this is my written speech for the sharing i did on tuesday, so if you find it helpful read it, i also pasted the bible references about forgiveness once and for all!!!

We are not slaves to sin anymore

·       Romans 5, death thru Adam, life thru Christ.

When we first came into this world, we came with the inheritance of Adam, that means that we all were born sinners, natural born sinners and we  were dead spiritually and physically alive.

§  Genesis 3:21

God made garments of skin for Adam and eve

Adam and eve were first made in the likeness of God but after sin kicked in, the ones that were born from them where made in their likeness, with their nose, mouth eyes etc and also the genetics, sin and death.

ü Our birth determines our identity, not our behavior

I’m a Mexican, I can behave, talk act like an American but man the passport says Mexican, so when we come to Christ our identity changes, it’s a new birth and that will determine who we are.

ü Jesus and nicodemus, a complete new nature, not a set of rules and regulations to follow on how to be better persons

Around the world there’s many religions and all of them do many things, go to pilgrimages and sacrifice things or any other stuff in order to reach forgiveness and to find peace with God, they think that thru that they will get forgiveness of sins, but we are the only people who have a saviour, someone who already paid the wages of sin, someone who paid the price for our sin, which makes us special amongst the others, someone who shed his own blood for us. Paying the biggest ransom mankind has ever seen or heard about.(Romans 5:1), (Romans 3:24-25) .

§  Romans 3:21

Many say that it’s not justice if an innocent man pays, but when an innocent man pay on his own accord that’s justice.

Many people think that they are good people who occasionally do bad things……

The lord Jesus not only came to the earth to set us free from the penalty of sin but he also gave us power over sin, that we may say NO!

So when we all came to Christ we have a new brand life, the curse has been broken thru the sacrifice on the cross and we been set free from its power. (Romans 6:1-2, 6)

We need to count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God, sin, and death have no mastery over us anymore

§  Romans 6:11-12

Don’t let sin reign in your mortal bodies.

“We need to count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God” this is a decision, we need to count (consider to be) this is the translation in the dictionary, consider to be, that means that it’s a decision, we need to consider our identity in Christ.

Reckon: imagine, assume, think, believe and suppose… we need to believe that we are not its slaves anymore.

If we truly push forward there will be a time in our lives when we will identify with Christ more than we do with sin, this is when we have understood the message.

§  Colossians 3:3                                       

 We are hidden with Christ in God

§  1 Corinthians  15:22

So if in Adam all died so in Christ all will be made alive.

We need to identify ourselves with Christ rather that with sin.

§  We have been justified

§  We have peace with God

§  We have gained access

§  Christ died for the ungodly (us)

§  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us…we were sinners, not anymore

§  We have been justified by His blood

§  We were Gods enemies and were reconciled to him thru the death of his Son.

§  We received reconciliation

§  Thru one man the many were made sinners and thru one man the many were made righteous

§  We died to sin

§  Buried with Him

§  United

§  Old self was crucified and nailed upon the cross

§  We should no longer be slaves to sin

§  We died with Christ

§  For sin shall not be your master

§  Your used to be slaves

§  You have been set free from sin

§  You were slaves to sin

§  Free from sin

§  When we were controlled by the sinful nature

§  Romans 8:1

Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ…

Now sin is not our master and before we couldn’t do anything about it, we could not handle it, but now sin asks you for the members of your body, sin wants to use you”

Hey tavo can I have your eyes just for a moment, hey can I have your hands just for a moment…..”(Romans 6:16, 18) we became slaves to righteousness…

In chapter 7, Paul talks about marriage and he gives a great example of our relationship with sin but hereby in marriage. (Romans 7: 2-3)

Even if we sin we are forgiven by Jesus by the shedding of his blood on the cross, it was once and for all

Paul wasn’t questioning our salvation but our knowledge…

§  I Corinthians 10:13

§  No temptation has seized us that we cannot bear, but God along with the temptation will give us a way out

So it means that we always have the chance to say no to sin and run away form it, but we sometimes choose to love sin more rather than God…

§  We can surely reign as king sin this life... (5:17)

§  We are free , lets walk in our freedom  !!!!

Forgiveness of sins once and for all!!!

Are we forgiven once and for all?

Do I need to ask for forgiveness again and again?

§  1 peter 3:18

Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God.

§  Hebrews 9:21

Without the shedding of the blood there is not forgiveness

§  Hebrews 9:25

Nor did He enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the priest enters the most holy place every year with blood that it is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world but He has appeared once and for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

§  Hebrews 7:27

Unlike other priests, Christ does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first of his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once and for all when He offered Himself up.

§  Only blood brings forgiveness

§  Jesus blood will never be shed again

§  Hence God is satisfied

§  And enjoy lifelong and eternal cleansing

§  Hebrews 10:14

By one offering Jesus has perfected for all time those who are sanctified

§  Colossians 2:13

When you were dead in your sins….God made you alive with Christ, He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code and its regulations. That was against us, that opposed us, He took it away and nailed it on the cross.

§  Ephesians 4:32

 Be kind and compassionate to each other, forgiving one another just as in Christ, God forgave you.

§  The Lord’s Prayer

§  We need to understand that this prayer is a model that was given under the law, people had to forgive according to the way they were forgiven, so Jesus said: forgive so you can be forgiven, but on the other hand in the epistles we find Paul saying something like, “forgive just as Christ forgave you”

§  Colossians 3:13

Not a conditional but an obligation, in the Lord’s Prayer is a conditional but in Paul’s statement it’s merely an obligation, forgive simply because you were forgiven!

§  Hebrews 10:17-18

Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.

The sacrifice on the cross has real effects here on earth, as some might think that the effects are in heaven, well, not true.

Why did He die?

To set us free from the power of sin, because, ok first, what separated us from God? Sin, so what reunites us with Him again? Righteousness, holiness, without holiness nobody can see the Lord.

§  Matthew 5:20

Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

§  John 1:29

Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Not, the Lamb of God who covers up the sin of the world!?

sorry for the lack of structure, i am still working on bettering!

Philippians

Christ’s humility, we are to be imitators of Him at all times, his humility blows my mind, it is a life changing and breath taking concept, if He who was in very nature God, God’s Son, one in essence and substance  with the Father; as Athanasius declared at the Council of Nicaea in 325, after the attacks on the Divinity of our Lord Jesus by Arius, asserting that Jesus was a created being, that there was a point in history when God the Father created Jesus out of nothing, that there was a point in eternity when the Son did not exist then brought into the world as a mere creation agent, utterly denying His co-existence with the Father, anyway I went off topic.

So if He, the One and Only, did not consider himself equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness why would I think of myself as the whole package, I mean, do I consider myself better than my brothers and sisters? Do I claim leadership positions because I think that I am the better leader?

And we can clearly see in the coming verses in chapter 2 that by becoming like Him, when we become nothing and made ourselves of no value before others God the Father brings exaltation; the gospels agree on this point as well.

I like the book of Ephesians simply because it talks about things that we Christians seem to understand but in reality do not understand.

First of all in chapter 1 verse 3 we read:  praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

What does that mean? What does that tell me?

I want to unpack the verse, this is the way i understand it, there is not much of theological issues here.

Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ

I think we are all good with that, we praise Him

Who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing, He blessed us with peace, Joy, strength and his Spirit, but the question is: why do we ask for all these heavenly blessings which were already given to us by Jesus?

Why do we ask God for his presence to go with us when He is already in us?

Why do we ask the Holy Ghost to be with us when He is already dwelling in us?

Why do we ask God to give us strength when the bible clearly states that He is our strength?

Note, He has blessed us, past tense, He already blessed us, nor is it He will bless us or blesses us, yet we still find ourselves praying for His presence to fill the room, for the Spirit to come and for his presence to go with us, like Moses saying to God, “God if you do not go with us we will not go out into battle”, Moses did not have the Spirit of God back at that point, come on folks let us get real here, he is with us I am often reminded of John 14 when he is giving his farewell words to the disciples: if you love me you will obey what I command. And i will ask the Father and He will give you Counselor to be with you forever.

Let us remember, back in those days, namely, in John 14, the Spirit was with them, no question about that, but the Spirit was not in them at that point time , The Spirit came at Pentecost and they were all full with the Holy Ghost.

Are we going to keep asking for the things we already have???

Something to chew on folks...

as i was examining the book of acts and the work of the Holy Ghost we see how He enabled the disciples to speak words that had no origin in the human mind but they were speaking as the Holy Ghost was leading.
first off, prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples the apostle peter was were weak (when they could not keep watch and pray with Jesus), showed a lot of cowardice (when he denied the Lord Jesus)and anger ( when Jesus was arrested Peter wanted to kill the soldier with the sword).
so we see in chapter 2 when the Spirit comes at Pentecost, they just started to speak in tongues, people would come and witness the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and His work in the disciples, some thought they were drunk but we see how peter spoke to all these people and they were amazed by the way he was addressing the crowd, with great authority and at the end of chapter 3 about 3 thousand individuals gave their lives to Christ due to the work of the Holy Spirit.
so i think that if the Holy Spirit had not come at the day of Pentecost none of this would have happened, no soul would have been saved that day and of course peter would not have been able to say a thing, he was so bold that he was not afraid of dying for the Lord.
second off, in chapter 6 we see the story of Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit was chosen and began his ministry, the bible tells us that he performed miracles and wonders, however opposition arose and got seized by the members of the synagogue so when they were accusing him the men sitting in the Sanhedrin looked a Stephen and they saw the face like the face of an angel and they could not understand by what spirit he was speaking, they could not stand against such a wisdom.
so the Spirit enables Stephen to give one of the most remarkable speeches in the bible, the speech at the Sanhedrin.
soon after, they were furious, they looked at him and his face, once again, was like the face of an angel, he looks up to heaven and sees heaven open, the glory of God and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God in power.
so they got so mad at him that started to stone him, so he commits his spirit into the hands of God and even prayed for his aggressors" Lord please do not hold this sin against them" and when he had said that he fell asleep...
what a testimony of the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer, we can love when He is in us, we can forgive when He is in us, we can lay down our lives for God boldly when He is in us, perhaps if i had been he i would have fought back, i would have taken down my aggressors... this is definitely one of the things i need to work on, sometimes i wonder how i would react if someone broke in my house and try to rape my daughter or my wife, what would i do?....
last off, paul and his comrades were traveling the region of phrigia and galatia, and they were actually stopped by the Holy Spirit form going in there and preaching the gospel, then they also tried to enter another town but the Spirit would not allow them to do so.
later that night paul had a vision of a macedonian man standing and beggin him," come over and help us. so right after he had that vision they left for macedonia to preach the gospel there.
so here we see another situation where the Holy Spirit worked in a very convincing fashion, hence people heard the gospel in macedonia.
we see how He enable us to be bold in all aspects, to lose any sense of embarrassment when telling people about Jesus, sometimes we do not find the words or the right timing but He leads us, right before Jesus was crucified when He was promising the disciples the Gift of the counselor He told them that the Holy Spirit would remind them of all the things He had said.
cheers.

Today was a great day, very inspiring and at the same time difficult.
hearing Gods voice is not an easy thing, we need to be aware, open and willing to listen from Him and we need to be clean, holding on to nothing, clean and empty-handed in order to receive from Him the fullness of His voice.
Even though, God did not stir up much in me today, yesterday i must mention, He did, He put thoughts in my mind and feelings in my heart, He showed me that there is one thing i needed to do and that was to forgive someone who has hurt me and my family.....who else could have convicted me of a sin i have been bearing for 2 years but the Holy Ghost?. if that was the Holy Ghost, then it was God who spoke to me.
Forgiving goes beyond feelings and emotions, forgiving is a decision, pure and simple a decision we make once we have received from God the fullness of His being, His love and compassion, i think i should ask God for His heart, to see how He feels about the murderers, the rapist, thieves and all others who wander without Him.His eyes to see the cruel reality, they are marching into hell.
Often times i found myself preaching to Muslims about the God that wants me to forgive my enemies, the God that commands me to pray for my enemies and do good to those who hate me, do good to all those who do wrong to me, that how we Christians are much better than them, how their religion promotes and encourages violence and revenge against enemies yet i find myself in a horrible dilemma when i do not forgive the fella that did wrong to me, when i in my heart commit the most horrendous crime ever....
What do i do with Matthew 5:44(love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you) and what do i do with Luke 6:27( love your enemies and do good to those who hate you) what do i do with that?
Jesus clearly said that if i do not forgive my transgressors  He certainly will not forgive me Luke 6:15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
i saw my heart today and it was utterly rotten,rotten by unforgiveness and bitterness, by cravings for revenge, my heart has been a murderous heart by just wishing his utter destruction.
May God forgive me for being so unforgiving. may He have mercy on me and may He help me forgive.
peace to you all from God the Father
Tavo