According to Genesis 1:31, everything that God created was "very good," including mankind. Man could only do good because God created him to be good. Such passages as Deuteronomy 6:25 and I Samuel 26:23 refer to God's created righteousness of which every person retains some measure. But man also acquired a sin nature, and so almost every good action which any man may choose to do will always be tainted by the filthiness of sin to some degree. Isaiah 64:6. For example, a person who chooses to feed the hungry can rarely avoid some feelings of self-righteous superiority to others. Sin within him compels him to feel this way. Sin is unavoidable.
God wrote His Word to three classes of people. The first eleven chapters of Genesis and the book of Job are directed toward all mankind who are not Jews or saved by grace. The rest of the Old Testament is directed toward those who faithfully practice Judaism. The New Testament is directed toward all those saved by grace. The meaning of God's Word depends on the class of people to whom His Word is directed. The first eleven chapters of Genesis and the book of Job reveal that God gave to all mankind a conscience to guide them to a knowledge of God and a discernment of what is right and wrong. Man failed to follow his consciousness of his inner righteousness, and so God had to destroy all of the wickedness of mankind with a flood except righteous Noah and his family. Later on in man's history, God gave to His chosen people His Law by which those who read it could clearly know right from wrong. But again, sin within man caused him to fail to keep the law. In the New Testament, God Himself intervened in man's history to rescue man from always being defeated by sin when He took man's sin on Himself on a cross to pay the penalty of death for man's sin, and to cleanse all who would believe in Him of all their sins by His blood and water that He shed from the cross. But Christ also descended into hell to leave behind all of the sins of the rest of mankind not saved by being washed in His blood and water. This fact means that all humans not saved by grace, God will separate their inner goodness and life that He put within them from their deadness and sin by the use of His consuming fire. God will recover and recreate all of His goodness that He put into their lives into new, righteous humans to live on His recreated earth, and He will consign all of their separated deadness and total evil to the lake of fire forever. The Old Testament burnt offerings symbolized this thorough salvation provided by Christ when he descended into hell. Deuteronomy 32:22; John 1:29; Hebrews 12:29; I Timothy 4:10; Revelation 21:1-7; Revelation 21:8; I Corinthians 3:12-15.
God has established three levels of salvation and recreation for all mankind. The highest level of salvation and recreation belongs to all whom God saves by His grace. The lowest level of salvation and recreation belongs to all humans who are not saved by grace or are not faithful Jews, called by the Bible Gentiles or heathen. The home of all those saved by grace, whether Jew or Gentile, will be heaven. The home of all recreated Gentiles will be God's recreated earth. But the level of salvation and recreation between these two will be the restored nation of Israel comprised of all faithful Jews. Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 4:40.
No comments:
Post a Comment