Destined to Reign (12 page)

The Holy Spirit is present even today to witness about Jesus. Therefore, to blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to keep on rejecting the gospel of Jesus and to depend on your own efforts to be saved. Jesus was warning the Pharisees not to commit this sin, and to stop rejecting Him. This clearly does not apply to the believer. You see, in reading the Bible, it is important to note who the words were spoken to and to ascertain if the words are relevant for the believer. In this case, Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees who had rejected Him and who even made claims that He had an unclean spirit. Imagine their audacity! As for you, my friend, have full assurance in your heart that it is impossible for a believer to commit the unpardonable sin. A believer has already received the gift of eternal life and will never be “subject to eternal condemnation”.

Rightly Dividing The Word

There is a lot of confusion and wrong believing in the church today because many Christians read their Bibles without rightly dividing the old and new covenants. They don’t realize that even some of the words which Jesus spoke in the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are part of the old covenant. They were spoken
before
the cross as He had not yet died. The new covenant only begins
after
the cross, when the Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost.

There is a lot of confusion and wrong believing in the church today because many Christians read their Bibles without rightly dividing the old and new covenants.

I know that our Bibles are divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament, which begins with the four gospels. However, it is important to realize that
the cross made a difference
! Some of what Jesus said
before
the cross and what He said
after
the cross were spoken under completely different covenants. You also need to see who Jesus was speaking to. At times, He was speaking to the Pharisees, who boasted in their perfect law-keeping. With them, Jesus brought the law to its pristine standard, such that it was impossible for any man to keep.

“But Pastor Prince, I believe that we should do everything that Jesus said!”

My friend, Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you… And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
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Have you done that?

Do you think that Jesus expects us to do all that, or does He want us to rightly divide the Word, and understand who He was speaking to in that passage and what He meant? If the church were to obey everything that Jesus said in that passage, then it would look like a huge amputation ward! (I hope that I don’t hear you saying, “Pastor Prince, you should have written this book earlier — I have already plucked out one eye and severed one arm!”)

Come on, Jesus said all that to bring the law back to its pristine standard, a standard that ensured that no man could keep the law. He said all that so that man would come to the end of depending on himself and begin to see that he desperately needs a savior. So when we read the words of Jesus in the four gospels, it is necessary for us to rightly divide the Word and understand
who
Jesus was speaking to.

Let me give you another example. You may have heard some preachers yelling at unbelievers and using the term “a brood of vipers”. But Jesus
never
called sinners — not even the prostitutes and corrupt tax collectors — “a brood of vipers”. Never! Those harsh words by Jesus were reserved only for the Pharisees
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, whose fixation on the law blinded them from seeing God in the flesh — Jesus, who gave the law in the first place and who came to fulfill the law on man’s behalf. So learn to rightly divide the Word of God whenever you read the Bible. Not everything that Jesus said was spoken to the church.

Feed On The Letters Of Apostle Paul

Paul’s letters were written to the church and are thus for our benefit today. God raised him up to write the words of the ascended Jesus, who is seated today at the Father’s right hand. That is why, when it comes to reading the Bible, I always encourage new believers in our church to begin with the letters of Paul. (Many new believers like to start with the book of Revelation or Genesis, without first getting a foundation in the gospel of grace through reading the letters of Paul.)

Have you noticed that Paul never mentioned the unpardonable sin? Not one time, in all his letters to the churches, did he warn Christians about the unpardonable sin. If Christians could commit the unpardonable sin, he should have mentioned it in every epistle that he wrote. On the other hand, Paul emphasized that Jesus, by His death on the cross, has made us “alive together with Him, having forgiven you
all
trespasses”
7
. I have checked the original Greek word for “all”
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in this verse and guess what? “All” means ALL! Jesus, with His own blood, has forgiven you of ALL your sins, so there is
no
sin that is unpardonable! By one perfect sacrifice, Jesus has cleansed you of the sins of your entire life and you are now sealed with the promise of eternal life! Now, this is good news that will establish your heart with grace and confidence.

God does not leave you wondering whether you are saved or not. He tells you outright that you are His and that nothing can ever separate you from the love of Christ. Not even sin because His blood is greater than your sin! Knowing that all your sins are forgiven is crucial for your health, peace of mind, wholeness and wellness. My struggle with the unpardonable sin during my teenage years is a case in point. The more you believe that all your sins are forgiven by the blood of Jesus, the more you will become whole — body, soul and spirit!

Knowing that all your sins are forgiven is crucial for your health, peace of mind, wholeness and wellness.

I hope that by now, you can see the dangers of lifting the Word of God out of its context. We have to be careful not to take a verse out of its context and build a teaching or doctrine around it. Bible teachings have to be confirmed by several supporting verses and these have to be studied within their proper contexts. When you hear teachings that put fear in your heart and place you under bondage, don’t just swallow them hook, line, sinker, fisherman and boots. Look at the context of the verse, and see if it is a new covenant truth or an old covenant teaching. Who was the verse spoken or written to, and how is it applicable to you today? Just remember that all new covenant truths exalt Jesus and His finished work. Hallelujah!

The Main Clause Of The New Covenant

It is sad that you hardly hear the main clause of the new covenant being preached today:

Hebrews 8:8–12

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… “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant…
9
not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt…
10
For this is the covenant that I will make… I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people…
12
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more
.”

“I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Memorize this, beloved, for this is the main and final clause of the new covenant!

Unfortunately, it seems that what the average Christian believes today is the complete opposite. They believe that God is
not
merciful to their sins. When something goes wrong, inwardly they think, “Well, the rooster has come home to roost. My past sins have caught up with me. All these terrible things are happening to my family and my finances because of the sins that I have committed.” When they have a flat tire, they start thinking to themselves, “What sin is God punishing me for now?” This kind of thinking is so prevalent in the church because Christians don’t really believe that they are under the new covenant.

The problem with the church today is
wrong believing
. I’m sorry to tell you this, but if you refuse to believe what God has said about the forgiveness of sins in the new covenant, then you are actually in disobedience. Jesus Himself defined the new covenant for us at the last supper when He said, “This is My blood of the
new covenant
, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins
.”
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The main clause of the new covenant is the forgiveness of all your sins because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. I don’t care how many good deeds you have done, how much money you have given to charity or what leadership position you hold. If you do not believe the main clause of the new covenant, you are in disobedience.

God does not keep an itemized account of all your failures.

God put the main clause of the new covenant as the last clause to show us that it is this final clause that makes everything work. If you don’t believe the main and final clause, you are rejecting the new covenant and negating the finished work of Jesus. The new covenant says that God is merciful to
all
your unrighteousness, and has forgotten your sins plus your lawless deeds. If God says that He has forgotten them, then He has truly forgotten them. Who are we to contradict Him? God cannot lie!

“But how can God forget my sins?”

He can because He is God! If He said it, then He has done it. You know that sin you committed many years ago?
God has forgotten it
. Contrary to what you might have been taught, God does not keep an itemized account of all your failures. There is no big projector screen in heaven to show all your sins from the day you were born to the day you return to heaven. All records of your sins have been incinerated by the blood of Jesus when He cried out, “It is finished!”
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His blood has removed the sins of your entire life. When God looks at you today, He sees you covered with Jesus’ blood and completely righteous.

Only the devil, you yourself and the people around you will bring your sins to your remembrance. So when you are weighed down by the mistakes of your past, run to God and lean on His grace! Why? For He will be merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sins and your lawless deeds He will remember no more. This is the main clause of the new covenant of grace!

Chapter 9: The Waterfall Of Forgiveness

In the previous chapter, we established that the main and final clause of the new covenant is captured in Hebrews 8:12 — “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

“Pastor Prince, if people know that all their sins have already been forgiven, won’t they go ahead and sin?”

Well, I have yet to encounter such a creature. I have yet to encounter anyone who, after receiving the grace of our Lord Jesus, says to himself, “Now I can go out and sin!” However, I have encountered people who have given up and walked away from God, not because they were evil and desired to sin, but because they were sincere and had consistently failed in their attempts to keep the laws of the old covenant, and ended up feeling like hypocrites. On the other hand, because of the teaching of new covenant truths, I have received countless written testimonies and personally witnessed precious lives, marriages and families transformed by the grace of our Lord Jesus.

I had a couple come up to me one time, telling me that they would like to be married in our church. I saw that they were accompanied by a few children and asked if they had been married before. (I was thinking that the kids might have come from their previous marriages.) Smiling widely, they told me that they had in fact been married to each other before, but that they had been separated for many years.

Somehow, separately, they both started attending New Creation Church, and after listening to the teaching on forgiveness and God’s grace, God began to restore their relationship and they wanted to be remarried. Isn’t that wonderful? I also thought to myself that it must have been so wonderful for their children to actually get to witness their parents’ wedding ceremony. (How many kids have that privilege?) My friend, that’s the power of the gospel of Christ. It’s about restoring marriages and mending broken lives!

The Revelation Of Forgiveness

My friend, knowing that you are completely forgiven destroys the power of sin in your life. I know how this revelation has changed me and transformed my life. Jesus Himself said that those who are forgiven much will love Him much. Those who are forgiven little (actually, these creatures do not exist because all of us have been forgiven much!), or I should say, those who
think
that they have been forgiven little will love Him only a little.

Knowing that you are completely forgiven destroys the power of sin in your life.