Basic HTML Version
Standard says 'his nature,' and
Moffatt says 'of his charac-
ter,']; upholding the UNI-
VERSE ['All things' means the
universe; and here the Revised
Standard calls it 'the universe';
upholding the universe.] by his
word of power [In other words,
the power that is in His Word.
He speaks.
The Holy Spirit performs
whatever He speaks. ... the
entire universe. Now I want
you to notice that ALL
THINGS here means 'the
universe' by the Word of His
power.]
"when he had by
himself purged our sins,"
(KJV) {9} [In other words, by
His death on the cross, Jesus
had purged our sins to recon-
cile us to God.]
CHRIST'S BLOOD
DOES NOT SAVE
Now our sins had cut us off
from God; and we could not
get back to God, because He
had shut up the Tree of Life (in
other words, the Holy Spirit)
until Christ came. But, when
Christ died, His blood recon-
ciles us to the Father.
Now, to understand that, you
have to go back to the 5th
chapter of Romans; and you
will find there the blood of
Christ DOES NOT SAVE YOU.
A lot of people don't under-
stand that. A lot of preachers
will preach the blood of Christ
saves you. It doesn't.
The blood of Christ forgives
your sins up to the minute of
your repentance and the
minute of your belief and
acceptance. But it does not
forgive any future sins you
commit tomorrow and next
year, in advance, before you
commit them. It simply does
not. And the blood of Christ
doesn't save you.
The DEATH OF CHRIST
CAN'T GIVE YOU LIFE. LIFE
CAN'T COME FROM DEATH.
LIFE COMES FROM LIFE.
And so you read in the 5th
chapter of Romans that we are
reconciled to God by the
DEATH of His Son. Not "saved
by the death of His Son."
"Reconciled TO GOD by the
death of his Son," but
"we
shall be saved by his
LIFE,"
-- by His resurrection!
And we'll be saved by a resur-
rection. Now go back and read
the 5th chapter of Romans,
and you will understand that.
So, you see, you have to fit in
other parts of the Bible with
this as you go along to really
comprehend it and understand
it. He purged our sins, recon-
ciling us to God the Father.
Now on the other hand, does
that mean just anybody can
say, "Alright, I'll go and ask
Christ to reconcile me to God
the Father?" Oh no, because
JESUS said
"NO MAN CAN
COME TO ME except the
Father which hath sent me
draw him."
And in the 1st chapter of Ephe-
sians you learn that we in the
Church were PREDESTI-
NATED before the whole
world, PREDESTINATED to
be called now by God. And it is
only those that God the Father
calls and DRAWS, through the
power of the Holy Spirit, who
can come to Christ.
Now, the Pharisees came to
Jesus with trick questions; and
someone might come to me
with a trick question. "Mr.
Armstrong," they would say,
"here's a man who really
sincerely in his heart wants to
God Upholds
the whole Universe
by the Word of His Power
34
Philadelphia Remnant Jul/ Aug/ Sept 2013