(1 Peter 3: 10 – 12)

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In his first letter Peter lists how to have the Lord of Hosts, the God of Heaven and Earth on your side. It is a list of sorts for being counted among the righteous. I can’t think of a more blessed place to be for as is stated — the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers. To know that we are both seen and heard by the Creator of all things is remarkable.

The instructions to accomplish loving life and seeing good days seem simple enough. Do these things if you have love for life and want goodness and fulfillment to overtake you.

First on the very short list is refraining from speaking evil and speaking guile, which is not so simple. If it was simply done, I would have no trouble in its doing, and neither would anyone else. Like everyone else, I would like to believe that I don’t have an evil tongue. And I don’t know a single person that has been proud of an evil mouth. So I think that I am not an evil speaking person just like the rest. But if I should speak evil (and I have) or without authority go against what God has plainly stated, tearing against what is good, then I just may indeed possess that undesirable evil tongue. When a rebellious nature takes over speaking evil is not so hard. When I speak against others or speak evil of them, talking about evil things without thinking; I am found in possession of what I do not want. And the outcome won’t be good. At least, that is how God sees things. He said he turns away from those who do evil. A person who continues to do such things without any consideration as to what he does therefore has no love for life and will not see those good days.

Speaking guile is not something I’m generally familiar with because the word guile has fallen out of common usage. The dictionary says that speaking with guile means you have a stratagem; that you have some cunning or trickery working behind the words. You speak in order to deceive. This is so common in the daily world and in business that it doesn’t require a comment. Peter said to set it aside. Stop inflating things; stop selling the story short to the boss or the wife. Stop tricking people, and stop trying to trip folks up in the details. We’re not spiders and they’re not flies.

Item two on Peter’s (actually David’s) short list is to turn away from evil and do good. Wow, that’s so easy a caveman could do it! If it’s so easy why do we often fall short in the doing part? Remember what Jesus said? The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Paul later said, for the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Do you suppose Jesus got it wrong, or that Paul was speaking a riddle to the Christians in Rome or simply making a pretense?

Let him seek peace and pursue it. The final activity is also active. Seek peace with others or is it with all (?) and constantly pursuing it under the full guidance of a godly disposition. How does anyone get hurt seeking after such things?

So to love life and see good days, I should do certain things in certain ways and pursue after certain activities. I should turn off of the path where I paid no attention to such things and onto the way where the details count and with a purpose behind it all. I must pursue the good and reject the rest.

I suspect that David and Peter did not give us a full list; and just like all of the other things that must be done to please God, this one doesn’t come with little boxes to check off to see exactly when I move from being unqualified and over to the qualified side.

Yet on the other hand, God does not deliver impossibilities for us to exhaust ourselves working through to no end. Every bit of it can be obtained, but it requires steady dedication and work. It won’t just happen, and it isn’t accidentally approached. Neither is God.

To begin we must be in a covenant relationship with God in the first place. Without a good starting point and without the right foundation, you could get all of the rest just exactly right and never get to the point of loving life and seeing those good days. You would end up having all of eternity to ponder exactly what went wrong; for just like those the Lord spoke of you would then be saying, `Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ His response was not at all what these folks wanted to hear, now was it? It won’t be the response you want to hear either.

The foundation always begins (oddly enough) with the fundamentals. We must hear the gospel, the good news: the word of God. Then we must build (our) faith in God, in Christ the Savior, and in the life that is offered through obedience. Then we must turn and repent; and confess Jesus as the Son of God and as our Lord. We must be immersed and rise out of that water as if out of a dead and rotten past – rising to walk in newness of life. With the newness of life portion comes the opportunity to love life and see good days. And with the proper foundation then set comes the part where we turn ourselves over full time to seeking and loving life and seeing good days – bridling the tongue and moderating our behavior to pursue peace and helping others to find the truth and do the same. We have to be an active participant; and anyone may apply.

We have to go after this along with the rest of those good Christian characteristics with a serious intent and with a will to live; and by seeing the good that God has given around us and into our lives. The reward will come after we leave this frame, but it will be based upon the foundation we have put in place while we were here. And what we love we will pursue relentlessly. So that one day it will be said to us: Well done, good and faithful servant.

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 At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha (which is translated Dorcas). This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did. But it happened in those days that she became sick and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. And since Lydda was near Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them. Then Peter arose and went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room. And all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them. But Peter put them all out, and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord.

(Acts 9:36 – 42)

 Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

(Matthew 7:21)

I take that to mean my past sin will be forgiven when I put on Christ. The scripture will not lend solace to any other view.

But what of Christians who at some time miss the target? What is our condition? Where do we end up? Are we once again counted as reckless sinners, condemned as imperfect and castaways? Do we vacillate between two states all the way up to Judgment Day?

We noted that the apostle John had stated “My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” (1 John 2: 1- 2)

Once again, without doing a somersault over the text and missing a few significant things; we should be able to establish from this that it is inherent in the statement that we may sin. We’re not condemned to do so; but we may in fact do so.

The difference between Christians and everybody else is that in Christ, if you sin, you have the most powerful advocate in the history of the world standing in the dock and at your side. The word advocate used here literally intones the thought beside you.

The apostle had just prefaced the remarks listed above this way: This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

So if we are Christians and continue to do the exact same things as we had done in previous times; we haven’t really changed. We are not following Christ; but are continuing to walk in darkness. Then, God tells us that we lie and do not practice the truth.

However, if we are doing as we have been bidden, if we are changing our lives and how we go through the day, putting God and Christ and the Word of God in front of our eyes and ears. We are counted as righteous – meaning we are moving in the direction of right. We are justified and our past sins have been accounted for. Then we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

I understand that to mean that if I sin and recognize it and stop doing those things – Jesus, my advocate, who shed his blood in sacrifice for my sins past; will add this missed mark to the rest, and they will not be listed on my final blotter. I also believe that means I have to stop indulging in that behavior. Unfortunately for me, bad things don’t often drop out of my existence so easily. But that doesn’t mean I am continuously passing in and out of favor with God. I have to go to God in prayer and ask for forgiveness. And it means that if I am walking in the light, that I continue to adjust my sights and my trajectory to hit the target repeatedly instead of only occasionally. Peter sinned when he denied Christ, and later in disassociating himself from the gentiles when Paul and the others showed up. Was that the end of his walk with the Lord?

Now, some teach, and I sure would love to have it mean that when I sin as a Christian, Christ automatically dispatches the Christian Cleaning Service and I get spruced up and bleached white again without me ever having to do or acknowledge anything. But that would ignore more than a few important scriptures, including the one I just listed above: If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

We already know where all liars will end up. And (once again) how many is all?

~

He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

(Revelation 21: 7 – 8)

Verse 4 is somewhat complicated. God sent his Son so that sin could be dealt with in the body of Jesus “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.” The difficulty is that, “the righteous requirement of the Law” must refer to something good and positive because it is fulfilled in us who walk according to the Spirit. I believe Paul is saying that Jesus fulfilled the Law and paid the price for our sins in the offering of his body so that we would do what is right. Jesus did not die so that we would go into sinful living. Jesus died so that we would be justified and thus live for what is right. I believe Paul’s point here in Romans 8:4 is the same as Galatians 5:13-14.

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13–14; ESV)

What is the righteous requirement of the Law of Moses? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. Paul is saying that Jesus offered himself up for our sins so that we would live righteous lives, not sinful lives. Paul is tying back in the message of Romans 6. We cannot sin thinking that in doing so grace is abounding. We cannot sin because we are not under the Law of Moses but under grace. We have been set free to serve God and one another, not to serve sin.

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. (8:3; NLT)

Noticing the end of verse 3, God condemned sin in the body of Jesus, that is, in the sacrifice of Jesus. Please notice that God did not condemn Jesus. The text does not say that the wrathful God was condemning his Son. God condemned or gave judgment against sin by sending his own Son. The payment for sins was made in Jesus. Jesus paid the price for our sins. Jesus’ offering was the redemption price that sets us free from sins. The NIV makes a huge mistake here in its translation, if you are using it. The NIV reads, “And so he condemned sin in sinful man….” Paul is not saying that God sent his Son in a body like ours to condemn sins in us. He did not need to send his own Son to do that. The NIV makes a terrible blunder here and reveals the consequences of being a dynamic translation. Paul is saying that God sent his Son in a body like ours to condemn sins in the body of Jesus by being an offering for sins. Sin was judged through the body of Jesus, not us. What Jesus did in the flesh is what condemned all sin.

Without choking on a monosyllable or tripping over the simplicity of the language and without immediately running off to fetch a lexicon or an interlinear; let’s stop just long enough to recognize that the apostles flatly and simply told the folks they wrote to that even Christians may sin. There are people who don’t get that and who would repudiate it both by word and deed. But, the first fruits of the Holy Spirit have told us that we won’t likely remain perfect in every detail in Christ, and we won’t necessarily remain perfectly sinless in Christ forevermore floating a foot or two above the soiled heads of the rest. Then again, we are not granted license openly and unrepentantly to sin. And we ought to be getting better every day, hitting the mark dead center with each successive shot, as we gain knowledge and strength in the Lord. It is about dedication, practice, and application. We have to do the work. There is no “Sin Free Forever” account that will pay us interest in heaven and grant impunity when we choose to sin willfully, whether by pleasing our flesh, our eyes, or our arrogance.

The key phrase in the last sentence is “we choose.”

When I rationalize my behavior and go against God and his will – it is through my own choice. Even if the generations prior left God, I will receive no mercy if I should unwittingly follow down the same path. When I know nothing of God, the onus is nonetheless upon me to locate him, and if I continue with not so much as a thought about what is over my head, then it is my fault and the consequences are due to me and my choices – not God’s. God does not come shaking the bushes to drive us out into the open. He’s already done his part. It is we who must seek Him.

I am the responsible party. As Nathan told David, You are the man. David, who was a man after God’s own heart, was not put into a trance and transported into Bathsheba’s bedroom; and Uriah did not put himself at the front of the battle on his own. God does not force me into sin and neither did Adam’s sin force sin upon me. It’s all about me. Through one man sin entered into the world does not imply or instruct that I am both a helpless and hopeless sinner condemned because of Adam, held without mercy under something called original sin. I am found in a world separated from God because Adam and Eve’s door was opened long enough to temptation, and it came roaring through. The first man and woman failed to follow the instructions and both missed the mark. Even if Adam and Eve hadn’t transgressed their one given commandment, it wasn’t very long before one of their immediate successors managed to violate things. We have free will and can choose who we will serve. So did they. Jesus said the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak; I believe he knew what he was talking about.

Adam and Eve’s transgression was followed by consequences for their failure to do as they had been bidden. You might suspect that The Lord God of Heaven and Earth takes transgression seriously and personally. It is wickedness to go against what God has given. And it meant that through Adam’s iniquity the imputation of sin entered into the world in full bloom. God has said that no sin would be tolerated without reciprocation. You will surely die. Adam sinned and he paid the price. Eve sinned and she paid the price. The ground itself paid the price. Moses sinned and he paid the price. I sin and I pay the price. What is so hard to understand? Sin will not come into the presence of God. The bill will be paid.

When Paul wrote, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That meant both Israel and the rest of the nations in every age had overwhelmingly rejected God. And he wasn’t writing to Israelites or to pagans. He did not necessarily mean that all were daily gorging themselves on a full diet of reckless behavior. He was stating that all had missed the set mark. No one had hit the center of the target with every shot. Most had missed it altogether. Soon there was no standard guiding them. The target was lost or it had been tossed aside. They couldn’t even draw the bow. They had rejected both standard and standard bearers.

All were alienated from God when they individually and collectively sinned; the path became obscured the more they deviated. The gentile nations were alienated when they left the way of God long before the Hebrews ever existed. The same became true later of Israel. Most of them remained where they were each getting farther away from the truth in each succeeding generation. The overwhelming majority died in that same unregenerate state. We are no different when we sin and rebel against God and do not seek him, by rejecting his commands. Unless we are in Christ there is no hope. For there is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.

All have sinned; and all who sin unrepentant will die. Jesus said, repent or you will all likewise perish

How many is all?

Men and brethren, what shall we do?

~

Keeping the commandments of God is what matters.

(1 Corinthians 7: 19)

 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself as a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

(1 Timothy 2: 5, 6)

There is much debate about what “the law of sin and death” is. Chapter 7 taught that the Law of Moses was holy and good. But sin used the Law of Moses to kill. Paul merges the problem of sin with the Law of Moses. The Law was not the problem. But people are condemned under the Law because no one has obeyed it completely and perfectly. When Paul writes that he “serves the law of sin” he is not saying that he is condemned because he serves the Law of Moses. Paul is condemned because he did not obey the Law of Moses. The Law condemns and through the Law people become enslaved to sin. This is why Paul can speak of the Law of Moses as the law of sin and death. The effect of the Law of Moses was the sin and death of every person. The Law of Moses condemned the Jews and shut out the Gentiles. This is why Paul can use the Law of Moses as a universal problem. The Law of Moses condemned every person that was under the Law, that is, Israel. But the Law also excluded the Gentiles from the hope of salvation. Sin and death were not the purposes of the Law, but these were the result of the Law. However, in Christ and through his law of life, we have been set free. The Law of Moses did not offer justification. Christ and his covenant does offer justification.

When something is fulfilled, when a testament is completed, its status is changed and it becomes a settled matter and is set aside. You file it away; you box it up and put it on a shelf: case closed. It retains usefulness no longer as it had when it remained unfulfilled. The Law of Moses, therefore, as it was completed, went from being the base of religious law and the foundation of Israel’s worship to becoming a reference source (used as the KJV stated, for examples and ensamples: “forms and types” being an accurate English translation); and thenceforth retained usefulness only as it …is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. But, it was no longer law. Aside from that, when you have a better High Priest, a new King heading up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed, you received along with Him a new law: a better way. That is exactly what we received with Christ: there is a new administration – there is a new law - a better covenant.

Therefore the religion of Moses and David, from that point to this, has become a dead religion. What we may glean from it and from Israel’s example has great value, but there is nothing to be gained by imitating or leaning upon its formula. It bears no authority over anyone any longer. In fact, it will have an altogether adverse effect if we seek after it. For Christ had taken it (the Law) out of the way having nailed it to the cross, as Paul so ably said. That same Apostle, though he had been a Hebrew of Hebrews, understood then that he could not be saved at all through it or by it. So he gave it up. He didn’t give some of it up. He gave up all of it. And he turned from it and to the teaching of Christ exclusively, exactly as he had been commanded. If the apostles of the Lord gave up the religion of their families and ancestors, what does that suggest that all should do today?

Paul wrote to others who, though Christians, were being misled by third parties that maintained Christians must hold to this or that part of the Law of Moses. That was their “made up” law, supplanting what God gave. The outcome of going part of the way is that you eventually end up going all the way.

Paul stated that to go backwards would allow that they would fall from the lofty place then held and plummet out the God’s favor. They would be fallen from grace. They could no longer be held in the hands of God, but would become castaways. That these folks had become Christians is without doubt; that at least some were yet more Jew than Christian religiously speaking is also without doubt. Certainly some were being mislead. The outcome would be the same in any case: they would fall from grace if they continued to walk the path provided in the Old Law or if they turned back, regardless of where they had started out.

Just how can it be that some still would maintain that once we have come to Christ that we cannot fall from grace? It appears that all we too would have to do is to go backwards. After all that is what some of those folks did. What was true for them certainly must be true today. We could travel back to old ways or into old allegiances. And that can happen whether we go through the Old Law in part or parcel, or in returning to old activities, by revisiting our own former useless and godless pursuits. The scriptures state precisely the same things: …that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written (so) that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. There is to be no division; we are all to teach and practice the same things.

This entire exercise is also a proof text that the religion of David will now avail nothing. You cannot please God by following its principles and you cannot perform any of its obligations, for God made doing so impossible. To try just means that you would be throwing yourself from off the high pinnacle gained and that you would fall from grace and you would therefore be lost. For there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved.

You simply cannot have it both ways. And, it is either all true or it is all an utter fabrication. You will be upright in Christ, and saved through Christ and in Him alone; or you will be cast down based upon what you do; but you can be nothing in between before the Throne of God. You can certainly then pass from being safe to fallen and vice versa; but whichever state you are in when you go to meet God is the one in which you will remain eternally. Upright or fallen; unregenerate or repentant and in a covenant relationship with Christ – we get to choose. Any other relationship has no covenant of support.

Again, we’d better pay attention to the details. The devil indeed is there. And the burden is clearly on us as individuals to be able to discern and to do exactly what God has said or to pay the inevitable consequences.

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Now we know that whatever the Law says, it says to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be stopped, and the entire world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the Law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the Law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what Law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the Law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the Law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.

 (Romans 3: 19 – 31)

 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

(2 Corinthians 5:10)

Who is not condemned? Who are the people who are not condemned even though our flesh serves sin at times? This is important, for Paul says that there is not condemnation “for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Only those who are in Jesus are those who have no condemnation. Paul has instructed earlier about who are the people who “are in Christ.” In Romans 6:3 Paul taught that we are baptized into Christ and that through baptism we are united with Jesus (6:5). But Paul is certainly not teaching that those who have been dunked in water, no matter what they believe or do, have no condemnation. The baptism is symbolizing our death to sin, that we are not practicing sin and sin is not the ruler over our lives (6:7,11,13). It is not just that we were baptized. Rather, it is that our baptism had meaning. Baptism was the point when we started living for Jesus and stopped living for sin. Those who are in Christ Jesus are not those who are being ruled by sin and are not those who have given their allegiance to sin. Those who are in Christ Jesus are those who are fighting sin and striving to serve Jesus. To those who have their allegiance to Jesus, there is no condemnation.

When are we not condemned? Now. Right now we stand before God justified… not condemned. The focus of God’s wrath is not upon us. God as the judge does not condemn us. In Christ, life replaces the condemnation and death that rests upon every person right now. We are sinful and deserve condemnation. We have separated ourselves from God by our sinning. In Christ, life has replaced that condemnation. God has fulfilled his covenant promises, offering life rather than condemnation. How is this possible? How can God do this great act of mercy for us? Paul explains how in the next few verses which we will examine in the upcoming posts.

All the while, the Word of God actually expresses that you should not treat Scripture as some earthly production. Its application also is not to be viewed as some intellectual exercise to be parsed and modeled to our choosing. It is the only book claiming from cover to cover to be God given. It is a matter of devotion, adherence, subjection, and when all is said and done, a matter of life or death. It is by its own listing not subject to review or re-engineering. Yet reviewed it is and reinvented it has been. No part of it is of any private interpretation – not through the Apostle Peter’s authority and not by yours, mine, or anyone else’s. It is stated within that it does not read one way two thousand long years ago and any differently now. So it follows, if we are to live in Christ we had better pursue a solid understanding of the structure and intent of the Word of God, noting exactly what has been said. It isn’t that hard, and the demands are not outrageous or strenuous.

To do so we need to have a steady regimen of the Words of Life. Once we have an ongoing steady diet in our lives, which takes time and application, then we need to pour the light out from within our own souls to anyone who takes an interest. But, nothing of value ever happened without a plan, and we should plan how we may better example the truth to others, how we might be prepared to always give an answer for the hope that is in you. It should be meditated upon and rehearsed so that it may be put to use accurately and precisely. The venue for its application can be through any of several media: by direct address, through studies across the dinner table, in written form or in print or by a venue such as this particular one, through radio programs, by talking to an acquaintance on the phone or a new friend on the street, by talking to your neighbor next door. There are certainly others. We are really required to do nothing aside from delivering the good news. But we have to understand what we are to be doing and be at home and at peace with its precepts before we can do anyone any good. We must be grounded in the truth, not in some fable surrounding it or in some personal interpretation of it. That (again) requires study, meditation and application. And you can’t do any of it without a deep and continuing knowledge of the Scriptures.

Mark wrote in the twelfth chapter of Jesus, that the common people heard Him gladly. Jesus came by his instruction differently; but we have the complete written record of the Word of God given once for all time. Do you suppose Jesus was teaching something altogether different than what is found between the covers of your New Testament? Will it have changed when we open up the covers tomorrow? Will its intent alter from our first reading to the latest; or is it rather that our limited understanding might grow and mature so that we will not be any longer babes but may become complete and full grown? The writer James wrote that it is the engrafted word which is able to save your soul. Let’s be smart and assume that James knew what he was talking about; that the Word can save us and that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

However, now it is a common thing for many people to treat any suggested venture into the Word of God as something somebody else should be about. And as with most intellectual ground, they desire little beyond a cursory look. So, if that is our view we must hold no value for our own souls, and even less for the souls of those around us.

Most of the Christian world simply ignores the written Word. We don’t wish to be bothered and want rather to be “where never is heard a discouraging word.” Where there is no spiritual involvement and there are no boundaries. The only plan in play is how long can it be endured, and how much will be asked for in the audience. Such people, in such pursuits, are not and may never become true Christians. That’s because there is no zeal and no standard behind those things. There is more religion on the strip in Vegas.

Due to these types of attitudes, many modern Christians are therefore bereft of their daily bread; and instead of feasting are dieting or rather actually starving themselves to spiritual death and into eternal night. Some people have been told that they have been saved; and therefore the deal is done, the contract sealed. They dismiss any further consideration of the things God has set before them. Some prefer things better felt than understood. What Peter offered as an evidence of the apostles’ and disciples’ foundations in faith may not ever be considered. Any contemplation of the gospel plan of salvation might have long ago been lost, and in its place may remain only a much modified outward show or appeal. Such folks have been convinced (or they have been told) that they are in a most hopeful and praiseworthy state, spiritually safe and secure. All the while souls are in increasing danger. And the need to press the truth of God’s Word grows greater and stronger each day.

Peter suggested in his first letter that the apostles’ witness was real and that the recounted events were real; and that there was no other opinion or take on things that mattered or that would ever matter. The rest of us have witnessed nothing – no one has seen Christ since his coronation, save for the apostle Paul. Peter, Paul and the rest all called upon the name of God and Christ and appealed to the Word of God daily, and they and the others followed that same Word all the way to the end, whether ignominious here, certainly glorious later.

It is given unto us to follow God’s Word in its exact particulars, just as it was offered and to rely upon the recorded events that had been witnessed, so that we might learn to be pleasing to God and gain to ourselves eternal life, by following after the same examples. Following anything else in place of that or believing some variation of those things in part or whole will offer its own certain reward.

~

Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. We also have the prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

(2 Peter 1: 15 – 21)

If that was true then, what of those in modern religious service to Christ who today call for or command a tithe? What of groups with priests, their wearing of vestments, and the offering of incense? What of instrumental music in worship, which though commanded in the OT, has no precept, no inference, and no example within the New? What about the person who believes that the Sabbath is the proper day for Christian worship, or those who teach that the Lord’s Day has itself become “the Christian Sabbath?” What of modern prophets and offerings on special days? I could go on and on.

When Paul wrote, the letter kills but the Spirit gives life; he was comparing the Law of Moses to the new Law in Christ. He was not contemplating that by following the letter of the Law believers would somehow be condemned (in both Romans and First Corinthians he clearly weighs the Old Law against the New – not just any law), while a personalized indwelling of the Spirit would be one’s ticket to everlasting life. Such things are not taught in the New Testament. Where the assembly in the wilderness (comparing Israel in Sinai to the church) is mentioned, Paul was not intending that we should think the second was some extension of the first, like some denomination that springs forth from out of another. The church does not date to Abraham. It dates to Jesus. And I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

Israel under the Law of Moses was the type of things to come, but Christianity is the real deal. One was shadow, the other is substance. There are no grounds to pull from one to supplement the other. We should not even want to try. It is not accidental that the obligations and ceremonies of the Law of Moses can no longer be kept and offered as they had been given.

Just as Moses was a type of Christ, so the Old Law pointed to the New. The writer of Hebrews and the Apostle Peter call it a case of type and antitype. That is what God’s Word instructs. To believe and practice otherwise would surely also drop us out of God’s favor.

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For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “The just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith, but “The man who does them shall live by them.” Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”). Galatians 3:11 – 13