Christian Foundations

In our recent posts, we discussed how change and growth is the natural position of all Christians.  We looked at what ‘born again’ really means and how to develop more into what our Creator has laid out for us.

As we continue to look at Growth and change for the Jesus Follower, we journey into the areas of what Jesus actually brought as our ‘Good News’!  Jesus gained undeniable rights for us as His followers but we must learn what His life, death and resurrection bought for us.  Otherwise, we are missing the greatest part of what being a true Jesus Followers is all about.

 

F.  WE MUST IMPLEMENT OUR NEW POSITION IN CHRIST JESUS

1.  Few Christian really know the ‘Good News’!

The story of Lady Jane Grover:

An English pastor was visiting an elderly, dying women in her old, shambles of a home.

As he listened to her story, she remarked: “My most precious possession is framed above my stove in my kitchen.  I was given the page of writing when I left service with Lady Jane Grover and her family in gratitude for my 30 years of service.”

Curiously, the Pastor made his way through the tiny, cramped bedroom into her equally small, run-down kitchen.    He removed the framed piece of paper and returned to the women’s death bed.

He asked with utter amazement: “Do you know what is written on this paper?” 

The Pastor read the words as tears ran down her face.  “To my faithful Mary:  This document gives her the rights to the Valverdear Estate (a very respectable estate in England) alone with a lifetime income, visitation privileges and use our the chapel.”

“Did you know all this was yours?  You would have lived in a very comfortable home with an income for life.”

“Well, no not really,” she replied quietly.  “You see I never learned to read.”

Sad to say, many Christians are in the same place.  They have never read and applied Jesus’ promised, His inheritance to their own life!

2.  I must accept and live in my position in Christ

Here is another picture of our relationship with Jesus:  We are sitting with Him, surrounded by freely given gifts.  However, we must bend down, take the gift and open the gift.  An electric can opener will be totally useless, unless I open the package and plug it into the power source.  So it is with my position in Christ.  I must accept what Jesus has done, receive it and that ‘empowers’ the promises by the Holy Spirit.

 

G.  HOW GOD HAS ALREADY DELIVERED US

The Apostle Paul explained God’s salvation through the use of legal metaphors, using the words of Roman-Greek legal life.  So what is the Good News Jesus brought?

1.  God’s Intent in giving us SALVATION:

a.  ‘Soteria’ is a New Testament word meaning “To be made WHOLE, to be delivered, made safe, preserved from destruction”.  It is a word that both infers completeness and an on-going process.

b.  We are in need of salvation from the evil and corrupt world, from ourselves and from the enemy that wants us destroyed.  It is God’s intention “to make us whole”, in spirit, soul and the future perfect body.

2 Corinthians 3:18  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

2.  We are FORGIVEN:

As sinners, we stood before God as ‘debtors’, owing God.  In Christ, we have been declared OUT OF DEBT, Colossians 2:13-14).  Our debt has been discharged.  This means ‘the remission of a debt’, Ephesians 1:7.

1 John 1:9:   “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

3.  We have been REDEEMED:

This means ‘a buying out’, or a ‘buying back’.   As sinners we stood before God as slaves.  In Christ we are declared FREE, exonerated.  Instead of slavery, we have freedom.

Ephesians 1:7:   “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

4.  God has arranged the PROPITIATION of our sins:

This is one of those big Bible words that means “to bear, be rid of, or to carry the wrath against” , 1 John 2:2, Romans 3:24-26, 5:6-11.

1 John 4:10   “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the Propitiation for our sins.”

God has been offended by our sins and our unrighteous, rebellious behaviour.  The appropriate and fair penalty from a holy and just God would be death.  He provided and PAID the penalty for our offences.  He has released us from our punishment, having dealt with His wrath against our sins through what Jesus did.

Isaiah 53:4-6.  His substitute for our death was the death of Jesus, a pure and spotless sacrifice.  He bore God’s wrath and just punishment for us.  He did not “turn a blind eye” and say our sins and rebellion did not really matter.  It cost our Creator plenty!

5.  In Jesus we stand JUSTIFIED:

This which means ACQUITTAL (Romans 3:21-26, 8:33).  As sinners, we stood before a holy God as accused.  In Christ, we are declared ‘not guilty’.  Instead of condemnation, we have righteousness.

Romans 5:1 – “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”   Father God chooses to not remember the sins and lawless acts after His forgiveness is given.  It is finished and done, Hebrews 10:17.

This goes beyond the statement of “Just as though I hadn’t done it”.  We stand before God with our sins wiped out, counted just as pleasing and righteous as Jesus.  We are just as acceptable to God as Jesus.  We are now called His friend.

6.  We have been RECONCILDED:

As sinners we stood before God as enemies.  With Jesus as our go-between, we are led to peace.  With Jesus beside us, Instead of hostility, we have ACCEPTANCE.  This word means “to make peace”. 

2 Corinthians 5:18-19   “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

He has judged our sins and dealt with the offences by buying back our lives once and for all.  The heart of man will not be successfully reconciled with Father God until we can deal with our feeling of rejection.  The healing truth of reconciliation is what our hearts and minds need to encounter.

7.  We have been ADOPTED into his family

a.  The Roman family’s attitude toward their sons was different to ours today.  As their sons came of age, they would be adopted as an ‘inheritor’ with all the rights and responsibilities.  Until then, the child was regarded as more than a slave but not equal with the father and older sons.

b.  We have been placed as a ‘son’ – wheither we are male or females.  Ephesians 1:5, Romans 8:17.  As sinners we stood before God as strangers, aleinated from the family of God.  In Jesus, we are made joint heirs and worthy of God’s fellowship.  In Christ we have received sonship.  Instead of no rights, we have an INHERITANCE, a family standing and dignity.

8.  We have been given our DOWN PAYMENT on eternal life with Him NOW:

Galations 4:5, Ephesians 1:13, 2 Corinthians 1:22: We have been given ‘a seal’, the earnest of our inheritance and the first fruits of His Spirit in our heart.  This is what makes us the new creation reality.  God’s Holy Spirit has come to live in our heart, to teach us and to help us be conformed to the image of Jesus.

9.  The process of REGENERATION begins:

a.  The Greek word “Hagiasmos”, meaning “To make holy, purify or consecrate” describes the process of growth for the Christian, ‘set apart exclusive use’, an inward transformation gradually taking place, resulting in purity, goodness and moral godliness.

That is why Paul could boldly say:  IF anyone be “IN CHRIST”, they are a NEW CREATION!  We are now a type of being that has never been known before, in the whole of creation; to be ‘in Christ’ means that I have a new LEGAL STANDING before Father God.   My legal standing is that of Christ Himself.  I have His standing, His rights.  I stand in His position before Father God.

b.  Father God’s power is working in us, to change us.  He has not allowed us to continue the same self-destructive games we once knew.  His aim is to bring “salvation” to us, a wholeness of spirit, soul and body.  The re-building process is at the heart of the good news of the gospel of Christ.  Legally we are perfect; experientially we are on a journey toward that perfection.

c.  Ephesians 1:19-23 – We were given hope by knowing that we have that Spirit of wisdom and revelation.  We begin to catch a glimpse of the riches of His inheritance.  It is the same power that raises Jesus from the dead – at work in us, to help us change.  2 Corinthians 7:1   “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

C.  THE IMPORTANCE OF A PROPER BIRTH EXPERIENCE

It is important to check the depth, motivation and reality of the conversion and the new birth experience.  Much of Christian Counselling revolves around “remedial” help for an “inadequate” birth experience with the Lord, one that lacked true conviction, repentance and heart understanding about their choice.

1.  The new growth needs to be nurtured. 

Just like the parable about ‘the Sower and the Seed’ where the stones, thorns and Sun’s heat all combined to destroy the life of the seed, so Satan will try to destroy the work of God.  Without adequate discipline and teaching, the new seed will wither and die, Matthew 13:18.

2.  As helpers, we need to be aware of the great motivator of pain in finding God.  We need to careful not to eliminate or explain away God’s pressure by letting the person “off the hook”, or the other extreme by ignoring the traumas they are feeling.  God uses the pressures of pain and circumstances to bring people to Himself.  (See our comments on ‘Iniquity’.)

 

G. IN CONCLUSION

Jesus’ life, death and resurrection have provided us a perfect path back to relationship with Father God.  The salvation He offers meets all our needs, reverses all the lies the enemy wants us to believe and satisfies all our inner drives for relationship with Father God.

Jesus’ work is so profound, so total that it reverses all the destruction we have known.  The effects of the fall, our corrupted inheritance from previous generations, what we learned in our childhood and all the sinful, hurtful choices we made in getting to where we are today, are all answered and healed in the work of our Lord Jesus.

Now begins a new process of regeneration – we’re not stuck with the old mess but we have begun a new life as a new creation, with His resurrection power.  His healing process now awaits us so that we can enter into His glorious relationship.

It is when we see ourselves as Father God sees us, then we can get the right balance in our own effort to “make ourselves perfect”.  God will never love us any less than He does now.  How will He love us any more than He does now? …….even if we worked on self-perfection from now until we leave this Earth.  The benefits of the new creation are for His kingdom and us.

We have included a few worksheets for this section so make sure you find them in the ‘Resource Categories’ of the blog!   “Who I AM in Christ” is a good place to start!

Then, in our next post, we shall return to the Person of the Holy Spirit.  We took a slight detour so we could lay the Christian Foundations of the ‘Born Again’ experience and of our priceless position in Jesus Christ.

Join us then Susanne Fengler

www.christianfoundations.jesus-treeoflofe.info

Tags: Our rights in Jesus, What Jesus' has done
Filed under: About our Christian Foundations Blog