Teleios

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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, June 28, 2023

What Christ did for us at the cross

What Christ did for us at the cross

Welcome back to my blog. Last week we began discussing the chronological events of salvation. Although we make salvation efficacious to ourselves by a onetime belief in Christ’s forgiveness on the cross by faith, the marvelous story of salvation begins before all time and ends at Christ’s final glorious return.

Last week we recounted the events leading up to our decision to believe In Christ’s saving work at the cross. These were in rough order:

· Christ choosing us to salvation before all time

· The Holy Spirit convicting us of sin, righteousness and judgment

· God dragging us to himself

Please see last week's blog for details at https://teleiosresearch.com/our-wonderful-salvation-how-did-it-all-begin/.

Today we consider Christ’s work on the cross to provide salvation. This work was made efficacious to us upon our belief.

Christs sacrificial work on the cross

Scripture describes four key components of Christ’s gracious actions on the cross bringing us eternal life through His death:

§ Propitiation – Christ’s sacrifice was a full and sufficient payment for our sins to God (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2).

§ Reconciliation – Christ’s sacrifice ended the hatred between man and God because of our sins. Our holy God cannot be in the presence of sin. Our sins, being forgiven through Christ, changed our status before God as we are now innocent and without sin. This allowed peace between parties and healed (reconciled) the relationship between God and man. (Romans 5:10-11; Colossians 1:20-21: Ephesians 2:16-19).

§ Redemption – Christ’s death purchased us from sin for which we owed a payment of death (Romans 3:23-26;Ephesians 1:7).

§ Substitution – Christ died in our place, taking the punishment we deserved, that we could obtain eternal life (Mark 10:45; 1 Peter 3:18).

These four vital biblical concepts describe Christ gracious work on the cross to forgive our sins, and correct our relationship with God, that we might be saved.

What then must we do to be saved?

How then does someone make Christ’s actions on the cross efficacious for themselves?

Here is an easy to learn gospel message (how to become a Christian based on Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:23-26,Romans 10:9):

· Each person has sinned (done actions contrary to God’s righteous character).

· We each deserve judgment and punishment from a perfect and just God.

· However, God being loving, sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins to take the punishment that we deserved.

· Consequently, by acknowledging through faith the forgiveness that Christ provided by His death, and new life through His resurrection, we gain eternal life!

God did all the work to provide salvation and no credit is given to us. It is a gift with all glory and praise to God. Wow what a great promise!

To summarize, to this point in our salvation journey we have seen that God chooses us, the Holy Spirit convicts us and God drags us to himself to the point of being saved. Then on our belief, salvation became efficacious to us based on Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross and His mighty resurrection.

In gratitude and praise we owe Him our service and praise until we go home to be with Him. Thanks be to God for such a great salvation and for eternal life.

Please join us next time as we discuss what happened to us as a result of the cross. It's exciting stuff so don't miss it!

William C. Stewart, MD

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Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Timeline of Salvation

Our wonderful salvation; how did it all begin?

Welcome back to my blog. We are taking a few weeks to describe what scripture says about our great salvation.

Christians often view their salvation, the decision to accept Christ as their personal Savior by faith, is as simple as crossing the street to reach the other side, but nothing else happens. Further, a person can cross back over to the other side and perhaps not be a Christian again! Nothing could be further from the truth!

Our salvation is part of God’s plan that began before the world was formed and will end when Christ returns. It is full of wonderful safeguards that make it impossible to lose salvation for a true born-again believer.

So, with such great promises let's examine what the Bible states. We will start at the beginning of the salvation process, before time began, until the time of the cross. We then will complete this amazing journey over the next several posts.

The process of salvation (please see figure below):

· The plan of salvation – God’s first step was to create a plan to save man and remove the problem of sin that would be created by Adam and Eve in the garden (Genesis 3:15).

o Because of the sin of Adam and Eve, man fell and became depraved; he was unable to choose God or do good, fleeing from Him (Romans 3:10-12). Therefore, God graciously had to choose, before all-time began, some to come to salvation (Ephesians 1:4,5,11; Romans 8:29-30).

o If God had not chosen, then nobody would have come to saving grace. God has always had to choose throughout the Bible to accomplish his work in the world (Romans 9:7ff).

· Bringing us to salvation –

o Because man would not choose God and did not understand God, the Holy Spirit had to intervene In in those God chose and convict them of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8).

o Further, God had to drag future Christians to Himself to believe (John 6:44). Interestingly, the word used in the Greek (the original language of the New Testament) for ‘drag’ is ελκω (helko), which describes when fishermen cast a net and literally bring fish into their boat. As the fish do not come voluntarily, neither do we! God had to literally force us to saving faith!

· God causes us to believe - Our faith then made Christ’s sacrificial death and His resurrection efficacious for us to our salvation. The content of the gospel can be found here https://teleiosresearch.com/consider-the-gospel/.

Figure: Timeline of salvation

Time course of history

Please note the figure showing the chronological plan of Salvation throughout the Bible. Indeed, the Bible is the story of salvation through our precious savior Christ. God, by His love and wisdom, created this plan, and realized it throughout history and will complete it in the future (Ephesians 1:4-8;10-11).

Today we have discussed the foundation of the plan and how God draws us to himself. Next week we'll discover what happens at the cross.

What a great plan; what a great promise! To God be the glory who has done all the work of salvation and nothing was left to us nor to chance. There is nothing we could have done past, present or in the future to earn eternal life. God did it all; solo fide (only by faith).

Thanks again for joining me and I look forward to seeing you again next time.

William C. Stewart, MD

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Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Teaching the Bible

Knowing God's word is fundamental in understanding our faith. Helping others understand God's word is also foundational because it's how we build a solid church that positively affects society.

We surveyed adolescents and millennials regarding their perceptions on what they define as teaching the Bible, and their own Bible teaching habits. The survey received 230 responses, the majority were: female (63%), <35 years old (86%), from the United States (68%), and evangelical (73%). Full results can be seen here - Young evangelicals and teaching the Bible.

The results showed that about 27% of participants indicated they teach directly from the Bible at a pre-arranged time at least once a week. In contrast, 40% responded they never instruct others in scripture.

For those who do not teach at least once a week the most common reasons were: they do not know enough scripture (42%); do not know how to teach (but would like to learn, 37%); or might make a mistake (34%).

Interestingly, only 11% answered ‘they already teach once a week or more’ (in contrast to the 27% noted above when asked directly if they teach) indicating that there may be 16% (27% -11%) who perceive they teach when asked directly but then give reasons why they do not teach. This finding indicates some Christians might overestimate their frequency of teaching when asked directly.

For those who do teach at least once a week, their preferred method was verse by verse (32%). In addition, their favorite venue in which to instruct was a small group, in person (27%); or one-on-one in-person (19%).

These numbers may indicate, on the lower side, that if 1/3 of people who teach use the verse-by-verse method, and this represent 11% of the total evangelical population, then 4% of young evangelicals teach the Bible directly to others. More research is needed on this topic!

Participants also noted that additional potential valid informal ways to teach scripture were: writing encouraging notes or letters (62%); strengthening others verbally with scripture verses (62%); and living a godly lifestyle (71%). However, 70% agreed that verse by verse teaching had more value than informal techniques.

In general, respondents had good wellbeing (average 4.5/6.0 with 6.0 being the best). However, those who regularly trained others in the Bible (4.8/6.0) reported better wellbeing than those who taught infrequently (4.1/6.0) or did not (4.4/6.0) teach the Bible (P= 0.003).

The survey suggests that young evangelicals generally recognize the importance of verse-by-verse teaching to others and want to learn how to instruct others. Those who teach experience better wellbeing than those who do not.

Nonetheless, young evangelicals are often reticent to teach fearing they are not capable or are not able to answer questions. Further, some may overestimate how frequently they teach the Bible.

So, what is the importance of teaching?

· Problem – Unfortunately, teaching others or sharing the gospel appears to rank right below ‘going to the dentist’ among desired activities. Teleios’ research has shown that people generally fear sharing the gospel specifically report being afraid of social rejection, offending the other person, not knowing what to say, or how to answer others’ questions.

· What teaching is not – Teleios examined people’s habits in mentioning the gospel (a part of our outreach). In a well-taught Evangelical Church, attendees indicated they conveyed the gospel to others most commonly by:

Sharing their lives – 78%
Praying for others – 71%
Encouraging others – 70%
Loving others – 68%
Explicitly mentioning how to accept Jesus Christ as Savior – 30%

Although sharing our lives is important, it does not replace actually telling someone the gospel or directly teaching the Bible. People cannot guess what we are thinking! Scripture recognizes that we do not have visual support to our faith until Christ comes again (Hebrews 2:8) so others need to hear what to believe and someone must explicitly tell them (Romans 10:14-17).

· Why should we reach out to others regarding our faith? There are at least several reasons:

It is a command – We are told to teach others (2 Timothy 2:2,15,24-26; 1 Timothy 4:6,16; Hebrews 5:12) which involves instructing others in the Word of God. However, teaching also may include admonishing others to correct action or thinking (Colossians 3:17; Ephesians 5:19).
Better wellbeing – Teleios has found that people who teach and share the Gospel enjoy better wellbeing than those who do not. What initially seems fearful is actually enriching after a person has shared the Gospel or taught God’s Word.
Good judgment – The ability to teach appears to indicate maturity which is associated with accurate and efficient judgment and avoiding nasty pitfalls in life (Hebrews 5:14).
Maturity – Being able to teach is associated with maturity, especially the attributes of an elder/leader (1 Timothy 3:1-7; Hebrews 5:12).
Uplifting the church – The benefit of teaching others scripture or the gospel is not just for the individual but to the church itself. Teaching the Bible and the gospel is the primary way that we can grow the church and influence our culture generally (Colossians 1:5-10). Without Christians passing down the precious words of our Father to the next generation, the church certainly can suffer from lack of support as opposed to influencing and benefiting our society.

So, let’s get to work! The truth we possess in the Bible is good for our family, friends and acquaintances as well as for our society!

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

William C. Stewart, MD

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