"Understanding of God's Divine Providence"

  Understanding of God's Divine Providence helps us understand the teaching of "predestination,  justification, sanctification, glorification, perseverance of the saints, ect.)  In my study of this I found that gotquestions.org had a very good teaching and summary on this subject. So instead of me muttering on, I will use it and give them the credit, lol!

  So what is “divine providence?" Divine providence is the means by and through which God governs all things in the universe. The doctrine of divine providence asserts that God is in complete control of all things. This includes the universe as a whole (Psalm 103:19), the physical world (Matthew 5:45), the affairs of nations (Psalm 66:7), human birth and destiny (Galatians 1:15), human successes and failures (Luke 1:52), and the protection of His people (Psalm 4:8). This doctrine stands in direct opposition to the idea that the universe is governed by chance or fate.
   The purpose, or goal, of divine providence is to accomplish the will of God. To ensure that His purposes are fulfilled, God governs the affairs of men and works through the natural order of things. The laws of nature are nothing more than a depiction of God at work in the universe. The laws of nature have no inherent power, nor do they work independently. The laws of nature are the rules and principles that God set in place to govern how things work.
   The same goes for human choice. In a very real sense we are not free to choose or act apart from God’s will. Everything we do and everything we choose is in full accordance to God’s will—even our sinful choices (Genesis 50:20). The bottom line is that God controls our choices and actions (Genesis 45:5; Deuteronomy 8:18; Proverbs 21:1), yet He does so in such a way that does not violate our responsibility as free moral agents, nor does it negate the reality of our choice.
   The doctrine of divine providence can be succinctly summarized this way: “God in eternity past, in the counsel of His own will, ordained everything that will happen; yet in no sense is God the author of sin; nor is human responsibility removed.” The primary means by which God accomplishes His will is through secondary causes (e.g., laws of nature, human choice). In other words, God works indirectly through these secondary causes to accomplish His will.
  

What Is A Christian?

"Defining the word Christian"

     Many people call themselves a Christian or say the believe in God. But what makes a true Christian, a true follower of Jesus? This may not seem like an important question but it is because if the definition is misunderstood it is the difference between eternity with Jesus or damnation in Hell.

   First lets see what a Christian is NOT! A “Christian” is not a person who has said a prayer, or walked down an aisle, or been raised in a Christian family, or a member of a church. It is not a person that goes to church every time the doors open, tithe's, does good works, been baptized, even walk and talk like a "Christian" (Titus 3:5). While each of these things can be a part of the Christian experience, they are not what “makes” a Christian. Each of of these things are fruit of being saved by God's grace, they are things that are done because we are a changed person and want to do them out of love for Jesus and not out of obligation! Just simply doing and saying these things doesn't make a person Christian. Unfortunately over time, the word “Christian” has lost a great deal of its significance and is often used of someone who is religious or has high moral values but who may or may not be a true follower of Jesus Christ.

   The word “Christian” is used three times in the New Testament (Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16). Followers of Jesus Christ were first called “Christians” in Antioch (Acts 11:26) because their behavior, activity, and speech were like Christ. The word “Christian” literally means, “belonging to the party of Christ” or a “follower of Christ.” A true Christian is one who understand the gospel message (1 Corin. 15:1), has repented of their sins, and trust that Jesus has fully payed their debt of sin, that is was nothing they did or deserve but a gracious gift from God.  From:"What is a Christian" Q&A

  John 1:12 tells us, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Titus 3:5 says, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” So, a Christian is someone who has been born again by God (John 3:3; John 3:7; 1 Peter 1:23) and has put faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that it is “,by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

     So what defines a Christian? 

1) A Christian is a new creation(2 Corinthians 5:17). Becoming an entirely new creature as a result of being “in Christ.”

2) A Christian is redeemed (1 Peter 1:18-19). The word “redeemed” refers to a purchase being made, a price being paid.

3) A Christian has been justified (Romans 5:1). To “justify” means to “declare righteous.” All those who receive Jesus as Savior are “declared righteous” by God

4) A Christian has been promised eternal life (John 3:16). Eternal life is a promise of eternity (forever) in heaven with God. God promises, “Believe and you will have eternal life.”

5) A Christian has been guaranteed glorification. “And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). Glorification refers to a Christian receiving a perfect resurrection body in heaven.

6) A Christian has been promised that we can not be separated from God's love (Romans 8:38-39), we can not be removed from His hand (John 10:28-29), And God is both willing and able to guarantee and maintain our salvation (Jude 24-25).

    A Christian lives by faith in that which we can't see and that in trusting that Jesus has already paid the price for our debt of sin. We are supposed to die to self daily (Gal. 2:20). Being crucified with Christ means that our old nature has been nailed to the cross and has been replaced by a new nature which is Christ’s (1 Corinthians 5:17). He who loved us and died for us now lives in us and the life we live is by faith in Him. It means sacrificing our own desires, ambitions, and glories and replacing them with those of Christ. We can only do this by His power through the faith that He gives us by His grace. Part of the Christian life is praying and trusting God's power of perseverance until the end.

I heard this quote one time but I don't have any idea who said it though.

 "Sitting in a church building makes one as much of a Christian as sitting in a garage makes one an automobile."

Linked with:
Wisdom Wednesday
Teach Me Tuesday
Hear it on Sunday, Use it on Monday
Faith Filled Friday
Five Minute Friday
Fridays Photo Blog Hop

References: Matthew Henry Commentaries, MacArthur Study Bible, Smith's Bible Dictionary

By:Clint Baker

"Unlocking The Lock"

Do you have eternal life or conditional life?

Ephesians 1:13-14 says "In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory."  

Philippians 1:6 says "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;"

   The understanding of eternal security really comes from understanding the unique and special love that God has for His children. Romans 8:28-39 tells us that 1) no one can bring a charge against God’s elect; 2) nothing can separate the elect from the love of Christ; 3) God makes everything work together for the good of the elect; and 4) all whom God saves will be glorified. God loves His children (the elect) so much that nothing can separate them from Him. Of course this same truth is seen in many other passages of Scripture as well (these four points came from). In John 10:27-30, Jesus says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." Again, in John 6:37-47, we see Jesus stating that everyone that the Father gives to the Son will come to Him and He will raise all of them up at the last day. John 5:24 say "“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."  Eternal life here  is not something you receive in the future but something you receive at the time you believe. If salvation trough Jesus Christ isn't eternal then its not eternal life, Jesus promises you eternal life. A promise of eternal life is not conditional life.

Join His Flock

   Eternal security does NOT give us a license to go out sin and do whatever we want.(1 John 2:3-4,Romans 8:29-30,2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 Corinthians 6:11) These are a few scriptures that tell you that.

   If someone is truly saved, he or she has been made alive by the Holy Spirit and has a new heart with new desires. There is no way that one that has been “born again” can later be “unborn.” Because of His unique love for His children, God will keep all of His children safe from harm, and Jesus has promised that He would lose none of His sheep.
  The doctrine of eternal security or also called "the perseverance of the saints" recognizes that true Christians will always persevered and are eternally secure because God keeps them that way. It is based on the fact that Jesus, the “author and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2), is able to completely save those whom the Father has given Him (Hebrews 7:25) and to keep them saved through all eternity.

  Why would God graciously offer up a free gift of salvation but make it conditional? A conditional salvation doesn't fit the eternal salvation plan of the Bible and it wouldn't be a free gift. That would be like me saying "I am gonna give you a free car as a gift, but you have to work of the price of the car for me". That wouldn't be a free gift from me, you would have earned it.

  "If one dear saint of God had perished, so might all; if one of the covenant ones be lost, so may all be; and then there is no gospel promise true, but the Bible is a lie, and there is nothing in it worth my acceptance. I will be an infidel at once when I can believe that a saint of God can ever fall finally. If God hath loved me once, then He will love me forever."

C.H. Spurgeon

Linked to:
Fresh From the Farm
Wisdom Wednesday
Wise Women Link Up

The Gospel of Jesus

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

  This is the Scriptural Gospel of Jesus Christ. Anything added to this for you to receive salvation is adding to His simple gospel. All that is necessary for forgiveness of your sins and eternal life is to understand, repent and trust this with all of your heart.This is the simplicity of it, in a nut shell!

 

1 Corinthians 15:1-19

 1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11 Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

"The portrait of Jesus in the gospels is altogether different from the picture contemporary evangelicals typically imagine. Rather than a would-be redeemer who merely stands outside anxiously awaiting an invitation to come into unregenerate lives, the Savior described in the New Testament is God in the flesh, invading the world of sinful men and challenging them to turn from their iniquity. Rather than waiting for an invitation, He issues His own – in the form of a command to repent and take on a yoke of submission."   John MacArthur

The most important seeds I plant!

What is salvation and Justification? 

  What does salvation mean? Simply, to be delivered or protected from suffering or danger. "Salvation" in the since of becoming a Christian, is being delivered or protected from sin. We were born into sin and have a debt of sin to pay. A debt that none of us can pay, the consequences for this unpaid debt is eternal death (Romans 6:23). Because of our inability to pay this debt God provided a way for us, through His Son Jesus (John 3:16).

  What are we saved from? We are saved from God's Judgment on sin, we are saved from His "wrath" (1 Thess. 5:9, Romans 5:9), eternal suffering and damnation. The sin we were born into separates us from God. But Jesus Christ has already provided us a way to pay our debt, delivered us from the consequences of sin and has provided a way to remove our sins in the sight of a Holy God. But only if we understand and trust the gospel which Jesus came to provide.

   Who does the saving? God is the only one that can remove our sin and deliver us from the debt we owe Him of sin. It is wholly of God by His grace on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ, the merit of His blood, and not because of anything we do in works or by our own merit. (Eph. 2:1-3; 2:8-10, Titus 3:5, John 1:12, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 2 Timothy 1:9).

   How does God do the saving? Through the sacrificial death on the cross and the resurrection from the grave of His only begotten son Jesus (John 3:17, Romans 5:10, Eph. 1:7). The Bible is very clear that salvation is a gracious and undeserving gift from God and ONLY available through faith in Christ Jesus (Acts4:12, Eph. 2:5-8).

   How is salvation received? Only by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ can we be saved from the curse of sin.

      1) We must first hear and understand the true gospel, the good news of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Eph. 1:13, Romans 1:16).

         2) We must fully trust, "believe", Jesus and that His sacrifice for our sin debt (Romans 1:16). We must fully trust that Jesus was born of a virgin, was God manifested into flesh, that He lived a sinless life, that He shed His blood for our debt of sin and after three days in a tomb was resurrected from death. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 is a very good explanation of the Biblical gospel.

         3) In trusting it, it brings a person to "repentance of sin", this means a changing of the mind about sin and Jesus our Christ (Acts 3:19) and in repenting, a person is asking Christ to forgive them of their sins and asking Him to become their Lord over their life (Romans 10:9-10). A true repentant heart will understand the love that God has graciously granted them and accept His gracious gift out of love and not out of obligation.

   "Salvation is the deliverance, by the grace of God, from eternal punishment for sin, which is granted to those who accept by faith God’s conditions of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus." Quote by C.H. Spurgeon.  Salvation is available in Jesus alone (John 14:6; Acts 4:12) and is dependent on God alone for provision, assurance, and security.

   "True salvation is not to be found through the mere reception of any creed, however true or scriptural. Mere 'head notion' is not the road to heaven. "You must be born again," means a great deal more than that you must believe certain dogmas. The study of the Bible cannot save you! You must press beyond this; you must come to the living, personal Christ, or else your acceptance of the soundest creed cannot avail for the salvation of your soul. Salvation lies in Jesus only!"  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

"Justification is by grace alone (not mixed with our merit)"

   Most churches ignore the work and teaching of justification and focus on a person's sanctification. In doing this people are being taught that the things they do and say are justifying and clearing their guilt before God. Basically they are taught to work their way into heaven. You work for a wage and the Bible says that "the wages of sin are death". This view takes the focus of the completed work of Jesus Christ and place's the emphasis on our performance. It is basically saying that the blood Jesus spilled on Calvary wasn't powerful enough for our sin debt and that His Resurrection from the grave wasn't powerful enough to conquer death! Some teachers either combine both justification with sanctification or put it out into the future where glorification is. Again, justification, sanctification and glorification are in God's souvenir hands not in ours (Romans 8:30)! Faith justifies the person, and works justify his faith.

   "This is the rock where we stand when the dark clouds gather and the floods lick at our feet: justification is by grace alone (not mixed with our merit), through faith alone (not mixed with our works) on the basis of Christ alone (not mingling his righteousness with ours), to the glory of God alone (not ours)." quoted by John Piper

    Simply put, to be justified is to declare you righteous, to make you right with God. Justification is God’s declaring those who receive Christ to be righteous, based on Christ’s righteousness being imputed to the accounts of those who receive Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). Justification is Christ taking our unrighteousness off of us and placing it on himself and then taking all of His righteousness and placing it on us for eternity. Jesus sacrifice covers our sins (past, present and future), allowing God to see us as perfect and unblemished. We were declared justified the very moment of our salvation. It pronounces us righteous in the sight of God. It came by placing our entire faith (trust) in the finished works of Jesus Christ and not in  our own works. Because as believers we are in Christ, God sees Christ's own righteousness when He looks at us. This meets God's demands for perfection, so He declares us righteous, He justifies us. (2 Corin. 5-21, Romans 3:21-26)

    Justification allows the peace of God to rule over our lives. In understanding justification , believers can have the true assurance of their salvation. Justification enables God to begin the process of sanctification, the process by which God, daily, removes sin from our lives.(Phil. l:6,Phil 2:3,Eph. 2:10). “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

   1) God justified us at salvation (Romans 5:18-19),  2) Sanctification progressive until we go to be with our Lord Jesus, it is a lifelong process (John 17),  3) Glorification is God's final removal of sin from the life of the saints ( everyone who is saved) in the eternal state (Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 4:17). Understanding all three are crucial to our knowledge of the ongoing work that the Holy Spirit does in our lives after salvation (justification). Truly braking the chains that bind us, to live a joyful, peaceful life in Christ Jesus!

Reference: NKJV "The Holy Bible",  Matthew Henry commentaries, MacArthur Study Bible,Q&Ministries

By: Clint Baker

Jan. 2012