A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY
🌷🌷🌷 August 22 🌷🌷🌷
“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).
With all their Bible knowledge believers in many parts of the world remain as babes spiritually for a long time. They have no understanding of the deep things of God. Paul wanted to share many things with the Hebrew believers but he could not do so because of their spiritual infancy. They were like small children in the kindergarten class who are taught only elementary things.
Now the question is why they remained babes spiritually. It is because they did not have a clear and sure understanding of the fundamental principles of salvation. Paul says, “…ye have need that one teach you again …the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat” (Heb.5:12). So if we are not clear and sure about the foundational, fundamental, first principles of salvation we cannot grow spiritually. A building without a strong foundation will not stand long. When storms come many buildings fall down because they do not have a strong and a deep foundation. The Lord has warned us in His Word that there will be many storms while we are upon this earth. We find many believers losing their faith when they face difficulties, troubles, and trials. They get offended and are easily drawn away by wrong teachings or by worldly attractions. In our lifetime we have to face many storms and that is why we should be on a strong foundation.
First of all, we should make sure that we are built upon the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”(1 Cor. 3:11). We should make sure that we have a definite, personal, living experience of the living Lord Jesus Christ. Having made sure of our personal experience of salvation which we have in Him we must be built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph. 2:20). We follow what the apostles and prophets have taught us in the Scriptures. That is our heavenly order. We cannot change that divine order and heavenly plan because we have been given in a very clear way all the instructions necessary for our spiritual growth.
In Hebrews 6 the apostle speaks of six fundamental and first principles of the doctrine of salvation. The first one is repentance from dead works; the second one is faith toward God; the third one is baptisms; the fourth, laying on of hands; the fifth, resurrection of the dead; and the sixth one, eternal judgement. We can divide them into three groups of two each, because they go together. Repentance and faith go together, similarly, baptism and laying on of hands go together and resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement go together. These principles bring us on a strong foundation.
