The uncompromised word of God

You often hear people refer to the uncompromised word of God. What do they generally mean when they use that phrase? Most of the time when they use the phrase, they mean, they teach the bible uncompromised. Is that a correct understanding of the phrase? I don’t think so; especially, if they are a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. The reason is that Jesus defined the word of God as the gospel, and he taught his first century followers to do the same. If you look at the New Testament writings you will find that predominately in the gospels, and exclusively from Acts forward, whenever you read the phrase *the word of God,* they always mean the gospel, the good news.

The follower of Jesus should then concentrate on the good news as it is presented in the scripture. When someone tells you that you should get the word of God inside you, and have it become a part of your DNA… if you are a follower of Jesus, then you should make sure that you get the gospel (good news) on the inside of you and have it become a part of your DNA.

So then you ask, what is the gospel? Galatians explains that according to the scripture the gospel was preached to Abraham (Gal 3:8.) What was the gospel that was preached to Abraham? The short answer is this… “that in Abraham’s Seed all the nations of the world would be blessed.” Galatians 3:16 explains that the promised seed of Abraham was Jesus Christ. This is how it becomes the gospel of Jesus Christ. Notice that we do not find out that the Seed is Jesus in Genesis. Revelation is progressive.

How is the world blessed by the Seed of Abraham? The answer is that Jesus reconciled the world back to the Father on the cross. His birth, death, and resurrection is the good news that reconciled humanity to Father God. This is what brings peace with the Father (Rom 5:1.) But, Galatians 3:29 explains that if one is in Christ, they are then Abraham’s Seed and heirs according to the promise. This is also part of the good news. The blessings of Abraham are for believers.

This means that the blessings in Deuteronomy 28 are blessings for all those who are *in Christ.* this means that believers are automatically blessed in the city and the country; they are blessed when they come and go. They are the head and not the tail, they are above and not beneath. This is really a birthright of the new birth. When one is born again, at the new birth, they become Abraham’s Seed in Christ, and heirs of the blessings of Abraham.  

So what does this have to do with the uncompromised word of God you ask? The uncompromised word of God is the uncompromised gospel. It is the fact that the believer is the righteousness of God in Christ. God made us convenantally right in Christ and we are in line for the blessings. How did Abraham receive the blessing in the first place? Look at this passage of scripture… Gen 15:6  “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” By the same token, we receive the blessing by believing the report (Isa 53:1.)

The “No Weapon” Promise

Isa 54:17 NKJV “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me," Says the LORD.” 

The only way that this promise is to you and for you is if you are resting in *the righteousness of God* provided as a free gift for trusting in Jesus. The reason is that the righteousness of God is the defense against the weapons of the enemy. Who is the enemy? In Revelation chapter 12 he is called the accuser of the brethren. In fact, he accuses them day and night before the Lord. What are the accusations used? They are always a form of the statement “you can’t be righteous because.”  The accuser of the brethren and sisters too… brethren was meant to be all believers… accuses us by suggesting that we are not really righteous.  He assaults the idea that we have been declared righteous by God and therefore are the very righteousness of God. Look at the verse in the amplified Bible: (Isa 54:17 Amp)  “But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong. This [peace, righteousness, security, triumph over opposition] is the heritage of the servants of the Lord [those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord is reproduced]; this is the righteousness or the vindication which they obtain from Me [this is that which I impart to them as their justification], says the Lord.” The righteousness of God is your heritage. It is your inheritance.

So then, the very foundation for your righteousness before God is based upon the free gift given by grace and grace alone. If, you are not 100% sold out to belief in your righteousness because God has declared it, the weapons will come, and come, and come and they will prosper. The reason for defeat in so many saints’ lives is this cause. They are not really, truly resting in the righteousness of God. The Sabbath Rest, Hebrews 4:10, is important in not allowing weapons, formed by the enemy to prosper. Our justification and our peace with God (Romans 5:1) is the source of our warfare.

When we believe that our righteousness is from our good works, that we are acceptable to God by our works, we always open the door for accusation. Accusation is Satan’s weapon of choice. Since we know that we do not stack up favorably before a Holy God with our righteous acts we always feel condemnation and failure. This is the place where the enemy of our souls finds the most effective weapons to use against us. However, when we truly rest in the righteousness of God provided for us as a free and unmerited gift, we can put to flight the enemies accusations. We merely need to declare what God has already decreed about us and Satan must flee. His weapons lose their power.

Looking at Romans 12:1-2; Transformation not reformation

I have been saying for a while now that Romans 5:1, and in reality the entire fifth chapter of Romans is very important in the transformation process. An understanding of Romans five allows the saint to understand the way in which, resting in Jesus, entering the Sabbath Rest (Hebrews 4) and peace with Father God (Romans 5:1) work together to transform the saint.

Let’s look at transformation in relationship to reformation. Transformation is something that is done to the one being transformed. Reformation is done by the person being reformed. Transformation is a force outside oneself and reformation is a force within. I believe that currently evangelical doctrine focuses on reformation while using the term transformation.  Reformation is not what the Apostle Paul meant when he used the word metamorphoo. It is interesting that he used the word in 2Cor 3:18. He says in that verse that we are being transformed by the Spirit of the Lord. So then, the changing is from an outside force which is the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Christ. This is why read and do is not successful in real, true transformation. Some may be able to really control the flesh, but even then they are not being transformed into a new mind set.

Can I just say it? It is the love of God (manifested by His unconditional grace) that is the transforming power. That is precisely why Paul says that the preaching of the cross (in other words the gospel) is the power of God (1Cor 1:18.) This is precisely why Paul said that he was determined to know nothing among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ crucified (in other words the gospel.) This is the reason that the gospel must always be the focus of our instruction. When you look into the book of Hebrews, the sixth chapter, where the author speaks of going on to maturity (meat) you see that the meat is the Melchezidek Priesthood, the priesthood of believers, and the New Covenant. Gentiles cannot be the people of God except for the New Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, a Gentile had to be circumcised and live the law of Moses (Exodus 12:48-49.) In other words, he/she had to become a Jew. Therefore we should realize that we are under the New Covenant (Matt 26:28; 1Cor 11:25.) This fact changes things drastically, and is why Jesus and his followers defined the word of God/word of truth as the gospel. We can never just study scripture without applying a New Covenant, gospel focus.

The writer of Hebrews equates the Exodus, and the Promise land with the journey from being lost to being saved (Hebrews 3&4.) We are on a pilgrimage to enter into the Sabbath Rest, and the giants are those things that prevent us from entering the rest. The chief among the giants is the demon of religion. The demon of religion tries to get people to focus on reformation instead of transformation.

So let’s bring this back to Romans 12:1-2. Paul begs (beseeches) the Romans by what? The mercies of God… let me say that again, Paul begs (beseeches) the Romans by what? By the mercies of God (the gospel.) Paul writes all about imputed righteousness, being made right in God’s sight, how faith is obedience, and on and on From Romans 3:21 all the way through Romans 8:39. He ends the thought by asking who can separate us from the love of God. Romans 9,10,&11 explain why the Jews did not receive the gospel and the Gentiles did. Then, he winds up and begins Romans 12:1-2. It should be completely obvious that when Paul says that we are transformed by the renewing of our mind… the renewing is to the mercies of God the gospel. This is why Romans chapter five is so important in the transformation process.

What is the meat, or “where’s the beef?”

Heb 6:1-3 AMP  THEREFORE LET us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah), advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity. Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith [by which you turned] to God,  (2)  With teachings about purifying, the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment and punishment. [These are all matters of which you should have been fully aware long, long ago.]  (3)  If indeed God permits, we will [now] proceed [to advanced teaching].

1Co 3:2 AMP I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet strong enough [to be ready for it]; but even yet you are not strong enough [to be ready for it],

Many times you hear teaching that encourages Christians to move on to meat. It seems that many think that the salvation is baby stuff and that the saint should move on to maturity. But, what is the meat? This is a very important question to answer if we are ever to be mature in Christ Jesus. I have fellowshipped with people in the past that see the cross as baby stuff. Some time ago I was in a conversation with a prophet that was connected with the present truth prophetic movement. I had mentioned 1Cor 1:18 in connection with the idea that if the people of God, Christ followers, wanted to have God’s power, they should preach the cross. I mentioned that it was God’s dunamis, His dynamite. He then went on to gently remind me that what we needed to exercise was God’s exousia (authority.) I gently replied that the authority comes from the cross.

Everything in a saint’s life is tied to the cross. There is no meat available that is not founded in the cross event. I want to make this completely clear. The milk is not the cross event. I have posited two passages that are frequently used with the idea of maturity and immaturity; meat and milk. These two passages are not as linked as one might think. The Hebrews passage is referring to mature doctrine or theology and the first Corinthians passage is referring to mature behavior. The way that they are linked is as follows: If a saint is able to understand mature doctrine or theology they are more apt to be able to exhibit mature behavior.  True maturity will result from a proper understanding of the pristine gospel. True maturity will be the result of truly being at peace with God as Paul describes it in Romans 5. Peace with God (Romans 5:1) is the source for true maturity.

True peace with God can only be achieved when one realizes and understands what the author of Hebrews was driving at and heading towards in Hebrews chapter 6. One sees that at the end of Hebrews chapter five (Heb 5:10-14) the author was unable to explain about Jesus being a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and what that meant to them because they were dull of hearing. They only understood milk, the rudiments of Christianity. They needed meat. It was likely because they were in danger of leaving Christ and returning to Judaism. This would be to avoid persecution from the Jews. You can see widespread persecution from the unbelieving Jews throughout the entire area that the gospel had affected. This persecution plagued Paul everywhere he went. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that these Hebrew saints were tempted to renounce Christ and go back to Judaism without Jesus. This theory makes perfect sense in view of Hebrews 6:4-9. If they renounced Jesus and went back to Judaism without Christ it would be impossible to repent again.

In chapter seven the author goes on to explain to them the significance of the priesthood that Jesus held. He was a priest after the order of Melchizedek. It was a priesthood that resulted from eternal life. Further, they with the indwelling Christ and eternal life shared in that priesthood. In Hebrews 8:1 the author explains that the whole purpose in the epistle was to explain the New Covenant, the change of the priesthood etc. That quite simply is the meat. I asked where’s the beef? The answer is  found in the understanding of the New Covenant and ultimately the blood of the ultimate sacrifice. It was best expressed in Hebrews 9:14 “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

The Strong Delusion

Is it possible that much of what we know as Christianity today is in fact the strong delusion of 2 Thessalonians 2:11? Notice that I wrote much of and not ALL OF. There is a reason for that. There has always been a remnant of the pristine gospel so that anyone who would believe it would be saved and brought into right relationship with Father God. The strong delusion is actually a “leavening of the gospel.” It is a mixture of the pure, pristine gospel and the leaven of the Pharisees and/or Sadducees and/or Herod that Jesus warned of in Matt 16:6&12; Mark 8:15 and Luke 12:1. This is the strong delusion mentioned by Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians.

Also, notice that I included the leaven of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Herod. I did that because in the three passages Jesus did that. Let me briefly define each. Once you read the definition, it should be easy for you to see that this is the truth, and an awareness of agreement should pop into your spirit immediately.  The leaven of the Pharisees is the legalistic – constitutional point of view that so many evangelicals have concerning the law of Moses. The leaven of the Sadducee’s is manifested in liberal Christianity that does not believe in the deity of Jesus and the supernatural. The leaven of Herod is demonstrated by those who believe that they can bring forth kingdom principals by becoming active in current government. All of this is the strong delusion or as it is rendered in the YLT (Young’s Literal Translation for those that do not know the abbreviation)… “the working of delusion.”

You may say to me that the man of lawlessness has not yet been revealed. I believe that he has been revealed but even if not, Paul said clearly that the *secret* of lawlessness was already at work. Some translations render it *the mystery of lawlessness* but either way it was already there but stealth. What was the lawlessness? How was the lawlessness aided by the leaven of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians? These are two important questions that must be answered.

First, what was the lawlessness? Let’s look at this passage in the ESV… 2Th 2:9-10  “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,  (10)  and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” The lawlessness was not loving and believing the truth of the pristine gospel. They did not love and believe God’s way of making them righteous, and chose to continue with the way of the Pharisees. They chose to continue to propagate self-righteousness by living as if the New Covenant saints were still under Deut 6:25. In reality however, New Covenant righteousness was established by faith in the blood of Jesus and according to Romans 5, peace with God, based on being made right, would aid in the transformation of the saint to a person that loves God and others with a godly love.

This lawlessness elevates self-righteousness and diminishes reliance of God for righteousness and ultimately rejects the gospel. Next we will begin to look at the “man of lawlessness.”