ALL INCLUDED

I have been reading in 1Corinthians 15 where the resurrection of the dead is mentioned and as I follow through on what is being said, it is not talking about a future resurrection but it is talking about the resurrection of Jesus and those that resurrected with Him. When we go to verse 12 Paul is saying that some were preaching that Christ did not rise from the dead. Some were saying there had not been a resurrection of the dead. Obviously a controversy was going on and we know Paul ran into many controversies as he continued to preach the good news of the gospel of grace and peace.

There was a group that was preaching that there was no such thing as Christ rising from the dead. The issue was that Christ had not risen from the dead. During that time there was a lot of people who had seen Jesus, seen what He had done, saw His works, but they did not believe He had risen from the dead. They were saying there had been no resurrection. They were saying He was a great teacher and did many miracles but they didn’t believe He was raised.

These verses in Corinthians 15 are not that they were saying there would not be a resurrection in the future. No, they were saying there had not been a resurrection by Jesus Himself. Verse 12 says it clearly that what they were talking about was whether or not Christ had risen from the dead. So the resurrection of the dead that was being questioned was not ours but that of Jesus.

Paul taught a lot about the saving of the soul which is the salvation of the mind, will, emotions intellect etc. This is also called the renewing of the mind in Romans 12:2 which is what the gospel does when it is properly understood. Paul here focuses on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He tells them he was preaching to them what he had received on the road to Damascus and that was that Christ had died for their sins.

Note in verse 3 that Paul says that Christ had died for their sins according to the scriptures. Not long ago I posted something about verifying everything by the scriptures, which we know is the Old Testament writings of the prophets, the Psalms and the law. Paul mentions the scriptures a lot as that was what he was an expert in although he didn’t see their true meaning until such a time as the Lord lifted the veil off of his eyes so he could see clearly.

Paul continues on in this chapter and he really impresses upon those he is talking to that what he has learned and what he has preached to them is by the grace of God and only by the grace of God. He tells them in verse 10 that it is by the grace of God that he is what he is. Now we must remember that Paul went from persecuting and killing Christians to preaching the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. By the grace of God he is now preaching the gospel of grace and peace.

He is telling them in verse 10 that he continued to labor more abundantly but again he makes it plain it is not by himself he is doing this but by the grace of God. Paul went from one extreme to the other when the Lord revealed Himself and His redemption in Paul. He was quite obviously not seeing clearly when he was not seeing the grace of God.

I think most of us that have had our eyes opened to the gospel of grace and peace can understand that before we saw the grace of God we were not seeing clearly. It is like taking the verse in 1 Corr 13:12 that says now we see through a glass darkly. I suppose that can mean we still see through a glass darkly but I think we can also use this to see just how “through a dark glass” we used to see this gospel with our old ways of thinking and seeing. It’s like someone has changed the glass that we see through clearly instead of darkly.

What happens when we don’t have the right perspective of redemption is we straight away think we have to belong to this church. When someone else looks at it a bit differently then we think we have to belong to that church instead. It goes on and on whenever we take this plan and try to see it through our own eyes, which is through the wisdom of men. It is impossible to see God’s plan through the wisdom of the world. It just cannot work.

If we depend on our own testimony and what we do or don’t do to gain heaven, then we are relying on the wrong testimony. I don’t rely on anything I do, have done or will do in order to enter heaven. I am relying on God’s testimony to have already gotten me there because the Bible says we are already seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Paul said in I Corinthians 2:1 that he declared unto them the testimony of God. He was not here giving them his own testimony. I know we have all heard the testimony part of a church service. I think you would be hard pressed to think back on any you have heard that didn’t begin with the word “I”. That is your testimony and not the testimony of God. You are not one with God because you have done anything.

What is the testimony of God? The testimony of God is stated in verse 2 when Paul says he was determined to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. God’s testimony is that He redeemed the entire world without any of our involvement or participation. He did it without us being involved at all in any way, shape or form. I know that contradicts most of the testimonies we heard in church but when there is such a contradiction in testimonies, I choose to believe God’s testimony over all the others I’ve heard.

God does not look at the human race through the law any longer. That is like I said the wisdom of men that sees it that way and it is foolishness to God. God now looks at the human race through Jesus and what He did at the cross. As we have seen in previous posts, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice and the perfect high priest as well that reigns forever. That is through what God sees all of us.

We know that the job Jesus was sent to do was to take away the sin of the world. If we believe He came to take away the sin of the world and also believe that He did a perfect job at what He came to do, then we must believe the sin of the world was taken away. I am not sure how more simple than that it can be. If we say He came to take away the sin of the world and at the same time say we have to do something for that sin to be taken away, then we are saying His sacrifice was not a perfect one and it still leaves us humans to do something for this to be completed.

I think we have to make up our mind as to which one we believe. Did He or did He not take away the sin of the world? This has to be settled in our hearts and minds before we can see this gospel of grace and peace. If you still think there is something you can add to what He did at the cross in order for it to be yours, then you are saying His sacrifice was not complete, although we all know He said just before He died that it was finished. I believe he succeeded 100% and left nothing for me to do to be redeemed.

There are many things that are preached out there that we have to seriously look at if we say we believe in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ at the cross or we have to examine what we say we believe about His sacrifice for all mankind. You can not have this both ways. To say we believe one thing as far as His sacrifice goes, and then say we have to do something to help it along is contradictory. You cannot believe both ways.

Did He succeed or not? Was He a failure or was His mission on earth completed perfectly? Did He do what He came to do? These are all questions we have to settle in our own lives if we say we believe Jesus was the perfect offering for sin as stated in the Bible. Let’s stop saying we believe one thing and then come up with the word “but”, indicating we believe it “if” this or that is done. When you look at what Jesus did and you say you believe it, then there is no longer any room for “but” or “if”.

We have all heard we have to repent and that of course is true. The problem is what we were always told the word repent means. The word repent simply means to change your mind. It does not mean to change your ways. Contrary to what we were always told, this none the less is the true meaning of the word. So is it important to repent? Absolutely because when you change your mind about how God sees you, it will be the greatest repentance you will ever experience.

How does God look and accept us if it is not through our works? He accepts us through the work of the cross and only through the work of the cross. Don’t think for a moment that your works impress God as far as being in right standing with Him. Your works can never do that. He has already accepted you in the beloved (Jesus) and nothing you do or don’t do can change that.

In the relationship between man and God it is not really important what you think about your relationship with God. The important thing is to know what God’s relationship is with you. It is much more important to know what God thinks of you than it is to try and figure out what you think about God. So what does God think about us? He thinks we are just the greatest and holy and perfect.

There is nothing on this earth that can surpass what He thinks of us. He sees us in His Son and He loves us with an everlasting love that can never change or be taken away. You may not hear this coming from the church you attend because they will tell you this is only so until you step out of line and then you are in trouble with God. They will tell you that you place yourself on dangerous ground if you commit something they think is not right and if you stop going to church, you really could get in a position to stray totally away from God and be lost forever.

I guess I should say here that when I say what we have heard from church, I should say that it is what I heard from church. I cannot speak for anyone else but I am really stating what I heard in the years I attended several different churches. There is not truth in any of this that was preached to me and my family. What was preached was another gospel and not the gospel at all like Paul says in Galatians.

One thing that changes dramatically through having knowledge of the gospel of grace and peace is that we see with different eyes. It seems that everything and everyone has taken on a whole new perspective. I can see why Paul said it was a gospel of peace.

When we can see ourselves the way God sees us, there is no way it can bring anything but peace. To know it is fully done and accomplished perfectly on our behalf is grace that is beyond our human understanding. As I have said in previous posts, we all seem to live based on what some opinion someone may have had of us and it affects us. Of course this opinion is not necessarily from someone else but it can be our own opinion of us as well. That can have great impact on our thought patterns also.

In order to experience the peace of God in our lives, we have to begin seeing ourselves through different eyes. Much more so now than years ago when I first heard a bit about the gospel, for at that time, and I see this now, that it just took a few days for someone to get a hold of me and start telling me what I had to do and what performance the Lord expected of me etc. Needless to say that did not bring peace because I immediately began to try my best to perform only to continually fail.

But now, after coming into at least some knowledge of what Jesus did at the cross and my performance based days of trying to please God are ended, I am beginning to see through different eyes. I am starting to see through the eyes of the gospel of grace and peace. Everything takes on a new meaning because I can now look at myself and others through how God sees and it is a totally different picture.

God made laws that were passed on to people that brought all under condemnation. This was something that brought everyone under the same umbrella with none better than the other because the law condemned all. I read in Leviticus 20 today the list of people that were rejected from offering sacrifices to God and some of these were someone with a crooked back, a crooked foot, dwarfs, anyone with any blemish, a flat nose or a blind man and the list goes on and on.

I can see that this must have made people feel quite inadequate, especially when it came for a high priest of the tribe of Levi to be chosen as most would not qualify because of the extensive list. These were laws that God instituted and no one was to offer sacrifices if they had any of these things mentioned. I’m sure we can all look at ourselves and see we were included in the list above of people who would not have qualified.

Now we see that God sent a Redeemer that was without any of these things as He was without any blemish and He kept the law in its entirety. There was no one else on earth that had the capability of ever even coming close to achieving what was required in order to be the perfect high priest and the perfect sacrifice as well

Now we see that all the requirements that could not be met were because of the faults the people had. There are many more that I haven’t listed here but you can read Leviticus 21 and you will see for yourself. Now, after the priest offered the sacrifice for the sins of the people, they were forgiven for a full year. Does that mean all their faults were gone too? Was the dwarf still a dwarf? Was the humpback still humpback? Yes of course they were so their sins were not their faults.

Now let’s take this down to this down to the event of the cross. Did Jesus die for out faults? It seems to me that the preaching I heard at least over the years were always directed at my and other people’s faults were. I was told to stop doing this and that and start doing something else. Jesus didn’t come to redeem me from my faults because as we all know our faults remain with us even after coming to knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus died for our faults to never be held against us. He redeemed us from the consequences of our faults (sins if you will) and made us in right standing with God for all eternity. The blood of bulls and goats were sufficient for one year but the blood of our perfect high priest and perfect sacrifice was offered once for all. It will never be done again because it was perfectly done the first and only time. Let us stop questioning whether we will ever have to face an angry God because of some sin we may commit. God’s wrath was poured out upon His Son on our behalf and God was satisfied with the sacrifice. The human race is now in right standing with God and nothing that you do or don’t do can ever change that. It is finished.

His blood was sufficient and it accomplished what it was intended to do and that was to redeem the entire human race. I have heard many times people say that God restored what Adam lost when he fell in the Garden of Eden. I am not so sure that is accurate because when He raised from the dead He rose again with a brand new race of people, a church He had prepared for Himself that was without spot or wrinkle.

We were raised again with Him to a place where there could never again be a separation between us and God. This new race we are a part of is holy and perfect because we are in Christ Jesus and we are seated together with Him. It is not something that is future as far as our spiritual well being goes because it is already a completed work and we are already seated there with Him. Did He leave any out of this new race He created? No, not one because He had tasted death for every man as we have seen in previous posts.

If we listen to the wrong kind of preaching and teaching we can again come to a point where we think in our minds that we are alienated from God. But that is only in our own minds and we make ourselves transgressors. Alienation from God is now impossibility. It is just not possible because we are in Christ and His perfect work is complete.

If you want to know where you stand in God’s sight, just do a study on the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He did that on our behalf and He brought all of us into Himself when He was lifted up on the cross. This is not something future that is going to happen. It is past tense and happened over 2000 years ago. It’s a finished work and contrary to what we have all heard over the years, this has nothing to do with whether we believe it or not. He placed everyone in unbelief so He could have mercy on all.

Let’s look at Hebrews 2:17 and we will see that He still looks at the same thing as He did under Old Testament law. At that time He looked at the high priest and the sacrifice to see if it was sufficient. When both of those were sufficient the sins of the people were forgiven for a full year. Today God still looks at the same thing except now He looks at the perfect high priest which is also the sacrifice and He sees they are both perfect. This sacrifice was a once for all event that will never be repeated. It was sufficient to look after the sin of the entire human race because He became a perfect high priest.

We see in the latter part of verse 17 that this perfect high priest made reconciliation for the sins of the people. How many do you suppose were left out of this reconciliation process? None of course because He died for the sins of the whole world.

Our great high priest is now seated at the right hand of the Father representing us. The sacrifice was perfect as was the high priest, so there is nothing left to be done as far as redemption of the world is concerned. He is not there pleading on our behalf when we do something wrong. He’s just there because the work has been completed. He doesn’t have to plead with His Father when one of us does something wrong so that Father can forgive us. No, just Jesus being there is sufficient because Father knows our forgiveness was already purchased at the cross and it’s complete.

Moses was the mediator between man and God and he mediated through what the law said. Now that the law has been nailed to the cross and Jesus is our mediator He does not mediate by the law because it is no longer in effect. The way He mediates now is by just being there. He does not have to plead for anyone to be forgiven. Forgiveness is past. It has been fully paid for and we are all sanctified and justified.

Jesus is the Lamb of God, the risen Saviour, the Lord of all, the high priest of every man because he died for every man, the sacrifice for the sin of the whole world so when Father wants to know my condition and the condition of the entire human race, He just looks at Jesus. We have to understand that all He did was perfect and it was completed. Without seeing that we will have problems seeing that the entire world has been redeemed because we continue to look at people and judge them by their actions. God looks at the human race through what Jesus did. We are to do the same.