YOUR FREE GIFT IS READY!

There's a free gift ready and waiting for you. What's in it? All the wonders of the entire universe and more! Everything necessary has already been done to insure that when you simply believe that this free gift is yours, you will immediately become a joint-heir with the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself! Everything He is and has will instantly become yours the moment you trust that He paid the price for your sins with His own blood on Calvary's Cross and rose from the dead to assure you of delivery.

How can I be so sure? I'm certain of it because the King James Bible is the absolute, preserved word of God; and in 2 Corinthians 5:19, His inspired word tells me 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.” This means that God asks only one thing of us today: Accept the fact that He has now reconciled the whole world unto Himself in Christ. It's done. There is nothing more to do. No sinner's prayer to pray. No promises to make about cleaning up your act. No church rituals to perform. God is reconciled to you; now you need to be reconciled to Him by agreeing with Him that “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 Cor. 5:21). That's all that's necessary!

When you accept the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has done it all, the Holy Spirit of God supernaturally baptizes you into Christ where you are sealed by Him eternally. The Holy Spirit seal keeps you so securely in Christ that you couldn't get out even if you wanted! (2 Tim. 2:13). There is nothing you must do, and nothing you must not do, in your future walk in Christ, to keep you safely there. Glorious fruits of righteousness will naturally spring forth according to the measure of your yielding to the Spirit that indwells you. (Eph. 2:10). With or without your obedience or fruit, after accepting God's gift, your salvation is sure because the Lord Jesus Christ has purchased you with a price. (Eph. 1:14).

So what are you waiting for? Thank God for His unspeakable gift and accept yours today! (2 Cor. 9:15). Then read the Scriptures regularly, paying special attention to the doctrines of Grace that God gave exclusively to the Apostle of the Gentiles, Paul, in order to form the Body of Christ today. (2 Tim. 2:15).

ARE WE ETERNALLY SECURE IN CHRIST?

The issue of eternal security of the believer in Christ is one that has been hotly debated for many years. There are verses in the Bible that say believers can lose their salvation and there are verses that are equally clear that believers cannot. The letter to the Hebrews, for example, has a couple of troubling passages: "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." [Heb. 10:26]. And this one: "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." [Heb. 6:4-6]. Add to this Jesus’ warning in John 15 that those who do not abide in him would be cast into the fire as a branch, and you have something to worry about!

When you turn to the writings of Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, you receive some reassurance with passages such as, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." [Eph. 4:30] Ephesians 1:14 speaks of believers as being a "purchased possession;" and Romans 8:38-39 comforts believers with Paul’s assurance that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So, which passages should we believe? Can they all be correct? Yes, they can; and their plain meaning can be accepted without having to twist or spiritualize them in order to reconcile them with each other! Here’s the question we must always ask ourselves when we read a passage of Scripture: to whom is it written? The gospel of John, like the other three gospels, contains the words of our Lord Jesus Christ spoken "only unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." [Matt. 10:6; 15:24] Similarly, the letter to the Hebrews contains truth for Israel both at the time of its writing and for the future day of the Lord. Paul wrote his letters to the body of Christ, in which Jew and Gentile are on equal ground [1 Cor. 12:13]; so a letter to just one group or the other would not be in keeping with that great truth. Paul’s gospel of grace has been forming the body of Christ since his conversion, which made him its very first member. [1 Tim. 1:16]. So, Paul’s letters contain the truth for us, the body of Christ, today; and one of our greatest blessings is that of being eternally secure in Christ. Israel had the assurance of salvation if they remained faithful to the end of their lives [Matt. 24:13]; we have eternal life as a present possession the moment we place our faith in Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection. [1 Cor. 15:1-4].

Still not convinced? Here is the simple, yet glorious reason why we are secure for all eternity when we believe the gospel that Paul preached: The moment we believe, the Holy Spirit baptizes us into Christ. [1 Cor. 12:13]. Not a drop of water is involved; the action is a supernatural one. We are now in Christ, a member of his very own body, so tightly sealed into him that we cannot be unsealed even if we wanted to be! [2 Tim. 2:13]. Now that we’re in him, we are saved not by our own feeble and wavering faith, but by the faith of Christ! [Romans 3:22; Gal. 2:16] His righteousness is imputed to us [Rom. 3:22; Php. 3:9]; and his perfect obedience to God’s requirements of circumcision, water baptism, and keeping the Law become ours simply because we are now in him [2 Cor. 5:21]. We are totally "accepted in the beloved" [Eph. 1:6] because he is the beloved and we are in him! The Father no longer sees us as separate, sinful individuals...he sees us in him, his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased!

Now that we’re in him, seated with him in the heavenlies at this very moment [Eph. 2:6], how then can we fail to have the eternal life he possesses, as well as all of the riches to which he is heir, as we are now "fellowheirs" in him? [Eph. 3:6]. We now walk "in the Spirit," because he walks in the Spirit, with the result being that there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. [Rom. 8:1].

God never promised Israel the kind of blessings that we have in Christ, whose faith now saves us when we place our trust in him. God’s chosen nation will have a wonderful role to play in the "ages to come," but we have Christ as a present possession in the "but now." [Eph. 2:13; Rom. 3:21].