Will Anyone Be There?

Jesus said,
"Enter through the narrow gate.
For wide is the gate and broad
is the road that leads to destruction,
and many enter through it.

But small is the gate and narrow
the road that leads to life,
and only a few find it."

Jesus said,
"Not everyone who says to me,
`Lord, Lord,' will enter the
kingdom of heaven, but only he who does
the will of my Father who is in heaven."

But because of your stubbornness and
your unrepentant heart, you are storing
up wrath against yourself for the day
of God's wrath, when his righteous
judgment will be revealed.

God "will give to each person
according to what he has done."

To those who by persistence in
doing good seek glory, honor and immortality,
he will give eternal life.

But for those who are self-seeking and
who reject the truth and follow evil,
there will be wrath and anger.

Circumcision has value if you observe the law,
but if you break the law, you have become
as though you had not been circumcised.

If those who are not circumcised keep
the law's requirements, will they not be
regarded as though they were circumcised?

The one who is not circumcised physically
and yet obeys the law will condemn you who,
even though you have the written code and
circumcision, are a lawbreaker.

A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly,
nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.

No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly;
and circumcision is circumcision of the heart,
by the Spirit, not by the written code.
Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.

Therefore, since we have been
justified through faith,
we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
whom we have gained access by faith
into this grace in which we now stand.
And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

What shall we say, then?
Shall we go on sinning so that
grace may increase?

By no means! We died to sin;
how can we live in it any longer?

Or don't you know that all of us
who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?

We were therefore buried with him
through baptism into death in order that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father,
we too may live a new life.

In the same way,
count yourselves dead to sin
but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore do not let sin reign
in your mortal body so that
you obey its evil desires.

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin,
as instruments of wickedness,
but rather offer yourselves to God,
as those who have been brought from death to life;
and offer the parts of your body to him
as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not be your master,
because you are not under law,
but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin
because we are not under law
but under grace? By no means!

Don't you know that when you
offer yourselves to someone
to obey him as slaves,
you are slaves to the one whom you obey --
whether you are slaves to sin,
which leads to death, or to obedience,
which leads to righteousness?

But thanks be to God that,
though you used to be slaves to sin,
you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching
to which you were entrusted.

You have been set free from sin
and have become slaves to righteousness.

I put this in human terms
because you are weak in your natural selves.
Just as you used to offer the parts of your body
in slavery to impurity and
to ever-increasing wickedness,
so now offer them in slavery
to righteousness leading to holiness.

When you were slaves to sin,
you were free from the control of righteousness.

What benefit did you reap at that time
from the things you are now ashamed of?
Those things result in death!

But now that you have been set free from sin
and have become slaves to God,
the benefit you reap leads to holiness,
and the result is eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Matthew 7:13,14,21; Romans 2:5-8, 25-29; 5:1,2; 6:1-4, 11-23;
All scripture taken from New International Version.)

Where will YOU be?


Return to List
Previous    Next

----------------------------------------------------

Return to Home Page

Copyright © 1998,  Believer's International
Revised -- 1998-09-26
URL: http://bowss.org 
E-Mail: BOWSS' Home Page at bowss@comcast.net