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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Five Kinds of Righteousness, continued
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)
I am told that Evangelical scholars handle this and similar verses in the New Testament, of which there is an abundance, by saying they do not apply to Christians.
If this is what is being maintained it indeed is a reckless point of view. If the passage above does not apply to the believers in Galatia then who is to say what passages of the New Testament are addressed to Christians? What we have then are many private interpretations of the Scriptures, none of them being valid.
The truth is evident: Christians living in known sin will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Now, why is this? It is because there is no sin in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God does not consist of people who are righteous by imputed righteousness but actually are continuing in sin.
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. (I John 3:6—NIV)
We know the atonement made by Jesus Christ includes both forgiveness of sin and deliverance from sin. We know this from the celebration of the Jewish Day of Atonement. One goat was slain and its blood sprinkled upon and before the Mercy Seat. The blood of the slain goat made an atonement for the sins of Israel.
The other goat, after the sins of Israel were laid on it by Aaron's hands as he confessed the sins of the people, was led away into the wilderness. This also was a goat of atonement, but an atonement of the removal of sin rather than an atonement of forgiveness accomplished by the blood that appeased the wrath of God.
No sin is permitted in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the doing of God's will on the earth as it is performed in Heaven.
So the question becomes, how do we go about driving the sin from us so we can grow in righteous behavior and inherit the Kingdom?
First of all, there probably is a time period during the Church Era when deliverance will take place. Now the New Testament always has promised that if we will confess our sin God is faithful and righteous both to forgive our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. No doubt many have taken advantage of the promise and have been forgiven and cleansed.
But as far as the Christian Church as a whole, salvation has been regarded primarily as a means of forgiveness rather than deliverance. Grace has come to mean only forgiveness, whereas the actual use of the term grace in the New Testament is by no means limited to forgiveness. Rather we might view the grace of God as God in Christ bringing people from the rule of Satan to the rule of Christ. Grace is not merely forgiveness, as wonderful as forgiveness is.
No, the Kingdom of God does not consist of forgiven sinners but of new creations in Christ—creations who have been transformed from the image of Adam to the image of Jesus Christ in both personality and behavior.
To be continued.