ROMANS
ROMANS 1:1-7
1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
2 which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,
4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
5 Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name,
6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;
7 To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The first thing that Paul does in this letter is present his credentials as an apostle, personally hand-picked and appointed by Jesus Christ Himself, Paul being equal with the Twelve previously chosen by Jesus. He was pretty well known by this time but wanted everyone who read the letter to know his calling to minister the Gospel.
He is also careful to tie his ministry to the Scriptures, linking the Old Testament prophecies and promises by God to their fulfillment in Jesus Christ His Son, forming the foundation of the New Covenant.
ROMANS 1:8-12
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers,
10 making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established—
12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
Rome was a prime place for the furtherance of the Gospel, being the seat of the Roman Empire. Huge numbers of people visited and left Rome, going to the farthest reaches of the known world, and converts could carry the Gospel with them. And with Paul’s later imprisonment in Rome, the entire Imperial palace including Emperor Nero himself was exposed to the truth of the Gospel fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy of;
MATTHEW 10:18
18 You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.
ROMANS 1:13-17
13 Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles.
14 I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise.
15 So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
In the book of Acts, Luke the physician (and author of the book of Luke) details the missionary journeys of Paul and the attempts of Satan working through evil men to hinder or stop him. Paul more than likely didn’t know that he was eventually going to Rome at the time of this letter, as I believe this letter was written before his third missionary journey.
After his third journey, as denoted in Acts 23 he had traveled to Jerusalem and the Jews seeing him, had started a riot trying to kill him. Claudius Lysias, the Roman centurion there had intervened and had taken Paul into the barracks for his own safety. The next night the Lord appeared to Paul;
ACTS 23:11
11 But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.”
Paul had been commissioned by Jesus to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles and Paul took his mission seriously. He understood that Rome would be fertile ground for spreading the Gospel as travelers from Rome could carry the Gospel to areas he couldn’t go.
He also had an attitude we should emulate, namely that we should not shy or ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, remembering that someone was bold enough to teach us. And though you feel that people might laugh or reject you, it is not you they are rejecting, it is Jesus. And all we can do is plant seeds, it is God who causes the growth. It may be years later, but the seeds you plant can still grow.
ROMANS 1:18-23
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
We many times forget that while God is a loving God, He is also a God of wrath and judgment who must punish sinful behavior. But He doesn’t punish or destroy arbitrarily, He gives plenty of warning before He acts.
The Old Testament is rife with examples of His fury and wrath against sin. For example, He begged the nation of Judah for forty years through the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel to repent and warned them what would happen if they didn’t, promising to send the worst of the northern Gentiles against them, in this case the Babylonians (the Assyrians were worse but they had been destroyed by the Babylonians earlier).
They turned their backs and He set four means of destruction against them, namely the sword, savage wild beasts, famine and plagues. He promised that the famine would be so great that the inhabitants of Jerusalem would resort to cannibalism to survive and the prophets record that it happened just as prophesied. Parents boiled and ate their children and the children boiled and ate their parents. And all this was before the Babylonian soldiers broke through the walls of the city and slaughtered most of those who were left.
The prophet Jeremiah was an eyewitness to what happened and recorded it all in the Old Testament books of Jeremiah and Lamentations.
We really have no excuse for not believing in God. His works are shown all around us from the subatomic to the macro-cosmic in just the very order that we see things follow. Evidence indicates that the universe started when a hot dense ball of matter suddenly exploded and created all that we see. It was the ultimate in chaos, and order does not result from chaos, order must be imposed upon chaos.
This brings up several points; namely the universe had a beginning because something or Someone had to create the ball of highly compressed, superhot, incredibly dense matter in the first place. The laws of Thermodynamics say that an object in a stable state will remain in that state unless acted on by an outside force. So something or Someone had to compress that ball of matter even more, adding energy to the system, then releasing the pressure allowing it to explode; or something or Someone added energy to the ball of matter causing it to overcome its own gravity and explode into the present-day universe. But in either scenario, work of some sort was performed on the ball of matter from an outside source.
And for matter to form the way it did and follow the laws of physics, the laws of chemistry, physics and mathematics already had to be in place before the "Big Bang" happened. In other words, the physical and mathematical laws that the universe follows today were in place before the universe was created. This in itself points to the existence of God who said;
ISAIAH 48:13
13 Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together
Even scientists are saying that Someone with an incredible grasp of knowledge of physics and mathematics created the Universe whose properties are specifically fine-tuned to support life on Earth.
ROMANS 1:24-27
24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
We hear of the idols worshiped in ancient times, but ignore the fact that today many countries still have them. India has many gods and shrines with idols representing each one. In Africa many villages have fetishes that are worshiped.
Some nations worship gods in the forms of animals, hybrid animal / humans, some worship departed humans (ancestor worship) and so on.
Even in the United States we have two idols, called power and money. Just take a look at Hollywood , Wall Street and Washington, D.C. for examples. Remember the Stock Market crash of 1929? Wall Street brokers were jumping out of skyscraper windows because they were broke and couldn’t live without their money. Corrupt members of Congress are more interested in power and money than they are the welfare of their voters.
After Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden Satan quickly twisted the natural use of sex between a man and a woman to a perverted form, men lusting after men and women lusting after women. In fact, the term ’lesbian’ came from the Greek island of Lesbos which was famed for well-known lesbian behavior among the women of the island, just as Sodom and its surrounding cities were well-known for the homosexual practices between its men.
The rise of sexual promiscuity has brought about a skyrocketing increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) such as syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, AIDS, HIV (the precursor to AIDS) and the like, and some of these are mutating into “super-bugs” which are resistant to preset-day drugs and may soon become unstoppable. Even now there is no cure for HIV/AIDS.
ROMANS 1:28-32
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,
30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Looking at our society today, we can see the fulfilment of this prophecy. Crime is out of control, police are viewed as oppressors, cities are named as “murder capitals”, greedy governments are legalizing ‘recreational drugs’ so they can collect taxes on the sales, children are committing adult crimes and getting off lightly because of their ages, blatant promiscuity (especially in Hollywood) is out of control, political corruption has skyrocketed, racism (real and fake) is rampant just to name a few examples.
God set down strict laws in the Old Testament with harsh punishments for breaking them because He knew the evil in men’s hearts and knew what these behaviors would become if unrestrained. He set down the major laws in the Ten Commandments and set down further laws in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
“God hates the death penalty!!” people self-righteously shout. Really? He’s the One who demanded it as punishment for murder. As He told Noah on Mount Ararat after the Ark rested on the mountain top after the Flood;
GENESIS 9:6
6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.
Note carefully that God makes no distinction between color, social status or age; He does not make exclusions for mental competency, insanity, bad childhoods and other excuses for the activity. One punishment upon conviction, period.
Even rebellious grown children still at home were subject to strict laws;
DEUTERONOMY 21:18-21
18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them,
19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city.
20 And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’
21 Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.
If you want an inkling of how twisted our society has become because of rampant sin, listen to the lyrics of today’s music, especially Heavy Metal and “Rap”. Drug use, rape, violence, murder of police, racism, prostitution and worse are being promoted and glorified by singers who become rich from such music and our children see them as role-models instead of their parents.
A long time ago, I had a dream where I was on the wings of a stage. The Metal group “KISS” was performing and bassist Gene Simmons (known as the Demon) was spitting fake blood on the audience and the kids in the audience were screaming and loving it.
I had never seen KISS in concert before (nor did I want to). But as I watched them play, in the background a voice repeated Proverbs 22:6 three times;
PROVERBS 22:6
6 Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
The message was clear. Satan is corrupting our children, and he’s using music as bait. Children need role-models to guide their behaviors and if parents don’t provide the examples, the children will find someone who will.
I have two adult children and my wife and I carefully raised them to adulthood. We are proud of both of them, as neither of them use drugs or alcohol, they don’t attend wild parties and they are bewildered by the behaviors of their friends who do. And a number of times they have told me, “You and Mom raised us right! Thank you!!!”
It’s hard work but it can be done, and the rewards are well worth the effort!!!
ROMANS 2:1-4
1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.
2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
3 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?
4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Paul makes a very good point here. We tend to judge people according to their actions rather than judge their actions alone. Our courts try people accused of criminal activity based on their actions, not on their personalities or demeanor.
None of us are without sin and while we can judge behaviors that God has already judged, we have no power to judge the person(s) themselves. Only a sinless God has that right. And if we judge the person who committed the sin, we place ourselves in the place of God as Judge of Mankind.
Paul also points out that we practice the same things that we judge others for. Case in point. I have cynically noted that some members of Congress who accuse President Trump of infidelities have used tax-payer money in the past to quietly settle sexual harassment lawsuits brought against them by subordinates. Another who has been voted four times as ‘the most corrupt member in Congress’ keeps frantically calling for Trump’s impeachment, citing unspecified and unproven ‘corruption’. I have also seen people who were publicly homophobic who were actually homosexual themselves.
ROMANS 2:5-11
5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
6 who “will render to each one according to his deeds”:
7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;
8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
9 tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek;
10 but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
11 For there is no partiality with God.
We need to be really careful in judging people. Too many times we judge the person along with their deeds, rather than judge their deeds alone. If a person is homosexual, we can judge their actions which God has already judged, but we cannot judge the person themselves, only God has the right to do that.
There have been brutal, hardened criminals who have become gentle, loving people after accepting Jesus. I read the story of a rabid Japanese kamikaze pilot who survived World War II and became a Christian evangelist.
Paul also reminds us that there is no partiality with God - the way we judge others is the way we will be judged. It doesn’t matter who you are on Earth either, God sees and judges us all by the same standard. As Jesus said;
MATTHEW 7:1-5
1 “Judge not, that you be not judged.
2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?
5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
If we judge the person of someone, we are saying that we are without sin. If a man or woman commits adultery, we can judge the action, as God has forbidden adultery, but we cannot judge the person as many men and women have lusted after someone. As Jesus said;
MATTHEW 5:27-28
27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
You don’t have to perform the physical act to be guilty of adultery in God’s eyes.
And remember James’ admonition concerning judging;
JAMES 2:13
13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
ROMANS 2:12-16
12 For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law
13 (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified;
14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves,
15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)
16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
Here we come to a fascinating point of Scripture. People have often asked, “How will God judge those who have never heard of Him or His commandments?”
When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil which God had forbidden them to eat, several things happened;
1. They lost their innocence, which God had been trying to protect - they now knew they had disobeyed God and were now sinners
2. They had disobeyed God and now had to face His Judgment and punishment.
3. They now knew that Satan had set a clever trap for them. Satan told the truth that if they ate the fruit, they would be like God, knowing good and evil. What he didn’t tell them was that they would now be held responsible before God for that knowledge.
What Satan hadn’t counted on was that knowledge would be ingrained in Mankind and would help us fight against sin. So even if someone doesn’t know God or His commandments, they will be judged by how well they tried to follow that instinctive knowledge.
Those who have and know God’s written laws will be judged by those laws. Those who don’t will be judged by their own consciences, being accused or excused by their instinctive knowledge of good and evil.
ROMANS 2:17-29
17 Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God,
18 and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,
19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.
21 You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?
22 You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
23 You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?
24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.
25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?
28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;
29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
Paul is pointing out the hypocrisy of the Jews as they were criticizing and condemning the Gentiles as unclean sinners while they were practicing the same things, but believing that having the Law, being circumcised and being sons of Abraham made them righteous and exempt from God’s wrath.
John the Baptist preached against such beliefs by the scribes and Pharisees when he said;
LUKE 3:7-9
7 Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
9 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Paul points out that being circumcised as a Jew means you’ve are a follower of the Law of Moses and be an example to pagans. But their behaviors showed something entirely different, causing Gentile proselytes (converts) to behave in violation of the Law.
Jesus spoke of this when He said;
MATTHEW 23:15
15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of Hell as yourselves.
Paul points out that in God’s eyes being a descendant of Abraham does not make a person a Jew in God’s sight, it’s the inward Man that He looks at. And if someone is physically uncircumcised but in faith keeps the requirements of the Law, will God reject him? Absolutely not. Will God accept a Jew who violates the Law merely because he is a Jew? Read Jeremiah and Ezekiel to see what horrifying things that God did to the Jews of Jerusalem in His fury at their sins.
Jesus said;
MATTHEW 8:11-12
11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
At the Judgment there will be many Gentiles, considered “unclean sinners” by the Jews who will be welcomed into God’s kingdom through their faith, and many Jews for whom the Kingdom was created will be cast out because of their disobedience and unbelief.
ROMANS 3:1-6
1 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.
3 For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?
4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.”
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)
6 Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?
The Jews have a definite advantage in that they were chosen by God to be His chosen people out of all the nations. To them He revealed Himself and His truths when the rest of the world was shrouded in sin and ignorance.
They also have the rich history of God’s dealings with them and that the promised Messiah, the Savior of all Mankind would be of their lineage. Also the fact that God adopted the Jewish people first, followed by the believing Gentiles makes them our ‘elder brethren’ so to speak.
Although many Jews throughout history did not and still do not believe in God or Jesus, God’s faithfulness in keeping His promises still continues and He still holds out His hand to unbelievers and accepts those who turn to Him.
Some condemn God for sending people to Hell and punishing sin. Being God, He must punish sin and disobedience or there would be no curbs to Mankind’s evil. The threat of Hell causes many to think twice before doing evil and God does not want to send us there. As God told the prophet Ezekiel;
EZEKIEL 33:11
11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
Hell was not originally created for us, but for Satan and his demons. As Jesus will say to the wicked after the Judgment:
MATTHEW 25:41
41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:”
Hell and the Lake of Fire are God’s prisons, one temporary (Hell) and the other eternal (Lake of Fire). Scripture says that Satan after Jesus’ return will be chained and cast into the “bottomless pit” (Hell) for 1,000 years, then released for a time. He will subvert the world again, then will be chained again and cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity after the Great Judgment.
Satan sinned at the beginning, and was sentenced to the Lake of Fire as his punishment. And when Satan deceived Adam and Eve into sinning, God’s justice demanded that they receive Satan’s punishment.
But God, knowing that Adam and Eve in their innocence had been deceived, devised a plan for Man to be saved and His justice to be satisfied as well. He determined that the flesh would suffer the effects of sin (disease, aging, sorrow, pain, death) while the eternal spirit of Man could be saved. Those who accepted His plan of salvation would be saved, those who did not would follow into Satan’s punishment.
They also don’t realize that God, in His incredible love and mercy, took His own curse upon Himself through Jesus Christ when Jesus was sent to he deepest part of Hell to pay for our sins. As David prophesied concerning the Messiah;
PSALMS 88:6-7a; 8b
6 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths.
7a Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
8b I am shut up, and I cannot get out;
God the Father imprisoned Jesus in the deepest (and worst) pit of Hell until the full price of sin had been paid. As David also prophesied concerning Jesus’ atoning death;
PSALMS 16:9-10
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
10 For You will not leave My soul in Hell; neither will You allow Your Holy One to see decay.
When the spiritual price of sin had been paid, Jesus was resurrected to become the Savior and Judge of all Mankind. So now the flesh suffers under the law and punishment of sin, but our spirit can be saved and dwell with God forever.
ROMANS 3:7-8
7 For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
8 And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.
Paul is speaking ‘tongue in cheek’ here, saying to his accusers that if the Gospel he preaches stems from lies from his own imagination and God is greatly glorified in them, why are they condemning him? He is essentially saying that unless his preaching fits their narrow-minded ignorance, they will slander and condemn him no matter what he says.
Paul speaks of these people in his letter to the church in Thessalonika when he told them;
1 THESSALONIANS 2:14-16
14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans,
15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men,
16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.
ROMANS 3:9-20
9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;
11 There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”
13 “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 destruction and misery are in their ways;
17 And the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Paul is quick to note that in God’s eyes, we are ALL sinners in need of salvation, both Jews and Gentiles. God is no respecter of persons, not holding any one above another in His sight. The Jews of Paul’s time condemned the Gentiles as sinners, yet Paul points out that according to the Law of Moses, all Jews are sinners as well. And with the Law not having any provision for salvation, being a Law of condemnation, they are just as sinful as the Gentiles before God.
As Jesus Himself told the Jews;
LUKE 13:4-5
4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?
5 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
In fact, God condemns the Jews for being as bad as their pagan neighbors. For example, as recorded in Scripture;
1 KINGS 14:22-24
22 Now Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done.
23 For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree.
24 And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
The result of their sins? God finally had enough of their abominations and told them;
EZEKIEL 5:12
12 One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
ROMANS 3:21-26
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
The Law had no provision for righteousness, being a law of condemnation. The Law identified what was sin in God’s eyes and the Law required that a man be sinless to be justified under the Law, something sinful Man could never accomplish.
So God, showing His righteousness apart from the Law, brought salvation through Jesus Christ who lived in perfection under the Law so that we might be saved apart from the Law. The animal sacrifices of the Law, being imperfect, could only cover sin, they could never remove them.
But the sacrifices put the Jews under obedience through faith, and like Abraham their faith was accounted as righteousness. However, they were still sinners and so when they died they went to rest with Abraham in “the Pit” (Sheol), a location in the same place as Hell, but separated by a huge gulf, as Jesus described in Luke 16:19-30. Those in Hell could see those at rest and vice-versa, but neither could cross the gap between them.
When Jesus died and rose again, He preached the Gospel to the dead with Abraham so that they knew why they were there, and with their sins paid for and removed, they were now righteous through Him and could enter Heaven with Him when He ascended back to the Father.
Peter says;
1 PETER 4:6
6 For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
And Paul, referring to Jesus taking the captive souls at rest in the Pit into Heaven with Him records;
EPHESIANS 4:8
8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
So now when believers die, we go to Heaven, not the Pit.
ROMANS 3:27-31
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,
30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.
The Law requires faith, and so does the Gospel. The biggest differences are that the Law required perfect works to be righteous, something sinful Man could never do. The Gospel is a spiritual law in which God opened salvation to all who would believe in Jesus, Jew and Gentile equally, apart from the tyranny of the works of the Law. The circumcised Jews who died before Jesus’ atonement will be judged by their obedience to and faith in the Law and those Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus now will be judged through their faith in Jesus apart from the Law.
The entire Law and the prophets pointed to Jesus, although the fulfillment and understanding of His mission wasn’t clearly seen and understood until His resurrection and ascension into Heaven.
ROMANS 4:1-8
1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”
The Law codified what was defined as sin and righteous works in God’s eyes. Before the Law, men were guided by their consciences. As Moses said concerning the Law just before Israel crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land;
DEUTERONOMY 12:8
8 “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes;
As we saw in chapter 2, those who didn’t have the Law or who didn’t know about God would be judged by their consciences, their instinctive knowledge of the difference between good and evil justifying or else accusing them before God.
We also saw that faith in God could result in justification apart from the Law for those who didn’t have the Law (Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for example) meaning that both believing Jews who were descended from Abraham and believing Gentiles who believed and died before the Law could be justified before God by their faith alone, as our works could never be perfect for justification through works.
And here is the grace and mercy of God shown in that He is willing to count faith as righteousness in His eyes. Contrary to some religious beliefs, we cannot “earn” our way into Heaven as all of our works, no matter how noble, are tainted with sin. All of Creation and its works are tainted with sin which is why God will destroy them all just before the Great Judgment. Isaiah also prophesied of this when he said;
ISAIAH 24:19-20
19 The earth is violently broken, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall totter like a hut; its transgression shall be heavy upon it, and it will fall, and not rise again.
Peter also warned;
2 PETER 3:10
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
Many people don’t know that Satan still has access to Heaven;
JOB 1:6-7
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
7 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”
As such, God said;
ISAIAH 65:17
17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
Therefore all of present Creation, including Heaven itself has been tainted by Satan, and is slated to be destroyed. So justifying ourselves through imperfect works is like trying to clean ourselves with filthy water. And if we were able to earn our way into Heaven through works, there would be no need for God’s grace. But the grace of God is manifested by the fact that He accepts us through faith and obedience to His laws and freely forgives us of sins.
ROMANS 4:9-12
9 Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also,
12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.
Abraham, before God chose him to be the father of the Jewish nation was actually an uncircumcised Gentile. God said of the Jewish race in His wrath, comparing Israel to its surrounding pagan neighbors;
EZEKIEL 16:44-47
44 “Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb against you: ‘Like mother, like daughter!’
45 You are your mother’s daughter, loathing husband and children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children; your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
46 “Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom and her daughters.
47 You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.
God was inferring that Israel was no better than Samaria or Sodom and in fact were even worse than both of them!!!
Abraham lived in Ur in Mesopotamia, but not many realize that there were two cities called “Ur”, the biggest in Chaldea, the smaller northward in Haran bordering the Hittite (Hatti) empire on the southern border of what is now Turkey. This makes sense because if Abraham lived in northern Ur, it would have cut hundreds of miles from his trip to Canaan and he would had to have crossed the Euphrates River only once, not twice as he would have if he had lived in Chaldean Ur to the south. Therefore Abraham was actually an Amorite in origin.
Sarah, Abraham’s wife was Abraham’s half-sister (same father, different mothers) which could very well mean that she was of Hittite ancestry as Terah their father lived in northern Ur, very close to the Hittite southern border.
So therefore Abraham’s faith was counted as righteousness before God before he was circumcised and still in all respects a Gentile, over 430 years before God gave the Law to Moses. And having received the approval of God before he was circumcised, he became the father of uncircumcised Gentile believers as well as the circumcised Jews.
This caused many problems with the Jews, even believing Jews, who felt that believers in Jesus had to be circumcised and follow the Law of Moses to receive salvation. Here Paul states that as Abraham was righteous apart from circumcision and the Law through his faith, the Gentiles can receive salvation without being circumcised or following the Law.
ROMANS 4:13-15
13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,
15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.
God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, and as the stars for multitude over 500 years before the Law was created. The promise was made before the Law so that those who did not have the Law but still believed in God would be heirs to Abraham and children of God.
The Law was created to define sin and righteousness, for one cannot be guilty of breaking a law if no law concerning it exists. So God created the Law to define sin, that Man’s sinful nature might be restrained and that Man might be held to account for sinful behavior.
ROMANS 4:16-22
16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”
19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
The promise given to Abraham was given outside of the works of the Law, so that those not having the Law could inherit the promises given to Abraham, with Abraham as a model of faith apart from the Law and emphasizing God’s grace.
ROMANS 4:23-25
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him,
24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
Redemption is not earned by us, nor can it ever be earned. But God is willing to count our faith as righteousness apart from works, showing that it is by His grace alone that we are saved.
As Paul told the church at Ephesus;
EPHESIANS 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
ROMANS 5:1-5
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;
4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Our faith is of great price before God, and precious in His sight. And it is only through our faith in Jesus Christ that we have access to the Father and the salvation offered by Him. The Father has appointed Jesus to be the Judge of all men, and it is only by permission of Jesus that we can enter Heaven.
As Paul stated to the Corinthian church;
2 CORINTHIANS 5:10
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
And as Jesus Himself said;
JOHN 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
ROMANS 5:6-11
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
There is a difference between a good man and a righteous man. A “good” man is approved by men, whereas a “righteous” man is approved by God. Throughout history people have died to protect good men, but few have died for the sake of righteous men.
Yet Jesus was willing to die for ALL men as none are righteous by themselves or through their own works. As Isaiah laments;
ISAIAH 64:6-7
6 But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us because of our iniquities.
And king David said;
PSALMS 14:1-3
1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.
Yet God in His love and mercy sent Jesus to atone for our sins so that while the flesh must suffer the punishment for sin that His justice demands, our purified spirits will live with Him forever. Remember, we are eternal creatures but where we spend eternity after death is the biggest difference between the righteous and the sinner.
God requires that we be perfect to enter Heaven and the flesh cannot be made perfect. Those who die in Jesus are made perfect after death and are granted entrance into Heaven.
As the author of the book of Hebrews said;
HEBREWS 12:22-23
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Just as Jesus spared the Israelites who put the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorposts but destroyed the Egyptians who didn’t, even so will Jesus spare us from wrath at our Judgment, our having been saved through His blood.
ROMANS 5:12-17
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.
16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.
17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
Earth was in a perfect state when God created Adam, and when he sinned, God cursed the Earth to destruction and death, rather than destroy Man immediately because of his sin.
GENESIS 3:17-19
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread ‘till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
At that moment, sin entered the world and death followed sin. And because Adam is the father of all Mankind, God’s curse was passed to his descendants as well, even though we had not sinned as Adam did.
Sin was in the world before the Law of Moses was given, but the Law defined what was sin in God’s eyes. Those who died before the Law of Moses or who did not have the Law will still face Judgment for their actions in the flesh, being judged by their consciences as discussed in Romans chapter 2 of this study.
Remember, sin can only attack the flesh, but it is the spirit that pays the true consequences of sin. Without a body there is no lust, greed, covetousness or any other sin. As Paul stated;
ROMANS 6:7
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Being freed from sin does not free you from the consequences of sins you committed in the body. We all must face Judgment before God for our actions committed in the flesh. But through the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ we have forgiveness and salvation from sin and will be judged concerning the quality of our service to Jesus rather than for our sins.
That doesn’t mean that we are free to sin while still in the flesh. Like I said, sin attacks the flesh and our flesh suffers the physical price of sin, namely suffering disease, aging and its infirmities and eventually death.
If we sin willfully, God will punish us while in the flesh to correct us, so that we do not face His wrath at our Judgment.
As Scripture states;
ROMANS 8:12-13
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
And we need to bear in mind always, the warning given in Hebrews;
HEBREWS 10:26-31
26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
ROMANS 5:18-21
18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,
21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Law of Moses set down what was sinful behaviors in God’s eyes and what was required to be righteous in the flesh. Yet no human could follow the Law to perfection all of the days of his life as the Law required, for we were born in sin.
Remember, sin passed to all men through our human father, Adam. However Jesus was born without a human father, therefore was sinless while in the days of His flesh. And being perfect and being the original Lawgiver. He could fulfill the fleshly requirements of the Law and replace it with a better Covenant.
ROMANS 6:1-4
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Verse 1 sounds suspiciously like the doctrine of the Nicolaitans that God spoke against in the book of Revelation. They taught that the flesh was inherently evil and could not be saved, but the spirit could remain pure. Therefore they could indulge in sins of the flesh and still be saved in their estimation.
Remember, Satan is the originator and author of sin, whereas Jesus is the author and originator of eternal life. Jesus Himself said;
LUKE 16:13
“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
In this case He was referring to mammon (money) but the same holds true for other things.
You cannot serve God and Satan at the same time. We are not free to keep sinning just because we’re under grace either. Remember the warning given by the author of Hebrews, which says;
HEBREWS 10:26-31
26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
ROMANS 6:5-11
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Remember, sin can only attack the flesh. Therefore Jesus had to have a sinless body as a receptacle for sin to be poured into at the cross. And when He died, the sins died with Him, destroying sin once and for all. But the price of sin still needed to be paid, which is why He suffered in the deepest pit of Hell until the wrath of the Father and His justice were both satisfied.
As king David prophesied;
PSALMS 16:8-10
8 I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.
10 For You will not leave my soul in Hell, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
And;
PSALMS 88:6-7
6 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves.
8 You have put away my acquaintances far from me; you have made me an abomination to them; I am shut up, and I cannot get out;
9 My eye wastes away because of affliction.
From these prophecies we see that Jesus was sent to the lowest pit of Hell and was trapped there until the Father raised Him from the dead after He had paid the full price for sin. The supremacy of the Father is also shown in that Jesus, even being equal with God the Father was subject to His power in that He could not get out of Hell until the Father raised Him from the dead.
Jesus’ body never decayed during the time He was in the tomb. Remember when He commanded the stone covering Lazarus’ tomb be rolled back, his sisters said, ”Lord, it has been three days. By now, he stinks!” referring to decay having set in. That never happened to Jesus, in fulfillment of David’s prophecy.
In Romans 6:7 above, Paul says that the dead are free from sin. That doesn’t mean that non-believing sinners become sinless after death, it means that sin can no longer attack us. With no body, there is no lust, greed, covetousness, etc.
BUT the sins we committed in life must still be accounted for. The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament could never remove sins committed, they could only cover them. As David said;
PSALMS 32:1-2
1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered
2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
Even though covered, the sins were still there in God’s eyes. That is why those who died in faith under the Law did not go to Heaven, but went to a place of rest, to await their redemption in Jesus.
Even Abraham, described in Scripture as “the friend of God” was there as told by Jesus in the story of the rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. Lazarus died in faith, the rich man did not. Both went to the Pit, but with one important difference as related by Jesus;
LUKE 16:22-31
22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
23 And being in torments in Hell, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’
25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.
26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
27 “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house,
28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’
29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’
30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”
NOTE: Jesus never said this was a parable, apparently it was a true story!! And note the truth of Abraham’s words; Jesus rose from the dead, and many still do not believe.
The fact that no one had entered heaven before Jesus’ resurrection is borne out by His own words;
JOHN 3:13
13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
After Jesus’ resurrection, we now go either to Heaven or Hell, as our sins have been paid for and believers are made sinless after death. If a person dies in their sins, they have rejected Jesus’ gift of atonement and have chosen to pay for their sins themselves. They have chosen Satan over God as their master, and they will follow into his eternal punishment.
But this also does not mean that we can continue in sins because they have been paid for!! The pleasures of sin always come with a price, which will take an eternity in torment to pay.
We all sin, and will do so until freed from sin at death. But we can actively fight sin through the power of the Holy Spirit and this is precious and praiseworthy in God’s eyes. But if we continue in blatant sin, we will have rejected Jesus’ sacrifice for sinful pleasures and will be sentenced to Hell at our death and the Lake of Fire at our Judgment.
ROMANS 6:12-14
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Carefully read verse 14 above. Sin cannot dominate us unless we allow it. Being imperfect we will always sin, inadvertently or through ignorance. God understands this but has given us authority over sin. As He told Cain after his altar offering to God was rejected;
GENESIS 4:6-7
6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you shall rule over it.”
And as Paul stated;
1 CORINTHIANS 10:13
13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
God puts limits on how much Satan is allowed to test and tempt us. Jesus, in order to understand first-hand what it is like to be tempted in the flesh, was tempted all 40 days in the wilderness, even though Scripture lists only three temptations.
Careful reading of Mark supports this;
MARK 1:13
13 And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.
Mark indicates that He was tempted the entire time He was in the wilderness!
This is also reinforced by the author of Hebrews;
HEBREWS 4:14-15
14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Satan is limited as to how much he can tempt us, but he had no limits when tempting Jesus. We will never be tempted in the magnitude that Jesus was.
ROMANS 6:15-19
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!
16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.
18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
Paul reiterates that the grace and mercy of God are not to be taken lightly.
Jesus having paid for our sins does not give us the freedom to continue to sin! The cult of the Nicolaitans that Jesus condemns in the beginning of the Book of Revelation in John’s letters to the seven churches believed this. They taught that the flesh was evil and could not be saved, but the spirit was made pure by Jesus, therefore the flesh was free to indulge in sin while the spirit would be saved. Jesus bluntly told the churches that He hated this blasphemous doctrine and warned the churches against it.
God had previously warned the prophet Ezekiel;
EZEKIEL 33:13-16
13 When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die.
14 Again, when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right,
15 if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
16 None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
Every slave and servant has a master whom they obey and we are no different. As Bob Dylan once sang, “It may be the Devil, it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna serve somebody.” We are in a war, and as with any conflict in which we are involved we must choose sides. In this war there is no neutral ground.
If you reject God as your Master you will have chosen Satan as your master. If you choose Satan willingly or unwillingly, you choose to follow into his punishment as well. Choose carefully and count the cost of serving one or the other.
ROMANS 6:20-23
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For myself, I think a better term for “slaves” here, especially in reference to God, is better rendered as “servants”. We willingly pledge ourselves to God and serve Him by choice. And by doing so He cares for us and rewards our service with eternal life.
Those who follow Satan are his slaves and they serve an uncaring, harsh master. He promises them freedom while putting them under bondage to sin and rewards their service with misery and eventual eternal agony and destruction by fire.
ROMANS 7:1-6
1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Laws are created to codify what constitutes right and wrong, good and evil both in God’s eyes as well as Man’s eyes. God created the Law for the Jews so that they would understand what was required to be righteous in His eyes.
The Law was sort of like going on a diet. As soon as you do, you immediately begin craving all of the things your diet says you cannot have. The same with the Law - as soon as the Law said we couldn’t have or do something, Satan excited our sinful nature to desire what the Law said was forbidden.
But the Law, while good in identifying what was sin in Gods eyes was weak in that it contained no provisions for salvation. In order for Man to be saved, a new, better, and permanent Covenant and Law which could provide salvation needed to be established which Covenant and Law came through Jesus Christ.
The Law of Moses was a physical Law, focused on works, “Do this, don’t do that”. But none of our works are perfect before God which the Law required. So Jesus, who gave the Law to Moses, being perfect, fulfilled the requirements of the Law and replaced it with a better, permanent Law. And just as the Law focused on imperfect works, the New Covenant focuses on perfection through faith, with works demonstrating our faith.
Being under the New Covenant, we cannot serve God under the Old Testament Law as Jesus did away with the Law at His death. The Jews didn’t believe this after His death and resurrection, yet God waited 40 years for the preaching of the New Covenant to reach them. When the Jews still refused to believe and still followed the Law, Jesus in His wrath destroyed the Temple and the priesthood to put an end to the practicing of the Law.
ROMANS 7:7-12
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
Without God’s commandments to codify and identify sin, sinful behavior is a matter of conscience, leaving a huge “gray area” of behavior open to interpretation. One person may see a behavior as sinful, another may not. Just look at the ‘gay’ and gender confusion issues we have today. So-called “experts” have rationalized what the Bible labels as sinful behavior as ‘natural’ and even desirable and loudly condemn those who follow Bible teachings on the subjects, calling them ‘haters’.
The purpose of the Law was to end this confusion. As Moses warned Israel;
Deuteronomy 12:8
8 “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes”
As we discussed concerning diets previously, the Law stirred up all kinds of sinful desires within our flesh even though the spirit may not want to indulge those sinful desires. The Law wasn’t sinful, it merely identified what was sinful behavior in God’s sight. But the Law, while not providing salvation also put its followers under obedience until true salvation would come through Jesus Christ.
Therefore the Law was good for its intended purpose.
ROMANS 7:13-20
13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
Paul puts his finger squarely on the biggest problem in our lives, the war between the flesh and the spirit. In our minds we agree that God’s laws are right and good, but the sin nature we inherited from Adam rebels against God’s laws, reinforcing the fact that sin can only attack the flesh as discussed earlier.
Paul says that he wants to do good and follow God’s laws, but his fleshly nature does not. And when he wants to do good, he finds himself desiring sinful things, doing what he doesn’t want to.
So in essence we are fighting our own flesh because of sin and even though our spirits do not want to sin, we want to gratify the flesh and in weak moments we sin anyway.
ROMANS 7:21-25
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Sin is our legacy of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden. We are born in sin and we die in sin, physical death being one of the consequences of sin. The only time we are free from sin is at death, as there is no physical body for sin to attack or reside in.
God, in order to satisfy His justice against sin decreed that all of Creation, including Man should die. But in His mercy, He took the full punishment for sin in Himself through Jesus Christ. So that while the physical body must suffer the consequences of sin and be destroyed, our spirits could still be saved through “the circumcision made without hands” as Paul spoke of in Colossians, where our spirits are “cut away” from and given dominion over the flesh.
In doing this, we are given power over the sin in our flesh through the Holy Spirit so that even though we are trapped in sinful bodies, sin does not have mastery over us unless we let it.
As Paul observed we are always at war with sinful desires, with our spirits striving against the flesh and vice versa and only after death are we free from that war.
And as Paul also observed the mind is the gateway to the spirit, so if temptation can get past the conscious mind, the spirit is vulnerable to the bondage and destruction that sin brings with it. This is why Satan uses deceit to make sinful temptations appear to be fun and pleasurable, much like candy-coating poison. The mind likes it and wants to gratify the flesh so it opens the gateway to the spirit allowing the temptation to bear its deadly fruit within us.
ROMANS 8:1-8
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
God condemned the flesh to death because of Adam’s rebellion and sin, so therefore nothing done by the flesh can please God. Jesus was born of a human mother but a non-human father, putting him outside of the sin cycle of the rest of us. We are born in sin and we die because of sin.
As Paul stated;
ROMANS 5:12-14
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.)
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Notice carefully what God told Satan (who was inhabiting the serpent in the Garden of Eden at the time) when promising the eventual coming of Jesus;
GENESIS 3:15
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
Note that God said He would make enemies of Satan’s children and the woman’s child, NOT the child of Adam’s line, showing that the promised Savior would not come from the sinful line of Adam.
Jesus was born sinless so that His body would be the perfect vessel for the sins of the world to be contained in, and when He died on the cross, sin died with Him. Remember, God cursed His physical creation in the Garden of Eden because of Adam’s sin, so the flesh as part of that Creation must suffer His just punishment for sin.
The flesh can never be made perfect, except in Jesus’ case, but our spirits can be made perfect after death through Jesus’ sacrifice. And eventually we will be given new, sinless bodies when Jesus returns which will live forever.
Therefore Man must choose one of two mind sets - serve the flesh and its desires, or serve God through His indwelling Spirit. There is no other choice, and trying to serve both is like trying to balance on the edge of a razor, it cannot be done.
ROMANS 8:9-17
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
In verse 13 above, Paul reduces the issue to its basic foundation - eternal life in Jesus, or eternal destruction in the Lake of Fire, remembering that we are eternal creatures either way after physical death, but where we spend eternity depends on what we do here.
We are in a war that started in the Garden of Eden and as in any war, we must choose sides. And in this war there is no “neutral ground.” If you choose God, you commit yourself to follow His commandments. If you do not choose, your choice will be made for you, and you will belong to Satan.
He has given us His Spirit and spiritual weapons to fight with and just because you can’t see the battles doesn’t mean that they’re not real! Satan’s biggest deceptions are convincing the world that he does not exist, or that he is a harmless cartoon character with horns, tail and a pitchfork.
He is actually a powerful, intelligent, sleepless, malevolent entity who revels in causing pain, misery and destruction, especially to Christians. And he especially loves complacent, sleeping Christians as they are no threat to him.
A lot of people stumble at the idea of suffering when becoming Christians, especially those believing in a “pre-Tribulation” or a “mid-Tribulation’ Rapture. They fervently believe that they will be taken to Heaven before the Great Tribulation, despite solid Scriptural evidence that shows that Jesus will return after the Tribulation. (For more information and proof about the timing of the Rapture, please see the End Times studies in this site)
I firmly believe that when the Tribulation starts and we’re still here many weak and disillusioned Christians will “fall away”, losing their faith and fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy of;
MATTHEW 24:9-10
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
Suffering is God’s way of cleaning the “dead wood” out of His Church. It’s easy to believe in God when things are rosy, but the true test comes from how we act when things are bad. Heroes and cowards are separated by the direction they run when attacked.
Some years ago a Christian movie was made about the End Times. The Tribulation had already started, and a group of Christians were gathered in a church, praying. Suddenly an armed group of soldiers burst through the door and ordered that those who wanted to save their lives to leave.
The majority hurried out and the rest prepared for martyrdom as the soldiers closed and locked the doors. Then the soldiers laid down their rifles and told the stunned believers that they wanted to worship with true Christians, not hypocrites.
Coal must be subjected to heat and pressure to become diamonds, and raw metal ores are burned in fire to get rid of impurities, leaving behind a strong, pure metal. Every soldier in an army is subjected to pressure, extensive strength-building and combat training to prepare them for battle.
Even so with us. God will test us to show where our weak points are and to show us our strengths. He doesn’t do this arbitrarily, but for our benefit. God doesn’t want “fair-weather” Christians who run or fall away during times of persecution, but whose faith is tried and tested are precious in His sight. And remember, Jesus suffered physically and spiritually more than any man will ever suffer, yet He remained faithful to His Father. And if God perfected His Son through suffering, do you think He will spare us?
As Jesus stated;
MATTHEW 10:24
24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
ROMANS 8:18-25
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;
21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
God cursed all of Creation because of Adam’s disobedience, to reinforce to us the death-dealing power, pain and misery of sin. The ground began growing thorns and thistles, Man had to labor for his food, disease began to plague Mankind, animals and insects became carnivorous, and worst of all, aging and death entered the world. As God told Adam after his rebellion;
GENESIS 3:17-19
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
With that pronouncement God’s Creation began to suffer the consequences of sin, becoming corrupt and turning from perfection to a more degenerate state with destruction and death being the end result.
But the hope remains in which God will create a new, sinless Earth which will no longer suffer the effects of sin. As God promised;
ISAIAH 65:17
17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
ISAIAH 11:7
7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
ISAIAH 65:25
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” says the Lord.
Animals ate vegetables in the Garden of Eden before the Curse, so it would be a small thing for God to return carnivorous animals back to that state. Note that when God cursed the serpent to eat dust all of its life after Adam’s sin, that will not change in the new Creation.
ROMANS 8:26-27
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
We’d be naive to think that the Trinity speaks to each other in human language. We too many times mistake ‘wants’ for ‘needs’, but the Holy Spirit within us knows better and speaks to Jesus and the Father concerning our needs more intimately than we ever could.
ROMANS 8:28-30
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
A lot of people have a problem with ‘pre-destination’ in which they feel they are ‘locked in’ to their lives and that there is no free will to choose their fate but are following a script so to speak. This is untrue in the fact that we are free to accept or reject God, and by the fact that as He sees all of history at once, He already knows who will accept Him and who won’t.
And those that do, He has given us a future promise of bodily redemption in that when Jesus returns believers will be resurrected in new, immortal bodies just as Jesus was.
ROMANS 8:31-36
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
This is the hardest thing for Christians to understand and accept, the idea of persecution and suffering. How can a loving God allow us to be treated like that?
It is the nature of evil to cause suffering, pain and death to the innocent. Just look at the perverted people who rape, torture and murder young children. Recently there has been a rising trend in movies and pictures in which icons that bring joy to children such as clowns and dolls are being turned into frightening, nightmarish entities. Just recently I saw a picture on Facebook where a frightening giant rabbit with a basket of eggs and an evil, twisted expression was standing behind a little girl playing with her dolly. The rabbit, representing a malevolent Easter Bunny was glaring at her with a snarling, fanged mouth wide open as the girl innocently played with her doll, unaware of the monster behind her. And people thought it was funny!!!!!
Evil always attacks and seeks to destroy good and has been that way since Cain murdered Abel with a rock, and will be with us until its perpetrator, Satan is thrown into the Lake of Fire and Jesus renews all things.
Jesus Himself warned us to count the cost of discipleship;
LUKE 14:27-33
27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—
29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?
31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.
33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
We must be ready and willing to give up everything for Jesus, including our lives. He gave up Heaven and took on flesh so He could understand first-hand the frailties of the human body, He was tempted far more intensely than we will ever be, He was beaten severely, tortured and suffered the most hideous and painful method of death known to Man, took the sins of the entire world in His sinless flesh, and suffered in the deepest pit of Hell until the full price of sin was paid.
Forensic pathologists who have examined the Shroud of Turin, almost universally accepted as Jesus’ burial shroud, and who have read medical and historic accounts of His torture and crucifixion shudder when describing the agony He suffered. As one pathologist said, “It’s not a miracle that He died on the cross, it’s a miracle that He made it to the cross at all.”
We will never be asked or required to suffer as He did. As such, if He suffered and died in this manner for us for our eternal salvation, is He being unrighteous to require us to suffer for our perfection as well?
And as Paul stated in verse 18, we cannot even imagine the glory that God has prepared for us who have remained faithful to the Lord to the end.
ROMANS 8:18
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
And;
1 CORINTHIANS 2:9
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
ROMANS 8:37-39
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus will never forsake us or abandon us... but we can turn away from Him and if we sin enough we can drive the Holy Spirit out of our lives.
There is a poisonous doctrine being promoted of “once saved, always saved” which teaches that once you accept Jesus, you are saved forever no matter how you act afterward. This is the same doctrine that the Nicolaitans practiced, condemned by Jesus in the book of Revelation and is a complete lie!
REVELATION 2:15
15 Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
We are indeed saved forever, as long as we continue to believe in Him and follow His commandments!
As Peter stated;
1 PETER 2:20-22
20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
Ask yourself this question - If the doctrine of “once saved, always saved” is true, why does Satan try so hard to get us to sin and fall away?
ROMANS 9:1-5
1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;
5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
Paul reveals the anguish in his heart concerning Israel, wishing that he himself would be separated from God and accursed if it meant that all Israel would be saved. This shows the power of God through His Spirit in a person’s life, changing Paul from the bitter, rabid, vicious, merciless, murderous man described in the Book of Acts into the gentle preacher of the New Testament message!
ROMANS 9:6-13
6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”
8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”
10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac
11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls),
12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.”
13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
Paul points a finger squarely at one of the major faulty beliefs of Israel according to the flesh. They believed that because they were children of Abraham, that guaranteed them a place in Heaven.
John the Baptist called the Pharisees and the Sadducees on this when Scripture records;
MATTHEW 3:7-10
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,
9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Abraham had Ishmael by his Egyptian servant Hagar, and had 6 more children through Keturah whom he married after his wife Sarah’s death. But only through Isaac, the son of Sarah would God’s promises to Abraham’s descendants come.
Abraham’s other children were born according to nature, but Isaac was born by specific promise from God and God said that from Isaac, Abraham’s true descendants would come, including the promised Messiah.
But not all of Abraham’s descendants inherited the promises of God, only those who shared the faith of Abraham. Abraham’s son Isaac had 2 sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau was a rebellious, wild son whereas Jacob was mild and obedient, so God’s promises continued through the descendants of Jacob.
God’s promises had a spiritual component to them in the fact that He promised that Abraham would be the “father of many nations” and with His adoption of the Gentiles as His children, believing Gentiles inherit the blessings given to Abraham, fulfilling the promise.
ROMANS 9:14-18
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!
15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”
16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
God is indeed a loving God, but He is also a God of judgment who must punish sin and sinful men. Some people say that God deliberately created bad people and unfairly punishes them because of that.
Not true.
We are given a free will to choose whether we will be good or evil. Our choices from there determine whether we become good or evil. Satan tempts us all and God, being just, must allow Satan to have a crack at us.
But even if a person chooses to be evil, God in His mercy will give them opportunities to repent. Let’s look at two examples.
PHARAOH - We’re all familiar with the Exodus story, where the Jews had been enslaved by the Egyptians for over 400 years. God then sent Moses and his brother Aaron to Pharaoh demanding that he let Israel go.
Pharaoh’s response is recorded as being;
EXODUS 5:1-2
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ”
2 And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.”
This shows that Pharaoh’s heart was already evil, and Scripture records that God kept hardening Pharaoh’s heart even though God performed wonders and brought disasters upon Egypt.
Note however that each time, God in His mercy spared Pharaoh and his people, the plagues and disasters destroying the economy and afflicting the people but sparing their lives, with two exceptions. One was a massive hailstorm;
EXODUS 9:23-25
23 And Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt.
24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, so very heavy that there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
25 And the hail struck throughout the whole land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail struck every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field.
But before God sent the hail, Moses had warned Pharaoh that any animals or servants left outside would be killed. Scripture says that most Egyptians obeyed Moses, but some didn’t.
But even after 9 plagues and disasters, Pharaoh still had not humbled himself before the Lord. Therefore God destroyed the firstborn in all of Egypt, both man and beast, including Pharaoh’s firstborn son which finally broke Pharaoh’s will.
Pharaoh then ordered Israel to leave, but after they had gone he changed his mind and pursued Israel with his whole army, to enslave them again. At this point, God had finally had enough. He lured them into the divided waters of the Red Sea and closed the waters over them and all of Pharaoh’s army drowned.
God also used the disasters of Egypt to frighten Israel’s enemies when they left Egypt. Scripture records;
NUMBERS 22:3
And Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many, and Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel.
When Israel came into Canaan the Philistines on the coastlands decided to attack. Israel brought the Ark of the Covenant into the camp and shouted so loudly that the ground shook. Then the Philistines realized that Israel had brought the Ark to the battle and they became frightened. Scripture says;
1 SAMUEL 4:7-8
7 So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp!” And they said, “Woe to us! For such a thing has never happened before.
8 Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.
The second example is Judas Iscariot, the disciple of Jesus who betrayed Him to the Jewish and Roman authorities which resulted in His crucifixion. Judas had seen Jesus’ miracles, had been empowered by Jesus to perform miracles, yet his heart was evil. Scripture says he was the treasurer for the disciples and stole money from the common purse.
And even though he had seen Jesus’ love and compassion, even though he knew who Jesus was, he still betrayed Him to death for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave at the time. Jesus knew all of that time what Judas would do, yet loved him and had mercy on him even as He went to the cross. Judas later repented of his betrayal, but never repented of his sinful life, neither did he seek God’s forgiveness. Instead he committed suicide by hanging himself.
But in both cases, God knew from Creation what these men would do, and gave them opportunity to repent before executing judgment on them.
ROMANS 9:19-21
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?”
20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”
21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
God reinforced this point to the prophet Jeremiah when He said;
JEREMIAH 18:1-6
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:
2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.”
3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel.
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!
Life is a matter of choices, and our lives are shaped by our choices. We are innocent at birth and from there we can choose to follow evil or good. God knows from Creation what everyone will be, and He designates vessels of honor and dishonor as it suits His purposes.
But He shows mercy even to people and nations slated for destruction when He told Jeremiah;
JEREMIAH 18:7-8
7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it,
8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.
A good example of this is the city of Nineveh, which God had slated for destruction because of their sins. However, they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and God spared them.
And God told the prophet Ezekiel;
EZEKIEL 18:21-23
21 “But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
22 None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live.
23 Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?
ROMANS 9:22-26
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, and her beloved, who was not beloved.”
26 “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there they shall be called sons of the living God.”
We have previously seen that God has mercy on evil men, and even if a person is slated for destruction by God, if that person repents, God will spare him. But he knows also those who will always choose evil and these are the “vessels of wrath, meant to be destroyed” to demonstrate God’s power and wrath against evil.
God pleaded with Judah through the prophet Jeremiah to repent of their wickedness for 40 years before He finally brought the Babylonians against Jerusalem in a frightful siege that resulted in both the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the destruction of the nation.
After Jesus was crucified, God again pleaded with the Jews of Judea through the Apostles for 40 years to accept Jesus as the promised Messiah and to understand that with His sacrifice the Law of Moses was fulfilled and that there was no longer a need for an Earthly Temple or priesthood.
The Jews refused to listen or accept Jesus so after 40 years He brought the Romans who destroyed the Temple and the nation of Judea and opened the door of salvation to the Gentiles, in fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecy above.
ROMANS 9:27-28
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved.
28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”
We have seen that just because Jews have Abraham as their physical father, they are not all inheritors of the promise given to Abraham. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, only Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus will be counted as Abraham’s children as the Law of Moses has been fulfilled and has been replaced by a better Covenant.
ROMANS 9:29-33
29 And as Isaiah said before: “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;
31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.
33 As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
God understood Israel’s rebellion and evils, and several times He referred to Judah as being as bad if not worse than Sodom and Gomorrah in their conduct. God destroyed and punished the Jews several times. Yet He always spared a remnant to rebuild in keeping with His promises to Abraham.
The Jews had the Law for about 1500 years by the time Jesus was born, and it had become a pretty much meaningless ritual to them. As God told Isaiah;
ISAIAH 29:13
13 But the word of the Lord was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,” that they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught.
By the time that Jesus was born, the Law of Moses had become mixed with man-made traditions and rituals in what was known as the Oral Law which had numerous contradictions in it, depending on which Rabbi’s teachings you followed.
In the synagogues the Law was read, and then the scribes, (who could read and write), teachers (Pharisees and Sadducees) and so-called experts (lawyers) would give their own interpretations to what had been read or would quote deceased Rabbis’ teachings, resulting in much confusion.
That’s why the people of Judea were astonished at Jesus’ teachings, as He basically said “This is the way it is”. Scripture says;
MARK 1:22
22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
The various interpretations had also generated confusion as to the person of the Messiah, with some viewing Him as a mighty military leader, others saying that He would be a Torah (Law of Moses) scholar, others seeing Him as a great prophet, and still others as a suffering Savior.
Jesus was actually all of these, but He wasn’t what the Jews expected, and even though He performed miracles among them their hearts were still hardened as to who He truly was.
The Gentiles however did not have the Law, so the simplicity of the Gospel along with demonstrations of the Spirit were readily accepted by them, the Gentiles not being hampered by what they thought the Messiah should be like.
ROMANS 10:1-4
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The Jews of Paul’s time and even now are zealous in wanting to serve God, but they want to do it according to the now-dead Law of Moses, or follow the teachings of man-made mystical books like the Kabbalah, or the often contradictory teachings of ancient Rabbis (the Talmud and others).
Because Satan has for centuries posed his servants as Christians to persecute and destroy the Jews (the Nazis declared themselves Christians) and because of poisonous doctrines promoted by church officials such as “replacement theology” which teaches that Christians have replaced the Jews as God’s chosen people and ignorant church authorities labeling and slaughtering the Jews as “Christ killers” is it any wonder that the Jews reject and even hate Christians?
The Vatican hasn’t helped in that they continually side with the Arabs in any dispute with the Jews and even signed a treaty with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) a known terrorist entity whose avowed intention is to drive the Jews from Israel.
In the year 2000 Yasser Arafat bragged that “East Jerusalem (including the Temple Mount) would remain under Arab control and that the Arab flag would fly over the churches in Jerusalem”. This despite the fact that the Jewish army recaptured East Jerusalem from the Arabs in the 1967 war.
In 2015 Pope Francis signed a treaty with the Palestinian Authority (PLO) recognizing “The State of Palestine” further cementing the Arab hold on the Temple Mount and preventing the Jews from building another Temple.
The Vatican has also been lobbying hard to make Jerusalem an “international city of peace” and is lobbying even harder (surprise, surprise) to be the caretaker of the city and its holy sites. If that were to happen, the Vatican would build a Papal palace on the Temple Mount and move there. Fortunately God will never allow that to happen.
Some rabbis warn their audiences to not read the New Testament, labeling it as “anti-Semitic” yet most of the Jews who read the New Testament quickly realize differently. As some say, “it is about Jews, written by Jews, to Jews” and they are astonished and pleasantly surprised at its contents, quickly realizing that Jesus is the promised Messiah.
In the 17th century Rabbis took out Isaiah chapter 53, the “suffering servant” passage from synagogue readings of the Prophets because it was “too controversial” and generated too many arguments. This passage clearly details that the Messiah would be shunned by men, tortured and killed as an atonement for sins but who would be blessed by God for doing so.
Some rabbis, refusing to accept that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy have tried to say that the prophecy was referring to king David or was an allegory for Israel as a whole even though neither fits the description.
So it is skipped in synagogue readings and some rabbis have declared it a forbidden chapter completely, keeping the Jews in darkness.
The confusion Satan has sown concerning salvation after the destruction of the Temple has brought weird and un-Scriptural Jewish rituals to rise, including waving a live chicken or a bag of money over penitents’ heads on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) to cleanse themselves from sin prior to the festival. They are taught that by donating the chicken or money to the poor, God will cleanse them from sins.
This is nothing more than trying to attain salvation by works, which can never happen. The Law, which was works-based could not atone for sin, so how could man-made rituals do better? As Paul flatly stated;
ROMANS 3:20
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
When the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. the Jews were left with a dilemma: how to offer sacrifices for sins when the Temple and priesthood had been destroyed? They didn’t believe or understand that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for sin and that with His resurrection there was no further need for a Temple and priesthood. As such they had to come up with something to substitute for the old sacrificial ritual.
And unfortunately, adding to the confusion, even though the New Testament made no provision for the creation of a new priesthood, some Christian churches still create their own priests in ignorance or defiance of God’s plan for salvation.
ROMANS 10:5-13
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.”
6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above)
7 or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
God gave Moses the Law in order to identify what was sin in His eyes. The Law was a law of condemnation in that it identified sin, but also required that a person be perfect all the days of their life to be righteous, something impossible for Man to do.
The Law did not require faith, it only had provisions for works, basically saying “Do this, and you shall live.” And while the sacrifices required by the Law could only cover sin, they had no power to remove them.
Therefore people who died in obedience to the Law were sent to The Pit which was located in the same place as Hell, but separated by a gulf which cannot be crossed, in which the spirits imprisoned in Hell could see those at rest and vice-versa as related by Jesus in Luke 16:19-31.
NOTE: Jesus never said this was a parable, I believe it was a true story.
ROMANS 10:14-17
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Paul hits the nail squarely on the head when he points out that people can’t believe in Jesus if they’ve never heard of Him (outside of swear words) or have not been taught about Him. And how can they hear if no one visits and talks to them?
Bible teachers need to understand what God told me years ago, namely that while a pastor has a flock, he is location-bound and they are his responsibility to teach. But as a teacher, the world is your flock as you can teach anywhere.
BUT be aware of one thing as a teacher! The apostle James said;
JAMES 3:1
1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
Those that teach need to be certain of what they teach others, especially when it comes to God’s Word as what we teach will be judged by God at our judgment and those who teach will be subjected to a harder judgment than those who hear, as the souls of those who we teach are in our hands.
Teaching is one of the gifts of the Spirit as well;
EPHESIANS 4:11-12
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
Personal experience: I had felt called to teach a High School Sunday School class and as I taught from the provided materials I noted that the students seemed bored. Taking a closer look at the materials I realized they were spiritual ‘pablum’, suitable mainly for small children.
The following Sunday I set aside the provided materials and began teaching studies created directly from God’s Word and these young peoples’ minds were like sponges, eagerly absorbing the material I taught. They were so hungry that I would hold mid-week Bible studies at home and they all happily attended.
Each week I would ask what subjects were important to them or what interested them and gathering scripture concerning these subjects, would create the studies and would back everything up with Scripture, in context. I didn’t avoid controversial subjects either but included them if asked.
Apparently they were telling their parents what they were learning, as I soon had adults wanting to attend my classes, which saddened me as they apparently weren’t being fed by the pastor.
I love teaching God’s Word and when He called me to set up this Web site, I was wondering how to promote my site across the Web so that others could be taught. He told me, “You put it up, and I will promote your site.” Since then I have heard from people literally all around the world who have seen the studies on my site. That, and while aboard ship in the Navy I held Bible studies and was able to teach people I never would have seen normally, about God’s Word.
ROMANS 10:18-22
18 But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: “Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”
19 But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: “I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.”
20 But Isaiah is very bold and says: “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”
21 But to Israel he says: “All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
Jews blame the Gentiles for their woes throughout history which is not right, as God numerous times used the Gentiles to punish the Jews for their iniquity and worship of other gods. For example, God had prophesied of Judah’s destruction by the Babylonians for 40 years, but the inhabitants of Judah failed to heed and repent.
Finally God’s patience came to an end and He told the prophet Jeremiah;
JEREMIAH 25:9
9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the Lord, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
Note that God calls Nebuchadnezzar “My servant”, showing that the Babylonian king was following God’s command to destroy Jerusalem and all of Judah which he did in 586 B.C. What the Jews fail to remember is that Moses prophesied of the sieges they would face when he said;
DEUTERONOMY 28:53
53 You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you.
God reiterated Moses’ warning to Jeremiah when He said;
JEREMIAH 9:19
19 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.”’
The Jews cursed themselves when delivering Jesus to be crucified;
MATTHEW 27:22-25
22 Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!”
23 Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!”
24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”
25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”
As with the Babylonians, Jesus prophesied of Judea’s destruction before His death. And as with the Babylonians He then waited for 40 years while the Jews persecuted and murdered the Christians and continued the now useless animal sacrifices before He carried out His prophesied threat, using the Romans to destroy the Temple and the nation.
Since then the Jews have been savagely persecuted for nearly 2,000 years, while cursing and blaming the Gentiles for their troubles, ignoring their own history of past persecutions and warnings from God. They willfully fail to understand that the Gentiles were only following God’s commands and that their ancestors had cursed their own descendants when Jesus was sentenced to be crucified (verse 25 above).
The biggest problem with the Jews concerning Jesus is that Jesus does not fit their pre-conceived ideas of what the Messiah should be. They believe that the Messiah will be a mighty Savior who will destroy Israel’s enemies and set up His kingdom on Earth.
He will indeed do that, but they do not understand that He had to first come as a Suffering Servant, die for the sins of the world and return in might and glory the second time. The Suffering Servant chapter of Isaiah (Isaiah 53) clearly points to Jesus’ suffering, atonement and death yet many Jews have never heard or read that chapter. Those who hear or read the chapter are surprised and agree that Jesus fulfilled that prophecy while He was on Earth.
So why don’t they know of it? In Synagogue readings, the Rabbis skip over that passage as they say it is “too controversial” and engenders too many arguments concerning the Messiah. They would rather ignore it than hash it out and so their followers remain in ignorance to this day.
They also don’t believe in Jesus because they are taught that He didn’t keep the Law of Moses, or at least their interpretation of it. They are also taught that the New Testament was written by apostate Jews and Gentiles and is full of curses against the Jews. Yet those who have read it are astounded that it is clearly written by Jews for and about Jews and that Jesus did indeed live according to the Law. And many who have read it understand and believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah.
For a long time, some churches have postulated “replacement theology” in which they preach that the Christians have replaced the Jews as ‘God’s chosen people’, and it apparently started with Martin Luther. This has justifiably angered and embittered the Jews against the Christians
Those believing in ‘replacement theology’ are willfully ignorant of the fact that God has stated that He will never cast off Israel or its people;
PSALMS 94:14
14 For the Lord will not cast off His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance.
And especially;
JEREMIAH 31:35-37
35 Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (The Lord of hosts is His name):
36 “If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.”
37 Thus says the Lord: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord.
ROMANS 11:1-6
1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,
3 “Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”?
4 But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
Paul continues with his dissertation that God will never abandon Israel or its people, despite their unbelief. And as we saw in the last chapter He told Jeremiah that only if the Heavens can be measured and the foundations of the Earth be discovered, only then would He cast off Israel as His people.
And even though He destroyed them numerous times and cast them out of the Land twice for their sins and disobedience, He always spared a remnant to rebuild Jerusalem and the nation. The Northern kingdom of Israel had been conquered, destroyed and deported in 722 B.C. by the Assyrians in God’s wrath against them, yet God called to them after they had repented, saying;
JEREMIAH 3:14-15
14 “Return, O backsliding children,” says the Lord; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
15 And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Many people don’t realize this, but when Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar conquered Assyria in 612 B.C. he deported the conquered Assyrians into Babylon, a common practice at the time. And when he conquered Judah in 586 B.C. he deported the Jews to Babylon as well, where they were met by the remnants of the previously deported 10 tribes of Israel.
And when the Jews returned from Babylon in about 516 B.C., Ezra the priest sacrificed for all twelve tribes in fulfillment of God’s call to return as shown in Jeremiah, above.
Even before the destruction of Judea and the scattering of the Jews by the Romans in 70 A.D., God had prophesied through Isaiah more than 650 years earlier, before the Babylonians had destroyed Judah, burned Jerusalem and deported its people;
ISAIAH 11:11
11 It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea.
Notice that God said He would gather the Jews a second time before they had been deported the first time, prophesying of a second destruction of Judah. In 70 A.D. the Romans destroyed Judea, burned Jerusalem and the Temple and scattered the Jews to the ends of the Earth causing them to wander the Earth for 1,878 years. And in 1948 A.D. God re-established the nation of Israel, fulfilling Isaiah’s ancient prophecy.
Even today they are still in unbelief, for as Paul said concerning Israel’s future;
ROMANS 9:27
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved.
Even though God destroyed the Jews three times (the last being in the Nazi concentration camps during World War 2) He has always spared a remnant to return to the Land. Therefore the Gentile believers have been adopted with the Jews as God’s chosen people, but the Christians will never supplant the Jews in His sight.
ROMANS 11:7-10
7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
8 Just as it is written: “God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”
9 And David says: “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always.”
Just like both Jews and Gentiles today, the Bible is rich with history of God’s interactions with mankind yet many either refuse to believe or try to attain salvation another way apart from God. Satan will promote any way to Heaven except God’s way, and he’s far too successful at it.
God in His mercy adopted the Gentiles into His family, partly to make the Jews jealous as prophesied by Moses;
DEUTERONOMY 32:21
21 They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. but I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
It worked for the most part, shaking the Jews out of their complacency in following the Law which had become a meaningless, monotonous ritual to them;
ISAIAH 28:13
13 But the word of the Lord was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,” that they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught.
Jesus’ life, death and resurrection also embittered many of the religious Jews causing some of them to cling harder to the now-defunct Law of Moses, or turn to man-made books like the Talmud, the Mishnah and even to Man-invented mysticism books like the Kabbalah. I once heard a Jewish woman say, “It is impossible to understand the Torah (the first 5 books of Moses) without the Kabbalah”. Really? We need a man-made book of mysticism to interpret God’s Word?
The Kabbalah was codified in the 12th and 13th centuries, so how did the Jews understand the Torah before then if that’s the case? And why didn’t God give the Kabbalah to Moses on Mount Sinai when He created The Law (Torah)?
Satan also joined himself with Christianity, having his servants pose as Christians while slaughtering the Jews, calling them “Christ-killers”, shouting that God had abandoned the Jews in favor of the Christians, etc. The Crusaders and Nazis called themselves “Christians” but were far from it.
But even through all of this there are a remnant who believe in Jesus, who understand God’s plan for salvation.
ROMANS 11:11-15
11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.
12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!
13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.
15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
Actually if you think about it, Jesus’ parable of the ‘prodigal son’ applies here. Substitute the Jews in the place of the older, faithful son and the Gentiles in the place of the younger, frivolous son and it fits, especially in light of Deuteronomy 32:21 which says;
DEUTERONOMY 32:21
21 They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. but I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
In the parable, Jesus speaks of a man with two sons. The younger asked for his inheritance ahead of time and lavishly spent it on faithless friends and partying. When the money ran out, his ‘friends’ deserted him and as a famine set in, he finally found a job feeding pigs (an abomination to the Jews) and hunger made him desire the food he was feeding the swine.
Coming to his senses and realizing that he had no future where he was, he decided to go home and become one of his father’s servants where he could receive food and clothing. His father, seeing him afar off, ran to meet him and commanded that a feast be made celebrating his son’s return.
His faithful older son was highly upset upon learning of the feast and complained that it was unfair as his father had never thrown a feast for him even though he had always obeyed his father in all things. The father reassured his son that the entire inheritance would go to the older son, but now was the time for celebration as the younger son had returned.
Considering the animosity (and in some cases outright hostility) from the Jews toward Christians, and reading Moses’ quote above, we can see God is using the Christians to make the Jews envious and hoping that at least some of them would return.
And to infuriate the Jews even further, God told Isaiah;
ISAIAH 65:1-2
1 “I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that was not called by My name.
2 I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts;
And Paul’s ministry did just that, bringing Jesus to those who didn’t know Him or the Father, and for whom they had not asked as they didn’t know They existed. But once the Gentiles heard of Them they eagerly accepted and followed Them. And even now, the hearts of many Jews are hardened and their eyes blinded in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy quoted by Paul, when he said;
ROMANS 9:27
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved.
ROMANS 11:16-21
16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.”
20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
The Gentiles will never replace the Jews as God’s Chosen People. It is enough that God has chosen us to receive the same promises and blessings as the faithful Jews and that we are considered as Abraham’s children in His sight. Are we better than the Jews? No, for from them came the richness of the knowledge of God and the rich history of His dealings with men. And from them came the Messiah, the Savior of all men. We are not in competition with the Jews, competition for recognition and power are the hallmarks of Satan’s kingdom.
We must not despise the Jews for their unbelief, for because of their unbelief God opened the gate to salvation to the Gentiles, both out of mercy and to “wake up” the Jews out of their complacency. But if we condemn the Jews, God will also condemn us. If we show mercy and compassion to the Jews, will He not show mercy and compassion to us?
ROMANS 11:22-24
22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
God, even in cases where He has had to punish people, still offers mercy to those who repent and Scripture is rife with examples of this. He “broke off” natural branches from the “tree” of Israel in His wrath and grafted Gentile believers into the tree of Israel to show that being Jewish is not an automatic ticket to Heaven.
As John the Baptist flatly stated;
LUKE 3:8
8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Jesus also warned;
JOHN 15:5-8
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Jesus’ reference to branches fits right in with Paul’s admonition above.
ROMANS 11:25-27
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”
We should always keep the Jewish people in prayer that the Holy Spirit will take away the blindness of the Jews that they, too, may partake of the riches of salvation along with the Gentiles.
This ‘blindness’ is very real. I remember reading a tragic story about a Rabbi who wept on his death-bed as he had no idea where he was going when he died. Without Jesus, we know where he went.
The question of when ‘the fullness of the Gentiles’ was or will be accomplished has been hotly debated, with the majority believing it happened in 1948 when Israel again became a nation after
1,878 years of wandering without a homeland.
However this does not fit Paul’s exultant proclamation that ‘all Israel will be saved’. While most Israelis know of Jesus, few believe He is their Messiah. So we must look elsewhere.
A possible clue is given in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 in which God describes WW III which will begin with a massive invasion of Russian-backed Muslim troops against Israel. God states that He will destroy the attackers with a massive earthquake, an overflowing rain, hailstones, and fire and brimstone. He then says;
EZEKIEL 39:7-8
7 So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Surely it is coming, and it shall be done,” says the Lord God. “This is the day of which I have spoken.
This is one possibility. Another one is when Jesus returns to Earth to stand astride the split Mount of Olives at His glorious return at Armageddon. It will be hard to NOT believe in that day!!
ZECHARIAH 14:3-4
3 Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.
4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.
The mountain is nearly 3,000 feet high, and interestingly enough there is a east-west fault directly under the mountain. Once again, science proves Biblical prophecy!!
And so all of Israel will believe and be saved, as Paul prophesied.
ROMANS 11:28-31
28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience,
31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy.
The Jews refused to accept Jesus’ teachings, salvation and sacrifice, so God turned to the Gentiles as prophesied. The Jews even today refuse to believe in Jesus, having the prophecies that foretold this, but are blinded from seeing and understanding it’s fulfillment in both themselves and their fathers.
They have been and still are hidebound and blinded by the Law of Moses which was a Law identifying and condemning sin and was only a tutor to bring us to the salvation to come, as Paul understood and explained;
GALATIANS 3:24-25
24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
The Law taught us about sin, righteousness and salvation, but it contained no provision for salvation within itself. Therefore it was a ‘stop-gap’ measure that put those who obeyed it under obedience until salvation through Jesus could come. The animal sacrifices of the Law could only cover sins, they couldn’t remove them. Only the blood of Jesus could do that.
But the Jews had been under the Law for nearly 2,000 years and were comfortable with it. Concerning the Law and the Gospel, Jesus Himself said;
LUKE 5:39
39 And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
We generally stick with what we’re comfortable with, and tend to resist new things. Hence the expression “the good old days”.
ROMANS 11:32-36
32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?”
35 “Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?”
36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
God in His mercy has not forgotten His people. But seeing as the Gentiles have both Testaments and they understand them, they in turn can teach the Jews concerning Jesus being the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets so that both Jews and Gentiles can understand the riches of God’s wisdom and grace.
One of the biggest obstacles facing the Jews today is the profusion of “authoritative” books that the Rabbis teach from. Some of them are:
The Torah - the first 5 books of Moses, known as The Law.
The Talmud - Jerusalem and Babylonian versions; a collection of traditions and teachings
The Targums - Teachings and interpretations of the Torah translated from Hebrew to Aramaic
The Mishnah - sometimes known as the Oral Law, a compilation of Second Temple era Pharisaic traditions and teachings
The Kabbala - A Man-made book of Jewish philosophical mysticism which tries to explain the relationship of an infinite God and finite Man and his place in God’s Creation.
They are all treated as authoritative, although different Rabbis don’t always agree, and some of the books have contradictory teachings within themselves depending on which ancient Rabbis’ or scholars’ interpretations are being discussed.
The Jews say that they need the Kabbalah to help understand the Torah. The Torah (the 5 books of Moses commonly known as The Law) was given to Moses nearly 3,000 years before the Kabbalah was created!!! The Kabbalah claims divine authorship, yet God and the Bible say nothing about it. This despite the prophet Amos saying;
AMOS 3:7
7 Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
Jesus warned about man-made doctrines being taught in Judah by the Pharisees, Sadducees and teachers when He said;
MARK 7:5-7
5 He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
6 ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Is it any wonder why the Jewish people are confused? Who or which book do you trust?
Jesus saw this when He was on Earth;
MATTHEW 9:36
36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
That is why we need to show them the truth, as Satan certainly isn’t going to do so. And there have been too many of Satan’s servants posing as Christians throughout history who mercilessly persecuted and slaughtered the Jews in God’s name. During WW II German soldiers had belt buckles with the inscription “Gott mit uns” (God with us) as part of their uniforms.
So is it any wonder that many Jews are embittered against Christians and Christianity?
Paul mentions that God put us all under disobedience through the Law and He did this to keep from having endless wrangling over which sin was worse than another, requiring varying degrees of salvation. That way by condemning everyone under one standard rule for sin, with one act of mercy He could save all willing to accept it and be obedient to His commands.
ROMANS 12:1-2
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
We must remember that our bodies are temples in which the Godhead dwells, which is why there is no need for a physical Temple any more. This is the closest that God can get to His people this side of eternity. As Paul told the Corinthian church;
2 CORINTHIANS 6:16b
16b For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
This is one of the three main reasons why we need to avoid sexual relations outside of marriage.
As Paul earlier stated;
I CORINTHIANS 6:18-20
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
The second reason is that when two people have sex, they become “one flesh” before God, something Adam realized in the Garden of Eden, when he said upon first beholding Eve;
GENESIS 2:24
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Note that Adam infers that only a husband and wife should be joined together and only to each other. So if a man and woman are joined, they are married in God’s sight. And if either or both have sex with other people, they commit adultery in God’s eyes.
The third reason, one that Satan works hard at blinding people to, is that if a man and a woman become one flesh, demons inhabiting one partner now legally have access to both parties, their disobedience to God’s commandments opening the doors to their spirit, allowing his demons to enter.
ROMANS 12:3-8
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,
5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;
8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
This is one of the first mentions of the Gifts of the Spirit outside of the tongues displayed by the apostles at Pentecost in the book of Acts. Tongues is only ONE of the Gifts, but some churches teach that unless you speak in tongues, you are not filled with the Holy Spirit. This is total and complete nonsense, tongues are only ONE of the Gifts and is actually one of the lesser gifts listed by the apostle Paul;
1 CORINTHIANS 12:27-31
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?
30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?
31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.
We are to desire the best gifts, but we are not to covet them, nor are we to envy those who are given a seemingly better gift than we have. Remember, God makes the choice by His grace as to who gets what, it’s not our choice.
For a detailed study on the Gifts and their proper usage, please see the study on the subject in this site.
ROMANS 12:9-13
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.
10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;
11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;
13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.
We must be diligent to be examples of Christian behavior, both to outsiders and each other. We need to show those outside the Church that what we have is real, causing them to want it for themselves. Scholars pretty much agree that it was the love and behavior of the Christians that brought down the brutal Roman Empire. Is our world today any different?
I had a friend who came to me and wanted me to help him accept Jesus, which I did. Later, I asked him why he wanted Jesus, and he said, “I watched you. You had something I wanted.” By living what you preach, you are sowing seeds in the hearts of those that see you. Non-believers will quickly spot hypocrites and imposters and will shun them. This will also poison their minds against Christians and make it harder for true Christians to reach them.
Paul has compared being a Christian to being in a race. If we wish to win eternal life, we can’t slow down in our service to the Lord. Professional runners pace themselves, patiently enduring until they finish the race.
1 CORINTHIANS 9:24
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
The author of Hebrews says the same;
HEBREWS 12:1-2
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
ROMANS 12:14-21
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
16 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.
18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Paul ends this chapter with sundry admonitions that we need to remember to follow to please God.
Not taking your own revenge is one of the hardest things to do. Some years ago, we had vandals coming by at night, throwing eggs at our house, shooting paintballs at our windows and speeding away before we could identify them. I reported the incidents to the police, but it continued much to my growing anger and frustration.
I wanted to go after them, but the Lord kept reminding me to wait for His vengeance. I did, and over the next several months we were hit again and again. But the last time they also threw eggs at a nearby car parked by the side of the road - which had a police detective sitting in it. The four high school student vandals were busted and had to face a judge in front of their parents. The vandalism never occurred again.
We may not see His vengeance or it might not even happen until the perpetrators stand before Him at their Judgment, but that’s not our concern. We need to trust in faith that God will keep His word and will administer justice in His timing.
ROMANS 13:1-7
1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.
4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.
5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake.
6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing.
7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
This can be very hard to do, especially under repressive and corrupt governments. Remember that even Jesus lived all of His days on Earth under the harsh and sometimes brutal Roman rule, yet gave no cause for offense, even concerning tax issues.
The key is in verse 7 which deals with positional authority. You may not like the person who rules over you, but you must respect the position they hold, remembering that God put them there for His purposes. As such we are to obey their decrees and laws as long as they are within God’s commandments.
For example, when asked by the Pharisees if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar or not. Scripture then records;
MARK 12:13-17
13 Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words.
14 When they had come, they said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?
15 Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it.”
16 So they brought it. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”
17 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at Him.
Taxes are a necessary part of government. Under a good government, taxes are used to provide good roads, utilities, emergency services (law enforcement, fire department, medical response), courts and judges, military protection, civil administration and infrastructure (civil services) and the like.
But what about evil rulers? Paul says:
ROMANS 13:4
4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.
The apostle Peter also agrees:
1 PETER 2:13-17
13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme,
14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—
16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.
17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
As long as rulers punish evil and reward good, follow their laws and decrees as long as they don’t violate God’s commandments. We can resist unrighteous laws though. The prophet Daniel and his friends defied Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar when he ordered them to worship a golden image of himself; Caesars ordered that they were to be worshiped as gods - the Jews resisted even to bloodshed and eventually the Romans gave up as it caused too much trouble and cost too much manpower to enforce. In more recent times, Adolph Hitler wanted to be considered the god of Germany.
There is no doubt that the End Times are upon us. Some years ago, right after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, God quietly told me that we had just passed through the gateposts of the End Times. Since then, moral standards have eroded at an incredible rate.
For example at a Democratic primary convention in 2012 the Party Caucus Chairman proposed restoring God back into their charter and he was roundly booed, something unthinkable several years ago.
A major clue was given when Obama announced to the world that “we no longer consider ourselves a ‘Christian nation’ any more”; so we can’t say we weren’t warned. And if we cede our freedom to the U.N. like many are ignorantly advocating, what God said about Egypt will be true for us as well;
ISAIAH 19:4
And the Egyptians I will give into the hand of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
ROMANS 13:8-10
8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Easy to say, hard to do, especially if someone hates you or does something bad to you!!!! But we must remember that God loves us even though we are still sinners and are afflicted by temptations and died for us even before we were born!! And yet He chose us and called us, knowing us even when we did not know Him and followed our sinful impulses.
I have read cases where people have forgiven those who murdered their loved ones, and I have the deepest respect for these people for they are true examples of the fulfillment of this commandment.
We can be angry with the actions of others, but we cannot be angry at the person themselves, just as we can judge behaviors that God has already condemned as sinful, but we cannot judge the person themselves, remembering that we are sinners also.
I am reminded of this often when I see members of Congress pompously and self-righteously condemning President Trump for actions (real and imagined) before he became President while frantically hiding their own corrupt actions while serving in Congress. Paul reminds us;
ROMANS 2:1-3
1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.
2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
3 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?
Just as importantly we need to remember;
LUKE 5:37-38
37 “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
And;
JAMES 2:13
13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
As God told the prophet Ezekiel;
EZEKIEL 3:18-19
18 When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.
19 Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
As I said earlier, we can judge actions of others if God has already judged such actions, but we cannot judge the person performing the actions We can show mercy to them by warning them of God’s judgment and salvation through Jesus. If they refuse to listen, we will not be judged before God.
ROMANS 13:11-14
11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
We have the advantage of having seen God’s plan unfold throughout history and through the Scriptures. It is obvious that we are living in the Last Days of Earth’s history, as prophesied. And if these days are frightening to us, what must they be like for the non-believers who don’t know what’s coming?
Satan’s authority and power in this world is increasing as God slowly removes His restraints from him. And soon Satan and his demons will be thrown down to Earth to make their final stand in fulfillment of Revelation;
REVELATION 12:7-9, 12
7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,
8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
Soon Satan will be thrown down to Earth to personally direct his forces here on Earth and we will have Hell on Earth in a very literal sense. Billions will die and Hell itself will have to enlarge its mouth beyond measure to accept them.
As God told Isaiah concerning Jerusalem before He brought the Babylonians to destroy the city and the First Temple;
ISAIAH 5:14
14 Therefore Hell has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoices, shall descend into it.
Remember what God told Ezekiel about warning the wicked!!!!
ROMANS 14:1-4
1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.
2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.
4 Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
God had at first told Adam that every green herb would be his food, but after the Flood everything changed. It may have been because before the Flood there was a water vapor canopy surrounding the Earth, blocking out the harmful ultra-violet radiation.
But after the Flood that canopy was gone and ultra-violet radiation could now enter the atmosphere (causing tanning and in some cases melanoma (skin cancer)) and lifespans dropped precipitously within several generations. (Methuselah the oldest man to have ever lived was 969 years old when he died before the Flood.)
After the Flood, God told Noah;
GENESIS 9:3-5
3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.
4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.
God had stated that a creature’s life is in it’s blood, therefore consuming blood is an abomination in His sight. I have heard of hunters ritualistically drinking the blood of their first kill. BOTH Testaments uphold this commandment.
The bottom line is that eating or abstaining from eating meat is not forbidden by God. If you listen to today’s “experts” you’ll go nuts as they forbid one thing for a reason and later other “experts” refute their findings, and say it’s okay after all.
Paul pretty well summed it up when he said;
1 CORINTHIANS 8:8
8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.
ROMANS 14:5-13
5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.
7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11 For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.
13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.
There has long been a major dispute between the Rabbis and Christian leaders as to whether the Sabbath was to be observed on Saturday or Sunday and in some cases has caused bitter rancor between the two.
Paul is saying that it doesn’t matter. God set aside one day a week as a Sabbath in which Man and domesticated beasts (horses, donkeys, mules, etc.) could rest and be refreshed. God never commanded that a particular day be called the Sabbath, He just told us to remember and observe the Sabbath day. So as long as you set aside one day a week as a Sabbath to the Lord, you have fulfilled God’s commandment.
Much strife and dissension has been generated by men adding their own interpretations to God’s commands and teaching them as if they came from God. Paul is saying that we have no right to judge others by men’s commandments or our own prejudices. Satan loves causing strife and dissension over trivial matters. And we too often let him do it.
King David described God’s words as being like silver refined and purified in a furnace seven times, pure, valuable, and beautiful. But Satan, working through Man, throws lead in with the silver every chance he gets, confusing God’s clear, simple Word. Satan’s motto is “If you can’t refute it, dilute it”.
ROMANS 14:14-18
14 I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
15 Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.
16 Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil;
17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
The Pharisees (and many Jews today, especially the Orthodox) followed (and still follow) strict physical cleanliness rules concerning foods. Jesus brought the Pharisees up short and exposed their hypocrisy;
MATTHEW 15:1-2
1 Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying,
2 “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”
Jesus replied;
MATTHEW 15:7-9
7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
9 And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
Unfortunately too many religions take the simplicity of God’s Word and either re-interpret it, misinterpret it or add their own commandments to it, making it harder to follow. These additions over time take on the status of law and commandment, making following God’s Word harder to follow.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that tradition is to be treated as equal with Scripture. Catholic teaching also states:
“Sacred Scripture is infallible because it proceeds from infallible Sacred Tradition. Sacred Scripture is infallible because it is a true reflection and a true work of the Infallible Son. Sacred Scripture is infallible because it is words written by God, and because it is the Word of God, and because it is One Utterance of God.”
Scripture came from tradition? And tradition is as infallible (perfect) as Scripture? Since when? And if Scripture proceeded from tradition, why do we need Scripture if we have tradition?And where does it say this in the Bible? This statement itself contradicts the Bible which says that all Scripture came directly from God;
2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
And if Scripture came from tradition, the Jews have the Talmud, the Kabbalah, the Mishnah, the Targums and other books of traditions and teachings that in many cases contradict the Bible and each other.
Catholic tradition states that Golgotha where Jesus was crucified was located to the west of the city, but has been definitively located east of the city. It also states that Mount Sinai where Moses received the 10 Commandments is in the Sinai Desert, when Paul says it is actually in Saudi Arabia, ancient Midian.
GALATIANS 4:25
25 ...for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children...
Jesus condemned the Jews, quoting God’s words through Isaiah concerning tradition when He said;
MATTHEW 15:6b - 9
6bThus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.
7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
9 And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
This shows that Scripture cannot come from tradition, neither can tradition be considered equal with Scripture. PERIOD.
ROMANS 14:19-23
19 Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.
20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense.
21 It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.
22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.
23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.
Paul closes with a summary of how we should conduct ourselves in matters of food and drink. Some eat all things with a clear conscience while others only what they feel is clean. If you are strong in faith and share a meal with someone whose faith is weak, do not offend the weaker brother by eating what he considers unclean before him. When alone, you can eat whatever you want. And do not judge the weaker brother but accept him, just as God has accepted you.
ROMANS 15:1-6
1 We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.
3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”
4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,
6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul often compares us to being parts of a body, with each part having a separate yet vital function, yet working as a whole to support the whole body. If the members all work in harmony, the body prospers, if not, the body suffers. And if a member decides to “do their own thing”, or attack other members, the whole body suffers as a result.
The Scriptures provide a horde of examples of good and bad behaviors as a lesson and warning to the rest of us. And if we don’t learn from these examples, we are doomed to repeat them. Therefore we are to watch over each other, admonishing the unruly and helping the weak for the benefit of the whole Body of Christ.
ROMANS 15:7-13
7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.
8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,
9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: “For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, and sing to Your name.”
10 And again he says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!”
11 And again: “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!”
12 And again, Isaiah says: “There shall be a root of Jesse; and He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles. In Him the Gentiles shall hope.”
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are continually reminded that we are to be servants of God and to each other. There is no respect of persons before God, meaning that if you, Moses, Elijah, Daniel and John the apostle stood before Him, He would view all of you equally, sinners saved by His grace and mercy.
Satan’s kingdom is based on competition, God’s kingdom is not. And who are we to set ourselves above our brethren? The disciples had been arguing over which of them was greatest, and Jesus heard it. Scripture records;
MATTHEW 20:25-28
25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.
26 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.
27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—
28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Some might think that because Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him at times and not the other disciples, that those three were better in His eyes than the others. The actual reason was that the Law of Moses required two or three witnesses to every fact (for example, His transfiguration on the mountain and raising a little girl from the dead). Therefore Jesus rarely did anything without witnesses.
We rely on eyewitness accounts of events over hearsay, and this was no different. Paul reiterated this law to the Corinthian church when he said of his coming third visit;
2 CORINTHIANS 13:1
1 This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”
ROMANS 15:14-21
14 Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.
15 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God,
16 that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
17 Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God.
18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient—
19 in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
20 And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation,
21 but as it is written: “To whom He was not announced, they shall see; and those who have not heard shall understand.”
Paul explains the purpose of his ministry, namely to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, to give them hope and that they might be counted with His people, holy and acceptable to Him. Paul had stated many times that he had been hand-picked by Jesus to perform this ministry and he had proven this with mighty works as witness to the truth of his words, being diligent and faithful to his calling.
And he was especially careful to not build on the work of others, but as commanded he went where the name of Jesus was not known that he might build a foundation based on Jesus Christ alone.
I think he knew that his teachings and writings would become Scripture, perhaps knowing Peter’s tribute to him when Peter wrote;
2 PETER 3:14-16
14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;
15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,
16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
Peter understood that Paul’s writings were Scripture, which is high praise indeed!!!
ROMANS 15:22-29
22 For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you.
23 But now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you,
24 whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.
25 But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints.
26 For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.
27 It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.
28 Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain.
29 But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
Paul explains that he has many times wanted to come to Rome and preach the Gospel to them, but was hindered by Satan or business matters. He also didn’t want to leave until the churches he founded were stable and well-grounded in the principles of Christ, knowing that Satan and his servants would attack the churches after he left. He did not yet know that God would send him to Rome but under far different circumstances!
Jesus had commanded that we help the poor, and the churches in Macedonia and Achaia had decided to help the poor Christians and Jews of Jerusalem. As the Gospel had come to them from Judea, even so they were showing their appreciation and thanks by providing for them materially, a gift well-pleasing to God.
ROMANS 15:30-33
30 Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me,
31 that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,
32 that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you.
33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Paul would indeed go to Rome, but not in the fashion he wished or expected. He would go to Rome as a prisoner to be tried before Emperor Nero Caesar in fulfillment of Jesus’ words;
MATTHEW 19:18
18 You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.
By going to Rome as a prisoner, he was able to bring the testimony of Jesus to the entire Imperial palace, as he would later say to the believers at the church at Philippi;
PHILIPPIANS 1:12-14
12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel,
13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ;
14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
And;
PHILIPPIANS 4:22
22 All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar’s household.
If Paul had gone to Rome on a missionary journey, it is very doubtful that he would have an opportunity to preach to the palace guard and Caesars’ household!
ROMANS 16:1-2
1 I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea,
2 that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you; for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also.
It has been erroneously taught that Paul was a woman-hater because of his strict rules concerning women’s conduct in Church, mainly that they be silent;
1 TIMOTHY 2:11-12
11 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
And;
1 CORINTHIANS 14:34-35
34 Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says.
35 And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.
There are several reasons for this:
1. It was culture-based that women were essentially secondary to men, having started in the Garden of Eden when God told Eve that her husband would rule over her. Women were to be treated with love and respect, but the husbands were the authority in the household.
2. Most women of the time were house-bound, taking care of the household while their husbands worked. As such, they didn’t have much of a social life. In the synagogues they had a section for women that was curtained off from the main room and women could sit there and listen, but not speak. That way, men could be attentive to the reading of the Word and teachings without being distracted by women gossiping and talking among themselves.
In both Roman and Greek cultures women were highly regarded and many were in high and powerful positions in business and government. Paul understood this and understood that much of his discourses concerning women were culturally based. He also understood that he could not force Jewish customs upon the Gentile churches, which is why he told the Corinthian church after a long discourse on women;
1 CORINTHIANS 11:16
16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.
ROMANS 16:3-4
3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
4 who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
These two were apparently some of Paul’s favorite friends, possibly being due to the fact that both Paul and Aquila were of the same occupation;
ACTS 18:1-3
1 After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth.
2 And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them.
3 So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers.
Many of the early churches were in peoples’ homes which is a good thing. This creates a tightly-knit group of believers who share a more intimate fellowship than bigger churches. Speaking for myself, I myself don’t think that God meant for large churches (especially mega-churches) to form. After all, it’s easier for a pastor or church leader to minister to the needs of a small congregation then it is to a bigger one.
Some of these houses acted as ‘way-stations’ for traveling believers such as Paul and Phoebe. There, travelers could rest and be refreshed before continuing on. It was also a good way to share fellowship and news among believers.
ROMANS 16:5-7
5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ.
6 Greet Mary, who labored much for us.
7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
Some things to note here. While no other description is given of Mary, this could possibly be Jesus’ mother who may have fled the intense persecutions in Judea. Andronicus and Junia were apparently imprisoned with Paul at one time because of their faith. Note especially that Paul says they are ‘of note among the apostles’. He was not referring to the Twelve Apostles, for except for a brief excursion to Antioch, Syria by Peter in the book of Acts, and John being exiled to the isle of Patmos in the book of Revelation, the Apostles never left Judea. (Despite Catholic teaching, Peter never went to Rome, but I’ll explain that at another time.)
So who was Paul talking about? According to Strong’s Greek Lexicon, an apostle is:
Definition: a messenger, envoy, delegate, one commissioned by another to represent him in some way, especially a man sent out by Jesus Christ Himself to preach the Gospel; an apostle.
So in a very real sense when Jesus commissioned His disciples to preach the Gospel to the entire world, we all became apostles to and for Him. So how did the Twelve differ from other Apostles? The answer is in the Spiritual gifts.
According to Paul, we all receive Spiritual gifts when we accept Jesus and they grow with us as we mature in Christ, suitable to what our calling is that Jesus has called us to do. So some may have one gift, some have several. But the Twelve had them all.
We are not to be envious of others’ gifts, but should be thankful that the Spirit gave us what He did, and use them in our particular ministry. For a detailed study of the Gifts and their use, please see the study on the subject in this site.
ROMANS 16:8-16
8 Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.
9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.
10 Greet Apelles, approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.
11 Greet Herodion, my countryman. Greet those who are of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
12 Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, who have labored in the Lord. Greet the beloved Persis, who labored much in the Lord.
13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them.
15 Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.
16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you.
Paul greets numerous members of the home churches in Rome. Note that the “holy kiss” Paul speaks of is a kiss on the cheek This is NOT to be a full-blown ‘lip-lock’ that one woman complained that a male member of her acquaintance liked to do.
ROMANS 16:17-20
17 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.
18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.
19 For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil.
20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Unfortunately, like weeds in a garden of flowers, Satan will sow his servants among the Lord’s servants in the churches. I attended a church that had two active witches in the congregation and one was the church secretary!
Some people are naturally contentious, arguing about everything just for the sake of argument. These people can cause divisions within the Church and can disrupt the faith of the weak. Others create ‘cliques’ or ‘insider groups’ and fracture the unity of fellowship in the Church. Paul says to avoid these people, but not shut them out completely. By avoiding them you deprive them of opportunities to be disruptive influences.
ROMANS 16:21-27
21 Timothy, my fellow worker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my countrymen, greet you.
22 I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, greet you in the Lord.
23 Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you, and Quartus, a brother.
24 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began
26 but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—
27 to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.
Paul ends his letter with greetings from his companions. Of note are Tertius and Quartus, brothers whose names mean ‘3rd' and ‘4th' in Latin, probably named after their birth order. Paul usually wrote his own letters, but for some reason Tertius wrote it for him.
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