The Ole Ball and Chain.

Forgiveness is one of the many things we have a hard time dealing with. Some often say, "It is easier to ask forgiveness, than it is to get permission." which is a quote from Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. 

We ask for forgiveness in situations that we have placed ourselves in but it is usually proceeded by our disregard for the situation. We knowingly choose to do something and then ask for forgiveness. 

However, when it comes to our sins we think that we can not possibly be forgiven for those. We feel like we must do something to atone for those, even though they are the same as the previous example. (That could be an entirely different discussion.) 

The wonderful thing we learn about who we are in Christ is the positional truths that we have based solely on our identification with Jesus Christ. However, this truth is most usually veiled in a series of do's and don'ts. The reality of our position in Christ is in plain sight to the reader of scripture, but it is hidden to those that simply "attend" church. 

Based on the authority of the scriptures, we can know that we have ALL of our sins forgiven the moment we trust in Christ's faithfulness which was put on display in the death, burial, and resurrection. We know that when we place our faith in what Christ did we are completely and totally identified with Him. 

His death is now our death. 

His burial is now our burial.

His resurrection is now our resurrection. 

        Romans 6:3, 4

        Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his             death? 

        Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up             from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 

Christ died and rose again that He might live unto God. The same is now true of those who have trusted in the cross work of Christ. 

We have been forgiven of ALL trespasses. 

        Ephesians 1:7

        In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the                riches of his grace; 

        Ephesians 4:32

        And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for                     Christ's sake hath forgiven you. 

        Colossians 2:13

        And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened             together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

Those of us which have come to that understanding REJOICE! 

Yet, even some that come to understand that truth do not understand the guilt of those sins should be gone as well. 

How? 

Through the exact same relationship that we have the forgiveness.

If we are justified, which we are, then we are declared righteous. God has declared us righteous because we are in Christ. Righteousness is God's standard of perfection. God imputes unto us His righteousness by the faith of Jesus Christ. 

Therefore, when we trust in the faithfulness of Christ, God gives us His righteousness, which is His standard of perfection. That means that we are perfect, IN CHRIST. Because of our identification with Christ, we are given the gift of righteousness. 

All we have to do is believe the Word of God that tells us these truths. 

Saved individuals are walking around with a ball and chain strapped to their ankles, yet they hold the key to loose themselves from it. 

Trust the Word of God today. 

Grace and Peace

Greg Resor

Complete in Him

Do You Really Believe the Entire Bible?

Many people proclaim to believe the entire Bible was written to them and they live every word of it.  However, there are some things in the Bible you can not do and should not do today.  So what we want to do is to take a look at Gods word, rightly divided.  In so doing, we will find out what Gods will is for our life today.

1) If we read Genesis 6:14, may we take this verse and apply it to our loves today?

Genesis 6:14, Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. KJV

How many people ran out to find gopher wood to build an ark after you read that? 

None?  Why not?

Is not Genesis 6:14 part of the word of God?  Yes!  Why do you not build an ark?

2) Mark 16:14-18, 

14  Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. 

15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 

16  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

17  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 

18  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. KJV

Have you trusted/believed? Yes.

Have you been baptized? Yes.

Have you cast out devils? No!

Have you spoken in new tongues? No!

Have you taken up serpents? No!

Have you drank deadly things? No!

Have you laid you hands on the sick? Yes.

Did they recover? No!

Why have some of those things not taken place? God says is shall happen. That means it will happen if you have actually believed and have been baptized. 

Is God a liar?  GOD FORBID!  God cannot lie. Titus 1:2

Since God is not a liar and all of those things have not taken place, then it would stand to reason that God is not doing those things today.

We can look at those two examples and see that God, in His essence and being has not changed, but how He deals with man has changed. 

Do You Really Believe the Entire Bible?

Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

This verse tells us that everything that we read in scripture was written for our learning. We know that all scripture is for our learning, but not all scripture is written specifically to you or about you. 

I believe you will agree that Genesis 6:14 is not written specifically to you. We can; however, learn about God's faithfulness to His word. God did exactly what He promised He would do. From this account, we can learn that God will accomplish what He promised. Therefore, we know that when God makes a promise to us, the Church the Body of Christ, we can trust He will perform.

That is a wonderful thought. This is where we get our confidence. 

Philippians 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: 

Philippians 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 

Philippians 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

God is doing something today in you and we can trust that He will perform it. The way God does this is through a proper understanding of God's word. 

1 Thessalonians 2:13  For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. 

If we think all of the Bible is written to us and about us, then why don't we build an ark?

Knowing what God is doing is where we need to begin. That is why knowing how to rightly divide the word of God is so important.  

You can believe the entire Bible and know what is written directly to you and about you. 

Grace and Peace,

Greg Resor

Complete in Him

True Repentance and True Godliness

2 Corinthians 7:9-11 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.  For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.  For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. 

If you read this passage, one thing must jump out to us very quickly.  Paul talks about the fact that they sorrowed to repentance.,  That means the word repentance does not mean to be sorry about your sin, but rather repentance comes from sorrow.  However, not just sorrow, but Godly sorrow.  Godly sorrow produces true repentance, which produces true Godliness.  Many today are sorry more often than not because they have been caught in some sin or transgression.  That is not true sorrow, Godly sorrow.  The purpose of Godly sorrow is that we might not receive damage, that your testimony might not be destroyed.  

Scott Baio was just recently railroaded on a morning television show by two things he posted on social media outlets.  He says he wrote a speech while he was at church and then the interviewer showed him the two social media posts and asked him if he had thought about those posts while he was in church.  Many may say, that he is a man and that no one is perfect.  I am sorry folks, but that is a cop out.  The posts were something he should have thought about before he posted them, asking himself; Is this post something that shows the world the life of Jesus Christ?  Is this how a saint of the Most High God should act?  This is something, if he has trusted in the cross work of Jesus Christ and actually is saved (but that is another issue), he should have thought about beforehand. Since he did not think of this beforehand, then the way he should have dealt with the posts was to acknowledge his sin on live television by saying, "Yes. This type of sin is what Jesus Christ died for that I should learn from and have true Godly sorrow work in my life based on the grace God has shown all of us by the work on the cross.  

This Godly sorrow is what leads us to repentance, the changing of our mind based on the knowledge and information we have stored up in our soul, that is sound doctrine.  The thing someone may come along and point out the fact that the Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation.  They may say that this is initial salvation.  Rather, Paul is dealing with saved individuals.  He is talking to them about salvation from that particular lifestyle, sin, or wrongful desire.  He is telling them that they can choose to no longer live that way.  They should know that grace teaches that we are to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts that we should walk soberly, righteously, and  godly in this present evil world. Titus 2:11, 12.  The wrong kind of sorrow, the sorrow of the world, works death.  That is dealing with saved individuals as well.  There are many today who listen to the likes of James Dobson and others who just peddle worldly sorrow rather than true Godly sorrow.  What this does is lead to a Christian who is functionally dead.  One who cannot function based on the word of God, rightly divided.  They find themselves performing step after step and never getting to true sorrow, true repentance, and find themselves out of the will of God.

What is true Godly sorrow?

"... that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter."

Sorrow after the Godly sort includes:

Carefulness – looking for a sin in your life to fix. 

Clearing of yourself – removing the sin. 

Indignation – anger is given to motivate ourselves to deal with the sin. 

Fear – the alarm for us seeing the need to get rid of the sin.  

Vehement desire – wanting to get rid of the sin. 

Zeal – the concern to do what is right.  

Revenge – readiness to avenge the wrong and see justice done.  

As we understand who we are in Christ, then we are able to see how we are to live by grace.

This all leads to us being approved and cleared in the matter.  We know that we have a place to send our sins to, the cross.  We have already had our sins paid for by the cross, we already know that our sins are forgiven by the cross, and then we have the ability to look the cross.  We can then say that this sin has already been paid for and forgiven, so I am free to get rid of it and replace it with the proper response,  We know that we have been cleared in the manner and we need our walk to correspond to our position in Christ.  

Grace and Peace

Greg Resor

Complete in Him

crossworkministries.org

Δεν ξέρεις ελληνικά.

Why would someone need to know Greek or Hebrew to translate or understand an English Bible?
The answer is, you do not.

Why do some pastors insist on teaching/translating the Bible for you?
So that they become your final authority, rather than allowing the scripture.

If you speak English and you have a Bible written in English, why do you need to know the Greek or Hebrew?
The answer is, you do not.

This issue actually comes down to, what is your final authority?  

Once we come to the realization that scripture is our final authority, then we will understand that we have been given everything we need to understand scripture.  That being said, we DO NOT need to know or understand Greek or Hebrew to fully understand scripture.  

The problem we have is that it takes time and effort to understand scripture properly.  We have to study God's word and we are told how to study.  The only verse in the Bible that tells us to study also tells us how to study the word is :

2 Timothy 2:15 KJV

[15] Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

The purpose of our studying is not to boast about our knowledge, but rather to be workman.  The manner in which we are to study is by rightly dividing the word of truth.  That in and of itself is a completely different study.  

The next thing we need to get a grasp on is that we have been given everything we need in order to understand scripture once we study it properly.  That is found in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV

[16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: [17] That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Verse 17 starts with the word "that".  Which tells us the purpose of verse 16.  Why was scripture spoken out of the mouth of God?  Why did God put His spirit in His word? Why is scripture profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness?  So that we are perfect.  What does perfect mean?  According the verse, perfect means to be throughly furnished unto all good works.  That means we are completely and totally equipped to live the life God expects us to live.  That is to say that we do good things because of who God made in what Christ did for us on the cross.  We no longer do good works to gain favor with God, but because we have favor with God, we now do good works.  No that does not mean we do good to keep our salvation.  It is by grace through faith we are saved and it is be grace through faith we are to live.

Colossians 2:6-10 KJV

[6] As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: [7] Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. [8] Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. [9] For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. [10] And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

We are compete in Christ and we must live that way and study that way.

Therefore, we must move forward in our walk with Him.  

The last question I have for you or your pastor is, what is the title of this post?

Grace and Peace.

Greg Resor

Complete in Him

Out With the Old, In With the New

Who Are We... Really?

That Old Man