MIND CONTROL 35

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Let us take a close look so that we can get a full understanding of Paul’s message in relation to grace.

But in order to get a full perspective…….let us start with a statement from Jesus.

Jesus says:

Matthew 6:14-15
14 FOR IF YOU FORGIVE MEN WHEN THEY SIN AGAINST YOU, YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER WILL ALSO FORGIVE YOU.
15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Now according to Jesus……. what must we do to be forgiven of sin?

According to Jesus……once you forgive men when they sin against you……God will forgive you.

Please note…….Jesus said nothing about death on a cross……nothing about shedding his blood……nothing about grace……. And nothing about faith…..

If you want God to forgive you of your sins…….forgive other people.

The process of forgiving a man when he punches you in the face is not an act of faith…..it requires you to do something

God is not going to do it for you…….the demand requires you to do it yourself.

Jesus is not saying he will do it for you either

Please note……nothing to do with grace.

It requires you to hold back…..take a decision not to retaliate……..and turn a blind eye to what he just did.

Now……let us analyse what Paul has to say about this issue

Paul says:

Eph 2:8-9
8 For IT IS BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED, through faith– and this not from yourselves, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD–
9 NOT BY WORKS, so that no one can boast.

How does this position that Paul is raising compare to what Jesus Christ is saying?

Lets pay attention so we can see the difference.

Jesus says you have to do something to be forgiven of sin……you have to forgive

Paul says you don’t have to do anything……..”it is not by works”……it is by grace

Jesus says you have to do something to be forgiven of sin……you have to forgive

Paul says you don’t have to do anything……it is a gift.

This has to be the most dangerous message ever preached in the history of mankind.

By getting the entire world to believe that you don’t have to do anything to stop yourself from sinning …… he made the entire world comfortable with sin…..and they didn’t even realize it

He preached the message over and over.

Lets take a look:

Romans 11:5-6
5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.
6 BUT IF IT IS BY GRACE, IT IS NO LONGER ON THE BASIS OF WORKS, OTHERWISE GRACE IS NO LONGER GRACE.

What is Paul trying to do by getting people to believe that it is not on the basis of works???

Its simple……he wants to get everyone to do no works

Doing no works means you are not forgiving people…….

Not forgiving people according to Jesus…..means that you are not getting forgiveness.

Does it seem as though Paul’s intent is to make people miss out on forgiveness?

Paul says:

Romans 5:20
20 THE LAW WAS ADDED SO THAT THE TRESSPASS MIGHT INCREASE. BUT WHERE SIN INCREASED, GRACE INCREASED EVEN MORE.

What is Paul teaching us here?

He is basically saying that God brought the law and caused the entire sin of the world to increase…..

But don’t worry because where the sin increased…….grace increased even more.

Translation……if your sin is increasing…..no worries…it was intended…….grace is increasing too……so you will always be forgiven.

Suspicious?

Paul says:

Romans 3:22-24
22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are JUSTIFIED FREELY BY HIS GRACE through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

So he is saying that righteousness does not come from you……it comes from God

Everybody is a sinner…….you are all sinners…..

But don’t worry…..Christ came…..and now we are all justified freely…..because of his grace….

Suspicious?

On the basis of this information that Paul is giving us……what is he trying to get us to do?

The answer to that is easy…..

Paul is trying to get us to do “nothing”

According to Paul:

Titus 2:11
11 THE GRACE OF GOD HAS APPEARED, BRINGING SALVATION TO ALL MEN.

If the grace of God has appeared “bringing” salvation to all men…….then you don’t need to do anything about the sin in your life……see the logic?

Paul says:

Rom 5:15
15 And what a difference between man’s sin and God’s forgiveness! For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this ONE MAN, JESUS CHRIST, BROUGHT FORGIVENESS TO MANY THROUGH GOD’S MERCY.

Is this true?

Did Jesus Christ “bring” forgiveness??……..or did Jesus Christ “ask us to forgive people”?

Is there a fundamental difference between the two?

Paul’s message gets even more sinister

Paul says:

Romans 3:25
25 For GOD SENT CHRIST JESUS TO TAKE THE PUNISHMENT FOR OUR SINS AND TO END ALL GOD’S ANGER AGAINST US. He used Christ’s blood and our faith as the means of saving us from his wrath. In this way he was being entirely fair, even though he did not punish those who sinned in former times. For HE WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THE TIME WHEN CHRIST WOULD COME AND TAKE AWAY THOSE SINS.

Lets take a close look at what Paul is saying here

Paul says……God sent Christ to take punishment for our sins

He says…..”you will not get punished” as long as you have faith in the fact that Christ has taken the punishment for your sins

He says…..God was looking forward to the time when Christ would come and take away your sins.

He says Jesus came and took away sins…….but are sins still here??…..have people stopped sinning since Jesus came???

He says God was angry…..and the only way he could keep himself from killing you was if he saw blood and faith………

Does this story sound true to you?

Christ says if you forgive you will be forgiven. If you don’t forgive you will not be forgiven

Paul says don’t worry…….Christ has already taken the punishment….so you don’t have to do anything

Suspicious?

So wait a second……God was angry…..and the only way he could get rid of his anger was to kill someone?

But he couldn’t’ bare to kill everyone……so he killed someone in the place of you…

Hmmmm……if a man steals something and gets caught…..would you say that the man was forgiven if the police shoot his son instead of him?

Does this story make any sense?

Paul maintains:

Romans 5:8-9
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since WE HAVE NOW BEEN JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

Is Paul saying that our sin has been justified?

In other words…..sin is no longer wrong?

No wonder Paul can say:

Romans 7:20 …..”Now if I do what I will not to do, IT IS NO LONGER I WHO DO IT, BUT SIN THAT DWELLS IN ME”

This is Paul’s justification of sin.

Its not him that did it…..it was sin…..but don’t worry about sin…..because Jesus has already been punished for your sins

Hmmmmm.

Paul says:

Col 1:19-20
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, BY MAKING PEACE THROUGH HIS BLOOD, shed on the cross.

Is the only way that God can make peace through blood?

Is there no other way?

Eph 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

Why do we have to be redeemed through blood?

Does God forgive people without the shedding of blood?

Paul’s position was so powerful in the church that his message succeeded in corrupting the message of Christ.

It gets even more sinister when we discover that the words of Jesus himself……were tampered with too

After all…..what is a better way to kill a messenger…..than to change his entire message?

To be continued……..