The Salvation Experience

One of the greatest deceptions in the Body of Christ is the assumption that it understands the salvation experience. I know that this sounds ludicrous, but it is the truth. A great percentage of the Body does not truly understand the born again experience it has with the Father. I would venture to say that ninety-nine percent of the Body is completely unaware of the true disposition of the Sons of God.

Romans 5:19-21

19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Listen to the writer. Where sin reigned, bringing man unto death, now grace reigns by righteousness bringing us to eternal life.

Sin ruled the flesh in the unregenerated man. The law of sin working in the members was more powerful than the will of man. It worked to entice, beguile and lead man away from all that is called holy. Having the spirit of iniquity working from within, the conscience was shut up unto dead works. Therefore, it was impossible to please God. It took the righteous blood of Jesus to free the conscience from this captivity.

Hebrews 9:14

14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

I John 3:4

4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Conscience – 1. The spirit of the mind.

2. Co-perception of both worlds (good and evil, flesh and spirit).

3. Is the judge of all the actions and deeds of the flesh. (Ephesians 4:22-23, Hebrews 9:9-14).

4. The hidden man of the heart.

5. The knower.

Furthermore, the implication is that just as sin reigned over the flesh, to be born of the Spirit of God is to be placed in a position for grace or the righteousness of God to reign over the flesh. For the conscience is made free from the law of sin and death working in the members. Being purged of sin and submerged in the Spirit, it is now able through the Spirit to overcome the power of sin in the flesh.

Therefore, grace can reign over the flesh. Grace can rule and demand that the flesh submit to the righteousness of God. Now this is the intent of God in the redemption plan. He intended for the Sons of God to live holy here upon the earth. However, it is the mind of the Church that no one can truly live free from the dictates of the flesh. It is the general consensus that as long as we are in these bodies, we (the saints of God) will sin. Well, if that is the case, then grace will never reign over flesh, and the power of righteousness is not as powerful as sin.

This is a heretic doctrine that must be destroyed in the household of faith. It is a doctrine of devils. It is the mind of those inspired by ignorance, Satan and/or the lust of the flesh. This is indeed not the mind of God. For if it were impossible for the Sons to live totally free from sin, there would have been no need for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, or the coming of Christ for that matter. We could simply have remained under the law. Nevertheless,

Romans 8:3

3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

The law did not offer power over the sin that was working in the members of the flesh. It merely offered a temporary covering. However, the coming of Christ condemned sin in the flesh. This means that the work of Christ gave us power over the power of sin. Thus to walk in sin is condemnation. Condemnation means separation from God, cast into outer darkness, torment, and the like.

Once the conscience has been purged of sin and submerged in the Holy Spirit, it is then able to overcome the power of sin.

The church as a whole does not really believe that one can truly live free from sin.

Christ condemned sin in the flesh!

Beloved, God would not require the Church to walk in the power of righteousness if it was not attainable. We are the children of God.

II Peter 1:4

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Note the fact we have escaped the corruption of the flesh, which came about as a result of lust. We have escaped it's power because we have taken on the divine nature of the Father..

Where sin abounded to corrupt the flesh, so now grace abound to bring the flesh unto righteousness.

The following scripture explains this salvation experience.

Romans 6:1-4

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Newness of life is just what it implies. A new life. We have so minimized the power of the salvation experience, in that we consider walking in the newness of life as trying to abstain from the lusts of the flesh. But it is much more than the power of abstention. IT IS A STATE OF BEING. We are partakers of a new life. Our life is now in Christ. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is a submerging of the conscience into the spiritual body of Christ.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

which of lust Once

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

St. John 17:22-23

Behold, we are indeed new creatures. We are the offspring of God the Father. We are spiritual beings. We are not of Adam, but of God.

This we have said many times in this ministry. However, the connotation of sonship is still not understood or perceived by the Body. Those who have tasted of the revelation of the Sons of God have not fully digested it as reality. It is still a theory to many. But before I go into further details concerning this state of mind, let us continue in the initial salvation experience.

Romans 6:5-6

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

The old man is dead, crucified with Christ in the born again experience. For many years we have been trying to nail down just who this old man is or was, but the revelation of sonship insists that the entire Adamic creature was a man of sin. Therefore, the whole man must die. For the wages of sin is death.

Now it is the spirit that gives life to the body. The human spirit was dead in sin and dead works. However, this is the spiritual inner man, or the hidden man. Nevertheless, because the spirit was bound in sins and iniquity, thus the outer man or the body was sinful as well. The body of sin is just as the scripture says," a body of sin". The sinful conscience yielded the members of the body to sin, creating a “body of sin.”

The Sons of God are:

1. New Creatures

2. The Offspring of God.

3. Spiritual Beings 4. Not of Adam, but of God.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:23

THE ENTIRE PERSONAGE OF THE BELIEVER IS THEREFORE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST. THE OLD MAN IS NO MORE.

Romans 8:11

11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

To quicken is to bring alive. Note the mortal body is brought alive unto God by the Spirit of God who dwells within. Therefore, it follows suit that the body had to be dead in order to be brought alive again. The whole man died and was resurrected by the power of the Holy Ghost. The following passage explains what happened in this dying experience.

I Thessalonians 5:23

23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Cleansed were the spirit, soul and body. This is the whole man. This cleansing was total. Sin was removed from the spirit, soul and body. Now the body can live by the power of the Spirit of God that dwells in it.

The body and soul were cleansed. The spirit was renewed. We were actually recreated by becoming one with the Spirit of God. The following is the testimony of Jesus Christ concerning the Sons of God.

St. John 17:16

16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

St. John 17:21-23

21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

At salvation, sin was removed from the:

1. Spirit

2. Soul and

3. Body

The Sons of God have been made equal with God in nature and character. Sin has no more dominion over the Sons.

Romans 6:7-10

7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

We, too, died to sin once and are now able to live unto God.

Romans 6:11-12

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Here we are again. Sin has to be allowed to reign in the body of the Son.

Romans 14:22

22 Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

Sin has no dominion over the Sons of God.

Dominion – Supreme authority or control: SOVEREIGNTY. Webster’s Dictionary

We sin by choice!

Acts 24:16

16 And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

You must see that it is not the mind of God for the saints to sin against the truth or the nature of the Sons to sin. It is the will and purpose of the Father to cultivate a Church free of sin and iniquity. We must be real about this matter. We sin by choice because we yield our bodies to lust and pride. We are the Sons of God and have power over sin.

To further deal with the sin issue, I am listing two of the most comprehensive passages relative to this matter.

Romans 7:1-25

1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. 7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for

I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17NowthenitisnomoreIthatdoit,butsinthat dwelleth in me.

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20NowifIdothatIwouldnot,itisnomoreIthat do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Romans 7:1-25

Romans 8:1-4

1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.