The Guilt and Power of Sin...

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I have written on this subject a number of times. However, it came to me with renewed force and clarity last evening. The greatest of all errors is that the Lord Jesus Christ came from Heaven just to forgive our sins and take us to Heaven by a device termed "grace." The truth is, the Lord Jesus Christ came from Heaven to announce the creation of the Kingdom of God, a system of government in which God's will is done on earth as it is in Heaven.

(10/2/2011). Thus the basis of Christian teaching is in need of correction. Not only is the premise of Christian teaching incorrect, that Christ died on the cross so God could relate to us while we continue in sin, but the spirit of Humanism plus the error of Gnosticism have added to the error.

Humanism teaches that the most important aspect of civilization is the welfare of people, with no reliance on God's desires. Gnosticism emphasizes that we go to Heaven by adopting correct knowledge. It is not difficult to see how the accent on people, and the stress on a holding of correct knowledge rather than doing God's will, are prominent in today's Christian teaching.

From the beginning of human history, God honoured righteous behaviour. We observe that in the way God spoke to Noah and protected Noah and his family from the flood.

But in due time God wrote the moral Law on stone tablets. This may possibly be the first time God made clear to angels and people His attitude toward human conduct. The moral Law teaches us to love God with all our heart and our neighbour as ourselves.

But, as the Apostle Paul told us plainly, the purpose of the Law was added because of transgressions until the Seed, Christ, should come. This fact reveals plainly that the Law, as perfect and blameless as it is, can never produce the kind of righteous behaviour and holiness of personality that God requires if we are to have fellowship with Him.

So we now have a covenant that is perfect, but imperfect people. The covenant of the Law of Moses is powerless to produce people whose personality and behaviour meet God's standard.

For this reason God gave us a new covenant. The purpose of the new covenant, obviously, is to do what the Law of Moses cannot do. Its purpose is to produce people with whom God can have fellowship because their personality and behaviour are in God's image. Also, they can fulfil the roles in God's Kingdom that God desires, such as brothers of Jesus Christ; a wife for the Lamb; judges of men and angels; an eternal house and resting place for God, and so forth.

As part of the new covenant, God gave us the Holy Spirit to impart to us the wisdom and virtue we need to become new creations of true righteousness and holiness. The body and blood of Christ which we are to eat and drink are a vital aspect of the Divine virtue given to us by the Spirit of God.

In order to bring into being this new covenant, Christ had to die on the cross to make an atonement for our past sins; otherwise we could not have started in the program of redemption. The blood of the cross makes it possible for God to receive us and hear our prayers.

Our correct approach to the new covenant is to count ourselves as crucified with Christ and risen with Christ. Because we regard ourselves as being dead, we come out from under the authority of the Law of Moses. The Law does not have jurisdiction over those who are dead.

All of the wisdom, virtue, and other enablement's that come to us when we count ourselves as crucified with Christ, plus the forgiveness of our past sins, are included in the term, "grace."

A major part of the preaching of the Apostle Paul was to Jewish people. These people had been trained from childhood in the Law of Moses. They desired righteousness, the righteousness that proceeds from obeying the Law that God had given on Sinai.

Such was the mindset that Paul was addressing. This accounts for Paul's teaching in the early chapters of the Book of Romans. Paul repeatedly emphasized that we are saved into God's Kingdom by grace and not by works of righteousness we have done. It is obvious that Paul was referring to the works of righteousness of the Law of Moses.

Now put yourself in the position of a devout Jew listening to the Apostle Paul. "Is it possible I can attain to righteousness apart from the Law of Moses? What a terrible thought to entertain! What a radical departure from all I have been taught from my earliest years!"

Along come we Gentiles. We are not very concerned about righteousness, as is the devout Jew. Our goal is to escape the fires of Hell and to live forever in a mansion in Paradise, having no more pains or problems.

So we read Paul's writings about being saved by grace. We are somewhat oblivious to God's desire to have people in His image. We have been heavily influenced by the philosophy of Humanism in which the highest good is that which makes people happy. We have been influenced also by the teaching of Gnosticism in which correct knowledge results in salvation.

So we have changed the apostolic message into a simple, four-step profession of belief which guarantees eternal bliss after we die. We are saved by our steadfast adherence to a few theological statements; by our subscription to the Statement of Faith of our religious group. We are saved by knowledge rather than an active interaction with the living Lord Jesus.

It seems to me that any intelligent reader of the New Testament would notice the emphasis placed upon our behaviour. But alas! Our leaders appear to be blind to what is written.

Take for example the statement of Jesus that he who endures to the end shall be saved. The footnotes of my Bible states that salvation is a sovereign act of God so that enduring to the end is not necessary. Can you believe this? This footnote actually is printed in my Bible—perhaps in yours also.

The current idea seems to be that we are to do nothing about our salvation. It all was accomplished on the cross. If this is so, how do we account for Paul making his body his slave so he would not be disqualified?

If you are of the current belief that Christ has done it all on the cross, and there is nothing we are to do, how do you account for Paul saying that he strove to keep his body under control so he would not be disqualified?

I could present a number of other passages that teach if we obey our sinful nature we will reap corruption; we will not inherit the Kingdom of God; we will die spiritually. Paul said all these things.

Numerous passages of the New Testament reveal that today's Christian teaching, that being saved by grace means God will have fellowship with us as we continue to sin, is absolutely incorrect. Such doctrine has destroyed the moral strength of the Christian people in America, and this is why political, financial, and moral chaos are ahead for us.

The Apostle John put the matter simply:

No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. (I John 3:6)

I have been writing for over forty years, trying to correct this grievous error that is destroying the Christian testimony.

How about you? Will you help by professing the truth of the New Testament?

You can hear the morning and evening sermons at WOR Audio. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

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