[4] “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. [5] You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 ESV)
The very last thing I want for my own Christian walk is to get off the narrow way and fall into some form of deception following after some sort of false teacher that promises a way to get closer to God if we will follow him (or her) only to find out that we are like the blind following after blind guides. Any one who is truly born of God is in Christ. They are new creations. They were once dead in their trespasses and sins and now they have been made alive by God Himself (Ephesians 2:1-9). All through the Bible we are commanded to draw close to God, to repent, to be holy even as our Heavenly Father is holy, et cetera. This is for the mature in Christ, not the immature. How do we grow from new Christians into those who are those living sacrifices Paul spoke of in Romans 12:1?
We have spent a great deal of time over the last several months digging deep into God’s Word clarifying both how we come to be in Christ and how we grow in Christ. As we look with eyes of wisdom into the history of the Church we see that many persuasive deceivers have been enabled to preach their false gospels and lead many away with their false-gospel of “experience.” Remember what we have been studying my brethren. What is the Gospel? It is a message of good news of the completed work of Christ on behalf of those he came to redeem through the sacrifice of himself on the cross. There, the sins of the elect were imputed to his account and all who believe this good news by faith turning to him as their Lord and Saviour are forgiven of their sins and have Christ’s perfect righteousness and his perfect keeping of the law imputed to their account. This is the Gospel. <Continue reading post>