My last posting ended with a brief discussion of spiritual rewards. If we never consider these things; we are in danger of just wanting "fire insurance" when coming to Christ from fear of hell. That lack of love for God will blind us to the need for sanctification; and we will never want to go beyond what we consider the bare minimum to ensure our place in heaven. The basic point here is that sanctification goes on from the point of salvation until death (or the Rapture) which finally brings glorification; or final salvation of the body from sin and decay. So we need here to discuss what sanctification means.
Sanctification. 2 Timothy 2:12 says that if we suffer with Him we will reign with Him. Jesus spoke to the Disciples about the cost involved in following Him; and James speaks of pure joy in suffering in James 1:2-4. The Apostles need no further case as to the cost of following Him as all but one were martyred (and apparently they may have tried to kill John before Patmos as well). We see how Peter failed Christ when he said he would die for him yet denied Christ at his trial. Whenever that verse comes up in James I comment that I am still working on that; I feel like a hypocrite otherwise.
Too often we look at dying to self as a martyrdom issue rather than looking at a progressive lifestyle of dying to self day by day; which also was the example of Christ. Once we practice loving others above ourselves for a long time it is much easier to handle our fate no matter how bleak (or at least less hard). Again; this is where the rubber meets the road. With today's "easy believism" we see little exhortation of others ( Hebrews 3:13); we see Christ being perhaps the "center" of our lives in many of today's churches rather than BEING our life and our old life dead and buried with Him.
So far we are discussing things that accompany salvation. Now I will begin to quote verses to examine warnings against falling away
My last posting ended with a brief discussion of spiritual rewards. If we never consider these things; we are in danger of just wanting "fire insurance" when coming to Christ from fear of hell. That lack of love for God will blind us to the need for sanctification; and we will never want to go beyond what we consider the bare minimum to ensure our place in heaven. The basic point here is that sanctification goes on from the point of salvation until death (or the Rapture) which finally brings glorification; or final salvation of the body from sin and decay. So we need here to discuss what sanctification means.
Sanctification. 2 Timothy 2:12 says that if we suffer with Him we will reign with Him. Jesus spoke to the Disciples about the cost involved in following Him; and James speaks of pure joy in suffering in James 1:2-4. The Apostles need no further case as to the cost of following Him as all but one were martyred (and apparently they may have tried to kill John before Patmos as well). We see how Peter failed Christ when he said he would die for him yet denied Christ at his trial. Whenever that verse comes up in James I comment that I am still working on that; I feel like a hypocrite otherwise.
Too often we look at dying to self as a martyrdom issue rather than looking at a progressive lifestyle of dying to self day by day; which also was the example of Christ. Once we practice loving others above ourselves for a long time it is much easier to handle our fate no matter how bleak (or at least less hard). Again; this is where the rubber meets the road. With today's "easy believism" we see little exhortation of others ( Hebrews 3:13); we see Christ being perhaps the "center" of our lives in many of today's churches rather than BEING our life and our old life dead and buried with Him.
So far we are discussing things that accompany salvation. Now I will begin to quote verses to examine warnings against falling away
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