CAN'T OVERCOME SIN, IT'S O.K.

To start this blog post, please read my last one to set this one up. We still often see things in our life from a past paradigm of Western Theological philosophy in a rewards and punishment perspective. One which we in Western Christianity have inhereited from Plato and St. Augustine of Hippo. With this warning in mind let's proceed to this present blog post.

In our humanity we all live in the fallenness we received from the first Adam and with a darkened mind also received from him. Just because we acknowledge who we are in Jesus Christ and believe what He says applies to us does not mean that we all check our humanness, weaknesses, lusts, carnality, vanity, greed, jealousies and all other fleshly human foibles at the door of the Church of Jesus Christ. We all too often walk in and after the flesh and not as often do we walk in and after the Spirit. And what I am telling all of us is this. " THIS IS O.K. "

Jesus did not come to stop humans from sinning. He came to FORGIVE SIN and become sin, all sin for all of us His children. Paul says it this way in Romans 5:18, "...the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life ( eternal life) for ALL men " Jesus simply makes us righteous by His declaration as an act of God made possible by His perfect life.

Jesus is not going to let our sins slip under the door and miss some of them and thereby we find sins in our life that go unforgiven. Silly I know, Jesus "has our back" as the terminology of the day goes.

Paul speaks to this dual life we lead, one in the flesh and the other in the Spirit , in Romans 7. Paul illustrates that we as humans will always have the two sides of our life warring against each other. But , in Jesus, we have the victory in that war because He says SO! Then Paul says in Romans 8:1, "...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." All actually are, they all just do not know it yet. And they will.

( Again, if you have not read my last blog post, please take the time to do so now.)

Jesus even said himself in John 5:24, that we have passed from death into life through faith and belief in Him. In Matt.11:28, Jesus speaks to all of us trying to become perfect in the flesh by doing this that or the other thing or NOT doing this that or the other thing. He simply says REST. Come to Him and Rest. I will give you rest, He says.

To illustrate the continuing corruption we all are in the flesh, Paul says it this way in ICor.15:53 (OKJ), " This corruptible must put on incorruption." What Paul is saying that even until the day we die or are resurrected we are still sinners and we are still corruption or corruptible. We NEVER attain perfection of the flesh in this life. We can improve but only in Jesus Can we be PERFECT. And we ARE!!!

We all too often go around beating ourselves up over weaknesses and sins or lusts which we may NEVER humanly conquer in this physical life. Alcoholism. Drug addiction. Pornography addiction. Sex addiction. Tobacco addiction. You name it and someone has it. But we all have victory in Jesus Christ who Gives us the Victory. ICor.15:57. We simply win because declares us winners.

I love the verse in Romans 14:22 which says, " blessed is the man who does not condemn himself in what he approves." Jesus says to quit judging each other and rest. Rejoice. Celebrate what He has done to us and for us. He loves us unconditionally which I have been describing here.

We are ALL weak sinners. We all live in a body of sin and death. We all have a darkened mind. We all live in the fallenness of the first Adam. And it is while we are YET sinners Christ died for us the ungodly. Thank you Jesus. Eternity with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit awaits all of us who believe.

SIN IS OVER- YOU ARE FOREVER FORGIVEN AND CLEAN

Luke 7:40-50, speaks of those who are forgiven much ( us ) who love much and those who are forgiven little, loving little.

Romans 5:20 speaks of Grace always outrunning our sin. "You can't outsin Grace," as I put it.

Romans 5:1-7, speaks of while we all are yet and still sinners, Christ died for us.

I John 1:7, speaks that the blood of Christ cleanses/purifies us of all sin.

Even when John first laid eyes on Jesus, his comment was, "Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Foolish John, he actually thought that Jesus took away the sin of the world. Either he did or He did not.

In Heb.9:26, we see that Jesus did away with the sin of the world.

And, In I John 3;5, we see that in Jesus, Us being in Jesus, there is NO Sin.

Jesus became sin for us. See IICor.5:19-20. Why? So that we can be called the Righeousness of God.

Where do you stand on the sin question in your life? Are you feeling shame? Do you feel guilt? Do you "want to do better"? Why?

Did Jesus pay it all or did he not?

Let's just cut to the chase:

We are unconditionally loved by the Father.
Jesus' blood forgave us of all sin, past, present, and future.

God has forgotten all of our sin.

If He does, why do we still remember it?

We stand ever present in God's eyes , loved, forgiven, clean, righteous, holy, without spot or blemish, and INSIDE of God's life forever by Jesus declaration.

Can it get any better than that?

What does God think when we sin? Answer: NOTHING. Why? because He has forgotten it. It is covered, forgiven in the Blood of Christ.

We are great sinners. Always in the falleness of Adam. But in Jesus Christ, we are the recipients of Great forgiveness and adoption.

Jesus simply undid or overturned what Adam did and Jesus makes it all right before God the Father. You are in there someplace.

Whatever question you may have, Jesus is the Answer, as Billy Graham says. He is your answer, He is your life. He is your future. He is your everything.

Sin has been dealt with 2000 years ago. Rejoice when you sin. Thank Jesus that He took it on Himself 2000 years ago and you forever stand clean and forgiven and righteous in His eyes.

How good can this get?

Paul Kurts
Pastor Paul
Madison, Alabama
256-468-8081

DID HE OR DIDN'T HE?

Modern religionists want to make the Gospel SO conditional that it is beyond the reach of most human beings. Statements like, "you CAN be saved," or "you CAN be forgiven" permeate the doctrinal landscape of many professing Christians.

Verses such as " God so loved the world", become God so loved 'most' or 'some' of the world with that love being limited to only those who would somehow 'qualify' for that love.

Or, I Cor. 15:22, "As in Adam ALL die, in Christ ALL are / will be made alive." This is read as , " If one does the appropriate applications then one CAN be made alive in Christ." My point is that either we are made alive in Christ or we are not. No if, ands, or buts.

In Ephesians 1, either we ALL were chosen in Jesus Christ BEFORE the foundation of the world to be blameless IN HIS SIGHT ( By His declaration as an act of God) or we were not. Which is it? What hoops and ladders do we have to jump through or climb to attain this blamelessness? What do we have to do to be a part of His pleasure and will? Can we just be allowed to play God for a little while so we can make all of God's plan work out so He will LIKE it? Either we ALL were chosen before the foundation of the world or we were not.

God's plan and the Salvation of the Cosmos and humanity is not Conditional. It is not a potentiality or possibility. The Good News is not contractural. It is not based on us or anything humanity can do. The Good News is simply an ANNOUNCEMENT OR PROCLOMATION of what God HAS DONE ALREADY for all of humanity IN Jesus Christ.

The Good News is that you--ALL of you- have been given a part in it by our Great Triune God and loving Saviour, Jesus Christ. Did He or Didn't He?

He Did.

Amen

FAITH OF CHRIST OR FAITH IN CHRIST? WHICH?

Some have never even thought of this question which is of vital importance and relevance to all humans on earth. That question is, " is one saved by the FAITH OF CHRIST, or is one saved by FAITH IN Christ?" At first this may seem like a non sequitur, but in fact it IS the WHOLE Gospel in truth.

Karl Barth, the great Swiss/German Theologian said that the Gospel turns on prepisitions. How true.

We hear often, " Do you have faith? Do you have faith in Christ? Like that is something great and is going to do all there is in this great Cosmos to save a person. Don't get me wrong , faith in Christ is GOOD. To believe in Jesus Christ is VERY GOOD. Well, how much faith IN Christ is required for salvation? Is it a little, more, or much? Well, how much? Any room for error?

I posit that it is impossible for a human to have faith enough to secure salvation. At best humans can GUESS, OR POSTULATE, OR HOPE, OR ANY NUMBER OT OTHER THINGS BUT faith, I don't think so. At our best , our faith is only partial, limited, and small.

Will that do the work of God? Will that human , small, limited faith conclude the plan of God on this earth? You had better hope not.

There is a better understanding. It simply is this. EVERYTHING DEPENDS AND IS PREDICATED UPON THE FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST.

He is OUR Faith. He has perfect Faith and He gives it to us whether we know it or not.

He is our life. Col.3:4. And if that is so, then He is our FAITH as Well!!!!

We live and exist by the FAITH of the Son of God who lived and died for us and in our place. Gal.2:20.

IN our limited human understanding we can at least have some faith that Jesus' Faith is all we need. And that is enough.

Love to all,
Paul

CONDEMNATION / DAMNATION...NOT THE SAME!!!

Woah... one thing we need to understand here is that Condemnation and Damnation are NOT the same thing. You argumentative religious hobbyists can go home now!

We read in John 5:29 that those who have 'not done good' come forth to the resurrection of damnation. KJV. Now Wait just a minute. We know that we are all saved in Jesus Christ. By Grace. Not based upon any thing we have done, good or evil. We know that we all... humans.. were chosen by Christ, and in Christ before the foundation or creation of the world. We know that God so loved the world. Jn.3:16.

We know that all of Adam's family are under the curse of death and condemnation by Adam's sin and fall. We simply inherit that penalty. But... we know that in Jesus that death penalty has been overturned and we are accepted into Jesus' life and receive real LIFE IN JESUS. We are transformed from dead to living in Jesus. I cor. 15:22. We know that this applies to ALL living humans who have ever lived. Eph.1:3-14.

We know also that none of us are any longer under any condemnation in Jesus as Romans 8:1 tells us. So we see all are saved and reconciled in Jesus, we are no longer under any condemnation and have passed from death to life, John 5:24, and are alive in Jesus. So what is this damnation all about?

Simply, if one refuses to accept who he or she is in Jesus and what all He has done for them, then by that refusal they simply will continue to live in a state of damnation or self sufficiency and misery and suffering and perishing and weeping and gnashing of teeth for as long as it takes for them to "see the light" and accept who they are in Jesus and come into the party of heaven.

There is NO condemnation in Jesus. The whole world is under condemnation or death due to Adam's sin and fall--I Cor.11:32--but Jesus has released all of humanity from under that death condemnation through belief in Him and Who we all are in Jesus. There is damnation of self choice by those refusing to accept and believe who they are in Jesus, and that denial and suffering can go on forever--and the Bible calls that HELL.

Good News...Huh?

Paul
256-468-8081
Madison, AL
www.newlifewcg.org

ASCENSION SUNDAY. WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?

Sunday was Ascension Sunday. One of the six great feast days of the Christian Church.
Why is it so important and what does it mean for all of us--all of humanity?
It was placed in the church in around the 300's A.D. before the Catholic Church was ever recognised. It was placed to declare the BODILY ASCENSION of Jesus Christ into Heaven. Jesus remains forever human in His eternal existence in His humanity.

In Acts 1:10-11, the angel said, " this SAME Jesus who you see ascending into heavens will come again ." The Feast of Ascension or Ascension Sundany, ( May 16th this year,) declares the bodily resurrection and ascension of Jesus into Heaven.

This is important for all of us--humanity--for it is in the ascension of Jesus that He takes all of us in His ascension and places all of us at the Father's right hand along with himself. ( Ephesians 2:6).

Not only this, but since Jesus is still human in his existence, we will also be human in our eternal existence with a "spiritual body" of flesh and bone which appears 'physical" and without physical limitations. Not subject to decay or death. See I Cor. 15.

In a sense, the Ascension of Jesus validates the entire Gospel which concludes with all of mankind residing at the right hand of the Father with Jesus, a position of highest love and respect the same as the Father has for Jesus himself.

In our state of Union with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit IN Jesus we will have, as Paul describes in I Cor. 15, our own 'spriitual body' which will appear 'physical' and without physical imitations. We will be able to do all of the things we do now but only better with a 'glorified' body made of spirit but appearing physical.

Ascension Sunday and the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father and taking all of us with Him is vital to our understanding of the Gospel.

A few verses to further study for all of us;

I Cor. 15:47-49. The man Jesus remains a human man from heaven.
I Tim. 2:5, Jesus, the MAN, remains the mediator between heaven and man
Acts 1:10-11 The same Jesus which ascended in Acts 1 will return in the same
bodily form as always--one which He will have forever.
Ephesians 1:3-14 All of humanity has been included in this eternal future in Christ

May God bless all of us in uderstanding this more.

Pastor Paul
Madison, Al
256-468-8081

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MAN'S DESTINY IS IN GOD'S HANDS--AND THAT IS GOOD!

Man's destiny is God's destiny for man. God's plan for the destiny of man is a done deal finalized in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. There is a little mostly obscure verse back in Isiah 46:10 most would read VERY incorrectly. It reads, " I declare the end from the beginning." Most would read this as , since God knows everything He just knows the end of things as He can see that end and knows in advance how it will all play out. BUT, this is NOT what the verse says. It says, " He DECLARES the end from the beginning. This means that He is completely in charge. His will is involved in the outcome of the future. He is in charge of our life and declares the end for all of His creation. And that end is Good. It is Good News for everyone. He brings it all about as He wishes for His good pleasure.

With this said let's look at a few scriptures which reveal what that "end" for humanity is. Gen.1:26-27, God said let us make man in our image. Relational. Loving. Then in Ephesians 1:3-14, God shows that He adopted man into His life from before the foundation of the world by His Grace. II Tim.1:9. Then through Jesus Christ He seated man at His right hand with Jesus. All of mankind. Then he declares in Hebrews 2:5-8, that ALL things will be put under mans feet and in subjection to man ultimately. All here is the GK. word , "panta", which means the entire Cosmos, the universe, all things.

So the Destiny of man is to be with God, in God, experiencing real life with God for all of eternity. A loving relational relationship of pure joy, peace, harmony, pleasure, and happiness forever.

There is one small ( or large) caveat which man must deal with. And that is , man must believe it in order to experience it.

Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

Paul