Judge Jesus: "Full of Himself?

Answering a question on Quora:

Why is Jesus so full of himself that he would condemn good loving peaceful people to an eternity in a burning lake of fire that doesn't worship him as a god?

First off, you’re not really “full of yourself” if you really are “all that.” Jesus is “all that.” If you understood the unimaginable precision of the constants of physics required to keep the universe from collapsing or exploding, you’d be just beginning to understand the greatness of God the Son. If you understood the virtual impossibility of the chain of events beginning with the formation of the right types of amino acids all having the same geometries, forming the right proteins, forming the right components that enable self-replication of RNA and DNA, and the half-gigabyte of quaternary-encoded information that enables the duplication of that environment (as well as itself) in even the simplest hypothetical biological organism, you would be just beginning to grasp how great God the Son is. He is “all that.” He is all that by nature, He is all that by virtue of being your Creator, and He is all that by virtue of the price He paid to secure your potential redemption.

Second, if you grasped the utter perfection and holiness of God the Son, you would never pretend that there’s such a thing as “good” people, This error normally results from judging people relative to ourselves or from judging ourselves relative to other imperfect people, rather than judging relative to God’s standard. What, you think your “good” outweighs your bad? Do you really think you can pay off your debts with what you already owe to your Creator? What, you think you’re perfect? You’ve never done anything wrong? Now who’s full of himself?!

Third, the unholiness of man and the holiness of God’s presence cannot coexist. The unholiness of a human would defile and insult an utterly righteous and holy God, and the glory of God would be unbearable to an unholy, unregenerated human. Neither could stand the other! Hell is not a problem, but rather, a solution.

Fourth, saying that not worshiping Christ as God sends people to hell is like saying one link in a chain suspends the load. It’s a flawed focus on a single symptom. God provided a means of redemption and regeneration. He offers it as a gift. Refusing that gift is the ultimate sin; it is a sin against oneself. But nobody goes to hell for that sin alone; it is merely one among many.

Hell was created for Lucifer and the angels who followed him in rebellion against God. We are born as citizens of Lucifer’s kingdom, and we all ratify that with by breaking God’s commandments. God’s gift can regenerate us so we gain citizenship in God’s kingdom. If we are so full of ourselves that we fail to receive that gift, we have only ourselves to blame.

Fear of hell is not a wrong reason to receive the gift and then worship God. But there is a better reason. God is good. In fact He is the ultimate standard of goodness. He not only gave us life, but also, at His own expense, created the means for our forgiveness, redemption, and regeneration. He balanced justice and love by paying a price that would have destroyed any mere human. In His kindness, He freely offers that to each of us.

When we rebel against physical laws, we pay a price. The price of rebelling against gravity by walking off a cliff is paid when you hit the bottom. You have only yourself to blame. Likewise, there is a moral law. If we fail to receive the gift of redemption, we will hit the bottom in hell. And how much more accountable will be those who actively reject the gift.

You can reframe the consequences to shift the blame to the One who enforces the law. You may rage against Him for all eternity. But in all honesty, you will have only yourself to blame. 

Copyright 2021 Richard Wheeler. Permission granted for non-remunerated use. Please cite sources when copying.

God's Commandments Don't Change; Their Jurisdiction Does

Answering a question on Quora:

Do God’s commandments change?

The quick answer is no. However, you need to define which commandments. If you mean the Ten Commandments and hundreds of other commandments given through Moses (the “Mosaic Law”), then they had limited jurisdiction, and their proper usage is not what most people think.

Which commandments?

God has given more than one set of commandments:

• Commands to Adam and Eve to tend the Garden, name the animals, have children, and abstain from eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
  
  
• Commands to Noah to build an ark and take shelter in it.
  
  
• Commands to Pharaoh to free Israel.
  
  
• Commands to Moses to follow certain instructions to deliver, feed, and water Israel.
  
  
• Commands to love God, love your neighbor, worship God alone, and abstain from certain generic sins (the “Ten Commandments”).
  
  
• Hundreds of specific civil and personal commands in support of the Ten Commandments, taken together as “the Mosaic Law.”
  
  
• A command to believe in Jesus of Nazareth for redemption instead of trusting self-righteousness.
  
  
• A command for followers of Jesus to love one another.

By “God’s commandments,” most people mean the Ten Commandments and may mean the Mosaic Law.

Different Jurisdictions, Different Commandments

The Mosaic Law (or “The Law”) was given to ancient, pre-Messianic Israel. The Law was not given to gentiles (non-Hebrews), and it does not apply to followers of the Anointed One (Hebrew: Messiah; Greek: Christ), Jesus of Nazareth. 

Not every commandment applies to everybody. For example, a commandment to a priestly descendant of Aaron to sprinkle the blood of a sacrifice on things in the Temple’s Holy of Holies obviously would not apply to a jeweler from the tribe of Benjamin. 

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law [Judaism], so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law none of mankind will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes knowledge of sin.

Jesus used this technique many times. For example, who loves God with all their heart, from birth to death? Who has never broken the commandments against adultery, murder, and coveting in their hearts?

Following the Ten Commandments is profitable, but not for redemption. Redemption comes only through trusting God’s gift through Christ.

Thus, we have the commandment, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.

The New Testament is emphatic.

Knowing that a person is not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law; since by works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

The change in jurisdiction happened because, as others have answered, Christ fulfilled the Law. The Law is also called a Covenant. Today, we would use the word contract. A contract becomes ineffective when either of two conditions happen:

• One party fails to fulfill its obligations. Then the penalties become effective. At a national level, this happened when Israel rejected her Messiah and God destroyed national Israel, including its Temple, in 67–70 AD. At an individual level, it happens to every Hebrew who rejects Messiah Jesus.
  
  
• The obligations of the Law have been fulfilled. Jesus fulfilled God’s side of the Law by fulfilling the prophecies and the symbols (especially the sacrifices).

From a religious angle, the Law itself did not change. However, the applicability of the Law changed. Hebrews 7 explains that when the priesthood changes, a new law replaces the old Law. This is like when the United States of America formed and its Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, and the states had to rewrite the laws that they had when they were nations and, before that, colonies.

Under the Mosaic Law, a change in priesthood occurred. The Priesthood was given to Aaron, of the tribe of Levi, and to his descendants. Correspondingly, a change in the law occurred when God gave the Mosaic Law. In the same way, when God made Jesus a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, God gave a new Law. The new Law was not mere written commandments, but it was the Spirit of the law, written upon the hearts of those who entrust their redemption to Christ.

"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Underlying this, the Mosaic Law cannot save, but rather presents a mirror to show us our condemnation. For, Cursed is every man that continues not in all the words of this law to do them…. In contrast, the “Perfect Law of Love and Liberty” written on the hearts of those who bend their knee to Messiah Jesus shows how God has already delivered them from condemnation. God makes believers a kingdom of priests, Jesus being the High Priest; and with that, applies a new, better Law.

The Lawful Use of the Law

Some may object that Mosaic commandments were repeated in the New Testament. This is true, but it does not contradict anything written here. Two jurisdictions can have the same laws. Florida and Arizona both have laws against murder, but a Floridian would not refrain from murder because it's Arizona's law. The fact that Arizona has a law against murder does not mean that the Floridian is under Arizona law. Similarly, the fact that the New Testament condemns murder does not mean that Christians are under the Mosaic Law.

It is a common mistake to apply commandments given to ancient Israel to people living under the New Testament’s Perfect Law of Love and Liberty. For example, many insist on resting on the Sabbath (which is Saturday). Others say that baptism replaces circumcision, and people must be baptized to go to heaven. They focus on human merit instead of on the merit of Christ’s sacrifice.

The Mosaic Law still has applicability. People who think they will be good enough to go to heaven have to face that Law. In evangelism, it may be necessary to review the Law so people test themselves. Jesus did that often. Notice that the closer you look at any commandment, the more detail you see. Here’s a sample, using just four of the Ten Commandments:

• Have you honored your father and mother? Have you always obeyed them? This includes not just doing what you were told. Honoring goes beyond obedience. It includes obeying without delay, eye-rolling, sarcasm, or resentment. It means actually respecting them in your heart.
  
  
• Perhaps you don’t think you’ve committed adultery. But if you have had sex before marriage, you have. In fact, since God is Spirit and we have spirits, what we do in our thoughts are just as real to God as our physical actions are. So if you have looked at someone with sexual desire, you have broken this commandment.
  
  
• You may not think you are a thief. But have you downloaded music or ‘borrowed” a cable TV connection that you should have paid for? Have you taken anything from work without returning it? Have you found something that belonged to someone else and not even tried to find the owner? Or have you even thought about taking something that was not yours?
  
  
• You probably have not killed anyone. But Jesus said that if you even hated somebody without just cause, you committed murder in your heart. And if you have even called someone a fool or empty-headed, you are dangerously close to that line.

If you have kept the Ten Commandments from the heart all your life, congratulations! You are as perfect as God! I’m being sarcastic, of course.

In evangelism, Christians want to share the good news that God offers forgiveness as a gift on the basis that Christ acted as our proxy on the cross. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

But people who think they are righteous do not realize that they need that redemption. So the “lawful use of the Law” today is to use it as a mirror so people will turn from (a) justifying their sins or (b) self righteousness, and turn to trust alone in Christ alone.

What remains to believers is to Love God, our neighbors, and our spiritual brothers and sisters. The Perfect Law of Love and Liberty fulfills the spirit of all commandments. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Believers don’t keep this commandment to redeem themselves, but rather, because God has already redeemed them.

Copyright 2021, Richard Wheeler. Permission granted for non-remunerated use if you give credit where credit is due. 

The Heresy of Forgiveness

Or more precisely...

The Heresy of Requiring Forgiveness to Get Forgiveness

Many people fail to discern the difference between the preaching of Law that demands repentance and the preaching of Christ that demands trust in Him to redeem us. One heresy is the idea that, if we do not forgive all who sin against us, God will not forgive us. This is based on Jesus's preaching to the self-righteous Jews.

• "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:14-15

Jesus used the Law and rules like this to show self-righteous people that they could never achieve the level of righteousness needed to stand justified before God. 

• Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law [Jews], so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

Anything less than lifelong sinless perfection would desecrate God's holy presence. 

The Jews added thousands of commandments to the 600+ in the Old Testament, yet Jesus said...

• unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20).

This was to drive us to depend on God's grace:

• the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24).

So then, we are justified not by do's and don'ts such as forgiving others, but by the grace of God, and if justified by grace, then we are no longer under the law of death that condemns, but under the law of love that liberates and rewards.

• But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster (Galatians 3:24).

This does not mean we can get away with sins such as unforgiveness. God chastises us to form righteousness in us. 

• Listen up, Joel Osteen! Listen up, Prosperity preachers! For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives (Hebrews 12:6). Christians' lives are actually MORE painful than non-Christians' lives. But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons (verse 7).

But although we are under our loving Father's disciplinary hand, He will never, ever cast us out of His family, reverse our adoption, or un-birth us; and our Big Brother Jesus will never, ever disobey our Father's command to lose none of us. 

Saying that God's grace of forgiveness is contingent on our good work of forgiveness contradicts the gospel. It even contradicts itself: Grace means "gift," so anything earned cannot be grace. The gospel commands us to let go of all forms of self-merit and rely 100% on God's gift. If we do not receive the gift as a gift, we insult the Giver and receive neither the gift nor the Giver.

The unsaved forgive to get forgiveness. Christians forgive because they have been forgiven. To say otherwise may simply reflect confused and incomplete thinking about the gospel. However, adding any condition such as forgiveness to the gospel costs people their salvation. When salvation is jeopardized, heresy is not too strong a word.

If you depend on your ability to forgive others in order to attain to God's forgiveness, repent of this form of self-righteousness and trust Christ alone. Now, before you forget.

Copyright 2020, Richard Wheeler. Edited version of a previous post on Facebook. Permission granted for personal, non-profit use; but please give credit where credit is due.

The Ten Commandments Reveal God's Grace

In what ways do the Ten Commandments reveal the grace of God?

The commandments of the Old Testament are called The Law. The Law is One Law, with two top-level commandments:

• ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37–40)

The Ten Commandments add the next level of detail. The next level of detail adds over 600 more commandments. (And the Jews wrote commentaries with thousands more, just to avoid breaking any of the over 600 that people might not have understood. This one Law is an earthly application of the objective moral standard, which is God’s holiness. If you break one point, you’ve broken the Law. And if you would keep even one of the commandments to justify yourself before God, you have to keep the whole Law with all of its hundreds of commandments. You must do this not only from the time you decide to start, but also from the time you were born.

The Ten Commandments reveal the grace of God, but they primarily reveal the holiness and justice of God. The Ten commandments (and over 600 others) were given primarily to show us our need for God’s grace.

• Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law [self-righteous people], so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:19–20)
• Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24)

Since we need God’s grace, telling us about our need is a gracious act. It is shocking to learn that you have cancer, but it is gracious to inform somebody that they have a disease and they have access to a cure. Likewise, it is shocking to learn that we are already condemned, but it is gracious to be given that diagnosis so that you will turn to the remedy that God offers, namely, salvation by grace through trusting faith (Ephesians 2:8–9).

The message that we need God’s grace is one way the Ten Commandments reveal the grace of God. Another way they reveal the grace of God is by laying down rules by which we can love our neighbors.

• If we do not blaspheme and commit idolatry, our example does not lead our neighbors away from God.
• If we do not murder, we support life and justice.
• If we do not commit adultery, we do not spread diseases, break up families, and leave children in broken relationships.
• If we do not steal, we do not take away portions of others’ lives that they invested in acquiring their possessions.
• If we do not covet what belongs to our neighbors, we will not be tempted to take what is not ours or create jealousy that disrupts our relationships.
• If we love God, we find freedom from guilt and maintain a reservoir of power to love ourselves and others.
  
• The one exception to the Ten Commandments is the requirement to do no work on the Sabbath, which is Saturday. It is the one command that was strictly ceremonial rather than focusing on morality in relationships. The early church met in synagogues that the Jews already used on Saturdays, so there was a practical need to meet on another day. Moreover, two elements of symbolism came into play. First, the seventh day (Sunday) was the day on which the Lord had risen. Second, the Sabbath symbolized resting from working to earn salvation. It represented approaching God in faith without self-righteous works. Since the New Testament teaches that mature Christians esteem all days alike, the early church met on Sundays instead of on Saturdays. 

By keeping the Ten Commandments -- or more correctly, using the Ten Commandments to help us decide how to love God and others -- we exemplify and enact God’s grace, both for ourselves, and for those around us.

I originally posted this as an answer to a question on Quora. If you copy it, please give credit where credit is due.

Sin In the Spiritual Realm

People think they will be accountable only for their actions. They act surprised when you tell them that lust and hatred are adultery and murder in the heart, respectively. Yet everyone can finish the quote, "Man looks on the outward appearance, but...."

God is Spirit, so He observes not only the physical dimensions, but also the spiritual dimensions. Our thoughts are events in the spirit dimensions; so to God, they are just as real as our physical actions. "But I didn't lie get out of trouble." Too late, you already did it in your heart.

If you caught yourself before you blasphemed, you still thought it before you pronounced it. God heard that thought. If you pouted because somebody else got something you thought you deserved, you committed covetousness, and God saw. If you wanted to take it, God saw that mental theft.

You might think, "If God will judge me for thinking it, I'd might as well do it." But that will merely give God a second crime to judge, plus a victim that you hurt. Do yourself a favor. If you are not going to entrust your soul to Christ, at least try not to further stoke the fires of your future pit in hell by carrying out the misdeeds that you think up.

Think not within yourself, "but I mean well." God has seen all the times you didn't mean well. Repent of your self righteousness and entrust your soul to Christ today.

How to Get Spotless Garments

From a question on Quora

What did the Bible mean when it said "Only those that their garment was without impurity will see Jesus"?

Our first challenge is to determine what passage in the Bible the question refers to. It has me stumped. It sounds like a paraphrase from memory of a sermon. The closest Bible wording would come from Hebrews 12:14, Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

However, the quote states biblical principles using the Bible's symbolic language.

Clothes, in this sense, symbolize your history of thoughts and actions. Impurity symbolizes sin. For example, save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh (Jude 1:23). The garment polluted by the flesh represents the lifestyle and trappings of a worldly, carnal lifestyle. For example, the “party animal” may seem “cool,” but charisma, popularity, and pleasure can be deadly moral traps.

Another form of polluted garment is the life of self-righteous hypocrites. "But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments (Matthew 23:5). Phylacteries are small leather boxes containing Hebrew texts, worn by Jewish men. The tassels were white to symbolize purity, with a blue thread symbolizing heaven. Some wore over-sized tassels to draw attention, as though it made them holier than thou, like the priests who wear elegant robes or backwards collars. The point is that they dressed to impress other people when they went to synagogue rather than presenting themselves humbly before God.

Many miss the warning that God is so holy that nobody can defile His presence without being cleansed of their guilt. We think of the Beatitudes as rules for peace and beauty, but the passage includes this razor-edged gem: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8)

People think the Ten Commandments were given so we could make ourselves holy. However, they are just the summary of 613 commandments in the Old Testament. Their most important purpose is to show us that none of us are pure in heart because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20).

Obeying the Ten Commandments is profitable, but it cannot make us righteous. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). For all of us have become like one who is unclean [ceremonially defiled or diseased], And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away (Isaiah 64:6). If we understand that, then we can understand that the Law has become our tutor unto Christ, so that we may be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24) instead of trying to be justified by deeds or heritage.

The Bible uses two metaphors for how we can have clean clothes, that is, be freed from our guilt.

The first metaphor is being washed in the blood of the Lamb. In Old Testament Israel, animals were sacrificed to temporarily cover sin. The sacrifice of an animal was a substitute for punishment of the sinner. The animals symbolized Messiah Jesus whose sacrifice would permanently remove guilt. He [God the Father] made Him [God the Son] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him [Christ] (2 Corinthians 5:21). When we place our faith in Christ, God credits our punishment to Jesus’s death on the cross and credits Jesus’s righteousness to us.

You can find this language in the first epistle (letter) of the apostle John: if we walk in the Light as He Himself [Christ] is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). Another place is in Revelation: These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).

Whereas the first metaphor focuses on sins being washed away, the second metaphor emphasizes the substitution. I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed… (Revelation 3:18).

The command to “buy” in a spiritual sense confuses many. They think the “price” is sacraments and good deeds, but the price of God’s grace is the opposite. It is free. Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost (Isaiah 55:1). The price is our pride.

We must come to God in utter, desperate humility. Grace means “gift,” and a gift cannot be earned. To offer God our efforts, the efforts of others, or our heritage as a price of grace is to insult the Giver. Note that the symbolic purchase of gold makes you rich; but if you had something to buy it with, you would already have been rich. Pride is the reason it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man — or a religious man — to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 18:25). When you let go of pride and exchange your need for God’s grace, He makes you spiritually rich.

Also note that the transaction has to actually take place. We cannot simply agree with the exchange intellectually or desire it without understanding. The mind, heart, and soul must motivate an act of the will.

Summary

The quote is not from the Bible. It does summarize biblical principles using biblical symbolism. Clean garments represent the righteousness of God the Son. God credits this righteousness to those who let go of any merit of their own and trust in, and only in, Christ and the price He paid for our sins on the cross.



Since I already posted the bulk of this on Quora, I can't copyright it. But I trust that if you use it, you will give credit where Credit is due.

Two Ways to Heaven

There are two ways to heaven: the impossible and the possible.

1.  Be perfect throughout your entire life.

That makes you superior to the rest of us. In fact, it must make you God, since only God is perfect. 

Proud people think they can earn heaven, but the Ten Commandments (and the over 600 more) do not show a way to heaven for us real people. Instead, they show us that we are condemned before God.

• Have you had anything in your life that was more important than God? The scriptures call that idolatry.
• Have you had any incorrect idea of whom God is and what he's like? Have you prayed through a statue? That's idolatry, too.
• Have you worked on the Sabbath (Saturday)? That's putting other things ahead of God, so it's idolatry, too.
• Have you used the Lord's name in vain? That's a personal insult to God!
• Have you ever spread gossip that turned out to be untrue? That's lying and murdering somebody's reputation.
• Have you hated somebody without just cause? That's murder in your heart.
• Have you looked with sexual desire at somebody other than your spouse? That's adultery.
• Have you wanted something that belonged to somebody else? That's stealing in your heart.

And God looks on the hearts, not just the actions. 

Remember, the Law is One Law with many points. You don't have to break all the points. Break just one point, and you've broken the Law and lost your place in heaven. If you think you've never sinned, just wait. You will.

Satan said, "I will be like God." Adam and Eve said, "We will know good and evil like God." And the self-righteous says in his heart, "I will be perfect." 

Yes, Jesus said, "Be perfect," but He was using the Law to break people's pride, to show that earning heaven by your own merit is impossible. The point of His instruction was not, "Attempt the impossible." His message used irony to show that we are condemned. Salvation comes another way, and only to the humble. 

2. God prepared a gift

The gift that can save us if we accept it as a gift instead of as something we deserve.

The Creator of time and space entered into His creation as three Persons, each fulfilling a distinct role, yet united as One God in eternity.  One of those Persons, God the Son, added a human nature called Jesus to His own nature (without changing in His essence). 

Jesus lived a perfect life. If He had not, He would have died for His own sins, not for ours. But He was God, so He could live a perfect life. And because of that, when He gave Himself on the cross, God could credit our guilt to Jesus  (like a big brother taking the punishment for his little brother) and credit Jesus' righteousness to us. And to demonstrate His approval of what Jesus did, God raised Him from the dead.

God offers that gift to those who (a) recognize God the Son and (b) in desperate need and humility, receive the gift as what it is, a free gift.

Many cling to the impossible way by mixing it with God's provision. They mix faith and works, and corrupt grace (which means "gift") by turning it at least partly into wages. They seek credit for themselves instead of glorifying the Giver alone.

The mixture takes two forms. The first form says you have to do ceremonies, or good works, or clean up your life; and then you receive some or all of the gift. The second form says God gives you the gift, but then you have to earn the right to keep the gift through works or perseverance. Both of these insult God's generosity.

The second (you have to work to retain the gift) also recognizes only half the relationship. Salvation becomes yours, but also you become God's. You become God's child and Jesus' "sheep." (People often lie about the following part because they don't understand it.)

You can't do whatever you want for three reasons (at least!).

• When you became a Christian, you hated your sins because they were evil and they condemned you. Since you hated your sins, and as a new Christian, God begins changing you to free you from those sins, you will try not to repeat those sins.
• God will chastise you, even to the point of killing your body if that's what it takes to keep your soul safe.
• The "whatever you want" will change because God works within you, making you want to do what pleases Him.
• If you do "whatever you want" and get away with it, your conversion was not genuine. Beware false conversions due to.
• Pride in self merit
• Knowledge without heart conviction
• Being carried along by emotion with only partial understanding or with misunderstanding
• Knowledge and emotion, but without prioritizing conversion over everything else

In the gospels, Jesus says, "Be perfect."

The sinner says, "I cannot. I have sinned."

Jesus says, "Be perfect, or be condemned."

The sinner says, "Woe to me, for I am a sinner, condemned!"

Jesus says, "Now you are ready to receive the gift."

The self-righteous man says, "Let me do ceremonies, chant repetitious prayers, and do good works for the gift."

Jesus says, "Go away and do not insult me by trying to earn my gift."

The misled man says, "I receive the gift" but thinks "and I will do good works and persevere so that I don't lose it."

Jesus says, "Come back when you are ready to stop insulting my faithfulness."

The humble man says, "I deserve condemnation. I can do nothing to earn or to keep the gift. I surrender. I trust You to have mercy upon my sins and grace upon my need."

Jesus says, "I give you the gift. Now you are mine and I am yours, and I keep my promises. Welcome to my kingdom, little brother! Now, let's get to work!"

Copyright 2019, Richard Wheeler -- Permission granted for personal or non-profit, non-published use. Please give credit where credit is due.

The Heresy of Including Reform in Repentance

The Heresy of Including Reform in Repentance

Like John MacArthur, despite clearly defining grace as the means of salvation and faith as the channel of grace, Todd Friel occasionally crosses the line into salvation by works.

I highly recommend listening to Wretched Radio. God does call on His children to reform their lives. Too many churches fail to call for reform, and communicating the gospel should describe the cost of obeying the gospel. Becoming a Christian does not mean God will heal all your relationships or make your life easy; and Eternal Security does not mean you can ignore your new life in Christ and do whatever you want without chastisement.

Apostate Christian churches have mis-defined repentance in both directions. Historically, churches, dominated by Roman Catholicism, have over-defined repentance by adding reform to it. In our times, New Evangelical churches tend to under-define it or omit it altogether. Many "Reformed" Christians over-emphasize repentance as an over-reaction to the New Evangelical watering down of the gospel. The mis-definitions of repentance makes it difficult to accurately differentiate between the call for non-Christians to repent and the call for God's children to reform.

While we should, therefore, practice grace when an earnest brother occasionally blurs the line, we should also stand for a correct definition of the gospel and point out failures to do so.

Friel crossed the line on Wretched Radio's "Witness Wednesday" episode for 19 June 2019. The conversation begins at 14:50. https://www.wretched.org/06-19-2019/

Friel crossed the line into a gospel of works while explaining the gospel to a young Roman Catholic woman, saying in his conclusion:

Friel: [W]hat do you need do to go to heaven? What would your answer be? 

Woman: Live for Jesus and for God.  

Friel: Yeah, that's right, to repent, and put your trust in Him. To repent, to ask for forgiveness, forsake your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ. And then you inherit eternal life.

(Note that the woman's answer was about works, and while supplying missing elements, Friel reinforced her error.)

"Forsake your sins" is ambiguous by itself, but a minute before, Friel had described repentance and faith thus:

[Y]ou repent, you recognize that you've sinned against God, you confess your sins to him, then you forsake them instead of living for yourself, you start living for Him, and you put your trust in Jesus Christ as if your life depended on it because frankly it does.

Just as there are sins of omission and sins of commission, there are good works of restraint and good works of commission. Forsaking sins is obeying the Don'ts of the commandments. Living for God is the Do's of the commandments.

What Friel and people like John MacArthur are saying is, "Do good works and then put trust in Christ." They do not say it all the time, but they say it often enough that they need to be called out on it. Making good works a requirement for salvation prevents salvation.

Whether one reforms by obeying God's covenant with Israel or by obeying the Law of Love is irrelevant. In the context of entering into salvation, "works" includes any attempt to be righteous enough to please God. 

The rest of what Friel says is, more or less, consistent with the gospel. It is consistent because we must recognize our sin and deserved condemnation in order to approach God. It is inconsistent because the emphasis is entirely on moral sin; it ignores that "sin" includes holding wrong beliefs.

There are sins we must forsake. For example:

• Worship of false gods
• Rejecting God's standards of sin and righteousness
• Rationalizing our sins 
• Believing we can be righteous enough to be accepted by God
• Believing God will forgive us without a price being paid
• Adding anything to grace and faith -- including reform

These are all matters of heart and mind, not of moral actions. For example, it does no good to give up adultery if you continue to worship the Unitarian god of Oneness Pentecostals or to serve statues and pray to Mary. With time, the fruits of repentance and of God reforming you from within follow. But actions are not included as requirements for salvation.

God sees the sincerity of the heart and the mind. He does not have to wait to see your actions. When you repent (mind and heart) and put faith in God for redemption, God saves you in that instant.

• Repentances does not include its result, reform. 
• Reforming yourself does not cause salvation. 
• Salvation enables repentance to cause reform.

In fact, reforming yourself to achieve salvation blocks salvation because you are attempting to make yourself presentable to God instead of relying on Christ to do that for you.

Preachers like Friel and MacArthur confuse many believers. When they preach salvation through faith alone, and then require works before faith, they contradict themselves and bring heresy into their gospel.


Copyright 2019, Richard Wheeler. Permission granted for personal or non-profit use. Please give credit where credit is due.

Can the Sin of ____ Be Forgiven?

The good news is that, it can be forgiven. Jesus said, “And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. (Matthew 12:31) This may not mean you are forgiven. It means you can be forgiven. Since you can be forgiven, you probably want to know more about that.

Let’s look closer. Why were you confused? There are three probable causes. First, you may be too new in faith to have much knowledge. That is understandable, as long as you determine to learn so you won’t be easily fooled again. Second, you may have had faith for a while but never bothered to do your homework. In this case, the sin of allowing yourself to remain ignorant can be forgiven, but you still bear the consequences. Third, you remain outside the faith. You may be close to conversion or far from it, but the result is the same.

If you are “in the faith,” then God, as Judge, has already forgiven you. (As loving Father, though, He may still need to correct you.) If not “in the faith,” then it is wise to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12) and “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.” (2 Corinthians 13:5) There are three topics in the test.

The first test is what you believe about yourself. The second is what you believe about God. The third is whether you put your trust in God.

You know you need forgiveness, so I will only expand on that point for the sake of other readers. Atheists (there is nobody to forgive and nothing needs forgiveness) and Universalists (everybody is already forgiven) think they need no forgiveness. For this answer, let’s ignore them.

The next group thinks they have a free pass to heaven just because Grandpa was a preacher or because they can trace their genealogy back to Judah, son of Israel, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. Be we do not inherit good deeds; we answer for our own thoughts and actions. Someone has said, “God has no grandchildren.”

A related group knows that right and wrong exists, but they don’t think they are bad. They think the good they do outweighs the bad they’ve done. But will that work in court? If you are on trial for shoplifting, do you think the judge will acquit you just because you volunteer at the food kitchen? It doesn’t work that way! We owe it to God to do right. If we fall behind and use the July rent payment to pay for June, we still owe for July. So we cannot “do good,” which we owe to our Creator, to pay for our sins.

Well, I keep the Ten Commandments, some say. But God gave the Commandments (there are actually over 600 — not that I counted) not to give us a standard by which to justify ourselves, but to show that we are on the “bad” side of the ledger. Everybody breaks the Commandments. Everybody. Because the closer you look, the more sub sections pop out.

For example, Jesus said, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder…’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell…. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart…. everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” *Matthew 5:21-32).

Paul, an apostle of Christ, wrote that nobody will be justified in God’s sight by keeping the Commandments (also called the Law); because the purpose of the Law was to make us aware of sin and shut the mouth of every person who would boast of their own righteousness. (Romans 3:19-20) The Law was a schoolmaster whose purpose was to make us aware of our need and bring us to reliance on God (Galatians 3:24).

So if we cannot be good enough, can we be saved from hell? Yes, if we let go of self-righteousness and let God, our Judge, pay the penalty that we cannot afford to pay. That is where the Cross comes in. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). Notice in this verse that Christ suffered once, not continuously or in every mass, as a certain megachurch tell us. He suffered once for all of our sins, not for just the ones we’ve repented from. There are so many that we don’t even realize we’re committing! He took our punishment that we deserved. And He did it to bring us to God. As a perfect, omnipotent Shepherd, He brings His flock, ALL His flock, home.

Human pride makes us want to contribute to our justification through good works, but our works and God’s gift are mutually exclusive. You cannot earn a gift. If you receive a gift and then work to complete it or to retain it, then it turns from a gift into wages. That insults the Giver. The hardest part of the test for many is letting God give the gift freely. Baptism is good, but that cannot be part of receiving the gift. Joining a church (a bible-teaching church) is good, but that is not part of receiving the gift.

The only thing you can do to receive the gift is, knowing that you need it, submit to receiving it.

Many people say the words, but not from their hearts. Years back, because so many people had shallow, false conversions, it became popular to add, “you must make Jesus the Lord of your life.” That is a good thing, and He is Lord regardless; but that is not what the Bible commands for conversion. It is popular now to add, “you must repent of your sins.” That is more complicated. A common error includes reforming yourself as part of repentance. But repentance simply means changing your mind and your heart. In fact, we must repent from the idea that we can reform ourselves. We need God’s help to do that. So we do not reform to receive the gift; we reform afterwards, because we have received the gift.

I will finish with one last element of the test. Who is God? Many ideas have sprung up in the last 2,000 years to distract us from God. I will not describe them all but will leave it to you to discover the evidence in the Bible for yourself. i will just describe God for you.

God created the heavens and the earth. (Whether He did so less than 10,000 years ago, did it in phases, or did it billions of years ago, I don’t know, and I am comfortable not knowing.) Physics tells us that creative power over matter and energy implies creative power over time and space, as well. When you consider that God knows the future, it makes sense that he exists before, outside of, or above time. As Creator of time, God entered His creation to reveal Himself and experience it as three Persons. One united God, three distinct (yet united) Persons, each fully God, all-powerful, omnipresent, all-knowing, holy, righteous, relational, and loving.

The three Persons have distinct roles. One identifies Himself as the Father. The second identifies Himself as the Son. And the third identifies Himself as the Holy Spirit. The three roles both share and divide the labor of creation, redemption, and restoration, and they teach us by example, so there is purpose to it.

I said God is love, and love is relational. A unitary god such as that of the Watchtower, Islam, and certain Pentecostal churches, had nobody to relate to before creation. So that god had an unmet need for fellowship. Islam says, “Allah is great,” but the triune God who had no such need is greater. Moreover, it is an inferior god who forgives without justice being fulfilled, whose holiness can tolerate unredeemed sin, and whose love cannot bring him to redeem.

The only sin that cannot be forgiven is what Jesus called “blasphemy against the Spirit.” Blasphemy against the Spirit had a specific meaning and a generalized principle. The Jews had accused Jesus of performing miracles using the devil’s power. Since the Holy Spirit supplied the power in Jesus’ miracles, they were saying the Holy Spirit was the devil. God takes blasphemy personally!

The principle is broader. The Holy Spirit makes us aware of our sins and draws us toward trusting Christ for redemption. If we resist that drawing, then we repeat the Jews’ rejection of the Holy Spirit. Since that means we will not repent and be converted, we will never receive forgiveness, not only for blaspheming the Holy Spirit, but for any sins.

If you have seen yourself as lost to sin, as God sees, then you can entrust yourself to His provision for your redemption and receive that gift and the many blessings that come with it; and He does not take back His gifts.

God's Omniscience and Our Free Will

I want to hike a 28-mile route from my home to a nearby mountain and back in one day, but I’m out of shape and lack the inclination to faithfully train for it. Although my will is free to choose the attempt, I lack the ability. If I cannot do what I choose, do I really have free will?

My neighbor became psychologically and physically addicted to pain medication. Without intervention and medical treatment, he was unable to overcome his addiction. With respect to turning his back on opioids, my neighbor had no free will. His will was limited by his addiction.

Free Will = Ability to Choose + Ability to Perform

People who ask about free will usually envision only the extremes: Either we have completely free will, or we have predestination instead of free will. That is a false choice. A middle ground exists in which our abilities, inclinations, environments, and third parties limit “free will.” The philosophers probably have a name for it, but I’m going to call it bounded will.

Free Will Has Limits

Freedom is never absolute.

The Bible teaches throughout that we deviate from God’s standard. It documents sins of even the greatest characters. As a young man, Moses murdered a slave driver and had to flee Egypt. Later, he disobeyed God's instructions on how to strike a rock, and lost his privilege of entering the Promised Land. As Romans 3:10 says, There is none righteous, no, not one.

Our universal addiction to deviating from God's standard of perfection limits our freedom. As Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin (John 3:34). The Old Testament "Law" starts with the Ten Commandments and expands into hundreds of subpoints. As with fractals, the closer you look, the more details you see.

For example, when you view a person’s life as a whole, the law against adultery becomes a law against sex before marriage. When you extend the law beyond the physical dimensions, the law prohibits lust. Jesus said that if you so much as look at someone lustfully, you have already committed adultery in your heart (Matthew 5:28). And as people like to point out, God looks on the heart (Proverbs 21:2).

When you examine the Thou shalts and Thou shalt nots, in the larger context, you discover that they’re not about helping us establish our own righteousness, but about teaching a humility that turns us toward receiving redemption.

The apostle Paul wrote that God gave the Law to prevent self-righteous attitudes. The Law does not tell us how to earn heaven. Rather, it tells us that we have fallen short of that goal.

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. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:19-20)

Some might answer, "If God judges my heart, and I sincerely want to do what's right, then it does not matter that in I don't have the ability." That sounds nice, but it has flaws.

1. If only intention matters, then God cannot address evil done for the "right" reasons.
2. We all think our reasons are "right."
3. Who does everything for the right reason? 

Even good, loving deeds can have impure motives. For example, we might perform an act of love not because we love the other person, but to enjoy the sensation of "loving" or to enjoy feeling like good people. As the prophet Jeremiah wrote, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV) 

My intent is not to throw thunderbolts at anybody, but merely to explain that the material person’s will is not free. It is limited not only physically, but also morally. Even when we intend to do the right thing, we still mess it up. 

We do not have unlimited free will.

Poetically, the cost of our errors is going to “that other place.” The question of free will usually focuses on the ability to accept or reject the Gospel, but it misses the larger picture. Without Divine interference, our end is are already predestined.

Jesus came to establish a way to free the will from its enslavement to immorality. Only by recognizing that enslavement and then relinquishing self righteousness can one begin to grasp that path to freedom.

Destination versus Predestination

When my action makes a result inevitable, it destines me to the result. When an event (such as God's choice) made a result inevitable, it predestined me to the result. The only difference is when the event occurred.

Within the bounds of our free will, then, our nature destines us to commit sin, and sin destines us to condemnation. From the perspective of Judgment day, our sin predestined us to condemnation. So the only difference between destined and predestined is the time at which you view the event.

• At some point in time, sin destined me for condemnation.
• At some point in time, God destined me for heaven. 
• If you are mature enough to read this, your sin predestined you for condemnation (although God may have planned and performed otherwise).

As an adult believer, I can say that through sin, I predestined myself for hell, but God predestined me for heaven. That is, God predestined His own actions, namely, arranging for me to hear the gospel, giving me understanding, and giving me a gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8–9).

So, lay this out on a timeline: For the saved, God planned (predestined) to give some people great gifts. Later, their actions predestined them to condemnation. Then God carried out his plan and changed their destinies.

Would it really be that horrible if God predestined the changing of our destinations?

God's Choice and Free Will

The claim of omnipresence implies the ability to observe what happens throughout space, to know all information such as our thoughts, and and to know what happens throughout time.

In the Bible, God claims omnipresence.

Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:24)

This verse claims ability to observe every physical condition and event everywhere. In addition, many timess, God claims and demonstrates an ability to observe thought. For example,

I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. (Jeremiah 17:10)

On a tangent: Knowing men’s thoughts is one of the proofs of Jesus’ divinity. Jesus is the only person described in the Bible to know men’s thoughts. For example, Matthew 12:25, Luke 5:22, and Luke 6:8.

Just as no condition, event, or thought is hidden from God, neither is anything that will happen.

I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done…. (Isaiah 46:9–10)

Others have indicated that God foreknows because He can figure out what will happen. Although God has that magnitude of intelligence, that is not the only possible basis of foreknowledge.

If God created the material universe, then according to our understanding of physics and cosmology, He also has creative power over time and space. That implies that He exists outside of time and space, although the doctrine of the Triune God shows that He can enter into creation from any or every perspective. That is, God’s creative power makes it possible to exist as a Unity outside of time while existing as a Trinity inside of time. And existing outside of time, He can observe all that happens within time.

I find it likely, therefore, that God’s omniscience is based not on logic, but on observation.

Some things are planned and brought to pass by God. Isaiah 46:10 continues, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose…. For example, Jeremiah 1:5 demonstrates both foreknowledge and predestination:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

And of God’s chosen, Romans 8:28 says, And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Although God observes all things at all times, the Bible does not say that he predestines all things. It clear states, however, that He does predestine some things and then interferes in history and our lives to bring them to pass.

God’s interference means that, without His action, His will will not happen. If some things will or will not happen without interference, then those things could not be predestined (that is, by God). The Bible gives many example of God permitting events in order to achieve a greater good.

Therefore, God's foreknowledge is based on observation, modified by execution of His plan, and confirmed by observation.

So there is no such thing as unconditionally free will. Our wills our bounded by our nature, and our actions predestine us to condemnation. Through the Cross, God creates a path to eventual freedom from our nature. Then He intervenes in the lives of some to change their predestination from a negative outcome to a positive one.

Copyright 2017 Richard Wheeler

Can you let go of bad evidence?

I often think of some verse to support a point I want to make, and when I look it up, think, "Oh, shrubbery! That wasn't what it was talking about!" And then I have to look further to see whether what I want to say is really supported. I sometimes have to abandon things I was going to say. 

Nobody expects an ironic exposition!  

In a Facebook discussion, a lady wanted to show an example of a Christian apologizing to others. She gave as an example, (2 Corinthians 12:13)

"For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!"

Nobody expects irony in the Bible. Read it again. During his mission at Corinth, supported himself, working (according to tradition) as a tent maker. In the context, Paul supports his apostolic authority and his sincerity by reminding the Corinthians that he worked with his own hands so he would not have to ask them to "send in your tithes and offerings." Paul was not apologizing. Rather, he was using irony -- more specifically, sarcasm, a form of irony. To support his sincerity (and to break the pride of his audience), he was using mild sarcasm. Yes, sarcasm has its place.
To further show the need for forgiveness, the lady also cited Matthew 6:14-15.

"For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions."

The Jews thought they could earn salvation through self-righteous works: the Ten Commandments, plus another 600-plus commandments in the Old Testament.

Jesus often used irony to bring religious Jews to repentance. 

• "Forgive, or you won't be forgiven;" but nobody is perfect in forgiveness. 
• "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect;" but nobody can be perfect. 
• "If your eye offends you (causes you to sin), pluck it out;" but is it really God's will that we should destroy every offending member of our bodies? 

Very quickly, we would run out of hands with which to cut off our other members.

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart...." But "we love God because He first loved us." We should forgive, but God first forgave us.

See the pattern?

The Law says forgive to be forgiven, but God's mercy says receive forgiveness and then forgive because you have been forgiven.

So the message here is, watch out for irony, especially in teachings that took place prior to the cross. You don't want valid points attacked just because you used the wrong verses to support them.