The Deity of Jesus Christ is of necessity; otherwise, humankind is destined to death in Hell.Jesus entered Time through the womb of a virgin woman to circumvent the sin-nature passed through Adam’s genome (Romans 5:12) so that He could provide blood atonement for your sin (Leviticus 17:11) and offer you His perfection, His sinlessness, imputed into your life in exchange for your sin IF you will simply believe that He is Lord who died for you to pay your sin-debt (Romans 10:9-10; John 3:16-18; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Genesis 3:21).
No ordinary “man” could die for you and provide you the opportunity to live forever with God; no ordinary flesh can pay your sin-debt because mankind is sinful by nature (Romans 3:23; Romans 7:14+) and God the Father and the Law requires absolute perfection in order to attain righteousness through that Law (James 2:10; Galatians 3:10; Romans 3:20) and ONLY Jesus Christ was/is capable of perfection as Jesus is Elohim manifest in flesh to destroy the works of the Devil for you (1 John 3:8b).
Law Keeper quotes Mark 16:16 suggesting that “faith alone” is insufficient for salvation. Is this true?
Christian response,
First, the last chapter of Mark is not considered inspired text and you’ll find a bracket around these words noting that point but if you desire to use Mark 16:16 as a text for the heresy of a works salvation, let’s do that; what does the text say; unfortunately, you only quoted the portion that under girds your false doctrine.
“16 The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned.” Mark 16:16 (NASB)
Part “a” of Mark 16:16 clearly states that “the one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved.” IT DOES NOT SAY that the one who is “baptized” will be saved; you’re reading into the text something that is not there. The key to salvation is “belief” and not baptism as underscored by overwhelming Scripture relevant to salvation in the New Covenant.Part “b” of Mark 16:16 states “but the one who has not believed will be condemned.” It is true that the one who “believes” and is baptized will be saved but it is also true in accordance with OVERWHELMING evidence from Scripture that the one who “believes” will be saved without any form of baptism just as the one who does not believe is condemned void any form of baptism.
You run afoul of God’s grace when you believe that self-righteousness has anything to do with your salvation and you run afoul of God’s omnipotence when you suggest that you must somehow supplement the work of Jesus on the Cross to pay for your own sin – this is blasphemy. Adam attempted this very thing by covering his sin and shame with fig leaves but Elohim rejected Adam’s work and shed innocent blood to clothe Adam and Eve in a robe of imputed righteousness…God HIMSELF did the work (Genesis 3:21; 2 Corinthians 5:21) In like manner, Jesus Christ is wholly SUFFICIENT in and of Himself to pay for your sin by “FAITH” in HIM alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). You insult the Gospel of Jesus Christ when you think human effort plays a role in supplementing the suffering and blood shed of Jesus Christ for your atonement.
Are works important?
Are works important in the Christian’s life? YES, it is the obedience, love, faithfulness, to the indwelling Holy Spirit during sanctification, the Spirit having been given the faithful SUBSEQUENT to having established covenant relationship with the Father, that validates one’s saving faith as authentic. It is the behavior, the NEW CREATION in Jesus SUBSEQUENT to salvation that verifies one’s faith as SAVING FAITH but works, including the work of baptism, can NEVER supplant faith or make you “more” saved than what simple and pure faith in Jesus as Lord believing that Jesus died for you will provide. Also, YES, every believer in Jesus Christ should be baptized as commanded (Matthew 28:19-20).
Are you antichrist; Are you perishing in sin through unbelief?
One can come to the Father with partial knowledge of what Jesus has done for them at Golgotha and find righteousness and covenant relationship with the Father through faith but once covenant relationship is established and the Holy Spirit indwells the faithful as the Guarantor of that relationship (Ephesians 1:13-14), the Spirit will increase the wisdom and knowledge of God’s faithful via sanctification (1 John 2:27) and they WILL KNOW with certainty that Jesus is God and it is this knowledge that differentiates the true Christian from every religion, sect, cult, existing in the World.
If you don’t know or if you fail to see Jesus as God, you remain in your sin (John 8:24)…you do NOT have covenant relationship with the Father and you are NOT HIS! You are antichrist and you are a servant of the Devil knowingly or unknowingly irrespective of heritage, family, creed or color (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Jesus Christ is God Incarnate via the Hypostatic Union…
Jesus repeatedly tells you that He is God through words and deeds and the Jews murdered Him via the Roman authorities for this proclamation. It is the one who has been born again by the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus as Lord (John 3), Messiah, that understands and acknowledges the necessity for Messiah’s deity because the Spirit teaches this truism (1 John 2:27) and it is the mark of the Christian knowing that Jesus is God (Matthew 16:16) and it is the one primary differentiation between the true Christian and every religion, sect, cult, of the World.
Every true Christian knows and acknowledges that Jesus is God, Creator, Messiah, Judge, because the Holy Spirit teaches this through sanctification. If you deny Jesus as God you do not possess the Holy Spirit and if you’re absent the Spirit, you’re absent covenant relationship with the Father (Ephesians 1:13-14) and if you’re absent covenant relationship with the Father by faith in Jesus as Lord, you remain in your sins (John 8:24).
Is it legalistic to keep the Sabbath Holy as a Christian? – No…but…
If you desire to keep the Law to honor Jesus Christ, the Father, the Holy Spirit and if you desire to keep the Sabbath ceremonial edict because the Holy Spirit given you as Guarantor of relationship with the Father by faith in Jesus (Ephesians 1:13-14) has moved you to honor the Sabbath…if these things bring you “peace” in your relationship with God, by all means, observe them…BUT…do not allow yourself by demonic influence to progressively believe that what your “doing” to honor the Father somehow makes you righteous and acceptable to the Father by supplementing the work of Jesus at Golgotha as atonement for your sin.
Beware of Jewish, Christian cultic, legalistic apostasy,
This is the eternal error of far too many “Messianic Jews” who live with one-foot in the Law and one-foot in Grace by Faith in Yeshua. They simply cannot bring themselves to trust in the SIMPLICITY of the Gospel message that God became flesh; entered Time through the womb of a virgin young woman; lived in perfect righteousness by fulfilling the moral requirements of the Law; then walked to the horrors of a Roman Crucifixion and shed His blood as atonement for our sin and access to that atonement granted by “faith alone.”
Be careful of the sin of the Galatian Jews that you don’t spurn the Gift of God accessed by faith, alone, for works of self-righteousness thereby making yourself unworthy of God’s grace in Jesus Christ-Yeshua (Ephesians 2:8-9). There is no peace with God when man seeks works of self-righteousness to supplement the eternally sufficient work of the Son, Jesus Christ, at Golgotha. Messiah’s atoning work upon the Cross is eternally sufficient to atone for your sin (John 14:6). Your works of righteousness SUBSEQUENT to faith in Jesus, alone, simply authenticate your faith as true but works can NEVER supplant saving faith as true faith is essential to establish covenant relationship with the Father (John 3:16-18).
To those who seek to disparage the veracity, accuracy, the Truth, of the Canon of Scripture.
There are very few minor, irrelevant, translation errors by scribes that have crept into the manuscripts over the years and it is the original manuscripts – the Autographs – that are absolutely perfect in their construction but know this… the very same God who created the Heavens and the Earth is, through His omnipotence, perfectly capable of providing you with the EXACT words He desires you have so that you can know Him personally; love Him intimately, live with Him eternally…you can rest assured that the Canon of Scripture before you is our God’s will for your life; therefore, read it with confidence and turn away from those who have no faith in God and seek to disparage His words as they have chosen to serve the Devil, place doubt in your mind, and seek your destruction in the “second death” in Perdition.
Concerning the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant and a foreshadowing of Messiah’s atonement, Leviticus 16, 11 “Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. 14 He is to take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover.15 “He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. 16 In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been.”
The fulfillment of all the Mercy Seat and Day of Atonement foreshadowed,
11 But Mary was standing outside the tomb, weeping; so as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb; 12 and she *saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 And they *said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She *said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they put Him.” (Gospel of John, Chapter 20)
Overview, Mary observed the blood of Messiah staining the stone upon which His body has been laid along with the two-angels, one sitting at the feet…one at the head of the actual mercy seat foreshadowed by the Ark of the Covenant. Jesus, alone, is our atonement for the sin of the whole World (1 John 2:2).
The Ark of the Covenant foreshadowed Messiah Jesus,
The Mercy Seat represented Messiah’s atoning blood sacrifice.
The pot of manna within the Ark represented that Messiah would be Bread of Life (John 6:35).
Aaron’s rod within the Ark that was a dead-stick but budded to life represented the death and resurrection of Messiah.
The Tablets of Stone, the Commandments, within the Ark represented that the Messiah would be the fulfillment of God’s Law and that God’s Law representing God’s holiness and righteousness would be integral within Messiah as the Son of God and the Son of man.
A Woman’s Innate DESIRE to control her husband. It’s Genesis!
The woman is under the curse of Eden and it is her innate desire is to “rule” over her husband but this desire is more often than not thwarted by testosterone creating stress and dissension between the male and female. It’s genetics, it’s in her genes, resulting from the disobedience of the first husband and wife, our first dad and mom.
Elohim commanded,
16 To the woman He said,“I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you shall deliver children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”Genesis 3:16 (NASB)
We’re all sinners (Romans 3:23) in need of forgiveness by faith in Jesus as our Lord. Those who trust in Jesus receive the righteousness, the perfection, the sinlessness, of Jesus Christ imputed into their lives and are declared “not guilty” by the Father (Romans 10:9-10; John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21). These will live with God eternally before and subsequent the resurrection of the righteous (2 Corinthians 5:8; John 11:25; John 5:29; John 11:25).
Those who reject Jesus Christ as Lord – Messiah and reject His atonement for sin, these will “die in their sin” (John 8:24) and they will not be permitted to enter the Kingdom of God where nothing impure is permitted (Revelation 21:27); therefore, ultimately, subsequent to the resurrection of the condemned (John 5:29) and the Judgment of the Condemned (Revelation 20:11-15), those who have rejected the atonement for sin offered ONLY by faith in Jesus as Lord, these will die the “second death” in Hell and cease all existence and remembrance throughout eternity (Revelation 21:8).
Torah provides ZERO atonement for your sin as it only defines your culpability before God but provides no path to covenant relationship (Romans 3:20).Torah is a “curse” upon the one seeking to establish covenant relationship with God through obedience to it as the Torah mandates perfection in word, thought, deed (James 2:10; Galatians 3:10; Deuteronomy 27:26) yet mankind is sinful by nature (Romans 3:23) and under the condemnation of sin and death; therefore, the Torah provides no path to an eternal covenant with God (Romans 8; Romans 3:20).
Torah – a reiteration/codification of moral law,
Torah’s moral law is nothing new or novel as the moral law of conscience (Romans 2:15) has been extant subsequent to the creation of the angels as moral law/conscience are the arbiter of free will; free will being essential for covenant relationship with God.
The moral law is essential as it…
1) acts as a bulwark against unrestrained narcissism thereby ensuring survivability of human kind from self-destruction.
2) acts as a vessel through which God’s judgment for sin could manifest with equity and due process. Note that the moral law was extant throughout the Adamic and Noahic generations as God judged the World in accordance with the moral law and destroyed same by water save eight.
3) acts as an arbiter of free will. It is the moral law and the conscience that are the arbiter of free will.
Concerning necessary blood atonement,
11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’ Leviticus 17:11 (NASB)
The only atonement for the sin of mankind is the innocent shed blood of Yeshua-Jesus sprinkled upon the sands of Golgotha outside of Jerusalem, Israel some 2000-years ago as first prophesied in Genesis 3:21. The WRATH of God concerning the sin of mankind will NOT be satiated other than by one’s FAITH in what Yeshua-Jesus has done for you and me upon a Roman Cross of suffering. Obedience to a Law, tradition, custom, ordinance, will not initiate covenant relationship with God the Father (Romans 3:20; Ephesians 1:13-14).
Purpose of Torah,
The Law, the Torah, is simply our Schoolmaster to lead us to Messiah Jesus so that we can find eternal covenant relationship with the Father by faith. Faith in Yeshua-Jesus as our Lord who died to pay our sin-debt is the only Way to PEACE with God (John 14:6).
