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Without Spot & Blemish – The Gospel of Regeneration |
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The Gospel By Promise (FINISHED IN THE PAST)
God tells you what He has done. How He walked. ~ Imputed Righteousness (Rom. 8:10, Eph. 2:8-9, 1 Cor. 6:11)~ 1) Without Blemish & Spot Gal. 2:20 Christ: Exodus 12:5, Num. 19:2, Lev. 22:19-22, 1 Cor. 5:7, John 1:29, 1 Pet. 1:19 Initially Without Spot & Blemish |
The Gospel By Command (AT PRESENT)
God tells you what you must do, in Him & through Him. How you must walk, in Him & through Him. ~Works Righteousness (1 Cor. 6:9-10, Eph. 2:10)~ Walk: Col. 2:6, Gal. 5:16, 25, Eph. 4:17, 5:8, 1 Cor. 3:3, 1 John 2:6 1) Without Blemish & Spot Rom. 12:1-2 James 1:26-27, 3:2-6, 2 Peter 3:14,1 Tim. 6:14 Corporate: Rom. 15:16-19, Ephesians 5:25-27, 2 Peter 2:13, Jude 12 |
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“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)
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“Without spot” and “blemish” are descriptive terms for sacrifices, and if you are called to meet such a description, then it will be by a personal offering to God as a sacrifice. These terms are sacrificial terms for acceptable or unacceptable sacrifices and offerings (Numbers 19:2), and regenerate Christians are described to be, already, in past tense terms, “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20). The cross is the NT altar for sacrifice! The Roman crucifix was the altar of the Lamb of God Who was, “a Lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19), and on what He was offered upon, we are called to die with Him there, initially and present-progressively, so that we may be accepted finally (Rom. 15:16-19). If we will present ourselves to God that we might be presently and progressively a “living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1-2), we must therefore be “without blemish” and “without spot” like our Lord, in our Lord, and through our Lord. Nothing else is acceptable.
Present Progressively Without Spot & Blemish
Present Progressively Without Spot & Blemish
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Present Command
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom 12:1-2). |
Comparing Scriptures
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). “Your lamb shall be without blemish” (Exodus 12:5). “Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats. But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you. And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein. Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto the LORD, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the LORD” (Leviticus 22:19-22) |
Here is the present progressive command given to regenerate Christians, that they would become acceptable offerings, all on the altar, living sacrifices. What are the terms of acceptance? Holy offerings are the only acceptable offerings! My reader, you must understand the language and terminology used for sacrifices. Jesus Christ was “our Passover” Lamb that was “sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7), a “Lamb of God” (John 1:29) that was, as the law required, “without blemish” (Exodus 12:5). Offerings to the Lord must be of a certain holiness, which is also called without spot, without blemish, or “perfect,” for nothing else will be “acceptable” by God for an offering (Lev. 22:19-22). Notice how “perfect” (Lev. 22:21) and “acceptable” (Rom. 12:1) Christians, offered to God as “perfect” sacrifices, are enabled to know and prove what is the “perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2).
If a man is not perfect as a sacrifice, he will not prove what is the perfect will of God. Falling from perfection is falling from God’s perfect will being proven, and the phrase, “to prove”, is in repetitive reference in the letters to the Corinthians as a salvific requirement. Paul is under the burden of God, that the regenerate Christians at Corinth do prove their faith (2 Cor. 1:23-24, 2:9-10, 3:1-3, 6:3-4, 7:2, 11, 15-16, 8:6-9, 24, 9:8-10, chapter 10, 12:11-12, 12:19-13:4), or be excommunicated without sparing (2 Cor. 13:2). Therefore, it is likewise said in Romans 12:1-2 that a saint must prove the will of God. Like as babes in Christ cannot receive wisdom so that they are handicapped from going on with God in His will, here we see a parallel reality that those who fail to be acceptable sacrifices experience the delusion that they cannot know or prove what God’s perfect will is.
If a man is not perfect as a sacrifice, he will not prove what is the perfect will of God. Falling from perfection is falling from God’s perfect will being proven, and the phrase, “to prove”, is in repetitive reference in the letters to the Corinthians as a salvific requirement. Paul is under the burden of God, that the regenerate Christians at Corinth do prove their faith (2 Cor. 1:23-24, 2:9-10, 3:1-3, 6:3-4, 7:2, 11, 15-16, 8:6-9, 24, 9:8-10, chapter 10, 12:11-12, 12:19-13:4), or be excommunicated without sparing (2 Cor. 13:2). Therefore, it is likewise said in Romans 12:1-2 that a saint must prove the will of God. Like as babes in Christ cannot receive wisdom so that they are handicapped from going on with God in His will, here we see a parallel reality that those who fail to be acceptable sacrifices experience the delusion that they cannot know or prove what God’s perfect will is.
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“If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (Jas. 1:26-27).
“Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless” (2 Pet. 3:14). “That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 6:14). |
In James 1:26-27, the apostle James gives a focused address on exactly how a person is “to keep himself unspotted from the world”. He boldly divides the saved from the lost by whether or not the man can bridle the tongue – otherwise his religion and confession of faith is “vain”. He who is not “swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (Jas. 1:19), in other words, is the man that “bridleth not his tongue”. James calls this overflowing of evil from the nature through the tongue “filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness” (Jas. 1:21). Note how he believes it is filthy or defiling, making a man impure rather than pure, thus James moves directly to defend that “pure religion and undefiled” has everything to do with the tongue. If the tongue is overflowing with “filthiness” then the world’s defiling evils are controlling it, springing up from the inward nature of the old man. Jesus Christ preached the very same principles of saving religion by purity, defilement, and filthiness:
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“And He said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:20-23).
“A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matthew 12:35-37) |
Therefore James makes it clear and plain that “the perfect man” is able to bridle both the tongue and body (Jas. 3:2), and whosoever is not able to bridle the tongue is therefore defiled by its excretion of filthiness “that it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature” (Jas. 3:6). This defiling of the body is otherwise termed by James as being spotted by the world (James 1:27). We should rather, as Peter says, be careful to maintain such a “holy conversation of godliness” (2 Peter 3:11), that we might be found by Christ to be “without spot” on the Day of Judgment (2 Peter 3:14). So, the gospel confession, initially and present-progressively, is the commandment given to all regenerate Christians that we must “keep” the commandments, and ourselves, “without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 6:14).
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“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it; That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That He might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27).
“That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:16-19). |
Will we ever learn how to presently and progressively keep ourselves “unspotted by the world” as James 1:27 says, and “without spot” as 2 Peter 3:14 and 1 Tim. 6:14 command, so that we might be a part of the final salvation of the saints which is called – The Presentation of the Bride to Christ – or – The Offering Up of the Gentiles – made up of those saints which are rightly called “holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27) in “word and deed” (Rom. 15:18)?!