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On Belief |
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The Two Most
Important Things After Salvation
Once a person believes in Jesus for eternal life and becomes born again, what’s next? Why are we left here on earth? The Bible says the first commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart and mind and soul and strength. You can’t love someone unless you know who He is, so we are also commanded to grow in grace and knowledge of God. God does not appear to us visibly, nor speak to us audibly in this dispensation, and though we can learn some small measure of Him through His creation, to truly know Him we must turn to His word. Thus the first thing we are to do after salvation is study His word so that we may gain “the mind of Christ.” But God's thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways His ways. The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are spiritually discerned, and so merely studying God’s word is not enough. Like the Pharisees of old, a person can know the Bible backward and forward and still not understand it—always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. We need help that only God can give—spiritual help. And He has given it through the gift of pastor teacher and through the gift of His Spirit. Both are crucial, but since the filling of the Spirit is important to both parties (that is, both pastor and student must have it) I give the edge to the Filling of the Spirit. Scripture clearly teaches that it is possible for those who have believed in Christ to be carnal not spiritual, to sow to the flesh, not the Spirit, to walk in darkness not light. Ephesians commands us to be filled with the Spirit, implying both that it is possible not to be filled and that we have a choice as to which state we will be in at any given time. So how can one be filled with the Spirit? As we were saved by grace, so shall we walk. Thus the filling of the Spirit must be a grace function, not based on our own works or merit. Jesus has already died for every sin any of us ever committed. I John 1:9 tells us if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The word for confess is homologeo—which means to name or to cite a courtroom case. When we cite our sin to God it is with the understanding that Jesus has died for that sin, and God has removed it from us as far as the east is from the west. At that point we have been cleansed of all unrighteousness (even the sins we’re unaware of) and are once again under the control or filling of the Holy Spirit. It is easy for us, because grace is easy, but it was not easy for Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him by means of the Holy Spirit (the filling of the Spirit) and the Truth (the content of the word of God). Thus, the two most important things after salvation are knowing how to be filled with the Spirit and understanding the importance of learning the Word of God. ddd References: “The foremost (commandment)
is ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind
and with all your strength.” Mark 12:29,30 “But grow in grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18 “For who has known the mind
of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of
Christ.” I Co 2:16 “And without faith it is
impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Heb 11:6 “For My thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the
heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than our ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts.” Is 55:8,9 “but just as it is written,
things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not
entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit . . . even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the
Spirit of God . . but a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them
because they are spiritually appraised.” 1 Co 2:9-14 “As you therefore have
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” Col 2:6 “God is spirit, and those
who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Jn 4:24 |
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