How Do We Respond to What God Has Done?

 

by Mihran Kulhanjian

 

 

My dear Friends,

By the death of Jesus, those who receive Him will be saved.  Believers will have eternal life and they will receive all the provisions God promises in this life, including, peace with God and abundance in all things when we obey His Word. Abundance does not mean we will have a trouble free life or that we will have great monetary wealth.. It means all of your needs will be met and provided for. Jesus said "if they persecuted me they will persecute you" [John 15:20]. There is a cost.   You will have to give up your old life. And you will be persecuted because of your faith in Him. Depending on the severity of your persecution I do not k now. This is a great and complete salvation. What must we do to receive salvation?  There are four conditions we must adhere to: 

 

  • Repent
  • Confess and Believe
  • Faith
  • Take Action--Become a Living Sacrifice

 

Repent

Without repentance there is no reconciliation with God. Therefore, we must repent. I believe many professing Christians do not understand or are incorrectly taught the meaning of repentance.  Repentance is turning away from one's sin. It means going in the opposite direction, and making a conscious decision to not sin, but to love God. If you love God, you want to please Him, you want to obey Him.  If you are not compelled to obey God or turn from your sin, then you are probably not saved at all and the Spirit is not in you. Where is your faith?  Without repentance there is no reconciliation with God. In fact, repentance is a gift from God (Acts 11:18).  If we want salvation, repentance is the first condition. There is a cost to salvation. You must give up your old life and start living a new life with Christ in you. (1 Thessalonians 1:5).

           

To repent means to turn from you sin, you make a conscious decision to obey God.  You stop willful, sinful activity.  When you realize that sin is, rebellion against God, and that sin is unhealthy spiritually and physically, and that sin is a product of Satan, that it is filthy and dark, and that sin has separated you from God, you should put all your efforts into removing sin from your life, for the rest of your life if you want communion with God. God is holy and to have fellowship with Him we must be in alignment with Him. This means we must be holy, sanctified, righteous. Our righteousness in through Jesus. We are the righteousness of Jesus in us.  

 

Not putting God first in your life is a sin. First, kill your pride and humble yourself to God. No more lying, stealing, drunkenness, jealousies, adultery, idolatry, uncontrolled anger, hatred or distain of others, fornicating, lusting, cussing, lewdness, sorcery, selfish ambitions, dissention, using God's name in vain, no more cheating, no coveting, no more greed, selfishness, self-conceit, puffed up pride and envy, unforgiving, gluttony, ungodly fear, not doing the things you know you should do, idol worship, not honoring your parents, cheating your boss  by not putting in an honest day's work,  and the list could go on and on.  You change your conduct, your attitude, your behavior.  You change your mind and go in the opposite direction of your old sinful self.  Your new desire is God, pleasing Him and seeking His will for you.  As the apostle Paul says, you mortify the old man in you and now you begin to pursue holiness by living holy, with new desires, a new objective, with Christ in your heart.  This is an inward change. As you character changes inwardly, it will then manifest outwardly--wanting to do good things for Christ and for others.  Remember, we are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. Rely on the Holy Spirit to direct you in life.  To do this you must be born again (John 3:3-6), regenerated to receive the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus said:  "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15).  When you repent you begin to obey God; you submit to Him.  You rely on Him for direction., and become a disciple of Christ.  The word disciple means "pupil" or "student." We follow, obey, learn and instruct others in the truth of salvation and the gospel message.  As a pupil of Christ, we repent and live holy, for this is the way God wants us to live. It is for our good.  Can you see this?  When you live in the will of God many, if not all of your concerns, fears, worries and problems will vanish.  Yes, because you have God to lean on--you have peace with God as a child of God when you carry out His will for you. God will show you the truth and your life will change because the truth has been revealed to you. The truth has set you free from sin and condemnation. Who is the truth? That's right, Jesus is the truth.  By accepting what Jesus did on the cross, by His blood, you have been set free of sin  He loved you first. Love Him now with praise and thanksgiving.  You can love God.  Open your heart and receive Him and submit one hundred percent of yourself to Him and He will reveal Himself to you. Seek and you shall find. Ask and you shall receive. When Jesus knocks on the door, open it wide, all the way and let Him in. Don't let Him squeeze through a small crack. Rip the door off the hinges and let Him in.  He will come in and make His home in you.  How great a salvation is this?  He will live in you. All you have to do is let Him in and let Him take over.  Here I am. Use me. Send me. I am ready.  Are you?

 

How important is repentance?  Jesus said to His disciples:  "Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem"  (Luke 24:46-47).  Jesus said this after His resurrection.  Repentance is the first condition.  As Christians we must preach what Jesus instructed; and He preached repentance and commanded His apostles [the twelve, the seventy-two and many others] to preach repentance. You see, God accepts everyone as they are, but if you are grateful for what God has done you, you will change, you will repent

 

An unrepentant sinner is an unbeliever in the truest sense.  You cannot keep on living in an unrepentant, sinful state and call yourself a Christian and follower of Christ.  God will not leave you the way you are if you have a contrite heart for Him.  But you must seek Him honestly with a true and pure heart. God wants you holy. He wants you to turn from your sin, because He wants the best for you and for you to be in heaven with Him. However, God will not leave you the way He received you. Sin can and does destroy.  Sin is filth to God. God has no tolerance for sin. Keep always in mind that sin is a transgression of God's law. Should you have any doubt about the law keep your mind on the Ten Commandment [Exodus 20].  This is why Jesus came.  Jesus came to save sinners, to clean the filth from us, to wash us, to purify us so that we could have communion  with God as the children of God. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"  (Romans 3:23) and   "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).   By His death and resurrection Jesus did what nobody else could do.  He did it all and there is nothing else to be done by Him.  It is time for you to fully receive Him and receive all that God has in store for you.  There is an afterlife.  There is a Hell and there is a Heaven.  You have a choice.  God gave you free will to choose Him and glorification. Why would you want Hell and judgment.  It is a horrible thing to turn from God and not receive the gift He generously has given. He gave His own and only Son to us.  He loves us so much. The unrepentant, unbelievers end up in Hell for eternity. This is no joke. Do not take this lightly. Seek Jesus today and know the truth behind salvation.  There is only one way to God the Father and to Heaven, and that way is through Jesus Christ. Jesus is Lord.

 

Acts 2:27-28:

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

 

Acts 20:20-21:

how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The first message Jesus gave when He started His mission was on repentance:

 

Jesus said:  "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). 

 

And the last message Jesus gave to the church was on repentance:

 

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne"  (Revelation 3:19-21).

 

What better promise is there "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne."  Again, Jesus speaks of repentance:  "be zealous and repent" before the promise of the throne is rewarded to overcomers.  Will you be an overcomer and persevere to the end?  I certainly hope you will.  

 

When King David sinned with Bathsheba he prayed a prayer of repentance

 

Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—
That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge. (Psalm 51:1-4)

 

This is the first part of the pray of his repentance when David realized his sin was against God.  All sin is against God.  You can use this prayer or portions of the entire prayer as an example of a prayer you might want to draft.  

 

God wants the best for you. He does not want you to destroy yourself. Repent and receive the complete salvation, His promises and blessings and live holy in communion with God and with Lord Jesus. The alternative is unthinkable. Repent now! Turn to Jesus--repent and believe.

 

Confess and Believe

After repentance we confess and believe.  Let's now look at Romans 10:8-13. I have underlined the words confess and believe:

 

 "But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.  For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”  (Romans 10:8-13).

 

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Can you confess with your mouth?  This is a verbal expression, a confession out loud to somebody. Do you believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead?  Do you believe it?  Salvation is for everyone, no matter your skin color, ethnicity, where you were born, rich or poor, or the language you speak.  If you can confess and believe you will be saved. By the way, water baptism [full immersion] is professing your faith in front of others. You are confessing and believe when baptized.

 

Jesus said in Matthew 12:34:

Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

 

What Jesus said here to the Pharisees, that which is in your heart comes out of your mouth. That is, if you believe something passionately you will profess it verbally. And the stronger your belief the more frequently you will verbally express what you believe. If you want to be filled with anything, say it with your mouth and if your heart is filled it will naturally be expressed with your mouth.

 

When we confess with our mouth we literally say what God's Word is.  We agree with God and we verbally express our agreement to ourselves and to others.  We confess and believe the truth God has revealed to us.

 

In Hebrews we learn that Christ is the High Priest of out confession. He can become our High Priest in Heaven as our advocate to the Father.

 

Hebrews 3:1:

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,

 

Hebrews 4:14:

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

 

We continue to confess. We "hold fast our confession." This means we remain steadfast our confession and we continue with confessing to our Lord and Savior.

 

Now let's see what Hebrews 10:21-23 says:

Hebrews 10:21-23:

 and having a High Priest over the house of God,  let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

 

We see that now it is "hope" that is the subject here.  We must "hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering."  Going back to Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for."  Hope comes from faith. When we confess faith diligently it becomes hope

 

What have we learned in these scriptures from Hebrews? 

(1) Jesus is the High Priest of our confession
(2) We are to hold fast our confession
(3) We do not waver in our confession.

 

The more we confess the more we believe; and the more we believe the more we confess.  Does this make sense to you?  I hope it does because it's true. 

 

Take Action--Become a Living Sacrifice

What do we do next?  We take action.  I like the saying "becoming a living sacrifice" from Romans 12.  We could have all the faith in the world after we confess and believe on Jesus but our faith is dead unless we act on it.  James explains that "Faith without works is dead"  (James 2:26).  What does this mean?   It means don't keep your faith to yourself.  What physical or natural things can you do to show and prove your faith.  One way of doing this is through water baptism in front of witnesses, professing your faith.  We are commanded by Jesus to be baptized. After you have repented and believe you get baptized. Don't wait. Find somebody to baptize you.  A second way to being a living  sacrifice is to continually pray and thank God for what He had done for you, recognizing His grace and the faith He has given you. Thank God for your salvation.  A third way is to live now as a  Christian should live. In Romans 12:1-2, Paul says:

I beseech[you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your ]reasonable service.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

 

We glorify God by laying our bodies on the altar as a living sacrifice for God.  Jesus died so that we might live; but we are a living sacrifice to share our faith and live holy in honoring God and bringing all glory to Him. This is the least we can do for Him who has saved us and revealed truth to us.  By the renewing of our mind we are transformed.  It is good, then accepted and finally a perfect will of God. We are transformed and behave as a believer behaves as a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

 

Back to James 2:26:  "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."  It is important to realize that we are not saved through good words but we are saved for good works.  Do you understand what this means?  A born again believer should be compelled to do good works because the love for the lost and the love we have for God, and pleasing Him and thanking Him, should convict us to help and love others, believers and unbelievers alike.

 

Ephesians 2:10 continues:  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them   God has worked it all out for us. We are His workmanship, created in Christ for good works.  This was taken care of before the creation of the world.

 

Faith

We cannot please God without faith nor can we receive without belief.  Earlier we talked about faith (article "Faith", so I am not going to expand on what was written earlier. However, after repentance comes faith. Therefore, when we realize the sinful wretch that we are and begin to turn from our sins we develop the faith we need in Jesus and we believe what He did for us. God gave us a gift of salvation. Through our faith we are saved by God's grace. Each person, individually, must have faith and believe on Jesus Christ. Salvation is not a group event. Salvation is an individual experience. The Holy Spirit of God comes to live in you. In all believers, the Spirit is sealed in the believer. 

 

What is faith?  Hebrews 11:1 explains it:  "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  And how do we get faith?  Let's look again at Romans 10:17:  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the  word of God."  By hearing he Gospel [enough of it] we get the faith we need.  Faith is an act of God because we believe without tangibility.  Isn't this wonderful.  Now let's look at Romans 1:8:1: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who[ do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."  In faith and belief we do not walk as the carnal man, in the fresh, but we are alive and walk in the spirit of Christ. 

 

Jesus said in Mark 16:15-16:
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

 

Believe and get baptized.  And also go out and share the gospel with everyone.  This is a commandment for all believers.  Does your faith lead you to share the gospel?