BODY THINGS

therefore glorify God in your body... – 1Co 6:20

Your body – that handsome/beautiful thing that looks back at you when you look in the mirror – is a gift from God to you. Not one square inch of it is from the Devil. It was “beautifully and wonderfully made”: crafted preciously by the Maker Himself as a showpiece of His exquisite workmanship. There is no body (pun intended) on earth like you.

Every beautiful and desirable thing in your body was put there intentionally by God for His own glory. Jam 1:17 says “EVERY good gift and every perfect gift is from above,” and Rev 4:11 tells us that that stunning craftsmanship you call your body was created to glorify God.

It is the Devil, not God, that hates the Body. That is why he seeks to corrupt its desires; that is why a tell-tale sign of demonic possession in a person is self-mutilation and affliction of the body, (see Mk 5:5; 9:22; 1Ki 18:28). That is why those who have dabbled into the occult will tell you affliction of the Body is the Devil’s rule of thumb.

In all Devil-inspired religions we have today, the Body is always the ‘scapegoat’ to explain their inability to live holy. In Christianity, however, the body is not the enemy, but is the temple of the Holy Spirit (2Cor 6:19)!

 It is quite revealing of God’s nature, that Leviticus – replete with rules, rituals and regulations as it is – gives no room for ONE act of mutilation.

It’s only the Devil, who did not (and cannot) create your body, that will ask you to harm it in the name of religion or piety.

Don’t look at the mirror with loathing, look at it with gratitude. Your body is like your child, it will always ask to be pampered ignoring the consequences; but what it needs is DISCIPLINE, not EXORCISM. Under the control of a regenerate mind, the body will be a vessel of righteousness: giving glory to God and being of great use to His Kingdom on Earth.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

PROPER MORTIFICATION

Biblical Christianity is not a religion; indeed, it is the direct antithesis of all the manmade, hell-inspired religions we have in the world today. So, it should be disturbing if there seems to be no distinction between their beliefs and ours.

An example is in the doctrine of Mortification-based holiness. Scriptures does ask us to “Mortify” our members. But the demonization of the physical body, resulting from the twisting of this word, just as – and actually in conjunction with – “sarx”, is a hallmark of cults and false religions right form the time of the first Apostles.

Many of the Church’s canonised ‘saints’ attained that appellation from their reputation of being ‘holy’ through the subjecting of the flesh.

One was said to have “performed Penance by chanting 20 psalters accompanied by 300,000 lashes over six days”; another had self-afflicted penances of “vigils, fasts, frequent flagellations and the use of a hairshirt”. A woman flogged herself thrice a day and lived on nothing except Communion elements, and another girl ‘saint’ got paralysed through her self-flagellation.

While we may consider these examples extreme, or seek to distance ourselves from those who venerate them, can we claim to be totally cleansed from this religious mindset?

When we equate humour or boisterousness with carnality, or rank a Believer/church’s spirituality based on their gravity of conduct, it evinces a wrong perception of sanctification and holiness.

It’s interesting that Scripture didn’t ask us to “crucify the flesh”! Gal 5:24 says “they that are Christ’s HAVE CRUCIFIED the flesh ...” And Rom 6:6 says “our old man IS CRUCIFIED with Him...”

The key to biblical mortification and holy living is the revelation that the flesh has ALREADY been crucified (with Christ). This is why holiness is IMPOSSIBLE outside of biblical Christianity, but DEMANDED in it. Other belief systems may venerate their saints/’holy’ men in their ability to flagellate the physical flesh, but like Paul rightly pointed out in Col 2:23 “These things look like wisdom with their self-imposed worship, false humility, and harsh treatment of the body. But they have no value for holding back the constant desires of your corrupt nature.” (GW)

Only Biblical Christianity can that.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

“ALL SARX IS NOT THE SAME SARX”

 “...RIGHTLY DIVIDING the word of truth.” – 2Ti 2:15

The Apostle Paul may not have had the “Sarx controversy” in mind when he told the Corinthian church, “All sarx is not the same sarx (“All flesh is not the same flesh”; 1Co 15:39), but his choice of words has become of very real significance to us today.

During sermons, we are often asked to “crucify the flesh”, but I never saw anyone put up their hands to ask, “which flesh?”

This lack of distinction and clarification has not only led to frustration among God-loving Believers, but actual heresy in some segments of the Church.

There is the obvious “flesh” that refers to our corpus: our body, the physical ‘meat’ with which we see, feel, taste or otherwise interact with the physical universe.

Then there’s the “flesh” that refers to the carnal, un-renewed MIND. (Of course, “flesh” also has many other meanings in the NT).

We should know that it is of great advantage to the Devil that we focus our energies on our body and neglect the mind. The physical body is not your enemy, your mind is. If the body is the source of our sinful predilections, then the ICU of hospitals should contain the holiest people on earth.

When Paul beseeched us to be living sacrifices (Rom 12:1,2), he qualified it by asking us to be “transformed BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND”.

Some persons, for example, have tried to suppress lust through dry fastings and literal flogging of the body, only to find the monster raise its ugly head days later. It never occurs to them that maybe they’ve been flogging the wrong “sarx”. 

Let’s learn from our Lord’s teaching (see Mk 721-23) and focus on the right “sarx”; when we do that, the body will follow.

 “Think over these things I am saying [understand them and grasp their application], for the Lord will grant you full insight and understanding in everything.” – 2 Timothy 2:7 (AMP)

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

THE ‘SARX’ CONTROVERSY

“All flesh is not the same flesh:” – 1Co 15:39

It’s not very often that the fight among academic Bible scholars is spilled into the streets. They usually restrict their queer quarrels to scholarly journals, reviews and colloquiums. So, I found it interesting when a certain Greek scholar made public his reservations with the translation methodology of some modern Bible versions.

In this case, it was with the Holman Christian Standard Bible and the issue was with their translation of a rather unexceptional Greek word: “SARX”.

But what is “sarx” and (more importantly) why should we care? While it does sound exotic, it’s actually one of the more common words in the New Testament; occurring over 150 times and in almost each book.

Here’re four out of the five times Matthew used “sarx” in his Gospel:

...Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for SARX and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. (Mt 16:17)

...For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one SARX (Mt 19:5)

And except those days should be shortened, there should no SARX be saved… (Mt 24:22)

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the SARX is weak. (Mt 26:41)

From the above, we can see that “sarx” apparently means “flesh”. But we also notice that “flesh” in one verse is different from the “flesh” in the other. 2Ti 2:15 tells us to “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, RIGHTLY DIVIDING the word of truth.”

This “rightly dividing”, lacking in many Bible studies today, has caused no small error in theologies and doctrine.

When studying the Word, we must let each word in each verse determine its meaning based on its immediate context. Transposing the meaning of the same word in another verse, or giving the same meaning to ALL incidences of that word will only lead to confusion at best, or heresy at worst.

Let’s not be like that Russian computer which, when asked to translate Mt 26:41 (quoted above), replied in Russian “The whisky is agreeable, but the meat has gone bad”. J

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN 

YOU HAVE FIRST CLASS RIGHTEOUSNESS

...and this is his name by which he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. – Jer 23:6

When I was young, I used to be enthralled by ‘Deliverance Confession’ stories of how former agents of darkness would seek to destroy Christians. There’re those they declare “untouchable” – big, well-known men of God, or certain “very holy” Christians who are always surrounded by “a clothing of light.” I always wanted to be untouchable like them, too.

I was fervent in prayers, strove to live holy, and was diligent in church work.     Then one day I realised that the whole motivation of my spiritual exercises was not to please the Father, or to be more like Jesus, but to be “untouchable” by the powers of darkness. Something was very wrong with my motivation.

I got up and told the Devil, “Devil, My spiritual life does not revolve around YOU! It revolves around Jesus. I will not spend my whole waking hours thinking of how to avoid your traps or bind your demons; I will spend my whole day fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit.

“And by the way, about that ‘clothing of light’ thing? I just realised that I’ve been an ‘Untouchable’ all this while. My righteousness is sooo perfect, its blinding to demonic eyes. You’re not going to work me up into trying to get what I already have!”

And that was my greatest deliverance session.

It is vitally and supremely important for you to know that as a Born Again Believer, your righteousness is Jesus’ Righteousness, (2Cor 5:21). It doesn’t come in different shades, levels or ranks. You carry the untouchableness of Jesus.

When people read that God loved Jesus perfectly, they miss the whole point. Jesus is the Beloved, and YOU are “Accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6). You’re INSIDE of Jesus!

If you allow the Devil compare your righteousness with some “Man of God” somewhere, he’ll end up deceiving you into believing you’re not “Holy” enough to withstand his attacks.

But see Isaiah 54:17; I know it’s a popular quotation, but actually check out the last words of the verse.

No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, AND THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OF ME, says the LORD.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

RIGHTEOUSNESS SHOULD BE CONFESSED

But the righteousness which is of faith speaks thus... – Rom 10:6

The church today is all-abuzz about faith. People are “believing God” for healing, cars, promotion, houses and ‘the good life’. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that; but it should be noted that the original Believers concentrated all their faith on righteousness and not on things. In other words, they Believed to be Righteous, not to be Rich!

Which was a rather smart move. Because Jesus said “Seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6:33). When you have the ‘righteousness’ issue settled, every other thing will be a walkover. However, we see today, Christians exerting much spiritual energy on ephemera.

Paradoxically, not only is the confession of righteousness the very last thing they would do, it’s also something they frown upon.

*If you’re sick, they would tell you to confess that you’re healed,

*If you’re broke, you’ll be asked to declare yourself rich,

*When everything around you is falling apart, they’ll forbid you from declaring what you see; instead, you’re advised to “say what you want to see”.

Yet for some reason, we find it odd to declare, at the very point of our moral failures, that we’re the righteous of God in Christ.

It may sound like hypocrisy, but that’s only if you’re saying it to others. However, when it’s a declaration to yourself, it becomes an affirmation of who you are; when you, as a Born Again Believer confess that you’re righteous in Christ, you’re declaring the incongruity between your true nature and your actions.

It’s not because you’re claiming you did no wrong, It’s because you’re confessing what you want to see in our life.

Righteous people don’t lust, Righteous people don’t lie, Righteous people don’t harbour anger and hate. When you keep confessing your righteousness in Christ Jesus, you’re reminding yourself of who you really are.

Words have power, and the word of God even more so. The same power that transforms your body as you keep confessing health, that transforms your finances as you keep confessing abundance, etc. that same power is more than available to empower you to live above every besetting sin as you keep confessing your right-standing with God.

Keep saying it, yes it may get the devil irritated, but therein lies your victory.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

RIGHTEOUSNESS IS BY FAITH

For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; – Rom 10:10

Paul tells us in Rom 10:5,6 that there’re 2 types of righteousness: righteousness by obedience to some set laws, and righteousness by faith. He then proceeds to point out the superiority of the latter.

The link between faith and righteousness is something many Believers take for granted. We read the phrase, “righteousness which is by faith” everywhere in the New Testament and gloss over it like just another churchy phrase.

But our right-standing is really by faith. “The Just (the righteous, the blameless, the lawful) shall live by his faith” (Hab 2:4). Trying to do right in order to be righteous is placing the cart before the horse, and will leave you perpetually seeking after righteousness, (because every time you fail, you get to start all over again).

The Bible, on the other hand, says for you to obtain right-standing with God you must place your faith in the Cross. Rom 3:25 aptly summarises this principle:

God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered His life’s blood, so that by faith in Him we could come to God... (CEV)

“Faith” does not take on a new, obscure meaning when it comes to righteousness; it retains its regular meaning. It means you become righteous by BELIEVING.

It is not based on your emotions, on your feeling, or even on the devil’s opinion, but on faith. This is the way the great heroes of the Bible obtained their right-standing with God.

We may already be familiar with Abraham being made righteous by his faith, but long before him, Heb 11: 7 tells us that Noah, also, “received from God the righteousness that comes by faith.” (GNB)

Indeed, in the summary of their exploits in faith, it says that “through faith they subdued kingdoms and “worked righteousness...” (Heb 11:33).

Yes, that’s how they ‘worked it’ back then, but today, it seems we have it reversed. Beloved, for you to live righteous, you must first BE righteous. It is your righteousness – imparted unto you by faith – that enables you to live a holy life, and not the other way round.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

THE PATH TO RIGHTEOUSNESS

And of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. – 1Co 1:30

In Romans chapter 10, the Apostle Paul succinctly outlines the problem of his Jewish brethren with respect to the Mosaic law:

 “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.  For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. (Rom 10:2,3).

Paraphrasing the 3^rd verse using our high jump analogy, Paul was essentially saying, For they being ignorant of the 100-foot bar, and going about to establish their own 8-foot bar, have not submitted themselves to admitting the un-scalability of the 100-foot bar of God. (Rom 10:2,3).

The whole point of the Law was to reveal mankind’s powerlessness to reach God’s standard. Nevertheless, the Jews, missing the whole point, kept trying to follow it. They failed repeatedly, (each time heaping on themselves the attendant curses for each violation), but kept at it nonetheless.  

No one – Moses, the giver of the Laws included – was ever able to fulfil the Law. But even if they theoretically could, it would still be a far cry from God’s standard; (Mt 5:20). Only the Messiah, could fulfil both the spirit and letter of the Law. This, in fact, was the whole point of the Law in the first place. Speaking on, Paul says, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.” (Rom 10:4).

Gal 3:24 says, “Therefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. once you find yourself depending on Christ and not your own effort to attain right-standing before God, then the Law has achieved its aim.

On the Cross, the righteous Jesus took upon Himself the punishment for our sins, that we may in exchange, take on His perfect righteousness; (2Cor 5:21).

This is the given path for attaining God’s righteousness. I once read a post that said, “You can preach, speak in tongues, pray, fast, cast out devils, etc. and still go to Hell; but you can’t live a holy life and go to Hell.” However, I’m afraid that if by “live a holy life” we mean simply “not committing bad things,” then I’m afraid we’ll still end up in Hell! (1Jn 1:8,10).

The righteousness that Jesus confers is our ONLY ticket to Heaven. If we preach and emphasise this truth, we’ll spare many churchgoers from having the shock of a lifetime on Judgment Day.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

HOW RIGHTEOUSNESS ARE YOU?

There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside Thee; – 1Sa 2:2

Are you righteous? If yes, how righteous are you? The dictionary meaning of ‘righteous’ is “always behaving according to a religious or moral code.” Does that then make the Dalai Lama righteous? What about Mother Theresa? Or a Hasidic Jew maybe? They are each strict observers of a “moral and religious code”, aren’t they?

The singular difference between biblical Christianity and other world religions is its acknowledgment of the infinite holiness of God and its frank admittance of the impossibility of Man to reach it.

To use a high jump analogy, God’s standard is a 100-foot horizontal pole, obviously impossible for any human to clear. But religion creates its own bar, somewhere around 8 feet, (moral laws, rules, rituals, regulations, ceremonies, prayers, etc.) that can be jumped by only the most athletic of men. Religion then creates a platform that celebrates such extreme athleticism – the jumping of their 8-foot pole. Fixated on this manmade standard, the people are kept ignorant of the REAL pole looming a hundred feet high above all of them.

This is “Religion” in a nutshell; and until we confront this reality, we will not understand biblical righteousness.

To read the Mosaic Laws as outlined in Exodus through Deuteronomy and exclaim that God’s standards are too difficult is to miss the point completely. Those are not God’s standards, they are just a rudimentary and vague hint of His actual holiness and standards.

Only Jesus truly understood God’s perfect holiness; and that was why He declared that except our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, we shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven, (Mt 5:20).

This is very important, because it places God’s standards where it should be. God will not reduce His standard from “impossible” to “very difficult and hard”. And if your philosophy and mindset of Holiness/Righteousness is of a lifestyle that though “very difficult and hard”, but still doable with discipline and dedication, you may want to reconsider your definition of righteousness; because you may have unwittingly lowered the bar... to somewhere around 8 feet.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN