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claim, God "imputes" Christ's righ–
teousness of 19 centuries ago to
you-by sort of "kidding Himsf! Ir'
that you are righteous. Meanwhile,
they say, you are given license to
still be a spiritual criminal breaking
His law! God does not impute to
you something you do not have.
Far from it: The living Christ by
His power makes us righteous! He
imparts to us power to actually be–
come righteous.
lt
is His doing!
Why
Not to Heaven Now?
Once again, back to you! Now
where are we?
There are, first, two things you
must do. On that very day of Pente–
cost after Christ had ascended to
heaven, many who had joined the
mob crying out "Crucify Him!" dur–
ing Christ's tria! before Pilate were
conscience-stricken and afraid when
they heard Peter's inspired sermon.
They cried out, "What shall we do?"
They, too, were helpless.
"Repent, and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit," was the inspired answer
(Acts 2:38).
Note it! Two things you do:
l) Repent-turn from your way
by turning to God's way-His law!
You repent of sin. Sin is the trans–
gression ofthe spiritual 1aw.
2) Be baptized. The Ethiopian eu–
nuch, coming to a lake, asked Philip
what hindered him. to be baptized.
"If thou believest· with all thine
heart" was Philip's condition (Acts
8:36-37). Repentance is toward
God, for the law comes from God,
but faith is toward Jesus Christ
(Acts 20:2 1). God commands that
faith in Christ's atonement for sin
should be expressed through the act
of baptism. (Write for our free
bookiet
Al/ About Water Baptism.)
This, then, gains contact with
God. That is as far as you can go on
your own. You have reached your
extremity! So now God completes
the third step
outli~ed
in Acts 2:38:
3) You shall receive the Holy
Spirit.
This is God's gift. It is the pres–
ence, conditionally, of eternallife.
And now if you faithfully follow
God's way- the way the Holy Spirit
leads- you are already a begotten
40
son ofGod! "For as many as are led
by the Spirit of God, they are the
sohs ofGod' ' (Rom. 8: 14).
"Beloved,
now
are we the sons of
God, and it doth
not yet
appear
what we shall be: but we know that,
when he [Christ) shall appear, we
shall be like him; for we shall see
him as he is" (I John 3 :2).
Get it straight! You are now con–
verted- a changed person- for
God's Spirit (Eph. 4:23) produces a
renewing of your mind. Your whole
concept and direction of life are
changed! God's Spirit is His very
lije
imparteq to you! You are now a
begotten son ofGod.
But it does not yet appear what
you shall be. 1John 3:2 does not say
"where you shall go" or "where you
shall be."
It
is talking about a condi–
tion, not a place: "what we shaU
be"! Salvation is a matter of what
you become-not where you shall
go! God's purpose is to change you
from your vile character to His glo–
rious character- not to change the
place where you are!
But, you are now already a begot–
ten son of God; you may now call
Him Father as long as you are led
by His Spirit (Rom. 8: 14-15).
And there are still more "ifs."
You must grow spiritually (II Peter
3: 18). It is "to him that overcometh"
that Christ will grant to sit with Him
on His throne, when He returns to
earth (Rev. 3:2 1). If you overcome–
overcome your own carnal nature,
the world and the devil- and keep
Christ's works (not your own works,
but Christ's- by His Spirit in you) ,
then you .shall reign and rule all
nations with Him in the happy
world tomorrow!
The Christian Life
The very fact that the Christian life
is one of overcoming, growing spiri–
tually, means that none is perfect on
repentance, faith in Christ, and re–
ceiving God's Holy Spirit.
I have said previously that at the
. time of conversion you are forgiven
sins that are past. That is correct.
You are not given license to commit
sins in the future. But a false accuser
represented falsely that this is a
teaching that you can never be for–
given any future sins.
That, of course, is not true. The
newly converted Christian is still
mortal-still ftesh and blood- still
human. God's Holy Spirit has en–
tered his mind, and that is the di–
vine nature. But this new divine
nature does not drive out the old
human- nature. That is still there,
too.
The newly converted Christian
has come to a change of mind. Be–
fore, he actually loved sin-now he
hates it! But he is the victim ofmany
habits. He will be caught off guard,
and as a matter of habit , before he
fully realizes it, he may do someth ing
that is a sin. Or, through human
weakness, and because he has not yet
attained constant contact with God
through prayer, he may succumb to
sorne temptation, and sin. Then he
repents- he is remorseful. Can he be
forgiven? Of course! Read 1 John,
chapters 1 and 2.
As long as the Christian really
wants, in his heart , to obey God and
to live God's way, God looks on the
heart, and forgives on repentance.
But what 1 want to emphasize is
that we are not given license to re–
turn to a desire for sin and to delib–
erately live a life of continuous sin,
and then say · we were forgiven in
advance. You are never forgiven sin
in advance. Always you are forgiven
sins that are past. But when Jesus
said we must forgive until seventy
times seven, will He do less?
So, finally, back again to you!
Where are we now? You have been
converted-changed in mind, con–
cept, attitude, direction and way of
life; you are begotten as a child of
God ; you have now eterna! life
abiding in you- as long as you are
led by God's Spirit in God's way, as
long as you continue in contact and
fellowship with God
(1
John 1:3).
This comes all by God's grace as His
gift, and is not anything you have
earned by your works. Now if you
continue overcoming, growing spiri–
tually- and all this actually through
God's power-you shall inherit the
Kingdom of God, and be made im–
mortal to live forever in happiness
andjoy!
o
A copy of this series of articles is avail–
able in booklet form. The booklet is
titled
Just What Do You Mean . . .
Salvation?
Address your request to our
office nearest you. (See inside front
cover for addresses).
The
PLAIN TRUTH June/ July 1978