The first words Jesus Christ spoke publicly were “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 4:17). Millions think they have “repented” if they have “received Christ,” or if they have “come forward” in an evangelistic campaign. They believe being sorry for certain lapses of morality; having acquired bad habits of the flesh, and “living a life that is displeasing to God” is adequate to obey Christ’s command to repent. The truth is, millions of Church-going, Bible believing nominal Christians have never been told; have never known WHAT it is for which they were told to REPENT! You will be astonished to learn the real truth from your own Bible!

How many times have you heard impassioned sermons from evangelists and revivalists urging their listeners to repent? Usually, a scathing condemnation of many kinds of immoral human behavior are fiercely denounced!

The evangelist may condemn, in any order, drinking, gambling, smoking, adultery, fornication, stealing, lying, “honky-tonking,” or, as one old “country” song went, “Cigareets, and whiskey, and wild, wild women!”

I have, in my more than 45 years in the ministry of Jesus Christ, seen a number of such “evangelistic” campaigns, including several from world-famous evangelists.

I have watched as THOUSANDS of people, many of them young couples, have slowly made their way down from the upper levels of a huge outdoor stadium to stand before the famous evangelist as a massive choir sang “Just as I am.”

Such people wanted to repent! They had been MOVED by the eloquence and the ringing intensity of the evangelist’s voice. The sheer size of the performance; THOUSANDS of people gathered in a huge stadium, the many HUNDREDS of others here, there, all around them who were leaving their seats and making their way to the platform proved to be the tonic that caused them to forget their embarrassment; swallow pride; take their husband’s or their wife’s hand, and respond to the evangelist’s final invitation. Perhaps some had been having marital difficulties. Some had been contemplating divorce. Some had terrible financial problems. Others had been fighting over his or her drinking or smoking habits. Whatever their personal problems, the evangelist seemed to show them a way out! All they needed was to “receive Christ,” or “Come to the cross” and all would be well! When they went through this emotional experience, they then supposed themselves to be “saved.”

Millions say, “ I got saved when I was only 18,” or, “I was saved much later in life.” They assumed that “coming forward” and publicly “receiving Christ” was all that was needed.

That, coupled with the momentary shame, embarrassment and emotion of the experience was to them “being saved.”

Perhaps the evangelist used the word “repent” somewhere in his sermon. In many cases, the word is not used at all. And in ALL cases, the evangelist does NOT EXPLAIN WHAT REAL REPENTANCE IS!

One thing is sure, the penitent ones standing near the platform do not ask “What, specifically, is it for which I am to repent?” Of course, they want to change. They want to get rid of the guilt which made them come forward in the first place. They “want God in their lives.” But they were not told what Christ Himself said, nor what Peter said about repentance!

Remember, Jesus Christ commanded, “REPENT ye, and believe the good news!” But repent of what? And believe the good news about what?

 The word of God is very specific about WHAT it is for which we are to repent! When thousands of stricken people cried out to Peter on the day of Pentecost, they were emotionally MOVED! They had seen each one of the twelve apostles mightily testifying about their own personal experiences with Jesus Christ. They had heard, probably for a couple or three HOURS about the many miracles they had seen Him perform; about how He walked on water; healed the blind and the deaf; how He was beaten, nailed to the stake, hoisted into the air, and how they SAW HIM DIE!

As they spoke, fiery tongues of FLAME leapt from their hair! The greatest “special effects” in HISTORY had occurred—but  they were REAL, this was no hallucination, or man-made smoke and mirrors — a great MIRACLE was occurring from God!

A thunderous roaring sound had filled the room, almost deafening them! Then, materializing from the ceiling above their startled heads, they saw a brilliant ball of FIRE descending! As it came down, it split into TWELVE SEPARATE TONGUES OF FLAME, and then lit right on the heads of Andrew, Matthew, Thaddaeus, Bartholomew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Canaanite, James and John; brothers; the sons of Zebedee, Phillip, Thomas, Matthias, and Simon who was called “The Rock,” or Peter.

As each spoke, the thousands of pilgrims, representing at least 18 or more different dialects and languages, were dumbfounded! While they could not communicate with others near them, they saw that strangers from far off lands, such as Crete, Arabia, Media, Pontus, Asia Minor, Egypt, Rome, and other far-flung regions were listening intently!

They were exclaiming, nodding, looking at one another in amazement!

Gradually, it spread through the building that each one of the them were hearing each one of the apostles in their native tongue! This was not “unknown” tongues! It was not gibberish, or babble! No, it was intelligent speech; powerful witness; shocking, almost unbelievable words!

Some scoffed! As the final apostle prior to Peter finished speaking, Peter heard some saying, in their own tongues, “These men must be DRUNK!”

Finally, after each had spoken in his turn, it came time for Peter to speak: Here are excerpts from what he said, with a few inserted comments: “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

“For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day [early morning; wine shops were closed].

“…Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain [this shows incredible boldness and courage: he was plainly charging them with Christ’s murder!]

“Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

“For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved…Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

“Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

“…This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.”

“Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

“For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saithhimself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,

“Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

“Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:14-37, excerpted).

Peter, his hair seemingly blazing, had stood there with the other eleven, speaking in a stentorian voice, relating the prophecies and the facts. With amazing courage, facing a crowd of THOUSANDS, he laid the responsibility for the murder of the Son of God right at their feet!

Had it not been for the powerful miracles they were hearing and seeing; had it not been for the ROAR that had filled the room; the spectacular ball of fire, dividing into twelve tongues of leaping flame, settling atop the heads of the twelve apostles, the crowd might well have turned on Peter in mindless RAGE! He could have been murdered on the spot!

But God had sent the visible and audible POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT upon His chosen apostles! He had SHOCKED the thousands with this dazzling, spectacular display! Then had come all those personal testimonies from each man. Thomas had no doubt told of how he had said he would never believe Christ was alive unless he had seen the wound in his side, and the terrible wounds in his wrists and hands; how Christ had MATERIALIZED in front of them; how He had come walking right through a stone wall! No doubt, he related how the Savior had come directly to him, and told him to put his hand into Christ’s side; and put his finger into the holes where the spikes had been cruelly driven through his wrists! One cannot help but imagine that Thomas became overcome with emotion when he told how he had knelt down, and proclaimed “My Lord, and My God!” as he saw the great wounds inflicted upon Christ!

One by one the twelve had spoken. Each man related his own personal experiences. No doubt several told of their agony of repentance when they realized that every one of them had forsaken Him and fled!

Now, Peter had courageously laid the responsibility for the murder of Christ right on the heads of the huge crowd!

Never had there been a time, before or since, when a crowd of people had been SO MOVED; so READY to hear what they needed to do to GET RIGHT WITH GOD!

Did Peter tell them to “join the church of their choice”? Did he tell them to “put your letter in a church”? Did he tell them “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved”?

Did he say, “Only BELIEVE”? Did he say, “Oh, there is nothing you must DO to be saved — all you need is to BELIEVE that you have been a sinner, believe that Christ died to save sinners, and accept Him as your Savior”?

Here is what your Bible says: “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Sprit” (Acts 2:38).

What did he mean? What IS repentance? The dictionary says: “REPENT: To feel sorry; regret. To feel sorry for sin and seek forgiveness.”

What IS Sin?

Feel sorry for sin? But what IS sin?

Believe it or not, it is this precise question, and the plain Bible answer to it, that has eluded literally MILLIONS of church-going, professing Christians. Millions have “come forward” in an evangelistic campaign; millions have “joined the church of their choice,” who have NEVER REPENTED OF SIN, for the simple reason they were never told what SIN IS!

The other day, as I waited for my wife who was tending to her mother in a nursing home, I saw a religious magazine in the reading rack. I paged through it. I came to a page which was entitled, “The ABCs of salvation.” The magazine emphasized that “getting saved” is SIMPLE!

Here was the magazine’s “simple” formula: “A. Admit you have sinned. ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23).” This is not an exact quote from Romans 3:23, which says … “sinned and come short of the glory of God,” but it gives the correct sense of the verse.

So one is to admit that one has SINNED! What does that mean? Did you ever do that? Did you ever “get saved” at a revival, or an evangelistic campaign, or at a Christian youth meeting? Did you ever sign one of these magazine or tract ads which give you the so-called “ABCs of Salvation”?

If you “admitted you have sinned,” to what did you admit? Did you admit to drinking too much, or running around on your spouse, or neglecting the kids? Did you admit you need to cut down on smoking, or quit cussing? Did you admit you have been a “bad person”?

The way the churches tell it, there are dozens of unacceptable acts which constitute “sin” and which “fall short of the glory of God.” As mentioned above, there are sometimes lists of evil-doing which might include “cigareets and whisky and wild, wild women,” or such things as fighting, stealing, lying, cheating, and running around on a spouse.

And, make no mistake about it, all those things are indeed SIN!

But can one “repent” of all such things, and STILL BE LIVING IN SIN?

The answer is a resounding YES, if you do not know WHAT SIN IS!

The magazine formula then said, “B. Believe in Jesus. ‘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’” (John 3:16). Again, the quotation is incorrect, but the sense is retained. John 3:16 actually says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

But what does it MEAN to ”believe in Jesus”? To millions of church-going professing Christians, it means, simply, that the figure they see in Bibles, on altars, in statuary, and in pictures sold in Bible book stores; a man with flowing brown locks, spade beard, sad eyes, with a halo, carrying a lamb in one arm,, and a shepherd’s crook in the other, wearing a white robe with open-toed sandals was the Son of God. To “believe in” Jesus is to believe that He was the Son of God. This ”Jesus” they are told to ”believe in” is the traditional “Jesus” of the Catholic and Protestant world. But wait! Do they truly KNOW the real Jesus Christ of Nazareth of your Bible and mine?

Consider these shocking facts!

1) Millions DO NOT KNOW the method of Christ’s birth.

2) They do not know when He was born: he was not born on, or anywhere near, December 25^th!

3) They do not know to what race He belonged.

4) They do not know WHY He came. They suppose He came to “nail His father’s LAW to His ‘cross’!”

5) They do not know WHAT HE TAUGHT! They suppose the Gospel is a story ABOUT Jesus, and do not know it is the MESSAGE HE BROUGHT to this earth from the Father!

6) They do not know WHY He commissioned His disciples.

7) They do not know what He looked like. They do not know the Bible says He did not have long hair; that He “had no form nor comeliness” and that he looked like any average Jewish young man of His day.

8) They do not know He was the firstborn of a large family; that He had several brothers and sisters; that His brothers are NAMED in the Bible!

9) They do not know that He came to ESTABLISH and MAGNIFY the Ten Commandments, lifting them to a spiritual plane, so that they reach into every human action and thought! They think, instead, that He came to do away with God’s law!

10) They do not know HOW HE DIED! Millions suppose He died of a broken heart!

11) They do not know IF HE WAS REALLY DEAD! Believe it or not, the Roman Catholic Church and the major denominations teach that Christ was ALIVE IN HELL! They say he was preaching to “spirits in hell” during the time He was supposed to be in the tomb!

12) They DO NOT KNOW HOW LONG HE WAS IN THE TOMB! Millions suppose He was only in the tomb for two nights and one day! They think He was entombed on “Good Friday” and resurrected on “Easter Sunday morning.” But Christ specifically said He would be THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS in the tomb (Matthew 12:40).

13) They do not know WHEN He was resurrected! Millions suppose He was resurrected on Sunday morning. Yet, the Bible says He was GONE “while it was yet DARK, as it BEGAN TO DAWN TOWARD the first Day of the Week!”

14) They do not know WHY He was resurrected! If we are “saved” by Christ’s DEATH, then why was He resurrected?

15) They do not know WHAT CHRIST IS DOING TODAY!

That is an ENORMOUS amount NOT TO KNOW about someone!

Yet, millions passionately say, “Isn’t it NICE to ‘know the Lord’?” If you have not yet read my book entitled The REAL JESUS, by all means call, or write for it immediately! You will be sent your FREE copy by return mail! Also, ask for my sermon tape entitled, “The Jesus You Never Met.” It is astonishing when you come to realize that this world is worshiping a FALSE CHRIST, and not the real Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

In the final category, the magazine said, “C: Confess and leave your sin. ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Again, the religious magazine misquoted the King James Bible, which says, “If we confess our sins [notice the PLURAL], he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

How strange that the people who publish this religious magazine DO NOT KNOW WHAT PETER SAID are the true “ABCs of salvation!”

What did Peter say? He said, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

The true “ABCs of salvation” are VERY DIFFERENT from those presented in the religious magazine!

THE BIBLE DEFINITION OF SIN

There is only ONE SCRIPTURE in the entire Bible which tells us WHAT SIN IS!

It is found in 1 John 3:4, which says, “Whosoever committethsin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”

There is not the slightest doubt that “the LAW’ means God’s Ten Commandments!

Notice some important proofs from this same letter from John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved:”

“And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 1:3, 4). Millions say, “Isn’t it NICE to ‘know the Lord.’” Yet, they break His commandments continually, not knowing what sin is!

John wrote, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (1 John 3:22). People like to say they “LOVE the Lord!” They speak of the love of God, and love of the Holy Spirit. And what does John say IS the love of God? “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3).

The “transgression of the law” means the breaking of God’s TEN COMMANDMENTS!

In order for anyone to understand WHAT SIN IS, one must understand it is LAW breaking; the breaking of God’s LAW! Then, one must understand what the law says!

Here, verbatim, is what God’s law SAYS, which I have numbered for convenience:

(1) “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

(2) “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

“And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

(3) Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

(4) “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

“Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

“But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

(5) “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

(6) “Thou shalt not kill [NOTE: The Hebrew word is Rawtsach, and means, “do no murder”].

(7) “Thou shalt not commit adultery.

(8) “Thou shalt not steal.

(9) “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

(10) “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thyneighbour’s” (Exodus 20:3-17).

Shockingly, only a very small percentage of professing Christians — people who “believe on Jesus” can remember FOUR of these Ten commandments, and even then, cannot remember them in order! Do YOU know them by heart?

Millions are convinced Jesus Christ came to destroy God’s law; to “nail it to His cross,” as they put it. First, you need to know WHO WROTE THE LAW. Who was the “God” who spoke to Moses? Who was it who said, “Let US make man in OUR image?”

THE GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

Jesus Christ shocked the Jews, who, knowing what He was claiming, were so outraged they tried to kill Him on the spot! He said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.

“Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?

“Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, BeforeAbraham was, I am.

“Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by” (John 8:56-59). Do you understand what Jesus was saying to them? Obviously, He was saying He was the very one who had appeared to Moses! He was saying that He had existed BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS ALIVE!

The Jews were very, very familiar with the account of Moses and the burning bush. They knew Jesus was claiming to be the very Person of divine Elohim who SPOKE TO MOSES!

“And Moses said unto God [Hebrew: Elohim], Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

“And God [Elohim] said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:13, 14). Remember, the Hebrew word Elohim which is translated into the English word “God” is a PLURAL word. It means more than one! This is why your Bible says that “God” (Elohim) said, “And God said, Let usmake man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).

Now, notice how PLAINLY the apostle John explained the pre-human existence of Christ: “In the beginning was the Word [Greek: Logos, meaning “Spokesman”], and the Word was with God [Greek: Theos, synonymous with the Hebrew Elohim”], and the Word was God.

“The same was in the beginning with God.

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3). So the CREATOR of the universe, the solar system, this earth and all life upon it was the “WORD” or the member of Elohim who DID THE SPEAKING!

It was He who said, “Let the dry land appear,” and who said, “Let US make man in OUR image!”  Now, notice how John clarified this astonishing truth: “He was in the world, and theworld was made by him, and the world knew him not.

“He came unto his own [the Jews], and his own received him not.

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name (John 1:10-12). All theologians know that this last verse refers to receiving Jesus Christ as Savior! It is one of famed evangelist Billy Graham’s favorite scriptures! And of WHOM is it speaking? Why, the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE! The GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT!

Can you doubt your own eyes? Do you doubt your own Bible?

Notice further corroboration: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:1-3). Clearly, Jesus Christ was the “Creating Agent,” the “Executive,” or the “Spokesman” through whom God [Theos/Elohim;  plural names] MADE THIS EARTH!

Now, think of the vast significance of this truth!

This means that the One who dealt with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was none other than the One who became Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary! It means He was the person of Divine Elohim who WROTE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WITH HIS OWN FINGER!

This simple truth is utterly DEVASTATING to the doctrines of the majority of the churches of this world who teach that Jesus Christ came to DO AWAY with God’s law!

Christ said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

“Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-19). The word “fulfil” is not a synonym for “destroy”! When one fulfills a promise, or an obligation, one does not DESTROY the obligation. One accomplishes, or performs the promise or obligation.

Jesus Christ KEPT the Ten Commandments perfectly, in the spirit as well as in the letter. His entire life was OUR EXAMPLE that we should follow: “ For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 Peter 2:20, 21).

Christ said, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”  Millions give lip service to a “Jesus Christ” of their imagination; the FALSE image of Christ which has been presented to them by the mainstream religions. But they will not follow His example, nor will they do what He commanded!

The God of the Old Testament is usually indicated by the capital letters “LORD” in the King James translation. This English word is taken from the Hebrew YHVH, which contains no vowels. Some pronounce it “Yahveh,” and some, “Jehovah.” Whatever the English pronunciation, it means the One of divine Elohim IN COVENANT RELATIONSHIP with His people Israel — it means the One who BECAME CHRIST!

Did Jesus Christ come to destroy the law? Millions think He did! But this is a lie, and is at the root of many other lies and false doctrines! He says, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed (Malachi 3:6). Did Jesus Christ come to CHANGE what He Himself had written in the Ten Commandments? Did He come to DO AWAY with the law? He says NO!  The reason He says “therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” is because If He CHANGED, He would have abandoned the unconditional promises He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel), and would have destroyed the sinning Israelites long before!

It is only because He BOUND Himself by a promise, and that He will NOT CHANGE that binding promise that the Israelites were not destroyed.

Now, notice how Paul says Christ never changes: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). Christ remains STEADFAST! He DOES NOT CHANGE!

Yet, you have been told all your life that Jesus Christ was like a young man who came to this earth to do away with everything His FATHER (who people ASSUME to be the “God of the Old Testament”) put in place!

Remember, SIN is the transgression of the law; the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments as Christ magnified them. To repent means to be deeply sorry over having BROKEN GOD’S LAWS! Millions DO NOT KNOW THIS! They believe sin is merely a vague series of deeds or thoughts which are displeasing to God, but they do not know that sin is defined as breaking the Ten Commandments!

Notice how Paul urged the Romans to quit living in sin: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Romans 6:11-13). Never forget as you read these words WHAT SIN IS! Sin is the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments! It is the breaking of God’s LAW!

And what is “righteousness”? Here is the Bible definition: “My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness” (Psalms 119:172).

Paul continued to show how a life of breaking God’s Ten Commandments is like being a slave to sin! He said, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid” (Romans 6:15). And what is GRACE? Millions have been deceived by the phrase “we are not under the law, but under grace.”

The false anti-law teachers delude people into believing that “grace” is a condition in which the Christian dwells! To them, “grace” means you DO NOT HAVE TO KEEP GOD’S LAWS! But look at the plain MEANING of the words Paul wrote! He asks, “shall we BREAK GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS because we are not UNDER THE PENALTY of the law?”

Notice his own answer immediately following: “God forbid! Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

“Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:15-19). Of course! Once one has REPENTED of having broken God’s Ten Commandments, one is made FREE from sin! The penalty need not be paid, for it has already been paid by the death of Jesus Christ! Christ died because WE HAVE BROKEN GOD’S LAW! He died to pay the “wages of SIN” (Romans 6:23) which is DEATH!

To become the servants of righteousness means we begin to LIVE WITHIN the Ten Commandments of God; we begin to OBEY them!

Notice how Paul expounds this vital principle: “What shall we say then? is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin,but by the law [The Ten Commandments show what sin IS]: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

“But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead [that is, without his knowledge of the difference between right and wrong; sin and righteousness, he was unaware of sin; did not know what it WAS].

“For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came [to his consciousness], sin revived, and I died [we are counted as “dead unto sin” because Christ has paid the penalty in our stead].

“And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

“For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:7-12).

Here, Paul explains the very purpose for the Ten Commandments. Without God’s specific ten commands, we would not know what sin IS! It is only because the LAW says, “Thou shalt not kill,” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” that we know such acts constitute SIN! The law does not PREVENT sin, it defines what SIN IS!

Jesus Christ died to SAVE SINNERS! He died to save them FROM their sins, not IN their sins! He did not die so they can saucily say “I believe on Jesus,” and then go back to living the same life of SIN they have always lived. Imagine the following scene: A man is brought before a judge for a felony. He has embezzled thousands of dollars from his company, and is facing a huge fine, and a long jail sentence. However, his employer is present in the courtroom, and is aware of the broken-hearted repentance of his employee, who has sobbed out his guilt; has asked for forgiveness, and has promised to repay all he owes.

The employer asks to speak, and is granted the opportunity: “Your honor,” he says, “John here has been a good, hard-working employee. He was tempted, and gave into temptation, and stole from me. But he has repented with tears. He is embarrassed and ashamed; he is aware that his reputation has been virtually destroyed. I have forgiven him. I see nothing to be gained by fining him, or by sending him to jail. Therefore, I am withdrawing the charges against him, and I move that this case be dismissed.”

Faced with no charges before him, the judge relents, and agrees that the embezzler may go. Now that John has been forgiven, is he free to go back to his company and steal again?

Paul says, “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid!” (Romans 6:15). Our embezzler is now UNDER GRACE! He has been FORGIVEN for his theft! Grace is unmerited pardon. It is undeserved, unearned forgiveness! It is a QUALITY OF THE CHARACTER OF GOD, and it is NOT a “state” in which a person dwells which gives him or her license to SIN!

Remember, forgiveness is for SINS THAT ARE PAST, and “grace” is God’s graciousness; His forgiveness, His pardon extended toward us which we do not deserve, and have not earned!

Millions of sincere people have been brought, emotionally, to the place they were really WANTING TO REPENT! But the evangelist and his helpers had no idea what repentance really is, and did not tell then WHAT SIN IS!

For example, were YOU told, if you “came forward” in such a campaign, or “joined the church of your choice” and tried to “put God in your life,” that sin is the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments? Were you specifically shown that the FOURTH commandment is exactly on a par with every other one? Were you told that Sabbath-breaking is exactly the same thing as MURDER?

No, you were NOT! That is not YOUR fault — it is the fault of the misguided, deceived preachers who are either deliberately or willingly ignorant of the truth of God! For a thorough understanding of how the fourth commandment is in full force and effect today, call or write for my free booklet, Why Keep Saturday For Sunday? Or, you can find it on our web site at www.garnertedarmstrong.org/, and print it from the site. It is astonishing, fascinating! You will be amazed.

Notice how Paul wrote of the STRUGGLE which ensues in the life of every Christian; how that, even though forgiven, our human natures continually strive against the spirit of God and His laws. I will paraphrase this passage for easier understanding: “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

“For that which I do I wish I wouldn’t do, and that I want to do I don’t do, and what I hate, that do I.

“If then I do that which I really don’t want to do, I consent unto the law that it is good.

“Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

“For the good that I want to do I do not: but the evil which I don’t want to do, that I do.

“Now if I do the things I don’t really want to do, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

“I find then a law, that, when I want to do good, evil is present with me.

“For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members [human, physical appetites].

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

“I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:14-25).

The man who said he DELIGHTS in the law of God; that he SERVES the law of God DID NOT TEACH AGAINST IT!

The thrust of his words are clear; that each of us is involved in a daily struggle AFTER we have repented of sin (breaking the Ten Commandments)! We must overcome our own human carnal natures with all our physical appetites; we must overcome the world around us — Satan’s world, not God’s — and we must overcome Satan himself!

This daily struggle is like someone with a smoking habit, or a drinking habit, or a person who is a compulsive gambler!

Christians can, and do, sin! The word sin means “to miss the mark.” Every day, in some way or another, we miss the mark of perfection. John acknowledged this, and wrote of this daily struggle against sin: “If we say that we have no sin [John includes himself! He is writing to Christians!], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

“If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

“And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 1:8-10; 2:1-4). Strong words, indeed. How many times have you heard people engaged in “praise worship” saying “Oh, how wonderful to know the Lord”? Yet, millions who say they “know” the Savior WILL NOT DO WHAT HE SAID, and they WILL NOT FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE!

Obviously, both Paul and John said we are engaged in a daily struggle with ourselves! It is because of this “law” of carnality which exists within us that Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven as our daily High Priest!

Millions believe Christ died for the sins of the world. But those same people DO NOT KNOW WHY HE IS ALIVE!

The High Priesthood Of Jesus Christ

I am not a priest. The ministry of God’s true church are not priests! There is no human “go between” on this earth who is authorized to stand between you and God your Father in heaven above!

The entire book of Hebrews was written to the scattered Jews (diaspora, or “dispersed”) to show the efficacy of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ! The book shows what Jesus Christ is doing on a daily basis NOW!

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he [Christ] also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

“And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

“For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

“Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

“For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:14-18).

How plain! One of the major purposes for Christ to live here on earth for 33 years in the flesh was to EXPERIENCE the same temptations, compulsions, appetites, desires and pulls of the flesh as you and me!  The difference is HE OVERCAME THEM ALL!

Millions think we are saved by the DEATH of Christ! This is not true. We are RECONCILED (forgiven) to God by His death, but we are saved because He is ALIVE! “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Romans 5:8-10).

So Christ’s saving work was not finished when He died! Millions believe the statement, “Christ died to save sinners.” But they do not know what Christ has been doing ever since His resurrection, nor do they know what He is doing TODAY! Few know that Christ is WORKING FULL TIME on our behalf!

Notice, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

“For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:

“Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity” (Hebrews 4:15, 16; 5:1, 2).

Jesus Christ is your High Priest! He is at the right hand of the Father in heaven. When you or I stumble, fall short, and “miss the mark,” we must get on our knees and go before that “throne of grace” and ACKNOWLEDGE our sins, and ask for God’s merciful forgiveness!

Christ then turns to His Father, having had the experience of struggling against sin and overcoming, and makes intercession for us! Read that beautiful quotation from 1 John again!

The “once saved always saved” concept in the minds of many is simply FALSE!

Jesus Christ said, “Enter ye in at the strait [stringent; narrow; difficult] gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

“Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadethunto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13, 14).

Notice how Peter spoke of how DIFFICULT it is to overcome, and enter God’s kingdom: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

“And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:17, 18). Is this the way you have heard it? No. You have heard, instead, how EASY it is! Millions are told “only BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved!”

Because salvation is a daily struggle, we have a faithful High Priest who DAILY makes intercession for us! Satan is called “the accuser of the brethren!” Notice, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Revelation 12:9-11).

Satan acts like a prosecuting attorney, constantly indicting, charging, blaming, accusing God’s people! When we sin, Satan saucily sneers about us to God, accusing us!

But Jesus Christ, our High Priest, is like the counsel for the defense. Turning to God the Father, he points out our tears; our broken-hearted repentance, and asks His Father to forgive us!

Now, review what you have learned:

God demands that we REPENT! The first words Jesus Christ spoke publicly were, “REPENT ye, and believe the Gospel!” Peter said, “REPENT, and be baptized…” (Acts 2:38).

Now, you know that repent means to be deeply SORRY; to be SELF-ABHORRENT; to be ashamed, embarrassed, chagrined atone’s SELF!

But WHY?

Paul showed how the Ten Commandments point out WHAT SIN IS! It is only when we realize that the breaking of ANY ONE OF THE TEN merits the DEATH penalty—death in Gehenna fire— unrelenting death for ALL ETERNITY, and only when we broken-heartedly acknowledge our sins before God and beg Him for forgiveness that we have truly repented! James wrote, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).

Now we come to the TEST commandment! The one commandment which is HATED by millions of professing Christians is the FOURTH commandment!

 The Law of God Was In Force Before Sinai

There are many references to God’s laws and the points of the Ten Commandments, including the fourth one, prior to the codification of the Commandments at Sinai. When the One who became Christ wrote the Ten Commandments in stone, and handed them to Moses, He was  codifying the law, not inventing it, or bringing it into existence!

From time immemorial, even pagan kings and people living in the Middle East KNEW about God’s laws. Here is a major example: “And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.

“And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister [this was a lie; she was his half sister, so to him it was a “little white lie,” but it was deception, nevertheless]: and Abimelech king of Gerarsent, and took Sarah.

“But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.

“But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?

“Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.

“And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her [what IS sin? Sin is the transgression of the LAW; in this instance, the law against adultery]:

“Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that arethine.

“Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid.

“Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done” (Genesis 20:1-9).

You cannot simply ignore this, and tear it out of the Bible! This occurred LONG before Sinai, long before there WAS any nation of Israel or Judah; long before Moses, and long before theLevitical priesthood! Here, the one who became Christ PERSONALLY kept Abimelech from committing a “GREAT SIN!” Abimelech, in that ancient time, knew more about God’s laws than thousands of so-called Christian preachers today! He knew God exists. He knew God had the power of life and death over him. He knew God’s fourth commandment meant what it says.

He knew the penalty for sin was death. He knew WHAT SIN IS, which is more than millions of professing “Christians” know today!

Notice another outstanding example—one which enrages the “Gay rights” people: “Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

“But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly” (Genesis 13:12, 13). Sodomy and homosexuality are great SINS! Read Genesis the 19^th chapter to see how Elohim (the Person of the Godhead who became Jesus Christ) sent his powerful angels to utterly burn to the ground the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins! Like a microcosm of Gehenna fire, God rained FIRE upon them — a horrifying, painful way to die!

Now, notice what God said of Isaac, Abraham’s son: “Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;

“And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

“Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws” (Genesis 26:3-5).

Now, notice how God showed sinning Israelites that Sabbath-breaking was punishable by death; how the fourth commandment was in full force and effect prior to the giving of the two tablets of stone at Sinai: “Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

“And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily” (Exodus 16:4, 5).

Then came the plague of the quails, in which many died because of their murmuring and complaining about manna! Notice what happened next: “And he [Moses] said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

“And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

“And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD [it was not a “Sabbath of the Jews!]: to day ye shall not find it in the field.

“Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

“And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.

“And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” (Exodus 16:23-28). WHEN did this occur? Read from Exodus 16 to Exodus 20, about the sojourn of the Israelites in the Sinai desert, and how God eventually CODIFIED His Ten Commandments, by giving them to Moses engraved in stone!

But this codification of the Commandments did not bring them into existence! As you have seen proved from your own Bible, God’s Ten Commandments were in full force and effect LONG BEFORE Sinai!

God’s Ten Commandments have been in effect since the creation of Adam! Even the laws concerning clean and unclean meats were in effect many, many centuries before Moses! God told Noah, “And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thyhouse into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

“Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female” (Genesis 7:1, 2). Those who argue that “the law has been done away” usually equate the laws concerning unclean animals, such as catfish and pork, with the Levitical priesthood! But the laws concerning clean and unclean were in full force in NOAH’s day!

Now, review what you have learned. God’s Ten Commandments were known by ancient kings during Abraham’s day. It was a “great SIN” to commit adultery. The men of Sodom were “sinners exceedingly” before God. It was a SIN to go to work to gather food on the Sabbath day! God provided double for them on the sixth day, the day of preparation, so they would not work on His holy Sabbath!

Chiding the rebellious Israelites, God said, “How long refuse yeto keep my commandments and my laws?” No amount of arguing, reasoning, or trying to set aside these plain truths from your Bible is going to exonerate Sabbath-breakers! The main TEST commandment was the Sabbath!

Think about it! Not a single one of the other nine commandments require you to stand out in your community. Not a single one impacts your job, club, lodge, family or friends! To honor your parents is praiseworthy in our society. To avoid stealing, lying, and murder is considered the thing to do. Of course, no one can tell if you are inwardly coveting, thus breaking the tenth Commandment, for you could sit in church services and let your mind lust for something which is not yours.

But not a one of the nine Commandments, omitting the fourth one, requires you to abstain from work on a certain day; not a one threatens your job, your profession, your affiliations and associations. Not a one would make you an object of scorn from any Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian or Pentecostal person. All churches believe in nine of the commandments!

But oh, that fourth one!  They HATE the fourth commandment! They will use every trick scripture, every possible “proof text” they can to delude people into believing the WHOLE LAW IS DONE AWAY so they can set aside the SABBATH!

But notice! “Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

“Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.

“Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.

“For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;

“Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

“Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;

“Even them will I bring to my holy mountain [the Kingdom of God!], and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people” (Isaiah 56:1-7).

Here, ETERNAL LIFE is a part of the reward for those who KEEP GOD’S SABBATH DAY HOLY!

The two major crimes and sins of ancient Israel and Judah were Sabbath-breaking and idolatry! Every time an evil king took the throne, and abandoned the Sabbath and set up idols, the nations were plagued, attacked, and often taken captive!

When a righteous king took the throne, and RESTORED the laws of God, God BLESSED the nation! Read the 23^rd chapter of 2 Kings about Josiah’s reforms—about how he reestablished the PASSOVER on the 14^th of Abib, and broke down the idols.

In summary then, the Ten Commandments did not come into existence at Sinai when Moses was handed the two tables of stone. The Ten Commandments were known by pagan kings. It was a GREAT SIN to break one of them. The sodomites were “sinners exceedingly” before God! Abraham KEPT God’s commandments, His statutes and His laws! Abraham is called “the father of the faithful,” and Jesus Christ told the Pharisees, “You shall SEE Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out!”

The Sabbath was not an afterthought. It was not capriciously “imposed” on the Israelites as a yoke of bondage! Almighty God (Elohim, including the One who became Christ) CREATED the Sabbath day!

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Genesis 2:1-3). God’s WORK was finished, but His CREATING was not! By resting on the seventh day, He created the Sabbath.

The fourth commandment is DETAILED. It shows how the Sabbath is the memorial of creation itself; how it acknowledges God as Creator: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

“Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

“But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

“For in six days the LORD [JHVH] made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11). The Sabbath both looks back at creation, and looks forward to the millennial reign of Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth.

The time of God’s kingdom on earth is called God’s REST! Now, notice a wholly ignored and deliberately obscured scripture from your own New Testament which enjoins Sabbath-keeping on all Christians:

A Sabbatismos Remains To God’s People

Paul, in reminding the scattered Jews of their roots; of the exodus and the overthrow of the older generation in the wilderness, called upon the orations of Joshua as a type. The name Joshua in Hebrew is identical to “Jesus” in the Greek.

Joshua is a type of Christ. As the one who led the younger generation of Israelites across Jordan into the promised land, he appears as Christ, conducting us from this life in this world into His glorious kingdom.

Paul wrote, “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

“Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

“When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

“Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, Theydo away err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

“So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

“But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” (Hebrews 3:7-14).Why do you suppose the translators knew to place capital letters on references to “To day,” even separating the word, unlike our modern English, which is “today”?

It is because Paul was referring to the oration of Joshua as the Israelites prepared to enter the promised land: “Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,

“Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the LORD your Godgiveth you to possess it.

“And to the Rabbinates, and to the Godwits, and to half the tribe of Manasseh, spake Joshua, saying,

“Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, The LORD your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land.

“Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and help them;

“Until the LORD have given your brethren rest, as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which the LORD your God giveth them: then ye shall return unto the land of your possession, and enjoy it, which Moses the LORD’S servant gave you on this side Jordan toward the sunrising” (Joshua 1:10-15). No longer would they be undergoing the arduous trek in the wilderness. No longer would the hardships of dust, poisoned springs, snakes, heat, and every privation assault them. Now, they would enter a land of plenty; a land with grapes as large as grapefruit; flowing “with milk and honey.” Now, they could settle on this verdant, beautiful land, and build permanent homes. The entry of Israel into the promised land is a type of Christians being inducted into Christ’s kingdom.

It was pictured as REST. Every week, the Israelites were reminded to REST on God’s Sabbath day.

Joshua’s oration to the Israelites is used by Paul to the Hebrews as a reminder, not only of the type of the Israelites entering into the promised land as a “rest,” but also a reminder of the six “work” days of creation, and the setting apart of the Sabbath day: He said, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest [metaphor for the Kingdom of God], any of you should seem to come short of it.

“For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

“For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest [put as a question: “shall they enter into my rest?”]: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Hebrews 4:1-3).

What did Paul mean by saying “we which have believed do enter into rest”? As you shall soon see, he is referring to the weekly Sabbath rest, and the fact that all early Christians kept God’s Sabbath day, as detailed in the fourth Commandment!

Note the SUBJECT of this entire passage! It is nothing short of a comparison between Sabbath-keeping and the millennial reign of Christ; a reminder of how the older generation of Israelites DID NOT QUALIFY to enter into “His rest,” the promised land, which was a type of the Kingdom of God! Paul wrote, “And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

“Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief [the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai]:

“Again, he limiteth [sets apart; points out; isolates]  a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 4:5-7). Read Psalms 95:7-9, where David refers to Joshua’s oration.

So Paul is saying God points out, specifies, or “limits” a CERTAIN DAY when He says “To DAY if you will harden not your hearts!”

And WHAT DAY IS THIS?

“For if Jesus [the translators saw the identical word for “Joshua” and substituted “Jesus” instead. But the entire context refers to Joshua’s oration, and the entry of the Israelites into the promised land] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day” (Hebrews 4:8).

Another DAY? What is this “day” referred to so often? What was the special “To Day” included in Joshua’s oration, repeated by David, repeated by the apostle Paul?

Let your own Bible answer: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). I have before me my old large type “studio Bible” I have used for over 40 years. It is the Authorized King James version, published by the National Bible Press, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the margin beside the word “rest” in Hebrews 4:9 is a note. It says, “Or, keeping of a Sabbath.” The word in Greek for “rest” which is used repeatedly in Hebrews 3 and 4 is katapausis.  This Greek word means “a reposing” or a “downsitting; a reclining.” The prefix kata means down in place or in time, and the suffix pausis you will recognize from our English word “pause.” A “down pausing” is meant; or simply a “rest.” or you will find katapausis in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, in the Greek dictionary section, under number 2663. By looking up the word “rest” as it is placed in Hebrews 3 and 4, you will see the number 2663 beside it.

But when you come to the word “rest” in the expression, “There remaineth therefore a REST to the people of God,” you see a different number. It is number 4520 in Strong’s, and is Sabbatismos! Strong’s says: “Sabbatismos: from a derivative of 4521; a Sabbatism, i.e. (Fig.) The repose of Christianity—rest.”

The root from which Sabbatismos comes is the very next word, number 4521, which is Sabbaton, and means: “The Sabbath (i.e.Shabbath), or day of weekly repose from secular avocations (also the observation or institution itself).”

No wonder, then, that the publishers of the National Bible Press King James Bible chose to place a note in the margin of Hebrews 4:9, to show that the word “rest” is NOT katapausis, as it is elsewhere in those two chapters, but a wholly DIFFERENT word, Sabbatismos, which means, literally “A KEEPING OF THE SABBATH!”

The passage should read, “Again, He limiteth a CERTAIN DAY, saying, in David, To Day, after so long a time: as it is said, To Day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.

“For if Joshua had given them rest [katapausis], then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

“There remaineth therefore a KEEPING OF THE SABBATH to the people of God.

“For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his [at creation, when God created the Sabbath day by RESTING on that day] .

“Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest [BY KEEPING THE SABBATH, AND STRIVING TOWARD THE KINGDOM OF GOD, WHICH IT REPRESENTS], lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Hebrews 4:10, 11).

Jesus Christ plainly said, “And he said unto them, The sabbathwas made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

“Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath was not made “for the Jews!” It was made THOUSANDS of years before any person called a Jew was born! It was made AT CREATION. Which day, then, is “the Lord’s Day”? Why, the SABBATH of course! Christ is “Lord of the Sabbath Day.”

You need to read my extensive book, Why Keep Saturday ForSunday? look up every scripture in your own Bible, and prove this absolutely VITAL truth to yourself!

But, CAUTION! Read this next section!

How To Approach The Word Of God

Millions of professing Christians see themselves as judges and critics of the Bible. There are countless “amateur theologians” who “interpret” the Bible to suit themselves. I have known dozens of people in my nearly fifty years in God’s work who are suspicious, doubting, critical concerning “doctrine.”

Some voice it this way: “Well, you have convinced me about this point, but I just don’t see that other point!” Many “accept” certain points of truth grudgingly, suspiciously. I have received dozens of letters, and heard many, many personal testimonies from people who tell me, “It took me years to see the Sabbath law, and I am still looking into this idea about no ever-burning hell!”

What these people do not realize is that they are approaching the Bible with a CARNAL MIND! They fail to understand that it is REPENTANCE, baptism, and the receiving of the Holy Spirit which opens their minds to the truth of God! I have expressed it this way: “It is as if you were looking through a keyhole, and suddenly someone threw open the door!”

The carnal mind is ANTAGONISTIC toward God! Paul wrote, “Because the carnal [physical; fleshly, devoid of the Spirit of God] mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7).

There are many who “search the scriptures to see if these things are NOT SO!”

In other words, many who are SHOCKED by what they hear me say on television, or what they read in my writing, hastily look into their Bibles trying to PROVE ME WRONG!

But notice the approach used by the Bereans, who heard the preaching of the apostle Paul: “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

“Therefore [because they searched the scriptures in a POSITIVE manner; “whether these things were SO”, not “whether these things were NOT so!”] many of them believed; also ofhonourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few” (Acts 17:11, 12).

God says, “ Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

“For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Isaiah 66:1, 2). Do you TREMBLE before the divine word of God?

Most people place themselves ABOVE the Bible! THEY will decide! THEY will determine. THEY will “prove all things.” Instead, people should see the Bible as FAR, FAR ABOVE them, and God above the Bible!

Jesus Christ said speaking of little children, “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein” (Mark 10:15).

Recently, a member of God’s church told me how he had wanted a family member to read the booklet Why Keep Saturday ForSunday? But the person simply threw it down angrily, and REFUSED TO READ IT!

God plainly shows that only those who are CALLED can understand: Jesus Christ said,  “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).

It requires a miracle from God to open an antagonistic, resentful, carnal mind!

Thousands have been shocked when they attempted to explain new truths which to them were WONDERFUL; truths which were beautiful, comforting, and which relieved them of old, fearful superstitions, only to find their loved ones angrily rebuffed them! This is why Christ said, “Many are called, but few are chosen.”

One should never attempt to “cram one’s religion down someone else’s throat!” All it does is alienate loved ones, family members and friends. Rather, one should be quietly exultant and thankful over learning God’s truth, then strive to live a shining example of “goodness, meekness, gentleness, faith” before others. Repentance means to CHANGE. It means “turn around and go the other way.” When loved ones see remarkable CHANGE in the lives of converted people, they are impressed by the examplethey see, and will not be impressed by any amount of preaching, arguing, or attempting to explain new truth to them.

Repent, and Be Baptized Every One Of You In The Name of Jesus Christ

Such were the inspired words of the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38). Now you know what it is for which we are told to repent! We are to repent of SIN, which is the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments as Christ elevated them to a spiritual plane! In other words, we are to repent even of evil THOUGHTS as well as evil actions. We are to repent of SABBATH-BREAKING as much as we would repent of lying, cheating, stealing, or murder!

Once we have truly come to self-revulsion over the things we have said, thought, and done which were contrary to God’s laws, we are commanded to be baptized!

The Greek word for “baptize” is almost identical to the English word. It is baptizo, and means to make whelmed (i.e. fully wet). It means to “immerse” in water! Notice Bible examples of baptism. One of the first is that of John the Baptist when Christ came to him to set us the example of water baptism: “Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan [the Jordan River],

“And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:5, 6).

The word baptizo means “to plunge into,” and “to immerse,” so that the person being baptized is “fully wet!” It does NOT mean to sprinkle a little water from one’s finger tips into the face of a startled infant of six weeks! It is not a “christening!” It does NOT mean sprinkling, or pouring a little water over one’s head! Nor does it mean cavorting beneath a huge spray of water from a fire hydrant in the streets of New York, as one false religious leader obtained permission to do many decades ago, and call it “baptism.”

Ludicrously, many ancient paintings and woodcuts show imaginary pictures of John the Baptist standing knee deep in the Jordan River, with the penitent before him, as he uses his cupped hands to pour a bit of water over their heads! But notice, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

“And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16, 17) .

Notice that John resorted to those places along the Jordan which were DEEP enough to provide sufficient water for complete immersion: “After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.

“And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized” (John 3:22, 23).

Now notice the beautiful TYPE, or PICTURE that baptism represents: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin [shall we continue breaking the Ten Commandments?], that grace may abound?

“God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6:1-5).

When a person dies, one does not simply tie the corpse to a tree, and throw a handful of earth in its face! No, the dead are BURIED. Baptism pictures the death and burial of the “old man,” and the resurrection of the “new man,” or the “new creature in Christ!”

As Christ was BURIED in the tomb, so, as a type, or picture of His death for our sins, we are temporarily BURIED for a few seconds in water! Paul uses the words “buried,” and “planted” to illustrate this point. Paul explained how an entirely NEW WAY OF LIFE begins once one is baptized, and receives God’s Holy Spirit: “For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (Romans 6:10-12). When we commit sins, we come under the penalty of DEATH, for the “…wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). But when we repent, and are baptized, we are humbly accepting Christ’s death IN OUR PLACE! We are DEPICTING the death, burial and resurrection of Christ by our outward willingness to repent, and then be completely IMMERSED in water! Baptism symbolizes OUR DEATH as a result of sin, and pictures Christ’s death in our stead!

Now, think of the JOY of knowing what happens when one comes up out of the water of baptism! The rite of baptism WASHES YOUR SINS AWAY! It BURIES the sinful “old man” or “old woman.” When you come up out of the water, you are, at that moment, wholly SINLESS!

When God Forgives, He Also Forgets!

God says, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). When God FORGIVES, He FORGETS!

Men almost never truly forgive, and almost never forget! God promises us, “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

“For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalms 103:10-12). Almighty God says HE WILL NEVER MENTION our past sins to us again! “Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turnfrom his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;

“If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.

“None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live” (Ezekiel 33:14-16). Just HOW WONDERFUL is that promise? To think that, at the time of our agonizing self-condemnation; our painful, embarrassed cries to God for forgiveness, we can eventually come up out of the waters of baptism, and know that EVERY SIN, from the bad things we did as children to the things we did in our teen age, to the sins we committed as adults, will be WASHED AWAY, and never again MENTIONED to us!

This should be the most JOYOUS news we could ever hear!

We now embark on a NEW life. We turn over a new leaf; a new page. We are as clean as a field of white, driven snow! Is that not cause for REJOICING?

But wait! IF THERE COMES A TIME when you become ANGRY with a fellow Christian, and decide to throw up his old sins at him, what happens to you?

Jesus Christ said, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors [in other words, exactly proportionate to our willingness to forgive others who have sinned against us!] .

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

“But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:12-15). Many thousands of professing Christians have GREAT TROUBLE with Christ’s commands concerning forgiveness! I want you to read a profoundly serious, sobering, and even shocking booklet about how professing “Christians” will use the knowledge of other persons’ sins! It is entitled Buried Sins And Spiritual Graves’ Robbers! 

There are MANY people who believe they have been forgiven, but who WILL NOT forgive others! Unknowingly, they are headed toward a LAKE OF FIRE instead of the glorious Kingdom of God! You need to MAKE SURE you obey, from the heart, Christ’s commands concerning FORGIVENESS!

“Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.

“And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shaltforgive him.

“And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith” (Luke 17:3-5). How utterly CONTRARY to judgmental human nature to forgive someone seven times in the same day! No wonder the disciples asked Christ to “increase their faith!”

Peter asked Christ, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

“Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21, 22). Peter probably thought he was being very generous when he asked “‘till seven times?” He was shocked when Jesus Christ said, “Until SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN!”

If you take that literally, that means FOUR HUNDRED AND NINETY TIMES!

But there are those who WILL NOT forgive their brothers or sisters in Christ unless their brothers or sisters repent TO THEM, in the exact manner, with the exact amount of broken-hearted, tearful remorse that they DEMAND of them!

Such people not only fail to see a vitally important biblical principle, they have no idea they stand in jeopardy of LOSING SALVATION and being thrown into a lake of fire! Once a person asks for forgiveness, saying “please forgive me,” it is NOT UP TO THE OFFENDED PARTY TO JUDGE THE DEPTH OR SINCERITY OF THE PROFESSED REPENTANCE!

No, it now becomes GOD’S responsibility! It is OUR responsibility to FORGIVE!

But what if we think the person is not really repentant? Should WE be the judge of their profession of repentance? God says NO! We have the responsibility to FORGIVE them! After that, it is God’s responsibility, not ours!

David prayed heartbrokenly for forgiveness after the affair with Bathsheba. He cried out, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

“Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

“For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest” (Psalms 51:1-4). David was not required of God to go to the family of Uriah the Hittite, or the family of Bathsheba, and “make things right.” No, David repented before God! But there was a terrible PENALTY to be paid. The child which had been engendered died! David had to undergo horrible shame, embarrassment, and humility! Yet, God forgave him! Because David was a REPENTER when he had sinned, he was called “a man after God’s own heart.” He will be the KING over all Israel in the millennial reign of Christ!

But what if some in the “palace guard” who were close to David refused to forgive him?

What if some of them, so outraged over his licentious behavior, became filled with self-righteous wrath? After all, they had not heard his prayer. He did not repent before THEM! They did not know he WROTE the prayer he had prayed, and that God would preserve it for all time!

All they had to go on was the sight of their eyes and the hearing of their ears.

What if they decided to plot against David, and use his sin as proof that he was unqualified for his position as King? Would God have honored such a plot? Interesting questions, aren’t they?

God FORGAVE David! Now, anyone who JUDGED David was judging GOD, and not David! We have no record of any who did this, but, knowing human nature, do you doubt that there were those who judged him?

By all means, call or write for the booklet mentioned above!

Now, look at the fabulous, breathtaking CHANGE that occurs once we have repented, and been baptized!

“And Ye Shall Receive The Gift Of The Holy Spirit”

When Jesus Christ fulfilled His promise to send the “Comforter,” He did so with awe-inspiring miracles! First, a loud ROARING filled the large room where thousands were assembled! Then, right before their startled eyes, FIRE began to appear, coming through the ceiling! As the brilliant flames came nearer, they split into twelve equal parts, and each of the twelve fiery flames settled right on the heads of the apostles! (Acts 2:1-3).

Then, people representing at least EIGHTEEN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES began hearing the apostles, one by one, relating their experiences with Christ; how they had seen His miracles; what He had said to them about His impending death, burial, and resurrection; how they had seen Him die, and then seen Him ALIVE again!

Remember, each of these pilgrims came from one country or another from hundreds of miles in all directions! Present were “Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,

“Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,

“Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:9-11). Count that list! Here, at a minimum, were people representing at least eighteen different languages and dialects. The apostles were not speaking in “unknown” languages! No, they were speaking, by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit, from their own minds and hearts, in their own tongue! Yet, God performed the MIRACLE of causing each individual to HEAR what was said in HIS language, or tongue!  They said “we do hear THEM speaking IN OUR TONGUES” the wonderful works of God!

This great miracle was VISIBLE! It was AUDIBLE! It was for a great sign to unbelievers; a miracle from God to grab their attention, and give divine POWER to the words of the eyewitnesses to Christ’s ministry; His death, burial, and resurrection!

These people did not see a ghostly apparition, like an obscure wraith, hovering about!

They did not see a “PERSON” walk into the room and perform this great miracle! Millions have been deceived into believing that God is a “trinity!” They are told that God is “three in one, and one in three.” To them, there is the “Father,” and the “Son,” and the “Holy Spirit”—each being a separate (yet together) individual of the Godhead!

You need to read my booklet entitled, Is God A MYSTERY? It completely demolishes the false doctrine of the “trinity.” God’s spirit is likened to fire, air, water, power, and life!

It is said to be “poured out,” and is said to have the power to “beget.”

The Holy Spirit of the Father is His life-giving power; His mind, His nature, His life!

Jesus Christ was the FIRST BEGOTTEN of the Father (Hebrews 1:6).

Remember, divine Elohim (more than one; the “Spokesman,” who became Christ, did the speaking) said, “Let US make man in OUR image!” But creation was not completed in the Garden of Eden, it was only BEGUN!

Consider the example of Jesus Christ Himself! He was able, through His divine power, to enter the microcosm, and become the life-giving seed which fertilized the egg in the womb of a God-fearing, righteous virgin named Mary! The angel had told Mary: “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

“And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.

“He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

“And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:30-35). Yet, though the angel plainly said it was the HOLY SPIRIT which would come upon Mary,  Jesus was to be called “the Son of God!” But IF the Holy Spirit is the THIRD PERSON of a “trinity,” then Jesus was NOT the son of God the Father, but the Son of the HOLY SPIRIT!

The truth is there IS NO TRINITY! The ancient “AthanasianCreed” adopted by an apostate church at the Council of Nicaeain 324 AD, claiming God is an “hypostasis,” and a “mystery,” is absolutely FALSE! God reveals Himself to us through His word! Everywhere, you see DUALITY in His creation: North and South poles; positive and negative magnetic forces, night and day, two sexes; male and female; two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet!

Plainly, God the Father is called the FATHER of Jesus Christ! Christ prayed to His FATHER continually! He said, “I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me bearethwitness of me.

“Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also” (John 8:18, 19).

This is a VITALLY important point! You need to know what it means to receive the Holy Spirit of God! It is not “spiritual salt and pepper” to make one feel good. It is not just theological double-talk, or sanctimonious nonsense to speak of receiving the Holy Spirit! What you must understand is WHAT HAPPENS at the moment you receive God’s Spirit. What change takes place?

Notice how often we are called children of God once we are begotten with God’s Holy Spirit in the Bible: Look up the following scriptures in your own Bible and read them: Matthew 5:9; 8:12; Luke 6:35, 36; 20:36; John 11:52; Romans 8:16, 17, 21; Galatians 3:26; Hebrews 2:13.

Here is one of the most profound passages of scriptures in the Bible: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption [Greek: sonship], whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

“And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:14-17).

THINK deeply about what you just read. Too many people read the expression “they are the sons of God” as if it were so much “sanctimonious” language; a kind of spiritual phrase which means we are Bible believing, church-going people, or that God likes us. But if you read that you are the son or daughter of your PARENT, you would know it is a literal statement of fact!

To become a son of God means exactly what it says! When you are BEGOTTEN of the Father, then He becomes your LITERAL Spiritual Father — the Father who has begotten a NEW CHILD OF HIS inside your human mind, by uniting HIS Holy Spirit with YOUR HUMAN SPIRIT! Notice that the Greek word for “adoption” means more than legal adoption. You do not become God’s adopted child, and He does not become your foster parent! No, He becomes your REAL SPIRIT FATHER, and you become a “new creature in Christ!” Notice how Paul puts it, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Few professing Christians understand the REALITY of this scripture!

Here, in summary, is what it means: It required both of your parents to produce YOU.

Your father’s seed united with your mother’s fertile egg, and, at the instant of conception, YOU were in existence! You did not come into existence a split second prior to conception, nor did you come into existence a split second later! You did not suddenly become you on the third or sixth week from conception, but at the EXACT MOMENT of conception!

Now, inside the womb of your mother, a NEW HUMAN BEING was living! Do you see the clear analogy? After all, God (Elohim) said, “Let US make man in OUR IMAGE.” Christ, who was the Logos who did the speaking was the FIRST BEGOTTEN from the Father among all humans! He is also called the FIRSTBORN among many brethren, and the FIRST BORN FROM THE DEAD: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).

Since there are to be MANY BRETHREN who will also be BORN OF GOD, Christ is called the FIRST born, not the only born!

You and I have a human spirit. God’s word says, “…there is a SPIRIT in man” (Job 32:8).

Solomon wrote, “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Proverb 20:27). God gives us our human spirit: “The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him” (Zechariah 12:1). When Christ died, He said, “…Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

The human spirit is that which lifts man far above the level of animals. It is where our conscience, our volition, our decision-making capacity, our personality, and our deepest, innermost psyche resides. The SPIRIT of man is directly connected to the brain of man, which gives us what we call MIND. The spirit is NOT CONSCIOUS APART FROM A LIVING BRAIN! When the brain dies, the spirit is ASLEEP!

Notice several proofs: “And as we have borne the image of the earthy [you and I are the “express image” of our human parents], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly [We are created in the image of our HEAVENLY Father IN SPIRIT!].

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God [we can only enter His great FAMILY KINGDOM in our glorified SPIRIT bodies!]; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:49-52). Study the entire fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. It clearly points out the vast difference between our human, earthly existence, and our future, spirit existence as a part of the very family of God! Notice that Paul says, ‘we shall not all SLEEP,’ meaning die!

Here is additional proof: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus [elsewhere called “the dead in Christ”] will God bring with him.

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:13, 14).

Millions call the spirit in man the “soul.” They have been deceived into believing each of us has an “immortal soul” which remains CONSCIOUS when the body dies. But the words “immortal soul” are nowhere in the Bible! The word “immortal” occurs only ONCE in the Bible, in 1 Timothy 1:17, and speaks of Jesus Christ, who is immortal! The word “immortality” is found only five times. Paul, writing of God, said to Timothy, “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:16).

The spirit of man is NOT CONSCIOUS when the body dies, but is ASLEEP! Your Bible says so, over and over again! When the person dies, the “new creature in Christ” is still there, but IN A PROFOUND SLEEP! There is no consciousness; no awareness of the passing of time; no pain, no anxiety, no suffering! This is why Paul characterizes the sleep of the creature in Christ as being so SHORT a time as to be like a mere MOMENT, like the twinkling of an eye. He said, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead [they are DEAD, unconscious, NOT ALIVE!] shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

We are to be changed from flesh to spirit! From human to divine! From the children of our fleshly parents to the children of GOD HIMSELF! Christ is the FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN!

Now, read these profound words again, and understand: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption [sonship!], whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

“The Spirit itself [God’s Holy Spirit] beareth witness with ourspirit [our human spirit; the “spirit in man”], that we are the children of God:

“And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:14-17). And what has Christ INHERITED? He is the FIRST born of the Father by a resurrection from the dead!

You need to understand these words exactly as they are written! Millions “spiritualize away” the profound content of these words. To them, being a “child of God” is merely a spiritual-sounding phrase that means we are loved of God; that we are in His good graces; that we are a “Christian.” But they fail to understand that we are to be BORN OF GOD OUR FATHER in the SAME WAY as was Christ at the resurrection!

They fail to see we are to become a PART OF THE FAMILY OF GOD!

Your last name connotes your family ties. You are the son or daughter of your parents.

You were conceived by them. You were produced by them. They were recreating in their own HUMAN image! You were born of your mother. You became a member of their family!

The same thing occurs in the SPIRIT realm when you repent, are baptized, and receive the begetting Spirit of your HEAVENLY FATHER! He is not your heavenly Father in name only. When you pray, “Our Father which is in heaven,” you are not merely recognizing a title of God, but identifying yourself as HIS SON OR DAUGHTER!

When He BEGETS you as a “new creature in Christ,” you are HIS SPIRIT CHILD!

Just as your mother “hosted” your microscopic life at conception; just as you grew within her womb, so your own physical body is merely a temporary TABERNACLE in which the “new creature in Christ” dwells! Now, following repentance, baptism, and the begettal by your Heavenly Father, a NEW SPIRIT BEING has been engendered!

His Spirit has come to connect with your human spirit! The TWO spirits become ONE NEW SPIRIT. In your physical beginning, your father’s seed connected with your mother’s fertile egg, and YOU WERE THEN IN EXISTENCE! A NEW, NEVER BEFORE, NEVER TO BE AGAIN, UNIQUE HUMAN BEING was on the way!

When God the Father begets new children with His Spirit, a new, never before, never to be again SPIRIT BEING is on the way!

God’s church is analogous to the spiritual “womb” where each “new creature in Christ” is nurtured, protected, and fed. It is where the new creature GROWS toward maturity!

Paul wrote, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13).

Now, look at the TRUE MEANING of what Christ told Nicodemus!

“You Must Be Born Again!”

It was the first time in history anyone had ever heard the phrase. Nicodemus, a leader among the Jews, was incredulous. To him, it sounded like Jesus Christ was suggesting that each human had to accomplish a wholly impossible act. Christ had told him, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

As commonly known that former President Jimmy Carter was a “born again Christian.” People who say this about themselves are generally members of one or another of the “fundamentalist” Protestant church organizations. To them, “receiving Christ,” or “getting saved” is the equivalent of “being born again.” There is no way any thinking human being could come to such a ridiculous conclusion by reading what Jesus Christ actually said to Nicodemus, nor from Nicodemus’ incredulous response.

He told Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”(John 3:4). Did Nicodemus think Jesus Christ was using language which indicated a “spiritual experience”? Did Jesus’ plain statement, “You must be born again” indicate to Nicodemus that he should “pray the Spirit down”? Did Jesus Christ indicate that Nicodemus should “speak in tongues”? Of course not! No, the language Jesus Christ used was plainly speaking of real BIRTH! The birth of a human being is hardly an indication of something “spiritual,” or “Pentecostal,” or concerns “tarry meetings,“ or “praying the Spirit down!”

Christ used the same words He would have used had He spoken of any birthing process; whether human or animal! The Greek word is gennao. It means “to generate,” or “to engender,” or “to procreate,” or “to reproduce.” The Greek word means the entire process from conception to parturition, or birth! In English, we use “conception” for the moment of the creation of a new human fetus (or “zygote” as biologists call it), and “birth” for the moment of actual birth. But in the Greek language, the word gennao means the entire process!

Now, notice how Jesus Christ explained what he meant: “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-8).

You and I were born of our fleshly parents. We are flesh. Neither you nor I, speaking of  our physical bodies, are SPIRIT! We are physical, human, FLESH!

But Jesus Christ said when one is BORN OF THE SPIRIT he or she BECOMES SPIRIT!

Read it again. Clearly, when He said, “that which is born of the Spirit IS SPIRIT,” He meant it exactly as it sounds! He went on to explain to Nicodemus that, when one is born of the Spirit, one becomes INVISIBLE TO HUMAN EYES. He likened the spirit world, and being born of the Spirit, to becoming LIKE THE WIND! He said we can hear the sound of wind, but cannot tell where it comes from, or where it goes.

How PLAIN! How SIMPLE when one sees what Jesus Christ actually SAID, and sees now Nicodemus knew Christ was NOT referring to some kind of emotional, sentimental, “spiritual experience.” Here is additional Bible proof: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [die; the Bible continually describes death as a deep, unconscious sleep], but we shall all be changed,

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed [BORN AGAIN; changed from human to divine!].

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

“So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:50-54).

Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead, and is therefore called “…the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).

When you receive your Father’s Holy Spirit, you are begotten of Him. Then, you are to GROW in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ!

Study the entire fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. It plainly shows the vast difference between our HUMAN existence and the great CHANGE which is to occur either at the moment of Christ’s return, or at the resurrection of the dead!

Acts 2:38 In Summary

Now, review what you have learned. To repent means to be deeply, broken-heartedly SORRY you have BROKEN GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS as they were spiritually MAGNIFIED by Jesus Christ! Remember, Christ said, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:

“But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:21-23).

To become enraged against a fellow human being, and to say “you worthless FOOL” is the SAME THING AS MURDER, according to Christ! This makes the Ten Commandments FAR MORE BINDING than the letter!

Repentance should include being deeply sorry for everything we have ever said, thought, or done which was in any way contrary to God’s law!

Real heartfelt REPENTANCE is PAINFUL! It is the agony of seeing ourselves as if a worthless piece of junk; a form of life lower than a worm! It is SELF-REVULSION; self-disgust; and complete SURRENDER to God and Jesus Christ! Paul wrote, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed [changed! Repentance is a change of heart; a change in direction!] by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1, 2).

Repentance will invariably involve TEARS! It is heart-rending! It is PAINFUL! No one sees one’s self as a worthless filthy rag; something one would find under a garbage can, without a real BLOW to the vain, egotistical, pompous, carnal-minded person we were before repentance!

Then, when we have really repented, Christ demands that we receive the rite of water baptism. This pictures the death and burial of the old, carnal, vain person; the “washing away of all sin” in the water, and the resurrection of a new and different person! It is an outward symbol also of our acceptance (in great thanksgiving and humility) of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

When, hands are laid upon us for the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit, we are BEGOTTEN of God, who becomes our SPIRITUAL FATHER! He places His Holy Spirit together with our human spirit, thus CREATING within our minds A NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST (2 Corinthians 5:17).

This tender, innocent, pure, forgiven little spirit creature IS REAL! It is not merely an imaginary something which makes us “better persons.” It is as REAL, in the spiritual realm, as was that moment in time when your father and your mother caused your conception!

Now, you know there is much, much more to the command to “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

May God grant you real repentance, and make you a “new creature in Christ,” a new, never-before, unique SPIRIT being within your physical body, daily receiving the spiritual nutrition which will eventually allow you to be BORN OF GOD! When you are finally born of God, what will you be? Let the Bible answer: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

“And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:16-18). Exactly!

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This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.


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The post The Pain And The Joy Of Repentance! first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“I’m going to ask you to come forward!” said the evangelist, nearing the end of an articulate, impassioned address. The huge crowd remained silent as a mighty choir began to sing “Just As I Am.”

“I’m going to ask you to come down here and stand before the stage and join with me and all these others in private prayer. . .” said the evangelist, with just a hint of a quaver in his voice. “From all over this vast auditorium…” he said, with wide-flung hands gesturing to the farthest balcony. “You fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers …everyone … get up out of your seats and join these others . . .”

The trickle of people beginning to flow down the aisles grew noticeably. Were some of them planted?

Were some strategically placed, to provide impetus to others, bashful and unsure, afraid to be first? For whatever reason, a handful becomes a few dozen, and finally several hundred.

You’ve all seen it before: the huge throngs in great indoor auditoriums or outdoor bowls and stadiums; the moving, intense sermon about Jesus and the need to repent and receive Him as personal Savior; and then the altar call, the invitation to come forward.

“Just now … won’t you come?” he says, voice breakingjust a little.

No doubt the vast majority of those who gather before evangelists after an emotional sermon are very sincere. The sermon makes them yearn for forgiveness, a way to shed guilt and nagging conscience, a way out of their miseries and troubles.

In recent years there has been a noticeable surge in charismatic movements; tens of thousands seem bent on returning to what is commonly called “that old-time religion” or “good, old-fashioned preaching.”

Psychologists and sociologists point out that soaring social problems and increasing interest in religion go hand in hand. Runaway inflation, joblessness, personal health problems, feelings of insecurity about the future—these tend to create a need in people for spiritual and emotional anchors. In a chaotic, material world, many people seek inner spiritual peace.

Perhaps many such people find such peace: a new lease on life, the courage to go on with their lives and seek solutions when they were near despair, near quitting entirely. Documented cases of religious experiences preventing suicides are not uncommon.

But did they repent?

Jesus Christ preached repentance. “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Matthew says His message was the gospel of the Kingdom, and His appeal to the people was to repent. “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people” (Matthew 4:23).

Mark says, “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel!” (Mark 1:14, 15).

He said, “. . . Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3-5).

But what did He mean? What does it mean to “repent”?

The New World Dictionary says “repent” means “to feel sorry or self-reproachful for what one has done or failed to do; be conscience-stricken or contrite … to feel such regret or dissatisfaction over some past action, intention, etc., as to change one’s mind about … to feel so contrite over one’s sins as to change or decide to change one’s ways; be penitent … to feel sorry, self-reproachful, or contrite, over [an error, sin, etc.] … to feel such regret or dissatisfaction over it as to change one’s mind about.

The real key to the meaning of “repent” is almost buried in this description. Can you find it? The entire description is true, of course. However, there is a vitally important Bible definition for true repentance that is often ignored or overlooked by even the most sincerely contrite persons.

That missing key is not understood by millions of professing Christians, including countless persons who believe they have repented!

Paul explained part of it when he wrote the Corinthian church following a particularly embarrassing case of incest within the congregation. He said, “Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow Worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death”‘ (2 Corinthians 7:9, 10).

What Is “the Sorrow of the World”?

How many times have you been “sorry”?

Probably, you might confess, nowhere near often enough. The simple words “I’m sorry” seem to be extremely difficult to utter for prideful, carnal human beings. From the time we are children, we learn of the rough-and-tumble, dog-eat-dog competitive world where even little children can turn on their own kind, suffering with handicaps or physical deformities, and attack them mercilessly.

As we grow, and as we learn self-reliance to greater or lesser degrees, we develop individuality. We call it “personality.” But, along with our awareness of our own selves—our discovery of who, and what, we are-come a considerable number of subconscious defense mechanisms.

The most sophisticated “DEW”-line early-warning radar network, constantly monitoring the horizons to detect any Soviet missile launch, cannot compare with our automatic defense mechanisms against shame, embarrassment, reproach and attacks against our ego.

Suggest we are in error, or that we have somehow failed, or that we are inadequate, and we become instantly defensive, perhaps irritated and even angry. It is a rare person who takes criticism easily– and it is far more common place to see us humans bridling at critical remarks So, as we live this life, we generally develop elaborate defenses against criticisms; we tend to argue, wheedle, whine, reason, dodge here and there, seek sympathy from others and talk our way around any possible blows to our own ego—we usually hate to admit it when we are wrong.

Therefore, saying “I’m sorry”—and really meaning it—is something rare for most humans.

The prideful refusal to say the simple words “I’m sorry” has caused many a marriage to flounder, destroyed many a friendship and wrecked partnerships and other business relationships.

On the other hand, when a person is truly contrite—truly and sincerely abashed and ashamed over his conduct and sincerely and humbly says “I’m sorry” to another human being—is this repentance?

Not according to the Bible, it isn’t!

Think about it. Being sincerely contrite—even blending that contrition with a humble and heartfelt display of honest emotion, as in marriage when one partner might say, with genuine tears of remorse, “I’m sorry! Please forgive me!”—it’s good to be sorry, good to say so if you mean it, and when it’s necessary. But being sorry does not mean one has repented!

Behaviorists have observed it is the child who gets caught who cries the loudest. Criminals, caught in the midst of crime, have been known to become terribly remorseful, only to return to the same kind of crime—If they are released with mild (if any) punishment. You see, much of that kind of sorrow is that of a person who feels sorry for himself!

A contrite partner in marriage can say “I’m sorry!” with genuine tears when a good deal of the emotion being felt is directed toward the self, feeling self-pity at having to be forced to go through the humiliating and degrading experience of lowering oneself in one’s own estimation by groveling, as it were, in apology. But being sorry because the other was hurt, being sorrowful in a completely outgoing emotion directed away from the self and toward the other person, is not quite so common.

A child may gleefully commit the same act—whether abusing a younger brother or sister, stealing change from Mom’s purse or lying—so long as he continues to get away with it. Caught, and threatened with punishment of some sort, the child may ring the rafters with protests of “I’m sorry, Mom—I’ll never do it again!”

How like children we are.

Living our daily lives without taking God into consideration, we tend to drift through life with a feeling of permanency, of invulnerability and of complete self dependence. Suddenly hurt, shocked, frightened or injured, and we find ourselves calling out for help—even calling to God Himself! Usually, depending on the seriousness of the situation, people will cry out to God in times of extreme fear—times of terrible emotional trauma—and they will put their whole hearts in it, sometimes crying out to God aloud and without any formal introductions whatever!

Safely through the crisis—living a normal daily life again—and the same person may never bother to pray or to thank God for daily blessings.

It’s all part of this thing we call “human nature.” We are by nature hostile to the idea that we are wrong. With our thick-skinned conscience and thin-skinned ego, we face the world truculently, daring others to disagree with us, to find fault with what we say and do, or to criticize us.

But, when we find the emotion (even selfishly) to “be sorry” now and then, we may think we were repentant when we were only experiencing the “sorrow of the world that worketh death.”

What Is Man?

Just what are we? Are we a cosmic accident, the result of aeons of gradual change? Did we begin from a chance strike of lightning in an ancient soup of methane and ammonia? Did we come from “cracks in rocks” or from “brown scum” or “green slime”? (All very “scientific” proposals for the origin of life, by the way.)

God’s Word shows we were created by a divine act! That can be proved by the laws of the physical sciences themselves; proved that creation demands a great Creator; that laws demand a Law Giver; that life demands a Life Giver, and so on.

God’s Word reveals what man is!

God said to our first parent, Adam, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return!” (Genesis 3:19). Does this sound like an ancient “Bible” statement? It is also clinically, technically, scientifically accurate. We are composed of the elements of this earth; we are sustained by imbibing those minerals and elements of the soil beneath us, by breathing the air surrounding us and drinking the water God created. When we die, we once again return to those elements, wasting away into soil again, or “dust.”

As a physical, fleshly, temporal human being, we are quite similar to animals. God’s Word says, “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again” (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20).

But, while the physical, chemical existence of man and animals is quite similar, there is a vast difference between the mind of man, and the brain and instinct of animals.

Man was made only a little lower than spirit life! “But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands (Hebrews 2:6-8).

When Adam looked around himself in the garden, he saw only plant and animal life—nothing, no one his equal. When Eve was formed, Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman [Ishah],because she was taken out of Man [Ish]” (Genesis 2:23, 24).

Notice that, although the Bible says Adam was surrounded by living creatures (nephesh) of every kind, “for Adam there was not found an help meet [fitting for, or ‘answering to’] for him” (Genesis 2:20).

With the creation of Eve, Adam now had an equal partner—another human being, created on a plane far above animal life and only “a little lower” than angel life!

Was Adam’s Nature Changed?

From the moment of his creation, Adam was human and he possessed human nature. What was that nature before the original sin, and was it changed after Adam sinned?

Adam was human, possessed human nature from the time of breathing the breath of life. Yet he was not possessed of feelings of hostility toward God, nor of guilt. His relationship with God was almost like that of a friend. There was complete acceptance and a definite lack of hostility, or determination to disobey God’s first command. “And the Eternal God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Eternal God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:15-17).

When Eve was tempted of Satan, she explained, matter of factly, the restrictions imposed on them of God without rancor. “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Eternal God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

“And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Genesis 3:1-3).

Paul explained, “For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Timothy 2:13, 14).

Deceived people can be quite sincere—just sincerely wrong. Eve allowed her natural physical and emotional appetites (which are vanity, jealousy, lust and greed) to overcome her timidity, and became deceived.

A vast change came over mankind from the moment of this original sin! Notice what happened to Adam and Eve, “And when the woman saw [she looked, with the eye, and began to lust after the fruit, broke the Tenth Commandment, against coveting] that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise [vanity entered in; the desire for superior ‘knowledge’ and the subtle suggestion that God had been keeping knowledge and information from them had been lodged in her mind by Satan’s lie], she took [stealing, as well as breaking the Fifth Commandment, by dishonoring their only Parent] of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3:6).

Suddenly a great change came over Adam and Eve!

They had been “neutral” toward God; they had no special enmity or resistance to His commands within themselves concerning the one tree whose fruit they should not eat. They were sharing the world’s “biggest bedroom” as husband and wife, totally alone, with no human beings anywhere else in the whole universe, and were completely unashamed—having no sex “hang-ups,” psychoses, neuroses, fixations, stigmas, fears or embarrassments. Suddenly “. . . the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Genesis 3:7).

Now their sexuality was something of which they were ashamed. A change came over their minds. They had been in close personal proximity to Satan the devil. They had listened to Satan, and Eve had been deceived. By following his wife’s example, however, Adam was in the greater transgression, for he should have recognized Satan’s lying subtlety, called upon God to rebuke Satan, resisted the devil’s suggestions and ordered his wife never to listen to him again!

Instead, he docily followed his wife’s lead into original sin, the breaking of God’s laws! (1 John 3:4).

By admitting Satan’s thoughts, his ideas and suggestions, his wily method of reasoning, into their minds they fell under his evil influence! Here was the most powerful spirit being, apart from God (Elohim) and the other two archangels, Gabriel and Michael, with his evil, electrifying, magnetic, powerful, persuasive and subtle personality, actually getting Eve to think his thoughts, listen to his arguments!

By admitting a little of Satan’s thoughts into her mind, she became deceived, confused. Prior to listening to the devil, Eve’s mind was clear—clean—unhindered by shame and guilt, uncluttered by doubts or confusion. She knew her husband was right; she knew God was right. Now, after listening to the devil, she was no longer sure. His arguments seemed logical, attractive, reasonable. She thought about it. She entertained the idea of taking the fruit. She looked at it. While looking at it, she thought about it some more. Without her actually realizing it, she was now allowing her emotions to become involved.

Not only was her stomach and her physical appetite involved, so was her desire for “knowledge” that Satan had subtly suggested God was “keeping from her.” A blow to her womanly pride, her ego, had been struck!

Surely she was “just as good” as Adam. Did God tell Adam things He was keeping from Eve? Did God know “better” than that which He had told them, “. . . In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die . . .”?

Eve had human nature from the moment of her creation, from the moment of her first breath and mental awareness! Because human nature is composed of vanity, jealousy, lust and greed—as well as the desire to “be good” (without the overriding compulsion to do good!)—Satan was able to appeal to a dormant, as yet unused part of Eve’s nature!

She was carnal—physically and fleshly minded. Still, she looked upon God as her friend, had not been really angry at God, or resentful toward Him, of and by herself.

But now Satan began to strike a responsive chord deep within Eve’s nature. Now that side of Eve’s basic humanity, the side of latent, undeveloped, unused “hostility” toward God—not being subject to God’s laws—began to respond to Satan’s careful coaching!

Once her mind began probing the depths of lust and of mild agreement with the devil that perhaps God had been a little unjust in keeping desired knowledge from her, Eve began exercising a portion of her nature. The natural trends were already there deep within her being, but they had not yet been used.

Remember, God “breathed the breath of life” into Adam’s nostrils! God Himself, manifesting Himself as a human being, drew into His own lungs the air of this physical earth and breathed that same air, from His own lungs, right into the lungs of Adam!

Anyone who claims a part of an alleged “spirit” of Satan could somehow have been involved in this process is treading on dangerous ground indeed!

Satan was not a part of Adam’s and Eve’s nature; he was a separate creature, standing there clearly visible and only able through his powerful influence to put thoughts into our first parents’ minds!

Satan had said, “God knows more than that. . .” “He knows better . . .” And then he had told the first lie and began one of the greatest false doctrines and deceptions ever foisted off on an unsuspecting, deceived world: that man will not “surely die,” but that we are an “immortal soul” locked inside a physical body; that we do not die—only “our body” does; but we continue on, and merely transfer to another place!

As Eve’s mind followed the devil’s reasoning, it became changed.

Adam’s mind became changed.

Now they hid from God when He called. “And they heard the voice of the Eternal God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Eternal God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Eternal God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” (Genesis 3:8, 9).

Why were they afraid? Because they felt guilty and because they were now conscious of shame. Now what had previously been perfectly natural, wholesome, healthy and good was filthy, sullied, ugly and evil! Where innocence and a completely willing, “neutral” attitude toward God had been was now fear—coupled with resentment and accusation!

Notice! “And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he [God] said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” (Genesis 3:10, 11).

God knew instantly that a dramatic change had come over Adam. Where Adam had welcomed God’s presence—accepted it automatically, as if a close friend and companion—where Adam had never questioned God’s decisions or His commands, now he was afraid.

What is fear? It is a complex emotion, sometimes mixed with hatred, suspicion, doubt, anxiety and deep feelings of self-preservation and protection. There “is no fear in love,” however (1 John 4:18), so Adam and Eve clearly did not love God any more! Was there not a little tacitly demonstrated accusation? Were they not apprehensive that God would harshly punish them, like a young child found with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar?

Notice that when they were confronted with their sin they tried to dodge responsibility, tried to shift the blame elsewhere!

“And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Genesis 3:12).

Here is human nature as we know it in action! Adam is obliquely implying the fault is God’s, since the woman was given him by God! He said, “The woman whom thou [God!] gavest to be with me. . .”

Adam is afraid. He is ashamed of his sex. He willingly places the blame both on God and on his wife!

God turns to Eve. “And the Eternal God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat” (Genesis 3:13).

Eve also tried to shift the blame. She said “the serpent” did it!

Here was a vast change in the behavior of our first two parents. Where they had been “neutral” toward God, without fear, without apprehension or anxiety, not fearing His wrath, welcoming His talks and instruction to them—where they had been completely unaware of any shame concerning their naked bodies—now they were desperately conscious of the need to cover up their sexuality and to hide from God!

Not only did the very nature of man change dramatically upon allowing Satan’s mind to influence them, but God changed a portion of creation itself!

“And the Eternal God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel [reference is made to Christ here, ‘her seed,’ meaning the Lord Jesus Christ, later to be born of the virgin Mary, who would ‘bruise thy'(Satan’s)’head,’ and the death of Christ in the bruising of ‘his heel’]. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:14-19).

Where Adam had but to harvest every sort of succulent fruit and nut from the trees all about him, God now said he would only eat by the dint of hardscrabble labor, fighting the elements and nature itself, seeing weeds, thorns and thistles spring up in his fields, working with sweat dripping from his brow to survive.

The traditional view of the Garden of Eden is that man “fell” from a completely sinless condition into original sin, and that Adam’s sin is imputed to every human being automatically.

But man didn’t “fall”; he was pushed. Few understand that God created Adam with human nature, which is a mixture of both the capacity for good and the capacity for evil. Adam had at work in his very nature the human appetites, the capacity for sin. Before he gave in to those temptations and exercised his innate, latent capacity for sin, he was not directly hostile toward God. He was not “afraid” of God. He was not ashamed of his own physical person.

Yet, after giving his wife the reins of their marriage, after listening to Satan’s lying suggestions, Adam changed! Notice carefully. Satan the devil was right there, in person, in the Garden of Eden, just as he has been personally involved in major events in history affecting God’s purpose and plan.

He was present at the birth of Christ, trying to destroy Jesus as a baby through Herod. He was present at the beginning of Christ’s ministry (Matthew 4), trying to tempt Jesus to give in to Satan and obey him. He personally entered Judas Iscariot and succeeded in betraying Jesus to His death.

Satan has no counterpart of the Holy Spirit of God; Satan is not “omnipresent,” or “everywhere present,” at once. He has countless demons (Revelation 12:4; Ezekiel 28:16, 17). Though he is called “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) and “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,” the Bible describes Satan as personally present in heaven at the trial of Job. Notice it: “Now there was a day when the sons of God [angels are meant here] came to present themselves before the Eternal, and Satan came also among them. And the Eternal said to Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Eternal, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it” (Job 1: 6, 7).

Notice Satan described himself as being just as limited in ability to “project” himself beyond his own immediate environment as any human being. He was in heaven, though the Bible reveals he spends most of his time on this earth. He described himself as having been “to and fro,” or from one place to another place, in the earth and “walking up and down in it.” This proves Satan is not “omnipresent,” not able to project himself throughout the whole world all at once, not possessive of a “counterpart” of God’s Holy Spirit so that he might be all-pervasive, present everywhere at the same time.

Notice that, after the conversation about Job was finished, “Satan went forth from the presence of the Eternal” (Job 1: 12).

Some have come to believe that human nature includes Satan’s nature, that, at the moment of a tiny baby taking his very first breath of air, he imbibes a portion of “Satan’s mind” or is somehow afflicted with a satanic attitude and spirit. This reasoning is based upon the description of Satan as the “prince of the power of the air.”

Such reasoning is false.

Neither of the other two archangels, Michael and Gabriel, is said to be “omnipresent.” Each appears in a distinct place at a distinct time. Never does God’s Word indicate that Michael or Gabriel is able to project his “spirit” or his “nature” or attitude beyond himself in an all pervasive, omnipresent sense. Satan, as the former archangel “Lucifer” (meaning “shining star of the dawn”or “light bringer”), would not have suddenly been given near godlike powers, vastly above his former powers, as a result of rebellion toward God and being cast down to this earth with those angels who followed him.

Make no mistake! Satan the devil is an evil genius, a tremendously powerful, magnetic, wily, subtle, convincing spirit being who can exert almost irresistible force of persuasion, of deception and temptation upon human beings.

But Satan cannot be everywhere present! He cannot “impart” a portion of his “nature” into your precious children’s minds! He can influence; he can whisper in our ears; he can even attack human beings (as he did Job, when God allowed it) by using the elements of this earth (Job was smitten with boils, and Satan caused a tornado to collapse his house). But his main method of deceiving human beings is by using his demons (countless millions) and by his own personal influence on powerful human leaders and their advisers from time to time.

One cannot prove, for example, that Satan the devil entered personally into Adolf Hitler. However, the combination of satanic genius, the brutality and total disregard for human life, the egomaniacal desire for rulership and power, the false vision of becoming like a “Messiah,” promising the world a “thousand-year Reich” (like the Millennium; Revelation 4:4), would lead one to suspect that

Satan entered Hitler personally.

Satan is a fallen angel, albeit an archangel. Note that angels may appear, and when they do they appear as men, in most cases occupying a specific place at a specific time. (Study Genesis 19.)

Satan has so powerfully influenced leaders over such a vast span of history that this whole civilization is spoken of as “Satan’s kingdoms” (Matthew 4:8-10), and he is called “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

By influencing financiers, musicians, artists, military leaders, dictators, religious leaders—those in key positions responsible for setting the trends in socioeconomic conditions and who establish cultural and religious traditions—Satan has contrived to make it appear that he is virtually all-pervasive.

Not so.

There is no such thing as a counterpart to God’s power to become all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing and everywhere-present, or “omnipresent”! Those are attributes that belong to God exclusively!

Therefore, while human nature may be powerfully influenced by Satan and his demons, and while Satan is called the “prince of the power of the air,” he does not, through some alleged “counterpart” of God’s Spirit, actually help form and compose “human nature” in human beings!

When each tiny, helpless child is born, he is completely sinless. He is incapable of sin! When he breathes air, that is all (except for possible man-made pollutants, of course) he breathes! He does not “breathe in” a portion of the nature of Satan!

Gradually, because God has constructed human nature with the five senses, with the fleshly appetites of those senses, a growing child can come to express some of the “fruits of the flesh,” meaning anger, resentment, jealousy, desire, greed and lust. But that same child can also express the very warmest signs of deep love, joy, happiness, enthusiasm and appreciation.

Growing up in a world that is totally deceived (Revelation 12:9), and becoming that sum total of every experience, teaching, influence and thought that makes up his collection of knowledge, that same child becomes another carnal, natural, physical, fleshly human being—imbued with human (not satanic!) nature!

The Word of God explains what human nature really is!

“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind [notice ‘carnal’ means completely fleshly, not allowing for any ‘spiritual’ content!] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be!” (Romans 8:6, 7).

That was the way Adam was! He had not yet sinned when Eve was listening to Satan’s clever lies. But the capacity was there, and he was “not subject”—not in subjection—to God’s laws!

God had given Adam a command!

Adam was ordered to obey that command! But even God’s laws are not “preventive legislation”! The Ten Commandments do not prevent sin, simply because human nature includes free moral agency! God’s laws tell us what is sin; they describe what we should do and what we should not do.

God has decreed it is then up to us, with our human nature and our ability to make a free, uninhibited or non-restrained choice!

Once Eve, being deceived, plunged right ahead in direct disobedience to God, and once Adam, following along after his wife, participated in that disobedience, they exercised their right of free moral agency—they sinned!

Satan was not “inside of them” when they sinned! No, he was standing there beside them! Satan did not enter Eve or Adam. He merely talked to them, reasoned with them, influenced Eve to perform a wholly voluntary act.

Suddenly the awareness of sin and the terrible feelings of guilt struck them! They had the capacity for good, and they had the capacity for evil! They chose the evil, and now their minds were sullied! >From being totally conscience-free, they were now conscience-stricken! From having no guilt, they now felt guilty!

It was not their basic nature that suddenly changed; it was that they had exercised a latent, dormant, not-yet used part of that nature!

Had they kept that part of their nature in subjection, they would not have sinned! But they were powerless to do so, really. God explains that when He says of the ancient Israelites, “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29).

Here, God is speaking of the basic nature of man. He shows there is not the kind of “heart” (volition, will, purpose, attitude and intent of mind) in mankind that willingly submits to God’s laws.

The Hostile Side of Man’s Nature

Since human nature is “not subject” to the laws of God, and it cannot be because it lacks a spiritual dimension which would lead toward such subjection, the basic nature of man is “lawless.”

Remember again the foundational scripture concerning this lawless nature of man. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be!” (Romans 8:7).

Millions of carnal-minded people are professing Christians.

Those same millions of people would feel terribly insulted if they were told they remained “hostile” toward God! They would become angry and upset if a minister told them they were filled with animosity toward God, that they were not in subjection and obedience to His will in their lives!

After all, they might argue, do they not believe in God? Do they not worship God and worship Jesus Christ, and believe on His name?

Let’s notice a Bible example of those who had accepted Jesus Christ, who had come to believe on Him! Turn to John’s lengthy eighth chapter and read how Jesus was reasoning with the Jews in the temple. He had said, “….When ye have lifted up the Son of man [referring to His crucifixion], then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him” (John 8:28, 29).

Only moments earlier, these religiously inclined people were loudly arguing with Christ. But now notice what happened! “As he spake these words, many believed on him!” (John 8:31).

Now they were convinced. Now they believed!

“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-33).

What was this? Jesus was now implying they did not know the truth.

That hurt. That cut against the grain, ruffled their religious feathers and made them angry. Remember, these are people who believed on Jesus!

“They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

“Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin … I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you” (John 8:33-37).

Notice that these Jews “believed on” Jesus, but they did not believe what He said; they rejected His teaching, His message! His word did not find any place to take root within them!

A little later Jesus showed they were seeking to put Him to death! “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father!” (John 8:40). This time Jesus referred to “their father” in oblique reference to Satan the devil!

Notice now the hostility, the anger, the livid wrath and hatred expressed by these Jews who “believe on” Jesus (but did not believe what He said)!

“We be not born of fornication!” they spat (verse 41).

Read the remainder of this remarkable chapter! By the time the conversation was finished, these people, who had moments before “believed on” Jesus, flew into a maniacal frenzy and stooped to pick up stones from the temple area and kill Jesus on the spot!

Now turn to James 2:19. “Thou believest that there is one God [or that God is One]; thou doest well; the demons also believe, and tremble!”

What? Demons “believe”? Of course they do. More—they know. Demons are fallen angels who followed Lucifer in his rebellion. They are spirit beings who were present during the creation of Adam and Eve. As spirit creatures, having the ability to transport themselves without regard to physical barriers, they have complete knowledge of the truth about God’s family; about Jesus being the Christ, and the very Son of God. They know He died for the sins of mankind; know He was dead and buried and that He rose again!

In short, demons know and believe every essential doctrine and truth that some churches claim is necessary for salvation! They are not “Christian” because of that belief, nor are they headed toward God’s Kingdom! No, they “believe,” but they tremble—because, knowing God’s great plan, they know it is only a matter of time until they will be consigned to “outer darkness” forever!

Is “belief” enough to ensure you are a Christian? Absolutely not! Satan believes. His demons believe. The Jews “believed on” Jesus, but they were totally hostile toward God, not subject to His laws. And, deep down, they hated Jesus Christ!

But aren’t loving expressions of adoration and worship toward Jesus Christ proof that a person is not “hostile” toward God?

Notice, “Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men!” (Matthew 15:7-9).

Why do you not hear that scripture preached?

Jesus warned, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit … Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven! Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:15-23).

What a statement!

Jesus Christ says those who call Him “Lord” are not doing enough to receive the Kingdom! He plainly says it is possible to worship—to adulate, love, adore, admire and deeply respect Him—and yet do it all in vain!

But why? How?

Because Jesus says their works, their lives—the way they live—constitute “iniquity”! Iniquity means sin, lawlessness!

Those who do the will of God, those who do not work “lawlessness” but who are willing to believe, not only “on” Jesus but believe Jesus—believe what He said will be known of Him—will not be worshiping Jesus Christ completely in vain!

Notice carefully, then, that your Bible proves there are many who believe on Jesus Christ (including demons!) and who worship Christ—and who are doing it all in vain!

Why?

Because they are not “subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be!” They are still carnal-minded; they have not yet repented!

We saw the dictionary definition of “repent.” Did you notice the “key” that was practically buried in the lengthy description? It was this: “. . . to feel so contrite over one’s sins as to change or decide to change one’s ways . . .”

To be deeply and profoundly sorry, shaken up, devastated, hurt, ashamed, revolted, disgusted over one’s sins—that is repentance!

But what constitutes sin? 

What Is Sin?

Few professing Christians are taught from the pulpits what sin really is. They are taught it is something that is “displeasing to God,” or “living a life that is apart from God,” or some other equally vague and nebulous descriptions.

Many are led to believe “sin” is an almost endless list of “taboos” and can include drinking, card-playing, dancing, certain kinds of music, books and magazines, pictures, sex, smoking, short skirts, long sideburns, sleeping in church, golf on Sunday, cussing, spitting, cheating, lying, honky-tonking, getting fat, eating meats, marrying, divorcing, speaking to a disfellowshipped person and an almost exhaustive, talmudic encyclopedic list of human deeds, lusts and actions.

To some, singing in church is a sin. To others, singing is mandatory and pleasing to God, but not to the accompaniment of musical instruments. To some, drinking hard liquor is a sin, but a little wine now and then is not—and wine may be taken on the Passover (Lord’s Supper), or on any other occasion.

Millions believe it is wrong to commit certain acts defined in the Ten Commandments but do not believe that to break any one of those Ten Commandments is a sin, punishable by death, unless it is repented of!

Especially the fourth one! Millions of believing, professing, churchgoing “Christian” people cheerfully break God’s Holy Sabbath Day every single week. They have been deceived into believing God somehow allowed the day into which He put His very presence (and the God of the Old Testament is the same personality of the Godhead who became Jesus Christ of the New Testament; read John 1 and Hebrews 1) to be changed, altered, so that “Christians” now observe “Sunday” as if in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ.

Not so. History proves otherwise. Bible proofs abound from proving the Ten Commandments were in force before Moses, to proving how Jesus came to magnify the law, and make it even more binding, to proving Christ is “Lord of the Sabbath day” (Mark 2:28) to proving God’s Sabbaths will be enforced during the Millennium!

Still, those millions of people who “believe on” Jesus (just as the Jews did of John 8) can become emotional, can become angry and hostile when anyone suggests their Sunday tradition might be in error!

As Jesus said, “But in vain do they worship me—teaching for doctrines the commandments of men!” (Matthew 15:9). There is a Bible definition for sin! It is found in 1 John 3:4. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law!”

The only law described here in John’s writings is the Ten Commandments! Notice!

“And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3, 4).

“And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (1 John 3:22).

When a young man asked Jesus, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Jesus answered him, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!” (Matthew 19:16,17).

He then went on to define which commandments, describing the only law known commonly by such term in the Bible, the Ten Commandments given by God through Moses! He summarized the last six after mentioning murder, adultery, theft, bearing false witness and honoring one’s parents by saying, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ”

The Ten Commandments define sin. They tell us what sinis by specifying various categories of human action (or inaction). Jesus magnified those commandments, made them infinitely more binding on us in His famous “Sermon on the Mount.”

Notice this! “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

“Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-19).

Notice that Jesus urged men to both “do” and teach others to “do,” even those commandments men considered to be “the least”!

Next He said, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca [‘vain fellow’], shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of Gehennah fire!” (Matthew 5:21, 22).

What a vast difference! According to the “letter” of the Ten Commandments, one would be subject to the death penalty for actually murdering another human being. Now, Jesus described various degrees of danger if one spoke contemptuously of his fellowman! Why? Because such sentiments come from the heart, out of an attitude, and Jesus is here making the Ten Commandments infinitely more binding upon Christians by showing how they apply spiritually.

Notice another example. “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27, 28).

Does this “do away” with the Ten Commandments, as some claim?

Obviously not. It does the exact opposite: reconfirming, reestablishing and making infinitely more binding; applicable to the spiritual intent of the mind, rather than the physical act! Jesus said, “. . . Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.

“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man” (Matthew 15:18-20).

Where the Ten Commandments had been administered in the letter, a man was not actually guilty of sin, punishable by death, until the murder had been committed; now a man was guilty of sin, punishable by death, for hating his fellow human being in his heart! Where formerly it required the physical act to constitute sin, now Jesus explained the thought constituted sin!

The Ten Commandments point out what sin is. Paul said, “. . . I had not known sin [that is, what sin is], but by [through] the law: for I had not known lust, except the law [the Ten Commandments] had said, Thou shalt not covet” (Romans 7:7).

Just previously Paul had said, “For the wages of sin [the breaking of the Ten Commandments] is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 6:23).

Speaking analogously, Paul said, “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good!’ (Romans 7:8-12).

A paraphrase is necessary to understand this analogous passage.

Paul was saying, “Sin, which dwells in my human nature, as the law describes, was working every kind of evil in me. For, when I didn’t know anything about the law, what sin is, I was living normally, without any knowledge that I was sinning—the sin within me was dead, and I didn’t recognize it. But, when the knowledge of the Commandments came to mind, sin became instantly, painfully alive, and my life was forfeit. Because sin, as the law explains it, deceived me, and through the penalty of the law it cost me my life—because death is the penalty for sin. Now that I am dead, so far as the law is concerned, because Christ died for me, I must confess that the law of God is holy, and just, and good.”

That is the way millions of professing Christians are!

They are blissfully unaware of the sin that lives within them; their leaders speak “smooth things” (Isaiah 30:9, 10) and the people themselves are deceived. Remember, deceived people are very likely “sincere,” they don’t know they are obliged to keep the Ten Commandments in the spiritual intent of the law, and what they “don’t know” they “don’t know that they don’t know,” to coin a phrase. They are completely ignorant of the sin that lives within them, as Paul explained.

Notice what Paul further said, “For we know that the law is spiritual [as we saw Jesus magnify its intent and make it far more binding upon us]: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

“If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:14-19).

What an eloquent explanation of human nature at work in our bodies!

Paul acknowledges that God’s law is spiritual.

First, what is the difference between something that is “physical” and something “spiritual”? People speak of “physical laws” and usually mean some law or principle having to do with the known laws of physics and chemistry—laws affecting our health—or laws legislated by man for the purpose of regulating society.

But are the “laws of physics” (i.e., gravity, inertia, properties of minerals and chemicals, etc.) really “physical”? No, they are not. They are absolutes. The laws governing our physical universe are immutable, implacable, unchangeable; they are stated principles concerning the way things are.

When Paul acknowledges God’s law is “spiritual,” he shows it is unchangeable, immutable; that it is absolute.

Jesus said, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18). Jesus showed God’s law will survive long after the world has perished, that not a comma or the crossing of a “t” will be changed!

Can anyone doubt that God’s Word—yes, the New Testament—upholds, magnifies and commands obedience to the Ten Commandments?

Let’s paraphrase the remainder of Paul’s statement and understand it. Paul admitted, “I am still fleshly minded, subject to the tugs and pulls of my nature, capable of sinning. The things I find myself doing I wish I wouldn’t do. The things I want to do I seem unable to do, but the evil that I don’t want to do, I seem to find myself doing!”

Continuing, Paul said (paraphrased), “Now, when I find myself doing things I really wish I weren’t doing, it isn’t really me; the way I really am, and want to be, that is doing it—it is the sin that seems to dwell inside of me.

“I find there is a law of some sort at work, that—when I really want to do good—there is evil present inside of me that prevents it.

“Because, you see, I truly delight in the law of God, when I think about the way I really want to be, the way I really feel about God and His laws, but I see this other law at work in my body as if in conflict against the law of my mind, bringing me into a kind of slavish obedience to this law of sin that lives in my body.

“What a wretched person I really am! Who can deliver me from this conflicting life that can only lead to death, of and by myself’.? I thank God that it can be done through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, then, with my innermost being I serve the law of God, but this fleshly body betrays me now and then and I find it serving the law of sin!” (Romans 7:21-25).

Isn’t that the way you feel much of the time?

Aren’t there countless Christian people who feel the same way? We want to “be good,” but we find it so hard to continually “do good!” We slip and slop around; we procrastinate, vacillate and hedge. We make false starts and don’t finish what we have begun. We resolve and days later fail to carry through. We make promises to ourselves, and to God, and then break them.

Thank God He has given us the example of one of the most tireless laborers for Him, a great apostle of Jesus Christ: Paul. Paul was human and weak, just like we are! He wanted salvation, wanted to continually remain in a repentant attitude, but he found himself slipping back into sinful attitudes and habits. It was necessary for Paul to go to God for forgiveness on a daily basis. Can we do any less?

Sin is the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments as they are magnified and made more binding by the teachings and the life’s example of Jesus Christ, who “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Therefore, sin may include some of the things listed earlier, and sin most certainly is displeasing to God, and is living a life that is separate from God, but sin is, specifically, breaking any one of the points of the Ten Commandments as they are magnified and made more binding in the spirit!

To break God’s Sabbath Day is a sin. Millions are deceived, thinking God’s Sabbath is done away—so their conscience may remain free while they are nevertheless under the condemnation of God’s law and under the penalty of sin!

Can People Sin with a Free Conscience?

Notice again how God’s Word explains ignorance is no excuse!

“For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died!” (Romans 7:9).

Paul says he was living happily enough, blissfully unaware of points of God’s law he should have been obeying; “alive without the law,” or alive without the conscious knowledge he should be obeying that law.

But when “the commandment came”—that is, when God’s laws were finally impressed on his conscience, when he came into the full realization he had been breaking those laws–“sin revived,” was suddenly obvious to him, leaped to life in his mind, soiled his conscience, made him aware that he was sinning, and Paul “died.”

How did he “die”? Listen. “For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:19, 20).

The law demanded Paul’s death (Romans 6:23). To commit sin, even in ignorance, brings the death penalty, according to God’s law. But Jesus Christ was sent to suffer and die in our stead, to accept upon Himself the penalty, the consequences of our sins!

By accepting, in brokenhearted humility and thanksgiving, in deep and abiding repentance, the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ in his place, the apostle Paul was “crucified with Christ”; the law was satisfied—he was considered “dead” according to the law and the case closed—yet he still lived; but he lived by the faith of Christ!

God says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him!” (Romans 5:8, 9).

But sinners, as Paul explained, might not know they are sinners!

Most are deceived (Revelation 12:9). They do not know that they are sinning! Their consciences remain relatively untroubled, but their lives are forfeit, their fate sealed, unless they repent!

Paul explains further: “For when the Gentiles [the nations], which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another…” (Romans 2:14, 15).

There are many nations and many religions which recognize various points of God’s spiritual law.

Even in Islam it is against the law to commit murder, to bear false witness, to steal or commit adultery. Under strict Islamic code, stern and swift punishment is meted out, not unlike the punishments for sin during the Mosaic period. Westerners may be revolted upon seeing a flyblown, grotesquely swollen, rotting hand hanging from a hook outside a bakery in an Arabic country. It is said there are very few Arabs who have no hands. Perhaps such stern “justice,” though seemingly barbaric to our Western minds, keeps such countries relatively crime-free.

It is said one may walk the darkened streets of Cairo, Egypt, with its teeming millions, and be safer than in the towns of the United States.

In such countries there are concepts of right and wrong, concepts of religion, of good and evil and of conscience. Paul shows their “thoughts” either accuse or excuse one another, quite apart from any action or input from God.

Their conscience may be perfectly clear as they practice their religion, and yet they may be sinning in God’s sight and under condemnation.

To most of us, our way of life is “right.” Very few people can stand the nagging voice of conscience for very long. We need to be comfortable with ourselves.

So, if we find a certain problem in our lives causing us conscience pangs, we usually find some new avenues of thought which can “excuse” us our problems, find a way to assuage that nagging conscience and quiet the pangs of doubt, find a way to coexist with this painful problem of life.

Even a completely foolish man justifies all his actions. “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise” (Proverbs 12:15). Such a person may play the games of quieting his own conscience, but God says he needs the input from outside sources, counsel” and knowledge from outside himself.

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12). Most of us do that which is “right” in our eyes. We need to live with our consciences, so, like the Gentile nations that live in complete ignorance of God’s laws, we either “accuse” ourselves or “excuse” ourselves. We accuse ourselves when our consciences give us trouble, grow irritated and disgusted with our lives and strive to find ways to change.

Those who come forward following a moving sermon are “good” people who are striving (at some cost to dignity and self-esteem) to change their lives. They mean it. They are certainly sincere. They have been convicted of wrongdoing in some form or another and have found their consciences have really been awakened to a need to change!

But have they been convicted of sin?

The answer is a resounding no—if that minister did not explain deeply and fully what sin is and if that person did not understand that he has been breaking the spiritual intent of the Ten Commandments of God and is now brokenheartedly resolving not to sin any more!

They have been convicted of wrongdoing, not of sin, in its entirety. They have become sorrowful over sinning in some way but have not been awakened (as was Paul) to the whole picture of sin: what it is and what it is not, how to repent of it and how to avoid it in the future.

After such an experience, many people find new ways to “excuse” themselves where they were previously “accusing” themselves. Now they are able to pick up the pieces of their lives and go on again.

Too many tens of thousands of people have equated the quieting of their consciences with repentance! There is a vast difference!

One of the bloodiest books in the Bible is the book of Judges. During this period of time the people of Israel fought one war after another; there was every conceivable personal, social, national problem. The summation at the end of the book shows that all this was caused by people doing what their consciences told them was right!

By doing what seemed “right” to them, they suffered every conceivable evil effect: crime, famine, wars, an incredible amount of human suffering spanning a large portion of Israelitish history. No doubt many of them managed to assuage their consciences; they were “doing what was right” the way it appeared to them. But they were committing sins, the underlying cause for all the suffering they experienced!

The answer is that people most certainly can, and do, sin with a free conscience. Human conscience is no guide as to what constitutes sin! Sin is defined by God’s Ten Commandments, not by human sociocultural, ethnic, religious and philosophical views!

Your conscience may not bother you when you are living contrary to God’s laws in some important point, just as Paul said, “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.”

He lived without the awareness of sin; his conscience didn’t bother him until that point in his life when God made him aware of his sins. Then he repented; he accepted Christ’s shed blood to atone for his sins and was baptized as a symbol of the death, burial and resurrection, not only of Jesus Christ, but also of Paul himself.

That’s why he said, “I died.” So far as the law is concerned, the penalty had been exacted. The law was satisfied. Paul’s life was forfeit, but Christ had given His life instead!

Millions of sincere, churchgoing, professing Christian people today are actually living in sins of which they are completely ignorant! Their consciences are free; they don’t know they are sinning. But they are!

Are We Truly Free?

The Jews became angry with Jesus when He suggested that whoever commits sin becomes the “servant” of sin, is enslaved, and in bondage to his own appetites. They hotly retorted that they were never in bondage to anyone!

We like to believe we are truly in command of our own fate—the captain over our own lives and destinies—but we are not.

As creatures of habit, we become very susceptible to the physical appetites. Millions of us are “hooked” on various of the comparatively (!) harmless varieties of stimulants, depressants, and perception-altering substances that we imbibe on a daily basis. Whether coffee or alcohol, cigarettes or snuff, or just a desire for sweets, starches and sugars in our diet, most of us are slavishly obedient to our habits.

This is not a booklet on alcoholism—the subject is vast enough to deserve a whole book—but the incredible hold of alcohol on millions of human beings is one of the most massive physical, economic, social and spiritual problems of our time. Broken homes, shattered bodies and grotesquely borne injuries, job loss, absenteeism, child abuse, wife beating, murder—the monstrous toll of human suffering lying directly at the door of this slavish habit that holds millions captive is incalculable.

Strangely, there are countless “problem drinkers” who kid themselves they can quit any time they care to. They continually promise themselves they will cut down, taper off and bring their drinking under control.

Many people wrestle with this problem all their lives, consuming prodigious quantities of liquor, wine and/or beer—playing the game of pretending they are not really in slavish subjection to their addictive habit, pretending they are the masters of themselves—and, just to prove it now and then, giving it up for short periods of time.

They manage to live with their consciences, perhaps even justifying their groveling, servile obedience to their appetites and physical senses, by claiming biblical authority for what they do and kidding themselves they are keeping their habit “under control.” They tell themselves (and others) that they are only “moderate” drinkers.

I knew of an example where the man was consuming at least one quart of wine each day, from time to time laced with various cocktails at lunch and dinner, and glasses of champagne. However, when lecturing others on their drinking habits, which he darkly warned might be carried to excess in some cases, he would cite how he drank beer. He claimed he bought one of the tiny, six-ounce aluminum cans of Coors and in the most elaborate fashion explained how he would drink only half of that tiny can and promptly pour the remainder down the sink! This example he urged on his followers, always careful not to mention the fact that, while he might have been telling the truth about how much beer he had consumed on that day, he concealed his own total intake of alcohol.

Such are the games people play when they desperately strive to quiet their consciences to sin!

It is not the purpose of this booklet to explain all the scriptures on whether drinking in real moderation is or is not a sin. The point is that the example I cite came from a person who did believe drinking in moderation was allowed in the Bible, but who was rarely moderate in his own drinking. But he kept his conscience quiet.

It is difficult to convince the confirmed smoker that he is slavish, servile, groveling, obedient to a physical, lustful appetite of the flesh!

They make it seem so stylish, so universally accepted! Advertising a smelly, burning weed beside fresh, bubbling, sky-blue mountain streams, showing happy skiers puffing away on their favorite cheroot that is very likely called by the deceptive name “Fresh Air” or “Springtime” or other such appellative.

Yet it has been proved over and over again that smoking causes cancer. Not only is it a smelly, dirty habit that enslaves a person—makes a full-grown man get down on his knees and practically grovel in slavish obedience to his own appetites—but it is terribly dangerous to your health!

Millions of “Christian” people smoke, including ministers and priests. Are they sinning?

The Scriptures plainly say they are. While smoking is not mentioned by name, the principle of defiling one’s body, shortening your life and playing a form of “Russian roulette” with cancer, while becoming repugnant and offensive to nonsmokers, is clearly condemned by the Word of God.

But there are hundreds of more subtle forms of sin that are waging continual battle in the physical minds and bodies of professing Christian people!

Hatred, racism, anger, greed, avarice, cunning, lying, cheating, stealing—a mammoth number of unchristian attitudes—are harbored within the hearts of countless people who believe they are “Christian.” Some of the most glaring ironies can be found in Catholics and Protestants shooting, knifing, bludgeoning and bombing each other to bits in Northern Ireland. They both believe in Jesus, they say. They both believe in “turning the other cheek,” then. Really?

Too many Christian-professing people believe God’s law constitutes bondage! To them freedom is freedom from the law, not freedom within the law.

What is “freedom”?

Perhaps a loose definition, as it applies to our Western democracies, might read, “Freedom is the inviolable right to do whatever you want to do as proscribed by the law, so long as it does not interfere with that same right granted to others.” There are many definitions which could suffice as well, but within this extremely brief framework is a great principle.

Living in a free country is only possible by a system of government which can continue to guarantee those freedoms. Our government, divided into the executive, judiciary and legislative bodies, is constituted according to the founding documents of the United States, called the “Declaration of Independence,” the “Bill of Rights” and the “Constitution.”

The legislative body of government adds amendments to the Constitution from time to time, and such amendments become law.

When you break the law, you are subject to a penalty.

Without digressing into the tragedy of the overcrowded, understaffed, beleaguered system of criminal justice and the many abuses, such as “revolving-door” punishment, suffice it to say that, ideally, when you run a stop sign and are caught, you pay a fine. Steal and you pay a fine or go to jail. Murder and your life may be forfeit.

Thus, in many ways our modern system of law is not unlike the ancient system of law under Moses. Simply stated, if you violate the terms and conditions of those documents guaranteeing you your freedom, you may lose that freedom.

You are free, so long as you continue to obey the laws ofthe free land in which you live!

God’s laws are the same!

You are truly free only when you live within God’s laws, because you are then free from sin! Sin enslaves you, captures you, holds you captive and in bondage!

Notice what God’s Word says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin [the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments] unto death [the wages of sin), or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16).

When you “obey” the lusts and physical senses of your body, and indulge in acts or habits which injure and pollute that body, you are becoming a slave to the passions and appetites of your flesh! You are most certainly not free! You are a slave!

When you break those slavish habits through the power of God’s Holy Spirit—when you repent of sins and call upon Jesus Christ to forgive those sins—you become free from sin!

Notice further, “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness!” (Romans 6:17, 18).

Most have it backwards! 

Does Grace Give You Permission to Break the Law?

Millions of professing, churchgoing “Christian” people have believed they are under “grace” when they are forgiven, and, to them, that means they do not have to obey God’s laws!Paul responds, “What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

“God forbid! How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? … Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin … Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him … Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof!” (Romans 6:1- 12).

Grace is a quality of the character of God, not the “state”of being a Christian. The clever catch-phrase” law or grace” has confused countless persons into believing the two are at opposite extremes; that one is either “under the law” (made to appear “legalistic,” “repressive,” harsh, unreasonable, “Old Covenant,” “Jewish” and as if one is trying to work for salvation by earning it through repugnant physical deeds) or “under grace,” meaning not obliged to keep God’s law.

But such plays on words will not nullify the plain statements of Scripture! Look again at what Paul said! He asked, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

God forbid!” That means, clearly, that we are not to continue breaking the Ten Commandments, continue doing the very things that took Christ’s life, in order that we may bask in God’s forgiveness!

Once we have been forgiven of breaking the laws of God, we are then expected to quit doing that for which we needed forgiveness, to quit sinning, quit breaking the laws!

Paul said, Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Now the law no longer claims your life; you are out from under the penalties of the law—no longer under the threat of death, the punishment for having broken the law.

Because some might have misunderstood this statement, might have interpreted it to mean not being “under the law” meant free to ignore the law, free to break the law, free to go back into sin, Paul continued, “What then? Shall we sin [break God’s Ten Commandments] because we are not ‘under the law’ but ‘under grace’? God forbid!”

When we repent and are forgiven for having lived in our sins, we are expected to come out of those sins, to forsake them and to live a life of overcoming our sinful natures!

Notice, “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life!” (Romans 5:8-10).

If Christians understood this simple scripture, countless millions of them would know far more than they presently do about justification, about reconciliation to God and about salvation! They would know salvation is not a completed, past action by “receiving Christ,” by confessing that He is the Christ, but that it is a present, day-to-day, ongoing process of living a godly, Christian life, with Jesus Christ as a living, acting, interceding High Priest in heaven—that a Christian must live a life of daily overcoming and will be saved through the living Christ!

Read those verses again and understand!

God shows how much He loves you and me by sending Christ to die for us “while we were yet sinners”! Read the “favorite verse” of many Christian-professing people again, John 3:16. God loved this world of sinning human beings enough to allow the greatest risk ever taken to occur: to allow His own Son, the “Logos” (John 1:1), the

“Spokesman” or Executive Member of the Godhead, to “empty Himself” (Philippians 2:5, 6), become a human being (Hebrews 2:14), with the possibility of sinning, and overcome the temptations of the physical flesh (Hebrews 4:15, 16), living a perfect life (Hebrews 5:9) and then dying for the sins of all mankind!

What took Christ’s life?

Our sins!

And what is sin? It is the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments! (1 John 3:4). When God forgives you for past acts of disobedience to His laws, He obliterates your guilty past and He now expects you to remain free from sin, to quit sinning!

You are now said to be “justified” (past guilt removed!) and reconciled to God. Now you live under the merciful pardon, the grace, of God. Does that mean you are now free to go back into a life of disobedience to God, breaking the Ten Commandments?

Because you are under “grace,” do you now have permission to break the law with impugnity? You have seen the answer from the holy Word of God time and time again! Paul says, “God forbid!”

Your sins and mine cost Christ His life!

When you accept His shed blood in your stead, you arerepenting of sin! Now you must quit sinning, with the help of God’s Holy Spirit, and begin living a life of overcoming the physical pulls and tugs of human nature.

Repentance: the Starting Point

Jesus said, “Repent ye, and believe the Gospel!” John the Baptist shouted, “Repent!” Peter, on the day of Pentecost, said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!” (Acts 2:38). Later he said, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

To repent means to be deeply sorry for having sinned. It means coming to a sincere, honest, deeply felt remorse over having broken God’s laws—all of them—totally bereft of any feelings of self-pity; brokenhearted remorse over what we have done and what we have been; what we are!

Along with being deeply sorry to the point of real emotion expressed toward God for our past sins, it means fervent resolve that, with God’s help, we will quit sinning!

Real repentance takes knowledge and deep understanding mixed with emotion!

It is not an embarrassed, selfish feeling of the “sorrow of the world” which is mixed with feelings of self-pity, but a full, sincere, completely honest understanding of how wrong we have been, how far afield from God’s perfect will in our lives, what a sinner we have been!

The only way a person can really repent is to understand these major points:

First: What sin is; that it is the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments in any of the broadest possible applications, as Jesus Christ defined by His life’s example and by His teachings, notably the Sermon on the Mount.

Second: To understand that we have been sinners, that we were living arrogantly, pridefully, willfully contrary to those laws and the teachings of Christ:

Third: To understand that our own personal rejection of God and His Son Jesus Christ, the way of life They have willed for us, was what took Christ’s life. We need to know He died for us personally!

Fourth: To see ourselves for the first time as God seesus: selfish, prideful, innately rebellious toward God and resisting the suggestion that we may have been wrong. We must come to be disgusted with the self, to say with Job, “I abhor myself,” and with Paul, “O wretched man that I am!” and mean it!

Fifth: We must sincerely cry out for God’s forgiveness that He will remove that burden of guilt we have been carrying.

Sixth: We must be baptized (Acts 2:38; Romans 6) as a symbol of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and as a symbol of the death and burial of the “old man,” the person we were in the past.

Seventh: We must receive the “laying on of hands” by the direct representatives of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38; 8:17) for the receiving of the Holy Spirit, and then know and have the faith to believe we have been forgiven and that God will now empower us to live a life of daily overcoming. We must understand we are no longer “our own person,” but belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20; 7:23).

Millions of sincerely contrite persons have come forward to the emotional cries of an evangelist who did not understand these seven vital points!

They were sincere. They may have changed their lives in some important ways. Those changes could have been for the good. But if their sorrow was only the “sorrow of the world,” and if their understanding did not include the entire biblical truth about repentance, and if they were not willing to be baptized and receive God’s Holy Spirit exactly as your Bible requires, then they did not really repent!

Repentance—a Great Change

Peter said, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).

To be converted is to be changed.

Paul wrote, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed [completely changed, converted] by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1, 2).

When one repents, is baptized and receives the Holy Spirit of God, a profound change comes over one’s whole character and personality. Let’s notice one of the most outstanding biblical examples, that of Saul of Tarsus.

While a murderous mob stoned Stephen to death (Acts, seventh chapter), a young man named “Saul of Tarsus” stood by and watched with complete approval! “. . . And stoned him [Stephen]: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul” (Acts 7:58).

“And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem . . .” (Acts 8:1).

Saul of Tarsus was a freeborn Roman citizen, but a Benjaminite, brought up in the strictest sect of the Pharisees, and educated under one of the most famous of all teachers of rabbinical law, Gamaliel. Some scholars take his statement about “giving his voice” against Christians as implying he was a member of the Sanhedrin.

Saul was vehemently determined to stamp out the new “religion” based on the belief that Jesus had died for our sins, been buried and was now alive. He hated that concept, and he diligently sought to stamp it out!

“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way [notice Christianity is called a way of life!], whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1, 2.

Saul was filled with hatred toward this rabble, these so-called “Christians,” as they would soon be called. He obtained official, written permission to arrest them and bring them in irons to Jerusalem for trial.

Later he was to admit, “I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them” (Acts 26:9, 10).

The Greek word used for “voice” in this case is psephos,which means “a pebble (as worn smooth by handling), i.e., by implication of use as a counter, or ballot; a vote, stone, voice.”

In dozens of other cases, the Greek for “voice” is phone, which means “to tone, or articulate; saying or language, noise, sound, or voice.”

The text should read, “I gave my vote against them!” This seems adequate proof that Paul had a “stone” to cast, as if in balloting or voting, and was therefore a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin.

Paul, in his defense before Agrippa, began acknowledging his wrath against Christians, trying to show Agrippa that he, too, had entertained the same notions that drove the Jews and that Agrippa felt. He said, “And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities” (Acts 26:11).

Think what this means. Saul of Tarsus had a lot to repent of! He had not only stood by at Stephen’s death, and watched the brutal murder of a converted, Christlike human being; he had obtained documents (like warrants) from the priests, and had entered synagogues all over Syria and Palestine, and, finding those who dared to confess the name of Christ, had them arrested and dragged out on the spot.

He invariably voted against acquittal when they were questioned, and helped put many of these poor people to death! He participated directly in murder! Not only this, but he “compelled them to blaspheme,” and that means torture! By subjecting completely innocent people—men, women and the aged alike—to unbearable pain, he smirked and laughed as he caused them to curse the name of Jesus Christ before they died!

Read the entire ninth chapter of Acts. It is the story of God’s direct intervention in the life of Saul of Tarsus: how he was blinded and struck down, how he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

Read how Ananias was told in a vision to lay hands on Saul for the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit! “And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight [for he had been supernaturally struck blind!], and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

“And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized’ (Acts 9:17, 18).

Saul was spiritually blind—and God struck him down and rendered him physically blind. When it seemed “scales” fell away from his eyes physically, it also seemed as if scales fell away from his eyes spiritually. Now he saw clearly. Now he knew Jesus Christ was alive! No one lives through such a staggering experience as Saul and remains in doubt!

Notice. “And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God!” (verses 19 and 20).

Now the name he had hated became the name he loved! Now the message that had driven him insane with anger—filled his heart with murder—became the message he loved the most, couldn’t wait to preach to others!

“But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?

“But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ” (Acts 9:21, 22).

What a change! What a complete transformation! Peter had preached, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted!” When Saul was struck down, all the hatred, the feelings of permanence, personal invincibility, ego, vanity, pride, hatred and self-assurance, were destroyed!

From a pompous, hate-filled little despot—like a dictator who reveled in his ability to casually take human life with as little remorse as killing a dog—Saul became a frightened little boy. A vast blackness enveloped his eyes—he couldn’t see! An awesome, powerful, electrifying voice shouted at him, “SAUL! SAUL!” and he was shocked into humble obedience.

Gone were all the anger, pride and vanity.

They were replaced with awe, the fear of God and a shocking realization that these Christians who said Jesus had risen from the dead were right! It was He, Jesus, talking to Saul!

Instantly he became humble, contrite, deeply sorrowful over what he had done! While he was blind he had time to see, in his mind’s eye, an endless parade of the screaming, pain-wracked faces of innocent, helpless human beings he had caused to blaspheme the name of Jesus and to be put to death!

He came to abhor himself, to hate what he had done! His flesh crawled with revulsion over the incredible, bestial, hateful brutality he had committed! He cried out to God with broken heart, with a feeling of being more worthless than the offscourings of a filthy garbage can, worth less than dung in the street, worth less than a rotting corpse of a dead dog. He came to detest what he had done, to hate what he had been, what he had become!

He knew he deserved to die!

Then, miraculously, he came to know the very Jesus Christ he had so hated, whose name he had contemptuously used in cursing and foul language and whose name he had caused those suffering Christians to curse; that very Jesus Christ, in spite of how wretched and how worthless and how unfit and contemptible Saul had become—that same Jesus Christ of Nazareth was willing to forgive even him, Saul!

That realization nearly broke Saul’s heart. It overwhelmed him completely, filled him with an awesome realization of the depths of the limitless love and mercy of God, that Jesus Christ had, in fact, been the very Son of that Living God, that Jesus Christ had suffered and died on the stake for Saul personally.

So, through a direct intervention from God, a prideful, arrogant, hate-filled Jewish aristocrat, highly educated, vain, imperious, haughty and egomaniacal, was transformed into a contrite, sorrowful, repentant, humble man who could look on his own past, on his own self, with feelings of shame and revulsion.

Saul’s name meant “destroyer.” Later, as God began using Saul more and more powerfully, the brethren began referring to him as “Paul,” which meant “worker,” as a laborer for Jesus Christ, a worker for his Lord and Savior!

Paul was converted.

God used the apostle Paul to enrich the lives of countless millions—he caused him to produce 14 whole books of the Bible—and the life-long humility and self-effacing, nonpresumptuous, unassuming character of Paul shines forth from some of the richest literature of God’s Word.

To Paul we owe the entire panorama of the growth of Christianity in the Gentile world, and through his writings we learn of the organization and government in the church—all about the spiritual meanings behind baptism, the real meaning of conversion and the fact that Paul never forgot how deeply he had needed God’s forgiveness, never forgot he had been purged from his old sins!

Read Acts the 13th chapter for examples of Paul’s powerful ministry.

At the conclusion of a stirring sermon, he said, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38, 39).

From hating the sound of Jesus’ name, Paul came to love Jesus Christ with all his heart and all his being. He gloried in preaching about that love and forgiveness he had experienced, showing the reality of what had happened to him and proclaiming in great power that Jesus Christ was alive, that He was the Son of God, a living High Priest in heaven to make daily intercession for us, and that He was to come again in the power of all the universe to establish His great Kingdom here on this earth!

Paul would say, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). He would say, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:1-4).

What a change!

There is no richer example of a complete conversion of a human being from a carnal-minded, sinning rebel to a loving, humble, sincere Christian minister in all of the Word of God.

Paul repented. He was baptized. He received the Holy Spirit of God, which changed his carnal nature.

He wrote, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:6-9).

Paul was transformed, changed, converted!

Begotten—Not Yet Born

When one is deeply repentant, is baptized and receives the Holy Spirit of God through the laying on of hands, that person is said to be “begotten” of God.

The Bible uses the analogy of human birth to help us humans understand the vast process of salvation. Jesus told Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again,” and explained that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is, becomes, Spirit! (For a complete explanation of this vital subject, write for our free booklet Was Jesus Born Again?)

Millions of professing Christians have come to call the experience of “receiving Christ” as Savior being “born again.” Countless churchgoers believe they have already been born again, using the expression to convey their acceptance of Christ’s blood, their belief in Him.

But only Jesus Christ has been “born again”!

Notice the proof in the pages of your own Bible.

When Jesus was resurrected, He was changed from flesh to Spirit! He instantly became very God once more and joined His Father as a member of the Family of God. Christ had been the “Logos” (Greek, Spokesman), the Executive Member of the Godhead, who did the creating (John 1: 1-17).

He “counted not equality with God a thing to be grasped at,” but “emptied himself’ and “took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. . .” (Philippians 2:6, 7, margin). He became human (Hebrews 2:14-17) and was the “only begotten” of the Father! (John 3:16; Hebrews 11:17).

When Jesus was resurrected, He was said to be “born” of God by a miraculous change, by a resurrection from the dead! “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Corinthians 15:22, 23).

Notice the amazing opposites to that which most Christians believe contained in this scripture. First, God has determined there is to be an order of entrance into His Kingdom. He says Christ has the preeminence; He is the firstfruits from the dead. Next, He says it is only afterward Christians may be inducted into His Kingdom. When? Is it at the moment they die? No! “. . . Afterward, they that are Christ’s at his coming,” and not a moment before! In that moment, they too will be changed!

“And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [die], but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump [afterward, at His coming]: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed!” (1 Corinthians 15:49-52).

We will be born of God, just as Jesus said to Nicodemus—changed from human flesh into divine Spirit! Jesus is called the firstborn among many brethren”(Romans 8:29)..

But, when one is converted, he receives but an “earnest,” or “down payment,” of God’s Holy Spirit. We are still fleshly, physical, and there is still a carnal nature against which we must battle. We are “begotten” of God, but not yet born! (Read our complete booklet Was Jesus Born Again?, which explains thoroughly. It’s free of charge—write for it today.)

What people commonly refer to as a “born again experience” means they believe they became a Christian; believe they “received Christ” as their personal Savior. Perhaps they went forward at a revival or evangelistic campaign. Now, because of the confusion concerning “born again,” millions believe they have already been “born again” when the Bible says no! The Bible clearly shows Christ is the “firstborn from the dead” and it is afterward-at his coming—that others can be born of God like He was!

Presently we are said to be “begotten of God!”

The confusion stems from the single Greek word gennao, which, unlike our English terminology, connotes the entire birth process from begettal through birth. If there had been two different Greek words used in the Bible, such as “begotten” and “born,” then most would understand.

But remember, the Bible must interpret the Bible, and no man! We must not dare to put our ideas, our doctrines and beliefs, into the Bible; we must tremble before it and seek to drink deeply of its meaning, getting God’s truth out of the Bible, letting the Bible teach us!

The beautiful analogy of birth makes it clear!

Just as a human baby is begotten in the womb, and, fromthat instant another human being is gradually being developed and maturing toward the moment of final birth, so each converted Christian is begotten of God and begins developing toward the final moment, either at his death or at the time of instant change (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52) at the second coming of Jesus Christ!

Once Begotten of God, Can You Still Sin?

Is it possible for Christians to sin?

It is not only possible, but it is highly likely! When one is converted, he becomes a “babe in Christ,” a bare beginner as a Christian. He is now begotten of God, has received the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands (Acts 19:6). His mind is infused with the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

But the Christian life is one of overcoming on a daily basis. It is the overcomers who are promised great rewards with Christ in His Kingdom (Revelation 2:26; 3:21). Overcoming is a process.

Paul told the Corinthian church, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able” (1 Corinthians 3:1, 2). They were newly begotten Christians just making a start in the right direction, but they were still mostly carnal.

Think of Paul’s analogy. Babies must be fed, coddled, loved, pampered and completely cared for. They are, of all newly born creatures, the most helpless. While most animal species are able to walk within moments after birth, and dolphins begin swimming alongside their mothers, surfacing for air only a second or two after birth, human babies are completely helpless. The mother just does everything for them. They are unable to even lift their little heads.

Newly begotten Christians are much like those helpless little babies.

They are now converted; they have repented and have God’s Holy Spirit. But they are far from experienced, tried, tested, proven, mature Christians! Even as babies crawl before they walk, so newly begotten Christians “crawl,” as it were, in learning about the Christian way of life.

And, just like a little toddler who sits down suddenly and falls dozens of times while learning to walk, a newly begotten Christian person makes many mistakes, slips up, forgets, has difficulty living the way he really wants to.

Like the bumper sticker says, “Christians aren’t perfect—just forgiven!”

The apostle Paul knew he was slipping up from time to time, knew his own human nature still waged a war within him, causing him to commit various acts, think certain thoughts and come to possess certain attitudes that were not right in God’s sight.

He said, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (Romans 7:14-17).

Paul knew that even though he had deeply and bitterly repented of the atrocities he had committed, had been baptized and received the Holy Spirit of God, he was not yet perfect.

He understood the downward pulls of human nature. He recognized that his human appetites and passions were a “natural” result of the physical sensory systems, that the Creator God had made him of flesh and that he was endowed with the five physical senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste and feeling, and that each of these physical senses cried for satisfaction, for fulfillment.

He called it a “law” that human nature would resist the determination in his mind to serve and obey God. “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord [it shall be done]” (Romans 7:18-25).

This is one of the most comforting, encouraging portions of Scripture!

Surely, when those of us in this final generation of man’s governments on this earth, striving to overcome our physical weaknesses and temptations, can come to understand that a man such as Paul, who had seen Christ, could so openly admit his physical, human sins and weaknesses, it gives us courage and reassurance to know Jesus Christ can help us overcome just as He helped Paul!

Paul was converted, but he was still capable of slipping up and sinning!

Paul knew he needed Jesus Christ not only as His personal Savior from all his past guilt; he knew he needed Jesus Christ as his daily High Priest, sitting at the right hand of God, making daily intercession on Paul’s behalf! “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need!” (Hebrews 4:14-16).

Jesus Christ understands our human weaknesses. He was tempted in every area of human temptation, yet without sinning! When we give in to temptations, Jesus Christ wants us to get on our knees in a private place, pour out our hearts in sorrow and contrition to Him, ask God’s forgiveness for our sins and weaknesses and then look to Him, in real faith, for the help we need to overcome those weaknesses, to avoidthose sins in the future!

Paul says living the Christian life is a fight, a struggle against the carnal human nature within us!

Notice this!

“Don’t you understand that those who run in a race are all running, but only one of them receives the prize? So, then, you need to run this ‘race,’ this Christian life, that you can win the prize. And every athlete who wants to be a champion is temperate in his life. He does it for a corruptible crown, but we do it for a crown that is incorruptible. Therefore I run not uncertainly; I fight. Not as a shadow boxer, but I subdue my physical habits and appetites and bring my own self into subjection lest that by any means, even if I have preached temperate behavior to others, I myself should be cast aside at the last” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, paraphrased).

Paul used the analogy of the Greek and Roman games, the famous athletes who trained so rigorously for the decathlon, the pentathlon and other events. He said a Christian is fighting the same kind of battles, foregoing some of the temporary pleasures of this physical life, but not just for acclaim or a “corruptible crown,” but for lasting, eternal reward!

Paul knew salvation is God’s free, loving gift (Romans 6:23). But there comes a time when Jesus Christ is going to give varying degrees of reward, depending exactly upon the degree of overcoming. That reward is beyond and above salvation; it has to do with responsibility. Study Jesus’ parables of the talents and the pounds (Matthew 25:15-28, Luke 19:13-25), and read Paul’s exposition of varying degrees of reward in 1 Corinthians the third chapter. There Paul shows there are six types of materials subjected to fire: wood, hay and stubble, and gold, silver and precious stones. The analogy he draws concerns the “superstructure” one builds on the “foundation that is Christ” in the Christian life.

Christ is the symbol of salvation. He is the foundation. When one is “in Christ” and Jesus Christ is living His life within a Christian through the power of God’s Spirit, then that person is in a “saved” condition. But beyond that condition, beyond the foundation which is Christ, there is the question of reward.

Paul’s analogy shows three of the materials (wood, hay and stubble) do not survive the “fiery trials” of the daily battles in a Christian life. They are “burned up” and lost. Yet the person suffering such loss is said to “. . . suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by [or through] fire [type of trials and temptations]” (1 Corinthians 3:15).

Paul shows there is a daily fight involved in the Christian life!

You’ve Got a Fight on Your Hands

It’s not all over when you begin a Christian life; it’s just beginning.

Though God’s Word says, God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son,” and, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11, 12), this wonderful fact does not mean Christ has forgiven not only your guilty past, but your whole future.

Once a person has repented, is baptized and is converted by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, he’s got a fight on his hands!

To a large extent, New Testament literature is a series of constant reminders of the manifold ways in which Satan and this world attempt to destroy the faith of Christian people. There are many, many warnings against false prophets, false Christs, false doctrines. The newly begotten Christian is warned repeatedly about “wolves in sheep’s clothing” who will try to deceive them into following after some false doctrine or another.

Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus contain many warnings about people “heaping to themselves teachers, having itching ears,” wanting to lessen the responsibilities of Christian life, wanting, somehow, to compromise with sin and to let down their newfound standards.

So doctrinal purity and how to maintain it is a major struggle for Christians. Paul, Peter and John warned about false ministers, false doctrines, false brethren.

John said, “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh [‘is now coming in the flesh’ is a better translation, meaning many deny the power of Jesus Christ to live His life over again within us]. This is a deceiver and an antichrist … If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed” (2 John 7-10).

Jude warned, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).

What is this insidious doctrine: turning “grace into lasciviousness”?

God’s grace is the vast love, mercy and forgiveness He is willing to lavish upon a repentant sinner. Forgiveness for what? Forgiveness for having sinned, having broken God’s Ten Commandments as spiritually magnified!

And what is “lasciviousness”? It means “license” or permission to sin.” It means trying to convince newly begotten Christian people that God’s mercy, His love and pardon, extend to future acts of sin! It means cleverly deceiving Christian people to believe God’s mercy is so great that He will allow a person to live a life of sin, yet “forgive” each sinful act by some blanket pardon.

Millions of churchgoing professing “Christian” people have believed “in” Christ, have believed “on” Jesus Christ, but have not believed Christ! They have not believed what He said, what He taught, are not willing to follow His example. He said, “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). Believing “in” Jesus as personal Savior, millions of persons are not willing to obey Him!

But a truly repentant person is through arguing with Christ. A repentant person is so overwhelmed by God’s great mercy, by the realization of the great price Jesus Christ paid to purchase that person with His own suffering and blood, that he approaches the Bible with trembling and with awe. God says, “…To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). To such a person, it is unthinkable that one would attempt to compromise with God’s laws, attempt to rationalize away the requirement to obey God, to obey Jesus Christ and humbly follow His example, as well as believe “on” Him!

And such a spirit of willing obedience toward God soon plunges the newly begotten Christian into a terrible struggle.

First come former friends, loved ones, close family members and distant relatives. The Christian person is urged to live at peace with all men, not to be contentious and not to attempt to “cram his religion down the other man’s throat.” Yet nearly all newly converted persons make this same mistake!

By trying desperately to open the minds of their loved ones to the newfound truths they have discovered, by trying to share their deeply felt experience of finding their Savior with people they love and respect, they find to their utter dismay they have completely alienated them!

Truths that shine so clearly to the newly converted person seem like incomprehensible Greek to their loved ones! As they try to reason, appeal, convince and convict others, they discover to their complete dismay that their very closest friends, sometimes family members, turn against them!

People who used to come to them for advice now want nothing further to do with them. Lodge, club and social contacts look at them as if they have completely lost their minds. They find themselves ostracized from their former friends and acquaintances, and, the more they attempt to explain and justify their newfound knowledge and spiritual experience, the more their friends scoff.

Didn’t Jesus predict this would be so? He said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his stake [Greek, stauroo] and followeth after me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:34-38).

Jesus predicted the world would hate His true disciples. “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14). Jesus said, “If they have hated me, they will hate you,” and predicted, “In the world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Peter recognized this and tried to help the people to whom he wrote to expect rejection from former friends and family. He said the key is to be “armed” with the very mind of Jesus Christ, who suffered horribly.

“Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1, 2).

The repentant, newly begotten Christian is in the midst of a complete change in his life. He is changing his habits, associations, convictions and belief; a change in his very personality and character is taking place!

Suddenly his whole value system is turned upside down (or, better said, rightside up!). Those things which “used to seem important, physical, carnal, material values, now seem relatively unimportant. Those things which formerly didn’t interest him at all, knowledge, wisdom, truth, the Bible, are now vitally important.

That change is visible. It will not only change the dour expression into a happy, bubbling, zestful face; it will change your physical habits! You simply cannot participate in the same daily routines with the same friends, in the same society!

Notice what Peter said. “That he no longer should, live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” And have not most of the pursuits of our lives been dictated by the “lusts of men”?  Entertainment, business, sports—so much of what we do is totally dedicated to the competitive motives of selfishness, lust, greed, avarice, cunning, vanity and violence. But a repentant, newly begotten Christian person now sees through the worldly vices in his surroundings and is repelled by them. It is as if he was peering through a keyhole, having only a stiflingly limited view of a darkened, interior, and, suddenly, someone flung open the door!,

Now he sees clearly.

And suddenly his whole value system changes!

That’s what repentance is all about: a total transformation, a complete change!

God says, Be not conformed to this world: but—be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).

Jesus Christ said, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel!”

He said, “Repent, or you shall all likewise perish!” Peter said, “Repent, and be converted!”

Why should you repent?

Because you have been sinning against God, because you have failed to see and recognize the wonderful sacrifice made on your behalf because of those sins, because, though God does not need you, you need Him!

You should repent because there is no other way to have forgiveness of sins! Sin brings death (Romans 6:23) and is at the root and core of every problem in your life.

Terrible physical problems, mental anguish, loneliness, pain, suffering, financial problems, emotional and spiritual problems—they are all the result of various sins!

God says, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12).

Do you want forgiveness? Do you want to know you are completely clean and that your entire guilty past has been wiped away? Then let us help you! Get in touch with a representative of God’s work, a servant of Jesus Christ in your area, and ask him to sit down and talk with you about your life, about your desire to be forgiven and receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, your day-by-day High Priest in heaven to intercede for you and your soon-coming King!

Call us at and obtain the number of the “closest minister and servant of Christ. And while you’re at it ask the secretary for our free booklet How to Get Rid of Guilt

Jesus Christ says all mankind will have to repent someday, but those who repent now can be saved from the terrible times of global troubles and wars just ahead! He said, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36).

May God show you your deep personal need.

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This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

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