One of the great things that Tony did was to teach us how to make observations of the Text and how to ask questions of the Text. (I capitalized the word Text to point out that the Text is Scripture. It is not just a text, but it is the Text, the Word of God, His written Word.)

It helped me to realize the importance of the Text itself, and the unimportance of my own ideas, my own intuition, my own understanding. All of this helped solidify the truth that the Text has something to say. It has one thing to say. It does not carry one truth for you and another for me. It has one truth, one message; it is one Word.

That is a hard concept in today's world wherein everything is supposed to be relative. God's Word is True. I remember a conversation I had years ago wherein I mentioned Jesus' statement from John 14:6 "Jesus said ... I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." The words there were clear. There is only one way to God and that is, in and through Jesus Christ. Jesus even clarifies that particular point by stating emphatically, "No one comes to the Father but through Me." Even so, the person I was talking with could not accept what He said. They thought that He must have meant that He was one way, one of many ways...

Now I have two things to say, when I started with one thing, it has led to this more important fact.

First:

The most important thing is this. What Jesus said is absolute. There is no other way to God. He is the only Way. He is the only Truth. He is the only Life. In coming to Him, one finds in Him, Eternal life. All other paths lead elsewhere. They do not lead to life and they do not lead to God. Jesus taught that they lead to destruction, death, and eternal damnation. Yet He came to bring life, to offer life to all who would ever realize their need and come to Him on His terms.

Whatever you believe, whether you are a Buddhist, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, a Jew, or a Roman Catholic, if you have not come to Jesus Christ in repentant faith and surrendered fully to Him, you are heading to destruction, death and eternal judgment. That is, you will end up in the eternal Lake of Fire that we call Hell. This is because your sin which separates you from God, must be judged. Jesus died to save sinners. he died to pay for their sins. He is God's provision for sin. If you reject Him, you have no hope.

There is no other way, there is no other truth, there is no other life than that which is found in Jesus Christ. He is the Word of God and His Word is that there is NO OTHER WAY TO GOD. Trying to live in harmony won't cut it. Trusting in Allah, won't cut it. Demonic gods can't help you. Following Moses, really following Moses, will only point out your need for Christ. Aside form that Judaism won't help. The Church and the sacraments can't help you. Mary, does not and can not save. If you pray to her, she isn't listening. Rather, your prayers are entertained by demons. Only Jesus can save, only Jesus does save. He saves those who turn from their sins and come to Him by faith.

So read your New Testament and learn how to come to Him, how to trust Him.

Second:

That brings me back to my original point which has now become my second point. Read God's Word for what it is, God's Word. Read it to learn what it says, what it teaches, what its one message is. One can do that by the methodology that Tony taught us. Observe what it says and ask questions of the text. I'll share a link which shows a video of a first session Hermeneutics Class. That class explains the methodology that Tony taught us very well. Whatever your level of expertise in interpreting Scripture, this video is worth watching and following.

One other thing. Get rid of your paraphrase versions of scripture. Get a good translation like the NASB. One cannot really observe the text nor ask questions of it if one is using a paraphrase. The process is subverted by the use of a paraphrased bible. Get the best translation you can, then make observations of it and ask questions of it.

Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvKDYfZtq9g&list=PL4sbg6ng23C7dShc85IESn2DtaLUO2wGH Open your Bible to follow along during the video. If you don't have a Bible, then here is a link to the text that he is teaching from. https://biblehub.com/nasb/philippians/4.htm

One more note: Jesus told a parable: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

His point was that if you understood the value of the life He offers you, you would be willing to turn from all that you have and all that you are to obtain it. God bless! B.

What does it mean to be naked?

What does it mean to be naked? In The Garden, it meant nothing - until Adam and Eve sinned. Before that, they had been naked and unashamed. 

^Gen.2:25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Adam and Eve had not been ashamed. They were, naked, exposed, without any covering, but they had nothing to be ashamed of. Their exposure was benign because they had no frailty, no weakness, no sin, no reason to hide, and therefore, they had no shame. They were at peace with God. They belonged to Him and to one another. They had no guilt. There was no shame in what they were. There was no shame in who they were. There was no shame in their being.

What did it mean in the Garden before sin to be naked and unashamed? It meant that they could stand before God. They had been made in His image. They were breathing the breath of life which He gave. They had no fear, no remorse, no holding back. They lived without any  hiding, without any hesitation. That word ashamed carries with it the idea of holding back, of hesitation. It carries the sense of uncertainty and of delay. In Ex.32:1, the same word is translated, "delayed." It says, “the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain.”  

Shame is closely associated with delay or reticence, holding back. For Adam and Eve in The Garden before the fall, there was no reticence, no holding back. They had no awareness being anything less than what they were meant to be. They were just the way that God had designed them, just the way that He had made them. They were in perfect harmony and fellowship with the Holy God who had created them, the God who had made them. They were without sin, naked before Him and not ashamed.

That was their condition ^2:25, but now, ^3:10, something had changed. 

Now, suddenly, once they had sinned something inside of them had changed. They had changed. They were different. One moment they were perfect creatures holy as God is holy in the sense that they had no sin. The next moment, everything had changed. They had become sinners. They had sinned. They could sense their nakedness their exposure, and now it brought shame, fear, uncertainty, hesitation. They could sense their shame. Their guilt from which they now sought to hide and which they sought to cover up, filled them with shame. It filled them with regret, remorse, and fear.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

      They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” ^{Gen 3:6-10}

They tried to cover their shame by covering their exposure, their nakedness. But it did not work. They had made loin coverings of fig leaves sewn or pleated together, but still they knew that they had become something less than they should be. They were now sinners tainted with sin and their attempt at covering themselves had been futile and worthless.

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the Garden. They were used to that sound, they had known that sound, and in the past they had gathered to Him without shame. Now they fled. They hid themselves. Knowing the inadequacy of their scanty loin coverings to hide their condition from God, they tried to hide themselves amidst the trees of the Garden. "Oh when He sees me He will know." "Oh, if I can just hide from Him, He won't see me. He won't know." Yet God did see them. He did know. God always sees. He always knows.

How revealing Adam's response is.

“I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” ^{Gen 3:10}

Now for the first time, Adam was afraid. God had made Adam as the earthly ruler of God's Creation. He had given him dominion over God's Garden. He had charge over every animal and every plant over every living thing. He had rule over the Garden and had been given the task of its watch-care. He had been made in God's image. He had walked with God. Yet now for the first time, he had become afraid. 

Adam was afraid. "I was afraid because I was naked," he said. In the past, _2:25, he had been naked and unashamed. He had been naked with no sense of hesitancy, naked with no remorse, naked with no shame. There had been nothing to make him delay - to hesitate. Now, _3:10 he hid. He cowered. Notice that he feared and hid even though he had covered his nakedness. Adam had made loin-coverings. Yet he knew that before Him, he was still naked. Adam now had new feelings to contend with, shame, and fear. So, he tried to hide. 

Covering his nakedness had not helped. He still had this new sense of shame, this hesitancy, this wrongness, this sin. So hearing the sound of God’s presence, he hid. But his hiding was of no use either. God still found him out.

Later in this chapter, God would make a covering for Adam and for his wife Eve. He would make clothing for them.

 ²¹ The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

It was not just a self-made loin-covering, but a God-made tunic, a garment of skin. It was not made from leaves of a tree, but from the animal skin. This killing of the animal was used to garner the animal’s skin. The skin atoned for, it covered, Adam and Eve's nakedness. This represented the covering of their sinfulness before God. This was the first animal sacrifice, the first physical death, one made by God as an example of the Sacrifice that He would one day make on behalf of all mankind. 

Blood had to be shed. Payment had to be made. Yet, as with all of the Old Testament sacrifices, this one did not expiate their sin. It only pointed to the One True Provision that God would make in His Son Jesus Christ. This first sacrifice pointed to Christ whom God would freely offer as the ultimate sacrifice for sin. Every Old Testament sacrifice pointed to Christ.

When Adam and Eve pleated fig leaves to make loin coverings, they were attempting to cover their nakedness, their shame. Yet it did not work. It could not work. All of man's efforts to atone for his sin will always fail. Adam and Eve made loin-coverings of leaves. God made for them tunics of animal skin. It was not that one covering was just a skimpy loin-covering and that the other was a tunic. Nor was it really that one was made of a skin and had come at a cost. Rather, it was that God had made the provision - pointing to the provision which He would one-day make in Christ. God had covered Adam and Eve’s nakedness. He would provide for the forgiveness of their sin.

Even in the middle of this third chapter God makes reference to the One who would be His provision for our sin.

¹⁵ And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed;  He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Read this third chapter of Genesis.³ In the middle of the text, God spelled-out some of the results of Adam’s and Eve’s sin, He made a promise to the deceiver that one day, the seed of the woman would crush the deceiver’s head, the head of the serpent. The serpent is the devil and the seed of the woman is Christ. Years later when Christ died on the cross, He bore our sin. He bore our sins. He paid for them in full, so that those who come to Him, those who belong to Him, those who are His, are forgiven.

God pointed out to the serpent that Jesus would crush Satan's head, while Satan would only bruise Jesus' heel. That is, Jesus would strike the death-blow to Satan's power, but Satan would only bruise Christ's heel. This was exactly what happened. When Jesus died on the cross, He took with Him man's sin. There, He paid the full penalty for sin. Satan lost his power. He was defeated. Jesus was killed, yet on the third day He arose again victorious over sin and death. This is what is meant by, "you shall bruise His heel. Death did not hold onto Him. He rose again. It became as a bruise upon His heel. Yet Satan was crushed. He lost his power. He lost his stronghold. Ultimately, because of Jesus, he and all who still belong to him will be cast into the Eternal Lake of Fire. 

Getting back to the clothing which covers our nakedness, in Adam's day, he became clothed from God in the expectation that God would provide a final payment for Adam's sin. Today, that One who is God's provision has been revealed. We no longer look forward to God's provision. We can know about the Christ and His reconciling work by reading and studying the New Testament and by entering into a relationship with the living Christ through faith. 

In the Old Testament looking forward to Christ, an atonement or covering was made. It represented that one day Christ would come and fully pay for sin. Atonement looked forward to the time when people could be made fully right with God. That day is today. Oh, I do not mean that we are yet perfect. I do not mean that we now become sinless. Rather, I mean that our sins have been fully paid for. We still look forward to the complete salvation that Christ provides. We look forward to when sin and death finally will be completely done away with. That will come about when this creation will melt away with intense heat, and God will make a New Heaven and a New Earth. In that day, there will no longer be sin. 

Now we come to God, not clothed in self-made clothes, nor even in clothes made from animals which have been sacrificed on our behalf. We come to God clothed in Christ, in His righteousness, clothed in Him. He paid for our sins, all of them, on the cross, and we are not just clothed by that sacrifice. That sacrifice fully paid the debt of our sin. When we come to Christ, our sins are forgiven. We have been redeemed by His blood. We are forgiven. And, redeemed and forgiven, we stand before God in Christ’s righteousness, now given new life and adopted into God’s own family. The result is that relationally, we have no guilt or shame before Him. ^{(See Eph. 1:3-14)}

All that we have in Christ, we have because of Christ. It is all God’s doing. Part of the lesson that we can glean from Genesis three is that our own efforts will not do us any good before God. Adam could not effectively cover his nakedness before God. He still found that he was afraid and he still tried to hide. This is the plight of any human efforts. They are not effective in covering our sin, and they are not effective in hiding us from God. Nothing that we can do will make us right with God. The only effective answer for our sin is that which God provides. In Adam’s case, God provided a sacrifice pointing to Christ. Ultimately, God’s only provision for sin is found in Him.

Man-made religion is like a bunch of fig leaves. It cannot hide our sin. Nor can we hide from God and forever pretend that He will not see us. He does see us, and we are exposed before Him. Eventually, we all die, and eventually we all face Him in judgment. Do you really think that the leaves with which you try to hide the shame of your guilt before God will do any good at all? They won’t! There is no hiding of our shame. There is no hiding from God.

Yet God has made a provision. God has made a way for us. It is through His Son Jesus Christ who died bearing our sins, paying the full penalty for our sins. He calls us to repentance. He calls us to Himself. He has made a way for us to be cleansed from our sin and made right with God. It is not in some man-made religion, or even in some false form of Christianity. It is through trusting God’s provision, His Son Jesus Christ, and coming to Him through repentance in faith that a person can be saved. In the end, nothing else will do you any good.

Even if you  were the most devout adherent or the most devout leader of any of the world’s religions, you would still stand at the Judgment condemned in your sin. Neither Buddha, nor Mohammad, nor the most advanced yogi, nor Mother Theresa, nor the Pope, nor Mary the Mother of Christ, nor any other person except Christ will do you any good when you die and face God. Any religion associated with any of them is useless. It is like using fig leaves to hide the shame of one’s sin. It never works.

Yet today, if you know that you are a sinner, you can find forgiveness and be given new life by turning from your sin and trusting Jesus Christ as the full provision for your sin. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me.” ^{Lk 9:23} He said, “Come to Me all who are burdened and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls.” ^{Mt. 11:28-30}

This rest for our souls found through submission to Christ and through learning from Him, is what Adam was looking for when he made a covering for himself. Only it did not work, because he was not coming to Christ, but trying to find rest some other way. What Jesus offers through faith in Him is a free gift. It is not something that we can earn. It is not based upon our own merit. Actually, it is just the opposite. We have to start by admitting that we are sinners and that we have need of the Savior. Until we do that, like Adam, we are just trying to hide.

Jesus said this as well. “I am the way the truth and the life. No one come to the Father but through Me.” ^{Jn 14:6} If you want to be right with God, you must come to Him through Jesus Christ. There is no other provision. There is no other way. All other paths are false. No other path provides life.

There is another category.Some things are not of dirt and not of God.Yesterday, I said, that the things of this world are all just dirt and that the things of God are things of His Spirit, of His Life.There is another category, though. It includes the things that are not of dirt and not of God.

This is the spiritual side of man. The part that is not of dirt, yet bears the broken image of God. Without Christ, the spiritual side of man exists, but it exists apart from God. It exists, but it is dead. 
That is to say, it is separated from God, and in the normal course of things, our individual human spirit remains forever separated from the God with whom it was originally intended to have fellowship. It is dead. Man was made in the image and likeness of God, but at the fall, when our forbearer, Adam, sinned, all mankind became separated from God. 
We see this initially in Adam's own life in that when he sinned he tried to hide himself from God. He even made fig-leaf coverings for himself to aid in covering his nakedness before God.

...she [Eve] took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband [Adam] with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
      They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” Gen. 3:6-10

Eating of the forbidden fruit was the beginning of sin on this earth. It brought death, first in the form of spiritual death which is separation form God. This spiritual death is ours, inherited from our forbearers since the fall. Then, sin also brought physical death, not only to all mankind, but also to all living things on this earth from that time onward. Adam and Eve eventually died physically. Universal bondage to physical death is also ours by inheritance since that day.

The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death, but, it says that the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. We see from our passage above that Adam and Eve sinned and with sin came death. God had warned Adam, "...from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Yet, Adam sinned by eating of the forbidden fruit and with sin came death, spiritual as well as physical. That very day, he became dead to God. Their fellowship had been broken. He now feared and sought to hide from God. And physical death began to set-in as well.

The wages of sin is death. We see that. That is the human condition. Yet, the verse goes on to say that the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What happened? What changed? What made it possible for dead and dying sinful man to come to life? The answer is,

God intervened.

In Genesis Three, God spelled out some of the nature of the curse that man brought upon himself. The woman would bear children with much pain, the man would eat bread by the sweat of his brow. The serpent, through whom Eve was deceived would crawl on its belly and eat the dust of the earth.

God also promised to overturn the slavery to death that sin had brought. He told the serpent that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent on its head, while he, the serpent merely would bruise Him on His Heel. God promised to send a Savior. Jesus Christ is that Savior. He crushed the serpent on his head. He rendered the serpent powerless. He struck the death blow upon its head. 

How did He do this? He did this by dying in our place on the cross. Jesus, who knew no sin and had no inheritance of our slavery to death, took our sin upon Himself when He died on the cross. Death was master over us through our sin, yet when Jesus died bearing our sin, He freed us from our subjection to both sin and death. That is, he freed all those who would ever become His. He died on the cross because He took our sin upon Himself. Yet on the third day, He rose from the dead! He was not contained by death, but He rose again. He was bruised on His heel as he dealt  the death blow to the head of the serpent, as He wrested power over us from the devil.

Everything on this earth is made of this earth. It is dirt. Yet the Spirit of God lives in those who belong to Jesus Christ. There is also an evil spirit, a dead spirit which controls the lives of humankind. All people born of this earth are spiritually aligned with this evil spirit. We are all born sinners separated form God. We are all born sinners, dead in our sins and slaves of death in our bodies.

Yet God has reached down in time and space to bring about victory over death, deliverance from sin and death. He has done this in His Son Jesus Christ who died to pay for our sins, and rose to assure our justification. Anyone who turns from his or her sin and comes to Christ through faith will find forgiveness and eternal life as a result of what Christ has done on their behalf.

You and I know about sin. From our earliest days it masters us. We lie, we cheat, we envy, we lust, we steal, we seek our own good over the good of others, we covet. Our lives are filled with greed and self-indulgence. Many of us fornicate and indulge in all kinds of immorality. Yet, for the most part we try to hide our own nakedness and try to believe it when we say that we are good people. 

Jesus' message to us is, Repent! "Repent," He says, "for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

The Bible says, "as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become Sons of God."

Jesus says that your religion will not save you. In order to enter into eternal life you must be born from above, "you must be be born again!"

Have you repented? Have you truly received Christ? Have you been born from above?

Jesus says, "If anyone wishes to come after Me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

Be intentional!

Turn form your sin and follow Christ!