If you read the Bible with an open heart, you find it isn’t merely a book consisting of letters on a page.
Hebrews 4:12 says:
“The word of God is living and operative.”
The Bible, God’s word, is living. And because it’s living, it’s active and can do many things for us. It carries out some particular functions that are necessary for our Christian life.
In this post, we’ll look at some verses and notes in the New Testament Recovery Version to see just six of the many wonderful functions of the living Word of God.
The importance of knowing the function of an object
Let’s first discuss what we mean by function. The function of an object is the intended purpose of that object. For example, we know the function of a microwave oven is to heat food, so we use it for that purpose.
But let’s imagine we don’t know what a microwave is. After punching some buttons and watching it run, we end up feeling frustrated because we don’t know what it’s used for. We figure it’s a great place to store things and put things in it. Although a microwave can be used that way, it certainly isn’t the way it was intended to be used.
The same is true with the Bible. We can spend a lot of time reading it without receiving the intended benefit from it.
For example, the Bible certainly inspires and comforts us in times of trouble. It also conveys the highest standard of ethical and moral principles, and it relates interesting stories and history about God’s people. But if we focus primarily on these things, although we get some benefit from reading it, we miss the intended purpose of God’s Word.
So now let’s discuss six functions of the Word of God.
1. It testifies concerning Christ
In John 5:39-40, Jesus said to some Jewish religionists:
“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
One function of the Word of God is that it testifies concerning Jesus Christ. The Scriptures reveal not the tenets of a religion, but many different aspects of the wonderful person of Christ.
But this verse shows us that it’s possible to miss Christ when we read the Bible. Note 1 in the New Testament Recovery Version on John 5:39 explains:
“To ‘search the Scriptures’ may be separated from ‘come to Me’ (v. 40). The Jewish religionists searched the Scriptures but were not willing to come to the Lord. These two should go together; because the Scriptures testify concerning the Lord, they should not be separated from the Lord. We may contact the Scriptures, yet not contact the Lord. Only the Lord can give life.”
The religious people Jesus was speaking to searched the God-given Scriptures, but they missed the One the Scriptures testify of. He was standing right in front of them, but they were unwilling to come to Him.
When we come to read the Bible, we want to see Christ in the Word. We want the Scriptures to even testify to us personally of the Lord and show us more of His wonderful person. So we shouldn’t come to the Bible in a cold way apart from the Lord. As we approach the Bible, we should have the realization that we’re approaching the Lord Himself. When we open our Bible, we should open our hearts to the Lord so we can see Him in His Word.
What this means for us: Since the Scriptures testify concerning Christ, we should focus on Him when we come to the Bible. We shouldn’t separate coming to the Lord from reading the Word of God. Before we read, we can come to the Lord by praying a simple prayer like: “Lord Jesus, I don’t want to miss You in Your Word. I come to You right now. Show me more of who You are on every page.”
2. It makes us wise unto salvation
Second Timothy 3:15 says:
“And that from a babe you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
The Bible also functions to make people wise unto salvation. The way of salvation isn’t according to our concepts or ideas. So apart from the Word of God, how could anyone know God’s way of salvation? Only what’s revealed in the Bible can make us wise unto salvation.
What this means for us: This verse was written to Timothy, a young believer who knew the Scriptures from his earliest days. Timothy is a good pattern for us to follow. Whether we’re a new Christian or a mature believer, regularly reading the Bible makes us wise. It helps us know how to be saved by believing in Jesus initially, and it continues to make us wise as we walk the path of God’s complete salvation in our Christian life.
[[Free Study Bible]]
3. It causes people to be regenerated
First Peter 1:23 says:
“Having been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God.”
God’s word is the incorruptible seed of life so it can function to cause a person to be regenerated. Note 2 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version says:
“A seed is a container of life. The word of God, as the incorruptible seed, contains God’s life. Hence, it is living and abiding. Through this word we were regenerated. It is God’s living and abiding word of life that conveys God’s life into our spirit for our regeneration.”
When we share the gospel with others, through God’s living word His life is conveyed into their spirit so they can be regenerated, that is, born again. That’s what happens when someone gets saved.
What this means for us: If we’ve already been regenerated, it’s important to realize God’s living word can generate life in others also. If our unbelieving friends are receptive, we can read the Bible with them—not to teach them, but to allow the living and abiding word of God to be conveyed into their spirit. We can pray that they would be regenerated through our speaking God’s Word to them.
4. It’s the believers’ spiritual milk
First Peter 2:2-3 says:
“As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
Another major function of God’s living Word is to nourish the believers.
After babies are born, their immediate need is to be nourished. They need milk to live and grow.
In the same way, once we’re born again as a child of God, we need to grow in the life of God. Note 4 on verse 2 in the Recovery Version explains:
“To grow is a matter of life and in life. We received the divine life through regeneration, and we need to grow in this life and with this life by being nourished with the milk conveyed in the word of God.”
Life grows by being nourished. When we receive spiritual nourishment from the Word of God, we grow in the life of God.
This is why our most important need is to come to the Lord daily in His Word. We need to receive spiritual milk. Then, just as a baby grows by eating, we’ll grow in God’s life.
What this means for us: Like a newborn babe longs for milk, throughout our Christian lives we should hunger for the milk of God’s Word. We certainly should study the Bible, but we need to spend time in the Word of God each day to receive spiritual nourishment. This will cause us to grow in a normal, healthy way.
5. It’s the believers’ bread of life
Matthew 4:4 says:
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.’”
The Word of God is also our spiritual bread of life.
We shouldn’t live our lives simply existing on physical food. As believers, we also should live on the Word of God as our spiritual food.
And just as we never graduate from eating physical food, we can never graduate from enjoying God’s Word each day as our spiritual bread. As we see in the account in Matthew 4, even when the Lord Jesus lived on earth He lived on God’s Word.
What this means for us: No matter how long we’ve been saved, we need to “eat” God’s Word as our spiritual food daily to be healthy, normal Christians. Just as eating physical food is enjoyable, receiving the Word of God as food will feed us and be our enjoyment. The words of Jeremiah 15:16 will become our experience: “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became to me the gladness and joy of my heart.”
6. It makes the believers complete
Second Timothy 3:16-17 says:
“All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.”
God’s Word also has the function of completing the believers, equipping us for every good work. It does this by teaching, convicting, correcting, and instructing us.
The correction doesn’t come from mentally examining ourselves according to an outward standard. It comes when we contact the God-breathed Scripture with our spirit. Note 4 explains what correction in verse 16 means:
“Setting right what is wrong, turning someone to the right way, restoring to an upright state.”
How many times, even in the course of a single day, we need to be set right and turned back to the Lord and His way! Thank the Lord, the living Word of God can function this way to correct us when we’re veering off course.
What this means for us: We need the Word of God to teach, convict, correct, and instruct us in order to complete and equip us. Since the Scripture is God-breathed, we need to exercise our spirit by praying when we read it. As we come to the Bible, we can pray, “Lord, I want Your Word to be profitable to me today. Correct what needs to be corrected in me. Make me more complete today than I was yesterday.”
The living Word of God is truly marvelous! It does so much in us and for us, so we should build up the habit of reading it daily. If you live in the US, we encourage you to order a free New Testament Recovery Version that will open up your understanding of God’s Word.
We all have things we’d like to change about ourselves. The vast quantities of books on self-improvement available today target our desire to be different or improve in some way.
And when we read verses in the New Testament concerning how believers should live and conduct themselves, we want to live that way. But when we compare our daily life to those passages, we can't help but notice our shortcomings. For example, our lack of love for people, our impatience, or our reaction in certain situations all highlight our need to have a change. But how can we?
God also wants us to change, but not the way we might think. In fact, the Bible speaks of something called transformation. In this post, we'll look at what transformation is according to the Word of God.
The dictionary definition of transformation
First, let’s look at how the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines transformation: “A complete or major change in someone or something’s appearance, form.”
People use the word transformation to talk about the remodeling of a house, or when someone gets a makeover. The house or person undergoes a major change and ends up looking different.
It’s understandable to think that transformation for Christians means we improve ourselves or our behavior so we appear more “Christ-like.”
But the biblical meaning of transformation has nothing to do with our outward behavior or self-improvement. Simply trying to conform to the words we read in the Bible is like a monkey imitating the actions of a human being. What you see is mere learned behavior, not a genuine expression of a human. That’s because the monkey doesn’t have the life of a human.
God knows that we can’t meet the standard in His Word on our own. Then how can we live a life that expresses God? God’s way is to give us His divine life, and for us to undergo an organic change by His life operating in us. Let’s see what that means and how it happens.
We are being transformed
Let’s read 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”
This verse doesn’t say we “are being transformed by improving our behavior.” Here, being transformed is connected to our beholding the glory of the Lord. When we behold the Lord in our fellowship with Him, something wonderful happens. Note 7 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version explains:
“When we with unveiled face are beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the elements of what He is and what He has done. Thus we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence; that is, we are being transfigured, mainly by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2), into His image. Being transformed indicates that we are in the process of transformation.”
This note says that when we behold the Lord, He infuses us with all He is and has done. To infuse means to fill, pervade, and soak. So how do we behold the Lord?
Beholding the Lord in our spirit
Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” When we were saved, the Lord as the Spirit came to live in our spirit. So we can behold Him in our spirit by fellowshipping with Him in prayer and in the Word. As we behold the Lord, He soaks us with all He is.
This soaking results in us being transformed metabolically. This is God’s way of changing us: by an inward, spiritual metabolic process of His life operating in us.
Physical metabolism is the process that maintains the life of an organism. Through metabolism, an organism lives, grows, and develops. Lifeless things like rocks don’t undergo metabolism.
We, God’s children, aren’t lifeless. We received the divine life of God in our spirit when we were born again. Now God wants His life to spread from our spirit into every part of our being, especially our soul. This is how we’re inwardly transformed, and God is actually expressed in our living outwardly.
Metabolism is a good picture of this transforming work in us. Physical metabolism consists of two actions: the breaking down and discharging of old elements and the building up of new ones. As we behold the Lord, more of Christ is infused into us and spreads in our soul, replacing our old, natural element. Spontaneously, we begin to live a different way than we did before.
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The illustration of a caterpillar
A good illustration of being metabolically transformed is the change a caterpillar undergoes. At birth, a caterpillar has the life that will transform it into a butterfly. It doesn’t put on a butterfly costume or try to act like a butterfly.
The caterpillar simply eats. As it eats the needed nutrients, it grows. And then it makes a cocoon where it remains as little by little, changes take place in its body. Eventually, the caterpillar emerges as a butterfly. The dramatic change of a crawling, wormlike creature into a graceful, beautiful butterfly is the result of an organic process.
At our spiritual birth, we received the life of God, which can transform us. Now like the caterpillar, our need is to eat. We need to eat spiritual food so we can grow and develop in the Lord’s life. As we grow, we’re gradually changed inside.
The Lord wants us to take Him in as our real food and drink. In John 6:35, Jesus said:
“I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst.”
In the Gospel of John, we see that the Lord is living bread for us to eat and living water for us to drink. He’s the spiritual nourishment we need to take in every day so we can grow in His life and be transformed.
Transformed into the same image
So what are we transformed into? Second Corinthians 3:18 tells us we’re “being transformed into the same image.”
Note 8 on this verse says:
“To be transformed into the same image is to be conformed to the resurrected and glorified Christ, to be made the same as He is (Rom. 8:29).”
When we read the four Gospels, we can see the glorious image of the Lord. What a life Jesus lived as a man on earth! It was a life without any defect, failure, or imperfection of any kind. His behavior, attitude, and care for people are all too wonderful for words. He’s the only man who ever lived a life that fully expressed God.
And today, Jesus is living in us as the Spirit. As we contact Him and behold Him in our spirit, He soaks us with who He is and all He’s done, conforming us to His image to make us the same as He is!
This transformation far exceeds any goal we might have to improve ourselves or to live the way we think we should. As we undergo this process, we’re not merely becoming a better person. The way we think and view things, our attitude and feelings about people, and the decisions we make gradually change to match the Lord. This is because bit by bit, we’re being conformed to His image and being made the same as He is.
Beholding, eating, and drinking daily
Transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a lifelong process, so we shouldn’t be discouraged or impatient. God is very happy to let this genuine change transpire in us by the gradual spreading of His life. The main thing is that we need to spend time to behold the Lord and continually eat and drink Him.
One way we can eat spiritual food is by praying with the words of the Bible to receive the nourishing supply of life from God’s Word. A person who is physically undernourished can’t grow. Similarly, in order to grow spiritually, we need to consistently take in the nourishment found in God’s Word. It's good to start the day with a healthy “spiritual breakfast.” Then throughout the day, we can take a break to “rechew” a verse or phrase we prayed with in the morning, or “eat” another verse in the Bible.
Calling on the name of the Lord is a great way to drink of the Lord. At any time, we can say, "Oh, Lord Jesus," or "Lord Jesus, I love You." We can call on Him to begin our day, even before we get out of bed. Whenever we feel spiritually thirsty, we can simply call upon the name of the Lord Jesus to take another drink of Him.
Transformation is a part of God’s complete salvation for us. We’ve only discussed this marvelous process briefly in this post. If you live in the United States, we recommend that you order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here so you can read the verses from this post with all their notes to learn more.
We also highly recommend reading chapter 12, “What is the Growth of Life?” in The Knowledge of Life, which can be downloaded for free from anywhere in the world.
Receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior is a momentous event. But have you ever wondered what happens next?
The good news is that being saved is just the first step in your Christian life. There's so much more to being a Christian! Jesus Christ is now living in you, and He wants to have a personal relationship with you. For this to happen, it's critical to understand the importance of your human spirit according to the Bible.
In this post, we'll look at some key verses to explore how knowing about our spirit can affect our Christian life.
Key Bible verses
The Bible mentions the human spirit numerous times.
From the very beginning, the Bible reveals God made human beings with three parts, including a spirit. Genesis 2:7 says:
“Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”
God formed man’s physical body with the dust of the ground. Then God breathed into his nostrils, and man became a living soul. This, of course, points to man’s soul, which consists of the mind, emotion, and will.
Now, where is the human spirit in this verse? We don’t see the words human spirit, but what we do see is the breath of life. In Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, the word translated as breath is neshamah. This same Hebrew word is translated as spirit in Proverbs 20:27, which says:
“The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah.”
By this we can see that when God breathed into man, man’s human spirit came into existence. Our human spirit is the deepest part of our being.
But why did God create us with a human spirit? Isn’t having a body and soul enough for us to exist?
Why we have a spirit
Our spirit was created by God so that we can contact and receive Him. Our body and our soul have their own specific functions; only our spirit has the ability to contact God. We can see this from numerous verses, including John 4:24:
“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.”
In order to contact—or worship—God, who is Spirit, we must use our spirit.
The way a radio functions is a good illustration of our spirit’s unique ability to contact and receive God. When a radio is turned on and properly tuned, it can receive the invisible radio waves in the air and interpret them.
Our human spirit is like a radio, and God is like the radio waves. Our spirit is the part of our being that corresponds to what God is, so we have to use our spirit in order to contact Him.
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What makes our human spirit so important?
Our human spirit is so important to God because God wants to fill us with Himself. He wants us to receive Him, and our spirit is the unique receiver. Our Christian life begins with our human spirit, as we see from John 3:6:
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Note 2 in the Recovery Version says:
“The first Spirit mentioned here is the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, and the second spirit is the human spirit, the regenerated spirit of man. Regeneration is accomplished in the human spirit by the Holy Spirit of God with God’s life, the uncreated eternal life. Thus, to be regenerated is to have the divine, eternal life (in addition to the human, natural life) as the new source and new element of a new person.”
The moment we believe in Jesus, His Spirit enters into our spirit. When we're regenerated, we’re born of God; we receive His divine, eternal life in our spirit; and we become His children.
The Lord is love, light, peace, rest, comfort, strength, our Shepherd, our refuge, and so much more. And because He's now living in our spirit, we can experience and enjoy all He is to us right now, not just at some point in the future.
Our human spirit and our Christian life
Knowing about our human spirit is foundational for our Christian life. Once we realize that the Lord Jesus lives in our spirit, we need to apply this realization by using our spirit to contact Him all the time. We can practice doing this first thing each morning. Then continually throughout the day, we can contact Him by simply calling on His name, “Lord Jesus!”
We can also use our spirit to contact the Lord by praying with God’s Word. For instance, let’s say we read John 14:6: “I am the way and the reality and the life.” We can pray, “Lord Jesus, thank You for being the way. Thank You for being the reality. And Lord, I praise You for being the life, the real life. Thank You for being my life.”
In this blog post, we’ve only scratched the surface of the importance of our human spirit and its application to our Christian life. To learn more, we encourage you to read chapter 5, “The Key to Experiencing Christ—the Human Spirit,” in Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 1. You can download this e-book for free from anywhere in the world here.
In a previous post, we discussed the meaning of consecration and how giving ourselves to God makes a tremendous difference in our Christian life and relationship with the Lord.
But knowing that we should hand ourselves over to the Lord may not be sufficient. We have to realize the underlying basis for our consecration to the Lord and the motivation for us to do so willingly. If we see these two things, our consecration will not be something we do reluctantly or half-heartedly merely because it’s good for us. Instead, it will be a sweet experience that will deepen our relationship with the Lord Jesus.
The basis of our consecration
In our homes we have many possessions that we’ve purchased. Because we paid a price for them, they legally belong to us, and we are their rightful owner.
But do we realize that we ourselves have a “rightful owner”? The Bible tells us that our owner is the Lord Jesus. First Corinthians 6:19-20 says:
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. So then glorify God in your body.”
And Romans 14:8 says:
“For whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”
The Lord Jesus paid a tremendous price to redeem us: His precious blood, which He shed for us in His death on the cross. First Peter 1:18-19 tells us:
“Knowing that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, that you were redeemed from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ.”
Because He gave His life to purchase us, we now belong to Christ, and He legally owns us. This is the basis for our consecration to Him.
But even though we belong to Him, the Lord still waits for us to take the action of handing ourselves over to Him willingly. He will never force us to do anything. He gave us a free will, and He wants us to choose Him.
This is why it’s crucial for us to see from these verses that we're no longer our own. We belong to the One who purchased us. If we see and appreciate all the Lord did to gain us, we’ll recognize His right over us. This may cause us to pray, “Lord Jesus, thank You for paying the price of Your own precious blood for me! Thank You, Lord, I no longer belong to myself. I belong to You. You paid the highest price for me. I recognize Your full right over me. Lord, I give myself to You. I hand myself over to You.”
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The motivation of our consecration
While God’s legal right over us is objective, there also exists a very subjective aspect to our consecration: God’s love. Throughout the centuries, God’s love has irresistibly drawn those who seek Him to give everything to Him. When His love touches us, we can’t help but consecrate ourselves to the Lord.
The love of God is clearly seen in the death of our Lord on the cross for us. As sinners, we were worthy of nothing but condemnation. Yet God came as a man to this earth and suffered an unimaginable death—all because He loved us.
In 2 Corinthians 5:14, the apostle Paul conveys the deep feeling we experience when we realize what the Lord did for us:
“The love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died.”
The love of Christ—tender yet mighty, gentle yet persistent—constrains us and motivates us to spontaneously give ourselves to Him. When we experience this love, our consecration is no longer simply because we recognize His right over us; it’s also our loving response to His love for us. We’ll spontaneously find ourselves telling the Lord, “Lord, I am worthy of nothing. Yet because of Your love You suffered and died on the cross for me. Lord, Your love is so great! It's beyond my understanding. I love You, dear Lord. I give all I have and all I am to You.”
So while the solid basis of our consecration is God’s ownership of us, the motivation for us to take this step is God’s constraining love. When we experience the love of God, we can’t help but respond in love to Him.
The words of this hymn express the sweet experience of being constrained by the Lord’s love to give our all to Him:
Thy mighty love, O God, constraineth me,
As some strong tide it presseth on its way,
Seeking a channel in my self-bound soul,
Yearning to sweep all barriers away.
Shall I not yield to that constraining power?
Shall I not say, O tide of love, flow in?
My God, Thy gentleness hath conquered me,
Life cannot be as it hath hither been.
Break through my nature, mighty, heavenly love,
Clear every avenue of thought and brain,
Flood my affections, purify my will,
Let nothing but Thine own pure life remain.
Thus wholly mastered and possessed by God,
Forth from my life, spontaneous and free,
Shall flow a stream of tenderness and grace,
Loving, because God loved, eternally.
(You can read the full lyrics and listen to the tune here.)
May the Lord open our eyes to see the precious price He paid to purchase us and cause us to realize that we belong to Him. And may we be constrained by the love of Christ and experience the sweetness of handing ourselves over to Him.
If you want to learn more about consecration and how to consecrate yourself to God, take a look at these additional posts:
All verses are quoted from the Holy Bible Recovery Version. You can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.
When we were saved, we were born again with the life of God. What a truly wonderful and joyous experience! But regeneration is only the beginning of our spiritual journey.
After we’re regenerated, the next step is to consecrate, or give ourselves to the Lord. In this post, we'll look at the meaning of consecration, and why it's a crucial step in our life-long journey with the Lord.
What is consecration?
In religion, the word consecration is commonly used in reference to the official ordaining of a person to be a pastor, priest, or missionary. This use implies that consecration is something that's reserved for a special category of people. But the New Testament reveals that consecration is something that every believer in Christ can, and should, experience.
Consecration is also not something only for knowledgeable or spiritually mature Christians. Rather, we all need to consecrate ourselves to the Lord in order to deepen our personal knowledge of Christ and grow in the divine life, even if we've only just gotten saved. This is because consecration is the basis for every spiritual experience.
So what is consecration? Consecration is giving yourself to the Lord to become “a living sacrifice,” as Paul says in Romans 12:1:
“I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.”
In the Old Testament, sacrifices were set apart for God by being placed on the altar. In offering something to God, one relinquished ownership of that item. Instead, it belonged to God, for His use and His satisfaction.
Today, when we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, we become a living sacrifice. This means we put ourselves completely in His hands. Before we consecrated ourselves, our life was for the pursuit of our own goals and satisfaction; now, it's for Him.
When we present ourselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice, we’re simply telling Him: “Lord Jesus, my life is for You. I no longer belong to myself, the world, or anything else. I'm here for You and for Your satisfaction.”
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Four reasons why we should consecrate ourselves to the Lord
1. To walk in the Lord’s way
Before we were saved, we took our own way, made our own decisions, and chose the direction for our life. After we’re saved, God wants us to walk in His way and be led by Him. But if we don’t give ourselves to Him, how can we know what His way is? How can He lead us? Consecrating ourselves to Him keeps us in His way and saves us from taking our own way. We can pray, “Lord, I don’t want to make my own decisions or take my own way. I want to be kept in Your way. So Lord Jesus, I give myself to You.”
2. To grow in life
When Christ comes into us, we're regenerated with His divine life. His intention is for that divine life in us to grow. But any kind of life needs the proper environment to grow. Surrendering every part of ourselves and every aspect of our lives to Him creates the best environment for the divine life to grow in us.
Our experience of Christ is significantly affected by whether or not we give ourselves to the Lord. Without consecrating ourselves to Him, it's difficult to tell whether something is according to God's will, and whether it will please Him.
But when we surrender ourselves to the Lord, we spontaneously sense what pleases Him and what does not. This sensation is the result of God’s divine life functioning in us, and it's activated by our consecration. As we follow God by obeying this sense, we grow in the divine life in a real and practical way.
3. To allow God to work in us
Before we can work for God, God first needs to work in us. Even though we’re saved, He still has to conform our thoughts, feelings, decisions, and disposition—our whole being—to the image of His Son, as Romans 8:29 says.
God is omnipotent, but in His relationship with us, He is not a dictator. He respects our free will and doesn’t force His work on us; rather, He needs our consent to work freely in us. Our consecration is our consent.
God is patient, and He will wait until we give Him the permission to work in us to accomplish His purpose. Instead of resisting Him, we can pray, “Lord, I give You permission to work in me. I offer myself willingly to You. Lord, I open the door of my heart to You. Come into each room of my heart and conform me to Your image in every way.”
4. To enjoy the riches of God’s salvation
God’s salvation is full of riches. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. These blessings include the divine life, Christ’s perfect humanity and living, His effective death, His powerful resurrection, His victory over Satan, His ascension over all things, and so much more. The way we can enter into the enjoyment of all these blessings is by consecrating ourselves to Him. We already possess them, but for us to enjoy them in our experience, we must consecrate ourselves to God.
In this respect, consecration is like a door. To enter a building, we must go through a door. If we don’t, no matter what wonderful thing awaits us on the other side, we can’t enjoy or participate in it. Consecration is the door for us to enter through to enjoy all the riches of God’s salvation. When we give ourselves to the Lord, He will lead us in our experience into the enjoyment of the rich blessings of God’s full salvation.
We can pray, “Lord, I don’t just want to know about the riches of Your salvation; I want to enjoy them. Lord, here I am. I give myself to You fully. I belong to You. Lead me by Your Spirit into the experience and enjoyment of all You have for me in Your salvation.”
Take the next step
Our salvation is the initial step of our spiritual journey. The next step is to consecrate ourselves to the Lord. When we do this, we’ll be kept in God’s way, grow in His life, allow Him to work in us, and enjoy the riches of His full salvation.
Whether we’re newly saved or longtime believers, each one of us can give ourselves to the Lord. We can present ourselves to the Lord right now. He is happy and willing to receive our consecration at any time!
To learn more about consecration, check out these posts:
- How Do I Consecrate Myself to the Lord?
- Consecration: God’s Purchase and God’s Love
- Loving Jesus with Our Best
All verses are quoted from the Holy Bible Recovery Version. You can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.
This time last year, no one could have imagined what we would go through in 2020. The global pandemic and its extensive fallout have touched all of us. Everyone has suffered in some way, whether it be the loss of loved ones, health, income, relationships, social interaction, and more. People's sense of security has been wiped out, replaced by anxiety, depression, and discouragement.
And being a Christian hasn't exempted us from these difficult experiences. They may have caused us to wonder why God allows suffering in the lives of believers.
In this post, we’ll look at verses and notes from Romans 5 and 8 in the New Testament Recovery Version to see a little of how God’s particular purpose for us is worked out through difficulties and hardships.
Hope and tribulations in Romans 5
Romans 5:2 says that we have peace toward God and stand in grace, and that we also “boast because of the hope of the glory of God.”
Today we boast in the hope that we’ll be brought into the glory of God, meaning we’ll eventually express God in every way. This is God’s purpose for us, and it’s why He created us.
To boast because of the hope of the glory of God in verse 2 makes sense to us. But then in verse 3 Paul said, “We also boast in our tribulations.”
How is this even possible? No one likes tribulations; if it were up to us, we’d avoid suffering of any kind. But Paul clearly said that we boast both in the hope of the glory of God and in tribulations. The hope and tribulations must be connected, but how?
Note 1 on tribulations in the Recovery Version provides invaluable insight:
“Tribulations are part of the ‘all things’ in [Romans] 8:28 that God causes to work together for good that we might be sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of His Son, who has entered into glory. Because of this, we can receive tribulations as the sweet visitation and incarnation of grace and thereby boast in them**.** Through tribulations the killing effect of the cross of Christ on our natural being is applied in us by the Holy Spirit, making the way for the God of resurrection to add Himself to us (see 2 Cor. 4:16-18).”
[[Free Study Bible]]
All things work together for good
The note above points us to Romans 8:28, which says:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
All things refers to all the matters and people in our lives, which have been arranged by God and which He causes to work together for good. But what does good here mean? Does it refer to material good, such as a good house, car, job, spouse, etc.? The context of this verse shows us good doesn’t refer to those kinds of things. Verses 29 and 30 say:
“Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
God is causing all things to work together so that we would be brought into glory by being fully conformed to the image of Christ; then we’ll express God fully. This is God’s goal for us. What good this is!
But at present, we have to admit we haven’t been conformed to the image of Christ in every area of our lives. The way we think, the things we say, what we want, how we treat others, and so on, are very different from Christ’s person. We don’t have that much Christ in our soul, and so we don’t express God that much. Then how can our hope of being glorified be fulfilled?
The way to reach God’s goal
To arrive at God’s goal for us, we need to undergo a life-long process of God’s transforming work in us, which began when we were born again in our spirit. This is how Christ spreads into and fills our soul.
If it were left up to us, God’s work in us might come to a standstill. We might even be indifferent about it. But God wants us to reach the goal, so in His loving concern for us, He arranges “all things” in our environment, including the tribulations mentioned in Romans 5:3. God causes these things to work together for good so we can be transformed and conformed to the image of His Son. Tribulations help us. This is how our hope of glory and difficulties are connected. If we see this, we’ll understand why God allows suffering in our Christian life.
How exactly do tribulations help us?
If we consider our own experience, we’ll notice when things are calm and life is relatively smooth, we tend to forget about God’s desire to make us His expression by conforming us to His Son. Our love for the Lord may grow cold, and we can very easily be occupied with things other than Him.
But when we’re suffering, we tend to turn to Him more earnestly. We realize how much we need Him, so we depend on Him more, pray more, read His Word more, and seek Him more. Our hearts are open to Him, and we allow Him to work in us.
Now let’s look again at the second sentence in the note to see how we could possibly boast in tribulations:
“Because of this, we can receive tribulations as the sweet visitation and incarnation of grace and thereby boast in them.”
If we understand God is causing all things, including tribulations, to work together for our good, we won’t be at a loss as to what’s happening. Instead, we’ll recognize tribulations as the visits of grace. And grace is just the Lord Himself as the Spirit who now lives in our spirit to be everything we need in all situations.
If by His grace, in the midst of our sufferings we turn to the Lord and come to Him in prayer, God has a way to do something in us. The tribulations He allows in our life shake us out of our sense of complacency. It's when we're suffering that we're the most genuine with the Lord.
We can tell Him honestly what we’re going through and pray, “Lord, add Yourself to me!” or “Lord, transform me to Your image.” When we do this, something will transpire in us: we’ll be fully opened up to the Lord, and He'll have a way to add Himself into us. Little by little, Christ will be built up in our heart, our mind, our emotion, and our will. This is how we’ll gradually be transformed into the image of the Son of God.
A good picture of this transforming work is metabolism, a process our body undergoes every day. Metabolism in living organisms actually consists of two actions: the breaking down of elements, and the building up of new ones.
Note 1 on Romans 5:3 concludes:
“Through tribulations the killing effect of the cross of Christ on our natural being is applied in us by the Holy Spirit, making the way for the God of resurrection to add Himself to us (see 2 Cor. 4:16-18).”
So it's through sufferings that our natural, fallen being is broken down, allowing Christ the way to add Himself to us and be built up in us.
God’s love for us
While we’re going through this process, we can be assured and comforted by Paul’s words in Romans 5:5:
“And hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
Note 1 on this verse speaks of the power of that love:
“The love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16). God has poured out this love in our hearts with the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, as the motivating power within us, that we may more than conquer in all our tribulations (see note 371 in ch. 8). Therefore, when we endure any kind of tribulation, we are not put to shame.”
So even as we’re suffering, we can be assured that God loves us immensely. We should never doubt His heart of love for us. We can immerse ourselves in the poured-out love of God and thus be empowered to pass through all our tribulations with God’s goal in view. We can pray, “Lord, even in the middle of my suffering, I know You love Me so much. Thank You for pouring Your love into my heart.”
By turning our hearts to Him, praying to fellowship with Him, coming to Him in the Word, and calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus, we can continually experience God’s comfort and encouragement on our journey of transformation.
No matter what difficulties lie before us in the upcoming new year, we pray that we all will enjoy God's grace and love as He operates in us to conform us to the image of Christ.
We’ve all heard someone say, “I’ve been blessed by God,” usually in relation to success, health, family, wealth, or a job. We’ve even heard athletes say this after winning a big game. We all want to be under God’s blessing.
The common understanding of what it means to be blessed by God is that He gives us good things. In this respect, we can say that God’s blessing is on everyone, believers and unbelievers alike. Matthew 5:45 says that the Father who is in the heavens causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and unjust.
But does God’s blessing pertain only to material things? Though these are included, thinking of God’s blessing as mainly material things severely limits our understanding of what is in God’s heart for us as believers. So what is the fuller meaning of being blessed by God?
The blessing of Abraham
Let’s begin with the blessing of Abraham by God in Genesis 12:3: “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” We might think being blessed here means something outward, like having a good life. But in Galatians 3:13 and 14, the apostle Paul specifically explained what blessed in Genesis 12:3 means:
“Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse on our behalf; because it is written, ‘Cursed is every one hanging on a tree’; in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
These verses explain both how we can be blessed and what the blessing of God is.
How can we be blessed?
As fallen sinners, we deserve nothing but judgment and curse, certainly not blessing. And our good works or behavior can never make us “blessable.” But Jesus became a curse on our behalf. On the cross, He bore the curse that was upon all humanity and died in our place. Because of the redemptive work of Christ on the cross for us, we cursed sinners can now receive the blessing of God through faith in Christ.
What is the blessing of God?
Galatians 3:14 makes clear that the blessing in Christ Jesus that God wants us to receive isn’t material things, but something far greater—the promise of the Spirit.
Note 2 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version helps us understand what this blessing is:
“In the gospel we have received not only the blessing of forgiveness, washing, and cleansing; even more, we have received the greatest blessing, which is the Triune God—the Father, Son, and Spirit—as the processed, all-inclusive life-giving Spirit dwelling in us in a most subjective way for our enjoyment. Oh, what a blessing that we can enjoy such an all-inclusive One as our daily portion!”
But in this verse what, or who, is “the Spirit” that we receive? The next note on verse 14 says this:
“This verse indicates that the Spirit is the blessing that God promised to Abraham for all the nations and that has been received by the believers through faith in Christ. The Spirit is the compound Spirit, as mentioned in note 52, and actually is God Himself processed in His Trinity through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension that we may receive Him as our life and our everything. This is the focus of the gospel of God.
The physical aspect of the blessing that God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ (see Col. 1:12 and note 2). Since Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds with the blessing of the land promised to Abraham. Actually, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God’s bountiful supply for us to enjoy.”
[[Free Study Bible]]
Experiencing God’s blessing
Christ dwells in us as the all-inclusive Spirit, so we can experience Him in a personal, subjective way by contacting Him with our spirit. We can pray, call on His name, and read His Word. By simply turning to Christ in our spirit, talking to Him throughout the day, we can enjoy Him as our rich portion.
Suppose you pray for a better job and get a higher paying position. Happily, you thank the Lord for it. But what happens when the new work environment presents some difficulties? If you realize that God didn’t just bless you with a new job but with much more, with the all-inclusive Christ who lives in you, you’ll contact the Lord as the life-giving Spirit dwelling in your spirit. So instead of asking the Lord to take away the problems or bless you with another job, you’ll open your heart to Him and asked Him to be your wisdom, strength, whatever you need, to face the troubles at work. You’ll begin to experience Christ as the bountiful supply in that difficult situation. You’ll enjoy Him—the top blessing.
Pursuing Christ, the real blessing
If we think God’s blessing is mainly of things in the material realm, we’ll pursue these things, spend our prayer time asking God for them, and when we don’t get them, wonder whether we’re blessed by God. Meanwhile, we’ll miss enjoying the broader, fuller, and more real blessing of God—Christ for our experience and enjoyment. By focusing on and pursuing Christ, we can enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit as the top blessing of God!
Surely we should be thankful for the material things the Lord gives us. But we’re truly blessed when we experience Christ as our love, our peace, our patience, our satisfaction, our joy, and so many other aspects of Himself.
We have this wonderful Person now within us, the greatest blessing in the universe!
We encourage you reading all the notes on Galatians 3:14 with their verse references in the New Testament Recovery Version to get a deeper understanding of God's blessing. If you live in the US, you can order a free copy here.
In a previous post, we discussed one of the biggest questions we may have as Christians: Can we lose our salvation? We saw the clear and definite assurance the Bible gives us that once we believe in Christ and receive Him as our Savior, we’re saved eternally. We can’t lose our salvation.
But here’s another question: Does it make any difference whether we know we can’t lose our salvation?
The answer is yes, and in this post we’ll discuss why this is so important.
The dangerous consequences of thinking you can lose your salvation
Thinking you can lose your salvation at any time makes progressing in the Christian life extremely difficult, if not impossible. In fact, this thought can undermine your entire Christian life.
Let’s see how this could happen.
When we sin, we naturally feel ashamed and regretful. This is a healthy reaction. But if we don’t know that we can confess our sins to the Lord to be forgiven and washed, then we don’t know what to do about our sins. Our conscience becomes weighed down. And when we commit more sins, as we inevitably will, we may begin to think the accumulation of all our sins undoes our salvation.
A question starts to eat away at us: “Am I still saved?”
With this question constantly bothering us, we become disheartened in our Christian life. Instead of rejoicing in our salvation, loving the Lord, and pursuing Him with an unburdened heart, we feel unworthy. We find it difficult to pray to Him or read the Bible. We become focused on ourselves, on our behavior and our failures, and begin to lose sight of Christ and all He’s done for us.
And in spite of our best efforts, we sin yet again. So our unconfessed sins continue to pile up, burdening our conscience even more and making us feel hopeless.
Sadly, at this point, some give up on following the Lord because they’re convinced their Christian life has suffered irreparable damage. Feeling they’re already lost, they think to themselves, “What’s the use? I’ve already lost my salvation. Why try anymore?”
So they give up, go back to their old life, and live as they did before they were saved.
They don’t realize that the blood Jesus shed on the cross redeemed them and saved them eternally. And they don’t know that same precious blood of Jesus can also wash them of every sin they commit and confess to Him after they’re saved.
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The positive effect of knowing we can’t lose our salvation
God forgave us and washed us from our sins when we first believed in Jesus Christ and accepted Him as our Savior. At that time, we were also born again in our spirit with the divine life, and Christ came to live in us.
Now that Christ lives in us, He wants us to go on from being saved to knowing Him personally and experiencing Him subjectively. He wants us to enjoy Him and grow in Him. He wants to be our life so we can express Him in our living.
If we know we’re saved eternally, we can go on with an unburdened heart to build on this solid foundation, unhindered by the erroneous and damaging thought that we could lose our salvation. If we didn’t know this important truth, we could miss out on all that’s before us in the Christian life.
Of course, the Lord doesn’t want us to sin, and we grieve Him when we do. Even we ourselves don’t want to sin, and we feel guilty when we do. But when our conscience makes us aware we’ve offended the Lord, we’re not left hopeless and helpless. We can and should simply confess our sin to the Lord so He can forgive us and cleanse us from that sin.
Rescued from despair and enjoying God’s salvation
Knowing we can never lose our salvation rescues us from despair and from giving up when we fail. Instead, we can leave the realm of doubt and despair by standing firmly on God’s faithful Word concerning His eternal salvation. Then we can go forward into the realm of experiencing and enjoying the rich, wonderful, and full salvation God has provided for us in Christ!
For more on this subject, we encourage you to read chapter 2 of Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 1, a book that has helped thousands of believers. You can download this e-book for free from anywhere in the world here.
Daily Bible reading is an excellent habit that can benefit every Christian in many ways. We’ll discuss three main benefits in this post.
We’re fed by the Word
When we read the Bible, we’re fed by God’s Word and supplied for our Christian life. Jesus mentioned this in Matthew 4:4 when He said,
“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.”
Other verses in the Bible also make it clear that God’s Word is nourishment to us. For example, 1 Peter 2:2 says,
“As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation.”
And in the Old Testament, Jeremiah 15:16 says,
“Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word became to me the gladness and joy of my heart.”
When we eat physical food, we’re supplied with the nutrients we need to live and be healthy. We get the energy to go to work, exercise, and spend time with family and friends. Conversely, when we skip a meal, we feel weak, tired, and even grumpy. And if we keep missing meals, we become susceptible to even greater problems, like illness.
Similarly, when we eat spiritual food we’re supplied to live our Christian life. But when we’re away from God’s Word for a while, we can become spiritually weak, tired, and “grumpy,” or, unable to handle difficulties well. We become more susceptible to temptation, doubts, and other kinds of spiritual sickness. We simply don’t have the means to cope with the many challenges that come into our lives as believers.
It’s very important, therefore, that we’re supplied by reading and feeding on God’s Word every day. To maintain a healthy and even joyful Christian life, we need daily Bible reading to receive the spiritual nourishment in God’s Word for us.
We’re washed in the Word
What if we don’t understand what we’re reading? We may wonder whether we should keep reading the Bible. Or maybe we’re discouraged because by the afternoon we’ve forgotten what we read in the morning. Should we keep on reading, even when we don’t remember much?
The answer is, yes, definitely. This is because a great benefit of reading God’s Word is that it washes us.
Ephesians 5:26 says,
“That He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word.”
The “her” here is the church, which is composed of all the believers in Christ, and “the washing of the water in the word” here indicates something different from the washing of our sins by the Lord’s blood. So what is this washing?
Here’s what note 3 on this verse in the Recovery Version says about the washing of the water in the Word:
“The washing of the water here is different from the washing of the redeeming blood of Christ. The redeeming blood washes away our sins (1 John 1:7; Rev. 7:14), whereas the water of life washes away the blemishes of the natural life of our old man, such as the ‘spot or wrinkle or any such things’ mentioned in v. 27. In separating and sanctifying the church, the Lord first washes away our sins with His blood (Heb. 13:12) and then washes away our natural blemishes with His life. We are now in such a washing process, that the church may be holy and without blemish (v. 27).”
We may understand that we need the washing of our sins by the Lord’s blood, but we also need to realize that we need the washing away of our natural life by His life. How do we get this washing of life? The washing water of life is in God’s Word. So even if we don’t remember or fully understand what we read, our daily Bible reading still washes us from so many negative things.
[[Free Study Bible]]
We’re educated with the Word
Our faith is based not on our imaginations or concepts but on the Word of God, so it’s critical that we as Christians all know what God’s Word says. By reading the Word regularly, we’ll eventually read through the entire Bible and gain a basic knowledge of God and the things of God. Gaining this basic knowledge is like learning our ABCs. If we don’t learn the letters of the alphabet, it’s impossible for us to read or write. To understand even the simplest book or write a letter, we first have to learn our ABCs.
Knowing what’s in the Bible is like knowing our spiritual ABCs. Becoming familiar with the words, facts, stories, and expressions in the Bible forms in us the building blocks the Lord can use to show us more of the truth in His Word. This helps us to know Him in a deeper way and allows Him to speak to us more and more through the Word.
God has given us a powerful and wonderful gift in His Word. By reading it, we’re not only spiritually educated but also washed and nourished within. If you’d like some help with reading the Bible regularly, take a look at our post on building up a habit of daily Bible reading. And if you live in the US, you can order a free New Testament study Bible from us here.
