THE LAWS OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

First Law: Where there is holiness, there is peace and eternal life.

Peace can never be separated from righteousness or holiness; peace and righteousness go together. In other words, where there is no righteousness, there would be no peace. Only where there is righteousness or holiness will there be peace. God - Yehovah only takes pleasure in righteous people.

Note: God was pleased with the lord Messiah Jesus, His Son, because Jesus was the righteous one. 1 John 2:1: He is called “Jesus the Messiah, the righteous one”. God was pleased with the lord Messiah Jesus because Jesus said, “I always do those things which please Him.” [John 8:29]. His whole life was to please his God and his Father, Yehovah. We need to follow the example that he has lived out before us!

The important thing to understand is that holiness is a life that is pleasing to God, a life lived in obedience to him; a life lived in accordance with his will. If you live a life like this, you will become pleasing to God, become a man of God’s good pleasure. Luke 2:14: “Peace on earth to men in whom God- Yehovah is pleased”

A disciple of the lord Messiah Jesus enjoys deep peace if he is obedient to God- Yehovah.

You will not understand peace in its richness, its depth, and its fullness until you learn to live a life that is pleasing to God, until you commit your life totally to him, living in his way, walking in his path.

Baptism is like walking through the door of the kingdom of God, but you still have a long way. You don’t just stand inside the door; you must live the life of a subject of God’s kingdom, or a member of God’s family. If you make it your aim in life to say, “I will live a life that is always pleasing to Him; I have come to do your will, O God,” as the lord Jesus is quoted as saying in Hebrews 10:7, you are filled with deep inner peace. A very important spiritual law to understand is: Where there is holiness, there is peace.

If you are not enjoying peace in the depth of your being, you are hiding sin somewhere in your heart, and sin is a very disturbing element. The negative side of this spiritual law is: Wherever there is sin, there is turmoil. There is no way you can get peace so long as there is unholiness and unrighteousness in your heart.

Peace and holiness are inseparable

Peace and holiness always go together; you cannot hold them apart. If you want peace, you must have holiness. If you have holiness, you will have peace. They are intertwined.

Hebrews 12:14: “Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord- Yehovah.” Without holiness, you will not see God- Yehovah; without peace, you will not see God. Peace and holiness are inseparably tied. Philippians 4:7: “… the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in the Messiah Jesus.”

Notice: righteousness is at the beginning of this list of four virtues, and peace is at the end. Righteousness and peace always come together, with faith and love in between.” The righteousness that Paul is talking about is the righteousness of a pure heart. Only the person with a pure heart shall see God- Yehovah.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

Without holiness, no man shall see God (Hebrews 12:14).

2 Peter 3:14 is another passage that speaks about peace: Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace.

While you are waiting for the new heaven and the new earth, strive to be blameless, pure in heart, loving righteousness; then you will find that peace.

The apostles Paul and Peter use expressions such as “pure heart,” “spotless,” and “blameless,” which are simply different terms for righteousness and holiness.

In Romans 14:17, we read: For the Kingdom [Kingship] of God- Yehovah is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Joy and peace are inseparable companions. Where you have peace, you will have a deep inner joy. The trio of righteousness, peace, and joy is inseparable.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 and 7 tell us that we are called to holiness. And Colossians 3:15 says that we are called to peace. So, we are called to peace because we are called to holiness.

You will always find righteousness and peace together; for example, Isaiah 32:17 or Isaiah 59:7-8:

17. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.

7. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. 8. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.

We read in Isaiah 57:21 [NJB], “No peace,” says Yehovah, “for the wicked.”

The wicked cannot find peace anywhere in heaven or on earth, or under the earth. To those who do not love righteousness, there is no peace.

Notice those beautiful words in Psalm 85:10: Righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Let us look at this amazing conjunction of peace and holiness in 1 Thessalonians 5:23: Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of the lord Messiah Jesus.

God- Yehovah is the God of peace because he is the God of holiness, of righteousness, and he sanctifies us [sets us apart]. He keeps our spirit, soul, and body holy by His indwelling presence.

Evil and peace cannot go together. Sin and peace do not go together. That is the fundamental spiritual law. Notice that the angels, in speaking to the shepherds, did not say, “Peace on earth.”, but “peace to men of good will” or “to men in whom God- Yehovah is well pleased,” or “to men in whom God takes pleasure.” Why? Because they love righteousness. There will never be peace on earth because mankind is in bondage to sin.

Notice the warning in Hebrews 10:38 [CJB]: … the person who is righteous will live his life by trusting, but if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.

If the righteous man draws back from righteousness, from God, God will not be pleased with him. His end will be destruction in the Lake of Fire.

When you have peace, you have eternal life

In the Bible, peace is always associated with life. Life and peace go together. For example, Romans 8:6 says: “To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Or in Malachi 2:5, God establishes: “a covenant of life and peace.”

Second law: Peace is found only in the lord Messiah Jesus, who died on the cross

The second spiritual law is: Peace is found only in the lord Messiah Jesus. The lord Messiah Jesus is our peace because he is our righteousness. Even in this second principle, the first principle is active – you cannot separate peace and righteousness. For example, Ephesians 2:14 says: The Messiah is our peace.

In 1 Corinthians 1:30, we read: The Messiah is our righteousness and our sanctification.

Note: Sanctification: This is the lifelong, ongoing process where the Spirit of God- Yehovah helps a believer grow to become more like the lord Messiah Jesus. It involves turning away from sin and practicing daily obedience and being totally committed to pleasing God!

He is our peace because he is our righteousness and sanctification.

How did he become our peace and our sanctification? What do those beautiful words in Isaiah 53:5: “the chastisement of our peace was upon him” mean? This means he became sin for us, who know no sin. He offered himself up as a sin-offering sacrifice in order the God- Yehovah could reconcile [bring back] humanity to Himself.

Romans 5:1b says: We have peace with God- Yehovah- through our lord Messiah Jesus.

And Colossians 1:19 [CJB] and verse 20 [ESV] say: For it pleased God to have his full being live in His Son, and through him to reconcile [bring back] to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

The Messiah died to save us by transforming us to be new and holy.

The Bible tells us that to be saved is to be made into a new person; it is transformation. “If any man is in the Messiah, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is what born from above means: to become changed.

So not only are we acquitted, which is called “justification,” not only are we declared righteous, but God- Yehovah also makes us righteous. In Ezekiel 36:26, He [Yehovah] would plant into us a new heart. He would take a heart of stone out of me and put in a new heart of flesh. The dead heart is taken out, and a living heart is put in. That is a genuine heart transplant! 

We are totally transformed. We are made righteous. That is why the apostle John says in 1 John 3:9: No one who is born of God- Yehovah will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. You have been transformed. What amazing grace!

However, transformation is a process. We don’t become totally new in one day. As disciples of the lord Messiah Jesus, you know you have not yet finished with your struggle against sin. The writer of the book of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:4: “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” We are fighting against sin day by day. We are not yet perfect, as Paul says in Philippians 3:12: “not as though I am already perfect, but I press towards the mark.” Sometimes in your struggle with sin, you will find that your peace is being disturbed. For example, if you allow sin to creep into your life and you don’t overcome it, you are going to lose that inner peace. Your reconciliation with God- Yehovah stands; that external peace is there, but the internal peace is lost if you don’t determine to be victorious, enabled by the Spirit of God in your struggle with sin.

We must ever depend upon God’s Holy Spirit to constantly bring back that holiness and that peace into our lives. God’s Holy Spirit is the Spirit of peace. For example, in Galatians 5:22 we read: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.”

Psalm 119:165: Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble. As followers of the lord Messiah Jesus, we are living out the New Covenant laws in our lives.

Be determined to love righteousness by the grace of God, and you will find God’s peace flooding into your heart.

Notice: Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God- Yehovah is eternal life in the lord Messiah Jesus.

On the one hand you have sin and death, and on the other hand, you have God’s gift, eternal life in the Messiah Jesus.

Romans 6:22: But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

Note: We are slaves of God because we are bought and paid for by the blood of the lord Messiah Jesus, when he offered himself up as a sin-offering sacrifice, acting as the agent of his God and Father, Yehovah. We are also slaves of the lord Messiah Jesus.

You don’t have eternal life without sanctification or holiness. You don’t have peace without holiness. It is absolutely essential for us to understand this first spiritual law.

Notice Romans 6:22: “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. again.” Paul is speaking to the disciples of the lord Messiah Jesus in Rome, to slaves of God, not to non-Christians. The result of being a slave of God is holiness, and what is the end of sanctification or holiness? It is eternal life. Understand clearly that this gift of eternal life is given to the people who are slaves of God, who have been set free from sin by the grace of God.

When I have died with Christ and also live with him as the new man, God sets me free from the bondage of sin. He transforms my life internally, so that I become his slave and delight to do his will. Then, God’s gift of eternal life is at the end of this process of sanctification. That is what Romans 6:22-23 is saying: But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in the lord Messiah Jesus.

3. Third law: Good and evil can never co-exist

The third and final spiritual law is this: Righteousness is bound to be opposed by wickedness. Or good and evil are irreconcilable opposites. That is the reason why you can never have peace if you allow righteousness and wickedness to co-exist in your life.

If the only true God is your God, be totally committed to serving Him, with all your heart, mind, and inner being.

There will be no peace on this earth from evil until God’s kingdom reigns. There will be evil until God’s kingdom reigns on earth and eradicates it. Mankind simply doesn’t have the weapons to deal with evil. There is no way that there will ever be peace in this world so long as evil exists in it. Therefore, whether it is in your own life or in the world as a whole, this fundamental law will always hold.

When Jesus came into the world, the conflict between good and evil became even fiercer because a greater powerful good has come into the world. And the reason why the conflict becomes fiercer is that “men love darkness rather than light,” as the lord Messiah Jesus says in John 3:19: This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

People in the world today tend to prefer darkness. It’s no use trying to change a country without changing its people. You can change economics, military balance, educational positions, but as long as the man himself is basically evil - he is still a sinner even though he is educated; there will never be peace on the earth. Yet, there will be peace when God’s kingdom comes. That is why we pray for “Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as in heaven.”

Righteous Christians will disturb evil and suffer, but will have inner peace. The more righteous you are, the better person you are, the more you will face opposition, bitterness, and persecution. If you are disturbing evil, evil will rise up and attack you. Every person who has made a stand for God and for the lord Messiah Jesus expects trouble, because there is this law that good and evil cannot be reconciled.

The more righteous you become, the more you are filled with God’s holiness, the greater will be the opposition and hatred against you. As the lord Messiah Jesus says to his disciples, “Because the world has hated me, it will hate you. So be prepared. Don’t be surprised when these things come” (cf. John 15:18-19: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”).

The apostle Peter also said to the Christians: Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. [1 Peter 4:12].

Understand this spiritual law: good and evil stand irreconcilable.

The lord Messiah Jesus said to his disciples, “In the world, you will have tribulation (suffering, persecution), but in me, you will have peace” (John 16:33)

The keyword of Philippians is “joy.” In Colossians it is “thanksgiving.” Why can you give thanks when you are sitting in prison? Because of this wonderful inner peace. Outside, the world is falling apart, but inside, your heart is defended by the peace of God like a fortress. Paul says in Philippians 4:7: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in the Messiah Jesus.

 

Apply these 3 spiritual laws and enjoy peace

First, understand that you do not have peace without holiness. You do not have eternal life without holiness. So, get right with God. Confess every sin and say, “God, change my attitude. Enable me by your Spirit to love what is good and righteous.”

Secondly, understand that peace is found only in Christ through his death on the cross. Therefore, repent of your sins and ask God to forgive you through the cleansing that comes from the lord Messiah Jesus’ shed blood, when he offered himself up to his God and Father Yehovah as a sin-offering sacrifice. The Messiah has reconciled us to God by his sin-offering sacrifice; so draw very near to God and take hold of him, for without him you will never have peace.

Thirdly, understand that peace comes to this world only in your heart because there is evil in the world. Good and evil will always be in conflict. Be prepared for the conflict, and rejoice in it, because you know that you are standing on the side of what is good and righteous. Your firm stance as a slave of righteousness will make a significant impact, which is why evil forces will oppose.

Meditate on these three spiritual laws. They can transform your life, so you will not go wrong spiritually. Then, the message of the angels will become a reality to you: “Peace on earth to the men of righteousness - who imitate the lord Messiah Jesus the righteous - in whom God has pleasure!” In this way, God will be glorified!

WHAT IS ETERNAL LIFE?

Eternal life should be translated as age-upon-age-lasting life or new-age life.

We have an earnest of that life now as disciples of the lord Messiah Jesus, as in him we participate in this world with a resurrection-life attitude and power we receive from his Spirit in us!

2 Corinthians 1:21- 22: set his seal of ownership on us and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

We should realize that in us, through the lord Messiah Jesus, resides the power that upholds the Universe. If we really realized this completely, then we would accomplish so much more by utilizing the power we have within because of him residing in us by his Spirit. Indeed, we can do all things by and through the lord Messiah Jesus working in us by the powerful Spirit that his God and his Father - Yehovah gave to him to give unto us.

Everywhere the Spirit is mentioned in the N.T., it is the Spirit of our life-giving Spirit, the lord Messiah Jesus, accomplishing all that his God and his Father - Yehovah has commissioned him to do for us and through us!

John 3:14-16: And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so it was necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes in him will have life in the age to come. For God - Yehovah so loved the world that He gave His uniquely begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have life in the age to come. 

John 14:23: Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father - Yehovah will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

2 Corinthians 3:17: Now the lord [Jesus] is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the lord is, there is liberty.

1 Corinthians 15:45: …so it is written that the first man Adam was made a living soul - being; the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit.

John 3:35: The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

Mark 9:23: Jesus said unto him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes.

So, the life-giving spirit in us is of the lord Messiah Jesus, who is now an immortal glorified man seated at the right hand of his God and his Father, our God and our Father Yehovah. So, we have eternal life - new age life now residing in us.

What are we doing with what God - Yehovah has given us to do? Do we realize the power God - Yehovah has placed at our disposal through His beloved Son, the lord Messiah Jesus? We should be going forth now with increased faith and power to deliver to the world the life-giving message that the lord Messiah Jesus preached about the kingdom of God, of which he will be the vice-regent ruling on this earth, seated on the throne of King David at Zion.

Let us rejoice that we have this resurrection life - new age life - age upon age lasting life - eternal life - through our being ‘new creations’ in the body of the lord Jesus, God's anointed one; we in him and he in us! What amazing grace God – Yehovah has bestowed on us!

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

The noted church historian Will Durant observed that Jesus’ “starting point was the Gospel of John the Baptist, which itself went back to Daniel and Enoch.”

Durant’s observation is important because the Gospel Jesus preached did not suddenly appear in a vacuum. The Kingdom message itself goes back to the Hebrew prophets. For example, Daniel uses the word “Kingdom” nearly 20 times, and his visions repeatedly concern the coming Kingdom-Nation of God which will finally replace the Kingdoms- nations of this present evil age (Daniel 2:37-45; 7:9-14; Revelation 11:15).

The same is true of the apocalyptic message known simply as the coming Day of YEHOVAH (Zephaniah 2:1-4; cp. Isaiah 13:9; Malachi 4:1). This Day is repeatedly described as “at hand” or drawing “near,” but not already here. The prophetic vision is primarily presented as a literal, future event that will be worldwide when his God and Father Yehovah sends His Son, the lord Messiah, down to earth to establish God’s Kingdom during his 1,000-year rule. This remains the great hope of all the disciples of the lord Messiah Jesus!.

The ministry of John the Baptist follows directly in the footsteps of those prophets. His appearance and lifestyle stood in stark contrast to many of the religious leaders centered in Jerusalem at the time. His clothing and manner of life not only identified him as a wilderness prophet but were a throwback to the prophets of old (Zechariah 13:4), especially Elijah (2 Kings 1:8), in whose “spirit and power” the angel said John would come (Luke 1:17). As Jesus later told the crowd: “If you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who was to come” (Matthew 11:14).

John’s mission, however, was to prepare the way for the Lord Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. For the New Testament writers, Jesus is the Son of Man [a human being], a figure seen in Daniel’s visions as the supreme, unique human agent of the one God, Yehovah, the “Ancient of Days.” The lord Messiah Jesus is also identified as the prophet Moses spoke about in Deuteronomy 18, as well as the “messenger of the covenant” of Malachi 3:1. This makes the lord Messiah Jesus greater than all the prophets and kings who came before him, including King David and Moses. The same applies to his cousin John, whom the lord Messiah Jesus “outranks” because he is the one “more powerful.” In Matthew 3:10 John proclaims that “the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” In verse 12, he adds:

“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor; and he will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

This coming judgment belongs ultimately to that future Day, the Day of the LORD - YEHOVAH (Isaiah 13:9; Zephaniah 1:15; 2:1-3; Malachi 4:1). John draws upon familiar Old Testament prophetic imagery of the wicked being consumed like wood, chaff, or refuse thrown into a fiery furnace. Compare Psalm 21:9, where the enemies of God are made “as a fiery furnace” in the time of His anger. It’s no wonder that this verse is one of the most used by the New Testament writers.

But the bad news of judgment gives way to the wonderful Good News, the Gospel of God - Yehovah, the good news about the soon-coming Kingdom of God, drawing heavily on the great prophetic announcement of Isaiah 40:1-11.

Although Paul says in Galatians 3:23-29 that there was a time “before the faith came,” meaning before the lord Messiah Jesus and his New Covenant message about the Kingdom of God. The transition had already begun with John the Baptist. John’s mission was to prepare the people for the coming of the lord Messiah Jesus by announcing the approaching Kingdom of God. John therefore marks the paradigm shift between the Old Covenant Law and Prophets and the proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, the message of salvation, under the New Covenant, which disciples of the lord Messiah Jesus are now called upon to live.

Jesus himself bears witness to this in Luke 16:16 when he says that “the Law and the Prophets were until John; since that time the Gospel about the Kingdom of God [the message of salvation]; is being preached.” Some translations render this as the Law and Prophets being “in force until John.” The same transition appears in Matthew 11:7-15, where the lord Messiah Jesus places John at the crossroads between the Old Covenant era and the Kingdom of God proclamation era.

John’s baptism ministry therefore marked the decisive beginning of the transition away from the Law of Moses toward the New Covenant Law of the lord Messiah Jesus (Galatians 6:2; 1 Corinthians 9:21). John the Baptist “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” strikingly announced divine forgiveness outside the normal sacrificial activity of the Jerusalem Temple. Although John’s appearance did not formally abolish the Law, the Prophets, or the Temple system, his ministry unmistakably pointed toward the New Covenant order in which those Old Covenant institutions would no longer stand at the center of God’s ultimate Kingdom plan.

The lord Messiah Jesus then brings the promised power of the Holy Spirit and commissions his followers to continue making disciples and baptizing them in his name. Thus, the movement from the prophets, to John, to the lord Messiah Jesus, and finally to the members of the called-out Assembly forms one continuous Kingdom-Gospel story, culminating in the commission he gave the disciples in Luke 24:44-49.

The Gospel of John the Baptist was never a message about “going to heaven when you die.” A teaching that cannot be found in the scriptures. Rather, just as the prophets had announced before him and the lord Messiah Jesus proclaimed after him, John’s Gospel concerned the coming Kingdom of God on a restored earth. Jesus later commissions the members of his called-out Assembly to continue preaching about the soon-coming Kingdom of God, “to the end of the age,” that is, until his Parousia.

Note: “to the end of the age” - That is, until the return of the lord Messiah Jesus at his future Second Coming, the Parousia, which will follow the cosmic signs which immediately follow (Matthew 24:29) the future Great Tribulation (Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21). The commission, the essence of the disciples of the lord Messiah Jesus, involves “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5; 16:26; Hebrews 5:9), that is, obedience to all the words God gave Jesus, to proclaim to the world (John 12:44-50; and the subsequent words were revealed to Paul and the other Apostles). Included in obedience to the lord Messiah Jesus is, of course, his command that we “Listen…the Lord [Yehovah] our God is one Lord [Yehovah]” (Mark 12:29), and that we respond intelligently and with repentance to his opening command that we “believe the Gospel – “good news” of the Kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14-15). When the lord Messiah Jesus comes, the saints of all the ages will be resurrected to meet the lord Messiah Jesus in the clouds and from there escort him to the earth, where he will take his place on the throne of David at Zion [Jerusalem]. There is only one Second Coming of the Messiah, which will occur at the “end of this age”. By one single process, all true believers will be enabled to be “with the lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17.

Until the Second Coming of the lord Messiah Jesus at the end of this age, the called-out Assembly is to be urgently occupied with the commission that the lord Messiah Jesus gave them to do: preach the message of salvation, the message about the soon-coming Kingdom of God. The “end of the age” in Matthew occurs five times (13:39, 40, 49; 24:3 and here). It marks the return of the lord Messiah Jesus to rule on earth for 1,000 years over the Kingdom of God, acting as the agent of his God and Father, Yehovah.

OUR DIRECTION

The essence of being a disciple of the Lord Messiah, John tells us in John 3:5, is to be born from above by God’s–Yehovah’s– Spirit that comes into your life and transforms you fundamentally. That is to become a disciple of the lord Messiah Jesus. God changes you from being carnal to becoming spiritual. How does one become spiritually minded? Paul says in Romans 8:9 that if the Spirit of God- Yehovah dwells in you, you can become spiritually minded, because your thinking has been changed.

The lord Messiah Jesus is saying, “My direction is your direction. Follow me.”

The lord Messiah Jesus’ direction in life, from the beginning to the end, was to lay down his life for the redemption, the salvation of mankind!

My goal in life is to do as the lord Messiah Jesus did: live and be willing to die for the redemption of mankind. 

The lord Messiah Jesus says: “If you don’t have that goal in your life, you cannot be my disciple.”

The lord Messiah Jesus says: “Whoever does not bear his own cross and follow after me cannot be my disciple.”

The lord Messiah Jesus says: “Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” You do this when you submit to the lordship of the lord Messiah Jesus and the Kingship of his God and Father Yehovah. Totally committed to both!

Since we are bought and paid for by the blood of the lord Messiah Jesus, when he gave himself up to his God and Father Yehovah as a sin-offering sacrifice, we are his slaves. Slaves own nothing. Their duty is to exercise stewardship over all their Master gives them, both physically and spiritually.

A disciple of the lord Messiah Jesus is a person transformed by the Spirit of the only true God – Yehovah.

You and I are called not only to be saved for ourselves, but to this task: that we henceforth live for the salvation of others. That has to be our goal. That is not optional.

You are not a Christian in the lord Messiah Jesus’ definition until the direction of your life is that you live for the salvation of mankind.

From now on, you don’t live for yourself anymore. You live for the salvation of your brother or your sister, or this or that person. Your whole life is living for others, in a foot-washing attitude of mind.

The lord Messiah Jesus says: “Unless you take up your cross and renounce all that you have for the sake of others, you cannot be my disciple.”

“Christian” is just another name for a disciple. We are the disciples of the lord Messiah Jesus.

The confidence I have as a disciple is not in myself; it is in God- Yehovah because, by His grace, I share the same direction as the lord Messiah Jesus.

The apostle Paul said, “It’s not that I am already perfect, but I press towards the mark,” and that mark is to lay down one’s life for the others.

Note: The Christian life begins with the laying down of your life. The old “you” died at baptism. At your baptism, you died because you renounced your old way of life. You renounced your sins, your selfish ambitions, your love for materialism, and the world.

You become a Christian only when your life is changed from being carnal-minded to becoming spiritually minded. Paul emphasizes this in Romans 12:2, where he says we must keep on being transformed in our minds, because only by being spiritually minded do we know the fullness of spiritual life, eternal life, and peace.

The Lord God Yehovah says to every disciple of the lord Messiah Jesus: “Do you see people perishing out there? Do you see the condition of the called-out Assembly? Get out there and do something! Preach the salvation message that God- Yehovah gave to His Son Jesus to give to the world. The message of salvation contained in the gospel - good news about the coming Kingdom of God!

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER IN THE CALLED-OUT ASSEMBLY IS AS A HUSBAND AND WIFE COMMITMENT

It is in this context that we must return to Matthew Chapter 19, because the lord Jesus - Yeshua wants to tell us: when we are giving our best, what does he really expect us to give? Many times, we want to give our best, but we don’t know what the best is; we don’t know what we are supposed to give. Hence, we live in ignorance.

The lord Jesus - Yeshua doesn’t want us to be ignorant. He wants us to know exactly what your relationship ought to be with the person sitting next to you, what that relationship is meant to be to one another.

He tells us that in God’s-Yehovah’s plan, this relationship is meant to be spiritually as close as a husband is to his wife.

We are to become a group of people in whom God’s grace is so effective in our lives that we are truly committed to one another, open to one another, genuine and transparent in relation to one another.

If this experience is not happening in your congregation, then your congregation becomes simply a social gathering, a formal “congregation” of people who come in and out, having a vague relationship with one another as fellow Christians, and that is it!

That is not the way the lord Jesus - Yeshua meant us to be.

Will anyone coming into the church looking at the way we conduct ourselves in relation to one another really say, “Ah! These are disci­ples of Jesus! Now I have seen the love of God before my eyes!” If they don’t see this? Why? It is because we have not come to the commitment to one another that the lord Jesus - Yeshua is speaking about.

Divorce is forbidden because it is the annulment of commitment

Why is divorce forbidden? It’s because it is the annulment of a commitment, and commitment is something deeply spiritual – you give your whole person to the other. And it is precisely here that we dare not give ourselves to the other person for fear that in giving myself, I expose myself to the other person. I might be abused, mishandled, taken advantage of. I dare not give myself, and so we dare not trust each other. We don’t have faith in each other; hence we cannot have love for one another.

We must strive towards this goal that the lord Jesus - Yeshua sets before us: the vision of the called-out Assembly as it was meant to be. Most called-out Assemblies have a long way to go, but that is no reason why we cannot strive to become more like the Messiah Jesus – Yeshua.

Let us turn to Ephesians 5:21-27:

…submitting to one another out of reverence for the Messiah. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as the Messiah is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the called-out Assemblies submit to the Messiah, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as the Messiah loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her [set her apart], having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word [the message about the Kingdom of God], so that he might present the called-out Assembly to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Notice that as Paul is talking about the spiritual nature of this commitment in marriage, “as to the lord”, he is coming in and out of the subject all the time, one moment talking about marriage, the next moment talking about the relationships within the called-out Assembly, moving from one to the other and back to the one. For him, he has seen that marriage is meant to portray the spiritual reality of what the relationship of the Messiah to the called-out Assembly should be, and what the members of the called-out Assembly should have in relationship to one another. This is easy to follow because we have just seen that we are to deal with one another in the way that God deals with us, His called-out Assembly in the Messiah. We understand that the one follows the other automatically when you understand these principles.

Let us go on to verses 28-33:

In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Messiah does the called-out Assembly, because we are members of his body. “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to the Messiah and the called-out Assembly. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Paul is talking about wives and husbands, which is a very deep mystery. Let me draw three points immediately from here which show you just how our relationship to one another in the called-out Assembly is meant to be modeled on the relationship of husband and wife.

1. Love your neighbor: fellow Christians in your called-out Assembly

First, you are very familiar with the saying, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18 quoted in Matthew 19:19, 22:39, etc.). I am sure if you have ever thought deeply on Scripture at all, you would have often scratched your head and thought to yourself, “How can I love my neighbor as myself?” How is that possible? We are willing to give our best, but how can we love a neighbor as ourselves? He is a neighbor; he is not me. I can love him to some extent, but I cannot love him “as myself” because he is not me. It’s as simple as that.

For the Jew, a neighbor is a fellow Jew, or a believer of the same God - Yehovah

The first thing to understand is that the word “neighbor” in Scripture does not just mean any X, Y, or Z.

The word translated as “neighbor” in English translates the Hebrew word “rea”, which means a friend, a companion.

It does not mean a person who lives next door. necessarily, because the word “neighbor” in the Old Testament referred specifically to someone who was your friend; that is, he/she stood in some kind of relationship to you even if that relationship was quite distant, in the sense that you were members of the same community.

For a Jew, “neighbor” did not mean any foreigner, or anyone who happened to sit beside you on a bus or a subway, etc. A neighbor had to be at least a fellow Israelite, or someone who may not be an Israelite but a proselyte, that is, he had the same religion as a Jew, even though he was not a Jew.

Now this is important to understand. Even in the lord Jesus’ teaching, we find that the word “neighbor” does not mean just anyone.

For example, in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Jew asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Quite rightly, the Samaritan was his neighbor. The Samaritans are very rightly the neighbors of the Jews, not only literally, by being next door to the Jews, but also because they believed in the same God and they read the same Bible. In fact, they shared basically the same faith. The Samaritans were very adamant in their devotion, particularly to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. For them, the words of Moses were absolutely authoritative, far more so than Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or anyone else. Moses was the lawgiver for the Samaritans, so the Jews and Samaritans shared the same lawgiver, and they had faith in the same God. They were indeed neighbors even though the Jews hated them.

After all, there is no hate as deep as a religious hatred, as you have long discovered. The hatred between Protestants and Catholics, between even Protestants of one denomination and another, is absolutely revolting! And such was the hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans, and vice versa.

“Neighbor”: a fellow-Christian in the same called-out Assembly

When you look in the New Testament, you will find that the word “neighbor” means, particularly and specifically, a fellow-Christian, a member of the same local called-out Assembly, for example, not just a question of different denominations. We can see this especially in Ephesians 4:25, which says:

“Speak the truth with his neighbor, seeing that we are members of one another.”

“Neighbor” is paralleled with “members of one another,” who are members of the called-out Assembly, members of the same body.

This is very important because of these words: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In Ephesians 5:28 and 33, do you see that it says twice to the husband that he should love his wife as himself? I hope you will notice that very carefully. It is most important to take, for example, the last verse, Ephesians 5:33 – let each one of you love his wife as himself. Why can you love your wife as yourself? He just explained in the previous verse that it’s because you two have become one body, one flesh (v. 31). That is why you can love your neighbor as yourself. If you don’t see your neighbor as being one body with yourself, of course, you wouldn’t love him as yourself. That is the whole point. You cannot give a command like “Love your neighbor as yourself” and leave it hanging in the air without context. I cannot love my neighbor as myself if I don’t see his/her relationship to me. I can love my wife as myself because she is united in commitment to me, and I am united in commitment to her. We have been united in such a way that we have become one flesh, one body. So, in loving her, of course I am loving myself because we are one body together. But how can I love my neighbor as myself if I don’t see that he/she is one body with me?

You notice twice in this passage that the relationship we are meant to have with our neighbor parallels the relationship meant to exist between husband and wife. Can you see the parallel? It’s so deeply rooted in Scripture that it hit me with astonishing force that I had never considered my neighbor or fellow Christian as spiritually united to me in the same profound manner as my wife is physically united to me!

Look around at the people in the called-out Assembly. Is the person sitting next to me united to me as my wife is united to me? The thought is almost mind-boggling! So I have to love him/her as myself in the same way as I love my wife as myself. I love him/her spiritually, because “as myself” is the spiritual model. Note that it is not a physical connection. Can you look at each one around in the called-out Assembly and say, “I love that person because I am united to that person”? If you don’t feel united to that person, it is because you have not committed yourself to that person, and that person has not committed himself or herself to you. So, because of a lack of commitment to one another, we don’t have the sense of unity; we don’t have the love that enables us to be committed to one another. This takes place when we realize that we are one body. So, the first point is “as yourself.” We see this as true in the marriage relationship, and as true in the called-out Assembly. 

2. Love fellow Christians as husband and wife love each other

The second point is that this is possible only when we observe and accept one another as members of the same body – one body. Again, as you looked at Ephesians 5:31, “as one body” is exactly the whole basis of the marriage relationship. The two are no longer two persons but become one physical unit, one body, one flesh. And yet, in this same passage, in verses 30-31, Paul equates the unity of the called-out Assembly as one body (the Messiah’s body), to the unity found in marriage as “one flesh.”

In the Old Testament, the word "basar," which is translated as “flesh," literally means body. The first definition of basar in Brown, Driver & Briggs is body. It can be translated either way you like, as flesh or body. So, husband and wife become one body. The Catholic translation of the New Jerusalem Bible rightly translates Ephesians 5:31: husband and wife become one body. So just as husband and wife are one body, we, in the called-out Assembly, are also one body. The whole terminology of Paul, time and again, concerning the called-out Assembly is that we are one body (cf. Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13).

However, do you feel that we are one body? Probably not. Our Christianity is far too shallow for that. Our commitment to one another is simply a courtesy commitment. There is no depth in it. We don’t realize that, being bought by the blood of the Messiah, we have been baptized by God’s Holy Spirit into one body, so that we are so united and related to one another as indeed a husband and wife would be members of one body. That is striking, isn’t it 

3. Be subject to one another, and lay down your life for one another

Let us move on to the third and final aspect of this comparison of the internal relationships of the called-out Assembly to a marriage relationship. The wife is to be subject to the husband, and the husband is to love the wife. Remarkably, this is exactly the kind of relationship which defines the relationship between the members of the called-out Assembly. Notice Ephesians 5:21, “be subject to one another out of reverence for the Messiah,” belongs to the previous passage, which is on the internal relationship of Christians, to be subject to one another. This statement is repeated throughout Paul’s epistles, so I hardly need to give you a lot of references on that.

Paul repeatedly tells Christians to regard the other more important than yourself (cf. Philippians 2:3 [NAS]), which means “be subject to” the other one. And “be subject to” in Ephesians 5:21 is the same word in Greek as is used in verse 24 concerning the relation of wife to husband.

In what way should the husband love his wife? He should love her to the extent of being willing to lay down his life for her, “as the Messiah loved the called-ut Assembly and gave himself for her” (Ephesians 5:25). That is the same command given to Christians in relation to one another in 1 John 3:16, where it says we are to love one another even to the extent of laying down our lives for one another. In other words, what a husband would do for his wife is precisely what a Christian should do for a fellow-Christian. It is the same command. Isn’t that remarkable?

Now we can see from the whole Scriptural evidence that in whatever way you look at it, the marriage relationship portrays the spiritual relationship between the members of the called-out Assembly. This is how we are meant to relate to one another. 

Giving your best to God means giving ourselves to one another!

What are we supposed to do to give our best to God? Well, “giving the best” turns out to be giving ourselves to one another, and that turns out to be not so easy to do because you might look at that fellow in the called-out Assembly and say, “Give myself to that guy? Oh no! I might accept one or two people, and I can give myself to them, but not to the others.” Now if the Messiah loved us in that way, where would our salvation be? If the Messiah looked at us and said, “I see some good fellows here; I will die for them, but the others are not worth dying for. Put them on the side.” If we treat each other this way, God will deal with us at the Judgment in the way we deal with others. What will happen to us at the Judgment? God will reject us on the same grounds we rejected others, wouldn’t he? We would be wiped out at the Judgment!

So, I hope that you and I can catch the picture of what the called-out Assembly is meant to be. It’s a very exciting picture! I think you know that we are a long way from where we need to be, but we now have a goal before us we can commit to doing. We know what we must aim for. And when we say that we are going to give our best by God’s grace, what we have to strive for by His grace in this generation, the called-out Assembly will become again what it was meant to be. We must start with the called-out Assembly. 

God designed marriage to teach us the first step to a community

God meant the marriage relationship to be a kind of beginning in which two people begin to learn to give oneself to the other. For example, if you cannot give yourself to one person, how can you give yourself to the whole called-out Assembly? You start with one person. So, marriage was designed to teach us the first step to a community. That is the beauty of God’s plan. When you look at Genesis, that was exactly God’s plan.” What is the reason for marriage? Genesis 2:18 says, “It is not good for man to be alone.” It is not good for you to be alone spiritually. So, you have to start by entering into a relationship with someone else. You cannot do this with everyone at the same time, so you start with one person. And this is the model for us to begin in the called-out Assembly. Build a relationship with one brother or sister and then build one with another brother or sister. And then another, and another, and so the community grows.

“It is not good for man to be alone,” but if two people are in a marriage, they can still be alone in a sense. God goes on to show this in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Marriage was meant to be the beginning of a new community. “Be fruitful and multiply.” Don’t just stay as the two of you, but increase until there is a whole community of you. This is the very intention of marriage. In the same way, we are to begin by building within the called-out Assembly these kinds of commitments, beginning with one and then two.