Welcome To The Family Of God
Beginning a New Life in Christ A New Believer's
Handbook A Reason To Rejoice Congratulations, you've become part of God's eternal family. In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of a woman who lost a coin. Being on a tight budget, she couldn't afford to throw away her money so she postponed her plans and searched for the coin until it was found. Once she had retrieved the coin, she was so delighted, she called her friends together to celebrate. What was lost had been found. In verse 10, Jesus compares you to the coin. He said, "Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." God created you to live with Him, and without Him you were lost. God went out of His way to track you down. When you finally opened your life to Jesus, all God's angels erupted with joy. God really loves you! Your commitment to Christ has given heaven a reason to party! Welcome to the family of God! Your decision to follow Jesus Christ is the most important decision you will ever make. However, it might surprise you to discover that God chose you long before you chose Him. In Ephesians 1:4, God says that He has His eyes on you before the foundation of the world. From Rags to Riches We all love "rags to riches" stories. Most of us are familiar with the saga of Rocky Balboa, a two-bit, punch-drunk, has-been boxer, who was chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fight for the heavyweight championship of the world. Rocky wins and instantly, a nobody has become a somebody. Your story is just as dramatic. In a spiritual sense, God has lifted you from rags to riches. When you gave your life to Christ, God took you from death and darkness to life and light, from guilt to glory, from bondage to blessing, from a cell in hell to a mansion in heaven. You've become somebody special to Christ! Once a slave to sin, you're now a child of God. What a privilege it is to be a member of His family! Try to imagine the richest man in the world adopting you as his son or daughter. Without lifting a finger, you automatically become the recipient of enormous privileges and blessings. When you gave your life to Christ, a similar thing happened to you (Ephesians 1:5)! As His child, you are entitled to a stockpile of spiritual riches. In Ephesians 1:3, God says He has blessed you will ALL spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. As a child of God, you're a spiritual tycoon! But what would happen if the richest man in the world adopted you, and you were never told? You would miss out on the joy of being a part of his family. Sadly, many of God's children are missing out on a number of blessings because they've never taken the time to look into all God's spiritual wealth. Living the Christian life is like opening a treasure chest. The search for true riches ends with Jesus Christ. He is the "X" that marks the spot. The purpose of this booklet is to introduce you to the lavish portfolio of blessings that belong to you as a child of God. Hopefully, this brief introduction will whet your appetite, encourage you to open your Bible, and dig deeper into your own relationship with God. A Dead End Before coming to Christ, our problem was simple; we were spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). We weren't maladjusted, or immature, or even sick--but dead! God created the first man, Adam, as a three dimensional being with a body, a mind, and a spirit. With his body, Adam related to the world around him, with his mind, he related to himself, and with his spirit, he related to God. God told Adam that if he sinned, he would surely die! Adam bit the forbidden fruit and became poisoned with sin. As God had warned, Adam died, but in a unique way. His lungs continued to inhale and exhale. His heart kept pumping blood. Brainwaves still ricocheted around his cranium, but spiritually, he had died. Adam's sin prohibited him from relating to God. The Bible defines death as separation. According to James 2:26, people die physically when their spirit leaves their body. Likewise, people die spiritually when rebellion separates them from God (Isaiah 59:2). Before we came to Christ, we were spiritually dead. God intended for the body and mind to act in cooperation with the spirit. We were designed to run on three cylinders, but sin kills the spirit, and limits us to two. God designed us for high performance, but instead, we find ourselves sputtering, skipping and misfiring. Common sense tells us there are three characteristics of a dead person. First, a corpse in unconscious. You can talk about him to his face without fear of hurting his feelings. He's unresponsive to any physical stimuli around him. Someone spiritually dead is equally unresponsive to God. There's a whole realm of spiritual reality of which he is totally unaware. Second, a corpse is inactive and boring. It is no fun to spend time with a corpse. People who are spiritually dead often find life to be shallow and stale. They lack the freshness and zest for life that comes from knowing God. Third, a corpse is decaying. Realize, there are no degrees to death. You're either dead or alive. One corpse is not more dead than another. The same is true spiritually. We are either in Christ or apart from Christ--alive or dead. There's no in-between. Look in the crackhouse, see the demented drug addict, then look in the clubhouse, see the sophisticated socialite. There appears to be an enormous difference, but the distinction is superficial. The only difference is the rate of decay. Without Christ, both are as dead as a doornail! The book of Genesis tells us that we have inherited a fallen, sinful nature from Adam. Parent's don't have to teach their children to disobey. Sin comes naturally. As a result of Adam's sin, all mankind is born spiritually dead. Our world has become the equivalent of a grave-yard populated by spiritual stiffs. Humans are designed with a God-shaped void at the core of their being. Nothing can fill that void; neither wealth, nor popularity, nor drugs, nor sex, nor sports, nor success. Only God can fill the emptiness in man. We are restless until we find our rest in God. But Satan comes rushing into our lives and tries to fill the spiritual vacuum. He appeals to our mind and body, with ways to improve our image or increase our pleasure. He distracts us from God, and lures us into a lifestyle where we seek fulfillment through self-gratification. Living such a life is like going shopping with a
bottomless shopping bag (Haggai 1:6). You can buy items all day long and
put them in the bag, only to find the bag empty at the end of the day. You
end up with nothing, and you go broke in the process. Gone is your integrity,
your dignity, and your self respect. All that's left are ugly habits and
haunting memories. Sadly, the chains of sin are too light to be felt until
they are too strong to be broken. All classic western movies have one scene in common. The pioneers are surrounded by evil villains. The good guys are almost out of ammunition, their leader is wounded, the troops are discouraged, and all hope seems lost. Suddenly, a bugle sounds, and out of nowhere, a battalion of blue-breasted calvary comes streaking to the rescue. Our situation was just as desperate. We were disabled, discouraged and depleted. All hope seemed lost until Jesus came riding to the rescue. But why was such a rescue necessary? Two Ways to God All religions can be divided into two categories. First are those that provide man with a list of rules and rituals by which he can earn God's favor. Kind deeds, self-discipline, religious observance, sacrificial service and moral character are offered in exchange for God's blessing. God's acceptance is purchased by a person's performance. Salvation is the result of man reaching up to God. All but one of the world's religions fall into this category. The one exception is Christianity. The Bible says there is nothing I can do to be good enough to earn God's approval. Isaiah 64:6 declares, "All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags." The salvation Christ offers is not based upon man reaching up to God with good deeds, but God reaching down to man in love. God saw mindkind drowning in the roaring rapids of death. Jesus dove in to save us. It wasn't our good intentions that coaxed Christ into the icy waters. Romans 5:8 gives us His reason, "But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God loves us! God loves us with a very special unconditional love.
Ephesians 2:8-9 states, "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." Our salvation had nothing to do with the deeds we have done
or the price you could pay! We're saved by grace. Remember this acrostic,
grace is "God's Riches At Christ's Expense." God's favor and forgiveness
is a free gift. We receive it not by keeping the rules but by trusting in
Jesus. If we could save ourselves, God would never have subjected His Son
to the horrors of the cross. Since God was His father, Jesus was born without Adam's sin. At His Baptism, the Father spoke from heaven saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17). Jesus was the only perfect man who ever lived. When Jesus died upon the cross, it wan not for anything He had done, but our sins were thrust upon His sinless shoulders (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ died as our substitute. He suffered in our place so that we could be forgiven. On the cross, Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46). At that moment, Jesus experienced separation from the Father so that we could be restored. When my oldest son was two years old, we had to admit him to the hospital. Before the nurses inserted the IV, they asked my wife and me to leave the room. They knew the ordeal would be painful, and if we were present, our son would wonder why we were allowing this to happen to him. My wife was smart enough to walk down the hall out of earshot, but I stayed just outside the door. When they stuck him with the needle, he screamed the most blood-curdling yell I've ever heard. When I heard him scream, "I WANT MY DADDY!", I could've clawed through that door. I could've jerked it off the hinges, but I restrained myself because I knew what was best for my son. Imagine God's reaction when Jesus cried for Him. God wanted to come to the rescue, but the Father remained behind the door because Jesus was paying the price for our sins. Just before He died, Jesus uttered the victorious
cry, "It is finished" (John 19:30). All that needed to be done to guarantee
our salvation had been accomplished. Our debt of sin was paid in full. Now
to receive God's favor and forgiveness, all that's necessary is to believe
on Christ. Salvation is free, but never think it's cheap. It cost God His
only Son. God's pain was our gain. An artist was commissioned to paint a portrait of the prodigal son, a man who ran away from God. He walked the streets for days, sizing up his town's drunks and derelicts, searching for just the right wretched mongrel for his painting. Finally, he found him. The artist asked the indigent man to be at his studio the next morning at ten o'clock. When it appeared the man was late the artist was upset. The only person he had seen in the lobby was a well dressed man in a bright new suit. After some time, the well-groomed man approached the receptionist to inform her that he was there to pose for the painting. The artist couldn't believe the transformation. This couldn't be the dirty, dingy, disheveled man he had picked out. The derelict thought since he was posing for a painting, he might as well shower, shave and buy some new clothes. The man's efforts to clean himself up and make himself worthy only served to disqualify him for the honor of being the artist's subject. Granted, God doesn't mind our cleaning up. As a matter of fact, now that you've become a Christian, God's first order of business is to cleanse you and free you from your sin. But we can't make ourselves worthy of God's favor with a moral shower and shave. Our problem runs deeper. It took the Spirit of God working in us to bring us from death to life. We had to be changed from the inside out, something the Bible calls being "born again" (John 3:1-15). God wants us to always come to Him just as we are.
We must constantly learn to be humble, to be honest about our sin. Growing
in Christ means to admit we could never be worthy of His love, that we could
never save ourselves, and to surrender all we are to Jesus Christ. Learn
to receive God's grace gracefully. It's an insult to attempt to pay for
an item that’s given to us as a gift. God has fully paid the price for our
relationship with Him. The best way to say thanks is to simply receive,
enjoy and utilize God's free gift of salvation. There are people who think their good works and church attendance can purchase them a ticket to heaven. But how can walking into a church building once a week do anything to change man's festering sin and lifeless spirit? Visiting a barn doesn’t make you a cow, nor does going to church make you a Christian. A person can act like a cow and moo until he's blue in the face, but it won't make that person a cow. Likewise, a person can walk a church aisle, learn some Christian lingo, and even get involved in Christian activities, but it won't make him a Christian. Going to church does as much to cure a spiritual problem as sitting down in a hospital lobby does to cure a physical problem. It takes more than a visit to the doctor. Eventually, a person has to trust the surgeon to operate. A friend of mine recently underwent a liver transplant. The surgery saved his life. You’ve also experienced some life-saving surgery. When you came to Christ, He performed a divine transplant. He placed His Holy Spirit into your hollow spirit. In Ephesians 2:5, God says He made you alive together with Christ. God united you with Jesus by placing His Holy Spirit in your heart (1 Corinthians 3:17). In God's eyes, you became one with Christ. This is what it means to be "in Christ." Christ lives in you and wants to live through you (Colossians 1:27)! The Christian life is an exchanged life. As Christ lives in me, I swap all that I am for all that He is; my guilt for His grace, my pride for His plan, my hurts for His healing, my pain for His peace, my lust for His love, and my fears for His fortitude. Galatians 2:20 reads, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." As Christ died upon the cross, the old you, the person controlled by sin, also died. The proud, obstinate person that used to stare back at you when you looked in the mirror, is now dead! You're now a new, improved model. All of us were at one time sinners, alienated from God. Once in a while, we slipped up and did something good, but our nature was hostile and rebellious towards God (Ephesians 2:3). That was yesterday. In Christ, you've become a saint. Yes, you will occasionally slip up and sin, but you have received a new nature, a nature that loves God and loves others. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, we're told, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." Occasionally, it's a good idea to put some flowers on the grave of that old man. We can look back and learn from our past life, but in doing so, we need to remind ourselves that our old self is dead. You're no longer the same person you once were. If you feel tempted to return to your former lifestyle, remember that's no longer you! You're now a child of God--a new person in Christ. Proof Positive Jesus' power over death proved His victory over sin.
In John 4:16, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through Me." There are no back doors into heaven.
Jesus offers us a choice between eternal damnation and eternal delight.
He is the fork in the middle of the road. Jesus rose from the dead and later ascended into heaven where He received authority over all of God's creations. Philippians 2:9-11 tell us that God has bestowed upon Jesus, "The name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." All things are under Christ's jurisdiction. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Christ has earned God's favor and now imparts it to all who call upon Him. Though God freely offers the gift of salvation, it
does not become ours until it is received. Jesus died to take away your
sin. He rose from the dead to release you from the effects of sin. He ascended
into heaven to become Lord of your life. Jesus now calls the shots and works
in you to accomplish His purposes. Christ has done all the work. All we
need to do to enter into this relationship is to ask His forgiveness, open
our lives to Jesus and commit to following Him. When we were saved, we were completely pardoned.
Salvation is not parole or probation. God is not waiting for us to sin so
He can strip us of our salvation and send us back to the slammer. All our
sin has been forgiven--past, present and future. The only thing needed to
maintain our salvation is to believe in the work of Christ on our behalf
(Colossians 1:23). Since we were saved by faith, we now need to walk by
faith. Colossians 2:6 states, "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk in Him." In Christ, you are as pleasing to God as you can possibly be. Colossians 2:10 says, "You are complete in Him [Jesus]." Your performance cannot improve or diminish your standing with God. God's acceptance is based on the work of Christ, not our own merit. What we do for Christ is a way to express our gratitude for what He's done for us. To serve the Lord will bring us great joy, but it cannot add to what Christ has already accomplished. |
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