The Basics of Christianity
Dearly beloved of the Lord, you are who God says you are, not who the old man of the flesh says you are. God went to a lot of trouble for you. Let's talk basics....
He sent His only begotten Son to suffer and die in your stead, and then by His grace He accounted everything he accomplished to you. Now you are as he is; you are identified with him in his accomplishments.
Everything we receive from God comes by believing. Believing is to have trust and confidence in information you receive to the end you act on it. What did God reveal to us that we are to believe?
It starts with salvation. We are saved when we confess the Lord Jesus with our mouth and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead. We confess and believe, and He saves us by His Divine favor toward us. This salvation is to be begotten of His spirit. He even went so far as to say that He sealed us with His spirit, and He gave us the ability to manifest it to prove that we are saved.
In this salvation we have the remission of sins. There is no more condemnation [down judgement from God] to them who are in Christ Jesus. God is the Justifier; He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay for our sins. Now we are justified from the law of sin and death.
Now we stand before God in Christ; in him we are the righteousness of God. In him, we should not have any awareness of sin, guilt, or condemnation. Our Father sees us through the lens of Christ’s sacrificial work.
Our Father sanctified us in Christ Jesus; He set us apart from the common lot of humanity by the sanctification of the spirit. We received the gift of holy spirit and it sets us apart from natural men.
Furthermore, by the spirit we received in the new birth, we have access to God as our Father, and He instructs us to use it with boldness and confidence. We are to believe what He said and act on it with believing. He instructs us to walk in the spirit; in the complete new birth reality.
In Christ, we are redeemed. He paid the purchase price for us with his life; this is the first phase of redemption.
The second phase of redemption will take place on the day of redemption. God will send him to gather us unto him in the air; both the living and the dead in Christ. He will redeem us from death and/or this evil world.
God reveals that we will be glorified together with Christ; we will acquire the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is so certain that God states it as a past occurrence even though it has yet to take place. God reveals that we are joint-heirs with Christ.
God did all of this for us in Christ, and we freely receive all things with him. In Christ, our Father blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. We are complete in Christ, completely filled with all he accomplished.
God did all of this according to His wisdom. “But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, 'He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.'”
This was not done by the wisdom of the world, nor by man’s wisdom, nor from the wisdom of the adversary’s kingdom; this was all done according to God’s wisdom, which before time was a mystery hidden in God, but now He has revealed it so that we can believe it!
Today you can walk in these wonderful realities; these realities are the basics of Christianity. Say what God says about you. Believe what He tells us to believe. Do what He says you can do. Hope for what He gives us as our hope of glory.
Dearly beloved, you are who God says you are! Rejoice forevermore!