Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Jesus is our salvation through His death for us upon our cross and His present life for us as we find His presence in our lives through our access to Him in the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16). Our salvation is not just a salvation when we physically die. It is a salvation for our lives in every situation of our lives. Jesus came so that we could find our death in Him and therefore find our life in Him. Leaders lead others to know eternal life in Christ.
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Eternal life is not just a place we are going, it is the fruit and testimony of knowing the One who gives life in all things. It is through personally knowing God that we have eternal life today, tomorrow, and in all times.
John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
Our life in Old Adam was destined to die, but Jesus was the Son of Man in flesh to free us from the life of the flesh. He came to liberate us to live our lives empowered by the life of His Spirit. This is a life of faith – a life of hearing God within our hearts that empowers us to live. Through Jesus we experience the end of our old life to live a new life by His resurrection power.
John 5:25 Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, 27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.
Jesus has judged sin that we might live our lives empowered by the life-giving desires of His Holy Spirit. His sacrifice for our sins was merely the entrance for us to know Him in His salvation. Jesus told His disciples that He would come to them again after His resurrection. This was not merely a future event of a second coming of Jesus, but a coming that is increasingly experienced by all who receive His death upon the cross that they might find His presence in the throne of grace.
John 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
I believe that there is a place in heaven prepared for us all, but I also believe that Jesus was referring to much more in these verses. He was making a way for the disciples to be where He would go and for Him to be with them in the world in which they would still live. He was making it possible for each of them to become a spacious place of God’s presence.
Hebrews 9:24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
The end of the ages is the end of Old Adam and an administration of the knowledge of good and evil for those who receive His gift of love. The end of the Old Covenant at the birth of the New Covenant bride of Christ was only the beginning of His increasing grace for every age of men to come. He has put away sin and He empowers us to live free from the power of sin through a relationship with Him as the body of Christ. Leaders lead others to know this grace.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
