The Kingdom of God – Repentance

In the Bible, the English word “repent” is the translation of a Greek word “metanoia” which basically mean “change your mind” or “think differently.”

If you have a strong opinion on something, but later you get new information and you change your mind…that is repentance. That is what the word means. To change your mind so that you think differently than you did before.

In my previous post, I shared something that originally upset my theology, and then eventually Read more

Why Jesus Came to Earth

If you have ever pondered the question “Why did Jesus come to earth?” Depending on your background, there are many ways that this could be answered. Did he come to die for our sins? Did he come to show us what God is like? Did he come to teach us how to love one another?

Those are all things that he definitely did while he was on earth. However the primary and central reason for his coming is found in Luke 4:43. Jesus tells us plainly why he was here on earth. Read more

All Sins are Forgiven

This article is a follow up to some statements I made in a recent sermon on the New Covenant.  One of the things I was talking about was the fact that God has already forgiven all the sins of the whole world.

For many people, especially those that grew up going to church, this comes as a very big surprise.  So before I go any further, I will provide some the scriptures where this is articulated.

2 Cor 5:17-21

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

This passage says that God, from his side, had already reconciled the world to himself, and that he is not counting anyone’s sins against them.  This applies to the world, not just Christians, and it has already happened.  This occurred in the past and there is no way to change it.

But, this does not mean that everyone accepts this forgiveness. It does not mean that everyone is saved and goes to heaven.  It just means that sin is no longer the thing that separates people from God.  Sin is no longer the issue.  Jesus is the issue.  Do you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior?  That is the issue, just like Jesus said himself in John 3:18.  Salvation comes by grace through faith in Christ.

Now for our next passage:

1 John 2:2

And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

Jesus already “paid” for the sins of the whole world.  This has already happened.  Jesus is no longer “paying” for sins, and he is no longer forgiving sins.  He doesn’t need to.  He has already done that 2000 years ago.

Hebrews 1:3

 [Jesus] being the brightness of [God’s] glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

This is just another way of saying the same thing.  2000 years ago, Jesus purged all sin, and then he sat down.  That means he was finished dealing with sin.  Sin has been dealt with, and nothing else needs to be done from God’s side regarding sin.

Hebrews 9:24-26

24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

Here again, the writer is making it very clear that all sin was dealt with at the same time.  When Jesus died for us, he only did it once, and all sin was “put away.”  He doesn’t have to do it again and again.  Once was enough.  And we are not in a position of hoping or praying or asking for God to forgive our sins.  We are in a position of gratitude and thankfulness that God has already forgiven our sins, even the ones we haven’t committed yet.

It is because of all of these passages, and the other ones like them, that I made the following statement:

If you are asking Jesus to forgive your sins, then you are in unbelief (or ignorance).

The Bible clearly says in many places that Jesus already forgave your sins.  He doesn’t need to do anything else.  He already did what needed to be done.  There is no special case where Jesus forgot to take care of someone’s sins when he went to the cross.  Jesus has already done it for you.  You are already forgiven.  That is a fact.  What you need to do is believe it and receive it…believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and receive the forgiveness that has been made available to you.

But what about 1 John 1:9?

When I teach on this topic, a question always comes up about 1 John 1:9 where it says that if we confess our sins, Jesus will forgive us.  I like it when this question comes up, because it tells me two things.  One, the person asking the question has read their Bible.  That is always very good.  And two, it tells me that the point I am trying to make is being understood properly.  That is also good, because I do not want people to think I am saying something that I’m not.

So yes, if you take it out of context, and just read it by itself, then this passage sounds like it is telling us that our forgiveness depends on whether or not we confess our sins.  It makes it sound like we are only forgiven of the sins we explicitly confess.  Here is the passage, out of context:

1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But it is never good to take something out of context, because there is a very good chance that you will get the wrong idea.

If this passage was truly saying that our forgiveness depends on our confessing of sin, then consider the following problems that arise:

  • This contradicts all of the other passages I already mentioned, along with many others.
  • If you have to confess in order to be forgiven, then anything you don’t confess is not forgiven
  • Nobody can remember all of their sins from their whole life.  Especially when you consider statements like “whatever is not of faith is sin” (Rom 14:23).
  • Since we all have all of this sin that was never confessed and never forgiven, then nobody is going to be in right relationship with God and nobody will receive eternal life

This interpretation is very disturbing when you think it through, and I know more than a few people that lived a very troubled life because of this out-of-context interpretation of this verse.

Fortunately, when you take the passage in context, in its historical setting, you come away with a very different result.   Allow me to take a moment and provide some background, and I believe you will see that the Bible does not contradict itself, and that we are not hopelessly doomed to die apart from God because we forgot to confess something.

1 John was written to address a heresy that was infiltrating the church.  The heresy is called “Gnosticism.”  It is a Greek philosophy that was around before Jesus came, and the Gnostics were trying to add Jesus to their world view.  Here is a very general summary of some of their false beliefs:

  • all humans (and all reality for that matter) consist of two parts, spiritual and physical
  • our spiritual part is is good, but our physical part is evil
  • all sin resides in the physical flesh only
  • since the physical flesh is temporary, it doesn’t matter
  • therefore, we don’t really have any sin, because it is just our body and our body doesn’t matter
  • this led to a very voluptuous and sensual lifestyle, where they believed they had no sin, and there had no need for forgiveness
  • since flesh is evil, and Jesus was good, then Jesus could not have a physical body…he was a ghost or a phantom

There is more to it than this, but that is enough to give you an idea of why John is making certain statements in his letter.  He is addressing some false beliefs.  With all that in mind, here is the whole passage from 1 John chapter 1:

1 John :1-10

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

Fellowship with Him and One Another
5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

John is basically dismantling Gnosticism in this first chapter.  Here are the three main points.

  1. He repeatedly makes the point that Jesus had a physical body.   They had “seen” and “heard” and “handled” Jesus.  Jesus was not a ghost or a phantom.  He had a physical body.
  2. He corrects the wrong teaching that we have no sin and therefore do not need forgiveness.  He says twice that if we say we have no sin, we are wrong.  We do have sin, and we do need forgiveness.
  3. He then says in verse 9 that if we admit that we do indeed have sin, then forgiveness is available through Jesus

John is not telling Christians that they need to confess their sins every day in order to be forgiven.

He is warning Gnostics that they do have sin, and they need to admit it and receive the forgiveness that is available in Christ.  (For more on this, and many other fascinating facts, I highly recommend “Haley’s Bible Handbook’)

Conclusion

All sin has already been “paid for” and forgiven by God through Christ.  Jesus has already done what is necessary, and then he sat down because “it is finished.”  God has already forgiven the whole world.  He has already reconciled everyone to himself.  Now it is up to us as individuals.  Will we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and receive this forgiveness?  I have, and I thank God all the time for what he has done for me.  I hope you do the same.

A Better Covenant with Better Promises (Sunday Sermon)

Below is the video form a message I gave at a local church in Apex, NC on 9/30/2018.

I compared some of the various covenants and promises found throughout the Bible.  The goal was to help us all begin to grasp just how amazing and wonderful it is for us to live under the New Covenant that Jesus ushered in when he died for us.

Note:  There was a small technical glitch that caused us to lose a few minutes during the middle portion.

 

 

Does God Love Everyone, or Only Believers?

Have you ever been asked a question like “Does God really love everyone?  What about people that don’t believe in him?  Does he love them too?”

Just a few days ago, someone emailed me a very similar question.  As I was writing my reply, I thought it would be good to have something on my site that would be easy to point people to.  So, here is my answer to the question “Does God love everyone, or does he just love believers?”

The Bible’s Most Famous and Most Radical Verse

Possibly the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16.  In my opinion, it is also the most radical  It reads as follows:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

This simple statement is so profound, and so radical.  It tells something about God that is so wonderful.

The Bible says that God loved the world.  It does not say that God loved the church, or that God loved the Christians, or that God loved the believers.  It says that God loved the WORLD.  And because of this love he has for the world, Jesus came to earth to on a rescue mission.

God loves all people, and he made it extremely easy for everyone to be saved and rescued.  All we have to do is receive Jesus…to believe in his name (John 1:12).   This is something that anyone can do.  It does not require any money, or skill, or connections, or hard work, or any other thing.  All you have to do is believe and receive.

Any statement or doctrine that says God only loves the believers is false.  It directly contradicts John 3:16.

It also contradicts Ephesians 2:4-5

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved!

It also contradicts Romans 5:8

But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

And I could continue listing verses, but that is enough to make the point.  God loves all people, even those that don’t believe.  That does not mean that everyone receives salvation and eternal life.  It just means that God loves people even if they reject him.

But What About Romans 9?

In Romans 9, we have the following passage:

Romans 9:13  As it is written, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”

People will quote that to try and show that God loves believers and hates unbelievers.  People with this opinion are often thinking of Jacob as a symbolizing “believers” and Esau as symbolizing “unbelievers.”

There are many problems with this.  One of the problems is that Jacob and Esau are not representatives of believers and unbelievers.  Paul, the author of Romans, is quoting from Malachi chapter 1.  And when you read Malachi, you see that Jacob and Esau are symbolic representatives of two nations (Israel and Edom) that have made many terrible choices.  But God chose to use Israel (Jacob) as his means for expressing himself to the world.  And God continued in this for a very long time, even though Israel as a whole was not cooperating.  This is not talking about believers vs unbelievers, or saved vs unsaved.  So that is the first problem.  (There is much more to this, but that is for another post).

But the main issue with using Romans 9:13 to prove that “God only loves believers” is this:  the writers of the Bible often use hyperbole to communicate strong thoughts.  It was very much a part of the culture.  Consider this statement from Jesus:

Luke 14:26  Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.

Is Jesus really teaching us to hate our parents, our spouse, our children, and our siblings?  Or is he using hyperbole to make a point?  Jesus would not contradict himself.  He said to love your neighbor as yourself.  We are to love others as Christ has loved us.  We are not supposed to hate people.  This is simply hyperbole which was part of the culture when the Bible was written.  It is not intended to be taken literally to mean “God wants you to hate your parents.”

Or how about this one:

Mark 9:43-47  If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.  And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.  And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,

Is Jesus really teaching self-mutilation?  Or is he using hyperbole to make a point?  I believe the Bible is God’s word, and that God is not confused.  If the Bible tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Lord.  then we are supposed to care for ourselves, not mutilate ourselves.  Jesus is simply using hyperbole because that was understood by everyone as a part of the culture.  Nobody listening to Jesus as he taught this lesson would go away thinking they were supposed to cut off parts of their body.

Romans 9 cannot be used to imply that God hates certain people.  It is simply biblical, cultural hyperbole that is used to make a strong point.

Two Parables

As I conclude this article, consider these two short parables:

Parable 1 – There was a young man who was interested in marrying a young woman.  He promised that if she would marry him, he would love her unconditionally, and never forsake her.  But if she would not accept his offer, he vowed to to hate her forever.

Parable 2 – There was a young man who was interested in marrying a young woman.  He told her that if she would marry him, he would love her unconditionally, and never forsake her.  He also told her that even if she did not want to marry him, then he would honor her choice, but he would still love her no matter what.  Even if she continually rejected him her entire life, he would still love her and never stop, even to the day she died, even if it cost him his life.

Which of these sounds more like Jesus?  Which one sounds like a more godly kind of love?  Which one represents God’s character more accurately?

Even when Jesus was being killed by people that hated him and mocked him and rejected him, he said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  Jesus loves people whether they respond to his love or not.  And God is exactly like Jesus (Hebrews 1:3).  God loves everyone, not just believers.

Divine Healing (Summer 2018)

Title: Divine Healing

Subject Matter:  In this class we discussed some of the things the Bible has to say about divine healing.  We looked at some of the different avenues that healing comes through, and also we looked at Jesus as our example for ministering healing to others.

Speakers:  Neal Leazer

Recorded August 15, 2018 at a local church in Apex, NC as part of the “Spirit Filled Living” summer series of classes.

AUDIO ONLY:

 

VIDEO:

AUDIO DOWNLOAD:  You can download the audio by right-clicking on the following link:  Divine Healing in the Bible

 

Born Again, Born of Spirit (Summer 2018)

Title: Born Again, Born of Spirit

Subject Matter:  In this class we talked about what happens to you when you receive Jesus, when you believe in His name.  There are some profound, life-changing truths to be found when you explore what the Bible has to say about this subject.

Speakers:  Neal Leazer

Recorded August 8, 2018 at a local church in Apex, NC as part of the “Spirit Filled Living” summer series of classes.

AUDIO ONLY:

VIDEO:


AUDIO DOWNLOAD:  You can download the audio by right-clicking on the following link: Born of Spirit

 

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