Good works profit me nothing. They will not serve to save a single hair of my head. We are saved by grace through faith, not by works. Good works, however, serve as a testimony of that salvation that the Christ provided for us freely. What better testimony can we have than to practice that which we believe. -Bruce Scott

James said it best in chapter one verse twenty two of his book, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22). As Christians, good works are EXPECTED of us. God expects them of us. They are for the perfecting of our faith.

James explains further in chapter two beginning in verse fourteen, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, is dead.” (James 2:14-17). In short, James is saying that there is no point, or profit, in calling ourselves Christians, if we are not going to demonstrate it in our actions, for this is how the Gospel is spread. If we call ourselves Christians, but behave as the rest of the world, then there is no difference between us and them. As Christians, we are to clothe the poor, feed the hungry, and bring the peace of the gospel to them in word and in deed.

“But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18). Again James illustrates just how vital works are for Christians. They demonstrate our faith to the world and thereby allow the spreading of the gospel. Works are the soil in which our faith grows to maturity and perfection.”For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26). Works are, in fact, the very spirit of our faith. While works do not save us, they do perfect our faith in the grace that does.

Glory to God in the highest in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus, The Christ!

Bruce Scott is a Christian man residing in North Georgia with his wife and six children. He has been called of God to found the Enochian Church of Jesus the Christ, a church that is founded of all of God’s word. The Church will eventually be located in or near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina as God has shown him the need to accomplish this work there.

Copyright Bruce Scott 2008

To understand this, we must first understand that the roll Judas played was absolutely necessary to fulfill prophecy contained in scripture (Matthew 26:56, John 17:12). Second, we must understand that it was not actually Judas that committed the act of betrayal, but it was Satan that entered Judas for this purpose (Luke 22:3-4). I do, however, concede that Judas was weak in his faith thus allowing this possession to occur.

Judas, however, before his untimely death, did indeed repent of his sin and confessed, stating that he had sinned by betraying innocent blood (Matthew 27:4). He had even gone so far as attempting to return the thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 27:3). When the money was refused, he threw the thirty pieces to the ground at the feet of the priests and departed (Matthew 27:4-5). With those words and actions, Judas demonstrated his belief in The Christ, and in that moment, he turned away from, or repented, of his sin. Until that moment, he had been condemned, but he recognized his condemnation as we all must do. He confessed and repented, or turned away from his sin. Until that moment, he was indeed lost as Jesus stated (John 17:12).

Judas saw that he could not undo that which he had done. He saw that the priests would not be moved from their endeavor and were predisposed to seeing that Jesus died. Much sorrow and woe fell upon him as Jesus Himself had said that it would (Matthew 26:24). He indeed knew that it would have been better that he, personally, had never been born.

Judas then made the same mistake that many Christians make to this very day. Even though he had confessed his sin and repented, he held on to all of the guilty feelings. He did not understand that forgiveness was his, and his inability to forgive himself would lead him to his ultimate demise in this world. How much sorrow and woe did Judas suffer? How great was his torment? Our Bible does not give us these particular details. We only know that it was so great that Judas left the thirty pieces of silver at the feet of the temple priests and went and hanged himself.

His sorrow, his torment, his woe, is not difficult for us to imagine. Many of us have been in that very same place in our hearts. We desperately want forgiveness, but in our minds we hear the lies of Satan tell us that what we have done is so very bad that God will never forgive us. The lies tell us that we are not worth saving.

The truth is that every single one of us in this world is worth saving, even you. God loves you enough to forgive you no matter what you have done. We read in the Gospel of John that “God gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That “whoever” includes every one of us no matter what we have done. The Christ is willing to forgive us our sins, so we need to be willing to forgive ourselves. He died to forgive me; He died to forgive you. He is our resurrection to eternal life. We should never mock His sacrifice by refusing to forgive ourselves. We must not believe the lies of Satan. We can be forgiven.

So, what of the fate of Judas? Judas, like all true Christians, is numbered among the forgiven. Many well meaning pastors and preachers, when pressed on this issue, will tell us that “Judas is in his own place” referring us to Acts 1:25. “His own place…” What exactly does this mean? Judas returned the thirty pieces of silver to the temple priests. They would not accept it. They considered it blood money. Judas threw it down in the temple anyway. The priests, being unwilling to accept it, most likely to preserve their own sense of piety, collected it and used it to purchase the desolate Potters field and had the field “deeded” (for lack of better term) to Judas. Judas had in fact gone down to his own place, and there hanged himself. The place was now called the field of blood. The ultimate fate of Judas will be the same as the rest of us who are forgiven.

     Glory to God in the highest in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Bruce Scott is a Christian man residing in North Georgia with his wife and six children. He has been called of God to found The Enochian Church of Jesus the Christ, a church that is founded of all of God’s word. The church will eventually be located in or near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina as God has shown him the need to accomplish this work there.

Copyright Bruce Scott 2008

Let us start with the notion of salvation itself. I have grown up and currently live in what is known as the “Bible Belt”; some would even say on the very buckle of it in Northwest Georgia. Here we have churches of any variety or denomination practically on every street corner. Most of them have signs in front of them telling us that we must be “saved”. Here, on our little part of the buckle, it is assumed that everyone knows what that means, but I feel that we should be diligent and assume nothing. A man, or woman, may say, “What must I be saved from? I perceive no danger or threat here.” The answer is that we must be forgiven of our sins and saved from the penalty of that sin. “But…” they may ask, “…what is sin?” That answer in its most simple form is this: Sin is a transgression of Gods will. That is it.

Sin has to be neither grand nor subtle to be sin. It doesn’t just have to be a law that was broken after being written in stone, nor does it have to be something done in a secret or sneaky manner. The first example of sin is found in Genesis 3:6, when Eve, then Adam, both eat from a tree knowing that it was against God’s will. It was sin even though it was not written in stone. We see by this example that sin is the transgression of God’s will.

“So what is the penalty for sin?” We read in Romans 6:23 that the wages (or penalty) of sin is death. In short, because we all have sinned, we all shall die. Adam brought sin into the world and with it death, but sin is committed daily by us all. The Christ provided us salvation from this penalty, a way that we need not remain in that death.

Insight to this salvation and into the subtleties of sin are provided to us in Isaiah 53:5. It says “He (The Christ) was wounded for our transgressions…”, but it says so much more. The entire verse reads,

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.”

Now that we understand about transgression, let us examine iniquity. What is iniquity? Iniquity is that portion of sin that we pass on to our children. Deuteronomy 5:9 tells us that God is a jealous God and visits the iniquity of our sin on our children even to the third and fourth generation of those that hate Him. Think of it this way: Sin damages us. Iniquity is that damage we pass on to our children; a sort of genetic damage, but on a spiritual level. It becomes the tendency of our children to repeat the same sin and continue to pass that sin to yet another generation.

Have you ever heard anyone speak of a childs poor behavior in reference to a parents past? Perhaps you heard them say something like “There goes Johnny. He’s just like his dad was at that age. You’d think he’d learn because of what happened to his dad, but there he goes doing the very same thing.” This is an example of how iniquity lands on our children and keeps society in a constant downward spiral. We, as Christians, can break this cycle by simply laying claim to that part of salvation that covers iniquity. “… He was bruised for our iniquities;” Blood was shed for our transgression to cover the act of our sin and we need to understand that a bruise is simply bleeding that has remained under the surface of our skin. While he was wounded and bled outwardly to cover the act of our sin, he also bled inwardly to cover the iniquity of our sin so that we need not pass it on to our children.

“The chastisement of our peace was upon Him…” What does this mean to us? When I was a child, and had misbehaved as children tend to do, I remember occasionally hearing my mother say those words that I feared most, “Just wait until your father gets home.” Immediately fear fell on me. My heart raced, I began to sweat, and the hands on the clock began to race around its face. The rest of my day was spent in dread and worry because I knew that when daddy got home I was getting a spanking. Once the spanking was over, however, I didn’t need to worry any more. It was over and done.

As Christians, we know when we have done wrong. We understand when we have sinned. Even though we know we have been forgiven, we still tend to wrestle with worry, fear, doubt, and dread. We see the evidence of things in how they affect us. Worry, fear, doubt, and dread cause us a number of problems. We get high blood pressure, chemical imbalances, anxiety, depression, ulcers, even strokes and heart attacks. The good news, however, is that we need not fear our Father coming home. Why? Because the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. We know by reading the Gospels that if anyone in the history of the world ever took a beating, Jesus took a BEATING. That beating was for you and me. He took it so we didn’t have to take it and worry, fear, doubt, and dread need not have a hold on us because by those stripes, WE ARE HEALED!

So what’s next? As Christians, we need to lay claim to the fullness of our salvation so that we break the yoke of bondage from our children. They need not be bound to our sin nor compound it by repeating it. We need to cast our iniquities into the same blood that saves us. We need to dismiss worry and fear from our hearts, minds, and our lives. Jesus the Christ took our chastisement for us and we need to lay claim to the healing that he provided.

Pray this prayer. “Lord Jesus, I now understand fully the salvation you provided. Forgive me of my sin and wash me in the blood you shed outwardly for me. Take the iniquities from me with the blood you shed inwardly in every bruise you received for me. Give me peace in the knowledge that you took my punishment and heal me of all of my afflictions. Sanctify me Lord that I may walk according to the Fathers will and become the man/woman you would have me be. Amen

If you prayed this prayer, or learned something new about your salvation, please leave me a comment and let me know. Thank You, Bruce.

Bruce Scott is a Christian man residing in North Georgia with his wife and six children. He has been called of God to found The Enochian Church of Jesus the Christ, a church that is founded on all of God’s word. The church will eventually be located in or near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina as God has shown him the need to accomplish this work there.

Copyright Bruce Scott 2007