Mark 16:15-18
And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. 16 Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. 17 These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages.[e] 18 They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”
I thought of concluding the series of devotional on "The Origin of Sin" with part 9, but Holy Spirit keep reminding me to continue it. I believe He wants to reveal something more. So, l am letting my fingers move on the key board with the flow of the spirit.
I hope by now, you understand the deception in the mindset, of " I don't have it now, I will have it by what I can do" among the believer's. Let me ask you this question, Why is this mindset a deception ? Because you already got ALL in Jesus. Having this mindset is like pointing our index finger against our Creator and telling Him, His design has some fault, so let us do something to correct it. Ignorantly many Christians are engaged in this dead work, by believing that they are helping God. It is actually due to their ignorance about our new creation in Christ Jesus.
How can we help others to get out from this deception ? Preach the true gospel, which is the antidote to the deception. Jesus told us to go and preach the Gospel all throughout the world , why ? To deliver the humanity from the deception. The Gospel is the good news about our fullness in Christ, it is about the perfect work of Jesus on the cross for the whole humanity, it is about the fulfillment of the Law, It is about our union with Jesus, It is about the Judgment for the sin's of the whole world on Jesus, It is all about the person Jesus and his perfect work on the cross.
Many are believing that preaching the Gospel is preaching a message from the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These four books reveal the ministry of Jesus and the fulfillment of the law through Jesus, but the true Gospel is about what happened in the spirit realm while Jesus was on the cross. Only Pauline epistles reveal this good news, and it can only be understood by a revelation of Jesus. Don't misunderstand me based on what I said just now, by saying "Tom" are you telling us to to ignore the rest of the Bible. God forbid,How can we ignore? When all the 66 books of the Bible are talking about the person Jesus and His perfect work on the cross. Jesus told Pharisees and Sadducees in John 5:39 (NIV) “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life". The scriptures Jesus mentioned here is about the Old Testament, the New Testament was not completed nor compiled at that time. Here Jesus is revealing that all the OT scriptures are just pointing to Him and His perfect work on the cross and those who believe Him has the eternal life.
The Old Testament is the concealed New Testament or New Testament is the revealed Old Testament, and Holy Spirit is the revealer. Holy Spirit reveals Jesus and Jesus will open the Bible to us. What was concealed must go hand in hand with what is revealed, that it is why it is very essential to know the Old Testament and New Testament scriptures to rightly divide the Word of God.
The Old Testament characters such as Adam, Issac, David, Joshua, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Boaz, Melchizedek, etc are the concealed person Jesus, while Noah's ark, the animal sacrifices, Levitical priesthood, seven Hebrew feasts, tabernacle and every utensils in it, manna, pillar of cloud, pillar of fire, the rock that followed israelites, ark of the covenant, Sabbath etc are the concealed perfect work of Jesus on the cross [2 Cor 3:14-16]. Through these characters and the events in the Old Testament, Holy Spirit reveals only Jesus and His perfect work on the cross [John 16:14]. So, when you read about OT characters and events, search for Jesus in every scriptures [John 5:39]. When our attention is totally upon Jesus and His perfect work on the cross, a paradigm shift takes place in your mindset and you will be out from the deception gradually. [Hebrews 12:1-3].
The message of the Gospel is a proclamation of invitation by father God to the whole world " Your sin's are forgiven forever in Jesus, come boldly to the father by believing JESUS". The true gospel preaching will lead people to the person Jesus, not to some OT characters, theologist, leaders or prophets etc.
So the message of the Gospel is about "What Jesus did for us on the cross to make us perfect", It is not about "What we must do to become perfect". The former will lead you to a Jesus centered life [Tree of Life], while the latter will lead you to a self centered life [Tree of the knowledge of good and evil].
Let ALL the Glory go to Jesus !!!!!