“Is the remission of sins the same thing as the forgiveness of sins?”

Bible words can often be defined by the way New Testament writers quote the Old Testament. For instance, we know that the words deliverance and salvation are the same, for when Paul quotes Joel, he changes the word “deliverance” to “saved” (Joel 2:32; Rom. 10:13). In the same way, we know that remission and forgiveness are the same, for in quoting Jeremiah, the writer of Hebrews changes the word “forgive” to “remission” (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 10:17,18).

In addition, we know that God set Christ forth “to be a propitiation… to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past” (Rom. 3:25). That’s not talking about the sins that are past in your life, that’s talking about the remission of the sins of Old Testament saints like Abraham and David. So when we read that Abraham was also “justified” (Rom. 4:1-3), and David was “forgiven” (Rom. 4:7), we have to conclude that the remission of sins is tantamount to justification as well as forgiveness.

Finally, if you look up the word “remit” in a good dictionary, one of the words used to define it is “forgive,” and vice versa.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

This writer has often been taken to task for his alleged inconsistency in “eliminating” water baptism from God’s program for today, while holding to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

This criticism is based upon the unscriptural assumption that baptism and the Lord’s Supper belong together in Scripture, and in God’s program for the present dispensation.

Well do we remember how a startling misquotation of Colossians 2:14 first led us to a study of this subject. A Bible teacher of some note had “quoted” the passage thus: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, that was against us, leaving two, baptism and the Lord’s Supper”!

This is pure—and unscriptural—tradition, for the fact is that the two are never linked together in the Scriptures, and certainly not as ordinances for the Body of Christ. True Bereans will search the Scriptures as to these facts, and be forever done with the notion that baptism and the Lord’s Supper belong together in the program of God.

Moreover, there are definite distinctions and even contrasts between the two.

Water baptism was an Old Testament ordinance.
The Lord’s Supper is a New Testament celebration.

Water baptism, like all ordinances, was “imposed.”
The Lord’s Supper never was imposed.

Water baptism was required for salvation.
The Lord’s Supper, never.

Water baptism was associated with our Lord’s manifestation to Israel.
The Lord’s Supper is associated with our Lord’s rejection and absence.

Water baptism denotes an unfinished work.
The Lord’s Supper speaks of the finished work of Christ.

Water baptism was a single act.
The Lord’s Supper is celebrated again and again.

Water baptism was not included in Paul’s special commission.
The Lord’s Supper was included in Paul’s special commission.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

“In hope of eternal life, which God…promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2).

In the Law of Moses, God promised the people of Israel that they could “live” (Lev. 18:5)—live eternally—if they kept His commandments.  We know that’s what Leviticus 18:5 meant because the Lord Jesus quoted that verse to a Jewish man seeking eternal life (Lu. 10:25-28).

But God promised us Gentiles eternal life before the Law, even “before the world began.”  But unlike the promise of life He made to the Jews in the Law, He didn’t reveal His promise to us Gentiles for thousands of years!  Speaking of that promise (Tit. 1:2), Paul added,

“But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me…” (Titus 1:3).

When God finally decided to reveal His promise to give the Gentiles eternal life, He “manifested” it through Paul.

If you’re not sure what that word “manifested” means, it is well defined in something the Lord said about things that had not yet been revealed about God’s prophetic program for Israel:

“…nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest, neither any thing hid, that shall not be known…” (Luke 8:17).

So to make something manifest means to make known something that was secret or hidden.  That means when Paul says that God “manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me,” he meant that he preached a secret that had been hid but now was made known.  Doesn’t that sound like what he wrote in Colossians 1:25,26?

“…I am made a minister, according to…the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest.”

But now, here’s the thing about the hidden, secret mystery that Paul made manifest.  It involved more than just the fact that God promised eternal life to the Gentiles before the world began.  It involved what Paul talked about in Ephesians 3:8,9,

“…unto me…is this grace given, that I should…make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.”

Paul wasn’t just called on to reveal the mystery that God promised eternal life to Gentiles before the world began.  He was called on to reveal the fellowship of the mystery, something he explained a few verses earlier in that passage when he said,

“…God…made known unto me the mystery…that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs and of the same body…” (Ephesians 3:2-6).

The fellowship of the mystery is that Gentiles could not only have eternal life, they could be fellow or equal* members of “the same body,” the Body of Christ, with Jewish believers.  And Paul was raised up to make this equality manifest.

In the 19^th century, many Americans believed that it was the “manifest destiny” of the United States that our nation would expand across North America.  But in the 1^st century, the Apostle Paul made it manifest that even Gentiles like us are destined to live eternally as equal heirs with Jewish believers in the Body of Christ for all eternity.  Glory!

* We know the word “fellow” means equal because in speaking of Christ, God the Father called Him “the man who is My fellow” (Zech. 13:7), and Christ was God’s “equal” (Phil. 2:6). 

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

“In hope of eternal life, which God…promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2).

In the Law of Moses, God promised the people of Israel that they could “live” (Lev. 18:5)—live eternally—if they kept His commandments.  We know that’s what Leviticus 18:5 meant because the Lord quoted that verse to a man seeking eternal life (Lu. 10:25-28).

But God promised us Gentiles eternal life before the Law, even “before the world began.”  But unlike the promise of life He made to the Jews in the Law, He didn’t reveal His promise to us Gentiles for thousands of years!  Speaking of that promise (Tit. 1:2), Paul added,

“But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me…” (Titus 1:3).

When God finally decided to reveal His promise to give the Gentiles eternal life, He chose Paul to break the news.  The due time had finally come to disclose His promise!

But what does that phrase due time mean?  Well, that exact phrase is used when some unbelieving Jews were persecuting some believers in Israel, and the believers were wondering how long God would allow this to go on!  God answered them,

“To Me belongeth vengeance… their foot shall slide in due time… the LORD shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone” (Deuteronomy 32:35,36).

God told those persecuted believers, as it were, “I’ll judge the unbelievers among My people in due time, and the due time will come when I see that My servants (you believers) have no power to save yourselves from their persecution.”  So the phrase due time refers to a time when God looks at men and sees “that their power is gone.”  This helps us understand the next time the phrase appears:

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

The Jews had vowed they could keep the Law (Ex. 24:7), but over the next 1500 years they showed that they had no power to keep it.  And when they showed that they were “without strength” to keep it, Christ died for the ungodly.  But as far as anyone knew, He only died for ungodly Jews, Isaiah’s people (Isa.53:8).  He only died “to give His life a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:28), the “many” in Israel, for that was all that God had revealed up until that time.

It isn’t until you come to Paul’s writings that you read that “Christ…gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (I Tim. 2:5,6).  And the thing that made it the due time for Paul to testify this was that that’s when it became obvious that the Gentiles were without strength to save themselves too!

If you’re not sure what I mean by that, consider that if a Gentile wanted to be saved in time past, he had to become a Jew—a true Jew, a believing Jew—by believing on the God of the Jews.  For Gentiles, salvation was found “in the remnant” in Jerusalem (Joel 2:32).  That’s why the Lord sent the remnant of the 12 apostles to the Gentiles in “all nations” (Lu. 24:47).

But the 12 were told to take the gospel to all nations “beginning at Jerusalem” (Lu. 24:47).  When the Jews in Jerusalem stoned Stephen instead of sending forth “the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isa. 2:3), it looked like the Gentiles were going to remain without strength to get saved.

That’s when God raised up Paul to testify that the Gentiles didn’t have to become Jews to get the eternal life that God promised Israel in the Law, for He had promised them eternal life before the world began!

Isn’t it about time you received “the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 1:1 by believing that He died for your sins and rose again (I Cor. 15:1-4)?

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

“In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2).

The story is told of a rather simple-minded factory worker who got called into his supervisor’s office for talking back to his foreman.  His supervisor asked, “Did you call your foreman a liar?”  The man admitted that he had.  “Did you call him stupid?” He had to admit that was true as well.  “Did you call him an opinionated, narcissistic egomaniac?”  To this charge, the simple-minded man replied, “No, but could you write that one down so I can remember it?”

Of course, no one would ever accuse God of lying—or would they?  There must be a reason the Apostle Paul wrote to Titus about the hope of eternal life, “which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2).  Why would Paul have to vouch for God’s integrity like that?  Surely somebody was thinking that God could lie, or it wouldn’t have been necessary to affirm the opposite.  And it isn’t likely that it was Titus.

But Titus was stationed on the island of Crete (Titus 1:5), and the Cretians to whom he ministered used to worship the Greek god Zeus, who is said to have been born in Crete.  And according to Greek mythology, Zeus was always lying to his wife Hera to cover up the affairs he had with gods, nymphs and mortal women.  So the Cretians needed reassurance that the God of the Bible wasn’t lying in promising them eternal life, an assurance that Paul was more than happy to give them in an epistle that became a part of God’s written Word.

By the way, did you ever wonder why the gods of the Greeks were such moral degenerates?  Why would anyone invent gods who were guilty of lying, cheating, stealing, fornicating, and even killing?  It was because if your gods acted like that, it gave you an excuse to act like that!  The Greeks invented such gods to justify their own sinfulness!  After all, the gods couldn’t righteously deny men entrance into heaven because of their sins if they themselves were just as morally depraved!

How different is the God of the Bible!  The Bible doesn’t justify men by lowering God to their low level of wickedness.  The Bible justifies men by lifting them up to God’s level!  As the Lord Jesus Christ hung on Calvary’s cross, God made Him “to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).  That means if you’ve trusted Christ as your savior, you have the very righteousness of God.  God Himself is no more righteous than you are, for you have been “made the righteousness of God.”  And that means God can’t righteously deny you entrance into heaven, for He has lifted you up to His own level of righteousness.

If that makes you feel eternally secure, say amen!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.