Our Blog
The Paradise of God II
In the first sequel, the Holy Spirit expounded that truly, there is Paradise, and because God has got a paradise for the overcomers, it behooves us not to make this world our paradise. In this second sequel, we want to examine by God’s word whether or not there is an end to this present world, and what is the end for those who have no hope outside of this world.
TEXT: 1Corinthians 15:21-26, Luke23:42, Ecclesiastes 1:4, Ecclesiastes 2:17-23, Psalms 25:14, Revelation 21:1-5, Psalms 37:9-11, Psalms 48:1-8, Psalms 72:8, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 20:6
It is foolishness not to think of your end, a wise man, having understanding should think about his end. There is a final end for everyone, but there is an end before the final end, which is the end of individuals. Paul says to us that we shall not all die, this means that some will die. Whether by rapture or by death, your end will come. How wise are you? By this, I’m saying how prepared are you for your end.
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. 1Corinthians 15:21-28
You should not use today to spoil your end. Of course, God will take us to paradise by His grace, but grace does not mean disobeying the instructions that will take you to that paradise. You can’t be expecting rapture or preparing your end carelessly, you can’t be shabby with your life spiritually and expect to have a good end. People have embraced several things, and that has hindered them from prioritizing their end, but the wisest man gave us some insights about these labors in Ecclesiastes.
Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity. Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun. For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil. For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
If only in this world we have hope, we are of all men most miserable. The church is God’s ground and pillar of truth, where you go to learn true wisdom to know how to guard yourself for your end. Whether or not you believe it, there is an end to everything you are doing, including yourself.
Paradise is eternal while hell is everlasting. There is a common question: where will you spend your eternity? This question is not correct, because there is no other form of eternity except God, and God is life. If you have eternal life, you can’t spend it in hell. Thus, there is no option about where to spend eternity, you can only spend it with God.
Truly, there is an expectation of rapture for the living saints, the true bride of Jesus Christ (wise virgins), but that doesn’t mean this earth would then be rendered empty forever. The true hope of believers is not to live in heaven forever. In fact, the saints who would go in the rapture only have seven years to spend in heaven, before returning to earth. The earth was created to be inhabited. After God renews this earth, we would return to inhabit it.
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens;
God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it,
he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited:
I am the Lord; and there is none else. Isaiah 45:18
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations:
thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. Psalms 119:90
The book of Revelation 21 gave us an understanding of this new heaven and earth. Jesus revealed that He went to prepare us a place, for in His Father’s domain are many dwellings.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
His soul shall dwell at ease;
and his seed shall inherit the earth. Psalms 25:13
The truth is, no one can describe this eternity, it is a place of rest for the righteous. The stumbling block for people in believing in this Paradise is the way modern preachers are preaching it, they preach as though we are going to heaven and never coming back to earth, but it is not so. When the rapture takes place, the foolish virgins and the Jews would still be on earth. Moses and Elijah would preach the gospel to the Jews and seal one hundred and forty-four thousand manservants, for the first three and half years, the last three and half years is the Great Tribulation period, after which Jesus would descend to fight the Armageddon war, and claim the earth. Both the Millennium and eternity would be on the earth, but a renewed one. That is the new earth Revelation detailed.
Meanwhile, for the ungodly, who would not have Jesus rule over them now, let’s see what the Bible says about them.
For evildoers shall be cut off:
but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be:
yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
But the meek shall inherit the earth;
and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Psalms 37:9-11
But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. Luke 19:27
For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth;
and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. Psalms 37:22
Therefore, do not kill yourself because of any mundane thing, and don’t allow anything whatsoever to take you away from God. Everyone has an end, and it is your responsibility to make it good.
THE PARADISE OF GOD I
Regardless of how we talk about paradise, no man can describe what paradise truly is -it is both unexplainable and indescribable. Neither has any man on earth seen it nor have they been there, whatever glimpse you catch by revelation is a shadow of what exists truly. But most assuredly, it exists. In comparison to this world, we want to examine in this subject what is the true hope of a believer and if anything on earth is worth risking the paradise of God.
TEXT: Luke 23:39-43, John 14:1-3, Job 14:1, Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, 1Corinthians 15:19, Revelation 21:1-7, Revelation 22:9-14, Luke 16:27-31
Paradise is an eternal place of rest and peace that God Himself prepared for His overcomers. Conversely, we live in a world that is full of toils and sorrows, no matter what you have and the wealth you’ve been able to harness, you worked for it, you toiled for it, and thus, cannot be classified as paradise -for paradise is not a place of labor. Paradise is not going to last for one thousand years, it is eternal. Think about it.
Because God has indeed prepared a place for those who obeyed Him on earth, and because He would not want them to see this ephemeral world as their paradise, He purposely, sometimes will not take away all your problem. Like Paul who battled with a challenge and sought God thrice for it, yet God refused to take it away; similarly, He does for us. He will not heal all your diseases, and He will not answer all your prayers, because there is a better place prepared for you. The paradise of God is the end of every of God’s children -that is when you will know the true meaning of SHALOM.
There are trials God leads us through to prove us, test us and validate that we are worthy of the true rest of paradise. In this case, only those who are not believing God for mundane things will scale through. If your reason for serving God is to be wealthy here on earth, and God is trying you to know if you want His eternal rest, will you have the endurance to scale through to the end? Of course not. Because your sense of value is mundane, you can’t cherish that nobler and higher cause enough to allure your heart with it. But if truly you have caught a glimpse of eternity, pursue with patient endurance that eternal place of rest -it is the reward of overcomers. No matter what you become on the earth, if you don’t make it to paradise, you waste God’s effort, you waste God’s precious blood of redemption.
The word of God is forever settled in heaven, and it is by that word that we know how to conduct ourselves, it is the manual that God has given to His own to live by on earth, the Bible is God’s basic instruction before leaving the earth. You need to understand, against what the Catholic system has said, that the Bible did not become the word of God. For in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Until you realize that the Bible in your hand is God’s only book given to you to live by, you are not a believer. Reading the Bible doesn’t make you a Christian, carrying it doesn’t. when you believe the sacred word and live the life it says to live, then you are a believer. You cannot serve God acceptably until you know the will of God for your life. And the will of God cannot contradict the word of God. The word of God is God’s inbreathe.
Really, you can’t live for what you’re not convinced of. The evidence that you believe in the Bible is that you will obey it. Let me say here that because God has prepared a paradise for you, therefore, don’t make this world your paradise. If only in this world we have hope, we are of all men most miserable. There’s no one that makes this world his paradise and makes it to the paradise of God. Let’s comb through a few scriptures:
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Revelation 21.
9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Revelation 22.
There is definitely the labor to enter into the “rest” of God, and only those who labor will enter into that rest. If you don’t regard it, you will not make it. The rich young ruler disregarded it when he came to Jesus to ask what he must do to inherit eternal life. And he got the reward when he died. Yes, every man becomes powerless when death comes, that is when life truly dawns on you.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
What a condition, that this man believed that a drop of water could relieve him of the thirst and pain he was going through. He made this world his paradise and he could not make it to God’s paradise. Brethren, there is a blessed hope for the saints who overcome in their time, make God your priority, and seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness. Don’t make this world your paradise. Solomon saw it all and he exclaimed, “all is vanity”. Don’t spend your time on vanity.
Shalom
Dilemma of Leadership
Usually, leaders in every sector bear the burden of failures, successes, troubles, and whatever may happen to the body they are overseeing. Still, they most times suffer insubordination from the followers they seem to be doing everything for. What does the bible say about government, and what should be our attitude towards them as Christians?
Text: Exodus 2: 1Corinthinas 4:8-11, Isaiah 42:19-20, Romans 13:1-4, 1Timothy 2:1, Galatians 1:10, Hebrew 12:1-8, Genesis 3:1-6, 17, Proverbs 18:13, Proverb 29:15, Exodus 28:1, Leviticus 10:1-6, Numbers 16: 1-41, Acts 4:32-37, Acts 5:1-5, 2Samuel 24:1-15
Authority comes from God, and anyone in a position of authority deserves to be respected -those in government parastatals, churches, and offices. The Bible commands that we honor all men. However, we know that the greatest work God has on earth is the gospel, thus, God loves to see submission to authority in His Church, (authority in God’s church begins from the ushers). We need to recognize leadership and honor it.
It is not possible for a leader to please every one of his followers. Paul said he cannot be a servant of Christ if he chooses to please men. A leader cannot but offend friends, families, brethren, and even himself, if he must be faithful to God -who called him. The spiritual maturity of a church is in recognizing that whatever correction God made through the leader is for the church’s beauty, not to her hurt. If a man is truly called by God, he stays loyal to God and to the course he is sent to banner up, regardless of whose ox is gored. A man of God doesn’t ridicule, rather, he corrects with love. He shouldn’t see you going astray and keeps quiet because he doesn’t want to offend you.
Jesus Christ, with several acts of compassion demonstrated and love for the people, healing them, delivering them, feeding them, yet he was despised by the same people he was leading. He had to despise the shame, endure the cross, endure such contradictions of sinners against himself. God will not come down to correct you, He uses His Servants (your leaders). Therefore, you are not supposed to despise God’s chastening and rebuke, because being chastised and enduring it proves that you are a son.
Prophet Branham relayed to us the vision of the bride preview he saw when he was caught up in heaven. It was said to be a beautiful scenario, with the bride well arranged, matching onward, then he suddenly saw a lady trying to leave the line (distracted so to say), and he screamed, “go back to the line!” then he said that was his ministry. So, it is the responsibility of leader, especially one who is ordained to watch over the souls of God’s children. God will ask them; every leader will be accountable for what God commits to them. And if they can grasp this revelation, regardless of how you feel, he wouldn’t mind, as long as he knows that is what God wants. In the garden of Eden, after Eve messed up, God never called her first to question, it was the man Adam that He called, and he had his fair share of judgment.
There was a phenomenon in the Bible with Moses and the two children of Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu. These two offered strange fire before the Lord, and Moses spoke, correcting them and God killed them right there. Imagine what you would do as a mother. And while that was going on, Moses warned Aaron not to cry if he didn’t want to die. Wow! Wouldn’t you have arrested Moses as a killer? But that’s the dilemma of ledershipship. In Numbers 16:33, Korah, Dathan and Abiram went against Moses, while he was doing his responsibility, and the fire of God came down to consume them but guess what? The people murmured against Moses saying, he has killed the people of God.
Ananias and Sapphira his wife conspired together to lie to the Holy Spirit, and they got the reward of their seed -death. But what would be the condition of the leader, Peter? The foundation of the church of Christ must be solid and right, and God would do anything regardless, to make sure His church is not corrupted. He couldn’t stand the lie of Ananias and his wife, because He was laying the foundation of His church. But then, the dilemma falls every time on the shepherd, because he is the one representing God to the people, but there is nothing he can do but stand for the One who has commissioned him. A spiritual man however would understand spiritual things. Carnal people cannot be your friend when you’re doing spiritual things.
God can punish the family by dealing with the husband, God can punish a congregation by dealing with the pastor. The sin of Israel made God to move David to do wrong, and the judgment of God descended thereafter. God can never err in judgment! All that is required of us is to be spiritually selfless enough to understand the things that God ordains for our salvation and peace, and if we can humble ourselves, then we can reap the fruit of righteousness.
The Power of Belief
Every seed is a potential fruitful tree, but has to be sowed in a fertile ground, dies in the soil and then burst forth with new life, so is faith; it is that true seed that has great potentials to move any and every mountain, yet has to be sown in a fertile ground, dies before it can burst forth with great result.
TEXT: Matthew 13:57, Matthew 17:14-20, Proverbs 23:7, Leviticus 26:13, Mark 9:18
Every man is a product of his belief system, whether right or wrong. What you are is what the information you are exposed to have made you. What informs your thinking pattern cannot be inversely proportional to what you believe, and above all, the mind is the seeding bed for all of your aggregate, which means that when you want to change a man, you need to change his belief or value systems to gulp in his mind, what you aspire him to be. If the mind is not reformed, his life cannot change. The mind is such a cognitive faculty in man, it decides almost everything about him, although the mind is not him, it however drives the wheel of his life. Thus, imperative to talk about the mind, if we must successfully carry the faith that yields life in us. So, we want to resolve the question: how can a man believe from the heart, or what does it mean to believe from the heart?
There are five senses that the body responds to: taste, smell, feel, see and hear. These senses are not given to man to lead him, rather, to make him relate with his environment. These senses cannot respond or support faith, they cannot carry that seed word that produces faith, they would only yield death. Meanwhile, the soul of man comprises of his will, his emotions and his mind. The mind has two faculties: the conscious mind, and the sub conscious mind.
The conscious mind is figuratively that upper part of the mind that receives the senses of the soul or body at the initial, whatever drops in your conscious mind is not potent enough to run your program, it is actively working and can articulate thousands of information at the same time, that’s no more than shallow part of a river, which indeed has a source -a depth, a deep. This conscious mind is what eventually feeds the sub conscious mind -which is figuratively, the deep, the citadel that drives the affairs of a man’s life. This sub conscious mind is what is called the heart! This heart is the fertile ground that whatever enters in there, germinate. If you work up your conscious mind to take in things that are destructive and then download it to your sub conscious, you will see the result, and if what you have lived by is life, and your sub conscious feeds on that, you will see it manifest. The manifestation of man’s all reveals all that resides in his sub conscious mind (heart).
If we would narrow it down to us as Christians, having the word of God as the yardstick, you should know that the spirit of man has just two senses: faith or unbelief. Your spirit would respond to what is domiciled in your heart, and give it back to you, whether faith -leading to life, or unbelief -leading to death. So, when next you hear, “believe from the heart”, it means you’re defying all sensual, carnal law of both your body (taste, feel, smell, hear and see), and soul (imagination, conscience, memory, reason and affection), because they will never endorse the word of God to you. The flesh cannot comprehend spiritual things, they can only be spiritually discerned, so you’re breaking through the law of your body, you’re breaking through the law of your conscious mind, to letting that word settle in your sub conscious mind (heart), at this point where the word of God falls on that good ground, whatever you speak in prayers come through. But again, the heart is not a good ground because you fed it with good seed, even if what you feed it with is anti-God, it will produce it. What your life is right now, pictures all that your heart has received.
The heart is a receptacle, a womb, it holds your seed alive enough to let you eat the fruit of it. I think Solomon’s charge should make sense now, when he says, “guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life”. Do you now see why Jesus always struggle with unbelief? When Jesus got to His home town, where he supposedly came from, the bible records that he could not do many mighty works, because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:53-58). There were many people with mental assets, who only wants to respond to the familiar: “is this not the carpenter’s child?”
The same way God is willing to help you, but you’re been familiar, thus giving up on faith. Jesus knew that all He needed to do for anyone to see miracle was to build their faith, if they can achieve faith in their heart, nothing is impossible. So, at every time someone comes to him, He asks: what do you want me to do for you? Even when their sicknesses are obvious. I mean, you can’t imagine that a blind man wants a car, he wants to see of course, but still, Jesus would ask. The essence is to have their faith built for the result they are expecting. It can only be unto you according to your belief! Whether you doubt His power to save you, or you trust it, that is your belief -and it will be to you accordingly.
Jesus had been doing many miracles with the disciples, and had even empowered them at some point to go preach the gospel and heal the sick. So, these were men with divine experiences, but a day came when they were faced with a challenge, and that doesn’t look like the one Jesus has done or can do (to them), hence, the defeat of their faith. After all their shouting in disbelief, the man decided to bring his son to Jesus. Jesus lamented over them, “oh faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I bear with you?” They were living in the familiar of what Jesus had done, and because they had not seen Jesus heal a crazy lunatic before, there was no faith in them to activate. It turned out that Jesus was not healing the sick before them to make Himself a superman, He wasn’t acting, He was teaching them how to build their own faith so that He would not have to teach them everything.
Belief is deep conviction and perception of reality. What this means is simple, belief is what your heart accepts as true, and that is what becomes real in your life. Many people praying are just musing words in their mouth, there is no deep conviction within that they can get the result of that prayers. We want to live above sin, yet we don’t have a strong realization that it is possible, such cannot see result of a life free of sin, because his spirit would respond to that doubt, and he will forever live in captivity. No wonder God had to recite before the children of Israel in Leviticus 26:13:
I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen, and I have broken the band of your yoke, and made you go upright.
If they don’t constantly renew their mind with that realization, they will get to the promise land and still be living as slaves. This tells us that, to live in light of the word of God, you have to constantly renew your mind by the word of God. That’s the only way your life can change.
Brethren, let this mind be in you, even the mind of Christ. When that happens, then you can live Christ.
The Footsteps of Abraham (First Fruit )
In continuation of our sermon: The Man, Abraham; we want to consider one of Abraham’s steps, thus the subtopic: First fruit. Understand that God will not ask you what He hasn’t given to you. This means that all that God is requiring us to do, there’s always the grace to do them.
Text: Romans 4:12, John 8:39-42, Genesis 22:1, John 3:16, 1Corinthians 15:20, Exodus 11:4-6, Exodus 12:25, Exodus 13:2, 12, Exodus 23:16, Romans 11:16, Numbers 3:11-13, Exodus 22:29, Malachi 3:10-11.
Of course, we now know that only those who do the works of Abraham are Abraham’s children. There was a discourse with the Pharisees and Jesus, whilst the Pharisees were claiming to be Abraham’s children, Jesus expounded to them, that you don’t claim that by mouth, because Abraham had works, and it is doing the works of Abraham that prove that you are his children. Jesus plainly told them that they are of their father, the devil. The devil has his deeds, so is God, and the characters you demonstrate show where you come from.
The first fruit is not tithe (not one tenth); it is all. Abraham had done several things in accordance with God’s instruction, had refused to be enriched by another man, had met with Melchizedek and gave him tithe of all, his wife was taken twice, and in all, Abraham kept walking with God. After these things, God came to Abraham, and told him to go sacrifice his only son -Isaac. Why do you think God requested for Isaac? Because he was the first fruit of Abraham. The natural promised seed Abraham labored in faith for was Isaac, not Ishmael.
If we would place the precedence of first fruit right, God was the first to give His first fruit -for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, (John 3:16). If God did not sacrifice Jesus Christ, He cannot have us. The first fruit He sowed, yielded many sons -that we are today. Paul told us that Jesus Christ is the first fruit among many brethren. If not for Christ, there would be no church. God had to sacrifice His first fruit to have lots more. If God gave His first fruit to us, we owe Him our first fruit.
First fruit is a sacrifice! Those who reap in joy are those who sowed in tears. God killed all the firstborn in Egypt because of the children of Israel. That was why God requested for all their firstborns. It costed God when He gave His only son, He wasn’t laughing, in fact, at a point, darkness filled the whole earth, because God could not behold such sacrifice. God instructed the children of Israel to give, even the first of the first fruit of their land, the firstling of their cattle.
In Romans 11:16, the bible says to us that if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy. How can your first fruit be holy? It is by giving it to the Holy God. The blessing of God is dependent on your obedience to principles, prayer doesn’t bring blessing, prayer makes you spiritual. To be blessed of God, you obey the divine law for blessing. You redeem the rest of your fruit with your first fruit.
This is one of the ways to break limitations, failures and disappointment, God is bound to protect your proceeds, when you honor Him with your first fruit.
The Grace of God In Abraham
There is no human effort that should make man glory before God, because even our best righteousness is filthiness before Him.
TEXT: Romans 4:1, Genesis 12: 1-3, Galatians 3:8,29, Titus 2:11, Matthew 25:19
Today, we’ll be expounding more on our topic The Man Abraham, focusing on “Grace”, what grace is, and what we are saved to do.
What is Grace?
Grace is what you don’t deserve but is given to you freely. It is something you don’t worth and your effort cannot get for you, it is something you cannot buy but is given to you freely. You don’t need to struggle to get it, it is a gift from God.
Grace is associated with faith. Grace and faith work together and are inseparable.
Grace works by election
If Abraham with all his good deeds has nothing to boast of before God, then, how much more you and I that have done nothing.
Abraham lived with his parents and was living in sin like his parents, but even in that sin, God elected him and brought him out of darkness – this is grace! Abraham was in no way better than his brother, Lot, neither was he better than his parents. It was the grace of God that elected him.
The promises God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3 was made to him even before he sacrificed Isaac to God. That is to show to you that the promises were made to him on no ground of his righteousness. If the good deed of Abraham was seen as righteousness before God, he would have had something to boast of.
The Grace of God is not by work
Abraham, like every other human complained of his barrenness. He is not a superman.
And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir -Genesis 15:3
This scripture can be interpreted in two ways:
- Abraham complained that he had no child despite all that he did. He boasted of his righteousness. This depicts that the righteousness of Abraham was not based on his work, it was based on the grace of God. God elected him based on no ground of his works.
- The way of a believer isn’t designed to be smooth. The rough way you go through is meant to make you better and stronger.
If the grace of God offers something to you, you need to accept it by faith so that you can have it. If you can’t accept it, you can’t be counted righteous before God because your faith in God is your righteousness.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
God will not justify man by his works, but by faith.
When God makes a promise to you, if you have enough faith to accept it, He will give it to you; He has what He promised to give you, He doesn’t need to collect it from anyone before He can give you. He has it at His disposal but you need faith to receive it.
Why was Abraham not saved by his work or righteousness? It’s because Abraham was also under the condemnation that was brought about by Adam and Eve. It is the grace of God brought to Abraham and was accepted by him that brought about his salvation from the condemnation Adam and Eve brought.
Abraham was not a special human being, neither was he created as a special breed. For the scripture says that, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. Abraham wasn’t an exception either. Why then should he boast?
What then do you have now that was not given to you? – 1 Corinthians 4:7.
Although, truly, Abraham had done things that should make him boast before human being but not before God.
Your work will not give you salvation, but it will give you position(reward). The servant in Matthew 25:21 was made ruler over many things (that was the reward of the work he did). God will weigh all your services; He will check the motive by which you do the work you do. God tested Abraham, He will also test you!
Finally, brethren, we are saved by grace, but we are also saved to work; to get inheritance. We must strive to get reward and position in heaven. Work, so that your salvation will not be in vain.
Shalom!