Let us now reexamine the focal verse--Romans 6:23–in order to learn why the Institutional Church ignores verses 1-22, thereby missing the point God is making in this most important message.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” It is at this point that religious people, having read what they want to read, turn off their minds to what else He says to them in this verse. Satan has programmed his followers to go into mental lock-down mode upon reading God’s conditions for receiving His promises. Consider the following: failure to turn to the final number on a combination lock will cause the lock to remain closed for the one trying to open it. In the same way, failure to embrace the final Words of verse 23 will cause the doors of God’s kingdom to remain closed to the one expecting them to open. By shutting off the brain at the focal point, the reader fails to hear all of “the doctrine that was delivered to the church” by the apostles (6:17). No one has a problem with the next 3 Words in verse 23: “through Jesus Christ.” Everyone recognizes Him as their Savior. The problem comes with the final 2 Words: “our LORD.”

As the first 22 verses of Romans 6 tell us, unless Jesus Christ is one’s Lord (Master) in this life, He will not be one’s Savior in the next life. The Counterfeit Church rejects this much-stated Truth. She believes that having Him as her Lord means that she can sin and get away with it. She also believes that her organization’s doctrinal “truths” overrule His Biblical Truths. A perfect example of this heresy is the belief that God’s Law was nailed to the cross and is in no way related to sin. This in spite of His saying in 1 John 3:4 that His Law defines sin. This in spite of His telling both a rich man and a lawyer that in order to be saved they must obey that same Law, which He identified as the Ten Commandments (Mat. 19:16,17/ Lk. 10:26-28). The church views the Bible as a book of options she can choose or reject. To her, God’s Holy Word is nothing more that a religious buffet.

Now let us turn to a sister verse to Romans 6:23 in order to once again see the damage that can be done by ignoring the final portion of a Biblical statement. In Romans 7 we are told that, because of the Lord’s sacrifice, we can be forgiven of sin. No one has a problem with this information. Then in 8:1 the Apostle Paul tells us that, because of Christ’s sacrifice, “therefore there is now no condemnation.” Once again people turn off their brains at the crucial point, thereby missing God’s caveat: “FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE (HOLY) SPIRIT.” Paul further clarifies God’s requirements for salvation in Romans 8:14: “THEY WHO ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, (ONLY) THEY ARE THE SONS OF GOD.” God’s sons are not condemned because they are “IN CHRIST JESUS” and are “LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD.” There is no sin in Christ and the Spirit of God does not lead one to sin. Therefore, those who continue to sin after being “saved” are not in Christ, are not led by God’s Spirit and are therefore not His sons.

Therefore, “sinners saved by grace” are not Christ’s brethren whom He defined as “… they who obey the will (Words) of My Father in heaven.” Over two billion church attenders refuse to believe the Lord Who tells us repeatedly that faith, church going, martyrdom, Bible study, preaching, witnessing, prayer, etc. will not result in eternal life. Obedience to God’s Word will. L.J.