THE GOSPEL OF YOUR SALVATION

You cannot separate the Gospel of Jesus Christ from Jesus the Savior. Jesus is the Gospel--He is Good News.
The Gospel isn't "Be a good person" or "Do good to others" or "Try your best!" This isn't about you but about Him.
The Gospel is the Gospel of Jesus Christ Himself--the Good News of what He has accomplished for us to the glory of God.

On this page you will find five main articles, ranging from the Gospel, to the question of Salvation, the question if God saves gay people, and about being a new believer in Christ. You can jump to those particular sections of articles by clicking one of the links below:

THE GOSPEL: THE SHORT ANSWER helps the seeker with quick answers; and THE GOSPEL: THE LONG ANSWER delves into doctrines more fully.
ARE YOU SAVED? is a question containing a knowable answer for everyone who asks--including those who think they are unsavable.
DOES GOD SAVE GAY PEOPLE? and the answer is a loud and resounding Yes! God saves all kinds of sinners and I am one of them!
SALVATION explains what we need saving from, whom we need saving from, and how to know that we are saved.
NEW BELIEVER offers various helps for the new believer in Jesus in maintaining one's walk with the Lord--now and the for the rest of our lives.

Some of the information below will overlap into other categories. Words such as Gospel and Salvation may seem vague to some people, even many who attend church on Sundays, either because their pastors / priests don't use those words, do not believe the definitions of those words as touted by us conservative evangelicals, or merely do not find the terms helpful or necessary. Whatever the cause, or excuse, I can think of no more important topic in all that is purported to be of Christianity than the Gospel of Jesus and the knowledge of the salvation of one's eternal soul. Given the reality of eternity, especially compared with the temporal nature of our lives that seems to move along so quickly, what else could possibly be more important than the eternal salvation of your soul? We must think biblically. We must also think eternally.

THE GOSPEL: THE SHORT ANSWER

You may need just a short answer as to what the Gospel is--you may not want to read a long blog post about the Gospel and about the doctrines of Salvation, Repentance, Regeneration, Justification, and Sanctification--so here is the Gospel plainly and simply stated. Scripture begins with God (later revealed in Scripture as One God in Three eternally and equally-divine Persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and God's activity in creation--all that is, seen and unseen, including human beings who are created, according to various authors throughout the Bible, in His image and in His likeness (Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7; 5:1, 2; 9:6; Deut. 4:32; Job 4:17; 10:8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 31:15; 33:4; 34:19; Ps. 8:3, 4, 5, 6; 89:47; 95:6; 100:3; 104:30; 119:73, 74; 138:8; 139:13-16; Eccl. 3:11; 12:7; Isa. 17:7; 42:5; 43:7; 44:24; 49:5; 64:8; Jer. 1:5; 27:5; Zech. 12:1; Mal. 2:10; Matt. 19:4; John 1:3; Acts 17:26, 27, 28; 1 Cor. 8:6; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; 3:10; Heb. 3:4; James 3:9; Rev. 4:11). God created human beings to interact with Him, to reflect His image / likeness, and to maintain an unbroken relationship of trust and honor with Him as their Creator.

For a time unknown to us, God enjoys fellowship with the two people He specially created, Adam and Eve. He gives them everything they need for life and for happiness but warns them against eating from one particular tree in the Garden God created. You probably know the story. The Deceiver enters the Garden, defies God's Word to the couple, and deceives Eve to disobey God. Adam then joins her disobedience. God arrives on the scene and calls each of them to account for their actions. The results are devastating. This plunges the offspring of the couple into spiritual darkness and in desperate need of grace, mercy, and salvation. This is the fallen world into which you and I were born.

Only six chapters into Genesis we see a world, steeped in sin, and a culture gone stark-raving mad (Gen. 6:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13). God causes a flood to occur all over the world, killing all but eight persons, and starts again with those eight people: Noah and his family. God has from eternity past chosen to create a people for Himself and He does so through Abraham (Gen. 12:1, 2, 3; Rom. 3:1, 2, 3, 4; 4:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25). These people, the Jewish people of Israel, are also sometimes named Israel and sometimes Jacob.

The chosen people of Israel are called by God to remain faithful to Him--the faithful ones being the elect and the unfaithful ones being the non-elect (Rom. 2:28, 29). Election relates to the faithfulness of God in His covenant with humanity who are in right relationship with Himself--the God of Israel. He calls the Jewish people to reach the Gentiles (Isa. 42:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) but they fail to do so. When the time is right (Gal. 4:4, 5), God sends Jesus (Isa. 7:14, 9:6), His one and only Son (John 1:1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18; 3:16), into the world in order not to condemn but to redeem (John 3:17) His Jewish people (Matt. 1:21; John 1:11) and to also extend His saving grace to the Gentiles (Matt. 15:26, 27, 28; John 12:20-50; Rom. 1:16; 2:10; 1 Cor. 9:20). This is Gospel--Good News! Christ does for us what we cannot do for ourselves: save us.

Christ died a death not meant for Him but for us. His perfect death is our death. We who believe in Him die to sin in Him.
Christ died for us, yes, but He also lived for us. We do not believe in a half Gospel. We hold forth the full Gospel of Christ.
Christ lived a life that we were meant to live--but we failed. His perfect life becomes our life by grace through faith in Him.
God the Father, through the activity of God the Holy Spirit, applies the blood of God the Son, Jesus, to atone for our sins.
God the Father then, through God the Holy Spirit, considers the perfect life of God the Son to be our perfect life in Him.

That is Good News indeed! But the Bad News is that we are lost in our willful sin and we cannot save ourselves; but the Gospel is that Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). We cannot save ourselves, either by trying to be good enough, or by performing enough good works. (How could you know if you were good enough to be saved, to be justified by God, or had performed enough good works to be saved by God?) Jesus Christ died on the Cross to atone for sins (John 1:29)--to appease / satisfy the wrath of God for sins committed, sins that offend God--He was buried in a tomb and risen to life on the third day. "If you [will] confess with your mouth that Jesus is LORD, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes, and is justified [accounted guiltless even though guilty, Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26], and with the mouth one confesses [that faith in Him] and is saved" (Rom. 10:9-10 ESV).

No one can truly believe in one's heart that Jesus is LORD and Savior unless by the Gospel. This means that believing in Jesus is an influential work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ used by the Holy Spirit (John 3:3, 5, 6, 8; 16:8-11; Rom. 1:16, 17; Eph. 1:13; Titus 3:5). You cannot fake it; you cannot merely believe in Jesus as an historical figure and be saved; you cannot assume that He will save every person irrespective of personal faith in Him and in His atoning work (John 3:36 NKJV); and you cannot assume that salvation can be found in any other way than in and through Christ Jesus and through Him alone (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). Any other claim is damnable heresy at best. You must personally trust that what Jesus accomplished on the Cross, and in His resurrection, He accomplished for you and you must receive / welcome that truth for yourself. By the grace of God through faith in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8-10) through the Gospel (Rom. 1:16-17), God performed a Great Exchange: He took all of your sin and put it on Christ and He took all of His righteousness and put it on you (2 Cor. 5:21).

If you are relying on any other source for salvation than Jesus Christ then you will be forever damned. You cannot attempt at being "a good and decent human being," for we are not saved by being good and decent, but only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8, 9). The truth according to God is that there are no "good and decent" sinners--not even one (Rom. 3:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18). Jesus did not have to die a cruel death on the Cross for "good and decent" people but for sinners who needed salvation by the grace of God through faith in Him alone. You cannot attempt to perform enough good works for others in order to be accounted by God as worthy of salvation and justification, for your works will never be good enough (perfect), nor are they from a pure source (you are most impure, filthy, and inwardly corrupt--cf. Isaiah 64:6). You cannot, as I have heard, wait for God to weigh your good works against your bad works and see if your goodness outweighs your badness because your sinfulness will always and forever outweigh your so-perceived goodness (Mark 10:18; Rom. 3:10). You cannot be saved by mere works (Rom. 3:20). You cannot be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments (Gal. 5:4) because you can never keep them perfectly, never failing, since if you fail one command then you are eternally condemned (James 2:10). Salvation is obtained only by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone as taught in Scripture alone or salvation will not be obtained at all.

God gave His Law to His chosen people (Exodus 19:1-25; 20:1-26; 21:1-36; 22:1-31; 23:1-33), Israel, and commanded them to teach the Gentiles, the Nations, of His ways (Isa. 42:6). They failed to perfectly keep God's Law and they failed to teach the Gentiles of the ways of the LORD. But, where Israel failed, Christ prevailed triumphantly! Jesus came to fulfill God's Law in perfect obedience (Matt. 5:17, 18, 19, 20) and to teach Israel of God's ways (Luke 4:14-21). The Jewish people largely rejected Jesus as their Messiah (John 1:11) and, so, the apostles of Jesus turned to the Gentiles to offer them the grace of God that leads to salvation (Acts 13:46, 47, 48)--and the Gentiles began receiving Him for who He is, Messiah, Savior, and the Son of God. (Yet, as Paul writes, if the Jewish people do not continue in their unbelief, then He will graciously and gladly welcome them back unto Himself for the sake of their fathers, Rom. 11:23, for God has not rejected His elect people, Rom. 11:2, but will save for Himself (Eph. 1:5) an elect / chosen remnant of all Israel, Rom. 11:5, for, as regards the election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers, Rom. 11:28 ESV.) Christ's perfect righteousness and Christ's perfect obedience to the Law are imputed to the account of one who trusts solely in Him for salvation (Rom. 3:21-26 ESV). In other words, the Good News of Christ Jesus the King is that God, His Father, will consider the person who is trusting in Him, the Lord Jesus, to be as holy and as righteous as is He! That is God's Truth and that is Good News indeed!

If you marry the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ to social-justice action, as one finds in Critical Race Theory, then you falsify, pervert, and corrupt Christ and His Gospel. Any action we as believers in Christ do on behalf of others is the outflow of God's gracious goodness to us in Christ but not the center (Matt. 12:34, 35; Eph. 2:8, 9, 10). The Gospel is about Him and not us. In these days of apostasy, when self-professed Christians are wedding the Message of the Gospel to social-justice and economic issues, we need to defend the biblical Message of Christ and reject the eisegeted notion that Christ's Gospel is really just a regurtation of the cultural Social Gospel that is, truly, no saving Gospel at all.

THE GOSPEL: THE LONG ANSWER

Our English word Gospel originates from the Greek, beginning at Matthew 4:23, and refers to Good News. What is the Good News? Jesus proclaims "the Good News of the Kingdom" of God (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; Luke 16:16). This Gospel belongs to Him, meaning that the Gospel is His Gospel (Mark 1:1; Rom. 1:9; 15:19; 1 Cor. 9:12; 2 Cor. 2:12; 4:4; 9:13; Gal. 1:7; Phil. 1:27; 1 Thess. 3:2; 2 Thess. 1:8); and this Gospel belongs to God His Father (Mark 1:14; Rom. 1:1; 15:16; 1 Thess. 2:2, 8, 9; 1 Tim. 1:11; 1 Pet. 4:17) and is the same Good News which the apostle Paul proclaims (Rom. 2:16; 16:25; 2 Thess. 2:14; 2 Tim. 2:8). This Good News, this Gospel of Christ Jesus our LORD, is noted as the Gospel of your Salvation (Eph. 1:13). The Gospel / Good News is mentioned throughout the New Testament (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 11:5; 24:14; 26:13; Mark 1:1, 14, 15; 8:35; 10:29; 13:10; 14:9; 16:15; Luke 2:8-14; 3:18; 4:18; 7:22; 9:6; 16:16; 20:1; Acts 8:12, 25, 40; 13:32; 14:7, 15, 21; 15:7; 16:10; 20:24; Rom. 1:1, 9, 15, 16; 2:16; 10:15, 16; 11:28; 15:16, 19, 20; 16:25; 1 Cor. 1:17; 4:15; 9:12, 14, 16, 18, 23; 15:1; 2 Cor. 2:12; 4:3, 4; 8:18; 9:13; 10:14, 16; 11:4, 7; Gal. 1:6, 7, 8, 9, 11; 2:2, 5, 7, 14; 3:8; 4:13; Eph. 1:13; 3:6; 6:15, 19; Phil. 1:5, 7, 12, 16, 27; 2:22; 4:3, 15; Col. 1:5, 23; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2:2, 4, 8, 9; 3:2; 2 Thess. 1:8; 2:14; 1 Tim. 1:11; 2 Tim. 1:8, 10; 2:8; Philem. 1:13; Heb. 4:2, 6; 1 Pet. 1:12; 4:6, 17; Rev. 14:6). But what, exactly, is the Good News of Jesus?

The "Gospel Message" most often heard today includes unbiblical sayings, such as, "Accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior," or "Ask Jesus into your heart (or into your life)," or, "Make a decision for Christ today." The apostle Paul does say "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as LORD, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom. 10:9-10 NASB); but he does not instruct anyone to "invite Jesus into your heart" or to "accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior" or to "make a decision for Jesus today." You cannot just "make a decision for Jesus" because you are dead in your sins, dead to the things of God, and you want nothing to do with God apart from the grace of God working in your heart. This is what it means to be a sinner. Jesus and Peter call us, command us (John 6:29, 40), to believe, to place our trust and faith in what Jesus accomplished, and then to follow in His footsteps (John 1:12, 13; 3:3, 5, 6, 8; 14:15, 21, 23; 1 Pet. 2:21). Remaining in unbelief is sin; any command of Jesus or of God His Father is a Law and not fulfilling the command is breaking the Law. Trusting in Christ is a Command: this is how we all commit the sin of unbelief (John 6:25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36).

THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL

The Law of God was always meant to be a Tutor or Mentor or Guardian to lead us to Christ (Gal. 3:24). The Law is good and the Law is holy (Rom. 7:12). The Law of God promises eternal life to the one who can keep the Commands perfectly, sinlessly, guiltlessly (Lev. 18:5; Rom. 2:25; cf. Gal. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)--not breaking one Command even one time (James 2:10). No one among us fallen sinners has ever succeeded in keeping God's holy Law perfectly and sinlessly (Rom. 3:23). The consequence for this failure for each one of us is eternal life in Hell and separated from God (Rom. 6:23). Sin cannot dwell in the presence of God (Ps. 5:4). No one but Jesus has managed to perfectly and sinlessly keep every single one of the Commands of God's Law (2 Cor. 5:21). As a matter of fact, Jesus insists that He was born into the world to fulfill God's Law (Matt. 5:17), and so He lived a life that we failed to live. He died for us, yes, but He also lived for us. God looks at the believer in Jesus as though he or she has perfectly and sinlessly kept every single one of His Commands, even though we have not done so, and that is because God is looking at us who are in Christ through the lens of Christ (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; Eph. 2:6; 2 Cor. 5:17, 18, 19, 20, 21).

That is Good News indeed! That is Gospel! Because God cannot dwell with wickedness, and sin, then our sin must be "washed away" (1 Cor. 6:9, 10, 11; Eph. 5:26; Titus 3:5), "cleansed" (John 15:3; Eph. 5:26; 1 John 1:7, 9), atoned for by the perfect, sinless, and willing sacrifice (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; 1 Pet. 1:19) of Jesus Christ. Trusting / believing / exercising faith in what Jesus accomplished on the Cross and in His resurrection is itself a privilege--a grace of the power of the Gospel of God (John 6:29, 35, 37, 40, 44, 65; Eph. 2:8, 9; Phil. 1:29). You are born again, regenerated, as a gift and a special work of God through the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5) and you then believed / trusted in Christ; the Holy Spirit then marked you with His stamp of approval (Eph. 1:13) through faith in Christ and you, by His sole work, gradually become like Christ (Rom. 8:29); and with this renewed heart and mind and spirit you live out a new life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23), or perhaps better stated, Christ Jesus lives out His life in you (Gal. 2:20)--Christ living His life within you is the hope of future glory (Col. 1:27). These are all benefits of being united to, brought into union with, Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:4, 5, 9, 11, 13; 2:6).

SAVED FROM WHAT? | SAVED TO WHAT?

Salvation indicates an element from which one needs to be saved. The answer is simple: we need salvation from our sins. When John the Baptizer saw Jesus, he said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29 NKJV). The Greek word for "takes away," airó, refers to a lifting up, a raising up, a taking away or removal. We all need saving from our sins because we all sinned (Rom. 3:23). The result of sin is death (Rom. 6:23)--both physical and spiritual death--and therefore we need saving from what is known as eternal death (Hell, Matt. 10:28; Hades, Luke 16:23; see also the second death, Rev. 21:8; eternal fire, Matt. 18:8; 25:41; Jude 1:7; the Lake that burns with fire and sulfur, Rev. 20:14; 21:8; eternal punishment, Matt. 25:46; eternal destruction, 2 Thess. 1:9; eternal bonds, Jude 1:6; being guilty of an eternal sin, Mark 3:29; eternal dwellings, Luke 16:9; final and eternal separation from life with God and Jesus (John 3:36 NKJV).

The existence in such a horrendous realm is contrasted with a salvation not from but to or toward eternal life, Matt. 19:16, 29; 25:46; John 3:15, 16, 36; 4:14, 36; 5:24, 39; 6:27, 40, 47, 54, 68; 10:28; 12:25, 50; 17:2, 3; Acts 13:46, 48; Rom. 2:7; 5:21; 6:22, 23; Gal. 6:8; 1 Tim. 1:16; 6:12; Titus 1:2; 3:7; 1 John 1:2; 2:25; 3:15; 5:11, 13, 20; Jude 1:21; to eternal glory, 2 Tim. 2:10; to eternal salvation, Heb. 5:9; to eternal redemption, Heb. 9:12; to an eternal inheritance, Heb. 9:15; for the glory of God (2 Pet. 1:3). God graciously and lovingly saves sinners for the glory of His grace in Jesus Christ through not works but faith in the Person and Atoning Work of Jesus Christ by the power of the Gospel of Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Godhead Trinity performs all the saving work and the person then believes / trusts / has faith in Jesus.

UNION WITH CHRIST

We do not proclaim the benefits of Christ's atoning work, such as salvation, reconciliation, regeneration, justification, sanctification, adoption, glorification, etc., apart from Christ Himself: He is the Gospel! He is the Benefit! One does not receive salvation but in Christ by the grace of God. We are saved by grace through faith, yes (Eph. 2:8), but our reconciliation with God our Father, and the justifying salvation that follows, is found in Christ and not merely through Christ--all salvific benefits are found in union with Jesus Christ by a gifted / granted / graced faith in the Same (Eph. 2:9). You cannot receive the Benefits of Christ apart from the Person of Christ because both are intertwined. So that, when by grace you receive the Gospel by a gift of faith through the effectual work of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), you receive Jesus who is Grace and Salvation and Justification Incarnate. You are not in the Benefits of Christ but in Christ Himself--in union with Immanuel: God with us.

Since Jesus is our only Mediator--One who mesités, "intervenes between two parties to restore peace" (1 Tim. 2:5; 1 John 2:1; cf. Christ as our Intercessor, Rom. 8:34), and so no one but Christ intervenes with the Father on our behalf but Him (not Mary, not a priest, not a dead saint)--then our peace with and reconciliation to the Father is found solely in our union with Christ and not merely in the attaining of some benefits from Him. Christ's benefits cannot be obtained apart from His Person. We receive Him and we receive all the benefits of His Person. "He came to that which was His own [His own Jewish Heritage and People], but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who did receive Him [notice that they welcomed Him in Himself, in His Personhood, in His own reality and not merely in His benefits] to those who believed in His Name [the Name Immanuel, God With Us, Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23, and the Name of God (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה ,YHWH) given to Him, John 17:11; Phil. 2:9, 10, 11; Ex. 3:14, 15], He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:11-12 NIV). The entirety of human salvation is found solely in Him--Jesus Christ.

Paul emphasizes the nature of the born-again believer as being "in Christ" (cf. Eph. 1:3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13; 2:6, 7, 9). This union is a mystical coming-together in identity and relationship involving not only God the Son (cf. John 14:18, 20, 21, 23; 15:26), our Lord Jesus Christ, but also God the Father (cf. John 14:23 15:26) and God the Holy Spirit (cf. John 14:15, 16, 17, 26; 15:26; 16:7, 8, 13, 14). This uniting with Christ incorporates our being adopted by God the Father in God the Son through God the Holy Spirit (John 1:11, 12, 13; Rom. 8:14, 15, 16, 17; 9:8; Gal. 3:26; 4:5, 6, 7; Eph. 1:5; 1 John 3:1 NKJV). Being adopted into God's spiritual family guarantees that we become co-heirs with Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:17)--we are recipients of an eternal inheritance (Eph. 1:14, 18; Col. 1:12; 3:24; Heb. 1:14; 6:12; 9:15; James 2:5; 1 Pet. 1:4; Rev. 21:7). God does not view you, my brother or sister in Christ, as you are, in your sin, but in your being united with Jesus Christ by His grace through faith in Him. You are reckoned by God to be as righteous as is Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)--as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17)--holy and blameless in His sight (Eph. 1:4) as a beloved and adopted child (Eph. 1:5) to the ultimate praise of His glorious grace (Eph. 1:6).

FALSE GOSPELS

We are warned against receiving and believing in false gospels. Paul scolds the believers in Corinth: "For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive [present active indicative: receive and keep on receiving] a different spirit [prophetic word] which you have not [previously] received [from us], or a different gospel which you have not [previously] accepted [from us], you [seem to] bear this beautifully" (2 Cor. 11:4 NASB). He is puzzled as to how they could so willingly be deceived. The Apostolic Gospel is the Gospel of Christ and to this Gospel--the Truth of the Good News of Christ proclaimed in the New Testament--we must be faithful. Paul warns:

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort [pervert / corrupt / twist] the Gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven [think of Mormonism and other cults], should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed [separated from God in Hell]! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received [from us], he is to be accursed [damned in Hell forever] (Gal. 1:6-9)!

To misunderstand / misrepresent / distort / corrupt / pervert the Gospel is to misunderstand and to corrupt Jesus. What does "a false gospel" look or sound or appear like? One false gospel, which is no gospel (no good news) at all, is that if you repent of your sins then God will save you. That is a demonic deception. Do not be fooled by such false teaching. "Repenting of your sins" to many preachers refers to behavior modification. No one is saved by first "cleaning up his act," by first "getting himself straight / right / sober," as though if he does this work then God will save him. That is not the Gospel. Jesus said "Repent and believe the Gospel" (Mark 1:15) and what He indicates to the Jewish people is that they need to change their minds about who He is, to trust Him, and to believe in the Good News of the coming Messiah who will atone for sins. Peter said to a gathering of Jewish people: "Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins" (Acts 2:38); and: "repent and return [to the LORD] so that your sins may be wiped away" (Acts 3:19). His direction was toward Jesus Christ and not toward their behavior modification. Philip told an Ethiopian that he could be baptized if he believed with all his heart in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 8:37). Salvation is not about behavior modification but about the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by the inner work of the Holy Spirit.

Dr. Scot McKnight offers a few other examples of false and damnable gospels against which we are warned from receiving:

Individualism--the story that "I" am the center of the universe [narcissism];
Consumerism--the story that I am [and am valued by] what I own;
Nationalism--the story that my nation is God's nation [so prevalent among right-wing so-called Christians today];
Moral relativism--the story that we can't know what is universally good [or what is objective truth];
Scientific naturalism--the story that all that matters is matter [and is a complete denial of the spiritual];
New Age--the story that we are gods [or are a spark of the Divine];
Postmodern tribalism--the story that all that matters is what my small group thinks;
Salvation by therapy--the story that I can come to my full human potential through [self-help] inner exploration.^†

One may connect or attach Jesus--His Gospel and His Ministry as Redeemer through His atoning death, burial, and bodily resurrection--to any one of these and other false notions above and be found guilty of distorting / perverting / corrupting the Gospel, guilty of distorting and perverting and corrupting the Person of Jesus, and lead many to eternal destruction or damnation. The warning against receiving and believing in false gospels maintains frightening eternal consequences for all involved. False so-called gospels or watered-down versions of the true and saving Gospel breed false believers--people who think they are Christians but who are, in God's reality, not truly saved.

RELATED DOCTRINES

A man approaches Jesus and asks Him how he might be saved. Jesus answers the man and the man was "deeply dismayed by these words, and he went away grieving" (Mark 10:22), and Jesus does not run after him. Jesus lets the man walk away from Him--the only Savior in the history of humanity--the Giver of Eternal Life does not attempt to argue with the man, defend His Gospel, or beg the man not to walk away from Him lost. Jesus does not alter His answer, His Gospel, nor can He, for He has the Words of Eternal Life (John 6:68), and if someone rejects His salvation--and the man did so right in front of His face--then there is no hope for the man or for anyone else. Jesus does not compromise eternal truth. Neither can we. Blame for the distortion of Christ and His Gospel is directly linked to the Devil: "And even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world [i.e., Satan, the Devil] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the Light of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ, who is the Image of God" (2 Cor. 4:3-4).

But man, in his fallen state, does not naturally want the Light (John 3:19). From the position of the one so blinded, his need is the penetrating Light of the Gospel (2 Cor. 4:4, 6), the Light of the World (John 8:12) Jesus Christ. "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face [or in the Person] of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). We confront darkness with the Light. But we cannot produce this Light in our own Dark hearts. If God does not shine His graciously penetrating Gospel-Light within us in the work of the Holy Spirit then we cannot believe. We must understand our need of God's grace in the Gospel. We must also embrace the reality that, if the Holy Spirit does not regenerate our dead spirit, we cannot be saved (Titus 3:5; John 1:11, 12, 13).

REGENERATION

Salvation is directly linked to God's act of regeneration--being born again (John 3:3, 5, 6, 7, 8)--a spiritual act of the Holy Spirit that enlivens / awakens a fallen (spiritually dead) sinner who then trusts in, and maintains faith in, Jesus Christ. The purpose of regeneration is the immediate resurrection of the dead spirit of a person so that he may trust / place faith in / believe in Jesus. Regeneration is spiritual rebirth. Due to us sinning, we spiritually "die" from and in our sins (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3), become blinded by sin and the Devil to the eternal and spiritual truths of Christ (1 Cor. 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:3, 4, 6), are then separated (Isa. 59:2) from life in and a right relationship with God (Eph. 2:5, 8; cf. 1 Cor. 1:18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31; 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16). We spiritually died because of our sin (Rom. 6:23; 7:9; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). "Dead" refers to being "cut off" (Ex. 31:14; Deut. 20:2, 3; Rom. 11:22, 24; cf. 2 Cor. 11:12) from a right-standing and a right relationship with God and becoming "unregenerate" (our spirit becomes dead, unresponsive, inactive and deaf to God's voice in His Word / Law / Gospel), and therefore we need reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19), and regeneration (John 3:3, 5, 8; Titus 3:5). This regeneration / being born again / spiritual awakening only happens by the effectual grace of God in Christ the King by the sole work of the Holy Spirit in us.

Jesus said that we must be born again, spiritually rebirthed, in order to enter Heaven, His Presence, the Kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5, 6, 7, 8). We cannot effect our own regeneration. We cannot birth ourselves into God's spiritual reality. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot atone for ourselves. We cannot divinely forgive ourselves. Rebirth / regeneration is monergistically effectuated by the Holy Spirit (John 3:6, 7, 8) and occurs to cause us to welcome Christ by faith / to receive faith in Christ / to believe in Jesus / to trust in Christ / to place faith in Jesus (John 1:13; Acts 13:48; 16:14; Eph. 2:5, 8; 2 Pet. 1:1), in His atoning work on the Cross of Calvary as our one and only Savior (John 1:12, 13; 3:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; Acts 8:34, 35, 36, 37; 15:7, 8, 9; Rom. 1:16, 17; 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; 4:4, 5; 1 Cor. 1:21; Gal. 3:14; Eph. 2:8; 3:17; Phil. 1:29; 3:9; Col. 2:12, 13; Titus 3:5). We do not and we cannot believe in Jesus of our own imagined Free Will because we are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3; cf. John 5:44; 6:26, 27, 29, 36, 37, 39, 44, 63, 65; 1 Cor. 1:18, 26, 30; 2:6, 7, 13, 14, 15). When the Holy Spirit regenerates our dead spirit, effectually calling us to Himself (1 Cor. 1:9, 26), we then, naturally, believe in Christ. God then justifies us, sanctifies us, and glorifies us (Rom. 8:29, 30).

PRACTICAL CHANGE COMMENCED WITH THE GOSPEL

Prior to hearing the Gospel, prior to being convicted by the Holy Spirit by grace for a salvation through faith in Christ, we all live in sinful ignorance, in spiritual blindness caused by our sin, and by the Devil (2 Cor. 4:4, 5, 6; Eph. 4:18). We do not seek God. God seeks us. If God does not seek us out then we cannot be saved. We cannot save ourselves. In our sin we do not even want to be saved (1 Cor. 2:14). You must admit this to yourself. Be honest. You did not want God. God wanted you. We love our sin too much to want to have anything to do with God. We do not love God. God loves us. We only love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Had He not loved us then we would all be forever lost.

As a result of being saved by grace (meaning not by merit, not by works, not by attempts at being good) through faith in Christ, an entire life-transformation is begun by Him (2 Cor. 5:17), is developed by Him (2 Cor. 3:18) and will be brought to its fulfillment by Him (Rom. 8:28, 29, 30; Eph. 1:4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). We are recreated in Christ Jesus with a purpose toward a life of good works (Eph. 2:10), a life of obedience to Christ (John 14:15, 21, 23), an obedience that is the fruit, the end result, of being saved by His grace through faith in Him. We are not (ever) obedient in order to be saved but because we have been saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus--and this obedience will never, ever, be perfect. Christ's obedience is our obedience. God considers Christ's obedience to be our obedience by His grace (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26). All of our eternal salvation begins with the Gospel in the effectual work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8-11).

REPENTANCE

Repentance is not the Gospel! If someone says to you, "Repent of your sins and God will save you," the person is preaching a false gospel. Repentance, like Faith, cannot save us. God saves us--and God saves us by His effectual grace (John 1:12, 13; Rom. 2:4; Eph. 2:8) through the gift of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:13; 6:65; Acts 3:16; Rom. 9:11, 16; 1 Cor. 2:14; Phil. 1:29; 2 Pet. 1:1) by the effectual work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8, 9, 10, 11; Titus 3:5). We cannot repent of our sins in order for God to save us. That is a putting of the cart before the horse. We cannot repent of our sin in the same way that we cannot obey God or please God (Rom. 8:6, 7, 8). An unregenerate person who is dead in his sins wants nothing to do with God--nor can he (Rom. 3:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18; 5:10; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2:14; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3).

Repentance is a change of mind that agrees with God about and against our sin. Repentance is not behavior modification. You cannot change yourself. Only God can change you from within. When Jesus commands the Jewish leaders and the Jewish people in general to repent (Matt. 3:2; Mark 1:15), He is commanding a change of mind, regarding who He is (Messiah, Savior, LORD and not merely Rabbi, Moral Teacher, Social Reformer), and then God will produce a change of our heart (wherein at one time we used to not care about goodness, righteousness and holiness, now we long to be good, righteous, and holy), that results in an obvious change of life (habitual lifestyle). Repentance is unlike penance: the repentant does not merely feel sorry for sins and mistakes--he longs to correct his distorted thinking and feeling that led to the sins and mistakes. Penance is an attempt to "make up" for the sins committed in order to earn God's favor and forgiveness. Repentance is confessing sin / wrongdoing / mistakes, asking for forgiveness, agreeing with God that our sin is sinful and offensive to a holy God, so that we agree He is right to judge all sin; which is, admittedly, an after-effect of being born again, regenerated, renewed in Christ by the Holy Spirit.

There is a sense in which repentance, a change of mind, does effect a change of behavior. How could it not? How we think inevitably affects what we do. "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:1-4 NASB). The problem for us is when we look toward our behavior to determine our right standing with God or if we possess "true saving faith." But faith does not save us. God saves us. God imputes to us--reckons to our spiritual account--a righteousness that does not and cannot belong to us, a righteousness that we could not attain in a million lifetimes, the actual righteousness (rightness, perfection, sinlessness) of Jesus by God's grace through the Holy Spirit and is received by us through faith (Rom. 3:21-26).

Read me carefully: I am saying that the born-again believer will obey Jesus (John 14:15, 21, 23; 1 John 1:5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19; 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 29; 3:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24; 5:1, 2, 3). But the believer's obedience will be imperfect (James 2:10), for only Jesus is able to perfectly obey the Father (Matt. 5:17), and our obedience is in no sense whatsoever measured toward salvation--and the very thought of it is offensive to the atoning work of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary and to the very holiness of God the Father and the saving / sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. We are supposed to rest in the finished work of Christ Jesus (John 19:30) and not in our own measured obedience. Do true believers sin? Yes. Do true believers fall even into grievous sin at times? Yes. Even for a season? Yes. Does this negatively impact their salvation? No. Does this negatively impact their sanctification? Yes. Does this sin offend God? Yes. Are they still atoned? Yes. What should they do? Trust in Christ, pray for forgiveness (1 John 2:1), and, if they feel powerless, then ask God to do in them what they cannot do for themselves (Rom. 6:14).

What about those pastors / preachers / teachers who insist that if we are not constantly walking in holiness and perfect obedience then we demonstrate that we are not truly saved? Such people tragically confuse / conflate sanctification with salvation. Faith in Jesus' finished work, by the effectual grace of God through the Holy Spirit, secures our salvation, not our obedience / performance, because even faith itself is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8) and does not derive from our own willing (John 1:13; 6:65; Acts 3:16; Rom. 9:11, 16; 1 Cor. 2:14; Phil. 1:29: we received faith by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, 2 Pet. 1:1). Even repentance, when considered as an effectual turning to God in faith, is a gift of God that graciously, in God's kindness (Rom. 2:4), inevitably leads to faith in Christ Jesus (Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25).

Our obedience / repentant life / habitual lifestyle / repentance-deemed-as-behavior-modification is supposed to be an outflow of being saved (cf. 1 Cor. 6:11; 1 Pet. 1:2). We actually did change by God's inner work (2 Cor. 5:17). But we are positionally sanctified, i.e., our standing positionally with God in Christ (Eph. 2:6), when we are saved (John 17:17; 1 Thess. 4:3; 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 10:10; 13:12)--meaning that God considers us set apart (sanctified) from the world and set apart for His glory in Christ unto Himself when we are saved by His grace through faith in Jesus (Acts 26:18; 1 Cor. 1:2; Col. 2:11; 2 Tim. 2:21; Heb. 2:11; 12:14). We are progressively being made holy (2 Cor. 3:18; Heb. 2:11; 10:14; 12:10), and progressively being conformed to the image of Jesus (Rom. 8:29), and this is a life-long process performed by the work of the Holy Spirit and not an instantaneously providential work or function of God the Father in God the Son through God the Holy Spirit.

Those who insist that we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus by God's grace through faith in Christ, but now we prove our faith by our perfect obedience and holiness and good works, fall into the same trap as that of Pelagius! Let that marinate in your head for a moment. He was convinced that Jesus cleansed us from our sins, justified us in the present, and gave us a mandate toward works-righteousness for future justification and reward of Heaven. Those who fail to obey are damned. This is not Gospel, not Good News, but really bad news. Either Jesus' work on the Cross secures the believer's salvation and present justification--including the believer's future justification--by the grace of God through faith in Christ, without consideration of perfect obedience--which none can achieve, or no one can be saved at all (Gal. 2:16).

I liken Pelagius' theology to the analogy of Noah and the Ark that I heard or read from someone years ago (I forget who--quite possibly perhaps Erwin Lutzer in the mid-to-late 1990s). Imagine if Noah had constructed poles on the outside of the Ark and told people that, if they could hang on to the boat in their own strength and outlast the storm and the flood, then they can be saved. That horrible ideology right there is Pelagius and it is not Good News--not the Gospel. The Gospel is about what Christ has perfectly, righteously, completely accomplished for us--not in any sense imaginable what we must attempt to accomplish in order to be saved and future-justified. We trust in Jesus. Pelagius says Christ died to atone for our past sins but we will only see Heaven by obeying God's Law until our dying breath. Paul, on the other hand, is inspired of God to pen that God has justified us--judiciously declared us to be as righteous as is Christ Jesus--by grace through faith in Christ (Rom. 5:1, 2), meaning, God took all of our sins (sins past, sins present, and sins future) and laid them all upon Christ Jesus on the Cross of Calvary; and He took all of Jesus Christ's righteousness and laid it all on / imputed it all to us who are trusting, not in our own righteousness, but in His righteousness alone (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; Phil. 3:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11). Salvation is all of God's own doing (1 Cor. 1:18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31; 2:2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16; 2 Cor. 1:21, 22; Eph. 1:4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13; 2:8, 9, 10; 2 Peter 1:1).

JUSTIFICATION

The Doctrine of Justification is often simplified by pastors to mean that God declares us, by grace through faith in Christ, to exist "just-as-if-I'd" never sinned. This gracious act of God is a judicial declaring of the believer by God, the Righteous Judge, to be just (accounted worthy though not worthy, pure though not pure, guiltless though guilty of sin), to be righteous (right, upright, conformed to God's standards), declared innocent and absolved of all charges of wrongdoing. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to the believer--meaning, God takes all of your sin and lays it on Christ and takes all of Christ's righteousness and lays it on you: But now the righteousness of God

has been manifested apart from the Law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it--the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:21-26 ESV); and to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness (Rom. 4:5 ESV).

The Law of God promises eternal life to the one who can keep the Commands perfectly, sinlessly, guiltlessly (Lev. 18:5; Rom. 2:25; cf. Gal. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)--never, ever, messing up even once (James 2:10). No one but Jesus Christ has managed to do so (Matt. 5:17; 2 Cor. 5:21). He who attempts to keep God's Laws in an effort to gain God's favor, God's approval, for a display of his own imagined righteousness, will fail (cf. Isa. 64:6). If a person fails to keep God's holy standards in the slightest degree then he is forever lost. None of us can keep God's Law perfectly (sinlessly, guiltlessly, justifiably) except Christ Jesus, the sinless Son of God, Redeemer of believers. No one can attempt to be good, or to do enough good, to be accounted by God as righteous, pure, holy. Any attempt to circumvent God's Plan of Redemption is an affront to God's holiness, omniscience (since He knows our state and that accomplishing such is futile), His love (out of which He chose to send His only Son to redeem believers, 1 Cor. 1:21), His grace and mercy (demonstrating His willingness to save us from our sins, cf. Eph. 2:8; Titus 3:5).

A WARNING

There is a teaching within certain circles that says "once saved, always saved," and what they mean in full is that, even if you stop trusting in Christ, you will still be saved. That is damnable heresy and I beg you not to believe that false teaching. That is the not the Gospel. (Let me interject here, though, and confess that God will, by His own spiritual means, preserve the true regenerate believer to the end.) If God, by His grace, saves us (Eph. 2:8, 9) in Christ Jesus by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), by which act we receive faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:1), by which gifted faith God justifies us (Rom. 4:5; 5:1), if someone then claims to no longer be trusting in Jesus Christ, such a one is not justified, such a one cannot and will not be saved, and such a one proves that he had a profession of faith without the possession of faith. The "warning passages" in the New Testament regarding someone not attaining salvation, which are written to true believers, will concern / trouble / haunt the true believer in Christ. The true believer does not ever want to be separated from Christ. Such a thought terrifies him. The nominal believer, who maintains a profession of faith without the possession of faith, will inevitably walk away from that profession. He must walk away from his profession of faith in Jesus because his so-perceived faith is not genuine.

Again, though, allow me to remind you that faith in Jesus is not something you work up or excite within yourself, or some emotion you try really hard to feel, but is mere trust in the accomplished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary for the one who will believe in His blood. Faith is not a work (Rom. 4:4, 5), properly taken, but faith is a spiritual act that a person is gifted by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit to enact toward Jesus Christ. Yet faith is not meritorious. Repentance is not meritorious. The only salvific merit belongs to Jesus Christ. Never forget that you, believer, were predestined from all eternity past to ultimately be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ by God the Father (Rom. 8:29); and you, who are being conformed to the image of Jesus, are the ones whom God also called to come to Himself in Christ; and you, who are called, are the ones whom God justified; and you, whom God justified, are the ones whom He also glorified--a past-tense reality in the mind of God that will find its ultimate fulfillment at the return of Christ the King (Rom. 8:30).

Must we, then, view this issue of faith and salvation in this manner: the ones who believe to the end are the ones who will be saved (Matt. 24:13; 2 Tim. 2:12; Heb. 3:6, 14; James 1:12; Rev. 2:10)? The answer may frustrate some. Much like obedience (John 14:15, 21, 23), the true believer will obey, but not in order to demonstrate that he is saved. The true believer will believe until the end of his life or until the Lord Jesus returns, not in order to demonstrate that he is saved, but because he is saved. Paul insists that the Lord Jesus Christ will confirm the true believer to the very end in blamelessness (1 Cor. 1:8; cf. Eph. 1:4, 5). "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. 1:9). But if anyone among us in the Church go on sinning deliberately in a life full of sin, demonstrating lack of faith in Jesus Christ and that he has not been renewed by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 5:17), having received the knowledge of the truth, that God in Christ Jesus created true believers "in righteousness and holiness of the truth" (Eph. 4:24), there no longer remains a sacrifice of sins (since Jesus is our only sacrifice) for him (Heb. 10:26--though, in the context of this passage in Hebrews, the writer is referring to those who returned to Judaism after receiving knowledge of the true Gospel in Christ; so that, I am using that reference in my own contextualized, two-fold purpose). He thus demonstrates that his heart has not been changed, no matter his claimed experiences or what he professes with his mouth, because the person whose heart has truly been changed by God (2 Cor. 5:17) is also being kept by God (Jude 1:1, 24) and longs for righteousness, holiness, and truth from his God (1 Cor. 6:9, 10, 11; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:22, 23, 24; 5:22, 23; 2 Thess. 2:10; Heb. 10:22).

A believer can experience times of spiritual dryness, as though he is walking through a dark wilderness, a season when he does not feel close to the Lord or does not want to pray to the Lord and even abstains from fellowship with other believers at a local congregation. This does not necessarily mean that he has "lost his salvation," because that is not even possible for a regenerate and adopted child of God (Rom. 8:29, 30; Eph. 1:4, 5; 2 Tim. 2:19), and we all acknowledge that true believers experience trials, hardships, turmoil, depression, anxiety attacks and even despair. God knows how to keep His child for Himself in spite of all the horrors that we may experience in life (2 Pet. 2:9). Paul writes:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons [children] of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it (Rom. 8:18-25 NASB).

We know that this life can be tragic. God is fully aware of the cost of sin on our world and on our very souls. God also knows how to sustain us while we go through difficulties and hopelessness. God refuses to lose even one of His adopted children in Christ Jesus (Matt. 18:12, 13, 14; John 6:37, 38, 39, 40; 10:11, 12, 13, 14, 15). Jesus made us this promise: "In this world you will have trouble" (John 16:33). But He followed that promise with another: "but take courage; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). In life, or in death, the believer will overcome all in Him.

SANCTIFICATION

The words sanctification, sanctify, sanctified (cf. 1 Tim. 4:5) refer to the progression of the believer in Christ being practically made more and more holy (1 Pet. 1:16), the words possessing the same passive Greek root word, to consecrate or to be consecrated: to declare an object or a person to be set apart from the world of sin and set apart unto God for sacred use. In a moral sense, the word refers to "those who, freed from the impurity of wickedness, have been [by grace] brought near to God by ... faith (Acts 20:32; 26:18)." This root Greek word, especially when translated as "holy," is mysterious: the idea is of a qualitative difference--the "holy" object or person is different, other, unlike that which is earthly (worldly, fleshly, common). The one who is "holy" is other, peculiar, and set apart--like a Church building is set apart for sacred use from commonplace buildings. The believer is sanctified, being made holy, by the indwelling Holy Spirit to be peculiar, other, different from the rest of the fallen and unredeemed people in the culture who are self-made enemies of God and self-made enemies of His Grace.

This does not mean, though, that the sanctified believer is to thereby think of him- or herself more highly than one ought to think (Rom. 12:3). The believer should not carry him- or herself as though she is better than the lowly sinner or even the poor and lowly believer--this is abominable to God (Luke 18:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14). We are to be humble like Christ (Phil. 2:5, 6, 7, 8). You sin the moment you boast of your sanctification. I highlight the Greek word for sanctified being passive to inform the believer that God is the One who progressively performs this inner sanctifying work: He is at work in the believer, through the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 1:2), to sanctify the believer by faith (Acts 26:18) and by the blood of Jesus (Heb. 13:12), the conforming of the believer to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18).

However, God does not do so by force, but by spiritual motivations from the Holy Spirit. He sets us apart from sin and worldliness (from the ways of this world to His ways). This work He accomplished positionally for the believer at the moment that the Holy Spirit set His seal of approval upon the believer (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13)--the one He just regenerated (1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Thess. 2:13)--in which position he exists (1 Cor. 1:2), while God the Father, through the Spirit and in the Son, accomplishes further sanctifying work day by day, week by week, month after month, year after year (2 Cor. 3:18; Heb. 10:14), by a Gospel-encouraging and Spirit-motivating responsive engaging of the Word of God (John 17:17; Col. 3:16; 1 Thess. 2:13; 1 Tim. 4:5; Heb. 4:12). Regarding the responsive engaging of the Word of God: If you are a poor reader, or you cannot read or you do not have access to God's Word, the Spirit of God within you knows how to communicate with you in such a way to conform you to the image of Christ Jesus. Trust Him! We can, however, hinder this work: we can, sadly, grieve the Holy Spirit with our sins; we can quench the fire (ignition / fervor) of the Spirit of God within us (Eph. 4:30, 31, 32; 1 Thess. 5:19). We need to submit (James 4:7).

Does this mean that you, who trust in Christ and are saved and are positionally sanctified, can no longer sin? No. You have been changed, yes, but you still retain, in the words of Scripture, the "old man," or the "old nature" (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9) within your being that may tempt you or draw you away from God and all that is holy. Your new / renewed / regenerate nature wants to follow Christ fully. Your old nature wars against your new nature and motivates you to sin. The battle is constant for the believer (Rom. 7:14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25). The believer cannot eradicate the old nature--the old nature will never be sanctified, renewed, or made holy. Our old nature will finally be eradicated at Jesus' return (1 Cor. 15:51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57; Rev. 21:5). The new nature in the believer will remain in a state of being made more like Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit and the Word of God throughout his journey in Christ (Rom. 8:29, 30; 2 Cor. 3:18). The call of God upon our lives will always be to imitate the Lord in all ways, to be like the Lord (Eph. 5:1), to be holy (1 Pet. 1:14, 15, 16) and to serve the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 15:58). We will strive, certainly, but will never do so perfectly. Rest in Christ's finished work and not your own.

CONCLUSION

To believe the Gospel is to believe in Jesus Christ--His work on the Cross, and His subsequent Resurrection, as Redeemer of sinners to the Glory of God by the Power of the Holy Spirit. This is the Gospel of our Salvation (Eph. 1:13). A Gospel-inspired faith in Jesus Christ, in His Person, is transformative by the effectual power of the Holy Spirit: one becomes a new creation inwardly (2 Cor. 5:17) and then seeks to live out one's life in Christ (Gal. 2:19-20). The person is now a sanctified / holy / purified ambassador for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20) and stands, by the grace of the Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8), as the Righteousness of God in the earth (2 Cor. 5:21). Salvation is solely of God's doing, adding nothing whatsoever to His salvation of our own doing (not even faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because faith cannot save, faith cannot redeem, and faith cannot regenerate the sinner), and His saving us redounds eternally solely due to the glory of our Triune God.

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^† Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), 157.

ARE YOU SAVED?

I have discovered, over the last 30 years of being a Christian, that even many folks who go to church regularly are not familiar with salvation, being saved, becoming a born-again Christian. Most often the reason is because they grew up in a tradition that didn't use those words and phrases that conservative evangelicals use, like regeneration (being born again), conversion (repentance) and new life in Christ. The apostle Paul writes: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Cor. 5:17). If you were baptized as an infant then you will not remember the event, though you have certainly been told of the ceremony, and hopefully raised in a Christian home and a Bible-believing church in which you were instructed on what being Christian means in your life.

This is why we, in the Baptist tradition, only water-baptize someone who has experienced conversion--meaning, a person who has come to a realization of believing, placing personal faith in, trusting in Jesus Christ to save the person from sin, and from the coming wrath of God upon sinners (John 3:36 NKJV), and has been inwardly changed (Rom. 6:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; 2 Cor. 5:17). This "inward change" is referred to as being born again (1 Pet. 1:23), being born from above or born anew (John 3:3, 5), regeneration (Titus 3:5). At your creation, God gave you life and generated your spirit (Ps. 139:16). However, having being born of Adam, your spirit died (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). Your spirit now needs regeneration: making you a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10), creating within you a new heart (Ezek. 36:26), and everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God (1 John 5:1). Otherwise you would remain spiritually dead and forever separated from life in God (Isa. 59:2).

BEING SAVED

When people ask you if you have been saved, or if you have a personal relationship with God the Father in Jesus Christ, they are asking if you have been born again--renewed on the inside and trusting in Jesus for salvation, salvation from your sins that offend God, salvation from the wrath of God that will come upon the whole world (Isa. 26:21; John 3:36; Rom. 2:5; 5:9; Eph. 5:6; 2 Pet. 2:9). Those who trust in Jesus Christ will not endure the wrath of God (1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9). So "being saved" is being saved from the wrath of God against sin and sinners who sin.

How would you respond to this question: In your honest estimation, what does it take for you to go to Heaven, what is required of you? If you say "Obey the Law of God" then you are hopeless. You cannot perfectly obey the Law (Rom. 8:3). You are incapable of perfectly obeying the Law (Rom. 8:5, 6, 7, 8). The Law only condemns you as a sinner (Rom. 4:15-16 NLT; Rom. 4:20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25; 7:5, 8, 9, 10, 11). If you say "I can get into Heaven by being a good person" then you are hopeless (Rom. 5:6, 8, 10, 18, 19; 1 Cor. 2:14). You cannot be good enough to enter God's presence (1 John 1:8, 9, 10). You must be sinless to stand before God (Ps. 24:3, 4). So how are you going to get into Heaven and avoid an eternal Hell? There is one and only one answer: the grace of God through faith in the LORD Jesus Christ (Rom. 4:16 NLT; Eph. 2:8, 9, 10).

BORN AGAIN

Regeneration is the act of God that brings spiritual life to your dead spirit. Now you truly love and trust God as your heavenly Father because you have now become His adopted child (John 1:11, 12, 13; Gal. 4:4, 5, 6, 7; Eph. 1:4, 5). You are now a spiritual heir of God and a co-heir with Jesus (Rom. 8:17); you trust that what Jesus accomplished for you on the Cross--that the shedding of His own blood covers / atones for your sin (Heb. 9:22; Rom. 10:9)--and you trust that His resurrection will secure your justification before God (Rom. 10:9, 10). Being "justified" by God means that God considers you to be holy, even though you are not holy, because of Jesus' perfect obedience to God's Law (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28; 5:1; 1 Cor. 6:11; Titus 3:7). This means that, not only did Jesus die a death that was meant for you, but He also lived a life that you could not live before God. His death is your death and His life is your life. God imputes / reckons / accounts Jesus' death to cover your sins and He imputes / reckons / credits Jesus' perfect life as though you lived perfectly before Him all your days. This is the Doctrine of Imputation.

Jesus' righteousness, His rightness--meaning, His perfect and right "standing," or being in a perfect or right and sinless relationship with God, the quality of being just or justice, holy, pure, sinless, perfect--now becomes your righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30 NIV). You must be "found" in Him, that is, in Jesus Christ, not having a so-called righteousness of your own that comes from trying to perfectly obey the Law, because you cannot perfectly do so (Rom. 5:6, 8, 10; 8:5, 6, 7, 8; 1 Cor. 2:14), but to be "found" in Christ possessing a righteousness that comes to you, that is given to you by God, through faith in Christ--the righteousness from God that depends on faith (Phil. 3:9). This is a legal standing before God, as though you were standing in God's divine Courtroom, convicted rightly as guilty, but declared innocent because of what Jesus did in your place.

This new life given to you, this regeneration or being born again, means that you now have holy desires to love God, to obey the Lord, and to worship Him. Before being born again, you did not care about eternal truths belonging to Christ (1 Cor. 2:14), but now you do; and you want to tell others about your experience, speaking of the Good News of God in Christ your LORD, calling them to turn to Him. Some may think you have lost your mind. Others will be curious. Still others will turn away from you. Do not fear. People have lost their own lives for trusting in Christ. Some have lost family and friends. Jesus warned that this could happen (Mark 8:34; Luke 14:26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33; John 15:20).

SANCTIFICATION

The word sanctify refers to being made holy / being conformed to the image of Jesus. Sanctification is a life-long process. Our goal is to live holy lives (1 John 2:1a) but fail we will (1 John 1:8, 9. 10; 2:1b). The entire book of 1 John is meant as an encouragement, not a scare tactic, granting evidence that the regenerate believer longs to live holy even if and when we fail. God will see to making you holy over time (Rom. 8:29). Spiritually, you are "positioned" in Christ (Eph. 1:4), meaning in union with Christ. In Christ you have been considered sanctified (Heb. 10:10), while you are being sanctified (Heb. 10:14), and you will be sanctified entirely in the future (Heb. 11:40). The same is true of salvation. In Christ you have been saved (Eph. 2:8), you are being saved (1 Cor. 1:18), and you will be saved entirely in the future (Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:9, 10).

LIVE THE LIFE

Your new life in Christ is a life-long adventure. You will experience highs and lows, ups and downs, doubts, surges of inspiration, questions you may never find an answer to, times of strong faith and seasons of weak faith or even sin. Don't fret. Don't stress out. Don't give up. Being saved doesn't mean being sinless and being SuperSaint. Your life in Christ is real, organic, not a Hallmark movie (Rom. 5:3, 4, 5; James 1:2, 3, 4). You may experience unspeakable emotional pain, sadness, and even severe depression (like me and others who have gone on before us, like Martin Luther, and Charles Spurgeon). But God knows how to keep those whom He has redeemed (Phil. 1:6; 2 Pet. 2:9, 10, 11, 12, 13; Jude 1:24). Even on your worst day, you are still in His mighty grip, still saved even though you feel like a heathen. You don't live your life in Christ by your feelings but by faith. Make your doubts serve your faith. Don't let them rule over you. God will never, ever forsake you (Heb. 13:5).

DOES GOD SAVE GAY PEOPLE?

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Neither sexually immoral people, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners, nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor abusive persons, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God--and some of you were these things: but you were washed, but you were sanctified, you were justified in the Name of the LORD Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor.6:9-11 LEB).

There's the answer to the question: Does God save gay people? Yes, God saves "gay" people, for God saves all kinds of people in all kinds of circumstances of life (Deut. 10:17; Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11; Eph. 6:9). We are all sinners (Rom. 6:23). Those who trust in Christ, and are thereby saved by God's grace, will not see the soon-coming Day of Wrath upon sinners (John 3:36 NKJV). This is Good News for believers indeed!

In case you do not know, I have known of my attraction to my own gender since at least four years old, though I did not know at such a young age what it all meant. I lived openly and proudly in gay culture from age 18, after graduating high school, to age 27, when I, in 1995, became a born-again Christian by the grace of God through faith in the LORD Jesus Christ. This means that I now fully understand the worldviews of two contrary life-contexts: 1) that of open and proud LGBTQIA+ people; and 2) that of conservative, born-again, evangelical Christians. When I say that I do not identify as "gay" I mean that I'm divorced from "gay culture" and in union with my LORD Christ Jesus and His followers.

Yes, I am still attracted to my own gender, and I am asked that question frequently. No, I do not involve myself in LGBTQIA+ culture, and I fail to see how physical and / or metaphysical or sexual attraction, whether hetero- or homosexual, warrants one to be "proud." (Those cognitive perceptions merely exist. No one put forth any strained effort to attain those attractional dispositions.) I am persuaded and convicted by the truth of Scripture that a homosexual context is repugnant to God. My conscience is, to borrow the statement from Reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546), held captive to the Word of God, which is absolute and divine truth, and I only care about what God thinks, and what He wants for my life, and what He wants is my sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3, 4, 5), my justification (Rom. 5:1; 8:29, 30), and my salvation (Eph. 2:8, 9, 10).

HATE SPEECH

Can I remain gay--meaning, having gay sex, going to gay bars, proudly enjoying gay culture, being in a same-sex relationship--and still be Christian, still maintain a relationship with God in Christ, still be saved? No. I don't care who told you otherwise: Scripture answers that and all such questions with a loud No. The apostle Paul even warned you, and all of us, "Do not be deceived!" (1 Cor. 6:9a). This indicates, then, that people can be deceived on identifying with any sin and, at the same time and within the very same context, also being an inheritor of the Kingdom of God. The answer will always and forever be No. Those who are consumed in gay identification, with gay sex / gay relationships physical or metaphysical, proudly enjoying gay culture will not inherit the Kingdom of God. They will not go to Heaven. Is this Hate speech?

LOVE SPEECH

No--and I'll tell you why this is not Hate speech but Love speech. Sometimes the most loving response you can give a person is one that may sting their conscience. We warn friends against all kinds of risks, potential dangers, and consequences of beliefs and actions. If someone tells you that consuming Liquid Drano will kill you then is that Hate speech? I know that seems silly. Who would think drinking Liquid Drano is appealing--something against which one needs to be warned? But think about the principle involved. If someone wanted to do something that would harm them then certainly you would want to warn them about the consequences. You do that out of love, not because you're trying to control, or stifle or manipulate them by scare tactics. When we were young children, we were warned against touching the stove top when the burners were on, because we could burn and thus harm ourselves. We were warned out of a heart of love and not from one of hate.

CONSIDER THIS

Try to think objectively and calmly for a moment. I mean, let's get real, I am communicating to you as someone who has for years walked in your shoes. I trusted in Jesus in May of 1995, having been a DJ in the largest gay nightclub in San Diego, so I know a thing or two about being attracted to my own gender and then forsaking that kind of culture to follow Christ Jesus. If you have no interest in following Christ then just consider this: when Christians tell you about sin, and about salvation by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, they tell you this because they desire good for you--eternal good. They don't want your money; they don't need your attendance for church growth; they want the whole world to experience the goodness of God as found by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The desire of their heart, which is the desire of my heart, is to see you and all people changed, granted mercy and grace, saved from your sins (consider Paul's words at Rom. 10:1).

BUT SOME CHRISTIANS DO HATE

Are there people who call themselves Christians but who hate LGBTQIA+ people? Yes. Most of us, however, don't consider them true and regenerate Christians. These fake so-called Christians are in direct disobedience to the Word of God. They are commanded by Jesus to love their enemies. If they view you as an enemy then they are commanded to love and to bless you (Matt. 5:43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48; Rom. 12:14, 17). They are actually commanded to be at peace with all people regardless of distinction (Rom. 12:18). By their hatred of you, and their rebellion against God's Word to love and to bless you, they demonstrate that they are Christian in name only; and they will never see Heaven. What a horrifying irony, my friend, to see you trust in Christ, and be gloriously saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, and meet with you in Heaven while they gnash their teeth in Hell. Still, we also pray that they will repent of their rebellion, and find true salvation in Christ.

WHAT MUST I DO?

I think what unsettles LGBTQIA+ persons about "becoming a Christian," i.e. trusting that what Jesus accomplished on the Cross for our sins and resting in His resurrection from the dead for our justification by God (meaning that God the Father declares us who trust in Jesus to exist "just-as-if-I'd" never sinned--judiciously declared to be innocent of sin even though we are guilty), means that they have to become straight / heterosexual in order to "get saved" and believe in Jesus. No, my friend, you trust in Jesus by the grace of God as you are right now in all of your horrible and offensive sins just like the rest of us did when we came to Christ. You don't first "clean yourself up" and then believe in Jesus. You trust Him now by the grace of God and then you watch God transform you. The transforming work is His, not yours, so just relax.

Will you magically become heterosexual? Most likely, no, not from all I've seen over the last 30 years in Christ. Being heterosexual doesn't save anybody. Heterosexuality is not holy. But if you trust in Christ by the work of God's grace, your desires will change, not by some inner work that you performed but by the inner work that God performs in those whom He has called to Himself by grace through faith in Christ.

What desires? Prior to trusting in Christ, you had no interest in spiritual issues, but now you do. You did not desire to be holy but now you do. You did not desire to attend church and worship with other believers but now you do. These desires do not come from you but from the new you in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). God the Father will, over many years, see to inwardly conforming you to the image of God the Son, Jesus Christ, by the work of God the Holy Spirit who will dwell within you (John 14:17; Acts 2:38; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 6:19)--one God in three Persons (2 Cor. 13:14).

What must you do to be saved? Believe / trust / exercise faith that Jesus is who He said He is and He did what He said He'd do: He is the Son of God sent into the world to be the Atonement (a reconciling covering) for our sins (John 1:29; 3:15, 16, 17). You don't obey God's Law in order to be saved--actually you can't perfectly obey the Law and you have no desire to do so prior to being born again (Rom. 8:7). You don't try to be a good person in order to be saved--actually you can't be good enough and you have no desire to do so prior to being born again (1 Cor. 2:14). Jesus is the only Way to the Father in Heaven (John 14:6). If you "confess with your mouth Jesus as LORD, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead [see Rom. 4:25], you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness [God considers you to be as holy as Christ Jesus: 1 Cor. 1:30 NIV; Eph. 1:4, 5], and with the mouth a person confesses, resulting in salvation" (Rom. 10:9, 10).

BUT WHAT IF . . .

But what if I'm shunned by my friends or my family? Try not to be consumed in fear. People have lost their lives for trusting in Christ. Some have lost family and friends. Jesus warned that this could happen (Mark 8:34; Luke 14:26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33; John 15:20). Are you willing to lose everything in order to gain Christ (Matt. 10:37; 16:26; Phil. 3:7, 8, 9, 10; 1 John 2:15) if that is what will happen to you? Jesus told people to consider the cost of following Him (Luke 14:25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32). When Jesus tells people that, if they do not hate their own mother or father, or wife and children, or brothers and sisters--and even their own life--they cannot be His disciple (Luke 14:26), He means this by comparison, that a person's love for Him should take priority over every other relationship in one's life. If you choose friends or family or lovers over Him then you can't have Him as LORD and Savior. Family and friends didn't give their sinless lives for you--Jesus did. He deserves absolute priority over every aspect of our lives. That is a very difficult truth--but truth nonetheless. God has sovereign rights over us all.

SALVATION

How good do I have to be in order to be saved by God? "Absolutely perfect with no mistakes, errors, or sin." How many good works do I have to perform in order to be saved by God? "My works have to be endless and they have to be absolutely perfect, with absolutely pure motives, and I have to have never sinned even once in my life." Who, then, can be saved? "Only those who by the grace of God trust / believe / exercise faith in Jesus." How much faith in Jesus will save me from my sins? According to Jesus, anyone who trusts in Him even as a little child would, such a person will be saved (Matt. 18:3, 4). Think about how much knowledge a little child has of salvation, of Jesus, of being saved from sin: if someone has even that little of faith then that person will be saved without hesitation! We are not saved by vast amounts of knowledge, of theology and philosophy, but by grace alone through faith alone in Christ Jesus alone to the glory of God alone as found in Scripture alone.

If I trust in Jesus, and God saves me, will I lose my salvation if I sin? No. As a matter of fact, you will sin, and you will never become sinless in this life--never (Phil. 3:12). Paul explains the struggle of the sinner (1 Tim. 1:15) who is also now a saint (1 Cor. 1:2) by the grace of God through faith in Jesus: "I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate" (Rom. 7:15 NLT). Perfection is the goal to which we as believers aim (Heb. 12:14; 1 John 2:1). "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right but I can't. I want to do what is good but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong but I do it anyway" (Rom. 7:18-19 NLT). Sin, which is part of our old nature, is still in us. This is why born-again believers still wrestles with sin. But, in Christ, God the Father looks at His adopted child and only sees Jesus. The comfort of the believer is to be found, by God, "not having a righteousness of my own derived from [failed attempts at keeping] the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith" (Phil. 3:9 NASB). God placed our sins upon Christ and then placed Christ's righteousness upon us (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26).

What does someone mean when they ask questions like "Are you a believer?" or "Are you saved?" or "Have you been born again?" or "Do you know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?" Basically these evangelical questions are all asking the same question--they all relate to each other. The believer is saved, has been born again, and knows Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. The question should immediately follow: "Saved from what?" The quick answer is "Saved from the wrath of God." That may seem an odd response because we are all taught about the love of God for the world (John 3:16); and, while this is true, what is equally as important is the wrath of God against sin and against sinners.

As a matter of fact, the wrath of God is mentioned in the New Testament more often than the love of God for sinners, two of the most stark passages coming from John and Paul: "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life [salvation that grants entrance into Heaven and the eternal Kingdom]; and he who does not believe the Son [or the one who rejects the Son (CSB, EHV, NET, NIV); or the one who disobeys the Son (NASB), referring to disobeying the command of God to trust in Jesus (Luke 9:35; John 6:29, 40; Rom. 1:5; 16:26)] shall not see life [eternal life in Heaven and the eternal Kingdom], but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:36 NKJV); and believers are to actively "wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead [Rom. 10:9, 10], Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come" (1 Thess. 1:10 ESV; Rev. 6:16, 17).

Why does God possess wrath? Why is He angry at sin and at us who commit sin? The only biblical answer is that His holiness and His justice demand wrath against sin and us who commit sin. Why? Why could He not "just forgive" us? Because He is just, which refers to justice, and this means that there are always consequences for our poor, or sinful, or evil choices. If someone robs a convenience store, and murders the owner, we demand justice. The perpetrator needs to be caught and to receive the consequences. This is what happens in a just society--a society that honors justice. The same is true of God--God who in His very nature is just: at the very core of His being He is just / justice.

If He overlooked sin and evil then He would not be just, He would be unjust, someone who lets evil happen without consequence. God cannot "just forgive" us. That is not just. That would actually be evil. Someone had to receive the consequences for defying His sovereignty as our Creator if we are to be redeemed and put back into right relationship with Him. This is what Jesus accomplished. For anyone to suggest that she could earn God's favor is pure ignorance. The person who could merit the grace of God had to be someone who had never sinned against God. The sacrifice God requires is complete and utter sinlessness (Ex. 12:5). This is why Jesus alone could be our Savior, Redeemer, Sacrifice.

Sin, evil actions enacted by rational creatures who know better, is personal rebellion against God our Creator. He created us out of His love. He created us to reflect His image--His holiness, His justice (or righteousness), and His love. Because He is eternal (without beginning and without end), and because He is infinite (in power and in knowledge and in wisdom and in presence), our sin is really against Him who is eternal and infinite. In other words, our sin is not as offensive as it would be to another human being, but our sin and rebellion is against an eternal and infinite Being--so our sin is also eternal and infinite. If God did not do something in order to fix this rebellion of ours then we would be lost for all eternity. That is why John wrote that God displayed His love in this manner: He sent His one and only unique Son to die for our sin (John 1:29) so that the one trusting in Jesus by the grace of God will possess eternal life and eternal salvation (John 3:16 CSB).

Someone, fearing for his life, asks the apostle Paul and his co-worker Silas, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). People usually think that they must accomplish a great task in order to be saved from their sins: give a lot of money to the poor, build homes for orphans, serve the oppressed and marginalized. But, in truth, no one can do anything in order to be saved (Rom. 3:20; 9:30, 31, 32; 10:1-17; 11:1-36; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 2:5, 8, 9). Any attempt to earn God's goodness and grace is found to be insulting Him because Jesus already accomplished the work!

OUR PROBLEM: BRIEFLY STATED

There is always Bad News before there is Good News. The Bad News is that we have sinned and we continue to sin against a holy God who created us out of His love. We cannot make ourselves right before God. We need a Redeemer--someone who is Divine (entirely holy and sinless), yet also someone who is Human, but in the very same Person (Heb. 2:14, 15, 16, 17, 18). The One who was to make us right with God had to be a God-Man (Isa. 7:14, 15, 16; 9:6, 7; Heb. 2:14-18). He had to be God so that His sacrifice would be perfect (Ex. 12:5; John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:19). He had to be Human because sin was committed by a human (Gen. 1:26, 27; 3:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; Rom. 5:12, 15, 16, 18, 19). That was accomplished in only one Person in the history of all humanity: Jesus Christ, the Great I Am (Ex. 3:14, 15; John 1:1, 2, 3, 14, 18; 8:24, 28, 58), and the only sinless human being ever to exist in the history of the world (John 1:1, 2, 3, 14, 18, 29; 8:45, 46, 47; 2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus is Messiah.

OUR VICTORY: BRIEFLY STATED

Because we could not fix our sin problem, and because of God's love for us, He Himself provided the "fix" to our problem (Gen. 22:8; John 1:29; Rev. 5:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14). If, by His grace, each one of us trusts that, what Jesus accomplished on the Cross, and in His resurrection, He accomplished for us personally, then we will be saved (Rom. 10:9-10 NLT). In that very moment of trusting in Jesus, you have been born again by the love, mercy and grace of God, by the inward work of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4, 5; cf. John 3:3, 5, 6, 7, 8; James 1:18). All of this work is performed by God in Trinity and not at all by us (Col. 1:21, 22, 23). You are now a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) who has been created in Christ Jesus for a life of good works (Eph. 2:8, 9, 10) and good fruit-bearing (Gal. 5:22-23; cf. John 15:1, 2, 3, 4, 5). By the love and grace and mercy of God, you have been saved, past tense (Eph. 2:8; cf. Titus 3:5); you are being saved, present tense (1 Cor. 1:18; cf. 1 Pet. 1:5); and you will be saved, future tense (Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:9, 10; 1 Cor. 1:8, 9). God will sustain you to the very end (Eph. 1:13, 14; Jude 1:24, 25).

OUR NEW LIFE: BRIEFLY STATED

Your inner desires are brand new (Rom. 6:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Gal. 5:16, 17). Now you want to love and to worship and to please your God (John 4:23, 24; Eph. 5:10, 11, 12). Before being born again (regenerated) you did not want anything to do with God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Church, worship, prayer, or living holy (Rom. 8:7, 8; 1 Cor. 1:18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31; 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16). Now you possess those holy desires, you long to please the Lord, and you will (John 14:15, 21, 23)--even if imperfectly (Rom. 7:14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24). But you are not saved by perfect obedience, but by His grace through faith in Jesus, so do not fear. Your salvation is in God's hands and not your own (Eph. 1:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14). If we are unfaithful, God remains faithful, because He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13)--He cannot deny His own determination to save those who trust in Jesus and to keep them saved to the end (Jude 1:24).

In Christ, you do not desire at all to live in sin, but to live holy in Him (Rom. 6:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)--even if your life is not sinless (Rom. 7:14-25 NLT; 1 John 2:1b). Do not expect to ever attain to sinlessness in this life or you will deceive yourself (Phil. 3:12, 13, 14, 15, 16). All of us who trust in Christ live with this tension: we love Christ Jesus our King, our Savior, and we long to be entirely holy. But we also wrestle with that old nature that still wants to take dominion over us like it did before we were saved. This inner war will continue until we die and go be with Christ (2 Cor. 5:8) or until He returns (1 Cor. 15:50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58). This is because we believers desire to be found in Christ not having a righteousness of our own derived from trying to perfectly obey the Law, but through that which is given to us by God through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that we may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that we may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Phil. 3:9, 10, 11).

Please remember that obedience to Scripture, which is obedience to the Lord Himself (John 14:15, 21, 23), is expected of us (1 John 2:1). Our goal is always holiness of heart and mind (Heb. 12:14). The will of God for us is sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3): to be holy and without sin. But let me repeat myself yet again: you will sin. Welcome to being a redeemed child of God: both saint (1 Cor. 1:2 NASB) and sinner (1 Tim. 1:15). You will fight against sin because your new nature wants to live a holy life in Christ (Rom. 7:14-25 NLT). But you will find yourself losing battles against sin because the old nature is still within you and that old nature fights against the new nature and the indwelling Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16-26 NLT). This is life as a believer in Christ and an adopted child of God. Welcome to the spiritual war (Eph. 6:10-18). But also take heart. Christ won our Victory (Rom. 7:24, 25; 8:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)! One day the old nature will be gone forever! Glory to God alone!

If you are born again, then you are born again by the work of God (1 Cor. 1:30; 2:14; Titus 3:4, 5; James 1:18), having been foreordained and predestined for this salvation (Rom. 8:29, 30a), called effectually to this salvation (Rom 8:30b), justified by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ for salvation (Rom. 8:30c), and glorified (Rom. 8:30d), which is past tense, indicating that His salvation of you was foreordained and predestined (predetermined) from all eternity past, and His salvation of you includes effectually calling you to Jesus through faith in Jesus, justifying you--i.e., considering you as though you never sinned, by taking all of your sins and putting them on Christ and taking all of Christ's righteousness and holiness and imputing that to your spiritual account (Rom. 3:21-26)--and also includes your final and future glorification. You are "in" Christ (Eph. 1:4, 6, 9, 13; 2:4, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22), meaning in a spiritual union with Him, and all that belongs to Him belongs to you; except, of course, His deity, which belongs to Him by His eternal nature as God, God the Son (John 1:1, 2, 3, 14, 18).

As a new Christian, you should seek out a Protestant Bible-believing church in your area, gather with other believers in study of Scripture, in worship of God weekly, and in prayer each day. Prayer is simply trusting in the character of God as Father, as Savior, as Sustainer. You talk to Him as though He were present--because He is present. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit dwell within you (John 14:16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 26; 15:26, 27; 16:7, 13, 14, 15, 25, 26, 27; 17:20, 21, 22, 23). Jesus gave us a model for prayer (Matt. 6:5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15). Technically, Jesus did not say "Pray this prayer," but "Pray like this." There is nothing wrong with praying the prayer of Matthew 6:9, 10, 11, 12, 13--daily or weekly. There is nothing wrong with praying the prayers written in Scripture. The words in Scripture are the words God intended to be in the Bible (2 Tim. 3:16 ESV; 2 Pet. 1:16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21). If you use the Episcopal / Anglican Book of Common Prayer then, while in prayer, remember that you are speaking to your Father in Heaven, so avoid praying the prayers merely to get them over with, or imagining that the words are magical, and that God must answer them just so, but pray with a right attitude and an honest and loving heart.

ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE SAVED?

There may be times when you doubt that you are truly saved, born again, forgiven forever of your sins and an adopted child of God. You may hear from pastors and preachers and Bible teachers that you should constantly be testing yourself to see if you are saved ("in the faith," from the words of Paul, 2 Cor. 13:5). That particular passage, in its context, is really referring to the believers in Corinth who are uncertain as to Paul's apostolic authority (2 Cor. 13:3, 5, 6). If they are uncertain as to the spiritual matters he is discussing then are they really saved?

Regardless, testing yourself to see if you are truly saved is not necessarily useless, and could help to answer your doubt. This is what I ask myself: "Do you love your sin?" No, I hate my sin, and I wish I could be without sin. "Do you love your Lord?" Yes, I love Him so much, and yet I wish I could love Him perfectly. "Do you ask Him to forgive you of your sin when you sin?" The reason I ask myself this question is because Scripture teaches that sin separates us from God (Isa. 59:2). But sin never separates God from us! When Adam and Eve sinned, they hid themselves from God (Gen. 3:7, 8), but He came looking for them just the same (Gen. 3:8, 9). He didn't forsake them. We feel bad, sinful, and a failure when we sin. We do not run to God but want to run away from Him. He knows all about it and wants us to run to Him. So I ask myself: "Do you ask Him to forgive you of your sin when you sin?" Yes, every time, and I loathe my sin. "Well, then, guess what? You're saved!"

How do I know that? Because the sinner who is not born again loves his sin--he doesn't hate his sin but loves his sin (Rom. 8:6, 7, 8; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:3, 4; Gal. 5:17, 19, 20, 21; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3; 4:17, 18, 19; 5:3, 4, 5). The sinner who is not born again does not love the Lord--not in the least bit does he love the Lord. The sinner who is not born again does not ask God to forgive him of his sins. This is because he so very much loves his sin. Or he sees himself as "not really that bad" and, therefore, not in need of forgiveness. Such a person is completely deceived. Sure, test yourself, but ask the right questions. Don't ask yourself if you obey Christ completely. No one does! Not even those who think they do!

But know this: Sin cannot have the final dominion over you (Rom. 6:14), because the Seed of God dwells within you (1 John 3:9), meaning that God's eternal-life-giving Word dwells within you (James 1:18); and, in Christ, you have been set free from the total control of sin over you (John 8:34, 35, 36; Rom. 6:18; 8:2). This means that you will not live your life in Christ in complete and utter sin like the rest of the world. But this also means that remnants of sin still dwell in you (Rom. 7:17-20) and you will not become sinless (Phil. 3:12) until you are finally set free from "the body of this death" (Rom. 8:24), meaning, until our fallen condition is done away with, either at our death (2 Cor. 5:1-8 NLT), or at the return of Christ to collect us (1 Cor. 15:50-58). Jesus was the only sinless human being. One day we will finally be without sin (1 John 3:2). If your sin does not grieve you in the slightest then you have reason to doubt that you have been born again and are really saved.

CONCLUSION

Remember to share your faith in Jesus with your family, friends, and neighbors (Matt. 28:19, 20). Be kind, tender-hearted, and patient. Do not become discouraged when you are rejected, mocked, or cursed at to your face or behind your back (Matt. 10:22; Mark 13:13; Luke 21:17). This is life as a Christ-follower (John 16:33; 1 Pet. 1:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; 2:13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23; 4:12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19). Many believers in Jesus have been persecuted and even killed (Matt. 24:9; Luke 21:16; Rev. 2:9, 10; 6:9, 10, 11). Be strong. If you fail, take it to the Lord, for He is merciful and kind. We fail but He is ever faithful (2 Tim. 2:13). If you are shy and fail to witness to others of your faith in Jesus then take heart: even the best of us have failed in this way (Luke 22:54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62). I know I have failed countless times. Don't let failures of any kind distract you from what God has done within you. He knew all about your failures and saved you anyway! God had no choice: we are all utter failures! Salvation is not about us but about Him. He deserves all the praise, honor, and glory forever (Ps. 115:1).

NEW BELIEVER

Welcome to faith in Jesus Christ! Welcome to becoming a believer, becoming a born-again Christian, becoming a child of God. You are now part of God's spiritual family, including all believers throughout all of history, and all over the world (even in Heaven right now); the truth is that we all belong to each other, as spiritual brothers and sisters, and we belong to God our Father by His grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, by the inner spiritual activity of God the Holy Spirit. Even angels rejoice in your salvation (Luke 15:7)! Welcome!

If this page is too much information for you at this time then just read it little by little, taking your time, and feeling no pressure. I realize that we are all different, and at different phases in our lives, and I also know that some people do not enjoy reading. Relax. You have the rest of your life to learn about God, about Christ and the Holy Spirit of God, your life in Christ and the hereafter. You are not alone--you are never alone. God now lives within you, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 17, 23, 26; 16:13; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 6:19), you are now the Temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16), and He will see to your life moment by moment (Ps. 139:16). Put your full trust in God (John 14:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). He has loved you from all eternity past (Jer. 31:3; 16:26, 27). He loves you and me as much as He loves Jesus Christ His Son (John 17:23). Rejoice in that!

YOU NEED A BIBLE

Please do not be insulted by my use of plain, everyday language on this page, as I am considering the delicate hearts and minds of all new believers in various stages of their lives who may not be familiar with biblical or churchy words and phrases. I mean no disrespect at all. Are you looking for a Bible? Allow me to offer online resources as well as affordable physical copies of God's Word that you can purchase. I realize we are all at different reading levels--and don't you for one minute be embarrassed about needing an easy-to-read Bible if that is what you need. What matters is that you read, understand, and desire to live your new life in Christ according to God's Word. Be humble and honest.

If your reading level requires easy readability then I suggest this affordable paperback edition of the NIRV Outreach Bible (for under $7.00 U.S. dollars), this large-print edition NIRV Holy Bible, as well as this paperback NIRV Free On the Inside Bible for those in prison (for under $6.00 U.S. dollars). The NIRV, New International Reader's Version, is designed to help those with difficulty reading. I've been studying Scripture for thirty years and I still refer to the NIRV because of its simple and plain language that we use every day. I also recommend this large-print edition of the NLT Outreach Bible (for under $5.00 U.S. dollars), this NLT Filament Bible that you can use with your phone by also downloading the app, and this NLT New Believer's Bible (for under $15.00 U.S. dollars). The NLT, New Living Translation, is a wonderful, easy-to-read edition of God's Word, and, for the last 29 years, I've used it whenever I study the Bible (with a multitude of other faithful English translations).

If your reading level is high school to college level then I recommend the NIV, New International Version, and here is an economy NIV Holy Bible (you can always purchase more expensive Bibles with differing types of leather or faux leather covers, and different Study Bibles, etc.), or the CSB, Christian Standard Bible. For college and beyond college-level comprehension I also recommend the NET, New English Translation, or the ESV, English Standard Version, also in an economy edition, or the NASB, New American Standard Bible, or LSB, Legacy Standard Bible.

Study Bibles that I trust, and that I either own and / or recommend, include the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (which is my favorite), the ESV Reformation Study Bible (which is my second-favorite), the NASB Grace and Truth Study Bible (also in NIV), the ESV Study Bible, the NIV Study Bible, the NET Bible Full Notes Edition, the NLT Life Application Study Bible, the NLT Illustrated Study Bible, the LSB MacArthur Study Bible, the CSB Study Bible, the CSB Apologetics Study Bible, the NASB Ryrie Study Bible (the reason I have loved this Bible for thirty years now is for the outlines in each book of the Bible), the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible, the NKJV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the NKJV Unapologetic Study Bible, the NKJV Study Bible, the KJV Study Bible, and the NASB Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible (also in the CSB, ESV, KJV, NKJV). If you want to read through the Bible in a year chronologically then I suggest the amazing NLT Chronological Life Application Study Bible.

If you are persuaded toward Pentecostalism / Charismaticism, there are Study Bible options for you, even though I cannot in good conscience endorse Pentecostal / Charismatic / Third Wave or New Apostolic Reformation theology. I especially ask you to avoid the Dake Annotated Reference Bible, as well as The Passion Translation (TPT) from author Brian Simmons, as I question both his mental and his spiritual integrity. Other editions within the broad Charismatic movement maintain a higher degree of spiritual-theological integrity, such as the Fire Bible (ESV, ESV Student Edition, KJV, MEV Revised Edition and NIV), the MEV Spiritual Warfare Bible: Revised Edition, the NKJV Spirit-Filled Life Bible: Third Edition or NIV New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, and the KJV Life in the Spirit Study Bible. Although many within the Messianic Jewish movement tend to be Charismatic-ish, I do recommend the Tree of Life Bible, as well as David H. Stern's The Complete Jewish Bible: 2017 Updated Edition, and Rabbi Barry Rubin's The Complete Jewish Study Bible (which are two entirely different Messianic Jewish Bibles).

I do not recommend the Thompson Chain Reference Bible for new believers because it is just a beast of a Study Bible. I cannot endorse the NASB Tony Evans Study Bible because of his spiritual and moral lapse. I will not recommend or endorse liberal Study Bible editions, such as the NRSVue SBL Study Bible (SBL being the Society of Biblical Literature), the NRSV New Oxford Annotated Bible (now out-of-print), the NRSV New Interpreters Study Bible, the NRSV Baylor Annotated Study Bible, the NRSVue Westminster Study Bible, or any Roman Catholic Study Bible.

I have found editions such as the NRSV Wesley Study Bible, the NRSV C.S. Lewis Bible, the Jeremiah Study Bible (David Jeremiah), the Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible, and the NLT Swindoll Study Bible to be quite light-weight theologically and, ultimately, disappointing and a waste of money (although I have had respect for David Jeremiah, the late Charles Stanley, and especially the ministry and sermons of Chuck Swindoll). I do, however, appreciate and recommend the CSB Spurgeon Study Bible and the CSB Oswald Chambers Bible. The CSB Holy Land Illustrated Bible is beautiful with its images of the ancient places of Israel in the Text. I highly recommend the CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible and the ESV Church History Study Bible, the NKJV Ancient-Modern Bible, and the NET Timeless Truths Bible for gathering commentaries from Church fathers on the Text of God's Word. I also recommend The Jesus Bible: ESV (or NIV), the NLT Jesus-Centered Bible, the CSB Jesus Daily Bible and the NKJV Matthew Henry Daily Devotional Bible. Perhaps you prefer the NIV Couple's Devotional Bible for you and your spouse.

BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING

New believer: if you become bewildered and confused when beginning to attend a church or Bible study, hearing words and catch-phrases with which you are unfamiliar, just relax. Take your time to learn and do not feel overwhelmed. We have all been where you are: at the beginning. Mighty trees began as delicate stems barely sprouting from the ground. You have your entire lifetime to learn. God has committed Himself to seeing you through to the very end--He saved you for Himself (Rom. 8:29-30; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2:10-16; Eph. 1:4-14; Phil. 1:6; 2:12-13; Col. 3:1-3; 1 Thess. 1:9-10; 3:11-13; 5:9-10; 2 Thess. 2:13-15; James 1:18; Jude 1:20-21, 24-25)! More so, we will always be learning even after we die, and are gathered together with other believers who have passed into eternity. God is infinite--He is all-knowing and unlimited. We are finite--our knowledge is partial and limited. We will always be learning about God and His ways in eternity future because He is unfathomable.

BASIC THEOLOGY

The word "doctrine" refers to teaching, whether the teaching / doctrine is that of Jesus, or of the apostle Paul, or John, etc., or even the teachings / doctrines of a particular church or denomination (for example, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran). The word "theology" is taken from the Greek New Testament (the New Testament was written primarily in Greek and, in certain places, Aramaic, which is related to Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament and of Jesus--though He also spoke Aramaic and Greek): roughly, the prefix "theo" (theós) refers to God, and the suffix "logy" (logos) refers to a word or a message. In English we most often refer to the suffix "logy" as "the study of" a particular subject: "theology," therefore, is the study of God, as "biology" is the study of life and of living organisms, as "geology" is the study of the earth and its features, as "ecology" is the study of tiny organisms in nature, etc. Theology, then, is the study of God and of all that pertains to God.

Below I will feature some basic theology for beginners. What follows is Christian doctrine, Christian orthodoxy (meaning right teaching), and should be agreed upon by most who profess to be trusting in and proclaim to be a follower of Jesus Christ by the grace and the mercy of God (Eph. 1:4-14; 2:8-10; 2 Thess. 2:13; Titus 3:4-5). We believe what we believe because what we believe has been revealed to us in God's Word. If He had not revealed His eternal truths to us then we would forever remain in spiritual darkness. Scripture, then, is special revelation.

GENERAL REVELATION: We call Nature general revelation: all people can see in Nature that there is a Creator (Gen. 1:1; Ps. 19:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Rom. 1:18, 19, 20), for we know scientifically that substance does not appear out of nothingness, and to state otherwise is plain and simple insanity. The Book of Nature tells the story of the divine Artiste: the glory, the due honor, the praise, acknowledging the majesty, power, and divine nature of God the Creator--"valuing Him for who He really is"--belongs to God by virtue of His existence. God paints His worth, His awe, the weight of His majesty and splendor on the canvas of the day and the night sky, on dusty mountains, and on the luscious-green wilderness. But the triune God did not only create all that exists (John 1:1, 2, 3); He also constantly sustains all that exists (Acts 17:28; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:1-3).

REVELATION OF CONSCIENCE: God originally created human beings to be miniature representations of Himself in the earth, created in His image and likeness, endowed with the capacity to think, to reason, to respond, to learn, to create (to be creative), to choose, to desire, to feel, to grieve, to self-express, and ultimately to reflect the image and likeness of the Creator (Gen. 1:26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31). Thus God created human beings with conscience: the capacity to be aware of and to want to choose that which is right--good, healthy, and of well-being--but also the capacity to be aware of and to want to choose that which is wrong--bad, disruptive, and destructive (Rom. 1:18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23; 2:12, 13, 14, 15, 16). The human conscience, tainted by sin, can be sensitive or insensitive to that which is good (Rom. 8:7-10; 1 Tim. 4:2; Titus 1:15). The conscience is restored, though not entirely, when regenerated by the grace of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 4:2; 1 Tim. 3:9; Heb. 9:14; 10:22).^†

SPECIAL REVELATION: We call Scripture special revelation--only those who trust in Christ can partake of the truths of God as revealed by God, in Christ Jesus and through the agency of the Holy Spirit, as written and revealed in Holy Scripture because of the sin that blinds us to His truths (Ps. 19:7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; 1 Cor. 1:18-2:16; 2 Cor. 3:7-4:6; 2 Tim. 3:14-17). If we, therefore, are to know any truths about God, and about His will, then we must look for those truths solely in His specially-revealed Word. The special revelation of the wisdom, sovereignty, and glory of God is not revealed to all people generally, but only specially, and that to His redeemed people: "We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden [but] that God [predestined] for our glory before time began" (1 Cor. 2:6-7 NIV). Paul explains further that, due to sin, people do not accept, want, or understand the spiritual realities of God (1 Cor. 2:13-14 NIV). God unveils Himself to His people.

THE BIBLE

The Bible is referred to as the Word of God, God's Word, the Word of Life, the Word (Message) of Christ, the Living Word(s), the Living Oracles, Scripture, the Holy Scripture, the scriptures, the holy scriptures, Truth, the truth of God, the Word of Truth, Holy Writ, the Holy Bible, the Sacred Texts, the Sacred Writings, the Book, the Good Book, the Holy Books, the Scroll(s), the Sword of the Spirit, the Gospel, the Gospel of Christ, the Gospel of God, the Promises, and even Hebraic names such as the Law, the Book of the Law, the Law of the LORD, the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and the Tanakh. The theologian (a theologian is a Christian who studies, writes, and proclaims doctrines / teachings on God and all that pertains to God) named B.B. Warfield (1851-1921) rightly states: "The Bible is the Word of God in such a way that, when the Bible speaks, God speaks." You can either accept or reject this statement. You can either believe what Jesus believed about the Word of God, the Bible, or reject His beliefs. But if Jesus is wrong about Scripture then He is not who He claims to be and we have all been deceived.

The (Protestant) Bible is, in one large book, a collection of 66 books (39 Old Testament Books and 27 New Testament Books). Protestants differ with Roman Catholics and with Eastern Orthodox churches regarding the number of books that belong in the Bible. We reject 18 or so books called the Apocrypha because they contain errors, contradictions, and at places heresy (teachings which are contrary to the rest of the Bible).

There are some good, healthy, and helpful statements in some of those books, e.g. Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (or Sirach), Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, 1 Maccabees and 2 Esdras, just as there are good, healthy, and helpful statements in many books written today by modern pastors; but our early fathers rightly rejected those books as failing to be inspired of God and, therefore, canonical ("canonical" refers to those books recognized as being inspired of God and deemed to possess the spiritual fingerprint of the Holy Spirit--"canonical" refers to a rule or a standard and, therefore, refers to the books recognized as bearing the standard or rule of faith for all followers of Christ Jesus).

GOD IN THREE PERSONS

The word "trinity" refers to the God of the Bible existing in three Persons, co-equal (all three Persons are equally divine) and co-eternal (all three Persons co-existed with each other from eternity past), and are revealed in Scripture as Father (God the Father), Son (God the Son), and Holy Spirit (God the Holy Spirit). How can three Persons be one? In what is known as a compound unity. Scripture indicates that, when a man and a woman are joined in holy matrimony, the two become one (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5; Eph. 5:31). The two persons do not become one person but one compound unity. So with God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The three divine Persons exist together from all eternity to all eternity as an eternal compound unity: three divine Persons who are equal with each other in deity, in power and knowledge and wisdom and glory, but who act together as one. The Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit; the Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not the Son or the Father. Each Person is distinct but related to the other and with one another in a compound unity.

What the Father desires the Son desires and the Holy Spirit desires. What the Son thinks the Father thinks and the Holy Spirit thinks. What the Holy Spirit sets forth to accomplish the Son sets forth to accomplish and the Father sets forth to accomplish. They are the only three Persons in the universe who are entirely one with one another in mind, will, and action. Our religion is monotheistic (mono, referring to one, and theism referring to God): we believe in one God--one God in three distinct Persons as a compound unity. You argue that 1 + 1 + 1 ≠ (does not equal) 1 but 3. True, but in this calculation, 1 x 1 x 1 = 1. Three numerals totaling a compound numerical unit of one. The three Persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, function together in a particular order, if you will, as the Father plans, the Son fulfills those plans, and the Holy Spirit effects those plans among humanity. They are equal in divinity but distinct in their respective and complementarian functions.

GOD HAS A PLAN

Given that God is eternal (always existed and will always exist--His Name is "I Am," Ex. 3:14, 15), we must embrace the reality that a thought never occurred to God, and so His knowledge and wisdom and will is also eternal. Everything that occurs in the earth and among human beings is, at least in some sense, the will / plan of God--even the evil (Prov. 16:4). "Who can speak and have it happen if the LORD has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?" (Lam. 3:37-38 NIV). "I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light, and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things" (Isa. 45:6-7 NIV). God is not amused at having His integrity and motives and intentions questioned by sinners like us (Isa. 45:9, 10, 11, 12) because He knows exactly what He is doing (Isa. 55:11). What God has willed / planned for our future-history will come to pass exactly as He foreordained.

These truths do not necessarily mean that God is arbitrarily making "good people" do "bad things." There are no good people (Rom. 3:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18). Only God is ultimately good (Mark 10:18). We are sinners. He is holy. We need a proper perspective. Sinners want to sin. God does not have to force anyone to sin. We do that quite well on our own (James 1:13, 14, 15). But God, being sovereign--meaning that He alone rules the universe in holiness (purity), righteousness (fair and with justice), and wisdom--but He, as sovereign Creator of each one of us (Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7; 5:1, 2; 9:6; Deut. 4:32; Job 4:17; 10:8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 31:15; 33:4; 34:19; Ps. 8:3, 4, 5, 6; 89:47; 95:6; 100:3; 104:30; 119:73, 74; 138:8; 139:13-16; Eccl. 3:11; 12:7; Isa. 17:7; 42:5; 43:7; 44:24; 49:5; 64:8; Jer. 1:5; 27:5; Zech. 12:1; Mal. 2:10; Matt. 19:4; John 1:3; Acts 17:26, 27, 28; 1 Cor. 8:6; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; 3:10; Heb. 3:4; James 3:9; Rev. 4:11), can use our wicked intentions to bring to pass His own will (cf. Rom. 9:14, 15, 16, 17, 18; Rev. 17:17). We do have a measure of Free Will. The problem is that we desire and enact sin and not godliness.

CREATION | FALL | REDEMPTION

Because we as human beings chose to sin--and by this I mean that Adam, in the Garden of Eden as our representative (Rom. 5:12, 18, 19; 1 Cor. 15:21, 22), chose to live his own way instead of obeying God his Creator and we, then, inherited that predisposition to sin and reject God (1 Pet. 1:18)--God must intervene to save us from our sins if we are to be saved. In our sin, we do not want God, and we do not want Him to save us (Rom. 8:6, 7, 8). If we are to be saved then God must save us by His own work and not ours--not even the faith that we desperately need in Christ. Faith is the gift of God (Eph. 2:5, 8, 9; Phil. 1:29; 2 Pet. 1:1). So God planned to save sinners from their sin (Col. 1:12, 13), in and through Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:9, 10), for Himself (Eph. 1:4, 5), by the activity of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8, 9, 10, 11). The person who would atone / take away / cover the sins (Heb. 9:22; 1 Pet. 3:18) committed by human beings must Himself be human (Heb. 2:14, 17, 18) and God: human, because human beings are the ones who committed the sins, and offended God, thus separating themselves from God (Ps. 24:3; Isa. 59:2; Hab. 1:13; Eph. 2:11, 12); and God, because the sacrifice had to be perfect in every way (Heb. 10:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18).

By saving sinners, God is giving Jesus His son an inheritance (Ps. 2:8), people redeemed for His Name's sake (1 Sam. 12:22; Rev. 5:9, 10), and this is accomplished by the activity of the Holy Spirit (John 6:44, 45, 63, 65; 16:8, 9, 10, 11). Christ Jesus is, then, building His Church in the people given to Him (John 6:35, 37; Matt. 16:18, 19; Eph. 5:25, 26, 27). Christ will return to collect His people, the Church, and we will reign with Him on the earth forever (Acts 1:11; 1 Cor. 15:20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57; 1 Thess. 4:13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18; 2 Pet. 3:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15; Jude 1:14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25; Rev. 19:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16). Hallelujah!

CHRISTIAN BELIEFS

"What am I to believe as a Christian?" Too few believers actually ask this question. Early Christians began to outline for people what the core of the Christian Faith is to be believed: they gave us the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. Many new believers want to know what they have to believe (1 Cor. 15:1, 2, 3, 4) in order to be considered Christian (or some might say Orthodox, right doctrine, right teaching). God in Trinity ranks at the top of the list of orthodox / right belief: God exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Next would be the deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ--that He was both God (John 1:1 NLT) and Human (John 1:4, 5, 9, 14, 18; Heb. 2:14). He died to atone (pay for), to cover, and to take away sin (John 1:29; Rom. 3:25 ESV; Gal. 1:4; Eph. 5:6; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; 1 John 2:1; Rev. 6:12-17) in order to appease and satisfy the wrath of God against sin (Isa. 53:4, 5, 6, 10; John 3:36; Rom. 3:25 NLT; 5:8, 9; Col. 3:6; 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9; Heb. 2:17 NLT; 1 John 2:2 NLT; 4:10); He was buried in a tomb (Matt. 27:57-61; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42); and He rose again bodily from the dead (Luke 24:39; John 20:14, 15, 16, 17, 26, 27, 28, 29; 21:9, 10, 12, 13; Acts 13:32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37; Rom. 1:4; 1 Cor. 15:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58; 2 Tim. 2:8).

If you need a book about Christian doctrines / beliefs that is easy to understand then I recommend Dr. Michael Horton's Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples or the late Dr. Charles Ryrie's Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth. The major differences in both of these books relates to their beliefs about the end-times--those events that occur in the earth just prior to Jesus' return, what happens at His return, and then what occurs thereafter. My opinion at this point is that we will know what happens when it all happens, and that some views may be partially correct and partially in error, but that no one view is entirely correct. What is most important for us as believers is to be living faithfully in Christ at all times, sharing the Gospel of Jesus when we can, and loving God and our neighbors.

UNTIL THEN

"What am I to be doing until Christ returns?" By the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, you are considered to have "died" to sin so that you may "walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:1, 2, 3, 4). You are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and God has planned a future of good works for you to accomplish for His glory and for the benefit of others (Eph. 2:10). Your daily life is now about Christ (Col. 3:1, 2, 3). Your days are to be filled with prayer (talking to the Lord in praise, worship, and asking for His goodness and glory to flourish in the earth), with reading His Word, attending a church to worship God in Christ by the Holy Spirit, pursuing peace with all and holiness of heart and life (Heb. 12:14). Also, Christ wants us to share the Gospel, which means Good News, that He saves sinners from their sin (Matt. 28:19 20; Rom. 10:9, 10)! This is how a person is saved from sin and from the wrath of God: trusting in Jesus Christ and His work alone (John 1:12; 3:15, 16, 17, 36; 14:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Acts 4:12; 16:31; Rom. 1:16, 17; 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; 6:23 10:9, 10; 1 Cor. 15:1, 2, 3, 4; 2 Cor. 5:17, 18, 19, 20, 21; 1 Thess. 1:10; 1 Pet. 2:24, 25).

"What am I to do when I sin (notice when and not if I sin)?" You are to do what we all do: ask for forgiveness (1 John 2:1, 2) and seek to forsake the sin. Holiness / a sinless life is our ultimate goal (1 John 2:1). But we are to be honest as well: We are frail creatures (Ps. 103:14), the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak (Matt. 26:41), and, as much as we want to be holy and sinless (1 Pet. 1:15, 16; 1 John 2:1, 3, 4, 5, 6), we know ourselves all too well (Ps. 51:3), and our struggle with sin will be on-going until Jesus returns (Rom. 7:14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25). Do not be consumed with guilt, shame and doubt when you sin, but always keep marching on in Christ. You were not saved by attempts at "being good" or performing good works--nor will you be saved by the same (Gal. 3:1-3 NLT). Keep a balanced position in your heart and mind: obey the Lord from your heart (Rom. 6:17, 18), not from fear of not being saved in the future (2 Tim. 1:7), while pursuing personal holiness (1 Pet. 1:15, 16). You will never become perfect and sinless in this life (Phil. 3:7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16). Your position before God is guaranteed by God Himself, in and through Christ Jesus, and not by your efforts at perfection (Eph. 1:4, 5; Phil. 2:12, 13; 3:9).

Your new life in Christ is one of both rest and work. We rest from trying to please God in attempts at keeping His Law in order to earn His favor. God brought you to Jesus because Jesus is entirely righteous / good / pure and holy (Matt. 11:28, 29, 30; John 6:37). God sees you in and through the perfect lens of Christ (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16). Your rest in Him is due to the righteous work Christ accomplished on your behalf. Your "work" is now to live in Christ--submitting to Christ living His life in and through you (Gal. 2:20). Jesus wants to reach others through you (Matt. 28:18, 19, 20) because you are a unique human being, unlike any other human being ever born or ever to be born, and no one else can be you (Ps. 139:13, 14). He wants to live all the best of Himself through you.

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^† Some passages of Scripture, and the idea of the revelation of conscience, are taken from Kevin J. Conner, The Foundations of Christian Doctrine: A Practical Guide to Christian Belief (Portland: City Christian Publishing, 1980), 16.

THE HEART OF THEOLOGY

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THE GOSPEL OF YOUR SALVATION