Step 2

Step 2 - Came to believe that God through Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit will provide all the power necessary to live an abundant, fruit-bearing, life.

In taking Step 1, we acknowledged our problem. In taking Step 2, we will come to believe that there is a solution to our problem.

Romans 7:24 - 8:1 – What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

God's Abundant Provision of Grace:

In Step 1, we saw that the sin of one man (Adam) brought condemnation upon the entire human race. Now, we will look at the gift, the sacrifice, the abundant provision of grace that will save us from condemnation.

Romans 5:17-19 - For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

1 Peter 2:24 – He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed.

The moment we accept what Jesus has done for us by dying on the cross and rising from the dead (the gospel), we are forgiven and declared righteous.

Romans 5:8-11 - But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! 10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Colossians 1:19-23 - For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, 20 and through him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation-- 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

It is important to understand that we have done nothing to deserve this tremendous gift of grace, love and mercy from God. We as sinners, deserve to die today and spend eternity in hell. However, God loves us even though we are wretched, and because of his mercy and kindness, He is not going to give us what we deserve. Christ's death and resurrection is the gift of grace that is going to save us. Paul tells us in Ephesians that even the faith to believe in this gift is a gift from God.

Ephesians 2:4-10 - But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

The Holy Spirit:

Before Jesus was crucified, he talked about the Holy Spirit that He would send to dwell within those who believe.

John 7:37-39 - On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Today, as we open our lives to Christ and invite Him to come in, He sends the Holy Spirit to dwell within us.

Ephesians 1:13 - And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,

The Holy Spirit is the agent by which Jesus comes to live in us, and when the Spirit comes He brings life. When we believe that Christ died and rose again to save us, we experience a second birth --a spiritual birth. Now the Spirit lives within us and has the ability to live through us. Christ living in and through us is the only source of power that makes the abundant, fruit-bearing, Christian life possible.

The Work of the Holy Spirit and The Tri-Unity of God:

There is only one God. Because of the tri-unity of God, He exists in three Persons –Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You see, wherever the Spirit is present, Jesus is present, and wherever Jesus is present, the Father is present. They are three, but they are one. I know this is complex, but the point here is that in the same way that Jesus is God and the Father is God, the Holy Spirit is also God. This is a tremendous truth with immense implications in our quest to live abundant, fruit-bearing, Christian lives.

Ephesians 2:18 For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Ephesians 2:22 And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.

Romans 8:11 - And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

Romans 8:11 says that He will give life to our mortal (wretched) bodies through His Spirit. This is our solution! – The triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) inhabiting our mortal (wretched) bodies and living the abundant, fruit-bearing, Christian life through His Spirit. (Notice how many times the words filled, in, and through are used in all of these scriptures.)

Ephesians 3:16-19 - I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

2 Peter 1:3-4 - His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Colossians 1:9-14 - For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

Jesus explained the solution to His disciples:

John 15:4-7 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

But this glorious solution was not for His disciples alone, it is for all those who will believe in Him.

John 17:20-23 – "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

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