Bible Studies

---

Familiarity Breeds Contempt
Part 4A

The physical body has an immune system that when functioning properly will identify and addresses harmful things that enter the body. Likewise, *an edified soul structure (1) is what provides the advancing disciple with the *knowledge (2) necessary to identify spiritually harmful material, human viewpoint, and ungodly input that would otherwise take root and produce *bad fruit (3).

The immune system of the body is on automatic, but can be assisted in it’s function by proper nutrition, hydration, and good hygiene. When the immune system of the body fails to fight off the harmful material, one becomes physically ill.

To be effective, the immune system of the soul structure needs the daily *nutrition (4) of the Word of God; the daily and nightly *meditation (5) over the Word of God; the daily maintenance of *self-examination (6) in light of the Word of God; and the exercise from the moment to moment *application (7) of the Word of God.

By making a request for our daily bread a part of the “Lord's Prayer,” I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was not only teaching His disciples (then and now) to ask God the Father to provide us with our logistical necessities of each day, but for Him to *create in us (8) a hunger for the daily bread that nourishes our soul structure.

Our spiritual ancestors risked life, liberty, and limb to preserve, promote, and make the Bible available to us. Many of our brother and sister believers around the world continue to do so. Yet there are so many to whom this opportunity and accountability has been *given (9), whose Bibles do little more than collect dust.


With the available technology (Bible apps) of our day and Age, the Word of God can be as close to us as our phones. It’s just a matter of with whom or with what we want to spend our time.
…
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors (Matt. 6: 12 NASB).

We *all (10) are indebted to God, as each and every sin is an offence against God, placing all of us in the *same (11) boat. Man has a sin debt that he can never pay off while here on Earth or in any place, by any means, now or in eternity future.

No one will ever deserve or *earn (12) salvation, as no amount of religious activity or relatively good behavior can cancel this debt. The * world’s (13) sin debt could only be (and was) stamped “PAID IN FULL” by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of the Old Testament rituals addressing sin foreshadowed the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ that, in accordance with God’s plan, had not yet taken place.

The New Testament rituals are based on the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ that was *finished (14) on the cross.

The *divine nature of God (15) requires that each and every sin be addressed if God is to be in fellowship with Fallen Man. The divine justice of God requires that each and every sin be accounted for and addresses.

The dilemma that fallen Man found himself in was that there was nothing Man could independently satisfy the justice of God in order to receive salvation and restore the fellowship that was lost at the Fall.

Because of the love that God has for fallen Man, God did for us on the cross what we could have never done for ourselves.
With the exception of the sin of *disbelief (16), every sin that was ever committed before, being committed at the time, or that would later be committed throughout the course of human history was atoned for on the cross.

The exception of the sin of disbelief was not an oversight or a deficiency in the atoning work on the cross.

It was part of the divine plan, requiring a *confession of faith (17) in order to be saved. This confession of faith by Peter was NOT a list of all the sins he committed.

It was a statement of belief (trust and confidence), identifying the Person and the Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because the sin of disbelief was the one and only sin that was not (by divine design) addressed on the cross, it remains to be the one and only sin that can result in spending all of eternity in the *lake of fire (18).

Q. Is this license to sin?
A. Not at all.

Post salvation sin opens the door to *divine discipline (19) that takes place here on Earth. Divine discipline can range in anything from living with a guilty conscience up to and including *physical death (20).

Divine discipline on Earth is not for the purpose of punishment, but to motivate the one being disciplined (or others observing it) to establish or to return to the type of post salvation spiritual life that glorifies God here on Earth.

The benefits (e.g. eternal life) of this universal atonement becomes an individual reality if/when each individual soul is *born again (21).

There is no family or denominational or family coverage plan offered in the unadulterated Gospel message.

Individual sinners receive forgiveness from God and eternal life based on his/her individual belief that his/her entire sin debt was paid in full by the atoning Work of the Lord Jesus Christ while on the cross.

Man did nothing to deserve this, and took no part in it.

There is nothing that Man needs to do or can do to complete the atoning work that was already *finished (22) on the cross. Man's only part in the process is to choose to listen to and respond to a presentation of the Gospel Message, accepting God's grace-gift of salvation.

This *one and only (23) means of salvation is offered to *every soul (24) of the human race, based on the undeserved, unearned, grace of God.

It is with this same undeserved, unearned, unconditional attitude that we are to forgive other people who have offended us. This is the primary principle being conveyed in Matt. 6: 12 that speaks of forgiving others that have and will offend us.

All sin offends God incur a debt for having offended God. Some sin directly offends other people (e.g. theft, adultery), as well, indebting the offender to person, as well.

When we are the one that was offender by the sin(s) of others, we are to forgive them with same (unearned/undeserved) attitude that God has when we offend Him. Such forgiveness is not contingent on receiving an apology or restitution from the people that offended us.

I believe that the debt and debtors translation better conveys the principles that the Lord was teaching His disciples when He introduced what we now know as the Lord’s Prayer.

In fact, after doing the research for this part of this presentation, I had to break a sixty-plus year old habit of using the English words trespasses and trespassed when reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

We are all a work in progress.

An advancing disciple can not afford to be among those who think the *old ways are best (25) if he/she is to continue to *grow in the knowledge (26) and in the *application (27) of the Word of God.

To be continued . . .
________

(1) Matt. 7: 24-27 (2) 2Pet. 3: 18 (3) Gal. 5: 19-21 (4) John 21: 17 (5) Joshua 1: 8/Psalms 1: 2 (6) 2Cor. 13: 5 (7) James 1: 22 (8) Psalms 51: 10 (9) Luke 12: 48 (10) ROM. 3: 23 (11) James 2: 10 (12) Eph. 2: 8 (13) 1John 2: 2 (14) John 19: 30 (15) Habakkuk 1: 13 (16) John 3: 18/Rev. 20: 15 (17) Matt. 16: 16 (18) Rev. 20: 15 (19) Heb. 12 (20) Acts 5 (21) John 3: 5, 7 (22) John 19: 30 (23) John 14: 6 (24) 1Tim. 2: 4 (25) Luke 5: 29 (26) 2Pet. 3: 18 (27) James 1: 22

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE