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Meaning in Life in the Framework of Eternity

 

Chapter 7
Benefits and Responsibilities For
Those Who Received God's Gift of Eternal Life

All are Encouraged to Read This Chapter

This chapter explains some of the important benefits and responsibilities for those who now Trust (Believe) in Jesus. Everyone -- whether you trust in Jesus or not -- is encouraged to read this chapter to see what is involved in the life of those who Trust in Jesus.

As was explained in chapter 6, “How to Have Real Meaning In Life,” when you Trust in Jesus you are putting your confidence of your entire life in Jesus that includes basing your life on His teachings. If you have just Trusted in Jesus, I believe You are Saved -- Saved from God's wrath!

Basically, all the phrases below mean the same thing.
 
Trust in Jesus

Believe in Jesus

Believe on Jesus

Be Saved

Receive God's Gift of Salvation

Receive God's Gift of Eternal Life

Benefits

If you have received God's Gift of Eternal Life, below are some very important benefits for You! This is the best package deal ever offered in history!
 
·  
 The sins that you have committed have been washed away (Acts 10:43; Matthew 9:2-6) because you believe that Jesus paid the penalty for those sins.
 
(Since Jesus paid the penalty, animal sacrifices are no longer of any value to God -- animal sacrifices are no longer needed, as mentioned in chapter 5, "The Final Solution to the Sin Issue.")
 
·  
 God no longer remembers the sins that you have committed (Hebrews 10:16-18).
 
(Even though God has forgotten all of those sins, the consequences of those sins may continue.)
 
·  
 The Bible says that even before you were saved (Romans 5:8), God the Father loved you so much.
 
·  
 God the Father provided the Gift of Salvation through Jesus (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8).
 
When you receive the Gift of Salvation, you get saved from God's wrath. God's Grace saves you. You are NOT Saved by doing enough good deeds -- NO Amount of good deeds can Save a person.
 
·  
 God's wrath is no longer directed towards you! (John 3:36)
 
The Passover ceremony (refer to chapter 5, “The Final Solution to the Sin Issue”) is an illustration of this. God’s wrath (punishment) wasn’t executed on the family that performed the ceremony. After they killed their lamb -- their Passover lamb -- and applied its blood on the doorpost of their house, the destroyer (probably an angel) passed over and didn’t kill the oldest son of the family. In a similar way, God’s wrath is no longer directed towards you when you Trust in Jesus. The Passover lamb in the above-mentioned ceremony is symbolic of the real Lamb of God, Jesus, Who came as a human being (so somehow Jesus was God and man at the same time) (Matthew 1:18-25, Hebrews 2:9-18). He was killed (but came back to life) so that His Blood can be applied to your spiritual life. When this happens, God’s wrath is no longer directed towards you!
 
·  
 You are justified in God's sight.
  The word justified, as used in this document, can be to pardon and clear from guilt (Webster's dictionary (1828)).
 
  All of us have sinned (Romans 3:23), all of us are guilty and all of us are deserving of God's punishment in the Lake of Fire. When WE BELIEVE that GOD CAN JUSTIFY the UNGODLY (those who have sinned, including you and me) (Romans 4:2-8), HE SEES our FAITH and HE PARDONS US. HE JUSTIFIES US -- HE CLEARS US from GUILT and CANCELS OUR PUNISHMENT of eternal torment!! HE also ACCEPTS US as RIGHTEOUS (explained later).

As I have heard it mentioned before, you are justified -- just as if you never committed the sins!

Before you Trusted in Jesus, the sins that you committed were on your -- metaphorically speaking -- spiritual legal document of your life. It is like God looks at that document and sees the sins. Those sins prevent God from fellowshipping with you. But when you Trusted in Jesus, your sins were washed away by the Blood of Jesus -- in God’s eyes the sins are gone. You have been pardoned of your sins and you can go before (Hebrews 4:16) and fellowship with God.
 
·  
 You are righteous in God's sight.
 
Before we Trusted in Jesus, we were not righteous because of the sins that we committed. God provided the way for us to be made righteous. He did that through Jesus' obedience. Jesus took the punishment for all of our sins. This caused Jesus' death.

Because of Jesus' obedience, when you put your confidence in Him, you were made righteous (Romans 5:19). You are, spiritually, in the right legal standing in God's sight.
 
·  
 You have peace with God.
  Those who are justified by faith have peace with God through Jesus (Romans 5:1).
 
·  
 You have your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
  This means that you will get to be with God forever, where there is awesome joy and where there is no pain, tears or death. (Revelation 21:2,4,10,22-27; Psalms 16:11)
 
·  
 You can have abundant, eternal life -- real meaning in life -- now and forever (John 10:10; Psalms 16:11) and you will live with God forever.
 
·  
 You become a child of God, so you become part of God’s family (Galatians 3:26-29).
 
This means that you get the benefits and responsibilities of being in the family of God.
 
·  
 GOD the Father WANTS to HELP YOU live in a pleasing manner before Him (Hebrews 13:21).
 
·  
 You can go to God's throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16) and ask God to supply your needs (Philippians 4:19) and to supply your wants (Psalms 37:4).
 
He may not give you everything that you want, but HE will do everything so that His purposes are fulfilled.
 
·  
 You are born of water and of the Holy Spirit, so you are born again (John 3:1-13).
  (The word water may be referring to water baptism (John 3:5 and Matthew 3:11 per Matthew Henry’s commentary of the Bible).)
 
·  
 You are now a Christian, a follower of Christ (Jesus) (Acts 11:26; Matthew 1:16).
 
·  
 You are saved from the kingdom of darkness and now are in the kingdom of light -- the kingdom of God (Colossians 1:12,13).
 
You are fellow citizens with the saints (Ephesians 2:19). A saint is anyone who has put their trust in Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:2).

The phrases kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven used in the Bible (the King James Version) refers to the spiritual realm where everything is done God’s way. The kingdom of God has dominion over regular reality. In regular reality, natural laws operate. In the kingdom of God, God’s laws (commands) can override (supersede) natural laws in regular reality.

When Christians apply God's laws by faith according to God's will, the supernatural can occur! Christians, if they meet God's conditions, can do such things as pray for the sick and they will recover (Mark 16:16-18) -- instantly sometimes. Only Christians can really begin to understand this reality where the Spirit of God operates (1 Corinthians 2:6-14).

By faith in God, You can live in God's reality, which is a higher reality than regular reality!
 
·  
 The Holy Spirit will teach you how to live -- how to please God (John 14:26).

These benefits are so awesome!

 Responsibilities of Those Who are Saved

If you have received God's Gift of Eternal Life, below are some of your responsibilities.
 
·  
 The most important thing that you are to do is to LOVE GOD with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Matthew 22:37-38).
  You show that you love Him by doing His commandments (John 14:15). We learn of His commandments from the Bible.

Sometimes God wants us to do a specific thing, which may not be specifically written in the Bible. Occasionally, God speaks to a person in a voice heard by one's ear (Acts 9:1-5). 

More commonly, God impresses His thoughts on a person's inner being. Sometimes God speaks to a person through another person. But no matter which way God speaks to a person to do a specific thing, it should not conflict with what the Bible teaches. We must also learn to know when we get impressions, or when someone directs or advises us, or when we get directions by other means, whether it is really what God wants us to do or not. 
 
·  
 Love those around you as you love yourself (Matthew 22:39).
 
·  
 Keep God as the boss (lord) (ruler) of your life.
  You should seek to do God's will, just as Jesus did (John 5:30). God only wants what is best for you.
 
·  
 Be thankful to God for the Gift of Eternal Life that He has given to you.
  The Gift of Eternal Life has not come by what you have done -- it is not by your good deeds (Ephesians 2:8,9). God has provided the Gift of Eternal Life through His love, grace and mercy. 
 
·  
 Make an effort to fellowship with God daily (1 John 1:3).
  Fellowship is interacting with God. It is God sharing with you what is on His heart and you sharing what is on your heart. (I’m trying to get to that place of fellowship with God.) Times of fellowship with God are probably the greatest experiences you can have! Ideally, you want to be in fellowship with God throughout the day, everyday.

Praising and worshiping God (explained in the next point) helps you to get to that place of fellowship with God. During times of praising and worshiping God, sometimes it’s best just to be quiet and try to hear God speaking to you or impressing things on your heart.

While fellowshipping with God, you may ask Him to meet your needs or the needs of others. This is a great situation to pray to God. Of course, you can pray to God at any time in any situation.
 
·  
 Praise and worship God daily.
 
  The words praise and worship seem to have somewhat similar meanings in the New Testament of the Bible.

To me, praising God (Acts 2:46,47) is telling others about how awesome He is, telling others of the great things He does, telling Him how awesome He is and telling Him of the great things He does.
 
 

I believe part of worshipping God is honoring Him with your words, songs and bowing before Him, telling Him of His awesomeness and so on. But I think the real worship of God (John 4:24) occurs when the attitude of your heart and the actions of your life are pleasing to Him, which includes doing what He wants you to do (1 Samuel 15:22). Only God is worthy of worship.

Praise and worship God by doing such things as thanking Him for the Gift of Eternal Life that He has given to you, thanking Him for what He has provided for you and others, thanking Him for the things that He has done in your life, telling Him of His greatness, living according to the teachings in the Bible and doing what He wants you to do.
 

·  
 Pray to God daily.
 
  Prayer is talking to God about your needs or the need of others and requesting help.
 
·  
 Read the Bible daily so that you can learn things such as what God expects of you and what you can expect from God.
 
  It is probably best to start reading from the Book of John in the New Testament of the Bible. Also, study the Bible for a deeper understanding of God's ways (2 Timothy 2:15).

Recently, I've read some articles about different versions of the Bible in the English language. I believe one of the best English versions is the King James Version. One of the disadvantages of the King James Version for people today is the fact that it is not written in the English used today. The King James Version was written in 1611. Another disadvantage is that the scholars, who produced that version of the Bible, didn't have the information on the languages of the Bible and other information related to the Bible that is now available.

For those who would like to read a version of the Bible in modern English, the New King James Version may be a good choice.

To interpret the Bible, it is good to use the best Biblical resources (including good Bible dictionaries and commentaries) that you have access to. Please be aware that because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, some things in the Bible like animal sacrifices aren't to be done. Those things just show us how things were before Jesus' sacrifice.

For more information concerning things mentioned in the few preceding paragraphs, refer to appendix A, "More Information About the Holy Bible and Which One to Use."
 
·  
 Meet regularly with a good group of Christians (church) (Hebrews 10:24,25).
 
 

Typically, Christians meet in a church building, but this is not required.

A good group will help you to grow in your new life.

In a good group, there will be evidence of God's love -- Christians in the group will be sincerely helping each other and those outside the group. People in the group should be trying to develop the character of Jesus.

The group of Christians should allow honest questions about the group's doctrines. The doctrines should not conflict with the teachings in the Bible.

There are all kinds of Christian churches. Many people think that the only way services in Christian churches can honor God is by having solemn activities and solemn music. Please be aware that there are, I believe, many good Christian churches that have services that honor God that include lively activities and lively contemporary Christian music. If what occurs in these churches doesn't conflict with the teachings of the Bible, it is okay.

To find a church, you may need to visit the services of different Christian churches to see which church you would like to be a part of. Some churches are part of a denomination (an organization of a group of churches) (like a Baptist organization). I'm quite sure there are many Baptist churches that honor God with solemn activities and music. I'm also quite sure that there are many Baptist churches that honor God with lively activities and lively contemporary Christian music.
You may want to visit a church that is a part of an organization like the General Council of the Assemblies of God organization (Springfield, Missouri) ( www.ag.org ), the Vineyard International Consortium ( www.vineyard.org ) or Vineyard USA (Stafford, Texas) ( www.vineyardusa.org ) (part of the preceding Vineyard organization).

One Christian organization that has various resources is the Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) (a television network) (Santa Ana, California) ( www.tbn.org ). Please note that the four organizations mentioned above may have lively activities and lively contemporary Christian music.

One organization that may give good guidance on large religious organizations is the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry ( www.carm.org ) (Escondido, California). You may want to look at the website and see if there is information about the churches that you are thinking of visiting.

When you are part of a church, learn more about God and learn what the Bible teaches. There may come a time in the future that God may want you to go to a church that more closely follows your understanding of what the Bible teaches. Whatever Christian church you become a part of, its people should more and more be living according to what the Bible teaches.
 

·  
 Find out what is (are) the gift(s) that God has placed in your life (Ephesians 2:10), if you don't already know what it is (they are).
 
  I believe God has designed an awesome and unique destiny for each person. After being a Christian for a while, try to find out what God wants you to do with the gift(s) He has placed in you. One of the ways you may find out what your gift(s) is (are) by God impressing His thoughts on your heart. Another way is by what mature Christians (Christians who have a good understanding of God’s ways and the Bible) around you tell you. Get advice from mature Christians on how and when to begin using your gift(s). As you use your gift(s) to bring honor to God, life will be more and more meaningful.
 
·  
 If you do commit sins in the future, you can confess your sin and ask God to forgive you of your sin.
 
  He will forgive you (1 John 1:9). After He has forgiven you, continue to pursue Him. If you sin, you should be truly sorry of the sin. When you are truly sorry, you will be determined to change -- with God's help -- such that you will live a more pleasing life before God (2 Corinthians 7:8-11).

Once we sin, there are consequences. If we ask for forgiveness, God will forgive us. We may still have to bear the consequences, but not the punishment of eternal torment in the Lake of Fire.

If we Trust in Jesus (our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life) and if we sin before we die, I believe that Jesus will forgive us of those sins from His side (Matthew 9:1-8) and we will live with God forever.
·  
 Learn about water baptism, and then get water baptized (Acts 8:35-39).
 
·  
 Learn more about Jesus’ life on the Earth by watching the Free 2-hour online movie Jesus at www.jesusfilm.org/languages/ by Campus Crusade for Christ International. The movie can be watched in more than 1,000 languages.
 
·  
 Put the confidence of your entire life in God, not in any thing or any human being such as a Christian leader, spouse, relative, friend or even your own self.
 
As you do the things mentioned above, you should get to know God and His ways more and more.

Summary

There are so many awesome benefits when we Trust (Believe) in Jesus, but there are also responsibilities. When we are trying our best -- with God's help -- to do what He wants us to do, we are showing that we Love God.

To those who have received God's Gift of Eternal Life, God Bless You in Your New Life with God. As you LOVE GOD and do what He wants you to do, you can Have Real Meaning in Your Life even if you go through difficult times.

To those who have not yet received God's Gift of Eternal Life, God Bless You. I pray that you will soon Trust (Believe) in Jesus so that you, too, receive His Gift of Eternal Life and can Have Real Meaning in Your Life as explained in chapter 6, "How to Have Real Meaning in Life."

The next chapter will show what the Bible says will happen in the days ahead.
 

 

-- End of Chapter 7 --

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Meaning in Life in the Framework of Eternity
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