Verse 12 begins with the children of Israel doing evil again. This time, their punishment is that the LORD strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab.
King Eglon gathered together the people of Ammon and Amalek and took over the city of Jericho.
The people, after 18 years of oppression under Eglon, cried out to the LORD. God raised up Ehud, a left-handed man from the tribe of Benjamin, to be a deliverer for them.
Ehud plots and executes an assassination
This new deliverer, Ehud, planned to overthrow King Eglon and set the people of Israel free from them.
He began by making a two-edged dagger and hiding it under his right thigh. Then he approached the king bearing a tribute from the people of Israel.
Ehud requested a private meeting with Eglon, saying he had a secret message from the LORD. When they were in private, Ehud stabbed him with the dagger. The king’s fat was so much that it completely enclosed the blade, and Ehud couldn’t pull it out.
Ehud escapes and the LORD delivers the Moabites into Israel’s hand
The king’s guards were waiting outside during Ehud and Eglons meeting. They didn’t think to check on the king because the door was locked and they figured he must have been using the bathroom in the private chambers. They were embarrassed when they had waited so long and found him dead.
Meanwhile, Ehud escaped back to the Mountain of Ephraim. Here, he gathered together all the people and told them that the LORD had delivered their enemies into their hands. He led them back down to the Jordan River and conquered the Moabites.
Israel had peace for the next 80 years.
My thoughts on Judges 3:12-31
Ehud is the embodiment of the unexpected
In a world of “rightys,” Ehud is left-handed.
Almost everything about Ehud is not what one would expect.
For starters, the text mentions that he is a left-handed man. This is an interesting fact, since in many cultures around the world, left-handedness is seen as negative. We wouldn’t expect to see a lefty as the hero of any ancient near-eastern story.
In the Bible, we don’t have any verses that outright demean the left hand, but we certainly have some that indicate the right hand as more favored or as the hand of strength and action. For example: Genesis 48:14-18, Exodus 15:6, Deuteronomy 33:2, Psalm 17:7, Matthew 25:33, Acts 7:56, and many more.
Ehud was not threatening
In the sermon this sunday, my pastor mentioned that some scholars think it may have been possible that Ehud was crippled somehow in his right hand. I don’t see anything in the text that implicates this directly, but it would make sense that this is why he was able to get so close to the king without any guards around. They simply didn’t see him as a threat.
On top of his unthreatening appearance, Ehud also hid his blade in an unexpected place. Usually, blades of this kind would have been shiethed in a more conspicuous and useful position, like the outer leg. But Ehud hid his blade on the inside of his right thigh. This is certainly not where one would expect a sword to be.
Jesus was also unexpected
The unexpectedness of Ehud compares to that of Christ. Christ was not what people were expecting. The Jews were expecting a conquering king, but instead, the messiah came as a gentle and lowly servant. There’s even a dispute among some who thought the savior couldn’t come from Nazareth (John 1:46).
Ehud’s method of delivering the people was also unexpected. He assassinated the king with a hidden dagger among the king’s guards, in the king’s own house. Christ delivered his people by dying on the cross for their sins.
The 2-edged dagger’s connection to Christ
Verse 16 says that Ehud made a dagger with two edges that was a cubit in length.
Several translations use the word “dagger,” but the word is more often translated as “sword.” In my opinion, the word “sword” is both more accurate, based on the description given, and is more easily cross-referenced with other scriptures.
For example, a quick search for “sword” elsewhere in the Bible brings up several verses in the New Testament that specifically refer to the Word of God: Ephesians 6:17, Hebrews 4:12, Revelation 1:16, Revelation 2:12, Revelation 2:16, Revelation 19:15, and Revelation 19:21.
God’s word compares with Ehud’s sword
The one that stands out to me the most is Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword…”
In this verse, the word of God is described as a two-edged sword which is exactly how Ehud’s blade is described. It seems to me that there could easily be a connection between the two.
Hebrews says that the word of God cuts through and easily divides even the most difficult things: Soul and spirit, joints and marrow, thoughts and intents of the heart. This is pictured with the story we’re presented here with Ehud and Eglon.
Eglon’s fat covered up the truth of what was inside
In the story from Judges 3, Eglon is said to be a very fat man.
Ancient culture viewed fatness very differently than we view it today. In modern culture, fatness is generally viewed as an unhealthy quality and something that should be avoided. But in ancient times, fatness was a sign of wealth and well-being. If one was fat, it was because they had more than enough for themselves. Many kings and other royalty were known for their fatness, and it was often credited to their wealth.
King Eglon was fat. He had all that he needed, and then some. This fat could be seen to represent not only his material wealth but possibly also the perception of his immaterial wealth. He had power, servants, and land. He also had his graven images, his idols. And not just the idols themselves, but it says in verse 19 that Ehud had to pass by the quarries (KJV) which would likely be where they cut out those graven images.
The use of the word “quarries” here (in the KJV) seems to indicate not only that Eglon had the graven images themselves, but also the means to make more of them as he wished.
He was a very fat man, made fat not only by his material wealth but also by what he thought made him spiritually rich.
Ehud’s sword revealed what was inside Eglon and God’s word reveals what’s inside us
Ehud’s sword cut through the outer appearances of wealth and revealed what was on the inside. Eglon’s insides were full of “dirt,” fecal matter (Judges 3:22). This “dirt” was brought out of him but a cunning blade and he died.
In the same way, the Word of God can cut through the outer layers and reveal what’s inside of us all. The reality is that inwardly we are all the same as Eglon, not just in a physical, biological sense, but also spiritually. We were all dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). Despite our outer appearances, our hearts are desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). But through Jesus, our deliverer, our inward parts, where this death resided, are renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).
*Introduction: This series is a review of the section of scripture that we learned about at my church this Sunday. Unfortunately, I missed out on church service this week (I was at a men’s retreat!), so I’ll begin by summarizing the chapter, and then I’ll provide my thoughts.
Chapter Summary:
A Second Review
The last days of Joshua
Chapter 2 continues in verse 6 with another review, going back to Joshua’s last days.
The campaign began with Joshua leading the Israelites across the Jordan River. Then he divided the land and assigned each section to the familial tribes.
When Joshua and the elders who “had seen all the great works of the LORD” (v7) were in charge, the people served the LORD. But eventually, Joshua and the elders died, and a new generation grew up, who did not know the LORD or the works he had done for Israel.
After the elders died, Israel forsook the LORD.
In verse 11, after this new generation grows up, it says that Israel did evil in the LORD’s sight and served Baalim and the other gods of the Canaanite pantheon.
Doing this provoked the LORD, and he was angry with the people of Israel. In his righteous anger, the LORD stopped fighting for the Israelites and gave them to their enemies. He even went so far as to fight against them, just like he said he would.
But God was still merciful
Their enmity with God, and his resulting wrath, “greatly distressed” the Israelites. Israel was oppressed by the people of the land. But God saw their oppression and verse 18 says it “repented [Him].”
Even though the Israelites were not faithful to him, God was still faithful to them. In such times when they were being oppressed as a result of their sin, God raised up a person called a “Judge” who would deliver the people from their enemies.
The people still rebelled and God’s wrath was rekindled
Unfortunately, after the judge died, the people would return to following the idols and false gods of the land.
In turn, God vowed that, because the people continued in their idolatrous sin, he would no longer drive out the inhabitants of the land for the Israelites. Instead, he would use them to test whether Israel will keep the way of the LORD.
God raised up Othniel as the first Judge
In chapter 3, Israel is oppressed by the king of Mesopotamia. The LORD raised up Othniel. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him and he judged Israel and went and defeated the king of Mesopotamia.
The people and the land, had rest from their enemies for the next 40 years while Othniel was alive.
My thoughts on Judges 2:6-3:11
It’s interesting that the scriptures seem to repeat what they just said.
In the previous installment of this series, the author details what the Israelites did at the beginning of their conquest. The author seems to focus on the physical actions that the people took.
However, in this second section, the author focuses much more on the spiritual application of their actions. Rather than just pointing out that they disobeyed God, the author makes the point that in doing so they rejected God and embraced the false gods of the land.
The next generation of Israelites should have known better
In Judges 2:7 it’s said that the people “served the LORD.” The problem is that even though they served him, they did not keep all of his commandments. Specifically, they neglected to teach their children to walk in the ways of the LORD (Here is a great list of verses about this command)
“We are commanded to teach the testimony of God to our children. It is not enough to preserve the deposit of truth in a book, and tell them it is there. We are commanded to teach it.”
There’s an old phrase that says “What you do in moderation, your children will do in excess.” The first generation mentioned here followed God’s way, although imperfectly. The second generation took their flaws to the next level. These scriptures provide us with a great example of why we must teach our children about the LORD.
They forsook God and served idols
The text says they served Baalim, then later specifically mentions Baal and Ashtaroth.
The word “Baalim” is a word similar to the Hebrew word “Elohim.” You’ll notice that they both end in “im,” (“eehm”) which indicates plurality. In the same way that the Hebrew word “elohim” means the plural “gods,” “baalim” refers to a plurality of beings.
“Baal” is the name of an important deity of the Canaanite pantheon. One thing I found interesting in my research is that the word “Baal” means “lord, owner.” In a way, the children of Israel turning to worship Baal instead of the LORD is a real snub. They’re essentially saying that the LORD is not their owner, but this other god is.
God was STILL faithful
Verse 16 begins (at least, in the KJV) with the word “Nevertheless.” This choice of words is interesting to me. “Nevertheless” implies some stress on the preceding events, and how what follows bears some sort of significance. The author could have also said, “Despite all this…”
Despite all of Israel’s rebellion, God “raised up” judges who “delivered” them from their enemies.
In our failure, God gives us Jesus
The language used in this section of scripture, phrases like “raised up” and “delivered,” point directly to Jesus. In fact, I suspect that over the course of this series, we will see a TON of alluding to and foreshadowing of Christ.
The imagery that God “raised up” these judges, and how they “delivered” the people, is strikingly similar to Jesus being raised up in the New Testament and delivering us from sin and death. Just look at these instances of the phrases “raised up” and “delivered” in the New Testament.
“Raised up”
Luke 1:69
Acts 2:24
Acts 2:32
Acts 3:26
Acts 5:30
“Delivered”
Romans 7:6
Romans 8:21
2 Corinthians 1:10
Colossians 1:13
1 Thessalonians 1:10
We even see that when God raises Othniel, the “Spirit of God came upon him,” after that is when he did his great work of freeing the people. This same pattern happens with Jesus: He is raised up, the spirit of God comes upon him (Luke 3:22), and then he begins his earthly ministry culminating in his saving sacrifice.
The Church mirrors Israel in many ways
The Old Testament depicts God’s and Israel’s relationship as a marriage. Many times throughout the Prophets’ writings, and also in these scriptures, we see the description of Israel’s idolatry as whore-like.
This is really strong language. And it should make those of us today evaluate our Church practices a little closer.
Israel is said to have “gone a whoring,” in verse 17, after other gods. They gave God’s rightful place as Lord and Owner of themselves to idols, in violation of the covenant where they swore that He would be their God and they would be His people. This reminds me of a marriage vow, which is exactly how the relationship between Christ and the Church is described.
Whenever the church decides to put something in Christ’s rightful place, it’s the same thing as we see in the Book of Judges.
Churches “go a whoring” in several ways. Some examples that come to mind are:
Making their main concern about growing their funds or membership numbers instead of staying true to Christ
Focusing on worldly solutions to problems, instead of pointing to Christ as the answer
Following the words of a man instead of standing on the word of God
We fail. But even when we are not faithful, God is
Like in these scriptures, God has raised up a righteous judge who can and does deliver us from our greatest enemy. Jesus, despite our failures, has delivered us from the bondage of our sins so that we can be with God.
“Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
*Introduction: This series is a review of the section of scripture that we learned about at my church this Sunday. I’ll begin by summarizing what was spoken of in the sermon, then I’ll provide my thoughts on the scriptures.
Sermon Summary:
“A Campaign of Compromise”
The book of Judges picks up immediately after Joshua’s death. Joshua had just initiated the conquest urging the people to seek the LORD’s direction as they pursue God’s promised land.
They did what was right in their own eyes
They were told to do what was right in God’s eyes, but the book’s common theme and final verse point out that: “There was no king in the land in those days and each man did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)
The book’s point is that people constantly rely on their own wisdom and direction instead of God’s, and fail. They deal with the consequences of their actions, but God continually rescues them, sending “saviors” in the form of the judges. The pastor stated: “When God fights for his people, they win, but when they fight for themselves, at best, we have a mixed bag.”
They start off good
We see in verse 1 that the story starts out well:
V1: The people seek the LORD’s will as to who should go up to fight the Canaanites and He answers.
V2: The LORD was with them!
After their first few battles, we have a story of Caleb, who leads some to conquer another place and he’s successful.
A quote by Tim Keller was used to point out that Caleb, Othneal, and Achsah demonstrated good discipleship by radically taking risks and relying on God instead of their own power and abilities.
We can use this as a good example to follow, not thinking of our own shortcomings or inabilities, but instead trusting in God’s power to be victorious.
Small weeds begin to crop up
The people in this section of scripture started right but quickly turned to their own ways. In the sermon, 4 hints of trouble were pointed out:
V3: Judah hesitates to do God’s will and instead seeks out a human companion, his brother Simeon, to help him fight. On the human level, this makes sense, but it is simply not what God said to do.
It’s important to note that Judah was still victorious, but his disobedience to God and trust in his own ability set a precedent for the others going forward.
We see they are successful until they come across something that seems too hard: some iron chariots. This would have been EASY for God, but they thought they couldn’t beat them.
V4: Judah cuts off the thumbs and big toes of an enemy to humiliate him. This incorporates local secular strategies in their fight against the inhabitants, something that God did not command them to do.
V16: Instead of driving out the locals, some of the people live among them, ultimately settling for convenience.
Here, the pastor says something particularly interesting. He says that the command of God was CLEAR, they were to “put to death all living in the land,” not live among them.
He points out that some in the world today find this to be a “stumbling block,” they say that God was being unfair and cruel to command a genocide. However, he affirms that was actually being fair and just in commanding this, and that he hopes to put out a statement later this week to address this.
I look forward to reading his remarks, but I don’t think we need to place the blame for this genocide on any command from God. I’ll address this more in the following section with my personal thoughts on these verses.
V22-26: The people resort to the same tactics they used in the battle of Jericho, resorting to using their own wisdom instead of God’s.
Israel’s failures are our own
We all, even as Christians, do these things from time to time instead of letting God fight our battles:
We depend on our own strength.
We deploy secular tactics.
We default to convenience.
We decide using our own wisdom.
Small weeds create big problems
Soon, while the above points are merely little hints of trouble, the consequences cascade into a flood:
V27-33 Detail how the children of Israel did not drive out the inhabitants of the land, each point resulting in progressively worse and worse conclusions, ending in v34 with the Amorites turning the tide and chasing Dan out of their promised land.
This makes the point that everything done by our own strength is bound to fail eventually.
This first chapter of Judges seems to be written from the human perspective. The beginning of chapter two, however, gives us God’s perspective.
God responded to their failure
In the first verse, the angel of the LORD comes and reminds the people of what they were commanded to do. Reminding them that He brought them up out of Egypt and promised never to break his covenant with them, he reiterates that he commanded them not to make any deals with the people of the land, but to drive them out and destroy their places of worship. But they did not obey Him. Because of this, He says, He will not drive them out from before them as they settle and instead, they and their idols will become “thorns in [their] sides.”
The rest of the book of Judges is mainly about the consequences of the people rejecting God as a king, and instead going their own way, making themselves king. God, however, remains faithful to the end.
My Thoughts on Judges 1:1-2:5
I think the pastor did a great job. He summed up most of my thoughts with his sermon and added many valuable insights. Here are some of my additional thoughts.
Did God Command A Genocide?
When it comes to all of the “genocide” throughout the conquest of Canaan, a lot of people think that, as the pastor put it, God commanded them to kill every man, woman, and child that were living in the land. But it’s never clear that God told them to do this.
When you google this, probably the most common thing that pops up about Gods command to posses the land is Deuteronomy 7:1-2.
It says:
“1When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee,… (then a bunch are listed)…; 2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them.
Deuteronomy 7:1-2
Moses Commanded Utter Destruction
When people see this, often their first reaction is to say this command is cruel and hypocritical of God. They may say that if he’s a God of mercy, how can he prescribe this genocide?
But an important thing to note is that this is NOT God speaking. Deuteronomy 5:1 says that Moses called all Israel and said these words unto them. This is Moses talking, not God. The same Moses who argued with God over his ability to speak to the people. The same Moses who ground up the golden calf in water and made the people drink it. The same Moses who God was upset with for smiting the rock when God had only said to speak to it. Moses is a man. Moses is fallible.
God only commands that the inhabitants be driven out
The earliest instance (that I’ve been able to find, anyway) of God actually commanding the people to possess the land with his own words, is found in Numbers 33:51-53. Here, God commands the people to drive out the inhabitants, destroy their images and idols, dispossess the inhabitants, and possess it themselves. No mention of killing everyone.
Either way, there’s no clear command to do genocide
But even if you look just at the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 7, there is no command to kill every man, woman, and child. He says in verse 2 to “smite them, and utterly destroy them,” and while some may take this to mean kill everyone, that is not necessarily the case. This could easily be a case of hyperbole, which we use even in today’s context; For example, the Dallas Cowboys utterly destroyed the Cleveland Browns a few nights ago… But no one died!
“God’s sovereignty, that’s why!”
A common response to this topic is to point to God’s sovereignty. God has the right to do whatever he wants. If God decides that a life is worthy of death, then it is!
Just because God can do it, doesn’t mean that he does.
Well, I certainly don’t dispute God’s sovereign right to do what ever he pleases. This is more of a question of what God pleases to do. All I would ask those who would give this response is to consider the following questions:
Can you prove that every man, woman, and child (even the youngest) living in Canaan were worthy of death in this story?
Is the destruction of innocence in line with righteousness, mercy, justice, or anything else in God’s perfect character?
How does it serve to reach non-believers for Christ, by basically telling them that God can do whatever he wants, even when it is perceived as unjust?
Please note: When I ask these questions, I don’t intend in any way to question God. “God is sovereign, that’s why!” If this is your response to the issue, I’m questioning you.
Another Personal Application
What stood out to me in the text is that this seems to depict what could happen on a more personal level if a Christian decides to give even a small place to sin in their lives.
The Metaphor of a Conquering Christian
Think of these verses as a metaphor where the children of Israel, being recently taken out of Egypt, represent a Christian being reformed into the image of Christ. Just like Israel is a new nation, here, Christians are said to be new creations in Christ ().
As the Israelites conquer the land, a Christian conquers various aspects of their life as they conform to their new identity.
This account provides a picture of what happens when you give even the smallest place for sin to dwell instead of driving it out entirely. Like an invasive weed, it grows and infects until it becomes an unmanageable “thorn in [our] sides.”
Paul also had a thorn in the flesh
God’s statement that these inhabitants and their idols would become “thorns in [their] sides” reminds me of a statement by Paul in the New Testament.
There’s much debate over what, exactly, Paul meant in 2 Corinthians 12:7. Either way, the language used seems too similar to what we find in this passage to ignore. Did Paul give place to something in his life that eventually became like a thorn in his flesh? And how does that tie into God’s response that His “grace is sufficient?”
Thorns can point to God’s grace
I think if the thorn in Paul’s flesh was the result of his own doing, it adds much more significance to God’s sufficient grace in the matter. God’s grace was sufficient for Paul in that through Paul’s weakness, God is shown to be strong. Specifically, Paul says in 2 Corinthians that the thorn in his flesh was given to him to keep him humble so that he and others would recognize his need for Christ. Similarly, the details of the Old Testament, especially what we’ll see in Judges, serve to display the weakness of God’s people, so that the strength of Christ would be shown through it in the end.
Recently, a debate has erupted amongst Bible scholars over how to pronounce God’s name in the Bible.
In the ancient Hebrew language, God’s name is presented as a four-letter word known as the “Tetragrammaton,” יהוה. In English, this is “YHWH.” It appears almost 7000 times in the Old Testament. The language didn’t have any written vowels. Jews from the period would pass down how each written word sounded verbally. This continued until the language ceased being used, largely due to Israel going into captivity in Babylon.
Sometime after they were taken to Babylon, the ancient Jews, for several reasons, stopped pronouncing God’s name. This led to the problem we have today. Since the pronunciation of words was totally reliant on the Jewish people verbalizing what they read from the Old Testament Scriptures, no one today truly knows how to pronounce God’s name.
God’s name in the New Testament
The New Testament, written in Greek, uses the Greek word meaning “Lord” when quoting the Old Testament verses containing the Tetragrammaton. Similarly, when the Old Testament was brought into the Greek language, the Tetragrammaton was translated into the word “Lord” as well since they didn’t know how to pronounce the actual word.
Eventually, translators started trying to figure out how the Tetragrammaton might have been pronounced. As the Greek was translated through the centuries, the pronunciation “Jehovah” became a popular way of transliterating the “YHWH” found in the manuscripts.
“Jehovah” was used in many bible translations that we’ve seen through the years, most of them choosing to leave the word “Lord” in its place. Newer research has started to lean towards another translation of the Tetragrammaton. Many modern scholars believe that a better translation of YHWH would be “Yahweh.”
The debate
And here lies the debate. “Jehovah” and “Yahweh” sound very different. Many go so far as to say that one or the other are actually false gods. I won’t bother repeating the rhetoric, a simple Google search will lead anyone down the rabbit hole if they wish. But the fact that there is so much tension between the two camps, one says that “Jehovah” is God, the other says it’s “Yahweh,” makes one wonder: since those are so different, which one is correct? What is God’s name?
How we forgot God’s name
The first time the Tetragrammaton is used in the Old Testament is found in Genesis 2:4. In this verse, it’s presented in what seems like a normal fashion: with the name (the Tetragrammaton) before the title “God.” It’s used several times after that in the same chapter, setting up the foundation for the LORD’s ownership and authority over his creation. The fact that this is thrown in there without introduction is interesting and suggests that the readers would have been familiar with who exactly God is when this was written.
Their familiarity with God’s name was likely due to them having heard the name due to it being passed down to them through their generations or from the teaching of Moses, who is believed by many to have written these scriptures.
God introduces himself
In Exodus 3:15, Moses is told by God that his name is YHWH. Verse 14 provides extra details about the name’s meaning as “I am who/what/that I am.”1 This name is significant for several reasons. It speaks to the nature of God as one who is, or one who has being. In contrast to the gods of the surrounding people, “the LORD (YHWH) God of [Israel’s] fathers” exists in the sense that he just is, rather than having been created. YHWH is self-sustaining and has authority over his creation and over the kingdoms of man.
The Jews wanted to protect God’s name
With time, the Jews started to not pronounce the name, instead opting to use the Hebrew word “Adonai,” which means “Lord.” There are thought to be several reasons for this.
The first is that they were concerned with misusing it, and thus violating the commandment to “not use the LORD’s name in vain.”
Another reason they could have prohibited its use would have been to preserve its sanctity and prevent its misuse by other people groups in the region, who had a practice of invoking the names of other people’s gods in their cursing and insults. The Jews limited its use, at some point after the Babylonian captivity, solely for the traditions and services of the priests in the Temple2.
This lack of common usage by the people eventually led to only a few knowing how to pronounce YHWH. This was exasperated by the fact that their language didn’t have any written vowels. So they couldn’t simply look at how it was spelled to learn it again.
A New Testament tradition
Once the New Testament authors came along, most people, including these authors, quoted the Old Testament verses with the Tetragrammaton using the Greek version of the word “Lord.” They kept using “Lord” instead of God’s name, which has led to a tradition of many translators today doing the same thing.
Many say we should continue with this tradition. They often cite the same reasons as the ancient Jews did: the name is special, so we don’t want to mispronounce or misuse it; or, the Apostles, even under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, didn’t translate it as a name, they used the word “LORD” instead, so we should do the same.
Others say they want to have a translation that accurately shows the original words. “The LORD” is not original to the text, so they work to try to figure out how it would be pronounced.
Why God’s name translated as “Jehovah?”
The Roman Empire, which was the home of early Christianity, spoke in Latin. Latin doesn’t have the letter “Y” in it, and the closest thing to it would be the “I” or, more likely, its variant the “J,” which made the “Y” sound like in the word “yes.” Latin also doesn’t have a “W,” instead the “V,” which could also be written as a “U,” would have been used. When Latin translators worked on the Tetragrammaton, in their transliteration of the letters they used JHVH.3
Reviving a dead language
As stated earlier, the ancient Hebrew language had no written vowels. This became a problem as the language began to die, anyone looking at the Hebrew writing couldn’t read it very well. The Masorites, who were Jewish scholars and scribes in the 5th through the 10th centuries AD, worked on reconstructing the Hebrew language. They added vowel symbols to the letters so those reading the Hebrew could sound out the words.
In their process, they added the vowels of the Hebrew word “Adonai,” which means “Lord,” to the letters of the Tetragrammaton to remind the readers that “Adonai” was to be used in its place.4
At some point in the Middle Ages, translators began to interject the vowels from the Hebrew word “Adonai” into the Latin transliteration of the Tetragrammaton of “JHVH.” This gave us the name which in Latin would have been pronounced something like “Yahowah.”5
Latin began to spread and other languages sprang out of it in Europe. The Latin letters took on the new sounds of the local languages producing what we know today in English as “Jehovah.”
Why do they now translate God’s name as “Yahweh?”
From here, scholars merely had to work backward. Now they conclude that “Yahweh” would be a better pronunciation. The evidence we currently have is that there was no “J” sound in Ancient Hebrew. The “V” sound is still being debated and most scholars think that it was pronounced more like a “W” in ancient times.
On top of that, there are plenty of names of places and people in the Old Testament that contain the “YH” of the divine name which are pronounced with a “yah” sound, such as Jeremiah(יִרְמְיָה), Josiah (יֹאשִׁיָּה), and also the Hebrew word “Hallelujah” the “jah” is pronounced as “yah.”
There are also some early Greek manuscripts that speak about how the Tetragrammaton would have been transliterated into Greek. These manuscripts use the transliterations “ἰὰ οὐὲ”6 (“Iaowe”)or “Ἰαῶ”7 (“Iaoh”)which would read similar to “Yahweh.”
The basic argument that those translating it this way tend to use is that, since this is a proper noun, a name, then we should seek to translate it as close to how it would have been pronounced in the original language, which most scholars agree would be “Yahweh.”
This is a relatively new understanding. There are only a couple of modern translations of the English Bible that have decided to translate the Tetragrammaton as “Yahweh” instead of keeping with the tradition of “Jehovah” or “the LORD.”
So which is Better? “Jehovah” or “Yahweh?”
Those who translated the Tetragrammaton as “Jehovah” did so with the best information they had at the time. They did it in an effort to accurately represent the word in our language. We are discovering new things about ancient languages all the time. Inevitably, our understanding of how an ancient word could have been spoken will change.
At this time, the evidence seems to indicate that the English “J” sound in “Jehovah” came into being through the natural process of English’s separation from the other languages in Europe. Many scholars believe that the “V” sound was also not original to the ancient Hebrew language.
“YH” is not always translated as “Yah” in Biblical names
There are also a lot of other names in the Bible that contain the “YH” from the Tetragrammaton. When brought into English, they have a “Jah” or “Jeh” sound. One of them is Elijah, which translates as “God is [the LORD],” or “God is Jah.”
Most notably of all the names in the Bible containing the first half of the Tetragrammaton is the name “Jesus.”
In Hebrew, “Yeshua” would have been Jesus’ name. In Greek, it’s translated as “Iesous.” You’ll notice that the first two letters in “Iesous” match the first two letters in “ἰὰ οὐὲ” from the Greek transliteration of “YHWH” above. When Latin speakers translated this, they replaced the “Ie” sound with a “J,” which as stated earlier made the “Y” sound in Latin which led to other languages pronouncing it with the “J” sound later like we do in English. He was NEVER known as “Jesus” with the English “J” sound when he was alive. His friends, family, followers, and enemies would have all pronounced his name in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek.
Why stop at changing just one name?
All of this, and yet, with the exception of those in the Hebrew Roots movement, there doesn’t seem like much of an effort or desire to call him by his name as it would have been originally written.
So, if we are going to change some of the names in our English Bibles to reflect how they would have been pronounced at the time they were written, why would we not change all of them? We are going to strive to pronounce God’s old covenant name correctly, why not do the same for Jesus’ name?
It seems the only good answer to this is to accept that it comes down to how different languages change over time. Is “Yahweh” a better translation than “Jehovah?” Based on the evidence, it’s probably a little bit closer to how it was originally pronounced, but no one knows for certain, and the best we can do is a scholarly guess.
This is ok.
God knows that we don’t have all the information. We should trust that he will be gracious toward our best efforts to honor him. Considering that, whether we think “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” is correct shouldn’t matter.
BUT WAIT. There’s one good reason why God’s name should matter.
God’s name is important.
In Exodus, the name itself means something of significance, teaching us about his very nature as one who is, apart from all other things. It teaches us that he is eternal, from everlasting, self-sustaining. It differentiates him from the false gods which surround his people. He uses it as a firm foundation to swear by in confirming his covenant with his people.
Obviously, we should care about His name.
At the same time, he knows the importance of his own name. If God knows the significance of his name, and he has the ability to make it known to anyone he wants, then why would he allow it to be forgotten?
This article from “Theologyfirst.com” provides a very good Biblical explanation of why.
The loss of the true pronunciation of YHWH seems providential.
The Jews first started the practice of not pronouncing the Tetragrammaton around the same time they went into exile in Babylon.8 They likely had little to no knowledge of its pronunciation by the time Jesus was born around 600 years later.
At the same time, the Apostles who wrote the New Testament, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, quoted the Old Testament verses containing the Tetragrammaton as “the LORD.” If God’s name, YHWH, was supposed to continue in mainstream usage, surely they, and the Holy Spirit, would have included its use in the New Testament. To our knowledge, they didn’t, and there have since been 2000 years of mostly using “the LORD” instead.
God chooses to reveal his name to us
In the Old Testament, the LORD chose to reveal himself to Moses with his Old Covenant name of YHWH. But now, in the New Testament, we are given a new and better covenant by Jesus, the Son of God who IS also God. In fact, the name “Jesus,” containing the first two letters of the Tetragrammaton, means “The LORD Saves.” What’s interesting is that when the angel in the gospel of Matthew is telling Joseph to name the child in Mary’s womb “Jesus,” he says to name him Jesus because “he shall save his people.” The angel is saying that Jesus is the LORD by interpreting the name “The LORD saves” as “He will save…” referring to the child himself.
Honor was given to the name YHWH as God in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, we see it taught that the name of Jesus is to be given the same honor as God. Many verses prove the deity of Christ, and there are many verses that quote the Old Testament passages about God and point to it being about Jesus.
Conclusion
It’s clear in the New Testament that Jesus is equal with God, and being equal, he is worthy of and given the same honor as God. As an equal in the trinity, the name of “Jesus” is on par with the name of “YHWH.” Even as an equal, Philippians 2:9-10 says that God “highly exalted him and gave him a name above every name.”
That’s why I conclude that “Jesus” is the name of God we should all be concerned with, rather than “Yahweh” or “Jehovah.”
We should be more concerned with the name of Jesus than both of those names for several reasons:
“Jesus” not only contains the old covenant name for God, “YHWH,” but it conveys much more information. The name “Jesus” teaches the Gospel message, “The LORD saves,” this is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16).
The old covenant, which is passing away according to Hebrews 8:13, was given to us with the name, “YHWH,” the sound of which has been forgotten. But this new and better covenant we’re now in is established with the name of Jesus, the name above every other name, which we’ve all heard and know.
It’s to the name of Jesus that every knee will bow. It’s Jesus Christ that every tongue will confess is Lord(Philippians 2:10-11).
What ever his old covenant name sounds like, how ever it gets translated, it is clear that in the new covenant, God’s name is Jesus.
Stromata v,6,34; see Karl Wilhelm Dindorf, ed. (1869). Clementis Alexandrini Opera (in Greek). Vol. III. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 27 ↩︎
Origen, “In Joh.”, II, 1, in P.G., XIV, col. 105. Footnote says that the end of name Jeremiah is reference to the Tetragrammaton which the Greeks pronounce Ἰαώ ↩︎
This letter starts with one of Paul’s standard letterheads. Typical of Paul’s writings is the statement of who the letter is from. In this case, the letter is from Paul and Sosthenes “our” brother. The word “our” implies that Paul is writing to someone who is of the same group as Paul. The word “brother” shows that Sosthenes shares a familial relationship with this group.
An apostle by the will of God
Paul says he is “called as an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God.” The word “apostle” is a Greek word which means “sent forth” or “messenger.” Paul is an apostle “of” Jesus Christ. The word “of” could mean from, as in he is a “messenger from Jesus;” or “of” could mean about, as in “Paul is a messenger sent forth to tell about Jesus.” The fact that Paul is called “by the will of God,” shows that it’s not by his own will or effort, but rather the will of the higher power of God that he occupies this role.
Verse 2: To the Believers in Corinth
In continuing the letterhead, the author indicates to whom the letter is addressed. In this case, it’s addressed to the Church of God at Corinth, which is described as “those who have been sanctified in Jesus Christ.”
This second part strikes me as being similar to the way some letters of official business are addressed in modern times like the following, where the business is where this is going, but it’s specifically sent to the “ATTN:” personnel:
To: ATTN: So-and-So
XYZ Business
So this letter is being addressed to the Church of God at Corinth, but specifically to “those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints.”
These Corinthians have already been sanctified
What stands out to me is that these “have been” sanctified, as opposed to “are being,” or “will be” sanctified. “Have been” is past tense, implying that the sanctification of these people happened in the past instead of being an ongoing process or a future event. What’s more, this sanctification is “in Christ Jesus,” not in themselves. So Christ is the one who is sanctified, and they are in Christ, and therefore they are sanctified in Christ.
The word “sanctified” means to be set apart, or declared as Holy. Clearly, this holiness is not of themselves, but rather, they are sanctified in Christ, so any holiness would also be in Christ. This is found in other passages where our blessings are “in Christ.”
They were called as saints
Another point in the past tense is that those being addressed are “called as saints.” Note that it’s not that they will one day be saints, but that they have already been called as saints.
“As saints” could have a couple of meanings:
First, they were already saints when they were called;
Second, they became saints when they were called, “as” meaning “to be.”
Seeing that they are those “who have been sanctified,” I find it likely that their sainthood is tied to their sanctification, especially since the word for saint is the same Greek word as “sanctified” and both can be translated as holy one, set apart and also Holy. To follow the fact that they “have been sanctified” with them being “called as saints” is likely a restatement to bring further emphasis to their state in Christ as those that are set apart
With all in every place
The next clause says “with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”
This could be saying one of two things:
Those listed above, the church at Corinth, who have been sanctified and called saints, are called that ALONG WITH all “who in every place call upon the name of our Lord.
This is another addressee of the letter. This letter is addressed to BOTH the Church at Corinth AND ALSO “all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord.”
Paul says that Jesus is “their lord and ours,” which seems to indicate that option one from above is the case, as it speaks of Jesus as “their” Lord as if they are not the ones being spoken to directly in this letter. His usage of “their Lord” implies that this is written directly to the church at Corinth, since if it was written also to those referred to as those “who in every place call upon the name of our Lord,” then he would have left it at that and there would have been no need for “their Lord and ours” at the end.
Conclusion
So then, in these first two verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul addresses the letter from himself, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Sosthenes, to the Church at Corinth. He begins by saying that they are sanctified in Christ, called saints, just like all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Since I originally posted my article about the “Simple Gospel,” I’ve received a number of objections to it. “The Bible says to ‘sin no more’” was one of the more common objections: “The Bible says ‘Sin no more,’ after we get saved we must cease from our sin or lose our salvation.” In light of the context, however, this objection simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. The Bible uses the phrase “Sin no more” only two times. In both instances it could easily be argued that the opposite of the objection is being taught.
Let’s be clear.
Christians should strive to sin no more. But the Bible makes it clear that our sins are forgiven and we’re saved by grace. If you believe in the Son you HAVE eternal life (John 3:36). Jesus died once to pay for all our sin (Hebrews 10:12). Where sin abounds grace abounds even more (Romans 5:20). And if anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). Below is my refutation of this objection.
The Bible Says “Sin No More”
The following is a response that I wrote to an objection I received regarding my post about “The Simple Gospel.” The objection was that there are scriptures which tell us how we are to live after we’re saved and that we “must repent of our sins and go sin no more.” There are those which teach that once we get saved, we are to refrain and repent from all sin, or risk losing our salvation. Each time we sin, they say, we must repent or else we could be sent to hell even though we’ve believed.
Another objection raised appeared to have been taken from another source using 1 Corinthians 15:31 and 2 Corinthians 4:16 to teach that we must repent daily from our sins to maintain our salvation. The goal in my response below, was to show that the scriptures mentioned don’t teach the idea that we must repent of our sin or else lose salvation, and in some cases, they actually demonstrate that God extends his mercy and grace regardless of a person’s sinful actions afterwards.
*I originally wrote this response in a hasty fashion on a Facebook comment. The italicized text below shows a quote of the original comment, and the [brackets] show where I have altered the text from my original comments on Facebook to add clarity, correct what I originally said, or change the wording to be more conducive to a blog post format.
My response:
“I wrote this post to show exactly what the gospel is. I remember being afraid of dying and going to hell when I was young, knowing that I believed in Jesus but I wasn’t perfect. No one can totally repent of all their sins, and anyone who says that they have no sin “deceives themselves and the truth is not in them. (1 John 1:8)”
Obviously, an issue of this importance should rest on what the Bible says. There are definitely a ton of scriptures telling people how they should conduct themselves after they get saved, but NONE of them point to a person losing their salvation if they don’t follow those instructions. In fact, many times they are followed by assurances that the person is still saved, but that they [should] act like it. Mistakes do happen, but willful rebellious sin still happens too. If the person has faith in Christ, then none of their behavior changes their status from saved to unsaved.
It’s worth noting that [anyone being told] to “sin no more” occurs [only] twice in the whole [Bible]: John 5:14 and John 8:11.”
“Sin no more” comes AFTER mercy is already given
“In John 8:11, a woman is accused of adultery and the people want to stone her. […] Jesus, the one without sin who has every right to cast the first stone, stays [after the others leave] and tells the woman, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, sin no more.” His response clearly shows that he recognizes her sin, yet he still shows her mercy. He gives her this command to sin no more, but in no way does he indicate that [this] mercy [he’s shown her] is at all predicated on her behavior in the past, present or future.
In John 5:14, Jesus comes to a pool where the lame and sick gather once a year to touch the water in hopes of being healed. He finds a man and asks him “Wilt thou be made whole?” The man replies by saying that he has no one to help him into the pool. Jesus heals him, and when he finds him later on says: “sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” It doesn’t [say explicitly] what the man’s sin was, but we should note that this man was attempting to heal himself using a superstitious tradition apart from God, which could easily be considered sinful in a number of ways. [Specifically, in the text, Jesus asks him if he would be “made whole,” which is often used as a euphemism for obtaining salvation.] This provides US with a great metaphor for a person who is seeking salvation (being “made whole”) by their own [efforts]. When Jesus tells the man to “sin no more,” [there isn’t anything specific to point to other than the man’s attempt to be made whole apart from God. If this is the sin Jesus is referring to, then to “sin no more” would mean that the man should not return to his seeking to be made whole apart from God.] He’s [already] been made whole, he doesn’t need to seek anymore wholeness; [if he’s been made whole, then how could he be made any MORE whole?]
When we attempt to keep our salvation by repenting of our sins, we are really admitting that Jesus’ work was not enough for us, and we are returning to the wrong way of being made whole by our own works.”
We need to take a pause:
“Sin no more” could mean “just trust Jesus”
This provides a great example for us. This man was using something other than the power of God to be “made whole,” a term which is often used to represent a picture of salvation. When Jesus comes to him, it’s clear that the man humbly recognizes his inability to do the work required on his own. Jesus makes him whole by his own power, the man doesn’t have to do anything of his own effort! There is no indication of his sinfulness before he is healed, so when Jesus says to him sin no more, lest a worse thing happen to you, the only thing we can point to specifically is his efforts to be “made whole” apart from God.
If we are trying to gain our salvation by repenting from our sins, how are we any different from this man, trying to be made whole apart from God? And if, after receiving the healing work from Christ, we return to our old efforts of trying to be “made whole” with our own works of repentance instead of trusting solely in Jesus’ work to save us, then how are we any different from this man who Jesus warned?
Jesus warned him and US that a worse thing could come unto us. A person who thinks they can lose their salvation if they sin again needs to read Hebrews 10:26 and realize that Jesus paid it all once. If that one sacrifice doesn’t forgive and atone for ALL of our sin, past, present, and future, then there remains no other sacrifice for sin. If you can gain salvation, then lose it again, that’s a HUGE problem.
Back to my response:
“What’s interesting about these two [passages] is that they actually teach the opposite of what many try to use them for. We’re told we must repent of our sins to be saved, but here, Jesus extends [life-saving] mercy to this woman despite there being zero evidence of her repentance. We are told that we must keep doing the work of repenting [from] our sins [to keep our salvation], but here, Jesus tells the man not to return to trying to make himself whole on his own.
As for the two verses shared from 1 Corinthians 15:31 and 2 Corinthians 4:16, those verses were taken completely out of context.
1 Corinthians 15 is not in any way about dying to sin or dying because of sin. It’s about how some in the church at the time denied the resurrection of Christ. Paul points out to his audience (which are saved believers) that if Christ didn’t rise from the dead then everything they do is in vain. In [verse 30], Paul asks his readers why they endure all [the persecution they do] if Christ didn’t rise from the dead. In verse 31, Paul says that he “dies daily” [in the sense that he faces deadly persecution all the time]. Just as Jesus taught, Paul takes up his cross and follows Him despite the danger [of persecution and it’s worth it BECAUSE Jesus did in fact rise from the dead].
2 Corinthians 4:16 is yet another piece of evidence that the body and spirit of the believer are treated just as I explained in this post. The outward man (the body[/flesh]) dies because of sin, but the inward man (the spirit) is renewed because of righteousness which is by faith (Romans 3:22, Romans 8:10). Our body dies because of sin, whether due to its typical ailments or due to the return of Christ ([at that time,] our body will be transformed or changed, 1 Corinthians 15:52). The body we have right now WILL NOT go to heaven, it CAN’T even if we DID completely stop sinning (1 Corinthians 15:50)”
Just to clarify:
This topic of the difference between the believer’s body and their spirit, which I describe in the main article as the “duality of the human being,” is not one which is central to the Gospel. The Gospel can be told and believed in full without it. I only chose to expound on it because it could help one to understand the result of salvation with a little more clarity. This is especially helpful to those who might get caught up on the idea that no sin will enter heaven as, for example, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says. Understanding the separation between the two can help explain how it’s possible that one who is born again is capable of committing sin while still being saved. When we are born again, our spirit is immediately renewed and it could be said that, in a spiritual sense, we are the children of God. But our flesh is still infected with sin, the law of sin is still “warring within [our] members (Romans 7:23).” That’s why our flesh still sins and dies even though we believe and are saved and “have everlasting life (John 3:36).” If we believe that Jesus rose from the dead, then we believe also that he will also one day raise our mortal bodies from the dead (1 Corinthians 6:14); It’s then that our bodies are saved from sin entirely.
In conclusion:
“Let me be clear, [we] believe that after a person gets saved they should try their best to abstain from all sin. But the Bible teaches that Christ offered his body once and that we are sanctified by his one sacrifice FOREVER (Hebrews 10:10-12) [and that if “anyone of us sins, we have an advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1).”] The Bible DOES NOT [teach] that a person will lose their salvation if they sin after getting saved and it DOES NOT [teach] that they will or must sin any less to keep their salvation.”
Below is a summary my observations while reading through Genesis 22. A few things really stood out to me. This chapter shows an extremely challenging event in Abraham’s life, a shocking instruction from God, and a response to Abraham’s obedience that has great implications on believers today.
According to James 2, this chapter in Abraham’s life serves as an example of how Christians should view their works as they relate to their faith.
Chapter Summery
Abraham and Sarah had Isaac and sent away Hagar and Ishmael.
Abraham plants a grove at Beer-sheba and stays there for some time.
God “tempts” Abraham, and tells him to offer Isaac as a burnt sacrifice.
Without a question, Abraham heads off to follow God’s command.
Isaac asks Abraham where the lamb is for the offering, Abraham says God will provide a lamb.
As Abraham gets ready to slay his son, God stops him and says “Now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your only son.”
Abraham finds a ram in the bushes nearby and offers it instead of his son.
God speaks to Abraham again says that because he obeyed and didn’t withhold his son that he will bless him and make his seed to multiply and that all the nations will be blessed in his seed because he obeyed God’s voice.
Then Abraham returns home to learn that his brother’s family has grown.
Sacrifice of Isaac, Rembrandt, 1635 (Image from Hermitage Museum)
Things that Stand out to me:
God “tempts” Abraham (v. 1)
This is odd to me, considering the statement in the new testament saying that God “tempts no man.” (James 1:13)
One possible explanation, which would avoid a contradiction, could be found in the context: Here, in Genesis 22, God is simply testing Abraham to see how much faith he really has, whereas James is talking specifically about being drawn into sin.
It would seem from this passage that, while God will never entice us or cause us to sin, God sometimes dares us to “put our money where our mouth is” and really show our faith; not merely proclaiming it, but proving it and fulfilling it.
Abraham shows that he believes God from beginning to end.
Abraham was amazed when Isaac was born to him and Sarah. Seeing God fulfill his promise, Abraham’s faith must have grown.
God’s instruction to offer his son on the alter is unimaginable to most parents, but Abraham, trusting God, doesn’t put up a fight.
He immediately obeys God, and when questioned about the sacrifice, he shows that he believes God will make a way.
Hebrews 11:19 says that Abraham believed that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead, since he knew Gods promises about him, and thus he was willing to follow God’s command.
God uses Abraham to show how our works appear to those around us.
HE stops Abraham from slaying his son and says “Now I know that you fear God, seeing that you didn’t withhold your son from me.” (v.12)
God saw that Abraham was willing to follow through on what he claimed to believe, thus proving to the observer (which was God in this case) that he really did believe and trust in God.
In this same way, our actions (our good works) show those around us today that we have faith, and not only that we claim with our mouths to have faith, but that we are willing to take meaningful and impactful action because of it.
This can play a HUGE role in spreading the Gospel.
If people see that we say one thing yet do another, they will rightfully call us hypocrites.
If people see that we say one thing and do that same thing, then they would know that we really do believe what we claim to.
Application: More than just proclaiming our faith, we should live it out for all to see.
“Let your light shine before men, that they see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
At the time of writing this, I am also studying the book of James, particularly James chapter 2.
In James 2, the author makes it clear that this is the fulfilment of Genesis 15:6 (James 2:21-23), where the Bible says that “Abraham believed God and He counted it to him for righteousness.”
Specifically, James uses three words to describe how these two sets of scripture relate: justified, perfect, and fulfilled.
The word justified has many meanings which boil down to mainly one point: that the subject conforms to a standard. James 2:21 implies that Abraham was justified by his works here. Given the meaning of the word, something about Abraham’s actions in Genesis 22 conformed him to a standard of some sort.
James 2:22 says “See how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” Perfect means complete or “lacking in no essential detail.” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) As a verb, to perfect something means “to bring to completion.” This verse isn’t simply saying that faith is completed by works, but rather it’s asking the reader if they can see how faith is completed by works.
If the reader can’t see how, all they need to do is read the next verse, which says that the “scripture was fulfilled which says that Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God.” To be fulfilled means to put into effect, execute. If we look at Abraham’s obedience in Genesis 22, and we say that his actions “fulfilled” his faith, then we are saying that his actions “put into effect” his faith, or that he was acting on his faith.
The observation that James makes in chapter 2 verses 21-23 is the same observation that God makes by example in Genesis 22:12. James is seeing that Abraham chooses to let his actions exhibit his faith. Abrahams actions “fulfilled” his faith (James 2:23); they put his claims of trusting God into effect. If he had not acted in accordance with his faith here, then it would be obvious to those watching (in this case: God and anyone reading this passage, including James) that the standard which he set when he believed God would not have been met. His work here shows those observers that he does indeed meet the standard, he is justified.
This is not talking about being righteous in God’s sight, but rather that those watching our lives would see our works, that they align with what we claim to believe, and know that we fear God.
The following is a collection of verses from across the Bible clearly showing that once a person is saved, they are always saved. The salvation of the believer is eternally secure and will never be taken away under any circumstances, as demonstrated by the following verses.
There are a great many verses which seem to indicate or that could teach, with added explanation, the eternal security of the believer. Below each included verse is an explanation of my reasoning for including it in the list.
*This is by no means an all-inclusive or exhaustive collection of verses demonstrating the point in question. These are merely the verses that stood out to me while quickly skimming through the New Testament and verses that will be added as I continue in my studies. If you know of a verse that fits the pattern of the following, please feel free to share in the comments below and your verse could be added to the list for others to gain from.
Bold and Italicized emphasis added to show the definitiveness of each statement.
Matthew 11:28-29 “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Explanation:
“Rest” throughout the Bible is used to represent two things: First) Rest is, obviously, the opposite of work, so rest is used to represent not working; Second) Rest is used to represent heaven, the promised land, or salvation.
This verse requires a bit of breakdown:
Jesus says “Come to me, all that labor and are heavy laden…” He’s saying this to all those which are working to be saved, these are the people who believe their salvation is earned through works. They are “heavy laden” meaning the work they do is difficult; they’re carrying a lot and are tired of doing so. Working to save yourself, and make yourself righteous in God’s sight, would be very hard, but Jesus does this all for us: we’re made righteous by having faith in his work on the cross according to Romans 3. Thus, Jesus will give them rest when they come to him, since their works won’t be required for righteousness, and in the sense that they will be saved, and will enter heaven.
“Take my yoke upon you,” A yoke is a device which links two or more animals together to do work. When we’re yoked up to Jesus, he graciously bears the weight and allows us to rest from our burden. This article at “GotQuestions.org” does a really great job at explaining this.
Jesus makes the promise here that He WILL give them this rest, both to them and to their souls, showing his clear intention to do so and also expressing the sureness of this.
Mark 16:16 “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”
Explanation:
The word “shall” is what’s known as an auxiliary verb, meaning it is used in conjunction with and describes another verb, and is being used in the “Affirmative Form” (Cambridge Dictionary “Shall”) since it comes after the subject and before the verb “be”. This is important, considering that “shall” is “used to express what is inevitable”(Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Jesus is saying that the salvation of those who believe is INEVITABLE. Inevitability, by definition, cannot be avoided.
Luke 3:17 “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.”
Explanation:
This is a metaphor used by John the Baptist, who said this after being asked if he was the Christ. His response was to describe the Christ as one who will purge his floor, and that he “will gather the wheat into his garner.”
There are two main things which stand out about this metaphor: First) When one gathers wheat into a garner, or a granary, the wheat is being saved or stored away for safe keeping so it can be used at a later date, it is preserved; Second) He says that the Christ “will gather” the wheat, which is a statement of inevitability, it’s not that Christ might, or possibly is going to, but he will gather the wheat for preservation.
These two things are interesting, because Jesus uses the SAME metaphor in his parable of the tares in Matthew 13: 24-30. In this parable, the wheat are the saved, who are put into the barn, and the tares are the unsaved which are bundled up and burned. What John the Baptist is saying here is that this gathering of the wheat into the barn is not conditional. It will happen. And if you are one of the wheat, the saved, then this is, without a doubt, your future.
I talk about the parables in much more detail in my “Parables” series.
John 3:14-16 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the sone of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not parish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not parish but have eternal life.”
Explanation:
Here it’s said that whoever believes in Him (Jesus) “should” not parish but have eternal life. A common issue with contemporary English is that the word “should” is often taken to mean that a thing is merely being suggested or that it speaks of what is likely to be. This is not the only meaning for the word and it’s not generally the way it is used in the bible. The word “should” is actually the past tense form of the word “shall,” which indicates that this is more of an inevitability than just a possibility.
John 3:18 “He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Explanation:
Jesus says that he who believes on Him IS NOT condemned. This is a statement of certainty. If you believe, even if you’ve sinned, you are not condemned.
John 3:36 “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
Explanation:
Just in case the previous verses from the chapter were not clear enough, here is the most strongly worded evidence yet that once you’re saved you can’t loose your salvation.
This verse says that he who believes has everlasting life. This is all in the present tense, meaning it’s happening right NOW, not that it will be true in the future, but instead that it’s true this very moment.
This life that the believer has is EVERLASTING, it’s ETERNAL, meaning it has no end! Now, if someone were to lose their salvation and somehow no longer have everlasting life, then it would be a LIE to call it “everlasting,” since it didn’t last forever.
++John 4:14 “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 5:24-25 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when they that hear shall live.”
Explanation:
This is similar to the explanation for John 3:36 above.
First, we have the statement that those who believe “have everlasting life,” which is present tense and entails that the believer has a life in them that will last FOREVER.
Second, Jesus says that they “shall not come into condemnation.” This takes into account both the present and the future, indicating that they will NEVER be condemned.
Third, the believer “is passed from death unto life.” This is another, remarkable, present tense statement about the believer having this everlasting life right now, and not just at some point in the future.
Finally, He says “the hour is coming,” this is the future; “and now is,” this is the present; “when they that hear (Jesus’ word from earlier in the verse) shall live.” This final statement ties together the present and the future with a definitive statement about the sureness of the life of those that believe.
Have you heard his word? Do you believe on him that sent Jesus? (Romans 4:5) If so, then you have everlasting life, you shall not ever be condemned; rejoice for you are passed from death unto life!
++John 6:35 “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
++John 6:37 “All that the father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
John 6:44 “No man can come unto me, except the father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 6:47 “Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
John 6:51 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
John 6:54 “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 10:9 “I am the door: by me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.”
++John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand.”
John 11:25-26 “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”
++John 20:31 “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
++Romans 1:17 “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.”
++Romans 4:6-8 “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”
Romans 5:9 “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
Romans 6:5 “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.”
++Romans 6:22 “But now being made free from sin and become servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”
Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Romans 8:8-11 “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 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. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
Romans 8:38 “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, no things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
Romans 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
1 Corinthians 1:8 “Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
++1 Corinthians 3:14 “If any mans work shall be burned he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”
1 Corinthians 6:14 “And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his power.”
2 Corinthians 1:9-10 “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom trust that he will yet deliver us.”
2 Corinthians 4:13-14 “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe, and therefore speak; knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you.”
++2 Corinthians 4:16 “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man parish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”
++2 Corinthians 5:1 “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, and house made not with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Ephesians 1:18-2:1 “The eyes of our understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe. According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principalities, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. And you hath he quickened who were dead in your trespasses and sins.”
Ephesians 2:4-6 “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”
Ephesians 4:30 “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”
++Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing that he which began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”
++Philippians 3:20-21 “For our conversation is in heaven: from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”
Colossians 1:12-14 “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”
Colossians 1:21-22 “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.”
Colossians 2:12-13 “Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;”
Colossians 3:4 “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
1 Thessalonians 1:10 “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.”
2 Thessalonians 2:13 “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.”
2 Thessalonians 2:16 “Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, our father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,”
2 Timothy 2:11 “It is a faithful saying: for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.”
Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”
Titus 3:7 “That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
++Hebrews 1:3 “Who being the brightness of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of majesty on high.”
Hebrews 4:3 “For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”
Hebrews 9:12 “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
++Hebrews 9:15 “And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”
++Hebrews 9:28 “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
++Hebrews 10:10 “By the which we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Hebrews 10:12 “But his man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down at the right hand of God;”
Hebrews 10:17-18 “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”
Hebrews 10:38-39 “Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them that draw back unto perdition; but of them the believe to the saving of the soul.”
1 Peter 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you , who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
++1 Peter 1:9 “Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls.”
++1 Peter 2:6 “Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.”
++1 Peter 2:25 “For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.”
++1 John 2:1-2 “My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.”
++1 John 2:12 “I write unto you, little children because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.”
1 John 2:24 “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.”
++1 John 3:2-3 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doeth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
1 John 5:10-13 “He that believeth on the son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.”
++Revelation 2:7 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
++Revelation 2:11 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”
++Revelation 2:17 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written, which no man knows saving he that receives it.”
++Revelation 3:5 “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”
++Revelation 3:12 “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall no more go out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”
++Revelation 3:21 “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne.”
++Revelation 21:7 “He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son.”
Recently, as I sat on the deck behind my house, admiring the beautiful clouds with my wife and daughter, I read the story of how Jacob stole his brother Esau’s blessing from Genesis 27. In this chapter there was a great picture of what Jesus does for those who have faith in him, as well as a foreshadowing of Gods plans for his people.
Chapter 27 begins with Isaac, who is old and frail and can’t see. He calls his eldest son, Esau, to him and tells him to go hunting and to bring him some of his favorite meat so he can bless him. Rebekah overhears this, and tells their younger son, Jacob, to go kill two goats and to take the meal that she will make to his father. She says that in doing this, Jacob can get his brother’s blessing.
Jacob obeys his mother. But Jacob recognizes that he isn’t anything like his brother. Esau is hairy and spends most of his time in the field. To disguise himself, Jacob puts on his brother’s clothes and covers his smooth skin with goat’s skins.
As he approaches his father claiming to be Esau, Jacob gives him the savory meal which Rebekah had prepared. Isaac can’t see, and notices that when his son speaks it sounds like Jacob, instead of Esau. After eating the meal, he asks Jacob to come close so he can smell and feel him to be sure to it was Esau. Isaac is fooled by Jacobs disguise and proceeds to give Esau’s blessing to him.
A few key things stand out to me in this story:
Jacob brings a “savory” meal to his father that he did not prepare by himself.
This is paralleled in several other stories and examples throughout the Bible:
Abraham offers the ram which God prepares instead of his own son;
The law of Moses requires that sacrifices were to be made as a “sweet savor unto the LORD;”
Jesus is a sacrifice of a “sweet smelling savor” unto God that we did not prepare ourselves. (Ephesians 5:2)
Jacob wears his brothers clothes and covers his bare skin with goat skins in order to appear to Isaac as his bother Esau, and he is successful.
Similarly, Adam and Eve were also covered by skins in the Garden of Eden to cover their bare skin.
The older brother’s clothes along with the goat skins essentially seal the deal: if it weren’t for them, Isaac would have noticed that Jacob didn’t feel or smell like Esau.
Because the disguise works, Isaac truly believes that he is passing on the family blessing to Esau.
Esau is the first born in this story, while in the new testament Jesus is called the firstborn of the Father.
Jacob is given the blessing because Isaac was giving it to Esau. We are given the blessings found in the new testament because of how God the Father blesses his son, Jesus.
Even after the deception is found out by Isaac, he doesn’t retract his blessing, in fact, he doubles down.
Immediately after the deception is discovered, Isaac confirms “yes, and he will be blessed.” (v.33)
While Jacobs blessing is that God give him the dew, the fatness, and the plenty, Esau’s blessing is that he shall dwell in those things.
We know that in the end Jacob/Israel end up fully inheritying the land and all the plentifulness of it, and just like many other examples, the first becomes last and the last becomes first.
This forshadows God’s plan for his people, that Israel ends up not being the ultimate people who are called by His name, but rather the Church is, and God will call them His people which before were not. (Hosea 1:9-10, Romans 9:25)
It’s said there are only two guarantees in life: death and taxes. While some have managed to skirt the latter, no one in history has completely cheated death. We all may try, and even achieve some temporary success with the current medical advances and scientific research. Or we may try to distract ourselves from the truth at hand with our work, families, hobbies, or worse things like drugs or alcohol. In the end, all is vanity. All our efforts to avoid death are in vain, they don’t accomplish the task and eventually we pass on anyway.
All Is Vanity
Many have promised a route to eternal life, and every world religion presents its own way to achieve this salvation. However, every one of these solutions end the same way: death. Even the founders of these major belief systems found their way to the grave that we will all one day face.
This is the rule: we are all born, we live, and then we die. However, there is one exception: Jesus was born, he lived, and then he died, then he rose to life again promising to do the same miracle for all who have faith in him.
This is the Gospel.
The Simple Gospel
A Gift From God
The Good News
The word “Gospel” is Greek, and means “good news.” Many people claim to share the Gospel, but actually end up turning it into bad news by adding extra stuff and overcomplicating it, you’ll read more on that later.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple and the Bible says it is “the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16)
Jesus says in John 3:36, “He that believes on the son has eternal life, and he that doesn’t believe shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
What must we believe about Jesus?
I’m glad you asked! We must believe that his work on the cross, his undeserved suffering and death, paid for the death that we deserve for our sinfulness. We must believe that our debt is fully paid by his act alone and that there is nothing we could do to replace, or add to, his sacrifice.
This sacrifice is truly the most wonderful gift that could be given, and God offers it to every person in the world!
“For God so loved the world what he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not parish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
But why must we believe? Why doesn’t he just save us? To answer these questions, I will another post, but for the sake of our conversation here, suffice it to say that it’s simply the way God wanted to do things.
“For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself” (Colossians 1: 19-20)
No Flesh Justified By The Law
For a little more depth into the gospel, let’s read Romans 3: 19-28.
Romans 3: 19-28
“Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no diffence:
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God,
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No: but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”
Here, Paul says that the deeds of the law, which Jesus sums up as loving God and loving your neighbor in Matthew 22:39-40, can not justify anyone because the law was given with the purpose of showing us that we are already sinful. Instead, in verse 21, Paul points out that God’s righteousness is made available outside of the law and is offered “unto all” and applied “upon all who believe” in verse 22.
Accept The Free Gift
By believing in the work of Jesus on the cross, and trusting that his death paid for our wrong doings, we are accepting a free gift from God to forgive our sins, and we are justified in his sight. To be justified means not only to be right, but, more specifically, to be seen as right by an observer. This is an act of grace on Gods part, which bestows the righteousness of Jesus upon us and pays off the debt we owed because of our sins.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
Divine Debt Forgiveness
Here is the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ: We can all have our debt, the death we deserved for our sinfulness, completely forgiven simply by accepting the free gift of Christs payment upon the cross. This is purely an act of grace; there are no works we could ever do to earn this gift; there are no works we have to do to keep it; there is nothing we could do to lose it.
Join me here for a list of verses that prove the eternal security of the believer.
The true Gospel of Jesus Christ really is this simple, but there are some which would object to this simple good news.
A Common Objection
“But, No Sin Can Enter Heaven!”
There is a teaching that has found its way into the common presentation of the Gospel. Instead of presenting salvation as a free gift from God that was given simply out of his mercy and grace, they assert that this gift of eternal life is given only on the condition that you repent of your sins and choose to follow Jesus instead.
You MUST Repent Of Sin
This objection to the simple Gospel can take on several forms: Some teach that in order to become saved you must first repent of your sinful ways and clean up your life; others teach that if you sin after your initial salvation, then you lose your eternal life and must go through the entire process of repenting and believing again to regain it.
Every form of this objection shares two fundamental flaws.
Two Fundamental Flaws
The first flaw is that they ignore the dual nature of human beings as both flesh and spirit, and that the paths of these two aspects of our being are very different. While this doctrine contends that the actions of the one impact the path and destiny of them both, the Bible clearly lays out a distinction and separation between the two.
The Duality Of Human Beings
In Romans, chapters 7 and 8, Paul demonstrates that the flesh and the spirit do separate things and receive different treatment with respect to their present state.
Romans 7: 22-25
“For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity of the law of sin which is in my members.
Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Romans 8: 8-11
“So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you 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,
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.”
Notice the verb tenses in each one of those verses. You’ll see that everything is in present tense, with only two exceptions.
Present Tense Statements
Chapter 7:
(v22) Paul delights in the law of God on the inside – “after the inward man.”
(v23) Paul sees another law on the outside – “in [his] members (his body)”- which is against his will to do the law of God.
(v23) Paul exhibits the law of sin on the outside – “in [his] members.”
(v25) Paul serves both the law of God on the inside – “with [his] mind,” and the law of sin on the outside – “with [his] flesh.”
Chapter 8:
(v8) Those in the flesh cannot please God.
(v9) The reader is not in the flesh, but instead they’re in the Spirit if it’s true that the Spirit of God dwells in them.
(v10) If Christ is in them, then their body is dead because of sin.
(v10) If Christ is in them, then their spirit is alive because of righteousness.
All of the above are in the present tense. Both of the exceptions listed below are in the future tense.
(Chapter 7:24) Paul looks to the future for a savior from his body’s death.
(Chapter 8:11) The Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, shall also do the same for our dead bodies if it dwells in us.
A Clear Distinction
These scriptures make the distinction between the body and the spirit apparent and clearly show that the Bible teaches, at the very least, that there is a duality to the nature of the human being.
Let’s look at chapter 8, verses 10 and 11, again:
Romans 8:10 “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin…”
It is clear that even if you have Christ in you, your body is still dead because of sin, and will continue to sin because of that.
Romans 8:11 “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he – shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwells in you.”
In the future, Jesus will raise up our dead bodies and, as is written in 1 Corinthians 15:52-53:
“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
If we are saved, we already have life in our spirit, and one day we will also have life in our dead bodies.
The Second Flaw
The second fundamental flaw that these objections to the simple Gospel share is that they turn the free gift of salvation into something that must be earned.
Salvation = A Gift
Every other major world religion teaches some form of what is called a “works based” salvation. They teach that your good deeds must ultimately outweigh the bad, or that you have to do or achieve something in order to gain eternal life. Christianity is different, the Bible teaches that there are no works you can do to save yourself.
When it comes to the impact of works vs faith on a persons salvation, the Bible is abundantly clear that our own works can not save us and that it’s purely a gift that God grants to those that have faith in the work of Jesus on the cross.
“For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift from God, not of works lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8)
The Undermining Of Gods Grace
To say that one must have faith and works together in any combination completely undermines the fact that eternal life is given to us by an act of grace from God.
“And if by grace, then it is no longer by works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it be by works, then is it no longer by grace, otherwise work is no longer work.” (Romans 11:6)
Grace Or Works, Not Both
If we had to work for eternal life in any way then it could not be said that salvation is by grace. Romans 4:4-8 puts it this way:
Romans 4: 4-8
“Now to him that works is the reward given not of grace but of debt.
But to him that works not, but believes on him which justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works,
Saying, Blessed are they who’s iniquities are forgiven, and who’s sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”
We that believe and trust in the work of Christ on the cross to forgive our sins are truly blessed to have received this gift from God. Not only do we receive salvation and eternal life by grace alone through faith alone, but verse 8 above says that God will no longer impute our sins to us. That means that the sins we commit, after we believe and trust in his work and are saved, are not counted against us (Romans 4:8) and we are considered righteous and justified in his sight.
Conclusion
An Unexpected Gift
I want you to imagine receiving an unexpected gift from someone. Picture it: you’re going along, minding your own business, when suddenly someone stops you and holds out a small package wrapped in colorful paper with a bow on top. With the gift extended out to you, they say, “Here! This is for you, please take it.”
It’s not your birthday, it’s not Christmas, or any other circumstance where gift giving would be expected. You haven’t done any favors for this person, and they don’t owe you anything. If you accept this free gift it shows nothing of your own strength or ability, only the generosity of the one who gave it to you.
Once you receive the gift, the contents of it are yours, and since it is a genuine gift, given to you out of pure generosity, your ownership of it is not contingent upon any future deeds.
The Simple Gospel: A Gift From God
The Bible says that God offers the whole world a gift. He sees our sinfulness, and that the results of it is, ultimately, death. To save us from death, Jesus died on the cross and took the debt upon himself. This divine debt forgiveness is given freely to everyone that believes.
“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
What must you do to be saved?
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” (Acts 16:31)
