 Our Lord before His spirit departed from His body cried, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” So they who despised Him became the instruments that ushered in the New Testament era, the end time. And they, even His accusers, would be able to benefit from His death and resurrection. For three days, Jesus was in the heart of the earth. There, He preached to the captives who died before the ultimate plan of salvation. They were victims of their sinful nature, without the law written in their hearts or a savior. They were victims of death because the grave had power over their souls. But Jesus, who came with power and strength from God, overcame sin and death and delivered to them and us the victory; that we might live in communion with God and not bound to sin. Even as the body is subject to the natural death, the soul is able to live forever by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ, after three days, arose with a new body, showed Himself alive to His disciples for a season, and then returned to Heaven where He sits on the right hand of the Father. Our great hope is in His return, for He shall return and receive all that have believed on His name. We shall rise to meet Him in the air. Sanctification Righteousness There is nothing inherently holy about the state of mankind. Therefore any declaration of such status must be declared by God and through God. The Lord created man with free will. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each individual, once the knowledge of the gospel has come, to respond to that seed of faith that is innately granted, taking a motion of faith through the blood of Jesus Christ. Then, begin to move in an affirmative direction away from anything that the Word of God reveals to be immoral and not in character with the Holy Spirit. In this New Testament Era, we can ask the Holy Spirit to come dwell in us and help us to fulfill God's will. Righteousness is the full measure of God, in moral stature and judgment, of which, we cannot reach. Holiness is the position and possession of God we cannot attain, until, God Almighty declares us to have reached or attained it. It is God’s desire that we live holy and in sanctity, “set apart”, to be used for His glory. It is hard to speak of holiness and righteousness without speaking of sanctification. All three overlap and are interactive. Sanctification, which can be seen as the process of drawing nearer to God’s desire for our lives, can easily take on a Legalistic tone. We will do well to remember; “that the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (I Sam. 16:7-b). It’s not the clothes that you wear or the way that you sound. Instead, it is the declaration of God that makes you holy. Let us keep in mind, also, that consecration is assisted by ... moderation-conscious attitudes. (Acts 2:4) To be baptized, is to be submersed into, greatly overshadowed by, or to be engulfed and made union. In respect to the Spirit of God, the body is then made the indwelling and temple of the Lord. Since Jesus came, we entered the era of the Holy Ghost dispensation and the believer should seek God to maintain the fullness of God’s Holy Spirit in order to fulfill the Lord’s will in our lives. A believer must progressively display the fruit of the Spirit or else they leave themselves open to doubts of whether or not they have received or maintained the fullness of God’s Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-25). The believer must seek the Lord to live a life full of the Spirit from the beginning of salvation until one has finished this course of life. An evil heart can only go for so long, mimicking the nature of righteousness. Eventually, evil foams out for all to see (Jude: 13). The new believer should ask the Lord for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13). Some will receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the sign of speaking with other tongues, immediately. With others, God will manifest Himself in them in His own time and fashion. The sign of speaking in other tongues is only one of the signs of this Holy Ghost experience (Matt.7:16-20). It is important to be wise and see that the fruit of the Spirit shine in your life. It is the fruit of the Spirit that represents the nature and seal of God. The scripture says, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God"(Romans 8:14). Tongues should never be a divisive issue among believers, therefore we hold no hard line with the issue of tongues, we just seek after righteousness and let the Lord take care of the rest. Regardless of individual views on the issue of water baptism and its importance concerning salvation, there is one thing that should be remembered by all. The scripture by Jesus’ example tells us to fulfill all righteousness. As Jesus received water baptism by John, therefore, we should take heed. We believe that once a person receives salvation, waits for an available place and time to fulfill these scriptural instructions, and departs this life, this person will be safe in Christ by faith, because faith is the key. But we should never put off such instructions when appropriate circumstances are present. We should seek opportunity to bring these things to pass. We do not believe that the water in baptism washes away sin. Only the blood of Jesus can wash away sin. Water baptism is an open show of faith in Christ; all He has commanded and that one has repented of their sin, willing ,now, to walk the way of Christ. It cannot be ignored that water baptism is symbolic of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us recognize this for in the essence of our Lord’s example we see commandment. For baptism see: Matthew 28: 18-20/13-16 Over the years, there has been much issue in the church concerning the utilization of women in the work of the ministry. Arguably, there is a statement that can sum-up the rise and fall of these issues. That statement is, “There Are Rules and There Are Exceptions to the rule”. The rule should be the normal ongoing standard by which decisions are formed. When it comes to the exceptions, God has shown that He is more concerned about the individual need than the legalistic structure of things. (See I Samuel 21: 3-6, also Matthew 12: 3-5). Let us look at the case of Deborah, the prophetess and Judge (see Judges 4: 4-9). God was looking for someone among His chosen people to stand bold at a critical hour. Obviously, the only person who chose to stand forth happened to be a woman. God used whoever was available to secure the strength of His people. The three previous scriptures clearly are cases of exceptions to the rules. Someone will say that Deborah was a product of the Old Testament times. Should we think that under a new and better covenant women would be less privileged? (See Joel 2: 28-29) As we are dealing with the Word of God, take a look at the accounts of Pricilla, the wife of Aquila (see Acts 18: 1-2, 24-26). It would not be wise to readily crank out ordinations for every woman that has a calling, because it cannot be ignored that women are to be normally in subjection, and those women who have offices in the church should display a great deal of humility and sobriety (See I Peter 3: 1-7). Let us all remember to be humble, and respect every member as a child of the King of Glory and heir to His Kingdom. |