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Disclaimer - This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and or do your own research into the scriptures.

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

The Holy Spirit - Part 1

The Holy Spirit is a very important yet controversial topic. Opinions vary widely about the role of the Spirit, from various forms of traditional orthodox and different levels of charismatic beliefs. However, Christians often lack knowledge of what scripture teaches about the Holy Spirit.

Let’s look at what the Bible itself says about the Spirit to better shape our thinking, based on the true word of God. The general structure of scripture’s teaching about the Spirit for the New Testament church can be listed into three basic areas:

· The Spirit’s work in salvation

· The Spirit’s role in our Christian walk

· The Christian’s duties to the Spirit

For this blog let's focus on the Spirit’s role in salvation. Indeed, the Spirit in salvation is key. He performs the following vital functions:

· Convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8) – This role is vital because left to our own resources, as fallen man both physically and mentally, we would not come to faith and salvation by our own efforts (Romans 3:10-12). Therefore, the Spirit helps unbelievers recognize their faults, the coming judgment and God’s demand for righteousness.

· Baptizes (Romans 6:2-9; Ephesians 2:4-7; Colossians 2:12-13) – In the epistles the word ‘baptism’ signifies spiritual baptism which occurs at our salvation by the Spirit. The actual meaning of the Greek word for baptism (βαπτιζω, baptizoo) is ‘to identify with’. Therefore, the Spirit baptizes us by identifying us with Christ’s death and resurrection.

The Spirit accomplishes this by putting to death our old person” and upon belief, resurrecting us to a new living person. ‘Regeneration’ and ‘born again’ are other concepts in Scripture signifying this important event (Titus 3:5; John 3:9). These wonderful verses demonstrate to us the profound importance of the resurrection because there is no eternal life without the resurrection and regeneration (1 Corinthians 15:13-19).The incredible fact of spiritual baptism (which water baptism may symbolize) gives us surety for our great salvation. As a new creature we cannot be slain and re-created into our old dead self.

· Seals to redemption (2 Corinthians 1:22; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:13-14) – This great promise indicates that each believer has the Holy Spirit from time of belief in Christ’s death and resurrection until death and going to be with God. Indeed, one of the definitions of a Christian is one who has the Holy Spirit for without Him a person is not yet a believer (Romans 8: 9).

· Places believers into the church (1 Corinthians 12:13) – The Spirit graciously places believers, at salvation, into the universal church (body) of Christ of which Christ is the head (1 Corinthians 12:13).

As you can see, the Spirit is integral in bringing believers to salvation, completing salvation and beyond to eternal life. What a fantastic blessing that believers have such a gift from God as the Holy Spirit!

Stay with me, in our next few blogs we'll discover more about how the Spirit helps us in our daily life following salvation. Learn scripture as it is the key to understanding the Spirit’s work in empowering our lives. Read full content at Holy Spirit – Power Source for the Christian Life!.

Thank you for joining me. I look forward to seeing you next time.

William C. Stewart, MD

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1. http://www.biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/adoption.html

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Our Secure Salvation - Part 3

The great promise of eternal security

Welcome back to my blog. We are in the middle of a wonderful discussion of eternal security. This is a vital theme in the Christian life that gives us confidence in our relationship with God and allows us peace of mind, spiritual growth as well as to better serve both our Lord and other men.

To date, we have discussed direct statements in scripture that state our salvation is secure God Himself causes us to persevere, the Holy Spirit has sealed us to our salvation, and we are regenerated into a new holy person acceptable to God. Please review the last few blogs for our initial compelling discussion on eternal security.

Let us continue today by discussing the two more primary positions in Christ that result from salvation and are unchangeable.

Justification (we are innocent)

This is a vital result of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Let us examine in some detail the meaning of this great promise.

Meaning of the New Testament word – This word is key because the complete meaning in Greek of the word, “justification” (δικαιος, dikaios) is not fully conveyed by the English. The word dikaios carried a legal sense that still exists today in modern Greek. In the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, the term signified that someone who was found innocent in a court of law of all charges against them, just like now, there was no double jeopardy (1). This important legal concept means once you have been found innocent you cannot be charged again for the same crime.
Christ’s work in justification – The Bible indicates that each of us has sinned and “fallen short” of what God requires of us (Romans 3:23). Because God is just, He demands punishment for our misdeeds. However, because He is loving, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to take the punishment in our place (Romans 3:24-26).

It’s as though Christ acted as a courtroom judge, found us guilty of our sins, sentenced us to death, but afterwards, stood up, removed His judicial robe, came around in front of the judge’s bench and took the punishment for us, our past present and future sins!
Christ’s death satisfied God’s demand for righteousness but also showed His great and gracious love for us.

No other work or sacrifice is required – Importantly, Christ is a sufficient sacrifice for our sins as He is perfect, holy and without sin (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 7:26; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, Christ satisfied God’s righteous demand for judgment. Accordingly, He died once for all sin, for all time, and He does not need to repeat this as did the Old Testament priests (Hebrews 6:1-14; 10:10-18).

Our legal position before God was pronounced “innocent” when we trusted Christ for forgiveness of our sins. We do this only once and our sins are forgiven for all time. Since Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient for all our sins for all time, nobody can charge us again (Romans 8:31-34). There is no double jeopardy!

Adoption

This concept is important in our society because when a family legally adopts a child the new family member gains all the rights and privileges of a naturally born child (2). In other words, their new status in the family is permanent and cannot be overturned. What a great promise of security to the child!

Likewise, in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, as in our own society (with some differences), adoption provided permanent legal status for a child that could not be overturned (3). The Apostle Paul states our status as adopted children into God’s family in four separate places in his epistles, indicating the importance of our new position following accepting Christ as Savior through faith (Romans 8:15; 23; Ephesians 1:5; Galatians 4:5). Consequently, we are children of God, adopted into His family with legal protection and a permanent status.

What great promised positions we hold before God, permanently accepted and guaranteed to please Him.

Next time we will cover a special passage talking about those who do not believe that Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient and God's attitude towards them. This passage will also help confirm that we are secure in our salvation. Join us again.

A full life is reserved for those who know and do scripture!

William C. Stewart, MD

2. http://www.biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/seal.html

3. https://www.westernseminary.edu/transformedblog/2014/02/25/baptisim-meaning-and-mode/

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1. http://www.biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/seal.html

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Our Secure Salvation - Part 2

Last time we discussed direct statements in scripture that our salvation is secure, and it is God Himself causes us to persevere. This week we move into deeper and exciting biblical points of reasons we are secure and not a superficial hope or fallacy.

We begin by discussing our four primary positions in Christ that result from salvation and are unchangeable. We will discuss the first two positions in this blog and the next two in the next time.

The Spirit’s sealing

We are marked as God’s possession at salvation and the Holy Spirit is given to us (Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9). This is a great promise and is a part of the results of our belief to salvation by faith alone in Christ’s substitutionary work on the cross (Ephesians 2:8-9).

o Seals were used in the ancient world as a legal means to close a document. If a king had given a new order, molten wax might be poured on the document to seal it and the king’s signet ring pressed into the wax. The king’s symbol in the wax would tell the carrier or the recipient that the contents of the document were the king’s will and breaking the seal inappropriately or ignoring the order was done at a person’s own peril (1).

o We are sealed by our King and it reflects the same legal and unbreakable character as ancient law. Further, the Spirit seals us throughout our whole life on earth as God’s own possession, until we go to heaven. Importantly, all those who believe by grace in Christ’s forgiveness on the cross are Christians and possess the Spirit and the seal (Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9).

Spiritual baptism

This important biblical truth is vital in understanding who we are as Christians.

o Meaning of ‘baptism’ - Let’s consider the word itself. Although controversial, in the Epistles when baptism is mentioned it speaks of spiritual baptism. Water baptism might be considered as an external ritual to signify the internal event. The word is βαπτιζω (baptizoo) in the Greek (the original language of the New Testament), and was an old term borrowed from the dye trade. It meant that a piece of cloth immersed in the dye became ‘identified’ with the new color (2).

o Significance of spiritual baptism to eternal security - How is being ‘identified’ with Christ associated with eternal security? Fortunately, a lot!

§ We are a new person - When we believe at salvation we are identified with Christ’s gracious death and His resurrection. At this time, our old self dies and is buried with Christ. We are raised now to new holy person acceptable to God and able to enter heaven (Romans 6:2-12; Ephesians 2:4-7; Colossians 2:12-13; Hebrews 10:19-22). Similar concepts in scripture that also appear to speak probably to spiritual baptism are: regeneration (Titus 3:5), born again (John 3:5) and new man (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10). Why is this concept so important?

§ Unchangeable salvation – Baptism helps us know we cannot lose our salvation because scripture does not indicate that if we commit a sin our new self can be killed and the old dead self-resurrected!

In other words, we are transformed permanently to a new life, resurrected with Christ and are free to serve Him. We cannot be defeated by the misdeeds of our old self. These changes cannot be reversed. What a great comfort we have in the truth of scripture.

Wow, what great promises and what a great Salvation. God is so good and gracious. Please join us again next time as we continue with the last two points of our positions in Christ which help guarantee our security in our salvation.

2. https://www.westernseminary.edu/transformedblog/2014/02/25/baptisim-meaning-and-mode/

William C. Stewart

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