According to the Bible, the answer is “Yes!” The Apostle John wrote in his first letter these encouraging words: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11-13).
There is no wishful thinking in John’s statement. He boldly asserted that we can know with full confidence that eternal life is ours, that our salvation is sure.
For John’s words to become a reality in your life, you must understand what salvation is and what Christ accomplished for you through His death, burial and resurrection.
Paul gives us the most succinct statement concerning the nature of salvation in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We were under the wages of sin and were spiritually dead. Ephesians 2:1 puts it this way, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.”
Salvation, then, is God’s act of making us alive with Christ. God’s grace reverses in us the death we inherited from Adam. He was alive spiritually, and then died because of sin. We were dead, and then through faith in Jesus Christ were made alive.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ– by grace you have been saved– Eph 2:4-5 (ESV).
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses Col 2:13 (ESV).
You may be asking this question: “If the wages of sin is death, do you forfeit eternal life when you sin today?” Here is the good news. Jesus took your sins and paid the penalty that you justly deserved. As John wrote, “I write to you dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name.”
You are a forgiven person. Your sins were dealt with once and for all by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Not only are you forgiven, you are alive in Jesus. His Spirit now lives you. His Spirit testifies to your spirit that you are a child of God, an heir and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
When Jesus saves, He does so completely. Because of the cross, you can know with confidence that “He will never leave you, nor forsake you.”
Tag: Life
The Gospel that Saves
“How would you know if you are saved? People tell me if you just believe that Jesus died for your sins then you are automatically saved. But I don’t want to go by that if it is not true, if there is more that I have to do, because I really want to be saved.”
This was a question on our radio broadcast. The listener who asked it was sincere. She really wanted to be saved.
She had some information, but not the complete story.
This raises the all-important question; “What is the Gospel that saves?”
Paul laid it out for us in his letter to the Corinthians.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).
The Gospel that saves is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus died to take away our sins and to usher in the New Covenant. He was raised that we might have life.
The Gospel is a message of life. This is why the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very substance of the Christian faith. Without the resurrection, Christianity would be just another religion or empty philosophy.
Listen to what the apostle Paul wrote concerning the resurrection’s significance: “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14). The validity of the Christian message and our assurance of eternal life hinges on this single event.
Jesus said it best, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). Jesus was raised from the dead so that we too could be raised. Salvation is being made alive together with Jesus. Without the resurrection, there is no eternal life.
The sad reality is that far too many Christians live as if salvation is nothing more than forgiveness of sins. “Christ died to forgive my sins”, they say. And that’s it.
To know that our sins have been forgiven once and for all certainly is incredible news. But the heart and soul of the Gospel message is life.
Concerning salvation, this is what Paul wrote to the Colossian church:
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13, 14)
As Paul so clearly stated, we were dead spiritually. We needed life. Until we know that we have been made alive, that the resurrected Christ lives in us, our Christian experience will be a struggle, one filled with frustration and failure. And that assurance we long for will be fleeting.
If you have come to God through Jesus, you are saved. You have crossed over from death to life. The transaction is complete, permanent, and unchangeable. Jesus guaranteed His work on your behalf with this promise: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
Do You Want a Relationship with God?
I ask the question not to provide a “how to” answer. I am really interested in knowing if a relationship with God is something people truly desire.
Peter wrote this: “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God…” (1 Peter 3:18).
The Gospel is an invitation to enjoy a personal and intimate relationship with God.
There is nothing standing in the way. Christ’s death removed all obstacles.
But is relationship what we really want?
I’ve talked to many believers who love the forgiveness aspect of the Gospel, that God does not condemn them. They really enjoy knowing they stand in the righteousness of Christ, holy and blameless.
I do too. But these truths are not the end. These truths free us to enjoy Him.
Consider this promise of the New Covenant – “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Hebrews 8:11).
New Covenant living is all about relationship. Eternal life is all about knowing Jesus Christ (John 17:3).
But is this what people want?
What are your thoughts?
Are the Ten Commandments God's Final Word to Man?
What if the Old Covenant was God’s final word to man?
What if the Ten Commandments were the only means available to us to gain entry into heaven, or to earn God’s love and acceptance?
Where would this leave us?
What would our eternal fate be?
How would this affect our lives here and now?
The Old Covenant was God’s word to Israel. Not His first word to Israel, nor was it His last. But it did define Israel’s way of life as a nation from Moses until Jesus. The teachers of the Law believed Israel’s role in the world was to live out the righteous requirements of the Law, and in so doing, become a blessing to all other nations.
Where did this leave them? The same place it leaves anyone who attempts to gain God’s acceptance through obedience to Law – judged, condemned, fearful and dead in sin.
That’s the Old Covenant, a ministry of condemnation and death.
When read correctly, the Law is God’s word about man, the plain, stark truth. It answers these questions: What is the destiny of a people caught in the throes of a lie? What will be their end? According to the Law, the final stop is death, but only if the Old Covenant is God’s final word.
The denouement of this story has a twist. It is revealed on a hill called Calvary, outside the walls of Jerusalem. A man hung there on a cross, suspended between heaven and earth. He was no ordinary man, and the death he died was no ordinary death.
The man whose hands and feet were pierced was the Lord Himself, the unblemished Lamb of God. His death was in place of ours. Live out the full story of the Law and it ends at the foot of this cross. Look up and see God’s final word to man – Jesus.
Death is not God’s end for man, it is Jesus. In Him we have forgiveness of sins, righteousness and a new way of life defined by the New Covenant.
What if we truly believed that Jesus was and is God’s final word to man?
Where would this leave us?
How would it affect us here and now?
The New Covenant answers – in Jesus fully alive!
Seven Reasons to Fully Embrace the New Covenant
To the fence sitters, here are seven reasons to get off the fence and boldly declare that you are a New Covenant believer.
Paul stated the reasons plainly in his letter to the Corinthians. The passage is 2 Corinthians 3. Read through it. I think you will find the seven reasons to be compelling.
- Life — As Paul wrote, “the law kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The end of the law is death. That is the wages of sin. In the New Covenant, you receive life, Christ’s life.
- Righteousness — The law is a ministry of condemnation. No way to feel close to God or even know that He truly loves you when you keep failing to live up to His commands. In the New, God makes you righteous in Jesus. You are accepted.
- Eternal Security — The Old Covenant was temporary. It had a limited purpose – to show us our need for Christ. The New is eternal. Jesus’ promises and provisions last forever, which means that you are saved completely and eternally.
- Hope — The weight of the law squeezes out all measure of hope. As the writer of Hebrews stated, apart from Christ, you live in the fearful expectation of God’s punishment. In this New Covenant, your sins have been taken away once and for all. You are forgiven. You have Jesus and He is your hope of glory.
- Freedom — Under the law, you were in bondage to sin and death. Sin was your master, as Paul wrote. But in this New Covenant, the Spirit of Life sets you free from the law of sin and death. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
- Transformation — Self-effort keeps you stuck in the Romans 7 trap: the things I want to do, I don’t, and the things I don’t want to do, I do. But in the New Covenant you are transformed into the likeness of Christ, from glory to glory.
- Jesus — Under law, it is all about you and your ability to live up to the standards. In the New, Jesus lives His life through you. He was the One who was revealed when the curtain in the temple was torn. He is God’s gift to you.
It is time to get off the fence. Make the declaration: “I am a New Covenant believer!”
Four Promises That Will Change Your Life
This is an astonishing claim. But it’s true. I am talking of the four promises, or provisions, of the New Covenant.
The writer of Hebrews described these promises as better than the promises of the Old. And indeed they are.
They are laid out for us in Hebrews 8:10-12. I’ve numbered them for ease of reading.
- I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.
- I will be their God, and they will be my people.
- No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
- For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.
These are better promises because they hit us at our deepest points of need. We need power and the internal motivation to live out the Christian life. We need to have assurance that we belong and that God does indeed love us. We cry out for a relationship with God, to genuinely know Him. We desperately need to know that our sins have been forgiven once and for all.
On all of these points, the New Covenant provides. Jesus’ finish work guarantees all of these promises. I’ve juiced each one down to one word. In this New Covenant we have
- Power
- Assurance
- Relationship
- Forgiveness.
The world, religion and even the flesh make outlandish promises, but they never deliver. Not Jesus. In Him, we have everything we need.
Take hold of these four promises and your life will never be the same.
How would you describe each promise?
What Questions Are Christians Asking?
What are the subjects that are of most interest to believers? Here is our top 20 list based on 2,355 calls to the People to People radio broadcast over the last three years.
1. Salvation 124 Calls
2. Forgiveness 105 Calls
3. Marriage 70 Calls
4. Prayer 62 Calls
5. Christian Living 56 Calls
6. Baptism 52 Calls
7. Sin 48 Calls
8. Faith 47 Calls
9. The Church 46 Calls
10. Divorce/Remarriage 45 Calls
11. Death 43 Calls
12. Doctrine/Truth 38 Calls
13. The Holy Spirit 37 Calls
14. Tithing/Giving 34 Calls
15. New Covenant 32 Calls
16. Revelation 32 Calls
17. Jesus 31 Calls
18. Grace 31 Calls
19. Assurance 30 Calls
20. Rapture 25 Calls
Which of these subjects hold the most interest for you? In future posts, I will write about these subjects matters and offer up questions to spark interaction. Concerning future posts, I will be uploading those on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I look forward to hearing about the subjects you want to know more about.
First Life, Then Change
I was sitting at my desk one day, doing my normal work stuff, and the phrase,”first life, then change,” popped into my mind. Most thoughts I have during a day race through my head and then quickly disappear. This one stuck. It turned out to be one of those “aha” moments for me.
First life, then change is the process God works in our lives.
So many of us short circuit the process. We leave the life part out of the equation, and focus merely on the change we hope and pray God can bring to our lives. In other words, we view Christianity as a self-improvement program. God is there to help us better our lives. At least that was the way I viewed Christianity. Like so many, I cried out to God time and time again for His help, but nothing changed. If anything, my feeble efforts made matters worse. I didn’t know that I needed life.
However, Scripture is very clear. I was dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1). Not just me, you too were dead in sin. This is the spiritual condition that was passed on to you by your mom and dad. This ancestry trail traces back to Adam and Eve. They forfeited spiritual life in exchange for the chance to be like God. The decision plunged them and all of mankind into the realm of sin and death.
We hear the echoes of this reality at times. We sense deep down that something is terribly wrong, or feel emptiness inside, or experience an unexplained restlessness. All of these are symptoms of spiritual death. Some ignore these indicators. Others charge out to find that one thing to fill the void. But money, power, prestige, fame or anything else the world may offer are never enough. They leave us still wanting. Death needs to be turned to life.
Calvin spent much of his life trying to fill the emptiness of his heart. He had tried almost everything imaginable, but nothing worked. He turned to drugs and alcohol to mask the underlying pain and emptiness. Even then, he could hear the echoes. Something was wrong. All his prayers seemed to go unanswered. His struggle to change led him to a point of desperation. He turned on his radio hoping to find answers. Scanning the dial, he landed on the station that airs our program in his area. Something caught his attention. He picked up his phone and called our toll-free number.
You could hear the weariness in his voice. “I’ve tried to do the right things. I pray for God’s help night and day, but I keep going back to my old ways. Is there hope?”
I had the privilege of sharing with Calvin God’s process, first life, then change. It struck a chord with him. Thousands listened in as he expressed his heart of faith through prayer. That day, God raised Calvin spiritually so that he could live in the newness of life. I could hear the power of what was happening in his voice. Calvin, just minutes before was dead in sin. But now he was alive in Christ.
The offer of the Gospel is life. Jesus made this abundantly clear throughout His teaching ministry. Listen to His words: I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Once we are alive in Him, the change begins.
10 Insights from Conference 220
Here are several things that struck me from Conference 220. I wish all of you could have been there. It was a powerful conference. We plan to do it again next year. Stay tuned for details.
- Love benefits others at the expense of self. Sin benefits self at the expense of others. Frank Viola
- We need to pray for a new, fresh revelation of Jesus Christ. He wipes everything else off the table. Frank Viola
- The Christian life is becoming what we already are. Frank Viola
- Jesus is our forgiveness once and for all. Jesus is our life moment by moment. Andrew Farley
- The New Covenant invites us to be obsessed with Jesus Christ. Andrew Farley
- We participated in Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating at the right hand of the Father. Andrew Farley
- Christianity is not a self-improvement program. Bob Christopher
- Jesus lives in us. With Him in our lives, we should have great expectations concerning the Christian life. Bob Christopher
- When we die to human effort, we come alive to the fullness of God’s love and grace. Bob Christopher
- It is easier to trust someone when you know that they love you. Pete Briscoe
The Biggest Problem in the Church Today
Last Thursday, Pete Briscoe was our special guest on People to People. You can listen to the program here.
He is the lead pastor at Bent Tree Bible Church in Plano, TX. He is one of the voices on the Telling the Truth radio broadcast along with his parents, Stuart and Jill Briscoe.
Pete will be sharing his personal grace awakening this Saturday morning at Conference 220. By the way, there is still room if you would like to attend. All the information is here.
During the broadcast, Pete shared an illustration. One Sunday, as he was teaching from Galatians, he stopped a moment, pulled out a bottle of 10w40 oil and poured a little bit into his coffee cup. He stirred the drink and then lifted the cup to his lips to take a drink.
The congregation shrieked.
Pete responded, “What’s the big deal? I just put a little bit of oil in the coffee.”
Even that little bit presented a danger to Pete’s health.
That was his point concerning law and grace. You can’t mix the two. The law had a purpose. When that purpose was fulfilled in our lives, the law gave way to grace. Now, the grace of God is in charge. My last post covered this topic.
Since we are so comfortable with the law, we naturally want to blend a little law in with the pure grace of God. Religion sends this message to us as well.
Even a little law mixed in with grace can lead to big problems in the Christian life. Talked to just about any Christian on the planet and you will hear them use words like frustration, guilt, fear, shame, struggling and failure to describe their Christian experience.
This is a sure sign that somewhere along the way, they poured a little law into their coffee cup of grace.
Paul explained the problem: “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” If we let just a speck of the law in, it want be long until the law is ruling the roost in our lives. You cannot mix law and grace.
It was the biggest problem of the church in Paul’s day. It is the biggest problem in the church today.
It is time for us to fully embrace the grace of God and allow His Spirit to lead us, to guide us into all truth, and to transform us into the image of Christ Jesus.
In your life, how have you mixed law and grace? What was the result.