justification

The New Covenant

God revealed to the prophet Jeremiah that he was going to establish a new covenant with his people hundreds of years before Jesus came to fulfill that promise. The Hebrew word that is translated covenant, bᵉrîyth (ber-eethˊ) means a treaty or alliance. “This word is used to describe God’s making a covenant with humankind. It may be an alliance of friendship (Psalm 25:14). The covenants made between God and humans defined the basis of God’s character in the Old Testament” (H1285). God told Jeremiah:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

“This is one of the most important passages in the Old Testament and contains several specific aspects of the new covenant. It is a covenant with the whole, reunited nation of Israel, not the church, which is “grafted in” to Israel’s promised covenant (Romans 11:17-27). The realization of the covenant is based upon the full and eternal atonement secured by Christ’s death (cf. Matthew 26:26, 27, 1 Corinthians 11:24, 25; Hebrews 9:15), which is the only means by which God can forgive sins and remember them no more (Jeremiah 31:34). The covenant will be based on individual, personal knowledge of God (Jeremiah 31:33-34) and characterized by the indwelling of God’s Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26, 27; 37:14). It will be an everlasting, eternal covenant of peace, administered by the Prince of Peace who is in the line of David (Isaiah 9:6; 55:3; Ezekiel 34:23-25; 37:24-26)” (note on Jeremiah 31:31-34).

The first persons to receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit after Jesus instituted the New Covenant (Matthew 26:26-29) were his disciples. After Jesus’ resurrection, it says in John 20:19-23, “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any it is withheld.”

Hebrews 8 focuses on Jesus’ institution of the New Covenant, referring to it as a better covenant because it was “enacted on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). Jeremiah 31:31:34 is referenced in this section of Scripture, and a comment is made about the Old Covenant being obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). Hebrews 7:18-19 explains that the objective of God’s covenants with mankind was to make it possible for us to have a relationship with him. The Old Covenant wasn’t able to do that because it didn’t provide a means for the forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 7:18-19 states, “For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God.”

God described the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:33-34, stating, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, for the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” An individual, personal knowledge of God is only possible through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This transaction takes place at the time a person is regenerated by God or what Jesus referred to as being born again (John 3:3). God said in Ezekiel 36:26-27, “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.”

The New Covenant’s provision for forgiveness of sins was a central point of Jesus’ teaching and ministry. Paul emphasized this in his message of salvation to the Jews at Antioch. Paul stated:

And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,

“‘You are my Son,
today I have begotten you.’

And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,

“‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’

Therefore he says also in another psalm,

“‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freedfrom everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:32-39)

Paul used the term “good news” to describe his message about the New Covenant’s provision for forgiveness of sins. The Greek word that is translated good news, euaggelizo (yoo-ang-ghel-idˊ-zo) is where the English word evangelize comes from (G2097). An evangelist is someone who tells people about God’s provision for the forgiveness of sins.

Paul concluded his message of salvation with a declaration that the New Covenant’s forgiveness of sin could free a person from everything that you could not be freed from by the Old Covenant (Acts 13:39). Justification is to declare someone to be just as one should be, to pronounce right (G1344). Justification is bestowed by God on man through Christ and is the complete absolution from the consequences of our sin. Paul explained why God did this in his letter to the Romans. Paul stated, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace, as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:22-26).

Submission to God

Paul explained in his letter to the Romans that it was Adam’s disobedience that caused sin and death to come into the world (Romans 5:12). Paul indicated that Adam “was a type of the one who was to come” (Romans 5:14). What Paul meant by a type of the one who was to come was that Adam showed us by example how substitution works in God’s plan of salvation. Paul stated, “Therefore, as one trespassled to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousnessleads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:18-19). Jesus’ obedience was in a sense undoing the result of Adam’s disobedience. Obedience requires compliance or submission to the authority of another person (G5218). Jesus told his followers that he came down from heaven not to do his own will, but the will of his Father and then, said the will of his Father was “that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life” (John 6:38-40).

Jesus’ submission to God involved him humbling himself to the point that he was willing to do something that no one else could, die for the sins of the world. Paul talked about Jesus’ example of humility in his letter to the Philippians. Paul said that believers should:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:3-11)

Jesus was looking to the interests of others when he became obedient to the point of death. Jesus explained his motive for doing this when he told his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Jesus never waivered in his commitment to submit himself to his Father’s will, but on the night before his death, Jesus asked God to spare him from the suffering that was ahead. Matthew tells us, “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.’ And he came to his disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, ‘So could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’ And again he came and found them sleeping for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again” (Matthew 26:39-44). Even though Jesus was human, he was not subject to the same human nature that caused his disciples to fall asleep instead of praying for him (Hebrews 7:25). Jesus exists as “one person with two distinct natures, fully divine, and fully human without any mixture of the two” (The Doctrine of Jesus Christ, The Standards of Doctrine of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors). Hebrews 4:15 states, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Jesus’ perfect submission to God resulted in his Father putting everything in subjection to him. Hebrews 2:7-8 states, “You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.” The fact that at a predetermined point in the future nothing will be outside of Jesus’ control is why “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11). The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus partook of the same things that all humans do so “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Submission to God as opposed to lifelong slavery to the devil due to fear of death is a choice that each individual must make. Paul encouraged people to accept God’s free gift of salvation because it releases them from the law of sin and death (Romans 7:1-6). Paul stated, “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:15-17).

God’s accounting system

In his letter to the Romans, Paul used Abraham’s faith to illustrate how justification works. Quoting from Genesis 15:6, Paul said, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3). The Greek word that is translated counted, logizomai (log-idˊ-zom-ahee) means “to reckon or count to someone, particularly: to put to one’s account (Romans 4:4); hence figuratively: to impute, to attribute: generally, of God’s imputing righteousness (Romans 4:6, 11)” (G3049). The thing that caused righteousness to be imputed or attributed to Abraham was him believing God. Believing God has to do with confiding belief in the truth, being persuaded of the truthfulness of God (G4102). Paul explained about Abraham’s faith:

In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:18-22)

Paul said that Abraham’s faith did not weaken when he thought about how old he was or the fact that Sarah was not able to conceive a child (Romans 4:19). “No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God…That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness’” (Romans 4:20, 22). Unbelief is not just a lack of belief but can be a turning away from the truth such as in apostasy (G570) or an unwillingness to be persuaded, obstinacy (G543). Abraham grew strong in his faith and was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:20-21).

Paul used the word logizomai eleven times in Romans Chapter 4 to emphasize the point that God has an accounting system that is used to consider sins against him. Faith is what gets measured by God to determine our right or wrong standing before him. Paul explained in his letter to the Ephesians that faith is not something that we can produce on our own, it is a gift from God. Paul said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul indicated that the heart is where faith originates, stating, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:10). Paul also said, “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Jesus talked about this in his explanation of the Parable of the Sower. Jesus said:

Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. (Luke 8:11-15)

Matthew’s version of Jesus’ explanation of the Parable of the Sower included a statement about the amount of fruit that could be produced by holding God’s Word fast in an honest and good heart. Matthew said, “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” (Matthew 13:23). Matthew indicated that the key to bearing fruit was understanding God’s Word. The Greek word that is translated understands, suniemi (soon-eeˊ-ay-mee) means “to comprehend; by implication to act piously.” When suniemi is used figuratively, it means “to bring together in the mind, to grasp concepts and see the proper relation between them. Hence, to comprehend, understand, perceive” (G4920).

James emphasized the point that faith without works, or the producing of fruit, is useless to us in God’s accounting system. James reasoned, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead” (James 2:14-17). James argued that it was the acting out of one’s faith that God counts to him as righteousness. James asked, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God” (James 2:21-23).

Paul cautioned the Corinthians against boasting about outward appearances rather than what is in the heart (2 Corinthians 5:12). Paul made it clear that being reconciled to God was the primary objective of God’s justification of sinners. Paul said, “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:16-21, NLT).

Justified by faith

Paul wanted the Roman citizens who read his gospel message to know exactly where they stood with regard to their soul’s eternal destination. Paul addressed his letter “to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints” (Romans 1:7), and said that he longed to go to Rome so that “we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine,” but then, Paul proceeded to talk about God’s wrath on unrighteousness (Romans 1:18-32) and God’s righteous judgment (Romans 2:1-11). Paul’s first mention of justification, which is God’s free gift of absolution from the consequences of sin, was in Romans 2:13 where he said, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” Paul went on to explain that no one is righteous, “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12). Paul then stated, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God” (Romans 3:19). “The ‘law’ (v. 19), referring to the Old Testament, essentially silenced men, leaving them unable to defend themselves against the charge of sin. It was given to convince all men of their guilt before God (v. 20, cf. Galatians 3:22). Paul concluded that since all men are guilty, they cannot be ‘justified’ by their own personal character or conduct (v.20). Justification is a legal term signifying that the demands of justice have been satisfied, and there is no longer a basis for condemnation (Romans 8:1). The justified transgressor no longer stands guilty or deserving of punishment” (note on Romans 3:19, 20).

Paul’s argument that everyone needs salvation was followed by a detailed description of how God’s justification works. Paul said:

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:22-26)

Paul indicated that justification is a gift that must be received by faith. It says in Hebrews 11:1 that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The Greek word pistis (pisˊ-tis), which is translated faith in Romans 3:25 and Hebrews 11:1, refers to “reliance upon Christ for salvation…As a technical term indicative of the means of appropriating what God in Christ has for man, resulting in the transformation of man’s character and way of life. Such can be termed gospel faith or Christian faith (Romans 3:22 ff.)” (G4102).

Paul indicated that the basis for humans to be justified by faith was God’s divine forbearance. Paul said God putting forward Jesus as a propitiation, or an atoning victim (G2435), was to show his righteousness, “because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins” (Romans 3:25). In the past, God had merely overlooked sin through the sacrifice of animals, but through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, God was able to remit the penalty of sin, cancelling the debt of sin that each person owes him. A necessary component of this transaction is faith. The payment is only applied to those who believe that Jesus was crucified to pay the penalty for their sin and have received his atoning sacrifice on their behalf as a gift (Romans 4:4-5).

Paul concluded “that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28). The works Paul was referring to were “the works of men in reference to right and wrong as judged by the moral law, the precepts of the gospel” (G2041). Paul separated a person’s actions from their beliefs so that his readers could see that justification was not at all related to what they did or didn’t do morally. Justification is about God’s righteousness being upheld and every human’s need for forgiveness. Jesus’ parable of the unforgiving servant pointed to God’s mercy and the impossibility of paying one’s own moral debt. Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents” (Matthew 18:23-24). “A talent was a monetary unit worth about twenty years wages for a laborer” (Matthew 18:24, footnote). Jesus said, “And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt” (Matthew 18:27). The problem was that the servant went out and found one of his fellow servants “who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe’” (Matthew 18:28). Because he refused to forgive his fellow servant’s debt, the master put the servant in jail until he paid all his debt (Matthew 18:34). The lack of transformation in the servant’s character and way of life was an indicator that although he had been justified, the unforgiving servant had not been justified by faith. Therefore, his master reinstated his debt, and he was delivered to the jailors or torturers, also known as, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).

Jesus’ final statement in the parable of the unforgiving servant emphasized the importance of the heart in a believer’s acts of faith. Jesus told those who were listening, “And in anger the master delivered him to the jailors, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Matthew 18:34-35). What Jesus meant by from your heart was that you must do it willingly. You must want to forgive your brother. God’s willingness to forgive our sins should motivate us to want to do the same for others, but because of our sin nature, we are only able to forgive as an act of faith, by believing it’s the right thing for us to do because it’s what God did for us.

Zacchaeus’ encounter with God

The Gospel according to Luke includes many details about Jesus’ life that are not included in the other two synoptic gospels, the books that were written by Matthew and Mark. The level of detail that Luke went into about the things that Jesus did help us to link things together and to get a clearer picture of what kind of person Jesus was from a human perspective. One of the events that Luke recorded was an encounter Jesus had with a man named Zacchaeus. Luke tells us that Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and was rich. Leading up to his story about Zacchaeus, Luke shared other information that was relevant to our understanding of what Jesus was doing when he looked up at Zacchaeus sitting in a sycamore tree and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5).

Luke’s rendition of Jesus’ parable of the persistent widow concluded with Jesus asking the question, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). We don’t know whether Jesus was referring to his first coming or his second coming, but we do know that Jesus found very little faith during his three-year ministry on earth and will likely find even less faith when he comes a second time to interact with fallen humanity. Jesus’ question is an indicator that he was looking for faith when he was here before, and will be looking for it again, when he returns to establish his kingdom on earth. That’s why the situations where Jesus found faith are highlighted in the gospels, and Luke went to even greater lengths to help us see and understand what faith looked like in Jesus’ encounters with the people around him.

Luke stated in his introduction to the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, that Jesus told this parable “to some who trusted that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt” (Luke 18:9). In this parable, the tax collector is depicted as “standing far off” and Jesus said he “beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13). The tax collector recognized that he was a sinner and knew that he needed God’s mercy. Jesus concluded the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector with the statement, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). The Greek word that is translated justified, dikaioo (dik-ah-yoˊ-o) is “spoken especially of the justification bestowed by God on men through Christ, in which he is said to regard and treat them as righteous, i.e. to absolve from the consequences of sin and admit to the enjoyment of the divine favor” (G1344). It says of justification in Romans 4:4-8:

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

“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.”

Paul went on to explain that being justified by faith means that we have access to God’s grace and are saved from the wrath of God, including the wrath of God that will be poured out on all of mankind during the Great Tribulation (Romans 5:1-11). Paul concluded his discussion of justification with the famous verses of Romans 8:26-30. Paul told the Roman believers, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, becausethe Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

The tax collector who beat his breast and cried out, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:13) openly displayed the kind of repentance that is necessary for justification to take place and also, mirrored the intercession of the Holy Spirit described by Paul as “groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). Luke contrasted this example of genuine belief with that of infants who were being brought to Jesus so that he could bless them (Luke 18:15). The Greek term that Luke used to refer to the children who were being brought to Jesus, brephos (brefˊ-os) is “spoken of a child yet unborn, a fetus (Luke 1:41, 44); usually an infant, babe, suckling (Luke 2:12, 16; 18:15; Acts 7:19; 2 Timothy 3:15). Used metaphorically of those who have just embraced the Christian religion (1 Peter 2:2 [cf. 1 Corinthians 3:2; Hebrews 5:12, 13])” (G1025). Luke tells us, “But Jesus called them to him, saying, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it’” (Luke 18:16-17).

Luke tells us that when Jesus encountered Zacchaeus, he was sitting in a sycamore tree. Luke said Zacchaeus, “was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass by” (Luke 19:2-4). The phrase small in stature refers to Zacchaeus’ “maturity (in years or size)” (G2244). Luke identified Zacchaeus as a man, but he may have just been a male individual who was no longer considered to be a child because he was employed by the Roman government as a tax collector and owned his own residence. Zacchaeus may have been as young as 16 or 17 years old, perhaps the same age as the majority of Jesus’ twelve disciples. The fact that Zacchaeus climbed a tree in order to see Jesus tells that he was either still young enough to do the things that a child would or Zacchaeus was childlike in his approach to overcoming the obstacle of not being able to see Jesus when he passed by.

Luke provided yet another contrast in the stories he shared leading up to Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus in the context of a rich ruler who wanted to go to heaven. The rich ruler asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18) suggesting that he was interested in becoming a member of God’s family. The rich ruler told Jesus that he had kept all of God’s commandments from his youth (Luke 18:21), but when the rich ruler heard that he would have to sell all of his possessions and distribute his wealth to the poor in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, “he became very sad, for he was extremely rich” (Luke 18:22). Jesus then, told his disciples, “’How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’ Those who heard it said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ But he said, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God’” (Luke 18:24-27). The Greek word that is translated impossible, adunatos (ad-ooˊ-nat-os) is the negative form of the word dunatos (doo-nat-osˊ) which is translated possible, indicating that this couldn’t happen. Jesus was telling his disciples that it was not possible for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. That’s why they responded, “Then who can be saved?” (Luke 18:26).

Luke’s description of Zacchaeus as a man who was both “a chief tax collector” and “rich” (Luke 19:1) was essentially setting the scene for a miraculous transformation to take place. Luke tells us that after he came down from the sycamore tree, “Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.’ (Luke 19:8). Zacchaeus volunteered to do what Jesus told the rich ruler he needed to in order to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 18:22-24). The difference between Zacchaeus and the rich ruler was that Zacchaeus knew who Jesus was and realized that he was having a face to face encounter with God. When Jesus said, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5), his words had a big impact on Zacchaeus because they were filled with love and compassion. Everyone likely shunned Zacchaeus because he was helping the Roman government oppress the people of Israel. Luke identified Zacchaeus as a chief tax collector, meaning that he was a person of influence and authority with regard to collecting Roman taxes and had become rich as a result of it. Surprisingly, Jesus’ response to Zacchaeus wasn’t harsh or critical. Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:9-10). In the Christian sense, salvation or soteria in the Greek, “is deliverance from sin and its spiritual consequences and admission to eternal life with blessedness in the kingdom of Christ” (G4991). Zacchaeus was a sinner, what Jesus described as a person who was lost, but Zacchaeus had an obvious change of heart. Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus caused him to repent of his sin and to seek a new way of life. We aren’t told what happened to Zacchaeus after he was saved, but we know that his encounter with God resulted in him doing the impossible, entering into God’s kingdom.

God’s economy

Jesus used the parable of the dishonest manager to teach his disciples a lesson about God’s spiritual economy. Jesus began his parable with the statement, “There was a rich man who had a manager” (Luke 16:1). The rich man in this parable represented God who owns and has at his disposal all of the things that he has created, including us. Jesus said that the rich man had a manager. The Greek word that is translated manager, oikonomos (oy-kon-omˊ-os) refers to an overseer and by extension a fiscal agent (treasurer). Oikonomos is sometimes used figuratively to refer to “a preacher (of the gospel)” (G3623). The Apostle Paul said in his first letter to the Corinthians, “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards (oikonomos) of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). In the parable of the dishonest manager, the manager was accused of being unfaithful to his master. “This wickedness or unrighteousness is seen more particularly in the neglect of the true God and His laws and in an adherence to the world or to idolatry” (G93). This seems to suggest that the dishonest manager was misrepresenting or perhaps, misinterpreting the Mosaic Law to make it fit with the customs of his day.

Jesus told his disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions” (Luke 16:1). In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus also talked about the prodigal son squandering or wasting his property in reckless living (Luke 15:13). The wasting of possessions from God’s perspective likely has something to do with the promotion of immoral behavior. We see in the parable of the dishonest manager that the people were accumulating large debts, to the extent that they were probably unable to pay them back. Jesus said of the rich man and his manager:

And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measuresof oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measuresof wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ (Luke 16:2-7).

The dishonest manager’s decision to cancel portions of the debt that was owed to his master was intended to earn him favor with his master’s debtors. Rather than getting angry, the rich man actually commended the dishonest manager for his shrewd behavior. Jesus told his disciples:

The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. (Luke 16-8-9)

Jesus’ reference to the eternal dwellings makes it clear that he intended the rich man’s debtors to represent sinners that had been saved. Jesus identified sin as a debt that is owned to God in the Lord’s prayer, where he instructed his disciples to pray, “forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Paul elaborated on this in his letter to the Colossians. Paul said, ‘And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God has made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).

The dishonest manager’s shrewdness had to do with his understanding of the impact associated with cancelling a person’s debt. Jesus questioned one of the Pharisees who invited him to eat at his house about this. Jesus said, “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” (Luke 7:41-43). The Pharisee struggled to answer Jesus’ question because he didn’t want to admit that our love for others is often dependent on what they do that benefits us. The Pharisee answered, “’The one, I suppose for whom he cancelled the larger debt.’ And he said to him, ‘You have judged rightly’” (Luke 7:43). Jesus went on to illustrate his point by calling attention to a woman who was a known sinner that had anointed his feet with an expensive perfume. Jesus asked the Pharisee, “’Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little’” (Luke 7:44-47).

Jesus concluded his parable of the dishonest manager by pointing out that God’s economy and the world’s economy are based on different types of currencies. Jesus said:

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Jesus compared love and devotion to hating and despising someone in order to show his disciples the difference between serving God who is able to forgive a person’s sin and serving money which resulted in the dishonest manager cancelling his master’s monetary debt. In God’s economy, forgiveness of sin results in the gain of something more precious, what Jesus described as true riches, a person’s love and devotion. Whereas, in the world’s economy, the forgiveness of debt results in a monetary loss and can lead to negative consequences.

It says in Luke 16:14, “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.” The Pharisees mocked Jesus because their hearts were hardened toward God and were what Jesus referred to as hypocrites (Matthew 23:13). The Greek word hupokrites (hoop-ok-ree-taceˊ) means “an actor under an assumed character (stage-player), i.e. (figurative) a dissembler (‘hypocrite’)” (G5273). Jesus said to the Pharisees who ridiculed him, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). Justification is “spoken especially of the justification bestowed by God on men through Christ, in which he is said to regard and treat them as righteous, i.e. to absolve from the consequences of sin and admit to the enjoyment of the divine favor (Romans 3:26, 30; 4:5; 8:30, 33; Galatians 3:8)” (G1344). When Jesus said that the Pharisees justified themselves, he meant that they were presenting themselves to others as if they had no sin. The Pharisees did not consider themselves to be sinners like everyone else.

After Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, he made the statement, “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery” (Luke 16:18). Adultery was one of the ten things that God forbade the Israelites to do after they were delivered from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 20:1-17). Jesus likely made reference to this commandment because it was familiar to everyone and was probably being practiced on a regular basis at the time of his ministry in Israel. Matthew tells us, on one occasion, the Pharisees came up to Jesus and asked him, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” (Matthew 19:3). When Jesus argued that a man and woman became one flesh when they were married, “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:5-6). The Pharisees responded, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” (Matthew 19:7). Jesus then explained to the Pharisees, “Because of the hardness of your heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery” (Matthew 19:8-9).

The Pharisees understood that adultery was a sin that, unless forgiven by God, would cause a person to be excluded from God’s kingdom in heaven. Because they were telling people that it was alright for them to divorce for any cause, as long as they gave their spouse a certificate of divorce, the Pharisees were causing the Israelites to commit sins. God’s people were accumulating moral debt toward God that they had no way of repaying. After he told the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), Jesus turned to his disciples, and said, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven time in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him” (Luke 17:1-4). In God’s economy, repentance is the means that has been established for us to relieve ourselves of the moral debt that we are accumulating toward God on a daily basis. When a person repents, it means that he thinks differently about what he has done (G3340). God wants us to think about things from his perspective. The only way that we are able to think like God is by exercising our faith. After Jesus told his disciples that they must forgive their brothers, even if they sinned against them seven time in a day, “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’” (Luke 8:5).

Justified by grace

Paul tackled one of the most difficult topics for Christians to understand in the final section of his short letter to Titus: justification by grace. Paul wrote:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)

Looking at his statement from a mathematical perspective, Paul was saying that: regeneration + renewal = justification. Regeneration or (spiritual) rebirth “is that free act of God’s mercy and power by which He removes the sinner from the kingdom of darkness and places him in the kingdom of light. In the act itself (rather than the preparation for it), the recipient is passive, just as a child has nothing to do with his own birth” (G3824). Renewal, “by contrast, is the gradual conforming of the person to the new spiritual world in which he now lives, the restoration of the divine image. In this process the person is not passive but is a fellow worker with God.” Paul indicated that the outcome of this life-long process was “being justified by his grace” (Titus 3:7). The Greek word that is translated justified, dikaioo (dik-ah-yoˊ-o) means “to render (i.e. show or regard as) just or innocent” (G1344).

Paul talked at length about justification in his letter to the Romans. He stated in Romans 2:6-13:

Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

Paul’s declaration that “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4) was intended to focus his readers attention on the mercy of God which made salvation possible for all who have sinned. Repentance “involves both a turning from sin and a turning to God” (G3341). Therefore, God’s kindness was an important factor in what causes a person to want to repent. Paul went on to explain that we are justified by grace, but the redemption that is in Christ Jesus has to be received by faith in order for God to be able to render a verdict of innocent in each individual’s case. Paul said:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Paul noted that there is no distinction between Jews and Greeks because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and then, stated that we are “justified by his grace as a gift” (Romans 3:24). What Paul meant by a gift was that God’s grace was given to believers without a cause (G1432). The Greek word doron (doˊ-ron) means “a present; specifically a sacrifice” (G1435).

Paul’s discussion of justification included the motive behind it: God’s love. Paul said, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:6-9). Paul reasoned that because Christ died for us while we were still sinners, his propitiation for our sins would be sufficient to save us from the wrath of God. The wrath of God is a reference to the judgment that awaits those who have not put their trust in Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation gives us a preview of God’s judgment and reveals when it will take place. The beginning of God’s judgment is recorded in Revelation 6:1-17. Verses 12-17 state, “When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars in the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by the gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and powerful, and everyone slave and free, hid themselves in the caves among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Paul made it clear that God did not save us “because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (Titus 3:5). Mercy “is the free gift for the forgiveness of sins and is related to the misery that sin brings. God’s tender sense of our misery displays itself in His efforts to lessen and entirely remove it—efforts that are hindered and defeated only by man’s continued perverseness. Grace removes guilt, mercy removes misery” (G1656). Paul’s statement that we are “justified by his grace” (Titus 3:7) tells us that grace is necessary for justification to occur. The Greek word that is translated grace in Titus 3:7, charis (kharˊ-ece) refers specifically to “the divine influence upon the heart” (G5485). In the Hebrew language, “The heart includes not only the motives, feelings, affections, and desires, but also the will, the aims, the principles, the thoughts, and the intellect of man. In fact, it embraces the whole inner man, the head never being regarded as the seat of intelligence. While it is the source of all action and the center of all thought and feeling the heart is also described as receptive to the influences both from the outer world and from God Himself” (H3820).

When Saul was anointed King of Israel, 1 Samuel 10:9 tells us that “God gave him another heart.” God didn’t physically replace the organ in Saul’s chest. The Hebrew word haphak (haw-fakˊ), which is translated gave, was being used to convey “transformation” or “change” (H2015). As a result of him receiving a new heart, Saul was “turned into another man” (1 Samuel 10:6). Saul was not the same person on the inside as he was before, but we aren’t told exactly how he was different. The only thing we know for sure is that afterward, the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul, “and he prophesied” (1 Samuel 10:10). Prophecy is speaking or singing by inspiration. The function of the true prophet in the Old Testament was to speak God’s message to the people “under the influence of the divine spirit (1 Kings 22:8; Jeremiah 29:27; Ezekiel 37:10)” (H5012). In Saul’s case, the gift of prophecy was intended to be an outward sign of his anointing and only lasted a short while. After Saul returned home, it says in 1 Samuel 10:14-16, “Saul’s uncle said to him and to his servant, ‘Where did you go?’ And he said, ‘To seek the donkeys. And when we saw they were not to be found, we went to Samuel.’ And Saul’s uncle said, ‘Please tell me what Samuel said to you.’ And Saul said to his uncle, ‘He told us plainly that the donkeys had been found.’ But about the matter of the kingdom, of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him anything.” When it was time for him to be proclaimed king before the people, Saul could not be found. 1 Samuel 10:22 states, “So they inquired again of the LORD, ‘Is there a man still to come?’ and the LORD said, ‘Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.’”

Saul’s unusual behavior after he was anointed King of Israel suggests that he was reluctant to become Israel’s king. “Saul showed himself to be a man who had no regard for God’s will. Though Samuel had already affirmed that the kingdom would pass from him to another (1 Samuel 13:13, 14), Saul did not repent. He continued to disobey according to his own whims, especially in regard to the battle with the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:1-3, 9). When Samuel discovered that Saul had kept the sheep alive following the Amalekites victory, claiming that he wanted to sacrifice them to the Lord (1 Samuel 15:21), the prophet declared, ‘To obey is better than sacrifice’ (note on 1 Samuel 15:1-9). Saul admitted to Samuel that he “feared the people and obeyed their voice” rather than doing what God told him to (1 Samuel 15:24). The Hebrew concept of obedience was closely linked to hearing the voice of God. In his final message to the people of Israel, Moses focused heavily on hearing and obeying the voice of the LORD. Moses asked the Israelites, “Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him. Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire” (Deuteronomy 4:33-36).

The Hebrew word that is translated heard in Deuteronomy 4:36, shama (shaw-mahˊ) means “to hear intelligently…Hearing can be both intellectual and spiritual…In the case of hearing and hearkening to a higher authority, shama can mean to obey (Genesis 22:18)” (H8085). Shama is translated obeyed in 1 Samuel 15:24. When Saul said that he feared the people and obeyed their voice, he meant that he regarded their will to be more important than God’s. Saul said to Samuel, “’Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the LORD.’ And Samuel said to Saul, ‘I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.’ As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore. And Samuel said to him, ‘The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you” (1 Samuel 15:25-28). The neighbor that Samuel was referring to was David, the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite. Earlier, Samuel referred to David as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). The primary difference between David and Saul was that David wanted to do God’s will.

1 Samuel 16:1-7 indicates that God was looking for a man with a certain kind of disposition to rule over Israel. It says in 1 Samuel 16:1, “The LORD said to Samuel, ‘How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” God said that he had rejected Saul and provided for himself a king. “God will not force man to do His will, so He sometimes must ‘reject’ him…Although God had chosen Saul to be king, Saul’s response caused a change in God’s plan for Saul…As a creature of free choice, man may ‘reject’ God…Purity of heart and attitude are more important to God than perfection and beauty of ritual” (H3988). When Samuel saw Jesse’s son Eliab, he thought he was the one that God intended to make king, “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:7). God is able to see the motives, feelings, affections, and desires of our hearts. As well as, “the will, the aims, the principles, the thoughts, and the intellect of every man” (H3820), not only of those that God accepts, but also of those that he rejects. God knew that Eliab, who was likely Jesse’s oldest son and the one who would naturally have been assigned a position of leadership, was not the kind of person that could take Saul’s place. Instead, God selected David, Jesse’s youngest son who was responsible for “keeping the sheep” (1 Samuel 16:11).

David and Saul began their reigns as King of Israel with the same advantage, they were both anointed by Samuel. “The Old Testament most commonly uses mashach to indicate ‘anointing’ in the sense of a special setting apart for an office or function” (H4886). “If the verb is used in association with a religious ceremony, it connotes the sanctification of things or people for divine service…The most common usage of this verb is the ritual of divine installation of individuals into positions of leadership by pouring oil on their heads. Most frequently, people were anointed for kingship: Saul (1 Samuel 10:1); David (1 Samuel 16:13; and Solomon (1 Kings 1:34).” In both instances, after they were anointed, it is also noted that “the Spirit of God rushed upon” Saul and David, but in David’s case it says in 1 Samuel 16:13, “the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward” (emphasis mine). The Hebrew word that is translated rushed, tsaleach (tsaw-layˊ-akh) means “to push forward…This word generally expresses the idea of a successful venture, as contrasted with failure. The source of such success is God: ‘…as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper’ (2 Chronicles 26:5)” (H6743). This might seem to suggest that David never sinned or did anything to displease the LORD after he was anointed King of Israel, but we know that David didn’t live a perfect life. The Spirit of the LORD was there to keep David on track with his responsibilities as the King of Israel and to make him successful in accomplishing God’s will for the nation of Israel.

David’s personal relationship with the LORD was what set him apart from Saul, as well as, all the other Kings of Israel that followed him. The Apostle Paul’s formula for successful Christian living: regeneration + renewal = justified by grace: shows us that regeneration in and of itself does not produce the effect of justification. Renewal, the gradual conforming of the person to the new spiritual world in which he lives and the restoration of the divine image, requires the person to be a fellow worker with God in the process of sanctification (G3824/G342). Jesus told his followers that a tree is known by its fruit in order to express to them the importance of the Holy Spirit’s work in their heart. Jesus said:

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37)

In this instance, the word justified refers to acquittal from guilt (G1344). When Jesus said that we will be justified by our words or condemned by them, he meant that our own words will be used as evidence for or against us in the final judgment of mankind. Jesus went on to explain that repentance is necessary for the heart of a person to be changed (Matthew 12:39-42). In his parable of the sower, Jesus indicated that fruit is produced by the cultivation or development of God’s word and then, explained to his disciples, “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty and in another thirty” (Matthew 13:23).

Jesus’ discussion with a lawyer who wanted to test his understanding of the scriptures resulted in the Lord using the Parable of the Good Samaritan to teach the lawyer that it is impossible for us to be justified without God’s divine influence upon our heart. After the lawyer cited the law that stated we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, Luke tells us:

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:29-37)

Jesus said that the Samaritan had compassion on the man who was robbed and left half dead. Jesus continually showed compassion to the people that came to him for help. It is likely that Jesus used this characteristic to describe the Samaritan’s actions so that the lawyer would realize that the Samaritan was not acting of his own accord, but was responding to the divine influence upon his heart.

A spiritual pathway

The Israelites journey from Egypt to the land of Canaan had both physical and spiritual elements to it. As the people traveled through the desert, they were focused on worshipping God and were given many opportunities to experience spiritual success and failure. After they rebelled against God (Numbers 14:1-4), the people of Israel were pardoned, but none of the men who had seen God’s glory and the signs that he did in Egypt and in the wilderness were allowed to enter the land that God had promised to give them (Numbers 14:20-23). The LORD told the Israelites, “According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure” (Numbers 14:34). At the end of the forty years, Moses recounted the Israelites’ journey. Moses wrote, “This is the route the Israelites followed as they marched out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. At the Lord’s direction, Moses kept a written record of their progress. These are the stages of their march, identified by the different places where they stopped along the way.” (Numbers 33:1-2, NLT). Moses indicated that the Israelites’ route was determined by the LORD and their progress was dependent upon their stops along the way. Deuteronomy 1:2 states that “it is eleven days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea” and yet, the Israelites arrived in Kadesh-barnea “in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month” (Deuteronomy 1:3).

Moses told the people of Israel that the LORD had carried them, “’all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ Yet in spite of this word you did not believe in the LORD your God, who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go” (Deuteronomy 1:31-33). The Hebrew word that is translated place, mᵉqomah (mek-o-mahˊ) is properly translated as “a standing, i.e. a spot; but used widely of a locality (generally or specifically); also (figuratively) of a condition (of body or mind)” (H4725). Mᵉqomah appears in Genesis 28:11 where it says that Jacob “came to a certain place and stayed there that night.” Mᵉqomah is derived from the Hebrew word quwm (koom) which means “to arise, stand up, come about…It is also used to denote the inevitable occurrence of something predicted or prearranged” (H6965). When it says that the LORD carried the Israelites all the way that they went until they came to this place, it meant that the Israelites’ final destination was prearranged, but it also meant that the people were going to arrive at their destination at a particular time because of the way or route that they traveled. The Hebrew word that is translated way, derek (dehˊ-rek) “represents a ‘distance’ (how far or how long) between two points.” Derek is used figuratively of “a course of life or mode of action.” In Jeremiah 10:23, derek “signifies the overall course and fixed path of one’s life, or his ‘destiny’” (H1870).

Jesus told his followers, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). When Jesus said he was the way, he was speaking of himself as “the author and medium of access to God and eternal life” (G3598). In that sense, Jesus was the pathway, the route that people needed to follow in order to connect with God. When Jesus called his disciples, he commanded them to, “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19, 9:9; John 1:43). Jesus talked about the pathway to heaven in the context of the Golden Rule. Jesus said:

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” (Matthew 7:12-14, NLT)

Jesus referred to the pathway to hell as a highway because that’s the route that most people choose to take. The idea that Jesus conveyed was a paved road that had lots of traffic on it. By contrast, the pathway to heaven was very narrow and difficult, likely a single lane, dirt road that required a four-legged animal or today a four-wheel-drive vehicle to get to your destination.

Psalm 95 provides insight into why the people of Israel were unsuccessful in the spiritual aspect of their journey to the Promised Land. It says of God, “For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways’” (Psalm 95:10). The Israelites didn’t understand God’s way of doing things and also made the mistake of following the examples of other nations. Proverbs 12:26 says, “One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were referred to as wicked men in Numbers 16:26. Moses said, “These men have despised the LORD” (Numbers 16:30). Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rejected the LORD and were influencing other Israelites to rebel against Moses and Aaron’s leadership (Numbers 16:2-3). Numbers 16:25-33 states:

So Moses got up and rushed over to the tents of Dathan and Abiram, followed by the elders of Israel. “Quick!” he told the people. “Get away from the tents of these wicked men, and don’t touch anything that belongs to them. If you do, you will be destroyed for their sins.” So all the people stood back from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Then Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents, together with their wives and children and little ones. And Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things that I have done—for I have not done them on my own. If these men die a natural death, or if nothing unusual happens, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord does something entirely new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them and all their belongings, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have shown contempt for the Lord.” He had hardly finished speaking the words when the ground suddenly split open beneath them. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the men, along with their households and all their followers who were standing with them, and everything they owned. So they went down alive into the grave, along with all their belongings. The earth closed over them, and they all vanished from among the people of Israel. (NLT)

Going astray in their heart meant that these wicked men’s will and God’s will were not aligned with each other. In Proverbs 4:23 we are told to guard our “heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (NLT). The Hebrew word that is translated heart, leb (labe) “includes not only the motives, feelings, affections, and desires, but also the will, the aims, the principles, the thoughts, and the intellect of man…the heart is also described as receptive to the influences both from the outer world and from God Himself” (H3820).

It says in Genesis 8:21 that “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” and in Deuteronomy 29:4 that the LORD did not give the Israelites hearts that could understand what he was doing. The only way the people knew how to do what God wanted them to was to obey his commandments and follow Moses’ directions. It says in Proverbs 12:15, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” The Hebrew word that is translated listens, shama (shaw-mahˊ) “means to give undivided attention” and refers to hearing in both an intellectual and spiritual context. “The most famous use of this word is to introduce the Shema, ‘Hear, O, Israel,’ followed by the content of what the Israelites are to understand about the Lord their God and how they are to respond to him” (H8085). Deuteronomy 6:4-5 states, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” The connection between loving God and listening to him had to do with the relationship that God wanted to have with his chosen people. It says in Deuteronomy 7:6 that the Israelites were chosen by God to be a people for his treasured possession. “Being ‘chosen’ by God brings people into an intimate relationship with Him” (H977).

God encouraged the Israelites to do what he commanded them to by promising to bless them if they were obedient and to curse them if they were not. Moses told the people, “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). The Hebrew word that is translated high in Deuteronomy 28:1, ʿamad (aw-madˊ) is an epithet for God and means “to stand” and “can suggest ‘immovable,’ or not being able to be moved…another nuance appears in Psalm 102:26, which teaches the indestructibility and/or eternity of God—the creation perishes but He ‘shalt endure [will ever stand].’ This is not the changelessness of doing nothing or standing physically upright, but the changelessness of ever-existing being, a quality that only God has in Himself” (H5975).

God’s promise of an eternal kingdom provided a strong incentive for the people of Israel to follow the spiritual pathway that he had prepared from them, but knowing that they were unlikely to live up to his expectations, God established a strong deterrent against disobedience as well. Moses said, “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field…The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me” (Deuteronomy 28:15-16, 20). The Hebrew word that is translated cursed in Deuteronomy 28:16, ʾarar (aw-rarˊ) generally denotes to inflict with a curse. “There are at least five other Hebrew words with the same general meaning. This verb, in a more specific sense, means to bind (with a spell); to hem in with obstacles; to render powerless to resist” (H779).

After Simon Peter declared Jesus to be the Christ, “the Son of the living God,” Jesus told Peter, “Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:16-19). Jesus told Peter that he was blessed because a spiritual truth had been revealed to him by God the Father. The Greek word that is translated revealed, apokalupto (ap-ok-al-oopˊ-to) means “to take off the cover, i.e. disclose…The subjective use of apokalupto is that in which something is presented to the mind directly as…the will of God for the conduct of his children (Philippians 3:15)” (G601). Jesus indicated that the spiritual truth that was revealed to Peter would be the rock on which his church was built “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Jesus’ reference to the gates of hell not being able to prevail was likely intended to point out that a spiritual battle was taking place and that this particular spiritual truth could free a person from spiritual bondage. Jesus said, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19). The Greek word that is translated loosed, luo (looˊ-o) speaks “of persons bound in sin and wickedness, who are loosed through the preaching of and a saving relationship with Jesus Christ” (G3089).

The fact that the Israelites who did not obey the voice of the LORD were cursed and therefore, rendered powerless to resist the temptation of sin suggests that they were forced to go down a spiritual pathway that was contrary to God’s will, but God used the Israelites’ disobedience to accomplish his ultimate purpose, the salvation of the world and unification of the Jews and Gentiles into a single body of believers. Paul discussed this in his letter to the Ephesians. Paul said:

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. (Ephesians 2:11-18, NLT)

The Book of Hebrews explains that God has provided a better way for us to know and do his will through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. It says in Hebrews 10:14-22:

For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.
And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,
“This is the new covenant I will make
    with my people on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
    and I will write them on their minds.”
Then he says,
“I will never again remember
    their sins and lawless deeds.”
And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. (NLT)

It says in Hebrews 10:20 that Jesus’ death opened up “a new and life-giving way.” In other words, Jesus created a spiritual pathway that takes us into the presence of God. The Greek word that is translated life-giving, zao (dzahˊ-o) appears in Matthew 16:16 where Peter identified Jesus as “the Son of the living God.” Jesus also used the Greek word zao when he told the woman at the well that he could give her “living water” (John 4:10). Zao is associated with the resurrection of believers, but more specifically with, “the recovery of physical life from the power of death” (G2198). The writer of Hebrews said that Jesus’ death opened the way or in Hebrew the hodos (hod-osˊ). The Greek word hodos is similar to the Hebrew word derek. It refers to the road or the route one takes on a journey, but metaphorically it represents “a course of conduct,” or “way of thinking” (G3598). Jesus’ death made the recovery of physical life from the power of death possible for us and now we can “go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him” (Hebrews 10:22, NLT).

Proverbs 12:28 states, “In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.” Basically, what this verse means is that if we travel through life on the pathway of righteousness, hell will not be a part of our route. Righteousness is the state that believers enter into when they accept Jesus’ death on the cross as the atonement for their sins. It says in Genesis 15:6 that Abraham believed the LORD, “and he counted it to him as righteousness.” The transaction that takes place when a person puts his or her trust in Jesus is called justification. Paul talked about Abraham’s justification in his letter to the Romans. Romans 4:18-25 states, “In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness.’ But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

A free gift

Salvation is something that happens to us, not something we can accomplish ourselves. Paul described salvation as a free gift and said, “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (Romans 5:18). Among the many things that happens automatically when a person accepts God’s free gift of salvation is the complete removal of guilt of any sins that have been committed against him (Romans 3:24-25). As a result of this transaction, Paul encouraged believers to “walk in newness of life” and “not serve sin” (Romans 6:4, 6).

Paul’s exhortation to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4) was meant to challenge believers to make themselves living testimonies to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Greek word Paul used that is translated life, zoe (dzo-ay’) refers to life in the absolute sense (G2222). Zoe is derived from the word zao which has to do with the recovery of physical life from the power of death (G2198). Paul made it clear that eternal life was the result of receiving God’s free gift of salvation. He stated, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20-21, ESV).

Serving sin is what we do when we allow addictions to dictate our behavior. Paul said our old man, the person we were before we were saved, was crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6) and “he that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6:7). The Greek word Paul used that is translated freed, dikaioo (dik-ah-yo’-o) means to render or regard as innocent. Dikaioo is related to the process of reconciliation in the sense of being justified by Christ’s death on the cross. “‘Justification’ being the legal and formal acquittal from guilt by God as Judge, the pronouncement of the sinner as righteous, who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ” (G1344). What Paul was saying was that being freed from guilt should make us want to stop sinning.

Paul contrasted the results of sin and God’s free gift of salvation in order to show the absurdity of living in sin after having received salvation. He asked, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16, NKJV). Paul concluded his argument by stating, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). The primary reason Paul gave for overcoming the addiction of sin was its guaranteed payment of death, conscious existence in separation from God (G2288). Paul compared the wages of sin to the gift of God in order to emphasize that salvation could not be earned through acts of righteousness.

Without excuse

Paul’s letter to the Romans was written primarily to the Gentiles, non-Jewish nations that surrounded Israel. One of the issues that Paul addressed in his letter was the judgment of the world that Jesus talked about during his ministry on earth (Matthew 25:31-46). Paul stated:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:18-21, NKJV)

Paul’s argument that everyone that has ever lived is without excuse when it comes to a knowledge of God’s existence was based on the evidence of God’s involvement in creation. Paul indicated God’s invisible attributes can be clearly seen by all humans, meaning they are self-evident or no explanation of them is necessary.

Paul explained to the Romans that God”s principles of judgment do not differ between Jewish and non-Jewish peoples. Because all of mankind was created in his image, God expects every human being to exhibit godly behavior. One of the indicators that the human conscience was designed to recognize sin is our judgment of others. Paul said, “Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things (Romans 2:1, NKJV).

Even people that have never read the Bible know that it is a sin to kill someone. One of the ways Paul said that we know we are committing a sin is because our consciences bear witness to our guilt. God judges us based on our own inner convictions. Paul stated, “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. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse themon that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:14-16, ESV)

Paul’s declaration that “God judges the secrets of men” (Romans 2:16) was intended to convince Roman believers that God does not need to keep a record or our wrong doings because our memories and consciences do the job for him. The Greek word translated secrets, kruptos means “concealed that is private” (G2927). In other words, God will use our own private thoughts and feelings to decide whether or not to punish us. According to Paul, the only way to escape God’s judgment will be justification by the blood of Jesus Christ (Romans 2:15-16).