The Daily Word of Righteousness

Judgment and Rewards, #53

He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (I John 3:8)

The preaching of today is that the Lord Jesus came to deliver us from Hell. There is not one passage of Scripture to support this preaching.

The Lord Jesus did not come to deliver us from Hell. He came to deliver us from sin. If we will seek victory over sin through the Lord Jesus we do not have to worry about Hell. But if we persist in our sinning we will inherit Hell, whether or not we are a Christian, because Hell is God's prison where He incarcerates the wicked. We have not borne the fruit of righteousness and so we shall be cut out of the Vine, out of Christ.

In many instances people today are not seeking to be delivered from sin but from the consequences of sin.

The demons cried out that Jesus is the Holy One of God. Does their "faith" save them?

The "damsel possessed with a spirit of divination" proclaimed, "These men are the servants of the most high God, that show unto us the way of salvation" (Acts 16:17). Did her "faith" save her?

If we are a child of Hell it is manifest, whether or not we profess to be saved by Christ.

The Pharisees of Jesus' day lived by the Law of Moses, the man of God. But it was Satan, not Moses, who was their father. It is our actions, not our beliefs, that truly reveal the kingdom to which we belong.

"But," some will question, "isn't it a fact that when we receive Christ we pass from death to life? Isn't it scriptural that there is no condemnation on those who are in Christ?"

Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)

Let us consider once again what Jesus means by this statement, for it is used as the cornerstone of Christian theology.

Christ Himself Is the Resurrection and the eternal Life.

When any human being "hears" in his spirit the Word of Christ, he comes to life, just as happened to the young man in the Quonset hut. Christ forgives all of his sins. He has passed from spiritual death to spiritual life. There is no condemnation resting on him.

At this point he makes a choice.

Either he begins to walk in this new resurrection life that has been given to him, or else he continues to live as he always has, trusting that when he dies he will go to a place of joy rather than to a place of grief.

If he keeps on walking "in the Lord," being taught each day by the Holy Spirit, feeding on Christ, obeying the elders, reading the Scriptures, obeying the Father, he will pass from death to life; death to life; death to life; until finally there is nothing left in his personality that is not of God. He has become a new creation. Old things have passed away. All things have become new and all things are of God.

To be continued.