Babes in Christ

1 Corinthians 3:1-4

Paul spent his ministry trying to elevate the believer into a knowledge of who they were in Christ. When he tells the Philippian church to, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Philippians 2:5, 6), he was prompting them to think of themselves as Jesus thought of Himself. It is a seemingly endless task to try and bring believers to this place, due to the conflicting reports that the enemy is sending into their minds.

When Paul dealt with the Corinthian church, he was dealing with a people who were saved in the midst of the most hedonistic city in the world. Within this church, Paul had to deal with incest (5:1), legal disputes (6:1), prostitution (6:16) and drunkenness (11:21), and all of this from the believers! When he refers to them, he does not call them sinners or backsliders, but rather he says that they are “carnal”, “babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1).

The word “carnal” in Greek means “fleshly” or “governed by the human nature”. Every believer wishes to be governed by the “divine nature” which Peter spoke that we have (2 Peter 1:4), but oftentimes we find ourselves doing some of the same things that we did when we were unbelievers. Paul not only called this carnal but also said, “are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” (verse 3).

Paul felt that when a believer lives with strife and divisions (or any other sin), he is walking beneath their status as children of God. Rather than being “spiritual”, they are being carnal (verse 1). He repeats the thought in Ephesians when he says, “Walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind” (Ephesians 4:17). For Paul to see believers living in the manner of sinners, it was not a warning that they were going to suddenly becomes sinners again, but that they were so spiritually immature that they could handle nothing more of the things of God than the milk.

He compares the carnal believer to a sinner, living after their human impulses; and to their development as babies, unable to swallow solid food. Many times in the church, we preachers must go back over the most elementary of foundations for believers because so many of them are unable to go much deeper into the word, due to a Christian life spent in carnality. They are not thinking like believers, thus they are not living like believers.

To experience spiritual growth, and live spiritual and not carnal, you must feed on the Lord Jesus Christ every day. This is more than just reading the Bible. Many people read their Bible and feed on the cold stone of the law, finding no hope in it. Feast on Christ and His finished work and let the living water and the daily bread feed your soul. Concentrate on what Christ did for you, taking your sin and giving you His righteousness. See yourself as forgiven and accepted, and as you begin to believe it, you will see it live out in your life.

You are not carnal, you are spiritual. Walk as mature saints not babes in Christ. Go in Him and grow in Him in Jesus’ lovely name.

Find the Right Mountain

Obadiah 1:15-17

Obadiah says that the “day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou has done, it shall be done unto thee” (1:15). For those who have not accepted Christ, this is a pretty frightening thought! The prophet proceeds to explain that as Israel had heard from God on his “holy mountain”, so the heathen will drink the same thing at this mountain that Israel did. What mountain is he talking about, and what drink will they drink?

The 17th verse answers our question partially, “But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance” (1:17). There is a contrast between two mountains. The first is God’s holy mountain where Israel drank at first. This can only be Mount Sinai, where Moses spoke with God and received the Ten Commandments and all of the written ordinances of the law. Israel drank of God’s wrath from this mountain on more than one occasion and all because they were disobedient to the law that came from the mount.

Mount Zion is never mentioned while Israel is wandering in the wilderness. Of course, that makes sense seeing as Mount Zion is in Jerusalem, and Israel has yet to arrive there, but for the time period that Israel was in while in the wilderness, there is only one significant mountain and that is Sinai, the birthplace of the law. All of Israel was judged there, by the pristine, perfect standards of God’s law.

The author of Hebrews describes two mountains: Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion (Hebrews 12:18-24). The first burned with fire, was black and dark and the voice that spoke from it could not be endured (vss. 18-20). The second is described as the city of the living God, with many angels, where the church lives with Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant (vss.22-24).

Mt. Sinai represents the law and all of its demands (Galatians 4:24). While telling man how to live, it provides no help in keeping those demands. It came so that sin would explode in man’s heart, showing him his need for a Savior (Romans 5:20; Galatians 3:24).

Mt. Zion represents the New Covenant and the grace of God. There is no fear in approaching it because Jesus lives there, and His blood is speaking great things about our redemption (Hebrews 12:23).

Obadiah’s prophecy shows us that man will ultimately be judged by the Law, because without Jesus, the only other mountain for him is Sinai. When someone rejects Christ, they are rejecting God’s offer of a New Covenant from Mt. Zion. Because of this, they are left only with Sinai and its demands.

As a believer, you should live and dwell and worship at Mt. Zion, where grace flows in abundance. Any attempts at keeping the law to achieve righteousness places you at the base of Sinai, where not even the great Moses could keep from quaking in fear (Hebrews 12:21).

Preachers must move their pulpits from the darkness of Sinai, where the law is preached with trembling and fear; and station themselves in the heaven of Mt. Zion, where the loveliness of Jesus is presented and the New Covenant is free for all by the precious blood of Jesus.
Go to the right mountain today!

I’m Only Going to Say This Once

Mark 1:21-26

Most fathers have the ability to elicit response from their children simply by changing their tone of voice. Apparently, they also experience great pain when they have to repeat themselves, as I often heard my father say, “Son, I don’t want to have to say this again”. As a father, I have found myself using that phrase as well, and not because it hurts to talk, but because I expect results.

The reason that our fathers used that phrase was that it was an exercise in authority. By stating it once, and phrasing that he wasn’t going to say it again, the father is showing his position as the head. What he says should be heeded to, and that in a hurry.

Jesus encountered a centurion, whose servant was at home sick. The man asked for Jesus to heal the servant, and when Jesus made to go to the house, the centurion stated that he was not worthy for Jesus to come under his roof. If Jesus could but speak the word, his servant would be healed, and then he said, “For I also am a man set under authority” (Luke 7:8). The word “also” is most telling, because it is the centurion’s way of revealing to all who would hear that he knew that Jesus was not only able to give orders but also able to take them from His heavenly father. This man knew the chain of command.

Someone else that knows the chain of command is the forces of darkness. They were aware of who Jesus was from the beginning, though the Pharisees would never see it. When Jesus arrives in Capernaum in our text, they cry out, “Leave us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). They knew that He was the Holy One of God; they recognized His authority.

When he speaks to the demon possessed man in verse 25, His words are simple and few, and are directed at the demons themselves. “Hold thy peace, and come out of him,” he says. Two commands are mixed into one sentence: Stop making noise, and get out of the man. However, verse 26 tells us that they do not immediately obey either command! They tear him and cry with a loud voice before finally coming out of him.

Jesus has spoken His victory, bought and paid for into your life, and there is no force of darkness that can stop it. “But Pastor Paul, I am still struggling with the same old sin that I thought I was over”, you might be saying. Don’t despair my friend. Jesus spoke and the demon kicked, but he did come out. Jesus has done the work and you may be seeing the manifestation of Satan attacking you, trying to convince you that you are not saved, but don’t worry, it is just his last gasp. Christ has spoken, and He is only going to say this once. He need not die again for Calvary was His statement against your problems (Hebrews 10:10).

This revelation that you are learning about your position in Christ is going to be so amazing, so stunning and so different that people are going to say of you what they did of Jesus in this passage, “What thing is this? What new doctrine is this?” (Verse 27). It is no new doctrine; it is the doctrine of Christ and His finished work. When He says “it is finished”, you can rest assured, regardless of the symptoms or the circumstances, “IT IS FINISHED”!

The Case of the Missing Story

1 Chronicles 20:1

Chronicles is a retelling of the story of Israel and Judah. Most of what you read in these two books is first found in the two books of Samuel and the two books of Kings. The stories are not in chronological order in every case and the Chronicles gives more details in many areas.

This is why 1 Chronicles 20:1 is so odd. It is first told in 2 Samuel 11:1. As a matter of fact, the wording in both books is close to identical, with Samuel’s version ending with “David tarried still at Jerusalem”, which Chronicles tells you as well. However, in Chronicles, the next sentence has Joab smiting Rabbah and destroying it, with verse 2 telling us that David took the crown off of the king’s head and put it on his own. In Samuel, these events do not happen until 2 Samuel 12:26, nearly two chapters later! Why the big gap? What happens in chapter 11 and 12 that the Holy Spirit does not deem necessary to repeat in the retelling of Chronicles?

The 11th chapter of 2 Samuel is one of the saddest in the Bible. It records the lust filled David, taking Bathsheba as his own and then conspiring to murder her husband. He then goes nearly a year with this cover-up unknown to anyone but the two of them, before God sends the prophet Nathan to show him his sin. David appeals to God in Psalm 51, asking for forgiveness and mercy without sacrifice. Nothing but faith in a coming redeemer could have taught David that someday salvation would be available by faith alone, without lambs dying. David seeks God’s grace, nearly 1000 years before the cross and God gives it, telling David, “Thou shalt not die” (2 Samuel 12:13).

David writes of this kind of grace in Psalm 32, when he makes a statement that Paul would quote in his great epistle to Romans: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Romans 4:7, 8).

Then Paul writes this: “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Because of the finished work of Calvary, God does not impute sin to us anymore! We are guilty of our own version of David and Bathsheba. We have done things that we are not proud of and that we hope will never be found out nor repeated. Praise God that in the retelling of your life’s story, God will remove all of those moments, and make the story sound as if they never happened. We are “justified by faith” (Romans 5:1), which means that it is just as if we’d never sinned. Our sins are not counted against us, and there are many “missing stories” in all of our lives.

Thank God for Jesus and His glorious finished work at Calvary. Because He died I have been reconciled to God, with all of my old stories vanishing from the retelling. Because He lives, I now live also. Today let Him live that life through you. Go in grace.

No Condemnation

Romans 8:1

Paul told the church at Corinth that he did not speak to condemn them (2 Corinthians 7:3) and Jesus said that He did not come to condemn the world either (John 3:17). If Paul didn’t preach condemnation, and Jesus did not show up to give condemnation, why are we so quick to condemn? Could it be that we have very little revelation of our own liberty from condemnation?

Paul states this first verse of Romans 8 in an unequivocal manner: “NO condemnation”. The word ‘no’ is ‘not even a little bit’ in the Greek, meaning that there is no room for condemnation at all, because of Christ Jesus. Once you accept Jesus Christ and His free pardon from sin, there is absolutely no room for you to be condemned. Jesus was condemned for all of our sins at the cross; thus there is none left for you or me!

The last part of the verse is “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”, which appears to place qualifications on the gift of no condemnation. In the original Greek, these words do not appear in this passage, but instead appear at the end of verse 4. Bible scholars call this process of moving one passage to another place as “interpolation”. Why would the translators do this if the Apostle Paul did not write it that way?

The only explanation that I can find is that they simply could not believe that there were no qualifications or conditions upon the gift of no condemnation. Most Christians will tell you that you are under no condemnation as long as you do the right thing, but if you fail then you are condemned in your sin. This is diametrically opposed to the third verse which tells us that Jesus had sin condemned in His flesh (Romans 8:3). Since all sin was condemned in the body of Jesus, it cannot ever be condemned in my body. Hallelujah!

If walking according to the Spirit is the requirement for “no condemnation”, then Jesus broke this rule when He withheld condemnation from the woman caught in the act of adultery. There is no clearer example in the Gospels of a moment when the full weight of the law should have fallen on a law-breaker than when this woman was caught sleeping with a married man. The Pharisees hoped to trap Jesus by forcing Him to decide to either stone her under Moses’ Law or let her go free. Jesus trumped them all with, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7). Of course the Law condemned them all, so they dropped their rocks and left. Jesus then released the woman with the blessed promise, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). If ‘no condemnation’ comes only for those who walk in the Spirit, this woman is disqualified. She was living according to her fleshly desires, yet Jesus did not condemn her. It is a gift, and Jesus gives it freely!

As soon as we embrace the gift of no condemnation, the righteousness that the Law tried to bring out in us will come to the surface. Paul said, “That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). Here, the phrase “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” is in the Greek text, but now the meaning becomes clear. Walk according to what the Holy Spirit says about you and you will see the righteousness of God come out in your lifestyle. What does the Spirit say? “Now no condemnation”!

No More Curse

Revelation 22:1-4

What a beautiful scene is laid out in front of us in this text. The pure river of water of life flowing from beneath the throne of God, with the Lamb Jesus sitting there as well; all of it a picture of God’s wonderful provision and love. It takes place in the new Paradise, known as New Jerusalem on the New Earth which is our eternal home. God’s provision, as wonderful then as it is now, provides living water and trees which are “for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2).

There will also be no more curse on this New Earth. The earth that we occupy dwells under a constant curse of death. When Adam sinned in the Garden, God told him that from that day forward, “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground” (Genesis 3:17-19). God also multiplied a woman’s sorrow in conception and cursed her to dependence on her husband, with him being over her. There was also an obvious separation placed between man and beast, as before the fall, Adam had perfect interaction with them.

Death is the most obvious result of the curse, as all of us will meet that same fate someday. When Christ died at Calvary, He became the curse for us so that we could live in the blessings. His death at the cross conquered the entire universe, but He has yet to take claim of all that He conquered, choosing instead to allow time to pass so that more people will accept His payment.

The author of Hebrews wrote that Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins forever and then sat down on the right hand of God. From that moment forward, that same Jesus is waiting as one-by-one, all of His enemies are made His footstool, meaning that Jesus is resting His feet over the forces of darkness, but He has yet to put all things there (Hebrews 10:12, 13). The very last thing that He will slide up under His victorious, nail-scarred feet will be death, thus finishing the curse (1 Corinthians 15:26).

The scene of Revelation 22 also shows us that the name of Jesus will be written in the foreheads of the redeemed for eternity. We will bear a mark on us that identifies us with Him, and this is the opposite of the mark of the curse of this world. Satan will duplicate this action during the Great Tribulation with what we refer to as “The Mark of the Beast”, but where his denotes a curse, God’s denotes a blessing.

This action of the marked forehead providing the cure from the curse was first introduced in Genesis 4, when God told the murderous Cain, “Now art thou cursed from the earth” (Genesis 4:11). Cain complained that his punishment was greater that he could bear and he appealed to God for help. God, who is rich in mercy, marked Cain in the forehead so that anyone who saw him would not kill him. What could God have placed on the forehead of Cain that would make a potential killer back away? It must be something that identified Cain as being protected from God, for the curse shrinks away from the life-giver. Just as we are marked in the New Earth, Cain was marked in the old one. Thank God for His wonderful grace and mercy!

From Death to Life

1 John 3:14

We have all heard talk about passing from life to death; how we slip out of this mortal coil and into the next world, but there isn’t much talk about passing from death to life. The only place that we might hear such talk is at a Christian funeral, when the minister mentions the deceased as having picked up the next life. Thank God that we have better news than that!

John mentions the believer passing “from death unto life” (1 John 3:14), meaning that before you met Christ you were indeed “dead”. Paul said that you were “dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world…” (Ephesians 2:1, 2). Prior to our conversion, we had never really lived at all, awaiting the new life that only Jesus can provide, while we walked with all of the other sinners, in the course of this world.

The moment that we place faith in Jesus Christ, He enters our heart by the Holy Spirit and seals us until the day of redemption. This sealing is so that nothing can come in and nothing can get out. We are protected from the outside world and its influence and we cannot “lose” who we are inside. We may or may not be aware of all of these things when we accept Jesus, but the happen nonetheless.

God does not wish for us to be ignorant of all of the beautiful things that are happening inside of us, so John gives us a way to know that we have changed by showing us a fruit of our salvation. Many things will change about us when we get saved, but one thing that we cannot change on our own is how we feel about other people. In fact, if we have bad feelings toward someone, many of us will say, “Hey, I can’t change how I feel”. How correct we are! This is why John chooses the subject of loving one another as a way of knowing that you are saved.

When you come to Christ, he sheds His love abroad in your heart. As you accept His love for you, your love for others grows accordingly. In fact, it is impossible for you to know how loved that you are in the sight of God, and not give that same love out to everyone that you meet. I am often struck by the testimonies of new converts who cannot put into words what has happened in them since they met Jesus, but they can all make one, common statement, “I feel so much love!” This is the perfect work of Christ in their life, and they give that out with their action and their smile.

You know that you belong to him when the thing that you can’t change on your own is changing automatically. You truly cannot change how you feel about people, but as you change how you view your Father, and you accept His love for you, those other feelings change in turn. Our proof that we are as close to God as we claim to be is our feelings towards fellow believers. Take that litmus test in your own heart, and give God glory for the great things that He is doing and that He has done.

The Better Covenant; The Better Promises

Hebrews 8:6-8

If you were to ask many Christians, “What makes the New Covenant a better covenant?” many would respond, “We don’t have to kill lambs anymore”. This is due to the fact that Jesus died for sins, thus there is no need for animal sacrifice when we fail. Let me be blunt, if that is all that the New Covenant accomplished then that was a royal waste of time.

Jesus obtained a more excellent ministry than his priestly predecessors (Hebrews 8:6). He brought in a “better covenant, which was established upon better promises”. The purpose for bringing a better covenant was because the first covenant was found to have fault (Hebrews 8:7). The fault was not within the law itself, for it was holy, just and good (Romans 7:12). Instead, the fault was in the people on the other end of the covenant, “For finding fault with them…” (Hebrews 8:8). The “them” is Israel and Judah, just as it would be you or I.

The first covenant was faulty because it demanded perfection from a people that could never live perfect. No matter how hard someone tried, they would always be found in contempt of the law in one area or the other. Either they did things that were contrary to the law, or they failed to do the many things that the law demanded. Even in the atoning system of the Old Covenant, man was condemned constantly. If you failed and brought a sacrifice before the Lord, everyone saw you bring it and they knew that you had sinned in some respect. The law provided no privacy and no personal relationship. It was cold and it was distant, unable to help you in any way.

Jesus came to live that Old Covenant to perfection; fulfilling all of its many demands. When He died at Calvary, He cut a New Covenant with His Father, taking the faultiness out of the way. We were at fault under the Old Covenant for we could not keep the Law. Jesus has no fault, thus He stepped into our place and cut the Covenant between His Father and His perfect life. Now, we are the recipients of Jesus’ work, receiving benefits of a Covenant that we are not obligated to live up to.

The Old Covenant held man’s sins against him, while the New Covenant says, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). The Old Covenant is now decayed and truly old, “ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13), so to return to it for guidance or instruction is to go back to a system found faulty by God.

We have a better covenant and a better promise because we have a better sacrifice. Jesus did what no lamb or bull or goat could ever do; He removed the sin problem (John 1:29; Hebrews 10:4). If we are still dealing with sin it is because WE are doing it and not resting in what HE has already done. When we fail now, we are covered by the better covenant and the better promise and the knowledge of that causes us to live as we should, for His New Covenant is written on our minds and in our hearts (Hebrews 8:10).

Thank God for a better covenant, where Jesus keeps His end of the deal with the Father so that we get the blessings of heaven. Hallelujah!

Happy is the Man that Knows He is Forgiven!

Psalms 32:1, 2

If the first couple of verses of Psalms 32 look familiar that is because Paul quotes these verses in his letter to the Romans, preceded by this phrase, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5), and then, “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man…” (Verse 6). Paul is connecting David’s prayer with his own revelation of righteousness without the keeping of the law. Let’s look closer at this connection that Paul is making.

Paul does not assume that David is talking about himself, which is how some Bible teachers explain this verse, attempting to say that we do not have this promise, but that only David had it. If David were talking only of himself, then Paul would not have made the connection as being relevant for his own readers in Rome. He also would not have said, “The blessedness of the man” (verse 6), but rather, “the blessedness of David”.

“Blessed” is better translated “happy” from the Greek. The man who knows that his iniquities are forgiven and his sins are covered is happy. There is a joy unspeakable connected to the knowledge that you are forgiven of all of your failures and that your sins are gone in Jesus. With an improper knowledge of this forgiveness, your Christian walk is one of misery and discouragement because you will attempt to please a God that is already well pleased.

The next “blessed” is especially exciting, “Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile” (Psalms 32:2). When Paul quotes this verse in Romans 4:8, he drops the last part, “in whose spirit there is no guile” because as a New Covenant teacher he knows that there can be no guile, or hypocrisy in the spirit man of a believer. There may be hypocrisy in their thoughts and their actions, but their spirit man is as Christ in this world (1 John 4:17).

Having exposed only the front half of the verse, Paul furthers us deeper into the power of this phrase by using an emphatic Greek phrase for “will not”. It means “never, ever”, which shows us that “Happy is the man to whom the Lord will never, ever impute sin”. What a glorious thought!

Opponents of this interpretation say that David is referring to the man who lives right. They say that if you do right then God cannot impute sin to you. First of all, “impute” means “to count”, thus if sins are imputed then they are counted against you. If they are not imputed then they are not counted against you. Think about it for a moment; why would someone who does the right thing be excited that their sin is not going to be imputed against them? They haven’t done anything wrong! The only one who would be “happy” about sins not counting against them is the one who has done something wrong.

This message is often neglected because people are afraid that this knowledge will lead to sinful lifestyles among believers. Actually, the opposite is true! The knowledge that you are not condemned never leads you to want to sin more, but rather it is the one thing that helps you to go and “sin no more”.

Be happy today with the knowledge that your sins are not imputed against you because they have already been imputed to Jesus at the cross and He has paid your penalty. Hallelujah!

Thou Shalt Not Die

2 Samuel 12:13

The 11th chapter of 2 Samuel is one of the saddest in the Bible. It tells the story of David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba and his subsequent murder of her husband and the cover-up thereafter. The “apple of God’s eye” slipped so far into sin, and it is painful to read about. The 12th chapter is the confrontation between Nathan, the prophet of God and King David. Nathan tells him about his sin, how that God has seen what he did and will bring the sword into his house forever.

We learn a valuable lesson about the redemptive power of grace in this chapter. When David acknowledges his sin, he confesses it as being “against the LORD”. This act of repentance is seen by God as faith, knowing that David has a broken heart due to his failure. Nathan responds with, “The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die”. What sweet words those are! To know that the Lord has put your sin away so that you are not guilty anymore is the greatest knowledge in the world.

Why does God put away David’s sin, even without a lamb being sacrificed? David tells us that this is the fact in his prayer of repentance, found in Psalm 51: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God thou wilt not despise” (verse 17). There is no scripture prior to this one that told man that the Lord was looking for a broken spirit in man, but David had knowledge as to how the heart of God functioned. He knew that God could not and would not turn away the broken man; for God created man and He loves him unconditionally.

Prior to this verse, David tells us another remarkable truth, “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering” (Psalms 51:16). Again, at no point in previous scripture has God indicated that He did not want sacrifices to be offered for the sins of man, but David is looking forward to the cross, when God would need no more lambs. David is a New Covenant thinker in an Old Covenant world, and God honors this kind of faith.

So complete is God’s forgiveness, that when Chronicles retells the story of Israel it intentionally leaves out the story of David and Bathsheba (1 Chronicles 20:1). I call this, “The Case of the Missing Story”, because when you look for the story of David’s sin, it is missing. God’s redemption is complete in that there is no trace of the failure left over when the blood of Jesus is applied.

Under the Old Covenant, God remembered Israel’s sins, “to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 20:5), but under the New Covenant, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17). When David appealed forward to Christ’s finished work, he was doing so independent of works, believing for a time when God would not count his sins against him.

You and I are living under this New Covenant, and we have the blessed promise that our sins are forgiven. Does this motivate you to go out and sin? Of course not! In fact, we know that we are dead to sin, so how can we continue to live in it? (Romans 6:1, 2) The knowledge that our sins are gone is coupled with the insurmountable love of God which strengthens us to live beyond sin. In fact, how can we continue to live in failure with so much grace around us? Give God glory for the knowledge that, “Thou shalt not die”.

Find the Right Mountain

Obadiah 1:15-17

Obadiah says that the “day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou has done, it shall be done unto thee” (1:15). For those who have not accepted Christ, this is a pretty frightening thought! The prophet proceeds to explain that as Israel had heard from God on his “holy mountain”, so the heathen will drink the same thing at this mountain that Israel did. What mountain is he talking about, and what drink will they drink?

The 17th verse answers our question partially, “But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance” (1:17). There is a contrast between two mountains. The first is God’s holy mountain where Israel drank at first. This can only be Mount Sinai, where Moses spoke with God and received the Ten Commandments and all of the written ordinances of the law. Israel drank of God’s wrath from this mountain on more than one occasion and all because they were disobedient to the law that came from the mount.

Mount Zion is never mentioned while Israel is wandering in the wilderness. Of course, that makes sense seeing as Mount Zion is in Jerusalem, and Israel has yet to arrive there, but for the time period that Israel was in while in the wilderness, there is only one significant mountain and that is Sinai, the birthplace of the law. All of Israel was judged there, by the pristine, perfect standards of God’s law.

The author of Hebrews describes two mountains: Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion (Hebrews 12:18-24). The first burned with fire, was black and dark and the voice that spoke from it could not be endured (vss. 18-20). The second is described as the city of the living God, with many angels, where the church lives with Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant (vss.22-24).

Mt. Sinai represents the law and all of its demands (Galatians 4:24). While telling man how to live, it provides no help in keeping those demands. It came so that sin would explode in man’s heart, showing him his need for a Savior (Romans 5:20; Galatians 3:24).

Mt. Zion represents the New Covenant and the grace of God. There is no fear in approaching it because Jesus lives there, and His blood is speaking great things about our redemption (Hebrews 12:23).

Obadiah’s prophecy shows us that man will ultimately be judged by the Law, because without Jesus, the only other mountain for him is Sinai. When someone rejects Christ, they are rejecting God’s offer of a New Covenant from Mt. Zion. Because of this, they are left only with Sinai and its demands.

As a believer, you should live and dwell and worship at Mt. Zion, where grace flows in abundance. Any attempts at keeping the law to achieve righteousness places you at the base of Sinai, where not even the great Moses could keep from quaking in fear (Hebrews 12:21).

Preachers must move their pulpits from the darkness of Sinai, where the law is preached with trembling and fear; and station themselves in the heaven of Mt. Zion, where the loveliness of Jesus is presented and the New Covenant is free for all by the precious blood of Jesus.
Go to the right mountain today!

I’m Only Going to Say This Once

Mark 1:21-26

Most fathers have the ability to elicit response from their children simply by changing their tone of voice. Apparently, they also experience great pain when they have to repeat themselves, as I often heard my father say, “Son, I don’t want to have to say this again”. As a father, I have found myself using that phrase as well, and not because it hurts to talk, but because I expect results.

The reason that our fathers used that phrase was that it was an exercise in authority. By stating it once, and phrasing that he wasn’t going to say it again, the father is showing his position as the head. What he says should be heeded to, and that in a hurry.

Jesus encountered a centurion, whose servant was at home sick. The man asked for Jesus to heal the servant, and when Jesus made to go to the house, the centurion stated that he was not worthy for Jesus to come under his roof. If Jesus could but speak the word, his servant would be healed, and then he said, “For I also am a man set under authority” (Luke 7:8). The word “also” is most telling, because it is the centurion’s way of revealing to all who would hear that he knew that Jesus was not only able to give orders but also able to take them from His heavenly father. This man knew the chain of command.

Someone else that knows the chain of command is the forces of darkness. They were aware of who Jesus was from the beginning, though the Pharisees would never see it. When Jesus arrives in Capernaum in our text, they cry out, “Leave us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). They knew that He was the Holy One of God; they recognized His authority.

When he speaks to the demon possessed man in verse 25, His words are simple and few, and are directed at the demons themselves. “Hold thy peace, and come out of him,” he says. Two commands are mixed into one sentence: Stop making noise, and get out of the man. However, verse 26 tells us that they do not immediately obey either command! They tear him and cry with a loud voice before finally coming out of him.

Jesus has spoken His victory, bought and paid for into your life, and there is no force of darkness that can stop it. “But Pastor Paul, I am still struggling with the same old sin that I thought I was over”, you might be saying. Don’t despair my friend. Jesus spoke and the demon kicked, but he did come out. Jesus has done the work and you may be seeing the manifestation of Satan attacking you, trying to convince you that you are not saved, but don’t worry, it is just his last gasp. Christ has spoken, and He is only going to say this once. He need not die again for Calvary was His statement against your problems (Hebrews 10:10).

This revelation that you are learning about your position in Christ is going to be so amazing, so stunning and so different that people are going to say of you what they did of Jesus in this passage, “What thing is this? What new doctrine is this?” (Verse 27). It is no new doctrine; it is the doctrine of Christ and His finished work. When He says “it is finished”, you can rest assured, regardless of the symptoms or the circumstances, “IT IS FINISHED”!

The Case of the Missing Story

1 Chronicles 20:1

Chronicles is a retelling of the story of Israel and Judah. Most of what you read in these two books is first found in the two books of Samuel and the two books of Kings. The stories are not in chronological order in every case and the Chronicles gives more details in many areas.

This is why 1 Chronicles 20:1 is so odd. It is first told in 2 Samuel 11:1. As a matter of fact, the wording in both books is close to identical, with Samuel’s version ending with “David tarried still at Jerusalem”, which Chronicles tells you as well. However, in Chronicles, the next sentence has Joab smiting Rabbah and destroying it, with verse 2 telling us that David took the crown off of the king’s head and put it on his own. In Samuel, these events do not happen until 2 Samuel 12:26, nearly two chapters later! Why the big gap? What happens in chapter 11 and 12 that the Holy Spirit does not deem necessary to repeat in the retelling of Chronicles?

The 11th chapter of 2 Samuel is one of the saddest in the Bible. It records the lust filled David, taking Bathsheba as his own and then conspiring to murder her husband. He then goes nearly a year with this cover-up unknown to anyone but the two of them, before God sends the prophet Nathan to show him his sin. David appeals to God in Psalm 51, asking for forgiveness and mercy without sacrifice. Nothing but faith in a coming redeemer could have taught David that someday salvation would be available by faith alone, without lambs dying. David seeks God’s grace, nearly 1000 years before the cross and God gives it, telling David, “Thou shalt not die” (2 Samuel 12:13).

David writes of this kind of grace in Psalm 32, when he makes a statement that Paul would quote in his great epistle to Romans: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Romans 4:7, 8).

Then Paul writes this: “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Because of the finished work of Calvary, God does not impute sin to us anymore! We are guilty of our own version of David and Bathsheba. We have done things that we are not proud of and that we hope will never be found out nor repeated. Praise God that in the retelling of your life’s story, God will remove all of those moments, and make the story sound as if they never happened. We are “justified by faith” (Romans 5:1), which means that it is just as if we’d never sinned. Our sins are not counted against us, and there are many “missing stories” in all of our lives.

Thank God for Jesus and His glorious finished work at Calvary. Because He died I have been reconciled to God, with all of my old stories vanishing from the retelling. Because He lives, I now live also. Today let Him live that life through you. Go in grace.

The Unpardonable Sin

Matthew 12:31, 32

The phrase “unpardonable sin” has struck fear into the hearts of so many believers, causing some to doubt whether or not they are still saved or even if they can be forgiven. Such fear and concern has risen over a phrase that never appears in the Bible. Did you realize that? The phrase “unpardonable sin” is a church phrase, not a Bible phrase. If this be the case, why do we use it, and more importantly, what does it mean?

First, let’s remember what the Holy Spirit is here to do: He comes to guide believers into truth and show us things to come (John 16:13) and to glorify Jesus (verse 14). That last one is crucial because it solidifies the first two; if Jesus is not glorified then it cannot be the Holy Ghost. This includes our doctrine, our teachings and our emotional responses. If Jesus gets no glory then what we think or feel or believe is of little consequence.

The other very important role of the Spirit is to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8). The conviction of sin is aimed at non-believers for their rejection of Christ (verse 9); the conviction of righteousness is aimed at believers because they can no longer see Jesus and they are quick to forget who they are in Christ (verse 10); and the conviction of judgment is aimed at the devil, for He has been judged (verse 11).

When you are dealt with for salvation, it is the Holy Spirit that is doing the dealing, for that is His function as it relates to the unsaved. You reject that conviction and you feel a release from it for a time, only to find that it comes back again at another time and place and sometimes stronger than ever. This is the Holy Spirit knocking on the door of your heart, offering you love and grace if you will only believe. Continue to reject this knocking and He will eventually leave you alone, and salvation cannot be found.

Believers need not fear blaspheming the Holy Spirit, for no born-again believer is going to consistently reject the calling of the Spirit in their life. The mark that they are born-again is their ability to be led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14); so they can’t possible live a life of constantly rejecting His callings.

If you have mocked the gifts of the Spirit such as tongues or healings, those things were done in ignorance, before you understood what the special role of the Holy Spirit is within the church. I have ministered to many people who felt disqualified from God’s good things because they had been brought up in a church that did not believe in the gifts of the Spirit and they said disparaging things about them. God knows your heart, and He knows the speed with which you develop.

The reason that we call it the “unpardonable sin” is because Jesus said that that person “hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation” (Mark 3:29). When you reject the call of the Holy Spirit for salvation, there is no forgiveness and you are in danger of eternal damnation. This warning is not for believers who are sealed with the Spirit “unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).

Never forget that Matthew 12:31 contains a glorious promise; that all manner of sin will be forgiven. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to reject the crucified and resurrected Jesus of which the Holy Ghost always speaks. As a believer, you have nothing to fear in this regard. You are completely pardoned and completely free.

No Condemnation

Romans 8:1

Paul told the church at Corinth that he did not speak to condemn them (2 Corinthians 7:3) and Jesus said that He did not come to condemn the world either (John 3:17). If Paul didn’t preach condemnation, and Jesus did not show up to give condemnation, why are we so quick to condemn? Could it be that we have very little revelation of our own liberty from condemnation?

Paul states this first verse of Romans 8 in an unequivocal manner: “NO condemnation”. The word ‘no’ is ‘not even a little bit’ in the Greek, meaning that there is no room for condemnation at all, because of Christ Jesus. Once you accept Jesus Christ and His free pardon from sin, there is absolutely no room for you to be condemned. Jesus was condemned for all of our sins at the cross; thus there is none left for you or me!

The last part of the verse is “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”, which appears to place qualifications on the gift of no condemnation. In the original Greek, these words do not appear in this passage, but instead appear at the end of verse 4. Bible scholars call this process of moving one passage to another place as “interpolation”. Why would the translators do this if the Apostle Paul did not write it that way?

The only explanation that I can find is that they simply could not believe that there were no qualifications or conditions upon the gift of no condemnation. Most Christians will tell you that you are under no condemnation as long as you do the right thing, but if you fail then you are condemned in your sin. This is diametrically opposed to the third verse which tells us that Jesus had sin condemned in His flesh (Romans 8:3). Since all sin was condemned in the body of Jesus, it cannot ever be condemned in my body. Hallelujah!

If walking according to the Spirit is the requirement for “no condemnation”, then Jesus broke this rule when He withheld condemnation from the woman caught in the act of adultery. There is no clearer example in the Gospels of a moment when the full weight of the law should have fallen on a law-breaker than when this woman was caught sleeping with a married man. The Pharisees hoped to trap Jesus by forcing Him to decide to either stone her under Moses’ Law or let her go free. Jesus trumped them all with, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7). Of course the Law condemned them all, so they dropped their rocks and left. Jesus then released the woman with the blessed promise, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). If ‘no condemnation’ comes only for those who walk in the Spirit, this woman is disqualified. She was living according to her fleshly desires, yet Jesus did not condemn her. It is a gift, and Jesus gives it freely!

As soon as we embrace the gift of no condemnation, the righteousness that the Law tried to bring out in us will come to the surface. Paul said, “That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). Here, the phrase “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” is in the Greek text, but now the meaning becomes clear. Walk according to what the Holy Spirit says about you and you will see the righteousness of God come out in your lifestyle. What does the Spirit say? “Now no condemnation”!

No More Curse

Revelation 22:1-4

What a beautiful scene is laid out in front of us in this text. The pure river of water of life flowing from beneath the throne of God, with the Lamb Jesus sitting there as well; all of it a picture of God’s wonderful provision and love. It takes place in the new Paradise, known as New Jerusalem on the New Earth which is our eternal home. God’s provision, as wonderful then as it is now, provides living water and trees which are “for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2).

There will also be no more curse on this New Earth. The earth that we occupy dwells under a constant curse of death. When Adam sinned in the Garden, God told him that from that day forward, “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground” (Genesis 3:17-19). God also multiplied a woman’s sorrow in conception and cursed her to dependence on her husband, with him being over her. There was also an obvious separation placed between man and beast, as before the fall, Adam had perfect interaction with them.

Death is the most obvious result of the curse, as all of us will meet that same fate someday. When Christ died at Calvary, He became the curse for us so that we could live in the blessings. His death at the cross conquered the entire universe, but He has yet to take claim of all that He conquered, choosing instead to allow time to pass so that more people will accept His payment.

The author of Hebrews wrote that Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins forever and then sat down on the right hand of God. From that moment forward, that same Jesus is waiting as one-by-one, all of His enemies are made His footstool, meaning that Jesus is resting His feet over the forces of darkness, but He has yet to put all things there (Hebrews 10:12, 13). The very last thing that He will slide up under His victorious, nail-scarred feet will be death, thus finishing the curse (1 Corinthians 15:26).

The scene of Revelation 22 also shows us that the name of Jesus will be written in the foreheads of the redeemed for eternity. We will bear a mark on us that identifies us with Him, and this is the opposite of the mark of the curse of this world. Satan will duplicate this action during the Great Tribulation with what we refer to as “The Mark of the Beast”, but where his denotes a curse, God’s denotes a blessing.

This action of the marked forehead providing the cure from the curse was first introduced in Genesis 4, when God told the murderous Cain, “Now art thou cursed from the earth” (Genesis 4:11). Cain complained that his punishment was greater that he could bear and he appealed to God for help. God, who is rich in mercy, marked Cain in the forehead so that anyone who saw him would not kill him. What could God have placed on the forehead of Cain that would make a potential killer back away? It must be something that identified Cain as being protected from God, for the curse shrinks away from the life-giver. Just as we are marked in the New Earth, Cain was marked in the old one. Thank God for His wonderful grace and mercy!

From Death to Life

1 John 3:14

We have all heard talk about passing from life to death; how we slip out of this mortal coil and into the next world, but there isn’t much talk about passing from death to life. The only place that we might hear such talk is at a Christian funeral, when the minister mentions the deceased as having picked up the next life. Thank God that we have better news than that!

John mentions the believer passing “from death unto life” (1 John 3:14), meaning that before you met Christ you were indeed “dead”. Paul said that you were “dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world…” (Ephesians 2:1, 2). Prior to our conversion, we had never really lived at all, awaiting the new life that only Jesus can provide, while we walked with all of the other sinners, in the course of this world.

The moment that we place faith in Jesus Christ, He enters our heart by the Holy Spirit and seals us until the day of redemption. This sealing is so that nothing can come in and nothing can get out. We are protected from the outside world and its influence and we cannot “lose” who we are inside. We may or may not be aware of all of these things when we accept Jesus, but the happen nonetheless.

God does not wish for us to be ignorant of all of the beautiful things that are happening inside of us, so John gives us a way to know that we have changed by showing us a fruit of our salvation. Many things will change about us when we get saved, but one thing that we cannot change on our own is how we feel about other people. In fact, if we have bad feelings toward someone, many of us will say, “Hey, I can’t change how I feel”. How correct we are! This is why John chooses the subject of loving one another as a way of knowing that you are saved.

When you come to Christ, he sheds His love abroad in your heart. As you accept His love for you, your love for others grows accordingly. In fact, it is impossible for you to know how loved that you are in the sight of God, and not give that same love out to everyone that you meet. I am often struck by the testimonies of new converts who cannot put into words what has happened in them since they met Jesus, but they can all make one, common statement, “I feel so much love!” This is the perfect work of Christ in their life, and they give that out with their action and their smile.

You know that you belong to him when the thing that you can’t change on your own is changing automatically. You truly cannot change how you feel about people, but as you change how you view your Father, and you accept His love for you, those other feelings change in turn. Our proof that we are as close to God as we claim to be is our feelings towards fellow believers. Take that litmus test in your own heart, and give God glory for the great things that He is doing and that He has done.

The Better Covenant; The Better Promises

Hebrews 8:6-8

If you were to ask many Christians, “What makes the New Covenant a better covenant?” many would respond, “We don’t have to kill lambs anymore”. This is due to the fact that Jesus died for sins, thus there is no need for animal sacrifice when we fail. Let me be blunt, if that is all that the New Covenant accomplished then that was a royal waste of time.

Jesus obtained a more excellent ministry than his priestly predecessors (Hebrews 8:6). He brought in a “better covenant, which was established upon better promises”. The purpose for bringing a better covenant was because the first covenant was found to have fault (Hebrews 8:7). The fault was not within the law itself, for it was holy, just and good (Romans 7:12). Instead, the fault was in the people on the other end of the covenant, “For finding fault with them…” (Hebrews 8:8). The “them” is Israel and Judah, just as it would be you or I.

The first covenant was faulty because it demanded perfection from a people that could never live perfect. No matter how hard someone tried, they would always be found in contempt of the law in one area or the other. Either they did things that were contrary to the law, or they failed to do the many things that the law demanded. Even in the atoning system of the Old Covenant, man was condemned constantly. If you failed and brought a sacrifice before the Lord, everyone saw you bring it and they knew that you had sinned in some respect. The law provided no privacy and no personal relationship. It was cold and it was distant, unable to help you in any way.

Jesus came to live that Old Covenant to perfection; fulfilling all of its many demands. When He died at Calvary, He cut a New Covenant with His Father, taking the faultiness out of the way. We were at fault under the Old Covenant for we could not keep the Law. Jesus has no fault, thus He stepped into our place and cut the Covenant between His Father and His perfect life. Now, we are the recipients of Jesus’ work, receiving benefits of a Covenant that we are not obligated to live up to.

The Old Covenant held man’s sins against him, while the New Covenant says, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). The Old Covenant is now decayed and truly old, “ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13), so to return to it for guidance or instruction is to go back to a system found faulty by God.

We have a better covenant and a better promise because we have a better sacrifice. Jesus did what no lamb or bull or goat could ever do; He removed the sin problem (John 1:29; Hebrews 10:4). If we are still dealing with sin it is because WE are doing it and not resting in what HE has already done. When we fail now, we are covered by the better covenant and the better promise and the knowledge of that causes us to live as we should, for His New Covenant is written on our minds and in our hearts (Hebrews 8:10).

Thank God for a better covenant, where Jesus keeps His end of the deal with the Father so that we get the blessings of heaven. Hallelujah!

Happy is the Man that Knows He is Forgiven!

Psalms 32:1, 2

If the first couple of verses of Psalms 32 look familiar that is because Paul quotes these verses in his letter to the Romans, preceded by this phrase, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5), and then, “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man…” (Verse 6). Paul is connecting David’s prayer with his own revelation of righteousness without the keeping of the law. Let’s look closer at this connection that Paul is making.

Paul does not assume that David is talking about himself, which is how some Bible teachers explain this verse, attempting to say that we do not have this promise, but that only David had it. If David were talking only of himself, then Paul would not have made the connection as being relevant for his own readers in Rome. He also would not have said, “The blessedness of the man” (verse 6), but rather, “the blessedness of David”.

“Blessed” is better translated “happy” from the Greek. The man who knows that his iniquities are forgiven and his sins are covered is happy. There is a joy unspeakable connected the knowledge that you are forgiven of all of your failures and that your sins are gone in Jesus. With an improper knowledge of this forgiveness, your Christian walk is one of misery and discouragement because you will attempt to please a God that is already well pleased.

The next “blessed” is especially exciting, “Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile” (Psalms 32:2). When Paul quotes this verse in Romans 4:8, he drops the last part, “in whose spirit there is no guile” because as a New Covenant teacher he knows that there can be no guile, or hypocrisy in the spirit man of a believer. There may be hypocrisy in their thoughts and their actions, but their spirit man is as Christ in this world (1 John 4:17).

Having exposed only the front half of the verse, Paul furthers us deeper into the power of this phrase by using an emphatic Greek phrase for “will not”. It means “never, ever”, which shows us that “Happy is the man to whom the Lord will never, ever impute sin”. What a glorious thought!

Opponents of this interpretation say that David is referring to the man who lives right. They say that if you do right then God cannot impute sin to you. First of all, “impute” means “to count”, thus if sins are imputed then they are counted against you. If they are not imputed then they are not counted against you. Think about it for a moment; why would someone who does the right thing be excited that their sin is not going to be imputed against them? They haven’t done anything wrong! The only one who would be “happy” about sins not counting against them is the one who has done something wrong.

This message is often neglected because people are afraid that this knowledge will lead to sinful lifestyles among believers. Actually, the opposite is true! The knowledge that you are not condemned never leads you to want to sin more, but rather it is the one thing that helps you to go and “sin no more”.

Be happy today with the knowledge that your sins are not imputed against you because they have already been imputed to Jesus at the cross and He has paid your penalty. Hallelujah!

Thou Shalt Not Die

2 Samuel 12:13

The 11th chapter of 2 Samuel is one of the saddest in the Bible. It tells the story of David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba and his subsequent murder of her husband and the cover-up thereafter. The “apple of God’s eye” slipped so far into sin, and it is painful to read about. The 12th chapter is the confrontation between Nathan, the prophet of God and King David. Nathan tells him about his sin, how that God has seen what he did and will bring the sword into his house forever.

We learn a valuable lesson about the redemptive power of grace in this chapter. When David acknowledges his sin, he confesses it as being “against the LORD”. This act of repentance is seen by God as faith, knowing that David has a broken heart due to his failure. Nathan responds with, “The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die”. What sweet words those are! To know that the Lord has put your sin away so that you are not guilty anymore is the greatest knowledge in the world.

Why does God put away David’s sin, even without a lamb being sacrificed? David tells us that this is the fact in his prayer of repentance, found in Psalm 51: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God thou wilt not despise” (verse 17). There is no scripture prior to this one that told man that the Lord was looking for a broken spirit in man, but David had knowledge as to how the heart of God functioned. He knew that God could not and would not turn away the broken man; for God created man and He loves him unconditionally.

Prior to this verse, David tells us another remarkable truth, “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering” (Psalms 51:16). Again, at no point in previous scripture has God indicated that He did not want sacrifices to be offered for the sins of man, but David is looking forward to the cross, when God would need no more lambs. David is a New Covenant thinker in an Old Covenant world, and God honors this kind of faith.

So complete is God’s forgiveness, that when Chronicles retells the story of Israel it intentionally leaves out the story of David and Bathsheba (1 Chronicles 20:1). I call this, “The Case of the Missing Story”, because when you look for the story of David’s sin, it is missing. God’s redemption is complete in that there is no trace of the failure left over when the blood of Jesus is applied.

Under the Old Covenant, God remembered Israel’s sins, “to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 20:5), but under the New Covenant, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17). When David appealed forward to Christ’s finished work, he was doing so independent of works, believing for a time when God would not count his sins against him.

You and I are living under this New Covenant, and we have the blessed promise that our sins are forgiven. Does this motivate you to go out and sin? Of course not! In fact, we know that we are dead to sin, so how can we continue to live in it? (Romans 6:1, 2) The knowledge that our sins are gone is coupled with the insurmountable love of God which strengthens us to live beyond sin. In fact, how can we continue to live in failure with so much grace around us? Give God glory for the knowledge that, “Thou shalt not die”.