Contrary to popular belief, Christ’s death paid the penalty for our sins of the PAST (before being justified) as proven by Romans 3:25. His death did not pay the penalty for any future sins the believer might commit. Sinners saved by grace refute this, proclaiming that, being supposedly “saved,” they are free to sin at will. This enables them to spiritually re-crucify Christ with each transgression and to get away with it (Heb. 6:6). This heresy is addressed by Jesus Himself in Revelation 12:9 where He declares that “Satan has deceived the whole world.” He speaks to the deadly “only believe” error through the Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians 4:4 where he states that “the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of those who do not believe (God’s Word) so that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine upon them.” The Bible was written to, for and about those who claim allegiance with the Author of the Holy Scriptures. Satan’s most prized conquests are the Old Testament Israelites and the New Testament church. Both, in their respective time elements, were established to be God’s light to the world. Instead, they became Satan’s messengers of darkness. The central theme that brought about their respective downfalls revolves around the FAITH issue.

Nowhere is this more evident than the pronouncements of the “angel of light’s” self-proclaimed “ministers of righteousness” who spew forth his lies every sun god day in their citadels of sin known as “churches.” Read Second Corinthians 11:13-15. I was told by one such minister that, because we have Adam’s sin gene, Jesus died so that we could sin with impunity. The theory holds that Jesus died to make our inevitable, post-justification sins evaporate. Belief in Him as our Savior is all that is needed. The fix, the theory maintains, is in. Therefore, sin is also in. Sin, we are assured, is as much a part of the Christian life as smiling, going to church, etc.

The man who wrote much of the New Testament has this to say about the effect of Christ’s death on the “only believe” issue: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood (forgiven of all PAST sins), we SHALL BE (in the future) saved from wrath THROUGH Him. For if, when we WERE (in the past–before justification) ENEMIES (of God because of our sins), we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, WE WILL BE (IN THE FUTURE) SAVED BY HIS LIFE.” (Rom. 5:9,10). We must recognize the following Biblical Truths in order not to be deceived by Satan as has professing Christendom: Christ’s death removes all PAST SINS and RECONCILES US TO GOD as we were before our first sin. Following justification and reconciling, IT IS HIS LIFE lived by us through our obedience to God’s Law that WILL SAVE US upon His return.

Love plays an important part in our walk toward salvation. Our obedience to His Law proves our love for Him and His Son. Jesus makes the love–obedience to the Law connection abundantly clear in several Scriptures. For example, in John 8:31 He tells his disciples: “You are My disciples indeed IF you obey My Commandments. In John 14:15 and 23 He says to them: “If you love me, keep My Commandments/ Words.” In Matthew 19:17 He tells a man, “If you would enter into (eternal) life, keep the commandments.” John 15:10 He tells His disciples (and us): “IF you keep My commandments (Law), you will abide in My love, EVEN AS I HAVE KEPT MY FATHER’S COMMANDMENJTS AND (THEREFORE) abide in His love.” JESUS REMAINED IN GOD’S LOVE ONLY BY KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS–OBEYING HIS LAW. If we claim to be children of God we must “WALK AS HE WALKED” AND “OVERCOME (SATAN) AS HE OVERCAME (HIM)”(1 Jn. 2:6 and Rev. 3:21 respectively). These passages destroy the church’s “only believe” theology. God commanded total obedience to Him from His Son in order for Him to fulfill His commission. Does He command anything less from us in order to receive salvation? The Bible says no. The church says yes, that we need only believe in order to be instantly saved and given the right to sin at will. And Satan smiles.

Salvation hucksters remind me of a Catholic priest I read about many years ago who, being stationed in a foreign country, reported that he had baptized hundreds of people over a short period of time. An investigation revealed that he would walk along city streets slinging holy water on unsuspecting people and claiming that they were being “saved.” The only difference between the priest and today’s salvation pimps is the water.

Returning to Romans 5:9,10, let us be reminded that Christ’s death enables us to have our PAST SINS FORGIVEN through an act called JUSTIFICATION, which in volves only faith on our part. This act through the grace of God, RECONCILES US TO GOD BY REMOVING THE SIN BARRIER SEPARATING US FROM HIM. However, WE ARE NOT SAVED BY CHRIST’S DEATH, as Paul makes abundantly clear: “being reconciled (by His death) WE WILL BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE,” MEANING AS WE LIVE AS HE LIVED (WALK AS HE WALKED)AND OVERCOME SATAN’S TEMPTATIONS TO SIN AS HE DID). IT IS CHRIST’S LIFE LIVED BY US THROUGH THE POWER OF THE INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT THAT WILL SAVE US. We will be saved IF we walk as Christ walked “until the end” of our lives as Jesus said in Matthew 10:22.

The question is: Who are we going to believe? God, Jesus, the prophets and apostles, or the “only believe” salvation pimps populating the world’s pulpits, television screens, computer screens, radios, street corners, etc. Satan, the “prince of the powers (evil spirits) of the air,” controls these people. This is the spirit who “works in the children of disobedience” who refuse to obey the Law/commandments of God. These are the “children of (God’s) wrath” (Eph. 2:2,3).

In Ephesians 2:18 Paul addresses the “Jesus died so that I can sin and get away with it” crowd (99% of professing Christendom known as sinners saved by grace). Here he says that if he returns to what he was before being justified (a sinner) “I make myself a transgressor (sinner). The “old (sinning) man was crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20) and washed away through baptism. In verse 17 he says, “If, after being justified (forgiven) by Christ (through His death), we then continue to sin, WE MAKE CHRIST OUR MINISTER OF SIN.” We make Jesus our sin enabler. In verse 20 Paul states: “I am crucified with Christ (made dead to sin’s lure); nevertheless, I live (in newness of life); but it is not I who live, but CHRIST LIVES IN ME, AND THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE I LIVE BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD WHO LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME.” Did Christ die so that we can continue to sin? He died to remove sin from our lives; why would He then allow us to continue to do the very thing (sin) He commands us not to do (sin– break His Law–1 Jn. 3:4)?

One of the major problems with the church version of the Christian walk is her concept of conversion. Conversion does not mean merely recognizing and being sorry for our sins. True conversion involves “Godly sorrow” which requires a reversal of life–a 180 degree spiritual “about-face” in which EVERYTHING ABOUT OUR PAST IS PUT TO DEATH AND EVERYTHING IS MADE NEW–MADE LIKE JESUS CHRIST. This makes us true “Christians,” meaning “little Christs.” This requires a total reversal of life, a change from walking as Satan walked in us to walking as Jesus walks in us. This Truth is brought out beautifully in Second Corinthians 6:16 where true Christians are identified as “the temple of the living God. God has said; ‘I WILL DWELL (LIVE) IN THEM (HIS TRUE PEOPLE) AND WALK (DO, THINK AND SPEAK) IN THEM AND (THEN) I WILL BE THEIR GOD AND THEY WILL BE MY PEOPLE.” In the following verses Paul tells Truth seekers to come out from among the “only believe” people because they are “unclean.” Then, and only then, God says, “I will receive you and be a Father to you.”

Contrary to universal church opinion, conversion does not mean that one changes from being a hell-bound sinner to being a heaven-bound sinner. What the church calls “being saved” and “born again” is in Biblical reality merely an INTRODUCTION to the concept of Christ’s purpose in coming to earth. True conversion places the salvation seeker on THE one and only path to the Kingdom of God. IF one remains on that path one will join Jesus in the clouds when He returns and go with Him to Jerusalem where He will establish God’s kingdom. Remember Christ’s Words to the forgiven prostitute: “SIN NO MORE.” PERIOD. Read Hope and Salvation and Born Again. Key words: Hope and Born respectively.

Do not be taken in by the salvation whores who, as Jesus warned in Matthew 24:4,5, will try to lure you into Satan’s religious web known as Catholicism/Protestantism. The “light” they show you is in fact darkness. Because it is presented as God’s light, Jesus calls it “GREAT DARKNESS” (Mat. 6:23) which the religious masses love more than God’s light (Jn. 319). L.J.