From the beginning of time God has expected obedience from us. In Genesis the second chapter beginning in verse fifteen it reads, “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 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.” Adam and Eve’s life in the Garden was predicated on their obedience to this one command. They disobeyed the command of God and subsequently were removed from the Garden of Eden. God has not left us to our own devices. He expects complete obedience to his will. Like Adam and Eve the fate of our eternal life is balanced against our compliance with the will of God.
Tag: Holy Spirit
John records a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee, Nicodemus. Jesus reveals to this esteemed teacher how one must be born again to enter the kingdom of God.
1Cor. 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” This, among other similar passages, teach us that the Spirit of God becomes a part of our lives in a unique and living way through salvation in Jesus Christ. Because the Holy Spirit is not of flesh, there is no way to sense His presence in us. It is through faith we know He is there.
Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? (Acts 19:2).
Paul encountered in Ephesus a group of disciples who believed in Jesus, but they had not received the Holy Spirit. Today’s conventional teaching on the reception of the Holy Spirit and salvation in Jesus’s name rests on the assumption that both are bestowed when one believes in Jesus.
I’d like to continue our consideration of baptism which I began in my last article. Four times in the Gospel of John, Jesus promises His disciples a Comforter or Helper. John 14: 16, 26; John 15: 26 and John 16: 7 all promise this Helper. This comforter is none other than God’s Holy Spirit, called the Spirit of truth in Jn. 14. Jesus also says something both interesting and important in Jn. 14:7: “You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you (emphasis mine).”
Religious experience is problematic because there is no means of verification other than one’s own “experience.” For example, an individual might claim a vision of Jesus, a voice from above, the apparition of an angel, or, Ezekiel-like, transportation to an unfolding realm. To follow such a thing, a person must have more faith in the declarer’s experience than having faith in God. Through taking the word of a man we make ourselves susceptible to that individual’s influence. Thus it becomes possible for us to enter their game or delusion, which ever it may be.