Standing on the Authority of the Bible as the Living, Inerrant and Enduring Word of God
Praise be to You, my everlasting Father[i] of compassions and God of all Comfort.[ii]* I delight in You and Your words to me[iii] for they are spirit and life.[iv] For I do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of Your mouth.[v] You watch over Your word to fulfill it[vi] and, therefore, it accomplishes what You desire and achieves the purpose for which You send it.[vii] Your word is sweeter than honey to my mouth[viii] and has become a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.[ix]
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with You and the Word was fully God[x] and fully Man, the Lord out of heaven,[xi] the radiance of Your glory, the exact image of Your essence, Your Son, Jesus Christ. He sustains all things – including me – by the word of His power.[xii]
And He, the Word of Life,[xiii] became flesh and lived among us full of grace and truth[xiv] and He, the Word of God,[xv] makes me wise about Your salvation for me.[xvi]** It is by Your gift of grace that I am now saved through faith[xvii] without which it is impossible to please You.[xviii] Faith (believing, trusting,[xix] relying,[xx] resting[xxi]***) in the unseen Jesus Christ[xxii] comes through hearing and hearing through Your holy word.[xxiii]
Loving Father-God, I thank You for Your word of assurance that I am justified, saved and have eternal life through rebirth, because I have (1) confessed the Lord Jesus with my mouth unto salvation, and (2) received Your gift of righteousness by believing in my heart that You raised Him from the dead.[xxiv]
Furthermore, You sealed me in You with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who is a down payment of my inheritance, when I heard the word of truth, the whole Gospel of Your salvation for me,[xxv] and I combined it with Your gift of faith.[xxvi] Now, Your living word, which is sharper than any two-edged sword, is powerfully working in me, piercing between the division of my soul and spirit and my joints and marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of my new heart.[xxvii]
Let the word of Christ’s whole Gospel of grace,[xxviii] the inspired word of God, dwell in me richly with gratitude in my heart to You, Lord.[xxix] Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit,[xxx] sanctify my mind in Your Word of truth,[xxxi] the Gospel of Your full salvation,[xxxii] by helping me hear Your voice[xxxiii] and meditate on Your living word day and night. [xxxiv] I wholeheartedly believe and receive it as profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness, so that I may be complete and equipped for every good work.[xxxv] Please guide me into all truth and show me what revelations I need to know.[xxxvi]
Let my heart burn with understanding and love for Jesus and the finished work of His cross[xxxvii] by being rooted and built up in Him, confirmed and abounding in faith with thanksgiving.[xxxviii] Please give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation of the Scriptures to know You intimately by enlightening the eyes of my mind to know (1) what is the hope of Your calling, (2) what are the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in me, a saint,**** and (3) what is the surpassing greatness of Your power toward me believing and trusting You, according to the working of Your mighty strength and ability.
You worked this power in Christ, raising Him (and me in Him) from the dead and seating Him (and me in Him)[xxxix] at Your right hand in the heavenlies.[xl] Therefore, enable me to see You, myself and others as You do, in the light of Your New Covenant, by regarding no one according to the flesh.[xli]***** Let Your thoughts become my thoughts and Your ways become my ways,[xlii] being a hearer, a believer and a doer of Your word, which is Your will for me as You direct, so that I will not be deceived[xliii] but be blessed in all my doing.[xliv]
Cause my outer man (soul and body)[xlv]****** to no longer be conformed to this world’s system but, instead, become progressively transformed by the renewal of my natural mind[xlvi] by the washing of the water of the word of Christ.[xlvii] I choose to dwell in the richness of Jesus’ Gospel to Paul in all wisdom, and bathing my mind in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing by grace in my new heart to You.[xlviii] By faith in the finished work of Jesus’ divine exchange with me at Calvary, I am confirmed and abounding in that faith with thanksgiving in everything[xlix] – and especially for Jesus, the Mediator of a New Covenant, and for His sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Able.[l]
Remind me to use Your offensive weapon of warfare, the Word of Christ, to demolish all strongholds, imaginations and every high thing within me which exalts self, instead of knowing, loving, serving and exalting You. Help me to bring into captivity every thought into conformity with Christ Jesus’ finished work,[li] by dwelling on whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy.[lii]
This will progressively transform my outer man by the renewing of my natural mind to accurately know You and Your good, well-pleasing and perfect will.[liii] Thank you for working in me both to will and to do Your good pleasure[liv] out of love for You.[lv]
Empower me to be grounded and settled in the message of the true faith of Jesus’ whole Gospel to Paul by combining it with Your gift of faith[lvi] and using it to fight the good fight of faith successfully.[lvii] Heaven and the earth will pass away but Your life-giving words will never pass away.[lviii] Therefore, help me to hold fast to the confession of the hope of Jesus’ whole Gospel of lavish grace without wavering, for You who have promised are faithful.[lix]
Now to You who have established me through the true Gospel of Christ Jesus, according to the revelation of the mystery that You kept secret since the world began but that You are now making plain by prophetic Scriptures, according to Your commandment made known to all the nations by the obedience of faith, to the only wise God through Christ Jesus, belongs all glory forever. Amen.[lx]
NOTE: See the Footnotes for this chapter below.
Coming Next Week In Chapter Three: Celebrating God’s Rejection and Elimination of My Former Self in the First Adam
[i] Isaiah 9:6b “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
[ii] 2 Corinthians 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassions (*plural in Greek) and the God of all comfort”
* Note: at Footnote #56 “compassions” is plural in the Greek
[iii] Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
[iv] John 6:63 “It is the Spirit (who) gives life, the flesh profits nothing! The words which I speak to you are spirit and are life.”
[v] Deuteronomy 8:3 “And He humbled you, causing you to hunger then He fed you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors knew about, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every (word) that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Also see Matthew 4:4.
[vi] Jeremiah 1:12 “The Lord said to me ‘You have seen correctly for I watch over My word to perform (fulfill) it.’”
[vii] Isaiah 55:11 “So My word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Also see Romans 4:21.
[viii] Psalm 119:103 “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.”
[ix] Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light to my path.”
[x] John 1:1 and Revelation 19:13 “In (the) beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” “And He, (Jesus) (was) clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is The Word of God.”
[xi] 1 Corinthians 15:47 “The first man (was) out of earth, earthly, the second Man, the Lord out of heaven.”
[xii] Hebrews 1:3 “…the Son being the radiance of (God’s) glory, the exact image of His essence, and upholding all things by the word of His power….”
[xiii] 1 John 1:1b “… and (what) our hands touched concerning the Word of Life (Jesus).”
[xiv] John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten from (the) Father, full of grace and of truth.”
[xv] Revelation 19:13 “He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood and His name is the Word of God.”
[xvi] 2 Timothy 3:15 “…and that from a babe you know the Holy Scriptures, those being able to make you wise to salvation through belief in Christ Jesus.”
**Note: Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of God and to accurately understand salvation – or anything else properly – requires one to see things as God does, of course. His All-knowing overview sees the end of anything from its beginning; to Him, everything is NOW. Since He exists outside the constraints of time and space, He inspired Paul to capture His divine perspective with these joint concepts of salvation:
1) a believer is saved (past tense), (the new creation spirit self which is in Christ),
2) a believer is being saved (present, on-going tense) (his soul – mind, will and emotions),
3) and a believer will be saved (future tense) (his body when resurrected).
He puts it to us this way because we are living out linearly, over time and in space, what already is His experience as the Omniscient “I AM.” Also, I believe, He inspired it this way to explain the salvation process in our three-part being. Our spirit has been saved, our soul is being saved (transformed by the renewal of my mind to conform to the mind of Christ), and the new body we receive at the rapture will be fully saved. As our natural mind is renewed to think from His perspective, we can rest in the many facets of the reality of being One with Christ in His finished work. That is why He says through Paul that you have been made complete (perfect) in Christ – One in spirit with Him as He prayed to the Father in John 17:21. Also see 1 Corinthians 6:17 and Hebrews 10:14.
[xvii] Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you are saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves; (it is) the gift of God….”
[xviii] Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith (it is) impossible to please (God). For it is right (that) the (one) drawing near to God should believe that He is, and (that) He is a rewarder to the ones seeking Him out.” Also see 1 Peter 1:8
[xix] Hebrews 2:13 “And again ‘I will be trusting in (upon) him.’ And again, ‘Behold, I and the children whom God gave to me.’”
[xx] 2 Corinthians 1:9 “But we ourselves have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not rely on ourselves, but on God, the (One) raising the dead.”
[xxi] Hebrews 4:9 and 11 “So, then, there remains a rest to the people of God.” “Therefore, let us labor to enter that rest, that not anyone fall into the same example of disobedience.” Also see Matthew 11:28-29 and Psalm 62:1,6.
***Note: God’s concept of His rest is not passive but a matter of producing good fruit by doing His good works (Ephesians 2:10) as a response to Him which comes out of His life lived through us rather than “dead works” initiated out of our natural mind (and the willful flesh) of my outer man). Also see Romans 8.
[xxii] 2 Timothy 3:15 “… from a babe you know the Holy Scriptures, those being able to make you wise to salvation through belief in Christ Jesus.”
[xxiii]. Romans 10:17 “Then faith (is) of hearing, and hearing through the word of God.” Also see John 1:1.
[xxiv] Romans 10:9-10 and I John 5:13 “Because if you confess (the) Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart (one) believes unto righteousness, and with (the) mouth confesses unto salvation.” “I wrote these things to you, the ones believing in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have everlasting life….”
[xxv] Ephesians 1:13-14 “…in whom (Christ) also you, hearing the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is an earnest of our inheritance, to (the) redemption of the purchased possession, to (the) praise of His glory.” Also see 2 Corinthians 1:22.
[xxvi] Hebrews 4:2b “…but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not combine it with faith.” Also see Ephesians 2:8 that declares faith is a gift from God.
[xxvii] Hebrews 4:12 “For the Word of God (is) living, and powerfully working, and sharper than every two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing between both the soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
[xxviii] Romans 1:16a “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ … .”
[xxix] Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of God dwell in you richly as you teach and encourage each other with all wisdom … with gratitude in your hearts to the Lord.”
[xxx] 1 Corinthians 2:10 “But God revealed (them) to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”
[xxxi] John 17:17 “Sanctify them in Your truth; Your Word is truth.”
[xxxii] Ephesians 1:13 “… in whom also you, hearing the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in Him also believing you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise … .”
[xxxiii] John 10:16 “And I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must also lead those, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.”
[xxxiv] Psalm 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my God.”
[xxxv] 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All scripture (is) inspired by God and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.”
[xxxvi] John 16:12-13 “I have yet many things to tell you, but you are not able to bear now. But when that One comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will announce the coming things to you.”
[xxxvii] Luke 24:31-32 “And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him. And He became invisible to them. And they said to one another ‘Was not our heart burning in us as He spoke to us in the roadway, and as He opened up to us the Scriptures?’”
[xxxviii]. Colossians 2:6-7 “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having been rooted and built up in Him, confirmed in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”
****Note: The word saint refers to anyone reborn of God and who is, thereby, called out and set apart in Christ. As this passage implies, the term does not necessarily mean a saint is a person behaving perfectly – as many Catholics and Protestants would have you believe. Although a saint may sin, he is no longer a sinner by nature because that sin nature (old man) has been circumcised away by faith in Jesus’ finished work on the cross. He is not “a sinner saved by grace” who had to sin because of his very nature in Adam. Rather, a saint is saved by grace and who no longer has to sin (see Romans 5:9 and 1 John 2:1) precisely because he is now a new creation in Christ. To say otherwise is denying the purpose and the power of the cross “… which was to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26b). Similarly, being reckoned/made righteous by God does not guarantee always behaving righteously. Abraham was a prime example. See also Psalm 106:16 which calls Aaron a saint in KJV and Romans 1:7, Ephesians,1:18 and 4:12, Colossians 1:2 and Philemon 5.
[xxxix] Ephesians 2:5-6 “…even we being dead in sin, (He) made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are being saved – and raised (us) up together and seated (us) together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus….”
[xl] Ephesians 1:17-20 “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in (the) knowledge of Him, the eyes of your mind having been enlightened for you to know what is the hope of His calling, and what (are) the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us, the ones believing according to the working of His mighty strength which He worked in Christ (in) raising Him from the dead; and He seated (Him) at the right of Him in the heavenlies….” Also see Ephesians 2:19, John 1:16 and Philippians 3:20.
[xli] 2 Corinthians 5:16 “So as we now know no one according to flesh, but even if we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we no longer know (Him so).”
*****Note: The term flesh here refers to the physical body. See Footnote # 134 for more explanation. Ultimately, there are only two kinds of human beings in God’s eyes: 1) those still “in Adam” (not born again) and 2) those “in Christ,” (the second Adam ) who are born again by water and the Spirit, as Jesus clearly describes to Nicodemus in John 3:3-8.
[xlii] Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways….”Also see Psalm 139:17
[xliii] Matthew 26:39 and James 1:22 “‘Not my will but yours be done.’” “But become doers of (the) Word (of Christ), and not hearers, only, deceiving yourselves.” Also see Hebrews 3:13 and Luke 11:28.
[xliv] James 1:25 “But the (one) looking into the perfect law of freedom, and continually (in it), this one not having become a forgetful hearer, but a doer of (the) word, this one will be blessed in his doing.”
[xlv] 2 Corinthians 4:16 “Therefore, we do not faint, but if indeed our outer man is being decayed, yet the inward (man) is being renewed day by day.”
******Note: See Chapter 3 “Notes” under footnote #117 for a clarification of terms for outer/outward man and inner/inward man.
[xlvi] Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind in order (for you) to prove what (is) the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.”
[xlvii] Ephesians 5:26 “… that He might sanctify it (the church), having cleansed (it) by the washing of the water with (the) Word….”
[xlviii] Colossians 3:16 “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and exhorting yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
[xlix] Colossians 2:6-7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having been rooted and built up in Him, confirmed in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” “In everything give thanks for this (is the) will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
[l] Hebrews 12:24 “ …to Jesus, the Mediator of a New Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
[li] 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 “For the weapons of our warfare (are) not fleshly, but powerful to God in order to pull down strongholds, pulling down imaginations and every high thing lifting up (itself) against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ …. ”
[lii] Philippians 4:8 “For the rest, brothers, whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, (of) good report; if any virtue and if (of) any praise, think on these things.”
[liii] Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind in order to prove (for myself) what (is) the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.” Also see John 8:29.
[liv] Philippians 2:13 “…for it is God who is working in you both to will and to work for the sake of (His) good pleasure”
[lv] Matthew 22:37 “And Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love (the) Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”
[lvi] Hebrews 4:2b “…but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not combine it with faith.” Also see Ephesians 2:8 that declares faith is a gift from God.
[lvii] 1 Timothy 6:12 “Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and confessed the good confession before many witnesses.”
[lviii] Mark 13:31 “‘The heavens and the earth will pass away, but My Words will in no way pass away.’”
[lix] Hebrews 10:23 and Colossians 1:23 “Let us hold fast to the confession of the hope without yielding for he who has promised is faithful.” “… if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and settled and not being moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard proclaimed in all the creation under the heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” Also see Hebrews 3:6.
[lx] Romans 16:25-27 “Now to Him (who is) able to establish you according to my gospel, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of (the) mystery having been kept un, but now made plain, and by prophetic Scriptures, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known for obedience of faith to all the nations: to (the) only wise God through Jesus Christ, to whom (be) the glory forever. Amen”
Coming Next Week: CHAPTER THREE: Celebrating God’s Rejection and Elimination of My Former Self in the First Adam
life, that is, Jesus himself.