Galatians 3:26-28 gives us
insight
into the phrase “in Christ” and
what it means.
"In Christ Jesus
you are all children of God through faith,
for all of you who were baptized
into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Paul is speaking to the Christians in Galatia, reminding them of their
new identity since they placed
their faith in Jesus Christ.
To be "baptized into Christ" means that they were identified with Christ, having left their old sinful lives and fully embracing the new life in Christ (Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). When we respond to the Holy Spirit’s drawing, He "baptizes" us into the family of God. First Corinthians 12:13 says, "For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink."
Several places in Scripture refer to the believer’s being "in Christ" (1 Peter 5:14; Philippians 1:1; Romans 8:1). Colossians 3:3 says, "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." God is perfect justice. He cannot simply overlook or excuse our sin; that would not be just. Sin had to be paid for. All the wrath God holds toward evil was poured out on His own Son. When Jesus took our place on the cross, He suffered the punishment our sin deserves. His last words before He died were, "It is finished" (John 19:30). What was finished? Not merely His earthly life. As He proved three days later, that was not finished (Matthew 28:7; Mark 16:6; 1 Corinthians 15:6). What He finished on the cross was God’s plan to redeem His fallen world. When Jesus said, "It is finished," He was stating that He had successfully paid in full for every act of rebellion, past, present, and future.
To be "in Christ" means we have accepted His sacrifice as payment for our own sin. Our rap sheets contain every sinful thought, attitude or action we have ever committed. No amount of self-cleansing can make us pure enough to warrant forgiveness and a relationship with a holy God (Romans 3:10-12). The Bible says that in our natural sinful state we are enemies of God (Romans 5:10). When we accept His sacrifice on our behalf, He switches accounts with us. He exchanges our list of sins for His perfect account that is totally pleasing to God (2 Corinthians 5:21). A Divine Exchange takes place at the foot of the cross: our old sin nature for His perfect one (2 Corinthians 5:17).
To enter the presence of a holy God, we must be hidden in the righteousness of Christ. To be "in Christ" means that God no longer sees our imperfections; He sees the righteousness of His own Son (Ephesians 2:13; Hebrews 8:12). Only "in Christ" is our sin debt cancelled, our relationship with God restored, and our eternity secured (John 3:16-18, 20:31).
Paul was a highly educated, brilliantly qualified teacher of the law, yet he did not depend on his own competence in his ministry as an apostle of Jesus Christ: “And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant” (2 Corinthians 3:4–6, NKJV). Genuine ministers of Christ can have rock-solid confidence, but only as they depend wholly on the Lord and His grace.
In 2 Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul confronts the ideas and practices of legalistic false teachers who brag about their “letters of commendation” (2 Corinthians 3:1). These powerful, self-reliant men were challenging Paul’s authority and apostleship. They thought Paul lacked the necessary credentials and resources to be a competent minister. Paul asserts that we (he and all genuine Christian ministers) don’t need to depend on human-supplied credentials because our sufficiency comes from God. In 2 Corinthians 3:5, the Greek noun translated “sufficiency” means “the quality of being able to meet a need satisfactorily, or being fit enough, capable, competent, or adequate for the job.”
In a similar warning to the Philippians about false teachers, Paul explains that, perhaps more than anyone, he has good reason to trust in his own competency: “Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault” (Philippians 3:4–6, NLT).
Humanly speaking, Paul was overqualified for the job. Nevertheless, he puts “no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3). He does not rely on his rich heritage, religious zeal, theological training, or natural ability. Everything that defined and qualified Paul as an apostle was credited to God and His grace: “For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church. But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace” (1 Corinthians 15:9–10, NLT). Paul claims no credit and takes no glory for himself but gives it all to God and the power of His marvelous grace.
“Our sufficiency is of God” is not a declaration of false humility. Instead, it is a pronouncement of confidence in God’s competence, acknowledging that there is only one source to draw from as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ—the unlimited supply of grace poured into us through the power of God’s Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts, the apostles recognized that their “great power” to “testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” came from “God’s grace,” which was “powerfully at work in them all” (Acts 4:33). God’s grace is the only letter of recommendation we need (Acts 14:26; Romans 15:15–16). Paul admits that in all his dealings he “depended on God’s grace” and not on his own “human wisdom” (2 Corinthians 1:12, NLT; see also 1 Corinthians 2:1–5).
Our sufficiency is of God means that none of us are fit, capable, or satisfactorily qualified by our human efforts or aptitudes to minister to the hearts of lost people. Only God can enable us or make “us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant” (2 Corinthians 3:6, ESV). Our success in ministry comes from God alone, as Paul eloquently illustrates throughout his letter: “We ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. . . . Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. . . . We live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you. . . . All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory” (2 Corinthians 4:7–15, NLT; see also 2 Corinthians 5:18). Our sufficiency is of God, and His grace is all we need (2 Corinthians 12:7–10).
The Dead Sea is a large body of salt water on the southern end of the Jordan River. Cited sixteen times in the Bible, the Dead Sea is mentioned primarily to describe the borders of the Promised Land.
The Dead Sea is known by a few different names in the Bible, including the Salt Sea (Genesis 14:3; Numbers 34:3, 12; Deuteronomy 3:17; Joshua 3:16; 12:3), the Sea of the Arabah (Deuteronomy 3:17; 4:49; Joshua 3:16; 2 Kings 14:25), and the Eastern Sea (Ezekiel 47:18; Zechariah 14:8). It was called the Salt Sea for its unusually high salinity. The name Sea of the Arabah was given for its location in the Arabah Valley. In Hebrew, arabah means “a wasteland” or “barren district.” And the name Eastern Sea originated from the Dead Sea’s position on the eastern boundary of the land of Israel.
Only in Genesis 14:3 is the Dead Sea referred to as a location. In all other instances, it is used to designate a border for the land of Israel. Thus, the Dead Sea was likely considered more of a territorial boundary line than a destination for the people of the Bible. Nevertheless, several noteworthy biblical settlements were positioned on the shores of the Dead Sea, including Masada, En Gedi, and Qumran.
The Dead Sea is located 16 miles directly east of Jerusalem. A long and narrow oblong, the sea, in Bible times, measured a little over 50 miles from north to south and about 11 miles wide at its broadest point. The Dead Sea lies within the great trough of the Jordan Valley, also known as the Rift Valley, which forms part of the longest and deepest crack in the earth’s crust. At approximately 1,300 feet (400 meters) below sea level, the Dead Sea sits at the lowest point of the earth’s surface.
Fed mainly by the Jordan River and a few smaller streams and rivers, the Dead Sea receives an average of six or seven million tons of daily inflow with no outlet for the water except through evaporation. The extreme heat and dry conditions of the region produce an exceptionally high rate of evaporation. Even with no outflow of water, the Dead Sea’s surface rises no more than 10 to 15 feet a day.
The waters that feed the Dead Sea contain an unusually high salt content (approximately 26 percent), making it the world’s most saline body of water, with almost five times the level of salt concentration of the ocean (on average 3.5 percent). With such high salinity, no marine life can live in the Dead Sea.
Even with its inability to sustain life, the Dead Sea provided a valuable commodity for trading in ancient times—salt. The sea was also known for producing bitumen, a natural petroleum product similar to asphalt, prized for its waterproofing properties. Historians have suggested that Cleopatra’s ambition to rule the Dead Sea region was motivated by her desire to control the bitumen trade.
Biblical archaeologists believe the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18—19 took place in the vicinity of the Dead Sea. Some believe that Sodom and Gomorrah lie underneath the Dead Sea. Exactly how God destroyed these cities is still debated. Some theorize God used a volcanic eruption or a spontaneous explosion of subsurface pockets of bituminous soil. Curiously, at the southeast corner of the Dead Sea is a salt rock plug known today as Mount Sodom. On its slopes, which are formed by a combination of gypsum, salt, limestone, and chalk, can be seen strange formations of salt, like pillars. These pillars are often pointed out to tourists by the nickname “Lot’s wife” (see Genesis 19:26).
When David fled from King Saul, he found a place of refuge on the western shore of the Dead Sea in the town of En Gedi. In contrast to the lifeless nature of the Dead Sea, En Gedi is an oasis full of fresh flowing springs, fine dates, aromatic and medicinal plants, and semitropical vegetation.
The prophet Ezekiel foresaw a time when the Dead Sea’s toxic waters would be transformed into a fresh River of Life flowing from the throne of God: “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. . . . Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing” (Ezekiel 47:8–12).
In recent times the Dead Sea has been shrinking because its waters are evaporating faster than the inflow from the Jordan and other streams can replenish. In the last 40 years or so, the sea has lost about 30 percent of its area and has divided into two basins. The shallow southern basin is used primarily for the mining of Dead Sea minerals.
This statement, “all have sinned,” is found in Romans 3:23 (“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”) and in the last clause of Romans 5:12 (“…because all sinned”). Basically, it means that we’re all lawbreakers, because sin is the violation of God’s law (1 John 3:4). Sinfulness is the general characteristic of all mankind; we are all guilty before God. We are sinners by nature and by our own acts of transgression.
In Romans 5:12 the point of “all sinned” seems to be that all humanity “participated” in Adam’s sin and were condemned to death even before they themselves deliberately chose to sin; in fact, that is exactly what Paul confirms in Romans 5:14. Within this passage (5:12-21), Paul explains how and why the “death sentence” for Adam’s sin has come upon the entire human race.
Augustine explained Adam’s transmission of his sin to us with a theory known as “federal headship,” a view held by most evangelical scholars. Augustine taught the concept of “inherited guilt,” that we all sinned “in Adam”: when Adam “voted” for sin, he acted as our representative. His sin was thus imputed or credited to the entire human race—we were all declared “guilty” for Adam’s one sin.
Another view is that the statement “all have sinned” refers only to personal sin arising from our sin nature. After clarifying in Romans 5:13-17 how personal sin is imputed and then spreads, Paul explains why “all die,” even if they have not committed personal sin. The reason all receive this “death sentence” (5:18a) is that, through Adam’s disobedience, all were “made sinful” (5:19a). The verb made means “constituted”; thus, the sin nature is an inherited condition that incurs a death sentence, even in those who are not yet guilty of personal sin (5:13-14). This inherited condition inevitably spawns personal sin when conscience matures and holds a person accountable as soon as he chooses to knowingly transgress the law (2:14-15; 3:20; 5:20a).
We are all sinners because Adam passed on his sinful condition that leads inevitably to our personal sin and death. All share Adam’s death sentence as an inherited condition (the “sin nature”) that is passed down to and through the human race and that every child brings into the world. Even before a child can be held accountable for personal sin, he or she is naturally prone to disobey, to tell lies, etc. Every child is born with a sin nature.
“The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God” (Psalm 14:2). And what does the all-seeing God find? “All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (verse 3). In other words, all have sinned.
The biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah is recorded in Genesis. Genesis 18records the Lord and two angels coming to speak with Abraham. The Lord informed Abraham that “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous” (Genesis 18:20). Verses 22–33 record Abraham pleading with the Lord to have mercy on Sodom and Gomorrah because of the righteous people who might be there. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, and his family lived in Sodom.
Genesis 19 records the two angels, disguised as human men, visiting Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot met the angels in the city square and urged them to stay at his house. The angels agreed. The Bible then reveals the sin lurking in the Sodomites’ hearts: “Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them’” (Genesis 19:4–5). The angels proceeded to blind the men surrounding the house and urge Lot and his family to flee the city. The wrath of God was about to fall. Lot and his family fled the city, and then “the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lordout of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities” (Genesis 19:24).
What was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? According to Genesis 19, the sin involved homosexuality. The very name of that ancient city has given us the term sodomy, in the sense of “copulation between two men, whether consensual or forced.” Clearly, homosexuality was part of why God destroyed the two cities. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah wanted to perform homosexual acts on what they thought were two men.
This is not to say that homosexuality was the only reason why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Ezekiel 16:49–50 gives some more insight: “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me.” So, the sins of Sodom included pride, apathy, complacency, idleness, and unconcern for the underprivileged.
Ezekiel 16:50 adds that a sin of Sodom was that they did “detestable things.” The Hebrew word translated “detestable” refers to something that is morally disgusting. It is the same word used in Leviticus 18:22, where homosexuality is an “abomination.” Jude 1:7 also weighs in: “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.” So, again, while homosexuality was not the only sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, it does appear to be the primary reason for the destruction of those cities.
Those who attempt to explain away the biblical condemnations of homosexuality claim that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was inhospitality. That’s one of the sins—the men of Sodom and Gomorrah were certainly being inhospitable. There is probably nothing more inhospitable than homosexual gang rape. But to say God destroyed two cities and all their inhabitants simply for being inhospitable ignores some obvious details of the story.
Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of many other sins, but homosexuality was the principal reason God poured fiery sulfur on the cities, completely destroying them and all of their inhabitants. To this day, the area where Sodom and Gomorrah were located remains a desolate wasteland. Sodom and Gomorrah serve as a powerful example of how God feels about sin in general and homosexuality specifically.
Salvation by grace through faith is at the heart of the Christian religion. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). The statement has three parts— salvation, grace, and faith—and they are equally important. The three together constitute a basic tenet of Christianity.
The word salvation is defined as “the act of being delivered, redeemed, or rescued.” The Bible tells us that, since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, each person is born in sin inherited from Adam: “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Sin is what causes all of us to die. Sin separates us from God, and sin destines each person to eternal separation from Him in hell. What each of us needs is to be delivered from that fate. In other words, we need salvation from sin and its penalty.
How are we saved from sin? Most religions throughout history have taught that salvation is achieved by good works. Others teach that acts of contrition (saying we are sorry) along with living a moral life is the way to atone for our sin. Sorrow over sin is certainly valuable and necessary, but that alone will not save us from sin. We may repent of our sins, also valuable and necessary, and determine to never sin again, but salvation is not the result of good intentions. The road to hell, as the saying goes, is paved with good intentions. We may fill our lives with good works, but even one sin makes us a sinner in practice, and we are already sinners by nature. No matter how well-intentioned or “good” we may be, the fact is that we simply do not have the power or the goodness to overcome the sin nature we have inherited from Adam. We need something more powerful, and this is where grace comes in.
The grace of God is His undeserved favor bestowed on those He has called to salvation through His love (Ephesians 2:4–5). It is His grace that saves us from sin. We are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). Being justified, we are vindicated and determined to be sinless in the eyes of God. Our sin no longer separates us from Him and no longer sentences us to hell. Grace is not earned by any effort on our part; otherwise, it could not be called grace. Grace is free. If our good works earned salvation, then God would be obligated to pay us our due. But no one can earn heaven, and God’s blessings are not His obligation; they flow from His goodness and love. No matter how diligently we pursue works to earn God’s favor, we will fail. Our sin trips us up every time. “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Romans 3:20, NKJV).
The means God has chosen to bestow His grace upon us is through faith. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Salvation is obtained by faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, in what He has done—specifically, His death on the cross and His resurrection. But even faith is not something we generate on our own. Faith, as well as grace, is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). He bestows saving faith and saving grace upon us in order to redeem us from sin and deliver us from its consequences. So God saves us by His grace through the faith He gives us. Both grace and faith are gifts. “Salvation belongs to the LORD” (Psalm 3:8, ESV).
By grace, we receive the faith that enables us to believe that He has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross and provide the salvation we cannot achieve on our own. Jesus, as God in flesh, is the “author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Just like the author of a book creates it from scratch, Jesus Christ wrote the story of our redemption from beginning to end. “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Ephesians 1:4–6). The Lord died for our sins and rose for our justification, and He forgives, freely and fully, those who accept His gift of grace in Christ—and that acceptance comes through faith. This is the meaning of salvation by grace through faith.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews writes to Jewish believers, in particular, to challenge them to regard highly Jesus the Christ and to continually focus on Him in faith. Throughout the letter, the writer offers warnings to help them understand the seriousness of the failure to focus on Christ (Hebrews 2:1–3a; 3:12–14; 4:1–11; 6:1–8; 10:19–31; 12:14–17; 12:25–29; and 13:4–6). In Hebrews 10:31—at the conclusion of one of those warnings—the writer reminds believers that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).
In Hebrews 10:19–25 the author provides important content that believers should be attentive to. Because those who have believed in Jesus have been cleansed by Him, they can confidently approach Him and hold fast to the hope He provides (Hebrews 10:19–23). Because of the finality of His work and the certainty we can have in Him, we should be encouraging each other to love and good deeds and making effort to be together as believers (Hebrews 10:24–25). It might seem strange that, in a section focused on building the confidence of the believer as to his eternal destiny and the certainty of his redemption in Christ, the writer would remark that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).
The writer explains that, if we continue to sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer a sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10:26)—in other words, there is no additional sacrifice that can be made. Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all and sufficient (Hebrews 10:19–23). The believer should have confidence in that. But if there is continual, willful sin, then the believer’s confidence can be shaken. It is appointed that after death there is a judgment (Hebrews 9:27), and willful sin makes looking forward to that judgment fearful rather than joyful. Consider, for example, the description of this judgment in 1 Corinthians 3:10–15. There is a testing of the believer’s works by fire, and if the works are burned up, even the believer suffers loss—although he does not lose salvation (1 Corinthians 3:15). So the willfully sinning believer looks forward to that judgment with fear rather than with the confidence that he should have (Hebrews 10:27).
The writer illustrates the seriousness of such a sinful walk by reminding readers of the consequences of this kind of sin under the Mosaic Law—death (Hebrews 10:28). If the person under the Mosaic Law was judged so severely, how much more penalty would a person deserve who has trampled the blood of Christ and insulted the Spirit of Grace (Hebrews 10:29)? Yet, it is important to note that the writer does not say the believer will die or lose salvation; he simply questions what the believer would deserve. God is the judge, and vengeance belongs to Him (Hebrews 10:31). Indeed, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).
Because of God’s character, He won’t ignore sin—and there is judgment even for believers, even though that judgment is not about salvation, but about rewards (or lack thereof). The writer of Hebrews challenges believers not to throw away their confidence, because there is great reward (Hebrews 10:35).
A clear conscience before God allows one to look forward to the day of judgment with confidence, whereas a believer with willful sin gives up that confidence—even though his position is secure, that future judgment day approaches, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31). Because we cannot shrink back to destruction after being declared righteous by God (Hebrews 10:39), we ought not to continue in sin because God will deal with it, and that inspires fear and not the confidence that we are designed to have as believers.
The title of this parashah, “And He appeared,”
is taken from the first Hebrew word of Genesis 18:1, “And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.”
The life of Abraham, as recorded in Scripture, began with Lech-Lecha! – God’s call to “Go forth!” from Ur of the Chaldees as recorded in Genesis 12:1-3. God promised to give Abraham the land of Canaan, to make him a great nation, to bless him and to make him the channel of divine blessing “to all the families of the earth.”
Our Torah portion records the climactic events in the life of Abraham in which the divine promises begin to be fulfilled. Genesis 18 begins with the renewed promise of Isaac’s birth, when God appeared to Abraham, accompanied by two angels. But then God shifts the conversation to the main intent of his visit: to warn Abraham of the coming judgment of Sodom, where Abraham’s nephew, Lot, had settled. God’s reason for revealing his purposes to Abraham is given in Genesis 18:17-19:
The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”
God’s deliberations reaffirm the certainty that the covenant promises to Abraham will ultimately be fulfilled. He says, “Abraham shall surely become a great . . . nation, and all the nations . . . shall be blessed in him” (emphasis added). In token fulfillment of God’s calling, Abraham intercedes on behalf of the entire city of Sodom, negotiating a “stay of execution” if only ten righteous people can be found there. Abraham was concerned to bless not only his own relatives but also “all the nations of the earth” (Gen 18:18).
Secondly, God reveals the conditions under which this certain, ultimate fulfillment of the promises will be realized in history – when Abraham’s descendants “keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him” (emphasis added). While God’s promised blessing is certain and irrevocable (Rom 11:29), it will only be experienced in full when Israel is truly and totally devoted to God.
Abraham himself underwent years of tests – and many failures – on his way to becoming a man of total devotion and unshakeable faith.
God’s refining work in Abraham’s life was tested and proved in the final chapter of our portion, which opens with a second divine call to “Go forth!” – this time to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. Abraham rose early to fulfill the divine command; and as he raised the knife to slaughter the child of promise, the Angel of the Lord stopped his hand. He told Abraham:
“By myself I have sworn,” declares the LORD, “because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Gen 22:16-18, emphasis added)
May the God of Abraham, who faithfully works in the lives of all those whom He has called, bring each of us to that point of true and total devotion which inherits the blessing!
is taken from the first Hebrew word of Genesis 18:1, “And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.”
The life of Abraham, as recorded in Scripture, began with Lech-Lecha! – God’s call to “Go forth!” from Ur of the Chaldees as recorded in Genesis 12:1-3. God promised to give Abraham the land of Canaan, to make him a great nation, to bless him and to make him the channel of divine blessing “to all the families of the earth.”
Our Torah portion records the climactic events in the life of Abraham in which the divine promises begin to be fulfilled. Genesis 18 begins with the renewed promise of Isaac’s birth, when God appeared to Abraham, accompanied by two angels. But then God shifts the conversation to the main intent of his visit: to warn Abraham of the coming judgment of Sodom, where Abraham’s nephew, Lot, had settled. God’s reason for revealing his purposes to Abraham is given in Genesis 18:17-19:
The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”
God’s deliberations reaffirm the certainty that the covenant promises to Abraham will ultimately be fulfilled. He says, “Abraham shall surely become a great . . . nation, and all the nations . . . shall be blessed in him” (emphasis added). In token fulfillment of God’s calling, Abraham intercedes on behalf of the entire city of Sodom, negotiating a “stay of execution” if only ten righteous people can be found there. Abraham was concerned to bless not only his own relatives but also “all the nations of the earth” (Gen 18:18).
Secondly, God reveals the conditions under which this certain, ultimate fulfillment of the promises will be realized in history – when Abraham’s descendants “keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him” (emphasis added). While God’s promised blessing is certain and irrevocable (Rom 11:29), it will only be experienced in full when Israel is truly and totally devoted to God.
Abraham himself underwent years of tests – and many failures – on his way to becoming a man of total devotion and unshakeable faith.
God’s refining work in Abraham’s life was tested and proved in the final chapter of our portion, which opens with a second divine call to “Go forth!” – this time to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. Abraham rose early to fulfill the divine command; and as he raised the knife to slaughter the child of promise, the Angel of the Lord stopped his hand. He told Abraham:
“By myself I have sworn,” declares the LORD, “because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Gen 22:16-18, emphasis added)
May the God of Abraham, who faithfully works in the lives of all those whom He has called, bring each of us to that point of true and total devotion which inherits the blessing!
Revelation 12:10 calls Satan the “accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night.” The context of the verse describes a cosmic battlebetween a great red dragon (identified as Satan in Revelation 12:7) and the angelic hosts of heaven. The dragon is hurled to the earth (Revelation 12:9), the authority of the Messiah is locked in place (verse 10), and the believers are victorious:
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death” (Revelation 12:11, NKJV).
During the tribulation of the end times, Satan’s wrath against God’s’ people, especially Israel (the “woman” of Revelation 12) will intensify. But the believers are promised to overcome. Dr. Charles Ryrie comments on Revelation 12:11: “The believer’s defense against Satan is (1) to bank on the merits of the death of Christ, (2) to be active in witnessing, and (3) to be willing to make any sacrifice, including death” (The Ryrie Study Bible, Moody Press, 1978, p. 1,801).
Down through the centuries, the “great dragon” Satan has despised the mercy, love, grace, and forgiveness that God pours out on believers in Jesus Christ. With relentless, evil determination, the devil hounds us, fixated on destroying our walk with God and chasing us back into a spiritual prison. But, day by day, night by night, believers always overcome him “by the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11).
Satan’s tireless goal in the life of every Christian is to prevent, disrupt, and cut off his or her relationship with God. He “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). But the devil’s only real power over believers is to throw our sins and transgressions in our faces. He is the accuser. Thankfully, the sacrifice of Christ has effectively dealt with the problem. It is the blood of Jesus Christ—the blood of the Lamb—that redeems people, setting them free from slavery to sin and Satan’s control.
Scripture gives us vivid pictures of Christ’s redemptive work on the cross. Peter explains that “God paid a ransom” to save us from our old empty way of life. “And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God” (1 Peter 1:18–19, NLT). The tribulation saints will have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). When Jesus Christ died, His precious blood “purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Jesus’ blood was poured out “for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28), and it “purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
Satan tries to condemn us, but we overcome by the blood of the Lamb. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1–2). Jesus freed us from the spiritual chains of sin (John 8:35–36; Romans 6:17–22).
The next time Satan tries to hurl past failures in your face, remember that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned” (John 3:17–18).
All believers—past, present and future—overcome the accuser by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus Christ’s death is the definitive basis for our victory over the enemy of our souls. The apostle Paul asks, “Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us” (Romans 8:33–34, NLT). Despite everything in the devil’s arsenal that he can throw at us, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
Paul tells the Colossians, “For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. So don’t let anyone condemn you” (Colossians 2:12–16, NLT).
We must not allow the devil to deceive us with lies and accusations. Every charge he can bring against us is canceled, nailed to the cross, and overcome by the blood of the Lamb. It may seem strange that, in Revelation 12, a raging dragon is overcome by a slain lamb. Lambs are not usually seen as dragon-slayers. But such is the power and efficacy of the death of Christ. Because of Christ’s shed blood on the cross, sin has lost its grip on us. Whenever Satan accuses us, we can sing, “My chains are gone; I’ve been set free.”
One of God’s promises concerning the eternal state is that the nations of the world will have healing. The question comes up, though, as to why exactly healing is needed. Isn’t the New Jerusalem a place of perfection already?
The promise of the healing of the nations is found in Revelation 22, after the creation of the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1). John writes, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:1–5).
The healing of the nations is linked to the tree of life, as God reestablishes Eden. It is the leaves of this tree that are said to be “for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2). It is possible that the tree of life in the New Jerusalem is literal and that its leaves and various fruits will somehow enrich our existence in the eternal state. All the nations represented there will be “healed” of their divisions and strife in their equal access to the tree of life.
It is also possible that the tree of life in the New Jerusalem is symbolic and that its “healing” signifies the eternal life that all will enjoy there. The different fruits it bears could represent the unlimited variety of our existence in heaven. The clear flowing river that waters the tree could picture the spiritual life of God’s redeemed—the “living water” Jesus promised in John 4:13–14.
The healing the tree of life’s leaves provide is not the healing of the wounds of battle—warfare will have ended. The healing is not needed for combating sickness—there will be no more sickness, death, or pain (Revelation 21:4). No, the “healing” is a reference to the perpetual blessing of the new heaven and earth; never again will the world be plagued by physical disorders or spiritual malaise or corruption. There will be no more warfare, no strife, no conflicting factions. God will heal all that ails His creation, and there will be no more curse (Revelation 22:3).
In the eternal state, everything will be blessed, and the tree of life represents that blessedness. There will be perfect sinlessness, perfect government, perfect service to God, perfect communion, and perfect glory. It is impossible for us to imagine being totally separated from sin and living in a glorified state before God. But the Lord assures us that “these words are trustworthy and true” (Revelation 22:6).
In Romans 1—8 Paul lays out God’s plan for how people can become righteous. Paul’s explanation culminates in Romans 8:35 with the question, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” In Romans 1:1—3:20 Paul makes the case for the universal need for God’s righteousness as revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. All of humanity is unrighteous and in need of salvation. No matter one’s ethnicity or heritage, all are in sin and have fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), and the wages of that sin is death (Romans 6:23) or separation from God.
Before Paul asks the question of who shall separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35), Paul explains that the universal human problem is that all are already separated from God. He explains elsewhere that we are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). But Paul announces that the good news about Jesus Christ—the gospel—is God’s way to save all those who believe in Jesus (Romans 1:17). Paul explains how all have become unrighteous through Adam (Romans 5:12–21), and he provides hope in Romans 3:21—4:25, recounting how God made a way for all to be righteous in His sight by believing in Jesus. By faith and not by works God provides justification (or the declaration of righteousness) for all who believe in Him (Romans 3:28). God’s grace has always been applied to human need by faith in Him, and Paul illustrates this by referring to Abraham, who was also justified by faith in the Lord (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4).
Paul explains further in Romans 5—8 that this provision of grace through faith has tremendous implications for those who believe in Jesus, and that God’s grace is an expression of God’s love. God demonstrated His love for us even while we were in sin—Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Now that we have believed in Christ, we are connected to His love in a way we never were before.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? In Romans 5 Paul discusses how we came to be separated from God in the first place—because of Adam’s sin, all who are descended from Adam are under the curse of sin. Adam was created in the image of God, but when Adam sinned, something was added to his nature. When Adam had children, they were now in Adam’s likeness, not just God’s (Genesis 5:3). Even though humanity would still have the image of God (Genesis 9:6), people would also have a sinful nature and be separated from God. Through Adam sin entered the world and made us all sinners (Romans 5:12), but through Christ we have the gift of righteousness (Romans 5:17).
If God loves us this much, and we receive His expression of love in grace through faith, then who shall separate us from the love of Christ? This is exactly the question that Paul asks and answers at the end of Romans 8. In Romans 6 Paul shows that we are no longer in bondage to sin—we have new natures, and we are dead to sin but alive in Christ (Romans 6:11). Because we have new life, we should behave like we have new life (Romans 6:12). Despite the new expectation, Paul understands that we still also have the old nature—the flesh (Romans 7:18). There is an ongoing conflict in the believer between the new nature, which is pursuing the good, and the old nature, which is pursuing sin (Romans 7:19–25).
Ultimately, Christ sets us free from the old nature (Romans 7:24–25), yet we can still set our minds on this old way of life and fail in our walk. Paul urges believers not to live this way—we have been set free and should not again allow ourselves to be in bondage. But because we do sometimes, we may lose our confidence that God has delivered us. Because of this tendency to doubt, Paul affirms that we can know we are in Christ because His Spirit is in us (Romans 8:9–11). This assurance of our salvation is not from our works but from the Holy Spirit testifying that we are His (Romans 8:16). God’s purpose in our lives is guaranteed (Romans 8:28–31). What God has promised, He will fulfill.
It is in this context that Paul asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”—the answer is that nothing at all can separate us from His love. After an extensive list of things that cannot separate us from His love (Romans 8:35–39), Paul adds that “no other created thing” can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:39). It is important to realize that we are created things and that even we cannot separate ourselves from the love of Christ. We didn’t deserve to receive the love of Christ in the first place, and we don’t deserve to keep it. He gave us His love by grace through faith, and nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
The benefits of redemption include eternal life (Revelation 5:9-10), forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7), righteousness (Romans 5:17), freedom from the law’s curse (Galatians 3:13), adoption into God’s family (Galatians 4:5), deliverance from sin’s bondage (Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:14-18), peace with God (Colossians 1:18-20), and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). To be redeemed, then, is to be forgiven, holy, justified, free, adopted, and reconciled. See also Psalm 130:7-8; Luke 2:38; and Acts 20:28.
The word redeem means “to buy out.” The term was used specifically in reference to the purchase of a slave’s freedom. The application of this term to Christ’s death on the cross is quite telling. If we are “redeemed,” then our prior condition was one of slavery. God has purchased our freedom, and we are no longer in bondage to sin or to the Old Testament law. This metaphorical use of “redemption” is the teaching of Galatians 3:13 and 4:5.
Related to the Christian concept of redemption is the word ransom. Jesus paid the price for our release from sin and its punishment (Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6). His death was in exchange for our life. In fact, Scripture is quite clear that redemption is only possible “through His blood,” that is, by His death (Colossians 1:14).
The streets of heaven will be filled with former captives who, through no merit of their own, find themselves redeemed, forgiven, and free. Slaves to sin have become saints. No wonder we will sing a new song—a song of praise to the Redeemer who was slain (Revelation 5:9). We were slaves to sin, condemned to eternal separation from God. Jesus paid the price to redeem us, resulting in our freedom from slavery to sin and our rescue from the eternal consequences of that sin.
In Matthew 6:24, Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” He spoke these words as part of His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5—7), in which He had said it was foolish to store up treasures on earth where “moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19–20); rather, He urged us to store up treasure in heaven where it will last forever. The obstacle that prevents us from wise investment is the heart. Wherever our treasure is, there will our hearts be (Matthew 6:21). We follow what has captivated our hearts, and Jesus made it clear that we cannot serve two masters.
Jesus’ call to follow Him is a call to abandon all other masters. He called Matthew from the tax collector’s booth (Matthew 9:9). Matthew obeyed and walked away from extravagant wealth and dirty deals. Jesus called Peter, James, and John from the fishing docks (Mark 1:16–18). To obey Jesus’ call meant that they had to leave behind everything they knew, everything they’d worked for. Jesus called Paul, a successful Pharisee, with the words, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:16). Those words will never make it into a mass-market ad campaign for Christianity—but maybe they should, because that’s what it means to follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). We must forsake everything else, no matter the cost (Matthew 10:34–39).
The Lord describes Himself as a “jealous God” (Exodus 34:14). This means He guards what is rightfully His. He is righteously jealous for our affections because we were created to know and love Him (Colossians 1:16). He is not jealous for His own sake; He needs nothing (Psalm 50:9–10). He is jealous for us because we need Him (Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37). When we serve another master such as money, we rob ourselves of all we were created to be, and we rob God of His rightful adoration.
Jesus’ claim to us is exclusive. He bought us with His own blood and delivered us from our former master, sin (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23; Romans 6:17). He doesn’t share His throne with anyone. During Jesus’ time on earth, some people followed Him for a ways, but their devotion was superficial (Luke 9:57–62). They wanted something Jesus offered, but they weren’t committed (Mark 10:17–22). Other things were more important. They wanted to serve two masters.
We cannot serve two masters because, as Jesus pointed out, we end up hating one and loving the other. It’s only natural. Opposing masters demand different things and lead down different paths. The Lord is headed in one direction, and our flesh and the world are headed in the other. A choice must be made. When we follow Christ, we must die to everything else. We will be like some of the seeds in Jesus’ parable (Luke 8:5–15)—only a portion of those seeds actually bore fruit. Some sprouted at first but then withered and died. They were not deeply rooted in good soil.
If we attempt to serve two masters, we will have divided loyalties, and, when the difficulties of discipleship clash with the lure of fleshly pleasure, the magnetic pull of wealth and worldly success will draw us away from Christ (see 2 Timothy 4:10). The call to godliness goes against our sinful nature. Only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we remain devoted to one Master (John 6:44).
In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul makes it clear that the day of the Lord, a time of worldwide judgment (Isaiah 13:6; Obadiah 1:15), will not transpire until two things happen. First, the falling away, or great apostasy, must occur. Second, the “man of lawlessness” must be revealed, he who is called the “son of perdition,” also known as the Antichrist. Once this person makes himself known, the end times will indeed have come.
The man of lawlessness, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:4, is the one who “will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” Clearly, this has not yet happened; no one since Paul’s time has set himself up as God in the Jewish temple. Two thousand years have passed since the epistle was written, and the “day of the Lord” has not yet come. Paul assures us that it will not come until the falling away comes first.
The Greek word translated “rebellion” or “falling away” in verse 3 is apostasia, from which we get the English word apostasy. It refers to a general defection from the true God, the Bible, and the Christian faith. Every age has its defectors, but the falling away at the end times will be complete and worldwide. The whole planet will be in rebellion against God and His Christ. Every coup requires a leader, and into this global apostasy will step the Antichrist. We believe this takes place after the church has been raptured from the earth.
Jesus warned the disciples concerning the final days in Matthew 24:10–12: “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” These are the characteristics of the great apostasy of the end times.
The title “son of perdition” is used twice in the New Testament, first in John 17:12 and again in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. The phrase simply means “man doomed to destruction” and is not reserved for any one individual. In fact, there are two people to which the title “son of perdition” is applied. In context, John 17:12 is referring to Judas Iscariot, while 2 Thessalonians 2:3 is referring to the “man of lawlessness”—the Antichrist—who will appear in the end times before Christ’s return.
The word perdition means “eternal damnation” or “utter destruction.” It can also be used as a synonym for hell. When a person is called “son of perdition,” the connotation is that of a person in an unredeemable state, someone who is already damned while he is still alive. Jesus mentions the “son of perdition” in His high priestly prayer in John 17. While praying to the Father for His disciples, Jesus mentions that He “protected them and kept them safe” and that none of them were lost except the “son of perdition,” that is, the one who was already in a damned state. The fact that the phrase is used again to describe the Antichrist shows us that forgiveness was not planned for Judas. God could have saved Judas—moved his heart to repentance—but He chose not to. He was indeed “doomed to destruction.”
A good picture of a person who is a “son of perdition” appears in Hebrews 6:4–8, which describes a person who, like Judas, has experienced a certain closeness to God and has a good understanding of salvation, but then denies it. Instead of bearing good fruit, he bears “thorns and thistles.” This is a person who sees the path to salvation, which is trusting in God’s grace to cover sin (Ephesians 2:8–9), and instead either flatly denies the existence of God or denies God’s gift of salvation, preferring to pay his own debt. Judas chose the second path, punishing himself by suicide instead of accepting grace.
However, Judas and the Antichrist are extreme cases. It is never right for a human being to label another person a “son of perdition” because only God knows the ultimate future of each human soul. Only with these two individuals did God choose to reveal His plan for their eternal damnation. With every other person, no matter how lost or evil he may seem, we are to hope and pray for his redemption (1 Timothy 2:1).
Thousands of years before scientists understood the complex and extraordinary life-sustaining properties of blood, the Bible informed that “the life of every creature is in its blood” (Leviticus 17:14, NLT). In ancient Israel, blood was not only a metaphor or symbol for life; it was equivalent to life itself. In most occurrences where blood was shed in Scripture, it meant that life had ended. To remove the blood is to terminate life.
In Leviticus chapter 17, God gives instructions regarding sacrifices and offerings, particularly on the proper slaughtering of animals. The people of Israel were to bring each animal to the tabernacle entrance for the priest to offer. The blood of the animalwas never to be treated as common food; it belonged to God, who is the giver of life (Genesis 2:7; Job 33:4; Psalm 139:13). Thus, the blood of animals had to be drained and offered to God on the altar.
Blood was God’s ordained means of effecting atonement: “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11). Atonement for sin was achieved by sacrificing an animal’s life in substitution for one’s own life. The shedding of blood was the most critical element—it was the blood of the guiltless substitute offered on the altar that served as payment for the people’s sins (Leviticus 16:15).
Through God’s ordained system of sacrifice in the Old Testament, the Lord laid the groundwork for a message that would not be fully grasped until later: “The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship” (Hebrews 10:1, NLT).
The full meaning of “the life is in the blood” would only be revealed in Jesus Christ: “That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God, ‘You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer’” (Hebrews 10:5, NLT). It has always been God’s will for humans to be made right with God by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time (Hebrews 10:10). In the Old Testament, the priests offered animals’ blood over and over again, but this repeated shedding of blood never permanently removed the curse of sin (Hebrews 10:11).
When Jesus came and offered up His life—pouring out His blood on the cross—the perfect sacrifice had finally been made: “Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins” (Hebrews 9:14, NLT).
All those from times past, present, and future who put their faith in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, are made right with God: “For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus” (Romans 3:25–26, NLT). The apostle John saw a future multitude of believers in heaven who “have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.” They have been purified from sin and “clothed in white” (Revelation 7:13–14).
Because of the Old Testament system, Christ’s followers could comprehend what He was doing when He shed His blood on the cross. And today we can better see what His sacrifice means. Just as physical life is in the blood of animals, eternal life is in the blood of Jesus Christ. Physically, our existence depends on blood to sustain life, and, spiritually, our lives depend on the shed blood of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:10; 1 John 1:7; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:22). Through those ancient sacrifices repeatedly offered in the Old Testament, we are led to appreciate that death—the shedding of blood—has always been the cost of securing eternal life for sinful humans.
Believers are cleansed, forgiven, and made right with God by the blood of the Lamb, God’s guiltless substitute. The life that Christ emptied of its blood now pumps everlasting life into our veins. Oh, how astounding it is that God would shed His own blood to pay the penalty for our sins!
In 1 Corinthians 13:8–13, the apostle Paul compares the Christian virtue of love to other highly prized spiritual gifts and finds them all lacking. Love is uniquely superior (verse 8). As Christians, we share in giving and receiving the grace of God’s love (see 1 John 4:8, 16). This earthly experience of God’s divine love gives us a taste of His perfect grace and glory. Through the love of Christ poured into our hearts (see Ephesians 3:17; Romans 5:5), we participate to a limited degree in the full perfection we will know and enjoy when we stand in God’s presence in eternity: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12, ESV).
Paul explains that spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues, and knowledge are temporary and partial. Eventually, they “will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless” (1 Corinthians 13:8–10, NLT). In our current state of existence, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are valuable to us and to the church, but their worth will run out when we are face to face with the Lord in heaven. These gifts only give us an obscured, unfinished picture of our spiritual reality, and they will ultimately pass away.
Paul uses two illustrations to explain this truth. First, he employs the example of a child maturing into adulthood: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me” (1 Corinthians 13:11). Right now, we are like children playing with plastic toys that will wear out and become unusable. One day we will trade them in for the enduring, grown-up, perfection of eternity. Second, Paul contrasts looking at someone in a dull, dimly lit mirror with meeting that person face to face. In the Greco-Roman world, mirrors were fashioned out of polished metal discs that reflected a blurred, imperfect image, nothing like seeing someone up close, in vivid, eye-to-eye clarity.
Thus, now we see in a mirror dimly is Paul’s figure of speech for “now we have imperfect knowledge and understanding.” The New Living Translation renders the imagery like so: “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely” (1 Corinthians 13:12, NLT). Flawless understanding and unrestricted knowledge of matters pertaining to God and His kingdom will only be achieved when we meet Jesus Christ in person.
The apostle John affirms that our knowledge of Jesus is partial now but will become clear when we see Him face to face: “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2, NLT).
Within the Scriptures, we have the complete revelation of God, but our understanding of it remains limited (see 1 Corinthians 8:1–3). As we grow in the faith, we undergo a process of spiritual maturation as individual believers (2 Peter 3:18) and together as the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11–16). Paul calls this progressive development toward Christian maturity “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14, ESV). It is our heavenward journey of intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Along the way, we must stay laser-focused on Jesus, who is the trailblazing forerunner of our quest (Hebrews 12:1–2). He demonstrates the way through His perfect obedience to the Father (John 4:34; 5:30; Luke 22:42). As the Author and Perfecter of our faith, He not only inspires us, but Christ also empowers us to grow toward our heavenly stature. He starts the good work in us and “will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
In the meantime, until the Lord returns or we reach heaven, we have limited understanding and knowledge—we see in a mirror dimly. But one day our onward and upward growth in ever-increasing degrees of Christian maturity will culminate in heavenly perfection as “we bear the image of the heavenly man” (1 Corinthians 15:49).
The context of 1 Corinthians 14 deals with some problems the Corinthians had regarding speaking in tongues and prophesying during the gathering of believers for worship, prayer, and teaching—what we would today call the “church service.” Things had been getting out of hand in Corinth. When the church met, people were speaking in tongues with no one interpreting, and more than one person was prophesying at the same time. Pandemonium and chaos were the result.
Paul says that this babble—this confusion—is neither proper nor beneficial in the church, and he gives some practical life examples: “Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes? Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying?” (1 Corinthians 14:7–9).
Then Paul makes application: “So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?” (verse 23). Or, as the NLT puts it, “If unbelievers . . . hear everyone speaking in an unknown language, they will think you are crazy.” God is not the author of such confusion.
To keep order, if a person speaks in tongues as part of a church service, there must be an interpreter present to translate for everyone else. If there is no one to interpret, then the one speaking in tongues should refrain from speaking. Even if there is an interpreter, no more than two or three should speak in tongues during the service (verses 27–28). If someone has a prophecy to share, only one can speak at a time and, again, two or three at most during the service, with others (perhaps the leaders) evaluating what is said (verses 29–32). “Everything must be done so that the church may be built up” (verse 26).
Paul sums up his objection to the Corinthians’ chaotic services by saying, “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace” (KJV). This is also translated “God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (NIV) and “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (NASB, ESV). The church services in Corinth were confused, chaotic, and unintelligible, and they were blaming it on the Holy Spirit! In their view, the Spirit was moving in such a way that they had to express themselves in tongues and prophecies, and there were no limits on who said what or when. Paul says that this confusion is counter to the character of God. God’s character is not confused, chaotic, or disorderly. Confusion and chaos do not express who He is and is not characteristic of the work of the Holy Spirit in the church.
In Paul’s final admonition in the chapter is a plea for balance: “So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But all things should be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:39–40).
Many Pentecostal and Charismatic churches today have a high tolerance for chaos and confusion in their services, and they may even see the bedlam as evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work among them.
But God’s Word is clear:
“God is not the author of confusion.”
Incarnation is a term used by theologians to indicate that Jesus, the Son of God, took on human flesh. This is similar to the hypostatic union. The difference is that the hypostatic union explains how Jesus’ two natures are joined, and the Incarnation more specifically affirms His humanity.
The word incarnation means “the act of being made flesh.” It comes from the Latin version of John 1:14, which in English reads, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” Because of the near-exclusive use of the Latin Vulgate in the church through the Middle Ages, the Latin term became standard.
Biblical support for Jesus’ humanity is extensive. The Gospels report Jesus’ human needs including sleep (Luke 8:23), food (Matthew 4:2; 21:18), and physical protection (Matthew 2:13-15; John 10:39). Other indications of His humanity are that He perspired (Luke 22:43-44) and bled (John 19:34). Jesus also expressed emotions including joy (John 15:11), sorrow (Matthew 26:37), and anger (Mark 3:5). During His life, Jesus referred to Himself as a man (John 8:40), and after His resurrection His humanity was still recognized (Acts 2:22).
But the purpose of the Incarnation was not to taste food or to feel sorrow. The Son of God came in the flesh in order to be the Savior of mankind. First, it was necessary to be born “under the law” (Galatians 4:4). All of us have failed to fulfill God’s Law. Christ came in the flesh, under the Law, to fulfill the Law on our behalf (Matthew 5:17; Galatians 4:5).
Second, it was necessary for the Savior to shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). A blood sacrifice, of course, requires a body of flesh and blood. And this was God’s plan for the Incarnation: “When Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering [under the Old Covenant] you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me’” (Hebrews 10:5). Without the Incarnation, Christ could not really die, and the cross is meaningless.
God did an incredible work in sending His only begotten Son into the world and providing us with a salvation we do not deserve. Praise the Lord for that moment in which “the Word became flesh.” We are now redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19).
Jesus was both human and divine. Please read about the divinity of Jesus here.
Romans 8:3–4 says, “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” To understand what it meant for Jesus to come “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” we need to define a couple of terms.
When the Bible refers to “the flesh” (John 6:63; Romans 8:8), it usually means the human tendency to sin that we all inherited from Adam (Romans 5:12). When Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God’s commandment, they became “sinful flesh.” At that moment, sin entered God’s perfect world and began to corrupt everything (Genesis 3). Since every human being came from Adam, we have all inherited his fallen nature. So every person is born as a sinner (Romans 3:10, 23).
The word likeness means “resemblance” or “the state of being like something else.” A likeness is not identical in substance or nature, but it is similar in appearance. A likeness is a representation of the original. For example, idols are made in the likeness of birds and beasts and created things (Romans 1:22–23; Exodus 20:4–5). A photograph is a likeness. Philippians 2:6–8 describes Jesus setting aside His divine privileges as God to take on the likeness of the humans He had created (see also John 1:3). However, Jesus did not have an earthly father, so He did not inherit a sin nature as all other human beings do (Luke 1:35). He took on human flesh, yet He retained His full divinity. He lived the life we live, suffered as we suffer, and learned and grew as we learn and grow, but He did it all without sin (Hebrews 4:15; 5:7–8). Because God was His Father, He lived only in the likeness of sinful flesh. Jesus inherited the flesh from His mother, Mary, but not the sin from Joseph.
Jesus became man in order to be our substitute. In His flesh, He had to suffer physical pain, emotional rejection, and spiritual separation from God (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). He lived the life human beings live, but He did so in the way we were meant to live—in perfect fellowship with a holy God (John 8:29). Because He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, He could then present Himself as the final sacrifice sufficient to pay for the sins of all humanity (John 10:18; Hebrews 9:11–15).
In order to receive the gift of a full pardon from God, every person must allow Jesus to be his or her personal substitute. That means we come to Him in faith, recognizing that, because He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, was crucified, and took on the sins of the world, our sin can be paid for in full (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our own sinful flesh is crucified with Him so that we are free to follow the Spirit in total obedience to God (Romans 6:6–11; Galatians 2:20). Christians are those who have Christ’s death and resurrection credited to their account, thus wiping out the debt we owe God (Colossians 2:14). Because of this full pardon, Christians daily reckon themselves dead to their own sinful flesh. Since Christ conquered sin and death in His flesh, we can live by the power of His Spirit, who will conquer sin and death in all who trust in Christ (Galatians 5:16, 25; Romans 8:37).
The doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture is a fundamental tenet of the Christian faith. To say the Scriptures are sufficient means that the Bible is all we need to equip us for a life of faith and service. It provides a clear demonstration of God’s intention to restore the broken relationship between Himself and humanity through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior through the gift of faith. No other writings are necessary for this good news to be understood, nor are any other writings required to equip us for a life of faith.
When discussing Scripture, Christians are referring to both Old and New Testaments. The apostle Paul declared that the holy Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15–17). If Scripture is “God-breathed,” then it is not man-breathed, and, although it was penned by men, those “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). No man-made writing is sufficient to equip us for every good work; only the Word of God can do that. Furthermore, if the Scriptures are sufficient to thoroughly equip us, then nothing more is needed.
Colossians 2 deals with the dangers a church faces when the sufficiency of Scripture is challenged and merged with non-biblical writings, full of ungodly theology and concepts. Paul warned the church at Colosse: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8). Jude says it even more specifically when he writes, “Although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 1:3). Notice the phrase “once and for all.” This makes it clear that no other writings, no matter how godly the pastor, theologian, or denominational church they may come from, are to be seen as equal to or completing the Word of God. The Bible is all that is necessary for the believer to understand the character of God, the nature of man, and the doctrines of sin, heaven, hell, and salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul’s words to the Galatians indicate the seriousness of delivering a message outside the Bible: “If we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:8).
Perhaps the strongest verses on the issue of the sufficiency of the Bible come from the book of Psalms. In Psalm 19:7–14, David rejoices in God’s Word, declaring it to be perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, enlightening, sure and altogether righteous.
The sufficiency of Scripture is under attack today, and, sadly, that attack comes far too often in our own churches. Certain management techniques, worldly methods of drawing crowds, entertainment, extra-biblical revelations, mysticism, and some forms of psychological counseling all declare that the Bible is not adequate for the Christian life. But Jesus’ words “are full of the Spirit and life” (John 6:63), and they will never pass away (Mark 13:31). His Word is completely and utterly sufficient.
Salvation by grace through faith is at the heart of the Christian religion. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). The statement has three parts— salvation, grace, and faith—and they are equally important. The three together constitute a basic tenet of Christianity.
The word salvation is defined as “the act of being delivered, redeemed, or rescued.” The Bible tells us that, since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, each person is born in sin inherited from Adam: “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Sin is what causes all of us to die. Sin separates us from God, and sin destines each person to eternal separation from Him in hell. What each of us needs is to be delivered from that fate. In other words, we need salvation from sin and its penalty.
How are we saved from sin? Most religions throughout history have taught that salvation is achieved by good works. Others teach that acts of contrition (saying we are sorry) along with living a moral life is the way to atone for our sin. Sorrow over sin is certainly valuable and necessary, but that alone will not save us from sin. We may repent of our sins, also valuable and necessary, and determine to never sin again, but salvation is not the result of good intentions. The road to hell, as the saying goes, is paved with good intentions. We may fill our lives with good works, but even one sin makes us a sinner in practice, and we are already sinners by nature. No matter how well-intentioned or “good” we may be, the fact is that we simply do not have the power or the goodness to overcome the sin nature we have inherited from Adam. We need something more powerful, and this is where grace comes in.
The grace of God is His undeserved favor bestowed on those He has called to salvation through His love (Ephesians 2:4–5). It is His grace that saves us from sin. We are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). Being justified, we are vindicated and determined to be sinless in the eyes of God. Our sin no longer separates us from Him and no longer sentences us to hell. Grace is not earned by any effort on our part; otherwise, it could not be called grace. Grace is free. If our good works earned salvation, then God would be obligated to pay us our due. But no one can earn heaven, and God’s blessings are not His obligation; they flow from His goodness and love. No matter how diligently we pursue works to earn God’s favor, we will fail. Our sin trips us up every time. “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Romans 3:20, NKJV).
The means God has chosen to bestow His grace upon us is through faith. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Salvation is obtained by faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, in what He has done—specifically, His death on the cross and His resurrection. But even faith is not something we generate on our own. Faith, as well as grace, is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). He bestows saving faith and saving grace upon us in order to redeem us from sin and deliver us from its consequences. So God saves us by His grace through the faith He gives us. Both grace and faith are gifts. “Salvation belongs to the LORD” (Psalm 3:8, ESV).
By grace, we receive the faith that enables us to believe that He has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross and provide the salvation we cannot achieve on our own. Jesus, as God in flesh, is the “author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Just like the author of a book creates it from scratch, Jesus Christ wrote the story of our redemption from beginning to end. “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Ephesians 1:4–6). The Lord died for our sins and rose for our justification, and He forgives, freely and fully, those who accept His gift of grace in Christ—and that acceptance comes through faith. This is the meaning of salvation by grace through faith.
When the Reformers insisted on solo Christo, they affirmed that we are saved by Christ alone, apart from the merit of any other person. Jesus alone is the King of kings (Revelation 19:16). He alone is our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14). He alone is our Redeemer (Galatians 3:13) and the sole Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). The attempt to usurp or share in those positions is a blasphemous arrogation. Assigning those roles to someone else (such as Mary) is equally improper. It is Christ and Christ alone who saves.
It is not our righteousness that saves us; it is Christ’s alone. “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:5). “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (Romans 3:22). Whatever good works we do and however faithful we are, in the final analysis “we are unworthy servants” (Luke 17:10). Christ and Christ alone is the Worthy One (Revelation 5:9). Solo Christo.
From beginning to end, the gospel uplifts Christ and Christ alone. He is the One who came from heaven to seek the lost (Luke 19:10). He is the One who obeyed the Law perfectly. He is the One who was crucified, and He is the One who rose again. We are the grateful recipients of His bounty. We are the beggars, and He is the Benefactor. We are the lepers, and He is the Healer. We are turmoil, and He is Peace. Solo Christo.
The gospel is not a message of what we must do for God; the gospel is the good news of what God has done for us. Salvation is not essentially about us; it is about Jesus. Solo Christo. In all things, Christ must have the supremacy Colossians 1:18
Second Corinthians 3:6 says, “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” With these words, Paul summarizes the key difference between the Old and New Testaments: the first covenant was based on obedience to the written law (the “letter”), but the second covenant is based on the blood of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit.
There are two parts to this answer, as we look at both the letter and the Spirit.
First, what does Paul mean by “the letter kills”? Simply that the Old Testament Law, which is good and perfect (Psalm 19:7), reveals all people as law-breakers (Galatians 3:10). The law “kills” in that the penalty for breaking God’s law is eternal death in hell (Romans 6:23; Revelation 21:8). As God told Moses the lawgiver, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book” (Exodus 32:33). Even if you sin only once in your whole life, it’s the same as breaking all of God’s laws (James 2:10), just as breaking only one link in a chain breaks the whole chain.
The written law—“the letter”—was chiseled in stone by the finger of God and is the unchanging standard by which all are judged. The law cannot give us righteousness or eternal life in heaven (Galatians 2:16). It can only condemn us as sinners, and the sentence is death. Heaven is where perfection is required (Matthew 5:20, 48; 19:16–21), and “the law made nothing perfect” (Hebrews 7:19).
Second, what does Paul mean by “the Spirit gives life”? Simply that the Holy Spirit rescues us from our hopeless situation. God saves us from death and grants us eternal life when we are born again through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:6), and, later, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are Spirit and they are life” (John 6:63).
The Holy Spirit was active in the Incarnation of our Savior (Luke 1:35). It was through the Holy Spirit that Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice to God for our sins (Hebrews 9:14). The Spirit is the cause of the new birth (John 3:3–8). It is the Spirit who lives in believers (John 14:17), seals them (Ephesians 1:13), and sanctifies them (Romans 15:16).
Jesus came to give us an abundant life, or life “to the full” (John 10:10). The Holy Spirit living in believers is how Jesus fulfills that promise. The abundant Christian life is marked by the fruit of the Spirit, which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). The Old Testament Law could not produce any of that fruit; only the Holy Spirit can, as He lives in us.
The Spirit gives life in that He enables us to reach God’s ultimate goal for us, to be transformed into the glorious image of God’s own Son (2 Corinthians 3:18; also see Romans 8:28–30). Until the day that we see Christ, the Spirit intercedes with God on our behalf, ensuring our continued forgiveness and preserving the promise of God (Romans 8:26–27).
“The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). Elsewhere, Paul teaches the same truth: “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6).
Knowing our Purpose and Calling in Christ
means having to Serve an audience of
One
I haven’t been able to do my job
Sufficiently because I lack the Given
REsources
at the moment, it makes the job pretty bleak
My Only Son has Dyslexia,
it’s a neurological scramble often associated
with gifted thinkers
It takes 10 to ONE times to See and
Hear a Word
concept in order for the brain to reorder
the disorder essentially, the brain is wired to Mirror
an Image backward
I can imagine the warfare earns Purple Heart Status
It takes Far more effort to retain order
Therefore, the successful usually
achieve miraculous things
Sometimes the “reuse” of something is another
Step
toward someone’s Pearl of Redemption
The doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture is a fundamental tenet of the Christian faith. To say the Scriptures are sufficient means that the Bible is all we need to equip us for a life of faith and service. It provides a clear demonstration of God’s intention to restore the broken relationship between Himself and humanity through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior through the gift of faith. No other writings are necessary for this good news to be understood, nor are any other writings required to equip us for a life of faith.
When discussing Scripture, Christians are referring to both Old and New Testaments. The apostle Paul declared that the holy Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15–17). If Scripture is “God-breathed,” then it is not man-breathed, and, although it was penned by men, those “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). No man-made writing is sufficient to equip us for every good work; only the Word of God can do that. Furthermore, if the Scriptures are sufficient to thoroughly equip us, then nothing more is needed.
Colossians 2 deals with the dangers a church faces when the sufficiency of Scripture is challenged and merged with non-biblical writings, full of ungodly theology and concepts. Paul warned the church at Colosse: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8). Jude says it even more specifically when he writes, “Although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 1:3). Notice the phrase “once and for all.” This makes it clear that no other writings, no matter how godly the pastor, theologian, or denominational church they may come from, are to be seen as equal to or completing the Word of God. The Bible is all that is necessary for the believer to understand the character of God, the nature of man, and the doctrines of sin, heaven, hell, and salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul’s words to the Galatians indicate the seriousness of delivering a message outside the Bible: “If we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:8).
Perhaps the strongest verses on the issue of the sufficiency of the Bible come from the book of Psalms. In Psalm 19:7–14, David rejoices in God’s Word, declaring it to be perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, enlightening, sure and altogether righteous.
The sufficiency of Scripture is under attack today, and, sadly, that attack comes far too often in our own churches. Certain management techniques, worldly methods of drawing crowds, entertainment, extra-biblical revelations, mysticism, and some forms of psychological counseling all declare that the Bible is not adequate for the Christian life. But Jesus’ words “are full of the Spirit and life” (John 6:63), and they will never pass away (Mark 13:31). His Word is completely and utterly sufficient.
The saying
“my yoke is easy and my burden is light”
is part of a larger passage
(Matthew 11:28–30),
in which Jesus tells all who are weary and burdened to come to Him for rest. He isn’t speaking here of physical burdens. Rather, it was the heavy burden of the system of works that the Pharisees laid on the backs of the people that Jesus was offering to relieve. Later on in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus will rebuke the Pharisees for laying heavy burdens on the shoulders of the people (Matthew 23:4).
The “yoke of the Pharisees” is the burdensome yoke of self-righteousness and legalistic law-keeping. It has been said by biblical scholars that the Pharisees had added over 600 regulations regarding what qualified as “working” on the Sabbath. That is a heavy burden! Recall the story of the lawyer who asked Jesus what was the greatest commandment of the Law (Matthew 22:36). You can almost read between the lines of the man’s question: “What law, of all the laws we have, do I absolutely have to keep?”
Jesus was saying that any kind of law-keeping is burdensome and amounts to a “heavy yoke” of oppression because no amount of law-keeping can bridge the gap between our sinfulness and God’s holiness. God says through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah that all of our righteous deeds are like a “polluted garment,” and Paul reiterated to the Romans that “no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law” (Romans 3:20). The good news is that Jesus promises to all who come to Him that He will give them rest from the heavy burden of trying to earn their way into heaven and rest from the oppressive yoke of self-righteousness and legalism. Jesus encourages those who are “heavy laden” to take His yoke upon them, and in so doing they will find rest for their souls. The yoke of Jesus is light and easy to carry because it is the yoke of repentance and faith followed by a singular commitment to follow Him. As the apostle John says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
This is what Jesus says in Matthew 11:30. His yoke is easy and His burden light. Now, we might think that there is really no difference between the commandments of Jesus and the Jewish Law. Isn’t the same God responsible for both? Technically speaking, yes. If anything, one might argue that the commands of Jesus are even more burdensome because His reformulation of the Mosaic Law in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5—7) actually goes above and beyond a mere outward conformity to the Law and deals instead with the inner person.
What makes Jesus’ yoke easy and His burden light is that in Jesus’ own active obedience (i.e., His perfect fulfillment of the Law of God), He carried the burden that we were meant to carry. His perfect obedience is applied (imputed) to us through faith, just as His righteousness was exchanged for our sin at the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our obedience to Jesus then becomes our “spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). Furthermore, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who works in our lives to mold us into the image of Christ, thereby making the yoke of Jesus easy and His burden light. The life lived by faith is a much lighter yoke and a much easier burden to carry than the heavy and burdensome yoke of self-righteousness under which some continually strive to make themselves acceptable to God through works.
In Galatians 5:1,
Paul
reminds the Galatian believers
that
“it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”
Believers’ sins are forgiven
on the basis of
Christ’s perfect sacrifice
Now believers can live in freedom from the law, and they can live in freedom from the consequences and power of sin. The NLT says, “Christ has truly set us free”; believers are “truly free” to live for the things of God.
The occasion
of Paul’s
letter to the Galatians
was that
false teachers had come
into
the churches there.
These teachers promoted legalism and tried to require Christians to observe the Old Testament rules, laws, and ceremonies, especially circumcision (Galatians 2:3–5). Paul, in no uncertain terms, says that “for freedom Christ has set us free” and that Christians should not be placed back under the law’s yoke of bondage (Galatians 5:1). The law’s purpose was to reveal our sinfulness (see Romans 3:20) and to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24).
Before Christ’s sacrifice, we lived under bondage to the law (Galatians 4:3). We were burdened by demands we could not keep (Acts 15:10). Christ’s death and resurrection broke our bondage to the law. Jesus’ perfect life and holy sacrifice on the cross was the complete fulfillment of the law, and anyone who trusts in Him for salvation is made right with God. Only Christians have true freedom from the law. John 8:36 confirms, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
In Christ, we are free from the Mosaic Law’s oppressive system, and we are also free from the penalty and power of sin. Before Christ, we lived as slaves to sin (John 8:34). We sought to gratify our desires and lived for ourselves. We were dead in our sins (Colossians 2:13) and were destined to face the consequence of our sin, which is death (Romans 6:23). Yet, when we trusted in Christ for our salvation, our course in life completely changed. We were released from the law’s bondage because for freedom Christ has set us free.
Believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and are characterized by a joyous freedom to follow Christ and God’s design for life (Galatians 2:20). The Bible is clear that Christian freedom is not a license to sin. Instead, believers are free not to live for sin and are free to live holy lives in Christ. For this freedom Christ has set us free: to live in relationship to God and others the way He intended (Galatians 5:13). Believers are free to live an abundant life (John 10:10), and we have been given everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
Jesus did what the law could not do—He took away our sin and saved us, and in doing so He set us free from the penalty and power of sin. For freedom to follow His design of life He set us free. “The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit” (Romans 8:3–4, NLT). Now we who have this freedom can live in God’s ways and love others well in the power of the Spirit (Galatians 5:13–26).
Patmos
is a small Greek island
in the Aegean Sea
and is mentioned only once
in Scripture
The apostle John
relates that he was writing
the book of Revelation
from the isle of Patmos
“because of the
Word of God
and the
Testimony of Jesus”
(Revelation 1:9)
That is, John was exiled there by the Roman government because of his proclamation of the gospel. It was on the island of Patmos that John received messages from Jesus to the churches and visions related to the end times.
In New Testament times, Patmos was a destination for criminals and political prisoners. Convicts were allowed relative freedom to roam the small island, but most had to provide their own food and shelter and were guarded by Roman soldiers against leaving. Many died of exposure, violent attacks by other convicts, or starvation. Tradition holds that John’s friends and followers in Ephesus sent food and other supplies to John on the island, and that is how he survived.
Patmos is significant because of its relative insignificance. Patmos is another example of the way God “chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:27–29). Patmos had nothing in itself that would draw the attention of the Lord, except that His servant John was there (Revelation 1:10). Though Patmos was but a dot in the ocean, God saw John there and entrusted him with important prophecies. John was exiled by the world, but he was not forsaken by God.
The psalmist asks,
“Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?”
and then he answers,
“If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths,
you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast”
(Psalm 139:7–10)
Nothing and no one is too insignificant for God to use. If Jesus was with John, a prisoner on the tiny island of Patmos, He is with us wherever we are and whatever circumstances we are in. Even on Patmos, there is hope. Wherever we are, there is hope, and we can worship and serve God in spite of our circumstances
(Psalm 54:6; 50:23; 1 Thessalonians 5:18).
He shall not
multiply wives for himself,
or else his heart will turn away;
nor shall he greatly
increase silver and gold for himself.
Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes" (Deut 17:17-19).
According to the Law of the King" (Deut 17:14-20), the king's love for the Torah is supposed to be far greater than his love for everything else life has to offer a person of his power and status. According to Psalm 19:10 [11], King David loved God's word more than gold, yet he eventually broke the ideals of Deuteronomy 17 by gathering to himself women (2 Sam 5:13; 11:1ff.). Solomon began well, by seeking divine wisdom rather than riches (1 Kings 3:9, 11). But Solomon also broke Deuteronomy 17 by his love for horses (1 Kings 4:26; 10:26-29), gold (1 Kings 10:2, 10-11, 14, 16-18, 21-22, 25), and women (1 Kings 11:3-4).
And though there were some very good kings, the Law of the King remained an unfulfilled ideal. Deuteronomy 17, therefore, serves as a shadow of Israel's greatest king.
For only Israel's glorious King Messiah, who is the only king who can ever truly say of God's word: "They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold" (Psa 19:10). "The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces....Therefore I love Your commandments above gold, yes, above fine gold.
Therefore I esteem right all Your precepts concerning everything, I hate every false way. For only Israel's Messiah can truly express the love for God's words until Israel's greatest king came into this world"
(Psa 119:72, 127-128).
The Messiah
is also the only king in Israel
of whom it can be said:
"How blessed
is the man who does
not walk in
the counsel of the wicked,
nor stand in the path of sinners,
nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight
is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law
he meditates day and night"
(Psa 1:1-2).
Yeshua's love for the Torah
(Luke 2:46-47)
and refusal to fail prey
to following after the riches of this world
(Matt 4:9-10)
is not just a trivial or incidental detail.
It's what
qualifies him
to be our perfect king
and
blessed Messiah.
“But He answered and said,
“It is written,
‘MAN SHALL NOT
LIVE
ON BREAD ALONE,
BUT ON EVERY
WORD
THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE
MOUTH OF GOD'"
(Matt 4:4).
