Paul's Passing Thoughts

Tomorrow is so-called, “Easter Sunday.” Many people who do not normally “do church” will put on their Sunday best and make an appearance. It is ok that they do not really know why they do it because the ones who normally attend church don’t know either. This is not to say church-goers don’t think they know, but they don’t. In addition, this is not to say they wouldn’t have some canned answer to the question, but it wouldn’t lineup with their functioning religiosity.

Passover is about the end of sin; Easter Sunday is about atonement, or a mere covering for sin. Here is the problem with understanding the Bible: it is not too deep and mysterious, it’s too simple. Let’s start with the term, “family of God.” If you simply understand that “family” really means “family,” You know more than most Bible scholars already.

To be saved is to be a child of God. You know, like a child that is a member of a family. And, that child is born into that family. The concept of family is indicative of the true gospel and how Christians should function as Christians. Biblically, and historically, Passover is a family affair; the church had to make it an institutional affair. This is the difference between being free from the condemnation of sin because you are born of God, and a weekly atonement (covering for sin) via temple worship. If people understand they are free from sin, they don’t need to purchase weekly salvation. This is why church is big business regardless of its dreadful testimony. The grocery store in town may be owned by the mafia, but if it’s the only store in town, you are still going to buy your groceries there. After all, no one wants to starve to death. As the saying goes, “sex sells,” but nothing sells like no fault eternal salvation.

Imagine if Easter Sunday was something people celebrated at home in recognition of how God made the new birth possible. The institutional church couldn’t have that as it obviously wouldn’t be good for the salvation market. And, the idea that someone is permanently indwelled by the Holy Spirit suggests they are capable, which speaks to individualism as apposed to collectivism, and that is a disaster for the salvation industry. In essence, it completely destroys supply and demand. The more sin, the more demand for necessary salvation. Without sin, the church is out of business. Think about it; church has a vested interest in sin, and the headlines show that clearly.

As a young zealot, and among other young zealots, the question was always: “How can we return to the power of the first century church?” Problem was, we were looking for the answers within the context of institution. Christianity is a family and functions as a family. Functioning as a literal family is not a preferred mode, it is a living statement concerning the true gospel. Christians functioning as family speaks to the ending of sin and justification by new birth, church speaks of atonement and a need for progressive salvation. To attend church is to identify with a false gospel. It is a covering of sin; not an ending of sin. It is not an exodus from slavery. You can only belong to one master or another; Christ or Egypt. These are the only two state of beings in reality.

Therefore, indeed, the family of God should recognize the Passover, and the fact that we are partakers of the exodus from slavery, and what made that exodus possible. We know the early assembly of Christ recognized the Passover for at least 200 years or longer until the church intervened.

Again, it is too simple. The apostle Paul spent his whole ministry fighting against “justification by the law.” The new birth changes our relationship to the law. The new birth is a “righteousness manifested apart from the law.” Sin is defined as a violation of the law. This is also part and parcel with condemnation; to be “under sin” is to also be “under condemnation.” “Under law,” “under sin,” “enslaved to sin,” and “under condemnation” are interchangeable terms for the exact same thing. “Under grace” is NOT remaining under law with grace being a covering for sin. That’s church, and that’s a false gospel. “Grace” is God’s love in action; you are under the jurisdiction of God’s love in action, not the law. The same law now informs our love for God and others without any condemnation.

Romans chapters 6, 7, and 8 explain this in detail. Being under grace doesn’t mean we are under no law, it’s just a law without condemnation; it is not a “ministry of death.” God uses it to sanctify us, not to convict us of “sin and the judgement to come.” It is best stated that Christians do not sin, but rather fail to love. We fail to love because we are weak, not because we are still enslaved to sin. We are rather “enslaved to righteousness.”

We partook in the exodus out of Egypt. And indeed, we should recognize that yearly. But not in church.

paul