Answers to Twisted Scripture

[Ed Sutton]

1 ¶  There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

This man was an unconverted Jew who was honest and was not satisfied with his spiritual condition and Father God was drawing him to Christ.   Christ was going to arrest his attention, put him under conviction, and start implanting desire to follow Him as The Lord Christ, not just teacher, rabbi, healer etc etc.

2  The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

This man was feeling his need enough to come, but was embarrassed to go to someone of lesser offical stature in the hirarchy - to have his heart needs and questions answered.  nicodemus was a ruler by human rules - Christ is ruler by eternal Heaven's rules.  He tries carnal flattery, betraying his unconvertedness, by he is yearning - so he comes.

3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Jesus immediatly cuts to the heart, nicodemus is already under conviction - He needs to see Jesus as The Christ, and accept Christ as His personal Saviour.  New rules new orthadoxey can not save him, only Christ can save him.  he must see himself as lost without union with Christ. He must see that he needs conversion ( the new heart / mind). Jewishness or ancient original SDA'ism can not save him, only Christ can save him.

4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

Nicodemus is spiritually gagging / choaking on this reality - so he resorts to a semi fictitious pretense of not understanding the deeper meaning that Jesus is telling him.

5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Nicodemus knows that genuine converts are spiritually changed people, physically becoming a jew and spiritually becoming a jew inwardly - nicodemus knows the wide difference. Biology can not make converts, only conversion can do that, being a jew without conversion does not entitle the person to Heaven.


7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9  Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10  Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

Jesus is asking that if you are a spiritual teacher in Israel - why don't you know and teach this - heaven expects it to be known & taught - why don't you know this ?      (The implied answer is that you have not personally experienced conversion yourself yet.)

11  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.

Jesus that He knows anout this and Heaven - first hand.

12  If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?     

If Nicodemus can not grasp and apply spiritual truths already opened to folks here below he can not grasp the mission of Jesus.


13  And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

Using the Jewish method of first giving the headline, then telling how the headline event was built by next describing the foundation building process leadiong up to the headline - 1st Jesus tells nicodemus  - He was personally in  Heaven, 2nd - that He Christ came down from Heaven, 3rd - human rules, orthadoxey, human understanding apart from God - can not reach up into Heaven and declarte how salvation operates - only God can explain and define it - like He (Jesus is doing right then ).


14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

Jesus tells nicodemus what he can understand and directs nicoidemus's future Bible studies - directions.  Brazen serpent symbol is also a prophecy applying to Messiah.  the very direction nicodemus needs to study.


15  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Jesus gives nicodemus as much spiritual directions in salvations absolutes as he can endure that night, and tells nicodemus why the Jewish nation is accepted or rejected.  Nicodemus knows the 70 week prophecy - Jesus telling the spiritual absolutes of acceptance or rejection - nicodemus knows Yom Kippur . 

[Bob Blake]

Amen!

[Donna H]

What does the term justification mean?

It has to do with our standing before God and the universe. The Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death. God told Adam and Eve they would surely die if they ate from the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. They ate and they no longer could have eternal life without some changes taking place. They disqualified themselves of their eternal life. They were not justified in having eternal life. God's rules had been broken and in order to regain their justification for eternal life, there were conditions that must be met. There were two. First, Christ must die in their place. Second, they must receive Christ into their hearts. If both were to take place, they would then regain eternal life. It would be granted based upon these two conditions having been met. Having both requirements fulfilled the sinner would then be "justified" in regaining eternal life.

Here is the definition of justify:

Etymology:
    Middle English justifien, from Anglo-French or Late Latin; Anglo-French justifier, from Late Latin justificare, from Latin justus
Date:    14th century

transitive verb1 a: to prove or show to be just, right, or reasonable b (1): to show to have had a sufficient legal reason (2): to qualify (oneself) as a surety by taking oath to the ownership of sufficient property2 aarchaic : to administer justice to barchaic : absolve c: to judge, regard, or treat as righteous and worthy of salvation3 a: to space (as lines of text) so that the lines come out even at the margin b: to make even by justifying <justified margins>intransitive verb1 a: to show a sufficient lawful reason for an act done b: to qualify as bail or surety2: to justify lines of text


This is the meaning of justification. It is the reason why one can be saved. The "justification" for eternal life is just what Scripture has revealed, that we be born again. Because we accept Christ as our sacrifice, He will stand in our place for our past sins. We are then justified in Christ Jesus.

And this is all so legal. The everlasting law is clearly the foundation of God's everlasting government and is our everlasting requirement. Understanding justification properly untwists another of the greatest twistings ever - the belief that the law has become kind of a side-bar, something useful for us, but not integral and unchanging and perfect, and desireable, "yeah, finer than much fine gold". Without the foundation of the law, why the gospel?

[Ed Sutton]

I looked up the phrase "justification means"  in inspiration and found 4 hits,  the words used in Scripture translated as some form of the word justify - probably are numerous and worth exploring.

I discovered justification contains both legality and spirituality concerns with delayed deferred physical ramifications.  Justification is represented as the gateway to sanctification, which is the gateway to the  delayed deferred physical ramifications involved in being preserved IN Christ Jesus - removal of mortality and corruptability and glorification. 

[Donna H]

Adding to what Brother Ed gave us,

According to Strong's, "justification":

Romans 4:25, 5:18 = G1347
1. the act of God declaring men free from guilt and acceptable to him,
2. abjuring to be righteous, justification

4:25 -"Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."

5:18 - "Therefore as by the offence of one [judgment came] upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one [the free gift came] upon all men unto justification of life."

Romans 5:16 = G1345
1) that which has been deemed right so as to have force of law
.....a) what has been established, and ordained by law, an ordinance
.....b) a judicial decision, sentence
.........1) of God
............a) either the favourable judgment by which he acquits man and declares them acceptable to Him
............b) unfavourable: sentence of condemnation
2) a righteous act or deed

5:16 - "And not as [it was] by one that sinned, [so is] the gift: for the judgment [was] by one to condemnation, but the free gift [is] of many offences unto justification."

So then, justification seems to be the undoing of what Satan did by the same law, therefore giving us the strength of the law, where if we stay in Christ, none can take us from Him. Our saving is so solid, if we remain in Christ. When judgment comes, and Satan is accusing us (if that's how it works?) like he did Moses, our case is air tight. By the same law by which we were lost, we are now saved. Satan can find no fault. Being "preserved" in Christ, we are hid, and transformed/sanctified, because the very law itself transforms us. So, by grace, we are justified, deemed acceptable to God, reconciled if we choose to repent and accept the free gift, and preserved, hidden in His presence, thereby being transformed by His presence into the likeness of Him, who the law is an expression of?

Maybe where many people have trouble and get 'twisted', is with separating the character of God (His name, His law) from God. They forget that God is also love and when they talk about the law, they split God in two, in effect killing God in their own minds. That would actually make sense applied to the Pharisee's. They hacked off the love aspect of God, and literally killed Him. Folks today, hack of the law aspect, and crucify Him over and over again with continual sin.

If I am on track, this gives a whole new layer to John 17:

God is love. The law is an expression of God's character, which is His name. So God = love = law = name? Is that sound logic?

17:11 - "I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are."

We can't be in unity without the law.

We are told in 1John 3:18 - "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."

We are told in Psalm 119:142 - "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth."

"Justification is the gateway". And it's legal.

God is so beyond us, it is only possible to understand Him by what He tells us and shows about Himself. How doomed are we if we saw Him asunder and only trust half of what He says?


God bless.
Donna

 

[Richard Myers]

So then, justification seems to be the undoing of what Satan did by the same law, therefore giving us the strength of the law, where if we stay in Christ, none can take us from Him. Our saving is so solid, if we remain in Christ. When judgment comes, and Satan is accusing us (if that's how it works?) like he did Moses, our case is air tight. By the same law by which we were lost, we are now saved. Satan can find no fault. Being "preserved" in Christ, we are hid, and transformed/sanctified, because the very law itself transforms us. So, by grace, we are justified, deemed acceptable to God, reconciled if we choose to repent and accept the free gift, and preserved, hidden in His presence, thereby being transformed by His presence into the likeness of Him, who the law is an expression of?

Maybe where many people have trouble and get 'twisted', is with separating the character of God (His name, His law) from God. They forget that God is also love and when they talk about the law, they split God in two, in effect killing God in their own minds. That would actually make sense applied to the Pharisee's. They hacked off the love aspect of God, and literally killed Him. Folks today, hack of the law aspect, and crucify Him over and over again with continual sin.

If I am on track, this gives a whole new layer to John 17:

Amen!  How can we say that the law of God is not a law of love? It is a reflection of Him who gave all for us while we were yet sinners! But, here is an important distinction that must be made. The law has no power to save, its function in our world is to condemn. Here is the thought from Romans 8:3,4. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 

God is love. The law is an expression of God's character, which is His name. So God = love = law = name? Is that sound logic?

Amen. But, again, we must look at the Scriptural use of the words.  We must be very clear that while the law is indeed love, it has no power to save. The Old Covenant included both the moral and ceremonial laws, but it could not save. The "letter killeth". The law is to reveal our separation from God. We are saved by the life and death of Christ, by His Spirit.

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.  But if the ministration of death, written [and] engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which [glory] was to be done away:  How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation [be] glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 2 Cor. 3:6-9. 

Now, Christ is embodies the law is the real substance, where the written code is given for us to detect that we are sick and in need of a physician, the Great Physician.     Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Gal. 3:24.  Once we see our sinfulness, the law has performed its function. We seek out the only Saviour that can release from the bondage of sin. It is His love, His grace that  transforms our very nature. Well...at least we are given a new nature, the divine nature. But, we still live in these vile bodies and are in need of Jesus every single moment of every single day. With Jesus in the heart, where is His law? The letter of the law killeth, so what is in the heart?