Henry Ford is the one who is credited with revolutionizing mass production by introducing the ‘assembly line’ to the world. Anyone ever worked on an assembly line before? Seems more and more mass production is being relegated to ‘automation’ and ‘robotic’ workers. The idea behind that is to not only cut down on rising wages and costs, but also reducing ‘human error’ which can come about for various reasons.

When a businessman is investing in a product he plans on mass producing, one thing he wants to make sure of is that the template or the prototype is ‘perfect’. I mean, think about it....why mass produce a car where the brakes have a flaw and only will work 50% of the time; or who creates and produces a ‘smart phone’ that has no ability to let you know when someone is calling you? That’s why they spend so much time and effort getting the ‘pattern’ right so they can then crank out a (hopefully) flawless product. And in those occasions when a flawed product does slip through, we usually hear about ‘recalls’ so they can ‘fix’ the problem.

Do you know what Jesus came to earth to do? Not only did He come to ‘save us’, but He came to reproduce Himself IN us. (John 3:30; 2 Cor. 5:17). God’s plan was to make us a ‘new creation’. And guess who the ‘prototype’ or ‘pattern’ is? Yep...it’s Jesus Himself. (Rom. 8:29) This was the great ‘mystery’ according to Paul...”Christ in us” (Col. 1:26-27) And just to clear up any confusion...He was not supposed to be ‘camouflaged’. ;-)

Jesus IS...the pattern. Not your grandfather who was a ‘godly man’, or your mother who ‘could do no wrong’. Jesus was and still remains today...the pattern of who we are to ‘be like’ and...’walk like’. (1 John 2:6). And He’s a pretty good prototype given He was and is the ‘express image of the invisible God’. (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3)

Soooo...when Jesus is sharing with us early on the ‘blueprint’ of what we are to be like ...He was not kidding when He said: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect”. (Matt. 5:48) And feel free to use the word ‘complete’ if that makes you feel better, but He is still comparing us to a ‘perfect/complete’ Father.

I realize why this is hard to wrap our brains around given all we have ever been told or taught, but this was God’s plan from the beginning. (Gen. 1:26-27)

Ever read where Jesus said “Many are called...”? You might say this was the ‘mother of all re-calls’ when He came to earth to call all sinners to repentance so that He could transform them into something they were not. This is where grace comes in as it empowers us to be something we could never do on our own. Religion thinks we can do that ourselves (Rom. 10:1-3), or at best, become cheap knockoffs. But to suggest we could actually ‘be like Him’...puts you in the category of being either a heretic or lunatic. I don’t know what else to do except continue telling you what the word of God says. (Acts 17:11)

Someone asked on my Facebook feed the other day for people to offer up ideas and tips when it comes to building a new home; what would friends suggest or prioritize. I contributed my tip to make sure they spend the money to get the foundation right. If you don’t pay the extra up front, you will somewhere down the line. That...I know from experience. Which is why I am spending some time revisiting three critically important truths that every believer should have been educated in...yet many were not. And it most likely would explain why so many flounder and struggle in their faith; and even others have ‘been destroyed for a lack of knowledge’. (Hosea 4:6; Luke 13:3,5).

The first ‘building block’ I have spent some time on has to do with probably the most misunderstood truth in God’s word and I would say probably the most important component...having to do with God’s law. When you read through OT history, time and time again you see God point out the most common downfall to His people...they disregarded His law.

I mentioned a verse the other day from Judges 2:10 how within one generation passing on, the next generation arose who knew not the Lord nor the things He had done. How quickly that can happen. And may I point out something we don’t always see from that passage in Hosea 4:6 I just quoted? Take a look at the last part of that...where God said: “...because you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also will forget your children.” Now go read Lamentations 1:5 and take a moment with that one. When did God change? (Mal. 3:6)

We need to pause here and look at a few other verses in the OT that explains why God wanted His law to be heard, read, understood...and then...not only obeyed, but passed on down to the next generations. In both Lev. 26:22 and Deut. 28:32 (to name a couple), God gave strict warnings to what would happen if His people disregarded His commands. This was all part of the ‘curses’ that would come upon them for failure to obey Him.

Now I know some of you NT ‘scholars’ want to dismiss this idea of there being ‘curses’ as you quote how ‘Christ redeemed ‘us’ from the curse of the law’ (Gal. 3:13); but would you take a moment and give some thought to this next point. When you read through Lev. 26 and Deut. 28 that gives quite a detailed list of what God’s people can expect to encounter should they disregard His law, as in the ‘form of curses’, have you ever wondered why so many people in the ‘church’ today...are experience these very exact ‘curses’ you read about there? Oh, and when Paul said “us”, one would be a bit presumptuous to conclude that “us” applies to everyone who ‘goes to church’.

“Mic drop”, anyone?”

You can say these ‘curses’ are...the ‘wrath’ of God. Sin does that...it brings forth wrath and death and suffering and curses and condemnation. Yet, that is exactly what Jesus came to ‘save us from’...the ‘wrath of God’. (Rom 5:9). And we’ve been talking about just ‘how’ He does that. (my lessons from past few days). I also suggested yesterday that as we start to ‘see this’, we might also feel that angst Paul expressed having, regarding how he ‘agreed with the law’ (Rom. 7)...he just found it impossible to keep because of this other challenging ‘issue’ that he refers to as the ‘wretched man’ and ‘body of death- his flesh’. (7:18,24)

Tragically, this is where many stop reading. They just assume Paul never found victory over sin and if he continued to be ‘wretched sinner’ then who are we to think we could do any better? Welcome to the great lie of deception. Because if you keep reading in chapter 8, Paul explains exactly how and why we can truly overcome all sin. This happens when we surrender to Jesus...AND...the cross...and allow Him to lead us to deal with this ‘carnal’ nature. (1 Cor. 1:18) A nature I might point out that is hostile towards God and is incapable of submitting to God’s law. (Rom. 8:5-8). And we do this by ‘putting to death all the deeds of the flesh (nature) as we are led by His Spirit’. (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:16)

That’s what the real children of God do...they are ‘led by His Spirit’. (Rom. 8:14). And get this...do you know what the Bible explains how you can tell who those are that ‘belong to Christ’? Take a look at Galatians 5:24. It does not get much more clear than that, if I can say so myself. - “Those who belong to Him have crucified the flesh with its passion and desires.” Peter would chime in reminding us that while there may be some ‘suffering’ as we undergo this process of putting that old man/nature to death, (1 Pet.5:10) ...the one who has ‘suffered has ceased from sin...that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men but for the will of God.” (1 Pet. 4:1-2)

Care to guess just what...the ‘will of God” is? He wants us to keep His commandments. (John 14:15; 15:10). As in...”go and sin no more”. Now...for the umpteenth time...go read Matt. 7:21 again and tell me who Jesus said are the ones who will ‘enter the kingdom of heaven’?

When the rich young ruler asked Jesus what he must do to ‘have eternal life’, what did Jesus tell him? “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” (Matt. 19:16-17)

So here is why I have said in the past that the ‘church at large’ has become the great ‘enabler’.... We continue to reinforce this false premise teaching folks that we can’t do that...keep God’s laws/commands because we are ‘still sinners’. I dare to tell you that God’s word differs with that lie. But the only way we could ever hope to do that goes beyond saying you ‘believe in Jesus’ or have ‘put your trust in Jesus’. There is this other small factor involved that includes ‘obeying’ Him as well. Care to read Heb. 5:9 one more time? And to ‘obey’ is to ‘abide’ in Him. Outside of that, we will fail every single time. (John 15:4-5)

But let me wrap this up by simplifying what is involved here: Abiding in Jesus has nothing to do with going out and keeping/following a bunch of rules. And as previously stated, the Bible packages this rather nicely for us as to what it means to ‘keep the law’...we are going to love God with all our hearts and love others as Christ loved us. (Matt. 22:34-40; John 13:34-35; Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8-11)

The ONLY way though...you or I could ever love others as Christ loved us...would be for His nature to be reproduced in us. (Rom. 8:28-29) How silly to think we could do it on our own! But that requires something for this to take place- We have to surrender to Him completely. And I mean a total heart surrender which includes your will, as well. (Luke 6:46) Maybe that is why Jesus advised us to sit down and ‘count the cost’ before we ‘walk that aisle’. (Luke 14:25-33)

But if/when we do surrender, the first thing that He begins to deal with is that ‘old man’ where we have to ‘decrease so He might increase’ in us. (John 3:30). And it is a ‘process’; maybe not quite like a vehicle assembly line, but a process, nonetheless. Which leads me to our ‘second building block of truth’ which we will look at tomorrow. (Lord willing)