You Can Know You Have Eternal Life
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674 – Man's Search for Inner Peace (88)
Honorable Citizenship in Jesus’ Kingdom (10)
by Jim Mettenbrink

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     Often people think becoming a Christian is merely belief that Jesus is God and Savior.  Some believe one only needs to utter the so-called sinner’s prayer accepting Jesus into their heart and thereby are saved, thereby becoming a Christian.  Yet others believe they become Christians via some sort of mere ritual calling it baptism.  All of these are contrary to the teaching of the New Testament.  When it is boiled down, we either accept God’s word or we do our own thing!  True conversion in becoming a Christian is a radical lifestyle change, which is in continuous process over one’s lifetime.  Conversion begins with a decision… to follow Jesus according to His word!

     God commands Christians not only to change their lifestyle by turning away from what most recognize as sin (eg. lying, stealing, cussing, fornication, etc.), but also by adopting Christlikeness.  The apostle Paul emphasizes this change — “
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27).  Citizens of Jesus kingdom are to put off the old man of sin and put on the new man (Colossians 3:5-10; Ephesians 4:20-24).  Previously, we considered some of these Christlike qualities (love, joy, peace and longsuffering & kindness).  Paul lists goodness as the next aspect of fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).

     It is easy to think kindness and goodness have the same meaning, yet Paul makes a distinction.  As we considered last week, kindness is a quality of gentleness, such as a shepherd’s attitude toward a newborn lamb (kindheartedness).  This is good, but it is not the meaning of goodness.

     Since goodness is a Christlike trait, how is it Jesus could cleanse the temple in such a demonstrative manner which some today would call intolerant hate?  Because “
...the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17).  The temple, being God’s earthly dwelling had been polluted by greed (John 2:13-16).  Jesus was angry, not for His sake, but for God the Father — righteous anger (Romans 3:5).

     Goodness is the opposite of evil.  Goodness can be compared God’s righteous justice — giving men what they deserve.  Goodness desires to go further, by giving a person that which will benefit him and help him.  Paul acknowledged the goodness in the Christians in Rome -“
Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another” (Romans 15:14).

     Admonishing is instruction warning or correcting a person regarding sin in his / her life.  The emphasis is not on gentleness, but goodness, that which is right according to God.  Even though one admonishes with gentleness, it might be perceived as hate.  The citizen of Jesus kingdom must not cower in the face of evil, retribution, ridicule, accusations of hate (2 Timothy 1:7).  Exercising goodness requires conviction and boldness (Acts 4:29; 13:46; 1 Thessalonians 2:2).

     Jesus has commanded citizens of His kingdom to adopt His attitudes as their own (1 Corinthians 2:16, 11:1; Philippians 2:5).  This is called Christlikeness.

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      © Jim Mettenbrink; used by permission. rev.151213
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