Made Wise Unto Salvation
2 Timothy 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known
the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through
faith which is in Christ
Jesus.
In Acts chapter 16,
after the
council in Jerusalem, Peter, James and John agreed to confine
their ministry and message of the Kingdom strictly to the
circumcision, as Paul
points out in the book of
Galatians:
Galatians 2:9 And
when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars,
perceived the grace that
was given unto me, they gave to
me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship;
that we
should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
So after that meeting, they return to Antioch, in
Syria, and some time later, Paul chooses Silas, and goes
back through the
regions of Galatia, to all the churches
he had preached to at the time of Acts
chapter 13 and 14.
It says:
Acts 15:36 And some
days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and
visit our brethren in
every city where we have preached
the word of the Lord, and see how they
do.
Now I suspect that the main reason Paul would want to
go and do that would be to see how they do...as far as the
doctrine which was
committed to him. In other words the
issue that caused Paul to write the
Galatian letter, that
of legalism, circumcision and the law of Moses, that the
Galatians were being subverted with. Paul called it
"another gospel," and
religion assumes that Paul means a
false gospel, but that is simply not the
case. The other
gospel in the book of Galatians is the TIME PAST message of the
gospel of the Kingdom preached by Peter and the
12.
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto
another gospel:
Galatians 1:7 Which
is not another; but there be some
that trouble you, and
would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Paul said they were
PERVERTING the gospel of Christ.
It involved WORKING
RIGHTEOUSNESS in a sanctification UNTO salvation maintenance
situation. It was a time past message, and it is also a
FUTURE tribulation
message. It is an "abiding in the
vine," IF situation. Before the WHY of the
cross was
revealed by the Lord to Paul, there had been a TIME PAST message,
preached by Peter at Pentecost. And, Jewish kingdom
saints, WHICH BELIEVED,
according to Luke's account in
Acts 15 had tried to persuade people to put
themselves
BACK under the law of Moses.
Acts 15:5 But there
rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which
believed, saying, That it was
needful to circumcise them,
and to command them to keep the law of
Moses.
So the end result of that meeting was that the
Kingdom apostles, James, Cephas and John, had agreed to
confine THEIR message to
the circumcison. Their message
was mainly to convince the Jews that Jesus is the
Christ
that was promised in scripture, and that Israel should believe in him and
identify with him, in water baptism, looking for his
second coming, and the
restoring of the promised Kingdom
to Israel. They were UNDER the Law.
But Paul said that
"whosoever of you are justified by
the law, ye are FALLEN
from grace." So trying to keep the law for salvation for
those Galatians, was to be fallen from grace.
So Paul wants to go back to Galatia and "see how they
do." So he chooses Silas, and they go, and in Acts 16 they
come back to Derbe,
where Paul had preached
before.
Acts 16:1 Then came
he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple
was there, named
Timotheus, the son of a certain woman,
which was a Jewess, and believed; but his
father was a
Greek:
So Timothy was a
disciple
already, when they got back to Derbe. No doubt, he had become a
believer during Paul's first trip. So Paul takes Timothy
with him and you later
find Paul and Silas and Timothy in
Macedonia, and in Corinth. That all occurs in
Acts 16, 17
and 18. But 2 Timothy is probably Paul's last book and it was
probably written just a short time before his death. In
it, he tells
Timothy:
2 Timothy 4:7 I have
fought a
good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
And that phrase there, THE FAITH, is very specific,
and because of it, Paul writes in 2 Timothy that "all that
are in Asia" were
turned away from Paul. THAT is the
beginning of all the religious confusion that
exists in
the religious system today. Men began to turn away from the PURE grace
message committed to Paul by the risen and glorified Lord
and they began to mix
the Kingdom message with the grace
message. They blended Law and Grace, and even
the earliest
writings of the so-called "church fathers" show that even from the
first century, the pure message of salvation by grace
alone through faith alone
which was committed to Paul, was
being corrupted and blended. And so it has been
down
through the centuries. So THE FAITH, I have kept THE FAITH, has a special
meaning.
So in his last
letter, Paul writes to Timothy:
2 Timothy 3:10 But
thou hast
fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith,
longsuffering, charity, patience,
2 Timothy 3:11
Persecutions,
afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra;
what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord
delivered
me.
2 Timothy 3:12 Yea,
and all that will live godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution.
2 Timothy 3:13 But
evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,
deceiving, and being
deceived.
2 Timothy 3:14 But
continue
thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
2 Timothy 3:15 And
that from a
child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make
thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus.
Now some people try to take that verse and prove to
you that all salvation is the same. It is all the same,
Genesis through
Revelation, and there is only ONE gospel,
and that Jesus Christ IS the same
yesterday, today and
forever, and that God never changes. Well, it's true that
Jesus Christ is the same and that God never changes.
Hebrews says that Jesus
Christ is the same:
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus
Christ the
same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
The bible also says that God never changes:
Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not;
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Now He could have just POOFED them out of existence,
and wiped out the whole thing, and just reversed the whole
thing and obliterated
it. He could have started over, or
just forgot the whole thing, but He said I
CHANGE NOT, and
Jesus Christ IS the same FOREVER.
But that's not what
Paul is talking about
here:
2 Timothy 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known
the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through
faith which is in Christ
Jesus.
Now Timothy is a
half-Jew. His
father is a Greek. But his mother, must have taught him the Hebrew
scriptures, in other words, the old testament, which Paul
says is able to make
thee wise UNTO salvation. He doesn't
say that the Hebrew scriptures are able to
save him, but
to make him WISE UNTO salvation. Being wise and knowing and
memorizing a lot of verses, or the whole bible, for that
matter, is NOT
salvation. Why? Because salvation is BY
FAITH. All salvatlion, Genesis through
the book of
Revelation is BY FAITH. The just shall live by faith, and without
faith it is impossible to please God. Faith cometh by
HEARING and HEARING by the
word of God.
So that's what Paul
is saying
to Timothy. Not that old testament scriptures save you, or that
salvation can be found IN the old testament scriptures BUT
they they are able to
make thee wise unto salvation,
through what? THROUGH FAITH. Notice it doesn't
say
salvation BY faith. It says salvation THROUGH faith. There is a BIG
difference in salvation BY faith and salvation THROUGH
faith.
Now I want you to think about this for just a minute.
How does Paul say that you, in the body of Christ, are
saved? BY grace, THROUGH
faith. That is a very specific
statement. Look carefully at the verse:
Ephesians 2:8 For by
grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God:
So then, the gift of
God, in the verse is salvation.
And that is in one accord
with Romans:
Romans 6:23 For the
wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ
our Lord.
Some people want to
claim that
the gift is faith. They say they are regenerated at some point in
time BEFORE they are saved so that they then can have
faith, so faith is the
gift. But it's plain to someone who
believes their bible that SALVATION is the
gift, ETERNAL
LIFE, is the gift, not faith. BY grace are ye saved THROUGH
faith.
Now I want you to
think carefully about something.
There are some more
people in the bible who are saved in exactly THE OPPOSITE
WAY! BY faith THROUGH grace. When I started checking this
out, this thing just
leaped off the page at me and I just
said WOW! The exact opposite. Only in the
dispensation of
grace are you saved BY grace THROUGH faith. Peter, James and
John, the water baptized Pentecostal Jews, and EVERYBODY
else in the bible are
saved in exactly the OPPOSITE way,
BY faith THROUGH grace.
Now remember what we
are looking for. We are looking
for HOW the holy
scriptures can make us wise UNTO salvation, in other words it
won't save us, what we find in the scriptures won't bring
us INTO salvation. But
according to Paul, the Old
Testament scriptures should make us wise UNTO
salvation,
THROUGH faith. Not BY faith. See it?
2 Timothy 3:15 And
that from a child thou hast known
the holy scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through
faith which is in Christ Jesus.
And like I said,
when I saw
this I had to say WOW, now there's a light bulb moment. We are saved
BY grace THROUGH faith. Every body else IN THE BIBLE is
saved BY faith THROUGH
grace. Let me show you
something:
Romans 3:28
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the
law.
Justified BY faith. But whose faith is it? Well, it's
not your faith. It's the faith of Christ!
Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by
the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in
Jesus Christ, that we might be
justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the
works of
the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be
justified.
If you are still
hanging on to one of those "new, easy to understand"
translations, I suggested
you get rid of it. You've got a
book, and you need a BIBLE. Go back to Romans
again:
Romans 3:28
Therefore we conclude that a man is
justified by faith
without the deeds of the law.
Romans 3:29 Is he
the God of the Jews only? is he not
also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also:
Romans 3:30 Seeing
it is one God, which shall justify
the circumcision by
faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
See it there. It is one God which shall justify the
circumcision how? BY FAITH. And the uncircumcison how?
THROUGH FAITH. We are
justified BY grace THROUGH faith.
They are justified BY faith THROUGH grace.
Look at it.
Look at what Peter says:
Acts 15:10 Now
therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of
the disciples, which
neither our fathers nor we were able
to bear?
Acts 15:11 But we
believe that through the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ we
shall be saved, even as they.
Peter believes, and
the whole Jewish Kingdom church
believes that they SHALL
BE saved THROUGH grace. It is BY their maintaining
their
faith, BY FAITH and enduring to the end that they receive the grace. We
are already saved BY grace THROUGH faith, the faith of
Jesus Christ, who endured
unto the end for us, or in our
behalf. Their faith is on trial. They are saved
BY FAITH,
if their faith endures, and it is THROUGH grace:
1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your
mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is
to be brought unto you
at the revelation of Jesus
Christ;
So when Paul told
Timothy that the Holy Scriptures were able to make him
wise unto salvation
THROUGH faith, it got me to thinking.
And, I thought about prophecy, the mouth
of all the holy
prophets since the world began. And I said, no that's not it,
because the prophets never spoke about salvation BY GRACE.
The grace message was
only revealed to Paul. So prophecy
can't be it. It can't be what Paul was
talking about
because they didn't even know about the church, the body of
Christ. They didn't know about the what, or the what
manner of time. Look at
what Peter said:
1 Peter 1:9
Receiving the end
of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
They will receive the END of their faith, in other
words BY FAITH, by an enduring faith unto the end, the end
of their faith will
be the salvation of their souls,
THROUGH grace. The opposite of our salvation.
Now read
on:
1 Peter 1:10 Of
which salvation
( and he is talking about HIS salvation, BY faith, by his
enduring faith) the prophets have enquired and searched
diligently, who
prophesied of the grace (BY faith THROUGH
grace) that should come unto
you:
1 Peter 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time
the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when
it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ, and the
glory that should follow.
So you can see that
the old testament prophets knew
about and they prophesied
about, the sufferings of Christ, and also the glory
that
should follow. As a matter of fact, in all of the prophecies about Jesus
Christ, ANY time you see the sufferings written about, you
ALWAYS see the GLORY
immediately after that. Sometimes a
prophet speaks about the glory of the Lord.
Isaiah
does:
Isaiah 6:1 In the
year that
king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
So Isaiah has a vison of the glory of the Lord and he
writes about the glory. But any time you see the
sufferings of the Lord, the
glory immediately follows. So
it says the prophets searched, diligently. They
prophecied
of the GRACE that was coming to Israel, in other words the GLORY at
the second coming. And they could see the sufferings and
the glory. But they
never understood the what. In other
words what it meant. What did the sufferings
of the Lord
mean? And what manner of time did the Spirit signify BETWEEN the
sufferings, and the glory to come. They simply didn't
know. The why of the cross
was only revealed to
Paul.
So Peter, as we
read, does not
have salvation by grace, he is looking for grace, enduring for
grace BY FAITH. But Paul says "wise unto salvation THROUGH
faith" and I thought
of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews
chapter eleven has a capsule of history and
there is a lot
we can learn there.
Hebrews 11:1 Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not
seen.
If you have faith in God's promises you have
SUBSTANTIAL faith. In other words you have a spiritual
substance, called faith.
It is not something that you can
see, but yet it is real. You can't see faith,
you can't
reach out and touch it. You can't smell it, faith has no odor. There
is no taste to it. You can't determine how much or how
little faith you have by
goosebumps. Faith is not
feelings. In other words you might say you FEEL that
there
is a possibily of such and such, but that's not faith. Faith is a
substance, a spiritual substance. And faith always has an
object. It always
focuses on an object. So it is EVIDENCE.
People say that some type of religious
experience is
evidence. Like the "evidence" of speaking in tongues. But speaking
in tongues is not faith, and it also is not a sign that
you have faith. Faith
HAS NO SIGNS. People who walk in
FAITH do not walk by SIGHT. The assurance, the
faith
itself, is the evidence.
Now we know how we
get faith, right. How do we go out and acquire faith? Do
you go to some
religious meeting somewhere, and do things
or say things in order to GET SOME
FAITH? No. Do you go
forward and pour out all your cares, or seek God at some
alter somewhere to get some faith? No. Well, this
EVIDENCE, this SUBSTANCE, how
does it come?
Romans 10:17 So then
faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
When you HEAR the word of God, FAITH COMES. You
either have it, or you don't. You ask somebody, do you
believe the bible? And
they say, well, of course I do.
Well, do you beleive the virgin birth of Christ?
Well, I
need to study on that one. Do you beleive that Christ died for all your
sins? Yes, if I repent and ask him to. When did God ask
you if you thought it
would be all right if he made Christ
to be sin for you, so that he could die on
the cross for
all your sins, and be raised again for your
justification?
So people that have
faith, are people who beleive God. They take God at his
word and they take his
words at face value:
2 Corinthians 5:19
To wit, that
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the
word of
reconciliation.
Well, I don;t
beleive that. I
beleive that unless I repent of my sins and confess my sins then
God holds them against me until I do. Well WHAT IF, you
had just committed a
whopper of a sin, the biggest sin you
have ever committed in your life, about
ten minutes ago,
and suddenly WHAM, you get hit by a big diesel truck, and you
are a goner? Well, you just have to leave things like that
up to God, ya
know.
People with an attitude like that don't have faith.
They don't beleive God. They are NOT taking God at his
word. They are doubting
the word of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
For he hath
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him.
Well, that's just
your past
sins. Well, how many of your sins were PAST in AD 33? that's when
Christ died, for your sins? All of your sins were future,
over 1900 years into
the future when Christ died. When he
died, how many of your sins did he not die
for, according
to scripture?
1 Corinthians 15:3
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also
received, how that
Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures;
1 Corinthians 15:4
And that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third
day according to the scriptures:
We live in the age
of grace, and God would have all
men to be saved, on the
basis of those verses, right there, Christ died for our
sins. The wages of sin is death, and the verse says that
Christ died. He took
the payoff that you deserved. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved.
But like I said,
this age, this period of time in
which we are living right
now, is the only time in all of history that salvation
has
been by grace alone through faith alone. And when it says THROUGH faith,
it's not talking about YOUR faith, it is speaking of HIS
faith. The faith of
Christ. THROUGH his faith. By the
grace of God, THROUGH the faith of Christ. But
when the
church is gone, caught up to be with the Lord, it is no longer that
way. It was not that way in the past and it will not be
that way in the future,
after the church leaves this
world.
In the past, and in
the future,
salvation is BY faith THROUGH grace, by enduring to the
end.
Let's look at it in
Hebrews:
Hebrews 11:2 For by
it the elders obtained a good
report.
Now when you OBTAIN
something,
you DO something in order to obtain it.
Hebrews 11:4 By
faith Abel offered unto God a more
excellent sacrifice
than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was
righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being
dead yet
speaketh.
Abel brought gifts
to God. He
did it BY faith. He beleived in the blood sacrifice and that's what
he brought. Cain brought the works of his own hands. They
BOTH brought things.
but Abel brought what the Lord had
said to bring, a blood sacrifice, and God
respected Abel's
offering. Look at Noah:
Hebrews 11:7 By
faith Noah, being warned of God of
things not seen as yet,
moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his
house; by the which he condemned the world, and became
heir of the righteousness
which is by faith.
Now look at what it
says. it
says Noah, BY faith, being warned of God. In other words, God said
something, Noah believed it, and acted
accordingly.
Romans 10:17 So then
faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of
God.
Now as you can see,
all
salvation, Genesis through Revelation is BY FAITH. You must believe God. You
must take God at his word. God said it, and they acted on
it. All salvation is
BY faith, but not all BY grace
THROUGH faith. Salvation in the past, salvation
in the
future, is BY faith, and it includes works of faith. You DO something in
order to obtain GRACE. Look at another example, in the
book of James:
James 2:25 Likewise
also was not Rahab the harlot
justified by works, when she
had received the messengers, and had sent them out
another
way?
James is talking
about a woman,
in Jericho, when the men of Israel went in to spy out the land.
As a result of her act of faith. Her life, and the life of
her family was saved,
when the walls of Jericho fell and
the city was destroyed.
So all the way down
the list in the "Hebrew Faith
Hall of Fame" verse after
verse says, BY faith. By faith, Abel. By faith, Enoch.
By
faith, Noah. By faith, Abraham. By faith, Isaac. By faith, Jacob. By faith,
Moses. BUT, there is something else there, and it is
THROUGH faith. Look at
verse 11:
Hebrews 11:11
Through faith
also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was
delivered of a child when she was past age, because she
judged him faithful who
had promised.
Now did Sara's faith
bring
something into existence? Could she just speak her will into existence
like a "word of faith" preacher claims, and cause herself
to have strength to
have a child, when she was childless
all her life, she was barren, and she was
NINETY years
old? Absolutely not. The birth of Isaac is THROUGH FAITH. Whose
faith do you think it was?
Genesis 18:11 Now
Abraham and
Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with
Sarah after the manner of women.
Genesis 18:12
Therefore Sarah
laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I
have pleasure, my lord being old also?
Genesis 18:13 And
the LORD said
unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a
surety bear a child, which am old?
Genesis 18:14 Is any
thing too
hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee,
according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a
son.
So God told him what was going to happen, when it was
going to happen, and that he WOULD return and Sarah would
have a son. By the
way, the name, Isaac, literally means
laughter. So it was THROUGH faith. Whose
faith? The faith
of God.
Romans 3:3 For what
if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without
effect?
There was a purpose
in the
birth of Isaac. Issac was a type of Christ. The
great-great-great-great-great Grandfather of Christ, after
the flesh. It was
going to happen. God is
FAITHFUL.
Galatians 4:28 Now
we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of
promise.
It had to do that
God made a promise, before the
foundation of the world. He
promised eternal life. Now he promised eternal life
to
somebody who was there? Who? God the Son. God the Father promised God the
Son, that if he would come down and die for our sins, that
he would raise him
from the dead and he would have eternal
life. So Jesus Christ endured to the end
in our behalf,
absolutely faithful that God would raise him from the dead.
Raised for our justification. Proof that we are forgiven
and accepted in the
beloved. In Christ. Now:
Hebrews 11:24 By
faith Moses,
when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of
Pharaoh's daughter;
Hebrews 11:27 By
faith he
forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as
seeing him who is invisible.
Hebrews 11:28
Through faith he
kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that
destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
He kept the passover which was the TYPE of the shed
blood of Christ. Israel was to keep the Passover on the
14th day of the first
month in all their generations, and
it says he kept it THROUGH FAITH. God's
faith. Moses had
faith that God was faithful to do what he said. God had told
Moses to tell Pharoah, let my people go, Israel is my son,
even my firstborn,
and it was the faith of God, God's
faithfulness that delivered them from
bondage, parted the
Red Sea, fed them manna for forty years, and their clothes
didn't lose a stitch and their shoes didn't wear out. How
long do your shoes
last?
Romans 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall
their unbelief make the faith of God without
effect?
Those unbelievers
mumbled and grumbled about any and
every thing and
wandered around in the desert for forty years and not ONE of
them entered the promised land except two men who kept the
faith, Joshua and
Caleb. The rest died in unbelief. But
God remained faithful and Israel crossed
over Jordan and
went into the land.
Hebrews 4:6 Seeing
therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and
they to whom it was
first preached entered not in because
of unbelief:
The unbelievers
didn't make it, but that didn't stop
the faith of God,
because God is faithful and it was THROUGH faith, the faith of
God that other things happened:
Hebrews 11:32 And
what shall I
more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of
Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and
Samuel, and of the
prophets:
Hebrews 11:33 Who
through faith
subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises,
stopped the mouths of lions.
Hebrews 11:34
Quenched the
violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness
were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight
the armies of the
aliens.
Hebrews 11:35 Women
received
their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better
resurrection:
All of those people
endured to the end BY faith, that
THROUGH faith they might
obtain a better resurrecton. So God's promises began to
Abraham in Genesis chapter twelve. God confirmed those
promises again to Isaac
his son. Later, God confirmed
those promises to Jacob, his grandson. The mouth
of all
the holy prophets spoke, confirming the promises of God. THROUGH the
faith of God they WILL COME TO PASS.
Romans 15:8 Now I
say that
Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God,
to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:
So Paul says:
Romans 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it
is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer,
and shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob:
Romans 11:27 For
this is my
covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Romans 11:28 As concerning the gospel, they are
enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they
are beloved for the
fathers' sakes.
Romans 11:29 For the
gifts and
calling of God are without repentance.
So the gifts of God,
the Kingdom, the Land, the
Priesthood, the service of God
are all without repentance, and the calling from
the call
of Abraham, all without repentance. God will not change his mind and
God is faithful. So if the scriptures make you wise to
anything it should be
UNTO the fact that salvation is
THROUGH the faith of Christ, because HE is
faithful.
2 Timothy 2:7
Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding
in all
things.
2 Timothy 2:8
Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised
from the dead
according to my gospel:
We know what Peter's
hope and
calling is. We know why Christ was raised from the dead, according to
Peter's gospel. God is faithful to fulfill his promises to
Israel and give them
their land, their Kingdom and their
King, upon the throne of David.
Isaiah 9:6 For unto
us a child is born, unto us a son
is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The
everlasting Father, The Prince
of Peace.
But Jesus Christ was
also
raised from the dead for ANOTHER reason, according to Paul's gospel. Let's
read it as if it is written directly to us, because, in
fact, it is:
Ephesians 1:15
Wherefore I also, after I heard of
your faith in the Lord
Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
Ephesians 1:16 Cease
not to give thanks for you,
making mention of you in my
prayers;
Ephesians 1:17 That
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him:
Ephesians 1:18 The
eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that ye may
know what is the hope of his calling, and what the
riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Ephesians 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of
his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working
of his mighty
power,
Ephesians 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he
raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right
hand in the heavenly
places,
Ephesians 1:21 Far
above all
principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that
is named, not only in this world, but also in that which
is to come:
Ephesians 1:22 And
hath put all things under his
feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church,
Ephesians 1:23 Which
is his body, the fulness of him
that filleth all in
all.
Ephesians 2:1 And
you hath he
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience:
Ephesians 2:3 Among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of
the flesh and of the mind; and
were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others.
Ephesians 2:4 But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he
loved us,
Ephesians 2:5 Even
when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with
Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Ephesians 2:6 And
hath raised us up together, and
made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Ephesians 2:7 That
in the ages to come he might shew
the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus.