We are told by the man who received the Gospel directly from Jesus Christ that “the wages of sin IS (present tense) death” (Heb. 6:23).  The immediacy of the punishment for sin was first displayed in the Garden of Eden.  In Genesis 2:16,17 God told Adam: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat, for in the (same) DAY that you eat thereof, you will surely DIE”  Obviously, God was referring to spiritual death for, though Adam and Eve sinned, they continued to live for many years.  In their case, they knew as soon as they sinned that they had died spiritually.

When we sin we die a little more with each sin, meaning that we grow farther and farther away from God with each sin.  Unlike Adam and Eve, modern churchman does not know that he is spiritually dying.  This situation is deadly serious.  God, speaking through Paul, said that with each sin the sinner “crucifies Christ afresh” (again)–Heb. 6:6.  Isaiah 59:2 warns us that our sins separate us from God.  Separation from God is spiritual death.  We are commanded to walk with God, meaning that we are in agreement with Him.  In Amos 3:3 the apostle asks, “Can two walk together unless they agree?”  We must agree with God in order to walk with Him along the path that leads to salvation.  The spiritually dead cannot walk with God.  Satan makes them believe that they are.  Satan has indeed “deceived the whole world” (Rev. 12:9)

As the Scriptures tell us, continuing in a sin-repent, sin-repent mode means that one’s sins are never forgiven, but are added to those previously committed (Rom. 2:5).  A TRUE SEEKER OF GOD REPENTS, TURNS FROM HIS SINFUL WAYS AND OBEYS GOD’S LAW.  Those who do so to the end of life will be saved (Mat. 10:22).  Christ’s blood pays for one’s Past sins (Rom. 3:25).  From that point on one must “walk as Jesus walked” and “… overcome even as I (Jesus) overcame (temptation) ….” in order to receive eternal life (1 Jn. 2:6/ Rev. 3:21).  If a true saint happens to sin, there is forgiveness of the sin, provided it is not followed by more sins (1 Jn. 2:1).  Notice the word “IF.”  Recall that Jesus told the prostitute and the man at the Bethesda pool to “Sin no more,” period (Jn. 5:14; 8:11).  God is no respecter of persons; what is true for one is true for all (Acts 10:34).

In Romans 6:4 we find the apostle telling us: “Therefore we are buried with Him (Christ) by baptism unto death, so that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”  The old life was characterized by sinning.  If one got “saved” one’s sins were supposedly forgiven as a result of a sin-repent formula that exemplified the Christian walk.  In the eyes of God there is no difference between the churched and the unchurched in that both are sinners.  One group has faith which supposedly keeps them in God’s good graces in that we “live by faith.”  However, James tells us that faith without works (of obedience) is dead faith.  If a church member continues to sin he is supposedly “living,” but by dead faith.  Life and death do not mix.  One is either alive for obeying God’s Law/Word or dead for disobeying God’s Law/Word/Truth.  Paul speaks to this Truth in Galatians 2:17: “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ (have our past sins forgiven), we remain sinners, we make Jesus our minister of sin.  God forbid.”  This is exactly what the counterfeit church preaches and practices.  She does what Paul warned about: SHE HAS EMBRACED ANOTHER JESUS (2 Cor. 11:4).  The church’s Jesus is a fraud, as is his father, as is their salvation, as is the church.

Christ did not die so that we could continue to sin and be forgiven.  To be forgiven we must REPENT, TURN FROM SIN AND WALK IN OBEDIENCE TO HIM.  He died so that the “promise of the Father” would come to fruition which took place on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D.  In Acts 1:4 Christ addresses His disciples, telling them to return to Jerusalem where they were to wait for the promise to materialize.  Days later, while celebrating the Day of Pentecost in an upper room, God fulfilled the promise He made to His true believers through the Prophet Joel (2:28,29).  This happened when the Holy Spirit came upon them in the form of tongues of fire, filling the room with a mighty wind.  “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (vs 4).  This is what caused the masses of visitors to come the where the disciples had gathered.  The tongues in which they were speaking were the various languages of the people who had gathered in Jerusalem from “every nation under the sun” to celebrate Passover and Pentecost.

When asked what was happening, Peter explained that the phenomenon they were witnessing was the fulfillment of Joel’s   prophecy which marked the beginning of “the last days” of this world.  We have been living in the final days of the era ever since.  Having come under conviction, the multitude asked what they must do (2:37), Peter’s first word holds the key to walking the true Christian walk: “REPENT.”  WITHOUT TRUE REPENTANCE THERE CAN BE NO CHRISTIAN WALK, NO CONVERSION, NO SALVATION.  Therefore it is imperative that we understand what true repentance means.

Romans 5:12 correctly states that we have all sinned.  We have all broken God’s Law–His definition of sin (1 Jn. 3:4).  This is the same Law the church accuses God of nailing to the cross.  Satan having deceived salvation seekers into believing his lie, Catholics and Protestants do not confess and repent of God-defined sin.  Without confession and repentance for breaking God’s Law there can be no forgiveness.  When Peter told the crowd on the Day of Pentecost to repent, he did not need to tell them of what they must repent.  They knew they had broken God’s Law as have we all.  Notice that he did not tell them to thereafter repent each time they broke the Law.  The inference was clear–STOP SINNING.  They understood that they had to grow up in the Lord and begin acting like spiritual adults.

The Apostle Paul spoke to this issue in his letter to the Hebrew Christians.  In chapter 6 he focused on maturity, which is necessary for true discipleship to develop in a believer.  We must grow in grace and power so that we reach a point at which sin is no longer a part of our lives. because of the Holy Spirit’s power within us.  In 5:11-6:2 Paul chastises the Hebrews for being “dull of hearing.”  They obviously had not taken to heart what he had been teaching them.  He tells them that, by that time in their lives they should be teachers (of the Law).  Instead, they needed to be taught the “first principles of the oracles (Words/Law) of God.

The Hebrew Christians were still at the “milk” stage of Christianity.  They were still on the sin-repent, sin-repent level of spiritual maturity, not on the righteousness level where they should have been.  He called them, “babes” because they were still on the “milk” stage of development and in dire need of “strong meat.”  Strong meat would enable them to resist Satan’s temptations so that they no longer needed to repent.  In 6:1,2 he tells them to leave the “elementary principles of Christ” and go on to “PERFECTION.”  Paul told them that they must leave the teachings about “REPENTANCE OF SIN AND FAITH IN GOD” ….”  Not one to mince words, Paul told them they must stop being babies and MATURE into a state of PERFECTION.  To do this they had to leave the elementary teachings WHICH ARE WHAT CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS HEAR REPEATEDLY.  For this reason the Institutional Church remains at the milk stage of spiritual development.

As a result the counterfeit church remains in the crib, nursing on the church’s breast milk and slowly dying from lack of strong meat–the Truth of the Word of God that leads to maturity, righteousness and holiness, THE BEGINNING OF WHICH IS REPENTANCE, THE END OF WHICH IS SALVATION (Rom. 5:21; 6:22).

In 1 John 1:9 we learn that: “If we confess (and repent of) our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our (past) sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.”  This is called JUSTIFICATION.  If we then continue to sin we become like the sow that returns to her mire and the dog that returns to its vomit” (2 Pet. 2:22).  This, we are told from pulpit and podium, is what the Christian walk is all about.  In other words, sin and grin my friend, for in the end, you’ll still win.  Pie in the sky, sin ’till you die, for in the sweet bye and bye, you’ll still get to fly.  The fix, we are told, is in.  It’s all good.  I’m okay, you’re okay, we’re all okay.  Just show up, ‘fess up and pay up.  Then you can sin at will without fear of consequences, provided you repent on a regular basis.

But what do the Scriptures say?  “Let him that stole, steal no more ….” (Eph. 4:28).  The Apostle Jude warns us about religious leaders who dismiss the idea of personal holiness because Adam made obedience to God impossible.  Jude calls such leaders false prophets who are “… ungodly men who turn the grace of God into laciviousness ….” (a license to sin).  Sound familiar?  L.J.