| E-MAIL SERVICE | Sign me up to receive the daily Word of Righteousness free via my E-mail address! ( ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ) | |
| ARCHIVES | I want to check out the daily Words of Righteousness for any of the last fourteen days or from previous weeks. ( ENGLISH ONLY ) | |
| FEEDBACK | I have a question or comment about today's Word of Righteousness. ( ENGLISH AND SPANISH ONLY ) | |
| BOOK LIST | I would like to see the complete book list of the Words of Righteousness author Robert B. Thompson. (SOME SPANISH TITLES AVAILABLE ) |
The Daily Word of Righteousness
Without Sin Unto Salvation, #2
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (I John 3:8)
Let us say a person comes to Christ for forgiveness. He has been and still is committing various kinds of sin of spirit, soul, mind, and body. The Lord Jesus forgives him. God forgives him. But he has not been saved from sin until the Lord releases him from the bondages of sin that are in his spirit, soul, mind, and body. Salvation includes deliverance.
Full salvation cannot take place until we are released from the power of Satan. Our redemption includes spiritual and eventually physical healing.
Beginning with the Protestant Reformers, God has restored many truths to the Church: the just shall live by faith, the priesthood of the believer, water baptism by immersion, the born-again experience, the second coming of the Lord, the necessity for living a holy life, the gifts of the Spirit, and the concept of the Body of Christ. One of the understandings being restored today concerns the nature of the salvation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are beginning to see that salvation, while it includes forgiveness, is directed primarily toward deliverance from Satan and union with God.
The centuries of the Christian Era have been as Israel wandering in the wilderness. Many lessons are learned in the wilderness.
The Word of God that came to the Reformers marked the beginning of the preparation of the Church for the invasion of the land of promise, for the Day of the Lord, the Day of Redemption.
The Day of Redemption is the Day of Vengeance of our God—vengeance upon the spiritual enemies of God and man (Isaiah 61:1,2). As the Day of Vengeance draws near, God will bring into the consciousness of His people the concept of spiritual warfare, of judgment on the devil. The judgment and destruction of Satan is a major aspect of the Divine salvation. Forgiveness holds us intact until the Lord is ready to save us in the sense of delivering us from Satan.
God is ready to save us from our sins. God hears our prayers because of the holy blood of Christ. But the goal of salvation is not forgiveness. Forgiveness leaves us in prison. The Lord Jesus came to release us from prison, to destroy the works of the devil (I John 3:8).
We humans are sinful creatures. The Christian salvation is not the changing of God so He is willing to accept us as we are.
The Christian salvation changes us from being chariots of Satan to being chariots of Christ.
If God were to bring us to Paradise as we are by forgiving us and not transforming us, God then would be forgiving Satan—the part of Satan that is in us (Romans 6:6; 7:20,24). Such forgiveness never would result in the Kingdom of God, in the doing of God's will in earth as it is in Heaven. We then would be forced to continue in our present miserable bondage.
Rather it is true that God through Christ is ready to judge us, discerning what is of Satan in us and destroying the wickedness out of us. This is salvation. This is redemption.
To be continued.