Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Who did Jesus die for anyway?

Photo and Article
by
Rick Mortimer




   I had always thought as a Christian, that Jesus died for His Own, i.e. ‘Christians,’ and that the whole order of this was pre-destined.  In other words, God chose me to be reborn.  I never stopped to realise that I was not a Christian at the time I was saved by Jesus’ death and great sacrifice.  I was ‘of the world’ at the time I was saved.   How presumptuous of me to think that I was somehow ‘better’ than those of ‘the world’ and that God chose me to be saved.
   The truth is a lot different as we shall see below.  God did not ‘choose’ me to save me [predestination],  but instead offered me a choice which I accepted and therefore chose to became reborn and a child of God – by my own choice.  I accepted His extended Grace to me, by using my Faith, and that enabled  [allowed] God to adopt me as His son.  (Gal 4:5)
   Until such time as I chose to become –and so became- reborn [a new creature] through the blood of Jesus, He could not adopt me.   
   It seems to be tradition in modern teaching to preach that God has total power to do whatever He decides to do.  I agree that God has this power –after all, He is the Creator of all things- but it is also proven that He does not use this power except supernaturally in certain specific times and places.  He always defers to our choice, and therefore is limited by what people allow Him to do.  That is a hard concept to understand at first, because I was so full of the traditional (and wrong) teaching of the modern church, that God has total control over the world and everything is predestined and therefore predicted to unfold as He has commanded it to.  This is totally unscriptural teaching and yet it has been so pounded into me, that I find it hard to renew my mind to the truth.

Romans chapter 5
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. *


* Have now received = past tense.   It is a done deal.
All scripture taken from the KJV Bible. 
All underlines and Italics are mine.

John  chapter 3:
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life

John Chapter 3
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

So then, while we where yet ungodly sinners,  Jesus died for us because ‘God so loved the World.’   The world is not saved; the world is full of unsaved sinners who as such are enemies of God.  In spite of this, God gave his only son, Jesus, so that we in the world would have a choice whether or not to be saved from our own ungodliness and thereby gain eternal life with our creator, by accepting this gift of God – His Son, Jesus Christ- and asking Him to be Lord of our life.
   Having been ‘reborn’ in the spirit by God’s grace to us, we now are able to receive the full atonement for our sins.  This includes forgiveness for our unrighteousness [our sins], and also the Blessing that was promised to our Father in Faith – Abraham. 
 Upon being reborn we become totally new creations on this earth, the like of which has never existed before:
2 Cor 5:17
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

 Once having become a ‘New Creation’ our spirit is delivered from the power of darkness [the world] and is translated [totally changed] into the kingdom of his dear Son.  (Col 1:13)
If, however, according to John 3:36, we refuse to accept the gift of Jesus, then we remain children of God’s wrath.  We have no concert with God.  We are adrift in a fallen and sinful world with no thought or help from our Creator.  He gave us free will to choose our own eternity and will not force us to accept His greatest gift.  So we see that we can either choose Life in Him – or Death without Him.  God will always honour our choice.
 Therefore, according to the scriptures above, this whole concept of being ‘predestined’ to be a Christian –God’s child- is wrong.  God does not force anyone to do anything against the free will He has given to us. 
When Adam allowed Satan to become the Lord of his life by obeying him in the Garden of Eden,  Adam became Satan’s servant.
Romans 6:
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
 Since God had given total control of the earth over to Adam, this dominion came under satan’s control –as did Adam- when Adam transgressed and served satan.  Satan  is often referred to as the ‘prince of this world’ and the ‘power of the air’.
  God always honours His Word.  He had told Adam that he was to ‘have dominion’ over the earth and all that was in it, and therefore He could not take that back away from Adam, once it was given up. (Gen 1:26)
This again, is another example of God being restricted in His actions, by what men do here on earth.  It is us who allows God’s designs and plans to come to pass here on earth. This is why He created His Bride – the Church – so that the Body of His Church could start speaking the things of God to come to pass on this earth!
  Are we doing that?  NO!  Instead we have bought into the satanic lie that God is in total control of it all and we should just lay back and not resist anything at all as it’s preordained to happen.  This is exactly what we have done, and the enemy of our souls runs riot over us!
No wonder we are in such a mess in this world.
    We have made it so.
  Mark 7:7,8,9,13
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.