The Daily Word of Righteousness

Scripture or Myth?, #2

For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. (Romans 13:4)

The government carries the sword in order to punish evildoers.

Because of the four errors we are discussing the Christian churches are not furnishing the secular governments with moral guidelines. How will the governments punish evil if the Christian churches themselves do not know what evil is? If the Christians are not required to walk in righteousness, how can they expect the secular governments to practice righteousness? It is a ridiculous, horrible state of affairs!

We Christians are to be going to all nations, teaching them to observe Christ's commandments. We are not doing it because of our confusion concerning whether or not we ourselves are bound by Christ's commandments. We are building churches instead of teaching Christ's commandments. The great commission is not to build churches, it is to teach Christ's commandments.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19,20)

The fault is ours. We are admonishing the governments to humble themselves and repent. God is admonishing the churches to humble themselves and repent.

Will we repent? Perhaps we will as soon as we realize our theology is off course.

God Sees Christ and Not Us

How often do we hear ministers of the Gospel tells us God sees Christ and not us. We have nothing to fear because God is not seeing our behavior but is seeing Christ's righteousness.

The concept that God is blind to the actual personality and behavior of the Christian is expressed in different ways, such as, God sees us only through Christ; Jesus accomplished the entire work of redemption and we are only to believe this; the Lord Jesus is the Overcomer, the Righteous One, and we also are an overcomer and righteous by identification with Him.

These viewpoints sound so scriptural, so devout, so glorifying to Christ—but there indeed is "death in the pot."

Let us look first at the practical consequences of this morally destructive idea, and then show the true scriptural doctrine and how it has been twisted into error.

The practical consequences of this belief. If it is a fact that God does not see me or my actions but only Christ, then the following is true:

When I commit adultery the Lord does not see my action but only the moral purity of Christ.

When I lie the Lord takes no notice but perceives only the truthfulness of the Lord Jesus.

When I steal the Lord does not know this because He is not seeing me but only the honesty of Christ.

If God directs me to go to the mission field and I refuse, God sees only the perfect obedience of Jesus.

Of course we could go on and on.

To be continued.