Blessings From The Resurrection

In Acts 3:26 it states:  "To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities." 
     Once we come to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, trusting Him as Lord and Saviour, He puts away all our iniquities (wickedness and unrighteousness).  Then the following blessings become ours in Him because of the resurrection:
     1.  We have "peace with God" - Lit. "peace facing God!"
          Romans5:1
     2.  Forgiveness of all sin - Ephesians 1:7  "forgiveness"
          is putting off, putting away all sin.
     3.  Eternal Life - John 10:28 - "And I give them eternal
          life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone
          snatch them out of My hand."
     4.  Adopted into God's family - Romans 8:15-17:
          v. 15 - "...you have received the Spirit of adoption by
                  whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
          v. 16 - "...we are children of God."
          v. 17 - "...heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.."
     5.  The privilege of prayer - Hebrews 4:16 - "...come
          boldly to the throne of grace ..."
          Luke 11:1-4 is known as The Lord's Prayer and it's
          where the Lord gives us instruction about prayer.
     6,   John 10:10 - where Jesus states: "...I have come that
           they may have life, and that they may have it more
           abundantly."  That's life with real meaning and
           purpose!
     7.  Indwelling of the Holy Spirit - Ephesians 1:13-14 -
         -"sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" - "who is
         the guarantee (lit. down payment) of our inheritance
         until the redemption of the purchased possession.."
     8.  God's promise of His presence until we get Home to
         glory!!  See Matthew 28:20 - "I am with you always .."
         and Hebrews 13:5 - "...For He Himself has said, "I
         will never leave you nor forsake you."
This is not an exhausted list but it gives you and me an
excellent start to all the blessings that are available to us because of the resurrection!  Continue to study and review them and by faith ask God the Holy Spirit to apply
them in you heart and mind!  Rejoice and Enjoy!!

The Two Deaths Of Christ

Have you ever thought through the two deaths of Christ?  Most people, when they look at the Cross only see Him dying on the Cross see His physical death and not His spiritual death.  To help us see both deaths we must see what death really is!  Physical death is the separation of the soul & spirit from the body and that person enters Eternity - either Heaven because of a personal faith in Christ as Lord and Saviour or Hell because they failed to trust Him as Saviour.  Now, back to the Cross and the two deaths of Christ.  His first death was spiritual and you see this when He cried: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"  He was forsaken, separated from the Father when the Father laid on Him the sins of the world (your's, mine and the whole world).  Remember: death is separation and the Lord was separated from the Father for the very time ever!  2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it this way:  "For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him"  His second death, the physical death, then followed and we see this in His words:  "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit." 
     If we would take a quick look at Genesis 3:1-24 we would find that Adam first died spiritually when he sinned by disobeying God's word and then some 930 years later Adam died physically.  Jesus, the last Adam died first spiritually and then physically.  He did all this for you and me so that we would only have to die ONCE and that physically BUT we wouldn't die spiritually in Hell, separated from God forever!
     Back to the question:  "Have you thought through the two deaths of Christ?"  You face both deaths but by faith in Christ as Lord and Saviour you will only face physical death!  Jesus stated in John 11:25:"I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die (physical), he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die (spiritual).  Do you believe this?"

The Two Deaths of Christ