On Being a Christian

1 Corinthians 1:18 "The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God."

For those who ARE BEING SAVED, the message of the cross, Jesus' sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, His death and resurrection, is the very power of God at work in them.

But someone is bound to say, "Hey, wait a minute! If I have put my faith in what God has done for me by Christ Jesus, am I not already saved?" The answer is, "Yes, you are."

I would then ask those folks, "When a baby is born, is it alive with its unique life?" The only answer could be, "Yes, it is surely alive!" My next question would be, "Is the baby fully mature, grown into the fullness of life laid out in its DNA?" The answer is, "No."

The only reason a child CAN grow up, experience the process of maturing is BECAUSE it is alive. When a follower of Jesus Christ is born again, they become a new creation by the power of the Holy Spirit. He unites the believer to the Life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The believer is translated out of the kingdom of darkness and is brought into the Kingdom of God, the One who as reconciled us to Himself by the blood of Christ.

The Apostolic Epistles were written to the early believers and preserved for us in the here-and-now because we are meant to grow up into all God has put into us. Growing up into maturity is a process that is only possible is you are alive in the first place! The Epistles show how to follow Jesus and to love one another.

Salvation is begun, sealed in the life of a Christian, when by God's power one is born again. The Holy Spirit unites us to Jesus Christ and begins to live His Life out within us. The eternal truth is that the life being lived in a follower of Jesus Christ is the Lord's Life, eternal Life. Being born anew, it is God's will that we grow up into all God has planted in us. We have a new heart, a new spirit and a new spiritual DNA. We are meant to be changed!

God has made us one with Himself and that alone should cause us to understand that we will be changing. We are to be transformed into the image of the Lord Jesus. His Life is being reproduced in us by His grace and power. Salvation from start to finish, from birth to maturity is from the Lord alone! It is BECAUSE we are alive with His Life, and for this reason alone, that we CAN grow up into the fullness of the salvation God has given to us.

We know from God's Word that the fullness of His salvation at work within us will become ours (it is our inheritance in Christ Jesus) when we enter Heaven at last.

It is BECAUSE we are saved that Christians are now BEING saved by the Holy Spirit finishing in us the good work that God has begun in us when by His power, we were born again. Christian, you have been born from above, by grace through faith and that is not something you have done, but it is the gift of God.

You are now saved, born anew, a member of the Kingdom of God and you are living into the fullness of that salvation as your life is being transformed, renewed, healed and delivered by the Life of God within you; you are thus "being saved", being brought to maturity. We have an eternal inheritance kept for us eternally safe and unchanging that we will one day enter into fully in His Presence.

Hebrews 12:1-2 "THEREFORE, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the One upon Whom our faith depends from start to finish."

I hope that is encouraging.