God's Grace by Faith in Jesus Christ

GOD’S

GRACE

BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST

DR. EJEMBI JOHN ONAH

Copyright © 2024 Dr. Ejembi John Onah

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the author’s prior written permission.

ISBN:

978-1-963179-70-5 (Paperback)

978-1-963179-71-2(Hardback)

Dedication

My wife; Joy Onyemowo Onah, my children; Ihotu Onah, Ijeyikowoicho Onah, Ehikowoicho Onah and Owoichooche Onah, for being there always for me.

To God through Christ with the Holy Ghost is the highest praise for giving me the vision, wisdom and spiritual guide for this piece.

Acknowledgements

Much appreciation from Newburgh Theological Seminary and College of the Bible, Dr. John Sloan for his dedication and advice, Dr. Arts Christmas, Sandra L. East, Maury Reising and Dr. Mollette for their various support.

My wife; Joy Onyemowo Onah, my children; Ihotu Onah, Ijeyikowoicho Onah, Ehikowoicho Onah and Owoichooche Onah, for being there always for me.

To God through Christ with the Holy Ghost is the highest praise for giving me the vision, wisdom and spiritual guide for this piece.

About The Author

The author, Dr. Ejembi John Onah, was born on April 4, 1963, in Nigeria, pronounced dead, by 6 months old and resurrected to life by the grace of God, hence his name John, meaning grace was given to him. Ejembi has a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Newburgh Seminary and College of the Bible, USA, in 2015. The author also has another doctorate in Chemistry in 2001 from the University of Technology, Dresden, Germany and was a faculty at Virginia Tech, Cornell University and various other colleges and universities in Africa from 1985.

He has been in church ministry, including deeper life, assemblies of God, the true Apostolic Churches of Jesus Christ and part of Lakewood Church online etc. In ministry, he took various positions as a pastor, apostle and evangelist to preach, teach, prophesy, heal and deliver all forms of sicknesses and diseases, including cancer, tumor, barrenness, sick cell anaemia, diabetes, etc. His ministry touches 287 countries in various churches of continents of Africa, Europe, Asia and  America etc for many decades right from high school, and he was among the first to set up internet or electronic ministry.

Dr. Ejembi John Onah is the President of Ejembi John Onah Nano Academy (EJONA) formerly Focus Nanotechnology Africa (FONAI) and the founding Chair of the US-EU-Africa-Asia and Caribbeans Academy of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (USEACANN) cutting across 287 countries in synergy with academia, public and private sectors with at least 4 Nobel laureates being among the first to have a Ph.D. in the field; its principal investigator and senior pastor.

Later in his life, Jesus appeared to him just like Paul and John the beloved in his bedroom stating that He was real. Later, he was taken to heaven like John the Beloved and Paul on October 25, 2016. The author is married with four children and lives in the USA as a citizen.

Preface

Romans, Martin Luther wrote, the most important piece in the New Testament. It is the purest Gospel.[1] It is actually the best piece in the entire Bible since the center of scripture is the redemption of man through faith in Christ by the grace of God; the understanding of it which Romans presents. Man cannot be justified by the works of the law (Romans 3:20) because the law demands a willing, eager and loving heart being the debts of the law.

Since man cannot pay the debt of the law, which is a willing, eager and unconstrained heart, man hates the law as his lender in the heart while trying to obey it with actions for fear of punishment. Such actions come from the heart that hates the law and cannot fulfil the law demands of a willing heart, so such actions are sinful, so all men are sinners because their actions come from the evil heart hating the law (Romans 3:23).

Since God is Spirit, the fulfillment of His law must come from a spiritual heart, which God can give only through faith in Christ by the Holy Ghost, so man is justified before God only through faith in Christ (Romans 3:28), not through the works of the law. Christ paid the debt of the law by His death as atonement or as a propitiation for the promises of God's righteousness by grace to flow to all that believe in Christ (Romans 3:24-25). Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17), through hearing the Gospel of Christ; his crucifixion and death as an atonement, as a Passover lamb to give us redemption and by His resurrection to give us justification (Romans 4:25). Through faith in Christ; God gives man the Holy Ghost; a spiritual heart that is willing, eager and in love to obey God.

Faith is faith when the heart is changed from the heart of stone to a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26) as summed in 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Faith kills sin, presenting man as a true bride of Christ, the bridegroom without stain filled with the Holy Ghost; a requirement of the spiritual law of God. Through faith in Christ, man is granted the justification, righteousness and sanctification of God to be used by Him being filled with the Holy Spirit. In faith, there is no work demanded; faith does it willingly before it is demanded, being the work of God in us. Yes, we are all justified through faith in Christ by the grace of God (Romans 3:24); that is our Gospel!

Therefore, there are 10 words that can be used to describe Romans: Sin, faith, salvation, righteousness, justification, grace, law, Spirit, Israel and love. The understanding of these words as the ABC of Christian education as presented in Romans is a must to understand Christianity and also to understand the whole of scripture. Romans is the basic foundation of Church Christian teaching, and if a person is wrong in understanding this epistle, that person will be wrong elsewhere and the entire bible. Paul wrote the letter to the Romans in AD 58-60 from Corinth and sent to Rome by Phebe (Romans 16:1).

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

About The Author

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Sin

Chapter 3: Justification

Chapter 4: Faith

Chapter 5: Grace

Chapter 6: Law

Chapter 7: Victory

Chapter 8: Israel

Chapter 9: Love

Conclusion

Bibliography

Chapter 1:

Introduction

There are many pieces or researches carried out on Paul's letter to the Romans. The most important of these pieces are those of Martin Luther[2], John Calvin[3] and John Wesley[4]. In Romans, the law means the law of God, not the law made by human beings as representing that of the state or country, which is known as the constitution or other institutional laws to regulate human behavior. These embodiments of human laws demand work that a man is to keep or get punished. The man fulfils these human laws with works whether the heart is interested or not. The demand of the law of God is the heart, not work as in human laws. God searches through the heart; anything done with God without the heart is a waste and leads to sin. Since man is not able to fulfil the demand of the law of God, which is a willing and loving heart, man hates the law of God. The man is trying to fulfil the law without the heart or with an evil heart, so such actions proceeding from an evil heart are sinful.

Consequently, all men are judged guilty and sinners because they cannot fulfil the demands of the law. This is what Paul meant by saying that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The only way a man can fulfil the law of God is through faith in Christ by the grace of God. Under grace, faith does the work willingly with a loving heart filled with the Holy Spirit; a requirement to fulfil God’s law. Grace does not make demands but does the work of the law through faith; the Holy Ghost being the soldier and protector. Under the law, there is sin, but under grace, there is the righteousness of God through justification.

Christ is, therefore, the end of the law (Romans 10:4) that demands works from a constrained heart, and our justification was without works of the law (Romans 3:28) but through faith in Christ, only faith in Christ. Many of the works about Romans, though excellent many are, are not all-embracing to touch every aspect of the epistle to the Romans, which is the most important piece of the Bible. This piece, therefore, will rightly divide this Gospel of the truth of Romans (2 Timothy 2:15), a mastery of Paul. Faith is the work of God in us all as believers. Faith kills sin through the Holy Ghost, making us new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). Sin is unbelief in God (John 16:9); unbelief is the only sin Christ recognizes (Romans 14:23). Sin is the head of the devil. Through Christ by faith; Genesis 3:15 is fulfilled whereby the seed of Adam, which is Christ, bruises the head of Satan or kills sin for me to be saved.

In every Christian, there is the Adamic nature or the flesh, which is gradually killed through faith by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:13) until freedom is completely secured from sin. Grace is the favor of God bestowed on man by offering His Son to die for our sins, bringing the Holy Ghost, gifts and His righteousness to us all through faith in Christ. Gifts through the Holy Ghost grow in us every day, gradually killing Adamic nature in us, thereby gradually freeing us from sin completely, as discussed in Romans 7.

The fight between the seed of Adam and that of the serpent is mentioned in Genesis 3:15, and that is what is meant by spiritual battles, as mentioned in Romans 7 and Ephesians 6:10-18. In Chapter 7, Paul writes about the behavior of a believer whose gifts through the Holy Ghost are still growing, but in Romans 8; there is still a victory for such a person even when his sinful nature is not completely killed in the flesh because of grace and faith in Christ. Flesh is the whole embodiment of man in soul, mind, senses and body, not sin as in Romans. Man is fleshy when he discusses, writes or preaches on spiritual matters highly without grace or without faith or without a willing heart or when he completely does not believe in spiritual matters. Paul talks about the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21 which are all a definition of sinful man. In Romans 8:3; Paul states that the law was weak through the flesh or through sin. By Spirit is the Holy Ghost defining the man that works under grace in the Holy Spirit being clothed with the fruits of the spirit as discussed by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23.

Justification is the declaration that all that have faith in Christ are pronounced innocent and good, without guilt and sinless, and therefore are called children of God to be in His presence (Psalms 23:6). The atonement through the death of Christ made the redemption of all possible for that righteousness of God to flow in His grace. We are free from the law of sin, which makes demands that we cannot pay (Romans 10:4) and therefore under grace, which brings righteousness through faith in Christ with the Holy Ghost, which is the victory Paul writes in Romans 8.

The subjects of sin (chapters 1-3:1-3:1-18), salvation, justification (chapter 3:19-31), faith (chapter 4), grace (chapters 5-6), law (chapter 7), victory (chapter 8), Israel (chapters 9-11) and love (chapters 12-16) which are all discussed in Romans will be studied with appropriate bible references and crucial questions for both believers and unbelievers, Gentiles and Jews, male and female. The author of this work is not me but God through Jesus as led by the Holy Ghost; I am only a messenger or an apostle and a servant of Christ.

Chapter 2:

Sin

Paul; apostleship, grace, and Jesus: Romans 1:1-7

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God,

Paul in Latin means small or humble: Paul introduced himself as a servant of Jesus to be an apostle to preach the Gospel of God. Paul’s calling was to be an apostle to preach the Gospel. Paul’s calling was to preach the Gospel to the gentiles, kings and Israel (Acts 9:15, 13:2, 1 Corinthians 1:1). Every Christian is called to preach the Gospel so we are all messengers of the Gospel of God (apostles-Greek) as in the great commission; Mark 16:15. That is the first call of duty every Christian has; preach the Gospel of God which was started by Christ Himself, Mark 1:14 after John the Baptist was put into prison.

It should be remembered that Paul said the Gospel of God, and Christ Himself said the Gospel of God; it is the Gospel of God and also of Christ, not any person else; it is not the Gospel of Paul, Peter, myself, etc. God, Himself is the author of His word; the Gospel; saints and brethren (2 Timothy 3:16). We are all servants of Christ as Paul; let no one exalt himself. We are all servants of Christ to carry out this first duty; preach the Gospel of God to all nations; all nations. Such a divine call to be a servant to preach the Gospel needs focus, dedication and separation from the works of the flesh or sin unto God with the availability of Christ and the Holy Spirit. In the case of Paul, his separation was in 3 phases: a) The plan of God at his birth: But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace (Galatians 1:15). b) Conversion from Judaism to Christianity (Acts 9:15-16).

c) Commission to the work of God removed from any secular work (Acts 13:2, 26:16-18). In my own case is not quite different; a) I was pronounced dead at 6 months of age and was resurrected to life again, and John was given to me. b) Later, Jesus appeared to me in person on a hot afternoon, identifying Himself that He was alive. c) Later, in 1996, in Germany, I was called out by God through Christ to work completely through ministry to pastor and preach the Gospel. Later, on October 25, 2016, I was taken to heaven like Paul and John the beloved. Attempts here is to make this most powerful book of the scripture very practical as the Gospel cannot be preached as an abstraction but as a living book as the word of God, which is powerful (Hebrew 4:12).

(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures): This Gospel of God about Christ; the virgin birth, life, death and resurrection were given in the law (the books of Moses, prophetic books except Joshua, Judges, Samuel, King; Psalms and the rest of the canonical books both in OT and NT) and foretold in scripture by prophets: Isaiah 7:14, Luke 9.22, etc.

Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh: This Gospel of God traces the genealogy of Jesus as the Son of man of the seed of David (Matthew 1:1). Jesus is both Son of man in the flesh and Son of God in the Spirit by His divine birth.

And declared to be the