The Daily Word of Righteousness

Grace, and the New Covenant, #8

I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. (Jude 1:5)

The doctrine of unconditional grace applied to a heavenly Gentile Church is so unscriptural, so illogical, so destructive of all God has planned for mankind, that it should be abandoned at once by every minister of the Gospel.

The Prophet Jeremiah would not recognize a new covenant that promised unconditional forgiveness to Gentiles for the purpose of bringing them to the garden of God to live forever in bliss.

Another error and myth that has become part of the Christian Gospel is as follows:

The doctrine that salvation is unconditional, meaning that once an individual makes a profession of Christ he never can be lost to the purposes of God whether or not he obeys the Lord's commandments. This error is closely related to the first. It is so different from the Old Testament account that one indeed would have to view the new covenant as a change in the way God deals with people.

There are several incidents in the Old Testament where God blessed people and then later had to bring severe judgment upon them. We think of the Jews wandering an additional thirty-eight years in the wilderness until a generation died. This incident is treated in the New Testament as a warning to believers that if they do not press forward in the Lord they also will experience the anger of God.

But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? (Hebrews 3:17)

Eli, the high priest, is another example.

Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. (I Samuel 2:30)

The Divine principle is summed up as follows:

But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. (Ezekiel 18:24)

A change in this principle would be a change in God. If we as a Christian abide in Christ, pray, study the Scriptures, meet with fervent believers, give, serve, covet the gifts of the Spirit that we may minister, and put to death the lusts of our flesh, we will live.

If we then ignore Christ, cease to pray, neglect the Scriptures, forsake the assembly of the saints, hoard our money, live in the appetites of the flesh, we will die spiritually. We will slay our own resurrection. We will never inherit the Kingdom of God.

To be continued.