GOD’S VIEW OF INDEPENDENCE
Galatians 5:1 – It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
Freedom and independence are very closely related. The independence that the Lord has purchased for all mankind through the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross is an independence from Satan’s control. Before the Lord went to the cross to bear the penalty of our sins and overcome the power of the kingdom of darkness, all humanity was enslaved to Satan’s kingdom. That slavery prevented anyone from being truly free and independent.
God views freedom through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God views the world He created through the lens of Christ’s atoning work. It was two thousand years ago that freedom was established for mankind. The Lord does not see seven billion people in the world, but two men. Adam, who through his disobedience, thrust humanity into bondage and the Last Adam, through whom freedom was purchased. We are either related to Adam, our original parent, drawing from his natural life, or we are related to the Last Adam, drawing from His life in the Spirit. READ MORE – CLICK TITLE ABOVE
The beauty of what God is doing in the earth is when people are brought together in the unity of God’s government. We are not brought together in some kind of indefinable mass. We are brought together in a definable, governmental structure under God that is clearly...
BAPTIZED INTO PEOPLE
1 Corinthians 12:13 – For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.
For every time the Bible speaks of Jesus as “Savior,” it speaks twenty-nine times as “Lord.” With much of the preaching we hear today through television and other forms of media, it sounds like God is only “blessing” us, as we define blessing emotionally. I thank God for the music, ministry, times of healing, and encouragement. All are a part of the celebration of our joy. Underneath all of the celebration and blessing is a move of the Holy Spirit to fulfill the ministry that He was sent to perform. The Holy Spirit is the one who baptizes us into the body of Christ and is raising up God’s redeemed community in the earth. READ MORE – CLICK TITLE ABOVE
RULING OVER SELF
Ephesians 4:22-24 – In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Jesus is Lord! The heavenly Father intends that the Lord Jesus Christ find His reign manifested in the lives of those He has redeemed through His blood and the work of the cross. Jesus’ Lordship is not abstract, but very specific as it relates to every believer. Jesus said, “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). The strong implication is that we must die to self as He did and enter into His life through the power of His resurrection. READ MORE-CLICK TITLE ABOVE
THE GOSPEL
1 Corinthians 15:1 – Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved.
The Corinthians had received the gospel by the revelation of the apostle Paul. In his letter, he wants to make sure that they have understood the message he had preached. By the time Paul is writing to these believers, many had brought confusing words to them about the gospel. Paul states, “Now I make known unto you.” The gospel needs clarification because of all the various individual views that are represented. In today’s contemporary church, there is still confusion regarding the gospel.
The word gospel means to announce good news. The question we must ask is, “what good news?” Paul helps us know what good news he is speaking about, “For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Romans 14:9). READ MORE – CLICK TITLE ABOVE