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Words Not Found In the Bible

No, not THOSE words. I mean the words you may have heard in church over the years, or in the media, and critics say, “That word is not in the Bible!” Then they try to tell you that you have been misled to believe unbiblical teachings.

One popular word heard today is “Rapture.” Much has been made of it in movies and books from the Left Behind series. After the recent release of the remake of the movie, several articles appeared claiming that the doctrine was false because the word “rapture” was not in the Bible.

To understand why, you need to know a little about Bible translations. The problem with many critics of the Bible is that they do not know anything about the Bible, or how we got it. Some people even believe that Jesus spoke in perfect Elizabethan English.

Biblical writers used three languages to record God’s message to mankind. The Old Testament used ancient Hebrew. Later books used Aramaic, a derivative of Hebrew, much as Italian is a derivative of Latin. The New Testament writers used the Koine Greek language, which was the common language of the day, much as English is today. There never was a written language known as Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The etymology of “rapture” shows that it comes from Latin. The word origin according to dictionary.com is “’act of carrying off,’ from Middle French rapture, from Medieval Latin raptura ‘seizure, rape, kidnapping,’ from Latin raptus “a carrying off, abduction, snatching away; rape’” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rapture?s=t). So basically the word means a snatching or carrying away. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin in the late fourth century. It became the official translation of the Roman Catholic Church in sixteenth century. As a result, many theological terms come from Latin-based words. Keep this in mind for future articles.

Where does the Bible teach the rapture, if at all? In First Thessalonians 4: 16-17 Paul writes: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” Notice the phrase “caught up” in that last verse. Paul used the Greek word “harpazo” here. A Greek Lexicon reveals that this word comes from a root that means “to take for oneself” and the verb means “to seize, pluck, pull, or take by force” (QuickVerse 3). This would be like a vinedresser walking through the vineyard and plucking up the grapes for the harvest. This is the idea that Paul is trying to convey, that the Rapture, (The Latin-based word used here from the Vulgate) is a plucking up, a “catching up,” or a harvesting of the believers who are alive at Christ’s return.

Next we must ask ourselves, “Do other verses teach this same idea?” Matthew 24:30-31 says, “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” So when Christ returns, He will gather believers to Himself.

Paul is teaching that at Christ’s return, Christians who have died (fallen asleep) will be raised immortal and imperishable, and living Christians will be transformed “in the twinkling of an eye” (First Corinthians 15:51-52). Then all who are so changed by resurrection or transformation, will be caught up to meet Christ in the air (First Thessalonians 4:17). That is what “the Rapture” means.

It is beyond the scope of this article to deal with the details as many books have undertaken such challenges. I would simply encourage you to research and study on your own. You can reach your own conclusions. Just do not let someone unnerve you by saying “That word is not in the Bible.”

Words Not Found in The Bible -Part 2

Excerpt from my book Embracing Faith Volume 2 https://amzn.to/3v7oWKp

Another word related to the end times such as rapture is the word “Millennium.” Often preachers refer to it as The Millennium. This word literally means one thousand years. Eschatology, or the study of the end times, refers to a one thousand year period in which Christ will return and reign on earth (Revelation 20:4).

This word does not appear in the Bible for exactly the same reason that “rapture” does not appear. It also is a Latin translation of the Greek word found in the New Testament. Revelation 20:2 introduces the word “kilia” to refer to the period of Christ’s reign. You will recognize the word as a part of many English words that refer to measurement. The slang term “kilo,” short for kilogram, means one thousand grams. A kilometer is one thousand meters. Therefore, kilia refers to a thousand-year period of time in Revelation 20:3.

The Latin Vulgate used the word millennium to translate it. It comes from the Latin “mille,” meaning one thousand, and “annus” meaning year, as in the word “annual.” Hence, millennium refers to one thousand years.

A Short Course in Millennial Studies

Theologians have written many volumes about the Millennial Period, which are beyond the scope of this column. Nevertheless, let me give you a brief summary. Theologians teach three basic views about the Millennium as it relates to the coming of Christ:

Amillennial—“a,” meaning “not,” means that there is no literal thousand-year period. Supposedly it refers to an indefinite period.

Post-millennial—This view states that Christianity will improve the world, progressively making it a better place until Christ returns. This view was popular until about 1914 when World War I broke out, although some people still hold to it.

Pre-millennial—This view holds that the world will not, nor cannot, improve until Christ returns to establish his earthly kingdom. This view seems to follow Revelation 20:1-7 more closely than the other views.

Another broader term, called the Preterist view, believes that all the prophecies of Revelation and many from Matthew 24 have already happened by the end of the first century.

Why I hold to the Pre-Millennial View

Taking the amilliennial view would rob the words of the passage of their meaning. Why specify a thousand years if it did not mean a thousand years. Another word would have better indicated an indefinite period of time.

The post-millennial view has been invalidated by history. While the world has experienced scientific and technological breakthroughs in the last two centuries, the world is far from the utopia that theologians envisioned its becoming in the nineteenth century.

The preterist view also fails to hold up to the words of scripture. To this point, we have not seen Satan chained and cast into the Abyss. If anything, he and his minions seem to be very active in today’s world.

Therefore I hold to a pre-millennial view. Christ will come to establish his kingdom on earth for a thousand years. Then what? Satan is released from his prison. He will deceive the nations, round up armies, and lead them against Christ one last time. He never learns. After a thousand years of unparalleled peace and prosperity on earth, mankind will one more time try to overthrow God’s rule in the world.

Christ will crush this final rebellion. Satan will be cast into the lake of fire along with the Beast and the False Prophet who have already been there a thousand years. They will be “tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10)

The Great White Throne Judgment will then take place (20:11-15). Everyone whose name was not written in the Lamb’s Book of life will be cast into the lake of fire to spend eternity. “And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night” (Rev. 14:11)

Finally, this universe will pass away and God will create a new heaven and a new earth (21: 1; see also Isaiah 65:17). Then heaven and earth will be united, and Revelation 21:3 says, “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.’” Notice that God will dwell with mankind on the new earth. Think of it! God will be with us. That will be heaven on earth and, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (verse 4).

You become a part of that new creation now by becoming a new creation through faith in Christ alone. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

You can purchase a copy of Embracing Faith Vol. 1 at www.amazon.com.

Words Not Found in the Bible

Critics say, “That word is not in the Bible!” Then they try to tell you that you have been misled to believe unbiblical teachings.

BACK TO YOUR (HEBREW) ROOTS?

“A confused effort to live like Old Testament Jews and help Christians to appreciate Hebrew roots they do not actually possess.”

By Mike McGuire

For several years there have been movements encouraging Christians to get back to their roots, their Hebrew roots. Many movements, called Messianic movements, have led some Christians to celebrate Jewish feasts and to feel spiritually superior to other Christians who do not follow Jewish feasts. These movements are not new. Paul dealt with “Judaizing” in the first century. Many of the teachers believed that people had to become Jewish before they could become Christian.

“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17 NKJV). Here Paul deals with the same idea of keeping feasts and observing sabbaths. Some believers felt superior to others and required them to observe festivals, new moon celebrations, and sabbaths.

Today some Christians worship on the Sabbath. They feel that they must do so because the Ten Commandants say to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. They feel that not having church on Saturday is a violation of that commandment. Many Christians worship on Sundays in honor of Christ’s resurrection on the first day of the week. Christians followed this tradition in the New Testament. Jesus appeared after his resurrection on the first day of the week as the apostles gathered together (John 20:19). Christians gathered together on the first day of the week to break bread and Paul preached (Acts 20:7). Paul also asked the Corinthians to take up an offering for the church in Jerusalem on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2). No commandment was ever given for a day to esteem as holy among the Christians.

Paul also wrote in Romans 14:5, “One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.” Paul never indicated that one day to worship was better than another. He said that each person should be convinced in his own mind. If you and your congregation worship on Sunday, Paul said that it was all right. Those who worship on Saturday should not try to force others to worship then. Those who worship on Sunday should not seek to force others to do so. Whichever day you chose, you do it unto the Lord (Romans 14:6).

Besides Sabbath worship, author Todd Friel lists nine additional things that characterize Messianic movements:

Celebrating Old Testament festivals
Obeying select Old Testament laws
Circumcision upon conversion
Keeping kosher or partially kosher
Elevating unbiblical texts like the Mishnah to the level of Scripture
Calling Jesus by his Hebrew name, Yeshua
Never spelling G-d
Women wearing long skirts and head coverings
Men wearing untrimmed beards

(Friel, Todd, Judge Not, p. 163, 164)

Friel calls this a confused effort to live like Old Testament Jews and help Christians to appreciate Hebrew roots they do not actually possess (p. 164). The New Testament never even hints that Christians should follow Old Testament Laws or extra-biblical teachings. The danger is that we cannot select which laws to obey. A Christian who tries to follow certain laws becomes obligated to keep all of them. This is what Paul meant by falling from grace, not losing one’s salvation, but trying to earn salvation by keeping the law (Galatians 5:2-6). Paul wrote: “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21).

James echoed the same message: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (2:10). If we try to keep the law, we must keep all of it, not just certain parts, like the festivals or Sabbath attendance. If we fail in one part, we become guilty of breaking it all. We cannot keep the Law regarding sacrifices because there is no Temple and no altar. If we try to follow the Law, we will fail at the point of the sacrifices.

The Church dealt with this issue at the Council of Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 15. There the Judaizers wanted to make the Gentile Christians follow Jewish practices to become followers of Christ. The Church and the Apostles debated the issue. They finally arrived at the conclusion that they would not “test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?” (15:10).

Can we Christians learn from studying the festivals? Yes. Can we learn from studying the Laws? Yes. Are we better off if we follow them? Resoundingly no. These things were shadows that led us to Christ, who is the substance. Why do we need to go back to the shadows when we have the light? The old covenant is obsolete (Hebrews 8:13)

Learn more about the new covenant at Crescent Park Baptist Church, Odessa, Texas. Mike McGuire is the pastor. You can leave comments at www.mikemcguireministries.com Also available in Hard copy. Look for Embracing Faith on amazon.com.

WHAT “ONE QUESTION” WILL GOD ASK YOU?

“Did you love enough?”

What “one question” will God ask you when you die? If you are to believe Paulo Coelho, God will only ask you one question when you die. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey on the OWN network, he stated, “And God, in my opinion, is going to ask only one question… ‘Did you love enough?’ If you say yes, Welcome to heaven! If you say no, you are in the limbo, you know?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TbIEaWL0Eg) That seems simple enough.

Is that statement accurate? It sounds so good because he is so sincere. He has also authored several books. But let’s examine this belief. The first question his statement brings up is, “How do you know when you have loved enough?” Who determines whether we have loved enough? How many times have we looked back at situations and thought to ourselves that we could have loved more, been kinder?

The second question is, “What does he base this belief on?” In the quote, he clearly states, “In my opinion…” He never claims that he received this message from Divine revelation. He openly states that it is his opinion. Because we live in an age of relativism, no one can say he is wrong. He is entitled to his belief, and he has every right to express his opinion. Such a statement is open to scrutiny.

Apart from human opinion, let’s consider what the Bible teaches. When you face God after you die (Hebrews 9:27), is the human opinion of theology what you want to face God with? As you stand in line awaiting judgment, you say to yourself, “I got this!” You wait there thinking, “I only have to answer one question, and it’s not tough.” Coelho’s opinion notwithstanding, Judgment Day will be a little bit tougher than that. When Christ faced down some possessing demons in Matthew 8:29, they begged him not to torment them before their appointed time. Apparently judgment involves torment.

We might expect that demons should be tormented. After all, they are demons. Will humans face eternal torment as well? That is not a popular concept even among theologians and preachers, but what did Jesus teach? When Christ judges the nations according to Matthew 25:41, “He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” So humans will wind up where the demons go. They will be banished to everlasting fire. That is what Jesus taught, not human opinion.

Also according to the Apostle Paul, the judgment sounds a little more stringent than only one question as well. He wrote in Romans 14:12 “So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.” Giving account sounds more like an audit than only one question. Suppose the IRS calls you in for a tax audit. Are they going to ask you only one question? “Did you pay enough taxes last year?” If you answer yes, then the audit is over. Will it be that simple? Jesus said, ^“But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the Day of Judgment” (Matthew 12:36). We will have a lot of explaining to do.

Finally, notice Coelho’s opinion of what happens if you answer wrong. “You are in the limbo, you know?” So if you do not pay enough taxes, will the IRS leave you in Limbo? They will have a carefully prescribed system of interests and penalties, which could include jail time if you answer wrong. Notice in Matthew 25 that Jesus does not send people to limbo. He set aside a special place for them, which was originally prepared for Satan and his angels.

Sins must be atoned for. You can do like many people and simply dismiss them. You can delude yourself into believing that you have not sinned. You can tell yourself there is no such thing as sin. You may believe that sin is not that bad since we live in the twenty-first century. You may deny it or redefine it, but the wages of sin is still death (Romans 6:23).

Another option is to atone for your sin yourself. You pay for your sin from your own means. You go to your own account of righteousness to pull out enough to cover the cost of your sin only to find, “there is none righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). Oh and you cannot pull from somebody else’s righteousness account because no one is righteous. In fact, you are destitute. You “fall short” (Romans 3:23). The payout plan is eternal.

The only other option is to allow Christ to pay the debt for you. First Peter 2:24 says that He, “Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness.” And First Peter 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”

If there is any one question God will ask us when we die, it will not be, “Did you love enough?” It will be, “Did you love my Son enough to turn your life over to Him?” How would you answer that question? Remember that your eternal destiny depends on how you answer that question.

WHAT “THE BIG BANG THEORY” THEME SONG TAUGHT ME

When that first cell evolved, what did it eat?

I never much got into “The Big Bang Theory” television show until near the end of its twelve-season run. Occasionally I would watch an episode or two, but never kept up with the plot. Over the last three years of my traveling, I began watching it on long overseas flights as it was one of the options. I saw the pilot episode only a few years ago.

You know how a theme song jingle gets stuck in your head? Sometimes you don’t hear the words clearly and you wonder what they are saying. One phrase from the Big Bang theme song kept confusing me. I thought it said, “The artichokes began to drool.” That could not be correct, so I looked up the lyrics. It actually says, “The autotrophs began to drool.” I guessed what that word might mean based on the word root meanings. Turns out I was correct. An autotroph is a self-feeding organism.

I have often asked evolutionists the question, “When that first cell evolved, what did it eat?” One person said, “I believed that it evolved without the need to eat.” (That would be an autotroph.) I followed through with, “All cells today need to get their energy from somewhere. Which cell is more fit to survive? One that needs to eat, or one that doesn’t need to eat.?” He said, “The one that doesn’t need to eat.” I said, “Then why would cells evolve that needed to eat if they were less likely to survive?” No answer.

This is where the autotrophs come in. Dictionary.com defines an autotroph as: “any organism capable of self-nourishment by using inorganic materials as source of nutrients and using photosynthesis or chemosynthesis as a source of energy, as most plants and certain bacteria and protists. For abiogenesis and evolution to be true, the very first cell that evolved would have to have been an autotroph. There is no other way. Did scientists actually observe that? Where they there to discover it? No. It’s not science. It just had to be, so they believe it by faith while calling it science.

This still begs the question. If the first cells were autotrophic and produced their own energy through photosynthesis, why would heterotrophic cells (organisms requiring organic compounds for their principal source of food) ever come into existence? They shouldn’t because they would be less likely to survive. At what point could there have been a “transition” through random mutations from auto- to heterotrophic cells? At some point, the cell would be neither; and therefore could not have survived. It must have been completely auto or hetero, not a combination. It couldn’t survive through intermediate stages, which is true in all cases of evolution. No organism could survive with a half leg, half flipper combination or half arm, half wing transition. It is impossible. No transitional fossil forms have ever been discovered, only assumed to exist. This leaves the questions unanswered.

Why does all this matter? That program was not a particularly religious program; however, it did sometimes poke fun at Sheldon’s religious mother. The underlying premise beneath the Big Bang, abiogenesis, and evolution is that they are all attempts to explain where mankind came from by purely mechanistic (scientific) means without needing a Creator (religious).

Media and entertainment constantly drill these concepts into our mind so that if anyone questions, they are made to look as ridiculous as the caricature of Sheldon’s mother. Unfortunately, many scientists caricature religious people that way although there are a large number of scientists who question Darwinism. They just can’t declare it openly, even in Christian universities, because they might lose their jobs.

The Bible, however, teaches that God created mankind as the pinnacle of His creation not so long ago, not after billions of years of trial and error. Colossians 1:16 teaches “all things were created by him, and for him,” including you and me. We are not some kind of cosmic accident that arose from the banging together of molecules billions of years after a huge explosion. We are each “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).

The premise of the Big Bang theory (not just the program) is that everything is just one big accident caused by random chance. That is not science. It is philosophy. I don’t know how you feel about yourself, but I am no accident.

A quote from a recent video I watched stated: “I would rather have questions unanswered than answers unquestioned.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJ6TI8ccAw)

The Danger of “Judge Not”

Back in 1991, I preached a sermon series on The Sermon on the Mount. One of the references I used was Martyn Lloyd – Jones two-volume book called “Studies in The Sermon on the Mount.” Recently I picked that book up again after a quarter of a century to review a sermon I had written based on Matthew 7:6, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you” (KJV).

Here is what Lloyd-Jones had to say referring back to the opening of Matthew 7:1 on “Judge not, lest ye be judged”:

“If our Lord had finished His teaching with the first five verses, it would undoubtedly have led to a false position. Men and women would be so careful to avoid the terrible danger of judging in that wrong sense that they would exercise no discrimination, no judgment whatsoever. There would be no such thing as discipline in the Church, and the whole of the Christian life would be chaotic. There would be no such thing as exposing heresy and pronouncing judgment with regard to it. Because everybody would be so afraid of judging the heretic, they would turn a blind eye to the heresy; and error would come into the Church more than it has done.”

D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), 1989 Vol. 2, pp. 183-184.

That was originally written in 1959. We have seen that come to pass today. Due to political correctness, and always wanting to be positive and encouraging, the church has lost even the desire to guard itself against heresy, much less point it out. We have turned a blind eye to falsehood, and we label whoever points it out as a “Whateverophobe.” The saddest part is that most of the insults come from professing Christians within the church organization. There is a big difference between being a professor of Christianity and a possessor of Christianity.

TRIUMPH AT THE CROSS

Christ became the substitutionary sacrificial Lamb for us. He died so that we can live.

Not long ago, Easter decorations sprang up everywhere. Pictures of eggs, bunnies, and flowers appeared in many places. When I was a child, I asked my mother what all these had to do with Easter. She said that Easter celebrated new life, and the eggs and lilies symbolized new life.

As I grew up, I learned about the resurrection of Christ. Easter celebrated his “new life” from the grave. Christians celebrate his resurrection at this time of year even though the traditional symbols of Easter have nothing to do with the Christian story. We need to understand what this new life is about. Yes, Jesus rose again, but we need to ask ourselves why he died, and why his new life is so important to us.

The Bible tells us that “God demonstrates his own love toward us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Sin separates us from God. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). We should die because of our sin. Christ’s death on the cross paid the penalty for us. He death satisfied the debt we owed for our sin.

When did that satisfaction take place?

There are three views about when the atonement took place. One view states that Christ’s suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane caused our atonement. Because Christ sweated drops of blood, some believe that he paid the debt by suffering there.

Another view is that Christ went to hell for three days after he died. There Satan and his minions beat up on him those three days, and then the third day he rose from the dead. This view is popular among some groups today.

At The Cross

The Bible teaches that the penalty was paid at the cross. When the repentant thief turned to Christ and asked to be remembered. Christ said, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Notice that Christ did not say, “I’m going to hell. I’ll see you in three days.” Both he and the thief went to paradise that day.

Paid In Full

Additionally, he did not have to go to hell to pay any more penalty for us. John 19:30 records Jesus’ words as “It is finished.” In the biblical language, that phrase meant, “Paid in Full” as would be written across a bill. When Christ died on the cross, he fulfilled the work God gave him to do. He did not have to go to hell to get beat up by Satan for three days to complete the transaction.

Paul tells where this took place. Colossians 2:15-15, “having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Think back to the images you often see of the crucifixion. Usually you will see a sign above Christ’s head that reads INRI. That stands for Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, translated Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Although this is a Latin Phrase, the Bible says that it was actually written in three languages—Aramaic, Latin and Greek so that everyone passing by could read it (See John 19:18-20) Mark 15:26 says, “The written notice of the charge against him read: the king of the jews.” This was the “crime” he was charged with. Passersby could see the crimes for which the victims of crucifixion were suffering.

Looking back at the Colossians passage, notice that the “charge” against us was placed on his cross. Think of God taking the sign above your head for all your sins and nailing it to Jesus’ cross. That’s exactly what he did. Christ paid the charge of legal indebtedness for your sins by his once-for-all sacrifice. You can be set free.

Paul concludes that passage by saying that Christ “disarmed the powers and authorities… triumphing over them by the cross.” The cross is where Christ paid all your sin debt. The cross is where he defeated Satan. He did not need to go to hell and be tormented for three days.

Conclusion

At the cross, God poured out his wrath for sin on Christ that he might pour out his love on us who are in Christ. Christ became the substitutionary sacrificial Lamb for us. He died so that we can live.

BROKEN OR DEAD?

If you listen to much contemporary Christian music these days, you might notice a common theme running through many of the choruses—the theme of brokenness. Over and over the singers are saying something like, “Jesus, I’m broken. Please come and fix me.” Not exactly those words, but the same idea.

There is even a gospel presentation of “the three circles” that teaches this concept. In this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zau_Pam4qM), the speaker says that when we sinned, brokenness entered into the world. He refers back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. You remember that God commanded them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Speaking of that tree to Adam, He said, “in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” He did not say, “You shall surely be broken.”

The Apostle Paul also referred to this in Romans 5:12. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Brokenness did not enter the world through sin and spread to all people. Death did. He reiterated this in Ephesians 2:1. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,” before coming to Christ to be made alive. In verses 4 and 5 he said, “God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” He did not say that God fixed us, or even that God healed us. He said God made us alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Before coming to Christ, a person may be physically alive but spiritually dead. When we receive Christ, we are born again and are physically alive and spiritually alive. Eventually, all of us who are alive will die physically, but believers will still be spiritually alive. (John 11:26).

In John 5:24, Jesus said, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” Whoever hears his word must be physically alive to hear the words. When people believe, they pass judgment and move from being spiritually dead to becoming spiritually alive. Jesus is talking about spiritual life and death. He did not say that people move from a state of brokenness to a state of repair.

There have been very popular programs on television about renovating houses. A remodeling crew finds a home and moves the family out while they oftentimes gut and rebuild the house from within. The transformation is fabulous. It amazes the family as they return to the former shell of their home; they can hardly recognize it.

Jesus did not give his life to renovate ours. Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) This is not just a remodeling of your old life. You are a completely new creation in Christ. Jesus does not just fix up your old life with a few cosmetic changes. He gives you a brand-new life. Paul said earlier in the same letter, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV). While our bodies are physically changing, even deteriorating or “wasting away,” Jesus renews our spiritual being every day. That is the part that will live forever, not our bodies.

But that is not the end. One day each of us will lay our bodies aside physically in death. In 1 Corinthians 15:35-44, Paul compares our bodies to a seed. When a seed is sown, it changes into the plant. He says that our bodies are “sown” perishable but raised imperishable. We place bodies in the earth in one form or another. One day Christ will raise those bodies in glory, and he “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21).

The Good News is that Christ does the work for us. He begins the work in us, and he carries it on to completion (Philippians 1:6), from justification, through sanctification to glorification. What we do is hear his word, repent of our sins, and believe in him. Every other religion tells you to trust in your own religious works. Only Christianity tells you to trust in the completed work of Jesus on the cross.

WALK IN THE LIGHT

Have you ever gotten up in the middle of the night and walked through your house to check on something? Most houses have some sort of light, so the house is not completely dark. The blue light on our Internet router puts out quite a bit of light. Nevertheless, I have hit my knee on the sofa while trying to make my way through the living room in the dark, even though some light enters from outside almost every night. It is difficult to navigate in the darkness. The safest way to walk is to turn on a light to see where you are walking at night.

Scripture often uses “walk” to speak of the way we live. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12). He was speaking about the way we live. Following Christ is a way of life. Paul wrote in Colossians 2:6, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” He was speaking of a way of life. In Colossians 1:10 Paul also wrote: “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (NKJV). Other versions interpret the word “walk” as “live.”

In the same way a wise person would not want to walk in the dark, we should not want to live in darkness, however, Jesus said that some people prefer the darkness to the light. In John 3:19, Jesus said, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” He is the light, yet people refuse to come to him. They prefer to hide their sin in the darkness.

These are the ones whose minds Satan has blinded from the truth. Paul wrote “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” Notice that Paul said that they do not believe, not that they cannot believe. Most “intellectual” arguments against the gospel are not a matter of intellect, but of will. Many simply will not believe because they know that such a decision will require a change of lifestyle that they are not willing to make. Even if you adequately answer their intellectual challenges, they still refuse. Their minds are blinded, and their hearts are hardened.

The psalmist wrote, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path,” (Psalm 119:105). God’s word enlightens the heart and makes us “wise to salvation” (2 Tim. 3:15). This is another reason why God’s word has always come under attack ever since the serpent told Eve, “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1). These doubts in God’s word are strongholds, any argument that “exalts itself against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). The way to bring down these dark strongholds is to shine the light of God’s word on them.

We believers need to walk in the light of God’s word and not let the darkness of the world cloud our thinking. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8). Christ has changed our lives. Our lives need to reflect the light of Christ. The way we live should let people know what principles are guiding our lives.

If we want to remain in the darkness and not come out into the light, we cannot have fellowship with God. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). We cannot cling to sin and take hold of God at the same time. We must relinquish sin, come to the light and come clean. Then we can fellowship with God and other believers.

Repentance comes when we realize we are in darkness and we want to move into the light. “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God” (John 3:21). Walk in the light.