AS BEREANS DID

Condemnation by Law or Unbelief?

Jesus said good works were lawful on the Sabbath, as contrasted to evil works. He gave no further elaboration regarding the nature of good and evil works beyond a comparison of the two in regards to saving live versus destroying it.

Nothing Jesus did had anything to do with the destruction of life. He stated He came to save life, and His works all had this in mind.

And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. — John 12:47

His Gospel message then was a message of life.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: °And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? — John 11:25-26

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: °That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. °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. °For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. °He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. °And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. °For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. °But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. — John 3:14-21

Jesus is that Light, and evil ones do not come to the Light. They do not acknowledge the Light. So they are the ones who produce false gospels based on other things besides the Light; besides or other than Jesus. Their gospels will declare other things you must believe in, in order to be saved; in order to acquire eternal, everlasting life.

What do evil people do that results in their condemnation? Break the law and Sabbath, or refuse to come to Christ Jesus for salvation?

“Doing truth” is to come to the Light – Jesus, and the deeds of those who come to Him are made known (manifest) that they are wrought in God. Their works. Not some of their works, all their works. Good trees, who now produce only good fruits unto God to the Glory of God.

The evil ones in this scenario produce their own gospel of salvation that substitutes faith and belief in Christ Jesus alone with other “requirements.”

Examine the rationalization put forth by Adventists. “Grace is not a license to sin, and sin is what happens when you transgress the law, and if you sin by transgressing “God’s law” you cannot be saved.”

They will cite, in support of their argument:

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, °Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. — 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, °Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, °Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. — Galatians 5:19-21

Murder, for example, is addressed in the law as a sin; a transgression of the law. Therefore, doing any of these things transgresses the law in some fashion, resulting in your exclusion from the kingdom of God / Heaven where those who receive eternal, everlasting life reside.

Now, if you were paying attention, transgressing the law was not stated by Jesus as that which results in condemnation. He specifically stated rejecting Him was the cause of condemnation; not breaking / transgressing the law; evil people who do not respond to, or come to the “Truth” which is Jesus Christ.

They are evil, and according to the teachings of Jesus, the works of evil people are only evil and sin, even as the works of good people; those who “come to the Light” are all good works.

God does NOT judge mankind according to the law, like mankind does. God declared He judges according to the heart. Evil people have evil hearts, and because they have evil hearts, minds, souls, they act according to that heart, doing evil things, one being the refusal to come to the Light; come to Christ Jesus so that they might have life eternal.

Evil people, who embrace a religion of law, such as what was given to the Hebrews, use the law in an attempt to build a foundation of religion that gives them the means of “looking good” as a result of keeping it, even as did the Pharisees and other religious elite that Jesus referred to as evil children of the devil, who were doing the will of their father the devil.

Let that sink in. The people who were being addressed by the Prophets; the Hebrews, were told that their hearts were deceitful and desperately wicked.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? — Jeremiah 17:9

God can know it. Those same men could not, being deceived by their own hearts.

For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. — Psalms 109:2

Those versed in what all transpired between Jesus and the Pharisees, et alia, know this to be a prophesy in relation to Christ Jesus. Who spoke against Jesus? Who spoke lies about Him?

The religious elite. Those who claimed to be religious and doing the will of God, through the law they believed they kept. They hated Him, Jesus, because they were evil, and evil ones do not come to the Light.

They are the ones who seek to destroy life; not save it. They sought to destroy the author of Life itself.

I will leave you, the reader, with this last thought… what religious organization, that claims to be the true church, that has built hospitals around the world, conducts the destruction of life in their hospitals through elective abortions, where they destroy on a routine basis, the most innocent of all lives, with absolutely no just hearing or appeal by anyone on their behalf as was required in the law they claim to keep?

************

It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom. ; )

Acts 17:11

************