May 3, 2017

God’s Provisions in the Plan of Salvation

Wedding Feast

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast”’” (Matthew 22:1-4).

Salvation is impossible without the Lord. Peter said, “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus said that He is “the way” and that “no one comes to the Father but through [Him]” (John 14:6). As He explained in the parable above, He has made everything ready for us to be part of His kingdom and enjoy salvation (Matthew 22:4).

What has God done to make salvation ready for us? From before “the foundation of the world,” God “chose” to save us (Ephesians 1:4). This “eternal purpose [has been] carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11). Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). By sending Jesus to the earth, we can be “reconciled to God through [His] death” and “be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10). We cannot earn salvation (cf. Luke 17:10). The reason is because “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Therefore, it was necessary for God to provide a plan by which we could be saved.

In His word, we can read about the plan the Lord has given for us to follow in order to be saved – hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized, and be faithful. In each of these steps, God has provided what is necessary for us to do what He requires of us. In this article, we are going to discuss these provisions that He has given in relation to the plan of salvation.
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May 1, 2017

The Real Pharisees (Part 4): The Pharisees Were Close-Minded

The Real Pharisees

“Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, ‘What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation’” (John 11:45-48).

There are several examples in the New Testament of the Pharisees having minds that were closed to the truth. They already decided what they wanted to believe and refused to consider anything that might challenge their preconceived notions. Their response to the raising of Lazarus from the dead may be the clearest of these examples.
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April 24, 2017

The Real Pharisees (Part 3): The Pharisees Desired to See Signs from Heaven

The Real Pharisees

“The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, ‘When it is evening, you say, “It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.” And in the morning, “There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.” Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah’” (Matthew 16:1-4).

The Pharisees – along with the Sadducees – came to Jesus and requested to see “a sign from heaven.” They did not ask this out of sincerity; rather, they were “testing Jesus” (Matthew 16:1). They did this on many occasions – challenging Him in order to find something that they could use against Him.
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April 19, 2017

Who Knows?

Young man thinking

The Hebrew writer said, “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). This is the one thing in our future that is certain – death followed by judgment. Besides that, we cannot say with certainty what will happen in our future. James wrote, “You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow” (James 4:14). The wise man asked, “If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?” (Ecclesiastes 8:7).

Who knows what will happen in the future? None of us do. How then do we approach life with this kind of uncertainty? The Scriptures provide some lessons for us to consider. In this article, we will examine several passages that discuss uncertain futures. In each of them, the phrase “who knows” is used to express the fact that mere men could not know where the events would lead. We will consider the events that were happening and see what lessons we can learn from them.
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April 17, 2017

The Real Pharisees (Part 2): The Pharisees Tried to Do the Minimum in Serving God

The Real Pharisees

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).

Jesus said that our righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees if we wish to enter the kingdom. How could this be if the Pharisees were so careful and meticulous in trying to follow the Law?

The problem with the Pharisees was that they looked to the Law to learn what they thought was the minimum they needed to do to serve God. Yet God’s law is more than a mere checklist containing the absolute minimum that we have to do to please Him. Instead, the law contains explicit commands, implicit instructions, and principles that we are to follow.
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April 12, 2017

You Have Become Dull of Hearing

Ear, static

In making a point about the superiority of Christ’s priesthood over the priesthood of Aaron, the Hebrew writer cited the priesthood of Melchizedek. Since Jesus was “a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:10; cf. Psalm 110:4), His priesthood was superior. He would go on to explain why this proved the superiority of Jesus’ priesthood later in the epistle (Hebrews 7:1-10).

However, he paused the discussion about comparing the priesthoods because it was “hard to explain” (Hebrews 5:11), even though it was certainly not impossible. The problem was not that the facts were difficult. Instead, the problem was that these brethren were “dull of hearing” (Hebrews 5:11). As the Hebrew writer would explain, this problem affected more than just their understanding of Jesus’ priesthood – it had the potential of costing them their souls.

We need to understand what it means to be “dull of hearing,” what the result is of being in that condition, and how to fix it.
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April 10, 2017

The Real Pharisees (Part 1): The Pharisees Disobeyed God’s Law

The Real Pharisees

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:23-24).

This passage is often misunderstood and misapplied. The common idea is that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for focusing too much on details when they should have focused on other matters instead. Those who allege this will argue that we must follow the “weightier provisions” and that the smaller details are, therefore, unimportant.
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