Salvation - What It Means In A Nutshell

We have been delivered (rescued, ransomed) from sin’s:

 1.     Penalty - Christ became our propitiation (sacrifice) to avert the wrath of God. 

·       Rom. 3:25 - Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

·       2 Chr. 5:21 - For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2.     Power - The body of sin was circumcised (cut away) in Christ.

• Rom. 6:6 - Knowing this that our old man (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 5:24; Rom. 6:14) is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (7) For he (1 Pet. 4:1) that is dead is freed from sin.

The body of sin is what Adam put on when he willingly yielded his members to Satan.  Whom ye yield your members to obey, his servants ye are.  It is a prison, a yoke of bondage, whereby Satan takes us hostage and darkens the eyes of our understanding to the things of God.  It is the body of death.

• Col. 2:11 - In whom also ye are circumcised (cut away) with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ (Col. 3:5; Rom. 6:6; Rom. 7:24; Gal. 5:24.
• Col. 2:13 - And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened (made alive) together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

3.     Presence - We no longer have to deal with sin in our lives if we yield our members to Christ because He became sin for us. 

• Rom. 6:16-18, 22 - Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (17) But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. (18) Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. (22) But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

For further consideration, break down all the scriptures above and then study the following words:
Regeneration, Propitiation, Salvation, Ransom, Amnesty, and Reconciliation in both Hebrew & Greek to understand what it means to be forgiven of sins.  Chow!    

 

 

 

Only Believe That I AM He

Jesus Christ and Him crucified,

It was for you and me that He died.

God’s justice demanded a blood sacrifice

A human being had to pay that price.

A human whose blood would satisfy

A human whom God would not deny;

So Jesus came in the form of a man,

To this barren, forsaken and sin soaked land –

He gladly answered the Father’s call

He became a burnt offering for us all.

The requirements of the law had to be fulfilled,

To the Father’s request, He said, “I will.”

The burnt offering pleased the Father, you see --

In covering man and all our depravity.

A Holy God could not be approached,

By sin filled man and his reproach.

The justice of God would have destroyed us all

If Jesus hadn’t humbly answered His call,

He took the brunt of that awful curse --

That would have fallen on the earth. 

We would have been dead forever in sin,

If Jesus had not taken us in --

He’s the Great Shepherd of the fold,

He gave His life for our lost souls.

Jesus, our perfect example, we say –

Personally, I’d have it no other way.

He shed His blood at Calvary

To save a no good sinner like me.

I jump for joy, and I clap my hands –

Because Jesus satisfied God’s demands.

And I hear the Father saying to His Son,

Well done, my Beloved; I am pleased; well done.

It was Jesus who came and set me free

From the misery of sin and its penalty.

A Holy God, His perfect Son,

The God man Jesus, the Holy One!

He gave Himself a perfect sacrifice,

That I might have eternal life –

He brought together God and man most lost.

By perfectly dying on Calvary’s Cross. 

And the blood that was shed that faithful day,

Is still showing us the light and the way;

Over 2000 years ago when it was first shed –

It stills has the power to do what He said.

To cleanse us and save us perfectly from sin

Won’t you let Jesus take you in?

And all He asks for you to be free,

Is to only believe that I AM He! 

 

 

Convert The Soul

Psalm 19:1 - The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. 

The soul is the seat of our thinking, decision making and our feelings. Conversion of the soul is a matter of spiritual life and death. Initially from a soulish standpoint, man was designed to choose God above all else.  Satan masterminded the fall of man so man would be on his side rather than God's.  If you will recall the words "to be like God," came from the mind of Satan. God only creates in His image and after His likeness.

The fall destroyed the very life of God that was in Adam.  It destroyed the light, the higher knowledge, that gave Adam the power to love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.  Before the fall, there was nothing in him to cause him to choose anything but God.  The serpent deceived Eve because Adam had been eating from her hand all along like two lovers feeding each other.  Don't think Satan hadn't studied their intimate exchange and copied it!  He copied what God had already established, twisted it and perverted it.

Now, the soul needs to be converted because it is that part of us where we decide what we are going to do, not based on the word of  God, but based on our five (5) senses.  Our five senses only respond to the stimuli of our environment.  Since our environment was affected by the curse, we live in a world where we are enslaved to a system and a way of  thinking that is not of God.  In other words without the Spirit of God, we are naked which makes us ashamed and subjects us to condemnation.  Our understanding in the soulish realm was darkened.  Renewing the mind according to Romans 12:2 is the same as converting the soul.   

Body, Soul and Spirit

We need to dissect the body, the soul, and the spirit to understand what is happening in each:

• The body is what holds us on the planet.  It is just a shell in which God breathed the breath of life and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:45).  It is used to interact with our environment.  So the body is not the problem.
• This living soul is the seat of our mind, will, and emotions.  It is the purveyor of our thoughts, our decision making, and our feelings. Without the soul, we would be robots without free choice.  God wants man to be free to choose Him over everything else every time.  This living soul is what has caused man problems since Adam.  Because it is free to move between the body and the spirit, it determines whether we are carnal and lean to our own understanding or whether we receive the things of God and become spirit beings. God never intended for born again believers to operate in the flesh or according to the world's system or way of doing things.  Because of the soul, man became stuck in the fleshly realm and allowed his religiosity to rule his thinking.  Religiosity is not bad as long as it doesn't supersede God's plan. The living soul is a renegade if it is not corralled.  It can be corralled two ways. (1) If it is influenced by the body, man will reject the things of God and choose the world every time. (2) If it is influenced by the spirit of God, man will walk in the spirit and the blessings of God will overtake him.  The living soul causes man to be double minded and unstable in all his ways.  This is where the problem lies.
• The spirit of God in man must be brought to power before it can coral the soul.  It's always two against one and not a fair fight. If the body is allowed to dominate the soul, they gang up on the spirit, and it will be powerless as long as they dominate it.  Even though we have the spirit of God in us, He is a gentleman and will not overpower us or make us do anything.  The only way for the spirit to come to power is through the Word of God.  It is the energy, the dynamite, that empowers the spirit to overwhelm the soul and bring it into obedience into the knowledge of Christ.  The spirit has no effect on the body but when it is brought to power, it will overwhelm the soul and in turn they both overwhelm the body and make us putty in God's hands.  The soul is actually the heart of man for lack of a better definition. It is the core of man's being that must be brought into subjection to the Word of God.  It is still that two against one theory now operating for the better and our own good. If God gets our heart, He has us. We were sealed with the Holy Spirit when we were born again.  Therefore, the spirit cannot be corrupted by the body or the soul (Eph. 1:13, Eph. 4:30).  The Word of God is the only mechanism that can change man effortlessly and bring out what is sealed in our born again spirits.  In Hebrew it is called the arrabon; i.e. the promise.  It is a part of God Himself in man, and that's what He is coming back for.  It translates into this:  The eyes of man were enlightened (Eph. 1:17-19).  He woke up to God.  He took off the old man of the flesh and put on the new man which after God was created in true holiness and righteousness and renewed in knowledge after the spirit of Him (Eph. 4:24, Col. 3:10).  

Subjection of the soul is important because it becomes the valve through which the spirit of God flows through the body and makes us complete and out toward others.       

To Those I Love

Eph. 1:17-18a - That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: (18a) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;

Before we were ever born, Christ made provision for our sins past, present and future (Heb. 10:14).  Fast forward to today where many of us have experienced so much in the church until some of us no longer look on it favorably.  I understand how you feel.  I've lived that life and God had to bring me full circle and help me to really understand that "I am the church."  God dwells not in buildings made with hands (Acts 17:24).  He is not concerned about brick and mortar.  That is Old Testament news.  His greatest concern is about the hidden man of the heart.  If God gets your heart, He has all of you and can get you to do whatever He wants you to do.  The only way He can get our heart is through His Word.  Read the parable about the seed and the sower in Luke 8.  It talks about the ground, which is the heart, and the seed, which is the Word of God.  You don't need a revelation to see how the four types of ground affected the seed.  In the first three types of soil, there were negative affects even though they all heard the word.  But the seed that fell on good ground sprung up 30, 60, 100-fold. 

The whole point that I am making is the only way for your eyes (heart) to be enlightened is through the word of God. There is too much that follows in this same passage of scripture for us to be blind to what the Word of God does in us, to us, and for us.  There is too much at stake in this life and the one to come.  According to Jer. 17:9a, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  We don't look at our selves that way because many of us believe beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are good hearted.  I've heard many people use the phrase, "God knows my heart."  Here it is in Jeremiah.  It ends with "who can know it?  The condition of our heart is what affects the Word of God, which is a very sobering thought.  If you say you know your heart, then that means you are constantly weighing your thoughts and intents, and only God can do that.  Therefore, we should constantly look into the Word, and use it like a mirror to see how we measure up.  Be honest with yourself; put your religiosity aside.  You only have to please your God and Savior Jesus Christ in this life.  His name is the only one that matters. 

By studying the word daily, referencing it daily, meditating on it daily, and putting a premium on it at the expense of all else, you will experience an effortless change of heart (the eyes of your understanding).  You will desire the things that God desires, and it becomes quite intoxicating.  You will see yourself in a whole new way and you will understand that being "accepted in the Beloved" is your position in Christ.  It is a fixed position in place, time, or state; i.e., Sonship, fellowship, and relationship.  There is no fear in love.  Perfect love casted out fear (1 John 4:18).

Are You A Son?

A study of the word father: God -- as Father == chastened the children of Israel, His son.  When He saw that they could not keep His holy commandments, He sent His only begotten Son to keep them in their stead and to pay the supreme sacrifice for us, as sons.  We have the wrong understanding of the correction He ministered to His children for their disobedience.  In the Old Testament, it was called the rod of correction because there was no salvation.  There was no mediator between God and the people.  Job said if only there was a daysman (Job. 9:33 a mediator) between me and God.  God told the children of Israel in advance what would befall them if they were disobedient (see Deut. 28:15-26, and Lev. 26). 

Today, we call tsunamis, floods, snow storms and other calamities as acts of God.  Do we understand the significance of Christ dying on the cross?  It was so there would be a Mediator between God and man.  He gave the supreme sacrifice of His only begotten son so that under grace his born again sons would not have to face His chastisement and wrath.  Jesus is our peace.  He is our propitiation, which is a sacrifice to avert the wrath of God.  We used to sing a song, “Jesus paid it all.  All to Him I owe, sin hath left a crimson stain, and He washes white as snow.”  He died a death we could not die (because we had sinned).  He paid a debt we could not pay (Heb. 9:22 the law demanded a blood sacrifice) because we were so destitute we couldn’t afford a lamb.  He became our sacrificial lamb and brought us out of the prison house.  Now are we the sons of God.  His mercy protects us from what we do deserve (we deserve to be punished) and his goodness gives us what we don’t deserve (Eph. 1:3 all things that pertain to life and godliness). 

 

Gal. 4:6 Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Holy Ghost into your heart whereby ye cry "Abba Father." 

Effects Of The Word

Historically, the majority of believers have relegated the Word to ministers, pastors, evangelists.  But the laity have not availed themselves to the all important effects of God's Word on their lives.  Over the past six years, I've been an avid reader of the word.  I've studied it in Hebrew, Greek, and with others who were astute and had an intimate relationship with God.  By an intimate relationship I mean one where God speaks to you out of the Word daily.  It doesn't take years and months to get an answer when you're daily inclining your ear at His gates and listening to the beat of His heart.  I abandoned denominational lines because it did not provide me with the level of truth that I desired.  I learned that the Holy Ghost, my Comforter is always the teacher, and He was given to lead and guide me into all truth.  I could not get it in Bible Class or Sunday School.  I have no doubt that God speaks collectively through a leader in those arenas.  But it's in quiet time with the Lord that He teaches from a depth that can't be shared with others.  Unless they have the same level of commitment and have enough of the Word on the inside, they can not ascend to the height of understanding that comes after years of investing oneself in the Word at the expense of all else.  My spiritual eyes have been enlightened. 

I understand why Paul went to the Arabian desert to be alone with the ascended Christ.  There is a place where only in quiet solitude you can hear the Master breathe inspired words of life that are so simple until you have to ask, "Is it really this simple?"  It's in quiet solitude that the Lord corrects years of error, frustration, questions that needed answers but I wasn't ready to receive them.  It's in quiet repose in the wee hours of the morning when the Lord wakes me up from a dead sleep to reveal a truth that my mind might not grasp at any other time.  It's in the still of the day, before the birds have had a chance to sing, that the Lord opens heaven and I can feast on the truth that leaves me yearning for more.  So when He calls, I respond because I don't want to miss anything.  I've found that now I'm anxious for nothing.  If they fire me, so what!  God will take care it! I would rather be at home in the Word. When people speak in anger, I more readily shrug it off because I don't have time for such mindless escapades.  I have been changed on the inside and the Holy Ghost holds me in check like nothing else ever could. I'm holding the hand of the Master, and His desires are my desires at last.  Peace at all cost!  Love without dishonesty or empty words.  A desire to see everyone reach the level of completeness that I experience everyday from spending time in the presence of God.