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Whether we believe it or not, our natural life is just an existence. There is a higher level of life we can and should enter into. One based on the values we all wish everyone would live by. Most think living their life naturally is the only life there is. Even church goers often in error think that a religious or spiritual life is just a cleaned up version of this natural life, this existence.
God says that is not reality.
He gives us our natural existence from birth. Our natural man leans towards rejecting God. So rather then giving mankind the greatest treasure to start with, God first gives mankind the existence mankind thinks they want. In this existence we think we are free to go our way. But that brings consequences to our choices. When we humans see how we have trashed that existence with our sins, some of us will stop and consider there must be a better way. There must be a higher quality of life. Our self, our natural existence, which the Bible calls our flesh, has a strong preservation instinct to rule our lives, even when it is clear that it is a lousy king. Even when the mess we have made is easily seen by those around us, we may choose to blame factors other than our sins for destroying our life.
A higher life does not happen naturally. A higher life is entered into by our making a choice to believing what is absolutely true. That is found in Jesus Christ. We then learn how to live through believing the Bible, fellowship, and prayer. It requires all to live a balanced life. The problem is while living a natural life we are confused as to what is absolutely true. God has made the process of obtaining a higher life a simple process, yet there is a tremendous depth to what transpires.
Scriptures:
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." [Romans 10:9-11]
Discussion:
God has made the salvation process simple enough that even a child can do it. For us to confess that this Jesus Christ is Lord also means that we ourselves have given Him lordship of our lives. Our old natural man is not any longer the king of our lives. We have made a choice that our old natural man is being replaced with Jesus. This may not make much sense until we more fully come to realize who Jesus is, as the living Word of God, made alive in human flesh, our flesh. God is not wanting us to take this legalistically but instead to just believe it. He wants us to believe it in our hearts, our innermost motivation. Believing is not mental assent, it is much deeper. It is a decision to trust it as truth even though we may not yet be where we can say we know it. At salvation a person is told to believe that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. At that point of salvation, most do not really understand what that means other than that Jesus was dead and God raised Him back to life again. It is an absolute truth that will make perfect sense over time.
So for our part there are two things we need to do. Confess Christ as our Lord and to truly believe in our heart what God tells us to believe. Specifically that God raised Jesus from the dead. That is the foundation from which salvation occurs. Yes, even a child could do that.
Scriptures:
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" [Ephesians 2:8]
"For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God." [Ephesians 2:8]
Discussion:
It is by the grace of God when we exercise faith for salvation, that we are saved. Grace is what saves us, not our faith or our works. Exerting our faith creates an environment where God's grace can do its saving work. Without our faith there is no envirnoment for grace to cause salvation. This grace is truly a gift from God. God has an abundance of grace and we imperfect humans need grace from a perfect God or we couldn't get saved. God supplies plenty of grace when we choose to simply believe Him at his Word.
Why is it by grace? Because God is pure and holy. For something to stay pure or holy, it has to be kept precisely according to high standards or it will be contaminated. No matter how good we think we are, our righteousness is as filthy rags compared to God. Those that struggle with thinking that they should need grace, are clueless to how filthy their life is compared to God. They are comparing their life to other humans, who are also desperately needing God, and they may not even be aware of it.
Some choose to believe that their works save them. We have all done good works at some time or another. Works do not save, they just look good to the uninformed, those uneducated in spiritual things. Those that choose to believe that their works will save them, may be so full of themselves that they have no interest in searching out the truth.
Some choose to believe that their faith is actually what saves them. Our faith allows us to receive, but it is God's grace that does the saving. Without us choosing to believe, there is no reason for God to save us. Do we, or maybe, should we, give blessings to our unthankful children? No, that would reinforce wrong behavior.
Let's look at this a little deeper. Jesus Christ is God. A core definition of who Jesus is, is the living word of God made alive in the flesh. It would be our flesh when we exert faith to receive salvation. The scriptures in their pure form are absolutely pure and holy. They are extremely precise and condensed. Would you expect anything less from the God of the universe? We don't often see the scriptures as precise, as they don't fit how we naturally think in living our existence. To allow us sinners to live in the perfect kingdom of God starting in this fallen world, it requires grace, actually it requires an abundance of grace, which God freely gives. Where it says "that the abundant grace" it is talking a super abundant grace not just a little bit extra. Where it says "might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God" it is talking about those that are beginning to realize the wonderful work God has done for them in salvation, they become thankful. That act of truly being thankful brings great glory to God.
Salvation legally puts us in a new kingdom. We think different because our hearts believe different. In the past our hearts, our innermost motivation, were mankind (usually ourselves) centered. Once we receive salvation we have committed ourselves to be Christ centered. Whether or not a person feels any different at salvation, they have legally entered into a covenant with God, through His grace. Now God will work to clean us up as we give Him kingship of our life. That change makes us a new creation, our old life is no longer a valid way to live. We only continue living like we previously did because of ignorance or rebellion. Our whole focus on how we live changes from living after the dictates of our flesh (what we feel, what we think, and what we want) to living with Jesus Christ as our king. We recognize that we are married now to Christ, the living word of God made alive in the flesh. In this case our flesh. Jesus Christ loves us and is our new lord and savior. Before we were in a downward spiral to death. Now even though our outward man grows old and dies, our inward spiritual man is renewed day by day as we seek Him, causing us to grow stronger and stronger as a new creation.
What are we saved from? The thinking, decisions, and actions that keep us in that downward spiral leading to death. As we follow Christ, our thinking is on life.
Scriptures:
"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." [1st John 5:12]
"And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." [John 5:40]
Discussion:
There is a major difference between what God calls life and what we think of as life which is just a polished existence.
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