Usually when a Gentile is approached with the Gospel of Christ he is told that he is a sinner; that the soul that sins shall die; that he cannot save himself; that if he accepts Christ all his sins will be forgiven and he will go to Heaven when he dies.

I think Paul and the Jews he preached to were coming to the Gospel from a somewhat different point of view. The Jews had been taught that any transgression of the Law of Moses was sin and they must keep the Law if they desired to live in the sight of God. I am not sure they had going to Heaven in mind. At least there is very little said in the Old Testament or the New about God's salvation having to do with gaining eternal residence in Heaven when we die.

In the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans Paul reasons with those who know the Law concerning the conflict between the sinful nature of the body and the Law of Moses. Paul concluded that the Law produced death because it underscored sin without providing a means of deliverance from sin.

Paul was seeking a salvation that would rescue him from his sinful body, his body that caused death because it would not obey the Law of Moses.

"Who will rescue me from the body of death?"

Notice carefully that Paul was not seeking forgiveness. He was looking for deliverance from the power of sin.

For two thousand years Christianity has been preached as a means of the forgiveness of sin. The Lamb of God is presented as the One who forgives the sin of the world rather than the One who takes away the sin of the world.

It certainly is true that there is forgiveness of sins through the Lord Jesus Christ. But there also is deliverance from the power of sin, and this is not as well known.

Forgiving the sins of people does not solve the problem of the people or the problem of God.

If all God is going to do is forgive us, then He is going to usher us all back into the Garden of Eden where the same problem will still be present. People will still be sinful.

God wants people who are righteous. I think we would all agree with that. People want people who are righteous. I think we would all agree with that also.

God would not want to walk in the Garden of Eden if all around Him people were slandering one another. Neither would you or I want to be in the Garden of Eden if people all around us were slandering one another.

One of our fondest hopes of Heaven is that the people are righteous and living in love and peace. Am I correct in this?

This is what I mean by saying forgiving their sins does not solve God's problem or their problem.

If every believer on earth were suddenly lifted into Heaven, nothing would be solved. It would only bring millions of sinful natures into Paradise; unless, of course, sin were automatically removed from us by virtue of our dying and going to Heaven.

But there is no basis in Scripture for such an automatic moral transformation. A painless moral transformation produced by dying would be a wonderful idea, except it would not provide God with experienced kings and priests to govern the ages to come.

To be continued.