DOCTRINE OF DOUBLE PUNISHMENT

A. Introduction

1. What the righteousness of God demands, the justice of God executes through the love of God as expressed in the grace of God.

2. The omniscience of God the Father in eternity past programmed one PROM chip in the computer of divine decrees with all the sins of human history. There they remained until the justice of God imputed them to the humanity of Christ on the Cross. All of these sins were imputed to Jesus Christ on the Cross under two concepts.

a. Imputation. The sins were imputed to the impeccable human nature of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. Jesus Christ accepted the imputation of theses sins because He had impersonal love for all mankind. Christ died spiritually as a substitute for all, 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 2:9; 1 Pet 3:18; Gal 3:13.

b. Judgment. Jesus Christ accepted the judgment of these sins because he had personal love for God the Father.

3. All pre-salvation sins of the believer, postsalvation sins of the believers, and sins of all unbelievers were judged on the Cross. Therefore, the greatest judgment in all human history was the judgment of the perfect human nature of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. This is called the redemption solution to the problem of sin.

4. The redemption solution is the basis for all forgiveness.

a. All pre-salvation sins are forgiven the moment we believe in Christ.

b. All postsalvation sins are forgiven the moment we rebound (1 Jn 1:9). The sins we name are forgiven instantly because they have already been judged at the Cross. But the Lord disciplines every son whom He receives.

c. All sins of the unbeliever are never forgiven, but are never mentioned at the Last Judgment. Unbelievers are judged for rejecting the redemption solution through faith alone in Christ alone.

B. All sins were judged on the Cross.

1. You will never commit a sin that was not judged on the Cross.

2. When you name a sin to God in the privacy of your priesthood in rebound, you are forgiven and purified from all wrong doing.

3. Why then are we punished if the punishment for the sin has already taken place at the Cross?

4. Whom the Lord loves, He punishes, and skins alive with a whip every son whom He receives. Rev 3:19, “Those whom I love [PHILEO], I reprimand and punish; therefore be diligent and change your mind [about rebound].” The longer you prolong rebound the greater becomes the punishment under the doctrine of double discipline.

a. The Greek verb PHILEO (“to love”) is used for intimate love.

(1) It means to have a strong affection, to regard, to treat someone as one’s own. It is the love among members of a family. All discipline from God comes from family love. God punishes us in love. We never get away with anything. God often waits to discipline us as He did with David. During divine discipline, God loves the believer with a special intimate love.

(2) The love of God has never changed toward us. There is no such thing as the diminishing of God’s love because we fail. God’s love for us never changes. It maintains the same intensity. We cannot do anything to change God’s love for us.

b. Punishment is going to hurt, but it comes from the love of God.

(1) When we sin, the quicker we rebound, the better, because it makes it much easier to handle the punishment. The Greek word ELEGCHO means very strong reprimanding, very strong punishment. We can parlay a lesser sin into a greater sin by failure to rebound.

(2) Being out of fellowship intensifies the punishment of divine discipline. The punishment for the sin is the same whether you are in or out of fellowship, but you can handle the punishment in fellowship. Rebound causes you to profit from the suffering. Rejecting rebound put you into perpetual carnality, which is self-destruction of the spiritual life.

(3) Do not be stupid. No one fools God. None of us gets away with anything. You never learn from divine punishment unless you use rebound.

c. When we get into some line of sinning consistently, it is time to change our values, time to change our mind. We must be diligent to rebound. We must change our mind about using rebound and use it.

5. Failure to rebound is failure to use the divine solution. We reject the Holy Spirit by sin. We are no longer under His care and power for executing the spiritual life.

a. Quenching the Holy Spirit emphasizes failure to execute the divine mandates of the unique spiritual life.

b. Grieving the Holy Spirit emphasizes the personal sin.

6. We are punished in our postsalvation experience for the sins we commit that were judged on the Cross because we do not use the divine solution. We are punished for failure to use the divine solution of 1 Jn 1:9, “If we acknowledge our sins, He [God the Father] is faithful and righteous with the result that He forgives us our sins [known sins] and purifies us from all wrongdoing [unknown sins].”

a. This passage is dealing with a believer who has sinned after salvation.

b. The believer names or acknowledges the sin privately to God the Father.

c. God the Father is faithful in forgiving the sin every time. He is faithful in forgiving us and righteous in forgiving us.

d. The result is that He purifies us.

e. “Wrongdoing” includes grieving the Holy Spirit, quenching the Holy Spirit. So purification from all wrongdoing includes:

(1) Removal of the grieving of the Holy Spirit.

(2) Removal of the quenching of the Holy Spirit.

(3) Removal of the sin nature from controlling the soul.

(4) Removal of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

(5) Restoration of the spiritual power of the filling the Spirit.

7. We are not punished for the sins which have already been judged on the Cross. We are punished for failure to use the divine solution.

8. Perpetuated carnality is using human solutions. Every human solution perpetuates wrong doing of every kind. The carnal believer is the most miserable person on earth. They are under warning, intensive, and dying discipline. Punishment is for failure to use the divine solution (rebound).

9. The unbeliever is an example. Every sin of the unbeliever was judged on the Cross. The unbeliever is punished at the Last Judgment for failure to use the divine solution. He is not punished for his sins; they have already been judged. Jn 3:18, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Jn 3:36, “He who does not believe, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” The unbeliever has rejected the love of God, but the love of God has not rejected him.

C. The law of double jeopardy has two principles under double punishment.

1. The first law is the law of volitional responsibility for sin. The law of volitional responsibility for sin means we make the decision to sin and create our own suffering when we sin.

a. The law of double punishment demands that the believer take responsibility for his own sins as a royal priest in the Church Age.

b. We are responsible for sins of cognizance and sins of ignorance.

2. The second law is the law of reprimand and discipline for sin. This is the sin of failure to live the spiritual life and then failure to use the divine solution.

3. We make ourselves miserable by using our volition to enter into sin. We want to sin. Sometimes we are deceived, but we still want to do it. We commit both sins of cognizance and sins of ignorance. Ignorance is no excuse.

a. The first law is the law of volitional responsibility. All human sin is the result of our volition succumbing to temptation under the pattern `I wanted to do it and I did it.’ Therefore, we do it to ourselves; hence, the principle of self-induced misery.

b. But we never understand the significance of doing it to ourselves under the first law of double punishment until the supreme court of heaven adds divine punishment as a consequence.

c. This is classified as the law of divine punitive action, in which God does it to us under three categories of punishment.

d. The second law, therefore, provides the reality of what we have done to ourselves in the use of our own volition to sin.

e. It is imperative to understand the law of double punishment as the total of divine judgment. You cannot have the first law without the second law. You cannot have the second law without the first law. The sequence is always the same: we sin, we punish ourself, then God punishes us.

f. Since we cannot have the first law without the second law, it is obvious that the divine punishment under the second law provides the reality of sin.

g. To isolate our case before the supreme court of heaven, God adds to our self-induced misery the proper divine punishment to bring us to the reality of our status quo in carnality and to motivate us to rebound and keep moving.

h. The results of rebound are: the recovery of the filling of the Holy Spirit who is our mentor and our teacher, restoration with fellowship with God, and resumption of our spiritual life.

4. Sin hinders the function of the spiritual life.

a. Therefore God must warn us about sin.

b. Therefore God must reprimand us and punish us with regard to sin.

c. Therefore God must alert us to the importance of forgiveness through rebound by the function of certain divine laws, such as the law of reprimand and discipline. God alerts us to the fact that there is a divine solution. If we ignore the divine solution, then the alternative is Heb 12:6, “Whom the Lord loves, He punishes, and He skins alive with a whip every son whom He receives.”

5. We are not judged for the sin we commit because that sin was already judged at the Cross. Jesus Christ received the judgment for your sins on the Cross. We are not judged for something that has already been judged on the Cross. The believer is not judged for the postsalvation sins as such, because they were judged on the Cross when imputed to the impeccable human nature of Jesus Christ. But we do receive punishment for our sins.

a. We receive double punishment not for the actual sin, but because of what happened as a result of committing that sin. We are punished for three things.

(1) We are punished because we made the decision to allow the sin nature to take control of the soul.

(2) We receive punishment for grieving the Holy Spirit and not living the spiritual life

(3) We receive punishment for failure to use the divine solution of rebound after we have sinned.

b. Once we have sinned, we are punished under divine discipline because our volitional responsibility has failed. The punishment has nothing to do with the sin, but the punishment is for not saying “no” to the temptation.

c. We are punished for failure to live the spiritual life because we are grieving the Holy Spirit.

d. We are further punished if we fail to accept the divine solution of rebound when we have sinned. We receive additional punishment for rejecting rebound.

e. We are punished because the sin nature controls our soul, because we are in a state of carnality. We are punished as members of the family of God. We are punished because we are no longer witnesses for the Prosecution. We keep on being punished as long as the sin nature controls our soul.

6. This is why rebound [1 Jn 1:9] is the first and most important thing in the maintenance of your spiritual life.

7. Scripture.

a. Hos 8:7, “We sow to the wind, and we reap the whirlwind.” This verse states the law of double punishment. In the first half of the verse we have the first law of double punishment—the law of volitional responsibility (we are responsible for the sins we commit). In the second half of the verse we have the second law of punishment from God—the law of reprimand and discipline for the decision to sin.

b. Col 3:25, “For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of that wrong, and there is no partiality.” This verse states the law of volitional responsibility (“he who does wrong”) and the law of punishment (“the consequences of that wrong"), reprimand and discipline for allowing the sin nature to control and grieving the Holy Spirit. We receive the consequences of the sin nature controlling our soul, not the judgment for the sin.

c. Prov 22:8, “He who sows wickedness shall reap trouble. And the rod of His wrath shall be ready.”

8. Never excuse yourself for your sins. It is no substitute for the forgiveness of God.

9. God disciplines us with punishment in love because He wants us to have all the escrow blessings He has designed for us in eternity past.

10. There is no forgiveness at the Cross. There is forgiveness as a result of the Cross.

a. Eph 1:7, “by Whom [Jesus Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins on the basis of the riches of His grace.”

b. Col 1:14, “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

D. Summary.

1. The impeccable human nature of Jesus Christ received the imputation and judgment of every sin of human history on the Cross. Therefore, we are not judged for our sins, when they were already judged on the Cross. But we are punished from the laws which result from redemption.

2. The result of this efficacious sacrifice and judgment on the Cross is forgiveness of all pre-salvation sins at the moment of faith alone in Christ alone, Eph 1:7; Col 1:14. Forgiveness is a result of redemption.

a. Forgiveness is a volitional responsibility, and it is always non-meritorious. Faith alone in Christ alone is the point of salvation and you receive thirty-nine spiritual absolutes. But you could not receive these things in a status of spiritual death. God had to forgive all your pre-salvation sins first before you could receive anything from God, including His perfect righteousness, eternal life, the filling of the Holy Spirit.

b. There is no forgiveness on the Cross, only judgment. Forgiveness of our sins as an unbeliever occurs at the moment we believe in Christ.

3. Redemption and forgiveness are separated by the Greek verb TETELESTAI, Jn 19:30, which is translated “It is finished now with results that go on forever.” Therefore, the importance of understanding divine discipline and reprimand of the believer because we have ignored the fact that Jesus Christ was judged for all of our sins on the Cross.

4. All postsalvation sins are forgiven through the recovery procedure of rebound, 1 Jn 1:9.

5. Therefore, we as believers are never judged for our postsalvation sins because they were judged on the Cross, but we are punished from the laws that result from redemption. We cannot be judged or punished for sins that have already been judged and punished. So what kind of punishment is there for us? The law of double punishment. We are not punished for the sins we commit. The discipline we get is often worse than the punishment would be, if we were punished for the sins we commit. We are punished from the laws that result from redemption. Redemption was judgment on the Cross. There are two laws that result from redemption.

a. The law of volitional responsibility.

b. The law of cause and effect. The law of cause and effect is reprimand and discipline with punishment for failure to continue the spiritual life.

6. Therefore we are punished for failure to perpetuate the spiritual life and grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as per 2 Pet 3:18.

7. In effect, we are punished for sins as believers for three basic reasons.

a. We are punished by God because the sin nature controls our soul in perpetual carnality, 1 Cor 3:1-3.

b. We are punished by God because we do not use the divine solution of rebound, 1 Jn 1:9.

c. We are punished by God because perpetual carnality is tantamount to grieving the Holy Spirit, Eph 4:30.

8. We are not punished for our postsalvation sins because the impeccable human nature of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union was judged for our sins on the Cross.

9. We are punished because we as members of the royal family of God have:

a. Rejected the integrity of the God.

b. Rejected the protocol plan of God.

c. Rejected the power of the filling of the Spirit.

d. Rejected the opportunity to be a witness for the Prosecution in the rebuttal phase of Satan’s appeal trial.

e. Rejected the unique spiritual life of all human history.

f. Failed as ambassadors for Christ.

10. We must understand that we are in the family of God. We are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, Gal 3:26. The sins we commit as family are rejection of the love of God. To reject grace as a believer is to reject the love of God.

11. 1 Jn 5:11-13, “And this is the witness that God has given to us eternal life and this life in is His Son. He who has the Son has eternal life, and he who does not have the Son does not have eternal life. These things I have written to you who believe in the person of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.”

a. We all have sin natures and we all sin.

b. Our sins do not cancel our salvation. When we believe in Christ, God wipes the slate clean and God gives you thirty-nine absolutes, which includes the righteousness of God and eternal life.

c. There is nothing you can do to lose your salvation.

E. Grieving and Quenching the Holy Spirit.

1. Spirituality is an absolute. In the spiritual life we are either spiritual or carnal. Spiritual means we are filled with the Spirit. Carnal means we are grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit. The spiritual life is designed to be an absolute. The absolute is broken by carnality.

a. If you are carnal, you cannot get back into spirituality fast enough. As you advance in the spiritual life from childhood to spiritual maturity you will be either spiritual or carnal. As a carnal believer you are the most miserable of all persons.

b. When we sin, we are not punished for the sins we commit, since those sins were already judged on the Cross, but we are punished for allowing the sin nature to control our soul (carnality) and for grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit. We are punished for our carnality but we are not judged. All judgment for sin occurred on the Cross. We are disciplined with punishment.

2. Scripture.

a. 1 Thes 5:19, “Stop quenching [suppressing] the Spirit.”

(1) Quenching or suppressing the Spirit is only used in connection with the failure to execute the mandates of the unique spiritual life of the Church Age. It is only used in connection with the Church Age.

(2) It has to do with sin related to personal things like adultery, murder, failure to obey the mandates of the spiritual life.

b. Eph 4:30, “Stop grieving the Holy Spirit.”

(1) This emphasizes the failure of individual spiritual dynamics, such as the function of corporate testimony in marriage.

(2) It is generally used for failure of individual spiritual dynamics in application of Bible doctrine. It deals with failure to learn and apply doctrine.

(3) Grieving the Holy Spirit has to do with disobedience to biblical commands with regard to the spiritual life.

c. In Eph 5:18 we are commanded, “Keep on being filled with the Spirit.

d. In Gal 5:16 we are told to “Walk by means of the Spirit” so that we do not fulfill the lusts of the old sin nature.

e. “Lying to the Spirit” is deception with regard to what we are doing in order to impress people with our spiritual life which we do not have.

3. Grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit are anthropopathisms. An anthropopathism is God being described in terms of human characteristics so that we can understand divine policy or divine function. God the Holy Spirit does not grieve and He is never quenched. Deity cannot be grieved or quenched.

a. Grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit are not classified as sin, but rather as a state of sin. These are anthropopathisms in response to the fact that we as believers sin.

b. These two anthropopathisms are never used for the unbeliever. They are only used for the believer and have to do with our failure with regard to the spiritual life.

4. Both mandates are given in the form of imperatives of prohibition.

a. An imperative of prohibition is a verb in the present tense and imperative mood with the subjective negative Greek adverb ME.

b. The imperative of prohibition means to stop doing something you are already doing.

c. They are correctly translated “Stop grieving the Spirit” and “Stop quenching (suppressing) the Spirit.” The latter is the failure of not making the right application of doctrine. The former is the failure of being in sin, not obeying, and not rebounding when necessary.

5. Quenching or Suppressing the Holy Spirit. 1 Thes 5:15-19, “See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Stop suppressing the Spirit.”

a. The Greek verb is SBENUMI, which means “to stifle, to suppress, to quench.” The best meaning is “Stop suppressing the Spirit.”

b. The verb denotes a deliberate suppressing of the ministry of the Holy Spirit through rejection of rebound, refusing to rebound, or distorting rebound in some way. A lesser sin can be parlayed into a greater sin by failure to rebound.

c. When we sin as believers, whether we know it is a sin or not, the sin is done deliberately. We deliberately suppress the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

d. When we suppress the ministry of the Holy Spirit, two things happen, if we do not rebound: we get into terrible punishment, and we start to distort the Scripture.

e. We suppress the Holy Spirit by failure to execute the applications of our unique spiritual life and rebound. We are suppressing the spiritual life when we reject rebound. This means the perpetuation of carnality, which hinders the practical side of the spiritual life as noted in verses 16-18.

(1) Verse 15, Suppressing the Spirit is failure to execute the royal law of the Church of impersonal love, Jam 2:8.

(2) Verse 16, Suppressing the Spirit is failure to deploy plus H or sharing the happiness of God on the FLOT line of the soul.

(3) Verse 17, Suppressing the Spirit is neglect of prayer, malfunction of prayer. Pray without ceasing does not mean to pray all the time, but to be persistent, consistent, effective, and accurate in the function of prayer when you do pray.

(4) Verse 18, Suppressing the Spirit is lack of gratitude, appreciation, thanksgiving in everything. We cannot take adversity under the status of suppressing the Spirit.

f. The general context of 1 Thes 5:15-18 indicates that lack of correct application of Bible doctrine is suppressing the Spirit. This is caused by failure to have metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness.

(1) Therefore, 2 Tim 3:7 applies—you are “always learning but never able to come to a full knowledge of the truth,” because our teacher is God the Holy Spirit. You hear the teaching, but are not filled with the Spirit, so you only understand academically, but not spiritually.

(2) Suppressing the Holy Spirit is too much arrogance associated with learning human things in the cosmic system instead of humility. (3) Suppressing the Holy Spirit is operation overthink— speculation beyond what the Scripture teaches, or the false application of doctrine.

(4) Suppression of the Holy Spirit is tantamount to arrogance and self-centeredness about Scripture, leading to a dogmatic stand on false doctrine (such as you do not have to rebound).

(5) Suppressing the Spirit is related to doctrinal distortions and controversies, while grieving the Spirit emphasizes the lusts of deceit, Eph 4:22, “that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.”

(6) Therefore, suppressing the Spirit is resistance to doctrine that conflicts with preconceived notions about life in general and false ideas as they are challenged by Bible teaching.

6. Grieving the Holy Spirit. Eph 4:30, “Stop grieving the Holy Spirit, the God by whom you have been sealed to the day of redemption.”

a. Grieving the Holy Spirit emphasizes the various categories of sins of the believer which result in extended and even perpetual carnality.

b. The present active imperative of the Greek verb LUPEO means “to grieve.” The verb SPHRAGIZO means “to seal” using a signature ring. The sealing is the guarantee of eternal life, the imputation of the righteousness of God, eternal security, and the unique spiritual life of the Church Age.

c. It is no wonder that God the Holy Spirit is grieved when the believer fails to take advantage of these blessings which include instant forgiveness at salvation and the point of rebound.

d. This sealing is valid from the day of salvation until the day of resurrection. The first day of redemption occurs at the moment of salvation and is the redemption of the soul, Gal 3:13; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Heb 9:12; 1 Pet 1:18-19. The second day of redemption is the resurrection of the body.

F. There are five sins against the Holy Spirit.

1. Two of the sins against the Holy Spirit are committed by unbelievers.

a. Resistance of the Holy Spirit, Acts 7:51, “You men, who are stubborn and uncircumcised in heart, and ears always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just what your ancestors did.” This is rejection of the truth of the gospel, the Spirit’s ministry of common grace, in which the Spirit makes the gospel understandable to the spiritually dead unbeliever.

b. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Mt 12:14-32. This is ascribing to the human nature of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union the works of Satan. This is tantamount to religious unbelievers rejecting Jesus Christ as savior. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is being under the influence of satanic concepts.

2. Three of the sins against the Holy Spirit are committed by believers.

a. Lying to the Holy Spirit, Acts 5:3. This is competition among believers, in which we allege to do things which we have not done.

b. Grieving the Holy Spirit, Eph 4:30.

c. Suppressing the Holy Spirit, 1 Thes 5:19.

G. The Troublemaker or Worthless Person, Prov 6:12-15.

1. Verse 12, “A worthless person, a wicked man walks around with a false mouth,”

a. A troublemaker, locked into reversionism, is arrogant, bitter, jealous, implacable, vindictive, geared up for revenge.

b. A worthless person is an evil man; therefore, full of approbation lust, power lust, inordinate ambition.

c. Goaded by malice, he finds ways to put his false mouth into action in maligning and judging others.

2. Verse 13, “Who winks with his eyes, who scraps with his feet, Who points with his fingers;” Winking the eye, scrapping with the feet and pointing with the finger were all acts of ridicule in the ancient world. These were all body language designed to belittle someone with pettiness.

3. Verse 14, “with perversity in his heart he devises evil continually, and sows strife.”

4. Verse 15, “Therefore his calamity will come suddenly; Instantly he will be broken beyond healing [the sin unto death].” God does not consider all sins as equal. Some sins are far worse than others as can be seen by their punishment.

H. God does not consider all sins as the same—the sins that God hates, Prov 6:16-19.

1. Verse 16, “There are six things that the Lord hates. And seven are an abomination to His soul:” Hatred is an anthropopathism. God’s soul is an anthropomorphism. God does not hate, nor does He have a soul.

2. Verse 17, “Eyes being arrogant, a slandering tongue of lies, And hands that shed innocent blood,”

a. Eyes are the window of the soul. The soul is where arrogance starts and will eventually show itself on the outside

(1) These sins manifest themselves overtly after they are well established in the soul.

(2) 1 Tim 6:3-4, “If anyone teaches a different doctrine (and they do) and does not concur with sound doctrine, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, even doctrine pertaining to the spiritual life, he has become puffed up and understands nothing; furthermore he has a morbid obsession about controversies and verbal conflicts, from which inordinate jealousy, discord, evil suspicions occur.”

(3) Rom 12:3, “For I say through the grace which has been given to me to everyone who is among you stop thinking of self in terms of arrogance beyond what you ought to think; but think in terms of sanity, as God has assigned to each believer a standard of thinking from doctrine.”

b. The slandering tongue of lies is gossip, maligning, judging.

c. Hands that shed innocent blood is murder—the only overt sin.

3. Verse 18, “A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil,” Evil is the policy and plan of Satan which disguises itself as good. “Feet that run rapidly to evil” is the believer involved in criminality.

4. Verse 19, “A false witness who speaks lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.” This is lying under oath in a court of law.

5. Some sins will obviously receive greater punishment than others because the justice of God is fair in punishment with regard to every kind of sin.

I. Divine Discipline.

1. Heb 12:4-6, “Not yet to the point of blood have you formed a battle line in your face-to-face combat against sin; and so you have forgotten the principle of doctrine which is addressed to you as sons, ‘My son, stop despising the punishment of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He punishes, And He flogs every son whom He receives with love.’”

a. The Greek word ANTIKATHISTEMI means “to form a battle line; to place up opposition.” It is a military term. It refers to the deployment of all the problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul. The word PARADECHOMAI means to receive someone with love.

(1) Man’s sinfulness and failure do not change God’s love for us.

(2) Even God’s pre-knowledge of our sins and failures in eternity past cannot cancel or diminish God’s love for us.

(3) Because God is perfect and absolute righteousness and integrity, His love cannot be prejudice, unfair, or discriminatory. God’s love is without partiality.

(4) God’s love is eternally consistent. God’s love does not improve or decline. Therefore, rejection of God’s love never results in any form of sinful or evil reaction from God.

(5) Punitive action from God toward us does not imply any change in God’s love.

(6) God’s love is never disappointed, never frustrated, never distracted. Divine love is never sustained by human attractiveness, good behavior, human rapport, merit, or worthiness.

(7) God’s love is never turned into any form of antagonism toward us because of our failures, because we still have the imputation of His love.

b. You are intimately involved in face-to-face combat against sin. We are punished when we fail in this combat.

c. We are under divine punishment because we forget the principle of doctrine not to despise the discipline of the Lord. We are never to despise punishment from God.

d. Jn 14:25-26, “These things [Bible doctrine of the Church Age] I [Jesus Christ] have spoken to you for your benefit while remaining with you [the disciples]. But the Mentor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and He will cause you to remember all that I have said to you.”

(1) Doctrine is more to our benefit than anything else in life. Nothing is more important than the memory pathways of Bible doctrine in our soul.

(2) Memory must be preceded by thought, because the spiritual life is a system of thought.

(3) The all things that the Holy Spirit teaches you and causes you to remember are those things which count, the spiritual things of Church Age doctrine.

(4) God the Holy Spirit causes us to remember the things we have been taught, if we are faithful in taking in the word of God.

e. The Principle of Memory.

(1) The Holy Spirit causes us to remember the principles of doctrine.

(2) Carnality causes us to forget the principles of doctrine.

(3) We have both short term and long term memory.

(4) Memory is developed by repetition. We must also have a self-discipline, which is given to us by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We must have a set of values that makes Bible doctrine more important than anything in life. We learn from a spiritual I.Q., which has nothing to do with human I.Q.

(5) Thought pathways are developed through repetition and develop into memory pathways. There is a difference between understanding a doctrine and developing a memory pathway of a doctrine. Repetition makes the difference. We cannot build another doctrine on a previous doctrine until we have developed a memory pathway.

(6) We must have memory pathways because we are always going to be tested by suffering for blessing.

(7) The mind gradually accumulates memory pathways, and it is the accumulation of these memory pathways that is called the learning process. Learning is always a process of self-discipline.

(8) It is the memory pathways which develop the doctrines that advance us to spiritual maturity, PLEROMA status, glorification of God, makes our life meaningful, gives us a phenomenal scale of values, and a battle line that never loses.

(9) The rate of learning is the rate at which the individual develops new memories. Knowing and understanding a principle is not enough. We have not learned it until we can remember it and use it. Long term memory requires repetition.

(10) Repetition.

(a) Repetition is an act of repeated utterance or reiteration.

(b) Repetition is what you learn after you know it all.

© The reason for repetition is that the rate of learning must always exceed the rate of forgetting for the inculcation of Bible doctrine. (d) Inculcation is defined as: to impress by repeated statement and therefore to teach persistently and earnestly.

(e) Inculcation is the difference between being a well informed congregation and a great congregation.

(f) You cannot apply what you have not learned. Believers go to emotion because they have not learned and therefore cannot apply doctrine. There is no emotion that will benefit you or take the place of the perception, metabolization, and application of epignosis-type doctrine.

(g) Only what is perspicuous can be applied to your life. Therefore, perspicacity must precede both application of doctrine and spiritual growth.

(h) You can only apply what you do not forget. Repetition never bothers a believer’s spiritual momentum. It increases his spiritual momentum opportunity.

(11) Lam 3:20-26, “Surely my soul remembers And is humbled within me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have confidence. The unfailing mercies of the Lord never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. My soul says, ‘The Lord is my portion. Therefore I have confidence in Him.’ The Lord is good to those who trust in Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good therefore to wait and to be silent for the deliverance of the Lord.”

(12) Col 1:25b-27, “that I might communicate to you the word of God in its fullness [Church Age doctrine], that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the confidence of glory.”

(13) 2 Pet 1:13, “I consider it my solemn duty, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to arouse you by means of reminder.”

J. Rejecting rebound turns sin into evil, 2 Tim 2:26-3:7.

1. 2 Tim 2:26, “and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after having been captured by him to do his will.”

a. Coming to one’s senses is used here for returning to the function of rebound as a carnal believer.

b. Believers here are those who have been captured by the devil. These are born-again believers doing the will of Satan under demon influence.

c. Rebound is the recovery of the filling of the Spirit, the restoration of fellowship with God, and the resumption of the spiritual life.

d. The snare of the devil usually comes from perpetual carnality as described in 1 Cor 3:1-3.

e. The rejection of rebound changes the category of an individual sin from a relatively innocuous sin into a great system of evil. Sins change their colors as one rejects rebound. Rejection of rebound causes each sin of the carnal believer to change into a greater category of evil and every stage of reversionism is reinforced.

f. When captured by Satan through perpetual carnality, sins that were the same are no longer the same; they have been parlayed into evil by grieving and quenching the Spirit.

g. This is what happens in the arrogance of legalism, the arrogance of activism. What began as good works becomes dead works and evil.

2. 2 Tim 3:1, “But know this, that in the last days difficult times are immanent, namely:”

a. Sin amplified is the expansion of sin to a state of perpetual carnality. Sin intensified occurs to a vehement and often extreme degree as carnality expanded without restraint until the last days of the sin become the sin unto death.

b. The “last days” mentioned here can be three things:

(1) It can be eschatological and refer to the Tribulation or latter part of the millennium. This is an impossible interpretation because the context will not permit it. The context is talking about the sins of the believer in the Church Age in every generation.

(2) It can refer to historical trends of the Church Age. That would mean that it would have to refer to one special period of the Church Age, the trends that would lead to the resurrection of the Church. This violates the doctrine of the immanency of the Rapture. It also violates the principle that these sins have occurred since the beginning of the Church Age and in every generation of the Church Age.

(3) The last days are the days when any believer, who is in perpetual carnality and has rejected rebound after warning and intensive discipline, continues in carnality and is in the status of the sin face-to- face with death.

c. The last days here refers to the administration of the sin unto death. 1 Jn 5:16, “If anyone sees his fellow believer committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin face-to-face with death (resulting in death, leading to death). I do not say that he should make request for this.” It is a sin not rebounded which begins to grow.

(1) The sin not leading to death involves rebound and keep moving. Where intimacy exists, one believer can pray for another believer who is not committing a sin face-to-face with death. The sin face-to-face with death is not subject to prayer. Only the carnal believer can rebound and leave the decision in the hands of the supreme court of heaven. This indicates that all sins are not the same.

(2) When we sin, the sin nature takes control of the soul and two things can happen to that sin. That sin can be parlayed into the sin unto death, or that sin can lead to other sins, producing a chain of sins which also lead to the sin unto death, or you can have a combination of the two things.

(3) 1 Jn 5:17, “All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not face-to-face with death.”

d. The phrase “difficult times” could refer to the pressures we face, the testings we have to advance, suffering for blessing, and suffering for punishment. In this case we have a reference to the last days of perpetual carnality.

e. The believer’s vulnerability to the various categories of apostasy are involved here. These are sins related to reversionism. These are the sins of a frantic search for happiness and emotional revolt of the soul.

f. 1 Jn 5:18 says, “We know that everyone who has been born from God does not sin; but He [Jesus Christ] who has been born from God guards him, and the evil one [Satan] does not snatch him away.”

(1) This verse seems to contradict the previous two verses. This is an apparent but not a real contradiction. This is the application of two spheres of antithetical conclusion from two categories of the doctrine of sanctification. John was answering the question, “In which sphere of sanctification does the free will of the believer function?” This is important because in whichever sphere of sanctification the believer’s free will functions, that is the sphere where he can sin.

(a) In positional sanctification and ultimate sanctification no believer can sin.

(b) The believer can only sin in the sphere of experiential sanctification.

(2) To understand the meaning of this passage, we must keep in mind the apostle’s stated purpose of writing the epistle. The first purpose is harmonious rapport with God, and is stated in 1 Jn 1:3-4, “what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you too may have fellowship in association with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, that our joy may be brought to completion.”

(3) The reality that believer’s sin is clearly stated in 1 Jn 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” and 1 Jn 1:10, “If we say that we have no sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” This refers to experiential sanctification in which our volition is very much involved. In positional sanctification our volition is not involved at all.

(4) The second stated purpose of John is found in 1 Jn 5:11- 13, “These things I have written to you who believe in the person of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.”

(5) The doctrine of sanctification answers this problem.

(a) Sanctification means to be set apart unto God.

(b) There are three categories of sanctification: positional sanctification, experiential sanctification, and ultimate sanctification.

© Positional sanctification means you are entered into union with Christ and share everything He has: His destiny, His inheritance, His priesthood, His eternal life, etc. It occurs by the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. Positional sanctification is the means of eternal security, Rom 8:38-39. Our volition does not function in positional sanctification; it only functions in experiential sanctification. Positional sanctification is the place of no sin. In positional sanctification we do not sin, 1 Cor 1:2.

(d) Experiential sanctification is the spiritual life of the Church Age believer. This is the filling of the Holy Spirit.

(e) Ultimate sanctification is the believer in the eternal state in resurrection body.

(6) In 1 Jn 5:20 we must distinguish between no sin in positional sanctification and the postsalvation sins in the status of experiential sanctification. In experiential sanctification we have free will and lose the status of experiential sanctification when we sin. “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us spiritual understanding, in order that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This One is the true God and eternal life.” There is no sin in positional sanctification. There is no sin in ultimate sanctification.

(7) Only under experiential sanctification can the believer use his volition to sin. All sin is committed under experiential sanctification and all punishment for sin is based on this principle. So we have to push through a pretty tough barrier to sin. That is why we get punished. We do not get punished for the sin. We are punished for dishonoring the Lord through sin. We are punished for grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit.

(8) No believer is punished for his personal sin; for they were all judged on the Cross. Forgiveness for postsalvation sins is based on acknowledging those sins judged on the Cross, but punishment is based on failure to fulfill the principle of experiential sanctification. We are punished because the sin nature controls the soul. We are punished for failing to use volition in the power of the filling of the Spirit to execute the mandates of the unique spiritual life.

(9) The Church Age believer cannot sin in the sphere of positional sanctification. The believer can only sins in the sphere of experiential sanctification where volition is tested by temptation.

3. 2 Tim 3:2, “For persons will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,”

a. A lover of self is someone who wants to know: what will make me happy? Who can make me happy? I am important.

b. They think that the more money they have the happier they will be.

c. They have no genuine gratitude, no respect for authority. They are totally unteachable.

4. 2 Tim 3:3, “unloving (no capacity for love), implacable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of intrinsic good,”

5. 2 Tim 3:4, “treacherous, thoughtless, pumped up with arrogance, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,”

a. There is nothing wrong with pleasure as such.

b. If the pleasure of the moment is sin, that pleasure is not worth the displeasure of God.

c. To destroy virtue and integrity of the spiritual life through unconfessed sin is the arrogance of robbing yourself of capacity for life, love, and true happiness.

6. 2 Tim 3:5, “who adhere to a superficial form of the spiritual life, although they have denied its power; Avoid such persons as these.”

a. Perpetual carnality denies the power of the spiritual life.

b. Denying the power of the spiritual life is grieving and quenching the Spirit, as well as lying to the Spirit.

7. 2 Tim 3:6, “For among them are those who creep into homes and seduce silly women overwhelmed with their sins, led on by various lusts,”

8. 2 Tim 3:7, “always learning but never able to come to the epignosis knowledge of doctrine.”

K. Carnality loses rewards, not salvation.

1. Gal 1:6, “I am amazed that you have so soon deserted Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for another of a different kind of gospel.”

a. The Galatians were responsive to the gospel and warm-hearted. But they were also fickle and famous for religious gullibility.

b. They were in legalism up to their ears, and now believed that circumcision was necessary for salvation. The Judaizers worked on the Galatians until they had the Galatians believing that they were saved by keeping the Mosaic Law.

2. Gal 2:16, “Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; for by the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified.” 3. Gal 3:3, “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, will you now end up in the sin nature?”

a. At the moment of salvation each Galatian believer was filled with the Spirit. They began the spiritual life in the filling of the Spirit.

b. Paul asks them if they will end up under the control of the sin nature in their spiritual life.

c. There are seven ministries of the Holy Spirit to the believer which begin at the moment of salvation.

(1) The ministry of efficacious grace, in which God the Holy Spirit takes our non-meritorious faith in Christ and makes it effective for salvation.

(2) The ministry of regeneration, in which God the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit for the imputation of eternal life by God the Father to that human spirit.

(3) The ministry of sealing, in which God the Holy Spirit provides a signature guarantee of five things at salvation. Eph 1:13-14; 4:30.

(a) The Holy Spirit provides divine confirmation that you are saved. He guarantees our salvation.

(b) The Holy Spirit guarantees our possession of eternal life.

(d) The Holy Spirit guarantees we have a portfolio of invisible assets.

(e) The Holy Spirit guarantees His mentorship under the same principle as the spiritual life of the human nature of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. We are the heir of that wonderful spiritual life and that spiritual life is guaranteed to us by the Spirit.

(4) The ministry of indwelling, in which the Holy Spirit indwells us to provide a temple for the indwelling of God the Father and God the Son. (5) The ministry of distribution of spiritual gifts, in which the Holy Spirit gives us a spiritual gift at the moment of salvation.

(6) The ministry of the filling of the Spirit.

(7) The ministry of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, in which the Spirit enters us into union with Christ. Acts 1:5; 1 Cor 12:13; Eph 4:4-5.

4. Gal 5:4, “You have been alienated from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have drifted off course from grace.”

5. Gal 5:12, “Would that those [the Judaizers] who are upsetting you would even castrate themselves.” As the priests of Sybille, who castrated themselves to please their false gods, Paul expresses the logical result of going the wrong way in an unattainable wish that the Judaizers would go beyond circumcision and castrate themselves.

6. Gal 5:16-21, “But I say, keep on walking by means of the Spirit, and you will not gratify the lusts of the flesh [sin nature]. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit makes war against the flesh; and these are in opposition to each other, and as a result you cannot do the things that you wish to do [the will of God]. However, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the actions of the sin nature [flesh] are plainly seen, which are: fornication-adultery [all sex outside of marriage], abnormal sexual sins [homosexuality, incest, etc.], licentious debauchery [the phallic cult], idolatry, sorcery, antagonisms, discord, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, troublemakers, heresies, envious feelings, drunkenness, orgies, and similar things. I warn you now, as I did before, that they who keep on practicing these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

a. Some scholars say this is a problem passage. It is not.

b. The Holy Spirit is the personal agent by which we execute the spiritual life.

c. The lusts of the sin nature are power lust, approbation lust, sexual lust, pleasure lust, chemical lust, monetary lust, crusader lust, inordinate ambition leading to inordinate competition, and criminal lust.

d. The sexual sins are mentioned first because the highest function of the believer in marriage is corporate testimony. Satan’s first great attack was on marriage. Christian marriage is the greatest testimony against Satan in his appeal trial. Sex was designed for recreation in marriage.

e. All of the sins listed here are committed by believers. Believers in perpetual carnality keep on practicing these things.

f. This does not say we shall not inherit eternal life, but the kingdom of God. We have eternal life as believers. The kingdom of God and eternal life are not the same thing. You cannot lose eternal life, but there is something in the kingdom of God you can lose. This does not refer to loss of salvation. What does “not inheriting the kingdom of God” mean?

(1) The kingdom of God refers to the eternal state of Church Age believers. No sin can cause you to lose your salvation. If you have believed in Christ, you are saved and there is nothing you can do to lose your salvation. There are three false conclusions of believers regarding sin:

(a) “Sin in the life means I am not saved.” They are shocked by their own sins after salvation.

(b) “Sin in the life means I must add something to faith in Christ before I am saved.” They think that faith alone is not enough for salvation and they must do something. This is works.

(2) All of these sins are sins committed by believers. All of these sins went to the Cross and were judged by God the Father. We cannot be judged for them. But this does not mean that we get away with anything. But are not punished for the sin itself, but for grieving the Holy Spirit, for letting the sin nature take over control of the soul. The punishments become unbearable as you neglect rebound.

(3) This is addressed to believers and believers cannot lose their salvation. But believers can lose their eternal inheritance—their escrow blessings for time and eternity. We have an inheritance at the moment we believe. We have eternal life the moment we believe. You can lose your inheritance through carnality, but you cannot lose your eternal life.

(4) The interpretive word in Gal 5:21 is the word “inherit.” You are given an inheritance at the moment of salvation, but it is not part of the irrevocable blessings. Rewards are based on the fulfillment of the postsalvation spiritual life, and they do not belong to positional sanctification. You can lose your rewards, but not your eternal life. Inheritance is related to our escrow blessings, not salvation.

(a) Who inherits the kingdom of God? The children of God.

(b) Who are the children of God? Gal 3:26, “For you are all the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

(d) Why did God provide this inheritance and then make it questionable as to whether or not we receive it? Because it requires living the spiritual life of our Lord Jesus Christ in true humanity.

(e) We cannot lose our eternal life received at salvation, but we can fail to receive our heritage through failure to glorify God in time through the execution of the spiritual life.

(5) The interpretive doctrine is the doctrine of eternal rewards.

(6) The interpretive phrase is found in Rev 3:11, “I will come suddenly [Rapture]. Hold fast to what you have that you may not lose your crown.” The royal priesthood has an irrevocable inheritance which you can lose. If you execute the spiritual life, then you receive your inheritance in the kingdom of God. If you fail to execute the spiritual life, then your inheritance in the kingdom of God remains on deposit in the kingdom as an eternal memorial to your equal opportunity.

(7) There are parallel passages that help interpret this passage.

(a) 1 Pet 2:5,9 tell us that every believer is a priest, a kingdom of royal priests. We are a royal priesthood and represent ourselves before God. Rev 1:6 says God made us a kingdom of priests. Rev 5:10 says that believers who execute the spiritual life will rule with Christ.

(b) Rom 8:16-17a, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our [human] spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.” How did our Lord get His inheritance? He fulfilled the unique spiritual life of all human history. We have to execute His spiritual life to receive our inheritance.

i. Eternal life is a pre-salvation issue resolved by faith alone in Christ alone.

ii. Inheritance is a postsalvation issue resolved by execution of the unique spiritual life of the Church Age through the filling of the Holy Spirit.

© 1 Pet 1:3-5, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who on the basis of His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are guarded by the power of God through faith resulting in salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” Believers who execute the spiritual life of the Church Age receive their inheritance and rule with Christ in the millennium. If you do not execute the spiritual life, your inheritance remains in heaven forever as a memorial to lost equal privilege and opportunity to execute the unique spiritual life of all human history.

i. Certain distinctions must be understood. At the moment of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone every believer receives forgiveness of all pre-salvation sins, thirty-nine irrevocable absolutes plus the filling of the Spirit, which is the divine power for the execution of the unique spiritual life of human history.

ii. The irrevocable absolutes includes our heritage, and are not changed by our failures.

iii. What can be lost through perpetual carnality and liability to the law of double punishment is the eternal rewards and greater blessings of the eternal state. These will be denied to the loser believer as a memorial to lost equal opportunity to execute the spiritual life.

iv. Every believer has eternal security at the moment of faith alone in Christ alone, Jn 10:28. He can lose his eternal inheritance, but not his salvation.

v. Salvation through faith alone in Christ alone includes this inheritance of greater blessings, which can be removed at the evaluation seat of Christ.

vi. Failure to rebound and keep moving results in failure to attain rewards with reference to the resurrection of the Church. vii. God the Father gave Jesus Christ an inheritance—the royal family. We are his inheritance. We were also given an inheritance as a joint-heir with Christ. Our inheritance is held in escrow for us until we fulfill the conditions of the escrow. The conditions of the escrow are the execution of the spiritual life of the Church Age, and we all have equal opportunity to do so.

(d) Phil 3:11, “if somehow I may attain [my inheritance] at the point of the exit-resurrection from the dead.”

i. Loss of eternal rewards does not imply loss of eternal life.

ii. The carnal believer loses the greater blessings of the eternal state—his inheritance. But he does not lose his salvation or the lesser blessings of the eternal state.

iii. The loser believer can lose his greater rewards, but he cannot lose the eternal state of salvation. There is no excuse for losing these rewards, because we all have equal opportunity. Every believer has enough time for equal opportunity.

iv. The eternal heritage or rewards and special blessings are given to the winner believer and invisible hero of the Church Age at the BEMA. The BEMA is the Latin word for the platform from which the Roman army commander gave out the rewards and decorations after a battle.

(e) 2 Cor 5:10, “For we must all appear before the evaluation throne of Christ that each one of us may be rewarded for his accomplishments in the body whether good of intrinsic value or worthless.”

i. Salvation includes both eternal life and eternal inheritance. Eternal life is irrevocable. We can lose the benefits of the our eternal inheritance because of our failure to execute the spiritual life

. ii. Eternal life is irrevocable and cannot be rescinded. On the other hand, we have an inheritance in the eternal state which can be revoked.

(f) Rev 3:11, “I will come suddenly [the Rapture]. Hold fast to what you have that you may not lose your crown.” There is a category of divine wealth which you can lose.

i. God tells us to “hold on to what we have.” Therefore, there must be a right place to put that wealth.

ii. This wealth is said to be “in the saints” Eph 1:18.

iii. Your crown is “the riches of the glory of His inheritance.”

iv. If you fail to execute the spiritual life, you will have your inheritance, but you will never be able to touch it in eternity; for it will remain on deposit in escrow.

v. These riches are permanent, and only get better in resurrection body for those who execute the spiritual life.

vi. Jesus Christ indwells as the guarantee of these riches of His glory.

vii. These riches are the wisdom and knowledge of God, the thinking of Christ 1 Cor 2:16. Bible doctrine in your soul is wealth, the wealth you can take with you to heaven. Bible doctrine metabolized in the soul is the greatest wealth in the world.

(g) 1 Cor 3:11-15, “For no man [believer] can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man [believer] builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s [believer’s] actions will become known; for the day will reveal it because it will be revealed by fire, in fact the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s [believer’s] accomplishment. If any man’s [believer’s] accomplishment which he has built on it [the foundation] remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s [believer’s] accomplishment is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.”

i. This passage describes the carnal believer’s loss of eternal rewards, but not his loss of salvation.

ii. The foundation is salvation through faith alone in Christ alone. We build on the foundation with the unique spiritual life of all human history.

iii. Gold, silver, precious stones represent the utilization of the two power options, the function of the three spiritual skills, and the application of the spiritual life through the ten problem solving devices. Wood, hay, and stubble represent warning punishment, intensive punishment, and the sin face-to-face with death. The wood, hay, and stubble can also represent the three arrogance skills—self- justification, self-deception, and self-absorption. Everything we have done in carnality will be burned up and destroyed.

iv. When we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, we will assume the responsibility for our failure to execute the spiritual life, because there is no excuse for failure. We have rebound and the ability to get up and keep fighting. We never let failure keep us down.

v. The loss we suffer is loss of inheritance. But we are still saved. Our inheritance is deposited in an escrow in heaven, waiting for us to fulfill the conditions of the escrow.

(h) Heb 10:35-36, “Therefore, do not throw away as worthless your confidence, which keeps on having distribution of blessing. For you keep on having need of staying power, so that when you have accomplished the will of God, you may receive what was promised.”

i. Our confidence is our personal sense of destiny in knowing that the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit is the only way of fulfilling the unique spiritual life of the Church Age and of receiving our eternal inheritance.

ii. Doing the will of God is executing the unique spiritual life of the Church Age. When we do this, we receive what was promised—our inheritance.

g. The Galatians had two categories of perpetual carnality, well defined in terms of partial depravity and the trends of the sin nature.

(1) Partial depravity is defined as the believer in the status of perpetual carnality, minus the use of rebound. He is therefore liable to the punishment of the supreme court of heaven.

(2) Partial depravity is distinguished from total depravity which describes the unbeliever in the status of total separation from God and total helplessness to do anything about it apart from faith alone in Christ alone. 7. Eph 1:1-3, 14, 18; Col 1:26-27.

a. Eph 1:1-3, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints [royal family] who are at Ephesus, especially to the faithful [those in spiritual adulthood] in Christ Jesus: Grace to you for your benefit and prosperity [escrow blessings] from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Worthy of praise and glorification is the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing [our escrow blessings as part of our portfolio of invisible assets] in heavenly places [location of the escrow deposit] in Christ.”

b. Eph 1:14, “who is the guarantee of our inheritance for the release of your assets for the praise of His glory.”

c. Eph 1:18, “I also pray that the eyes of your right lobe may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the confidence of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,”

d. Eph 3:14, “that He would give you on the basis of the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner person.”

e. Eph 3:16, “that He would give you, on the basis of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.” This is your spiritual life. This is a wealth for beyond anything in this life. You can take your eternal inheritance with you to heaven.

f. Eph 3:19, “and to know the love for Christ [occupation with Christ] which surpasses knowledge [epignosis], with the result that you may be filled up with all the fullness of blessing from God.”

g. Phil 4:19, “My God will supply all of your needs on the basis of His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

h. Col 1:26-27, “that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past dispensations and generations, but has now been revealed to His saints, to whom God willed to make known to us what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the confidence of glory.”

i. 1 Cor 2:9, “However, as it stands written, `Things which the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

j. Prov 8:18, “With Me are riches and honor in eternal wealth and prosperity.”

k. Rom 11:33-34, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the thinking of the Lord, or who has become His counselor?” The riches of God are wisdom, thought, the knowledge of God. You can take something with you to heaven which is far more valuable than anything this world has ever known or considers valuable. You can lose everything in life that people consider valuable, but you do not have to lose your eternal inheritance. God does not lack for any category of wealth.

L. Punishment and Suffering.

1. We suffer for two reasons.

a. Punishment.

(1) One of the greatest things that can ever happen to us is to be punished by God.

(2) When He punishes us, if we handle that punishment as we should (rebound and keep moving), the punishment is turned into fantastic blessing. The punishment often continues but it is suffering for blessing, and therefore, it often becomes a wonderful thing.

(3) Sickness in suffering is often related to postsalvation sinning. Never judge someone else’s suffering as being punishment.

(4) There is no partiality with God in punishment, Col 3:25, “For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of that wrong, and there is with God no partiality.”

b. Suffering for blessing.

(1) 1 Cor 10:13, “No testing has overtaken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tested beyond your capability, but with the testing will provide the solution also, so that you may be able to endure it.”

(a) God selects certain people to glorify Him through testing.

(b) When we are under testing to glorify God, God is always faithful to us. Whatever the testing is, you can handle it.

(2) 2 Cor 12:7-9, “For this reason, that I should not become arrogant because of the extraordinary quality of revelations that I should not become arrogant, there was given me for my benefit a thorn in the flesh, an angel from Satan that he might torment me that I should not become arrogant! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might go away from me. And He has said to me, `My grace has been and still is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

(a) In the thorn in the flesh suffering of the apostle Paul, he was given maximum testing. Probably a testing few believers ever receive because of the tremendous impact of his life and his advance in the spiritual life.

(b) Paul was not arrogant, but because he knew so much doctrine, it was always a potential.

(d) After God’s answer, Paul came to the elative conclusion—"Most gladly, therefore, I will rather...” The superlative adverb HEDISTA, “most gladly” is designed to include the absolute. It includes the divine solution. God’s solutions are absolute solution. The divine solution, therefore, is the only solution. The inferential conjunction OUN follows and is translated “therefore.” The comparative adverb MALLON follows and means “rather.” This adverb excludes the relative, that is, the human solution.

(e) The divine solution is the only solution. The human solution is no solution. What the righteousness of God demands (the divine solution), the justice of God provides through the love of God in eternity past (antecedent grace) and given by the grace of God through the problem solving devices on the FLOT line of the soul. When you deploy all the problem solving devices, you will be tested. That testing will break the back of Satan once again.

2. If you keep on sinning without rebound, you will not execute the spiritual life, you will grieve the Holy Spirit, and that will perpetuate itself into quenching the Holy Spirit, and you will be punished. But if you rebound, you will continue the spiritual life and continue to grow. Rebound is the opportunity from grace to keep moving, and we do it through suffering.

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