The false doctrine of "dying daily" is legalistic. Any idea that excludes the Spirit's interaction & guidance is legalistic. Thus any "daily" requirement, including reading your bible daily, is legalistic.
I HATE this "death to self" concept. It is biblically unfounded, based on a bunch of out of context scriptures. It boils down to "I'm so bad I need to die, not just die but die every single day!" That doesn't even make sense. What kills you doesn't make you stronger unless there is a resurrection afterwards. Where is the resurrection language in this doctrine? Where is life language in this doctrine?
The truth is you are good! You don't need to "die" you just need to realize God's goodness, your goodness, & the goodness of those around you. Follow the Spirit of love & you'll know how to prefer others without it "killing you" to do so.
I mean really, this doctrine teaches us that preferring others' wishes & making choices to deny certain desires we have IS DEATH. That is severely messed up! It makes doing those things insanely harder when you have that mindset. Who wants to kill themselves? It makes even tiny acts of love sound like suicide. That is not only counter productive but it is sick. It makes loving God & others seem brutal & joyless. Of course loving others can be hard but to equate it with "killing yourself," come on. I had suicidal thoughts & depression before coming to Jesus. I've seen loved ones pass on. If you think about what real death is.. to call things like not eating certain foods or helping someone when I don't feel like it "death" is not only stupid but it is childish & DEEPLY disrespectful.
Even if you mistakenly label the flesh as your self Romans 8:11 says, "God will give life to your mortal flesh through His Spirit, who lives in you." What's that? God wants to give life to your flesh instead of death? YES!
We "put to death the deeds of the flesh" (Romans 8:13), deeds. That means we stop them from happening. When those deeds have been stopped they are dead because they cease to actively exist. Your flesh needs to be renewed, your mind (brain) is part of your flesh. Romans 6:19 says, "Present your body (flesh) parts as servants to righteousness because that results in the purification of those parts."
What father says to his child who wants something, "Sorry, you can't have it. You need to die to yourself.." well? Understand that calling a child bad for doing bad things leaves the impression that you think they are bad instead of just what they've done is bad. That is a very damaging thing. Our behavior is not who we are. Our desires are not the whole of who we are. To think the way your Father views your "self" in such a way that He wants you to die repeatedly is a very damaging thing. As someone who Christ freed from self-hatred at salvation & has also freed from shame I know this garbage doctrine of "death to self" makes you devalue yourself. Jesus did not come to give us a requirement for daily death! Jesus came to give us ABUNDANT LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Death is the opposite of life. CHOOSE LIFE!
Note:
If you feel like arguing that scriptures do teach "death to self" first please read some of the posts on my Life from Self page. It addresses those scriptures in context & show many that go against the doctrine as well (like the two quoted above).
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Life From Self Not Death to Self
The reason I have a problem with the "death to self" concept is because that is not how scripture speaks. It never talks about a process of "death to self," it doesn't refer to "self" as a bad thing, it doesn't equate "death" with "denial of fleshly desires." To call not choosing something I otherwise desire "self death" is going overboard regardless of how hard it is. I'm not saying this to mince words either. I genuinely think we make struggles much greater by attaching such horrid terminology to them.
Scripture says "walk by the spirit & you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh." It doesn't say "fight the flesh." In fact scripture says we aren't to "wrestle against flesh & blood." Fighting the flesh & trying to die to the flesh is walking with your mind set on the flesh rather than walking with your mind set on the spirit. The spirit will guide us to control & take care of the flesh. The mind is part of the flesh. We renew the mind & renew the flesh & use it to walk by the spirit. The flesh is separate from our identity because of Christ but it is not separate from our experience. If we abuse ourselves with a "death to self" mindset we'll end up worn out & bitter.
SELF-Control
Scripture speaks for "self-control." It goes so far as to say that a fruit of the spirit is "self-control." Now tell me, if self is a bad thing, such a bad thing that it needs to DIE, such a bad thing that it needs to die DAILY (as if it has some evil resurrection power), why would the Spirit tell you to use SELF-control? Why would something so wicked that it has to be killed over & over like Jason be what you would want to control you?
The truth is your new creation in Christ Jesus is your ONLY self. It is your spirit created in the likeness of God that shares in His divine nature & is united as One with His Spirit. When you identify your "self" as your flesh (& if you think you should "die to self" you have to be, if not you are saying you want to kill God because your spirit is one with His) you are actually walking by (setting your mind on) the flesh & empowering it. You are "putting on the old man" (putting him on your mind).
Romans 8:6 says, "The mind set on the flesh is DEATH." Take that literally. If you are thinking "I need to die to self," "I must crucify myself," "Christians should die daily," & the like OBVIOUSLY your mind is thinking about DEATH thus your mind is set on the flesh. Romans 8:6 then says, "the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace." So if your mind is thinking about life, like the abundant life Christ gave you, & peace (murder is not peaceful) your mind is set on the spirit.
Yes we kill (stop) the deeds of the flesh but Romans 8:11 says, "God will give life to your mortal flesh through His Spirit, who lives in you." "Death to self" is the opposite of what the Spirit directs you to do. The Spirit wants you to have self (spirit) control that means "LIFE FROM SELF!"
For all related posts see our page Life from Self
Scripture says "walk by the spirit & you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh." It doesn't say "fight the flesh." In fact scripture says we aren't to "wrestle against flesh & blood." Fighting the flesh & trying to die to the flesh is walking with your mind set on the flesh rather than walking with your mind set on the spirit. The spirit will guide us to control & take care of the flesh. The mind is part of the flesh. We renew the mind & renew the flesh & use it to walk by the spirit. The flesh is separate from our identity because of Christ but it is not separate from our experience. If we abuse ourselves with a "death to self" mindset we'll end up worn out & bitter.
SELF-Control
Scripture speaks for "self-control." It goes so far as to say that a fruit of the spirit is "self-control." Now tell me, if self is a bad thing, such a bad thing that it needs to DIE, such a bad thing that it needs to die DAILY (as if it has some evil resurrection power), why would the Spirit tell you to use SELF-control? Why would something so wicked that it has to be killed over & over like Jason be what you would want to control you?
The truth is your new creation in Christ Jesus is your ONLY self. It is your spirit created in the likeness of God that shares in His divine nature & is united as One with His Spirit. When you identify your "self" as your flesh (& if you think you should "die to self" you have to be, if not you are saying you want to kill God because your spirit is one with His) you are actually walking by (setting your mind on) the flesh & empowering it. You are "putting on the old man" (putting him on your mind).
Romans 8:6 says, "The mind set on the flesh is DEATH." Take that literally. If you are thinking "I need to die to self," "I must crucify myself," "Christians should die daily," & the like OBVIOUSLY your mind is thinking about DEATH thus your mind is set on the flesh. Romans 8:6 then says, "the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace." So if your mind is thinking about life, like the abundant life Christ gave you, & peace (murder is not peaceful) your mind is set on the spirit.
Yes we kill (stop) the deeds of the flesh but Romans 8:11 says, "God will give life to your mortal flesh through His Spirit, who lives in you." "Death to self" is the opposite of what the Spirit directs you to do. The Spirit wants you to have self (spirit) control that means "LIFE FROM SELF!"
For all related posts see our page Life from Self
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Die to the Lie of "I Must Die to Self"
Colossians 3:5 says to "Consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed." Why consider it? Because it is already true. You don't have to kill it. Just like we are already dead to sin & dead to the law we are already dead to the lusts of the flesh. Galatians 5:24 says, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus HAVE crucifiED the flesh with its passions and desires." It is already done, now we only need to consider it to be true.
We take "dying to self" as an expression of "denial of desires" but scripture doesn't use that expression or speak that way about how we are to live. I think using the concept of "dying to self" actually makes it harder to deny those desires because it associates it with something terrible & difficult (death). Think of other places in our lives we use death language like that, "my back is killing me," "I was scared to death," "I'm sick to death of this," "it's do or die," "old habits die hard," & so on.
The Christian life is sold as something where you "die daily." (Paul used "I die daily" as an expression regarding the persecution & peril that was constantly in his life. He said nothing of sin or desires in that context nor did he command anyone to "die"). A life where you make yourself "die daily" sounds like the most miserable life there is. That doesn't sound like abundant life at all. "Dying to self" sounds like the hardest thing in the world & most Christians will tell you that it is. Those poor souls. If they only realized that the death of our old self was pain free & barely ever in focus because our new self was given to us straight away when we first trusted Jesus.
Titus 2 says it is the grace of God, God's love for us, that trains us to reject worldly desires & to have self-control. Why does that work? Because His gracious love has changed us. His love helps us accept the fact that He has already changed us, to consider ourselves as already changed. Scripture never speaks of the exchange of the old man with the new as an ongoing process. In fact it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "The old HAS GONE. The new HAS COME."
Ephesians 6:12 says our struggle isn't against flesh. If you struggle to try to "kill" the flesh it is because you are not walking by the Spirit. If you think you must "die to self," you don't fully know who you are because your self is no longer your flesh. You couldn't possibly want to kill your true self, your perfected spirit that is one with God, so you must be referring to your "self" as your flesh. If you identify yourself by the flesh you are not walking by the Spirit because you have "set your mind on the flesh." You are saying, "I am flesh. I am in the flesh." Romans 8:9 says, "you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." Its not talking about your consciousness, obviously we see & think and move inside of our fleshly bodies. It is talking about your identity. Your identity is not in the flesh.
Satan is the one who seeks to kill. God is the one who seeks to give life. If the way you label your Christian walk is with "daily dying" instead of with "abundant living" you've got a huge problem. What needs to die is the lie. The lie that Jesus didn't do every thing He could possibly do to separate who you are from sin, the law, & the flesh. The one thing He couldn't do for you is make you believe. You have to believe it is finished for you. You have to consider it to be true to experience the wonderful reality of what it means to be a new creation in Christ.
Related Posts
What it meant to "Take Up Your Cross Daily"
All other related posts
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| This is supposed to be a good thing. |
The Christian life is sold as something where you "die daily." (Paul used "I die daily" as an expression regarding the persecution & peril that was constantly in his life. He said nothing of sin or desires in that context nor did he command anyone to "die"). A life where you make yourself "die daily" sounds like the most miserable life there is. That doesn't sound like abundant life at all. "Dying to self" sounds like the hardest thing in the world & most Christians will tell you that it is. Those poor souls. If they only realized that the death of our old self was pain free & barely ever in focus because our new self was given to us straight away when we first trusted Jesus.
Titus 2 says it is the grace of God, God's love for us, that trains us to reject worldly desires & to have self-control. Why does that work? Because His gracious love has changed us. His love helps us accept the fact that He has already changed us, to consider ourselves as already changed. Scripture never speaks of the exchange of the old man with the new as an ongoing process. In fact it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "The old HAS GONE. The new HAS COME."
Ephesians 6:12 says our struggle isn't against flesh. If you struggle to try to "kill" the flesh it is because you are not walking by the Spirit. If you think you must "die to self," you don't fully know who you are because your self is no longer your flesh. You couldn't possibly want to kill your true self, your perfected spirit that is one with God, so you must be referring to your "self" as your flesh. If you identify yourself by the flesh you are not walking by the Spirit because you have "set your mind on the flesh." You are saying, "I am flesh. I am in the flesh." Romans 8:9 says, "you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." Its not talking about your consciousness, obviously we see & think and move inside of our fleshly bodies. It is talking about your identity. Your identity is not in the flesh.
Satan is the one who seeks to kill. God is the one who seeks to give life. If the way you label your Christian walk is with "daily dying" instead of with "abundant living" you've got a huge problem. What needs to die is the lie. The lie that Jesus didn't do every thing He could possibly do to separate who you are from sin, the law, & the flesh. The one thing He couldn't do for you is make you believe. You have to believe it is finished for you. You have to consider it to be true to experience the wonderful reality of what it means to be a new creation in Christ.
Related Posts
What it meant to "Take Up Your Cross Daily"
All other related posts
Monday, February 11, 2013
Free & Fearless: The Truth Behind God, Humanity, & The Law
In Luke 1:67-79 The father of John the Baptist, Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying... "The Lord God of Israel has granted us the freedom to serve Him without fear because He has saved us from the hand of our enemies."
This is huge. Here the Holy Spirit through Zacharias says God no longer requires us to fear Him. Many of us have suspected as such but may not have seen it so concise in the New Testament. But here is the reason we need not fear God, "He has saved us from the hand of our enemies (sin, death, Satan)." This says the only reason people had to fear God in the Old Covenant was because of the power the enemy had to harm them!
In Luke 17:4-7 (while still under the Old Covenant) Jesus cleared this up further. He said God values you deeply so do not be afraid of Him but instead be afraid of "the one who kills" which Hebrews 2:14 makes clear is Satan who has the power of death. So the point of fearing God was to trust Him like one would trust a body guard. If you didn't fear God, meaning fear the consequence of refusing His instructions, you would face turmoil or death. That is why the old covenant was based on performance because sin & Satan were based on performance & without the law showing people the consequences or "curses" of their actions they would be lying down in the street not knowing that they would be run over.
When Moses says in Leviticus 18:5 "The man who obeys these laws will live by them" he literally meant "live by them" as in obedience would prevent Satan from killing them. Paul said in Galatians 3:24, "the law was our guardian until Christ came." The law could not give life but obedience to the law could prevent death & guard people. God did not want to curse or harm anyone. Lamentations 3:33 says, "God does not make people suffer nor cause them grief from His heart." Whether we like it or not God did have to put some consequences out there upon some of His people for the greater good of the whole of His people. But He didn't do this because of His "holiness" or "justness." He did this because He was protecting His people from Satan who holds the power of death.
This was NOT about God having a "holy standard" or requirement that people weren't meeting so He had to give the law to show them that they didn't measure up to His expectations. He brought the law to reveal sin because sin earned people death, sin produced death in people, sin crouched at people's doors waiting to devour them. God was ALWAYS a Savior. God has ALWAYS loved the world. God would have never given Adam & Eve the law. His only "law" to them was to "avoid the one thing that will kill you."
The law was not God's guidelines to righteousness. Romans 3:20 says flat out that "no human is made righteous by keeping the law" & "the law was given to make people conscious of sin." Why? Because "the wages of sin is death." Death is God's ultimate enemy because He loves mankind. He is life & the life giver. But there was a huge problem with the law. It was weak because obedience to the law was based on human effort. Sin took ahold of the law & produced more death. The only upside to this was that sin made itself even more evident as a problem that needed to be fixed.
Mankind was addicted to the drug of sin & destroying themselves with it. That is why God hated sin so much, it destroyed those He loved. As any parent would, God became angry with His children who were willingly destroying themselves & especially angry at those who were destroying others, the drug dealers who drug other kids into danger (something Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for doing).
Those God killed in the flesh & those who did not or were not able to trust in Him, God sent to what 1 Peter 3:18 calls "prison." A good father would let his drug dealing son go to prison or even turn him in to be imprisoned, particularly if it kept his other children from following the same path of addiction & drug pushing. That is a picture of God & the flood & every other place in scripture where God commands or threatens death for people.
"Jesus told the good news to those who were dead. He gave them the same choice that living men have, the choice to live like God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6)
Instead of sin being something where God deemed mankind unworthy of life because of their actions, God actually deemed mankind worthy of life despite their actions. He took some people's life away in the Old Testament & locked them up in "prison" so that they would one day take the chance to "live like God in the spirit" after Christ came off the cross.
So you see it was never about God being "too holy" to accept people or let them live. That is absurd. It was about God going to any lengths to save men from sin even if it was by taking their life here on earth, sending their spirits to prison, then giving the life of His Son to save them & set them free.
Hebrews 2:12-15, "Since God's children live in flesh & blood Jesus Himself became flesh & blood, that through death He might render powerless the one who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."
Even the most wicked people you could imagine, those you would help hunt down before you would forgive them, God gave the choice to be set free & know Him. The bible says humans were slaves to sin & slaves to the fear of death. Slaves are victims to those more powerful than themselves. Humans were victims of sin because of Satan, sin, & Adam's choice. Adam chose death. God didn't say, "Good you deserve it!" No, instead God said, "You chose death but I choose life. I will defeat death itself. I will save you & give you life again, life that lasts forever." Then God stepped into the world & bore the curses, consequences, & wages of sin.. He died so that we may live. He did not save us from Himself! He didn't kill His Son because He was unwilling to forgive us unless His anger was satiated & His wrath satisfied. He died saving us from our enemies & rose again to life to have triumph over them. Because of Jesus we are freed from all fear, fear of death, fear of sin, fear of Satan, & even fear of God. We are slaves no more! We are His sons, daughters, & friends.
Related Posts
Second Chances & Why God Killed
The Devil Has the Power of Death
To Fear or Not to Fear?
For all related posts see my Choose Life & Live! page
This is huge. Here the Holy Spirit through Zacharias says God no longer requires us to fear Him. Many of us have suspected as such but may not have seen it so concise in the New Testament. But here is the reason we need not fear God, "He has saved us from the hand of our enemies (sin, death, Satan)." This says the only reason people had to fear God in the Old Covenant was because of the power the enemy had to harm them!
In Luke 17:4-7 (while still under the Old Covenant) Jesus cleared this up further. He said God values you deeply so do not be afraid of Him but instead be afraid of "the one who kills" which Hebrews 2:14 makes clear is Satan who has the power of death. So the point of fearing God was to trust Him like one would trust a body guard. If you didn't fear God, meaning fear the consequence of refusing His instructions, you would face turmoil or death. That is why the old covenant was based on performance because sin & Satan were based on performance & without the law showing people the consequences or "curses" of their actions they would be lying down in the street not knowing that they would be run over.
When Moses says in Leviticus 18:5 "The man who obeys these laws will live by them" he literally meant "live by them" as in obedience would prevent Satan from killing them. Paul said in Galatians 3:24, "the law was our guardian until Christ came." The law could not give life but obedience to the law could prevent death & guard people. God did not want to curse or harm anyone. Lamentations 3:33 says, "God does not make people suffer nor cause them grief from His heart." Whether we like it or not God did have to put some consequences out there upon some of His people for the greater good of the whole of His people. But He didn't do this because of His "holiness" or "justness." He did this because He was protecting His people from Satan who holds the power of death.
This was NOT about God having a "holy standard" or requirement that people weren't meeting so He had to give the law to show them that they didn't measure up to His expectations. He brought the law to reveal sin because sin earned people death, sin produced death in people, sin crouched at people's doors waiting to devour them. God was ALWAYS a Savior. God has ALWAYS loved the world. God would have never given Adam & Eve the law. His only "law" to them was to "avoid the one thing that will kill you."
The law was not God's guidelines to righteousness. Romans 3:20 says flat out that "no human is made righteous by keeping the law" & "the law was given to make people conscious of sin." Why? Because "the wages of sin is death." Death is God's ultimate enemy because He loves mankind. He is life & the life giver. But there was a huge problem with the law. It was weak because obedience to the law was based on human effort. Sin took ahold of the law & produced more death. The only upside to this was that sin made itself even more evident as a problem that needed to be fixed.
Mankind was addicted to the drug of sin & destroying themselves with it. That is why God hated sin so much, it destroyed those He loved. As any parent would, God became angry with His children who were willingly destroying themselves & especially angry at those who were destroying others, the drug dealers who drug other kids into danger (something Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for doing).
Those God killed in the flesh & those who did not or were not able to trust in Him, God sent to what 1 Peter 3:18 calls "prison." A good father would let his drug dealing son go to prison or even turn him in to be imprisoned, particularly if it kept his other children from following the same path of addiction & drug pushing. That is a picture of God & the flood & every other place in scripture where God commands or threatens death for people.
"Jesus told the good news to those who were dead. He gave them the same choice that living men have, the choice to live like God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6)
Instead of sin being something where God deemed mankind unworthy of life because of their actions, God actually deemed mankind worthy of life despite their actions. He took some people's life away in the Old Testament & locked them up in "prison" so that they would one day take the chance to "live like God in the spirit" after Christ came off the cross.
So you see it was never about God being "too holy" to accept people or let them live. That is absurd. It was about God going to any lengths to save men from sin even if it was by taking their life here on earth, sending their spirits to prison, then giving the life of His Son to save them & set them free.
Hebrews 2:12-15, "Since God's children live in flesh & blood Jesus Himself became flesh & blood, that through death He might render powerless the one who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."
Even the most wicked people you could imagine, those you would help hunt down before you would forgive them, God gave the choice to be set free & know Him. The bible says humans were slaves to sin & slaves to the fear of death. Slaves are victims to those more powerful than themselves. Humans were victims of sin because of Satan, sin, & Adam's choice. Adam chose death. God didn't say, "Good you deserve it!" No, instead God said, "You chose death but I choose life. I will defeat death itself. I will save you & give you life again, life that lasts forever." Then God stepped into the world & bore the curses, consequences, & wages of sin.. He died so that we may live. He did not save us from Himself! He didn't kill His Son because He was unwilling to forgive us unless His anger was satiated & His wrath satisfied. He died saving us from our enemies & rose again to life to have triumph over them. Because of Jesus we are freed from all fear, fear of death, fear of sin, fear of Satan, & even fear of God. We are slaves no more! We are His sons, daughters, & friends.
Related Posts
Second Chances & Why God Killed
The Devil Has the Power of Death
To Fear or Not to Fear?
For all related posts see my Choose Life & Live! page
Thursday, January 10, 2013
The Good News is The Way to Life and Immortality
2 Corinthians 5:19 says God does not charge anyone in the world with transgressing the law. Why then do people use the law to evangelize? They say, "Have you ever broken one of the ten commandments? Of course you have. Because you've broken the commands that God came up with God is going to send you to Hell if you don't apologize to Him for it."
The fact that God doesn't charge people with breaking the law is part of what Paul calls "the message of reconciliation," which is essentially another way of saying "the gospel." The gospel is the good news. The good news is that God was never against you. He has always "so loved the world.." That is why He sent His Son to take away the barrier & burden of sin. The good news is that God is against death & He wants to save you from it by giving you eternal life.
The good news is that Jesus came not as a judge who enforces the law but as a Savior who judges no one. Don't believe me? Those are the words of Jesus Himself. He said them along with John 3:16 in 3:17, "God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but to save the world through him." Maybe we've been getting this evangelism thing wrong. Romans 6:24 says, "the wages of sin is death," not “the wages of God is death if you sin.” Hebrews 2:14 says, "the devil holds the power of death." God is not saving us from Himself because He is "too holy" to stand our sin, that thought is absurd because God Himself became sin on the cross. God is saving us from His enemy, death.
"Christ Jesus, the savior of the world, broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News" (2 Timothy 1:10).
Jesus says in Revelation 21:6-8, "It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To anyone who is thirsty, I will give the water of life without cost. It is a free gift. He who overcomes, that is, He who trusts in me will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the unbelieving, those who didn't trust me, their immorality has not been cleansed from them thus the sting of sin has put them to death. Their destiny is the lake of fire and sulfur which is the second death."
"As I live!" declares the Lord God, "I take no pleasure in the death of any human being. Instead, what I want is for all people to turn to My Way, Jesus the Savior of mankind, and live! I ask you beloved people, why then would you choose to die?" (Ezekiel 33:11, New Covenant paraphrase)
The fact that God doesn't charge people with breaking the law is part of what Paul calls "the message of reconciliation," which is essentially another way of saying "the gospel." The gospel is the good news. The good news is that God was never against you. He has always "so loved the world.." That is why He sent His Son to take away the barrier & burden of sin. The good news is that God is against death & He wants to save you from it by giving you eternal life.
The good news is that Jesus came not as a judge who enforces the law but as a Savior who judges no one. Don't believe me? Those are the words of Jesus Himself. He said them along with John 3:16 in 3:17, "God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but to save the world through him." Maybe we've been getting this evangelism thing wrong. Romans 6:24 says, "the wages of sin is death," not “the wages of God is death if you sin.” Hebrews 2:14 says, "the devil holds the power of death." God is not saving us from Himself because He is "too holy" to stand our sin, that thought is absurd because God Himself became sin on the cross. God is saving us from His enemy, death.
"Christ Jesus, the savior of the world, broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News" (2 Timothy 1:10).
Jesus says in Revelation 21:6-8, "It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To anyone who is thirsty, I will give the water of life without cost. It is a free gift. He who overcomes, that is, He who trusts in me will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the unbelieving, those who didn't trust me, their immorality has not been cleansed from them thus the sting of sin has put them to death. Their destiny is the lake of fire and sulfur which is the second death."
"As I live!" declares the Lord God, "I take no pleasure in the death of any human being. Instead, what I want is for all people to turn to My Way, Jesus the Savior of mankind, and live! I ask you beloved people, why then would you choose to die?" (Ezekiel 33:11, New Covenant paraphrase)
Thursday, November 29, 2012
The Devil Has the Power of Death
Hebrews 2:12-15, "Since God's children live in flesh & blood Jesus Himself became flesh & blood, that through death He might render powerless the one who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."
How People Were Protected from the Power of Death in the Old Testament
Here it says, "the devil holds the power of death." This text means that the devil also had the power of death before the cross, in Old Testament times. God tried to protect people from Satan by offerings, sacrifices, & obedience. If we take Satan having the power of death very seriously & the fact that he made people fear for their lives we can see God's motivation in the OT change from looking like a selfish God who demands obedience to a loving, protecting God who advises His children against things that lead to death. Because Satan had the power of death people had to be protected from him. So if they did not cooperate with God they refused his wise protection & they died.
Cain & Abel
Before the law Cain & Abel gave offerings that God regarded or disregarded. This suggests that they were told that they should do this. So the idea of sacrifices & offerings did not start with the law. God did not have "regard" for Cain's offering of fruit. The word regard there carries the idea of "a shepherd who inspects and watches over his flock with compassion and protection." Most seem to take God's disregard to Cain's offering as arbitrary or mysterious. But what happened is Cain's offering didn't allow God to protect Cain from sin. He gave fruits instead of blood. Satan craves blood & death.
Cain was angry & his head fell because his offering was not good enough but God said to Him, "If you do well, will there not be a lifting up?" The word for "lifting up" is the same word often translated as "forgive" that means to "lift up" or "carry away" a burden. God then said, "If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” This is the first use of the word "sin" in the entire bible. Sin is described as something that wants to follow Cain & ambush him. God says Cain must control/master/rule over sin. How? By offering the appropriate blood sacrifice, that is what "doing well" means. Cain could have the oppression of sin lifted off of him by giving the right sacrifice. This then doesn't describe God playing arbitrary favorites. Instead He is seeking to protect these brothers but His protection requires their cooperation because sin is a spiritual force, the devil, who God is aware of but they are little aware of. God's regard & disregard for the sacrifices is essentially God saying, "Abel your metal shield is great protection. Cain your grass shield is going to be useless."
Cain then Goes on to kill his brother. Why? Because the burden, guilt, shame, oppression, & influence of sin causes the action of sin. We also know there was something wrong with Cain's heart already because he didn't give the appropriate sacrifice. Satan seeks to kill. One way he does this is by convincing humans to kill one another. The only way for Satan to kill a protected man is by using another man to do it. But next is one amazing thing God does. Cain says to God that he fears death. God then marked Cain to where no one who found him would kill him. God protected Cain, a murderer, from being murdered. We see that even though the law would some day judge Cain as worthy of death God saved his life & protected him from death. God is a God of life!
Most translations have Cain say, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." But the word punishment is actually the word for "twistedness, wickedness, unrighteousness." Cain was actually saying, "My twistedness is greater than I can bear." He was broken up about what he had done. Additionally the meaning of the names of the people in Cain's family were godly, also suggesting that Cain regretted what he had done. God was somehow able to mark Cain as protected from murderers because of this. (Side note: Cain is taught to be the first murderer yet Cain fears "whoever finds me will kill me"). God was able to sometimes protect men from being murdered, men such as Cain, Job, & the armies of Israel.
The Law
God's goal is to protect life despite sin, not to take life because of sin. The curses of the law weren't only a revelation about how God feels about sin or to be punishments from Him. They were also the reality of what Satan can seize through sin. God said in Deuteronomy 6:2 that keeping his laws prolonged people's lives & breaking them & worshipping false gods lead to death. Paul also said that obedience to the law can preserve life but it cannot give life & certainly cannot give eternal life.
Hebrews 7:18-19 describes the law as weak & unprofitable. The law could not add anything. It could only keep & weakly defend. It says the reason why is because "the law made nothing perfect." Yes God would bless people for obedience because obedience was safety for them. The law is performance based & sin is performance based, God is not performance based. Because sin, which is Satan who holds the power of death, is performance based God had to make a performance based law to protect mankind. The law was "safety rules." This is one reason why some of the laws seem so strange. Satan would take the smallest drop of impurity & use it against people.
God's covenant with man that started with Abraham was based on trust & promises not on performance. Galatians 3:17 says, that covenant was still in effect while the law was in effect. Righteousness & life never came through the law (Galatians 3:21). People were always saved by faith/trust. If people could never be given life or righteousness through the law then why did God give it? Paul says God gave it to make people aware of sins so they would know that everyone is imprisoned under sin. Another way to make this imprisonment obvious was by the law being a burden itself which made the even greater burden of sin obvious. That is the other reason why there are strange laws, strange yet detailed laws are more burdensome.
Jews never forgot about Abraham so trusting in the promise that was given in his covenant was always an option. The law was given to preserve people's lives, help people treat one another better, & most of all point people to God to trust in Him & His promises. People weren't to fight for themselves (self-righteousness) but to trust in the Lord who wants to be their protector. Many of the descriptions of God in the OT described Him as someone strong & safe. The covenant of Moses, the law, was to get people to realize their need for God which can be fulfilled by the covenant of Abraham, faith/trust & promise, which pointed forward to the New Covenant of the Blood of Christ.
The Sin Offering
In the old covenant there was a "sin offering." It wasn't an offering to God to appease Him. Instead it was an offering toward sin (the devil) to keep him from killing people because of sin. Satan had the power of death, the power to kill anyone he wanted to. Jews had to give sin offerings to protect themselves from Satan not from God. God is always about life & saving lives.
Those sacrifices "covered" sin. Why did sin need to be covered? Because Satan demanded payment for sin, which is death. Covering sin threw Satan off the scent of people's sin (notice OT offerings had scents). In Psalm 40 & Hebrews 10 God said that He took no pleasure in sacrifices & offerings & in fact He did not desire them. That means they weren't for Him. Hebrews 10 says sacrifices could not clean people from sin & that it was impossible for them to "take away sins." If you can't get clean & you have a scent then you must cover up the scent. Satan is described as a lion seeking to devour. While it is easier for lions to hunt by sight & sound they can also hunt by smell. Thus someone who had sinned but was not openly sinning at the moment still "smelled" like sin. God wanted to take sin away so people could be clean & perfect. He eventually did so with Jesus' sacrifice.
Protected from The Power of Death by Christ
Jesus didn't cover sin, He took sin away. Jesus was a sin offering but not one to appease God or to throw off Satan (like the OT one) but to defeat Satan & "render him powerless" & "free those who feared death because of him!" Why would the devil enslave people to fear death? Because he holds the power of death. Jesus said that Satan "seeks to kill."
"Christ Jesus, the savior of the world, broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News" (2 Timothy 1:10). The power of death is broken because the way to life is illuminated. It is like saying the power of your enemy in war is broken because Jesus has laid out a bunch of rocket launchers. The enemy is still there but if you use what has been given, in this case the life offered by Christ, the enemy is powerless & you have no reason to fear him killing you. The life of Christ has hopelessly outgunned the power of death, sin, & the devil. Jesus overpowered death through His resurrection & provided a way out.
Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life; everyone who lives and trusts in Me will never die" (John 11:25). God allows our flesh to pass away because it is a sin wrecked vessel of weakness. He gives eternal life to our spirit so when we trust Him there is a sense in which we Christians never die.
"For those who have trusted in Jesus the fact of sin & death has been replaced by the new reality of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You are free from sin & death. You have been released from the reality of sin & death and born into a new reality of the spirit, the reality of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).
With sin taken away Satan "cannot touch the children of God" (1 John 5:18). We are cleaned of the scent of sin, made perfect, & hidden with Christ in God. Everything God wanted to do for us to protect us from Satan has been accomplished. Satan only has the influence of deception in regards to Christians & his deception is only powered if we believe his lies.
Under the law Satan would take the smallest drop of impurity & use it against people. God is not a stickler anymore about what kind of fabric we wear because Christians are protected from Satan & God is offering perfect life to all mankind through His Son, the Savior of the world. Our actions no longer condemn us because God has broken the power of sin & death. God has no reason to charge people with sin because the solution to sin has been given (2 Corinthians 5:19). The law was a defense against Satan but he managed to use it to produce more sin & death & condemnation (Romans 7:8). But Jesus is only good & only love, Satan cannot tempt God or twist Him to do evil (he tried in Job & he tried with Jesus in the desert). Today the old dead law is used by Satan to distract people from Jesus & to make people fear death (people who believe they can "lose" their salvation fear death based on their performance).
It is clear that Satan has the power of death & it is God's character to save & give life. I believe God gives people a second chance to trust Him on judgment day as evidenced by Romans 14:10-12 saying Isaiah 45:18-25 occurs on judgment day. Thus I believe God has killed people in the flesh (such as the flood, see 1 Peter 3:18) to save them from the second death. Death is His final enemy. He doesn't let death win the first time when we die in the flesh. We have a second chance to choose life.
God has not yet ended the existence of death but He has broken its power. Satan still seeks to kill but God has offered imperishable life to all mankind for free. Satan may still be able to grab hold of unsaved people's actions & produce death but there is an easy escape. It is not an escape route, it is a Savior offering to take our hand.
Related Posts
Second Chances & Why God Killed
Satan is Not God's Attack Dog
How People Were Protected from the Power of Death in the Old Testament
Here it says, "the devil holds the power of death." This text means that the devil also had the power of death before the cross, in Old Testament times. God tried to protect people from Satan by offerings, sacrifices, & obedience. If we take Satan having the power of death very seriously & the fact that he made people fear for their lives we can see God's motivation in the OT change from looking like a selfish God who demands obedience to a loving, protecting God who advises His children against things that lead to death. Because Satan had the power of death people had to be protected from him. So if they did not cooperate with God they refused his wise protection & they died.
Cain & Abel
Before the law Cain & Abel gave offerings that God regarded or disregarded. This suggests that they were told that they should do this. So the idea of sacrifices & offerings did not start with the law. God did not have "regard" for Cain's offering of fruit. The word regard there carries the idea of "a shepherd who inspects and watches over his flock with compassion and protection." Most seem to take God's disregard to Cain's offering as arbitrary or mysterious. But what happened is Cain's offering didn't allow God to protect Cain from sin. He gave fruits instead of blood. Satan craves blood & death.
Cain was angry & his head fell because his offering was not good enough but God said to Him, "If you do well, will there not be a lifting up?" The word for "lifting up" is the same word often translated as "forgive" that means to "lift up" or "carry away" a burden. God then said, "If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” This is the first use of the word "sin" in the entire bible. Sin is described as something that wants to follow Cain & ambush him. God says Cain must control/master/rule over sin. How? By offering the appropriate blood sacrifice, that is what "doing well" means. Cain could have the oppression of sin lifted off of him by giving the right sacrifice. This then doesn't describe God playing arbitrary favorites. Instead He is seeking to protect these brothers but His protection requires their cooperation because sin is a spiritual force, the devil, who God is aware of but they are little aware of. God's regard & disregard for the sacrifices is essentially God saying, "Abel your metal shield is great protection. Cain your grass shield is going to be useless."
Cain then Goes on to kill his brother. Why? Because the burden, guilt, shame, oppression, & influence of sin causes the action of sin. We also know there was something wrong with Cain's heart already because he didn't give the appropriate sacrifice. Satan seeks to kill. One way he does this is by convincing humans to kill one another. The only way for Satan to kill a protected man is by using another man to do it. But next is one amazing thing God does. Cain says to God that he fears death. God then marked Cain to where no one who found him would kill him. God protected Cain, a murderer, from being murdered. We see that even though the law would some day judge Cain as worthy of death God saved his life & protected him from death. God is a God of life!
Most translations have Cain say, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." But the word punishment is actually the word for "twistedness, wickedness, unrighteousness." Cain was actually saying, "My twistedness is greater than I can bear." He was broken up about what he had done. Additionally the meaning of the names of the people in Cain's family were godly, also suggesting that Cain regretted what he had done. God was somehow able to mark Cain as protected from murderers because of this. (Side note: Cain is taught to be the first murderer yet Cain fears "whoever finds me will kill me"). God was able to sometimes protect men from being murdered, men such as Cain, Job, & the armies of Israel.
The Law
God's goal is to protect life despite sin, not to take life because of sin. The curses of the law weren't only a revelation about how God feels about sin or to be punishments from Him. They were also the reality of what Satan can seize through sin. God said in Deuteronomy 6:2 that keeping his laws prolonged people's lives & breaking them & worshipping false gods lead to death. Paul also said that obedience to the law can preserve life but it cannot give life & certainly cannot give eternal life.
Hebrews 7:18-19 describes the law as weak & unprofitable. The law could not add anything. It could only keep & weakly defend. It says the reason why is because "the law made nothing perfect." Yes God would bless people for obedience because obedience was safety for them. The law is performance based & sin is performance based, God is not performance based. Because sin, which is Satan who holds the power of death, is performance based God had to make a performance based law to protect mankind. The law was "safety rules." This is one reason why some of the laws seem so strange. Satan would take the smallest drop of impurity & use it against people.
God's covenant with man that started with Abraham was based on trust & promises not on performance. Galatians 3:17 says, that covenant was still in effect while the law was in effect. Righteousness & life never came through the law (Galatians 3:21). People were always saved by faith/trust. If people could never be given life or righteousness through the law then why did God give it? Paul says God gave it to make people aware of sins so they would know that everyone is imprisoned under sin. Another way to make this imprisonment obvious was by the law being a burden itself which made the even greater burden of sin obvious. That is the other reason why there are strange laws, strange yet detailed laws are more burdensome.
Jews never forgot about Abraham so trusting in the promise that was given in his covenant was always an option. The law was given to preserve people's lives, help people treat one another better, & most of all point people to God to trust in Him & His promises. People weren't to fight for themselves (self-righteousness) but to trust in the Lord who wants to be their protector. Many of the descriptions of God in the OT described Him as someone strong & safe. The covenant of Moses, the law, was to get people to realize their need for God which can be fulfilled by the covenant of Abraham, faith/trust & promise, which pointed forward to the New Covenant of the Blood of Christ.
The Sin Offering
In the old covenant there was a "sin offering." It wasn't an offering to God to appease Him. Instead it was an offering toward sin (the devil) to keep him from killing people because of sin. Satan had the power of death, the power to kill anyone he wanted to. Jews had to give sin offerings to protect themselves from Satan not from God. God is always about life & saving lives.
Those sacrifices "covered" sin. Why did sin need to be covered? Because Satan demanded payment for sin, which is death. Covering sin threw Satan off the scent of people's sin (notice OT offerings had scents). In Psalm 40 & Hebrews 10 God said that He took no pleasure in sacrifices & offerings & in fact He did not desire them. That means they weren't for Him. Hebrews 10 says sacrifices could not clean people from sin & that it was impossible for them to "take away sins." If you can't get clean & you have a scent then you must cover up the scent. Satan is described as a lion seeking to devour. While it is easier for lions to hunt by sight & sound they can also hunt by smell. Thus someone who had sinned but was not openly sinning at the moment still "smelled" like sin. God wanted to take sin away so people could be clean & perfect. He eventually did so with Jesus' sacrifice.
Protected from The Power of Death by Christ
Jesus didn't cover sin, He took sin away. Jesus was a sin offering but not one to appease God or to throw off Satan (like the OT one) but to defeat Satan & "render him powerless" & "free those who feared death because of him!" Why would the devil enslave people to fear death? Because he holds the power of death. Jesus said that Satan "seeks to kill."
"Christ Jesus, the savior of the world, broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News" (2 Timothy 1:10). The power of death is broken because the way to life is illuminated. It is like saying the power of your enemy in war is broken because Jesus has laid out a bunch of rocket launchers. The enemy is still there but if you use what has been given, in this case the life offered by Christ, the enemy is powerless & you have no reason to fear him killing you. The life of Christ has hopelessly outgunned the power of death, sin, & the devil. Jesus overpowered death through His resurrection & provided a way out.
Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life; everyone who lives and trusts in Me will never die" (John 11:25). God allows our flesh to pass away because it is a sin wrecked vessel of weakness. He gives eternal life to our spirit so when we trust Him there is a sense in which we Christians never die.
"For those who have trusted in Jesus the fact of sin & death has been replaced by the new reality of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You are free from sin & death. You have been released from the reality of sin & death and born into a new reality of the spirit, the reality of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).
With sin taken away Satan "cannot touch the children of God" (1 John 5:18). We are cleaned of the scent of sin, made perfect, & hidden with Christ in God. Everything God wanted to do for us to protect us from Satan has been accomplished. Satan only has the influence of deception in regards to Christians & his deception is only powered if we believe his lies.
Under the law Satan would take the smallest drop of impurity & use it against people. God is not a stickler anymore about what kind of fabric we wear because Christians are protected from Satan & God is offering perfect life to all mankind through His Son, the Savior of the world. Our actions no longer condemn us because God has broken the power of sin & death. God has no reason to charge people with sin because the solution to sin has been given (2 Corinthians 5:19). The law was a defense against Satan but he managed to use it to produce more sin & death & condemnation (Romans 7:8). But Jesus is only good & only love, Satan cannot tempt God or twist Him to do evil (he tried in Job & he tried with Jesus in the desert). Today the old dead law is used by Satan to distract people from Jesus & to make people fear death (people who believe they can "lose" their salvation fear death based on their performance).
It is clear that Satan has the power of death & it is God's character to save & give life. I believe God gives people a second chance to trust Him on judgment day as evidenced by Romans 14:10-12 saying Isaiah 45:18-25 occurs on judgment day. Thus I believe God has killed people in the flesh (such as the flood, see 1 Peter 3:18) to save them from the second death. Death is His final enemy. He doesn't let death win the first time when we die in the flesh. We have a second chance to choose life.
God has not yet ended the existence of death but He has broken its power. Satan still seeks to kill but God has offered imperishable life to all mankind for free. Satan may still be able to grab hold of unsaved people's actions & produce death but there is an easy escape. It is not an escape route, it is a Savior offering to take our hand.
Related Posts
Second Chances & Why God Killed
Satan is Not God's Attack Dog
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Why Be Afraid of Hebrews 10?
"Jesus our High priest has taken away sins for everyone.. Where there is forgiveness, there is no longer any offering for sin. We can be confident to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of trust, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (this speaks of being saved & reborn by trusting Christ)..
If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.. Do not throw away your confidence (in God as a Jew), which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God (trusted in Christ, gotten saved), you may receive what was promised." (Hebrews 10:11, 18-22, 25-36)
"If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth.." The only way to sin willfully is to reject Christ because Christ makes it impossible for someone to sin willfully through rebirth. Rebirth concerns the birth of a new identity as a perfect spirit which "is not able to sin" (1 John 3:9). "The knowledge of the truth" is the good news of what Jesus Christ has done which is described for the Jewish audience here in the letter to the Hebrews.
"Where there is forgiveness, there is no longer any offering for sin.." "There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.." Forgiveness has already been given out through the sacrifice of Christ thus no other offering for sin exists, He was the last one & He got the job done. He is the last offering & last sacrifice, literally. The focal point isn't a warning about your sin points racking up because you've rejected Christ. It is focused on the all sufficient sacrifice of Christ for all mankind. Any offering or sacrifice a Jew would now make is worthless because sin has already been taken care of, the problem is solved and the solution is Jesus!
"Those who have trampled under foot the Son of God, and regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant, and insulted the Spirit of God's love for us (grace) are deserving of immense punishment." The Jews are, for all time, in some way "God's people." So it says, "The Lord will judge his people."
How can a loving God punish these people? Imagine someone you love inviting a group of old friends over for dinner & cooking them an elaborate meal. When they come over they chew up the food and spit it in her face, smash the dishes, & throw her on the ground to stomp on her. It is fully loving to be angry with these people. Your anger is on behalf of the person whom you love. Likewise the Father has anger on behalf of those who hate & invalidate His Son. God did not hold anything against those who physically persecuted & killed Jesus but those who insult His love, those who stomp on Christ as if He were worthless are asking to "fall into the hands of the living God" for punishment. They have decided to be His adversaries.
Note a uniquely Jewish statement here, they "regarded His blood to be unclean" thus His covenant to be unbinding. The idea of unclean blood & covenants only pertain to Jews, not Gentiles of the day. The Jews alive during the resurrection of Christ who have the chance to outright reject Him are the unique group of people described here. Perhaps there are no other people in history whom this applies to. Interestingly God says to forgive those who do bad things to you. To my knowledge He doesn't say to forgive those who hurt the ones you love. This portion of Hebrews 10 is written as a warning but more so as an invitation to trust in the Son of God & live. The writer speaks of Christ taking care of sin & making a new covenant, then of how to be saved, & finally what happens if they rejected Christ after hearing all this truth.
None of this is aimed at a reborn child of God. These are not warnings about losing your salvation. The idea that one could lose their salvation is like a fireman who saves you from a burning building later deciding to murder you because you did or said something he didn't like. "Whoever trusts in the Father has eternal life and will never be condemned; that person has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24). How can God extinguish eternal life?
Hebrews makes the case for Jesus as Christ & reveals the impact of His sacrifice to the Jews who were alive during the time of Jesus' resurrection (saved or unsaved). It is sad that the mere existence of any statement in scripture makes Christians think that it applies to them. If, as a Christian, you see a scripture that lessens your peace, causes you fear, makes you feel less loved by God, or lessens your confidence in God & His goodness it is either not aimed at you or you have already believed various falsehoods that make you misinterpret it. The Spirit of Jesus brings peace & drives out fear. He causes you to become more confident in Him and less confident in falsehood. If you know you have trusted Jesus and any scripture makes you fearful (less peaceful) you have misapplied it or misinterpreted it. Reconsider the meaning or just pay no mind to it, letting God teach you the meaning if He so chooses.
If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.. Do not throw away your confidence (in God as a Jew), which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God (trusted in Christ, gotten saved), you may receive what was promised." (Hebrews 10:11, 18-22, 25-36)
"If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth.." The only way to sin willfully is to reject Christ because Christ makes it impossible for someone to sin willfully through rebirth. Rebirth concerns the birth of a new identity as a perfect spirit which "is not able to sin" (1 John 3:9). "The knowledge of the truth" is the good news of what Jesus Christ has done which is described for the Jewish audience here in the letter to the Hebrews.
"Where there is forgiveness, there is no longer any offering for sin.." "There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.." Forgiveness has already been given out through the sacrifice of Christ thus no other offering for sin exists, He was the last one & He got the job done. He is the last offering & last sacrifice, literally. The focal point isn't a warning about your sin points racking up because you've rejected Christ. It is focused on the all sufficient sacrifice of Christ for all mankind. Any offering or sacrifice a Jew would now make is worthless because sin has already been taken care of, the problem is solved and the solution is Jesus!
"Those who have trampled under foot the Son of God, and regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant, and insulted the Spirit of God's love for us (grace) are deserving of immense punishment." The Jews are, for all time, in some way "God's people." So it says, "The Lord will judge his people."
How can a loving God punish these people? Imagine someone you love inviting a group of old friends over for dinner & cooking them an elaborate meal. When they come over they chew up the food and spit it in her face, smash the dishes, & throw her on the ground to stomp on her. It is fully loving to be angry with these people. Your anger is on behalf of the person whom you love. Likewise the Father has anger on behalf of those who hate & invalidate His Son. God did not hold anything against those who physically persecuted & killed Jesus but those who insult His love, those who stomp on Christ as if He were worthless are asking to "fall into the hands of the living God" for punishment. They have decided to be His adversaries.
Note a uniquely Jewish statement here, they "regarded His blood to be unclean" thus His covenant to be unbinding. The idea of unclean blood & covenants only pertain to Jews, not Gentiles of the day. The Jews alive during the resurrection of Christ who have the chance to outright reject Him are the unique group of people described here. Perhaps there are no other people in history whom this applies to. Interestingly God says to forgive those who do bad things to you. To my knowledge He doesn't say to forgive those who hurt the ones you love. This portion of Hebrews 10 is written as a warning but more so as an invitation to trust in the Son of God & live. The writer speaks of Christ taking care of sin & making a new covenant, then of how to be saved, & finally what happens if they rejected Christ after hearing all this truth.
None of this is aimed at a reborn child of God. These are not warnings about losing your salvation. The idea that one could lose their salvation is like a fireman who saves you from a burning building later deciding to murder you because you did or said something he didn't like. "Whoever trusts in the Father has eternal life and will never be condemned; that person has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24). How can God extinguish eternal life?
Hebrews makes the case for Jesus as Christ & reveals the impact of His sacrifice to the Jews who were alive during the time of Jesus' resurrection (saved or unsaved). It is sad that the mere existence of any statement in scripture makes Christians think that it applies to them. If, as a Christian, you see a scripture that lessens your peace, causes you fear, makes you feel less loved by God, or lessens your confidence in God & His goodness it is either not aimed at you or you have already believed various falsehoods that make you misinterpret it. The Spirit of Jesus brings peace & drives out fear. He causes you to become more confident in Him and less confident in falsehood. If you know you have trusted Jesus and any scripture makes you fearful (less peaceful) you have misapplied it or misinterpreted it. Reconsider the meaning or just pay no mind to it, letting God teach you the meaning if He so chooses.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Lifted Up to His Glory
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God but all are declared righteous through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24)
Glory can be defined as "Great honor," to honor means to value. We fall short of God's value. Sin devalues us who were originally created in the image of God. So since "all have sinned" all have been devalued, they take on the value of sin. "The worker deserves his wages." The worker's value determines his wages. The value of sin is so low that its payment (wage) is nothing but death.
The only way to regain value is to be separated from sin. God makes us righteous in our spirit which also makes us righteous in the eyes of the law (the power of sin is the law). He makes us one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17) & even goes so far as to hide our life in Himself (Colossians 3:3-4). So we are completely separated from sin as Christ is (Hebrews 7:26) thus death has no sting because the sting of death is sin & our sins have been eradicated. So in spirit we never sin and we never die because He has given us the overabundant value of His Son. The value of His Son is so high that His payment (wage) is life. "The wages of the righteous is life" (Proverbs 10:16).
Redeem means to "restore honor, value, & worth." But He not only regains our value by separating us from sin but in His love He gives us the maximum value of Jesus! So redemption is just the beginning because in Him we are also justified (made righteous) & glorified (Romans 8:30). No matter how much we had fallen short of His glory He much more raises us up to His glory!
"All have sinned and are worthy of death because of it. All fall short of the value of God, He is worthy of life. However God freely makes us righteous & lets everybody know it. Through Christ Jesus He freed us from the death penalty for our sins. He gives us His value because of His love for us."
I take God "declaring us righteous" to mean that He not only convinces us of our righteousness (John 16:8-10) but that He shows His kids off to the angels & our family in heaven.
Glory can be defined as "Great honor," to honor means to value. We fall short of God's value. Sin devalues us who were originally created in the image of God. So since "all have sinned" all have been devalued, they take on the value of sin. "The worker deserves his wages." The worker's value determines his wages. The value of sin is so low that its payment (wage) is nothing but death.
The only way to regain value is to be separated from sin. God makes us righteous in our spirit which also makes us righteous in the eyes of the law (the power of sin is the law). He makes us one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17) & even goes so far as to hide our life in Himself (Colossians 3:3-4). So we are completely separated from sin as Christ is (Hebrews 7:26) thus death has no sting because the sting of death is sin & our sins have been eradicated. So in spirit we never sin and we never die because He has given us the overabundant value of His Son. The value of His Son is so high that His payment (wage) is life. "The wages of the righteous is life" (Proverbs 10:16).
Redeem means to "restore honor, value, & worth." But He not only regains our value by separating us from sin but in His love He gives us the maximum value of Jesus! So redemption is just the beginning because in Him we are also justified (made righteous) & glorified (Romans 8:30). No matter how much we had fallen short of His glory He much more raises us up to His glory!
"All have sinned and are worthy of death because of it. All fall short of the value of God, He is worthy of life. However God freely makes us righteous & lets everybody know it. Through Christ Jesus He freed us from the death penalty for our sins. He gives us His value because of His love for us."
I take God "declaring us righteous" to mean that He not only convinces us of our righteousness (John 16:8-10) but that He shows His kids off to the angels & our family in heaven.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Saved? Saved from What?
Christians will tell you that they are "saved" or that "you should be saved." Well, saved from what? Most would say hell or God's wrath. So is God saving you from Himself? Does God really want to kill you & to save you at the same time?
The bible says, “The wages of sin is death,” not “The wages of God is death if you sin.” Sin has earned you death. Because of sin your body will die & if you are not somehow rescued you will face a second, eternal death in the lake of fire.
The bible speaks of "the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). God says in Revelation 3:5, "I will not erase the name of the man who overcomes from the book of life." Overcome means to conquer; to have victory; to win. "Whoever is born of God overcomes. This victory comes by trusting in Jesus. Who is the one who overcomes? He who trusts that Jesus is the Son of God" (1 John 5:4-5). People are born again by trusting in (believing in, having faith in) Jesus. Every Christian is born again. Everyone who is born again overcomes, they are victorious.
What then do they overcome? “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). The victory is over sin & death. Jesus broke the power of sin & death. "Christ Jesus, the savior of the world, broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News" (2 Timothy 1:10). Jesus saves people from the power of sin & death. The victory is a gift of God. Overcoming is a gift from God to those who trust His Son.
Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who trusts in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and trusts in Me will never die." (John 11:25). "For those who have trusted in Jesus the fact of sin & death has been replaced by the new reality of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You are free from sin & death. You have been released from the reality of sin & death and born into a new reality of the spirit, the reality of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).
"Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death" (Revelation 20:14-15). Going back to what God said in Revelation 3:5, "I will not erase the name of the man who overcomes from the book of life." Notice that God talks about erasing people from the book, not adding them to it. Every one's name is in the book of life by default. You must refuse to trust Jesus at every opportunity, refuse to join in His victory party over sin & death to have your name blotted out.
So does God really want to kill you & to save you at the same time? "God is patient with everyone. He doesn't want anyone to perish (die or be destroyed). He wants everyone to come to changing their mind to trust in Him" (2 Peter 3:9). He so doesn't want people to perish that He starts every one's name off in the book of life. Why then do people perish? "God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son so whoever trusts in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but to save the world through Him" (John 3:16-17). God cannot make up your mind for you. You have to freely choose to trust in Him. He sent Jesus to save the world, not to judge it. He wants everyone to change their mind to trust in Him. You have to be willing to be rescued.
The Judgment scene in Revelation 20 interestingly makes no mention of the words, "sin" or "law." The lake of fire is the consequence for rejecting Jesus as your savior not a punishment for sin. Imagine you are in a burning building & you are hopeless to save yourself. If you reject the fireman who seeks to save you from the fire you will burn to death. Rejecting a savior results in death. The lake of fire is described as "the second death." If you aren't in the book of life you face death. Someone isn't erased from the book of life unless they choose death by rejecting life. Jesus is life, Jesus is The Life, Jesus is the life of those who trust Him. Those who choose death will be judged for their deeds but they are not judged because of their deeds, they are judged because they have rejected Christ.
"It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To anyone who is thirsty, I will give the water of life without cost. It is a free gift. He who overcomes, that is, He who trusts in me will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for those who didn't trust me, their destiny is the lake of fire and sulfur which is the second death" (Revelation 21:6-8).
"Whoever trusts in me has victory over sin & death, he will not be hurt by the second death. I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also was victorious and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Revelation 2:11, 3:21).
"I have set before you life and death. Therefore choose life, that you may live!" (Deuteronomy 30:19)
This is Part 1 of 2, See Part 2: Eternal Torment, Annihilation, Ultimate Reconciliation? How about a little of each?
The bible says, “The wages of sin is death,” not “The wages of God is death if you sin.” Sin has earned you death. Because of sin your body will die & if you are not somehow rescued you will face a second, eternal death in the lake of fire.
The bible speaks of "the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). God says in Revelation 3:5, "I will not erase the name of the man who overcomes from the book of life." Overcome means to conquer; to have victory; to win. "Whoever is born of God overcomes. This victory comes by trusting in Jesus. Who is the one who overcomes? He who trusts that Jesus is the Son of God" (1 John 5:4-5). People are born again by trusting in (believing in, having faith in) Jesus. Every Christian is born again. Everyone who is born again overcomes, they are victorious.
What then do they overcome? “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). The victory is over sin & death. Jesus broke the power of sin & death. "Christ Jesus, the savior of the world, broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News" (2 Timothy 1:10). Jesus saves people from the power of sin & death. The victory is a gift of God. Overcoming is a gift from God to those who trust His Son.
Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who trusts in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and trusts in Me will never die." (John 11:25). "For those who have trusted in Jesus the fact of sin & death has been replaced by the new reality of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You are free from sin & death. You have been released from the reality of sin & death and born into a new reality of the spirit, the reality of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).
"Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death" (Revelation 20:14-15). Going back to what God said in Revelation 3:5, "I will not erase the name of the man who overcomes from the book of life." Notice that God talks about erasing people from the book, not adding them to it. Every one's name is in the book of life by default. You must refuse to trust Jesus at every opportunity, refuse to join in His victory party over sin & death to have your name blotted out.
So does God really want to kill you & to save you at the same time? "God is patient with everyone. He doesn't want anyone to perish (die or be destroyed). He wants everyone to come to changing their mind to trust in Him" (2 Peter 3:9). He so doesn't want people to perish that He starts every one's name off in the book of life. Why then do people perish? "God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son so whoever trusts in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but to save the world through Him" (John 3:16-17). God cannot make up your mind for you. You have to freely choose to trust in Him. He sent Jesus to save the world, not to judge it. He wants everyone to change their mind to trust in Him. You have to be willing to be rescued.
The Judgment scene in Revelation 20 interestingly makes no mention of the words, "sin" or "law." The lake of fire is the consequence for rejecting Jesus as your savior not a punishment for sin. Imagine you are in a burning building & you are hopeless to save yourself. If you reject the fireman who seeks to save you from the fire you will burn to death. Rejecting a savior results in death. The lake of fire is described as "the second death." If you aren't in the book of life you face death. Someone isn't erased from the book of life unless they choose death by rejecting life. Jesus is life, Jesus is The Life, Jesus is the life of those who trust Him. Those who choose death will be judged for their deeds but they are not judged because of their deeds, they are judged because they have rejected Christ.
"It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To anyone who is thirsty, I will give the water of life without cost. It is a free gift. He who overcomes, that is, He who trusts in me will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for those who didn't trust me, their destiny is the lake of fire and sulfur which is the second death" (Revelation 21:6-8).
"Whoever trusts in me has victory over sin & death, he will not be hurt by the second death. I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also was victorious and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Revelation 2:11, 3:21).
"I have set before you life and death. Therefore choose life, that you may live!" (Deuteronomy 30:19)
This is Part 1 of 2, See Part 2: Eternal Torment, Annihilation, Ultimate Reconciliation? How about a little of each?
Friday, July 27, 2012
Die Daily? No, Already Crucified & Alive to God in Christ Jesus
Somehow performance based religion has turned "death" into a work of the flesh meaning "denial of self-will." Our death spoken of in scripture however is our death with Christ where He killed our old man (spirit) to make us a new creation (spirit) that is created in His likeness (Ephesians 1:3-8, 4:24).
Over and over again, it never fails, I keep seeing how EVERY aspect of religion points to man & His works while true Christianity always points to God's works & His love for us.
Here then is a quick "Lie of Religion" vs. "Truth of God" test:
If it is something I have to do alone by my behavior it is a "Lie of Religion"
If it is something Christ has already done or that He does with my cooperation it is a "Truth of God"
Lie of Religion: Death to self is a work you must perform daily.
Truth of God: Death of your old self is a work Christ performed already, one time for all time.
Read this for a full explanation: Take Up Your Cross Daily † You Have Been Crucified With Christ
Over and over again, it never fails, I keep seeing how EVERY aspect of religion points to man & His works while true Christianity always points to God's works & His love for us.
Here then is a quick "Lie of Religion" vs. "Truth of God" test:
If it is something I have to do alone by my behavior it is a "Lie of Religion"
If it is something Christ has already done or that He does with my cooperation it is a "Truth of God"
Lie of Religion: Death to self is a work you must perform daily.
Truth of God: Death of your old self is a work Christ performed already, one time for all time.
Read this for a full explanation: Take Up Your Cross Daily † You Have Been Crucified With Christ
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
How God Prepared Me for My Dad's Death
My dad died unexpectedly on August 15. That day he died I was listening to podcasts that had these words below. God was giving me understanding and comfort just before the tragedy had become known.
Notes from Podcasts
Notes I Wrote
Notes from Podcasts
- Our trust is not in the outcome of our circumstances. It is in Christ Jesus and we know that His grace is sufficient for whatever life might hurl at us.
- True trust is not trusting in an outcome or an answer. It is trusting that God is good, God is loving, God is with me, and if I need to know something He will let me know.
- When you go through pain just cling to God.
- You can only grow in love when you grow in knowing that you are loved by God.
- The most important question is "How much do you know that God loves you?"
- We don't have to understand why things happen. We just have to know that it happened and God is there in the midst of it sharing and showing His love.
- There is a loving God who stands above everything that happens in this life. Whether we can understand or not understand why things happen the one thing we can know is that God is in the midst of it. Where is God in the midst of tragedy? He is there to comfort, to sustain people, to meet their need right where they are.
Here is a link to the "Grace in Suffering" Podcast
Notes I Wrote
- I don't doubt that I know God as my father anymore than I doubt I know my biological father.
- Drawing near to God means we experience His love and thus we become more loving to others which ultimately fulfills the law anyway.
- I was never successful at loving until I realized I was loved. I was never successful at trusting until I stopped trying. I was never successful at doing until I started being. I was never successful at living until I let Life live for me.
- I feel more perfect because of His righteousness given to me, more significant because of His power to work through me. I do feel less capable and less confident in myself because I know those are His qualities and not mine. I don't feel more miserable as a Christian because I don't measure up because I know God threw away the measuring stick to give me a hug.
- Trust is putting your security in God. Saying "I'm going to do what you want God and I know it will be good for me"
- People don't always need answers. Sometimes they just need love, compassion, and comfort. You can show people that God cares by showing them that you care.
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