Jesus was the full payment for the sins of the whole world. Those who believe on Him and HIS blood atoning sacrifice on the cross and His rising from death, HAVE eternal life. All sins (future sins too, as all our sins are future from the cross) fully paid by Christ. As a full payment, we need not pay the wages of sin (death Romans 6:23) because He paid it all for us. Anything we may do wrong, including sin, is no longer a hindrance to your salvation. In fact, it gives us great gratitude to do good works in love to others and encourages us to live right.
“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2 KJV)
“And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” (1 John 2:28 KJV)
If you believe on Christ for salvation, you will not be ashamed!
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him SHALL NOT BE ASHAMED.” (Romans 10:9-11 KJV)
But What About At The Judgement Seat Of Believers?
“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, WHICH IS JESUS CHRIST.
Now if any man build upon THIS FOUNDATION gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s WORK of what sort it is.
If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive A REWARD.
If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but HE HIMSELF SHALL BE SAVED; yet so as by fire.
Know ye not that YE ARE the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God DWELLETH IN YOU?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, WHICH TEMPLE YE ARE.
Let no man DECEIVE HIMSELF. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
Therefore LET NO MAN GLORY IN MEN. For all things ARE YOUR’S”;
Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; ALL ARE YOUR’S;
And YE ARE Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” (1 Corinthians 3: 11-23 KJV)
Paul tells us here that there is no other foundation other than Christ. Only He is what saves us and keeps us saved. He paid it all! Believers should have ZERO PRIDE in the fact that God saved us when we believed on Christ. ZERO!! Did we do anything to save us from our sins and from our old fallen sin bent Spirit of Adam? No. Nada. Who did this for us? Who MADE US righteous? Christ alone! Look closely at Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians, look very closely at the words to see the truth.
“Therefore if any man be IN CHRIST, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And all things ARE OF GOD, WHO HATH reconciled us to himself BY JESUS CHRIST, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, NOT IMPUTING their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then WE ARE ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
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.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 KJV)
See the truth Paul is stating here? It is God alone who made our salvation possible by sending His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus to pay for our sins and when He did that on the cross, God through imputation (not by our deeds) MADE US the righteousness of God, in Christ. Oh the world needs to hear this truth! In fact, there are many many saved believers who know their sins were paid by Christ but yet do not know the other amazing part. A believer has BECOME a NEW CREATURE in the Spirit, at our core being, and WE ARE right now deemed as righteous as God. Think about that! When God sees His children (anyone who believed on Christ) , He sees His perfect Son! Heaven is a perfect place full of ONLY perfect people. Yes, a believer may fall into sin. Yes believers still sin. But all those sins were already [aid for by Christ. And yes, we strive to not sin by walking in the new Spirit God (Galatians 5:16) has made us. And yes, we renew our mind by God’s word (Romans 12, John 17:17), The Holy Bible. The fact is though, to God all He sees is that we are perfect. How amazing is that! Do we deserve it? NO WAY! And that is why it is called God’s GRACE. So, we should have ZERO pride and boasting about ourselves just because God saved us by His grace. In fact, it should encourage us to live our lives for God and in love toward others.
The Bema Judgement Seat For Believers is about gaining rewards for the good works we have done after we were saved by our belief on Christ. Some eternally saved will be at this event who have had nothing but DEAD works. They had a DEAD faith as James 2 reads. But the dead faith is not about being saved or not. James is writing to already saved believers, the Brethren, as we see in the very first verse of James 2. In 2 Corinthians 3 above, in Verse 15, we do see that there will be believers who lived carnally after accepting the free gift of salvation. They will have no eternal rewards. Are they still saved? Well, yes! They are already in Heaven in their perfected glorified bodies.
What about the believer’s sins? Well, do you see the word ‘sins’ or ‘transgressions’ even mention in 1 Corinthians 3? We do not because Christ ALREADY judged our sins on that cross and God has no need to judge our sins again. The Father accepted Jesus’ blood atonement fr our sins 100%. Will they have remorse for having no rewards? Yes they will. They have missed great opportunities during their Christian life on Earth. And now in their perfected glorified bodies, with perfected minds, they will see so clearly what they have missed out on.
This English translated word ‘ashamed’ in the Strongs Greek concordance is G2617, the word kat-ahee-skhoo’-no; from G2596 and G153; to shame down, i.e. disgrace or (by implication) put to the blush:—confound, dishonour, (be a-, make a-)shame(-d).
Is It God’s Will For Believers To Be Ashamed Of Them For Believing The Gospel At His Coming For His Bride?
Every believer is sanctified and so to God, He has MADE YOU PERFECT FOREVER.
“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath PERFECTED OR EVER THEM THAT –ARE– SANCTIFIED.” (Hebrews 10:12-14 KJV)
When Is A Believer Sanctified? Is That Something W Do or Something God Made U?
To understand the truth about a person being sanctified we need to first understand what the word ‘HOLY’ is defined as. What does the Bible mean when it uses the English translated word ‘HOLY’. This is a matter of great importance in interpreting passages about a believer and how they are SANCTIFIED. Is sanctification a life long process, where we are moment by moment becoming more and more Holy? Or does a believer’s sanctification happen in an instant, from the very moment that they believe on Christ and His finished work on the cross, having in the past, PAID the just penalty for all our sins?
When we look up the English translated word SANCTIFY in the New Testament in the Greek , what do we find as the definition of the word? What we find is Strongs G37:
G37: ἁγιάζω hagiázō, hag-ee-ad’-zo; from G40; to make holy.
( Strongs Concordance)
So, the word Sanctify literally means to MAKE HOLY. So we see that how we define the English translated word HOLY matters much in seeing the truth about being sanctified as believers. So, when we further look into this in Greek, we are pushed to look into the word ‘Holy’ which is, as G37 tells us, G40:
G40: ἅγιος hágios, hag’-ee-os; from ἅγος hágos (an awful thing) (compare G53, G2282); sacred (physically, pure, MORALLY BLAMELESS or religious, ceremonially, consecrated):—(most) holy (one, thing), SAINT.
(Strongs Concordance)
In essence, the meaning is ‘most holy thing, a saint’.
Let us first look at this word Holy as it is used whenever the ‘Holy Spirit’ or ‘Holy Ghost’ is mentioned.
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the HOLY Ghost.” (Matthew 1:18 KJV)
The Holy Ghost is GOD right? So how Holy and set apart is God from all of His creation? Hugely set apart! He is the Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end. The one and only God of all that exists! So when the word HOLY in ‘Holy Spirit’ is used in the Bible, it is basically saying that God is completely SET APART from all of His creation. He is the almighty God who always existed and always will. Now, THAT is definitely a set apart being! Yes? The word HOLY in the name ‘Holy Spirit’ is Strongs G40 in Greek.
You see this word HOLY is used by many in so many different ways by believers today that it has become a pivotal part of how they believe about Salvation and justification with God. This is something we must get right! To be Holy is basically to be PERFECT and SET APART. Understanding this as the proper definition of the English translated word for HOLY, we now return to the word SANCTIFY (G37) in the New Testament because it references the very same word ‘HOLY” in the ‘Holy Spirit’, which is G40.
Apostle Paul used this word SANCTIFY many times in his ministry such as,
“That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being SANCTIFIED BY THE HOLY GHOST.” (Romans 15:16 KJV)
“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but YE ARE SANCTIFIED, but YE ARE JUSTIFIED in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the SPIRIT OF OUR GOD.” (1 Corinthians 6:11 KJV)
This last quoted Scripture from 1 Corinthians 6 is a real eye opener. Sanctified by what? It states by the SPIRIT OF OUR GOD and when you look that phrase up in the Greek, it literally means the HOLY SPIRIT.
The word ‘sanctified’ is G37 and again, it is not defined as believers striving to become more sanctified by living more holy lives, as if we can even do that in our own efforts. Yes, of course a believer is to live right outwardly in love towards others and in good works. But regarding this word SANCTIFY that is not we see as the meaning. The word Sanctify literally means ‘TO MAKE HOLY’. Does that mean we have to make ourselves Holy to be sanctified by God? Not according to Scripture!
“And THE VERY GOD OF PEACE SANCTIFY YOU WHOLLY; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be PRESERVED BLAMELESS unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23 KJV)
In this verse, it is GOD who is making the believer HOLY. And it is God who keeps us in this state of being called ‘HOLY’. It is not our work; it is God’s work to make a person HOLY! That is in fact how we are saved is it not? Apostle Paul taught so,
“For BY GRACE are ye saved THROUGH FAITH; and that NOT OF YOURSELVES: it is the GIFT of God: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast. For we are HIS WORKMANSHIP, CREATED IN Christ Jesus UNTO good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:9-10 KJV)
The writer of Hebrews also states so,
“Wherefore Jesus also, THAT HE MIGHT SANCTIFY the people WITH HIS OWN BLOOD, suffered without the gate.” (Hebrews 13:12 KJV)
Do we read, in any of these verses, that a person is sanctified by our works and right living? NO! A person is sanctified by God through belief in Jesus the Christ (God in the flesh, who is God!)
“But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, BECAUSE GOD HATH from the beginning chosen you to salvation THROUGH SANCTIFICATION OF THE SPIRIT and belief of the truth:” (2 Thessalonians 2:13 KJV)
Again, we see that it is GOD who is setting a believer apart and making them Holy, which is the very definition of the word sanctification (G37), ‘TO MAKE HOLY’.
“But of him ARE YE IN CHRIST JESUS, who of God IS MADE UNTO US wisdom, and righteousness, and SANCTIFICATION, and redemption:”
(1 Corinthians 1:30 KJV)
It is God who sets us apart in sanctification and not something that we do. We do have an ongoing sanctification while still on Earth but this is really renewing our corrupt Fleshly mind to God’s truth of the Scriptures by guidance of the Holy Spirit. But that is about the beliefs in OUR MIND, not our Spirit. Our Spirit was already perfected the moment we believed on Christ and rose WITH HIM, and we are right now, in The Spirit COMPLETE IN CHRIST (Read Colossians 2 for a great blessing to see what happen to anyone, the moment they believe on Christ Jesus.)
Does Any Of These Truths Mean We Just Do Nothing For Christ?
God forbid!
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” (Romans 6 KJV)
YE BECAME SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Christ lives within every believer right now ! Believers are a new Spirit of God at your core being as a believers. Strive to avoid sin at all costs. sin still has consequences, even though loss of salvation is not one of the consequences. A believer who steals is still going to jail right? They are an eternally saved believer who stole something in sin. Christ foreknew that sin and they are still saved. But we should not be wanting to sin all the time. We are a new being now, and we should be doing good works in love for others. That should be our goal. Helping others come to salvation through Christ Crucified. That should be ou goal in life. Focus on the world to come when Jesus returns and do not conform to this current corrupt world which will be passing away.
Apostle Paul tells us that we should be Ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). Jesus prayed the the Father not take us out of this world the moment we believe and get saved (John 17). He wants us involved for the Kingdom Of God!
Love God. Be thankful in great gratitude for what God has bestowed on us, His very own Righteousness and eternal life! Live in love for others as Christ loved us. Renew you mind by God’s Word. Believe it over any emotion you have!
BELIEVE IT ALL!
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16 KJV)
