"If the Savior has not sanctified you, renewed you, given you a hatred of sin and a love of holiness, He has nothing in you of a saving character." - Charles Spurgeon
That's right, if we are thinking that we are saved because we were ever repeated a prayer after someone , even if we realized, and we agreed with that, we repeated, this does not mean that we are saved .
AWAKENING OF THE SPIRIT
Salvation begins with the awakening of our spirit by the Holy Spirit.
HEARING THE GOSPEL
At the same time God has incited people to intercede and advocate , to give us a message of peace between God and men. People to whom God has revealed who HE is and how He sacrificed His own only begotten Son for us. Incites them to explain to us the Gospel - the redemptive work on the cross of our Saviour , who put aside his divine essence , took upon Himself so foreign to His sinlessness, so heinous sins of ours and took the punishment and wrath and fury of the Father , which were designed to us ...Died on the cross was placed in a tomb but rose again on the third day, because death had no right to hold Him -- He did not commit sin.So he pulled out the sting of death - sin , so that we, even if we die physically have eternal life through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross , in the grace and mercy of God.
"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken." Isaiah 53:3-8
In this sacrifice, the most painful was neither of those things - flagellation , slapping , plucking the beard , piercing with nails , nor insults , slander , unfounded accusations , perjury, rejection , disbelief in Him - their God. Most painful was to take upon Himself , He who knew no sin, everyones, even the cruelest , most disgusting , the most ruthless and vicious crimes of all men, though He had done them...
"and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted"
Do we realize what that meant for him - Holy Son of God ...
REPENTANCE
The only way for us to realize our crimes and sins is the Holy Spirit to manifest them to us. In our arrogance, we do not even understand what sin is, what God considers as a sin. If the conviction of the Holy Spirit does not sting our heart, we will never have an understanding of what constitutes our guilt and how we deserve to be cast into hell forever, unable to pay for our sins. But if God show you your soul as He sees it - you will look and you will be disgusted and you will be terrified, you'll see how even the best and noble of your deeds have selfish motive. You would cry, weep , will howl with groans will beg God to clear that ugly abomination that fills your soul , you will want that there is a way this thing to disappear, you'll cry - "O wretched man that I am , who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ...Thanks be to God ! there is salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. " Romans 7:24,25
Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our heinous crime He was the victim of atonement, He covered our guilt with His blood and reconciled God with His creation, with us...
" But he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities on him chastisement for our peace "
"Lord, forgive me my sins and crimes do not want them , I hate them , I do not want to go near them!Is it possible , can someone else decide voluntarily to get dirty with all that dirt, blackness, so that I can be clean? What's the deal ? What will it cost me? Is it indeed possible just by believung...
- Fully paid with the blood of the Lamb of God !
Crushed , weak, unworthy... You know there is nothing in you that is causing this manifestation of a huge favor, this gift of God's own Son.
"Lord, thank You that You have forgiven me, help me to follow You and not sin ."
" But which of his family was thinking , that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? "
In the great mercy and grace of the Father, Jesus not only saved us from the judgement and the wrath of God, but also enabled us to have an eternal life with Him.And even more grace - He made us His brothers, heirs with Him, adopted by the Almighty God, through the birth of a new creation in us. With what have we earned this favor ? With nothing! We can only humbly and reverently in awe and thanksgiving fall on our faces and give our life to Him, to Whom it in fact belongs - to our Heavenly Father.
Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly [places] in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." Ephesians 1:3-6
If you do not have a revelation of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ - ask God to give you one. Do not delay, it's about your soul. Let us not be content with a mental understanding of the facts and foreign revelations of the Cross. Word of God for the sacrifice of Jesus will be united with our faith when the Holy Spirit puts this revelation in us. Then we will understand not only with the mind but also in the spirit what it our transgression is, what we deserve for it and how on Jesus and was unleashed the fury of the wrath of the Holy Just God for our punishment...
Then the words "Jesus died for us" will gain it's real sense - we, although we knew about God performed the monstrous crime, we did not reverence him, we did not obeyed and loved Him as it befit to our Creator God, we despised His love, we have robbed Him of his Glory, adorned ourselves with glory, making ourselves gods and masters of our own lives although... even our breath is in his power...
REGENERATION
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ , he is a new creature: old went behold, [ all ] become new. " 2 Corinthians 5:17When we have the revelation of the Cross, the Holy Spirit begins His renovating action in us and as Spurgeon says - sanctifies us, renews us, gives us hatred of sin and love of holiness. These are the signs of the REGENERATION .
"If
the Savior has not sanctified you, renewed you, given you a hatred of
sin and a love of holiness, He has nothing in you of a saving
character."
Няма коментари:
Публикуване на коментар