| E-MAIL SERVICE | Sign me up to receive the daily Word of Righteousness free via my E-mail address! ( ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ) | |
| ARCHIVES | I want to check out the daily Words of Righteousness for any of the last fourteen days or from previous weeks. ( ENGLISH ONLY ) | |
| FEEDBACK | I have a question or comment about today's Word of Righteousness. ( ENGLISH AND SPANISH ONLY ) | |
| BOOK LIST | I would like to see the complete book list of the Words of Righteousness author Robert B. Thompson. (SOME SPANISH TITLES AVAILABLE ) |
The Daily Word of Righteousness
But What If We—Don't?, continued
"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!' they said. ‘Open the door for us!' "But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'" (Matthew 25:10-12—NIV)
As for the believer who is living in the flesh when the Lord appears, the door will be shut in his face. Then he will be resurrected to shame and everlasting contempt. If he is saved into the authority of the Kingdom of God and not destroyed at the coming of the Lord, it will be as by fire resulting in an entrance into the Kingdom as a naked spirit. To be saved by fire is not an enviable destiny.
I do not understand how the notion that Christ is our alternative to moral transformation instead of what He is, the means of our transformation, ever gained the historical and universal grip it has on Christian thinking. It may have arisen because Gentile scholars have misunderstood Paul's point of view. Many of Paul's Epistles are addressed to the attempt of the Judaizers to force the Gentiles to adopt all or part of the Law of Moses. Paul's repeated insistence that we are not saved by works but by grace means we cannot gain righteousness by observing the Law of Moses now that grace and truth have come through the Lord Jesus Christ.
That Paul did not mean by this that Christ came so we do not have to change morally is revealed in his numerous exhortations to righteous, holy behavior. And Paul did not exhort us to righteous behavior with the understanding that even though we do not become a new creature in Christ we still stand in grace, we still are in a state of grace, we still are saved by the merits of Jesus Christ. Paul exhorted us to righteous behavior with the idea that it is this or nothing. If we do not undergo moral transformation we cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21—NIV)
Again:
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:24—NIV)
If we have not crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires, or are not in the process of doing so, we do not belong to Christ Jesus. There is no such thing as a state of grace such that we can ignore the commandments of Christ and His Apostles and still belong to Christ. Such a state would contradict the teachings of the Apostle Paul.
Jesus said if we do not bear the fruit of His image in our personality we will be cut out of the Vine, out of Himself.
The question is not of our going to Heaven, it is that of abiding in Christ so we are being made a new creation. If any believer abides in Christ there is a new righteous creation coming forth.
To be continued.