Is the Bible the Inspired Word of God?

This article came to me in an e-mail sent by an old friend. The challenge at the end is worth doing.

By Jason Carlson and Ron Carlson 5/25/11

During a question and answer session at a recent speaking engagement, a university student asked me, “Why do you believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God?” Now this is a very interesting question; and probably one of the most important questions any Christian could ask themselves. What is so special, so unique about the Bible that Christians believe it is literally the inspired word of God?  In answering this student’s question, I encouraged him to consider the following facts about the Bible:

First, the Bible is not just one single book. This is a more common misconception than many people realize, especially with people who do not come from a Judeo-Christian background. Rather than being a single book, the Bible is actually a collection of 66 books, which is called the canon of scriptures.

These 66 books contain a variety of genres: history, poetry, prophecy, wisdom literature, letters, and apocalyptic just to name a few.

Second, these 66 books were written by 40 different authors. These authors came from a variety of backgrounds: shepherds, fishermen, doctors, kings, prophets, and others. And most of these authors never knew one another personally.

Third, these 66 books were written over a period of 1500 years. Yet again, this is another reminder that many of these authors never knew or collaborated with one another in writing these books.

Fourth, the 66 books of the Bible were written in 3 different languages. In the Bible we have books that were written in the ancient languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic; a reflection of the historical and cultural circumstances in which each of these books were written.

And finally, these 66 books were written on 3 different continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe . Once again, this is a testament to the varied historical and cultural circumstances of God’s people.

Think about the above realities: 66 books, written by 40 different authors, over 1500 years, in 3 different languages, on 3 different continents. What’s more, this collection of books shares a common storyline- the creation, fall, and redemption of God’s people; a common theme- God’s universal love for all of humanity; and a common message… salvation is available to all who will believe that Jesus died for their sins, was buried and resurrected on the third day. In addition to sharing these commonalities, these 66 books contain no historical errors or contradictions. God’s word truly is an amazing collection of writings!

After I had shared the above facts with this student, I offered him the following challenge: I said to him, “If you do not believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, if you do not believe that the Bible is of a supernatural origin, then I challenge you to a test.” I said to the student, “I challenge you to go to any library in the world, you can choose any library you like, and find 66 books which match the characteristics of the 66 books in the Bible. You must choose 66 books, written by 40 different authors, over 1500 years, in 3 different languages, written on 3 different continents. However, they must share a common storyline, a common theme, and a common message, with no historical errors or contradictions.” I went on to say, “If you can produce such a collection of books, I will admit that the Bible is not the inspired word of God.” The student’s reply was almost instantaneous, he emphatically stated, “But that’s impossible!”

“But that’s impossible!” It truly is impossible, for any collection of human writings. However, the Bible passes this test. The Bible contains 66 books, written by 40 different authors, over 1500 years, in 3 different languages, on 3 different continents, with no historical errors or contradictions. The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, bears the mark of Divine inspiration.

The next time you encounter someone who asks you why you believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, try sharing this challenge with them. Better yet, don’t wait until you’re asked, just go ahead and share this challenge with a friend today.. You don’t even have to mention the Bible up front, just ask them if they think it would be realistic to assemble such a collection of books After they say, “But that’s impossible!” you’ve got a ready-made opportunity for sharing the truth of God’s word with somebody

One has to applaud Chuck Colson’s firm stand on Christian principles. There is no doubt that when Chuck was saved, that it really took. One of his latest Two Minute Warning videos

http://www.colsoncenter.org/twominutewarning/entry/33/16588 talks about our president’s recent decision not to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

The Defense of Marriage Act (Pub.L. 104-199, 110 Stat. 2419, enacted September 21, 1996, 1 U.S.C. § 7 and 28 U.S.C. § 1738C) is a United States federal law signed into law by President Bill Clinton on September 21, 1996 whereby the federal government defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman. Under the law, also known as DOMA, no state (or other political subdivision within the United States) may be required to recognize as a marriage a same-sex relationship considered a marriage in another state. The law passed both houses of Congress by large majorities.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Marriage_Act.

Your Majesty Speaks

Mr. Colson rightly observes that President Obama has decided that he is above all laws, wiser than the American voter and more relevant in his opinions than the U.S. Congress. He decided that he didn’t like this federal law and so he has instructed the U.S. Attorney to ignore it and no longer enforce it. Let’s just ignore the fact that the Executive branch of our government is intended to enforce our laws, not interpret them, the purview of the Supreme Court. Let’s just forget the fact that he has no legal right or authority to make such a decision but has decided to usurp the powers of the other 2 major branches of our government. His Majesty doesn’t agree with this particular law and so has decided that it is unconstitutional and will not be enforced. That’s right, I said, “His Majesty”, because this guy acts more like a king than an elected official of the government. He just does whatever he wants to do with our federal laws no matter if he has the authority or not. He takes the authority and claims it as his own in the face of over two hundred years of legal precedent and nobody says a word. The media says nothing, congress says nothing and the church, as Colson points out says nothing. Well I am with Chuck on this one as I am with most of what he says. The presiding president of these United States is the most arrogant man ever elected to that office.

Other Questionable Decisions

This is just one of the recent decisions made by this man and his administration that is working against our country. Here is another one. With oil prices out the roof, he decides that the U.S. should not drill for oil offshore and shuts down 97% of the offshore rigs. Again, let’s ignore that the Arab states who hate our free guts are holding us hostage while we pay them to arm terrorists who then attack us. Why would Obama shut down the best chance we have of freeing ourself from their terrible grip? I know that we can’t drill enough to get free from Arab oil and that we will have to buy some of what we need from them. I know this. But, any more domestic production at all frees us incrementally from their hold on our pocketbook. Any help at all is better than shutting down that help. And what about these drillers and the job situation? Do we not desperately need jobs and drilling for oil means jobs in our struggling economy? I don’t get it unless he is trying to weaken us which is not out of the question.

The reasonings of Obama are beyond our reach at this moment. His goals and agenda are clearly aligned with the far left liberal agenda. He is a socialist and wants to see the U.S. become a socialist state where the government controls everything. There can be no doubt about this now in anyone’s mind. If you doubt this then you are either a liar or asleep. Another “what the He_ _” is the democrats in congress. How can these men be so partisan that they would go along with the extreme liberal agenda this guy promotes? Are these congressmen also this liberal? Really? And also don’t get me started on the appeasement of the Muslims in America. What in the world are we thinking? We are so paralyzed by political correctness that we have lost the will to resist even these very clear threats to our freedom.

The 4 years of the Obama administration will see our national debt at least double, perhaps triple before he is done. If somehow he is reelected to office, then before he finishes his second term, he will manage to turn our country into a third world nation with his amateurish approach to the world. I know that the answer to America’s problems are spiritual and not political and I will continue to preach Christ no matter what the government does. I will also preach that we obey the laws of the land even when our own president does not. Still, common sense is required to speak up when we find ourself being sold down the river by our own elected officials. I am speaking up. Vote this man out of office in the next election. Vote for a conservative man who will lead us back toward a sane approach to government so that we can remain free to preach and worship as we please.

Stand Up and Be  Counted

You know, with Obama’s apparent freedom to pick and choose laws he likes or dislikes, what is to say that next week he won’t dislike the laws that guarantee our religious freedoms. He might show his true colors and tell the church what we can preach and not preach. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, that too is already happening. When a preacher stands in the pulpit and preaches against gays, against lesbians and says that Christ is the only way to heaven, that has been labeled “hate speech” and this man can go to jail for preaching the bible. Where have we come to in the 21^st century in America? It is not a good place I tell ya!! It is time to stand up and reclaim our rights as free people and throw these super liberal people out on their heads. Stand up now!

Phil 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

What a promise from God, that if we will reject the thinking that says anxiety is the logical reaction to adversity and go to Him in prayers with thanksgiving, that His peace will guard our hearts and minds from the enemy of the Christian.

In this article we will discuss God’s peace and how we as believers in Christ can come to experience His peace and make it our own. We will look at the 2 types of peace, “Peace with God” and then “Peace from God” and make the important distinction between them. We will see how we gain peace with God at salvation and then what a believer can do to experience peace from God as we live the Christian life. In order to have an appreciation for peace, let’s examine our human situation that gives peace real meaning.

Angelic Conflict

Before we can discuss peace with God we have to understand the context of human history. Before human history began, God had created angels, a group of super creatures who served and worshipped God. The greatest of these creatures, Lucifer, decided that he no longer wanted to worship God, but wanted the other angels to worship him like a god. He convinced 1/3 of the other angels to go along with him thinking they could be free of God’s authority. They were to discover that God’s authority is very important to Him and that He was unwilling to allow these angels to get away with their sin. He called them to account, brought them to trial, found them guilty and pronounced their eternal sentence to live forever without God in the Lake of Fire. It is believed that the reason this sentence has not been executed is that God has allowed the angels to appeal their sentence and that human history is concerned with demonstrating both God’s and the devil’s arguments in the trial.

Creation of Man

Some time after the events of the Angelic Conflict previously discussed, God decided to create a race of creatures who could be used to demonstrate the issues involved in the Angelic Conflict. Created in an almost identical situation, with the same ability to choose, man is forced to choose between the influence of God or the fallen angels. Unseen, behind the scenes of human history, the devil offer his personal philosophy of independence to man while God offers man the gift of eternal life. Let’s look closer at why man needs this free gift of eternal life or he will share the devil’s destiny in the Lake of Fire.

Adam’s Sin

Created in the image of God, placed in perfect environment and in a perfect relationship with God, the devil convinced the first man and woman to follow his ways by disobeying God. When Adam disobeyed God, he lost everything good in his life. He lost his righteous standing with God and came under the same condemnation the devil faces. He lost his human spirit and with it his ability to commune with God and understand God’s ideas. He lost his dominion over the earth and became one of the devil’s subjects. He lost perfect environment and was forced to work the earth along with thorns and thistles to make his living. The choice to sin against God had terrible consequences for Adam and Eve and for all of their children who have inherited everything he chose.

Born in Sin

Adam’s sin and its consequences have passed down to all mankind. We are born condemned, in the devil’s kingdom as God’s enemies, spiritually dead, separated from God, unable to communicate with Him, in the harsh environment of the devil’s world and with a sinful nature that disorients us to God and His authority. Born under condemnation as His enemies and with a nature to reject God, we are nowhere close to being at peace with God. We are now disconnected from God, playing for the losing team and totally disoriented from His way of thinking. In contrast to peace with God, if we die in this state, we will be crushed by God.

God’s Love Gives Solutions

The whole human race is born in danger of being crushed by the Justice of God, eternally. Not just for a time, but forever and ever. Because we chose this in Adam, God would have every right to just allow us to die in this state and pass into eternal fire. Yet God is love and He wants us to have mercy and he wants us to rescued from this terrible situation. He wanted the fallen angels to be saved but they refused His offer. He also wants all mankind to be saved and so He has made a way to offer each of us a way out of our condemnation and enemy status. He made a way through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ so that whoever believes in His work as their means of being saved, is given eternal life and adopted into God’s family forever. This gift of salvation is the beginning of being right with God and is how we gain “Peace with God”.

Peace with God

Peace with God comes from being in a right relationship with the Righteousness and Justice of God. The only way a fallen human being can be right with God is through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. As discussed, we begin condemned and as God’s enemies under the authority of the devil. God is not at peace with His enemies, far from it. He is in a long-term campaign to defeat them publicly, expose them for the evil monsters they truly are and ultimately incarcerate them in the Lake of Fire. This means that God is not at peace with most of the members of the human race, which included me before I trusted in Christ as my savior and was freed from all the consequences of Adam’s sin.

When any of us attaches our faith to the gospel (death, burial & resurrection of Jesus Christ) we are immediately reconciled to God and given judicial peace with Him. The cross of Christ paid for the sins of the human race and the resurrection defeated death on our behalf. When we trust in Christ we are placed into union with Him and credited with His work on our behalf. Our union with Christ is one of 50 different descriptions of our permanent relationship with God forever.  As we are connected to Him, we are given total forgiveness for all sins in the courtroom resolving every issue that would stand between us and God. At this moment God has wiped away every problem we have with Him and given us total peace with Him.

Secure in Christ

What God does at the moment of salvation is permanent and eternal. The 50 things He does in heaven and in the believer and irrevocable giving us absolute security of salvation. While some so called Christian churches teach another gospel, a gospel of works where a saved person can lose their salvation, this is a heresy and should be rejected and not believed. Those who believe they can lose their salvation because of sin, because of rejecting God, because of changing their mind or any other reason are most pitiful since they live their lives in the fear of failure and loss. Instead of growing in love with the Lord based on total security, these poor people live trying to hold onto what they couldn’t lose in the first place.

We are secure in Christ and we can never be separated from Him in time or eternity. The peace we have through union with Christ makes our eternal future one of guaranteed blessing and happiness. As believers learn about the life of blessing God has planned for us and believe in His plan, the truth begins to change us from the inside out. The truth about peace with God begins to produce an experience of inner peace which is a wonderful gift from God.

Peace from God

The promise we read in Phil 4:6-7 is about the inner tranquility that builds in the heart of the spiritually advancing believer as he grows in the Lord. Peace with God describes the judicial peace we are given at salvation while peace from God is the inner peace that grows inside of us as we come to trust the Lord more and more in life.  Peace from God is the production of the Holy Spirit as He teaches us about our total security and the life of victory and blessing God intends and provides for each believer. As we understand that every adversity is known and allowed by God-Father as motivation to grow and an opportunity to glorify Him by trusting His word, we come to view our troubles as blessings. We realize more and more that we are swinging with a net below and that God will always catch us when we fall. As this realization grows and as we experience the victory of faith, our expectations become realistic and our confidence of victory in adversity becomes a certainty in our minds. It is this certainty of the sufficiency of grace for every need in life that effects inner tranquility in the life of the believer in Chri

Inner Beauty

Inner peace and tranquility is one of the greatest blessings in this life and is no easy accomplishment to develop it. When a believer has done the hard work of learning the whole realm of bible doctrine and exercised his faith through many adversities, this inner calm becomes the dominant state of the soul. In a man, this inner calm produces a confident kindness and gentleness. The peaceful man can face his life with a calm demeanor knowing that God is in control of his life.

This same calm in a woman produces beauty. In a woman’s soul, inner tranquility produces a serene demeanor that is one of the most beautiful images in the universe. When a woman has serenity in her heart, she can remain calm and quietly joyful even when her life is in turmoil. The woman who is fully surrendered to the Lord in her heart reveals this serenity to those around her and glorifies the Lord through her inner beauty.

A Contented Life

Peace with God is the blessed situation that is the life of every born again believer in Jesus Christ. It is this permanent state of right relationship with the Justice of God that is the basis of peace from God, the condition of inner tranquility in the soul of the contented believer. As we grow into a peaceful state because of our confidence in God’s grace, we are able to be content with whatever God provides. We can enjoy times of prosperity, thankful for God’s generosity and we can enjoy the battles of adversity, determined to glorify God by trusting Him to the end. The peaceful, tranquil believer is the contented believer. They go together in the soul of the believer in the plan of God.

Audio Link    http://brettell.org/webex.htm

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.”

This was an article sent to me by my dear friend and fellow sojourner Cindy Lennon.

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. =

This article is the third in a series called Victory Over Sin and is part of the larger series, Fundamentals of the Faith.

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.

This article, Victory Over Sin 2 is the second of 3 articles dealing with God’s provision for sin and is part of the series Fundamentals of the Faith.

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.

This article Victory Over Sin (1 of 2) is part of the series Fundamentals of the Faith.

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”.

This article, The Plan of God C is the third  dealing with this topic and the first in the series, Fundamentals of the Faith.

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!

This article, The Plan of God 2 is the b section of the first subject in the series Fundamentals of the Faith.

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.