Biblical Content in the Context of Biblical Emphasis is Our Biblical Imperative

Most of what Christians communicate has Biblical content. Subjects like predestination, grace,love,unity, God’s sovereignty are all typical examples of Biblical Content.

But any time we communicate Biblical Content but neglect Biblical Emphasis, we violate Biblical imperative.

What is Biblical Imperative?

“That in all things, Christ might be preeminent.”

“I am determined to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified.”

To put it another way,

Jesus said,”I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.”

The entirety of Christianity begins with the redemption of mankind.
Jesus is the only way to the Father, He is the only truth that leads us to the Father, He is the only life we can obtain with the Father, for we are all already dead in trespasses and sins.

Even discipleship means nothing without Christ.

“I am the Vine and you are the branches, without Me you can do nothing.”

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Preacher.
What could you possibly have to say that would have more meaning or relevance aside from Jesus Christ ?

Jesus is The Way – “Romans Road” To Eternal Life – Take The One Way Trip!

Striding on the Roman Road (Photo credit: Bods)

“For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

                                                    – Romans 10:13

Romans 3:10 tells us, “as it is written, THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;” (Romans 3:10 NASB) As the Scriptures say: “There is no one who always does what is right, not even one.” (Romans 3:10 NCV)

The requirement of God is a perfect life. A sinless selfless life. Who has not sinned?

And Romans 3:23 adds, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us,” (Romans 3:23 MSG)

Why does man sin and where did sin come from?

Romans 5:12 states that sin started with Adam, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned– “(Romans 5:12 NASB) Sin came into the world because of what one man did, and with sin came death. This is why everyone must die — because everyone sinned.

(Romans 5:12 NCV) What happens to those who sin?

Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 NASB) When people sin, they earn what sin pays — death. But God gives us a free gift — life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Romans 6:23 NCV)

If all have sinned and the penalty for sin is death, what can a person do? How can anyone be saved?

Romans 5:8 tells us how we can be saved from our sin and its penalty, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NASB)

1But God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NCV)

If Jesus did die for me and was raised from the dead, how does that save me from sin and its penalty?

Romans 10:9-10 is clear, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10 NASB)

If you use your mouth to say, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. We believe with our hearts, and so we are made right with God. And we use our mouths to say that we believe, and so we are saved. (Romans 10:9-10 NCV)

Any one who realizes he can never live a perfect life can be saved.

Romans 10:13, for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” (Romans 10:13 NASB) For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. [Joel 2:32.] (Romans 10:13 AMP)

Salvation is a free gift.

You may be ruled by desires for things contrary to God now. Don’t worry about that, Let Jesus come into your heart and change you. He has the power to change your desires.

Your good works cannot save you. That is why Jesus died for us. Your good works are the result of genuine salvation, not a condition for you to be saved.

Ask Jesus to come into your heart, save you ,and make you His. He is waiting.

The Very Best Place To Live

 

 

heavens (Photo credit: Mystic Musings…)

 

“For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.” (Hebrews 13:14)

 

Heaven.

 

Think of it.
Living with God in God’s city!
Streets paved with pure gold.

 

Jobs- Don’t need them. Everything is God’s and all who received Christ are His royal family! We will have no want or need except to be with God.
Crime rate – eternally zero.
Climate – always perfect, never storms or cloudy, never too hot or too sunny, in fact, it is always day time because Christ is always there and His glory is it’s light!
Health- Our bodies are totally changed into perfect bodies when Christ returns to take us home. No more illnesses or death, weaknesses or bad health ever. Our new bodies will be incorruptible.

 

Ethnic diversity- People from every kingdom,nation, and tribe on Earth.

 

Things to do- Basking in the full and continually abundant love of almighty God. Worshiping God in His presence will be a natural response.

 

The ultimate best place to live is literally out of this world!
But we can have our citizenship to that city now.
The price of our residence in Heaven has been paid for already by a generous benefactor, God.

 

” for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”(John 3:16)

 

In fact, if we decide we want to go there, God will personally seal the deal.

 

(Ephesians 1:13,14)” And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

 

If you want to be sure now of where you will live for eternity, ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior now,…He’s listening.

 

Tim Keller- Hell: Isn’t the God of Christianity an Angry Judge?” Video – 35 Min.

http://wp.me/p1Lr49-er

Should I Not Love that Great City? -An Audio Sermon By Dr. Tim Keller – Redeemer Presbytarian Church Manhatten New York – 4 Weeks After 9-11-01

CNN breaking the news of a plane crash at the World Trade Center (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Redeemer’s Synopsis – “Many recoil at the thought of being called to reside in a large city. Jonah felt the same way when God asked him to go to Nineveh, and he made every attempt and excuse to avoid the great city. Like Jonah, we may see crime, pollution, greed, and moral decay as deterrents to living in a city; but in God’s eyes its peoples are precious, and his grace and mercy are available to all. Once we glimpse the heavenly eternal city, the city of God, we will share God’s view of the lost and will be able reach out in charity and love to a broken world.”

Preached just four weeks after the 9-11-2001 attack on the World Trade Center and our nation, Dr. Keller delivers this sermon to his congregation who are still reeling from the attack. At the time we were all waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak, and 11 years later we still are in a state of constant vigil.

Dr. Keller parallels the events recorded in the old testament book of the Bible, Jonah,and the city God sent the prophet to, as the platform from which he takes us through history in regards to Christian Citizenship and God’s love for people.

Keller takes us back to another global tragedy which shook the confidence of the entire civilized world, the Fall of Rome, and to the wisdom and truth conveyed by Saint Augustin in his book,The City of God”, written during that era.

Then Keller goes well beyond that.

This sermon was easy to listen to repeatedly because of the richness of content and I learned more from it with each review of it.

As citizens of Heaven, The Eternal City, we are to be the very best citizens of any city on Earth as we follow Christ’s example of love and selfless sacrifice for the sake of others.

Click on the link below for the audio sermon.

http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/should-i-not-love-great-city

Life After Death – We Can Know Our Final Destination

 

One day our journey will end.
Our life as we know it will end.

But we can know where we are going after this life is over.

“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 5:13

What are we saved from?

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” romans 3:23

God is perfect, we are not. Therefore we cannot live with him when our journey is over unless He makes us perfect.
He promises to change us into perfection and give us eternal life with Him if we let Him save us from our current path.

The following Bible references have helped me to know my final destination beyond any doubt.
The rest and assurance that results from knowing and no longer fearing death is that I now love Him more than my own life.

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession–to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13,14

If then God puts His Spirit in those who believe, these next verses are also true.

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16

God is love. He warms the hearts of those who truly know Him, and we feel His presence in us.

“We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” 1 John 4:13

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:16

Do you know Him…? You can know Him, and you can know your final destination for certain and forever.

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile–the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:9-13

Heaven is my final destination.
I hope to see you there!

Biblical Emphasis in Doctrine – The Numbers Are In – Its About Jesus

Solus Christas Emphainein – Emphasize Christ Alone

Many Christian denominations share the same foundational doctrinal beliefs and values.

Much has been said about the need to emphasize one doctrine or the other and why to do so.

Not enough is being said about Biblical Emphasis in Doctrine as is demonstrated by a survey of The Bible.

For instance – If we take all the verses of the New Testament, about 7,956, and divide that number by the amount of times the Authors, under divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit mentioned Jesus Christ.

Taking into account there are many different names for Jesus ,some of which are Christ, Son, Savior, Son of Man, Lamb of God, Teacher, Jesus Christ, Master,and Lord. A word search in a digital Bible will reveal about 2,143 such references to our Lord.

7,956 x .2694% = 2,143.34 Which means the New Testament authors under divine inspiration of God’s Spirit reference at least one of Jesus Christ’s names about 27% of the time.

So we should always ask ourselves, “When we teach God’s Word are we using Biblical Emphasis?”

The Bible really is about Jesus. He is the way back to God.

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Man’s Pride Infects The Gospel – The Doctrine of Repentance

 

 

Choosing to follow Jesus will result in men turning from their sin in exchange for Christ’s most precious love. But if a person is told they must first forsake their sin as a condition to follow Christ they will turn away if they are honest because they know they are slaves to sin. The world and Church both know the Church has enough hypocrites.

Salvation is a free gift bought and paid for with the blood of Christ, and if a person knows they need Jesus then they know they need a Savior. That means they know they are condemned without Him. That is Biblical repentance. The problem is that we have confused sanctification of desires with awareness of need for salvation.

We have put the sanctification cart before the Holy Spirit horse.

Some context for making this point-

A major role of Paul the Apostle was to defend and confirm the Gospel.

Philippians 1:7 “…in the defense and the confirmation of the gospel,”
Philippians 1:17 “knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.”

Pride was as prevalent back in those days as it is now. In my previous blogs I tried to paint a clear picture of how pride is not only the main weakness of all of mankind, but also the main weakness of all created beings, even angels. Pride lead to Lucifer’s downfall. Then Lucifer was cast down to Earth and out of Heaven along with 1/3 of the angels who followed him in his unsuccessful attempt to over through God. Lucifer,(Satan), wanted to be,”like the Most High”.
There can only be One God.

Perhaps in an attempt to get even with God, Lucifer tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God with the prospect of being,”like God”, the same sin that lead to Lucifer’s downfall.

Self Centered Pride lead to the downfall of man. It is leading us to the ruin of all of mankind.

Man’s pride leads to the creation of cults that serve man’s lusts. National Geographic 2011 featured the disturbing reality of child brides that are given in the name of religion. Some as young as 6 years old, almost an infant bride. The dark depths of the heart of man seem almost bottomless at times when I hear of such things as this. Pride and the ultimate lust of mankind to rule his own destiny at the expense of all others seems to be pushing the boundaries of evil ever closer to the depths of Hell.

Pride is a given. It’s the root of all evil. Money is not. Men who are old and have more than they could ever spend are using money to leverage power. Only the sense of being powerful comes close enough to the God Complex that it takes to make leaders behave like they are insane. Men who behave in such a way seem willing to destroy both mankind and this world in their quest to gain power. They may or may not realize that they desire to be,”like the Most High.”

Even after we become Christians, and God puts His Spirit in our hearts, our desires are at war with our ,flesh.”
Our flesh is the part of us that remains pride oriented and is reclaimed gradually by God after our salvation. We call this Sanctification and Discipleship. In simplified terms, those two words mean growth and development by God’s Spirit working in the believer. We are assured that upon passing from this life to the next we will be changed from our corruptible flesh to sinless incorruptible bodies, not prone to lusts. God changes our desires here and now by loving us and living in us. His humility and love shown to all on the cross is the measure of how much He loves us.

Pride even infected the presentation of the gospel in the early church. Paul recorded the event and related ones as we read in the book of Galatians in the Bible. Certain people who claimed to be Christians added a requirement for salvation to God’s free gift, bought and paid for by the only one worthy to do so, Jesus Christ.

Paul’s tone in this letter can be summed up by counting the exclamation marks and question marks in the six chapters that make the book.

Paul used about 11 exclamations and 13 questions in six chapters. This is very telling of Paul’s frame of mind. In verse 6 of the first chapter Paul tells the Galatians his frame of mind.Depending on the translation, he is,”astonished,” “I marvel.” He is astonished ,“that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who troubled you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

The guys that upset Paul only wanted a small thing added to Christ’s finished work. Jewish circumcision was all they asked in addition to faith in Jesus as Savior. To many it obviously seemed insignificant, almost like a token of good faith.

To Paul it was huge. Either Jesus paid it all or nothing. Faith in Christ had to be faith in Christ alone plus nothing.
Paul even mentioned this to the Galatians in regard to growth and development,(sanctification).

Galatians 3:3“Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”

So we see that neither they nor we can save ourselves, nor can we make the kind of ongoing changes that give us victorious living here and now to live selfless fulfilling lives modeled after Jesus Christ.

So here is the point of this post-

Why do we tell someone about Jesus’ sacrifice, compel them to accept His free gift of salvation bought and paid for with His blood, and then say, Only turn from your sin and accept Christ as Savior.”?

Turn from sin? Before they have the indwelling Spirit promised to all who believe?
Are we so foolish? Men can understand their sin has ruined them and condemned them to Hell but sin may still rule their desires. They may not turn to Christ because they know sin still owns their desire and they don’t want to be hypocrites. I have met people like that.

I tell them to let Jesus deal with their desires!

Only God can change our desires through Christ!

^” for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Philippians 2:13

This is making an additional condition for accepting salvation’s free gift. Turning from sin is something an unbeliever ,who has not been empowered by the Holy Spirit, does not have the ability to affectingly do! He can want to be set free by Christ! That is repentance.

We must not confuse the two as if we do not already know that sanctification takes place only by the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer after salvation. To say otherwise is putting the cart before the horse, or putting sanctification before salvation/conversion.

Demanding an unbeliever to turn from sin in order to accept God’s gift is foolishness in the highest degree!
Demanding an unbeliever to turn from sin before Christ comes in is the modern version of adding circumcision as a condition for salvation. It is adding the works of the law to grace!
It is perversion of the gospel, and it is another gospel!

This is the gospel, God so loved you that He came down and became one of us as Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a humble life even though everything belonged to Him. He was one of us! He lived a perfect sinless life, the life none of us ever could. Jesus said;

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus did ALL the heavy lifting, paid ALL the amount due,and continues to restore our broken lives until His return when He will suddenly make us complete and whole in an instant. Jesus does it ALL from beginning to end.

Add NOTHING to what Jesus has done. Repentance is God-given. God leads us to repent by revealing our need and how He can cancel our dept if we accept Christ by faith. In addition God makes us His children, sons and daughters.

 “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”Romans 2:4

If God affects a person’s heart to realize they need a Savior, then they obviously see their predicament!

Genuine repentance is an automatic response to God-given revelation of our own need for Christ.

When we see a clear picture of Christ we see our depravity.This is the goodness of God. GRACE! And to an infinite degree that leads us to true repentance.

We must never offer guilt in the absence of Grace.

Both repentance and acceptance take place or neither happens.

Give us Jesus and we have everything we need.
Not another gospel, just Jesus, and only Jesus!

Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Galatians 2:16 “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

God Was Manifested in the Flesh

” And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit,Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.”1Timothy 3:161

 The above verse from the Bible states that Jesus is God revealed to mankind in Bodily Form.

Just to think the God of all that is , was, and shall be personally came down to Earth as Jesus, to be one of us and to make a way for us back into fellowship with Himself.

This amazing love and humility is also beyond comprehension.
Great is the mystery.

Related articles

• God Came Down! (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)
• Manifest in the Flesh (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)
• Jesus is Truly God and became Manifest in the Flesh (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)