Bible Studies
It is significant that He appeared to her first for He came to save the sinner and the believing one is secure in Him, John 20:15-17, i.e. v 17) Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. The Resurrection started the accession – He was saying I am ascending , He was letting her know He was the same Jesus that had forgiven her sins but she would no more see Him as before, for He must ascend to the Father and send the Holy Spirit. A change in His ministry had taken place: she would now live by faith and not by sight. She would not know Him any more as in His earthly flesh but as her resurrected Saviour.
A timeless invitation, no expiration date. If you are living (alive) you can believe in Him for eternal life. It is a changeless invitation between the cradle and the grave; and you must reply in days of your life. There is no redemption after death. God's offer of eternal life is through Christ, Romans 6:23.It is Timeless in that it reaches across the span of time. It is still true today. "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"
There is a work for the saved to be doing. Namely to be a disciple of Christ, to take up your cross and follow Him. It is time for the Church to look in the Perfect Law of Liberty (the Word of God) and start living from the Cross.
In our temptations, trials, our testing we are standing in grace and by Christ we have access into this grace. We have grace to run the race, Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: let us have grace" is not saying we do not have grace but rather since we are in an endless ocean of grace let us live from it in our lives. See Titus 3:1-8
The moment we are born again we receive the life of God in our Spirit – Our spirit is born from above. John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, -"spirit" is our spirit
Justification by faith and works that James wrote about in James chapter 2 is pointing to Eternal Rewards, James 1:21 is speaking of your life. Soul = your life. The engrafted Word you received when you were born again, James 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (engrafted means implanted)
Justification by faith and works that James wrote about in James chapter 2 is pointing to Eternal Rewards, James 1:21 is speaking of your life. Soul = your life. The engrafted Word you received when you were born again, James 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (engrafted means implanted)
We have an inheritance that will never perish for we have a Saviour that ever lives. He who birth us from above also has given us a living Expectation, a living hope that is a certainty. The Resurrection of Christ is the cause of our resurrection to a new life, and the future resurrection of a new body, (1 Thess. 4:13-18; 2 Cor. 5:8). If you are in Christ, you are dead to sin, Rom_6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Rom_7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Col_3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. You have been born again by the Word of God, made alive, to live for Him!
To believe is simply this: to be convinced that the gospel is true. The LORD is not asking you to do anything but to believe that Jesus is your Saviour. He took your sin more than two thousand years ago on the cross, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.". To have eternal life is to believe you have what He promised you. "And this is the promise that he hath promised us, eternal life" 1Jn2:25. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. John 6:47.
The Incarnation of God is the center piece of the Gospel. John 1:1-14 defines the Incarnation as the Son of God becoming the Son of Man. The Body that He took was prepared by the Father, Heb. 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. That Body was prepared to die, for Him to give His life, on the Cross. Phil. 2:5-9
In the creation of Adam and Eve, They disobeyed God and sin and death entered the world. Gen 6:1-2 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. It was to be 120 years till the flood. After the flood came the tower of Babel and the scattering of the nations. Up to this time there were only Gentiles.
Consider the Cross: Christ embraced His death on that cruel Cross to bear our sins in His own body. He was chosen for this hour. The Father took our sins and placed them on the Son of God, Isaiah 53:6b "…..and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." With our sins He suffered alone and cried Mat_27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,…….. to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was alone – separated from the Father. The only place in the N.T that Jesus address God without calling Him Father. No theological statement, but an agonized expression of a real sense of separation. He died alone being made sin by taking our sins, 2Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
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