After Salvation
The Christian experience begins when Christ
Jesus is invited into our life as our personal Lord and Savior. New converts in
Christianity are told by the church of man to start studying the Bible in the
Gospel’s. I admonish new converts to start their studies in the writings of
Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles under Grace to avoid confusion and wasting a
lot of precious time. When we begin studying in the New Testament, believer’s
are to start by skipping over the three Gospels, starting in the Gospel of
John, simply because the Gospel of:
Ø
Matthew
Ø
Mark,
and
Ø
Luke
are books of Law
Skipping over them will allow the believer
to eliminate the confusion that comes with trying to understand who is being
spoken to, in these books. Acts is also a Book of Law but it contains many
beneficial points concerning the Law. Here is a tip, when you come across, thee’
and thou’ when reading the Law books, remember these are always in reference to
Law Scriptures. The Gospel of John
is a perfect place for new converts to start, and then move on to the Book of
Romans and the rest of Paul’s writings. The writings of Paul teach us who
Christ Jesus is and who we become in Him. One hundred percent of the time the
church will send new converts to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Jesus
is talked about there in His humanity – and you want to know Him in His
Resurrection Power.
I say go to the Book of John first because
John helps believers to understand Christ Jesus. John speaks of the Deity of
Christ – He lets the reader know who Christ is, why He went away and so much
more. The Epistles of Paul picks up where John leaves off. He lets us know:
|
Ø
Who
Christ Is
|
Ø
Why
He died
|
|
Ø
Benefits
of the believer
|
Ø
That
we have an adversary
|
|
Ø
How
to fight the enemy
|
Ø
Our
Heavenly citizenship
|
|
Ø
How
to be Born-Again
|
Ø Everything regarding the Grace Age
church
|
New converts must know, believe and understand that after Adam fell
into sin back in the Garden of Eden, God provided a second Adam. God took on
human flesh laying aside His Divinity,
becoming the perfect God-man, Christ Jesus. One can learn these truths only in
the writings of Paul. In His humanity, Christ was descendants to:
Ø
Adam
through Noah
Ø
Abraham,
and
Ø
King
David
Christ Jesus becomes our relative by faith
in His cleansing Blood. He is
called the Last Adam, because
he took the place of the first Adam.1
Christ became the new Federal Head of Humanity when He defeated Satan. Because
He was sinless, He was able to pay the penalty that God required for sin. “For
since [it was] through a man that death [came into the world, it is] also
through a Man that the resurrection of the dead [has come]. For just as
[because of their union of nature] in Adam all people die, so also [by virtue
of their union of nature] shall all in Christ be made alive”.2 Gentiles are admonished to follow the
teachings of Paul, and to take heed to the Words of Christ Jesus.3
Through Paul’s writings and teachings, the
believer gains the knowledge he or she needs to be reconciled to the Father of
all Creation. Christ Jesus is the foundation on which the Apostle Paul builds
everything concerning church etiquette.4
The Apostle Paul was chosen to deliver the Gospel and other Mysteries
to the Body of Christ, which was a mystery in itself.5
The Apostle Paul’s writings bring hope for everyone who accepts the Gospel
Truth as he declares it.6 Paul is
the revelator God chose to teach whosoever will come to Him under Grace.7 Through Paul’s writings, believers are
made aware of our spiritual inheritance, and all the benefits that Salvation in
Christ Jesus provides. When we are saved, we are given the miracle of God’s
Grace, which has three main phases. The three phases of our Salvation secures
our Eternal relationship or position with God.8
Ø
Justification
happened in the past - it is
Salvation from the penalty of
sin. The moment we first believed, we were Born-Again. With the confession of our sins, we were justified. We are Born-Again once,
and the process is perfect and complete
Ø
Sanctification
is present, and it is Salvation
from the power of sin, which is
the second phase. Christ’s Blood keeps us safe as He rescues us daily from
satanic attempts on our lives
Ø
Glorification
is the third phase and it is
yet future. It is Salvation
from the presence of sin, from physical death and damnation
Once we were Born-Again, the Holy Spirit
indwelt us; He entered our whole being the moment of regeneration and He never
leaves unless He is evicted by continuous sinning.9
Believers can now receive the miracle of the Baptism or filling of the Holy
Spirit because Christ Jesus is the baptizer instead of water.10
The filling of the Holy Spirit is not a second experience, but a part of
Salvation having three ways by which all believers may receive it:
Ø
God
will give the Holy Spirit to all who will believe for Him (Hebrews 11: 6).
Ø
God
will give the Holy Spirit to those who obey His Word, choosing to make Christ
Jesus Lord of their life (Acts 5: 32).
Ø
God
will give the Holy Spirit to any one who ask Him (Luke 11: 13)
The baptism of the Holy Spirit brings other
anointings that allows believers to receive power to say no to sin, and to
speak freely and boldly for the cause of Christ Jesus.11 The result of receiving this wonderful
gift is that all who are filled will speak in another tongue as the Holy Spirit
enables them.12 Not speaking all at
once, as they do in the church of man, but following our Apostle Paul’s
instruction regarding tongues and their use. This gift allows each one of God’s
children to speak directly to Him in a heavenly language, in private that only He understands.
When the time come for you to publicly speak in tongues He will let you know
because there will be someone present without understanding or knowledge of the
English language and require a special tongue to be spoken.
After
we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we learn to walk in the Spirit.13 We began to know God in a more
intimate way, as our desire for closeness with Him develops into a personal
relationship. This gift is promised to everyone who believes in Christ Jesus.14 Every person that is born into this
world, including the atheist knows intuitively that God exists because He is
the Light that lighteth every
man who comes into the world.15 Only
Christians can know God personally because of the fellowship that comes with
Salvation.16 Because everyone
intuitively knows God exist, the Holy Spirit draws man to Salvation by his or
her desire for Salvation. There is a speck of light within the man or woman and
when he or she calls out to the Father,17
that spec of light causes men to have thoughts of God acknowledging his or her
need for a Savior.18
When an interest in God
is present and expressed, God can save that man or woman.19 If Salvation was depended upon man
without the aid of the Holy Spirit, none of us would get saved or stay saved
because God is mostly a passing thought to most men.20 God elected all men to Salvation and
He completes what He starts in those who are willing.21
When we have a personal relationship
with God through Christ Jesus, we desire true knowledge of Him. The personal
relationship that is formed is a heart relationship where all believers stand
transparent before God. There is no fooling Him because He searches the matters
of the heart and knows us through and through.22
To be saved is to have Eternal Life.23
We know and love Him
because He first knew and loved us.24
As His children, we develop a deep personal and intimate knowledge of Him by
choice through the power of His
Resurrection.25 We are
united with Christ when we believe, and we are placed into Christ’s Body, thus
being in Christ.26 Christ is put into us and we were
united with Him in the Eternal
Covenant and in our experience when we were saved. Because we are united
to Him, we draw Life from Him, and cannot do anything apart from Him.27 Believers are also united with Him in
spiritual espousal; we are now awaiting our beloved, engaged to become His
Bride. This engagement will be completed at the great Heavenly marriage.28
Believers receive so much
with Salvation; Salvation brings adoption for believers into the family of God.
Salvation causes the believer to see clearly, what we were as children of
Satan. God took us out of that evil doomed family and reconciled us back to
Himself as His very own children. God is once again our Father, and all
believers are brothers and sisters in Christ. As God’s children, we become His
heirs, obtaining an inheritance.29 We now
want to call God Abba, or
Father.30
Adoption is totally different from regeneration:
Ø
Regeneration
affects our nature and the regeneration of man comes simultaneously with faith
Ø
Adoption
affects our relationship with God, and our relationship with God depends on our
faith
Because regeneration changes a man or woman
from the inside out, building faith precedes adoption, which makes every
believer a citizen of Heaven. Therefore, we are all operating as Ambassadors for Christ here in the
earth from the first day we believed.31
Reconciliation is the greatest benefit of Salvation that is often overlooked.32
As children of the devil, hostilities existed within us towards God, but
reconciliation to God through Christ Jesus ends all hostilities for believers.33
We are no longer God’s enemies we are His friends and family. The war within is
over simply because we have made the choice of whom we are going to serve. God’s righteous enmity was removed
when His wrath was appeased by the finished work of the Cross of Christ.
Believers
are no longer under the judgment of His wrath. We are no more labeled sinners,
and condemned, all that has changed because of God’s mercy and Grace towards
us. We will never be judged for sins we commit; they are now under the Blood of
Christ.34 God smiles on believers in Fatherly
love and when one receives Salvation, there was joy in the presence of God’s
angels over that soul.35 God
saved us:
Ø
From
sin
Ø
Satan
Ø
Death,
and
Ø
Hell
Most importantly, we were saved from His
coming wrath that will fall on the children of disobedience.36 People who have not made the decision
to make Christ Lord and Savior, are lost sinners and under God’s wrath and
judgment.37 Believers are cleansed
from all sin at Salvation being baptized in the Blood of the Lamb. Christ washed all our sins away along with
its guilt.38 Our sins were drowned
and buried in the Sea of
His precious Blood. Only
Christ’ shed Blood can cleanse
man from sins, water cannot do it, for water cannot touch the spirit of man.39 Believers are totally cleansed yet we
are in need of daily self-cleansing due to the fact that we walk around in a
sin-contaminated world where sin is bound to touch us in one way, or another.
Therefore, believers must
keep them self clean before God by confessing and repenting of daily sins.40 When we were Born-Again, we were
transferred from Satan’s wicked kingdom into the Kingdom of God’s Dear Son.41 We were transferred from the kingdom
of darkness into the Kingdom of Light.42
We are no longer ruled by the confines of
this world under the rule of Satan, but by Christ’s example.43 We have been saved by God and removed
from Satan’s evil empire, and have become demon-stumpers on his evil and wicked
regime.
Each day as we make ourselves ready
to meet the Lord, we are being conformed into children that can please Him.
Every day believers are learning to guard our self against darkness and to
confront evil.44 Being God’s children,
we are on a daily mission to incapacitate the enemies’ plans by winning souls
for the Kingdom of God’s Dear Son.45
Believers are to be eager to expose Satan to his own followers for the:
Ø Deceiver
Ø Liar, and
Ø Devil that he is
It is a
man’s choice to be rescued from Satan’s clutches and when the choice is made
for Salvation; Satan cannot ever have us again if we choose obedience to God.
We have different allegiances once we accept Christ. Because we were born with
a nature that was for Satan and against God, Salvation causes the flip side to
come into play. Now that we are Born-Again, we are against Satan and
sin, available for God’s use.46 We
cannot ever lose our Salvation, as long as we do not leave our first love.47 Salvation on God’s part is permanent,
but we on the other hand are people who change our minds a hundred times a day.
It is our choice alone to remain sin free and build a relationship with God.48
God
elected all men to Salvation and as long as we are willing, God will
complete what He starts in us.49 As
believers, we are being prepared for spiritual battle God keeps us safe from
Satan, and He seals us with the Holy Spirit of promise.50 God loves us too much to let us go, He
holds us firmly and lovingly in His arms, from which no one can snatch us out
of His or the hands of our Lord, Christ Jesus.51
When we love God the way that He loves us, our Salvation is sure.52 Through the Epistles of Paul,
believers learn how God builds up the Church by His own divine design, He calls
and the believer goes. We learn how to put on the Fruit of the Spirit as Christ
in us discards the Works of the flesh.53
The entire teachings of the Apostle Paul are vital for our spiritual growth.
We learn about our liberties in Christ Jesus, how to
differentiate between Law and Grace. The believer who is not yet
able to make the distinction between Law and Grace is bound in confusion of
Scripture until this truth is realized. The Book of Romans through Philemon and
even the Gospel of John are great starting points for new converts in Christ. The
Gospel of John speaks of the Deity of Christ and his Book helps to bring
understanding to new converts as to the Person of Christ. As babes in Christ, we will hear words that need to be
defined. Deity is
defined as the divine rank or
essential nature of God, the Supreme Being, and the Exalted One revered as supremely good and powerful.
When we learn about Christ from the Book of John then we can move into
the Book of Romans to
find out what His death, burial, and resurrection have accomplished for
believers. The writings of Paul are where believers gain an understanding of
Grace. After we understand Grace, we are then able and free to read the entire
Bible with the ability to distinguish the differences between the two (Law and Grace). Doctrine is defined as the body of
principles, or the position in a branch of knowledge, or a system of beliefs.
The Disciples knew Christ Jesus in His humanity as a man, and when He was
crucified, they saw Him die. When He was buried, they visited His tomb and saw
that the tomb was empty. After Christ’s resurrection, the Disciples handled His
physical resurrected body, and were continuously in His presence 40 days after
His resurrection up until the time when He was taken away out of their sight.54
The
Jews were not very happy with the teachings of Paul because of the many
wonderful statements he makes. Paul made believers aware of the truths that in
Christ, “There is no difference between men: that all have sinned coming short
of God’s glory, and whosoever call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall
be saved, since the same Lord is Lord of all”.55
Paul makes it clear that his teachings are to be taught to all men, with
special emphasis to the Church.56 Most
new converts, including myself start our spiritual journey through the Bible in
confusion. New converts should not start studying the Bible in the Gospels -
unless it is in John’s Gospel. The other three I mentioned are Law and are not
directed to believers under Grace.
The
point of this work is to help make sense of it all for those struggling in the
Word and for babes in Christ. Our goal is to make the spiritual growth process
one that will be a satisfying and joyful experience. As the Word nourishes our
spirit man, we begin to experience growth, rising from the state of infancy or
the milk stage, on into the meat of the Word. It is a good idea to become
familiar with all of the Books of the Bible for our information and correction,
but it is best to begin Bible Studies where you can be enlightened, not
confused. Les taught me when studying the Bible, to pay close attention to whom
a particular Scripture is written to, and to always ask myself questions.
When we know if a
Scripture is written to the Jews or Gentiles, this makes a huge difference in
spiritual growth. God was careful in keeping Law and Grace
separate, and we should as well. When God is speaking to the Church, He does it
through the Apostle Paul’s writings.
A lot of things that were applicable to Israel back then are not applicable to
the church today because those things under the Law are products of the Law dispensation and we are under Grace.57
Three
of the four Gospels:
Ø Matthew
Ø Mark,
and
Ø Luke
Are called Synoptic Books, what is necessary
to know about each of these Gospels is that they are Books of Law, at least the first three. The Book of John may be
written for Born-Again believers giving tremendous insight into Christ Jesus,
but his writings do not mention the Gospel
of Grace. Each
Gospel is written to a specific and defined group of people.
Ø Matthew
is written to the Jew and
he presents Christ Jesus as King
Ø Mark
is written to the overconfident persons and presents Christ as servant and reveals the miracle
working person of Christ
Ø
Luke
is written to the discerning, and thoughtful persons. He provides a unique view into Jesus.
He talks about his birth, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension;
although he never knew
Christ Jesus personally, he chose to follow Him learning all he could from Him
to pass on to believers of today.
Ø
John is written to
Born-Again Christians,
and he presents Christ as God. He presents a powerful presentation of His Deity
Ø
The
Epistles of Paul informs believers of everything needed to sustain Christian
living and he speaks of our Ascended Lord and risen Savior.
1(I Corinthians 15: 45)
2(I Corinthians 15: 21-22)
3(I Corinthians 11: 1; John 14: 6)
10(Mark 1: 8)
11(Acts 4: 13, 10: 38a)
12(Acts 2: 4)
13(Galatians 5: 25)
14(Acts 2: 39)
15(John 1: 19)
16(John 5: 24)
17(John 1: 12)
18(Romans 10: 13)
19(John 3: 16)
20(I John 1: 7)
21(Romans 5: 8)
22(Jeremiah 17: 10)
23(John 17: 3; Matthew 11: 27)
24(I Corinthians 8: 3; Galatians 4: 9)
25(Philippians 3: 8, 10)
26(I Corinthians 12)
27(John 15)
28(Revelation 19: 7)
29(Romans 8: 17)
30(Romans 8: 15; Galatians 4: 6)
31(Ephesians 2: 19; II Corinthians 5:
20)
32(II Corinthians 5)
33(Romans 5: 11)
34(John 5: 24)
35(Luke 15: 10)
36(Ephesians 2: 2)
37(John 3: 36)
38(I Corinthians 6: 11)
39(II Timothy 2: 21; I John 1: 7)
40(Ephesians 5: 26)
41(Colossians 1: 13)
42(Colossians 1: 12; John 12: 35)
43(I Peter 2: 21)
44(Acts 16: 18)
45(Romans 16: 26; I Corinthians 9: 22)
46(Matthew 6: 24)
47(Colossians 1: 22-23)
48(Matthew 24: 24)
49(Romans 8: 29-30; Philippians 1: 6; I
Peter 1: 5)
50(Ephesians 1: 13, 4: 30, 6: 11-13; I
John 5: 18; John 17: 11-12, 15)
51(John 10: 28-29)
52(II Peter 1: 10)
53(Galatians 5: 19-22)
54(Acts 1: 3, 11)
55(Romans 3: 22, 10: 12; I Corinthians
1: 21)
56(Galatians 1)
57(II Timothy 3: 16)
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