Under the Old Covenant, God chose the offspring of Abraham to be a people unto Himself. Still subject to the fallen nature, their sins could not be forgiven and washed away by the blood of Jesus. Instead the principle of exchange was set in motion until the appointed time. Through the laying on of the hands of the High Priest upon a goat, the sins of the nation would be conferred upon the sacrificial goat once a year as a symbolic act of the temporary removal of their sins for the year. The goat would then be led out of the camp and released into the wilderness to die. This is where the term scapegoat originated.
        The Chronos Lesson: Under the New Covenant, God has gone one step further, making us sons of God through faith in Jesus (Gal. 3:26). God not only forgives our sins through the blood of the sacrificial Lamb, Jesus Christ, God remembers them no more.
        This is the calling and amazing grace of being the Lord’s House. That is our destiny. For now, Paul explains our interim situation: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:3-6)
        We are no longer mere mortals because we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ! We may exist on this earth, but we are to live our daily lives according to the ways of the heavenly kingdom. “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).
       At the 3rd day wedding in Canaan, Jesus performed the first miracle of changing ordinary water into extraordinary wine. That same miracle is taking place in our lives today, as we dare to release the kingdom truths into this earth and live not as ordinary mortals but as extraordinary mortals by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God Almighty.
        One of the elementary truths of our faith listed in Hebrews 6:1-2 is the laying on of hands. In essence, this is the exchange principle of the Kingdom. We see it when church leaders lay their hands on missionaries and ministers to release the anointing. We see it when Jesus told us to go out and lay hands on the sick to release God’s healing power. We see it when we lay our hands on our children and speak a blessing over them.
       So now we have a choice: to be conformed to this world by spending our time and resources on things of this world, or to be transformed by spending our time and resources on the eternal things of Heaven by the truths of God’s Word and the leading of the Spirit. This is how we know what is the will of God.

     When the Seed was planted into this world, an angelic chorus appeared before the lowliest of men, shepherds watching over their flocks by night in the wilderness. The long awaited chorus recorded in Luke 2:14 declared, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” It was a song of reconciliation that would be made possible by Jesus’ death and resurrection.
     With the controversy between the Judaizers and the Gentile Christians resolved, Paul is able to declare another aspect of this peace. “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father” (Eph. 2:14-18). All believers, no matter their nationality, are one with Christ by the same Spirit.
      The Chronos Lesson: The One who came forth from the royal lineage of David, the Lion of Judah, has passed the torch to His disciples to carry on His earthly ministry. As for our Lord, Hebrews 7:25 describes His current ministry. “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
     With His once-and-for-all sacrifice, the Lamb of God is now establishing the Lord’s House, a living Temple not made of ordinary stones. “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22)
        Individually, every believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
        Corporately, we come to Him “as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame’ ” (1 Peter 2:4-6).
       How are we living stones? By the power of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word, we present our “bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Rom. 12:1-2). Every time we reject the worldly thoughts in our head and replace them with the truths of God’s Word, we are being transformed, bit by bit becoming more like Jesus. Note that Paul calls this our reasonable service!
       Earlier in Romans 8:29-30, Paul says that this is our destiny. We are to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, who is the firstborn among many brethren. Just as Jesus overcame death through resurrection—the firstborn from the dead—we, His many brethren, shall likewise overcome death through resurrection.  At the rapture, our bodies shall be changed instantly into immortal, glorified bodies. “Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
       We shall be conformed fully to the Chief Cornerstone, not chiseled out by the hands of men, but by the transformational hands of God Himself. And we shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever! More on this final dwelling place later.

     Religion requires rules. Faith features fellowship. Both involve doctrine, the fundamental beliefs that participants acknowledge. The difference between religion and faith is how that doctrine is demonstrated in one’s lifestyle. Human nature tends to gravitate toward routines and formula. As long as we go through the motions and follow the prescribed formulas, that is all that matters. That is legalism. It depends upon our human effort to fulfill our obligations.
       Faith, on the other hand, is a personal trust relationship. Unlike the religions we encounter in this world, Christianity does not demand that we fix ourselves before we dare come to God. Instead, God the Father sent Jesus into our world to make it possible for mankind to come to Him and have a personal relationship with God Almighty.
      This difference between religion and faith quickly became a sticking point for the 1st Century Church when the Gospel message expanded to the Gentiles. Some Jewish Christians, known as Judaizers, insisted that the Gentile believers also convert to Judaism. The Gentile Christians rejected the laws of the Jewish religion under the Old Covenant because they had been fulfilled by the New Covenant established through Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ was seen as the only requirement for salvation. This controversy led to the first Church Council held in Jerusalem, and recorded in Acts 15. The stickler for the Gentiles was the religious practice of circumcision. Can you blame them?
         Peter, fresh from his experience in Joppa, summarized the issue. “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they” (Acts 15:6-11).
        After hearing the many accounts of miracles and wonders God worked through them among the Gentiles, the council could not ignore the confirmation of the Gospel that Jesus included in the great commission. They agreed to write a letter to be circulated to all the churches, declaring that circumcision was not necessary for salvation. The Gentile Christians did not have to conform to the Jewish practices.
       The Chronos Lesson: Paul, the major doctrinal teacher of our faith as recorded in the New Testament, stated the issue this way: “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant [of Jewish believers] according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work” (Rom. 11:5-6). In fact, the book of Romans features the doctrine of grace, and not of works, for it is the free gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
        Unfortunately, even though we are commanded to walk by faith alone, many Christians preach a form of legalism that is based on works to prove one is truly a Christian. Paul’s response to this? “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3). Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage...you have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith” (Gal. 5:1, 3-4). In short, if your relationship with Christ begins by grace, the remainder of your life in Christ is based on grace.
       Much of what the world rejects of Christianity is actually the religious, legalistic, better-than-thou hypocritical mindset. Believers still fall short of the standard of Christ, and will continue to do so until we are perfected at the rapture. This is why Jesus warned us not to judge others when we ourselves fall short.
      True Christian faith is centered on our relationship with the Godhead—God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of Man, and the Holy Spirit abiding within us. The more we tap into this vital relationship, the more we are changed into the likeness of Christ—what Scripture calls godliness.
       The process is called sanctification. Our spirit is made new when we accept Jesus; it is completely sanctified and sealed so that it cannot be contaminated by the fallen world. Our soul and body, however, are not yet glorified. That happens at the rapture. It is the hope of our calling in Christ.
            In the meantime, our journey with Christ until that Day is what is called progressive sanctification in terms of our soul and body—the process of learning how to think and act as Jesus did on the earth. Paul explained it this way: “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the Day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:3-6).
        By the way, this same controversy between works and grace has manifested in our own time under the mantra of “easy grace” or “cheap grace.” Some leaders preach against the message of grace because they contend it leads to people taking advantage of it. Paul faced the same possibility. But he refused to let it detract from the New Covenant reality of grace alone. It is also why many of the letters of the New Testament taught that true conversion by grace in the heart of a person eventually leads to changes in one’s outward actions.
       Paul called this “working out our salvation.” In this sense, the works are not the basis of our position in Christ and our relationship with God the Father, but the supernatural consequence of the person’s decision. That is why Paul also pointed out in Romans that the more we focus on the sin issue, the more sin abounds. Working out our salvation comes, instead, by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus through grace (Rom. 8:2).
        “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).

       Much of the last half of the book of Acts is an historical account of the spread of Christianity into the known world at that time, particularly Asia Minor, the Balkan Peninsula, and even into the western regions of the Roman Empire. In Acts 17 we find Paul and his companions in Greece. Always up for a good debate, Paul goes to the Areopagus, a rocky outcropping that serves as the ideal meeting place to discuss the issues of the day. The hill is dedicated to Aries, the Greek god of war. You may know it as Mars Hill; Mars was the equivalent god for the Romans.
      As Paul wanders about the place, he notices an altar to the Unknown God. Both the Greeks and the Romans like to cover all their bases, just in case. Paul sees this as an ideal opening. He addresses the conclave, explaining that their unknown god is really God the Creator of the world and everything in it. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, who cannot be confined to temples made with hands nor can He be fashioned into an idol to be worshipped. He needs nothing, “since He gives to all life, breath, and all things” (vs.25).
        Paul confirms that all mankind is of one race and one blood, no matter what nationality or ethnicity they acknowledge. God makes Himself known generally in creation “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being” (vs. 27-28). Paul, a learned scholar, quotes one of their own poets to show how God has put His truth into this world. “For we are all His offspring.”
        The Chronos Lesson: The next point Paul makes confirms that the foundational apostles not only understood but also preached God’s Day Code, the great Week of God’s plan of redemption in terms of seven 1,000-year Days.
         Paul continues his sermon, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked [until Christ’s first coming], but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a Day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (vs. 30-31). The Man here is Christ the Head and His Body united as one at the rapture. We—both Christ as the firstborn from the dead, and His Body who shall overcome death at the rapture—are appointed to rule by virtue of our having overcome Death through resurrection.
        Hopefully by now you recognize that this appointed Day is the last Day in God’s prophetic week. When counting from Adam, it is the 7th Day; when counting from Christ, the last Adam, it is the 3rd Day. It also has several other titles in Scripture: the Age to Come (Luke 18:30), the Day of Christ (2 Thess. 2:3), the Day of His Coming (Mal. 3:2), the Day of Redemption (Eph. 4:30), the Day of Judgment (1 John 4:17), the Day of Wrath (Rom. 2:5), the Day of Vengeance of our God (Is. 61:2), the Day of Salvation (Is. 49:8), and the Day We See Approaching (Heb. 10:25).
        For those who believe in Jesus Christ, it is a Day of rejoicing! For those who have rejected God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son, it is a snare. “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:34-35).
        By the way, the fact that this Day is the preappointed last Day of God’s prophetic week, we know the chronos timing of it. And since this Day has many signs associated with it in Scripture, we can see the corresponding kairos signs.  Jesus repeatedly said that He will come again at the rapture on this last Day to raise us up. Therefore, we know beyond any shadow of doubt, that the rapture cannot happen at any moment and is not a signless event as many falsely teach.

     Since the foundational apostles were Jews, they began spreading the Gospel among their own people, often teaching in the synagogues as Jesus did. The Gospel message purposely pointed to a different way to connect to God—not through the Law only, but personally through the blood-bought connection secured by Jesus’ death and resurrection. Consequently, this new faith in God the Father and Jesus the Messiah was called the Way. But unlike the Old Covenant established with the Israelites, this New Covenant would cross geographical boundaries and cultural labels. 
       In Acts 10 we meet a Roman centurion named Cornelius. He is “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always” (vs. 2). One afternoon he is praying and has a vision of an angel of God. The angel instructs him to go to Joppa to a certain house where a certain man, Simon Peter, is staying. The centurion immediately sends a servant to seek out this man.
       Meantime, in Joppa, Peter is likewise praying around noontime, and realizes he is hungry. But before lunch can be served, Peter likewise has a vision. He sees a giant sheet bound at four corners, descending to him. It is holding all kinds of creatures. The angel calls out, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.”
       You would think that Peter is thrilled to see the angel and this heavenly feast. But instead he cries out, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” His response reflects his Jewish upbringing and repulsion toward food sources forbidden by the Law. The scene harkens back to a lesson in Mt. 15:15-20 that Jesus gave on this very issue. Apparently, it is hard for Peter to let go of this religion tradition.  
        So the voice repeats the instruction two more times. In effect, the number three in the Bible is like an exclamation point at the end of a command. It represents the trinity and all that is perfect and complete. So the angel adds, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” The angel’s response reflects the shift in God’s plan to extend the Gospel to the Gentiles, who the Jews considered unclean. Needless to say, Peter has to ponder this new piece of information.
     In what can only be described as God’s perfect timing, the centurion’s servants arrive at the house where Peter is staying. Just as they arrive at the gate of the house, Peter hears the Holy Spirit say, “Behold, three men are seeking you. Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.”
      To make a long story short, Peter returns to Joppa with the servants, and preaches the Gospel of Christ to Cornelius and his household. “It is He [Jesus Christ] who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
        Peter didn’t even have to prayer the prayer of salvation with the non-Jews. For “while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word,” much to the astonishment of the Jewish Christians present who hear the Gentiles speaking with tongues and magnifying God!
        To Peter’s credit, he responds, “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized [into Christ] who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized [water baptism] in the name of the Lord.”
        The Chronos Lesson: The Gospel message applies to anyone who receives the Word and believes in Jesus. “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings” (Acts 17:26).
         In the last Days, the corresponding kairos signs are that salvation is available to all who believe along with the outpouring of the Spirit. All who accept Jesus as their Savior are made righteous through His shed blood. All their sins are forgiven, for they are justified in Christ. All man-made labels lose their significance in the face of such love and acceptance. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). See also Galatians 3:28 and Colossians 3:11 as the confirming witness.
      By the way, the truth stated in Acts 17:26 above is also the judgment against the Antichrist and any who bear that same intent to change God’s preappointed times and boundaries of the nations (Daniel 7:25). In the same vein, it sounds the death toll to the race issue. For we are all one race created by God—the human race. We are of one blood, even if we have different ethnic features. Created in God’s image, every human being has purpose and is loved by God, despite their rejection of God and His truths.