by Jamie Pantastico | May 8, 2025 | Daily Encouragement |
God’s Plan Through Israel and the Church – Part 3
For Your Edification and Encouragement
After the fall, mankind’s rebellion didn’t improve—it intensified. The Adamic nature spread like wildfire through the human race. Just six chapters into Genesis, God’s assessment of the world was devastating:
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
— Genesis 6:5
The earth was filled with violence, and creation was corrupted. But one man stood out—Noah.
Noah Found Grace
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
— Genesis 6:8
God didn’t save Noah because he was perfect. He saved Noah because Noah believed God. In a world filled with wickedness, Noah walked by faith. And because of his faith, God used him to preserve the line of the promised Seed from Genesis 3:15.
The Ark: A Shadow of Christ
God commanded Noah to build an ark—not only to save his family but to preserve the Messianic line and ensure the coming Redeemer. The ark is a beautiful picture of salvation:
- There was only one door (Genesis 6:16). Jesus said, “I am the door” (John 10:9).
- The ark was covered inside and out with pitch (a picture of atonement).
- Once inside, God Himself shut the door (Genesis 7:16).
- Everyone inside the ark was safe. Everyone outside perished.
A New Beginning
The flood was global. Every living thing outside the ark died. When the waters receded, God made a covenant with Noah and promised never again to destroy the earth with water.
Noah’s three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—would repopulate the earth. And it’s through the line of Shem that God would soon call a man named Abram—setting the next stage in motion.
Why This Matters
The flood reveals two things:
- God judges sin. He is holy, and He will not ignore wickedness forever.
- God preserves His promises. Even in judgment, His mercy shines. He made a way of escape through faith.
by Jamie Pantastico | May 6, 2025 | Daily Encouragement |
Justified by Faith Alone: What It Really Means to Be Declared Righteous
For your edification and encouragement
The Doctrine of Justification is not just a theological concept—it’s the heart of our salvation. At its core, it means that God declares a believing sinner righteous—not because of anything they’ve done, but because of what Christ has done on their behalf.
This happens the moment God sees a sinner believe by faith alone in the gospel of Jesus Christ—His death for our sins, His burial, and His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1–4). At that moment, God no longer sees our sin; He sees the righteousness of His Son.
Righteousness: Not Earned, But Given
Under the law, righteousness had to be earned. But in this age of grace, righteousness is a gift—freely given the moment we believe Paul’s gospel.
“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
—Romans 3:24
“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
—Romans 3:28
What Is Justification?
Justification is more than forgiveness—it’s Christ’s righteousness imputed (credited) to our account.
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
—2 Corinthians 5:21
This is a divine exchange: Christ took our sin, and we receive His righteousness. It is a judicial act—a legal declaration by God—that the believing sinner is now justified. That means no matter what sins we’ve committed in the past—or may commit in the future—we are still declared righteous in God’s sight.
Justification Is by Faith Alone
We are not justified by works, rituals, repentance, baptism, or by keeping the law. Paul is emphatic:
“…a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ… because by works of the law no one will be justified.”
—Galatians 2:16
Justification is a one-time, immediate, irreversible act of God’s grace. The very moment you believe, His righteousness is yours.
Peace Through Justification
“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
—Romans 5:1
Justification brings peace, not confusion or fear. It assures us that we are no longer under condemnation, no longer slaves to sin, and no longer at enmity with God.
Why Every Believer Should Know This
Justification isn’t just for seminarians or scholars. It’s for every believer who wants to stand firm in the faith and walk in the freedom of grace. The more we understand what it means to be justified, the more we will rest in God’s peace, live boldly in His grace, and praise Him for His unchanging love.
Final Thoughts
Let us thank and praise God for the incredible truth of the Doctrine of Justification—a truth that reminds us we are fully accepted, fully forgiven, and fully righteous in Christ Jesus.
📖 Key Bible Verses on Justification
- Romans 3:24 — Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
- Romans 3:28 — Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
- Galatians 2:16 — A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.
- Romans 5:1 — Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 — For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
by Jamie Pantastico | May 6, 2025 | Daily Encouragement |
God’s Plan Through Israel and the Church – Part 2
For Your Edification and Encouragement
To understand God’s plan through Israel, we must start at the beginning—Genesis 1–11. These foundational chapters cover the first 2,000 years of human history and are essential to understanding why God called Abraham and formed a nation for Himself.
Before the law, before Israel, before Babel—God dealt directly with mankind. There was only one race of people, one language, no written law, no priesthood, no temple—only the conscience and a knowledge of right and wrong. When someone sinned, they were to bring a blood sacrifice in faith, trusting God’s word. It was simple, yet it didn’t take long for mankind to rebel.
The Fall of Man and the Curse of Sin
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
Romans 5:12
The Fall happened when Adam disobeyed God’s one command. With that disobedience came sin, death, and the curse. More than that, it introduced what Scripture calls the old man, or what we often refer to as the Adamic nature—a spiritual condition of rebellion that is passed on to every person born into the world. We are not sinners because we break God’s law—we sin because we are all born son’s and daughters of Adam.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Genesis 3:6
The result?
- Spiritual death: separation from God.
- Physical death: decay and mortality.
- Universal guilt: all are under sin (Romans 3:23).
The First Prophetic Promise: Genesis 3:15
In the midst of judgment, God makes a promise:
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
— Genesis 3:15
This is the first prophecy in Scripture—the promise of a Redeemer who would come through the “Seed of the woman” to crush the head of the serpent (Satan). Paul tells us this “Seed” is Christ (Galatians 3:16).
This verse becomes the foundation of the redemptive storyline. The rest of the Bible traces this promised Seed through specific people, families, and eventually, one nation—Israel.
From Bad to Worse
- Cain kills Abel, showing how quickly sin corrupts.
- Genesis 6 describes a world filled with violence and evil.
- The flood (Genesis 7–9) is God’s judgment, but also His mercy, preserving the Messianic line through Noah.
- The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) is a unified rebellion where mankind refuses to scatter, so God divides them by language.
- The nations are formed, and God disinherits them (Deuteronomy 32:8–9).
Then something changes dramatically: God stops dealing with all of humanity directly and instead calls out one man—Abram—to form a new nation, a covenant people for Himself.
Why This Matters
Understanding the Adamic nature (sin) and the global decline of humanity helps us understand why God created Israel in the first place. God had already tried dealing with mankind as a whole, and they rejected Him every step of the way.
So, in His sovereignty, God did something new: He would create a nation from one man—a nation that would be separated from the rest of the world and through whom the Redeemer would come.
by Jamie Pantastico | Apr 29, 2025 | Daily Encouragement |
Romans 11:17–18; Genesis 12:1–3; Ephesians 3:6
Today, many Christians don’t realize that everything we enjoy in Christ — salvation, justification, the indwelling Spirit — flows from promises God first made to Israel.
In Romans 11, the apostle Paul, God’s chosen apostle to the Gentiles, gives a powerful warning:
“And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.”
— Romans 11:17–18
Paul says we Gentiles have been grafted in — not to replace Israel — but to partake of the blessings that flow from the root.
And what is the root?
The root is God’s covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and later confirmed through David.
When God promised Abraham that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3), He was setting the foundation for both Israel’s role in world redemption and for the future salvation of Gentiles.
The Church, the Body of Christ, is not a new tree — it is grafted into the blessings God initiated with Israel.
Paul also reminds us in Ephesians 3:6 that Gentiles are:
“fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel.”
Notice that word again — partakers — not replacers.
Why This Matters
If we lose sight of this truth:
- We become arrogant and boastful toward Israel — exactly what Paul warned against.
- We distort God’s faithfulness by imagining He broke His promises to Israel — which He absolutely did not (Romans 11:29).
- We fail to appreciate the amazing grace we stand in today — grace that came through Israel’s Messiah, Jesus Christ.
And tragically, the Church’s failure to heed Paul’s warning has already borne terrible fruit.
The false teaching known as Replacement Theology — the idea that the Church has permanently replaced Israel in God’s plan — has been used as a tool of Satan to justify centuries of hatred, persecution, and even mass murder of the Jewish people.
It was Christendom, not the world at large, that branded the Jews as “Christ killers,” fueling horrifying lies like the blood libels and ultimately contributing to atrocities like the Holocaust.
The historical record is undeniable:
When the Church forgets that it is a guest at Israel’s table, it becomes an agent of cruelty instead of a minister of grace.
In Closing
As Gentile believers, we should approach our salvation with humility, gratitude, and a deep respect for God’s covenant faithfulness to Israel.
The root supports us — not the other way around. And God’s promises will never fail.
“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
— Romans 11:29
by Jamie Pantastico | Apr 25, 2025 | Daily Encouragement |
Peter’s final words before martyrdom hold a powerful truth about salvation today.
The apostle Paul was uniquely given the full counsel of God—and that’s why he could teach it (Acts 20:27; Ephesians 3:1–11). Unlike Peter, the Eleven, or any Jewish writer before him, it was Paul alone who received the complete revelation of God’s grace, particularly concerning salvation by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ apart from the Law. All mankind will be judged by “Paul’s Gospel”:
‘in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.’ Romans 2:16
In fact, the apostle Peter—just before his martyrdom—urged his fellow Jews and all mankind that when it comes to matters of salvation, they must turn to our beloved brother, the apostle Paul. These final Holy Spirit-inspired words are incredibly revealing:
“…Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things [What things? Salvation!], in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”
—2 Peter 3:15–16
🔥 Let This Sink In
Peter—writing his final words before being martyred—does not point people to:
- The Sermon on the Mount
- His own messages from Pentecost
- Christ’s earthly ministry
- The temple in Jerusalem
- Any Jewish law or tradition or ritual
He points them directly to Paul.
Why? Because Paul alone had been entrusted with the gospel of salvation for this age—revealed to him by the risen, glorified Christ (Galatians 1:11–12; Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:1–9; 1 Timothy 1:11).
🧱 Not an Attack on the Rest of the Bible
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about “Paul vs. the rest of the Bible.” Every word from Genesis to Revelation is inspired and profitable (2 Timothy 3:16). We are to study all of Scripture (Romans 15:4).
But Peter’s words are crystal clear and most of Christendom ignores it: if you want to understand salvation today, you must go to Paul’s epistles. And if you twist Paul’s gospel—if you try to blend it with the Law or kingdom doctrine—it leads to destruction.
“…Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things [What things? Salvation!], in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”
—2 Peter 3:15–16
📜 What Happened at the Jerusalem Council?
To understand why Peter lifted up Paul, we must go back to Acts 15. Seventeen years before Peter wrote his final epistle, the early church faced a crisis: Could Gentiles be saved apart from the Law?
Paul, by the ascended Lord Jesus instructions, went to Jerusalem and laid it all out: Justification is by grace through faith, not works of the Law. Scripture makes it clear that Paul had new revelations that Peter, James and John knew nothing about, yet 95% deny this Scriptural fact.
‘But from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me.’
—Galatians 2:6
‘But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles),’
—Galatians 2:7-8
‘and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. ‘
—Galatians 2:9
Peter remembering what happened many years earlier stood up and agreed:
“But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”
—Acts 15:11
No arguments. No debate. Just affirmation. But that wasn’t the end of the struggle…
📢Paul Confronts Peter
Not long after the council, Peter began to distance himself from Gentile believers—fearing criticism from the Judaizers. So Paul, led by the Spirit, publicly rebuked him:
“But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all…”
—Galatians 2:14
This wasn’t about personalities—it was about preserving the purity of the gospel of grace.
🕊 Peter’s Final Clarity
Fast forward nearly two decades.
Peter, filled with the Spirit, writes his final letter. He knows his time is short. And what does he leave believers with?
“…as also in all [Paul’s] epistles, speaking in them of these things…” (2 Peter 3:16)
He doesn’t tell his readers to go back to the his 2 great sermons in Acts 2 and 3. He doesn’t point them to the Law or Christ’s earthly ministry.
He says: read Paul. Understand Paul. Don’t twist Paul.
Because Paul received something entirely new from the ascended Lord Jesus—the mystery of the gospel of grace, the calling out of the Body of Christ, and the eternal purpose of God now revealed to all mankind Jew and Gentile.
So yes, read the whole Bible. Study it diligently. Treasure every word (Romans 15:4).
But when it comes to things concerning salvation, follow Peter’s own Spirit-inspired advice:
👉 Go to Paul.
