Dead or Alive

By Gilbert Alexander

Death is a state of separation. Physical Death is separation of body and spirit (Jas. 2:26). The spirit lives on, and so God could say of long deceased Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: "I am their God" (Exo. 3:6). Moses and Elijah, long dead physically, talked with Jesus in His transfiguration (Matt. 17:3). How then can anyone who believes the Bible say that physical death is the cessation of all life, as some religious people claim? Even so, Spiritual Death is separation from God (Isa. 59:1, 2). Paul said, "I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died" (Rom. 7:9). Sin produced death in Paul at that earlier time in his life (Rom. 7:13). Deliverance from that death was through Christ (Rom. 7:24, 25). This deliverance was accomplished through reconciliation to God so that Paul was no longer separated from God (2 Cor. 5:18, 19). So it is with us today.

We are all dead and alive. We are either dead in sin or alive with God. If we are living in sin with its dominion over us, then we are dead. If through Christ we put to death the sinful life, then we are alive unto God (Rom. 6:11). This newness of life is gained in Christ through our obedience to God by faith when we are baptized into the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3-6). Since we are all dead and alive in one of the two situations, we should recognize that spiritual death does no render us unconscious or incapable of action. Here we can see one of the errors of Calvinism. If, when we have died to sin, we are still continually tempted by it, then why, when we are dead in sin, can we not hear and heed the appeal of the Gospel to repent and be converted with- out a miraculous operation of the Spirit to enable us? Peter told people who had been convinced by the preached message concerning Christ, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). They had not, at that point, received either the Holy Spirit as a gift or salvation as the gift of the Spirit, for Peter said "you shall receive" it, conditioned upon their repentance and baptism. They were dead in trespasses, yet they were told to do something about it. This indicates that they were capable of doing something about their condition else, the commandment was vain.

Now, consider the lives of the saints. Paul told people who had died to sin when they obeyed the Gospel to "put to death" their members, which were on the earth: "fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5). This he said to people who had put off "the old man with his deeds" and had "put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him Who created him" (Col. 3:9, 10). These people had been dead but had been made alive together with Him through their faith and obedience to Christ (Col. 2:9-15). To the Ephesians, Paul included all as having once been dead in trespasses and sins, but he asserted that God had made them alive together with Christ through faith in Him (Eph. 2:1-22). Christians are Christians because they "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" yet they must constantly guard themselves against the temptations of sin (Gal. 5:18 - 6:5). We must "let not sin reign" in our lives (Rom. 6:12).

Now, the practical questions are these: Are we alive to sin and thus dead, separated from God; or are we alive to God and dead to sin? God has made us capable of choosing and has provided the way of escape from death in sin through Jesus Christ, if we will believe in Him and obey Him (Heb. 5:8, 9). What do we choose? &

The Progression of True Religion

By Bob Myhan

In eternity past, knowing man would sin, God planned to reconcile man to Himself (that is, bind man anew to Himself in a covenant relationship) in Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God. (2 Tim. 1:8-10) Reconciliation is also referred to as redemption. (Rom. 3:21-24)

When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they alienated themselves from God and, in effect made friends with the serpent – Satan.

Following man’s fall, God revealed His intention to reconcile man. The gospel was first preached by God Himself on the day Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. God preached it to the serpent in the presence of those who had sinned. Of course, the gospel was not good news to the serpent.

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." (Gen. 3:15)

To promise enmity between the serpent and the woman was to promise amity between her and God. “Her seed” would make this possible by bruising the head of the serpent (giving him a fatal blow).

God revealed His will to us in just such a way that will best facilitate our understanding of it. If the Word of God – as the Son of God – had come into the world immediately after the first sin, there is no way that anyone could ever have appreciated the love of God. Therefore, God introduced the principle of sacrifice, and developed that principle incrementally, until such time that His love – as fully demonstrated via the sacrifice of His Son – could be appreciated and reciprocated by man.

As Jesus Himself illustrated this development, there was “first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.” (Mark 4:28) We might say the Patriarchal age was “the blade,” the Mosaic age was “the head” and the church age is “the full grain in the head.”

Thus, true religion began after man’s eviction from Eden. It had three elements: altar, sacrifice and priesthood. The respective altar, sacrifice and priesthood of the Patriarchal and Mosaic ages were but prophetic types or shadows of the true.

Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." (Heb. 8:1-5)

But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Heb. 9:11-12)

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. (Heb. 10:1-3)

Hundreds of years after preaching the gospel to the serpent, God preached it to Abraham. (Gen. 12:3; Gal. 3:8) He later preached it to Israel through Moses (Deut. 18:15-19), all the OT prophets (Acts 3:19-26), John the immerser (Mt. 3:1-2), Jesus (Mt. 4:17), the twelve apostles (Mt. 10:7) and the seventy. (Luke 10:8-10)

This was the same gospel preached by Peter on the first Day of Pentecost following the Lord's ascension to heaven. There is only a difference in tense. Before Pentecost, the preaching of the gospel involved what God was going to do. After Pentecost, the preaching of the gospel involved what God had done. There was no difference between what God was going to do, prior to the cross, and what God had done, after the cross.

The gospel is good news. It has always been about the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose. Prior to the cross, He would accomplish it; after the cross, He had accomplished it. The cross is the true altar, while Jesus is both the true sacrifice and the true high priest. (Heb. 3:1-2; 9:24-26)

Paul referred to himself as “a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures” (Rom. 1:1-2). Therefore, the gospel Paul preached was that which was “promised before” to Abraham and others. &