Saved to Live The Life
I have come that they may have life and have it to the fullest – John 10:10
Those who know the truth know that hardships we face are heavy. But we are not made to buckle, we are made to live. God, in Jesus remade us in His image to be able to withstand the turbulence of life. Not on our own but leaning on Jesus Christ and living a life through His Spirit. These days many believers & Christians don’t understand what we received when the cross was revealed.
Life in Christ looks a bit different when we understand. There are many pieces we receive in Jesus Christ. I am aware that there are people who speak about abundance being material wealth. But what can wealth do in a world that is heading toward an existential crisis. While there are people who speak a fluffy gospel, the gospel tells us of a terrible day coming.
Jesus was sent to earth to redeem us from the judgment of the world and God’s wrath. God will judge the whole world, past to present, for everything that has been done on earth. The gospel talks about the kingdom of God being fully re-established after that judgment and those who believe and conform to the way of God will be established in the new earth; the kingdom of God.
When we “become saved”, we are given the power to accept the way of God. Before we are saved, sin (disobedience to God) rules over us. The way of sin is the way we walk in before we hear the word of God and believe. When we believe, we are given power to resist sin and its tempting power and can walk freely in the way of God.
There is a strange belief that when we are saved, we get to live any way we want without consequence. We can live how we want to live for sure. But the way of God is not lawless. We do not ‘need’ the law to live our lives when saved. We have the word of God, including His commandments to live by. As we study Bible, we begin to find the word of God coming alive in us, should we accept it. Those who believe the Bible, begin to live according to the word that comes by believing.
If we are careful to believe in Jesus and hold onto that belief and walk in that belief, the sin nature we are born with begins to die and be replaced by the Spirit nature, so that the word of God comes alive in us. Some believers abandon the way we used to live for the things we discover as we study the Bible. There are some who cling to their old lives though, looking for the next best thing they never find.
But those who bind their lives to Jesus Christ, laying down who we were for who the Lord is making out of us, begin to live abundant lives. The Bible tells us that God does the work of pruning our hearts to bear the fruit of His Holy Spirit. A gift we could not claim on our own.
Mankind receives the Spirit of God as a gift because of what Jesus Christ was willing to do for us when he went to the cross. The Spirit of God provides guidance and power for us. The Bible tells us that those who receive the Holy Spirit has received a guarantor that we have the hope of eternal life from God, in Jesus Christ.
Those who are given this precious gift of life can share the truth with people who do not believe, about this gift of immortality from God. Folks only must believe in Jesus to receive this gift. We tell the people left in the world about the kingdom of heaven that is here on earth even now. That the kingdom of heaven is ruled by God and will be established on the whole earth after the judgment.
By believing and studying the gospel, we come to an understanding over time about the life we can live. Holy. Righteous. Consecrated to God. In Jesus Christ. Blessed by God. We get a whole lot by believing in Jesus. But the main gift is the expectation of life after the judgment.
Sure, heaven is a part of that package deal for some. Believers who endure to the end will be taken up into heaven for 1000 years. A judgment will be decided on everyone for every deed good or bad in the courts of God. Then we will return to earth to live with God on earth. The devil and his angels and evil people and non-believers will be removed from earth forever.
The people who believe God investigate the history of His testimony to understand. When we are reborn and come into the kingdom of heaven, we understand by study that God desires for His children to be obedient. What do we obey? His commandments. These are separate from the laws God gave the Israelites of old.
The Law was given to Israel because of the evil doings on earth. The commandments of God were given to them also, along with the laws. By the commandments Israel was supposed to know what God wanted, and by the laws, what God does not want us doing to each other. Today we have Jesus, who defeated the laws power and His commandments.
When we believe we look into the word of God and discover how great the commandments are. They keep us from breaking the laws or even going near them. The good news: God is putting those in us as we live. We might go through many troubles over many years to mature. We might even seem stuck in our ways sometimes. But those who love God and are faithful to the Word of God find power to follow the way of God.
The commandment keepers are called peculiar people. When we read Revelations, we discover that these are the people the devil will make war against. This is found in Revelation 12:11. But the people who believe God submit themselves to His commandments without fear, because we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. Our faith allows us to know that we can do the things God has redeemed us to do.
The life we live as believers, in Christ Jesus might look like everybody else at the beginning. But, like children, as we mature over years, a lot of what we see people doing we will not do because out tastes change through surrender.
While we resist everything un-useful and wicked, we leave all the heavy lifting to Jesus. It is Jesus who establishes us and teaches us how to live through His Spirit.
How do we know when we’ve been changed? We are changed when we’re reborn (baptism & the Holy Spirit). It takes a while to show, however. One way to realize our submission is we become gentle in most cases. Not meaning timid doormats. For most, gentleness is being in a position we’d lose our temper and crash out. Instead, we give people chances to make things right before we even respond, or just forgive and move on like nothing happened.
This life we live in Christ is supposed to be intentional. As e continue to surrender to the will of God, we grow stronger in keeping the will of God. No matter how loud or rambunctious we become, the word of God is alive in our actions. We walk in total freedom from the way we used to live before we heard of God.
But we give people time to grow and grace to change their minds. And we remember where the Lord took us from so, we can sit with anyone and talk about anything, while sticking to who we have become in Christ.
