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Romans 6:1. WHAT SHALL we say then? Are we to continue in
sin that grace may abound? 2. By no means! How can we who died to sin
still live in it?
Regarding SIN and LAW
Definition:
1 John 3:4. Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is
lawlessness.
Romans 4:15b ...where there is no law there is no transgression.
What is the Law? It is what was brought down the mountain on stone tablets
by Moses.
The law is found in Exodus 20. How many laws are there? How many laws
can we name?
We call the Ten Commandments the "Moral Law."
There are other laws that applied only to the Israelite society that
Paul calls "Ordinances." These are not necessarily written on
the heart. Paul speaks of them as "The Bond" --
Col 2:13. And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, Yahweh made alive together with him, having forgiven us all
our trespasses, 14. having canceled the bond which stood against us with
its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the torture stake.
Did Yahshua do away with the Law? NO. He obeyed the law to the letter,
fulfilling it. He summarized the Moral Law in this way:
Matthew 22: 37. And he said to him, "You shall love Yahweh your
Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind. 38. This is the great and first commandment. 39. And a second is
like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40. On these two
commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
Where does the Moral Law reside now?
Jer 31:31. "Behold, the days are coming, says Yahweh, when I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah ...
33. ...I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their
hearts; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be my people. 34. And
no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying,
'Know Yahweh,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the
greatest, says Yahweh; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will
remember their sin no more."
Some people say that this wonderful passage only refers to the
"house of Israel and the house of Judah." And they are right.
All Jews are Israelites, but all Israelites are not Jews!
Those of the house of Judah are the religious Jewish people who,
over hundreds of years, migrated out all over the world, and now
reside in all races and countries. They still call themselves
"Jews."
The house of Israel, which is also called "Jacob" in the
Bible includes not only the Jews, but also those 10 tribes that were
scattered and ended up (primarily) in the satellites of Great Britain,
which includes us in the US.
The new covenant and its moral law is written upon our hearts, and
Yahweh has forgiven our previous lawlessness and set us on a
new course and destiny. But that is only part of it the New Covenant.
There are two other important parts.
Keeping the sacraments: Yahshua said that this New Covenant not only in
the heart but also in the blood.
Luke 22:19. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke
it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for
you. Do this in remembrance of me."
20. And likewise the cup after supper, saying, "This cup which
is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
The heart is the pump for the blood. This is more than symbolic, it is
physiological, as well.
Finally, the seventh-day Sabbath and the Seven Festivals of Yahweh are
to observed. A culture is known by it’s calendar. Look what happens in
the Millennium.
Is 66: 18 . "For I
know their works and their thoughts, and I am coming to gather all nations
and tongues; and they shall come and shall see my glory, 19. and I will
set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations,
to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the
coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory; and
they shall declare my glory among the nations. 20. And they shall bring
all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to Yahweh, upon
horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon
dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says Yahweh, just as the
Israelites bring their cereal offering in a clean vessel to the house of
Yahweh. ... 22. For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make
shall remain before me, says Yahweh; so shall your descendants and your
name remain. 23. From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to
sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord.
Zech 14: 16. Then every one that survives of all the nations that
have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the
King, Yahweh Sabbaoth, and to keep the feast of booths. 17. And if any of
the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King,
Yahweh Sabbaoth, there will be no rain upon them.
Although the common Calendar is but a shadow or a counterfeit or
imitation of the Holy Times of Yahweh, at least following the common
Calendar in a dedicated fashion will help to get New Covenant people ready
for the real thing later on
Regarding GRACE
Shall we sin so that grace may abound? There were many cults that
taught that the only way to really know forgiveness was to intentionally
be as sinful as possible. A modern day figure is known for this religious
philosophy -- Gregory Rasputin (d 1914) of historic fame.
What is grace? Grace: charis - favor. Charism is often
translated "gift." Charismata is plural and is translated
"spiritual gifts" in Romans 12. But for our purposes, grace is undeserved
or unmerited favor. Charismata does not mean spiritual
gifts, it literally means "favors." Therefore when someone
flaunts a spiritual gift, you can always say truthfully, "You don’t
deserve to have it!" Better to call them spiritual "graces"
than gifts. We get them whether we are worthy or not. How it works is best
described in an illustration: In Schindler’s List - the power is
not in having the free ability to kill and killing, but having the free
ability to kill and choosing not to.
Yahweh graces the world, such as it is, by preserving it. He graces
repentant believers by justifying them freely, then programming his
laws inside them, so their tendency is to no longer be lawbreakers,
but law abiders. If believers are to be responsible for upholding
the Moral Law in Kingdom Come, they must then make every effort to
abide by it in Kingdom Now. Intentionally breaking the Moral Law is
not a means of greater favor. Just the opposite; intentionally
breaking the Moral Law eventually leads to losing one’s justification.
Nobody becomes perfect overnight; and grace abounds for the new
believer. On the other hand, us old-timers know better than to
break the moral law; we feel better and live longer when we abide in the
gracious moral law of Yahweh.
Resurrected through Baptism
3. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Messiah
Yahshua were baptized into his death?
Baptism is a required ordinance of the church, the doorway into
the Kingdom of Heaven. Methodists have a very different interpretation
of the meaning of baptism than fundamentalists. For them, baptism is
primarily the evidence of a confession of faith, the ‘outward sign of an
inward change.’ It is a symbolic burial with Yahshua, without which one
can’t get into heaven, and that is all it is. For us, baptism is a sacrament,
which means it is an act Yahshua commanded that not only is symbolic,
but brings greater grace (or "unction") to the baptized
through faith. For fundamentalists, baptism is a public
expression of one’s repentance; for Mainliners like us, baptism is
primarily what the Almighty accomplishes rather than what we
accomplish. In lowest terms, for fundamentalists, baptism is a ritual
only; for us, it is a ritual and a sacrament and a means
to greater favor with Yahweh.
The mechanism of baptism is always a matter of disputation, especially
in regards to (1) what is required of the baptized and (2) how the water
is to be applied.
(1) Universally, for people of sound mind and over the age of 12,
baptism requires at least repentance and a public confession of
faith. Although the Biblical evidence for it is pretty slim, we hold
that infant baptism as valid for good reason: Lydia, a European
woman of some means, was baptized with her whole household, according to
Acts 16:
12b. We remained in Philippi some days; 13. and on the Sabbath
day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was
a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come
together. 14. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of
Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of Yahweh. The Lord
opened her heart to give heed to what was said by Paul. 15. And when she
was baptized, with her household, she besought us, saying, "If
you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and
stay." And she prevailed upon us.
Additionally, in 1 Cor 1:16 Paul says he baptized the whole household
of Stephanus in Corinth .
We
assume the children were baptized.
In the early church whole families were baptized, infants included.
Wesley explains this by defining baptism as a ‘means of grace’: that,
in the case of infants, it is not what men do, but what the Father does
through men’s obedience. I baptize babies because I believe that the
Father’s favor is applied to the infant in response to the faith
of the minister, parents, the sponsors and the congregation. Vows are
made; promised are to be kept; faith is applied; grace flows freely.
The Almighty is pleased to preserve the infant (or those unable to
answer for themselves) unto eventual justification and salvation.
(2) As to the application of water, baptizo means immerse. In
Jewish tradition, the devout would baptize themselves often by
walking down into a small pool chest-deep, then bend into the water or
toss it upon themselves. John the Baptizer and Yahshua used the living
water of the Jordan and just prayerfully walked in and immersed
themselves -- no one held their nose and dipped them backward. Because
baptism should be done as soon as someone converts and because the
congregation will normally not want to go down to the creek, we pour
the water on. Because baptism is a sacrament and not just a ritual, I
have come to believe that the method is not as important as whether the
Spirit is doing something in the process. Just because something is
dramatic, does it mean it is more effective? No.
Noteworthy is the fact that those who had been baptized by John in the
Jordan were rebaptized in the name of Yahshua.
Acts 19: 1. WHILE APOLLOS was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper
country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2. And he said
to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?"
And they said, "No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy
Spirit." 3. And he said, "Into what then were you
baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism." 4. And Paul
said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the
people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is,
Yahshua." 5. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the
Lord Yahshua. 6. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit
came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
The United Methodist Church does not recognize or practice rebaptism,
since they (we) believe it is a one-time sacrament. I do not agree with
this position, nor with the formula used by the church to baptize. But
this is a long-standing dispute in the church that has been pretty quiet
lately. If you want to know more about Biblical baptism, I’ve written
extensively on it -- I’ll supply you with reading material.
Raising to New Life in the NOW
4. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as
Messiah was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might
walk in newness of life.
The supernatural benefit that
originates from baptism is that we might have a new purpose in life
as we walk in accordance with the New Covenant. With the new purpose comes
a new outlook on life -- a new point-of-view. And
because baptism is sacramental -- a
spiritual reality -- there also comes a birthing of power for
living that was not previously there -- the privilege of approaching the
throne of the Almighty boldly instead of in timidity; in expectation
rather than in mere hope; as a son or daughter rather than a
mere human.
And Resurrected Life Later
5. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall
certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
His resurrection was bodily, but his body had different qualities. This
is the ‘better resurrection’ that Paul talks about elsewhere.
Did you know there is a gene that controls aging? This is a brand new
discovery. Humans are ONE GENE AWAY from immortality. Each cell in the
body has a built in timer to self-destruct. Scientists have been able to isolate
the aging gene in a human cell and turn it off. The cell lives
forever, barring accident and disease. Scientists say that if they can
learn to control THIS ONE GENE THROUGHOUT THE BODY, there will be no
more aging. The trick is to treat every cell in the body, and then to
genetically breed out the ‘aging mechanism’ from new cells that are
produced. There will be no aging in the resurrected body of the Messiah’s
elect.
In addition, this resurrected body will exist in four dimension instead
of three, and will be able to perceive activity in all four dimensions.
That means that the resurrected body will not have the limitations of
height, width and depth or the perception of matter like walls and doors.
In the fourth dimension, matter is perceived as energy. In
practicality, this means there will no longer be physical limitation as to
where one can go. To be primarily a fourth dimensional being means that
one will be like angels, immortal, but able to appear at will to three
dimensional beings like humans in any form one chooses.
Although this sounds like fantasy, ask a physicist or a mathematician,
religious or not. They will tell you with certainty that the fourth
dimension exists and that it could well be inhabited. Then they will prove
it to you on paper in signs and symbols that only a genius could
interpret.
Made Free by Crucifixion
6. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful
body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7. For
he who has died is freed from sin.
It is the body that is subject to sin, not the spirit. But he is also
talking about putting our desires to sin to death, using all the benefits
acquired from having been baptized into his death. Although death is
the answer to the problem of sin, we have plenty to live for! That is
why we must be free from the desire to sin (break the law) -- there is
much work to be done for the Kingdom.
Death Merely a Consequence
8. But if we have died with Messiah, we believe that we shall also live
with him. 9. For we know that Messiah being raised from the dead will never
die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10. The death he died he
died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to Yahweh.
Just as Yahshua ever lives unto the Almighty (that is for the sake of
serving him), we too live to serve him. We live long lives now. But then
life was short and death was a very fearful thing. Now for some life is so
long that when death comes, people are often prepared for it and go into
it painlessly. Not so in the days of Paul. Not so for those martyred for a
cause. The Almighty is in charge of you now; you need not fear death -
fear is a hindrance to living for Him.
How Shall We Live?
11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to
Yahweh in Messiah Yahshua.
Worth discussing!
©2001 Jackson Snyder
June 23, 2001
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