The past, the present and the future culminates and hinges on one point in history, on a hill called Calvary. There on a bloody cross, God who became man, died for the sins of the world. There Jesus became a sacrifice and tasted death for every man.
God is a big fan of figures. God used the blood of animals in the old covenant to cover the sins of the people that lived at that time. He did that so that the future generations would know the price it took to pay for sin. God used that old system to show that sin incurred a debt and that the debt had to be payed. The law said, the soul that sins shall die. Blood is the only currency that appeased the wrath and justice of God so that the sinner's life could be prolonged. Every year the high priest had to go into the temple into a place called the holiest of all, and not without blood to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people. That was where the presence of God was and that was where the blood was brought. If it was accepted, God's wrath was abated one more year. They would tie a rope to the high priest when he went in there because if God didn't accept the sacrifice, the priest would die. God would kill him. It happened. This was serious business. Anyone else who would go in there would die.
Along comes Jesus. The old system is dead and gone. Christ dies and shed's his blood. Why? Because that is the only way to appease the justice of God for our sin. There is no other way. This is extremely exciting though. No longer does blood have to be shed. Christ offered one sacrifice that was worth enough and then some, to pay for the sin of the whole world. God raised Him from the dead and Jesus with His own blood then entered into the true Holy place in heaven, and obtained eternal redemption for us.
Heb 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
My what a wonderful verse. Jesus redeemed (bought) us (we were dead in trespasses and sins, condemned to eternal damnation in the lake of fire) with His own blood. The blood of animals was only used to cover the sins of the old covenant saints like David and Abraham. Christ's blood was so much better because it was God's blood. It was of sufficient worth to pay for the sin of the world. How marvelous is that?!
Now there is some people that think that Christ died for our past sins but not our future sins. They claim that through the act of repentance and confession we participate in our future forgiveness. That is false. Check this out... (Speaking of Jesus here)
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Christ didn't need any help. By Himself he purged our sins and sat down at the right hand of God! God made Jesus to be sin for us! Not some sin... ALL SIN! There is no more offering needed! The payment has been made, the debt has been paid! It's free and Christ did all the work needed! Think about that... "BY HIMSELF HE PURGED OUR SINS!" The only substance God accepts for the payment of sins, is blood. Our blood is useless because it is too polluted with sin. Christ's blood was perfect because he never sinned. He only did right.
Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD IS NO REMISSION.
Without the shedding of blood, sin cannot be forgiven. Nothing we do can get our sins forgiven. But...
Heb 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
Heb 9:25 NOR YET THAT HE SHOULD OFFER HIMSELF OFTEN, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; (Like they used to do)
Heb 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: BUT NOW ONCE IN THE END OF THE WORLD HATH HE APPEARED TO PUT AWAY SIN BY THE SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF.
My, what a wonderful verse! I am so glad that I am not required to do anything in order to have my sins forgiven, but believe that Christ did it all. Christ, ONCE BY HIMSELF PURGED OUR SINS! Nobody helped him and nobody's help is accepted. It's free! Christ will get all the glory.
Heb 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified (set apart) through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE for all.
Heb 10:11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: (in the old covenant)
Heb 10:12 But this man (JESUS), after he had offered ONE SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOR EVER, sat down on the right hand of God;
Heb 10:13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
Heb 10:14 For BY ONE OFFERING HE HATH PERFECTED FOR EVER them that are sanctified.
Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins forever! Forever signifies past, present and future. It means throughout all time. By ONE OFFERING HE PERFECTED FOREVER them that are set apart. (Heard the word and believed it) No one can add to what Jesus did. That day on the cross God sacrificed His own Lamb (His only begotten Son) and offered the free gift to anyone who would believe that what Jesus did is enough to get them into heaven, period. Jesus cried, "IT IS FINISHED".
That was a big job He finished. His blood payed for our sins. God raised Him from the dead signifying that the offering was accepted. God offers us the free gift of righteousness if we put our faith in that offering. He places Christ's right doing to our account. Beside our name in the book of life, he counts us as perfect. He no longer sees us as sinners but as completely righteous. He now views us as family and heirs of the kingdom. All as a free gift if only we acknowledge his offering on our behalf!
Do you believe this or are you still striving to maintain your salvation? Are you believing with all your heart? Or are you working on your salvation with your filthy offering of dead works? See, God's acceptance and favour is found in Jesus Christ. God's peace is found in Jesus Christ and His shed blood on the cross at Calvary. We either find our peace right there!.. Or we don't find it at all. Again, God's acceptance and an end to the war that existed between God and man is found in Christ Jesus! God finds acceptance right there on the cross and no where else. We by faith find acceptance and peace in that offering on the cross. Where God and man meet in Jesus Christ (on Calvary), we find peace! Right there and no place else! You cannot find forgiveness, acceptance or peace anywhere else. I cannot overemphasis this enough! Peace and acceptance, forgiveness and favour with God is only found through Jesus Christ. Does this ring true in the depth of your soul? If it doesn't, what do you got? Absolutely nothing! Just a dead lifeless religion.
If our faith is not completely in that offering, we are not saved and do not have eternal life. If our confidence is not in Christ Jesus with all our heart, we are dead in trespasses and sins. The only thing we have to look forward to is eternal destruction and torment. The only true peace is in Christ and there is only one offering for sin. For some the hardest thing in the world to do is to give up hope in themselves and trust only in Christ. A little faith in self and some in Christ is not acceptable. We must let go and stop placing our faith in ourselves and in our experience. There is no value to God in our right doing as a means of getting right with him. ALL the value God placed in His Son. There is no favour and no acceptance in and of ourselves. Jesus is all in all!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Free Will
Free Will
Most of my Christian brothers or sisters (especially on fb) would consider themselves reformed or Calvinistic in their theology. I gather this much from comments made and because most of mainstream Christianity is. Before I begin I want to make something clear. I love all my reformed brothers and sisters and my object here is not to demean you or your intelligence. Truly some of the people that love Jesus the most, happen to be reformed. Many of the best preachers of the gospel are Calvinists. I do understand that. My purpose here is not to cause division but to try to get people to see the truth instead of believing what has been handed down to us from men. I don't expect anyone to believe what I write but to search the scriptures for themselves.
Why is this an important topic? Reformed theology or Calvinism claims that man's will is in bondage therefore are unable to chose to do right. The sinners will is not free and cannot chose to repent and believe unless God decreed it from eternity past. (God decrees some to hell and some to heaven)
Now I'll tell you what this kind of doctrine does. It takes the blame off the sinner. No longer does the guilty sinner feel personally responsible for sin. If the sinner does not have a free will, then his sin is not his fault. After all, it is according to the nature that he has been given reformers say. Basically the lost our told (if they have been to church once) that they have a sinful nature and they can do no other than sin, and it's not really their fault. They are told that God is a sovereign God and if he didn't decree you to be in the elect, that you are damned and there is nothing you can do about it. I personally don't think anyone really believes this. I don't think any reformer looks on a murderer and doesn't feel that the person is personally to blame for the killing of the innocent. I don't think when a man rapes a Calvinist's wife, that that Calvinist doesn't think that the rapist personally deserves the fires of hell. I don't think anyone that holds to this doctrine, looks on a sodomite and doesn't think he should and could turn from his sin, repent to God and believe the gospel if he so desired. So in fact, many that hold to this doctrine do not believe it themselves and their actions betray them. So what is my issue then?
I recently posted a status that told the truth to the lost, that people who don't believe on Jesus are already condemned because they won't come to the light because their deeds were evil. Someone commented and the message they were sending utterly took the guilt and blameworthiness off of the sinner and blamed Adam and Eve for our sin. That is exactly what this bondage of the will doctrine does. If a sinner does not come to the place where he sees the mass of his own personal sin and is personally convicted, he will never see his need for Jesus. Where the sinner does not come to the place where he sees how disgustingly sinful he or she is in the light of a holy God, he or she will never come to Christ. No person will come to Christ who blames his sin on someone that lived over 6000 yrs ago. The truth is, every time I or anybody sinned, we knew we shouldn't but we did it anyway. We are to blame and no one else. It is my fault that I deserve eternity in the lake of fire. I should have had my blood shed for my sin. I deserved it. It is my fault that Christ died, because he died for my sin! All my life I knew to do right and did not. When faced with the truth that I ought to do the right thing, I despicably chose to ignore it and do the evil. I knew the truth of God and his judgment, and I turned the other way and walked after the darkness. I was to blame. It was my fault. At no time was my will hindered. No where in the bible was anybody's will hindered. Right from Adam to the apostle Paul, none ever blamed their sin on someone else or on a sinful nature that was passed to them.
In conclusion, if our will was in bondage why would we feel guilty when we sin? If our nature was to sin, then how could it be deemed sin and why would we feel bad about it? Wouldn't sin be acting against our nature? How could God blame us for sin if we were born like this? Why would God want a bunch of robots with predetermined actions? If man has no free will, then what kind of freak show is this? We have a whole race of people that aren't free who are born with a nature to sin, who are commanded by God to repent and believe when they don't have the capability? What kind of god is that? What kind of god decrees some to be saved and the rest to be damned when he could over power them all with His irresistible grace and save them all? This is messed up folks. Search the scriptures and find the truth.
Why is this an important topic? Reformed theology or Calvinism claims that man's will is in bondage therefore are unable to chose to do right. The sinners will is not free and cannot chose to repent and believe unless God decreed it from eternity past. (God decrees some to hell and some to heaven)
Now I'll tell you what this kind of doctrine does. It takes the blame off the sinner. No longer does the guilty sinner feel personally responsible for sin. If the sinner does not have a free will, then his sin is not his fault. After all, it is according to the nature that he has been given reformers say. Basically the lost our told (if they have been to church once) that they have a sinful nature and they can do no other than sin, and it's not really their fault. They are told that God is a sovereign God and if he didn't decree you to be in the elect, that you are damned and there is nothing you can do about it. I personally don't think anyone really believes this. I don't think any reformer looks on a murderer and doesn't feel that the person is personally to blame for the killing of the innocent. I don't think when a man rapes a Calvinist's wife, that that Calvinist doesn't think that the rapist personally deserves the fires of hell. I don't think anyone that holds to this doctrine, looks on a sodomite and doesn't think he should and could turn from his sin, repent to God and believe the gospel if he so desired. So in fact, many that hold to this doctrine do not believe it themselves and their actions betray them. So what is my issue then?
I recently posted a status that told the truth to the lost, that people who don't believe on Jesus are already condemned because they won't come to the light because their deeds were evil. Someone commented and the message they were sending utterly took the guilt and blameworthiness off of the sinner and blamed Adam and Eve for our sin. That is exactly what this bondage of the will doctrine does. If a sinner does not come to the place where he sees the mass of his own personal sin and is personally convicted, he will never see his need for Jesus. Where the sinner does not come to the place where he sees how disgustingly sinful he or she is in the light of a holy God, he or she will never come to Christ. No person will come to Christ who blames his sin on someone that lived over 6000 yrs ago. The truth is, every time I or anybody sinned, we knew we shouldn't but we did it anyway. We are to blame and no one else. It is my fault that I deserve eternity in the lake of fire. I should have had my blood shed for my sin. I deserved it. It is my fault that Christ died, because he died for my sin! All my life I knew to do right and did not. When faced with the truth that I ought to do the right thing, I despicably chose to ignore it and do the evil. I knew the truth of God and his judgment, and I turned the other way and walked after the darkness. I was to blame. It was my fault. At no time was my will hindered. No where in the bible was anybody's will hindered. Right from Adam to the apostle Paul, none ever blamed their sin on someone else or on a sinful nature that was passed to them.
In conclusion, if our will was in bondage why would we feel guilty when we sin? If our nature was to sin, then how could it be deemed sin and why would we feel bad about it? Wouldn't sin be acting against our nature? How could God blame us for sin if we were born like this? Why would God want a bunch of robots with predetermined actions? If man has no free will, then what kind of freak show is this? We have a whole race of people that aren't free who are born with a nature to sin, who are commanded by God to repent and believe when they don't have the capability? What kind of god is that? What kind of god decrees some to be saved and the rest to be damned when he could over power them all with His irresistible grace and save them all? This is messed up folks. Search the scriptures and find the truth.
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