Reason #3 for Christ’s death on the cross concerns the total and permanent change in a believer that must take place following conversion.  This commanded, no-exception, total reversal of life must take place in order for true conversion to take place.  Contrary to universal opinion, this is not an instantaneous “arrive lost/leave saved” change.  Salvation is a process.  Read the series by that name.  Key word–Process.

Contrary to universal opinion, all people are born with the same clean spiritual slate.  Adam’s famous sin transferal miracle never took place.  This ruse was concocted by a Catholic priest named Augustine.  Because it gave people an excuse for sinning, it quickly became “Bible truth.”  When the so-called “Protestants” left Satan’s church they took many of his beliefs and practices with them.  When Adam became a scapegoat for the church’s craving for sin, Augustine’s lie was embraced like a long-lost sibling.  Several other such lies are listed in the Introduction to this website.

As is the case with all human beings, we must be “begotten” (conceived) by natural means.  Not having the Holy Spirit within, eventually, everyone sins (Rom. 3:23).  In order to receive eternal life we must realize that we are sinners and must repent of our past sins, be baptized and vow to serve God by obeying His Word for the remainder of our lives (Acts 20:26).  At true conversion one is “born of God” (not born again).  Having been forgiven of all past sins, the true convert is filled with God’s Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4,5) which leads him in a 180 degree spiritual reversal of life.  Upon entering God’s strait gate–His true church–one is then led by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 3:25) along God’s narrow path (Mat. 7:13,14), all the while developing ever deeper faith through study of the Scriptures (Rom. 10:19) which tell us how to obey God more perfectly and thereby qualify for salvation (II Tim. 2:15; 3:14-17).

Following conversion one enters an extended faith growth period which leads us to ever more belief in and therefore obedience to God’s Word.  Greater obedience produces ever more holiness and righteousness which, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 5:21 and 6:22, enable us to receive eternal life at the return of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:5,9/ Mat. 10:22/ Ps. 118:15).  Note in Romans 5:21 and 6:22 that salvation comes at the END of a life of holiness and righteousness, not at the point of conversion.  As Paul tells us, one must run the “race” of life, at the END of which awaits eternal life.  As he says, all believers run the race (practice their religion), but only one wins the prize (1 Cor. 9:24/ Gal. 2:2; 5:7/ Phil. 2:16/Heb. 12:1/ 1 Pet. 4:4).  In the “race” for eternal life, only those who run according to the rules is rewarded.  Few, Jesus said, would do so (Mat. 7:13,14).  Many are called to run the race according to God’s rules.  Few, we are told, answer the call.  These call themselves “Sinners Saved By Grace.”  Though all in “the church” run the “race” for salvation, Paul tells us that few run it correctly.  These are called God’s Very Elect, His saints, His remnant, little flock who will join Him in His kingdom.  Those who run the race according to Satan’s rules call themselves “SSBG.”  However, as God tells us many times in His Word, there is no such thing as a saved sinner.  One is either light or darkness, holy or unholy, hot or cold.  To mix the two makes one, in the eyes of God, vomit which He promises to spew out of His mouth (Rev. 3:15,16).  Note that Jesus is speaking to the final church (Laodicean) era, the era in which we are now living.  Read Revelation 3:14-20 for a description of today’s church system and God’s attitude toward her.

Growth in faith, righteousness and holiness are absolutely necessary in order to qualify for salvation.  Otherwise one remains a spiritual child until death (Heb. 5:11-6:6).  Like a child who sits at a table filled with food but is given only milk, the spiritual child has the entire Bible at his fingertips but is taught only “headlines” such as John 3:16.  As Paul warned Timothy, those who do not partake of the “fine print” (“strong meat”–Heb. 5:12-14) of the Word–are “ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the Truth” (II Tim. 3:7).  Only those who partake of God’s “strong meat” will be able to obey Jesus and receive salvation (Rom. 5:9).  The “milk” type of faith (Rom. 5:11,12) develops when it is not accompanied by works of faith (obedience to God’s Word).  Such “milk,” James tells us, produces dead faith which passes itself off as living faith (2:10,14,17.,18,20,24,26).  Those who are satisfied with dead faith are “deceiving themselves” because they do not obey God’s Law (Jam. 1:22).  The spiritual growth required by the Lord must continue until we “come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).  Then such faith and the holiness it produces must be maintained in spite of Satan’s attempts to rob the saint of his true faith, which sometimes happens.  For the vast majority, the milk diet is all that is available from the pulpit.  Not being encouraged to study the Lord’s “fine print,” they accept Satan’s fake meat and follow him to their destruction.  He has been supremely successful in keeping milk drinkers away from the Lord.  Remember the phone book test.

God requires that we be one with Him (atonement= at-one-ment).  We are told that “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 Jn. 1:5).  Therefore, there can be no darkness in us.  In order to be one with Him we must be “delivered out of (Satan’s) darkness and into His (God’s) marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).  Sin is darkness.  “Sin is the transgression of the Law” (1 Jn. 3:4)–the same Law the church nailed to the cross.  Holiness is obedience to the Law.  Obedience is light.  One is either light or darkness.  As Joshua told the Israelites as they were preparing to enter the Promised Land, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.  If God, then serve Him only, if Satan, then serve him only.”  The choice was theirs, as it is ours.  An all-or-nothing choice must be made.  One cannot be one with God and serve two masters. “SSBG” reject this Truth.

In Romans 5:21-6:8 we are told by Paul, who received his gospel directly from Jesus Christ through revelation (Gal. 1:12), that if we sin, then sin reigns over us totally, resulting in death.  However, if we refuse to sin, then righteousness reigns over us totally, resulting in eternal life (5:21).  Paul asks if God’s grace allows us to sin so that He can display His grace?  His (God’s) answer: “GOD FORBID.”  The true convert is dead to sin and therefore does not sin.  In the remaining verses Paul tells us in no uncertain terms that we must be as dead to sin as was Jesus following His resurrection.  In verse 8 he notes that only those who are dead to sin as Christ is dead to sin will live with Him.

The one who is dead to sin and alive to righteousness (Rom. 6:11) is a true son of God.  In verse 13 Paul states that in order to receive eternal life one must yield (by choice) oneself to God and thereby be alive spiritually, having one’s body and mind serve as His “instruments of righteousness.”  Such will receive salvation upon the return of Christ to earth.

What I have just described is the “New Man” created by God in His spiritual image.  “ALL (old) things–sin) must be done away with, behold, ALL things must be made new.”  Nothing from the “old man” can be transferred to the “new man.”  One is an entirely new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).  In Ephesians 4:22-24 Paul commands that we, by our own decision, “put off” the old man and “put on” the new man whom God has “created in righteousness and true holiness.”  We must choose which deity we will worship, serve and obey–either God or Satan.  We must choose to obey God, yield ourselves to Him and obey Him by the power of the Holy Spirit that abides within us.  If, that is, we are truly God’s children.  Otherwise we are simply “deceiving ourselves” with our religiosity by believing Satan’s false prophets who tell us that we are, quote: “Nothing more than a society of sinners,” unquote.  I can only guess how many thousands of souls have followed the false prophet who spoke those words through Satan’s wide gate and along his broad path leading to destruction (Mat. 7:13,14).  Hopefully, during the millennium he and his followers will listen to God’s messengers, believe, turn and follow them unto salvation.  L.J.