HOW Are We Changed Into His Image?

[concretecamper]

And the BEST way to Behold Jesus....

is the Holy Eucharist.

 

[1watchman]

The Gospel is what God has done for the whole world in, by, and through Christ; namely that by His Incarnation, perfect life, His passion and death, resurrection, ascension, present reign, and coming again. And what is promised by God in Christ, good news of forgiveness, peace with God, and adoption as sons and daughters who are heirs of eternal life with God in Christ Jesus our Lord; even as God has promised to renew all creation and deliver all things over to His own good will and purpose in the end.

We receive Christ and all of God's promises and works through His Word and Sacraments. Which is why the Apostle writes in Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ; it is the very powerful word of the Gospel itself that creates faith, as faith itself comes from outside of ourselves and apart from ourselves as the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). We have the promises of God attached to external things like water in Holy Baptism, and the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist; namely His promise is that we have been washed clean by "the washing of water with the word" (Ephesians 5:26), as the Apostle says in Romans 6:3-4 that we have been united to Christ in Baptism, united to His death, burial, and resurrection; our Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught plainly that we receive new birth from God by the birth of "water and the Spirit" in John 3:5, which the Apostle Paul echoes in his his epistle to Titus (Titus 3:5). Likewise the promises attached to the Lord's Supper, namely our Lord's own holy word: "This is My body which is given for you" and "This is the New Covenant in My blood" (Luke 22:19-20); or as St. Paul has written in 1 Corinthians 10:16 that we partake of the Lord's body and blood through this bread and wine, and goes on to say how those who partake of the sacrifice of the altar are partakers of the altar.

God is not far away, He is near, with us, right here in Word and Sacrament, to fulfill His promises and accomplish His works; because His word to us is inviolate and true. So that as it is written, "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will raise them up on the last day." (John 6:54).

There is a hymn we used to sing at my Baptist school during morning chapel, it went something like this:

"Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.

There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide;
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.

There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
Sin-stains are lost in its life-giving flow;
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.

There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the precious blood of the Lamb."

Well here is Christ's body, broken for you.
Here is Christ's blood, shed for you.
Take and eat, take and drink, this do for the remembrance of Him.

There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

-CryptoLutheran

Yes, salvation is in the blood of Christ FOR man, but our personal salvation of our soul in IN Jesus Christ by faith.
It seems you intend to keep saying salvation is by religious works, but the verses I qouted, and all the Gospels show, is that POSSESSION of Jesus Christ in faith in a personal time in our "...closet", as Jesus said, is the only way to salvation, and NOT by the Lord's Supper, or any other works we might choose to do. Note that some people get saved on their death bed --no time then for a ritual to get saved.

Well, "a mind persuaded against its will, is of the same opinion still", as the common saying goes; so, I will leave you to your religion, but I will hold to the clear Gospel, and "all the counsel of God"; "rightly dividing the Word of Truth" as my God tells us in His holy "word of truth". Eternal life is IN the Lord Jesus, not religion. --1watchman

 

[ViaCrucis]

Yes, salvation is in the blood of Christ FOR man, but our personal salvation of our soul in IN Jesus Christ by faith.
It seems you intend to keep saying salvation is by religious works,

Absolutely not and heaven forbid, we do absolutely nothing to earn favor with God, it is only by His grace alone and entirely apart from anything we do, think, feel, or believe. It is solely by God's grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone.

but the verses I qouted, and all the Gospels show, is that POSSESSION of Jesus Christ in faith in a personal time in our "...closet", as Jesus said, is the only way to salvation, and NOT by the Lord's Supper, or any other works we might choose to do. Note that some people get saved on their death bed --no time then for a ritual to get saved.

The Lord's Supper isn't a work we do. We don't do anything in the Lord's Supper except become passive recipients. We are no more active in works in the Lord's Supper than when we are laid in the medical bed and the doctor fastens an IV drip to our arm. I didn't do anything, Christ is the One who gives me His flesh and blood in the Supper.

And why wouldn't the person who comes to faith right before death be any worse off than the life long baptized Christian? It's the same Word that gives faith. So the dying man who hears the Word and God gives faith is indeed the child of God. God does this, not us.

Well, "a mind persuaded against its will, is of the same opinion still", as the common saying goes; so, I will leave you to your religion, but I will hold to the clear Gospel, and "all the counsel of God"; "rightly dividing the Word of Truth" as my God tells us in His holy "word of truth". Eternal life is IN the Lord Jesus, not religion. --1watchman

Jesus Christ is my religion.

-CryptoLutheran