One of the most familiar passages of Scripture is John 3:16. It seems like everybody knows that verse from a young age, yet I believe it has really been misunderstood and misapplied. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Traditionally, this scripture has been used to teach that Jesus came and died for our sins so that we wouldn’t perish. As true as this is, this verse is saying that the real purpose of Jesus coming to this earth and dying for us was so that we could have everlasting life. It just so happened that our sins were a barrier that stood between us and this everlasting life.

It is true that Jesus did die for our sins, and it is true that if we believe on Jesus, we will not perish, but there is much more to the Gospel than that. The real message of the Gospel is that God wants to give you everlasting life. Now let me explain that.

The night before His crucifixion, Jesus was praying, and He said, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ” (John 17:3)

This says that everlasting life is knowing the Father, the only true God, and knowing Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. That’s what everlasting life is. Many people think that everlasting life is living forever. Well, every person lives forever. It’s a misconception to think that when a person dies they cease to exist. The spirit and the soul go back to God. The body decays in the grave. The truth is, every person who has ever lived on the face of the earth will continue to live in spirit form. So, to say that eternal life is living forever is not the whole truth—everybody lives forever. This verse makes it very clear that eternal life with God is not automatically given to everyone.

Some people would say, “Eternal life is living forever in heaven versus living forever in hell.” But eternal life is just what Jesus said in John 17:3—to know God and Jesus Christ. It’s more than an intellectual knowledge. This word “know” is used throughout Scripture to describe the most intimate, personal relationship that you can have.

The real purpose of salvation is not living forever in heaven, as great as that will be. The real purpose of salvation is to have intimacy—a personal relationship with the Lord God. There are multitudes of people who have cried out to God for the forgiveness of their sins but have never had intimacy with God as a goal.

By not explaining the real purpose of salvation, we are doing a disservice to the Gospel. When we present salvation as something that deals with just spiritual things that will only benefit us in the future, in eternity, we are not helping people. There are some people who are living in such a literal hell right now on earth. Many are depressed, living in poverty, dealing with strife, rejection, hurt, and failed marriages. People are just trying to survive day to day. They are just trying to keep their heads above water. By making salvation something that deals only with the future, many people put off that decision because they are too busy just trying to survive today.

The truth is that Jesus not only came to affect our eternal destinies so that we can live forever in heaven in blessing instead of the punishment and curse of hell, but Jesus also came to deliver us from this present evil world (Gal. 1:4). Jesus came to give you intimacy and a personal relationship with God the Father today.

Jesus came to bring you back into close, personal relationship with Him. Jesus loves you. Jesus wants to know you personally. Jesus wants to give you a quality of life that is greater than anything you could obtain through any other source.

Jesus put it this way in John 10:10: “The thief [speaking of Satan] cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (brackets mine). God wants to give you eternal life. God wants to give you abundant life, and I believe that you need that today—that you want that. Christ died not only to forgive your sins, but to bring you close to him. If you don’t know the Lord, you need to know Him for that purpose. If you’ve already been born again, you need to go beyond just getting your sins forgiven and enter into everlasting life with the Father.

FACTS ABOUT ETERNAL LIFE:
A. The purpose of the Gospel is eternal life (John 3:16).
B. Eternal life is knowing God (John 17:3).
C. Knowing God is an intimate relationship (1 Cor. 6:16-17).
D. Eternal life is available now (1 John 5:12).
E. God wants a personal relationship with you (Rev. 3:20).

Jesus many times used parables, stories which illustrated spiritual truths. Luke 18:9-14 begins, “And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.” Jesus was targeting a certain audience: those who trusted that they were righteous and automatically despised and looked down on everyone else. He told this parable to these people who trusted in the things they did. We would call them self-righteous, which is what Jesus was speaking about when He said they looked down on everyone else saying, “I am better than you!”

In verse 10, Jesus says, “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.” We would say in modern language that they went to the church to pray, and one was a Pharisee. A Pharisee was a very religious person. The word actually means “separated one,” someone who was so religious that in a sense they would say, “Don’t defile me! Don’t get too close to me. I’m not like other men! I am better than everyone else!” The other man Jesus mentioned was a publican. Publicans were tax collectors and were known to be very evil, sinful people who cheated and defrauded. They collected taxes by any means they could, stuck a lot of the money in their pockets, and gave some of it to the Roman government, so they were not looked upon favorably by their peers.

The story continues in verse 11, “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not like other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.” I want you to notice that. Who was he praying to? He was actually praying to himself even though he was saying “God” and using the right words. God was not acknowledging his prayer, and we’ll see later why that was so. Notice that he prayed, “God, I thank You I am not like other men.” This Pharisee, this religious man, said, “I am not like other men. I am not sinful. I am not an extortioner, not unjust, not an adulterer, and I am not like this publican right here who came to pray.” You see, he despised and looked down on others because he thought he was better than them.

In verse 12, the Pharisee said, “I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” He was saying, “Notice what I do?” Do you know what it means to fast? It actually means to go without food. He also gave money to the church. He was one of those people who say, “Don’t bother me! I live a good life! I give to charity! I give money down at the church!”

Then we come to the tax collector in verse 13: “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” Notice his body language: “standing afar off.” He didn’t even go all the way into the church. He was so ashamed of his life and the things that he had done that he stood afar off and wouldn’t even look up, wouldn’t lift his eyes to heaven, but smote his breast. When the Bible talks of smiting the breasts in the Old Testament, many times they also tore their garments, which was a way of saying, “I am sorry, God, for what I have done!” It was a sign of repentance, a contrite heart, and a broken spirit, which God would not despise. This tax collector, sinful man that he was, cried out to God and prayed, “God be merciful to me, I am a sinner!”

Verse 14 says, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” The publican went home justified, declared righteous before God, in right standing with God, forgiven by God. Why was he forgiven? Why did he go to his home in right standing before God and not the religious Pharisee? It was because the Pharisee exalted himself, saying “I am better than other people! I am not sinful! I am not like other men,” while the tax collector knew he had no standing before God, nothing he could offer Him. He was a sinful person. The Bible says Jesus didn’t come to save righteous people but sinners, and we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. This tax collector humbled himself and found forgiveness and pardon.

We’re talking about salvation by grace. Grace is a wonderful word, and I am going to give you an accepted definition of what it means, but grace means much more. In the Greek language in which the New Testament was written, grace is the word charis. An accepted definition of grace is this: the free, unmerited favor of God toward people who don’t deserve it. This tax collector didn’t deserve anything from God, but he found God’s favor because he humbled himself. There is another word in the Greek, charisma, which is charis with the suffix -ma on the end. It means a specific manifestation or form of God’s grace, and this tax collector found justification, right standing, before God as a gift.

Romans 5:17 says, “They which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” God offers you and me right standing before Him as a gift and, according to our passage, the tax collector found that gift of justification, that gift of righteousness that only comes through Jesus Christ. The Bible says in John 1:17, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” This grace is only offered to one kind of person—those who humble themselves and know they have no standing before God, who cry for God’s mercy. These people will find God’s mercy and pardon.

Today we are going to look at the subject of righteousness by grace. Romans 3:21-23 says, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference [distinction]: For all have sinned, and come [fall] short of the glory of God."

Notice that this scripture says, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.” I once asked a man, “What do you think you have to do in order to go to heaven?” He responded that he should keep the Ten Commandments, be faithful to his wife, live a moral life, plus a number of other things. I said, “Do you know what you have to do in order to go to heaven, to be in God’s presence or in His kingdom? You would have to have a righteousness that equals God’s righteousness.” He said, “I beg your pardon? There is no one who can have a righteousness that equals God’s. Only one man had such righteousness, and that was Jesus Christ!” I said, “You have the point! That is exactly right! None of us in our own selves have ever kept the Law or commandments perfectly, outwardly or inwardly, but we need a righteousness that equals God’s in order to be acceptable before Him.”

That is exactly what is said in verses 21-22, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested…even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” The kind of righteousness that God offers you and me is a righteousness that is “through faith in Jesus Christ,” and it’s unto all and upon all who believe. There are two kinds of righteousness—the righteousness of man and the righteousness of God. The righteousness of man is a person’s very best behavior and the good works they do, but that can’t make you acceptable before God. You need a righteousness that equals God’s, and He is offering it to you—the righteousness of God that is without the law.

In the Greek, there is no definite article, which means that this text is really saying God is offering His own righteousness without Law. A righteousness that is according to Law is a righteousness of doing, earning, and achieving in order to be accepted before God. All the world religions today think you have to do, earn, and achieve in order for God to accept you. The word “Gospel” means “good news,” and the good news of the Gospel is that God is offering His very own righteousness and acceptance to all who will believe in what Jesus Christ provided—His death on the cross for our sins, imputing to us the righteousness that equals the Law. This is the righteousness of God that is apart from the Law, without us doing, earning, and achieving; and it comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

Notice in verse 22 that it is the righteousness of God that is through faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all. Why is God offering His righteousness to everyone? “For there is no difference [no distinction]: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (brackets mine). You have sinned, I have sinned, and we all come short of God’s standard or perfection. Because of our sin, the greatest thing we need is acceptance, right relationship, and right standing with God…and God has offered this not through the works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God doesn’t come by your working, your trying, your earning, or your attempts to achieve; it comes through faith, dependence, and reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

How was Abraham (the Jewish forefather) saved? The Bible says he believed God— believed the promise God gave him—and then righteousness was imputed to his account. The fact that Abraham was declared righteous before God through his faith was not just for him alone. We read in Romans 3:21-22 that a man is declared righteous through his faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says that because of the payment Christ made on the cross when He shed His blood for our sin, righteousness (right standing) will be imputed to any person’s account who simply believes upon Christ.

Romans 5:17 says, “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more that which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (emphasis mine). God is offering you a gift of righteousness, a gift of right standing before Him. A gift does cost something but not to the person who receives it. If you gave me a gift and asked me to pay for it, it wouldn’t be a gift, but it did cost you something. God made righteousness available to you and me as a gift, and this gift of righteousness, acquittal, and right standing before God comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

You need to understand the basic nature and character of God in order to have a healthy relationship with Him. Misunderstanding His character and nature is one of the reasons many people don’t have a positive relationship with Him. This is exactly what happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent. They entered into temptation, ultimately disobeyed God, and plunged the whole human race into sin. Their lack of understanding God’s nature was actually a part of the temptation.

The story in Genesis 3:1-5 is familiar to most people: “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods [God], knowing good and evil” (brackets mine).

There is a subtle statement by Satan here that God is really not a good God… that He was trying to withhold something from Adam and Eve…that He didn’t want them to reach their full potential…that He didn’t want them to be like Himself…and that the reason He made the rule about not eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was to hinder or hurt them. In a sense, Satan came against the very nature and character of God when he maligned Him by saying God did not want the best for them. The same thing is exactly what’s happening to people today. Satan tells them, “If you follow God and don’t experiment with all these things that are contrary to His Word, you’ll never experience true happiness. Life will be boring…dead.” The sad fact is that people experience after the fact that the drugs, alcohol, sex, rebellion, indulgence of self, success in jobs, and all the other things they tried didn’t satisfy them. By the time they realize it, they’ve already destroyed their lives, their families, and their health.

The truth is that God is a good God, and His will for us is only good. But Satan uses the same temptations on us today that came against Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, basically implying that God is not a good God. Those who have only a little understanding of the Bible could get that impression because there are instances in the Word where He treated people in harsh, cruel ways. In Numbers 15:32-36, a man picked up sticks on the Sabbath Day and was stoned to death for failing to observe the Sabbath. That sounds harsh, but there was a purpose behind such punishments, though it’s not obvious to most people in a casual reading of Scripture. Careful study reveals that Old Testament Law was given to make the sin that we’ve committed become exceedingly sinful, as Paul says in Romans 7:13. The purpose was that people didn’t realize how deadly their transgressions were and that they were an offense against God. They made the mistake of comparing among themselves and measuring their actions by what other people were doing.

If someone committed a sin and wasn’t struck dead, they thought sin must not be so bad, and they lowered their standards. They had lost the true perspective on what right and wrong was. God had to bring mankind back to a plumb line, a proper standard of what right living was, so they would reject the devil and his temptations and recognize what the end result of wrong choices would be. Then when He did that, He had to enforce the Law He gave.

God did not give the Old Testament commandments for the purpose of saying, “Until you do all these things, I can’t accept you or love you.” That is not His nature or character. Rather, He gave them to make our sense of right and wrong more acute and to bring us back to the fact that we need a Savior. The problem has been that people thought God was demanding perfection before He could love them, which led to the attitude many have that His love for them is directly proportional to their performance. They feel that until they try to do everything exactly right, they will not be accepted by God, and that is not the message of the Bible.

God’s heart is to reconcile mankind to Himself not to judge them…not to impute their sins…not to hold their sins against them. That’s the heart of God for people in the Bible and also His heart for you today. You need to understand His real heart, that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). He seeks to take away your sins and anything that would separate you from Him. He’s already done it through Jesus, and He’s offering you relationship today, not based on your performance but on your faith and acceptance of Jesus bearing your sins. You can have relationship with God today regardless of the failures in your life. All He asks is that you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some people have a misunderstanding of what repentance is. Repentance is not perfection but a change in direction. We’re going to talk about the parable of the prodigal son, or the lost son. Jesus is telling a story that perfectly illustrates what it means for an individual to repent. In Luke 15:11-12 Jesus said, “And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

The younger son wanted his inheritance before his father died, which is quite unusual, but his father granted the request and gave his sons their inheritance. Verse 13 says, “And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.” The younger son took all of his wealth, his part of the inheritance, went into a distant country, and wasted it in riotous living. One translation says, “partying and spending the money on prostitutes.”

Verses 14-15 read, “And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land [The land became destitute and people were starving]; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine” (brackets mine). He got a job working for a man in that country and was sent to feed the pigs. Verse 16 says, “And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks of that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.” He was so hungry, at the point of starvation, and he said “Just give me the pig’s food—anything,” but no one gave him anything. He had squandered all of his inheritance. Verse 17 continues, “And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” One translation says, “when he came to his senses.” In other words, his father’s servants had more than enough food, and he was dying from hunger.

He made a decision—he repented. Repentance is a change of mind, a change of heart that causes a person to turn around and move in a new direction. In verses 18-19, he said, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.” “Just make me a slave, father. I’ve sinned against you, squandered your living, and sinned against God. Just make me a slave.” Then he rose and went to his father. Repentance is more than just a change of attitude, a change of mind, and a change of heart; it leads a person to act on what they believe, to turn around (or return) and go in a new direction. We’ve all turned away from God, our Father, and from heaven, our home. The Bible says in Isaiah 53:6 that “all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way,” but God in His mercy took our sins and laid them on Jesus.

The story continues in verses 20-24. “And he arose, and came to his father.” One night I was telling this story to a man who had never heard it before, and he just knew that when the son returned, his father would say, “Son, look what you’ve done. You’ve wasted all my wealth, all I accumulated in my life. Be one of my slaves.” Most earthly fathers would probably be very angry and have an attitude like that, but notice the attitude of this father: “But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion [love came out of his heart for his son], and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry” (brackets mine). They began to have a party.

I once told this to a man who said, “I see what Jesus is saying. If I’ll just turn to the heavenly Father for mercy and say ‘Father, I’ve sinned against you, and I’m not worthy to be your son,’ He’ll accept me.” Our heavenly Father will have compassion, and He won’t make you a slave. He’ll restore you to full sonship with Him. God is waiting. Have you turned away? Why don’t you turn to God, your Father, and to heaven, your home, today?

To have a positive relationship with the Lord, we must know His nature and His real character. Is He angry because of our sin, or is He a merciful God who wants to give us His life and blessing, independent of our performance? The Scriptures actually give us two different views of God, not that He has ever changed or done anything differently. There was a period of time that in the terminology used in the Bible, God “held men’s sins against them."

This can be compared to raising children. When they’re very young, it isn’t possible to reason with them, to tell them why they should act properly or why they shouldn’t be selfish and take toys away from their brothers or sisters. They have to be told the rules and, if they break them, be disciplined. The rules have to be enforced even though they don’t know about God and the devil, or that they’re giving place to the devil when they are selfish. They may not understand the concepts, but they can understand that if they repeat the action, they will be punished.

In a sense, that’s what the Lord did in the Old Testament. Before people were born again, they didn’t have the spiritual perception we have under the New Covenant, so He had to give laws and enforce them with punishment, sometimes even death, to deter them from sin. Because Satan was destroying people through sin, there had to be restraints placed on sin, and they had to be enforced. Although this left the false impression that God didn’t really love us because of our sin, that is not what the Word of God teaches. Romans 5:13 says, “Until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed where there is no law.” “Until the law” means until the days of Moses when God gave the Ten Commandments and other ceremonial laws that applied to the Jewish nation. Up until that time, sin was in the world but wasn’t imputed. The word “impute” is a bookkeeping term; e.g., you go to the store to buy something and say, “Put it on my tab.” When it is put on your tab, it is recorded and charged against your account, and the purchase is imputed to you. If they failed to impute it, that means it wasn’t recorded and held against you.

This verse is saying that until the time the Ten Commandments came, sin was not being held against people. That’s an amazing statement. Look at Genesis 3 and 4. Most people have the concept that when Adam and Eve sinned against God, because He was holy and man was now sinful, He could have nothing to do with sinful mankind. They think God drove man out of the Garden to remove him from His presence because a Holy God couldn’t have anything to do with unholy man. They further think that until you clean up your act through right actions, God once again cannot have any relationship with you. That is contrary to the message Jesus brought. Romans 5:8 says God commended His love toward you, and while you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you; so the New Testament teaches that God extended His love to you while you were living in sin, not after you have cleaned up your act. One of the great truths of the Gospel that will change your life is to understand that God loves you just like you are. He loves you so much that if you receive His love, you won’t want to stay as you are. You will change, but you’ll change as a byproduct of God’s love not in order to get His love.

In Genesis 4 you can see that God was still fellowshipping with man, still talking with Adam and Eve even after they sinned. He talked with Cain and Abel, and when they came to offer sacrifices to Him, He spoke to them in an audible voice. By their reaction, we can see that they were accustomed to hearing His voice, and it didn’t scare them. When Cain killed his brother Abel and became the first murderer on the earth, God’s audible voice came from heaven: “Where is your brother Abel?” Cain lied to God, seemingly without compunction. That can happen only if a person is so used to hearing the voice of God that they take it for granted and have no fear of it. All this says is that God was still fellowshipping with mankind and had not broken fellowship, as is commonly believed. He was not imputing man’s sins to him. Does that mean that He condoned their sins or that they were not wrong? No, that’s the reason He eventually gave the Law. God had to give the Law to bring man back to a proper standard. God had to show man that he needs a Savior and that he has to humble himself and receive forgiveness as a gift. Sadly, religion has manipulated and controlled these things to teach that the Law was given so you can keep it and thereby earn God’s forgiveness and acceptance. No! The purpose of Old Testament Law was to magnify your sin to such a degree that you would despair of ever saving yourself and say, “God, if this is your standard of holiness, I can’t do it. Forgive me, have mercy on me.” The overall nature of God has always been love.

Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” The phrase “in Christ” is a terminology that is used over 300 times in the New Testament, always referring to a vital, union relationship with God. Once that takes place, you become a new creature. Some translations actually say “a new creation.”

This leads to a critical issue that I believe is imperative to understanding your new identity in Christ: It did not take place in the physical realm. It isn’t talking about your physical body, saying that it completely changes, that your looks change. If a person was fat before they were saved, they’ll still be fat afterward, unless they go on a diet. It also isn’t talking about your mental or emotional part—what most people consider to be the real “them.” If you weren’t too smart before you were saved, you won’t be too smart after you’re saved, but you will still have a lot of the same memories and thoughts.

There is a third part, and according to this scripture, by process of elimination, it has to be the part of us that is changed—our spirit man. A scripture that verifies this is 1 Thessalonians 5:23 where Paul is praying for the Thessalonians, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That passage shows that we have a spirit, soul, and body. The body part is very obvious. It’s the part of us that is seen, our outward persons. We all recognize that there is another part beyond that—our emotional, mental part—which Scripture calls the soul. We know that even though a person may not physically touch you, they can touch you by their words, either in a positive or negative way. Most people are in tune with the physical and soulish parts, but according to Scripture, there is another part, which is the spirit.

The spirit is the part of us that is changed and is new after salvation. It is actually the lifegiving part. James 2:26 says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” That shows that it is the spirit that actually breathes life into our physical bodies. It is where our life comes from. In Genesis 2 when God created Adam and Eve, Adam’s body was complete, but then God breathed into him the breath of life. This word “breathe” in Old Testament Hebrew was the exact same word that we use for breath, and it is translated “spirit” in other places. God created the physical body and the soulish person of Adam, but then He breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. The spirit is the part of us that gives life.

Prior to salvation, before a person made a total commitment of their life so that the Lord came into them, the spirit within them was dead. Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you hath he quickened [made alive], who were dead in trespasses and sins” (brackets mine). We know we were alive before we were born again, but the word “dead” is speaking of spiritually. Death in the Bible doesn’t mean ceasing to exist, as some people today think of it. It literally means “separation.” When a person physically dies, they don’t cease to exist. The Bible teaches that they go immediately into the presence of God or into the presence of hell. The soul and spirit continue to live, but there is a separation from the physical body, which dies and decays.

When Genesis 2:17 says “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” it didn’t mean they would die physically but spiritually, that they would become separated from God. The spirit, the part that God breathes into us, which actually gives life and motivation, became separated from God’s supernatural life…His holy and complete life…what the Bible calls zoe life or “life in an absolute or abundant sense.” Man then began to degenerate. He still functioned, but he was functioning independently, separately from God. That’s really what causes all the problems in our lives…all of our emotional stress.

When a person comes to the Lord, they receive a new spirit and are born again, which is the terminology Jesus used in John 3:5. In the same way man is born physically with a spirit, soul, and body, when he is born again, he receives the Spirit of Christ. Galatians 4:6 says, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” God literally places His Spirit inside of us, and we now have a new quality of life, a new identity, and are a totally new person in our spirits.

The rest of the Christian life is learning in your soulish, mental realm what has taken place in your spirit. The truth is, one-third of your salvation is over when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord. Your spirit becomes completely changed. It is the exact same spirit you will have throughout eternity. It already has love, joy, peace, and is full of the presence of God. There is no lack or inadequacy in your spirit, but you have to perceive that, which is the reason studying the Word of God is so vital to the Christian life. You are a totally brand-new person, but until you get knowledge, you won’t change. Victory in the Christian life comes when you are able to look into the Word, which is Spirit and life, see who you are, see what God has done, and begin to believe it.

We can’t perceive it through external things, and we can’t perceive it through our emotions, because that is in the soulish realm. But in the spirit part of us, there is a total transformation.

Let me use a few scriptures which show the things that took place when a person received Jesus into their life. Ephesians 4:24 says, “Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” When a person is born again, their spirit becomes righteous and truly holy. The Bible actually speaks of two types of righteousness.

There is a righteousness you produce through your own actions, and you must maintain that type of righteousness in relationships with other people. If you don’t live right and do right, your boss may fire you or your spouse may divorce you; so you need to have your own righteousness. God, however, doesn’t accept you based on your external righteousness. God literally gave you His righteousness.

In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it says that God the Father made the Son to become sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So there is a righteousness which goes far beyond our external righteousness and is based on what God did for us. We literally received the righteousness of God by faith in Christ. We were created in righteousness and true holiness. We aren’t growing into that righteousness; we are already righteous. A simple definition is that we are already in right standing with God.

God is pleased with us based on Christ, not on anything else. Our spirits are where the change took place. We’re already created in righteousness and true holiness and are brand-new creatures. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” In our spirits, we are perfect and complete. There is no sin or inadequacy. Ephesians 1:13 says, “After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise."

Some of you may think, Well, when I first believed on the Lord, I did believe I was totally forgiven and cleansed, and everything was fine. But since that time, I have sinned, I have failed God again. If you did, you failed in your actions and your mental and emotional part, but your spirit did not sin. It was sealed just as a woman puts fruit into a jar and then puts paraffin over it to make it airtight and to keep all impurities out. God sealed you, so when you were born again, you received a new spirit, and sin does not penetrate your spirit. You have a new identity. For you to have relationship with God, you have to fellowship with and worship Him based on who you are in your spirit not in your flesh.

This is really the great transformation in the Christian life, that a person has to change their identity. You have to relate to God based not on what you do in the physical realm, not what you think in your mind, but by who you are in the spirit based on what He has done for you. That’s a completed work, something that does not fluctuate (change back and forth). You were created in righteousness and true holiness. That is the spirit part of you, and to fellowship with God, you have to worship Him in spirit and in truth. You have to stand in this identity of who you are in Christ.

The Bible tells us in 1 John 1:8-9, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” As Christians, we will eventually stumble and we will eventually sin. What makes us different from what we were before conversion is that now we have a new nature. It grieves us to sin. We don’t want to sin; we want to live a righteous life. But what happens when we do sin? Do we need to get saved again? Is that what the Bible is teaching? In that case, we have no security, and in some sense, we’re worse off than the world. At least the world is not tormented by a sin conscience. As believers, sin is not to be our focus of attention. Hebrews 10:2 states that through the sacrifice of Jesus, the believer should have no more conscience of sins. In other words, sin should not be the focus of our lives. God should be our focus.

Romans 4:2 says, “For if Abraham were justified [declared righteous] by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God” (brackets mine). If salvation was based on our merit, the things we do, then we could brag. We could say, “Hey, Lord, I really appreciate what you did on the cross, but remember the things I’ve done!” So throughout eternity, we’re going to pat Jesus on the back and pat ourselves on the back for the things that we’ve done. No! God has designed salvation in such a way that there will be no boasting or glory on man’s part. The only glory and boasting will be in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:27). The gift of eternal life is indeed a gift, and it cannot be earned (Rom. 6:23).

Romans 4:2 says that if Abraham were justified by his own actions, he would have some reason to boast, but that’s not what happened. How does the Scripture say a man is saved? By his own performance? By his own works? By the things he does? How was Abraham counted righteous, or declared righteous? Was it through the things he did or didn’t do, or was it that he simply believed, trusted, and relied on God through faith? The Bible says in Romans 4:3, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness."

What holds me in position and keeps me from perishing, even though there are times when I fail and sin? It is that Jesus bore all of my sin on the cross, and through faith in Him (not by my own works), I am justified (made righteous before God).

Romans 4:6 says, “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.” David of the Old Testament is saying there will be a day through a new covenant when God will impute righteousness, right standing, without man working for it. Then he said in verse 7, “Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” This is the clincher: “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:8). It doesn’t say He might not, sometimes He will and sometimes He won’t. It says, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” In the Greek that’s what is called an emphatic negative. It means He’ll never, not ever put sin to our account. This is the good news of the New Covenant. Hebrews 10:16 says, “I will put my laws into their hearts [on their heart] and in their minds [upon their mind also] will I write them” (brackets mine), and part of that agreement is that God says this in verse 17: “And your sins and iniquities I will remember no more."

What holds you in position, in righteousness and right standing, even when you sin and don’t have time to confess it? It’s your faith in Jesus Christ. His name is Jesus, and He saves people from their sins (Matt. 1:21).

Mark 4 is a tremendous chapter about the integrity of God’s Word—the power, the character, and the faith in it. There were at least ten parables taught during this one day. You have to compare Mark 4 with Matthew 13 and Luke 8 to come up with that. There were a number of parables, one of which was about the sower sowing seed. In Mark 4:26, it says, “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground.” Remember that in verse 14 it says this seed is the Word of God. God isn’t really teaching you how to be a farmer, but is using a natural thing to illustrate spiritual truth. Verse 27 says, “And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.” Now, I believe that’s important. It says the man doesn’t really understand. He doesn’t know how this is happening.

Some people say, “I just don’t understand what you’re talking about. How can reading the Word of God really change me and cause God’s life to come alive inside me?” I don’t totally understand it, but I know it works. I don’t understand how you can put a tiny seed in the ground and have an entire stalk of corn come up with ears of corn on it and reproduce a hundredfold. Nobody fully understands it, but it works, and I tell you that this works. Reading God’s Word and letting it begin to saturate you changes your attitude, your experience, and your perceptions.

Verse 28 says, “For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself.” The earth was made to incubate seed, and to germinate and release that life. Your heart was made for the Word of God—it really was. God’s Word was created to be placed in your heart. Just taking a Bible and holding it close, putting it on your coffee table, or carrying it with you doesn’t have any virtue. It doesn’t release power in your life. You have to take the Word, make it a seed, and plant it in your heart. When you do that, your heart is designed to bring forth fruit of itself. It will automatically change the way things work in your life. The verse continues, “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” This implies that there are stages or steps to growth and maturity. People come to me all the time expressing that they’re believing God for something really good, a godly thing I can agree with. But if they have never done anything, if they have never led a person to the Lord, I can guarantee they aren’t going to have a television or radio ministry within the next few weeks.

You have to do things in steps. There are stages to receiving from God, and that’s what this parable is illustrating. First of all, you have to start, and then comes the hope, and then the faith, and then it produces results. There are always steps to victory. No one is going to go from zero to a thousand miles per hour all at once. Though it may be a godly desire, it isn’t going to work that way. This Scripture is showing that the kingdom of God is like a seed. The Word has to be planted in your heart, and growth comes in stages: first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. The next verse says, “But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.” There are stages, but eventually there will come a time of fruitfulness and maturity.

The point is made in verse 35, “And the same day when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.” Jesus had been teaching them all day about the power of the Word, how the Word is like a seed, and how it will release God’s life into your life. He’d been teaching them this in at least ten parables, so here He gives them a test. He tells them, “All right, here’s the word from the Lord—let’s go to the other side of the lake.” He didn’t say “Let’s get into the boat, go halfway across the lake, and drown,” but “Let’s go to the other side.” Then He got into the boat and went to sleep. The story goes that a great storm came and water filled the boat. You have to remember that this wasn’t a cabin cruiser with berths below deck where Jesus was dry and didn’t know what was going on. It was an open boat and Jesus was asleep, sloshing around in the water. The reason this was significant is because He knew what was going on, but He was still trying to sleep. The disciples got upset, came to Him, and said, “Master, don’t you care that we perish?” In other words, they were saying, “Do something! Get a pail and bail water! Row, do something! You’re not pulling your weight!”

Many times people do the same thing with God today and say, “God, why haven’t you done something?” God has done something. He’s provided everything we need through the atonement of the Lord Jesus. He has produced His Word and given us all these seeds. It’s our job to sow them into our hearts. He’s given us the Scripture, and it’s our job to take the seed, put it in our hearts, and meditate on it until it releases life. But the disciples wanted to wake Jesus up and say, “Why don’t you do something?” He got up, rebuked the wind and the waves, there was a calm. Then He turned around and said to His disciples, “Why are you so fearful? How is it you have no faith?” He didn’t say, “Hey, guys, I’m sorry. I should have done something.” No, His part was to teach them the Word and give them promises, and it was their part to take the Word and believe the promises. God has provided everything through Jesus coming to this earth. He gave you everything it takes to succeed in every area of your life in seed form in the Word. All you have to do is take the seeds of the Word of God and plant them in your hearts through reading it, meditating on it, thinking on it, and letting it take root on the inside of you. As you do that, you will be able to stand up and stop the storms in your life.

I believe God’s best was for these disciples to take the teaching Jesus gave them that day and say, “Let’s go over to the other side.” They could have said, “According to everything He taught to us today, this is a promise. This is the Creator of the universe who said let’s go to the other side, not let’s go halfway and drown. They could have taken that word, mixed it with faith, and rebuked the wind and the waves. That’s exactly what Jesus said: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” You know what? We need to believe God’s Word and act upon it.