Tag: truth

The Nature of God — part 2

Yesterday I started a blog post series entitled The Nature of God.  In it I shared about a Bible study I attend that is doing a curriculum by a well-known Bible study teacher on the book of Romans.  We are in Romans 9.  I don’t care for the curriculum because it doesn’t come from a grace-based, finished work of the Cross teaching.

Our most recent lesson was on the nature of God and I won’t go back into it today…. you can click the link above and read the blog from yesterday if you want.  One of the attributes or nature of God that was listed was “Just.”  I don’t disagree that God is just…. He absolutely is.  I didn’t care for the definition that was given to describe God’s justness. It said:

  • Just – God rewards righteousness and punishes sin proportionate to His love of the former and His hatred of the latter (Psalm 89:14; Numbers 14:18, 23:19; Romans 9:14)

Let’s look at the verses that are used to prove this Bible teacher’s lesson on the nature of God being “just.”

  • Psalm 89:14 (KJV) – Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

In the Hebrew it says that Justice and Judgement are the dwelling place of His throne. Covenant Loyalty and truth shall go before your face. 

The foundation of His throne is Justice and Righteousness but when He turns His face toward us….. what flows from that throne…. that beautiful throne of grace…. is mercy and truth.  Or as it actually says in the Hebrew, covenant loyalty (chesed) and truth.  Psalm 85 also talks of covenant loyalty (mercy) and truth together.  God’s covenant loyalty and truth, of course, are really met together only in Jesus Christ.

John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ

To be just, God had to punish sin (Ezekiel 18:4 and 20). But His mercy didn’t want to give us justice (James 2:13). This problem was solved in Jesus. God the Father laid our punishment on Jesus (Isaiah 53:6), and now through Jesus, we can receive God’s mercy (Ephesians 2:4-6). Oh happy day!!!  Mercy triumphed over judgement.  Therefore, mercy and truth have come together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Thank You, Jesus!  This is a miracle that could only occur because Jesus took all of God’s wrath for our sins (Isaiah 53:6 and John 12:32) into His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24).

Justice and judgment are seldom combined with mercy and truth. Since all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), all of us deserve death (Romans 6:23), not mercy and truth. But because Jesus paid for all our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 Peter 2:24), mercy and truth are now offered to us in Jesus (Psalms 85:10).

Now what about Numbers 14:18

  • Numbers 14:18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

I have a couple of issues with this verse in regards to the New Covenant.  First of

First of all it says He by no means clears the guilty.  That was under the Old Covenant.  Under the New Covenant, our guilt has been canceled.  The Law produced guilt.  Jesus took the Law as a document and nailed it to His cross, in effect writing across the bill “Paid in Full.” The New Testament believer is no longer under the Law ( 1 Corinthians 9:21, 1 Corinthians 10:23, Romans 3:19).

  • Colossians 2:14 – Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross;
  • Romans 3:19-20 — Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (20) Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

I also have an issue with this verse saying God will visit the iniquity of the father’s upon the children Ezekiel 18:3 and Jeremiah 31:30 both say that everyone shall die for his own iniquity.  This is speaking of the New Covenant….. Jeremiah 31:31-34 says Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: (32) Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: (33) But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (34)And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 

Under the New Covenant, the sins of the fathers are not passed down generation to generation.

As for Numbers 23:19 I’m not sure why this one is included to prove that God hates and punishes sin and rewards and loves righteousness.  This verse is talking about Balaam being powerless to overturn God’s blessings.

The last verse given is Romans 9:14.

  • Romans 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

The verse before it says Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated.  Jacob was called to a higher position than his brother, Esau, before they were born, but that does not display any rejection of Esau on God’s part.

I’m not sure what this verse has to do with God punishing sin and rewarding righteousness.  If anything it disproves it.  He chose Jacob and Esau before they had done any good or evil, to illustrate that election was not based on performance but choice.

Of course I believe God is just.  Sin had to be dealt with.  The price for sin, all sin, has been paid!  God dealt with sin once and for all in Christ. He is now focused entirely on righteousness. Jesus did not just take our sin; He became the embodiment of it, so that we could become the embodiment of righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Some scriptures about God being just that should encourage you…..

  • He is merciful and remembers our sins no more
    • Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
      • the word for merciful is hileos which means appeasing divine wrath; It means propitious, describing God’s covenant-mercy which rescues the believer by His atonement (bringing divine satisfaction).
  • Jesus became the propitiation for the WHOLE WORLD’S sins in order to satisfy the debt the Law had placed us under
    • 1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 
      • propitiation is hilasmos in Greek meaning to appease wrath; an offering to appease (satisfy) an angry, offended party.
  • Jesus offered Himself for our sins ONCE for ALL
    • Hebrews 7:26-27 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; (27) Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
  • Jesus came to take away the sins of the world
    • John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
  • We have been sanctified and perfected by Jesus’ sacrifice
    • Hebrews 10:11-14  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (11) And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:  (12) But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; (13) From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. (14) For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
  • Jesus took our sins so that we could have His righteousness
    • 1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
  • God reconciled the world to Himself — making us friends instead of enemies
    • 2 Cor 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

      • reconcile is katallaso in Greek meaning to change from enmity to friendship, to reconcile“
  • Jesus took our chastisement for our sin, giving us instead healing
    • Isaiah 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
  • God in His kindness declared us righteous and freed us from the penalty of sin
    • Romans 3:23-24 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (24) Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 
  • Christ died for us… justifying us and saving us from the wrath that the Law brought
    • Romans 5:8-11 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (10) For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (11) And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
  • Grace abounded to us through the righteous obedience of Jesus
    • Romans 5:18-21 So then as through one transgression there resulted in condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted in justification of life to all men. (19) For as through the one man’s disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. (20) The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, (21) so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

There are so many more verses that we could list.  I encourage you to study it for yourself.  Instead of finding Old Covenant Scriptures to “prove” that God hates and punishes sin look for New Covenant Scriptures that will show you what Jesus did for you.

Romans 3:26 shows us the nature of God being Just…… This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness.  

His righteousness and His justness are demonstrated in that all men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (v.23) and yet God with undeserved kindness declared us righteous through Christ when He freed us from the penalty of sin (v. 24) because Jesus became the sacrifice for sin, shedding His blood for us.

He is a very just God… who has defeated sin and its power in our lives, completely forgiven us and has declared us righteous.  IN CHRIST His justness is clearly seen.

Next blog post is part 3 and talking about wrathful…..

~ Robin

Cancer GONE!

Two days ago my next door neighbor Lanette asked me to come over and pray for a friend of hers that was just diagnosed with a cancerous mass on her ovary.  I told her absolutely, set it up and I’ll be right over.  Just a few weeks ago, Lanette herself had also been diagnosed with uterine cancer and she had been resigned to “suffer” for Jesus and die if that was His will for her.  Her husband and daughters convinced her to call me and see if I would pray for her.  They had heard that 1 few weeks prior I had prayed for a woman in our church with breast cancer and she was healed.

So my husband and I went over to Lanette’s house. I spent a few minutes with her prior to praying just teaching her about what the Bible says about healing and that it is always God’s will to heal.  We prayed for her and in addition to receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of tongues (Acts 2:2), she received her miraculous healing… the next morning the cramping and bleeding had stopped.  

The doctor gave her his pathology findings a couple of weeks later that said this was indeed a miracle because the cancer was now GONE and there would be no need for chemotherapy.  Lanette is such a beautiful woman of God and was willing to go through whatever God wanted her to… including cancer and going home to heaven early.  All she needed for her faith to grab ahold of her healing was to know that cancer and ALL sickness and disease is never God’s will.  That what God wants her (and all of us) to have is abundant life.  She just needed to be taught what the Word says about God always being a Healer.

healing

When her friend Danielle (who had just been diagnosed with cancer) heard about her healing she asked if I would be willing to pray for her.  I went over to Lanette’s two days ago and got to pray with Danielle.  Before I prayed for her though I listened to what her thoughts were… where her mind was at.  First, because a member of her family had been diagnosed with cancer, her doctors were proactive in testing her and her sisters often to make sure she didn’t get cancer.  Second, while she believed that the enemy attacks us with sickness, she believed that God allows it.  And finally, she was only asking God to shrink the tumor (not completely remove it).  She didn’t want to ask for too much from God…. just a tiny touch… a partial healing was more than enough in her thinking.

I began to teach her what the Word says about healing… dealing with those 3 issues above.

I explained to her that 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that once we are in Christ and have become a new creation.. the old has passed away and all things have become new.  I told her that one translation of John 1:13 says we are children born “out from the natural and corrupt DNA  and into the incorruptible DNA of the Father”…. we received the genetic code of the Father and that superior genetic code recodes the human spirit.  I told her that she isn’t bound to her family genetics because the DNA of Jesus is in her.  I explained to her that sickness cannot live in her body because Jesus lives inside of her!

Then I told her that God doesn’t allow Satan to attack us…. the book of Job was written pre-Christ.  Jesus came and destroyed the works of the devil (Col 2:15; 1 John 3:8) and He gave us all power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). We have the legal right as co-heirs with Jesus to be gatekeepers of our body and soul and are able to say NO to the enemy when he brings something against us that is contrary to God’s Word… contrary to what Jesus purchased for us at Calvary and through His resurrection.  

Finally, I taught her that God is the Healer and He heals completely… not partially!!  He doesn’t want to just shrink a tumor and leave it there as a benign tumor.  God’s desire is to heal her completely…. removing ALL cancer and tumors and anything else misaligned in her body.

Then the most beautiful thing happened… as I was teaching her I watched shackles of unbelief and wrong teaching fall off of her.  As she grabbed hold of the TRUTH that God is the Healer and of who she is IN CHRIST…..she lifted her hands high declaring, “I am no longer limited to just believing for shrinking (of the tumor), I am HEALED. I say no to the devil (to his attacks of sickness and disease) because now I am equipped.  I am the gatekeeper of my body!”  Her faith grabbed ahold of the healing that Jesus already had made available to her 2000 years ago and that wholeness that was already hers manifested in her physical body!

She then also got baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues (Acts 2:2).  Yesterday she messaged me that she went in for her ultrasound and told the technician “I’m looking for my miracle today… Jesus is in me.”

THE RESULTS:  The ultrasound showed no tumor (not a shrinking but a total absence of it!)……. Cancer GONE!

I love being a co-laborer with God (1 Cor 3:9).  I love laying hands on the sick and watching them recover just as God said they would.  AND I REALLY LOVE teaching the Word of God.  I love watching minds get renewed….shackles coming off…. seeing someone’s eyes light up because they just received the revelation on the inside that they are FREE and have always been free!

Free from all sickness, disease, poverty, sin, and death… free from the curse of the law because Jesus became the curse for us (Gal 3:13).  

BUT WHAT ABOUT WHEN IT SEEMS LIKE GOD DOESN’T ANSWER PRAYERS

I was rejoicing on Facebook about these two miracles and a dear, sweet friend of mine commented that she wished prayer had worked for her (I know that some of her family members had been diagnosed in the past with cancer and died).  That broke my heart.  I didn’t know what to say to her to comfort her.   I know that sometimes people die even after we pray for them.  I don’t know why… I don’t have an answer for that.  What I do know is that when something doesn’t happen the way I thought it should… when it SEEMS like God didn’t hear my prayers…. when if FEELS like God doesn’t care about my situation…. I know to fall back on what I do know…to fall back on TRUTH…instead of what my circumstances are screaming at me.

FALL BACK ON WHAT YOU KNOW TO BE TRUE

I know that God is the Healer and that it is ALWAYS His will… His desire… for us to be healed. And not only to be healed but to walk in divine health ALL the days of our life.  Jesus took sickness and disease on His body so that we don’t have to….. so that we could walk sickness free… disease free.  

I know that when I pray His will He ALWAYS hears me (1 John 5:14).  I know He ALWAYS cares about me – He promised to NEVER leave me nor forsake me (Heb 13:5).

I know that He said to pray unceasingly….. to pray even when circumstances look like prayer isn’t working.

I know that as hard as death is to understand… and much as we may miss someone…. I know that the pain and grief of death will not conquer.. will not overpower us (Ps 91:10).

All I know to say to my friend is to KEEP PRAYING… KEEP BELIEVING GOD…. KEEP HOPING…KEEP WALKING IN THE TRUTH OF HIS WORD…. AND KEEP FELLOWSHIPPING WITH YOUR FATHER.  

AND ALLOW HIM TO TRANSFORM YOU

I haven’t always had my prayers answered either.  But I’ve found that as I continue to grow in the Word… continue to know Him more intimately… to share in the fellowship of His sufferings by learning what His death laid hold of for me… to know Him in the power of His resurrection…. understanding our oneness (our co-union)….. AS I BEHOLD HIM.. that I am continually being renewed in understanding who I am.  That as He is so am I in this world.  That causes me to pray with His boldness, with His authority, and with His faith….. and as a result, my prayers are being answered more often.

I no longer pray “hit and miss” prayers… I’m learning to say what my Father says and do what my does… to pray what I hear Him saying and see Him doing.  I’m learning to pray what the word says… to pray from my position of IN CHRIST… to release through my prayers what He purchased for me.  

I am no longer asking or pleading with God to do what He has already done through Jesus.  But rather declaring with all boldness what already belongs to me IN CHRIST.

I don’t pray “my fears” or the problem, but I pray “in faith” the answer to whatever the problem is…. not asking mountains to move… not hoping they move… but COMMANDING them to move.

~ Robin

SaveSave

Full of Grace and Truth

grace and truth

John 1:14 “….We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Jesus came full of grace and truth. Full of is “pleres” in Greek which means abounding in and completely occupied with. Grace is “charis” which means bowing down favorably toward us… it’s also the Old Testament equivalent of “chesed” which is God’s covenant loyalty toward us (see the last blog post Goodness and Grace).  Chesed (grace) is His love that will not let us go!  And truth is “aletheia” which is not just truth spoken but the reality of truth.. truth revealed.

Summed up, Jesus came abundantly and completely occupied with bowing down favorably toward us… He came abundantly and completely occupied with showing us God’s covenant love toward us and revealing to us the reality of the Father… what He’s like… that He’s a good Father to us all the time. He was completely occupied with reconciling us back to the Father!!

He was consumed with revealing to us the true realities of the Father’s love.  The Word, the Son, who is God, became flesh to reveal a divine glory that is “full of grace and truth.” The Word of God became flesh to be gracious to us. The Word became flesh so that this graciousness to us would come in accord with God’s truthfulness.

Paul put it like this in 1 Cor 4:4 “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  The glory of Christ is the image of God, our Father. Verse 18 says although no one has ever seen God, Jesus has revealed Him and made Him known to us. Our Father is full of grace and truth all the time.  Verse 16 tells us that we have received “out of this fullness” grace upon grace!  We’ve received an abundance of grace.   

Sometimes I get preoccupied with the demands of my life… motherhood, being a wife, family time, making a home, friendships, our business, etc. and don’t make the time to be completely occupied with Him…. completely occupied with His love and allowing that Love to flow through me to the world around me.  Completely occupied with the truths and realities of what my Father really looks like…. and showing others what our Father looks like.

Not completely occupied with being a walking, talking manifestation of His extravagant grace.  Being full of grace makes me more pleasant to be around.  I’m not pointing out others faults or weaknesses but rather helping them to look to the One who can pour out His grace upon them.  Being full of grace causes me to encourage and walk along side those around me.  It makes me realize that apart from Him I can do nothing because in Him I live and move and have my being.

I have become more occupied lately with learning about grace and the truths or realities of my Father. The more I learn, the more it replaces old mindsets… the wrong perceptions of who my Father is and what He’s like.  And the more revelation I get, the more I become a walking epistle for a hurting world to read…. because isn’t that truly what we all want… for the world to come up and grab our coat tails and ask us how they can have a life like ours… one that is victorious, peaceful, loving, and full of grace and truth.  For them to look at us and not see us but to look into our Father’s eyes and experience His truth (realities) and His grace (chesed).  

And then we get the honor of directing them to the One who can give them life more abundantly.

~ Robin