There is the power of life and the power of death in words. It’s no wonder that Satan has had such a long war campaign against the holy Bible, the Ten Commandments, the Old Testament, and our modern languages. It’s his campaign of confusion designed to divide and conquer the world. Satan from the beginning has questioned the power and authority of God’s holy word, “yea hath God said”. God’s holy words and laws are our refuge, our comfort, our shield, our light, and our path unto eternal salvation.
Why would Jesus say that only certain words are life?
John 6:63
“It is the spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are life.”
Romans 7:14
“For we know that the law is spiritual … ”
The Ten Commandments are called “the words of the covenant” and “the tables of the covenant”.
Exodus 34:28
“And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”
From the beginning God has let mankind know that there is the power of life in His words / ways; and death in sin.
Deuteronomy 30:15
“See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;”
A man asked Jesus an important question, and Jesus answered him.
Matthew 19:16-19
“And, behold, one came and said unto Him,
Good Master,
what good thing shall I do,
that I may have eternal life?
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.
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,
Honour thy father and thy mother: and,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
We know that no one can earn their own salvation because there was no law given that could give us life once we lost it through committing one sin – “the wages of sin is death” (Galatians 3:21, Romans 3:20; 6:23). Our lives can only be regained by the blood of the Everlasting Covenant, through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 13:20
“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the Everlasting Covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
But just as we cannot earn our salvation; also no one can inherit eternal life through Christ’s blood without having saving faith wich is defined in James chapter 2 as believing and obeying God. Hebrews 5:9 “And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him”.
The steps of saving faith are hearing, believing, and obeying which includes: confessing and repenting. When we repent we are obeying God, but if we do not continue in repentance, we do not have life abiding in us (His Holy Spirit); but we are abiding in death as the scripture repeatedly states in many places in both the Old and New Testaments.
The old English term “unto” means to bring forth or moving towards something.
Romans 6:16
“Know ye not,
that TO WHOM ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
his servants ye are TO WHOM ye obey;
whether of sin unto death
or of obedience unto righteousness?”
(abideth & abiding means “living”)
1John 3:14-15
“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth NOT his brother ABIDETH in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life ABIDING in him.”
People who are living lives of continuing repentance have Jesus in them and they are “abiding IN Christ”. That doesn’t mean they will never commit a sin again, it means that when they do, they acknowledge that they have transgressed God’s laws by confessing it and then putting it away by repenting. As children of God, we all struggle against sin and we don’t want to sin. Jesus said, ” the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”. The LORD’s expectation of us is for us not to sin and it should also be our daily goal too. But when we’ve failed and sinned, IF we confess and repent, then we are continuing in obedience to God even though we failed. This is walking in the commandments because this is what He told us to do when we sin. Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer as our example of this daily walk, it’s a daily prayer where we are asking for our daily bread and daily forgiveness.
1John 2:1
“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. AND IF ANY man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”
1John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.”
This is speaking of Jesus Christ who forgives PAST sins; never any future sins. We can never be forgiven before we commit a sin and there’s no record anywhere in the Bible where that ever happened. When we sin then we must confess, repent and ask forgiveness of that past sin. Jesus’ blood stands as a propitiation meaning it’s like a debt card we draw on His one time atonement. The Old Testament saints drew on it like a credit card knowing and believing He would come.
(I’ve been giving this analogy of Christ’s atonement of a symbolic credit card and debit card for the last eight years. The only other person I’ve ever heard explain it this way was this year by songwriter and singer, Nicole C. Mullen.)
A propitiation means that Jesus blood sacrifice is available to draw on even though He was only sacrificed once for all. The way this free gift was accessed under the Old Testament time period was “by faith”. They were using a symbolic place holder with the animal sacrifices that could never take away or erase any of their sins. So that means they were saved by mercy and grace and it was “by their faith” (Hebrews chapter 11) in their coming Messiah Jesus Christ that they received forgiveness of their sins (justification) – they were drawing on it like a credit card.
Jesus eventually did come, ratifying all their obedience in keeping His Everlasting Covenant as it was setup under the Old Covenant; and He paid all their sin debts.
Jesus paid all our sin debts too, but that isn’t the same as being forgiven before we commit a sin. The way God the Father established that we, under the New Testament, would have access to that same one-time sacrificial atonement of Jesus is by “a propitiation”, which in effect is like using a debt card to draw on what’s already been done for us. Every time we commit a sin, we are instructed by God to confess it, repent of it (stop and turn away from it) and ask Him to forgive it; this is how we apply His “propitiation” to our heavenly record that’s being kept until the final judgment (Revelation 20:12).
The Lord’s Prayer is proof that we are to ask for forgiveness of our past sins daily; it’s a daily prayer asking for daily bread. When we are forgiven, we are drawing on Jesus’ “propitiation”, His account that paid our sin debt in full. The one and only true atonement is actually there in heaven and available to us; and we are required to come to God our Father in His throne room through faith that Jesus is who He says He is and by His sacrifice and blood, we can be forgiven by the conditions of His covenant of salvation. Jesus, our High Priest, is in the heavenly sanctuary seated on the right hand of God the Father in His throne room – in the heavenly sanctuary. Jesus is the Mediator between us and God to save us from “the wages of sin” which is eternal damnation/death.
Romans 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”
1Timothy 2:4-6
“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for ALL, to be testified in due time.”
Here’s an example of us as believers interceding for others:
1John 5:15-16
” And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.”
GOD’S LAWS ARE NOT BONDAGE, THEY ARE FREEDOM.
Just as our once great nation was thriving because we were a people who were taught biblical values and lived them; we see evidence today that our republic and our constitution does not work unless we have citizens who are willing to live honestly (Hebrews 13:18) by following righteous laws voluntarily. So then you can see how that being bound and keeping righteous laws is not bondage as the devil would have many believe; it is freedom and love.
{When the apostle Paul said we are not under “the law” but under grace, he was speaking specifically of the administration of the Old Covenant and the old priesthood laws which were done away with. The moral laws and the laws of the Melchisedecian priesthood “law of faith” and “the ministration of the spirit” were not done away with. It’s easy to prove because Paul after he said that also said next that if those same fellow believers continued to live in unrepentant sin, they would die.
Romans 6:14-16
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
Q: How does sin have dominion over us?
A: Because “the wages of sin is death”
If we confess, repent and are forgiven of those past sins, we are free from that law of “the wages of sin is death”. We are not free to sin. Paul says not to sin, therefore it is still possible and there is still a danger in sinning without repenting of it. Hear what he said himself about his own struggle against sin and death:
1Corinthians 9:27
“But I keep under my body,
and bring it into subjection:
LEST that by any means,
when I have preached to others,
I myself should be A CASTAWAY.”
Again this is the Apostle Paul after he told them they were not under the law but under grace (which has to do with some of the Old Testament laws and “the wages of sin is death” law); He is telling them there is still an eternal danger to believers when they commit a sin if they don’t keep God’s covenant by repenting and putting sin away:
– I plan to do my next article on the Apostle Paul and what he was talking about in Galatians and in Romans about the law and bondage. –
Romans 8:13
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:
but if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body,
ye shall live.”
Keeping the LORD’s righteous laws leads to life not to death; so those laws are freedom and not death like the devil wants you to believe; they are freedom and love.
1John 5:2-3
“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”
We are not free to sin, we are free to live righteously within the bounds of true love as God defines it through His laws. So although we are bound to keep the law, it is not to be considered bondage; remember that Jesus defines bondage as being SIN, not righteousness. The truth and the law are not bondage, they are freedom and light. With every passing day, we see that is more and more true because society is crashing all around us because they have abandoned “the good way”.
John 8:31-35
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. …”
“No flesh” has ever been justified by the works of the law; it has only been through the mercy of God the Father and the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That also means all the Old Testament people who followed God’s instructions were saved by their faith, by Grace, by the blood of Jesus Christ which is the ONLY thing that could/can take away sins and completely erase them forever.
Nevertheless, God required them to keep the laws of His Everlasting Covenant (and us too) upon the penalty of death and the loss of salvation “cut off”; so then there is something to examine about what is going on and why God has set this process and system in place. Salvation is not by works as many falsely propose, but it is by inheritance which comes by being the children of God and doing what He has commanded.
1 John 3:10
“In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”
2John 1:6
“And this IS LOVE, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard FROM the beginning, ye should walk in it.”
It has always been this way since the foundation of the world at creation. The same requirement for the Old Testament people as for the New Covenant people, for God is no respecter of persons, the Bible says. God required Cain to obey His holy commandments to acquire the free gift of salvation. Cain refused to offer the blood sacrifice that the LORD required which was a symbol of the coming blood atonement of Jesus Christ. Cain refused and God did not accept Cain’s sacrificial offering of plants, which means God rejected Cain’s request for the forgiveness of his sins because he didn’t follow the plan of salvation the way God established it to be.
The LORD extended mercy by giving Cain the opportunity to turn and obey and do what was required of him. The LORD spoke very lovingly to him as He was correcting and warning him.
Genesis 4:2-7
“And she again bare his brother Abel.
And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.
And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.
And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not BE ACCEPTED?
and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.
And unto thee shall be his desire,
and thou shalt rule over him.”
Cain wasn’t yet permanently rejected because God gave him time to come to repentance like we read about in Revelation 2:21. You see, Cain was trying to get justification (forgiveness) the way he wanted to, without Jesus Christ; which not only would NEVER work but it’s also NOT the way God the Father setup the plan of salvation through the Everlasting Covenant in Jesus’ blood. Cain was trying to get saved another way, his own way.
The choice was Cain’s and though the LORD was merciful, pitiful and longsuffering; He still required his obedience to acquire the free gift of salvation that Cain could never earn or pay for.
Food for thought; God says that we should examine ourselves to see IF we are in the faith.
2Corinthians 13:5
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”
Jesus Christ is not in reprobates, which means anyone who is living in unrepentant sin, whether or not they are a professed believer or a non-believer.
Here are some more examples to consider:
2John 1:8
“Look to yourselves, that we lose NOT those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.”
This is saying that we are to continue keeping God’s covenant and living in repentance so that we don’t lose our reward of everlasting life. Here are a few more scriptures that build on that concept also:
Mark 7:7
“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
1Corinthians 15:2
“By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed IN VAIN.”
2Corinthians 6:1
“We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God IN VAIN.”
James 1:26
“If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion IS VAIN.”
Q: Why is that man’s religion in vain?
A: Romans 2:13 “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”
Jesus warns us in Revelation 3:11
“Behold, I come quickly:
hold that fast which thou hast,
that no man TAKE thy crown.”
(That is our crown of eternal life)
Colossians 2:8
“Beware lest any man SPOIL you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
1Timothy 5:22
“Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.”
2John 1:9
“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.”
God allowed the Gentiles to enter into His holy covenant of salvation through Abraham, which came through Jesus Christ. This is how we were able to be adopted in as spiritual heirs of the covenant of God.
Acts 11:18
“When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles GRANTED repentance UNTO LIFE.”
2 Peter 1:3
“According as His divine power
hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him
that hath called us to glory and virtue”
The things that pertain unto life and godliness are all the moral laws of God, the priesthood laws of God – where we are able to get forgiveness of our past sins and are made “perfect”, holy, and sinless through faith in Jesus Christ. These two sets of laws are all contained within the Everlasting Covenant that’s also called the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ (Revelation 14:6).
Proverbs 18:20-21
“A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”
James 1:26
“If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.”
James 2:10-12
“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art BECOME a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, AND so do, as they that SHALL BE judged by the law of liberty.”
James 1:21-22
“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able TO SAVE your souls. But be ye DOERS of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
Romans 2:13
“For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”
Ephesians 4:29
“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, THATH IT MAY minister GRACE unto the hearers.”
Hebrews 4:2
“For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”
Noah heard God’s words (instructions / commandments / warning) and he MOVED with fear, which is respecting and believing what God said. Then he obeyed and did what God told him to do; God called believing and obeying FAITH.
If Noah only believed BUT DID NOT OBEY God’s instructions, he and his family would not have been saved from destruction. It was God who saved them, but Noah and his household were required by God to DO THEIR PART as well. It was our heavenly Father’s plan, but they had to Do more than just believe; they had to follow His perfect plan in order to be saved; it’s the same with God’s Everlasting Covenant.
The words of God were mixed with Noah’s faith (believing and obeying), which brought forth LIFE “to the saving of his house”.
Hebrews 11:7
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became HEIR of the righteousness which is BY FAITH.”
Spoken by Jesus Christ:
John 5:24
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
{Not believing as the devils do in James chapter 2, but as Noah did – who obeyed God’s words.}
Galatians 5:19-21
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which DO such things shall NOT inherit the kingdom of God.”
Galatians 5:22-25
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:16-18
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.”
{The law referenced here is “the wages of sin is death” law; it’s not the law of the Ten Commandments because those are “the words of the Covenant” (Exodus 34:28). It is through the Everlasting covenant that we have eternal life (Hebrews 13:20).
Many people believe no one can keep God’s law “perfectly”. Their definition of keeping God’s laws perfectly is to never sin again; and although that’s our goal, this is not the LORD’s definition of being perfect. What many folks don’t consider is that God knows we will make mistakes in our Christian walk and He has provided a method to follow Him perfectly even though we may sin.
John the Baptist’s father and mother:
Luke 1:5-6
“There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. And they were both RIGHTEOUS before God, walking in ALL THE COMMANDMENTS and ordinances of the Lord BLAMELESS.”
This is what Zechariah and Elizabeth (under the Old Testament) did and were keeping all of God’s laws even though they too had “fallen short of the glory of God” through committing sins. We know that “all the world” and “every mouth” has been found guilty of breaking God’s laws. So how do we become “perfect”, sinless and blameless like these two saints of God? They were able to, even under an imperfect animal sacrificial system that could never erase any of their sins.
Romans 3:19
“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
Being made perfect, blameless and sinless is achieved today through “The Law of Faith”, our guide to that is found in The Lord’s Prayer. When Zechariah and Elizabeth committed a sin, they came to God by faith in Jesus Christ and in confession and repentance asking for forgiveness. They were also constrained (the bondage Paul talks about) to perform all of the other extra sacrifices and ordinances of the Old Covenant.
We are at liberty from those carnal commandments of the Levitical priesthood and they have been done away with because the perfect atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ has come. However, we are still required by God perform our part of His Everlasting Covenant. (remember Cain?) There is a lot of freedom in “the new and living way” spoken of in Hebrews.
Keeping the law is not about keeping God’s laws without ever sinning again, even though that’s our goal; it’s about continuing to follow God’s plan for our salvation which is to continuing in confession, repentance and asking for forgiveness when we do sin and otherwise – doing our very best every day not to sin.
God never asks us to do anything that we cannot do. He is a just God Whom we can trust. For the LORD to ask us to do something that we couldn’t do through Him wouldn’t be just or reasonable, but would be an cruel trick. But instead God says He is “Faithful and Just” and “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”.
God said to all of us to “be ye perfect”. If God says be perfect, then it’s possible for us; not because we have never committed a sin; or that we would never commit another sin again; or that we could ever be righteous without Him; but rather when we do commit a sin, we immediately put it away and seek Him through the Lord’s prayer.
And every time God forgives us, we are completely clean, without sin; we are made perfect (which means to be sinless), blameless and righteous.
1John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
There is the power of life and death in words. It’s no wonder that Satan has had his war campaign against the holy word of God for so long. Brothers and sisters, please don’t believe Satan instead of God because he’s still in the business of saying “yea hath God said?” … So YES, GOD HAS SAID and I believe Him.
God’s holy words and laws are our refuge, our comfort, our shield, our light and the right path to our eternal salvation. God wants you to find it and keep it. AMEN.