The Plug Is About To Get Pull On This Age Of Grace, Don't Get Left Behind

Salvation, justification unto eternal life is a gift of God, it is not something we attain by our works in the first place. We have also been sanctified or set apart in that we were identified with Christ by God’s power from on high baptism into Christ at the point of our belief. 


It is entirely a work of God for the believer, not a work of the believer for God. No effort of the flesh could accomplish it, no effort of the saint can add to it. 


This in itself is the motivation for a believer to bring the body into subjection to what God had done freely for the ungodly as we place our faith in what Christ accomplished for our sins. Paul’s desire was about beating the flesh back, not about making the flesh better, it is about holding it down, bringing it into submission. 


One has to do with elevation, the other has to do with submission, Paul was talking about making the flesh subject to him. 


Everywhere Paul went, the people who had known the law did not just reject Paul, they wanted to do away with Paul for preaching that people were not under the law. What does that tell us about those in our day who continue to hang on to the notion that God is continuing to deal with people on the basis of their performance? 


We can see the connection between the religious crowd of Paul’s day and the religious crowd of today. The pride nature is the root cause of that rejection, pride insists upon attributing success to self. 


Human righteousness comes from self-interest-motivation, it is self-glorifying and while it may be of earthly benefit, that will not cut it when it comes to meeting the demands of God’s perfect justice. 


When ungodly people are willing to simply take God at his word, abandoning any notion that they can merit a righteous standing with God through their performance, and trust solely in what Jesus Christ accomplished for them, having resolved that issue of their sin debt, God’s power from on high performs a miracle in those people’s lives by uniting those believers with Christ himself. 


That is what sanctification, our set-apartness is all about. As we travel through Paul’s handbook on faith, we learn the necessity of a total abandonment of any notion that no one can merit righteousness before God through the performance of the flesh, and that we must place our trust solely in the fact that God accomplished our salvation for us through his son’s death when he judged his son for our sins. 


Paul was not talking about Christianizing the flesh, making it better flesh, capable of doing more things, he was talking about holding the flesh back, keeping it down. 


Paul was motivated to keep his desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, to keep it at bay and not let that reign supreme when it came to his activities and his actions. 


Paul was being honest with himself and with us, when it came to the capacity of his flesh to merit righteousness before God through performance, if God was going to righteousify ungodly people, it would have to be freely by his grace, it could come no other way. 


People’s performance could not be allowed to enter the picture. God would have to use belief rather than behavior as the criterion whereby to join believers to his son. Could there have been a sin or two, or maybe a few left over when Christ died for the sin debt of the world, for which God’s justice was not satisfied, a sin in the future? 


God’s justice was satisfied where the sins of the world are concerned, God reconciled the world unto himself, as Paul tells us. 


God was satisfying his own justice where the sins of the world are concerned through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but God recognizes those who take him at his word concerning the price Christ became on their behalf to resolve God’s justice for their sins. 


Taking God at his word is called faith, God’s intent was to join believers to his son, from God’s perspective the two become one flesh. Justification is a recognition of righteousness that comes from God to those who believe God and the moment we believe, God’s power from on high joins us to Christ and from that point on we have a brand new identification. 


Does God’s call go out selectively or does he call all today, and does his call come by way of circumstance or does he call today to believe the message given through the apostle Paul. 


Jesus Christ was made a curse for our sins by taking our place and suffering the judgment of God for the sin debts he died for, was his death not pictured in the scapegoat sacrifice of the Israelite program? 


If a person believes Christ died for their sin debt, but does not believe that God’s justice was satisfied when Christ died for those sins, that person has not believed Christ died for their sin debt according to the scriptures. 


To continue to insist that God’s justice has not been resolved where all the sins Christ died for are concerned, is to deny the truth sitting in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.

a reply to: newnature1

oh you silly Paulians...

14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

a reply to: newnature1

Jesus Christ was made a curse for our sins by taking our place and suffering the judgment of God for the sin debts he died for

Man, you're way off. IMHO.

When will this baloney stop being regurgitated?

a reply to: newnature1

It sounds like you're saying that as long as a person believes that Jesus's death means all their sins are 'paid for' -

- that they can go ahead and sin as much as they want, because God has already forgiven any sins they want to commit...

...Also, if Jesus death was necessary in order for people's sins to be forgiven, what about all the times in the gospels where Jesus is still alive and tells a person that their "sins are forgiven"?

Like the woman who washes his feet with her tears and hair...he says her sins "are" forgiven - not 'will be' forgiven (as soon as he dies for them)

a reply to: lostgirl

Jesus can forgive. He is the instrument of salvation and grace.

His death and resurrection were both necessary for reconciliation, not simply forgiveness alone.

originally posted by: lostgirl
a reply to: newnature1

It sounds like you're saying that as long as a person believes that Jesus's death means all their sins are 'paid for' -

- that they can go ahead and sin as much as they want, because God has already forgiven any sins they want to commit...

...Also, if Jesus death was necessary in order for people's sins to be forgiven, what about all the times in the gospels where Jesus is still alive and tells a person that their "sins are forgiven"?

Like the woman who washes his feet with her tears and hair...he says her sins "are" forgiven - not 'will be' forgiven (as soon as he dies for them)

You are refering to a common misconception. Its partly true, but not a complete understand

Salvation from the Lake of Fire (rebirth of the spirit) is by faith alone, but this does not guarantee one's entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. To enter the Kingdom, you have to wash the garments of your soul with the Mind of Christ. Failure to do so will result in spending eternity in the Outer Darkness (or more literally the darkness outside of the Kingdom).

First believe that Jesus died for our sins.

Then use 1 John 1:9 as needed to continually Abide in Christ.

As this process is maintained, you should be studying the Word of God/Mind of Christ to replace the evil of your subconscious mind with the Righteous thinking of Christ.

This will result in the rehabilitation of the conscious mind, dressing the soul in white and producing righteous works.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

I agree with lostgirl

You should have added once saved by grace, by Christs actions, Christians have a duty to live as christ taught.
Actions Not to justify themselves before God, simply because their love for God, Gods love for us has changed transformed their lives
Saved by grace yes, fruit of the Spirit evidence

I think you told half the story

No offense

originally posted by: Raggedyman
a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

I agree with lostgirl

You should have added once saved by grace, by Christs actions, Christians have a duty to live as christ taught.
Actions Not to justify themselves before God, simply because their love for God, Gods love for us has changed transformed their lives
Saved by grace yes, fruit of the Spirit evidence

I think you told half the story

No offense

Well, you're only telling one-third of the story. Humans are Spirit, Soul, and Body, so there are three parts to salvation.

1) Rebirth of the Spirit: This is salvation by Grace through faith. Once the Spirit is reborn, it cannot die, so you are saved from the Second Death.

2) Rehabilitation of the Soul: This determines whether or not you enter the Kingdom of Heaven or stay in the Outer Darkness of the Kingdom (not the same as Abyss or Lake of Fire).

3) Resurrection of the Body: The Resurrected body is represented by the White Pebble of acquittal in Rev 2. Every beilever receives a resurrected body/white pebble, but only those who overcome the world (by continually Abiding in Christ) receives a New Name on the White Pebble.

So its not as simple as Heaven or Hell.

There is:

1) the Kingdom of Heaven for those who overcome.

2) the Lake of Fire for those who never believed in Christ. They DIE the Second Death.

3) then the Darkness Outside the Kingdom for those who believed but did not overcome the world. This is INJURY by the Second Death.

We will all be sorted at the Judgement Seat of Christ (beima).

a reply to: Raggedyman

If your rebirth was a true one, then the "duty" you speak of isn't. It's instead a way of life. You want to do it. There is no duty.

There are pastors who understand God’s grace who are reluctant to preach grace, because grace will lead to a license to sin. Many of these same pastors in an effort to reduce sinning, they revert to preaching law, thinking that’s going to solve the problem. 


They want to scare the sin out of people, put their salvation on the line, dangle that up in front of them and scare them with a conditional salvation and that will straighten them up. So they stop preaching grace, as if not preaching grace is going stop people from sinning. 


The problem with law as the answer to people’s dilemma is that law is totally incapable of changing the human heart and that’s where the problem lies. What we do, or what we do not do, is not a test of anyone’s salvation today. What we believe is the only test for salvation today! 


Most people think salvation is the end result, salvation is the starting point. The issue of salvation is understanding the reconciliation where our sin is concerned, do we understand that God is reconciled where all sin is concerned for all time. 


The price was paid for all and through that payment, Jesus Christ redeemed the entire human race from the sin barrier that separated the world from God. The sin issue needs to be resolved in our minds, not in Gods.