"We were God's enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God's friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ's life!"

(Romans 5:10 GNB)

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(click here to read part 17)

In this series we have established the following:

[I]. God's eternal purpose is to live with us forever.

1. "How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ...Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son…Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth." (Ephesians 1:3-10 MSG)

(To find more please read part 1)

[II]. In Adam through His sin, all died.

1. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23 MKJV)

2. "Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:22 MSG)

(To find more please read part 3)

[III]. Christ by His blood paid the price once and for all for everyone and cleansed us from sin and all consciousness of it, in order to prepare us for restoration.

1. "He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out." (Hebrews 9:12-14 MSG)

2. "For Christ didn't enter the earthly version of the Holy Place; he entered the Place Itself, and offered himself to God as the sacrifice for our sins. He doesn't do this every year as the high priests did under the old plan with blood that was not their own; if that had been the case, he would have to sacrifice himself repeatedly throughout the course of history. But instead he sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin. Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ's death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation." (Hebrews 9:24-28 MSG)

(To find more please read part 6)

[IV]. Christ is the only source of Eternal life and the only way to live eternally is through Him.

1. "Jesus said, "I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me." (John 14:6 MSG)

2. "Jesus said, "Your brother will be raised up." Martha replied, "I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time." "You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?" "Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world." (John 11:23-27 MSG)

(To find more please read part 9)

[V]. We enter into this life through spiritual union with Christ. We by faith become one with Christ and His life becomes our life.

1. "But he being joined to the Lord is one spirit. " (1 Corinthians 6:17 MKJV)

2. "Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!"

(2 Corinthians 5:17 MSG)

(To find more please read part 11)

[VI]. Being one with Him we are legally inseparable, sharing in His past, present and future.

1. "...We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!" (Romans 8:16-17 MSG)

2. "..as He is, so also we are in this world." (1 John 4:17 MKJV)

3. "Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him. Because of his love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children;---this was his pleasure and purpose. Let us praise God for his glorious grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear Son!" (Ephesians 1:4-6 GNB)

(To find more please read part 15)

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Having established all the above, we hit the point at which we ask the question "so what?".

[I]. There is a common misconception that salvation is about having your sins forgiven. The scripture reveals that every single people on planet earth has had their sins forgiven.

1. "When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good--not only ours, but the whole world's." (1 John 2:2 MSG)

[II]. Jesus dealt with the sin issue so that He could save us from eventual death by giving His life to us. Salvation is therefore living in the power of His life.

1. "We were God's enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God's friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ's life!"

(Romans 5:10 GNB)

2. "And this is the record that God has given to us everlasting life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have everlasting life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God." (1 John 5:11-13 MKJV)

[III]. We miss out on the fullness of this salvation (life) experience by trying to live the Christian life rather than let Christ live His life through us.

1. "so that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me. I refuse to reject the grace of God. But if a person is put right with God through the Law, it means that Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:20-21 GNB)

2. "By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life. For since we have become one with him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one with him by being raised to life as he was." (Romans 6:4-5 GNB)

[IV]. Our experience follows the revelation we have of what is available. Our most urgent business as Christians is to renew our minds and put on the new man, which is Christ.

1. "I can assure you that they are deeply devoted to God; but their devotion is not based on true knowledge. They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right." (Romans 10:2-3 GNB)

2. "Do not lie to one another, having put off the old man with his deeds and having put on the new, having been renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him," (Colossians 3:9-10 MKJV)

3. "Don't be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him." (Romans 12:2 CEV)

4. "Who ever knows what you're thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God--except that he not only knows what he's thinking, but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us." (1 Corinthians 2:11-12 MSG)

5. "Jesus answered him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me." (John 14:6 GNB)

---

He is the original

The one and only

We are one with Him

If we let Him

He will manifest

The original Him

Through us

---

If we try in ourselves to be Him

The best we can be

Is a poor imitation

He forever remains

The original

---

No one else

Can be like Him

No matter how hard

They may try

The only way to Manifest Him

Is to let Him be Himself

Through you

---

It cost Him everything to make His life available to us, so stop struggling and start enjoying it, since the bible declares that ".. God, ...generously gives us everything for our enjoyment." (1 Timothy 6:17 GNB)

Selah