Jesus Christ is my God!
Issued 02.06.2011
Stick to the faith
"Know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." Ga.3:7
The right gospel
Paul, the apostle said about his ministry of an evangelist as follows: "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him." Ga.1:15-16
Thus God's gospel is "the gospel about Him". It is a message about the person, Jesus Christ. It is not good news so much about the forgiveness of sins and new life as about HIM! And in Him we have the forgiveness and eternal life. All is in Him! Your relationship to Him is your destiny.
But then persons came who said that "unless you are circumcised you cannot be saved." Ac.15:1 They proclaimed the gospel about the circumcision and not about Jesus. In this way they draw the curse over themselves, about which Paul says: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed." Ga.1:8
The salvation is only and exclusively in Jesus Christ. All additional demands are under the curse. "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1Jo.5:12
I have come to the faith through the gospel, which says that Jesus died for my sins and He has been raised from dead because of my justification. I have the Son of God through the faith coming from this message.
In the Bible the word salvation usually means coming to the faith and sometimes the resurrection of the just. "By grace you have been saved." Eph.2:5 "For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope." Ro.8:24 In this writing I speak about the salvation that means coming to the faith.
Paul, the apostle said about his ministry of an evangelist as follows: "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him." Ga.1:15-16
Thus God's gospel is "the gospel about Him". It is a message about the person, Jesus Christ. It is not good news so much about the forgiveness of sins and new life as about HIM! And in Him we have the forgiveness and eternal life. All is in Him! Your relationship to Him is your destiny.
But then persons came who said that "unless you are circumcised you cannot be saved." Ac.15:1 They proclaimed the gospel about the circumcision and not about Jesus. In this way they draw the curse over themselves, about which Paul says: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed." Ga.1:8
The salvation is only and exclusively in Jesus Christ. All additional demands are under the curse. "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1Jo.5:12
I have come to the faith through the gospel, which says that Jesus died for my sins and He has been raised from dead because of my justification. I have the Son of God through the faith coming from this message.
In the Bible the word salvation usually means coming to the faith and sometimes the resurrection of the just. "By grace you have been saved." Eph.2:5 "For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope." Ro.8:24 In this writing I speak about the salvation that means coming to the faith.
Stick to the right gospel
So that the gospel would remain alive for us we must live according to it. Paul rebuked Peter and some others when he noticed "that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel." Ga.2:14
What was the crime of Peter that he had done against the truth of the gospel? He showed partiality. He considered Jewish believers better than other believers. This was a crime against the gospel because the gospel proclaims that God has loved all the people with the same love. The Bible tells us about the hypocrisy of Peter so that we would accept people to be Christians only because they have believed the gospel about Jesus.
Why was Peter unable to live according to the basic truth of the gospel? The Jewish religiousness had bewitched him and many believers of Galatia. "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?" Ga.3:1
The power of lie causes a bewitchment. A religious lie had blinded the hearts of true believers so that they didn't any more see the cross of Golgotha. Their spirit didn't realize clearly any more that God's love had revealed there, for our good.
This religious lie had an effect on Peter because it was a part of Judaism. That lie said that only those who are circumcised are real members of God's nation. Paul reminded Galatians of it that Abraham was not saved during the circumcision but at the moment when he believed. The circumcision didn't save Abraham. In the same way nobody of the Israeli has ever been saved therefore he has been circumcised or he has followed the other regulations of Moses. Also all the saints of the Old Covenant were saved through faith.
Everyone receives the blessing of God without any religious inheritance or holy sacraments. When laid foundation for our relationship with God it must be based only on the faith that we received when hearing the gospel.
So that the gospel would remain alive for us we must live according to it. Paul rebuked Peter and some others when he noticed "that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel." Ga.2:14
What was the crime of Peter that he had done against the truth of the gospel? He showed partiality. He considered Jewish believers better than other believers. This was a crime against the gospel because the gospel proclaims that God has loved all the people with the same love. The Bible tells us about the hypocrisy of Peter so that we would accept people to be Christians only because they have believed the gospel about Jesus.
Why was Peter unable to live according to the basic truth of the gospel? The Jewish religiousness had bewitched him and many believers of Galatia. "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?" Ga.3:1
The power of lie causes a bewitchment. A religious lie had blinded the hearts of true believers so that they didn't any more see the cross of Golgotha. Their spirit didn't realize clearly any more that God's love had revealed there, for our good.
This religious lie had an effect on Peter because it was a part of Judaism. That lie said that only those who are circumcised are real members of God's nation. Paul reminded Galatians of it that Abraham was not saved during the circumcision but at the moment when he believed. The circumcision didn't save Abraham. In the same way nobody of the Israeli has ever been saved therefore he has been circumcised or he has followed the other regulations of Moses. Also all the saints of the Old Covenant were saved through faith.
Everyone receives the blessing of God without any religious inheritance or holy sacraments. When laid foundation for our relationship with God it must be based only on the faith that we received when hearing the gospel.
If you are of faith you abandon religiousness
Before I came to the faith I was a religious man. Therefore I thought after I had come to the faith that also earlier time I have not been totally a godless person. I had even prayed to God every night since the time I was a little boy. I had a temptation to believe that I would have been saved already at that time when I had not yet received God's love in the atoning work of Jesus.
I remember how the Holy Spirit taught me soon after I had came to the faith considering rubbish all my religious experiences that I had had before I came to the faith. If we regard our baptism or our pious life as a part of our salvation we are not of faith. Every believer is tested if he sticks to the faith or not.
Paul must be known that later instead of the circumcision the baptism will be used to make the gospel useless. Therefore he writes: "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." 1 Co.1:17
Paul didn't make disciples for Jesus by baptizing but by preaching the gospel. In his time he rebuked severely disseminators of this lie: "Unless you are circumcised you cannot be saved." Today the Holy Spirit rebukes those who disseminate the corresponding lie: "Unless you are baptized you cannot be saved." Taking a baptism must be a deed of faith and not seeking the assurance of the salvation. You receive the baptism because you are already saved and not for that purpose you would be saved.
Receiving the Holy Spirit is the same as receiving the salvation. Therefore Paul asks Galatians did they receive the Spirit by receiving the circumcision. "This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Ga.3:2
It is a wonderful moment when the message of the gospel touches our heart and we are listening to the speech of Jesus. When the speech of God goes into our inmost heart, then He creates our salvation, without our own deeds.
In the Acts of the apostles people received the salvation only by hearing in faith and the Holy Spirit only because of their faith. They were allowed to become partakers of the salvation only through hearing!
Now the world is full of those who say that the Spirit of God is received through the baptism. These kinds of baptists are followers of the lie. They deceive one who wants to be baptized, when they say that in your baptism you will be born again and receive the Holy Spirit and become a member of the Church of God. As bewitched by this lie many don't see the greatness of the work that Jesus did on the cross and don't hear the gospel in the Spirit of God and therefore cannot be saved.
A spirit of lie is received through faith in a lie. A lie about God is the power of the realm of the devil, which becomes perfect in the kingdom of Antichrist and the beast. Then those who have not stuck to the faith of the gospel will receive the mark of the beast. Receiving the mark will be a religious ceremony.
The Galatians were in danger to lose their salvation due to the religious lie. Therefore Paul asked them: "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" Ga.3:3 God expects that those who began in the Spirit continue in the Spirit. Not only the salvation is received through faith but a believer should also live by faith.
"Know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." Ga.3:7 Thus only those are the spiritual descendants of Abraham who stick to the faith. They are the Israel of God. They don't regard any sacrament as a condition of the salvation. They stick to the faith alone and don't make sure their salvation with a circumcision, neither with a baptism, neither with any other holy ceremony. God blesses those who are of faith.
"And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, 'In you all the nations shall be blessed.' So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham." Ga.3:8-9
He is justified by faith who reaches the peace with God by hearing the gospel. God justifies you; it means he declares you to be not guilty, when you hear the gospel about Jesus who atoned your sins. God promises to bless us if we stick to the faith that came from the gospel.
Receiving the Holy Spirit is the blessing that was promised to Abraham. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us for its written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree', that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Ga.3:13-14
If you have received the Holy Spirit you are saved from the eternal punishment. If you live in the Holy Spirit, you love Jesus because He suffered your punishment. If you have received Him you are saved by grace through faith.
Before I came to the faith I was a religious man. Therefore I thought after I had come to the faith that also earlier time I have not been totally a godless person. I had even prayed to God every night since the time I was a little boy. I had a temptation to believe that I would have been saved already at that time when I had not yet received God's love in the atoning work of Jesus.
I remember how the Holy Spirit taught me soon after I had came to the faith considering rubbish all my religious experiences that I had had before I came to the faith. If we regard our baptism or our pious life as a part of our salvation we are not of faith. Every believer is tested if he sticks to the faith or not.
Paul must be known that later instead of the circumcision the baptism will be used to make the gospel useless. Therefore he writes: "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." 1 Co.1:17
Paul didn't make disciples for Jesus by baptizing but by preaching the gospel. In his time he rebuked severely disseminators of this lie: "Unless you are circumcised you cannot be saved." Today the Holy Spirit rebukes those who disseminate the corresponding lie: "Unless you are baptized you cannot be saved." Taking a baptism must be a deed of faith and not seeking the assurance of the salvation. You receive the baptism because you are already saved and not for that purpose you would be saved.
Receiving the Holy Spirit is the same as receiving the salvation. Therefore Paul asks Galatians did they receive the Spirit by receiving the circumcision. "This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Ga.3:2
It is a wonderful moment when the message of the gospel touches our heart and we are listening to the speech of Jesus. When the speech of God goes into our inmost heart, then He creates our salvation, without our own deeds.
In the Acts of the apostles people received the salvation only by hearing in faith and the Holy Spirit only because of their faith. They were allowed to become partakers of the salvation only through hearing!
Now the world is full of those who say that the Spirit of God is received through the baptism. These kinds of baptists are followers of the lie. They deceive one who wants to be baptized, when they say that in your baptism you will be born again and receive the Holy Spirit and become a member of the Church of God. As bewitched by this lie many don't see the greatness of the work that Jesus did on the cross and don't hear the gospel in the Spirit of God and therefore cannot be saved.
A spirit of lie is received through faith in a lie. A lie about God is the power of the realm of the devil, which becomes perfect in the kingdom of Antichrist and the beast. Then those who have not stuck to the faith of the gospel will receive the mark of the beast. Receiving the mark will be a religious ceremony.
The Galatians were in danger to lose their salvation due to the religious lie. Therefore Paul asked them: "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" Ga.3:3 God expects that those who began in the Spirit continue in the Spirit. Not only the salvation is received through faith but a believer should also live by faith.
"Know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." Ga.3:7 Thus only those are the spiritual descendants of Abraham who stick to the faith. They are the Israel of God. They don't regard any sacrament as a condition of the salvation. They stick to the faith alone and don't make sure their salvation with a circumcision, neither with a baptism, neither with any other holy ceremony. God blesses those who are of faith.
"And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, 'In you all the nations shall be blessed.' So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham." Ga.3:8-9
He is justified by faith who reaches the peace with God by hearing the gospel. God justifies you; it means he declares you to be not guilty, when you hear the gospel about Jesus who atoned your sins. God promises to bless us if we stick to the faith that came from the gospel.
Receiving the Holy Spirit is the blessing that was promised to Abraham. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us for its written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree', that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Ga.3:13-14
If you have received the Holy Spirit you are saved from the eternal punishment. If you live in the Holy Spirit, you love Jesus because He suffered your punishment. If you have received Him you are saved by grace through faith.
The Bible version used in references is NKJV