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JESUS, THE WAY THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE

 

  T

he Holy Bible reveals the only true God.  It is the inspired resource which God gave us for our daily comfort and encouragement. The Scriptures withstand the test of time.  The prophetic nature challenges every reader with its accuracy for the times we live in and from times passed.  The Scriptures reveal the very self-centered nature of man while contrasting it to the holiness of God's nature.  The Truth reveals God’s plan for man’s redemption.

          The first two chapters of the Bible deal with a world which God created for mankind.  The rest of the Bible deals with God's intervention to restore His relationship with humanity.  The Word reveals the only exception in the last two chapters that describe God creating a new heaven and a new earth for Him and mankind's eternal reconciliation.

          Before man sought out his own will, He was in the likeness of God.  After mankind rebelled breaking the relationship there was only one way for God to restore it.  The Bible is a love story of  God, who beyond any scope of our imagination, chose to sacrifice His Son for His creation.  The Bible is first and foremost a love story.

          What is man that God is mindful of him?  We have been wonderfully and fearfully made by God.  Psalm 139 is a beautiful passage of scriptures that refers to the creation of the inner man, the spirit of man, the soul of man, and physical being.  God individually creates us for His pleasure, and it is His express desire to show His love for us individually.

          The first man Adam was created in the image and likeness of God, (Gen. 1:26).  Adam was able to communicate freely with God because God created man in His image and likeness.  In Gen.5:3, Adam became the father of a son of his own likeness and in his own image.  The fall of Adam and Eve left mankind separated from God because of their sin.  They had died spiritually to God and had lost the true knowledge of God.  Fortunately, God made a promise to all of mankind to redeem mankind through the seed of the woman in Gen. 3:15.  This promise refers to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ who has reconciled every believer to God through the Cross.  Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation.  God has restored our relationship with Him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships.  In other words, God was using Christ to restore His relationship with humanity.  Since we are a new creation in Christ, we have received of His Spirit, so we can freely receive everything we need through Christ.  Since we are a new creation, why aren't we all like Christ?

          We are a new creation in Christ.  We were dead to God in our sin because we were born after the likeness of Adam, but now we have been born again after the likeness of Christ.  We now have the Spirit of Christ in us, the hope of Glory.  Unfortunately, we are conceived in sin and born after the likeness of Adam.  So until we receive the Spirit of Christ we learn to do everything after the nature we were born with, a corrupt nature.  The corrupt nature must become crucified with Christ so that the Spirit of Christ can live in us.  Then, we will become like Christ.  We can freely communicate with God because we have the Spirit of God living in us.  Next we need further transformation into the image of Christ through the renewing of our mind.  The Holy Spirit does this through God’s Word, which announces everything that Christ accomplished for us and continues to do through us.  God personally created you for good works to walk into.  He creates us for His good pleasure, and to bestow the riches of Christ upon us.

          God alone created your inner being.  He knit you together inside your mother.  God miraculously and amazingly creates us.  Nothing can hide from God.  He creates in us -- body, soul, and spirit.  God knows your thoughts and the intents of your heart.  Yes, God knows and still has a plan for your life!

          Just as our bodies have many parts, in the same way, we are many individuals.  Not all of us do the same things, but Christ makes us one body and God connects us to one another through Him.  God in His richness gave each of us different personalities, and all have different gifts to build up the body of Christ.  We are all unique.  Everything we have, God gives to us.  God keeps nothing for our good from us.  The mystery of Christ in us is God's greatest revelation in mankind's promised redemption.

          Since we receive a new nature, what causes us to be so easily upset in doing the will of God?  The corrupt nature is dead.  Unfortunately, most Christians do not understand this.  God set us free from this corrupt nature to walk in the law of the Spirit of life in Christ that sets us free from the law of sin and death.  However, God wants to heal us and renew our minds so that we can see that it is His entire 'doing' that we are a new 'being'.

          The old man, also called the carnal or corrupt nature, and the flesh, is the result of the fall, and of the environment that our parents rear us in.  We are the product of everything that happened to us before coming to the knowledge and acceptance of Christ.  The events that led up to our redemption all had an affect on our personality.  Damage has been done.

          Before our corrupt nature was crucified with Christ, we could only walk according to the pattern of this world.  Our sinful nature alienated us from God.  We were born after Adam; now we have been born again after the likeness of Christ.  Our mothers bore us with a carnal nature; now we have a spiritual nature.  The problem is that we still relate to the carnal nature more that we do our spiritual nature.  Yet we know God is faithful, and He will complete the work He began in us until the day of Christ Jesus when God totally redeems us.

          God reconciled the world to Himself through Christ.  God uses the church as His body on earth, and we are members individually of this body.  'In Christ', God unites us for His purpose of reconciling the world to Himself.  The church represents Jesus Christ and has the power and authority through Him to do the works that we see Him doing. 

          The Word of God testifies of the works of Christ.  He came into the world to save sinners by destroying the works of the devil.  Jesus commissions us to do the same work of reconciling sinners to God.  The Great Commission is the real calling of every believer.  We all have a role to play and different gifts to use to bring about this great work.  The question is, 'Does every one come to Christ the same Way?'  Every one came in their own way to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  God speaks to hearts individually.  He often uses an individual to witness to Christ's work on the Cross.  Then we made our personal commitment to God through faith in Jesus Christ.  What about you?  Would you like to understand the person looking at you from the other side of the mirror? 

          There are two births and two deaths.  The first birth's result is a person with a carnal nature as part of their heredity.  The second birth is spiritual producing a new nature.  The "rebirth" is for renewal.  Being "born again" is a spiritual birth that restores spiritual life and the blessings of God.  The first death results in the removal of our carnal nature.  The second death is part of the judgment against humanity for refusing to accept Jesus Christ's substitutionary death that will result in everlasting life with God. 

          A person has to lose their life in order to be 'born again'.  This happens when we accept Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death as our own.  When we do this we escape the second death and have eternal life.  The evidence of a person's rebirth is a gradual transformation in their life.  The transformation begins as God's Word regenerates our mind so that we can live a life of righteousness and true holiness in Christ.  We begin to grow into the full stature of our Lord and receive a spirit of love, power and a sound mind.  As newborn babes we can begin to worship God and give Him praise with thanksgiving for such a glorious and wonderful salvation.  As children of God, we receive the peace of God surpassing all understanding and the joy of knowing He loves us just as we are.  We have this assurance knowing that while we were still sinners, He died for us, so that we would be able to enter the kingdom of God.  There is a way that seems right, in the mind of man, that leads to death.  Then there is God’s way, the same way in which His Son was obedient, even unto the death of the ‘Cross’.  Will you let Christ live His life through you and experience the Kingdom of God?

 

The Kingdom Of God

 

For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.; for the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. - Luke 17:21; Romans 14:17; 2 Timothy 1:7; 1 Corinthians 4:20

 

We Need To Be Born Again To See God

Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.    -- John 3:3,5-6 

 

"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."   -- John 4:23-24

 

Jesus Became The Ransom For Obtaining The New Covenant

 

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.    -- John 3:14-17

          The Old Testament was a shadow of the New Testament revealing a better 'covenant'. God's Word is an expression of God's love and reveals His plan for humanity.  The Word reveals God's plan to restore our relationship with Him based on love.  Our Lord's loving sacrifice paid for our salvation.  He came into the world to reveal His identity by doing the will of the Father, not by proclaiming to be the 'Messiah'.  His final act of obedience on the Cross of Calvary paved the way for ‘whosoever’ to find salvation.

 

Jesus Came To Do God's Will

 

But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. "For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. "For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. "For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, "that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.    -- John 5:17-23

          Through revelation of the Holy Spirit we understand the love between the Father and His Son.  This is the type of revelation, enlightenment, that comes to the obedient who are born of the Spirit.  There is freedom for those who hear the Word of the Lord and obey it.  They develop a relationship based on trust and love.  There is liberty and freedom in Christ to do what is right through His life-giving Spirit.

 

The Lord Is Waiting For Mankind To Repent

 

"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. "Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword"; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.    -- Isaiah 1:16-20

 

Assurance Of Forgiveness And Everlasting Life

 

"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.   -- John 5:24

 

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. -- Jn 7:37-39

 

Jesus’ Authority Over Death

 

"I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. "As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. "No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."   -- John 10:14-18

 

Our Shepherd’s Authority Keeps Our Souls

 

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone 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 My Father's hand. "I and My Father are one." -- John 10:27-30

 

Jesus Is The Resurrection Unto Eternal Life

 

Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Then Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. "But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. "And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."

 

But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. "Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. "Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to Him." Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." This He said, signifying by what death He would die. -- John 12:23-33

 

Jesus Left To Prepare A Place For Us

 

 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. "And where I go you know, and the way you know."