Tag Archives: Jesus Christ

To Grow Strong in Christ

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2 Peter 1:12-15

12 Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.  13 I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.

Peter was always ready and willing to remind his people of their salvation and how they can be assured of it—and also, of any other Scriptural truth that he had been teaching them. And since God had made it clear to him that he would die soon, he also wanted them to remind themselves of what Christ has done for them, how they came to salvation, and how they were able to continue to grow strong in Christ.

Having An Assurance of Salvation

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2 Peter 1:10-11

10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

Some would say that in order for the new believer to have assurance of his salvation, all he needs to do is to repeat over and over certain key verses like 1 John 5:11-12 and John 3:16. Well yes, that would be helpful. But that will gain you only a head knowledge of your salvation. The seven qualities (in verses 5-7) will do much more. By practicing them you will see your life change. You will see yourself bearing fruit for His kingdom. Hence, you will become aware that you have actually entered His kingdom; and that will give you the best assurance of salvation. For when a new believer (or even an old believer) sees that he is living the Christian life—that he is growing in moral excellence, in knowledge, in self-control, in perseverance, in godliness, in brotherly kindness, and in love—he will no longer stumble into doubt and fear regarding his salvation, but will instead have joy in the Lord for all that He does for him.

Bearing Much Fruit

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2 Pt. 1:8-9

8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

Peter, in verse eight, implies that the seven qualities (in verses 5-7) should be continually increasing (of better and better quality); and each of them should increase in order to produce the growth of the following one, so that they all increase and grow together. For they are all connected to each other just as the parts of a tree are connected and grow together. But if one part, for some reason, is not growing, that will prevent the next part from growing. For example, if the young believer stops growing in knowledge (#2), that will affect his self-control (#3), and his perseverance, and his godliness, and the rest. Hence, each of the seven qualities need to increase and grow all together. The result will be that you will be useful to God in His kingdom and will bear much fruit.

But if one lacks these qualities (if he has not been diligent to produce them through his personal bible study and prayer and obedience to God) he is blind to his spiritual condition; that is, he will forget what Christ has done for him, and thus will lose his assurance of salvation. This is a sad situation—seeing a Christian become like a non-Christian, not even knowing for sure that he is saved.

The Price of Our Redemption

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1 Peter 1:18-19

18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

In our evaluation of things, seeing what value Christ put on us, that He gave His very life-blood for us (His precious blood; unblemished), this may influence your conduct.

Born Again to a Living Hope

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1 Peter 1:3

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Here Peter exhorts believers to bless, or to praise (NIV version) God for His great mercy, a mercy that has reached down in love and forgiveness, to give us new birth (to be a new creature in Christ, 2 Cor. 5:17). In this new birth we have a “living hope.’ This is a hope in what we will receive in our glorification at the Rapture—when we see Him in His glory (1 Jn. 3:2). This living hope is “through” the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; that is, His resurrection gives us hope in our resurrection; hence, it makes our faith valid (1 Cor.15:17). Likewise, because He is resurrected to life, we also will live in a resurrected body (Jn. 11:25, 26).

Grace and Peace

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1 Peter 1:2

2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.

Here in verse two, Peter introduces these alien recipients as people who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. This means that God predetermined their salvation; and He did it by the sanctifying work of His Spirit, by which He made them holy (justified and righteous by His blood). But in addition to their justification, they were chosen to daily obey Jesus Christ by faith (Rom. 1:5), and also, to obtain a daily cleaning from sin, which Peter calls here to be “sprinkled with His blood.” This daily cleansing may be accomplished by a regular confession of sins, with the promise of His forgiveness and cleansing (1 Jn. 1:9), and by our understanding, in our faith, that the Lord automatically and continually forgives and cleanses His own (1 Jn. 1:7).

And so, according to what God has declare to us, we may have, and are welcome to have, a full measure of God’s grace and peace.

Armageddon — Christ’s Appearing

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The return of Jesus Christ, His visible appearing and what He does, is the climax of Armageddon and of the Tribulation. It is the victory for believers, and the awaited, deserving punishment for unbelievers. Since there is so many important things to cover in this section, we will be careful to study all of the essential Scriptures that pertain to this topic (Matt. 24:29-31; Rev. 19:11-16; 14:14-20; Zech. 12:2-14; 14:3-15; Matt. 16:27, 25:31, 26:64, Rev. 1:7, and 16:15).

Christ’s Appearing

It will be just as the Tribulation ends, when all the world is dark and when the powers of the heavens have been shaking the earth (Matt. 24:29; Zech. 14:6) that He suddenly appears. Though the lights in the world have gone out, the heavens will open (Rev. 19:11) and He will appear as bright as the sun; and every eye will see Him (Rev. 1:7). He will come with glorious clouds of heaven; not with earthly clouds, but with heavenly clouds of glory that blaze with magnificent heavenly light (Rev. 1:7). Perhaps this will be the same glory clouds, or the shekinah glory, written about in the Old Testament that led the Israelites through the wilderness (Ex. 13:21; 14:19-20). Nonetheless, He will come triumphantly, in His brilliance, riding on a white horse, and the armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, will follow Him on white horses (Rev. 19:11, 14).

The physical sight of Him will definitely be glorious and magnificent; yet, when we see Him, I think He will also bring to the world a spiritual and emotional awareness of His nature and purpose. The apostle John perceived these things about Him.  In Revelation 19:11-16 John wrote,

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name Is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

We know that John knew Jesus well. He was the disciple that loved Him. More than any of the others, he knew Him. However, I think in His vision of Him (from this passage) God revealed more about Him—things that will also be revealed to us and to those on the earth at that time when they see Him. What I mean is that when He comes, we will be able to sense more about Him—that He is “Faithful and True;” and that He comes in righteousness to judge and wage war. And I wonder if we will see His eyes, that they will actually be “a flame of fire.” And we will see His glorious kingship, that He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now I think that some things in this passage are symbolic, such as that “He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood.” But certainly, we will be able to perceive that He is the One who has been fighting many battles for us; and that He has shed His blood for us. Surely, all eyes will see that at the time of His coming He comes with the fierce wrath of God against the enemy; and He comes with a sharp sword—literally, and figuratively (which is the Word of God) to strike down every foe.

Jesus and the Pharisees: John 9:39-41

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This is our thirty-sixth study. Please click HERE for an introduction to this study.

John 9:39-41

39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

Observations

In these verses I think a better translation of verse 39 is… “so that the blind will see and those who think they see will become blind.” (will be humbled). Of course, the Pharisees were offended by this because they believed that they could see (understand) the Scriptures just fine; but they were spiritually blind.

When Jesus said to them, “If you were blind you would not be guilty of sin,” He meant that if they were physically blind and could not read the Scriptures, they would not be guilty, because they would have an excuse; but they were guilty because they were fully capable of reading and understanding the Scriptures. They had no excuse.

Application

If you can read and have a good understanding mind, you should do all we you to obey His word. And be always listening to Him for more insight.

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs: Events following Christ’s Crucifixion

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I have read the book before—a while ago. Now I’m reading it again, this time more carefully. I may give a series of blog posts on it, hoping to inspire some of you. Parts of it are gory, but I would focus more on the strength and boldness of the precious martyrs who loved the Lord. They were all so willing and even joyous in their suffering and death, as cruel as it was.

I will start with what happened after the crucifixion of Christ. According to the research of John Fox in 1516, Pontius Pilate was so moved by Christ that he may have become a Christian and tried to convert the whole Roman senate. But Tiberius Caesar would have none of it, and, as Foxe points out, almost all the senators were destroyed and the whole city of Rome was “most horribly afflicted” for almost three hundred years. As for Pilate, he was “sent to Rome, deposed, then banished to the town of Vienne in Dauphiny, and at length did slay himself.”

So, as it appears, Christ was the first of the martyrs. It was his death that so stirred up all of Rome either to believe and not to believe. But it was the evil emperors that were so full of the devil that started the flames of persecution and martyrdom. After Tiberius it was Caligula, Claudius Nero and Domitius Nero who began the reign of terror on the Christians.