Are we sure that we know what we think we know?
How does what we think impact our judgment before God?
Theres a song that goes something like this:
“God told Joshua to go to Jericho and to march 7 times go ‘round.
Joshua told his people and they obeyed the Lords command,,
And the walls came tumblin’ down.
If I said he marched around it 13 times would you agree with me?
Go to Joshua chapter 6
Jos 6:3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.
Jos 6:4 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.
Are we living on what think or what the Word says?
Putting your faith in anything apart from Jesus is not salvation.
Are we living for God or for ourselves?
It’s important that we confirm what we know to be true according to the Word and not wrong traditions.
For example, According to an old school rhyme, in 1492 Columbus sailed the oceans blue. And according to what we were taught as children, this was a great and scary adventure because the common teaching was that the world was flat and a ship could sail off the edge of it. However, if they would have put faith in the Word of God at that time; they could have had an assurance that the world was not flat but a circle. The book of Isaiah was written about 2700 years ago, or 700 years before Jesus and about 2200 years before Columbus sailed for the new world.
Go to Isaiah chapter 40.
Isa 40:21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Isa 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, ……
Let’s look at another error.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman'u-el
Theres no sign here.
Nothing that separates her from any other mother.
Do we prefer the King James translation
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel .
Here we have a sign. She will be a virgin. Jews always require a sign to accompany any fulfillment of prophesy.
We must know what we think is true or we miss key elements of truth that may impact how we live and what we believe. So, with this in mind, lets look at some thoughts on salvation.
We are given a sin nature and are in slavery to sin. (Romans 5:12-19).
(For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Romans 5: 19; 6:17-18).
As a result of this transgression we were separated from perfect fellowship with God (Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. Genesis 3:23-24).
Our punishment for our sinful state of being is an eternal separation from God through both a spiritual and physical death ( Romans 6:23).
In life, we can separate ourselves from God by choice. We reject the spiritual truth of Gods plan and reject him for the fun we have in sin.
In death we separate ourselves from God by residing in the only place He isn’t.
Hell.
And.
We don’t have to do anything to get there. We were born serving Satan as a natural fact of life. We are born going to hell because we were separated from God at Adams transgression.
(For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:16-18)
Adam was the only man ever born that was not in bondage to sin, and he was the only man to sin by free choice instead of nature driving him to do so (1Tim 2:14).
6Because God had ruled that all of Adam’s seed should receive the sin nature from Adam there was no man in humankind that had the ability to father a child without a sinful nature. Even though women were in slavery to sin; No woman could pass the trait of sin to her children.
Later, God used 10 commandments to show man that he needed his creator, to show him his depravity, and to show him the evil desires that lies in our heart. Gal 3: 22-28
We can’t do right on our own, and for us to be freed from our slavery to sin we needed a second chance. Our deliverance from our slavery to sin was planned from the beginning of time, (Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: Romans 16:25-26)
We find that deliverance in living for him in a reconciled relationship with our creator (And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 2Cor 5:15-19).
So in order for God to reconcile himself with man and restore the relationship Adam had with him prior to sin, he needed a perfect man to pay the debt of sin. And this sin debt was death. (For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23) We needed a second Adam that was without sin to purchase the freedom of all.
If each one of us died, we could only account for our own transgressions and the cost of our sin was our death. We do not have enough life to pay for more than one debt, it required a person that had never sinned to buy the freedom of all (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. 2Cor 5:21).
The only person that could pay this price and thereby free man to an eternal life did not exist.
This unheard of person must be born of a father that is without sin in his life and this is why Jesus Christ was born of a virgin.
His father was without sin.
His father was The Sinless Holy Spirit of God. (Matt 1:20).
We believe this and believe that Jesus shed his blood and died for our sins, was buried, and rose the third day, defeating death and giving us life. This is our first judgment and we were found guilty. The penalty was death and Jesus paid it for us.
With this act of salvation, all our sins are forgiven. The penalty of sin is death and Jesus died in our place. With our freedom from death, we receive eternal life.
Because this was completed by Jesus without our involvement, there is nothing we can do to keep it or lose it. For it is a gift of God obtained by the like faith of Abraham and given to us by God himself.
Both the sacrifice and the faith is supplied by God.
If we actually believe we have this forgiveness then why don’t we walk in it daily instead of asking for it daily?
Between our salvation and bodily death, we are told to be our own judge as we walk in this life so that we are not Chastised by God.
We are also told that if we do not judge ourselves, God will judge us here and now to prevent us from suffering with the unbelievers in the future. This is our second judgment. See
1Co 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
How we live our life after salvation will not determine our eternal destination. Christ bought that ticket.
But, it will however, determine our shame, guilt, and rewards when we face the Judgment Seat of Christ. Here we that are Christians, will be judged out third and final time. We will be judged by how our belief in him decided our actions after our salvation.
How will you bring yourself to face Christ if you have trampled on the memory of his Death on the cross?
1Co 3:13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
