By Teresa Ferraro
Confess & Believe on Christ, God’s Son, as your Savior.
“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved.” (Rom. 10:9)
By God’s Grace, Christ's Cross, and through faith in Christ as the risen Son of God:
"But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor. 6:11)
“But of [God] are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Cor.
1:30)
You are NOT saved, redeemed, justified, cleansed, sanctified, or made righteous by living the Law. It is accomplished by Christ’s Cross and
it is yours by faith in Christ alone.
“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To
declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” (Rom. 3:24-26)
Christ’s death on the Cross paid for your sin and cleansed you. BUT it is Christ inside you that gives you eternal life.
“God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life.” (1 John 5:11-12)
Your whole transformation—spirit, soul-mind, and body—is HIS work, not yours. You receive it by faith in HIM.
The Moment of Salvation:
You were re-born. You have a new spiritual Father and a new spirit, God’s Spirit. You NOW have your new Father’s nature.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be
born again.” (John 3:6-7)
NOW, you are a child of God, joint-heir with Christ, partaker in the divine nature and the inheritance.
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of
Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. … The
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs
with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” (Rom. 8:9-10, 16-17)
NOW, you have been baptized into Christ spiritually, placed into His death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6). You, the old man that was you, was crucified with Christ. It is no longer YOU; it is now Christ living in you (Gal. 2:20).
NOW, you are a New Creation spiritually. The old being with the sin-nature is gone.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).
NOW, you are a vessel of God, containing the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Father.
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” (2 Cor. 4:7)
“One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Eph. 4:6)
Sin and law were dealt with at the Cross. Sin doesn’t control you anymore. Law does not reign over you.
You’ve been given God’s Spirit to live by, not law. Christ is the end of the Law. The Law was given to Israel in an old covenant, before the Cross. Law is for the unrighteous. Law convicts; it doesn’t save. The Cross satisfied and fulfilled the Law and took Law out of our way. Law is NOT for God’s re-birthed children.
When you were baptized into Christ, Christ was placed in you, with all HIS characteristics; and NOW you are complete in Him.
“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and
power.” (Col. 2:9-10)
You are His vessel. You are no longer a vessel of sin. What you do is not who you are, is not your identity. You are freed from sin and bought with a precious price. You don’t have a license to sin, to abuse Grace, as though the Cross did nothing. God trains and disciplines His children.
This is your NEW SPIRITUAL REALITY.
NOW, it’s time to renew your mind to your new existence, to learn this new life in Christ, to learn Christ as your life, so you can live that life spontaneously. Be transformed by renewing the mind (Rom. 12:2).
As you learn Christ as your life, your will and desires will change; you will start producing fruit as you mature in your new identity and
grow into the full stature of Him.
“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13)
As you live the Christ-life, you will find the rest He promised, HIS rest.
“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” (Heb. 4:9-11)
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek
and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)
You will rest in Him through all life’s circumstances. You will rest, content, in Him as your provider. You will rest in Him as you do HIS good works, not YOUR works for acceptance or justification, not out of obligation or obedience. It will just be spontaneous response to Him in you, your will becoming His will. Him living through you.
The Christ-life.
