God’s Desires for the Christian’s Life

As members of the body of the Christ, God has revealed to us His desirous will for our lives. We are not to sleep as unsaved do, but arise out from them so that Christ shines in our lives. Not governing our lives as fools, but as those who are wise, because the days are malignantly evil, understanding the desirous will of the Lord. (Ephesians 5:15-17).

God reveals in Scripture many things about His desires for the life of a Christian. As we do what He has already revealed we learn how to identify His will in any situation; our knowledge of His will becomes a full experiential knowledge, not just head knowledge (Colossians 1:9).

What God has specifically revealed concerning His desirous will for you as a Christian

Present your body as a living sacrifice, Romans 12:1

This is a logical response to the fact that Christ has purchased you. He gave Himself in order to redeem us from our lawlessness (Titus 2:14). We are bought with a price and therefore are to express a proper opinion of God with our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:20)

It is a one time act, giving to God what is rightfully His. Since we belong to God we should not serve men (1 Corinthians 7:23). Regardless of what position you have in life, serve God within that position, rather than man.

Bring transformed from the renewed mind that we now posses in Christ, Romans 12:2

Not being outwardly conformed to this world, as ones who are masquerading, but being transformed from the inside out by using the new mind we now have as a result of salvation, (1 Corinthians 2:14-16 But the soulish man does not receive the things […]

God’s Desires for the Christian’s LifeLuther Walker2023-11-23T14:09:58-08:00

Glory (δόξα)

and exchanged the proper opinion (glory) of the incorruptible God with the likeness of an image of corrupt man and birds and four-footed animals, and crawling things – Romans 1:23.

Glory means, “to have or express a proper opinion”. Its root concept is grounded in an opinion, notion, or judgment concerning someone.

When we express glory to God, we are actually voicing a proper view of Who He is. In the first chapter of the book of Romans, we see the impact on those who reject a proper opinion of God as they change His image to be that of corrupt humans, birds, four-footed animals, and even creeping things, while not giving the Creator glory. That is, not expressing a proper opinion of Who God really is.

Due to Adam’s trespass and sin, we all have fallen short of God’s opinion of us – for all sinned and fall short of God’s proper opinion, Romans 3:23 (Romans 5:12 – Adam’s sin is passed to all of us). God never expects us to live up to His glory, for He shares His glory with no one (Isaiah 42:8). Romans 3:23 is referring to His opinion of us as Humans. When God created Adam, He blessed Him (Genesis 1:28). When Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, his conscience became aware of the difference between what is beneficial and what causes calamity. However, in determining to break God’s law, Adam separated himself from God in his spirit, bending his nature to corruption, which he passed down to all of us (Genesis 5:3). He corrupted what God blessed. Although we have a corrupt nature, we still have a conscience and the knowledge of good and evil; therefore, God’s opinion of all humans involves their ability to […]

Glory (δόξα)Luther Walker2023-11-25T07:58:50-08:00

The Basics of the Christian Life – Salvation

Salvation

Salvation comes by faith through grace. Today a person is saved by believing that Christ died for their sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4¹. God is offering salvation by grace, not works2. Grace is God’s attitude whereby He gives a benefit without the consideration of merit. In other words, you cannot earn salvation because God is not offering salvation based upon works, who you are, or even who you will become – no merit is considered3. What God requires for salvation is that you take Him at His Word. Faith is the undergirding4 of that which is hoped for, the evidence of accomplished deeds5 not seen and is always based upon a promise6. Direct faith at Christ through the facts of the good news by which we are saved (believing that He died for your […]

The Basics of the Christian Life – SalvationLuther Walker2016-10-12T06:02:30-07:00

Why do we need salvation?

To understand why we need salvation we need to go back to the beginning when God created humans. He created Adam in His image and likeness and built Eve from his side¹. Adam was given a commandment by God that he was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the day in which he ate of it the punishment would be death². Not just physical death, but also spiritual death – dying you will die. Although Eve was thoroughly deceived and transgressed the law, Adam was not deceived and chose to disobey God. The result was spiritual separation from God and now he is subject to physical death. Did God setup Adam and Eve to fail? Absolutely not. He gave them all they needed to success. Satan deceived Eve into eating the fruit from the tree; however, Adam was not deceived at all and of his own free will chose to eat, knowing he was disobeying God³.

So what does this have to do with us and why we need […]

Why do we need salvation?Luther Walker2023-12-14T11:16:16-08:00

The Methods of Satan – Doubt

Doubt is a lack in the ability to discern what is proper and what is wrong in our actions. As Christians, we should have our senses trained to discern the difference between actions that are good and actions that are wrong.

But the solid food is of [the] mature, the ones through the exercise train the senses, having discernment toward both good and wrong – Hebrews 5:14

Because of this inability to discern between right and wrong the believer hesitates and will not act out from faith.

but let him ask in faith, not while doubting. For the one doubting is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed – James 1:6

Anything done by a Christian that is not out from faith is sin, which means that an action that normally would not be sin, such as eating and drinking, can become sin to the one who is not discerning what is proper in contrast to what is wrong. How can eating be wrong? Questioning whether God allows you to eat it without violating His standard and therefore causing a conscience issue because our action is not lining up with what we think is God’s expectation of us.

But the one doubting, if perhaps, he should eat is condemned because it is not out from faith. And all which is not out from faith is sin. – Romans 4:23

The righteous live out from faith. Satan does not want us to live by faith because it means we will be applying the promises God has given to the Church, training our senses to discern what is proper and what is wrong, and living a life of righteousness out from faith, which makes […]

The Methods of Satan – DoubtLuther Walker2023-12-14T08:47:15-08:00

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