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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Grace; Heaven; Change; the Kingdom, #6
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)
The Apostle Paul did not preach going to Heaven. Paul preached righteous behavior, the coming of the Lord, and the Kingdom of God. It appears we have not been able to perceive these emphases although they have been in the Bible all the while.
For example:
Now I know my readers are well acquainted with the above passage. But let's think about it once more.
First of all, when we read the Book of Galatians we can see that Paul is not speaking to the unsaved people of Galatia but to the Christians of Galatia.
Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— And all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia: (Galatians 1:1,2—NIV)
Now, no student can maintain reasonably that Paul is speaking to the unsaved, or to Jews, or to anyone other than Christian believers.
But look what Paul is stating! There is no way in which we can reconcile the above passage with most of today's Christian preaching and teaching.
(Sometimes I wish we would pay close attention to what Paul has said here and in similar passages, and either explain away the passage or else admit we are teaching our traditions and not the Bible.)
The acts of the sinful nature of everyone, including the believers, are obvious.
We are immoral, filled with strife and selfish ambition. Our sinful nature is revealed in drunkenness and orgies, or in criticism, gossip, slander, and malicious backbiting.
Each one of us has a sinful, adamic nature. On this we all agree.
What we do not agree on is how God deals with our adamic nature under the new covenant of grace.
The prevailing teaching is that God has forgiven our sinful nature and is ready to take us to Heaven by grace. Isn't this what is commonly understood from today's preaching?
But the Bible does not state God is ready to take our sinful nature to Heaven by grace. We are preaching unscriptural traditions. How long are we going to keep doing this?
The Apostle Paul faithfully declared the Words of Jesus Christ.
Paul says, "If you live according to your sinful nature you will not inherit the Kingdom of God."
We are so filled with our traditions we do not know what the Kingdom of God is, thinking it has something to do with Heaven.
Heaven is a place. The Kingdom of God is the rule of God through Christ through the saints that will come to the earth when the Lord appears from Heaven.
This is what John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, and all the Apostles of the Lamb preached: the Kingdom of God is coming from Heaven to be installed on the earth.
To be continued.