The Bible starts with astonishing words, Words of great power, a statement that displays before us the creative might of God. This power and authority run throughout the Old Testament right into the New, giving God the right place, that of Creator, Monarch and Lord Everlasting, a very powerful Being, called The Almighty, one that we cannot afford to ignore, for to Him are submitted all powers, in heaven and on earth; belongs truly to the Lord God Almighty. The Holy-Scriptures start by declaring: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1.) God is the origin of everything except evil. He is the source of all life and everything lives in Him and by Him.  The Apostle Paul when he visited Athens, in one of his missionary journeys, found in this great city of learning many altars to an unknown number of idols, Luke writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: 

“Paul stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ’Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I found an altar: ‘TO THE UNKNOWN GOD’. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the LORD of heaven and earth and does not live in the temples built by hands, and is not served by human hand as if He needed anything else because He himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth, and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being. ‘As some of your poets have: We are all His offspring. Therefore, since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone ~ an image made by man’s design and skill. ~ In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed, Jesus-Christ, He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22-31.)

It is a fact of life that most men in all generations lived, their God given lives, in complete disregard of His right to do in and with the world just what He wants. From the days of the flood, followed by God’s horrific and thorough destruction of the Tower of Babel, not forgetting Sodom and Gomorrah, God has shown how He alone rules heaven and earth and does in them and with them, just what he wants and when He wants to! Man disregards Him and disobeys Him at his peril, unaware that a final judgement is unavoidable! The Bible’s record shows that man has not learned anything. Rebellion to God inspired by a perversion of all that is descent, has swept the world into a moral cesspool that is promoted by a media, that is greatly infiltrated by evil spirits, which demand as their right, to fill the world with everything that is antigod and perverse! ‘As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the last days’ said Jesus-Christ; man’s complete rejection of God has ushered the time of the end. 

So, you can take it from me, that it will not be long before God does to the world what He had to do at the time of the flood, at the Tower of Babel, with Sodom and Gomorrah, and many times, with various nations in history, including Israel. The progress and conclusion of His plan for the world is detailed in the Book of revelation. The lesson man has never learned is that whatever his attitude may be toward God, He has never annulled His plan which began with the creation of Adam, He made totally plain by the coming into the world of Jesus-Christ, who by His life, His teaching, His death and resurrection, has proved that God, (the Holy Trinity), alone is master of History and that His calendar cannot be disregarded for it supersedes all others!   

Everything on earth, whether it be on land or sea, everything in the heavens belongs to God. He alone is eternal, man is like the vapour that appears for a time and goes out as quickly, leaving behind everything he has amassed during his very short existence. God owns the cattle on the thousand hills, the wealth in every mine. The Old Testament starts with divine commands, just three words: “And God said” that is how Light, Sun and Moon, earth and stars, cattle, fish in the sea and birds in the airs, trees of all sorts, plants in abundance came into being, at the word of the Lord! Personally, I have been blessed with much travel from which I have treasured many outstanding remembrances; one of them is the varied and inexpressible beauty of the earth.

Certain scenes have taken my breath away; well, almost! God said: “Let there be and there was,” how can foolish man compete with that? Now, certain men, only few really, find it difficult to believe it happened as it is written, they are blind leading the blind, but they cannot take away from God His Lordship over all His creation. They are men constantly seeking but never finding the truth, unable to say where man comes from and where he is going. Learned men that have lost the way, yet everything holds together by the unseen power of God’s word: “The Son (of God - Jesus) is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.”,(Hebrews 1:3.) Jesus is not limited by time as men are, out of nothing He created everything, but mankind finds it absolutely impossible to believe that God can shrink millions of years into one day if that is what He wants to do. 

Having created all things by His powerful word, there came the day when He created man. Now all He said is: “Let us make man in our image”, (Genesis 1:26.) It is obvious that the whole Trinity, Father Son and Holy Spirit, was involved in the creation of all things and that of man. Whereas everything appeared miraculously at the command of God, at His word, to create man He took special care. We read: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created Him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27.) Then there is a more detailed explanation further on saying: “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7.)

 I have always found that the care God took to create man very touching! I am constantly amazed by the process of how God formed man out of the dust of the earth. Like a potter moulds the clay, so God moulded man, to the extent that He had even nostrils into which He could blow into the moulded form the breath of life: “And God breathed into his nostrils.” Do not err into stupid ideas about how man came to be, this careful act of God shows just how special man was and is to Him, he must be, for this mighty creator took extra trouble and formed him from the dust of the earth. Think of it, with his own hands he formed a body exactly as a potter form a clay pot, and then He breathed into Him the breath of Life, man stood up a living being, body, soul and spirit, and God called Him Adam, meaning: ‘Man’.

We do not know for how long this special relationship lasted between God (introduced in the Bible under the name of: “Elohim” and Adam. What they did together is amazing; I cannot imagine that it could have only been a week or two!? Adam had a lot to learn, and He had this Great Teacher, God Himself, much of what he taught him affects the world even now. It makes me weep sometimes, when I think that this beautiful and wonderful God made a friend for Himself and that He wanted it to stay that way, but the horror of sin, as expressed in previous chapters, spoiled a beautiful friendship, and sadly it still breaks all that is perfect. But as we think of it, we just cannot pass by such a presentation of divine communion, without stopping and ponder as to why it happened as it did, and we must regret deeply, that it was broken up in such a terrible and definite way. So much so that this man, Adam, with his wife, Eve, in fear and trembling had to hide in the bushes to hide from their loving Creator!

After Eden the story is one of great sadness and sorrow, the murder of Abel, who for his faith in God’s promise was hated of Cain, who could have shared in it, if he wanted to, and have a part the same blessing as Abel did, if only he believed. Mankind, since this dreadful fall, took the downward path, to arrive where it is today, dead to God, without hope in the world. I am not a pessimist far from it; no Christian can ever be one, why? Because I believe that I am saved and that I belong to Jesus-Christ forever and ever and that He will not turn any man into a pessimist, never, because His joy is ever present. I, just as every true believer, know how it will all end. I have found that even in the worst experiences, even if he has to sing his praise in a minor key, the true disciple of Christ has a song to sing! There is a song for every occasion, and as it is being sung, God pours the healing balm and heals the broken hearted. Nevertheless, a true Christian, lives with his eyes wide open and in reading the Bible, he realizes that the path of sin, and man’s constant rebellion to God, brought first the Gentiles, then the Israelites, to a complete separation from God, what an end! With the death of Christ, the whole world died a spiritual death, but in His love and mercy, God has made a way of escape, and faith in in His beloved Son, opens a way out from destruction all those that will believe in Him, and take the road to eternal life!

The coming into the world of the Son of God, known as Jesus-Christ, or Jesus of Nazareth, and the purpose of His coming has already been covered in previous chapters, but I want to state again that: Since God had to go as far as to forsake His own Son as He was dying on a cross, and turn away from Him because of the sins of the whole world that were laid on Him, I realise the horror of disobedience. Yet God had to do it, for it was the only way that He could save, those that will believe, from eternal death in hell, for by His death on the Cross, Jesus destroyed sin, death and the devil! God is just He must judge every sin, sin when it is finished brings forth death, it is irrevocable. Let us not sweep our sins under the carpet, we must face the fact that we are guilty sinners; as such we are unworthy of any favours. Why should God bother with rebels that spend their lives waring against His will, men sin of their own free choice and enjoy it, yet God has chosen to save some from certain destruction. God has proved many times that He will go as far as it is necessary to destroy sin and sinners who will not repent! The need for justice as God had to apply it on Christ, proves that God is just, but that He is love as well, as it is stated in the Bible! Jesus Christ suffered awfully on the cross, and give his life in sacrifice but He was not alone to suffer, because His father suffered also, but it happened because there was no other way to pay the price of sin, and destroy it!

“God presented Him (Jesus) as a sacrifice for atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because of His forbearance He had left sins committed beforehand unpunished ~ He did this to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one that justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded, on what principle, that of observing the Law (The Ten Commandments)? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the Law. Is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of the Gentiles too since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by that same faith.” (Romans 3: 25-30.) --“For God so loved the world that He gave His On and Only Son, that whoever believes, (Jew or Gentile) in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Now, as I look on this tremendous display of the love that made God go as far as offering Christ His own beloved Son, so that He could forgive the sins and save those who would turn to Jesus, I see in it a demonstration of God’s amazing love for totally unworthy men, men He decided to save, regardless of their guilt, even before the world began. I stand in owe and say: ‘What an amazing God’! 

Yet at that moment in history, as Christ in great suffering felt this loneliness, and what it meant to be forsaken of God, as is every man in the world, He learned what death really meant, To be separated from God His Father, was so painful to bear that it killed Him! It is explained in this way: Hesuffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:9.) Everything that happened to Christ on the way to the cross, and on the cross, led Him to that moment, the moment when salvation of all the elect became a glorious possibility, and by His resurrection a way from death to life was opened for all that would believe, to this very day, the gate is still opened! “Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father but by ME”. (John 14: 6-7) I see: also, that death caused him unknown suffering, that He alone had to suffer, the perfect sinless Lamb of God. What did it mean to Him to be rejected by His nation that He was sent to, betrayed by his disciples and forsaken by God His Father, I conclude that I cannot ever fathom why God and Jesus-Christ his Son, with the Holy-Spirit, agreed in eternity, to enter in such a programme just to save a worthless creature like me? 

Yet nothing of it seems to be enough for the world and it still chooses to live in enmity with God? After two thousand years of God pleading with men, the world has never been so far from God, godless, men are brutal, at enmity with their Maker! I do not wonder that after all the pleading God, He will have to burn up this rebellious world, for all unbelievers, eternal death reserves everlasting suffering. Christ suffered, for a short while, the pain of death so that not one of His brothers should ever have to go through that awful experience, because it is plainly said, that He suffered it for every person that He has redeemed, as it is stated: “Christ so loved us, that He gave Himself for us.” 

A believer, at death, goes straight into the presence of Christ; he is taken there by the angel assigned for his protection while on earth. Jesus said to Martha these wonderful words: “He that believes in me shall never die.” The full quotation is found in John 11:26-27. “Jesus said unto her: I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though He dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? “Yes Lord,” she told Him, “I believe that you are the Christ. The Son of God, who was to come into the world.” It means, therefore that the person that enjoys eternal life on earth, when he leaves the body, he is immediately in the presence of Christ the Lord. I don’t know what it means to taste death, and by God’s grace I never will, because the Bible tells me that Jesus suffered it so that not one of those that belong to Him will ever have to. By everything that Christ accomplished, by His death on the CROSS and His resurrection, I stand eternally secure and the words of a hymn ring true in my heart: 

“Give a sight, O Saviour, of thy wondrous love to me; Of the love that send thee down to earth, to die on Calvary ~ Oh, make me understand it, help me to take it in; What, it meat to Thee, the Holy One, to bear away my sin. ~ 2. Was it the nails, O Saviour that bound thee to the tree? Nay, ‘twas Thine everlasting love, thy love for me, for me. ~ 3. Oh, wonder of all wonders, that through thy death for me. My open sins my secret sins, can all forgiven be. ~ 4. Then, melt my heart, O Saviour, bend me, yea, break me down, until I own thee, Conqueror, and Lord, and Sovereign crown.

Therefore, this quotation means that death to a believer is not what it is to the unbeliever, since Jesus said that everyone, and I repeat it again: “that believes in Him will live even though He dies.” So, a Christian is a realist and this realism is not human but divine, and it allows Him to see that sin has shut the door of hope to every one that refuses Christ and goes on, by his rebellion, into an everlasting, hopeless, and dark eternity, which is the second death. If it sounds awful to you, then repent and believe! I do not write these words with glee, but I do it, so that people may know the truth and escape damnation. I would be guilty before God if I hid the truth! Nothing and no-one can stop you if you really want to come to God! But there is not such a thing as a happy ending for the unbeliever, or the world for that matter, because the end is a burning up of the present world, and then hell forever. But to the believer in Christ there is the promise of a new heaven and a new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness

Now! Since the old creation started with these words: “In the beginning” and since God has started with Christ’s resurrection the creation of a New Humanity, The New Testament should begin with the Gospel of John, as he starts it with the same words: ‘In the beginning’, and shows God at work in a new creation under the terms of a New Covenant. In fact, that passage deals exactly with Christ in eternity, it states His divinity, it reveals His creative power, his incarnation, and eventually the whole Gospel of John deals with His loves for His sheep, and the promise of His return! Therefore, the statements are as follows. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the Beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not understood it, (or put it out ~ or overcome Him.)” There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John (the Baptist). He came only as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men may believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light, that gives light to every man, was coming into the world. (KJV that was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world). He (Jesus) was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognise Him. He came to that which was His own (people - the Jews) but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believe in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God ~ children born not of natural descent (in Greek: blood.) nor of human decision, or a husband’s will, but born of God.  ~ (God willed their birth. God wanted them to be His children). The WORD (Jesus) became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory of the One and Only (the only begotten of the Father) who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John (the Baptist) testifies concerning Him. He cries out saying: “This is He of whom I said; He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me. From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the Law was given by Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus-Christ. No-one has ever seen God, but the One and Only (Jesus) who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.” (John 1:1-18.) 

We must never forget, that John, just as the other apostles that have contributed to the message of the New Testament, was writing to believers in Christ. Though the Bible is God’s book to the world, His promises are for His Children that have His nature in them. John wrote his Gospel and epistles from Patmos, between 85 and 90 AD. He was there a prisoner for preaching the Gospel, so he knew something of the persecutions that the faithful in Christ were enduring with him at the time. Being an elder and a loving pastor, he had these people upon his heart, and so he sent to them words of comfort to state again the things that they have heard from various apostles, not least those at Ephesus where he was a pastor for many years. It was to encourage them and state afresh the truth of the Gospel.

These words taken from the Gospel of John, take us right to the beginning before the world and the heavens were ever created. Unlike the verses in Genesis where it is written; “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1.) The Gospel of John reveals the authority of the Holy Trinity which plans and directs the world and the role of Christ in the work of redemption is clearly defined: “By whom all things were created and without Him nothing was created that was created”. Take a lump of earth, look at a tree, lift up your eyes to the stars, the small stars the biggest star, the immensity of our Galaxy, think of things we see and yet cannot understand that, heaven, spirits, angels, archangels, and before all these were created, there was Jesus-Christ. His powerful word is the origin of everything we see or do not see, more exceptional still, it is by His Word, oncespoken, that all things exist, and remain in the place from the beginning. This is stated: “For by Him were all things created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17.) (KJV Says: “that in Him all things consist.) Because of Christ nothing disintegrates, He holds all things together by the power of His word!

We have just gone through the season of Christmas.  It is sad to realise all over again that the majority of people do not even know what Christmas it is all about! It is all about this little Baby, of course that is how Jesus came and it is all so majestic, so mystical. The very people that sing the Christmas carols, not all know the Majesty, the Power, and the Divinity of this God-man whom God the Father has raised from the dead, Christ the Lord, the God of every true Christian. He is not a baby anymore, He is exalted as the King of Glory sitting at the right hand of God, from where, soon, He will come again! Whereas three people are involved in all things created, God is not a committee, and decisions are not taken by a vote as humans would immediately imagine. The Father plans and decides, The Son, Jesus-Christ, utters the creative words, He is the Word that creates, and the Holy-Spirit applies all words spoken, and is ever at work to bring the Church of Christ to completion 

There are no degrees in the Holy Trinity, there is no: number one, number two, number three; they are co-equal, co-eternal, all powerful. They always work in harmony without dissent; I am saying this with great respect, simply to answer the critics that try to always find errors with those of us that believe in One-God, the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! There has been great dissention throughout history, but especially from the seventeenth century onwards, as to the creation of the world. I shall not enter into details; it would not be profitable at this stage, except to say that nowadays, in the world of science, the theory of evolution is largely accepted as factual and nearer the truth then the account of Holy-Scripture; and yet there is no proof whatsoever that it is so, it still is only a theory without any foundation, utter speculation and yet, people believe it, there are more proofs of what the Bible says about the Creation of the World, yet foolish men are ready to set it aside as fables! 

How foolish indeed! Christians awake and shout to the world that Jesus-Christ is God, by whom all things were created. Facing this argument continually, Christians should take the attitude God has taken, which means that He has never tried to prove the fact that He is the Creator of all things seen or unseen, and how it all came about, God just continues stating it undeterred, men believe it or not, that is their prerogative, but He does say that: “The fool has said in his heart there is no God.” (Psalm 14:1.) I understand that the Hebrew words ‘FOOL’ in the psalms means: ‘one who is morally deficient’. Whatever it is, there is definitely a vacuum somewhere in the personality of a man who finds it impossible to state the truth, and such thinking makes no sense whatsoever. Everything on earth, that is handmade, has its origin in the mind of some man, yet every invention, however wonderful they may be, are only discoveries of what has already been created and put there by ALMIGHTY GOD.

We have now reached the point of a New phase in this study, it takes us back to a time in history when God decided to take this lifeless mass of spiritually dead humanity and create from it a new people,and reveal the true character of the new man and his true destiny. The Christian is not a better man, although it is inevitable that because of what God made him to be, is better, for it is holy and eternal, but essentially the natural man is a different man, just as life is different from death, so a true Christian is very different from a non-Christian for the Bible says: “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:12.)  

The apostle John in this statement reveals the existence of two different classes of people, 1. Those that believe that Jesus is the Son of God, 2 those that do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. This is how God divides humanity! John was writing to people that He called his children, at a time when false teachers were rising everywhere disturbing the believers, teachings various heresies. He tells them not to believe every spirit but find out the false teachers. But how does one do it? By what they say about Jesus Christ the Son of God, so he tells them: “This is how you recognise the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming.”  On the other hand, he tells to his children, folk that he led to Christ no doubt, but as an old man between 85 or 90 years of ages, he could call everyone, children: These false teachers “are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us.” (1 John 4:1-6) John said more about truths that help to recognise lies, they apply to the world today also, a world that says various things about Jesus. So, the apostle John comes to the conclusion as already quotes: 

“We accept man’s testimony (about Jesus being the Son of God), but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about His Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son! And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; (eternal life) he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” The man who has never accepted Jesus-Christ as Saviour, remains in a state of spiritual death, but the one who has accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour has His life in Him and through Him. God is the God of the living, said Jesus, and “this is the testimony, God has given us, (meaning those that have believed in Christ) eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” (1 John 5:11.) However good and righteous a man can become he is still a man, dead in his sin, when God judged sin in Adam that is what He has done, and all men born of natural birth are dead and unable to come to God or communicate with Him. With the coming of Christ into the world, God took the initiative to speak to men through His Son, Jesus of Nazareth!

It matters little how good a man tries to be, what matters is, being a new creation, a new man. The Bible states it strongly: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, and the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17.) This is outside the possibility of any religious confession. In the world today, even much of Christendom is not teaching this; in many cases Jesus-Christ is hardly mentioned, men are left to believe that one must try to do one’s best, but even believing that God exists does not help, this is why God says: “Believe on the Lord Jesus-Christ and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31) Many believe in God in their way, in a way that suits them, but it leads nowhere! 

Early in His three years of public ministry, a man came to Jesus by night, he was a member of the Jewish ruling council and was afraid of His colleagues to do so openly. He came to the Lord with a sincere confession and declared to Him: “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no-one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing id God were not with him!” I gather that he was not alone, there were, in this council, others who thought like Him, he was, of course, more courageous than the others. But his confession was not good enough for him to be spiritually any better than others of the council. Yet Jesus chose that encounter to leave us with a tremendous statement, and said to this man, whose name was Nicodemus: “I tell you the truth; no-one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

This of course was like a bomb shell to him and said in reply: “How can a man be born when he is old? To the understanding of the natural man, dead in sin, this seems obviously impossible, and straight away there is a conflict, because only the man born again of the Holy-Spirit can understand the spiritual language Jesus used, so to his question, “Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh; but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spirit.” (John 3:1-5) This is clearly the New Birth! So being born again means that a man is reborn as a spirit, something to him was added and that addition is the new spiritual life, a rebirth of what Adam lost, even better, for Adam was mortal, the new man is immortal, and God gives this new life freely to any man that believes in Christ, and confesses that Jesus is the Son of God! Thus, all believers are new creations, new people, everything about them has become eternal, even their bodies will one day rise to put on ‘immortality’, every man, born again, will receive a new body just like that of Christ who rose from the grave, for he rose a new eternal body and in it He went to heaven.

To follow this through we shall turn to the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians. By the grace of God, we plan to show, step by step, that the blessings of the New Covenant apply solely to true Christians. I say true Christians, because there is on earth a complete misinterpretation of Jesus-Christ is and what He gives, by a humanist Church, wrong ideas are promoted, thus, a complete misunderstanding is sowed as to what is the true purpose of all that He came on earth to do. This humanisation of Jesus-Christ by a politico-Christian , contributes unmistakably to the fact that to the majority of Christians today do not see any difference between Jesus-Christ, The Son of God, and the gods of other worldly religions. 

Jesus-Christ is God incarnate! He came as a baby in a human body, for the sole purpose of introducing to the world a New Covenant, of which the Gospel reveals all the blessings that it contains, and since all covenants were sealed with the shedding of blood, to seal the New Covenant, which is eternal, Jesus sealed it with His own blood, shed on the cross. The apostle John was led by the Holy-Spirit to begin his Gospel, which is the Good New about Jesus-Christ, differently to all the previous three, Matthew, Marc and Luke, these three Evangelists were led to begin their Gospel with Christ born in the flesh: “The man Christ Jesus!” Jesus was born as every other baby, but of a virgin, just as God foretold it in Eden, when He said to the serpent: “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animal., (because the devil embodied a serpent to do his deadly work) You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he (Jesus) will crush your head and you will strike his heel. This happened on the Cross! Whereas the three Gospels, Matthew, Marc and Luke, portrayed the earthly Christ destined to be this promised deliverer, the Gospel of John starts with the divinity of Christ and the display of His power in the creation of all things seen or unseen! It declares the following:

 “In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the Word was God in the beginning. Through HIM all things were made; without Him nothing was made (created) that has been made. In HIM was life and that life was the light (and is) of men. The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not understood it (has not overcome HIM has not put out that light)…HE was in the world, and though the world was made through HIM, the world did not recognise HIM. He came to that which was his own (His own people- the Jews) but HIS own did not receive HIM. Yet to all that received HIM, to those that believed in HIS name; HE gave the right to become children of GOD ~ Children born not of natural descent, or of human decision, or a husband’s will, but they were Born of God.” (John 1:1-14.) Thus, the new birth makes of every man that believes in Christ, a child of God.

Jesus is omnipotent, but as a man, He was led by the Holy-Spirit just as is every servant of God. He ate, slept and grew like any other child. At the age of twelve, as he sat in the temple in Jerusalem, discussing spiritual things with a highly educated clergy, he showed signs of an exceptional intelligence and knowledge, no wonder that people said: “From where does He get all this wisdom.”He worked for His living as a carpenter but when He reached the age of thirty, it was the time for Him to step out of all his earthly activities, to preach the Gospel which is the Good News of the dawning of a new age. During three years of public preaching this son of a carpenter, as he was known in Nazareth, his home town, proved to be the Almighty Son of God, and began to preach the Gospel and spread this Good News throughout Palestine. As stated in Romans 1:16. His words were words of power by which are brought into being new men, born not of the will of man but of God. This statement has more to do with the spiritual seed, born of God, so every Christian has in him the life of God, this is what God willed, and by His will Jesus ushered the New Covenant, which puts an end to all previous ones.

We have stated, and this is purely as a resume, to remind you, that the first covenant God made with Adam in the Garden of Eden, called the ‘Edenic Covenant’. After that he and his wife sinned, God made, with them, another covenant called the ‘Adamic Covenant’ it applied to them and all their descendants until the Flood. After the Flood God made a covenant with Noah with which He initiated human government. The terms of this covenant will apply to all nations as long as the Rainbow appears. Therefore, the first three Covenants had a general character applied to all the men, but the Covenant God made with Abraham, was selective, it applied to Him alone and all his descendants until God replaced it with the ‘Covenant of the Law’, (or Mosaic.) which was solely made with Israel through the instrumentality of Moses. Finally, God made the ‘New Covenant’ with Jesus-Christ, and through Him its blessings are exclusively to the new people God which He gave to His Son; also named the ‘the called ones’, or elects. People God predestined to be His sons before the foundation of the world!

The apostle Paul sent an Epistle he wrote from a prison in Rome. It is the most detailed epistle concerning the plan of God. It opens with praise; just thinking about, it caused the Apostle Paul to praise God. All the commentaries I may have read, or observations I read or heard concerning this epistle, praises to God is always at the forefront. The first verse, after his salutations, says: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus-Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3.) When one follows the progressive study of this epistle, the heart fills up more and more with praises. I discovered that once the full truth of its doctrine is digested, no Christian should be left in doubt as to his or her’s eternal salvation; this certainty of possessing eternal life is obviously the whole purpose of this letter. Paul was writing it around 60 to 62 AD.

The Church, by then, was widely persecuted by the roman authorities, and the faith was also attacked, from within, by various heresies, not least that of the judaisers, that after having crucified the Lord Jesus-Christ, infiltrated the believers and never stopped attacking the truth of the Gospel, false teachers tried to win them back to obedience of the Law, to bear again the yoke they carried for centuries and got them nowhere. Jesus taught very clearly, so did the apostles, that by obedience to the law, not one person attained a perfect righteousness. But praise God that, when the Holy Spirit brings a soul to Christ, grace operates, and by the power of the Holy Spirit that person receives eternal life. It is written: “By grace you are saved, through faith ~ and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God ~ not by works, so that no-one can boast. For we (Christians) are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesian 2:8-10)

The faith, in every believer, is tested, it has to be tested, but they always come out the stronger, for it is God that works in the heart, this is what Paul wrote to the Philippians 1:6. “For I am confident (persuaded KJV) of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” I agree with those who say, that if the Church was not a work of God, it would have disappeared from the map soon after Jesus ascended to heaven. Its very existence is a testimony that God has begun, He carried it through to this very day, it is HIS WORK and when Jesus returns, for His Church, the work of the Holy-Spirit will have been done, and not one sheep will miss the call.

The letter to the Ephesians starts with doctrine, as most of Paul’s epistles do, and then in the second part it deals mainly with exhortations to follow the example and teachings that they have received, which alone can help them to live for the glory of God. He says: “I, Therefore the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling with which you have been called.”(Ephesians 4:1.). 

I quote here extracts from the introduction to this Epistle as found in the American Standard Version. ‘This opening burst of praise swells to exaltation over the plan of God for His saints through redemption by Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul elaborates the implications of redemption in deliverance from sin, the new life of victory, the mystery of the unity of all saints, and their Union with Christ.’ End of quote. 

The plan of God in the redemption from sin is the real character of the New Covenant.  I could quote statement after statement, made by various expositors which say:  that to understand fully the spirit of what is the ‘The New Covenant.’ one has to consider it in the light of the revelation that is so masterfully detailed, by Paul the apostle, in the Epistle to the Ephesians. One has to read, meditate and digest all that is said about the plan of God as taught in this Epistle. Hence, the true understanding of the fullness of the blessings, as detailed in this Covenant, will finally usher the believers into the very Presence of God, through Christ who said. “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but through me.” I have called this chapter: ‘Heaven is the home prepared for men of Faith.’ So, on earth, every believer is a pilgrim. There is a song I sung often and heard many, sing it, the words of the first verse are as follows: ‘This world is not my home, I’m a passing through, my treasure are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue! The angels beckon me, through heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore!’ 

Let me now start to detail these blessings as planned by the Holy Trinity before the creation of the world and the role of each person in the outworking of this glorious plan. What will appear very clearly is the fact that salvation is purely the work of God. Any human interpretation that would mutilate its sublime inspiration, and thus annul, the treasured expressions of the love of God for His saints in Christ Jesus His Beloved Son, I would classify it, as the greatest crime against the Church, for its purpose is to rob the saints of the truth, that the salvation God offers in Christ to every believer has been willed by Him before the world began. No-one can rob every believer in Christ of the certainty that his salvation is secured in Christ forever. As states the Bible: 

“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God be for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but have Him up for us all ~ how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ died ~ more than that, who was raised to life ~ is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written ‘for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ (Quoted from Psalm 44:22.) No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death not life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, not anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39.) If God be for us, who can be against us?

It is clear that the hope does not rest on man’s words or feelings, for according with this quotation our assurance rests on the Word of God, which clearly states that the eternal safety of every believer is Christ His Son, it is guaranteed by His personal commitment to keep His children safe! There is no power in the heavens or earth that can hurt, maim or destroy the soul of a child of God. Every believer is in Christ, and as such Christ is at the right hand of God, and with Him are seated, all those that the Father gave Him. Every gift of grace is for the NOW and the HEREAFTER! This truth is brought to light in the teachings of Christ and His Apostles, underwritten by the Holy-Spirit! Man has nothing to do to be saved for Christ did it all, with the holy concept that God’s free grace has taken an unworthy sinner out of the mire of sin, and made him a prince with God, this tremendous blessing is given through Christ alone, men are excluded!

The following portion of this epistle is divided into three parts, each ending with the following sentence: “To the praise of His Glory.” All believers in Christ were ushered into eternity before time began, when The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, met to work out the role of each one in the working out of the plan, born in the heart of God to save the ones He has chosen, the Father destined them as a gift to His beloved Son, and sealed by the glorious gift of the Holy Spirit.

“Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus-Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, for He chose us, in Him, before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus-Christ, in accordance with the pleasure and will ~ to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.” In Him (in Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and -understanding, and he made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment ~to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In Him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, (Jews) who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory. And you also (Gentiles) were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy-Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession ~ to the praise of His glory.”

These verses form the most glorious expression of what the New Covenant is all about. One starts it, in the glorious heights of God’s plan conceived by Him before He made the earth, and it takes one higher and higher into the praise of His glory, until one ends in heaven when the saints of God enter into their full inheritance, according to the pleasure of God’s will which He purposed in the beloved, none other than Jesus Christ His Son! The eternal salvation of every believer is guaranteed and freely given because of what Jesus-Christ did while on earth and it is thus independent from man’s own efforts. It is important, before we detail things as they should be, led by the Holy Spirit the Apostle Paul addresses all these amazing utterances to a special band of people, which he calls the Saints: “To the saints in Ephesus, to the faithful which are in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 1:2) All believers are saints simply because God set them apart unto Himself. Saints are not people who have passed years in a monastery in prayer and self-denial trying to reach perfection! NO! That is not how believers become saints, sinners become saints when God calls them out of this world, and puts them into Christ, as it is said: “Christ in you, the hope of Glory.” If Christ is in a person by faith in Him, it follows that that person is also in Christ, one plant with Him; it is as Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” (John 15:5) it is ‘His life, like the sap flowing through every believer, is that flow of holy life that holds every believer united to Him.

The first thing that becomes apparent in this very important position, is that everything that is included in the New Covenant, being all these “spiritual blessings in Christ,” as mentioned, are purely addressed to the saints in Christ. Nothing of what we read in the New Testament applies to people outside of Christ, except God’s future judgements of all unbelievers. All church goers or pious people are not necessarily in Christ Jesus, in fact most of nominal Christians do not want to be one with Christ, and they cannot be. This will become clearer as we proceed with the exposition of what God has planned for these saints before the creation of the world for which He also prepared a Home. It is true that the apostle Paul has received special revelation from God concerning His plan in Christ. 

When Jesus revealed it to him, it gripped him so much, that over and over as he speaks about it, he burst into praise. He does it at the beginning of the first chapter of this Epistle to the Ephesians and continues in praise to God to its very end! Everything in the Gospel is in every believer “to the Praise of His glory.”  When we just think about what the Bible says concerning the conclusion of God’s work, when all is finished with the saints, in heaven they will praise, adore, glory in Christ and realise fully all that He has done for them. Therefore, Jesus alone is the door to all these ‘spiritual blessings’, and they are all in Him and man can only become a partaker of them all when he becomes a Christian “Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus-Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. These blessings start here on earth and will reach their fullness in heaven. Eternal life is given the moment a person is born again of the Holy Spirit, who acts according to God’s plan of election.

Spiritual blessings are things that God alone bestows. He declares a blessing, He bestows a blessing, they are acts of His favour, and they are gifts from Him for those that are ‘in Christ.’ Their effect is always a grateful happiness, when one is blest one feels good, favoured, special! Men can bless God, by what they offer to God in praise, by their expression of Love, by singing, making melody in their hearts unto the Lord. Even when things go wrong, for trials do come, the presence of God is real and victory through trials, always makes Jesus more real, it is also part of these ‘spiritual blessings’. Men can bless others in many ways, by doing good things to others, by gifts they give, by their respect and attitude to their neighbours, when they do it sincerely, without expecting anything in return, they too feel happy. It is good to bless, and it is good to be blessed, God says: “The blessing of Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it.” (Proverbs 10:22.)  So, the blessings that God promises in ‘The Eternal Covenant’ are unique and extra special for those that are part of it through Jesus-Christ God’s Son.

 In the Old Testament men were counted as blest when they had a lot of cattle, possessions, servants and maidservants. Job, for instance, was a very wealthy man, with great influence on his generation, a man blest of God who blessed people around him! Abraham was also greatly blest with wealth, with servants, silver and Gold, but above all He had the presence of God. By His faith he is declared to the father of all True Christians. At one point of his life he sent his trusted servant to the country he came from, to find a wife for his son Isaac, it is obvious that he did not want to marry him to an idolatrous woman from among the Canaanites amongst which he dwelt. 

Abraham lived near them and got to know their way of life, their religion that was steeped in moral and sexual depravity, so He knew that these things were detestable not to him only, but to God especially and so he wanted a wife for Isaac from his family which he left in Mesopotamia. After months of journeying, his servant eventually reached the House of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, as he introduced himself, he said: “I am Abraham’s servant. The Lord has blessed my master abundantlyand he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys.” (Genesis 24:35.) He obviously wanted to impress Nahor since he came to take his daughter for wife to Isaac. So, he had to do all that he could to make Isaac attractive to her, and he took the wealth of Abraham to show that she was going to be the wife of a very wealthy man, thus a blest man. 

I mention these things to show that his possessions were signs of the blessing of God.  Jacob too, although he arrived penniless, yet after twenty years of labour for Laban, his father-in-law, when he left, he went with immense riches and returned to Canaan. In the history of Israel wealth gave standing, respect, and men thus blest, always carried influence with their citizens. But the blessings, Paul mentions, are not material blessings, but spiritual. ‘God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ’. These blessings are from another world, money cannot buy anything that is eternal, freely given by God to His sons that He loves! 

The blessings God gave to Abraham and later on to people living under the Old Covenant were but transient, yet the blessings of the New Covenant are eternal, spiritual, they last forever. Although Abraham was blest with worldly goods, yet he caught the vision of heavenly things, and he never lost it, neither did Isaac nor Jacob, “they looked for a city whose architected and builder is God,” (I invite you to read Hebrews 11:8-16.) “They admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country that they left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead they were longing for a better country ~ a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” If a man could possess all the gold of the world, it could not buy him the smallest favour which God bestows profusely and freely on His saints. We cannot add to them by good works!

Now the abundance of blessings that God has given to believers in Christ are in the heavenly realm, they are enjoyed on earth, but they are not of the earth, all true Christians keep looking forward longing to reach home, their fatherland. It does not mean that a Christian cannot be blest materially, but such blessings are secondary, but if a man in Christ is blest with material blessings, it is for the benefit of the whole Christian community, such a man will be looking to see who may need him; he will also help the work of God and its expansion. It is also true that many men of God and Christians have died in utter poverty; many have suffered martyrdom, and died a cruel death at the hand of their persecutors, but although they lost everything and their lives, they entered heaven enriched spiritually, and are with Christ our Lord forever. 

Sadly, I have seen that Christians that are blest materially more than others, tend to lose their full trust in God, and wealth lays a pitfall to their spiritual vision, some have passed away, having never paid their tithes, thus they have even robbed God of what belongs to Him. After many years of experience in the ministry of the Gospel, I have discovered that well off people seek a position of influence in the Church, without ever tithing faithfully to the work of God! Christians be always, watching, for God sees and values, not wealth or social standing, but humble folk that love Him. If God has given you a gift, use it for the welfare of your Christian community not for personal advancement or praise! Seeking for position is not a blessing, it is a curse! 

Paul was writing to the Christians in Ephesus, and uses the present tense. They are still in the present tense and apply to all those that are in Christ now, God and His word are always in the present, for eternity cannot be measured, by days, months or years. The body grows old and dies because of sin, but the soul of a true Christian lives forever! Whereas it is so, we must remember that all these spiritual blessings are given in God’s ‘Beloved Son’ The fourth verse states this: “For He (God the father) chose us in Him (in Christ)  before the creation of the world” already then Jesus was God’s Son. Is this not a great blessing? It is obvious as one reads the New Testament that Jesus worked on earth with that purpose; His mission was to call and gather those that the Father gave Him whilst in heaven. When in eternity the Trinity was going over all the details of God’s plan to save His chosen, God, the Father, elected some people unto salvation and gave them to Jesus. In the light of this truth Jesus said: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away…. This is the will of Him who sent me that I shall lose none of all that He has given me, but raise them at the last day…No-one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:35-47.)

To support the truth of this sublime statement, we have a quotation from Christ concerning His sheep. Christians are likened to sheep for reasons we cannot spend time to explain now, but Christian love to mention Christ as their Shepherd, who cares for them, loves them, guides them safely, etcetera, talking about His sheep Jesus said: 

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me ~ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father ~ and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen, I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life ~ only to take it up again~.  No-one can take it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” (John 10:14-18.) 

I have underlined some very important statements, because they take us back again to heaven when all these things were decided. Jesus came to die to save his sheep and He came of his own accord! In fact, He states openly that He had the right to die or not to die, to lay down His life and take it up again. For the chosen ones, the new people, his sheep, that Jesus calls one by one even now, the Holy Spirit is preparing them and fittings them for their home in heaven, where He is now! Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to continue the work that He has begun, it is the Holy Spirit that inspires every word that is preached, He also loves the Church, everything that He does, He does it out of pure love, after drawing men to Christ and reveals Christ to them. It is said:  Unworthy as men are, yet the Lord has set his love upon them and says: “I love my sheep”. No one can take that away from Him, and these are all blessings of the Father. As you, read these lines, you may suddenly feel drawn to Christ, you heart is moved and if so, it is a sign that it is the time for you to accept Jesus as your Saviour and be loved as one of His sheep. Just open your heart to him and with simple words, words that come from your heart, ask Him to forgive your sins and come to lead you also to His home above!

If blessings bring prosperity materially or spiritually, they are signs of the privilege afforded on the chosen, this special heavenly people. Nevertheless, whilst on earth, those that belong to Christ have to realise that all that has happened to them, happened to the praise and glory of God as it is stated: “for the praise of His glory.” And the best way we Christians can be true representatives of our heavenly Father is by living the life that we have received, which is: “holy and blameless in His sight.” This is not an invitation to despair, because as soon as some read words like this, they feel most unholy. 

Past experiences, what they were like before they believed in Christ, are far too often remembered, the memory of all the sinful living that will never really leave the Christian as long as he remains in this body; conscience does the work for which it was created, and immediately one can despair and doubt and say: ‘How can all that be forgiven?’, the peace in the heart is disturbed by a wind of fear. It is quite natural, but God is greater than our conscience, says the Bible, and we must learn how to silence it by realising that what belongs to the old life has been crucified with Christ; I have found that all believers go through it. But being Holy and blameless is integral part of the spiritual blessings, and as we have said blessings are gifts and there is no effort required for a gift which God gives freely in Christ and through what He has done, in the will of God, for his people. Those that are Christ’s must not be shy in living naturally their life, which by its very nature is so different to the previous one! We shall see all that Christ came on earth to do, to make us Holy and blameless in God’s sight. So, when fears and doubts set in, just face them and realise that you are who you are, by the grace of God, without merits, and that Jesus did it for us all. He is our High Priest, in heaven, at the right hand of God, He represents us, God sees us in Christ, one plant with Him, sharing in His victory over sin, death and the devil. The sanctifying of our lives begins at the moment we are saved, and it is God that does it to the end, He makes us willing and capable to grow in the likeness of Christ our redeemer! We shall return to that later.

Having said that, it is imperative for a sinful man to experience the miracle of grace, by which he is made worthy to stand holy and blameless in the presence of God now, not literally but in the spirit. The whole purpose of God’s plan which is here worked out so perfectly, speaks of the state that a sinful man is in. God in His love decided to do everything that is necessary to re-establish communion and a relationship with certain men, by pure grace without any merit on their part; it is not something that they have earned. To do that He did what he had to, and Jesus had to come to make men holy. We realise more and more as we proceed with the exposition of the verses 4 to 6, that Jesus is the central figure in the plan of God, and everything depended on Christ’s willingness to do His part, which He did. Everything was decided in the bond that exists in the very nature of the Holy Trinity of which the essence is pure, with a deep, strong love. 

Such love we humans do not know, the nearest thing that we have in our sinful nature, is the fact that everything is so easy to do for the one we love, but even then, in human love there is always a bias of selfishness, because we always expect something in return. ‘To be holy and blameless’, which means pure and without sin, one can see immediately, that to arrive at that, man had to be completely changed inwardly, and this is what does happen in the recreation of man’s spirit, which happens at the new birth, and from then on, this life is bound to manifest itself. When a child is born, it would be foolish to expect him to fend for itself. A child comes into the world helpless and in need of constant care, but what is the paramount blessing, is that with it was born a great amount of love, and that love makes the chores of parenthood a pleasure. Why do we expect God to be any different, as babes he feeds us with milk, as in a natural child, growth in a new born believer comes naturally. 

The next statement we have to deal with is: “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus-Christ.” We have the revelation here of what motivated God the Father to decide what to do in this wonderful plan of Salvation, and then to actually reach out His hands to a lost humanity; nothing else could have done it but “His love.” John the apostle, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit says: “Love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is Love…” This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

I think it to be important to ask ourselves: Why should God feel such an impulse, or outburst of love towards man? He foreknew everything before He created him, even before sin spoiled Him completely. It has been said already, that a sinner is by his nature an enemy of God. Four millenniums of God’s dealings with mankind have proved how patient and forgiving He has been and still is. God is never vindictive, as man can so easily be, yet always righteous in all His judgements. Always waiting for man to repent, ready and willing to forgive. Man insulted Him, rebelled against Him, unwilling to offer Him praise and Honour, and yet he was prepared to worship objects he made of wood, stone or metal, idols to which man gave obeisance although they gave nothing in return. And demanded too much!

Modern man has modern idols, but they are just as deadly. Such objects have no feeling, no emotion, they cannot speak hear or love, and yet to God who gives life, love and an abundant supply of all man’s needs, man cannot find it in himself to be grateful and thank God for His mercies! In the light of all this supernatural knowledge, why create Him, or once created why not destroy him completely and be rid of this sinful, violent, disobedient and godless creature? Because He knew that He could get out of this vortex of humanity, something beautiful, pleasant and Holy, blameless in His sight! This is love indeed, God is not only full of it, but He is love, love is His nature, and this is why: “In love he predestined some men to be adopted as his sons through Jesus-Christ.” Paul was writing these words at a time when God’s plan was accomplished and he draws these Christians to realise that what happened to them, was decided before the earth was created.

It was good for believers in those days to know not only that they were saved, but what was to them, and what is to Christians today, the full package of God’s many blessings. If I may say so, Christians really need to know what it really means to be a child of God. The prodigal son, quoted in a previous chapter, after squandering his inheritance, found that to continue to live he had to return to his father, hoping that he would at least accept him as a servant! But this was not what his father thought, and as a loving father he reinstated him to all his rights as a son! Think of it! What did man deserve after all his rebellion, his life in sin in service to the devil, always disregarding God’s will, like this son in the story, man has wasted his life in riotous living? What did he deserve, Nothing!  Yet in love, and by His grace, God forgives totally the sins of those who repent, and makes from a vile sinner, unworthy and worthless, an eternal Son and heir of all His riches! Halleluiah! What a God!  What a Saviour! 

I understand that the term ‘adoption’ as we find it expressed in the Bible, was borrowed from Roman law. Because Paul was a Roman Citizen, he knew something about it and used it to explain why God adopted the believer, and what He meant by using this Roman law as an example.  Under Roman law, adoption secured for the adopted child, a right to the name and the property of the person by whom he was adopted. To be adopted naturally, and this applies to most civil laws in most countries, means that when a child is adopted, he becomes an integral member of the family that has adopted him. It could have lived in homes as a foster child, or just basically, be looked after, by various homes for certain periods of time. Nowadays, there are thousand of children, mainly orphans that live rough under appalling circumstances. Now think of a family that takes a child like that and adopts it. Immediately, when the legal papers are signed it becomes their child, a son or a daughter, and the adopters become his or her parents. He lives in their home, eats with them, shares the ups and downs of family life, and slowly he appreciates what it means to have a family and feels a part of it. He is called by their name, which gives him the privileges of being a member of that family. If it is a high-ranking family, he shares their distinction, their rank and privileges just as their own children would; and at the death of the adoptive parents, that child has a right to inherit his part of the inheritance, just as much as his siblings, if there are any. 

It is to bring to the forefront of what the adoption of every Christian means that the apostle Paul used this Roman law as an example, of which the Jews had nothing similar; he did it to show exactly the position of every child of God. No-one deserved it but, God said to Jeremiah and says it to all that are redeemed by the blood of Christ: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3) and to Jacob God said: “Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you; the Holy One of Israel is your Saviour!” (Isaiah 41:14.) Rightly it is stated in Romans 5: 8. “God proves His love for us, (unworthy sinners) in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!” The chorus of a hymn asks this question:

                                    Why should He love me so?

                                                Why should he love me so?

                                                Why should my Saviour to Calvary go?

                                                Why should He love me so?

Why indeed? There is no real answer to that except that God is love, and because He is Love Jesus became a man, and through His love and life revealed to men what His Father is like. And He himself did all He did because of His love for all His disciples!

 All these blessings! All this untold generosity brings to light that Christians have received this exceptional rank, distinction, and privileges as Sons of God. The greatest honour a Christian has is that he is called by a most royal name. Because after all that has been done by the Lord, so that a sinner could be adopted into His family, God commits Himself to be the Saviour and the guardian of His people. Isaiah prophesies the following: “But now, this is what the Lord says ~ He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel; “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned (Called KJV,) you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy one of Israel, your saviour. ~ Since you are precious and honoured in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people for in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north. ‘Give them up! And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth ~ every one that is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isaiah 43:1-7.) This passage of Scriptures is not the only one in the Bible, but it is one of those gems, and it should suffice to show to every Christian, what it means to be called by the Lord, and that there is no higher rank, and distinction, that can be given to men. 

I will end this paragraph to say that true believers in Jesus-Christ are also Sons of God not by adoption only, but they are especially so by the new birth, they are a new creation being fitted for a different world; on this earth they are pilgrims moving on looking, like faithful men before them, “for a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God”. (Hebrews 11:10.) Adoption was a declaration of the status, whereas the new birth declares His nature. Adoption speaks of the rank into which God brought these believers with a full right to an inheritance regardless of their past, whereas regeneration speaks of the birth into the family of God. In fact, the eternal gene, the divine gene is in every born-again believer, He has God’s life, eternal life in Him, for God alone has eternal life! “The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus-Christ His Son.”

This quotation from Isaiah, also shows that true believers in Christ are Sons of God now, and that as such they are pilgrims on earth, and the way to the ultimate entrance into glory is hard and dangerous. Just as Satan did not leave Jesus alone, he will pursue His sheep as He did their shepherd. Trials are essential for the making of a true disciple. As an example, we take any athlete who has won a gold medal at the Olympic Games. How could he ever win it without training? He takes his body to the limit and imposes upon himself a very strict discipline, not just for a day but for many months prior to the games! The price before the Christian is far more important, it is a crown that will never fade away, so God will train him by various means, which he will send to strengthen His faith and his complete dependence on the Lord! A disciple who does only follow when everything is always pleasant, or when happiness abounds, is a poor follower, but one who will bless the Lord at all times, when things get rough and persecution abounds, is worth his salt! Therefore, God says, ‘you will pass through waters, you will go through rivers. You will have to walk through fires, but through it all I am with you and you cannot perish’!

The part that God has in the working out of His plan of salvation comes at the end of verse 6 “unto the praise of the glory of His grace.” Everything that is involved in the saving of those that God gave to Jesus-Christ, His beloved Son, is to the Praise of His glory. The glory of God shines right through from the manger to the Cross, from the Cross to the rapture of His saints into heaven, their home, where they shall behold his Glory! The problem that often arises in the fellowship of Christians with God, (Father Son and Holy-Spirit,) is that they are so subjective. In much of today’s Christianity man has usurped God’s place; man has been placed at the centre of everything; as for God? He really has no place at all. Everything in the modern aspects of Christianity concentrates on man. What does it mean to him to be a Christian? He wants to be blest and get what suits him. He wants to be happy and prosperous; He thinks that everything must always be pleasant, light without any problems! Much of his activities is concentrated on the now, and rarely thinks of eternity. That is not Christianity! Other religions do all that so much better. Such attitude in the Church has led to a corrupted faith that has not realised that true Christianity has Christ in the centre, and that the sole objective of the Christian’s life is the Glory of God! 

The state of modern churches is the result of that kind of evangelism preached during the best part of the twentieth century, especially after the Second World War. That said: “If you want to be happy, healthy, and prosperous; if you want forgiveness of sins and go to heaven, then come to Jesus.” Although these things are part of a natural Christian life, they are not what salvation is all about. When one accepts Jesus Christ into his life, one realises that his previous way of life was offensive to God. Modern man never thinks about sin, and what a terrible sin it is to live without God, living as his enemy, sinning wilfully in constant disobedience to His will, and never being thankful to Him. Such living is the reason why he is so miserable, always on edge. Everything and everyone is wrong even God! The Christian life is objective, and God must be worshipped, honoured and loved, and to a grateful Christian these things are natural. 

Salvation means that Christ comes into one’s life and changes everything. The first thing that happens is that man repents sincerely from the heart, and is reconciled to God though faith in Jesus-Christ His Son. Since, the fall of Adam, God was put out of the equation, man only knows how to offend God in every aspect of his life! So pig-headed has he become, that he believes that even God should listen to him, it is, seemingly, his human right! How very stupid, for he cannot change the direction of his life pre-destined by the Almighty, not even by one degree! God alone is the alpha and the omega and the centre of everything, all creation evolves around Him. It is a corrupted faith that has not realised that true Christianity has Christ in the centre, and that Jesus-Christ is the very life of every true Christian, and his sole objective has always been, and always will be: ‘the Glory of God!’

Wars and conflicts have been and will always be the result of ungodliness and unbelief. Wars are the results of the selfish and violent relationship that starts in any society without God, and then spread between countries to a world-wide scale! Therefore, by the preaching of the Gospel Jesus would bring back men to the purpose for which he was created, by reconciliation He makes peace and re-establishes true fellowship, between two parties at war, God and man. This is why, when reconciliation was made Jesus taught His disciples to say to God: “Our Father in heaven (only His Sons can say our Father) hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Christians above all and firstly, must seek and live for the glory of God, and the expansion of the Church of Jesus Christ; in a sense, daily needs are not to be their worries because God has taken upon Himself to care for them. It is as it is written: “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or ‘What shall we wear? For the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31-33) Jesus says that we should not worry, worry is a terrible thing, when one worries one has no time for anything else. He says also that we should not run after these things, that is what the pagans do; we have God who will make sure that we have all that we need. It will not fall into our lap, because life must be lived, but the essence of it is trust! Worry comes from unbelief, running comes from greed! 

The second part of the plan of God is the salvation of the lost. The: “every spiritual

blessing in Christ” as mentioned, is God outpouring Himself daily on those that through the Gospel have become His sons! None of these special blessings are accessible for those that do not repent and accept Jesus-Christ as their Saviour! Everything that God planned in eternity would have no value at all without Christ and all that HE HAD to do, as stated: “Every spiritual blessing is only given to those that are IN CHRIST.” For he (the Father) chose us in Him (in Christ) before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He (the Father) predestined us to be adopted as His sons, through Jesus-Christ., according with His pleasure and will ~ to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the ONE He loves (Jesus). One cannot read the Bible, without realising very clearly, in the first ten chapters we find that the world has always been divided, in God’s economy, into two groups of people. Words quoted above say that certain men were chosen to be His sons long before the world was ever created. It happened in the first human family, Cain persecuted Abel his brother because of his faith in God’s promise of redemption, and because of it He killed Abel His brother. It is clearly stated right through the Old Testament and in the New! All of God’s plan and will depended On CHRIST’S willingness to come and offer His life as a sacrifice, and by shedding His blood he atoned for the sins of His chosen ones, and He alone makes their New Birth possible! All of these blessings were part of God’s plan, and are a blest reality today!

We cannot imagine what it meant to the Father to send His beloved Son into the world? This is why I say, like so many, that if God could find a different way to save man from sin and reconcile him to Himself, He would have chosen it, rather than be separated from the presence of His Son, and for Him to suffer as He did. The whole of Heaven, angels, archangels, cherubim and Seraphim and all other beings that are in heaven, all must have wondered, why has this become necessary? It says that angels long to look into the things concerning God’s plan. Having never sinned, they could not really understand what it was all about? 

God’s timings, His mysterious hidden purposes; even the prophets speculated concerning the times and seasons of all that they prophesied. We can read in 1Peter 1:12. “It was revealed to them (the prophets) that they were not serving themselves but you, (you, saints at Ephesus and in the whole world) when they spoke of the things that have now been told by those who preached the gospel to youby the Holy-Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.” The part God has in this salvation starts with “every spiritual blessing in Christ” and concludes with: “Which He has freely given in the One (His Son) he loves” We can never just talk of things that have been decided in eternity, without associating them to Jesus and His life on earth, just as He revealed in His public ministry, which began in the synagogue in Nazareth and ended on the CROSS. By giving His life for the redemption of sinners Jesus brings the plan of God into the present, because God is still fulfilling it today, ratified by his New Covenant, because God is faithful to it, people are being saved and brought into Christ’s Kingdom every day in the whole wide world, and all these spiritual blessings are given in JESUS-CHRIST the BELOVED! The blessings of the New Covenant have nothing to offer for people that will not believe and submit to Jesus-Christ, and confess Him as Lord. We cannot grasp what it really meant to God the Father to send Jesus into the world to save those He has chosen in Him. This was what God the Father had to do, to eradicate sin from all His creation and bring Satan’s power to an end. One day all traces of evil will be done away with, even from natural creation when God will have created a new heaven and a new earth, then in person God will dwell with His glorified saints forever!

The Epistle to the Ephesians proclaims the finished work of Christ, which brought the saints, as they are called to taste the joys of all the spiritual blessings which are here expressed in the ‘New Covenant’, of which Christ is the head and which He sealed with His own blood. From the manger to the CROSS Jesus lived step by step every detail of the plan of God which He came amongst men to fulfil. He could not deviate once from the way, He had to remain perfect. If Jesus had failed once, none of these wonderful truths would remain and men would be without hope. Jesus: “Loved the Churchthat He gave Himself for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant Church, without stains and wrinkles or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-27.) She is therefore precious to Him. The apostle Paul continues about this great love saying: “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, you may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and know this love that surpasses knowledge ~ that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” These are inspired words, but they still are but human words, quite inapt to really explain this divine love, that compelled Christ to leave heaven, His Father, and empty himself of all His divine rights, to live as a man amongst men to save as many as His Father gave Him, men He calls His brothers! How very splendid for those that are such, how very humbling but precious to those who feel it!

The love that He felt in heaven, Jesus felt it also while He ministered on earth, when He was moved with compassion for the people that followed Him and listened to his words, He was so moved because they were like sheep without a shepherd! The parable of the lost sheep shows very well His love and concern for every person that He came to save. Luke chapter 15 opens with the Pharisees finding fault with Jesus because He allowed sinners near Him: “Tax collectors and ‘sinners’ (people with bad reputation) were gathering round Him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law muttered, ‘this man welcomes sinners, and eats with them! Then Jesus told them this parable: ‘Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety and nine in the open field, (in the care of friends) and goes after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when He finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says: Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep. I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents than over ninety-nine persons who do not need to repent.” Jesus said this of people that do not feel the need of repentance ~ self righteous sinner.

This parable is enough to show what love compelled Jesus to come and seek the lost. If you are a Christian, it is because Jesus found you, and He came to call you to repentance, and when you did repent, there was feasting in heaven!! If you are a sheep that Jesus found, you should never feel worthless and unwanted. We all receive from the Master functions, and we should act accordingly in all humility, some are called to preach the gospel, some have positions of trust in the Church, but we are all in the work of God, all members of the same Body. In the eyes of the Lord we are all the same and no-one should feel small, we are all Sons of God and that is the highest pedigree man can ever have.  Jesus knew what He had to do, none of his flock will ever be called to suffer as He did, but He did it to make salvation possible. He came to die on the CROSS and give His life to make reconciliation with God a reality. The following verses state the full account of the purpose of His coming to earth.

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us (US- Christians – people that have believed on Him) with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known the mystery of His will according to the good pleasure which He purpose in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment ~ to bring all things in heaven and earth together under one head, even Christ ~. In Him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:7-12.)

The Church, I mean the church that people call Christian, has never been more wayward, concerning the true evangelical doctrine, and ignorant of true Christianity, as it is today. People generally, and this offends me so much, have been taught so many lies to the extent that most now believe, that people of all faiths go straight to heaven when they die! Time and time again, we hear on television of people that have been so good, they have never, in their life time, done any wrong to anybody, with innuendoes that they obviously deserve to be in Paradise. They never went to Church to hear the word of God or to praise Him, and have hardly ever mentioned the Name of Christ with the love and respect He deserves! They were never thankful to the Almighty for life and all that He gives abundantly; during their life time they have never heard of the need to repent of their sins, why? Because the most outstanding statement of Christian Doctrine is ignored completely by those priests that should teach people that: “In Him (JESUS) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” (Ephesians 1:7) Heaven, as we call it, is not gained by what one may have done, however good that one may have been, but Heaven is gained by what Jesus-Christ did on the CROSS! It is the home of men who have believed and have lived their lives as true Christians, with a great Love for God and for Jesus Christ, who reconciled them to God through the blood of the CROSS he died on!

Jesus came on earth to redeem men. This is the first statement God makes concerning the great problem of sin, and states just were a sinner stands in the eyes of Almighty God! “In Him (in Jesus) we have redemption through His blood.” This is the centre of the message God has for men, for men of two thousand years ago and men of today, and until Jesus returns; and if one bypasses it for any reason at all, then according to this Gospel, preached by Christ and His apostles, one is not a Christian, and heaven is but a dream. To go to heaven, one must know what redemption means and how much it cost, for on the CROSS Jesus sacrificed His Holy life to redeem … the lost. However you became a Christian, by baptism, or any other sacrament of whatever Christian confession, which has initiated you into what it supposed to be the Christian faith, unless you have repented of your sins, and accepted that Christ alone can save you from hell, then, I must humbly say, according to Christ’s teaching and that of His apostles, you are not a Christian. Redemption starts at the CROSS of Christ, it is there that man has to face himself and what he has done, not literally, because the cross is not on a hill outside Jerusalem, but he has to do it in spirit and realise who Jesus is, and why God allowed Him to be treated brutally by violent men who killed Him without mercy. Why? Because: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:23) A Christian song says: “Kneel at the Cross, Christ will meet you there, come while He waits for you.” I have learned that He does not wait forever, the Bible says: ‘Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.’

The cross is a meeting place, it is there that man meats with his past and decides his spiritual future, it is there that life can be changed completely and take a new direction. We already mentioned Saul of Tarsus, who breathing cruelty towards the Christians; was on his way to Damascus with evil intent in his mind! On his way there, Christ met him! This is what I mean, the Christ of the CROSS, chose that place to change him, Paul realised the man he was and became the man God wanted Him to be! (Read Acts 9) That is grace, the expression of the love of God. Saul of Tarsus died to his previous way of life, through the working of the Holy-Spirit and a miracle of grace, he was born again to a new life. On the way to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus died, and Paul the apostle was born, to become a true disciple of Christ. Thus, one has to be born anew of God; it can happen anywhere, without the presence of a priest or some useless sacraments, or anyone’s prayer but one’s own, stating one’s need of Christ to save and forgive all sins committed in a life of rebellion to God and of His righteous Commandments!

“In him we have redemption.” All the purposes of God are thus fulfilled and applied, in Him, in Christ, His beloved Son, as mentioned already. God’s plan for the salvation of sinners, for unworthy men and women, is a truth which is mentioned again and again throughout the New Testament, and to accomplish all that He had to do. Jesus-Christ came down to earth and the first thing that is mentioned is, ‘redemption.’ Redemption always involves a price. The redemption of a slave was at a price. Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob was sold by his brothers and became a slave, when he got to Egypt he was bought by Potiphar, a high ranking official, to be his servant and he became his slave, but God had a plan for Joseph, by His miraculous he became the ruler of Egypt. It is at that time that his father Jacob, due to a great famine, came to Egypt and lived under the protection of Joseph, the son he thought was dead, and settled in Goshen, a part of Egypt’s rich pastures, for Jacob and his sons were shepherd. 

More than four centuries had passed, the Pharaoh ruling Egypt at the time, had no regard for the people of Israel. He feared them, because they had grown too numerous, and He considered them as a threat. Pharaoh feared that they could revolt against him and fight with his enemies in case of war, so cunningly He turned them into slaves. It is said in the Bible that all that happened to them was to serve as examples to Christians (1 Corinthians 10:6.) Just as they were slaves to the Egyptians so those who are now true disciples of Jesus-Christ were slaves to Satan and the world. The people of Israel had a cruel master who with his people hated them. “But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so, the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard labour in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labour the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.” (Please, if you have a Bible, read Exodus chapter 1.) 

In this pitiful situation, they began to cry to the God of their fathers, whom they did not really know, but they knew enough to cry to him for help. God had told Abraham that his descendants would be slaves in the strange land for four hundred years. That period was fulfilled; it was God’s time to intervene. God works according to a plan minutely thought out by Him alone, God the Father is the author of salvation, men have done nothing to redeem themselves from the pit of sin, those that are saved are saved by God’s initiative and by His power! God the Father had it all worked out before He ever said it to Jesus His Only Son, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us, and to that Jesus replied: ‘Here am I, send me.” (Isaiah 6:8.) Therefore, things thought out before the world began are fulfilled precisely, just as He decided in eternity. Jesus speaks of an hour saying: “Father the time has come (the hour has come KJV.) Several times in the gospels it is mentioned that: “his hour did not yet come.” But here in John 17:1, Jesus says, the hour had come, the time set out for His sacrificial death, for which He came into the world, has arrived; just as the time of His return is set out, and at the time willed of God, Jesus will return to earth and set out His Kingdom, just as He said! 

So, having prepared Moses, His man for the Job to deliver His people from Pharaoh’s yoke, God went to speak to Him and appeared to him in a burning bush. Moses saw what he saw many times before: But this bush was different because it did not consume and kept on burning. Curious, he approached it; it is then that he heard: “God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’…Then He said. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God... The Lord said “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard their crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So, I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and specious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…and now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. (Exodus 3:1-10) How could one man bring such a people out from the clutches of mighty Pharaoh, but it has been said: ‘One man with God is a majority.’ Thus, in the will of God Almighty, Moses went assisted by Aaron his older brother to face mighty Pharaoh, to lead Israel to the promised land!

Moses and Aaron, had a hard time, and under great difficulty they tried to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Nine times they were sent by God to confront Pharaoh. God sent nine different plagues upon the land Of Egypt, but when Moses prayed to God each time the plagues ceased, yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened more and more and he would not let the people go. Man’s pride is always his downfall. The Israelites were discouraged to the point that they said to Moses and Aaron, you have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials, for they made their labour even more difficult. But Moses lived with a promise from God, the promise he shared with the Israelites: Therefore, God said to Him: “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.”

Words like these apply as much to Israel as they do to the Church. We must note how God expresses His great zeal to free and to redeem His people, but men must trust the Lord and wait for His time. All He does, does not always seem quick enough, but he is never too late. We should never try to understand the workings of the Lord, but believe that in love, He works to our good and to His glory. We are too subjective, and even as Christians we think more of what we need, what we want, and we would want God to reply as soon as we call, and we forget that our lives must be, firstly and above all submitted to His will and employed to bring Him the glory. We can never be blest, if our objective is not right. At all times God must remain the object of our praise and of our love, and when He gets the glory, we get a much greater deliverance!

All the miracles that God displayed by His mighty arm, did not do much to impress Pharaoh, who hardened his heart, and did not let the people of Israel go free. People say, show us a miracle and we will believe, but it has been proved that folk see miracles every day, but their heart towards God never changes. Jesus made many miracles, he healed miraculously many people, but they did not turn the nation to God. The very people he healed did not always thank him for it and eventually, they turned against Him, and had Him crucified. So, Pharaoh did not budge until the night of the Passover, which the people of Israel still remember to celebrate each year. The order God gave to Moses was for all Israelites, by families, to kill a lamb and to put the blood of the sacrifice on the door frames of every house where the lamb was eaten. This is what God said: “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn ~ both men and animals ~ and I will bring judgment on the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” (Exodus 12:12-13.) 

The Israelites did everything as God commanded them. One cannot imagine what was going through the mind of some of them. In the light of Pharaoh’s refusal to let them go, all the plagues that Egypt suffered did not convince him, I wondered if some doubted the efficiency of what was being done, but at last, deliverance came: “At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was a loud wailing in Egypt, for there was no house without someone dead.” (Exodus12:29-30.) The pride and the unbelieving hard heart of one man, Pharaoh, brought a whole nation into destruction, but the worst was yet to come. Men will never learn that it is foolish to resist God; because what He has determined to do, He will do it. Pharaoh thought that he had won the battle, and that their slaves will now remain in Egypt, but God determined Pharaoh’s destruction, this proud ruler had no idea as to what God was about to do. When it did the whole of Egypt was in mourning. So “During the night, Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said: ‘Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go worship the Lord as you have requested.” (Exodus 12:13.) 

The folly of a man is to always resist the will of God, but eventually he always brings him to his knees. God has been warning men for centuries, calling them to repentance and to amend their ways, but what do we see? We see the world more ungodly than ever, rebellious to God and worshipping its many idols without fear of Him, not realising that it is rapidly moving towards its terrible end. There will be great wailing and sorrow, but as it happened to Pharaoh, men will discover that they were wrong to ignore God and resist Him. Pharaoh said: “Who is God that I should listen to Him and let you go? He found out who He was, and that He determined to destroy Him; when man crosses the line it is too late. God gave Pharaoh many opportunities to let Israel go, this time the purpose for which He sent Moses has come!

So, Pharaoh let Israel go, as soon as they left on their journey God’s presence went before them: “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left the place in front of the people.” (Exodus 13:20-21.) From that point God took charge directly of His people Israel, and led them out of the land of bondage, the hard labours were over. Nevertheless, to destroy Pharaoh utterly, knowing that he would pursue the Israelites to bring them back to be his slaves, God led them by what appears as an impossible way. But nothing is impossible to God, redemption had to be complete, and by it, not only are the people of God delivered from the oppressor, but the oppressor too is destroyed. 

When you feel that God is making a mistake to take you the way He is, remember how He led Israel into the Promised Land, the way appeared impossible to men but nothing is impossible to God. When they reached the Red Sea, God opened the sea before them, and made a highway for his people; how? “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, as God had told him, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.” (Exodus 14:21-22.) No dykes were built, and no mighty pumps had to draw out the waters, God does not need human craft to do His work, he has means unknown to men. Christians more than anybody else should know it but, far too often they forget it. A highway was built through the sea in one night and four to six million people went safely through with all their belongings and cattle. Did you ever think of how long it took them to cross the sea? It could have been a week, may be more, and yet the sea did not move and no-one perished.

Pharaoh and his officials did not taste enough of God’s wrath, they had to drive themselves to destruction. Sin does that to every man that will allow it to destroy him. Cain, the son of Adam, allowed hatred for Abel his brother to filter right into the marrow of his bones, and rather than listen to God’s admonition and resist sin and kick it out to touch, deviously invited Abel for a walk and in the fields to kill him. God said: “Cain, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:6-7) Sin is an awful strong power, but man can always say no. “Sin when it is finished brings forth death”. This happened to Pharaoh, and seeing the power of God that opened the sea for His people, in his rage, to drive them back, he ordered his army to go after them, but what was Israel’s way of salvation became the grave of this mighty army. It brought the Egyptians a very sorrowful and deadly end. 

That day became a historical day of victory and of great joy to the people of God, so Moses and Miriam sang a song to the Lord. Part of that song is worthy to look at, it says: “The enemy boasted, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake them. I will devise the spoil; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them,’ But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you ~ Majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them.” In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. The nations will hear and tremble anguish will grip the peoples.” (Exodus 15:9-14.) 

If these words have in part been true to the earthly Israel, how true will they be when Jesus takes His Church into his heavenly, holy dwelling? Incidentally the holy dwellings are in heaven, not in Canaan. The Church’s character and life was woven with the People of Israel right through history and came into its own with the conversion of Jews which were the first believers in Christ, and from Jerusalem the Church, took the Gospel to the world! What happened to Israel physically happens to the believers spiritually; their journeys are traces and willed by the Almighty! 

What happened to Pharaoh is what happened to Satan, when Jesus died on the CROSS. The way of the CROSS brings deliverance to the one who believes and trusts in Jesus, for the CROSS has destroyed the power of Satan. Therefore, the CROSS of Christ opens a new way for the sinner that comes to Christ through it. It is of great importance to always give to the CROSS of Jesus-Christ his rightful place; it is at the centre of what salvation is all about. The way that God opens for the believer in Christ is, as we have seen a highway to glory, that is what God has determined to do, so, Christ came readily and gave to those the Father gave to him, the opportunity of a new start. 

Just as the Israelites, who were destined for the Promised Land, so is the true Church is destined for the heavenly Canaan.  Just as Israel was under oppression in Egypt it could not know that God was preparing their deliverance and the destruction of their tusk masters, nor did the believers know that God had destined them to be delivered from Satan their oppressor. The lamb of the Passover, whose blood was the means of the Israelites being set free, so is the Lamb of God, Jesus-Christ, who by the sacrifice of Himself, on the CROSS redeemed the elect, He alone sets them free, destroying forever the power of their tusk master, the devil! Jesus disarmed Satan and saved His Brothers from the yoke of servitude! Satan cannot touch the feeblest saint and drive him back under his sway; there is no power that he can master, even if he were to gather all his fallen angels, they still could not retake even one disciple of Christ into slavery. He boasts of great might but he can only use it against those that he keeps attached to his yoke, and finally with him they will be thrown into the lake of fire. But on that day, all of heaven, with all the redeemed of the Lord, will enter into eternal joy and then, they will sing the songs of the victory!

Over centuries, the Church (as it is called) has completely changed, not only in its true meaning, but it has changed especially in its character, and the name ‘Church’ does not suit that unfaithful lot. The men who lead this assembly of traitors, has shut the door to their blind followers, which not knowing the way, think that they are destined for glory! Blinded by Satan they will end up in hell with him.  We have mentioned already that in this short portion of scripture, Ephesians 1: 2-14, which is the longest sentence in the Bible, everything that God planned to bring about in ‘His Beloved Son’, had the Glory of God as its main purpose. It is mentioned in verse six, then again in verse 12, and finally in verse 14. The history of Israel shows that God chose them, so that they might be a witness to His glory. But Israel became proud and subjective, and centring everything on themselves, lost the way. They were the chosen nation! To them were given the Holy Oracle, the Scriptures. They were waiting for the coming of their Messiah who would reign from Jerusalem and subdue under them the whole world. They became political, and lost completely their character with the purpose of their calling. When they were warned of God by His prophets, of a coming doom because of their idolatry, they killed them, because they could not admit the veracity of their predictions. They were the Israel of God! The holy, chosen nation! When finally, God sent to them their Messiah, they hated Him, and sent him to a horrible death on a CROSS, because He did not suit their purpose, and saw Him as a nuisance!

Therefore, the Church, so called, which largely has nothing to do the cause of Christ, has gone the way of the Israelites. The Church of Rome especially, is a great political power, would Jesus-Christ come back today, with the same message of redemption through His blood, those carnal leaders would do exactly the same to him as did the Jews; in fact, ‘The Romanists’ hate the message of salvation so much, that its clergy has been the power that martyred thousands that dared to oppose their corrupted, political set up. Nowadays they still continue to oppose the very message of the Lord, which is Salvation by faith, by their hardened heart, they are sending their adepts to an eternal sleep, the moment they wake up to reality, they will be surprised to find, that the doors of heaven are shut to them, and Jesus will tell them: ‘Go away from me, I have never known you.’ This will also happen to every branch of Christendom, which has ignored the way of the CROSS, which is the only one that leads from slavery to the promised land! 

If one of you, readers of this gospel message, are true Christians by faith in Jesus-Christ, then put Christ in the centre as the sole object and Lord of your life, and realise that the Christian life is not a bed of roses, it is a continual fight against sin within you and without you, in the world. Live with the knowledge that in spite of all your failures your future is secure in Christ, who has redeemed you by His blood which he shed on the cross, and that you are a child of God! Your sole duty is to always seek the Glory of God: “In Him (Jesus-Christ) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us…in the Beloved.”

In conclusion to this chapter, let me just state certain facts concerning ‘Redemption.’

Firstly: It is never acquired without a cost, there is price to pay to be redeemed, if it is not money, it is by divine power. The greatest war, after that which brought the Israelites out of Egypt in victory, was that of Jesus-Christ redeeming his people by His blood shed on the CROSS. Jesus, whilst on earth, was constantly under attack. He was tempted directly by the devil that used all His craft to trip him up and submit Him to his will. But as a man Jesus was too strong for him and he overcame him, He and gave him no room. The devil attacked Him through the Jewish leaders, scribed, priests, teachers of the law, the Pharisees and the Sadducees! To them Jesus said: “you are of your father the devil and his works will you do”. He recognised the spirit that used them to get at him, but what the devil thought would be the end of Jesus, as he died on the Cross, turned out to be his undoing; Jesus by His death on the cross won his greatest battle and stripped the devil of all his might.  “Since the children (of God) have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death ~ that is, the devil ~ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14-15.)

Some people believe that Satan knew what the death of Christ would mean to him: his end. Others believe that having used evil men to condemn him he rejoiced in what he thought was his greatest achievement, ‘the death of Christ’. I know that the devil knows a lot but he knows less than what we think. For example, he did not know that when he tempted man to sin and submitted Adam to his will, that the very sin into which Adam fell through his temptation, would bring his destruction. The deliverer God promised to our first parents did come, and Satan’s promised defeat happened, when Christ died on the Cross, and made a show of him openly. My opinion is that Satan did not know the full extent of what Jesus would accomplish by His death on the cross, for the CROSS, by His death, defeated him and delivered from his clutches all the elects, which Jesus came to save! By His death on The CROSS Jesus destroyed the devil, death and the power of sin, and broke the yoke of slavery and paid, with His life, the price of redemption of all those that would believe in Him. 

Secondly: Another Greek word ‘pidyon’, translated as redemption in the NIV, means that objects, fields, animals or slaves were taken from their previous owner who lost every right over them, he could never claim them back; it became completely, by a legal declaration, the possession of the redeemer who became their new owner. Jesus paid a heavy price to redeem his sheep from death, which, because of sin were held in Satan’s grasp. By his substitutive death Christ redeemed His own and gave them a new life’. Now, they are Christ’s, His forever and He will not lose one of them. Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11.) The lesson we gather from this, is that the redemption of Israel, teaches us that as for their redemption so also for our redemption, blood had to be shed, and God said: “When I see the blood, I shall pass over you.” Except that to redeem his flock, Jesus shed His own blood, it is therefore that more precious, for it was His love for His sheep that drove Christ to the CROSS! Now by faith in Him, through God’s grace, they have eternal life!

On that eventful night in Egypt, the blood of the lamb put on the door posts and its lintel, changed completely the life of the people of Israel. Thus, Christ also changed completely the life of those that He saved through His own blood. I shall not go into details; they are not necessary at this point, except that on the night God passed over them in Egypt, saving their firstborn from death, He foretold the event that happened, when on the first day of the week, after the Passover, Jesus-Christ rose from the dead having fulfilled the plan of God and bought with His blood, the people destined for the New World! Although they were given to Him by His Father from eternity, yet Jesus had to pay an awful price to bring them into His rightful possession.

Thirdly: Redemption is always accompanied with joy, hope love and singing. “The ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” (Isaiah 51:11.) The redeemed of the Lord rejoice because they belong to God, who took them in and called them His own. From being a slave without a name and without an identity, a child of God is now called by the name of his God; they belong to Jesus-Christ their redeemer forever. The song of the redeemed begins down here on earth but it will echo through eternity, there shall be no end to their rejoicing. Job, who in the midst of all his trials and deep sorrows could not find a true friend to hug him in his depth of despair, could say: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet, in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes ~ I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-26.) What wonderful words of hope from a man who lost everything bar his life, his faith took him to that day when we all shall be with the Lord. Words from a song are as follows: ‘It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus. Life’s trials will seem so small, when we see Christ! One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrows will erase; so, may we run the race, till we see Christ! We are on a journey, and cross all sorts of terrains, but like Job we say: “How my heart yearns within me!”

Words of God are like a collection of precious stones, but some shine more than others, and I find these words of Job as among the most precious. I stand often speechless as I read them again and again, and they make me sing among my tears. Is it not wonderful that in the midst of great trials and sufferings, the redeemed of the Lord has hope, and I share with Job the comforting joy of having God ‘Jesus-Christ’ as my redeemer and the Holy-Spirit as my companion, and God as my Father! I can but repeat the following verses: “But now, this is what the Lord says ~ He who created you Jacob, He who formed you Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by my name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you: when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the holy One of Israel, your Saviour. Since you are precious and honoured in my sight; and because I love you” (Isaiah 43:1-3.) 

This pilgrimage does not apply to earthly traffic, although God can do anything He has to, to protect His saints on earth, nevertheless these are promises given to those that tread the path of faith, they are the ones that have this unshaken hope and trust never to perish whatever trials they traverse, they cannot perish, for God redeemed them, stays with them and will ultimately take them wherever the path of faith takes them; even right up to their entrance into the city of God. Therefore ,Christians sing the songs of Zion, and praise your Redeemer, your Saviour. When trials come like a fire, do not fear the flames, they can only refine you. Do not be morbid and faithless, because God is with you. 

You are the People of the Lord, His treasured possession! 

You may not see Him, you may not feel him, yet He never fails to accomplish His promise. He is with you and whatever you go though at present or in the future, the Lord does not only promise to help you, but as He says, He is there with you, in the darkest night a light will shine. These words are jewels, an earthly inheritance of the saints. You do not merit any of it, all that you have is God’s engagement to you and all you need is in these words: “Since you are precious and honoured in my sight; and because I love you.” Fanny J. Crosby wrote this song; sing it with her if you can:

                           All the way my Saviour leads me;

                           What have I to ask beside?

                           Can I doubt His tender mercy?

                           Who through life has been my guide?

                           Heavenly peace, divinest comfort,

                           Here by faith in Him to dwell!

                           For I know whate’er befall me,

                           Jesus doeth all things well.

                           All the way my Saviour leads me,

                           Cheers each winding path I tread,

                           Gives me grace for every trial,

                           feeds me with the Living Bread.

                           Though my weary steps may falter,

                           And my soul athirst may be,

                           Gushing from the Rock before me, 

                           Lo! A spring of joy I see.

                           All the way my Saviour leads me;

                           Oh, the fullness of His love!

                           Perfect rest to me is promised 

in my Father’s house above.

When my spirit, clothed, immortal,

Wings its flight to realms of day,

This my song through endless ages,

Jesus led me all the way

Many more songs are the treasured heritage of the saints. There is a song for every occasion, join today the cortège of the victors, who through the redemption price that Christ paid for them, are persuaded, that the glorious end is sure, for no other reason but the unmerited grace and love of God, Father, Son, and Holy-Spirit. Please continue and read the next chapter.

So, in conclusion I can but reiterate that eternal life is not a reward for what good a man might have done, or how much of the Ten Commandments he managed to obey. The Bible states clearly that such a practice is chancy and incapable to assure hope to anybody that applies himself to it. The Ten Commandments were given to condemn man rather than help him, for it proved to be impossible for anyone to accomplish the letter of the Law. By fulfilling the Ten Commandments Jesus-Christ only proved that it did not suffice to save anyone, but it proved Him to be sinless, pure and without fault, and as such He was able to sacrifice Himself and bear, by His cruel death, the chastisement that was reserved for all those He died for. He took the sins of the whole world upon Himself and atoned for our sin.

 Because of it, by raising Christ from among the dead, God declared that he has accepted Christ’s sacrifice and by His blood alone there is cleansing from sin offered to those that will believe on Him and accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. Eternal life, as we have stated, is a free Gift that God now offers by His grace, without any merit whatsoever, to those that have believed Him, without returning to the hopeless practice of the Ten Commandments which has proved to be impossible. A True Christian lives His life without doubting that His eternity is secure, and that at death He goes to His Home in Heaven, simply and solely through what Jesus did for Him. THAT IS TRUE FAITH.  Through it, a sinner becomes a child of God and a citizen of Heaven, which is his homeland. If you are not certain that you are saved and eternally secure in Christ than you are not a Christian! “Believe on the Lord Jesus-Christ right now and you will be saved” NOW AND FOREVER AFTER!! This is the true meaning to being a man of faith, for that heaven is Home!

In conclusion!

“As you come to Him (Jesus), the living stone ~ rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him ~ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus-Christ. For you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:4-12.)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus-Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realm with every Spiritual blessing in Christ, for He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will ~ to the praise of His gracious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace, which He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding...in him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we (the converted Jews) were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory. And you (converted Gentiles) also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with the seal, the promise Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession ~ to the praise of His Glory! (Ephesians 1:3-14.).

I INVITE YOU TO FOLLOW THE LIFE OF THIS AMAZING MAN, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD!