Chapter 3: The Plane Crash
“Savage,” “Heathen,” “Atheist,” “Agnostic,” “Scientologist,” “Hindu,” “Buddhist,” “Muslim,” “Jew,” etcetera, etcetera. Whatever the label, be it made-up, self-imposed, inherited, inspired or put-upon-a-person. For the last fourteen years, I have been busy asking ALL sorts of humans the exact same question: Have you TRULY accepted, with no ifs, ands or buts, that ALL of your sins have been taken AWAY by What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross? Could there be any more of me out there? Perhaps the Lord God could point one out for me. “She’s taken it.” Or, “He’s one of you.” This was at the heart of my searching years. Finding another one. Not unlike the little bird in the nursery story, stumbling from alley cat to steam shovel, trying to find its mother. I, too, have been trying to find another true acceptor. Without success. The ongoing search includes humans other than those of us labeled “Mature-Christian” or “Born Again.” I expanded the search party outside of Christendom, because I have yet to get a straight answer from any Christian. Instead, this is what ALL the Christians keep telling me:
Sin is an extremely powerful enemy. Gaining grace is not enough to defeat the power of the devil AND the power of sin. To defeat the power of the devil, you need to put on Paul’s “armor of God.” AND... to fight the power of sin you need to continually confess and repent of your sin. AND... you need a moral awakening. AND... you need to become a slave to obedience and maturity. AND... you need to clean up your Life. AND... you need to go to church twice a week. AND... you need to die to self. AND... you need to suffer for the cause. AND... you need to serve Jesus as the Lord of your Life.
After years and years of hearing ALL of these (and even more) “ANDS,” not to mention, a slew-full of “IFS” and “BUTS,” I found myself compelled — actually inspired — to get off the sidelines and take the Affirmative position, which requires two things:
1) Presenting a Case — “the case to end ALL cases.” I will document the evidence (much of it Biblical) showing exactly how The Church has ruined What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross.
2) Presenting a Plan. The solution.
Keep two Truth-O-Meters handy to verify the legitimacy of what this book is unwrapping. One is as Spiritual as it gets and the other is totally down-to-earth. As for the Spiritual side of things: Test everything by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Giver of ALL Truth. Anyone can get an instant “Yes” or “No” or a “This” or “That” answer from the Living God of Light by allotting each side of your quest to a game of chance, such as a simple coin toss. It allows God the flexibility to give you an answer in Real Time (God using Divine Intervention to manipulate the outcome of the game) without otherwise creating a paradox which would upset the set scheme of physical Reality. Blackjack is the Living God’s favorite. Assigning the “Yes” or “No” or the “This” or “That” to the player and dealer’s hand in a game of 21 (using a full shuffled deck) is the best way in our century for any person to instantly get an absolute yes or no answer from God. The dealer’s moves are absolutely set by Vegas rules. Such as, the dealer’s hand must take a hit at 16 and stay if the total is 17 or better. Much superior to the Apostles’ “casting of lots” in which the answers are humanly limited. Blackjack provides the Lord God with varying degrees of answering, as did the Urim and Thummin in the Old Testament days (Exodus 28:30, 1 Samuel 14:41). A gentle “yes” if the hand is simply won. “yes” if won by 19 or 20. “YES” if won with a 21. “YES!” if a Blackjack is scored. Or “YES!” with aces split, producing two Blackjacks. Same degrees of “no,” should the hand you assign “no” win the play. Blackjack also includes the possibility of a push (a tie); God’s most stirring answer of ALL: “The answer is up to you.” Skeptical? ALL it takes for you to genuinely make this phone call to God is YOU KNOWING what you are doing. That is EXACTLY what makes the Living God’s answer so ABSOLUTELY dependable. YOU makes it foolproof. Allow me to clarify. YOU KNOWING that YOU are posing your question before the Living God turns the procedure into Divine Communication (as opposed to dumbass random chance). “Ask and you shall receive.” It works for nonbelievers as well as “believers.” Hey “God” — the One Who supposedly created the Universe — if You really are there and for real, wha-da-Ya think? Is this the Truth? Or is this BS? Do not be stupidly argumentative with the Lord God. Die-cast PERFECT solar eclipses DO actually happen, and one plus one Truly IS two. Never ask the same question twice. As the saying goes, “Do not put the Lord your God to a foolish test.” Meaning: Never ask a question to which you already know or are about to know the answer. I would advise against such questions as, “Are the Cowboys gonna beat the spread this Monday?” Entirely unfair to whoever you are betting against. Unsure as to whether to ask a certain question? This becomes your first question to ask: “Hey God, is it okay for me to ask You this question?” As for the physical compass and grounding rod? With feet firmly planted on tangible earth, be sure to have a Greek Interlinear Version of the New Testament handy (an actual-Word for actual-Word, Greek-to-English translation). They are easy to find online and FREE to use. That way you can verify the authenticity of the original Words (what ALL this unwrapping is endeavoring to unveil) side by side with the wrapped-up-tight version that we have ALL been taught to “believe.”
Alright? Okay? Everybody ready? Ready or not, you may or may not understand the seriousness of what it means for the Most High to give you His specific and Absolute Authority to put something this huge, this exposing, this radical and yet, this True into print; but, here goes. Instead of promoting the power of SIN for the last two thousand years, what The Church should have been promoting is the pure power of What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross. There is an enormous difference between “grace” (even if you throw the word “amazing” in front of it) and PERFECT-Grace. To gain PERFECT-Grace, one must come to the ground-zero awakening that the power of What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross works only one way.
ALL by itself.
Now, granted, that is radical. Then, again, the Jesus Concept IS radical. We need something radical to forever be done with sin and guilt and evil and death. Perhaps it would help to know that the Living God of Light did not create these Truly rotten things... sin, guilt, evil and death. Simply put, they do not come from EVERYTHING. They come from NOTHING. The Jesus-Concept is ALL about sending these rotten things AWAY — forever. Back to NOTHING. However, the Concept only works when it is administered and accepted in its pure form. Undiluted. No add-ons — no ands — no ifs ’n’ buts either.
What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross works ALL by itself. Yes, without church-going. Without Paul’s “armor of God.” Without “obedience.” Without “maturity.” Without “cleaning up your Life.” Without “worship.” Without “dying to self.” And, yes, even without “serving Jesus.” To say otherwise depletes the PERFECTION of What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross — what’s been especially done for “the very worst” of us. Jesus especially came to help the stage-four terminally sick (not the healthy) — rather, the mentally sick. Which, “believe” it or not, includes nearly ALL of adult humanity. Jesus himself would be the first one to tell you, he did not come into this world for you to serve him.
Rather... he came to serve you.
By giving his Life for you.
As a RANSOM for you.
The Holy Spirit would be the first One to second the motion:
Romans 4:4-5: (Multiple Translation) “But don’t you earn Heaven because of ALL the good things you do? No. Your right to share in the Kingdom of Heaven is a gift; if you could earn it by being good, then it wouldn’t be FREE — but it is! It is given to those who do not work for it. To even the worst man imaginable with no good works to his name, if ALL he relies upon is what’s been done for him on the cross, alone, to pay for his wickedness; such confidence, within itself, is counted by our Heavenly Father the exact same as PERFECT righteousness.”
The above combination-translation (ALL translations congealed into one) is a tiny excerpt (two verses) out of the first five and-a-half chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans. The Apostles of Jesus were of no help in discovering these revelations. Having been emotionally destroyed by the death of Jesus, the eleven remaining Apostles of Jesus were euphoric over his reanimation. They put everything to do with his death (save for his resurrection from it) out of their minds. Coming into the scene from outside of this emotional rollercoaster, Paul was the first person on planet earth to logically ask the Living God what the execution of Jesus was ALL about. By the simple asking of this, Paul inadvertently sought out the Holy Spirit; and, he came to know Her (actually, Paul came to know Her as “He”). In the first five and-a-half chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans, the Holy Spirit speaks fluidly through Paul (as opposed to just Paul speaking), right up to Romans 6:14 — 6:14 being Paul’s last written Word about PERFECT-Grace.
Romans 6:14 (KJV) “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the Law, but under Grace.”
This is The-Real-Deal in ALL its purity. 100%. No ifs, ands or buts. This is PERFECT-Grace. Through Paul’s open pen at Romans 6:14 (directly above) the Holy Spirit has just declared to us that PERFECT-Grace is more powerful than any and ALL sin. Even more powerful than the Law itself. The God’s-Honest Truth? This is not Paul. This is a complete bypass around Paul. This is ALL Holy Spirit coming through. So much so that... suddenly... this whole “grace-thing” does not set so well with our brother Paul and his DD degree (Doctor of Divinity). Oh, yes. Paul has a DD. On the wall. Framed in glass. Right behind his desk. The one he faithfully earned at PCC (Pharisee Community College).
And, so... throwing a “What then?” into the works, Dr. Paul asks his Pharisee-Inspired question:
Romans 6:15 (Original Greek) “What then? May we sin, for we are not under the Law, but under Grace?”
Here is how Doctor Paul’s question reads in the paraphrased version — The Living Bible:
“Does this mean that now we can go ahead and sin and not worry about it; for, our salvation does not depend on keeping the Law, but on receiving God’s Grace?”
According to what the Holy Spirit has just declared (at Romans 6:14), any person who Truly-Accepts What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross is a person no longer under the dominion of Sin or the Law. Such a person is now and forevermore FREE under PERFECT-Grace. Such a person (according to Jesus) is “FREE-Indeed.” Under PERFECT-Grace, it is impossible for such a person (a true acceptor) to commit anything that can be called “sin.” For, throughout the infinite depths of the true acceptor’s mind, he has Truly-Accepted — 100%, with no ifs, ands or buts — that ALL of his sin (past, present and future) has been taken AWAY... and... the Living God PERFECTLY agrees with him. This is the only answer to Paul’s question that works hand in hand with the Holy Spirit.
Instead, how does Paul answer his fateful question? Disastrously. With yet an exclamation mark: “May it never be!” (“it” being FREEDOM-Indeed under God’s PERFECT-Grace). According to this voice — a voice so opposite to Paul’s previous five and-a-half chapters, it is like suddenly hearing from another country — we have only two choices. We can be slaves; or, we can be slaves.
Slaves of Sin. Or slaves of obedience to the Law:
Romans 6:16 (The Living Bible) “May it never be! Don’t you realize that you can choose your own Master to obey? You can choose Sin (with death) or else Obedience (with acquittal). The one to whom you offer yourself — he will take you and be your Master and you will be his slave.”
In case any of you have ever privately wondered, with Jesus being so PERFECT and, with Jesus being so clear about granting us rest for our souls (for “his yoke is easy and his burden is light”), how did Christianity ever get so imperfect? So splintered? So diversely-denominational? So outright difficult? So heavy in chains? So twisted? So judgmental? So contradicting? So badly messed up?
This is it — Romans 6:16.
This is precisely where the ball bearing falls into the camshaft of Christianity.
Plunk...
Crash!
I am carefully showing you this with the hope of inspiring you to ask a very important question about Paul’s answer for us at Romans 6:16. What happened to What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross?
I’ll pause for your answer. Take your time. Read 6:16 once again. Here is how it reads in the King James Version:
Romans 6:16 (KJV) “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
Practically the same in the Catholic approved New American Bible:
Romans 6:16 (NAB) “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?”
This is a monstrous reversal... compared to the overall gist of the first five and-a-half chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Neither of the two choices Paul gives us (directly above) has anything to do with What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross. It is impossible to OBEY What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross. One must simply and Truly ACCEPT What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross.
Even the drunk passengers on board this airplane must be sensing... something terribly wrong here has just occurred. Now going... opposite direction. We ARE going backwards. Paul is preaching Old-School to us here at Romans 6:16. Old-School, meaning, “the way unto righteousness” BEFORE we had the blessing of simply and Truly-Accepting-What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross. Right before our eyes, the pure power of What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross has suddenly dissolved into two choices. We can “obey sin” which leads to death... or... we can “obey obedience” which (according to Paul) leads to righteousness. Where is THIS coming from? What has invaded Pilot-Paul’s headphones? If you ask me (and we should be asking SOMEONE) it sounds an awful lot like Pharisee-Community-College-Air-Traffic-Control has just taken over Holy-Spirit-Air-Traffic-Control.
Course correction!
Indeed, this IS an entirely different direction than... The Path of Cross-Earned-Righteousness... on which Paul was flying us during the bulk of his first five and-a-half chapters of Romans. The Truth? Most of us are still dead-asleep. Perhaps — just perhaps, mind you — a few more of us, this very instant, may have just been startled awake. The G-force is unbearable and pushing us into our seats.
The conscious passengers are now screaming:
My God! Father in Heaven help us! We ARE going backwards. And, upside down. We are going down! Tail first and inverted!
There is no question that Paul is still Living under the dominion of Sin & The Law. And so, he asks: “Does PERFECT-Grace mean we can go ahead and sin ALL we want and not worry about it?” He should have asked: WHY does sin no longer have any dominion over us? Duh, Dr. Paul. Because... by TRULY-ACCEPTING What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross, ALL of our sin (past, present and future) has been taken AWAY. As for the two (and only two) choices Paul gives us at Romans 6:16 as his remedy/answer to his problem/question, why isn’t one of our choices... simply... Truly-Accepting What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross? The answer to this question is astronomically pivotal. Taking ALL the GOOD things into consideration that Paul writes BEFORE Romans 6:16... and everything he writes after... there is only one answer. What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross HAS JUST BECOME Paul’s dilemma. A most serious dilemma to Paul’s established “belief-system.” A theological dilemma that rushes blood to his theological face, causing his theological head to spin.
If part of our theological “Faith” is that Paul had “a conversion” on the road to Damascus, Paul has just had another one at mile marker 6:16 on the Romans Highway. Can we, as Mature-Christians, handle the God’s-Honest Truth? (Brace yourself.) Paul never stopped being what he is, and the bulk of the first five and-a-half chapters of Romans is a Holy Spirit-Inspired “miracle.” What Paul never stopped being is a Pharisee-Extremist. What he became in Christianity is not much different.
On the other hand, what the Holy Spirit has never stopped being is the absolute God’s-HonestTruth. The Holy Spirit cannot lie. The Holy Spirit cannot contradict. Would you be brave enough to do one thing for your Holy Spirit?
Wake up.
I know. For some of us, it is tough to do so when your first reaction (pushed into your seat such as you are) is to close your eyes and ears and pretend this is not happening. Keep your eyes and ears focused on the Holy Spirit:
Romans 6:14 (Original Greek) “Sin will not rule over you! For you are not under the Law, but under Grace.”
The Holy Spirit has just defined Grace (PERFECT-Grace) as being more powerful than any and ALL sin (past-sin, present-sin, future-sin, intentional-sin, non-intentional-sin, venial-sin, mortal-sin, repetitive-sin) and more powerful than the Law, itself.
Most unfortunately — in the middle of Romans, Chapter Six — this Truth has become a big problem for our brother Paul. Why? Because (along with even darker voices) brother Paul still has the Pharisees in him. You can take the man out of the Pharisees, but not the Pharisees out of the man. To a Pharisee, it is ALL about THE LAW. A Pharisee loses his mind to THE LAW — precisely why the extremists among them were livid with murderous rage over Jesus healing people on the Sabbath. For the sake of Gentile Christian Evangelism, Paul will loosen his belt here and there for “the greater good,” but SIN itself and how it relates to THE LAW is a whole other matter. Paul was strictly taught that, when it comes to SIN, nothing is more powerful than THE LAW.
And, yet... the Holy Spirit has just told us (through Paul’s open pen, no less) that us Truly-Accepting-What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross is more powerful than the Law. The way Pharisee-Paul sees it, What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross has just become a theological contradiction — a religious impasse. A slap-in-the-face to ALL theological reason. And, so... Paul takes it upon himself to fix “the cross.” Instead of bravely upholding the previous five and-a-half chapters of Romans, Paul fearfully throws the gears into reverse.
Fearfully?
Absolutely. Paul is appalled, dismayed and absolutely horror-stricken by the idea of everyday people (such as you and I) having more power than THE LAW by simply and Truly-Accepting-What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross.
Thinks Paul: This What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross “thing” has got to be tempered… with something… or people are going to think they can just do whatever they want and have a license to sin. Cross-or-no-cross, you best be obeying obedience!
“Obeying obedience.” Hello? Paul? Did we hear you correctly? Yes. We heard Paul as clear as church bells ringing. Paul did not stutter. Here is how Paul’s reversal reads in the New International Version:
Romans 6:16 (NIV) “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you OBEY — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to OBEDIENCE, which leads to righteousness?
An interesting choice of words. We are to “obey…obedience.” Clever nonsense. Carefully consider why it is nonsense. Although we can obey something, we certainly cannot obey obedience itself. The SOMETHING (Paul insists) we ARE to obey is a very specific three-letter word that Paul does not want to use... here... to describe “our Master” — the only Master (of the two Masters Paul offers us) that we (as obedient slaves) can possibly choose to obediently obey (other than obeying Master Sin, of course).
The Law.
The point? “Obeying…obedience” is Paul’s clever way of saying (without actually saying it):
You need to be obeying... the Law.
Why such hush-hush cleverness? Paul HAS be clever at saying it... here... at 6:16. Why? Because, the Holy Spirit has just told us at 6:14 (a mere two verses-ago) that if we Truly-Accept for ourselves What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross, we are no longer under the Law. We are under PERFECT-Grace. Make no mistake. At Romans 6:16, Paul is back to preaching the Gospel of the Pharisees: A man can choose a Life of sin... or... a man can choose a Life of righteousness — SELF-EARNED righteousness. Specifically... righteousness SELF-EARNED through “obedience” to the Law.
On the turn of a dime, Paul has done a complete one-eighty in response to the singularity of our “salvation” (actually, our RANSOM) exclaimed by the Holy Spirit in the previous five and-a-half chapters of Romans: The completeness and PERFECTION of simply and Truly-Accepting our CROSS-EARNED righteousness. That is an absolute fact.
For, at this point, whenever the Holy Spirit makes it abundantly clear to Paul that our righteousness is earned ONLY by Truly-Accepting-What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross, then Paul is back to his same poorly-posed, poorly-worded, faithless and fearful question:
Romans 6:15 (Original Greek) “What then? May we sin, for we are not under the Law, but under Grace?”
There is no “apologetic” answer for Paul’s catastrophic disaster at Romans 6:16.
What does THAT mean?
It means... there is no viable way for even the most astute Christian to make Romans 6:16 work hand-inhand with the God’s-Honest Truth. The optimal question remains. Can a Mature-Christian handle the God’s-Honest Truth? (Again, brace yourself.) The very thing keeping Paul’s airplane aloft during the first five and-a-half chapters of Romans IS the pure power of What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross. At Romans 6:16, the pure power of What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross has just gone bye-bye. Truly, What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross is no longer ON the airplane. Where did “Calvary” go? Read Romans 6:16 again and again and again if you must. Two choices. Sin. Or obedience to the Law.
Let us be gracious. Even though What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross has been completely thrown out the window at Romans 6:16; as good Christians, we must force ourselves to “believe” that, certainly, “the cross” must still be in the back of Paul’s mind somewhere.
It is.
Paul is determined to IMPROVE UPON What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross.
So... according to Paul, IN ADDITION to “believing” in “the cross” (whatever grand ecclesiastical mystery “believing in the cross” is supposed to mean) we must become obedient slaves to the Law.
And, oh boy. That is merely the first add-on. The first “AND” to simply and Truly-Accepting-What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross. Actually, I am being overtly gracious by referring to Romans 6:16 as an “AND.” Quite suddenly, there is no mention whatsoever of What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross. Romans 6:16 stands independently and in total contradiction to What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross — a disastrous reversal, so catastrophic, the Holy Spirit calls it:
“The Plane Crash.”
Paul is no longer concerning himself (and us) with the Living God’s far-out concept of cross-earned righteousness. Way too pie-in-the-skyish. Paul has come down-to-earth and, in the process, he has rediscovered his Religion. Tell ’em Paul: This cross-thing is no good to anyone in-and-of-itself. The cross is in dire need of legal help. Therefore, IN ADDITION to what I wrote earlier about what the cross does for you, you must ALSO (the first “AND”) become a slave to self-earned righteousness.
The practical reason to refer to Romans 6:16 as “the first AND” is that there are many more “ANDS” to follow. Not to mention a snoot-full of “IFS” and “BUTS.”
After Romans 6:16, the writing is mostly Paul. He reduces Jesus, THE BREAD of LIFE, to a theological figurehead: “The Jew’s Messiah.” “The risen Christ.” “The Lord.” None of these religious fanfares have anything to do with the Holy Spirit and What’s-Been-Done-For-Us-On-the-Cross. Moreover — well beyond the two (and ONLY TWO) commandments that Jesus gives us, we are supposed to “believe” that the same Jesus of Nazareth who lambasted the Pharisees for three years, commissioned Paul (the Pharisee of ALL Pharisees) to saddle us with The Encyclopedia of Sanctified Pharisee Dos & Don’ts. Why on earth? So we can become “slaves to obedience” of course... ALL while our RANSOM fades quietly into the night. Sure, there are bright spots where the Holy Spirit pushes through. However, for the most part, what follows 6:16 is a Paul manifesto:
The Philosophy of a Pharisee-Extremist Christian.
