Two Minutes With The Bible

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The New Creation
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In Romans 5:12 God tells us how we are all related to the first man, Adam:

    “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin… so death passed upon all men…”

This verse clearly indicates that every child born into the world since Adam has partaken of Adam’s sinful nature.

Parents sometimes wonder why their children act as they do. The answer is simple! Every child is related to rebellious Adam by physical birth, and soon rebels like Adam, whose offspring he is.

In Scripture we are told that God “commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8.).

When you are in trouble and someone comes to your aid, are you not automatically drawn to that person? Should we not then be attracted to the One who cared so much for us that He “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:7,8.)?

Through natural birth we partake of the sinful natures of our parents back to Adam, and frequently we even have the same physical features as our parents. How touching, then, to know that the Lord Jesus Christ took on Him “the likeness of men” (apart from sin) and, as the God-man, died for our sins upon the cross, where sinful men (people like us) nailed Him! As we recognize this and place our faith in Him, a spiritual birth takes place and we become the children of God (John 1:12). More than this, we become members of the Body of Christ, God’s new creation, for “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation” (II Cor. 5:17). “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

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What Shall We Do?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


When John the Baptist appeared as Christ’s forerunner, God’s chosen people had lived under the law of Moses for fifteen hundred years but had not kept it. Hence John’s call to repentance and baptism for the remission of sins (Mark 1:4).

John was in earnest, too, for when the thoughtless multitude came to him to be baptized, he sent them back, saying: “Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:7,8.).

Their lives were to be changed and they were to show it.  When the people asked: “What shall we do, then?” he told them to live for others rather than for self (Luke 3:10,11). When the tax collectors asked: “What shall we do?” he demanded that they stop cheating the tax payers and live honestly (Vers. 12,13). When the soldiers asked: “What shall we do?” he told them to forbear violence, false accusation and bribery (Ver. 14).

Clearly, righteousness was demanded under John’s message. His hearers were to repent, be baptized, and bring forth the fruits of true repentance. When our Lord appeared, He proclaimed the same message as John (Matt. 3:1,2; 4:17). A lawyer asked: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” and He replied: “What is written in the law?” When the lawyer recited the basic commands of the Law, our Lord answered: “This do and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:25-28.). God was still demanding righteousness. They were all under the Law (Gal. 4:4,5; Matt. 23:1,2; etc.).

Some suppose this was all changed after Calvary by the so-called “great commission.” This is not so. When, at Pentecost, Peter’s hearers were convicted of their sins and asked “What shall we do?” Peter commanded them to “repent and be baptized… for the remission of sins” just as John had done (Mark 1:4; cf. Acts 2:38.). He did not tell them that Christ had died for their sins.

Paul was the first to say: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested… [We] declare His righteousness for the remission of sins” (Rom. 3:21-26). When the Gentile jailor fell on his knees and asked: “What must I do to be saved?” Paul replied: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30,31). This is God’s message for sinners today, for “we have redemption through [Christ’s] blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7).

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Campaign Excitement
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The Republican and Democratic conventions are past and we are in the midst of the 1964 Presidential Campaign. It is bound to get more exciting as election day approaches. We hope our readers are interested in our government and in what policies it pursues, but there is something even more important than this — important to you and me personally, and for all eternity.

God has put each man on the spot, as it were, by offering justification and eternal life as a free gift, through Christ, who died for our sins. Rom. 6:23 clearly states:

    “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Now the question is: Will you accept this gift, or will you reject it? Perhaps you reply: “I won’t do anything about it; I’ll take my time and think it over.” But you can’t; you can’t just do nothing about a free gift which God offers for your acceptance “now” (II Cor. 6:2). If you do not accept it, you thereby reject it.

God purposely puts us on the spot in this matter, for the consequences are truly great. God’s Word says, in John 3:35,36:

    “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand.

    “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

God does not take it lightly when He offers forgiveness and all the riches of His grace as a gift and this gift is spurned. Unbelievers are not condemned only because they have sinned, but because they have spurned God’s grace and rejected salvation through Christ, who died to save them. Thus it is written in John 3:18:

    “He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Which will you do, accept Christ or reject Him and the gift of salvation He purchased for you with His blood?

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The Faith Of Jesus Christ
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “…the righteousness of God… by [the] faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe” (Rom. 3:22).

Note, the Apostle Paul here does not refer to faith in Christ, but the faith of Christ. Nor does he refer to what Christ believed, but rather to His worthiness to be believed, His fidelity, His trustworthiness.

We must not forget that faith is a reciprocal matter; it is two-sided. One side is objective; it believes in another. The other is subjective; it is a trustworthy character. One refers to what a person does; the other to what he is. If I have faith in you, you should keep faith with me; you should be trustworthy.

Seven times in St. Paul’s epistles he refers to “the faith of Christ” and each time his purpose is to emphasize our Lord’s worthiness of our complete confidence. That he does not refer to our faith in Christ is evident on the surface in each case. In the passage above he declares that the righteousness of God, which is “by the faith of Christ,” is conferred “upon all them that believe” (Here’s your faith in Him).

Similarly, in Gal. 3:22 he states that “the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise, by faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to “them that believe.” Here again, we believe because He is worthy of our confidence.

Again in Phil. 3:9, the Apostle expresses his desire for a righteousness not of his own, “but that which is through the faith of Christ” — and then adds: “the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Here’s man’s faith again! He has faith in Christ because Christ is completely faithful, completely worthy to be believed in. He paid the full penalty for our sins and is now in heaven dispensing the merits of Calvary — riches of grace, mercy and forgiveness.

But remember, “the faith of Christ” always precedes our faith in Christ. What good would it do us to believe in Him for salvation if He were not wholly to be relied upon for this? But He can be trusted “to save… to the uttermost [all] who come unto God by Him” (Heb. 7:25). This is why Paul could say to the terrified jailor at Philippi:

    “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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What Is Grace?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


“The father of lies” always hates the truth, but he does not always oppose it by the same methods. If he fails to succeed as a roaring lion he may appear as an angel of light, suggesting that surely a God of love will not condemn Christ-rejectors forever. Sinners, he will contend, are not responsible for their sins anyway, for does not Eph. 1:11 teach that “[God] worketh all things after the counsel of His own will”? And thus God Himself is supposed to have conceived the idea of sin as “a gracious means to a glorious end,” and to have caused man to fall into sin so that He might finally save him from it!

Why an almighty, all-wise, all-loving God permitted sin to enter the universe must, for the time being, remain an impenetrable mystery to us, but one thing is certain: He is not the author of sin, and never accepts the responsibility for it — except that in grace and love He bore its penalty for man.

God calls sinners “children of disobedience” and “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:2,3), explaining in the clearest language that He hates sin and that His anger is kindled against it (Rom. 1:18; Eph. 5:6; John 3:36). But if God meant man to sin and caused him to sin, how was man disobedient and what cause could God have to be angry? Those who would shift the responsibility for sin from themselves to God should remember that He proclaimed His standards of righteousness in the Law “that every mouth may be stopped and that all the world may be brought in guilty before God” (Rom. 3:19).

The contention that all will finally be saved may at first sound like wonderful grace, but actually there is not one particle of grace in it, for it is based on the theory that since God got us into sin it is only just that He save us from its penalty. But grace is God’s mercy and kindness to the undeserving. In Eph. 2, after calling sinners “children of disobedience” and therefore “children of wrath,” the Apostle Paul goes on to say:

    “BUT GOD, who is RICH IN MERCY, for His GREAT LOVE wherewith he loved us… hath quickened us… raised us up… and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come He might show THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE IN HIS KINDNESS TOWARD US THROUGH CHRIST JESUS” (Eph. 2:4-7).

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The Mystery
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In Eph. 3:1-3 “the dispensation of the grace of God” is specifically called “the mystery” (i.e., secret). It is thus designated for two reasons:

1.  It had been “kept secret since the world began, but now,” through Paul, had been “made manifest” (Rom. 16:25). “In other ages” it was “not made known” (Eph. 3:5). Rather, “from the beginning of the world” it had been “hid in God” (Ver. 9), “hid from ages and from generations, but now… made manifest to His saints” (Col. 1:26).

2.  It was at the same time the explanation, the key, to all God’s good news, including that which had been proclaimed in ages past. It explained how it was that Abel could be declared righteous by bringing an animal sacrifice, “God testifying of his gifts” (Heb. 11:4), how Noah could become “an heir of… righteousness” by building an ark (Heb. 11:7), how anyone could be saved under the dispensation of the Law, and how it is that we can be saved today by grace through faith alone.

Thus we have in Paul’s epistles, not only the gospel [good news] of “the secret” (Eph. 3:1-3), but at the same time, “the secret of the gospel” (Eph. 6:19,20).

This great secret, revealed to and through Paul, has rightly been called the capstone of divine revelation, for it concerns God’s eternal purpose in Christ. Through Paul, the chief of sinners saved by grace, God has now made this glorious secret known to us (Eph. 1:9) that we, in turn, might make it known to others (Eph. 3:9).

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Our Great Commission
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Much is said of the “great commission” which our Lord gave to His apostles just before His ascension. We wonder whether our readers have ever examined the various records of this commission carefully.

This “great commission” does not say one word about “the preaching of the cross” or “the gospel of the grace of God”. The “gospel” which they were sent to preach was very evidently the same “gospel” they had been preaching — the Gospel of the Kingdom — only they could now declare, as Peter did at Pentecost, that the King had risen from the dead and would still some day occupy the throne of David.

The “great commission” demanded faith and baptism for the remission of sins (Mark 16:15,16); it included the power to heal the sick and work miracles (16:17,18.), but it did not include the glad message that “Christ died for our sins” (I Cor. 15:1-3). At Pentecost, when Peter began to carry out this commission, he rather blamed his hearers for the death of Christ and when, convicted of their sins, they asked: “What shall we do?” he did notsay: “Believe on Christ who died for your sins.” He rather commanded them to “repent and be baptized every one…for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38.).

But after Christ and His Kingdom were again rejected, God interrupted the prophetic program and sent Paul forth to proclaim “the preaching of the cross” and “the gospel of the grace of God”. In II Corinthians 5: 14-21 this apostle proclaims “the love of Christ” who “died for all” and instructs us as to our“great commission”:

    “And all things are of [provided by] God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, AND HATH GIVEN TO US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION;

    “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself… AND HATH COMMITTED UNTO US THE WORD OF RECONCILIATION” (II Cor. 5:18,19).

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Conversation Peace
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27).

Interestingly, whenever Paul uses the phrase “stand fast,” it is always to challenge people to stand fast in an area in which they were not standing fast! For instance, he tells the Corinthians to “stand fast in the faith” (I Cor. 16:13), for they had lost their faith in one of the fundamentals of the faith, the resurrection (I Cor. 15:12-50). He told the Galatians to “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (Gal. 5:1) because they were forsaking grace for the law. He told the Thessalonians to “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught” (II Thes. 2:15), especially the “tradition” of working for a living (3:7-12). The Thessalonians had become so excited about the Rapture that many of them quit their jobs in anticipation of the Lord’s coming!

But here in Philippians 1:27, Paul tells the Philippians to “stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” This is because two ladies in the church were quarreling (4:2), and some in the church were siding with Euodias and some with Syntyche. “Striving together” is the Greek word sunathleo. The prefix sun means together with, and athleo is the word from which we get athlete and athletics. Athletes are often teammates who must strive together to achieve a common victory, and this is what Paul was calling on the Philippians to do for the cause of Christ.

Notice Paul isn’t talking about faith in the gospel. The faith of the gospel is our faithfulness or fidelity to maintaining the gospel as God gave it, just as old “high-fi” or “high-fidelity” records claimed to be highly faithful to the sound recorded in the studio. We are to strive together to maintain fidelity to the gospel God gave to Paul.

Finally, Paul does not say we should strive with one another for the faith of the gospel. He rather says we should be striving “together” as those who see the fellowship of the mystery with those who don’t. With all the talk about “peace on earth”, how refreshing it would be if we could enjoy the “conversation peace” Paul longed to see in Philippi! (Psa. 133:1; Eph. 4:3).

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The Dispensation of Grace
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Many people have a mistaken notion that a dispensation is a period of time. This is not so, however, for the word “dispense” means simply “to deal out”. The word “dispensation”, then, means “the act of dispensing or dealing out”, or “that which is dispensed or dealt out”.

There are medical dispensaries, for example, where medicines are dispensed to the poor. Sometimes these dispensations are conducted on a particular day of each week. Such a dispensation of medicine may take a full twelve hours each week, but it does not follow from this that a dispensation is a period of twelve hours! It is rather the act of dispensing or that which is dispensed.

The word “dispensation” is used many times in the Bible, although it is not always translated the same way. In Ephesians 3:2, Paul writes of “the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you-ward”. God had committed to him wonderful message of grace to dispense to others. Thus we read in Acts 20:24 his stirring words, spoken in the face of persecution and death:

    “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, AND THE MINISTRY WHICH I HAVE RECEIVED OF THE LORD JESUS, TO TESTIFY THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD.”

The “gospel” or “good news” of the grace of God: This was the dispensation committed to Paul for us by the risen, ascended Lord. This is always Paul’s message.

    “Where sin abounded GRACE did much more abound…the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His GRACE… justified freely by His GRACE, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…by GRACE are ye saved, through faith” (Rom. 5:20; Eph. 1:7; Rom. 3:24; Eph. 2:8,9).

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Rebellion Against Pauline Authority
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


One of the chief reasons why so many sincere religious people are left in doubt and uncertainty as to salvation is because the organized Church has rebelled against a distinct and important revelation from God to us who live in this present age. This revelation is found in the inspired words of Paul, in Rom. 11:13:

    “For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles. I magnify mine office.”

Many minimize that which the Word of God magnifies here. They insist upon following Peter rather than Paul, failing to see that Peter’s authority concerned the now-rejected kingdom of Christ on earth over Israel and the nations. Our Lord had said to His twelve apostles:

    “Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, YE ALSO SHALL SIT UPON TWELVE THRONES, JUDGING THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL” (Matt. 19:28.).

Surely there are no twelve tribes in the Church today, nor was any provision, specific or implied, made by our Lord for “apostolic succession.” This dogma is built upon the unscriptural assumption that the Church today is the kingdom which Christ established when on earth, and that our ministry today is but a perpetuation of that which the twelve began.

The fact is that the ministry of the twelve was halted by the rejection of the King and His kingdom and that the apostles themselves finally agreed to turn their proposed Gentile ministry over to Paul, that other apostle, to whom had been committed “the gospel of the grace of God” (Read carefully, Gal. 2:2-9 and Acts 20:24).

If only the confused religious masses could see that when Israel joined the Gentiles in rebellion against God, when the world’s sin had risen to its height and all was ready for judgment, God revealed “the exceeding riches of His grace” by saving Saul, the chief of sinners, and sending him forth as both the herald and the living example of His grace! Thus he writes:

    “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound, BUT WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND: “THAT AS SIN HATH REIGNED UNTO DEATH, EVEN SO MIGHT GRACE REIGN, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20,21).

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A Spiritual Workout
by Pastor Kevin Sadler


    “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12,13).

Perhaps you have seen the Christian slogan, “Exercise Daily.  Walk with the Lord!”  Essentially, that is what the Apostle Paul is calling for when he requests for the Philippians to “work out your own salvation.”  When Paul makes this statement, he has already acknowledged that he is writing to “saints” (Phil. 1:1), to believers who were positionally in Christ, set apart from sin and set apart to God.  Paul does not say to “work for your own salvation,” but to work “out” the salvation God had already given them.  Scripture is clear that salvation today is all of grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:8,9).  Salvation must first be worked in before it can be worked out.

The Philippians are instructed here by Paul to “work out,” to put into practice in their daily experience what God had wrought in them by His Spirit.  When we trust the all-sufficient provision made for us by Christ’s death and resurrection, salvation is worked in by the Spirit (Titus 3:5).  And salvation is worked out by the Spirit through our faith and obedience to God’s Word (Rom. 8:11).

Working out your salvation is about living the way you were saved: by grace through faith in Christ (Col. 2:6).  Salvation is found in a Person.  Christ is our salvation.  At the moment of trusting Him alone for our salvation, Christ’s life is in-worked in us.  Paul says in Colossians 1:27 that all who have trusted the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior have “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  After salvation from sin’s penalty, God desires Christ’s life to be outworked practically in our lives, so others see His life in our life.  As we do so through the Spirit’s power, by the Word, in faith, we work out our own salvation and our lives will exhibit Christ-like attributes (cf. Gal. 5:22,23).  To work out our salvation is also to live in victory over sin in our daily lives, experiencing salvation over sin’s power by God’s resurrection power within, living righteously in the life and freedom we have in Christ (Rom. 6:1-13).

Verse 12 shows us there is human responsibility to our Christian lives as we are told to “work.”  Effort must be put into the Christian life, effort to grow, effort to know the Word, effort to pray, effort to serve, and effort to be in fellowship with others.  And Paul says that we are to work out our own salvation “with fear and trembling.”  These terms show us that the outworking of our salvation must be done realizing the seriousness of the Christian life in living before a lost and dying world.  We live “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation [generation]” and God would have us shine brightly and boldly for Him “as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15).  Working out our own salvation with fear and trembling also reminds us of our own weakness and inability to live the Christian life in our own strength.  We should rightly fear and distrust our own ability to meet God’s will and instruction.  We need to humbly trust in Him and not in ourselves to live godly lives.  By His power we work out our own salvation and can show Christ’s life in us.

Paul is talking about the believer’s practical, daily sanctification here and he shows both the believer’s responsibility and God’s role in it.  Verse 12 could not be carried out without the reality of verse 13.  We could never work out our own salvation and grow and mature to be more like Christ without God working in us.  God does not ask of us what we can’t do, and He Himself is our provision.  The Christian life is a process of “ins” and “outs.”  God works in and we work out.  As God works in us and we grow spiritually in Him and His Word and prayer, we then work out His life and light, serving Him and others.

I Thessalonians 2:13 says, “the Word of God…effectually worketh…in you that believe.”  God works in us by His Word, and changes our will and desires as we grow and apply it.  Our minds, attitude, priorities, worldview, and understanding of life are transformed by the Word of God.  Through it we learn to see the world through His eyes and feel with His heart.  As God works in us by the Word, His “will” becomes ours, and we will seek to “do” things of “His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).  And to will and do of God’s good pleasure is about “Look[ing] not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Phil. 2:4).  God’s will and desire is for us to put the needs of others first, in love, like Christ did for us at the Cross (Phil. 2:5-8.).

In Ephesians 3:20, Paul writes, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”  Paul says the unlimited power by which Almighty God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask in prayer is the same power that works in us.  So there is no limit to what God can do in and through you and me.  As God works in us, He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, or could ever conceive, or possibly imagine through you and me!

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What Is Saving Faith?
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


“What saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness” (Rom. 4:3).

The Apostle Paul uses the above quotation from Genesis 15:6 to prove that “to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5).

It is wonderful that God does not require — indeed, does not permit — human works for salvation, but only faith. But the question is: What is faith? What kind of believing saves?

There is no indication in Scripture that “the gospel of the grace of God” or “the preaching of the cross” was proclaimed to Abraham. We must go back to the passage which Paul quotes to see what Abraham believed. Genesis 15:5 says:

    “And [God] took [Abraham] forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell [count] the stars, if thou be able to number [count] them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”

It is this simple, wonderful promise about the multiplication of Abraham’s seed which is followed with the words: “And he believed in the Lord; and He counted [reckoned] it to him for righteousness” (Ver.6). We do not mean to imply that this was the first expression of Abraham’s faith, for in Hebrews 11:8 we read:

    “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”

This took place considerably before the Genesis 15 incident and we are specifically told that through his faith he “obtained a good report” (Heb. 11:2).

From all this it is clear that Abraham believed what God told him and was counted righteous — as we now know, through a redemption still to be wrought by Christ. We, now, must believe what God tells us — and this is nothing less than the account of the all-sufficient finished work of Christ, wrought in our behalf, on Calvary’s cross.

    “[He] was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).

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The Christian's Prospect
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Those of us who trust in Christ for salvation have a glorious prospect. For the present, while waiting to go to be with Him, “we have redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7). In infinite love God has made us to be “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6) and has pronounced us “complete in Him” (Col. 2:10).

Our position is now a blessed and exalted one, for God has made us to “sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6) and has “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3).

But this is only the beginning, for, referring to the Christian’s death, Phil. 1:23 tells us that “to depart, and to be with Christ… is far better”; far better, not only than earth’s sorrows and troubles, but far better even than earth’s dearest treasures and joys.

But even this is not all, for the time will come when, the Church, “the Body of Christ,” having been completed, the Lord will come to receive all of its members, living and dead, to Himself. Referring to the resurrection of the deceased believer’s body, I Cor. 15 declares that “it is raised in incorruptibility” (Ver. 42), “it is raised in glory” (Ver. 43), “it is raised in power” (Ver. 43), “it is raised a spiritual body” (Ver. 44), for “as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (Ver. 49). And as to those believers who will be alive at His coming, he says: “We shall all be changed” (Ver. 51).

    “For… we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself” (Phil. 3:20,21).

[nChrist]

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The New Nature In The Believer
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


It has been well said that if there is anything good in any man it is because it was put there by God. And something good — a new, sinless nature — has been imparted by God to every believer.

While there is still within us “that which is begotten of the flesh,” there is also “that which is begotten of the Spirit,” and just as the one is totally depraved and “cannot please God,” so the other is absolutely perfect and always pleases Him.

Adam was originally created in the image and likeness of God, but he fell into sin and later “begat a son in his own likeness, after his image” (Gen. 5:3). It could not be otherwise. Fallen Adam could generate and beget only fallen, sinful offspring, whom even the Law could not change. But “what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,” accomplished, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3,4),

As Adam was made in the likeness of God, but fell, so Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, to redeem us from the fall, that by grace, through the operation of the Spirit, a new creation might be brought into being, a “new man… renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him” (Col. 3:10) a “new man, which, after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:24). Referring to this “new man,” John says:

    “Whosoever is born [begotten] of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born [begotten] of God” (I John 3:9).

    “We know that whosoever is born [begotten] of God sinneth not…” (I John 5:18.).

[nChrist]

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Not Ashamed
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The Apostle Paul uses three wonderful phrases in Romans One: “I am debtor” (Ver. 14), “I am ready” (Ver. 15), and “I am not ashamed” (Ver. 16).

As God’s appointed Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul declared: “I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise”.

The gospel now was no longer to be confined to Israel, but was to go to all nations, and Paul felt himself a debtor to proclaim it, first because God had appointed him to do so, and second, because he held in his hands that which would save the lost. He was morally obligated — and so are Christians today.

Notice: the Apostle did not say, “I am debtor, but” and then begin to give a thousand excuses, as so many Christians do. He said: “I am debtor…SO…” and his fidelity to his call is seen as he adds: “So, as much as in me is,I am ready to preach the gospel” (Rom. 1:15).

Oh, that the millions of Christians today would join Paul and say: “I AM READY to preach the gospel with all that is in me”.

But in Verse 16, the Apostle explains why he was ready to put his all into proclaiming the gospel to the Gentiles:

    “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; unto the Jew first and also to the Greek [Gentile or Nations]” (Rom. 1:16).

Many thousands of Jews had already come to trust Christ as Saviour, but the good news of Christ’s finished work of redemption was — and is — “the power of God unto salvation to EVERY ONE that believeth”.

Surely there is no other way. None of the pagan religions can give the assurance of salvation. They all represent efforts to find or earn salvation. Only the gospel, the good news of our Lord’s payment for sin can give us the knowledge, the assurance and the joy of salvation from sin.