"The Gospel of your salvation"
Ephesians 1:13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed.
The Gospel of your salvation is not about going to heaven the moment we die, the true Gospel is a love story of redemption, restoration and God making all things new and God having a people who want to be part of it.
Colossians 1:13-14 God has saved us from the dark kingdom where Satan rules into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Redemption: to be rescued, bought back, or set free from bondage.
How shall we understand salvation?
Before we were saved, we were spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins. We had no desire for the holy things of God, no knowledge of the hopelessness of our condition. We were separated from all that God had promised His people. We lived without God and without hope in this world.
Ephesians 2:11-12 Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.
This was you until someone shared the Gospel with you. The Good News about God’s love for you and the forgiveness He offers through His Son. You heard of His great plan to make all things new, and you believe it all and wanted to be part of it, so you were baptized into salvation.
Acts 2:38-39 Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
Through your act of faith, by being baptized, you are asking God to cleanse your conscience of all your past sins so that you can receive the Spirit and start your new life in Christ.
1 Peter 3:21 Baptism is not the washing of dirt from the body. It is asking God for a clean conscience. It saves you because Jesus Christ was raised from death.
Salvation is a free gift, it has to be free because a spiritually dead person has no ability to make themselves spiritually alive. The Spirit is freely given to those whose hearts and minds are ready to receive it.
Ephesians 2:1-5 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved.
Salvation has to do with escaping the punishment we deserve for all our past transgressions and sins by being cleansed of them forever. Salvation is the beginning of a new way of life.
Romans 4:7 Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
2 Peter 1:9 But whoever does not have them is short-sighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
Hebrews 9:15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
Once our sins have been cleansed, they are forgiven and can no longer be held against us, no matter what we’ve done in our past. When this happens, God will change our old stubborn heart of stone and make it a heart that is pliable and soft, able to receive truth from God. This will allow God to put His Law in our heart and mind and enable us to live a holy life as defined by God.
Jeremiah 31:33 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Hebrews 10:16-17 “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.”
God is doing all this because He is creating a holy people that He can call His own.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the people who are God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
The Prophet Ezekiel tells us what happens to us when salvation takes place. First, God cleanses us of all our past sin, then He softens our heart to receive from Him, then He gives us His Spirit to empower us to obey His Law and do the things He desires from His people.
Ezekiel 36:25-28 Then I will put clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will make you clean from all your unclean ways and from all your false gods. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My Laws and be careful to do what I tell you. And you will live in the land that I gave to your fathers. You will be My people, and I will be your God.
This all has to do with God fixing our past spiritually dead condition to prepare for Himself a faithful people like His Son, a people who are worthy to live forever in His Kingdom.
Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
The Kingdom of God is a time and place where there will be no more death, pain or sorrow, nothing that sin caused in God’s first creation will be part of His new creation.
Revelation 21:1-5 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is faithful and true.”
The first step to being part of all this is salvation. Salvation is the cleansing of all our past sins to make us holy to be in God’s presence. This has nothing to do with our future sins. It’s our responsibility to submit to the Spirit by saying no to our old sinful lifestyle, which was when we lived without God and was without hope in the world. Even though we have been saved, there is still the pull from the old sin nature within us to go back to the old sinful way of life.
Romans 8:12-14 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
If we don’t love God with all our heart and have a strong desire to be in His Kingdom, we will not submit to the power of God’s Spirit to say no to sin. Remember, the Spirit is working within us to create a people for God, if we don’t submit to the Spirit, we will have no inheritance in the Kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
If we continue to live an unholy life of sin, we will not see the Lord.
Hebrews 12:14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.
Being born of God’s Spirit, and having a softened heart, we now hate it when we sin. The Spirit will move the sinner to turn to God for forgiveness and to have their conscience cleansed of the effect of that sin that can harden the heart. This is done through confession by admitting to God that we have sinned and to seek His help to do better next time. Confessing when we sin is what keeps us connected to Christ, and spiritually alive.
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.
2 John 1:9 Anyone who goes too far and does not live by the teachings of Christ does not have God. If you live by what Christ taught, you have both the Father and the Son.
If we refuse to confess, and allow God to cleanse us of that sin, that attitude of refusing to confess is a symptom of the hardening of the heart that causes us to turn away from God.
Hebrews 3:12-14 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.
A hard heart is a heart that is no longer sensitive to the Spirit’s conviction of sin. Responding to the Spirit’s conviction is what leads to confession, which leads to repentance, which leads to God’s cleansing, which restores the sinner to right standing with God. The person who refuses to confess and repent of their sin has hardened their heart and is falling away from God.
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
If we refuse to repent of our sin, we won’t lose eternal life, because eternal life is a free gift, and the gifts and callings are irrevocable.
Romans 11:29 For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.
So, what happens if we allow the love of our sin to harden our heart to where we refuse to repent? We will spiritually die, and no spiritually dead person, who is living an unholy lifestyle, will inherit the Kingdom. This is because the Kingdom, unlike salvation, is not a free gift; we must live a way of life that proves worthy of receiving the Kingdom.
Hebrews 12:14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.
Ephesians 4:1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
Luke 20:35 But those who are considered worthy to experience the world to come and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.
Luke 3:8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
1 Corinthians 9:27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
Luke 21:36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
Matthew 10:38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
So, what happens to those who turn away from God and become unworthy of experiencing eternal life in God’s everlasting Kingdom? They end up in a place for creatures that can’t die. The place that was prepared for the devil and his angels.
Matthew 25:41 Then Jesus will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’
Matthew 25:44-46 Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’ “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”
Those who have never received eternal life in this life will just live out this life, and in the end, will perish forever i.e. cease to exist.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Luke 13:3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
Psalm 37:20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
Psalm 92:7 That though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever.
Malachi 4:1 For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
This is why the Bible says it would have been better for someone not to receive the way of righteousness, then to receive it and then turn away from it.
2 Peter 2:20-21 People can be made free from the evil in the world. They can be made free by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But if they go back into those evil things and are controlled by them, then it is worse for them than it was before. Yes, it would be better for them to have never known the right way. That would be better than to know the right way and then turning away from the holy teaching that was given to them.
Daniel 12:2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace.
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
Their end condition is now worse than their first because now they have eternal life, but they are unworthy of the Kingdom, so they will spend it in the place that was prepared for the devil and his angels.
Matthew 25:41 Then Jesus will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’
Luke 20:35 But those who are considered worthy of experiencing the world to come and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels.
Daniel 12:2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace.
It’s better never to have heard the way of righteousness than to hear it, receive it and then turn away from it. Notice how Messiah says it would have been better if Judas hadn’t been born. Why? Because he received the way of righteousness, but he turned away from it.
Matthew 26:23-24 He replied, “One of you who has just eaten from this bowl with me will betray me. For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!”
John 15:5-6 Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.
Matthew 7:20-23 Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
If you love God, and really want to be part of His Kingdom, walking worthy will not be hard, just different.
If you feel God is calling you to be part of His eternal family, or if you have any questions, feel free to email me at TheWayGathering@aol.com or contact me through the contact link below.
See you in the Kingdom...
