Sanctified by blood
Sanctified by the Blood
Hebrews 13:12: Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without (outside) the gate.
The blood of Christ is so pure that it has purged every one of our sins and set us apart unto God. The all-seeing, all-piercing eye of Yahweh could discover no flaw in Christ’s blood for it contained no tinge of sin. It was and is the blood of the Lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:19). The Lamb’s blood was unpolluted, untainted and clean and, therefore, it alone was exclusively suitable to sanctify us.
When Jesus Christ went to heaven, in the ascension, He took us with Him and positionally seated us there with Him as ransomed, redeemed and sanctified believers (Ephesians 2:6, 1 Peter 3:18). From that point forward, the Father could never again see us in sin or see sin in us. Our growth in grace and the knowledge of God will be greatly accelerated as we grip this truth and this truth grips us. It is finished. Now the big question that should occupy our mind is, not what we can do, but rather, what He has done (Colossians 3:1). Our lives are now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). We are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10). He will never reckon sin or sins to us. We are washed and sanctified by the blood.
If we sin, (and to our shame we will), we have the privilege of instantly bringing our wretchedness to our High Priest. Our sins may cause us to cower in alarm as we think of God’s potential sore displeasure, but it is the blood that tells us what the Father really thinks of us. He sees us as set apart and already sanctified unto him. Because of the blood, we cannot be taken from Him. Spurgeon tells us;
“The apostle says that we who are the priests of God have a right as priests to go to God’s mercy-seat that is within the Vail, but it were to our death to go there unless we were perfect. But we are perfect, for the blood of Christ has been sprinkled on us, and, therefore, our standing before God is the standing of perfection.”
CHS: New Park Street Pulpit: Sermon No. 232: Delivered on Sabbath Evening, January 2nd, 1859.
If, however, we insist on remaining in defiance and rebellion, then, although our standing before God is un-altered, we reap what the sin produces and what the Holy Spirit of God must do to bring us away from the love of our sin. This does not mean, however, that we are in any way legally separated from the One to whom we have, by grace, already been attached. We can never be separated from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
Does this give us a license to sin? God forbid (Romans 6:2; Romans 6:15)! The true believer thrives on fellowship with the Father. But, if we sin and grieve the Holy Spirit, there is no way we can enjoy fellowship in the plan of God. Therefore, as we grow in grace, the Spirit of God begins to teach us a holy hatred of sin. However, this holy hatred does not qualify us to approach God. The blood has already brought us to God. The blood has already made us fit to come to God. Our holy hatred of sin cannot improve on what the blood has already done.
We, as sanctified believers, have continual access with boldness to the throne of grace, and we may come there with all our needs. Because of the blood, we are always perfect and always qualified to come to His throne, whatever our doubts, whatever our sins.
And that’s the Gospel Trith
Written by Miles McKee
Are Tongues For Today?
We have to be so careful about this and treat the whole subject with the humility that comes from knowing that God’s ways are not our ways. My reason for saying this is as follows.
We can be absolutely sure that at Pentecost the disciples were heard by others in their own languages.
Acts 2:7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”
What we cannot discern from this passage is when a Mede heard his own language and a Parthian also heard his own language, whether or not each was hearing the same tongue from the same person. In other words this is as much a miracle of hearing as it is of speaking. However, I must emphasise that this is only a possibility; but as much a possibility as each apostle speaking an individual real language. We just don’t know, and need to be very careful in being too dogmatic. We can understand a bit of God’s purpose in communicating the gospel to so many in this way, but that’s about the limit of it.
Now let’s jump to Acts 10 when Peter visits the home and household of Cornelius the devout centurion.
Acts 10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.
This is a very different kettle of fish. No need for other natural languages here, so what were they speaking? It was clearly different from their normal tongue.
Answers on a postcard, haha!
My counsel is simply this. Give God room to be God and don’t allow your personal prejudices and feeble understanding to dictate to Him how things should be so that they don’t offend the human order of things. ??.
What is beyond doubt is that it begins and ends with the Holy Spirit.
Was Jesus Forsaken at The Cross?
The Problem With Traditional Church Structures and Hierarchies
“Mission”, I think, is “Anglican” for evangelism and church growth. Jesus told us to make disciples not to make converts – Matt 28:19 Why? Because conversion is the Lord’s job. Of course the church is involved, but not in the way it thinks it is! That’s the problem.
The structures and hierarchies of the church are political constructs and are populated in too many instances by those who don’t believe the bible is the inspired Word of God; or who do believe but think the restraints and constraints of scripture do not apply to us and that man is free to superimpose his cultural norms upon it; and by those who may or may not be believers but in any event are not prepared to call evil evil and instead make mealy mouthed accommodation.
The churches job is to preach the gospel. This requires firm leadership from the top, Pauline type leadership I would hazard. Leadership by example not through structures. I speak as a retired British army officer. The gospel is the tool God has given us, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Nothing, absolutely nothing else, will result in the conversion of men. The church mission must be to preach the gospel as revealed by Paul in Romans (and elsewhere!), to preach it and preach it and then preach it again. This and only this is the vehicle God uses to change hearts and it must be the primary focus of the church. Social programmes have their place but they must never be allowed to usurp the main focus.
“... I will build my church” says Jesus (Matt 16:18). So strong is this structure that He goes on to tell us the gates of hades will not prevail against it. So why is the church so limp and devoid of impact? Because it has failed to learn from the early church the way to fulfil its role.
Acts 2:46 “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”
Notice the effectiveness of this. We simply cannot improve upon it. They were in one accord, or to put it another way, they agreed on the revealed truth of the gospel. And they preached it. And the Lord added to their number daily. God did it, not the church programmes. It is a sovereign work of Almighty God who will grow His church. Can anyone offer a good reason why the Lord would send people along to most of our churches today? I can’t think of one.
Irresistible Grace
I delivered this on Speakers Corner, Revelation TV on 24 Nov 2016
For a while you will be able to see the programme here. Eventually it will be removed.
http://www.revelationtv.com/programmes/episode/speakers-corner377145
These are my notes for the programme.
Derivation of term.
Not found in scripture and is culled from the acronym TULIP linked to the teachings of John Calvin. It is the I of TULIP.
T Total Depravity
U Unconditional Election
L Limited Atonement
I Irresistible Grace
P Perseverance of the Saints.
Many of these terms are misunderstood and cause confusion. The terms are being forced into the acronym, to create something memorable, a flower, a tulip.
I prefer the following.
R Radical Corruption
S Sovereign Election
D Definite Atonement
E Effectual Grace
P Perseverance of the Saints
No longer memorable I’m sorry to say, but less controversial without watering them down.
Is Grace Irresistible?
Irresistible applied to grace conjures up the wrong message and image. Why? Because we resist God’s wonderful grace all the time.
- The grace of His revelation of Himself in Creation. Billions reject it.
- The grace of the written Gospels. Billions reject it as myth and fantasy.
- The grace of the wonderful person of Jesus Christ revealed as the Son of God, Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Billions reject Him, first Israel and then the world, though they acknowledge He was a good teacher.
Millions of believers reject the doctrine of irresistible grace too. They say, “I don’t want a God who takes me against my will into the Kingdom, who saves me unconditionally without my agreeing to it, who chooses me without my choosing Him. And what about all those people who want to be saved and can’t be? It’s a hideous doctrine, straight from hell,” they say.
The trouble with this attitude is it’s shot through with pride and unbelief.
Pride insists the Creator should not be able to call the shots for the created – clearly and irrefutably countered by Paul in Romans 9.
Unbelief, fuelled by the pride, because of the abject refusal to believe what God has said about election.
Luke 1:45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” (Lk. 1:45 ESV)
There is a blessing in the humility of simply believing God. Conversely there is a lack of blessing in not believing.
Zacharias was made mute for his unbelief earlier in the chapter.
Effectual Grace at Work
Reformed theologians talk about there being a Logical Priority in the order of salvation.
They say Regeneration and Justification MUST precede Faith. But we are justified by faith alone.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Rom. 5:1 NKJ)
Being translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God is a process that is instantaneously conducted with the declaration of faith.
Faith comes – justification is instant. No time gap.
Nevertheless, Justification depends upon a prior condition – the condition of faith in Christ as Saviour.
BUT – reformed theology still says that in fact justification precedes faith. Why?
Because:
- Before a person declares faith in Christ ……
- Before they confess a belief in Christ……
- Before they exercise their will to embrace Christ as Saviour……
Before any of these things can happen, God must do something for them and in them.
Radical Corruption
We need now to revisit the fall covered by T in the acronym Tulip.
Something happened. Original Sin – not the eating of the fruit but the resulting condition. Radical Corruption. Total Depravity not a suitable term – all have some redeeming features! Radical Corruption better.
Now we come to the T and I (or R and I) relationship from TULIP.
The great theological controversy! Augustine vs Pelagius, Luther vs Erasmus, The Reformation vs Roman Catholicsm.
Augustine’s prayer was ….
“Lord, Command what Thou wouldst, and grant what Thou doest command”
Pelagius was a British monk whose theology has been debated ever since, as indeed has Augustine’s.
Pelagius accepted the first part of the prayer but powerfully refuted the second part.
Augustine believed that fallen man was incapable of doing what God commanded in any meaningful sense.
Pelagius believed that although man was fallen he still had a moral capability to do the will of God.
This divide continues right up until today and will continue unless ……
The Pelagian position is that man has a little island of righteousness that seeks God and allows him to accept God for himself.
Pelagians believe that if God woos a person, encourages, performs miracles in plain sight and continues to urge, then at the appropriate time, of man’s choosing, he will respond and be saved.
Does it Matter?
- In terms of the truth of your salvation – No
- In terms of your understanding of your salvation – Yes.
Pelagians, typified in recent history by the position of John Wesley, refute that man is truly dead in trespass and sin. They argue that fallen people are always ready to come to faith in the Lord.
Problem – This is not what the bible says.
Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
We must be born again of the spirit.
Who had anything to do with their natural birth?
Who oversaw their own conception?
Answer – Nobody! You had zilch to do with your physical conception and you have nothing to do with your spiritual conception either.
Conception must precede birth.
Regeneration must precede faith.
Listen again to Jesus ……. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
It is the Spirit of God Who initiates your rebirth by drawing you to Jesus.
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (Jn. 6:44 NKJ)
Let’s look at this. We see here huge historical theological bias. The bias is not willful, but it clearly demonstrates man’s misunderstanding of the manner of the work of God in saving men.
Let me explain.
It is perfectly legitimate to translate the Greek word used here as “draw”. But it’s a weak word which suggests a meek and mild activity going on in the background and externally.
The person who rejects the doctrine of election will have no trouble with this. God draws and we respond; the effectiveness of the drawing being dependent on our response.
But this same Greek word translated “draw” in John 6:44 is in Acts 16:19 translated “dragged” and by implication “dragged forcibly”!
Acts 16:19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. (Acts 16:19 NKJ)
If your translation has “drew” rather than “dragged” make a margin note reminding yourself it should be dragged and link it to John 6:44.
Back to John 6:44. The drawing, or dragging is not external. It’s of the Spirit and internal and independent of you – John 3.
This is what is meant by irresistible grace. A better description is Effective Grace.
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (Jn. 6:44 NKJ)
Lexicographical studies have shown the best translation is not draw or drag but is rendered by the English word COMPEL.
Let’s see if Jesus agrees?
But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master.
Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'” (Lk. 14:1 ESV)
This is a parable about election and effectual grace.
The first invitation is the Gospel delivered to Israel first and later to the world. It is refused by all.
The second invitation is the gospel to those who will be saved and includes the world. They neither accept nor refuse but are “brought in” or “lead in”.
The final invitation is a restatement of the second for emphasis. This is a typical Hebrew idiomatic device.
Listen – ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
That’s it! That’s saving grace!
It is effectual. It is irresistible! It’s all of God. And He alone defines who it is that will be saved.
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience– 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ– by grace you have been saved– 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph. 2:1 ESV)
The Sin of Unbelief
Mark 8:9 Now those who had eaten were about four thousand. And He sent them away, 10 immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha………….
13 And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side. 14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. 15 Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have no bread.”
17 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened? 18 Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?”
They said to Him, “Twelve.”
20 “Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?”
And they said, “Seven.”
21 So He said to them, “How is it you do not understand?”
Isn’t it extraordinary how we are no different? The leaven of the Pharisees was the sin of unbelief manifesting as their hypocracy. These disciples had just seen Jesus feed the four thousand, and earlier five thousand, and in truth if you count women and children it could have been in excess of ten thousand He fed. And now the disciples are in the boat with one loaf between them and a long crossing ahead of them and they are fearful they will be hungry as they don’t have enough to eat! No wonder Jesus shows exasperation towards them and warns them against the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. How easily we fall into the same unbelief, even when walking closely with the Lord.
Can we get this knowledge of God’s ability to meet our every need in Christ, can we get it from our heads to our hearts? Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
A little later in Mark we have the account of the transfiguration. Afterwards Jesus explains how He is to die and what will happen. Listen to the conversation …….
Mark 8:31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 33 But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Satan will use your eyes to stare down the Lord and he will use your mouth to speak lies directly to the Lord, let alone to each other. But Jesus rebukes him. Satan’s response to Jesus through Peter was just another variant of the original question in the garden; “did God really say?”
The gospel accounts are full of miracles. Nowhere do the scriptures say these things are finished but many theologians would speak with the mouth of Satan and the pen of Satan and explain away the things the Lord has shown us in His word.
- Mark 10:23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
And He says the same to us. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees. Lord I believe, help my unbelief. Amen.
Walking Worthy of The Lord
Colossians 1:9-10 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
That you might walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Paul is always concerned that his disciples have a full understanding of the means of grace and so he prays that the church at Colosse might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
As a consequence of being filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding …….
They might walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
There really is only one way in which all these might manifest in each of our lives and that is by being totally secure in our salvation and understanding who we are in Christ. No other knowledge or wisdom can be more important than these. Without each of us being secure in our salvation, (by that I mean knowing that it is impossible to lose it), how will we ever have the confidence or faith to walk pleasing to the Lord, to being fruitful in every good work, and from that secure base to grow in the knowledge of God.
And we cannot be secure in our salvation unless we understand who we are in Christ and we cannot understand who we are in Christ unless we understand what God has done to make all these things possible.
We must start by knowing this – it was God’s plan that Jesus die upon the cross. Those that crucified Him were enacting His plan.
Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ………:
This plan of salvation was in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. It is exactly what He planned.
Why was it necessary that Jesus should die in this brutal way? Because it was the Father’s plan for reconciling the world, that through Him the world might be saved.
Why did the Father’s plan include the death of Jesus? Because there is no other way to deal with sin in men. Sin is the most powerful force on earth and ranks only behind the saving power of God. Sin terrorises men. They don’t know it but it does. It holds them in bondage to a host of godless behaviour, habits, attitudes and opinions. And it gets its power from the Law.
1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
Without law there can be no sin.
Romans 4:15 For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.
Let me give you an example to help you understand this.
Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden. The garden was a place of great beauty and fruitfulness. It contained everything that was necessary for life. But there was a law ……
Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.
Now if the condition for living in the garden had simply been Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat then there would never have been a problem. Sin was at large in the form of Satan but there was nothing available for it to exploit. Quite simply the human inhabitants could have eaten whatever they wanted, and there would have been no vehicle for temptation.
But this condition of the garden, that they could eat anything, carried a vital codicil – But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it
Now here was law and something for evil to exploit, there was something for evil to tempt, there was something for evil to use for condemnation and destruction.
Do you see now how sin needs the law in order to be effective? Where there is no law sin has no leverage. Where there is no law, no charge can be held against you. Where there is no law there is no condemnation.
Consider law………
There is both God’s Law and man’s law. Man’s law should reflect God’s law, though often it’s in opposition to it. Hand in hand with law goes reparation and punishment. A toothless law is no law at all. Law has to carry with it a fear of failure, a fear of consequence and with the Law of God the realisation of a total inability to meet its demands.
God’s law is Holy. Its demands are righteous. Its fulfilment sanctifying. The problem is that all human beings are singularly incapable of meeting its demands. On the contrary its demands tempt us to break it. Remember the law in the garden! God’s Law is so comprehensive and all encompassing that if we break one part we break all of it.
Remember the power of sin is the law. And the word used here for power is dunamis in the Greek a word we normally associate with the resurrection power of God. Evil stalks the earth using the power of God’s law as its fulcrum causing man to do the exact opposite. We fail at every point. Listen to this ……
Mark 12:29-31 And Jesus answered him (the scribe who asked the question), The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
If we were able to keep this commandment to love the Lord our God so we would by default keep the whole law. Keeping the law would stem naturally from such ability.
But we can’t! We fail right off the bat. No man however self-righteous, pious, clerically exalted or opinionated has ever kept this law. We have all put our own wants and desires above the demands of God. We are tempted by what we shouldn’t do. We can’t help ourselves. Every one of us.
What can be done? We are all sinners. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
God’s Law reflects His very character. What He requires of us is what He is. There is no contradiction. He is holy and pure and just and righteous and kind and merciful and He is Love. All His laws stem from Love because that is what He is. If they stemmed from pique or even worse, from a power craziness, then it could never be said by Him who cannot lie that He is Love. But He is. And He made us to be in His image, to be like Him, and to walk in love; but sin empowered by the Law of the Garden marred His creation in general and man in particular.
It was downhill for the next 4,000 years. Sin grew in the earth exponentially. The Law was given at Sinai and evil and wickedness prospered because man worshipped himself and false gods even while pretending to worship God. And as he did so he accumulated to himself the wages of sin which is death.
Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, ……………
But God had a plan. He was not caught off guard by what happened in the Garden. He knows the end from the beginning. Satan was even then stalking the earth seeking who and what he could destroy, who he could ensnare by temptations to the flesh. We have all fallen into the net, trapped by sin in us, inherited from our father Adam.
God had made it abundantly clear – the wages of sin is death. The demands of the law were such that sentence be both passed and executed. All men must die. There can be no exceptions. The payment for your sin is your life. The law demands it. God’s holy and righteous law will accept nothing less. Billions of deaths over the millennia have been the gigantic wage bill.
Can there be hope for any of us?
When God gave the Law, knowing we would fail to keep it He also made provision for the breaking of it. He gave detailed and explicit instructions about the sacrificial practices that were required to remove His wrath. We read about these in the Book of Leviticus and elsewhere. What is common to all these practices is the death of an innocent animal who as it were took the sin of the trespasser on itself before it was killed and its blood offered on the altar. The life is in the blood the scripture tells us and blameless life had to be poured out before God to pay the wages of sin.
All the sacrificed animals, innocent and helpless, with sin imputed to them by the offerer, were types of the perfect sacrifice to come. They all point towards the sinless Son of God and the sacrifice He would make on behalf of men.
The Gospel of John tells us ……..
For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged.
The Son of God, the Man Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and the world, was born under law and lived under law, but he was without sin. Because He was God He obeyed the law perfectly and because He obeyed it perfectly He was qualified to fulfil its demands once and for all, to neutralise it and nail it to the cross.
He came to earth in the form of a man, born of a virgin, with the express purpose of being the ultimate and perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world. This was the plan of God. Remember Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, …….. This IS the will of God.
Unlike the animals which took upon themselves without knowing it the sin of the person offering it for slaughter, the Lord Jesus Christ willingly took upon Himself the sin of the world – past present and future. He offered Himself for sacrifice and while he was hanging on the cross the entire wrath of the Father was poured upon Him in our place. Can you imagine that? The wrath of God against every sin ever committed and every sin that would ever be committed was poured out on His Son as He who was without sin became sin for us.
The transference was no longer from man to animal but from the whole of mankind throughout time to the Son of God. The wrath was poured out, the sun was darkened for three hours and when He died the earth shook, and the veil before the Holy of Holies was rent from top to bottom. But before He died He declared to the heavens and to the earth, “It is finished!”
The price had been paid. The death demands of the Law throughout time have been satisfied, there are no demands it can place upon us now. The wrath of God has been satisfied. The sacrifice is complete and the Blood of Christ poured out on the Altar in heaven. Now we can hear the angels declaring “Glory to God in the highest, On earth peace, good will toward men.”
So let’s return to where we began. Paul is praying for the church at Colosse that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That they might walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
It is only possible to walk worthy of the Lord if you understand that sin no longer has power over you and that you are under grace. That you are in Christ and he in you. The scripture says we are so closely united with Him that we are conjoined to Him. Just think about that for a moment. That is the whole point. It is in Christ we trust and the efficacy of His blood. We trust in nothing else. Not our works, not our intellects, not our ambitions. We trust in Christ alone. We have died once and for all with Him, we have been buried with Him and we are risen with Him. It may not always seem like and it may not always feel like it, but that’s the gospel truth. Paul wants the saints at Colosse to understand that and to walk in the guaranteed grace that flows from being in Christ, permanently forgiven, justified, redeemed, reconciled, cleansed, and sanctified, and free from the tyranny of the law. And the Lord wants it of us too, of you and of me.
No other way of walking pleases the Lord, only total trust in His Son and the shed Blood of Christ – for salvation and for everything in this life and for eternity. Amen.
Is Healing For Today?
Is Healing Included In The Atonement?
This question is one that divides the church. Some link it to having enough faith, or not. We brand one another according to what we and they believe. Because of this I want to take a journey through the scriptures and try to arrive at a reasoned conclusion.
Let’s start!
Exodus 23:25 And you shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless your bread, and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you.
sickness – machaleh makh-al-eh’
or (feminine) machalah {makk-al-aw’}; from 2470; sickness:—disease, infirmity, sickness.
The implication here is that if you serve the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, then God will take sickness away. Of course the problem arises that we are incapable of serving God that way. So disease and sickness, weapons in the arsenal of God’s judgements, flourish in the earth.
Nevertheless God keeps reiterating this point about removing sickness from His people. This is grace indeed!
Deuteronomy 7:15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, upon you; but will lay them upon all them that hate you.
sickness – madveh mad-veh’
from 1738; sickness:—disease.
The scripture here differentiates between His people and the world. Surely this must be carried through into the new covenant because new covenants absorb the old and add to them, they do not replace them. This is the very nature of covenant – they are eternal.
Below in Deut 28:61 and elsewhere we see God’s sovereignty displayed in the operation of sickness. To say it comes from the devil may be true, but it is not the whole truth unless one wants to do violence to the scripture.
Deuteronomy 28:61 Also every sickness (malady, anxiety, calamity:—disease, grief, (is) sick(-ness)., and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon you, until you are destroyed.
Plague – makkah mak-kaw’
or (masculine) makkeh {muk-keh’}; (plural only) from 5221; a blow (in 2 Chronicles 2:10, of the flail); by implication, a wound; figuratively, carnage, also pestilence:—beaten, blow, plague, slaughter, smote, X sore, stripe, stroke, wound((-ed)).
Now there is without doubt plenty of examples of unhealed sickness in the Bible, particularly in the OT, and of God strengthening people on their sickbeds rather than healing them. For example – Psalms 41:3 The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: you will restore his bed in his sickness.
But in spite of man’s behaviour God also healed in that dispensation according to His will:
Deuteronomy 32:39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god besides me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
heal – rapha’ raw-faw’
or raphah {raw-faw’}; a primitive root; properly, to mend (by stitching), i.e. (figuratively) to cure:—cure, (cause to) heal, physician, repair, X thoroughly, make whole.
I feel strongly that to argue that the Hebrew word for healing – rapha – only means healing in a spiritual sense and not a tangible physical sense is not to do justice to the language. What can be the basis for such a position? It seems to me to be denying the grace of God which we argue so strongly elsewhere.
The big question of course is whether physical healing is part of the new covenant, whether those who believe this have understood it correctly.
Putting to one side for the moment Is:53, the scriptures elsewhere point to physical healing being part of the atonement.
Numbers 21:5-9 And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loathes this worthless bread. And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against you; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said unto Moses, Make you a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of bronze, he lived.
In this account real snakes bit real people and poisoned them. As a result there would have been a general failing of their vital organs until death came. Such organ failure can be seen today in heart disease, diabetes, renal failure etc. and even Alzheimer’s. These may not have been bitten by a snake, but in their own way each has sinned against God.
What was the solution? To place a fiery serpent of bronze upon a pole and lift it up and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live. This “living” was in the here and now; they were healed of the consequences of their rebellion, the debilitating symptoms of their sickness was removed. And of course this is a type of beholding Christ upon the cross.
The snake on the pole represents the sin of the world rooted in the activities of the serpent Satan, judged for all to see.
The snake is of bronze. Bronze represents the judgement of God. This is sin judged upon the cross. Therefore to look upon the fulfilment of the type, Christ crucified, is enough to receive healing according to a logical exegesis. I cannot believe that is a step too far!
This is further emphasised in Psalm 103
Psalms 103:1-3 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases;
We see here a logical progression through the forgiveness of iniquities to the healing of diseases. We have no trouble believing God has forgiven ALL our iniquities, in Christ; why should we not also believe that He has healed ALL our diseases too? Not to do so is illogical in my view. The Hebrew word here for diseases is talking about maladies, and grievous ones at that! In other words, disease and sickness as we understand them in modern parlance.
There is an undoubted link between sin and disease, sickness, malady, infirmity et al. We need to understand this in a general sense, as sinners living in a sinful world and all vulnerable to the consequences (of sin) that are at large. We should not take this too personally but understand that some of us become victims of what is at large simply because we are alive in the world. Notwithstanding that, the solution is the same for all of us, the receiving of the forgiveness of sins.
Mark 2:1-12 And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was told that he was in the house. And immediately many were gathered together, so much that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. And they came unto him, bringing one, a paralytic, who was borne of four. And when they could not come near unto him for the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the paralytic, Son, your sins be forgiven you. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why does this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned among themselves, he said unto them, Why reason you these things in your hearts? Which is it easier to say to the paralytic, Your sins be forgiven you; or to say, Arise, and take up your bed, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (he said to the paralytic) I say unto you, Arise, and take up your bed, and go your way into your house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; so that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it in this fashion.
Jesus so clearly makes the link here between forgiven sin and physical healing. To walk, all the paralytic had to do was receive the forgiveness of his sin. Being told to get up and walk was secondary and is supplied for practical application, for our teaching and for the rebuke of the religious people.
We also know that Jesus healed ALL who came to Him.
Matthew 12:15 But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from there: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all;
Matthew 8:16 When the evening came, they brought unto him many that were possessed with demons: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
Luke 4:40 Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with various diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
Luke 6:17-19 And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; And they that were troubled with unclean spirits: and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went power out of him, and healed them all.
He healed them all! We all know of course that not everyone is healed of their sickness today. We can all point to examples where even death has occurred. But does this refute the teaching of the scriptures? How can it? Man’s failure for whatever reason to apprehend the teaching of the cross does not make the truth any less true. If we take the teaching of the scriptures as detailed above I find it hard to come to any other conclusion other than the atonement includes physical healing.
Hebrews 13:8-9 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Be not carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace……….
Our hearts must be established in grace. If healing IS part of the atonement, and I venture that it is, then how do we seek to receive it? The answer surely must be in coming to the cross and looking on Him who was pierced that we might be forgiven. Attached to that forgiveness and following from it is healing (Ps 103). I don’t believe we should “work at” receiving healing, but we should understand that it is established. The how and the when is in the gift of God alone. But we are still invited to stand in His grace from whence all healing must come.
Romans 5:1-2 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
The healing may not manifest in this life. But that doesn’t change the material fact of its certainty whether in this life or the next. Based on the scriptures I would believe for healing in this life but accept that God knows what He is doing and in the interim His grace is sufficient for me. Don’t misunderstand me. I am not trying to ride two horses at once. I am stating categorically that in my understanding healing is a part of the atonement, but also as part of the atonement there may be other things in my life which are of higher priority to God. Everything in order so to speak.
Which brings me neatly to Is 53
Isaiah 53:1-12 Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no stately form nor splendor; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, and the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
……… and with his stripes we are healed. Theologians and learned commentators are clear that the reference here is to spiritual healing. In context it must be. But does that mean that there is no physical healing implied to? To draw such an implication is surely wrong because Jesus links the forgiveness of sins, a significant part of spiritual healing, and physical healing so clearly and indisputably, as we saw above in Mark 2:1-12.
Now let’s take a look at 1 Cor 11:
20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, 21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
Here Paul is having to tell the believers how to behave. Many are historically in the habit of behaving rather badly and being greedy and drunken in their behavior around food. He rebukes them and says this is not to be the way. He then releases what he himself received from the Lord.
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying,“This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
We are all very familiar with these verses and hear them regularly in one form or another. But it is what follows immediately after which I want to use to catch your attention.
27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. 32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.
Do you see what is being said here? Verse 28 is not telling us to get on a guilt trip and reach deep within ourselves searching for unforgiven sin else we take communion in an unworthy manner. This is what most of us have been taught, but this is not in accord with the message of the Blood and of Grace. We ARE forgiven. No, this is about behaviour, not our state of forgiven-ness. We are not to take communion as part of an orgiastic meal, so to speak, but in a state of reverence and discernment.
The discernment is in understanding what the body of Christ has both bought for us and brought to us after Calvary. Because we have not done that we have brought judgement on ourselves in the form of sickness, weakness and sleep, that is to say death.
The Lord wants us to FULLY discern the wonder of His sacrifice; not to short-change ourselves by our idle understanding. As we take communion we are to receive all He did for us including healing.
I repeat – 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.
God allows the judgement of weakness, sickness and death He tells us in v32 as a form of discipline so that we will grasp this vitally important truth.
It is because we haven’t put in the time and effort and the prayer – I speak to myself here – that these things prevail in our lives. We have accepted false teaching out of respect for the teacher, but we have not been like the Bereans about it. If we were, the scriptures seem to be clear, we would be healed. I say again that in my considered opinion I am convinced by the scriptures that healing is in the atonement.
God bless you all
John
How We Are Made Righteous
JUSTIFICATION AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
Righteousness is inseparable from justification. Righteousness is the consequence of justification by the blood of Jesus.
Justification
John Bunyan’s definition: Justification with God is when a man stands clear, quit, free, or in a saved condition before God, in the approbation (approval) of His holy law.
Justification with man is when a man stands before another, clear and quit from just ground of reprehension (blame or fault) because all things are in accord with some transient law.
Obeying a law of the land which is not in conflict with the law of God is a righteous act in the eyes of God
2 Kings 10:30 And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because you have done well in executing that which is right in my eyes, and have done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.
But that righteous act does not ascribe to you righteousness before God’s law. See the very next verse:
2 Kings 10:31 But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin.
By contrast we shall see that a person who is justified by God retains the righteousness of Christ imputed to him even when he commits an unrighteous act, and he remains justified. More on that later.
The world since Adam has been populated by sinners – by those whose very nature is fallen because we are the children of Adam.
Because of our fallen nature it is IMPOSSIBLE for us to keep the laws of God, whether we knew them or not, whether we wanted to or not. Humans for the most part, but to varying degree, show clear signs of self-will, greed and selfishness virtually from birth. To this as we grow older can be added lust and rebellion. All these qualities and characteristics are in opposition to God’s law.
Because we are sinners we sin. What is sin?
1 John 3:4 Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Sin is any action in defiance of the Law. But …
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
So not a single one of us is qualified to pass judgement on another. As sinners we are under the Curse of the Law too because by our very natures we live in opposition to the Law.
Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
CONCLUSION – We are cursed and we are doomed! We need a Saviour! What is a saviour? Someone who will deliver us from inevitable consequences. What are the inevitable consequences? Eternal separation from our Creator in hell.
The ONLY solution is for us to be clothed in the righteousness of another, to have the perfect, holy righteousness of God in some way passed to us even though we deserve no such mercy and our only defence in mitigation is that “we can’t help it!” In spite of ourselves we do what we do not want to do and do not do what we should do – just like Paul. A Saviour is the ONLY answer and that is exactly what God gives us.
But who can this savour be? What must be his qualities? What price must he pay for us?
Firstly his qualities.
a. He must be fully human.
b. He must be a descendant of Adam through Abraham and Isaac.
c. He must be born under law.
d. He must be free from all sin.
e. Which means he must keep the Law perfectly – every jot and tittle of it and therefore …..
f. He must be completely righteous
Secondly – the price he must pay.
a. He must be willing to stand in the place of sinful men from Adam onwards and take upon himself as it were all their sin as if he had committed it himself.
b. He must be willing to take the judgement of God for this sin.
c. To fulfil the demands of the law for the sin of the world – which is death – he must be willing to die to pay sins wages.
Who can this person be? – ONLY Emmanuel – God with us. He fulfilled ALL the requirements – but at great cost. He “earned” His righteousness – His saving righteousness, that is the righteousness which is so pure he imputes it to us – He was that because of His total obedience to the law as a man for ALL His earthly life.
Romans 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Because of His obedience He fulfilled the law and became the end of it.
Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.
The end of the law is perfect righteousness. We who believe stand in that perfect righteousness – we have it imputed to us. It is still His righteousness but He clothes us with it. It is a free gift.
If we believe in His atoning death, we are justified, and if we are justified we are clothed in His righteousness AND
Romans 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Therefore we can NOT lose our salvation. Praise the Lord for His mercies fresh every morning. Great is His faithfulness.
