CHAPTER 1: SALVATION THROUGH CHRIST
To receive salvation means to receive the LOVE of GOD given to mankind in the person of Christ. Only the Love of God can save a sinner, and the sinner can only be saved by receiving the Love of God by accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. By receiving the love of God the sinner also receives the life of God.
[John 3:16-17, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 2:20, 1 Peter 3:18. 1 John 3:1].
The Dynamics of Salvation.
The sinner is saved by faith in Jesus and confession in His name, His death and resurrection. But what does it say? “the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says,
YOU ARE A NEW CREATION
Now that you have given your life to Jesus Christ, you have made Him the Lord of your life. You are no longer what you used to be. You may still look the same outwardly, but inwardly you are a new person altogether. That is what the Bible says. You are not “one like a new creature,” but “a new creation” – a new species of being that never existed before (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV).
You are not reformed, refurbished, or renovated; you are a new creation – a new person altogether. However, the fact that you are a new creation inside does not meant that outwardly you will look different. If you had a low hair cut before you were born again, the style would remain short; you will still have the same job, family and neighbours. The point, however, is that now your values have changed; you have a new set of values because you are a new person on the inside.
YOU HAVE THE NATURE AND LIFE OF GOD!
Being born again, God has given you the power to become His child (John 1:12). The nature of God has been imparted to your human spirit. You now have a new life; the life of God that Jesus Christ makes available to everyone who believes in Him. What a privilege! You are therefore a partaker of God’s nature (2 Peter 1:3-4).
God is now your Father! How? Nature is reproduced by birth; that is why a dog will always give birth to a dog. And John 1:12-13 says:
He has parental instincts towards you. You are a member of the Household of God, and therefore a citizen of Heaven where God dwells. God is responsible for you. He will supply all your needs according to His inexhaustible riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). He has a good plan for your life, which was set in motion the moment you were born again. You are a love child of a loving God, and you have been born into a love family. This is very important. He gave you this new life to become a member of His Kingdom.
The Bible declares that God has given you eternal life. This is the life that is inside God, which makes it possible for Him to be who He is. This is the God kind of life. This life made it impossible for the grave to hold Jesus Christ. This is Resurrection life! And this life is now in you.
And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God (1 John 5:11-13).
It is only the one who has the SON that has this life, because His life is actually contained in the Son of God. When you received Him, you received the life.
This life makes it impossible for you to be defeated by any situation. It always puts you above. Just think! It is impossible for God to be destroyed or defeated. Now you have His life: you cannot be destroyed or defeated because that same Spirit that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you (Romans 8:11).
YOU ARE THE RIGHTEOUS OF GOD
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”.
Imagine God performing what may be called a nature-transplant. He made Jesus to be sin for us, so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Him.
This is what made it possible for Jesus to die a sinner’s death in your place. The result is that you can now stand before God without any sense of guilt, fear or sense of inferiority (Hebrews 10:19; Romans 5:1).
YOU ARE JUSTIFIED
What does it mean to be justified? It means to be declared not guilty. As far as God is concerned you are not guilty of any offence. The Bible says, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). You have been justified.
Jesus took the punishment for your sins when He died on the cross, though He was not guilty of any sin (1 Peter 2:22). God is no longer holding your sins against you. The Bible says, “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18).
YOU ARE SANCTIFIED
Let’s imagine for one moment that you fell into a ditch, you got very dirty and someone came along and rescued you—that is, “got you out of the ditch.” The next thing you’d have to do is get yourself all cleaned up. In other words, “get the ditch out of you,” and that takes time and effort.
1 Corinthians 6:11 says:
Sanctification is in two phases: first, God gets you out of the ditch—that means you are born again and immediately, the Bible declares you sanctified; set apart from the world unto God. Then you must “get the ditch out of you” by subjecting your mind to a cleansing (renewal) process through the Word of God (Romans 12:2).
The renewal of your mind is a continuous process. Your mind was trained to think in one way: to see things physically before believing. Now, by renewing your mind, you allow your mind to see things God’s way. You re-train your mind to see things from God’s perspective. Then you’ll speak God’s words, walk in God’s ways, and get the results that He gets from His Word.
YOU ARE DELIVERED
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son (Colossians 1:12-13).
From the moment you gave your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, you became a member of God’s Kingdom. In other words no demon hatched out of hell can harm you. You are free from any covenant you ever entered into, knowingly or unknowingly. You are free from every habit, sin, sickness, or disease that ever held you bound. Why? Because you have been delivered from the powers of darkness.
The Bible says that God has delivered you out of the control and dominion of darkness and has translated you into His kingdom. You never have to be afraid again. God is your Shepherd and His eyes of protection will always be upon you (Psalm 23:1).
The Bible says:
“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
(John 8:36)
God has delivered you into His Kingdom, which is where you are now. It is where you belong. You have already been (note: this is past tense) delivered from the power of darkness.
GOD’S SPIRIT ABIDES IN YOU!
Another great part of this new life is that the Spirit of God comes to dwell in you. When the Spirit of God takes up His abode in you, He enlightens you on the Word of God and He gives you new understanding of the Word. So when you study the Bible, you have a new understanding in your own spirit; it becomes applicable to your life.
Another thing the Holy Spirit does is to remind you of God’s Word (John 14:26). In addition, He gives you the power to be an effective witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “But ye shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
