At the Heart of Salvation

"By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast."

The Holy Spirit is knocking at the door of man’s heart; that is his mind, his will, his emotions.  Man is a free will being and accepting Christ is an act of man’s will.

Augustine was a Church Father who was esteemed by Protestants and Catholics alike.  Augustine believed that man's will was so totally depraved and bound by sin that he could do nothing toward his salvation.  God bestowed the grace to man to ignite his will so that through faith he could accept the salvation offered by Christ.

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me."

The Paschal Lamb

The eight day Feast of Unleavened Bread is called Pasch which was derived from the Hebrew word meaning passage.  It celebrates the deliverance of Israelites from their enslavement in Egypt when the angel of death passed over their houses sparing all firstborn Hebrews.  Male lambs, one year old and without blemish, were slain and eaten by the departing Israelites.  The blood of the slain lambs was smeared on the doorposts and lintel of each Israelite house as a pass over sign to the avenging angel. 

The Passover is the first day of Pasch and is celebrated on the 14^th day of the Jewish month of Nisan.  In ancient times, every Israelite family gathered together for the ritual eating of the paschal lamb. 

Christ was slain for our sins on the Passover Friday in 30 AD.  His shed blood saves believers from the avenging sword of God’s judgement.  Thus Christ is called the Paschal Lamb.

Reference: “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.  Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.”  (Leviticus 23:5-6)

Special Note: Unlike our contemporary day that runs from midnight to midnight, the Jewish day ran from sunset to sunset.  It started in the evening about 6 PM and ended at 6 PM the following evening.  Twilight can be defined as the light diffused over the sky from sunset to dark. 

The Resurrection of Our Bodies

 

The miracle of the Resurrection was the sign which Christ Himself promised as the proof of His divine mission.  Had He failed to return to life on the third day, He would have been convicted of being an imposter.  His enemies, the priests and Pharisees, understood full well the importance of this sign.  Therefore, they took precautions to seal the tomb and post the guards.  Since these arrangements excluded the possibility of fraud, they thereby increased for posterity the certainty of the miracle.

“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.”

New Testament prophecy clearly reveals a judgment day at the end of time when all men, good or evil, will be reunited with their bodies in preparation for the final judgment.  But where is the temporary location of the spirits of the departed?

Sheol is a Hebrew word, used in the English translation of the Old Testament, which means the abode or dwelling of the dead.  Hades is a Greek word, used in the English translation of the New Testament, which means the resting place of the dead.  It’s fair to say the two words are synonymous. 

Hell can be defined as the location of the spirits of the dead.  It can also be defined as the “lake of fire” where unbelievers will be eternally tormented after the Day of Judgment.

Therefore, it is opined that the place, variously referred to as Sheol, Hades, and Hell (in the first sense), was divided into two abodes, one a holding cell for the wicked and the other a place of comfort for the righteous.

Scriptural evidence supporting the resurrection of our bodies is as follows:

“And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.

“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

“And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

“But as for you, go your way to the end of your life; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age.”

The Simple Meaning of Life

"All things are summed up in Christ both in heaven and on earth.

"For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.

"In that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

"For the wages of sin is death (that is the second death, the lake of fire), but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

"That I may be found in Him, not having a righteous of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

In the twenty-first century, the beginning of the third millennium, it's not in vogue to talk about sin or the consequences of sin.  Hell is an undesirable four letter word tabooed by our generation.  But if there is neither sin nor punishment for sin, then Christ died needlessly.  And in the distance, we can vaguely hear the songwriter's chant, "I swear there ain't no heaven, but I pray there ain't no Hell."

Eternal salvation, being rescued from the consequences of sin, is based on faith, and faith alone.  So simple.  Believing that Christ is who He says He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

I say to the atheists who proclaim, "There is no God," and to the agnostics who declare, "I can't know, for nothing can be known with any certainty about God or the supernatural," what if you are wrong?  

In his Revelation, the Apostle John unveiled "the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.  And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Hall of Faith

The patriarch Abraham was an original member of the Hall of Faith as was Job, a blameless and upright man who lived in patriarchal times.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, being convinced of things not seen.  For by it men of old gained approval.  And without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

God allowed Satan to test Job's faith and despite losing seven sons and three daughters, all his possessions, and being smitten with boils from head to toe, he remained steadfast and kept his faith.  In the end, Job professed, "I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know."  And the Lord blessed Job with seven more sons and three more daughters and his daughters were the fairest in all the land.  He also restored Job's health and doubled his possessions; and Job lived another 140 years and died an old man, full of days.

The Apostle Paul explains, "Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgements and unfathomable His ways!  For who has known the mind of the Lord?"

And again, "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.  Your adversary, the devil, prowls like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  But resist him, firm in your faith.  And after you have suffered for a little, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you."

Now God established His everlasting covenant with Abraham and the act of circumcision was a sign of that covenant.  He promised Abraham the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, as an inheritance.  And He swore to make him a great nation with as many descendants as the stars of the heavens, promising that in Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

By faith, when Abraham was called by God, he obeyed by going out to the land which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out with his wife and nephew, not knowing where he was going.

Now Sarah, Abrahams wife, had borne him no children.  But God said to Abraham, "Sarah shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish my covenant with him and it will be an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.  Indeed, My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year."

Against all earthly odds, Abraham believed God who is able to raise men from the dead and to call into being that which does not exist.  Without being weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, and the deadness in Sarah's womb.  And he said in his heart, "Will a child be born to a man 100 years old?  And will Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child?"  Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, gave glory to God, and was fully assured that what God had promised He was able to perform.  And because Abraham believed God, it was reckoned unto him as righteousness.

Now the sacrifice of children was not uncommon among pagans and apostate Israelites.  And God said to Abraham, "Go to the land of Moriah and offer up Isaac as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will reveal to you."

By faith, Abraham offered up Isaac; and he was offering up his only begotten son.  Abraham remembered that God had promised His covenant would go through Isaac and he was fully assured that God was able to raise Isaac even from the dead.

God spared Isaac and declared to Abraham, "Because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore.  And in your seed (that is, Christ) all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

The Hebrew word for seed can be interpreted in the plural or in the singular depending on context, referring to either descendants or a descendant.  Undoubtedly, the seed mentioned in the passage above is referring to a descendant (that is, Christ) because historically the descendants of Abraham have not been a blessing to all the nations of the earth.  God's Messianic promise was the culmination of His covenant with Abraham.

Abraham, and other men of old, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had foreseen something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.  Therefore, at the fullness of the time, God kept His Messianic promise by sending forth His Son that we might receive adoption as sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  And if we belong to Christ, then we are Abraham's descendants; heirs according to the promise.

So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.  Are you a member of the Hall of Faith?

Will Believers Be Judged?

Will "believers" or, more precisely, "the righteous in Christ" be judged?  The answer is no; not with respect to their salvation.  And what is salvation?  Spiritual rescue from the consequences of sin; to be saved from eternal damnation.

Make no mistake about it.  We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ.  God says it; I believe it; that settles it.

My statement of faith is described in the article entitled "Justification By Faith."  A short synopsis:  "Only the act of justification by faith in Christ can save a man's soul.  That is, the righteousness bestowed by God through faith in Christ by whom a sinner is freed from the penalty due for his sins."

The Apostle Paul says:

"I may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

According to civil law, if a man is convicted of a crime, he is sentenced by the courts to pay a debt to society.  That could result in a prison term or even capital punishment.  In much the same way, according to God's Law, a sinner owes a debt to God because of his sins.

And again, the Apostle Paul says:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And once again:

"He has cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

And let's not forget the Apostle John:

"He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Now believers will stand before the judgement seat (2 Corinthians 5:10) and some have said that their works will be judged.  However, the word "judge" can be confusing, especially to babes in Christ.  More correctly, their works will be "put to the proof."  The NAS uses the word "test," the KJ the word "try," and the Douay the word "assay" and this is by fire.  The Apostle Paul gives a vivid description in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15:

"The fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.  If any man's work which he has built upon the foundation remains, he shall receive a reward.  If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire."

Translations of the Old Testament Canon

"Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God."  Romans 10:17

The remarkable Holy Scriptures of Judaism: written by the sacred writers who were legends in their own time and for generations beyond; inspired by Almighty God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, in whose hand is our very life's breath; culminating with the unfolding of Jesus the Christ from its sacred pages by which the prophetic mystery was concealed and then revealed at the fulness of time.

The Protestant Old Testament is identical to the Holy Scriptures of Judaism.  It consists of the 39 protocanonical books.  The Catholic Old Testament includes seven additional books as well as additions to Esther and Daniel.  Catholics call them the deuterocanonical books or second canon.  Protestants call them the apocrypha, meaning of doubtful authenticity or authorship.  However, Protestants recognize the historical value of some of the apocryphal books because they fill the 420 year gap between the prophet Malachi and the Gospel of Matthew.

The two most noteworthy translations of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism are the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate.

When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, he built the city of Alexandria to showcase the superiority of the Greek culture.  The Diaspora was encouraged to settle there and Alexandria became a haven for Hellenists—Jews who adopted the Greek culture.

By the time Ptolemy II took the throne, the Jews in Alexandria spoke Greek rather than Hebrew.  Because there was a need for a Greek translation of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism, Ptolemy II commissioned 70 Palestinian Jews to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the third century BC.  In recognition of their work, the translation was dubbed the Septuagint (from the Latin, septuaginta, meaning seventy).

Fast forward to the fourth century AD and the Golden Age of the Church Fathers.  A scholar named Jerome was one of the most able Fathers in the early Christian Church.  A superb translator and commentator, he was fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.  He was a contemporary of Augustine who was an extraordinary theologian, perhaps second only to the Apostle Paul.  Augustine praised Jerome’s talents by remarking, “what Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal man has ever known.”

Jerome's greatest accomplishment was a Latin translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate.  The New Testament was his revision of the Old Latin versions which were translated from the Greek.  About 390 AD, he began his work on the Old Testament.  However, he went beyond the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament and created a new Latin version translated from the Hebrew Scriptures.  It was completed about 405 AD.

The Douay Bible is the English translation of Jerome's Latin Vulgate.  The New Testament was published in 1582; the Old Testament was published in two volumes, the first in 1609 and the second in 1610.  It was the only official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church until well into the Twentieth century.

The King James Bible was published in 1611.  It was authorized by King James I of England.  Twenty-five gifted translators were involved in the creation of its Old Testament.  That translation was based on  the Masoretic Text, abbreviated MT.

The MT is the official Hebrew version of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism.  It was copied, edited, and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 8^th and 11^th centuries AD.  Codex Leningrad is the oldest copy of  the MT.  It is dated to 1000 AD.

The King James Bible is probably the most widely read Bible in the English-speaking Protestant world.  For a few decades, it has been available in modern English as the New King James Bible.

"All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness."  2 Timothy 3:16    

Cherry Picking God's Word

How can the pastor of a prominent Toronto church claim there is no Hell?  Did she not attend a seminary before being ordained as a minister?  Is the cross displayed on her church not a symbol of Christ's crucifixion?  For if there is neither sin nor punishment for sin, then Christ died needlessly.  While believers are freed from the penalty due for their sins through faith in Jesus Christ, unbelievers will be judged according to their deeds.  Because all men are sinners and Christ's crucifixion is the only sacrifice that atones for sinful deeds, how shall unbelievers escape if they ignore so great a salvation?

A fundamentalist believes the Bible is the word of God; a liberal believes the Bible contains the word of God, a dangerous philosophy indeed.

"For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." 

Liberals are tailoring the Bible to their own liking; cherry picking the word of God; rejecting those parts of the Bible that aren’t compatible with their lifestyle.

"Holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied it's power; and avoid such men as these.  Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

We must remain "all in" with the Lord.  We can't be deceived by the devil or those who distort the Gospel.  We must fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith.

Can We Work Our Way to Heaven?

By the works of the Law shall no mortal man be justified.  The Apostle Paul stated emphatically that if you are seeking to be justified by the Law, you must keep the whole Law.  And of course, it’s humanly impossible to keep the whole Law.

Sin and death through sin entered the world through Adam.  But man was not charged with sin until Moses delivered the Law; for where there is no law, there is no violation.  Why the Law?  We wouldn't have come to know sin except through the Law; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.  I wouldn't have known about coveting if the Law hadn't said, "Thou shalt not covet."  But my sinful passions were aroused and sin taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind.  Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.  Indeed, the righteous man shall live by faith.     

So faith comes first.  That is faith in Christ Jesus whereby we receive forgiveness of sins, life everlasting, and adoption as sons of God.  It was for freedom that Christ set us free.  We are no longer slaves of sin. We were born into spiritual death through Adam but we are "born again" into spiritual life through Christ.

Then comes works.  We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  For the whole Law is fulfilled in the statement, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  We know that we love God and we love our neighbour when we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.     

However, if anyone sins, our Advocate with God the Father is Jesus Christ the righteous.  For if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.