Are you guilty of treason? Perhaps you are..... (partner teaching free access)

30 September 2019
Series: Financial

Speaker: Apostle Ernie

What would be your response if someone asked you how to inherit eternal life? If you are a Christian, you would say something along the lines of “believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who died for your sins on the cross and you will inherit eternal life.”
In Matthew 19:17, the rich young ruler comes running up to Jesus, asking Him, “what must I do to have eternal life.” Instead of replying “believe in Me, I am going to die on a cross soon for your sins, and you will have eternal life” He says: If you want to inherit eternal life, keep the commandments of Yehovah.
What Jesus says in Matthew 19:17 does not line up with what most churches preach and believe as the road to eternal life. Does that not bother you? It should bother you if you are a Christian because you know that the Bible says if you get this part of the Bible, how to inherit eternal life, wrong you will end up in hell when you die.
In Rom 6:23 Paul the Apostle tells us the gift of Yehovah (God) is eternal life in Christ Jesus. So often we Christians assume Rom 6:23 is referring to the cross and John 3:16. If we read the entire chapter of Rom 6, we soon see a different story. In the 6 chapter of Romans, Paul describes how holiness and righteousness give us eternal life. He goes on to say that because we believe in Jesus, we have decided to obey what He taught us, and our obedience to Jesus teachings gives us holiness, righteousness, and eternal life.
Here we have Jesus and Paul agreeing on what gives us eternal life. Eternal life comes from obeying righteousness, holy living, and the teachings of Jesus.
The question then gives itself, what did Jesus teach us? Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus telling His disciples to obey the written Torah and disobey the human-made traditions and doctrines. We see this in Matthew 23:2, where He tells His disciples to obey the Pharisees when they teach obedience to the written Torah but not to obey them when they teach obedience to their human-made laws and regulations.
How does the Bible define righteousness? In 1. John the Bible says we are righteous if we obey the written Torah. What did Jesus teach us? Obedience to the written Torah.
Here we have Jesus, Paul, the Bible tellings us we inherit eternal life if we choose to obey the written Torah. Mainstream Christianity tells us we inherit eternal life if we believe Jesus, the Son of God, died on a cross for our sins.
Does it not concern you there is a vast difference between telling someone “believe in Jesus dying for your sins to get eternal life” and “obey righteousness, the written Torah and you will have eternal life.”?
It should concern you, considering how eternal life is the most important thing we can have. So if you get this part wrong, you will end up among them in Matthew 7:21-23 who gets to hear Jesus telling them “depart from Me for I never knew you.”
What about the cross? Is that not important? Can we actually “work our way into heaven”?
The short answer to these questions is “no,” we cant work our way into heaven.
The Bible says it is easy for us to obey the written Torah. I know this is not what mainstream Christianity would tell you, but I urge you to open up your own Bible and read 1. John and the book of Exodus for yourself. The law of Moses, the written Torah, is easy to obey, and we are well able to do so according to the Bible. We even find several people throughout the Bible who are well able to obey the written Torah, Noah, the stepfather of Jesus Joseph, and several others were well able to obey it.
If the Bible says it is easy for us to obey it, and we inherit eternal life if we obey it, why then do we need to believe in the cross?
When you were born, you automatically became a citizen in your nation. As a citizen of your country, you are guaranteed security, safety, and the protection of your government. Should you at one point, commit an act of treason against your government you would lose your citizenship.
When you were born, you automatically became a citizen in Gods Kingdom. (Gen 1:27-31). The Bible says in Gen 4:7, you had a free will to decide whetever to obey Yehovah’s Torah or disobey Him. Rom 3:23 says everyone has used their free will at one point in their life to violate the Torah. When we did this, we became guilty of treason, and we lost our citizenship in Gods Kingdom. (Jer 3)
If you had committed treason and lost your earthly citizenship, you could never get it back again. When you committed treason against Yehovah, you lost your heavenly citizenship, and you can never get it back. Why can you never get it back? Because Yehovahs law in Numbers 5 forbids it.
We chose to commit treason against Yehovah, so the loss of our heavenly citizenship is our responsibility. At the same time, we know from the Gospel of John how much Yehovah loves us. He loves us so much that He had to do something to help us restore our citizenship. It would be illegal for Him to disobey His own law in Numbers 5. So He came up with a brilliant idea.
In Rom 7, we read how a law can not touch a dead man. So if you commit a crime and you die the law can’t punish you after you are gone. Law and the consequences of breaking the law only have to affect us while we are alive.
If Yehovah died a physical death, He would be free from His law in Numbers 5. If we died a physical death, we would be free from Yehovah’s law in Numbers 5. So if we died, and Yehovah died, if we were buried with Him and raised with Him to a new life, the law in Numbers 5 could no longer hinder us from returning to Him as citizens of His Kingdom. But the law also had to punish someone for committing treason; justice had to be served. If we took that punishment upon ourselves, we would all end up in hell for eternity. For the penalty for treason against Yehovah is an eternity in hell.
So because He loves us, Yehovah took upon Himself our punishment for our treason and that way justice was served. He did not stop there. He died on that cross, was buried and resurrected to a new life and invited everyone who wants to believe He did it for them to die with Him by faith, be buried with Him by faith and resurrected to a new life with Him by faith.
If you believe He died for you on the cross, if you believe you were buried with Him and resurrected to a new life with Him, the punishment you deserve for your treason has been paid with the Blood of Yeshua. You and Yehovah are now both free from the curse of the law in Numbers 5, and you are born again into your heavenly citizenship.
It stands to reason that if you are forgiven for treason, and given back your citizenship, you would never commit treason again. When Yehovah forgives you of your betrayal, takes upon Himself the punishment you deserve, and frees you from the law in Numbers 5, you would never commit treason again.
If treason is the same thing as breaking the Torah, it stands to reason you would choose from now on to always obey every commandment in the Torah applicable to you. This is why we inherit eternal life by obeying the Torah, but this is also why we need the cross. We need the cross to be forgiven for all the times in the past we have committed treason and disobeyed His Torah. But we need His Torah to know how to live as a citizen of His Kingdom and how not to commit treason again.
We see now how the Bible says we inherit eternal life if we obey the Torah. At the same time, we see how it says we can’t do without the cross because we need Yehovahs forgiveness and offer of reconciliation. This is why the book of Revelation says those who obey the Torah and believe in the cross will overcome the devil.
So what about mainstream Christianity response on how to inherit eternal life? According to them, we inherit eternal life if we believe the Son of God Jesus Christ died for our sins. As we have seen today, this is not entirely wrong. It is our faith in the cross that reconciles us to Yehovah.
At the same time, we see what it means to believe in the cross. Faith in the cross is never passive; it is active and requires that we do something. That something is repentance from disobeying the Torah and starting to obey the Torah again.
Do you want to inherit eternal life? Do you want to walk in all the promises of Yehovah? Believe in Yeshua’s death for your sins on the cross and repent from disobeying the Torah. Learn the Torah and apply it to your life by walking the rest of your life in righteousness always obeying Yehovah’s commandments. Then you will inherit eternal life and be forgiven for treason.