A Reconciled World

A Reconciled World

II Corinthians 5:18-19

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation

This World is created in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:10) who is the Head Stone of the corner, the Foundation Stone upon which this world is built (Psalm 118:22; Luke 6:48). To the Majority of the Jews in former days this Sure Foundation Stone was a Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offense (Romans 9:33) but to the citizens of this world Christ Jesus is elect and precious (I Peter 2:7; Isaiah 28:16). This is that world whose sins the Lamb of God has taken away (John 1:29; Revelation 1:5; Romans 8:32) this is the world that God so loved that whosoever believeth on His Son should not perish (John 3:16). This world hangs upon the arm of Jesus Christ (Isaiah 53:1) the government of which world is upon His shoulder (Isaiah 9:6). In this world all things are made new, its citizens have new eyes, ears, and hearts, for the apprehension of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (revelation 21:5: II Corinthians 4:6). In this world sin is not imputed (Romans 4:6-8; II Corinthians 5:19) for this world is reconciled to God by the death of His own well beloved Son, who is the Sun of righteousness in this world (Malachi 4:2), who shines on all the citizens of this world, and enlightens them in the knowledge of God their Savior (I Timothy 1:1; Titus 3:4) whom to know is life eternal (John 17:3; I John 5:20). This world is established in Blood, it is the Blood of the everlasting covenant of grace (Hebrews 13:20), the Blood of the New Testament (Matthew 26:28), the Blood of God (Acts 20:28).

And all things are of God: God has created this new world for Himself: “This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise.” (Isaiah 43:21). It was the good pleasure of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to create this world, that the objects of His eternal and immutable love might rejoice in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:3) in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). It is according to the good pleasure of His goodness (II Thessalonians 1:11; Exodus 33:19) that He has purposed to make His dear children (Ephesians 5:2) rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory (I Peter 1:8) in Christ Jesus. For He saith: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for her sins.” (Isaiah 40:1-2) Christ Jesus will have His spouse comforted in this world, while she endures the assaults of her own Adam nature (Romans 7:24), the afflictions of the gospel (II Timothy 1:8), and the hatred of the world of the ungodly, and more especially the world of the religious lost. (John 17:14, 20; II Peter 2:5; I John 3:1)

Who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; First it should be noted, who it is, that is reconciled: it is God who is reconciled; and He is reconciled to those to whom the ministry of reconciliation is given, that is, the church of God. It is not the world of all men, without exception or distinction to whom God is reconciled, God is not at peace with all the worlds but only that world for whom the blood of Christ was shed, which is the world of God’s elect. The word, reconcile, means: “To restore peace, friendly relationships, to settle a quarrel (Oxford English Dictionary). God had a quarrel with His people for they had sinned in Adam, and had sinned actually in themselves. Christ Jesus came in their nature, sin accepted, and made peace through the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20), He settled the quarrel by putting away the sin of His people through His death (Hebrews 9:26). Now it is the mission of the church of God to inform all who, are taught of the Spirit, that Jesus is Lord, that they are the children of God, heirs of the promise of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, and are of the household of God: (I Corinthians 12:3; I John 5:1; Romans 8:17; Ephesians 2:19).

The Holy Ghost is the great teacher of the everlasting covenant of grace, as it is written: “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34) This teaching of the Holy Ghost is a revelation from God through the preached word (I Peter 1:23), which is made effectual by the power of God the Spirit. It is by the preaching of the gospel in the church of God that the children of promise are taught of their inheritance (Galatians 4:28). “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:6) These are sons by the election of the Father, children of God from everlasting, who must be taught of their inheritance. As it is written: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:” (Matthew 25:34).

To wit, that God was in Christ, for the human nature of Jesus Christ is “the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” (Hebrews 8:2; 9:11) “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9) Christ Jesus is God manifest in the flesh (I Timothy 3:16) and God purchased His church by His blood in the Person of Jesus Christ (Acts 20:28). Those who worship God, worship God in Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus said to Phillip “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Phillip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” (John 14:9)

Reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Almighty God, sent all His billows of wrath over His own Dear Son, because of the love He bore toward the children who He had chosen in covenant and given to Christ Jesus before the world was made, for, Christ Jesus is Surety of the children of the covenant (Hebrews 7:22). “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.” (Psalm 42:7) The prophet Jonah, as typical of Christ Jesus said: “For thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. (Jonah 2:3) Gods billows of wrath swept over Jesus Christ until the ocean of His indignation against the sin of His people was at a perfect calm: God at rest, because of the satisfaction of His justice, the insult offered to His glorious righteousness had been drown in the blood of His own Dear Son. The sharp sword of His justice had tasted the blood of the Holy One of God; and found satisfaction. Therefore God’s report is: “Fury is not in me” (Isaiah 27:4; 53:1) toward His church, for His wrath is, in righteousness, exhausted in the bosom of Christ. God is reconciled in the sufferings, and blood of Jesus Christ, the sins of the church of God are not imputed to them for those sins were laid on Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God; and therefore in justice they cannot be imputed to His people.  In this new creation, created in Christ Jesus there is no imputation of sin to the children of this world, for the Surety of the New Testament, Jesus Christ: “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (I Peter 2:24).  

Now that this work of reconciliation is accomplished for the citizens of this new creation, God, “will rest in His love” to His dear children. As it is written: “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17) This is the good news, the gospel: That God is reconciled through the finished work of Jesus Christ. And has committed the word of reconciliation to the church of God. It is the object of the church to tell all the brethren of Christ, that God their Father is reconciled, in the blood of their Redeemer. Therefore God is reconciled to all who the Holy Ghost, teaches of their adoption in Christ: by teaching them that “Jesus is Lord” for, “no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost.” And “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (I Corinthians 12:3: Matthew 11:27)  Reader do these things carry a message to you? Are you confident that Jesus is Christ? If you truly believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God, from the heart, then you are of the household of faith, a child of God in Jesus Christ.    

AJ Ison

See the Writers blog at www.hebrews915.blogspot.com Hear the true gospel of the free and sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ preached at www.13thstbaptist.org  webcasting live at listed service times.

Whosoever rests on this Sure Foundation Stone has ceased from his works, for righteousness and simply expects all things from Rock of salvation. This is the New and Second creation is created in Christ Jesus unto the glory of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Ephesians 1:6: 2:7)

It Shall Be Accepted For Him

It Shall Be Accepted For Him

Leviticus 1:4

And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.

The “offerings of the LORD” as commanded in the book of Leviticus, were pregnant  with symbolism and filled with types and shadows of Christ who was promised, but at that time had not yet come. The symbols and types or shadows were given to the church in its infancy, to instill in them the ideas of the principals of government under which God would deal with fallen man. So that when the fullness of time should come that the Christ of God should actually appear; the people of God might understand the vicarious (substitutionary) institutions of the everlasting covenant of grace (Galatians 4:1-7). These institutions, solidly implanted in the minds of the people by repetitious offerings, fixed the thoughts of the hearts and minds of men on our acceptance in a substitute; and that substitute is our Lord Jesus Christ. The administration of the covenant under the Old Testament was legal, the under lying principal was, do and live, “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do he shall live in them, I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 18:5). The administration of the everlasting covenant under the New Testament is gracious: the underlying principal is, live and believe: by the grace of God in Christ Jesus sinners are given eternal life, wherein it is given them to know God, in the Person of Jesus Christ. “Verily, Verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” (John 6:47). True faith, that is, believing the doctrine of Christ as given in the New Testament (II John 1:9-11), is the evidence of eternal life (Hebrews 11:1), which is the free gift of God through Christ Jesus: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (II Corinthians 4:6). “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:4). “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” (I John 5:20). “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17).

One of the elementary or very basic principles of the government of God, as taught in the Old Testament and practiced in the New: is that of vicarious or substitutionary death. One dying in the room and stead of another, as in the case of the sin offering: wherein the death of the victim is substituted for the person who offers according to the law. In the government of God over His church, guilt is transferable, the guilt of sin may be transferred from the guilty party who committed the offense, to a perfectly innocent party who will endure the curse of the broken law which was the curse of death. Transference of guilt from the guilty to the innocent, and counting the innocent victim, guilty and punishable, for offences of the guilty party is allowed and practiced in both the Old and New Testaments (Romans 5:19). Likewise it is a fact in the government of God that righteousness must be imputed to those for whom Christ Jesus died. This righteousness is received by faith, which is the gift of God, it is the death of Christ that renders the sinner righteous in the sight of God. Faith is the instrument whereby the justified sinner is made to understand his righteousness in the sight of God: by the imputation of the righteousness established by Jesus Christ in His death, to the account of the justified sinner.

Under the Old Testament, the victim, whether a bullock, sheep, or goat, was brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD. It had to be a male without blemish, to shadow the sinless perfections of Jesus Christ. If the person who was making the offering was poor, he was permitted to bring turtledoves or young pigeons as his offering (Leviticus 12:8), as Joseph and Mary did after the birth of Christ (Luke 2:24). If the offering was a bullock the process was: first, to present the bullock at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD, the door was the opening in the curtain at the eastern end of the court. Once there the worshipper would press his hand on the head of the bullock, in the burnt offering the leaning forcibly on the head of the offering was to intimate that the offerer desired that Jehovah would accept the offering as himself, the desire of the offerer was to consecrate his whole person to the LORD. In the sin offering the leaning heavily on the head of the offering was to indicate the desire that his sin might be transferred to (imputed to) the innocent animal who would be put to death for the sin of the offerer.

The antitype in each of these two ceremonies is the Christ of God, who according to the type set forth in the burnt offering fully gave Himself up to the will of God. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:7-8). And our Lord Jesus said to His disciples: “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” (John 4:34). Our Lord Jesus gave His whole Person to the service of God, when He offered Himself a sacrifice for a sweet savor to God to propitiate the wrath of God in the room of His people (Ephesians 5:2). The children of God have the desire for perfect consecration to God, but because of indwelling sin they find themselves saying with the Apostle Paul: “what I would, that I do not” (Romans 7:15). And with the Prophet Isaiah: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isaiah 64:6). But the good news is that, in the reckoning of God, we are not in ourselves, but we are and have forever been in Christ Jesus “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:6). Christ Jesus is the fulfilling “end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Romans 10:4) and therefore to the law of the sin offering  (Leviticus 4:1-12) for: “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (I Peter 2:24) Jesus Christ by Himself purged our sins (Hebrews 1:3). He finished the transgression, made an end of sins, made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness, (Daniel 9:24) Christ Jesus put sin away by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9:26).

It shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. In Old Testament times the type, was accepted to stay sin for a season. But now that the darkness of the shadows is past and the true light now shineth from the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ (Malachi 4:2; I John2:8), believers know they are accepted in the beloved, in whom they have dwelt to all generations. (Psalm 90:1-2). 

AJ Ison

See the writers blog at www.hebrews915.blogspot.com hear the true gospel of the

free and sovereign grace of God in Christ Jesus preached at www.13thstbaptist.org webcasting live at listed service times.

Works and Workers of Iniquity

Works and Workers of Iniquity

Matthew 7:22-23

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

The Apostle Paul, in his Pharisaical days of Christ-less religion had been dedicated, conscientious, devoted, a Hebrews of the Hebrews, and in his own mind, blameless as touching the law (Philippians 3:4-6). So much so that he persecuted Christ in His members (Acts 9:4; I Corinthians 12:27). But when Christ Jesus met Saul of Tarsus (later called Paul) on the road to Damascus; and opened his understanding to the Old Testament scriptures (Acts 24:32), particularly Exodus 20:17: thou shalt not covet, (Romans 7:7) Saul found that His religious exercises had been in vain, and not only in vain; but in defiance of God, then, in His own esteem he saw that he was a miserable, wretched, and condemned sinner; and, had never known God nor His law.  The Spirit of Christ instructed Saul that all his works of religion, were nothing but dung (Philippians 3:7-8), evil and dead works, proceeding from a spiritually dead heart, (Hebrews 6:1; 9:14) and that those works were fruit unto death (Romans 7:7), his own death, as well as others.

 The Pharisees had compassed sea and land to make one proselyte, our Lord Jesus Christ said: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him two fold more the child of hell than yourselves.” (Matthew 23:15) In this evil work of binding men’s conscience under a perversion of the law (Matthew 15:2-6) the Pharisees had bound their proselytes in misery, trying to obey a set of rules that had been fabricated by the Pharisees themselves. Bringing them into bondage under a perversion of an abrogated law (Romans 7:4), which had been abolished by the death of Christ (Ephesians 2:15; II Corinthians 3:13), who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, (Romans 10:4). The Pharisees had bound the conscience of men to a law of their own making, by perverting the law of God. Christ Jesus “said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! For ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.” (Luke 11:46) And it is written “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we are able to bear?” (Acts 15:10)

These that bind the conscience of other men by their fabrications, show themselves to be the seed of the serpent, (Genesis 3:15; John 8:44) for their proselytes are made two fold more the children of hell than they themselves. This truth is demonstrated by the fact that, the proselytes are bound by the same perversions as they that bound them. And the fact that they are bound in these chains makes it evident that they are not the children of God, for, all the children of God the Lord Jesus liberates from all the holds of man made religion of whatever sort it may be. As it is written: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

Though the children of the covenant of God may be bound by traditions of men for some time yet those who were given to Christ before the foundation of the world will in time be delivered from the chains of men’s tradition. Those who are never delivered from the darkness of false religion are not the children of the covenant of God in Christ. The seed of the serpent (Genesis 3:15) will in this life, remain content in works religion, doing their best, but always unsure that it is well with their soul, for perfect peace is to be found only in the finished work of Christ. Though they may go by the name Christian, yet if they depend on something of themselves, whether it be their decision, choice, repentance, works of whatever sort, if they trust in their faith, all is to lose their soul: for, Christ Jesus alone is the Savior, anything that rivals Him as complete Savior (such things as the works, choices, or decisions of men) are of the darkness of this world. All the active graces of the Spirit of God, as, faith, repentance, a willingness to be saved in Jesus Christ who is God’s Salvation, a thirst for the water of life, hunger and thirst for righteousness in the sight of God, a will to seek after Christ, all and everything in salvation is the free gift of God in Christ; and these gifts are sealed to the children of the everlasting covenant by the blood of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 13:20; Matthew 26:28; Acts 20:28). 

The Pharisaical spirit is still alive and well in our day, it is the spirit of antichrist, and it still works in the heart of men, binding the conscience of men, by prescribing things to be done by those who it seeks to bind. Spring revivals, tent crusades, motivational speakers telling men what they must do to be saved, invitations, and all such things are the inventions of men; and have no precedent in the scriptures. So called preachers tell men what they must do to be saved, so poor blind ignorant sinners, start out by doing something, it may be, praying to be saved in public, it may be joining a Bible study group, shaking the preachers hand, coming up front, all these are gimmicks that preachers use to get a profession of faith from one who is ignorant of the way of salvation. The poor baffled sinner goes away thinking he has to do something to stay saved, since, in his mind, he did something to “get saved” in the first place, also there are many things he cannot do, touch not, taste not, handle not, all the commandments of men, who know not the truth. As the Pharisees of old used a perversion of the law to bind the conscience men in that day: their present day counterparts use a perversion of the gospel to bind the conscience of men today. Satan does his greatest work from the pulpit by leading men to a false gospel, which is dependent upon something that men must do or produce, a choice they must make or their decision to follow Jesus, all this leads men to trust themselves, and their works rather than trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ, who has reconciled God, (I Corinthians 5:18-19) finished the transgression, made an end of sins, and has brought in everlasting righteousness for those He came to save (Daniel 9:24; Matthew 1:21). 

 Young people are seduced by fear or the promise of great rewards in this world, and so make a profession of faith with no heart knowledge of God in Christ, and no true knowledge of the way of salvation. These young people are bound by the traditions of those who bind them, and they spend years in misery trying to fulfill what they think they have to do to be saved. This sort of Christ-less religious activity is work of iniquity, binding the consciences of men, and young people, under rules of men, and thinking they may lose their souls if they do not fulfill the traditions they have received.  And because there is no real inner working of the Spirit of God unto salvation in these who think they have done something that has led them to salvation, they think also, that they must continue to perform that which is prescribed by the religious leaders, but, they find that they cannot do all that is to be done, and so become discouraged, disillusioned, despondent, and finally give up. And their last state is worse than before they began, for now they are avid haters of religion, they become despisers of religion both true and false. Christ Jesus delivers His covenant people from this state of bondage by the gospel of peace, for Christ Jesus is our peace (Ephesians 2:14). He has made peace by the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20). The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). 

It is the office of the preacher, to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified (II Corinthians 2:2). This was the way of the Apostles, and it is to be the way in every age, as it is written: Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” (II Timothy 4:2). Preachers should not attempt to intrude into the office of the Holy Ghost, by invitations, offers, or other gimmicks to produce professions of faith from their hearers. Some have said that if invitations and offers are not given no one will do anything: that is exactly to the point! If men think they start by doing something, they will be convinced that their doing is the thing that brought salvation: and that is to miss Jesus Christ, and to rely on our own works. Christ Jesus has finished the work His Father gave Him to do. His work was to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21) this work He has finished (John 17:4). The Father has approved of the finished work of Christ, and this is proved by the fact that the Father has said to His Son, Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot stool (Psalm 110:1; Revelation 3:21). Now Christ Jesus has sent the Holy Ghost into the world to apprehend (Philippians 3:12) all the children of the covenant with the bonds of love and grace. It is the Spirit of God that gives life, through the preached word, (I Peter 1:23) and He accomplishes that by resurrection power, the almighty power of God (Ephesians 1:19).  It is the work of the Holy Ghost to convince of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, as our Lord Jesus Christ said: “And when he is come, he will reprove (that is convince, writer) the world (of his elect, writer) of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more, of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” (John 16:8-11). 

Preachers should encourage men to believe, but no preacher is able to give eternal life and faith to a spiritually dead sinner, no preacher is able to cause God to save a sinner, preachers are not the dispensers of faith. No preacher knows when the Spirit of God has given life to a dead sinner. Preachers should stick to their business of preaching the gospel, and leave the application of the gospel to the hearts of men to the Holy Ghost. It is feared that many who preach use whatever means they must to get professions of faith from men, women, and children. But the true preacher of the gospel has one mode of operation in his preaching, he consistently preaches Jesus Christ and Him crucified, he seeks the approval of God and not of men. The true preacher will not change the message to suit the congregation, but faithfully tells his hearers the truth of the gospel. He leaves the saving in the hands of the Holy Ghost, who saves whom He will.

See the writers blog at www.hebrews915.blog.com hear the true gospel of the free and sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ preached at www.13thstbaptist.org webcasting live at listed service times.  

AJ Ison