IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR SIN TO HAPPEN UNTIL THERE’S SOMETHING TO VIOLATE.
A VIOLATION TO THE WORD OF GOD IS CALLED SIN.
WITHOUT SIN, DEATH HAS NO POWER OVER MAN.
GOD’S WORD IS THE STANDARD FOR MEASURING OBEDIENCE AND THE STANDARD FOR MEASURING SIN.
IT WAS NOT GOD THAT EMPOWERED DEATH TO KILL, THE POWER OF DEATH TO KILL WAS BECAUSE OF THE PRESENCE OF SIN THAT CAME THROUGH MAN.
SIN IS MORE THAN AN ACT; IT IS A NATURE THAT CAN BE PASSED ON THROUGH MAN’S BLOOD.
- Apostle Joshua Selman at Koinonia on ‘THE DOCTRINE OF RESURRECTION’
(PART A).
Let’s wave our hands to Jesus and thank Him for the cross, thank Him for the victory over death, sin and satan. Give Him all the praise and all the glory.
Father, we thank You for the cross. We thank You for Jesus, we thank You for the power that was exerted when You raised Jesus from the dead. Today, we stand victorious and we give You all the praise, in Jesus’ name I pray.
God bless you!
Happy Easter to everyone in the name of Jesus Christ.
I’ll be teaching tonight on a subject that relates to the season, we’ll finish up our series at the nearest opportunity we have but for now, we’ll be looking at:
‘THE DOCTRINE OF RESURRECTION’
It’s important for us to not only celebrate Easter but understand the implication; every time believers are bankrupt of understanding, our activities become a mere ritual that sustains no spiritual value nor power to transform us. All over the world, at this time, believers are celebrating what they know to be Easter and when you probe into the understanding of the average believer as to what they understand by this concept, you will find out that most believers have no idea, at best, they will tell; “Jesus died, Jesus rose again, I am free.” Free from what? Church Gist. They do not know. Why did He die? They do not know and so, we will be looking very briefly and then, we’ll pray and then we trust that God will grant us grace in Jesus’ name.
- We thank God for the showers of blessings, may it rain blessing on your life in the name of Jesus!
Hebrews 6:1-2
Paul is teaching us here that there is such a thing as the doctrine of resurrection. In fact, theologically speaking, the major difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees was their understanding as to the concept of resurrection. One part believes that there’s no such thing as the resurrection of the dead.
There is a doctrine of resurrection (Philippians 3:10). Easter is the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Whenever we talk about and celebrate Easter, all across the Christian faith, we celebrate Easter as the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Church Gist.
What does it mean to commemorate?
To commemorate means to observe, to mark, to show respect. So, when we commemorate Easter, we observe the mystery contained in that season, we mark it with understanding and then, we show respect for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Let me define resurrection before I begin to teach. What does it mean to resurrect? What is resurrection?
Resurrection comes from a Greek word called ‘Anastasis’ and it means, raising up or standing up again, something that was once standing and then it fell, became lifeless or lost its potency. Now, when you engage it into a process that brings it up again, it is called resurrection.
Resurrection is an act or instance of a man’s immortal spirit, reuniting with the body, either the same body or a glorified body. Resurrection is a central doctrine of the Christian faith. All across the Christian circle as we call it, we have the concept of denominationalism, where people seem to emphasize certain aspects of the Christian faith. We have what we call the Pentecostal, Charismatic movement, the Evangelical; different sects here and there, but for as long as you call yourself a Christian, you may differ in other things like the ministry of the Holy Spirit and so on and so forth, but resurrection, the doctrine of resurrection makes up a central part of the Christian faith and experience.
1 Corinthians 15:11-22
Facts about resurrection; there are three major facts that I will like to spell out immediately about the resurrection:
1). The Bible teaches that all men will experience resurrection (Acts 24:14-15, Revelation 20:11-15).
2). Resurrection will always unite the man’s spirit and his body (either the same body or a new glorified body). The Bible teaches us that there are two dimensions as far as the bodies for resurrection is concerned. Church Gist. That it is possible for a spirit to return back to the same body it left and then, the Spirit can also enter into another body (John 11:43-44, Luke 7:11-17, 1 Corinthians 15:35-44). By these scriptures, we establish the fact that resurrection in its character will always bring a reunion between a spirit and a body. That immediately gives us a definition or a dimension of death, separation; not just cessation of living but separation between the spirit and the body.
3). It is impossible to fully understand resurrection and its significance to the believer until you understand four important concepts. That means, there are four important concepts that give us clarity and help us to really understand resurrection:
a). Sin
b). Death
c). The grave
d). Hell
It is impossible to claim you understand resurrection as a mystery and its significance to the believers if you do not understand these four biblical concepts. The entire journey of redemption and that includes resurrection especially, are hinged on victory over these four factors.
For Apostle Paul to say, “oh grave, where is your victory?” Means he’s not just talking of that pit that is dug, there is more to it.
PRAYER:
- Lord, open my eyes, grant me revelation in the name of Jesus Christ.
You truly cannot comprehend resurrection and its significance to the believer until you understand sin, death, the grave and hell. Because Jesus passed through all four for resurrection to happen.
What is sin?
1 John 3:4
According to this scripture, the Bible identifies sin as two principal things:
i). Transgression
ii). Rebellion
Sin is transgression of a command, not just the Old Testament law; that means for sin to happen, there must be an instruction or a command. It is not possible for sin to happen until there’s something to violate. The character of sin, it must have an instruction or an order given to provide a basis for violating it.
To transgress means to violate or to go against.
What is rebellion?
Rebellion is the willful and continual resistance to constituted authority. Satan’s sin, his original sin was not just pride. His original sin was rebellion; willful and continual resistance to constituted authority. Church Gist. In theology, there’s what we call the original sin; the original sin based on the law of first mention is in two folds; there’s the original sin as committed by Lucifer and then, as committed by man, Adam.
The original sin as committed by Lucifer was rebellion (Revelation 12:7-8) and it was sponsored by pride but what he acted out that we know to be sin was rebellion.
What about man, what was man’s sin?
Disobedience. The sin of Adam and Eve was disobedience (Genesis 2:17). That was where the instruction came that became the basis for obedience or sin. It’s impossible to be obedient or to be sinful until there is a set order, then, you can now violate it. Until God spoke, it was impossible to obey or to sin. Both sin and obedience is with respect to the Word of God. God’s Word is the standard for measuring obedience and the standard for measuring sin. A violation to the Word of God is called sin. Compliance and obedience to the Word of God is called faith or obedience.
Do you know that it was God that introduce man to the concept of death? satan was not here in Genesis 2:17; the first mention of death and the first interaction of the concept of death, was not given by satan; it was God Himself that said, there’s such a possibility called death and that, the condition for that death, there’s something you are going to activate if you transgress.
So, we see that for Lucifer, his sin was rebellion. For man, Adam, his sin was disobedience against the law of God (Genesis 3:4, 6). God also helps us to understand His idea about death, that when God talks of death, primarily, He’s talking about the spiritual state of the man. Because He said in the day you eat, you will die. Biological and physically speaking, Adam lived hundreds of years afterwards, before he now died physically. Church Gist. So, it was not just talking of physical death. Theologically, Paul also helped us in his exegesis about the idea of death, Paul told us that there’s the nature of sin and there’s the outworking of that nature (the acts of sin) – 1 Corinthians 5:21. A sinner is one who gives room for the nature to find expression (Ephesians 2:2).
There are three very vital information about sin that I want us to get, that connects to our teaching tonight;
1). Romans 3:23 – All, with no exception have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
2). Romans 6:23 – The wages of sin is death.
3). 1 Corinthians 15:26 – The sting of death is sin.
So, there’s a relationship between sin and death. That means when sin strikes at you, what happens as a result is death. The first mention of the Word ‘die,’ or anything that relates to death, it came from the lips of God Himself (Genesis 2:17).
a). Death was not satan’s concept; satan was not the one who brought the idea of death. Church Gist. I’ve heard so many teachings along the lines of redemption and many people have said, satan brought death. It’s not very accurate. Doctrinally, death was not satan’s concept.
I want you to know that death was also created, but death did not have the power to kill. Death, as you know it now was not God’s desire. Death was not supposed to be an instrument that you use to kill; someone changed that operation and made it so.
b). Death was not created to have the power to kill. God never gave death the power to kill.
The power of death to be able to kill came from man and the basis for that power, by the original sin of man, satan tricked him to activate something and empower death to now be able to kill and because of that violation and that statement that God made, that every time there is sin, death should have the freedom to strike the sinner. God gave man an instruction and He said, ‘your immunity, there’s no record of death threatening man in the Garden of Eden, no.’ Church Gist. Death only derived its power at instance of sin. Something happened to man when he violated the principles and the instructions of God. From that time and then empowered by God’s own verdict, everywhere death sees sin, it has the power to kill the individual; ultimately destroying the location of the spirit and disrupting that possibility from dwelling with God forever.
It was not God that empowered death to kill, the power of death to kill was because of the presence of sin that came through man.
c). Man’s disobedience gave death the power to kill. That means, without sin, death has no power over man (1 Corinthians 15:55).
The key to ultimately destroying the power of death is for sin to be completely absent in the human race. This thing called sin, more than an act is a nature and based on the deception of satan and something about the way God created the system, that sin passes through the blood. So, as a woman is pregnant, that baby in her womb, already carries the nature of sin. So the baby also carries the possibility of dying, even though he has not been born. Death has a mandate by reason of the fall of man and the mandate and the condition is; anywhere you see sin, whether sin as a nature through the bloodline or sin as acted out by the physical body, you are authorized to take that individual. From the fall of Adam, death effortlessly was able to take people because it found out that there was no exception, as far as the absence of sin is concerned, that even the most righteous person had within his nature by blood. So, we became slaves to death.
Satan found out that all over the earth, there was only person who stood as human, even though He was God and when he came to Him, he found exactly what he saw before he attacked Adam; there was no nature of sin. Church Gist. Death tried Jesus but there was no basis, remember the rule; the law is that you can only use the power to kill when you find the nature of sin in that individual. Now, death came to Jesus once and again and it had no power over Him, the same way it had no power over Adam before the fall.
So, the only way people were preserved from death in the Old Testament was through covenants. God would have an agreement with them and give them terms, so they will obey those terms and on account of those terms, they would have an immunity against death till their assignment was over, but that permanent victory over death, it was not possible.
Sin does not just affect the body. God’s focus in dealing with the sin problem is not just the body, because in any case, this body is just a container. The real thing is your spirit (Hebrews 4:15). The moment Jesus became sin, He did not spend up to three days, death took Him immediately because death has been looking for Him. It was like a dream come through. Church Gist. With speed, death took him, only to watch the shock that Paul gave us that will happen in hell, because Jesus had to look for a way to get down there and in this condition, He would never be able to die or go to grave and remember, everything He was doing was for me and for you. So, to qualify Jesus Christ to die, based on all I have taught you now, He had to become sin and there was no way of carrying the human blood because the idea of sin is not just physical blood transfusion.
John 6:53-56
According to scripture, it took eating or interacting to partake of that nature of sin. Now, it has to do with a meal, something was happening; the disciples did not even know what they were doing. He broke the bread which He said was Him, He said, “all of you, eat it. You are not just eating it for yourself, you are representing men. I can’t gather all the whole men in a meeting but I can use the number twelve, because twelve is the covenant number for government. You are representing the entire human race in this communion.” So, when they ate it, He now said, “one more; drink this cup, this is my blood.” The moment that happened, Jesus said, ‘alright, thank you. You will see me shortly. He was on his way to Gethsemane. They didn’t even know what He went to do. He now said, “Father, based on this mystery called the communion, it is legal for me now, I have made myself one with man, that means I can transfer the sin, whether I transfer my righteousness to him or sin is transferred to me.”
Now, He sat at the communion and what was happening is that, man was giving Him authority because the earth belongs to man and He came, even though He was God, He was man. He had to find a way to negotiate with men to give Him a legal basis to carry their sin, so that death will now look for him.
Let me tell you what satan and demons saw in the realm of the spirit; they only knew that there was a meeting going on in the Upper Room and as soon as Jesus came out, satan saw that this is not the same person they are always saying. What was changing? Something was happening to Him. That thing that satan sees in every human being, he finally saw it on Jesus. When Jesus went to Gethsemane, most people thought He just went to pray. Church Gist. No, something was happening there. It was right there the Holy Ghost had to leave Him because the Bible calls Him the second Adam and the Holy Spirit who was the life-giving Spirit, when the Holy Spirit lives in Him, satan, life and death; light and darkness cannot dwell. So when He said “take this cup off me,” the cup was not dying on the cross. For the first time, the Holy Ghost will have to leave Him to suffer alone, the same way He left Adam. So, right from Gethsemane, He was no longer Jesus Christ; He was now the man, the second Adam.
So, Judas comes and he does not even know what is possessing him and satan looks at Jesus and said, something changed. I’m sure in his mind, he would say, who tempted you, that you became sinful this cheap?” Not knowing that it is called the hidden wisdom of God. So the invisible deity gave Himself freely. Satan could not believe it; “I knew that I may defeat Him but this is the Son of God. What I could not do in Heaven, is now happening cheaply. I was cast down because of this agenda; somebody is going to bow to me” and Jesus kept going like a sheep to the slaughter. Church Gist. Now, condition one had been met, He had become sin. Automatically, death now had the authority. So, satan started moving through Pilate, look at how he was determined; do you know what it means for a whole city to suddenly hate you? That’s hard work from the realm of the spirit. Satan was making sure that nobody shows any mercy; “now that this guy is sin, I don’t know what else He can do, let me kill Him fast.”
So, Jesus was led and death was doing to him what he did to Adam. When he hung upon that cross, condition number two, the second element, he died. Imagine the silence in Heaven, because the angels do not understand this, they were just obeying instructions giving to them. Hell was rejoicing and His body was hung there, Joseph of Arimathea said, please, don’t leave this body here. He didn’t know what was moving him to ask, because the third element was about to be conquered – the grave. When they took Him to that tomb and kept Him there, they rolled the stone and they closed it; physical realm, you are done with your own assignment. The Bible does not record, with the exception of Enoch and Elijah; anybody before Jesus Christ died directly and went to Heaven, where the Father is and stay there. The Bible says, they died with a promise that something will happen, because throughout their lifetime, they obeyed the instruction that was given to them, so it was taken as a token of righteousness.
Let me tell you what the grave is:
1). The grave is the place where the physical remains of a deceased person is deposited.
2). The spiritual meaning of a grave; a grave is a spiritual passage from the physical realm into the spiritual realm.
3). The grave is also where resurrection begins.
The fourth element is the Hell. There are seven Greek expression of the word hell, but there are two that are most important for our discussion:
a). Gehenna: Gehenna was not a spiritual place; it was a physical understanding – a place where they set criminals on fire and they will burn them and throw their dead bodies there to rot and decay.
b). Hades – the place of the dead (Psalm 16:10, Psalm 139:8)
So, Jesus died, He could not have gone to Heaven because anybody carrying the nature of sin cannot go to Heaven. Church Gist. In fact, anyone who has not been redeemed cannot go to Heaven and until Jesus came, there was nobody who had enjoyed the blessings of redemption to go to Heaven, otherwise the Bible would never call Him the firstborn among the begotten. He had to be the person to lead that way.
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