UTTERly...

It's For More Than Milking Cows

 

 

ut·ter [uht-er]

adjective

 1. complete; total; absolute: her utter abandonment to grief.

2. unconditional; unqualified: an utter denial

 Thank You Dictionary.com

"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."

Hebrews 7:25

This isn't about cows, eating cows, or drinking cow's milk.  While I have mostly gone vegetarian, I'm certainly not against people eating cow or wearing leather.  I still wear leather, and have no intention of stopping.  I have chosen not to eat red meat, strictly, for health reasons.  No Christ follower should be going around telling people they are sinning if they eat cow, chicken, fish, shrimp, clams, pork, and etc.   Want a thick juicy steak??  Have at it!  None for me thanks, but I'm all for you eating cow til...well, "til the cows come home"...  And, just so you know, no cows were harmed, no milk was spilled, in the writing of this post.  Always gotta have a disclaimer because of all the tree huggin, anti-meat eating, nutball, activists who want to push everyone else around.  Funny, I'm bad because I believe the Bible, but nutball, anti-meat eating activists are "good" because they're trying to "save" cows.  I want to save the humans, by drawing people to Christ, so that they may be conformed to the UTTERly perfect image of Christ.  The nutballs, who want to force everyone to conform to their way of thinking/living, are the good people...

But I digress...

This is about the word "utter", and when I first think of utter I think about milking cows.  The utter I'm talking about is used as an adjective in Hebrews 7:25, meaning: "complete;" "total;" "absolute" and "unconditional;" "unqualified".   What Hebrews 7:25 is saying is, "Jesus is able to save, "completely;" "totally;" "absolutely;" "100%."   Now if Jesus saves "completely; totally; absolutely; 100% then what is left for a Christ follower to do???   A Christ follower does 0% of the work of salvation.  God does it all.  The only thing a Christ follower does is receive a completely new spirit.   A true Christ follower is "born again," which means God himself has made that person a new creation.  This isn't the new birth which comes from the sexual union of a man and a woman.  When God makes us "born again" he literally takes a portion or "seed" of Jesus Christ and places that in us.  We become, "partakers of the divine nature".  God makes us "kind after Jesus' kind,"  and this new creation is 100% the work of God.  No mere human can make another human, or even him/herself a new creation.   There is this misunderstanding in much of the body of Christ today that what makes a person a believer is the believer's choice.  No believer or unbeliever can make a "choice" to be born again.  Only God can make a person truly born again so no human decisions or actions has anything to do with making a person born again.  God enables us to make a choice to receive, but receiving is all we mere humans can ever do.  So salvation is God's work from first to last; beginning to end; completely; no loose ends to tie up; absolutely 100%; UTTERly God.

  

SIDE NOTE: You know, you Calvinists out there need to stop believing lies about those of us who hold to an Arminian view.  Stop reading what Calvinists say about what Wesley and Ariminius believed.  Go to Wesley if you want to know what Wesley truly believed.

  

There is no work an imperfect, sinful person can do to make themselves sinless and perfect, as Christ is perfect.  Perfection comes from the perfect.  Imperfection cannot be any more than what it always has been and will always be:  IMPERFECT.   Only God is perfect, and only God can make perfect, so don't waste your time thinking God expects you to perfect yourself.  That's what many religious people do:  They try to make themselves perfect.  They think that God, when he saves them, gives them a box of "Holy Spirit" Tide detergent, and some "Holy Spirit" Shout stain remover.  These poor hapless and deluded souls think if they just put enough "Holy Spirit" cleaner on their sinful imperfection they can clean it off.   God doesn't want to clean us off.  God wants us to "put off our former self..."  and "put on the new self created to be (UTTERly!) like Christ(read Ephesians 4)  JUST STOP TRYING TO CLEAN YOURSELF UP, AND GIVE UP!!!!!  ACCEPT AND BELIEVE IN GOD'S PERFECT WORK IN CHRIST ONLY!!!!!

  

Simply receive the new creation of God, walk with God believing he and ONLY he is your perfection and that he will perfect you UTTERly, because Jesus is perfect.  Jesus Christ's saving work on the cross and his new resurrection life are all there is to the work of God's salvation.  When we see Jesus face to face that work will be completed, but God calls the work completed, as if it already were, because Jesus CANNOT FAIL!!! (Romans 8).  Jesus, AND ONLY JESUS, saves, and Jesus saves: COMPLETEly; ABSOLUTEly; 100%ly; PERFECTly; NEVER FAILINGly; UTTERly!

Dear saints in Christ:

  "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."

The only thing perfect I've ever been able to achieve is being a "perfect" butthole.  There are a lot of people who can see Christians being "perfect" buttholes, because that is what Christians are when they are trying to make themselves perfect.  Jesus said, "Do what I teach, and this will make you my true disciple..." John 8:31.   Jesus NEVER said, "Do the best you can to fix yourself and make yourself perfect..."   Perfection is God.  Unless you're God then you are UTTERly sinful, UTTERly broken, and UTTERly beyond help.  Receive Christ, and 100% of the work is completed to the UTTERMOST; absolutely; totally; perfectly, as ONLY Christ can do it. 

Bless You...