Revealed Knowledge

The Bible is revealed knowledge inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is the inerrant and infallible Word of God. It is infallible because God is indeed infallible in all things, including prophecy of the Bible. It is inerrant because God speaks only truth throughout the Bible. 

The Bible teaches the faith once for all delivered to God's people (Jude 3). Revealed knowledge in the Bible is truth without any mixture of error. The same Holy Spirit, who inspired the Bible, reveals God the Father to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Bible is revealed knowledge of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is revealed to us in Christ through the Bible (John 14:9). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He guides us into all truth (John 16:13). Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).

The Bible is revealed knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:16; Hebrews 1:1-3). God the Father reveals Himself to you through God the Son, as revealed by God the Holy Spirit in the Bible. We know God through the Bible, revealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit. To know the only true God in Christ is to receive eternal life (John 17:3). The Bible is revealed knowledge inspired by the Holy Spirit.

How God Chose Us

God chose us in Christ as the church (Grk: ekklesia), the called out ones. God chose us in Christ to be holy before him in love (Ephesians 1:4-8). God the Father chose us in Christ. The Bible uses marriage imagery to describe our salvation. In Bible days, a father chose a bride for his son, so God our Father chose the bride for his Son. God chose the church as the bride of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:24-26). 

God the Father chose us in Christ the Son. The chosen of God are all believers in Christ. All who repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are chosen. Our calling and election is sure in Christ alone (2 Peter 1:10-11). 

God chose us in Christ, because in Christ alone sinners are saved (Acts 4:12). He is the only one who died for sinners. He is the only one raised from the dead to justify sinners and save us from condemnation and eternal judgment. The Son of God is the only way to God our Father (John 14:6). Those who refuse to believe in Christ reject God's one and only way of salvation (Acts 4:12).

Scripture makes it clear that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. God foreknew all who shall be in Christ (Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:4). God knows all things, the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). God foreknew his people in Christ before time began. God chosen us in Christ alone. 

Christ Our Substitute

J. I. Packer wrote, "thus knowledge of Christ's death for us as our sin-bearing substitute requires us to see ourselves as dead, risen, and alive forevermore in him. We who have died, painlessly and invisibly, we might say, in solidarity with him because he died, painfully and publicly in substitution for us."

The apostle Paul testified, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20). 

Paul understood that Christ is our substitute in his death and resurrection. Believers trust Christ as our substitute. He was crucified in our place. He is risen from the dead as our justification. So it is with all true believers. We died in Christ as our substitute. We are risen in Christ as our living Lord.

Baptism symbolizes every believer's union in Christ, through his death, burial and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4). He died for our sins. He took our judgment at the cross. We are risen with him to new life through the Holy Spirit. 

As we were born unto sin in Adam, so we are born again to new life in Christ. Therefore, we have become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). As true believers, we died to our old life in Christ our substitute.

How Are We Saved?

The Bible tells us clearly how we are saved. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). 

We are saved by grace alone as the gift of God. We cannot earn nor do we deserve God's salvation in Christ. It's by grace through faith. That means it's not of yourself. God saves you by grace, and it's through faith in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:1-4).

We are saved by grace alone, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That faith is one of the three abiding gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:13). The Holy Spirit enables you to come to God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit, who inspired the Holy Scripture, uses the word of God to bring the gift of faith to you (Romans 10:17).

We are saved by grace alone, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to know Jesus as your Lord (Romans 10:9) "And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3). The Holy Spirit applies God's grace in Christ to save you.

We are saved by grace alone to the praise of God's glory (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). To God alone be the glory! There is no room for us to receive the glory when it's all of grace. It is not your work for God, but God's gracious work in you, to the praise of His glory.

Salvation of the Lord

Charles H. Spurgeon wrote, "Salvation is the work of God. It is he alone who quickens the soul dead in trespasses and sins, and it is he also who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is both Alpha and Omega. Salvation is of the Lord." 

Salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8). Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last letter. From beginning to the end, salvation is God's work in Christ our Lord (Romans 10:9).

Salvation is of the Lord for those who are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). To be spiritually dead means our sins have separated us from God. Our inability to come to God was our unbelief and hardness of heart. But, God who is rich in mercy, comes to us as sinners with the goodness of grace, making us alive to new life in Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Salvation is of the Lord through the gospel. The Spirit of grace enables us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:30-31; 1 Thessalonians 1:5). God in Christ is the Alpha and Omega of our salvation (Revelation 22:13).

Salvation is of the Lord from beginning unto completion. He began the good work in us. Likewise, he continues to work in us (Philippians 1:6; 2:13). The Lord begins and completes our salvation. Christ is the Alpha and Omega of our salvation. Salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If You Look to Jesus

Charles Spurgeon wrote, "If you look to Christ at the beginning of your Christian life, but then begin to look to yourself for its continuance to the end, you will fail. Jesus is the Alpha (the beginning), and be sure you make him Omega (the ending) as well." 

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Focus your faith upon Jesus by trusting him to do in us, what we cannot do for ourselves. Focusing our faith upon Jesus dying for our sins and risen from the dead is believing the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Then, we are saved and begin to live the Christian life.

Believers look to Jesus trusting him to continue working in us. Living our Christian life is knowing Christ works in you to please God (Hebrews 13:20-21). Indeed, Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of every Christian's faith. He who began the good work in us will continue until the day of completion (Philippians 1:6; 2:13). 

Believers continue looking to Jesus, and one day our faith shall become sight. Understand that's the day when you see him face to face. You shall be glorified into his likeness (Romans 8:30). "We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). The Christian life is looking unto Jesus Christ until that day.

How We Are Redeemed

"Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are wrttten in the book of the law" (Deuteronomy 27:26). This reference is quoted in Galatians 3:10. To offend the law in one point is to be guilty of the whole law (James 2:10). No one can be justified by keeping the law, because we have all sinned (Romans 3:23). We are all under the curse of sin and need to be redeemed.

The word redeemed refers to a price paid to set a prisoner or slave free. Christ paid our sin debt in full, with His own blood at the cross. Believers are redeemed in Christ. He redeemed us from the curse of the law.

"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Galatians 3:13). This Scripture quotes Deuteronomy 21:23. Christ, who had no sin, took our sins upon himself at the cross. He shed his blood and died for the curse of our sins. 

Believers are redeemed from the curse through faith in Christ. Believers are redeemed from the curse unto every blessing in Christ. As God blessed Abraham in all things, so believers are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Genesis 24:1; Ephesians 1:3).