Objetivos Específicos

So what is it for which we are still patiently waiting? What don't we see yet? It's the total redemption of our bodies. This redemption can only come once sin is gone from us first. Our eternal life begins when we overcome sin completely because the wages of sin is death. The Apostles made it clear that if you live after the flesh, to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, you are carnal and you shall surely die! Common sense then dictates if there is a final generation who never dies, but who “put on immortality” without dying, that generation must be a generation who will be sinless.

The very next verses in the New Testament that speak of “hope” are: Romans 12: 10-12

10 Kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another;

11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;" Again we see "hope" and "tribulation" found in the same sentence. I think the Apostles foresaw the day when some would try to turn "hope" into some dream of escaping tribulation altogether.

Romans 15: 4

4 For whatsoever things were written before were written for our

learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Here, according the the Apostle, the Scriptures themselves were written and provided to bolster our "hope."

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Romans 15: 13

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 Corinthians 9: 10

“Or said he altogether for our sake? For our sake, no doubt, is written: that he that plows should plow in hope; and he that threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.”

Some things should be self evident. When speaking of the hope of our calling, Paul likens it to "plowing" and "threshing" in hope! These are things we do they aren't just things we "believe." Many today apply the "plowing and threshing" to such things as going to church Sundays and Wednesday, tithing, doing your part in the congregation. What a weakened and watered down version of our “apprehension” of Christlike perfection.

Paul speaks of our hope of glory, of being like Christ, of walking in total love and commitment to the Father even as Christ did in his lifetime! They turn it into "churchiness! Something anyone can do and for which you do not need the Holy Spirit at all! Most crucial to see is that according to Paul only they who "thresh" and “plow” are partakers of the hope. If you don't believe it's even possible to grow a crop how hard are you going to thresh or plow?

That is why they have no real hope and live their lives in dead faith. Dead religion. 1 Corinthians 13: 13

“And now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these, love.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2 Corinthians 1: 7

“And our hope of you steadfast, knowing, that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also of the consolation.”

We only have the "consolation" as much as we are "partakers" of the "sufferings." This is a clear reference to our "labor and travail" to bring forth Christ in us and the "comforter" who dwells in us! We have a hope of ceasing from sin, but if we do sin we have the Spirit who comforts us, for we shall not always fall short and sin.

Yet they of the world's religions do not have that "comfort." Instead they deceive

themselves that they will "always be sinners" (either personal sin or at the very least Original Sin). What's worse they seem to be somehow "comforted" by the idea that they will always be sinners. They take solace in it. They are totally comfortable to continue in their sin until the day they die!

There was a popular Christian song recently in which the lyrics say that when he lays awake at night feeling terrible about the sins of the past day it must be the devil trying to “shake his faith.” Believe me, it's not the Devil who convicts you of sin. If you are being convicted of sin, it's the Holy Spirit.

How twisted is that? The Holy Spirit does not want you to be comfortable in your sin. Rest assured. However, the devil does! Many modern Christians are operating under the lie that Christ died sear their consciences, so that even though they sin every day, they feel no "guilt" for it! This too was also predicted.

1 Timothy 4: 1-2

1 Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;”

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to convince you of your sin so that it can be dealt with and eradicated. How can that ever happen if you have no conscience?

2 Corinthians 3: 8-12

“8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels.

11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains is glorious.

12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:”

He speaks here and there in the above verses about none other than the "ministrations" or "ministry" of the Holy Spirit! More accurately he's talking about the "administration" of the Holy Spirit in us, calling it the "ministration of righteousness." A better translation would be the "administering (or handing out) of righteousness." This is one of the most important scriptures in the New Testament.

In 1 Corinthians 3: 11 the author writes: "for if that which is done away was glorious." To what is he referring? What's being done away with in the context of this letter? To grasp what he's talking about we have to read a few verses back:

2 Corinthians 3: 6-7

6 Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:”

Paul is identifying here the true New Testament.

We call the gospels, the Acts, the letters of the Apostles and Revelation "The New

Testament,” but Paul says that the New Testament actually replaces “the letter." So, the New Testament is "not of the letter" according to Paul but "of the spirit."

The writings of the Apostles which make up the New Testament (and especially Paul's writings) focused on one subject entirely. They were all about Christ's life, his death, his resurrection and their significance to us. As Paul put it, “Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Jesus said that the purpose of his life was two fold, “to do the will of the Father” and that we might “have life and have it more abundantly,” in order to do this he must demonstrate the way of salvation and thus become the way of salvation. The purpose of his death was to create the way of salvation. Namely, his death was for the express purpose of sending the Holy Spirit to live in us. Christ in you, the “hope” of Glory!

The letter "kills" Paul writes, making it clear that the New Testament is not “the letter.” We must remember that the only scriptures they had in Paul's day were the law and the prophets. If we rely on our own understanding and fleshly observance of the "scriptures" as Paul knew them, (the letter of the law) they kill us, according to Paul. What makes Christian religions think anything different is going to happen if they rely solely on the written scriptures of the New Testament today? Isn't that still a reliance and observance of "written words" (the letter) only?

If complete and total reliance on the scriptures of the Old Testament (the law) cannot bring righteousness, if “keeping the law” cannot bring righteousness, how can “keeping the New Testament”do any better? The answer is it can't.

Yet, they teach from most pulpits that our faith and our walk come from “studying the written word.” How is that different than saying righteousness comes by the law? When they do this they are “returning to the letter.” The same thing Paul said of reliance on the Old Testament letter would have to apply to reliance on the New Testament letter. They are both “letters,” words on a page.

Paul clearly taught we don't keep the old law by fleshly observance in order to attain “righteousness,” and that we attain to righteousness by the Holy Spirit. Logic dictates the same thing must be true about trying to attain righteousness by studying, memorizing and observing the “New Testament.” Paul concludes that we don't obey by the letter (Old or New Testament) through fleshly observance of the same, but rather we obey by the “ministration of

the Spirit.” (which is love). Which is exactly why Paul wrote this: 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10

“9 But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write to you: for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

10 And indeed you do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more;”

At this point, I'm sure many will say I have crossed over into “blasphemy." Paul told the Thessalonians they have "no need" that he write to them in order to teach them to love. Love is the Spirit. Love comes directly from God by the Spirit. If you have love, you have everything you need to be righteous and holy even as Christ was righteousn and holy. Without love, you could memorize every single verse in the Bible, but you don't have what it takes to please God and all of your study profits you nothing! Anyone can read and study a scripture.

Of course, that is what the scriptures are for. Reproof, edification, instruction in

righteousness. Yet the written word never caused anyone to love as God loves. The written word never empowered anyone to be obedient. One can merely go through the motions and follow the “love checklist” written in the Bible without ever possessing the Spirit of love themselves. They have accomplished nothing.

Memorization and following the written letter by "observation" and "study" never made anyone Christlike and it never will! That applies not just to the “law” but to the New Testament letters as well. Only love makes one in right standing with the Father.

Popular teaching has replaced the ministration of the Spirit with the same "letter" system that Paul said could "never make the comers to it perfect!" The Spirit leads to “glory”

(Christlike perfection) the letter leads to death. If the old written text (the law and the

prophets) failed to bring them unto Christlike perfection through love, and failed to "conform them to the image of Christ,” how then shall the new written text do any better? The New Covenant is God's obedience written in our hearts.

As Paul told the Galatians: "Oh foolish Galatians having begun in the spirit are you now made perfect by the flesh?"

Jimmy Swaggart once held up the Bible and said “this is God” quoting “in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.” If the Bible is "God" how is it they say the law is "dead?" Is not the law a part of the Bible? In fact, if the law is “done away” in Christ, and the law is in the Bible, and the Bible is God, then God is “done away” in Christ.

The law was the only scriptures Paul ever knew. He wrote and said “all scripture is good for instruction in righteousness.” How say they the law no longer applies? It must at least apply as instruction in righteousness. The law is scripture.

Paul himself wrote more than half of the New Testament of the Bible in the form of

“letters.” Yet Paul said “the letter kills.” He also says, "as touching brotherly love" (walking in the Spirit) you have no need for his letters (no need for him to write unto you). Since the New Testament is primarily Paul's “writings” it's logical that he is saying you don't even really need the written New Testament in order to learn to love one another. (Be sinless and Christlike). In fact Paul doesn't call his letters “the New Testament,” he says that he ministers the New Testament “by the spirit and not by the letter.” So how could his letters be “New Testament?”

If you need the New Testament writings to learn to love one another and to know what love does, then you probably do not have the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit sent to “teach you” and “lead you and guide you into all truth.”

If you don't have the Holy Spirit to teach you, you don't have the New Covenant, you don't have Christ and you don't have God. True believers are "taught of God" to love one another, according to Paul, and they do not even need the writings of Paul!

“Galatians 3: 3-5

3 O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

2 This only would I learn of you, Received you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

3 Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?

4 Have you suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. 5 He therefore that ministers to you the Spirit, and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”

The same thing that can be said of the old letter can be said of the new letter as well! “He that ministers to you the Spirit and works the miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the written New Testament or by the hearing of faith?”

No one ever received the Spirit by reading the Bible. If we can't please God by reading and observing the Old Testament scriptures, what makes them think we can please God by reading and observing the New Testament?

The same principles must apply to the New Testament that apply to the Old Testament. If the “law is dead” and we are “no longer under the law” then the New Testament is dead and we are no longer under the New Testament.

If the old covenant that was sealed and written on tablets of stone by God's own hand could make no one perfect, how then will the New Covenant which is written by the hands of the Apostles make us perfect? The Old Testament couldn't give them an obedient heart, nor could it cause them to walk in God's love. Neither can the new. The letter kills!

In fact the New Testament of the New Covenant has nothing to do with writings on parchment. The New Covenant is the law “written in our hearts” and on our minds.

Hebrews 8:

“6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;

because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a

people:

11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

13 In that he saith, A New Covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.”

The false teachers of the modern era are literally the enemies of obedience. They actually argue that we cannot obey the Father because of Grace. It is their “twist” on things that if we were to obey the Father through love, since that “fulfills the law” then it is still “keeping the law” in which case, you would fall from Grace. So, walking in love and obedience to Christ, according to them is the same thing as attempting to work your way to Heaven. They denounce it completely for this reason. Yes, they denounce serving Christ. They deny the Lord who bought them for that very purpose.

28: THE HOPE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS