Home
Bible Study: Lutz, Florida
Rightly
Dividing the Word of Truth
2
Timothy 2:15
Is there more than
one gospel in effect today?
Part
XIII
“House Work”
Follow
up to Dennis’ question: Is Christianity a religion?
This
is a difficult question to answer because I wasn’t in on the original
conversation.
Therefore,
I’m not certain in what context the
word Christianity is being used here.
But
I’ll do the best I can.
·
The
word Christian is used to identify a person who follows the teachings’ of Jesus
Christ.
·
“Christianity” is: the religion that follows Jesus Christ’s teachings; and all
Christian people considered as a group.
(two best definitions)
The
answer to the question above is: Yes, Christianity is a religion, according to
Webster’s Dictionary.
But
there is a significant difference between a religious group and “Christianity.”
And
this misunderstanding centers on God’s
Grace.
What’s
another word for Religion, traditions!
My
how people “love” their traditions; and they’ll fight to preserve them.
I
will use the Apostle Paul and the Jews as an example.
Paul
was proud of his Jewish traditions
and so were his brethren.
Truth
is they should have been ashamed of them instead. The Mosaic Law was meant to demonstrate their sinful ways, the
Priesthood and the animal sacrifices their need for a Savior. But the Jews missed the point God intended to
make and instead or realizing the truth of these things the Jews took pride in
them.
Religion
became a god to them.
The
Apostle Paul wrote:
Galatians 1
14: and I was advancing
in Judaism (religion)
beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely
zealous for my ancestral traditions
And:
Philippians 3
6: Concerning zeal,
persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law,
blameless.
As Saul puts it, he was just so zealous for the Jews' religion that he persecuted the church of Yahshua in order to protect Judaism from departing from the traditions of the fathers.
As Saul puts it, he was just so zealous for the Jews' religion that he persecuted the church of Yahshua in order to protect Judaism from departing from the traditions of the fathers.
Saul
was willing to murder people in order to preserve and to protect his “traditions.”
Religion
is a system of dos and do nots with some “hope” added into the mix.
Maybe,
just maybe, if you do enough down here on earth, and if you don’t break too
many of their regulations and rules, god will notice and if he is having a good
day he’ll let you into his heaven.
That’s religion in a nutshell.
Oh
religion is pretty on the outside and it’s meant to be just that. They have lots of stain glass, big buildings,
colorful vestments, gold candle sticks galore, incense burning everywhere, and
more ceremonies than you can count. It’s
all glitz and glamour but in reality it is without substance.
"Man's
way to reach God is religion; God's way to reach man is Jesus."
For
by grace are you saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God; Not as a result of works, so
that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
What
the world’s religions do not see and are therefore missing is this.
Romans 5
8: But
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.
Bringing
this behavior down to our human level of understanding, this is how much God
love us (His creation), while we were yet sinners, our Creator died for us.
This
sacrificial act begs the question why? Here’s
the simplified answer.
Jesus gave
up His life to restore the relationship between God and His creation that was
broken when Adam willfully sinned in the Garden of Eden. In addition, Jesus’ death
delivered the world from the curse of sin and death.
So then,
we Christians, who believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried in
the tomb for three days, and then rose again on the third day, according to the
Scriptures, are saved based on our faith in what Jesus accomplished for us on
the cross.
So
this is what I mean when I say Jesus Christ is a “personnel” Savior.
2 Corinthians 5
14: For the (what’s the next
word) love of Christ controls us, having
concluded this, that one died for (how many) all, therefore all died (to sin and death),
15: and He (the Lord Jesus
Christ) died for (how many) all, so that they might no longer live for
themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
That’s
as clear as daylight is to dark my friends.
Jesus
Christ went to that Roman cross and there He suffered and died for all.
Every
man, woman, and child’s sins has been paid for in full; past, present, and future.
View
this concept in light of other religions. If you look at other religions, you see gods
who do not care about individuals. In
other religions the goal is to please their god(s) enough to be accepted into
heaven or whatever they believe the ultimate goal is.
The love flows in
one direction: towards their god.
Jesus,
however, is different. He comes to each one of us personally.
He
speaks to each of us individually
and relates to us on a personal level.
This
means that he wants to know us as individuals--he
wants to be loved by us as individuals. Jesus
wants to establish a personnel relationship with us as
individuals.
This,
ultimately, is what a relationship is the giving and receiving of mutual love
and respect.
I pray
this has helped you understand the difference between being partnered with a
religious group and being in a personnel relationship with Jesus Christ.
*****
The Covenant Gospel
and Paul’s Gospel of Grace – Part XIII
It’s
good to have you all back here again for the purpose of Bible study.
We
left off looking for “patterns” in Scripture, or similarities between Paul and
another individual to see if we could find a plausible answer to these missing
3 years.
We found one in the man named Moses.
Admittedly,
we didn’t get very far with this in our last lesson but let’s review:
·
Moses
spent 40 years in the Arabian wilderness before God called him into service.
·
Moses
was an educated man (Acts 7:22). And a
Prince of Egypt. But he wasn’t ready for
the ministry God had planned for him.
·
The
Apostle Paul spent 3 years in Arabia Wilderness.
·
Saul
was an educated man as well. He was
raised in Jerusalem and taught by Gamaliel, a doctor of the law. Gamaliel was well respected by the people and
was considered to be the greatest teacher of the law of the day (Acts 22:3).
·
Saul
was from the tribe of Benjamin the same bloodline as King Saul – the first King
of Israel. FYI: After the death of Solomon, the only two
tribes who remained loyal to King David were the tribes of Benjamin and Judah (1
Kings 12:20).
·
Paul
was a Pharisee; a religious leader (Acts 23:6).
·
Despite
all these credentials Paul wasn’t ready to serve the Lord Jesus Christ just
like his complement Moses.
The significance of the number (3) in relation to
Paul’s calling and his ministry cannot be overlooked, in my opinion and
therefore it will be considered:
#3 = three stands for that which is solid, real, substantial, complete, and entire.
·
All things that are
especially complete are stamped with this number three.
Remember this please – we’re coming back to
it.
The
mountain of God is located in Arabia.
It’s called Mount Sinai.
Moses
Exodus 3
1: Now Moses was
pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he
led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the
mountain of God. (Mt. Horeb and Mt.
Sinai is the same mountain.)
2: The angel of the
LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked,
and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. (Skip to verse 4)
4: When the LORD
saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush
and said, “Moses!” And he said, “Here I
am.”
5: Then He said,
“Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on
which you are standing (the entire mountain) is holy ground.”
6: He said also, “I
am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for
he was afraid to look at God.
Clearly
Moses knew and understood he was conversing with His creator!
The
voice coming from this bush is Jehovah!
The Great I AM of Scripture.
I
need to point out at this time that the Creator God, the “I AM,” and Jehovah of the Old Testament are the Lord Jesus
Christ of the New Testament.
Some
of you may not be aware of this Truth. Let’s
go to Scripture.
Colossians 1
15: He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation.
16: For by Him all
things were (what’s
the next word folks) created, both in
the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for
Him.
17: He is before
all things, and in Him all things (read carefully) hold together.
Not
only did Jesus Christ create everything seen and unseen out of nothing He “holds” it all together. Nothing, not one star or planet is ever out
of place.
A
good juggler on stage may keep a half dozen items moving and in the air at any
one time, but the Creator God keeps billions and billions of stars and planets
up and moving, all the time, and He’s been
at it for centuries.
So,
Moses is conversing with His Creator on Mt. Sinai and there’s a good reason for
this.
God
has determined that now is the time to free His people from their bondage in
Egypt and Moses is going to be the one to bring this message to Pharaoh.
According
to God’s Prophetic Program, and this is how He chooses to deal with the nation
of Israel, they would be in a land “not their own” for a period of 400 years.
And
they were delivered out of slavery, as God said, 400 years to the day.
But
we should check to see what the book says.
Genesis 15
13: God said to
Abram, (its
still Abram. God has not changed his
name to Abraham yet) “Know for certain
that your descendants will be (what) strangers
in a land that is not theirs, (read carefully) where they will be enslaved and (what) oppressed (how long) four
hundred years. (The Jews became
a nation while they were enslaved in Egypt.
When they left Egypt, they numbered almost 6.5 million people.)
14: “But I will
also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out
with many possessions. (This prophecy came
true as well. Egypt paid the Hebrews to
leave. The Hebrews left Egypt with great
wealth.)
This
was to be Moses Mission/Ministry however you wish to describe it.
For
God said:
Exodus 3
10: “Therefore,
come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the
sons of Israel, out of Egypt.
As
I said earlier, that’s just for starters.
Moses
“ministry” becomes more difficult as time goes on.
(To
be continued)
©
Copyright 2011
GJ
Heitzman’s Ministry
All
Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment