Bible Studies

---

No day during which time you were used by God to either evangelize (share the unadulterated Gospel Message) or to edify (share a Biblical principle) with another human being was lived in vain.

In doing so, you have succeeded in contributing to the forward progress of the Great Commission. The Great Commission was/is the primary mission that our Lord gave to His church, and each member of it, to do (1).

Only a very small minority of Church Age believers are called to be full time evangelists or pastor teachers, but every single Church Age, born-again, believer has been called to the 24/7, post salvation spiritual life of discipleship.

Discipleship is a post (after) salvation activity. Success or failure in the realm of discipleship neither increases or decreases the integrity of one’s salvation or the gift of eternal life that a born again believer has already received.

Success or failure in discipleship does not change WHERE a born-again believer will spend all of eternity, but does impact HOW eternity will be experienced in Heaven. That is, with or without a 1Cor. 3: 12-15 reward and Revelation 2 and Revelation 3 privileges.

Born-again believers don’t engage in discipleship in order to be rewarded and privileged, but God has made it clear that He intends to reward and privilege, in Heaven, the born-again believers who embrace discipleship while here on Earth.

Discipleship is the study and the application of the Word of God. It is initially for the development of one’s own post (after) salvation spiritual life, but with the long-term objective of participating in the Great Commission, saving and edifying other souls.

As I recently read, before you use the Word of God as a weapon, one must use it as a mirror.

Don’t expect others to listen to you if you don’t have your own act together.

The invitation to participate in the Great Commission is extended to each and every Church Age follower of Christ, as of the moment he or she is born again.

“Again” indicates that the individual was already born once before. The first time we are born takes place in the natural realm, when what becomes our humanity (body) comes forth from the womb and receives its first breath of natural life (2).

It is at that moment that what had been a developing, biologically alive, human fetus becomes a trichotomous (three part) human being (3).

A human being comes into this world with a BODY that has physical/biological life that was reproduced by the biological parents (4 ); a SOUL with everlasting life that was created by God in His likeness (5); and a dead SPIRIT that is in need of regeneration (6).

This regeneration takes place (if, and) when this trichotomous being is born AGAIN. At the moment one is born again, he or she is forever sealed (baptized/marked for identification) by the Work of God the Holy Spirit (7), and what had been his or her dead spirit, is regenerated (8). This is what it means to have been born AGAIN.

Being born again is the divine response to a conscious choice to believe that the human soul can make when presented with the unadulterated Gospel Message. This can take place at any time in any location that God the Holy Spirit selects.

The unadulterated Gospel Message (encapsulated in John 3: 16) explains the need (9) and the means (10) for every human soul to become the recipient of eternal life.

Without eternal life, the soul with its everlasting life is destined to spend all of eternity future in what the Bible calls the lake of fire (11).

This is what Jesus meant when He said one MUST be born again (12). Salvation is the result of having made a one-time choice to believe in the PERSON (who and what He was/is) and the atoning WORK of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He was and is God the Son in the flesh, and was the Lamb (sacrifice) that paid the world’s sin debt, providing the means of salvation for all who believe.

Since the Fall of Man, human beings come into this world with a fallen nature that is hostile toward God and to the things of God (13). It is passed down to the next, incoming, generation at the moment of conception (14).

It is a powerful source of evil influence, and contends with God for control of our thought processes and accompanying behaviors. God allows this evil influence to exist in order to provide each soul with the opportunity to make spiritual choices, and then reap either the blessings or the consequences.

This fallen nature within us does not go away when we are born again. Paul wrote of his ongoing struggle with this fallen nature almost thirty years AFTER he was born again, and towards the end of his Earthly ministry.

Not only does this fallen nature remain, but it increases the frequency and the intensity of the pressure it exerts on the soul of an advancing disciple, keeping pace with whatever forward progress one makes along the road to spiritual maturity.

The devil can do nothing to undo the Eph. 4:30 sealing (baptism) or the Titus 5: 3 regeneration, but can do much to distract and impede a born-again believer from identifying and executing the 24/7 post salvation spiritual life that God has in mind.

It matters not (to the devil) if he accomplishes these distractions through prosperity or adversity.

This plan reaches its zenith when the born-again believer participates in the Great Commission.

End of Part 1

(1) Matt. 28: 19,20 (2) Gen. 1: 7 (3) 1Thess. 5: 23 (4) John 3: 6a (5) John 3: 6b (6) Titus 3: 5 (7) Eph. 4: 30 (8) Titus 3: 5 (9) John 3: 7) (10) John 14: 6 (11) Rev 20: 15 (12) John 3: 5, 7 (13) Romans 8: 7 (14) Psalms 51:5

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE