Posts filed under ‘Religious – Christian – End Times’
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 17
Did Jesus set up a corner stand with the banner stating “Free Samples of Eternal Life!” and then encouraged people to simply “try” them? If they didn’t like them, they would always reject it, right? But if a person actually becomes truly born again or born from above (John 3), wherein that person is sealed with the Holy Spirit and made partakers with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 1:3; 4:30), how can that be taken away? How can they legally reject it? It seems as though this and other portions of Scripture we’ve highlighted are pointing to the fact that the only thing about being a Christian that a Christian can ultimately reject is whether or not that Christian makes and keeps Jesus LORD over their life daily. By stating this, I am not stating that so-called Lordship Salvation has merit. I’m simply stating that each and every Christian must come to terms with the fact that we need to submit ourselves to God in Christ daily. This is the fellowship aspect of being a Christian that rests with us. But even there, Jesus appears to have made it easier because He says He will help us.
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 16
Wouldn’t it be nice to learn what the Prodigal Son learned without having to go through the things he went through? We’re all different. Some people can increasingly submit to God bit by bit, giving Him more of them so that He, in turn, can fill them with more of Him. Others have to do it the “hard” way. The hard way is when God has to take measures to use outside forces to sand off the hard edges so that we will submit to Him. In either case, the results are often the same. But God has a strong hand in this process too as we learn from Psalm 32:3-4.
Continue Reading December 13, 2015 at 3:01 PM Leave a comment
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 14
I think we see this in the Prodigal Son. It seems clear that he literally and with vigor walked away from his father. It is clear that he completely misunderstood his father’s love, seeing it as something it was not. His pride, stubbornness, and sinful attitude kept him from seeing the truth about his father. The Prodigal deliberately broke off fellowship with his father because of the wrong views he harbored about his father. It took the problems of life to begin to move him back toward his father, but even there, he got it wrong. It was only the starting point.
Continue Reading December 12, 2015 at 8:25 AM Leave a comment
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 13
Out of the two sons, who ended up being better off? Clearly, it was the young son who initially walked away, squandered his inheritance (that he had no right to take at that point since his father was still alive!), almost starved himself to death, and in the end, became truthfully humbled. It was this humility that brought him back to his father, not to “regain” salvation that some say he lost, but to enter into fellowship with his father, fellowship that should have existed from the getgo. Would it have been better off had he never gone through any of that? Of course, but please note that it seems like he had to go through it in order to cast off the things that kept him enslaved to SELF. He needed to be divested of a good amount of arrogance and pride before he would be ready to begin fellowship with his father. In the end, he truly became his father’s son! Do you think he ever broke off fellowship with his father again? While it’s possible, I can’t imagine it because he always had that lesson to draw on. He may have even exercised a great deal of compassion toward his older brother, we just don’t know.
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 12
In some ways, Luke’s narrative of the ten lepers highlights different reactions to being saved (and we’ll talk more about this in an upcoming article in this series). They gain salvation but never really stop to consider the fellowship aspect of it. Like the nine lepers, they are overjoyed to have salvation and they continue to go their way, paying little to no attention to the One who provided it. Is it any wonder their joy (and potential fellowship with God), dissipates and sometimes disappears altogether?
Continue Reading December 10, 2015 at 4:49 AM Leave a comment
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 10
My salvation is secure. I firmly believe that, based on what I believe the Scriptures teach. My legal standing before God is predicated only on my faith in Jesus and His work on my behalf. I cannot earn salvation and my exercised faith in Him is what opens the door to Him and His salvation (and potential fellowship; Revelation 3:20). Once I exercise faith in Him and that finished work, God grants me salvation. The first step in that salvation process is for God to change my legal standing before Him, permanently. I literally go from being “unrighteous” to “righteous.” This is a determination, a legal declaration by God that can never change, theoretically, in spite of what I do, what I say, or how I act for the rest of my life. I am saved (present-tense, ongoing). Nothing can change that (Romans 8:31).
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 7
Now, consider the couple that grows apart. This can happen to everyone. We marry under the delusion that those feelings of euphoria will always be there. Sleep? Who needs it. Food? Nah, I’ve got “love.” Those feelings fade and the hard work of life takes hold. For many couples, this hard work becomes intolerable and because it feels so much like actual work, one or both partners begins to chaff under it. Soon, they grow tired of the pressure created by the loss of feelings and start looking elsewhere to find them again. This means they might pour themselves into their work or have an affair. In either case, even though they haven’t argued, they have grown apart. The fellowship has stopped and one or both are looking elsewhere for “fellowship” that they should only be looking for and expecting with their lawfully wedded spouse.
Continue Reading December 7, 2015 at 11:52 AM Leave a comment
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 3
There are two sides to our salvation. There is the legal judgment or ramifications of our salvation. This is where God is able to officially declare us righteous and this is based not on any works we have done, but purely on our faith – our ability to believe that Jesus has paid the price in full and He is all we need to gain salvation and a place with God for all eternity. We are saved by faith alone, because of God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-10). Faith is not a work. It is an attitude, an understanding (however small) that God and only God can change our status from “CONDEMNED!” to “RIGHTEOUS!” Only God can do that. Our faith is what opens that door (Revelation 3:20).
Christ, Our Righteousness, Part 2
That is the first part of the equation of once saved, always saved (OSAS). We have to ask the question, what are we saved from and how does that happen? Notice Jesus says that anyone who does not believe in the Son is already condemned? That literally means, God’s condemnation remains or continues to rest on that person. Jesus is saying that is the automatic position of every person. There is no such thing as universalism, whereby all people will eventually be saved. Jesus is very clear here in stating that in order to eliminate or come out from under that condemnation that exists on each and every person, that person must have something: belief in the Son’s Name.
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