onlybluephoenix

No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

 (Jesus said this to Nicodemus and the Holy Spirit moved John to record it in his gospel. The reference is John 3:13-21)

Now to give you a bit more insight into what God is saying here, because we know assuredly that what Jesus said that is recorded in the Bible (as well as what His Spirit moved His chosen prophets and apostles to write) are the Words of God. The word for “believe” in the Greek is pisteuō which means “I.to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in.” And we know from James that belief is not mere mental assent. For example, even the demons confessed that Jesus was the Son of God and knew that it was true, but that doesn’t mean they have everlasting life. For “faith without works is dead.” (James 2:14-26) The angels who do have everlasting life are those who “excel in strength” and who “do His Word, heeding the voice of His Word.” (Psalm 103:20) James also said that we, likewise, are to be “doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves.” (James 1:22) So we cannot stop at just believing that it is true what God said, though it is true, and some people take a while to even come to that conclusion, calling the Bible “a book of myths” or “a book of lies.” But that is not enough to save us, we also must do what God said to do in His Word, “purifying our souls through obeying the truth”, as Peter said in 1 Peter 2:2, or even as Jesus says here, we must be those who “do the truth, that our deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” As for the angels that sinned, Peter points out in 2 Peter 2:4 that “God did not spare them, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.” This is also the fate of unrepentant sinners, and of those who “turn from the holy commandment delivered to them” (1 Peter 2:21.) So I am just writing these things to you in case you didn’t know them, that you could repent of your sin, and start walking in accordance with God’s Word, because that would be of eternal profit and value to you.

With all the love that is in Christ Jesus, and with full faith and assurance in His Word,

Tiffany.