“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Bob said, “What I mean (is) the sins before you were saved all those sins will be (are) forgiven but… “
And also Bob said, … It’s (isn’t it) what Christ did for you at the point of salvation (forgiveness, regeneration, sanctification, filled with the Holy Spirit, becoming a child of God) but can instantly vanish away like a puff of smoke if you’re caught unrepentant when you die right?”
Remember, in part one I addressed the un-perfected love which kept you in fear. “What if” are two of the devils most used words to us. God’s perfect love was willing to forgive your worst sins. How do we think He will respond to the sins of our struggle? Is it rebellion in us or are we truly trying and need the abundance of grace from Romans 5:17. What is in our heart? He knows.
This will shock some but we all really know if we think about it. We are not actually saved (yet) when we are reconciled.
“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:10)
Our final salvation is the goal of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. In the moment we come to God, no matter how sincere we are, He is faithful to forgive. We are totally forgiven rendered sin free in reconciliation. Yes upon our surrender to Christ, asking Him to be Lord, our sins previously committed are forgiven by the Father. We are washed, made new, cleansed totally, like new, like newborns, forgiven, set apart, we are children of God. We have a fresh start.
Are we going to be obedient children (of God) or rebellious children (of God)? God spoke to Cain like he was a son. He spoke to king Ahaz like he was a son (Isaiah 7:10 READ the story). God spoke to David like he was a son. What if David had resisted the truth that the prophet clearly spoke to him about Bathsheba? Would God still have said David was a man after God’s own heart? Absolutely not! God IS Truth and only the truth, so help…Himself! David humbled himself to God.
In our reconciliation to God, we become everything we have always been taught in that moment except one thing. We are actually saved when we die or when Jesus comes for us. We can believe we are saved by faith in what we believe He has done but there is still a race to run, a salvation to work out, truth to be led into by the Holy Spirit, grace to be granted in forgiveness of others. Life becomes our test.
This is where the obedient versus the rebellious child is revealed. Israel as a nation was rebellious. Look what happened to them at times of judgment when they were faced with an overwhelming adversary and captivity. Then they cried out in repentance to God and He rescued them. Repentance brings God’s grace and forgiveness.
We all hopefully will pass from milk to the meat of the Word.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Hebrews 5:13-14 (NKJV)
Jesus did His part teaching us, dying for us even as He interceded. He demonstrated by action and heart what He taught. God has met His part of the “reconciling” arrangement by taking all into account according to the agreement we have made with Him by our asking Jesus to be Lord. In that moment of complete grace, we could go to heaven with no problem. In that sense, we are saved right then. Life waits for us with its challenges. We will stay saved if we can maintain that state of total cleansing and righteousness. HOW? He HAS given us “the Way” to do so. Jesus, during His life with us, taught us!
In fact we are yet to actually be saved because we are still alive in these human bodies, which will not inherit eternal life. (1 Corinthians 15:50)
We have a hope. We have a fight ahead to maintain what we have been freely given. This reveals the reason for all the teachings of Christ. We shall not be ignorant of that which we know we are experiencing. Hopefully in our learning we too will lead others to righteousness; they being led into going beyond the necessary reconciliation they first may have received to tested and proven righteousness in the smelting pot of life.
We now know, as does our heavenly Father, that staying clean is almost impossible so He makes a Way where there once was no way, so as to be cleansed again and again. We have received all we need pertaining to life and Godliness.
The blood of the Lamb paid the price, God entered into a mutual submission agreement (see definition of reconcile) with us. Now, we must walk out our journey (to eternity) by actually making Jesus Lord via our obedience. There is an abundance of grace supplied in the deal. There is the gift of righteousness, in the deal. We recognize and treasure the forgiveness we received but did not deserve and now we must walk in grace toward all others likewise. We must display the righteousness we have freely received. (Romans 5:17, 21) John 3:36 also comes into play and can not be denied. Or do we omit scripture?
“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36 (NASB)
Even Christ had to learn obedience and therefore the importance of obedience by suffering to accomplish that obedience. See Hebrews 5:8.
The power behind His commitment as the Son of Man was the Lord’s relationship as a man with Father God. Sure Jesus knew who He was but as the Son of Man, any man, our carnal man wants its way. However, in the power of the relationship, “Not My will Father but Thine…”
As men, and as children of God, we too must obey but not out of fear. We shall obey having grasped the unshakable facts in the Words of prophecy, the wisdom and the understanding in the teachings of Jesus.
We shall obey most of all because we have been loved like never before by our heavenly Father, our elder Brother and Savior. We have been comforted and are being led into all Truth by the Holy Spirit. We will have acted upon it disregarding our flesh and the carnality of our own hearts purposely.
I do believe it is His grace to warn us via His teachings and now our obedience or our rebelliousness is yet to be revealed. We are admonished to know that if we do not repent, we shall perish. John the Baptist and Jesus taught “repentance for forgiveness of sins.” Jesus simply made our initial forgiveness possible by His sacrificial death, satisfying the Law of the first covenant, establishing the second. In the second covenant I find the Law of the Spirit of Life. (Romans 8:2 KJV)
Bob, I believe respectfully that your early experiences and what I am apparently reminding you of were what they were simply because the perfect love of God had not yet been perfected in you. I certainly am not trying to take you or anyone else back there. That was not God.
You are my dear brother. Iron sharpens iron. Frankly, and sincerely, I appreciate your response. You are not alone in this conflict of thought.
God’s will is for us to end up with Him. Heaven (God) has its standards. Once reconciled, only we can throw that away by outright rebellion, provoked or not. We however have been shown The Way.
As things get worse, we must be on guard and make ourselves follow His Way.
Like I say at the end of my posts, “If we remain in His grip, how far from His heart can we be!”
In the guardianship of Christ,
Michael
Exit Strategy
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End Times Exit Strategy Daniel 12 