Truths That Set Free 1 of 7

 

Welcome. This is the first program in a series called Truth That Set Free. Here are some of the topics that Edmund wants to discuss with us in the following weeks:

 

Truth that sets free

Questions:     

1. Who have I become after I accept Christ as my personal Saviour?

2. Why will the identity in Christ change my thinking pattern?

3. What is my role in living out the new identity in Christ?

4.  Are there any guaranties for a life of victory in Christ?

5. How can I be effective in my Christian witness?

6. Is there rest and freedom in Christ even in adversity?

7. Is leadership a biblical concept and how did Jesus do it?

 

Edmund, these titles sound relevant and promising and I just wonder what prompted you to prepare this series.

 

Scott, the intent of this series is to consider together some foundational biblical truths. We need to be reminded that while our lives might get more complex all the time, truth is still rather simple and basic.  When Jesus said to His disciples that unless they would become like little children they would not be able to enter the Kingdom of God, He meant exactly that.  God’s truth is simple and straightforward because it has to do with the condition of our hearts.

 

Children think with their hearts.  They are not crafty or sophisticated, they just tell you what is happening with them and as they perceive it. That can sometimes be rather embarrassing.  I remember our dear granddaughter Katrina the other day embarrassing me. She asked me to tell her a story. She was sitting on my lap and I started to tell her a story.  Suddenly she interrupts, smiles and looks me straight in the eyes and says, “Opa, you have a bad breath!” and then leans back on my chest and asks to continue.

 

Wow...speak about...“speaking the truth in love”!  She did it.

 

Yes, Scott, we might laugh about such frankness.  But there is something about childlike honesty that makes us realize again the liberating power of truth. If we would find our way back to truth in our society, wouldn’t that be something?

 

Most lawyers would be out of work.  

 

The Lord Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Not the defense of my rights and freedom, rather His truth will set me free. That is revolutionary!

 

It is my hope and prayer that through this series, Truths That Set Free, many of our listeners feel encouraged and helped to find their way back to real truth and freedom.

 

Today’s theme is, Who am I after I accept Jesus Christ as my Saviour? Edmund, please let’s hear what you have to say.

 

The Bible says that to those who receive Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, He gives the right to become children of God.  To receive Jesus Christ means to accept His divine mission on earth as God’s Messiah and Redeemer who paid the sin of the world by dying on the cross.  To receive Christ implies that I recognize that I cannot live up to the standard of perfection established by the holiness of God. I recognize in humble confession that I am a sinner and beg God’s forgiveness for the sake of Christ’s atoning death on the cross. The Bible says, “He made Him who know no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

 

Edmund, that is all clearly summarized in the passage of the Bible that says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

 

I was only 7 years old when I asked Jesus to come into my life and to be my Saviour.  I still remember the joy and inner peace that flooded my heart. At that time we were living in Germany and it was after the war.  The streets were dark and the houses on the roadside had been bombarded and were only rubble, but there was no fear, rather singing in my soul when I walked home that night.

 

The Bible says that when I accepted Christ as my personal Saviour, my sin was put on Him and His righteousness was imputed to me. In that very moment I was accepted back into the family of God.  Now, instead of being lost in sin, I have become one who was found by the grace of God.  Jesus refers to that situation in the parable of the prodigal son, “…he was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”

 

Are you saying, then, that a person who accepts Christ by faith as personal Saviour becomes a new person or, as one could say, receives a new identity?

 

Exactly, Scott! The Bible affirms, “If any man is in Christ he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold new things have come.” The Bible also speaks somewhere about the new heart that God gives to His people.

 

A sinner who receives Jesus as his/her Saviour becomes a child of God, is born again spiritually and belongs now to God.  Like my children are natural heirs of my and Marli’s possession, so the believer becomes an heir of all that belongs to his father. The Bible says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

 

In other words, when I receive Christ, I become: - a child of God, -I receive eternal life, - I am a new creature, - I receive a new heart, - I become an heir in God’s Kingdom.  No doubt, I have a new identity and a new name. 

 

The Bible calls a believer a saint.  Saint means “the separated one”.  This doesn’t mean flawless perfection.  It means I am a saint when my life is separated from serving myself, the sin in this world and the devil. I have a new and glorious position in life. I am separated by the love and for service to the living God.

 

Why is this truth so liberating?  Because as I accept my position in Christ, and as I thank God for His eternal salvation, there will be joy and worship in my new heart. While I might still struggle with the conditioning of my old sinful inclinations, I now learn to walk in the Spirit of the living Christ. He has made me His own and now nourishes me daily through the Word of God.

 

Edmund, this is liberating truth indeed.  God in His amazing love has invited us to live by His grace, instead of trying by our own efforts to live for Him!  But how do we now deal with temptations and shortcomings?

 

Very good question, Scott. Martin Luther, the great reformer, answered once to a similar question that when the devil would knock at the door of His heart Jesus would answer, “Martin has moved out. It is now I who live here.”   And as soon as the devil would see the nail-prints in Jesus’ hand he would flee in haste.