“Going into his presence” is an Old Covenant concept.

The Gospel is not about a life time of preserving your salvation. It is about your perfect salvation preserving you.

The Gospel is not about a God who is ignorant that we will still sin after receiving Jesus. We preach hell fire to people who sin, not realizing the following:

a) You too will continue to sin;
b) I will continue to sin:
c) The difference between you and I and them is that they are found out and we are not;
d) Their sins are rejected while ours are “accepted”;
e) God knows very well you will continue to sin. He is not ignorant.

Let me simplify it for you, if God gave you a Gospel that can be tainted by sin, he must either be not all knowing or not all powerful. You call people who teach grace “heretics”, but what should I call you who just called God “ignorant”?

Here are 4 things you may not know about yourself that God has done for you:

Colossians 1:22
Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

a) You have been reconciled to God himself;
b) You have brought into his own presence;
c) You are holy and blameless an without a single fault: and
d) You are now standing before him face to face.

I think it’s high time, we stop asking God to bring us into his presence. We are just asking him to do what he is already done. It’s time we know and claim this.

Knowledge of grace leads to great exploits.

All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.

 

Colossians 1:6

Dear friends,

As I prepare a message from the letter of Colossians, I am so excited to share something with you. I want you to note that Paul prays that the Colossians would receive understanding.

Colossians 1:9

That’s why we have not stopped praying for you. We have been praying for you since the day we heard about you. We have been asking God to fill you with the knowledge of what he wants. We pray that he will give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Spiritual wisdom and understanding!

Why? Paul gives us the reasons. When you have spiritual wisdom and understanding, you have the following:

Colossians 1:10-12

We pray that you will lead a life that is worthy of the Lord. We pray that you will please him in every way. So we want you to bear fruit in every good thing you do. We want you to grow to know God better. We want you to be very strong, in keeping with his glorious power.

a) a worthy life;

b) a will that pleases him in everyway;

c) fruit bearing deeds;

d) a growth of knowing God better; and

e) a strength that is in keeping with his glorious power.

These are the things that comes from spiritual wisdom and understanding! The question here is this: what is spiritual wisdom and understanding?

Dear friends,

Do you realize that the words “spiritual wisdom and understanding” are an elaboration of what Paul says in verse 6..

Colossians 1:6

All over the world the good news is bearing fruit and growing. It has been doing that among you since the day you heard it. That is when you understood God’s grace in all its truth.

What is the knowledge that God wants?

When you understood God’s grace in all its truth.

Understanding grace!

People say all the time that grace leads you to a lazy life, a license will, unfruitful deeds, stagnant growth and weak Christian life. Paul says the in the alternative.

Many teach us that Paul says we are no longer under the power of sin because we are no longer under law. That is not accurate. What is accurate is this:

Romans 6:14

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

You are no longer under the power of sin, because you are under grace. If you are just “not under law”, you are under license. However, if you are under grace, you are dead to sin. You are free. God did not just take you out of law, He placed you into grace. He placed you into Christ.

Thought of the day.

Grace should not lead you to fatalism, it leads you to great exploits- Ryan Rufus.

Payment not performance.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:13-14

Dear friends, how often we have heard it was said that our citizenship in the kingdom of light is dependent on our walk with the Lord. It is not. Paul tells us that he has rescued us. It is an event of the past. Paul also tells us that we are rescued. The word “rescued” tells us that there is nothing we can do to be saved. You cannot be rescued if you can save yourself.

Paul tells us that our citizenship in the Kingdom of His Son is independent on how we walk. It is not base on your performance but it is base on the Son’s  payment. Paul tells us you were brought into his kingdom by redemption and not obedience.

The concept of redemption is the New Covenant is an interesting one. It is not the same of that in the old. The word redemption [“apolutrōsis”] used by Paul consists of two words. “Apo” and “Lutrosis”.

While we are familiar with the Old Covenant concept of redemption, which is to “payment to buy something back”, the New Covenant introduces a novel concept of redemption. It brings to mind a convenient based on better promises!

In the Old, the payment that was made was enough for the purpose of one purchase. Often at times, we ask the question “What happens to a believer, when he is redeemed but then ‘sells his soul’ to Satan again?”

Dear friends, if Paul uses the word “Lutron” from “Lutrosis” then it would have meant a payment for a ransom. This means that if a person sells himself to sin, a new ransom would have to be paid. Paul however adds the word “Apo”. This is a very interesting word. It means “separation, departure, cessation, completion, reversal” (Strongs)

If you put the two words together, it brings forth the idea of a payment which is so complete that it totally pays for every time you sell out until you are totally separated from your former master.  In order words, the payment is so complete; it covers every time you sell out. Strong’s defined it as “ransom in full”.

The Chinese has a very interesting way to support this, it is found in the Chinese word for “forever”. It is written this way: 永. It is again made out of two words, a single stroke which means “blood” and water “水”. The word water means “cleansing.” When you put the 2 words together, it speaks about the blood that cleanses  you “forever.”

Dear friends, Hebrews 10 tells us that the blood of Jesus does not offer to you cleansing after cleansing like the blood of bulls and goats. It says it takes away your sins once and for all. It simply means the one-time payment is sufficient to totally deliver you from sin and its penalty.

Someone may quote to you that “if you deny Jesus, he will deny you”. Dear friends, if you read that text in its original text, the word “you” is not there. It reads “If you deny Jesus, he will deny”. Translators have grappled with how it is to be translated. The answer is simple. Read the next verse, “if we are faithless, he is faithful, he cannot deny himself.” He cannot deny himself! As such this means when you deny Jesus, he will deny your denial. It is never about your faithfulness.

You see dear friend, you are transported into the Kingdom of His Son because of the payment not because of your performance. It was that payment that brought an end to your citizenship to the Kingdom of darkness. It was the payment that bought your irrevocable citizenship.   That is why Paul said we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins, when he spoke about the change in our citizenship.

Thought of the day

The death of Jesus is not a payment for your sins, it is an over-payment for your sins.

Your accuser is Moses not Jesus.

“But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set’

John 5:45

 

I am rather overwhelmed by today’s reading. I find that the one thing God seems to hate most is people trying to be righteous by a moral conduct. The sad fact is that many confused Jesus with that moral conduct.

Here is an article which exemplifies this perfectly:

The apostle Peter also warns that those who have escaped the clutches of sin through a saving knowledge of Christ and then gets entangled with sin again are worse off than before.

 

“If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.

 

Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud” (2 Peter 2:20-22).

Dear friends, I want us to know that the above passage has nothing to do with “back sliding” or being entangled with sin. In order to appreciate that writings of Peter, it is necessary to realize the following:

a)    That the Old Covenant had its last prophet in John the Baptist;

 

b)    That the Old Covenant began to fade with Jesus fulfilling the Law by him dying on the Cross;

 

c)    That the New Covenant took place at Jesus’ resurrection;

 

d)    That the apostles did not know that the Old Covenant had begun to fade away until the emergence of Paul when Jesus showed him the grace gospel (see Galatians 1) and Peter being shown the dream to eat un-koshered animals and the meeting with Cornelius;

 

e)    That the apostles formally declared the Old Covenant has ended in the council of Jerusalem in Acts 15;

 

f)     That the Old Covenant finally ended when the Temple was burned down and the sacrifices of bulls and goats came to an end in AD 70;

 

g)    That from the time Jesus died to the destruction of the Temple, the Old Covenant was fading away (See Hebrews 7 and 8); and

 

h)    Many of the epistles were in fact written at that time. Hence many at times, the apostles called this period “last days”. It is a reference of the last day of law of Moses, and not the coming of Christ.

As such most of the epistles were written to address a very important issue since most of the early Christians were predominant Jews and the Gentiles who had just came to Christ were wondering if they needed to keep the Law of Moses. Hence the enemy of the church was not the world but Jews who were trying to bring Christians (Jew or Gentile) who came out of the Law back to the Law.

That dear friends, is what it means by “a dog going back to its vomit” which is a quotation from Proverbs signifying a man going back to its folly. The only time Paul called someone a fool was to the Galatians in chapter 3 when he said to them, that they were justified by grace and yet now is attempting to be righteous by observing the law.

Notice Peter speaks about the sacred command. Not commands. It is easy to read the same as the 10 commandments. It is not. It is the command to believe in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins (1 John 3:23). One command.

So Peter calls these people who try to bring the Christians back under the Law “springs without water and mists driven by a storm.” Peter says of them “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.”

Note what Peter had said that the way you escape the corruption of the world is by knowing Jesus. Then he said they are again entangled in it, they are worse off at the end. Notice the words “they are AGAIN entangled in it”. This means there were in it before. This is a reference to people who came out of the Law. They are making the same mistake.

Which brings us to our devotion, Jesus said ““But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set”, he said that right after Jesus healed a man on a Sabbath. They had set their hopes on Moses. “They” here refers to the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders. They were religious leaders of that day who had great confidence in the observance of the Law.

Jesus hates that.

Yet Jesus says he doesn’t accuse them, but Moses will because they set their hopes on the Law. Dear friends, God has entrusted all judgment onto Jesus and he doesn’t accuse anyone who believes in him for his righteousness, because he became our righteousness. For those of us who say that is not enough let us be careful. Moses is near.

Thought of the day.

You are no longer Law because you died with Christ, you are under Grace because you rose with him.

Like Father, like Son

Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. 

John 5:19-20

 If you were ever to ask someone, “what is God like?”What kind of answer do you think you would get? I have so often been questioned as I speak forth about the grace of God, been told that we do not preach enough about he would inflict wrath sickness and judgment on sinners. It seems that they have forgotten they too are sinners.

As we continue our journey with Jesus, we find that Jesus gives us a fresh revelation what his Father is like. Often we see Jesus as compassionate, his Father as angry – Jesus being the one shielding the wrath of his father away from us. That my friend is not what the Bible reveals.

Jesus said ““Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.” This simply means that Jesus does what his father shows him. He does exactly what his father does.

Dear friends, do you know the context of this statement? He has just healed a man who was sick for 38 years on a Sabbath. This is not just what Jesus did, this is what the Father did. Dear friends, yes, its’ true. The Father wants to heal, the Father wants you to rest from your labour and enter into His rest. The Father’s compassion is the Son’s compassion.

What the Son did on earth is what the Father did. Every tender touch, every endearing moment he spent with his disciples, every joy he shared, every suffering, even the cross. Paul tells us in Colossians, that God was in Christ reconciling the whole world to Himself and that the fullness of the deity was in Jesus. (1:22; 2:9)

So the next time some tells you that God gives you sickness, illness or judgment as a punishment for your sins, think again. Look unto Jesus, he was punished for your sins. Think of the Garden when he drank that cup. Think of what he did on the Roman courtyard where he was flocked. Think of Herod’s court when he was spat at and humiliated. Think of the cross, when the sins of the world was laid upon him. Now think of this when all that happened to Jesus, think of this – Jesus said “I can do only what I see my Father is doing, because whatever the Father does I also do. For the Father loves me and shows me all he does.”

Finally think of this- one chapter ago, Jesus had just said “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Thought of the day

Receive your healing, restoration and wholeness in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. It is the will of the Father.

After 38 years.

One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

John 5:5-6

I love it when the Spirit drops a question in my heart. Today, as I was reading my devotion, the Spirit asked me, “Did you realize that the man was invalid for thirty eight years? Then he asked me “what has this to do with Sabbath?” Why did Jesus ask this man to take up his mat and walk on a Sabbath?

I asked the Lord and did a bit of research and this is what I found:

“The number thirty-eight in Hebrew was written with the letters lamed (authority) and chet (inner chamber, including the heart). Thirty-eight is the number of work, or labor. It includes the idea of one’s calling, or life’s work and purpose, for this is the true authority that each one possesses in his heart.

A biblical example of this number is found in Deut. 2:14, where Israel entered its calling after a delay of 38 years:

Now the time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered, was thirty-eight years; until all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them.

In John 5:5 we read of the man who had been sick for 38 years until Jesus healed him. 38 is the number of labour. Jesus said to him in verse 8, “Arise, take up your pallet, and walk.” In verse 10 the Jews criticized him for working because that day happened to be a Sabbath. In fact, they often criticized Jesus for healing people on the Sabbath, considering that to be “work.”

If they had only understood the principle of the “rest-work,” where a person ceases from his own works to do the works of God (Heb. 4:10), they would have rejoiced that the sick had been healed instead of grousing that it was done on a Sabbath.”

For 38 years the man had labored to find rest, he had placed his hope on being placed in the pool for angel to bring healing and to bring rest to his body. Up to that time, he did not realize standing before him was the true Lord of Sabbath.  “Do you want to be well?” What a statement!

Dear friend, are you weary and heavy laden, trying your best to figure out through your wisdom and your strength how to pay your bills, deal with your sickness, forgive a love one, talk to your estrange child or make up with a friend you disappoint?

My advice- rest. Rest from your struggles, let Jesus deals with it. Appreciate the principle of “rest-work”. Cease from your work and let Jesus does his. He asks you as you labor “Do you want to be well?”

Thought of the day

Rest.

 

A man with a dying child.

“Sir,” replied the official, “come with me before my child dies.”  Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live!”

John 4:49-50

Dear friends, as we encounter the man with the ill child in Cana, the Lord showed me how he perceives problems and how we in turn should do likewise. I must say I am dumbfounded. The man an important man, a king’s official had heard about how Jesus had turned ceremonial water to wine in Cana and came to beg Jesus to heal him.

While I find it strange that Jesus had needed to be beg, Jesus nevertheless tried to put him off  and said to him ““None of you will ever believe unless you see miracles and wonders.”

I want us observe something very important here. The official said, “Come with me” then he said “before my child dies”. Jesus said, “Go” then he said “your son will live”. Dear friends, if we read this too quickly we may just missed it. The official called his son “child”, Jesus called his son “son”. Dear friends, the official had called his son an infant and he is dying. Jesus called his son “the son that will represent the line”. In other words, Jesus called his son, the son that will bring forth many sons.

While the official sees his child as an infant and dying, Jesus saw him as a grown child and bearing many other sons after him.

Eugene Peterson in the Message said, “The man believed the bare word Jesus spoke and headed home. On his way back, his servants intercepted him and announced, “Your son lives!”

Dear friends, I marveled at God sees our problems, while we concentrate on our shortcomings, he sees life and fruitfulness. So often I am guilty of this, whenever I see shortcomings in others, I complain and murmur.Sometimes we, who speak about grace so much, are being complaint about being ungracious. The sad thing is most of the time, such complaints against us have merits.

Like the official, we see our trials like little children who are dying We so often see the non-growth and death in others, ministry and when friends disappoint us. The Lord is different, he sees us a grown up sons full of life. Friends, how do we allow trials to affect us?

Better still…

Friends, how do we look at people who disappoint us? How do we see ourselves as being disappointed to others?

Today I chose to be like that official, to believe the bare word Jesus spoke. Towards, my family, my church, my friends and my trials, I chose to believe what God says about them. That they full of possibilities, full of life and full of hope.

Thought of the day

When Jesus fills our eyes with the possibilities, we find it easy to believe.