A Divine Jealousy For You

“I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” (2 Corinthians 11:1-4 ESV)

When we believe in Jesus Christ, with genuine God-persuaded faith in him, we enter into a spiritual marriage covenant with Christ. He becomes our husband, and we become his bride (all believers in Christ, male and female). Now our lives belong to him and we are under his authority, and our will is to do his will for our lives. For by faith in him we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness.

This marriage covenant is modeled after the Jewish marriage covenant of biblical times which may or may not be what they still do today. In those times the prospective bride and groom, via the agreement between their respective sets of parents, I believe, signed a covenant of marriage, and so they were regarded as married. But then the groom went and prepared a place for his bride, and while he was doing that she was to remain faithful to him. Then he came and got her and then their marriage was consummated.

It is the same as with our marriage to Christ. We are married to him, but the marriage has not yet been finalized (completed). Right now he is preparing a place for us, and one day he is going to return and he is going to take his faithful bride to be with him for eternity. And that is when our salvation will be completed, and not until then. And while we wait for him, God’s grace is instructing us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives, in obedience to our Lord.

[Matthew 9:14-17; Mark 2:18-22; Matthew 25:1-13; John 3:25-30; John 14:1-3; Ephesians 5:22-33; 2 Corinthians 11:1-4; Revelation 19:6-8; Revelation 21:2-4,9-11; Revelation 22:16-17; Titus 2:11-14; Romans 8:24; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-2; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5,9]

So, while we are waiting for our Lord’s return, we are to remain faithful to our Lord as his pure bride. We are not to go after “other lovers.” We are not to cheat on him. But we are to remain submissive to him as Lord of our lives, and we are to walk in obedience to his commands in holy living. And we are no longer to make sin our practice, but righteousness and obedience to God are to be what we practice, by the grace of God and in the power of God. For Jesus died to free us from our addiction to sin so we’d serve him.

So, the concern here, though, is that many who have believed in Jesus, or who have made verbal professions of faith in Christ, are now wandering from their pure devotion to the Lord and they are following after the gods of this world and of the flesh and after false teachings of humans in their deceitful scheming. Yet, because so many preachers today are indeed teaching another Jesus and a different gospel than the one that Paul taught, the masses seem to be flocking to that other Jesus and that different gospel.

For Paul and the other NT apostles, and Jesus Christ himself, taught that faith in Jesus Christ that is genuine God-persuaded and God-gifted faith results in us denying self, dying daily to sin, and following our Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands. For Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. If, however, we continue walking in deliberate and habitual sin against our Lord, and against other humans, and not in obedience to our Lord, then we do not have the hope of salvation and eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

So don’t believe the charlatans and the “wolves in sheep’s clothing” who disguise themselves as servants of righteousness but who tell you lies. Don’t believe you can make a mere profession of faith in Jesus and then go on living in sin and not in obedience to his commands and that you will still be welcomed into God’s eternal kingdom. For Jesus said not everyone saying to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God. And many who profess his name will hear, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” (see Matthew 7:21-23)

Who Believes?  

An Original Work / October 3, 2013

Based off Isaiah 53

Gospel message, who believes?

Jesus Christ died on a tree,

Saving us from all our sin,

So we might be cleansed within.

Had no beauty found in Him,

That we should desire Him.

Man of sorrows, suffering;

Crushed for our iniquities.

Surely He has borne our griefs;

From our sadness, brings relief.

Bore the stripes; forsaken, He,

So forgiven we might be.

We, like sheep, have gone astray,

Each of us turned his own way.

Jesus calls, “Repent today;

My commandments, now obey.”

Jesus said, to come to him,

We must die to all our sin.

Crucified with Him, we live,

Walking in His righteousness.

Suff’ring servants, we will be,

Taking His identity on us,

When confessing Him

As our Savior, Lord and King.

https://vimeo.com/115517757