Most people understand that Jesus Christ was crucified and that he was resurrected. What most people do not understand is that everyone living on earth who dies will be physically resurrected from the dead, some to everlasting, eternal life and eternal joy, and many to judgment. There will be a resurrection of every single person who has lived and died. Wherever their bodies were laid, to whatever degree of corruption they were then subjected, will have nothing to do with God’s ability to raise them in a new body fit for their eternal dwelling. ¹

Everyone lives forever. People who think that death is sleep and they go out of existence are mistaken. People who think that everyone goes to heaven when they die are mistaken.

They will go into eternal existence with all their faculties heightened and intensified to the degree that’s incomprehensible to them…They will also be raised in a body that is fit for their dwelling place: either in heaven — a body suited to eternal blessing and service to God or a body suited to eternal divine judgement and punishment. But everybody will rise. ² 

Consider that with heightened intelligence — with the ability to recall the cause and damaging effect of each sin and perceive its concomitant relation to a spouse’s life, a child’s life, a friend’s life; or that fragile or poor person you could have helped but didn’t. And to live with the attending judgment for such disregard in a  hellscape of mind body and soul. Why? Because you chose not to seek God’s forgiveness! This would be the insanity of cyclic recall for eternity! See how the doctrine of Annihilation differs.

In one of the oldest books in the Bible, the book of Job, written in the patriarchal period, back in the time of Genesis, the question is posed, “Shall a man live again,” or, “Is there life after death?” And the answer: Job says this: “After my skin is destroyed”—in other words, after his body has decayed—“yet in my flesh I will see God; whom I will see for myself, and my eye will behold and not another. My heart faints within me!” Asking the question, Will a man live again? Job answers the question: “Yes, he will live again. His flesh is corrupted, but yet in a new kind of flesh he will see God.” And that’s enough to make his heart faint. Every human being who dies will be raised to see God, every person who’s ever lived—there is no escape. Once you’re born, your life continues forever. ³

In John chapter 5, Jesus healed a man at the pool of Bethesda, a man who had a disability for thirty-eight years. It was a powerful miracle, obvious to the populace of Jerusalem who had seen that man there for years. With this healing of Jesus, the Jews were furious that Jesus healed on the Sabbath — and aimed to kill him for not coming under their authority. Jesus had taught that it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath, that he is Lord of the Sabbath. (Matt 12:12; Mark 3:4)

John 5:16 reads concerning the healed man picking up his mat and carrying it: “For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.” The Jews had created many man-made rules for the Sabbath. The impertinence of being offended by a man who had been healed via a divine miracle,  picking up his bed and walking away from the place of his healing! Pride knows no end to its folly and offense to God. Sadly the Jews saw this as an act of blasphemy on the part of Jesus, doing even the work of healing, because you weren’t supposed to work on the Sabbath, and then having the man do the work of carrying his bed. In John 5:18 we read: “For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him.”

They had been already seeking to kill Him because He rejected their false religion. And now it was intensified because He had violated the Sabbath…They “were seeking all the more to kill Him,” verse 18 says, “because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, and making Himself equal with God.” This was the ultimate blasphemy. Back in verse 17, He had said, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” What He was saying is: “The Sabbath doesn’t relate to God, and I’m God. The Sabbath doesn’t relate to Me. Neither God nor the Son of God are subject to your fabricated rules.” They understood that as a claim that He was equal with God, and that is exactly what it was. The Jews were never mistaken about Jesus’ claim. They knew He was claiming to be equal with the eternal God, Yahweh, the creator God, the triune God of reality and of Scripture. ⁴

John 5:19 reveals Jesus standing his divine ground as the Son of God: “Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them”—he strongly rebuked those who were accusing Him of blaspheming for claiming to be equal with God —“‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.’” This is a terrifying set of claims by our Lord Jesus. He is saying, “I’m not subject to your rules on the Sabbath. I align with God; I do what the Father does.”

In verse 17 Jesus said: “My Father is working . . . I am working.” The Jewish leaders would perceive this as He was saying He was equal with God, He was one in nature, one in essence; in fact, He is God—the ultimate blasphemy in the mind of the Jews.

Not only was He one with God in nature, but He was one with God in work. Verse 19 is a powerful proclamation of His authority: “Jesus answered [them with] saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner’”— essentially saying: “Everything you see Me do is because it is the Father doing it. Everything you see Me do is the work of the Father, based on the will and purpose of the Father.”

So He is one with God in nature; He is one with God the Father in works. Following in verse 20, “The Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing.” In other words, the third thing He says here is that He has full knowledge of everything that God knows.

Jesus Christ revealed in John 5, is equal to God in nature, equal to God in works, and equal to God in truth—in revelation, in knowledge. Further in John 5, He adds, “The Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.” — meaning greater works than the healing of that lame man. And what would that be? Verses 21 and 22: “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.” Clearly, He says He is one with God in power to raise the dead, and He is one with God in sovereignty to give life to whomever He will, and that He has been given the right to judge everyone. That’s how sovereign He is: one in nature, one in works, one in knowledge, one in power, one in sovereignty with God. Sovereignly He will judge. “Even the Father,” verse 22 says, doesn’t judge but “has given all judgment to the Son.” ⁵

And then Jesus spoke of being dishonoured by the Jews and that was a defamation of His Father: “So that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent Him.”

The Jewish people thought they knew God, they honored God; they did not because you can’t honor the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ if you don’t honor Him as well. So He is equal to God in nature and works and knowledge and power and sovereignty and judgment, authority, and honor. So He’s just pressing this issue of equality to a degree that was shocking beyond comprehension to the Jews, who thought He was a liar and a fraud…He claims this power and authority—which is the heart of this section that I want you to look at, in verses 21 and 22—when He says He has power to raise the dead and give them life, and He gives it to whomever He wishes. And then He has the power and the authority to judge everyone. This is ultimate sovereignty and ultimate power: the power to give life and the power to judge. He is the one who will make everyone alive, and He is the one who will judge everyone. ⁶

Since Christ is the judge of all mankind, we read in verse 24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” MacArthur makes a theological summation: So this is the sum of all of it. This is an invitation; this is a declaration of fact. Since it is the Son of God who has the power to raise the dead and will do that, who has the authority to judge everyone and will do that, then truly, truly, you must hear His word and believe in Him and the God who sent Him, to have eternal life and to escape from death into life and not come to judgment.

The simple reality of not believing the gospel truth of Jesus. Everybody’s headed for eternal judgment; everyone is headed for a resurrection unto damnation, a resurrection unto condemnation, a resurrection unto judgment. The only way to avoid that is to hear the word concerning Christ, then believe in Him, believe in the One who sent Him, receive eternal life, avoid judgment, and pass out of death into life. This is the heart of the gospel.

The only way to avoid that is to hear the word concerning Christ, then believe in Him, believe in the One who sent Him, receive eternal life, avoid judgment, and pass out of death into life. This is the heart of the gospel.

The reason for salvation is not to bring you bliss in this life, because even if you’re a believer in this life you still have to fight your way through all of the realities of a fallen world and you being a fallen person… the gospel offers you is an escape from eternal judgment. Christ, the only one who can save you, will either be your Saviour, or He will be your Judge. He will either raise you to life abundant and eternal in His presence forever, or He will raise you to condemnation and judgment to suffer forever out of His presence in a place the Bible calls hell. So the word here is to listen to Him. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word concerning Christ.” He is the one who raises the dead and gives life and escape from judgment…the statements in verses 21 and 22 that He raises the dead, gives them life, and He is the Judge. He has the power to raise the dead and the authority to judge. This is Jesus Christ.

The resurrection of everyone Go down to verse 25. This is the focus of the passage whereby He demonstrated His power to raise the dead and to judge. Listen to what it says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice”—all—“and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” ⁷

Mark it: Everybody is going to be raised from the dead, everybody—everybody who’s ever lived and died. And the Lord will have no problem sorting out that individual from the completely disintegrated and dissolved parts, to bring back to life that same person in an eternal form—some kind of body, a body suited for service and worship in heaven. For the unbelievers, it’s a body suited for suffering and punishment in hell. But everybody will be raised from the dead, everybody. “Don’t marvel at this.” And why does He say that? Because this is shocking, profoundly shocking.

Now there are two aspects to resurrection that our Lord is referring to, and if you go back to verse 25, you’ll see how He does that. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Well, there wasn’t yet a physical resurrection at that time; the great, final resurrection is yet to come in the future. So what is He saying regarding “now is”? “An hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live”? What does He mean by that? He’s talking about spiritual resurrection.

Even at the time in our Lord’s ministry and life in which He was speaking here, He was giving life to people, He was saving people, He was raising them from spiritual death. Jesus defined the people as dead. He said, “Let the dead bury their dead,” in the book of Matthew. And what He was saying is, “Let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead.” The Scripture is clear about the deadness of the condition of the unconverted.

In the familiar story of the prodigal son, twice in that parable Jesus defines the prodigal as dead—Luke 15—and dead in sin. So even now, Jesus is saying He is giving life to the spiritually dead. And I can show you that. Go back to John chapter 1. Before the cross—listen—before the cross and before resurrection, He was giving life to people who believed in Him. Listen to John 1:12, “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.”

Go over to the familiar third chapter of John. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in”—what?—“in Him”—not in the cross, not even in the Resurrection, but believes “in Him”—“shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God didn’t send [His] Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; [but] . . . he [who] has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God [is judged already].” So already, He was making people alive. He had been making people alive since the beginning.

Romans 10 says, “If you confess . . . Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” It was a matter of believing all that had been revealed; and God accounted that kind of faith as the faith that embraced divine righteousness. You see the same thing in John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life”.

At the coming of the Lord in his second advent we are reassured as believers this wonderful statement of Paul, about the resurrection of the righteous:

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18)

Even as Jesus walked about healing and speaking to the people there were people who believed in Him, like the disciples. Even though they hadn’t gotten to the cross yet—like the Samaritans here noted after Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well, in John 4:41:“Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Saviour of the world.’” Because they believed that He was the Saviour of the world, the anointed of God, the Redeemer; believing, they would be saved. And that goes through the gospel of John. Even before you get to the cross, He’s calling people to believe in everything He has revealed. Salvation is based on believing in Jesus as your Saviour when He is revealed to you — not pushing back in denial. We need to understand that the Father brings you to His Son in order to be saved. (John 6:37, 16:37)

Let’s look at Abraham. Paul says about Abraham in Romans, “[He] believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” He’s the illustration of justification in Romans 4: He believed God, and he was justified by believing in God. And Abraham knew nothing about the cross or the Resurrection.

How did Abraham believe? By hearing the voice of the Son of God. Christ is the only one who can speak life into the spiritually or physically dead (as per our discussion of raising the dead). He is the one who regenerates. Of great importance for those still alive and able to hear: Christ is the one who gives spiritual life. This is an amazing expression of spiritual power. He takes the spiritually dead and regenerates them. It’s the new birth; it’s regeneration; it’s new life; it’s new creation. Those that remain faithful believers in Jesus Christ, will be also regenerated physically — resurrected unto eternal life. (2 Corinthians 5:5, 1;22; Ephesians 4:14, 30)

And by the way, He is given the title “Son of God” in this particular ministry of giving life because only God can give life. Only God is the source of life. And those who hear the voice of the Son of God as He speaks will live, because He has the same power—verse 26—to give life that the Father has as well. Ephesians 5:14 says, “Awake, you sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” This is what we do with the gospel: We preach the message of salvation in Jesus Christ, by which the Holy Spirit makes people alive. Colossians 2:13, “He made you alive.” Spiritual resurrection: He has the power for that, and He has the authority for that.

Focus briefly is not that spiritual resurrection but rather what follows that spiritual resurrection in the future, and that is the physical resurrection. Look at verse 27. The Father not only gave the Son also to have life in Himself, but He gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. He’s the Son of God, because it takes God to give life; He’s the Son of Man, because it takes one who is a man to sit in judgment on men, lest men think they were judged by an unfair judge. Christ, who was in all points tempted like as we are, will be the judge of all men. He gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. So He is the life: “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” He said. “Whoever finds Me finds life.” And He also has the power to judge.

And that takes us to the physical resurrection, verse 28: “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming”—again, not an actual hour but an epoch, a time period—“is coming”—still in the future—“in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” There it is: Everybody comes out of the grave, everybody.

He has the power to give spiritual life to those who hear His voice, and they will be made alive from the dead, and they will escape judgment—that’s verse 24: If you believe, hear His word and believe in Him, you have eternal life; you don’t come into judgment, you pass out of death into life. Believing in Christ is the only way to escape Him as Judge in the sense of a condemned nation by judgment. Everybody comes out of the tombs; they will hear His voice—not the spiritual resurrection but the physical one—and it will appear that “those who did the good deeds” are taken “to a resurrection of life,” and “those who committed . . . evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” The point there is simply to say again, everybody rises from the dead, absolutely everyone.

And would you notice that they will judged by their deeds. You say, “Well, I thought salvation was by grace.” You’re right: “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. So why are we judged by our works? Because that’s the validation of your salvation. “If any man be in Christ, he’s a new creation: old things have passed away; and new things have come.” Or Ephesians 2:10, you are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that you would walk in them.”

Paul says much the same in Romans 2:6-10, that the final judgment will be a judgment based on works, and the works of one who has been regenerated and given life and been transformed will manifest righteousness; and it is by those works that they will receive the resurrection of life. Again, this speaks to this important issue that salvation is not a matter of some experience at some point in your life, or some prayer, or some emotional connection with Jesus.

You will be judged on your works; they don’t save you, but they affirm the reality of your salvation. If you are truly transformed as a child of God, it shows.

Christ’s power to raise the dead Just think of it: “An hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice.” The power to do that is stunning, incomprehensible. Taking you back to the creation: In six days the triune God spoke the entire universe and everything into it into existence, everything. In six days He created everything. So it’s really not a difficult situation for Him to raise the dead and reassemble them in some eternal form fit for heaven or hell, but the power to do that is beyond any kind of comprehension.

I think we know enough science to know that matter is never really destroyed; it just changes form. So the Lord will reach back into the creation and reassemble everyone. In some expression of who they actually were, they will continue to be who they were, only in a physical body suited for heaven or hell. It’s not an ethereal body; it’s an actual body. After his resurrection, Jesus walked and talked and ate. And the resurrected believers will have a glorified body — the unbelievers will have a body also that can feel and comprehend their judgement for not heeding the Lord’s call to salvation, God’s plan to save them and rescue them from from hell. Hell is described as burning, darkness, pain, gnashing of teeth, agony.

Note well: This is an astounding power Christ — the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords — Christ, has the power to to resurrect everyone and he will — moreover he has the power to save you from hell — and He can if you believe in him by faith. He is both Saviour and Judge who will sit on resurrection to judge everyone raised in the second resurrection of the ungodly:  Daniel 7:13–14 (ESV): The Son of Man Is Given Dominion: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Again, you have to put yourself in the position those Jews are in as He’s speaking this to them. First, there was enough that He did something on the Sabbath, and then said He could do what God did because He was God to go from there to effectively saying, “I have the power to raise every single person from the dead and bring them to judgment, and then I have the authority to judge them.” Obviously for those who have been raised spiritually, there is no condemnation—Romans 8:1—and they are raised to the resurrection of life, not judgment. Those who committed evil deeds, and therefore demonstrate there was no transformation, have a resurrection of judgment.

This is where the world is headed. Pretty shocking when you think about how cavalier people are about the end of their life, how little they think about it. Luke 14 talks about the resurrection of the righteous; that will happen as the saints are all raised and brought into the thousand-year kingdom with Christ. At the end of that thousand years is the resurrection of the unjust. It’s a special resurrection. See Revelation chapter 20.

In the book of Revelation we follow the chronology. Christ comes in chapter 19, sets up His kingdom for a thousand years, and after the thousand years, look at verse 5 of Revelation 20, “The rest of the dead didn’t come to life until the thousand years were completed.” That’s a parenthetical statement. So the unbelieving dead will remain in the grave until the thousand-year millennial kingdom is finished.

The remaining Old Testament saints at the end of the Tribulation, Daniel chapter 12 indicates, will be raised from the dead. And so you’ll have the New Testament believers and the Old Testament believers in glorified, resurrected form coming back with Christ. You see that in chapter 19. They come back with Him, their robes are washed white — which is a metaphor for holiness — to reign with Him on the earth, all the resurrected saints.

During that thousand years there will be a rebellion, an insurrection against God at the end by those who refused to believe and surrender to the King of Kings even when Christ is reigning in the world; and there will be a judgment at the end of the thousand years, but that will involve all the unrighteous dead: This is biblical: “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed.” When the dead are judged, the books will be opened with a record of your life, bearing witness against unconverted sinners: Daniel 7:9–10 (ESV): The Ancient of Days Reigns: “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened

The first resurrection, however, is different. The first resurrection—verse 6—is for the “blessed and holy” ones. They’re in the first resurrection. “Over these the second death”—the second death is that eternal death—“has no power. They will be priests of God and Christ and reign with Him [during His thousand-year kingdom].”

So all the saints are raised to go into the kingdom, but when the kingdom is over, the rest of the dead are brought to life. Go down to verse Rev 19:11. Here’s the picture of that judgment: “I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. I saw the dead, the great and the small”—significant and insignificant—“standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And 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. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” If your name is not in the book of life, you’re going to be judged by your deeds, and your deeds will not be sufficient. Whether the body is in the ground or in the sea, every unbeliever will be at that judgment, and they will be judged for their sins, and then sent to the eternal lake of fire.

For all that we celebrate in the resurrection of Christ—and rightly we have done that today and lifted up our hearts in praise for all that we are grateful for, for all the joy, for all the hallelujahs, for the resurrection of Christ—that’s only for those who listen to His voice: who know Him and have received life from Him. For the rest, this is a terrifying reality because they killed Him. But God raised Him; and He has now the power to give life, and He will raise everyone. And then He has the authority to judge everyone, and He will judge them by their deeds; and unless those deeds manifest the transformation of salvation, they will be thrown into the lake of fire. That’s the second death. That is the fact Scripture lays out, and that’s where the Bible draws to a conclusion. Be warned.

In Rev 21:8 note: “For the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” You want to be a part of the first resurrection, right—the resurrection of the just, the resurrection of the righteous.

One final word from Scripture, Hebrews 10:26, “If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth”—you’ve heard the gospel, you know Christ alone saves, but you go on sinning, willfully rejecting—“there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin.” If you reject Christ, there’s no sacrifice for sin. So you will bear your own sins to the judgment and pay for them forever. All you have left if you go on sinning—willfully rejecting the knowledge of the truth, the gospel—all you have left is “a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries”—all there is left is hell. And he gives an illustration, or a comparison: “Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.” If you violate the Law of Moses, that’s Old Testament order. “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”

When you insult the Spirit of grace by rejecting the gospel, when you trample under foot the Son of God by rejecting His sacrifice, there’s a much severer punishment. And God says, “Vengeance is Mine,” verse 30, “I will repay. . . . The Lord will judge His people.” And then this: “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” That’s the word of God. And I know that’s not a popular message, but it’s the truth, and God has revealed it so that you can come to Christ and escape. Let’s pray.

We have just studied the entire revelation of Scripture on this subject. We all live forever. We will be raised fit for punishment or fit for blessing, fit for joy or fit for sorrow, and that forever. I pray, Lord, that You will speak in such a way that calls some of the dead reading this to life even now. Jesus said, “You have eyes, but you see not; you have ears, but you hear not.” May You give people eyes to see and ears to hear Your voice. And for Your own glory, speak, Lord; give life, and rescue people from judgment into the glories of eternal heaven.

^{1, 2 John MacArthur}

​“This is my command: Love each other”.  John 15:17

We are in in-dwelt by the Spirit when we are born again Jesus taught. This occurs by faith when we unify with God’s Son, via a new covenant belief in His redemptive act on the cross. The Spirit is the guarantee of eternal life when believing we become One with Christ the Son as He is One with God the Father.

During the last supper with His disciples Jesus used the shared cup of wine as a symbol of His blood to be soon shed on the cross for all believers: ​After supper, he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.​ (Luke 22:2)​

Christ taught Nicodemus the following: Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8)

Jesus began to establish the disciples in His Kingdom by imparting the Spirit after His resurrection, before His ascension. God alone establishes us in His Kingdom: Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” These men would build Christ’s church with the leadership of Christ’s Spirit indwelling their minds.

The apostle Paul taught that we are established in the kingdom by the Spirit when we believe in Christ’s work on the cross: And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22) 

Abiding in His presence with the Spirit leading is the only way we can possibly abide in love which is the fulfilling of all the requirements of God:  “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love”.  John 15: 9-10 NASV Abiding in His presence brings the result of loving others, bringing a fullness of joy to our experience, and the lifestyle of loving others sincerely equates to obedience to Christ’s law in the Spirit: “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.  This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you”.  NASV John 15: 11-12 And, “This is my command: Love each other”.  John 15:17

 

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ offers forgiveness for our sins and further, our sanctification – the cleansing of our sins as we live in obedience to the Holy Spirit.

The believers’ Gospel which we present to our loved ones and to the world via evangelistic preaching often holds back on the warning side of the entire message that we are commanded to preach in honesty. In Jeremiah God told him not to hold back on what he told him to say to Judah. Ezekiel was also told clearly to be entirely honest about the risks of disobeying God. Similarly, we find these warnings in both the Old and New Testament: 

Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word. Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. (Jeremiah 26:2-3, 18:8; see also Ezekiel 33:9, 19; Heb 12:25) NIV) 

Jesus often rebuked the leaders of Israel publicly for their hypocrisy:

John 12: 44-50: And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

Gospel ministry, evangelism, demands honesty. It demands that we tell sinners the whole truth, not part of it, but all of it. And this kind of gospel honesty is the only acceptable ministry as far as our Lord is concerned; anything less than this falls short of our calling. And the truth is, honestly, that the gospel is both glorious and dangerous. It is eternally enriching, and it is eternally ruining. The gospel has the power to compound joys everlastingly and to compound sorrows everlastingly… After hearing the gospel with a measure of understanding, no sinner is the same – no, not in time, and certainly not in eternity. ¹ 

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. (2 Corinthians 2:14 NAS)

Hebrews chapter 10 is clear on this point:

“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment” – reject the gospel, go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of gospel truth, and what you should expect is a terrifying judgment – “and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Hearing the gospel exposes your heart for what it is — either for good acceptance of God’s love towards you or for your defiant rejection of truth when he calls you into His kingdom to find forgiveness and eternal life. If you’ve heard the gospel and reject the gospel, you will have a severer punishment. So the gospel leaves no one the same; you’re either better or worse, not the same. Our Lord addresses this in Matthew 11:15 Jesus tells us:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” In other words our message needs to be heard by those that will listen. Jesus used this concept of spiritual hearing, calling out to people to hear often.  In Revelation chapters 2 to 3 he repeatedly gave His message to listen, to tell the people of this earth to listen what’s happening in heaven has to do with all of us – listen and wake up — via the apostle John. (Mark 3:13, 4:9; Rev 2:11, 17, 29)

Now our Lord was a missionary, the consummate Missionary. He had a heart for the lost; He wept over them. He brought them the truth; He offered them the gospel of salvation. He did it with love, compassion, tenderness, and kindness. He told them to believe the Scripture. He told them to believe the prophets. He told them to believe John the Baptist who had said of Him, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And He told them to believe Him. Not only the Old Testament, not only the prophets, not only John the Baptist, but to believe His words concerning Himself. ²

Ten chapters of Matthew provide revelation that clearly tells us who He was: the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the King, the only Savior, the only Redeemer. Ten chapters are laid out by Matthew under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to make it crystal clear who Jesus Christ is. And there’s a crescendo at the end of that tenth chapter where He says, “You must receive Me.” Verse 32 of chapter 10, “Whoever confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who’s in heaven.” After ten chapters of revelation concerning His identity,  ³

Jesus clarifies in Matthew 10:32-37: “Whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny before My Father.” And  there is a price to pay for this — there will be division in a family — “a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

It is profoundly difficult to consider that the enemies of Christ might very well be the members of your household. This is a heartfelt pain that many Christians have, just as Jesus has for the concern for the very same people you love! But you will see this among your friends and family. Like it or not, a cynical disinterest or indifference among those you love can be your greatest trial.

To underscore this point Jesus said: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who doesn’t take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life will, for My sake, find it.”

If you are called and accept and follow Christ, it is because the Father has called you into a relationship with His son Jesus Christ: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. (John 6:37)

In Matthew 11:16-17 Jesus said: “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’

Weddings are a fun game. Jesus said many people respond to the gospel like kids playing a wedding game. The wedding game called for a flute, a musical instrument because of joy, and it called for dancing: We played the flute for you; you didn’t dance. These children in his illustration also played the funeral game, which called for a dirge and mourning, But you didn’t follow that, you didn’t mourn. In both cases what we see is stubborn indifference.

Here is Christ’s only reference to children’s games. Jesus intended to portray mankind’s stubborn human sinful nature. It’s not that your friends and family members if unresponsive to the gospel are hostile, nor is it that they are mean, it is that they don’t want to play your game, don’t want to accept Christ as king of Kings and Lord of Lords, Lord of their life.

In Matthew 11:18-19 Jesus expanded this:  “John came neither eating nor drinking,” – he came in funeral mode calling for repentance– “and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking,” – He came in wedding mode , sharing His love – “and they say, ‘Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”

In this metaphor these are obstinate, mean-natured children with whom the darkness of Satan has a stronghold.

Jesus went from village to village, to village, to village. He spent His entire childhood until He became an adult and began His public ministry in the town of Nazareth, sitting at the table every day of His life with the family and the community. We find Him eating many times in many places with many different groups of people. He’s in the middle of everything because it’s a time for joy. His message does touch on the note of repentance, but it’s much more that, “The Messiah is here.” It’s time for joy. ⁴

In Mathew 9:14. “The disciples of John [the Baptist]” – who’ was in funeral mode as he preached repentance also to the wicked rulers – “come to Jesus’ disciples, and to Jesus, and ask ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?’” If your message is constantly repentance or doom, you’re in a sad mode, and fasting belongs to that.

In Matthew 9:15 Jesus said: “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. He views his time on earth with those he has called into his church as a time of rejoicing! Yet the unbelievers vilified him with these words: “They said, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”

They rejected John the Baptist and his message of repentance. They rejected Jesus and His message of kingdom salvation. They rejected repentance and they rejected faith in the Son of God. So they basically do what sinners always do; they create an excuse for their indifference, one that justifies them. They are too righteous to stoop, to buy the message of John the Baptist; he’s demon-possessed. And they are also too righteous to listen to this man named Jesus because He is sinful. He is a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and sinners. This is sort of the common response to Jesus: “He doesn’t come up to my standards.” ⁵

In James chapter 3:13, “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior in his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.” The truly wise of heart, who have received the lovely call to repent and come into the presence of God via His Spirit — this shows in your deeds.

Wisdom shows up in deeds, virtuous deeds. Divine wisdom will be vindicated. The ultimate verdict on the gospel is not made by its rejectors. The ultimate verdict on the gospel is made by those who receive it and demonstrate its truthfulness in their repentance, in their faith, and in the fruit of those things. Impenitent and unbelieving, self-righteous sinners create reasons to reject. They even mock the gospel like the peevish children who won’t join the game. ⁶

When the message of repentance and faith was rejected, what did Jesus do? Did he alter his. Message? Not one iota — He never mixed or changed His message — He just pronounced devastating judgment against the leaders and Pharisees that stood against Him. In Matthew 23 seven times Jesus pronounced the verdict of “woe to you” (Matt 23:13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27,  29) Here we realize the importance of listening to the entire full gospel message never altered to suit man’s fancy. If the hearer rejects Christ and His message the only hope is in returning Him. He will return to that individual and heal the heart and soul once positioned against him – heal our pride and lack of humility. (Mark 2:17; Mal 3:7; Zech 1:3)

If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. If we confess our sins, he will forgive us and cleanse us of our sins. (1 John 1:9, 2:1) The story of the prodigal son is heart-warming in Luke 15:11-32.

It is an important doctrine to tell both sides of the gospel story. Was Jesus grieved over unbelief? Did He weep over it? Of course. Was He disappointed? Of course. Did He feel like Isaiah, “How long, O Lord, will I do this and they reject?” Of course.

In Matthew 11:25: At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Here we must realize that some will reject Christ and His message, and others will accept His offer of salvation in child-like joy.

We ought to have a strong foundation for our faith and deep convictions for what we believe; and we ought to be compelled by God’s love to persuade others. “It’s no light thing to know that we’ll all one day stand in that place of Judgment. That’s why we work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God. God alone knows how well we do this, but I hope you realize how much and deeply we care,” (2 Corinthians 5:11-12, MSG).

Jones, Beth. What’s the Big Deal About the Cross? (p. 15). Harrison House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 John MacArthur espouses this doctrine well}

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.  (John 14:21; Col. 3:14).

When we abide  in Christ’s Spirt the peace of Christ rules in our heart :

The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14: 26-27; Col. 3:15)

Abiding in Christ obedient to His Word at all times prompts us to be thankful to the Father in Jesus name, not just annually on Thanksgiving, but daily. (Col. 3:16, 15, 17).

All the virtues that Paul encourages us to develop are perfectly bound together by love (Colossians 3:14). As we clothe ourselves with these virtues, the last garment we are to put on is love which holds all of the others in place. To pursue any list of virtues without love will lead to distortion, fragmentation, and stagnation. (1 Corinthians 13:3).

1. of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ,
2. the finality of the Atonement at the Cross,
3. the glorious entry of Christ to unify with the Father in His presence at the Ascension,
4. the Sanctification of the believers via the Holy Spirit indwelling the church— the New Jerusalem— the temple wherein Christ dwells on earth, and
5. limiting the understanding of the New Covenant by keeping members within the Old Testament typology of an incomplete atonement and a limited justification as one works harder towards purification from all sin (referred to as The Investigative Judgment)!

The scripture teaches that your sin will find you out. Proclaimed as a prophet to never question, Ellen G. White has made other erroneous statements that do not line up with scripture to support the Investigative Judgement doctrine which is based on he 1844 error. One scripture misinterpretation leads to another. These became more evident in the information age.

This is only an example of how a misbelieving church can lead the followers of Christ down a wrong path away from the beautiful teachings of scripture. Some churches have shameless leaders who claim to have prophetic insight, implying that they are similar to Moses, Jeremiah, or the apostles, yet scripture warns us to beware even of those who claim to be prophet guides to the church:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23 NIV)

Most senior leaders within these groups have gained prestige and are highly honoured by the church. They have a looming retirement pension and years of shared fond memories with like-minded friends. Status quo has many psychological and physical rewards that can keep one from biblical honesty. Standing with error when revealed is a sin of unbelief. A heretic never says, “I’m a heretic.” A deceiver never alerts you to his true intentions, and a friend can turn on you at any moment. A family member, or even a spouse, can betray your trust Jesus taught. Authenticity and reliability are hard to find, and so are real friends — even within church groups bound to such erroneous viewpoints. And correctly asserting the truth, without standing in judgment of someone else, is decidedly difficult. Giving each other the benefit of the doubt is difficult where Scripture marks a decided division from the doctrinal norm.

We cannot truly know another person without first knowing ourselves in relation to Christ and His Word. And we cannot overcome our demons without first separating ourselves from the work of Satan’s deceptions and delusions—both inside and outside of the church. To be set free, we have to cut ties with the darkness—and Paul tells us how. To combat the darkness, Paul ultimately shows us a better way. We are not meant to pick up the threads of our old sinful lives in the world. We are also not meant to retain and incorporate false doctrinal threads into our beliefs at all; instead, we’re called to rebuild our lives on the redemption we find alone in Jesus according to the light of scripture which the Holy Spirit will lead us into. (Psalm 25:5; John 16:13) Peter was given the keys to the kingdom to build up the church of Jesus Christ, to discern and only teach scriptural truth led by the Holy Spirit which the Lord has agreed with:

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19 ESV)

It is only in Christ that we can find completion—wholeness—not in doctrine muddied with errors which can delude others and lead them astray eternally—and certainly not in association with those that chip away at or compromise your relationship with Jesus. Anything less than the pure prophetic teaching of scripture and a relationship to our God will just leave us broken, wandering in delusive fractured guidance. False doctrine and people can’t fill the God-sized hole in our hearts.

Paul states that if we cleanse ourselves from defilement, then holiness will be brought to completion. “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (2 Corinthians 7:1).

We need our hearts to be cleansed by the living God—our minds cannot clarify truth when confusing or lying guidance is ranting at us, drawing us into its snare—“the Son of God who bled and died and rose again for me” must lead. Christians have to make many difficult decisions, and many of them are based in our relationships to churches and people. What relationships should we maintain? Which relationships are okay to let go of? And when should we cut ties with someone? Whenever we are being led astray from God, we must make changes, no matter how difficult those changes are. We must never go back to ungodliness, deception, lies, delusional doctrinal errors—anything that defies belief in Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives transforming us into His image as He leads us via His Holy Spirit.

 

Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own”. (1 Corinthians 6:19 ASV)

In the old testament, we find that God began to teach Israel, about His holiness using symbols. “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” (Exodus 25:8 ESV)

It is only the presence of God with his people that had any distinction of holiness. This was seen when God was present at the burning bush at Mt. Horeb when Moses was called to lead Israel out of Egypt saying: “take off your shoes…the place where you are standing is holy ground”. Further, God promised Moses that He, though holy, would be with him to lead Israel out of bondage: “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”(Exodus 33:14 ESV)

In the tent sanctuary built by Moses as instructed by God, and later in the temple of Jerusalem, the holy place and further the most holy place was the habitation of God’s Holiness, was the centre of all God’s work to teach Israel symbolically using types, that living a holy life was dependent on His actual presence in the temple. Everything connected with it was holy. The altar, the priests, the sacrifices, the oil, the bread, the vessels, all were holy, because they belonged to God. “There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory…I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God.” (Exodus 29:43,45 ESV)

The place where God dwells came to be known as the holy place. All around where God dwelt was holy: the holy city, the mountain of God’s Holiness, His holy house, till we come within the veil in the sanctuary of old Israel, to the most holy place, also referred to as the holy of holies — the place where the High Priest would enter once a year during the day of atonement, when Israel would confess their sins and offer up sacrifices to the Lord. The holy place was holy, because it was nearer to God’s presence. But the inner sanctuary, where the Presence dwelt on the mercy-seat, was the Holiest of All, was most holy. Here is where the Shekinah glory (Hebrew: שכינה‎‎) visited. The English transliteration of the Hebrew noun means “dwelling” or “settling” and denotes the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God’s glory.

To old Israel, God’s call to be holy was clearly stated: “For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy” and “Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God” (Lev 11:44; 20:7 ESV) The principle lesson of this still holds: holiness is measured by the nearness to God; the more of His Presence, the more of true holiness; perfect indwelling was perfect holiness, which we witnessed in the life of Jesus. There is none holy but the Lord; there is no holiness if there is no proximity to Him. He cannot part with a portion of His holiness, and give it to us apart from Himself. It is time, that we stop  thinking of God as up there in heaven, distant from us here on earth, when Jesus taught that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21)

Christians are called to holiness. The New Testament developed the dwelling of God, to a much higher level moving from the shadow symbols of the Most Holy Place of the physical tent and house of God in Israel to the place of the believer’s spirit. It teaches us at the New Covenant level that the Presence of God makes the place holy where He dwells in His holiness via the Holy Spirit’s indwelling.

The New Covenant continues the call for holiness. God promises to make us holy by His indwelling if we cooperate with him willingly and obey: “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16) and “my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” with the promise that it is the Lord present with you who is doing the progressive transforming work as you cooperate with him in willing obedience “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13 ESV) We are to be conformed into the image of Christ as we obey the Word of God via the indwelling of His Spirt: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29 ESV)

Have you ever noticed that there is a very close link between the character of a house and its occupants — the pictures, books, the knick-knacks, the music, all reflect the owner’s character or his likeness. Holiness expresses more than a quality or ornamental feature — it is the very personal being of God in His infinite perfection and goodness. His house testifies to this one truth, that He is holy, that where He dwells He must have holiness. Moreover, it is His indwelling that makes the place of His abode holy.

In His command to His people to build Him a holy place, God distinctly said that it was that He might dwell among them: the dwelling in the house was to be the shadowing forth of His dwelling in the midst of His people — His indwelling by His Spirit. The house with its holiness thus leads us on to the holiness of His dwelling among His redeemed ones. Jesus promised this to His disciples, that they would begin to realize this truth after His resurrection and ascension: “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (John 14:20 ESV)

If you have a love for Christ you will have a love for His Word, which speaks of Him and reveals His will. One must know His commands to love God and love one another and the manner of holiness taught by His apostles if one is to dwell in the presence of the master: “Jesus answered 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 home with him” (John 14:23 ESV) There it is, “we will come to him and make our home with him”.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV) Christ’s death made it possible to approach the Father.  Contemplate Christ’s priestly prayer and you will begin to see that God’s dwelling with man in unity with Him predicates man’s potential to live abidingly with Him with a pursuit of holiness. In the parable of the vine, Jesus taught that without Him we can achieve nothing good. Again we can note the dwelling of the Father and our Lord are to be inseparably close to His followers.

“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world (see John 17:22-24 ESV)

There is an antithetical aspect of God’s holiness in the old testament. God’s claim of His holiness was brought into sharp focus in the demand for cleansing, for atonement, for holiness, in all who were to draw near, whether as priests or worshipers. And God’s promise for the provision for making holy, was the sanctifying power of the altar, of the blood and the oil. The house presented two sides that are united in holiness, the repelling and the attracting, the condemning and the saving. By keeping the people at a distance, then by inviting and bringing them nigh, God’s house was the great symbol of His own Holiness as distinct from man’s sinfulness and his need for a mediating priest. Only the High Priest could enter the Most Holy Place.

In the New Covenant we see now that God’s working with Israel via the temple, was a symbol that through the sacrifice of Jesus and His High priestly ministry in heaven, we now — after His Crucifixion and Ascension — can draw near to God: ”

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever” (Hebrews 6: 19-20 ESV).

This new access to God’s holiness was symbolized by the inner veil being ripped at the moment of Christ’s death: “And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split” (Matthew 27:51 ESV)

We are called to holiness. We must also understand that it is a progressive transformation of character over a lifetime. Progress only will occur when we allow Christ to indwell our Hearts by His Spirit. “Christ in you the hope of glory!” The apostle Paul made this clear: “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me” (Philippians 3:12 NLT)

For a deeper study click: Christ: Our High Priest of a New Covenant

Here is an introduction to our study on the role of the conscience.

• God gave Adam a conscience that was uncorrupted before he sinned. After his sin, it was depraved and corrupted, but not totally erased.
• Conscience serves as a witness to the truth (Prov. 20:27), but moral choice tells whether it has been obeyed (Josh. 24:15).
• A man’s own conscience accuses him of sin (Gen. 42:21; 2 Sam. 24:10; Matt. 27:3), and it will condemn him when the books are opened. Every mouth will be silenced, and God’s judgments will be seen to be true and just (Rev. 20:12-15).
• The believer who is walking in the Spirit will repent of, and confess any known sin. In this way, it is possible to have a blameless conscience that is void of offence. (Rom. 9:1; 14:22; cf. Acts 24:16). Conscience is educated and perfected by faith through the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ. ¹

But the power of sin can erode the conscience to the point where it becomes a faint voice in the deepest recesses of your soul. By this, our consciences become hardened and callous, condemning what is right and excusing what is wrong. ³ We become a culture in trouble when we begin to call evil good and good evil. To do that, we must distort the conscience, and, in essence, make man the final authority in life. All one has to do is to adjust his conscience to suit his ethic. Then we can live life with peace of mind, thinking that we are living in a state of righteousness. ⁴

Our conscience testifies to our reasoning mind: that we have not aligned with the wisdom of this world but in accord with God’s grace and truth. A holy conscience renders a tranquil mind — peace with God, and with others, as we mirror the Righteousness of our Lord Jesus, who imputes his holiness via the Spirit. He gives us strength to stand firm to resist the devil who flees before such character — when one holds fast to the Word of Life, defined by the doctrinal Truth as revealed by the Spirit of Jesus (John 16:13; 2 Cor. 1:12; James 4:7) Our conscience must testify to the truthful witness of the Spirit as to how we live in mind, body and soul in accord with the truth of scripture. Why? Jesus Himself as he walked on this earth was the incarnate Word, wherefrom truth issues, now by His Spirit within us, in unity as His church wherein His kingdom is manifest in a fallen world. (John 14:6 Eph. 4:15) In fact Jesus said that his Spirit will guide us into all truth, directly from the heavenly courts. (John 8:31-32, 17.17) 

It is not just the imputed righteousness that we receive when we believe in Jesus Christ. We are also to participate in his righteousness through obedience to His Word. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:14 NIV)

Such righteousness of Christ indwelling the godly one displays necessary integrity that guards a man or woman when tempted and brings our Lord’s bestowed favour & honour — withholding no good thing from those whose walk is blameless (Psalm 84:11) 

Be obedient to the entire word of God, in body, mind and soul ready to adhere to only His will. This will enable you to do and to be a holy representative to His glory’s loving goodness. The faculty of the conscience, is designed to operate well, only when the mind is established in the Word of God, through regular prayer and study.

In the world, we will be tested; in a sense, we are under probation — with our conscience either condemning or confirming our conduct — which begins in our mind, with reason weighing each circumstance for or against Christ’s Covenant of Grace. Regard the following text as a warning, that our mindset can be fixed on purity and holiness with the Holy Spirt empowering our obedience to the Word of God; or conversely, we fall prey to the alluring desires of Satan that the world presents, in sin:

To the pure all things are pure: but to them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.  (Titus 1:15-16 NAS) Further in Hebrews, we find that a pure conscience aligns us with Christ’s work of redemption: The One who makes people holy and the people he makes holy belong to the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:11 NIrV)

^{1 Companion Bible Commentary.}

^{2 R. C. Sproul, How Can I Develop a Christian Conscience?, First edition., The Crucial Questions Series (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2013), 6.}

^{3 Ibid}

^{4 Ibid}

 

But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness,
let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;
neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting,
which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. (Ephesians 5:3-4)

When sitting in a restaurant, I prefer to hear instrumental music: classical baroque, flamenco, or light jazz. Unfortunately, I often hear young singers crooning out heart-throbbing lyrics related to wanting love, lamenting the loss of love; being loved, or making love.

The premise behind the music is a crying quest for love, albeit the fantasy of love to be or love despairingly lost. The world bases its love on what they get out of it. The lyrics, the movies, the romance novels, and TV series string people along into chasing an illusion of finding that perfect love. But that love is primarily selfishly conditional — it is full of lust, sexual innuendo, and self-pleasure — certainly not God’s intent for true marital love. It’s Satan’s perverted delusion of God’s love, which He prefers is shed abroad in our hearts. His love for His children is forgiving, unconditional, and self-sacrificing.

Little wonder the songs bellowing from these young singers sound so shallow, selfish, sensual, and often sexual.

The following is a sermon from John MacArthur:

Today it’s considered noble for someone to say they have an open mind. But is it really virtuous to leave our thinking so exposed? We have doors in our homes to keep some things out and other things in, and we open the doors at our discretion to make that distinction. A wise man guards his mind in the same way—only a fool would leave his mind open to anything and everything.

That’s why God’s Word places so much importance on discernment. Scripture takes the naïve, inexperienced, immature, uninformed, ignorant person whose mind is an open door and teaches him when to shut it.

The apostle Paul had that goal in mind when he instructed Timothy to “have nothing to do with worldly fables” (1 Timothy 4:7). “Fables” is a translation of the Greek word muthos, from which we transliterate the English word myth. Second Timothy 4:4 says that some “will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” So Paul considered truth and myths (or fables) as opposites. The Christian should gain spiritual nourishment from the truth and shun that which opposes it.

The identification of fables as “fit only for old women” (1 Timothy 4:7) has a cultural meaning. Philosophers used the phrase as a sarcastic epithet when they wanted to heap disdain on a particular viewpoint. It conveyed the picture of an old lady with aging faculties telling a fairy tale to a child. The expression also generally referred to things that lacked credibility.

The mind is a precious thing. God wants those who serve as spiritual leaders to have pure minds saturated with the truth of God’s Word. There’s no place for worldly fables or unholy contradictions to the truth. Yet somehow contemporary society would rather follow any of those than biblical truth.

The mark of theological scholarship in some circles is no longer how well a man knows the Bible but how well he understands the speculations of the secular, academic establishment.

When I was considering completing a doctoral degree in theology, the representative of the graduate program looked over my transcripts and concluded I had had too much Bible and theology in my undergraduate work. So he gave me a list of two hundred books I was to read before the school would admit me into its program. I ran the list by someone familiar with the titles and learned that the whole list contained nothing but liberal theology and humanistic philosophy—it was full of worldly fables passed off as scholarship! The graduate school also required me to take a course called Jesus and the Cinema. That involved watching contemporary movies and evaluating whether each was antagonistic to or supportive of what they termed “the Jesus ethic.” That course had reduced the divine Jesus to an ambiguous ethic. I met with the representative again and said, “I just want to let you know that I have spent all my life to this point learning the truth, and I can’t see any value in spending the next couple of years learning error.” I put the materials down on his desk and walked away.

Conversely, a friend of mine who lacked firm truth convictions went to a liberal seminary to prepare for ministry. He came out a bartender. The confusion of liberalism had destroyed his motivation to serve God.

I’m grateful to God that from the beginning of my training right on through to today, He has allowed me to fill my mind with His truth. My mind is not a battleground of indecision about what is true and what is false, over things “which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith” (1 Timothy 1:4). I can speak with conviction because there’s no equivocation in my mind. I have conscientiously avoided the plethora of supposed intellectuals and scholars who disagree with biblical truth.

Your mind is precious, and it needs to be kept clear from satanic lies. The faithful shepherd maintains his biblical convictions and clarity of mind by exposing himself continually to the Word of God.

(Adapted from John MacArthur’s The Master’s Plan for the Church and Final Word)