Hot, Cold, or Lukewarm? Who Knew?

My religious traditions were thrown off their foundation with something I learned recently. It was a good eye opening experience that I would love to share with you.

In Revelation 3:15-16 Jesus says that He would prefer we be hot or cold but not lukewarm. Everyone assumed that “hot” was being a street evangelist that was out there preaching from the rooftops. Reversely, “cold” meant those who do not acknowledge Jesus and live their own life. Now, hold onto your seats. Here’s what that verse REALLY means!

There are two covenants in the Bible. The Law and Grace. God gave the law to help man recognize sin. We are born into a sinful world therefore the law teaches us how to walk upright before God. However, it is impossible to meet all of the requirements of the law through our own works. Therefore, the purpose of the law is to help us come to the end of ourselves and realize our only hope is God’s mercy and grace through Jesus. Once people stopped trying to earn favor in the sight of God by their works, they could simply trust in that awesome grace that He gives through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.

The covenant of grace comes from the great love that God has for each and every person. The Bible shows that God is not sitting there waiting to strike you down. Once you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, God sees you in Jesus therefore you have no spots or blemishes. All of your past, present and future sins have been forgiven. The Bible even says God has no recollection of our sins.

When you are living under the law, there are very rigid, strict rules you must follow. Of course, God didn’t want us to live under the law. It’s purpose was to simply get us to realize that we needed Him. God gave us free will so we still have to decide if we choose to follow Him.

When you are trusting your own good works to earn right standing with God under the law, there is a lot of stress, fear and frustration because we are not perfect. That fear leads us to believe that God is mad at us and looking to strike us down. That is so far from the truth. Jesus said that when we see Him we see the Father. He also said He came to do the work of the Father. Never once did Jesus strike down and kill a person. He was always showing compassion and mercy to people. He healed and delivered people constantly. God’s nature is love, compassion, kindness and mercy. His will is that not one person perish. If someone goes to hell, it is because they rejected God and not because He rejected them.

Now, the covenant of the law is represented with cold. The covenant of grace is represented with hot. We now know that each covenant on its own has a very specific, God given purpose. However, if you mix elements from the two covenants they start to negate each other and both become ineffective.

Hot + Cold = Lukewarm.

The next post I’ll share some examples of how we mix the two covenants.

PS – For those who are looking for the financial info, stay tuned. I’ll be sure to get back to that. 🙂