How to be saved in Jesus and know it.
How to be saved in Jesus and know it.
Dear Reader,d o you know exactly where you stand with the
God and Creator of the universe? Have you asked Him to be your
Father in the Heavens? Have you believed/trusted/relied/depended
on the Lord/King Jesus Christ ---the God anointed Saviour King of
Israel ----to save you from your faults, failures and mistakes?
Salvation from personal faults/failures/mistakes belongs to the
poor in spirit. Matt. 5:3 says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven." If you recognize that you are spiritually
destitute---totally incapable of deserving or earning salvation from
your errors in any way, you are poor in spirit-- you are humble. The
poor in spirit, the humble, understand that they are sinners, totally
impotent to please or to serve God.
To acknowledge that you are a sinner unable to save yourself is
humility. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim.
1:15). Isaiah said, "When You make His soul an offering for sin, He
shall see [His] seed. He shall prolong [His] days and the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the distressing travail of
His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant
shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities."
Poverty of spirit (humility) is interwoven in the act of
repentance, the life-altering change of mind about you, your sin and
God. When you repent (change your mind), you see yourself as you
really are and you change your mind in respect to your relationship to
God the Father and to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The act of
repentance brings you to see your sin as ugly as it is, as God sees it, and
you come to a point where you want to be free from it.
Of course, freedom from sin comes only by believing/trusting/
relying on the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who is regularly committing
sin is the slave of sin. However, if the Son shall set you free from
regularly committing sin, you shall be free indeed (John 8:334,36)
The poor in spirit see their impotence to free themselves from
sin/failures/faults/errors. They see that freedom is possible only
through Christ's death for us as our substitute. They recognize that
salvation/deliverance comes by God's act of undeserved and
unmeritted kindness and mercy alone. They choose to believe God
and His Word about themselves and their relationship with Him.
One cannot speak of the Crucifixion apart from the Resurrection.
It is the resurrection that gives us newness of life. Christ's resurrection
testifies to two vital truths. One, it shows that God was propitiated, or
satisfied, with the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. Jesus became
the bearer of our sins. Isaiah's word is "But he was wounded/pierced
for our transgressions, bruised/crushed for our iniquities; The
chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes (from the
cutting whips) we are healed." In Romans 4:25 we read, "[He] who was
delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised [from the
dead] because of our justification." "Raised because of our justifica-
tion" means that because Jesus' payment (the death of His body) for our
sins was adequate to satisfy the demands of justice and a Holy God,
God could then declare us righteous, justified and made acceptable in
His sight. Jesus was raised from death because His death for us satisfied
the righteousness of our Holy God.
His resurrection shows us that Jesus Christ conquered death.
Death had a holdover man because of his sin/error/failures/faults.
However, once the death penalty of sin was paid for by the death of
Christ's body, death no longer had any holding power. "The sting of
death is sin, and the power of sin is the law" (1 Corinth. 15:56). Jesus
paid the price of redemption, redeeming us from the curse of the Law,
having become a curse for us ---for cursed was everyone who was hung
on a tree/stake (Deut. 21:23; Gala. 3:13).
His death took away the power of sin. Jesus also took the stinger
out of death by paying for our sin so that we need have no fear of what
awaits us in and after death. Because our sin debt is paid for in full by
Christ, death has no power over us.
Dear reader, have you come to the end of yourself? Have you
seen your total impotence, your total unworthiness? Have you seen
your nothingness apart from God? And have you seen Jesus, God the
Son who took upon Himself flesh and blood that He might die for you
and for all people? Have you decided that you want His Way and Will
in and for your life instead of your own will and way?
Do you believe that? Do you believe He died in your place? Do
you believe that He was made sin for you, so that you, a helpless and
hopeless enemy of God, might have His righteousness and His life?
Have you repented---turned away from self-will to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ----the God anointed Saviour King of Israel? Out loud with
your mouth agree with God about the God anointed Saviour King of
Israel, and you will be saved, "for with the heart man believes,
resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses [Jesus],
resulting in salvation." Romans 10:10-13.
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Holy God and Father of the risen and living King Jesus,
I praise You for the wonder that You are. Father, I
thank You for showing and proving Your Love for me by
revealing Yourself as Jesus Christ of Bethlehem. I accept Jesus
as my refuge, strength and very present help in the trouble of
this world, in the trouble of male-female relationships in this
world today. Holy Father, I acknowledge my own personal
inadequacy for the trials of this world. Merciful God, I
acknowledge that apart from You I am a part of the
problem of this world, not a part of the remedy for this world.
Holy Father, I agree with You that apart from Jesus I can do
no good thing of eternal merit. I give my body, soul,
strength and mind to You as Jesus enables me. I accept only
Jesus as my King, my Saviour, my Director, my Shepherd and
my daily Deliverer. Holy Father, I ask Jesus to come into me
and live in me and work in me for me to become Your child, and
to become what You want me to be. Father, I acknowledge my
total daily need of You and my total dependence on You to live
well, safely and successfully. Thank You for suffering so much
in Jesus for me. Thank You for being my Abba Father,
my Shepherd, my Counselor, my Companion and my Comforter.
I trust You to keep me safe in Your hand, and in Your loving
embrace, by Jesus.
Joel 2: 32 And it shall be, whoever shall call on the name of the LORD
shall be saved; for salvation shall be in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
as the LORD has said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
Ps 119:6 Then I shall not be ashamed, when I have respect to all Your
commandments.
Ps 119:80 Let my heart be sound in Your statutes, so that I may not be
ashamed.
Ps 119:116 Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live; and let
me not be ashamed of my hope.
