The Work of Jesus Christ

The Work of Christ

Part 1 On the Cross

When Jesus had spoken these things, He raised His eyes to heaven [in prayer] and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, so that Your Son may glorify You.  Just as You have given Him power and authority over all mankind, so that He may give eternal life to all whom You have given.  Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true [supreme and sovereign] God, Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  I have glorified You [down here] on the earth by completing the work that You gave Me to do. John 17:1-4

The work of Christ on the cross is in a single word, Salvation. Because of the love of God toward the world Christ had to die on the cross. The scripture says “ For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son..”(John 3:16) However Before we go any further on the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, let us not devalue his death by saying or teaching that God’s love is the reason for salvation. It is so much more than that. You see the scriptures teaches that God is just and what this means is God will without prejudice judge us according to our transgressions. This is very important and extremely scary because we are taught that the wage(s) of sin is death, (Romans 6:23) and all of us have fallen short of God’s requirement. (Romans 3:23). Everyone deserves eternal damnation, without exception.

It was to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus [and rely confidently on Him as Savior]. Romans 3:26

But God is also merciful, and so knowing that none could attain eternal life on our own merit, provided a way for us to be reconciled back to Him and meet his perfect standards. This was done by providing a substitute that would die for us. Someone that had not sinned himself so had no sin payment owed for himself. Yet every man has sinned, so God sent his Son, Jesus Christ to make a substitute payment for our sin.

This is very much like a parent would pay for the repair of a window that his/her child had broken playing softball. The parent did not break the window, the child did. Yet it is the parent who makes the payment to propitiate the anger of the owner toward the child. When the parent pays for the repair the owner of the house no longer has any wrath against the child and treats the child as if his transgression had never happened.

Likewise, when Jesus died on the cross as a substitute for us, His blood propitiated the wrath of God against us. This was so that God can be just (in the punishment of sin) and justifier (dealing with us as though he had never transgressed against him) of those that have faith in Jesus Christ. 

This is salvation as it relates to the cross should be understood through four important and seldom taught words. These four words explain the work of Christ on the cross, and we should understand that work not so much as what was done to Christ Jesus; Rather it should be understood as what was done for us. Many times Christ proclaimed that for this reason (the cross) he came into this world. (John 18:11) Every Christian should know these words, their meaning and how to rightly articulate their meaning to others.

1.      Substitution; This means that Jesus Christ died on the cross instead of us; not for us as one person would do a favor for another as it is often taught. We should rightly understand that Jesus Christ died on the cross, the death that we rightly deserved to die.  Isaiah 53:5 says “He was bruised for our transgressions, wounded for our iniquities…”  never once do we read anywhere in the Bible, anything about His transgressions, or His iniquities, His death was a direct result of what we did, and are still doing, our sins, our hate, our lust, our greed.  1 Peter  2:24 reminds us that it was our sins that were chastised (punished) on the cross, and it was Jesus that received our punishment.

2.      Propitiation – The death of Christ on the cross satisfies completely God’s righteous demands. The wrath of God (his righteous Judgement) because our sin is appeased in the punishment that was given to Jesus Christ.  So then propitiation is that which satisfies the wrath God.  If we read Isaiah 53:5 a second time we  can see the propitiation through the parenthetical statements included. Notice it reads

“upon him (Jesus Christ) the chastisement that brought us peace, (with God) and with his wounds (which caused his death) we are healed (from the disease of sin). Isaiah 53:5

Likewise 1 John 2:2 says he was ( his death) was the propitiation of our sins. His death paid the wages of sin (Romans 6:23) and finally Romans 3:25 gives the requirement for Jesus to be a propitiation for you and me individually, faith in the blood of Jesus Christ.   

3.      Redemption – Christ’s death on the cross redeemed us from sin. Redemption is the act of taking possession of something in exchange for payment or clearing of debt. In ancient times a person that could not pay his debt would be put into slavery.   And if a family member or friend had the resources, he could redeem that person out of slavery by paying the debt.  The redemption was the overall action, but the paying of money was called the ransom.  When we think of ransom, we think of the money paid to kidnappers for the release of a loved one.

The Bible teaches that Christ’s death on the cross purchased and set free by a ransom price (his blood) those who are enslaved to sin. 1Timothy 2:5-6 says Jesus gave himself as a ransom and Ephesians 1:7 says in Him we have redemption for the forgiveness of sin

4.   Reconciliation – Christ’s death on the cross removes the state of hostility between God and man so that peace may be established.  There are two words we must understand the meaning to here. The first is reconcile, it means to restore friendly relations with, to allow to coexist in harmony.

The second word is an atonement, we will address this word again, but concerning the work of Christ on the cross, we should think of atonement as the mending of a broken fence. To get an idea of it meaning consider slavery in the United States. Whereas the Emancipation Proclamation reconciled the relationship between the slave and the slave owner, it did nothing to fix the hurt or the wrong that had been instigated against the slaves for hundreds of years. In fact, today many college students and civil right advocates speak of a reparation, which can be either some type of financial, or educational, of material payment, to even the playing field of African Americans because of the unfair advantage that they will have to overcome. So, then the atonement is the making right a situation that was previously wrong.

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God (had a friendly relationship restored with God) by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. ¹¹ And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. (Jesus Christ has made what was wrong right by his death on the cross)” Romans 5:10-11(KJV)[1]

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[1] You may notice that Romans 5:10-11 uses the word reconciliation in both verses but never uses the word atonement. This is a problem in the translation and one the reason I use the King James Bible. If you go to strong concordance you will see that reconciliation in verse 10 is used only the first time.

The Sovereign God

“O Lord, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You.    2 Chronicles 20:6

When a nation operates free of any other nation’s laws, and makes decisions concerning its citizens’ safety, finances, education and direction without regard to what other nation may or may not be doing. That nation is said to be sovereign.

In a monarchy, when a king makes a decision concerning his citizen, regardless of what appointed leaders in that nation impose as law, the king’s decree, the king’s decision has dominion over every other authority in the nation, because the king is the sovereign ruler of that nation.

So that when a person is said to be sovereign he/she is the boss, the final word, the one who orchestrated the outcome of that which he is sovereign over.

When we think of God’s Sovereignty, we agree on the fact that God has the means, power, wisdom, and authority to do whatsoever He chooses to do with creation. So that the means, power, wisdom, and authority which we call His sovereignty comes from the expression of His attributes of Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence.  

·         Because God Omnipotent,  all-powerful,  (not more powerful) He can do  whatsoever he pleases, (Psalm 115:3) nothing is too difficult for him (Jeremiah 32:27) and His will cannot be stopped (Job 42:2)

·         Because God is Omniscience, He knows all things past, present, and future, also the outcome of all things that might happen in every possible situation. It is this knowledge that God uses to providentially imposed his will creation. 

·         Because God is Omnipresence, there is no place where He cannot be, and thus nothing that happens without his knowing it.  Everything is either caused by God or allowed to happen by God so that His will is always done, either through the subtle work of his providence or by stepping into creation through miracles and wonders.

As King of kings and Lord of lords, God has no limitations not on earth or in heaven, and only God can make that claim. And because God alone can make that claim He alone is sovereign.

Your Brother in Christ

TCharves "FireSpeaks" Pearsall

Need is a Creature's Word

The Doctrine of God's Aseity and Self-Suffificenty 

“To admit the existence of a need in God is to admit incompleteness in the divine Being. Need is a creature-word and cannot be spoken of the Creator. God has a voluntary relation to everything He has made, but He has no Necessary relation to anything outside of Himself. His interest in His creatures arises from His sovereign good pleasure, not from any need those creatures can supply nor from any completeness they can bring to Him who is complete in himself.”

― A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

Today we will address two additional attributes of God, His Aseity and His Self-Sufficiency. Because these two are so closely related. I will address them together. Both Aseity and Self-Sufficiency are attributes of God that express is perfection within Himself, and by Himself and even for Himself.

The Un-Caused One

The notion of Aseity is the highest concept of God that can be imagined by man. Aseity is defined as God existing in and of Himself, or we could say aseity is God’s self-existence, or aseity means God is uncaused.

To get a clearer understanding of what uncaused means, consider that everything that comes into existence has a cause. And that cause has something else before it that brought it into existence. And this process goes regressively back into time until we come to a being (since only being can bring anything into existence) that exist eternally without being caused. This is who we call God.  Now, let’s weigh what is being said.  because God is eternal (before all things) he is uncaused or self-existence, and because nothing can bring itself into existence God must be the cause of everything else that exists. This is expressed not just in Genesis 1:1, but throughout the Bible. 

“For by him, all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” Colossians 1:16

All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. John 1:3

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. Psalm 33:6

And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; Hebrews 1:10

In Himself is All Power

To say that God is Self-Sufficient is to say that He does not need anything for the perfection of his existence. When we consider this from the position of His Eternalness, and Aseity we can understand how God existed, The Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit existed perfectly without anything, and after creation exists needing nothing.

To understand the gravity of God’s self-sufficiency, consider this; 

• Because God is Omnipotent, he can do anything within His nature and desire to do. (Isaiah 45:7, Jeremiah 32:17, Luke 1:37)  
• Because God is Omniscience there is no knowledge or events, or calculations past, present or future that He does not already know. No one can teach God anything and He does not learn anything because He already knows everything. (Hebrews 4:13, Jeremiah 1:5, Matthew 10:29-30) 
• Because God is the only Eternal and Un-Caused one, He is necessarily the cause of everything that is. (Hebrews 1:10, Psalm 33:6, Colossians 1:16, John 1:3) and everything that is, is sustained by Him, or has it continued existence in Him (Colossians 1:17) in 2 Corinthians 3:5  the Bible teaches that our sufficient comes from God.

We live in a world whereby we are taught to be prideful, and self-sufficient. I can do it myself” or “I don’t’ need anybody” are commonplace.  The habit many parents have of teaching their children to be proud of their accomplishments are all contrary to what the scripture teaches. In fact, when we think we are self-sufficient or act prideful we are living our lives at enmity with God.
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James 4:6 says “…God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  while Proverbs 16:5 warns us that “Everyone who is arrogant (prideful) in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.” In John 15:5 Jesus says we can do nothing without Him. And 2Corinthians 3:5 tells us that “our sufficiency is from God”

So, then everything we accomplish in this world is through God enabling and sustaining us to accomplish it. Therefore, when we start to boast and act prideful in our accomplishment, we are taking the glory that belongs to God and is stealing it for ourselves. Therefore it makes sense that stealing from God may have some repercussions. In Isaiah 42:8 God says of Himself “I don’t share my Glory”

I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.
Isaiah 42:8

It is absolutely wrong to steal God’s glory, and we must know that anything we achieve is from God, and therefore the praises belong to Him. Yet because God is Self-Existence and Self-Sufficient and Omnipotent, we have comfort in knowing that He that is without any need of this world and perfect in Himself is able to meet all our needs, of this world, all by Himself,

Your brother in Christ
Dr. Troy Charves “FireSpeaks” Pearsall

P.S.

I am looking to start a teaching and evangelizing ministry in Philadelphia and seeking others to work alongside me in this calling from God. If you or someone you know may be interested contact me at Making.grace.amazing@gmail.com I will contact you as soon as possible.

God's Omnipresence in Us

God's Omnipresence in Us

When we think of Omnipresence we think as God being everywhere this was addressed earlier in the “Everywhere of Omnipresence” or as God incarnating God’s self for man to interact with, this was addressed in the “Theophany of Omnipresence” but there is another form of omnipresence that I think should be cleared up. And it is even more complicated than all the rest and of all the Attributes of God, this is the one that we have power over.

This being the incarnation of God which is beyond the physical to the spiritual, it lives in us and speaks to us, and through us, it exists to comfort us, and guide us into full maturation in the works of God. This incarnation is called the Holy Spirit (Ruah HaKodesh; Hebrew) (Pneuma Hagios; Greek) it is given to the believer of Christ as a promise from Jesus Christ. And because every man, woman, and child that walks on this earth has within him the free will to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior, none is excluded from the possibility of having the Holy Spirit dwelling in him; this is the Indwelling of Omnipresence.

Now with the Holy Spirit indwelling in us, our body becomes as Paul says in a temple where God

dwells.

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,” 1 Corinthian 6:19

Pay attention to the way this is written, the apostle Paul did not say that if you have received the Holy Spirit, then your body is a temple where God dwells. What he was trying to do was draw to the attention of the Church of Corinth that because they have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, their bodies are a temple.

Now this becomes wholly important in our understanding that the Holy Spirit is not an option in the life of the believer,  as some may teach. rather it is an essential to the life of the believer.  Without the Holy Spirit dwelling in you there is no salvation! This is important because we are told that all we have to do is say that we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and we are saved, but this is no exactly the truth.  Yes on our part the requirement is to "Confess with out mouth and believe with our heart that God (the Father) raised Jesus (the Son) from the dead and we will be saved.  But also at that moment when we are saved God gives to the saved man or women His Holy Spirit.  So that every where we are God is also there. (indwelling) This is how David was able to say

" If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." Psalm 139:8

In fact the scripture infer that without the indwelling omnipresence of God in us we are not saved!

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Romans 8:8-9 (KJV)

Let me break down these two verses written by the Apostle Paul. The Apostle says that "those of the flesh can not please God, but you (he was speaking to the Church of Corinth ) are not of the flesh but of the spirit." Now pay close attention to these next two words. Paul writes 

“if so” ; if you truly are of the spirit, "be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." That was a statement of confidence, not a question. What the Apostle was saying is that, if so you are truly living your life after God then I am confident that the Spirit of God dwells in you. This is important because Paul understood that even then there were phony Christians among the Church of Corinth , just as it will be in your church, but these have no effect on the life of a regenerated Christian.

Now the next line seals the deal the apostle writes "If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his." Now who are those that belong to Christ, those that have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior, not just with their lips but also with their hearts?

Because anyone can say “I accept Jesus Christ as my savior” and not have the contrite heart and they are not saved! understand this the word alone do not save it takes a contrite and believing heart. and a believing heart looks like a heart that believes.

False Converts

In second Timothy 4:10 The apostle Paul writes “For Demas hath forsaken me

having loved this present world.” You see Demas had accepted Christ as a savior with his lips but the desires of the flesh (they that are of flesh can not please God) he esteemed greater than the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 

In John 6:70 Jesus in speaking of Judas reply “One of you is a devil” You see Judas had promised to follow Christ but the desires of his flesh (lucre/ or mammon) was greater than desire for salvation. I’ve heard people say that Judas could not go to heaven because he hung himself. We often have a difficult time saying who will make it to heaven and who will not. but the scriptures on this issue is pretty clear. Let’s be real now Judas won’t get to heaven because he is a devil!
Christ words not mine. (John 6:70)

So both Demas and Judas did profess a Love for Christ but the Spirit of God never dwelt in them because they never accepted Christ with their hearts. Time after time the Bible makes it clear that salvation is a product of the heart but we as Christian teach that it is a product of our lips, even though we see two biblical examples of false converts those that had professed a love for Christ with their lips, but whose heart was still desiring the things of this world

• The bible says that God saves those of contrite spirit (broken hearted) Psalm 34:18;
• God will not despise a contrite heart Psalm 51:17; ·
• I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit Isaiah 57:15

So this incarnation of God is different in that God indwells in our very heart. This incarnation of God is not external to us but is the very spirit that guides us in righteousness, by giving us perfect interpretation of God’s word in the way that is specific to the individual person.

And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Acts 2:7-8 (KJV)

Now of all the Attributes of God, only the Indwelling Omnipresence do we have power by our action to defile. So be it drugs, homosexuality, adultery, fornication, effeminate, overeating, smoking, or excessive drinking, anything in which the body is directly affected we dishonor God by submitting to the lust of flesh. More importantly we defile the Holy Temple of God and place ourselves under a curse of destruction.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God , and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God , him shall God destroy; for thetemple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (KJV)

Your Brother in Christ
Troy "FireSpeaks" Pearsall