A "Grain Of Wheat" Ministries publication

Written by David W. Dyer

INDEX

Chapter 1: The Hidden Gospel

Chapter 2: The New Life

Chapter 3: More Translation Problems (Current Chapter)

Chapter 4: True Faith

Chapter 5: Transformation

Chapter 3: MORE TRANSLATION PROBLEMS

As we have been seeing, the reason many do not understand these vital truths is because of some weakened or inadequate translations of the New Testament. As a further example of such difficulties, current translations present much of the gospel to us in the past tense.

This, of course, is based on the verb tenses which are used in each sentence. Many theologians and consequently, many Bible translators, through their rendering of some Greek verbs in the past tense, transmit a kind of gospel which is said and done. It is in the past. It is based on “the finished work of Christ.”

Therefore, this seems merely to be a message about something which already happened long ago. What the scriptures appear to say is that all we need to do today is “believe” in many things that have already occurred. The result is a gospel which is a static, finished, “old,” distant sort of message.

Of course no one, especially this author, wishes to dispute the “finished work of Christ.” On the cross He said: “It is finished” (Jn 19:30). Yet this must only refer to Christ’s work for us, not to His work in us. How can we know this?

This must be true because Paul says: “...for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philip 2:13 NKJV).

Since God is still working in us, it must be that His work is not finished yet. While Jesus’ work for us has been done, the outworking of this finished work – His work in our lives today – is still unfinished and ongoing.

Yet from reading our present translations, we are left with the impression that once we “believe” then we have been saved, we have been justified, we have been sanctified, we have been buried with Christ, we have been raised with Christ, and, amazingly, we have even been “glorified,” and many, many other such things.

The problem is that most believers are not actually experiencing these attributes. They are not real to them. It is not happening in their lives. They don’t seem to be being changed. They aren’t full of the resurrected life.

They don’t feel holy. They especially aren’t shining brilliantly like the glorified Christ. Even though they are trying very hard to “believe” in these “truths,” the experience of these things is not truly real to them.

This leads many Christians into frustration. They try and try. They “believe” as hard as they can, yet their lives are still full of sin. Perhaps they also try to avoid sin, but they slip up constantly and don’t have any complete victory over their natural impulses.

The message of “all we have to do is believe in something which happened in the past” fills the church of our day with a palpable sense of unreality. So many people are worshipping about, praying about, teaching about, and “believing in” things which are not real in their lives. They are not being radically changed. They are not really being delivered from sin.

This makes the gospel into a kind of fairy tale. It has become a message about some wonderful thing which will happen far away in the heavens after we die or are “raptured.”

It has become a powerless, ineffective message which does little to impact our daily lives. It is something which produces few changes in the lives of many Christians and, consequently, is not very attractive to outsiders.

As already stated, much of this problem can be laid at the feet of our translations of the New Testament. You see, the Greek language has a verb tense which is not found in most of our modern languages. It is called the “aorist” tense.

The truth is that this verb tense is really not well understood because no one speaks the Greek language of 2,000 years ago. However, most seem to teach that this verb is a form of the past tense.

Since this verb tense is used in many key passages in the New Testament, such a “past tense” rendering presents a major part of the gospel as something in the past.

But it seems that this may not be the whole story. What if the “aorist” tense is not strictly the past tense? This would make a tremendous difference in our translations of the gospel!

Please bear with me as we investigate this possibility together. I will try to keep this explanation as simple and short as possible so as to not lose the attention of the readers.

We find one expert, Grant R. Osborne, saying the following: “...the aorist does not imply a ‘once for all’ action, as it has commonly been misinterpreted.”* Another author, F. Beetham says: “...use of the aorist indicates that the viewpoint of the speaker or writer is outside the action being described, while its beginning and end are in view” (emphasis by this author).** In Bible Hermeneutics Stack Exchange we read: “...the aorist also has several special specialized senses meaning present action.” So you see, the aorist tense is not always limited to the past. It can also have ongoing present and even future aspects.

If we then apply this understanding to the verbs found in the gospel message, a whole new vista of truth opens up before us. In fact, it is almost a different gospel which has been” hidden” by the translation of the verb tenses.

Instead of being something dry, old, past tense, said and done, and “finished,” it becomes something living, active, relevant, experiential, and ongoing. Verbs which have been translated as the past tense take on a new meaning when we understand them to also include the present, continuing tense.

*The Hermeneutical Spiral, 2nd ed., Inter Varsity Press, 2006, page 69. **Greece & Rome, Vol. 49, No. 2, October 2002.

Let’s look together at some well-known scriptures which use the aorist tense to see how much of a difference a new translation makes. Paul and his companions said to the jailer at Philippi: “Be believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be being saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31).

What a tremendous difference this makes in our understanding of this verse! Here we see that believing is not something we do once in the past but something we need to keep on doing all the time.

When we understand this verb tense as not only something of the past but something which is continuing today and even on into the future, whole new vistas of revelation open up for us.

Here also, “being saved” is revealed, not as a one-time, past event but an ongoing process. We can “be being saved.” (If this thought is new to you, please do not get upset. We will explain more about this process later on in this writing).

This, then, is a dynamic message. It is a living, active gospel which we need to be experiencing in our lives right now!

Another verse which (although it is not in the aorist tense but the future tense) clearly shows that the gospel is really dynamic is found in Romans 5, verse 10 where we read: “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we will be being saved by His life growing up in us.” You see, being “reconciled to God” is related to forgiveness.

This is a wonderful, precious thing since it brings us back into a relationship with God. But, according to this verse, there is something “much more.” There is something much greater and more important than this reconciliation.

As we saw in the previous chapter, that which is “much more” is being saved by (through the agency of) His life maturing in us. This is an active, right-now message. It is something which needs to be occurring in our lives today.

Through our new understanding of the aorist verb tense not being merely confined to the past but also continuing on in the present, many other biblical truths become more comprehendible.

BEING CRUCIFIED

For example, Romans 6:6, read with this “new” verb tense, reads: “We know this: that our ‘old man’ is being crucified with him so that sin in its entirety would be being rendered inoperative, in order that we would no longer be in slavery to sin.” Now this is really different than the old, “already finished” version, yet it aligns much more with our experience.

While it is true that “we have been crucified with Christ,” which we read about in Galatians 2:20 where it is a true “past tense” Greek verb, now we discover something even more wonderful and applicable to us.

Here in Romans 6:6 we see that this crucifixion can be applied to us today. We can actually experience it! This then is no longer merely an historical fact which we are trying to “believe.” Instead, it is something which can be real to us. It can actually be happening in our lives as we follow Jesus right now!

How much we need to genuinely experience such a crucifixion! It is wonderful that Jesus died for us and we “died with Him.” But if it has no impact on our daily lives, if we are not experiencing the reality of that crucifixion right now, is it really doing us any good?

You see, in order to be free from our old life and nature, the old soul life (PSUCHÊ) needs to be crucified. That’s right, it needs to die. There is simply no other way to be free from it and its activities. But how can this possibly happen if we are not experiencing the death of Christ in our lives today?

What good is “our death with Jesus” doing us if it is just some distant, theoretical, “spiritual” truth? If it can’t be real to us, how are we supposed to be delivered? If our soul life isn’t really being put to death every day, how can we be freed from its influence and nature?

Only dead men do not sin. In order for us to be completely free from our sin, our PSUCHÊ life must be eliminated. Our freedom from sin requires not only the new sinless life but the end of our own sinful one. Our soul life must die. Therefore, the actual experience of our co-death with Jesus Christ is essential for all of us.

THE BLOOD OF JESUS

When we speak about the blood of Jesus, most believers think about his forgiveness. They understand the blood as a variety of cleanser,* cloak, or mantel which hides their sins from God. It seems to be a quick and easy way to escape any consequences for their errors.

*In many versions of the New Testament, Revelation 1:5 uses the word “wash” as in “washed us from our sins.” But this is probably a copyist error since the spelling of this word is very close to the Greek word for “free” or “liberate” found in other, more trustworthy, translations. According to R. N. Champlin, Ph.D., in his New Testament commentary, the word “wash” is only found in later Greek manuscripts of lesser importance. Therefore, these are less reliable than earlier ones. Such manuscripts seem to be copying a manuscript labeled P.046 since the word “wash” first appears there.

But, biblically “the blood” means something much more serious than this. In the Bible, when it speaks about blood, it means that something or someone has died.

Not long ago I was driving in my car and came across a massive amount of blood on the road. Not much farther along was a motorcyclist lying on the pavement. I could tell from the quantity of blood on the ground that he was dead. He was not just bleeding a little; he had lost his blood and died.

Jesus did not donate blood at the Red Cross. His precious blood is not some cheap, commonplace detergent. Instead, the fact that Jesus’ blood was shed means that He died. He did not just bleed a little for us and then put on a BandAid. He died in our place.

Why did Jesus need to die? It was necessary because we are worthy of death. According to God’s righteousness, the individual who sins must die. We read: “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezek 18:20). Jesus, then, took our place in this execution. We were supposed to be killed for who we are and what we have done. Yet, Jesus was killed instead of us.

However, all this will do us little good if we do not enter into the experience of this death. Our death with Him must become real to us. Since only dead men do not sin, we must, through Christ, also be becoming dead to sin. This is accomplished by actually entering into His death through the Holy Spirit (Rm 8:13).

HOW THIS WORKS

For us to take advantage of this substitute death, there is one requirement. We must recognize and admit before God that we are worthy of death. Reason with me for a moment. If we do not believe that we are worthy to die for what we have done and what we are, then there is no reason for anyone to take our place in this execution. If we are not guilty enough to deserve death, then we don’t need Jesus’ sacrifice.

In 1 John 1:9 we read: “When we agree with God’s judgment concerning our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all immorality of character.”

Many versions use the word “confess” in place of the word which here is translated “agree with God’s judgment.” The Greek word is HOMOLOGEO which means “to speak together” or “to say the same thing as another.” What then is God saying about our sins? We have already read His sentence of death. “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezek 18:20). Therefore, to “confess” our sins means to agree with or “speak together” with Him. We say what He is saying, agreeing with His judgment upon us.

This, then, is the necessary requirement for God to do two things. He will forgive us and He will cleanse us. His forgiving us is a precious thing, yet it is not the end. He then also works to cleanse us from who and what we are.

As we have seen from the previous chapters, this cleansing is done by His own life working inside of us to put to death the old life and nature, substituting it with His own.

So we see that until and unless we agree with the fact that we are worthy of death, we cannot be forgiven. There is no way to receive forgiveness without being willing to experience the subsequent cleansing which means the loss of our soul life (PSUCHÊ).

Just applying the precious blood of Jesus as “soap,” “paint,” or even “a robe of righteousness,” without acknowledging our need for death, is not sufficient to be forgiven. God will not forgive someone who intends to continue sinning. We must also be ready and willing for God’s variety of cleansing which involves the end of our soul lives.

When we repent by agreeing with God’s sentence of death upon our sinfulness, this opens the way for God to apply Christ’s death to us and then fill us with His new life. This is an absolutely necessary requirement. There is no way we can bypass it.

When we arrive at true repentance, then, through the Holy Spirit, God applies the death of Christ to our lives. In a spiritual way which we humans cannot fathom, Jesus’ death becomes a reality in us. This is a work which God does in us by His mercy and grace.

Not only do we desperately need to experience Christ’s death today, but we also need to experience the resurrection of Jesus for ourselves. Paul makes an interesting and enlightening statement. He says: “I want to know him and the power of his resurrection – which comes through participating in his sufferings and becoming integrated into his death – so that in this way I may be experiencing the resurrection from the dead” (Philip 3:10,11).

Yes, we need to experience the resurrection of Jesus too. But there is a problem here. Living people never resurrect. This is only possible for the dead. Therefore, if we are not knowing His death for ourselves – if it is not becoming real in our lives – then we can never know His resurrection.

Consequently, we remain defeated, bound by sin, and powerless. The power of Jesus is in His resurrection. It is not until we daily experience His death that we can daily know the power of His resurrected life (ZOÊ).

BEING IMMERSED

Our genuine experience of the death and resurrection of Christ today is intimately related to our experience of baptism. The word “baptize” means “to immerse.”

It is probable that many of you readers have gone through a ceremony called “baptism” where you were immersed in some water. This is not a bad thing. It is a testimony to the heavenly rulers and others of your having agreed with God to enter into Jesus’ death.

However, with our new understanding of the aorist verb tense, we see that our baptism must not stop with just a dunking. There is a lot more to it than that. Our being immersed into the death of Christ, must be an ongoing, daily experience.

We read: “Or don’t you realize that all who are being immersed {baptized} into the Anointed One Jesus are immersed into his death? Therefore, we are being buried with him into death through immersion into the Anointed One so that as the Anointed One was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should be walking in the newness of the Father’s life {ZOÊ}” (Rm 6:3,4).

Here we understand baptism in a new light. It is not simply a one-time thing. Being immersed into the death of the Jesus can be and, in fact, must be our daily experience. In Galatians 3:27 we read: “For as many of you as are being immersed into the Anointed One, are putting on the Anointed One.”

Now some may argue here that this “being immersed” is a past event for true believers and that they have already “put on” Christ. But please allow me ask you a few questions. Are you really “immersed into Christ” as much as you would like to be? Are you satisfied that you have all of Jesus in your life that you want or need? Have you really been radically changed into His image in a way that is visible to others so that they can see that you have actually “put on Christ?” Are you a completely different person?

If not, then the ongoing, daily experience of being immersed {baptized} into Christ and into His death is for you! You can be experiencing the reality of what your “symbolic” immersion in water was pointing to.

Another verse with the “new” verb rendering reads: “Since you are being buried together with him through [the death which] baptism [symbolizes], you are also being co-resurrected with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col 2:12).

What a wonderful thing! By experiencing the reality of baptism – being immersed into His death – we can also experience being co-resurrected with Him by the power of God!

We can be, and indeed we must be, immersed into Jesus day after day. It is this immersion into Christ which is changing us. It is our constant immersion into Him which is transforming us from what we are into what He is.

Jesus teaches us: “He who is believing and is being baptized {being immersed} will be being saved, but he who disbelieves will be condemned” (Mk 16:16). There are some Christians who like to emphasize “being baptized in the Holy Spirit.” Some feel that this is “a necessary experience” for being saved. Others think that it is a second step or a second experience after being “born again.”

Yet, from our previous discussion of the aorist verb tense, we can now understand something much more profound. Being baptized or immersed in the Holy Spirit is not just a onetime experience. It is not meant to be merely a “second experience” but a daily experience. It needs to happen again and again, over and over until we are saturated with all that He is.

This being immersed into Jesus is intimately related to being filled with the Holy Spirit. This, too, is supposed to be a daily experience for all believers. We are admonished: “And don’t be drunk with wine which produces lack of self-control but be being filled to fulness with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18).

Here is a wonderful verse. We can be being filled with the Holy Spirit! This also is not just a one-time experience. God has not given His Spirit sparingly. He has “poured it out” on us.

Therefore, we can be filled again and again, more and more with Him! We can be being filled with all that God is.

BEING CIRCUMCISED

Let me ask you an important question. Have you been circumcised yet? No, I don’t mean to ask if you have had pieces of your physical body cut off. What I mean to ask is if you have experienced the true circumcision of which the physical surgery is a type? Have you had your flesh cut away? Did you even realize that as a Christian you are supposed to be circumcised?

Since most Bible versions translate the key verses about this subject in the past tense, they make it seem to be something which has already happened. This, then, would be a “surgery” which you didn’t feel, don’t realize happened, and which is doing you little, if any, good. But when we read verses about circumcision with a different rendering of the aorist verb tense, something new and wonderful comes into view.

In Colossians 2:11 we read: “It is also in him that you are being circumcised with a circumcision not done with human hands, but instead through the stripping off of the entirety of the sins of the flesh by the spiritual circumcision which occurs in the Anointed One.”

The true question then is: Have you experienced having your flesh cut off by the work of the Spirit? Has the spiritual reality of what circumcision symbolizes become real in your life? The above verse makes it clear that this can be happening to us. It can become our experience. Hallelujah, we can be being freed from our flesh!

Paul also teaches us: “...but he is a true Jew who is one inwardly and genuine circumcision is something which happens not by the letter of the law but in the heart by the operation of the Spirit, whose praise is not from men but from God” (Rm 2:29).

The first person in the Bible to be circumcised was Abraham. This rite was prescribed by God as a result of His faith, pointing to something in the future which had to do with his children.

Through our faith, we are today considered “children of Abraham,” the father of faith. Being his spiritual descendants qualifies us for the wonderful, spiritual reality of the circumcision which he only experienced physically.

Paul teaches us: “Furthermore, it was so that he could be the father of the cutting away of the flesh {circumcision} not only to those who are physically circumcised but also to those who are walking in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised” (Rm 4:12).

So we understand that there is a spiritual experience of circumcision which is for all believers. We all must know for ourselves a divine surgery which has a radical impact on who and what we are.

We need God to cut off the flesh which encompasses us. We desperately need to be rid of this encumbering mass of “flesh,” this burden of the old life and nature, so that we can walk with Him without hindrance. We need to experience the removal of the sinful nature, that “part” of us which identifies us with the ungodly.

BEING SANCTIFIED

Yet another truth which should be becoming real to us is that of being sanctified. Many understand the word “sanctified” as meaning “being set apart.” Although the word includes this meaning, it falls far short of the total significance of the word. Literally, it means “to be made holy.”

Now being separated from what is common and unclean is certainly part of being made holy. But if we are only “set apart” and never actually changed to be holy, we never experience the fulness of what this word means.

When we rightly understand the verses about this subject in the New Testament, it becomes clear that this, too, is an ongoing process which we should be experiencing. We should be becoming holy. This fits well with what God spoke to us. He said: “Become holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet 1:16).

Also we read: “...since his divine power has provided us with everything that is necessary for the development of his life {ZOÊ} within us and the holiness which it produces, through fully knowing him who calls us to his own glory and virtuous character” (2 Pet 1:3).

We also are taught: “But now, being set free from sin and being enslaved to God, you have the ‘fruit’ of being made holy as the result of God’s eternal life” (Rm 6:22). Also: “For this is the will of God: your being made holy” (2 Thess 4:3).

And: “But we are compelled to always give thanks to God for you brethren who are loved by the Lord because God chose you from the beginning to receive a complete salvation through being made holy by the Spirit and by having faith in the truth” (1 Thess 2:13).

And finally, “Pursue peace with all men and pursue being made holy, since without such holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). So we understand that being made holy is an experience we should be having right now today. It is a privilege all of us can enjoy.

Of course, this is not a result of self-effort. It is not attained by our “works.” It is accomplished by the grace of God through faith. It happens through our being filled, more and more, over and over again, with the life of our holy God.

Such holiness must be real in our lives. It should be happening to us and in us. Holiness must not be just our imagining or pretending to be holy. It is also not our hoping that God thinks we are holy when we realize that actually we are not.

As we have already seen, this holiness is accomplished by being filled with the life of our holy, heavenly Father. It is sealed to us by entering into death and resurrection with our Savior Jesus Christ.

Now dear readers, do you see how there are two “versions” of the gospel? Can you see, depending on how the scriptures are translated, that there are two messages? One is a static, past tense, cut-and dried-gospel which many are trying very hard to believe. The other is an experiential, ongoing, living, active gospel which is producing real changes in the lives of those who are believing. 

End of Chapter 3

Read other chapters online:

Chapter 1: The Hidden Gospel

Chapter 2: The New Life

Chapter 3: More Translation Problems (Current Chapter)

Chapter 4: True Faith

Chapter 5: Transformation