In a recent web conference, I gave the following message to a group of fellow believers all around the world. The “webinar” was generated and hosted by Dr. Jim Brettell, a Christian pastor and leader located in Little Rock Arkansas. Dr. Brettell is a pioneer in the internet church, one of the latest movements in the church where men and women have gone to the web to publish the word of God. It is believed that in the next few years, millions of people will actually go to church using the internet, tuning into live and recorded services, hearing the word of God taught while sitting in their own homes. While the internet church has its obvious drawbacks, it is a reality in 2010 and a reality that motivated Christian leaders ignore at their own peril. I have become one of those Chrisitan leaders who gladly use the internet to promote the message of Christ to a world of men and women who need Him so desperately as the day of His return comes on e day closer.

The theme of the Web Conference was “One Day Closer”, with each different teacher communicating what that phrase meant to him. When I heard the phrase, One Day Closer, I was moved to discuss the day when Christ will have defeated all of His enemies and placed them in their eternal abodes, when He will have submitted the kingdom to God-Father and when all free creatures in God’s universe will exist in a state of perfect righteousness. On that day, there will be only righteous thinking, feeling, speaking and acting in the life of all His creatures living with Him. All those who trust in Christ will be together with Christ and all of us will live free from sin and evil.

Imagine the world, ruled by Christ, full of angels and resurrected human beings, filled with righteousness, free from all sin, expressing love to one another and living this way forever. Gone will be the bad news we hear every single day, gone the hurt and pain caused by one person’s selfishness against another and gone the possibility that sin will ever harm us again. What a glorious day!

These following notes were used in my message that was delivered on Friday, 3/5/10. Dr. Brettell has also posted the recording of this message on a dedicated page on his website. If you wish to hear the audio of this message, go to http://brettell.org/webex.htm When you open the page, scroll down and look for my name connected with session # 2 and simply click on it. The link will take you to a Webex page and the recording will begin automatically. Thanks for tuning in. Continue growing in your faith and in your love for the Lord Jesus Christ to whom belongs all glory and worship forever.

Web Conference 3/6/10
One Day Closer Righteousness Rules

I. Introduction

Historical Context:
At the eternal life conference in eternity past, God-F, God-S & God-HS decided to create the universe and creatures to live in it. These creatures were made to worship and serve God. The creation of both angels and mankind have striking parallels that are pertinent to our discussion, the most important of these is the capacity to choose and the freedom to do so. First He created angels with volition and allowed them to choose sin and evil. 1/3 of the angels chose to reject whatever grace God offered them and they now exist in a permanent state of unrighteousness. Their minds and daily decisions within the A/C are guided by unrighteous goals, priorities and ideas. Then God made mankind and also allowed him to choose sin and evil for himself. The creation of mankind is God’s plan for winning the appeal trial of these fallen angels.

We find ourselves at this point in human history with a completed system of grace salvation being offered to the human race, with some having accepted God’s grace, others having rejected God’s grace and others not yet having made their decision. It is by accepting God’s grace that we prove out His point in the appeal of fallen angels, that no creature can live on his own apart from God’s grace. Fallen angels & humans who choose to live independent of God will demonstrate this truth forever.

The issue at hand in our time together is the unrighteous thinking, speaking and actions of creatures both angelic and human. The unrighteousness choices of creatures have caused the world in which we live to be a place dominated by sin and evil. Every human soul born into this life, experiences damage to their souls and endures great pain and grief.

1. Fallen angels – choose evil which is to live in opposition to God’s plan with the goal of defeating God’s plan in even the smallest way, to prove that He is not +R and perfect. If God could be found to be –R or imperfect, this would allow Satan a basis for a successful appeal on the grounds that God makes mistakes.
2. Unbelievers – choose sin and evil mostly unknowingly, without clear understanding of the implications of their choices or the havoc they cause through sinful choices.
3. Believers – 2 cag
a. Negative to truth – live as saved people but choose to reject knowledge of their Old Man beliefs/behaviors and therefore choose to live dominated by their sin nature causing pain to everyone in their lives because of their –R way of life.
b. Positive to truth – live as saved people who have yielded to the Spirit to have their hearts transformed into the likeness of Christ and therefore choose sin and evil less and less as their operating system. These believers gain the capacity to produce divine good giving aid to others and blessing everyone in their life.

Christ has defeated the devil through His work of death, burial and resurrection. God is allowing the forces of evil to play out the appeal trial, proving out the will of God that life without God is doomed to failure and must be condemned.

When the appeal trial is completed, Christ will take every –R creature in the universe and throw them into the Lake of Fire. At this time He will submit the universe to His Father and His +R will once again be the only standard by which creatures choose to act. There will be no more bad decisions and no more people damaging others through sin and evil. Every soul living with God in His kingdom will be free to live +R life and God’s +R will rule the universe. Come Lord Jesus Come!!

This study will cover Mat 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
We will discuss:
Hunger & thirst
God’s Righteousness
Results of living God’s +R

II. Hunger & Thirst for Righteousness

NAS Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Mt 5 begins the Sermon on the Mount and contains the Beatitudes (declarations of blessing). The S/M is addressed to Israel during the Age of Israel and so does not directly apply to the church, but to the Kingdom to come when the Lord returns.

Vs 6 – blessed – makarios – happinesses; those who fulfill these qualifications will be the recipients of many types of happiness

Vs 6 the ones hungering and thirsting – spiritual appetite, desire for God & +R

The S/M is for the Millennium and for believers of that dispensation and so this concept does not directly apply to the Church Age believer. What does apply to the church are the principles that transcend every dispensation. An example of concepts that transcend dispensations would be the Laws of Divine Establishment, the principles that God designed to govern both believer and unbeliever throughout all of human history.
a. Freedom – the right to use volition to choose for self
b. Marriage – marriage is found in every dispensation
c. Family – children are found in every dispensation
d. Nations – after the flood, God formed nations to protect freedom

One of the things that has existed in every dispensation and every generation is certain individuals who have a spiritual appetite . God designed the human soul with a need for God that we experience as desire, longings and yearnings deep in the heart. It is this spiritual hunger that characterizes those who are positive to the truth.

Gen 4:25-26 – With the birth of Seth, men began to call upon the name of the Lord
· The hunger in man’s heart led men to seek for the Lord
Psm 42:2 My soul is thirsty for God
· During the Jewish Age, men had a desire to know God
Mt 5:6 Hunger and thirst for +R; Jn 7:37 thirst for God
· Jesus’ day there were those who desired to be +R before God.
Gal 5:17 – desire produced by God-HS in the soul of the believer.

Spiritual Hunger & Thirst
1. God created the human soul with needs. Man is not meant to live on is own but to live in relationships with God and one another.
Gen 2:18 – not good for man to be alone
2. Some needs are intended to be met by God and others are intended to be met by other humans.
Jn 7:37 a thirst that only God can fill; Gen 2:18 – a need that only a mate can fill
3. Man is born spiritually dead and therefore separated from God.
a. We don’t have access to God to meet our inborn needs.
b. 1Cor 2:14 We are unable to process spiritual things to know truth
c. We don’t even know we are missing God, believe people are the answer
d. Man attaches all of his needs to man in the absence of God.
4. Living with unmet needs causes man to experience soul pain.
5. Man’s failure to find fulfillment through people causes him to find substitutes.
a. Phil 3:18-19 men obey their appetites and turn to worldly things
b. Eph 4:17-19 men develop addictions to ease their pain
6. The failure to find fulfillment through other humans can lead to opening the heart to seek for God.
Act 17:27 God has made us to seek Him, feel after Him and find Him.
a. When our initial strategies fail, some will realize that God is the only answer.
b. Others will use their failures to simply change strategies and continue seeking fulfillment through man and worldliness.

The ones who hunger and thirst in Mt 5:6 are those who have realized that there is more to life than what can be seen with their eyes and known with human logic. They have opened their minds to something bigger than themselves. They have realized their need for forgiveness and realized that they cannot earn it themselves. They have looked into their own hearts and have discovered their hunger and thirst. They hunger to be loved in spite of their flaws and failures and they thirst for an existence that is free from the sin and evil that has broken their hearts and kicked a hole in everyone they love.

The people in view here are hungering & thirsting for +R. What does Jesus mean? What does it mean to hunger/thirst for +R? Let’s look at +R.

Vs 6 Righteousness – dikaiosune – the thinking of a Judge, the standard by which the judge determines right/wrong, guilt/innocence; The righteousness of God.

God’s Righteousness
1. God’s righteousness is perfect rightness and is absolute.
2. Perfect rightness is whatever the Creator says is right/wrong.
3. Absolute means that His +R is 100% and can’t accept anything less.
4. God’s +R is the standard by which He determines if creatures are worthy to be blessed or cursed – Act 17:31
5. If a creature is 100% +R, then God blesses; If a creature falls short of 100% +R, then God curses.
6. Creatures who stand before God for judgment who possess 100% +R will be blessed to live with Him forever in a state of perfect +H.
7. Creatures who stand before Him for judgment who fall short of 100% +R will be rejected from His presence and live in a state of misery forever.

Christians will experience God’s +R in 3 primary ways
A. Imputed +R given at salvation to all who believe the gospel
Rom 3:22 This +R comes from God by faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe
· Faith (in the gospel) is the requirement for God to credit His +R to us.
2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
· Christ took our sins upon Himself and gave His +R to us through our union with Him
1. The moment we trust Christ for salvation we are imputed (credited) with His +R
2. In the courtroom of heaven our sins are counted as paid and God’s +R is counted as ours through union with Christ – Justification.
3. Every believer has faced and seen the last of God’s Justice in a punitive sense.
4. Imputation of divine +R has made us worth the same as Christ – worthy/blessing

B. Experiential +R developed through spiritual growth, accomplished by the transformation process whereby the believer takes off his/her old man beliefs/behaviors and puts on the new man beliefs and behaviors.
Heb 12:11 – divine discipline; God’s training & growth program yields peaceful fruit +R.
· Discipline strips down the Old Man and inspires obedience to New Man – NM is +R
Eph 4:24 – NM is created in likeness of God in +R and holiness from the truth
· NM is the thinking of Jesus/humanity and is aligned with God’s +R from the truth

C. God’s +R will rule the free universe among all who live with God.

1 Cor 15:24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

1. At the present time, while the appeal trial of satan continues, Christ has been given all authority in heaven and earth, holds the highest position of authority.
2. While Christ holds the highest position, creatures continue to freely live by their own sinful standards and methods.
3. At the end, when Christ has brought human history to a close, all creatures who rejected Him will be confined forever to the Lake of Fire.
4. Even then, though they might continue to reject His right to rule them, they will bow down to Him and confess that He is the Lord – Phil 2:10-11.
5. In contrast, those who live with God forever will be enabled to think, feel and act out God’s +R with every thought brought into captivity to Christ.
6. For those of us who live with God forever, we will enjoy total freedom from sin, evil and every form of harm that we now endure in the present state.

To hunger & thirst for +R, is to deeply desire to receive God’s own +R imputed at salvation, then the desire to attain a mature status as a Christian to be able to live according to experiential +R and finally, every creature who knows God hungers and thirsts for the day when all sin and evil will have been eliminated from us and from all those we love.

1. From birth until death, every human being lives within an environment where sin and evil dominate every relationship and all human interaction in general.
2. Being born into sin, experiencing human development while dominated by a sin nature, being raised by sinful parents, living among other sinful people has harmed the soul of every human being.
3. Every human being has experienced soul pain from having a sin nature and relating to other people who are dominated by their sin nature.
4. When a sinful person encounters God and is given a vision of life without sin, life without hurtful interactions with others, it causes a hunger to be formed.
5. This hunger/thirst is attached to an image of life where no one does wrong, no one acts selfishly and where no one is harmed.
6. As a believer learns what the bible says about the eternal state, his hunger becomes a hope, a confidence that one day this will actually occur.
7. The hope that every believer possesses is that one day, at the end, God will eliminate sin/evil and create an environment where our every thought and deed edifies others.
8. The bible describes this future, perfect life with the following words:

Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

The Gospel on Offense – The Faith of Tim Tebow by Mark Earley

America ’s largest church has a capacity to hold 16,000. But while Tim Tebow
may not be a preacher, when he runs into the University of Florida ’s football
Stadium-affectionately known as “The Swamp” -his congregation numbers just over
90,000. And you can bet they’re hearing Tim’s message.

It’s not just that this University of Florida quarterback wears Bible verses
etched into his “eye-black” on game days. Tim Tebow has been making headlines
for more than simply his Heisman Trophy win as a sophomore and his two national
championships. This summer the New York Times, GQ, and Sports Illustrated, all
covered the quarterback’s strong Christian faith.

Last year, when the Florida Gators won the national championship, the
pre-game show followed Tim into a local Florida prison where he can regularly be
found sharing his testimony and preaching the Gospel.

And this top-notch athlete, who spends his spring breaks and summers
ministering to orphans in the Philippines has actually helped change the culture
of the University of Florida . According to Sports Illustrated , “Since Tebow’s
arrival on campus, and in large part because of him, the University has launched
a series of community-service initiatives.” Even coach Urban Meyer has taken his
family on a “Tebow-inspired mission trip to the Dominican Republic .”

The press seems to be fascinated with outspoken Christian quarterbacks like
Tim Tebow; Sam Bradford, the 2008 Heisman winner; and now USC’s Matt Barkley.
Only a few decades ago, it would have been taken for granted that these would be
the kinds of fellows any father would want his daughter to marry. Now they are
put under the microscope as some kind of curious anomaly-well-known athletes who
actually exhibit character.

In our doped-up, mug-shot celebrity culture, sadly these young men do look a
little out of step. And that’s to our culture’s shame. Perhaps that is why last
year when the press asked Tim Tebow a rather impertinent question-they were more
embarrassed by the response than he was. It was at a Southeastern Conference
news media event where one reporter asked in front of the crowded room, “Are you
a virgin?” Tim answered with an unequivocal yes and had yet another platform to
explain how his faith impacts every area of his life.

That platform for sharing the Gospel is exactly what Tim’s parents prayed
for before he was born. Tim’s father, Bob, a missionary in the Philippines, had
been weeping over the millions of babies aborted in America . It was then that
he prayed, “God, if you give me a son, if you give me Timmy, I’ll raise him to
be a preacher.”

Soon after, when Pam Tebow learned she was expecting, the parents’ faith was
put to the test. After a series of grave complications, doctors encouraged them
to abort the child. They refused. Born small and weak, Timmy struggled from the
beginning. But his dad continued to tell him, “God’s got a purpose for you, and
at some point, He’s going to call you to preach.”

Dad was right. God’s message would come through the roar of the crowd,
beamed to millions via satellite. But little did they know, Tim would don a
jersey, not robes, and use a stadium for his pulpit.

Tim’s a great example of an opportunity every believer has-to put our faith
to work on the field of play where God has gifted us and called us. =

In the first two articles, we discussed God’s victory over sin on behalf of the human race.
Adam’s original sin caused three different categories of sin to exist within the human race. In the first article we discussed God’s victory over Imputed Sin that caused the whole human race to come under eternal condemnation. The work of Christ in His death, burial and resurrection made atonement for man’s sin debt to God. In the second article we discussed the ministry of the Spirit who enables the believer to escape the domination Inherited Sin or the sin nature and empowers us to live the Christ-like life. In this final installment we will discuss God’s provision for recovery from the different kinds of Individual Sins we commit after salvation.

Individual Sin

Driven by Desire
God designed the human soul with needs that He intends to meet and needs that other humans can meet. We experience these needs as desires, longings and cravings that we are compelled to satisfy. As children, we had no awareness of God’s boundaries in which our desires are to be pursued. All we knew is what we wanted and believed that gratification of our wants was necessary for happiness. We developed strategies intended to persuade others to give us what we wanted, believing only that our satisfaction was important. In ignorance and without concern, by prioritizing our desires, we violated any and every boundary the Lord has given. Our every motive, thought, design, strategy, feeling and behavior has been committed to self rather than the Lord. Initially, we don’t practice evil by opposing God, we don’t even know about God. When we do learn of God, we try to enlist Him as the major source to further our plans to serve ourselves. Our total self-absorption and commitment to gratifying self is the essence of sin. It is with this mind-set that we practice individual sins.

3 Kinds of Individual Sin
Individual or personal sins come in 3 categories. The first is mental sins, sins of the mind. The second is sins that we say with our tongue and the third is overt sins that commit with our bodies. We use these 3 types of sins as our natural approach to life, thinking that they are appropriate and justified. Let’s look a little deeper at each of these types of sin.

Mental Sins
Mental sins are the motivators for every other kind of sin. What we think and feel motivates what we say and do. Examples of mental sin must begin with lust. Lust is unbridled desire pursued with no regard for and outside of God’s boundaries for fulfilling or normal needs. Many people think that the word “lust” only applies to our sexual desires, but in fact applies to many areas of life. We can lust for power, for wealth, for approbation, for recognition, for material possessions and many other lusts.

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Lust is simply normal desire uncontrolled. As we discussed above, desire is the driving force in the human soul. Desire pursued without God, using our own means is sin and the root of all corruption in the world. Listen to Peter’s discussion about lust:

2 Peter 1:4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

Notice what Peter says that lust is the root cause of the corruption in the world. Desire pursued without God is sin and corrupts our hearts and minds. The next example of mental sin is the normal human reaction to having our lust frustrated. When we don’t get what we want, we become frustrated, angry, jealous or bitter. Believing that we have a right to what we want and view gratification of our desires as necessary for happiness, we react when we are denied. James, the brother of Jesus pointed this out in his book.

James 4:1-2 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your desires that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

James explains that when we are denied what we want, we react with anger, jealousy, mental murder and quarrels. We justify anger as normal and right because we were denied our desires. We believe that we are entitled to become bitter toward others who reject us or do not cooperate with our strategies. Jealousy, another mental sin fits well within this same scenario. Another type of mental sin is fear and worry. We fear that we will never have what we want or that we will lose what we have and result from a lack of faith in the Lord’s promise

Mental sins are the way we think about life when we don’t depend on God. We believe that gratification of desire brings happiness and we react with anger or fear when satisfaction is denied or possibly lost. Mental sins motivate every other area of sin and are part of the front line in the spiritual war.

Sins of the Tongue
What we think and feel motivates what we say. When our thoughts are virtuous, then we relate with our words with kindness by edifying others. When our thoughts are sinful, then we express ourselves with words that use, hurt or tear others down. The bible admonishes us to control our tongues and use them to help not hurt.

1 Peter 3:10 For, “Let him who means to love life and see good days Refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile.

Examples of sins of the tongue are lying, deceitfulness, hurtful words, name-calling, complaining, gossip, maligning, slander and any verbal expression that is motivated to harm others.

Overt Sins
Mental sins also motivate overt sins. Overt sins are sins we do with our bodies. Violence, murder, stealing, adultery and drunkenness are a few examples of overt sins. These are the sins most preachers highlight and what the world thinks of as sin. As we have discussed, sin begins in the heart long before it is expressed outwardly. To avoid overt sins we must deal with the mental sins that motivate them.

Corruption
Mental, verbal and overt sins ruin our lives by corrupting our hearts and destroying our relationships. Mental sins unchecked lead to bitterness and hardness of heart that overflows into our words, tone and behavior. Those we once loved we now despise and they us. Had God not intervened, we would all live miserable, lonely lives. God has made provision that enables us to lay aside sin and walk in the Spirit.

God’s Provision for Individual Sins

Momentary Freedom from Sin
At the moment we believe the gospel of Christ and are saved, God forgives all the sins we have ever committed and cleanses us from their immediate effects. Also at this same moment, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell the believer’s body and fills his soul with the Spirit. For the moment, we are free from sin. At some point after salvation, the new believer will sin again, either mentally, verbally or overtly. When this happens, many believers face a serious crisis of what to do about their sin. Do we lose our salvation? If not, do we lose the filling of the Spirit? What does God want us to do now to recover from our sin? Let’s look at what some churches teach and then discuss the biblical view.

Recovery From Sin
A. Human Works – most churches believe that God requires some form of personal sacrifice from us to make up for our sins. Some prescribe penitence, which is a state of regret, guilt and contrition because of sin. These churches require that the saved sinner feel sorry for sin and even make a sign of their sorrow. Others teach public confession or at least private confession to a priest or pastor. In some churches, the end of the service is marked by members crying at the altar over their sins to gain forgiveness. Perhaps even an empty promise not to ever do it again as well will be suggested. Sadly, none of these prescriptions for being forgiven are biblical and serve only to confuse Christians about the significance of their sins. Let’s look at another option prescribed by God’s word.
B. Grace – Everything we receive from God is an expression of His grace earned for us by the work of Christ. First, we must remember that the post-salvation sins in question have already been paid for on the cross. They have already been named and forgiven in the courtroom of heaven. This is called Positional or Judicial forgiveness. When we commit sins post-salvation, we are not taken back to court because we are now God’s adopted children. Post-salvation sins come under the heading of Parental forgiveness. God as our parent requires that we confess our sins to Him to be forgiven for them.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Just as any parent looks for a truthful admission of guilt from children, so does God. When we commit sins after we are saved, We are commanded to admit our sins to God and He who is faithful to His word will forgive us (as a parent) and cleanse us from the unrighteous effects the sin has had on our souls. This is God’s grace in action. Having already Judicially dealt with our sins, He has made the sins of His children a parental issue that is dealt with through truthfulness with Him. Notice the Greek word homologeo means to admit the truth and carries no emotional content within the word. God does not require us to feel sorry, feel guilty or show remorse to be forgiven. When we do confess our sins, we not only are forgiven and cleansed from sin but we regain our fellowship with the Spirit, called the filling of the Spirit.

Filling of the Spirit
The Holy Spirit comes to indwell the believer’s body at the moment of salvation, making his body the temple of God. From this post He performs the ministry of filling the believer’s soul.

Ephesians 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

The filling of the Spirit is the absolute status of being surrendered to the influence of the Spirit. When the believer is filled by the Spirit, he is free from sin and its immediate influence. The filling of the Spirit is the work of the Spirit empowering the believer to function in the spiritual life. As long as we remain surrendered to His direction by choosing not to sin and listening to His voice, we continue to be filled with the Spirit. When we choose to sin, we take our lives out from under the Spirit’s influence and we lose temporal fellowship with Him. At this point we resume using our old sin patterns to manage our lives, as described above. If we continue in sin, we begin a process of degeneration that will lead us to the sin unto death, where God Himself takes us home.

When we decide to confess our sins, our faithful God forgives us, cleanses us and enters us back into the absolute status of being filled by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit immediately resumes His work of moving us along into spiritual growth and empowering the spiritual life. It is His power that makes the Christian life a supernatural life, far beyond anything human ability or will can accomplish.

Divine Discipline
Having read the grace plan of God for post-salvation sins above, many have complained that it is too easy and not costly enough to inhibit future sins. If all we have to do is admit our sins, then what will make us think twice the next time we decide to sin? Paul dealt with this same issue in Rome.
Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Afraid of Grace

Many fear that our freedom from grace will remove all of the hindrances to sin in the believer’s life. If there is no fear of reprisal, then why not sin all we want and abuse grace? First, I have learned that all children abuse grace, including spiritual children. I have also learned that children grow out of this phase of life and come to love and appreciate those who give them grace. They turn and serve the same ones who trained them, forgave them, were patient with them and loved them in spite of their sins.

God, as a Father disciplines and trains His children for the purpose of growing them out of their sins. He uses very harsh methods at times to help us remember that sin will destroy our spiritual lives. Listen to the admonishment of the writer of Hebrews:

Hebrews 12:5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; 6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”

God reproves and God even scourges His children to teach them about the seriousness of sin. Scourging was the ancient act of beating a criminal with a metal tipped whip and skinning the hide from his back. This describes the intensive discipline that God uses to deal with resistant children. His training has a purpose that goes beyond avoidance of sin though. His goal is to train us in righteous living. In the same passage:

Hebrews 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

God trains His sinful saints to bring us to a place where we prefer a peaceful, righteous life with Him rather than a life of sin. We are able to avoid sin and live the spiritual life from love rather than fear. We are wise to fear God’s discipline but we are to trust His training to produce His righteous life in us through growth.

Summary
We have seen that mental sins motivate both verbal and overt sins and that believers commit these sins after they are saved. These sins will destroy the Christian life of the believer who allows them to dominate his life. God has made provision for us to be victorious over our sins through confession of sin, the filling of the Spirit and His divine training program. Confession brings us back under submission to the Spirit. The Spirit empowers us to process spiritual ideas and divine discipline is a training program that teaches us to love God and prefer the righteous life in Him more than the pleasures of sin. God overcomes our sins by His love and grace expressed through the ministry of the Spirit.

In the first article dealing with God’s victory over sin, we discussed the 3 types of sin. These are Imputed Sin, our judicial condemnation in Adam, Inherited Sin, the sin nature genetically transferred to all men and Individual Sin, the personal sins that result from being born sinners. We discussed the details of Imputed sin and the work of Christ in His death, burial and resurrection, that defeated sin for all of us. We saw the power of God through Christ that has resolved the judicial sin problem of the human race forever and His offer of grace that can only be accepted by faith.

In this second article we will discuss Inherited Sin and God’s solution to counteract the sin nature. We will see how the Spirit provides the means for us to live free from the influence of the sin nature. The death, burial and resurrection of Christ won a complete victory over the devil, his forces and the sins that have resulted from his deceiving influence. His victory extends to every area of the believer’s life and is accessed the same way we access His grace for salvation, by faith.

Col 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

We received Christ by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9) and in doing so, we were given victory over imputed sin. Victory over inherited sin and individual sin is given the same way, by grace through faith in the promises and provisions for the believer in time. Let’s look at inherited sin, the sin nature and God’s provisions for overcoming its corrupting influence.

Inherited Sin – The Sin Nature

Original Nature
In the creation, Adam/Eve were given a nature to love and serve their Creator. Their nature caused a desire to know God and please Him with their lives. They interacted with Him every day in the garden (Gen 3:8). He loved them and shared Himself with them on a daily basis. He created a perfect environment for them that they were free to enjoy with one exception, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Their food was provided without the struggle of thorns and thistles. They enjoyed the most perfect marriage the human race has ever seen. They were created perfect for one another, without sin, without childhood trauma, without an Old Man belief system and without anyone to compete for their affections. They had perfect souls, a perfect nature, they lived in perfect environment and enjoyed a perfect relationship with God. One day, a perfect life was not enough to satisfy Eve. She became discontent with God’s boundaries for her and opened herself to the devil’s deceptions.

Corrupted Nature
At some point, even perfection was not enough for Eve. For reasons undisclosed in the bible, she was not content with her life as the submissive servant of God and wife. She began to listen to the serpent/devil, who voiced an opinion that was contrary to God’s word. She believed his lies and ate the forbidden fruit. When she sinned, she took the fruit to her husband who chose to follow her rather than follow God. Eve was deceived and didn’t understand the significance of her choice, but Adam knew what he was doing (1Tim 2:14). When they sinned, the presence of sin caused their natures to be corrupted. In His creation of the universe, God made a law regulating the results of sin and evil (Isa 45:7). He decreed that sin would cause spiritual death (Rom 6:23). Spiritual death separates us from God and has a corrupting influence on the sinner. Sin enters us into a process of degeneration that eventuates in total destruction (Eph 4:17-19). When Adam sinned, God’s law of corruption went into effect and his nature was changed from a focus on God to a focus on self. Their new nature caused them to put themselves first before one another or God. This corruption has passed down to all of us. The sin nature causes us to love and serve self, building our beliefs on the foundation of putting ourselves first. The Old Man belief and behavior system that every human builds and uses has at its core a devotion to self. Our self-serving beliefs steer us toward individual sin as a way of managing out lives without God.

Deceptive Desires
The sin nature confuses us about how to meet our needs and find fulfillment in life. We experience our needs as longings and desires. We hunger within for love, affection, acceptance, belonging, accomplishment and recognition. All of these needs are provided perfectly in Christ by grace. Before we are saved, we are driven to find these things through relationships with people. The sin nature produces desires of the flesh and the mind. It also deceives us into believing that gratifying our desires will cause us to be happy, which is not true. Gratifying the desires produced by the sin nature, in the way the sin nature directs us, enters us into the degeneration process that takes us farther from God. Desire connected to the sin nature is called lust and when we believe that we can find happiness by gratification of lust, we are truly deceived.

God’s Provision
The Holy Spirit is the great influencer, teacher and mentor of the spiritual life. Based on the victory of Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection, the Holy Spirit has come to indwell the body of every believer. From within the believer’s body, His ministry is to reveal truth based on the word to influence the believer’s mind. What He reveals, we are responsible to believe and act upon with life decisions. When we listen to His voice, believe what He reveals from the word and act upon it, we move away from degeneration and toward God. In contrast to the sin nature, The Spirit also produces desires, the desires connected with intimacy with God. If we follow the desires of the Spirit, we will learn more about God, grow into our position in Christ and into a love relationship with God. The Holy Spirit is the counter to the destructive desire of the sin nature. He builds ideas that lead us toward God instead of away from God.

Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

Walking in the Spirit is given as the means to avoid giving yourself over to the desire of the sin nature. The Spirit produces a counter desire that leads to intimacy with God. What is walking in the Spirit? It is simply seeing and listening to what the Spirit reveals as the will of God based on the word of God and believing it to act on it. The Spirit reveals the application of the word in the moment and brings it into conscious awareness. When we need the Spirit to show us God’s will, He does so and then we have to believe in that revealed will to act on it. The consistent choice to listen to the voice of and obey the Spirit is what is meant by walking in the Spirit. In the next article, we will discuss this in more depth. When you find yourself walking in the desires of the flesh through personal sin, remember to confess your individual sins and walk in the Spirit.

The next 2 articles will explain 3 types of sin that resulted from Adam’s original sin (AOS). Every member of the human race is born into these 3 types of sin and if allowed, our sin will destroy us and send us to an eternity without God. All of us are both victims because we inherited Adam’s sin and agents because we choose to practice our own. God does not desire that any of us remain victims of sin and has made perfect provision to free us from Adam’s sin and guilt. He has also made a way for us to change our desires so that we want Him more than the pleasures of sin.

God has defeated sin and its results for the whole human race. In the following 2 articles we will discuss 3 types of sin and what God has provided so that we can live free of sin in the Christian life. In this first article, we will present the 3 types of sin, focus on the first category of sin and explain God’s provision that He offers to give us victory.

3 Types of Sin
There are 3 types of sin that resulted from Adam’s sin. When Adam sinned, he came under eternal condemnation from God’s Justice, experienced the corruption of his created nature and began to practice his own individual sins. The human race has inherited all 3 categories of sin that Adam experienced in the garden.

The first type of sin is imputed sin, which means that Adam’s sin and condemnation has been credited to the whole human race. When Adam sinned and came under condemnation, it was as if we all sinned and were condemned (Rom5:12-21).

The second type of sin is inherited sin, which is theologically termed the sin nature. The sin nature is the corruption of Adam’s original nature to love and serve God. He created Adam and Eve with a natural desire for a relationship with Him. The presence of sin caused their natures to be corrupted with the result that they naturally loved and served themselves. Their new nature put self first over God and one another.

The third type of sin we face is individual sin, the personal sins that we all commit even after salvation. Individual sin is committed in 3 areas, mental sin, sins we think, verbal sin, sins we say and overt sins, sins we do with our bodies.

In this first article we will examine Imputed Sin and God’s grace provision for us to overcome it and be secure in Christ forever.

Imputed Sin

Adam/Eve – Condemned by God
When Adam/Eve sinned by disobeying God’s command (Gen 3:6), they became unrighteous and lost their righteous standing with God. God who is perfect righteousness was forced to condemn their sin and cast them out of His presence (Gen 3:22-24). Their unrighteous status not only had the immediate resullts of being cast out but also had the eternal consequences of condemnation. Condemnation requires that God separate Himself from the condemned forever. Those who die without Christ will be thrown in the Lake of Fire forever (Rev 20:15; Mt 25:41).

Imputation
The word imputation, Grk logizomai, means to credit to one’s account. If I place money in your bank account, that is an imputation. If I charge a debit to your account, that is an imputation. God uses imputations in a legal manner when dealing with sins. He debits us with Adam’s sin and then debits Christ with everyone’s sin.  Imputation is the key to understanding salvation and our security in Christ.

Imputation of Adam’s Sin
We were all born under Adam’s condemnation (Rom 5:12-21). The imputation of his sin and condemnation is the reason that all men must be saved and why no one is good enough to save himself. Jn 3:36 explains that if we reject Christ, we remain under God’s condemnation, not enter into it, because we were credited with it in Adam. He imputes Adam’s sin to the whole human race making us all guilty in Adam. Even though we didn’t commit Adam’s sin, we still are credited with his sin and its consequences. While this may not seem fair, it is actually more than fair, it is a grace gift. By condemning us all in Adam, God made us all sinners needing a savior. Now He can offer us grace based on His work and not based on our own.

Imputation of All Sins to Christ
The work of Christ in His death, burial and resurrection satisfied the Justice of God with regard to our sins. This satisfying of God is called propitiation. Having been satisfied with Christ’s payment, He could remove our guilt, which is called expiation. His work on the cross propitiated God for all sins, from Adam’s down to the last sin to be committed by the human race. On the cross, God the Father imputed our sins to Christ and punished Him for them. He imputed Adam’s sin to us, and then imputed all sins to Christ. He paid for sins past and sins in the future. He paid for sin period and satisfied God’s Justice period. Just as imputation caused us to be condemned, so it is God’s tool for removing our condemnation. More than fair, God is gracious to impute our sins to Christ on the cross and Christ to accept the mission to pay for them.

Imputation of Divine Righteousness
When we believe the gospel to accept Christ as our personal savior, we are placed into a permanent and eternal union with Him. We are connected to Him forever. We are connected to His person, His work, His position, His possessions and His destiny. Everything Christ is and everything He possesses He shares with those who trust in Him.
One of the things Christ shares with us through our union with Him is His righteousness.
On the cross, our sins and guilt were imputed to Him satisfying God’s Justice and expiating our guilt. When we believe in Him, we are credited with His propitiating and expiating work for us. At that same moment, the righteousness of God is imputed to those who believe. Paul taught about imputations this way:

2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Paul says that Jesus who committed no sin of His own, had our sins imputed to Him on the cross and in turn, when we believe, His righteousness is imputed to us. He accepts our sins to pay for them and we receive His divine righteousness. He takes our guilt and gives us His righteousness. It is this imputation of divine righteousness that makes us worthy for God to bless us forever. Without it we would remain unrighteous in Adam and God would be forced to maintain our condemnation. This is the fate of those who reject Christ.

Summary
Adam’s disobedience caused condemnation to fall upon the whole human race. His sin also caused 3 categories of sin to come into existence. The first, our subject, is Imputed Sin, which is the crediting of Adam’s sin and guilt to all mankind. God bound up all sin in all of us into one account so that He could deal with it in one way. He imputed Adam’s sin to us and then imputed all sins in the account to Christ. Christ, who never sinned, accepted His mission to pay for sin on the cross and allowed our sins to be imputed to Him. When they were credited to Him, God-Father punished Him for them. When they had all been paid for, God’s Justice was propitiated (satisfied) and our guilt had been expiated (forgiven). God offers the work of Christ to all as a free gift that can only be accepted by faith. He refuses to accept any of man’s work added to His own. When we believe in the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, His work is imputed back to us, along with His own righteousness. When we receive His righteousness through our union with Him, we become worthy of God’s blessing forever. We have been judicially forgiven and pronounced judicially righteous in the courtroom of heaven. We will never be judicially charged with our sins again.

The imputation of our sins to Christ who paid them in full, resolved the judicial issue of sin with the Justice of God. When we believe in Him, we pass the point of salvation and the eternal punishment for sins is never brought up again. The judicial sin issue has been settled and no longer applies to the believer. Yet, even as believers in Christ and members of God’s Royal Family, we still have a sin nature and commit personal sins. In the next article we will discuss how the cross has given us victory over these other 2 types of sin. We will discuss the questions, “why do I still sin” and “how do I recover when I do sin”.

Birth___1_____Salvation_____2________Death______3________

Review: Phase 1 & Phase 2
The plan of God can be broken down into 3 phases so that we can understand what God is doing at each stage of our lives and what He expects of us at each stage. We have discussed Phase 1, which begins at birth and ends at our new birth. Phase 1 is focused on God bringing us to saving faith in Jesus Christ. First we wonder if God exists and then we ask who He is and how we come into a relationship with Him. When we believe that He exists, He sends the gospel so that we can be saved through faith in the gospel of Christ.

When we believe the gospel, we enter into Phase 2 of God’s plan called the Christian life. From salvation until we leave this life at death, we live out Phase 2 as God’s children and representatives. The focus of this phase is growth from spiritual childhood to spiritual adulthood. In spiritual adulthood we gain the inner strength to faithfully endure the adversities of life by trusting the promises of God. As mature believers we begin taking the adult responsibilities of edifying one another and witnessing to the world by sharing the gospel. The mature Christian receives spiritual blessings in time that equate to eternal rewards in heaven. It is our experience in the eternal state with Christ that is the focus of Phase 3 and the rest of this article.

Phase 3
Phase 3 begins the moment we leave this life through death or rapture and extends throughout all eternity. Phase 3, which is life with God in the next life never ends. This article will discuss what happens when we enter Phase 3. We are immediately transferred to the throne room with Christ, we will experience an evaluation and then we will receive our resurrection body with or without rewards.

Face to Face
God designed us with a body, soul and spirit. The body is a house that holds our soul and spirit. Paul calls it an earthly tent that we will shed at the moment of physical death. When the body dies, the soul and spirit of the believer continue to live. At the moment of death, we are immediately taken to be with Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord– 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight– 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

While we remain alive in our earthly body, we are away from the Lord. When we leave our earthly body behind, we go home to be with the Lord. In what form or state we exist at this point is unclear. We have shed our earthly body and have yet to be given a body like Christ. It makes sense that we will be given an interim body of some kind while we wait on the resurrection where we will receive our resurrection bodies. Regardless, our souls will leave Phase 2 and find ourselves face to face with the Lord, waiting on the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Judgment of the Believer
At the moment of the rapture, all Church-Age believers will be gathered together in the presence of Christ. This point in time coincides with the beginning of the Tribulation on the earth, which will last for 7 years. Sometime within this 7-year period, Christ will perform an evaluation of every believer’s earthly life called the Judgment Seat of Christ. This evaluation will examine all of our works as Christians and expose our motivation for the good that we did. Good works performed by the power of the Spirit to glorify God will be deemed as truly good and will render a reward. Good works performed through human ability to promote ourselves will be seen as “human good” and will not be rewarded. This evaluation process is described as a fire where human good will be burned up and true good will remain (1Cor 3:12-15). When this judgment of our works is finished we will receive our rewards that will last for all eternity. Our eternal status will be determined by the way we lived in time, emphasizing the importance of living for the Lord now.

Resurrection Body
Our earthly bodies inherited the corruption of Adam’s sin so they get sick, grow old and die. At death, our perishable body goes to the grave where it decays back into dust from whence it came (Gen 3:19). At our resurrection, we are given a new body that will be like the body Christ received, that is imperishable (Phil 3:21). This body will never get sick, grow old, never hurt and never die. This new body will be physical, able to be touched (Lk24:38-40) and able to eat (Lk24:41-43). It will also have new abilities like the capacity to move through walls (Jn20:26) and the ability to fly (Act 1:9). The resurrection body will be or new home forever and is the mansion Jesus described In Jn 14:2. It will give us the capacity to serve the Lord in the eternal stage that awaits us in the next life.

Summary
God has a plan to bring us to salvation through faith in Christ in the first phase. In the second phase, He changes us into the image of Jesus in our hearts through spiritual growth and offers us the privilege of serving Him with or earthly bodies. As we trust and obey His will in the second phase of the plan, we receive temporal blessings that build eternal rewards. At our physical death, we pass into the presence of the Lord where we will remain with Him forever. It is in this eternal state that we receive our rewards and a resurrection body like His.

These 3 phases of God’s plan give us an outline of our personal history from birth, to death and beyond. This big picture look allows us to know God’s emphasis for each phase of life so that we can align our efforts with His for maximum effectiveness. If you are reading this now, you are most likely in Phase 2 and the emphasis is growth through knowledge and application of God’s word. Be Faithful!

The Plan of God is best viewed in 3 phases. Phase 1 begins at birth and ends at salvation. Phase 2 begins at salvation and ends at death. Phase 3 begins at death and continues forever in the eternal state.

Phase 1
The Plan of God A, discussed Phase 1 which begins at human birth and ends at our new birth/salvation. During Phase 1 the first goal is to reach the state of God consciousness, the stage of life where man decides what he believes about God’s existence. At God consciousness, we must choose to believe in a Creator-God or reject His existence. If we believe that God exists. Then He moves us to the next step of hearing the gospel. If God exists, then it makes sense that He has made a way to redeem us from the condemnation of Adam’s sin. The work of Christ in His death, burial and resurrection provides the sacrificial atonement that satisfies God’s Justice on our behalf. When we believe the gospel, God saves us and enters us into Phase 2, the Christian life.

Phase 2
At the moment of salvation, we enter into a new phase of spiritual life. At that moment, God takes 50 different actions on our behalf that are permanent and eternal. These 50 things change us from our position in Adam and transfer us into union with Christ. We now share all that Christ is, all the positions He holds and all the wealth He possesses. Also we share His power through the ministry of the Spirit enabling us to live out His victory over the forces of evil. Our life on earth as God’s children can be characterized as overcoming and winning in every aspect of life.

Spiritual Growth
From our new birth until the day we die, God wants us to express His character through our lives to bring glory to Him. He has provided the means for us to grow spiritually, transforming our old ideas into the very beliefs and behaviors of Jesus. God has provided us with the belief system of Jesus that He used to live out His earthly life. Spiritual growth, building the mind of Christ in us, empowers us to love others unconditionally and serve God out of love not fear. The means of spiritual growth is learning and applying God’s word in life. Listen to Peter’s discussion of the subject.

1 Peter 2:2 like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

The word is described as food (milk & meat) that we eat by learning it and believing it. When we put the word into our hearts by faith, it gives us the supernatural ability to use it to form our ideas and make life decisions. The goal of spiritual growth is spiritual maturity, the status of adulthood in the spiritual life.

Spiritual Maturity
At our new birth, we are born again as spiritual children (1Pet 2:2). The first goal of a spiritual child is become secure in his salvation. Security in Christ gives us the confidence to move into the spiritual war where we will succeed and fail as we grow. It is our security that enables us to recover from sin and failure through confession of sin (1Jn 1:9). As we grow into the adult stages of the spiritual life, we build the momentum to walk in the Spirit more and walk in the flesh less. Maturity is the stage of spiritual adulthood where we take adult responsibilities in worship and service for the Lord (Eph 2:10). We have built the strength to faithfully endure temptations under adversity and trust the Lord to fulfill His promises (Jam 1:2-4). Maturity is the stage of service and also the stage where God begins to bless us with the spiritual blessings He prepared before the world began (Eph 1:3-4). Our blessings in time are parlayed into rewards in eternity.

As we trust God to fulfill His promises in time, we receive the blessings inherent in a relationship with God. These blessings are a grace gift and are intended to sustain us in the devil’s world. Every blessing received in time has a corresponding reward in eternity. The storehouse of blessings when emptied in time, fills a storehouse of rewards that await us in eternity. The ultimate goal of phase 2 is to trust the Lord in every area of life and allow Him to give us the blessings He has prepared for us. In the next article we will discuss Phase 3, the eternal state, where we will enjoy the eternal rewards God desires to give us.

God has a Plan
Everyone, at some point in life, wonders why they are here, how did the universe come into existence and what is the meaning of life. These questions set us on a journey to find God or develop another explanation for human existence. The first question anyone asks on the road to finding God is “does God exist”? None of us are born knowing God or even knowing that He is real, but all of us if we live long enough wonder if He is real. This article will discuss God’s plan for the human race. His plan is best viewed in 3 sections or phases and will be discussed in the next 3 articles.

3 Phases of God’s Plan
Phase 1 of God’s plan is to bring us to salvation through faith in Christ. In order to reach faith in Christ we must come to God consciousness and then hear the gospel. Phase 2 of the plan begins the moment we believe in Christ for salvation and ends at our death. Phase 2 is called the Christian life, life as a believer on the earth. Phase 3 begins at death and stretches throughout eternity. This phase is our life with God in the eternal state. In this article will look briefly at Phase 1 and describe its characteristics.

Timeline of God’s Plan

God Conscious   Gospel – Faith                    Christian Life                Eternal State
Birth____________1__________Salvation________2___________Death________3_________

Does God Exist?
Phase 1 begins at birth and goes to the point of salvation by faith in Christ. At birth, we are born separated from God and unaware of His existence. The first obstacle to reaching faith in Christ is to believe that God exists. There are many who do not believe in God as a person or in a God of any kind. Some believe that God is an impersonal force and some believe that God is the life force within us all. To reach a decision about God’s existence, He uses nature to bring us all to God consciousness (GC). GC is an awareness of the question, “does God exist”? Everyone reaches GC at different points or ages. Some may reach this point early in life while others ask the question later in life. Many factors are involved in reaching GC, especially the beliefs of those in our environment. If many in our surroundings believe in God, then we will be aware of His existence early. If talk of God is scarce among or peers, then we may reach awareness late.

God Consciousness
The beauty of nature and the existence of an orderly universe demand that we ask how this order came to exist. Logic leads us to ask how, when and why life began. Did life happen by some cosmic accident or was there a Creator who initiated all that we experience as life? Logic leads us to look for a “first cause” of creation. Science has developed the “Big Bang Theory”, which theorizes that the universe began in one moment of time with a tremendous explosion. This idea says that all matter originally existed in one place and this explosion has resulted in our present day universe. This popular theory of creation while explaining many aspects of the universe, does not explain where matter came from in the first place or what caused the explosion. The only possible explanation for the existence of matter, space and life itself is that the Creator exists and that He initiated the universe. God is the first cause and the source of life. The logic of a Creator makes sense even without the bible. It is the only possible answer to the questions of how, when and why we exist. When anyone reaches this place of logic and believes that God exists, he has reached God consciousness and said yes to God.

Gospel Hearing
In eternity past, before God created the universe, He knew that Adam was going to sin and that all mankind would be born condemned. He knew the eternal problem we would face and it was then that He devised a solution. God’s solution devised in eternity past was to send His Son to redeem mankind from the wages of sin. He would send Jesus to the cross to pay for sins of man and resurrect from the dead. His plan for everyone is to trust in Christ for eternal salvation. To trust in the gospel, we must first come to GC and believe that God exists. Whenever a person believes that God exists, He then takes them to the next step, which is hearing the gospel of Christ. He sends someone to explain the gospel so that they can choose to believe it or reject it. When they hear and understand the gospel, they have 3 choices. The first choice is to accept it for salvation by believing that Christ died for them and raised from the dead. The second choice is to remain undecided and neutral, neither believing nor rejecting. God views this choice in the same way He views the third option, rejecting the gospel by choosing not to believe it.

Summary
Phase 1 of God’s plan for the human race is focused on bringing us to saving faith in Christ. To arrive at saving faith we must first reach God consciousness and believe that God exists as a real person. When we choose to believe in God, He sends us the gospel to believe for salvation. If we reach GC but decide not to believe that He exists, then God may or may not send us the gospel. In this day of instant communication, most people on the earth have heard the gospel. When we hear, understand and believe the gospel of Christ, we are given eternal life and enter into Phase 2 of God’s plan, the Christian Life.

The next article will discuss the characteristics of the Phase 2, The Christian Life.

50 Works at Salvation
The spiritual life begins when we believe the gospel. As you recall, the gospel is the death burial and resurrection of Christ (1Cor15:3-4). When anyone believes that Jesus died for their sins, was buried and raised from the dead, they receive eternal life. At this moment, God performs 50 different works on the new believer’s behalf, most of which are permanent and eternal. 9 of these works are the salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit. 7 of the 9 are eternal and 2 are for time only. The temporary works of the Spirit are the filling of the Spirit and your spiritual gift. One of His permanent functions at salvation is the Baptism of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit describes His work of entering the believer into a permanent an eternal union with Christ. Our eternal union with Christ is our present topic of discussion.

Baptism of the Spirit
The moment we believe the gospel, the Holy Spirit joins our soul and spirit with Jesus Christ. This work is called baptism because we are submerged into Christ (1Cor 12:13). The Greek word baptizo literally means to dip or submerge and figuratively to identify with someone. It was used for changing the color of cloth by dipping the cloth into a vat of liquid dye. When the cloth was dipped it was now identified with the color it became. At salvation, we are dipped into Christ and so we are identified with Him in His past death, burial, resurrection ( Rom 6:4) and present session at the right hand of the Father (Eph 2:5-6). Paul discusses our new position in Christ in his letter to the Ephesian churches.

Ephesians 2:5-6 even when we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus,

We were made alive with Christ (given spiritual life), raised with Him (identified with His resurrection), seated with Him (identified with His present position) in the heavenly places (our true position is already in heaven). Union with Christ is our permanent position that causes us to share all that Christ is and all that He has. Position is an important issue in the plan of God, from position in Adam to position in Christ.

Positional Truth – in Adam – in Christ
Adam is considered the head of the human race. The bible describes the human race with the phrase “in Adam”. When Adam sinned, he caused the whole human race to be born in sin (Rom 5:12). Born in sin, we are spiritually dead, condemned by the Justice of God, behind the barrier and separated from God. The consequence of being born in Adam is death (Rom 6:23 – wages of sin is death). We are not condemned for our own sins, we are born condemned (Jn 3:36) because we are born in Adam and have inherited the consequences of his sin. Everyone is born in Adam and whoever dies in Adam will experience the 2nd death, which is eternity in the Lake of Fire. The 2nd death was the certain fate for all of us, and then God decided to intervene.

We were all headed to the Lake of Fire and deserved it. If God’s essence was not love, we would have all split hell wide open. I love Eph 2, the chapter where Paul starts out with all of us dead and dominated by the devil, the world and our own desires. In verse 4, he says, “but God”, meaning that God decided to intervene in our fate. He sent His Son Jesus, to resolve every issue that separated us from God. When we believe the gospel, God transfers us from our position in Adam and places us into union with Christ. At salvation we are called “in Christ”, meaning we have been connected to Christ forever. In Christ we share everything about Him. We share His righteousness, His royal position, His body, His wealth, His inheritance and His destiny. We become part of Him and our own destiny has been submerged into His. Our previous destiny, the Lake of Fire has been traded for His destiny, eternity with God-Father. Our position in Christ opens up every single blessing of heaven and gives us a share with all the saints (Act 20:32).

Body of Christ
Union with Christ connects us to His Person, His power and His mission. As members of His body (Rom12:5; 1Cor 12:12,27), we are His representatives on the earth. Christ is the head of the body (Col 1:18; 2:19) and we are the members that perform the earthly ministry. He has assigned us the ministry of reconciliation where we beseech the world to be reconciled to God through Christ (2Cor 5:18-21). In addition to being connected to Christ, we are also indwelt by the Holy Spirit, making our bodies the temple of God. From within our bodies the Spirit speaks to our minds, teaching us the truth about our new position in Christ. As divine royalty, we have access to God’s power to change our own beliefs to think like Christ. In Christ we are the Royal Family of God and have the privilege of seeing ourselves as God’s beloved child.

Edifying One Another
As the body of Christ we have a ministry to the world and to one another. To the world we share the gospel. To one another we share our mutual life in Christ, helping one another grow into who we are in Christ. In Adam, we had an identity and a way of thinking that was built from the world. In Christ we have our eternal identity and a new way of thinking built out of the truth of heaven. As family members as fellow citizens, we have the honor to help each other discover our new identity and opportunities that come from our union with Christ. As new members are joined to Christ, the body grows in number. As these members grow spiritually into our new identity, the body grows in quality and effectiveness.

Union with Christ connects us to the most important, most powerful, most wonderful person in the universe. It is a reason for celebration.

God’s Grace
In a previous article in this series we discussed the grace of God. Grace is God’s plan to bless those who do not deserve it and are not able on their own to earn His blessing. Grace is based on the perfect work of Jesus Christ that He accomplished for us, in our place. On the cross, Jesus paid our sin debt and in His resurrection, He defeated death on our behalf. When He had finished His work, He had made a way for anyone who would believe in His work to receive God’s blessings forever. The gospel, the good news is that anyone who will believe that Jesus died for their sins and rose again, will be saved and be given eternal life.

Asked and Answered
The question we will ask and answer in this article is can someone who has been saved, become unsaved? Can a believer lose his/her salvation? Can a person who has been declared righteous in the courtroom of heaven, adopted into God’s family and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, reach a level of sinfulness that God will rescind all of these blessings? Why do some churches teach that a believer can lose salvation? What is the biblical basis of their logic and does it hold water? My answer to these questions is an emphatic, absolute and unbending NO! This article will briefly explain the biblical basis of eternal security and the assurance of the believer and challenge the error that seeks to steal the believer’s assurance that comes from eternal security in Christ.

God’s Integrity
God never lies. He is not able to lie. Heb 6:18 says it is impossible for God to lie. When He makes a promise, it is a promise worthy to be trusted in spite of any and every circumstance. When God tells us that He has made us secure, then we have the biblical basis for assurance. Our assurance comes from the Holy Spirit witnessing with our human spirit that we are children of God (Rom 8:16). Our assurance is based on the certainty of God’s promise and our certainty that His promise is backed by His integrity.

Let’s look at a two promises the bible makes about our security.

Security in Christ
When Jesus promises eternal life to those who believe in Him, eternal means forever. He gives life that lasts forever. He gives life that never ends.

John 10:28 and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. 29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

This promise guarantees eternal life and those who receive it will never perish. The word never is ouk me, a double negative, the strongest way to say “no way” in the Greek. The life spoken of is a present possession not a future one. This life puts us in the hand of Christ who is in the hand of the Father and in these hands no one is able to get to us. We are safe, we are secure and we can feel assured that nothing can cause us to be separated from Him. I cannot conceive of losing salvation while remaining in the hands of God.

If the devil and his minions were able, they would separate us from God. It would bring their sin twisted minds great joy to take one of us down with them. If they were able…

Romans 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul was convinced that we are secure in the love of God. He had been persuaded. In vs 38 he uses perfect passive indicative of peitho meaning that God has totally and completely proven to him that nothing in all of creation has the power to separate us from God’s love in Christ. Look at the list of possibles that he lays out and then shoots down. Death, life, evil angels, now, future, high, low or any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God. To be able means to have the power. Nothing that has been created, meaning everyone but God, has the power to take us out of God’s hands.

When we trust in Christ, He gives us eternal life, we will never perish, we are in His and the Father’s hands and nothing that has been created, including ourselves, has the power to separate us from God. How much more secure can we get??

Importance of Security
Eternal security and the assurance of salvation are the right of every believer. As the perfect parent, God wants His children to be secure in their relationship with Him. As children in any home need and crave secure love, so it is for the newborn Christian. As security in the home is necessary to grow healthy children into healthy adults, the same principle applies to children of God. Jesus gave the concept in Mat 7:9-11. If we who are corrupted by sin take good care of our children, how much more will God take care of His? If we who are flawed, love and give security to our children, how much more does God want His children to feel secure in His love? What parent purposely warns his children that there is a level of failure that will bring about abandonment? None that has any love at all.

Security Necessary for Love
The goal of spiritual growth is to grow into a love relationship with God. As we grow into maturity in Christ, all of our fears are eliminated and replaced by the assurance of God’s love. John, the disciple Jesus loved, who lived the longest and saw the most, came to understand that mature love casts out fear (1Jn4:18). As we realize that we are secure in Christ and have nothing to fear from God, love for God becomes the overwhelming experience in our souls. Fear is replaced with confidence and love for God becomes our motive for service. Only those who understand their security in Christ are able to grow into all out love for God. Those who fear the loss of salvation live their lives trying to hang onto what they can’t lose. They serve out of fear not love. Their growth stops in the baby stage where they implement pseudo faithfulness and service attempting to keep their salvation. I can imagine nothing more pitiful and I will not suffer this error to rob me of my security and love.

Eternal Insecurity
If we are secure in Christ, and the bible is so clear about it, why do some believe that we can lose what God has given us? Why do some insist that we are not safe and that there is a level of sinfulness for which Christ did not pay? What causes these people to interpret difficult passages in this way instead of in the light of the promises of security?

Let me suggest what I believe to be the primary reason and challenge one of the proof passages used to support this position, Gal 5:4.

Returning the Compliment
I believe that the primary reason that some people believe that a saved person can lose salvation is that mankind instinctively projects its human characteristics and limitations onto God. We look at ourselves, at how we think/feel and assume that everyone else thinks/feels the same way, including God. If we have limited patience, then so does everyone, including God. If all of our relationships are conditional, then so are everyone else’s, including God. Voltaire is credited with this famous quote, “If God has created us in His image, we have more than returned the compliment.” Man is egocentric meaning that we see our own views as universal. If I feel a certain way about an issue, then all others should feel the same way, including God. Let me reveal 2 ways that projection influences the way the bible is interpreted to proof text the error of eternal insecurity.

Limited Patience
The first is the limitation of man’s patience. Man in contrast to God, has a limited amount of love and patience. Man may try to suffer long, but at some point long suffering wears thin and we seek an end to behavior that offends us. If I see a point where my patience would wear thin with someone’s sin so that I would banish them, then everyone else must feel that way. Humans do not have infinite patience and all of us have a point where ours will give out. Since we have a breaking point, we project our human flaws onto God and assume that He also has His breaking point. Based on the projection of our finite patience, we re-create God in our own image. Believing God to be like us, we interpret certain passages in keeping with this idea.

Conditional Relationships
A second commonality among mankind is that all of our relationships are conditional. Only God has the infinite resources to relate unconditionally. Mankind, born without God, builds his/her beliefs without God. We build our ideas and relational strategies without any experience of God’s unconditional love. We build our ideas based on human love, which always has conditions that must be met for the love to exist or continue. When the conditions exist, love exists. When the conditions cease, then the love also ceases. Without God, man is unable to conceive of unconditional love or grace. Grace, which is unmerited, undeserved favor comes from the mind of infinite God who has the infinite inner resources to give unconditionally. So, we project our way of relating onto God and conclude that at some level of sinfulness, God will reject us.

Limited Atonement
Based on these human limitations, we recreate God in our own image. We credit Him with our limited patience and limited capacity to endure in love. We fail to realize that He is infinite in all of His essence and that he has no limits to His patience or love. Hyper-Calvinists define Limited Atonement as Christ dying only for the elect. Legalists who believe in the insecurity of the believer could define Limited Atonement as Christ dying for only a limited level of sinfulness. I must ask, are there certain sins that He didn’t die for? Is there a limited number of sins that He paid for each of us and when we exceed that number are we out? Those who believe that salvation can be lost do not hold a high view of the cross. They hold an equally high view of human works and especially human sinfulness.

Falling from Grace
My family of origin had an interesting dichotomy. One side was very religious and believed that man was kept secure by his works. The other side were bootleggers who only entered a church in a casket. One of the phrases I heard often was, “be careful, you can fall from grace”. Falling from grace, meaning that you could lose your salvation, was a misunderstanding of Gal 5:4. Let’s look at the context (5:1-4) that gave occasion for Paul to coin the term, “fallen from grace”.

Galatians 5:1-4 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

Notice first that Paul is discussing our freedom in Christ. He was battling Jewish legalists that were teaching that salvation and the Christian life consisted of faith in Christ and following the Mosaic Law. These Jewish believers insisted that Gentile Christians had to be circumcised and follow the dietary codes in the law. It was these same Jewish believers that caused Peter to withdraw from eating with Gentile believers in the church.

Paul tells them that if they allow themselves to follow the law in one area (circumcision), they are obligated to follow it all the way. These Jewish believers had been saved by grace but believed that they stayed saved by following the law. They had been severed from Christ meaning that they had cut themselves off from the power in Christ, the Holy Spirit. Notice who it was that had fallen from grace. Those who are seeking to be justified (made righteous) by the law were the ones who had fallen from grace, not those committing terrible sins. It was those living by works of the law who had drifted off course from grace. The word fallen is ekpipto, a nautical term meaning to drift off course or run aground.  In Paul’s day  circumcision and dietary codes were the emphasized work. Today, it is baptism, the Lord’s Supper and following the 10 Commandments that are used to keep people in line.

Anyone who interprets the phrase “fallen from grace” in Gal 5:4 as losing your salvation because of excessive sinfulness, has failed to read the passage. They have literally ripped the phrase out of its moorings in the context and read into it a meaning not ever intended by the writer. None of this discussion is intended to condemn those who hold to the insecurity position, but to discredit their view.

As a believer in Jesus Christ, you have become God’s dearly loved child. He has imputed your sins to Christ and pronounced you righteous in the courtroom of heaven. He has prepared a place for you so that where he is you might be also. It is our glorious privilege to worship Him, love Him and serve Him without fear. Do not allow any one to steal your freedom and assurance but hold tight to your confidence in His grace.