The man Jesus of Nazareth is our model that must be duplicated in order to inherit eternal life, if we can take God at His Word. Recall Jesus telling the rich man who sought salvation that, his having obeyed the Ten Commandments all of his life, “ONE THING THOU LACKEST.” The Savior told him that ONE SIN stood between him and eternal life. Notice that He said nothing about grace, Adam’s sin transferal, His blood, etc. Recall also that He told the prostitute and the impotent man after He had forgiven their sins, “Go, and SIN NO MORE.” Note that He did not tell them that if they would cut back on their sinning He would take up the slack and make sure the Father did not know what they had done. As one much superior to me once said, we must “… quit sin utterly.” The lord said through the Apostle John that if we call ourselves by His name we must “walk even as He walked” (1 Jn. 2:6), and that anyone who hopes for salvation “purifies himself even as He is pure” (1 Jn. 3:3), and that in order to be with Him in the Kingdom of God one must “overcome (sin) even as I overcame” (Rev. 3:21). The question is, how is this possible? False prophets declare that it isn’t, that Christ died so that we could continue to sin and get away with it, that grace is nothing more than a license to sin. If, that is, one joined the church–the RIGHT church–and followed its doctrines.
Jesus, the Son of God, His Messiah, the Savior of mankind painted a totally different picture with His life and Words. He was God’s will personified. Again the question: How did He, a man, obey God? He answered the question by saying: “I CAN DO NOTING OF MYSELF (by My own power) (John 8:28). Because He was a man, Jesus of Nazareth was TOTALLY DEPENDANT UPON GOD. He could not speak, think, heal, etc. by His own power. As a man He was totally dependent on His heavenly Father. This is the key to all things spiritual. Jesus is our perfect example of total surrender to God and total reliance upon Him for all things in all situations at all times. This is difficult to do as mankind continually reveals. For proof one need only observe the institution that calls itself by His name–the Institutional Church. In that she exists in her present heathenistic, Satan-serving, God-rejecting condition is proof beyond a doubt that obedience to God requires more effort than her parishioners are willing to exert. Religious man refuses to die to self. When it comes to those Biblical instructions she does not like (the vast majority of them) she calls an audible, applies His name to the perversion and labels it “truth” (Gal. 1:6-9). Occasionally an honest seeker will study God’s Word to find His Truth, take note of the perversions put forth by the church and bring them to her attention. Her response is to reject both the Truth and the one who speaks it, not knowing that in doing so she rejects the One who created it.
Much prayer is required in order to acquire the power needed to meet God’s written expectations. The church’s lack of true, faith-based prayer is evidenced by her total failure to obey Him and her total submission to His arch enemy. According to the church, “the Christian life” is a life filled with most everything except prayer. When comparing one’s daily prayer time to one’s everything else time, the ratio is extremely little to very much. Most churchites spend more time absorbing the news than absorbing God’s Word. They know more about the t.v. schedule than about God’s schedule. These are those who, when they stand before Him on Judgment Day will say to Him, “Lord, Lord, ….” To whom He will reply, “I never knew you ….” L.J.
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