grace of God

 

This is the second part. For the first part, click here.

 

The seed of seeds: The Cross

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1 :18

The power of God upheaves the heart of the one who receives the preaching of the cross with gentleness. We just need to be explained what it is, its deep meaning, its astonishing effects on our practical life, and we need to understand it.

A real power, hidden, well hidden from the inattentive gaze, is released by the Holy Spirit in the heart of anyone who listens and believes. So, let us talk about the cross

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1 :29

When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he announced what would become a historical reality a few years later. On the cross, Jesus took away the sin of the world. This is a hidden work, a religious cliché for some that remains incomprehensible and without concrete effect in our lives until it is explained and revealed to us and we believe in it.

To take away does not mean to forgive. It is more than that. After the cross, sin is no longer counted by God. On the cross, for God, sin has disappeared from human history. It has been taken away. It still exists on earth, certainly, but it is no longer imputed or charged against us by God, as we will soon explain. The problem has thus been resolved for more than 2000 years.

Hebrews, 9:26 - But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

It is said that at the cross, the Son of God took upon himself our sins and our diseases. It is true. At the cross, God erases our sins and heals all our diseases. But He does more. He removes the sin of the world, once and for all.

The sacrifice of Jesus has taken away all your sins, ALL IN THE EYES OF GOD! For there are and will still be sins to be erased. Yes, we are guilty, but that is not the point because God forgives the guilty at the cross. He no longer imputes or charges the sins denounced by the law of Moses. Your sins have been taken away by the death of Jesus. Do you hear it?

Listen to the sentence of the supreme judge as you consider (in your thoughts) Jesus on the cross:

"NOT GUILTY!"

I can already hear your protests... that's not fair! It's a bit too easy. Really? Do you want to appeal to a favorable opinion? Are you the judge?

Hammer strike of the judge:

"NOT GUILTY."

The case is closed. We all know that a judge's decision ends all discussions. It is God who decrees that, by virtue of the sacrifice of His Son, you are declared NOT guilty. The faults have been erased, removed by His Son. They have disappeared. It is His will. That's all!

It is entirely useless to try to feel that in GOD's eyes, you are forgiven of everything. Moreover, in everyday life, if a friend tells you that he forgives the offense you committed against him, do you try to feel it ?

You accept it and life goes on. Do the same with God. Accept forgiveness. It is already acquired and free for all. This is why the gospel is good news.

But it's not over yet! By believing what you have just heard, you have just received eternal life!

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:13

It is not said, 'you WILL HAVE eternal life,' but you HAVE it, you who believe in the name of the Son of God. The name of the Son of God, this Name, Jesus, Yeshua, means God saves, God heals. Already, this name is the smiling hand of God stretched out to us, holding and offering us: reconciliation, the voluntary forgetting of all our sins, and the healing of our soul and body. And all of this is because of the cross, or shall we say, thanks to the cross.

And with eternal life, it is the true happiness into which you have just entered. The tree of religion and its simplistic and limited knowledge of good and evil cannot put man in a condition to approach God, who is the source of indescribable happiness. Mankind's nature prevents it from being clean, and thus keeps it away from happiness. There is a very close link between sin and being unhappy. It is written in:

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek Romains 2 :9

Trouble and distress come upon every soul of man who does evil. It is a principle, an invisible spiritual law that no one can escape! You can intellectually ignore the mechanisms of the law of gravity and yet you experience it every day. We always feel unhappy, anxious, or not fully happy, dissatisfied, as if something is missing and we don't understand why. This text explains it. Happiness and sin are incompatible. Doing evil generates trouble and distress. Wrong pleasures bring fleeting pleasure but it blocks the path to true lasting happiness for man.

But let's think about it for a moment, is it really fair? Until then, have you really had a choice? Have you had the constant ability to never sin? You wouldn't venture to believe or seriously claim it, would you? If they could hear you, would you reproach cherry trees for producing cherries or apple trees for producing apples? In the same logic (because logic is not a Western or intellectual flaw!), could God, without being unfair, reproach men for committing sins when it is in their very nature to do so, a nature that offers them no other choice but to commit hundreds every day? Let's pause on this for a moment. Think about it honestly.

Please read again what has just been said. Honestly?

God sent His Son to repair this injustice.

But if I (Jesus) go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. John 16:7

The only sin that God considers today is not believing in the Savior He sent us, like throwing a life buoy to someone drowning. When a buoy is thrown to us and is within our reach, we become free to drown or not. To stick with the image and without disrespect, our life buoy is called Jesus Christ.

Sin for you and me is no longer about not obeying the ten commandments, contrary to what religion preaches to us, that of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You are invited to eat freely from the tree of life because it is available again, and sin would now be not to eat from the tree of life, which is called Jesus.

For in Jesus, at the cross, all our past, present, and future sins disappeared in the eyes of the only Judge.

If you listen to religion, you hear it striving to convince you that you are a wicked sinner and that your sins will lead you straight to the flames.

If you listen to the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus, you will hear something else. He convicts the world that the only sin today is not believing in what Jesus is for us: the Savior sent by the Father. You read it well: 'He (the Holy Spirit) will convict the world concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.'

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him John 3:16

On the Cross, Jesus takes on all your faults and illnesses. He is struck in your place by the God of justice. On this cross is established a union that is impossible on earth, that of love and justice.

On earth, if we apply justice, we punish the guilty and all the principles of love are violated. If we apply love, we leave the guilty without punishment and it is the principles of justice that are not respected. The two are irreconcilable.

In Jesus Christ, love and justice merge. Jesus, out of love, takes on the sins of the world, including ours, and becomes the only guilty one. He is punished as he should be. Justice is done. But love is the root of this justice.

There is no double penalty with God, unlike what can happen with humans. Your fault has been purged and paid for; it was paid for by Jesus Christ. You cannot be punished a second time because the verdict has already been passed, but not on you. God gave his only Son. He is your buoy.

But there is even more:

by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross; Colossians 2:14

This text is unambiguous. There was a record, a book on which all your faults were recorded, an act that established your guilt. This act of condemnation was destroyed on the cross by Jesus Christ. The moment you believe this incredible news, you have already entered into its reality!

We were expecting an inevitable judgment, and we are suddenly told that the evidence against us can no longer be found. Someone made it disappear. The evidence against you has been destroyed. The registry has disappeared. All that is left is a cross! That's what this text says in modern language. You are free. You can leave. Nothing can be proven against you anymore. Oh, don't expect to feel something. We're not in emotions but in a factual truth. It's just how it is. Jesus erased the record of our debt, which stood against us with its legal demands, and this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3 :36

God will never condemn anyone who comes before Him with an inscription on the chest that would say, "very guilty but saved by Your Son at Golgotha." This is the meaning of "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." There is nothing to add. Just receive an immense gift already prepared by God, who is nothing but love.

The tree of life communicates to us and offers us eternal life for free, simply through our faith (faith = trust in what you hear and what is written). You who have read these lines and believed what you have read, I tell you with the Bible, you have eternal life, you have it now, whether you feel it or not. Simply because God has said it!

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 Jean 5 :13

Did you not know that this is what Christ's sacrifice was all about? Well, now you know, because these things were written so that you may know them. Do you believe it? Then you have eternal life.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3 :36

Do not worry about those who have not yet believed in the Son. Your concern is commendable, but we are not the saviors of the world. God takes care of each person, and no one knows what He is doing in the lives of others. No one knows their secret life. No one knows the calls they have received or will receive one day from God.

Jesus said He would draw all people to Himself. He does so through the testimony of those in whom He dwells, through preaching, and through many other means, but He is the Savior. He knows how to meet each person and leaves each one free to accept or refuse. And no one knows anyone else's choice. For now, it is you whom He is drawing. And this good news is for you today, you who hear it and understand it.

There is one more thing you need to know. You have been reconciled to God. Be reconciled to Him.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life Romans 5 :10

You have been reconciled with God through the death of His Son, and this is something you haven't been told yet. Reread this verse. Have you noticed the grammatical tenses? They are all in the past here. It doesn't say "you will be reconciled" but "you have already been reconciled." You have been so for 2000 years. You are therefore reconciled today and tomorrow and always, and it takes effect immediately because you believe it.

By believing that Jesus Christ carried on the cross everything that separated you from God, that His death and not any action on your part unconditionally reconciled you with God, you have just met God's criteria, according to the gospel.

At this very moment, in your mind and in your soul, you are receiving the full and complete assurance of forgiveness for all your past, present, and future sins and therefore a total and complete reconciliation with your Creator.

We announce to you: Christ died, and you are forgiven of everything through His death. You just didn't know it!!! Now you know, and if you don't oppose this incredible good news, if you receive it gently, you have entered into eternal life without fanfare. You believed. That's all. It's simple. It's the power of the preaching the cross.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10 :10

Take a break now and tell the Lord Jesus, in your own words, that you thank Him for what He has done and that you accept with perhaps astonishment, but fully and with all your heart, this magnificent gift that He has given you and that was waiting only for two events.

• that you learn the news and fully understand its significance
•  that you overcome your amazement to fully accept in your soul this magnificent gift that God has given to all men, women, and children of all times. Faith is just believing what God says.

Confessing with your mouth means openly declaring your faith, saying it with your mouth. The mouth is not the same as the mind.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God Ephesians 2 :8

or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3 :23

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved Romans 10 :13

To invoke the name of Jesus (God saves, God heals) is simply to talk to Him with the confidence that your words are not directed to a wall or a ceiling, but to the One who is omnipresent (everywhere at once), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omniscient (knowing all things, even your deepest thoughts), and who has been waiting for this moment, this moment when you finally understand His love for you and surrender your life to Him. Now, verbally surrender the direction of your life to Him.

Okay, have you thanked Him? Yes? Then we can continue because that's only half of the good news!!!!!!

Second seed: The Resurrection

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.! Romans 4 :6-8

It is wonderful to be forgiven for all our past sins, it is a great joy and we are forgiven thanks to Jesus' death on the cross. God no longer imputes, which means He no longer holds our sins against us. It is as if we have never sinned!!!

But I already hear some of you asking the question "If I understand correctly, with this doctrine, since I am forgiven anyway, can't I take out my frustration on my neighbor who annoys me or insult my neighbor who offended me, lie, steal, do all the possible evil. I just then have to ask for forgiveness and it's done?!

I would be tempted to answer you, yes! Except that you are not asking the right question.

Yes, God grants grace to the guilty, slaves of their rebellious nature. An innocent person does not need grace. Grace only makes sense if you are guilty. Therefore, one must be guilty to be eligible for grace. God grants grace to the guilty, and the good news of the gospel makes all guilty people forgiven.

So, the real question, the right question is "have you become a child of God, have you been born again, are you a new creation?". And you will understand why this is the right question because the following principle cannot be cancelled under any circumstances.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romains 8 :1

No condemnation for the guilty?! It is completely normal to react because at first glance, it is legitimately unacceptable, of course! Unless we put it back in the complete context of the divine work. It takes two sides to make the complete coin.

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because by receiving forgiveness of sins, they have been born of God. They have received a new life, the life of Christ. They have supernaturally entered into a newness of life.

This requires a serious explanation. God's plan for humanity is greater and much more perfect than you thought. Listen to this astonishing statement:

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.1 John 3 :9

The two key phrases here are 'born of God' and 'does not practice'. We are talking about someone who is born of God and in whom the seed of God remains. We are not changing subjects. We are not in religion, but in a supernatural work that no religion can produce. It is said that whoever is born again, born of God, cannot keep on spinning, does not practice sin. Does not practice...

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.. Ephesians 2 :1-3

Before being born again, we walk in offenses and sins, we practice sin. Sins are not accidents, but a normal practice, a lifestyle, the natural thought and life system of a son or daughter of Adam. To give an image, the wild cherry tree produces sour cherries, and why would it feel ashamed? You lived according to desires, you were by nature children of wrath, it was your nature, your practice, and it did not pose any problem, except for the inner or religious law that occasionally shook the conscience.

Whoever has received forgiveness for their sins at the cross has, at the same moment, received the seed of a new life, a new nature, the nature of Christ, the nature of the One who perfectly obeyed God in his humanity. And this is not a sensation either.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses Colossians 2 : 13

Christ will now communicate, from within, the same desire and the same ability to obey because He has given birth to a new heart, a new spirit that He has recreated in those who receive Him: born of God.

This explains the new desires, new attractions, ambitions, or tastes that arise and begin to manifest themselves just as naturally in you. You will not strive to be different. They have become different. The nature of Christ now flows in you, manifesting His life, His desires, His ability. The practice has changed. We can better understand the immense significance of Ezekiel's prophecy and how it is fulfilled in those who receive Christ into their hearts.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rule. Ezekiel 36 :25-27

The child of God is first purified and then receives a new nature, one that is opposed to the one he had before. A nature that does not love to do evil and has the supernatural ability to overcome it. In other words, the evil that the child of God commits (and it will happen) is a misstep, due to weakness or lack of vigilance, but it is no longer a practice or a way of life. It is no longer his/her nature.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God,  2 Corinthians 5:17-18

When one receives forgiveness of sins by faith, at the same time, one receives a new nature that hates the practice of what is evil in the eyes of God.

Anyone who is born again can testify how desires have changed. And if, by weakness, the child of God stumbles, they find in Jesus Christ an eternal and highly effective advocate, whose nail-scarred hands guarantee immediate and unconditional forgiveness.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2 :1

So, there is no condemnation for the children of God, for those sins that are regrettable accidents on the way, for you who have received the new nature of Christ. For this new nature is at work in you, much more effectively than your attempts to follow the orders of the law.

It is the guarantee that you are no longer the same, that God Himself has now taken over. This new life, which may still be a very weak seed today, will become, through His assistance, an immense tree bearing the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, and self-control.

And if the child of God, born anew, strays from love and holiness, and it happens, it is no longer as before. It does not leave them indifferent, because of the nature of Christ that is in them. They feel what one feels when, after putting on new clothes, they get a stain. They have only one desire, to clean themselves up as quickly as possible. They can no longer stand any stain. They then turn to the advocate, confess in the sense of admitting, acknowledging, and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin- 1 John 1:7

A simple acknowledgment of our fault, a simple confession is enough

For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Galates 6 :15

Paul spoke these words to the Jews of his time who had accepted Christ, because there were some who did. He was telling them, in essence, that observing the law (circumcision was a requirement of their law) and commandments or belonging to a religion is not enough now that Jesus has appeared, because you will never be able to be perfect as God requires as long as your nature has not been changed.

What is important is to be a new creature. For this is the guarantee that God himself is at work in your life. And that is what will make the difference because God NEVER fails. It is no longer you who seek to save yourself.

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Hebrews 7 :25

God himself from within saves you and will save you perfectly. What matters is to be a new creature. Isn't this beautiful?

Let's go back to the verse we were talking about in the first part of this article:

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. Romans 5 :19

Do you now understand this bomb in Romans 5:19? Let me help you with two questions.

1/ What do we have to do to become a sinner? Please, do not answer: "I become a sinner when I commit sins." No! You have now understood. You inherited a sinful nature from your parents at birth, and that's why you sin.

The Bible says, "It is sin living in me."

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7 :20

So the answer to the question "what have you done to become a sinner?" is: NOTHING, you are one from birth, even before committing any bad actions. You are a sinner as a consequence of the disobedience of one man: Adam.

2/ What must we do to become righteous?

The answer is the same: NOTHING. We become righteous through new birth before accomplishing any good action. We inherit the nature of Christ just as naturally as we inherited the nature of Adam at our first birth. Through the obedience of one man (Jesus Christ), many (those who believe) are made righteous in the same way that through the disobedience of one man (Adam) all were made sinners.

We do not yet see the sinner in the joyful and innocent little baby. It is possible that we do not yet see the righteous person in whom the seed of God has just come to life. Or in someone who has not nurtured this seed so that it becomes a great tree visible to all.

Believe me, by nurturing and collaborating with the Holy Spirit, this righteous life manifests itself more and more and supplants the old life and its bad habits.

To summarize: we do not become sinners by committing sins. We do not become righteous by doing good works. We are sinners because we have inherited the nature of Adam through our parents. We are righteous because we have inherited the nature of Jesus Christ in the new birth. We receive the nature first, and the fruits follow.

So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[f]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 1 Corinthians 15 :45

The key expressions here are "first man, Adam" and "last Adam." Here is explained, almost technically, although it is a matter of spiritual things, how the Lord overcomes our Adamic nature (derived from Adam) that poisons our existence. For there are laws, principles, and a method that govern this masterful work performed by the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross of Golgotha.

At the Cross, God brings to an end a poorly started story with the first Adam. As we have already seen, he became a living soul when he disobeyed. His spirit died as a result of his separation from the God of life. From Adam came this terrible humanity, spiritually dead, living off its unstable soul, and throughout the centuries manifesting a mixture of dazzling wonders and unbearable horrors.

This sad story that continues for us, in God's eyes, stopped at the cross. Jesus is the last Adam. At the cross, God made Him the representative of the entire generation of Adam, as if suddenly all humanity was summarized in one person, as if He had transferred all humanity into one body.

Jesus, crucified, took on the first Adam and all his generation. And when He breathed His last breath, He became the last Adam. Thus, at His death, the circle is closed. For God, all humanity derived from Adam is finished.

At his resurrection, He became a life-giving spirit, that is to say, one who gives life and communicates His life and perfect nature. Remember that His first action upon arriving in heavenly glory was to send what had been promised: the Holy Spirit who gives life and vivifies.

A new humanity of naturally righteous individuals can be born on the other side of the cross, at the resurrection. The kingdom of God spreads in hearts. The kingdom of God is in our midst, visible only to those who have been transformed.

The last Adam, after the resurrection, became a life-giving spirit, who gives life to a generation of men and women, to a new humanity, endowed with a new heart and spirit, recreated in the image of the One through whom and for whom all things exist. And all of this is pure grace, pure gift, through faith, for any humble and unpretentious heart. Simply put, it is an incomprehensible wisdom, even a folly in the eyes of men, especially religious ones, no matter who they are.

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”
    the things God has prepared for those who love him
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 1 Corinthians 2 :6-12

The Word took on human form in Jesus. He endured suffering, elevated this humanity to a degree of perfection, and was put to death by humanity itself. When Jesus Christ was crucified, it was human nature that was crucified - all of humanity, even if unwittingly, bears this Adamic nature, the source of all wars, diseases, suffering, murders, and the list goes on.

This humanity, with its irreparably corrupt nature, was crucified at the same time as Christ, in Christ, and for God. For all, the history of our humanity stopped a little less than 2000 years ago. This is not visible because it is a work that only a spirit made alive can understand.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6 :23

In Christ, all of us, the generation of Adam, have therefore died. The day our earthly body passes away, we find ourselves in an invisible spiritual reality:

• on the cross, with Christ dead for all,
• or seated in heavenly places with Christ and in Christ, the resurrected one.

It all depends on how far we went with Jesus during our time on earth. The cross is the place where judgment took place. What is of the first Adam in us has already been judged and remains on the cross! God judged the generation of Adam and condemned it to death by dying himself with it and for it, making it die with Him.

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many, Hebrews 9 :27

And since it is appointed for men to die once, once we arrive in the afterlife, there are two options: either we awaken in Adam, already judged and condemned on the cross.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John, 3 :18

Or, we wake up in Christ, if He is in us and we are in Him, united with Him, where all those who are born again are.

For through the new birth we have become a member of His body, and it is in Him, as part of Himself, that we wake up in the afterlife. Do you understand?

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2 :4-7

For the one who has received the life of Christ, the stage of death is far behind. By his spirit, the born-again child of God is already seated in heavenly places in Christ even if his soul and body are still on earth.

If I believe in Christ, my "first Adam" part is already dead and I now live by the life of the resurrected one. It's a complete package. That's why Jesus proclaimed this incomprehensible thing at the time but it becomes evident now as His work is revealed.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? John 11 : 25

The entire humanity, the first Adam, was judged, condemned, put to death, and buried in the person of Jesus Christ. It is all accomplished. It is an invisible reality to the world but a very real one. Jesus is, in the eyes of God, the last Adam.

While we are alive on earth, this power of resurrection that is at work within us will have other extraordinary, liberating, and immediately accessible effects that we will see in a few moments.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; Romans 6:6

The evil nature that presided over our mortal body (our old man), the power of sin (the body of sin) that resides in this nature from Adam, were also put to death and annihilated with Jesus at the moment when He breathed His last on the cross. We are no longer slaves the moment Christ comes to dwell in us.

I am speaking here of an experience that is not simply a doctrine. The children of God who are born again and who walk in communion with the Holy Spirit experience this reality with wonder.

We are liberated from the grip of sin. For the first time, we are completely masters of our destiny. We can do what we want and not do what we do not want. Vices and passions no longer have a dominant power over our lives as long as we remain in communion with the Holy Spirit. It is an incredible and yet real liberation!

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

If Christ had not been resurrected, everything would still be in the tomb with no hope for you and me. But He is risen and we are delivered from our old nature by His life working in us.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2 :20

Life is in Jesus Christ. When, at new birth, He comes to dwell in me, He not only brings me deliverance from my old nature whose power He destroyed on the cross, but He brings me the power of His imperishable life. As the person born again says, "If I live, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. Colossians 2 :12

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,, Ephesians 2:6

Do you understand the meaning of these words now? The last Adam, Christ, is the first of a new generation of men and women, born again. He has resurrected them. Their spirit has come back to life and inspires their existence, and communication with God, who is Spirit, has been restored.

Remember, the Word is a seed. Everything is delivered in seed form. Our faith does allow us to enter into the experience. And the Holy Spirit creates faith as we listen to and understand these truths. Meditate on them, reread them, call on the Holy Spirit for help, and accept with gentleness this Word that is planted in you. And be transformed!

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12 :2

My friends, this is the complete message of the Gospel. Forgiven and regenerated!

The seed will grow if you believe and continue to believe, despite your amazement. And in such an extraordinary way!

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. Mark 4:26

Your faith alone allows the Holy Spirit to release all the wonderful effects of this life into your daily existence. Feed your faith by listening to the Gospel often, the one I have just delivered to you. Simply keep your eyes fixed on these truths of who Jesus is and trust the Holy Spirit to create in you sufficient faith and generously grant you all the benefits in Jesus Christ.

One last thing...

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6 :4

We were buried with him through baptism into his death. This text implicitly speaks of water baptism. Perhaps the following text will speak to you more:

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Romans 6 :3

Or this one :

for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3 :27

Many texts emphasize the great importance of baptism. If you have not been baptized, find a church, an assembly (ecclésia -> assembly = church) that preaches new birth, water baptism, the action of the Holy Spirit, the death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and get baptized. Baptism is part of your declaration of faith.

When we understand and believe in what Jesus Christ's death on the cross means for us, our intellect adheres, but our body, which is also a part of ourselves, remains outside of it.

Our soul, where the intellect resides, accepts and believes the good news of the gospel. That's good.

Our spirit is resurrected and welcomes the Holy Spirit, who now makes it His residence. That's good.

And how do we include our body in this total process of regeneration? Through water baptism.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2 :37-38

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28 :18-20

Jesus himself told John the Baptist that baptism was what was right to fulfill.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. Matthew 3 :13-15

Jesus himself gave the example. Baptism is an important act because God saves the whole person, spirit, soul, and body.

Baptism, the burying of our body in the water, is our way of telling God and before men that we fully accept the condemnation of our old nature. It is an act of repentance and faith expressed through a concrete action. We symbolically submit our body to death. If we did not come out of the water, we would be dead for good. By baptism, we identify ourselves in the death of Jesus.

It is not just a symbolic act but in the light of the texts read, an important and inseparable act of our inner faith. True baptism is an act that we perform to materialize our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, which we have now understood are also our death in Adam and our resurrection in Christ.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16 :16

Remember, repentance is simply realizing the total corruption of our natural being, no longer desiring it, and accepting to be rid of it through God's supernatural action. Turning away from the life we used to lead and embracing the new life of freedom that is offered to us. That is true repentance. It is done with the heart. Then we follow it up with action. Baptism signifies and concretizes this visibly. We leave our past life at the bottom of the baptistery or pool.

I can predict without error that in the next few days or even hours, everything will be done, as if by chance, for you to forget these simple truths that I have just explained, or for you to neglect them, occupied by a sudden increase in your activities, by the sudden appearance of obligations forcing you to put all these wonderful truths that have the power to transform your life in second place.

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither

    whatever they do prospers.. Psalms 1 :1-3

Re-listen regularly to this gospel. Water the seed of God regularly in your heart and watch it grow day by day. Feed on this gospel every day by thinking about it, solidifying it in your thought process, and you will see it gain strength day by day. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, says the Bible.

God's work, HIS work in you (not yours), is that you believe in everything that He has sent to do in and through you: Jesus Christ, His only Son. He is the sun to which you simply need to expose yourself as often as possible to adorn yourself with the beautiful colors of true life.

Fully and totally enter into this new life that is offered to you.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.1 Timothy 1 :15

 

2/ The inexcusable

The  inexcusable will join the stone hearts in the lake of fire. I am not who calls them the inexcusable, but Jesus Himself.

One can hear a talk on the Bible and not necessarily hear the gospel. Having heard religious statements about Jesus is not having heard the gospel. A political or philosophical discourse does not introduce anybody into the presence of Jesus Christ, the Savior. At best it faces you with God's law whose purpose is to expose and condemn the guilty.

The true gospel does not condemn anybody but saves the guilty.

Do you know which name 2 Corinthians 3: 6 to 9 gives to the preaching of efforts to obey God's commands and the shame and danger of not doing so?

The ministry of condemnation and death. A very widespread preaching alas, which does not save or transform anyone but condemns and kills! God himself initiated this ministry at a time. The Bible tells us it was a glorious ministry, but it also says that it is now outdated, abolished.

2 Corinthians, 3:6 - He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.

The preaching of the gospel, that of the new covenant, establishes a living relationship with Jesus Christ. The supernatural and ability to preach it comes only from above. It is a new ministry, a new way to deliver, the ministry of the Spirit. If the ministry of condemnation was glorious, this ministry of righteousness that gives life and not death is much higher in glory.

A heart that was not touched by the spiritual ministry has not seen the kingdom of God as only the Holy Spirit can make us see what is invisible and thist does happen when preaching is anointed and talks not about the Mount Sinai's stone letters and of all its requirements but about Jesus -Christ , the Savior of the world and His generously offered grace.

Only the Holy Spirit can open spiritual eyes and allow the listener to see and thus truly be able to make a choice of who (s)he wants to follow. All things have become new in Christ; even the way of preaching the Word of God has changed.

Anyone brought into contact with this living gospel enlightened by the Holy Spirit, having heard Jesus speak to his/her heart, so somehow having seen Him (God knows them), and having refused, becomes a no-excuse. A no-excuse for having rejected the Savior without cause for who could reject the Jesus the Holy Spirit reveals?

• A God who erases all faults and throws them into the sea, forgetting them for ever.
• A God who does not treat us according to our faults, who does not punish us according to our iniquities.

Psalms, 103:10 - he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

• A God who descended from heaven in the form of a man servant (Philippians 2:7) to be tortured and murdered by unrighteous men, in order to pay the high ransom of sin and redeem people who do not even care about Him.
• A God who, when invited, fills the heart with happiness, joyful hope and leads his sheep into green pastures, near peaceful and refreshing waters, promising an eternity of unimaginable beauty and fullness, without boredom or weariness.
• A God who, if we let him fully live in us, transforms us from the inside and fills us with strong desire and ability to live according to His standards.
• And living according to His standards is the opening door to continual flow of peace and joy by the Holy Spirit, a springing and constant stream of living water that quenches all heart thirsts and triggers down here, the answer of all prayers.

How many would refuse such a God when the Holy Spirit reveals Him in the heart?

Very few.

Some will, however, knowingly rejecting Him again and again. They are the no-excuse. We read in the Gospel of John:

John, 15:22 - If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

John, 9:40 - Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’
Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

These men, religious doctors of the law, scribes, scholars of the Word of God were standing before the Son of God who was teaching them through the power of the Holy Spirit. They were hearing, they were doubly seeing, with the eyes of flesh and the eyes of mind, for the Holy Spirit was powerfully with Jesus to convince. So, they knew without a doubt who was in front of them. They were also seeing the works of the Father operated by the power of the Spirit. They knew, Jesus affirms it when he tells of them:

John, 15:23 - Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: “They hated me without reason.”.

Despite this, they intentionally hated and rejected this Grace, preferring the glory of men or for some other deep and mysterious reason. It is the mystery of iniquity, the same hatred which animated the fallen cherub called Satan.

A no-excuse is such because he has really been introduced into the presence of Jesus and has truly seen him or heard him as these Pharisees.

Jesus is today in heaven sitting at the right of the Father so we can't see Him anymore with the eyes of flesh. In Jesus time, crowds were seeing the righteousness of God, a man in the flesh walking on the dusty roads of Galilea. But now?

That’s why, when still on earth, the Lord Jesus had announced He would send the Holy Spirit to convince the world about righteousness because He was returning to the Father and would no longer be seen physically:

John, 16:8 - When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;

It's done. Today, the Holy Spirit palliates the fact that we no longer see in the flesh, Jesus, the righteousness of God, the image of the invisible God, the imprint of His Person. The Holy Spirit does this work of making the person of Jesus seen without physical eyes. He speaks directly to the heart and opens the eyes of faith through anointed preaching. The anointed preaching, that is to say inspired by and filled with the Holy Spirit opens, sufficiently opens the eyes of the heart so that one can see or foresee the kingdom of God and above all its King.

Religious and unanointed preaching brings a legalistic and repulsive speech that only conveys information, threaten and bad news. It's like the manna. A delicious and nourishing food yesterday but an infected one today, filled with worms and unfit for consumption. The religious discourse does not open the heart eyes. That is why it has no qualifying value, to lose or save. Many should think twice before declaring themselves preachers of the gospel.

The old covenant easy preaching is out of date. Anyone knowing biblical principles can share one's knowledge. But this is not necessarily new covenant preaching inspired by the Almighty Spirit, a quite different sort of preaching that produces life or death. Death for the no-excuse who do see and reject. Life for those who do hear, believe and invite Christ as the shepherd of their hearts.

2 Corinthians, 2:15 - For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.

You don't really speak from God unless you've been called, sent and therefore equipped. Transmission of commands and directives without setting them in the context of Christ new life is an old covenant practice, a dead product of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Everything has changed after Jesus Christ. The Father sent the Holy Spirit to proclaim Jesus, to reveal Jesus, to convince through a preaching carried by chosen and anointed clay pots and to fulfill the law in the heart of the believer.

"I only believe what I see" may say some. Well, this conception is outdated! Sight or hearing are no longer the only ways to be convinced. The Holy Spirit convinces your heart directly and you even see more than if you saw with your flesh eyes for it is not a view in the proper sense but an intimate conviction that quietly settles in you and is called seeing with the heart eyes.

Without being able to intellectually explain it or emotionally feel it, in spite of a few uncertainties still floating at the surface of your thoughts, very deeply in yourself:

• you know that when Jesus Christ died, He erased your sins from the eyes of the Father and that His Precious Blood poured onto the Cross was considered sufficient by the Father to make you completely reconciled with God.

• You know that the resurrected Jesus is able to communicate his righteous life to you, which makes you appear righteous in the eyes of the Father and gives you the power to live that same quality of life that He lived. He comes to live it in you, with your agreement.

• You know that this quality of life will produce happy and constant happiness if it has not already begun

• You know that He is sitting on a throne in heaven from which he sent the Comforter to dwell in you, for eternity, communicating you the will and ability to be wholly pleasing to God.

This is the gospel of glory, a communication of life, a revelation produced by the Holy Spirit beyond rational reasoning. You know it without explaining it and this quiet certainty is unemotionally just as unshakable as Mount Everest.

Once you know it, then you have freedom to entrust or not, in full knowledge of the facts, the direction of your life to the Lord and give your heart to this God full of love who wants to take you in His arms and desires so much to live in and unite to your mind. That's what preachers call giving one's life to Jesus. It's simple to say yes when the Holy Spirit speaks to you.

Workers of iniquity

The responsible for the unbelief and rejection of many of the true God and His wonderful living Son are all those ignorant speakers announcing on the net, on some evangelical TV and elsewhere, a weak and repulsive copy of the gospel which is not gospel at all, made of laws, bonds, outdated traditions, heavy rituals, sales disguised as blessings or healings and guilt sermons and sometimes ridiculous. People associate God with this disgusting spill and of course reject it. Unknowing it, they do not reject the true God but this pathetic parody that they are presented to.

These self-proclaimed preachers and sometimes accredited by who knows who, do not fulfill the divine mission, they do not allow the Lord to add living members to His body, they do not give a chance to souls to make a real choice.

They make promises of healing with few effects, promises of wealth if you give them your dime or your offerings, they beat you by threatening you with hell or divine punishment. Some modern conquistadors even dare to use the second return of Jesus as a threaten to induce people to convert whereas it is the most wonderful and desirable event that can happen to our murdered planet.

Philippians, 3:2 - Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.

All this is disgusting, and Paul rightly speaks of dogs, of evildoers who announce another gospel than that which was transmitted in the beginning. The Holy Spirit clearly tells us to watch out. Watch out, exercise your discernment.

Galatian, 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

These people will be judged more severely and unless they change course, for them a place is prepared, a place that we don’t talk about much, a place that is neither Hades nor the lake of fire. It is only found in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus mentions several times ' outside, the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth'.

The darkness indicates that they will be far from the One who is light. Outside means that they will not be inside, in His presence, but outside the kingdom. The weeping talks about deep regrets and the grinding of teeth about intense frustration for having missed the goal, without possible rear machine. They were in first row for the wedding. They had a talent to grow, and they didn't do anything with it. They won't be part of the party and they'll weep and grind their teeth. They had been called to reign with Jesus. These sons of the Kingdom will be far from His light and presence, in the darkness of the outside. Called but not elected.

Matthew, 8:11 - I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Matthew, 22:11 - But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
He asked, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?” The man was speechless.
Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew, 25:26 - His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
“So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Do you realize that the people mentioned here are servants, sons of the Kingdom. Some had received talents, prophesied, made miracles, and even chased demons in the name of Jesus. They are not unbelievers, but servants!

Matthew, 7:22 - Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

Did they believe that exercising spiritual gifts was a proof they were endorsed by God? Had they not read Acts 3 and forgotten that a miracle or healing is not the fruit of any godliness or personal power but of faith in the power of the Name of Jesus.

Acts, 3:12 - When Peter saw this, he said to them: ‘Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?

Acts, 3:15 - By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

Healings, miracles and even evicted demons are not proof of the faithfulness of a man towards Christ but proof of Christ's fidelity and mercy towards men whom He wants to heal and free. Power remains God's.

2 Peter, 2:15 - They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.

Balaam was an authentic prophet of God. God was talking to him. (Numbers 22:9). He had received a talent but was seduced and prostituted it for money and human honors. He turned away from the right path and got lost. He did not, however, lose his gift as a prophet because God who does not repent of His gifts and appeal, did not withdraw what He had given. That can be misleading when such a man performs supernatural deeds in the name of God.

There are still such men, bad workmen.

Watch out those people who draped in so-called biblical knowledge and titles of prophets, preachers, doctors or even apostles, teach the biblical principles of seed, generosity and giving to open your portfolios. They twist and divert the Holy Word of God to their profit.

Their religiously disguise their appetite for money and honor. The Apostle Peter had prophesized on such people, saying that by greed, they would exploit you with deceptive words.

2 Peter, 2:3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

You recognize their endless calls for offering, their subtle condemning allusions if you don't give, their promises that you will receive from God a multiplied portion of what you have given them, the disguised threats of impoverishment if you hold the blessing. The Bible had announced these people who would deceive you.

Give to your local assembly according to what you have freely decided, without yielding to any ‘spiritual’ blackmail that never comes from God. Give God your dime or offerings with the joy that the Spirit inspires you.

2 Corinthians, 9:7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

God will not deprive you of ANY blessing for reason of money and He will never give you more if you give Him more so that He gives you more. These are impure and insulting motives because His blessing is already acquired in Jesus Christ, without consideration. The Lord will never deprive you of anything because you have not given enough.

Romans, 8:32 - He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?

May God open the eyes of these men on the poor and pathetic results, and even the damage that their human unanointed words produce and may they no longer deceive themselves by the few miracles and healings that may occur, which only prove the goodness of God.

They should stop opening their mouths to proclaim a so-called gospel that was not been able to free them from the vices and passions of the unregenerated nature: jealousy, desire to be recognized and famous, love of money, impulsivity, intemperance, fanaticism, legalism and search for the glory of men.

These modern scribes and Pharisees do not communicate the word of life, the word of righteousness. They might mention it but have never experienced it.

Matthew, 23:13 - But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.

Without the anointing of the Spirit and the experience of the word of righteousness, speeches are fountains without water, clouds without rain, inefficient, flashy religious spill to impress the crowds, a replacing of the power of God by the noise of screaming and loud volume of sound systems.

In the end, it does not only make God's kingdom not go forward, but it displays our magnificent and full of love God as a religious manipulating, repelling, noisy, difficult, sad and powerless system. What a huge responsibility!

2 Peter, 2:17 - These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved. For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them.

The darkness of the outside is reserved for those who will persist in these bad practices. Jesus is gentle and humble of heart but He took the whip with the temple merchants and did not chew his words towards the religious who veiled the true God to the languishing and slaughtered crowds without a shepherd.

John, 2:15 - Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

The Word advises you to avoid these bad workers. Boycott their tweets, their channels, or their TVs. They preach not by the strength of the Holy Spirit but by means of psychological human manipulation.

2 Timothy, 3:5 - holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!

They have the appearance of godliness, but the Holy Spirit of peace, sweetness, love and true liberating power is not with them. Like the wild virgins, they brandish the lamp of the Word without the oil of the Holy Spirit to make it shine and enlighten.

Psalms, 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Nourish, strengthen yourself with the living and encouraging message of the new covenant gospel, with the living grace of Jesus Christ. It is the only one than can truly strengthen in Christ and make us walk as He has walked with all the blessings that consequently flow and are numerous and real.

I invite you to listen on this blog the article 'the gospel explained' and do everything to get into this rest of the splendid gospel of Jesus Christ. Understand how much God is willing to dispense generously, abundantly His transforming grace provided by His living Son and only Him.

Let the Word transform the intelligence of your soul because it is with your soul that you live on earth and it is by your soul, fortified by the Spirit, that you will be able to transpose the living principles of Christ in your daily life with joy and in peace. Save your souls!

Jacques 1:21 - Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

Run away from the bad workers and feed yourself with the simple and powerful message of the Grace in Jesus Christ, the pure gospel that cannot be mixed with old covenant and legalistic principles.

Are you looking for faithful ministers of the gospel to listen on Internet? I recommend one I very recently discovered: Joseph Prince. (He doesn't know I'm talking about him. He preaches the true gospel, these same verses, the same doctrine, sometimes with the same expressions). We don't know each other but hearing him confirm all what is written on this blog strongly encouraged me and I guarantee that his inspired instructions will nourish you, will help you grow in Christ and trigger abundant blessings in your life. Search and listen the message of grace!

2 Timothy 2:1 - You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,

As for the other venerable preachers we have mentioned above, if they read or hear these lines, they will recognize themselves. The Lord of grace keeps calling you: It is not too late to come back to common sense and stop leading His thirsty sheep into the sterile lanes of your misdirection.

It is not too late to let the true gospel transform you too, and free you. You will then be able to grow the talent that Jesus has entrusted to you by announcing a powerful gospel and see Him confirm His Word, for He always confirms His Word, not the human one. And you will not face a permanently closed door on that day.

You are destined to bear a fruit that remains and to be glorified in Him.

The fruit of a man of God are the Christians whom He will have strengthened, trained by means of sound instructions, facilitating their communion with Jesus Christ who frees from the power of the unregenerated nature, who transforms from glory to glory, who makes able to be fully pleasing to the Lord, serving Him with joy, in rest, loving him with whole heart, strength and thought. This fruit is worth more than billions!

On that day, you will hear the Lord say to you: Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.

Ephesians 4:11 - He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

To be followed : the blasphemers of the Holy Spirit

3/ The blasphemers against the Holy Spirit

What is exactly a blasphemer against the Holy Spirit? We’d rather know it as sin against the Holy Spirit is the only one that will never be forgiven.

Matthew, 12 :32 - Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Marc, 3:28 - Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin..

This third category is close to that of the inexcusable, but one level up. This is not about those who, out of ignorance, say or have sometimes said anything, very irreverently, about the Holy Spirit. The Lord always forgives those who do not know what they are doing.

The people being referred to here have acknowledged Jesus, and most likely, they have been touched by the grace of God and received the Holy Spirit. And mysteriously, mystery of lawlessness, they have deliberately turned away and are actively and deliberately fighting against the Lord and His Church, and they blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.

2 Thessalonians 2 :7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

How could he, who was the highest cherubim next to God, bathing in the presence and light of the Creator, imagine becoming equal to God? How could he rebel against the Lord who had bestowed upon him all the honors and come to blaspheme against Him? It is the mystery of lawlessness. Men will follow him on this path, contaminated by this darkness. The blasphemers of the Holy Spirit do not merely despise Jesus and His Church, which is His body (we are talking about the Church in its broad sense, containing all those who belong to Christ); they are knowingly fighting against it and accusing it of being driven by an unclean or demonic spirit.

Mark, 3:22 - And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.

Mark 3:28 - Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin. He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.

Apostle Paul condemned Christians to death, but he belonged to the category of 'thinking they know' but not knowing anything about the ways of God. By doing these things, he was convinced that he was doing what was right, as Jesus had predicted:

Jean, 16 :2 - They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.

He did not know, he had never known Jesus, and he received forgiveness, then became the author of more than half of the New Testament that we read today. Here is what he said in the first letter to Timothy:

1 Timothy, 1:12 - I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.;

Blasphemers against the Holy Spirit know what they are doing. Blasphemers of the Holy Spirit, in our time, are not commonplace and will not be numerous in the lake of fire either.

I say in our time, because in the future there will come a very sad era where they will abound. This will be addressed shortly under the chapter: sinning willfully.

Je dis en notre temps car dans le futur viendra une époque très triste où ils abonderont. Cela sera abordé dans un instant sous le chapitre : pécher volontairement.

Misunderstood texts that scare people.

Some texts in the Word, taken out of context, can be interpreted, misinterpreted, and damage our faith. Especially if you have gotten into the habit of opening your Bible at random, hoping to receive a Word from the Lord. Be sure to read the context before and after the verse.

1/ Sinning deliberately

Hebrews, 10:26 - For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

This text obviously does not address weak Christians who cannot attain the victory of perfect salvation in Jesus, but it addresses the category that has just been described: the inexcusable and/or those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. To sin deliberately here means to sin with the intention of defying the Lord. There is no relation to the falls of spiritual childhood, the spiritual weakness of children in Christ.

An adult or a father in Christ is someone in whom Christ is formed and who externally manifests the mature life and virtues of Him who is the source of all his attitudes, behaviors, and words. A child in Christ is under construction. Some traits of the life of Christ in him begin to show through, but there are still many old habits from his former life, on which the Holy Spirit is working.

The inner circumcision of Christ that the Holy Spirit performs consists of the stripping away of the flesh, that is, the abandonment of the old reflexes of the old nature.

1 Corinthians, 3:1 - But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

Somehow, it is always deliberately that we sin, but in the context of Hebrews 10:26, the author is rather talking about a will to harm God than the will to enjoy the sin that has victoriously seduced us, the desires of the child of God who does not yet know how to live in Jesus Christ and put to death by the Spirit the evil desires of his old nature.

These people use their will to sin (which is usually not really necessary as it is so natural), to sin intentionally even though they have received the knowledge of the truth, the verse says. Knowledge of the truth in the Bible is never an intellectual knowledge of doctrine. One can only have this precise and correct knowledge of the truth (Greek term = epignosis) by being united, in spiritual communion and with the whole being with the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Truth is a person. He comes to dwell in us, merging with us in some way. We are grafted into Him and His thoughts, His desires become ours and make us act accordingly. We then speak of an active and experiential knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ. This knowledge then becomes an epignosis (precise and correct knowledge of moral and divine things), the same as we find in the passage of the second letter of Peter, which explicitly speaks of active knowledge through practice, implementation, and outward manifestation in actions of our hidden inner life in Christ; to know through action.

2 Peter, 1:8 - For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Anyone who has this knowledge and sins willfully (one wonders how it can even be possible, but it is because of this mystery of iniquity) clearly has the intention to harm the Lord. He does not do it out of weakness or ignorance but knowingly and is animated by the same spirit as that of the ancient serpent.

We see prophetically this arrogant and blasphemous spirit expressed through a character called the beast, seducing men and which will express itself so openly in a future announced in the book of Revelation.

Revelation, 13:6 - It (the beast) opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

This text is very sad because we see a relatively large number of inhabitants of the earth who have chosen the side of the blasphemer and who will clearly be among the goats, the hearts of stone mentioned in the first chapter of this article.

Matthew, 24 :11 - And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

The power of iniquity working in concert with the prince of the power of the air will invade the spiritual atmosphere of the earth and cover its inhabitants with a dark and oppressive veil, obscuring their understanding and emotions. Charity will cool in an unimaginable way.

Ephesians, 2 :1 - And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

Even the most apocalyptic futuristic films cannot convey the extent of the unprecedented selfishness and wickedness that will then reign on the planet. The power of iniquity will influence the minds of the majority, and cool love and charity in the hearts of men, for the beast will have authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. Its authority will not only be political, economic, and social but also, and above all, spiritual. Hearts of stone and blasphemers will abound. It is a period of nightmare darkness, and men will worship the beast and its blasphemies against the name of God, His tabernacle, and His saints.

This will happen in future times that will bear no resemblance to anything the earth has ever experienced since its creation, in times very close to the end. The ratio of goats will significantly rise in these dark times.

2/ Fall away after having been enlightened

Hebrews, 6:4 - For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

This second text concerns the inexcusable and/or blasphemers and applies only to them. It is necessary to mention this because, misunderstood, this text can discourage an unestablished or poorly taught child of God and lead them to temporarily abandon their faith and waste a lot of time. Some who have read it have imagined that they have lost what they call their salvation.

This is not about inconsistent children of God who fall accidentally, even frequently. The word "fall away" is inappropriate for them. They sin because they do not yet know how to remain in the rest in Christ by the Holy Spirit, which keeps the power of sin, lurking in each of us and ready to manifest at the slightest relaxation of faith, powerless.

Romans, 6:14 - For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

The original Greek word "parapipto" translated into English as "fall away" actually means to deviate from the right path, to turn away, to wander. The translation into English using the verb "fall away" is inaccurate and distorts the correct understanding of the thought. We are not talking here about accidental falls, but about a deliberate practice of deviation after having truly experienced fullness.

We are talking about people who have been enlightened; they have known Christ; they have tasted the heavenly gift, the gift and not a religion; they have shared in the Holy Spirit, they have tasted the powers of the age to come, (the powers!). At this point, it is difficult to deviate unless one is seduced and seduced for a long time as this does not happen in one day. They have deviated from the right path despite all they have known and persisted in their apostasy despite all the attempts of the Good Shepherd to bring them back into the safe and straight path.

May God save us from reaching this ultimate stage of conscious rebellion where repentance becomes impossible!

For all sins, except conscious and deliberate blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, grace abounds. It is vital to remain in the abundant grace of Christ and to have no illusions about ourselves. Our strength and security are in Christ who lives in us and in the Holy Spirit who alone gives victory over sin and protects us from this rebellion. We must feed and strengthen ourselves on this gospel every day. (Read or listen to the gospel explained).

Galatians, 5:17 - For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

1 John, 1:8-9 - If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus protects us from the sin that so easily entangles us. Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus is what the gospel of grace teaches us to do, and it also gives us instructions on how to do it (or rather, how to let it be done to us!)

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,

3/ The lake of fire and sulfur for unbelievers, the abominable, and liars

Revelation, 21 :8 - But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

This verse is often quoted as is.

Taken alone, it is true that it could support the thesis of damnation for all sinners who do not know Jesus.

Nevertheless, those who think this overlook the word 'but' that introduces it. 'But, for the cowardly...' This 'but' means that this verse cannot be separated from the preceding one. This 'but' marks an opposition with what has just been said, it means: on the other hand, nevertheless, in contrast. And this 'but' prohibits the interpretation of damnation for sinners who do not know Jesus. Let's read again the entire text starting from verse 7.

Revelation, 21:7 - The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Two sentences separated by a period but forming a single block. And to whom is God addressing here? The pagans or the sons?

He is addressing the sons in both cases. Those who have overcome and those who have not overcome. In both cases, these verses concern the sons of the kingdom. Only the sons have received the ability to overcome and the supreme goal of overcoming is given only to them. How could an unbeliever overcome? By what power? In both cases, whether victorious or not victorious, it is about people who have known the gospel of Christ, called to overcome.

We see this in another verse in Ephesians that addresses the church of the Ephesians, therefore to correctly taught Christians, not to unbelievers.

Ephesians 5:1 - Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Why did the apostle Paul tell the Christians not to even mention impurity or immorality? There are therefore sons who need to be given this kind of advice. Some will have overcome the power of sin in their lives, they will have reigned in earthly life by the power of the Grace that resides in Jesus Christ, and they will inherit a place in the new Jerusalem, the tabernacle of God with men.

However, it is essential that they have been taught about Grace and its liberating power!!! That was the case of those to whom this letter was addressed. The Ephesians had been taught by Paul.

Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Those who are preached the traditional religious message of the old covenant have no chance of being among the victorious ones! None! They are not concerned with the introductory verse of this chapter.

1 Corinthians, 3:15 - If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

At best, they will be saved as if through fire, but it is better to turn to the magnificent and effective message of the gospel. Only it produces the conquerors!

The others, although properly taught and perfectly instructed on how to live in Christ and root themselves in Him, these others introduced by this "but" will not have conquered and will have continued to practice the works and attitudes of the unregenerate nature, of cowards, abominable, murderers, impure ... etc.

Note that the epistle of John gives a broader meaning to the word "murderer":

1 John, 3:15 - Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

It is possible to have known Jesus and accidentally fall into (until the Lord enlightens us) impurity, uncleanness, and passions, otherwise why would we be invited to put them to death by the power of Jesus' grace and His Spirit within us (and not by our futile efforts!).

Colossians, 3:5 - Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:[b] sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

The cowardly, abominable, etc. do not refer to ignorant, carnal, or poorly taught Christians who have only heard the preaching of the old covenant or worse, that nauseating mix of old and new covenant, grace and law (which are radically opposed) that frees no one and makes no victors. They are even less the unbelievers who will be judged according to their works and either be goats or sheep.

If you are not a victor or on the path to victory, it is because you are not receiving the right food, for the Gospel is the power of God for salvation (effective liberation from the power of sin, healing of the soul, and fullness of life in Christ).

And for those who have gone down a bad path and think they might be among those mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the cowardly, the abominable, the murderers, the liars, I have good news for you:

Matthew, 18 :12 - What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?

One does not become hardened overnight! Jesus will seek you out without giving up; He will find you. The mere fact that you have read and gone on reading what you just read is proof that His plan of deliverance has already begun for you.

Change your spiritual food. Stop struggling. Flesh cannot conquer flesh. Let Jesus in you fight for you, and start feeding on nourishment that will strengthen your faith and your inner being, the only one capable of defeating the old self that persecutes you and keeps you lying down with your head in the dust and shame.

Feed on grace by listening to instructions on how to live in the Grace of God every day, and let the Lord set you free, transform you, and raise you up from the dung to sit with the greats (of His kingdom).

Hebrews, 3:13 - But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  

Salvation in Jesus Christ is a wonder. The Lord commits Himself in the new covenant to produce a willingness and a doing in accordance with His will, if only we allow Him and humbly give Him the opportunity. The true transformative gospel is easy and accessible to all. This is why those who, knowingly and willingly, neglect this great, this very great salvation become the without excuse.

Hebrews, 2:2 - For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

"No ignorant pagan of the Gospel will go into the eternal fire but will be judged according to his deeds and declared a goat or a sheep.

Similarly, Christians ignorant of the true grace of God are not affected by this word, and there are many among those online speakers or TV channels we talked about earlier.

Many are just foolishly blinded by their thirst to be glorified by men or by their more or less unspoken desire to become rich. They are completely ignorant of the true Gospel and very unaware of the sacredness and gravity of the things they are playing with.

Reading this article, for those who may read it, will hopefully shake their conscience, and awaken them. It is never too late to turn back from a wrong path one has taken.

Grace abounds for whoever turns to grace in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was a murderer by ignorance and unbelief, and the Lord made him the most remarkable person in the New Testament. Turn around, abandon your wicked and remunerative practices.

Learn the true Gospel and let the power and love of God make you victorious, so that you may enter the new Jerusalem and already, here on earth, bear much fruit that remains for the glory of God. (The Gospel explained)

The whole world, ignorant of the Gospel, does not go to hell, as you have understood. We must abandon this wicked and false viewpoint. It is not biblical. Let it encourage us to proclaim this magnificent Gospel even more through the testimony of our transformed lives and our words.

This teaching contrasts with all the religious clichés that are floating around in many people's minds, simply because we are content with principles that are in our heads, without even knowing how they got there. And we repeat what we had vaguely understood or heard in a sermon or in the collective unconscious.

I invite you to reread this article because I understand that it can be a real shock. This study was for me. It goes against received ideas and the traditional current.

Studies have surely been conducted on the subject, and if they were in line with this, they apparently did not reach the ears of many preachers as they continue to propagate these vague and simplistic concepts of damnation without ever placing them within the new context of Grace and the new covenant in Jesus Christ.

The most concerning thing is that these binary and unfounded concepts prevent the world from approaching a wonderful God, extraordinary in love and wisdom. A God, the only God, who lives and acts, whose eternal plan of justification, implemented by his Son and through the action of the Holy Spirit, has succeeded so that many, the vast majority, will spend eternity in bliss, either as kings, happy residents of the New Jerusalem, or as simple citizens of the new earth and new heavens that God will create in due time.

Revelation, 21:1 - Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3 :3

Could Jesus Christ have appeared to bring yet another new religion? It is a great deception to have imposed upon the entire world and in all ages the idea that "Christianity" is just another religion. Christianity is a religion only in name, invented by man because all religions must have a name, am I right? Christianity, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism..."ism, ism, ism."

Did Jesus die on a terrible cross just to bring another "ism"?

Did not religion and Jesus always violently oppose each other from the beginning?

Who were Jesus' fiercest opponents during his earthly mission? Religious leaders.

Who condemned him, led him to the cross, incited the crow to make a demonstration to have him crucified like a common criminal? Religious leaders.

Who constantly tried to trap him and make him say things they could use against him? Religious leaders.

Religion loves religious leaders, but it hates and will always hate the true message of Christ. Here is what Jesus says about them and what they will be willing to do to his disciples in the name of their sacred religion:

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’. John 15 : 22-25

They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. John 16:2-3

Let's step away from the beaten path of religiosity and go to Eden.

A beautiful garden where God placed man to tend and cultivate it. In the middle of this garden, there was a magnificent tree, the tree of life. The tree of life was not only prominently displayed at the center of the garden, it was also not forbidden to eat from it.

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.. Genesis 2: 8

There is another tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which appears precious to Eve to make one wise.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise Genesis 3:6

Make one wise ? Adam already has already plenty of intelligence and creativity, as he has just invented a name for all the animals of the field and birds of the sky!

The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. Genesis 2 : 20

God had given one order regarding this tree - not to eat from it. This was an order of love, a warning: do not eat from it because if you do, you will die.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat[d] of it you shall surely die. Genesis 2: 16-17

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate Genesis 3:4-6

Eve took from the tree and convinced her man to do the same. She was so beautiful, so convincing, and she was his friend, his only friend, the one he had longed for and who was now there with him, and whom he certainly deeply loved. The one whom God had given him, flesh of his flesh, and whom he loved so ardently. Could he refuse? The serpent was very cunning.

The fruit of this tree gives Adam and Eve the ability to discern for themselves and/or to decide what is right and what is wrong. Like gods. And there it is! Religion enters onto the stage of human history.

Religion with a capital R, which decides what is right and what is wrong. That is the role of religion, isn't it? This is not a promising start for religion, which objectively, was born from the fact that Adam and Eve chose to believe the words of a snake rather than those of their Creator.

Without a now severed relationship with God, they would have to use the abilities of their own souls to establish the definitions of good and evil, plucking them from a tree.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Genesis 1: 28

As God, they will dictate on earth the rules and laws, for God established them as kings on earth to subdue and wisely rule over creation (not over their neighbor!). Fall or not, as the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable, He does not take back what He has given so they will be kings.

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.. Romans 11:29

Everything is accelerating. Their eyes open. They are surprised. They did not expect it. Their nudity suddenly appears to them as something condemnable, whereas until then they had accommodated themselves without any embarrassment.

First condemnation. First shame. First unexpected effects of the tree.

Before:

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:25

After:

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Genesis 3 :7

They become slaves to a system they have set in motion, a system of external laws, a subjective moral order of which they are the gods. They have just introduced notions of guilt, shame, and condemnation.

Note that God has not yet established any laws. He had given only one command. The law will come later with Moses. In the Garden of Eden, therefore, it is the beginning of all religions, the beginning of the nightmare.

God is no longer there, and everyone will forge their own idea of good and evil and impose it on others by erecting it as a universal, absolute, and indisputable truth: This is what is good and this is what is evil, and woe to those who violate it.

All of this is very distressing. But something even sadder and more sorrowful happened that day, which is seldom talked about. See for yourself!

ow 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 our Lord Jesus Christ I Thessalonians 5 :23

Here we learn that man and woman, in the image of the Trinity God, are also one in three parts: spirit (Greek: pneuma), soul (Greek: psuche), and body (Greek: soma). God had created a complete human being:

• With a spirit (pneuma) to be in contact with Himself because God is Spirit and we can only have a fusion and living contact with Him and the spiritual world through this part of ourselves, which is our spirit.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:24

• With a soul (psuche), endowed with intelligence, creativity, imagination, feelings, emotions, will, the power to decide and choose. A soul with magnificent faculties, capable of manifesting and expressing to the external world the immense or subtle movements of its unique personality, a personality lovingly created by the Creator.
• With a body (soma) to communicate, to make visible the inner movements of the soul and thought, through words, movement, gestures, and attitudes on a planet, on a material world magnificently arranged, orchestrated, a world created for their happiness and to reign over it.

The soul was never meant to be the sole center of decision, the headquarters of man's life. It was part of a unique whole, spirit, soul, body. Its function was just to reflect and manifest the life given by the Creator and received in the spirit, in perfect harmony and synchronization with that spirit and body.

However, the complete human being is amputated on that day. The spirit, this part that served to correspond directly with God, this part destined to merge into the divine infinite, in an act of total love, loses its connection with the God of life and thus dies. Communication with the Creator is broken. The tree of life becomes inaccessible, guarded by cherubim waving a flaming sword.

Man becomes a mere living soul (psuche). His spirit is cut off from the supreme source of all life because he has chosen the path of the soul with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the path of the spirit with the tree of life.

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3 :22

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being (psuche)”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit (pneuma). 1 Corinthians 15:45

Adam and Eve became living souls (psuche). They were already alive in a physical sense! However, before, they were more than just living souls. They communicated directly through their spirit with God, who is Spirit. They naturally communed with the God of life. They were complete beings, spirit, soul, and body. Cut off and separated from God, they are now only soul and body. Their spirit is no longer connected to the Source of life. This is what happened when we put this verse back into the context of Holy Scriptures. But it is too early to develop further. We will come back to this soon, and everything will become so clear!

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2 :1-3

Who are we speaking to here? Zombies? Ghosts? You were dead in your sins... Clearly, this verse speaks to people who have experienced a transformation and are being reminded of their past, being told that before something happened, they were dead.

It's certainly not addressing people who were clinically dead and would have come back to life. Before, are they told, you were dead and you were fulfilling the desires of the flesh. They hzd to ve very much alive to carry out the works of the flesh.

Alive in body and soul, but dead in their spirit. The Holy Spirit, who inspired these lines through the hand of the apostle Paul, is speaking of the death of the spirit.

It also says: you were by nature children of wrath. Note 'by nature'. All of this requires explanation. And the understanding of everything that follows brings us into the subject, into this extraordinary mystery, extraordinary and revealed today. Let's discover it!

When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. Genesis 5 :3

After his unfortunate decision, Adam had children with Eve, children in his image, who themselves had children. And from generation to generation, all of his descendants inherit the same nature: they are living souls separated from the God of life. They are no longer in the image of God but in that of Adam and Eve. A cherry tree gives cherries. An apple tree gives apples. A spirit without divine life gives a spirit without divine life, a spiritually dead. From a sinner comes a sinner. Is there anything surprising about this?

One can already begin to ask a question: if I am born a sinner by nature, if I am a sinner by my birth as a descendant of Adam, since I have inherited simply the nature, the DNA of my fathers, is it surprising that this nature quickly does what it knows best in the world?

For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners … Romans 5 :19

This text is a thunderbolt. It is indeed because of one man, the first man, who sinned, that his descendants, all of humanity, became sinners by nature. What an astonishing explanation!

We have been made sinners by Adam's disobedience. Some believe that disobeying makes them sinners. Not at all! It's the other way around. It is because I am naturally, involuntarily, and by birth a sinner that soon my nature produces what is called sin.

We understand better what Paul said: "you were by nature children of wrath"... by Adam's disobedience, all were made sinners by nature; all human beings of all races, of all times. Adam is the father of rebellion since he was the first to disobey an order from the Great Chief. And this is what makes us, through inheritance, the sons of rebellion.

The disobedience of one man, Adam, made all his descendants sinners, in his image. This is the meaning of this discreet verse in Romans 5. However, the second part of this verse is a tremendous news that we will soon (re)discover.

The influence of the tree of knowledge of good and evil remains powerfully present in human history because everyone feels, deep down, a need for religion, for belief, whatever it may be. Through religion, humans unconsciously (or consciously) want to reconnect with God, improve themselves, rise above, be powerful like God, regain a lost Eden, with this deep and inexplicable intuition that intense and lasting happiness does exist somewhere. Maybe it has been lost?

When despite his efforts, humans cannot achieve the desired heights, or chase away vice with their religion, they hide their misery under legalistic appearances, or under an air of holiness. They deceive themselves with false reasoning.

All religions, including Christianity (since it is considered a religion), have this common point that none has the power to change the nature of a descendant of Adam.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. Jeremiah 13 : 23

Imagine a leopard tired of its spots. Whatever its religion may be, it starts by saying to itself, "It's not good to have spots! It's making me very unhappy." The leopard goes to wash in a river with purifying virtues, but to no avail. Then, it embarks on a great initiatory journey and meets other wise leopards to ask for advice, but soon realizes that they too have been unable to get rid of their own spots. The leopard then puts on a lion's skin and convinces itself that it is now different, but unfortunately, this artificial skin quickly reveals some holes, and the spots return. It then rolls in the dust to make its color uniform, but with the first rain, the beautiful color disappears and its efforts are in vain. And then one day, it resigns itself. "These spots, I will never get rid of them. I am and will always be a leopard." It is not wrong.

We choose our religion. This power comes from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We choose the "best," the most comfortable, the least or most restrictive, the most suitable for our character, our culture. Or it may be the religion of our parents, or perhaps the one that offered itself to us when we were in deep search. If needed, we customize it. Whatever it is, it is Adam's legacy. I define what is good and what is bad. The real problem, son or daughter of Adam, is that you have inherited a nature from birth, like the leopard with its spots or the Ethiopian with their beautiful black skin. We choose our religion, but we cannot free ourselves from ourselves.

We were talking earlier about being wrong with false reasoning. Some people are very happy with themselves. They practice their religion and say, "I have neither killed nor stolen. I am a good believer." In today's times, some even say, "I have killed, I have murdered for God. I am a good believer." Everything and its opposite! And others say, "I do not kill anything, not even a fly. Maybe it's my grandmother!"

I once had a conversation with colleagues who were very sincere in their faith, and they assured me that they were good "Christians." I asked them the question, "Why do you think God gave the Ten Commandments and all the others, because there are many more?" They replied, "To show the way of good and evil, so that we can be good people." I remember their bewildered look when I told them, "That's not what the Scriptures say. God gave the commandments so that you would disobey them. Did you know that God never gave the Ten Commandments or any law with the expectation of being obeyed?" My colleagues and friends remained silent and looked at me strangely. Let's look at the Scriptures together. I'm not making this up!

as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one! Romans 3 :10

In the Scriptures, a righteous person is one who meets God's criteria, not the criteria of religion or tradition. It is someone who does God's will and does everything that pleases Him. There is not a single person who fits this description. It's clear!

Did you know that according to the Scriptures, the law, including the Ten Commandments and others, is a complete package? You either obey all of it, or you become disobedient to all of it.

You may not have killed or stolen, but you have lied. It's as if you have committed murder and theft. Who determines which sin is more serious than another? Religion! Adam, Adam, what an ugly inheritance you have left us... Read instead:

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. Jacques 2:10

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them. Galates 3:10

Before this divine law, this insurmountable wall, we all find ourselves equal in the curse, in disobedience. The very kind, the somewhat kind, the unkind, the wicked, the very wicked, the extremely wicked! Some have killed, others have lied, stolen, coveted. All have broken at least one rule and are therefore considered to have broken them all. There is not a single righteous person before God.

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. Romans 2:14

A moral law, more or less stifled, is written in every heart, because we have been created by God. We all have, religious or not, believer or not, a more or less clear intuition of what is good and what is not, just to be able to live in society.

A law was then brought, precisely detailed, explained and amplified by Moses, a widely spread and known law in the world with its famous ten commandments that no one has ever been able to follow. And this law was made even more difficult and inaccessible by Jesus Christ. Listen to this:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:43-45

Who can do this with all their heart? Make all your efforts to try to improve yourself, you will have the satisfaction of having made some progress. But ultimately, what's the point? God will never consider us righteous just because we do some good here and there. In His eyes, because it is His law, the law that supposedly we strive to follow, this law, His law says that we are guilty of all His commandments if we have disobeyed even one rule!

Do not run away! There is good news. Gospel means good news. But the good news only works in the hearts of those who have stopped trying to buy God's favor with their "good" behavior and who are willing to understand what will follow.

For our nature is the real problem.

What we mean is that the most beautiful commandments, the best rules, cannot tame or change it. We are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, hereditarily disobedient and rebellious by nature to everything that comes from God, and the law serves only to unmask this terrible reality!

But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them". Galatians 3:12

The verse states that the implementation of the law through personal efforts (which everyone still falsely believes today) was supposed to give us abundant life. But as no one can practice it perfectly as required, due to the Adamic inheritance, no one has life, divine life, abundant life, the overflowing life of God where true happiness lies unless… And the next verse gives us a key:

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Romans 11:32

ou read it correctly! God has put all men on the same level TO show grace to all. Through the law, He exposes in man his irreparably rebellious and incapable nature to receive life. But His purpose is not to humiliate or condemn, but to show grace TO ALL. That was the true purpose of the law: to place us in a condition of humility to prepare us to receive grace, as it is, a gift, a gift in every sense of the word, coming from a loving God.

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Galatians 3:21-22

Here we are ready to go even further. The question now is how we can enter into this abundant life and receive what has been promised according to the extraordinary words of Jesus Christ:

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as[f] the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”. John 7:37

Would it be another religion? Certainly not! As we said, could any religion bring rivers of living water? It will always come up, sooner or later, against the reality of our stubborn nature. The law is good for revealing the sin nature that clings to me. This is what is described in this passage from the letter to the Romans

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me..

For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Romans 7:7-11

he good law shows us the terrible reality: it awakens and exposes sin within us because by nature, I am sold to sin. This is so well described by the Holy Spirit, through the pen of the apostle Paul in this other passage:

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.  So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?? Romains 7:14-24

It is a cry that anyone who understands what has just been explained will not fail to shout out! Who will deliver me from this nature that is in my body, that struggles in my members, and that drives me despite myself, to do what I do not want and not to do what I would like to do. A body of death!

"It's stronger than me!", "you can't change yourself", "I'll never make it". That's what we say, isn't it? And it's true. We can't change ourselves. Religion doesn't change us either. It just sets goals for us, great and magnificent ideals, rules, principles, and then figure it out. Help yourself and God will help you. That's what we say, isn't it!

And we flagellate ourselves, condemn ourselves, self-censor, deprive ourselves of everything and the good things that God created for us, inflict punishments on ourselves, get discouraged, and give up. We spoil our own lives and the lives of others, whereas God created us for happiness. How desolate religion is. What an infernal legacy this tree of the knowledge of good and evil is!

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

The topic we are going to discuss now is not new. It is the essence of the gospel, the great plan of God hidden from eternity and revealed today through the gospel.

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things,, Ephesians 3:8-9

the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints., Colossians 1:26

This mystery, now revealed by the Spirit of God, is the immense and extraordinary news:

God's plan is to address the problem at its root:

He wants to recreate in you a new nature, if you agree. This promise is for anyone who despairs of themselves and first understands, then believes, accepts and humbly receives the dazzling work accomplished by Christ on the Cross and through the resurrection. It's free.

It's no longer a matter of making all your efforts to obey laws, as we have seen, they are only there to highlight our rebellious and disobedient nature. Everything is accomplished so that this can happen and there is nothing we have to add (this is the meaning of Jesus' last words on the Cross).

God now asks us: Are we willing to receive a new nature that loves and can observe his law? I ask you: would you accept it?

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3:23-24

Justified means made righteous. The law was a good pedagogue. It showed us our total inability to please God through our own efforts, if we are sincere, of course. Now it leads us to the One who can change this situation, to Christ.

Today God offers a miracle, a supernatural transformation. He announces good news to you that is not new, I repeat. These inspired texts were written some 2000 years ago and have been experienced throughout the centuries by men and women all over the world. So let's go further.

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again[b] he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3

Being born again! Being born a second time. Receiving a new nature. It is Jesus himself who speaks! This had already been announced by the prophet Ezekiel, 650 years before the birth of Jesus, the Son of Man on earth.

This announcement, this promise had been made to a people, the people of Israel, who had received the divine law in supernatural conditions unlike any other religion. But do you think that the people of Israel who received these laws are so different from us? We are all sons of Adam. God chose for a time a people to make himself known and then extend the blessing to the whole world. Israel has not yet understood because this Messiah they are still waiting for has already come and accomplished what they read every day in their law without understanding it.

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

“The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”

As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Romans 11:25-32

After confining the whole world in disobedience by giving a universally impossible law to fulfill, God reveals His will: since men are incapable of following His commandments, He announces through the prophet Ezekiel that He will give them a new heart and a new spirit. He will put His Spirit in them and He Himself will ensure that they follow His commandments. He will accomplish everything from start to finish. We just need to agree with this plan because God does not force any door.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Ezekiel 36:25-27

This prophecy was fulfilled (the "It is finished" of Jesus Christ) and has become a reality today and for the past 2000 years thanks to the supreme work of Jesus Christ. God saves men from themselves, from their disobedient nature, by communicating His Spirit to them. He gives them a new spirit, a new heart, and He Himself makes sure that finally, man desires and is fully capable of following His commands. Re-read the text. That's what it means, it's not an interpretation. And it is confirmed and reconfirmed throughout the New Testament and by Jesus Himself, as we will see.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Romains 11:36

Freely, by pure grace, because of His love and His justice. Provided that we recognize our total inability to love Him according to His standards, to follow Him by our own strength and within the framework of the Adamic nature we received from our parents.

In a few words, provided that we renounce the tree of knowledge of good and evil and accept His life in us, the tree of life. That we repent... The term repent means: to renounce, no longer want our original nature with all its sins, no longer want it and accept to be rid of it by the supernatural action of God in Christ Jesus. The tree of life is Christ. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. But no hurry, we will explain it through the Scriptures.

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches

(…) And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.. Revelation 22:16-17

Today and for centuries, this promise of a bursting life has been fulfilled and continues to be fulfilled in the lives of millions of men and women around the world. They all have one thing in common. They have renounced the sterile action of religion, whatever it may be, and have been born again by the supernatural action of the Holy Spirit.

God has fulfilled His promise and begun to build His kingdom throughout the earth. An invisible kingdom because it is first established in the hearts of those who accept it, an invisible but very real kingdom, I assure you. Beyond religion. A miracle that seizes and transforms from within and upsets the heart.

This strategy is the divine strategy. He conquers hearts with His Love, His Grace, and His Faithfulness. We are far from religions (including Christianity when referring to conquistadors, the Inquisition, or the Saint Bartholomew massacre) that to force men to embrace a doctrine, does not hesitate to the kill the recalcitrants.

Jesus Christ comes, through the Holy Spirit, to make His dwelling in the amazed hearts of those who give Him their lives. He reveals Himself and manifests Himself in the hearts of those who believe in Him. And this happens unexpectedly, inwardly, and independently of any action on our part, except our repentance and faith.

This is not reserved for mystics, priests, or pastors, but for every man and woman, today and until Christ returns.

You who read this text, you can immediately enter into this extraordinary plan simply by believing and accepting because listen carefully:

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:3-4

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

All men or anyone, that means you and me. It's the will of the Heavenly Father and He has already put in place everything necessary for the miracle to happen. It is finished!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself, 2 Corinthians 5:17-18

If anyone is in Christ. To be in Christ means to have been united with Christ through a supernatural action of the Holy Spirit, to have His nature flowing in us like a branch that, having just been grafted onto a tree, sees a new sap flowing in it.

To be in Christ. God offers us nothing less. To become overnight a new person who discovers, day by day and week by week, different tastes than before, different ambitions, different aspirations than those they had before.

Do you want to receive this life? Listen (read!) now. God is a legislator. He dictates the method. It is He who decides how we receive. And I will show you the way. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil no longer has authority here. God takes the reins. He has shut up all men in disobedience and now He explains to us how He has decided to show grace, to give a new Life according to His own terms. He sets the rule and the framework in which it can and will happen.

Firstly, God gives freely to all those who first understand, then realize what Christ has done and who then simply accept Him in their souls and trust Him with the direction of their lives. Please reread that sentence. It's as simple as that. That's the point of these few lines; to explain to you so that you can make an informed choice. God doesn't want you to swallow religious platitudes that you don't understand, or to be smothered with superstitions or sterile philosophies. It's life that you need!

Therefore, God wants you to understand. His work is great and perfect. You have nothing to do. You can add nothing. Start by accepting that only His immense Love and His wisdom are at the origin of this incredible plan. You have nothing to do with it.

We will explain what Jesus Christ did. Understand it and then you will be free to accept or reject it, knowing that the moment you accept it, the conditions are met for the supernatural miracle of new birth to occur, a miracle that will overturn your entire life as it has overturned mine and that of millions of men and women on earth and in all times. God WANTS all men to be saved, so only your decision can prevent Him from doing so.

Listen, see, and understand the magnificent work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. I'm not talking to you about a religion but about an encounter with the One who is alive. Prophets, gurus, and others have all died without exception. None of them have been resurrected and living to meet you today. That's why the miracle can happen. There's nothing magical about it. However, there are laws, principles that I will describe. Then you will decide because your choice is important. Your free will is complete.

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 1 Corinthians 1:21

The wisdom, techniques, and religions of the world are powerless to make us know God. God has decided to use preaching, which is an announcement, an explanation of His mysteries delivered by humans. An explanation that leaves the choice, the possibility to believe or not because God expects only one thing from each of us: faith and the decision to let Him be the shepherd of our life.

God does not send angels or great flashes of light to the sound of resounding trumpets. That is not His method. He has chosen preaching, which is an announcement made by weak and imperfect (in the generally understood sense) people. It is not the vessel that we should look at but its content. It is not the preacher who can save us but the message he carries that is charged with life.

Faith is not a magical virtue that appears spontaneously or that we have at birth or do not have at all. Before believing, we hear, then we evaluate, and if arguments are good and we are of good faith and convinced, we adhere. God will not reproach you if you follow this approach. It is natural, human. He created us with an intelligence to use. And this intelligence is illuminated by listening to the Gospel. God has good arguments, I assure you.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching? Romans 10:14

Today God expects faith. You might say, "I don't have faith!!" It's normal, faith comes. It comes. It comes from what we hear, if we hear. Keep reading, that's the purpose of these few lines! Hear, understand. God who loves you will produce faith as you listen to His Word. Use your intelligence because faith comes from what we hear. It is naturally produced by listening, but the word "hear" here does not only mean to hear with your ears but also with your understanding, your comprehension. You know the expression: "I hear you" to mean "I understand.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path Matthew 13:19

One must listen and understand. And I assure you, the gospel is not difficult. The miracle of the new birth was announced by Ezekiel and confirmed by Jesus who said: you must be born again. This miracle which was promised, this miracle which has been the ultimate goal of the Lord from the beginning, occurs in the heart of the one who believes and as a bonus, God produces the necessary faith as you listen. This is the rule set by God. There is no other way. Receiving a free gift by believing that this amazing promise is really for you and will become a reality in your life.

Faith and repentance, which we have already explained, are God's requirements. And faith and repentance can occur as soon as you understand, if you have understood well and if you are not hostile, dishonest, or biased.

Accepting something once you have understood it and if it is acceptable is a natural way of functioning for human beings. When my children wanted to convince me to buy something for them, I was amazed at their inventiveness in giving me good, rational, and indisputable arguments. They knew that if they convinced me, I would agree to their request. Faith works like that.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13

The power to be born again and thus become a child of God is given by the word, by Jesus Christ, to those who believe in His name. That's what this text says. From being a child of Adam, one becomes a child of God.

Only God can perform this operation. Only He can do it, or else nothing will happen. Your efforts, your merits, your attempts and resolutions to do good are certainly pleasing to Him but do not have the power to transform you from within and make you children of God. You are currently a son of Adam, a daughter of Adam, created by God, but descending from and inheriting from those who, in the garden, lost their relationship with God.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:16-17

The new birth is a divine work that does not come from you. It comes from above. It is a supernatural and divine miracle that God wants to produce in everyone. It is not received at birth (not by blood) even if our parents are born again. It is not obtained by the power of our will (will of the flesh, of human nature). It does not come by the power of man, a priest, or a preacher (will of man). The power to become a child of God comes from God. One is not born a child of God. One becomes a child of God according to principles that God Himself has established. It is an excellent grace, a perfect gift that comes from above. So relax, it's His work.

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:18

In the letter of James, it is said in a different way. Here, it is indeed a matter of being born again. Our natural parents gave birth to us once. God begets us, causes us to be born again according to His promise, through the word of truth.

You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 1 Peter 1:23

Born anew means generated anew. Here's how it works: the Word is sown into your heart like a seed through preaching. You hear it, understand it, and the moment you accept it as true (faith), the Holy Spirit causes this seed to sprout. He generates, He brings forth life because this seed, activated by the Holy Spirit and your faith, is Christ himself in the form of a seed.

You have heard the good news: God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. We're not talking about truth as a doctrine or philosophy, but a living word. The Truth is a person. Jesus said:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me Jean 14:6

He did not say, "I give you the philosophical truth so that you can then go out and tell the whole world that I'm right and you're wrong." He is the Truth. When he comes to dwell in us, from the first day of our new birth, it is the Truth that comes to dwell in us. It is real, it is experiential. We do not need to convince ourselves because it is true. But we would do better to say that it is Christ who comes to dwell in us, to avoid useless and sterile discussions. Jesus Christ is a living person, and he wants to dwell in us through his Holy Spirit.

And in Christ you are being built together with his other people. You are being made into a place where God lives through the Spirit. Ephesians 2:22

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 1 Corinthians 6:19

… I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Galatians 2:20

All these texts in the New Testament attest to the new birth. Why don't we ever hear about it when it's at the heart of the gospel? The first disciples of Christ proclaimed that they had become a habitation of God in the Spirit, that they had become the temple of the Holy Spirit, that Christ lived in them. They lived it simply, naturally. It was real. It would never have occurred to them to consider it as a religion. It isn't one!

This supernatural experience is the very essence of the Gospel, at the heart of God's eternal plan for humanity. This is what makes it powerful and the standard. It is us who have forgotten God's standard and replaced it with a tasteless religion without the supernatural action of the Holy Spirit. Christianity has become for many a religion like any other, a pure product of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, a corrupted version of the divine plan. In fact, the Apostle Paul had prophesied it. Listen to this:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 2 Timothy 3:1-5

Preaching is there, offered to our faith or unbelief. Preaching, the proclamation, does not impose anything. It leaves us the choice to believe or not.

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6

In summary: faith is the only means, required by God, to enter into this life. And He undertakes to produce it as we listen. That's how much He loves us. Faith inevitably leads to an experience because it inevitably moves God's supernatural arm. It helps to germinate the seed of life, this Word that we hear. I believe and then I see. Not the other way around.

Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? John 11:40

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. James 4:8

Draw near to God. Drawing near to God is good. In fact, that's what we're doing right now, but the goal is that he draws near to us, isn't it? I draw near to God by reading these lines, by reading the Bible, by talking to Him (what is called prayer), by assembling with other born-again children of God ("going to church"). This is the first natural phase. You are approaching God. If your heart warms up while reading these lines, if a glimmer of hope begins to appear on the uncertain horizon of your existence, it is because you are drawing to Him.

But the huge news is that soon, very soon, if not already, He will draw near to you. This is the second supernatural phase, beyond your control, beyond any control. It is He who speaks to your heart, who seizes you, who enlightens you, illuminating the words of the Bible, it is He who loves you and embraces you.

This is the normal experience of the new creature who regains its lost communion with God. This experience is different for everyone, but it is overwhelming and definitive.

TO BE BORN AGAIN. You then know that you have crossed over into a new life, you have passed from death to Life. You know this because:

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Romans 8:16

This is what the first disciples of Jesus Christ affirmed, as well as those who are born again today. It's an inner testimony, a deep, deep certainty that goes beyond our human understanding. It has nothing to do with self-suggestion. The Spirit of God Himself gives this testimony in you, giving you this conviction, this inexplicable and yet indubitable certainty forever.

I'm describing something here that you may have never heard of. Yet it's the normal life of every person, of every race, nation, age, gender, and social condition who meets their Savior Jesus Christ. I repeat, ask a child of God who has been born again to tell you about their encounter with Christ. You'll hear a different story every time and yet the same story.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.. John 1:14

Jesus Christ is the Word of God. This Word became flesh in a human body over 2000 years ago.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as[f] the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39

This word is for today. Because it's done. After being crucified, then resurrected, then returning to the Father and ascending to heaven, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. It's done. The rivers of living water are now operational, ready to bring to life and make concrete the life of God in the hearts of those who accept all the work of Jesus Christ, of those who come to Him.

In the second part of this gospel announcement, we will release two liberating, explosive seeds. Seeds of the Word of God. The detonator will be your faith. Believe it. The power of life and explosion (of life!) is in the Holy Spirit. And as far as He is concerned, there is no need to worry, He is there above you, near you, around you.

And we also thank God constantly[d] for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men[e] but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 1 Thessalonians 2:13

It will be at work in those who believe. It will be at work. Not you. Listen, understand, ask God to help you understand if you fear not understanding. And for faith, have no fear because faith comes from hearing, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. And I am making you hear the word of Christ.

Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest. Accept my teaching. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will be able to get some rest. Yes, the teaching that I ask you to accept is easy. The load I give you to carry is light. Matthew 11:28-30

Remember! God wants all men to be saved, you, me. The Son wants to reveal the Father to all. He draws all men to Himself. We just need to follow His instructions. So have courage, do not doubt. It's for you too! Jesus does not lie. He is the Truth. Trust in His words!

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.- John 12:32-33

Following soon:Are we very sure to know what the gospel is ? 2^nd part