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[TD="class: yiv6329873475mcnTextContent, align: center"]For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ…
Romans 5:17[/TD]
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[TD="class: yiv6329873475mcnTextContent"]When God created man, He did not intend for man to grow old, become weak and powerless, suffer diseases and die—first the physical death, then the second or eternal death.
God never meant for man to go through all these and for death to reign. But because of one man’s offense—that man being Adam—death reigns.
The ultimate death is the second or eternal death in the lake of fire. Before this death is physical death. Before physical death, you have diseases and illnesses. Not all diseases and illnesses lead to death, but they are manifestations of death. One step before diseases and illnesses is tiredness, weakness and powerlessness, which are signs and symptoms of death. Now, all these are forms of death. As you can see, death reigns!
Are you resigned to the fact that death can strike whoever, whenever and wherever it wishes? Are you allowing death to reign in your life and in the lives of your loved ones? Or are you allowing God’s Word to tell you the truth about death?
“For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more…” Thank God for the “much more”! What Jesus, the last Adam, did is much more and far greater than what the first Adam did. We are those who have received the “abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness”. Therefore, our “much more” is that we will reign in life through Jesus Christ!
God considers death an enemy. He came to destroy death and give us eternal life. And the more we walk in the grace of God and His righteousness, the more we will reign in life. The more we believe in His grace or undeserved favor, and the more we know that we have been made righteous by His blood and not our good behavior, the more
we will reign over all forms of death!
Destined to Reign Devotional by Pastor Joseph Prince[/TD]
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You're not mistaken no one said we don't physically die. I think people tend to see what they want to see based on what is going on in their own lives. So it reflects on the way they see others too... And God.
Each believer is on this pilgrim journey here on earth and we are ALL headed to heaven where Jesus is. In heaven., there will be no more trials and tribulations from the world., the flesh and the devil. The difference now is while we each are here., we each have to decide on how we are each going to chose to travel out our Christian lives.
I've learned through much trial and error I can take the elevator Jesus provided for me and get to the top without stress., sweat., fear., anxiety and lack. Others have chosen to take the stairs.., and are tired., angry., stressed., annoyed., sweaty and anxious. We each are going to get to the top no matter what because we accepted Jesus as our Savior.
I say to each person who posted here., how you chose to walk is totally up to you. We each have to make that choice based on our relationship with Christ. No one can make that choice for us.
So, I thought it important to exegete Romans 5:17, which is the basis of this dreadful post. Of course, I see no one is fooled, generally, I just am concerned for those who are hurting, or newbies, and would feel the full weight of condemnation of this horrible lie.
First, talk about a works-salvation. Yes, you too can choose your own destiny. Don't let the Holy Spirit lead you.It may be healthier in the long run to take the stairs, rather than the elevator, and that may be the plan God has for you, but feel free to "chose what you want, and leave the rest!" That really is the essence of eisegesis, isn't it? So that is Joanie's ridiculous post, now to deal with the garbage the OP, and that deceiver, Joseph Prince.
First, let's deal with Romans 5, from where JP stole this verse. The entire chapter is about justification. And that means made righteous because of Jesus death on the cross, and justified from sin. And no, sickness, trials, tribulations are NOT death at all! They are part of living in a fallen world. And no, Jesus did not come to deliver these mortal coils from problems on earth. Jesus came for one reason - to save his people from their sin.
"She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” Matt 1:21
It seems to me that if Jesus did come to save us or deliver us from our sickness and diseases, Matthew would have made that very clear in this verse. But, no, the promise was for a Saviour from our sins, because that is what the whole Bible is about. Now, I can agree that Adam, through his disobedience brought death into this world. But seriously! "Reigning over all forms of death" as JP seems to think the Bible says! Not!
So, let's look at Romans 5, so we really do know what it is about, not one verse pulled out of context. Paul sets the tone in verse 1, after his "therefore," which comes out of the analysis of sin, for the Gentiles, for the Jews, in the first 4 chapters in the book.
"Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace[a]with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1 HCSB
"
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1 ESV
Notice that the full meaning of justification, is "
declared righteous by faith," in HCSB. Justification is a great and true word, but sadly, people like Prince and Joanie don't seem to know what it means. Well, they probably think righteousness has something to do with being healed and taking the elevator to the top, but, you get what I am saying.
The fact is, if Paul was including healing and being safe from all trials, why, only 2 verses later, does he say the follow?
"Not only that, but we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope." Romans 5:3
Taking the easy way, the elevator doesn't produce hope. SUFFERING DOES! And lest anyone try to reinterpret and define
θλῖψις (thlipisis), here is the definition by Bauer (BDAG) the top Greek Lexicon, which is based on knowledge of Koine Greek in the Bible and all the other documents, as well as drawing on classical Greek and the LXX.
"
θλῖψις noun feminine
1. trouble that inflicts distress, oppression, affliction, tribulation. Of distress that is brought about by outward circumstances.
2. inward experience of distress, affliction, trouble.
In fact, it doesn't take a Greek scholar to figure out that in the 1st century AD, sickness and other trials were a normal part of every day life. In fact, that is why it was a miracle Jesus healed people! Because medicine was primitive, people lived hard lives and died young. Others, blind, lame, had no hope at all. It is laughable to lay this 21st century perverted definition of suffering as being only "suffering for the gospel" as Kenneth Copeland said. And since he is one of the leaders this heinous Word Faith movement, and JP a follower, he is obviously not thinking straight when he denies the reality of verse 3. Well, I assume he is either denying reality, or just leaving it out, because it does not suit his heretical views on Christianity.
Why heresy, and not just bad doctrine? Because, it is touching on soteriology and Christology. Did Jesus come to save us from our sins, or did he die on the cross, because, (out of context) "by his stripes we are healed."
Anyway, continuing on with justification by faith in Romans 5, wow, this is hard. Every verse just screams the same thing:
We are saved from our sins, through Jesus death on the cross!
"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." Romans 5:6-11
"So, Christ died for the ungodly... God shows his love for us WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS... we have been justified by his blood... we were reconciled to God by the death of his son... we have received reconciliation."
Not a single word about faith resulting in living a perfect life, no sickness, disease, troubles, just get on the elevator and ride up to the top! Where are those words, Joanie? Not here at all, when you read the context!
Paul then continues with how sin came into the world, and how sin caused death. SIN caused death. So, we need to be healed from sin, not sickness. Our sin sickness is what has caused this Fallen world to be so rotten.
"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—" Romans 5:12
I think JP must have missed this verse, which fits well into the context of Romans 5, and Romans, which is about justification or made right before God, although we are sinners. But now, we are finally up to JP's out of context verse, in which he interprets "much more" in verse 17, to mean we are free from all trials, tribulations, problems, sickness, and wait for it - death! I am not the only one that sees this in JPs devotion. Why would anyone even post a devotional that is so far from the truth?
"And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ."
So, we get this picture of sin, trespass being solved by the death of Jesus and the free gift being - wait for it.
RIGHTEOUSNESS!
Ok, I just read over the translation JP used to twist the Bible, and he is not using anything even remotely resembling any translation since 1611, to the present, let alone the Greek. Wow! What a sneak and a liar! Even the paraphrases don't say what he wrote.
"Since by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ." HCSB
"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." KJV
"The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence." The Message (note the word SIN)
"For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." NASB
"For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!" NET
"For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!" NIV
"For if by the averah (transgression) of the one, Mavet (Death) reigned supreme through the one Adam, how much more those, who receive the abundance of unmerited Chen v’Chesed Hashem (grace) and of the Matnat HaTzedakah (the gift of righteousness), shall reign in life through the one Adam, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua." Orthodox Jewish Bible.
"εἰ γὰρ τῷ τοῦ ἑνὸς παραπτώματι ὁ θάνατος ἐβασίλευσεν διὰ τοῦ ἑνός, πολλῷ μᾶλλον οἱ τὴν περισσείαν τῆς χάριτος καὶ τῆς δωρεᾶς τῆς δικαιοσύνης λαμβάνοντες ἐν ζωῇ βασιλεύσουσιν διὰ τοῦ ἑνὸς Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ." Greek
ἑνὸς - one
παραπτώματι - transgression
τῆς δωρεᾶς - the gift
τῆς δικαιοσύνης - righteousness
λαμβάνοντες - receive
ἐν ζωῇ βασιλεύσουσιν διὰ τοῦ ἑνὸς Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ - reign in life through the one - Jesus Christ.
Was the issue a mere offence, as JP terms it? NO! It was transgression! Sin! Talk about playing down sin!
So, what is the gift? Righteousness! We don't need anything more! We reign in life by being righteous through Christ, and that includes, or perhaps especially in tribulation or affliction.
What a decrepit and disgusting way to take the entire reason Jesus died on the cross - for our sin, and make it into all about someone living a perfect life. What utter lies! What a doctrine devoid of humanity and truth!