In our study of the doctrine of witnessing Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8; we are examining the doctrines that undergird the gospel so that we can understand how and why it is God alone who made it possible for our so great salvation exclusively by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. Eph 2:8-9;
As part of the study we are presently reviewing the content of the Gospel message itself under the category of the "Doctrine of the Gospel that we last studied in 2013." 1Cor 15:1-4; John 3:16; Acts 16:31;
Last time we noted in closing that some are ashamed of the Gospel because it involves believing in exclusively in Jesus Christ. 1Cor 1:23;
This is especially true where people think they must be politically correct. If you are ashamed of the Gospel you are actually ashamed of God and Christ.
On the cross Jesus was not ashamed of you. Heb 12:2; He disregarded the shame of our sins as He was being judged for them.
Paul was not ashamed either. Rom 1:16; "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile."
Shame is defined as painful emotion excited by the consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, sinfulness, or impropriety.
Shame is actually a form of guilt. Guilt destroys the Christian life. You are to "forget those things which are behind." That requires the use of rebound.
According to 1John 1:9; "If we name any known sin, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
Those sins must then be forgotten so you can move on. Phil 3:13-14; If you're still alive, you must pick yourself up and move on.
Do not let people in your periphery try to control you through guilt or shame. Family members and those close to us are most likely to be guilty of this. People who are in a position of weakness are constantly trying to control others through guilt.
Church leaders try to use guilt to control their congregations. If you attend bible class from guilt motivation, your motivation is wrong and chances are you won't even benefit from attending so don't waste your time.
You must determine for yourself what your priorities are in life. Guilt motivation does not work even if it is for the purpose of doing "good things" because a right thing done in a wrong way is wrong.
Guilt is arrogance. Guilt is a sin that is to be confessed and left behind.. People feel guilty about sins, failures, and real or imagined improprieties instead of naming those things, forgetting them, and moving on.
So Paul says he is not ashamed. That meant that his motivation was pure and true and he did not care what others thought. Gal 6:14;
Shame causes emotional pain, and emotion has no ability to think. Guilt or shame is a part of the arrogance complex of sins that include jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, self-pity, inordinate ambition, inordinate competition, hatred, and implacability. All these are related to satan's original sin of arrogant self-absorption. Isa 14:14;
In God's protocol plan for the Church there is no place for shame or guilt. When you have shame or guilt, your spiritual life will be stalled until you rebound, forget it, get up, and move on.
You must be filled with the Spirit, and no one is ever filled with the Spirit while in a state of shame of guilt. You are grieving the Holy Spirit when you harbor shame or guilt in your life.
This doesn't imply that you aren't guilty but guilt is arrogance that is a sin that must also be confessed to God.
The rebound technique of 1John 1:9; results in the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit that is designed, under correct and accurate Bible teaching, to orient you to God's grace policy in the protocol plan of God for the Church Age.
Orientation to God's grace policy includes forgetting those things which are behind including your failures. Therefore, it is designed to eliminate guilt and shame from your thinking.
Many believers are ashamed of the Gospel. Yet only the Gospel itself is "the power of God for salvation." That is why the Gospel be properly communicated. God is the only power in the Gospel so for the Gospel to work it must be faith alone and nothing else. Eph 2:8-9;
Evangelists who are ashamed of the Gospel talk about sin, giving up things, and reforming as part of reformation or liberation theology. This is the false theology that many believers are being taught today.
The false Gospel is about people not about God. False theology is about people not about God so nothing is taught about the divine power system that is Christ in you the absolute confidence of Glory.
This is why the church is failing client nation USA under the principle of as goes the believer so goes the client nation.
Rom 15:20; tells us that the Gospel is to be communicated anywhere there are people who have never previously heard it. Therefore, it is a part of missionary activity.
The following are some notable salvation passages.
John 14:6; where Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by Me."
Acts 4:12; "There is no salvation in no one else, for there is no other person under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
Acts 16:31; "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (for a moment in time) and you will be saved."
Rom 1:16; "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to anyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek (gentile).
There is no salvation for one who rejects Jesus Christ because there is no function of the power of God for salvation.
While Jesus Christ was judged for the sins of the ENTIRE world, only those who actually BELIEVE in Christ by responding with positive volition to the Gospel receive eternal life.
Since faith is non-meritorious, it is the power of God that makes that non-meritorious faith efficacious providing salvation. This is the doctrine of Efficacious Grace that we have already studied as part of the doctrine of witnessing.
At the very moment we believe in Christ, the power of God provides forty things for every believer, including such things as: God's perfect righteousness, eternal life, regeneration and the baptism of the Holy Spirit that enters us into God's unique power system for His Royal Family aka the church.
This is the same power system that Jesus used to remain impeccable in His unglorified humanity. 1John 4:17;
The baptism of the Holy Spirit establishes us as a member of the new spiritual species where we are given our very own portfolio of invisible assets including escrow blessings and become recipients of election and predestination.
You become members of the royal family of God as a royal priest and a royal ambassador, are indwelt by all three Members of the Trinity, are given your very own spiritual gift, and receive access to the protocol plan of God.
God irrevocably gives us these things on the basis of Faith Alone they are not a result of commitment or any form of works.
John 3:15-18; "That everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.
v16 For God so loved the world that He gave His uniquely born Son, in order that anyone who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
v17 For God did not send His Son into the world to judge or condemn the world but that the world should be saved through Him." (The plan of God for the Hypostatic Union is salvation, not judgment.)
v18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; but he who does not believe has been judged or condemned already, because he has not believed in the person of the uniquely born Son of God."
John 3:36; "He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not believe (does not obey) the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
In this verse the Greek preposition "eis" plus adverbial accusative of respect from "huis", translated "in the Son in the NASB," clearly states that the action of the verb, "to believe", relates to the Son.
But some refuse to orient to God's grace policy so they want to add something to faith alone in Christ alone. The action of the verb, to believe, refers exclusively to Jesus Christ."
Does not obey " is translated from the Greek verb "apeitheo." Peitheo is a word for obedience "apetheo means to disobey. While Jesus was presenting Himself in His unglorified humanity salvation was presented in terms of obedience.