Salvation and Forgiveness

I often encounter people who want to argue the cause of the "new birth" doctrine(s) of Christianity: getting saved, accepting the Lord as your personal savior, confessing Jesus as Lord, etc. If I feel to engage someone in these matters, the first question I always ask them is, "When did the priesthood of Christ begin?" And that question always procures a blank stare in response. So why do I ask this question in order to show what is the real new birth? Well, to say that we are born again, or converted to Christ, is to say that we have obtained the remission of our sins. It really is that simple. It's a matter of whether or not we have been made actual partakers of the new covenant that Jesus died and rose again to establish (Mat. 26:28). And just a footnote here to say that there are many ways that the scriptures describe the born again experience: converted, justified, sanctified, washed, renewed, regenerated, forgiven, redeemed, transformed, etc. And I know that Christianity breaks all of these things down into a thousand pieces, but Christianity is just wrong. There is no good reason to complicate a simplistic issue, that is unless you are trying to hide from the truth of the matter. Anyway, back to the priesthood of Jesus, who suffered, died, and rose again to become the mediator and high priest of the new covenant: "We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Heb. 8:1,2; Heb. 12:24). Well, there is your answer friend, but let's look at it with yet a little more clarity: "For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law... 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" (Heb. 8:4,6). To quote another high priest; "What further need have we of witnesses?" That's it; he was NOT a priest while on earth because the old covenant with its priesthood was in effect as long as he was here. That is what we just read. And his priesthood is of and in the heavenly sanctuary. We just saw that from the scriptures as well. So what that obviously means is that NOBODY had the new testament remission of sins UNTIL Jesus went back to heaven! It was impossible. Until Jesus went back to heaven there WAS NO new covenant high priest to make intercession for the remission of sins according to the "new and living way" (Heb. 10:19-21). And the scriptures also confirm this for us: "When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." And, "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb. 1:3; Heb. 10:12). Now many would like to read these passages as follows: "And after he died on the cross he sat down on the right hand of God." But that is NOT what happened. Jesus died and went to the heart of the earth for three days, "preaching unto the spirits in prison" (Mat. 12:40; I Pet. 3:19). And then again some would like to read it this way: "And after he rose from the dead he sat down on the right hand of God." But that is not how things took place either. According to Acts 1:3, Jesus was on the earth for forty days after his resurrection, "speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." But Hebrews chapter 9 really brings home the truth about when Jesus was offered by himself to God, acting as the sacrifice and the high priest as well: "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once INTO THE HOLY PLACE, [to obtain] eternal redemption for us... For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Heb. 9:11,12,24).

So then, the new covenant, which Jesus said IS the remission of sins, did not begin until he became the mediator and priest OF that covenant (Mat. 26:28; Heb. 8:6). And that covenant is described just a couple of scriptures beyond the last one I've referenced here: "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... For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after 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" (Heb. 8:8,10). And to make that passage a little bit clearer we have II Corinthians 3:3: "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." So it is the Spirit of God which is written, or engraved into the hearts of those who truly receive the remission of their sins through real, old fashioned faith in Jesus. And that means that the holy Ghost IS the new covenant, which is to say that it is the remission of sins; to which the scriptures also testify (I Cor. 6:11; Rom. 8:9; Tit. 3:5). And that brings everything full circle, because Jesus had said to his disciples; "It is expedient for you that I GO AWAY: for if I go NOT away, the Comforter [holy Ghost] will not come unto you; but IF I DEPART, I will send him unto you" (Jn. 16:7). And earlier he had also said, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that BELIEVE on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was NOT YET given; because that Jesus was NOT YET GLORIFIED.]" (Jn. 7:38,39). And it was also the holy Ghost that Jesus commanded his followers to wait for just before he went back to heaven (Acts 1:4,5). Not only so, but Peter made it abundantly clear after the Spirit had first fallen on the day of Pentecost that it was and is the very promise of God: "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath SHED FORTH this, which ye now see and hear" (Acts 2:32,33). The "shedding forth" of the Spirit is to say that the holy Ghost is in fact the blood of Christ, as Jesus had alluded to earlier: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you... What and if ye shall see the Son of man ASCEND UP where he was before? It is the SPIRIT that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, THEY ARE SPIRIT, and they are LIFE" (Jn. 6:53.62,63). As Jesus stated, the true eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood could not take place until he went back to heaven, because as he said as well, it is the SPIRIT that imparts that divine, eternal life that he was speaking of. And so is fulfilled his words at the last supper: "DRINK ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Mat. 26:27,28). That my friend, is exactly what took place on the day of Pentecost when those first hundred and twenty were baptized with the holy Ghost: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body... and have been all made to DRINK into one SPIRIT" (I Cor. 12:13). And that experience along with its accompanying sign of speaking with other tongues still stands as the ONLY experience by faith in Jesus Christ that will take away the sins of those who truly repent and believe fully. And that IS the new covenant that is upheld by the high priest OF that covenant. Amen.