Excerpt B from Chap. 2 in FOR HIS GLORY
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins.*
God’s Plan
The Father would send His Only Son, Jesus, to take our sins upon Himself. Jesus would accept the punishment that we deserved (I Peter 2:24). Even more, He would deliver us from our sinfulness by breaking our bondage to Satan (Col. 2:15).
We would be “born again” (John 3:3-7) and our spirit made “alive.” He would restore the spirit-to-spirit relationship that we were created for, which would again satisfy our soul-hunger. In a way that few Christians understand, the most essential aspect of Life in the Garden was restored to man!
The Father would impart a new nature to us, one that loves what He loves and is inclined to obey Him. THAT is LIFE!
When we are born again, we are transferred from one spirit-kingdom to the other. Paul writes, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:13, nasb, also Acts 26:18.) PRAISE HIS NAME!
We can now love others as He loves us (John 13:34-35). To love is to give, and we can now give because His Life flows into us to make us complete – and then flows through us to others! (John 7:38) This new nature is so radical that it will convince others that we are followers of Jesus.
Our new life begins when He becomes “Savior,” as we confess our sins and receive His forgiveness. He becomes “Lord,” when we repent of trying to be our own god. It would revolutionize the Church today if we viewed the two as being inseparable – as God views them.
*Col. 2:13 niv
Ken Stoltzfus
Kidron, Ohio USA
March 25, 2022
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