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 alone 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, May 21, 2025

Justification - we are legally without sin!

Welcome again to my blog. I am grateful you have taken the time to visit.

We recently began a series regarding the results of personal salvation in Christ and why it might be associated with enhanced wellbeing as found through our research. We have been describing what happens at the time of salvation, as taught in the Bible, resulting in a new and wonderful position for a believer.

This week let us discuss justification! There is no other more important result of Christ’s work on the cross than our justification by faith. Let's examine in some detail the meaning of this great promise.

· Meaning of the New Testament word - This word is vital because the complete meaning in Greek of the word, “justification” (δικαιος, dikaios) is not fully conveyed by the English. As you know, Greek is the original language of the New Testament. The word dikaios carried a legal meaning that still exists today in modern Greek. The word reflected then someone who was found innocent in a court of law of all charges against them. Just like now, in ancient times in the Greek and Roman world there was no double jeopardy. 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 and found us guilty of our sins and gave us the death sentence but afterwards, stood up, removed His judicial robe, came around in front of the judge’s bench and took the punishment for us. This satisfied God's demand for righteousness but also showed His great and gracious love for us.

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 was a sufficient sacrifice to satisfy God's judgment. Accordingly, He died once for all sin, for all time, and He does not need to do this again as did the Old Testament priests (Hebrews 6:1-14; Hebrews 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. There is no double jeopardy!

WOW! We are secure in our position before God. We can come to him boldly because there are no limits on our access after we believe and become a Christian (Hebrews 10:20-23). What a great promise we have in our justification!

Indeed, God has given us, as Christian believers, a marvelous salvation and a wonderful secure eternity with Him (Romans 10:9-10; 2 Peter 1:4-5). Come back again next week and we'll complete this exciting overview of the results of our salvation.

William C. Stewart, MD

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Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Holy Spirit seal of approval

Welcome again to my blog. Thank you for visiting.

We recently began discussing the results of personal salvation in Christ and why it might be associated with enhanced wellbeing as found through Teleios research.This blog series is describing what happens, as taught in the Bible, at the time of salvation resulting in a steadfast new and wonderful position of a believer. We have covered already several wonderful promises accompanying salvation. This week let us discuss the Spirit sealing, another fantastic biblical promise!

The Holy Spirit is often misunderstood, but He is a key component in our salvation, resulting position before God and subsequent Christian walk. At Salvation the Holy Spirit is given to us. 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). These are the main points to review about the Spirit at salvation. Read and enjoy!

Spiritual baptism - We discussed this great promise two weeks ago; that the Holy Spirit regenerates us to a new life in Christ, identifying us with His death and resurrection upon the cross. We are a new creature in Christ (Romans 6:2-9; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10).
Entry into the church - The Spirit places us in the church universal through which serve Christ.
The Spirit sealing - This week we learn that the Holy Spirit at salvation is given to us as a seal unto the day of our redemption, the second coming of Christ, when we will live with him eternally (Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Corinthians 5:5).

Fortunately, this seal is not talking about a cute aquatic mammal, but it is speaking of a secure seal to bind us to Christ. Seals were used in the ancient world as a legal means to close a document. If a king had created a new law or 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.

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 until we go home to heaven. Importantly, all those who believed by grace in Christ's forgiveness on the cross are Christians and have the Spirit and the seal (Ephesians 2:8-9).

What great promises we possess as believers in Christ with a position so eternally secure with a great hope for the future and a steadfast anchor our souls while we are on Earth (Hebrews 6:19; 1 Peter 1:4-5).

Thank you for joining me on this fascinating Journey of who we are as a Christian before God. Please join us again next week to learn more.

William C. Stewart, MD

Website – http://teleiosresearch.com

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Tuesday, April 29, 2025

What is the universal church?

Welcome again to my blog. Thank you for visiting.

This blog series is describing what happens, as taught in the Bible, to individuals at the time of their salvation. We started last week with the fantastic promise of spiritual baptism, resulting in a steadfast new and wonderful position of a believer. This week let us overview our membership in Christ’s church.

At salvation the Holy Spirit places each of us into the church of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). This is a great promise and is a part of the results of our belief in salvation by faith alone in Christ.

The form of the church into which we are placed by the Spirit can be called, in theological terms, the church universal, and can roughly be described as the following:

· It is the union of all believers worldwide who form the complete body of Christ.

· Its head is Christ who sits at the right hand of God the Father and currently leads His church (Colossians 1:17-18; Hebrews 8:1; Ephesians 1:20-23).

· Scripture does not indicate that our membership can be revoked from the church universal.

· Although we are each instructed to be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:16), we each have different functions within the church (1 Corinthians 12:13-27; Romans 12:4-5).

The practical outworking of the church universal is multiple organized bodies of believers often called the local church, but in our current age might be virtual (online) as well. Para-church organizations (e.g. independent missions or college ministries) function within the church universal, but similarly to the local church. Scripture gives broad definition to how churches are organized which allows great flexibility to serve Christ in various times and cultures.

These concepts of the church I've tried to base on scripture without cultural overlays of expectations and definitions. Regardless, the concept of the universal church is controversial. For example, some denominations may not accept the concept of a ‘universal church’. However, as the Apostle Paul states, we do what we do in faith using what we need to serve God, filtered by prayer and God's word (1 Timothy 4:4-5; Romans 14:23).

In this series so far, we have covered that at our salvation through faith in Christ’s death on the cross we have a spiritual baptism that identifies us as resurrected to a new life and places by the Spirit in Christ’s church.

Praise be to God for such wonderful promises and positions resulting from such a great salvation. Stay tuned next week as we continue our discussion of the results of salvation. Thank you for joining me today.

William C. Stewart, MD

Website – http://teleiosresearch.com

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Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Spiritual Baptism

Welcome again to my blog. Thank you for visiting. The next several blogs will talk about what happens, as described in the Bible, at the time of salvation resulting in a steadfast new and wonderful position of a believer. The blogs are based on the list presented last week.

At salvation we receive:

Spiritual baptism
Membership in the church
The Holy Spirit
Adoption
Justification
Possession

Let's start with spiritual baptism. This important biblical truth is vital in understanding who we are as Christians. Our knowledge about baptism will transform the way we think!

First, let's consider the word itself. Although controversial, in the Epistles when baptism is mentioned it speaks generally of spiritual baptism. It does not mean dunking or sprinkling primarily; water baptism might be considered as an external ritual to signify the internal event. The word is βαπτιζω (baptizoo) in the Greek (this is the language in which the New Testament originally was written), 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.

Secondly then, what does being identified with Christ have to do with us as Christians? Fortunately, a lot! When we become a Christian, we are identified with Christ’s gracious death and His resurrection. Otherwise, at salvation our old self died and was buried with Christ. We are raised now to new life with Him and we sit with Him on the right hand of God the Father (Romans 6:2-12; Ephesians 2:4-7; Colossians 2:12-13).

Why is this concept so important? Similar concepts in Scripture that also appear to speak probably to spiritual baptism are: regeneration (Titus 3:5), born again (John 3: 5) and a new man (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10):

Believer’s sin - Although every believer sins we can say ‘no’ to sin because as a new person in Christ we have the power to live a victorious life.
The reason for the resurrection - Baptism teaches us the importance of the resurrection because we are raised with Christ to new life without which we would still be dead in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17).
Eternal security - Baptism helps prove we cannot lose our salvation. because scripture does not indicate that if we commit sin that our new self can be killed, and the old dead self resurrected like some bad re-make of the ‘Night of the Living Dead’!

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

Christ is a fantastic and true savior! The nature of our salvation is so important that we will address each of the individual promises. Come back next week as we continue this exciting journey.

William C. Stewart, MD

Website – http://teleiosresearch.com

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