“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2 NASB1995)

What is the gospel message that the apostle Paul preached? It isn’t just that Jesus died on a cross for our sins, and that he was buried, and that he was raised from the dead, and that he appeared to many people before being taken up to heaven to be with God the Father. That is not the entire gospel message, as some people would like for you to believe. It is that Jesus died to put our sins to death with him, and he was raised from the dead so that, by God-gifted faith in him, we will now die to sin and live to God and to his righteousness in obedience to his commands – all in the power of God.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Acts 26:18]

We are saved from our sins, and we have the hope of eternal life with God, not by lip service only. For to receive the gospel is to embrace it, to make it one’s own, to give full assent to its message, and to take it and apply it to one’s own life in practice. For the receiving is accompanied with “in which also you stand.” And standing has to do with abiding and continuing, which has to do with obeying, complying with, following, and conforming to. This has to do with living what we say we believe and not just speaking it. For it is those doing the will of God who have salvation and eternal life with God.

By God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are being saved. For our salvation is not a one time decision to receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, regardless of how we live from that moment forward. We have been saved (past), we are being saved (present active), and we will be saved (future) when Jesus returns for his bride and he takes his faithful ones to be with him for eternity. And our salvation is deliverance from bondage to sin, God rescuing us from the power of sin over our lives so that we can now serve the Lord in obedience to his ways.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 9:23-26; John 8:31-32; John 15:1-12; Romans 6:6,16; Romans 8:24; Romans 11:17-24; Romans 13:11; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-2; Colossians 1:21-23; 2 Timothy 1:8-9; 2 Timothy 2:10-13; Hebrews 3:6,14-15; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5,9; 2 Peter 1:5-11; 2 Peter 2:20-22; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6,24-25]

For what comes next is the “IF” statement. And this is teaching us that our salvation from sin and eternal life with God are conditional upon us holding fast (keeping, obeying) the word that the apostle Paul preached to us, which would include all of his teachings on what it means to be saved from our sins and to be in relationship with Jesus Christ and to have the definite hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God, as taught in the correct biblical context. For “our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”

For it is possible for us to “believe in vain.” For if all we do is give lip service to God, but we do not deny self, die to sin, and follow our Lord in walks of surrender to his will, in obedience to his commands, then our “faith” is worthless, futile, and without purpose. For our faith to be genuine, it has to be biblical, which is not of our own flesh, but which is gifted to us by God. And it has to be continuous and lived out in our daily lives, in practice. So, please understand that our salvation and eternal life with God are conditional upon us dying to sin and obeying our Lord, as a matter of life practice.

Jesus, Lead Me

An Original Work / July 22, 2011
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Jesus, lead me all the way.
Be my hope and be my stay.
Gently lead me where I should go,
So Your Spirit, I want to know.
Open up my heart to You.
Fill me with Your love and truth.
Make my heart want to obey.
Be my Lord today. Gently lead always.

Jesus, lover of my soul,
Cleanse my heart, and make me whole;
Be transformed in my heart today,
As I turn from my sin and pray.
Make Your will known to my heart.
May I not from You depart.
How I long to hear You now,
As I humbly bow. Jesus, hear me now.

If You Hold Fast
An Original Work / April 14, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love