FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
RENEWING
THE MIND – III
THE
GOSPEL - 1
…..
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove
what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of IAUE.
The central focus of the message of the New
Testament is doing the will of IAUE.
The church, today, has supplanted that
message with “receiving forgiveness and
going to Heaven when we die.” Christians, today, live their entire lives
without having
any concept that they were born to do the
will of IAUE; and since man who is born of
the seed of man is incapable of doing His
will; we were born again to make it possible;
and thus fulfill the purpose for which we
were created.
Let
me ask you a question. When you “came to
Messiah” in response to the message presented to you, did the preacher or
witness of the Master ever explain what it meant to be saved; or did they
simply say if you do or say or pray what they were suggesting you WOULD be
saved? Over the past half-century, I
have listened to many different preachers and teachers and individuals, both in
person and on television or radio, presenting their version of the gospel to
others; and being “saved” has always been presented as what you will be IF you
do, or say, or pray their desired action/response. This leaves the one who responds to believe
that being saved means whatever was the objective of the message preached to
them. For example:
- Your sins will be forgiven and Yahushua
will come to live within your heart.
- You will not go to Hell, but to Heaven,
when you die, and you will live with Elohim for eternity.
- You will be forgiven, and you
will have a glorious future with Elohim forever and ever.
Would
it surprise you that NONE of these results is what it means to be “saved?
Saved: (“sozo,” pronounced “soad’zo”) – This Greek word
means “to keep safe,” “to rescue from danger,” “to be delivered.” It
refers to being saved…rescued…delivered from something that threatens your
safety.
If
the preacher ended his message by saying, “If you pray this prayer with me, you
will be rescued,” it would leave an entirely different concept in the mind of
the person responding to his message. The
listener would wonder from what he needed to be delivered or rescued. Most people do not think in terms of their
lives being endangered by something.
Christians
often joke around with each other and ask, “Are you saved, brother?” The answer they expect to hear is that the
person acknowledges he is going to Heaven when he dies. This word “saved” has become a cliché that has
taken on its own religious meaning and has become detached from all Scriptural
relevance. Picture that same question
being asked, “Are you delivered, brother?”
Asked that way, the brother would wonder if he was implying if he had a
demon. “Are you rescued, brother?” Asked
that way, the brother would wonder if he means being rescued from Hell’s fire;
and it would detach all thoughts of his “salvation” from the idea of that
glorious future in Heaven.
[In
order to detach this word from its religious tradition, we will more accurately
call it “being delivered” in order to allow the reader to gain a better insight
from its use in Scripture. The Scripture
teaches us that the traditions of men render the word of IAUE of no effect.
(Mark 7:13)]
Luke 24:46 And said unto them, Thus it is
written, and thus it behooved Messiah to suffer, and to rise from the dead the
third day:
47 And
that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem.
Here
is the Master’s own commission to his disciples regarding what they were to
preach. It involved two things: repentance and
remission of sins. Repentance
is generally NOT preached today. It is too distasteful; and preachers consider
it too offensive a message to preach to the lost. In the mind of contemporary preachers, they
are able to get their intended results much easier if they don’t try to convince
people they need to repent. After all,
that would suggest they are “bad” people; and we wouldn’t want to give them the
impression we think they are bad people. They are just uninformed and need to
be told the “good news.” This is called being a man-pleaser.
Galatians 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or IAUE? or do I seek to please men? for if
I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Messiah.
When
I have heard preachers tell people that they need to repent, it is without any
explanation of what repentance means, or what the object of their repentance
should be; and it is spoken in such soft terms as not to carry much weight or
significance to the person’s ability to be “saved.” Simple lip-service will suffice. It is made a part of the “magic prayer,” “I repent of my sins…” Done!
In one phrase, the person deals with all that is wrong with his
life. How honestly do you think anyone
can actually turn from a lifetime of rebellion with a single sentence of five
words?
Repentance entails much more
than turning from the bad things we recognize we have done. Most people would not even scrape the surface
of all that is in their lives that IAUE regards as sin. No, repentance is not
turning away from bad things. It is not
even turning away from “the flesh” (Most people would not even know what that
means.) The heart of repentance is turning away from
the right to exercise self-rule…turning away from one’s refusal to come under
the authority of the will of IAUE. The
problem with humanity is that it is incapable of obeying the will of IAUE. (We have explained this in detail in prior
postings.)
Two things in particular had to be done for man that he could not do for
himself, in order to be able to respond favorably to the will of IAUE.
- The issue of sins must be
resolved. The soul that sins shall surely
die.
- The quality of righteousness must
be restored to man.
We
have discussed at great length this matter of sins. What are they? Are they the things we have done for which we
feel guilty? Are they bad things as
perceived by the social values or moral standard of the current age? No. Sin, by definition, is disobedience to
the will of IAUE. That man is a sinner
means he is a rebel against the authority of IAUE. He prefers to exercise his own will over that
of his Creator. In truth, man without Messiah cannot know and do the will of
IAUE because His will is spiritually discerned.
1
Corinthians 2:14 But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of IAUE: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.
Because
repentance is NOT being preached in Messiah’s name, today, the church is still
filled with disobedience to the will of IAUE.
Men and women who call themselves believers are chasing their own
dreams, objectives, appetites, interests; never even considering to ask what is
the will of IAUE for their lives from moment to moment or from day to day. They
do not even give a thought to the horror of their continued rebellion against
IAUE and Yahushua. Why is this? It is because, for the most part, they have
stopped doing things they consider to be bad. They have become good (or at
least, better) in their own eyes. They have never reflected on the totality of
their lives as being bad before IAUE because they resist His will.
This
rebellion in man had to be dealt a death blow. It was a condition that required deliverance
from the condition that made obedience impossible. That condition was spiritual death. Sin
(disobedience to the will of IAUE) was merely a symptom of the condition. Man
not only had to have the penalty-price paid for his disobedience, he had to be
made alive before IAUE.
John 3: 3 Yahushua
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of IAUE.
5 Yahushua
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
IAUE.
7 Marvel
not that I said unto thee, Ye must be
born again.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore
if any man be in Messiah, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Messiah
was offered as a sinless lamb (a man who had not disobeyed the will of IAUE) to be a sacrifice in
the place of man who fully deserves the sentence of condemnation and death.
Through his sacrifice, the penalty for man’s sins was paid in full. Mankind is now forgiven. The ministry of reconciliation is a message
to declare to the world that IAUE no longer holds their sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). The sins of all mankind are all forgiven…now...before
any man even accepts what Messiah has done for him…even if he rejects what
Messiah has done for him. He is
forgiven. The price has been paid. This is the release of the consequence of
their rebellion to IAUE.
By trusting in the blood of Messiah and embracing what IAUE has done for him through His son, man is born again. He becomes spiritually alive and can now, for the first time in his life, discern the will of IAUE for his life.
By trusting in the blood of Messiah and embracing what IAUE has done for him through His son, man is born again. He becomes spiritually alive and can now, for the first time in his life, discern the will of IAUE for his life.
Forgiveness
of sins does not free man from the sins that still hold his life in bondage. Being “born again” does not free him from the
bondage of sins. That is where “remission of
sins” comes in to the gospel message. Preachers err in telling people that they
must ask Yahushua to forgive them of their sins. He died to accomplish that. That is already a fact. No one needs to ask for what has already been
given to them. They need only be told it
is has already occurred. Forgiving his disobediences was the act of
reconciliation IAUE took to open the door for man to return to Him. He removed the barrier of offense between man
and Himself.
Remission
of sins is not forgiveness of sins. A
great old hymn contains the lyric, “He
breaks the power of cancelled sins. He
sets the prisoner free.” All mankind is
walking around with cancelled sins; but they are not free from their sins. Not even after coming to Messiah and becoming a
believer do many/most not experience freedom from specific areas of
disobedience in their lives. Sin still exercises
dominion over them. Remission of sins is
freedom from the power of sins; and it is an absolutely intrinsic element of
the gospel; but because it is not preached, it is not realized by many. Many believers are still in need of being “delivered.”
We
will continue this discussion in our next post.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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