Chapter 5

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The facts are, that the commandments are "holy, Just, and good" and are part of God's eternal character. The breaking of them, was what caused the fall in the first place. Their one word explanation is "Love". Love for God and your neighbor. On these principles hang all the law and the prophets. Far from doing away with them, Christ came to magnify them and place them in their proper perspective. They stand fast forever and not one jot or title will ever pass from them till all things are fulfilled. In fact their magnification is what reveals sin in our lives. Like a mirror to someone with a dirty face, they reveal defects, but they don't provide a remedy. Just as the remedy for a dirty face isn't getting rid of the mirror but rather involves soap and water, so the remedy for sin isn't getting rid of the law.

The remedy for sin is an entire transformation of the sinner himself. It involves power to overcome, it involves complete victory. Part of the Good News is that this victory is NOT man-made. A quick look in the 'mirror' of the law and some honest personal inspection will reveal more and more defects. The Good News is that there is mercy and that Christians are to 'grow in grace'. God isn't finished with me yet. I AM obligated to keep the law, after all, that defines sin. But Christ came to purchase something important and it comes in two parts.

Sinners need two things from God and they deal with time. First our past is a problem. The blood of Christ 'cleanses us from all sin'. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive them. He died for the sins of the entire world. The angels told the shepherds about 'peace on earth' and 'good will towards men'. The catholic view of an angry God who only relents with the mediatorial work of Mary is a slight on the cross. The cross shows to what extent God went to prove that He loves mankind. He died to prove He wants to forgive us. We have a right to claim that gift of forgiveness.

The second problem or question is our future. The Good News is that is take care of too. From Christ's side, two streams flowed, blood and water. These two symbols are repeated over and over in the Bible. The water is less clearly understood by most Christians. It was the symbol used to indicate cleaning. Christ was baptized by John, Naaman was asked to dip 7 time in the same river, the laver in the temple was filled with water, in many other instances water was used over and over to show this.

The Good News is that God wants to transform us back into perfect people. Yes I said perfect. After all if my character remains that of a sinner, I am not safe to take to a perfect heaven. The sin problem would return. The only safe people to take there are those who wouldn't think of committing a sin. That level of Christian experience was spoken of by Paul who told the eary Christians " Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God...Heb 6:1".That is a scary standard for many Christians who carry bumper stickers around stating 'Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven'. I don't want my money held in trust at a bank run by a merely 'forgiven' swindler do you? Only a complete transformation makes any sinner trustworthy and eligible for heaven.

Some would argue that this level of transformation isn't possible in this life, but that too demonstrates ignorance of the scriptures. In the first chapter of Luke we are told of a Zachariah and Elizabeth who "walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless". So if they did it, can you or I? And if they can, then we MUST, but HOW is the problem.

The book of Revelation talks of a group of people at the end who are without spot or wrinkle and overcame 'by the blood of the Lamb'. Christ spoke of curious concept. "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Matt. 11:12" That is a curious phrase indeed. And notice that the first preacher of the "Good News", John the Baptist, was linked to it. Remember the violent struggle between Jacob and the angel of promise in Genesis 32? He obtained his blessing because he clung violently to the angel.

I believe we have been granted the right on calvary to get violent with God in a certain way. We have the right, by faith, to walk into the courts of heaven and make certain demands of God. That may sound like an offensive concept to some. After all how can man make any demands of God? We find demand to be offensive. But the question is does God find it offensive. He obviously rewarded Jacob for his violent demand.

Websters online dictionary defines the act of demanding as "asking especially with authority". While demanding from God things He has NOT promised is presumption (sorry folks, no demands for winning lottery ticket will be honored) we DO have the right to demand MANY things from God, and the authority for those demands is nothing less than the Blood of Christ.

The Law shows us our defects. Hiding it and wishing it would go away won't fix the defects. Like the psalmist in Ps. 119, it needs to be our meditation all day long and will bring us peace. How and why is the important thing. With it we see our defects and are then guided in the path needed to make demands of God. We CAN demand victory. We are then to walk in it's light and "go and sin no more". If we stumble we have an advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and an opportunity to make further demands of His Spirit. The role of the Holy Spirit was not to comfort us in sin, but to give us divine power to overcome it. It is divine power from start to finish. No one can brag and that is also Good News.

We have a high calling. God wants us to grasp His promises. Most Christians settle for a much weaker, watered down, version of the Gospel which places either the standard lower, the attainment of that standard irrelevant, or provides a man-made solution. God wants far more than that for us, the Good News is that He offers real forgiveness for the past, and real power for the future. If this is the real Gospel, then what about all the other beliefs out there.

The remaining portion of this work, gentle reader is the examination of some of the various beliefs across the Christian spectrum to see how some of them relate to the Gospel.

Differences Foretold

When Christ returned to heaven, through the prophets He predicted a 'falling away'. This change was not overnight. It's success stemmed in part with its gradual nature. The old biology analogy is that if you place a frog in very hot water, he will jump out, but if you place him in cold water and slowly heat it, you can cook him alive. In the first century, Christians faced severe persecution both from Jews and pagans alike. Like the first frog in our analogy, their reaction to severe persecution was to move. In this way the Gospel quickly spread to the entire then known world.

The devil then switched to a much more successful strategy of 'if you can't lick them, join them'. Roman Emperor Constantine, claimed to have seen a vision, and converted to Christianity if only nominally. One of his first acts, which by the way betrayed the genuineness of his conversion, was to order his entire army to become Christians. While John the Baptist had baptized Christ in the river Jordan, pagans who worshiped nature and fertility saw rain and sprinkling as important life giving forces. Perhaps because of this, or merely because of constraints of time, the order was given to perform their baptism by sprinkling. Boughs of trees were dipped in the water and shaken over his troops who ran through the sprinkle. While this in no way symbolized a death and burial to sin, it did accomplish his goal to perform a ritual signifying that they were now 'Christians'.

No scripture ever authorized sprinkling, and this was not the original method. Nothing about the Gospel is homemade. Man from the beginning, even in Eden, began this mess first with direct disobedience followed closely by attempts to accomplish their own righteousness. Fig leaves didn't work then and sprinkling isn't God's way now. History records the tragic death of Uza who touched the ark of the covenant and died. Although he did so out of ignorance, he died because he SHOULD have known. The philistines who touched the ark were not apparently killed. They did experience the limited wrath of God when they placed the ark in their temple only to have their god Dagon, smashed. However they seem to have been spared personally.

We have the opportunity to know a great deal more than those pagans did. How much more should we follow exactly what God has revealed to us in His word and avoid changing His plan in the slightest. Baptism was first began by the greatest preacher of the Gospel ever, John the Baptist. It involved immersion in water and repentance for sins. Christ who never sinned, did however consent to being immersed in the Jordan river as an example to us, and in the Gospel commission, we are told to to the same. Variations on this express command, are neither safe or right.