Who Has Believed the Gospel?

Isaiah 53:1-6 ESV

“Who has believed what he has heard from us?

    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,

    and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

    and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

“Surely he has borne our griefs

    and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

    smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.”

The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Jesus Christ (God the Son) came to earth, took on human form, humbled himself and was put to death on a cross by his enemies. When he died, our sins died with him, and when he rose from the dead, he was raised victorious over sin, hell, death, and Satan, on our behalf. He who knew no sin became sin for us on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness.

Not one of us can come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father draws us to Christ. Even the faith to believe in Jesus comes from God and is gifted to us by God, thus the faith that is required for our salvation will submit to God and it will align with God’s will and purpose for our lives. Therefore, by faith in Jesus Christ we are crucified with him in death to sin and we are raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Since our old self was crucified with Christ and thus we died to sin, we are to live in sin no longer. It does not mean we will never sin again (1 Jn 2:1-2) but that sin is no longer our master. We are no longer to be living under sin’s control so that we obey its sinful lusts as a matter of practice. For Jesus shed his blood for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) so we would no longer be enslaved to sin but we’d be slaves of righteousness.

Therefore, we are to honor our Lord with our lives. We are to walk (in conduct, in practice) no longer according to the flesh but now according to (in agreement with) the Spirit of God. Our lives now belong to Jesus. He is our Lord and master and we are his servants, and our will is to do the will of God. So, we walk in obedience to his commands and our will is to do his will and to please him in all that we do. 

We who now walk according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh, who are living to please the Lord, who are walking in obedience to his commands, and who by the Spirit are putting to death the deeds of the flesh are those who will inherit eternal life with God and will have salvation from our bondage to sin. For we are not saved and bound for heaven on a mere profession of faith in Jesus or on lip service only, but on obedience to God.

For Jesus Christ died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He died that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us. He shed his blood for us on that cross that we might now honor God with our lives (with our bodies). And he died to free us from our addiction to sin so that we would now be bondservants of him and of his righteousness.

So, praise God and give glory to God for our salvation from sin, and for him purifying our hearts and making us clean. And praise him for the inheritance he promised to all those who walk with him in white, who are walking according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh.

Nonetheless, if this has not been your experience, because this is not what you were taught about the gospel or because you rejected what you were taught, and thus you have continued on a sinful course, making sin your practice, and righteousness is not your practice, for you believe that you are not required to forsake your sins or to obey the Lord or to submit to Jesus as Lord of your life, then please know this: 

You will not inherit eternal life with God. Heaven is not your eternal destiny. God will judge you by your works and by your refusal to bow to him and to honor him and to obey him and to forsake your sins. So, please read what the Bible teaches and please surrender your lives to Jesus today.

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]

Sing to Me of Heaven

Songwriters: Ada Powell / Benjamin Burke Beall

Sing to me of Heaven, sing that song of peace

From the toils that bind me it will bring release

Burdens will be lifted that are pressing so

Showers of great blessing o'er my heart will flow

Sing to me of Heaven, as I walk alone

Dreaming of the comrades that so long have gone

In a fairer region 'mong the angel throng

They are happy as they sing that old, sweet song

Sing to me of Heaven, tenderly and low

Till the shadows o'er me rise and swiftly go

When my heart is weary, when the day is long

Sing to me of Heaven, sing that old, sweet song

Sing to me of Heaven, let me fondly dream

Of its golden glory, of its pearly gleam

Sing to me when shadows of the evening fall

Sing to me of heaven, sweetest song of all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMeC-hZnhuo

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