SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/18/2017 9:57 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Complete Salvation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
2:11-12
Message of the verses: “11 In Christ, you were circumcised, not by any physical act, but by being set free from the sins of the flesh by virtue of Christ’s circumcision. 12 You shared in that, just as in baptism you shared in his death, and in him shared the rising again to life—and all this because you have faith in the tremendous power of God, who raised Christ from the dead (Phillips).”
I realize we have taken a lot of time looking at these
two verses but when you look at the fact that we are looking at the complete
salvation that we find in Jesus Christ then I have to say that it is well worth
the time that we are taking to look at this critical subject, just as critical
today as it was when Paul wrote to the Colossians explaining it.
If we look at this in a human way we can come to the
wrong conclusion about how a person receives salvation, and humanly speaking we
all think that there is work involved in getting salvation from God, but as
Ephesians 2:8-10 we see the whole picture of how we have received
salvation: “8 For it is by grace that
you are saved, through faith. This does not depend on anything you have
achieved, it is the free gift of God; 9 and because it is not earned no man can
boast about it. 10 For God has made us what we are, created in Christ Jesus to
do those good deeds which he planned for us to do (Phillips).” As we look at
these verses we see that all the work was done by Jesus Christ and then in
verse ten we see that after we are saved is when we do those good deeds which
were planned by God in eternity past.
We still have a problem with the flesh even after we are
saved, as Christ has given us a new nature which resides in the inside of us,
the spiritual side of us, but the flesh resides in the outside of us and it is
what still gives us problems. When a
believer dies the inside is transported to heaven for absent from the body is
present with the Lord, but the body stays on earth until the time of the
Rapture when Christ returns to gather His church in the clouds as the trumpets
sounds and after that will transport us to heaven where we all will have
glorified bodies.
John MacArthur speaks of the new creation that believers
have once they are saved: “The new
creation is pure and holy. As believers
we await only the redemption of our bodies (Rom. 8:23) to make them fully fit
for heaven.” Now if you want more info
on this you will either have to look at MacArthur’s commentary on the book of
Romans, or wait until we study that book sometime in the future.
Paul mentions as we have seen that circumcision is not
necessary to obtain salvation as believers we are circumcised in Christ, and
then he goes on to talk about baptism.
Now the Phillips rendering of these verses show us that just as
circumcision was done in Christ so was baptism that is what we call the baptism
of the Holy Spirit which happens to all believers at the moment of
salvation. Water baptism is a picture of
what Spiritual baptism is all about which is seen more thoroughly in the sixth
chapter of Romans. Water baptism is one
of the two elements that are in the NT church, and the other is “The Lord’s Table.” Neither is necessary for salvation, but as
believer’s we are to partake in both of them, one time for baptism and then a
regular time of partaking in the Lord’s Table.
Our church does this once a month as is pretty much the standard in all
of the churches that I have been a part of.
MacArthur concludes this section with the following: “Such a spiritual transformation can only be achieved ‘through faith in the working of God. Working’ translates enegeia, from which we get our English word energy. It refers to God’s active power—the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Those who believe that God raised Jesus from the dead will also be raised with Him. ‘If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.’ (Rom.10:9).”
We will next look at
“Complete Forgiveness” which will cover verses 13-14 of Colossians chapter two.
3/18/2017 10:22 PM
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