Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P471 (9-06-19)
Synopsis
Many people have called into Classic Christianity radio to get help answering common questions. Bob is careful to point people to the scriptures for truth, relying on the Holy Spirit to teach you. He shares from his experience and study in the word what God has revealed to him.
Many times a person hears something but gets two different answers. This often happens when a leader of one denominational persuasion shares something in conflict with a leader of another denominational persuasion. Truth is not found in denominations or church fathers but from truth revealed to you by the Spirit of God as you read and study God’s word, relying on the Holy Spirit to teach you the meaning of His words. A mature believer in Christ, like Bob George, can help assist you in your learning. Bob often asks probing questions to help you draw out the meaning of God’s word.
Liz heard about Communion from a Catholic church and also from a non-Catholic church. By studying John 3, and having the Holy Spirit in you, you can easily discern that in no way is Jesus literally, or actually present, in a wafer, that you digest and that then goes out your digestive tract. Jesus told Nicodemus that flesh gives birth to flesh and Spirit gives birth to spirit. The context of the discussion clearly indicates Nicodemus was thinking of physical birth but Jesus is saying there must be a second and separate spiritual birth. The flesh counts for nothing in the spiritual realm, for the receiving of new life in Christ Jesus. When Jesus said you must be born of water and the spirit, he is saying that just as you must first be born into this world, then you also must be born a second time, not by water, as in the breaking of a water sac of a pregnant woman’s womb, but by the Spirit. This “water and the spirit” is not saying that baptism into a Catholic church, as in a sacrament of baptism, is necessary for salvation. For the physical flesh does not contribute anything to your salvation, your being indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. An infant does not receive “initial grace” when baptized. That infant baptism does not contribute in any way to a process of salvation that Catholics speak of.
What is communion? It is a picture of Jesus saying, “this loaf represents me”. It is single in form. This one loaf, this one piece of bread, is broken off for you. Now take and eat. What is that a picture of? It is a picture of the day you came to Christ, individually, when you came to Christ by faith. When bread is passed around, where is it? It is in you. It is a picture of Christ in you.
Colossians 1:26-27 (TLB)
26He has kept this secret for centuries and generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you Gentiles, too. 27 And this is the secret: Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory.
What is the taking of the celebration of the wine? It is a celebration of the New Covenant. We read about the New Covenant in the book of Hebrews.
Bob explained again what salvation is. There are so many denominations out there that teach error that you really need to study God’s word to be able to spot error when you hear it. It would be just like a bank teller having studied a dollar bill so well that when a counterfeit bill is presented, he easily recognizes it.
A common error among many different denominational persuasions is that salvation is getting your sins forgiven. The Catholic says you need to go to a priest to get mortal sins forgiven in a confessional booth. Catholics put sins into categories of sins, but we know from scripture that just one sin is all that is necessary to receive the price of eternal death. Indeed, we are dead spiritually already, as we can come to understand through the scriptures by the Holy Spirit. A Protestant says you can go directly to God to get your sins forgiven, that you need to keep short accounts of sin with God to stay in fellowship with God, by confessing future sins, often from a misapplication and misunderstanding of 1 John 1:9. Both are in serious error on this matter in regards to salvation.
Salvation comes from the root word, “saved”. The logical question to ask is, “Saved from what?” From Romans 6:23, we come to understand that the wages of sin is death. There is a penalty of death for sin. So the next logical question to ask is, “Which sins?”
According to scripture, James writes that if you stumble at just one point of the law, you have broken all of the law. So just one lie, one adulterous thought, having anger in your heart, is all that results in the consequence of sin, which is death. The root of all sin is unbelief, not trusting in God, who said in the garden of Eden, “do not decide for yourself what is right and wrong, good and evil, for when you do you shall surely die.”. So it would be wise to know what God calls sin and not lean on your own understanding. It would be wise to know the plan of God in regards to dealing with sin.
So sin is what caused death. Sin is rooted in an independent and rebellious attitude toward God, believing a lie about God, a God that you think cannot meet your need, whom you have been deceived into thinking He is not perfectly loving and just. So you make up gods of your own liking. That is what results in a state of spiritual death, death to God.
Death is really a separation from someone you love or from someone who loves you. Now consider that God is perfectly loving. He created you to be in communication with Him. Life is having the Spirit of God, a relationship with the living God, restored back to you. Even while you are alive physically, you are separated from God, unable to discern the the things of God in your current state, and if that condition remains, you will forever be separated from God.
How then can all of my sins be taken away so I do not have to face the consequence of death, that spiritual death? You are under a law of sin and death. How can I be out from under this law of sin and death? God, knowing your state of death, and knowing that is a price you can never pay, provided a solution to your problem. He sent his only Son, Jesus, who is God in the flesh, to die on a cross to take away all the sins of the entire world. In Hebrews, we read that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. He died once and for all, never to die again. His sacrifice was of such eternal value, that it was all sufficient to take way all the sins of the entire world.
Now that Jesus died, is man saved? No. Why not? If Jesus was not raised from the dead, would you remain dead also? Yes. Your more serious problem is not sins, however many or few, but death. Sin caused your death, and Jesus paid a great price so that the debt of sin is forgiven, taken away completely, but death cannot give life. Life gives life. You are saved by His life but his death was necessary in order for life to be given. If you were able to be given life, but your sin was not taken away, then the next time you sinned, you would die again? So his death on the cross was absolutely essential but his death cannot give you life. His resurrected life gives you life.
That is why Bob defines salvation this way. Salvation is being saved from the consequences of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. Bob often said, “You are not saved by the death of Christ Jesus. You are saved by His life.”
Now is everyone saved now that Jesus is raised from the dead? No! That would be universal salvation. Do you see why salvation is not getting your sins forgiven? Why not? Unless someone receives the life God offers through the resurrected life of His Son, they remain dead. Yes, all men are forgiven of all their sins. When were your sins forgiven? When did Jesus shed his blood? On the cross 2000 years ago. Was that sacrifice sufficient to take away all the sins of the entire world from the eyes of God? Yes. Will Jesus ever shed his blood again? No. How many of my sins were in the future when he died? All of them. Was his sacrifice a propitiation for sin, a complete satisfaction of the wrath of God against all sin? Yes, indeed! All the sins of the entire world were placed on Christ Jesus. He took it all.
Learn More About the Author of Peace
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
Hebrews 7:27
27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself
Hebrews 9:25-27
25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment
Who was declared guilty of sin? We were. What was the verdict? Guilty. What was the punishment? Death? Who paid it? Jesus. When did he pay? When he shed his blood on the cross. Is there any sins remaining that he did not pay? No. Jesus cried out on the cross, “Tetellestai” in Greek, which means paid in full. It is finished. Even Adolf Hitler had all his sins forgiven, even on the day he was born, for that was after Jesus went to the cross over 2000 years ago. But if he failed to come to Christ for life, he remains dead and would have died in his sins.
So what is the only sin attributable to man, that if he does not repent of, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven? According to John 16:9, the world’s sin is unbelief in Jesus. Put your complete trust in what Jesus alone accomplished alone for you through his death, burial and resurrection. If you fail to come to Christ for life, you will indeed die in your sins. Jesus did it all.
Ephesians 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
Where is the redemption and forgiveness of sins found? In Him. Are you in Him? Yes. What do you have? Redemption. Would you ask God to redeem you? No. Why? You are already redeemed. Why would you ask God to forgive you, when he says that in Him you have redemption and forgiveness of sins? What do you have, in Him? Redemption and forgiveness of sins.
Now, man, who is born in Adam, born in sin and death, having sin of his own that needs to be paid, can he die for you and me? No. The only man who has a life to lay down, a life without sin, is God Himself, in the person of Christ Jesus. He came to lay down his life for you, to take upon your sins and my sins, only to be raised to new life, so that the life that raised him from the dead, can raise you from the dead also. Can a dead man raise himself to life? No, except for the one man Christ Jesus, because he has no sin of his own. Without sin of his own, death has no hold on him. He is also an eternal being, with no beginning and no end. He is the only perfect sacrifice to take away sins and the only one with life in Himself. The resurrected life of Christ Jesus is the only available life for man. The resurrected life of Christ Jesus is offered to save man.
God offers man a new life in Christ Jesus, the very life of God to be lived. Man is to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Man is to live in the manner Jesus explained in the parable of the vine and the branches in John 15. God lives his life in us and through us as we allow Him to, by abiding in Him and He in us. He inititiates and we respond. We love because He first loved us. He produces the fruit of the Spirit in us and through us. We simply bear the fruit He produces by remaining in His love.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
This is eternal life, to know God and His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus often appealed to men when he walked the earth to come to Him for life. From God’s vantage point, he has already reconciled the world to himself. In Him is the redemption and the forgiveness of sins. In Him is the receiving of new life. That new life is the very Holy Spirit that was in Adam before he sinned and also in Jesus as he walked the earth. That Holy Spirit of God is a person who comes to live inside someone who puts their faith in Christ alone, what he did for you through his death, burial and resurrection.
A common question asked is, “what then should I do when I sin?” Just thank him. That is all you can and should do. “How do I maintain a right relationship with God?”. Again, faith is not about what we do or fail to do, as if what we do contributes anything to what Christ Jesus has already done or what we fail to do would cause the Spirit to leave us or lose acceptance with Him.
A walk of faith is trusting in Christ alone. We walk in that same faith that resulted in our new spiritual birth. It is not faith to ask God for something you already have. You do not ask God to give you eternal when you already have it. You do not ask God for forgiveness of sins when you already have it. The only response when you sin is to thank Him for what He already did at the cross and then you can ask God why you sinned. He will tell you that you sinned because you stopped trusting Him and listened to the voice of Satan.
God is not dealing with you on the basis of sin and death anymore. He is dealing with you under pure grace, as a child of God. He directs you and teaches you from within, renewing your mind with truth. When you study His word and rely on the Holy Spirit to teach you and renew your mind, you will walk in accordance with the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. You will walk in the newness of life. The just shall live by faith. You will never lose fellowship with God because your salvation never had anything to do with you but in what Christ Jesus alone did for you, and you believed Him. When He places His Spirit in you, that Spirit is sealed and remains in you forever. That is eternal life, life that never ends. He has promised to never leave you or forsake you. Abide in His love. Be convinced of His love for you that surpasses understanding!
Transcript
Liz from Mederi, LA
Can you explain exactly what scripture says in reference to that some denominations believe in actual presence of Jesus in the Communion wafer and in the wine whereas others do not. They just use grape juice and bread as an act of remembrance.
There is absolutely no justification at all for the teaching that in some mysterious way that you stick a wafer in your mouth and that brings Jesus to your heart. Anybody that knows about your body knows that it will get out of there if you have a digestive system. We became the body of Christ not through a wafer but when the Spirit of God came to live in us, and baptized, or placed us into the body of Christ. The body of Christ means I am born again of the Spirit. You cannot be born again of the Spirit by believing anything except the gospel. The gospel is not Christ plus anything. The gospel is that Jesus died to take away the sins of the world from the eyes of God in order that the life that raised him from the dead will raise me from the dead.
So why are we going to a confession booth? Jesus said he took away the sins of the entire world. That is either true or it is not. What are Catholics still doing getting their sins forgiven in a confessional booth? What are Protestants doing continually asking God to forgive them and quoting 1 John 1:9? So whether Catholic or Protestant, what are you doing that for? Jesus said, “I took away your sins once and for all. And when I come back I am not coming back to bear sin but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him”. Why is he not coming back to bear sin? He has already done it. He did it once, he did it for all and did it when he cried from the cross, and said “it is finished”. It is finished, or tetellestai, means paid in full, not in part. The cross was preparatory. We are saved from the consequences of sin, which is death by the gift of God, which is life.
Colossians 2:13
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
When you come to Christ by faith, you say, “Jesus, you did that for me”. We internalize this and say, “You died and took away my sins in the eyes of God so you could give me eternal life through your resurrection”. What was the purpose of his resurrection? That life that raised him from the dead can raise you and me from the dead. When you are dead, you need life.
John 10:10b
“10 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Why would He say that? You are dead. The only life available to any Muslim, Buddhist, Catholic, Baptist or Presbyterian is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus.
Romans 5:10
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled [that being a completed act], shall we be saved through his life!
What are we saved from? We are saved from the consequences of sin, which is death. Who saves us? The resurrected life of Christ Jesus saves us.
Romans 6:3
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
1 Corinthians 12:13
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
When you are born again, as Jesus explained to Nicodemus in John 3, you are born again of the Spirit. The Spirit comes to live in us, that is, Christ in us, and baptizes, or places us in the body of Christ, and that is us in Christ. Christ is in me and I am in Christ. What transaction is that? That is a spiritual transaction. All this other garbage is physical stuff. There is a natural birth and there is a spiritual birth. You cannot be saved physically. You are only saved spiritually. There is natural birth and there is spiritual birth. Born of water is natural birth. That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit.
John 3:5-15
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
You cannot conjure something here on this earth to save someone spiritually. Sticking a wafer in the mouth, baptizing someone, speaking in tongues, all that is stuff we are doing. You are not saved by anything you do. You are saved by everything He did. So we have the Spirit of God living in us. We already have been joined to the body of Christ. Christ’s body is in heaven. Jesus said, “I am going away but you now are going to be my body here on this earth”. That is how we belong to Him and to one another. We are members of the body of Christ.
John 1:12
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
He did not say, “to as many as received him he gave the right to be become a Catholic, a Baptist or a Presbyterian”. He said that whoever received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become a child of God.
A child of God is what we have become when, we by faith, have entered into the transaction, by faith believing what God did for us and on our behalf, and not by joining a church or listening to the church fathers, but listening to what the bible has to say in regards to salvation. All these other things are absolutely irrelevant to saving of the soul.
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.
What is communion? It is a picture of Jesus saying, “this loaf represents me”. It is single in form. This one loaf, this one piece of bread, is broken off for you. Now take and eat. What is that a picture of? It is a picture of the day you came to Christ, individually, when you came to Christ by faith. When bread is passed around, where is it? It is in you. It is a picture of Christ in you.
Colossians 1:26-27 (TLB)
26He has kept this secret for centuries and generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you Gentiles, too. 27 And this is the secret: Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory.
What is the taking of the celebration of the wine? It is a celebration of the New Covenant. We read about the New Covenant in the book of Hebrews.
Hebres 10:16-18
16
“This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”17 Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
So why do people sit around asking God to forgive us, when in the New Covenant, God has said he has already done it? People have messed up in so many ways in believing church doctrines instead of truth of the gospel that is clearly revealed in the book we hold in our hands.
Daniel from Toledo, OH
Daniel: Thank you very much for helping people to be free from false doctrine. He died for our sins; past, present and future. Some say you can lose salvation by committing adultery, fornication or drunkenness. How would you answer?
Bob: They never had salvation. That is an indicator of a lost person. That is certainly not an indicator of a saved person. That is an indicator of lost people. It shows you that if you are lost, then these are some of the things that accompany being lost. It is like saying that if you are saved, going to church, reading scripture, or praying are things that accompany salvation. It does not bring about salvation. It just accompanies salvation.
Bob: First of all, a person who says you can lose salvation does not know what salvation is. Second, they are making a mockery of the New Covenant.
Hebrews 10:29
29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
A person who says you can lose salvation is saying, “Jesus lied when he said from the cross, ‘it is finished’”, which means paid in full. He is saying to Jesus, ““You are wrong. It is not finished, not paid in full”. There is nothing more heretical than teaching someone you can lose something that Jesus paid his life for to enable us to not be able to lose something. Salvation is life but when you think it is getting sins forgiven then you get confused on it.
Bob: A person who says he can salvation probably never really had it to begin with and never truly repented.
Daniel: What do you think about taking a little wine to increase HDL cholesterol?
Bob: Paul said to Timothy it is good to take a little wine for your stomach. That does not mean I am going to go get drunk tonight. It also does not say I cannot make a decision that I do not want to drink anything. Bob says he has decided not to drink anymore. He has all he needed when he was a lost person. Bob said, “I do not need any more.”
1 Timothy 5:23
23 Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
Ephesians 5:18
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit
Romans 14:17
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit
Daniel: What about those who say grape juice was not fermented?
Bob: Nonsense. Scripture does not say, “Be not drunk on grape juice but be filled with the Spirit”. The first miracle was alcoholic wine. There would be no miracle unless it was fermented. There would be no miracle to producing grape juice. You could do that with concentrated Welch’s.
Ray from Detroit, MI
Ray: In regard to 1 John, they left us because they were not a part of us. Demas was a missionary with Paul. In Timothy, we read, he left me for the present world. Would he be among those in 1 John?
1 John 2:19
They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
2 Timothy 4:10
10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.
Bob: Did he leave him or did he leave Jesus? He could have got back into the world, as written in the New Testament. Not many people playing church when written. But really not for us to decide for we will find out in heaven. Paul said he left us and went back to the world. Back to the world could mean he came out of the world. Whatever it is, it is not good to leave where God called you.
Ray: Is it like the parable, where the seed fell on hard soil?
Bob: We do not know. It is curiosity. We cannot know that. Take it as it is. He left Paul and went back into the world. That is all we really know.
Paul had other interactions with a person named Demas, and if the same one, he was at one time, called a fellow worker.
Philemon 1:24
And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers
Colossians 4:14
14 Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings
Steve from Denver, CO
Steve: What should be our response when we sin? Most of the time we think we should be asking for forgiveness. I heard you say, “If Christ forgave us, we do not need to do that”. I heard one man say, “we ask for forgiveness and God forgives us because of what Christ already did for us”. Can you respond in the logical way you present things?
Bob: Think of the logic of that. We are already forgiven so we ask God to forgive us because we are already forgiven? We already have eternal life so we ask God for eternal life? What sense would that be?
Steve: How should we respond when we feel bad about our mistakes, and even though we already know we are forgiven, it seems we need to respond, to communicate that, to build that relationship?
Bob: What does God say to do? Give thanks. God took away the sins of the entire world. Did he forget one? No. Did he do it or did he not? Did he take away the sins of the world? Is that true or is it not true? If that is true, that he took away the sins of the entire world, and I am going to walk by faith acknowledging what he has done in spite of what I have done. That is, am I living in sin by continuing to ask Him to do for me, that if He would answer my prayer, He would have to hang on a cross and die again?
Hebrews 9:22
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Bob: If I am to walk by faith, then as a born again believer, would you ask him to give you eternal life? No, you already have it. Would you ask Him to take you to heaven some day? No, you are already there. You are already seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
Bob: Where is the redemption and forgiveness of sins found? In Him. Are you in Him? Yes. What do you have? Redemption. Would you ask God to redeem you? No. Why? You are already redeemed. Why would you ask God to forgive you, when he says that in Him you have redemption and forgiveness of sins? What do you have, in Him? Redemption and forgiveness of sins. What do you do then?
Steve: What is the practical application of that situation?
Bob: In the American way, we always ask, what do we do? That is the do-do of the American way. The issue is you walk by faith. You say, “Jesus, thank you that you took that sin away 2000 years ago on a cross from the eyes of God”. God is not dealing with me on the basis of sin today. If He were, he would have to deal with me on the basis of sin and death. God is not dealing with me on the basis of sin and death. I have been freed from the law of sin and death by the law of life. “I thank You for that. I am a new creature in Christ, so I have to get to the bottom as to why I did what I did. Why I did what I did is because I started believing Satan instead of You”. The root of every sin is denying what Jesus said and listening to the voice of Satan. “So You have to renew my mind, teaching me truth, and setting me free from the error I am so prone to believe until the day comes where I will understand truth of the word of God to the point that when the lies of Satan pops up in my head, I will give it back to him and move on in the newness of life in Christ Jesus”.
Romans 8:1-2
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 12:2
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.
John 8:32
32 “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Bob: If I was a bank owner, I would train someone what real money looks like so that whenever a person slips me a piece of counterfeit, he readily recognizes it as fake. So true also in our own lives. By studying the word of God to know what truth is to the point that when Satan puts error in my head, I recognize immediately where it comes from and give it back to him. There is no more forgiveness to be executed on your behalf. If there is, he would die again. There is no need to torture Jesus half to death, putting him back on the cross, bleeding all over again. That would be what he would have to do if he answered what I asked him to do, to forgive me. Jesus would say to me, “What do you think I died on the cross for? What do you think I suffered on the cross for? You want me to do that again? I already did that. It is finished. It is finished, Bob”.
Bob: There is no more forgiveness to be executed on your behalf. Jesus is saying, “I am not dealing with you on the basis of sin and death. I am dealing with you on the basis of a new life, of being my child. As a child, I will train you and direct you”.
Jay from Denver, CO
Jay: I heard you say, “Christ died for us so he could live for us”. I am having a hard time grasping what that means, of how to do that.
Bob: God gave his life for you, so He could give His life to you, so He could live his life through you.
Jay: I do not know what that looks like. I no longer live but Christ lives in me. I do not get that.
Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Bob: Do you believe the truth of it, that the meaning of the resurrection is to give you life? The cross took away the cause of death. The resurrection is the solution to death. When you come to the cross, you do not come to get your sins forgiven, for they were already forgiven. You come to Christ to get life, which is the only solution to the consequences of sin, which is death. So when you come to Christ for life, His life comes to live in you.
Colossians 1:27 (TLB)
27 And this is the secret: Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory.
Bob: Why would He come to live in you unless He wanted to live His life in and through you?
Bob: The issue is, how does that work? It works the same way as a vine and a branch. One of the best illustrations Christ ever gave us we can read in John 15, the parable of the vine and the branches.
John 15:1-17
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Bob: When Jesus said, “If you abide in me and I abide in you, you will bear much fruit”, he promised you something. If you abide in the love of God, then you will bear fruit.
Bob: Consider the apostle Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, to know this love of God, the strength provided by the Holy Spirit in your inner being through faith.
Ephesians 3:16-19
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Bob: He wants you to be totally engrossed in the love of God.
Galatians 5:6b
6 The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
1 Corinthians 13:1 (ESV)
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Bob: The whole deal is in abiding, abiding in His love for you. How convinced and persuaded are you of the love God has for you? Have you comprehended, or apprehended, the depth of His love for you? Are you persuaded like the apostle Paul?
Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Bob: That is abiding in truth, abiding in the vine of the love of Christ Jesus. Jesus is saying, “When you abide in My love, you come to know by faith how much I love you. Then I am going to abide in you and I am going to produce that fruit through you”.
Bob: Do not go out in the energy of the flesh to produce that fruit. It has to be a by product in abiding in Christ. The parable of the vine and the branch is the best illustration of how fruit is produced and observed when abiding in the love of Christ. When you come to understand, when you know and study, and know the love of God that surpasses understanding, then you will see the work of God in you and through you. When abiding in the love of God, He will produce in you the fruit of the Spirit. When you see joy coming out of you, that is not you, that is God. When you see love coming out of you, that is not you, that is God. When you see patience coming out of you, that is not you, that is God. It will be very easy to spot the difference between my fleshly actions and abiding in Him and letting Him produce in me His actions.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
