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It has often been said that the first question with a soul is Heaven or Hell? We can all understand John Bunyan’s Pilgrim running to the wicket gate with his fingers in his ears lest any voice should persuade him to turn back. It was heaven or hell with him; his eternal weal or woe was at stake...

We first learn the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ, and then at a much slower and longer pace we learn its understanding and all that accompanies it. The knowledge remains the same but understanding it is progressively unceasing, and the level of conscious use concerning salvation will be...

What are we to learn from the earthly tabernacle and its carnal sacrifices (9:9, 10)? We are not left to give our own interpretation, but are definitely told that the Holy Spirit has signified their true meaning. First, we are to learn that the services of the tabernacle clearly show that, under...

At the passage of the Red Sea, the waves fled before Israel; at the passage of the Jordan River, the flood was driven back out of Israel’s sight. The Red Sea was God’s way of power for bringing His people out from their slavery; the Jordan was His way of power for bringing them into the fullness...

Growth in grace is a very remarkable work—the work of the Father. “He that hath wrought us for this very thing is God” (2 Co 5:5). We are to “desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow thereby.” It is not merely seeing the meaning of the Word, or its exposing us to ourselves, as a man...

No amount of valor and service will give you the mind of the Lord. The ten thousand who followed Gideon did not know his mind; it was only the three hundred who did; it was not until the nine thousand and seven hundred had gone back that he said, “As I do so shall ye do” (Jud 7:17). The order of...

It cannot be work then receive, for how can one work without having received that which is required to know and do the work? It can only be work after receiving, for works do not produce faith, but the inverse is true. The work involves, not our attaining nor retaining faith and salvation but...

There is no time like the present for you to begin resting in your Father’s presence. He sees you there, in His beloved Son. It is a simple, scriptural matter of seeing yourself there “in full assurance of faith” (Heb 10:22). You are there in glory before the Father; not in the flesh, not in the...

There can be no complete knowledge of the Father’s “acceptance” until there is complete understanding concerning its eternal aspect. Though all believer’s possess “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pe 1:3), they can walk consciously only in accordance to what their understanding...

Even though believers are free from the guilt (Rom 8:1) and dominion (Rom 6:12, 14) of sin, there will yet remain to some degree a level of bondage in the “conscience,” until the all-sufficient expiation of sin by Christ is learned concerning the once-applied Blood (Heb 10:2, 10). The more the...

It is not the work of the Holy Spirit to purify (the Spirit during His work of rebirth applies the Blood and the life of Christ (Col 3:4—NC), but to testify to the Blood of the Lord Jesus as having purified. The Spirit comes to the saints as the witness of their cleanness, not as the producer of...

What parents could there be that would desire their child to earn love and favor from them in place of merely receiving it? These can never be earned since love and favor are antecedent to anything children do, and seeing that this acceptance is unattainable by any action (other than faith...

If I look at the Lord Jesus’ walk on earth, everything He did was to consummate the will of His Father; and He did it. Now what is He thinking of? Not my position before the Father, for that He has accomplished in His work on the Cross. It is my condition here He is thinking of. You may say, but...

There’s the “being” (Mary - Luk 10:42) and then the “doing” (Martha - v 41), and the more we are established in the former, the more maturity the latter will reveal. It’s an axiom that there can be no doing in Christ if there is no being in Him at all, and the significance to the doing is...

Though the Bible sets forth the divine requirements for human conduct in each dispensation, there are these extended systems of divine government which in succession cover the period of human history, from the time when the first written Scriptures were given to the end of the mediatorial reign...

The Greek usage for “justify” has two primary definitions* and in all cases for all words the context determines the usage. I) to render one to be righteous; II) to show or manifest one has been rendered righteous. Since there is only One who is just, it is only He who can render one to be...

God not only “forgives” but also “cleanses,” that is, ”from all unrighteousness” and “sin”. Since “all unrighteousness is sin” (1 Jhn 5:17) it’s my opinion that the “cleansing” is in the removal, not of the sin nature, but of the guilt and condemnation of sin, where God’s “grace does much more...

It is a great thing to be able to apprehend the particular lesson which the Lord is teaching us at the moment. Since we are going on with Him, we will be learning something. It is not merely that spiritual health is preserved in order that one may the more effectually learn. In the early stages...

The function of the “resurrection” is to join a spirit being with a new indestructible physical body, similar (maybe exactly) to man’s body prior to sinning. It’s also true that believers and unbelievers will both receive a resurrected body (John 5:28, 29), but not both will have “eternal life”...

“The Lord is my strength and my song, and He is become my salvation” (Ex 15:2). The salvation of the Father puts us in a place where the oppressor can never reach us, because it positions us in the place and acceptance of Christ risen. When you see that, every question as to divine righteousness...