Category: Salvation

A Ransom

Every ancestral heritage is a mixture of light and dark, good and evil; while our ancestors are imperfect they offer us valuable lessons. (1Co 10:1-4) We should be thankful for what we learn from them, yet discerning: our responsibility is to embrace what is noble and good, and let go of the rest. (5-6)

As we embody the godly virtues of our ancestors, we ought not seek our identity or security in their legacy; they cannot heal our broken relationship with God or give to God a ransom for our souls. (Ps 49:7)

We each do need a ransom because we have all sinned against God by breaking His law, the Mosaic Law in the Hebrew scriptures, the Torah (Mt 5:19), which makes Him very angry with us. (Ro 1:18) No mere mortal, dead or alive, can help with this because we all have the same problem: we are all sinners. (Ro 3:10)

The penalty we all deserve for our sin is eternal, spiritual death. (Ro 6:23) Justice must be served: we either need to suffer eternally for our own sin or find someone else willing to take our place and suffer on our behalf, someone who does not also deserve to die. But who could do such a thing for us? And who would do so, even if they could? (Ro 5:7)

Yet our biggest problem isn’t the fact that we deserve God’s wrath because of what we have done; our biggest problem is that without God’s help we will keep on breaking Torah; we don’t want to be governed by God and obey His commands; in our natural state we are at enmity with Jehovah God and we cannot submit to His Law. (Ro 8:7)

It’s impossible for us to be in right relationship with God like this (Ro 8:8), but it’s how all of us are when God lets us go our own way. So, we not only need to be saved from the penalty of our sin, but also from its power, from our very nature which causes us to violate Torah; in other words, we actually need to be saved from ourselves (Ro 7:23-24): we need a miracle from God. (Jn 3:5-7)

There is only one Man who is willing and able perform this miracle for us: the Son of God, the God-Man Jesus Christ. (1Ti 2:6) Christ is not a sinner, so He doesn’t deserve to be punished for sin, yet He is willing to be punished for us, to reconcile us to God by dying in our place, to be punished on our behalf so He can reconcile us with God. (2Co 5:19)

And Jesus Christ is also able to save us from ourselves, to give us a new, divine nature, new hearts that love Him and want to obey Him (2Co 5:17), and write His laws into our minds and hearts. (He 8:10-12) He is both willing and able to transform us from rebels into His own likeness and righteousness. (Ro 8:4)

Even so, most of us will naturally keep on looking for some other way to be reconciled with God (Mt 7:13-14); we won’t give ourselves over to God and let Him save and heal us. We want to do things our own way, so rather than searching for the evidence God has graciously provided to show us His way, we make up religions that make us feel good, which maintain our sense of control and give us what we want, and so we trample underfoot the Son of God. (He 10:29)

Though we can do nothing to save ourselves, finding our salvation in God will indeed cost us everything; if we are unwilling to give ourselves entirely up to Him, hanging on to our old life, we will be lost. (Mk 8:35-36) But we have no excuse (Ro 1:19-21), no way to escape if we neglect so great an offer (He 2:3); we’ll just be storing up wrath for ourselves against the day God’s righteous anger is revealed. (Ro 2:5-6)

So, how do we find our eternal salvation in God? We receive His Son Jesus Christ by faith as our Eternal King and Savior and believe on Him (Jn 1:12-13), submitting to Him as Lord, trusting and knowing He has died in our place, has been raised again from the dead, and reconciled us to God, and that He is transforming us into His image. This faith in Him is a supernatural work of God in our hearts wherein He reveals to us what Christ has already done to save us and gives us His spiritual life. (Ro 3:25-26) We cannot make this happen through an act of our own will; it is the work of God. (Ja 1:18)

Until we realize this supernatural work of faith in our hearts we should seek it from God, turning away from all which displeases Him, earnestly obeying Him as well as we can, in every way that we can, and meditating on what He has revealed to us about ourselves and His Son in the Holy scriptures. (2Ti 3:15) We can also ask others to pray for us, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Php 2:12), surrounding ourselves with those who have found Him and are seeking Him, and continue pursuing God until we find Him and He rewards us with faith in His Son. (He 11:6)

Good News

The word gospel means good news, but our idea of good depends on what we value, and this is informed by our world view, how we’re engaging reality. Who or what do we position at the center of Life itself, and why? What drives our sense of value?

By nature, we each put ourselves at the center of reality, as if we’re gods, and define good by what serves our personal interests. Yet we did not create the universe: so, obviously, we are not the center of reality. To have a coherent world view we must look beyond ourselves for our sense of value.

We need not look very far at all (Ac 17:24): the most verifiable fact of all human history is that Jesus Christ, the first-century Jew Who claimed to be Jehovah God of the Hebrew Scriptures (Jn 8:58), died by Roman crucifixion and then rose again from the dead. (Ac 17:31) We rightly engage reality by acknowledging Jesus Christ as Creator God, King of the Universe, and living this out in our conscious behavior; there is no other way.

A central claim of Christ our King is that Mosaic Law — Torah — is the law of His eternal kingdom (Mt 5:17-19); Christ will personally tread down all who break His laws (Ps 119:118) and trample them in His fury. (Is 63:3)

The bad news is that we all deserve to be destroyed by Christ because we’ve all broken His laws (Ro 3:19): we all need deliverance from His wrath. (Lk 3:7)

The Gospel, or good news (Ac 13:32-33), is that if we want to keep Jehovah’s commandments and walk in fellowship with Him, He has made a way for us to be reconciled to Himself through Jesus Christ (2Co 5:19), Who died on behalf of sinners like us (1Jn 2:2) to rescue us from our enmity against Himself and His laws (Ro 8:7) and deliver us from the wrath to come. (1Th 1:10)

By faith we can seek Him (He 11:6) until He we believe on Him (1Jn 5:13), until we know we’re redeemed (He 10:22), resting in what He has done for us (Ro 3:25), confident He has given us a new nature that loves Him and delights in His law (He 10:16-17), and we have become His children. (Jn 1:12-13)

But those who wish to continue breaking Torah, neglecting God’s incredible offer of salvation, are choosing to store up unfathomable eternal misery for themselves (Ro 2:5-6); there will be no escape. (He 2:3)

Religion may offer us false hope by telling us we aren’t so evil, or that if we follow their man-made rules we’ll make it, or by offering us a savior who abolished Torah (2Co 11:4), accepting us as we continue on in willful sin, but these lies won’t stand in the day of Judgment. (Mt 7:21-23)

A very common misconception is that we can be reconciled with God merely by asking Him to save us after we’ve checked some theological boxes and sincerely decided to follow Him. But God never tells us this; it’s just table stakes, how we start seeking salvation. We must continue seeking Him until we become convinced Christ has reconciled our souls to God by dying in our place. Until this becomes the supernatural reality within us, producing true rejoicing in our salvation, we should continue asking God to help us believe on Him until we are absolutely sure, sure unto joy. (2Pe 1:10)

We truly can be saved from ourselves, but we must be willing to give ourselves over to God and let Him have His way with us in order to be set free. (2Ti 2:25-26) If we love our lives we will lose them forever, but if we lose them for His sake, we will find them in Him. (Jn 12:25) If this sounds like good news, then come! The door is wide open; God turns no one away who truly seeks Him. (Re 22:17)

The words of the God-Man Jesus Christ will try us all (Mt 7:26-27) and they will damn nearly everyone for eternity. (Mt 7:13-14) Extremely few will be saved (1Jn 5:19), not because we have no choice, but because we neglect to lay hold of what God is offering us. (1Ti 6:19) There’s absolutely nothing worth going to Hell for (Mt 5:29-30) so we should each work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. (Php 2:12)

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Any Other Gospel

The Four Spiritual Laws is likely the most popular gospel tract ever written, the most widely distributed of all time, likely over 2.5 billion. It summarizes basic Gospel truths in four simple points:

  1. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. (Jn 3:16; 10:10)
  2. Man is sinful and separated from God. (Ro 3:23; 6:23)
  3. Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin. (Ro 5:8; 1Co 15:3-6; Jn 14:6)
  4. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. (Jn 1:12; Ep 2:8-9; Re 3:20)

The tract ends with instructions to “receive Christ” by praying a prayer inviting Him into our heart and committing our life to follow Him, assuring us that if we prayed sincerely we’re now a child of God regardless how we feel.

While each of these four laws is scriptural on the surface, the actual gospel (or good news) presented in this tract — that if we sincerely ask Christ to forgive our sins and come into our heart and save us, that He will — is not. In fact, it is so vastly different from the Biblical reality it amounts to another gospel (2Co 11:4), a false one. It distorts each of these four spiritual principles and encourages an unbiblical response to them.

While the Bible equates receiving Christ with supernatural rest in the Person and finished work of Christ (He 4:3), this false gospel substitutes a mechanical “sinner’s prayer” technique, and also incorrectly defines every key term: repentance, sin and faith. It even explicitly normalizes unbelief by discounting the primary evidence of saving faith: assurance of salvation. (1Th 1:5)

The true Gospel is that Christ delivers those who believe on Him from their violations of His law: Torah. (Mt 1:21, 1Jn 3:4) As we trust Him to do so, He saves us from both the penalty we deserve for breaking Torah by dying for us in our place (Is 53:11), and He also saves us from our tendency to break Torah (Ro 6:14) by writing His laws into our minds and hearts. (He 8:10)

When God changes how we think about deliberately breaking Torah and gives us hearts fully submitted to God (repentance: 2Ti 2:25), and reveals to us that His blood has paid our sin debt in full (faith: Ro 3:25), that Father God has now made His Son Jesus Christ to be sin for us (2Co 5:21), we cannot rightly pray and ask Jesus to save us… because we will confidently know that He already has.

This supernatural knowledge will be accompanied by several significant changes within our hearts: we will love Jesus Christ (1Co 16:22); we will start obeying Torah (1Jn 3:9); pleasing God will become the most important thing to us; we will be willing to forsake anything and everything to follow Him. (Lk 14:33)

So long as any of these evidences of saving faith are not present, no one should be assured of salvation (2Co 13:5); rather, we should diligently continue seeking God, asking Him to reveal Himself to us and give us repentance to acknowledge and rest in the truth (2Ti 2:25) until He gives us faith and a new heart, assuring us of our eternal safety. (He 11:6) We should strive to enter the narrow gate into salvation (Lk 13:24), examining ourselves and systematically proving it to ourselves (2Co 13:5), diligently making our calling and election sure (2Pe 1:10), until doubting our salvation the tiniest bit is entirely foreign to us. (1Jn 5:13)

But this tract, rather than encouraging us to wait on God until we experience this deep, supernatural, inward change in what we are trusting in as the basis for our salvation, shifting entirely away from dependence on ourselves and our own works to the finished work of Christ — which is the only act that can save us, and experience how this change in our faith system is transforming our hearts to love and obey Christ from the moment this first appears within us, we are told we are now a child of God even if our beliefs about Christ and salvation have not changed and we feel no different since we started reading the tract.

In other words, this gospel assures us of eternal life simply because we asked for it, regardless what we actually believe or how we feel. This teaches us to depend on the act of praying sinner’s prayer for our salvation rather than on Christ Himself and His finished work, and it positively affirms the reality of our salvation even if we have no evidence of this faith at all, no true faith in Christ.

So, what this tract is actually doing is inoculating us against the true Gospel by offering us false hope of Heaven based upon our own work: our act of sincerely praying the sinner’s prayer.

This framing of the Gospel implies Christ has died for everyone but that His death saves no one, that believing on and resting in the atonement of Christ is insufficient, that faith does not save us, that we must do something else besides believe.

The message effectively presents Christ’s sacrifice as ineffectual: not actually saving us as we believe, only making it possible for us to save ourselves by deciding to pray the sinner’s prayer and “receive Christ”. So, in trying to distill the Gospel for us, it explicitly denies Christ’s atonement as the divine act which saves us when we rightly receive Christ and believe on Him. (Jn 1:12-13)

While presenting Jesus as the only bridge to God, this false gospel lies to us about how we cross this bridge; it deceives us about how Christ truly accomplishes our salvation: by dying for us as we believe in Him and manifesting the reality of this faith in our hearts. It leads us up the path to the narrow gate (Mt 7:14), offers us a cheap substitute for entering in through this gate, and then turns us away, assuring us we have entered in and that all will be well as we continue on down the broad road to destruction. (13)

There is only one true Gospel; trusting any other gives false hope of Heaven, which may be the most dreadful possible state we can ever be in — thinking we’re eternally safe when we’re not. God’s curse upon those who willfully participate in such deception is evidently just. (Ga 1:8-9)

After so many millions have been misled by this shallow, evangelistic travesty, is it any wonder Christ Himself prophesies of the many who will come to Him expecting open arms, only to hear Him say, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Mt 7:22-23)

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Are There Few?

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When Christ was asked, “Are there few that be saved?” (Lk 13:23), He didn’t answer directly; perhaps the question is too significant to answer with a simplistic Yes or No.

What is a reasonable estimate of how many will make it to Heaven? If it’s 7 out of 10 we might not panic, figuring we’re better than most. But if it’s more like 1 in 10,000 … well that’s a wake-up call to make our election sure (2Pe 1:10), to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. (Php 2:12)

Christ’s reply is not the least bit comforting: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” (Lk 13:24) The implication is very few will make it to Heaven (Mt 7:14); many, thinking they have a personal relationship with Christ (Lk 13:25-26), will be turned away, much to their own consternation and horror. (27-28) Even many who call Christ Lord and think they’re doing great work for Him will be cast out because they didn’t do God’s will; He never knew them. (Mt 7:21-23)

Christ is warning us to diligently seek salvation, to earnestly lay hold on eternal life with all our might (1Ti 6:12) and ensure beyond any doubt that our lives reflect the reality of divine salvation. (He 6:9) It’s exactly what we’d expect Him to say when the odds we’ll make it are slim to none if we’re the least bit negligent. (He 2:3) He’s telling us to pursue Him and eternal life as our top priority, to leave no stone unturned, leaving nothing to chance, and to let nothing get in our way or distract us. (Mt 18:8)

Does God give us any further indication that the odds any particular soul is safe are extremely slim? Consider the ante-diluvian population, where only eight souls were saved (1Pe 3:20) out of perhaps 100 billion. In this present age, the remnant is evidently so small John says the whole world lies in wickedness (1Jn 5:19); the percentage is evidently negligible, dust on the scales of humanity.

Could it be that most people will spend their entire lives and never know a single soul that’s actually going to Heaven? That even the most devoted among us may only encounter a tiny handful of saints?

Of course, we dare not claim to know for sure who’s in or out; thankfully, only God knows the heart. But we should be willing to pursue Heaven all on our own, undaunted even if no one else seems to care or have any clue about it. We’re only responsible for making our own election sure. Since God Himself tells us to do so (Is 55:6-7), we should, confident He will show us the way. (He 11:6)

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The Whole Law

During the apostolic era, Christians were viewed as members of a Jewish sect, a subset of Judaism; the Twelve Apostles and their disciples were passionately Torah-observant (Ac 21:20), including the Apostle Paul. (24) As the Holy Spirit lead them to delight in Torah as the law of God (Ro 7:22), the early church remained Torah-centered; except for their love for Messiah, they looked and acted Jewish.

The distinct religion which we now call Christianity began to emerge late in the 1st century, distinguishing itself from Judaism by rejecting Torah as God’s Law. Though Christ plainly warns against this (Mt 5:17-18), and though Paul anticipates this type of apostasy (2Ti 4:3-4), desperation to escape the devastating Fiscus Judaicus, the additional tax imposed by Rome upon all Torah-keepers, beginning shortly after the destruction of the temple in 70 CE and continuing for hundreds of years, opened the door wide to deception. The relentlessly crippling financial burden — imposed simply for being Torah-observant — drove post-apostolic leadership to wrest key Pauline passages (2Pe 3:16) to decouple the burgeoning, predominantly lower-class gentile Christian population from its biblical foundation. (Ps 11:3)

Since no reasonable soul would believe all of Torah has been abolished, especially laws such as Do Not Kill, Do Not Commit Adultery, etc., key figures such as Justin Martyr and Ireneus began to arbitrarily partition Torah into moral and civil or ceremonial laws, claiming ceremonial commands were temporary shadows fulfilled by Christ and civil laws were only for Jews. They started encouraging believers to cease sabbath observance, abandon God’s feasts, ignore dietary laws, leave their children uncircumcised, etc. Conveniently, as it turns out, they began teaching precisely what suffering believers were desperately wanting to hear: how to stop being identified as Jewish and avoid debilitating taxation without renouncing their faith in Christ.

Thus the “itching ears” predicted by Paul a few decades earlier played itself out in the churches (2Ti 4:3-4), corrupting the faith and starting yet another false religion. The burdensome tax continued right up until just before this new religion, Christianity, was officially recognized as the state religion under Constantine (380 CE). Evidently, this is no coincidence, but calculated extortion and deception. In retrospect, we should expect as much; as God further reveals Himself (1Co 2:8) Satan strategically creates the clever counterfeit. (2Co 11:13-15)

Yet the trained soul perceives that dismissing parts of Torah as civil or ceremonial openly contradicts the plain teaching of Christ Himself (Mt 5:17-18) and changes the very definition of sin (1Jn 3:4), amounting to a radical departure from the faith which was once delivered onto the saints. (Ju 3) We know Torah is spiritual (Ro 7:14); it is all good if we use it lawfully. (1Ti 1:8) Rejecting this arbitrary partition of Torah collapses the entire superstructure of Christian dogma like the proverbial house of cards and exposes Christianity as a massive fraud. (Mt 7:26-27)

Even so, most Christians accept this artificial classification of Torah as a given, mentally substituting whatever definition of the law they happen to prefer in any biblical context. They instinctively dismiss the parts of Torah they despise while thinking they are respecting God’s law as a whole, and they do not even seem to realize they are doing so. (I certainly didn’t.) Pointing it out and challenging this key step might be a gamechanger for the elect: challenge them to show from scripture where and how God partitions His laws like this. When we stop doing so, Torah-relevance becomes an all-or-nothing proposition (Mt 22:40), as it should be (Is 8:20), exposing biblical objections to Torah observance as inherently inconsistent: they simply cannot stand. (2Ti 3:16-17)

The reality is that deliberately and routinely breaking any part of Torah defines one as a lawbreaker. (Ja 2:10-11) Intentional, willful disobedience is the defining characteristic of Satan and his own. (1Jn 3:8)

Yet God’s mercy towards sins of ignorance (1Ti 1:13) is evidently graciously extended to those who remain blinded by the enemy (2Co 3:14), who literally cannot see what they are doing. It is no small thing to acknowledge this level of deception and repent; it effectively amounts to following another Jesus, a very different one, evidence that the Jesus preached in Christianity since the 2nd century is not the Jesus of the Bible. The same language is used, but the actuality is quite different.

Preaching Christ as Messiah offering to save us from breaking Torah, equipping and enabling us to live in obedience to Torah (Ro 8:4), reveals who is willing to receive the true King and who is content to follow the counterfeit. (Ro 8:6) The foundation of God stands sure, having this seal: Jesus Christ knows those who are His (2Ti 2:19), and He is saving us from our breaking of Torah. (Mt 1:21)

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King of Kings

Jehovah God, as revealed in the Tanakh (Old Testament), is King of the Universe. (Ps 103:19) His beloved Son Jesus Christ, as revealed in the New Testament, is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. (Re 19:16) They are One. (Jn 10:30)

Jehovah God, as the King, has a kingdom: the Kingdom of Heaven. (Mt 4:17) He also has a set of statutes (Ps 119:34), commandments and laws by which He governs the nations. (Is 2:3)

Jehovah’s laws are embodied in Torah, the Mosaic Law (Mt 5:19), which He has openly proclaimed (De 4:5-6); they are readily available to all who will obey Him. (Ro 3:19)

Breaking Torah is the definition of sin (1Jn 3:4), and there’s no excuse for doing so deliberately (Ro 1:20); defiance makes both Jehovah God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son very angry. (Ps 2:12)

If Jehovah were to let us all go our own way, we would all defy Him, violating Torah as a manner of life, and thereby reject Him as our King, and His kingdom would be empty. (Ro 3:12) So, He chooses some of us to be His people (Ep 1:4) and comes to save us from breaking Torah (Mt 1:21), delivering us not only from the penalty we deserve for breaking it (Ro 6:23), but also from the very practice of habitually doing so. (1Th 5:23)

Jehovah saves us from the penalty we deserve for breaking Torah by paying this eternal penalty Himself on our behalf (Is 53:11), and He saves us from our very tendency to violate Torah by writing Torah into our minds and hearts. (He 8:10)

Jehovah gives us assurance of His ability and willingness to save us from our breaking of Torah by raising Jesus Christ from the dead. (Ac 17:31)

All those who desire to be saved from breaking Torah come to Jesus Christ for deliverance (Jn 14:6); He gives us a change of mind about breaking Torah and sets us free from our sin. All those who wish to continue breaking Torah as a manner of life will be trodden down by Him. (Ps 119:118)

The above truths expose all world religions as false, counterfeit, darkness: they each radically depart from The Way; they’re not even close. Judaism rejects Messiah as Savior from sin, trying to deserve Heaven by keeping Torah (Ro 10:1-4); Christianity rejects Torah as God’s eternal Law (Mt 5:18), proclaiming another Jesus (2Co 11:4) which abolishes Torah and invites us to break it as a manner of life. (Is 8:20) Every other religion is even farther from the truth.

The road to Destruction is paved and guard-railed by religion, false prophets promising life while leading us to death, and most everyone is coasting comfortably along for the ride, trusting they’re in good company. (Mt 7:13) Yet the way of Eternal Life is narrow, found by very few (14): it’s only one Person wide. (Jn 14:6)

Seeking God starts by seriously exploring what He Himself actually says (Mt 5:17), rather than trusting others to interpret for us. (2Ti 3:15) The King Himself calls upon us to search the Tanakh for ourselves, for it testifies of Him. (Jn 5:39) If the Tanakh does not persuade us nothing else will. (Lk 16:31) He tells us to strive to enter His Kingdom (Lk 13:24), so we seek God until we find Him (Je 29:13); we lay hold on eternal life (1Ti 6:12) until we know we have it. (1Jn 5:13)

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As In a Glass

Torah’s role in spiritual life has always been controversial, swinging between extremes; we’re either abusing it trying to earn right standing with God (Ro 10:3) or claiming it’s largely obsolete, fulfilled (abolished) by Christ.

The reality is the entirety of Mosaic Law, “the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones”, is so glorious unregenerate souls cannot bear to look deeply and honestly into it (2Co 3:7a); the god of this world has blinded their minds (2Co 4:4) such that they cannot yet see Christ’s glory in Torah. (2Co 3:14a)

In other words, the beauty of Torah is hidden, or veiled, to those whose hearts have not yet turned to God. (15) Once we receive Christ, Who is the perfect embodiment of Torah, as He truly is the veil or blindness is healed and this covering over our heart is taken away (16), such that we can now enjoy Christ’s glory through Torah. (14b)

Torah by itself, though it is powerless to make anyone righteous (Ro 8:3), being the ministration of condemnation, is unfathomably glorious (2Co 3:9a); God’s righteous standard is spectacular, amazing, breathtakingly desirable (Ps 119:20), more precious than gold. (Ps 19:10)

Even so, the Gospel is even more glorious than Torah. (2Co 3:10) Torah was never intended as a means of salvation; rather, in showing us how God requires us to live, Torah exposes our sin and condemns our carnal mind, revealing our desperate need of redemption. (Ga 3:24) Though Torah will become obsolete (2Co 3:11) in the new Earth, until then (Mt 5:18) it gloriously reveals the nature and character of God so we may be transformed into His likeness. (Ps 119:35)

Redemption and salvation are discovered in God’s New Covenant as He writes Torah into our hearts (He 8:10), ministering true righteousness into us, which is even more glorious than Torah alone. (2Co 3:9b) Since our unregenerate mind is enmity against God, unwilling to submit to His Law (Ro 8:7), He must supernaturally give us new minds and hearts which delight in Torah (Ro 7:22); this is the miracle of the new birth, and it is by means of Torah (1Pe 1:23), through which God saves our souls. (Ja 1:21)

Thus, the glory of the Gospel itself enhances and extends the glory of Torah by creating the practical reality of it within us (Ep 2:10); the New Covenant enables us to keep Torah in spirit and in truth, to obey it from the heart such that the righteous requirements of the law are actually fulfilled in us as we walk after the Spirit. (Ro 8:4)

God works His righteousness into us over time as the Spirit transforms us into the image of Christ through Torah (Ps 19:7a), grafting Torah into us as we behold the glory of Christ’s character and essence embodied in Torah (Ps 119:18); Torah serves as the glass or mirror reflecting God’s nature into us by the Spirit. (2Co 3:18)

If Christ were preached as He truly is, honoring the entire Torah (Mt 22:37-40), offering to save us from our tendency to violate Torah (in other words, to  sin – 1Jn 3:2), by supernaturally engrafting Torah into our hearts and minds (He 10:16), transforming us so we will love His laws and meditate on them all day long (Ps 119:97), even ranking us eternally based on how we honor it all (Mt 5:19), and threatening to trample underfoot all who will not submit to Torah (Ps 119:118), who would receive Him?

As it turns out, those who will not receive this Christ, who willfully persist in despising Torah and discounting it (He 10:26-27), are indeed following another Jesus whom Paul did not preach (2Co 11:4a); they’ve received another spirit (2Co 11:4b), a seducing spirit (1Ti 4:1), not the Holy Spirit; they’re accepting another gospel (2Co 11:4c), one promising freedom from Torah rather than giving us repentance and engrafting Torah into the core our being, making it an integral part of us.

Most who think they’re safe in Christ are not (Mt 7:21-22); they’re still on the wide road to destruction (Mt 7:13-14), heedless of their fate, only in the end to hear from Christ Himself the most dreadful of all pronouncements: “I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work iniquity (practice lawlessness).” (23) Unlearned and unstable, they wrest the words of Paul, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (2Pe 3:16)

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Help My Unbelief

What should we do when we’re doubting our salvation? When we’re not 100% sure we’ll go to Heaven when we die? We still believe Jesus Christ existed, that He died and rose again to save us all from our sins, but deep down inside we remain uncertain, worried about where we’ll spend eternity? (2Pe 1:10)

Salvation is by grace, the power of God enabling us to have faith in Christ (Ep 2:8), to receive Him and believe on Him (Jn 1:12-13), that He died for us individually (1Co 15:3), personally, that He became sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. (2Co 5:21) If we’re doubting our salvation, it’s because we’re not convinced He has done this work for us, that He has paid our sin debt to God and completely satisfied God on our behalf. (Is 53:11) Why might this be? What can we do about it? (Mk 9:24)

There are two main root causes, which we can overcome in God. (1Jn 5:4)

Firstly, we may not understand the Gospel itself. (2Co 4:3) There are many perversions of the Gospel; they sound like the truth on the surface but are mixed up and diluted with lies and half-truths. For example, we may have been taught Christ died for everyone, but that His death actually saves no one, that He only makes it possible for us to be saved if we do such and such.

There are many versions of this particular lie, but they’re all missing the main point: Christ saves us by dying for us: this is how He justifies us and makes us right with God. (Is 53:5-6, 11) Everyone Christ dies for is immediately, completely and permanently justified before God because of what He has done for them. (Ro 5:9-10) No one can be saved any other way. (Ac 4:12) This is the only way anyone can be right with God.

Since very few are saved (Mt 7:14), it is evident that Christ has not died for everyone in this way; His atoning death is certainly available to everyone to trust in (1Jn 2:2), but He has not paid for everyone’s sins (or then everyone would be saved). The key is to become convinced Jesus has died for us and paid for our sins. Something is blocking our hearts from believing this simple truth (2Co 4:4), blinding us so we won’t come to Christ and be saved. (Jn 5:40) This is something only God can do in us (Mk 10:26-27), but He does promise to do this for us as we diligently seek Him. (He 11:6)

The other root cause of unbelief is sin, which is breaking God’s Law. (1Jn 3:4) When we continue in willful disobedience to God we are not seeking God; rather, we grieve and anger God (Ro 1:18) and deceive ourselves (Ja 1:22); we lie to ourselves and corrupt our ability to perceive the truth. (He 3:13) Even true believers who are not careful to pursue holiness can forget that we were purged from our sins. (2Pe 1:5-9) We deliver ourselves from spiritual captivity (unbelief) when we repent and acknowledge the truth (2Ti 2:25-26) and live accordingly. (Ja 1:21)

We overcome spiritual darkness and unbelief by seeking the truth and obeying it as best we can. (Jn 8:32) We recognize where we are violating God’s law and turn away from this pattern of life, choosing to obey God to the best of our ability. (1Jn 3:8-10) We memorize and meditate on scriptures that explain the Gospel from many angles and perspectives. We saturate our minds and hearts with these truths and prayerfully ask God to open our eyes (Ac 26:18), give us faith (Ep 2:8) and spiritual life. (Ps 119:107) As we earnestly pursue God in this way, He helps us find Him and believe on Him unto everlasting life. (Mt 7:7-8, Je 29:13)

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Restore the Joy

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Depression afflicts millions of souls around the world and it’s a growing problem. Medication, therapy, busy-ness and distractions … it doesn’t really set us free. Very few find ultimate, sustainable victory. What exactly is depression? What causes it? How do we overcome?

We can define depression as a season of joylessness, ingratitude, heaviness, hopelessness, despair, being cast down and despondent. Depression can incapacitate us, rendering us socially awkward and unproductive, alienating us from the life of God, from our families and community. It sounds like the work of the enemy, the thief who steals, kills and destroys (Jn 10:10a), because it is. Depression isn’t God’s will for us, not even for a moment. (10b)

To say depression is a sin may be a stretch, and a cruel one at that; we’re all sinners, and shaming one who’s already depressed isn’t the least bit helpful. A better way to think of it is a state of spiritual captivity resulting from an incomplete, inaccurate perspective. (Jn 8:32) Prisoners of war need to be rescued, not lectured and reprimanded.

We get depressed when we believe lies about God in the midst of our suffering, then we get our focus on the wrong thing and it blows up all out of proportion, and then we literally get in our own way, opposing ourselves. This is how the devil ensnares us and takes us prisoner. (2Ti 2:25-26)

Overcoming depression is simply a matter of re-focusing, getting our perspective more aligned with God’s. (Ps 42:5) It’s a journey, and easier said than done, of course; we can’t do this all on our own. God must give us repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, a fundamental change in our thinking, to set us free. (2Ti 2:25)

Medication and counseling may indeed help give us an edge to jump-start the healing process; spiritual problems can be inseparably intertwined with our physiological and emotional states. We should treat depression holistically, without dismissing its spiritual roots.

Similarly, proper rest, diet and exercise are all part of a healthy mind, soul and spirit. (3Jn 2) We can’t function as we’re designed while we habitually neglect and abuse ourselves; self-hatred isn’t Love — it displeases God because He is Love. (1Jn 4:8)

Yet such external remedies are ultimately superficial, band aids for broken bones, dealing with symptoms rather than the deeper core issues: the root cause of depression is a corruption in our relationship with God. At the root is the lie that God is not good, that He cannot be trusted, that there is no hope in Him. One who is in love with God, who knows the goodness, power and love of God experientially (Ep 3:19), who implicitly trusts God in all their suffering and calamity (Ps 119:75), knowing all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Ro 8:28), who are continually abounding in thanksgiving to God (Co 2:7), praising God for His lovingkindness and tender mercies (Ps 63:3), who are delighting in the nature and character of God (Php 4:4, Ps 104:34), who are feeding in the majesty and strength of God (Mi 5:2), who are meditating in the treasures of His Word night and day (Ps 119:97), who are rejoicing in eternal salvation and in the heavenly glory that awaits them (1Pe 1:4-6) … no, they are not depressed: they cannot be.

So, what should we do when we find ourselves trapped in a season of depression?

First thing is we stop lying to ourselves: we admit we’re depressed and angry and bitter and resentful and despondent and that we have lost all hope. We confess we don’t like the way God is treating us and that we feel like we’re suffering unjustly and that God has left us. We pour out our hearts before Him (Ps 62:8); He can handle it; He already knows. (Mt 6:8) But it’s good for us to admit where we’re at: to cry out to God and admit our weakness, our inability to help ourselves, and confess our infirmity. (Ps 77:10)

Once we get real with our own hearts we can begin to heal, to identify the lies behind every one of these beliefs, attitudes and feelings. We go to God’s Word, the living Sword of the Spirit, and let it pierce down into the deepest places of our heart (He 13:8), and lay ourselves out bare and naked before God. (He 13:9)

We identify a wound, a hurt, a bitterness, a disappointment, and ask God to show us the lie underpinning it, the deception holding us captive in depression. (Ps 139:23-24) Then we ask Him to show us what parts of His Word to focus on to correct this lie. (Mt 4:4) Then we hide these texts in our heart, memorizing them, meditating on them and praying over them, asking God to quicken us and help us believe (Mk 9:24), until the lie is broken and we’re set free in that area. (Ps 119:11)

One by one we cast down these imaginations, these broken perceptions, these twisted beliefs which exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (2Co 10:5) We are rooting out and pulling down the enemy’s strongholds in the battlefield of our hearts, neutralizing them one at a time by the power of God. (2Co 10:4)

We know we are getting free as we experience more joy in God (Ps 51:12), more gratitude, more peace, more trust, more satisfaction in Him. (Is 26:3)

This isn’t a quick fix, certainly, but it actually works, and in the end, I think it’s the only one that does.

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Lay Hold on Eternal Life

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Getting the Everlasting Gospel right (Re 14:6) — understanding it, accepting it, internalizing it and living it out (1Co 15:1-2) — is how we lay hold on eternal life. (1Ti 6:19)

Yet Satan relentlessly and cleverly corrupts and distorts the Gospel to hide the truth from us; his counterfeits abound and they’re appealing. (2Co 11:13-15) So, we have a sobering challenge before us, the ultimate life-and-death struggle – the fight of all fights: to lay hold on the true Gospel for ourselves. (1Ti 6:12) Little if anything is more important than this, and very few of us will get it right. (Mt 7:13-14)

The Apostle Paul claims he was taught the Gospel directly and personally by Jesus Christ Himself (Ga 1:11-12), and then proclaims an eternal curse upon anyone, including himself or any other apostle, or even an angel from Heaven, preaching a different gospel than what he had already preached. (Ga 1:8) We may derive several practical truths from his remarkable claim.

By pronouncing an eternal curse upon anyone modifying the Gospel, Paul implies the Gospel message was already sufficiently clear to be correctly and fully understood by anyone presenting the Gospel; Paul effectively expected all those in the Galatian churches to understand his prior teaching for themselves and compare all Gospel proclamations with that particular expression of the Gospel.

This implies that the true Gospel message can be understood by anyone carefully considering the scriptures, particularly the writings of Paul, and searching out the truth for themselves. (2Ti 3:15) Therefore, any claim that the true gospel was merely hidden “in seed form” within Paul’s message, only to be revealed later through subsequent developments, may be confidently rejected.

Paul’s sense of urgency in presenting the Gospel correctly, in its pure form, in the midst of counterfeit gospels which were evidently already common (2Co 11:4), implies it is extremely important that we each strive to fully understand what Christ taught Paul; we can easily be misled if we’re careless. (2Pe 3:16-17) Getting the Gospel wrong, either in our understanding or personal ministry, may be eternally and incomprehensively devastating.

Paul’s determination to openly challenge those who had been deceived by a false gospel, even those who had been taught by Paul himself, tells us Satan is actively at work to deceive and corrupt the Gospel and that he is often very successful. Paul was on the lookout for gospel deceptions and anticipated them because he understood our enemy. (2Co 2:11) We should soberly consider Paul’s admonitions and carefully verify that our personal understanding and application of the Gospel aligns with everything in the Word of God.

By including angels from Heaven in his list of potential deceivers, and even including himself, Paul is warning us to anticipate corruption from the very highest levels of spiritual authority. We should expect any religious organization or individual claiming authority to interpret scripture for others to be a magnet for satanic infiltration and deception. Paul is effectively saying we should ultimately trust no other Gospel claims than what we can verify for ourselves in the source material, the Word of God, which He has already given us.

Paul rejected the right of any being in Heaven or on Earth to alter or adjust the Gospel itself in any way. This implies there never has been and never will be any revelation from God that modifies or amends the original Gospel message in any manner whatsoever. The everlasting Gospel has never changed since the beginning of time; it will remain constant forever, just like Jesus Christ. (He 13:8)

Finally, Paul’s lack of reference to any external authority as a final arbiter in any dispute over gospel claims, such as the other apostles, a counsel of bishops, an angel from Heaven, or even Paul himself, implies his audience already had a reliable, faithful, unchanging standard by which to evaluate any subsequent preaching of the Gospel and that they were each individually and personally responsible for doing so. Paul, in writing to the local assemblies of Galatia (Ga 1:2), comprising all the saints and not merely bishops, could easily have set himself up as such an arbiter, or pointed believers to church leaders for approval, but he did not. Rather, he admonished them all for having allowed themselves to be deceived by a false gospel and removed from God as a result. (Ga 1:6)

Claiming otherwise, that someone else could be the final, authoritative arbiter in interpreting Paul’s Gospel for anyone but themselves, is effectively indistinguishable from giving a sinner authority to misinterpret it and preach a different gospel. This would remove the responsibility and accountability from the individual believer for believing the true Gospel, which neither Paul nor God ever does. Thus, Paul’s claim implies each believer is individually responsible to evaluate any presentation of the Gospel for themselves, based on their personal understanding of that eternal standard which they already have, interpreting it for themselves, and rejecting any gospel presentation which they find to be inconsistent with it. (This is the essence of Sola Scriptura.)

God’s prescription for addressing Satan’s gospel counterfeits is therefore not self-appointed spiritual authority telling others what to believe, but the humble, earnest searching of scripture by each individual believer (Ac 17:11), seeking a common, mutual, personal understanding of the Gospel (Php 2:2), based on an unchanging, written, supernaturally preserved standard (Ro 16:26): holy scripture. (2Ti 3:15)

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