HOW TO BE SAVED - FROM DEATH (4)
IV. How to be Saved
B. From death
4. By receiving Christ as life – John
1:12
Burden to Impart:
The way to be saved from death is to
receive Christ as life. We were all born into Adam, and since the fall, Adam’s
destiny is to die (that is, death). To be saved from death we need to receive
another life. As children of Adam, our destiny is death. We need to become
children of God. We become children of God by receiving Christ as life (John
1:12-13). Life is the authority for the believing ones to be the children of
God.
Memory Verse: “But as
many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God,
to those who believe into His name,” (John 1:12)
Facts to Teach:
1.
To be saved from death, we must receive Christ as our life.
2.
Believing in the Lord is equal to receiving Him.
3.
When we speak of receiving the Lord Jesus, the young people may say that
they have never done that (you can ask them if they have). If a person truly believes
in the dear name of the Lord Jesus, in some way or other he will say,
"Lord Jesus." As long as you say His name from the depths of your
being, it means that you believe in Him. If you believe in Him by calling on
His name, it is proof that you have received Him.
4.
When you have received Him, you have received the authority to become a
child of God. What is this authority? It is Christ Himself as life.
5.
Christ as life is simply the Spirit of sonship, and this Spirit of
sonship makes you God's child. You can know that you are a child of God by two
things: by the fact that you believe in Him and call on His name, and by the
fact that, at times, you spontaneously and sweetly cry, "Abba,
Father." If you can call God "Abba, Father" in such a sweet way,
it proves that you are His child.
6.
When the young people become a child of God, they are not born of
physical life, fallen life, or created life – they are born of God, the
uncreated life. For human beings to become children of God is for man to have
the divine life and the divine nature.
7.
When we receive Christ as life we become God’s multiplication. God loves
to be multiplied. Every father has some multiplication. Before God brought us
forth, He was merely God Himself. He could look at Himself and say, "Here
I am by Myself. I am almighty, omniscient, and omnipresent. I am everything,
but I am alone." Now, after generating so many children God can say,
"Behold My multiplication!" Throughout all the centuries and generations
God has been multiplying Himself. God is fully expressed through His children
as His increase and corporate expression.
[See Gospel Outlines,
by W. Lee, Subject 97; also Hymns 1017]