Category: The Plan of SALVATION

God means what He says and says what He means! My hermeneutics are “literal”, however, that being said…study the scriptures yourself and make up your own mind! Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit…

Scriptures are from Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Romans 10:11-15 “Now the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on Him will not be put to shame, ¹² for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. ¹³ For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. ¹⁴ But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? ¹⁵ And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel of good things!

Jesus said to his disciples in Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.

Luke 14:23 “Then the master told the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and lanes and make them come in, so that my house may be filled.

Who is the master and who is the slave in this parable.?

Romans 1:1 Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and singled out for God’s good news—Romans 6:22 But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the end is eternal life! We are told that we are God’s Slaves 1 Peter 2:16 As God’s slaves, live as free people, but don’t use your freedom as a way to conceal evil. Philippians 1:1 Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus: To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons.

Throughout the New Testament, it’s quite clear that the followers/disciples of Jesus are slaves and we’re expected to go out and share the Gospel! The Master of course is Jesus. He’s planning on having a full house of those who love Him.

According to my understanding, a disciple is a dedicated follower of a teacher…so like the original 12 disciples, as Christians, if we are dedicated to following Jesus, we also become HIS disciples (SLAVES). Putting that into context with all of the things that Jesus taught the original 12 disciples (APOSTLES) in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, can we truly preach the Gospel of Jesus and Salvation without mentioning sin, hell and the day of judgement? If we don’t mention these things, how will anyone realize what they’re being saved from? Can we truly expect people to recognize their need for a Savior if someone doesn’t inform them that they need to be saved? Can we really live a lifestyle that would make someone curious about why we’re so nice? My thoughts are that the answer to these questions is a resounding NO! I used to believe, partially because I was told by many Christians including Pastors, that there’s such a thing as “lifestyle Evangelism”. I’m sincerely questioning that concept now… I can’t find anyplace in the Bible that it says our commission is to live like a nice guy and others will figure it out. Some of the nicest people I’ve ever met are atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, nature worshipers, etc. Here’s the crux of the matter: THEY DON’T HAVE JESUS CHRIST ~ YESHUA HA MASHIACH(Hebrew) as their SAVIOR! I believe that I’ve failed in my commission if I don’t tell them about Jesus and what he did for mankind. His sacrifice of dying on the cross for “ALL” sins and our belief and repentence; we will not have to pay the price and the penalty of burning in HELL. Jesus has paid it ALL!

Acts 20:26-28 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of everyone’s blood, ²⁷ for I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole plan of God. ²⁸ Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock that the Holy Spirit has appointed you to as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.

This was the Apostle Paul speaking to the church at Ephesus as part of his farewell speech because he was certain that he was never going to see them again. He was on his way to Jerusalem and hoped to arrive in time for the Pentecost, knowing full well that the Jewish authorities were planning on arresting him. Paul made it very clear that we must always be prepared to share the “WHOLE” plan of God with everyone. The elders of the church were there, but so was the entire church body, so I don’t think that we can say that his statement wasn’t inclusive of everyone listening.

Ezekiel 3:16-21 Now at the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁷ “Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel. When you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me. ¹⁸ If I say to the wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him—you don’t speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life—that wicked person will die for his iniquity. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. ¹⁹ But if you warn a wicked person and he does not turn from his wickedness or his wicked way, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have saved your life. ²⁰ Now if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, and I put a stumbling block in front of him, he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die because of his sin and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. ²¹ But if you warn the righteous person that he should not sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live because he listened to your warning, and you will have saved your life.”

Doesn’t it make sense that what God said to the prophet Ezekiel pertains to disciples today? Ezekiel is the watchman over the house of Israel and Christians are watchman over today’s church with Jesus as the head. In Ezekiel’s time, faith wasn’t a common place term, as a matter of fact, faith is only mentioned 2 times in the OLD TESTAMENT…now that doesn’t mean that faith didn’t exist, after all, Abraham, Moses, David and many others displayed their faith in God by following his directives. The prophets such as Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, Malachi and many more all faithfully foretold of the coming Messiah. Even Psalms tell us of the resurrection of the Messiah. So the Israelite had faith that God’s prophets were telling the truth about the coming Messiah.

We who have Jesus Christ, the propitiation of the promise of the Messiah, must recognize that whether it’s in the Old Testament or the New Testament: God doesn’t change…He’s the same yesterday today and forever. So if He told Ezekiel to warn people about sin and tells them that he and they will die if He doesn’t tell them, then why would He expect anything different from believers today?

https://jesusamazinggrace.com/2020/05/03/the-plan-of-salvation/

Solomon writes in Proverbs 24:10-12 If you do nothing in a difficult time,
your strength is limited. ¹¹ Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter. ¹² If you say, “But we didn’t know about this,” won’t He who weighs hearts consider it? Won’t He who protects your life know? Won’t He repay a person according to his work?

Do you say to yourself, “let somebody else do it”? Do you think that as long as you believe that Jesus died for your sins, there’s nothing else for you to do?

Matthew 9:37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.

Matthew 5:11-12 “You are blessed when they insult and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me. ¹² Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 20:21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

1 Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.

Witnessing is a double bonus: It not only shows a fellow human the path to salvation, it helps you to learn more about God’s Word.

Philemon 1:6 “I pray that your participation in the faith may become effective through knowing every good thing that is in us for the glory of Christ.”

Colossians 1:10 “so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.”

2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth.”

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,”

Saved by Grace! Jesus is GRACE, our Gift from Our Father in Heaven!

Romans 5:15-17 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.¹⁶ And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.¹⁷ For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

ALL Scriptures come from the King James Version Bible

Jesus said Pray like this:

In Scriptures Matthew 16-20 a young rich man asked Jesus, what can I do to be saved? Jesus asked him if he’d kept the commandments of God and when he said yes, Jesus told him to sell his goods, give the money to the poor and follow Him; at this, the young man turned away sorrowfully.

Now you might be asking…why did Jesus ask the young man about God’s commandments? Was he going to judge the young man by the 10 Commandments? NO…I don’t believe so…He was showing the young man that keeping the commandments of God was just the beginning…although he might be obedient to the law, he must give up the world to follow Jesus. It was indeed, truly a matter of the heart! Did the young man love his neighbor enough to give up his riches to help them? It emphasizes that he had many possessions, so Jesus is making it apparent to us that his love of riches was his stumbling block.

Matthew 19:23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 19: 25-26 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? ²⁶ But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

Are we guilty of putting the Law ahead of the Gospel? Or are we guilty of putting the Gospel before the Law? Do we sometimes stir them together into a religious soup of Salvation? If this is the case, we’ve sadly distorted the purpose of the Gift of Grace! When Jesus came to earth, he showed us that the law is “designed” to prick our conscience in such a way that we recognize that we need HIM! That we need the gift that God has given us via His SON Jesus the Messiah ~ Yeshua Hamashiach (Hebrew). JESUS is GRACE!!! JESUS is the GIFT!!!

Now back to the Bible Scripture that I started this blog with:

Romans 5:15-17 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

The Law wasn’t given until the time of Moses in the book of Exodus, but sin had been flourishing on this earth since Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command to NOT eat of the tree in the middle of the garden or they would surely die…they didn’t believe Him when He said that they would die. When Noah built the Ark, it was because by this time (only 1,056 years after Adam) the earth was so corrupted by sin, that the only way God could cleanse it of sin was to start over…therefore he destroyed all of the earth with a flood and saved only Noah and his family. Then came the tower of Babel, built by Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah. Nimrod built it in rebellion against God. So sin was and is alive and well since the Garden of Eden and in this world we live in, sin flourishes today more than it ever has in the past!

God gave the Law (10 commandments) to Israel after Moses led them out of Egypt; they’d been in Egypt long enough that although they knew about God, they didn’t know God. The 10 Commandments were given by God out of Love so that they would have a moral compass to obey and also have a better understanding of who God is and the role that He was going to play in their lives. They’d seen the miracles of God: the 10 plagues on Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, water from the rock and manna, but they still didn’t really know God. The 10 commandments were designed to teach them right from wrong in their relationship with Him and with their fellowman…this is why Jesus summed them up in Matthew 22:36-40 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? ³⁷ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Once we know Jesus, our Gift of Grace…should we now trample His law? The law is not dead…however, if Jesus is your Savior, the penalty for sin is no longer death, but the law still remains as the compass by which we understand right from wrong because we Love Him! How can we possibly say that we know Him if we don’t follow His commandments! JESUS is GOD, GOD is JESUS, JESUS is GRACE, JESUS is the GIFT of GOD. JESUS and GOD are ONE in and with GOD the HOLY SPIRIT! JESUS is the SAME Yesterday, Today and Forever! GOD never CHANGES.

Galatians 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Now there’s probably many men and women who believe that they can buy their way into the GRACE of GOD, but what they don’t see is that the GRACE of GOD can’t be purchased! It was already bought and paid for by the blood of JESUS on the cross. You can’t ever do enough good works, or keep enough of the commandments to undermine the magnitude of what JESUS did for us sinners!

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Galatians 2:16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. “NO ONE”, but Jesus the Messiah ~ Yeshua Hamashiach (Hebrew) the perfect man, can or ever will be able to keep the 10 Commandments, but by giving our hearts and minds to belief in Jesus, we will be “born again” and when God the Holy Spirit comes to live in us…we will be changed. We become the Temple of God. https://jesusamazinggrace.com/2020/04/27/dont-you-know-youre-the-temple-of-god/

The great 20th Century Evangelist Billy Graham (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) said: The Holy Spirit has all knowledge. The Bible says, “The Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us and takes us deeper and deeper into God’s truth as we go along in our Christian life. We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, but we can grow only by the help of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is called holy. The Bible says, “Be holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). And one of the Holy Spirit’s ministries is to help make us holy. We ought to be more holy today than we were yesterday. We should always be conforming more to the image of Jesus Christ, and it is the Holy Spirit who helps us in this growing process.

Do you know the story of the thieves who were crucified on crosses next to Jesus? One thief mocked Jesus and the other thief recognized Jesus as his Savior and he believed and he confessed Jesus!

Luke 23: 39-43 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.⁴⁰ But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?⁴¹ And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.⁴² And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.⁴³ And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

https://jesusamazinggrace.com/2020/03/24/at-the-cross-journey-to-heaven-or-hell/

John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Romans 10:9-12 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. ¹¹ Now the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on Him will not be put to shame, ¹² for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek (Gentile), since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. ¹³ For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

NOW is the TIME to call on JESUS! INVITE JESUS into your heart, mind and life and you will live with Him forever! Not because of how good you are…but simply because you are forgiven! Ask JESUS ~ YESHUA to rescue you before it’s too late!

https://jesusamazinggrace.com/category/the-plan-of-salvation/https://jesusamazinggrace.com/category/the-plan-of-salvation/

Acts 16:30-31 “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

2 Thessalonian 2:16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,

Titus 3:4-7 But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,⁵ Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;⁶ Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior;⁷ That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.