’s Grace to them; whereby God was willing to forgive them of all
sins. This Law pointed them to Christ, as their Tree of Life, who was the one
and only way for them to receive Eternal Life.
Therefore, God’s entire
foreordained plan of salvation, which was started in the Garden of Eden was
fulfilled in Christ as He died as God’s sinless Passover Lamb on Calvary’s
Cross! Now according to the Word of God, the only way anyone can receive
Eternal Life is by believing INTO the death, burial, and resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ through the NEW BIRTH, for this how a believer receives the Grace of
God.
The apostle Paul stated the
above truth this way: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done [meaning keeping the Law
system], but
according to His mercy [meaning grace]
He saved us, through [dia – by means of] the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit…. Having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of Eternal Life”(Tit 3:5-7). The apostle Peter confirmed Paul’s
and Jesus’ teaching on the New Birth, when he preached the gospel of the death,
burial, and resurrection of our great God and Savior to the lost Jews in
Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. He told them to “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity [hostility] between you [Satan] and the woman, And between your [Satan’s] seed and her Seed; He shall bruise [shuwph] your [Satan’s] head, And you shall bruise [shuwph] His heel.” Dr. Strong defines “shuwph” to mean: to bruise, [or to]
crush. Let us examine the grammar construction of this verse: “your seed” noun common masculine singular
construct, suffix 2nd person masculine singular; therefore Satan’s seed
or child is singular, as in one, and not seeds or children
as in many. “Her Seed” noun common
masculine singular construct, suffix 3rd person feminine singular;
therefore the woman’s seed or child is also singular, as in one,
and not seeds or children as in many.
Now, Satan’s seed and the
woman’s seed cannot be referring to Cain, Abel, and Seth, who were all children
of Eve! Let my beloved readers take note, God did not name which woman
He was referring to in this prophecy. The only thing this prophecy stated is
that Satan and some woman would be hostile to each other, and Satan will have a
child one day and some woman will also have a child, and these two boys will
also hostile to each other. This is the true interpretation of this prophecy.
In the next verse it stated:
“He [not they] shall bruise your head” and “you [not they]
shall
bruise His [not their] heel.” These verbs are in the future tense
not in the present tense, and they are in the singular number not plural.
Therefore, this event would take place sometime in the future. Now this
is the first prophetic scripture in the Bible. In this prophecy God spoke of
Christ’s complete victory over Satan at Calvary, as the Son of a woman. This
obviously meant that Christ would have to be born of a woman and become a flesh
and blood Man to fulfill this prophecy!
Therefore, let us identify
the characters in this prophecy. Since the Word of God is not of any man’s
private interpretation, or one man’s opinion, let us allow scripture to
interpret scripture: Who was the Serpent? The Bible gives us the answer. It
stated that Michael the archangel will lay “hold of the dragon, that serpent
of old, who is the Devil and Satan” (Rev 20:2); and “So the great dragon was cast out [of heaven, which has not
happen yet], that serpent
of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole
world” (Rev 12:9).
The prophet Ezekiel speaking
of Lucifer in the Garden of Eden stated: “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘You were the
seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the Garden of God…. You were the anointed cherub who covers…. You were
perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found
in you” (Eze 28:12-15). Therefore, Satan is called the ancient Serpent
that deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden and all of mankind after
her, even until this very day. He is called the old Serpent because it was he
who came in and dwelt in this beautiful multicolor snake, and actually talked
through it: “the same way that God
spoke through Balaam’s donkey (Num 22:28-31).”
Who was this promise Seed
that would crush the head of the Lucifer? In Genesis 9:9, God gave us the name of the family that the
seed of the woman would come through; it was through the family of Abraham as
the apostle Paul declared: “What purpose then does the Law serve? It was
added because of transgressions, till the SEED should come to whom the promise was made…. Now to Abraham
and his SEED were
the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many,
but as of ONE, ‘And to your SEED,’ who is Christ” (Ga 3:19, 16).
Who was this woman that the
Serpent will hate because her seed or son will crush his head or power? The
Word of God reveals that it was Mary, the mother of our sweet Savior. Paul
wrote: “But
when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a WOMAN” (Ga 4:4). Matthew wrote: “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in
a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary
your wife, for that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she
will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His
people from their sins. So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the Lord through the prophet [Isaiah], saying: ‘Behold, the VIRGIN shall be
with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is
translated, ‘God with us” (Mt
1:20-23).
According to the Bible, it
was by means of a woman that Satan obtained the victory over mankind in the
Garden of Eden, and set himself as man’s enemy or opponent. Since it was by
Satan that the first man and woman sinned and brought death to mankind, it only
stands to reason that Satan and death should be completely defeated or
vanquished by the Seed of a woman or Christ. The apostle John spoke
of Jesus destroying Satan’s power over mankind this way: “He [meaning anyone in the human
race] who sins is of
the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose
the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1Jn 3:8). The apostle Paul said it this way: “Inasmuch then as the
children have partaken of flesh and blood, He [Christ] Himself likewise shared in the SAME,
that through death He might destroy him who had the power
of death, that is, the devil” or that old Serpent Lucifer (Heb 2:14).
The prophet David spoke of
Satan bruising Christ’s heel this way: “You have brought Me to the dust of death….
They pierced My hands and My FEET” (Psa 22:15-16). The prophet Isaiah said it
this way: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised
for our iniquities…. And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all…. For
He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people
He was stricken” (Isa 53:5-8). Therefore, the woman who the Serpent hated and
made war with was the Virgin Mary. Why will he hate and make war with her? It
is very obvious from the above scriptures; Satan will hate Mary because she
brought forth the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will crush
or destroy Satan’s power and kingdom, and cast him into the Lake of Fire
forever. Because Mary was a holy woman of God, who loved holiness and
righteousness, she hated sin and made war on Satan’s kingdom.
Now that I have identified
the woman and her Seed, who is the seed of the Serpent or the son of Satan? The
Word of God again gives us the answer. In the following passage of scripture,
God called the son of Lucifer the prince of Tyre, and his pappy the king of
Tyre. Everyone knows the title prince is only given to a person who is a son of
a king! Therefore, Lucifer has to be the father of the man of sin or the
antichrist. How he will accomplish this I do not know.
The Bible says it this way: “The word of the LORD came
to me again, saying, Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says
the Lord GOD: ‘Because your heart is lifted up, and you say, I am a
god, I sit in the seat of gods, in the midst of the seas, yet you are
a man, and not a god, though you set your heart as the heart of a god….’
Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus
says the Lord GOD: You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and
perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God”
(Eze 28:1-2, 12-13).
According to the Bible, part
of the Lawless One’s ancestry will come from the tribe of Dan, and because
Lucifer is his pappy, he also will be called a serpent. This is why Jacob
through the Holy Spirit said about Lucifer’s son: “Dan [meaning the antichrist] shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the
way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider shall
fall backward” (Gen 49:16-17).
In Revelation 13:1 & 4, the antichrist is called
the beast, who has seven heads and ten horns, and it is said that Lucifer the
dragon gave him his power. In Revelation
12:6-9,
Lucifer the dragon is cast out of heaven, and in verse three it says he has
seven heads and ten horns. Consequently, Lucifer himself is identified with the
man of sin, or he is the one who will dwell in him as he did in the snake in
the Garden of Eden. Lucifer, as the antichrist’s god and father, will dwell in
him and rule the world through him.
In conclusion, all of the
above passages of scripture in this chapter reveal that no one, no matter how good
he or she may be, could ever earn the right to have Eternal Life by keep the
Laws of God, for no one was sinless. We have all sinned and come short of God’s
requirement of perfection (Rom
6:23).
We all need God’s Grace, which can only be found in the death, burial, and
resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If we fail to understand the
message that God is communicating to us through the fall of Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden, and the significant of the Tree of the Law and the Tree of Life,
then we will not completely understand the types and shadows of God’s plan of
salvation by Grace in the Old Testament. We will not also understand the real
difference between God’s plan of salvation by Grace, and the devil’s plan of
salvation by the Works of the Law.
CHAPTER 2
GOD’S GRACE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
PORTRAYED BY ANIMAL BLOOD SACRIFICES
All of
God’s people in the Old Testament lived for the hope of a resurrection to
Eternal Life (Acts
26:6-8). Therefore, in all the covenants God made with man animal
blood sacrifices were always present. God revealed His great plan of salvation to mankind in types and
shadows in the Old Testament by these blood
sacrifices. During this period, God required His people to offer up the
blood of animals as an atonement or expiation for their sins. Through these
sacrifices mankind could receive God’s mercy or grace by which
their sins could be temporarily removed. Every man who has ever lived, excluding
the Lord Jesus Christ, has sinned and therefore needed Gods’ grace and
forgiveness to be saved.
There
was absolutely no way any man could be saved in the Old Testament without
coming in contact with these blood sacrifices; for this is how God gave His
grace and forgiveness to mankind. As I have already pointed out, Calvary has
always been God’s one and only plan for salvation. God never has or will ever
have any other plan for salvation other than the “Lamb
of God that was slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8).
The
apostle Paul speaking of animal sacrifices wrote: “The
law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the
things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year and year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect.... For it is not possible that
the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Heb 10:1, 4).
According to the Word of God, these animal sacrifices could not permanently
remove sin, for only the blood of Jesus could do that. It was not until Jesus came that mankind
realized the full significance or meaning of those blood sacrifices. For the
Bible emphatically declared that they represented the holy sinless Lamb of God.
For Calvary is the highest revelation and expression of God’s Grace.
Job’s
Offered up Animal Blood Sacrifice to God for the Sins of His Children: The
Book of Job is the oldest written book in the Bible. It antedates the writings
of Moses, who wrote the Torah around 1450 BC, that is, the five books of Moses
that includes Genesis. The Book of Job was probably written around 2100 BC in Terah’s day, who
is Abraham’s father. According to the Bible: “THERE was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was
whole-hearted and upright, and one that feared God, and shunned evil. And there
were born unto him seven sons and three daughters…. And it was so, when the
days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them,
and rose up early in the morning, and OFFERED BURNT-OFFERINGS according to the
number of them all; for Job said: ‘It may be that my sons have SINNED, and
blasphemed God in their hearts.’ Thus did Job continually” (Job 1:1-5, JPS Holy
Scriptures published by the Jewish Publication Society). Why
did the Patriarch Job connect animal blood sacrifices with God’s forgiveness of
sins, if it was not something he learned from his forefathers, who learned it
from Adam and Eve?
God’s
Animal Blood Sacrifice for Sin After Adam and Eve Were Cast Out of the Garden
Of Eden: From the time of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of
Eden, God required animal sacrifices as an atonement for sins. The Bible
stated, God “made coats of skins [owr], and clothed [labash]” the
nakedness of Adam and Eve’s bodies (Gen 3:21). According to Dr. James
Strong, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible, the
Hebrew word “owr”
means: “hide
[or] leather,” [1]
while “labash” means: “to wrap around.” [2]
It is only right to presume from the Hebrew words used and
the context of this scripture that God, as Melchisedec their High Priest, SLEW these
animals shedding their blood, and
then skinned them in order to make leather
clothing for Adam and Eve.
Through
this act, God not only clothed their entire body in animal hides, but also
totally covered or atoned for their sin against Him. From this moment on, God
always required the blood of an animal to be shed to atone for the sins of
mankind. Not only this, but God gave Adam and Eve a promise of a deliverer, who
would come and make a complete and everlasting atonement for their sins, and
the sins of the entire race. God called this deliverer the Seed of the woman (Gen 3:15). To
believe that God never forgave Adam and Eve for their sin is totally ridiculous
and unscriptural!
Abel’s
Animal Blood Sacrifices: The
Bible says: “Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice”
than Cain (Heb 11:4). Why? Because Able was
obedient to God’s instructions and offered a blood sacrifice of a “sheep” from
his herd (Gen
4:2). Cain offered a vegetable sacrifice, which was the fruit
of all of his hard work. Now, why if God did not give Adam and Eve
instructions on how to approach Him and have their sins forgiven, then why did
God reject Cain’s sacrifice? If Cain was not rebelling against God’s
instructions, then please tell me what God meant when he told Cain: “If you do well, will you not be accepted”
(verse 7)? No
doubt, God was telling Cain: “if you offered the right kind of sacrifice, an animal
sacrifice, I will accept it.” But Cain refused because he
wanted to approach or worship God on his own terms. His pride would not allow
him to go and buy a sacrifice from his brother Abel.
The
Word of God stigmatizes Cain as a type of religious person that wants to serve
God on their terms. Jude speaking about people like Cain said: “Woe
unto them; for they have gone in the way of Cain” (Jude 1:11)! This
is why there are so many man made religions, all wanting to serve God their
way. God called Cain and those who have his spirit wicked, not because of
immorality, but because they rob God of His Deity by making their own rules in
both Judaism and Christianity, and in the religions of the world. All through
biblical history, God’s people have always offered up a blood sacrifice for
atonement for sins.
Noah’s
Animal Blood Sacrifices: Noah built “an altar unto the
Lord; and took of every clean beast… and offered burnt offerings on the altar”
(Gen 8:20). Job’s Animal Blood Sacrifices: The
old patriarch Job, who lived before Abraham: “rose
up early” every “morning and offered burnt
offerings” to God for each of his children, just in case
they “sinned and curse God in their hearts” (Job 1:5). If
Job did not know about the atonement God made for Adam and Eve, and Cain and
Abel’s sacrifices, where did he learn about blood sacrifices as atonement for
sins?
Abraham’s
Animal Blood Sacrifices: God tested Abraham’s love and his faith in Him,
by asking him to offer up Isaac instead of a Lamb as a sacrifice. This was to
represent or portray God’s sacrifice of His own Son or flesh, as the final and
ultimate sacrifice for sin. God had no intentions of allowing Abraham to do
this, for God forbade Israel to offer up human sacrifices (Lev 18:21; Jer 32:34-35). Even
though Abraham loved Isaac more than life itself, Abraham was willing to do it
because He loved God more than anyone or anything.
Abraham
also knew that God promised to give him children through Isaac, so he believed
that God would raised Isaac from the dead to fulfill His promise (Heb 11:17-19).
Isaac said to Abraham: “Where is the lamb for a burn offering?”
Abraham responded with these prophetic words: “my
son God will provide Himself a Lamb” (Gen 22:1-14). Just as God provided Abraham with a lamb
that day, God provided Himself as the Lamb at Calvary, or in other words, God
the Father became the Lamb of God or the Savior of the world (Isa 43:11).
Isaac’s
Animal Blood Sacrifices: Isaac “built
an altar” unto the Lord at Beersheba, and their “the
Lord appeared unto Him” (Gen 26:23-25). Jacob’s
Blood Sacrifices: God commanded Jacob to go to Bethel and “make
there an altar” unto Him. Jacob went to Bethel and “he
built there an altar and called the place Elbethel because there God appeared
unto him” (Gen 35:1-7). Whenever godly men approached
God through animal blood sacrifices, God always heard and answered their
prayers and even made Himself known to them.
The Lamb
Offered Up At Passover: As stated before, Israel’s national redemption
out of Egypt is a beautiful illustration of our deliverance from slavery by the
blood of our Passover Lamb. Israel’s redemption was based solely upon God’s
grace. God told Moses that every family in Israel must have “a
Lamb for an house.” The Lamb had to be without
flaw or defect. Each family had to kill the Lamb and then cook or roast it, and
then “eat the flesh” of it until it was all
consumed.
They
were also commanded to take the Lamb’s “blood and strike it
on the two side post and on the upper post” of their
house. The Lord told them that He would pass over ever house in Egypt, and
every house that had the Lamb’s blood applied to their house, He would not
permit “the destroyer to come in” their
“houses to smite” them (Exo 12:3, 5, 7, 23). The
Lord kept His promise and redeemed Israel out and bondage and destroyed the
firstborn of every home in Egypt that did not have the Passover Lamb’s blood
applied to their house.
God
made the Passover sacrifice a national law for Israel, which was celebrated
yearly on fourteenth day of April. Naturally, the Lamb represented our great
Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ as Paul said: “Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1Co 5:7).
Jesus died as our Lamb of God on Passover day. Just as God destroyed the
Egyptians, He will destroy every human being that does not have the precious
blood of Jesus applied to their spirit, soul and body. There is no way God can
forgive and cleanse anyone of their sins outside of the blood of Christ, for He
is the only sacrifice or atonement for sins God will accept.
The Goat
Offered Up On The Day Of Atonement: God ordained that the tenth
day of October was to be a national holy day for all of Israel; for on that
day, and that day only, God would “forgive, but not forget, all the sins Israel committed
that year.” This day was known as the Day of Atonement or Yom
Kippur. This day marked the climax of the children of Israel’s approach or
access to God under the Mosaic Law System. This day was a very solemn day and
the entire nation was held in suspense, as the High Priest carried on his
duties.
God’s
high priest, who was a type of Christ, would selected “two young he-goats without spot
of blemish,” and cast lots concerning their role in God’s
plan of salvation that day. The one on which the “Lord’s
lot fell” was slain at the Brazen Altar in the Outer
Court, not only for the high priest’s sins, but for the sins of the entire
nation (Lev
16:6, 30). The slain he-goat beautifully illustrated or
portrayed, Jesus’ atonement for the sins of lost humanity through His death on
Calvary’s cross (Lev 16:8-10; Rom 3:24-26).
The
other he-goat or the “live goat,” the
high priest would “lay both his hands upon” its “head” and “confess
over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel.” By
doing this, all of Israel’s sins were imputed to the living goat, and that goat
would be sent away to a “land not inhabited” (Lev 16:20-22). The
scapegoat beautifully portrayed the resurrection and ascension into heaven of
the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 9:24). Remission of sins would have been impossible
without the resurrection of our glorious Kinsman Redeemer, for Paul says: “if
Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1Co
15:17).
After
this the high priest took the blood of the slain he-goat and went past the
first veil into the Holy Place. In the Holy Place he sprinkled the blood on the
furniture there, and started a fire in the Altar of Incense with live hot coals
he took from the Brazen Altar. Only after he use consecrated fire from the
Altar of Death and Sacrifice, which portrayed a holy and consecrated life,
could he offer up intercessory prayer to God for the lost house of Israel. He
then walked past the second veil, which represented the flesh of Jesus, with
great fear and trembling, and entered into the Holy of Holies. There he would
sprinkle the blood on Mercy Seat to make annual atonement for the nation (Heb 10:20; 8:7; Lev 16:1-34).
Israel’s First Day of Atonement: The
Word of God says it this way: “Moses said to Aaron, ‘Come to the altar
and sacrifice your SIN OFFERING and your BURNT OFFERING and make ATONEMENT for
YOURSELF and the PEOPLE; sacrifice the offering that is for the people and make
ATONEMENT for them, as the LORD has commanded. So Aaron came to the
altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself….
Aaron then brought the offering that was for the people. He took
the GOAT for the people's sin offering and slaughtered it and offered it
for a sin offering as he did with the first one…. Moses and Aaron
then went into the Tent of Meeting [i.e.
the Holy Place and the Holies of Holy]. When they
came out, they blessed the people; and the GLORY of the LORD appeared to all
the people. FIRE came
out from the presence of the LORD and CONSUMED the BURNT OFFERING and the fat
portions on the [Brazen]
Altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown” (Lev 9:7-8, 15, 23-24, NIV). According
to one Bible Commentator, when the High Priest sprinkled the blood of the
sacrifice on the Mercy Seat the burnt offering was not only consumed in fire
but it ascended into heaven.
Paul
speaking of Jesus as our atonement, in His high priestly and sacrificial roles
says: “Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come,”
entered into the Holy of Holies not with “the blood of goats,” but
with “His own blood.” For
animal sacrifices could “never take away sins,” but
Jesus offered up “one sacrifice for sins” which
“perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb
9:11-12; 10:11-14). Jesus’ one sacrifice or offering for sins,
forever removed all of our sins of the past, present and future, if we have the
death, burial and resurrection of our Savior imputed to us through the New
Birth. From that time on we are under the blood of Christ, and if we sin, all
we need to do is repent or forsake our sins and confess them to Jesus, when we
stumble or fall and He will forgive us.
Since
the blood of animals could not remit sins, this can only mean that God
forgave Israel on the Day on Atonement, but He did not remove or forget their
sins (Heb
9:1-4, 15). Because
Israel’s sin offering were made by faith and obedience to God’s sacrificial
laws, God suspended judgment of Israel’s sins in anticipation or confident
expectation of Christ’s sacrifice (Rom 3:25). These animal sacrifices
represented God’s grace to Israel. Because of this, the Law of Moses was called
a schoolmaster that led us to Christ (Ga 3:24-25). For it clearly depicted
man’s sinful condition and his great need for a Savior. It also revealed in a
symbolic form the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ (Heb
10:1-4).
CHAPTER 3
THE OLD COVENANT
Biblical Definition of Law and Grace:
How does the Bible define the terms Law and
Grace? Law is the Mosaic Law System. Jesus’ definition of Law: “For all the Prophets
and the Law [system of Moses] prophesied until John”
(Mt 11:13). The Law and the Prophets when used together referred to the
teachings of the Old Testament Bible as a whole. If the Prophets do not refers
to the OT Prophets, and if the Law does not refer to the OT Mosaic Law System,
then please tell me what Jesus meant by these terms?
In Pauline Theology when
Paul used the term Law he basically meant the Law of Moses, and when he use the
term works in connection to the Law, he meant the works that the Law of Moses
required, such as keeping its moral and ceremonial precepts. Paul define Law
this way: “For
until the Law [system of Moses] sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no Law” (Rom 5:13); and “What the Law [system of Moses] could not do in that it
was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom
8:3). Paul also declared: “Therefore by the deeds of the Law [system of Moses] no flesh will be justified in His sight,
for by the Law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness
of God apart from the Law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law
[of
Moses] and the Prophets,
even the righteousness [salvation]
of God, through faith in [gospel of] Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe” (Rom
3:20-22).
God’s righteousness or
salvation is imparted to all who believe what about Jesus? Paul gave us the
answer when he said: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes”
(Rom 1:16; cp with Ga 1:6-9; 1Co 4:15). What is the gospel of Christ? It
is the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ (1Co 15:1-4). From these scriptures, one must
conclude that the Law that Paul is always writes against is the Law System of
Moses. If it is not, then please tell me what does it refer to, and where in
the Bible is your proof? No one can reader Paul’s arguments against the
Law and conclude he is referring to any law of me man or governments. For he is
constantly refers to Moses and moral and ceremonial ordinances, and so on.
Paul
defined Grace as the Lord Jesus Christ and the Salvation He
provided through the gospel of Christ: “The Grace [charis] of God that brings
salvation has appeared to all men. Teaching us to say ‘No’ to
ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and
godly lives in the present age” (Tit 2:11-12, N.I.V); and “Being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption [salvation] that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set
forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith” in the gospel of Christ (Rom 3:24-25). If the Grace of God is not the Lord Jesus
Christ, and man’s justification is not in the salvation He provided, then
please tell me what Paul meant by the term “Grace of God” and “justification by grace?”
Peter spoke of God’s grace
this way: “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect,
establish, strengthen, and settle you…. I have written to
you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in
which you stand” (1Pe 5:10-12). Therefore, if the Grace of God
is not the Lord Jesus Christ, and the justification He provided through His
gospel, and His ability to keep us through every trial of life, then please
tell me what Paul meant by the term “Grace
of God” and
“justification by grace?”
Therefore,
the doctrine of grace in reference to salvation refers to “God’s gift of Eternal Life,
through the atonement of Christ, to anyone who would meet the terms of
His Covenant.” One of the terms of the Old Covenant was that
Israel should agape love their God (Deut
6:5). In other words, if Israel’s love for God had been
great enough, they would have trusted Him completely for their salvation,
instead of trusting in their own works of righteousness.
The Mosaic Law
System and the Pharisees
The
Old Covenant was made with the nation of Israel through Moses. It was a legal
system that contained moral, civil and ceremonial laws. The moral law of God
not only included the Ten Commandments, but all other laws that dealt with
personal holiness. The civil law contained governmental and social laws. The
ceremonial law governed the religious life of Israel. This entire legal system
was known as “the
Law,” or “the Law of Moses.” God’s grace
was exhibited or displayed in only one aspect of this system, “the ceremonial law.” All
of the other laws pointed guilt sinners to this one, as their only hope.
The
Pharisees were a Jewish religious sect, who had their roots in a religious
party called the Hasidim or Assidians or pious one. They were formed somewhere
in the Maccabean period. The Maccabees were a priestly family who lead a Jewish
revolt against Hellenism and Syrian rule in BC 168. They
saw Hellenism as a way of life that was opposed to that prescribed in their
Torah. God greatly and miraculously uses the Maccabees and the Assidians to
preserve His people from the evils of the Greek culture, which make serious
inroads against the holiness standards of the Hebrew Law.
God
used these Jewish patriots at this time to foil or thwart Satan scheme
of polluting God’s children with the immoral value system of the Greek culture,
i.e. its art, entertainment and every other aspect. This satanic culture has
also corrupting the entire human race today. Therefore, somewhere around BC 125,
three Jewish religious parties came into being. One called the Sadducees, who
followed the basic ideology of the earlier Jewish hellenizers or liberals. The
other two parties were called the Pharisees and the Essenes, and they sought to
preserve the basic tenets of the Hasidim. The Essenes were basically a monastic
brotherhood that did not have a great influence over the majority of the
people. The Pharisees or the Separated Ones on the other hand did.
As
time went on, Lucifer deceived and perverted the Pharisees, and that which
started as a blessing to the children of Israel became a curse. The Pharisees
in their desire to be holy, and to keep the people holy, began to devise
laws and add them to the laws of God. This was done so the
people would have to break their man made laws, before they would actually break
one of God’s laws. These laws were like a “hedge” or “fence” that
they built into the Law system, which in some cases became equal to God’s laws.
Jesus spoke about some of these laws when said: the Pharisees “bind
heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men shoulders”
(Mt 23:4). Jesus also said they made “the
Word of God of none effect” through their “tradition”
(Mk 7:7, 13).
As
these Pharisees preached holiness to God’s people, they did not include God’s love,
mercy, and justice into their preaching, nor trusting God for their salvation.
This resulted in God’s people striving for holiness, not as an act or work of
love, to please the lover of their soul, but as an all out effort to earn God’s
love, approval, and salvation by their own works of righteousness. Jesus said
it this way: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected
the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.
These you ought to have done, without leaving the others
undone”
(Mt 23:23).
Let my
beloved readers take note, Jesus placed His approval on their teaching of God’s
laws of holiness, but He rebuked them for not teaching salvation by
faith and God’s attributes of love, mercy and justice. Preaching holiness,
without connecting it to our love for God is a sure way of making Pharisees out
of God’s people; and teaching God’s grace and mercy without connecting it to
the believer’s responsibility to earnestly strive to obey God’s commandment, is
a sure way of making children God sinners. The devil will do his best to get
God’s children to believe either one of these positions, but he hates it when
they believe and practice both!
Many
preachers today preach the Pharisees’ gospel of salvation. They try to
legislate holiness. They preach keeping the Law as a means of saving oneself
from the Lake of Fire. As a result, God’s people are struggling to keep the
Word of God out of fear, which torments their soul and spirit. They are
always struggling to please God so they can earn His approval, His acceptance
and His love. I am not saying that we should not preach on holiness or
hell, but we should tie it into living for God because we love Him and He loves
us. In this way, living for God is not a struggle against sin, but a life of surrender to God’s Spirit and Word. God is not
an ogre whom you can never satisfy; or is He a taskmaster that stands over His
children with a whip, ready to strike them the moment they fall. God is a good
heavenly Father, who agape loves His children and wants them to agape love Him
in return.
Because
the Pharisees were self-righteous, and depended on their own personal holiness
to save them, they forgot that “whoever shall keep the whole
law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (Ja 2:10). They
did not give God the glory, for without His grace that was given by
means of the animal sacrifices, none of them could have been saved. As a
result, they became boastful and arrogant concerning their own piety, and
quickly condemned others that did not measure up to their standards. The joy of
serving God was gone, and all that was left was an empty shell called religion,
better known as denominationalism.
To
help my readers understand the Jewish mindset of those under the Law system, I
am going to quote from memory an article I read years ago. The article was
found in a set of book called The
Archeological Volumes. In one of
these volumes there was a letter supposedly written by Caiaphas, who was the
High Priest in Jesus’ day, to the Sanhedrin Court. It stated: “As I was passing by one of the
streets in Jerusalem, I heard Peter, one of the disciples of Jesus, preaching
about the love of God. I walked away thinking, is it not strange, us Jews do
not think of God as a loving God, but one to be greatly feared and His
commandments to be kept.”
The attitude
of God’s children in serving Him had entirely changed. Instead of God’s
priesthood preaching that God loves His people and truly desires to give them
Eternal Life, if they loved Him enough to strive to live holy, they
preached, you must earn your salvation by keeping the works of the Law.
Thereby, God will be forced to give it to you, or in other words, you must
forcefully take it from God by your good works. This attitude is best seen in
the “Parable
of the Pharisee and the Publican.” Both of these men were
children of God who lived under the Mosaic Law system, and both went “into
the temple to pray.” According to Jesus, the Pharisee
departed the temple without being forgiven of his sins, while the tax
collector deeply sorry for his sins, said “God be merciful to me
a sinner,” and left the temple justified (Lk 18:9-14).
Under
the Mosaic Law system, why did God condemn the righteous-man and justified the
sinner? We would think it should have been the other way around. The scripture
gave only one reason. It declared that the prideful self-righteous child of God
“trusted” in his own righteousness. He
did not trust a loving God for his salvation. He did not remember the scripture
that declared, “we are all like an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” in the sight of
God (Isa
64:6).
The
pride and self-conceit in Pharisee’s heart robbed him of feelings of
compassion, for those who were struggling to measure up to God’s holiness
standards. This parable should give every self-righteous child of God a
paroxysm or a convulsion. God forgave the Publican in this parable, not because
he was a sinner who was trying to use God’s grace as a license to sin, but
because this child of God obviously wanted deliverance from his sins. He wanted
to do better. He wanted to live holy, but at that particular moment in time,
his faith and love for God was not as strong as it should have been. There is a
world of difference between the child of God, who is striving to live for God
in holiness because he love God, and the one who is striving to be holy because
he is afraid of going to hell. In other words, one who sees God as a loving
Father and His laws as rules for happiness, and the one who sees God as a
taskmaster and His laws as bondage.
God’s Offer of Eternal Life in the
Mosaic Law System
God
told the nation of Israel: “I have made a Covenant with
you and with Israel.” He then told Moses to write “upon
the tables the words of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments” (Exo
34:27-29), that is, after Moses broke the first tables. The
Bible records this covenant this way: “These are the words of the covenant which the LORD
commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab,
besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb [or Sinai]…. Therefore, keep the words of this covenant,
and do them…. The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart
of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul, that you may Live [Eternally]” (Deut 29:1, 9,
30:6); and “LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in
Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness”
(Psa 15:1-2).
The
New Testament confirmed this truth, when He told a Jewish lawyer stood up to
test our Savior by saying: “Teacher,
what shall I do to inherit Eternal Life?’ He said to him, ‘What is
written in the Law [of Moses]?
What is your reading of it?’ So he answered and said, ‘You shall love
the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ And He said
to him, ‘You have answered rightly; do this and you will Live [Eternally]” (Lk 10:25-28).
Our
Lord confirmed this truth again when a certain rich man said to Him: “Good
Master, what good thing shall I do to inherit Eternal Life?’ Jesus said unto
him, ‘if you will enter into Life [Eternally], keep the commandments” (Mt 19:16-19). Our
Lord then proceeded to name the commandments.
Therefore,
it is very evident that our Lord connected Eternal Life with keeping the works
of the Law of Moses. Under the Old Mosaic Covenant, God offered Eternal Life to
the Jews on the condition that they earnestly strive to keep the Mosaic Law
System. One should keep in mind that no one could be saved or have Eternal Life
under the New Covenant, until Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead (Heb 9:15-17; 1Co 15:14-18).
Each
Jew had to meet two conditions to receive Eternal Life. FIRST and foremost,
they had to believe in God’s grace to forgive them of their sins, just as
though they had never sinned or were sinless. The offering up of animal blood
sacrifices was their act or work of faith, which openly displayed they faith in
God’s promise of forgiveness. For example, on the Day of Atonement, God
promised Israel that He would show grace to Israel by forgiving them of all
sins and not remember their sins for one year (Deut 16:15-16, 21-23, 34; Heb 10:1-4).
SECOND,
they had to be a holy and separated people from the heathens; therefore, they
had to earnestly strive to obey all moral, civil and ceremonial laws, as
proof of their love and appreciation for God’s Grace (Mt 19:16-19, Lk 10:25-28). God
never required Israel to be absolutely sinless, but He did ask them to be holy.
There is a world of difference between those of who earnestly strive to be
pleasing to God, and those who abuse or misuse His Grace. God pronounced
blessings on those who would keep His Laws, and curses on those would not (Deut 28:1-68).
Because
the Pharisees preached holiness in a negative way, the people of God became
blinded to God’s real intent of giving the Law. God used Eternal Life to
motivation them to strive to live holy and practice righteousness. This
way they would not become slaves to sin and become demon possessed. He also
wanted to test their love for Him; for God knew that loving Him with all their
spirit mind, soul mind, physical mind, and physical strength, was the only way
that any of them would have the strength they needed to live holy.
Since
there was no way they or us could keep all of God’s laws perfectly or live
sinless lives, God knew that they and we would occasionally stumble and fall
into sin. Therefore, God provided Israel with animal blood sacrifices for the
forgiveness of sins, which pointed to the atonement that Christ would make for
them and us at Calvary. God wanted Israel to focus their eyes and hearts of the
Lamb of God that would take away their sins. Whereby they would come to Him
with their hearts filled with love and appreciation for His grace and mercy,
and thereby trusting Him for their salvation as they strived to live holy
lives.
Animal
sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins were not just offered up once a
year, i.e. on the Day of Atonement or the Feast of Passover, but every day. A
guilty sinner did not have to wait a year or a month to have his or her conscience
clear from all the guilt of sins, so he or she could go to a priest any day
of the year and offer up a sacrifice for their sins. Much like it is today when
we stumble, we confess and repent of our sin and the blood of Jesus cleans us,
whereby our conscience is made clean. No one can have faith enough to overcome
the world, the devil and the flesh with a guilty conscience. This is why it is
absolutely necessary to have a good, honest, and clean conscience.
As
time marched on, the devil was able to deceive many of God’s old covenant
children, through the teachings of the Pharisees, into thinking that they had
to earn their salvation by their own personal holiness and
righteousness. Therefore, their attitude in serving God and keeping the
Law of Moses drastically changed. The devil deceived them into believing that
God did not love them because He severely chastised them when they continued
in their sins as a nation and would not repent. As a result, God sent them into
captivity.
They
no doubt forgot God admonishment when He told them: “If you do not obey Me, and do not observe
all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors
My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break
My covenant, I also will do this to you. I will even appoint terror over you,
wasting disease and fever, which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of
heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I
will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies.
Those who hate you shall reign over you…. I will chastise you seven
times for your sins” (Lev 26:12. 14-17, 27-28).
Somehow,
Israel did not associate God’s chastisements with His love for them. God
chastised them this way, so that it would lead them to repent of their sins,
and turn their lives back over to God. God loved them and did not want to see
them lost! The Old Testament spoke of God’s chastisement this way: “My son, do not despise the chastening of
the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just
as a father the son in whom he delights” (Pro 3:11-12).
The New Testament quotes the
above passage and then adds: “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons;
for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without
chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and
not sons…. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful;
nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those
who have been trained by it” (Heb 12:5-11).
Thank
God that no one in the new covenant has to doubt God’s love for them; for God’s
love and grace is not veiled in animal sacrifices any more, but in the precious
blood of Jesus Christ. Because of Calvary, God’s children can sing and praise
their God for His love and grace, even when they are going through the
heartaches and tragedies of life; for Calvary is the anchor that holds the
child of God from being overcome and destroyed by all the storms of life!
Because of their love for their Savior, they can look into the face of Lucifer,
regardless of how he hurts them, and say: My God is a good Heavenly Father, and
He proved His love for me once and for all time at Calvary. Devil, go and take
a good, long look at Calvary, and then come back and try to tell me, my
Heavenly Father does not love me!
How did the Lucifer get
Israel to take their eyes off God’s love and grace, and focus them on the works
of Moses Law? The devil did this by using false prophets, that is, the teaching
of the Pharisees. These Pharisees, being afraid that God would again send
Israel into captivity, consistently, day
after day, month after month, and year after year, preach the holiness of the
Law to Israel! As a result, Israel lost sight of God real intent
in giving the Law. They could not see God’s love in the Law any longer.
The Entire Mosaic Law System Had to Be
Abolished,
So Eternal Life Could Come Through
Christ
Once
the New Covenant began on the Day of Pentecost, the Mosaic Law System was abolished,
whereby no one could saved by keeping the works of the Law. Because of this
great truth, the great apostle Paul was always fighting and writing against
Jewish Christians who taught that all Christians had to keep the entire Mosaic
Law System to be saved. According to Paul, Israel was lost because they sought
salvation through the works of the Mosaic Law System. He said: “Israel [zealously] pursuing the [Mosaic] Law of righteousness, has not
attained to the Law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by
faith [in the gospel of Christ], but as it were, by the works of the Law [system of Moses]. For they stumbled at that Stumbling
Stone” (Rom 9:31-32).
Who or what was this Stumbling
Stone? The apostle Peter said it was Christ (1Pe 2:6-8). Because these Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah
and Savior, and His gospel, they were lost. Paul
confirmed this when he said: “If
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost” (2Co 4:3); and “For by grace [Christ] you have been saved through faith [in His gospel], and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). Therefore, no Jew could be saved by keeping the
Law!
Paul spoke of Israel lost
condition this way: “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have zeal
for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant
of God’s righteousness [through Christ and His gospel], and seeking to establish their own
righteousness [through the works of the Mosaic Law System], have not submitted to the
righteousness of God. For Christ is the END of the LAW for righteousness
to everyone who believes” what, the gospel of Christ (Rom 10:2-5). Therefore, according to Paul, the Jews were
lost because they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel! Paul declare
that the glory of the Old Mosaic Covenant, which contained the Ten Commandment,
was fulfilled in Christ through His New Covenant of His precious blood.
For the above reason, this GLORIOUS COVENANT was done away with in Christ. Paul said it
this way: “Now if the ministry that brought death,
which was ENGRAVED in letters on STONE, came with glory… will not the ministry
of the Spirit [New Covenant] be even more glorious…? And if what was FADING AWAY came with glory,
how much greater is the glory of that which lasts” (2Co
3:7-11, NIV). Paul said the same thing, when he told the
Church in Ephesus that Christ “abolishing [ABOLISHED] in His flesh the LAW with its COMMANDMENTS and REGULATIONS”
(Ephesians 2:15, NIV). Paul told Jewish Christians the same thing when he wrote: “By [God] calling this
covenant ‘new,’ He has made the FIRST ONE OBSOLETE; and what is OBSOLETE and
aging will SOON DISAPEAR” (Heb 8:13); and “He
SET ASIDE the FIRST to establish the second. And by that Will [i.e. the New Covenant], we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all” (Heb 10:9-10).
Paul speaking of salvation
in Christ alone told the Galatians:
“By the deeds [or works] of the Law [system of Moses] no flesh will be justified
[saved or
have Eternal Life] in His sight, for by the Law is the knowledge of
sin” (Rom 3:20). Therefore, the Law was not their Savior, for it was powerless to save
anyone. The Jews did not realize: “The Law [system of Moses] was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” in the gospel of Christ (Ga 3:24); and “What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed
[Christ] should come to whom the promise was made” (Ga 3:19); “Therefore, we conclude
that a man is justified by faith [in the gospel] apart from the deeds of the Law” system of Moses (Rom 3:28).
CHAPTER 4
GOD’S NEW
COVENANT
The
New Covenant is called “New” simply because it replaced the “Old.” It was
attain by the precious blood of Christ (Luke 22:20; Mat 26:27-28; 1Co 11:25).
Jesus purchased His Bride, which is the Body of Christ, through His atonement
at Calvary (1
Co 12:12-13). Paul called the Church the “mystery” that “in
other ages was not made known” (Eph 3:9). This
covenant guarantees the complete removal of sins and the personal revelation of
the Lord to every believer (Heb 8:11-12; 10:17). The
New Covenant is based on the redemptive work of Christ. It has not only
application to the Church in this age, but also to the restored nation Israel
in the age to come (Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:6-13).
The
Bible emphatically declares that no one can receive the promise of Eternal Life
in New Testament times, except by the death, burial and resurrection of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who is Eternal Life. The apostle John wrote: “That which was
from the beginning… the Word of Life. The Life was manifested, and we have
seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that Eternal Life which was with the
Father and was manifested to us” (1Jn 1:1-2). He went on to say: “And this is the
testimony: that God has given us Eternal Life, and this Life is in His SON” (1Jn 5:11). Even
though Jesus is Almighty God in FLESH, the Creator of the Universe, it was not
His Deity that saved us, but the Sinless Blood that God’s Humanity shed for our
sins that saves us! This is God’s Grace to lost humanity!!
The
reason why the Law or the Old Covenant had to be abolished was because God’s
Grace, which was contained in the Law system, could only be seen in
metaphorical form (Heb 10:1-9). Since Jesus has come, God does not need or want
animal sacrifices, which only symbolically portrayed the death, burial and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that the real, genuine, authentic
Sacrifice has come, what need is there for types or shadows or mere images of
God’s true Sacrifice. As long as the Old Covenant was in effect, God was obligated
to give His Grace and forgive Israel of her sins, and roll them ahead
each year. Therefore, God had to abolish His Old Covenant, so His Grace could
now be given through our Savior, our Kinsman Redeemer.
Yes beloved, no man could
ever be holy enough to earn salvation in either the Old or New Covenant. For no
matter how holy they were, none of them were sinless, and God required a Sinless
Human Sacrifice to forgive mankind of their sins. Therefore, they all needed a
Savior, for the Bible declares: “Without the shedding of blood is no remission” of
sins (Heb 9:22). John the Baptist speaking of Jesus to his disciples, shouted out for
all to hear: “Behold! The
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).
The
1985 edition of the Jewish JPS Tanakh of the Holy Scriptures speaking of
God’s Sinless Passover Lamb stated: “Your Lamb shall be WITHOUT
BLEMISH, a yearling MALE; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats…. It
is a Passover offering to the LORD” (Exodus 12:5, 12, published by the
Jewish Publication Society; also see Num 6:14; Lev 4:3, 23; 9:2-3); also “when
a man offers, from the herd or the flock, a sacrifice of well-being to the LORD
for an explicit vow or as a freewill offering, it MUST, to be acceptable, be
WITHOUT BLEMISH; there MUST be NO DEFECT in it” (Lev 22:21, TNK); and “You
shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God a bull or sheep which has any BLEMISH or
DEFECT, for that is an ABOMINATION to the LORD your God” (Deu
17:1:).
In
other word, God’s Passover Lamb could NOT be just the best Lamb someone
had, but it had to be a perfect, spotless, unblemished Lamb without any defects;
and if one did not have this kind of Lamb in there sheepfold, they had to go
and buy one! God would reject anything less than a Perfect Young Male Passover
Lamb for a sin offering. This was God way of saying that His Passover Lamb had
to be SINLESS, that is, without blemish or defect, or God would NOT forgive the
sins of mankind! According to the Word of God: “our Pesach
[Passover] Lamb, the MESSIAH, has been sacrificed” (1Co 5:7, The
Complete Jewish Bible, published by Messianic Jews). The
apostle Peter stated the above truth this way: “Knowing
that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold,
from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but
with the Precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb WITHOUT BLEMISH
and WITHOUT SPOT [i.e. DEFECT]. He indeed was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these
last times for you” (1 Peter 1:18-20).
The
apostle Paul preached this truth this way: “Now the FIRST [OLD] Covenant had both regulations for worship and a Holy
Place here on earth…. But when the Messiah appeared as cohen gadol [our
High Priest] of the good things that are happening
already, then, through the greater and more perfect Tent which is not
man-made (that is, it is not of this created world), He entered the Holiest
Place ONCE and for all [time]. And
He entered [i.e. the Holiest of Holy] not by
means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of HIS OWN BLOOD, thus
setting people free forever. For if sprinkling ceremonially unclean persons
with the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer restores their
outward purity; then how much more the BLOOD of the Messiah, who,
through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself to God as a Sacrifice
WITHOUT BLEMISH [Gr amomos], will purify our conscience from
works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God! It is because of
this death that He is MEDIATOR of a NEW Covenant [or will]” (Heb 9:1, 11-15, CJB).
Dr.
Joseph Thayer of Harvard University in his Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament defined the Greek adjective “amomos”
or “without blemish” as: “without
blemish, free from faultiness, as a victim without
spot or blemish: 1 Pet. 1:19 (Lev. 22:21); Heb. 9:14; in both places allusion
is made to the SINLESS LIFE of Christ. Ethically, without blemish,
faultless, unblamable: Eph. 1:4; 5:27; Col. 1:22; Phil. 2:15; Jude 1:24;
Rev. 14:5. (Often in the Septuagint; (Hesiod, Simonides, Jamblichus), Herodotus
2, 177; Aeschylus Pers. 185; Theocritus, 18, 25)” (#315).
Paul
went on to say: “For we do not have a cohen gadol [High
Priest] unable to empathize with our weaknesses; since in every respect he
was TEMPTED [i.e. to sin] just as we are, the only difference being
that he did NOT SIN” (Heb 4:15, CJB); in other word, Jesus was sinless! The
NIV translated this verse this way: “For
we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but we have ONE [i.e. Jesus] who has been TEMPTED [i.e. to
sin] in every way, just as we are-- yet was WITHOUT SIN;” also: “God
made this SINLESS man [i.e. Jesus to]
be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might
fully share in God’s righteousness.” The NIV
translated this verse like this: “God made Him [i.e.
Jesus] who had
NO SIN to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness
of God” (2Co 5:21, CJB).
Who can read the above scriptures and the following scriptures and declare
that our Savior was a sinner or even committed one sin. How can anyone read the
following prophecy of the prophet Isaiah, which was written 700 years before
Jesus was born, and declared that the Messiah did not die for their sins or the
sins of the world as God’s Sinless Passover Lamb. The 1917 JPS Holy
Scriptures, published by the Jewish Publication Society, translated
Isaiah’s prophecy this way:
“But
He was wounded [chalal - SLAIN] because
of OUR TRANSGRESSIONS [pesha`
SINS], He was crushed [daka' - BEATEN] because of
OUR INIQUITIES [`avon]: the chastisement of our welfare
was upon Him, and with His STRIPES we were healed [rapha'
– physically healed or cured]…. For He was CUT OFF out of the land of
the living, FOR the TRANSGRESSIONS [pesha`] of MY people to whom the stroke was due. And
they made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich His tomb;
although He had done NO VIOLENCE [chamac
i.e. LAWLESSNESS or INJUSTICE], neither was any deceit in
His mouth” (isa 53:5-9, JPS).
The
Jewish Tanakh 1985 edition translated verses 5 and 9 this way: “But
He was wounded [chalal - SLAIN] because
of OUR SINS [pesha`], Crushed [daka' -
BEATEN] because of OUR INIQUITIES [`avon]. He bore the
chastisement that made us whole, And by His bruises we were healed. 6
We all went astray like sheep, each going his own way; And the LORD visited
upon Him the guilt [`avon - INIQUITY] of all of US…. For
He was CUT OFF from the land of the LIVING through [i.e. FOR] the SIN of MY people, who deserved the punishment….
Though He had done NO INJUSTICE [chamac i.e. LAWLESSNESS] and had spoken NO falsehood.” The English
Bible in Basic English translated verse 9 like this: “Though
He had done NO WRONG, and NO deceit was in His mouth;”
and The Douay-Rheims: “Because He hath done
NO INIQUITY, NEITHER was there deceit in His mouth.”
The English Translation of the
Septuagint Version of the Old Testament by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton translated
the verses in Isaiah this way: “He bears OUR SINS [a`marti,aj - hamartia], and is pained [SUFFERED] for US…. But He was
wounded [slain] on account of OUR SINS [avnomi,aj - anomia], and was bruised [beaten] because of OUR
INIQUITIES [a`marti,aj -
hamartia]: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him…. The Lord gave Him up for
OUR SINS [a`marti,aij -
hamartia]… because of the iniquities [lawlesness] of My people He was
led to DEATH… and He shall bear THEIR SINS [a`marti,aj - hamartia]. Therefore… His Soul was delivered
to DEATH: and He was numbered among the transgressors; and He bore the SINS [a`marti,aj - hamartia] of many, and was delivered because of THEIR
INIQUITIES [a`marti,aj -
hamartia]”
(Isa 53:4-12, LXE).
The Analytical Greek New
Testament by Drs. Timothy and Barbara Friberg defined the Greek noun “hamartia
{ham-ar-tee’-ah}” as: sin; (1) of an act, a departure from doing what is right…
sin, wrongdoing (1J 5.17); (2) as the moral consequence of having
done something wrong sin, guilt (AC 3.19; 1J 1.7); (3) as the
nature of wrongdoing viewed as the rejection of God by self-assertive
human beings sin, evil (RO 5.12, 13; cf. 1.21); (4) especially in
Johannine usage as a moral condition of human beings in revolt
against God sin, being evil, sinfulness (JN 9.34; 15.24); (5)
especially in Pauline usage as an abstract moral principle or force personified
as evil in character sin, evil (RO 6.12); (6) especially in Hebrews
as a deceiving power personified as leading human beings to guilt and
destruction (HE 3.13; 12.1) (#1288). They also defined the Greek noun
anomia as: “as what is contrary to law; (1) as a
general state of wrong lawlessness, wickedness, iniquity (1J 3.4); (2)
as an individual violation of law sin, wrong (doing), (practice of)
lawlessness (MT 7.23)” (#2200).
This
is why the apostle Paul, speaking of the Precious Sinless Blood that was shed
by dear Lord’s humanity for our sins, could say: “For
there is one God and ONE MEDIATOR between God and men, the MAN [i.e. the
Sinless Blood of] Christ Jesus, who gave himself as
a ransom for all men” (1Ti 2:5-6, NIV). Yes,
Calvary is the only way any man can approach God to be saved. Jesus stated this
truth this way: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No
one comes to the Father [i.e. God] except through Me” (Jn 14:6, NIV); and “I
tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the Gate, but
climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber…. I am the Gate; whoever
enters through Me will be SAVED” (Jn 10:1, 9, NIV).
Therefore,
no matter how good and sincere a man or woman may be today, in whatever
religion he or she embraces, regardless of how pure its moral teachings may be,
no one can be Saved or receive the promise of Eternal Life, unless he or she
enters into the New Covenant of Jesus’ Sinless Blood by means of the New Birth.
This is the only way anyone can enter into or receive the death, burial and
resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. No Jew or gentile today,
could ever earn the promise of Eternal Life or justification in the sight of
God by keeping the Law because, as I said before, he or she was not sinless and
also no one can annul the blessings of the cross of Calvary (Rom 3:20-22; Ga 2:16-21;
3:19-25).
The Saving Power of the Sinless Blood
of Jesus, the Story of Ha’von Sing: Permit me to give you example
of how the righteousness of a holy man cannot save him from his sins, but it
does get God’s attention. In 1978, my senior year of Bible College, I meet an
elderly man by the name of Ha’von Sing; he was the High Priest in the Sikh
temple in Stockton, CA. He asked me if I would like to learn the teachings of
Sikhism? I told him I would, if in return he would allow me to teach him about
the Lord Jesus Christ. He agreed and we both started teaching each other. He
taught me that Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded in Punjab India in
the 15th century by a man called Guru Nanak. He said Sikhism rejects
idolatry and the Hindu caste system of social status and order. He declared
that his religion has 12 prophets, whom he said have declared their scriptures.
He also told me he experienced Transcendental Meditation (TM), which only
occurred when he went into a subconscious state of meditation. I told
him, I believe this was nothing more than IMAGINARY DREAMING, for he was no
longer aware of his body or his surroundings.
After
6 months of teaching him about the life, death, burial, and resurrection of our
Lord, Ha’von Sing fell deeply in love with the Lord Jesus Christ and made Him
the 13th prophet in his religion; in fact, the only books in the
Bible he would read were the Gospels, which he would read over and over again.
One day I decided to teach Him about the SINLESS BLOOD that Jesus shed for the
HEALING of our BODIES. After I finished, he told me: “My Friend, I have great pain in
my head right now, and I have prayed to my prophets, just before you came, to
heal me; and one of them came to me in a vision and told me: ‘if I would
believe him he would heal me.’ I told my prophet: ‘if he would heal me, I would
believe him.’”
When
Ha’von Sing told me this, I immediately knew that the lesson I taught him on
the healing power of the blood of Jesus was no accident, but was ordain of God.
Therefore, I told him: “My Friend your prophets do not have the power to heal you but Jesus
does! If you will permit me to lay my hand on your forehead and pray for you, I
promise you Jesus will heal you.” He then told me in his child
like way of speaking English: “Pray for me my Friend, pray for me.” I
laid my hand on him and commanded the pain in his head to be gone in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ! Immediately the pain was gone!! Ha’von Sing became
very excited and then told me this story. He said: “My Friend, I did not know
Jesus, but Jesus came to me in a vision a short time ago, and told me I
would come to America and become the High Priest in this temple. He told me
that He would send one of His servants to me to teach me about Him; this is why
I accepted your offer to teach me about Him.”
When
he told me of his vision, I was not only thrilled that God was using me this
way, but I was totally amazed that God had given him this vision. The words
Peter told the Roman centurion Cornelius began to ring in my heart: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation
whoever fears Him and WORKS RIGHTEOUSNESS is ACCEPTED by Him” (Acts
10:34-35). So
it was at this time that he agreed to attend a Church Service with me. As we
were sitting in the balcony of the Church, which had an attendance of
1000-2,000 saints, this 75-year-old man jumped up and pointed to a brother at
the altar, who was praying to receive the Holy Spirit. Ha’von Sing extremely
excited said to me, as he pointed: “Look my Friend! Look!! I just
saw LIGHT [i.e. God] go into that man!!!”
It was shortly after this, I
decided to teach Ha’von Sing - God’s Plan of Salvation, which is the ONE and
ONLY WAY for anyone to receive Eternal Life, and be saved from Hell and the
Second Death. After I finished, he told me: “My
Friend, you do not understand the things Jesus is saying.” I then said: “Well,
lets read these scriptures again, and you tell me what Jesus is teaching.” I read to him all the above
passages of Scriptures. He then told me: “Jesus cannot mean this,
for there are many ways to become ONE with the LIGHT [i.e.
God], Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity are all ways that
lead to the LIGHT [i.e. God]!”
I concluded by saying: “My
Friend the ONLY WAY you can become ONE with the LIGHT is through the Sinless
Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your righteousness, which is great as you
strive with all of your heart to become PURE in your thoughts, actions, and the
words you speak, cannot save you. If righteousness could save you my
Friend, you would be standing in line before me and a lot of preachers I
know; for you are truly a very righteous man, who has no desire for the
material things of this world! This is something I wish I could say
about myself, but I cannot; and I truly love you for your righteousness
and for your passionate desire for inward and outward purity! My Friend
according to the Bible, you and I in the sight of God: ‘are ALL like an unclean thing, and ALL our righteousnesses are like filthy rags’ [Isa 64:6], for we ‘ALL have SINNED and fall short of the glory of God’
and His Sinless Perfection [Rom 3:23]. Since you and I Have committed one or
more sins (done evil things) in our life, we are not sinless; therefore, we
need the Sinless Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to atone for our sins and
cleans us from all sins, so we can become ONE with the LIGHT [i.e.
God].”
Ha’von Sing then told me: “My
Friend, why do you offend me this way.” I told him: “My Friend, I love you and all
the money in the world could not entice me to offend you, but how much would I
love you, if I saw you, your wife and two daughter, sleeping in this temple and
this temple was on fire, and I did not do everything I could to wake you up and
get you out of here?” He said: “Not very much my Friend.” I
then told him: “My
Friend, I take no pleasure in saying this, but there is ONLY ONE TRUE RELIGION
and many false ones! Your religion is false and it cannot save you or your
loves ones!! Only the Sinless Blood of Jesus can cleans you from your sins!!!
Your must renounce your religion and come to the foot of the Cross of Calvary,
and ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and save you!!!! If you are willing
to do this, Jesus will bring you into His New Birth of ‘Water and Spirit,’ that is, He will lead you to be Baptize in
His holy Name [i.e. the Lord Jesus Christ] and then He will fill you with
His LIGHT [i.e. the Holy Spirit]. The very same LIGHT you SAW entering
into the brother who was praying at the Altar in Church.”
Ha’von
Sing then said to me: “My Friend, I do not want you to come back here. I am going to stop
praying to Jesus and reading about His life. Please do not come back!” He
asked me to leave. My heart was broken and I told my Lord: “If any man deserves to be saved
surely it must be him, for surely he deserves salvation much more than I do.
Lord, I know, no man deserves the salvation you purchased for us at Calvary, it
is only by Your Grace I and anyone else will be saved.” I
then decided I would pray and fast until God opens Ha’von Sing’s heart. Two
weeks later, God spoke to me in prayer and said: “I have opened Ha’von Sing’s
heart! He is now ready to continue his Bible Studies with you!!” I immediately
went to the Sikh Temple and sure enough God had opened his heart. It was at
that time that Ha’von Sing began to teach the Life, Death, Burial, and
Resurrection of our Savior to the people in his temple. Therefore, only the
Precious Sinless Blood of Jesus can save us from our sins!!!
How Did the Mosaic Law Doctrine of
Salvation
Enter into God’s
New Testament Church
Dr.
Luke gave us the answer when he spoke of the First Church Council. He declared:
“Certain
men [Christian
Pharisees], came down
from Judea and taught the brethren, ‘unless you are circumcised
according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’
Therefore… Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them” (Acts 15:1-2). These Christian Pharisees believed it was
absolutely “necessary to circumcise them [meaning the gentile
Christians], and to
command them to keep the Law of Moses” (Vs 5). Because of
this teaching, Paul wrote epistles to God’s Churches warning them not to
believe this Mosaic Law doctrine of salvation. In fact, Paul wrote his epistle
to the Galatians sometime after the First Church Council (Ga 2:4, 7-9). In
this epistle he told them: “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who
called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which
is not another; but there are some [meaning the Christian
Pharisees] who
trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Ga 1:6-7). What did these Christian Pharisees pervert the
gospel, if it was not by connecting the Mosaic Law System to salvation?
Paul went on to warn the
gentile Christians in Galatia by saying: “I, Paul, say to you that if you become
circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to
every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the
whole law. You have become estranged [or alienated or separated] from Christ, you who
attempt to be justified [saved]
by Law [of Moses]; you have fallen from grace” (Ga 5:2-4), or the salvation that is in the gospel of
Christ. “How
is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which
you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and
seasons and years” or the ceremonial ordinances of the Mosaic Law
System (Ga 4:9-10). In these verses Paul gives
us some of the works of the Law that the Jews were required to keep
for salvation.
Paul continued his
discourse: “Knowing that a man is not justified [saved] by the works of the
Law [of
Moses] but by faith
in Jesus Christ, even we who have believed in Christ Jesus, that we
might be justified by faith in [the gospel of] Christ and not by the works
of the Law; for by the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified…. I
do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness [salvation] comes through the Law [of Moses], then Christ died in vain” (Ga 2:16, 21, comp with Rom 3:1, 20-24).
It is very evident that
these Christian Pharisees deceive the Galatian Christians into believing that
they had to believe and obey the gospel of Christ and keep the works of the Law
of Moses to be saved or to receive Eternal Life. One of the works of the
Law these Jewish Christians practiced, which definitely denied the grace of
Christ was: they still believed that the animal blood sacrifices, offered up in
the temple in Jerusalem, could remove the sins they committed after their New
Birth experience (Heb 9:28; 10:10-12,
26-30; 6:4-6). In fact, the Christian Jews held on to their blood
sacrifices until the Romans destroyed the temple in AD 70. This is one of the reasons why Paul told
these Christians that “Christ died in vain” for them; and that they have
“trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant
by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit
of grace” (Heb 10:29).
Now, why did these Christian
Pharisees believe and teach the Mosaic doctrine of salvation? Did the apostles
in Jerusalem teach the Mosaic Law for salvation? Did these Christian Pharisees
misinterpret what the apostles taught? Did these men decide to incorporate the
Mosaic doctrine of salvation into Christianity on their own initiative? The
answer can be found in the proceedings of the First Church Council and in the
trip Paul made to Jerusalem some years after this council.
When Paul went to Jerusalem,
he was met by the apostles, who told him: “See, brother, how many myriads of Jews
there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law
[of
Moses]; but they have
been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who
are among the Gentiles to forsake [the Law of] Moses, saying that they ought not
to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.
What then, [or
what shall be do]?
The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you
have come. Therefore [or because of this] do what we tell you: We
have four men [Jewish Christians] who have taken a vow. Take them and be purified
with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads,
and that all [Jewish Christians] may know that those things of which they were informed
concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep
the Law [of Moses]…. Then Paul took the men, and the next day, having been purified
with them” (Acts 21:18-26).
Therefore, it is very
evident from the above passage of Scripture, that the apostles in Jerusalem
taught and encourage Christian Jews to keep the works of the Mosaic Law System.
As a result, they were probably a little ambiguous in their teaching that it
was abolished on the Day of Pentecost. It is also evident that they did not
teach that it was necessary for salvation, or even associated it with
salvation, as the Christian Pharisees did. This can clearly be seen when we
read the letter they sent to the gentile Christians, after the First Church
Council finished. They stated: “Since we have heard that some [meaning Christian Pharisees] who went out from us
have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, ‘You must be
circumcised and keep the Law [of Moses], to whom we gave no such commandment….
For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater
burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to
idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you
keep yourselves from these, you will do well” (Acts 15:24,
28-29).
Now the question that arises
from all this is: why did the apostles and Jewish Christians in Judea keep the
works of Moses Law? The apostles evidently, like Paul, knew it was abolished on
the Day of Pentecost when God established the New Covenant. Part of the answer
can be found in words of Paul when he said: “For though I am free from
all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win
the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to
those who are under the Law [of Moses], as under the Law, that I might win
those who are under the Law; to those who are without Law, as
without Law (not being without Law toward God, but under Law toward Christ),
that I might win those who are without law” (1Co 9:19-21). Therefore, these Jewish Christians keep the
Law of Moses very zealously, so they could win Jews to Christ. Another reason
why they keep it was to avoid persecution from the Jewish religious leaders,
who would accuse them of being sinners and Lawbreakers.
Conclusion: the
early Christian Church had a double standard, one for Jewish Churches in
Palestine and another for the Gentile Churches. It is evident that no Jewish
Christian would ever win anyone in Judaism, if they were not very zealous to
keep the Law of Moses. For this reason, they put themselves under the yoke of
the Law to win those under the Law! Even though the apostles, elders, and most
of the Jewish saints of God knew that God had abolished the Law. It is also
obvious that some of the Christian Pharisees believed in keeping the Mosaic Law
for salvation. Consequently, some Christian Jewish Pharisees took it upon
themselves, without the apostles’ approval, permission, and knowledge, to
convert Gentile Christians to the Mosaic Law. Therefore, some of the Christian
Pharisees taught justification or salvation by the works of the Law, which none
of the apostles ever taught! For Peter distinctly spoke for all the apostles
when he declared at the First Church Council: “We believe that through the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they” meaning Gentile Christians (Acts 15:11).
Therefore, the great apostle Paul instructions to God’s children
concerning seeking righteousness, justification, and eternal life through
Christ, and not by the works of the Law, were the absolute truth. Those
Christians who sought salvation through the Law of Moses, made a mockery of
Christ, and therefore Christ died for them in vain! In the old covenant, Satan
blinded God’s children by the teachings of the Pharisees to take their eyes off
of God’s mercy and grace, which were contained in the ceremonial ordinances of
the Law, that is, the blood sacrifice offered up on the Day of Atonement, and
place them solely on the moral aspects of the Law. In the new covenant, the old
Serpent blinded some of the people of God the very same way. He used the
teaching of the Pharisees to get their eyes off Calvary, which is God’s grace
and mercy, and place them on the letter of the Law.
Holiness: The Believer’s Loving Response
to God’s Grace
The
Bible clearly reveals that no one can be saved through their own personal
holiness, for “our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isa 64:6), in
the sight of God, and “all have sinned” (Rom 3:23). Because
we all have committed at least one or more sins in our life, we all are under
the death sentence: “For the wages of
sin is death; but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:23). Therefore, holiness is not the Christian’s savior
or has the power to save us, regardless how holy one may be!
Biblical
holiness must come from a heart full of love for their God and Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because some Christians do not agape love our Lord, they do not earnestly
strive to live holy lives. They abuse God’s grace of salvation by willfully
practicing or living in sin. As a result, they try to use the precious, sinless
blood of Jesus to cleans them from their sins. Please take note to the words “earnestly strive.” There
is a world of difference between those who earnestly strive with their whole
heart to live holy and imitate their Savior, and those who do not try and do
not want to repent! Even though those who love our Savior may fall, or fail God
at times in their faith, they pick themselves up and through God’s Grace and
try again, until there faith prevails over ever sin. In other words, they use
God Grace as a means to overcome sin, not as an excuse to live in sin.
Because
some of God’s children were hypocritical in their walk with God, the great
faith and grace preacher, the apostle Paul, told those who practiced
sin: “Now the works of the flesh are evident,
which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery,
hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions,
dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of
which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that
those who practice such things will not inherit the
kingdom of God…. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh
with its passions and desires” (Ga
6:10-24).
Let us
always remember, holiness is not bondage, but it liberates the soul and the
spirit of man and produces joy and peace within, that is, if we truly love God.
It is the power of God working in the believer. Jesus, as a man, was a Holy
Man. The Bible stated: “virtue [went] out
of Him and healed them all” (Lk 6:17-19, KJV). Sin,
not holiness, is bondage. Sin is what separates God from man. Sin is what robs
man of his happiness and peace within.
It is
sin that gives Satan the right to become the master of the sinner, so that
Satan and his demonic spirits can manipulate him or her to do their will. This
is exactly why Jesus told the hypocritical children of God: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of
your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him”
(Jn 8:44). God has
required His people in every age to be Holy, because He does not want them
under the influence or control of Lucifer or his demons.
True
holiness will produce a humble and loving spirit within the believer, but false
holiness will produce a boastful, arrogant and deceitful spirit within. Just as
there will be preachers who will be lost for preaching a fear and
works message of holiness, there will be many who will loose
their souls because they have preached a distorted message of God’s
love. They have preached magnificently of God’s grace and mercy that came
through Calvary, but they have failed to preach man’s responsibility to love
God and earnestly strive to live holy.
They
have distorted God’s message of Calvary to such an extent, that God’s children
think they can live like the devil and God’s grace will cover them because they
are Christians. They preach God’s grace but deny His right to rule every area
of the believer’s heart, whereby the Lord Jesus Christ is living His holy life
in the believer. Their preaching actually encourages God’s people to be slaves
of sin, instead of the Holy Spirit giving them a new nature and atomic power to
live holy, whereby they can fulfill their ministry as God’s Holy Priests (1Pe 2:5-10).
Paul,
like all the other apostles and disciples of Jesus, was a holiness preacher. He
definitely associated grace with godly living. He told Titus: “The
grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Teaching us to say
‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright
and godly lives in the present age, while we wait for the blessed hope-the
glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself
for us to redeem us from all wickedness, and to purify for Himself a people
that are His very own, eager to do what is good. These then are the things you
should teach” (Tit 2:11-15, N.I.V). Paul also declared: “But
now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have
your fruit to holiness, and the end, Everlasting Life” (Tit 2:12, Rom 6:22).
Paul
told God’s people why they should live holy. He said: “Do you not know that you are the temple
of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles [phtheiro] the temple of God, God will destroy
him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are…. Do you not know that the
unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.
Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor
sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1Co 3:16-17, 6:9-10).
The
Greek word “phtheiro” is
used 8 times in the New Testament, and is translated 4 times as corrupt, 1 time
as corrupt one’s self, 1 time as be corrupt, 1 times as defile, and 1 time as
destroy. Dr. Henry J. Thayer’s in his work entitled, A Greek-English Lexicon of
the New Testament, defines “phtheiro” as: to corrupt, to destroy. 1a) In the opinion of the
Jews, the temple was corrupted or ‘destroyed’ when anyone defiled or in the
slightest degree damaged anything in it, or if its guardians neglected their
duties. 1b) To lead away a Christian church from that state of knowledge and holiness
in which it ought to abide. 1c) To be destroyed, to perish; 1d) in an
ethical sense, to corrupt, deprave. [3]
Why
did Paul writing to the Church in Galatia tell them they are not under the Law
of Moses but under Grace, and then writes to the Corinthians and tells them
that they are going to hell if they do not stop their sinning by defiling their
bodies, which is God’s dwelling place? Was Paul confused? Was Paul a hypocrite?
No, no, a thousand times no. Many preachers today are confused about Law and
Grace, but Paul knew the absolute truth. Let us remember that the Corinthians
came out of heathenism and had no moral upbringing. All the sins Paul mention
were part of their normal life style. They did not see anything wrong with
them. They were all babes in Christ and needed to be taught holiness,
righteousness, and separation from the world.
If Paul was living
today and he was preaching to the Corinthians, he probably would say something
like this: “You denominational Christians
and charismatic Pentecostals scare me to death. You think you can pray and
worship God in tongues and enjoy all His blessings, and still live any way you
want and go to heaven. You are nuts. Do you not know you are abusing the grace
of God? You are defiling the temple of God. If you do not want the devil as
your dancing partner in hell, as both of you stomp your feet on fire and
brimstone, while you weep and wail and gnash your teeth, then you better stop
your sinning. You need to fall in agape love with Jesus and His Word, and out
of love with sin and death.”
The
apostle John summarized a Christian’s love for God with these words: “Now by this we know that we know Him, if
we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him," and does not
keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.
By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself
also to walk just as He walked”
(1Jn 2:3-6).
Our blessed Lord said the same thing when he said: “if you love Me, keep My commandments…. If anyone
loves Me, he will keep My word…. He who does not love Me does not
keep My words” (Jn 14:15, 23-24).
These scriptures are so
clear that they are beyond all dispute, they do not need argumentation but
obedience. No one can say they love Jesus
and at the same time despise holiness and righteousness in their hearts, for
they are just as much a part of God’s attributes as grace and mercy. You cannot
pick or choose what attributes of God you will love and which you will not!
God’s attributes are a part of Him and God wants you to love all of Him or no
part of Him! The Christian life is not like going to a restaurant, whereby you
pick up a spiritual menu and choose what part of God’s Word you will love and
practice, and what part you will not, for the Words that God has spoken are
just as much a part of Him as His attributes. Jesus, as a man: “loved righteousness
and hated lawlessness” (Heb 1:9). Since Jesus’ loved holiness and righteousness
and hated sin, should not we as His children do the same.
Let us
compare James’ teaching on Law and Grace with that of Paul’s. Some modern day
preachers would call James, the fleshly brother of our Lord, a legalist and a
Pharisee because he preached holy living to God’s Church. His message on grace,
like that of Paul was: “if you truly love God’s grace then that will produce in you a genuine
desire to practice holiness and righteousness.” Did James teaching on faith
and works contradict the teachings of Paul, as liberal preachers seem to imply?
The obvious answer to anyone who believes that the Bible is the infallible Word
of God is an absolute no! Both Paul and James agree in their writings that true
faith will produce a real love for Christ in a believer’s heart, whereby he or
she will become obedient to His Word, which will be evident by the life he or
she lives.
As we
examine James’ teachings we should ask, what problem is James addressing
in his writings? Is it the same problem that Paul was addressing or was it
different? As we have already discovered, Paul was writing against Christians
Pharisees in the Church who were trying to incorporate the Old Covenant of the
Mosaic Law System for salvation into God’s New Covenant. They insisted that no
one could be saved unless they kept all the precepts of Moses.
James was
writing against a completely different problem in the church. For he was
evidentially writing against hypocritical Christians who were committing sins,
and were seeking to be justify by their faith in Jesus’ grace. One of their
sins was their lack of love and compassion for their poor brothers and sisters
in Christ. This can be seen in the warning James gave to these brothers when he
said: “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers…. Therefore, get rid
of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent….
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says….
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look
after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being
polluted by the world” (Ja 1:16, 21-22, 27, NIV).
After James informs us of their
sins, he then deals with those who seek justification through Christ without
repentance or turning away from their sins. He says: “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have
faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him…? You foolish man, do you want
evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham
considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the
altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his
faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that
says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and
he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does
and not by faith alone” (Ja 2:14, 20-24, NIV).
James used the word “works” to refer to Abraham’s “acts of obedience to the God command,” for Abraham knew nothing of
the works of the Mosaic Law System. Permit me to paraphrase what James is saying:
“If you think your faith in God’s
grace will justify your willful disobedience to His Word, and your faith along
will save you, you are nuts!” Jude spoke of
those in the church who believed this lie of Satan when he wrote: “They
are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license
for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord”
(Jude 1:4, NIV). Notice these people denied Jesus by not
allowing Him to be Lord in their lives, or in other words, they did not love
Him enough to strive to keep His Word.
Because
God abrogated the Mosaic Law system for salvation, it does not mean that God’s
children are lawless, for we have the Laws of Christ. All of God’s MORAL Laws
under the Mosaic Law system is still in effect today, UNLESS it
has been FULFILLED in
Christ (Mt
5:17-20).The Laws of Christ includes all the principles of the
Moral Law and the Ten Commandments, excluding the Fourth Commandment, because
this was fulfilled in our reception of the Holy Ghost, which is God’s true
Sabbath rest and refreshing (Heb 4:1-3; Isa 28:11-12; Col 2:15-17; Hos 2:9-11). In
fact, if one has not received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and is not
striving to be holy every day, and is not resting in God’s glorious Spirit,
they are not keeping the Fourth Commandment.
Keeping
the seventh day Sabbath as a holy day is not keeping the Fourth Commandment
according to New Testament scriptures. The apostle Paul speaking of the Mosaic
Law requirements for foods and Sabbath days wrote: “Who are you to judge
someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will
stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man considers ONE DAY MORE
SACRED than another; another man considers EVERY DAY ALIKE. Each one should be
FULLY CONVINCED [PERSUADED] in his own mind.
He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who EATS
MEATS, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and HE who ABSTAINS, does
so to the Lord and gives thanks to God” (Rom
14:3-6). If eating certain foods, such as
ham, or not keeping the Sabbath as a holy day was a sin in God’s sight today,
then the apostle would not have told God’s Children, let each one be fully
persuaded in their own mind as to what he or she would believe and practice
concerning these things.
Therefore, any Christian who
teaches that we must keep the Sabbath Day to continue to be saved is not
telling the truth! There is NOT ONE COMMAND in the epistles of the apostles to keep the
Seventh Day Sabbath. Since the Holy Ghost is the believers true rest every day,
I believe the Holy Ghost will leads us to esteem every day as a day for us to
be holy and draw near to God. I believe it will also teach us to set aside one
day of the week, regardless of what day it is, to cease from all our works or
labors, and to seek our Lord with much prayer and study of His Holy Word. There
is nothing wrong in keeping a Saturday, Sunday, or any other day as a holy day,
but it is a sin before God to make it a condition for salvation. Since all of
the above scriptures reveal that the Seventh Day Sabbath was fulfilled in
Christ, who is our rest (Mt 11:28), it is not a sin or a command from God any longer.
The
New and Old Testament is full of good holy righteous laws for happiness, that
our loving Heavenly Father has given us to live by, so we do not fall snare to
Satan’s trap of sin. God’s New Covenant Laws are not our Savior, Jesus is! They
are only knowledge of sin (1Ti 1:8-9; Rom 3:20). The
Law is made for the lawless, and grace is for those who truly love our Lord and
want to be like Him. Those who want to live Holy. Those who want their Lord to
live His life through them. If they fall or stumble, they rely on His grace and
pick themselves up and keep walking by faith, trusting in His power to
keep them from sin. In fact, if you are not trusting God to keep you from sin,
you are not living by faith!
The
apostle Paul taught that God saved the believer by His grace in order that they
should walk in holiness, thereby producing good works in their lives. Paul said
it this way: “For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10); and “God is
able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having
all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every
good work” (2Co 9:8). Jesus also associated good
works with living holy. He said: “Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works [ergon], and glorify your
Father which is in heaven” (Mt 5:16).
The
apostle Peter, being a holiness preacher, believed in and taught this doctrine
of Christ, for he wrote: “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the
world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such
good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they
may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us…. It is God’s
will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil [sin]; live as servants
of God” (1Pe
11-12, 15-16, NIV).
The
apostle John preached holiness in very strong language. He wrote: “In this the children
of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice
righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother” (1Jn 3:10); and “For
this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments
are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world…. We know that whoever is born of God does not [practice] sin; but he who has
been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him” (1Jn 5:3-4, 18); and “Beloved,
do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he
who does evil has not seen God” (3Jn 1:11).
Therefore,
those preachers who despise good old fashion Bible holiness preaching, and call
it Pharisaism, are really ministers of Satan. You would think these preachers
have spiritually ripped out the numerous holiness verses that are in the
epistles of James, John, Peter, Paul, and the Old Testament, not to mention our
Savior’s teachings. Why do these preachers hate holiness preaching? Could it be
that it is not materially lucrative for them? Of course, they are not going to
tell the believer that, for they know they will mark them as a false prophet.
So, they have no other alternative but to call holiness preaching legalism.
Therefore, they preach a distorted view of Law and Grace.
This
is why Jude called the liberal preachers in his day Balaamite, for they
preached for material profit (Jude 1:11). It appears to me, these
preachers were more concerned about a social gospel than the gospel of Christ,
about situation ethics than righteousness and holy godly living, about the
doctrine of no absolutes than the validity of God’s holy and infallible Word,
about How To Win Friends and Influence
People than loving God’s people enough to telling them the truth.
Because
these men are hirelings and the ministry is a profession to them, they are
afraid of offending worldly, carnal people in the Church, or those coming into
the Church, and thereby lose their tithes and offerings. They have dollars
before their eyes more than the love and fear of God. They do not get their
messages from God and His Word, but from TV and radio preachers who know they
will lose much of their financial support if they preach holiness. Therefore,
these preachers, like those on TV and radio, never or rarely preach man’s
responsibility to agape love God by living holy! If they do preach holiness,
they water it down to such extent that the preaching of God Word has no power
to change lives.
If
they would preach God’s holiness standards as a vital part of a Christian’s
agape love walk with Jesus, half as much as they preach His grace, God would
send America a great holiness revival that could save our nation from His soon
coming wrath. God is obligated through His Word to destroy any nation, family,
or person, who practices immorality, just as He did the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah! Is it not time for America to have a THIRD AWAKEN, and “put
on the breastplate of righteousness” (Eph 6:14).
Either America will have a THIRD AWAKEN because it loves God and His
holy Word, or God will wake up America by sending them into great tribulation.
God’s Three-Fold Purpose in Giving His
Holy Laws
to His Old and New Testament Children
To
truly understand the purpose of the Law, we need to understand God’s mindset in
giving the Law of Moses to the children of Israel, and the New Testament Laws
to the Church. As we understand God’s mindset in giving these Laws, it should
given us some insights in understanding this subject. I believe that God had a three-fold purpose in giving His Laws to them and
us. FIRST, to
protect them and us from becoming demon possessed. Living in sin is like having
a large welcome sign on your chest that says: “Vacant house, free rent,
and the door is open for demon spirits to come in and inhibit.”
Jesus
gave us many examples of demon possession in the New Testament. The Bible
speaks of a demon possess man who lived in the graveyard that could not be
bound with chains. These unclean spirits tormented this man and made him
insane, causing him to cut himself with stones and hurt himself in many other
ways. One day this man met Jesus who by the will of God was passing by. When
Jesus saw the terrible state this man was in, He said to these demons: “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!’
Then He asked him, ‘What is your name?’ And he [one of the demons] answered, saying, ‘My name
is Legion; for WE are MANY.” The demons then begged Jesus “earnestly that He would not send them out of
the country…. All the demons begged Him, saying, ‘Send us to the swine, that
we may ENTER them.’ And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean
spirits WENT OUT [of the man’s body] and entered the swine (there were about TWO THOUSAND); and
the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea”
(Mk 5:8-13, KJV).
Beloved please do not allow
yourself to be deceived in thinking that demons do not exist, or the evil in
people is just a state of mind! The only real protection we have against these
filthy creatures is to be filled with the Holy Ghost, and love and obey the
Word of God. David speaking of the power of God’s Word to keep us from sin
says: “Your
Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against You” (Psa
119:11).
The old proverb is true: “Either
the Bible will keep us from sin, or sin will keep us from the Bible.” Thank God, He has given us
His Holy Spirit and His holy infallible Word to protect us from the destructive
power of the devil!
SECOND,
God’s Holy Laws are our protection against the physical, emotional, and spiritual
hurts that a sinful lifestyle can and will experience. The Creator did not
create man because He wanted to give them laws to obey, which would display His
divinity and His kingship over them, but He gave them good laws because He
loved them and wanted to protect them (Mk 2:27). God does not want us
to hurt or do wrong to anyone and vice versa, for example, there are many men
and women today who suffer deep emotional problems, because someone rejected
their love in some intimate sexual relationship, i.e. boyfriend or girlfriend.
Because
certain people have blatantly disregarded God’s laws against adultery,
fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, and etc., they now go through life
suffering from a deep intensive pain or wound in their spirit, which will effect
their emotions all through life, unless they repent and forgive the offending
party and themselves. What is even worse than this is: illegitimate children growing up
with deep wounds in their spirit, because their father and mother did not love
each other and them enough to give them a loving, godly environment to be
raised in. This terrible tragedy is a growing reality in the
society we live in today.
Permit
me to give you example of this type of behavior. In the summer of 1976, I
enrolled at the local State College in Stockton, CA. One of the courses I
enrolled in was entitled, “Marriage and the Family.” This
title was very misleading, because it should have been entitled, “Perversion in Marriage and
Destruction of the Family.” The doctor of psychology who
taught this course was a pervert. He strongly promoted the philosophies of “no absolutes,” and “situation ethics” (or it is all right to lie or do
wrong if the situation calls for it). Because of the immoral value
system this man believed in, he promoted homosexuality, lesbianism, and trial
marriages (or
two single people living together and having illicit sex before marriage), as
normal relationship between two consenting parties. His philosophy of “no absolutes” was “there is no person or book that
can tell us what is right or wrong. Who are you to judge other people’s life
styles? What may be right for you may be wrong for someone else and vice
versa.”
As a
young man, I said to myself “no one believes this trash,” so I
bit my tongue and said nothing, until certain young so-called “liberated women” in
the class, brazenly and unashamedly talked about their love affairs. My
prudence and patience at that very moment came to an end. I stood up in class,
looked at these women and said: “I know your parents taught you better than this. But
you have been brain washed by certain so-called intelligentsia of our society,
to believe a perverted moral standard that will destroy you physically,
emotionally, and spiritually. I am no man’s judge, but God is. Because He loves
us, He gave us the greatest book of absolute truth the world has ever known; it
is called the Word of God or the Holy Bible. It and it alone, gives us an
understanding of what is right and wrong or good and evil. If we get our life
in harmony with God’s laws, you can know true love, peace of mind, and
happiness. But if you scorn the teachings of the Word of God, it will be your
judge on the Day of Judgment.” Before I could say another
word, many in the class started hurling insults at me. It became very obvious
to me in this particular class, the college’s policy of liberty of speech and
broad mindedness only applied to those who enjoyed hearing this kind of filth.
Because
of our childish carnality, we look at God’s laws as bondage. Permit me to give
you an illustration of this. In 1975, I lived in a house that had
a park across the street from it. As I was cutting the grass one-day, Kevin, my
oldest son who was four years old at that time, came to me and asked me to
allow him to play in the park. Since I had a lot of work to do, I said no and
continued to cut the grass. Because of his persistent appeals, I stopped for a
moment and I looked through his eyes and saw all the things he could play on
and have a great time, such as, the swings, the merry-go-round, the bars, and
so on.
The
only problem he had was his immaturity, for he could not look through my eyes
and see all the dangers. I knew that he could hurt himself if I was not there
to help him play on these thing safely. Probably in his mind he thought: “Daddy you do not love me. Daddy
you do not want me to have any fun. Daddy you just want to control my life and
boss me around.” Because of his childish immaturity, he could not
perceive my love for him in that “no!” This is exactly the way carnal
Christians look at God and His loving commandments!
THIRD, God wanted to test Israel and our love for Him.
Obedience to God has always been God’s way of measuring man’s love for Him.
Jesus said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments…. He
who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves
Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him….
If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word…. If you keep My commandments, you
will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide
in His love,” and John wrote:
“For this is the love of God, that we keep
His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (Jn 14:5, 21, 23; 15:10, 1Jo 5:3).
CHAPTER 5
THE FALSE LAW
DOCTRINE
OF SINLESS
PERFECTION FOR SALVATION
As a Man of God, who love
holiness and strongly preaches holiness, this is a very difficult subject to
write on, for I myself strive to be sinless. But since certain Christian
Pharisees (Acts
15: 5) of today
teach that God’s Born-Again Children will be lost, if they do not reach and
maintain a state of sinless, I must in all good conscience refute this doctrine
of devils, so that none of God’s holy People will be ensnared by it and lose
out with God. I do believe those who preach this perverted doctrine will have
the blood of God’s lost Children on their hands in the Day of Judgment, i.e.,
those who believed this lie of Satan and lost their faith because they could
not live a sinless life! There is a world of difference between living a holy
life and a sinless life.
Before I begin this chapter of my
book, permit me to make a statement of faith concerning what I believe the
Bible teaches concerning this doctrine: A) I believe the Bible definitely
teaches that every Christian, who truly loves our Lord Jesus Christ, will
earnestly, whole heartedly strive for sinless perfection in their life (2Pe 3:13-15), for it is a natural desire of
every Child of God to be like his or her Heavenly Father.
B) The Bible does NOT teach that
a Christian must obtain and maintain a state of absolute sinlessness to
continue to be saved, whether it is for a month, year, or a lifetime. We should
always remember that it is God who perfects our life through His Word and
Spirit, and as long as we are putting forth an honest and a loving sacrificial
effort to be sinless, His precious blood will continue to cleans and make us
sinless in His sight. Many holy born-again men and women of God have died, and
will die, without reaching a state of sinless perfection in this life, but I
believe that they died saved because they were trusting in the Lamb of God for
their salvation, and not their own works of righteousness or personal holiness
to save them.
C) The Word of God teaches that
Christians must be holy not sinless, i.e., they must NOT continue in, live in,
practice, or be a slave to any form of sin (Rom
6:1-2, 6, 12-18; Ga 5:21). The apostle Paul compared salvation by Faith in Christ’s Blood to mans’
righteous works, when he wrote: “For you, brethren, have been
called to liberty; only DO NOT USE LIBERTY
[i.e.
Jesus’ willingness to forgive your sins] as an OPPORTUNITY for the flesh” to practice sin (Ga 5:13). I believe God gives Christians
victory over most, if not all, moral sins of the Ten Commandments in a short
time after their New Birth into Christ (1Co 6:9-11).
But one should always remember
that the Bible also speaks of what I call sins of the spirit and also sins of
omission, which the Spirit of God, working through the Word of God, may or may
not perfect in a Christian in a lifetime. Many sins of the spirit could be
categorize as: LACK of FAITH in God’s promises (such as healing for our body,
DEPRESSION), WORRIES, resentment, bitterness, LACK of AGAPE LOVE for our brothers and sisters in Christ (and especially for our enemies), mercy, PRIDE, SPEAKING IDLE or VAIN WORDS (i.e.
not having total control over one’s tongue - Mt 12:36, Psa 39:1, Ja 3:4-8), loving things in the world (i.e. our worldly possessions), being worldly, carnal, and
materialistically minded (i.e. having worldly desires, value systems, and goals), and many other sins. There are
also many sins of omission such as: lack of prayer (i.e., do you pray as much and as
fervently as you should), lack of reading and studying the Word of God, lack of working for God and
fulfilling His Great Commission, and so on. We will examine the above sins at
the end of this chapter.
Many of those who preach or teach
the doctrine of sinless perfection never include most of the above sins in
their preaching, especially the one where Jesus said: “If
you want to be PERFECT [teleios], go, SELL what you have and GIVE to the poor” (Mt 19:21). Why is it these Christian
Pharisees can quote to you scriptures like “be
perfect [teleios], just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Mt 5:48), and tell you that are going to
hell, if you do not become sinless in the same degree as God is sinless, and they never go and sell their material possessions to feed and
clothed their brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, who are poverty
stricken (Ja 1:27; Isa 1:16-18).
Beloved, if any of us think we
are perfect or sinless, because we love and follow God’s moral Laws, and are
not slaves to the sins of the flesh, and most of the sins of the spirit, think
again. You need to ask God to give you a vision of His Holiness and Perfection,
and see if you do not fall on your face and cry out to God for His mercy.
Beloved there is a world of difference between being holy and living a victorious
life over the flesh, the world, and the devil, and being totally sinless.
A good example of the above truth
can be seen when Isaiah got a glimpse of God’s Perfect Holiness. This HOLY
prophet wailed out: “Woe is me,
for I am undone! Because I am a man of
UNCLEAN LIPS, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes
have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” After this HOLY man of God came
into contact with God’s Perfect Holiness, which made him realize how sinful he
was, he stated: “One of the seraphim flew to me, having in his
hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he
touched my mouth with it, and said… ‘Your INIQUITY is taken away, and your SIN purged”
(Isaiah 6:5-7).
This is why I say, the only way
any of us can be sinless in God’s sight is through the precious blood of our
Savior, Deliverer, and Sanctifier, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who takes
away all of our sins, as we earnestly strive in FAITH to TRUST God to mold our spirit and soul
in sinless perfection. But woe to them who are full of self and will not allow
God to perfect their life! Woe to them who use God beautiful gift of grace or
forgiveness unworthily (i.e., to justify their continual sins of ungodly living)! God grace is for those who love
Him and earnestly strive by faith to be sinless like the One they agape love.
Beloved of God, when one has a
complete understanding of the hundreds of sins that are mention in the Bible,
and truly understands the absolute holiness of our God, all any of us can do is
fall on our face and say: “Jesus it is by your grace that I am saved, and continue
to be saved. Lord, I take my hands off of my life, and give you permission to
mold me in whatever way you see fit! Lord you burn out of me every form of sin that
may be in me. Lord you are the Sanctifier of my soul and spirit, so let your
precious blood cleans me from sin each and every day, especially the sins I do
not know about.”
The reason why the doctrine of
sinless perfection for salvation is a doctrine of devils is because: It robs God’s Children of Jesus’
love, forgiveness, and salvation, and tells them if they want to continue to be
saved, they must earn this by becoming sinless. The apostle Paul spoke of this
doctrine of devils to God’s Children this way: “Did you receive the Spirit by
the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun
in the Spirit, are you now being made PERFECT by the flesh…? I do not frustrate
the GRACE of God: for if righteousness
come by the Law [i.e. the Commandments of God], then CHRIST is DEAD in VAIN…. You have
become ESTRANGED [alienated] from Christ,
you who attempt to be justified by Law; you have FALLEN from GRACE” (Ga 3:2-3; 2:21; 5:4).
In other words, Christ died in vain
for all Born-Again Children of God who believe they are saved by their own
works of righteousness or personal holiness. For the only way any of these
Christians, who believe this lie, could receive Eternal Life is by keeping
every single Law, of the hundreds of Laws of God perfectly, until the day they
die. James said it this way: “For whoever shall keep the
whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (Ja 2:10). Now all of you Law Preacher,
who thinks a Child of God is Justify in the sight of God by keeping every Law
of God perfectly, think on this. In addition, you need to make a through search
to find every Law of God in the Bible so you can keep them, for ignorance of
God’s Law is no excuse for those who seek justification by the Law!
Therefore, this demonic doctrine changes the entire MOTIVATION of the Children of God for
keeping God’s commandments from LOVE to FEAR. In other words: instead of God’s Children being MOTIVATED by
their LOVE for God to keep His good and holy commandments, which produces a
real desire to demonstrate their LOVE by their GOOD WORKS, they become
MOTIVATED by the FEAR of being lost and going to hell. As a result they keep
God’s commandment because they are trying to earn or obtain God’s salvation by
their own works of righteousness or personal holiness. The motivation of love for God
and faith in His promise of Eternal Life is a life of inward peace and loving
surrender, as they trust in God’s molding hand in their life to perfect them in
every way, as they earnestly strive to be sinless. The motivation of fear is
turmoil and struggle, as they try to perfect themselves in order to stay saved.
Let us always remember that our
Lord and God base our ability to keep His commandment on loving Him and our
brother and sister in Christ. Jesus said it this way: “If
you LOVE [agapao] Me, keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15); and “You shall LOVE [agapao] the LORD your God with ALL your heart, with ALL your
soul, and with ALL your mind….’ ‘You shall LOVE your NEIGHBOR as yourself.’ On these two commandments
hang ALL the LAW and the PROPHETS” (Mt 22:37-40). Therefore, I say again, when a preacher teaches that a
Child of God must be sinless to continue to be saved, they are preaching a
perverted gospel of Christ, which will rob God’s People of their faith in God’s
love and grace. With the above truths in mind, let us begin our study on this
subject with the scriptures Christian Pharisees use to teach their doctrine of
Sinless Perfection for Salvation.
Scriptures Christian
Pharisees Use to Teach Their Doctrine
of Sinless
Perfection for Salvation
1) Christian Pharisees Teach We Must Be Holy in the Same
Degree as God Is Holy to Be Saved: 1Pe
1:14-16: “As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the
former lusts, as in your ignorance;
but as He who called you is holy
[hagios – hag–ee-os], you also be holy [hagios] in all your
conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy [hagios], for [hoti - hot'-ee] I am holy [hagios].” Drs. F. Wilbur Gingrich and
Frederick William Danker, in their
Shorter Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, defined the word holy or hagios (hag–ee-os) as: to set apart for
or by God, MORALLY or ceremonially HOLY. [4]
No Greek Lexicon I have ever read defines hagios to mean: to be without sin or sinless. If anyone says it has this
meaning, where is your lexical proof? As I stated above, there is a world of
difference between holy or morally pure and being absolutely sinless in the
same way God is sinless.
A Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament by Dr. Barclay Newman, which is
produced by United Bible Society, defined for i.e. hoti (hot'-ee) as a conjunction that: generally introducing the subjective opinion of the writer…
because, for, since. [5]
In other words, Peter is telling God’s Children: “to be holy because or since God is holy.” The apostle is stating WHY God’s
People should be holy! He did not say: “be you holy in the same degree as God is holy.” Peter is not comparing his or our holiness to God’s
holiness, whereby we must be sinless. How men can compare their holiness to
God’s holiness is beyond me. It must be nothing more than an arrogant boast.
Anyone who would declare that
Peter is teaching we must be sinless or we will be lost is taking God’s word out
of its context and grammatical construction. Therefore, this interpretation
would be a perverted interpretation because it would be adding to the Word of
God! Those who teach this doctrine of
works to be saved will also have to
teach that God’s Old Testament Children had to be sinless or they would be
lost. This truth is based on the fact that the apostle Peter is evidentially
quoting from the Old Testament. Therefore, let us examine the OT passages where
the phrase “be holy for I am holy” is used. In every place where
this phrase is used, the context is dealing with certain sins that God did not
want His Children to commit, NOT to sinless perfection:
Lev 11:44-45: “For I
am the LORD your God. You shall
therefore consecrate yourselves, and you
shall be holy [Heb –qodesh; Sept hagios - hag–ee-os]; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile
yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. ‘For I am the LORD who brings you up out of the
land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for [Sept hoti - hot'-ee] I am holy.”
Lev 19:1-2: YHWH speaking of the
abominable sins of the nations in Canaan Land and some of those in the Law of
Moses told His People: “Speak to ALL the congregation of the children
of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy
[Heb –qodesh; Sept hagios], FOR [Sept hoti] I the
LORD your God am holy;” and “Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy
[Heb –qodesh; Sept hagios] , FOR [Sept hoti] I am the
LORD your God. And you shall keep My
statutes, and perform them: I am the LORD who SANCTIFIES you…. And you
shall be holy to Me, FOR I the LORD
am holy, and have separated you from
the peoples, that you should be Mine” (Lev 20:7-8, 26).
Therefore, God required His Old
Testament Children to be morally holy just as He required His New Testament
Children to be morally pure, but nowhere in the OT did God required Israel to
obtain sinless perfection to be saved. Their salvation totally depended on the GRACE of God that was seen in the
blood sacrifices that was offered up for their sins (i.e., the daily sacrifices, the
Passover Lamb, and the Goats of the Day of Atonement). A good example of God’s
Salvation through His loving GRACE can be found in the life of God’s king and prophet
David.
David speaking of His personal
holiness stated: “Preserve my life, for I am holy [Heb –qodesh; Sept hagios]; You are my God; Save Your servant who trusts
in You” (Psa 86:2). Anyone who has read the scriptures concerning David’s
life knows that he was a Holy Spirit filled man of God (1Pe 1:11), but he was NOT PERFECT or SINLESS in all of his works of
righteousness for God, which were many. The Bible revealed that David commit
adultery and murder (2Sa 11: 3-17), which God forgave him of, but not without great chastisement in his family
life. Because David was a holy man of God, who loved God and His commandments,
he was quick to repent when God dealt with him concerning his sins.
According to the Word of God,
David later committed another grievous sin in the sight of God, which was His
lack of faith in God’s protection in the time of war. The Bible revealed that
David had Joab, his general, to take a census of the fighting men in Israel.
The Bible said it this way: “David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and
now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have
done very foolishly” (2Sa 24:10; also see 1Ch 27:24). God forgave David for his SIN of UNBELIEF, but He greatly chastised him
and the people of Israel for his LACK of FAITH in His Divine protection.
Many, if not all, those who
preach the doctrine of sinless perfection for salvation, never think of
unbelief in any of God’s promises as sin, as the Bible definitely declares (Rom 14:23). These men never teach: “Unless you have faith, in the
same measure God has perfect faith, you cannot be saved.” If this doctrine of devils is
true, than it should apply to all forms of sin, not just to immoral sins.
Remember God would not allow many in Israel to go into the Canaan Land because
of their SIN of UNBELIEF in His promise of victory (Heb 3:12-19). Tell me O’ sinless one, do you
have perfect faith in ALL of God’s promises? For example: “Do you worry? Do you trust God for
your health, or do you take any form of medication? Do you go to a doctor when
you are sick or hurt? I will definitely speak of the SINS of UNBELIEF in more detail at the end of this chapter.
The Word of God also informs us that David, when he was dying, did
not forgive the Children of God who wronged him. The Bible stated: “Now
the days of David drew near that he should die, and he charged Solomon his son,
saying…. Moreover you know also what
Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me [he killed David’s rebellious son Absalom]…. Therefore… do not
let his gray hair go down to the grave in peace…. And see, you have with you Shimei… who cursed me with a
malicious curse…. Now therefore, do not hold him guiltless… but bring his gray
hair down to the grave with blood” (1Ki 2:1, 5-6, 8-9).
Some of the Christian Pharisees,
who teach the doctrine of sinless perfection for continuing salvation, claim
that David did NOT have
the Holy Spirit in him, but this is a lie for the apostle Peter declared: “the
Spirit of Christ… was in them” i.e. the OT Prophets (1Pe 1:10-12). Therefore, let them teach this
lie no more! Now, none of these Law Preachers can claim that David was sinless
or achieves sinless perfection before he died. It is clear from Scripture that
David did not have the same degree of love and forgiveness for the Children of
God that God Himself had. Therefore, the prophet David was not perfected in
these attributes of holiness at the time of his death! Now, what Christian
Pharisee would dare declare that the holy prophet David died lost because he
was not perfected in ALL of
God’s commandments?
According to the great apostle
Paul, David did not rely on his MANY WORKS of RIGHTEOUSNESS to SAVE him, for the apostle boldly declared: “David
also describes the BLESSEDNESS of the man to whom God IMPUTES RIGHTEOUSNESS
apart from WORKS [i.e. the Works of the Law of Moses]: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless
deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the
man to whom the LORD shall NOT IMPUTE SIN” (Rom 4:6-8). When Children of God, who are striving for
sinless perfection, read scriptures like this, it makes them love God to a
greater degree, when they come to a full understanding and appreciation of His
loving mercy; in fact it ENCOURAGES them to seek God and surrender more of their heart to
Him!
Let us now examine the scriptures
which reveal that God’s Children are continually
being saved by their continuing and unwavering FAITH in
the CLEANSING
BLOOD of
Jesus, which makes them sinless in the sight of God, as they press toward the HIGH GOAL of sinless perfection in their
life. The apostle Paul wrote: “For in it [the gospel of Christ] the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The
just shall LIVE by FAITH” (Rom: 1:17); and “What
shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have
attained to righteousness, even the RIGHTEOUSNESS of FAITH [that is in the gospel of Christ]; but Israel,
pursuing the Law of righteousness, has NOT attained to the Law of Righteousness. Why? Because they DID NOT SEEK IT BY FAITH, but as
it were, by the WORKS of the LAW” (Rom 9:30-32); and “By GRACE you have been SAVED
through FAITH, and that not of yourselves; it is the GIFT of God, NOT of WORKS”
(Eph 2:8-10).
We should always keep in mind
that the great apostle, when writing to the Christians in Rome, Ephesus,
Galatia, and other places about being SAVED and continuing to be SAVED by their FAITH in Christ’s Atonement, and not
by the Works of Moses Law, he is writing against Christian Pharisees. This
truth can be easily seen when Paul and Barnabas went to the apostles in
Jerusalem to settle this dispute at the First Church Council.
As stated before, Dr. Luke
recorded this event this way: “Certain men came down from Judea and taught the [Gentile] Brethren, ‘Unless
you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you CANNOT be SAVED.’
Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with
them, they [the
Church at Antioch] determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of
them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this
question…. But some of the sect of the PHARISEES who BELIEVED rose up, saying,
‘It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to KEEP the Law of Moses.’ Now the apostles and elders came
together to consider this matter” (Acts 15:1-2, 5-6).
So, what did the apostles of the
Lamb decide concerning keeping the Law of Moses so that CHRISTIANS could CONTINUALLY be saved? Did they decide in
favor of the Christian Pharisees of that day, and I might add the ones in our
day? Did the apostles tell God’s Gentile Children that they had to keep the
hundreds of commandments that are contained in Moses’ Law, if they wished to
continue to be saved? The answer is: “No, no, a thousand times no!” The apostles wrote: “For
it seemed GOOD to the HOLY SPIRIT, and to US, to lay upon you no greater burden
than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols,
from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep
yourselves from these, you will do well” (Acts 15:28-29).
Beloved take note, the apostles
of the Lamb did NOT give
the Gentile Churches of God hundreds of commandments for them to keep, so that
they could continue to be saved. If they truly believed the perverted gospel of
the Christian Pharisees concerning the Laws of Moses, they would have confirmed
their teachings in their letter to the Christian Gentile Churches! As one reads
the Epistles of Paul, one can easily perceived that the Holy Spirit used the
apostle to the Gentiles, who taught against Christians seeking justification or
salvation by keeping the Law of Moses, to know what sin is and how to overcome
it, whereby they could live a victorious and virtuous life in Christ by faith.
You would think with such a clear
and precise statement of faith from the Holy Spirit of God, as it was working
through the apostles, that this would settle the debate; but evidently, the
Christian Pharisees did not accept the decision of the Holy Spirit, for they
continued their assault on God’s Gentile Churches. We can see this in Paul
writing to the Galatian Church. Paul wrote this epistle several years after the
First Church Council.
Paul wrote against the Christian
Pharisees in Galatia, who convinced some of God’s Children that they had to
keep the Law of Moses spotlessly, if they wanted to continue to be saved. The
apostle to the Gentile wrote to them and said: “I
marvel that you are TURNING AWAY so soon from Him who called you in the GRACE
of Christ, to a DIFFERENT GOSPEL, which is not another; but there are some [Christian Pharisees] who trouble you and
want to PERVERT the GOSPEL of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be
accursed” (Ga
1:6-9).
Paul then went on to rebuke these
Galatians, who believed this perverted gospel concerning their salvation. He
said: “O FOOLISH Galatians! Who has BEWITCHED you that you should
NOT OBEY the TRUTH, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among
you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the WORKS of the LAW, or by the
hearing of faith? Are you so FOOLISH?
Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being
made PERFECT [epiteleo – ep-ee-tel-eh-o] by the flesh…. For as many as are of the
WORKS of the LAW are under the CURSE; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who DOES NOT CONTINUE in ALL
THINGS [i.e.
every single commandment] which are written in the book of the LAW,
to DO THEM.’ But that NO ONE is JUSTIFIED by the Law in the sight of God
is evident, for ‘the just shall live
by faith….’ Christ has redeemed us from the curse
of the Law” (Ga 3:1-3, 10-11, 13)?
Paul also REMINDED the Galatian Christians about
the decision of the apostles at First Church Council against the Christian
Pharisees (Ga
2:1-14). Paul
went on to tell God’s Born-Again Children: “We who
are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a MAN is NOT
JUSTIFIED by the WORKS of the LAW but by FAITH in Jesus Christ, even we have
believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified
by faith in Christ and NOT by the works of the Law; for by the WORKS of the LAW NO flesh shall be JUSTIFIED. I do
NOT SET ASIDE the GRACE of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then
CHRIST DIED IN VAIN” (Ga 2:15-16, 21).
“Stand
fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do NOT be
ENTANGLED again with a yoke of bondage [i.e. the Law]. Indeed I, Paul,
say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And
I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a DEBTOR to
KEEP the WHOLE LAW. You have become ESTRANGED [alienated] from Christ, you
who attempt to be JUSTIFIED by LAW; you have FALLEN from GRACE” (Ga 5:1-4).
In one breath the apostle, in the
strongest language possible, indisputably told those who sought Justification
or Eternal Life by keeping the Law, that they were denying the Atonement of
Christ, i.e. the precious blood of Jesus that Sanctify and Cleans them from all
future sins; then in another breath he gives them a list of sins that they
should NOT
PRACTICE. He says:
“I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time
past, that those who PRACTICE [prasso – pras-so] such things [i.e. these sins] will NOT inherit
the kingdom of God…. And those who are Christ’s have CRUCIFIED the FLESH with
its passions and desires” (vss 21, 24).
Beloved take note to the fact
that the verb participle practice or prasso (pras-so), is the key word in understanding the message that Paul
is teaching concerning sins of the flesh. According to Drs. Timothy &
Barbra Friberg, in their Analytical
Lexicon to the Greek New Testament, it means: pressing through on an action carry out, do… as
denoting intense preoccupation with
something busy oneself with, PRACTICE (AC 19.19);
in regard to Law PRACTICE. [6]
Therefore, Paul is telling God’s Children, just as Peter, James, and John did,
that they should not practice, live in, continue in, or be slaves
to these and any other form of sin, for the Spirit of God will lead and empower
them to crucify the works of the flesh in their life.
As one carefully examines all of
the above statements by Paul regarding salvation by faith without the Works of
the Law, and those who would be lost if they CONTINUED in or PRACTICE sin, they
are left with several questions: Is the great apostle contradicting himself, or
was he just confused? Where is the harmony between what appears to be
contradictory statements? It is at this point where the Faith Preachers and the
Law Preachers go to war with each other. Each side presents their scriptural
facts that appear to contradict the facts of the other side, as though the
Bible has no unifying and harmonious interpretation. This is the way it is with
many of the doctrines of the Bible that are debated. Most of the time you have
the extreme right and the extreme left, and each side claims the other side to
be heretics. The sad thing about the great debate on Law and Grace, and I might
add most debates, is the fact that neither side is trying to find an
interpretation that will harmonize with both statements of Paul or all of the
scriptures on this subject.
Working from the position that
Paul was a God anointed and inspired apostle, and: “All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2Ti 3:16), we must conclude that it is totally
impossible for one scripture to contradict another. With this great truth in
mind, let us examine the context, i.e. the verses between these two statements
of fact, and let them interpret these statements for us. Paul emphatically
declared in Galatians
5:13-16: “For
you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only DO NOT USE LIBERTY AS AN
OPPORTUNITY FOR THE FLESH [i.e. as an excuse to commit, continue, practice, or live
in sin], but through LOVE serve one another. For all the LAW is FULFILLED in one word,
even in this: ‘You shall LOVE your
neighbor as yourself….’ I say then: WALK in the SPIRIT, and you shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Ga 5:13-14, 16).
The apostle Peter stated the
above truth this way: “Live as free men, but DO NOT use your FREEDOM
as a COVER-UP for evil [SIN]; live as servants of God,” who are not slaves to sin (1
Peter 2:16, NIV). Jude spoke of certain Christians who tried to use the Grace of Christ to
justify their willful and continuous practice of immorality. He stated: “For
certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped
in among you. They are godless men, who CHANGED the GRACE of our God into a
LICENSE for IMMORALITY and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord”
(vs 4, NIV).
Therefore, Paul speaking to the
Galatians connected loving your brothers and sisters in Christ with walking in
the Spirit. Jesus, the apostles Peter and John, like Paul, connected true
genuine LOVE for God and His Children with
their ability to fulfill the commandments of God (Jn 14:15; Mt 22:37-40; 1Jn
5:2-3). As
stated above, the apostle Paul revealed in Ga 5:17-24: “those who agape LOVE
God and His Children will not continue, practice, or live in the sins of the
flesh.”
Therefore, the only logical
conclusion that will harmonize with both statements of fact, that is, without
taking it out of its contextual setting, is: “God’s Holy Priesthood of
Born-Again Believers should be MOTIVATED by God’s LOVE and MERCY to love Him
with all their heart, whereby they strive diligently to become sinless. Their
love for God and His Children will empower them NOT to become slaves to or
practice any form of sin. This has nothing to do with them becoming sinless or
obtaining a state of sinless to be saved. Therefore, by Faith they continually
trust in the Precious Blood of Jesus to Sanctify and Cleans them from all
future sins in God’s sight.” When God’s Children are MOTIVATED by the SPIRIT of FEAR to keep the commandments of God,
they will struggle with their flesh and constantly try to perfect themselves so
they can save themselves from hell. Fear will never get the job done, only
their faith in and love for God will give them the victory over the sins of the
flesh.
The apostle Peter spoke of God’s
Children striving for perfection this way declared: “But
in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth,
the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward
to this, MAKE EVERY EFFORT [spoudazo] to be found
spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him” (2Pe 3:13-14, NIB). The verb make every effort or spoudazo (spoo-dad'-zo) is in the aorist tense, imperative mood,
and active voice. This means that Christians are COMMANDED by God to CONTINUALLY make every effort to be sinless.
Drs. Friberg defined the above verb this way: be eager to, make every effort to, try hard to (HE 4.11). [7] Dr. Newman defined it as: do one’s best, spare no effort,
work hard. [8]
Beloved take note, the apostle
told God’s Children to be completely honest with God and themselves by making every effort, try hard, do
your best, and spare no effort to be sinless. He did not teach them that
unless they became sinless, they would be lost! The apostle would have never
used the above expression, if the doctrine of sinless perfection for salvation
is true!
In fact, if the doctrine of
sinless perfection for salvation was true, Peter, James, John, Paul, and our
Lord Himself would have certain warned God’s people with the strongest words
that can be used in any language. They would have told God’s Children something
like this: “Unless
you obtain and maintain a sinless life, you will be lost.” Since you do not find this statement
anywhere in the Bible, I plea with God’s Children not to believe this lie from
hell!
Paul also reminded God’s Children
that none of them in their striving for sinless perfection ever resisted sin to
the point whereby they literally SWEATED BLOOD. Paul said it this way: “Since
we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us THROW OFF everything that hinders and the SIN that so easily
entangles, and let us run with perseverance
the race marked out for us…. Consider Him [Jesus] who endured such
opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your STRUGGLE against SIN, you have NOT
yet RESISTED to the point of shedding your blood” as Jesus did (Heb 12:1-4).
The apostle John stated the above
truths concerning Law and Grace this way: “My little children,
these things I write to you, so that you
MAY NOT sin. And IF [ean – denotes uncertainty, also
means whenever] anyone SINS, WE [including himself] have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the
PROPITIATION for OUR [including John’s] SINS, and not for OUR’S [God’s Children’s] only but also for
the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him, IF WE KEEP His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’
and does NOT KEEP [practice] His commandments,
is a liar, and the truth is not in
him. But whoever keeps [practice] His word, truly the LOVE of God is PERFECTED in
him” (1Jn 2:1-5, ean - #7378, Drs. Friberg). John, like Paul, gives God’s
perfection plan based on His love for us and our love for Him. John also
believed that Christians should allow their love for God to motivate them or
empower them to overcome sin in their life.
Beloved, you should realize by
now the difference between SALVATION by WORKS and SALVATION by FAITH. SALVATION by WORKS declares that you must reach and
maintain a sinless state to be saved. If you die with ONE SIN in your life, you are lost. SALVATION by FAITH declares as long as you love God
and His holy Word, and WHOLE HEARTEDLY STRIVE to be sinless, and trust in the Holy Spirit to perfect
your life, you will be saved, even if you do not reach the high goal of sinless
perfection. God is the only One who knows our heart. Beloved, I say again,
there is a world of difference between being holy and having victory over all sins of immorality and sins of the
flesh, and being absolutely sinless in the same degree as God is sinless. I am
so glad that God’s holy apostle included himself when he said: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
or His sinless perfection (Rom 3:23).
2) Christian Pharisees Teach We Must Be Perfect in the Same
Degree as God Is Perfect to Be Saved: Mt 5:43-48 is the strongest
scripture Christian Pharisees use to teach their doctrine of sinless perfection
for salvation, but even this one is taken out of its contextual setting.
Therefore, let us examine this passage of Scripture and see if it teaches what
they say: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall LOVE your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say
to you, ‘LOVE your enemies, BLESS
those who curse you, do GOOD to those
who hate you, and PRAY for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you MAY BE SONS of your Father
in heaven…. For if you LOVE those who LOVE you, what reward have you? Do not
even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what
do you do more than others? Do not
even the tax collectors do so? THEREFORE [oun] you shall be
PERFECT [teleios], just AS your
Father in heaven is PERFECT [teleios].”
Drs. Friberg defined the conjunction therefore or oun (oon) as: to introduce a logical result or inference from what
PRECEDES: therefore, so, consequently.[9]
In other words, Jesus’ use the conjunction therefore for us to draw a logical
inference between us loving our brother and sister in Christ with our Heavenly
Father love for them and us.
Drs. Friberg defined the
adjective perfect or teleios (tel-i-os) as: (1) of persons complete, perfect (MT 5.48; 19.21);
(2) with its chief component being full development as opposed to
immaturity… adults, mature persons;
used of spiritually mature persons (1C 2.6). [10]
According to the Exegetical
Dictionary of the New Testament
by Drs. Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider, the noun perfection or teleiotes (tel-i-ot-ace) refers: to completeness/perfection in the sense of ‘maturity’ or of
‘adulthood’ in faith as the goal of the mature
church, which is no longer in the initial situation of a young missionary
church. [11]
It does not seem to trouble
Christian Pharisees that the Greek word teleios cannot be found in any Greek Lexicon to
mean sinless. Therefore, Jesus was not telling the apostles or us to be
sinless as God is sinless are we will be lost, but He did tell them and us to
agape love God’s Children in the same way as our Heavenly Father loves them,
i.e. with a complete and mature love! Let us examine Jesus’
entire teaching and see if He is not teaching the apostles and us about loving
the Children of God with a perfect or mature love.
Jesus starts His teaching by
giving us some of the attributes of
love that will develop a good character in us. He said: “Blessed
are the poor [humble] in spirit,’ ‘those
who mourn,’ ‘the meek,’ ‘those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,’ ‘the merciful,’ ‘the pure
in heart,’ ‘the peacemakers,’ ‘those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.’ He then tells us that we: ‘are
the light of the world” (Mt 5:2-15). None of these things has any thing to do with
sin. Jesus is not teaching that unless you and I become humble, mourn, meek, merciful, and persecuted, we will not be saved!
Jesus then proceeds by giving us an
example of those who do not love God’s Children as God loves them. In verses 20-30, Jesus spoke of: those who hated
their brothers and sisters, cursed them, and have unforgiveness in their heart, as well as those brothers who had
an adulterous heart, and a hard heart toward their wife and want to divorce her “for
any reason” whatsoever. The emphasis of Jesus’ teaching in these verses is not on sin, but on
the fact that God’s people did not love one another in the same way that God the
Father loved them.
In verses 33-37, Jesus tells His Children that love is not boastful and proud; and in verses 38-48. He then gave us practical examples of how we should love our brothers and sisters. If
these verses are not examples of God’s love being demonstrated in His Children,
but are examples of the ways Christians can sin, then every Christian Pharisee
would have to declare that God’s Children will be lost, if they do not: turn their other cheek to one who
strikes them,
or if anyone
want to sue them, do not fight against them in a court of law, but give them
whatever they want, or if
anyone forces them to do something, offer to do anything else they would also
desire, or give everything to the one who
wants to borrow, or love
those who hate and persecute them.
Therefore, in no place can we
find any command from God that teaches: “if we do not become sinless, we will be lost!” Anyone who would teach this
would be taking all the above passages out of the context Jesus put them in.
Jesus is teaching that God’s Children should love one another with a perfect, or complete, or mature love, that is, to strive to love them in the same way as their Heavenly Father’s loves them.
Since Christian Pharisees use the
word perfect to mean sinlessness in Mt 5:48 and Rev 3:2, let us examine how the apostles
used the Greek word teleios.
There is NO PLACE in the New Testament where teleios ever means sinless perfection:
Mt 19:21: Jesus told the rich man: “If you want to be PERFECT [teleios], go, sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” If Jesus used the word perfect or teleios here in the sense of being
sinless, then the only way anyone could become or continue to be sinless is by
selling all of their possessions, and giving the money to the poor. Since the
context of verses
22-24 refers
to certain rich children of God, who no doubt loved and trusted in his riches more than God (Mt 13:22; Lk 12:15-21), the word perfect here mean complete or mature; that is, for them to become mature Children of God, they should
love and trust in their God with a heart that is completely sold out to God, they must get rid of the gods or things
that control their heart’s desires.
In 1Jn 4:18, the apostle John, like Jesus,
also used the word perfect
or teleios to describe how we should love
God. He wrote: “There is no fear in LOVE; but PERFECT [teleios] LOVE
casts out fear, because fear involves
torment. But he who fears has NOT
been made PERFECT [teleios] in LOVE.” The apostle is not telling us to
be sinless in this passage, but he is instructing us to love and trust God with a mature heart that is completely given to Him. This is one of the reasons why I teach, God’s
Children should strive to keep His commandments because they love Him and His
holy Word, not because they are afraid of being lost.
Romans 12:2: “And
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect [teleios] will of God;” and “In
the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may
teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brethren, do not be
children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature [teleios - adults]” (1Co 14:19-20; also see 1Co 2:6; Eph 4:11-15;
Col 1:28; 4:12; Heb 5:12-14). Paul is not instructing God’s Children to be sinless,
but he is telling them to be mature Christians in their thinking, i.e., in their
understanding the will and ways of God.
1Co 13:8-12, NIV: “Love
never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are
tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For
we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when perfection [teleios] comes,
the imperfect disappears…. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall
know fully, even as I am fully known.” According to the context of this
passage of Scripture, the word perfect or teleios is referring to the perfect resurrected body Jesus will
give His Children in the resurrection. It has nothing to do with being sinless
as God is sinless are we will go to hell.
Heb 9:11: “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to
come, with the greater and more PERFECT [teleios] TABERNACLE not made
with hands, that is, not of this creation.” Perfect or teleios here refers to Jesus’ glorious resurrected body, not to
Him being sinless, which He definitely was.
James 1:2-4, 17, 25: “My
brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the
testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect [teleios] work, that you may be perfect [teleios] and complete, lacking nothing…. Every good gift and
every perfect [teleios] gift is from above, and comes down from
the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning….
But he who looks into the perfect [teleios] Law of Liberty [not the Law of Moses] and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” These verses also do not teach
the Christian Pharisees’ doctrine of obtaining and maintaining sinless
perfection for salvation.
1Pe 5:10: “But
may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after you have suffered a while, perfect [katartizo - kar-ar-tid-zo], establish,
strengthen, and settle you.” According to Drs. Friberg, the
word perfect or katartizo (kar-ar-tid-zo) has: a basic meaning thoroughly prepare something to meet
demands; (1) put in order, restore to
a former condition, mend, repair (MT 4.21; GA 6.1);
(2) prepare, make ready, complete (HE 13.21); (3) create, arrange, prepare (HE 11.3);
(4) as thoroughly equipping and adjusting Christian character perfect, fully qualify, make fully adequate (1C 1.10). [12]
Even though the Greek
words teleios and katartizo are different in meaning, some Christian Pharisees try
to use it to teach their doctrine. The idea Peter is teaching is that God uses
suffering to perfect or mold our spirit and soul as He develops our Christian
Character. There is nothing in this verse that suggests we must become sinless
to be saved!
Rev 3:1-5: “And
to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ' These things says He who has the
seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your WORKS [ergon – er-gon], that you have a name that you are alive, but you are DEAD. Be watchful, and strengthen the things
which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your WORKS [ergon] PERFECT [pleroo – play-ro-o] before
God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent….
He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out
his name from the Book of Life.” The New
International Version translated this verse this way: “Wake
up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your DEEDS
COMPLETE in the sight of my God.” The word perfect or plerro (play-ro-o) according to Drs. Friberg means:
totality make full, fill (up) completely (#22176); and works or ergon means: generally work; (a) active,
anything done or to be done deed, work, action (JN 3.21); (b) passive, anything achieved
or made as the product of an action or process workmanship, deed,
accomplishment (1C 3.13) (11394).
The above verse is one of the
verses the Preachers of Law use to instill fear into those that they are trying
to convert to their doctrine. Beloved again take note to the fact that the
Greek word teleios that is used in Mt 5:48 to
describe God’s Perfection in Love is not used in this verse. Law Preachers use
the English word perfect
in this verse to get you to believe it means sinless perfection, but the
message God is communicating to His Children is that their works, deeds, or
actions for Him were not complete. God did NOT say their life was full of sin,
but the works they did for the Him were not complete. God gave us a hint to
what works He was referring to when He declared they have a reputation of being
alive but they are spiritually dead! In other words, they had the truth which
made them alive, but because they were afraid of persecution and death, they
buried their works for God in their unground Churches.
Beloved remember God told the
saints in the Ephesian Church Period that their works or ergon were good, complete,
or perfect, but they lost their First Love for Him. The apostle John said it
this way: “I know your WORKS [ergon], your LABOR, your
PATIENCE, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested
those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you
have PERSEVERED and have PATIENCE, and have labored
for My name's sake and have not
become weary. Nevertheless I have
this against you, that you have left your FIRST LOVE [agape]” (Rev 2:2-4).
Biblical Examples
of Mature Men of God Who Had Not Reach the Beautiful Goal of Sinless Perfection
After Many Years of Living for God: Beloved, I do not find any statement in the Bible where
any of God’s holy Prophets or Apostles ever claimed to be or obtained a state
of sinless perfection. Surely, if the doctrine of sinless perfection for
salvation is true, God would have given us ONE example of it in His Word, i.e.,
besides our sinless Lord. Therefore, with the above truth in mind, let us
examine the following scriptures:
James, the Lord’s half-brother (Ga 1:18-19), wrote his Epistle around 50 AD from Jerusalem, that is, about 17 years after becoming a Christian.
James declared: “My brethren, let not many of you become
teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For WE ALL STUMBLE
[patio
(ptah-yo)] in MANY things. If anyone does not stumble in WORD, he is a PERFECT [teleios] man,
able also to bridle the whole body…. No one can tame the tongue; it is a
restless evil and full of deadly poison” (Ja 3:1-2, 8). Drs. Friberg says the word stumble or patio has: a basic meaning stumble against
something; intransitively and figuratively in the NT, of failing to do God’s
will stumble, err, sin. [13]
Do Christian Pharisees ever
mention this holy infallible passage in their sinless perfection doctrines? The
answer is a definite NO! Do they try to harmonize this passage with their
belief system? The answer again is a definite NO! In this passage James, the
righteous, who was one of the main Elders, Bishops, or Leaders in the Church at
Jerusalem (Ga
2:9, 12; Acts 12:17; 15:13;21:18; 1Co 15:7) confessed that he had NOT
obtained sinless perfection after living
with our Lord all of his life, and
after 17
years of
being a Christian. He openly admitted that he every now and then stumbled, or
fell short of God’s glorious sinless perfection, and he specifically mentions
sins of the tongue.
The apostle Paul taught the same
truth concerning sinless perfection when he stated: “for
ALL have SINNED and FALL SHORT of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). The apostle openly declared
that all men, including himself, have come short of Christ’s sinless
perfection, therefore all have sinned. Paul obviously included himself in this
infallible declaration. The apostle wrote this from Corinth around 58-60 AD. This was more than 25 years after our Lord was crucified. In
Paul epistle to the Philippians, he revealed that he and us would become perfected or obtain
perfection in the resurrection.
The apostle said it this way: “NOT that I have already
attained, or am ALREADY PERFECTED; but I press
on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold
of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have
apprehended…. Nevertheless, to the degree that WE have ALREADY ATTAINED, let us walk by the same rule, let
us be of the same mind” (Phi 3:12-13, 16).
John, the apostle of love,
according to history wrote his Epistle from Ephesus in 90 AD, that is, 60 years after he started walking with
Jesus. John proclaimed: “If WE [Christians] say
that WE have NO SIN [i.e. we keep all of God’s Commandments perfectly at all
times], WE deceive OURSELVES, and the
truth is not in US. If WE confess OUR
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
US OUR sins and to cleanse US from all unrighteousness. If WE say that WE have NOT sinned, WE make Him a liar, and His Word is NOT in US” (1Jn 1:8-10). John openly confessed the same
truth that James and Paul confessed, which is, we are not sinless. “Therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Rom 3:28).
As God’s Holy Priesthood strives
for sinless perfection, they should always keep in mind what our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ declared: “Assuredly, I say to you, ALL
SINS will be forgiven the sons of
men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the
Holy [hagios] Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to
eternal condemnation” (Mk 3:28-29; also see Mt 12:31). Those who teach God’s Children
must be sinless to continue to be saved, must interpret the above passage this
way: “Assuredly,
I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the Children of God, and whatever
blasphemies they may utter; but he who does not obtain and maintain sinless
perfection in this life, never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal
condemnation.”
Therefore, Christian Pharisees
must believe and interpret blaspheming the Holy Spirit to be the sin of not
obtaining or maintaining sinless perfection. Some of these Pharisees actually
interpret the WILFUL SIN mention in the Book of Hebrews in this sense. As one reads the context of
the scriptures before this verse, they can easily perceived that Paul is
speaking of some of the Jewish Christians who continued to offering up blood
sacrifices for the sins they committed after their New Birth into Christ.
Let us examine Hebrews 10:18, 26-29 and its context, and see what this WILFUL SIN was: “Now where there is remission of these [i.e. sins], there is NO LONGER AN OFF