■ Author:  Ezekwereogu John 
■ Twitter: @Umuchiukwu_writ

■ 10 Aug 2018
If the story of the Three Wise Men in the Bible were understood correctly, one would understand that God is not tied to any religion, not even Christianity or Judaism, which is supposedly God's foremost institution on earth before the advent of Christianity. For God to reveal the birth of Jesus to the Three Wise Men, and they came to worship Jesus as they did, they surely found favour with God. Such favour cannot be by accident...they surely had a good relationship (fellowship) with God. And that relationship thrived outside Judaism, as they were not Jews (there was no Christianity yet). The writer of the story did not even know where they came from. "They came from the East" is all he recorded. We have a Job who lived in Uz. He was not a Jew. Yet, the author of the book of Job has this testimony about Job: "This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil." The words blamelessness, uprightness, righteousness and holiness are synonyms. They all mean the same thing. God told Abraham, "Walk before me and be blameless." In other words, "FELLOWSHIP with me and be blameless." Fellowship means relationship. So, Job had a relationship with God. Hence he was blameless. To say that Job was innocent means that God, looking at Job, was not blaming him for anything and that is JUSTIFICATION (sanctification) which is the central message of Paul. Remarkably, the relationship Job had with God, which justified (sanctified) him, thrived outside Judaism and Christianity. A huge lesson! God is not tied to any religion. God is bound to men who walk before him. He bestows blamelessness on such men because they are his friends because they are in a relationship (communion) with each other. Their relationship (communion) with God is that He (God) talks to them and tells them what to do and what not to do, and in "humbleness" they obeyed God by doing exactly what he told them to do. This relationship is precisely what Paul calls BEING LED BY THE SPIRIT.

To be led by the Spirit means, the Spirit (God) talking to you, and telling you what to do and what not to do, and you are obeying Him by doing exactly what He tells you to do. However, Paul wrote that "Those who are led by the Spirit (God) are the sons of God." [Romans 8:14] Jesus died precisely so that men may become sons of God and that actually means that he died accurately to establish this relationship between God and men on INDIVIDUAL BASIS, not to establish an organised religion called Christianity. No religion, not even Christianity has the monopoly of this relationship. In fact, men who have this relationship with God and are therefore blameless can't be found in any religion. Such men have always existed in all ages, various cultures and religions. The world has never lacked them. EDITED BY ICHIE NDUKA JR (SHAKERMAN)
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