JESUS THE REVOLUTIONIST
Jesus is probably the most talked about and multi-described man who has ever walked this planet’s surface. He has been called a king, a man of sorrows, a peacemaker, a trouble-maker, a lunatic, a holy man, demon-possessed, Messiah, Savior, Lord, and the list goes on. But the name that probably most correctly describes Him, is ‘revolutionist.’
A revolutionist is one who appears on the scene with the primary goal of transforming the culture or society of the time. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus came to do exactly that. I also believe that it was God’s intention that He do just that, for the good of society and culture, not just for that time, but for ever. For several thousand years, God had seen the world’s population as two distinct groups. The Jews, and the Gentiles. He had chosen Abraham to be the father of a new nation, called Israel. He chose Abraham and his decedents as a special people, who were to eventually make possible the transformation of the population of the whole world. Jews had the opportunity to quit their citizenship of this nation, and the Gentiles were able to become Jews if they so desired, by obeying all the laws that God gave to His chosen people.
When Moses was called by God to bring the Jews out of Egypt’s captivity, He orchestrated a strict set of rules that, if obeyed, would guarantee these Jews a life of blessing, relationship with Him, and joy. Moses was called by God to the top of a mountain to accept what we know as the Ten Commandments. These were the laws of God that would guarantee the spiritual health of these Jews, if they obeyed them. If they disobeyed them, they would lose their relationship with God, be punished, or even ‘deported.’ No longer blessed by God as His chosen people. But as these millions of Jews walked across the vast desert on their way to the Promised Land, there was much trouble between tribes and individuals, as is always the case when lots of people are forced into living in close quarters. So, God once again gave Moses a list of rules concerning relationships and civil conduct, so that they could get along without squabbling. The bible makes it abundantly clear that these rules were very hard to obey fully. The apostle Paul gave us a clear insight into just how difficult it was for a Jewish man to live under these rules. In Romans chapter seven he used hyperbole to describe such a life. One aspect of these rules, was the requirement for anyone who had sinned to make amends for that sin by bringing an animal or bird to an altar specifically built for acts of worship and other spiritual matters. They were to sacrifice this animal or bird, by the shedding of it’s blood on that altar, as a sin offering, so that God could forgive them for their sin.
This was how the Jews were to live, and to help them, God sent prophets to guide them in their worship and obedience to God’s laws. This second list of rules are known as the Mosaic Law. There were many prophets during the three thousand odd years before Jesus came on the scene. Many of them were hated by the people because the prophets would tell them how God would punish them if they continued to disobey His laws. They were persecuted, tortured, and even killed by angry crowds of ‘sinners.’ Moses was the first of this long list of prophets God ordained to speak on His behalf to these chosen people of His. Eventually, there was a period of about three hundred years when no prophets were present. God had definitely not given up on His people, but I am sure that He meant them to know what it was like to have no prophet to chastise them when they sinned, or to guide them in their attempts to obey God’s laws.
Then Jesus, the Ultimate Prophet, arrived on the scene. Many of the Jews were expecting Him, because God had given them the promise that He would send the Messiah who would ‘set them free from captivity.’ The problem with that was that some of these Jews believed that Jesus would set them free from the harsh rule of the Roman Empire. So, they missed the incredible truth that was, by far, much greater than being free from the Romans. God intended to set them free from sin, and the bondage of the Mosaic Law, which was difficult to keep. I have always had difficulty getting my head around how these people could afford to keep sacrificing animals for forgiveness of sins. There were in the vicinity of two million of them who escaped Egypt and roamed that desert for forty years. If they sinned like ‘Christians’ of our day do, how did they ever keep enough animals or birds to gain forgiveness, or keep in right relationship with God? I have only one logical answer to that: they did NOT sin anywhere near as much as I did when I thought I was a Christian because I had trusted Jesus, believed in Him, accepted Him as my Lord and Savior, and did my daily devotions and attended church faithfully. I am sure the Apostle Paul would disappear in a fire ball if he was a pastor today. He told us that when he heard of one of his flock sinning, he would feel a fire in his gut. So, obviously very few folks who professed to be Christ-followers of his day, sinned. In fact, he addressed his letters to, the saints, or holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse, or Ephesus, or wherever he was writing to. We all know that saints don’t sin. That’s precisely why they are called saints. And nobody in Christ sins.
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And IN HIM IS NO SIN. NO ONE WHO LIVES IN HIM SINS. No one who sins has either seen him or known him. 1 Jn. 3:4-6
I was a very respected member of the churches I attended in various towns and cities I lived in as a young man. [ My business required us moving several times] In fact, I was given places of leadership in all of them, and folks sought my counsel and advice on spiritual matters. But I was tormented by the knowledge that my life was not pleasing to the God who I professed to love and serve. I fought a sexual addiction with all my being: heart, soul, and mind. I ended up literally despising myself due to this sin. I cried out to God for years, begging Him to give me victory over this sin. I seriously studied several versions of the bible, searching for how to overcome my sin, and the way I felt about myself. Then one day it suddenly dawned on me that my motive for all of this searching, begging, and studying of God’s word was selfish. I wanted to feel good about myself. I hated hating myself. The desire to accept myself was greater than my desire to please Him. Of course, I can see that now, when I look back and realise, I was not even a Christian then, so God never even heard any of my prayers, pleas and beggings.
If I had been aware of sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; Ps. 66:18
If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable Prov. 28:9
We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Jn. 9:31
So, I started studying scripture with the motive of desiring to know and please God. He revealed Himself to me, and by getting to know Him, I learned that He was absolutely serious when He said that the wage of sin was death. That gave me cause to fear Him, simply because I sinned. Sin also negates any possibility of loving God. One cannot love and grieve God at the same time. True love [agape] is a choice to do what’s for the greatest good of the other, regardless of personal cost. That enabled me to truly repent, and He gave me victory over that addiction.
Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of the Lord will be with you to keep you from sinning. Ex. 20:20
Of course, I had been taught that all my sin, past, present and future was ‘paid for’ by Jesus dying on the cross. But I never felt secure in that teaching. The more I studied His inerrant word, the more I realized that my sin had not been ‘paid for’ in the context of forgiveness. Sure, Jesus died to make the final and ultimate sacrifice for all future sins, but that did not remove the consequence of sin. What He did on that cross was crucify the old covenant: the Mosaic Law [Col. 2:14], and remove any need for you and me to sacrifice an animal or bird on an altar at a temple somewhere, for forgiveness of sin. That was the incredible transformation of society that He came to accomplish. He opened the door for all people to become His chosen people, as only the Jews were previously. Gentiles were now able to search for Him with all their hearts, come to know Him, learn to fear Him, so that they could repent and receive the Holy Spirit, and know and experience the joy of His salvation and the victory that was theirs in Christ Jesus.
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38
That was the most incredible transformation of society this world has ever experienced.
God’s word clearly assures us that salvation is not possible in the absence of fearing Him. Many verses in Psalms and Proverbs tell us clearly that fear of God gives us life and security. I will not include them here, because if you believe what I have told you here, you will begin a serious search of scripture yourself to get to know God, and you will find them all for yourself. I will include the following verse to show you that the truth about the fear of God was not just for the Old Testament folks, but for us as well.
Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. Acts 10:34-35
You may have noticed the fact that it was not just those who feared Him, but those who ‘did what was right’ who were accepted by God into His family. Today’s gospel tells you that you were given [clothed with] the righteousness of Christ when you ‘believed in Him.’ The Greek word from which we got the word ‘believe’ from, means: ‘believe, trust, have faith in, with the implication that actions based on that belief, faith and trust will follow.’ So, actions are necessary for righteousness. James confirms that in Js. 2:24 where he tells us that we are made righteous [justified] by what we do, and not by faith alone.
In fact, Jesus made that very same truth very clear as well. And other’s confirmed that truth.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Mat. 7:21
The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 1 Jn. 2:17
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. Heb. 10:36
I just read a tweet from someone calling himself Billy Graham, that told us there was some major cosmic battle going on while Jesus was on the cross. It sounded so spiritual and important, but I have never read about such a battle in my bible, so I don’t know where he got this information. We should be interested in what goes on here on our planet shouldn’t we? In our own lives? Whatever he thinks went on up there in the heavens has zero effect on how you or I can obtain salvation. And that has NOT changed as a result of Jesus dying on the cross. We are ‘saved’ by doing God’s will. Matt. 7:21 That has been true ever since the Garden of Eden. Gen. 4:7 God’s will is simply doing what is right in His eyes. He calls that ‘righteousness.’ Rom. 2:13, 6:16, 1 Jn 3:7
I frequently read tweets that claim the tweeter’s sins have ALL been ‘covered’ by the blood of Jesus. Jesus did ‘pay the price,’ in a sense that His blood was shed in place of spotless animals demanded by the Old Covenant. But it did NOT ‘forgive’ those sins automatically. We must repent to be forgiven, and repentance simply means a cessation of sin. Ex. 20:20. Ezek. 33:11-20 explains this clearly. I heard pastor Robert Jeffress profess to praying every night that God would forgive him for the sins he committed that day. But God also assures us many times over that He NEVER hears prayers from sinners, so Robert’s sins have never been forgiven.
He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of America to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually provoke me to anger? Look at them thumbing their noses at me.
Therefore, I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.” Ezek. 8:17-18
When one repents, one is given the Holy Spirit for forgiveness of sins. After that one lives IN CHRIST where there is NO sin, 1 Jn. 3:4-10.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezek. 36:26-27.
So there is only one point in time when we are forgiven of sins, because we never sin again after that. Nobody is ‘redeemed’ just because Jesus died and rose again. When we repent, God applies the blood of Jesus on a heavenly altar that only God & Jesus are aware of. It’s part of the New Covenant. In the absence of repentance, Christ’s blood has zero meaning or power to change us in any way. It’s very similar to having a bank account. We simply cannot have faith in the fact that there is a bank account, and keep using our debit cards, without actually depositing money into it. We have a responsibility to deposit money into that account, to keep it viable.
When we spend the time required to get to know God, and learn to fear Him, so we can truly repent & receive the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of our sins, we ‘draw’ on our ‘heavenly faith account,’ that guarantees our sins are forgiven, and we now live in Christ, where there is NO SIN. 1 Jn. 3:4-6
Today’s preachers fawn all over Jesus and claim all sorts of nonsense about what He did on the cross, but basically all He did was cancel the Old Covenant and introduce the New Covenant, which allows Gentiles to become God’s children. When Jesus claimed that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and nobody comes to the Father but through Him, that fits in with what He did on the cross. He offered the sacrifice of blood that was required for forgiveness, but each of us must repent so that sacrifice is personal to us. Lk. 13:3 and 5 confirms that. Jesus told us there, that we have two options with life. We either repent, or perish. There were three main reasons Jesus came to this planet.
To display the life that all Christians must live.
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.
Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.
But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus lived. 1 Jn. 2:3-6
To abolish/cancel the Mosaic Law. Col 2:14 [Usher in the New Covenant.]
To pay the ultimate and final sacrifice for all future sins.
Jesus assured us that He never did anything accept what His Father told Him to do. That was a perfect example of how each of God’s sons and daughters must live as well. That is literally ‘living the life Christ lived.’ When Paul wrote to the Hebrews, [I believe he wrote that book] he gave them this exhortation: ‘Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.’ Heb. 12:2 That was NOT a commandment to fawn all over Jesus. It was to closely follow, or adhere to, the life that Jesus lived. Jesus gave us a perfect picture of the life we must live. He ‘authored’ that life, in real time, rather than on paper, with text. If you read the verse before that, you will see how this is possible: ‘Let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.’ That is clearly in accordance with all of the teaching of the New Testament. Repent and live the life Christ lived. Jesus assuredly persevered toward the ‘race marked out’ for His life: His death, burial, and resurrection.
My book ‘A Nation Broken’ explains all this, and much more. It details what must take place to bring healing for America from this Satanic attack she is suffering under at present. Get it from Amazon or B &N today.