u/Believing-The-Report

The Seal of God: Christ-Centered and Spirit-Applied

 

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” — Ephesians 4:30

Throughout Christian thought, few theological concepts have been as frequently misunderstood or misattributed as the "seal of God." Some argue that the seal is the observance of the Sabbath, others say speaking in tongues is the visible manifestation of God’s seal.  In either case the focus is on the weakness and fallibility of the human’s experience as the ultimate marker of God’s ownership. However, when we examine Scripture, we find that the seal of God does not rest in the weakness and defilement of our humanity; some badge of human religious compliance. Instead, it is a transcendent, preeminent reality rooted entirely in the eternal relationship between God the Father and God the Son, applied dynamically to believers by the Holy Spirit.

The Preeminence of Christ and the Divine Seal

To understand the nature of God’s seal, one must first look to the unique, unassailable relationship that exists between the Father and the Son. In biblical theology, an official seal represents absolute ownership, authentic authority, and an unshakeable covenant. While this seal ultimately guarantees the believer's security, its primary and pristine fulfillment is found in Christ alone, who stands as the preeminent God-Man and the Firstfruit of all creation.

The historic moment of this divine sealing occurred publicly at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. In John 6:27, Jesus makes explicit reference to this event, instructing His followers to seek "the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

It was here, the Father’s relationship with the Son was visibly and audibly validated for humanity.  As Jesus emerged from the water, four distinct elements manifested the divine seal:

• The Visible Anointing: The Holy Spirit descended in physical form like a dove and rested upon Christ (Matthew 3:16, Luke 3:22).  This was the visual impression of the divine seal, inaugurating His messianic mission.
• The Audible Authorization: The Father’s voice declared from heaven, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17), validating Jesus as the divine Messiah just as a king's signet ring authenticates an official royal decree.
• Empowerment for Ministry: The Holy Spirit "resting" (remain in John 1:32) on Christ signified a permanent abiding presence, empowering His earthly ministry, teaching, and sacrifice.
• The Witness of the Forerunner: John the Baptist, divinely commissioned as the legal herald, witnessed this descent and boldly presented the sealed Messiah to the world, declaring, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).

John the Baptist’s Role: Identifying and Presenting Christ

John the Baptist was foretold in Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi 3:1 as the forerunner tasked with preparing the way for the Messiah. His divine mandate was not to exalt himself, but to recognize the seal and present the Messiah to Israel.

• The Divine Sign Given to John: John did not rely on human intuition or family ties to identify the Messiah. God gave John a specific, infallible indicator to look for:

"I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'" — John 1:33

• The Public Identification and Witness: When John witnessed the Holy Spirit descend and abide upon Jesus, he knew the seal had been applied. He immediately fulfilled his duty as herald by giving eyewitness testimony:
• Declaring His Identity: John declared, "I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God" (John 1:34).
• Presenting His Purpose: Seeing Jesus walk toward him, John announced Him to the world: "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).
• Directing Followers to Christ: John pointed his own disciples toward Jesus, willingly stepping back so Christ would take center stage: "He must become greater; I must become less" (John 3:30).

Through this sequence, the baptism served as the moment where God sealed His Son, and John the Baptist acted as the official legal witness presenting the sealed Messiah to humanity.

Christ as the Firstfruit and Fulfillment of the Seal

Because Jesus is the "Last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45) and the "Firstfruit" of God's redeemed creation (1 Corinthians 15:20), His sealing was not merely an isolated historical event; it was the prototype for all the redeemed children of the First Adam. God the Father placed His seal of approval upon Christ's sinless character and coming sacrifice (John 6:27), permanently validating His victorious work through the resurrection (Romans 8:11). Because the firstfruit contains the very nature of the entire crop, Christ being sealed guarantees that everyone who belongs to Him shares in that exact same Spirit and final destiny.

The Functional Flow of the Seal: From the Father and Son to the Believer

The seal of God is fundamentally a function of the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ, mediated and extended through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit acts as Christ's ongoing representative on earth (John 14:26, 15:26), bridging the gap between the objective, finished work of Christ in history and the subjective, experiential reality of the believer today.

This dynamic flows in a profound, two-fold progression:

1. Positional Sealing ("In Christ"): Before a believer is ever born, their sealing is legally and spiritually established within the federal headship of Jesus Christ. Believers exist "in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3–4). When Christ was approved, sealed, crucified, and resurrected, He acted as the representative substitute for all who would believe. Just as humanity inherited condemnation in the first Adam, believers inherit justification and the divine seal in the Last Adam (Romans 5:17–19).
2. Experiential Sealing (By the Spirit): What was established objectively in Christ is applied subjectively to the individual when they hear the gospel and believe. As Paul writes in Ephesians 1:13, "When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit." The same Spirit that rested permanently on Christ at the Jordan now indwells the believer, transforming their mind and conforming their character to Christ.

Conclusion: A Divine Act, Not a Human Achievement

Ultimately, the seal of God is entirely a divine work performed by God, not a human accomplishment by Sabbath-keeping or speaking in tongues.  It is a divine reality which exist first in Christ as the preeminent God-Man, then as a function of the presence of the Holy Spirit (who acts as Christ’s representative John 14:26; 15:26) in the life of the believer.

As 2 Corinthians 1:21–22 powerfully summarizes:

"Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

As it is with anything else we encounter in our "search" of the Scripture, we must train our mind's eye to see it as fulfilled first in Christ before we find any temporal meaning to apply to our earthly existence. By looking at the seal of God through the lens of Christ—first sealed as our representative at His baptism, and subsequently sealing us through the indwelling Holy Spirit upon belief—we find true security, authentic identity, and an unshakeable guarantee of our final redemption.

The Shadow of the Lamb: Why Your Life Is Not Your Own

We are a race obsessed with the mechanics of existence. We treat life as a project to be managed, a moral code to be refined, and a Sabbath to be strictly calculated. We labor under the assumption that our temporal lives—our choices, our sacrifices, and our adherence to religious duty—are the primary business of God.

But what if we have it backwards? What if the entirety of our human experience, including our most rigorous moral efforts, is merely a dim, secondary reflection of a singular, cosmic reality that occurred before we were ever born?

The Death Before Time

The Apostle Paul presents a reality that shatters our focus on the "here and now." He tells us that we have died, and our true lives are "hid with Christ in God." We are accustomed to thinking of our spiritual journey as a linear path starting at our conversion, but the Scripture points to a deeper, more ancient truth: Christ is the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

If He was the Lamb slain from the beginning, then we, as those whose lives are inextricably bound to His, were present in that death. Our spiritual death occurred not merely at the cross of Calvary in history, but vicariously in Him from the very foundation of the world. We are living out the afterlife of a death we already died.

This is why our earthly lives feel so fragmentary. We are living in the temporal realm while our true existence is anchored in a past that is also an eternal present. It is only when Christ—who is our life—returns, that the shadow will be eclipsed by the Substance.

The Anatomy of Forsakenness

To understand the gravity of this, we must look at the cry of the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

In that moment, Christ revealed the true hierarchy of reality. The physical agony of the crucifixion was the byproduct of a deeper, more terrifying event: the disruption of the eternal union between the Father and the Son. This tells us that the spiritual separation always precedes the physical; the inner anguish always dictates the outer experience.

The entirety of the Law and the Prophets—every shaking mountain, every prophetic vision, every rigid, codified commandment—was never intended to be a permanent, independent moral framework. It was a pedagogical tool, a desperate attempt by the Creator to give a fallen, spiritually dead race a glimpse into the incomprehensible magnitude of the Father’s relationship with His Son. If we cannot grasp the weight of that divine separation, we have missed the point of the entire biblical narrative.

The Tyranny of the Secondary

We have turned the gospel into a manual for "how to live," but Jesus’ primary role was not to be a life coach for humanity. His life was not a blueprint for our social harmony; it was a demonstration of the eternal harmony between the Father and the Son.

When Jesus "broke" the Sabbath, He was not simply violating an ancient law; He was declaring that the law’s usefulness had been exhausted in Him. He showed us that the temporal rules, the elementary practices, and the rigorous moralities are secondary. When we hold onto the rules while losing sight of the Union, we are holding onto the shadow and ignoring the Light.

This is a convicting reality for the religious man. It means that our Sabbath-keeping, our moral codes, and our "good works" possess zero inherent power. They are merely vehicles to express our loyalty to Him. If they are not rooted in the reality that our life is hidden in Him, they are nothing more than a noisy, empty exertion of the flesh.

The Call to a Hidden Life

We have spent generations trying to make our lives "meaningful" by how well we perform the duties of our temporal existence. But the Bible calls us to a deeper, more radical surrender. Our temporal life is not a project to be perfected; it is a canvas upon which we must demonstrate a reality that already exists in the heavens.

The moral code is not the goal. The goal is the Union.

Everything you do today—the way you labor, the way you observe your time, the way you treat your neighbor—is meant to be a reflection of the fellowship between the Father and the Son. Your life is secondary. Your rules are temporary. Your only true "life" is the one hidden in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Stop trying to build a life that stands on its own. Embrace the death that occurred before time, accept the life that exists only in Him, and realize that until you are lost in the majesty of the Father-Son union, you have not truly begun to live at all.

Christ and the “cleansing of the sanctuary”

 

One of the ways we best express, grasp, and exalt the true preeminence of Christ, is when we realize that every Scriptural concept regarding salvation finds its first and highest fulfillment in Him. To view Christ's ministry merely as a service rendered to humanity misses the profound reality of the God-Man. When we reduce Him to a simple remedy for human sin, we make salvation or “eternal life”—rather than Christ—the center of Scripture (John 5:39).

Therefore, anyone of us, who—like Peter—confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, must ask one fundamental question above all others as it relates to any doctrine: How is this truth fulfilled in Christ Himself? Our primary goal is not merely to validate whether a doctrine aligns with the “Law and Testimony” (Isaiah 8:20), but to see how it culminates in the Person of Jesus.

The subject of consideration here is no different. The concept that the biblical "cleansing of the sanctuary" found its ultimate, physical archetype and fulfillment in the person and body of Jesus Christ offers a profound theological harmony. By viewing Christ Himself as the true Temple (John 2:19–21), His physical frame becomes the site where sin was imputed, dealt with, and ultimately purged.

1. Christ’s Body as the Sanctuary and the Bearer of Imputed Sin

Throughout Scripture, the earthly tabernacle and temple were mere shadows of a greater reality (Matthew 12:6). When the Word became flesh, He "tabernacled" among us (John 1:14).

• Imputation: On the cross, God "made him who had no sin to be sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The sins of humanity were legally and judicially imputed (charged) to Jesus.
• The Defilement of the Substitute: In the Israelite ritual system, the sanctuary absorbed the symbolic defilement of the people's sins through the blood of the sacrifices or the high priest's ministry. In the grand antitype, Jesus Christ condensed the entire sanctuary system into His own person. His mortal body—weakened, subjected to human fragility, and loaded with the corporate guilt of a fallen race—became the locus of universal defilement.

2. The Changing of the Mortal Body as the "Cleansing"

Under the Old Covenant, the Day of Atonement demanded the cleansing of the sanctuary from the accumulated defilement of Israel. If Christ’s mortal body was treated as the ultimate defiled sanctuary bearing humanity's sin-debt, then its cleansing could not happen merely by a legal decree; it required a physical, ontological transformation.  Therefore:

• Death as the Sentence, Resurrection as the Cleansing: The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). By dying, Christ exhausted the penalty of the sins imputed to Him. However, a dead sanctuary is a ruin.
• The Glorified Body: When God raised Jesus and transformed His mortal, sin-bearing body into an imperishable, glorious, and immortal body, that transformation was the physical cleansing of the sanctuary. The traces of human sin, mortality, and weakness were permanently incinerated by the glory of the resurrection. The sanctuary was swept clean, vindicated, and perfected forever.

3. "Do Not Touch Me": Avoiding Human Soil Before the Father

This perspective sheds striking light on one of the most enigmatic post-resurrection encounters in the Gospels: Jesus’ words to Mary Magdalene in the garden:

"Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father" (John 20:17).

• The High Priestly Typology: In the ancient Day of Atonement ritual, once the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place to cleanse the sanctuary, he could not be touched or defiled by common, unwashed human hands until his sacred duty before the mercy seat was completed.
• Untainted by Earthly Soil: Having just undergone the ultimate cosmic transition from a sin-bearing mortal body to a newly cleansed, glorified divine-human template, Christ’s immediate priority was to present Himself unhindered and unblemished directly to His Father in the heavenly sanctuary. To be clutched or held by human hands on earth before that heavenly presentation would risk structural or symbolic contamination. He had to ascend first, present the pristine, freshly cleansed "firstfruits" of His new body to the Father, and ratify the complete atonement.

Once that heavenly validation was accomplished, He later invited His disciples to touch Him freely (Luke 24:39, John 20:27), proving that the sanctuary was fully cleansed, the transition was complete, and His glorified humanity was now an open, hallowed dwelling place for redeemed

 The “firstfuits” over the new creation.

The principle that Christ’s physical body served as the ultimate sanctuary requiring—and receiving—cleansing establishes a direct blueprint for His followers. Because Christ is the "firstfruits" of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20), the exact sequence of events that happened to His body will happen to the bodies of His redeemed people at His coming.

1. The Believer’s Body as a Temple Needing Cleansing

Just as Christ’s mortal body bore the imputation of human sin and weakness, individual believers currently live in "lowly bodies" (Philippians 3:21) or "bodies of death" (Romans 7:24) that have been corrupted by the environment, genetics, and personal participation in the Fall.

·       While a Christian's spirit and legal standing are justified through faith, the physical body remains subject to decay, sickness, and death—the physical residue of sin's entry into the world.

• Therefore, the physical frame of the believer awaits its own operational redemption (Romans 8:23). It is a temple that requires a final, radical purging from the footprint of mortality and corruption.

2. The Transformation at Christ’s Coming as the Cleansing

Just as the transformation of Christ's mortal frame into a glorified, immortal body constituted the cleansing of the ultimate sanctuary, the resurrection and transformation of believers at the Last Trumpet serves as their physical cleansing.

• Corruptible to Incorruptible: Paul explains this transition in 1 Corinthians 15:53: "For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality."
• Sweeping Away the Residue of Sin: At Christ's coming, the physical remnants of death and decay are completely eradicated from the believer's makeup. The transformation does not merely patch up the old model; it incinerates the "body of humiliation" and replaces it with a completely pure, holy, and glorified physical vessel. This is the ultimate, somatic cleansing of the church, presenting humanity holy and blameless before God (Ephesians 5:27).

3. Christ as the Firstfruits of the New Creation

In ancient agricultural Israel, the "firstfruits" were not just the first crops harvested; they were the legal guarantee and prototype of the entire harvest to follow.

• Because Christ—the Head and Representative of the new humanity—underwent this physical transition from a sin-bearing, mortal body to a cleansed, glorified, immortal body, His resurrection guarantees the exact same harvest for His followers.
• He went first into the heavenly realm as the newly cleansed Temple, and at His coming, He brings millions of "many brothers and sisters" (Romans 8:29) through the identical process

 By cleansing His own body through resurrection and glorification, Christ unlocked the template for a brand-new creation. When believers receive their glorified bodies at His return, they are simply partaking in the downstream reality of what was already accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ, the ultimate FirstFruits.

The Book of Revelations identifies the redeemed by a dual mark: they keep God's commandments and hold fast to the testimony of Jesus (Revelations 12:17). But this testimony is far more than an intellectual confession—it is the very fabric of their identity. In everything they do, they exist to exalt Jesus as the sole author and finisher of their salvation. He is the ultimate fulfillment of every hope, and His preeminence is visibly borne in their very bodies.

 The Ultimate Focus: From the Shadow of Sin to the Substance of Christ

For too long, the theological paradigm of the Church has inadvertently made the "nature of sin" and its remedy—eternal life—the primary platform of our doctrinal foundation. This blight has corrupted the focus of mankind from the very beginning.  We see it in fallen Adam; in the nation of Israel; in the Jews of Jesus’ day; in His Church; in the remnant; and even in our individual lives.  We have trained our hearts to find solace and meaning in temporal aides and shadows—the earthly temple, the Sabbath, the Law, judgment, sacrifices, prophecies, etc.—rather than in the Person who gave them life and meaning. We have foolishly chosen to glorify the problem and its mechanics rather than the God-Man who overcame it.

But the mystery of redemption was never merely about highlighting a corruption that existed outside of man, introduced to us through the serpent in the garden. It was about demonstrating the staggering lengths to which the Sovereign Creator was willing to go to bring fallen humanity back to Himself.

The time has come for us to look past the machinery of salvation and fix our gaze entirely on the Architect. When we study the cleansing of the sanctuary, the types and shadows of the Old Covenant, or the promise of our own bodily redemption, the ultimate goal is not to idolize the concept of "eternal life." It is to exalt Jesus Christ in His physical body—as the true Temple, the cleansed Firstfruits, and the sole meaning and fulfillment of all Scripture. He is not merely the remedy; He is the meaning—the God-Man Christ!

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.” Colossians 2:8-10

From Sin to Death

 

The Trap of a Law-Centric Doctrines

 

Once, I believed that the nature and definition of sin was the cornerstone of all sound theology. My entire theological outlook rested on a single foundation: the nature of sin.  I viewed the pursuit of sinless perfection not just as a spiritual goal—and must have to stand after the close of probation—, but as the master key undergirding all biblical interpretation. In this framework, unless we agreed on the exact nature of sin and how to define and defeat it, no real doctrinal harmony could exist.

 

This focus shaped how I viewed everything—including Jesus. I believed Christ had to take on our exact, fallen human nature so He could serve as the ultimate, reproducible blueprint for overcoming sin. Grace became a spiritual power-up: a fuel source supplied by God so that I could eventually achieve sinless perfection. Salvation wasn’t the work of Christ alone; it was a joint venture between God and me.

 

As a result, distinct doctrines like the Great Controversy, the Heavenly Sanctuary, and the Investigative Judgment became rivaling pillars of "truth" alongside faith in Jesus. Christ was not the centerpiece—He was merely a facilitator, an important cog in a massive doctrinal machine designed to clean up my lawkeeping. There were occasions or even sermons from whence the idea of faith in Christ was a distant second to the other things I believed. No matter my attempts at denying this reality so to not appear or practice overt legalism, this was effectively true.

 

Isolating Sin from Its Ultimate Penalty

 

By superficially isolating the nature of sin, defining it strictly as "the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4), the Ten Commandments were endowed with a functional priority that rivaled faith in Christ. But is this really the way Scripture intends us to understand God’s plan of salvation? How do we square a law-centric framework with the words of Jesus, who claimed that He himself is the Truth, and that all Scripture finds its ultimate fulfillment and meaning exclusively in Him (John 5:39)?

 

The central problem with this framework is that it fails to account for and completely ignores the penalty of sin—death. By superficially separating and isolating sin from death, we build a framework of theology which provides solutions for the one while ignoring the other.  But we are first dead sinners!  (see: Ephesians 2:1-5; Colossians 2:13).  We can no more ignore this fact of our spiritual condition than we can erase its dominion.

 

So, while we may well assure ourselves by thinking we understand sin, its nature, and definition in transgression of Gods law and thus giving us a false sense of our own grace-empowered victory over it; we are powerless against the rule and dominion of death. While sin is familiar and something we can see and handle, death is completely out of our sphere.

 

The Unyielding Reign of Death

 

Death makes a mockery of all our attempts at framing the crux of Salvation as simply a matter of sin, law, and transgressions. Death nullifies and lays bare our every effort to misuse or find some objective self or law-centric application to the things of God in the desperate, misguided attempts to be right with Him. While sin is easy to identify, quantify, and prescribe a solution for, death silences our best efforts!

 

Romans 5 strikes at the heart of this very interplay between sin and death and demonstrate the utter inadequacy of our ‘nature of sin’ approach. We read in verses 12-14:

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned – To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged to against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.”

 

Here we see that even while sin was “not charged to anyone’s account” in the absence of law (from the time period of Adam to Moses), death still reigned. In other words, it mattered not what the nature of sin was or its definition, death still held dominion over us. While our disobedience (sin) was yet without proper, legal definition, the results of our disobedience (death) was still in control of our fate.

 

Death, then, and not merely sin is the true gravity of our broken relationship with God.  Death is not concerned with which law was broken of even if you are aware of it.  Death is universally applied to the offenders of the two eternal principles of love, not only to those who have the knowledge to define the particulars of sin in the 10 Commandments.  Death forces us to look elsewhere to find hope. It reveals the utter helplessness of our condition: “For in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” Ecclesiastes 9:10. Death forces us to look to Christ.

 

Why the fuss about this?  Is it even important?  Yes. Very much so! Especially because it was the working of man to separate sin and death in such a way to make the nature of sin the principal issue on doctrine.  You see unlike sin; death requires a salvation that is completely out of our hands.  While sin can be rationed and falsely solutioned away in the grace of God at work in our lives to overcome transgression of the law, death requires a salvation completely outside of us; it requires Christ and him alone.  

 

As the one Preeminent Man, the second Adam, the incarnate God-Man, only He—in all of creation—is uniquely qualified to lay down His life in just recompense for sin then take it back up again (John 10:18).  Only He who among His “brother and sisters” (Hebrews 2:10-12) has the Father granted to have “life in himself” (John 5:26)—the eternal life once lost now renewed in His person! 

 

Therefore, is Christ the one true definition of truth.  Only in Him does the searching of the scriptures find their testimony (John 5:39).  His work and person are the true motif in all our study and understanding of doctrine.  All truth—in doctrine and practice—must find their first and truest fulfillment in Him or must be cast aside as error.  This foundation—this “testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 12:17)—expresses the only “love of the truth” by which we can guard against powerful delusions (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11). 

 

This then is how we honor Him—the All-Sufficient One—, by laying our doctrinal foundation in Christ and not merely because of Him.  It is IN Christ that exists the resurrection our spiritually dead souls need!  It is IN Christ that exists the eternal life once lost and now restored! IN Christ exists the quality of righteousness that is equal to the character of God! IN Christ is our sanctification and redemption! (1 Corinthians 1:30) IN Christ exists the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, who, in His person and not by what He does intercedes “peace” between God and Man (Hebrews 7:17-22). “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:19-20.  

 

We partake and “share” in these divine realities and the salvation they bring by God’s unmerited favor in imputing them to us through believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16-17).  This is the “faith” and “testimony of Jesus” we cling to and are identified by! (Revelations 14:12; 12:17) “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

 

Christ is no mere facilitator in God’s plan of Salvation, He IS the plan!  “…In Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.” Colossians 2:10 “But thank God! He gives us the victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:57 NLT “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:4

 

This is the nature of the hope we have in Christ!  These divine realities we have as anchors to the soul (Hebrews 6:19-20) because they rest not in the weak, flimsy, and shaky experience of the believer, but in the perfect and completed work of an All-Sufficient Christ!  “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust I him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13