To all believers, either young or old in the faith, I exhort and remind you all that just as when we FIRST accepted Christ Jesus as our Lord, with that deserved passion and zeal we had for realising His incredible sacrifice on our behalf, we must always from then on continue to stand firm in the faith, and on a daily basis commit ourselves afresh to follow Him with all of our hearts. We must always be aware that we are in the middle of a raging spiritual war, and we must be vigilant against our very human tendencies to listen to temptations and go back to worldly sinful pleasures, or seek illegal power over others (like people tend to desire to have through witchcraft or manipulation).

We must strive like thirsty plants to let our roots explore and grow down into Him, finding nourishment from the deep wells of spiritual living water in the fertile ground of the gospel. We must let our lives be built both ON Him (the corner stone of any soundly built building) and BY Him (the architect of spirit, soul and body), for His glory (the overcomer of death through gritty obedience and holy sacrifice). Then we will clearly see that our faiths will grow so much stronger in truth from the simple gospel message we were initially taught, growing rapidly and maturing every day as we continue to feast on His word like homeless, starving people now presented with a bounteous wedding banquet; because of this incredible grace upon us, we shouldn’t be able to contain ourselves, but to just overflow with thankfulness for all He has done for us! May such gratitude never be dampened, but always exponentially increase, for those who truly see the cross know that He really deserves our wholehearted praises!

God has done all the work to save us sinners from the very certain prospect of His righteous eternal damnation over us, and has instead called all people to repent and live a holy life of purity and righteousness as HE sees it. He has done this not at all because we deserved it, but because His plan from before the beginning of time was to show us all the full extent of the incredible and powerful grace of His Son, Jesus Christ, over His enemies – wicked people, like we all once were. Yes, it was initially Adam’s great sin of disobedience and rebellion in the garden of Eden that has brought condemnation for every human being. But the Lord Jesus Christ’s one act of righteousness, of bearing the burden of the sins of the world on His own innocent shoulders at the cross, has brought us all the opportunity for a right relationship with God, and the resulting miracle of new spiritual life for everyone who believes. So in other words, just as sin has ruled over all people since the beginning and has never failed to bring to death to all, now instead it’s God’s wonderful grace that rules, giving all those who place their trust in Him a right standing with God, resulting in eternal life (which can only come to anyone through the blood of Jesus). Just as everyone dies, because all humans are the seed of (and therefore belong to) Adam, everyone who now belongs to Christ will be undeservedly given NEW LIFE, on the merits of HIS works, and not our own works. This spiritual life He offers us is totally experiential even before we die, for one can receive it, sense it, feel it and experience it, even if one cannot fully understand it. This spiritual new life is loaded with His peace and acceptance, for those who know it and experience it have been made right with God through His blood shed at the cross.

For those who don’t yet know this, the way to have this amazing eternal life is to KNOW the only true God, Jehovah, and His Son Jesus Christ, the one He sent to earth to die on our behalf, and the only way that can happen is via the blood of Christ, along with repentance from evil ways. Those who receive Christ are then spiritually crucified with Him, 2000 odd years ago, so that they can then be raised with Him at the resurrection 3 days later. It is all very mystical, but it’s all true! We were metaphorically buried with Christ when we were baptised in water, which is the outward sign of our repentance from our sins, which is a change of heart concerning living for God and striving for purity. Then, with Him, we were raised to new life (when we came out of the water) because we trusted in the mighty power of God, who first raised Christ from the dead; we are raised with Him at the resurrection, in Spirit. We have therefore died to this worldly life after the public proclamation of our repentance, and now our real life is hidden with Christ, who is in God. So, when Christ Jesus, who IS our life, is one day revealed to the whole world at large, we will then share in all His glory with Him, for even now, those that truly receive Him and genuinely believe in Him are ‘seated’ with Him in heavenly places, and have access to both His miraculous power and His intercession on our behalf, as we each individually navigate the minefield of earthly life.

Don’t be under a delusion like the rest of the unbelieving world, for the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life, including every thought, word and deed. It is written that “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a non Jew, whether you are circumcised or uncircumcised; it doesn’t matter if you are an uneducated, uncivilised slave and poor, or whether you are educated, rich and free. All that matters is Christ, and whether He lives by His Spirit in us. There is no more condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus! Christ lives within the true believer like a King resides in His temple on His throne, so even though our bodies will die because of sin, the Spirit gives us life because we have been made right with God. Who, then, can condemn us? No one, not even satan, because Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us. He promises to finish the work He starts in us, should we remain true to Him. He longs to produce His kingdom fruit in us! He wants us to abide in Him, so He can abide in us.

Therefore, Christ’s love should be controlling us. Since we believe that He died for us all, we also need to completely die to our old life. That means NO more sinning, to the very best of our ability! He died for everyone so that those who receive this new life will no longer live for themselves, selfishly and vainly as we all once did. Instead, we must live solely for Christ, who died and was raised for us. I pray that everyone would experience the wholesome love of Christ, even though it is too great to understand fully, for then we will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. In reciprocation, we must live a life filled with holy purity and real love, following the example of our wonderful Saviour. When we look at the cross, it should be so obvious to all that He completely loved us and obediently offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, which was in fact a pleasing aroma to God, for it smells like the smouldering incense of genuine, unselfish love. We must also live our own lives as living sacrifices for Him, seeking to do His will and offering ourselves daily for His purposes. I again pray that we will all always be filled with the fruit of our initial salvation, which is the maturing, righteous character produced in our lives by the Spirit of Jesus, for it will all bring much glory and praise to God on that great and terrible day when all spirits and souls are judged.

This new life in Christ must extend to our family lives too. For example, as the church submits to Christ, so wives should submit to husbands in everything. What does this really mean? Well, for husbands, this means LOVE your wives as Christ loved the church, for He gave up His life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing powerful ‘bleach’ of God’s word. This is a HUGE responsibility, and must not be taken lightly. They ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies, for a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself! No one hates his own body, but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And those in the church, both male and female, are members of His body.

Let us never be ashamed then, and continue to be bold for Christ, as we have been in the past. Let us trust in Jehovah, that our lives will bring honour to Christ, whether we either live or die. To glorify God with our death is one of the highest accolades of the kingdom, and we must be continually ready for that event, and pray that we would be found worthy of seeing it through to the end should it be required of us. Always remember that God has had incredible mercy on us so that He could use us as prime examples of His great patience with even the worst of sinners. Watch your thoughts here! Don’t think highly of yourself and think there others are worse than you, for if you do, you are in fact deceived. God is the fair judge who knows all that each of us have thought, said and done, and always bear in mind that most human beings can truly feel their own ways are righteous, when they in fact bring death. None of us really know the repercussions of our own former sins on others, and we can only hope for redemption on wretches like us and the restoration that the blood of Christ brings. Once we are born again, we must be ‘plugged into the Spirit’ to ‘grow good fruit’ that He can then harvest into His eternal barns. When we are like this, others will then realise that they, too, can believe in Him and receive eternal life. This is the way it works.

Bear in mind that everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will eventually suffer persecution at some point, to varying severity. Nevertheless, we must worship Christ as Lord of our lives at all times, and if someone asks about our hope as a believer, we must always be ready to explain it to the best of our knowledge. But when one does so, it must always be done in a gentle and respectful way. We should strive to keep our consciences clear. Then, if people speak against us, they will be ashamed when they see what good lives we live because we belong to Christ. We must always build each other up in the most pure faith, exhorting each other and edifying each other, praying in the power of the Holy Spirit, and awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring us all the gift of eternal life. In this way, we will keep ourselves safe in God’s love. We must always show mercy to those whose faith is wavering, for we never know what God is doing in someone else at any given time, and must always strive to help and encourage those weaker than us. We know that the Son of God has come, and He that has given us each individual spiritual understanding so that we can truly KNOW the true God according to our own characters, and be kept safe under His wings until He either calls us home, or comes back to judge the world. We are able to live in continual fellowship with the true God, Jehovah, because we can live in continual fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ, by His Spirit. He is the High Priest, the Mediator between us.

Jehovah is the only true God, and His presence IS eternal life. Knowing Him is to know heaven, forever. Seek Him whilst He may still be found!