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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Without Sin Unto Salvation, #3
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)
"And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"!
To forgive us and then to permit us to remain what we are, bringing us into the Presence of God, into Paradise, in our lusts and self-centeredness, would be to change what Paradise is, what God Himself Is. It would be to bring wickedness into the Presence of God.
Forgiveness is the means of bringing us to the procedures of salvation. Salvation includes our forgiveness and our deliverance from the person, works, and effects of Satan, and carries us all the way to the fullness of the image of Christ and total union with God through Christ.
The Christian salvation is not limited to forgiveness coupled with exhortations to holy living, although we have been forgiven and we must do what we can to live a holy life.
Our attempts to live in a righteous, holy manner are necessary if we are to continue on the path of redemption. Our efforts to live by the Word hold us steady while the program of salvation, which includes the forming of Christ in us, increases in our personality. The Divine salvation is not the reforming of what we are but the creation of a new personality.
The new personality, that which is born of God, does not sin. The new personality cannot sin because it has been born of God (I John 3:9).
The Old Testament contains a picture of the Christian salvation.
God justified Abram by faith:
And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)
Then God began to teach Abram concerning redemption—the conquering of God's enemies and the driving of them from the land of promise.
First, God informed Abram that one day he would receive the land of his wandering as an inheritance. Today God is showing us that one day we will receive the earth and its nations as our inheritance (Genesis 15:7; Psalms 2:8; Romans 8:17-21; Revelation 11:15).
Second, God commanded Abram to present his sacrifice. We are to present our body as a living sacrifice to God (Genesis 15:9,10; Romans 12:1).
Third, Abram maintained his sacrifice (Genesis 15:11; I Corinthians 9:27). Keeping the birds off the sacrifice represents our efforts toward holiness of behavior.
Our redemption does not consist of refraining from one behavior or practicing another. Such discipline on our part is a maintaining of our sacrifice until the Lord comes. Disciplined, scriptural behavior is a necessary part of the victorious Christian life. Otherwise the "birds of the air" will eat up our sacrifice while we are waiting for God.
Fourth, God revealed Himself to Abram in "an horror of great darkness" (Genesis 15:12; II Corinthians 5:11). The believers of our day do not know the terror of the Lord. They are imagining that God is some kind of "good old guy." Any person who claims we should not fear God has never himself been in the Presence of God.
To be continued.