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The Ancient Path |
SAYING THE GOSPEL
Only
let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
PART-1
[Isaiah 40:12]
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?[Romans 1:21-25]
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man... they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator...[Romans 3:23]
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
However, what I could not do, God did.
[Romans 5:6]
For while we were still helpless,
at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
And in doing what He did,
He did it all, sending His own Son into the world to die on the cross for my
sins.
[Romans 8:3]
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through
the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as
an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.
By this He has shown me unfathomable love.
[Romans 5:7-8]
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person -- though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die -- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Now when my time came and I placed my faith in Jesus,
God instantly granted me a great salvation. He forgave me of all of my sins,
past, present, and future.
[Colossians 2:13]
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.[Psalms 103:12]
As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
He made me His child, adopting me into His family.
[Ephesians 1:5]
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.[John 1:12]
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.
He gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit, who gives me
God's power.
[Acts 1:8] ... you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you...
[Ephesians 3:16]
that... he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.
The Holy Spirit pours out God's
love within my heart.
[Romans 5:5]
... God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
The Holy Spirit tenderly communicates to my spirit that
I am a child of God and an heir of eternal glory in heaven.
[Romans 8:16-17]
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs -- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ...
SAYING THE GOSPEL
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ
PART-2
Encouragement in Christ
Every breath, every heartbeat, every function of every organ in my body is a gift from Him. Every legitimate pleasure I experience is a gift from His loving hand to me.
[1
Timothy 6:17]
... God, who richly provides
us with
Going my own way and
living according to my own wisdom, I have
broken countless times either the letter or the spirit of every one of God's Ten
Commandments.
[Exodus 20
3-17] You shall have no other gods before
me. You shall not make for yourself
a carved image ... You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain ...
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy... Honor your father and your
mother... You shall not
murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall
not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not
covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet... anything that is your
neighbor's.
[Colossians 3.5] ... covetousness, which
is idolatry.
[Matthew
5:27-28] "You have heard that it was said,
'You shall not commit
adultery.' But I say to you
that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed
adultery with her in his heart.
[1 John
3:15] Everyone who hates his brother is a
murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
Thinking myself to be
wise, I have shown myself to be a fool; and
because of my arrogance. God has every right
to damn me to the everlasting experience of His terrifying wrath in the Lake of
Fire.
[Romans 6:23] For the
wages of sin is death ...
[Revelation 21:8]
[Ephesians
2:3] among whom we all once lived in the
passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and
were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Jesus loved me so
much that He was willing to lay down His life for me. No one could ever love me
more or better than Jesus.
[John
15:12-14] ... I have loved you. Greater love
has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his
friends. You are my friends ...
God also allowed His
future and present wrath against me to be completely propitiated by Jesus, who
bore it upon Himself while on the cross. Consequently, God now has only love,
compassion, and deepest affection for me. and this love is without any admixture
of wrath whatsoever.
[1 John 2:2]
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for
ours only but also for the sins of the whole world,
God always looks upon me
and treats me with gracious favor, always working all things together for my
ultimate and eternal good. God's grace abounds to me even through trials.
[Romans
8:28] And we know that for those who love
God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His
purpose.
SAYING THE GOSPEL
Have this mind among yourselves,
which is
yours in Christ Jesus.
Part-3
The Glory of God
All that I am and all that I have I owe to Him
and to His goodness.
[James 1:17]
Every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no
variation or shadow due to change.
My life in every way is, and will continue to be,
utterly dependent upon Him in whom I live and move and have my being.
[Acts 17:28]
For in him we live and move and have our being ...
My Sin Against God
So as for myself, apart from Christ I am bound by the
guilt of my sins and also bound by the power of sin, enslaved to various lusts
and pleasures.
[Romans 3:19]
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those
who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world
may be held accountable to God.
[James 2:10]
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has
become guilty of all of it.
[Titus 3:3]
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led
astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and
envy. hated by others and hating one another
[Ephesians 2:3]
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh.
carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children
of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
God's Work On My Behalf
On the third day after Jesus' death, God raised Him from
the dead, thereby announcing that His death was completely sufficient to atone
for every sin that I have or will commit throughout my lifetime.
[1 Corinthians
15:4]
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in
accordance with the Scriptures,
[Acts 13:30, 38-39]
But God raised him from the dead,
My Salvation
Because I am a justified one, He subjugates
every trial and forces it to do good unto me.
[Romans 5:1-5]
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained
access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the
glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character
produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been
poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
When I sin, God's grace abounds to me all the
more as He graciously maintains my justified status as described above.
[Romans 5:20-21]
... where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so
that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness
leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
When I sin, God feels no wrath in His heart
[1 Thessalonians 5:9-10] For God has not destined us for wrath, but to
obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether
we are awake or asleep we might live with him.
[1 John 2:2 (NLV)] He himself is the sacrifice that atones for
our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.
His heart is filled with nothing but love for me, and He
longs for me to repent and confess my sins to Him, so that He might show me the
gracious and forgiving love that has been in His heart all along.
[1 John 1:9]
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Excerpt from
A Gospel Primer For Christians by Milton Vincent All Scripture is from
the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.
2022-04-17 2230