Gates of the City

People need to understand that Jesus did not die merely to forgive them their sins; He died and rose again in order to save them from their sins. Otherwise, it would be little more than forgiving someone for crimes committed out of ignorance or poverty, yet allowing them to stay in jail. Nor does saving them from their sins only mean they receive a “get out of jail free card.” No, He saves people from their ignorance and corrupt nature, which causes them to sin, in an endeavor to make them partakers of His very own divine nature.

Jesus came, died, rose again, and is willing to send His spirit to all that ask, that He might restore any and all to the very essence God originally intended for them to be, holy, temples suitable for His own Spirit to dwell with in. He faithfully guides and enables His followers to be more than mere animals that live only mindful of the appetites of their lowly fleshly bodies; for He causes them to become spiritually alive by placing His own Spirit with in them. He “saves us from our sins” because He BOTH forgives AND leads them out of their prisons and into the glorious liberty of His light and truth and into communion with Himself.

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. For the carnal mind is constantly at war against God; because it is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be. Such is why they who think and live and focus only in the flesh cannot please God. But, if you have truly been “saved,” you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; if in truth the Spirit of God dwells in you. For if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.

This truth is as obvious to the true believer in Jesus Christ as is a developing fetus in the womb of a pregnant woman. There is no doubt in her mind something is radically different and new in her body and life, because the evidence of a conception of life continues to grow daily in her.

Is this new life of Christ so growing in you?

If so, then continue to faithfully purify your souls in the obedience of the truth, through the Spirit of Christ within you, unto an unfeigned love of the brothers. We must love one another fervently out of a pure heart, for we have been born again, not mere semen, but by an incorruptible seed, through the living Word of God in us; which abides true and faithful forever.

See Romans 8:6-9 and 1st Peter 1:22, 23