Sealed By The King

Sealed By The King
Ray Jensen


Ephesians 1:13-14 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. How great it is that the Lord will seal us for salvation upon our belief in Jesus Christ. I have found that the idea of this seal is not often understood by many. Back in the day when this passage was written, people understood what a seal was and what it meant. If a king wanted to send a private message to someone, he would seal the letter with his own royal signet ring. This was done by closing the letter, dropping hot wax where the letter closes, and imprinting the seal from the signet ring into the wax to seal it shut. This seal guaranteed that the contents inside had not been tampered with or altered from the author’s original writing. A similar thing we have in today’s world is when you have to break the seal on canned food – you know the contents within are not spoiled, not changed. A royal seal was a mark that says by the supreme authority of the king the content within was to be preserved and unchanged until it arrived at its intended recipient. This guaranteed that the letter would remain intact in the original content of its author, and would also have safe passage through rugged country until it reached its final destination.

What a signet ring looks like.
When I teach about the seal of salvation in Ephesians 1:13-14, I illustrate it by explaining a sealed letter. Upon belief in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Father God in heaven authors a new spirit within you and seals it by His authority as guaranteed for salvation. God’s seal isn’t one of wax, but of a spiritual seal which is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within you. When you believe in Jesus Christ, your seal of salvation is the Holy Spirit taking residence within you together with your newly created spirit. Like a letter to be delivered, you are now given a protected passage through the rugged country of earthly living knowing that the guarantee of salvation within you will remain intact and unchanged until you reach your final destination with the Father in heaven. 1 Peter 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. The scripture gives us a where and a when: in heaven, and in the last time which is in the future but not right now. The passage says that we have reservations until salvation is revealed. Have you ever made reservations for a hotel room? You’re not at the hotel yet, but you have to put down a deposit of payment so that the room will be available for you when you finally arrive. When you believe in Jesus, you don’t get salvation itself just quite yet because it hasn’t even been revealed yet. Often you hear people say, “are you saved?” asking as if they are thinking you have salvation right now. Salvation verses in the bible say that upon belief then you will be saved. “Will be” is set in a future tense, not a present tense. You can’t get salvation right now, because it’s not even known what it is yet. If you got salvation right now upon belief in Jesus Christ, then you’d know what salvation is. 1 Corinthians 2:9 However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" That’s just too great of a passage to not get excited about it! But since we don’t get salvation itself yet, we do have the assurance from God that we do get a seal, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that guarantees that we will get salvation in the future– a reservation. If you go back to Ephesians 1:13 again, you’ll see that it says the Holy Spirit is our deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. Jesus Christ paid for that deposit for us. Without the deposit from Him, you can have no reservation set for you. I have found that many do not buy into this biblical idea that salvation is sealed upon belief. Some skeptics allow their logic to intervene into the sound promise of what God tells us in His word. They think that sealed salvation condones a sin license. To them, this is a dangerous doctrine that promotes sinful living, and they’ll dismiss it as, “well that’s just your interpretation.” Correct interpretation never came about by the opinions of men, but by God’s Word. I’ve often found that when you show the skeptics a sealed salvation verse, they’ll either dismiss the verse by ignoring it, or by trying to make another verse seem to contradict it…or both. The word of the Lord is flawless, there are no contradictions. You cannot pit one verse against another. If you try to do this then you’re only demonstrating that you do not fully believe in the entirety of the bible, but only in the plucked segments of scripture that seem to fit your own perception so long as you keep them pulled out of their context. Psalm 12:6 And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times. One of my professors at the bible college told me that I have a tendency to write myself into debate. It’s not my intention to write debate, but to further the explanation towards those who share in the generalized doubts that I often hear about. In this case I want to propose a point for those who think that sealed salvation promotes a sin license. This is all too often a point that clouds understanding for those who need to understand God’s gift.

First I want to scripturally set the tone for how we are told to hear and trust what God says. Understand that whatever God promises - stays promised. What God says – is. God must honor what He promises, or else He would not be God. Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? I’m hearing more and more in today’s preaching that we can get God to change His mind by exercising faith to alter God’s direction. This is not Godly preaching because it goes against Numbers 23:19.

Secondly, the understanding of God’s word can be blocked to us if we abandon pure trust for our own logic. Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

In other words, don’t try to figure it all out on your own because you don’t have the ability to comprehend it. The bible is stacked full of stories about people who tried to do things their own way and failed because they didn’t just trust God’s divine providence. It’s ok to ask questions and then research them biblically, but don’t allow your logic to undo a direct truth written in God’s word. Just trust Him.
Eliminating the sin license
Sin is wrong, no doubt about it. No scripture EVER states that it is ok to go on sinning. In fact, the number one verse that is used to undo the idea of sealed salvation is Hebrews 10:26. I will show you Hebrews 10:26 and then show you Ephesians 1:13 again right behind it so that you can easily see the likenesses and differences between the two:

Hebrews 10:26-27 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

Ephesians 1:13-14 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.

These two verses start off the same because they both speak of one that the truth came to. The difference is that in Ephesians 1:13 the hearer believed it, therefore he was sealed upon his belief in Jesus Christ. The hearer in Hebrews 10:26 did not believe it but only heard the knowledge of it. Belief is not stated in this verse, therefore the hearer was not sealed. I’ve told many people about salvation in Jesus Christ who did not believe in it, but they did hear it. Hebrews 10:26 does not say that you can actually lose salvation. If it did, then it would be in conflict with Ephesians 1:13-14 and then the word of God would be flawed. What Hebrews 10:26 does state, is that if you go on sinning after you heard the truth – and rejected it - then there is no other sacrifice but Jesus that can save you. Of course Hebrews 10:26-27 does not say that the hearer actually rejected the truth, so how can I claim that this is what it meant? I keep verses in their context and carry on into verse 28 and beyond where it goes on to talk about the rejection. Keep verses in context, or else you can make a verse say anything you want it to say.

The opposite of sinning is obeying, that’s pretty obvious. Have you considered that sealed salvation really means an “obeying license.” When you come to a fork in the road then you are presented with two options: left or right. Those who claim that sealed salvation is a sin license will “expose their scale,” how they weigh things, by claiming that there is only one turn at this fork; sinning at will. Those who see sealed salvation as the way to enhance and mature their relationship with Jesus will see that they have two options: to sin or obey. They expose their scale to others around them by making disciplined choices towards obedience, thereby showing Jesus to others in how they live their lives. Guaranteed salvation should make one appreciative enough to the Lord to be an obedient and willing servant. Those who think this condones a sin license do not realize that sinning brings about painful consequences upon themselves and others which are designed to make them obedient again. Hopefully the willful sinner’s pain will eventually draw him to surrendering into a new life in Jesus Christ that has been exemplified before him through the obedient lives of believers.


“But if I have my seal, then why should I care if I sin or not?”

If you have your seal of salvation, which is the Holy Spirit within you, then you will feel the influence of the Holy Spirit upon you to stop sinning. You will be inclined to obey and to reject sin, not to sin all you want. But when you sin it will hurt, because you have conviction by the Spirit that what you did was wrong and to make a better choice the next time you are tempted. That’s what the very job of the Holy Spirit is, to convict us of sin. It’s important to understand that your flesh is of a sinful nature. Adam’s sin tainted the entire line of human flesh. Sin is passed down from your earthly father’s seed. Jesus’ flesh was conceived by the Holy Spirit instead of Joseph, so that Adam’s tainted line would bypass Jesus. This made Jesus to be the only sinless man in history because he had no earthly father, but only the Father in heaven. Our flesh wages war on our mind to make sinful choices . The flesh can’t wage war on your spirit because it is sealed and held sinless by God upon your point of belief in Jesus. However if the flesh can win over the mind then the mind will make a choice that brings the pleasure that the body desires. This is our inner battle; to listen to the Holy Spirit’s influence within us to make disciplined choices that rival the body’s desires. Do not think that salvation is not sealed, because if you do then you are disbelieving the very purpose of the Holy Spirit Himself.

John 16:8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:


“Your explanation of a seal sounds convincing, but how can you prove biblically that this seal you speak of is actually intended to mean an unchanging guarantee?”

The other day I was reading in the book of Daniel, and I found a verse in chapter 6 that leapt off the page at me because it put sealed salvation into a great picture that illustrated how and why a king’s seal is used. Daniel 6:17 A stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles, so that nothing would be changed in regard to Daniel. “So that nothing would be changed,” it says. That is profound! I thought to myself, this is a biblical verse that explains how and why a seal is used! Now I don’t have to just tell people that “back in the day, people understood seals.” I mean, I could talk to them about why food is sealed in containers to preserve its state of freshness, but this was a biblical passage! Scripture interprets scripture, not men, so this was just what I needed to help me illustrate the purpose of sealing. Take a look at this picture in the verse from Daniel. Daniel was placed in the hostile environment of a lion’s den, and the passage says a large stone was placed over him which was to prevent anyone from being able to change his situation. He had to be in Godly trust and obedience to get through the night. The king sealed it with his signet ring so that nobody else could change Daniel’s situation, just like sealing a letter so that its contents would remain intact. The next morning, the king hurried to the den to see if Daniel was ok because he had been tricked into adhering to a law that sentenced Daniel to the den. He commanded that the sealed stone be removed and found Daniel alive. By his royal authority he had Daniel lifted up to himself and out of the hostile environment that he was in.We who believe in Jesus Christ who still live on earth are likewise in a hostile environment, but we have been given a spiritual seal “so that nothing would change” in regard to our salvation. We can get through the dangerous time by trusting and obeying the Lord, just as Daniel did. Then when it is time, the KING shall come for us who believe, and by His authority He will reach down to us through His seal and lift us up to Himself, redeeming us who are His possession. Praise God for His incredible gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. May God bless the reading of His Word. Amen.

The Name

I just watched another politically correct prayer on live tv. Most of the time people will see a prayer said on tv, and not even realize that there is anything wrong with it because, after all, it’s a prayer! In this tv prayer, God was referred to as God, Holy Spirit, Father, Almighty, but no mention of His actual name. Now don’t get me wrong, God is Almighty, Holy Spirit, and Father, but no mention of the Son’s actual name! Interestingly though the prayer was ended by saying, “in the name that is above all names, amen,” and yet THE NAME was still not said.

I’ve seen a Nascar race on tv where the opening prayer omits “the name”, but only generalizes God down to being just “God”. God could mean Allah to a Muslim, or Buddha to a Buddhist. Saying only “God” is the politically correct way of referring to a supreme being without specifying who God is out of fear that someone will get mad at the one who said it.

I’ve even been to churches and seen pastors stand in a baptistery and say, “I now baptize you in THE NAME of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”, and then baptizes the person having never actually said THE NAME at all! In a church!!!

My friends, there is “A NAME” that is a specific name. It is the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not saying this name is an act of omission that sneaks in under our radar.

Let us believers start letting it be known in all the world that this “name” that is constantly undergoing unnoticed omission - is JESUS.

I was once in a restaurant talking to a friend for over an hour about electronics. As soon as I went into a different subject and audibly spoke the name of Jesus, I suddenly noticed that my friend started looking left and right to see who might have heard me. Then he interrupted me in mid-sentence and whispered quietly, “do you know that you’re talking really loud?” I wasn’t talking any louder about Jesus than I was when I was talking about ham radio.

Recently, a teenage girl told me that saying Jesus in public is very offensive to others who might not believe the same as me, but yet as of tonight I went through a grocery store checkout line to see People magazine’s cover saying “I’m Gay” with Clay Aiken’s picture on it. Alternative lifestyles are regarded as “one’s right to do and say whatever they want to because it’s their life, and if others don’t like it - then too bad.” Hypocrisy? Double standard? Why can we as Christians not live our lives in Jesus Christ without being called offensive, while everybody else spouts their ways as “their right?” because we live in a fallen world where Jesus Christ, right down to his very name, is being omitted.

A colleague of mine was asked to say a prayer at a local college event. It was mildly hinted to him to not say Jesus at this event with the reasoning that it would be offensive. He responded by saying, “then you don’t want me to say the prayer here, because Jesus’ name is said in my prayers because He’s the very one I’m praying to!”

Fellow believing Christians in Jesus Christ, this is a sad sign of our times when the world considers the mere mention of Jesus’ name to be offensive with the excuse that it is politically incorrect, and violates against those who do not agree. It’s ok to disagree without friction! Self claimed Christians are not actually afraid of offending someone by saying Jesus’ name. In reality, the name of Jesus makes them afraid for themselves! The fear in them is that an offended person will in some way turn and attack the speaker, so the speaker decides it’s easier to not say Jesus in order to stay on the path of least resistance. Meanwhile, Jesus gets pushed away into the background so that everyone can get along with each other in what they consider to be their own better version of harmony than what the Lord has to offer. Also, in the end of this scenario, a potential witnessing moment has been missed.

Fear is the opposite of faith, and fear keeps a person unproductive when they should be producing fruit from their faith. This fruit is sight-seen evidence to a non-believing world. A believer can stand and among nonbelievers and say in his words and actions, “I believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,” while knowing that the Lord Jesus protects them from evil. If Christians stop proclaiming Jesus Christ, then their faith that the Lord guides and protects them from harm has dwindled. The Lord knew that offense would be the case with unbelievers, so it was written in His word. Please take careful notice of the difference of tense in this scripture because it exposes a big difference between believers and unbelievers.

1 Peter 2:6 For this is contained in Scripture: "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."
7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, "THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone,"
8and, “A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE"; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.
Be careful of what you consider to be offensive or fair, because this verse explains what side of the fence you’re on depending on how you regard Jesus Christ. If you claim Christianity, then maybe it’s time to look at yourself inwardly and understand what political correctness is, and also time to define the word “fair”. If you got what is fair, then realize that for your sin you would be condemned for all eternity. That would be fair. But because of the Lord Jesus Christ dying in your place for your sins on the cross, you now have one way to be saved. That is a gift. Jesus didn’t die for you just so you could escape condemnation. He died so that you could be given undeserved eternal life in Him. Since Jesus is the one who offers this free gift of salvation, then how can we dare think it is right to live our lives out on an earth that He gave us, in bodies that He made to put us in, and feel that it is not right to even mention His name out of fear for what people will do to us of we do?
With all of the omission of “the name” going on out there in the world, we who do believe should step things up and make up the difference caused by the silence of the fearful - by daily proclaiming the name of Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Acts 4:10-12 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is " 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

The 3 Elements of Man

The 3 Elements of Man
by
Ray Jensen B.Sc.


Foreward:

November 22, 2006
I am about to finish my 33rd year. I realize that Jesus Christ was crucified by the time He was my age, yet I still live having never gone through the sufferings that He did. This research is the result of fellowship, biblical teaching, and my own personal bible study which has been fueled by the urging of the Lord, as well as by the questions of believers and nonbelievers alike who often challenged me to give them an answer on issues they could not see or understand. We should always strive to turn our lack of knowledge into devoted study so that we can be able to give accurate and timely responses to those who need to hear the truth.
I recently achieved my bachelors degree from The College of Biblical Studies Houston, Texas. The single best thing I learned there - how to read. Yes, a man in his 30’s finally learning how to read. There is a huge problem with how people read the bible and it has been going on for centuries. All we have to do is read what the bible says, and not assume what it does not say. This process is called hermeneutics. Hermeneutics are interpretative and explanatory ways to read the bible. Often when someone disagrees with the belief of another, they’ll say, “Well, that’s just your interpretation, but my interpretation is different.” Often people will get into heated arguments over their own interpretations and beliefs. Engaging this type of conflict doesn’t make one right and another wrong, it makes them both wrong. We all see things differently because we are all different people raised in different cultures and environments, but the interpretation of God’s word is not varied, and is not based on our own thoughts and opinions, but based on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The word of God is written one way, His way. It is man in his varied culture that allows his interpretation of God’s word to be skewed off course from its actual message. The correct interpretation is made in the spirit of one who listens to God inwardly. Interpretation is never made in the mind of men, but by the Holy Spirit who indwells with the spirit of a believer.

2 Peter 1:20-21 You must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So how do we listen to the Spirit guide us in our study?

God’s word was written for us to come to belief in Him, not for us to align Him to our own beliefs. God’s word does not vary, but gives one solid truth. Man is the one who varies in interpretations - because man is varied, easily swayed by his surroundings, tossed back and forth like waves on the sea. God is not varied. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. So it is us who must listen and align to him, not God align to us.

1 John 2:4-6 The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Before a ship sails on a long journey, its course must be plotted. If the ship’s course is plotted incorrectly by the slightest degree from the point of origin, then the ship’s position could end up hundreds of miles away by the time it should be reaching its destination. In biblical study, one must get the correct observation of scripture accurately first in order to get the correct interpretation. Correct observation first, interpretation second, application of the lesson then follows thirdly. Without correct observation of the scripture, there can be no correct interpretation or application. The bible says one truth, not varied meanings. If we try to alter verses to fit our own pre-conceptions, then we are tampering with the word of God. We must align to God, because God will not align to sin.


Eliminating your bias

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

When reading God’s word, keep a discipline in yourself to stay observant to the words and strip yourself of the biases that have made you believe in things contrary to scripture. This is going to take work, after all, the root of “disciple” is “discipline.”
An example of a personal bias:
Your child comes to you with a deep problem that they are afraid to tell you about. It’s your child, so you want them to tell you no matter what it is. Your child tells you that they have conceived, and will be due within 6 months. What do you do?
The majority answer is usually, “Well, what’s done is done and as Christians we have to forgive the wrongdoing that happened. We won’t abort because it’s not the infant’s fault and death is never the righteous answer. I love my child unconditionally so we will just take it day by day, let God work His power through this time, and I know that good will become of it.” Therefore the parent accepts the child’s repentance and provides for their need, takes the child under care, and they look forward to a new life in the family.
Now on another incident your spouse approaches and wants to talk of a problem that has been bothering them deeply also. You love them enough to want them to tell what is burdening them, so they open up and say, “I have conceived a child with another person.” Now your reaction is one of hurt. The typical reaction to this is, “Get out of this house! You’re married to me! You’ll find your possessions thrown out to the curb by tomorrow morning!”
Do you see the cultural bias? Both the child and the spouse are loved, but only one gets unconditional love. Both the spouse and the child both committed the same sin, they both conceived a child outside of wedlock. But the reason it hurts so much is because of the bias you feel in saying, “you’re married to me!” One of them you are ready to forgive unconditionally upon their repentance, but the other you are not. That is cultural bias. It is a dangerous trait we all carry that will impede our ability to hear the word of God as God says it. Now before you prepare to remain firm in your decision that there is a difference between the spouse and the child’s situation, read ahead…
God is your spiritual husband. In the spirit realm there is no gender because gender is only physical so that humanity can reproduce. When we become believers in Jesus Christ for our salvation then God marries himself to us. Upon belief we are joined spiritually with God just as God binds us physically with our mates on earth as one flesh. Now when we sin against God –He forgives. After you are saved God will never say, “leave, you have lost salvation with me! You are supposed to be married to ME but now you have lost your place in heaven. Go away!”
Do you see how cultural bias can make us think in ungodly ways? Always forgive, no matter how bad it hurts you, for Christ does this for you when you sin against Him.
So when you read the word, let the Holy Spirit of God guide you … Listen! Here is how.

The 3 Elements of Man

Did you know you are made up of 3 different elements? What are these 3 elements, how do these elements function, and what good does it do for you in your Spiritual walk with God if you know what they are?

The three elements of man are: Spirit, Body, and Soul.

Pinch the arm of someone next to you. Depending on how hard you do it, they might say “ouch.” That’s sin. Now after doing that, pinch their spirit. You can’t do it can you? So how do you know it’s even there? You just know that it is there or else they wouldn’t be alive. Regardless of your beliefs, I’ve now shown you how easy it is to believe in something you can’t see. This is the same with God, because God Himself is spirit. So why do people ask why I believe in God when I can’t see Him, yet they themselves know there is a spirit in every person?
Interested so far?

Now you know that there are at least 2 elements to man, body and spirit. But did you know that there is a third element called the soul? What is the difference between spirit and soul? Where is the biblical proof that there are these 3 elements?

1 Thessalonians 5:23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s move on to understand the differences in the elements that compose you. This will shed a lot of light on the workings of salvation, and how we live on earth as Christians.

The simple breakdown:

Body – this is the earthly dwelling that you live in. It stays here when you die. Here, the 5 senses connect us to the outside world. The body desires pleasure and feel-good sensations. It resists suffering because it desires comfort and pleasure. It is in the body where temptation occurs. The world today focuses almost totally on the body, demanding its rights be met to satisfy its wants. It is in the flesh where you are tempted to sin. The flesh is born physically of Adam’s seed, therefore has been tainted throughout all humanity with a sin nature.

Spirit – This is your inner being, the heart of your being where the Holy Spirit of God communes directly with a believer. It is in your spirit where the Holy Spirit comes in and lives within you upon your belief in Christ. Your spirit and the Holy Spirit of God live together with each other in your inner being spirit. This is the central point of you where God lives in us, where no one can go but Him. Your spirit is the part of you that is reborn and made into a totally new creation when you come to belief in Jesus Christ. The spirit of a believer is born spiritually of God, and has no sin nature, but has a righteous nature without sin.

Soul – a dead body has no life. When God breathes life into a body and puts a spirit into flesh, a soul is produced. The soul is the communicator between the body and the spirit. Like dirt and water produces mud, so the flesh and spirit produces a soul. Your soul is where your character is formed and where you make decisions. Your soul is your mind, your personality, and your personality is shaped by all of the forces and experiences you go through in life. Through good times and bad, you will make choices in your life as you listen to the spirit to be obedient, or to the body to be sinful…and as a result of your decisions your character is formed.

Ephesians 3:16-17 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Romans 7:22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law;

The body, soul (or mind), and spirit make up your present earthly being. A soul is produced when God put your spirit into your body. You can have water and dirt, but the mixing of the two produces mud. Your soul is the result of spirit and body merged together. It is in the body where you are tempted to sin because the body wants to fulfill its desires of pleasure and selfish greed. Jesus Christ was tempted because He was in flesh, yet He didn’t give in to one single temptation just so that He could prove that He was God as a man. It must also be observed that Jesus’ flesh was not tainted physically by Adam’s seed as mankind’s flesh is, because Jesus was not conceived by the man Joseph, but by the Holy Spirit of God. This is how Jesus was sinless, because He was never tainted by Adam’s sin which has been passed down to all the rest of us. We must realize that we are not only guilty of sin by our sinful actions, but guilty by being in a body whose very composition has been tainted with a sin nature. You are guilty upon your very conception before you even committed any physical act.

Psalm 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Romans 8:6-8 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

The old testament temple of God illustrates a point.

Let’s look at the temple of God before it was in the body of believers. First, was the outer court. This is the outer part of the temple, representing the body. Regardless of the weather, good or bad, this was the outer court that faced the outer world. Going inward was the altar. But the innermost part of the temple was the Most Holy place or the Holy of Holies. This holy of holies represents your innermost being of your spirit. In the temple, this is where God’s presence rested on the ark of the covenant. No one could go in except once per year, when a ceremoniously clean priest would enter with blood to atone for the sins of the nation. This blood was symbolic of the coming of Christ. The temple is symbolic of the body of Christ, and believers in Him are all part of that body of Christ, the temple. This is why Jesus said to the Pharisees in the book of John, “tear down this temple, and in 3 days I will build it again.” Jesus rose from the dead, thus bringing forth a new temple in the body of Christ, His believers. You yourself have your own holy of holies, an inner-most place where God resides, where no one else can go, just like the Old Testament temple did. When Jesus Christ died, the temple veil was ripped into 2 pieces, showing us that there was no longer any separation from the Father. There once was separation between God and man. But now with The Way made, man and God can reside together spiritually upon each person’s belief in his Jesus.
Galatians 5:16 -18 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

Now that we have the concept of the 3 elements of man known, and how they integrate with each other, this leads to important understandings in living life on earth as a saved believer. There are many that insist that salvation can be lost if someone sins bad enough, or if they decide that they don’t want salvation anymore as though it’s a gift that can be tossed into the garbage. The thing to realize here is that all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God. So if we get ourselves to the point of trying to weigh sins out as being salvation-breakers or just little sins, then we have tried to make ourselves into judges. Salvation is a gift of God. I have heard it argued in the sense that gifts like a wrapped present can be thrown away in the garbage, therefore paralleling a picture to a loss of salvation by someone merely dropping it off if they decide not to love God anymore.

When you get salvation, the Holy Spirit indwelling within you will convict you of sin as you live out your life on earth. Being sealed for salvation, you may sin at times, but your desire to do godly things will always have an inclination to do righteous things. Your bar graph may have a few dips in it from time to time, but overall it will rise. Nobody ever can honestly say that they fully leave God after salvation, because God always draws those who are His.

2 Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

The big point that is missed in this false viewpoint of lost salvation is that not only is salvation a gift, but it is a promised gift, a promise of God.

God’s word says in Romans 10:9 that if you believe, you “will” be saved. God does not lie. If He says you will be saved, then so you will be. Those who do not believe in total forgiveness such as how God offers it have a problem forgiving someone themselves, so in turn they try to weigh God on their own scale, theorizing in their logic that God will retract salvation if we sin again, or if we sin bad enough. Those who believe salvation can be lost do not believe in the term “born again” or “new creation”. God rebirths us spiritually into an entirely new creation upon our belief in Jesus. Salvation isn’t just a status that is given to you like a rank which can be reduced or revoked. You are “born again.” Who on earth knows how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly? Someone who believes that they can undo their own salvation by sinning or changing belief is like someone that says they don’t know how to change a caterpillar into a butterfly, but they claim to know how to turn the butterfly back into a caterpillar. You didn’t make the new creation in your spirit; God did when He saw the point of your belief.
A common question is, “does scripture say that what has been made new and promised by God can be unmade?” Sinning again doesn’t undo salvation because you were forgiven and covered across your entire lifespan, even the sins you didn’t commit yet. Why do so many think on such a linear timescale that they don’t think God can forgive future sin? Every time I have dealt with this subject with one who believes salvation can be undone, they make a general reference to Hebrews 10:26, not even being able to quote its biblical location, and they don’t even quote the exactness of the passage itself. I always hear, “well the bible says something about those who sin willfully don’t have a sacrifice for sins…” and then they try to speak the verse, butchering it to pieces. In their logic, they determine that sealed salvation is a sin license, God would never condone sin, so then they conclude that sealed salvation can’t possibly be true. This is an invention of man’s flawed logic, and an act against Proverbs 3:5-6 which says to just believe what God says without letting your logic mess things up. Man in his sinful nature would be the one to take back a promise from someone who turns on him, so therefore he tries to make God like him. God does not act or think like men do, nor does He break promises, nor does He lie.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
Romans 6:8-14 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
This is an extremely important thing to grasp here. Let’s take a look at what this passage says to us. Christ rose, and death no longer has mastery over Him. The passage then says, “in the same way” count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God. Death no longer has mastery over us spiritually, for we are now under grace. The passage states that just like Christ, we are alive and free of death. Once it establishes this fact with us, it then says “therefore”, meaning that since you are in a state of eternal living – now you do this: “do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.” Now that you know the relations between the body and spirit, you can easily see how this passage describes the composition of a saved believer still living in a sinful body. Your spirit is saved and death no longer has mastery over it, it is reborn into a new creation that is alive to God, yet in your sin-tainted body we are told to not let sin reign there. How? By exercising the power of free will in our soul to obey the spirit, we can live righteously against the temptations to sin. Sin-license advocates - your point is void. This verse states first that you certainly will live, but it tells you to not let sin reign in the body, apparently because you still have sin around you even though you’re saved. Read closely.
Not by what you do:
Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Salvation sealed by promise and not retractable:
Ephesians 1:13-14 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.

In order for there to be salvation, there must be “BELIEF”, not just a declaration or a ceremony, and according to Ephesians 2:8 above – it’s not by anything you do. It is spiritual belief that triggers salvation. We all know that a body stays on earth after death, and that the spirit goes on to whichever eternity its choice results with.

Spiritual eternity is not dependent on what the body does because the spirit and body are separate elements destined to separate!

Unraveling the conflict

Every single time that I have been in this discussion with someone that insists that salvation can be lost, they always refer to a certain passage without being able to quote its exact context or its biblical location (Hebrews 10:26). What is amazing to me, is that while they try to quote this passage to me, they absolutely refuse to address the passages that state salvation is sealed and guaranteed as Ephesians 1:13 says. All scripture lines up without contradiction, or else the word of God would be flawed. If two different sides of a biblical discussion disagree, then that means they are both refusing to account for the fullness of the entire word, but only using select verses that seem to fit their bias. If we go into scripture with our own flawed perceptions then we will have contradiction in our logic, not contradiction in the word. You can’t pit one verse against another verse.

Here is the most common verse which is misused by many to try to prove lost salvation.

Hebrews 10:26-27 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

Here is a scripture that is often taken out of context if one claims this verse is actually saying, “you can lose salvation after you have obtained it.” This verse states what happens if a sinner receives only the knowledge of truth, but does not believe it. Ephesians 1:13 talks about what happens when one believes the knowledge of the truth, but Hebrews 10:26 talks about the one who only hears it.
All salvation verses have one thing in common: belief. Ephesians 1:13 above states what happens to you upon the point of belief; saved, sealed, promised, guaranteed. Hebrews 10:26 does not mention belief at all, but only that the sinner merely heard it but kept going on in his sinful ways, having never been sealed by God for salvation, but destined for condemnation. To put 10:26 more in its context, if one would take the time to read onward into verse 27, it goes on to talk about the downright rejection of the truth. You are in disbelief if you reject the truth. If you hear the knowledge of truth but do not believe, there is no salvation for you. It’s Jesus or nothing, because He is the only Way (John 14:6). Hebrews 10:26 does not literally say “you can lose salvation”. What it does say is, “if you hear the knowledge of truth and don’t believe it, but proceed in your sin, you have nothing else out there that will save you but the sacrifice of Christ. If you reject the sacrifice of Christ for your sins, there is no other sacrifice to atone for your sins.” Basically this is a Christ-or-nothing passage stating that knowing the truth isn’t what saves you - YOU GOTTA BELIEVE IT!

The best way to view scripture is hermeneutically. This means you read what it says in context, and not assume what it doesn’t say. For example, if I said, “I like Chevy trucks,” then that doesn’t mean I hate Fords. I only said one thing, so you can’t assume something I didn’t say. One time a friend of mine did this exact error, assuming the inverse of what was written. He read in Revelation 3:5, “I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.” Being very upset by this, he wrote to me asking, “God blots out names from the book of life?!! I thought you said salvation was sealed!” I replied to him saying that He does not blot out. What he did to this verse was he assumed the inverse. The verse says “I will never blot out.” This doesn’t mean that He sometimes does. If God blotted out names from the book of life, then a verse would say so and Ephesians 1:13-16 would be a contradiction. When you read a verse, take note of what it “SAYS”, and do not assume or read into what it does not say. Again, this is a big reason why we should strip our thoughts of our cultural biases, because our flawed logic will twist the proper interpretation. Listen inwardly to your spirit, not by the logic of your mind.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.


So again back to what happens upon belief. Ephesians 1:13 says you are marked with a seal, promised, deposit, guarantee. People that don’t believe this, this is God’s word promising this here, so you really can’t argue with that. You might ignore this passage, but you cannot change it. If you try to present a verse that your logic determines to state the opposite, then you don’t believe spiritually in God’s word as perfect and flawless. Ephesians 1:13 tells us that when you come to belief, you don’t get heaven just yet, but you do get a promise, a deposit that you one day will. Again, I’ve had opposition even in this passage by those who do not see 1:13 as having anything to do with salvation at all. Back when this passage was written down, it was well understood what a “seal” was. A king would take a document and seal it with his signet ring into wax which bound the document shut. This seal guaranteed the document’s safe passage to its intended recipient. No one had the authority to open or undo it, except the one it was addressed to. Likewise God seals us for salvation upon belief, with a PROMISE, unable to be opened by anyone, so that we can travel across the journey of our lifetimes protected until we get to our destination with the Father in heaven - guaranteed.
For those that don’t believe that this “guaranteed inheritance” is the same as salvation, then take this one in:

1 Peter 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Thanks Peter, that was perfect, man. I’ll let that one speak for itself and be done with it.

Where You Are

I want you to think for a moment about your existence. What year were you born? What color is your skin? What gender are you? Why did you want to be born that year, why did you want to be that color, and why did you choose to be the gender that you are? You had nothing to do with that, right? Now brace yourself, this is gonna be sharp at first. You had nothing to do with becoming saved either. You didn’t just wake up one day and say, “I think I’ll get saved today.” You had to be drawn in first or else you never would have chosen to believe in Jesus Christ.

John 6:44 Jesus says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

How are some ways that God draws us to Himself? Well, one way is that when we choose to sin, then we suffer a consequence of that sin. You have free will in the soul, but it’s not unlimited free will to do absolutely anything you want. I wish I could live on my own paradise island, but that aint gonna happen. My will is free, but limited. If you think sealed salvation offers you a sin license, then realize that if you go out and commit sin, you will pay for it by a consequence that hurts. The body cowardly retracts from discomfort, which is a product of the sin it pursued in the first place. Do you see God trying to get you to look to Him through this process? Do we not pursue God when we hurt? And we hurt, because we sin. Quite an amazing circle of God’s intervention in our lives to draw us closer, isn’t it? You’re guilty of sin at conception already anyway, so nobody can think they act good enough to maintain salvation when Ephesians 2:8 blows that whole idea out of the water. It’s only by the grace of God you can be saved, and even then He drew you first because He loved you first. When you choose to obey and do good, you will receive rewards. If we butt our heads against the wall long enough and hard enough by trying to break through the roadblocks that sin brings into our path, then it will hurt so bad that we wont want to do it anymore, therefore turning the sinner back towards God. We often do this head-butting stunt towards God when we sin and turn from God. Turning on God is not the same as loss of salvation. Sin is when you decide to obey the body rather than the spirit, and take action on that decision. A consequence comes as a result of sin, bringing suffering and weakness. If you were not loved by God, then a sin license would be possible without consequences, because God wouldn’t care if you sinned or not. But He draws you in, so that means He cares if you sin or not, and that means He is holding to His promises of secured salvation.
Here is a passage to remember when you face trouble.

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Now, backtrack to the 3 elements of man. You were guilty upon your conception. How can I prove this? Do you have to teach children how to lie or how to throw tantrums when they don’t get what they want? No. Why is that? How do they already know how to lie without being taught? Where did they learn to throw a fit when they don’t get their way? They know how to do this because all are guilty of sin and fall short of the glory of God. It is inherently fabricated into us from Adam’s sin passed down through all the generations. When we don’t get our way, and get mad about it, is that not the same thing as us throwing a tantrum to God? Have you ever felt like your income wasn’t enough, or that you should have a better car? Is God’s providence not good enough for you?

You were once dead in sin, deserving of eternal damnation before you ever came to be. Unbelievers are still there. Not only are we guilty from our actions, but we are guilty because our very nature is sinful. We get this sinful nature from the seed of Adam, which has passed down to every person in human history except one: Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, not Joseph. I’ve heard it said that the Holy Spirit had to conceive Jesus because Joseph and Mary weren’t married yet. That totally misses the point! If Joseph had conceived Jesus then Jesus would have been tainted by the sin of Adam’s line. Sin taints all of mankind by the seed of man. Jesus had a bypass, a clean way into being flesh, to be kept sinless and out of man’s tainted loop. We are guilty by nature and action. It has been asked, “Are we sinful because of our actions, or because of our nature?” The answer is: both. Those who think they can be good enough to maintain salvation are not taking in the idea of their “very nature” being sinful. The very matter that composes the makeup of your flesh is sinful. Many people think that the body must be sinless in order to “keep salvation.” Salvation is a spiritual thing, not physical. Even saved people leave their bodies behind on earth, so why do so many people think that the physical works outweigh the spiritual belief? The problem here with those who believe in lost salvation, is that they believe that sealed salvation endorses a sin license, always a choice to sin. Well, there is also a choice to obey too, don’t you think?
I like to look at it like this. If you come to a T in the road, you can turn one of two ways: left or right. Let’s say that a right turn is righteousness, and a left turn is sin. People who say, “sealed salvation promotes a sin license to sin all you want,” are only thinking of the left turn. They aren’t even considering the right-hander. When they expose this left-turn thinking, they are exposing what they would do. For a truly saved person, there is the acknowledgment of a right-hand turn. To a child of God, sealed salvation means they can obey all they want, not sin all they want.


There is constant conflict between the body and the spirit that is written about in Galatians. There will be conflict, but you must push hard to decide in the soul, or mind, to subdue the body to obey the spirit. The T in the road: obey the spirit, or obey the body…left or right.

Romans 7:21-25 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!



Upon belief, you are sealed, promised, guaranteed. Peter wrote above in 1 Peter 1:3 that your salvation will not fade away, spoil, or perish. The old is gone. What does gone mean? It means “GONE”. Is there anywhere in this passage, or after, that says that the old can return? No. Remember, read what the passage says and don’t assume inverse or unwritten meanings. Again, did you have any part in deciding when you were going to be born? Did you help make yourself to become alive? Your new self is made alive in Christ totally by God. God promises salvation at the point of belief in Ephesians 1:13, and God is not a liar as man is, therefore if God promises it, then so it is. One who has a problem believing this because they feel it permits sin, is in error and blind to the fact that sin brings consequences which brings us back in focus with God. If God didn’t uphold his promise, if God didn’t love, then He wouldn’t care if you sinned at all, you’d suffer no consequences of sin…THEN YOU WOULD HAVE A SIN LICENSE, AND GOD WOULD BE A LIAR.

1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

Uh oh, did I just disprove myself on sealed salvation? Well by now you’d better be aware enough to know that scripture doesn’t contradict itself. So how is this passage to be understood? Back to the 3 elements of man. When you believe, what part of you is saved? Is your body saved? No. If you’ve ever been to a funeral then you know good and well that the body stays here. Also, you know by scripture that the spirit is what is made new, not the body. The spirit is where we are born again (Read John 3:1-21 where Jesus says to Nicodemus that it is the spirit that is reborn, not the body, and notice that in 3:16 that “belief” is stated for there to be salvation.) So now you can read 1 John 3:9 with a better understanding. No one who is born of God (in spirit) will continue to sin. The spirit does not sin. The body commits sin under the decision of the mind, but still yet God’s seed remains in a believer who sins. No, I’m not condoning sin because the consequences will come, not to mention you disobey God in sin. Remember that Adam’s seed is what taints us? Well, the seed of God is spiritual, not bodily. So therefore your spirit is made new and clean, free of sin. You’re saved in the spirit, not the body. That is why you can’t look at someone who appears to be sinning and claim they are not saved. For all you know, they believe, are saved, and yet are suffering severe consequences of their sin that you presume to judge them as condemned with…they just haven’t come full circle back into focus with God yet. Be patient, they’ll come around and start living out evidence of being saved.
Now still yet, the hardheads will say, “oh no, I know a guy that says he’s saved, but he sins all the time, so he’s not saved.” First of all, you are no judge, that’s God’s place, not yours. Second, just because he says he’s saved that doesn’t mean he genuinely is in belief. And if he is saved, then realize that the passage says “he will not continue to go on sinning.” The guy isn’t dead yet! He still has time to repent and discontinue the sin you see him presently committing. Be patient! It’s possible that he just might stop that sin tomorrow! Just because you are irritated with his ways, that doesn’t mean he won’t ever turn around. By the same token, you just might be irritating him somehow too, in a way where he thinks you aren’t saved either! God brings about the consequences of sin on His timetable, not ours. Eventually, the guy will see, will suffer, God’s power will be made perfect in his weakness as 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, and he’ll be right on track. But even if he dies while he is in a sin, the sin does not rest on his spirit because the spirit can not sin with God’s seed in it. The sin is forgiven because the spirit is new and clean. This is why the body dies, because it always has sin within it.
Man lives linearly in time. We take each day one at a time. God is across time all at once. When God forgives and cleanses, He does it across the board. Only man thinks in limited fashion, thinking that a future sin undoes a past salvation. God covers us past, present, and future. Have you ever read the first of a comic strip, skipped to the end to see the punch line, then started over at the beginning and read though it? God sees the timeline of human history in such a way. He sees beginning through the end all at once. When you’re saved, your future sins are forgiven, because He already knows what they are.

Do you pay car insurance? Have you had to file an accident claim? Did your insurance company deny the claim on the basis that your latest payment is now suddenly no good just because it was made yesterday? When you make your insurance payment, you are guaranteed coverage for whatever period of time the policy defines coverage for. Jesus made His believers’ insurance payment, and the terms of coverage are for eternity. Future fender-benders are covered.

1 Corinthians 3:14-15 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

Remember my last blog where I said you must build on the foundation of Christ first, then let your personal beliefs follow in after that? When you are saved - you are saved. But if are in belief but also commit sins, you will suffer great loss, but you yourself will be saved but only as one escaping through the flames with nothing else with you. What are these flames? After our death, there will be one last purging by fire. All of what you have done, good and bad, will be tested by fire. What you build up in sinful ways will burn up and be your loss. But that which you have built on the foundation of Christ will pass through as a reward. Read all of 1 Corinthians 3 at this time.

No, don’t skip on to the rest of my writing. Actually take out your bible, and read 1 Corinthians 3. C’mon, be a scholar!



Summary:

You were brought into flesh in this world guilty of sin by Adam’s seed. Our sinless Lord Jesus Christ died and paid for your death debt with His life blood, forgiving your sins past, present, and future. Upon your own personal belief that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9, Ephesians 1:13), you are forever saved, guaranteed that you will inherit eternal life. John 3:16 states that whosoever believes in him will be, not might be, saved. Your spirit, not your body, is reborn again – something you do not do yourself - and therefore it is your spirit that will not go on in sin because it is born of God, freed from sin’s death-grip and made new, the old is gone the new has come, and it resists and battles against the desires of the flesh, causing you to decide in your free will which to obey. If you do sin you will be convicted in your spirit by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to repent and obey, battling you in your soul to decide to subdue the body and not let sin reign. If you do not subdue the body, but give in to its desires then you will produce serious consequences which will cause you to suffer, bringing weakness, which ultimately turns you back to God’s will. Sin is not free to act under sealed salvation, but is ultimately and totally subdued by it.
Upon belief you will be saved, as all salvation verses state. But after you get saved, it’s not just about you anymore. It’s about glorifying God. It’s also about living and working in a manner that demonstrates righteousness so that others can see Christ in you so that they will want what you’ve got.

Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

You no longer live for you, acting like the body trying to fulfill its own desires. You live now to glorify God and be a light unto others. A dim lamp causes others to stumble in the dark, yet it is still a lamp. A saved person who sins is no less saved than another believer, he’s just going to suffer more loss and acquire less rewards at the purging fire. A bright lamp provides light for those seeking the Lord, and draws them. Doing good or bad does not determine salvation, but belief does. When in belief, committing sin will cause consequences that will be burned up in the purging fire at the sinner’s loss. The good that one does shall pass through the flames as rewards. He who hears the gospel of salvation, but yet goes on sinning without belief will be condemned to eternal damnation (Hebrews 10:26).

All scripture lines up perfectly. Believe in Jesus and you are saved. Do not believe and you will be condemned. We do good to glorify God, but if in spiritual weakness we give in to sin then God does draw us to Him through weakness. God draws believers and nonbelievers alike to walk on the narrow way.

Spirit, soul, and body. The inner being, the free will, and the sin. Now from today forward, build on the foundation of Christ by taking in His word fully and hermeneutically, letting the Spirit tell you what the meaning is rather than your mind, reading with close observation to see a verse in its context so that you will know how to get the proper meaning. Then you will know how to decide in your soul how to make the body suffer itself to the will of Holy Spirit, which lives within the inner being of a believer in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 5:25 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Thank you God, for your gift of salvation through your son Jesus Christ, and for the spiritual guidance you give us through your Holy Spirit, so that we can live on earth as representatives of your son Jesus Christ to a dying world in need of His love.

Amen


Ray Jensen