“Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth” 2Tim.2:15 NLT
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2Tim.2:15 KJV
If from this you can’t see why reading and believing the NLT is harmful to those whose objective is knowing the truth about who God is, who Jesus is, and what the atonement is for. Then your righteousness does not exceed that of the Pharisees.
Without question these same verses taken from different translations when compared with each other shows the bias and outright false assumptions believing the doctrine of original sin and sin nature instills in a man. Making him fall on the sword of salvation by works. Rather than lifted up and delivered by the true new covenant gospel taught by the apostles.
Speaking of which, I want to point out the fact that the gospel Jesus sent the disciples out to preach during His time here on earth living as a man was not the same gospel the apostles preached after Jesus left and the Holy Spirit came to live in every believer’s heart.
The gospel Jesus sent them to preach had to be different. Because He had not died and risen from the dead yet. So they couldn’t share of the power of His death and resurrection. But, only that Messiah had come.
This meant that the kingdom of God had come to them. Something Jesus said repeatedly to those He taught in those days. I hope that clears up for some why Jesus said it.
The gospel we preach is one that tells the same story the baptism we preach tells. That as Jesus died and was buried and rose again in victory over the power of death. So too have we who have believed died with Him and have also risen with Him in victory over the power of death.
The baptism of John spoke of the remission of sins. While New Covenant baptism speaks of death and rebirth. A rebirth Jesus called being born again. Because the need that is satisfied by John’s baptism was different from the need that is satisfied by the new birth.
John’s baptism was for those whose sins under the law needed to be cleansed. And pointed to the fact that Jesus’ death would bring the end to the law and their need for remission of those sins defined by it.
But, New Covenant baptism has nothing to do with remission of sins defined by the law. But, only with our need for becoming spiritual beings. A need created when Adam was made natural rather than spiritual.
God created him that way because in God’s plan He wanted men to choose of their own free will whether or not to trust in Him and to become a child of God. And in God’s long process of things, which to Him was like a blink of an eye, this is exactly where God has brought mankind. By first getting into man the necessary qualities that enables him to be able to make such a decision in which he is rightly held accountable for such a choice.
Those qualities are free will, the knowledge that there is such a thing as good and evil, and the gospel, that gives man the ability to discern between truth and lies when he hears the gospel.
