From God’s New Covenant perspective –   Adapted from my “Elephant Book”

Working backwards from the reality of a believer’s unity with God by being reborn in Christ, it is obvious that any post-Cross, New Covenant scripture that does not seem to conform to Jesus’ whole Gospel of grace, revealed primarily to Paul, must be re-interpreted, using Jesus’ whole Gospel as the only true plumb line. (Otherwise, Paul’s claim that he received Jesus’ Gospel from no one but Jesus Himself is a lie.) And what does Jesus’ post-cross revelation to Paul say about total forgiveness? The following scriptures supply the definitive answer.

Paul’s only recorded sermon that explains the core message of Jesus’ Gospel is found in a lengthy passage in Acts 13:14-52. It was given in Pisidian Antioch (not to be confused with his home base of Antioch) a few years before the doctrinal struggle that happened at the Jerusalem Council in 50 AD. First, he gives a brief overview of selected events and notable people in Hebrew history. Then he briefly describes Jesus’ death and resurrection as that which fulfilled key Old Testament prophecies. Then he boldly addresses a central concern of his Jewish and Gentile audience by declaring in verses 38-39:

Therefore, my (Jewish) brothers, I want you to know that, through this One (Jesus), the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through Him, everyone who believes is justified (acquitted, innocent, free, and righteous) from everything you could not be justified from by the Law of Moses.

To especially the Jews, this was a radical bombshell, a total replacement of all that they had been taught to depend on in order to try to become and stay justified before God. They understood that Paul’s “good news” presented a major doctrinal shift from relying on the Law of Moses to believing in a Man who Paul implies is superior to Moses and has fulfilled the Messianic prophecies. But Paul did not stop there. He warned them not to reject this free offer of justification, received by faith apart from observing the law, by citing a fitting Old Testament verse from Habakkuk 1:5:

Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you: Gaze among the nations, and see. Admire, and be astounded. For a work has been done in your days, which no one will believe when it is told, Acts 15:40-41.

This was a defining moment for them. Either they stay with Moses’ performance-based system (which became “officially” obsolete for the Jews in 70 AD) or they now must rely on Jesus’ grace-based Gospel for justification. They realized there was no middle ground – no mixing of the two covenants. Either trust the ongoing sacrificial system based on their constant efforts to obtain forgiveness and be justified by “works” or accept this preposterous offer – that another Man did it all for them already. All they had to “do” was be willing to believe and receive His gift of justification/righteousness. Predictably, some followed Paul and Barnabas and received even more truth from Paul. The others waited until the next Sabbath to hear more. But when the whole city turned out to hear Paul, the leaders became so jealous that they publicly contradicted him. So, once again, Paul minced no words:

…We had to speak the word of God to you (the Jews) first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentile nations for this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you (Paul) a light for the Gentile nations that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth,’ Acts 13:46b-47.

No doubt this and many other confrontations with the Jews, wherever Paul went, galvanized his resolve to preach Jesus’ whole Gospel of God’s grace and freedom that Jesus had directly revealed to him – even if it meant confronting Peter or James later on. He had personally met and knew Jesus in whom he now firmly believed, 2 Corinthians 12:1-6. Fortunately, some courageous Jews and many Gentiles in various cities did receive the gifts of total forgiveness and righteousness through faith in Jesus. The following fourteen scriptures (noted as “points” –  which span the next many pages) are taken primarily from Paul’s letters of encouragement and instruction to those early believers. They confirm and amplify the grace-filled message of Jesus’ whole Gospel of total grace.

Point 1) Ephesians 1:7-8 … in whom (Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us in all wisdom and prudence.

Point 2) Colossians 1:13-14 For He (God) has rescued us from the dominion of Darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son (Jesus) in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus paid the redemptive ransom, which bought all believers from slavery under Satan (and dealt with the sin-nature in Adam) by the cost of His own divine blood so that God could legally place all who believe and receive His accomplishment into His Kingdom family. This divine transaction had to include the forgiveness of all sins of all reborn believers who are in Christ by definition. Why? So that no sin will ever contaminate Him or His perfect Kingdom where believers are now seated, in Christ, according to Ephesians 2:6.

Point 3) Colossians 2:13-15 And you, being dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, He (our Father-God) made you alive together with Him (Jesus), having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances (the Mosaic Law) that was against us, and was contrary to us, and took it (the Law) out of the way, having nailed it to His cross; thus having stripped the (unseen) rulers and authorities (from using the law against us), He displayed them in public, triumphing over them in it.

It is absolutely essential to understand that the “handwritten ordinances” specifically refer to the Ten Commandments, which were the only part of the Law hand-written on stone tablets. Jesus called these “the ministry of condemnation” and “the ministry of death” because they are “the ministry that condemns” mankind’s imperfect thoughts and behavior. (See 2 Corinthians 3:7-9.) Since Jesus came to “set the captives free,” He would naturally want to remove anything and everything that causes bondage, condemnation and death to believers. That is why the Law in general – and the Big Ten specifically – was nailed to the cross and replaced by the higher law of the Spirit of Life: faith, love and liberty in Christ. (See Romans 8:1-2 and Galatians 5:1-6.)

This same truth is repeated in Ephesians 2:14-18 where Jesus reveals how He made possible the fulfillment of the prayer for God’s spiritual union with both Jewish and Gentile believers who were divided by the Law Covenant, from God’s viewpoint. The short answer is that He abolished it, as described here:

For He Himself (Jesus) is our peace, who has made the two (Jews and Gentiles) one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing, in His flesh, theLaw with its Commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and, in this one body, to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away (the Gentiles) and peace to those who were near (the Jews). For, through Him, we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Now you may be wondering how this can be true when Jesus Himself said in Matthew 5:17-20 that He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. That is true up to the Cross. But it was abolished for believers (not for unbelieving Jews) by being nailed to the Cross of shame. Why? Because satan uses it as a club to shame and defeat unbelievers (who are still under the Law) or to accuse Christians who fall from grace by mentally putting themselves back “under the law,” Galatians 5:4. This is how the elephant of this heresy of Galatianism still mentally stomps on Christians today. (I explain this revelation more fully in my big book Is There An Elephant In Your Church?)

Point 4) 1 Peter 3:18… For Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous One (Jesus) for the unrighteous (mankind) to bring us to God, being put to death in the body but made alive in the spirit.

Peter understood that Jesus died to pay for all the sins of the unrighteous – all mankind for all time – because he knew that the wages of sin is death. Since Jesus only died once, He must have paid for all sins at that time, or else all those born after Calvary could never be made righteous – unless He came back to die again. No more animal sacrifices are needed because the perfect Lamb of God is now our righteousness – thanks to His Divine Exchangewith all who believe in Him as their Savior.

Point 5) Romans 8:1-4 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the (higher) law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the (Mosaic) Law of sin and death. For what the Law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the flesh, God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and, concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh (His own body at Calvary) so that the righteous demand of the Law might be fulfilled in us (who also died and arose with Christ Jesus, by faith), who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Jesus did what the Law cannot do – save in Adam sinners by grace through faith. The “righteous demands of the Law” are fulfilled in those who walk by the inner spirit-man, in Christ, not by the natural (outer) man, trying to do the impossible – keep the (obsolete) Law perfectly. (See Hebrews 8:13.) Jesus’ parallel revelation to Paul is unmistakable here. Since the New Covenant Law of the Spirit of Life has replaced the Mosaic Law Covenant of works (for Jews who were all under the Law), the remaining verses of Romans in Chapter Eight, directs believers to walk (live) according to the higher law of the Spirit of life, rather than the according to the flesh – that is, in this context, according to the Law of Moses. Why? Again, because it arouses sin and causes death, according to 2 Corinthians 3:7-9.

And, remember, God never gave the Mosaic Covenant to any Gentiles. Yet unfortunately, many Christians still focus on the Law today, instead of on the Holy Spirit of life. He lives in us to reveal Jesus and the benefits of His Finished Work of His Divine Exchange with believers. However a law-minded mixture of Galatianism, “which is no Gospel at all,” is taught and practiced in most Christian churches, world-wide.

A Shocking Revelation

Point 6) 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 … Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses against them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

This scripture (already quoted before) is an astounding statement that includes God’s gifts of total forgiveness and reconciliation toward the whole world (from His standpoint) and that He is no longer imputing sins – absolutely none – to mankind, because Christ Jesus paid the just debt for all sin – in full. In other words, all people are fully acquitted because of the value that God places on His Son’s blood which has totally paid mankind’s sin debt as our new Representative before God. If this was not so, the phrases that say that God “has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,” and “for God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” would be null and void the moment after Jesus’ substitutionary death – when people continued to sin. God’s grace-based gift of reconciliation would be meaningless if our “future” sin debt (amassed after Calvary) still counts against mankind.

Similarly, the lie that an in Adam sinner is forgiven only of his past sins upon rebirth, contradicts one of God’s most important revelations of Jesus’ whole Gospel of grace – namely: all of mankind’s sin has been totally forgiven and “remembered no more” by God. Why? Because of Jesus’ Finished Work as the Last Adam.

That is certainly one of the most radically revolutionary results of the New Covenant for believers that deserves repeating: “… for I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more,” unequivocally stated – not once but twice – in Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17. The “will” word quoted here is part of a pre-cross prophecy in Jeremiah 31:31-34 which promised to New Covenant believers the benefits of Jesus’ redemptive sacrifice and Finished Work – just because of being reborn in Christ.

These terms of reconciliation and forgiveness of sins stated in 2 Corinthians 5:19 are now a post-cross reality for all mankind. Jesus legally paid for and removed the offense of mankind’s personal “sin barrier” that we are all guilty of due to our own behavior. NOW, what remains for an unbeliever to personally benefit from this fulfilled prophecy of sonship is to “be crucified with Christ,” through rebirth by faith alone, which replaces his in Adam nature with a regenerated, new nature in Christ. Here is how why this is possible?

Unlike many preachers today, Paul did not include “confessing one’s sins” as a necessary part of Jesus’ “salvation formula” (so to speak) in Romans 10:9-13. What he stressed was a “confession” or proclamation of one’s heart-based belief in the Lordship and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ glorious victory over “the Law” is declared and celebrated in all of Paul’s writings (not just victory over people’s soulish sins and mistakes which might continue until they die). This New Covenant revelation is one more proof (and an indictment) against the law-focused, sin-conscious mindset of mixture – the heresy of Galatianism – that has diseased the Church for two millennia.

This elephant of mixture is so ponderous and intimidating that the butterfly life of grace has rarely escaped the cocoon before it gets stepped on. It started with the Jewish believers under James in the first Jerusalem church. No wonder Luther called the book of James “the book of straw. (I thoroughly document all this in great detail in my much larger book by comparing the Jerusalem church with the Antioch church where Paul first preached Jesus’ whole Gospel of total Grace.)

Jesus’ Gospel of radical Grace is antithetical to Judaism. Why? Because Judaism is based on one’s “obedience to the Law” as the day to day determiner of one’s connection with God – rather than on God’s gift of righteousness, received by His Grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Therefore, it is no wonder that the church in Jerusalem hung on to their roots in Moses rather than “risk God’s wrath” – as the elephant of mixture inclined them to believe and expect.

The irony is that their continued inclusion of the Law for maintaining reconciliation and righteousness (which are post-cross gifts that cannot be earned) progressively minimized (if not prevented) a vibrant, victorious, faith-based experience with God as time went on. James operated as a self-appointed watchdog, on the look-out for sinning (law-breaking) rather than appreciating the liberty that faith and love in Christ produces through the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:2.

Predictably, the Book of James focuses on law-keeping, (rather than on grace-based living) because he believed it, lived it and, therefore, wrote about it to the Jews who were still practicing the law zealously, Acts 21:20. In a nutshell, James still held on to the “knowledge of good and evil” Tree rather than only to the “Tree of Life” – Jesus’ and His whole Gospel of Grace. But since Law in any form is far easier for the carnal mind to understand and “do” than Jesus’ revelations, most Christians are attracted to that book like I was, rather than to “Paul’s Gospel” from Jesus. If you use James’ book as your primary lens to interpret Jesus’ whole Gospel of grace, you will be feeding your mind with the elephant of mixture, which undermines true Christianity. However, the Book of James fits in well if placed after the Book of Luke, as part of the progressive revelation of God’s salvation message. Just like Proverbs, James’ book has more “advice” than revelation of God’s Good News of abundant Grace and Life. But both are “in God’s Word.”

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Coming next week: Part 2 of this article is also adapted from Is There An Elephant In Your Church?. It will give the eight remaining scriptures that document God’s total forgiveness of all sins of the whole world for all time through Jesus. I have already addressed the seeming contradiction to these fourteen scriptures (found in 1 John 1:9) in my Post on March 28 – Is 1 John 1 for Believers or Unbelievers?.

The short answer to that important question is “No! The whole First Chapter of 1 John was written specifically to Gnostic heretics to win them to Christ Jesus.” For almost 2000 years, the ongoing debate, and resulting confusion over this one chapter, has largely ignored the revelation of these other fourteen scriptures. That is why I am focusing on the topic of “Total Forgiveness” for a second time in this Blog. Click above to read the full explanation about 1 John 1 to put your mind at ease. This is one battle that you can settle in your mind so that you can walk in the Peace of God that surpasses our natural experience and understanding in the Seen Realm.