The purpose of the Law is to show men they need a Savior. God says there is one Savior: “Neither is there salvation in any other: For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). What is the one name of the person who can save us all? “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” (1Timothy 2:5). Every person who ever lived, with the exception of Jesus Christ, has broken the Ten Commandments. If Jesus was a sinner just like us, man and man alone, then that payment He paid for our sins will not cut it. Jesus never sinned. He was tempted as we are, but He never fell into sin. Because He always chose to do what He knew in His heart was the right thing, He and He alone can be that perfect once-and for-all sacrifice for all sin of all sinners. He was called “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29). Jesus is God the Son. The one God is composed of Father, Son and Holy Ghost (2 Corinthians 13:14). God told Moses, when He spoke to him in the burning bush, that His name was “I AM THAT I AM; I AM…, this is My name forever,” (Exodus 3:14-15), a statement that only affirms that God is present to His people. I have never seen God, but I have come to know Jesus. Jesus stands over all the cosmos as the “firstborn” from the Father. He is firstborn, not as one created before others, but as one who is above and over all others. He alone fully and completely bears the Father’s image in Himself. The more I know God the Son, the more I know God the Father. Perhaps you think of today as just another typical, ho-hum day. Be careful! The Spirit of God may suddenly awaken you to the living presence of Christ. When the Spirit opens the eyes of your heart to Him, respond as did Peter “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). We need to gain the panoramic view of God’s power, wrath, love, mercy, intelligence, pity and greatness to begin to understand that He is the same “I AM” of Exodus that we hear say, “This is My beloved son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus put flesh on God’s barboned name- “I AM”, the sacrificed Lamb. Jesus left heaven to show us what it means to bear His Father’s name. God gave Jesus a name. In fact, He highly exalted him and gave Him a “name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). God “set him at his own right hand” far above “every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:20,21). Jesus declared that He himself was the one spoken of as “I AM” (John 8:58). To Solomon He was “the Rose of Sharon” (Song of Solomon 2:1; Isaiah 35:1-2). Since holiness is beautiful (1 Chronicles 16:29), Jesus is the most attractive person ever to live, since He was the holiest (Hebrews 4:15). As Jesus taught His disciples about His second coming, He stressed the need for personal preparation (Matthew 25:1-13), and He described how He will hold each individual accountable for using their abilities (vv.14-30). Jesus never gave any indication when His return would occur which is noteworthy. He was content to say: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (v. 13). Because Jesus emphasized the significance of His return rather than the time of it, His followers must live in expectation of that event. Jesus assured His disciples, “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:18-21). When Jesus demonstrated the grace of God through acts of ministry, people responded by coming into the kingdom. The Lord’s church, His kingdom began in 33 A.D. on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ, in the city of Jerusalem. This was done in accord with the eternal purpose of God (Ephesians 3:10, 11). Prior to that day the beginning of the Lord’s church or kingdom was spoken of as being in the future. Jesus said, “…I will build my church…” (Matthew 16:18), but Luke tells us that the Lord added 3000 souls to His church on that day as they believed, repented and were baptized in the name of the Lord for the remission of their sins (Acts 2:36, 38, 41). As Jesus spoke of His building of His church, He referred to it as “the kingdom of heaven”, indicating that the Lord’s church and His kingdom are one and the same (Matthew 16:19). The Lord’s church is a body of saved people, people redeemed by His blood. “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the savior of the body” (Ephesians 5:23). If Christ is to be our Saviour, we must be in His spiritual body, the church. “And the Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved” (Acts 2:47). This “adding” was accomplished by the Lord. No doubt, as they were added to the Lord’s church, their names were written in heaven (Hebrews 12:23). But we must ask the great question, “When were names written in the Book of Life? For this will tell us how the names got there and why. Apart from Scripture, we know nothing; for the Word of God is our only source of heavenly knowledge. So what does the Bible say?” And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 17:8). The names were written there before the foundation of the world, as that was when God chose His elect and gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ to save (Ephesians 1:4; 2 Timothy 1:9; John 17:2; 6:39). “Foundation of the world” is thus seen to mean the time when the human creation was conceived in the divine purpose, and its disobedience and recovery were forseen as part of that plan. God chose His elect before the world began and wrote their names in the Book of Life, and then He sent the Lamb to die and secure their eternal life. Not a single one will be lost! All whom God intended to save will certainly be saved! So there are no new names being written down at all! What shall we do with this news? Instead of trying to get our names written in heaven, we should make our calling and election sure, just as Peter taught. “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10-11). The Lord exhorts us to “walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called” (Ephesians 4:1). But what is that calling? What does it involve? The Apostle Paul answers, at least in part, when he declared of his life: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). He then encourages us, “Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27). We are “called by the gospel” (2 Thessalonians 2:13) to this life which we are to walk “in Christ.” That church was not just an afterthought with God. The Apostle Paul writes about God’s plan for our lives, “Might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus Our Lord” (Ephesians 3:10-11). Earlier in this same letter (Ephesians 1:3-7), six times in five verses the Apostle emphasizes the blessings and God’s purpose for us “in Christ.” Just as the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was eternally purposed by God, so was the church which He built. That church is called “the house of God, which is the church of the living God” (1 Timothy 3:15). Isaiah foretold that “the house of God” would be built in Jerusalem in the last days and would be composed of people of all nations (Isaiah 2:2,3). That church, which is revealed in the bible had its beginning in God’s eternal purpose and was foretold through many Old Testament scriptures. Churches built by man (denominations) will change because people change, and being “outdated” will either become something completely different or perish entirely. But that is not true with that church which Jesus built. Being built by Jesus it is a “Kingdom which cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28), and in a world of turmoil, “it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44). Jesus designed the church (Matthew 16:18). He established the church in Jerusalem “in the last day” through the work of the Apostles whom He had chosen (Acts 2:1-4,16- 17, 41, 47). Take note in Acts 12 that the prayer meeting for Peter was held in a house, as were most gatherings of the early church. There is no record in Acts of any special church buildings during the first thirty years of the church’s history. The early disciples did not need special buildings then to make disciples, and church buildings really are not needed today. In fact, church buildings often work against the making of disciples. They rob money from missionaries and the poor. According to the Bible, a disciple is not just someone who professes to believe in Jesus, but someone who is a whole-hearted follower of Christ, one who is learning to obey all His commandments (see John 8:31-32; Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 14:25-33). This exposes the fundamental error of much of the modern evangelical church, which proclaims a false gospel founded on a false grace that results in false converts. Today we are told that one can be a believer in Christ without being a disciple of Christ, and that one can gain heaven without holiness! The bottom line is you cannot have as your sole criteria what is pleasing to the group. Ultimately success is best measured by healthy church growth (including new believers), and that requires teaching of the word. It is funny how it works: where God’s word goes church growth appears – rapidly. “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). Too often we think programs, slick marketing campaigns, or building projects are what we need to grow. All that’s really necessary is to preach and teach God’s word. We make it complicated and expensive, but it is really quite simple. A plant that processes chickens employs a variety of skilled workers. All along the processing line workers perform different tasks; however, the tasks are not randomly done. All the workers fit into a pre-designed process for producing meat. In a sense, everyone works in the service of the end product. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). It is easy to think about the gift as the “end product.” But the gift is only a by- product. The end product is Christ in you.