Does God neglect repentance for His mercy, part 3 –

Romans 5: 17-19 "For if by the fault of a man death reigned by one; even more, those who have received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the crime of one, judgment has come upon all men to condemnation; likewise, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came on ALL MEN to justify life.

For as by the disobedience of one man "many" were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, "many" will be justified. "

The universalist concludes that the "great number" means "all" because "all have become sinners". Otherwise, the sacrifice of Christ is not as powerful or more powerful than the power of Satan to destroy?

Let's read this in context for the full thought that Paul expresses:

Romans 5:14: "Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of One who had to come. "

First, he says that all have received the death penalty (which is the wages of sin) although they have not done what Adam did. This death was the consequence of our sin even before we were the law that made sin evident.

Don Richardson, one of the most read writers on living Christian missions today, said in his Heaven Wins book that Paul again deduces an age of responsibility in Ephesians 2. He advises converts of Gentiles that they only died spiritually when the sinful nature they inherited the conception ceased to be dormant. Spiritual death ensues – as in Romans 7: 9 – not because of a sleeping sinful nature but only because of an activated sin nature! Note the point of Paul: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and your sins (Ephesians 2: 1).

Four verses later, Paul again deduces an age of responsibility in Ephesians 2: 5. Paul wrote: Even when we were dead in transgressions.

Notice that in both pbadages Paul links spiritual death to actual transgressions after childhood, of course, rather than concurrently with conception.

Rom.7 does not mean that at all. Richardson interprets this as the nature of sin being dead (he is dormant), instead of being dead IN OUR SINS, before our new birth. Which then changes the answer in Eph. 2: 1 "And you have made them alive, dead dead in trespbades and sins." In speaking to those who are now saved, verse three, "and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest." In other words, we were in those sins and deserve judgment BEFORE being born again.

Gen. 8:21: "Though the imagination of the heart of man is perverse from his youth." In more generic terms, every inclination of his heart is perverse since childhood, as Jeremiah said, his heart is deceptively misleading.

1 Corinthians 15:22: "As in Adam, all die, so in Christ, ALL will be made alive."

The Universalist says that all those who die in Adam are the same as all those who will be made alive, not "SOME" will be made alive, but ALL will be made alive.

But that does not say that, it says: ALL IN CHRIST will be made alive. How can one enter Christ, it is not automatic, one must make the decision to believe in the Gospel according to which one receives the Holy Spirit and one puts it in Christ and his body.

In 2 Tim 3:15, Paul tells Timothy about his childhood: "You have known the Holy Scriptures, which can make you wise for salvation by faith in Jesus Christ"

That is why Paul tells us, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Rom 8: 1).

Luke 9: 54-56 "And when his disciples, James and John, saw what was happening, they said, Lord, do you want fire to come down from heaven and consume it as Elijah did? But he turned to reprimand them and said: You do not know what spirit you are. "For the Son of Man did not come to destroy the lives of men, but to save them …"

The universalist asks us why do we think God wanted people to be burned rather than cleansed, purified? Why will God destroy men's lives rather than purify and save him? Again, they miss out on the essential, we must not exercise judgment, but Jesus will do it. We must offer them salvation first, but not neglecting to warn of a judgment.

Yet Jesus had this to say in Luke 10: 10-16: But whichever city you enter, and that they do not receive you, go out into his streets and say: "Dust even from your city that clings to us, we wipe against you. Nevertheless, know that the kingdom of God has approached you. But I tell you that it will be more bearable that day for Sodom than for this city. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works that were done in you were done in Tire and Sidon, they would have repented for a long time, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyr and Sidon to judge than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are raised to heaven, you will be pushed towards Hades. The one who hears me hears, the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me.

Until next week

God protects you.

Dr. Robert L. Harrison

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