Believe Right!

Many of us think that most believers and even non-believers who are sinning want to continue to wallow in sin. We think they don't want out. I submit to you that many of these "great sinners" feel bad after each act of sin and are trying hard to find a way out of their sins and addictions but cannot! You see, "good people" are not the only ones who want to live a righteous life. Many "bad people" who are locked down by acts of sin also desire to live right but they cannot. The reason for their inability to do so is evident in Romans 6:14: "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." Sin has dominion over the one who is trying to obey the law in order to be righteous. But somehow many preachers have this verse backwards, preaching that the way to reign over sin is by obeying the letter that kills. Because of this false doctrine, the "bad people" try harder to be obedient but the resu...

Believers, beware of teachers of religious law in the church and religious churchgoers who teach that helpless sinners who are looking for Salvation can face judgment or die in Jesus' presence if they do not do certain things by their own power. In the gospels, no sinner who came to Christ ever got what they deserved or died in Jesus' presence. He saved and is still saving hopeless, helpless sinners from judgment. He FREELY gives saves and life to all who come to Him for Salvation. The story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-12) is a fantastic illustration of what happens when the helpless sinner who is faced with judgment meets Christ. Jesus did not tell her to first go and fast, undergo "deliverance" or make vows to be good going forward first before He saved her from the judgment that had been passed on her according to the law. He saved her from death. The wages of sin, all sin, is death. It doesn't matter whether the sinner stole a pin or stole a...

John 3:19 says "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil." But who really are those who loved the darkness rather than the Light...? We see this in the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-12. Many of us are familiar with this story up to verse 11 where our Saviour tells the sinner woman “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” but likely do not see how verse 12 - "I am the Light of the world..." - connects with the story and John 3:19 (. ..and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil." ) Let's see how. See verses 11-12, after the woman answered that no one condemned her:  "...And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." 12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life...

The old covenant system of atonement for sins with the blood of bulls and goats is a shadow whose reality is the salvation from sin that we have through the blood of Jesus Christ today. Paul said of the priests in the old setting: "They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”" Hebrews 8:5. Christ's atonement for our sins is the reality of this "shadow" old covenant system, but in Christ, we have a much better covenant! The blood of bulls and goats offered in the old covenant system had to be offered continually with each sin but in Christ, we are perfected forever by His one offering! See Hebrews 8: 11 "Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices ...

Believers, remember the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-12? Jesus told the woman’s accusers  (the  teachers of religious law and the Pharisees ):  “ He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”   The accusers, being convicted by their conscience “went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.”  Not one of the law-hugging accusers could stone the woman, "For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws." James 2:10. They were just as guilty as the woman because "all have sinned." The same thing applies to today's   teachers of religious law,  Pharisee-type pastors and churchgoers who point accusing fingers at you for your sins, shortcomings and your inability to obey the law; those who drag you into the presence of our Saviour Jesus Christ that they do not really know (just like the Pharisees!) and then tell you to expect j...

According to the Law of Moses as outlined in Leviticus, a person who sinned was to take an animal prescribed by the law and without blemish to the Tabernacle where a priest would make atonement for him for his sins; remember "the wages of sin is death." The unblemished animal had to die in the sinner's place so the sinner would not die. Under the Law of Moses, the sacrifice lasted only until the sinner's next sin, "....For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." Romans 9:22. The Tabernacle was a really busy place!  This old covenant system of atonement for sins with the blood of bulls and goats is a shadow whose reality is the salvation from sins that we have through the blood of Jesus Christ today. Paul said of the ever-busy priests in the old setting: "They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be...

There are so many faith pictures of our Saviour Jesus Christ in the story of the life of David. Remember that after the Lord gave him victory over Goliath and the army of the Philistines, Saul became jealous and consistently tried to kill him? This is much like how, today, preachers of the horrid mixture of law and grace start to attack grace children when they feel threatened by grace. Such preachers teach along the lines of “obey the Ten Commandments, pay your tithes, etc... or else God will not bless you in Jesus’ name.” Moses and Jesus combined! Believers, our salvation is not about how many days one spent in sack cloth fasting on some mountain or how well one keeps the law. This is how we are saved: Romans 3- 26 “...and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God throu...

Believers, see our Saviour Jesus Christ and His love for us in the Old Testament story of David (a picture of God the Father) who cut a covenant with his beloved Jonathan (a picture of Christ) and because of this covenant, showed grace to Jonathan's son Mephibosheth (you and I in Christ.) Mephibosheth got to eat at the Lord's table all the days of his life ONLY because of the covenant that David had with Jonathan. That's our life in Christ today! Mephibosheth was lame in both feet but do you know how he became lame? When his grandfather Saul's house heard that Saul was dead, they feared for their lives. Was this not David that their father Saul tried to kill several times? They thought David was coming to exterminate them; this is a picture of the world and even believers today thinking that God is still angry with them and wants to punish them for their sins and those of their fathers. So they fled (a picture of doing things by human effort in a bid to escape God...

In Luke 15 we find the Parable of the Lost Son, aka The Parable of the Prodigal Son. Many of us think that it's a story about becoming born-again but it applies to us believers- the younger brother was a son of the Father who went astray. He did not know the Father's love and that all the Father had was his, much like many believers today who think that God demands righteousness and payment for blessing His children. Growing up, many of us were taught that the prodigal son went home because he was sorry for what he did. But this is not so. He did not repent/return home to his Father because he was sorry or had an epiphany about how stupid and greedy he was to ask for his inheritance. He didn't remember his Father when he still had his inheritance. He decided to go back home because he was hungry and broke! See his thoughts in v.17-19: "‘...At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father a...