A Brother’s Meeting

Discussing The Gifts of God

Some of the gifts of the Grace of God given to those who have believed the Gospel and are now in Christ

The Sheep of Jesus

Jesus is the Shepherd of His sheep, the sheep of God. When a person believes God, he becomes a sheep of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). He then learns how to be guided by the Shepherd’s voice (John 10:27). Scripture is God’s instrument for a sheep to learn to discern the Shepherd’s voice from among the many false shepherds and false voices. A sheep of Jesus Christ has become His for eternity (John 10:27-28). Each sheep of Jesus has been given to Him by His Father (God) and no one can take them out of His Father’s hand (John 10:29).

1. Foreknowledge:

The foreknowledge of God is infinite. He sees everything and everyone from eternity past to eternity future. Every person who believes in Jesus Christ, God has foreknown. Man cannot understand the infinite knowledge and foreknowledge of God but the Scripture declares it as divine truth (Romans 8:29; 1 Peter 1:21).

2. Election:

Those whom God foreknew, He elected to come to faith in His Son (Acts 9:15; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4).

3. Predestination:

Predestination brings to reality those whom God has elected (1 Peter 1:2). The proof that this is true is the fact that a person believes God in Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:4-5). Predestination is seen clearly in this Scripture. Jesus said: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to Me, I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37, 39). Those predestined are those the Father has given to the Son (John 17:2, 6-12, 24).

4. Chosen of God:

Jesus said to His disciples, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). Every Christian has been chosen by God to inherit eternal life through Christ Jesus. If man was doing the choosing, his choices may change, but God has chosen, and “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). Man may falter and be controlled by his humanity, but God’s choice is forever.

5. Justified:

A person who believes God in Jesus Christ is seen by God as one whose sins have been forever put away (Hebrews 10:10, 12, 14). He is before God as one who has never sinned. Jesus took the sins of the believer upon Himself on the cross and paid the penalty for his sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, the believer becomes justified before God because his sins have been judged at the cross. Jesus endured God’s judgment and the penalty for the believer’s sins. There is no more sin to judge.

6. Imputed righteousness:

Not one person will enter through heaven’s gate unless that person has total and complete righteousness. This righteousness is not received through man’s works, efforts or through his strength. It is given by God as a gift to those who have believed God through Jesus Christ (Romans 4:21-25; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 9:15; Philippians 3:9). This gift is found in those who are in Christ (Ephesians 4:23-24; Colossians 1:27). This gift is the very righteousness of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:29; 1 John 2:1, 29).

7. Baptism of the Spirit:

When a person believes God and becomes saved, that person is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). He becomes a part of the Bride of Christ, the Lamb of God’s wife (Revelations 21:9). He also receives the Holy Spirit to indwell him (John 7:37-39; Galatians 3:1-5, 14). The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the Christian has the Spirit living in him and a non-Christian does not (Romans 8:9).

8. Sanctification:

The work of God’s Spirit sanctifies (to set apart) every believer. This means that the believer now is no longer a part of the unbelieving world. He is set apart to be unto God in his inner being and reflected in his walk of faith. He is in the world, but not of the world (James 4:4).

9. Sealed by the Spirit:

The Holy Spirit has sealed the believer unto God as His “purchased possession” (Ephesians 1:13-14). This seal of God on the believer can be opened only by God. God will not open this seal until the day of redemption (the coming of Jesus Christ to catch away His saints, His beloved ones at the rapture, (1Thessalonians 4:13-18), (Ephesians 4:30). Christ’s blood paid for the believer’s sins on Calvary’s cross and redeems the believer unto Jesus forever. At the believer’s point of faith in Jesus Christ, he was set and sealed by God for eternal redemption.

10. Received the promise of God:

The believer has received God’s promise to mankind. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Whereas he was dead in trespass and sin (Ephesians 2:1-3), he now has received the promise of God. He is a partaker of God’s life, everlasting life.

11. Priest of God:

The believer has been made a priest by God unto God (1 Peter 2:5, 9). This was accomplished by Christ who loved us and washed us in His blood. He further brought us into being a kingdom of priests unto Himself (Revelations 1: 5-6). Every Christian is a priest unto the Most High (highest) God.

12. Placed by God in the heavenlies:

A Christian’s position in this world is in Christ sitting in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:6 JND). He is dead to the world and alive unto God (Romans 6:13), for the Christian has been given life from heaven.

God has given all these things to those whom He loves in His Son. The Christian’s hope is no longer earthly, but entirely a heavenly hope, based on God’s promises to those that are His own. The believer’s hope is in the brightness of the eternal God, a light without darkness. And if God is for us this much, what does it matter who is against us? The victory of Jesus conquering sin and death is the believer’s life and hope.

“…we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

“Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death or things present or things to come – all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).

D. Neely
8-10-14
11-12-17

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