All who have life in Christ Jesus are, RIGHT NOW, alive from the dead. Romans 6:13. True or False? Please take a moment to respond at

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And now the answer to the LLM Question of 10-27-2011

Question: No Spirit-taught Child of God can read Romans 6:13 and Ephesians 2:5-6 and believe in the heathen doctrine of soul-sleeping. True or False?

Answer: TRUE! Surely, no Spirit taught Child of God can read Romans 6:13 and Ephesians 2:5-6 and then go on and believe in the heathen doctrine of soul-sleeping. Many religious church-members, including some who are saved, just do not seem to appreciate having been raised up and made to sit down in the heavenlies in Christ, alive from the dead. Now, out of the 689 responses we received to this question, 100% of you got it right! Praise God! Therefore,

Today let us consider, THE GOSPEL OF JOHN....THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, pt. 25 of 30

ETERNAL LIFE WHICH GOD PROMISED BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN

According to Titus 1:1-3, God, Who cannot lie, promised us eternal life BEFORE the world began. When we read John 3:16, let us read it, “God, (Who cannot lie), so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Now pay attention, because of the appalling ignorance of the message and ministry and Dispensation of the Grace of God, which the RISEN Christ revealed to and through the Apostle Paul, it is perhaps true that more believing sinners have been preached into the Body of Christ by hearing and believing John 3:16 than by all of the Grace messages in Paul’s writings. Most of the evangelists and other Christian workers, who specialize in John 3:16, generally quote with this verse Paul’s message to the Philippian jailer, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.” (Acts 16:31).

However, many people who claim to believe both John 3:16 and Acts 16:31 are not saved. This is because they DO NOT believe, and apparently do not want to believe, that faith in Christ the Savior means to accept the truth that He was delivered for our sins and raised again for our justification (Romans 4:24-25), that believers are reconciled to God by the death of Christ (Romans 5:10), that the saving gospel is the truth concerning the vicarious death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). For this reason evangelists, who preach John 3:16, should always be sure to include John 3:14-15, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” When we read Christ’s words in John 6:47, “verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth in Me hath everlasting life” and in John 6:51, if any man eat of Him, the living Bread from heaven, he shall live for ever, we should read the rest of this verse, “the Bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Hear again the words of the Prince of Life in John 12:24, where we have another “verily, verily” (25 of which are in John’s Record), “except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

So think again of the glorious Grace gospel of 2 Timothy 1:9-10, the salvation that the believer has because of the work of Christ, with Christ’s words at the time He raised Lazarus from the dead, “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26).

In John’s First Epistle believers are told how they can know that they have passed out of death into life; that they have been made alive. In Romans 6:13 believers are told what to do to please God because they are “alive from the dead.” In John’s Gospel sinners are told how to pass from death to life. In the recorded messages of both Paul and John we are told that sinners are required to do nothing to receive God’s free gift, Eternal Life, except to BELIEVE. By BELIEVING they pass out of death into life. (John 5:24-25, John 11:25, John 3:16, John 3:15). So we read in John 3:36, “he that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life.” But in John 8:24 we have these solemn words of the Prince of Life, “if ye believe not that I AM, ye shall die in your sins.”

In the very beginning of John’s Record we read concerning God in human form, “in Him was life: and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4). Near the close of His life on earth the LORD Jesus prayed to His Father, “Thou has given Him (Christ) power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.” (John 17:4). When we read this statement in John 17:4 with John 6:37, “all that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out,” we think of the statement concerning Paul’s ministry in Acts 13:48, “as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”

But of course we must not exclude human responsibility, remembering the words of the LORD Jesus in John 5:40, “ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” We are asked frequently how we can reconcile this with Christ’s statement in John 6:65, “no man can come to Me, except it were given unto him of My Father.” (John 6:45). Our answer is, we preach God’s sovereign grace and omniscience and man’s responsibility, and permit the Holy Spirit to do the reconciling. Surely if you have carefully compared Romans 9 with Romans 10, you know how utterly helpless is any theologian or Bible teacher to reconcile the truth contained in them or to explain to the satisfaction of all the truth of Ephesians 1:4-5 and Ephesians 1:11 concerning the Body of Christ. In these verses we read, “according as He (God) hath chosen us in Him (Christ) before the ‘overthrow’ of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”

But now to the good news of Romans 8:1-39, beginning with “no condemnation” for the believer, and ending with “no separation” for the believer. With this good news read John 10:28-31. In Romans 8:36-39 we learn that though believers may be counted as sheep for the slaughter, no thing or no person can separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Now the wonderful words of Christ, the glorious good news in John 10:28-30, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, Who gave them Me, is greater than all: and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and Father are ONE.”

Every person, by the Faith in the crucified and resurrected and ascended LORD Jesus Christ, passes out of death into life. By the same act of the Faith, at the same time, that person is justified from all things. (Acts 13:39). A justified believer has righteousness, redemption, and sanctification, BECAUSE he has Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:30, Ephesians 1:6-7, and 2 Thess. 2:13).

As we wonder why the words “righteousness,” “redemption,” “justification,” “forgiveness,” “reconciliation,” “hope” and “salvation” are NOT found in John’s Record (except the two verses John 4:22 and John 16:10), whereas they are found in the Apostle Paul’s ministry about 200 times, it IS interesting to note that in John’s Gospel and in his First Epistle we find “eternal life” or “everlasting life” more than in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and all of Paul’s fourteen Epistles and in his recorded oral ministry in the Book of Acts. In these two Books by John, “eternal life” or “everlasting life” is mentioned 22 times; only 20 times in the other eighteen Books. These two words together are not found in any of the Apostle Peter’s recorded ministry or in the Epistle of James. They are found once in Jude.

Surely the theme of John’s Gospel is “everlasting life.” Many times in this Record the word “life” and “live” refer to everlasting life. The LORD Jesus said, in John 14:19, “because I live, ye shall live also.” Note in Revelation 2:8 how the RISEN Christ is described, “the first and the last, Who was dead, and is alive,” yes, “alive for evermore.” (Revelation 1:18).

Surely no Spirit taught Child of God can read Romans 6:13 and Ephesians 2:5-6 and believe in the heathen doctrine of soul-sleeping. Many religious church-members, including some who are saved, do not seem to appreciate having been raised up and made to sit down in the heavenlies in Christ, alive from the dead, but find a fiendish delight in trying to prove by Ecclesiastes 9:5 and Ecclesiastes 9:10 that Paul was mistaken when he said, “absent from the body present with the Lord.”

“Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31, while there is still time!

So There You Have it!

Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short

Greetings Pastor David and all Saints,
As always I feel blessed to learn the Truth of Scripture and know Jesus as Lord of my life in Him. I never get tired of reading what God, through Christ Jesus, did for us sinners. Thanks for explaining to us so clearly the truth of God's Word.

After two month's of traveling in Spain and Portugal, I have returned home to British Columbia, Canada. I had problems communicating as getting connected on line was a major problem for me there. The Spanish were not very helpful to tourists. The Portugese were much more friendly but could not help me connect on line. However, now I am back home and have much reading to do to catch up with my lessons. One thing I learnt from my travels is how great is the need to get God's Word out to Europe. All these countries seem dead to Christ and really need our prayers. There are many RC churches. Every small village and cities have churches but are they alive ? Only God knows the truth of their hearts. We need to pray for these people.

Grace and Peace in Christ,
Ken

Dear Brother Ken,

Wonderful to have you back safely from your travels. Praise the LORD!

I will be looking forward to your comments on the messages that you are getting caught up on.

THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH. We are told in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38, that the just shall live by faith. In Romans 5:18 we read that by the righteousness of Christ justification of life was provided for the human race. “The free gift of God is eternal life.” (Romans 6:23). But this is through Jesus Christ our LORD. Christ said, “I am the life.” (John 14:6).

The Bible is the story of death and life. Adam and Eve chose death in preference to life. They sinned. Death passed upon all men. (Romans 5:12). The law of sin and death is still in full force. In Deuteronomy 30:19 the living God spoke these words, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you: I have set before you life and death, chose life that ye may live.” God sent His only Begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. (1 John 4:9). Therefore to choose life means to choose Christ. To become religious without receiving eternal life means to be twice dead, plucked up by the roots. (Jude 12).

Note the great contrast between life and death, wages and free gift, in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).

We read in Hebrews 2:14 that Satan had the power of death. We read in Hebrews 7:16 that Christ is made after the power of an endless or deathless life. We read in Acts 1:3, that, Christ after His death showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs. By His death and resurrection Christ destroyed Satan’s death power. But Christ had to die that the children of Adam might live. Those who choose to live receive Christ and by the law of the Spirit of life in Him they are freed from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2). When the Gentiles received the LORD’s message through Peter and believed, “God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:18). Later on we are told that the Gentiles, who had been dead in sins, far off from God, having no hope in the world (Ephesians 2:1 to Ephesians 5: 11-12), were made alive together with Christ and made to sit down in the heavenlies in Christ. (Ephesians 2:5-6). They were raised from the dead, to walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4, and Romans 6:13). They were begotten into, or unto, a living hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, unto an incorruptible, heavenly inheritance. (1 Peter 1:3-5). The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:3 of Christians working with him, “whose names are in the Book of Life.” In Revelation ‘the Book of Life’ is mentioned seven times. In the New Testament Scriptures God is called sixteen times ‘The Living God’. In Mark 12:27 and Luke 20:38 God is called ‘the God of the Living’. Again we read in 2 Timothy 1:1 that God’s promise of life is in Christ Jesus. “He that hath not the Son hath not life.” (1 John 5:12).

In 1 Timothy 4:8 we are reminded of the life that now is and that which is to come. In Ephesians 1:21, we are told of the world that now is, and that which is to come. The LORD Jesus, in Mark 10:30 told of the blessing on earth of being His disciple, and then added, “and in the world to come eternal life.”

As we think of all that is said in the Bible about death and life, and read God’s solemn warning, in Hebrews 9:27, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this judgment,” let us think of some words from the LORD in the Old Testament Scriptures and in the New, “why will ye die, O house of Israel: for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the LORD God, wherefore turn and live ye.” (Ezekiel 18:31-32). And then 2 Peter 3:9 we read that God “is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (1 Timothy 2:4-7). Christ could continuously say to sinners to day what He said in John 5:40, “ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” “And this life is in His Son.” (1 John 5:11). “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36).

God is still giving to self righteous religious church members, who are trusting for eternal life, in God AND their good works, the truth of Galatians 3:21, “if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.” The Apostle Paul had been under the law; but after receiving Christ as Savior, Paul was crucified to the law: but he added, “Nevertheless I live. I live by The Faith of the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20).

All who have life in Christ Jesus are, right now, “alive from the dead” (Romans 6:13). They have been made alive together with Christ. Then when Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, they shall appear with Him in glory. In the meantime they are seated with Him in the heavenlies and are to seek those things which are above. (Colossians 3:1-4, Ephesians 2:5-6). In 1 Corinthians 15:22, with reference to the resurrection of the body, we are told that those who are Christ’s will be made alive at His coming.

The words LIFE, LIVE, ALIVE, QUICKEN, LIVETH, LIVING, referring to spiritual and eternal life, are found in the New Testament Scriptures about 200 times. They are found in John’s Writings about 105 times. In Revelation we read of The Book of Life, The Tree of Life, The Water of Life, The Spirit of Life, The Crown of Life.

When we see that the word LIFE in different forms is used in John’s Gospel about 60 times, and as we read in John 5:26 and John 17:2 that the LORD Jesus had life in Himself and power to give eternal life, and learn in John 20:31, that John’s Record was handed down to us, that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that we might have life through believing in His name, we see why we may call John’s Gospel, “The Book of Life.”

“Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31, while there is still time!

So There You Have it!

Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short