JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED

The apostle Paul went to Corinth with a great deal of trepidation.  He had suffered at the hands of unbelievers before and this great cosmopolitan city, with all of its religious and philosophical tolerance, could very easily meter out persecution to those who stood firmly for the truth.  He bravely and boldly decided to leave the philosophical and intellectual arguments to others and concentrate on the very heart of the truth; Jesus Christ and him crucified. 

It is in this simple statement that we have the whole of the gospel message.  It needs to be expounded of course, but nevertheless it does hold the entire story of God reconciling man to himself. 

Jesus: An ordinary Jewish name, but a name with a great deal of history behind it.  It comes from Joshua, which in turn is a derivative of the name of God revealed to Moses at the scene of the burning bush, the name Jehovah.  To follow this we must look to the Hebrew, for the New Testament Greek gives the name Jesus, pronounced ee-ay-sous in the Greek, which is the equivalent to the Hebrew Jehoshua, which in turn is derived from Jehovah - yaw-shah, meaning ‘Jehovah makes free’ Jehovah saves.

Jesus’ Jewish name was Jehoshua ben Yoseph, ‘Jesus the son of Joseph’.  Christ however is not a name but a title and is from the Greek Christos, taken from the Hebrew maw-shee-akh, which means anointed or consecrated and in the English is transliterated as Messiah.  Saul was Israel’s first Messiah King and it was intended that he should lead his people to spiritual, political and economic freedom within the Promised Land.  David was the most successful of Israel’s Messiahs yet even he was unable to fulfill the role.  It would take a very special person to do this and in the prophetic writings of the Old Testament this one came to be known as ‘my servant’ (Isaiah 52:13), ‘Messiah’ (Daniel 9:25-26), as ‘Shiloh’ (Genesis 49:10); and in Psalm 2 we see him as ‘the Lord’s anointed, the Son of God’. 

Isaiah 9:6-7 tells us of a child, born to the Jews yet who was to be called, among other things, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and whose reign would be upon the throne of David over the promised kingdom for ever.

Jesus of Nazareth, known as the son of Joseph, was born, not of Joseph but of Mary. This was predicted in Isaiah 7: 14, announced as imminent in Luke 1: 30-35 and fulfilled in Matthew 1: 25 and Luke 2:7.  He was born to be King of the Jews, yet the Jews in the most part rejected him.  This rejection was predicted in Isaiah 53 and the reasons for it stated; his contemporaries despised him.  This is seen in the Gospels by the actions of the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, and by the people also when at Jesus’ trial they asked for a criminal to be released in his stead and called for his blood to be on them (they would take responsibility for his execution).  The sufferings of the Jewish people over the centuries have been the price they have paid.

Isaiah 53 goes on to say that even though God’s servant would, in his agony, bare the griefs and sorrows of men, those very men would believe themselves to be doing the will of God in having him executed, for they regarded him as being stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  However their belief was not the case; he was wounded for (men’s) transgressions, he was bruised for (men’s) iniquities: the chastisement of (their) peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  All men have sinned and gone their own way, yet the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and afflicted during his trial, first by the council, Matthew 26: 67, when they spat in his face and struck him; and some slapped him, saying, “Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you?   Also in Luke 22: 63-64 and John 19: 1-3, when Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face.

Yet during this repeated abuse he made no protest (he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth).  His trial was a mockery of both Jewish and Roman law; he was found guilty by means of false witness and religious bigotry, and for political expediency was condemned to crucifixion by the Roman governor.   He was crucified alongside two criminals, and Joseph of Arimathaea took him down from the Cross and buried him in his own sepulcher; all as described in Isaiah’s prophecy.  Yet it was the LORD’S will to have it happen, for when thou (LORD) shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see the results of his sacrifice and be satisfied, for by knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justify those who believe.  As Abraham believed God and that faith was counted to him as righteousness, so all those who do no more than believe in God’s anointed Saviour will be made righteous, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:10)

Messiah/Christ was made an offering for sin in that he bore the burden of our sin and took upon himself its judgment.  This is clearly seen in such passages as Isaiah 53:4,6,11,12 and 1 Pet. 2:24 but is also alluded to in the scapegoat of Leviticus 16:20-22 and is in keeping with Psalm 103:12 where it is said,  “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

When in Deuteronomy 21:22-23 we read, “And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;)” it becomes obvious from the word order that a such a sinner, though worthy of death, becomes cursed of God only if and when he is hung on a tree.  This would indicate that anyone who, through a miscarriage of justice and undeserving of death, upon being hung on a tree would also be cursed of God. 

The Romans introduced crucifixion as a means of executing their criminals.  An execution where one would be suspended above the earth by hands and feet pierced by nails, and in this manner made an obvious and public spectacle; cursed of men and because of Deuteronomy 21:23, cursed also of God.

Such a death is described in Psalm 22:14-17, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.  My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.  For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.  I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.”  It is obvious that this is a prophecy of future fulfillment and one which Messiah (who was not a sinner) would fulfill when he made his soul an offering for sin, when he was hung on a cross and became cursed in our stead: cursed, not because he was a sinner but because he was hung on a tree and became a substitute for all those who are sinners. 

When all these truths are brought together, we see the wisdom of God displayed in the greatest expression of holiness and love imaginable.  The Son of God taking the punishment of sin upon himself so that we might be freed from its curse       

“…because Christ also suffered for us… Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your soul” (

1 Peter 2:21-25).

 

OUR SO GREAT SALVATION

What is salvation?  What does it entail?  From what are we rescued and to what are we delivered and how are we delivered?

These are the questions we as evangelical Christians should know in order to properly answer the questions, the doubts and the disputes from the unbelievers to whom we witness.

Every message preached from a Christian pulpit, every bible study given in a Christian assembly should be aimed at equipping the saints for the work of the ministry; the ministry of reconciliation as we find it so commanded of us in 2Corinthians 5:17-21.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

   And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

   To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

   Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you (the unbeliever) by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

And the foundation of our gospel must be the very next verse:

  For he (God) hath made him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

In Genesis we are shown the fall of mankind and the subsequent separation and loss of the intimate and personal fellowship mankind originally had with the God who created them. 

In Genesis 1:26 we are told that man was created in the image of God and it is clear that a fellowship existed between them and God, for God talked with them and even walked in the garden with them.  This is intimated by the fact that after they sinned they hid themselves from his presence as he walked in the garden seeking them.

In what way are we “made in the image of God”?  In John 4:24 Jesus said that God is a Spirit and yet we are very much material creatures made out of the dust of the earth.

Adam before the fall was a triune being, body, soul and spirit.  The soul being the mainspring of life, for it is the centre of intelligent comprehension, the spirit being the source of spiritual understanding and therefore the means of worshipping God, and the body allows the acting out of both intelligent comprehension and spiritual understanding, in fellowship and in worship. 

Genesis clearly teaches a plurality in God’s being, a plurality that is progressively revealed in Scripture to be a trinity within the Godhead…

In Genesis 1:1 God [Elohiym] is revealed as the creator.  As early as the first verse of the Bible we see the plurality within God’s being.  Elohiym is the plural of Elowahh, which is from El the primary word for God.

In Genesis 1:2 we see the Spirit of Elohiym first mentioned: “and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”

Then in Genesis 3:8 we see Jehovah Elohiym, the LORD God, walking in the garden.  Does a Spirit walk or are we to take the Scriptures literally and accept this as the first mention of a physical manifestation of God, a theophany?  The Angel of Jehovah, the burning bush, the cloud and the pillar of fire that led the children of Israel in the wilderness, the man who wrestled with Jacob, these were all theophanies. Physical manifestations of the God that no man has ever seen or could ever see, John 1:18.

Then we have the words of God Himself in Gen. 1:26  “…And God [Elohiym] said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…”

Both the singularity and the plurality of God are revealed in Genesis 11:6-8 where the LORD [singular] looks down on the people and the tower they were building and says:  “…Go to, let us [plural] go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

   So the LORD [singular] scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city…”

In Isaiah 48:16, we have one of the clearest O.T. passages revealing the triune God,  “…Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me…”

We know from many passages in the N.T. that this one who is from the beginning is none other than the pre-incarnate Christ. 

John 1:1-36, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld His glory…full of grace and truth…”; 

Colossians 1:12-18 “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

And it is clear from Jesus’ own words in Luke 4:16-21 that He knew himself to be the one sent.

 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,To preach the acceptable year of the Lord”.

And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.   And he began to say unto them, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

It is unmistakably clear from Scripture, that God, who is one in essential being, is three in personality, or three persons in one being.  We know them as Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Adam, who was created a triune being in the image of God, had the capacity for eternal fellowship and worship prior to the fall; eternal because he had access to the tree of life, fellowship because there was no sin, and worship because of the spirit within him.

Now, we make an assumption when we say Adam was body, soul and spirit, but it is an assumption based upon revealed truth.  Turn to Genesis 2:16-17…

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

“For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die”.   Adam would die during the day in which he ate of the forbidden fruit.  Did he surely die?  God said he would.

Let’s look further at these words “surely die”.   They are both translated from the Hebrew word mooth meaning to die, but the first use is in the infinitive mood, which is equivalent to the English word-ending “ing” or “dying” and the second use is in the imperfect mood “an incomplete action” therefore rendered “die”.

Now lets look at this phrase with these things in mind.   “…for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dying die.” or “dying thou shall die”.

What was the death Adam suffered on the very day of his sin?  His soul did not leave his body for another nine hundred years, yet he died a death on that day.

On that day God separated himself from mankind by driving Adam and his wife from the garden and from the tree of life.  From that moment on mankind was spiritually dead with the inevitable physical death awaiting them.  Mankind needed to be born again, mankind needed spiritual rebirth:

“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Jesus did not allow Nicodemus to complete what he was saying, but cut right through to the crux of the matter. “…Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…”

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”  (John 3:1-7)

Then in Ephesians 2:1-6, Paul writes,

“And you, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us; Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ…”

You and I were spiritually dead, even while physically alive and only quickened or made alive by means of our union with Jesus Christ; accomplished by the Holy Spirit when he baptised us into Christ.  This doctrine of regeneration, the theological term for the new birth, is taught in the first sixteen verses of Romans 8.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

   For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 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, (or because of the flesh), God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh

  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit….

  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

  …But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:”

 

Adam and his wife were the human race at the time of the fall, therefore what happened to them happened to the human race; what they did the human race did and we as members of that same human race have sinned (in Adam).  We as members of the human race are dead as Adam died and need restoration and regeneration as Adam needed restoration and regeneration. 

By his deliberate sin Adam gained knowledge of good and evil and became less than God made him.  He lost his sinless purity and fellowship with God; and he lost his spiritual relationship with God.  He lost the state of goodness in which he had been created and from that state of imperfection lost his ability to please God.

He received knowledge of good and evil, and received spiritual and inevitable physical death.  If Adam or any member of his race died physically in the state of spiritual separation from God, he would be separated from God forever.  This is damnation; this is what it is to be eternally lost.  This is why the human race needs to be saved.

“And you, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ…”

(by grace ye are saved;)

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

In this beautiful passage, we see our inheritance in Adam overcome and defeated.  That inheritance of spiritual death, of separation from our Creator was something we, in our imperfection, could not overcome.  Can imperfection add anything to perfection?  Can we imperfect men hold out to perfect God our works and have him accept them? Can perfection lower its standards without ceasing to be perfection?

Neither can God lower his standards.

But God “who is rich in mercy”, has by his Spirit entered us into a new position, a position in Christ Jesus.  A position gained through faith alone and not by the imperfect works of our flesh.  God is not compromised when we accept the work of his Son, for that was a perfect sacrifice made by a perfect man.

When we stand before him in the ages to come, we will display the extent of his grace by the very fact of being there.  We were lost and helpless yet there we will be, clothed in the robes of righteousness and possessing eternal life, both gifts of God’s grace.  

Did we deserve them?   Have we put God in debt to us by our works?  Our imperfect works are unacceptable; therefore our striving is all in vain.  But like the penitent, who beating his breast cried unto God saying, “…Lord have mercy on me a sinner.” we look to him for mercy and take by faith, that which he has done for us in grace. 

God is uncompromised because he accepts nothing from us, and he thereby remains just when he justifies us on the basis of faith, on the basis of simple, childlike trust.

In that we are made partakers of his divine nature we are his children, “flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone” or to put it in a more accurate form, “spirit of his Spirit”, and have been sanctified or set apart for his glory.  We have been sanctified, but we are to “…present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). 

In God’s heavenly accounts, we who were lost in sin have been set apart and he desires that we separate ourselves from the world, to live our lives by the cleansing power of the Word and the indwelling power of his Spirit, for his glory.

Amen.

BEGOTTEN

Begotten

The primary meaning of this word in the Old Testament, translated from the Hebrew yawlad, is to bear young, then in its causative sense to beget (be the cause of).  It is also used in the sense of a midwife and in a detailed sense, to show lineage.

There are many uses of yawlad in reference to the begetting of children in the Old Testament but the one of special interest, because of its reference to Messiah the Son of God, is in Psalm 2:7; “I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee.”  The declared decree is in two sections, “Thou art my Son” and “this day have I begotten thee”. 

The first is interesting because of the etymology of the word ben meaning son.  The word ben, and bath – daughter; are both derived from the verb banah meaning to build, and therefore a son/daughter is one who has been built and is part of the continuing process of the construction of, i.e. the family, tribe, nation (or Church).  Being the Son of God, or ‘the only begotten’ Son as the New Testament further reveals Messiah will build God’s family by empowering men and women to become sons of God through faith in him (John 1:12).

The New Testament word for build is the Gk. oikodomeo (Matthew 16:18) and means to be a house builder; there it has the idea of constructing an immaterial (a spiritual) building, the Church.  The Church is said to be the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27) “…and members in particular”.  In Romans 8:10-17 Paul shows that those who are ‘born again’ have the testimony of the Spirit within that they are the sons - the children of God.  This family relationship is because of Christ being in you and conversely of you being in Christ (Romans 8).  We are ‘born again’ into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ - God’s only begotten Son; God’s builder of the Church.

This day have I begotten thee:

There is no clear idea in Psalm 2 as to when this day was or would be: The heathen have raged since time immemorial and people have imagined they can do without God from the very beginning, yet although individual nations have been judged and even destroyed, the wrath and sore displeasure of vs.5 is to be upon the heathen, suggesting a world wide desolation, and on the people suggesting national judgement on Israel.  Taking all things into consideration it would appear to be the language used for the future day of wrath as described in Zephaniah 1:15; “That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness”.

The ISBE describes this day thus:

It denotes the consummation of the kingdom of God and the absolute cessation of all attacks upon it (Isaiah 2:12; Isaiah 13:6, Isaiah 13:9; Isaiah 34:8; Ezekiel 13:5; Ezekiel 30:3; Joel 1:15; Joel 2:11; Amos 5:18; Zephaniah 1:14; Zechariah 14:1) It is a “day of visitation” (Isaiah 10:3), a day “of the wrath of Yahweh” (Ezekiel 7:19), a “great day of Yahweh” (Zephaniah 1:14). The entire conception in the Old Testament is dark and foreboding.

It is a day of future worldwide and catastrophic judgement and if this is the case then the day that God’s Son was begotten (vs.7) might, from this passage alone, be any day from the beginning of days to that final day of wrath, unless the Lord reveals the truth of the matter somewhere else.

When we turn to the New Testament the truth is soon established, for as the letter to the Hebrews shows, the Son through whom God has spoken in those last days was no other than Jesus who is called Christ (the anointed).  Who is not only the Son (Hebrews 1:2, 5, 8) but is very God himself (1:8, 9, 10, 12); not only God himself, but our sacrifice (2:9, 14) and our High Priest (2:17, 3:1) and the one through whom we are able to obtain mercy and find grace in the times of our need (4:14-16).

 

In Acts 13:30-33, Paul speaks of God’s past promises being fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ, and quotes this passage from Psalm 2 as a proof text.  Paul states that the resurrection of Christ was the fulfilment of this passage from Psalm 2.  

“God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”

Quoting Alfred Barnes; “This interpretation of an inspired apostle fixes the meaning of this passage in the psalm, and proves that it is not there used with reference to the doctrine of eternal generation, or to his incarnation, but that he is called his Son because he was raised from the dead.”

When we look at this Psalm from it’s beginning, we see the prophetic accuracy of the psalmist in portraying the hatred, abuse and rejection that the authorities (both Jewish and Gentile) and the people, would hold for Jesus of Nazareth and the God whom he came to represent.  Yet the LORD who sitteth in the heavens is unmoved and states that even against such hatred and rejection, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion”. 

It was the Lord who gave the Apostle Peter the words of fulfilment; “…let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom (they had) crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:22-36).  It was after the rage, the vanity and the counsel of ungodly men had spent itself against the LORD’S anointed, that Jesus whom they had crucified was made both Lord and Christ.  It was then that the fulfilment of this passage in Psalm 2 occurred.  This passage in Psalm 2 refers therefore, “not to his eternal generation or his incarnation, but to something succeeding his death; that is, to his resurrection, and his establishment as King at the right hand of God.”

Romans 1:8 states Christ was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”.

The phrase “firstborn from the dead” is in keeping with this whole concept.  Colossians 1:18 tells us that Christ is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, alluding to a newness of life due to the resurrection.  It is also the life that the believer shares (Romans 6:4).  Revelation 1:5 describes Jesus Christ as “the first begotten of the dead…” and it is in this context that he is called a Son.

In Luke 1:35 the child born to Mary would be called the “Son of God”. Mary was overshadowed (became pregnant) by the supervening power of the Holy Spirit, and “that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”  This might suggest that Jesus was the Son of God by reason of his incarnation, but it is in the future tense (shall be) and therefore does not conflict with Paul’s statement.

In this psalm however, Paul says that the Psalmist was prophesying the resurrection and its consequences.

“God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”

 

THE WAGES OF SIN

THE WAGES OF SIN.

  

If you need to be convinced that you are a sinner, imperfect in mind or deed; nothing much will be accomplished.  A man convinced against his will remains of the same mind still.   

       

The person who does not recognise good and evil and does not instinctively understand God to be absolute good, will not recognise his own relative good or of his being separated from God. 

We are separated from God due to the fact that our standards of good fall far short of God’s perfect standards. 

If perfection lowers its standards, instantly it ceases to be perfection.  If perfect good lowers its standards to relative good then all we have left is relative good; perfect good is no more.  If God lowers His standards to meet our standards, instantly He is no longer God and would cease to exist as God.  God is perfection and cannot lower His standards to save imperfect man. 

What hope then has man of gaining a relationship with God and subsequent eternal life? 

To answer this question we must go to the Bible; that written Word which the human authors accepted as from God; that Word which believers throughout the ages have accepted, believed and been motivated by; that Word which has the power to change lives for the good. 

Romans 3:23 "...all (men) have sinned and come short of the glory of God..."

A transliteration of this passage may be of some benefit. 

       

 "...All men have come short of the perfection of God in both body and soul and by their imperfection  become sinners, whose natural and spontaneous production is imperfection or sin..."

Romans 6:23 "...the wages of (this) sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord..."

The wages or production of imperfection is inevitably imperfection and continues to fall short of that perfection which is God's glory.  If this condition remains till the death of the body, that man will continue on for eternity in a state of final and irrefutable death which is separation from God's glory.  When imperfect man comes to realize the hopelessness of his imperfect life and production, he will cease from his works and look to God for mercy, a mercy that can only be experienced through faith in Christ.  If the sinner believes in Christ as Saviour, God is then free to bestow His gift of eternal life upon such a one.

Ephesians 2:8 “...by grace we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is a gift of God, it is not of works lest any man should boast..."

There is an extension to this doctrine that pertains to those who have accepted Christ as their saviour, who have been born again by the baptism of the Holy Spirit into an eternal union with Jesus Christ and are now children of God.  This extension is stated in the Scripture "...the just shall live by faith..." (Romans 1:17).  We do not become the "just" or justified ones because of any effort of our own, as has been shown above.  It is by the acknowledgement of our helplessness and total dependence on the sacrifice of Christ that allows God the freedom to save us.  If our salvation had depended on us in any way then our imperfections would have destroyed it, for salvation is eternal relationship with God and demands a perfect Saviour.  If our salvation depended on us, it would have been imperfect therefore short of God's glory, we would still be in our sins, and we would still be lost.

Those who have been justified by faith shall also live by faith.  Christians who believe God is pleased with them because of their clean living, are so far short of God's glory they can be considered as blasphemous. 

What then are the things that please God in the life of His justified ones? 

Overall it is the attitude of faith, that complete dependence upon God and upon His provisions for both the body and the soul.  To bring this down to specifics one needs to enumerate the works that reveal a living faith, or as James says in his epistle "...show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works..." James 2:18.

Before we go into this let us look at the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew  22:37 "...'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment.   And a second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets..."

All the commands, statutes and laws; given in the scriptures for the temporal and eternal well being of men, are fulfilled by the keeping of these two.  If you say you love God yet hate your brother, you are not only a liar but are living a lie.  However, the Christian who is living the life of faith loves the Lord God with an intensity that even while basking in God’s grace, bows the heart and soul in humility and adoration. 

Adoration is not just a word used in liturgical worship, a casual, meaningless hypocrisy, but is an experience that surpasses the deepest emotions.  It is a love that is based on knowledge of God drawn from deep and constant study of God’s word, the only source available to men for this knowledge.  You can only love someone you know and the greater the knowledge the greater the potential for love.  In regards to God, to know Him is to love Him; to know Him well is to adore Him.

So many believers are ignorant of the holiness of God, and as a result are ignorant of their own unworthiness.  And because they have little or no understanding of God their conscience leads them into a life of striving to please God by their efforts, and consequently not by faith. They expect God will be pleased with their imperfect works.

Simply put, loving your neighbour is treating him/her as you would have them treat you.  As an example, if you love your own freedom and privacy then do not impose upon him your views or your morals.  Live your life as unto the Lord, and then your love for God will be reflected to your neighbour, to influence him/her for good.

To love your neighbour requires that you love God, and we are not able to love God apart from the filling of God the Holy Spirit, for love is a fruit of the Spirit - along with "...joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...” (Galatians 5:22, 23).

To gauge the reality of your love for God and your neighbour, ask yourself... Do I have joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control?  None of us will be perfect in this area, but is this fruit of the Spirit real and existing in your life?    

1 JOHN CHAPTER ONE

1 JOHN CHAPTER ONE

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of Life, (for the Life was revealed, and we have seen it and bear witness, and show to you the everlasting Life, who was with the Father and was revealed to us), that which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.  And we write these things to you so that your joy may be full.”  1John 1:1-10

This is a personal letter to us today.  The Apostle knows the truth and wants to share with you what he has seen - what he has experienced.

John the Apostle is an elder brother in Christ. Jesus named him son of thunder – commotion (Matthew 3:17) possibly because in Luke 9:54 we read, “And when his disciples James and John saw [this], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?”

There are other incidences in his life that reveal a fiery zeal for truth.

But this fiery man, through trials and the tribulations which every Christian faces in life became the elder statesman of the early Church – all his writings have a unique quality of reverence for Christ and love for God’s people.

And it is this love that drives him to “…write these things so that our joy may be full.” 

“And this is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

This is the crux - the basis - the very heart of John’s ministry

If we walk (or live our lives) in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin

What is it to walk in light? Simply put, it is NOT TO WALK IN DARKNESS.

It is obvious from Scripture and in life that IGNORANCE is darkness.  To go through life ignorant of truth is to walk in darkness. 

Therefore to walk in the light is to walk in truth; but what is truth?  

Pontius Pilate asked that question of Jesus after Jesus had told him he had come into the world to “…bear witness unto the truth, and that, “every one that is of the truth hears my voice” (John 18:37-38).  If we do not hear (believe and abide by) Biblical truth we will not hear Christ’s words.  If we reject the Bible we have no claim to the name Christian.

It is unsure whether Pilate ever came to know the truth but there is argument both ways.  The fact that he found ‘no fault’ in this one who claimed, ‘Every one that wants the truth will hear my voice’, could suggest a positive response in Pilate.

Truth is what Jesus had come to reveal to the world.  His thoughts were revealed in his words, and his words and his actions are the truth:  In the real LORD’S PRAYER (John chapter 17) Jesus, in this prayer to the Father tells us, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17).

We know from John’s gospel John 1:1 that Jesus is the living word, for as we go on through to 1:14  we read that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth”.

This is the one John speaks of when he says “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled” and which “we declare unto you,

What is truth?  Pilate may never have known, but we are without excuse, for Jesus tells us with absolute clarity

“I am the way the truth and the life” and also, God’s word is truth.  So Jesus, in coming to bear witness to the truth by means of his words and actions, lived the truth and showed himself to be the word of God incarnate.

But not only did Jesus say he was the truth he also said, “I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12) 

Now! John in the passage under consideration tells us If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

We can conclude then that to walk in the light is to live according to Christ’s words and to the written word of God.

If we wish to have fellowship with our Lord and with each other, we must walk in the light of God’s word.

What is fellowship?   

It is from the Greek koinonia and means interaction, intimacy and has the richer meaning of being one.  I have often said that Christian fellowship depends very strongly on mutual agreement in the doctrines of God’s words.  Limited agreement will ensure limited fellowship.

If you were to go into rhapsodies over imputation, propitiation, sanctification without me knowing what you were talking about, where would be the fellowship. 

If we do not know the truth then we will not have fellowship and will remain in spiritual darkness no matter how long we pray or how loud we sing.  We must read, study, meditate on God’s word if we are to know the truth.  As in the secular field of learning so also in the spiritual; one does not become skilled or qualified by a ‘once in a while’ perusal of a subject; it must be studied and understood.

We as individuals and as a group need to know the truth, and then in oneness of truth we will have oneness in praise and worship of God.

 

Notwithstanding the importance of fellowship one with the other, in reality it is secondary consideration.  It is your individual fellowship with God that must have priority in your life; all else will follow; love joy peace patience… fellowship.

It is in our individual fellowship with God that we enter into the foundational depths of spiritual life; it has nothing to do with the flesh; nothing to do with what we do or even how we feel, but everything to do with how we think, and more specifically how we think and apply the words of God.

“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in ignorance and unbelief, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light (of Biblical truth), as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

If we walk in the light of truth, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin; but if we in our ignorance and unbelief “say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”.

And herein rests the secret of fellowship with God: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

In the scriptures we are told the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to convict of sin, of (a need for) righteousness, and of certain judgement.  If the ungodly refuse to recognise their sin and their need of righteousness, if they close their ears against judgement to come, they will not hear or heed the voice of God’s Spirit and cannot be saved.

The same principle applies to the believer.  The believer is a saved person and can never lose their salvation, but they can and do miss out on fellowship with God, a fellowship in love, joy and peace that is above and beyond understanding.  The ignorant believer and the ungodly may experience stimulation but can never experience these things from God.  We must be in tune with God’s Spirit if we are to experience fellowship with God.

It is the Holy Spirit’s ministry to convict, it is our responsibility to respond to him, and God has given us a great and precious promise as motivation for us to respond.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Such confession of sin requires a number of things:

It requires recognition of sin, an honest self-appraisal of corrupt words (or actions), and if we need to search more deeply, also of motivation.  Sin is not just in things we do but also in things we think. A good thing to remember is that temptation is not sin, but when we give way to temptation and we lust in our minds, we do sin. 

Confession also requires acknowledgement of responsibility: I am to blame, no one else.  Adam blamed God and his wife, Eve blamed the serpent but they were individually at fault.

And in context of this promise, confession requires faith. 

If we take hold of this promise we do so by faith; faith in the finished work of Christ our Saviour when he paid the ‘wages’ of our sin.  “The wages of sin is death”; Christ died for us and we acknowledge this when we come to God confessing our sin. 

Abraham was justified because of faith (Genesis 15:6; Galatians 3:6-8; James 2:23); we are justified by faith (Romans 3:26-28, Romans 5:1), and we live by faith (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38) and when we utilise this promise we fulfil the principle of ‘living by faith’.

But why is it stated that God is faithful and is just to forgive us our sins?  Is he faithful to our faith; is he just because of our faith?  No.

Faith is merely a channel by which God’s grace is able to affect our lives.  Faith is a channel free from human works; the moment human works enters the system it ceases to be faith and becomes works.  Think of a viaduct, it is designed for the free flow of life giving water, but one that will fail if debris blocks the system (the water can’t get to its destination). 

Our works can be likened to debris.  If we expect perfect God to accept our imperfect works we are demanding that he compromise his holiness.  God cannot lower his standards; it is not a matter of ungraciousness but of fact, God cannot be anything other than perfect.  He would not be God if he accepted our imperfections.

Faith (without works) connects us to God and at the same time allows God’s holiness to remain uncompromised when he forgives.  Our sinfulness does not compromise his justice or obstruct his grace when we come to him in faith.  

God is not faithful to us but is faithful to the sacrifice Christ Jesus made for sin; it was a perfect, a complete sacrifice that fulfilled all the demands of holiness.  Perfect justice was met in that all sin was paid for by Christ’s death; perfect love was fulfilled in that Christ Jesus laid down his life, even for his enemies.  This is the truth behind the doctrine of propitiation.

And why is God just in forgiving us our sins?  The answer is found in this very same truth; Christ fully paid for our sins and God is now justified in forgiving us our sins because of that perfect and complete sacrifice.

Our faith in taking hold of this promise allows God to freely pour out his blessings to us, and what greater blessing can there be than to be forgiven and cleansed from our sin.

The passage ends with a word of warning however; to the proud and the self-righteous it says, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 1John 1:6-10

When God says that upon our confession he will forgive and cleanse us, he means what he says and says what he means.  It is not some pie in the sky, but a promise for the here and now, a promise founded upon the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.