Category: Teaching Tracts

“The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”  Romans 13:12

   We are living in the last days when deep spiritual darkness covers the earth.  The final spiritual conflict of this age is fast approaching and it is time for every believer to put on the armor of light to be ready for that day. “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against schemes of the devil.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:11-12).”  God’s armor of light can stop all the enemy’s weapons and protect every true believer in time of danger.  The armor of light contains the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:14-17).  Without this armor, no Christian can hope to defeat the devil’s forces of darkness.  His aim is to deceive and devour weak and vulnerable souls in this final conflict.  However, with God’s armor of light, every Christian can stand in the heat of battle and triumph over the devil.  “And they overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives even when faced with death (Revelation 12:11).”

   In order for God’s armor of light to effectively protect us in battle, two actions are necessary.  The first action required of us is repentance.  Every soldier of Christ must repent from any deeds of darkness.  The Bible warns us, “Do not give the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4:27).” Any Christian who continues to practice sin will have holes in his armor and the enemy will use these openings to snare and defeat him. “Be on the alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking around for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).”  Some Christians think they can practice sin each day but then quickly grab their armor when the spiritual combat gets intense.  But if you have a habit of practicing sin, you will not be ready when the enemy comes upon you.  You will not be able to put on the armor of light to protect you during the time of greatest danger.  You must practice righteousness now so you can wear the armor of light when you need it.  “God is light… if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light… the blood of Jesus His Son purifies us from all sin (1 John 1:5-7).”

  The second action required of us is to believe.  Every soldier of Christ must have faith in His Commander Jesus Christ.  It is crucial for us  to believe that God, through Jesus Christ, has already totally defeated the devil.  The Bible says Christ disarmed Satan’s forces of darkness and triumphed over them through the cross (Colossians 2:16).  “So that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery… (Hebrews 2:14-15).”  When Christ died, God included us in Christ’s death so that our sinful nature died with Him and was removed from us (Romans 6:6).  When Christ rose from the dead, God included us in His resurrection so that His Son might live in us (Ephesians 2:4; Colossians 1:27).  Because we no longer have a sinful nature, we are freed from the power of sin and the devil can no longer cause us to sin (Romans 6:7).  “The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning.  The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).” 

   We must never lose sight of Christ’s triumph on the cross.  “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2).”  We were saved by faith in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and we now overcome by faith in Christ’s victory on the cross.  The cross is the secret to our overcoming.  Christ conquered Satan and sin on the cross.  Through the cross of Christ, we have been crucified to the world and the world has been crucified to us (Galatians 6:14).  We are now seated with Christ in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion (Ephesians 1:20-21; 2:6).  Jesus Christ commands us to stand firm and occupy the spiritual ground of victory He has already conquered for us (Romans 8:37).  Therefore, we do not have to fight to gain victory over sin; instead we fight from an already secure position of victory over sin because of Christ’s victory!

   We are involved in a spiritual battle with the forces of darkness in which the devil is waging an all-out war to capture the hearts and minds of the human race.  “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4).”  Therefore, when we put on the armor of light, we must also put aside all worldly pursuits and pleasures that divide our devotion to Christ.  “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life,  so that he may please his commanding officer (2 Timothy 2:4).”  Through His cross, Jesus has enabled us and expects us to lay aside all activities and associations that compromise us.

   But that is not all.  Jesus died on the cross to deliver each one of us from our own prison of darkness, so that God’s light could shine through us to a world sick with sin.  We were redeemed from Satan’s dominion not merely for ourselves, but for countless others who languish under sin’s power.  Therefore, putting on the armor of light is not an option; it is a necessity.  “The weapons of our warfare are not worldly but divinely powerful to demolish strongholds… we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).”  By putting on the armor of light, we ensure we are ready to hear and carry out Christ our Commander’s orders!

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand firm.”  Ephesians 6:13

“Have you forgotten that all of us, when we were baptized into fellowship with Christ Jesus, were baptized into fellowship with His death?” Romans 6:3

   Jesus bore our sinful nature on His cross but He also said we must bear our own cross.  “Whoever does not bear his own cross and follow Me, cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:27).”  Therefore the work of the cross is not just His; it must by faith become ours.  This is how we “work out” our salvation and prove we are His disciples.   “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).”  But how do we bear our own cross?  Some Christians believe they still have a sinful nature, which they must put to death daily through self-suppression, self-discipline and self-denial.  However, this is not what Jesus meant.  He knew our willpower would never be strong enough to overcome the power of sin. He died on the cross for us so that just as we received Him by faith, we might now walk in Him and overcome sin by faith (Colossians 2:6-7).  How did we first receive His Spirit? Was it by self-discipline?  No, it was by faith in Jesus Christ and what He had done on the cross.  How do we now walk in His Spirit and bear our own cross?  Is it by self-denial?  No, once again it is by faith in Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished on the cross (Galatians 3:1-2).

   Bearing our own cross does not mean we now try to crucify our sinful nature.  It is impossible for self to kill self.  If we are born again, we have already died with Christ (Romans 6:8).  Our sinful nature (that sin factory that produced sins) has already been destroyed and done away with (Romans 6:6).  Because our sinful nature has died, we have already been crucified to the world (Galatians 6:14). By faith in God’s Word, we can now count ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11).  Therefore, bearing our own cross means believing God’s Word: when Christ died we also died with Him (2 Corinthians 5:14).  Bearing our own cross means we stand firm in the truth that our sinful nature is dead and gone.  When we know we have already been crucified with Christ, we have the ability to no longer act on our own self-initiative.  We can look to Christ who indwells us as the source of our life and direction (Galatians 2:20).  As we persevere by faith in the divine fact that our sinful nature is gone (in spite of what we feel or see), the Holy Spirit will confirm and establish this divine truth in our life until Christ is formed within us (Galatians 4:19; 1 Peter 5:10). 

   Jesus Christ has already done the work for us.  He has already won the struggle against sin. He bore our sinful nature on His cross so that when He died, we died with Him.  However, there is a price to follow Jesus and prove we are His disciples.  The cost is bearing our own cross and losing our soul-life for Christ’s sake.  Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his soul-life will lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake will find it (Matthew 16:24-25).” Our soul-life is our individual personality and encompasses our attitudes, affections and abilities. Our flesh (the Greek is sarx, which means body and soul in this context) will suffer when we turn away from our natural desires and yield to Christ’s Sovereignty.  This is our cooperation with the daily inworking of His death to our soul-life. This is our fellowship in His sufferings (Philippines 3:10).  “Since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live no longer for the lusts of men but for the will of God (1 Peter 4:1-2).”

   Our sinful nature has already been crucified with Christ but now the work of the cross must begin to touch our soulish attitudes and affections.  This process is what the Bible calls “sanctification,” without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).  This is the goal of our faith and the reason why the holy seed of Christ was planted in us – so that we might bear fruit for God.  If this process of sanctification does not take place in our lives, we are bastards and not legitimate sons of God (Hebrews 12:8).  Therefore, bearing our own cross is not an option, it is essential if we are to know Christ and receive our eternal inheritance in His kingdom.  Bearing our own cross is what the apostle Paul called “being conformed to His death (Philippines 3:10).”  As we bear our cross daily, the Holy Spirit will train us to turn away from being governed by our soul-life (Luke 9:26-33; John 12:24-25).  The cross will work in us a godly detachment in spirit from everything of man’s interests and bring us into an attachment to God’s interests.  God uses the inward revelation of His Word and the external pressure of His trials to bring about this transformation.  God made our soul to be good and useful; therefore, the work of the cross will not destroy our soul.  We will still possess our soul and its faculties.  But when the mark of the cross is imprinted on our soul, we will no longer persist in independently asserting ourselves apart from Christ, but we will be yielded and fruitful vessels of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 12:2).

   When we see the cross for what it is – a place of death, our “unconverted” soul-life may wish for self-preservation and we may hesitate to choose the fellowship of the cross.  But glory to God!  Jesus Christ has given us His victory over this desire for self-preservation through the power of His crucifixion!  As we bear our cross by faith each day, we will experience the power of His resurrection life.  “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Corinthians 4:10).”  We have already died with Jesus Christ to the world.  Let us now fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and endure “the loss of all things” for the sake of the gospel and the even greater joy of knowing Him. Let us gladly identify with His sufferings so that we might know Jesus Christ and His love.

“I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”  Philippians 3:10

“Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to a revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now has been manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith.”  Romans 16:25-26 

   Biblical faith is both rooted in and revealed by our obedience to Jesus Christ. This is what the apostle Paul called the obedience of faith (Romans 1:5; 16:26).  God has revealed Himself clearly in His Son, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3).  Therefore, we demonstrate our faith and please God by believing and obeying His Son.  “And without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6).”  Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent (John 6:29).”  The Bible says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36).”

   True faith is inseparably linked with our willingness to be submitted to Christ’s authority.  This is the lesson of the centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant (see Matthew 8:5-10).  As the commander of one hundred Roman soldiers and under authority himself, he understood that Jesus was under God’s authority, which gave Him the ability to heal his servant.  When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel (Matthew 8:10).”  Just as faith is obedience to Christ, unbelief is disobedience and lawlessness (Hebrews 3:12-19).  If we say we have faith but practice lawlessness, how can that faith save us?  Faith without obedience is worthless and dead (James 2:14-26).  Jesus said, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say (Luke 6:46)?”  The Bible says we cannot claim to know Christ and live lawlessly (1 John 3:4-9).  Although Jesus died for the whole world, only those who obey Him will be saved (Hebrews 5:9). True obedience of faith does not produce a man-made morality. Even non-Christians can seemingly have “good” morals and “good” works. Professing Christians can practice religious, moral principles and still be lawless in their heart.  What is lawlessness?  If we habitually do not hear and obey Jesus’ voice, we are lawless and not living under His authority.  Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice… and they follow Me (John 10:27).”  Jesus Himself showed us the obedience of faith by doing nothing on His own initiative unless the Father told Him (John 5:19, 8:28; 12:49).  Jesus said you cannot know Him unless you obey Him and only those who know Him will enter His kingdom (Matthew 7:21-23).

   How can we possibly live a life of continual obedience to Jesus Christ?  As anyone who has honestly tried can testify, we cannot live such a sanctified life in our own ability.  If we could live such a devoted life through our own efforts, Jesus did not need to die on the cross for us.  But God intended that the high standard of holiness and obedience he commanded in the Old Testament would be “a tutor to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24).” Then, to make such daily obedience possible, God included us in Christ’s death on the cross, so that our sinful nature would be crucified, removed and buried forever (Romans 6:3-8).  As the apostle Paul testified, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God  (Galatians 2:20).”  Jesus Christ died in our place and He now wants to live in our place.  If we believe that our sinful nature is dead and gone, then Christ can begin to live through us.  If we do not know our sinful nature has died with Christ on the cross, we will go on living as if we are still enslaved to sin and in charge of our own life.  However, a dead man no longer has any control over his life.  He has lost the ability to decide what he wants and where he goes.  If we do not know that we no longer have a sinful nature, we can try as hard as humanly possible to overcome besetting sins but we will always fail since we can only overcome sin by faith in the truth alone (Romans 7:14-25).

   Faith comes from hearing and obeying the word of Christ (John 12:47-48; Romans 10:17).  Jesus said, “If you continue in My word… you will know the truth and the truth will set you free…   if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:32, 36).”  God set us free from the power of sin when our sinful nature died with Christ on the cross (Romans 6:7).  This is God’s word of freedom to us but if we do not believe it and act on it, we will never experience its transforming power.  Many Christians mistakenly think they are still wretched and held captive by a sinful nature (Romans 7:18-24).  The Word of God is divinely powerful but it can only effectively work in you if you believe it (1 Thessalonians 2:13).  The Bible says of those who do not believe: “The word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard (Hebrews 4:2).” How can Jesus Christ live through us if we do not believe and act on the truth that His death freed us from sin’s power?

   “The righteous shall live by faith” means we believe and live based on what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross: we believe Christ died for us; we also believe our sinful nature died with Christ so He might live through us.  This is the foundation of enduring faith that results in our salvation and sanctification (Matthew 24:13; Hebrews 3:14).  “For in just a very little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.  But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.  But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul (Hebrews 10:37-39).”  Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8)?”  When Christ returns, will He find us living in obedience under His authority by acting on the truth of His cross?

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.”  Matthew 7:21-23

“Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”  Isaiah 40:31

   The heart of the New Covenant is the divine exchange God provided for us by the crucifixion of His only Son, Jesus Christ.  The Book of Isaiah is sometimes called the gospel of the Old Covenant because it prophetically heralds Christ’s coming and sacrificial death on our behalf.  This is why Isaiah is the most quoted Old Testament prophet in the New Testament.  In the verse above, Isaiah prophetically and poetically portrays Christ’s divine exchange.  The Hebrew word for wait is qavah whose root meaning is “braided together” and the Hebrew word for renew is chalaph whose root meaning is “exchange.” In other words, those who are spiritually braided together with the Lord will have their natural strength exchanged for God’s strength. The prophet Ezekiel also foretold of this divine exchange of the New Covenant when he declared God would replace our old sin-hardened heart with His new spiritual heart (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

   After His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus Christ personally revealed this divine exchange to the apostle Paul (Galatians 1:11-16; 2:20).  As a result, this was the gospel Paul proclaimed: “God made Christ who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).  What exactly is this divine exchange?  By His death on the cross, Christ exchanged our unholy nature with His holy nature and reconciled us to God (Romans 5:10; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Colossians 1:21-22;  1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 5:11-12).  Thus by the sacrifice of His Son, God translated us from our Adamic sinful nature into Christ’s divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).  Therefore, when we receive Jesus as our Lord and are born again by God’s Spirit (John 3:3-8); our sinful nature is crucified and removed (Romans 6:6; Colossians 2:11) and we become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15).  The Son of God now lives in us (Romans 8:10; 2 Corinthians 12:9; 13:5; Galatians 1:16; 2:20; and Colossians 1:27).

   Therefore, the Christian life isn’t a changed life; it’s an exchanged life. There is a great difference.  If my old car is in need of repair, I could change its carburetor.  If it breaks down again, I could try changing its transmission.  If it fails again, I could keep changing more parts and hope it will work.  Or, I could decide my old car is beyond repair and exchange it for a brand new car.  This is similar to the divine exchange God accomplished in us.  He knew our old man was beyond repair and our sinful nature could not be changed, fixed or improved.  Therefore God completely disposed of our old sin nature and exchanged it for Christ’s divine nature.  “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).” 

   The divine exchange is like a spiritual grafting.  We were once unholy branches but now we have been grafted into Christ – God’s holy root (Romans 11:16-21).  Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing (John 15:5).”  When we know we have been united with Christ in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:5), we can cease from our works and enter into His spiritual rest (Hebrews 4:10).  If we abide in the power of Christ’s crucifixion, then the power of His resurrection life will certainly abide in us.  Since we no longer live but Christ now lives in us (Galatians 2:20), we can trust Christ to bear His fruit in us (Romans 7:4).

   Hudson Taylor, pioneer missionary to China, wrote of this divine exchange, “The Lord Jesus tells me I am a branch.  I am part of Him and I have just to believe and act upon it.  I have seen it long enough in the Bible but I believe it now as a living reality.  In a word, ‘whereas once I was blind, now I see.’  I am dead and buried with Christ – aye, and risen too and ascended; and now Christ lives in me.  I now believe I am dead to sin.  God reckons me so and tells me to reckon myself so.  Oh, the joy of seeing this truth: I pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us in Christ.”

   The divine exchange is like a spiritual heart transplant.  When Jesus died on the cross, God exchanged our terminally sin-sick heart with His Son’s divine heart and saved us from the power of sin and certain doom.  Of course, Jesus had to willingly die for us so we could receive this transplant.  Thus God included us in His Son’s death so that His resurrected Son might live in us.  The Bible also describes this divine surgery in terms of spiritual circumcision.  “In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the sinful nature by the circumcision of Christ… When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ (Colossians 2:11-13).”

   Another Scripture that sums up this divine transaction is, “For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). Our new life is hidden with Christ because the divine operation that was done as a result of Christ’s death on the cross was spiritual not physical. In other words, Christ’s divine exchange occurred in our spirit not our body.  Since it was spiritual, it is invisible to the human eye. Although a miraculous, inward transformation has taken place in our spirit, who we are in Christ is not yet fully visible.  “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you will be revealed with Him in glory (Colossians 3:4).”  This is the power of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  Galatians 2:20

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.  And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast… and the wedding hall was filled with guests.  But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.  Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” Matthew 22:1-13 

   This parable is really a commentary on Christ’s own wedding to His bride at the end of this age.  There is one thing certain about this wedding: God will not allow anyone to participate in His Son’s marriage unless they are wearing the right wedding clothes.  Now let us take a look at Christ’s heavenly wedding from the perspective of the Book of Revelation.  “I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder shouting, ‘Hallelujah!  For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.  Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.  It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.’  Then he said to me, ‘Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9).’”  Again, the Bible is clear you cannot participate in Christ’s wedding feast unless you have the right wedding clothes.  The Bible also says these wedding clothes signify our sanctified works done in faith. 

    In these last days, many professing Christians are not wearing these wedding garments.  They think they are spiritually dressed to meet Christ when they are actually stark naked.  Jesus said, “You do not know that you are naked.  Buy from Me white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed (Revelation 3:17-18).” It is important to note here that Jesus was speaking to those in the church and not to unbelievers.  Here Jesus declared we must buy our own wedding clothes.  For two thousand years, God has never changed the price that the bride of Christ must pay for her wedding clothes.  The cost is always the same – the price is our soul-life.  Jesus said,  “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his soul–life will lose it, but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake and the gospel’s will find it (Mark 8:34-35).”

   Therefore, we can only buy our wedding clothes if we pay for them with our soul-life.  Nothing else will suffice.  What does it mean to lose our soul-life for Christ’s sake?  God has made us spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).  When we were born again, our sinful nature died and our regenerated spirit became made one with Christ’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17).  Our soul, however, is our individual personality – our will, intellect and natural temperament.  Because we retain free will, our soul does not automatically come under Christ’s Sovereignty.  However, once we know that we have already died with Christ, we are capable of submitting our whole being to Christ’s authority so that God can transform and restore our soul.  God does not want to suppress or destroy our soul.  He made the human soul and meant it to be a useful instrument, just like our body. But now that we are in Christ, the important question is this: Will we live according to the power and desire of God’s Spirit within us or will we quench the Spirit and live according to the strength of our soul and our natural desires?

   Losing our soul-life means we give up our whole being completely to Christ’s Sovereignty.  It means we exchange our own attitudes, affections and abilities for Christ’s attitudes, affections and abilities.  This is what it means to walk in sanctification.  “Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God… and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is… (Romans 12:2).”  This is what Paul meant when he exhorted believers to “be made new in the attitude of your minds… and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (Ephesians 4:23; 2 Corinthians 10:5).”

   Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a pearl of great price.  He said when a man found such a pearl, he sold all he had to buy it (Matthew 13:46).  Therefore, we prove we are Christ’s disciples by yielding ourselves by faith to Christ’s Sovereignty so that His thoughts become our thoughts and His actions become our actions.  Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate… his own soul-life, he cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:26).”  The issue is one of ownership.  Will we continue to be enslaved to our soul’s natural desires, or will we be enslaved to God in sanctification?  Every Christian who lays down their soul-life to Christ will overcome sin, the world and the devil.  Everyone who overcomes will be dressed in wedding clothes ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb.  Jesus Christ said, “You have a few people… who have not soiled their clothes.  They will walk with Me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.  He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white.  I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before My Father (Revelation 3:4-5).”

  Losing our soul-life for Christ’s sake is only possible if we believe that our sinful nature has already died and been removed by Christ’s death on the cross.  Why?  Because when God included us in His Son’s death in this way, He made it possible for us to walk in sanctification by faith and wear wedding clothes as the bride of Christ.  Tragically, many professing Christians are not ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb.  If they do not buy their wedding clothes soon, they will be speechless when God throws them out of His Son’s wedding, for they will have proven themselves unworthy and shamefully unclothed.

“Behold, I come like a thief!  Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”  Revelation 16:15

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him.  For the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”  Revelation 19:6-7

   In these last days, God is preparing a bride for His Son (Revelation 21:2).  Who is this bride?   The image of the bride begins in the Old Testament with Eve who is a type of the church (Genesis 2:18-24; Ephesians 5:22-32).  In the New Testament, John the Baptist calls Jesus Christ the bridegroom and His disciples the bride (John 3:29).  Later, Jesus also refers to Himself as the bridegroom in relation to His disciples (Luke 5:34-35).  For just as God created Eve out of Adam’s body, God created the church out of Christ‘s body (Ephesians 5:30).  For when Christ willingly gave up His body and died on the cross for us, God performed a divine heart transplant and exchanged our sinful heart with His Son’s divine heart (Romans 6:3-11).  Just as there was a betrothal period in Biblical times between the bride and bridegroom until their wedding ceremony, so the body of Christ is now betrothed to Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2).  Through water baptism, new believers declare their betrothal to their bridegroom, Jesus Christ, and their union with His death, burial and resurrection.  According to Biblical custom, this betrothal is a binding commitment or covenant that can only be broken by infidelity.  And by Biblical tradition, the bride remains veiled until her marriage.  After the second coming of Christ, the bride will be revealed, the wedding feast will take place and the eternal union of the Lamb of God and His bride will be consummated.

   However before this wedding can take place, the bride must make herself ready (Revelation 19:7; 21:2).  Jesus Christ made a number of promises to the seven churches in Revelation (Chapters 2-3). These promises were not only for those early churches, they are for the church today.  Like all of God’s promises, these too are conditional upon the obedience of our faith.  Christ said those who by faith obey His Spirit and overcome Satan would inherit His promises. He promised those who overcome would have their names written in the Book of Life and be ready for their marriage and eternal union with Him (Revelation 2:26; 3:5 & 21).  Although the entire nation of Israel was called to be God’s chosen people, most were unfaithful to Him.  When that occurred, God no longer called them His bride; He called them a harlot (Isaiah 1:21).  But God’s covenant promises were still fulfilled through His remnant of survivors or overcomers (Isaiah 37:31-32).  Many Christians mistakenly think that because of God’s grace they can love the world and have Jesus too.  They are deceived (see Matthew 6:24; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15).  Christ will not marry a harlot.  God’s covenant promises to the church will only be fulfilled through His faithful bride of overcomers (Revelation 21:7).  

   How can we become Christ’s overcoming bride?  It is not enough for us to zealously desire to be His bride. It is impossible for us to overcome Satan and sin by our own willpower and natural strength and zeal.  If overcoming depended on us, we would be defeated.  “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57).”  The Bible says we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11).  The blood speaks of the triumphant work that Christ has accomplished by His crucifixion. On the cross, Jesus destroyed Satan’s power over God’s elect (Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8).   By His death, Jesus redeemed us from both the penalty of sin and the power of sin. The secret to overcoming is knowing we have died in Christ.  When Christ died, our sinful nature died with Him and was buried (removed) with Him (Romans 6:4-6).  Christ lives in us! (Colossians 1:27).  We are now raised with Christ and seated with Him in victory (Ephesians 2:4-6).  Therefore, the power of Christ’s blood shed on the cross silences all of Satan’s accusations and lies.  The blood of Christ nullifies Satan’s power to accuse us of sin; it also nullifies his power to arouse us to sin.

   The bride of Christ who crushes Satan wears the full armor of God under her wedding dress (Ephesians 6:10-17).  When Satan accuses Christ’s bride of failing God (Revelation 12:10), she stops his lies with the shield of faith and proclaims there is no condemnation in Christ (Romans 8:1).  When Satan tempts Christ’s bride to love her soul-life (John 12:25), she uses the sword of the Spirit to make him flee and proclaims she is dead to the world through the cross of Christ (Galatians 6:24).  The bride who overcomes Satan knows she has died with Christ and is full of the Spirit and testimony of Jesus, her bridegroom (Matthew 25:1-13).  This is the bride who conquers Satan by the word of her testimony and by the blood of the Lamb and she does not love her life even when faced with death (Revelation 12:11).  “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ.  For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before God day and night, has been hurled down (Revelation 12:10).”

   On His wedding day, Jesus will unveil His bride clothed in white wedding clothes without stain or blemish – holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:27).  These wedding clothes are the righteous acts that spring from our faith in Jesus Christ and His victory on the cross (Revelation 19:8).  This is the bride who has proven herself worthy by her undying love and faith in Jesus Christ and His cross.  When Jesus Christ returns and is revealed, this is the bride who will be revealed with Him  in glory (Colossians 3:4).  This is the glorious bride of Christ who will be joined in heavenly marriage and eternal union to her true love and Lord, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

 “In that day the Lord of hosts will be a beautiful crown and a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people… and as the bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.” Isaiah 28:5; 62:5   “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’  He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’”  Revelation 22:17 & 20

“I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I may present you as a pure virgin.  But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”  2 Corinthians 11:2-3

   Churchianity is the devil’s counterfeit of true Christianity.   Satan created Churchianity to keep undiscerning believers blinded and enslaved to darkness and sin.  What is Churchianity and how is it different from Christianity?  Churchianity is the carnal, soulish mindset that for centuries has produced a false church. The basis of Churchianity is the lawlessness that comes from man relying on his own righteousness and works; whereas the foundation of Christianity is the righteousness that comes only from faith in Christ and His completed work on the cross.  Although Churchianity and Christianity can appear the same outwardly, there is one great difference – only Christianity can produce Christ’s life.

   In Christianity, the true church is Holy Spirit-led and Christ-centered; in Churchianity, the false church is clergy-dominated and program-centered.  In Christianity, Christ is the head of the true church; in Churchianity, man is the head of the false church.  In Christianity, you become a member of God’s church by committing your life to Christ; in Churchianity, you become a member of the false church by committing your life to the organization.  In Christianity, your life will be conformed to the character of Christ; in Churchianity, your life will be conformed to the culture of the false church.  In Christianity, the true church functions as every member does the work of the ministry; in Churchianity, the false church pays a “professional” to do the work of the ministry.   In Christianity, the true church acts according to Christ’s initiative and power; in Churchianity, the false church acts according to man’s plans and resources.  In Christianity, the true church depends on the Holy Spirit to sustain it, since without the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ would grow weak and die; in Churchianity, the false church depends on money to maintain it, since without money, the institution would falter and collapse. In Christianity, the true church is bound together by a love for God; in Churchianity, the false church is bound together by a love for itself. In Christianity, the true church loses its soul-life for the love of Christ; in Churchianity, the false church fulfills its soul-life for the love of this world. In Christianity, the true church is not of this world and is hated by this world; in Churchianity, the false church is of this world and is loved by this world.  In Christianity, the true church practices obedience to Christ; in Churchianity, the false church practices lawlessness.  Churchianity is a devilish imposter masquerading as Christianity.  Churchianity can only yield the perishable fruit that man in his natural ability can produce instead of the eternal harvest that Christ will sovereignly reap through His bride.  Ultimately, the fruit of Churchianity is a soulish imitation of Christianity without Christ’s sovereignty and power. Churchianity is a perverted and destructive witness of Christ.  The outcome of Churchianity is a harlot in love with herself and the world but not in love with Jesus.

   Churchianity is a godless yoke that no true believer in Christ should ever bear.  The devil’s principal strategy is to distract and deceive Christians from fixing their eyes on Jesus Christ and His work on the cross.  Anything that takes the place of Christ accomplishes this diabolical aim.  One of the enemy’s most insidious ploys  has been to use Churchianity as the ultimate trap for sincere Christians. Churchianity keeps you earthly-minded, self-absorbed and spiritually asleep.  As long as the devil can continue to herd unsuspecting new sheep into Churchianity, he has them penned up, powerless, and ready for the spiritual slaughterhouse.  This is why it is crucial for God’s true shepherds to warn God’s people of the grave danger of Churchianity.  Churchianity is a deadly virus that you cannot outrun by simply leaving the institutional church for a house church.  There is only one antidote for Churchianity – faith in the cross of Christ.  You cannot reform Churchianity by just trying to start a church modeled after the New Testament. All attempts to reform Churchianity only deal with the symptoms, not the root of the problem.  We are incapable of reforming Churchianity, which is born out of man’s sinful nature and unsubmitted soul.  God knew man was beyond reforming.  Therefore, God’s way was not to reform our sinful nature but to replace it with Christ’s nature.  God’s righteous verdict for man’s sinful nature has always been execution, not reformation.  This is why Jesus Christ had to die on the cross for us and this is why we had to be crucified with Him so that He might sovereignly live through us, both individually and corporately.  The chains of Churchianity will only be broken off your soul when you are exhausted from its oppressive yoke and cry out to God for deliverance.  Then God will set you free by giving you a divine revelation of Christ and His redemptive work on the cross, by which He birthed His new creation, the body of Christ.  When you believe and act on the truth that you have died with Christ and your sinful nature has been crucified and buried (removed) in Christ, you will be freed from the power of sin and the bewitching snare of Churchianity.

   Jesus Christ died in our place and He now wants to sovereignly live in our place.  Unless we see that Jesus Christ and the power of His cross is far greater and more precious and glorious than the lifeless religion of Churchianity, we will never become His overcoming bride.   May God deliver His true church, the bride of Christ, from the godless yoke of Churchianity and set her free by faith in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city…  Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem.  Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.”  Isaiah 52:1-2

“Now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome eternal life.”  Romans 6:22

   In this verse, the apostle Paul reveals the progressive work of the cross of Christ in the life of a believer.  In order to examine the complete work of the cross in this verse, we will start at the end, which is also the purpose of Christ’s death.   Paul declares the outcome of Christ’s death on our behalf is eternal life.  The Greek word for “life” used here is zoe, which means God’s divine life. Therefore, the objective of Christ’s death on the cross was to bring us into God’s eternal, divine life, not only in the age to come, but into His divine life here on earth.  Paul also addresses what is necessary for us to receive this eternal life. 

   Paul declares that sanctification is required.    The Greek word for sanctification is hagiasmos, which means holiness or spiritual and moral purity.  It is evident from this context that Paul is not speaking about our initial sanctification when we were saved by Christ; he is speaking about the need for us to live a sanctified or holy life in Christ. Paul teaches here that sanctification, which results in eternal life, is the fruit of being God’s bondslave.  We have now reached a crucial point in Paul’s unfolding of the complete word of the cross.  How can we serve God with a pure heart and remain unstained by the sin of the world?  Here, Paul gives us the divine answer: we are able to be God’s bondslaves when we are freed from sin. “And having been freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness… for when you were slaves to sin, you were free in regard to righteousness (Romans 6:18 & 20).”

   Previously, in Romans 6:6-8, Paul explained how God freed us from sin.  Since we were born into sin, we could only be freed from sin through death.  “For he who has died has been freed from sin (Romans 6:7).”  Therefore, when we were born again, God spiritually included us in the death of His Son.  Paul wrote, “Do you not know that when you were baptized (immersed) into Christ, you were baptized (immersed) into His death (Romans 6:3)?” Knowing and believing this divine truth is so critical to receiving the full benefit of Christ’s Atonement and inheriting eternal life that Paul repeats this fact several times in Romans Chapter Six.  When Christ died, we died with Him (Romans 6:8). When Christ was crucified, our sinful nature was crucified with Him (Romans 6:6).  When Christ was buried, our sinful nature was buried with Him.  “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism (immersion) into death (Romans 6:4).”

   If you do not believe to the point of acting on the divine truth that you have died with Christ, you cannot experience freedom from sin and unbroken fellowship with God.  It was essential for God to remove our sinful nature.  The purpose of Christ’s death on the cross was to reconcile us to God.  However, this reconciliation is only possible if we no longer have a sinful, unholy nature.  Therefore God used the death of His Son to exchange our sin nature with His holy nature.  “God made Him who had no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).”

   We have now seen how Paul presented a progressive series of divine facts in his teaching on the doctrine of our co-crucifixion with Christ.  Let us review these facts:  1) Christ died for us and spiritually included us in His death; 2) Therefore when Christ died, our sinful nature died with Him; 3) Since we no longer have a sinful nature, we have been freed from the power of sin; 4) Since sin is no longer master over us,   we are now free to be God’s bondslaves; and 5) As we present ourselves daily as slaves to God, our lives will yield the fruit of sanctification and we will inherit His eternal life.

   But in order for us receive this full provision of Christ’s crucifixion on our behalf, these divine facts must be linked together by the bond of true faith, which is an acting faith not just an assenting faith. “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17).”  Therefore, if we do not believe (and act on) the truth of these divine facts, then Christ’s death will be of no benefit to us.  “For we have also had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard (Hebrews 4:2).”

   For example, we must believe (and act on) the truth that Christ died for us so that we can experience salvation and forgiveness of sins. We must also believe (and act on) the truth that our sinful nature died with Christ so that we can experience deliverance from the power of sin.  We must then believe (and act on) the truth that we are freed from sin so that we can be God’s bondslaves.  And we must believe (and act on) the truth that we are God’s bondslaves or we will not experience sanctification without which we cannot know the Lord and inherit eternal life (Hebrews 5:9; 12:14).”  This is the gospel that Paul preached and practiced: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God (Galatians 2:20).”

   Paul declares that he “lives by faith” in this truth that he preaches.  Again, this is an acting faith, not merely assenting.  In fact, without action, faith is dead (James 2:26).  We cannot claim to believe without corresponding action.  When we act on what we believe, we bear fruit and prove we are Christ’s disciples (John 15:8). This is what it means to believe that we have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, which results in our sanctification.  Our knowledge of the truth must result in our acting on the truth.  This is real faith and only then is eternal life possible.

“God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through faith in the truth.  It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  2 Thessalonians 2:13-14

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:1-5

   The moment we were born of the Spirit, God grafted us into Jesus Christ (Romans 11:16-24).  When God grafted us into His Holy Son, He also severed our spiritual connection to Satan by removing our unholy sinful nature (Romans 6:6; Colossians 2:11).  Now that God has planted us in Christ, our responsibility is to abide in Christ by faith.  Jesus Christ said, “Abide in Me and I in you.”  This is both a command and a promise.  If you abide in Christ, He will abide in you. The Greek word for abide is meno, which means “to actively dwell in.”  This can also be expressed as “stay rooted in” or “remain united to.”; 

   As with all of God’s promises, this one is also conditional upon the obedience of our faith. If you stay united to Christ by faith, He will remain united to you and you will bear spiritual fruit.  However, if you do not stay rooted in Christ, you will not bear spiritual fruit.  Therefore, whether your spiritual grafting into Christ takes hold and bears fruit depends on whether you “hold fast” by faith to Jesus Christ (Luke 8:15; 1 Corinthians 15:2; Hebrews 3:14). It is vital that we stay rooted by faith to Christ because we have no spiritual life in ourselves apart from Christ.  Without Christ’s life, we cannot bear His fruit.  This is why Jesus told His disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves (John 6:53).

   Most Christians do not understand what it means to “abide in Christ.”  Many think that they automatically abide in Christ as long as they have been saved.  However if a Christian practices sin, the Bible says this is not true.  “No one who abides in Him continues to sin; no one who continues to sin has seen Him or known Him (1 John 3:6).”  We cannot abide in Christ unless we abide in the truth of His word.  Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly My disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:31-32).”   Therefore, we can abide in Christ’s life and bear His fruit only if we believe and act on the truth.  What is the foundational truth of Christian living?We can only abide (live)in Christ if we know that we have died inChrist.  We must believe and act on the truth that our sinful nature has died in Christ and been removed in Christ (Romans 6:3-11).  Otherwise, we will try to bear spiritual fruit by the best of our natural ability and mistake our self-effort for faith.  When we try to bear spiritual fruit by our self-effort, we cut ourselves off from the spiritual life of the vine, which is Christ (Galatians 3:3; 5:4).  Just as we could not crucify ourselves, we cannot sanctify ourselves apart from Christ’s completed work on the cross.  We will only experience Christ’s resurrection life if we abide (stay rooted by faith) in Christ’s death.  “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him (Romans 6:8).”  This is the way abiding in Christ works.  When we stay rooted by faith in the truth of Christ’s death (when Christ died, we died with Him), Christ’s life will be formed in us.  “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory (Colossians 3:3-4).”

   As we abide in Christ, the Bible says that God will periodically prune us so we can bear more fruit and grow into Christ’s fullness.  How does God prune us?   Once again, He uses His Word.  To paraphrase and adapt Hebrews 4:12, “The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any pruning shears and able to cut away everything which is carnal and soulish from our lives.”  Sometimes we will turn away from worldly attitudes and activities when God’s Word convicts us.  Other times, God uses difficult situations to discipline and prune us.  “But God disciplines us for our good, so we may share His holiness (Hebrews 12:10).”  When we are being pruned, we may not understand what God is doing since His pruning can be painful.  At times, we may feel as if God has pruned us so far back that we are left with only a stump.  However, when God causes the new growth of Christ’s life to emerge within us, we will reap the fruit of abiding in Christ and His completed work on the cross.  “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11).”

   Being pruned by our heavenly Father can be painful, but it is far better to undergo His training in righteousness than to bear no fruit at all.“If you are not disciplined… then you are illegitimate children and not true sons (Hebrews 12:8).”  These are people who were once grafted into Christ (John 15:2), but they proved themselves unworthy of being God’s children because they resisted His divine pruning and never bore any spiritual fruit.  Jesus said, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned (John 15:6; see also Romans 11:20-22).”

   God has grafted us into His Son.  This is our glorious salvation and just the beginning of God’s pruning and sanctifying work in our life. Let us then be diligent to stay rooted by faith in Jesus Christ and in the power of His death so that the power of His life might bear much fruit in us.

“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples… you did not choose Me but I choose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain.”  John 15:8 & 16

“And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.”  Revelation 21:2

   In Revelation 21 and 22, we see a glorious vision of a great city, the new Jerusalem.  This city portrays the consummation of God’s eternal purpose through the ages – the full expression of Jesus Christ in His church, His bride.  The old Jerusalem was but a shadow and symbol of this heavenly Jerusalem. The old Jerusalem was the capital of Israel, the only kingdom that God had thus far established on the earth.  It was called the city of David since within its walls were the throne of David and the tabernacle of David.  For King David not only made Jerusalem the royal city from which he ruled; he also made it the holy city by installing God’s Ark of the Covenant on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

   The new Jerusalem is the city of God.  This is the heavenly city whose architect and builder is God and whose foundation is Jesus Christ (Hebrews 11:10; 1 Corinthians 3:11).  This divine city is the body and bride of Christ, the church of the living God.  “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the city of the living God… to the church of the first born whose names are written in heaven (Hebrews 12:22-23).” Jesus the Messiah King is the fulfillment of God’s covenant with David (Isaiah 9:7; Luke 1:31-33). For the throne of David foreshadowed Christ’s Sovereignty over His church and the tabernacle of David foreshadowed Christ’s Presence in His church.  “God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:22-23).

   When God’s people were not faithful to Him, the city of David was overrun by its enemies and its foundations and walls fell into ruin.  Just as the old Jerusalem was destroyed, the new Jerusalem, the church of the living God, also fell into ruin. Within just a few generations after our Lord ascended to heaven, the church began to lose its spiritual connection to Christ its sovereign head (Colossians 2:19).  More concerned with outward order and form than the reality of Christ’s Sovereign Presence, the city of God fell into disrepair. Its spiritual foundations and walls finally collapsed and lay desolate for centuries.  Yet God has always preserved for Himself a remnant of survivors or overcomers.

   After a long period of physical desolation, God raised up Ezra and Nehemiah from His band of faithful survivors to rebuild the old Jerusalem.  In the same way, God is raising up His body of overcomers to restore the new Jerusalem.  In the first century, the apostle James addressed the Council of Jerusalem to this end, “With this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, ‘After these things I will return and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen and I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it (Amos 9:11; Acts 15:15-16).’” Isaiah also prophesied of this glorious restoration, “Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called the repairer of the breach; the restorer of the streets in which to dwell (Isaiah 58:12 & 61:4).”

   In restoration, the foundation has the priority. Everything else in the city – its walls, its gates and streets – rests on its foundation.  If the foundation is not properly laid, everything else is askew.  Five centuries ago, God began to restore His beloved city, His church, when He gave divine revelation to Martin Luther that the just are saved by faith.  The foundation of justification by faith in Christ and His completed work on the cross began to be laid anew (1 Peter 2:6).  Since then, much has been added to this beginning foundation to rebuild the church. However, the church’s complete foundation has not yet been fully restored.  Because we have built on an incomplete foundation, the entire structure is now at risk (1 Corinthians 3:10-13). The city’s walls may outwardly appear impressive, but they are inwardly compromised and weak. God’s watchmen, His prophets, are now warning the city to restore its ancient foundation; otherwise its walls will be breached and overrun by the enemy.

   What crucial part of God’s sure foundation is missing?  For the past five hundred years, the church has acted on only half of the gospel – the just are saved by faith.  Yet the whole gospel is “the just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17).”  God’s people know they are saved by faith but they do not know how to live the overcoming Christian life by faith.  Yet Christ’s death on the cross not only provided us salvation by faith; His death also provided us sanctification by faith. For Christ not only died to forgive us from the penalty of our sins; He also died to deliver us from the power of sin by removing our sinful nature (Romans 6:6).  God’s people need to believe not only that Christ has died for their sins (Romans 5:8), they also need to believe and act on the Biblical truth that they have died with Christ (Romans 6:8).  They need to know (believe and act) that they are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:7).  Then they will not try to live as Christians by the best of their natural ability and mistake their self-effort for Biblical faith (Galatians 3:3).

   In ancient times, the prophet Daniel effectively interceded for the old Jerusalem when God revealed the city’s restoration was close at hand.  In these last days, God’s watchmen are sounding the trumpet once again to restore the full foundation of the new Jerusalem, the bride of Christ.  When God’s faithful remnant believe and act on the truth that they have died with Christ, they will overcome the world by the power of Christ who indwells them.  Then Jesus Christ will triumphantly return for His holy bride, the glorious city of God (Revelation 19:6-16; 21:2-11).

“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent.  You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” Isaiah 62:6-8