Session 1 of BCF

You can Change Biblically

The most significant decision you will ever make concerns your willingness to follow God’s plan for your life as revealed in the Bible. This decision directly impacts your daily life and your eternal destiny (based on Psalm 119:165; Proverbs 1:33; Matthew 6:25-34; Mark 8:34-38; John 3:16-21, 36; Acts 2:38-39; II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:2-10; Revelation 20:15).

God enables you to take the necessary first step towards lasting biblical change. This step is your response to God’s demonstrated love for you in Christ Jesus (based on John 1:12, 3:16-21; Romans 5:8; II Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:8-9; I John 4:10). part 1

God’s plan for you to change in a biblical way centers on His Son, Jesus Christ. (Principle 1) Because God’s standard is one of perfection (Leviticus 19:2; Matthew 5:48), you cannot meet it by your own efforts (Psalm 143:2; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23). You cannot save yourself (Proverbs 20:9) nor depend on any other human being to redeem you (Psalm 49:7). You need to recognize your helplessness to meet God’s standard (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:9-12) and need to repent of your sin (Luke 15:7; Acts 2:38, 3:19, 17:30-31, 26:19-20; Romans 2:4; II Peter 3:9). By God’s grace and mercy, you recognize your lost condition and believe wholeheartedly and sincerely on the Lord Jesus Christ to receive the gift of eternal life (John 3:16, 36; 5:24; 11:25-26; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-7; I John 5:11-13) and forgiveness for your sins (Mark 16:16; John 3:16-18, 8:24; Acts 2:38, 4:12; Romans 10:9-13; Ephesians 1:7).

If you do not already have a sincere (guiltless, pure, genuine), personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you have a spiritual problem that only God can solve. Without this relationship to Jesus, you are:

Hopelessly separated from God (Romans 6:23a; Ephesians 2:1-3, 11-12; Colossians 1:21),

Spiritually dead in your own sin (Romans 3:23, 5:12; Ephesians 2:1, 5; Colossians 2:13),

Hostile to God (Romans 5:10a, 8:7; Colossians 1:21),

Blinded by Satan (II Corinthians 4:3-4) and held captive by him to do his will (II Timothy 2:24-26, esp. verse 26),

Powerless to overcome sin’s hold on your life (Ecclesiastes 7:20; John 8:34; Romans 1:28-32, 5:6, 6:16; Galatians 5:19-21; II Peter 2:19),

Unable to understand the things of God (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25; Isaiah 55:8-9; I Corinthians 2:14),

Unable to please God or to walk in His way (Psalm 143:2b; Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:9-12, 23; 8:7-8; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9; II Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5-7; Hebrews 11:6), and

Incapable of living a spiritually fruitful and meaningful life (John 15:4-6).

God’s answer to your spiritual problem is based on His character.

God is just, so you face His wrath and judgment in your sinful state (Romans 1:18, 6:23a; Ephesians 2:3; Hebrews 9:27; II Peter 3:7).

On the other hand, God is loving and doesn’t want you to perish in your sin (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; I Timothy 2:3-4; II Peter 3:9), so He draws you toward His Son, Jesus (John 6:44-45, 65).

The answer to your spiritual problem is found in God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

By His gracious and merciful love, God gave His one and only begotten Son, Jesus, as the only answer for your helpless spiritual condition (Isaiah 53:2-12; John 3:16, 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 5:6; Ephesians 1:3-12; I Timothy 2:5-6; I John 4:10).

Since you could not save yourself or do anything to merit God’s favor and mercy (Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9; II Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5-7), Jesus paid the full price for your redemption by dying on the cross for the penalty for your sin (Romans 5:8; I Corinthians 15:3-4; II Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 1:7; I Thessalonians 1:10; I Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 10:10-14; I Peter 1:18-19, 3:18). Even though eternal life is a gift, many reject it(Matthew 7:13-14; John 1:9-12, 3:16-21; Romans 6:23).

God accepted and approved His Son’s sacrificial death for your sin by raising Jesus from the dead (Romans 1:4, 4:25). Jesus Christ is eternally alive (Acts 2:32; Romans 6:9; Revelation 1:17-18), is with God (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 8:1), and is Lord of all (Philippians 2:9-11; Revelation 17:14, 19:16). Through His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ is victorious over sin (Romans 6:10), death (Romans 6:9), and the devil (Hebrews 2:14).

Through Jesus, you can:

Have your sins forgiven (Acts 5:31, 10:43; Ephesians 1:7, 4:32; Colossians 1:13-14, 2:13-14) and be reconciled to God (II Corinthians 5:18-19);

Experience a spiritual new birth (John 3:3; I Peter 1:3, 23; I John 5:1);

Receive the gift of eternal life through God’s gracious gift of faith (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:40, 47; 11:25-26; 17:1-3; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9; I Timothy 1:16; I John 5:11-12);

Have access to God (John 14:6; Ephesians 2:18, 3:11-12; Hebrews 10:19-22);

Be a member of God’s family (John 1:12; Romans 8:15-17; Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 1:5, 2:19; I John 3:1-2);

Understand the things of God (John 14:26, 16:13-15; I Corinthians 2:9-13);

Become a new person with the capability for living in a totally new manner (Romans 6:4-22; II Corinthians 5:17; Philippians 4:13); and

Be empowered to change, to mature into Christlikeness, and to have an increasingly intimate knowledge of God Himself (John 17:3; Romans 8:2, 28-29; II Corinthians 5:17; Philippians 1:6, 4:13; Colossians 1:9-11; I Thessalonians 2:13; II Peter 1:3-4).

God empowers you to choose His solution to your spiritual problem.

When you recognize God’s love (John 3:16; I John 4:10) and accept His Truth as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:6), you will be enabled through faith to:

1. Believe in Jesus (John 5:24; Romans 10:8-13) who once and for all offered Himself as a sacrifice for your sin (Hebrews 10:4-22);

2. Repent of your sin (Mark 1:15; Luke 15:7; Acts 2:38, 3:19, 26:20; II Peter 3:9);

3. Wholeheartedly believe that the blood of Jesus Christ which was shed on the Cross provides forgiveness for your sin (Romans 3:23-25; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:19-23; I Peter 1:18-19) and likewise believe that God raised Jesus from the dead so that you might walk in newness of life (Romans 4:24-25, 6:4, 8:11, 10:9; I Corinthians 15:12-22); and

4. Sincerely receive the Lord Jesus Christ into your life (John 1:12; I John 5:12), and as a new creation (II Corinthians 5:17), live in faithful and loving obedience to God’s Word (the Bible) (I John 2:3-6).

If you reject God’s truth by refusing to repent of your sin and thus fail to receive the gift of eternal life through God’s Son, Jesus Christ, you will remain:

Under God’s judgment (John 3:18, 36; Romans 1:28-32);

Ignorant of spiritual matters (Isaiah 55:8-9; I Corinthians 1:18a, 2:14);

Powerless to overcome sin in your life (John 8:34; II Peter 2:19);\

Unable to please God (Romans 8:8; Hebrews 11:6);

Guaranteed increasing heartache, problems, and difficulty for yourself (Proverbs 13:15, 14:12, 17:20, 26:12; Romans 2:8-9; Colossians 3:25);

Doomed to die in your sins (John 8:21-24); and

Under condemnation to eternal punishment, forever separated from God’s presence (II Peter 3:7; Revelation 20:15).

C. If you decide to alter God’s plan of salvation in Christ Jesus to accommodate: Your own wisdom which is foolish and inadequate to know God (I Corinthians 1:21, 3:19-20),

Your own thoughts which are contrary to God’s ways (Isaiah 55:8-9; Romans 8:6-8), or

Your own desires which are contrary to the Spirit of God (Galatians 5:17); then

You thereby place yourself under God’s condemnation (Mark 16:16), His reproof (Proverbs 30:6), His chastisement (Revelation 22:18-19), and His curse (Galatians 1:6-9).

By faith, you can take the first step of biblical change.

If you have never taken this first step to change biblically, you can do so right now. Simply tell God you know you are a sinner and need His forgiveness of your sin. Acknowledge to God that neither you nor anyone else but Jesus Christ can save you because He alone died to pay the penalty for sin and rose from the dead so that you might have a new life. By faith, receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and thank God for His grace and love to you through Jesus. With a sincere and repentant heart, demonstrate your commitment to Him by being obedient to His Word.

You must understand that man’s way of solving problems falls short of God’s solutions.

A. There are two reasons the plan of salvation has been explained in detail.

To begin with, it is essential that you understand the spiritual principle that all of man’s wisdom, philosophy, devices, procedures, manipulations, and sincerity cannot substitute for God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ (see IV., point C. above). Any person claiming to have taken a different way to salvation except through Jesus Christ is likened in Scripture to a thief and a robber (John 10:1, 7).

The next reason is consistent with, and follows, the same basic spiritual principle as the first. The problems brought on by man as a result of his sin of disobedience in the Garden of Eden (Genesis chapter 3; Romans 5:12) cannot be solved by man’s devices and philosophies (I Corinthians 3:19-20; Colossians 2:6-8), regardless of the futile attempts to mix God’s Word with unregenerate suppositions and theories (Deuteronomy 4:2; Proverbs 30:6; Revelation 22:19).

This futility is especially realized when you see that God’s Word claims total sufficiency to solve all of life’s problems (II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:2-4).

By merely dealing in a superficial way with the basic problems of rebellion and disobedience, man’s wisdom seeks to thwart the very will and plan of God to bring him to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and to a subsequent reliance on the Word of God for every area of life.

B. The Word of God has been given to man as the sole source for finding God’s solutions to the real problems that plague him (Psalm 19:7-11; II Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12; II Peter 1:2-4).

VII. You need to understand the difference between man’s way and God’s way in your search for a contented, joyful, and peaceful way of life.

The primary difference is that man’s way is oriented to self: to please self, to comfort self, to rely on self, to fulfill self, to forgive self, to exalt self, and to love self. This is described in Scripture as the old self-nature (Romans 6:6; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9).

God’s way is

To regenerate and change you by:

Putting off from you the old nature (Romans 6:6; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9),

Putting on you the new nature (Romans 6:7-8; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10), and

Renewing the spirit of your mind as part of your continual process of maturing in Christlikeness (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23; Colossians 3:10).

To empower and strengthen you to mature as you:

Deny self and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23-24);

Lay aside (put off) the practices of the old self-nature (Romans 6:11-22; Ephesians 4:25-32; Colossians 3:5-17; Revelation 2:4-5) and walk in a manner worthy of the Lord (Ephesians 4:1; Colossians 1:10); and

Please God in all things (II Corinthians 5:9; Colossians 1:10).

God’s plan, instead of the ideologies which focus on self, establishes your true position in Christ and gives provision for you to be:

Forgiven of all your sins (Colossians 2:13-14) and become a new creation (II Corinthians 5:17) by partaking of God’s divine nature (II Peter 1:4);

A child and heir of God and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:14-17);

A citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20), blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3) and fully complete in Christ Jesus (Colossians 2:9-10);

Strong in the Lord (Ephesians 6:10-17) as a functioning and maturing member of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16);

More than a conqueror through the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:37; I John 4:4), since you have been released from sin’s slavery (Romans 6:5-7) and have been delivered out of the domain (authority) of darkness and into the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13);

An ambassador for Christ (II Corinthians 5:20), a member of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a citizen of a holy nation, a possession of God (I Peter 2:9), and a holy temple of the living God (II Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21);

Transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2), taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (II Corinthians 10:5);

Full of His peace (John 16:33) and joy (John 15:11, 17:13);

Changed by the Word of God (I Thessalonians 2:13; II Timothy 3:16-17);

10. Led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14) to understand the things of God (I Corinthians 2:9-13);

Able to accomplish (or endure) anything in God’s will for you through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:13), knowing that God is in total control of your life (Romans 8:28-29; I Corinthians 10:13; Philippians 1:6); and

Empowered to practice biblical love, thus proving yourself to be a disciple of Christ (John 13:35).

Throughout this course, the difference between Satan’s plan and God’s plan for your life will be shown.

Satan’s plan is to keep you oriented toward gratifying, pleasing, exalting, and esteeming self.

God’s plan emphasizes that you are to live for Him, since your old self-nature was crucified and buried with Christ in order that you might walk in newness of life (Romans chapter 6; II Corinthians 5:15-21; Colossians 3:2-17).

Even as man has sought continuously for substitutes to the new birth, he also seeks self-centered solutions to his problems resulting from his original sin.

These man-contrived solutions to problems of the mind, heart, and spirit are as unacceptable to God as are man’s futile speculations and substitutes for salvation and the unalterable truths of God’s Word (based on Psalm 119:160; Proverbs 14:12, 30:5-6; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Matthew 15:1-20; John 4:23-24; Acts 4:12; Romans 1:21, 25, 28; 8:5-10; I Corinthians 3:18-20; II Corinthians 7:1; Ephesians 4:22-24; Philippians 2:3-5, 3:18- 19; II Timothy 3:1-5).