For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." Romans 1:16-17
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20
The true gospel of Christ, is the power of God to salvation (Soteria) for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, as it is written, "The just shall live by faith. Yes, God gives power to save from sin and all others things to those who believe the true Gospel. The idea that we are “sinners saved by grace” is an oxymoron. There is no such saying in the Bible. Sinner saved by grace. A man is either a sinner or he is saved from sin by grace. Jesus always made a distinction between His followers and sinners. The bible records:
Then He came to His disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners (Matthew 26:45).
David Eellis in his book Sovereign God For Us and Through Us [xii] writes”
The Lord through Paul said that Jesus is separated from sinners. (Heb.7:26) For such a high priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Those who justify themselves in their sin by saying that we are all just sinners saved by grace will not obtain mercy through our High Priest. (Pr.28:13) He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy. David said that sinners would be separated from among the righteous and would be judged. (Ps.1:1) Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, Nor standeth in the way of sinners, Nor sitteth in the seat of scoffers. (5) Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
If we believe the deceiver’s gospel that we are always going to be sinners instead of “made free from sin,” then that is what we will have. Jesus said, “As thou hast believed, [so] be it done unto thee” and “According to your faith be it done unto you.”
It is important that we believe exactly what the Word says. It is important that we see the Biblical Jesus in the mirror and not “another Jesus” of man’s making (2 Cor.11:4). If in the mirror, we are looking at the humanistic Jesus preached most often today, then that is the only image we can come into. This is a Jesus who has no power. Does the Jesus in your mirror have power over sin and the curse? Does He have power to minister healing, deliverance, and provision? If so, then that is what He will be able to do through you.
(Col.1:21) And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, (22) yet now hath he reconciled (Greek: “exchanged”) in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him: (23) if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye heard (the original Gospel).
We are now reconciled because of the cross if we continue in the faith, unwavering from the true Gospel. The Greek word translated “reconciled” here means “exchanged.” On the cross, Jesus exchanged His life, blessings, and power for our old life, curse, and weakness. Our old life and its penalty, the curse, are on the cross, and now Christ lives in us. God exchanges us to present us holy and without blemish, to deliver us from our past evil works. The Christ, Who is blessed with righteousness and power, will exercise sovereignty through us because He lives in us. We are now ministers of this reconciliation (2 Cor.5:18-21). In other words, it is our job to administer the exchange to those who believe so that people are saved from sin, healed, delivered, and provided for.
The curse is enumerated in Deuteronomy 28, and it covers everything bad that happens to man as a result of breaking God’s laws. Jesus bore this curse so that we would have authority over it, both in our own lives and in the lives of others who believe.(Gal.3:13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us … (14) that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus …. Jesus became the curse, and now we who believe have the “blessings of Abraham.” He was blessed in “all things” (Gen.24:1).
The exchange was accomplished at the cross but will be manifested as we apply the Gospel by faith to the curse. Before the fall, Adam lived in the Garden of Eden with no sickness, corruption, or lack of any kind. Look around you. The curse is manifested in all of the creation because of the fall. In His life and in His death, Jesus destroyed the curse. He passed on this ministry to His disciples, and they were commanded to pass it on to their disciples, and on down to us (Mt.28:19,20). Eventually this Gospel was totally corrupted by religion so that what was passed on was a form of godliness that denies the power thereof (2 Tim.3:5).
The Holy Spirit empowers those who have received Him to come into all that Christ is. Paul prays in Ephesians, “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (Epe.3:16-19). The full scope of Christ, His breadth, length, height, depth, and love, was provided to us through faith. Christ is to be “apprehended” by faith as we are empowered by God’s Spirit, “that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” Does it seem too good to be true? “Gospel” means “good news.” I did not write the Word, I just believe it. Do not let religion stop you, brothers and sisters.
Notice the phrase “the fullness of God.” If, as Genesis 1 says, each seed brings forth after its own kind, then what seed has been sown in us? First, by our parents, we were all born of the seed of fallen humanity. Then, according to the parable of the sower, we receive the seed (Greek: sperma,“sperm”) of the Word ( Jesus) and are born again from above. That seed of the Word is not the seed of man, but God.( Jn.1:1) …The Word was God. ( Jn.3:6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (7) Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew(Greek: “from above”). When Jesus told the Jews that He was the Son of God, they tried to stone Him, saying, “Thou, being a man, makest thyself God” ( Jn.10:29-33).They knew that if God had a son, He would be God, also.
(Jn.10:34) Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ye are gods’? (35) If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken) (36) say ye of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am [the] Son of God?
In the original language, there were no capital or lower case letters for words such as “gods” or “spirit.” Jesus was saying that the Jews who had received the Old Testament Word of the letter were by position gods. How much more then are we who have received the New Testament Word of the Spirit? We are gods, not in the flesh for that is the seed of man, but in the spirit for that is the seed of God. Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit.” Since each seed brings forth after its own kind, the son of a dog is dog, the son of a man is man, and the son of God is god. The more of God’s seed that we give good earth to, the more God manifests Himself in us.
(Rom.1:3) concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, (Jesus was Son of man in the flesh.) (4) Who was declared [to be] the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness (Son of God in the spirit),by the resurrection from the dead; [even] Jesus Christ our Lord.
We, as Jesus, are son of man in the flesh but son of God in the spiritual man. (Heb.2:17) Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren …. Jesus was made like us in everything. (18) For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor (Greek: “come to the aid of ”) them that are tempted. As Son of man, Jesus knew temptation and is therefore able to help us. Our Jesus is the “only begotten (born) Son of God,” and we are reborn sons of God through Him.
(Epe.4:11-13) And he gave some [to be] apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers (The Nicolaitan error [Rev.2:6,15] teaches that some of these ministries are done away with, but the Word says no such thing.);for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The fullness of Christ, all of His righteousness and ministry, are provided for us. The apostate church tells us that this stature is unattainable because they count on man’s ability, not God’s. They are saying that God is unable or unwilling to completely save us from the power of sin and corruption.
(Heb.7:25) Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost (Greek: “completely”) them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
I can hear some say, “Dave, I do not see any of these people around. How can this be?” First of all, without a mind completely renewed by the Word, we could not discern them. Jesus was discerned by very few as being in the fullness of God. The leaders of Israel did not recognize Him. Even His disciples questioned Him: Peter rebuked Him, and Thomas doubted Him. Secondly, He has saved the best wine for last.(2 Thes.1:10) When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day. Paul believed there was a day coming when the saints would have grace to believe His teaching and manifest Jesus. This declares that the Lord would come when this happens. His crop has come to maturity, ready for the harvest. (11) To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and [every] work of faith, with power; (12) that the name (Greek: “character and authority”) of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s grace, through the faith of the saints, will manifest the character and authority of Jesus in preparation for His work and His coming.
The prophet Joel declares full restoration of all that the curse and religion has taken from God’s people.( Joel 2:23) Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he giveth you the former (or early) rain in just measure, and he causeth to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, in the first [month]. (24) And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil (bearing much fruit). (25) And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you. These insects represent the curse on God’s crop or His people. God said the early and latter rain would restore His people from the years of devastation. This rain was identified in Joel 2:28,29 as the outpouring of the Spirit on God’s people.
Peter quotes Joel 2:28,29, declaring that the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost was a fulfillment of this prophecy.(Acts2:16) But this is that which hath been spoken through the prophet Joel: (17) And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams. The “former rain” of the Spirit came “in the last days” of the Old Testament people of God, and the “latter rain” will come in “the last days” of the New Testament people of God. This former rain came to the Jews that believed, to restore them after a great falling away, and then it was passed on to the Gentiles. Those disciples who received that power of the Spirit walked as Jesus walked and did His works. The pagans called them “Christians,” meaning “Christ-like.” There is little evidence to convict many of that today, but the story is not over. For almost 2,000 years, only a few have been partakers of the former rain. The latter rain will come to believers, to restore the fallen Church to Christ-likeness, and then it passes on to the Jews.
When will the latter rain come? Both the Jews and the Church have fallen away from what was given in the Gospels and Acts for 2,000 years. The Spirit of God says,(Hos.5:15) “I will go and return to my place,till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me earnestly.” This is clear that the Lord left Israel and the Church to their own self-will and false leadership. In the midst of affliction, which has already begun, there will be repentance. His people will say, (Hos.6:1) “Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. (2) After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him. (3) And let us know, let us follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is sure as the morning; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth.” The Lord will come as the latter rain. The Holy Spirit will manifest in those who receive Him, Jesus Christ. We see on the morning of the third day the latter rain outpouring will come to empower and restore after a two-day (2,000 year) falling away period.
EXTRACT FROM Our Wonderful Redeemer
http://walthope.tripod.com/redeemer.htm
http://walthope.wordpress.com
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100302133262254344211/posts
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