Redemption
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Live In Fear of God
Live In Fear of God
If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;
Peter writes that if a person claims to be a child of God that that there fear of God will influence their conduct. The believer of God knows that He will ultimately judge us for our behavior. For the good that we do we will be rewarded. The bad that we do will be revealed. This is not a matter of salvation, but a matter of reward. 2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Ignoring this fact will lead one to live their life apart from the guidance of God and live for themselves. It is when we recognize that every word, thought, and deed will be judged by Christ that a person pursues holiness.
I was driving to Montgomery earlier this week and was going faster than the speed limit. I didn’t think anything about it until I saw a state trooper on the side of the road with a radar gun. I immediately slowed down to the speed limit. Why did I do this? because I knew that I would be judged and punished for breaking the law that was posted on the side of the road.
We must live our lives knowing that their is one who is watching our every though, word and action. Matthew 12:36
“But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.
Does this mean that we are to live our lives like walking on eggshells? No. What it does mean is that we should conduct ourselves in a manner that is consistent with the word of God being led by the Holy Spirit. When we are engaged in the regular reading of scripture, active prayer, and obedience to the scripture there is no need to live in fear of God because we will be living in the love of God. 1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
It is kind of like when you were growing up. The friends you hung out with would determine the fear of your parents. When I would hang out with my friends that would party and frequently get into mischief, I would live in fear of my parents because I was doing things that I knew if I got caught that I would be punished. When I was hanging out with my sports buddies, I didn’t have to worry about being caught because I wasn’t doing anything wrong. When we live according to the world it is like hanging out with the partying friends. When we live according to the scriptures it is like hanging out with my sports buddies.
God Redeems Us From Our Former Life
God Redeems Us From Our Former Life
knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
All people have a sinful history. Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Our sin separates us from God. Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God is holy and demands perfection of all people. Unfortunately no one is perfect. We have a sin problem that we cannot fix. We must have a Savior to fix our sin problem. God sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world, who lived a perfect life for us. Matthew 5:17
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
Jesus fulfilled the perfect demands of God on the law. He did this to qualify as a sacrifice for our sins. John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sin. He is the propitiation for our sinful lives. Romans 3:24-25
being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
Jesus takes our punishment for our sin and gives us His perfection. The word propitiation means : the act of gaining or regaining the favor or goodwill of someone or something. God created us perfectly, we sinned and fell out of the goodwill of God, God sent Jesus to be our propitiation, we are restored in right relationship with God through faith in Jesus.
New Life In Christ
New Life In Christ
Not only are we redeemed to God in our salvation but are given a new life. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
God gives us His Spirit to dwell within us. He changes our will and guides us into the purposes of God. We have a choice to listen to Him or live according to the flesh. Romans 8:3-8
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
A person that belongs to God have a desire for the things of the Spirit. A life lived in the Spirit has life and peace. We have the ability not only to know the purpose of God, but live in the purpose of God.
Christ is the Only Way to God
Christ is the Only Way to God
For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you
who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
The only way to believe in the one true God is through Jesus Christ. There are many religions that have their own gods. Through Christ is the only way to know the one true God. Paul points this out in his sermon on Mars Hill Acts 17:22-31
So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
“For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;
nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’
“Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.
“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
There are many false religions that lead to false and empty gods. The only way to know the one true God is through the One whom God raised from the dead. This is Jesus Christ.
Jesus himself said John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Do you know the way to the Father? Do you know Jesus Christ?