by Pam, Footsteps of Jesus

These were questions in a workbook of a Precepts class on Romans that I took. These were the same questions I was asking God because at 17 years old I prayed asking Jesus into my life and then for 26 years I went my own way. I was a horrible person and my family suffered dearly. I came to truly know Christ and follow Him 4 years ago and started asking God ‘what happened, was that prayer real’. Through a 2-year in-depth study of Romans and time with God in prayer He showed me truth.

To answer these questions we must look at definitions of several words. The first word to look at is ‘Lord’. The Greek word for it is ‘kurios’ which means master, owner, and supreme controller.

The next word is sin (Greek word – hamarta); the definition of sin is to miss the mark, lawlessness, and a violation of God’s will or law. The bible gives some very clear definitions of sin.

1 John 3:4 – "He who practices sin practices lawlessness and sin is lawlessness".

1 John 5:17 – "All unrighteousness is sin".

Romans 14:23 – "Whatever is not from faith is sin".

James 4:17 – "To know the right thing to do and not do it is sin".

Sin is disobedience to God; to His ways, His will, His commandments. That is what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden when they sinned by eating from the Tree of Knowledge that God had told them not to eat from. "The Lord God commanded the man saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die". (Genesis 2:16-17)

The Bible tells us "all like sheep have gone astray" (Isaiah 53:6), ‘"here is none righteous, not even one"(Romans 3:10), "and ‘the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord".(Romans 6:23)

The Bible is very clear that anyone unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God; they will not have eternal life. "The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God"’. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Not only does anyone unrighteous not inherit the kingdom of God they will pay a penalty for their disobedience when they die or when Jesus Christ returns. "When the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power". (2 Thessalonians 1:6)

The Bible teaches that we are slaves to sin.'‘For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness". (Romans 6:20). We are slaves to what we obey and if we are slaves to sin, sin is our master and we are not a slave to righteousness. Remember anyone Unrighteousness will not inherit the kingdom of God. We know that sin is our master, so we need a new master.

Now let’s look at repentance (Greek word – metanoeo), it means to repent, to change any or all of the elements composing one’s life; attitude, thoughts and behaviors concerning the demands of God for right living. It is a military term meaning to change direction. It is doing a complete 180-degree turn from one direction to going in the complete opposite direction.

Let’s look at faith (Greek word – pistis) and believe (Greek word – pisteuo). Faith is trust. Believe is to PUT one’s faith in, to trust with implication actions based on that trust will follow. Belief is what you have, faith is what you do because of your belief. For example, you believe an airplane will get you to your destination safely. It is by getting on the airplane you show faith in what you believe.

Jesus Christ became God-man, born of a virgin, tempted as we are in all points without yielding to that temptation, He was put to death on a cross as our sin-bearer. Why? How does the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ affect the one who comes to Him and in faith believes on Him for salvation?

Matthew 1:18, 21 – "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit….She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins".

1 Timothy 1:15 – "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners".

2 Corinthians 5:21 – "Jesus who knew no sin was made by God to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ".

Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Why? Anyone unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God because "all unrighteousness is sin" and "the wages of sin is death"; they will pay the penalty of eternal destruction.

So what do we do? How is a person saved?

Mark 1:14-15 – "Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God, and saying ‘The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel".

Acts 17:30 – "God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent".

Romans 10:13 – "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved".

Romans 10:9 – "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved".

What do you believe in when you "call on the name of the Lord" and "confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead"?

Romans 6:10 tells us – "for the death that He (Christ) died, He died to sin once for all". Jesus died to sin, for you, for me, for the world. Why? (Romans 6:7) "for he who has died is freed from sin". Jesus was without sin so He did not die for His sins. "God made Him (Christ) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him". (2 Corinthians 5:21) Christ died for my sins, for your sins, for the sins of the world. Did you see the ‘so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him’? Anyone unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God right? And ‘there is no one righteous, not even one right? Ok, hold that thought.

What is salvation? Salvation (Greek word – soteria) denotes deliverance. Deliverance from what? If we are to be delivered from the penalty of eternal destruction, then we have to be delivered from sin because "sin is unrighteousness" and "anyone unrighteous" will not inherit the kingdom of God. Can we do anything on our own to be righteous? NO!

So when a person is saved whose righteousness is it? Look at the last part of 2 Corinthians 5:21 again, it says "so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him". Him who? Christ. Is it our righteousness? No, it is righteousness in Christ. It is His righteousness not ours. Doesn’t that absolutely amaze you? It does me. How could it be that He would die for someone like me so that when God looks at me He sees righteousness? Trust me when I tell you I could do nothing on my own to be righteous and with my past there isn’t enough paint that would cover my stains of sin.

So when you "call on the name of the Lord" what are you doing? To answer this let’s look at 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 "I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, LEADING TO SALVATION, but the sorrow of the world produces death". You are in your heart sorrowful for your sin. To quote Karen Minnihan, it is "a fall on your knees tear your heart out I hate my sin" kind of sorrow so that you repent. You do that complete 180-degree turn from going in your direction to the complete opposite direction to God.

You believe that Jesus Christ saves you from the penalty of sin, hell. Now because of what you believe you have faith so that you repent; turn 180-degree and you are now no longer living for yourself but for God in everything; thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. Remember belief is what you have, faith is what you do. Jesus Christ is your master, your supreme controller. "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification and the outcome, eternal life". (Romans 6:22) And because Christ is now your master you will have eternal life.

Now let’s go back to the questions asked in the beginning. "Can one accept Jesus as Savior while denying Him as Lord and actually be saved? Or is it possible to receive Jesus as one’s Savior, and yet not live for Him for many years, say from 17 until 40"?

The Bible tells us NO. Paul sums it up in Romans 6:16 "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness"?

Does this mean that a person will never sin again? No. We will sin as long as we are on this earth, however we will not want to sin, we will be sorry for our sin. We will want to please God and sin does not please God. We will not ‘practice’ sin. We will not repeatedly, habitually and purposely do things that are not pleasing to God.

All this comes from a deep relationship with God, where God through the Holy Spirit changes our hearts and our desires so that we are becoming like Christ. So we can’t think ‘I will obey God’s 10 commandments and I will be righteous". Remember it is Christ righteousness that He gives.

"Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious; anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother". (1 John 3:6-10)