Abraham Rejoiced

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.”

John 8:56

This interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees should call into question the idea that there were different plans of salvation in the Old vs New Testaments. Here in John 8 Jesus acknowledges the physical lineage of the Pharisees but he in no way suggests that this fact alone will get them to heaven. In fact in Luke 16 we have a rich man clearly descended from Abraham who is literally burning in Hell. “And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me…But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things….”

Luke 16:24-25.

Ethnicity, nation, tongue, DNA, works of righteousness that we do to be seen of others…these things do not get anyone, in any “dispensation”, into heaven. Yet there are many who believe that Jesus taught a gospel of works in order to gain access to heaven.

Hypocrisy is certainly a sin, but it's not the sin of hypocrisy of the rich man or the Pharisees that condemns them as much as their lack of faith.

Hell is always merited, Heaven is always free.

“Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”

Matthew 3:8-9.

Abraham is not the key to anyone’s salvation. Abraham “believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

Genesis 15:6.

Also in Genesis we see, “…for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also the son of the bond-woman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.”

Genesis 21:12-13

“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.”

Galatians 4:28

“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Galatians 3:7

This is not a popular opinion among “Christians” today but it is simply what the Bible says. And many people’s souls hang in the balance, because on the one hand they are being told that Jews have an unmerited grace from God that does not rest on Jesus Christ, while we as Christians have a limited atonement salvation that must be maintained by works.

There is no room for error on this issue. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you are passed from death to life. That is the gospel and there is only one.

An Israelite Indeed

“Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!”

John 1:47

This passage in the gospel of John shows us a beautiful moment of recognition between the Lord and one of his children. Jesus initiates the conversation by calling Nathanael an Israelite indeed. Why does he say this? Romans chapter 9 says, “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called.”

Romans 9:6-7.

Therefore, when Jesus calls Nathanael an Israelite indeed, he is recognizing Nathanael’s faith in the God of Israel. Nathanael replies “whence knowest thou me?” as he thinks he and Jesus had never met and indeed Nathanael doubts Philip when he first tells him that the Messiah has arrived.

Jesus replies to his question, “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.” This must have been the moment that Nathanael believed and called upon the Lord for salvation, likely through John the Baptist’s ministry. Nathanael then realizes that Jesus is God because only God could have known a detail like that about his past.

What does this have to do with Israel? Jesus’ salutation to Nathanael is a quote from Psalm 32: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.”

Psalm 32:1-2.

By calling Nathanael an Israelite indeed, in the context of this psalm, then that means that the true Israel is comprised of regenerated believers rather than a tribe or ethnicity in the flesh. As Jesus says later on in the gospel, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

John 7:63.

The gospels by the way, are Old Testament in the sense that most of the events are taking place before the blood of the testator had been shed. So what Jesus is saying was true for the Old Testament, that the believer is saved by grace and no longer has sin imputed onto his soul.

The Pharisees were false prophets who had deceived many and were leading God’s people astray. If it were not so then Jesus would not have had to continually upbraid the Pharisees in the gospels. As the priests and spiritual leaders of their time it was their responsibility to know the true word of God. As Jesus says to Nicodemus: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again… Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?”

John 3:7-10.

And yet there are many Christian churches confused on this matter today as well. So we will say it again:

Ye must be born again.

At the Last Day

“And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”

John 6:39

“And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 6:40

“No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 6:44

“Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 6:54

So when is the resurrection of the Just? At the last day. Paul leaves us this clue as well:

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

1 Corinthians 15:51-52

The book of Joshua also gives us a tight picture of this:

“And it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city.”

Joshua 6:15-16

“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” Revelation 10:7