CHAPTER ONE  THE TRUE GOSPEL   Go ye therefore, and teach all nation. . . to observe all things . . . whatsoever I have commanded you . . ."  Matthewb 28:19-20        ab  Gospel means ‘good news’.  The purpose of this book is to discover the gospel that produces true Christians, genuine saints of God.   We will be looking at the commands and teachings of Jesus --- directly from His recorded words and through the words of the apostles who were personally taught by Him --- to find out what the true gospel is, and how it is the 'power of God unto salvation'.[1]            The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation; first for the Jew and then for the Gentile.  Revelation 14:6 declares the gospel to be eternal.  It didn't change from the old covenant to the new.  This good news of Jesus Christ was revealed through prophecy:[2]  to Job of old,[3]  to Abraham in the covenant of promise,[4]  and to the Jewish nation during the time of the dispensation of the Mosaic covenant.[5]    Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of prophecy, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.[6]   He is the word of God made flesh, to fulfill the promise of salvation made to the people of God.[7]  'Christ in you', was the mystery shadowed throughout the Mosaic covenant, now fully revealed in the new.[8]  The way to justification and righteousness was brought to mankind through His life, death and resurrection.  In this present age, the power of the gospel is accomplished within the terms of the New Covenant.  Some, who consider the covenants simply as promises, would object to the word  'terms'.   Although the Hebrew writer does say the new covenant was established on better promises, both covenants include requirements to obtain the promises.  Some insist there are no conditions to the new.  However, the Apostle declares that there are righteous requirements of the law  to be fully met in those who walk according to the Spirit.[9]   In a competition one cannot be crowned unless he has competed according to the rules.[10]   You must know the terms of a contract you are committing to, as a covenant is not binding on one party if unfulfilled, or broken, by the other.  Jesus warned that an unfaithful servant, (a covenant-breaker), would be ‘separated out and his portion appointed with the unbelievers’.[11]  We must be diligent to make our calling and election sure.[12]    The Mosaic covenant was for the dispensation of physical Israel as God's separated people.  However, the time came when He ‘abolished in His flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordin-ances. . . thus making peace’.[13]  The enmity, which caused division of Jew and Gentile, was the Mosaic system, the law of commandments in ordinances.  The Law of Moses, as necessary for salvation, was rejected by the Holy Spirit at the Jerusalem council in 50AD, confirmed to us by the witnesses that were there.[14]  This Mosaic, or ceremonial, law was referred to by Peter as that which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear.[15] In fairness to Moses, ('through whom came the Law'), the precepts found in these ordinances were beneficial to the participants in the covenant, because the Moral Law was incorporated into the Mosaic system. But these ordinances will not be used for a rule on judgment day. The Moral law will![16]  Jesus Christ, ('through whom came grace and truth’), confirmed it is the Moral Law that will remain until all things are fulfilled.  He said, "THINK NOT THAT I AM COME TO DESTROY THE LAW, OR THE PROPHETS: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, ONE JOT OR ONE TITTLE SHALL IN NO WISE PASS FROM THE LAW, till all be fulfilled."  (Matthew 5:17-18) ab If the Mosaic covenant of law has been abolished, what law is left whose righteous requirements we are to fulfill?  The answer: God’s Law.  Our first insight into the difference is found in the fifth chapter of Matthew, verses 31-32.  Jesus, (quoting the Mosaic law found in Deuteronomy 24:1), said,  "It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.  But I say unto you . . .”  By saying this, He testifies to a higher law. "For I say unto you, That EXCEPT YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL EXCEED THE RIGHTEOUS-NESS OF THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES, YE SHALL IN NO CASE ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.  .  . Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:20-22,27-28) Later, the Pharisees again questioned Jesus concerning the Mosaic Law on divorce, "Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?"  His answer was, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives: BUT FROM THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO."[17]  God’s statutes, precepts, and Moral Law, which are completed in love, have been intact from the beginning and will remain until all things are complete.   ".  .  .  a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it:  Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. ON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS HANG ALL THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS."  (Matthew 22:35-40)           a  WHAT OF GRACE? b  I am not promoting being under law to justification, commonly referred to as 'works righteousness'.  "For by grace are ye saved through faith . . . NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast." [18]   Keeping the law does not justify us, ‘for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified’.[19]   The sacrificial ordinances of the old covenant could not justify one in the sight of God --- for it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.[20]  Nor can we cleanse ourselves from one sin by doing a good work, for the one cannot cancel out the other.  We can be cleansed of sin in the sight of God only by the blood of Jesus.          The breaking of the law demands justice!  Man’s own righteousnesses, stained by the sin of the trespassing of His laws, are as filthy rags to a holy God.  We cannot make ourselves clean.  Only the passion of the sinless Jesus could satisfy the justice demanded.[21]   All that remains, once we accept the mercy offered and are justified by the blood of Jesus, is to walk in the grace provided and keep our garments clean,[22]  fulfilling the righteousness of the law.  Some struggle with the twofold biblical teaching on good works.  Continuing in Ephesians 2 we find: "For we are HIS workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO GOOD WORKS, which God hath before ordained that we should WALK in them." (vs 10)   James asks, "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works?   can faith save him?"   "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." [23]   Please note, we walk in them after we are justified, not to be justified!  Like Abraham, our faith is manifested by works, which is how  ". . . by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." [24]   There is no faith without works and no justification without faith.  Some teach grace as mercy. This is not so! The distinction is clear.  "That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 5:21)   "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." (Titus 2:11-14)   This present world --- not after death!   Does this grace sound like mercy?  Grace was sent to teach us not to sin so that He does not have to keep extending mercy, not to repeatedly cover unrepentant sin.  Grace is grace and mercy is mercy.  In His mercy He sent His grace.  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.[25]   Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  Certainly not! [26] Martin Luther, father of the reformation and celebrated teacher of grace, in his commentary on Galatians wrote: “Satan, the god of all dissension, stirreth up daily new sects, and last of  which of all others I  should never have foreseen or suspected,  he hath raised up a sect such as teach that the ten commandments ought to be taken out of the church, and that men should not be terrified by  the law, but gently exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ.” When Paul says in his epistle to the Romans that we are no longer under law but under grace,[27] he is refer-ring to the Law of Moses.  He is not suggesting that the Moral Law is annulled, or nailed to the cross, or that we are no longer obligated to be lawful. God’s law is eternal and irrevocable; the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.[28]  The Ten Commandments do not fall under the category of ordinances!   It is this Law by which one and all will be judged on the day when God will open the Books and judge all men by Jesus Christ.[29] The Law of God was from the beginning.  Adam and Eve broke the first commandment in the garden. The laws of God, written on tablets of stone by the finger of God Himself, were brought down from the mountain by Moses. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant . . . I will put my laws in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. . ." (Jeremiah 31:31-33; cf. Hebrews 8:10)   Under the new covenant, these same laws were to be written by God Himself in our hearts and minds.  Not annulled! Whether you are a Gentile ‘without law’, a Jew  'under law', or a Christian ‘under grace’, it is God’s Law which is to be obeyed and the rule by which all works will be judged.  Christians are not going to be judged by grace.   Grace is God’s provision for power over the sin  which violates His law.  There is a teaching in some catechisms that defines ‘being saved’ as salvation only from the guilt and condemnation of sin.  In other words, Jesus came to save us from hell.  To say that He came to save us from hell is a false premise on which to build, for He came to save us from the sin that would send us to hell.   Believers are cleansed by the blood of Jesus, (justified), and given the grace to live above sin, (sanctified).  Some professors of Christianity want to be kept in their sins.  Making them free, not only from guilt and condemnation, but even the necessity of being delivered from[30]  their sins. God’s law will be the standard of righteousness by which our works are judged.  We are under grace, the power over sin that enables us to walk in righteousness.  Therefore there is now no condemnation  --- nor will be on judgment day  ---  if we continue in grace [31] and not in sin.[32]  We are no longer under the bondage of the law because we are no longer in bondage to sin.  ". . . The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and  for sinners, for the unholy. . ."[33]  All will be judged, and all sinners will be condemned, for the end  (wages) of sin is death. “So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty."  (James 2:12)   " … the royal law. . . Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. . ."  (James 2:8, cf. Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14)  "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inor-dinate affection, evil concupiscence (desire), and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:  in the which ye also walked AT ONE TIME, WHEN ye lived in them."  (Colossians 3:5-7, cf. vs. 8-10, Ephesians 4:25-32)   We must put away evil works, and that will leave only good works to walk in ab The Scriptures, which cannot be broken, say the soul that sinneth shall die.[34]   The easy-believers say,  "Nay, not a Christian.  He will not surely die.  His sins are under the blood."  Sound familiar?  Yet James, speaking to the beloved, tells us, "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished (full-grown), bringeth forth death."  (1:15)    1John 5:16, "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death:  I do not say that he shall pray for it."  It is claimed that this ‘sin unto death’ is referring to physical death.  James clearly informs us what John meant was not physical death, but the death of one’s soul.  "Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins." (James 5:19-20) In Luke 3, John the Baptist warned the Jews of his day that producing the fruit of repentance was needed to flee God’s wrath.  Having Abraham as their Father, staking a claim as one of God’s elect people, was not solid ground to stand on.  ". . . Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.  Well, because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standeth by faith.  Be not high-minded, but fear:  For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also may spare not thee.  Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."  (Romans 11:19-22)    ‘Continuing in His goodness’ does not mean 'trusting in His mercy’.  This word ‘goodness’,[35] which we are to walk in, means usefulness, moral excellence in character and demeanor.  "If a man therefore purge himself . . . he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work." [36]   We will reap what we sow.             Jesus was telling the truth when He said not one jot or tittle would pass from the law until all things are fulfilled.  Does  ‘the law of sin and death’ revealed in Romans 7 still stand?   Yes, because deliverance did not come by removing the righteous requirements of the Law, but by providing ‘the law of the Spirit of Life’ to overpower the sin nature and enable us to do all things through Christ who strengthens us.  a ROMANS 7 b To define the gospel more fully, let me answer a contention widely held in much of the western church today. The assertion is that, according to Romans 7:14-24, Paul was never delivered from ‘the law of sin’.  He was held captive by his body of flesh and its desires; prevented from doing the good he wanted to do and compelled to do the evil he did not want to do, released from its hold only at his death.     Compare this opinion to Romans 6:22: "But now being made free from sin, and become  servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end, everlasting life."  Is it possible that Paul is contradicting himself from one chapter to another?  Is it possible that the Apostle Paul was a slave of God and a slave of sin?   Serving two masters?  Of course not!  Rather, what appears to be a contradiction --- (called a  ‘tension’ by some theologians) --- between chapters six and seven, is simply a plain account of  ‘the law of sin and death’ contrasted with the 'law of the Spirit of Life'.[37]             A false interpretation of Romans 7 can occur when it is removed from the context of the rest of the       epistle, and could appear to give a license to sin to all who are still enslaved to sin and not to God.  Many   are convinced they are justified and secure while walking in known, willful sin, even though the truth is that the end of sin is death![38]   Peter, recognizing the possibility of such difficulties with Paul’s letters, warned: ". . . even as our beloved brother Paul . . . hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles . . . in which some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest (twist), as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." [39]     Let it be understood, that though it may be taught otherwise, the Apostle never refers to the Law as evil or carnal or sin, but as spiritual.  Although in bodies of flesh, we are called to spiritual things.  The Law is not the cause of sin, nor is it implied to be so in the text we are now considering.  When God created all things and pronounced them good, this included the flesh.  It is the fallen nature, the polluted soul that brings sin and decay to the flesh.  The purity of man’s state before the fall was polluted by the very object that caused its fall: the knowledge of good and evil.  The knowledge of evil produces in our carnal nature all kinds of passions, which are a law unto them-selves.  Natural desire is not sin but, when not confined, will run to excess.  Sexual desire not limited to the law of marriage becomes adultery.  Everyone born has been sold under sin.  We see the affect of this fallen state everywhere.  Thus our need of a Savior. This law of sin in our members, which inflames our passions and prevents us from doing the good we would do, is what caused the Pharisee [40]  to cry out for deliverance.  This deliverance  --- which he thanked God for --- was found by him through Jesus Christ. (vs. 25)  This same deliverance from sin is available to you and me. We must keep in mind the object of the Apostle’s teaching.  He is showing us the bondage of sin that has come to us through a fallen nature, made evident by the law, in order to show us the liberty that comes by the law of the Spirit of Life.   Romans seven is not a proof text for the ‘right’ to commit --- or an inability to repent from --- sin.>   If we read Paul’s words with preconceived, mistaken ideas we will run to error.  One of these ideas is an inaccurate definition of sin given in many catechisms.  Understanding Paul’s discourse requires the proper scriptural definition.  The clearest definition can be found in James 4:17:  ". . . to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin."   Sin is a violation of a known law of God.  Many have gone to great lengths to make almost everything a sin.  This has a tendency to overwhelm us.  When practically everything we think, say and do is considered sin, refraining from it, while we are still breathing, seems a hopeless concept.  This Pharisaic position, called the letter of the law, has been laid on the church and tends to promote the common belief that we, along with Paul, must remain in a permanent state of active sin.  The apostle strongly refutes this modern day teaching when he tells us our calling is to be conformed to the image of Christ. [41]  This calling, (which is not optional), is impossible with a permanent state of active sin alive in those who are called.  The will of God for you, in Christ Jesus, is your sanctification. [42]   Paul refers to the man controlled by the ‘law of sin’ as wretched.  The natural man described in Romans seven could not find within himself the means to do the good he wanted to do.  "For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not". (vs. 18)   The deceitfulness of sin and its hold upon the unregenerate man produces the  ‘I find not’ and establishes the 'law of sin and death'.  The letter of the law, written and engraved in stone, kills.[43]   This is because the rule of law is not able to produce the conduct desired, and he who offends in one point is guilty of breaking the whole law.[44]   The law of the Spirit of Life produces in us the ability to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law, bringing obedience unto life.[45]   This is why Paul is able to describe a different man in chapters six and eight.   In chapter nine of the first epistle to the Corinthians, we find a man able to beat his body into submission so that he not becomes reprobate.   The law of the Spirit of Life in Romans 8:2 accomplishes this self-control  ---  a fruit of the Spirit  ---  by which we, like Paul, are able to do all things through Christ who strengthens us.[46]   Glory to God!   Come to your senses and stop sinning.   You can.  The Holy Spirit of the new covenant supplies the power to do it.  Will you walk in that Spirit of power? a 1 JOHN 1:8 b 1 John 1:8 is another scripture often twisted by the unstable,[47] annulling the true teaching of the gospel.  It is used by those trying to ‘prove’ their sin-you-must, sin-you-will-till-death-do-you-part doctrine. They infer a contra-diction between this verse and the remainder of 1 John, calling it a  'tension'.  There is no contradiction or  'tension', however.  The entire epistle plainly teaches the same gospel Paul taught in Romans 6-8: the children of God do not go on walking in sin. John’s letter is to believers  ‘that our joy may be full'. (1:4)   Our joy comes from our fellowship with the Father and Son, and the basis of this fellowship is truth.  If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness we are lying. (1:6)   Verse five tells us God is light with no darkness at all.  We know there can be no fellowship between light and darkness.[48]  This is expounded in the third chapter. "And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is NO SIN.   Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not:  whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known   Him.   Little children, LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU: he that DOETH righteousness is righteous, EVEN AS HE is righteous.   <