The Daily Word of Righteousness

What Was Paul Teaching?, continued

But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. (Romans 6:17)

Now let us take one commandment of an Apostle and see if it is binding on the believer.

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. (Galatians 5:24)

Binding or not? What if we do not crucify our flesh with its affections and lusts? Most churchgoers do not do this because they have been taught they are saved by grace. What about them?

According to the Apostle Paul they will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

What do you say? Will they inherit the Kingdom of God or not?

It appears Evangelical teaching is woefully unscriptural. Or course, now we can see the evolution of Evangelical teaching as the church leaders argue over whether they should ordain homosexuals. In the first chapter of Romans Paul reflects on sexual perversion. But once you begin to ignore the commandments of the Apostles, where do you stop?

So we Evangelicals are in doctrinal chaos. But thank God, there are pastors and others who are beginning to see the error and are beginning to preach the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

The non-Christian deals with sin appropriately by coming to Christ for forgiveness. The Christian deals with sin appropriately by confessing his sins and turning away from them, praying for grace to help him do so.

You may wonder, "How can a non-Christian abide in Christ or crucify his or her flesh with the affections and lusts?" Simple. The non-Christian cannot obey the injunctions of Christ and His Apostles. He must repent of his sinful ways and come to Christ for forgiveness.

Christ gave the laws of the Kingdom while speaking the Sermon on the Mount. He means for these laws to be obeyed by every human being, beginning with His disciples. To not do what Jesus says is sin and brings spiritual death.

God stated that Jesus is His beloved Son and we are to hear Him. When we do not obey Christ and His Apostles we are disobeying God.

How can a Christian deal appropriately with his transgressing of the commandments of Christ and His Apostles? Simple. He or she is to confess his sins, turn away from them with the help of Divine grace, submit to God, and resist the devil in the future.

No human being can live in God's sight by rejecting Christ and trying to obey a moral or religious code.

The Law of Moses is obsolete, having been replaced by faith in Christ.

Faith in Christ is maintained as we keep, not ignore, His commandments and those of His Apostles.

All persons on earth are required to keep the commandments of the New Testament and will die spiritually if they do not.

The veil has been torn apart. The very Mercy Seat in Heaven is available to every person who would come through Jesus Christ and seek help in keeping the commandments of Christ and His Apostles.

We are being saved as we continually are looking to Jesus and keeping His commandments.

The end of such obedience is a transformed inner nature and finally, at the Lord's coming, a transformed body corresponding to the transformed inner nature.

Now that our entire personality has been transformed we are eligible to receive the fullness of the Father and the fullness of the Son through the fullness of the Spirit. We are destined to be the house of God, the throne of God, the chariot of God, for eternity.

Neat, huh!