Romans 10: 4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”NASB

This verse is the end of a paragraph but we can still glean the truth from it. It speaks to what you believe, or better where you place your faith. Christ the end; in Pauline epistles when Christ is used we have to understand that the Holy Spirit through Paul is referring to the Life, Death, & Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Consequently, in the same such epistles the phrase in Christ, by Christ, or through Christ refers to Christ’s Atoning work on Calvary’s Cross.  In order to be found righteous or just by God one has to have lived up to the Letter of the Law from birth to the other end of eternity w/out one infraction; in thought or deed. Simply put, you have to be sinless and perfect according to the Righteousness of the LORD God. Now who among us can boost such a life?

The Lord Jesus is the only One born that could have done this because He was born w/out a Sin Nature even though He did have the ability to sin, He did not. The one thing we have to understand is the LORD never placed a power source inside the Law; ceremonial, sacrificial, or moral, to get us do it or to make us righteous. The only thing the law can do is point out a violation of it. The Law says ‘Don’t lie.’, but we still do whether by mistake or on purpose. But the Lord never lied once in the 33 and half years He lived among us. Another meaning for telos is met and completed; in the Greek telos carries the meaning that someone came to the end of task and completed it i.e. a job well done. And Voice from Heaven said, “This is My Son in Whom I am well pleased.”

The Lord’s atoning work on Calvary shows how He met and completed His Work as the spotless unblemished Lamb of God per the sacrificial system mapped out in Leviticus. The Holy Spirit through Paul’s pen is speaking to Israel in Romans 9, 10, & 11. The entire body of legislation giving to Moses by the LORD God at Mt. Sinai point directly at the Lord Jesus Christ, He fulfilled the Law totally and completely.

Now as for the last four words; … to everyone that believes. Do we believe that Christ Jesus met every point of the Law, in its totality? Do we think that we have to do something or that there is one thing that He didn’t met and or complete? The Lord of host said it first in Habakkuk 2: 4, ‘Behold the proud, he soul is not upright in him; but the just shall by his faith.’ The Apostle Paul repeated it twice and it’s in Hebrews so there has to be some weight to it; FAITH. Simple child- like faith that Christ is Lord of your life and Saviour of your soul because of what He did at that old rugged cross. Is He your Righteousness or is there yet something you have to do to please a thrice Holy God? GOD either sees you in the Law or in Christ; just take one.

Thank You for Reading Do You Believe? from Genesis 3:15

My wife asked me what last year was in a rhetorical way, “Wasn’t this year the ‘Year of Restoration?” I agreed and after a small conversation of the events of lives, we knew that the Lord had has His Way in our lives and our love ones as well.

Because of my Calling, Evangelist, I have found my heart being turned more and more towards the final destination of the Saved and the Unsaved. And as of late my concern is for the Church. I have had several conversations with God-fearing Christians that have shown the proof of scriptures namely Jude 4, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to the condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” King James Version. There are many blossoming reasons for this, but the budded reason is the same as it has always been; to take the Cross of Christ and make it of no effect towards the Salvation and Edification of mankind.

The letter to the church in Corinth from the Apostle Paul was calling for unity but not just to them also to us, 1 Corinthians 1: 2, “…to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be Saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord…”. If you fit any of these descriptions of Salvation then the Holy Spirit through Paul is talking to you as well as me.

Now that we have been awakened to 1 Corinthians it has something in it for us. What is this letter telling us? Let’s look at verse ten which is where we are encouraged to have unity, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no division among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” This is a call from the Holy Spirit that dwells in the Redeemed of the Lord to be ONE. Brothers and Sisters, there are too many different little ministries in the Body saying that they have the way to Salvation, the truth from the LORD God, and the key to a prosperous life. But I ask the question: How is that possible when the Lord Jesus said in John 14: 6, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”? Meaning that God one into His Presence that is through Christ and Him alone, why are we trying to teach and preach another Jesus?

Is Christ divided? Is there a different Jesus for the various denominations we have broking ourselves up into? Before I go into the how we are divided, let’s see how we are to be united. The Apostle Paul penned these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 1: 17, “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect.”

Brothers and Sisters, this is not a hard concept to grasp; the Cross of Christ has Power. In several conversation with other Christians, they have tried to say that the cross of Christ in not that effective and we have to add some kind of work or keep the Law in conjunction with Christ’s Finished Work of the Cross. When the Lord Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, Mark 14: 32- 42, His prayer was if there is any other way let this cup be removed. The cup was the Cross which paid for our liberty, salvation, redemption, and gives us access to the Throne and Presence of God.

So armed with this knowledge; there is Power in the Cross of Christ, what does this mean for us? Well to make a long story short, we have to have our faith firmly planted to the Atoning Work of Christ. If you are having problems understanding this simple truth than you might not understand Romans 6, 7, and 8. Don’t be discouraged, I am still learning how to work by faith and not by sight. See, we can see our work and our law keeping, these activities restrict the move of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The Call for Unity is so loud in my heart that it hurts. Not physical pain but a spiritually one. What hurts is that there are going to be Christians in hell knowing that they have served in error but here they believe that they are on the Path of Salvation. I’m sure who said it but it is a true statement, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Think about it like this: The LORD God is the only One that knows where He lives. So wouldn’t stand to reason that we take the directions that He left for us in the form of the Lord Jesus.

Here is what I have found; if it makes sense then it probably isn’t of God. Verse eight-teen proves this point, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; …” See the enemy knows that in the mind of the modern man a dead Jew hanging on a cross makes no sense in regards to gaining righteousness. But if we can do something towards gaining that righteousness, now that makes sense. God preached the gospel to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3: 15 and showed them how the Redeemer would save us in Genesis 3: 21. Now if we glue these two scriptures together with four thousand years of Leviticus’ System of worship we make a bee-line straight for the Cross of Calvary on the bloody back of the Lord Jesus.

I wish that we all would speak the same thing. Some have said that there needs to be diversity in the Body of Christ. Isn’t there enough diversity in the world? If we are supposed to be in the process of being made in the image of Christ through the Workings of the Holy Spirit then why are there so many different paths? Well that is the easiest question with an even easier answer; so we wouldn’t in eternity with the LORD.

Living a life under Grace sounds easy but it’s not. Faith in Christ crucified is hard because it calls for us to wait on the Lord. Not the cliché but a lifestyle of waiting on the Lord to provide the means for the course of our lives. And this is found only in God’s Will. This is where the Unity comes in. Meaning, this is the end of the enemy Dividing the Body of Christ and Conquering us one denomination at the time. The division that exist in the Church weights down the praise and the worship of  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Perfectly joined together in the same mind and same judgment is the goal for all Believers and all this is to be done, only, in Christ Jesus our Lord. I don’t have the authority to declare a year but I do the authority to beseech my family to become unified in the Lord Jesus, only because this is the true heart of the Believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, John 10: 30.

Thank You for Reading 2011: The Year Unity from Genesis 3:15

Romans 3: 31, “Do we nullify the Law through faith? God forbid! On the contrary, we establish the Law.” (NASB)
Jesus is the subject of the Law and meets the demands of the Law. The law was the tutor that showed us that we needed a Saviour, Galatians 3: 24- 25. The Brazen Altar of the Tabernacle, the Table of Shewbread, the Lamp Stand, and the Ark of the Covenant all pointed directly to the Lord Jesus. Matthew 5: 17- 20, Jesus told the Pharisees that He came to fulfill the Law not abolish it.

No, though we do say that the Law will not justify us, yet we do not therefore say that it was given in vain, or is of no use; no, we establish the right use of the Law, and secure its standing, by fixing it on the right basis. The Law is still of use to convince us of what is past, and to direct us for the future; though we cannot be saved by it as a covenant, yet we own it, and submit to it, as a rule in the Hand of the Mediator, subordinate to the Law of Grace; and so are so far from overthrowing that we establish the Law. (Henry)

The Law was given to show us that we need a Saviour, seeing that we are under-develop, unequipped and horribly unable to save ourselves. This is why the Jesus’ death on Calvary in called the Finished Work of the Cross, He did it all. All we have to do is exhibit child like faith.

The Lord Jesus completed the Law by living up to the strictness and bondage of it, Galatians 4: 4, 6. This is how we established the Law by exhibiting faith in Christ and Him Crucified. This is the only way a Just and Righteous God can justify sinful mankind and still be Just and Right. He laid down a plan, and we follow that plan. In the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Sin Offering, our Passover Lamb, as our Sin Substitution He stood in front of the Wrath of God and took the full brute of God‘s Holy and Righteous Judgment. This is why it is called Grace; God’s Riches At Christ Expense.

Thank You for Reading Justified by Faith pt11 from Genesis 3:15

Romans 3: 30, “since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.” (NASB)
To understand this passage we need to that the Jews were willing to allow the Gentiles to be on the same level with them. See that felt that because they came up under the Law, with all its rites, ceremonies, and rituals, that the Gentile, who were just pagans and unclean heathens, could not obtain a just standing with the LORD God. But the Holy Spirit through Paul is making it very clear that there is One God, one Salvation, and it is through and by the Belief on the Christ and Him Crucified.

Remember that justification is a legal position in acted by a judge. Our judge in the Just and Righteous LORD God and this right stand is afforded to us by the Blood of the Son of God. The Spirit of the Lord wants to make it plain and straight that there is only One who can and has justifies.

Thank You for Reading Justified by Faith pt10 from Genesis 3:15

Romans 3: 29, “Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,” (NASB)
Paul asks a question and the answer should be obvious. The Jews felt that the Gentiles were out of the Will of God, out of the scope of Salvation. When in act Genesis 12: 3 says that all the families of the Earth will be saved through Abram. Case in point, the Children of Israel were supposed to evangelize to the world about the coming Redeemer. But turn inward and made Gentiles less because they did not have the Law. If they want to be Saved they would have to first become Jews and undergo all types of Rituals and Ceremonies that the Jews came up with not God, Matthew 23: 15.

Now to be sure, the Church has falling to this same practice. The Church has come up with varies denominations and each one of them has their own Rituals and Ceremonies and you will have to jump through hoops just to be an activity member. Some have even taken Jesus out of His rightful place in the forefront and put Him to the rear so that they can put their agendas in the front.

The Cross of Christ has been represent with mans plan of salvation, which almost always come with a price tag attached to it. See you can not sell the Cross because it to gruesome, but you can sell just a golden cross with diamonds, rubies or what kind of jewels you prefer. The cross means that your Salvation was bought with a price; the Precious Blood of the Son of God, and all that believe that Jesus Christ is Lord are Saved, Galatians 3: 28.

Thank You for Reading Justified by Faith Pt9 from Genesis 3:15

Romans 3: 28, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” (NASB)
Now this should put down any idea of works having anything to with justification. This is another slap in the face of man; we so desperately want to add in our Salvation that we would even go the extreme and willfully disobey God and call it total obedience, Isaiah 64: 6.

Please don’t walk away in thinking that we don’t need to keep the Commandments, get water baptized, take the Lord’s Supper, and do good deeds. We should and must do our part in the Kingdom but these activities afford us nothing in the way of our Salvation. Why do you think it is called the Finished Work of Christ? If Christ needed our help He would have asked us, but He didn’t.

Paul was talking to the Jews who believe that Salvation came by works. And why shouldn’t they; they are the Chosen People of God, the people in which God would bring a Redeemer to the World; God gave them the Laws and the Prophets. So why shouldn’t the Children of Israel expect everybody to have to do something. They went through countless generation of works and now all of it was over and by One man. They felt that this Jesus was changing their way of life, and He was ushering in a way of live that would put them in a lesser position, Matthew 5: 17. The Lord Jesus did all the work, and we need to do is accept this work.

This must have been the stumbling block of 1 Corinthians 1: 23. Stumbling Block or not we must not allow unbelief to take us out of the Will of God. Hebrews 3: 12- 19 calls us into the remembrance of Israel’s falling away from the Living God. Do not let your heart be hardened because you might gasp the idea that we can not do anything to save ourselves, this is the good news. God took all the guess work out, Colossians 2: 6, 7.

Thank You for Reading Justified by Faith Pt8 from Genesis 3:15

Romans 3: 27, “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No but by a law faith.” (NASB)

This verse speaks to those of us that think that we can do something to earn the Righteousness of God. The grace of God is a free gift. Free means that we can not pay for it. The Apostle Paul was talking to the Jews who use the fact that they had the Law which was their works. But if works could earn grace, then grace isn’t free.

Salvation is something that man can not boast about obtaining for himself and the very idea of it makes man excluded from it. This is one of the main reasons why the Cross of Christ offends people. It slaps at the face of those that feel that they can do something, provide some kind of act, or do some regiment of religious activities. Paul showing us that the Law can not save us and the Law could not save us.

The purpose for the Law was two fold. First it defined sin. Then after defining sin, it would shine a light on man’s spiritual weakness. The spiritual weakness is our inability to do what God has commanded. For some it proved to have a very different reaction. In trying to live up to the Law, some had begun to take a superior attitude which bred self-righteousness. And the load of self-righteousness carries the burden of boasting.

In short we have in front of us two Laws; the Law of Moses and the Law of Faith. The Law of Moses is when man does it all while the Law of Faith is what God did for us. All we have to do is take God at His Word and exhibit Faith in Him as our Lord and Saviour and God will do what His Word says because He is bound by His Word and can not fail. It is the Law.

Thank You for Reading Justified by Faith Pt7 from Genesis 3:15

Romans 3: 26, “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (NASB)
The previous verse speaks to the sinners under the Law, now this verse speaks to us. Since God is Just and the Justifier we that believe are imputed with Christ’s righteousness through our faith.

Mercy and truth are so met together, righteousness and peace have so kissed each other, that it is now become not only an act of grace and mercy, but an act of righteousness, in God, to pardon the sins of penitent believers, having accepted the satisfaction that Christ by dying made to His justice for them. (Henry)

How can God be Just and maintain His Justness and be the Justifier of sinner? He judged Jesus on the Cross, 2 Corinthians 5: 21, “He (God) made Him (Jesus) Who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the Righteousness of God in Him (Jesus).” (NASB) In effect God did this by making Jesus serve as the Sin-Offering? Isaiah 53 is the Song of the Suffering Servant, after piecing through this passage we find that Jesus took what was us for on Himself. What was meant for you and I, God the Son said no I’ll take it because if they die, they will forever be separated from the Love of The Father. So Jesus being both God and Man, so much God til He was not man and so much man til he was not God, took the full punishment of the Law on Himself in the form Christ Jesus on Calvary‘s Cross.

The Cross was the place where this beautiful act of Love was done, which becomes the means or vehicle. The Driver or Source is Christ. And the fuel is Love. The demands of the Broken Law were satisfied at the Cross. Salvation is only in Christ and Him Crucified because is the only way God can say we are Justified and be Just in pardoning the sins of believers. The Sin Debt was paid for at Calvary by Jesus, so this is why He is the key, Acts 4: 12.

Thank You for Reading Justified by Faith Pt6 from Genesis 3:15

Romans 3: 25, “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His Blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;” (NASB)
The big word in this verse is propitiation; it is the act of getting rid of the sin that was between God and man. We need to go back to the Old Testament to really get its meaning. The Mercy Seat was the golden cover atop the Ark of the Covenant, Exodus 25: 17- 22. The Mercy Seat is where God (LORD God Jehovah) and sinful man (the Priest) met on the Day of Atonement. The priest would sprinkle the blood of the sin and burnt offering in front of the Mercy Seat seven times and on the Mercy Seat once to make atonement for Israel.

The Mercy Seat had two angels on either side of it facing each other but looking down. They were looking at the Testimony, The Law, which Israel and man broke. When the blood of sacrifice was applied the angels now would be looking at the blood. Now if we can gasp this, we will be able to bring this into what propitiation is.

The Lord Jesus is our propitiation, propitiatory sacrifice, our Mercy Seat under the Law. Christ Jesus is our priest, our sacrifice, our altar, our all in all. The demonstration of His Righteousness is the fact the we are the ones that need to atone but His gives us Himself as the Atonement and all we have to do is walk, in faith, in what He has provided.

God’s forbearance or tolerance speaks directly of His Divinity. With all the sinning we did before we confessed the name of Jesus, God had the right to take us in our sins. But thank you Jesus His didn’t, Ephesians 2: 1- 9.

Thank You for Reading Justified by Faith Pt5 from Genesis 3:15

Romans 3: 24, “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus ;”(NASB)
Justified in the Greek means we are declared ‘not guilty’ by God. Freely carries the promise that any payment presented by the sinner not only is not accepted, but nullifies that which God has given freely. Ephesians 2: 9, “not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”(NASB)

Grace in Greek signified a favor done out of the spontaneous generosity of the heart without any expectation of return. When the Greeks exhibited grace, this favor of whatever nature was always done to one’s friend, never to an enemy. But when “Grace” comes into the New Testament, it takes an infinite leap toward, for the favor God did at Calvary was for those who hated Him. It was a favor done out of the spontaneous generosity of God’s Heart of Love with no expectation of return. There are no strings attached to Grace, as there can not be string attached to Grace. It is given gratuitously or it is not Grace. (Swaggart)

Redemption in Greek means to redeem by paying the price. There are three Greek works that mean redeem:
1) Agorazo means to buy in the slave market. (1 Corinthians 6: 20, 7: 23; 2 Peter 2:1), this carries the note that we were in the slave market or on the auction block of Satan’s slave market when the Lord Jesus bought us with His Blood.
2) Exagorazo means to buy out of the slave market. (Galatians 3:13; 4:5), now this means that the Lord Jesus brought us out, not to be sold again. We are His forever and every, Amen.
3) Lutroo means to set free by paying a price. (Titus 2: 14; 1 Peter 1: 18), when the Lord Jesus bought us His set us free, and now are free to live a life pleasing and worthy of the Price in the Power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ Jesus bought us in the slave market of sin with His Precious Blood, we don’t want to think of our selves as slaves to sin but as a sinner we were being control by Satan who played on our lusts. To make it plan; the devil sees that we like to drink so he tells us that there is nothing wrong with drinking with friends. But what he doesn’t tell us is that years latter when we want to stop, we can’t because now we are bound and the ’Happy Hour’ is over.

And as a sinner we have no power to stop. How many 12 step programs do we have to go through before it dawns on us that all of our will power will do is keep us going back to step one. But when we put our faith in Christ and Him Crucified we now have the Power for on High to stop because we have been bought with the Precious Blood of Jesus. This gives the Power of the Spirit of Liberty latitude to move on our behalf. So now that thing which we struggled with for years is removed in the twinkling of an eye. This help from the ‘Helper’, John 16: 7, is called Grace.

The Price of Redemption is so sufficient that when Jesus said “It is finished.”, John 19: 30, in effect God was saying “It is enough.”

Thank You for Reading Justified by Faith Pt4 from Genesis 3:15