A Gospel man is an adult male who is in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and leads his family in the worship of God. Unless you meet these 2 conditions you are not a man, but are in fact an overgrown boy with expensive toys playing house – and church.
What is a “saving relationship with Jesus Christ?”
We often throw out this nugget of christianese with out even thinking of the meaning behind the words. This question must be divided into 2 parts to be correctly answered – Let's unpack it a give meaning back to this amazing thought.
Who is Jesus Christ?
Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone who forms along with the apostles and the prophets our foundation. This where we must begin.
Ephesians 2:18-22 ESV
18: For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
19: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20: built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
21: in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
22: In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
We must see Christ as John saw Him -
John 1:1-5 ESV
1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2: He was in the beginning with God.
3: All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4: In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
We must see Christ as Stephen saw Him -
Acts 7:51-60 ESV
51: "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.
52: Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,
53: you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it."
54: Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.
55: But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
56: And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
57: But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.
58: Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59: And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
60: And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
0 comments:
Post a Comment