Let us review that the phrase “the mark” means to run in the race to attain all we have been given to be conformed to Christ until we get to the finish line, that is, we go home to be with the Lord. Evaluating whether we have ‘missed the mark’ is using God’s wisdom to be self-reflective and to know the goal and the glory: “…the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:14) Your journey as a woman is unique in detail, yet the process is the same for each Body member.

The question is, are we living what we’ve been taught in the roles we have as godly women, continuing to grow in grace? “Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” (Phil. 3:16) Fear can sidetrack and deceive us from pressing forward. In grace, prayerfully list out what specifically holds you back from living as who you are in Christ. Be honest; we all have some things. Fleshly pursuits can be exalted to replace godly thinking and service. We may fear losing what we love. “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, either were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools…” (Rom. 1:21-22) We can change the Truth we know into ‘what we think, want, or feel comfortable with,’ which deceives us. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it” (Jer. 17:9) Be steadfast and abound in what God teaches. Romans 8:37: “we are more than conquerors.”

To Do: Take time to think about this. To miss the mark seems to indicate that we are either not in the race, not advancing, or not pursuing what God through His Son has provided. We may be living in fear, another goal, distracted, shipwrecked, or in rebellion. Whether a child or spiritual adult, we are to walk by the guidance and power of sound doctrine already deposited in us as His ambassador and servant, not by feelings or fears. This enables us to live out the sanctification teaching of Romans 6-8. In order to function in the many roles we play in life, self-awareness seems to be key. As we recognize we are headed in the wrong direction, will we be honest to acknowledge it and allow God to adjust our thinking?

I’ve encountered over the years a number of articles like this one arguing that Bathsheba was a victim of sexual assault by King David.

This is not to dismiss or diminish David’s crimes, because they were absolutely heinous. However, we need to be honest with ourselves about what the Word tells us that David did and did not do. We are never told he ever assaulted Bathsheba.

Let’s cut to the chase

After Nathan gave this fictional story about a rich man stealing a poor man’s lamb and slaughters it and feeds it to a traveler and David wants him dead, Nathan says, Thou art the man. He then tells David the words of the Lord. He says:

2Sa 12:7 Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;

2Sa 12:8 And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.

2Sa 12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? (Then He lists the crimes David committed) thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

The Lord never once mentions sexual assault as a crime David committed.

In fact, this is not mentioned anywhere in the entire Bible.

Sexual assault, of course, was illegal under the law (Deut. 22:25). This was punishable by death just like adultery - except with sexual assault, only the man is put to death.

If David had committed that sin, then God would have listed that crime.

What does God say? He says, thou hast taken HIS wife to be THY wife. This is a phrase that acts as a kind of summary indictment of his unlawful marriage and theft that – includes and presupposes adultery. This is about him taking another man’s wife, which became an unlawful marriage because David committed murder to have her.

Stealing a man’s wife really isn’t about sexual assault. It’s about adultery. He stole her heart. He never criminally assaulted her. When the Lord says, thou hast taken HIS wife to be THY wife, that isn’t the language of rape. That is the language of heart-stealing adultery that became an unlawful marriage because of murder.

Notice also how the phrase thou hast taken HIS wife to be THY wife is sandwiched between two declarations about Uriah’s murder. He says, thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and (then he says again) hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Why does he do that?

This is a chiasm.

• A: Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword...

  • B: ...and hast taken his wife to be thy wife...

• A: ...and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

By bracketing the phrase “taken his wife” between two declarations of Uriah’s murder, the text visually and structurally illustrates that David’s marriage to Bathsheba is completely enveloped in blood. He could not possess the wife without destroying the husband.

I know what the argument would be. “Joel, you don’t understand the issue of power politics. Power dynamics. David is king. Bathsheba is a peasant. Don’t you think she felt she had to go along with what David wanted because he was the king?”

No, you don’t understand the legalities of sexual assault under the law.

If their act of passion, if you will, was not in any way consensual on Bathsheba’s part, then David had forced himself upon her and violated the law. That’s sexual assault, and God would’ve leveled that crime against him in 2 Sam. 12:9.

Not one word is said about sexual assault in this entire story.

I know what the argument would be for this, too. “Well, it could be that she agreed to go along with this even though she really didn’t want to go through with it.” If she’s with David and showing every sign that she’s not comfortable, that she doesn’t want to be there, that she doesn’t want to go through with any of this, yet, David somehow uses his status as king to pressure her to go along with this and she gives in, he still forced himself upon her. And God would’ve leveled the charge of sexual assault against him in 2 Sam. 12:9.

It’s either consensual or it isn’t. And the fact that David was not charged with sexual assault by God means that the entire affair was consensual.

It’s as simple as that.

This whole story in 2 Samuel isn’t about the sins everyone committed in this whole tale. This story is strictly about the heinous crimes of King David.

God doesn’t avoid talking about sexual assault.

There are cases in Scripture in which God is explicitly clear that a sexual assault had occurred. Remember the story of Amnon and Tamar in 2 Samuel 13? They were both children of David from different mothers. And Amnon sexually assaulted Tamar. In 2 Sam. 13:12, Tamar pleads with Amnon. She says, “Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel... And in vs. 14, we read, “Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, FORCED HERR, and lay with her.”

That same kind of language is used in the law in Deut. 22:25: “But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and THE MAN FORCE HER, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die.”

Forced her. The man force her. And lie with her. That kind of language does not exist anywhere in this story of David and Bathsheba.

Make no mistake. God has zero reservations about exposing egregious sins of men in the Bible, even prominent men of faith, like David. Abraham twice lied about Sarah being his sister (Genesis 12:11–20; 20:1–18). You have Lot’s drunkenness and incest (Genesis 19:30–38). You have Moses striking the rock (Numbers 20:7–12). You have Aaron’s idolatry (Exodus 32:1–24). Solomon’s idolatry and spiritual apostasy (1 Kings 11:1–13). Peter denying the Lord three times (Matthew 26:69–75; Luke 22:54–62).

God’s not going to sanitize David’s sins. If David had committed the heinous crime of sexual assault, God would’ve been completely upfront about it.

But we’re never told David did this.

There is not one shred of evidence that David sexually assaulted Bathsheba.

For the sake of total clarity, how about we exegete the story?

2Sa 11:1 And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon (AM-un), and besieged Rabbah (RAB-uh). But David tarried still at Jerusalem.

2Sa 11:2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

Of course, you have the argument here – what woman would not be keenly aware of her surroundings if she was nude and bathing outside? What woman would not also be keenly aware of the fact that she’s bathing in full view of the king’s palace?

Those are fair questions.

2Sa 11:3 And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? 2Sa 11:4 And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house.

2Sa 11:5 And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.

Let’s consider vs. 4. First, we read that David sent messengers, and took her. Doesn’t this mean that David kidnapped her? Absolutely not. The Hebrew verb word for “took” is לָקַח (lāqaḥ), a common word meaning to take, receive, acquire, or bring. It’s a broad term, not a technical word for kidnapping. In Gen. 24:67, Isaac “took Rebekah, and she became his wife.” That was clearly not a kidnapping. He received her as his wife.

The Bible has specific words to describe kidnapping in the law as well. In Exod. 21:16, we read: “And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.” To kidnap is to steal a person. Deut. 24:7 describes someone found “stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel…” This is how our Bible describes a kidnapping and this kind of language does not exist anywhere in 2 Samuel 11.

Plus, this whole business of David sending messengers - they’re just messengers. David sent messengers to propose to Abigail (1 Samuel 25:39–42) and she was free to tell him “no.” There were plenty of times David sent messengers who were rejected and came back empty-handed. David’s messengers to Nabal (1 Samuel 25:5–12) and they returned empty-handed. David sent messengers to Hanun (2 Samuel 10:2–5) to comfort him after his father’s death. Do you remember what Hanun did to them? He shaved half of their beards and cut their garments. They came back humiliated.

“Wait a minute, Joel! You’re forgetting Michal (mih-KAHL in 2 Samuel 3:13–16). He sent men to take Michal away who was married to Phaltiel (FAL-tee-el)! See? David already had a history of stealing men’s wives!”

Michal was King Saul’s daughter. She married David first. Do you know what David had to go through to marry her? He had to get 100 foreskins of Philistines! And he did! (If I had to kill 100 Philistines and cut off their foreskins to marry Michal, you better believe I’m going to be sending men to get her back! LOL)

Scripture also tells us she loved David. She saved his life. When King Saul was plotting to kill David, Michal helped him escape through a window and she deceived Saul’s men. She was a total catch.

But when David became a fugitive, Saul gave her away to another man - Phaltiel. He had no right to do what he did. Interesting enough, Scripture tells us Michal loved David and Phaltiel was deeply attached to her, but it never tells us whether Michal loved Phaltiel.

If you’re going to make the case that David snatching Michal from Phaltiel was some precursor to David kidnapping men’s wives, you have no leg to stand on.

The fact that David sent messengers and they “took” Bathsheba in no way means she was kidnapped. Notice something else said in 2 Sam 11:4. And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him. She voluntarily and willingly agreed to go to David.

Then we’re told and he lay with her. If he had in any way sexually assaulted her, God would’ve said he forced her and lay with her, but He doesn’t say that. Why? Because he never sexually assaulted her. He stole her heart. He never assaulted her.

Then the verse says she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. What does that mean? That has to do with her menstrual cycle (Leviticus 15:19–24):

• Leviticus 15:19: A woman’s menstrual uncleanness lasts seven days.

• Leviticus 15:28: After her discharge stops, she counts seven days, after which she becomes ritually clean.

This means that Bathsheba had just finished her period and purified herself; therefore, she was not pregnant when she went to David’s palace. Consequently, when she conceives (11:5), there is zero ambiguity about who the father is — the child is indisputably David’s, not her husband Uriah’s (who was away at the siege of Rabbah).

Then she finds out she’s pregnant. She tells David, who then has Uriah killed. And David takes her as his wife. Let’s also not forget that Bathsheba willingly chose to marry David. You’d think that if a king sexually assaulted you, made you pregnant, and murdered your husband, you’d not only NOT marry him but run for the hills to get away from him.

No, she was as much onboard with this affair as David himself.

Then we have the showdown with Nathan the prophet.

2Sa 12:1 And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.

2Sa 12:2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:

2Sa 12:3 But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.

2Sa 12:4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.

2Sa 12:5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:

2Sa 12:6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.

2Sa 12:7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man…

So back to this article I mentioned at the beginning. The Nerdy Christian tried to argue that because, in Nathan’s illustration, the lamb is clearly Bathsheba, then she had to have been perfectly innocent and was therefore a victim of sexual assault.

That isn’t just bad exegesis. This is a perfect example of eisegesis. That is someone so desperate to also pin the label of rapist on David that he’s imposing his own agenda onto the text rather than allow the text to speak for itself.

What is going on in Nathan’s story?

Notice that Nathan’s story is not even close to being a point-by-point allegorical match for David’s crimes in 2 Samuel 11. We’re not reading about a sexual assault or even an affair. We’re reading about a poor guy who has a lamb and views that lamb as HIS DAUGHTER. What man views his wife as his daughter? Uriah certainly didn’t.

Plus, it’s not like the rich man killed the poor man, which is what happened with David and Uriah. It’s the lamb that’s killed in Nathan’s story. How does that fit into the David and Bathsheba narrative? And clearly David didn’t kill Bathsheba or feed her remains to a traveler. Plus, no human can ever be a perfectly innocent lamb. Only Christ can be that.

You’re not supposed to look at this story as a perfect comparison to David and Bathsheba.

And because this is clearly not a point-by-point allegorical match for David’s crimes, there is no ground whatsoever for anyone to try to claim that Bathsheba was sexually assaulted simply because she’s the lamb in Nathan’s fictional story.

If this was a perfect point-by-point allegorical match, then you could make that case, but you cannot do that here. This is not a parallel to what happened.

So what’s the point of Nathan’s story?

This story was a carefully crafted legal trap for David, who was, of course, acting as the supreme judge in Israel (cf. 2 Sam. 14:4–11, 15:2–4). He tells a tale of less severe crimes than the ones David committed. And it’s meant to incite David’s wrath and his strong sense of justice. Then the finger is pointed at him.

It’s brilliant in how it understates David’s crimes. If a man deserves severe judgment for taking a lamb and slaughtering it in such a way, then how much greater is the condemnation for taking a man’s wife and killing the husband?

If this rich man in this story deserves death for just stealing a lamb then how much more does David deserve death for stealing the heart of Bathsheba and murdering Uriah?

This story isn’t about any else’s innocence or guilt. This story is strictly about David realizing the severity of his crimes in the sight of God. This was more than just a lapse in lust for him. This is about murder. This is about horrific abuse of power. This is about adultery and coveting something that doesn’t belong to him when God already gave him so much.

Fascinating to me, David had this strong sense of justice when he’s objectively evaluating the moral failures of others, but he was completely blind to his own far greater transgressions. Isn’t that true for a lot of people? Even today?

Nathan’s story serves as a warning against the ease with which we judge external actions while rationalizing our own inner moral compromises.

Don’t take my word for it. Study for yourself!

Below are all the references to the story:

1. The primary historical account

• 2 Samuel 11:1–5 David sees Bathsheba bathing, sends messengers, takes her, lies with her, and learns she is pregnant.

• 2 Samuel 11:6–13 David attempts to conceal the pregnancy by bringing Uriah home from battle. Uriah refuses to enjoy the comforts of home while his fellow soldiers are fighting.

• 2 Samuel 11:14–25 David arranges for Uriah to be killed in battle through instructions to Joab.

• 2 Samuel 11:26–27 Bathsheba mourns Uriah. David subsequently marries her. The chapter ends by declaring that David’s actions displeased the LORD.

• 2 Samuel 12:1–6 Nathan confronts David with the parable of the rich man, the poor man, and the little ewe lamb.

• 2 Samuel 12:7–12 Nathan declares, “Thou art the man,” and identifies David’s sins and their consequences.

• 2 Samuel 12:13–15 David confesses his sin, and Nathan announces God’s forgiveness, although consequences will follow.

• 2 Samuel 12:15–23 David fasts and prays for the sick child, who subsequently dies.

• 2 Samuel 12:24–25 David comforts Bathsheba, and Solomon is born.

2. The Psalms associated with David’s repentance

• Psalm 51 — The definitive penitential Psalm

The superscription explicitly connects this psalm to Nathan’s confrontation after David had gone in to Bathsheba.

Particularly important verses are 1–4, 9–12, and 16–17. David acknowledges his transgressions, asks God for cleansing, and expresses a broken and contrite heart.

• Psalm 32 — The blessedness of forgiveness

This psalm describes the misery of concealing sin and the relief of confessing it.

Verses 3–5 are especially relevant. Although traditionally associated with David’s repentance over Bathsheba and Uriah, the psalm itself doesn’t explicitly identify that occasion.

3. Other direct references to Bathsheba, Uriah, and David’s sin

• 2 Samuel 23:34, 39 Identifies Eliam, son of Ahithophel, and Uriah the Hittite among David’s mighty men. Compare 2 Samuel 11:3 for the possible family connection.

• 1 Kings 1:11–31 Bathsheba and Nathan intervene to secure Solomon’s succession to the throne.

• 1 Kings 2:13–25 Bathsheba appears as Solomon’s mother in the matter of Adonijah’s request.

• 1 Kings 15:5 Explicitly recalls David’s sin as “the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”

• 1 Chronicles 3:5 Lists Solomon and his brothers as sons of David by Bathshua, generally identified as Bathsheba.

• Matthew 1:6 Refers to Solomon’s mother as “her that had been the wife of Urias.”

4. The consequences of David’s sin in subsequent chapters

Nathan prophesied that the sword would never depart from David’s house (2 Samuel 12:10). Several subsequent events are commonly understood in light of that judgment.

• 2 Samuel 13:1–22 Amnon rapes Tamar, David’s daughter.

• 2 Samuel 13:23–39 Absalom arranges the murder of Amnon.

• 2 Samuel 15:1–12 Absalom rebels against David; Ahithophel joins the conspiracy.

• 2 Samuel 16:20–23 Absalom publicly takes David’s concubines, fulfilling the judgment described in 2 Samuel 12:11–12.

• 2 Samuel 17:1–23 Ahithophel counsels Absalom against David and subsequently takes his own life.

• 2 Samuel 18:1–33 Absalom dies, and David mourns his son.

5. Relevant Mosaic Law passages

• Leviticus 20:10 — The penalty for adultery involving another man’s wife.

• Deuteronomy 22:22–27 — The legal distinction between adultery and forced sexual intercourse involving a betrothed woman.

• Deuteronomy 22:28–29 — A separate case involving an unbetrothed virgin.

• Exodus 21:16; Deuteronomy 24:7 — Laws against kidnapping.

• Numbers 35:30–34 — Laws concerning murder and the shedding of innocent blood.

What does it mean to “press toward the mark?” It means to progress forward to acquire what God desires. It does not refer to our worldly objectives, though we do have to live in this world. God has an organized way for us to spiritually proceed. It is using the edification of sound doctrine from Paul’s epistles. We are to purpose to apply these things in our lives by dwelling upon what the Spirit is teaching us. “The mark” is acquiring what God has laid forth for us until we get to the finish line and we go home to be with the Lord. There are specific things laid forth in this curriculum that “…God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (I Cor. 2:9) Our responsibility is to utilize the resources we’ve been given i.e. our precious time, life situations, people in our circle of influence, and the Word deposited within us to mature unto perfection.

Use situations that arise but also make opportunities to function as ambas-sadors, all the while being renewed in sound doctrine. As we believe, Christ’s life is manifest in us. What a delightful opportunity to share these grace gifts with others; it is the high calling of God. Philippians 3:9-11 lays forth the specifics of our calling: “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” It’s not just an intellectual pursuit, but Christ’s resurrection life being manifest in & through us.

Think on This: It is our great privilege to use the inner man doctrine acquired as our rule or guide in thinking and decision making to manifest Christ’s life, deal with sufferings, and persecutions, but also move forward to mature. “Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” (vs. 16) Make time to ask yourself questions: Where am I in this process? Am I growing? Do I purpose to live as who I am in Christ?

There have been several articles on Christian news sites (like this one) about actor and comedian Billy Crystal. He said in a recent interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” that devastating personal losses, like the loss of his home in the L.A. fire and the loss of his close friend Rob Reiner who was murdered has completely shaken his trust in God.

They asked him if he’s been talking to God during this difficult season of his life and Crystal replied, “No, because I don’t trust Him. Too many bad things have happened. The Earth is in bad shape. This is a weird, scary time. So no, not anymore.”

How heartbreaking.

I totally sympathize. I can’t imagine the pain of losing your home in a fire and then having to endure the murder of a close friend. My heart goes out to him. And I suspect there are millions of people who have experienced terrible losses and quietly asked the same questions he’s asking. Where is God in all this? Why does He allow these things to happen? And how can we possibly trust Him when this world seems so cruel?

Why do bad things happen?

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). And “we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together…” (Rom. 8:22).

We live in a sin-cursed world. Sin entered into the world through Adam, and death entered through sin. Then Paul tells us that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. The entire creation is subject to the bondage of corruption.

That’s the world we live in.

We live in a world of disease, suffering, natural disasters, accidents, deterioration, death, and sin-corrupted human beings making awful decisions. Being saved doesn’t exempt anyone from the issues of living in this sin-cursed world. God promises no one exemption from suffering in this life (Phil.1:29, 2 Tim. 3:12, 2 Cor. 4:8-9, 2 Cor. 12:7-10).

His Agony in the Garden

Of course, how can we forget the Lord’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane before He died on the cross? When they arrived at the Garden, the first thing He tells the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder (Matt. 26:36). He goes further into the Garden to pray. He brings with Him Peter, James, and John. He tells them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.” When He gets His inner circle close to Him away from the other disciples, he tells them something no one could’ve known — and that was the crushing weight pressing on His soul about what’s going to happen to Him.

He says, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful…” This is not surface-level. This is the deepest part of His inner being — His entire inner life is overwhelmed with sorrow. In the Greek, “exceeding sorrowful” speaks of a grief that surrounds a person on every side. This is a sorrow that hems Him in with no escape. His entire being is engulfed in sorrow. It’s stunning really how He opens His heart to His inner circle here. This is not weakness. He is just sharing with them the enormous burden He is carrying inside.

And what has gripped Him is more than just fear of a physical death on a cross. A lot of martyrs have faced death with great composure — THIS is something altogether different. THIS is the full weight of God’s “cup” of wrath. This is the anticipation of everything that will happen to Him at Calvary, of being made a curse for sin, of suffering more than any being who ever existed, and perhaps the thing that weighed most on Him was that He’d be entering into this unimaginable period of divine forsaking by His Father (Psa. 22:1).

This is the sinless One standing on the edge of bearing the full weight of judgment for every bad thing the world has ever done. That is why He says, “…even unto death.” The anguish is so intense that it is pressing Him to the brink of death before He’s even arrested. Luke tells us His sweat became as it were great drops of blood — His intense suffering started long before the nails ever touched His hands.

On the Cross

When He was on the cross, I’d suggest that nobody ever suffered more than Christ Himself (Psa. 22, Isa. 53:11). He didn’t just suffer physically. He also suffered mentally, emotionally, and spiritually on the cross. In Psa. 22:2, the Lord says, “O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.” The Lord silently cried to His father in His mind throughout that entire ordeal and never got an answer.

In Psa. 22:12, we’d learn about the bulls of Bashan. David wrote, “Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.” The bulls of Bashan were these wild powerful uncontrollable beasts. Some have speculated, and I would agree, that in Psa. 22:12, the spiritual curtain has been pulled back, and in the spiritual realm these wild powerful uncontrollable demons, who like the bulls of Bashan, were all circling the cross. And what were they doing? They were tormenting Christ’s soul.

We also learn in Psa. 22:21 that the Lord was thinking, “Save me from the lion’s mouth...” We know who that is. 1 Pet. 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” The devil was there in the spiritual realm at the cross tormenting His soul, along with all the demonic realm, and the Lord begged in His mind to His Father to be saved from the roaring lion’s mouth.

For all these reasons, I believe the Lord suffered more than any being who existed.

Just before He reached the ninth hour, we find in Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Also in Mark 15:34) By saying these words, the Lord points us all back to Psalm 22 so that we may know that Psalm 22 reveals to us everything He’s thinking and feeling while He’s dying on the cross. He’s also showing us that His death was a fulfillment of that prophecy in Psalm, and we also know that He was forsaken of God the Father, fellowship broken for the first time since eternity past, because the Father cannot have fellowship with sin while the sins of the world were being imputed to His Son.

But the Father heard Him and watched everything (Psa. 22:24).

We’re told in Isa 53:6 …the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And again in Isa 53:10-11 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. And again in Isa. 53:8, for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Why did Christ suffer more than any being who ever existed?

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). He died to save us. He became something He wasn’t so we can by grace through faith become something we’re not.

Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3). He was buried and He rose again the third day (1 Cor. 15:4). This is the gospel Paul preached wherein we all stand as believers.

Do you believe it?

How can we look at Christ’s suffering and conclude that God doesn’t care about us?

“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ” (2 Cor. 1:5).

1. How can I maintain peace when I am in the midst of fear, challenges, and suffering?

While the Old Testament is written to and about the Nation Israel, there is much we can glean from their Bible characters and experiences. For example, look back at Jacob, Joseph, Joshua, and David’s lives. What was their response to danger and were they able to maintain peace? How? Think on these things.

Fear is a God-given emotion to flag us to potential danger to determine if there’s a need to do something. We have also been given other resources today in the Body that help us navigate life yet maintain peace. Focus on those most important for you:

a) Know God Will Recompense: It is God’s place to take vengeance and reward evil and good, in His time. We can then rest, trusting God. We are to minister good for evil and “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” (Rom. 12:16-21- Read this section in context.)

b) Focus Above on Spiritual Things: “…righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost… follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.” (Rom. 14:17,19. Read also Colossians 3:1-3)

c) Be Self-Aware: Who or what is ruling your thoughts: “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.” (Col. 3:15)

d) God Uses Sufferings to Teach: Realize that there is resultant glory as we go through tribulations and struggles, and they can work for our good. (Rom 5:3-5, 8:18) Expect challenges, be prepared, and know how to glory in them. II Cor. 12:9-10: “…My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me…for when I am weak, then am I strong.

2. I feel the need to talk to a friend regarding sin I see in their life. Any suggestions?

Pray for a wise and discerning heart as feelings can be deceptive; we don’t always know the whole situation. Use wisdom: think long and hard on whether it will be profitable to address an issue, how to do it, and when. Ideally, wait for them to ask for advice. It’s often not our business. We might disagree with their choices, know that they are struggling, or only see part of the picture. It is their life and God gives them opportunity to learn from mistakes in their journey, just as do we. It can be hard to quietly watch. Prayer is often the best choice until we are fully convinced that someone needs an intervention or to be confronted.

Think on this: Sometimes it is our love duty to warn a dear sister when she is in spiritual danger. (Yet, I have put my nose into things at times before I should have, learning the hard way to trust God. We each have access to the Word, prayer, and meditation to make wise decisions. We all make mistakes through life, as will your friend. Be there when she needs your ear or asks for help.) If you choose to talk to her, wait for an opportunity to minister. Less is more. Graciously speak from your heart, speaking the truth in love (Eph. 4:15), as charity covereth a multitude of sins. (I Peter 4:8)

3. How can I help a friend who constantly is talking, never allowing others a word?

This can be a challenge, as women tend to talk a lot. Addressing it directly can backfire and be quite hurtful to your friend and your relationship. Pray for an attitude of patience, endurance, and love. You can set boundaries and carefully deal with breeches of protocol in love. For example, when she interrupts or talks over you: “I’d like a moment to share a few things,” “Oh, I wasn’t done, please give me a moment.” Or “Please excuse me, I’d like to finish.”

Before directly addressing the behavior, ask yourself a few questions: Have you accepted this infirmity of her flesh or exalted it out of proportion? Is it just irritating or does it injure you or others, causing major problems in the Church? Think and pray about these things.

Realize your flesh is just like hers, your issues may be different, but we all have the same flesh and need God’s grace. We can become law enforcers or spiritual fruit inspectors, seeking to correct all the behaviors around us, but this would clearly be the law, not grace.

If you make the decision to address it after careful thought and prayer, wait for the right time, when it is most likely she will be open to suggestions and alone. Speak from godly love, as a helper of her joy. If she is not open, accept her choice, continue your prayer, and decide if you are spiritually able to continue the friendship in love, though she may not change. Can you love and accept her where she is spiritually?

4. When our personal illness impacts what we do, how can we adjust our ministry, redeeming the time?

We are ambassadors for Christ, and servants, whether healthy or not. The quick answer is that we are to view life through the eyes of the Lord. We have a circle of influence and skills, abilities, and opportunities. Look at things from a new perspective.

Re-evaluate where you are and what you want and can do given your change in circumstance. Brainstorm ideas you desire; how and when will you try them? (Cross off ones you cannot do anymore, giving them to the Lord.) A few ideas: pass out self-made tracts when shopping or at drive through windows. Write letters with Scripture and send them to encourage and edify.

1) Prepare/Focus: Philippians 3 teaches us to put our confidence in Christ and the doctrine we’ve attained unto so far to walk it out by faith and to keep the goal to press toward the mark. This enables us to win Christ. Expect there will be suffering as challenges are often inevitable. Purpose to be real to see this world as it is, yet knowing our Father loves us and is always with us through it all. (Rom. 8:31-39)

2) Live Confidently as Who We Are: Recall we are in Christ, saints of the Most High, and members of His Body: “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” (Phil. 3:3)

3) Don’t Take Things for Granted, be Grateful Even in Difficulties: Daily thank God for spiritual things, health, a good job, and your husband. Communicate with others in love, make wise choices, be observant, humbly adjust thinking as needed, and be open to change, looking to God. “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” (II Cor. 4:8-10)

3) Be in the Moment: Stop fretting about the past or future, avoid the trap of trusting in what others think or even judging yourself. Paul said these things are of little value: “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.” (I Cor. 4:3-4) Be present where you are and spiritually in what you’ve been given to walk by faith. “…forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13-14) Make the most of the resources God has given, using this wisdom to be ready to serve as a living sacrifice, while focusing above.

3) Learn to Apply the Word to Pivot and Adapt as New Challenges Arise: When we are flexible and ready we can easily adjust to jump the hurdles in life, make about face turns, or pick ourselves up and shake it off to get back to our faith walk. Placing our faith in the doctrine we have attained unto will empower us to avoid trusting ourselves to win Christ: “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” (Phil 3:9)

Reflect: Read through Philippians 3 and take time to think about what we are trusting in as we go through the week. Are we spiritual children in Christ trusting in this world, or adults willing to be ambassadors and living sacrifices? This is a tall order, but it is why God left us here on earth. So many need to hear the Truth to grow and others are desperate to be justified and saved from the Lake of Fire. Are we confident and ready in godly love to say, “…nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” as Christ said unto the Father as He was headed to the cross. (Luke 22:42) This is our reasonable service by being constrained by Christ’s love.

Do you ever find yourself in difficult situations and you’re not sure what to do? Here’s a phenomenal question to ask yourself:

What Would Love Do?

On Sundays, we’ve been going through Ephesians verse-by-verse (more like word-by-word - LOL), and we recently covered the principles of Biblical Headship.

Consider Ephesians 5:25 – “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.”

Back in the early 90s, I was attending adult Sunday School class at our grace church. One of the men was trying to exegete this passage and he had a question no one could answer – “Why does God tell husbands to love their wives?” This actually stumped everyone. Is God saying this to men because men somehow have trouble loving their wives? (I’m sure someone out there is going, “It depends on who you’re married to.” LOL)

But, you know, this questions stuck with me for years.

Why DOES God tell husbands to love their wives?

I’d suggest the answer is simple. Paul’s giving the definition of headship. This is what headship IS. This is what headship DOES. This is what headship LOOKS LIKE. All of Biblical spiritual headship in a family can be summed up by this one principle – husbands love your wives. Just as the law can be summed up in this one principle – love God with all your heart and all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself, so too, headship hangs off this one principle of love – husbands, love your wives. Everything about headship flows out of that principle. Paul is defining for men what is the guiding principle of headship in a family.

The Head must love his wife because that’s how Christ operates as Head.

This is what is means to be the head of a family. God requires in his families loving, spiritual leadership that begins with you loving your wife no matter what. Verse 23 establishes the husband’s position. Now verse 25 begins defining the character of that position. You have a responsibility for loving selfless service. Love is the supreme guiding principle behind all spiritual leadership. You are consistently loving and acting with love toward your wife.

So when you, as a husband, aren’t sure what to do, ask yourself this question:

What would love do?

Essentially, you are asking yourself, “How do I apply the attributes of charity in 1 Cor. 13 in how I love my wife and how I live my life?”

Consider 1 Cor. 13:4 – “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up…”

First, charity suffereth long - Love willingly endures pain, insults, ignorance, and injury because it has the good of the other person in view. Longsuffering is strategic: it patiently desires salvation, growth, and good for others, though longsuffering doesn’t have to continue forever.

Is kind — Kindness is more than doing something nice; it is a disposition of heart that is predisposed to do good for others. Love thinks about others, seeks their good, and responds with tenderness and kindness—even toward enemies.

Charity envieth not — Love is never threatened or disgruntled by another person’s success, or happiness, talents, or spiritual maturity. Instead of resenting that’s person’s qualities, love genuinely rejoices to see others prosper.

Charity vaunteth not itself — Love does not brag, promote itself, or put itself on a pedestal because genuine love is directed outward rather than obsessed with self. We can rejoice in who God has made us in Christ without becoming self-exalting, because the new man never brags.

Is not puffed up — Love never looks down upon others with arrogance or condescension. Understanding how undeserving we were and how extraordinarily gracious God has been to us produces gratitude and humility rather than pride.

Now consider 1 Cor. 13:5 – “Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil.”

Doth not behave itself unseemly — Love does not act rudely, offensively, insincerely, or out of character. It conducts itself with graciousness, sincerity, modesty, good manners, and meekness—strength under control.

Seeketh not her own — True love is fundamentally unselfish: you look beyond your own welfare to the comfort, salvation, and edification of others. Love expresses itself through devotion to the good of others rather than constantly asking what benefits itself.

Is not easily provoked — Love is slow to anger because longsuffering, kindness, humility, forgiveness, and selflessness naturally restrain anger. When provoked, love’s instinct should be toward extending more love rather than retaliating in bitterness.

Now consider 1 Cor. 13:6 – “Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.”

Rejoiceth not in iniquity — Love never celebrates sin or takes pleasure in watching others participate in it. Because love seeks another person’s good, it cannot rejoice in that which harms them and dishonors God.

Rejoiceth in the truth — Truth makes love rejoice. Love delights in Scripture, fellowship, spiritual growth, and seeing others walk in the truth because everything true and good is naturally cause for love to celebrate.

Consider 1 Cor. 13:7 – “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”

Beareth all things — Love is a natural God-given inner strength that is capable of carrying tremendous burdens because its strength comes from the life of Christ within us. A strengthened inner man can continue loving despite the wounds, pressures, weakness, and trials by keeping his attention upon the good of others.

Believeth all things — This does not mean love is gullible and believes everything it hears. Love is always ready to embrace the truth, especially the truth of God’s Word. Love possesses a fundamental love of the truth rather than resistance to it.

Hopeth all things — Love always has reason for hope: it is hopeful for the restoration and growth of believers and the salvation of unbelievers. At the same time, its hope rests confidently upon the promises of God.

Endureth all things — Love does not merely survive suffering; it maintains its character and consistency throughout all suffering. Circumstances may be terrible, but love keeps loving with the same power all the way to the end, as perfectly exemplified by Christ.

And, finally, consider 1 Cor. 13:8 – “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”

Charity never faileth — Love ultimately cannot fall powerless or come to an end because

God is love, and God Himself is eternal and unchanging. Faith will become sight and hope will be realized, but love will remain forever; our eternal existence will be an existence abiding in His love.

So how do all of these principles of agape charity — or love — apply to the husband in a marriage? It means that when God tells a husband to love his wife, He is calling that man to bring all of these attribute and principles of charity into his marriage.

This is where we begin to see what biblical headship really looks like. A husband’s leadership in the home is not a license to exercise authority for his own benefit. It is an obligation to sacrifice himself for the benefit of his wife. The standard isn’t what you see around you. The standard isn’t what your father did. Or what you’ve seen on TV. The standard is Christ Himself. And the defining expression of Christ’s love for the church was that He gave Himself for it. He sanctifies it. He nurtures it. He gives Himself over to it. He sacrifices for it. He cares for it. He helps the body be heathy.

So if you’re speaking to your spouse and you’re frustrated, ask yourself -

What would love do?

If you’re wondering, “How do I deal with this brother in Christ who’s disappointed me?” ask yourself -

What would love do?

If your wife or family member needs your time and you’d rather not be bothered, ask yourself -

What would love do?

Sometimes the grace life really can be brought down to one simple question:

What would love do?

[For more check out our podcasts, grace songs, and exegetical preaching. PTL!]

2Ti 3:11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

2Ti 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

2Ti 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

The common thought and feeling of man is that no one desires to be hated by others. The man himself desires to be celebrated, regardless If he is a introvert, and doesn’t like all the attention, he too desires not to be hated by others, even those that all feel that the world is against them so to speak, they do not desire to be hated by anyone. But when looking at God’s word of truth, those that desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, and that is persecution for Christ’s sake, not our own affairs of this life type of persecution. And what the verses mentioned above, is that there are those who desire to live godly, but what this means is those that desire to live in the likeness of Christ, and to live as we walk in the doctrine which is according to godliness. And that doctrine consists of having the Spiritual mind of Christ and this selfless heart of our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Joh 7:7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.

Luk 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.

And as we see, the Lord taught His apostles that if they are going to walk in his likeness, they must understand that the world hates the Lord, and as the scriptures say, they hated him “without a cause.” But they had their own cause in which they hated Him, their flesh became offended by His words, He testified truth unto the darkness of this world, and they rejected it. The Lord testified that the good of man today is actually the evil of darkness as men try to pass that off for the light of the truth of God. And so, the Lord taught His Apostles that the outward man will get offended by the truth of God, because the truth is contrary unto the flesh of man. Man’s flesh desires to have its lust fulfilled day by day and man does not like to have others correct their way of living their lives. And the obvious thought is that the Lord was trying to tell the little Flock how to live a ‘goodly’ life, and how to just ‘fit in’ with this world in love, when in fact, He was given unto them His life, and why they ought to live, and when they live in His likeness, the world will in fact hate them too.

Joh 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

Joh 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

And so, we too are taught that this world despises ‘godliness,’ and what is “the good” in God’s sight. Paul says in 2^nd Timothy chapter 3:3, that there are those who are, “despisers of those that are good.” And it is the “natural man” (the common men of this world who are ‘fathered’ by this world and also conformed to this world) that views the Spiritual things of God, and godliness as “foolish.” And once the Saints in Christ begin to live their lives unto the Lord, and desire to live “after the Spirit,” and not “after the flesh,” we will be no longer in this world’s identity, and no longer in a “condemnation” from the “life of Christ,” but we as “debtors” unto Him will walk, and live, and serve as those who are the “called according to His purpose.” But we too ought to generate a ‘godly hatred’ for the ungodly things of this world, and as the verses say below, our Lord also ‘hated’ the ‘thing’ concerning Saints going after another doctrine. And we are told to “abhor that which is evil” in God’s sight and be “simple concerning evil.” These evil things are beloved by this world and concern the ‘religious’ men of this world who preach the “doctrines of devils.”

2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

2Co 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Notice in Revelation 2:15 the Lord mentions that his hatred is kindled by the men teaching this doctrine. He also warned the Little Flock about the “leaven of the Pharisees.” And today, our being a “living sacrifice” irritates the natural man, because we are no longer ‘with’ them, or conformed unto the system of their things. And when we “come out from among them,” and “be separate,” we will now walk unto the Father in godliness as sons and daughters, and those in whom we came out from among will no longer count us as their ‘brethren,’ but an enemy, and a threat to their peace, and their way of living, they will accuse the godly Saint of trying to ‘change their lives too.’ And this is because of a ‘fear of losing their lifestyle,’ and ‘loves of their lives.’ And as Paul mentions in Romans chapter 12, those who desire to be a living sacrifice, they will have an “enemy.” This is why we are given the doctrine in how we are to respond unto those who would count us as their enemy in verses 14-21. And our response is a response of selfless love and godliness unto those who not only despises us, but first hated our Lord Jesus Christ whether they actually know that their ‘service’ unto this world has caused the “enmity” between them, and God, and as the Lord says in Matthew chapter 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Rev 2:15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

Rom 12:9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

Rom 16:19 For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

Rod Jones

Philippians 3:20: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Our true home and eternal life are in heaven with the Lord. As we walk by faith in the doctrine we believe, we are walking as who we truly are; women who are believers in Christ. We are to focus above in the heavenly realm, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

What does it mean to “look for the Savior?” We are to focus above and on spiritual things we have in Christ, expectant that one day we will join Him in heaven. Titus 2:13 says, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” We anticipate that day when the Lord Jesus Christ will come in the clouds to take us up to heaven. “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (I Thess. 4:15-17) It is often referred to as the Rapture. Dear ladies, this is our eternal destiny!

Think on This: It is with these specific words, verse 18 says, that we are to “comfort one another.” The times in which we live will continue to devolve, be grievous, and things will wax worse and worse, so this passage will bring us comfort and renew our focus to ‘look for the Savior.’

1. Dogs: Gentiles are known as dogs (Matt 15:26-27), individuals from ungodly nations that may infiltrate Churches to promote worldly thinking, carnality, or entice some to leave sound teaching.

2. Evil Workers: This group refers to the ignorant, following erroneous doctrines. They are saints who have become “enemies of the cross” (verse 18) and are actively working contrary to the Truth.

3. The Concision: These are legalists, hyper-focused on dissecting, judging, and comparing behavior to the letter of the law, as religious quality control inspectors. They tend toward criticizing and focus on defects and weaknesses of the flesh. They exalt fleshly works of righteousness.

These three groups can be quite active and often subtle in the dispensation of grace. If Paul is addressing this issue with the Philippians, we can be assured that this also relates to each of us. It’s often easy to see how things are relevant to others or weaker saints. Be self-reflective, honestly evaluating how we also might be affected. Meditate upon what you are thinking and doing. This takes time, prayer, and purposefulness. The flesh will not discern the need for correction, nor embrace the form of sound doctrine.

To Do: Read Philippians for doctrine to attain understanding, even when going through suffering. Yet once knowledge is acquired, seek the wisdom to apply it to the details of life: marriage, raising children, friendships, etc. This humbling edification process enables us in grace to see shortcomings, errors, attitudes, or problematic issues in need of correction. If we place confidence in the flesh to exalt fleshly works, what we do, or what others think, we’ll be blind to areas in need of growth. Be open, pray, and ask personalized questions from time to time: Where am I in my walk or Am I applying sound doctrine: “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” (Philippians 3:6) Become reflective, rejoicing even in sufferings and be well prepared, focusing above.

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Rom. 6:6)

The death of the old man doesn’t begin in Romans 6:6 but in Romans 6:3-4 - “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Prayerfully consider, and seriously meditate upon, the entire process of our identification with Christ. See yourself as spiritually baptized into His death. See yourself as spiritually buried with Him by baptism. And see yourself as spiritually raised up from the dead with Christ. Do not ever forget that His crucifixion became your new spiritual reality. Do not ever forget that God allowed you to be transformed spiritually as Christ was transformed literally. His sacrifice became your sacrifice. His death became your death. His burial became your burial. His resurrection became your resurrection. The newness of His life after His resurrection became your “newness of life.”

As a result of your death, burial, and resurrection with Christ, you are now and forever victorious over sin and death as Christ is forever victorious.

How can the old man, everything that we were in Adam, survive a transformation as complete and as glorious as that? How can the old man ever possibly survive a death, burial, and resurrection with the Lord Jesus Christ?

We are living His resurrection life right now, which is how we have victory over sin and death, because we have spiritually died and risen with Christ. Christ made this victory possible by taking all that we were in Adam and put that old man upon that old cross 2,000 years ago and crucified him. Our old man stayed bound in the grave, and a new man rose from that grave in resurrection life with Christ our Lord! Pastor Holtorff once wrote that “Our only hope, our only asset for victory in this warfare is a grave back there somewhere in which this old man was laid alongside of Jesus Christ.” (From “Christ Our Life”, Bible Study for Bereans, December, 1936)

Never forget that when we place our faith in Him, we are united with Christ in an eternal union. We are one with Christ. We are in Christ, and He is in us. Our identification with Christ and His work on the cross so thoroughly transformed us that we were made into completely new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17). “Behold all things are become new”!

All things new!

Does not all things mean all things? Does not new mean new?

How can we be completely new creatures, all things new, being dead, buried, and resurrected with Christ, transformed by the Spirit, walking in a newness of life, and yet, all that we were in Adam, embodied by the phrase the “old man,” somehow didn’t die after being crucified with Christ?

Make no mistake.

When we were resurrected with Christ – the old man didn’t make the trip. To say that the old man didn’t die, or that he’s still alive hanging on that cross, is an affront to the glorious doctrine of our identification with Christ and His all-sufficient work on the cross.

How can all things become new if the old things of the old nature in the old man were still alive in us?

God didn’t partially transform us. He completely transformed us into completely new creatures. Everything we were in Adam is gone forever and we’re now completely righteous as His Son because He completely remade us spiritually into completely new creatures. Was not Christ’s work on the cross so all-sufficient as to be able to put to death the old man in order to give us a new man? Was not Christ’s work on the cross so all-sufficient as to be able to make all things new? And was not Christ’s work on the cross so all-sufficient as to be able to make us literally freed from sin?

This isn’t just about the interpretation of Romans 6:6, as to whether it’s a positional truth or a practical truth. This, to me, goes back to the heart of the all-sufficiency of Christ’s work on cross and to the heart of our spiritual identification with Christ, which was so perfect that God was more than able to crucify that old man, to spiritually crucify everything we were in Adam, and He was more than able to transform us into wholly new creatures so that all we need to do is to renew our minds, to reckon as true what Christ has already accomplished in us, to put off in our thinking all the old ways and old habits of an old nature now gone, because we are now freed from sin with a new nature.

We no longer look up at the Lord through the eyes of the old man because the old man is dead. We now look upon ourselves through the eyes of the new man, as God sees us in Christ, as righteous as His Son. We reckon these truths as a reality, right here, right now, and we live according to those truths! That is at the core of putting off the old man and putting on the new man.

A pastor once told me that if I’m to convince him that the old man is dead, then I need to show him every verse in Paul’s letters to prove my case, which is funny, because all I need is Rom. 6:6. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him…”

Do you know what “crucified” means in the Greek? It means crucified! Imagine that!

Do you know how Webster’s 1828 defines “crucify?” “To put to death by nailing the hands and feet to a cross. To mortify. To destroy.”

How can the old man be alive in us when he is put to death with Christ? What man has ever been crucified and lived? Was Christ only positionally crucified? Did not Christ literally die for us on that old rugged cross? Did any of the malefactors who were crucified alongside Jesus live? Has anyone in the Bible or in history ever survived a crucifixion?

The word crucified leaves no room for survival. If you’ve been crucified, you’ve been put to death. Further, there is absolutely no room whatsoever for any chance of survival if you’ve been crucified with Christ, because Christ literally died on that cross!

Let me ask another question.

If the old man is somehow synonymous with the flesh, then how can our flesh be crucified with Christ? How is that even possible? Christ died on that cross, and yet, our flesh still lives. One pastor suggested that the old man is still alive in the sense that he’s still hanging on the cross! How can that be when Rom. 6:3-4 speak of our spiritual identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection as a one-time event the moment we believed? How can we still be dealing with an old nature that somehow went into a time machine to perpetually hang on that cross some 2,000 years ago when our souls have already been declared by God as dead, buried, and risen with Christ?

How does that make any sense?

Here’s another verse, Rom. 8:9, in which Paul wrote, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit…” If the old man is synonymous with the flesh, then doesn’t this verse state unequivocally that you are not in your old man anymore but in the Spirit?

Charles Henry Mackintosh once wrote, “But what is Christianity? It is something entirely new — heavenly — spiritual — divine. It is based upon the cross of Christ, in the which the first man came to his end — where sin was put away — judgement borne — the old man crucified and put out of God’s sight for ever, so far as all believers are concerned. The cross closes, for faith, the history of the first man.” (From his wonderful booklet, Man of God, pg. 6).

Arno Gaebelein once wrote, “God therefore does no longer behold the believer as in Adam, but he sees him in Christ; the old man has been put to death in the death of Christ ‘that the body of sin might be annulled that henceforth we should not serve sin.’ God looks upon the believer as being dead with Christ to sin.” (In his introduction to his Romans commentary)

Exactly! How can we be dead with Christ to sin if everything we were in Adam before we were saved, which included our bondage to sin, is still alive and active inside of us?

“Ah,” some might say, “look at what Paul says right after that phrase.” Okay. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Does this not mean that the old man is somehow synonymous with the flesh? Absolutely not. This verse makes a distinction between the old man and the flesh. The old man is crucified, but the body of flesh still lives. We’ve only been thoroughly transformed spiritually whereas the physical body still remains.

The only thing left to complete our salvation is the death of our corrupted bodies, because everything about us spiritually has been transformed to make us as righteous as Christ. We would not be as righteous as Christ if our old natures, all that we were in Adam in utter bondage to sin in the flesh, were still alive in us. The reason Paul says “that henceforth we should not serve sin” is because THE OLD MAN IS DEAD!

His death made us free from the bondage of sin in the flesh!

[This was an excerpt from Joel’s book Empowered by His Grace.]

Life can be messy, and often it is through suffering that we learn and grow the most. It is much like developmental maturity from a baby to an adult. We learn some things, try to apply it, like a toddler trying to walk, experiencing problems and mistakes, but also do some things right in order to grow. Spiritual maturation happens as we acquire wisdom and then apply it. It can be hard or uncomfortable. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God Forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein.” (Rom. 6:1-2) God desires for us to be humble and grow through difficulties to be conformed to the image of Christ. (Rom. 8:29)

Philippians 2:12-13 teaches us that it is a spiritual workout, exercising the doctrine in our lives, becoming stronger to be more able to negotiate the challenges we face as women. Sometimes life is exceedingly difficult, pushing us past what we ever thought we could endure, even as Paul realized in II Corinthians 1:8-9. Yet, the Godhead is in us, enabling us to “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” We are not able to do this on our own, nor by trying hard to be a good Christian: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13) Developing the mind of Christ doesn’t happen automatically, but we’re to make time to read, study, meditate upon, and apply the Scriptures each day. This enables us to learn what to do, how, and what to avoid. Grace teaches us to live out each role and situation: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.” (Titus 2:11-12) This transforming power works as we choose to exalt and apply it even when our flesh balks. Growth is dependent upon our believing the verses, then choosing to yield, letting the doctrine by the Spirit to lead: “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” (I Thess. 2:13) So then, we have responsibility to stay in the Word, believe, dwell upon it, and manifest Christ’s life.

Think on This: Dear ladies, even suffering and tribulation can work for us as we walk by faith in each situation. God’s grace is our way of life and thinking that empowers and transforms us: “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (II Cor. 12:9) We are to patiently stay in sound doctrine, believe, and work it out. Getting in spiritual shape takes time and regular effort, trusting God: “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” (I Timothy 4:8) So what have you just learned that you can apply?

A lot of believers are worried that AI is going to power the Mark of the Beast. I have a different question: what makes you think AI will still exist when the Mark arrives?

I have a hot take. Are you ready?

Technology will be dead long before the Mark of the Beast is here.

We all know that the Mark of the Beast will be implemented just after the midway-point of the Tribulation, 3 ½ years, right after the Abomination of Desolation (Matt. 24:15-21, Luke 19:41-44, 21:20-24, Dan. 8:11, 9:27) and the messages of the three angels (Rev. 14:6-13) warning everyone about the mark.

By the time the antichrist gets his evil little hands in control of the one world system and implements the Mark of the Beast, God will have carried 14 judgments upon the world.

Now just think about that.

14 judgments of God before the Mark of the Beast.

We’re talking about multiple, global earthquakes (Rev. 6:12, 8:5, 11:13, 11:19, balls of fire out of Heaven (Rev. 8:5), hail that’s literally on fire mingled with blood (Rev. 8:7), not to mention all the other hail coming down (Rev. 11:19), the heavens departing as a scroll (Rev. 6:14), which I’m guessing would destroy all the satellites. The sun turns black. The moon turns blood red. The stars fall from heaven (Rev. 6:12, 8:12). All grass burns up (Rev. 8:7). A lot of trees are gone (Rev. 8:7), too. A lot of water turns to blood (Rev. 8:8, 11:6). Let’s not forget the freaky locusts with stingers getting into everything (Rev. 9:1-12), AND, last but not least, there will be 200 million fiery horses from Heaven shooting fire and brimstone out of their mouths (Rev. 9:12-21) burning this world down.

How is technology going to survive that?

Here in Florida, if we get so much as a tropical storm, my Wi-Fi is out.

Not only that, I would strongly argue that technology will be dead before we get very far into those 14 judgments. Let’s not forget that DAY ONE of the Tribulation will bring those terrifying horsemen of the apocalypse. With their arrival in Revelation 6, this world will rapidly descend into a catastrophic nightmare. The red horse brings about global wars. The black horse brings famine and economic collapse. A day’s wages will barely be able to purchase a day’s worth of food. Then Death follows, with one-fourth of the world’s population dying through war, hunger, disease, pestilence, and other issues.

How is technology going to survive all that? How are the electrical grids and the data centers going to keep running when everything is burning?

Make no mistake.

It is an impossibility that technology will survive global wars, famine, plagues, pestilence, economic collapse, death, disease, etc. Then, AFTER THAT, there are 10 more judgments from God before you even get to the Mark of the Beast.

Technology will be dead by the time we get to the Mark of the Beast.

“Okay, Joel, but don’t you think all of this technology is at least a conditioning for people to accept the Mark of the Beast when it’s implemented?”

Absolutely not.

Just think about the horsemen of the apocalypse. Starting day one of the Tribulation, this entire world will be plunged into global war, famine, pestilence, economic collapse, disease, and death on the most unimaginable scale. Civilization as we know it will be torn apart at the seams. The world will be going back to the stone ages, so to speak. No one is going to be thinking calmly. They’ll be trying to survive. They’ll be traumatized. Terrified. Overwhelmed. Hungry. Grieving. Desperate. When your world has collapsed, your economy is gone, people around you are dying, and you’re wondering where your next meal will come from, yesterday’s conditioning in your thinking will be long gone. Whatever familiarity people once had with AI, digital IDs, or cashless commerce will belong to an older world now gone. The world we know now will no longer exist.

“Okay, so, if technology will be dead, how will people get the mark?”

I’d suggest to you that the image of the beast is the answer. The mark will be demonically implemented. People will be marked by the demons.

False Prophet

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” (Rev. 13:16).

That “he” is talking about the false prophet. In vs. 15, it’s the false prophet who will have the power to give life unto the image of the beast. He is the one who establishes this global environment to worship the image of the beast, to worship the falsehood of everything the antichrist claims to be. In vs. 16, it’s the false prophet who is primarily put in charge of implementing the Mark of the Beast.

Taking the mark is more of a religious commitment than anything political or economic. By accepting that mark, that person has entered into a religious commitment to worship the image of the beast. Oh, and they’ll also be able to buy and sell. But that’s secondary. What’s primary is their commitment to worshipping the beast. 666 is a number of identification. By taking that mark of 666, those people are consciously identifying themselves with the antichrist, and by extension Satan, which then will make them the object of God’s undiluted wrath, and will doom their souls forever (Rev. 14:9-11).

“And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (Rev 13:14-15).

For me, these passages about the image of the beast is more terrifying than the Mark of the Beast. This is the ultimate dystopian nightmare. In vs. 14, the false prophet tells every one on the Earth to make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. An image is merely a representation. A little statue. A picture. A painting. An idol of some kind. What John is saying is that the false prophet will make every family / group on the planet make an image. A little wooden statue. Or print up a picture, frame it, and hang it in your house / cave. They must have some kind of representation of the beast in their possession.

Then what does vs. 15 tell us? And he (the false prophet) had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

The uncomfortable truth is that the false prophet forces everyone to create idols of the antichrist and then… the idols will come to life.

How does that work? It’s basically a demonically powered version in your home. (Kinda like Alexa except an Alexa is only slightly less evil. LOL)

Through this idol, now miraculously brought to life with demonic powers, you now have the eyes, ears, and mouth of Satan inside your home or cave or dwelling. You have the entire demonic realm observing everything you do. Everything you say. And that idol will speak to you, especially if you’re not living the way he wants you to. If you suddenly have a change of heart or if you’re sick of trying to survive in his dystopian nightmare, and you stop worshipping the beast, you will be killed by the image of the beast.

The idol itself will kill you.

Look at Rev 13:15 again. “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”

If you aren’t faithful to the beast, if you don’t worship that image every time you walk into your home or cave or whatever, if you don’t sing the praises of the antichrist every time you speak, the idol will kill you. Imagine an Alexa strapped with machine guns ready to kill you the moment you misspoke.

If the image of the beast can demonically come to life, talk to you, and kill you, then the image of the beast can also demonically give you the Mark of the Beast.

The Mark doesn’t need AI. The image doesn’t need electricity. Satan doesn’t need a data center. And God doesn’t need Silicon Valley to fulfill His prophesies.

Read more about the End of the World here.

Do you desire to attain and live the mind of Christ in whatever life situation you find yourself? It can become a part of how you view life, problems, and especially affect how you see yourself as a unique and important part of the Body. We are intimately connected and a member perfectly created by God for a purpose. As we see ourselves valued and vital to the whole as God sees us, we also see that we are no better than others, and have similar strongholds and challenges, but also have received a multitude of provisions through Christ. As we appreciate these more and more and realize God’s love for us and what He has and is doing for us through Christ, we become aware of His deep love for others. We are to grow to love them as ourselves and finally, above ourselves.

To Do: Purpose to regularly pray for yourself and others, read the Word, study, meditate, and prepare your heart to apply God’s love in faith. “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” (Colossians 3:23) Regularly reflect upon your attitude and what you are thinking and doing, and why. Assess the things that need to be adjusted and prayerfully walk them out. Once these things are in place, which is spiritual self-care, you will be prepared for your day and the unexpected circumstances that pop up from time to time. Verses will often come to mind from your quiet time. Consider discussing this with your husband and ask for his suggestions. Ideally, you can agree to do this together and regularly hold each other accountable, encouraging one another.

What does Biblical Headship look like?

For some, I suspect the word headship only brings to mind the idea of supreme authority. Right? The man is the head. So he’s in charge, and he gets to make all the final decisions about everything.

Except for the fact that when Paul describes headship in Ephesians 5, he flips everything we think we know about headship on its head.

So what does Biblical Headship look like? It looks like Christ Himslef. “For the husband is the head of the wife, EVEN AS Christ is the head of the church…” (Eph. 5:23). “Even as” changes everything. If a husband wants to understand what it means to be the head of his wife, he is expected to look at Christ and follow His example. He is to literally be Christlike in his role as a husband – humble, self-giving, servant-oriented, and deeply loving in a sacrificial way.

A Biblical Head loves.

A Biblical Head sanctifies.

A Biblical Head nourishes and cherishes.

In other words, headship is not primarily about all the authority a husband has being in that position. Headship is truly about what he gives to his wife and to his family because of he is in that position. The one and only model for headship is nothing less than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Let’s explore the 3 major characteristics of Biblical Headship.

1) Headship = Love

Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

The primary defining characteristic of biblical headship, according to Eph. 5:25, is love. Not just any kind love but the kind of selfless, sacrificial love that was have seen in Christ. Everything about biblical headship flows out of this principle: “Husbands, love your wives.” “Love” here is agape in the Greek — a settled disposition of the heart that consistently seeks the good of another. Paul doesn’t leave us wondering what that love should look like. He gives us the supreme example: “even as Christ also loved the church.” Christ’s love was active, deliberate, selfless, sacrificial, and giving. He gave himself for us. That means a husband’s model for headship isn’t his father, his grandfather, or anyone else. His model is Christ and Christ alone. 1 Cor. 13 helps us understand the nature of love that defines headship. This is agape love. This is a love that suffers long, is kind, does not envy or exalt itself, seeks not its own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, rejoices in the truth, bears, hopes, and endures. Applied to marriage, that means a Biblical Head uses his strength, his time, his resources, knowledge, and position for the good of his wife. He is patient with her weaknesses. He rejoices when she flourishes. He bears burdens with her, treats her graciously, seeks her welfare above his own convenience, and keeps loving through changing circumstances of life. The big point here is that husbands are to mirror Christ’s mindset of self-giving love. Biblical Headship, then, is measured by how much of himself he is willing to give for the good of his wife.

So, husbands, ask yourselves: Does my wife experience the love of Christ in the way I treat her? Am I using my strength, time, knowledge, and resources for her good? When she struggles, am I patient? When she succeeds, do I rejoice? When life gets heavy, do I help carry the weight? Does she receive the best of my graciousness — or merely what is left over after I’ve given my best to everyone else at work? And more importantly, are you asking yourself, “What am I getting from my wife?” or are you asking, “What can I give for her good?”

2) A Head Sanctifies

Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, Eph 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Eph 5:28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

Paul takes the picture of Biblical Headship another step in here Eph. 5:26–27. Christ “loved the church, and gave himself for it,” and His self-giving love has a purpose: “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church.” There is a beautiful progression in Paul’s thought: Christ loves the Church. Christ gives Himself for the Church. Christ sanctifies and cleanses the Church, and ultimately, Christ presents the Church to Himself in a glorious state without flaws. His love is never passive. His love is never aimless, or feelings only — His love actively seeks the highest good of the object of His love. To sanctify means to set apart, and Christ has set apart the members of His Body for Himself. Through the Word, of course, He renews our minds and transforms our walk so that our lives increasingly reflect what God has already made us in Christ. Ultimately, at the Rapture, Christ will present His Body to Himself “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” It’s not like we can do all these things Christ does. But what Paul is showing us is the mindset of the Head that we are to embody as husbands. Christ’s love is constructive. His love builds, cleanses, strengthens, and seeks the flourishing of His Body. Likewise, a husband who models Christlike headship should desire to create a safe environment of grace, truth, love, and encouragement in which his wife can flourish spiritually. He doesn’t look at her imperfections and whine and complain about it. He seeks her good. He wants to see her strong in grace, to see her established in the Word, confident in who God has made her in Christ, and flourishing into everything God created her to be. Biblical Headship, therefore, is more than self-giving love. Ephesians 5:26–27 takes all of this one step further: this is a self-giving love that seeks the highest good of the one who is loved.

So, husbands, ask yourselves: Is my wife spiritually strengthened because I am in her life? Do my words build her up or tear her down? Does my leadership encourage her or frustrate her? Am I helping create a home where she can flourish in grace and in the truth of who God has made her in Christ? Am I more concerned about getting the respect I think I deserve — or about giving her what she needs to thrive? How can I use my strength, time, knowledge, resources, words, and influence for her good? Is she blessed because I’m in her life?

3) A Head Nourishes and Cherishes

Eph 5:29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

And here Paul brings biblical headship into the everyday nitty gritty of life. Verse 25 gave us the standard of a husband’s love — “even as Christ also loved the church” — but verse 28 gives us the logic behind that love: “as their own bodies.” A husband and wife are not two independent individuals protecting competing interests. God has joined them together as one flesh. That means her good is his good. Her welfare is his welfare, and what affects her ought to matter deeply to him. If he tears her down, he damages the union of which he is a part. If he strengthens her, he strengthens that union. Paul then makes this intensely practical by pointing to the way we naturally care for our own bodies. We “nourish” and “cherish” them. To nourish carries the idea of sustained provision and care that promotes health, growth, and well-being. It means giving yourself in a thousand ordinary ways — asking what she needs, helping carry burdens, providing support, giving your time and attention, and looking for ways to strengthen her. To cherish is to deepen the nourishment. This is tenderness, warmth, affection, and gentleness. Perhaps we could distinguish the two this way: to nourish is to provide what she needs; to cherish is to give her the warmth of your love while you’re providing it. A husband can technically provide for his wife while still being cold, distant, and dismissive, but that is not Paul’s picture of Christlike headship. Biblical Headship brings together provision and tenderness, responsibility and affection, strength and gentleness. And again, Paul raises the standard beyond what seems right in our own eyes. He says, “even as the Lord the church.” Christ loves His Body, gives Himself for His Body, sanctifies His Body, and now Paul tells us that He nourishes and cherishes His Body. Paul spends no time describing what the Head can demand from the Body. He spends all his time describing what the Head does for the Body. That is biblical headship—using your strength, time, resources, knowledge, affection, and ultimately yourself to nourish and cherish the woman you are joined to as one flesh.

Christ nourishes and cherishes the Church because “we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” We are one with Christ. We are part of His Body. Paul uses the Head-and-Body relationship of Christ and the Church as the pattern for marriage. Christ does not treat His Body as something separate from Himself. Because we are members of His Body, He loves, nourishes, and cherishes us. Likewise, a husband should not view his wife as an independent person whose interests compete with his own. They are joined together as one flesh by God’s design. As Christ the Head cares for the Body that is one with Him, the husband as head lovingly cares for the wife who is one with him.

So, husbands, ask yourselves: Do I see her burdens as her problems, or do I recognize that what affects her matters to me because we are one flesh? Am I nourishing her through a million ordinary opportunities every day to give my time, attention, patience, and strength? Am I merely providing for her, or am I cherishing her while I provide? Does she experience warmth, tenderness, graciousness, and affection from me? Does my strength make her feel secure or small? Perhaps most importantly, does my wife experience my headship as nourishing and cherishing care? Is she stronger, more encouraged, and better because I am in her life?

If you’re a husband and that doesn’t convict you – you’re dead inside. LOL

Guilt today is a feeling that just needs to be managed. A mistake to be corrected. Feel bad enough, apologize, adjust, move on — and if you don’t feel bad, as far as most people are concerned, there’s nothing left to discuss. That’s not what condemnation is before God.

By definition, condemnation is the judicial act of declaring one guilty and dooming him to punishment. It’s the state of being condemned. You are tried, the verdict has been dealt, the sentence has been given, and there is a declaration of guilty appropriate to the crime. And yet condemnation is often treated by the one who is actually condemned as if it’s a neutral thing — not a verdict already rendered, already enforced, but just a risk maybe hanging over the head. That is not what Scripture says. It’s not what it says at all.

Paul isn’t describing a gradual accumulation of guilt through personal sins, even though there is that too. He’s describing a judicial verdict rendered through one man’s offense that extends to all men legally with him. So you don’t become condemned. You’re born it. That’s what you inherit from Adam. Condemnation is what you stand under. What you stand under is sin itself.

We first took a look at the issue of abomination, the issue of our uncleanness — that has to do with our identity being unclean, and therefore the works produced from that uncleanness being unclean too. Condemnation is the legal shape of that same identity. So we’re going to look at four things: what condemnation means, by definition, and then three features regarding our condemnation in Adam — what it means to be under sin, what the wages of sin are, and what it means to be guilty before God.

Under Sin

Come with me to Romans 3:9, a few chapters back. Are we better than they, Paul asks — Jew better than Gentile? “No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.” Under is the state of subjection, the state of being under control, governed and ruled by. Paul has spent two and a half chapters proving Jew and Gentile alike in this condition — not that individuals sin occasionally, but that both categories of humanity, without exception, live under sin’s jurisdiction. Galatians 3:22 confirms it in sharper terms still: “The scripture hath concluded all under sin.” Mankind confined, with no exit, no escape, no excuse. Every man in Adam already inside sin’s jurisdiction, and therefore already inside its condemned state — not awaiting judgment, but already under it. Jurisdiction does not ask your opinion of its laws. It only asks whether you are standing inside its borders, and by birth you already are.

Grace Multiplies What Adam Multiplied

Here’s what makes this doctrine, grim as it is, precious rather than merely heavy. Romans 5:16 draws a contrast most people rush past: “The judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.” One offense brought condemnation. But the free gift addresses many offenses — not just Adam’s, but every one that followed him. Grace mathematics works this way: if Christ dies for Adam’s one sin, and one more, grace is already twice as powerful as what Adam brought in. If He dies for ten sins, it’s ten times as powerful. Do the math on a lifetime of sins and you start to see why this still brings me to tears every time I sit with it. It doesn’t mean He wants you to sin — God forbid. But when you start questioning your salvation over your own sin, remember the math. You never measured your standing by your record to begin with. Why start now?

The Wages of Sin

To add to all of that, you have the wages of sin. Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Sin’s payment isn’t a threat hanging over the guilty. It’s a wage already earned, the way any laborer is owed for service rendered. And a wage is not a one-time strike — it’s an ongoing payment for what’s been done, measured out, not just simply declared. Romans 2:5 shows the bill still growing: “After thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath.” Not freedom. Not grace. Not mercy. Not escape or excuse, leniency or clemency. Just wrath.

I was reading a book by a man named George Swinnock once, and in it he gave one of the most graphic descriptions I’ve found of the wages of sin. I remember reading it one night and it brought me to tears — Lord, don’t let me lose this sight of Your judgment, in which I would not open my mouth to proclaim the gospel as the remedy. He pictures a soul at the very moment of death, still reckoning, too late, with everything it had refused to reckon with before:

“Now your soul stands quivering upon your pale lips, ready to take its flight to its eternal home. You see devils, like so many ravening and roaring lions, looking and longing, for you—their prey. Your past sins trouble you. Oh, how you curse your pastimes and pleasures, your companions and possessions, which stole away your time and affections and hindered your preparation for such a dreadful hour! . . . Now, my day is past, my soul is lost, heaven’s gate is shut. Woe, it is too late! The blessed God, in whose favor is life, to whom I said, ‘Depart from me,’ has now fixed my doom to depart from Him forever.”1

Swinnock doesn’t let the picture end there. He goes on to describe a misery with no end date to imagine, no arithmetic that makes it bearable — a mind still fully alive, but permanently cut off from anything that could be called living, endlessly arriving at a death it can never finish dying. That’s what awaits man apart from Christ. And a wage is not a threat. It’s a receipt that is already written, just waiting now to be collected. Every day one lives in Adam, unrepentant, treasures up more of it.

Guilty Before God

And finally, we’re guilty before God. Romans 3:19: “That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Guiltiness needs to be understood two ways. There’s the feeling of guilt, which a person can have or not have. And there’s the legal standing, which doesn’t move either way. There might be someone before a judge who truly doesn’t think what they did was wrong, and yet the verdict and the sentence have already been passed, whether they feel guilty or not. Guilt today in our world is a feeling that just needs to be managed, a mistake to be corrected. But it’s a legal standing before God to be known, not something received because you feel guilty or not. The Word says it, and the law was given so that you would know that you are. And it isn’t partial — one point of failure implicates you under the whole law, because the One who made all the laws is God, and if you offend Him at one point, you offend Him at every point. Every mouth may be stopped. Not a partial stop, and not only a select group. Every mouth stops.

Two Ways to Get This Wrong

Condemnation is a legal problem, but it’s a legal problem before God that has a solution. When there’s a misunderstanding of condemnation, it can produce one of two errors: a false security — I’m not that bad — or a crushing despair with no remedy in view — I could never be forgiven. But when it’s rightly understood, it presses you toward the only place where grace and mercy and forgiveness can actually be found. As grim as it is, harsh as it is, once you can’t take either of those two erroneous positions, you’re left only with Jesus Christ.

To the One Still in Adam

Everything we’ve discussed — under sin, wages earned, guilty before God — traces back to one thread: Adam. You’re not on trial. The trial is over. The verdict was rendered the moment you were born in Adam, and every day since has just been you adding to the bill. You have likely been treating your standing before God as an open question — something still to be decided, still up for negotiation, still dependent on how the rest of your life goes. And yet it isn’t open. It’s closed. The verdict is already in. The only remaining question is whether you’ll hear it from God now, on the terms of mercy, or later, on the terms of justice. There’s only one way this verdict changes — not by good behavior improving your case, not by time reducing the debt, but by believing on the One who already paid it in full. Jesus Christ bore the wages your sin earned, was condemned in your place, and rose again the third day so the verdict against you could be reversed, not ignored. If you have never believed on what Christ has done for you, today is the day to be saved.

To the One Already in Christ

This was our verdict too. It wasn’t hypothetical — it was the one we actually stood under before the grace of God appeared and we believed. The condemnation was real, the debt was real, the guilt was real, and every bit of it was paid — not waived, paid by Jesus Christ. So may we never let familiarity with the doctrine of justification dull the size of what it actually addressed. If looking at these things has only produced relief that you’re no longer under this verdict, it has only done half of its work. It should also produce a genuine, trembling gratitude. We were not almost condemned, not partially guilty. We were under the full weight of everything looked at here — and Christ absorbed it. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). I pray that the weight of this would have its ongoing work in us — not just a fear, but something that leads us to worship. Not worship only in the sense of singing songs, but the kind that transforms you, that changes your thinking, that begins to educate you and change your life.

— Josh Strelecki, Pastor-Teacher

This is the third article in a ten-part study on Union in Christ at Twin Cities Grace Fellowship. Next up: alienation — more teaching like this at beholding-christ.com.

Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

“The Law Of Sin” And “The Law Of Sin And Death:”

There are many definitions of the word “law” in the dictionary, but in looking at how the Word is used in Romans chapters 7 and 8, the word law refers to the life, the will, the way, and to ‘whom’ we will submit, and give the power and rulership unto whereby we will “serve,” and “obey,” and “walk” our lives unto it. Walking “after the flesh” is becoming of our identity as those who ‘live’ after the lifestyle of the men of this world. The flesh of men governs his decision making, he walks according to the ‘rule’ of what is the ‘norm,’ and this becomes the ‘way of life’ by those who choose to ‘live’ after their own flesh, and not after the Word of God.

These Are Examples Of Serving The Flesh: *NOTE* Paul is not talking about the obvious ‘lustful sins’ of the flesh, he already covered that in chapter 6! This ‘service’ deals with ‘who’ you are going to now be subjected unto, this is the context of chapters 6 and 7. Paul address the issue that they are “not under the Law, but under grace,” he now at that point deals with the worship and service aspects of godliness. In the verses prior Paul dealt with the truths of our being ‘made alive’ unto Him Who has quickened us “like as Christ.” And this ‘identity life’ in Christ glorifies our Lord to the glory of God, and ‘living’ unto the lusts of our flesh only glorifies our flesh, and is “fruit unto death” in the sight of God.

Religion: The tradition of men is viewed as godliness, but this is what Paul called having “confidence in the flesh,” it is worshipping God in the flesh, instead of worshipping God in the Spirit the way God intended. This type of ‘self-service’ includes things done within the local assembly which are “all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men.” This type of ungodliness is done day by day in our Churches, and the assumption is that this is the way God designed that the Saints ought to walk unto God, but they know themselves that nowhere in God’s Word of truth are we taught to serve God this way, but these things are taught by the commandments and doctrines of men (this will be the focus of the next study).

“Law In My Members” Politics, Patriotism, Racism, Vanity And ‘Self-Love:’

This type ‘life’ deals with the Saint being “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” And it by these ‘pleasures’ of the flesh that the Saints who have now repented from the sin of Adam by faith alone and are now in Christ; have not “crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” And the Saints themselves ‘carry with them’ the ‘love’ that they have had for these things of their flesh. And even though they all will say that they are not ‘given’ unto these things anymore, the moment when a situation arises concerning these things, they desire to share the opinion, they can get excited, or angry, or have the desire to ‘get involved’ in these things, these things stay on their minds, and unfortunately; in their hearts. They ‘live by’ a law of their flesh according to these things, and they place the doctrine of Jesus Christ ‘on top’ of their own life’s loves of their heart. And things like the economy, political candidates, civil injustices, disdain for other ethnic groups, burning love and desire for country.

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Rom 7:25 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.

The Law mentioned in the verses above are not referring to the “Law of Moses,” but is referring to The New Testament “according to the revelation of the mystery.” This “Law” is the doctrine of the life of the Testator Himself; it is the doctrine which is according to godliness. And as we can see in verses 22 and 25, the Law of God is designed to work within our “inward man” only, this is where we ought to understand and appreciate how God has made provision for His Saints. And that is; the life of His Saints must be ‘lived’ through their inward man only, and that is through the Law of God alone. And it is by our minds being renewed by the doctrine of the life of Christ after the Spirit, (the Word of God) that we are to be subject unto the Law of God, this is what it means to have a Spiritual mind.

Rom 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.

Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Furthermore, as we have seen, it is by the Spirit of God that we are to live unto God. And it is by our minds being renewed by His Word, this is the Spiritual mind mentioned in chapter 8, this type of “mind” can please God, and by walking according to the Spirit the Saint now has “life” in Christ by His Word, and “therefore now no condemnation” in the sight of God “in Christ.” This condemnation is a sanctification ‘death’ (separation) from the life of living the life of the Testator according to the revelation of the mystery. And it is by the living Word of God that we ought to “walk” and live according to His Word, and by walking with the Spiritual and selfless heart, we will ‘fulfil’ the Law of God. And as we can see in the verses above, fulfilling the Law of God is done by our walk “in the Spirit” with the Spiritual mind, and in the verses below, we see it is also by the selfless love of the Saints unto others. Both of these ‘works’ is what “godliness” is all about, and what the New Testament is in Christ. The Lord Himself taught this unto His disciples, and the Apostle Paul teaches us this glorious truth according to the revelation of the mystery. And this is the doctrine that Paul mentions that he himself serves with his “inward man,” and we too ought to serve after our inward man, not according to our flesh, or after the flesh of others.

Rom 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

Rom 13:9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Rom 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Rod Jones

We are unable to do this alone, but Christ in us is fully able. With this understanding, we can be led by what the Holy Spirit teaches us through the Word in how to do it: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” (Ephesians 3:20)

Patience and long suffering are fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) These qualities enable us to patiently endure in gentleness, accepting our husband’s decisions who may sometimes lack in wisdom and judgment.

Submission means to yield, defer, accept, surrender, or comply. We are always to do things unto the Lord and not for our husbands, others. or even ourselves. “…do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” (Col. 3:17) This helps us maintain a godly perspective and motivation in each situation. Oh, it is not easy but gives us the ability to focus above to be approved.

2. I need to work so our family can make ends meet, but I am missing so much time with my young children.

There are many things in this world that we desire; we always want what we think is best. Yet, the reality is there are things and situations that we need to accept and can’t control, at least for the time. As we gain patience, knowing we have grace, pray for God to adjust our mind and accept situations, make new goals, or at times, make change.

How you use the time that you do have with your children is most important. Counsel them to avoid wasting time on too much electronics or unprofitable things. Plan time wisely: in the car, before and after work, bedtime, and on the weekends or days off. Encourage discussions, or schedule special time with each child (one-to-one time to intimately connect and show your love and individual care). Plan family mini-vacations, outings, story times, projects, etc. Ask your husband and children for their ideas. Being able to discuss this and make a plan with your family can intensify the wonderful results. Be creative!

3. With having kids and our recent move, I can’t seem to find a way to make godly friends. Any suggestions?

Our responsibility is to use what we have been taught, think about the issue, and then act upon it. Pray on your desire for a while, talking to God to help you think out what you specifically want. Once your goal is clear, brainstorm in prayer ideas, and think on how to actualize them. Try some things!

A few suggestions to get started: a) Check at the clubhouse for posted activities and attend something that sparks interest. b) Post your own notice in the clubhouse or nearby community boards to invite others to a ‘Get to Know One Another’ gathering and Bible sharing. c) Take a walk through your neighborhood and introduce yourself to others. d) Go door to door with your husband or place a flyer on the outside of local mailboxes to introduce yourself or invite others to a neighborhood cookout, etc.

4. I am a stay-at-home Mom and when my husband comes home from work, he always seems cranky. What can I do?

First, it is great you noticed a pattern. Both you and your husband have needs at this point of the day. You are tired and have had responsibility for your children all day, which can be draining. However, your husband has been out in the world and had pressures and demands that can be difficult; he looks forward to coming home for a break.

While you need respite, make time to discuss the issue with him to find a plan that works for both of you to get the rest you need. Bombarding him with all the challenges you have faced and dumping your needs on him when he is tired may not be wise. Prefer him and allow him fifteen minutes to have alone time. Then, if your need is to talk or take a small break, make an agreement ahead of time to do this. Definitely set time to discuss your needs regarding the children or the day’s issues. Communication is important.

5. My husband and I are losing our closeness as we are so busy with our young children. Any suggestions?

Have a conversation with your husband about your feelings and what you’d like. Ask him to share his thoughts. Brainstorm some ways to carve out time weekly. Set one evening a week for a date night. It can be a stay-at-home activity if babysitting is a problem. Train the kids to stay in their rooms and set them up with a fun box for only these specific nights. Make a special dinner, play a game, have topical discussions, and/or take time for intimacy. Consider joining a gym to work out as some offer babysitting. Another idea is to find time once a month to go out when you can have a babysitter. Get dressed up for dinner and a movie. Take turns planning these dates. In all cases, have fun with it.

Eph 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

I think this verse is really misunderstood. Most commentaries and books will tell you that this verse is talking about the result of being filled with the Spirit. (Yes, there is truth in that — a Spirit-filled believer will naturally be like this with praise in his heart.) However, I think Paul is continuing to instruct us on things we are TO DO, as he has been doing throughout Ephesians 5.

Paul here is instructing us to sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord in order to help keep us filled with the Spirit.

Singing to God in your heart is meant to help your mind stay focused on Scripture, to help your mind stay under the influence of the Spirit.

He begins by saying, “Speaking to yourselves.” What does he mean by that exactly? Does he mean we communicate truths of Scripture when we sing songs together at church or does he mean we remind ourselves of the truths of Scripture by singing in our hearts when we’re away from church?

YES.

One source I read said, “The Greek reflexive pronoun is plural. So it carries the idea of speaking among yourselves as well as speaking in your own hearts.” So Paul is talking about grace music that’s sung collectively and it’s alive in your hearts.

There’s both a corporate and an individual application here. The church teaches itself through music. It reinforces God’s truths. It reinforces sound doctrines of grace. We, also, by listening to and singing these songs on our won are reinforcing truth and doctrines of grace to ourselves.

For a lot of Christians, worship music is all about emotionalism. Granted, people should feel emotion when they take part in songs of praise. You totally should feel emotions about songs. But music isn’t strictly about emotional experiences either. Music also serves to strengthen each of us in the truth. To reinforce truths we know. Music that keeps you in a state of gratitude to God, in a state of praise to God, that also reinforces truths of Scripture and the sound doctrines of grace. Music was always meant to be an integral part of a believer’s life.

So when he says, speaking, he’s talking about verbalizing the truth through music.

I also suspect that because we live in sin-corrupted bodies, a sin-corrupted mind left to its own devices would naturally drifts toward the dark, toward the negative, toward anxiety, discouragement, worldly thinking, and fleshly impulses. But Paul is telling us that we should intentionally speak God’s truth back to our own hearts and minds through music when we are away from church and away from our Bible studies. Instead of listening to the world’s garbage, we’re more wisely spending our time reminding ourselves of who we are in Christ through music. We have to preach grace to ourselves. Then, Paul tells us the content of that speaking to ourselves: “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”

Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

Here’s a hot take on psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Paul isn’t talking about musical styles. He’s talking about the doctrinal content in music.

Psalms

“Psalms” is certainly talking about the OT book of Psalms. Paul is endorsing those OT Psalms of David because they contain timeless principles still applicable to all of us today. We have to rightly divide a lot of those Psalms, but that doesn’t mean that it has no spiritual value to us just because it’s in the OT. Paul is clearly telling us that the Psalms are valuable to all of us. I have no doubt Paul had David’s Psalms in mind, BUT the word “Psalm” isn’t limited to just the OT book.

A psalm is simply a sacred song or hymn, and in David’s case those sacred songs were usually accompanied by stringed instruments.

I’m sure Paul had in mind the Psalms of David, but I think he also had in mind any new song in that same tradition — songs saturated with objective Biblical truth.

Hymns.

“Hymns” are songs of praise directed toward God Himself. Webster says it’s a song or ode in honor of God.

Did you know that the word hymn can be a verb? I didn’t know that. Webster gave an example. “They hymn their maker’s praise.” Who talks that way anymore?

The big point is - a hymn specifically focuses on the character, attributes, and redemptive work of God. When people hear the word hymn, they think of hymnals and a four-part vocal arrangement (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), often accompanied by an organ or piano and it’s sung collectively in church.

Is that a traditional style of music in Scripture? No. Scripture does not define a hymn by its style but by its content (direct praise focused on the Lord and filled with sound doctrine).

Ancient Hebrew and First-Century Greek music did not use the kind of 4-part harmonies we sing in church with verses and choruses. They did chants, call-and-response type music, and rhythmic repetitions.

When Jews had the Passover meal, they sang Psalm 113 & 114. That is just Hebrew poetry set to music – usually stringed instruments. That poetry would have highs and lows but there were no choruses. No bridges like we have today.

Then they’d have their meals. Then they’d sing Psalm 115 & 116. There was no song structure like we have today. Music was Hebrew poetry in which they incorporated parallelism, repetition, progression, contrast, refrains, acrostics, and responsive lines, rather than rhyme and Western meter.

Consider Psalm 136. Look at the structure:

1. Verse 1. “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good:

a. for his mercy endureth for ever.

2. O give thanks unto the God of gods:

a. for his mercy endureth for ever.

3. O give thanks to the Lord of lords:

a. for his mercy endureth for ever.”

And this keeps going on in the same repetitious style for 26 verses.

We get annoyed by modern Christian music being so dumbed down and repetitious. Yet, repetition is abundant in music in Scripture.

Repetition doesn’t necessarily mean it’s shallow either. Psalm 136 repeats the same line - for his mercy endureth for ever - 26 times. The angels in the vision in Isaiah 6 were singing “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” That was on constant repeat. The angels were doing the same thing in God’s throne room in Rev. 4 – “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” So I imagine that if the angels are singing and the way they’re singing it is so gorgeous nobody cares they’re saying the same thing over and over again. They could be singing the recipe of manna and none of us would care because the music is so overwhelmingly gorgeous.

Spiritual Songs

This is the broadest category. These are songs, often about personal experiences, that teach spiritual truth, express doctrine, encourage believers, and point toward Christ. “Spiritual” being the key word here. Paul is distinguishing the content from worldly music designed to stir fleshly emotions. The issue isn’t really musical style. The issue is whether the lyrics communicate truth - God’s truth – through personal experiences.

I wouldn’t be dogmatic about any of this but generally:

1. Psalms = Bible songs

2. Hymns = praise to God

3. Spiritual songs = personal experiences teaching truth

As far as I’m concerned, they’re all interchangeable. A hymn can be a Psalm and a Psalm can be a spiritual song, which can also be a hymn. There is no Biblical musical style. The emphasis is on lyrics / content. The emphasis is edification. The songs that do exist in Scripture aren’t even remotely similar to what we know as music today. It was Hebrew poetry with stringed instruments.

I also explored AI music and instruments in the Bible here.

Coming back to Eph. 5:19, Paul ends the verse by saying, “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” The word translated “making melody” also means, in the Greek, “to pluck the strings of an instrument.” But here Paul identifies the instrument as your heart. You are playing the strings of your heart through music. The primary instrument of songs of worship and grace isn’t a piano or an organ. It isn’t a guitar. It’s the believer’s heart. A person may sing beautifully and play something flawlessly, but if the heart isn’t engaged, it’s empty worship. It’s not fulfilling God’s purpose in you. The heart is the center of our thinking, our affections, and our will. True worship begins there.

Feel free to check out our grace songs.

Rom 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

1Th 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ

1Th 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.

Before the Lord has His day of wrath we will be caught up and saved from the tribulation, and the wrath of God against the man of sin, and all that belong to him, God has promised in His word to save us from “the wrath to come.”

9. SALVATION FROM FUNCTIONAL DEATH:

2Co 7:9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.

2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

This salvation saves ones from being functionally dead unto God, Paul goes over that doctrine in Romans 6, and 7, these saints here were beginning to think godly, and it was the doctrine working in the saints, and they were not thinking like they did earlier in the first epistle when they thought as the world does, but they were beginning to understand how to live unto God.

1Co 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Again, because of the “destruction of the flesh” this saint was functionally dead, and was “delivered” unto Satan, not spiritually, but he was given to his flesh, and to this world, and over to Satan. This is the issue of a saint being of no use to God in being what God intended for him to be “in Christ,” instead of being “alive unto God,” and “dead to sin,” this saint is following the course of this world, and Satan. This salvation is found within Romans through Philemon, we are taught how to let the word of God “work effectually” within us, and how to “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

10. OUR SALVATION FROM SUFFERINGS:

Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

The salvation explained here is our deliverance from the “sufferings of this present time.” Verse 22 says that “the whole creation” is going to experience sufferings in “this present time”, and if we are thinking Godly concerning this issue, we should understand that God never promise us a physical deliverance from our problems, but He did give us doctrine designed to work “for us” in any situation that we have, that’s why later on in the chapter Paul says “the Spirit helpeth our infirmities,” it’s the doctrine of the Holy Spirit effectually working “patience” within the saint in times of suffering, and when we let the word of God work effectually within us, we will see that the “sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

11. SALVATION FROM THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST:

2Co 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

2Co 1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

2Co 1:5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

2Co 1:6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

This suffering can only be experienced by ones that are saved members of the Body of Christ in this dispensation of Gentile grace. The sufferings of Christ can be avoided, if you are not acting like who God has made you to be “in Christ”. God has designed doctrine that will “comfort us” when we are “afflicted,” and persecuted, for the gospel’s sake. When we suffer because of opposition to the gospel that we are making known, we are taught we are not going to have a physical deliverance from this type of suffering either, the deliverance here is within our inner man, notice Paul says we have to endure the suffering, meaning you are going to have to go through it, but to understand how to let the doctrine work within us is how we get salvation from the sufferings of Christ, and our learning to “glory” in our sufferings, then we can learn to later rejoice in them.

12. THE NATIONAL SALVATION OF ISRAEL:

Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Rom 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

This salvation Paul looked forward to and said it was his “hearts desire” that Israel be saved. This is a national salvation of the nation as a whole, there were Israelites saved before in “times past,” but that was only just a remnant, but this salvation concerns the whole commonwealth of Israel.

13. THE LORD’S SALVATION BY THE FATHER:

Mar 14:33 And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;

Mar 14:34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.

Joh 12:26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

Joh 12:27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.

Heb 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Heb 5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

We know that the Lord and Savior was justified, so this could not be talking about salvation from the debt and penalty of His sins, God the Father saved Him from His soul being “troubled” in the garden before He was taken. This salvation given unto the Lord had nothing to do with the Lord being saved from the debt and penalty of sins against him this has to do with the Lord being saved because his soul was troubled and his soul was troubled because he was going to leave his friends in whom he “loved unto the end,” this is where he needed this salvation. Notice it says prayers and supplications and strong crying and tears, he was getting ready to leave his friends and was exceeding sorrowful.

Now we are going to take a look at Israel’s justification and see if they were justified unto eternal life by faith alone, or by faith plus their works.

Luk 23:35 And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.

Luk 23:39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

Luk 23:40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?

Luk 23:41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.

Luk 23:42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

Luk 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

The first thing that I want to point out is that in verse , there are two different type of salvations spoken of in the verse, and when you come down to verse 39 the one criminal wanted a physical salvation, but the other wanted salvation from the debt and penalty of his sins, the thief was justified by his faith alone without any works at all.

Luk 18:9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

Luk 18:10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

Luk 18:12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

Luk 18:13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

Luk 18:14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

The Pharisee was not justified in God’s sight, that’s why he prayed “with himself,” his prayers were not heard by God, he said all the works that he done, and he worked faithfully in the works, but God’s requirement for justifying a soul is based upon what the publican displayed; faith, and faith alone. Just like the thief on the cross, the publican understood the need for salvation from the debt and penalty of his sins, and they knew it would only come by faith and faith alone.

Mat 19:16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?

Mat 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

Mat 19:18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,

Mat 19:19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Mat 19:20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

Mat 19:21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

Mat 19:22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

Mat 19:23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 19:24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Mat 19:25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

Mat 19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

Mat 19:27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?

Mat 19:28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Mat 19:29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

Mat 19:30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

Joh 6:46 Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

Joh 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

Joh 6:48 I am that bread of life.

The rich man wanted to know what “good thing” he could “do” to have eternal life, Jesus told him to “keep the commandments”, notice in verses 18 and 19 Jesus does not mention “thou shalt not covet,” He knew the rich man placed his faith in his works, and his riches. As we went over earlier, the law never justified anyone, it pointed out the need for a Savior, and what Jesus Christ should have heard from the rich man was his inability to keep the law, and his need for salvation in this type of sanctification. If the rich man had done what the Apostle’s had done; which was gave up all they had, he would have been faithful by trusting in Jesus as being that Christ. By “forsaking all” this saint is taking God by His word and trusting that in the kingdom “all things will be added unto” him. Jesus had said earlier in John 6:47 how the Jew would have “everlasting life” and that was by faith alone. Jesus was letting this rich man know that if he wanted to “do” something to have eternal life other than just trust in Him, he would have to “keep the commandments” and we all know how many have been able to do that.

Rom 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Rom 3:25 Whom God hath 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;

Rom 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Rom 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

Rom 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Rom 3:29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

Rom 3:30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

Rom 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Paul says in verse 27, “where is boasting then,” then he says it is “excluded,” well we all know that is true with our justification, we know that the only way there is boasting is if you do any type of work for salvation, but this is the important part; Paul says, “by what law,” the law he is talking about is the legal way that God justifies. God’s law for justification is by faith alone, so to say that God has ever justified any man (Jew or Gentile) by faith plus works, or by works at any time would slander the justice and the character of God, that’s why Paul says in verse 29 “is he the God of the Jews only?” What he is saying is that it should be plainly clear that if God justified Israel by faith alone, the only way that we don’t have that same type of righteousness, is that it would have to be TWO GODS. The “law of faith” is the same as it always has been, by faith, the messages given in each program was different, but the way “the man” was to respond to what God said was by faith alone.

Rom 4:1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

Rom 4:2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

Rom 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Rom 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

Rom 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Rom 4:6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

Rom 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Rom 4:8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

Rom 4:9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

Rom 4:10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

Rom 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

Paul says that Abraham was justified by faith alone, and this was while he was uncircumcised. David explained how that “the man” (all mankind) is blessed by having the righteousness of God without works. He says, “cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only;” in other words, it should be plainly clear that in times past “the man” was justified by faith alone. In time past this “blessedness” belonged to Israel only, Paul is confirming our justification by the “blessedness” of Israel, by saying that we too have the righteousness of God by faith alone. Abraham is our example how God justified “the man” in both programs.

Gen 15:5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

Gen 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

Gal 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

Paul again uses the verse from Habakkuk 2:4 when he says how a just man shall have eternal life. Israel had a ‘sanctification life’ to complement their salvation from God that consisted of them being justified by faith in the eyes of God and they had a justification in the eyes of men showing they were “a friend of God,” and worthy to be called a Holy nation, and a kingdom of priests.

Jas 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

Jas 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Jas 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

Jas 2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

Jas 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Jas 2:24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

When we stand before the Lord in that day, we are not going to be judged based upon our sins unto eternal life, that will not be the issue, we will be judged by our service in the doctrine, and if our justification is all that we have, then our reward will not be as great as it should be. The same is also true with Israel, in that kingdom faith alone won’t qualify an Israelite to be what God called for him to be. Having only faith will get him into that kingdom, but he would be the “least” in a kingdom of priests.

Mat 19:29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

Mat 19:30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

Justification unto eternal life was not be all that God desired the saint to have in that day, James chapter two goes over Israel’s justification in the eyes of men as a friend of God, not their justification unto eternal life. Israel has a salvation for each of the 5 mandates of the Lord. There is a salvation that is associated with Him being the Redeemer, the Deliverer, the Avenger, the King, and the Blesser. When we read in the Old Testament, we see verses that will say if a Jew were to sin his soul would be “cut off” from his people, these are also verses that are misunderstood. Whenever we come across the words “that soul shall be cut off from among his people,” we will see that the LORD is giving Israel covenants, commands, or any other ‘do’s and don’ts,’ this is to show them their inability to keep those commands, and their need to fall upon His Jehovah-ness grace and mercy. Also, these commands condemned unbelieving Israel and made them worthy of wrath in that day of wrath. Solomon went after strange gods, and built abominations unto them throughout Israel, but he was a justified saint just the same. Israel’s sacrifices were for an outer man cleansing, not for the inner man. Israel’s prescription for cleansing was not only just to have faith unto eternal life, but baptisms also were part of the prescription for cleansing; these are the three baptisms’ that John the Baptist preached to Israel.

Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Mar 16:16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Mar 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

Mar 16:18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Here you have an example of Israel’s salvation package deal, in verse 16 the Lord says “he that believeth,” now there is the justification, and the baptism is for the cleansing as a holy nation, by preaching to “all nations,” the gentile world would know Israel as a “friend of God,” and the things that are in verses 17 and 18 are their salvations out there in the Lord’s day of wrath. Israel is going to need all the salvations out there in that day because of Satan’s attempt to wipe the nation out, and this is because Israel will be in the 5^th installment of the 5 courses of punishment.

Act 3:17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.

Act 3:18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.

Act 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Act 3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

Act 3:21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

When Peter preached to the crowd of unsaved Israelites in Acts 2 through 3, he explained that if they “repent” for crucifying the Lord, then they could have their sins “blotted out” at THAT TIME, rather than in that day when the Lord comes to be the Avenger, and judge these men worthy of wrath, as well as their fathers. All these men had to do was believe that Jesus was the Christ, and trust in that, and their sins would have been “blotted out,” by their faith alone.

Act 15:7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

Act 15:8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;

Act 15:9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

Act 15:10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

Act 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

Peter tells the saved remnant about the grace given to the Gentiles, and he says that God “put no difference” between Israel and us. Peter says that God purifies the Gentile’s heart the same way as he purifies an Israelites heart; by faith and faith alone. In verse 11 Peter says that they believe the same way the Gentiles believe that God is saving both Jew and Gentile the same, and He is putting no difference between them. The messages have been different throughout time, but the “law of faith” is the same as it has always been, by “the man” placing his faith in what God said to him at that time. What we need to understand is that the only way Matthew though Acts chapter 8 can be understood is by having a full understanding of what is going on in Genesis through Malachi, and the only way you can understand Hebrews through Revelation is if you fully understand Israel’s program as it is proclaimed from Genesis through Acts 8. There are many more verses that could be looked at, like verses in the Psalms that shows different salvations, and verses like “he that endure to the end shall be saved,” but I hope this study has been useful in understanding the different salvations, and justifications, as well as Israel’s.

Rod Jones