{"id":16549,"date":"2022-12-16T10:12:22","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T17:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/?p=16549"},"modified":"2023-04-18T14:52:23","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T20:52:23","slug":"we-must-be-saved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/we-must-be-saved\/","title":{"rendered":"A Men&#8217;s Ministry Men Want to Know (Part 7) &#8211; In Order to Do God&#8217;s Good Works, We Must be Saved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Previous posts in this series have been incorporated into Part 2 of my online article, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/a-comprehensive-church-based-ministry-to-men\/#table-of-contents\">A Comprehensive Church-Based Ministry to Men<\/a>.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>As we have seen in 2 Timothy 3:12-17, our &#8220;passage for getting there,&#8221; we have to first be saved through faith in Christ Jesus in order to do the good works God wants us to do.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"en-NIV-29866\" class=\"text 2Tim-3-12\">\u201cEveryone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,<\/span>\u00a0<span id=\"en-NIV-29867\" class=\"text 2Tim-3-13\">while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse,\u00a0deceiving and being deceived.<\/span>\u00a0<span id=\"en-NIV-29868\" class=\"text 2Tim-3-14\">But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,<\/span>\u00a0<span id=\"en-NIV-29869\" class=\"text 2Tim-3-15\">and how from infancy\u00a0you have known <strong>the Holy Scriptures,\u00a0which are able to make you wise\u00a0for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0<span id=\"en-NIV-29870\" class=\"text 2Tim-3-16\">All Scripture is God-breathed\u00a0and is useful for teaching,\u00a0rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,<\/span>\u00a0<span id=\"en-NIV-29871\" class=\"text 2Tim-3-17\">so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.\u201d 2 Timothy 3:12-17<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But this prerequisite that we must be saved in order to do God&#8217;s good works raises the question&#8230;<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lp-headline text-align-center font-scale-9 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14 subhead\" data-pm-slice=\"1 2 []\">Why Jesus?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">Several years ago I was sharing my faith with a social worker in my community when he responded by saying, \u201cI don\u2019t want to be a Christian because I don\u2019t want to spend the rest of my life, not to mention eternity, in meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">He had a point. In his mind, all Christians do is attend meetings that have no purpose or practical outcome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">Of course, Christians attend meetings because we are followers of Jesus. We worship God and his Son, Jesus Christ, in meetings. We make close friends and fellowship together in our meetings. We also learn about how to follow Jesus better by meeting together.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lp-headline text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-5 small-subhead\">No man wants to spend eternity attending a meeting<\/h3>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">My social worker friend didn\u2019t understand the purpose of our meetings because he didn\u2019t understand the importance of Jesus. No one had answered his underlying question: Why Jesus?<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">That simple question \u2014 Why Jesus? \u2014 is one of the most important questions every men\u2019s ministry must answer clearly, passionately, persuasively, and persistently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">Why? Because men have plenty of things to do other than just attend meetings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">But if they know their lives depend on meeting together, and if they know there are going to be concrete and positive outcomes as a result of it, not only in their own lives, but also in the lives of the people they know and love all around them, then they will not only be there, they will drag their loved ones and friends to the meeting along with them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">So why Jesus? Why, two thousand years after he walked the face of this earth, do we still meet together to worship him and learn how to follow him?<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lp-headline text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-5 small-subhead\">Why Jesus? Because Jesus accurately diagnoses men\u2019s problems<\/h3>\n<p class=\"lp-headline text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-5 small-subhead\">Consider this: the further away American culture has gotten from Jesus, the more aimless, destructive, and depraved American men have become. For the first time in two thousand years Christianity is facing, not just a post-Jesus Western civilization, but an anti-Jesus, pagan civilization.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">But ironically, the best apologetic for Jesus is the increasing absence of Jesus\u00a0from\u00a0our culture. Why? Because, without Jesus permeating Western culture as he has to varying degrees over the past two millennia, we are witnessing the greatest social experiment in the history of the world: what happens to men in a Jesus-less culture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">In Jesus-less America, men are losing their ability to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/28375675\/\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">control their sexual lust<\/a>. They are losing their\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/human-interest\/2017\/04\/more-unmarried-americans-than-ever-are-cohabiting.html\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">desire to marry<\/a>. They are losing any commitment to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/library\/stories\/2021\/04\/number-of-children-living-only-with-their-mothers-has-doubled-in-past-50-years.html\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">raise their own children<\/a>. They are losing any\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Men-Boys-Making-Modern-Immaturity\/dp\/023114430X\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=32Z6UOYTGCFXZ&amp;keywords=men+to+boys+the+making+of+modern+immaturity&amp;qid=1636386879&amp;sprefix=men+to+boys%2Caps%2C118&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">transcendent purpose in life<\/a>. They are losing their\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/college-university-fall-higher-education-men-women-enrollment-admissions-back-to-school-11630948233\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">passion for education<\/a>. They are losing their\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/blog\/up-front\/2016\/08\/15\/men-not-at-work-why-so-many-men-ages-of-25-to-54-are-not-working\/\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">work ethic<\/a>. They are losing their ability to<a href=\"https:\/\/bjs.ojp.gov\/content\/pub\/pdf\/Llgsfp.pdf\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">\u00a0keep the law and stay out of prison<\/a>. They are losing their\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.addictioncenter.com\/addiction\/addiction-statistics\/\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">resistance to drugs and alcohol<\/a>. And finally, in a Jesus-less culture, men are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Decline-Men-American-Getting-Flipping\/dp\/0061353159\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1Q1QVLYQ55KQD&amp;keywords=the+decline+of+men&amp;qid=1636387775&amp;sprefix=the+decline+of+men%2Caps%2C119&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">losing their self respect<\/a>, because they\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/the-misery-of-modern-men-why-todays-men-act-like-animals\/\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">no longer know who they are, why they are here, or where they are going<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">One cannot have a positive outcome to a problem until one knows the reason for the problem. Here is Jesus\u2019 diagnosis for men\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">Every man has an evil nature he cannot tame\u2026without Jesus.<a href=\"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/why-jesus\/#easy-footnote-bottom-1-14202\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">1<\/a>\u00a0He lives in an evil world he cannot overcome\u2026without Jesus.<a href=\"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/why-jesus\/#easy-footnote-bottom-2-14202\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">2<\/a>\u00a0He has an evil enemy he cannot defeat\u2026without Jesus.<a href=\"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/why-jesus\/#easy-footnote-bottom-3-14202\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">3<\/a>\u00a0And he faces a holy God he doesn\u2019t know and cannot please\u2026without Jesus.<a href=\"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/why-jesus\/#easy-footnote-bottom-4-14202\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">4<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">What, then, is the root cause of men\u2019s problems?\u00a0The root cause of men\u2019s problems is that they don\u2019t know or care about Jesus.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lp-headline text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-5 small-subhead\">Why Jesus? Because without Jesus men cannot escape slavery to sin<\/h3>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">Let\u2019s face it, we men love sin. Or to put it in ordinary secular language: we men love evil. We love illicit sex. We love porn. We love exalting ourselves at the expense of others. We love living off of someone else\u2019s dime. We love lying when we can get away with it. We love going our own selfish way, even if it means abandoning our wives and kids. We love cursing. We love road rage. We love warfare. We love beating people up and watching people beat each other up. We love getting even. We love putting others down. We love climbing the ladder and stepping on everyone else in the process. We love clicks. We love getting high. We love avarice. We love gluttony. We love being noticed. We love having a nicer car and living in a nicer home than our neighbors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">We may think these things are just temptations. But we are only tempted by the things we love. Dog food does not tempt us. Baby back ribs do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">It\u2019s true. Men have a chronic temptation to descend into barbarism, or \u201ctoxic masculinity,\u201d as some call it. In response to this overwhelming temptation, human culture has devised two polar opposite and contradictory solutions, which I call \u201cThe Bikini\u201d and \u201cThe Burka.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul class=\"lp-list text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14 lp-list--bullet\" data-guid=\"fcc26de7-88e2-3996-1a19-64b1593495b1\">\n<li>The Bikini \u2013 Indulge Oneself<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">When it comes to lust, most men choose hedonism\u2026at first. They choose it because indulging oneself is the path of least resistance. There are no moral absolutes, men think. So why bother with niceties? All that exists is the physical world and the pleasures it offers. \u201cI\u2019m just a man, doing what men do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">The problem with this approach to dealing with one\u2019s passions, as men soon find out, is that hedonism is both self destructive and also relationally destructive. It is self destructive because we become addicted to our chosen evil. It is relationally destructive, because no one wants to live with a selfish, self-absorbed man who hurts those around him.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"lp-list text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14 lp-list--bullet\" data-guid=\"51fa31b1-85e5-5f18-10da-589b55f5bf3f\">\n<li>The Burka \u2013 Control Oneself<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">Legalism is the exact opposite of hedonism. Instead of addressing men\u2019s lusts by giving in to them and even encouraging them, legalism seeks to tame lust through external sets of strict social rules \u2014 usually religious rules \u2014 enforced with various cultural sanctions like ostracism, corporal punishment, prison, and even execution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">The Taliban in Afghanistan, Amish culture in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and Hasidic Jews in urban New York, Los Angeles and Israel, all exemplify this legalistic and artificial approach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">The problem with legalism is that it is external and superficial only and does not deal with the real interior spiritual, emotional, and psychological problems men face. All legalism does is repress, control, and restrict both men and women with contrived rules and regulations that make no real change in their moral fiber.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">Notice, too, that both the bikini and the burka solutions to men\u2019s natural attraction to evil have this in common: they result in men becoming obsessed with dealing with it. On the one hand, indulging one\u2019s lusts results in deeper and deeper addiction, more and more broken relationships, chronic sickness and even death. On the other hand, trying to control one\u2019s lusts results in endless and fruitless ritualistic behavior.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lp-headline text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-5 small-subhead\">Why Jesus? Because Jesus reconciles men to God<\/h3>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">You noticed that I changed my terminology from \u201csin\u201d to \u201cevil\u201d above. That is because modern men can stomach the concept of evil, but we have a knee jerk reaction to the concept of sin. Why? Because evil doesn\u2019t make any reference to the God of the Bible, but sin does. One can imagine evil as something impersonal that just exists \u2014 like \u201cthe dark side\u201d in Star Wars. But sin is personal, very personal. Sin is open rebellion against a holy and personal God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">The problem isn\u2019t just that we men love evil, but that we love evil\u00a0because we hate God who is holy.\u00a0We hate any claim he has over us. We hate his authority and we hate his character. This is why we love to debase God by using his name and his son, Jesus\u2019 name, in curses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">This is also why we men are willing to endure the painful consequences of evil, and even inflict evil on others around us, if only we can ignore a holy God to whom we know, either consciously or subconsciously, we are answerable. We are, to put it bluntly, damned and worthy of God\u2019s wrath.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">But God, who is holy, is also love. God is not just loving, God is\u00a0love\u00a0itself. God is all that love ever has been and ever will be. So, to satisfy both his holiness and his love, God sent his Son, his only son, to die in our place so he could take on himself God\u2019s just wrath for our sin. In doing so, God satisfied both his holiness and his love.<a href=\"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/why-jesus\/#easy-footnote-bottom-5-14202\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">5<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">As a result of Jesus\u2019 sacrifice, God offers us forgiveness and eternal life if we acknowledge our sinful state and put our faith \u2014 meaning our confidence \u2014 in Jesus Christ as the one who paid the penalty for our sin. Won\u2019t you do that right now by telling God in prayer that you are trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior from sin and its penalty?<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lp-headline text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-5 small-subhead\">Why Jesus? Because Jesus frees men from slavery to debauchery and legalism<\/h3>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">As a result of a man\u2019s faith in Jesus, many wonderful things happen to him, both immediately and long term. He is born again and becomes a \u201cnew man.\u201d All of his sins are forgiven. He enters into a right relationship with God. He has eternal life. Suddenly the spiritual world comes alive for him because he receives the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. He becomes a member of the universal church, the Body of Christ. He has a special supernatural spiritual gift given to him to use in service to others. Jesus becomes his intercessor in the presence of God. As a result, this new believer has direct access to God through prayer. He has new insight into the Bible, God\u2019s inspired Word. And, most importantly, he has a new love for God and his Son, Jesus Christ, and wants to do things that please them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">On the other hand, this new man still has issues. He still has his old sinful nature that has not been touched by his salvation. He also still lives in a sinful world with all of its temptations. And he still has an enemy, Satan, who hates the fact that he has now become a Christian.<a href=\"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/why-jesus\/#easy-footnote-bottom-6-14202\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"external\">6<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">At first, this situation can seem untenable. But this new Christian man has been given a solution, and it\u2019s called The Cross.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"lp-list text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14 lp-list--bullet\" data-guid=\"eadf0e4a-c6b4-7b93-2dc4-b284e8ea3f3d\">\n<li>The Cross \u2013 Ignore Your Old Sinful Nature and Follow Jesus<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">The mistake new Christian men often make is that they think the the purpose of their salvation is to remake their sinful nature into something good, or at least something better than it is. But that is impossible, as they soon find out; they discover that they still have the same temptations coming in from the outside world, and the same lusts going out from their sinful nature. And they will experience these realities until the day they die. So the tendency is to revert back to either giving in to those temptations and lusts (hedonism), or trying to subdue them through keeping a list of things they have to do (legalism): in this case, the \u201cChristian\u201d version of legalism usually takes the form of a checklist that looks like this:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">Because I am a Christian, I must be sure to do the following:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"lp-list text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14 lp-list--bullet\" data-guid=\"0fa7696c-708d-95e8-62b4-396dd56911bb\">\n<li>Attend church? Check.<\/li>\n<li>Read my Bible? Check.<\/li>\n<li>Pray? Check.<\/li>\n<li>Give money? Check.<\/li>\n<li>Do good things for people? Check<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">The problem is that, as we have seen above, keeping obligatory legalistic checklists such as this have no impact on our sinful flesh. In fact, they just give our flesh opportunities to rebel even more.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lp-headline text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-5 small-subhead\">Why Jesus? Because Jesus gives men the freedom, the passion, and the supernatural ability to do good<\/h3>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">So what is the solution Jesus gives us? The solution he gives us is a third option: instead of giving in to the flesh through hedonism, or trying to control it or reform it through legalistic efforts, we simply ignore the flesh and focus on Jesus, on what he has done for us, and on what he wants us to do for others. In this way, Christian practices like attending church and reading the Bible become means to an end and not merely ends in themselves. With this third option in mind, the Christian practices above (and any other Christian practices) look like this:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">Because of what Jesus Christ has done for me on the cross:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"lp-list text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14 lp-list--bullet\" data-guid=\"58dde67e-cc76-8e02-6f34-30448841e9f2\">\n<li>I attend church\u00a0in order to worship God and develop loving relationships with other believers.<\/li>\n<li>I read my Bible\u00a0in order to understand God\u2019s dealings in history and his will for my life.<\/li>\n<li>I pray\u00a0in order to communicate with God my love for him and what my needs are.<\/li>\n<li>I give money\u00a0in order to support the work of the church and meet the needs of others.<\/li>\n<li>I do good things for people\u00a0in order to help them and show them the same love Jesus Christ has shown me.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">As we men learn to engage in these practices for the proper reasons, something begins to happen: we become more aware of God, we enjoy the presence of the Spirit of God in our lives, we have a deeper appreciation of Jesus\u2019 love for us, and we are motivated to engage in sacrificial service for others in need. In essence, we have been set free from slavery to sin and our sinful nature and have, instead, become willing and joyful slaves to God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">As a result, we are no longer obsessed with our flesh and instead, as we have victory over sin in our lives, we acquire a strong inner motivation to do the good that God saved us to do. We are, in effect, experiencing \u201cthe expulsive power of a new affection,\u201d as Thomas Chalmers put it in his famous sermon by that title.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lp-headline text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-5 subhead\">Why Jesus? Because Jesus is alive and coming soon<\/h3>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">Of course, none of this matters if Jesus is dead and gone. But Jesus is not dead and gone. Jesus rose from the dead, just as the Bible predicted he would, and ascended into heaven. And there is plenty of historical evidence to prove this.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">Of course, no amount of evidence for the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ will ever be enough for a man who is unwilling to acknowledge his sin and his love for evil. But for the one who has, and who has cast himself in faith on Jesus Christ, Jesus is very much alive and impacts everything he thinks, says, and does.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">He lives for Jesus now, and he looks for Jesus in the future, because he knows that Jesus is coming soon and that he will see him face to face.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\">And that is the greatest meeting of all.<\/p>\n<p>And so, men, here is an important question we must ask ourselves: are we saved?<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14\"><span style=\"color: #999999;\">This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"lp-list text-align-left font-scale-6 line-height-scale-6 gutter-bottom-14 lp-list--bullet\" data-guid=\"2d715e94-aa0a-4a4f-22d8-2f4db34a7e44\">\n<li>John 2:23-25<\/li>\n<li>John 16:33<\/li>\n<li>Luke 22:31<\/li>\n<li>John 8:42-44<\/li>\n<li>John 3:16<\/li>\n<li>For an in depth treatment of the concepts I am discussing here, read Romans 1-8.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Previous posts in this series have been incorporated into Part 2 of my online article, &#8220;A Comprehensive Church-Based Ministry to Men.&#8221; As we have seen in 2 Timothy 3:12-17, our &#8220;passage for getting there,&#8221; we have to first be saved through faith in Christ Jesus in order to do the good works God wants us [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16549"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16821,"href":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16549\/revisions\/16821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcommandment.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}