Evangelism: The Churche's First Priority

Chapter 7

Jesus' FULL
Salvation for Man

A Doctrinal Statement
About God’s Only Means of SALVATION FOR MAN

No work of man can save himself from his sins. Neither water baptism, repentance of sin, receiving the Holy Spirit or speaking in tongues can save a person from their sin. Only God’s initiated work of salvation for man through the death and shed blood of His only Son Jesus Christ on the cross can save and cleanse man from his sins. Salvation is not a religious act, Salvation is a Person: the person of Jesus Christ (John 5:11-12, Col 1:27, 2 Cor 13:5). Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we would repent of our sins and return to Him for the created purpose and plan that He has for each of us individually. Therefore It is necessary for a person to confess and repent of their sins in order to receive Jesus’ free gift of salvation for them, for Jesus taught that only a person who confesses and repents of their sins is interested in His salvation and purpose for them (John 3:19-21). A person who does not acknowledge and repent of their sins does not turn to the light lest their deeds should be exposed. They run from the Light: JESUS (John 8:12, 9:5). That is why God sent John the Baptist first to call the people to repent of their sins so that they would turn to and receive Jesus Christ when He appeared publically before them. This is why preaching repentance of sins is so important in our salvation message in calling men and women to salvation in Jesus Christ. However, while Jesus died on the cross so that we would repent and return to Him, confessing and repenting of one’s sins by itself will not save us. Once a person has confessed and repented of their sins, the only way they can gain God’s salvation and forgiveness for those sins is by receiving by faith His free gift of salvation for their sins through the death and shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. God’s salvation for us through the death and shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross is received by faith and by faith alone. God’s gift of salvation through the death and shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross is a free gift of God and this gift of God is Jesus Christ Himself. We receive this free gift of God’s salvation for us by receiving Jesus Christ Himself by faith into our heart as Savior from our sins and as Lord of our lives. There is no other way to God or Heaven except through Jesus Christ. In order to be saved and go to heaven we must receive by faith Jesus Christ of Nazareth into our hearts as Savior from our sins and as Lord of our lives. When we come to God by faith through Jesus’ death and shed blood for our sins on the cross, God then automatically forgives our sins and automatically gives us His Holy Spirit as a result (Acts 10:43-44 & Eph 1:13-14) and the Lord becomes one spirit with our spirit (1 Cor 6:17). This then means that whatever is true for Him is now true for us also because we are now one spirit with Him (Col 3:1-3). This means that His death becomes our death for our sins and His resurrection to life eternal becomes our resurrection to life eternal, never to die again.
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Jesus said about Salvation: "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matt 19:26, Mark 10:25-27, Luke 18:25-27). So if you think there is some work that you can do to save you from hell, abandon it, know that it will not. The reason why man cannot save himself is because man’s attempt at salvation begins from self, his soul, and through his intellect. This is what caused the problem in the first place: self initiative and reasoning of the soul, not God’s initiative. The Second reason is because man is not dealing with his root problem, his dead human spirit and his bondage to a corrupted soul and flesh. Instead he is focusing on his behavior: what he does or does not do. What he does or does not do will not bring his human spirit back to life and back into relationship with God.

Let us show the arrogance of self attempts of salvation: first, man separated himself from God by rejecting His will and order for man: receive from the Holy Spirit through man’s human spirit, then decide with the soul to respond to God’s will and then carry out that will through his physical body. Man chose instead to allow himself to be ruled by himself through his soul: his intellect and feelings, and by his flesh: his appetites and desires. Now man even rejects God’s initiated means of salvation for him through His Only Son Jesus Christ and tells God that he will save himself again through his intellect and feelings, his soul. This is why God tells us through Isaiah 64:6 that all our righteous deeds are as filthy garments in His sight because they are motivated and controlled through man’s soul, not by the Holy Spirit through man’s human spirit.

Man’s need in salvation is to be delivered and saved from self, our soul, because self rule and initiative are the problem in the first place. Man’s problem is not his behavior, his sin either but what sin did to man. Sin corrupted man and brought man into bondage to himself, his soul and flesh. No amount of religious activity will deliver man from the bondage to himself because man himself is the problem. Anything man tries to do for salvation initiates from his soul, from himself and is not the solution because nothing man can do can bring his spirit back to life and back into relationship with God. The soul has no power to create life or make anything alive. Jesus said in John 6:63, "The Spirit creates-life, the flesh profits nothing."

Man trying to save himself is like trying to combat cancer with cancer or fire with gasoline. Man only ends up with more cancer and a bigger fire. Man got himself in trouble in the first place because he acted without God’s initiative first.

Another reason why man cannot save himself is because man’s salvation is selective. He saves only what he wants to save and leaves the rest of the garbage. This is why religion cannot save man. There is nothing man can do to save himself because his behavior is not the problem, he is. The cancer is man himself, not some tumor in man that can be taken out through some religious activity. Man himself is the problem. Man himself is the tumor. He does not just need deliverance from his sins, he needs deliverance from himself. For this reason, If man is to have any hope of salvation from the problem, himself, God himself will have to initiate the solution.

In the beginning sin was the problem because Adam and Eve’s sin was turning from God’s rule to self-rule. Therefore, dealing now just with sin does not solve the problem. We are responsible for our sin, but sin now is not man’s problem, but the symptom of his problem which is man himself. We do not just need deliverance from sin but from self. We need to be born fresh from above, recreated in God’s image and moral righteousness. This is what Jesus told Nicodemus the Jewish Rabbi, "Truly, truly, I say to You , unless one receives birth⁴⁰⁴ from-above⁴⁰⁵, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Jesus did not say, "Unless you get all your sin out of your life, change your behavior and live a perfectly holy life, you cannot enter the kingdom of God." No, Jesus did not say this. We must repent of our sin to receive Jesus’ salvation for our sins (John 3:19-21), but Jesus knew that man’s problem was not his sin, his behavior. He knew that man’s problem was himself and that no amount of right behavior would change what man is. Therefore, Jesus said to Nicodemus that in order for him to enter the kingdom of God that he had to receive birth from above and be recreated new and fresh into the image and likeness of God.

Nicodemus then asked Jesus how it was possible to enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born? This would not solve the problem. Jesus explains why in John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Jesus explains to Nicodemus that the reason why he cannot enter the kingdom of God as he is, is because he was born of the flesh in the first place which means he was devoid of spirit, dead spiritually and without ability to have relationship with God. Therefore being born of the flesh a second time would not solve the problem either (which is the meaning of Jesus statement in John 3:5 "unless one is born of water. . ." Often times this is used to say that we are saved by water baptism, but that is not the meaning of this phrase in context. Jesus explains its meaning in 3:6: physical birth) because it would produce the same results: physically and soulishly alive but spiritually dead. This is also why reincarnation would never solve man’s problems because even if man was born into this world a million times, he still would only be physically and soulishly alive but spiritually dead. Jesus then explained to Nicodemus that he had to receive birth from above through the Holy Spirit of God because only then would he have a living human spirit and be one again with God’s Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:17) and thus have communion and relationship with God again.

How then is one born again by the Holy Spirit of God? It first started with God, that is God the Son, becoming a man Himself. How did Jesus Christ become man? Through Holy Spirit conception of the Virgin Mary. Why did Jesus need to be conceived of by the Holy Spirit rather than through man’s seed? Man lost his salvation because he broke away from God’s order for him which was to only act out of God’s initiative by the Holy Spirit through his human spirit and instead acted out of the initiative of his reasoning and thoughts, his soul. Therefore, man’s seed by man’s initiative will not solve the problem. Man’s seed only produces men devoid of spirit. To solve man’s need of salvation it requires reversing the order by getting back to God’s order: spirit, soul, then body. Therefore the first step had to be Holy Spirit conception of Jesus if He was to have a living human spirit and thus a relationship with God the Father to start with. Jesus said about His life as a man on earth:

"It is the Spirit who creates-life,⁴⁰⁶ the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life." (John 6:63)

"Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’" (John 5:19)

Also required was the life of God, eternal life, if we were to be truly saved and have eternal life ourselves. The Bible states in 1 Timothy 6:13, & 16 "I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things. . . . who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light." Only God possesses immortality, therefore Jesus had to be fully God as well as fully normal man as God intended for man to be in order to save us. I will explain this in greater detail later.

All men conceived of by men are descendants of Adam and devoid of spirit at birth. In order for Jesus to carry out the Holy Spirit’s instructions for attaining our salvation, He had to have a living human spirit in union with the Holy Spirit to receive those instructions. This was acheived through Holy Spirit conception of Jesus through the virgin Mary.

All men were in the loins of Adam when Adam sinned and so all men suffered the same fate as Adam who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:12-14,

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam."

The Bible defines death as being separated from God which is what is meant by man having a dead spirit. The purpose of man’s spirit is for communicating with and having a relationship with God. Man still has a human spirit, but his human spirit is dead meaning that its intended function is no longer in operation: he is no longer able through his human spirit to communicate with or have a relationship with God. The sin of Adam and Eve severed this function.

To correct this, First, Jesus had to be born of the conception of the Holy Spirit so that He did not carry the consequence of original sin that is on all descendants of Adam: a dead human spirit. This meant that Jesus, when born, was like Adam at his creation. This means Jesus had complete communion and union with God in His human spirit in the moral righteousness and likeness of God.

The second step to our receiving birth from above was God dealing with the penalty of our sin, that which killed our spirits and severed us from God in the first place. The Bible teaches us about the wages of sin: "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23). Paul explains what the Bible means by death in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, "And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." Death means to be devoid of spirit, separated from God and without the ability to have relationship with God.

Even though our problem is primarily self, God still has to judge our sins if we are to be able to receive birth from above and be recreated in His image, and come back into relationship with God. Our sin is what separated us from God in the first place. It is what destroyed His image in us. Therefore the penalty of our sins has to be paid for first before we can be recreated back into God’s image and thus be able to have relationship with Him again. Therefore, the second step to receiving birth from above is God in the person of Jesus Christ paying sin’s penalty of death for us on the cross. The Apostle Paul tells us about Jesus’ death for our sins:

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor 5:21)

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." (Rom 5:8-9)

Therefore, the second step of our receiving birth from above is to repent of our sins (Luke 24:46-47) and then abandoning all efforts and works of the flesh to save us from the penalty of sin, death, and then putting our trust in God’s work of salvation for us, through the death and shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross, alone. The Apostle Paul wrote, "By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin." (Rom 3:20). Nothing of the flesh can appease God or please God because it is of the flesh, not of His Holy Spirit. Only what is initiated by the Holy Spirit will please God. Works for salvation are works of the flesh. Paul wrote about the works of the flesh in Romans 8:6-8,

"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

To be in the flesh simply means to look to self-effort to bring about salvation and solution to one’s problems and needs. God’s order for us is by His Spirit: "‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says Yehovah of hosts." (Malachi 4:6). Paul tells us plainly that anything which originates from the flesh cannot please or appease God. It doesn’t appease God for a second reason: The soul and flesh have no ability to create life. No matter what we try to endure to pay for our sins it will not bring our human spirit back to life or re-create our soul and flesh anew from a sinful propensity to complete submission to God’s Holy Spirit through our human spirit.

God by His initiative sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and the only thing that will turn His wrath away from our sins is our accepting only His remedy and work of salvation for our sins: His Son’s death and shed blood on the cross. It means we must come naked, meaning no reliance on any works of ours, before the cross and rely only on the work of the cross alone: God’s work. We must say to God:

Heavenly Father, I come to You for the forgiveness of my sins through Your Son Jesus Christ’s death and shed blood on the cross and that alone to save me, not any works of mine.

We then by faith, not feelings (an organ of the soul), must accept God’s forgiveness and that He does forgive us because He gave us His proof that He does when He brought Jesus Christ back from the dead. This is what Paul means when he says in Romans 10:9-10

"That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

Paul explains in Romans 4:25 what it means to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead: "He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification." How do we know that God accepts Jesus’ death for our sins in our place? Because He gave us absolute proof that He does by bringing Jesus back from the dead. That is the significance of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ: God proving to us He accepts Jesus’ death in our place for our sins. This is what it means when you say "God I believe You raised Jesus from the dead." You are telling God that by His bringing Jesus back from the dead you know He accepts Jesus’ death for Your sins in your place.

The third step to being bornagain, receiving birth from above, is to then enter back into relationship with God by receiving His Son Jesus Christ into your heart as Savior from your sins and as Lord of your life by faith. Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me."

By Faith, I do not mean blind faith, meaning faith without proof or verification, I mean knowing that once you ask Jesus to come into your heart as Savior from your sins and as Lord of your life, that He does come in and save you, not as a feeling, but because He gave you absolute proof that He will do what He promised when He came back physically from the dead. And what did Jesus’ promise? That He will come into your heart when you ask Him to. The Apostle John and Luke the Physician record about the significance of Jesus’ Physical Resurrection,

"When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken." (John 2:22)

"To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God." (Acts 1:3)

The Apostle Paul wrote about our faith and salvation in 2 Corinthians 13:5 and Colossians 1:27,

"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?"

"To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

The Apostle John tells us that God the Father testifies about what determines whether or not we have eternal life, Zoe³⁹⁰ life, spiritual life and will go to heaven in 1 John 5:11-12,

"And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life [Zoe, spiritual life]; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."

God the Father tells us plainly that the only thing which determines whether we have eternal life and will go to heaven is by whether we have His Son Jesus Christ living in us. The significance of this is that to have Jesus Christ living in us is to have the very life of God living in us. Jesus said He IS Life (John 14:6). Jesus’, God’s, life is eternal, indestructible. To have Jesus living in You is to have eternal life, indestructible life, living in You, the very life of God; therefore, to have eternal life yourself. The writer of Hebrews tells us about the life of Jesus:

"Who has become [our Final & Only High Priest] such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of a life indestructible⁴⁰⁷. . . . But He, on the other hand, because He abides forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Heb 7:16, 24-25)

The writer of Hebrews tells us that once we receive Jesus Christ we have eternal life forever because Jesus will never die and lives forever in us and as our High Priest before the Father to make intercession to Him that He has saved us forever.

When we unite ourselves with Jesus, the reason His death and resurrected life become ours is for the same reason that the results of Adam’s sin became ours. It is because once we unite ourselves with Jesus, whatever is His is now ours; thus His death becomes our death and our sins become paid for through Jesus’ death through our uniting with Him. This also explains why, though Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, His death does not become death for our sins until after we unite ourselves with Him by receiving Him into our heart as Savior and Lord.^408/66 What this means is that just having an intellectual knowledge about what Jesus did for us does not save us. We must receive what Jesus did for us on the cross by receiving Jesus Himself into our heart before we are saved and receive His indestructible life.

What does this have to do with receiving birth from above and a new recreated living human spirit? The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17

"Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation;⁴⁰⁹ the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

When we receive Jesus Christ as savior from our sins and as Lord of our lives, God through The Prophet Ezekiel tells us the following takes place:

"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

When we receive Jesus Christ into our hearts we receive birth from above and the following happens:

We receive Jesus’ eternal indestructible life and thus eternal life ourselves.
We are united with His death and thus his death pays the penalty of all our sins past present and future never needing to be paid again.
Our spirits are recreated and made alive once again, we receive birth from above.
Our hearts, our wills, our souls are freed from the bondage of sin and recreated to respond in obedience to the dictates of the Holy Spirit through our human spirit.
We have the moral righteous image of God restored in ourselves.
Our spirits are joined with the Holy Spirit and made one spirit with Him.
And as a result we enter back into unhindered communion and relationship with God.

Unfortunately, this birth from above on this side of heaven only takes place in our spirits. The full redemption of our soul and flesh does not take place until the resurrection. This is the reason why that even though our spirit is made alive with God Himself and His moral righteous nature, yet we still have conflict with sin so that Paul tells us in Galatians 5:16-17

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh with-strong-passion-fights⁴¹⁰ against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please."

The word in the Greek for with-strong- passion-fights, ejpiqumevw (epithumeo), is a compound word meaning literally with authority and strong passion to rush against.⁴¹⁰ In other words, a violent conflict between the flesh and the Holy Spirit.

On this side of heaven we are saved positionally in Christ. What this means is that in God’s eyes we are cleansed of our sins past, present and future (Heb 10:12, 14); therefore, there is no barrier between us and God. As a result we have free access to God’s throne and to God through our human spirit. He also relates to us as if we are as holy and as righteous as his Son even though we ourselves continue to have conflict with sin in our soul and body. Paul put it this way in Romans 7:24-25 and 8:1

"Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

In this passage, first, Paul tells us that with his mind he agrees with God’s moral law that it is true and righteous; but, second, that with his body, even though he is saved, whether he wants to or not, he still struggles with sin and even serves sin; but, third, that even though on this side of heaven he does not have complete continuous experiential deliverance from the power of sin over his soul and flesh, yet positionally in Christ in his relationship with God he is accepted without condemnation through Jesus Christ. This is the life and conflict of the born again Christian on this side of heaven.

When you receive Jesus into your heart as Savior and Lord, you instantly receive birth from above and your spirit is recreated alive, but on this side of heaven it only takes place in your human spirit, not in your soul and body. Our new created spirit, unlike our sinful soul and flesh, is identical to Jesus’ nature and wills to do what God wants. But Paul gives us a further promise about the completion of being recreated in God’s image. He writes,

"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Cor 15:51-53).

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself." (Phil 3:20-21).

Paul further explains about this resurrected body in 1 Corinthians 15:44-46

"It is sown a body motivated-and-controlled-by-the-soul³⁵⁹, it is raised a body motivated-and-controlled-by-the-spirit³⁶⁷. If there is a soulish body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the soulish; then the spiritual."

When God created us, He created us to be motivated and controlled by the spirit. It is through our spirits that we have relationship with God and receive from God His will and desire. We then with our souls decide whether to carry out that will or not through our bodies. In our present form the spirit has no access to the body. Our spirit cannot make our body do anything. Only the soul has control over our bodies. This is what is meant by it being sown a body motivated and controlled by the soul. In the resurrection, however, it is raised a body that is motivated and controlled by the spirit. This means that in the resurrection the spirit does have access to the body and can control the actions and behavior of the body. Our bodies in the resurrection will also be immortal. They will not be able to die and cannot die. They are sustained by the power of God through the Holy Spirit through our human spirits. The eating of food in heaven will be for pleasure, not for sustaining physical life. Finally, the kingdom of God is in the spiritual realm. This present body was made for the physical realm and is not able to relate to or function in the spiritual realm. Our recreated spiritual bodies are physical bodies but they are created to operate primarily in the spiritual realm, though they are able to function in the physical realm as well.

In heaven we are not only freed from the penalty of sin and the presence of sin, but the will to sin which was the nature of our old sinful soul and flesh. In heaven you do not sin and you have no desire to sin. Heaven is the absence of sin. Heaven is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." God’s nature is love, joy and peace continuously all the time. Because we will be one with Him in heaven forever, we will forever experience love, joy and peace. Heaven is perfect sweet communion with God because there is nothing corrupt in us to hinder our communion with God. In Heaven it is impossible for us to sin because we are born again into a nature that is identical to Jesus’ nature which is without sin and cannot sin forever. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:9,

"Everyone who is born of God does not sin, because His seed abides in him; and he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God."

God created man to be both a physical and spiritual being, therefore the resurrection is the completion of this new birth; it is God rebirthing and recreating completely different and new our physical natures to be in complete union and harmony with our rebirthed newly created spiritual natures. The reason for the physical resurrection is because it is through our physical body that we give expression of our soul-life.

Hell is just the opposite. The bodies of souls in hell will also eventually be raised, but only to be cast into the eternal lake of fire where all opportunity and possibility of giving expression of one’s soul-life, talents and gifts are forever brought to a complete and total absolute standstill. That is what makes Hell, hell. But for those who are redeemed, until the resurrection, while still in the flesh, meaning in the presence of our old soul and flesh completely in bondage to sin, we will continue to sin and have battle with sin.

Only a born again Christian can understand this conflict. When you are born again and your relationship with God is restored, you experience the peace and joy of Heaven and the pure holiness of your new nature in Christ and in your relationship with Christ. It is for this reason that the Christian is all the more sensitive to sin, not for salvation, but because now he loves God for what he has done for him in Christ. He knows how sin hindered and hinders his pure relationship with God. As a result, he wants whatever is necessary to be freed from his old sinful flesh’s continued hold over him on this side of heaven. This is why Paul cried out, "Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death!" This is why the Christian longs for the completed manifestation of his redemption through death and the leaving of this earthly life to go to heaven and then finally through the resurrection of his physical being. That is why a Christian is not at home any longer in this world. He longs to go home to heaven where once and for all he is freed from his old sinful soul and flesh in any form or capacity and instead enjoys continually without ceasing or interruption peace, joy and righteousness in the Holy Spirit.⁴¹¹

To whom is this salvation available to?

"For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches FOR ALL WHO CALL UPON HIM; for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord WILL BE SAVED." (Rom 10:12-13)

Jesus salvation is available to anyone who calls upon him. Let God’s WORD be found true though every man be found a liar.

We are saved by God’s righteousness alone. The Apostle Paul wrote:

"What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. . . . For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the goal of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." (Rom 9:30-32, 10:3-4)

In this passage the Apostle Paul tells us that the reason why the Jews rejected God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ was because they were trying to come to God on the basis of their righteousness, the works of their soul. Because they did, they were not able to submit themselves to God’s righteousness through Jesus Christ, the work of His Holy Spirit through Jesus. Only God’s righteousness through Jesus Christ can save us. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:9 that he gave up his righteousness in order to attain God’s righteousness through Jesus,

"And may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of the law for us. There is NOTHING we can add to it. Romans 10:11 tells us plainly that whoever believes in Jesus and His righteousness through the cross in his place will not be disappointed.

However, as we have already said, In order for the death and life of Jesus to be ours and thus His resurrection life to be ours, we must repent of our sins and receive the very life of God into our hearts which is Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus said recorded in Revelation 3:20,

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me."

Jesus tells us in this passage that the way we receive Him into our lives is by simply opening the door of our heart and asking Him in by faith.

What do we mean by faith? It does not mean blind faith, meaning faith without proof or verification; it means knowing that once we ask Jesus to come into our heart as Savior from our sins and as Lord of our life, that He does come in and save us, not as a feeling, but because He gave us absolute proof that He will do what He promised when He came back physically from the dead. And What is Jesus’ promise? that He will come into your heart when you ask Him to. Luke, the physician, wrote in the Bible about Jesus’ Resurrection:

Don’t you want to be recreated into God’s image, freed from the bondage of sin and eventually the presence and power to sin and be able to enjoy God and His Heaven forever? If you do want to be born again into God’s Kingdom, then pray the following prayer right now. Lets pray:

Jesus, I want to know you and be born again so that I can have eternal life. Therefore, I confess to You that I am a sinner and repent of my known sins. I ask You now to come into my heart as Savior from my sins and as Lord of my life. Heavenly Father, thank You for forgiving my sins through Your Son’s death and shed blood on the cross and that I now have eternal life. Now take control of my life, and through Your HolySpirit lead me into your will and plan for my life; in Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth’s name , amen.

If you just prayed this prayer, you can know by faith that Jesus has come into your heart, saved you, and given you eternal life. This means you are now saved and going to heaven.

If you did just receive Jesus into Your heart as Lord and Savior, the following things are true:

One, you have been united with Jesus in His death and thus his death has paid the penalty of all your sins past present and future never needing to be paid again. (Rom 6:3-11, Heb 10:10, 12, 14)
Two, you have received God’s eternal indestructible life in the person of Jesus Christ and thus eternal life which means you are saved and going to Heaven. (Heb 7:15-25, Col 1:27, 1 John 5:11-12)
Three, Your heart, your will, your soul has been freed from the bondage of sin and recreated to respond in obedience to the dictates of the Holy Spirit through your human spirit. (Galatians 5:16-18)
Four, You have received and are sealed in the Holy Spirit which means your spirit has been brought back to life and made one spirit with the Holy Spirit which means you are born-again and have entered back into unhindered communion and relationship with God and have the moral righteous image of God restored in yourself. (Acts 10:43-44, Eph 1:13-14, 1 Cor 6:17, 2 Cor 1:21-22, 1 John 5:1)
Five, You can now approach God’s throne boldly and without fear and talk to your heavenly Dad about whatever is on your heart. He will listen and hear you and even talk back to you through your human spirit. (1 Cor 2:9-16, Ephesians 3:11-12)
Six, Finally, if that isn’t enough, God goes even further than that. When you receive Jesus Christ into your heart as Savior and Lord, God the Father immediately adopts you as his son or daughter into His forever family which means you inherit His kingdom. (John 1:12; Eph 1:5, 3:6; Rom 8:16-17; Gal 3:29; James 2:5)

The Apostle Paul and John wrote,

"In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory." (Eph 1:13-14)

"He ordained-beforehand³⁵¹ to adopt us as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will." (Ephesians 1:5)

"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13)

"The Spirit Himself bears witness withour spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him." (Romans 8:16-17)

What does it mean to be adopted as God’s sons and daughters? God has only one Son: Jesus Christ. This means that He is of the essence of God, God himself. But when you and I receive Jesus into our lives we receive the very life of God, eternal uncreated life, in ourselves and we are made one spirit with His Holy Spirit binding us to Him forever. As a result He adopts us as His sons and daughters which means that we are co-heirs with Jesus and therefore inherit the kingdom of God with Him. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 16:11,

"You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fulness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever."