The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 7, 05-16-2014: Israel and the Law

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 7, 05-16-2014: Israel and the Law

Before beginning Romans chapter 6, I would like to take a few minutes to discuss the word sin and why I avoided it in my translations, even though the word's use is so ubiquitous in Christian dialogue that it is impossible to avoid in daily discussion. When I was a child in Catholic grade school, we were taught that sin was some sort of black stain on your soul, and if you collected enough of them, you were going to suffer in flames for eternity. That was the nearly indelible picture left on my childhood mind by the nuns who educated me through the 4th grade. [It was certainly not unusual to me that black and evil were directly associated.] The nuns taught us that sin was something which resulted from certain actions, and the nature of those actions were usually and popularly described by the extreme cases, such as murder or stealing. However to a young boy with no ill intents sin seemed to be something which existed outside of the everyday routine of life, because the concept of what constituted sin was mystical or ethereal, and therefore its consequences were imagined to be disconnected from everyday reality. This was even more so the case because my parents were neither churchgoers nor Bible readers, and although they both had Christian upbringings and they were hard workers and usually decent people, they themselves were basically apostates. Catholics generally did not read the Bible, and that was the one aspect of Catholicism to which they evidently adhered. For quite some time we had a Bible in our home, but it was certainly never opened.

From 5th through 8th grades (1971 through 1974) I went to a Catholic school without nuns, and the concept of sin became even more obscure. The new school taught a substitute for Christianity which was comprised mostly of pop-culture Dharma and 1960's style hippie love which were totally disconnected from the associated parish church. During these years the Catholic religion itself was a schizophrenic institution, and by the time I got to 7th grade I too was an apostate. By the time I was a teenager, sin was not even thought of as a moral concept. Sin was a church word, and if there was no church, then there was no sin. Because sin was not connected to Yahweh's law in my childhood, except for perhaps a brief acquaintance with the ten commandments which I was never really taught, government law and peer approval became the controlling moral authorities of life, and not necessarily in that order.

Of course, there are some things that Yahweh would hate, and which the government permitted but in which I did not partake. However I realize now that it was only by the grace of God that I was really kept from those things, because many of my peers did indeed venture down those paths. Now I understand, perhaps a lot better than most people, that when the government is your controlling moral authority then the government becomes your god. There are other means by which the government becomes your god, however the disconnect between religion and the law of God is one of the more frequently-traveled paths to idolatry. I do not know what all Catholic schools teach, or even if other Catholics have the same recollection of their religious education as I do. But to me the biggest error of the Catholic church in my early education was the failure to illustrate the connection between Yahweh's law and the concept of sin, and the failure to characterize sin as having real consequences on our daily lives. Perhaps if I had stayed in the more traditional Catholic school longer, my religious education would have been advanced beyond those simplistic impressions from my childhood. But now I realize that the Catholics cannot possibly teach Yahweh's law properly, even if they so desired.

So when I read the Bible and discovered what sin truly was, my mind rebelled against the word, because to me the word represented something other than what it was truly intended to mean in Scripture, and I imagined that others must have also been misled in a similar manner. I was biased against the word sin although I now realize that many Protestants had a completely different experience in their religious education, and they probably don't understand my bias. However when I sat down and began to make the translations which eventually became the Christogenea New Testament, I sought to use words equivalent in meaning to the original Greek which were more practical in their relationship to everyday life. So where the King James Version or other translations have the church-word sin, the Christogenea New Testament has error, fault, wrongdoing, guilt or similarly related words. These are all literal translations of the Greek words.

The noun usually translated from Greek into English as sin is ἁμαρτία, and it is defined by Liddell & Scott as “a failure, fault, sin … a fault committed by one … fault of judgment … generally guilt, sin ….” Likewise the related verb ἁμαρτάνω is “To miss, miss the mark … generally, to fail of doing, fail of one's purpose, to miss one's point, fail, go wrong … to fail, do wrong, err, sin … to err in judgment … to do wrong in a matter ...” and another related word, the noun ἁμάρτημα, is “a failure, fault, sin…” and even “a bodily defect, malady”. There are many examples in profane Greek literature and scholarly translations of that literature which may be provided as support for the renderings of these words in the Christogenea New Testament.

Sin is failure of purpose, meaning the purpose for which God has made the Adamic man. Sin is also error, fault or guilt. What should be of import to Christians, however, is where they look for the authority to define what is error, fault or guilt. If their judgments and their consciences are not in harmony with the laws of Yahweh our God, then we are not following those laws which He wrote on our hearts, or perhaps we are not His people in order to have them so written. When I was a child, there were things that were considered naughty even though they were not expressly prohibited by Church or State. We did not do those things, because we were following the laws written on our hearts, the morals which came down from our parents and our grandparents. For that same basic and inherent consciousness of right and wrong which is necessary for the formation of a sound society, Paul commended the Romans in chapter 2 of his epistle. However when we have the laws of Yahweh to instruct us as to what sin is, and our consciences agree with and consent to the law, then if we have transgressed any of those things we are convicted of wrongdoing and must repent. Paul endeavors to describe this in Romans chapters 6 and 7.

In Romans chapter 4 Paul described the relationship of the law to the justification of Abraham and his descendants [which are found in the White nations of Christendom], and explains that their justification is apart from the law, because the promises to Abraham preceded and transcend the giving of the law. In Romans chapter 5 Paul attests that the entire wider Adamic race has life in Christ, ostensibly in fulfillment of the promises recorded at the close of Genesis chapter 3. The Adamic man was indeed created by Yahweh to be immortal, as we saw illustrated in other Scriptures, such as chapter 2 of the Wisdom of Solomon. There are fools who mistake of equating the promise of eternal life to the Adamic man with the teaching of anti-nomianism. These are two entirely different topics, and nothing could be further from the truth. Paul of Tarsus encountered these same scoffers and challengers, and here in Romans chapter 6 he addresses that very same challenge once again.

Before beginning, let me say that I have found two basic groups of people professing the Christian Identity faith.

The first group has a clear position on the race issue and the racial message of the Bible, and they also generally understand that man cannot be saved of his own accord, because no man can keep the whole law and no man can possibly save himself. Yet on the other hand they understand a need for the law, and recognize that it is good, using it as a model for behaviour while acknowledging that sometimes men fail, and in that failure a need for mercy is realized, especially for the mercy of God but also for mercy towards one another. This first group follows what the Scripture teaches.

The second group has a fuzzy position on the race issue. They ignore a large portion of Scripture. Then in turn they subscribe some necessity for works on the part of man in order to somehow earn salvation. Sometimes the works which they demand are innocuous, such as a keeping of the food laws (which are nevertheless necessary to the maintenance of good health) or the water baptism ritual (which even the apostles eventually realized was eclipsed with Christ). The more extreme of these demand that the entire law, the feasts, sabbaths and even circumcision be kept in order to attain salvation. This is the Pharisaical attitude which Paul of Tarsus resisted and condemned, because it is antithetical to all of the promises in Christ. These people are self-righteous because they believe that they are attaining their own salvation. Following these things, those who are captivated by this group are often injected with universalist ideas, because they believe that men are saved by their own works, and therefore to these men the plain Word of the promises of God are no longer relevant along racial lines. These people are not Christians. They are Catholics, and they teach some perverted admixture of universalist Catholicism along with an incomplete recognition of Israelite Identity. With this, combined with many of the other heresies that they often collect, they certainly become twice-fold the children of hell because they prefer the works of man over the handiwork of Yahweh God. This second group contends with what the Scripture teaches.

If Christians perform good deeds, they seek a better reward, but they already have that eternal life granted in Adam. An examination of Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, especially in chapters 3, 5 and 15, fully exhibits the truth of those statements.

With this, we shall commence with Romans chapter 6:

1 Now what may we say? Shall we continue in fault that favor would be greater? 2 Certainly not! We who have died in guilt, how still can we live in it?

“We who have died in sin”: As Yahweh in Hosea says that Ephraim died in sin. Because the children of Israel sinned in a manner that in the law demands the penalty of death, Israel was liable to that penalty, but instead Yahweh God as Yahshua Christ determined to die on their behalf. Therefore Paul is about to draw an analogy: that Israel was dead in sin and therefore all Israel being revived in Christ should acknowledge that fact.

From Hosea chapter 13: “1 When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.... 4 Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.”

From Isaiah chapter 52: “1 Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. 2 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. 3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.”

That Yahshua, being Yahweh, could die in place of the children of Israel is explained by Paul later, in chapter 7 of this epistle: that a wife is released from the law of the husband upon the death of the husband.

3 Or are you ignorant that as long as we are immersed in Christ Yahshua [B wants Yahshua], into His death we are immersed? 4 So we were buried with Him through that immersion into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the honor of the Father, so then we in newness of life should walk.

Originally the Christogenea New Testament translation wanted the article rendered as that here, an oversight which shall be corrected. (Not every occurrence of the article in Greek bears significance in English.) Using the article, Paul is referring to a specific immersion, or baptism. Here the particular baptism which Paul references is that baptism mentioned by Christ in Luke 12:50. At Luke 12:50, nearly three years after being baptized in water by John, Christ proclaims “But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” The baptism which Christ announced in Luke is the very baptism which Paul proclaimed here! Yet in Ephesians 4:5 Paul also attests that there is “One Lord, one faith, [and] one baptism”. We can count to one: the baptism of Luke 12:50 is what Christians should adhere to because that is the baptism of salvation. Salvation is not of the baptism of John, which was only a preparation for the Gospel but it was not the Gospel.

The fools who insist upon the necessity of water baptism for salvation are ignoring not only this, but the explanation of Peter in Acts chapter 11, where he professes that the household of Cornelius received the Holy Spirit without the water baptism ritual. They also ignore the words of Christ recorded in Acts chapter 1 where He said “Iohannes immersed in water, but you shall be immersed in the Holy Spirit after not many days hence.” In reference to that very statement of Christ's, after acknowledging what had happened at the household of Cornelius Peter says at Acts 11:16: “Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.” Peter is telling us right there, that baptism with the Holy Spirit is what Christians seek, and not baptism in water. Therefore in his first epistle he says, at 1 Peter 3:21: “21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ”.

That baptism with the Holy Spirit was only made possible with the death of Christ, as He explains in John chapter 14: “16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.” In verse 26 of that same chapter we see that the Comforter is the Holy Spirit. In verse 18 we should perceive that Christ and the Spirit are also one and the same. Israel was reconciled to Yahweh in the Spirit through the death of Yahweh in Christ. In this must Christians be baptized, and not in water.

5 Therefore if united we have become in the likeness of His death, then also shall we be of His [literally only the or that rather than his] resurrection;

The Greek adjective σύμφυτος is not served well enough with the rendering united. The King James Version has planted together, which seems strange but which may be more accurate in some degree. The word is, according to Liddell & Scott, “born with one, congenital, innate, natural, inborn, inbred...” and the large 9th edition of the lexicon also gives united as a definition of the word, with some examples from the profane Greek writers along with a reference to this very passage.

Perhaps a more literal translation of σύμφυτος may have been born together, “therefore if we have been born together”, however that can just as well be abused by universalists since the phrase which follows may be interpreted to mean that we may find our origin in the death of Christ, and not merely our salvation, as they also abuse the phrase which means “born from above” where in John chapter 3 they interpret it as “born again”.

As the definition of σύμφυτος supplied by Liddell & Scott implies, the word means of joint origin, as Joseph Thayer defines the word in part in his Greek-English lexicon, and that meaning cannot escape us here. Perhaps a more emphatic translation may more accurately render the intentions: “If we of the same race come to the likeness of His death...”, which does not distort the meaning of the Greek words.

6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him [literally only “crucified together”], that the body would be left void of guilt, that no longer are we in bondage to guilt.

Paul explains this same thing again in Galatians chapter 2: “19 For I through law have died in law, in order that in Yahweh I shall live. I have been crucified with Christ. 20 Now I live no longer, but Christ lives in me. And that I now live in flesh, in faith I live: in that of the Son of Yahweh, who having loved me then surrendered Himself on my behalf.” Paul has created an allegory. Israel was deserving of death, and Christ dying on behalf of Israel, the children of Israel should account themselves dead in Him. That is what Paul means by being baptized in His death in verses 3 and 4 of this chapter. That is the baptism in which He was baptized as mentioned in the Gospels, particularly in Matthew chapter 20.

From Matthew 20: “22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”

As for that bondage to sin in which Israel was held, from Isaiah chapter 61, words which Christ was recorded in the Gospel as having cited in reference to Himself: “1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound”.

The old man Paul refers to was Israel alienated from Yahweh God and under penalty of death for their sins. Upon recognition of that, man should depart from sin and in his reconciliation he should seek obedience to God. The meek and broken-hearted are repentant Israel. From Psalm 22, which was a Messianic prophecy: “25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him [Yahweh]. 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.”

7 Therefore, dying one is judged worthy apart from fault.

In Isaiah 45:25 the Word of God says that: “In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.” There are fools who claim that where Paul said in Romans chapter 11 that “all Israel shall be saved”, that he was merely referring to the tribes of Israel, that each of them would have surviving members. However Isaiah clearly says that all of the seed of Israel shall be justified. The mercy for Israel in Christ is complete and without exception: all Israel, dying, shall indeed be judged worthy apart from sin and apart from the law. Anything less is an attempt to repudiate the promises of Yahweh God.

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we also will live with Him [D has Christ], 9 knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer lords over Him.

As Paul said in Hebrews chapter 9: “27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” That salvation is to save Israel from their sins, not to destroy Israel for their sins. Rather, it is the works of the devil shall be destroyed by Christ (1 John 3:8). As Paul explained in Romans chapter 5, the entire Adamic race is given life through one decision of judgment for all men. The post-resurrection judgment, to each Adamic man according to his works, determines the reward that the works of each merits.

Those of Israel who understand the reasons for His death, having been baptized in that death, have an assurance that they also shall be raised from the dead. From Hosea chapter 13: “14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” Whenever we see such Scriptures, there are never any of the children of Israel omitted. If one Israelite ends up in the Lake of Fire, then Hosea 13 is a lie and Christ is powerless to save His Creation from the works of the devil, as John explains in his first epistle, that “the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil,” that serpent of Genesis chapter 3 who sought and still seeks to corrupt and destroy our Adamic race. Yet the assurance of Revelation chapter 20 is that hell and death are cast into the Lake of Fire. Every Adamic spirit is written into the Book of Life, since the Bible is the Word of Life and the “book of the race of Adam”. Therefore only the devil and his children are cast into the Lake of Fire.

10 Therefore when He died, the guilt upon all died; but because He lives, He lives to Yahweh. 11 In that manner you also consider yourselves to be [P46, A and D want “to be”] dead indeed in guilt, but living to Yahweh, in Christ Yahshua [P94, א, C and the MT insert “our Prince”].

When Yahshua Christ died, Yahweh God died because Yahshua Christ is Yahweh God manifest in the flesh. From Isaiah 9:6, a Scripture which the Jews deny: “6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” When Yahweh God died on earth as a man, Israel was released from the judgments of the law: Israel was no longer liable to the penalty of death which she merited for her sins of whoredom. Paul said in Romans 5:13 that “until the law fault was in the Society; but fault was not accounted, there not being law”. Christ fulfilled the law by dying, and sin is in the Society but sin is not accounted to Israel since there is no law. When Christ died, the sin upon all died with Him! Paul himself shall explain this in Romans chapter 7. Nevertheless, the children of Israel should learn from their experience, that they cannot be justified by the rituals of the law, and that they cannot be justified of their own doings, so therefore they should seek to keep the law in Spirit, in submitting themselves to Christ, and seek His mercy when they fail.

12 Therefore do not let fault reign in your mortal body, for which to submit to [or to obey] its desires [P46 and D have only “submit to it”; the MT has “submit to it in its desires]. 13 Neither should you surrender your members as instruments of wrongdoing in error, but present yourselves to Yahweh as living from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to Yahweh.

From Psalm 81: “11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. 12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.” Paul said this of many of the Romans for this same reason, that they abandoned Yahweh and were therefore given up to the lusts of their own hearts, as we saw in Romans chapter 1.

In Romans chapter 7 Paul will describe the sinful nature of Adamic man. Unlike all of the other creatures, including bastards, the Adamic man has two natures: the fleshly and the spiritual. Paul is exhorting Christians to follow the spiritual, and to suppress the unseemly desires of the fleshly.

14 Therefore guilt shall not lord over you, for you are not under law, but under favor. 15 What then? Shall we commit wrongdoing because we are not under law, but under favor? Certainly not! 16 Do you [D has “Or do you”] not know that to whom you present yourselves as bondmen to obey, bondmen you are to whom you obey, truly either of error for death [D wants “for death”], or of obedience for righteousness?

Israel is not under the law. The law and its rituals were fulfilled in Christ, and therefore Israel shall not be judged by the law, but rather they shall be granted life through the promises and mercy of Yahweh their God. That is the promise throughout the prophets of the Old Testament. From Jeremiah 31:2: “Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”

But this is not anti-nomianism, as some simple-minded fools would insist, because Paul is exhorting that since Israel is not under the law, that Israel should indeed keep the law! For the moral laws of God, as we discussed while presenting Romans chapter 4, are indeed the natural laws of man: being the laws which Yahweh had written upon the hearts of the children of Israel. Therefore Paul says here in Romans 6:17:

17 But feel grateful to Yahweh, that you were bondmen of guilt, but you obeyed from the heart [A has “pure heart”], into which a form of instruction was transmitted.

And here Paul refers to the promise of Jeremiah 31:33. This promise was given to Israel with the announcement of the New Covenant: “33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” here Paul is commending the Roman Christians for following the law of Jeremiah 31:33, since they too were Israel! Paul had also commended them for this same thing in Romans chapter 2, where speaking of Roman society in general he said: “for when the Nations, which do not have the law, by nature practice the things of the law, these, not having law, themselves are a law; who exhibit the work of the law written in their hearts” (Romans 2:14-15).

As Paul had explained to the Hebrews: “For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law” (Hebrews 7:12). As Paul said to the Galatians, who were amongst the Israelites of the Assyrian deportations: “24 So the law has been our tutor for Christ, in order that from faith we would be deemed righteous. 25 But the faith having come, no longer are we under a tutor” (Galatians 3:24-25). The commandments of Christ, and the admonition to love our brethren, that is the law which Christians must keep.

18 And having been liberated from guilt, you have become bondmen to righteousness.

Sin leads to death, as Paul himself tells us here in verse 23. The children of Israel were redeemed from the grave with which they made a covenant, as Yahweh had promised in Hosea chapter 13. Even David said in Psalm 49: “15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me.”

From Isaiah chapter 54: “13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. 14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.... 17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.”

The children of Israel are deemed righteous not because they were righteous in the eyes of men, or even according to the law of God – by which no flesh can be deemed righteous as Paul had written in Romans 3:20. Rather, they are deemed righteous by Yahweh God simply because of His election. How dare men reject what Yahweh has considered righteous? Therefore he that hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15) and a liar (1 John 4:20), and men had better carefully consider the condemnation of their racial brethren.

19 From manhood I speak regarding the weakness of your flesh. For just as you surrendered your members in bondage to uncleanness and to lawlessness for lawlessness [B wants “for lawlessness”], now in that manner present your members [A has instruments, which the MT did not follow] in bondage to righteousness for sanctification. 20 Indeed, when you were bondmen of error, you were free from righteousness. 21 Now what profit [literally fruit] did you have then, at which you are now ashamed? Surely the result of those things is death.

The children of Israel sold themselves for nothing, as Yahweh said to Israel through Isaiah that “Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money”, meaning that they had sold themselves into sin, as Paul says in Romans chapter 7 that “we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Therefore, the Romans being a portion of dispersed Israel, Paul says to them here: “you surrendered your members in bondage to uncleanness and to lawlessness”, which is true on a national level, and true in varying degrees for each Israelite on a personal level, since all have sinned.

Paul cited Psalm 95 several times in his epistle to the Hebrews: “6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. 7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.”

The Word of Yahweh says in Jeremiah chapter 4: “1 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.” Therefore it is evident, that the call to the Gospel of Christ is a call to repentance and the forsaking of sin.

22 But now having been liberated from guilt, and becoming bondmen to Yahweh, you have your profit [again, literally fruit] in sanctification, and the result is life for eternity.

All of Israel shall be saved because eventually all of Israel shall be turned to righteousness, even of sinners and murmurers, as the Scripture says that “every knee shall bow” (from Isaiah 45, which Paul quotes in Romans chapter 14). From Isaiah chapter 29: “22 Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. 23 But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. 24 They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.” So even the sinners and murmurers in Israel are in the end corrected and accounted righteous.

Again we must read from Isaiah chapter 45: “18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. 19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. 20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations [the children of Israel who found grace in the wilderness]: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. 21 Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. 22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth [a reference to scattered Israel]: for I am God, and there is none else. 23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. 24 Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. 25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.”

The children of Israel have no choice in their fate. They belong to Yahweh, and they are therefore His bondmen. They shall be obedient, or they shall be punished as a result of their own sins until they are no longer disobedient. The Greek word used by Paul for bondman, δοῦλος (Strong's # 1401) properly refers to one who was born a slave, rather than to one who was made a slave during the course of his own life (an ἀνδράποδον). Therefore only the children of Israel can properly be the bondmen of Yahweh, for only they were accounted His servants beforehand. From Isaiah chapter 41: “8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.” From Isaiah chapter 43: “1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.” Therefore Paul said to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 6:19-20): “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you? Which you have from Yahweh, and you are not your own? 20 Indeed you have been purchased for a price; so then you honor Yahweh in your body.” The keeping of the Law is the way to the Tree of Life, whether or not Israel is going to be judged by the Law. Therefore here Paul tells us that departing from sin and becoming obedient servants of God, we find eternal life.

23 Therefore the provision of error is death; but the favor of Yahweh is life for eternity in Christ Yahshua our Prince.

Or “the wages of sin is death”, and when our first parents were enticed to commit fornication by the serpent, he said “Ye shall not surely die”, but they did. Nevertheless, they are promised eternal life through Christ. From Genesis chapter 3: “17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Yet the purpose of Christ is “that he might destroy the works of the devil”, and indeed all of Adam shall live.

The ultimate plan of Yahweh's salvation is that all is restored to the purpose of His original creation. Therefore Paul explains in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that “25 Indeed it is necessary for Him to reign, until He should place all of the enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy abolished is death [which insists that all enemies are abolished, and not somehow rehabilitated], 27 therefore 'all are subjected under His feet.' Now until it may be said that it is evident that all things have been subjected, (because outside of the subjecting of all things to Himself 28 and until all things are in subjection to Him,) then also the Son Himself will be subjected in the subjecting of all things to Himself, in order that Yahweh may be all things among all.” In the end, the entire Adamic race shall be subjected to God, and all of the enemies of God shall be destroyed.

Most translators play a sleight-of-hand deception at 2 Corinthians 5:17-18. In 5:17 the King James ends with the popular exclamation “behold, all things are become new”. Then in 5:18 it begins with the phrase “And all things are of God”, which is not true. The Greek particle δέ from which the word “and” was translated is not merely a conjunctive particle. Rather, it is a conjunctive particle with adversative force. Even those few translations which translate this word correctly add another word to the text, the verb are, which is not necessarily inferred. Paul is qualifying his statement, that all things from God are made new, and all things are not necessarily from God. Therefore in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 Paul tells us to “come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean”, where he is referring to people, and not to mere objects.

With this we shall begin to look at Romans chapter 7, which contains an important Biblical theme that we shall discuss at length:

1 Are you ignorant, brethren (I speak to those who know the law,) that the law lords over the man for as long a time as he should live? 2 For a woman married [literally under or subject to a man] to a living husband is bound by law; but if the husband should die, she is discharged from the law of the husband: 3 so then as the husband is living, she would be labeled an adulteress if she were found with another man; but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, she is not an adulteress being found with another man. [Paul is talking about the law of marriage here apart from the possibility of divorce, which need not be considered for the purpose of his illustration.] 4 Consequently, my brethren, you also are put to death in the law through the body of Christ; for you to be found with another, who from the dead was raised in order that we should bear fruit for Yahweh. 5 Indeed when we were in the flesh, the occurrences of fault, which were through the law, operated in our members for the bearing of fruit for death; 6 but now we are discharged from the law, being put to death in that which we were held, so that we are bound in newness of Spirit, and not oldness of letter.

For several chapters of his epistle, and after this point where he continues in this chapter, Paul has been explaining how Israel would not be judged by the law, even though Israel was under the law and subject to death as a penalty for sin. So here Paul decides to discuss the relationship of a wife to her husband and the laws of her husband. But this is not merely some parenthetical statement concerning domestic relations! Paul is not merely giving a lesson on marriage here, while he is in the middle of such a long dissertation concerning the relationship of Israel to the promises and the law of Yahweh God. Rather, Paul is explaining precisely how it is that Israel was released from the law of Yahweh their God!

Evidently, there are people claiming to be Identity Christians who do not take the marriage relationship of Yahweh and Israel seriously, and they claim that it is only an allegory. So therefore in their minds, evidently Yahweh's Word does not count for much. If Yahweh God is the author of life, He can define terms as He wants to, and we should not be found arguing with His Word.

Here we shall present some of the scriptures which show that Israel as a nation was the wife of Yahweh their God:

Isaiah 50:1 explains Yahweh's having put His wife away, which is Israel the nation perceived as the mother of the children of Israel: “Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.”

Isaiah 54:1 compares the children of Israel, the “children of the married wife” to the surrounding nations or “children of the desolate”: “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.”

Isaiah 54:5 allows us to assert that our interpretation of 54:1 is correct, where the Word of Yahweh says: "For thy Maker is thine husband; Yahweh of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called." Yahweh is God, Creator, Husband and Redeemer of Israel, therefore Christ is Yahweh in the flesh.

Hosea 2:7, where Yahweh speaks of Israel playing the harlot: "And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now."

Hosea 2:20, speaking of the promise of a future relationship of Yahweh and Israel, once Israel returns to Him: “I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.”

Both Isaiah and Hosea prove that Israel is returning to Yahweh as the husband, which can only be Christ. That is what the Wedding Supper of the Lamb in the Revelation is all about. That is why John the Baptist referred to Christ as the bridegroom, and Christ referred to Himself as the bridegroom. That is why when Christ illustrated His Own return, He framed it in those same terms: as a bridegroom coming for His bride.