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John 10:28 “I give them eternal life (zoe)”

PRAYER

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John 10:27-28

Last time we focused on“my sheep hear my voice” and on “I know them”. Today, let us dwell on “I give them eternal life (zoe).”

Let the Word of God show us how Christ gives us eternal life, and that it is not us plus Jesus but only Jesus who gives us eternal life.

‌DEFINITION OF SIN

‌In order to understand and appreciate that only Jesus can give us eternal life through his victorious life in our flesh and through the death of our condemned life and nature in Christ on the cross, we must make sure we understand the truth about sin that Christ took at the incarnation, overcame, and carried to the cross to save us from it.

‌‌‌For most of us the definition of sin for which we are condemned is the “transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4).

But our sins as transgressions of the law are only bitter fruits of another sin, our sinful nature (including its key part - the law of sin, selfishness and death), which we inherited from Adam.

It is the root of our sins and the key reason why we are condemned by the law to eternal death as soon as we are born and before we start sinning.

Romans 7:14, 20-23

This law of sin makes us slaves to sin, and makes holy living impossible on our own:

Rom 8:3

…

Luke 11:39

The Lord said to Pharisees that outside they made themselves to look clean, but inside they were full of selfishness and wickedness.

And the same can be said about all of us because we are born selfish and wicked and try to hide it but we can’t get rid of the law of sin selfishness and death we are born with.

John 8:31–34

In verse 31 Jesus said to the Jews that only the truth of the gospel can make them free from slavery to sin and selfishness.

But they answered that they have never been in slavery. Which was a lie because they, like all of us, were born with the law of sin and selfishness and were slaves to it.

So Jesus reminded them and us that "whoever commits sin is a slave of sin”.

Rom 5:19

When Adam and Eve were created by God they were perfectly filled with HS and agape love and it was the presence of HS and agape that generated that glorious garment of light they were covered with.

Unfortunately, when they sinned, HS and agape disappeared and were replaced by invented by Lucifer law of sin, selfishness and death, and they became darkness.

‌And because all of us are multiplication or extension of Adam’s condemned bios life we all are born in this world as darkness with the same evil law of sin and selfishness and death in us.

‌Therefore, as soon as we appear in this world, even before we sin, the law condemns us to eternal death because it can’t allow to live forever anyone contaminated with selfishness introduced by Lucifer.

Are we all selfish by nature?

Yes. We adults are ashamed of it so we are good in trying to hide it. But small kids don’t care and you can learn the truth from them. If you have a group of small children and you give a nice toy or a candy to only one of them, what would be the result? You would trigger a civil war in this way. Why? Do we teach our children to be selfish? No. So why they are selfish? Because they and all of us are born with the law of sin and selfishness. We are born condemned.

‌Some Adventist theologians, such as Dennis Priebe, and independent ministries, teach that we become sinners only when we start sinning.

Are they right?

No, because our sins are only fruits of what we are by nature.

If you look at an apple tree when there are no visible fruits on it, does it mean that it is not an apple tree? No, it is an apple tree. Apples don’t make the tree an apple tree. Apples only prove or confirm that it is an apple tree.

‌The same is in our case. Our sins don’t make us sinners. They only prove or confirm we are sinners by nature.

‌Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity (I was born with nature bent toward self), and in sin my mother conceived me.”

‌The word “iniquity”, which first appeared in Lucifer, in Hebrew literally means “bent” like a shepherd's rod is bent toward self referring to natural selfishness. ‌

When the Bible states that the wages of sin is death, it means any sin, but especially the singular sin, the sin of our nature because it is the core of our sin problem.

‌Romans 5:19 “For as by one man’s disobedience (the) many (“all”) were made sinners...”

‌Original Greek says “the many” which refers to the “all” from Rom 5:18!

‌It means that we are sinners from birth because we are descendants of Adam because we are a multiplication or an extension of his sinful life, and because we are born with the law of sin and selfishness we inherit from him!

‌We are not sinners when we start sinning, but we are sinners by nature!

‌BABIES

If we become condemned to eternal death sinners only when we start sinning, then babies who died before they could sin can be saved not because of Christ but because the never sinned!

For example, my sister Sabina died just after she was born… If we agree with those who claim that we became condemned sinners only when we start sinning, then Sabina and all those babies who died before they sinned should be in heaven because they never sinned and not because of what Christ did for them!‌  ‌

HUMANITY OF CHRIST

‌Now, why it is vital to know that we are condemned to death especially because of the sinful nature we are born with and that this nature is the core of our sinful condition?

‌

It is important because, since our corrupt nature and its key part - the law of sin and death is the core of our sin problem and the key reason why the law of God curses us and condemns us to eternal death, then we realize that in order to save us from that indwelling law of sin, our Saviour had to take that same nature and the law at His incarnation.

‌

Therefore, it is most vital for us to have the right understanding of the humanity of Christ because if we accept a wrong concept about Lord’s humanity, we distort the gospel and deprive it of its power.

That is why, the SP says that the humanity of Christ is everything to us and that we are to study this holy subject diligently.

Do you know that before 1960s the SDA Church was practically the only Christian denomination teaching that Christ took our sinful nature. And because of that, we were condemned by other protestant and evangelical churches.

‌

Walter Martin the popular evangelical author, at that time wrote a book about 4 major christian cults or sects (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Christian Science, and SD Adventists). And he said he would not remove us from among sects unless we change our position on the humanity of Christ because he said that no Evangelical reliable theologian taught by that time that Christ took our sinful nature.

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But in 1960s, an Evangelical theologian by the name Harry Johnson, wrote his doctorate dissertation on the humanity of Christ and provided a strong biblical evidence that in order to save us Christ had to take the same sinful nature we have and that He had the right to save only what He actually took.

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Since that time, many leading protestant theologians (such as Anders Nygren, Charles Cranfield, Thomas Torrance, Karl Barth, and many others) accepted the truth that Christ took our sinful nature.

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Now, why all this is important?

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It is so because, only when we understand that our key problem is not so much what we do but what we are by nature, and that Lord Jesus in order to be qualified to be our Saviour had to identify Himself with our true nature, we can understand the cross how it was possible for Him to experience the second death.

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If He didn’t take and carried to the cross our corporate fallen representative nature including the law of sin and death, then, what was condemned in Him (Rom 8:3) and what died with the everlasting death in Him on the cross?

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The holy human nature Adam had before the fall?

‌Such idea wouldn’t make any sense.

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LIFE BIOS VS LIFE ZOE

John 10:28 “I give them eternal life (zoe).”

How did God qualify Christ to legally represent the entire human race and how we all could die in Christ on His cross?

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The first thing we must realize is that the human race, to which we all belong, is the multiplication or extension of Adam’s life after he sinned:

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Acts 17:26 “And He (God) has made from one blood (life) every nation of men.”

‌The word “blood” in the Bible represents “life”. Therefore it means that God created the entire human race from one life (Adam).

‌The Greek word used in the New Testament to describe this corporate, condemned human life is bios, from which we have the English word biography.

‌This condemned sinful bios life which we all inherit from Adam is contrasted in the NT with another Greek word “zoe” which is also translated as “life”. But, unlike the condemned “bios” life, the “zoe” life refers to the divine eternal life of Christ.

‌Unfortunately, both of these Greek words are translated in our English Bibles as life, which makes it very difficult for readers to distinguish between the two.

‌Let me give you an example where the word “BIOS” is used for “life” in the Bible:

‌1 John 2:16 “For everything in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (“BIOS”) — comes not from the Father but from the world.”

‌The word “life” here is translated not from the Greek word “zoe” but “bios” and that this bios type of life is associated with invented by Lucifer pride and therefore “does not come from the Father”.

‌Example of the Greek Word ZOE (translated “Life”) used in the New Testament:

‌1 John 5:11 “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life (“zoe”), and this life (“zoe”) is in His Son.”

‌At the incarnation, God united the corporate condemned to death human bios life, with the divine eternal zoe life of Christ in the womb of Mary (Luke 1:35).

‌During His life on earth in the flesh, Jesus overcame perfectly the law of sin and death of our corporate bios life on our behalf and carried it to the cross where according to

Romans 8:3 that singular sin was condemned by God and destroyed for ever in the flesh of Christ.

‌For this reason, the NT especially apostle Paul repeatedly states that when Christ died 2000 years ago, all died:

‌2 Corinthians 5:14...

Rom 6:6...

2 Cor 5:19...

‌But you may say, we were not alive at that time, so how could we die in and with Christ?

‌Well, yes, we were not physically alive but our condemned corporate “bios” life of the sinful humanity Jesus took existed at that time.

‌Romans 5:18 “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life (zoe).”

‌Because of one representative sin of Adam we all inherited the condemned to death bios life, likewise, because of the representative obedience in our corporate flesh and death on the cross of the our corporate condemned bios life in Christ, the free gift of eternal zoe life came to all of us!

‌SEQUEIRA: “It was not us who died physically in Christ. Instead, it was our sinful, condemned representative ‘Bios’ life we receive at birth, that died for ever in Christ.‌”

Professor William Warren Prescott (1855–1944), a member of the General Conference Executive Committee for forty-two years. Prescott was probably the first theologian through whom God restored to us the glorious truth about corporate salvation of the entire sinful human race in Christ (2Cor 5:14,19; Rom 5:18; 1Cor 15:22). The following quote comes from the most beautiful sermon delivered by Professor Prescott in 1895 in Armadale (Australia):

‌"Jesus Christ had exactly the same flesh that we bear, — flesh of sin, flesh in which we sin, flesh, however, in which He did not sin... We were all in Jesus Christ... He was our representative; He became flesh; He became we... All humanity was brought together in Jesus Christ. He suffered on the cross, then, it was the whole family in Jesus Christ that was crucified".

‌Francis Nichol, The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, comment to 2Cor 5. 14:

“In taking Adam’s place Christ became the head of the human race, and died on the cross as its representative. Thus, in a sense, when He died the entire race died with Him. As He represented all men, so His death stood for the death of all. In Him, all men died. This does not, however, mean universal salvation, for each individual sinner must accept the atonement provided by the Saviour in order to make it effective”

REVELATION 3

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TRAINERS

I DO MY BEST AND CHRIST WILL DO THE REST (GALATIANISM, LEGALISM) VS NOTHING IN MY HAND I BRING SIMPLY TO THE CROSS I CLING (SALVATION THROUGH FAITH ALONE)

FINDING THE WAY HOME IN COMPLETE DARKNESS – Jacek Jaworski told me when he was walking at night through the same forrest, a devil jumpt on him and he was fighting with him but he was much taller and stronger than me annd he had fourth dan (black belt) in judo. Whenever a branch of a trea touchd me I experienced a near heart attack experience….

Without Jesus we are hopeless eternally lost sinners groping in complete darkness. And only because He was willing to becoma flesh for us and sin and go through the experience of complete darkness on the cross for us, that we can see the way and become light in Him (Ephez 5: )

But I noticed that God was working in a special way in my life when I was fully dedicated to Him and when I was working for the salvation of others: Angel story…

3 QUARKS

GOLDEN FLOWER

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