Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at The Finality of The Cross P10 (08-30-21)
You Have Been Reconciled Unto an Exchanged Life as a New Creation in Christ Jesus
Have you realized you have been reconciled to God already through Jesus’ shed blood on a cross? That means the debt of sin has been in full, as Jesus last words dying on a cross were, “It is finished” (John 19:30). According to Hebrews 9:22, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. That means Jesus is not going to shed His blood again. So this is like being tried in a courtroom of law, proven guilty, but then a man steps up and pays your fine to set you free. The penalty for the crime that rightfully should have been placed on you was pardoned, paid for by another person so you are free. Or, as an example, you were in debt and filed for bankruptcy, and the accountant in charge of the bankruptcy had to balance the books so the debt was taken off your accounts payable and written onto his accounts receivable. The debt had been cleared.
But does that mean everyone is saved, going to heaven, because they have been reconciled by God while you were yet a sinner? No, for that would be teaching universal salvation, which is no where taught in scripture. So what is salvation? Salvation is not getting your sins forgiven but receiving new life and in that new life is where you have forgiveness of sins. You can bank on it. That is something God already did through Jesus shed blood for you. According to Romans 5:10, salvation is receiving new life, it is coming to Jesus to receive Him, that in Him you have eternal life, His Spirit placed in you at new spiritual birth. In Him is where redemption and the forgiveness of sins is received (Ephesians 1:7).
If Jesus was still dead, then according to the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, we would still be dead in our sins. So sin is what caused our death, and if Jesus had not gone to the cross to take away the sins of the world from the eyes of God, there would be no hope of eternal life, because under a law of sin and death, where in Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death, the next time we would sin we would die again. Man had to be out from under that law in order to have any hope of the kind of life God wanted to give us, called eternal life. So Jesus death on a cross was a necessary preparation for life to be given.
Now, once Jesus rose from the dead and ascended back to His Father, He can offer you and me what He really wanted to give us, and that is the same life that raised Him from the dead to be placed in you and me. This would be an indestructible life, that can never die due to sin. This would be a new life where Jesus always lives to intercede for us if we should sin, and a life that allows God to speak to our hearts. This life is received by faith in Jesus by means of coming to Him by faith, realizing His mercy at the cross and receiving His grace through His resurrection and ascension.
This truly is an exchanged life. A transaction has occurred. All my sins were placed on Him and I came to Him to receive what He came to give me. I repented, or changed my mind about what sin is, the sin of unbelief in Jesus. I realized I cannot observe the law, to do this or that, to be made acceptable to God. I realized not only was I a sinner deserving of death but I am dead to God, born in sin and I realized my depraved and wretched condition, that sin in Adam caused my death. Realizing He paid the price in full for all my sins an the sins of the entire world, which is how He demonstrated His love for us, while we were yet sinners He died for us, and for me personally.
The only sin that remained was the sin of unbelief in Him. Will I believe that there is no more sacrifice for sins, no more going to a confessional booth, no more quoting 1 John 1:9, no more going back to the day of atonement to get my sins forgiven? It is finished. It is over. Knowing this, God’s complete love for me demonstrated on a cross, that if He did all this for me, and knowing He is now alive, risen from the dead, what keeps me from coming to God through Jesus to receive all that God wants to give me. I am not even so much thinking about what I will get but coming to Christ out of an overwhelming heart of gratitude for what He has done for me. He has done it all for me, by His death, burial, resurrection and ascension.
What did I find myself not able to do in the energy of my flesh? I cannot love like God loves. I cannot produce what only God can produce. I come to Christ because His love drew me in to receive Him, His love for me, and through a dynamic relationship with Him, He will certainly give me everything I need for life and godliness. Through Him I can learn to walk in a new life that pleases Him, for my heart is changed. I want to know Him. And what really pleases God is our faith in Him, for apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15). That transaction took place. Jesus took all my sins away in order to place in me the very divine nature of God, the Holy Spirit of God alive living in me. I had become a new creation, a child of God, the moment I placed my faith in all that Jesus provided. He died a death like mine so that through His resurrection and ascension, I can live a life like His, a life that is to be lived by faith.
As a new creation, a child God, we are free to grow under grace, without fear of punishment, allowing Him to renew our minds so we can walk in the new way of the Spirit. There is a desire to live in the new way because we comprehend this faith, hope and love, this triplicate, that God has poured into our hearts. Our hearts are not calloused but made pliable to receive all that God wants for us, because we have responded to His love and kindness, having understood our depravity and His complete provision for us through His death, burial and resurrection.
After walking on this earth for a period of 40 days, He told us He is going back to His Father so He can give to us the promised Holy Spirit. All of us who are now in Christ, have the Holy Spirit sealed in us for the promised day of redemption, on that glorious day we will have a new immortal body like Jesus, and to be brought back to Him to be with Him forever. We have this blessed hope, this faith in what God has promised and we live in this love day to day. He tells us now that you received His love to remain in that love.
We are set free to freely come to Him boldly to His throne of grace, for He unconditionally loves you and accepts you, and so by abiding in His love we shall bear fruit that will last. The Spirit of truth is in us, we can discern the things of God, He shares with us wonderful truth that sets our hearts free, for the truth shall set you free, and out of new attitudes of heart formed in us, fruit is born in our lives.
God delights in seeing fruit born through us. He produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5:22-23) in us and through us. Just like a vine and a branch, as Jesus used this illustration in John 15, to explain this kind of dependent relationship we have with God through the Holy Spirit He has given us. So we abide in Him like a branch abides on a vine. By remaining in close contact with the vine, the branch bears fruit. That is the model of faith Jesus demonstrated with His Father when He walked on this earth, identifying with us in our humanity, doing nothing of His own initiative but only what He saw His Father doing and saying only what His Father told Him to say and how to say it. Jesus lived in a perfect dependent relationship with His Father, so even though He is God, He chose to live like a man, so that we who are not God can comprehend this new dependent life God has given us that we have been given the privilege to participate in. The branch does not grunt and groan to produce anything. It rests in the complete ability of the vine to produce fruit and by its association to the vine, receiving from the vine, it bears fruit. God is the initiator of all things, in creation and in salvation, and man responds to all that God has provided.
So listen now as Bob George explains this life of faith in Christ Jesus, how fruit is born through us. He uses illustrations of fallen people, and we are not to judge who all these people are, who are now dead, as to what the true nature of these men were, but we can ponder over the intent of the illustration to discern what truth is through the Holy Spirit and the word of God He has given us. We can ponder over the illustration in regard to our own thinking and priorities in life and to whether we are abiding in the vine or are trying to get from the world which only God can provide, which is unconditional love and acceptance. The world cannot provide that. Let us ponder over this scripture and allow the Lord to reveal to us the condition of our own heart. It seems as the world comes to an end, the whole world will be tested, as to the direction it will go.
1 John 2:15
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.
As the condition of the world is getting worse by the day, with pressures put on us to cave into the way the world wants us to go, putting pressure on us in making all kinds of decisions in line with a global government, ultimately to be headed by the antichrist, and being more vulnerable to deception and to the destruction of our bodies, let us ponder these things. This body is the temple of the Holy Spirit whom we have been given, this weak and frail body we have, this tent of flesh, so let us ponder over this scripture and determine where our loyalty is, where our faith, hope and love are really being placed. Let us learn to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, depending on Him, resting in Him, His provision for us, pondering over His word of truth, keeping our eyes on Him, with this faith, hope and love which are ours in Christ Jesus. Let us be students of His word, that we do not add to it or subtract from it, to know the truth in its context, relying on the Spirit to reveal truth to us, so we are not deceived by the world but are bearing fruit for our Lord Jesus Christ, and to guard our hearts which are the wellspring of life.
2 Corinthians 11:3
3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
