CHRIST'S DEFINITION OF SALVATION
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
In the book of John 17: Jesus is very straight forward about what He considers salvation to be as we get a glimpse of one of His prayers through the Spirit to the Father. When I started this discussion last week the most important thing for me was to point out the difference in priority in the ways we view things and in the way God's mind works. What I am seeing through God's Spirit is opening doors for me to understand more about the constant struggle that we make to try to somehow make a physical connection with God rather than the spiritual one that is so important to Christ.
In this prayer Jesus is dealing with His own humanity as He speaks about His own glorification. It isn't merely Him being glorified, but He is concerned about His death on the cross of Calvary. As a man Jesus was already beginning to bare the weight of this world's sin on His own Spirit. Jesus prayed for the protection of the believers, and for all to become sanctified ( or set aside from this world). Jesus knew that unity could never be achieved on a physical basis any more than perfection could be achieved in any way except through our spirits. When Christ prays about our ultimate glorification He is referring to the time when we finally shed these mortal bodies and become once again as we have been created to be in spiritual form. Jesus often prayed for those of us who would become the church in this day and age.
The direct definition of what God considers salvation to be is found in John 17:3, and deals in our complete belief in Christ as the Son of God. We find this same thing repeated in John 3:16, John 4:42; John 6: 33 1 John 4:14, and 1 John 5:20. The real message is that we must abide in Christ in the same way that He abides in the Father through God's Holy Spirit. God wants for us to know His true nature instead of what we create in this world for Him to be to us. If we follow any kind of physical definition of this process we will be thrown off track from God's original intent. In the same way that Peter was told how the church was established it is also true for us. It is the divine revelation of who Jesus really is that establishes the church; and the truth of that cannot be destroyed even by the gates of hell itself. All of this is centered in the message that God the Father had given to Christ to deliver to us (John 17:8). This yet another area that we tend to completely misunderstand: for it becomes the message that has been delivered to us that is so important for us to keep straight. It is the message from God to mankind that is messed with by the enemy more than anything else as the world does all it can to confuse us about definitions and concepts of God. The world attacks the message from God that establishes Jesus as the Son of God, and of our need to be hidden within Christ through the Spirit. The world knows that we can never do that through a physical way; but only by the complete realization that God's Kingdom has truly nothing to do with this physical plane of existence.
The concept that Christ had of salvation was that we would all be blended together in such a way that we became a part of one another just as He is blended with the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is only by being perfected in the Spirit that we can ever be one with Christ, and that is certainly trtue about our attempts to be one with each other. John 17: 23 " I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one;and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.". The true salvation of God comes in what He loves so much as to give His Son's life for it. Christ has overcome death in the ways we think of death as being. Just as He has set up a new covenant wiith us through the obedience to God through the spirit of the law rather than a physical obedience that can be manipulated and hidden to the eyes of men and women. We are to become that which we were created to be in the first place. No eye has seen, and no ear has ever heard what God has in store for those who love Him. This statement cannot be true in any other way than through the Spirit of God within us., may you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
In the book of John 17: Jesus is very straight forward about what He considers salvation to be as we get a glimpse of one of His prayers through the Spirit to the Father. When I started this discussion last week the most important thing for me was to point out the difference in priority in the ways we view things and in the way God's mind works. What I am seeing through God's Spirit is opening doors for me to understand more about the constant struggle that we make to try to somehow make a physical connection with God rather than the spiritual one that is so important to Christ.
In this prayer Jesus is dealing with His own humanity as He speaks about His own glorification. It isn't merely Him being glorified, but He is concerned about His death on the cross of Calvary. As a man Jesus was already beginning to bare the weight of this world's sin on His own Spirit. Jesus prayed for the protection of the believers, and for all to become sanctified ( or set aside from this world). Jesus knew that unity could never be achieved on a physical basis any more than perfection could be achieved in any way except through our spirits. When Christ prays about our ultimate glorification He is referring to the time when we finally shed these mortal bodies and become once again as we have been created to be in spiritual form. Jesus often prayed for those of us who would become the church in this day and age.
The direct definition of what God considers salvation to be is found in John 17:3, and deals in our complete belief in Christ as the Son of God. We find this same thing repeated in John 3:16, John 4:42; John 6: 33 1 John 4:14, and 1 John 5:20. The real message is that we must abide in Christ in the same way that He abides in the Father through God's Holy Spirit. God wants for us to know His true nature instead of what we create in this world for Him to be to us. If we follow any kind of physical definition of this process we will be thrown off track from God's original intent. In the same way that Peter was told how the church was established it is also true for us. It is the divine revelation of who Jesus really is that establishes the church; and the truth of that cannot be destroyed even by the gates of hell itself. All of this is centered in the message that God the Father had given to Christ to deliver to us (John 17:8). This yet another area that we tend to completely misunderstand: for it becomes the message that has been delivered to us that is so important for us to keep straight. It is the message from God to mankind that is messed with by the enemy more than anything else as the world does all it can to confuse us about definitions and concepts of God. The world attacks the message from God that establishes Jesus as the Son of God, and of our need to be hidden within Christ through the Spirit. The world knows that we can never do that through a physical way; but only by the complete realization that God's Kingdom has truly nothing to do with this physical plane of existence.
The concept that Christ had of salvation was that we would all be blended together in such a way that we became a part of one another just as He is blended with the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is only by being perfected in the Spirit that we can ever be one with Christ, and that is certainly trtue about our attempts to be one with each other. John 17: 23 " I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one;and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.". The true salvation of God comes in what He loves so much as to give His Son's life for it. Christ has overcome death in the ways we think of death as being. Just as He has set up a new covenant wiith us through the obedience to God through the spirit of the law rather than a physical obedience that can be manipulated and hidden to the eyes of men and women. We are to become that which we were created to be in the first place. No eye has seen, and no ear has ever heard what God has in store for those who love Him. This statement cannot be true in any other way than through the Spirit of God within us., may you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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