I passed on to you as most important what I also received: Christ died for our sins in line with the Scriptures, He was buried, and He rose on the third day in line with the Scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.
The fact is, I know of nothing good living in me – living, that is, in my unspiritual self – for though the will to do what is good is in me, the performance is not, with the result that instead of doing the good things I want to do, I carry out the sinful things I do not want. Romans 7:18-19.
If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24.
A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12.
And continuing our 351 Old Testament prophecies, promises of God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, we come to number 153: Messiah’s Resurrection assured. Psalm 118:17-18: I will not die, but live, and tell of the works of the LORD. The LORD has disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death. And, Luke 24:5-7; 1 Corinthians 15:20: And as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
Paul understood that everything in his life before his encounter with the risen Jesus could not prepare him for that powerful encounter. His zeal was persecuting the very work Jesus, the Son, the Messiah, was doing from before the beginning. And James, Jesus’ own half-brother, also understood only after Jesus arose and appeared to him. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. James 1:16-21.
What about us? How can we know if we are deceived? I don’t think we can know until we encounter the emptiness of believing what is not the truth of Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. Pontius Pilate asked Jesus what is truth after Jesus plainly told him, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” John 18:36. Hearing kingdom, Pilate assumed having a king. “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” John 18:37. The kingdom Jesus spoke about is the kingdom of God. Not the kingdoms of men then or now. The kingdoms of men cannot save our souls. The disciples and the Jews following Jesus expected that He, as Messiah, would overthrow the kingdom of Rome and restore the kingdom of Israel. Paul thought followers of Jesus were enemies of the faith of the fathers of Israel and of the Torah. Living in this world of the kingdoms of men, how could they understand? They understood what they knew. We understand what we know living in this present age. But the truth is so much bigger than what they knew then or what we know now. God’s Kingdom is not of this world’s kingdoms of men. Thank God because it is God and His Kingdom that brings healing!
I love in What’s A Christian, Anyway by Glenn Packiam, where he writes about what Paul understood and shared with us: “Sin is more than the wrong that we do. Sin, as the Bible describes it, is not just a failure; it is also a power we were under. Listen to how Paul went on to talk about sin: – Sin entered the world through a human (Romans 5:12). – Sin ruled in death (Romans 5:21). – We became slaves to sin (Romans 6:6, 16-17) and under its power (Romans 6:7, 14). – Sin seized an opportunity through the Law to introduce death (Romans 7:11). But Paul was clear that because of Jesus – the salvation that He brings – we no longer have to be slaves to sin. How was sin’s power broken? A few lines after announcing that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Paul told us that sin, the power we were under, was “condemned…in the body” of Christ Jesus. God did this “by sending His own Son to deal with sin in the same body as humans, who are controlled by sin” (Romans 8:3). To sum it all up: The death of Jesus on the cross achieved our salvation by dealing with sin (our failure) and Sin (the power we were under). That is not a temporary deliverance or a fictional salvation. It is a total and full healing of the fractures and the breaks in our lives and in our world caused by sin/Sin. If sin is the breaking apart of God’s good world, then salvation is God putting it all back together again – beginning with us.”
***OUT OF THE SLIMY PIT – You lifted me out of the slimy pit, the mud, and the mire; You set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. You put a new song in my mouth: a hymn of praise to my God. Many will see and fear the LORD and put their trust in Him. Psalm 40:2-3. Adapted.***
