Ezra98 - planting seeds for the Kingdom of God

because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through

   You have heard it said that you “have to choose Jesus Christ and let Him into your heart as your personal savior” in order to have eternal life. However, those words never appear in the Scriptures but rather it is Jesus who tells us that He has chosen His own family and has given them eternal life.  If you are one of Christ’s chosen there will be a time in your life when you will discover what Christ has done for you and that He has secured your eternal salvation upon His bloody cross. In fact, it is only the chosen in Christ who will be led to profess their salvation relying on the Savior Jesus, and to truly believe in their hearts that God has raised Him from the dead. Christ also says that He has provided the proof which shows that one’s belief is Scripturally true and God given.

A misunderstanding about repentance unto eternal salvation

Repentance means to have deep sorrow that causes a change.

The Scriptures teach that “repentance” holds two distinct positions.

 (#1), One is the position that it has with eternal salvation.

 (#2). The other is with regard to the laws of God for the family and nation.

   These two applications are as different as using fire for light in a lamp or for using fire to cook a meal. Confusion about repentance has led many spiritual truth seekers astray because the denominations have mixed these two meanings and have used them interchangeably without Scriptural authority to do so. But God’s Word explains the simple truth of the matter.                                                                 

Repent #1

  There is an unsound doctrine in most churches which teaches that a person needs to stop sinning in order to receive the salvation given to us by Christ. This doctrine is centered upon the age old problem of sinners, namely – self righteousness. Born out of the ever present humanist influence (but portrayed with a Christian wrapper) this doctrine views repentance unto eternal life as a change that a person must make in their lifestyle.

  How many times has a lost sinner been told “Repent to change your life, choose Jesus, and you will be saved?” Some even add “change your life, get water baptized by Jesus’ name, and you will be saved”. Dear friends, the Scriptures define such a reasoning as an ungodly doctrine of the most seducing sort. Churches that teach either of these positions are teaching false doctrine as their incorrect motives are exposed by the light of God’s word that reveals them as imposters leading the sheep astray.                                                                                                                                                                                    As backwards as it may sound to the thought process of man, it is not a repentance of a changed lifestyle from sin that reveals the eternal salvation of Christ to a person. (A changed lifestyle shortly follows afterward) Repentance unto salvation does not mean a change of life, but rather a change of mind and heart. An attempt to stop sinning is not repentance unto eternal salvation. Also, an attempt to use water baptism for a remission of sins is not repentance unto eternal salvation. These things are doctrines of self righteous acts and are found in the false religious decrees of the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Christ sect, and the Lutheran denomination, among some others. These sects have taken parts of God’s word and turned them into things they are not. But God's certainty stands firm -- "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8.9)

 There is but one thing that God says quickens the truth of salvation in a chosen person, and that is a repentant mind/heart change which acknowledges that we are sinners guilty of eternal death and that we must rely only upon Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Saxon Israel, for forgiveness of those sins. It is the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to us that has saved us. We simply trust God for this.

 We are only asked by God to change from our carnal thinking that we can save ourselves (by either humanitarian works or religious rites), to admitting that only by pure faith in the name of Jesus Christ, all that He did in that name by faith in His shed blood for remission of sins – are we saved.  Some may say “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20) “so I want to work out my remission of sins by water baptism plus faith in the blood of Christ”. By misquoting the intent of Acts 2:38 some ministers tell their congregations that this must be done. However using baptism out of line with Scripture is not an act of faith, but an act of unfaithfulness in a twisted downgrading of what Christ did on the cross for us. Our salvation is not the cross of Jesus to the glory of His name -- plus -- anything. It is the cross alone by faith in His blood that is our salvation. Water baptism is a New Testament commandment that we are surely to obey as a symbolic profession of the faith which we have been freely given, but it is not for washing away sins, and it is not some dual component added in some attempt of remission of sins. 

God’s Word demands us to know that trying to stop sinning or attempting a religious rite does not define our spiritual repentance unto eternity. It is the repentance (sorrow and change) of our understanding (from placing faith in man to placing faith in Christ ) that makes us fully aware of our eternal salvation which we cannot bring about as mortals. God leads us to have a change of mind with respect to this blunt truth. That is what is meant in Mark 1:15 “repent ye and believe the Gospel”. Although a conviction to not let sin reign in our lives is a fruit of our faith and certainly has a needed and proper place, trying to stop sinning is not a repentance belief of the Gospel unto eternal salvation. It simply can’t be done, yet how many churches tell us that it is not by faith only in the blood of Christ Jesus, but it is the blood plus something else that will somehow supposedly make better contact with God for our eternal life’s salvation? The peace of Christ is this – Jesus came to save sinners, and He did it on the cross. It is belief in this truth that saves.“(Jesus) whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:25)

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25)

“Unto Him (Jesus) that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:5)

“I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” (I John 2:12)

“In whom we have redemption through His (Jesus’) blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:14)

True belief = eternal salvation repentance.

But here is what Christ said would happen as a proof of true salvation:

A very important Scripture verse concerning this truth has sadly been mistranslated from the Greek New Testament text into the English version Bibles as we read it today. That verse is in the Gospel of John 14:15 where Jesus says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments”. However the literal Greek text of this verse reads, “If ye love me you will be keeping my commandments.” This is a statement of fact by Jesus. It is not a plea from Jesus to beg a person into obeying God. God’s chosen in Christ love Him, and love to keep His laws! That is the proof that you really do understand what happened on the cross of Christ and that you really do believe that He was raised from the dead. The apostle John tells us the same in his Epistle of I John 2:4,5:

“He that sayeth, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whosoever keepeth His word, in Him is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that are in Him.” 

This does not mean, concerning obedience, that we are puppets on a string and we don't need to make choices. We do.  But God is telling us of His omnipotence in that He knows before hand even who the ones are that will be making those correct choices in regard to their actions.       

Keeping God’s commandments does not secure eternal salvation since eternal salvation is the gift of God through Jesus Christ for His chosen. The apostle Paul tells us that sin caused our entrance into a dying short life and that God rescued us from this by His gift of eternal life. Then Paul explains that God’s laws are not done away with on the grounds that He has freely given His chosen ones eternal life by faith in Christ.  

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Master.” (Romans 6:23)

 “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” (Romans 3:29)

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” (I John 5:3)

God’s Word is clear. Eternal life is a free gift, and those who have it wholly trust that Jesus is Master of their lives and that God has raised Him from the dead. The proof that this belief is actually a pure belief within a person’s heart, is by what Jesus said “You will be keeping my commandments.” That is the real power of Christ, and the promise of His word for those He has chosen. Love negates habital disobedience against God. Jesus loves His chosen. If Jesus’ love is within a person the proof is evident -- he loves God's laws.

What happens when a chosen believer in God’s family sins by violating God’s laws? “Sin is transgression of the law” (I John 3:4)

Water baptism proponents who teach that our sins are cleansed from us only when we obey a church doctrine of making a sacrament out of water baptism for a work of remission of sins, will tell you that you can never be sure of eternal salvation. They consider the work of baptism to be an act which saves a person and that any subsequent fall into a sin puts the person at risk of losing eternal salvation. With this nonscriptural viewpoint the only way that a person can really be sure to be eternally saved is for the minister to water baptize a person and hold them under the water to drown them so that they will not live one day beyond their supposed perfection of their attempt to use water baptism for remission of sins. Contrary to this god-forsaken doctrine that destroys the overcoming faith of God’s children in their daily walk, we have the promises of God that Christ has secured our eternal salvation.

So what happens when sin trips up a saved believer, which happens to our remorse?                                                       Father is not a merciless dictator. He knows all of our weaknesses. When a son or daughter of God stumbles and falls out of a mortal weakness and confesses his/her sins to God, God sees the conquering blood of Christ and God forgives the sin, picks us up, and encourages us to start anew.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)

Make no mistake about the power God in that it is His will to hear our prayers of confession of sin, cleanse us from that unrighteousness, and for us to have confidence that we have a Father who hears our petitions.

“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us, And if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” (I John 5:13)

The repentance of mind and heart in knowing that belief in Christ saves us resonantes with our gift of eternal life. But repentance of our lifestyle by confession of sins when we fall in “our fight” has to do with God’s blessings and curses upon us in the “here and now”. This understanding is not to be mixed up in a confusion of man made church doctrines or it will result in a frustrated spiritual life that is not meant to be among the children of God. Christ loses none of His that hold eternal life by faith. When the child of God realizes this he becomes a conqueror now.  Does the world and sin defeat us?  "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."  (Romans 8:37)

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:27, 28)

“For whom God loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6)

“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” (Hebrews 12:7)