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CHAPTER TWO Scriptures Let’s unpack the doctrine of Jesus Christ by looking at the scriptures. (To read these scriptures without the discussion, and for ease of future reference and study, chapter three is a doctrine of Jesus Christ scripture summary.) Let’s begin with some scriptures that talk about how to read the scriptures and which present the foundation of what God is doing.
Reading the scriptures Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not do it? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good? The scriptures are filled with definitions which are keys to understanding all the scriptures. Man is a liar. A son of man is a man who sins and repents. God is perfect. God never lies and God never sins. God is not a man. God is not a son of man. We use a dictionary when we want to understand what something means. When you read a verse which has a definition in it, note that scripture and collect the definitions. They will help you understand other scriptures.
Matthew 9:10 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eats your Master with publicans and sinners? 9:12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 9:13 But go you and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Here are some more useful definitions and information. Jesus has come to call sinners to repentance. The righteous have no need to repent. The righteous have no sin. The righteous are whole and have no need of a physician, they are not sick.
James 5:19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 5:20 Let him know, that he which converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. Jesus does this for us. Jesus saves souls from death. Men are living souls.
Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. 30:6 Add thou not to his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Remember these verses. They will guard you from making errors when reading the scriptures. Consider how they apply to this verse. John 6:47 [Jesus speaking] Truly, Truly, I say unto you, He that believes on me has everlasting life. Jesus says has, not will have in the future. If you add a word to what Jesus said you end up with a lie. It is satan who says to a believer you will have eternal life … later. Jesus says to a believer you have eternal life now. If you add a word and create a lie, God will reprove you. You will be found a liar. Revelation 22:12 behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 22:15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie. 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. The problem with being a liar is that you cannot enter into Zion, the city of God. A liar cannot eat of the tree of life and have eternal life. Those who love a lie are those who believe a lie and continue to do so even when told the truth. Those who make a lie are those adding words to what God said. If you read the scriptures as they are written you have life. If you corrupt the scriptures by adding words, you let satan steal what God gave you. If you hear the lie rather than what God actually said, you will die. We often don’t do it intentionally. We read the verse and hear, he that believes on me will have everlasting life. Because the lie is so engrained in what we have believed, we don’t notice we added words to the verse when we were reading it. We automatically conform what we hear to what we believe because we think we know the truth. We don’t see the error we are making unless Jesus stops us and says, read it again. He that believes on me has everlasting life. Jesus shows us when we are reading and adding words, Jesus shows us when we have misunderstood scripture. Jesus teaches us to see and hear the truth. That is why spending hours with Jesus as your only teacher, being a disciple, is the only way to be free. Jesus is a good teacher. Jesus speaks only the truth. You need his correction to remove lies. Your teachers in the past taught you what they had been taught, and if they had been taught a lie and they didn’t see it and correct it, they unwittingly passed it on to you. They didn’t mean to mislead you, but they did. A wise person examines the scriptures to see if what they have been told is true. Jesus is our wisdom. If you listen to other people more than you listen to Jesus, you will have more errors than truth in what you believe. If you live believing the lie is the truth, you are calling evil good, and you will die because of the darkness in you. The word of God is pure. There is no darkness in it. The Greek and Hebrew words of scripture are pure. God has guarded and kept his written words, the scriptures, so they have been carried accurately through the generations. I did not say every translation of the word is pure. When you read an English bible or a Spanish bible or a Russian bible you are reading how a translator chose to express in another language the Greek and Hebrew scriptures. I read the King James Version of the bible, which is an English translation. And I have an interlinear Hebrew – Greek – English bible so I can see the original scriptures the King James Version was translated from. Greek and Hebrew words have rich meanings. To convey what is said in one Greek word often takes several English words. It is not uncommon for the translator to have correctly worded a verse and yet not have conveyed the entire meaning of what was originally said. And it is also not uncommon for me, even though I have English as my first language, to not know the full meaning of the English words the translator chose to use. When I am reading scripture, God often says, look up that word in the dictionary. I have Strong’s dictionary so I can look up what Greek and Hebrew words mean. I have Webster’s dictionary so I can look up what English words mean. (I use the 4 volume interlinear bible edited by Jay P. Green, Sr. which has the Strong’s number above each word to make the dictionary searches easier). God’s word is pure. God’s word is precise. God’s word is elegant. God knows what you understand in the scriptures and what you have not yet seen. God is a patient teacher. He will guide you to see and grasp and comprehend what he has said. The scriptures are the words of a good Father to his sons and daughters. God wants you to receive all the treasures and blessings in his word.
Foundations Romans 2:6 God will render to every man according to his deeds: 2:7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality – eternal life: 2:8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness – indignation and wrath, 2:9 tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; 2:10 But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: 2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God. Those who seek glory and honor and immortality, receive eternal life. Those who seek, find. They receive the immortality they were seeking. How do they receive eternal life? They receive glory, honor and peace. Men fell from glory when they sinned. In baptism we are made righteousness. We receive our glory back. God is the God of Glory. When you receive the Holy Spirit, glory dwells in you. Honor is to be a Priest and King. Peace with God is what gives you eternal life. Your sins are washed away in baptism. You receive the free gift of righteousness. Because there is no more sin, there is no more wrath of God, there is no more judgment, there is no more death. You are reconciled to God. You have peace with God. You have life and nothing disturbs that life.
Jesus saves us from sin Matthew 1:21 you shall call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. We are saved from something specific. We are saved from our sins. Why does it matter that we are saved from our sins? Romans 5:12 by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Death follows sin. Adam lived an unending life until the day he disobeyed God. Adam sinned and, as a result, he died. Because all Adam’s children were born with his nature, all mankind also eventually sinned, and we also died. Acts 22:16 And now why do you tarry? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. When we are baptized, our sins are washed away. All our sins. No sin remains. We are made completely clean. We come out of baptism with the gift of righteousness. Mark 16:16 He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. 2 Timothy 1:10 our Savior Jesus Christ has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel What is salvation? You are saved from your sins. Jesus saves us from our sins. Without sin, death has nothing to follow. We now once again have unending physical life. Life that has no end is immortality. We are saved when we are baptized. By our death in baptism, we are freed from sin.
God has translated us into heaven Colossians 1:13 the Father has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 1:14 in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. God did not say he has moved us, he said translated. Why? Translate – to convey into heaven without death. God’s words are pure. When you listen carefully to what God says you see great beauty. Translated is past tense. It is something which is finished. God has delivered us from the power of darkness and has conveyed us into heaven without death into the kingdom of his dear Son. We are translated when we are baptized. We are now in the kingdom of Jesus.
God has redeems us Psalms 49:6 They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, 49:7 none of them can by any means redeem his brother, 49:9 that he should still live forever, and not see corruption. Here is another useful definition. What is redemption? You live forever and do not see corruption. We have redemption through the blood of Jesus. Jesus redeems us so we live forever and do not see corruption. Jesus gives us immortality and incorruptibility. Adam sinned and died. Now, through Jesus, God undoes what Adam did. God washes away our sin, and then God gives us back immortality. We are now righteous and alive forever in the kingdom of Jesus on earth. We are redeemed when we are baptized. In baptism, the blood Jesus shed covers our sin.
Hebrews 9:12 by his own blood Jesus Christ entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Atonement is an event. Jesus entered into the holy place in heaven with his own blood. Events have a date on the calendar. Events divide scripture. The day Adam sinned was an event. From that day on man died. The day Jesus made atonement for us is an event. Our sins were taken away. From that day on man could believe in Jesus and once again have everlasting life. By believing in Jesus and being baptized, we receive back what Adam lost – righteousness and everlasting life on the earth. This is why the saints of the old testament could be made righteous but would still die. Jesus hadn’t gone to the cross yet. They had not yet been redeemed. They did not yet have everlasting life. When Jesus poured out his blood on the cross, everything changed. We are now on the other side of the cross and resurrection. Now when people come to God in baptism we receive salvation, being made clean of sin, being made righteous, and we are also redeemed. Redemption gives us immortality, eternal life, and also makes us incorruptible. We are redeemed from the pit of corruption, from death, and will never enter it again. We also live incorruptible. Old Testament Israel corrupted themselves by going after other gods, by worshiping idols. We won’t make that error. God gives us the gift of incorruptibility. We are established in righteousness. We are no longer vulnerable to falling away from God. We won’t worship any of the gods of men. Nor will we worship or serve mammon – money – for the love of money is the root of all evil. We will always worship and serve God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
God gives us life Hebrews 5:8 Though Jesus were a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered; 5:9 and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; 5:10 called of God a high priest after the order of Melchisedec. Isaiah 38:17 thou has in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou has cast all my sins behind thy back. Titus 2:14 our Savior Jesus Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 1 John 5:11 God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 5:12 He that has the Son has life. 2 John 1:9 He that abides in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son. John 5:24 [Jesus said,] Truly, Truly, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. We have passed from death to life. It is past tense. We have moved from death over into life. Being a sinner carried a death sentence. We were in death. Our bodies were going to stop breathing and return to dust. God, through what Jesus did, changed us and moved us out of death. We are now righteous. We are now in life. We have received eternal salvation and eternal redemption. God has given us eternal life. It does not say God will give us eternal life. It says God has given us eternal life. This move out of death into life has happed. It is finished. We are in life right now. Satan says to us you are going to die and then you will have eternal life. Satan tells us we are still going to die. There is no truth in satan. He is a thief. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Satan wants to kill us. He no longer has the power of sin and the right to kill us. But if he can deceive us he can still get us to die. The astonishing thing is that we let him. We believe his lies and we die. We are the children of God with all the rights of a God and we let a thief rob from us our life. We are the ones laying down our life by our false beliefs. Satan can’t take our life from us. The Father isn’t taking our life from us. The Father is the one who gave us everlasting life. The gifts of God are irrevocable. It’s our choice. If you want to live – live. We believe the truth, we see God our Father has given us eternal life through Jesus, and we remain alive. When satan says you’ll die, we reply, you’re lying. We don’t have to put up with the lies. Truth sets us free. Truth sets us free of sin and free of death and free of all the lies. Simply know the truth and stand there alive. Jesus redeemed us from all iniquity. All iniquity means none remains. Jesus purifies us. It means we are now holy. Pure. Without spot or blemish. Our spirit, soul and body are completely free of evil. Our righteousness is perfect. We are holy. We are saints. Jesus didn’t partially save us. It is a physical saving and a saving of our soul. The Lord is for the body and the body is for the Lord. Jesus forgives all our sins, heals all our diseases, and redeems our life from the pit of corruption. Psalm 103 is a beautiful list of rewards we receive from the Lord. We receive righteous, we receive health, and we receive life. It isn’t 2 out of 3. It is all of all of them. Jesus made us whole. That is what it means to be saved. What is wrong is made right. In AD 33, when Jesus went to the cross, all that was wrong with us, God laid upon his son. Jesus had no sin, he had no sickness; Jesus had perfect life. God took our sin, God took our disease, God took the death working in our body, and he laid it upon his son. God took it away from us in order to place it upon his son. The punishments of sin, the diseases listed in the curse of the law, can’t be on two people at the same time. The punishment follows the sin. When God took the sin off of us and put it upon Jesus, God moved the punishment, all the sickness, off of us and put it upon Jesus. Jesus was made weak, Jesus was made sick, Jesus was cursed, Jesus was sentenced to die. We were set free of sin. We were set free of disease. We were set free of death. As Jesus took upon himself our sin, our disease, and our death, we were in turn being set free of them. God placed all that was corrupt in us upon Jesus at the cross. Jesus has the sin, therefore Jesus has the punishment. You have no sin, therefore you are healed. That is righteous judgment. Jesus is the one who brings righteous judgment to victory. What is right is what we have. We have justice. We are righteous, not because we did something. God gave us grace. God moved our sin onto Jesus. We are healthy, not because we did something. The punishment of sickness, the curse of the law, followed the sin and moved onto Jesus. We are alive, not because we did something. The death sentence for our sins moved onto Jesus. God has made us righteous. God has healed us. God has given us life. It’s finished. God did a complete work of transferring what was wrong in us onto Jesus, in the day of the cross. The cross is an event. It has a calendar date it occurred. It is in the past. It is finished. Now when something looks wrong in our body, we look at the cross. Father, I see you healed me. Thank you. And our body returns to health and wholeness. Thanksgiving is acknowledging what God has done. You know it is done, because you see what Jesus did at the cross. There is nothing else for God to do. All that remains is simply thank you. We see the cross and what Jesus did and we say thank you. God has forgiven all our sins, healed all our diseases, and redeemed our life from the pit. God has been good to us through his son Jesus. The just by faith shall live. Faith is seeing what has happened. Faith is believing what is written in scripture. Jesus is a righteous King. Jesus gives us what is just. We have no sin. Therefore our body is healthy and whole. To leave us cursed, Jesus would be ignoring what he himself did on our behalf. Jesus has come to undo the works of the devil. Jesus by his own death purged out sins. Jesus made us righteous. And as the righteous King with all authority in heaven and on earth, Jesus give us health and makes our body whole. Health is a gift. Life is a gift. They are free gifts God gives us through Jesus. I am blessed by God. I am rewarded for being righteous. I’m blessed, I’m rewarded, for the righteousness God himself just gave me! I believed in Jesus and got baptized. That’s all I did. Because I chose to trust in Jesus, God changed me. God made me righteous, healed me, and gave me life that never ends. Now I get an eternity of being blessed by God. The good news is amazing.
We are seated in heaven Ephesians 2:4 God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) 2:6 And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 2:7 That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 2:8 For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Read it carefully because these are things which God has already done. It says has quickened, past tense, not will quicken. It says has raised us up, past tense, not will raise us up. Has quickened us – made us alive – together with Christ. Has raised us up together with Christ. Is Jesus alive or dead right now? He’s alive forevermore. So are you. You have a qualitatively different level of life than man around you. You are alive forevermore. Is Jesus exalted right now? Yes, he’s seated beside the Father in heaven. So are you. You have unhindered access to the Father for you are seated in his presence. You have a question? Ask the Father. You have a need? Ask the Father. That is the point of being in the presence of God. You have a conversation. You have a life together. And because you are seated with Jesus on the throne of heaven, you rule. What you say occurs on earth. What you bind is bound, what you loose, is free. You have the authority of the kingdom of God. The Father showed Jesus what he was doing, and Jesus did what the Father was doing. We live our life doing the same. We live a life of heaven now, ruling over the earth, because that’s what Jesus is doing, so that is what we are doing. We are together. Jesus is glorified. So are we. The cross and resurrection are in our past history. Now we are glorified. Now we rule. We were crucified with Christ. Our bodies got hammered to that wood. We died. We got buried in a tomb. God had to resurrect us to the same degree he had to resurrect Jesus. We now have heavenly bodies, perfect and whole, filled with life. In baptism we are experience everything Jesus did. We are participating in the death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation to the throne, of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are joined to Jesus. Because Jesus is alive, so are we. Because Jesus is glorified, so are we. Because Jesus is seated on a throne, so are we. God did these things in AD 33 – quickened us, raised us, seated us with Jesus in heaven – so that he was then free to do something else: that in the ages to come God might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. What is God doing now? Blessing us. Showing us kindness. God is able to do abundantly more than we ask or think – he’s our Father and we are reconciled to him. We are no longer limiting God by having a sin nature. Our prayers and God’s answers flow unhindered. We are good. We can handle receiving good gifts. God is teaching us how to rule earth, to be Kings. We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. God ordained that Jesus would come and save the world. Jesus did so perfectly. God has ordained that we should walk in good works. With our Father’s help, our good works will also come out perfect.
Continue reading being a disciple of Jesus Christ
BEING A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST
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