"Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." (Hebrews 9:12 KJV)
"But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, "You must be holy because I am holy." And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must life in reverent fear of him during your time as "foreigners in the land." For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days. Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory." (1 Peter 1:15-21 NLT)
There are some things we need to know, as the salvation we have been given, although it was freely given, it came to be by a very expensive price! As I was listing to a message the other day about when Jesus pleaded with the Father, three times asking Him to take the cup away, each time He asked, there was no reply or answer. Jesus was well aware of what He had to do, but because He was living in that fleshly body, the pain and suffering He was going to endure was overwhelming.
My greatest fear to be killed in a fire; not that it is something that would make me deny Christ over, if it would ever be an option. But from some of the stories I have heard, the believers that were burnt for their faith, somehow had an amazing comfort, even in those flames. It was almost like the Holy Spirit gave them the strength to endure the flames, as if it was a cool bath, or a spiritual cleansing. I know that might sound really weird, but from what I have heard, many of them sang songs of praise, as their bodies were being burnt.
In the message from Peter, one of the things he wrote was about the Father's judgment as if there is judgment of the good and bad for us by Him when we get into Heaven. From the way I see it, by the things I have learned and been told, that will not be the case! We have been washed by the precious blood of Christ; there is no more sin, because Christ Jesus has made us pure and white as the whitest snow!
However, here on this earth, we are God's children! And just like all children growing up, we will sometimes do bad things; that will be the judgment the Father will correct in us, not that He will be condemning us or counting our sins against us, because every sin has been washed away, by the blood of His Son! But like every good father here on earth, He does correct and reward those children that are here on this earth.
Because we are ambassadors of Christ, we are also subject to certain responsibilities; the kind that show that we belong to Christ! Love one another and be thankful for God's great love for you...
"You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all you heart. For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God." (1 Peter 1:22-23 NLT)
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