Jesus came to firstly be
a means of forgivness of sins, and then to be a way to be saved. Be advised, the
Lords sacrifice is NOT salvation in itself, but a WAY TO salvation.
The Bible says God created man in His own image, i.e. in the nature of
Him, but soon after His creation man was deceived by God's direct opponent the
devil Satan. Until then, man had only God's nature which is righteousness, so as
there was no evil in Adam and Eve, there was no sin in them either. They were
happy to stride around naked because there was no desire (evil intent) for sex
or fornication. But now that man had fallen by the hand of Satan, there was now
two natures...the original of God, and the new of Satan.
Of course this saddened God but He still offered hope to man by means of a law
of righteousness that He made known to them through Moses and the prophets. If, by living
according to this perfect law and choosing God's way, instead of the evil way of
Satan, then the reward according to God would be eternal life within His
kingdom. Knowledge acquired by the fall of man opened up all sorts of evil
desires that would cause an enormous barrier between God and His creation, but
nevertheless, God in His mercy still provided a gateway for salvation in the
hope many would turn away from the easy way of evil, preferring the narrow way
to walk in paths of righteousness, thus earning the right to His everlasting
kingdom.
Now things went quite nicely for awhile with most living within the bounds of
the law, but it didn't take long before Satan caused the tide to change, and most
delighted in the promise of Satan rather than the promise of God their true
creator. The law which basically stated "sin equals death" was the only way God
could put the fear of Himself in man, and in turn hope to build a righteous
people. If one did sin, then there was still hope for him if he repented of this sin
and made a sacrificial offering to God by means of slaughtering his most favored beast and burning it.
Even though this was seen as a payment for their sin, God also used it as a test
of faith also. Unless a man sincerely believed in God, then naturally he would
not slaughter his prized beast. Of course this would be a high price for man to
pay, so he would be careful not to sin against God too often as it would soon
send him broke if he did.
Over time man, through greed and lust mainly, forsook the ways of goodness which
offered life eternal, for the ways of evil, which although pleasant to life in
the flesh...this was only temporal as the spirit was sentenced to death. Their
bogus sacrifices and public hypocritical declarations soon became sickening to
God in such a way as to cause him to turn
His back on them. Even though He sent word of His intensions to them via His
prophets, they still were content to ignore them and live for the present
instead of giving any credence to their eternal future. In other words they turned
their backs on God...lost their fear of God their very creator. All kinds of
iniquity and abominations manifested in the minds and flesh of His creation,
that transgression became so ripe that at one time in history God had no choice
but to destroy all his creation, leaving but one righteous family to start it
all over again. Imagine that, only one righteous man on earth.
God created the whole universe according to a rule/law, so even if He wanted to,
He couldn't change this rule for the sake of evil. No, God set out to perfect
His creation and bring about an eternal rest that would be the reward for the
faithful, the overcomer, the obedient. He would not stop now...He would come up
with a perfect plan that was blue printed at the beginning of time. A once and
for all payment, a legal payment, and signed by the resurrection, according to
the law of His creation, that would offer a new hope to those interested in
changing their ways. A payment for ALL past sins, giving way to a repentant
heart, and providing all the necessary instructions for achieving the final
prize, the final rest, a reward for obedience...eternal life! This was a super
plan, and this super man's name is Jesus/Yeshua, son of the living God. This new
plan was not meant to do away with the laws of God, how could it if the universe
was created by it, no, it was to replace the sacrificial laws that were the
PAYMENT FOR SIN. Sin is defined as "transgression of the law", so as Paul
said...if there is no law, then there is no sin. In other words, no sin means
you are DEAD to the law because it has no power over you if you do not sin. This
payment meant you don't have to do ANYTHING except BELIEVE Jesus is the messiah,
and be OBEDIENT to His words that will never die. This gift of God to us is
free...yes indeed, it is called GRACE.
To make this clear, lets take an example. We know it is against Gods will (law)
for us to murder our neighbor, and even civil law has the confidence to
included Gods law here, so if we break this law by taking another life, then we
TRANSGRESS against God and the wages (reward) for this transgression is DEATH.
(Meaning eternal spiritual death) Now if we repent of this transgression, (and
keep in mind "repent" means to stop, turn around, change your ways), and turn to
the way of the Lord God, there was a way by means of animal sacrifice to pay for
this sin rather than receive eternal punishment. It was THIS law/sacrifice that
was nailed to the cross mainly because it was not adhered to properly anyway.
That is to say it was taken too lightly by re-committing these sins, and in the
finish people would add and subtract from Gods laws until they were more or less
useless to God. Hypocrisy flourished. That's why Jesus said to the Pharisees
they could not even keep the heavy burdens (laws) they put on the shoulders of
others. So you see, it is the PAYMENT of sin that has changed...not the LAW of
sin. This very law has been put on the hearts of all true believers in Christ as
promised by Him. All true believers know that it is against Gods law to kill,
all true believers know we are to Love God with all our minds heats and souls,
all true believers know we are to love our brother as ourselves, and all true
believers know we are to keep His Sabbath. All these laws, and many others are
on the hearts of the TRUE believer.
No more sacrificing animals for sin, no more keeping the heavy burdens that the
Pharisees (man) added to the law of God, and no more relying on man to educate
us about God's will. All these things have been nailed to the cross when Jesus
rose from death and said; "...and lo, I will be with you always". What an
absolute perfect plan this is. Because of the great mercy and grace of our
creator God, there is hope for ALL mankind who trust in Him enough to obey Him.
He doesn't ask much from us you know, and His burden on us is light. All He
ask's is that we believe in Him as our Savior and King, AND to keep His
commandments. And the Fathers commandments and the commandments of Jesus are
exactly the same because they are both ONE. The Son came to fulfill the Moral
Law that was made by the Father for two reasons. Firstly to show the way to
Israel in terms of HOW to keep the Law, and secondly to prove that He was indeed
the Son of God because ONLY the true son of God could perfectly keep His law.
This proof was unfortunately ignored by the Jews and they continued in their sin
unheeded.
According to the bible, Jesus was
around before the creation of the world, and if the son and the Father are one,
then there can be NO disagreement between them concerning the law. If there was,
then the kingdom of God would crumble and fall, because Jesus said; "...and if a
kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand".
Conclusion:
Many are so sure that Jesus came to do away with all the laws of God the Father
all because of a few verses from Paul's writings that appear to tell them this is so. Even
Peter said Paul's writing was a little hard to discern, so I cant blame people
from believing what they believe when reading it, but as shown above, the law of
God is written on the hearts of true believers by the Holy Spirit, and this very
Spirit gives the testimony of the truth to the faithful. When ever I have any confusion
whatsoever in discerning the truth of the word, I always revert to what Jesus
says. After all, His words will never die he said. So if what Paul or any
character in the bible says that might SEEM to contradict what Jesus said, then
please look for a new meaning of their writings. The words of Jesus will
not be contradicted. Jesus said most explicitly that
he did not come to change the law in any way whatsoever, but many prefer to take
the wide gate to an easy life that will justify their choice by denying God's
perfect laws and commandments. This to me is a sure sign of lacking faith in the
God who wrote these laws in stone. So important were these laws that He called
them commandments. When a man commands us to not keep the Sabbath for
instance...we will jump at the chance, but when God commands us to keep it we
say..."oh no, I am dead to the law (meaning the law has no binding on us). And
that is exactly what 99% of Christians do by following the lead of the Roman
Catholic church and calling the FIRST day their Sabbath instead of the seventh.
They continue to ride the back of the beast as an unfaithful harlot in following
the traditions of man in preference to the laws of their Husband. You see what Paul simply meant by that statement was because of Christ in us, we
CANNOT sin, so the law of God has no penalty with us. Just as I am dead to the
civil laws...because I refuse to break them. In the same way, I am dead to the
law of God because the Holy Spirit within has put them on my heart and keeps me
from breaking them. It's not MY OWN doing...it's Christ within who does it ALL!
Now if one is continuing to sin willfully, then I am sorry to tell that person
that Jesus Christ is NOT within them. So in conclusion I must say that Jesus came to pay the legal price for sins of
the people who are prepared to be born again in Him (meaning in His ways), repent and keep His
commandments, and to verbally give notice of the Comforter which was to come and
put God's will on our hearts. That is to say 'live as Jesus lived'.
God knows the weakness of man and has compensated for that by the outpouring of
His mercy and grace. He knows only too well that we will fail from time to time
in our sincere quest to be perfect and be pleasing to Him, so when this happens,
God in his mercy outpours grace upon those who are sincere, to encourage us to
endure to the end and become permanent eternal partakers in the kingdom of God.
The gate of salvation is "narrow", so why is it that most look to the "wide"
gate? It is so easy to profess belief in the Christ, but hard to put that belief
into practice. Even Jesus said;...This people honoureth me with their lips, but
their heart is far from me. The truth is not easy to find, and that is why Jesus
told us to SEEK it. When God can see the sincerity in ones heart, then and ONLY
then will He begin to reveal this truth of salvation in it's fullness. Jesus
came to pay for ALL sins PAST, and then point us in the RIGHT direction of
salvation. The direction of the NARROW gate. Remember this; the mistery
Grace and peace to those seeking truth. Amen!
