Note – This location has been
changed and has become the site for several papers that pertain to God’s covenant
with Abraham and how we can obtain the covenant promises. The paper "HE MAY BE RETURNING VERY
SOON" that was in this location, is included in the list of papers
presented here.
Each paper has been written as a
stand alone paper and, therefore, there are many things that have been repeated
from paper to paper.
Following is a list of the papers
presented here in the order presented:
NUMBER AND TITLE OF PAPER:
1. “THE PRIZE”
2. “HEIRS TO THE
3. “WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN”.
4. “WHAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR
THOSE WHO LOVE HIM”.
5. “HE MAY BE RETURNING VERY SOON”
1. - THE
PRIZE
Have you ever won a prize? Everyone has won prizes of various kinds
during their lifetime. Everyone loves to
win prizes. Think of prizes you have won
at one time or another. I can remember
winning a prize for finding one of the prize eggs during our second grade
Easter egg hunt. The teacher gave me a
big bunny with a basket full of candy. I
can still remember the thrill of winning that big (To me it was big) prize.
In later years I looked for bigger
prizes. Working as an engineer I began
to get bonuses when I met and exceeded goals.
Some of those bonuses I considered as big prizes. What a thrill it was to receive more than I
had expected.
When we lived in
It has been several years but you
may have heard about a man from
You may be getting uneasy about
now. You may think that I am pushing
state lotteries and that buy lottery tickets but that is not the case. This lesson is not pushing lotteries and it
is not about the evils of gambling. This
lesson is about winning big time prizes and winning the lottery would be a big
time prize. What would it be like to win
a big time prize like that? Think about
all of the good things you could do with that kind of money.
It can never happen for me. I can’t win a lottery because I do not buy
lottery tickets, but what if I did. What
if I was in the habit of buying just one ticket every drawing, just in case? What if it happened? What if I bought a ticket that ended up
having the winning numbers to a big one?
What would it be like to win that much money? Think about the excitement it would bring
into my life. There are so many good
things that I would do to help the church and others that are in need if I had
that kind of money.
Let us consider another
possibility. What if I bought a ticket
that ended up having the winning numbers but I was careless and lost
or misplaced
the ticket? The odds of something like
that happening are near zero, but what if it should happen. Suppose that I buy a ticket and it was a
winner but I took the ticket home and misplaced it. I stick my ticket behind a note pad on the
side of the refrigerator and forget about it.
The day came for the numbers to be
drawn and the computers say that one ticket was purchased that had the winning
numbers. I have not recorded the numbers
and I can’t find my ticket so I can’t know if I have a winner or not. I can’t know beyond doubt that my ticket is
not the winner but from my experiences I know that the odds are so remote for
it being the winning ticket that it does not bother me. I go about my life and forget about it.
Suppose that many weeks later that
last day for redeeming the winning ticket came and passed and the ticket was
never turned in. I can see what the
newspaper headlines might look like the next morning. I might pick up the paper the next morning
and read something like, “BIG FORTUNE OF 300 MILLION DOLLARS LOST – TICKET
NEVER TURNED IN”.
I begin to worry and think, “what
if?” I start to thinking about my lost
ticket. I tell myself that it could not
have been my ticket. The odds would have
been one in millions. As luck would have
it, as I am writing a note to myself on the note pad on the side of the
refrigerator that lost ticket falls out.
I pick up the ticket and look at the numbers. I compare the numbers to the numbers listed
in the newspaper. All numbers match. This had been the winning ticket.
I would be holding in my hand a
winning ticket for a vast fortune of 300 million dollars, yesterday, and today
it is not worth five cents. Now we might
ask ourselves the question. “What kind
of hell on earth would my life be like if I did something like that”? If I had really believed that ticket could be
a winner, I would have torn that house apart looking for it during the last
days while it was still good. I would
not have rested until I had found that ticket and made sure.
Would I not kick myself and be
tormented for a lifetime if I had been given the free gift of a ticket worth a
vast fortune and I never bothered to put forth the effort necessary to find
that ticket and make sure?
The cost of that ticket was
trivial and the effort to redeem it was the “token” cost required to receive
the prize. Having that fortune mandated
that I put forth the “token” effort to cherish that ticket and compare the
numbers with the winning numbers.
Winning the prize demanded
something from me. I had to follow the
rules and deliver the ticket as required before time ran out. The cost on my part was very nominal when
compared to the prize.
And now, the rest of the story!
You and I have been
given the winning ticket for a big prize.
That prize is worth much more than any earthly jackpot ever won. It is so big that it could never be counted. It is so big that it would make 300 million
dollars look like chicken feed. Everyone
has received that ticket as a free gift.
Someone else paid the price for that ticket. It was paid for in blood. We only need to meet the token cost necessary
to redeem that ticket.
There are some big differences
between this ticket and that lottery ticket.
For one thing, unlike those lottery tickets where the odds of winning
are one in millions, the ticket that we have been given is a sure winner. If we believe that we have a winner, should
we not be careful to take care of it and cherish it and redeem it before the
time expires?
There is another big difference
between our ticket and that lottery ticket.
In the case of that lottery ticket, almost every ticket will be
cherished and examined. In the case of
our guaranteed winner, few people will cherish their ticket. Few people will keep their ticket and redeem
it in time. They will not have had faith
in the gospel message.
They will have refused to believe
the news that they have heard. They just
can’t believe that it could really be true, that their ticket is a winner. They will also refuse to believe the enormity
of the prize. They will not put forth
the effort to fully examine the ticket and to follow the rules as listed in the
rulebook.
How big is this prize? It is greater than any prize ever before
awarded on this earth. It is larger than
all of Solomon’s treasures. Let look at
what Paul said about this prize.
It is beyond description:
1 Corinthians 2
9 but just as it is
written, "THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which
HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE
HIM."
When we think about a
prize like 300 million dollars and then read this we hear God saying there is
no comparison. We have never seen, nor
have we ever heard, nor have we ever imagined in our mind anything that can
compare to what God has prepared for those who love Him. What He has prepared is a home in the kingdom
of heaven. It is the covenant promise of
an everlasting possession that God made to Abraham and to his descendants.
Any of us can become
spiritual descendants of Abraham and heirs to the promise if we are of the
faith of Abraham. We must meet the
conditions of God’s covenant if we are to receive the prize. We just heard Paul tell us the prize has been “PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO
LOVE HIM." The token cost for us to obtain that prize is that we must love
God. Somehow, that equates to belief in
Jesus.
OUR REQUIREMENT IS TO LOVE GOD:
James 1
12 Blessed is a man who
perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the
crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
AND:
James 2
5
Listen,
my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in
faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?
Our
token requirement is to love God. That
sounds like an easy requirement to meet.
We love almost everybody so it is easy to love God. Or is it?
What do the scriptures say about that?
How does God know if we really love Him?
What the scriptures say about that:
John 14
15 "If you love Me,
you will keep My commandments.
And:
John 14
21 "He who has My
commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will
be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to
him."
And:
John 14
23 Jesus answered and
said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will
love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24
"He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you
hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.
The prize of the kingdom of heaven
is truly free but if we don’t meet our token requirements and show our love
with obedience then we don’t really love Him.
We are truly saved by faith and not works but it must be a faith that believes His word
with obedience (like Abraham). If we
don’t obey Him, then we don’t believe that He means what He says and we don’t really
love God. He will not give us that
treasure if we don’t love Him.
So, how do we show our love for
God and win that prize and what is the prize?
Paul preached it, Paul wrote about it, Paul fought for it and Paul won
it. What was it? It was THE PRIZE. Paul gave up everything to win the
prize. Let’s listen to what Paul wrote
about winning that prize.
Winning the prize:
Philippians 3
7 But whatever things
were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, - - -
12
Not
that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on
so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ
Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do
not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting
what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on
toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul said that he was reaching
forward and pressing on toward the goal for the prize. He said the prize is the upward call of God
in Christ Jesus. He gave everything up “that I may gain
Christ”. The treasure is really Christ. If we obtain Christ we obtain the treasure of
the kingdom of heaven. It is a prize so
big that Paul considered everything that he had gained in this life just so much rubbish when compared to
it.
How much was Paul willing to give up for that prize? Paul was a young man with connections in the Jewish religion. He was educated with the best and brightest and he had connections with the Jewish leaders, including the high priest. He was also a Roman citizen so he had privileges that other Jewish leaders did not have. He gave it all up so that he could gain the prize.
Jesus
is the real prize because we can only come to the Father and the kingdom of
heaven through Him (John 14:6). Will it
really cost us everything we own to gain that prize? We said that the cost was only the token cost
for us to redeem the ticket.
Jesus did not say that it was free:
Matthew 16
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone
wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow
Me.
25 "For whoever
wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake
will find it.
More of
what Jesus says about that:
Luke 14
33 "So then, none
of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
He keeps saying the same thing
over and over. He says that if I don’t
give up everything that I own, I can’t be His disciple. If I am not His disciple then I can’t follow
Him to that land and receive the kingdom of heaven. Somehow, it is a free gift but, somehow, it
will also cost us everything. How can
that be true?
There are those in the religious
world who will tell us that salvation is a free gift and there is nothing required
of us on our behalf except faith. They
have it half right. Eternal life is a free gift because Jesus
paid the full price on His cross. It is
a free gift but I can only obtain that gift if I obey Him and take up my cross
and follow Him. I must have faith in Him
and give my life for Him so that I can obtain the treasures of heaven. We can only obtain that prize if we
compete according to the rules. The
rules require that we die with Him (Be crucified with Him).
The
prize will cost us everything but it is all just so much rubbish when compared
to the treasure of knowing Christ and gaining Him. If we gain Him, we gain the kingdom of
heaven. The 300 million dollar lottery
jackpot is like chicken feed as compared to the prize that awaits us. Everything that we have is just a token price
to pay for our ticket.
We heard Paul tell us how that
prize is beyond describing and beyond anything that our mind can imagine. The prize is the treasure of the kingdom of
heaven. It is worth more than all that
we possess.
What Jesus said about the value of
that treasure:
Matthew
13
44
"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man
found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and
buys that field.
Jesus
is trying to get our attention. The
treasure of the kingdom of heaven has a value that exceeds the value of everything that we own.
No matter how much we may possess it can’t compare to this
treasure. If we really believe
the scriptures that speak of its existance and how big it is,
we would gladly sell everything in order to obtain it.
We can understand what Jesus is
telling us about the kingdom of heaven when we listen to Him speak in parables. He is revealing the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven in His parables (Matthew, chapter 13). We can begin
to understand when we hear Him give the parable of the unrighteous servant and
then explain it to us.
In Luke, chapter 16, Jesus begins
the chapter saying, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and this
manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. And he called him and said to him, `What is
this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no
longer be manager.” The deposed manager was given time
to put together an accounting of his management before he would be
removed. Look at what he did after he
departed from the Master’s presence.
After he
departed the manager asked himself what he was to do because he was not strong
enough to dig for a living and he was too ashamed to beg. Jesus tells us how he reasons to himself,
saying, “I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the
management people will welcome me into their homes.' "And he
summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first,
`How much do you owe my master?' And he said, `A hundred measures of
oil.' And he said to him, `Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write
fifty.' Then he said to another, `And
how much do you owe?' And he said, `A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to
him, `Take your bill, and write eighty.'
Jesus tells us how that servant was praised because he acted shrewdly. He tells us “the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.”
Wow, what is that
saying? How can we give away the Master’s
property to protect our future and be praised?
We can begin to understand it when we hear Jesus tell us "Therefore if you
have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the
true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that
which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?” (Verses 11-12)
The things of this world that we
thought were ours are not our own. They
belong to the Master. We are His
managers and we will answer for our management of His possessions. We can squander them on ourselves or we can
be generous and share them with others. We must share them with the Master's debtors.
We need to get the message. There is little time left before we will be
called to give an accounting of what we have done with the Master’s
possessions. We must be faithful in using
what does not belong to us if we are to obtain what will really be ours. We must be faithful in how we manage the
unrighteous wealth that has been entrusted to us if we are to be entrusted with
true riches.
If we are shrewd like the sons of
this age, we will make plans for the future by using the Master’s possessions
to the benefit of others so that we can benefit in return. We must be “faithful in the use of
that which is another's” by giving much of it away to
others and not keeping it all for ourselves.
The Master knows that we have needs that we must take care of but we
should not be “squandering his possessions”.
We must especially be generous to the Master’s debtors. Who might they be? Would they not be the ones who have been redeemed by the Master? Are they not those who made the choice to allow Him to pay their debt for sin so they can become born again as His brothers?
We must especially take care of the poor
saints among the Master's debtors. We must care for the
hungry and clothe those who are naked.
If we will do that with the Master's possessions we will have our own possessions some
day.
God so loved the world that He
gave His Son to die on the cross in our place.
We heard Jesus tell us take up our cross and follow
Him. John is telling us what that really means when
he writes, “We know love by this, that He laid down
His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But
whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his
heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little
children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” (1
John 3:16-18)
Our token payment for the prize of
the kingdom of heaven is to follow Jesus and love the brethren like He loved
them. Remember, that is the new commandment
(John
I need to use the Master’s
possessions to take care of the Master’s debtors. If I will do that, those “people will welcome me
into their homes”.
In
the case of the kingdom of heaven, those dwellings will be in heaven. As
Jesus tells us at the end of that parable, "And I say to you,
make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that
when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
It sounds like He is speaking of
dwellings in glory in the kingdom of heaven.
It sounds like His brothers (His debtors) will be dwelling in mansions
there. If we have been faithful managers
and have used the Master’s possessions for their benefit and have done good
deeds for them we will be there also.
Remember
what Jesus will say to those before Him in judgment? He will tell those on the right how they are
blessed because of the works of love that they had done for Him. "The King will answer and say to them,
`Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of
Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” (Matthew 25:40)
We are
saved by the kind of faith that believes what the word says. The word is telling us that we must give it
all to Jesus. We do that when we give it
to His brothers. He will allow us to
take care of ourselves and our families but if we want to obtain the prize of
the kingdom of heaven and be welcomed into mansions of glory we need to be sure
to use the Master’s possessions to take care of the brothers of Jesus.
God has given us the promise of an inheritance that is beyond comprehension. We hold the winning ticket in our hand. We need to take care of that ticket or we will lose the prize. What an awful torment it would be if we lose the prize.
Think again about what kind
of earthly hell would my life be like if I missed out on a 300 million dollar
jackpot because I refused to go to the trouble to keep up with my ticket and
meet the token requirement necessary to claim the prize? How much bigger would be the living hell if
we missed out on the real treasure?
Those who fail to redeem their
ticket will be tormented for that mistake throughout all eternity. We dare not let it happen because the thought
of that treasure having slipped away will burn in our hearts and minds forever. I don’t know what other fires of torment God
may have in store for those who lose their inheritance but that fire alone will
be torment beyond measure.
The scriptures tell us how the unfaithful servant will be cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:30). I wonder how dark that darkness will be.
If we find ourselves in that darkness, will we be able to see a faint
glow in the distance? If I should end up
there, will I forever look through the darkness toward that city of light,
knowing that a mansion was there, that had been mine, but I lost it because I
refused to believe what God had been telling me and I refused to follow the
rules and redeem my ticket?
The rules demand that I take up my
cross and follow Jesus. Crosses hurt but
only for a short while. As the Psalmist
tells us, ‘Sing praise to the LORD, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His
holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime;
Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.” (Psalms
30:4-5)
Do we believe the promises of God? Are we following the rules of faith to claim that prize or do we just pretend to believe? If we really believe that we have a winner, we will treasure our ticket and we will make sure that we meet the requirements necessary to claim our prize. What joy it will be to claim that prize that makes 300 million dollars seem like a drop in the bucket. DON’T MISS OUT ON THIS PRIZE.
Johnny Rogers
Rev.
2. - HEIRS TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
The promise of eternal life in the
kingdom of heaven is the covenant promise that God made to Abraham. God told
him that the covenant was an everlasting covenant with him and His descendants
after him and God promised that He would give to Abraham and to his descendants
the
The word, “everlasting”
means the true promise was never for a place on this earth. It also means
having a different life. One must have eternal life if he is to have
something as an everlasting possession. There are no everlasting earthly
lands, so God’s true promise was not for an earthly land but for a heavenly
land. The true promise was always for eternal life in God’s heavenly
kingdom.
We know that was the
true promise because God keeps His promises and Abraham never received any part
of that earthly
Abraham knew that
God’s true promise was a heavenly promise.
It was the promise of that city built by God. It is the same city that John describes in
Revelation, chapter 21. John sees a new
heaven and a new earth and a New Jerusalem that will be coming down out of
heaven from God. The true promise was
for eternal life in the kingdom of heaven in that heavenly
When we read what John
wrote about that city we hear the Lord speak through him and tell us that it
will be a place where there will be no tears or crying or no longer any
death. He says "Behold, the
tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be
His people, and God Himself will be among them”. Regarding the heirs to that place, He tells us
that
"He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he
will be My son.” Abraham’s descendants must overcome to become heirs to that
place.
The covenant promise
to Abraham and to his descendants that they would be heirs to an everlasting
Jesus was speaking of
that when He began His ministry and preached "Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17) Later He will refer to the kingdom and tell
His disciples "But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing
here who will not taste death until they see the
The kingdom came in
the first century. It came while Jesus
was on earth. We just read what Jesus
said about how some of those disciples would see it but Jesus will also speak
of it not being seen. When the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God
was coming, Luke records, “He answered them and said, "The kingdom of
God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, `Look, here it
is!' or, `There it is!' For behold, the
How can the
When Jesus was showing
God’s power with signs and wonders, it was by the Spirit of God. If Christ was doing those signs and wonders
by the power of the Spirit of God, then the
The mystery of the
kingdom of heaven is the mystery of Christ.
If we have Christ within us, we have become sons of God and heirs according
to the promise. If we have the Spirit of
Christ within us we have the kingdom within us.
Remember, Jesus said “the
When Jesus said those
words He alone possessed the Spirit of God.
He was casting out those demons by the Spirit of God. The
Did the
The
Christ was the only
true descendant of promise. The reason
why Christ was the only heir of promise is because He was the only descendant
of Abraham who would ever meet God’s covenant conditions for perfection. No one can have eternal life with God unless
he or she is perfect. God foresaw Christ
as being the only perfect descendant when He made the promise to Abraham. Because Christ was perfect, He met the
conditions of being God’s Son and heir to that city of gold.
Regarding God’s
requirement for perfection, even the greatest of the faithful never met God’s
conditions to receive the promise. We
can read about those great men and women of faith in Hebrews, chapter 11, the
faith chapter. The writer tells us of
those ancient faithful ones and how they overcame. He listed them by name and how “- -They were stoned,
they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the
sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted,
ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and
mountains and caves and holes in the ground.”
After listing them and
the things that they suffered through faith, he will say, “And all these, having
gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because
God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not
be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:39-40)
The greatest of the
faithful never received what had been promised because they were not
perfect. They can only be made perfect
with us and our perfect covenant promise of perfection in Jesus Christ. We must be given His perfection and His
righteousness.
We can become sons of
God with Christ, the Firstborn Son, if we accept the conditions of His
sacrifice. If we have true faith in Him,
we will receive His righteousness. He
became the Firstborn Son of God (“- -He would be the firstborn among many brethren”
- Romans
God foresaw Christ as
the only true righteous descendant of Abraham and He made Christ the covenant
promise for those who would have faith in Him.
God spoke through Isaiah to say, “Thus says the LORD, "In a favorable
time I have answered You, And in a day of salvation I have helped You; And I
will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people, To restore the land,
to make them inherit the desolate heritages” (Isaiah 49:8).
God gave Christ to
mankind to be our covenant. Because He
was perfect, our covenant is perfect. We
can only receive the promises through the perfect covenant, Christ. We must believe God’s covenant promise. We must believe in Christ Jesus to receive
the kingdom of heaven. That promise is
to us of the new covenant and to the faithful of all time.
Because He was God’s
perfect Son, He has become the new covenant perfect sacrifice for sins for all
of the faithful. We can only be made
righteous by faith in Christ Jesus and His sacrifice. We must believe and obey the gospel of the
death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
Paul tells us about
that in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. He
begins by telling them how the gospel message is the death, burial and
resurrection of Christ. He said they had
received that gospel and they were saved by it, “if you hold fast the
word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” There were some in
that church, however, who did not believe in the resurrection. Paul told them, “Now if Christ is
preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that
there is no resurrection of the dead?”
He tells them that if
there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ was not raised from the dead
and if He was not raised then their faith was in vain. He tells them that if Christ was not raised
their faith was worthless and they were still in their sins and everyone who
had fallen asleep in Christ had perished.
Without His resurrection, there would be no good news of eternal life in
the kingdom of heaven.
Our covenant promise
is eternal life in the kingdom of heaven.
Our covenant requirement is the requirement to obey the gospel of the
death burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus but we also heard John say how it
will be those who overcome that will become sons of God and heirs to that
city.
So, how do we meet our
covenant requirement to obey that gospel and overcome? We can see it when we look at what is
required of us to become sons of God because God’s sons are the heirs. How do we become sons of God and does that
also include females? Remember, under
the old covenant, only sons of
Becoming a son of God
happens when we receive God’s Spirit.
Only those who have the Spirit of God are sons of God. Paul said that we are in the Spirit “if indeed the Spirit of
God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does
not belong to Him.” (Romans 8:9)
The Spirit of God in
His sons is the Spirit of Christ in God’s sons.
Paul says that if we do not have His Spirit we don’t belong to Him. We must receive Christ within us to receive
the covenant promise. The covenant
promise is eternal life as God’s sons and heirs to the kingdom of heaven.
As we continue reading
in that chapter of Romans, we hear Paul say, “If Christ is in you,
though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of
righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him
who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from
the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who
dwells in you.” (Romans 8:10-11)
Our mortal bodies will
only become immortal if we have the Spirit of God in us. We must have His Spirit in us for Christ to
be in us. If His Spirit is in us then we
are children of God and Paul says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit
that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be
glorified with Him.” (Romans 8:16-17)
We are children of God
and heirs to the kingdom with Christ if God’s Spirit is dwelling in us. It happened first with Christ. The Spirit of God was dwelling within Christ
as He was preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. God’s Spirit could dwell in the body of
Christ because He was perfect. He was
the only perfect place while He was on earth.
If God’s Spirit was dwelling in Him, then His body was God’s holy
temple.
Remember, Jesus spoke
of a sign and said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up." (John 2:19) John then
tells us that Jesus was speaking of the temple of His body. God is Spirit (John
The Jews destroyed
God’s holy temple when Christ died on the cross. Christ, however, would resurrect that house
of God on the third day. On that Sunday
morning the Spirit of God returned to His holy temple. God’s holy temple had been raised up to
become the new covenant house of God for all of God’s sons.
Only after Christ had
offered His perfect sacrifice to redeem man from sin could man be made perfect
and be allowed to enter into God’s holy temple.
It could not happen, however, until His body had been resurrected. His resurrected body is now found in the
church and God’s Spirit now dwells in all who have been brought into that holy
temple. We must be in that house to have
His Spirit. If we have His Spirit within
us then the
It sounds like the
Remember, we heard
Isaiah tell us (The LORD speaking through him) that Christ was the covenant
promise. The old covenant was in effect
when that promise was being made. Christ
was the new covenant promise to come.
God’s new covenant promise is the promise of the
We must enter into
God’s temple, the body of Christ if we are to have His Spirit within us. Paul tells us that Christ’s body on earth is
the church. He told the church at
Colossi that “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place
in everything. “ (Colossians 1:18)
As Paul continues, we
hear him explaining the mystery of the kingdom to us. He speaks how God has now reconciled all
things to Himself, “having made peace through the blood of His cross; through
Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” (Verse 20) He tells them how they were alienated but “He has now reconciled
you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy
and blameless and beyond reproach-- if indeed you continue in the faith firmly
established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that
you have heard”.
He also tells them how
he had become a minister to carry out the preaching of the word of God, “that is, the mystery
which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been
manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches
of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the
hope of glory.”
In the next chapter
Paul will continue to speak of the mystery of Christ. He wants us to come to understand and have
the knowledge “of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself” (Colossians 2:2) The
mystery of the kingdom of heaven is the mystery of Christ. He is God’s covenant promise and He is God’s
holy temple. The kingdom of heaven is
within that holy temple because the people of the kingdom are living
there.
Only God’s sons are
heirs to the kingdom of heaven. Only
God’s sons possess the Spirit of Christ within them. Paul says that “Because you are sons,
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba!
Father!" (Galatians 4:6) We must have the promised Spirit of God’s Son
within us to receive the covenant promise.
If Christ is the
covenant and the Firstborn Son of God, how do we meet the covenant conditions
to become sons of God and heirs with Him?
Paul tells us about that when he writes, “For you are all sons of
God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into
Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female;
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then
you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29)
We asked a question
previously; if only the sons of God are heirs to the
Only those that belong
to Christ are descendants of Abraham and heirs to the promise. They have become heirs to the promise because
they have become sons of God. They will
have become sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus because they will have
believed Christ and obeyed His covenant requirement given through the Great
Commission commandment to go preach the gospel to all creation and that "He who has
believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall
be condemned.” (Mark
For those who meet His
covenant conditions and become clothed with Christ in baptism, they will
receive the promise of the Spirit of God.
Peter tells us about that in the first gospel message preached. On the Day of Pentecost he told those
believing Jews who asked what they had to do to, "Repent, and each
of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your
sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children
and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to
Himself." (Acts 2:38-39)
Scripture then tells
us, “So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day
there were added about three thousand souls.” (Acts
Peter was preaching
the good news of the kingdom of heaven.
It is the good news of the promise of God’s Spirit that will be given to
the born again sons of God, those who are heirs to the kingdom of heaven. When those three thousand souls obeyed the
gospel and were baptized they had received Jesus and His Spirit began to dwell
within them. They became born again of
the Spirit and they were added to the church, God’s holy temple, the place
where the Spirit of God dwells. Jesus is
speaking through Peter and He is revealing the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven. The mystery is “Christ in you, the hope
of glory.” (Colossians 1:27).
After God gave Abraham
the everlasting covenant promise He told him that the everlasting covenant
requirement for him and for his descendants was circumcision of the flesh
(Genesis
We must meet the everlasting
covenant condition and become spiritually circumcised in the flesh. We must hear Paul tell us “and in Him you were
also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the
body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in
baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working
of God, who raised Him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:11-12)
Only sons of God are
the true heirs to the kingdom of heaven.
They will live with God in that city of gold because they will have
circumcised away the old body of flesh and buried if with Christ in
baptism. They will have “become united with Him
in the likeness of His death” and they will certainly “also be in the likeness
of His resurrection” (Romans 6:5).
They will have become
sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus when they hear Him tell us what is
required to receive the covenant promise and believe that He means what He
says. They will have met God’s covenant
conditions for becoming sons of God and God will give them the covenant promise
of His Spirit and eternal life in the kingdom of heaven.
We must belong to
Christ to receive the covenant promise.
In Galatians, chapter 3, we heard Paul say “And if you belong to
Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.” In Romans, chapter 8, he said that we are in
the Spirit “if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not
have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” (Romans 8:9)
The mystery of the
kingdom of heaven is the mystery of Christ.
We must belong to Christ and have His Spirit within us to become heirs
to the kingdom. If we have Christ within
us, we have become sons of God and heirs according to the promise. If we have the Spirit of Christ within us we
have the kingdom within us. Remember, Jesus
said “the
The
It happened on the Day
of Pentecost when the Spirit came upon the apostles and they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. The Jews who were nearby heard it happening
and they came together bewildered because they were each one hearing the words
spoken by the apostles in their own language.
Peter told them that
it was all happening just as had been spoken by the prophet Joel that in the
last days God would pour forth His Spirit on all mankind. Later Peter will tell them how they had
crucified the Christ but God had raised Him up and, "Therefore having
been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the
promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and
hear.” (Acts
The kingdom of heaven
had come in power when the apostles received power in the form of the Holy
Spirit. They had received the covenant
promise of the kingdom of heaven by having become sons of God when they
received the Spirit of God. We, also,
will become sons of God and heirs to the promise when we Hear Peter tell us to
keep our covenant requirement of circumcision of the flesh by repenting and
being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
We will have been born
again of water and Spirit when our sins have been washed away in the sea of
baptism. We will have become sons of God
and a part of the
There is something
else that we should look at as we look at the church, the body of Christ. We know that Christ’s Spirit is dwelling
there and we also know that those who dwell there are sons of God with Christ
but the church is also the bride of Christ.
Paul tells us about
that when he says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the
church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having
cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might
present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or
any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-27)
Paul refers to the
church as “her”. The relationship between a
man and his wife is like the relationship between Christ and the church. Paul tells us this reference to Christ and
the church is a great mystery (“This mystery is great; but I am speaking with
reference to Christ and the church”).
It is the mystery of
the kingdom of heaven. We can see it
when we read what John records about that New Jerusalem to come (Revelation,
chapter 21). He tells us “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.” We read what he said about
it being a place where there will be no crying or death and how those who
overcome will inherit those things. He
will again make reference to that city being the bride of Christ.
An angel will tell
him, "Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the
Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high
mountain, and showed me the holy city,
If that
Remember, the church
is the new covenant
If Christ is now seated at the Father’s right hand, then He is seated in the Holy of Holies inner room. The church on earth is the outer room holy place of God’s true tabernacle. The outer room is the body of Christ on earth and Christ was that body when He was on earth.
After He redeemed
the faithful at the cross, He entered through the veil (His flesh is also the
veil – Hebrews
Those who dwell there
have been made holy because God’s temple is holy. As Paul will say to the saints in the church
at
Some
day Christ will
return back through the veil (He will come in the flesh) and He will
cleanse the outer room holy place and remove all priests who may be
serving unfaithfully in the outer room and
then He will bring those sanctified holy ones of the outer room into
the inner
room, the true Holy of Holies, which is that city to come.
In that new world to
come, there will no longer be an outer room.
There will only be the inner room Holy of Holies, the home of God. We can see that when we hear John tell us
that “The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the
width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length
and width and height are equal." (Verse 16) Notice, that city will
be a perfect cube of gold.
Remember the temple
that Solomon built in
The church on earth possesses
the kingdom of heaven on earth because God’s Spirit is dwelling there. Some day there will no longer be an outer
room church on earth. The faithful of
that room will have been brought into the inner room and will have obtained their
inheritance in the kingdom of heaven.
That city will be God’s everlasting temple dwelling place and those who
will have been brought there will be the ones who will have overcome this
world.
The Lord spoke through
John and said “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God,
and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My
God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down
out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” (Revelation 3:12)
We must overcome this
world if we are to reign with God in the next world. We will have become one with the Father and with
the Firstborn Son and we will reign in glory in the kingdom of heaven forever
and ever.
Johnny Rogers
3. – “WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN”
What does it mean to
be “born again”? Jesus told Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he
cannot see the kingdom of God
Jesus gave the
answer to Nicodemus but what was He really saying? Being born again means to be born of water
and the Spirit but what does that mean?
Somehow it gives us access to the
Peter spoke of our
being born again and said that God,
“has caused us to
be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead, to obtain an
inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away,
reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).
He will mention being
born again a little later and say, “for you have been born again not of
seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and
enduring word of God.” (Verse 23)
We have been born
again through the resurrection of Christ from the dead but we have also been
born again of imperishable seed and that seed is the living word of God. We have been born again of the word to obtain
an imperishable inheritance reserved in heaven for us.
How are we born
again of the word, which is imperishable seed, and through the resurrection of
Christ from the dead? Remember, Jesus is
the Word of God that became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1-14). In that chapter, John also tells us that
Christ came to His own but they did not receive Him, “But as many as
received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to
those who believe in His name”. He says that they were not born of blood
or of the will of flesh or of man but of God.
He is speaking of
being born of God as children of God.
Only those who receive Jesus (The Word) have the right to be born again
as children of God. We have been born
again of seed that is the enduring word of God because Christ was the Word of
God from the beginning. Somehow we are
also born again through the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
When Peter said that
we have been “born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”, he was saying the same thing that Christ was saying when He said, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and
dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:23-24)
The time had come for the cross but Jesus is speaking of His death, burial and resurrection because He is speaking of the seed dieing so that it can be raised up. It must be raised up to bear fruit. He is that Seed that died and was buried but was resurrected to bear fruit to God.
He
is speaking of the fruit brought forth in the birth of God’s children, those
who will be born again as children of God after they receive Him. Christ died to redeem man from sin but if He
had not been resurrected then we could not be born again as children of
God.
Paul tells us about that in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. He begins by telling them how the gospel message is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. He said they had received that gospel and they were saved by it, “if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”
There were some in that church,
however, who did not believe in the resurrection. Paul told them, “Now
if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among
you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”
He proceeds to tell
them that if there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ was not raised
from the dead and if He was not raised then their faith was in vain. He then tells them that if Christ was not
raised their faith was worthless and they were still in their sins and everyone
who had fallen asleep in Christ had perished.
That is why the
gospel message includes the resurrection of Christ. Without His resurrection, there would be no
good news of eternal life. When Jesus
said that the time had come for the Son of Man to be glorified and then He
spoke of seed falling to the ground to die so that it can bear much fruit, He
was including the resurrection. Jesus
was glorified by His death, burial and resurrection. All were required for Him to bear fruit. We can be born again because He was resurrected.
We heard Jesus tell
His disciples how the hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified and He
gave the example of a grain of wheat falling into the earth and dieing so that
it can bear fruit. He was speaking in spiritual
terms of being glorified by His death, burial and resurrection because it would
be through that gospel that He would bear fruit to God. He is bearing fruit to God by having redeemed
man with His blood and become the Firstborn from the dead.
We also will be
raised up from the dead when that last day comes but, in the meantime, we have
the right to become born again children of God in this life when we receive the
word into our hearts and let it change our lives. The old life must die so that we can have a
new life.
After Jesus spoke of the seed falling into the earth and
dieing so that it can bear fruit, He said, "He
who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep
it to life eternal.” (John 12:25) For
us to become born again, we must hear and receive the Word into our hearts in
faith and let it change our life.
If we are to have eternal life we must lose this earthly
life. We become born again
into a different person when we realize that God’s promise is not of this life
and for the things of this world but for life eternal in that home with
God. It will cause us to die to the life
of this world and start living for eternal life in that world to come. We will have become born again into another
person.
We will have become
born again children of God in this life by having been born again of the
Spirit. We heard Peter tell us that we
can be born again through the resurrection of Christ from the dead but he also
said that we have been born again of imperishable seed, the Word of God. The
Spirit of truth is guiding us. When we
hear the word and obey the gospel we will have been born again of the Word of
God.
The seed must die
before it can be reborn into a plant that is designed to bear fruit. It is not reborn as another seed; it has
become born again as a plant that must grow to maturity before it can bear
fruit as more seed. In the case of a
born again child of God, we must work toward being fruitful in God’s
kingdom.
We heard John say of
those who would receive Christ, “But as many as received Him, to them He
gave the right to become children of God”. When the scriptures speak
of our receiving Christ, it is also telling us that we must receive God’s Word
because He is the Word. For all who
receive Him, to them God has given the right to become His children. Is John telling us that not everyone who
receives Him will be God’s child when the end comes? Do we only have the right to become God’s
child?
Can we see that
being shown in the parable of the sower (Luke, chapter 8)? In that parable, the seed is the word of
God. One of the bad places where the
seed fell was in rocky soil. When Jesus
was explaining that parable to His disciples, He told them "Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear,
receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a
while, and in time of temptation fall away.” (Luke 8:13)
The seed that fell among thorns “these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.” The seed by the road are those who hear the word but they never truly believe because the Devil has taken the word away from their heart.
For the seed in the
good soil, “these are the ones who have heard the word
in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with
perseverance.”
When a seed falls into the earth and dies it is reborn
into a different being as a plant that has been designed to mature and bear
fruit. It will have become a living body
like a stalk of wheat would come from a wheat seed. It will have been born again into a different
being but that being must grow to maturity before it can bear fruit.
The seed in the
rocky soil died and was reborn into a plant but it had no firm root to bring it
to maturity and bear fruit. There will
be others who will be reborn but will never mature and bear fruit because they
will be concerned with worldly things.
The seed in the good ground are those who have good hearts and they will
receive the word and will persevere and bear fruit. Bearing fruit requires perseverance.
We need to hear
Jesus. He is telling us that some will
receive the word with joy and believe for a while but will fall away in time of
temptation. They will fall away because
they have no firm root.
As Paul told those Corinthians; regarding the gospel that he had preached to them, he said they were saved by it, “if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”
Believing in vain means to believe the gospel message but
not hold fast to what had been believed.
It is like a plant that has no firm root. As the Hebrew writer says, “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end” (Hebrews
Not everyone who
becomes born again will hold fast and mature and be fruitful. Many will have no firm root and many will let
the things of this life choke them and overcome them and prevent them from
growing into a mature and fruitful Christian.
We must hold fast to bear fruit.
We must not allow
ourselves to be overcome by the things of this world. We must overcome this world if we are to
become heirs of God in the new world. We
can only overcome this world if we hold fast to the things that we have heard.
Those who have been born again have been born with a new body that was created to bear fruit to God. Their reason for being is to bear fruit because Jesus said, "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” (John 15:8)
Born again disciples prove their
discipleship by bearing fruit. Those who never bear fruit will be cut
off. Jesus said that "Every branch in Me
that does not bear fruit, He takes away” (Verse 2). That would include those who have been born
again but who have failed to bear fruit.
They will be cut off.
God has given us the
right to become His children if we receive Christ but we must persevere and
bear fruit and so prove to be His disciples.
Those who are in Christ’s image and bear fruit are His true
disciples.
His disciples are
the true sons of God. Paul tells us God’s
sons are those who are being led by the Spirit.
He says, “For all who are being led by the
Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14) We are “heirs of God
and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also
be glorified with Him.”
God’s sons have been
born of imperishable seed and it is the Word of God. We will be heirs with Him if we suffer with
Him. Our old body has died and we have
become reborn with a new and different body.
For those who persevere and mature and bear fruit, they have been
foreknown by God and “For those whom He foreknew, He
also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would
be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans
The covenant promise
is the
Paul tells us about that when
he says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For
all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong
to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.”
(Galatians 3:26-29)
Those who have
received Jesus and have obeyed the gospel and become clothed with Christ in
baptism are sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. They have been born again of water and the
Spirit and they are heirs to the kingdom of God
Everyone who had
been baptized into Christ, regardless of who they are (Whether male or female),
are all sons of God and have become one in Christ and that if they belong to
Christ then they are descendants of Abraham and heirs according to the
promise. The sons of God are sons of
Abraham because they have become one in Christ Jesus, the true heir to the promise.
We can read of some
who received the word in Acts, chapter 2.
The apostles spoke that first gospel message (On the Day of Pentecost)
and many of those Jews who heard, believed and obeyed the gospel. It says, “So then,
those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there
were added about three thousand souls.” (Acts
They had heard and received the word that Peter and the apostles had
preached to them and they asked, "Brethren, what
shall we do?" Peter told them to, "Repent,
and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
For those who
received the word and obeyed it and were baptized for the remission of their
sins, they became born again of the Spirit of God and God added them to the
church. When God added them to the church, they were added to Christ’s
body and they became a part of God’s holy temple.
Christ’s body is the
church (Colossians
When Christ was on
earth His body was God’s holy temple and God’s Spirit was dwelling in that
temple. Remember, Jesus said that He and
the Father are one (John
It happened on that
third day when Jesus came forth from the tomb.
God’s Spirit was not present in Christ’s dead body in the tomb until it
returned on the third day. On that
Sunday morning the Spirit of God reentered His temple when Christ was raised
from the dead. He had been raised up to
bear fruit to God. God resurrected
Christ’s body from the dead as the Firstborn from the dead and He has promised
to do the same for His other sons.
When Jesus came
forth from the tomb, God’s house of glory became available for those who had
been born again as God’s children. All
of God’s sons will come forth from the dead to dwell with Him forever in His
temple in heaven. In the meantime, when
we obey the gospel our bodies on earth have become a part of Christ’s body, the
church, and God’s Spirit is dwelling with our spirit in that body.
We are hearing Jesus
tell us the mystery of the kingdom of heaven.
He is explaining His parable to His disciples through the inspired
writers. The mystery is Christ
Himself. Paul wants us to come to a full
assurance of understanding so that it will result “in a
true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians
2:2-3)
The mystery of the
kingdom of heaven is the mystery of Christ.
It is the mystery of Christ because it is only through His resurrected
body that we have obtained a way to heaven. The mystery is how God is reconciling man to
Himself through Christ. Paul spoke of
his ministry and said that if anyone is in Christ, “he
is a new creature” and that God has “reconciled
us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians
Regarding his
ministry, we read where Paul spoke of Christ and how “He
is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead- -” (Colossians
He tells them how
they had been alienated by their evil deeds but “He has
now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you
before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach-- if indeed you continue in
the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of
the gospel that you have heard”.
We have become reconciled to God through Christ because it is through the blood of His cross that we can now be presented before Him holy and blameless if we continue steadfast in the faith. Christ raised up His body to become the temple where the Spirit of God dwells in all who have obeyed the gospel of His death, burial and resurrection with their death, burial and resurrection.
They will have been “born
again” as sons of God and heirs to the kingdom of heaven because they
will have received Jesus and obeyed the gospel and continued “in the faith firmly established and steadfast”. They
will have been born again as children of God and they will have matured to bear
fruit to God.
We can only be
brought into God’s holy temple by being baptized into Christ. We previously heard Paul tell us how we
become sons of God when we become clothed with Christ in baptism. Paul is also speaking of that when he says, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized
into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been
buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from
the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of
life.” (Romans 6:3-4)
In the next verses
Paul tells us “For if we have become united with Him in
the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His
resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order
that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be
slaves to sin”.
The words, “if we have become
united with Him in the likeness of His death” are translated as “if we have been planted together in the likeness of His
death” in the KJV because the Greek appears to be saying that.
He is the Seed that was planted and was resurrected to
bear fruit. We must be planted with Him before we can be raised up with
Him. We will have been raised up with Christ as born again sons of
God. That includes both male and female, all who have become one with
Him.
It now becomes
clearer what Jesus was telling Nicodemus when He told him that unless one is
born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the
Remember, He was
resurrected as the Firstborn from the dead and He is the Firstborn among many
brethren. We can only become God’s sons
if we have put to death that old body of flesh and planted it with Christ.
We will have received
the word and put to death our old body and planted it with Christ so that our
new body could be born again of water and the Spirit. We will have received the gift of the Spirit
when we are born of water and the Spirit.
In other words, God’s Spirit which is dwelling in the
We cannot be born
again unless the old firstborn body of sin has been put to death and buried
(Planted) with Christ in baptism. We
will have been baptized into His death so that we can be spiritually
resurrected into His body. We will have
obeyed the gospel and we will be raised up as born again with Christ, having been
born again of the Spirit.
Remember, Jesus also
told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” We are born of flesh when we come into this
world. Our firstborn body was born of
the flesh of this world. That body of
flesh must die if we are to be born again of the Spirit to become heirs to the
God has given the
right to become His children to all who will receive His word. Jesus is telling us about that in the parable
of the sower. He is speaking that
parable to the crowds but He is only explaining
it to His disciples (Mark
We need to hear Jesus explain His parables because He told His
disciples, "To you it has been
granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in
parables, so that SEEING THEY MAY NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY MAY NOT
UNDERSTAND.” (Luke 8:10) His disciples will hear Jesus explain His
parables.
Regarding Jesus
speaking to the crowds in parables, Matthew tells us, “All
these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to
them without a parable.” (Matthew
13:34) If Jesus only speaks to the
crowds in parables but His Great Commission is to be preached to all creation, is
He speaking to the crowds in a parable when the gospel message is preached?
When He speaks
through Paul and says that if we have been planted together with Him in the
likeness of His death we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection, is
He not speaking an earthly likeness of the spiritual telling us what is
required for us to become born again sons of God? Is He telling us that we
must believe and obey Him and do the earthly likeness and He will do the
spiritual?
The crowd will be amazed
at the wonderful lessons given in the parable of the sower but having failed to
listen to Jesus explain the parable they will not understand the mysteries of
the kingdom of God.
Jesus is revealing
the mysteries of the
We need to hear
Jesus because there are some leaders and teachers in the crowd who have heard
the parables but they have not heard Jesus explain them. They are saying that we can be born again
without the need for water and that we can rest easy because after we are born
again we can’t fall. They make it sound
easy. It is not. We must die.
We need to have ears
to hear Jesus explain His parables.
Those who are out in the crowd will not hear Him speak through Paul to
say that when we have been baptized into His death (Planted together in the
likeness of His death), we will certainly also be in the likeness of His
resurrection. They will not hear Him say
that we become sons of God and heirs when we have become clothed with Christ in
baptism.
They will not hear
Jesus tell His disciples how the good ground will hold fast and bear fruit but
that seed which is sown in the rocky soil will hear and receive the word with
joy and will believe for a while but will fall away in time of temptation. They will not hear Him tell us that we have
been reconciled to God “in His fleshly body through
death” - -“if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and
steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have
heard”.
We have seen how the
new covenant
Paul spoke of God's true temple (New covenant temple) and said, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
Later he tells us, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19)
Those who have put
to death the old firstborn body of flesh so that they could be born again no
longer belong to the old self. We belong
to God because we have been purchased by His blood to become a part of His
temple on earth. God’s true temple is
found in the body of Christ which is now the church. God’s Spirit dwells in that holy place. It dwells in the fleshly bodies of the
saints.
The bodies of true
believers have God’s Spirit dwelling in them and that makes them God’s dwelling
place but it also makes them His children.
God’s Spirit only dwells in His children.
Peter is telling us
to keep that dwelling place holy when he writes, “As
obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in
your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also
in all your behavior; because
it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY." (1 Peter 1:14-16)
God will destroy
anyone who destroys His house but He also will not look kindly on anyone who
would defile His house. We can see that
when we look back at the old covenant earthly house of God that was a mere
copy. Death was the penalty for anyone
who defiled that old covenant house in any way.
If death was the penalty for anyone who would fail to show respect and
honor for a house that was “a mere copy” what
will become of those who defile God’s true house?
We must respect all
people but above all else we must respect His holy dwelling place. We are God’s dwelling place and we must keep
God’s dwelling place holy because He is holy.
We must not defile or destroy
God’s temple in our own body and we must not defile the temple body of any
brother or sister in Christ. They are
God’s holy place.
Dare that we should do anything to harm or defile God’s holy temple
because God will judge anyone who would do that. As Peter tells the brethren in the next verse
(In 1 Peter, chapter 1), “ If you address as Father the One who impartially judges
according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of
your stay on earth”.
We must be holy
because He is holy. We must keep the house
where His Spirit dwells holy by allowing the Spirit to lead us. Paul tells about that when he says that we
are under obligation not “to live according to the
flesh-- for if you are living according to the
flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of
the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:12-13) He says that the
ones who the sons of God are those that are being led by the Spirit of
God. He also tells us that “you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we
cry out, "Abba! Father!"
He then tells the
brethren how “The Spirit Himself testifies with our
spirit that we are children of God, and
if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed
we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
He is speaking to the brethren. He is telling the brethren that they are sons of God if they are being led by the Spirit of God but if they are living according to the flesh they will die. They will die because the Spirit of God will not continue to dwell in an unholy place.
They will die because only those who possess the Spirit of God possess
eternal life and if the Spirit departs the body then life departs from the body. As Paul said "The
first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam became a life giving spirit.” (1
Corinthians 15:45)
Only sons of God are
heirs to the kingdom of heaven. We are
children of God and heirs with Christ if we suffer with Him so that we can be
glorified with Him. We will suffer with
Him because most of the people of this world hate born again Christians.
Regardless, we must
obey Him and carry our cross and suffer with Him if we are to be glorified with
Him. We will be glorified with Him as born
again children of God when we are fruitful.
Remember, we heard Jesus say, "My Father is
glorified by this, that you bear
much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” (John 15:8) Just as earthly
fathers are glorified when they have new born sons our heavenly Father is
glorified by His new born again sons.
Regarding the
requirement that our old firstborn body of sin to be put to death before we can
become born again children of God and heirs to the kingdom of heaven, it was
all foretold in the old Hebrew salvation story.
Their covenant promise was for that earthly
That is why God sent
Moses to bring His people out of slavery to lead them to their land. He brought them out with signs and
wonders. That old story was brought
about as an earthly copy of how God sent Jesus to this earth to bring His
spiritual people out of slavery to sin and lead them to their spiritual
land. He did it with signs and wonders
just as Moses led
We were in bondage
to sin just as they were in earthly bondage in
Jesus is leading us
out of slavery to sin with signs and wonders but it can only happen after our
old firstborn body of sin has been put to death. That old body had been our slave master. Our old firstborn slave master must die
before we can be set free. God, however,
had to redeem us first. God’s Firstborn had
to die to redeem us from sin. He has set
us free but only after our firstborn slave master has died will we be allowed
to go free.
Remember, Jesus did
many signs and wonders during His ministry on earth but the sign that stands
out is the last one that sets us free.
It is the sign that He spoke of when those Jews asked for a sign (John,
chapter 2). Remember, He told them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up."
Only after the death and resurrection of the temple body of God’s Firstborn Son could we be set free from slavery to sin. Only then could our old firstborn body of sin be put to death with Him so that we could be set free from slavery to that body of sin.
After
that body has been put to death, then, we can be raised up as born again sons
of God and become the dwelling place for God’s Spirit. We have been “born
again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead”.
That old firstborn
body belonged to this world. Our born
again body has its citizenship in that city of
He then speaks of how the wrath of God “will
come upon the sons of disobedience”,
those who practice immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed.
If we have been
raised up with Christ as sons of God, we will have been born again of water and
the Spirit. We will have been born of
water and the Spirit but if we are not being led by the Spirit we will not bear
fruit and the old copy tells us that we will fall and die in our wilderness and
we will not receive our land. We need to
believe God’s promises. We must believe
God’s promise if we are to receive His land of promise.
Johnny Rogers
Revised
4. - "WHAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM”.
In his first letter to the church at
When we read from God’s inspired word, the
Spirit is speaking to us. He is telling us about God’s love for man and
what He has done to redeem us from sin and bring us to Him. The Spirit is
also telling us something about what God has prepared for those who will
believe in Him and love Him.
Jesus was telling the apostles about what He
will be preparing for them when He said, "Do not let your heart be troubled;
believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many
dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare
a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)
Jesus tells them that He is going to prepare a
place for them in His Father’s house. He then says that they know the way
where He is going. Thomas responds and says they do not know the way.
Jesus tells him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one
comes to the Father but through Me.” A few verses later He tells them, "If you love Me,
you will keep My commandments.” (Verse 15) He expands on that by saying,
"If
anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will
come to him and make Our abode with him.” (Verse 23)
Look carefully at what He says about that
eternal home. He is going to prepare a place for them and He tells them
that they know the way where He is going. He also tells them that He is
the way and that we must go through Him if we are to get there. We must
follow Him and go through Him. We heard Paul say that it has been
prepared for those who love God. We heard Jesus say that those who love
Him will keep His word and obey Him. If we do that, the Father will love
us and we will be allowed to live with the Father and Son in that home of
God.
The Father loves those who love His Son and
who show their love by obedience to the word of God spoken through the
Son. The Father will love them and He will come with Christ and they will
make their abode with them in that home of glory. Paul spoke of all that
God has prepared for those who love Him and said it is an awesome place.
There are many dwelling places in God’s
house. They are in the same house where Jesus now lives. Jesus has
prepared them for those who love Him but who also have faith in Him. As
He said, “believe in God, believe also in Me.” If we really believe
in Him, we will believe His promises about that place He has prepared for us
and we will show our belief by how we live our lives on this earth. We
will follow Him.
The promises are only made to those who love
God. Remember, the greatest commandment is the commandment to love
God. We can hear Jesus tell us about that in Matthew, chapter 22. A
lawyer (Of the Law of Moses) asked Him, "Teacher, which [is] the great
commandment in the law?" (Verse 36) Jesus responded, “You shall love the LORD
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
mind.' This is [the] first and great commandment. And [the] second
[is] like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two
commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
The commandment to love God with all our being
is above every other commandment. The commandment to love our neighbor as
we love ourselves is the number two commandment. It was true under the
Law of Moses and it is true under the New Testament Law of Christ. All of
God’s promises to man are contingent on obedience to those two
commandments.
Paul told the church at
If we choose to love Him and follow Jesus, not
only will He lead us home, He will cause our life on this earth to happen in a
way that will bring about good results for us. Paul tells us about that
in his letter to the Romans. He writes, “And we know that God
causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those
who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
Again, he is speaking of what is to
come to those who love God. Good things are coming. When he said
those words, Paul was not talking about great blessings of this earth being
given to those who love God because he never received great earthly things.
He was speaking of the glory to come with Jesus and that home with God. God has prepared a
place for those who love Him and the only way to get there is to go through
Jesus. If we choose to believe in and follow Jesus, He will lead us home
and He will be making things happen for us in this life so as to help us to get
there.
In that same chapter Paul spoke of how
we become sons of God in the image of Christ. He says, “For those whom He
foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son - -” (Verse 29). God
is working in our lives to make us into sons of God, in Christ’s image, if we
choose to keep the Great Commandment and love Him. That means we must
keep His commandments.
Anyone who professes to love God but refuses
to keep His word is not living the truth. Remember, He is the way, the
truth and the life and He tells us that they way home to the Father is by
following Him with obedience. Jesus is the Word of God that became flesh
(John 1:1-2 and 14) and we must love God’s Word. When we show our love
for God’s Word by following it, we will receive those things that He has
promised.
James spoke of God’s word and said, “But prove yourselves
doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” (James 1:22) He
said of God’s perfect law, “But one who looks intently at the perfect law,
the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but
an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:25)
The word of God demands that we “do” what God’s word says. What are we
supposed to be doing?
James tells us something of what we must
do. He says that “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and
Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself
unstained by the world.” We are to be doing good deeds for those who are in
distress. A few verses later (Into chapter 2) he tells us that if we
fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "YOU SHALL LOVE
YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF," you are doing well.” Remember, Jesus said
that was the second great commandment. If we love ourselves and do good
things for our self should we not also do the same for our neighbor?
We are being commanded to “do” deeds of love.
James spoke of one who claims to have faith but has no works and asks if that
kind of faith will save him. He then gives the example of having a
brother or sister who is in need of food and our saying to them, "Go in peace, be
warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for
their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead,
being by itself.” Faith that justifies must be a living faith, not a dead
faith.
We heard James tell us to look intently at the
law of liberty and be “an effectual doer”. He said that man will be blessed
in what he “does”. He says that we must do what it requires and we are to “So speak and so act as
those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.” (James 2:12)
That means we are to love others with deeds of love. We will be judged by
how we have done what the law requires. That is what the law of liberty
requires and we will be judged based on how we “do” what it says.
We are justified by faith but love is greater
than faith (1 Corinthians
Remember, He spoke of the day when all nations
will be gathered before Him and He will separate them to the left and to the
right as a shepherd would separate the sheep from the goats, with the sheep on
the right and the goats on the left (Matthew 25:31-33). He will place the
righteous ones on the right and He will tell them how they are blessed of the
Father because of the deeds of love that they had done for Him. He tells
them, `For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty,
and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in -”
Jesus is speaking of Judgment Day and how He
will judge those before Him based on the works of love that they will have done
for Him. When those on the right question having done those works of love
for Him, He will say to them, `Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did
it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'
Those before Him are being judged by having
done what God’s law of liberty required of them. He will bless those on
the right for their works of love and He will condemn those on the left because
they will not have done those works of love. Those on the left hand side
will not have fulfilled the law of God because they will not have loved
Christ’s brothers. As Paul said, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor;
therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:10)
The law of God requires us to obey the
gospel. It is the gospel of God’s love for mankind, shown in the gift of
His Son. God showed His love on the cross of Christ. We are
commanded to obey that gospel of love and love others, especially the brothers
of Christ. John tells us how.
John tells us how it is the message that we
have heard from the beginning, “that we should love one another” (1 John
John then tells us how we can know what true
love is. He says that, “We know love by this, that He laid down His
life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (Verse 16) Did
we get that? We know what love is when we see Jesus on the cross for
us. That is the gospel of God’s love. Therefore, we “ought” to obey that gospel
and lay down our lives for the same brethren that He died for.
John then tells us how we are to show our love
for the brethren when he adds, “But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his
brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God
abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue,
but in deed and truth.” True love is shown in deed and truth, with works of
love.
If we are not doing our deeds of love for
those brothers who are in need, then the love of God does not abide in us and
we are dead. We will not have obeyed the Law of love and paid our debt of
love. That is what John was saying when he said that “we ought to lay down
our lives for the brethren.” In the original scripture, the Greek
word for, “ought” is the word “opheilo”. Strongs Definitions tells us it
means to “be in debt for”. We “ought” to obey the gospel of love
and pay our debt of love to the brethren and love them with deeds of
love.
Paul tells us to, “Owe nothing to anyone
except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the
law”
(Romans 13:8). It is two verses later where we read, “Love does no wrong to a
neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” We must obey
the gospel by obeying the Royal law of love and laying down our lives for the
brethren.
When we obey that law and lay down our life
for the brethren, we will be following the pathway that Jesus trod and He will
lead us to that home of God. Remember, He tells us to take up our cross
and follow Him, daily (Luke
There is no way for us to be able to
comprehend what that place will be like but the Spirit has revealed some of
what is to come in scripture. John is telling us about that in
Revelations, chapters 21 and 22. In Revelation, chapter 21, John
describes seeing a new heaven and a new earth and a New Jerusalem coming down
out of heaven from God. The first earth had passed away. He hears a
voice telling him that God will dwell among men. He tells us many things
about that heavenly city of
It will be a golden city that will stand
fifteen hundred miles high and have a width and length of the same
dimensions. If it will be a perfect cube of gold, and it will be the home
of God, does that not remind us of another cube of gold that was the home of
God?
Remember how God’s dwelling place under the
Law of Moses was in the tabernacle (Later the temple) within the inner room Holy
of Holies? When Solomon built the temple, he made its inner room twenty
cubits high and twenty cubits wide and twenty cubits long. It was a
perfect cube. That room was covered inside with gold cladding. Did
God have them make it like that to foretell the true home of God?
The Hebrew writer said that Christ did not
enter a holy place made with hands, “a mere copy of the true one”; He entered heaven
itself. (Hebrews 9:24) The true home of God is of pure gold, clear as
glass. I have never seen gold as clear as glass. That is a part of
what has not entered our minds.
John is describing in earthly terms what is to
come in that spiritual home. With that in mind, we must understand that
what is to come will likely look somewhat different from what we may picture in
our minds. It is like listening to Jesus speaking in parables. We
may not be able to get a clear picture of that city in our mind but whatever it
will be like will surpass anything that we have ever envisioned. For
those who get there, they will shout for joy when they see it.
Speaking of that city and its light, John
tells us how that city will have no need of a sun or moon for light because
God’s glory will be its light (Revelation 21:23). He says that, “The nations will walk
by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.” He also
tells us, “they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and
nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever
come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of
life.” The nations will walk by the light of that city.
In the next chapter (Revelation, chapter 22)
John is shown the river of life coming from the throne of God and the tree of
life on each side of that river. It will be a tree bearing twelve kinds
of fruit during the twelve months of the year. John says, “and the leaves of the
tree were for the healing of the nations.” John continues, “And there will no
longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the
light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign
forever and ever.”
He speaks of those who will be allowed to
enter that city and says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that
they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into
the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons
and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices
lying.”
We just read where those who have washed their
robes will have a right to enter the gates of that city but then he says that
outside will be the dogs and sorcerers and immoral people and murders
etc. They are the same ones that He said will be cast into the lake of
fire, in Revelation 21:8. If they will be outside the city but they will
be in the lake of fire, then it sounds like hell will be located on the new
earth, outside the city of
The scripture that we just read does say that
those who have washed their robes will be allowed to enter through the gates of
that city. That would seem to imply that there will be others outside
that city who will not be allowed to enter.
Remember, we previously heard John speak of the
nations walking by the light of that city and of the glory and honor of the
nations being brought into that city. If there will be nations on the new
earth, will those nations have come from the nations of this earth? Are
those nations different from the saints, the ones who will have overcome and
become heirs of God? The saints who overcome will be living in that city
of
We said that Isaiah may confirm what John
seemed to be saying about how those condemned to the lake of fire, would be
outside that city of
He ends chapter 66 with the words, "For just as the
new heavens and the new earth Which I make will endure before Me,"
declares the LORD, "So your offspring and your name will endure. And
it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind
will come to bow down before Me," says the LORD. Then they will go
forth and look On the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For
their worm will not die And their fire will not be quenched; And they will be
an abhorrence to all mankind."
Speaking of the new heavens and new earth,
which the LORD had created, enduring before Him, He says that their offspring
and their name will also endure. That new heavens and new earth will
endure forever. On the new earth, “All mankind” will come and bow
down before Him and then they will go forth (That would be going forth from
that New Jerusalem) and see the dead bodies of those who had transgressed
against the LORD. They will see the damned burning in unquenchable
fire.
If all of mankind from that new earth (That
would likely be living mankind, not the dead) will come to that city and
worship the LORD and then depart and go back out into the new earth and see
dead bodies as they are burning in fire, they will be walking through that lake
of fire. He is speaking of everlasting fire being out there and that is
hell. It sounds like hell fire will be located outside the city of
Hell fire will be out there but all mankind
will also be dwelling out there. It sounds like the nations of that new
earth will be coming to that city to worship. It sounds like there will
be living mankind out in the nations outside the gates, living among the
dead. God’s sons, those who have overcome, will not be coming to that
city to worship before the LORD. They will be living there in that city
as sons of God.
The LORD is speaking through Isaiah, telling
us the same thing that John told us when he wrote of those rejected ones who
will be outside that city (Revelation, chapter 22). Outside that city
will be the immoral and murderers and idolaters and liars. Those are the
same ones that he said in chapter 21 would be in the lake of fire.
Remember what John said about the glory and
honor of the nations being brought to that city. There will be nations
out there with glory and honor. If there will be living mankind dwelling
among the dead outside that city, will hell on that new earth only be hell to
the damned but not to those living in the nations out there?
Anyone who is burning in that lake of fire
will be dead. The dead will not be counted among the living. All
mankind out in that new earth will come to worship before God but the dead will
not come there. They will be dead and God is not the God of the dead, He
is the God of the living (Mark
If the lake of fire will be located outside
that heavenly city, but there will also be nations living out there, will hell
fire be a spiritual fire and not a literal fire as we know it? Will hell
fire be like a spiritual fire to the damned but not to the living?
Regardless, the damned will be dead and they will be out in a dark world.
Are there scriptures that speak of spiritual
fires and of someone burning in that fire? What about Jesus and the
cross? Jesus is the Lamb of God and He was the perfect burnt offering and
sin offering provided by God for the spiritual
The law for the burnt offerings was that, “the burnt offering
itself shall remain on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and
the fire on the altar is to be kept burning on it.” (Leviticus 6:9)
A few verses later Moses writes, “The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on
it. It shall not go out, but the priest shall burn wood on it every morning;
and he shall lay out the burnt offering on it, and offer up in smoke the fat
portions of the peace offerings on it. Fire shall be kept burning
continually on the altar; it is not to go out.” (Leviticus
6:12-13)
The altar fire was to be kept continually
burning. It was not to go out. Every morning the priest was to lay
out the burnt offering on the wood that was on the altar of burnt offering and
burn it until it was reduced to ashes. They were only doing a copy and
shadow of the heavenly (Hebrews 8:5). Jesus is the true Lamb of God that
was offered on the altar of the cross. The fire finally went out when He
died.
Jesus was the true burnt offering for
spiritual
That old Law only had a shadow of what was to
come. It required sacrifices for sins but those sacrifices never could
remove sins because the Law required unblemished sacrifices. As Moses
recorded, "You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep
which has a blemish or any defect, for that is a detestable thing to the LORD
your God.” (Deuteronomy 17:1) They had none. Since man was cast
out of the garden there have been no unblemished animal sacrifices.
Only the sacrifice that Jesus made met the conditions
of perfection and only His sacrifice can remove sins. He burned,
spiritually, on the altar of the cross as our burnt offering and our sin
offering. Jesus was all of those offerings. That included their sin
offerings and especially that special sin offering where blood was taken into
the holy place and sprinkled before the inner veil.
The New Testament Hebrew writer tells how the
old special sin offering for God’s people foretold Jesus and the cross.
He writes, “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the
holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the
camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His
own blood, suffered outside the gate.” (Hebrews 13:11-12)
When the whole congregation of God’s people
sinned, a bull was to be brought before the doorway of the tent of meeting and
slain before the LORD. The high priest was to take some of the blood into
the outer room of the temple and sprinkle it before the inner veil that led to
the Holy of Holies. The body of that animal was to be taken outside the
camp and burned.
That offering foretold the cross to
come. Because the bodies of those old sin offerings were to be burned
outside the camp, “Therefore Jesus also” suffered there. Jesus suffered
outside the gate of that earthly city because the old earthly copy said He
would suffer there. Just as that old sacrifice was burned in literal
flames outside the city, Jesus, therefore, burned in spiritual flames out
there. The earthly copy said it would happen, therefore, it
happened. That old sin offering was useless and detestable as a sin
offering but it was not useless for what it represented. It foretold our
sacrifice burning outside the gate.
Jesus has become the true Lamb of God who was
sacrificed outside that old earthly city in the spiritual fires on the altar of
the cross. Everyone who accepts His sacrifice and follows Him will,
therefore, dwell with God in that city of
It appears that everyone who rejects the
offering that He made in spiritual fire outside that old earthly city will
dwell in flames outside that spiritual city. They will have rejected His
offering so they must make their own offering. Their offering will never
be perfect so it will last forever. Remember, that old altar fire was
never to go out.
Jesus is not the only priest and Son of God
who must carry a cross on this earth. All Christians are spiritual
priests and sons of God and we have all been commanded to take up our cross and
follow Him. Does that not mean we must suffer with Him?
Paul says that we are children of God, “and if children, heirs
also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him
so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Romans 8:17)
Jesus was glorified by His work on the cross (John
Does our requirement to carry our cross and
follow Him mean we must suffer in spiritual fire on this earth? In 1
Peter, chapter 1, Peter spoke of their inheritance reserved in heaven and how
they could rejoice in it. He spoke of the trials they faced and
said they could rejoice, “even though now for a little while, if
necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of
your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though
tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the
revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7). It sounds like, just
as gold is tested by earthly fire, their faith was being tested as if by
fire. Peter said it was to prove their faith.
Peter again spoke of their testing, saying, “Beloved, do not be
surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing,
as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you
share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the
revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” (1 Peter
4:12-13)
They were being tested by their fiery ordeal
just like Abraham was tested by his fiery ordeal when he was called to offer
Isaac as a burnt offering. The same thing is true with Jesus when He was
called to offer His sacrifice on the altar. Scripture says “For since He Himself
was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of
those who are tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18)
He had just mentioned how Jesus, “because of the
suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He
might taste death for everyone.” Jesus was tempted to pass up partaking
of that cup (The cross) but He overcame that temptation. He was glorified
because He was willing to suffer and we, also, will be glorified if we follow
Him and suffer with Him.
Peter said that, to the degree that we share
His sufferings, we should rejoice. When we are faced with the fiery
ordeals that come to us, our faith is being tested. When we overcome our
fears and accept those fiery ordeals, we are sharing in the sufferings of
Christ. Just as He suffered His fiery ordeal, we must suffer our fiery
ordeal.
We read from Revelation, chapter 21 where the
Lord describes the new heavens and new earth and that city to come and said
that those who overcome will inherit these things. Earlier, (In chapter
2), He tells us that, “He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end,
TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A
ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have
received authority from My Father” (Verses 26-27)
For those who overcome this world and
faithfully follow Jesus until the end of life on this earth, they will be given
authority over the nations and they will rule over them with a rod of
iron. What nations could that be except the nations of that new earth
that John described in chapter 21? We did read in that chapter where the
kings of the earth will bring their glory into that city.
If God’s sons, those who have overcome, will
reign over the earth, then there must be someone on the new earth to reign
over. Who would that be? Would that not be the nations of the new
earth? Who are those people? Remember, the damned will be outside
that city.
Will there be others outside that city
also? If the kings of the earth will bring their glory into that city
but, as we read earlier, only those who have washed their robes will have a
right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates, then it appears that
the ones who overcome will be the kings of the earth. Would that not be
God’s sons? God’s sons will reign as kings over the earth but they may
also be reigning over lesser kings who live out in the nations on the new
earth.
When John wrote about those who will be cast
into the lake of fire, he records that it will be those who are the cowardly
and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers
and idolaters and all liars. Regarding the unbelievers, many of them are
otherwise good people, who are not immoral and are not liars. Many of
them do good deeds for others. Will they not burn like some others
because they will have loved their neighbor?
Jesus once spoke of those who do good deeds
for His disciples and He said, "For whoever gives you a cup of water to
drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will
not lose his reward.” (Mark
Remember, the scriptures repeatedly speak of
how He will judge those before Him based on their deeds. John records
seeing judgment where the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and
Hades gave up the dead which were in them, “and they were judged,
every one of them according to their deeds.” (Revelation 20:13)
Will some of the dead who will appear before
Christ in judgment have been unbelievers on this earth but will have been
people who did good deeds for the saints? Will they be rewarded for their
good deeds? Will they be separated from the city of
Paul may be saying that in Romans, chapter 2,
where he wrote of those Gentiles who did not have the Law but who will be
judged based on having the Law of God written in their hearts. He said, “it is not the hearers of
the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified”. He spoke of the
Gentiles who did not have the Law and how some, “do instinctively the
things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves”.
He is speaking of Gentiles who do not have the
Law. He is speaking in terms of the Law of Moses but he is also speaking
to Christians about some Gentiles being justified by having done “instinctively” what God’s Law
requires. They will do it by instinct, not because they were commanded to
do so.
Remember what the true law of God is.
Jesus gave the two greatest commandments, the first one being to love God and
the second being to love our neighbor and then He said, "On these two
commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:40)
Above all else, that is the Law that we must do. Unbelievers do not obey
the first commandment because they do not obey God. Some, however, do
obey the second commandment. Will they be rewarded for what they will have
done?
It sounds like Jesus will judge them based on
their law, the law of their heart. It sounds like He will judge people
who do not have the law of God, based on what is in their hearts and if they
did what the Law requires, they will have, “glory and honor and
peace” (verse 10).
We know that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and He
loves those who love others with works of love. Remember, “Love does no wrong to a
neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” Will some be
justified by having fulfilled the second commandment law by having loved their
neighbor? It sounds like some may be justified by their works of love and
not by their faith. If so, they will not have been made perfect by
Christ’s blood, because only believers have been made perfect by His
blood. Anyone who has not been made perfect by His blood would not likely
be allowed to dwell with our perfect God.
Notice, he does not say that they will be
heirs to the kingdom of heaven or to that city of
We saw previously where the damned (Those who
are described as being in the lake of fire) will be outside that city and will
never be allowed to enter through its gates. If so, they will have been
cut off from God because God will be dwelling in that city. Will they dwell
out in a dark world, separated from the city of light? Remember, there
will be no sun or moon for light on the new earth. The only light
mentioned is the light of the glory of God in that city.
If that new earth will have no sun or moon for
light and the only light will be the light of the glory of God in that city of
Speaking of those who overcome, ruling over
the nations, will they rule over some who will have peace and honor but others
who will be serving as low level slaves? Will the spiritual hell to come
be the requirement to live forever in slavery in that world to come?
Would they be required to work forever and never have rest for their
souls? Remember, God’s people will find rest for their souls. Could
there be a worse hell than for those who had valued freedom in this life being
required to toil forever in slavery? Isaiah may be telling us of some who
will be slaves.
We read what Isaiah said about that new earth
and all mankind coming to bow down before the LORD and then going forth and
looking at the damned in their fire (Isaiah, chapter 66). Earlier, in
chapter 61, he spoke of “the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of
our God; To comfort all who mourn” (Verse 2). He ends that chapter saying, “For as the earth brings
forth its sprouts, And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up,
So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise To spring up before all
the nations.”
It appears that Isaiah is speaking of what is
to come when God’s people will dwell in their city of righteousness and the
nations will dwell outside that city. Isaiah speaks of those nations and
says, “Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, And foreigners will
be your farmers and your vinedressers. But you will be called the priests of
the LORD; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the
wealth of nations, And in their riches you will boast.” (Isaiah 61:5-6)
Remember, John recorded in Revelation, chapter 21, about how the kings of the
earth will bring the glory and honor of the nations into that city.
Isaiah said more about that new earth in
chapter 60. Near the end of chapter 60, Isaiah speaks of what is to come
and says "Your sun will no longer set, Nor will your moon wane; For you
will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And the days of your mourning will
be over. "Then all your people will be righteous; They will possess
the land forever, The branch of My planting, The work of My hands, That I may
be glorified.” The only land that will be possessed forever is that
heavenly land. That is also the only place where all of God’s people will
be righteous and where their days of mourning will be over.
In that chapter Isaiah also tells how, "Foreigners will
build up your walls, And their kings will minister to you;” (Isaiah
60:10) He says that "Your gates will be open continually; They
will not be closed day or night, So that men may bring to you the wealth of the
nations, With their kings led in procession.” A few verses
later he records God saying how "The sons of those who afflicted you will
come bowing to you, And all those who despised you will bow themselves at the
soles of your feet; And they will call you the city of the LORD, The Zion of
the Holy One of Israel.”
He speaks of a time when that earthly
Those things never happened in any great
degree to the Israelites of this earth and it will never happen to them
because a
Remember what Paul said about those who have
been raised up with Christ. He said that we are to "keep seeking the
things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your
mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth."
(Colossians 3:1-2) We are to set our minds on that heavenly city,
not any earthly city.
It sounds like the possibility exists that the
people of the nations of this earth who have been enemies of and who will have
dealt out affliction to the saints while living on this earth may forever serve
the saints as slaves on the new earth.
When Isaiah speaks of those who have afflicted
God’s people being required to serve them, it sounds like what Paul told the
Thessalonians. Remember when he spoke of their having to endure
afflictions from outsiders but how Jesus would come in flaming fire and deal
out retribution and pay with affliction those who will have caused their
affliction? (2 Thessalonians, chapter 1) That sounds like what Isaiah was
saying about those who will have afflicted God’s people being required to come
and bow down at the soles of their feet.
We are hearing God tell of a place where His
people will possess the land forever. It will be a place where there will
no longer be a sun or moon for light but the LORD will be their everlasting
light. It is the same place that John spoke of in Revelation, chapters 21
and 22. It sounds like God’s people will be ruling over the nations of
the new earth. Will some kings of this earth serve God’s people there?
If that is true, those nations will be
dwelling on a dark earth because there will be no sun or moon for light on the
new earth. If the only light on the new earth will be God’s glory in that
We read what he said about the new heaven and
earth at the end of chapter 66. He begins that chapter by saying, “Arise, shine; for your
light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. "For
behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the
LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. "Nations will
come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.” Speaking of
that new earth and darkness, God speaks through Isaiah and tells us that
darkness will cover the earth and its people.
Remember, John spoke of that New Jerusalem and
said “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will
bring their glory into it.” There will be peoples on the new earth
that will be covered in deep darkness but others walking by the light of that
city. It sounds like some of those people outside the city will dwell
near that city of light and will walk by its light but others will dwell out
there in deep darkness.
Will it be more tolerable for some than for
others? Will some of those who were cruel to God’s people dwell in deep
darkness? Will some others who were good to the saints be blessed to
dwell near the city of light and be allowed to come there to worship?
If that outer darkness is also hell fire, John
tells us that it is the second death (Revelation
John tells us that God is light (1 John
1:5). In 1 John, chapter 2, he tells us that anyone who says that he is
in the Light yet hates his brother, he “is in the darkness until now”. He also tells
us, “The
one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for
stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness
and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the
darkness has blinded his eyes.” He is telling us about spiritual
darkness.
Nearly everything that we read in Revelation
and much of what we read in Isaiah is God speaking to us of spiritual things in
symbolic language. We may be seeing hell fire as spiritual fire and we
may be seeing darkness as spiritual darkness. We may also be seeing
spiritual death.
Based on the wording that John uses, it
appears that many of us (Those professing to be believers) are dwelling in that
darkness at the present time because we don’t love our brother. Since God
is light (1 John 1:5) and He is also love (1 John 4:8), anyone who will be
separated from God in that new world will be separated from love and from
light. Will they forever dwell in a world without love and without
light?
If they have been separated from God they will
also be separated from life because Jesus tells us “I am the way, and the
truth, and the life” (John 14:6). If He is the life and if we have been
forever separated from Him in eternity, we will abide in death forever.
Is that the second death that will be the lake of fire?
We are hearing of a world to come described in
spiritual terms. How much of it will be like the things on this earth we
can’t be sure of, but it will be an awful world to dwell in for those who have
been delegated to the lake of fire. It will become their dwelling place
forever. Will they be forever looking through the darkness of their world
toward that city of light and remember what could have been theirs if only they
had devoted the few short years of this life following Jesus and meeting the
covenant requirements of loving their God and loving their neighbor?
Would it have helped to have at least loved their neighbor?
If we really believe in Jesus, we will hear
Him say, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give
you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is
easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30) We must hear Jesus
and take up our yoke and follow Him if we are to obtain that everlasting land
of rest. Is the cross that we must carry our yoke?
If we carry our cross and do our works of love
in this life, we will find rest in that land of rest. If we take up our
cross and follow Him we will find rest for our souls. If we don’t believe
Him, our souls may never rest in that land of rest. We may find ourselves
having worshipped the beast that John writes about in Revelation, chapter
14. For those people who worship the beast, scripture tells us that He
will drink of the wine of the wrath of God.
John wrote of that one, saying, “he will be tormented
with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence
of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever;
they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and
whoever receives the mark of his name." (Revelation
14:10-11)
The Lamb will be dwelling in that city.
The damned will burn outside that city. The smoke of their torment will
ascend forever outside that city. They will have no rest day or night
forever and ever. Will they have no rest because they will be required to
work night and day forever and ever? What an awful hell that would
be.
After speaking of those who will never find
rest John records what the Lord says about the faithful who keep His
commandments obtaining rest from their labors. He writes, “Here is the
perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, `Blessed are the
dead who die in the Lord from now on!' " "Yes," says the Spirit,
"so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with
them."
For the dead who die in the Lord, they will
find rest from their labors. For others, they will have no rest for their
souls, day or night, forever. There will be both day and night for
them. Remember, in that city of
If some of those living out there in the
nations will be alive and not dead, how could they have eternal life if they
were unbelievers? Remember, eternal life is only found in Jesus.
They will not be in Jesus; how could they have eternal life?
Remember Adam and Eve lost eternal life
because of sin but they could have continued to have it if they had been able
to have access to the tree of life. God did not allow that to happen
because He stationed a cherubim there to guard the way to the tree of life
(Genesis
Based on the things that John says in
Revelation, chapter 22, those unbelievers outside the city of
Even if they are not allowed to eat of the
tree of life, it may help them in other ways. Could those leaves be
brought to the nations outside the city? Remember what we read previously
about the leaves of that tree? In chapter 22, John recorded, “and the leaves of the
tree were for the healing of the nations.” Notice, he said, “nations”, not the perfect sons
of God. God’s perfect sons will be like Jesus. They will have
immortal and imperishable bodies. They will need no healing.
Johnny Rogers
Revised
5. - “HE MAY BE RETURNING VERY SOON
Remember when the apostles asked Jesus
about His return (Matthew, chapter 24)? They had pointed out the grand
temple buildings on the temple mount. They were obviously impressed with
the beauty and grandeur of God’s earthly dwelling place. Jesus told them
of its coming destruction and how one stone would not be left upon another when
it happened. Jesus was speaking of the destruction to come when the Roman
army would destroy the city and burn it in 70 AD.
The apostles wanted to know when that
event would happen but they also asked about His return (“Tell us, when will
these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end
of the age” – Matthew 24:3).
Jesus gave responses to both of their
questions in the verses that followed. It is a little difficult to
determine which question He was referring to in the things that He said but one
thing stands out with regard to His return. Jesus said, “But of that day and
hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father
alone” and “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know
which day your Lord is coming”. When it happens, it will be
unexpected. No one knows the day or the hour when He will return so we
must be ready at all times.
We will not know the day or the hour of
His return beforehand but from what the scriptures say, can we have a general
idea? Just as no one knows the day or hour of His return, no one knew the
day or the hour that He would come the first time. It appears that the
Jewish nation of the first century BC had studied the scriptures and they knew
that the time was right for the Messiah to come. They knew about when He
would come, they just did not recognize Him when He came. They expected
an earthly king and He was a spiritual king.
When He comes again, all will see Him
and all will recognize Him. Jesus said of that day, "And then the sign
of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth
will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY
with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:30) All of the tribes of
the earth will see Him coming on the clouds of heaven.
We can’t know the day or the hour of
His return but is it possible to get a general idea from what the scriptures
say? Judgment will take place on that last day but what else do the
scriptures say of the future? They tell us that eternal life has been
promised to the faithful. It will come in the heavenly land.
In Hebrews, chapter 3, the Hebrew
writer speaks of the old land of promise as the place of rest and he tells how
that nation could not enter their land and he ties that old story to our
story. He tells how Moses brought that nation out of slavery in
That old
The Hebrew writer began chapter 4 by
saying that we have had good news preached to us just as they had good news
preached to them (“For indeed we have had good news preached to
us, just as they also”). They were given the good news of
their earthly land of rest that lay just beyond the wilderness and we have been
given the good news of our spiritual land of rest to come at the end of time.
Both nations had good news preached to them but it did those ancient ones
no good because of their lack of faith. Because they did not believe the
promise and did not follow faithfully, they could not enter His rest.
The writer again ties their story
to our story by saying “For we who have believed enter that rest, just
as He has said, "AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY
REST," although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: "AND GOD RESTED ON
THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS" (Hebrews 4:3-4).
He connects that old story and their land of rest to our story and our land of
rest and he connects it to God resting on the seventh day from all His
works. God resting from all His works happened on the seventh day.
A few verses after speaking of God
resting on the seventh day from all His works, we read, “For if Joshua had given
them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there
remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God”. As that writer
also said, “the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested
from his works, as God did from His”. He is speaking
of another day to come, a new Sabbath day of rest and he is telling us how we
will obtain rest from our works on that day.
Entering that land of rest will be like
God resting on the seventh day from all His works. How could that
creation week with its seventh day of rest foretell our day of rest to come in
the land of rest? Remember, that old earthly Sabbath Day of rest came the
day after God had finished all His works. God worked for six days and
then He rested on the seventh day. He says that our day of rest will be
like that.
When the writer said that there remains
a Sabbath rest for us and it is another day, he is speaking of a Sabbath rest
in that heavenly land of rest. Our land of rest is the true rest because
it is the day of rest. There will only be one eternal day in that
land. That is the other day the writer spoke of. We need to be
diligent if we want to enter that rest.
It sounds like that future land of rest
is the true Sabbath day of rest because it was like God resting from His works
on the seventh day. We will also be resting from our works on that
day. If the eternal Sabbath Day to come will be the true Sabbath, there
must be a work week of six days before that day of rest. Remember, that
day of rest is the seventh day. If there is a seventh day of rest, there
must be six days of work. Is God telling us about His new creation
work?
God finished His first creation on day
six when He created man in His image. God created them, male and female
and “God blessed them”. After God had finished His
work, Moses records that “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it
was very good” (Genesis
God had finished working on a creation
that was very good but man’s sin changed that. After Adam sinned God
cursed the ground of the earth, saying, “Cursed is the ground
because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life” (Genesis
God’s creation that had been created good
became cursed because of man’s sin but God had a plan to replace that old
cursed creation with a new creation. Under that new creation man is being
created in the true image of God by having been created in the image of God’s
Son. Paul tells us that we (believers) have been “predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans
If we are being created in the image of
God’s Son, we are being created in the image of God because Paul also says that
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all
creation” (Colossians
In that first creation God created Man
in His image and gave him eternal life on the sixth day. After Adam lost
eternal life, God’s plan included a way to give man back the eternal life that
had been lost. Would the new creation also be completed in six
days? Can we see six days of creation work in the new creation? God
began that new creation work after Adam fell and lost eternal life.
If the true Sabbath rest to come will
be the eternal day of rest in the land of rest, is that not our new covenant
promise? When God made His covenant with Abraham, He told Abraham that He
would be God to him and to his descendants and that He would give them the
Having
God’s true promise was to restore eternal life
to man in the land of rest in heaven. We can see that clearly when we read scripture that
tells how Abraham lived as an alien (With Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs to the
same promise) in that earthly land but he was looking for a city built by God
(Hebrews 11:9-10). If scripture says that Abraham was living as an alien
in that earthly land of promise but he was really looking for a city built by
God, then he knew that the real promise was never for an earthly land but for a
heavenly home. The old was just an earthly copy.
God gave Abraham that covenant promise
some two thousand years after Adam lost eternal life (Based on Bible
genealogical records). During that time man became so wicked that God
destroyed the earth in a flood. God was working to restore eternal life
to man and He used the flood to wash away the sinful flesh of that first
creation.
Doing the work necessary to create a
new creation that would set man free from sin and death would cause a
problem. If God is perfect (And He is), He must also be perfect in
righteousness and perfect in justice. Sinful man is not righteous and
justice demands payment for sins. If he is to have eternal life, justice
must be served and man must be made righteous. That is why God became man
and died on the cross.
A covenant is an agreement between two
parties. There are covenant requirements for each party. God gave the
everlasting covenant promise to Abraham but it would require God to keep His
part of the covenant promise. Some two thousand years after God gave the
covenant promise of eternal life to Abraham and to his descendants, God
fulfilled His part of the covenant promise at the cross.
Only a perfect sacrifice could make man perfect
for eternal life with God and only God could provide that sacrifice. That
was His covenant promise. He provided that perfect sacrifice when Jesus
died on the cross. As Isaiah had foretold, “But He was pierced
through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The
chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are
healed” (Isaiah, chapter 53). Isaiah also writes, “He had done no
violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt
offering”.
It has been nearly two thousand years
since Jesus died on the cross. He died to redeem us from sin and to
fulfill God’s covenant promise a little less than two thousand years ago.
He died about two thousand years after God gave Abraham the covenant promise of
receiving
Are we beginning to see the timing of
God’s new creation work? Eternal life was lost six thousand years
ago. Two thousand years later God made His covenant promise to give man
back the eternal life that he lost. Two thousand years after that God
kept His covenant promise at the cross. It has been nearly two thousand
years from the cross of Jesus until now. Do the nearly six thousand years
of new creation work since man messed up and lost eternal life in the first
creation have any bearing on the time when that day of rest will come?
Remember, there should be six days of
creation work before the seventh day of Sabbath rest. How will God be
working for six days on His new creation work before that Sabbath Day of rest
comes? God began working on His new creation six thousand years ago when
man lost eternal life in that first creation. He has not been working for
six days; He has been working for nearly six thousand years. What is the
connection?
Peter gave the connection when he spoke of the
beginning and of the last days and of God’s timing and His patience. He
wrote, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with
the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient
toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter
3:8-9).
When Peter said that one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as
a day with God, he said that after telling how, “mockers will come with
their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the
promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues
just as it was from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter
3:3-4) He says,
“- - -it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long
ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water”.
He speaks of the end and tells us, “But by His word the present
heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and
destruction of ungodly men.” He says the creation came, “by the word of God”. Remember, Jesus
is the Word and He is the creator (John 1:1-3).
Jesus
is also the one who created it all and He will end it all and pass final
judgment. Of that last day, Peter tells us, “But the day of the Lord
will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the
elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will
be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). Jesus will put an end to His old creation
and burn it.
In
the last days it will happen. We are now in the last days.
Unbelievers joke of the promise of His coming as if it were a fairy tale.
They look out at the creation and see thousands of years having passed from the
beginning and nothing has changed with regard to God keeping the promise of His
coming.
Peter says that it is a fact that we need to pay attention to. God is not limited in time. One day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day to Him. Mockers can only see thousands of years passing by but it is as if it were only a few days with the Lord.
God is not slow about keeping His
promise as some count slowness. He will keep all of His promises,
including the promise of His coming. He is not rushing the end because He
wants to give everyone plenty of time to come to repentance. God will
keep His promise and come but He will also keep His promise of giving back that
eternal life and, if we truly repent, He will do that when He creates us in His
image. His wish is that all would come to repentance and become created
in His image but He knows it will not happen for most. What is fact,
however, is that He will come and it will all end in flaming fire. We
need to keep that fact in mind and be ready to give an account for what we have
done during our time on this earth.
If a thousand years are as a day with God, are
six thousand years like six days of creation work? If God’s first creation work took place over
six days, will His new creation work take place over six days that are really
six thousand years to us? Remember, all of His works were finished during
those six days of work and God rested on the seventh day.
We heard the Hebrew writer speak of our
land of rest to come and how it will be like God resting on the seventh day
from all His works. We also heard him speak of that Hebrew nation and say
that Joshua did not give them rest because the scriptures spoke of another “day” after that.
He was speaking of our “day” of rest, the eternal
day of rest in that land of rest. It is the true Sabbath rest to come and
it will come after God has finished all of His new creation work of creating
man in the image of God’s Son. Will that day come after God’s patience
has ended and man will have been given the opportunity to come to
repentance? The time will have ended for anyone else to repent and be
created in God’s image.
Four thousand years passed between the time
when Adam fell and Jesus did His work on the cross to fulfill God’s covenant
promise. If that work began after four thousand years had passed,
was it like beginning on day five? If that old creation had God creating
man in His image on the last day of work (Day six), how is it that the new
creation began creating man in God’s image on day five and is continuing into day
six? Can it be seen in God’s patience with man and allowing him more time
to come to repentance so that all will have been given the opportunity of being
created in His image?
In the first creation, man had no choice regarding his being created in God’s image. In the new creation man has been given a choice. Man must choose to keep his part of the covenant and come to repentance before God will keep His promise and create him in His image. God is giving him more time to do that in the new creation.
Are there any other parallels in
scripture where units of time may be showing how God is fulfilling His promise
to man? Can we see it in that old Hebrew salvation story?
If that old story is a
parallel of our story, then it is telling us about how we are being saved out
of slavery to sin to be brought to our spiritual Promised Land. Let’s
look at how long it took before they received their land and how it may be a
parallel to the time it takes before we will receive our land.
We read what the Hebrew writer said
about how we have had good news preached to us just as they had good news
preached to them. Remember how they were saved out of bondage in
If it took forty years of wandering in
their wilderness before they could enter their land, is that saying anything
about the time it will take to finish our wandering before we will be allowed
to enter our land? If a thousand years is as a day and a day is as a
thousand years with God, is a century like a year and a year as a century with
Him? Could four thousand years to us be like forty years to Him?
What happened four thousand years
ago? Remember, about four thousand years ago (Or a little less) God
appeared to Abraham and made a covenant with him and promised to give to him
and to his descendants the
God began leading His spiritual people toward
that heavenly land after He gave the covenant promise to Abraham. Abraham
believed God’s promises and he began following Him toward that land. He
began to look toward that city built by God, even as he lived in that earthly land,
dwelling in tents as if he was an alien there. All of his spiritual
descendants will have his faith and they will follow in his footsteps.
If that earthly nation had to wander in their
wilderness for forty years, until all of the rebels had fallen, will we be
required to wander in our spiritual wilderness for four thousand years until
all of the rebels have fallen? The rebels will be those who will have
began to follow God toward that land but who will have become disheartened
because of the difficulties of their wilderness travels. They will want
to give up and turn back. We must not give up. We must overcome the
wilderness (Overcome the world) and be faithful until the end.
Abraham and his descendants by faith have been
traveling toward that heavenly land for nearly four thousand years. Will
it take four thousand years for us to get to that land but it will only be like
forty years to God? If that is the case, that day is not far off.
Is it about time for God to call us to
give an answer for how we have come to repentance and kept our everlasting
covenant requirement? Our true covenant requirement is total faith in God
and His promises. If we truly believe His promises, we will obey Him and
follow Jesus.
Remember, of that earthly nation,
Joshua and Caleb were the only ones in God’s army (Of
If God kept His part of the covenant
promise two thousand years after He made that promise to Abraham, will God call
man into account for how he has kept his part of the covenant two thousand
years after that? We can never know the day or the hour but is God
giving us the approximate year when it will happen? Will it be two
thousand years after Jesus died on the cross?
He died on the cross nearly two
thousand years ago but no one knows exactly when. We don’t even know for
certain the year that He died. If that last day will come two thousand
years after the cross, we can only have a general idea of the year because
scholars can’t agree on when Jesus died on the cross. Depending on who we
listen to, we can get years ranging between 26 and 34 AD. It likely
happened about 30 AD.
It appears that Jesus may come in about
twenty years. It does not matter. People are dying every day and
are being lost because they have not repented and followed Jesus fully.
Their time will be over. If they have not met God’s covenant
conditions, His patience will have run out. After that, judgment (“And inasmuch as it is
appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” – Hebrews
The old Law said that anyone found
working on the seventh day (The Sabbath Day) will be cut off. God’s
people will not be working on that day because they will have completed their
work and entered into their rest. They will be resting from their works
of following Christ. John is telling us about that when he hears a voice
speak of those who die in the Lord, saying, “Yes," says the
Spirit, "so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow
with them” (Revelation 14:13). They will have
remembered to keep the Sabbath Day holy by having completed the work that they
had been created to do before that day comes.
Will they not have done the works of
love that Jesus commanded by giving bread to the hungry and water to the
thirsty, etc? Is He telling us about that when He speaks of judgment and
how those on the left side didn’t do those works of love for His brothers
(Matthew 25:41-46)?
Paul speaks of judgment and says, “For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his
deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians
5:10) In another place he speaks of God’s judgment, saying that He, “WILL RENDER TO EACH
PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS” (Romans 2:6). Remember, the one talent
man did nothing with his talent and he was condemned to outer darkness (Matthew
25:30). If we have done evil or have done nothing, we will be condemned
to outer darkness. We will not have remembered the Sabbath Day to keep it
holy and we will have been cut off from God's people.
If some people will have refused to do
their work to take up their cross and follow Jesus, will they be required to
work on that last day?
Whenever He comes, it will happen
suddenly and without warning. The only answer is to be prepared. We
must, “Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the
appointed time will come” (Mark
Johnny Rogers
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