Christian Perfection (2)

It is true that we will never be perfect in this life, but the perfections outlined by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount are still those for which we should aim and that we should increasingly attain by God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We are to aim at Christ-like character.  Jesus said, “Therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

How good must a person be to stay saved?

I am a sinner.  Nothing I will do will ever be perfect.  What can I do to be saved and to keep saved?  Since self-efforts will not save us, we must receive the perfect righteousness that God has provided in the atoning substitutionary death of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

Only the LORD God is perfect, and He works to perfect sinful man.

How does God work to perfect sinners?  There are three Biblical facts we must keep clearly in mind.

1.  We are sinners, and there is no denying that fact.  Sin is an offense against God, and He cannot ignore it.  Sin has to be dealt with completely according to His just standards.  This is why God the Father sent God the Son to die for our sins. Jesus bore the penalty for our sins in full, and canceled all claims of God’s justice against the believing sinner forever. God punished our sins on the cross of Jesus.  “By one sacrifice Christ has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).  Have you believed on Jesus Christ as your Savior?

How perfect must a Christian be?  The Christian believer must guide his life by the perfect, ethical standard of Jesus Christ.  Jesus said, “You are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).

2.  The second principle we must keep in mind is that from the moment we believe on Jesus Christ as our Savior, God begins a work in us to perfect us in this life.  At the new birth, we are given a perfect standing before God in one sense, but it is also true that we are far from perfect in our daily life.

The apostle Paul distinguishes between two ways the word “perfect” is used in the New Testament.  In Philippians 3:12 he writes, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12).  Paul has in mind here absolute perfection – God’s perfect standard, absolute spiritual maturity, fully-grown just like Jesus Christ.  It is the same idea that Jesus Christ spoke of in Matt. 5:48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

In the next sentence Paul tells us that even though he has already been declared acquitted before God on the basis of his faith in the atoning sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, he is still in the need of practical daily work of being perfected in Jesus Christ.  “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained” (Philippians 3:13-16).

“Perfect” in verse fifteen is a relative, spiritual maturity, indicating the stages of growth, hence, perfect in growth at certain stages.  Even as an elderly Christian, Paul had not arrived to sinless perfection, but he did not give up, and make excuses for sins.  All of his guilt is covered by the payment of Christ on the cross.  The penalty has been removed, but God is still at work in his daily practice of holiness.  Paul is not getting better and better so that one day he can say he is without sin in his daily life.  God has provided for us in His saving grace a provision for cleansing of sin and restoration of fellowship in the Christian’s life (I John 1:8).

3.  Our ultimate sanctification or what the Bible calls glorification will take place when we are presented perfect just like Jesus Christ, and it will take place in the moment of our death.  God’s work of perfecting the saints will take place when we see Jesus in glory and not before then.  At that moment we will be presented to God the Father sinless and complete (1 John 3:1-3).  We never know that perfection in this life.  We will in the likeness of Christ be pure and holy in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, wisdom, humility, obedience, etc.

What God began in your new birth, He will continue to work on throughout this life until He has perfected us and presents us perfect to the Father.  What God begins, He always finishes (Phil. 1:6; Rom. 8:24-29).  God will not give up on any born again believer.  He will keep on perfecting us until the day when Christ comes for us.

May you have a grateful heart towards He who has given so much to you.

indeovi vas ( may you live with Jesus in Latin )

Seleh- stop and think about it.

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

We are Cruel to Ourselves If

We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it.
J. I. Packer

Even He Takes a Day Off To

Jehovah is a busy God. He is holding the universe together, helping His children and preparing a Heavenly home for us. Yet, even He takes a day off to rest (to lead by example the need for rest, not that He needs one). Joseph a son of Jehovah

God Must of Necessity

In a moral universe God must of necessity oppose evil. Robert Mounce

A Terrible Sorrow to Jehovah.

A heartless Christian is a terrible sorrow to Jehovah. Joseph son of Jehovah

How can we have a revival?

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Psalm 85:6 The Holy Bible, The New International Version

How can we have a revival?” someone ask the great evangelist, Gypsy Smith.

The wise old preacher replied, “take a piece of chalk, and draw circle on the floor. Then step inside the circle, and pray: “Lord, send a revival inside this circle.”

Prayer: Oh please Jehovah Yotsero (God our maker Psalm 139:13-16 ) bless me that You send The Holy Spirit to revive my devotion to You every day. May this attitude and behaviour be a brilliant light that guides the lost souls to You like moths to a bright light in a dark night. I humbly request this in the name of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. Amen

Seleh- stop and think about it.

This photo and article @ Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah 2023

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

Born of God

How are individuals made alive spiritually?

Jesus said, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3 NET).

The Bible teaches us that we become a child of God only through the new birth. Those who believe on Jesus Christ become God’s children. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

By whose authority do we become the children of God? “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right . . .” It is the authority of Jesus Christ. Those who believe on Him have the right to become the children of God.

It is clearly not a physical birth, but a spiritual birth that is in mind, and it is something that is received by the person who believes in Him (1 Pet. 1:23). The initiative in the new birth is with God.

Without Christ we are spiritually dead in trespasses and sin (Eph. 2:1-3). Every individual must be born again because the natural man is altogether void of spiritual life. We need divine life, and that is what God provides through the new birth.

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36, 16). He has it right now (1 John 5:13). Clearly the individual who believes on Him receives God’s kind of life (6:40). It is the teaching throughout the New Testament (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 10:9-10).

The biblical doctrine of the new birth takes all the glory and initiative away from man and gives it all to God the Father. He alone is responsible for our salvation; therefore, He alone gets all the glory. He creates the new spiritual life within us and causes us to believe on Christ. God chooses to give us eternal life (1 Jn. 3:1; Eph. 1:5; Jas. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23).

We become a child of God when God gives us His life. It is an act of God. We receive that life the moment we believe on Christ. It comes from God and is received only on the basis of God’s grace. Those who believe become God’s children. Only by receiving Christ do we gain the right to become a child of God.

How do we not become a child of God? There is absolutely nothing that man can do to contribute to his spiritual birth. This is made very clear in John 1:13, “who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” No amount of human activity, religious cultivation, or moral teaching can change the essential nature of man. Therefore, it is imperative that man’s deepest need is to be born again.

In the Jewish mind “blood” is equivalent to human life. Spiritual birth cannot come about as a result of any human process or achievement. Man is not by nature a child of God. We are by nature sinners. No human agency can achieve the new birth. All human effort is powerless and superficial in regard to spiritual life. There is nothing in our human nature or character that can bring about a spiritual birth.

“Born of the water and the Spirit” does not refer to baptism regeneration (John 3:5). From the context “water” here is referring to the water bag broken at physical birth of a baby. Water here is symbolic of a spiritual birth. From other passages of Scripture we learn that baptism is in no wise essential to salvation. It does not form one of the conditions which God requires the sinner to meet. If baptism were necessary then man would be saved by his works.

The Bible teaches we are saved by grace through faith in Christ and not of works. It is the free gift of God. “What must I do to be saved?” The Bible says “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31).

The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to bring about regeneration (1 Pet. 1:23). No sinner is born spiritually apart from the Word. The “children” are those who believe on Christ. Men are God’s sons only as they respond to what He does for them in Christ. They are born into God’s family when they receive His Word.

The new birth is an absolute miracle. All human initiative and effort is ruled out. Men are “born of God.” There is no other way to become a child of God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit within the person. It is life in Christ and is divine in origin. The whole emphasis in this verse and in John chapter three is the activity of the Spirit of God, not human effort, works or merits by demanding the sinner to be “born again.” He excludes any possibility of human effort in salvation.

The word “believing” and “receiving” refer to the same operation of the Holy Spirit when a person ceases trusting in his own human merits and trust in Christ Jesus alone for salvation.

Are you enjoying the things of God, spiritual things, which are discerned and enjoyed by spiritual regeneration? Are you enjoying the privileges of being a child of God? In order to have spiritual discernment we must be born again (1 Cor. 2:10, 14).

The Holy Spirit gives us a new spiritual nature. When He gives us this new nature we are “born again” (2 Pet. 1:4). It is an act of God.

Because of this new birth the individual is a changed person who loves the things he once hated, and hates the things he once loved. A radical change takes place in the heart of the believer.  “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new thing have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). The NET Bible reads, “So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away–look, what is new has come!”

SELAH! Pause – reflect- just think of that!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

Last Night I

The earnest prayer of the righteous has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:16 The Holy Bible, The New International Version

Last night I prayed that mom would be healed from an excruciating pain she has suffered for about a week. Today she she has none of that pain.

Last night I prayed that my buddy, Snowball ( my cat ) would not be a zombie because of his epileptic medicine. but his old self Today, he was his old lovable self again.

Last night I prayed to be lead to a sight that has good Biblical preaching for both mom and I to listen to. Today, I was guided to World Video Bible School . Man do they have fantastic video’s.

Last night I prayed for the Lord to heal mom of her arthritic pain and my pain in my feet. Today I was talking with a woman at the swimming pool who informed me of these great shoes at a discount store that absorb the strain when walking. I am looking forward to buying them.

Whoever says there is no God or that He does not answer the prayers of His children is either not a child of his or their faith is weak or they are baby Christians ( new Christians). Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

Prayer: Thank you Jehovah Jireh ( God who provides Philippians 4:19 ) for Your gracious blessing of amazing provisions to our family. I thank You in the name of the most amazing blessing, Jesus Christ. Amen

Seleh- stop and think about it.

This photo and article @ Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah 2023

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

The Biggest Threat To

 “The biggest threat to the discovery of God, and to productive truth seeking more broadly,” “is blind faith…. Seek truth. Follow the evidence. Align with reason…. You may come to discover that the foundation of reality is greater than you had imagined.” Josh Rasmussen

What God Told You In

“Never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light.” Raymond Edman