Lies Preachers Tell #1

Here's the lie I've heard most from preachers: "Jesus had to die to save you from the wages of your sins."

This is wrong.

Before Jesus was born, God said: "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live." (Ezekiel 18:21 & 22)

This means that by the simple act of repentance -- minus any mention of confession-- the old ways of a man are forgotten. Thus, condemnation is forgotten. Things not mentioned don't come up in court proceedings. I offer this as the simplest explanation for why the thing the preacher says is false. There are many more such reasons.

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, (a long time before Jesus of Nazareth was born) "was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him." (Hebrews 11:5) Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire, (2 Kings 2:11) unlike Moses who was put down in an unmarked grave. (Deuteronomy 34:5 & 6) The way to God was always available, as was the way to hell. Jesus didn't have to die to open those doors or pave those ways. They've always been extant.

What, then, should these preachers say? What is the way to God? Jesus is the way, but his cold- blooded murder through false witness and false accusation is not the way. Jesus' life is the way. How did he live? He said of himself, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (Matthew 5:17)

If we are to live as he did, we should-- like he did-- fulfill the law and the prophets with the living sacrifice of our lives. How, then, is this life's work of fulfilling the law and the prophets accomplIshed? The answer, in a word, is: love. Christ said, (Matthew 22:37- 40) "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

So did Christ die to save you from your sins? Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." What this means respective of the present subject is, John 8:58 and John 14:6 can be married, without either of them losing their meaning, and without a lie being told, thusly: "Jesus said unto them, Verily,verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." If he is the savior, he was the savior, and always will be the savior, according to Hebrews 13:8. Nothing about him changed at his death. God's esteem of his murderers, on the other hand, did.