TSC FOUNDATION CLASS PART 4
FOUNDATION CLASS PART 4
GENERAL DOCTRINES
First
I would like to redefine the word doctrine as defined in the last section to
enable us to keep in mind what doctrines are as we go along.
“A doctrine is a recognizable principle of beliefs,
teaching, values or instructions adhered to, believed, taught and practiced by
a given set of people.”
In the preceding section, we discussed the basic
categories of doctrines which we described as scriptural, man-made and
false. We also pointed out that the most
important to us and the most accurate is the scriptural doctrine because they
are based on the word of God in the right context and was handed down to us
through the apostles by Jesus Christ himself.
The general doctrines to be discussed are thus focused
only on scriptural doctrines. They are namely:
1. Righteousness
2. Sanctification
3. Deliverance
4. Redemption
5. Justification
6. Forgiveness and Remission
RIGHTEOUSNESS
Righteousness is defined as the nature of God imparted
to a man’s spirit and this enables him to stand before God without a sense of
guilt, fear, inferiority complex or condemnation. This can be likened to the
genes of human beings. A child is a makeup of his/her parents by the genes
which they both donate during fertilization. This gene carries everything it
takes for them to be human. The genes are the human nature in them imparted to
their children. In this sense, righteousness can be seen as the internal make-up
of God (genes) imparted or infused into us when we become born again allowing
us to feel no fear in the presence of our father, no inferiority complex, no
sense of guilt of condemnation.
The bible tells us in 2nd Corinthians 5:21
that - “He made Him to be sin who knew no sin that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.” It is important to note that it doesn’t
say we would be made the righteousness or that our righteousness depends on how
moral or how good we are. There is one and only one reason why we have been
made righteous and that has nothing to do with us but because He made him
(Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin so that we may be made (past tense) the
righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 5:17 further supports this by clearly describing righteousness as
a free gift meaning there is nothing we did to deserve it, it was just bestowed
on us.
Having understood the above it is obvious that a child
of God can neither increase in righteousness nor decrease in righteousness
because it is not acquired by works contrary to the commonly held belief that it
is what we do that makes them righteous and as we become stronger “Christians”
we become more righteous.
We must come to be fully persuaded and understand that
every child of God (as defined in John 1:12) is as righteous as God is as every
baby is as human as his parents are.
SANCTIFICATION
Sanctify is defined as being set apart, being made
holy, to purify. Their sanctification is the process of being set apart, made
holy, or purified. The bible tells us the New Creation is Holy, purified, and
separated unto God. (Hebrews 10:10,
Jude)
This process stands alone in the sense that it differs
from other doctrines as it is noted that sanctification is both an
instantaneous process and also a continuous and gradual one. When we become
born again we immediately become sanctified (set apart, separated, made holy,
purified) but as we grow spiritually we become increasingly sanctified. This might sound like a contradiction to all
we have been saying but pay attention to the figure below for further
clarification.
From
the figure above the process of sanctification has been simplified. We see the
instant sanctification which is being immediately set apart from the world and
your life as an unbeliever and then we experience the next stage which is
gradual and continuous sanctification as we feed on the word of God and grow
spiritually.
The
scriptures below are the scriptural references for sanctification:
• 1 Corinthians 1:2 - Unto the church of God which is at
Corinth, to them that are sanctified in
Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon
the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23 - And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God
your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ
• 1 Thessalonians 4:4 - That
every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.
DELIVERANCE
This tells us that a believer is free from the
authority, hold, and domain of darkness. We see in Colossians 1:13 which says - Who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.
This is a point that cannot be over-emphasized because
ignorance of this fact is one of the devil's strongest strategies and tricks to
hold believers who have been set free in bondage. Many believers who have no
reason whatsoever to be going for deliverance find themselves in such
situations go-to people to have them delivered when this has already been done
over 2000 years ago. The bible tells us in Colossians15 that the fact that we
have been delivered is not a secret in the spirit realm. It reads - And having
spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing
over them in it. Meaning it is public knowledge to the demons the only people
that seem not to know about it are the believers who being ignorant subject
themselves to oppression by these demons. The bible also my people perish for
lack of knowledge. This is a perfect example of that. We are also told Galatians 4:1 that the Heir
as long as he is a child (nepious) differs not from a servant though he be lord
of all. As long as we are children spiritually lacking in the knowledge of whom
we are and what powers we have the devil would capitalize on this and convince
us of utter stupidity that we are still under his control when we should know
better.
We have been delivered totally and completely from the
powers of the devil he has no hold on us whatsoever God told us so, the angels
know it, the devil himself knows it and it is now left to us to work with the
authority, power, and knowledge that has been given to us.
God accepted the sacrifice that Jesus made to deliver
humanity from the bondage of Satan as a sweet-smelling savor as we see in Ephesians
5:2 - And walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God
for a sweet-smell savor.
REDEMPTION
Redemption means to deliver or to set free by paying a
price. This price paid is called a ransom. We see in Titus 2:13-14 that Jesus
Christ through his death and resurrection has redeemed us as the scripture says
- Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God
and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us
from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good
works.
It must be noted that the price was paid to God and
not to the devil. Humanity owed God a death sentence which God pronounced on
mankind when man rebelled against Him. Jesus paid that death price for man with
His own life.
At this point, it is important to note the difference
between deliverance and redemption. To explain this, the analogy of a kidnap
scenario would be used. Usually, when a person is kidnapped it is said that
he/she is held in an undisclosed location until some demands have been met
which in most cases is a cash ransom.
The act of paying the ransom requested is redemption and the act of
actually collecting the person from the kidnappers is deliverance i.e. the person was redeemed by paying the ransom and delivered by transferring the
person from the custody of the kidnappers into the custody of his/her loved
ones.
JUSTIFICATION
The New Creation has been justified. This means that
he has been declared not guilty. He has
been discharged and acquitted of every claim of Justice against him. What this
implies is that someone had a charge or sentence hanging over him and has been
declared not guilty because the punishment for the crime which the person was
said to have committed had been fully met by someone else so it would be
totally unjust to punish the person again.
Jesus Christ died for our sin and was raised for our
justification. Romans 4:25. Romans 8:1-2 further tells us there is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation
to those who are in Christ because God, who received the sacrifice of Jesus as
a sweet-smelling savor cannot condemn those who are sheltered by Jesus’
propitiatory sacrifice.
Finally Acts 13:38-39 says - Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
FORGIVENESS AND REMISSION
The word translated remission is the same translated
forgiveness: “ephesis. This has been discussed in Part 3 as such we would
not dwell on it. It is advisable you go back to this section and reacquaint
yourself with it.
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