Writing to the Christian people in Rome:
Writing to the Christian people in Rome:
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)
Writing to the Christian people in Galatia:
And envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19)
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7,8)
Writing to the Christian people in Ephesus:
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Ephesians 5:5)
Writing to the Christian people in Colossi:
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)
I have never heard a minister of the Gospel preach from one of these five texts. Have you? I think it is because the modern definition of Divine grace does not agree with such passages. Could this be true? Is today's Christian teaching shot through with an incorrect understanding of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God?
Is it a fact that eternal life, which we are taking for granted, depends on our driving from our personality the sins of the flesh?
Is it true that few find the gate and the way to eternal life?
Have we been greatly deceived with the teaching of "free grace"?
It appears so, doesn't it?
The Bible no longer is the "Good Book," telling us how to do good. It now is the "Grace Book," telling us how to sin and still please God.
If there is a greater travesty in the history of the world, I am not acquainted with it.
Paul goes on to say:
For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
You may have heard someone preach Ephesians 2:8,9. But it is likely that they never added the next verse. This tells us something, doesn't it? There is an agenda operating here!
God has given us a program of salvation that operates as we place our faith in the Lord Jesus and follow Him. Its purpose is to create us in Christ Jesus to do good works.
What is the meaning of, "which God prepared in advance for us to do?
The answer to this is found in the new covenant (which is the only Christian covenant although it is addressed to Israel and Judah).
"The days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:31,32)
Why has God given us a new covenant?
Because we broke His covenant with our sin. We were wicked and sinful.
Here is the important question: If God gave us a new covenant because we were wicked and sinful under the old covenant, what should be true of the new covenant?
Today's answer is: God has decided that we are unable to keep His commandments, so He has given us grace so we might be able to enter Heaven without putting off the old nature and putting on the new nature that is created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Am I correct?
We are preaching the new covenant as follows: "Accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and I will overlook your sins and rebellion, because My commandments are impossible for you to keep."
That is our idea of a "better" covenant. But is it God's idea?
"This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." (Jeremiah 31:33,34)
The "law" which is written in our mind and heart is not the Law of Moses, but the eternal moral law of God's Character, His image, of which the Law of Moses is an abridged, somewhat ceremonial, version.
Under the new covenant there is an eternal forgiveness of our wickedness. However, the eternal forgiveness of our wickedness depends upon our diligence in abiding in Christ and bringing forth the fruit of righteous behavior.
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. (Hebrews 6:4-8)
Some, who are desperate to support the "free grace" doctrine have maintained that these Christian Jews were not actually Christians.
Once been enlightened .
Tasted the heavenly gift .
Shared in the Holy Spirit .
Tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age.
In addition they had survived persecution.
And these were not genuine Christians?
I would say that not all Christian preachers and evangelists have integrity. Some are following their own desires rather than the Lord Jesus.
And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. (II Corinthians 11:14,15)
In the above we are attempting to answer the question: What is the meaning of, " created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do"?
The "good works" proceed from the writing of the eternal moral law of God in our mind and heart.
"This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." (Hebrews 10:16)
The new covenant is a better covenant because it causes us to grow into the image of God. Such moral change in us could never be produced by any religious efforts of our own.
This is God's idea of salvation. It comes from Heaven but has nothing to do with our going to Heaven. Its purpose is to prepare brothers of the Lord Jesus who can work with Him in installing and preserving the will of God throughout the creation of God.
When we are tempted to sin, we call on Christ for assistance. When by His help we overcome the temptation, a portion of the eternal moral law of God, the body and blood of the Lamb of God, is written in our mind, so we understand it; and in our heart, so we delight in obeying Christ.
When we yield to the temptation, we then are to confess our sin and ask the help of Jesus se we never behave that way again—for eternity! Then, after we go through a few fires, if we now have overcome that particular temptation, God will write His eternal moral law in our mind and heart with the body and blood of the Lord Jesus.
We can understand from this system of moral transformation how threadbare is the preaching that God is overlooking our sinful, self-willed behavior so He can bring us to Heaven. That plan of salvation would result only in bringing sin and self-will into Heaven.