Bible Studies

Afraid To Go Home? Part Three

by Doug Laird 
12/18/23
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Be it here on Earth, or after the 1Cor. 3: 12-15/Rev. 20: 13-15 events take place in Heaven, justice will
prevail.

Meanwhile, here on Earth, divine discipline (1) can range in anything from living with a guilty conscience, up to and including, physical death (2).

Divine discipline is imposed by God on His people to motivate them (or those who observe the discipline-Acts 5) to get their post salvation spiritual lives in order.

God has, is, and will, directly impose His discipline, but in many cases will simply let the inevitable consequences of our negative choices play themselves out. Nothing more miserable than to stew in the juice of our own making.

. . .

In the ancient world, entering the Old Testament Temple in a defiled condition, could result in capital punishment. What constituted a defiled condition during the Old Testament dispensation was spelled out in The Law of the Old Testament Scripture.Defilement renders the person or the object unsuitable for the purposes of God.

New Testament Scripture speaks of the defilement of the marriage bed through adultery and fornication (3).

New Testament Scripture speaks of defilement (of the “temple” of God, that being the physical bodies of Church Age believers (4).

Paul was erroneously accused of defiling the Temple when it was assumed that he had brought gentiles into the Temple (5).

Sin that has not been confessed or forsaken defiles the born again believer.

Jesus touched on the subject when He pointed out that it was what comes out of the mouth (revealing the evil in the soul) is what defiles the individual (6).

Our speech, facial expressions, and behaviors are overt manifestations of what is presently taking place, be it good or evil, in the soul (7).

Again, for many folks in both the Old and the New Testament dispensations, God was and is perceived to be Someone to be greatly feared, and His place of worship was and is to be approached with extreme due care.

Like our earthly fathers, God the Father is certainly entitled to be respected by His children, but He, like our earthly fathers, does not want His children to be afraid of Him. A fearful environment is not conducent to building intimacy.

. . .

What happened that enabled a holy God to be able to have fellowship and intimate relationships with individuals of a fallen race without compromising His own standard of sinless perfection?

Man-made religions would have us believe that reconciliation with God is achieved and maintained by participating in overt rituals and performing good deeds.

But all the Man-made rituals and good deeds in the world can not seal (8) or regenerate (9) a spiritually dead soul, nor can they cleanse us from on going sin (10), or produce one second of eternal life (11).

The purpose of Biblically grounded, overt rituals, is to ACKNOWLEDGE (as in the case of water baptisms) or BRING INTO REMEMBRANCE (as in the case of Communion) something that has ALREADY taken place that has present, future, and eternal significance. They are NOT for the purpose of obtaining, retaining, or restoring salvation.

Man-made religious rituals and procedures are meaningless. ‭‭ ‘And in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men (Mark 7: 7, 8 NASB2020)”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

“You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of people, but God knows your hearts; because that which is highly esteemed among people is DETESTABLE in the sight of God (Luke‬ ‭16:15‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬).”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

For Old Testament believers, reconciliation with God was based on the faith that they had in COMING Work of the Lord Jesus Christ, SYMBOLIZED in the sacrificial rituals of the Old Testament. Here in the Church Age, reconciliation is based on the faith that believers have in the atoning Work that was FINISHED (12) on the cross BEFORE the start of the Church Age.

This atoning Work of the Lord Jesus Christ PAID IN FULL, the *payable sin debt of the entire human race (13). I said “payable” because (by divine design) the one and only sin that was not atoned for on the cross, was the sin of disbelief (14), for which there is NO remedy.

With the exception of the sin of disbelief, the sins of the entire human race, past, present, and future, were paid for in full by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross (15). For God to require ANY further payment or activity to address a past, present, or future sin, would refute the efficacy of the atoning Work on the cross. Either our sins have been fully atoned for (as Scripture teaches), or they have not.

Biblical salvation with its eternal security is either the greatest truths ever told (as I believe), or they are the greatest lies ever told, as many religions (including some “CHRISTIAN” denominations) and the devil, would have us believe.

. . .

There is a place for respect, but not fear, regarding God and the things of God, in the lives of born-again believers. Fear is the antithesis of faith. The more an individual has of one, the less he or she has of the other.

In closing, keep in mind that our uninhibited and bold access to the throne of God, be it via prayer now, or in person later on, was made available and given to born again believers by the Lord Jesus Christ (16).

“Let us therefore come BOLDLY unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4: 16 KJV).”

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(1) Heb. 12: 6 (2) Acts 5 (3) Heb. 13: 4 (4) 1Cor. 12: 16, 17 (5) Acts 21: 28 (6) Matt. 15: 11 (7) James 3: 10-12 (8) Eph. 4: 30 (9) Titus 3: 5 (10) 1John 1: 9 (11) John 3: 5, 7/Isa. 64: 6/Matt. 15: 8-9) (12) John 19: 30 (13) 1John 2: 2 (14) John 3: 18/John 8: 24 (15) 1John 2: 2 (16) Eph. 2: 18 End of SERIES