If Jesus Is Your Lord

"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). Is Jesus your Lord? If so, you believe that Jesus is risen indeed. Therefore, you confess Jesus is Lord.

Jesus risen from the dead is the singular most important doctrine in the Christian faith (1 Corinthians 15:17). The salvation of every believer rests upon the resurrection of Christ. It's the miracle you must believe to be saved. Confessing Jesus as Lord is the earliest confession of the Christian faith. It focuses upon the resurrection of Jesus as our confession of faith.

If you are willing to confess Jesus is Lord, then the Holy Spirit convinced you (John 16:7-11). The Holy Spirit illumines your mind and brings you to repentance, a change of mind, concerning the resurrection of Christ. Then and only then, you will truly confess that Jesus is Lord, because you know the truth personally. "No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3).

Believing the gospel and confessing from your heart that Jesus is Lord means you are saved. The word saved means to be delivered from the condemnation and judgment of your sins. Also, it means to be delivered from the wages of sin which is death (Romans 6:23). To be saved is to receive eternal life through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus is your Lord, you are saved.

How Christ Is in You

The Christian life is Christ in you (Colossians 1:27). The Spirit of Christ, also known as the Holy Spirit, indwells every believer (Romans 8:9). Upon believing the gospel of Christ, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, "having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1:13). The Holy Spirit is in you with the abiding gifts of faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

The Spirit of Christ is in you with the gift of faith. It is the faith of Jesus Christ. "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). The Holy Spirit abides in every Christian with the gift of faith. It is faith from Christ and faith in Christ. Faith is trust, confidence, and reliance upon Christ.

The Spirit of Christ is in you with the gift of hope. It is your hope in Christ. The Holy Spirit brings hope in Christ. It is the hope of glory, which means the hope of the believer's glorification. Everything you are, or hope to be, is in Christ. We are "looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13).

The Spirit of Christ is in you with the gift of love. It is the Father's love for us in Christ and our love for Christ. Love is a gift of the Holy Spirit and the greatest evidence of Christ in you. Without the love of Christ, there is no real and true Christian life. Christ in you is the love of the Holy Spirit in your heart (Romans 5:5).

How God Teaches You

Charles H. Spurgeon wrote, "No man can know Jesus Christ unless he is taught by God. Tell me not of systems of divinity, of schemes of theology, of infallible commentators, of the most learned people, or of the most arrogant doctors, but tell me of the great Teacher who will instruct the sons of God and make us wise to understand all things. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher." 

Jesus promised that God's Spirit would guide his disciples into all truth (John 8:31-32; 16:13). While the Spirit of God gives pastors and other teachers the ability to minister the word of truth, yet he alone is the great Teacher. He is the one who inspired the Holy Scripture. Believers are taught by God's Spirit to understand the Bible.

God's Spirit teaches all who are born again. He teaches you about the only one who can take away our sins, Jesus the crucified one. He teaches you to confess Jesus is Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3). The Holy Spirit teaches you about the one who saves you, Jesus in the power of his resurrection (Romans. 10:9). His teaching always glorifies Jesus, the Son of God, according to the Scripture (John 16:14).

The Holy Spirit teaches you more and more about Jesus. Make this your prayer: "Spirit of God my teacher be, showing the things of Christ to me." Every believer in Christ should be taught by God, through Holy Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16).

How God Foreknew Us

"God is not limited by time. With him there is no present, past and future, but one eternal now. He knows all things from the beginning" (J. Clyde Turner, These Things We Believe). 

God knows all that is past, present, and future. What God knows now about the future is revealed in Bible prophecy. Our knowledge is limited. The foreknowledge of God is unlimited.

God foreknows all things simultaneously. Our knowledge is limited by time and space. God is omniscient knowing the end from the beginning (Acts 15:18). We know in part and only in part. God foreknows all things now.

God foreknew the names and exact number of all who shall be saved. They are now justified and glorified in Christ as far as the knowledge of God. The apostle Paul wrote of God's foreknowledge in terms of prolepsis, knowing the future now as already accomplished (Romans 8:29-30). Yet, God's command is for all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30; 2 Peter 3:9).

God foreknew all who shall be in Christ. That includes all who will repent and believe the gospel (Acts 2:38; 13:48; Ephesians 1:4, 13). God turns none away who will repent and believe on our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:30-31). Yet, God foreknows now all who shall be saved in Christ (1 Peter 1:2). 

How Christians Die

Wayne Grudem explained, "When Christians die, their souls go immediately into God's presence. Although their bodies remain in the ground, their souls go into the presence of their Creator. This is why Paul writes of being away from the body through death (2 Corinthians 5:8) and departing in death to be with Christ (Philippians 1:23)."

Dr. Grudem presented the New Testament teaching about the death of Christians. This exposes such errors as purgatory and soul sleep. Nowhere does the New Testament teach that Christians go to a place called purgatory, but as Grudem said, "their souls go into the presence of their Creator." Also, Christians are not unconscious as in soul sleep.

Grudem clearly stated the New Testament teaching about a Christian's death. It is "being away from the body in death." That is "departing in death to be with Christ." Death is separation of body and soul. Christians may understand what they face at death, with the expectation of being with Christ.

When a Christian faces death, the testimony of the apostle Paul should bring comfort and hope. He wrote, "We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). In another letter, he wrote, "My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better" (Philippians 1:23). That's what happens when Christians die.

What Faith Receives

The Bible says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are saved according to what God promises you. Faith is based upon what God promises you. Faith receives the promises of God.

Believe that the promises of God are for you. Trying to live by faith without the promises of God leaves us with doubt and unbelief. Our victory is faith in the promises that cannot fail, because God will not fail to keep His word of promise. What God promises you is found in the Bible.

God keeps His promises. All the promises of God are for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us" (2 Corinthians 1:20). God keeps His promises to you as a believer, unto the praise of His glory. 

Do you read and believe the Bible to receive what God promises you? What God promises you is Yes and Amen in Christ. That's your victory to the glory of God. Receiving answered prayer is based upon what God promises you in the name of Jesus Christ. Faith receives what God promises.

Deliverance from Evil

"We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19). Evil comes from the sinful desires of people, and the wicked one, as well as other spiritual powers of darkness (Romans 3:10-18; Ephesians 6:10-13). We live in this present evil age "under the sway of the wicked one."

Deliverance is from evil through prayer. Christ revealed God's goodness to those in bondage to sin and the wicked one. Jesus taught us to pray, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13). That's the will of God to deliver you from evil, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Deliverance is from evil through the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Christ died for your sins and defeated Satan, as well as all unclean spirits at the cross (Colossians 2:13-15). The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is your deliverance and victory (1 Corinthians 15:54-58). Deliverance from the evil one comes as you call upon Jesus our risen Lord (Romans 10:9, 13).

Deliverance is from evil through the power of Jesus our Lord. Jesus died to take away all your sins (1 John 1:7). God raised Jesus from the dead to break the power of death. His resurrection power is your deliverance from the wicked one and all powers of darkness. God's deliverance is from evil through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who has all power in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18).