Salvation: God alone makes Christians (Part 11)
We continue from last week's teaching where we stopped at:
Job 33:26 "He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness."
We've looked at the "new man" and how he is the source of God’s favour in the life of a born again believer. The new man is the "hidden man of the heart" (1 Peter 3:4), a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God of great price. He is the reason why God looks at a born again believer with joy. The part after the colon mark in Job 33:26 further explains, that is, God has rendered unto man his righteousness i.e. God looks at the born again believer and he sees a spotless righteousness.
Psalms 28:4 "Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert."
What is “render”? The word "render" has the meaning "to give; to assign" according to the Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1828). God gave his only begotten Son to be a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, that through his death, we may obtain his spotless righteousness, whosoever believeth in him. He is the "price" that God has paid so that every born again believer may be clothed with the righteousness that is of the LORD.
Genesis 3:21 "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them."
After man sinned in the garden of Eden, they tried to clothe themselves with aprons made of fig leaves, as in:
Genesis 3:7 "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons."
The aprons of fig leaves are a picture of man’s corrupted righteousness, which is in the sight of God, nakedness. After Adam and Eve had taken from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were now corrupt before God. That’s why God had to make them coats of skins and clothed them.
Hebrews 9:22 "... and without shedding of blood is no remission."
Genesis 3:21 is the foreshadow of Christ’s crucifixion at the cross for the remission of our sins.
Genesis 4:3-5 "And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. 4 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: 5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell."
God speaketh once, yea twice (Job 33:14). We find this pattern reverberated throughout the 66 books of the Holy Bible. This passage is God showing us again that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. There is an apron made of fig leaves, but there is a covering made of skins. There is a sacrifice, but there is also a "more excellent sacrifice", as in:
Hebrews 11:4 "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh."
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice because he believed in the words of the LORD. Cain on the other hand offered a bloodless sacrifice because he did not believe in the words of the LORD. Notice the part in this verse "God testifying of his gifts..."? Abel’s faith was his gifts to God, and God testified of his gifts as the good fruit that came from the word of God sown in the good ground of an "honest and good heart" (Luke 8:15). While Cain also offered a form of fruit, that was not the kind of fruit which God was looking for, and so he rejected his gifts.
Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast."
Faith is the only reason why some people are saved and are going to heaven while others are not and are going to hell. In fact, most people, even those who call themselves Christians, will not make it to heaven because they sought not after the LORD by faith in his words, but by their own works. Did Cain believe in God?
James 2:19 "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble."Moreover, the Bible reveals unto us in:
James tells us that devils also believe in one God, and they tremble. Therefore Cain also believe in one God, but he did not have the kind of faith that Abel had. The faith Abel had in him produced the works of righteousness so that his gifts were acceptable unto God. Likewise, the "faith" that Cain had in him also produced works, but it is not the kind of works that a born again believer would produce.
Genesis 4:5-8 "But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell… And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him."
The difference between the kind of faith in Abel and the kind of "faith" in Cain is manifested as enmity between the children of God and the children of the Devil. Why did Cain slew Abel?
1 John 3:12 "Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous."
Cain was of that wicked one NOT because he was genetically a child of the Devil, but because the "man" that was inside of him came from the “wicked one”. To the serpent, God said in:
Genesis 3:15 "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
Luke 8:11 "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God."
We know from Luke 8:11 that the seed is the word of God. Present with the soul of every lost person is an "old man".
Romans 6:6 "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."
The "old man" is the reason why we serve sin, but the old man in every born again believer is crucified with Christ so that we should no longer serve sin. With the soul of a born again believer is a "new man", which is the opposite of the old man. So, we know by this comparison that the enmity is between the old man and the new man. Notice Paul said in Romans 6:6 that the old man "is crucified", which is to say, the old man is crucified and continues to be crucified in a born again believer.
Luke 9:23-24 "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it."
Likewise, the faith of a truly born again believer is a continuing faith, but the struggle is always between the flesh and the spirit.
Romans 7:22-23 "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."
The inward man is the new man, and a born again believer delight in the law of God after the new man. But then, there is another law in the flesh that is constantly warring against the law of God in the mind, causing a believer to do that which he would not. Every born again believer will struggle with sin as long as he is in the flesh.
Romans 7:19 "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do."
That is the true gospel, and any gospel that tells you otherwise, or gospels which demand that you must do this or you must do that in order maintain your salvation are not the real gospel.
Romans 7:24-25 "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
The real gospel according to Paul teaches that Jesus Christ is the one who MUST deliver us from the body of this death. While we continue to believe and grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, he is the one who must fight the battle for us and in us. We shall continue next week in Part 12.