Studying God's Word

God made our salvation so simple a lot of people think there has to be catch. They can’t believe salvation is so easy and they don’t have to do anything to earn it. All they have to do is ask for Jesus to come into their heart as Lord and Savior. What people need to understand is God wants everyone in heaven. A loving God is inclusive rather than exclusive so He made salvation as easy as He possibly could. God made us to have a loving relationship with Him in heaven forever. I know it sounds too good to be true but it really is the truth. Salvation is a gift of God and not something you can earn by works. God loves dispensing mercy and grace to His children.

Acts 16:31 – Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.

We need to repent of our sins. Repentance is the conscious act of both turning away from sin and turning to God for forgiveness. Once the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin our minds will grasp the holiness of God and our sinful state. We’ll understand the fate we deserve for our transgressions against God is an eternity in hell. This should cause us to be filled with remorse and sorrow and compel us to take the willful act of throwing ourselves on God’s mercy and asking for His forgiveness.

We should then be able to change our behavior going forward by the exercise of our will. Genuine repentance always leads to a change in conduct and attitude. You can’t fake it with God because He reads the heart. Just saying the words won’t help you. You have to believe you’re a sinner and then trust God to forgive you and you must willfully make changes in your life based on your new commitment to God.

Hebrews 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

When we repent we are trusting in the Lord to save us from our sins as He said He would. Placing our trust in Christ is a key element of saving faith. Having faith is like jumping into the arms of a loving God over an abyss without a net underneath and knowing that He will catch you. It’s all of nothing. There is no backup plan. By our faith we are saved unto eternal life and deemed righteous in the eyes of the Lord. Our faith is the key.

As we submit to the mind of Christ and the internal guidance of the Holy Spirit the fruit of the Spirit starts to manifest in our lives as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. When the Holy spirit indwells a believer the moment they accept Jesus as Lord and Savior they receive God’s seal of approval.  Believers no longer have to wonder if they’re going to heaven, it’s guaranteed. Think of the Holy Spirit like an earnest deposit in a real estate transaction and the balance will become due from God when we get to heaven. God cannot break His contract with you. It is the Holy Spirit who delivers us from the power of sin.

Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit is a one time event lasting for the rest of our lives for those who believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior.  It’s possible for us to have a deeper personal relationship with the Holy Spirit which we call the “filling of the Spirit”. We can receive power and boldness for God’s service and strength to meet a particular crisis in our lives.  We need to want it, strive for it and pray for it if we want more help from the Holy Spirit in our lives. All believers get the minimum from the Holy Spirit and if you want more you need a reason and you have to ask for it in prayer. Ask God to fill you with his Holy Spirit.  Extra filling of the Holy spirit isn’t a one time request and you’re done.

We need to keep on praying as often as necessary throughout our lives in order to keep being filled with the Holy Spirit or we lose it. The more we want to accomplish for the kingdom of God the more we’ll need filling with the Spirit of God. Think of our souls as a gas tank and the filling of the Holy spirit as the gasoline. If we don’t keep topping off the tank we’ll eventually run out of gas and be unable to move forward for God.

Like the other persons in the Trinity the Holy Spirit has many names that reflect His nature and what He does. A few of the names for the Holy Spirit include the following: the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of promise, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, and the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.  The Holy Spirit is God!

The Holy Spirit is the executor of the purposes and plans of the Godhead. He is the direct work of God which impacts us directly. Upon salvation we were justified before God by the Holy Spirit. Our ongoing sanctification process where we become more like Christ over time is the work of the Holy Spirit. God will complete the glorification process once we get to heaven through His Holy Spirit. You do not belong to Christ if you do not have the Spirit of Christ within you.

Romans 8:14 – For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are Sons of God.

Romans 8:16 – The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

Ephesians 1:17 – That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Galatians 5:16 – I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

When we become members of the body of Christ the Holy Spirit will give to each believer at least one spiritual gift that we can use to glorify God and benefit the kingdom of God.  A few individuals may receive more than one spiritual gift but one will always be dominate. The Holy Spirit is within you and knows you intimately so who better to decide which special gift would be best for you? The decision of which gift to give you is totally up to the Holy Spirit and it’s irrevocable.

You can’t return your spiritual gift and your greatest impact for God will always be with the gift you were given. As believers we are charged with finding out our spiritual gift, developing it and then using it effectively for the glory of God. Nine spiritual gifts are listed in the Bible: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning spirits, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues.

We know the Holy Spirit is a person and a deity. We know the Holy spirit has always existed just like the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit helped create the universe and mankind. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us wisdom, directs our steps, produces moral living, and equips us for service to God. It was the Holy Spirit that inspired the prophets and directed the writers of God’s Word. The Holy Spirit does all the heavy lifting for God the Father.

Genesis 1:2 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Job 33:4 – The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

1 Corinthians 3:16 – Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Most of us don’t realize how blessed we are today to have available to us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. Next to salvation, this is God’s greatest gift to us. Imagine having the Holy Spirit of God inside us from salvation until death as our personal friend and helper just for the asking.  Before His ascension Jesus promised to send us a Helper and on Pentecost Jesus did just that. The Holy spirit will remain on earth and active in the lives of men until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ our Lord.

In Old Testament times the Holy Spirit was not universally available to people. The Holy Spirit came upon the prophets of God and occasionally priest and kings. The Holy Spirit usually came upon men for a limited time and for a particular task and then He departed.  When the Holy Spirit did choose to come upon men He had the option of withdrawing if their conduct displeased Him. That was the case with both Samson and King Saul.

The Holy Spirit was present in the Old Testament times but His ministry was not prevalent.  I only recall the Holy Spirit being used three times in the Old Testament.   In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is mentioned over 250 times. Since Pentecost the Holy Spirit has been very active in our lives because a merciful and loving God wants to give of Himself in order to help us in every aspect of our lives.

The three persons of the Triune Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, are co-eternal and co-equal. They are all manifestations of Jehovah, the one and only God. We know from Scripture that the Son defers to the Father and the Holy Spirit defers to both the Son and the Father.  This doesn’t mean there’s a divine pecking order but it does mean there is a difference in their relationship to each other because each member of the Trinity has a different function while still being a member of the whole. What’s important is the Trinity is always of one mind and never works against each other because they are all the one and only God.

Because the Bible tells us to make our prayers to the Father in the name of Jesus we tend to ignore the Holy Spirit a little bit. The Holy Spirit is a person in His own right with a mind, feelings and a will. He is no different from the Father and the Son in that respect. I think of the members of the Trinity as being interchangeable because what one knows they all know and because they are all the one God.  When I pray to God I always ask for God’s assistance to be provided through His Holy Spirit. I do this not only because the Holy Spirit is inside me but also because the Holy Spirit is the part of the Trinity that does the work of God, that executes the collective will of the Godhead. We touch God through the Holy Spirit.

When we’re saved it’s because the Holy Spirit is present to convict us of our sin in the presence of God’s Word. It’s the Holy Spirit that ushers us into the family of God by ensuring our names are written in the book of life.  It’s the Holy Spirt that indwells us from the moment of salvation and remains within us all our lives to be our constant comforter, helper, guide and companion. The revelation of God’s Word comes to us through the Holy Spirit.  We grow in faith by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit strives with man as God indicated in Genesis 6:3, when He said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever.” The Holy Spirit helps man as Paul indicated in Romans 8:26, when he wrote, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness….the Spirit Himself intercedes for us.”  The Holy Spirit can speak to us if He wished just as He did to Phillip in Acts 8:29, when He said, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”  God reveals His Word through the Holy Spirit as Paul indicated in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11, “God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God….No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” The Holy Spirit of God is our constant companion and the best friend we’ll ever have.

There is no ambiguity about God’s intentions throughout the Bible. From the very beginning of creation God’s has desired to have a relationship with those whom He created. Reconciliation, ransom and sacrifice are all the result of God’s increasing desire to bring each one of us close to himself.  Throughout history many people have tried to discredit or discount Christ’s death on the cross but they all failed in light of the clear message contained in the holy Scriptures.

The effectiveness of the death of Christ depended solely on who he was.  This was no mere man. Jesus Christ was God-man. God was…in Christ. Christ’s life was of infinite value, and his death likewise had infinite worth.  The sum total of the value of all those for whom he died does not approximate the value of Christ’s divine life, which he voluntarily surrendered on the cross at Calvary. We simply cannot comprehend the intensity of the spiritual suffering the Son of God endured at the cross.

Receiving the wrath of God for the sins of all men was indescribable anguish. The physical suffering of Jesus was intense but it paled in comparison to the spiritual suffering Jesus endured at the same time on our behalf.  All of us are God’s offspring by creation but we become God’s children spiritually when we accept God’s gift of the cross. Those who believe in Jesus have eternal life and those who do not will inherit the wrath of God and suffer eternal damnation in the lake of fire. It’s either one or the other.  We all have the free will to decide our eternal fate.

Even when we’re saved we’ll still sin and need daily cleansing by the Holy Spirit. We’ll all need to continue to grow in Christ through prayer and receive instruction from God through His Word. All that really matters is to  make God ours by faith and to know we belong to God. God knows His own and He will protect us and hold us in His hands.

1 John 3:16 – This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.

2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

1 Corinthians 6:20 – For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Christ’s death is the central theme of both Old and New Testaments. The cross is the primary symbol of Christianity and the central fact of human history. Without the cross we all remain mired in our sins. In every other world religion men must do something to qualify for heaven without any way of knowing if it was enough.  Only with Christianity can you be assured of salvation because it is based on something God Himself, through His Son, has already done. Only in Christianity are we guaranteed forgiveness of sin and eternal life through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross simply by asking.

Luke 19:10 – The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.

Mark 10:45 – The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Isaiah 53:6 – And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

In the Old Testament God established with the Israelites the sacrificial system of blood sacrifice for the covering of sin because God is holy and cannot abide sin. The blood of animals could only cover sin temporarily which is why animals had to be sacrificed continually.  The only way to permanently remove sin from man was to sacrifice another man who was without blemish, without sin. Since all men are born with a sin nature from Adam no man alive could ever qualify to be that perfect sacrifice.

The only way for God to redeem man was to come to earth Himself as Jesus, fully human and fully God, in order to be that sinless sacrifice on the cross to save us from our sins. The penalty for sin is death and Christ’s death on the cross was the final and only sacrifice required to redeem man from their sins once and for all.  Jesus, as the perfect man, the lamb without blemish, shed His blood on the cross in our place to atone for the sins of all men past, present and future. Christ’s work on the cross completed our redemption before God.

Jesus was also fully God and His death caused  the Triune Godhead great anguish.  Jesus endured the shame of a horrifying death on the cross for our sake, out of love for us.  By His redemptive work on the cross Jesus proved Himself worthy to receive glory from God and our praise and worship as our Lord and Savior.

Hebrews 10:12 – But this Man after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

Genesis 12:3 – I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Isaiah 59:2 – But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear.

The resurrection of Jesus is paramount to the Christian. It confirms fully the truth and validity of what Jesus taught and did. Because of the resurrection we know that our trust in Jesus is justified and that our sins are actually forgiven as He said. We have certainty of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins because of the empty tomb of Jesus.  Christ’s resurrection guarantees our own resurrection. Because Jesus is risen we know Jesus conquered death which gives us the assurance that the grave is not our end and that we shall be raised as He was.  Jesus was resurrected in a glorified body and through Him we know we also will receive an immortal glorified body like He has when we are resurrected.

Since Christ is risen we know He is the head of the church and now sits on His throne at the right hand of God as our High Priest, Advocate and Mediator between God the Father and man.  Jesus’ sacrificial work on the cross on our behalf is complete. Jesus accomplished the work God gave Him to do which will allow us to enter heaven and live in fellowship with the Lord forever.

In Scripture Jesus said He was returning to heaven to prepare a place for us so we could be with him and that He would return for us at His Glorious Appearing.  Because of the ascension and exaltation of Christ, we have free access by prayer to the throne room of grace, to the very presence of God continually.  Even the angels marvel at this precious gift we so seldom take advantage of. To know who Jesus is and what He has done for us should leave us all with a sense of awe, wonder and appreciation for the great mercy, love and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 8:9 – Though He was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

There have been many attempts to explain away the resurrection of Jesus because to do so successfully would make the Christian faith null and void. Thankfully there is ample evidence to support the resurrection of Jesus.  The disciples didn’t expect Jesus to rise from the dead even though Jesus tried to tell them He would. When Jesus did rise from the dead the disciples didn’t believe it easily. They had to be convinced.

The risen Christ appeared 10 times and in 10 different places over a 40 day period. In one instance Jesus appeared to more than 500 people at once. Some people claimed that the disciples took Jesus’ body out of the tomb. The Jewish authorities feared that and had Pontius Pilate assign Roman soldiers to seal and guard the tomb of Jesus.  A Roman soldier caught sleeping on guard duty was immediately put to death so it’s unlikely someone snuck in under the noses of the guards and stole Jesus’ body. The Roman soldiers were as surprised as everyone else at the empty tomb of Jesus.

If the disciples had found a way to steal Jesus’ body they would have known Jesus wasn’t the Son of God and there is no way they would have then died a martyr’s death for their faith (all except John). People will die for what they mistakenly think is true, but they won’t die for what they know is false.  Evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is conclusive. We have the empty tomb. We have the changed lives of the disciples because they were eyewitnesses to the risen Christ.

We have the establishment of the Christian church which would not have happened without the resurrection of Jesus, the cornerstone of our faith.  The Lord’s Day of worship was changed from Saturday to Sunday because of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. We have the transformed lives of countless people today who have met and been given new life by the risen Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:17 – And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

The Holy Trinity is always on the same page so Jesus knew exactly what He needed to accomplish on earth and He also knew the date of His coming crucifixion. That’s why in the Bible Jesus frequently said “My time has not yet come.”  The triumph of Christianity is not that Jesus died but that He arose from the dead on the third day. By His resurrection Jesus guaranteed our own resurrection, defeated death and proved to all that He was God.

The life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is verified in Roman and Jewish historical records plus there were over 500 people who saw the resurrected Jesus including all of the disciples.  Even with all this proof the one thing that convinces me of the truth of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus more than anything else is the transformation of the lives of the disciples from a handful of cowardly, fearful men, running for their lives into roaring lions of the faith.

The disciples saw Jesus die and when they saw the resurrected Jesus in His glorified body they finally understood all they had been taught and they knew for certain that Jesus was God. With the help of the Holy Spirit these Apostles spread the gospel around the world and all but one were martyred for their preaching.  That is true conviction.

The only thing that could have effected such a dramatic change in the disciples was their eyewitness to the greatest event in the history of mankind, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  I know if I were in their shoes it’d have the same effect on me.  The bodily resurrection of Jesus in a glorified body proved to the disciples, and to me, that those who believe in Christ will also be resurrected one day and receive a glorified body like the one Jesus has.

Acts 2:32 – God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.

Luke 24:39 – Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself! Touch Me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones; as you see I have.

John 20:27 – Then He said to Thomas. “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.