As promised in part one, we will be looking at the Apostle Paul’s problems which, like everyone else who comes to the Lord, made his initial time with the Lord a “tough row to hoe” as we used to say in cotton country. Having hoed hundreds of cotton rows, some of them pretty tough, I have found that they were nothing compared to what Satan throws in the way of those who are seeking true oneness with the Lord. Sadly, only a tiny percentage of those who seek the Lord make it into His spiritual presence in this life. As Jesus said in Matthew 7:13,14; 22:14, many are called to do so, but few are chosen to walk with Him because they refused to answer His call for obedience to His strict rules of engagement for walking with Him and His Son. Instead, the masses take the easy route by answering Satan’s call to join him in his two-headed, multi-bodied religious system which has awarded itself such titles as “the church,” “Christianity,” “the faith,” “Christendom,” etc. God has given Satan’s system His own title: “ABOMINATION”–THE SAME TITLE HE USES WHEN REFERRING TO ALL OTHER RELIGIONS.

I will introduce the segment about the problems Paul faced early on in his Christian walk with some background that has been discussed in previous postings. I will do this because some readers of this teaching might be new to the website. Leading up to Romans chapters 6,7 and 8, Paul wrote to the church at Rome about JUSTIFICATION–having all of one’s past sins forgiven by God’s grace and man’s faith only. The Law does not enter into the justification process. Simply put, Jesus died so that man could receive justification as a free gift from God. Justification is the gracious act on God’s part by which He removes and forgives all of the true salvation seeker’s PAST SINS (Rom. 3:24,25,28), which leaves him righteous (free of sin). Following justification, the salvation process involves what the now cleansed, righteous believer must DO in order to retain his justified status throughout the remainder of his life in the HOPE of receiving salvation upon the return of Jesus Christ to earth. That HOPE will be rewarded IF the seeker continues to obey God’s Law until the end. Read The Process of Salvation. Key word–Process. Relative to hope and salvation, read Titus 1:2 and 3:7; Hebrews 3:6 and 6:11, First Peter 1:13 and the series titled Hope and Salvation. Key word–Hope.

There are many verses which tell us plainly what, following justification, one must DO in order to complete the salvation process. We will mention three of them which paint a good picture of the “walk” (lifestyle) God requires. One of the Biblical passages is First John 2:6 in which the apostle tells us that if we claim to be a spiritual brother of Jesus Christ we must “walk as He walked” during his earthly tenure. Another Scripture is Revelation 3:21 in which Jesus Himself tells us that in order to join Him in paradise in the future one must “… overcome (Satan’s temptations to sin) even as I (Jesus) overcame” them. The third passage is Ephesians 4:13 where we are told that we must grow in righteousness until we manifest “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” With those examples in mind we will now turn to Romans chapters 6 through 8 and delve into a lengthy passage that has been the downfall of billions of salvation seekers over the centuries. Bear in mind that this is Paul writing. Therefore it requires much in-depth study led by the Holy Spirit to understand what he is saying. I have, with the help of the Holy Spirit, done the necessary studying.

In chapter 6 of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome we find him comparing the believer’s baptismal emersion and rising up to Christ’s death and resurrection. Christ’s physical death meant that temptation no longer affected Him as it had while was a live human being. He had to continually resist Satan’s seductive call to sin. The believer’s “death” (submersion) is symbolic of his dying to temptation so that he, like Jesus, can receive the Holy Spirit which will enable him to resist Satan, just as did the man Jesus. Upon arising from the watery “grave,” the true believer begins to “walk in (be led by) the (Holy) Spirit” which empowers him to resist Satan’s temptations. Jesus, having been born again (changed from physical to spirit bodily composition) is therefore not affected by Satan’s temptations. True saints walk in the Spirit and, over time, grow in faith (power) until they are ABLE to resist as did Jesus. Over the past 2000 years the vast majority of salvation seekers, finding God’s narrow path to salvation too difficult, choose to join Satan’s more user-friendly, multiple-choice religion in which sin is accepted as “natural” and forgiveness is just a repent away, which frees them to sin again, and again, and …. Claiming that they can sin and get away with it due to God’s grace, they call themselves “sinners saved by grace.” However, the Holy Scriptures tell us that God’s grace does not cover serial sinning, that once justification has been granted through His grace, ALL SIN IS FORBIDDEN. Sinners saved by grace would have us believe that Jesus died because of their sins (breaking the Law), but after having forgiven the sinner and cleansing him, He now allows him to return to sinning. He agrees for them to crucify Him spiritually with each sin (Heb. 6:6). Read Forgiveness: Carte Blanche or Selective? and The Many Crucifixions of Jesus Christ. Key words–Selective and Crucifixions. L.J.