Intimacy with God

Jesus is the Only Way Back to being Naked and Unashamed!

Adam and Eve were “naked and unashamed” and that is exactly what God intended for our human sexuality. This is what we so desperately need and want. This is the lure of virgin sex. But Adam’s sin and Eve’s deception changed them. After The Fall they became “naked and ashamed.”

The deadly concept of shame entered them at The Fall, and consequently the entire human race. Shame is the life that I was born into. For me, (Bill) my own family promoted this shame through a series of traumatic abuses: sexual molestation where I took on the shame of the perpetrators, abandonment where I was not valuable enough to be enjoyed, sexual addiction to cover and assuage my pain and a commitment to repress my sexuality and masculine soul rather than embrace it. Shame had become the master of my soul and obsessive sexual compulsion of lust and masturbation. The shame in my life had become a cruel task-master, a tyrant of deceit and self-deprecation. Shame grew as a result of my guilt from sin, instead of running to God I ran wholehearted into more sin. I truly was naked and ashamed. Then I met Jesus. Only an intimate relationship with the Holy Trinity can bring us back to our true nature or self that was created in God’s image to be “naked and unashamed.”

What Is It That You Must Believe?

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, according to His likeness (Gen 1:26). Adam and Eve had only to believe God and not eat of “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” they were free to eat of “The Tree of Life.” The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represents man’s own way of meeting his need for love, security, and worth; by his own resources, independent of God. A self-sufficient person is capable of doing good and evil, but cannot produce life or the fruit of the Spirit—love. Self-sufficiency leads to a separation from God and ends in destruction (Rom 6:23). “. . . For apart from Me (Jesus) you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5b). Independence leads to performance and works; man reasons, if I can do enough good things, then eventually I’ll be good and God will accept me. The Tree of Life represents God Himself, man living totally dependent on God’s resources, producing eternal life in Christ. “Abide in Me (Jesus), and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me . . .” (Jn 15:5a).

What Adam believed determined whether he would live dependent on God or independent of God. After Adam’s sin all mankind is born in the image and likeness of Adam (Gen 5:1, 3). Man is born with a sin nature (Rom 5:12) and is spiritually dead (Eph 2:1). Man is also confronted with believing the truth of God or the lie of the Devil: believing is to accept Jesus (The Tree of Life) and unbelief is to reject Him. If a person does not believe God’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ he will remain a slave to his sin nature and spend eternity spiritually dead. His fleshly nature is to sin, just like Satan’s nature is to lie; he cannot tell the truth because it is his own nature to lie (Jn 8:44), likewise Jesus cannot lie because the truth is His very nature. (Jn 14:6). When you believe in Jesus you receive a new divine nature.

True Biblical Christianity

True Biblical Christianity is not a religion; Christianity is a relationship with God through the finished work of Jesus Christ and Him alone. This relationship is eternal and is not accomplished by human achievement, good works or religious rituals, but by divine accomplishment––the work of Christ. You are saved forever by the grace of God through faith alone in Jesus alone. This is what true belief is. It is in the failure to believe and understand the finished work of Jesus Christ, the cross and resurrection, that religion repeatedly misses the reality of God’s presence and salvation. All religious systems inevitably teach that salvation will ultimately be obtained by human merit and good deeds. Thus, if you believe in God (whomever that God may be) and sincerely try to do your best (follow the prescribed religious doctrines), your chances of obtaining an after-life are good (heaven, nirvana, reincarnation) but never guaranteed. And this does not preclude many of America’s denominations. This is true whether it be the religion of Buddhism (following the seven-fold path); Hinduism (bathing in the Ganges River to wash away sins); Islam (praying five times a day and making a pilgrimage to Mecca); Roman Catholicism (observing the sacraments, saying last rites, living by Church tradition); or traditional Protestantism (keeping the 10 Commandments, continual confession of sins for forgiveness, works to stay saved).

These merit approaches to eternal salvation run contrary to the Gospel of grace and say in effect that Christ’s work on the cross is insufficient to save the sinner and keep the believer. Apostle Paul says, “I do not nullify (frustrate—KJV) the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law (or any other works), then Christ died needlessly (then Christ is dead in vain—KJV)” (Galatians 2:21). This is a question that we all must resolve for God to truly heal, restore, and redeem us. If the truth is that Jesus did not die in vain, but to forgive your sins and give you who believe eternal life then healing is available to you.

Why Jesus?

Why is Jesus Christ the only way to be saved? What exactly does it mean to be saved? What are we saved from? Why can’t other religious leaders like Confucius, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, Allah, etc. save us? Isn’t it shallow thinking or dogmatic to say Jesus is the only way to God? Some will say this is a narrow approach and that all roads lead to God. Is that true? Are there many truths leading to the salvation of mankind? These are good questions and need to be answered. The answer is very simple. Jesus is the only way (path, road, access) to God the Father because Jesus is God the Son. Jesus is God! Jesus said, “I Am (I Am is the name of God He gave to Moses at the burning bush) the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (Jn 14:6). All others were mere men. Were they religious men, probably; wise men, possibly; men sent from God in heaven, no.

Only Jesus is God. He was not just a good man. He was not just a prophet. He was not just a great teacher or rabbi. He was God before He came to earth. He was fully God and fully man while He walked on this earth. He is God right now in heaven.

“‘I Am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’…And He laid His right hand upon me saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I Am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead and, behold, I Am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades (Hell)’” (Rev 1:8,17,18).

This is why C.S. Lewis wrote the following, in his book Mere Christianity, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic, on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg, or else he would be the Devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool (as the Romans did); or you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon (as the Jews did); or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God (as all Christians do). But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” Jesus is God!

What Does It Mean To Be Saved?

What does it mean to be saved and what are we saved from? Mankind has two major problems. One, he is born with the sin nature of Adam—he is a sinner. Two, mankind is born spiritually dead—he is separated from God. Therefore two things must happen for mankind to be saved. The cause of death must be eradicated or cured and the dead man must be brought back to life. This is exactly what Jesus did. At the cross the cause for death, which is sin, was forgiven. At the resurrection the spiritually dead were restored to spiritual life—the eternal life of Jesus. There is nothing man can do to save himself. Man is totally dependent on and in desperate need of a Savior. Only the God that created man can save man from this state of eternal sin and death. Salvation from sin takes place in the “forgiveness of sins.” Salvation from eternal death takes place in the “resurrection of the dead.” Only Jesus was the incarnation of God, God became man and dwelt among us. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (Jn 1:1,14,17).

Only Jesus

Only Jesus came from Heaven. Only Jesus lived a perfect life without sin. Only Jesus took all the sins of the world upon Himself. Only Jesus died on a cross for all sins, past—present —future. Only Jesus ascended back into heaven. Only Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father. At the cross of Christ all man’s sins were forgiven. At the resurrection of Christ all mankind was restored to eternal life—reconciled to God. God is calling you to Himself. “Today if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Heb 4:7). “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling (to the Jews) and a rock of offense (to the Gentiles), and he who believes in Jesus will not be disappointed” (Rom 9:33). “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (Jn 1:12). The appropriate response to the calling of God is to believe by faith in Jesus Christ. Do you believe?

Prayer of Salvation

Dear Heavenly Father, I now see that I cannot save myself, that I am a sinner and I need a Savior. I believe that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was God in heaven and came to earth to identify with His creation (Immanuel), that He was born of the virgin Mary making Him fully human and fully God, that He lived a perfect life without sin, that He died on a cross as a substitute for my sins giving me complete and total forgiveness (past, present, future), that He rose from the grave defeating death and giving me eternal life. Thank you Jesus for being my Lord, Savior and best friend, in Jesus name I pray amen.

Prayer of Thanks

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for your “great love” and that you are “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4), to me and all whom love you. “Because of Your great love (loving-kindness, mercies) I am not consumed, for Your compassion will never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” Lord unto me (Lam 3:22, 23). Father God, it is of great comfort to me that Your plans for me are “plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me hope and a future” (Jer 29:11), that when I am faithless You remain faithful (2 Tim 2:11), and that nothing can separate me from Your love (Rom. 8:39). I ask right now Father that “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10) in my new life. That you would open my eyes and that I might see the Salvation of the Lord in my daily walk. Thank You, Father, for saving me from my sins and giving me eternal life in Christ Jesus my Lord and Savior. I pray in Jesus’ loving and saving name, Amen.