Category: Discipleship Foundations

5: Spirit, Soul, and Body

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NASB)

A proper understanding of the relationship between spirit, soul, and body is a master key to help us unlock the mysteries of salvation.

According to Genesis, God created mankind in His own image.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 (ESV)

God is a Trinity – one God consisting of three distinct Persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is clearly revealed in the Bible, even though the word “trinity” is never used. We too are one person having three distinct parts – spirit, soul, and body. This too is revealed in scripture. Just as it is sometimes difficult to distinguish one Person in the Godhead from another, since they are all one God; likewise, the lines sometimes get blurred when we try to differentiate between our three parts. With God, one of the easiest ways to keep the Members of the Godhead separate in our understanding is to focus on what each Person does. Similarly, if we highlight how God’s great salvation affects each of our parts differently, it will become clearer to us that they are indeed distinct.

Using the language of building, God the Father is the architect of salvation. He planned it long ago before the creation of the world. Jesus is the contractor, so to speak: He came and put the plan into action, doing the difficult “hands on” work. The Holy Spirit is the marketing agent and administrator. He is “selling” the completed work to prospective customers. This is a very inadequate and somewhat inaccurate description of salvation, but it gives us an idea in plain language of the distinct roles of each person in the Godhead.

Father God planned salvation. Jesus accomplished it. The Holy Spirit applies it. The Father chose us. Jesus died for us. The Holy Spirit draws us.

Reconciliation to the Father is the goal of salvation. The cross and resurrection are the means of salvation. The Holy Spirit is the agent of salvation, applying to our lives everything the Father planned, and the Son accomplished.

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 (NASB)

When God created Adam, he took dust and formed it into a body. Then He breathed His Spirit into that lifeless substance, and Genesis says that Adam became a living soul. As I understand it, a soul is the result of the combination of spirit and body. Spirit is breath or wind. We all know what a body is. The soul is harder to define, but many have settled on three main components – mind, will and emotions.

God’s salvation impacts each part of our being and is marvelously complete.

We will look at what God has done for each separate part in more detail in coming chapters, but, for now, an overview is helpful.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17 (ESV)

On the day Adam sinned, just as God promised, he died. His body did not die, nor did his soul. That leaves only one other part. His spirit, which had been alive to God in a special way, was cut off from its source of life, God, when Adam sinned. This was evidenced by his and Eve’s hiding from God in the garden and their sudden awareness of their own nakedness. Many think the first humans’ nakedness may have been previously covered by God’s glory, which was removed because of sin. Regardless, their consciousness had been defiled. They became all too aware of their own shame and sinfulness; whereas, before they had been gloriously innocent before God and able to fellowship with Him without fear, guilt, or shame.

The spirit was the first part of man to die and needed to be the first part restored.

The spirit is the most God-like part of a person. We know from Scripture that God is Spirit. (John 4:24) The spirit is the innermost core of a human being, the part of us that is intuitive and able to connect with God naturally. I started to write “supernaturally”, but God’s intention for the spirit of man is that it would always be able to connect with Him; therefore, it is its “natural” function.

When we are “saved” the first thing that happens is a rebirth of the spirit.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6 (NASB)

The spirit is restored to the perfect condition it had before sin. (Hebrews 12:23) The spirit within is given access to God’s presence once again. (Ephesians 2:18) Believers are hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3), and this in the spirit, or should I say, Spirit. When we are born again, our spirit is joined to God’s Spirit (1Cor.6:17), and it is hard to distinguish them anymore.

The body is the last part of us that will be restored completely. This will happen at the resurrection.

Until then we live in a world that still suffers from the aftershocks of that first sin. God’s judgment upon our race still stands. Even born-again Christians still die physically. People get sick. Evil is all around us, and our bodies often suffer the most. As we wait for the glorious day when these mortal bodies will be transformed into glorious spiritual ones, we can experience God’s provision of healing and strength. Nevertheless, the glorification of our bodies is a future event for which we confidently wait. In the meantime, we live in imperfect bodies that are still subject to the fallout from sin.

As mentioned before, the soul is the combination of spirit and body. If you are tracking with me thus far, I imagine you see where I am going next. We have a problem here.

A saved person has a huge inner conflict. We have a perfect spirit combined with a body that is still subject to the fallout of sin.

(Paul calls it a “body of sin” – Romans 6:6 & 8:10.) What do you think will be the result when we combine the two? Paul describes our inner conflict in Galatians Chapter Five.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5:16-18 (ESV)

The soul or mind is where the battle rages.

Our spirits always desire to do what is right, but our “flesh” or sin nature, which derives from the unredeemed body that is not yet glorified, never wants to do what is right. (* See note at end of chapter.)

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23  but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24  Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25 (ESV)

The ”inner being” is the spirit, with which Paul’s mind agreed. However, the pull of the flesh, which comes from the unredeemed body, works against the desires of the spirit. This makes born again people somewhat spiritually “bipolar.”

We are pulled in opposite directions, and we must learn to lean on the Holy Spirit to overcome the pull of the flesh.

Jesus recognized our weak condition when he said:

"Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Matthew 26:41 (NASB)

What God did for our spirits was done once and for all on the cross. We can say it is a “past” salvation. What God will do for our bodies at the resurrection is in the future, but what God wishes to do in our souls is in the present.

Every day we need to access fresh grace for that day. Our victory in the daily battle for our souls hinges on our confidence in what God did in the past and what He will do in the future. You can also see what a glorious day it will be for every believer when we shall be given glorified bodies that will not be in conflict any longer with our perfected spirits. There will no longer be any inner turmoil or struggle between “flesh” and spirit. We will have been completely saved!

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21  who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. Philippians 3:20-21 (NASB)

 

* Note: I am not suggesting that the body is evil, but only that it has been corrupted by sin. The body was part of God's original creation which was good. Jesus came in the flesh, which showed again the inherent goodness of the body. Jesus' body was not compromised like ours by sin since He was born of the Holy Spirit and the woman. Apparently, the sin nature is transmitted through the man, the governmental representative of the human race. Jesus did not have the inner conflict caused by having a perfect spirit and a sin corrupted body. The fact that God will one day glorify our bodies further establishes that God regards these bodies as "good" and worth saving. Let me also emphasize that my theory of the soul is not something you must believe in order to benefit from this teaching. To me it makes sense and helps me understand. If you have a better model, please share it with me.

 

Questions for Further Study and Discussion

  • What questions do you have regarding spirit, soul, and body?
  • Do you think that Genesis 2:7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23 adequately support this doctrine?
  • Do you understand the significance of the past, present, and future aspects of salvation?
  • How is our daily transformation impacted by believing in what God did in the past (justification) and what he will do in the future (resurrection & glorification)?
  • How would you attempt to explain the battle we all have between flesh and spirit?

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4: The Nature of Revelation

"For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." John 6:40 (NASB)

The spiritual condition of an unsaved person is spiritual blindness and deafness to the things of God. Jesus addressed this issue with the Pharisees who believed they could see but were blind. This is a common deception for religious people who are not born again. Religion, as I am using it, is our attempt to know and be accepted by God through using our own efforts, rather than by receiving by faith the gift of forgiveness and eternal life offered in Christ.

Then Jesus told him, "I have come to judge the world. I have come to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind." 40 The Pharisees who were standing there heard him and asked, "Are you saying we are blind?" 41 "If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty," Jesus replied. "But you remain guilty because you claim you can see. John 9:39-41 (NLT)

A blind person cannot see where to go and does not know what to do to be saved. When a religious person, who has never received a revelation of Christ, tries to lead another to salvation, the result is disastrous.

Jesus replied, "Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be rooted up, 14 so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch." Matthew 15:13-14 (NLT)

We cannot know God unless he opens our eyes, unstops our ears, and softens our hard hearts. When God does this for us, we can see, hear, and understand spiritual things, which results in our seeing or knowing Christ in a totally new way.

But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. 1 Corinthians 2:14 (NLT)

When we see Christ for who he truly is, it fundamentally changes us on the inside. The new birth and revelation go hand in hand.

Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3 (NASB)

We can easily tell which plants were planted by the Father from those which were not: the first has a revelation of Christ, and the latter has only religion.

Those who are religious end up opposing those who have revelation and faith. (Galatians 4:28-29)

Then he asked them, "Who do you say I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus replied, "You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Matthew 16:15-17 (NLT)

So how does a spiritually blind unsaved person gain sight through revelation? Only the Holy Spirit really knows, but those of us who have had our eyes opened can testify that it happened.

The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” John 3:8 (NLT)

The man healed by Jesus of physical blindness in John Chapter 9 did not know how Jesus did it, but he knew he had been healed.

The mechanics of revelation are not necessarily for us to know, only the results.

I remember when I first “saw” in my heart that Jesus is Who the Bible claims. I don’t know how God did it, but suddenly I “knew” that Jesus is alive, risen from the dead, and the glorious Lord. Before that life-changing moment, I heard my girlfriend, who is now my beloved wife, share the gospel with me. I deeply considered whether I wanted to pursue knowing this Christ. I honestly asked Christ into my heart and life, if He were indeed real, and I asked Him to reveal Himself to me. From all this, you can see that receiving revelation is not a passive thing; at least it wasn’t for me.

Only the Holy Spirit can open our eyes, but, as far as I can tell, we must be active in our pursuit of Christ in some form or another.

It is God’s good pleasure to limit salvation to those whose eyes he opens.

At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. 26  Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way! 27  “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Matthew 11:25-27 (NLT)

No one deserves to receive revelation from God. No one is good enough or smart enough.

It is always a supreme act of mercy when God opens blinded eyes.

It is also very humbling to us as the recipients of his mercy. No one can boast that they were able to know these things on their own.

Paul the Apostle was a man who received a revelation of Christ in a dramatic fashion. He was actively pursuing Christians to torture, imprison, and kill them for their faith. Was he pursuing God, too? The answer has to be, “Yes”. Although he was misguided, he really did wish to please God. The point is that God knows the human heart and will reveal Himself to those who seek him.

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NASB)

The Pharisees believed that they already knew God because they had their Law and religion.

Many who attend Christian churches today are modern day Pharisees. They grew up in the church, know the language and the Bible, and are members of the church. They hear sermon after sermon and mentally agree with what is said, but they have never received a revelation of Christ from the Father.

This is the most dangerous place to be in the world. It is a form of self-deception that inoculates a person from ever really hearing the gospel. It’s as if their hearts are closed to any possibility that they might be still lost. Only the Holy Spirit can bridge the chasm between their deception and the light of the glory of the revealed Christ. It begins when we realize we need to be saved.

Is there any record that this has ever happened before? Yes, Paul is the supreme example. God gave him to all religious people as an example of what God can do for the most obstinate of people. Humanly it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. You may know people who are in this condition. If so, you should pray for them to have their spiritual eyes opened to receive a revelation of Christ. More importantly, we should ask ourselves, “Have I ever had my eyes opened?” If not, we should earnestly seek God until we know that we have.

Questions for Further Study and Discussion 

  • Share your testimony of how Christ was revealed to you.
  • Explain why you think God uses revelation to separate those who are really His children from those who are not.
  • What is our role in the process of having our eyes opened?

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3: The Nature of Salvation

Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." John 6:28-29 (NASB)

Faith in Christ is a spiritual “work.” How is this so? Many conceive of faith as a blind leap into the unknown in hope that we might be right. Others think that belief in Christ is acknowledging key truths about him, such his suffering, death, and resurrection. But is that the version of belief to which Christ referred?

Perhaps the most important aspect of faith is our understanding through revelation who Jesus is, and this must result in something more, if our faith is genuine – our allegiance to him.

When we see him for who he is, it fundamentally changes us and inspires us want to serve him.

This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time." John 6:40 (MSG)

The more we know about Jesus and what he did, does, and will do for us, the more we love him and desire to be loyal to him.

True faith produces a life of adoration, surrender, and obedience, which results in spiritual transformation.

This will continue until we die or he returns. The final piece of the puzzle will be our glorification at the resurrection. We will discuss this more later.

Many people fundamentally misunderstand of the nature of salvation, which can easily lead to legalism, which is a man-made attempt to reach God or stay right with God. Some imagine Christ’s death and resurrection provided us with a clean slate from which to begin again. Their understanding is that God erased the list of things we did wrong (sins), but since then has been writing our new sins on the blackboard. We had a clean slate, but it is starting to fill up again. This kind of thinking led Constantine to delay his water baptism until his deathbed, hoping that the slate would be clean at death, giving him a sure entrance into heaven. This feeds into the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, which is the belief that after death we enter a place of suffering until our sins are purged and we attain the moral purity required for entrance into heaven.

What is wrong with this concept? Several things, but let’s concentrate on two right now. First, we need to understand that our problem is not so much “sins” as it is “sin”.

Yes, we will be held accountable for the individual sins we commit, but the far deeper problem is our inherited sin factory which propels us into sinful thinking and behavior.

We can erase our slates clean every day, but, by nightfall, it will have begun to fill it up again. This propensity is called the “flesh” by Paul.

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22  I love God’s law with all my heart. 23  But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Romans 7:21-23 (NLT)

Thankfully, Jesus took my sins upon Himself on the cross, but my “sin” had to die, too.

My sin “nature” had to be crucified because there is no reforming it.

Like a leopard, it cannot remove its spots. This is why in the previous lesson I pointed out that we cannot actually know just how sinful we really are. Even if we are spiritually cleansed somehow, the “flesh” lurks under the surface, ever ready to rear its ugly head and do something despicable. Even our best attempts at righteous living need to be made righteous by God. (Isaiah 64:6)

Salvation then is not a mere erasing of the slate, but an execution. The old man, flesh, or sin nature had to die.

For when I tried to keep the law, I realized I could never earn God's approval. So I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. 20 I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I am not one of those who treats the grace of God as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die. Galatians 2:19-21 (NLT)

There had to be a complete exchange of life for life. Jesus died in our place (substitution), putting to death our old man (identification), and placed in us His Holy Spirit.

The Bible calls this receiving a “new heart” or being “born again” in the spirit. Christians are indeed “little Christs” who carry about in themselves the life of Christ.

Salvation is an exchange of our sin for His life. It is not erasing a blackboard. It is smashing the blackboard because it is irrelevant now.

God does not mark iniquities any longer.

LORD, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? 4  But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you. Psalm 130:3-4 (NLT)

We have been released from the system of works that keeps track of every right and wrong for an impending day of reckoning. Jesus took the condemnation and punishment for all our failures and sins upon Himself, and instead we have been given the Christ life within. The “sin nature” still lurks, waiting for an opportunity, but it no longer has the right to control us.

We must engage in a continual battle of the spirit (Christ’s life within us) against flesh (the residual inclination toward sin that is somehow linked to our Adamic bodies) until the day of our resurrection, but our true identity now is the new life of Christ that indwells us.

Another aspect of our salvation pertains to family. For those of us who are born again, born of the Spirit, and born of the Father, what really matters is who is our Father now.

Our salvation depends on being born into the family of God.

For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. 1 Peter 1:23 (NLT)

Rather than being weighed in the balances in a system of works in which we can never measure up, we are born into a family where our acceptance is based on our all having the same Father. Blood is thicker than water, they say, and when it comes to the Kingdom of God, I would rather be a beloved “son” than a frustrated “keeper of the rules.”

Our access to the throne and heart of our heavenly Father, our Abba, is based on our being identified with His beloved Son, the Righteous One, Jesus. Our relationship with Abba is the same as Jesus’ because it is His Spirit within us who cries out, “Abba, Father”.

God sent him [Jesus] to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you. Galatians 4:5-7 (NLT)

To conclude, we must see salvation not as a second chance to “get it right” but as a life exchange and an adoption because we had no possibility of ever “getting it right”.

God knew we were hopelessly flawed; so, He provided a salvation that is not dependent on us but on Christ. If we are going to be good disciples, we must cast aside our vain attempts to measure up by keeping the Law and accept the marvelous provision of Christ’s life within as our only source of righteousness and acceptance and our key to obedience and victory. This is truly Good News!

The key for us, then, is faith. The way we do the works of God is by believing on Christ and His promises, declaring allegiance to him, and trusting in His Spirit to live the Christ life through us.

Questions for Further Study and Discussion

  • How would describe faith or belief in Christ?
  • Why does our salvation demand an execution?
  • Why do some people call Christianity an “exchanged life”?
  • Why does our salvation depend on being born again into God’s family?
  • What would you tell someone who struggles with trying to be “good enough”?
  • What do you see are the most fundamental differences between the Old and New Covenants?

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2: The Condition of Man

As the Scriptures say, "No one is good— not even one. 11 No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God. 12 All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one." Romans 3:10-12 (NLT)

The first thing we need to know is that human beings are in desperate need of a Savior. We are not just a little off track: we are totally lost. If we think we have a pretty good idea of how bad we are (without Christ), we have not yet seen ourselves as God sees us. We are rotten to the core and so skewed by sin so that we cannot save ourselves. Knowing this up front makes it easier later to appreciate God’s grace and to avoid the pitfalls of legalism. If you find this assessment of our condition offensive, you do not yet understand the nature of sin.

Sin is the attempt to live independently from God.

It started in the Garden of Eden, and today it takes many forms, from defiant atheism to moral attempts to live a “godly” or religious life without surrendering everything to God first. Murderers and self-righteous hypocrites all share the same basic problem – a determination to live without a humble reliance upon God. In fact, the most religious people in Israel, the Sanhedrin, Pharisees, priests, lawyers, and scribes, banded together to murder the Messiah. It was not the “criminal element” that put the Lord of Life to death.

Sometimes those of us who have been brought up from childhood in the church don’t know our own sinfulness as well as those of us who had a B.C. (before Christ) existence.

A danger for any long time Christian is losing touch with our need for mercy and grace.

We sometimes imagine that we are “beyond” all that because the Lord has helped us overcome some sins that formerly defeated us. There is nothing worse than a self-righteous Christian who looks down on others who are struggling with sin. Jesus had little tolerance for those with such an attitude.

When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13  Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Matthew 9:12-13 (NLT)

The good news is that God understands our hopeless condition and sent His Son to die for our sins. In addition, He sent His Holy Spirit to live a new kind of life through us.

One of the biggest secrets of the New Covenant is that God never expected us to live in a way that brings God glory all by ourselves. He sent his Spirit to live through us.

The gospel confirms our need for salvation, forgiveness and reconciliation to God accompanied by a complete overhaul from the inside out. It comes through repentance and faith in Christ. When we come to realize how much we need a Savior and the Holy Spirit’s help, we learn to be humble, which is a mark of a true disciple, as is a love and an appreciation for mercy.

How about us? Have we yet come to terms with our own sinfulness? Are we disillusioned with ourselves when we fail once again, imagining we are better than that? Are we prone to judge others whom we see as inferior to us, or do we extend to them the same mercy God has shown to us? Real Christians are not perfect, just forgiven.

Questions for Further Study and Discussion

  • Did you have a B.C. stage of your life in which you were very much aware of your own sinfulness?
  • Did you come to Christ to be forgiven or for some other reason?
  • When did you first begin to realize that you are not a “good person”?
  • Do you still get discouraged when you see another example of your sinfulness? What does that say about you?

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1: The Call to Discipleship

Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” Matthew 4:19 (NLT)

The Great Commission prioritizes making disciples. Discipleship is the process whereby the Lord trains and shapes his followers to be like Him in the way we think, speak, and act.

For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. Romans 8:29 (NLT)

God is conforming his people into the image of His beloved Son. He uses the various pressures and challenges of life to teach us about Himself and about love. He is shaping us into bold witnesses He can use to spread the good news of salvation throughout the world. He is preparing us to rule and reign with Him for all eternity, and He is making us into a people who will bring glory to His name.

Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. Revelation 3:21 (NLT)

God is working everywhere to draw men, women, and children to Himself. Some have said that there are many believers but few who are true disciples. If this is true, it is a product of “easy believism” and a watered-down gospel that does not call for our surrender to Jesus’ lordship. Every Christian is supposed to be on a pathway to total commitment to Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Unfortunately, many of us are still trying to decide if we would rather be comfortable or committed.

We cannot straddle the fence with one foot in the world and one in God’s Kingdom. Such a position makes us unfit for both. (Luke 9:62)

God is looking for people whom He can shape into a world conquering force.

You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. Matthew 5:13 (NLT)

If we will count the cost and make the commitment, Jesus will show us the secrets of His Kingdom and reveal Himself to us as our Everything.

If we give ourselves to Christ as an investment, he will provide a return that far outweighs the sacrifice.

But don't begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money to pay the bills? Luke 14:28 (NLT)

As we go through this study, it is important that we apply the principles to our lives. God is after doers, not eternal considerers.

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. James 1:22 (NLT)

If we are among those who long to grow in our knowledge and obedience to our Lord, we should make it our practice to read, meditate, and obey what the Bible says, relying on God’s Spirit and grace to help. This is not a “works” or performance thing, however.

Whenever we seek to obey God’s Word by depending on His grace and Holy Spirit, He will always do His part. But only real disciples will do theirs.

Questions for Further Study and Discussion

• Why is being conformed to Christ’s image usually not comfortable?
• Have you ever thought much about how our lives here on earth are preparing us for our destiny to rule and reign alongside our Lord?
• Can you think of areas of your life that that need to be more fully under the Lord’s rule?
• Why does the Lord tell us to count the cost? Is he encouraging some to give up the pursuit of discipleship?

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Discipleship Foundations: Introduction

After over fifty years of following Christ, much of that time serving as a pastor and Bible teacher in a local church, I have put together in this book what I consider to be some essential teachings that are foundational for a follower of Christ, otherwise known as a disciple. This collection does not cover everything since that would be impossible. The Holy Spirit is our on-the-job instructor who continues to teach and train us for the rest of our days. My hope is that these chapters will assist you on your spiritual journey and transformation into Christ’s image. May our Lord enable us all to faithfully love and serve him as a true disciple, which he deserves. (John 8:31-32)

This series assumes that the reader has confidence in the reliability of the Bible as our source of truth and revelation about God. As the psalmist wrote:

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105 (NLT)

It is commonly believed and accepted by those who follow Christ that the Bible, as it was originally written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is the actual Word of God, is infallibly true, and has authority in our lives.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT)

Jesus believed this to be the case, and so should we. In John 10:35, our Lord said that the scriptures cannot be broken or altered. He said in other places that every word of God is true. (Matthew 5:17-18) He told his followers that the Word of God controlled his destiny and had to be fulfilled. (Matthew 26:54, Luke 24:25-27, 46) The apostles preached that Jesus suffered, died, and rose again to fulfill the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

Nothing can be added or subtracted from the Scriptures. They are perfect as given to us by God.

Every word of God is purified; he is like a shield for those who take refuge in him. 6 Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you, and prove you to be a liar. Proverbs 30:5-6 (NET1)

Openness to authority and power of God’s Word will greatly influence the benefit we gain from these teachings.

Click here to see the other articles in this series.

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Why Am I Having Such a Hard Time Trusting God?

 

 

 

 

 

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Hebrews 11:6 (NLT)

The Bible clearly teaches that God is looking for faith. Faith is closely allied with trust and is rooted in God. Boiled down to its basic components faith is the conviction that God’s character is impeccable, his promises sure, his power unlimited, his love beyond comprehension, and his wisdom boundless. Faith produces faithfulness, which can also be described as loyalty or allegiance.

People who are full of faith trust God and obey him through the most difficult and confusing situations because they are completely convinced that God is trustworthy. They trust God from the heart, even if the mind cannot comprehend the “why” of their situation.

I don’t often quote the Message Bible, but in this case I think it is very good.

Trust GOD from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Proverbs 3:5 (MSG)

Unbelief is the polar opposite of faith. Unbelief and its twin, doubt, have great difficulty trusting God because there is no assurance that God is deserves to be trusted. Will he keep his word and show love to us, or is he capricious? Does he even have the power and ability to keep his promises? Perhaps he is impotent.

Unbelief is a loud slap to the face of the Creator.

Faithless (disloyal) people have great difficulty when trials and tests come because they have no anchor. They are what the Bible calls “double minded,” wavering between two opinions. James says that such people are unstable in all their ways and cannot receive anything from God. (James 1:8)

The New Testament teaches us that no one is good enough, holy enough, or righteous enough to earn God’s favor and acceptance.

The only way we can please God, according to the Bible, is to trust him with all our hearts.

Specifically, we are invited to trust in the gospel, the good news that Jesus earned for us a right standing with God through his perfect life, death, and resurrection. God accepts the most imperfect people into his family when they decide to put their faith in Jesus. Conversely, when people refuse to trust him or believe the gospel, they throw away the one possibility of being accepted and blessed by God.

Unbelief is an extremely serious heart condition, which imperils our eternity.

Multitudes are afflicted with it. In fact, without the Holy Spirit’s intervention, it is the default condition of humanity. We were created to believe and depend on God. Everyone believes something, even if it is the conviction that there is nothing worth believing in. Without the Spirit’s help, however, we are programmed by sin to resist trusting in our Creator – Sustainer – Redeemer. What is the root of this condition of the heart? Is there a way out?

The Root of Unbelief

Unbelief is a plant that can only grow in the soil of a hardened heart.

Unbelief and doubt may seem to be rooted in the  mind, but the Bible teaches us that they really reside in the heart, which is the seat of our affections and being. When Jesus encountered unbelief in his disciples, this is what he said.

At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. 17  Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18  ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all? Mark 8:16-18 (NLT)

Jesus, the one who created us, knows that the root of unbelief is a heart that has grown hard against God.

People call unbelief by nicer sounding names – realism, cynicism, science… but the underlying reality is that unbelief reveals a heart that is hard and easily repels the entrance of truth, revelation, and faith.

The Greek adjective in this verse is translated “hardened” or “calloused.” When we build up callouses on our feet or hands, we lose feeling in those areas. Calloused hearts have severe difficulty feeling proper emotions relating to God and detecting the gentle nudging of the Spirit.

Whatever the reason for our hardened heart – disappointment, disillusionment, traumatic pain, bitterness… – it is the poisonous ground that grows the one thing that is able to block God’s grace to us – unbelief.

He returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?” 55  Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. 56  All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?” 57  And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.” 58  And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief. Matthew 13:54-58 (NLT)

The reason that those people were deeply offended at Jesus is the same reason humans in general are deeply offended at God – pride. They thought Jesus had no right to assume such high and mighty notions about himself as being a distinguished prophet and teacher and, dare we say, Messiah. Imagine: they refused to acknowledge the Creator come in the flesh! Our unbelief is just as stark and offensive to God.

The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10  He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11  He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12  But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:9-12 (NLT)

Rather than being drawn toward Jesus by the Spirit, they chose to reject him. This is what happens to people with a hard heart.

Pride robs us of being able to believe. It is offended by the requirement of acknowledging Christ’s lordship.

It takes humility to admit that we are created beings who only exist through the continuous sustaining power of God.

The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. Hebrews 1:3 (NLT)

The hardened heart will not – cannot – bow to the Lord Jesus.

The Antidote

Jesus warned those with hardened hearts in his audience that their heart condition was blocking them from life.

This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. 15  For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’ Matthew 13:14-15 (NLT)

The only antidote to a hardened heart is to turn to Jesus through a combination of the inner working of God’s Spirit coupled with our choice to surrender our offenses and pride to God.

The Bible uses the word “repentance” to describe this surrender. In the New Testament, it literally means to “change the mind.” Repentance takes place when we admit to ourselves and to God that we have been wrong and that God is right. It means we stop leaning on our own understanding of things and start accepting what God says in the Bible. It means we lay down our offense against God and admit we need him desperately. It acknowledges that we are spiritual paupers who have nothing to offer God except to trust him completely.

Maintaining a heart that is “soft” toward God is a lifelong challenge. We must learn to forgive readily and freely; otherwise, our hearts begin to grow hard. We must learn to obey God swiftly and completely, lest our hearts start to harden. It takes the Spirit of God’s assistance to get started on this discipleship journey, and it takes his continual help to complete it. But take heart, that is what Jesus sent him to be and to do. He is our Helper!

"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17  that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. John 14:16-17 (NASB)

If we are having a hard time believing and trusting in God, we should acknowledge that we have a hard heart and ask forgiveness. We should ask the Holy Spirit to show us where we need to repent and to work in us to restore us to a place of trusting God from the heart.

Prayer

Jesus, I now understand that my doubt and unbelief come from a heart that has a problem with trusting and submitting to you. Please forgive me. Holy Spirit, show me any particular areas for which I need to repent. (Anything that comes to mind should now be confessed to God.) Work in me a deep seated ability to fully trust and surrender my life to Jesus. I depend on you. Amen.

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Faith Waits During Dark Days

 

 

 

 

 

Darkness often descends upon those who are waiting to receive a promise from God. God allows our faith to be tested to prove its genuineness. (1 Peter 1:6-7) Persevering faith brings great glory to God. King David spent years waiting for Samuel’s prophecy of his coming kingship to be fulfilled. Even though he was anointed king as a young boy, he had to wait for God’s timing. So did Abraham and countless others. Joseph was also a great example. The scriptures say the following about his wait.

Until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the LORD tested him. Psalm 105:19 (NASB)

How discouraging and dark were those years of captivity in Egypt? How distant and unreal did those boyhood dreams of having authority over his brothers and parents seem? Was he tempted to cast away his confidence? There is no indication that he ever wavered.

The Letter to the Hebrews encourages us to likewise remain strong during our dark days of waiting on God to fulfill his promises to us.

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36  For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. Hebrews 10:35-36 (NASB)

Jesus told his disciples before he ever went to the cross that he would be crucified, but would rise again after three days. They were not able to grasp or believe his words. As he hung dying on that instrument of torture, the altar upon which he freely gave away his life as payment for our sins, he announced, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) He announced to the world, heaven, the angels, demons, Satan, and his Father that his mighty work of redemption was complete. Nothing more needed to be done on his part. All that remained was to wait for God the Father to do his part – the resurrection.

How do you suppose the disciples felt during that Sabbath between the crucifixion and the resurrection? Were they able to rest in and rejoice that, just as in the creation, God had finished his work? Or did they wallow in despair, confusion, and self-pity? What would you have done? What have you done when God has required you to wait for him to fulfill a very specific promise to you? Maybe you are in just such a time right now. How is your faith doing? Is it getting stronger? That is what God wants. That is what happened to Abraham when he had to wait twenty-five years for a promise to be fulfilled.

Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!” 19  And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb. 20  Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. 21  He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. Romans 4:18-21 (NLT)

Faith is able to wait during dark days because it is focused on God’s faithfulness and it is upheld by God himself. He is the Author and Completer of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2)

However, Jesus is compassionate when we waver. This is shown in the resurrection account of his appearance to the two disciples who were walking to Emmaus. They had lost hope, but Jesus chose to appear to them before he ever visited his main disciples. How remarkable! In fact, his chief band of disciples still did not believe! If you are struggling to keep the faith during your wait for God to fulfill his word, know that God is there for you. Hang in there, just as King David wrote so long ago.

Yet I am confident I will see the LORD’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. 14  Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD. Psalm 27:13-14 (NLT)
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Basic Doctrines of Christ: The Resurrection from the Dead in Everyday Life

 

 

 

 

 

One of the dangers with any doctrine is postponing it until the indefinite future. This is what Martha did regarding the resurrection just before Jesus restored life to her brother Lazarus. Jesus told her that he is the resurrection and was able to raise Lazarus immediately, but her thinking restricted the matter until the end of time.

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24  Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26  and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27  She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” John 11:23-27 (ESV)

When Jesus returns in glory, he will indeed raise us from the dead, but even now we can experience resurrection life on a daily basis. There is only one problem associated with this process, however: to experience resurrection there must first be a death.

Imagine the horror Jesus felt as he hung on the cross as he experienced separation from his Father as the sins of the world fell upon him! You and I were born into this world separated from God because of Adam’s sin, but this was the first time for Jesus who had experienced glorious unity with his heavenly Father for all eternity.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) 

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46 (ESV)

Abraham also experienced a version of this in what the Bible calls a “terror of great darkness” (Genesis 15:12), at which time God confirmed to him an everlasting covenant. God’s eternal unconditional promise to Abraham was based on what Christ accomplished millennia later. God is not bound by time as we are. The benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection reverberate through time backward and forward for all eternity. Jesus experienced completely the horror of darkness that Abraham felt in part. Nevertheless, God required Abraham to go through it.

Later in Abraham’s story, the death-resurrection principle played out again. God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the son of promise for whom he had patiently waited for 25 years! Amazingly Abraham immediately obeyed without questioning God and was ready to complete the act when an angel stopped him. This, of course, foreshadowed Father God’s actual sacrifice of his Son upon the cross. In writing about this act of obedience by Abraham, the author of Hebrews states that our faith forefather trusted in God’s ability to raise the dead.

It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18  even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” 19  Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead. Hebrews 11:17-19 (NLT)

What Abraham did revealed his faith that God will fulfill his promises, even if he requires us temporarily to let go of them. Some call this “death of a vision.”  When we are willing to let something apparently die that is a precious promise to us, in the hope that God will yet restore it in his way and his time, we participate in the resurrection principle.

Paul wrote about this to the church in Corinth.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; 9  indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; 10  who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, 11  you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many. 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 (NASB)

The resurrection principle requires that we cease to try to keep ourselves and our promises alive through our own strength, but instead abandon ourselves to the faithfulness of God.

This is what Jesus did on the cross. As he descended into the abyss of death and experienced complete weakness and relinquished all attempts to save himself, he abandoned himself to his Father, the great Promise Keeper.

And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, "Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT." Having said this, He breathed His last. Luke 23:46 (NASB)

This was the culmination of Jesus’ faith walk, but he professed his faith in God’s resurrection power often prior to his crucifixion. He repeatedly told his disciples that he would die on a cross and be raised three days later. For us to properly experience God’s resurrection power, we must have faith in his ability to pull it off.

To experience resurrection, it is important that we understand and embrace the process. Jesus knew he had to die first in order to be raised. The same is true for us.

What has God promised to you that seems hopeless at this point? Have you released it into God’s hands? Are you able to trust him to give it back to you, if you give it to him? That is how we experience the resurrection in everyday life.

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Basic Doctrines of Christ: The Resurrection from the Dead – Beyond Imagination

 

 

 

 

 

That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NLT)

Imagination can be used in a good way to go beyond our previous experience. Many great advances have been made by those whose imagination fueled innovation.

When it comes to the resurrection and what lies ahead for those who trust in Christ after our earthly lives comes to an end, even our imagination is insufficient. What God has in store for us is far more wonderful than anything we can conceive. Imagine that!

A common conception of heaven pictures angels floating on clouds playing harps. How boring does that sound? The glimpses of heaven provided in Scripture are anything but boring. Those who claim to have died and seen heaven tell of sights, sounds, and experiences that are beyond description. The apostle Paul was among that group.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3  And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4  and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 (ESV)

When our Lord rose from the dead, he was sometimes not immediately recognized. Something had happened to him that made him different from before. At other times, he was clearly recognized by those to whom he appeared. He was able to appear and disappear. Walls were not a barrier to him. He had a real body that could be touched. He was able to eat food. What kind of body did he have in his resurrected state?

Paul said that we really cannot imagine what the resurrected “spiritual” body will be like.

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36  You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37  And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38  But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39  For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40  There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41  There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42  So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43  It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45  Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46  But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47  The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48  As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49  Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:35-49 (ESV)

When we plant a seed, we get something very different when it sprouts. We see a complete plant that is able to produce more seeds! The seed we plant must “die” before it can “resurrect” as a plant. The seed goes into the ground where moisture causes it to “decompose” in order to be re-composed as a brand new plant. This is a picture from nature that gives us some idea of the resurrection process.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25  Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:24-25 (ESV)

One thing we learn from what the Bible says about the resurrection is that our bodies are important to God, important enough for him to eternally save them, too.

He created our bodies to house our spirits, making us unique creatures who are able to interface with both the physical and spiritual worlds. How extraordinary!

God will eventually re-create heaven and earth (2 Peter 3:13), making a suitable place for resurrected people to inhabit. Imagine that, if you can.

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