Daily Devotional: All Things in Christ
Do you want your life to count to the greatest degree imaginable for the glory of God? Years ago I decided that I wanted to live to the hilt of every situation that I believe to be the will of God. I want to experience the full measure of the blessings of Christ in my life and ministry.
Every spiritual blessing we enjoy comes in and through Jesus Christ. Every believer is an “heir of God and co-heir with Christ” (Romans 8:17).
The apostle Paul wrote Timothy, “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17). Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
John Calvin expresses this provision in Christ beautifully: “If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is ‘of him’ (1 Cor. 1:30). If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in His anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in His dominion; if purity, in His conception; ifgentleness, it appears in His birth. For by His birth He was made like us in all respects (Heb. 2:17) that He might learn to feel our pain (cf. Heb. 5:2). If we seek redemption, it lies in His passion; if acquittal, in His condemnation; if remission of the curse, in His cross (Gal. 3:13); if satisfaction, in His sacrifice; if purification, in His blood; if reconciliation, in His descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in His tomb; if newness of life, in His resurrection; ifimmortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in His entrance into heaven; ifprotection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in His Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to Him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abound in Him, let us drink our fill from this fountain and from no other” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 527-28).
Are you available to God to do what He wants to do in and through you to be a blessing to a lost world? God will not bless you abundantly if you are self-centered, and much of our desire for God to bless us as Christians is purely selfish. Do I sincerely want God to bless me so that I may be a spiritual well-being to other people? To some people it might be revolutionary, but may I suggest that you think of your life as a means by which God can impart spiritual blessings to other Christians, and the lost world. God wants to bless us so that we might be a blessing to others.
Everything in the Christian life begins, continues and ends in Christ Jesus. C. S. Lewis once said the greatest heresies in the church are not the denials of Christian truth, but additions to it. It is what Lewis called “Christ and …” Christ and Islam, Christ and Buddha, Christ and works, Christ and humanism, etc. No, Christianity is Christ, alone. All true spiritual blessings come through Christ alone for God’s glory alone.
God is not looking for men and women who will trust in their abilities, but on His power and wisdom alone. “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let Him who boasts boast in the Lord’” (1 Cor. 1:27-31).
God is glorified when we make ourselves available to Him to bless us so we can be His blessing to others. Are you available to Him to do whatever He wants to do with you? That is what is required of you and me. There is no limit to the imagination what God can do through you if you are entirely surrendered to Him.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional: All that Jesus Continues to Do
“All that Jesus began to do and teach” He continues to do and teach today.
In Acts 1:1 the words “all that Jesus began to do and teach” are in the linear action. It is action still going on. The verb “began” is present infinitive, linear action. It is as if to say that Jesus is still carrying on from heaven the work and teachings which He started while on earth before His ascension.
Luke does not say “all that Jesus did and taught,” but “all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” The Gospel of Luke tells us what Jesus began to do and teach, while Acts of the Apostles tells what He continues to do and teach by His Spirit through His special Body.
In Volume 1 of the Life and Acts of Jesus Christ, Dr. Luke tells the story of the beginnings of what Jesus began to do and teach. In his Gospel, Luke gave “the first account I composed, Theophilis, about all that Jesus began to do and teach.” What was it Jesus began to do and teach?
In Luke 4:16-21 Jesus stood in the synagogue at Nazareth and read Himself into His divine office. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” Then Jesus closed the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, sat down, and with the eyes of all the synagogue fixed upon Him said to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (vv. 20-21).
Those verses tell us what Jesus began to do leading up to His atoning death for our sins on the cross. What Jesus taught is summarized beautifully in Luke 24:25-27 as He reminded the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. “‘Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”
In the opening words of his second volume, Acts of the Apostles, Luke tell us what Jesus is still carrying on from heaven. He is still working and teaching, doing the same thing He started while on earth before His ascension. In volume two Luke tells us all that Jesus continues to do and teach after His ascension through His present spiritual Body here on the earth (2 Cor. 5:14-15, 18, 21).
What does Jesus continue both to do and teach through His present body on the earth?
Every born again believer is a member of the special Body with specific spiritual gifts that are needed by His Body. God places every member in a local church to accomplish His redemptive purposes through that church. He saved you by grace and put you in a local Bible believing church to accomplish His will on this earth (Eph. 1:22-23; 4:11-13; 1 Cor. 12:12ff, 27; Rom. 12:5, 6).
You were given at least one spiritual gift for a purpose when God saved you. If you are not exercising your gift not only do you fail to fulfill your mission, but also the Body of Christ does not function to its fullest potential.
The Body of Christ has authority to continue to do and see to completion all that Jesus began to do and teach (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8). The risen Lord is the head of the church. He is continuing to do in and through you and me all that He began to do and teach. He has given us all the authority and power we need to accomplish His will. We are a specially equipped Body with power and authority to continue to do what Jesus began to do and teach. Will you say to Him, “Lord, whatever You direct me to do in relation to your Body, I will do. I am your servant for your purposes.”
When God gives you a divine assignment to accomplish His will, and purpose, you must depend upon Him alone to accomplish it. Why? Because it is His work, not yours. Since it is a God-sized task you must depend on God alone. Who is continuing to work? Christ does no ask you to do His work in your abilities, gifts, likes and dislikes. We must be totally available to Him and depend upon Him to do His work.
What chapter are you writing in Volume 2007 of the Life and Acts of Jesus Christ? Where is God at work in your life? What is He doing and teaching through you to accomplish His eternal purposes?
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional On Salvation: All Sufficient Sacrifice of Jesus Christ
The very same all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ that enabled God to save us is sufficient to keep us saved for all eternity.
Does sin have the power to set at naught the saving power of God? Is it possible for the power of sin to be more powerful than the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God?
The LORD God has effectively dealt with every sin that has ever been committed (Heb. 9:11-12; 10:10-14). The Son of God is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He was not just any person dying on a cross, but the sinless Son of God who was giving Himself as a substitutionary sacrifice for all who would call upon His name.
When Jesus died on the cross, all of our sins were imputed to Him. They were charged to His account, like putting money in the bank. God treated Christ as though He had actually committed those sins (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Jn. 3:5; Rom. 4:25; 1 Pet. 2:22, 24).
The result of the death of Christ was that all those sins have been paid for in full and God no longer holds them against us, because we have trusted Christ as our Savior. That is not all; the demands of God’s holy law have been fully met by Christ in His death once for all.
Those who believe will never have their sins imputed against them again (Ps. 32:1-2; Rom. 4:1-8). As far as their records are concerned, they share the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.
The present condition of lost sinners is not because of their sin, but because of their unbelief. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:17-18).
The blood of Jesus is sufficient to cover every person’s sin, past, present and future. The sacrifice has been made once for all. No other sacrifice can or will be made. It is all-sufficient for all sin for all mankind forever. However, no one is automatically saved by that death. The death becomes effective when the lost sinner calls on the name of Jesus putting his faith in Him to save and give everlasting life. The only condition is to believe on the saving work of Christ on the cross. All that a person has to do to be lost is nothing. To not believe is to say in effect Jesus did not die for me. To believe on Christ is in effect to declare that He is all-sufficient to cover all my sins for all eternity. The sacrifice has been paid in full. There need be no other and no more. All my sins, past, present and future are under that blood that cleanses.
Judgment is already passed on all who refuse to believe on Christ as their Savior sent from God (John 3:18, 36). However, “As many as received Him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12). “God has given us eternal life” (1 John 5:11). The problem is people love spiritual darkness rather than the “Light” of Jesus.
Salvation is received through believing in the finished work of Christ on the cross. People who reject the saving gospel of Christ are already under condemnation because they have not believed. They stand condemned. However, the believe in Christ is “not condemned,” and he “will not be condemned” (John 5:24). The person who believes on Christ has “everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death to life.” The believer has eternal spiritual life now, which is endless (Jn. 3:36). When we trust in Jesus, we have in the present time “eternal life.” No judgment will come in the future regarding eternal life. He will not be judged “because he already passed from one realm—“death”—into another—“life” (Eph. 2:1, 5). We have passed from eternal death to eternal life. Jesus described the resurrection of the lost sinner into eternal life. With the apostle Paul we can also proclaim, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ” (Rom. 8:1).
The believer is a sinner, even though he is a redeemed sinner. The difference is that he confesses his sins and claims the forgiveness of God in Christ (1 Jn. 1:6-7). “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (v. 7).
The only difference between condemnation and salvation is faith in the atoning work of Jesus. Acts 4:12 says, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” Jesus gives eternal life to anyone who believes on Him because He has already died for that person.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional : All of Grace
Grace—what a sweet fragrance. It is the greatest theme in the Bible.
Abounding grace, wondrous grace, boundless grace, fountain of grace, unfailing grace, unmeasurable grace, electing grace, matchless grace, overflowing grace, redeeming grace, pardoning grace, plenteous grace, unfailing grace, fullness of grace, efficacious grace, magnified grace, refreshing grace, sovereign grace, salvation by grace, grace rich and free!
“Oh to grace, how great a debtor.”
God is exceedingly gracious to sinful man. Grace is the unmerited and undeserved favor of a holy God upon sinful depraved human beings. It is His kindness, love and nature to be gracious to humanity.
Grace is the very opposite of merit. It is totally undeserved favor of God toward the sinner. However, it is more than that, it is favor shown to the one who has deserved the very opposite.
What better definition of grace can you find than that expressed by the apostle Paul in Romans 5:8? “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
In contrast to contemporary man’s thinking, God does not owe sinful man anything. Every blessing humanity enjoys is the result of God’s “common grace.”
Every person is a recipient of God’s “common grace” whether he acknowledges it or not. However, “common grace” saves no one, and it never has. We need “special grace” to be saved.
“Saving grace,” on the other hand, redeems sinful man for time and eternity.
The apostle Paul tells us that no matter how great our sin, the grace of God is proven greater. “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20-21).
“Sin increased,” actual transgressions increased, but “grace abounded all the more.” More grace added to this super abundance of grace. Grace was added to more grace, over and above the grace that super abounded, with even more grace added to that!
“Oh, to grace how great a debtor”!
Do you need grace? Come to the fountain of super abounding, flooding grace!
All the Law can do is point its finger and say, “You are guilty!” It condemns sinful man. It shows sin for what it is in the eyes of God.
However, God has more than an abundant supply of grace. There was plenty of sin, but much, much more grace in superabundance. There is victory for the sinner in grace.
This superabundant grace replaces the reign of sin. We do not have the power to break free from sin, therefore it reigns and we cannot escape the penalty of death. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).
However, God’s grace reigns through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Yes, grace triumphs when God imputes His righteousness and gives eternal life to the sinner who believes on the saving death of Jesus Christ to save him (Jn. 3:16; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rom. 5:6, 8; 10:9-10, 13; 8:1; 5:1-2; 2 Cor. 5:21).
God is gracious.
What is your response to God’s saving grace? Your eternal destiny depends upon your response to His saving grace. Christ died for you so that “whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
The great preacher of grace, John Newton, wrote:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional: Bad News – Good News
This devotional I got permission to put on this site. It is from www.abideinchrist.com.
Bad News – Good News
One of the basic principles of sharing Christ with your friends is that you have to present some bad news before you can share the good news.
The Bible contains both bad news and good news. The bad news is that we have a very serious problem. The Bible says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NET).
The word that catches our eye is “sinned.” “All have sinned.” You can ask grammar school students what sin is and they can tell you in the flash of an eye what sin is. We sin when we lie, cheat, steal, lust, hate, gossip, murder, etc. But it is more than that; it is anything that does not glorify a holy and righteous God in our lives.
The “glory of God” is his standard for people. We keep trying to reach His standard and we come up short. A friend of mine said it is like trying to throw stones at the North Pole. No matter how hard you try you could never hit the North Pole with a rock. We always come up short when try to satisfy God’s righteousness. He is perfect, but we are imperfect. We are sinners by our attitudes, and our actions.
Now if that is not bad enough, our problem gets worse. The Bible says there is a penalty attached to our problem with sin. It is bad Be enough that we are sinners, but the Bible says, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The “payoff” of sin is death. The “wages” or “payoff” was used in reference to the soldier’s pay. “The soul that sins will surely die.” That is the payoff.
There is a big difference between working for a salary and receiving a free gift. If you work for a company your employer pays you a salary for the work you do. The Bible tells us that when we sin we earn a wage and it pays in death. It is a spiritual death that separates us eternally from God. The sad truth is we deserve it because we are sinners.
The barrier between God and us is so great that we cannot overcome it in our own power, good works, religion, philosophy, self-righteousness, etc.
However, there is some good news in God’s Word for us.
The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ died for us. “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. . . God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6, 8 NET).
This verse of Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ loved us so much that he was willing to die for us. Let’s suppose that you were guilty of murder, and the capital punishment by lethal injection is the penalty. That penalty is going to be paid. You must die. Out of grace I decide to take your punishment on myself and die in your place. You would then be set free because the penalty had been paid in full on your behalf.
The Bible tells us that is exactly what Christ did for you. Christ took your penalty that you deserve for sin, placed it upon himself, and died in your place (2 Cor. 5:21). There is no greater love than that.
The evidence that God accepted the full payment of your sin debt is that Jesus rose from the dead. The Bible says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation” (Romans 10:9-10 NET).
Salvation is God’s fee gift to everyone who believes on Jesus Christ as their Savior. Again, the Bible says, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NET).
Jesus Christ is the only answer to the problem that separates us from God (Acts 4:12; John 14:6). This is why we must put our faith in Him alone to save us. You must put your trust in him just as you would trust a chair to hold you up and keep you from falling to the floor. You must trust in Jesus Christ to get you to heaven. Trusting in good works, religion, philosophy, keeping the law, going to church, etc. will not help. Salvation is not a wage God pays for your good behavior. It is a gift of His grace, freely given to the sinner who repents and believes on Christ to save him. When you trust in Christ alone, God gives you eternal life as His free gift.
Jesus said, “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24 NET). Ask Jesus Christ to save you right now. Pray something like this if it comes from your heart: “Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner, and I deserve to be punished. I believe that you died for me on the cross to pay my penalty. I know that you are alive right now in heaven and that you are listening to my prayer. I trust you alone to forgive me of all my sins and give me everlasting life with you in heaven. Thank you for saving me. Amen.”
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily devotional: Backsliding
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Have you ever temporarily lapsed into unbelief and sin after you became a Christian? The condition of backsliding results from spiritual apathy or disregard for the truth of God’s Word. It results in a departure from a winsome confession of faith and Biblical ethical standards. Actions are affected by our attitudes toward God and His Word.
Jesus said, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).
Backsliding is different from apostasy, which spurns the grace of God by renouncing the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross (Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26-31). When a person renounces his faith in Christ that person was never a true child of God, and never was among the elect of God (John 3:18-21, 36; 5:24-29).
On the other hand, the elect individual, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and redeemed by God has been delivered once-for-all from the bondage of sin. Backsliding is not a “fall from grace” in the sense that a Christian once saved by grace can lose his eternal life in Christ. He is God’s child forever, and He has placed His life in the believing sinner.
There were times when the disciples of Jesus withdrew from fellowship with the Lord (Matt. 26:56), Peter denied Christ (26:69-75), Corinthian believers lived in sin (2 Cor. 12:20-21), the Church in Asia became lukewarm (Rev. 2:4, 14-15, 20), etc.
The people of Israel serve as an example for Christians today. We are exhorted to persevere in righteousness and doing the will of God. Israel forsook her covenant with the LORD God (Jer. 2:19; 8:5; 14:7), and demonstrated her unfaithfulness by disobeying God.
In the New Testament backsliding is viewed as an individual problem, although it is possible for churches to become backslidden, too.
Why do Christians become backslidden? We all still possess the old nature that is “corrupt through deceitful lusts” (Eph. 4:22; Rom. 7:13-24; 1 Cor. 3:1-3). Lack of continuous fellowship by “abiding” in Christ results in a lack of spiritual vitality and ineffective Christian service (Jn. 15:4-8). There is no other way to live the Christian life except by maintaining an intimate fellowship with our Lord. If we do not maintain that vital contact with Him we cannot sustain spiritual growth and effectively minister in His name.
Unbelief (Heb. 3:12), bitterness (12:15), love for the world (2 Tim. 4:10), love for money (1 Tim. 6:10), adherence to worldly philosophy (Col. 2:8), legalism (Gal. 3:1; 1:6; 5:7), indifference and spiritual coldness (Rev. 2:4; 3:16) are other causes for backsliding.
Backsliding grieves the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30), and it displeases our Lord (Heb. 10:38). There are natural consequences that follow this sin (Lev. 26:18-25).
How can we prevent backsliding in our spiritual life? It is essential that we “abide” in Christ (Jn. 15:4-7), remain spiritually alert (Eph. 6:18), put on the full armor of God (v. 10), be prayerful (1 Thess. 5:17), etc. Seek to love the Lord God with all your mind, heart and personal being every day.
We can thank God that He patiently perseveres with His saints. Just as we are to persevere in doing His will, we can be thankful that He has made a wonderful covenant with us in the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. The grace of perseverance is one of the great benefits of the atoning death of Jesus Christ for our sins. The solution for backsliding is found in the abiding love and mercy of our God of grace who remains faithful to His promises.
Backsliding is serious business. Martin Luther well said, “The offenses given within the church are greater than those given among the heathen because when Christians degenerate, they are more godless than the heathen.”
We have a choice. We can progress or regress in our Christian life. We have a great responsibility in how we choose to live the Christian life. God is able to strengthen and progressively sanctify the Christian if we cooperate with Him (Heb. 3:12; Phil. 3:10-16).
The promise to every backsliding Christian is to, “Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts” (Mal. 3:7). Acknowledge your sin, turn from it, trust in the Lord for forgiveness and ask the Holy Spirit to take control of your mind, heart and daily life. Jesus says, “Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent” (Rev. 2:5).
It is reassuring that the Bible clearly teaches that the truly spiritual regenerate can never be lost. We are his forever children. Once his child by the new birth, always his child. However we can lose our fellowship with God and our effectiveness in Christian service. The God of all grace has provided a bar of soap; let’s use it often (1 John 1:6-10; 2:2).
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional: Believer’s Baptism
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
The ordinance of the believer’s baptism is a marvelous picture of the Christian’s vital union, and identification with Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.
There is a “wet” baptism and a “dry” baptism. The “dry” baptism is without water and is the work of God the Holy Spirit placing the believer in Christ the moment he believes on Him as his Savior.
The “wet” baptism is the ordinance that Christ gave to the church. It is a believer’s baptism by immersion in water which presents in symbolism the Christian’s vital union with Jesus Christ. Take away the Biblical mode of baptism and you loose the vital theological message of baptism.
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4).
The ordinance of baptism is a constant reminder of how we were redeemed. It is an outward symbol of an inward, silent and real experience.
Baptism by immersion in water does not put the believer “into Jesus Christ.” The Holy Spirit did that when we believed in Christ. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer. Immersion is a picture of what the Holy Spirit did in our identification with Christ.
Dead in Christ, risen with Christ. Buried with Christ, alive in Christ (Rom. 8:34).
The burial confirms that we died with Christ. “Our old man was crucified with Christ.” Unless one die with Christ we cannot live with Him. All our condemnation and guilt were buried with Christ, and they remain buried. It is a blessing to know that all of our sins and transgressions are swept away by the blood of Christ and buried in the tomb (Ps. 32:1, 2).
The believing sinner has learned to look into the grave of his Lord and see the burial of all his sins. There is no longer the burning resemblances, bitter accusations, and stinging reproaches of sin and guilt. Therefore the believer has learned to forgive himself in God’s deep river of forgiveness.
The baptismal waters are a perpetual witness to this great truth. The water says, “I buried the believer with Christ.” It says, “I rolled my wave like a stone against the door of his tomb. I set the seal of the new covenant in the blood of Jesus inscribed with the triune name upon his tomb.”
The believer needs to remind himself that every tinge of a guilty conscience is silenced by the atoning blood of Jesus.
The tomb of Jesus is a shelter against the raging storm of the wrath of God. “Buried with Christ” tells us that our sin debt has been paid in full. We have propitiation in the blood of Jesus Christ.
It is a constant reminder that we cannot enter into “the power of Christ’s resurrection” except through conformity to His death. “I am crucified with Christ” and buried with Him.
The waters symbolize this union with Christ in that the buried form is raised up from the water in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection. Alive in Christ. We have a new relationship with sin and God. We also have a new identification—we are saints. We are saved sinners. Every believer who comes up out of the water has a new identification. You can distinguish him from everyone else because he or she is dripping wet. Believers have a new identification and people can see that we are “in Christ.”
The believer has died to the old life, and has been raised to enjoy a new life in Christ (Col. 2:12).
We have been made alive in Christ. We stand on resurrection ground. We have the authority and power to live triumphantly over sin.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional: A Zeal for the Righteousness of God
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
The apostle Paul prayed to God for the salvation of those who “have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:1-3).
The apostle Paul was making his plea to his own people who in their religious zeal had rejected God’s provision of His own perfect righteousness for their own self-righteousness. They were intensely religious in their own eyes, but not with the true knowledge of God. They were running well but in the wrong direction. They labored to do good deeds, but for the wrong goal. They were religious, sincere, dedicated, but in their anxiety, they would miss their eternal reward.
“They have a zeal for God.” I meet people like that every day. In their religious zeal, they knock on your door, too. Like the apostle Paul, I am not against religious zeal or enthusiasm. However, they are zealous in their religious ceremonies, prayers, observances, holy days, fasts, visitation, teaching, etc., “but not in accordance with knowledge.” There is no use being zealous if you are zealous for the wrong reason. It will not help you if you are going in the wrong direction spiritually.
The apostle Paul was writing from his own personal experience. He had been very zealous for the Law, and in that enthusiasm, he killed men and women who had a different “knowledge” than his. He had a mistaken zeal for God. He believed sincerely, but he was sincerely wrong. He had been zealous, but his zeal was focused on the wrong object.
Then there came a day when he gained true knowledge of the righteousness of God, and he counted all his self-righteousness as dung and received salvation by free grace alone.
Paul’s zeal became refocused “with knowledge” when he met the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus. Knowledge of what? Before the encounter with Christ he did not know about God’s righteousness and sought to establish his own. In Philippians 3:4-6 he tells about that self-righteousness. He said, “I still count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. . . that I may gain Christ” (v. 8). He gave up his zeal for self-righteousness by good works “that I may know Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (v. 9).
That is Paul’s “knowledge.” “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4).
Spurgeon once said, “It is easier to get a sinner out of sin than a self-righteous man out of his self-righteousness.”
Have you tried to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone who thinks he can earn or merit a right relationship with God by his religious zeal?
What is the problem? In their zeal they “know nothing about God’s righteousness, and seek to establish their own, they do not subject themselves to the righteousness of God” (v. 3).
Any form of self-righteousness will never save you. In contrast, the Lord God has provided His own perfect righteousness by which He justifies the ungodly. Jesus Christ was obedient to the Law at every point, even to the point of death. God in His righteousness imputes the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to the believing sinner. He imputes to the believer what Jesus did for you on the cross. God will accept the believing sinner because of what Jesus is and what He did. Jesus Christ shall be your righteousness.
If you say, “No, I will not have His righteousness; I will have a righteousness of my own,” you are ignorant of God’s righteousness, and you shall perish.
God would never have sent His Son to the cross if you could be saved by our religious zeal. The death of Jesus on the cross was needless if you could be saved otherwise (Acts 4:12). If you are trying to have a righteousness of your own by being zealous for God, your church or denomination, baptism, church membership, emotional experiences, etc. then you are in competition with Jesus Christ.
Your eternal salvation lies absolutely outside of yourself, in the person and atoning work of Jesus Christ. Salvation is not in what you do in your religious zeal, but in what Christ Jesus has done on your behalf.
If you try to add anything to that finished work by your own thought, feeling, good works, baptism, church membership, etc, you have spoiled the work of Christ on your behalf. It shall never be Christ plus your _________, regardless of what you may fill in the blank. If you are to be saved, you must get out of the way and let God alone do it. The spiritual birth is all God’s doing, not yours or mine. Sinners saved by grace through faith will glorify Jesus Christ alone. Salvation is all by free grace of God in Jesus Christ.
“Going about to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” The righteousness of God is salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Sinners are saved by God’s grace. Salvation is through faith in Christ. It is based on grace, and free grace alone through faith alone which is in Jesus Christ alone! It is a gift from God freely received by the sinner.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional: A Virgin, Immanuel, and the Incarnation
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
A Virgin, Immanuel and the Incarnation
Ahaz was faithless.
Neighboring countries of Syria and Israel banned together to fight the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Ahaz, the king of Judah, sent for the king of Assyria to come to his rescue.
The LORD God is sovereign in the affairs of the nations and He sent the Hebrew prophet Isaiah to counsel Ahaz. Isaiah said, “Take care, and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because the two stubs of smoldering firebrands . . .” (Isaiah 7:4). The two threatening countries are just burned up pieces of firewood. God said, “It shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass” (v. 7).
What would you have done if you were Ahaz? The pressure on Ahaz was intense, not just the threat of war, but the LORD was breathing down his neck as well. “If you will not believe, you surely shall not last” (v. 19). Ahaz, you are as good as gone yourself if you do not trust Me. If you trust Me I will deliver you from this smoke, but if you don’t you are through as a king. Moreover, trusting in the Assyrian army is not trusting in Yahweh.
Ahaz refused to trust in the LORD. So He spoke to the king again, “Ask for a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it as deep as Sheol or high as heaven” (v. 11). Go ahead, ask Ahaz! What an opportunity to see God do the impossible!
King Ahaz got a little religious. “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD” (v. 12). That was exactly what he was doing by not trusting Yahweh. God invited Ahaz to ask for the “sign.” He was not testing God; God was testing him. The “sign” was a pledge of divine certainty, a miracle wrought for evidential purposes.
What would you have asked for? How would you have responded?
Now if Ahaz had been a wise man he would have gone ahead and asked. When God proposes a sign it is not a test; it was an invitation to come and see what God can do in a time of crisis. “Listen now, O house of David!” Isaiah was getting to a little testy. “Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?” (v. 13). Isaiah did not say “your” God, but “my God.”
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” (v. 14).
I have no problem with the “virgin” because I do not have any problem with “Immanuel.” The greater event is not the “virgin,” but “God with us.” The Incarnation, God becoming flesh, is the great mystery. Isaiah was referring to something very unusual. It would not be unusual for a maiden to conceive; that happens every day. However, a “virgin,” a marriageable young lady of unblemished reputation would be a very unusual “sign.” It pointed to the greater event.
J. W. Watts said the sign of the virgin would be “an encouragement to a faithful remnant to Israel. As a wonder of wonders such as had just been offered, and as a condemnation of the faithless elements in the line of David.”
The prophet Isaiah developed the idea of the child to be born (7:14), His birth (9:6f), His reigning (11:1f), and His death as the suffering servant of the LORD (Isa 52:13-53:12).
“God with us.” That is the wonder of wonders. God in the corporeal self-manifestation of Himself would be a super-human person. God with us is the God-man. He is the incarnation of Deity. Immanuel would Himself be El (God). This child to be born would be God among His people, and characteristic of Him.
“God with us” is “Christ, in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). “For in Him [Christ] all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority” (Col. 2:9-10).
How did the LORD God fulfill His “sign” given to Ahaz? The angel Gabriel said to the virgin, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). “God with us” is “Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
“God with us.” “Christ in you.” Not only is all the fullness of Deity dwelling “in bodily form” in Jesus Christ, but “in Him you have been made complete . . .” (Col. 2:10).
The apostle Paul, in the verses that follow, stresses the Christian’s vital union with Jesus Christ. “And in Him you have been made complete . . . and in Him you were also circumcised . . . having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions . . .” (Col. 2:11-13).
Don’t miss the greatest mystery in the Bible. “God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (1:27).
God’s great goal in the gospel ministry is “that we may present every man complete in Christ” (v. 28).
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional: The Attitude of Christ
Message by Wil Pounds
The Attitude of Christ
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
The Christian faith of the first century of Christianity was centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. The preeminence of Christ was the focus of the early preaching in the church. Christianity is Christ, and as in many other passages, Philippians 2:5-11 makes this emphatically clear.
Even before His incarnation, Jesus was in the form of God and was equal to God. Jesus Christ eternally possesses all of God’s attributes. He is God. “He existed in the form of God” (v. 6), is not referring to a bodily appearance, but is a strong way of proclaiming the deity of Jesus Christ. His deity never alters or changes.
Jesus, in His high priestly prayer the night before His crucifixion, referred to His “glory which I even had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). He was referring to the glory He enjoys on par with His heavenly Father. The apostle John wrote of this same pre-incarnate glory in John 1:1-4, 14.
The event that staggers the mind almost beyond comprehension is the fact that the Second Person of the Trinity laid aside the manifestation of His divine glory and took upon Himself the form of a common household slave. He became flesh. He is the God-man. He was fully God and fully man. He is God in the flesh. The Word became flesh, and pitched His tent in our very midst, testifies the apostle John (1:14,18). The one who enjoyed glory that was inherently His through out eternity past “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” (v. 7).
Jesus Christ exists eternally as the Second Person of the Godhead, and as such He is equal with God the Father. Everything the LORD God Almighty is, so is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before He became flesh, Jesus Christ shared to the full the divine nature and was clothed with the splendor that always surrounded God’s person. He was identical with God both inwardly and outwardly. When Jesus became flesh, what remained was God’s glory in the inward sense because even in His flesh Jesus was God and retained that full divine nature.
The Second Person of the Godhead Jesus Christ was not selfish. He did not cling to the outward glory of His deity, “But emptied Himself,” not of His divinity, but the outward visible manifestation of it. He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. He made nothing of Himself. He was obedient to His heavenly Father as a bond-slave. He only limited Himself of His outward visible glory because He was still God.
In addition to being God, Jesus took on “the form of a bond servant.”
The essential attributes of God were unchangeable and unchanging. The essential nature of Jesus Christ is the same as the essential nature of God. The nature of Jesus is the nature of God. The “form” signifies that which in God never alters and never changes.
Jesus laid aside His divine privileges and became the servant of Jehovah. The Son of God became the Servant of God. “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (v. 8).
Jesus Christ gave up the glory and honor of heaven to become one of us so He could die as our substitute and provide a means whereby God could offer us eternal life. “Christ 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).
No one with a spiritually discerning mind can read those words without a deep sense of thanksgiving gratitude for a humble and obedient Savior. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). He was humble and obedient even unto death.
Do you have this humble attitude of Jesus? When we have that attitude toward ourselves, we will, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). That is the mind of Christ in the Christian. It is a humble attitude of denying self, bearing the cross of Christ daily, and doing the will of God at all costs.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional: As You Have Received Christ
Message by Wil Pounds
The only way you can live the Christian life is by divine provision. Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).
The apostle Paul wrote, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him (Colossians 2:6).
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord…”
How did you receive Him? There is only one way as taught in scripture. It is by grace through faith in Christ (Acts 4:12).
Phillips translates Colossians 2:6, “Just as you received Christ, so go on living in Him – simple faith.”
The apostle John said, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12, NASB 1995).
You receive “Jesus Christ the Lord” by believing on His name. “As many as received Him, as many as have believed on Him.” To have faith in Him is to receive Him.
Do you have that attitude of faith and trust in Jesus Christ? Faith indicates a relation to Christ as Savior. It is submission to His Lordship as King of our lives and confidence in Him as our high priest. Do I conduct my life in submission to the king of my life?
Have you received Jesus Christ the Lord? “Jesus” is the name given to Him at His birth meaning “Yahweh saves,” “Jehovah saves.” That is why the apostle Peter declared there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Calling on all other names for eternal salvation will send you to an eternal hell. There is salvation and eternal life only in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Savior who came to this earth to die for our sins and give us God’s kind of life. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6). “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (v.9).
This same “Jesus” of Nazareth is the Messiah, the anointed King and High Priest. The Messiah to the Hebrew people was the King – Priest. He is both the One who reigns as sovereign over our lives and the One who intercedes on our behalf. The King is also the Priest. The King who has supreme authority is also the Priest who offers the one perfect sacrifice of Himself on behalf of His people.
Has Jesus Christ become your Lord? “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11, NASB 1995). Have you bowed to that name?
If you have never “received” Him as “Jesus Christ the Lord,” you cannot “so walk in Him.” Do you have this kind of a relationship with Him? Have you surrendered your soul to Him?
The comparison the apostle is bringing out in Colossians 2:6 is the fact that we have been saved by grace through faith is the same way we live the Christian life. We are saved and sustained by that same kind of faith in our Lord.
“Just as you received Christ, so go on living in Him – simple faith.” Taylor paraphrased, “And now just as you trusted Christ to save you, trust Him too for each day’s problems; live in vital union with Him.”
The word “walk” (peripateo) is figurative of “the walk of life,” or your life conduct. Make the Lord Jesus Christ truly “Lord” and Master of each day you live. Maintain a close personal fellowship with Christ; your very life depends on it. We must conduct our lives as men and women who have been united with Christ deriving our life from Him. Because of this living relationship with Him, we are to conduct our lives in dependence upon Him (Jn. 15:5).
As you have received Him, keep on walking.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional Salvation: Are You Saved?
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Are You Saved?
Have you been saved? Have you come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? It is a question that is almost exclusive to Christianity.
The word saved in the Bible had three tenses. We were saved from the penalty of sin the very moment we put our trust in Christ Jesus as our savior. We are now being saved from the power of sin by the process of progressive sanctification. Moreover, we shall be saved from the presence of sin at the coming of our Lord in His glory.
We were justified by faith in Christ, we are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit and we shall be glorified when Christ returns for us.
The word salvation is related to the good news of the atoning death of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
God has delivered us from the penalty and power of sin and has preserved us with His gift of eternal life. It is the sum of all blessings bestowed by God through Jesus Christ.
It is only by the name of Jesus Christ that we can ever be saved. Acts 4:12 says, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” “For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).
In salvation God deals with the whole person: spirit, mind and body. The gospel of salvation includes justification, sanctification and glorification.
In the context of this great verse, the apostle Paul reminds his readers, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them” (Romans 1:18-19).
Therefore, we are all without excuse. “And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things” (Romans 2:2). What “things”? Paul tells us in vivid detail in 1:18-3:20.
The Jews were guilty of breaking God’s revealed law. “For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified” (Romans 2:13). The only problem is no one, but Jesus Christ ever lived up to the Law. All stand guilty before God. “There is none righteous, not even one” (3:10). “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (v. 23).
In vivid contrast Jesus Christ revealed the perfect righteousness of God.
However, not only have the Jewish people broken the written Law of God, but “When Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:14-16).
What was the problem? Again all stand guilty before God. “For there is no partiality with God. For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves” (Romans 2:11-14).
What is the solution since we are all depraved sinners? Jesus Christ is our only hope. Salvation is a gift of God by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:22-25; Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 5:6-8, 10:9-10, 13:8-11).
“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17, NASB 1995).
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional: Are You One of the Elect of God?
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Are You One of the Elect of God?
Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me shall come to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37).
The answer to the question, are you one of the elect of God, is answered by another question: Have you believed on Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? If you have responded to His free grace, and have believed on Him alone for salvation, you should know that you are one who was given to Jesus before the foundation of the world.
When Jesus was praying to the Father the night before His sacrificial death on the cross He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life” (John 17:1-2).
Jesus is referring to the covenant between God the Father and God the Son when God gave to Jesus in salvation that great company for whom He would go to the cross and die.
His death provided the objective and judicial basis whereby the elect would be saved.
The prophet Isaiah spoke of that day in his poem of the Suffering Servant. “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:10-11).
Jesus went to the cross the next day knowing that His death would secure the salvation of all whom God had given Him (Jn. 17:2, 6, 8, 11, 12). He had the satisfaction that night of knowing that His substitutionary death would secure our salvation.
Jesus, as our Sovereign Savior, has authority over all mankind to give salvation to all whom God has given Him. Thank God, because we were dead in our trespasses and sins and unable to come to Christ unless He first gives eternal life to us (Eph. 2:1-5). If the Holy Spirit is pleading with you, please respond to Him now and receive God’s free gift of eternal life. This is the very evidence you are longing for because of His dealings with you. He raises the spiritually dead and gives life.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He did not have to save anyone. It is His sovereign grace that reaches down to us and draws us to Himself. Will you not respond to His pleading even now? He has the authority and power to break our rebellious will, and quicken our dead spirit so that we will respond to Him in faith.
Jesus Christ gives eternal life to everyone the Father has given Him. He is just in following His eternal plan of redemption whether you and I agree or not. He is the Sovereign King. He shows mercy to whom He will. God is showing mercy to you now. Will you respond to His pleas?
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).
How do you know you are one of the elect of God? Have you believed on Jesus?
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Daily Devotional: Are You in Adam or in Christ?
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Are You in Adam or in Christ?
Charles Hodge asked a crucial question: “If God requires one thing, and we present another, how can we be saved? If He has revealed a method in which He can be just and yet justify the sinner, and if we reject that method and insist upon pursuing a different way, how can we hope to be accepted?”
The safest answer, of course, is in the Scriptures. What has God revealed?
The first man sinned, but not just once; Adam sinned many times. Before he sinned the first time he was righteous. His righteousness was of his own doing, as a created being. It was the righteousness of a man. However, Adam never had the righteousness of Jesus Christ upon him. What he lost was his own self righteousness.
When you and I put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior we are not merely given back a human righteousness that Adam had before the fall. We are given the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. God gives us “much more” in abundance, a superabundance of grace. He gives us the full weight of His perfect righteousness.
Adam did not stand in his own righteousness. He fell. If we attempt to stand in our own righteousness we, too, shall fall.
The gift of God in Christ far surpasses the effects of Adam’s sin and all other transgressions we have committed.
The humbling fact is we were all in Adam once, and we fell in him. He brought sin and death to the human race by his own sin.
How can you and I escape the effects of the fall of Adam on us?
We can stand in a divine righteousness provided by our divine substitute that will never be taken from us. It is God’s gift to us in His grace. The poet expressed it beautifully:
Jesus thy Blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress.
The apostle Paul wrote that we have received, “God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17).
We “reign in life” even now through Jesus Christ. We have been elevated to a position far above what Adam had before his fall. We not only have been “recovered from the fall, but made to reign through Jesus Christ.”
The righteousness of Jesus Christ has been put to our account, put upon us and it is a righteousness in abundance, ever superabundance.
Because it is of divine grace, all of the glory belongs to God alone. Adam stood at the head of the human race and brought death upon all, so our Lord Jesus stood for man and brings life to all who believe on Him.
Every one of us is in Adam. However, the most important question is, are you in Christ? We have Christ only through faith.
We are under grace because we stand before God as justified men. Grace is the state of justification. Because we have been justified, we remain justified and we can never be condemned.
We have been justified by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. There is no other way to have a right standing with a just and holy God. “Oh to grace how great a debtor.”
God was under no duress or compulsion to save us. Nothing made Jesus Christ die for our sins on the cross. Nothing made God credit the perfect righteousness of Christ to our account. God did it because He chose to do so out of grace.
If you are objecting to God’s revealed word saying how can I be saved by something someone else has done fore me, it is probably because you are not saved.
The good news for all in Adam is that a righteous God by a judicial act declares sinful men to be in a right standing before Him, not on the basis of their own merits because they have none as sinners, but only on the basis of what Jesus Christ has done by dying in our place on the cross. Jesus took the penalty of death for our sins upon Himself and died on our behalf. Now those sins have been punished and God imputes the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to our account.
You are in Adam, but are you in Christ?
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006