Know These

4 Things You Should Know

Now that you’ve received Christ there are four basic things God want you to know, not only with the intellect, but with your heart and soul:

1. God loves you

2. You are a new person

3. You can live victoriously.

4. God is with you each moment of you life.

1. God loves you.

No matter what turn your life might take, don’t ever forget that God really loves you. Many people feel unloved and unwanted, and man can be cold and uncaring. But God loves all men from the most despicable sinner to the purest Christian. He has demonstrated that love by sending His only Son to die for our sins. Remember John 3:16 from the first chapter? The Apostle Paul also writes. “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Why would God send His only Son to die a cruel death for wicked men? Just because He loves us and wants us in Heaven with Him. Paul, himself once a sinner, illustrates God’s love in Titus 3:3, 7. “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slave to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another; but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.” Is there anything we have done to earn God’s love? No! Is there anything we have done to earn salvation? No! It is only because of God’s great love for us and by His grace that we can have salvation through Jesus Christ. Don’t ever think that God does not love you. His love is steady and sure. Paul says in Romans 8:38-39 that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. God loves you! Think about it! And because he does He has saved you and called you to a life of blessing in Christ. Salvation is the first gift you have received from God, but the treasures of His love will bring more gifts to you, both spiritual and material, time and time again.

So believe it! Act upon it! Experience it! Thank God for it! He loves you!

2. You are a new person.

Believe it or not, you are a brand new person. Through Jesus Christ you have experienced a spiritual birth. Jesus talked about this new birth in the 3rd Chapter of John saying that it was necessary for a man to be “born again” in order to enter the kingdom of God. And that is exactly what happens when a person receives Jesus as his Saviour. Paul writes, “Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (II Corinthians 5:17). What exactly happens when a person experiences a new birth through Christ? Again, we look at the words of Paul. “We know that our old self was crucified with him (Christ) so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:6). The nature of man is sinful, and before you received Christ you could not help but sin. It doesn’t matter whether you were a “big” sinner or a “lithe” sinner, your nature was bent toward sin. But when Jesus was crucified He nailed your old sinful nature to the Cross. In Christ, therefore, you are a new person. You have now taken on the nature of Christ live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Jesus Christ is now living in you. He is your new nature! That means you now have a desire for righteousness instead of sin. You now have a desire to serve God indeed of yourself. You now have a real grasp of what life is all about-living for the purpose God created you. You have been renewed. You are a brand new person. Himself. Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; It is no longer I who

3. You can live victoriously.

Because you are a new person, you are now able to conquer every habit of sin. (NOTE: Turn to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Galatians 5:16-21 to see what sin is.) This is not to say that you will never sin. In fact, John says that any Christian who says he never sins is simply not telling the truth (Study 1 John 1:8-9). Note that John also points out the willingness of God to quickly forgive our sins when we are truly repentant. But God wants us to eliminate our habits of sin. And because Jesus Christ nailed our old sinful natures to the Cross, we can, through Christ and only through Christ, live victoriously above sin. How does one go about that? Paul says that you must first “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). That means you first have to believe that Jesus really did crucify your sinful nature and that He really does live within you. Then Paul tells us not to yield ourselves to sin, but to yield ourselves to God. Dedicate your life to the Lord. Give your spirit, your mind, and your body to God. Devote yourself to serving Him. Paul says that if you do that, sin will have no power over you (read Romans 6:12-14 and also Ephesians 4:22-24). So stand up in the power you have in Christ. Yield yourself to Him, and you will not be overcome by sin. “The return you get,” Paul says, is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:22-23).

4. God is with you each moment of your life

At times it will seem as though God is a million miles away. But He’s not. Jesus said He would never leave us or forsake us. ( Matthew 28:20). Furthermore, He said, if a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Father will love him, and we will come to him and, make our home with him” (John 14:23).

God is always with us. He is faithful. You may slip and fail Him from time to time, but He will still be faithful to you. Many scriptures attest to God’s faithfulness (read Psalms 23:4, 1 Corinthians 1:9, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, and 2 Thessalonians 3:3). Perhaps the classic statement on God’s faithfulness to us is found in Deuteronomy 7:9. God said, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.”

No matter what you may feel like, God is present with you at all times, for He is faithful. Trust Him.

Acknowledge His presence. You can depend upon Him.

Now that you’ve studied the four things God wants you to know, let’s review them.