Redeeming God

Liberating you from bad ideas about God

Learn the MOST ESSENTIAL truths for following Jesus.

Get FREE articles and audio teachings in my discipleship emails!


  • Join Us!
  • Scripture
  • Theology
  • My Books
  • About
  • Discipleship
  • Courses
    • What is Hell?
    • Skeleton Church
    • The Gospel According to Scripture
    • The Gospel Dictionary
    • The Re-Justification of God
    • What is Prayer?
    • Adventures in Fishing for Men
    • What are the Spiritual Gifts?
    • How to Study the Bible
    • Courses FAQ
  • Forum
    • Introduce Yourself
    • Old Testament
    • New Testament
    • Theology Questions
    • Life & Ministry

3 Good Things about Divine Discipline

By Jeremy Myers
1 Comment

3 Good Things about Divine Discipline

When we sin willfully and rebel against God, He continues to love and forgive us. But there are natural consequences to our disobedience, one of which is broken fellowship and communion with God, which may reveal itself in our inability to pray.

disciplined by God

In many situations, of course, God may choose to discipline us. But discipline is a reminder that God loves us, for God disciplines those He loves (Heb 12:6).

Discipline is never pleasant, but we must remember that discipline is another form of God’s love, and furthermore, God’s discipline often serves as a means of deliverance.

Discipline is often one of the ways God delivers us from committing even greater sins that will mess up and destroy our lives in even greater ways. So deliverance and discipline often come from the same source.

Take Jonah as an example.

Jonah in belly of fishIn Jonah 1:17, Jonah finds himself in the belly of a great fish. It could not have been fun. Jonah had sinned terribly against God, and certainly saw his presence in the fish as a form of discipline. But it was also a form of deliverance. God rescued Jonah from death, which is what Jonah thanks God for in chapter 2. Jonah does not learn as much as he could have or should have while he was in the belly of the fish, but at least he learned that God was not going to let him escape his responsibility to preach to Nineveh. So when God called Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh, Jonah went (3:1-2).

This is similar to what happens when we face the discipline of God. We may get placed in a holding pattern until we choose to follow God. We may get sidelines from the major events in the Kingdom of God until we decide to play by God’s rules.

[Read more…]

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Commentary on Jonah

Advertisement

When You Cannot Pray

By Jeremy Myers
2 Comments

When You Cannot Pray

cannot prayThough God freely forgives all our sins, past, present, and future, this does not mean that there are no consequences for disobeying God.

One consequence of sin is that it damages our relationship with God and our ability to take things to Him in prayer. Jonah again is a perfect example of this.

One of the curious contrasts between Jonah and the sailors in Jonah 1 is that Jonah, a prophet of God, a member of the chosen people, refuses to pray to God when his life is threatened, but the pagan, idol-worshiping sailors not only pray to their own deities, but also pray to Yahweh when they learn that it is He who sent the storm. While we could certainly chalk their prayers up to “foxhole conversions” (though I do not believe they were actually “converted”), this only amplifies the fact that Jonah himself does not pray! Everyone prays when their life is threatened, but Jonah does not.

Instead, Jonah sleeps. He sulks. He gives half-hearted answers to the desperate cries of the sailors for information.

Why? Because Jonah was in rebellion against God.

[Read more…]

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Commentary on Jonah, Discipleship

Advertisement

No Sacrifice for Willful Sin is Left

By Jeremy Myers
327 Comments

No Sacrifice for Willful Sin is Left

sacrifice for sinMany people believe that Hebrews 10:26 teaches that people lose their salvation for willful sin. This passage has perplexed Christians for centuries.

Hebrews 10:26 says that “if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” (NKJV).

Many people believe Hebrews 10:26 is teaching that intentional, willful sin causes them to lose their salvation. It is sometimes taught that God forgives unintentional sin, but not intentional. That is, if we know something is wrong, and we do it anyway, we lose eternal life because according to Hebrews 10:26, there is no sacrifice that covers willful sin.

Part of the problem with this way of thinking is that there are very few sins which are not willful. When most people sin, they know good and well that what they are doing is wrong. So if Hebrews 10:26 means what some people claim, then nobody has eternal life, or at least, nobody is able to keep it for any length of time.

Furthermore, we have numerous examples of biblical saints who knowingly and willfully commit terrible sins. All the fathers of the faith committed willful sin, include Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So also, some of the best kings of Israel, like David and Solomon, performed terrible deeds of darkness. Even some of the prophets, like Jonah, behaved in ways they knew were terrible acts of rebellion against God. But we fully expect to see all of these people in heaven.

So what about Hebrews 10:26?

Well, it says what it says: there is no sacrifice for willful sin.

And this was true under the Levitical law. If you go through and read all the different sacrifices that are described in Leviticus and Deuteronomy for all the various types of sin, you will see that God never provides a sacrifice for willful sin. All the sacrifices are for sins that were committed in ignorance (since the law was so complex, many people transgressed the law without recognizing it until later), and for regaining purity after something in life caused uncleanness. But if someone purposefully, knowingly, and willfully transgressed the Law of God, there was no sacrifice available to them for such sins.

So was there nothing they could do?

Of course not! They committed willful sins just as frequently as we do today, and God loved them just as much as He loves us today, and God did not want to abandon them to despair any more than He wants to abandon us today. So what avenue was available to people who committed willful sin?

The same avenue that is available to us today: falling completely and solely upon the grace of God.

Forgiveness for Willful Sin

Forgiveness for willful sin has always been received through the grace of God.

Today we know that this grace is available to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but prior to His death and resurrection, the grace of God was still available, but they just did not understand the means by which God made it available. Instead, they just had to depend, rely, and trust on the goodness of God and His grace extended to them.

Sacrifice for willful sinWhen the author of Hebrews writes his letter, he is writing to people who want to reject the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as sufficient for our sins, and return to dependence and reliance upon the Levitical Law. In numerous warning passages (Heb 2:1-4; 3:7-19; 5:11–6:12; 10:19-39; 12:14-29), the author of Hebrews tells his readers that if the life, death, resurrection, and High Priestly ministry of Jesus is not sufficient, then we have no hope, no forgiveness, no grace, no mercy, and no eternal life.

When the author of Hebrews writes that there is no sacrifice in the Mosaic Law for willful sin, he means exactly what he says. Hebrews 10:26 means that there is no sacrifice in the law for willful sin. All depends solely on grace.

If we reject the complete and all-encompassing sacrifice of Jesus, no sacrifice for willful sin remains. If we reject the means by which God extends grace and mercy to us, and want to depend instead on the blood of bulls and goats, then there is no chance of forgiveness, but instead have only a “certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation” (Heb 10:27).

So thank God for Jesus, and thank God for grace!

One final note about Hebrews 10:26

As I pointed out in my study on Hebrews 6:1-8, the book of Hebrews is written to Hebrew Christians who were facing severe persecution for being a Christian. Some of them were thinking about returning to Judaism in order to avoid persecution.

By stating that no sacrifice for sin is left in Hebrews 10:26, the author of Hebrews is making a very similar point to that made in Hebrews 6, namely, that the Hebrew Christians came to recognize that the Levitical sacrificial system did not grant them eternal life or forgiveness of sins. This came only through Jesus.

So now, the author of Hebrews says, if these Hebrew Christians return to the sacrificial system, then there is not sacrifice there which can offer forgiveness of sins or eternal life. And if they reject forgiveness through Jesus, then where will they turn for forgiveness? If forgiveness isn’t in the Law, and by returning to the Law, they announce that forgiveness isn’t in Jesus, then “no sacrifice for sin is left.” Where else can they go to receive forgiveness? Nowhere!

Nowhere is the author making the point that if people sin willfully, or even if they return to an empty form of religion which accomplished nothing, that this proves that they do not have eternal life, lost their eternal life, or never had it in the first place. No, the author pretty clearly states throughout this letter that he knows his readers do have eternal life. So this warning passage in Hebrews 10, like the others in this letter, should be read as an invitation and encouragement for the Hebrew Christians to stick with Jesus Christ through thick and thin, come what may.

For the worst life with Jesus is far better than the best life without Him.

Only in Jesus is eternal life and the forgiveness of sins. If people rejected their religion to come to Jesus, but then later reject Jesus, what is there to go back to except for empty religion? So it is better to stick with Jesus.

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Commentary on Jonah, forgiveness, Hebrews 10:26, law, sacrifice, sin, Theology of Salvation, Theology of Sin

Advertisement

Is Jonah Saved?

By Jeremy Myers
7 Comments

Is Jonah Saved?

Jonah in heavenDo you expect to see Jonah in heaven?

Of course you do.

I have never heard anyone suggest that Jonah might not be regenerate. Yet there are large swaths of Christians today who believe that if a person commits grievous sin, such as adultery, murder, suicide, or lives in a state of rebellion against God, then that person either loses their salvation or proves they were never saved in the first place.

The Sins of Jonah

Jonah committed many of the worst sins.

First, he committed one of the worst possible sins in his day, that of refusing to defend God’s honor. Suicide and murder were more honorable than this!

But Jonah does it blatantly, and even when he is forced to obey, he does it grudgingly, and never asks for forgiveness, never really repents, and is angry at God until the very end of the book. This does not sound like the way a child of God should act!

Furthermore, in the process of rebelling against God, Jonah attempts suicide. He boards a ship which he know is doomed by God and goes down into the deepest part of the ship and falls asleep, waiting for death to come upon him. Numerous elements in the story of Jonah (including his own words in chapter 4) indicate that Jonah wants to die. Sure, he doesn’t actually go through with this death wish, but he does have suicidal tendencies.

[Read more…]

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Commentary on Jonah, Theology of Salvation

Advertisement

The Best Way to Teach Theology

By Jeremy Myers
6 Comments

The Best Way to Teach Theology

storms of lifeAs we go through life, there are people who are involved in storms all around us. What is our responsibility as followers of Jesus toward these people?

I sometimes think that Christians have such a difficult time these days bringing other people to Christ because we are asleep as they battle the storms of life. As they face the destruction of their lives, they look at our prayer meetings and Bible studies and wonder, “I thought you were a Christian. How can you be doing nothing at a time like this?”

When our neighbors or co-workers are going through the storms of life, are we taking the opportunity to minister to them and reveal to them the power of the God you serve, or are we, like Jonah, asleep in the hull of the ship?

Jonah’s Muddled Theology

When Jonah is given the chance to share some truth about Yahweh with the sailors, the only thing he gives them is some muddled and misleading theology. They ask what they can do to calm the storm, and Jonah doesn’t pray or tell them to pray to God. He doesn’t confess his sin. He doesn’t repent. He doesn’t even tell them to turn the boat around and head back toward Israel.

Instead, he tells them to throw him into the sea, which they would have interpreted as offering a human sacrifice to the god of the sea.

I believe Jonah knew what he was saying and how the sailors would have interpreted it, but he didn’t care that they would end up believing bad theology.

Why not?

[Read more…]

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Commentary on Jonah, Discipleship

Advertisement

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »
Join the discipleship group
Learn about the gospel and how to share it

Take my new course:

The Gospel According to Scripture
Best Books Every Christian Should Read
Study Scripture with me
Subscribe to my Podcast on iTunes
Subscribe to my Podcast on Amazon

Do you like my blog?
Try one of my books:

Click the image below to see what books are available.

Books by Jeremy Myers

Take Online Courses
with N. T. Wright

Choose from Six Courses:
*N. T. Wright on Jesus
*N. T. Wright on Romans
*N. T. Wright on Galatians
*N. T. Wright on Philippians
*N. T. Wright on the Gospel
*N. T. Wright on Worldviews

Theological Study Archives

  • Theology – General
  • Theology Introduction
  • Theology of the Bible
  • Theology of God
  • Theology of Man
  • Theology of Sin
  • Theology of Jesus
  • Theology of Salvation
  • Theology of the Holy Spirit
  • Theology of the Church
  • Theology of Angels
  • Theology of the End Times
  • Theology Q&A

Bible Study Archives

  • Bible Studies on Genesis
  • Bible Studies on Esther
  • Bible Studies on Psalms
  • Bible Studies on Jonah
  • Bible Studies on Matthew
  • Bible Studies on Luke
  • Bible Studies on Romans
  • Bible Studies on Ephesians
  • Miscellaneous Bible Studies

Advertise or Donate

  • Advertise on RedeemingGod.com
  • Donate to Jeremy Myers

Search (and you Shall Find)

Get Books by Jeremy Myers

Books by Jeremy Myers

Schedule Jeremy for an interview

Click here to Contact Me!

© 2023 Redeeming God · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Knownhost and the Genesis Framework