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145 | ANSWERED! Why Did Jesus Have to Die? (And Other Important Questions!)
300 Plays1 month ago
Phylicia dives into some of YOUR questions on this weeks episode of Verity Podcast! From questions about Baptism to Understanding Salvation and many in between these Bible based answers are set to help guide you to the scripture as you grow in faith.
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Referenced in this episode: ⦿ Bible Study Guides | https://phyliciamasonheimer.com/our-books/ ⦿ Timothy Paul Jones Youtube Series | https://youtu.be/_VK5Xa0AUGo?si=JatmofUYrfwdyc81
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Verity Podcast is an Every Woman a Theologian company. We believe every woman should be a theologian. Every woman should be a student of the heart of God. Find our latest books, kids books, and hospitality product releases on our website, here: ➡️ https://rb.gy/h4szl3 Order “Every Woman a Theologian” ➡️ https://rebrand.ly/yju441w Our latest release: “A Christian Guide to Fundamental Mormon Beliefs” ➡️ https://rebrand.ly/vu6hcw1 Follow us on Instagram: 📸 Phylicia Masonheimer: https://rb.gy/qma0y8 📸 Every Woman a Theologian: https://rb.gy/zwyxld 📸 Verity Home: https://rb.gy/epiovd 📸 Faithful Kids: https://rb.gy/ke8r4t Please like, subscribe, and share our content—it means a lot to us and helps us continue to create the kind of content you need and enjoy!
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose of the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
How can Christians live so differently? Are they not all Christians? What are the deal breakers? What is the meaning of baptism and is it required? How can I trust the Bible hasn't been changed? Why did Jesus have to die and how or why did that cover our sins? Okay, this one made me laugh. Grace alone, but you know God's got behavior expectations.
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome back to Verity Podcast Friends. I'm Felicia Mason-Heimer, the host of Verity Podcast and the founder of Every Woman a Theologian, and we are continuing our Beginner Believer series. We're about 17, 18 episodes deep now, and it has been such a joy to be able to create these episodes for those of you who are new to the Christian faith or maybe are discipling someone who is new to the Christian faith.
Questions on Christianity from Instagram
00:00:48
Speaker
And this week, I am going to be talking about the questions you sent in
00:00:54
Speaker
about being a beginner believer. What are you asking? What do you want to know about the Christian faith? Now, I tried to choose the questions that were sent in via Instagram that we hadn't already covered on an episode, but we might touch some of those again in this episode for those of you who are new to me, new to our channel, or to the podcast.
00:01:16
Speaker
Now, you guys did not give me a break on these. These are some tough questions. And of course, whenever I answer questions like these, I'm answering in such a quick format that there's so much more that could be said. It's always going to be a slight oversimplification when I'm answering theological questions in a Q&A format.
00:01:35
Speaker
So, of course, don't let this stop you from continuing your research or checking out all of our amazing resources in the Every Woman A Theologian Shop by going to feliciamasonheimer.com forward slash shop. We have almost 30 quick theology booklets, which are these little six dollar print booklets. They're three dollars if you get the e-book.
00:01:55
Speaker
And they talk about some of these issues like creation and the Trinity and how to trust the Bible, things like that in a very short and accessible format. So check those out if you'd like to know more.
The Significance of Baptism
00:02:08
Speaker
And for now, I'm going to dive in and answer some of these questions that you sent into my Instagram.
00:02:13
Speaker
All right, let's start with a doozy. What is the meaning of baptism and is it required? This is a great question and I'm pulling up scriptures as I'm recording and talking to you and to kind of give us some something a little bit more robust than just Felicia's opinion as we're sitting here talking about this. So
00:02:32
Speaker
Okay, what is the meaning of baptism? So baptism as a practice actually didn't just appear out of nowhere with John the Baptist in the New Testament. I think some people believe that Jesus or John invented baptism, and that's actually not true. Baptism was a practice that the Jews were practicing actively. In fact, if you converted to Judaism, baptism was one of the ways that you
00:02:58
Speaker
fulfilled your conversion. So if you were a Gentile, a Greek, and you decided I want to be Jewish in my religious practice, you would be baptized as a true convert to Judaism. Another way that baptism shows up is through mikvah cleansings, where you would cleanse yourself, you would walk down into this
00:03:21
Speaker
pool of living water that's important it couldn't be stagnant water had to either be from a river or a spring and you would cleanse yourself and so we see this in Leviticus with these ritual washings that were happening but this becomes formalized as we approach the New Testament era where there were actually these mikvah baths or pools where people would go down and would
00:03:43
Speaker
essentially be baptized, but the most formal baptism was in the conversion process. So when we get to John the Baptist, he's baptizing a well-recognized practice, but why is he doing it? He's doing it for a different reason. In Matthew 3, John the Baptist says that he baptizes with water, but that the coming Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. This is in Matthew 3, 11,
00:04:10
Speaker
And this is the baptism that John himself believed he needed, which is why when Jesus came to be baptized by John, notice that Jesus himself submitted the baptism. John says to him, I need to be baptized by you and you come to me. So John understood that there was a greater baptism by the Holy Spirit that was to come, but he was also actively practicing.
00:04:33
Speaker
this physical baptism as an outward sign of that coming inner reality. Now there are different perspectives on baptism. There are some churches which practice infant baptism, which is seen as a sign of the covenant replacing circumcision. And so infants are baptized basically as a, depending on the tradition you're in, there's diverse opinions on infant baptism too, but as a sign of this coming,
00:05:00
Speaker
faith that they will they will put a seal of the faith that is yet to come in this child's life and this is why later on in many churches they will have a confirmation process where there were first communion and so in with infant baptism it functions a little bit differently than with credo baptism or believers baptism which is what i practice our family practices and in the church that i'm currently in practices and what many of you are probably
00:05:29
Speaker
familiar with. This is what Jesus was submitting to in this credo-baptist process of converting. Jesus isn't converting, but people were converting and then coming to John and being baptized. And so after this, long after this, at the very end of Jesus' ministry, right before he ascends, he says to the apostles, he gives them a great commission. He says, go into all the nations, all the world, and preach the gospel to all nations, to all people,
00:05:57
Speaker
baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is important because he connects the preaching of the Gospel with the rite of baptism. And so is baptism required? Yes, as far as we are able to participate in it.
00:06:14
Speaker
Certain exceptions exist, such as the thief on the cross who was saved by faith without baptism, but he couldn't be baptized. He was hanging on a cross. So he's an exception to the rule. However, for those who are not in such situations and baptism is possible, baptism is something that shows to all those around us that we are joining ourselves to Christ spiritually.
00:06:37
Speaker
We're testifying to this change of life, this change of character that he has worked in us, this change of identity, the new family we're entering. And as many pastors will say, when they baptize someone buried in the likeness of his death, raised to life
00:06:54
Speaker
and the likeness of his resurrection. That is what baptism signifies. That's why it's so important. Okay, next question.
Why Do Christians Have Different Practices?
00:07:02
Speaker
How can Christians live so differently? Are they not all Christians? What are the deal breakers? That's a great question. How are spirit-led Christians arriving at different conclusions? How come we have some people who won't read certain books or watch certain movies or wear certain clothes and others will?
00:07:21
Speaker
How do we understand the diversity of the church or even denominations in today's culture? Let's start first with the diversity of the church at large and denominational structures, and then we'll talk about how different Christians arrive at different conclusions about how to live if they all have the same Holy Spirit.
00:07:40
Speaker
Let's start with this. This is something that is sometimes hard for people to understand, especially if they convert to Protestantism out of Catholicism or Orthodoxy. These ancient, highly structured, hierarchical churches that will often lay claim to the history of the church and lay claim to being the original church. What is interesting in my role as a leader of a ministry that is acumenical or
00:08:09
Speaker
serves across all denominations, all historically orthodox denominations. What we see is that many churches actually claim to be the original first church. And so when we look at all of history, what we're looking at is the global historical church, capital C.
00:08:31
Speaker
all the people who have ever put faith in Jesus Christ. That's the church. Not one specific denomination, but the church, capital C church, is every Christian who has ever put faith in Christ.
00:08:47
Speaker
That's the church. So then why do we have these denominations? So that is a conversation that needs an entire podcast series. And I did start that out. We did an early church podcast series that I then had to take a break from earlier this year. But all of those episodes are still available.
00:09:03
Speaker
we can do a church history series sometime. But where denominations came from, essentially, they've always existed to some degree. And what I mean by that is, you have had differences of opinion and expression on
00:09:19
Speaker
certain practices within the church from the very beginning. In fact, if you read the book of Acts, you will see certain differences and little dissensions that were happening even between the apostles or between different ministers of the gospel who disagreed on certain things and then had to get together and figure out how are we going to unite? What are we going to unite around?
00:09:40
Speaker
especially as the church expanded out of the Middle East, you started to see different expressions of Christianity that were colored by the cultures that it entered because Christianity was never meant to completely morph over a culture and erase all of its distinctions. It was meant to bring the hope of Christ, the hope of the God who came to earth to save humanity to every culture and every tongue.
00:10:05
Speaker
to save them as they are, not erase their culture, but to redeem their culture and bring it to the full knowledge of God. And so you see different expressions of Christianity in places like Coptic Christianity, which began in Egypt, Ethiopian Christianity, one of the oldest churches. When you see how it's expressed in the Greek Orthodox Church and then the Roman Catholic Church, which were the two primary
00:10:32
Speaker
ruling churches for approximately the first thousand years. There was a massive split. They were together up until the year 1054. And that is when the Eastern church split from the Western church for a variety of reasons I won't get into here.
00:10:52
Speaker
That was the first what many people would call denominational split. But up to that point, there had already been many differences of opinion and many counsels of the church to discern what adheres to Scripture, what holds to what Scripture teaches about the Trinity, about Jesus' divinity, about God, and what departs from it.
00:11:14
Speaker
Now, after that split for another 500 or so years, you still had the Roman Catholic Church, the predominant and powerful church in Europe at that point. And over time it became increasingly corrupt. And of course, in the 1500s is when Martin Luther and other reformers broke from the Catholic Church because of its abuses, stood up to those abuses,
00:11:40
Speaker
and returned to the power of the Word of God itself. And people like John Wycliffe and William Tyndale paved the way for that in the 1300s and 1400s by translating the Bible from Latin to English for the very first time. Their work paved the way for Martin Luther and for others, and eventually out of the Reformation came this vibrant revival of dedication to the Word of God.
00:12:06
Speaker
One of the impacts of this revival and reformation was that there was a splintering of the church into many different factions. And sometimes those factions were based on sinful pride or greed or power grabbing, but other times that wasn't the case at all.
00:12:26
Speaker
Many times the church was splitting because one side wanted to preserve the word of God and another wanted to depart from it. And so over and over the church is split out of hoping to preserve the freedom to first of all read the word of God at all but also to apply it and walk it out.
00:12:45
Speaker
And out of these diverse and wide denominational groups, out of which came Presbyterianism and the Baptist, the branches, many branches of the Baptist movement, your Puritans and your Pilgrim separatists, you get to over to America and you see the Methodist movement and you see the Pentecostal movement arising around the 1900s, you see all of these different churches arising.
00:13:15
Speaker
all of them an expression of the goodness of God's Word in a specific time, a specific place with specific giftings. And when all of those churches remained true to the Word of God and to the Spirit of God, they had a powerful impact in their place and in their age.
00:13:35
Speaker
But when they departed from that responsibility to stand on scripture, to stand on the truth, and they began to compromise and follow the culture's way, they lost the power of their witness, and very quickly, many of them would begin to dissolve and lose their influence completely, much like Revelation describes in the letters to the churches.
00:13:57
Speaker
And so today we have over 8,000 denominations around the world. Some of the fastest growing are Pentecostalism, the Charismatic Church, and then we also have the Catholic Church still being one of the largest in the world as well, closely followed by the Orthodox Church too.
00:14:17
Speaker
So these churches, there's going to be differences of practice and differences of opinion. How do we discern what is a true church and what is not? This is where I love the method called theological triage. This was suggested both by Gavin Ortland and by Albert Mohler, and I think both of their frameworks are extremely helpful. I've talked about this on my own podcast, on Verity Podcasts, where I talked about the tiers of theology.
00:14:44
Speaker
Then basically how it works is that there is a first level, first tier of theological discernment necessary when you're looking out at the church. You're looking out at it and you're going, okay,
00:14:55
Speaker
What are the main things? What's the core here across all these denominations? If everybody's a Christian, what do we all have to agree on? And I love what D.K. Chesterton said about this. He said, the core doctrines are the creeds and the historic conduct of those who held to such a creed.
00:15:14
Speaker
That means that those core creeds, those statements of faith, like the Apostle's Creed, that are written in the first few centuries of the church, guide us in what the main principles of Christianity are. But then on top of that, you have to look at the historic conduct of how Christians are called to live
00:15:31
Speaker
in the cultures in which they lived, which leads us to look at the epistles and how Christian morality is described and to see that consistently Christian morality is taken directly from the Old Testament in the Ten Commandments. The Jewish understanding of morality is what was translated directly into the New Testament church.
00:15:52
Speaker
When it comes to sexuality, when it comes to murder, when it comes to lying, stealing, coveting, the Ten Commandments stand and are newly expressed in the spirit of our hearts. So we follow the theological creeds, these statements of faith that are based on Scripture, and we follow the moral behaviors.
00:16:12
Speaker
that are outlined in things like the Ten Commandments and the standards for those things that were outlined in Leviticus. Now, I don't mean that you're following Levitical law. That's another question we could answer another time, but that the standards of holiness, right relationship with God and right relationship with others,
00:16:31
Speaker
are guiding the moral behaviors of Christians today. So knowing this about the denominations, that they're all an expression, as far as they adhere to the Word of God, they're all an expression of the Church of God, the Spirit of God, they're united in their core, even if they have a different way of expressing things, you know, perhaps more expressive worship, or maybe they're more liturgical, they still have that same core.
00:16:59
Speaker
How about the individual Christians who when you are looking at them, you go, well, this person doesn't seem to be convicted about these behaviors. And this person is.
00:17:12
Speaker
This is where it gets tricky because sometimes it's a maturity issue. Sometimes it's genuinely about maturity that somebody is a new believer and they haven't been discipled well to know like that's foolish behavior. They're not reading the word of God. They're not asking the Holy Spirit to lead their behavior or sanctify them. So they are making decisions that are foolish and are a bad witness. Whereas the other person has been walking with the Lord longer and knows that.
00:17:36
Speaker
Other times we simply make mistakes and we have to repent and they maybe need somebody in their life who lovingly will address that with them. But sometimes it is a matter simply of conviction. So, for example, our family doesn't celebrate Halloween and we have really good reasons for why we don't do that. And we get into those both on our website and on my social media. But can I question someone else's salvation if they celebrate Halloween? No. And here's why.
00:18:06
Speaker
Halloween itself, though I think it's worth thinking about and discerning and understanding, is not an issue of salvation. It's not even fully an issue of morality, because while scripture does speak to things like Halloween and festivals like it,
00:18:23
Speaker
It doesn't specifically say that if someone participates in this holiday they are putting their salvation at risk or that they are, you know, in a position where we should question their faith.
00:18:39
Speaker
So how do we then discern it? How is someone arriving at this conclusion? Well, that's where you have to look at their receptiveness to the Holy Spirit. Christians have a responsibility to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. And we have episodes about that too. And when you listen to his conviction and you follow his conviction, you compare it to the word of God, you will be led into obedience in the areas where you're called to obey.
00:19:04
Speaker
And this is how Christians in one culture, a Christian in Africa, may be convicted to do certain things or not do certain things that a Christian in the United Kingdom may not feel convicted to do or not do because their culture needs their witness in a specific way.
00:19:21
Speaker
And so they need to be willing to listen to how God has convicted them to walk out their faith in those contexts and be obedient to be a witness to those places. Now, the very baseline is belief in Christ and the morality that's outlined in scripture, in Romans, in Ephesians, in Galatians, all based on the principles that we see in the Old Testament because Jesus came to fulfill the law, not to get rid of it.
00:19:47
Speaker
All of the things that Jesus taught for us to do were originally found in the Old Testament and are now given to us by the Spirit of God. So that's a very long answer to your question, but it's a complicated question and it's one that I think needs a long answer. Denominations to me are a good thing. They reach the world in so many different ways and so many different expressions. And as this world continues to move forward, I think we're going to see a unity of the church in regard to this.
00:20:16
Speaker
We're also going to see more and more Christians take seriously their holiness and the need to be set apart, listening to the Spirit's conviction and obeying
Understanding Jesus' Sacrifice and the Gospel
00:20:24
Speaker
Him. Okay, here's one that's super fundamental. Why did Jesus have to die and how or why did that cover our sins? This is a great question. Well, first, we have to go all the way back to Genesis 3.
00:20:36
Speaker
Genesis 1-3, where God creates humanity and he creates a world that is beautiful. But in order to have free relationship, love relationship with God, these people had to have the power of contrary choice. You can't have a love relationship if you are forced into a relationship. If God is dictating all of your attitudes and responses, there is no freedom there. It's not a relationship at all. It's robotic.
00:21:02
Speaker
And so God recreated these human beings, made in his image the children of God. And he placed them in a place where they could succeed at relationship with him. If they so chose, they instead chose not to. And even for those who believe that Genesis one and two or one through three are allegorical, it's still as a principle that applies that God created humans with the power of contrary choice.
00:21:32
Speaker
part of his own character. See, God cannot do what is evil, but God also has a will. And being made in his image means that he gave us a will too. A will that he hoped ultimately and knew we would use and that we used against him.
00:21:55
Speaker
When that happened, sin was invited into the world. And sin is to miss the mark. That's what the Hebrew word means, to miss the mark of God's holiness and goodness. God wasn't playing a game with humans. He wanted relationship. And here's the beautiful thing about the gospel is that when God created this world, and he created this relationship, possibility,
00:22:21
Speaker
Not only did he offer that originally, but when humans broke it, God activated this rescue plan. And he went in and he said, all right, they made their decision, but I haven't given up on them. And he starts a redemption plan to rescue humanity from their own sin. But because they had begun this path and they had entered into sin,
00:22:46
Speaker
with their humanity, given their whole soul and their body over to what is anti-God, only another human could redeem them. Only another human being could undo what the human beings had done.
00:23:03
Speaker
It says in scripture in Romans that the wages of sin is death. What's death? It's separation from God. He is the author of life. And sin ends life in every single way. And so God
00:23:19
Speaker
becomes human. He takes on flesh. John 1 says, the Word of God, which is Jesus Christ, became flesh and dwell among us. And we have seen His glory, the glory as from the Son of the Father. So when Jesus came in the form of a baby, in this weak form that couldn't offer anything productive or important,
00:23:44
Speaker
He came into our world to live life as a human, to suffer as we have, to experience the grief and then to experience death, to die as our substitute, to take the penalty we deserved freely and willingly, using his will, not for evil, but for good, to undo what the first Adam did by becoming the second Adam. Jesus had to die.
00:24:11
Speaker
Not because God is a cosmic child abuser. Jesus chose to die because God is a cosmic human lover and he wants to redeem his people.
00:24:30
Speaker
So Jesus laid down his life willingly on the cross, a Roman torture device, and then three days later proved his power over death, over separation from God by rising from the dead. And that's really the most important part of the story, because if Jesus had not risen from the dead, then there is no such thing as Christianity. That is what broke the power of death and gave us the hope of living with God eternally.
00:24:56
Speaker
So what would have happened if Jesus had not come? We would have had an outstanding debt to God. Someone would have had to pay it, but none of us can. And so Jesus himself, God himself, came in human form and laid himself down so that he could pay the price on our behalf and bring us back into fellowship with him. Everything in the Old Testament, the sacrificial system, never covered sin.
00:25:24
Speaker
It just temporarily cleansed the people so they could dwell in the presence of God. But when Jesus came, He was the final sacrifice, the perfect Lamb, as Hebrews says, and His blood didn't just temporarily cover but completely and utterly cleansed us from all sin.
00:25:41
Speaker
and so that is why, that is why Jesus came. Now there are many different theories on the Atonement and what happened on the cross but in this case I'm sharing one which is a substitutionary model. There are others who believe that he came as the king reigning in victory. I think that's valid also and either way is it a wild story? Sure is but I've heard wilder and I think it's the most compelling case for a loving God and purpose in the universe.
00:26:10
Speaker
Okay, let's take a look at our next question. Okay, this one made me laugh. Grace alone, but you know, God's got behavior expectations. Now we talked about this a little bit in regard to morality, but yes, salvation is by faith and grace. How do we know this? Go all the way back to Genesis 15. Abraham, it says, believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. It was counted to him as righteousness because he trusted God's word. So God's
00:26:40
Speaker
God's story, God's love, God's promises, when we believe God, put our trust in Him, give our allegiance to God, say, I believe you enough to hang my hat on this story, to put my life on the line. I'm going to follow you. That is counted as righteousness. So we put our faith in Christ.
00:27:05
Speaker
And then Christ grants us grace or favor. He gives us this grace and favor to move forward into our life without having to earn it. We don't have to do anything to deserve it. We just get to move forward knowing that God's favor is upon us.
00:27:24
Speaker
So, where does the behavior come in? Because we know God is holy and he wants us to be holy too. So yeah, God's got behavior expectations. How does that work? Well, one of the best ways that I have heard this described
00:27:40
Speaker
is from the standpoint of a parent. Now, I know not all of you who are listening to this are parents. And so maybe you have a nephew or a niece, or think about your own parents, if they were healthy parents, how they parented you, or think about the best parent you know, when you think about this analogy, because human analogies to God are never perfect.
00:28:03
Speaker
But I love my children unconditionally. I love them no matter what. They have my favor. They're my children. And yet it is my responsibility for their safety and for their long-term health to give them boundaries and to train them in what is good and righteous and true and beautiful. If I don't do that,
00:28:26
Speaker
I hurt them for the long run because not only will they hurt themselves, their trajectory, their future, their career, they'll hurt other people around them. And so the righteous law of God is coming from his father heart. Yes, he says, I favor you. You are my children. I love you. And my law is good.
00:28:47
Speaker
And my gospel is peace. My law is what shows you what a good life looks like that points to God on earth and says, look at the hope, look at the peace, look at the joy. You will reap the goodness of God in the land of the living when you walk in his ways. That doesn't mean everything will go perfectly for you or that you'll never suffer.
00:29:09
Speaker
but that you will see the fruit of God's righteousness in your life. You will have peace when they're suffering. You will have more peace in your relationships than if you followed the world's way. You will see God's blessing on your life, not just material blessing, but the blessings of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
00:29:30
Speaker
God is a good father. And so He favors you and He loves you. And all of the laws, all of the teachings that Jesus had on how to live in this world are for your good and for the good of those around you. Okay, here's a great question. And I'm going to actually provide a resource for this one.
How to Begin Reading the Bible
00:29:49
Speaker
When I was a new believer, I wondered, how can I trust the Bible hasn't been changed?
00:29:53
Speaker
Excellent question. One of my favorite topics, the history of the canon. How is the Bible put together? Why can we trust it? We actually have an entire book on this in the Every Woman a Theologian Shop. It is called How the Bible Came to Be. It's just a quick history of how the Bible was compiled and why you can trust it.
00:30:11
Speaker
So, that's a great resource that I highly recommend. Another resource is right here on YouTube. You can check it out. It is by Timothy Paul Jones and it will teach you all about how the Bible was compiled in video form. So, if you search Timothy Paul Jones Bible, it will come right up. That's a great resource as well.
00:30:32
Speaker
How do I know that I'm believing enough to be saved? This question kind of breaks my heart because I know so many people struggle with feeling like they are truly saved. And I have some episodes on assurance that might encourage you, but when it comes to your faith, you have to remember something. You did not wake up one day just deciding that you were going to follow God. God, in all of his goodness, first pursued you.
00:30:56
Speaker
The Holy Spirit came after you. He sought after you. He wanted you. And He does that for every single person in some way at some point in their life. Some way, somehow, God will give everyone a chance. Revealed through creation, revealed through dreams or visions or the preaching of the Gospel, He will allow every person to have a chance at knowing Him. Romans 1.
00:31:21
Speaker
So he initiated this and now your response to him in response to his call is where this question is coming from. How do I know I have enough faith? Well, number one, faith is not a feeling. Faith is not about drumming something up or an emotion where you feel like maybe you believe. So now you believe. Faith is hope in something that you cannot see. Having enough information to put your hope in it.
00:31:46
Speaker
And so when you think about having faith, you must not focus just on your emotions about it. But what's the truth? Who is the person you're putting faith in? And are they trustworthy? In this case, Jesus. Is Jesus trustworthy enough for you to give your allegiance to him? If he is, and you say yes, you confess and you repent and you believe,
00:32:08
Speaker
You are saved. That's what Romans tells us. That's what Jesus said. And so you don't need to battle in your heart about getting to that point of really feeling saved. It's not a feeling. It's a fact.
00:32:23
Speaker
It's a truth. He said, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you shall be saved. That is how you become a part of the family of God. And out of that, there may be great emotions. There may be a journey that's exciting. It's an adventure to walk with God. However, never be deceived into thinking that this is about your effort and your faith in keeping you
00:32:50
Speaker
saved. Christ keeps you. He saves you. He is the one on whom you've staked your faith and he does not change. That's where your security is. You don't have to worry about drumming up more faith. You can say, Lord, help my unbelief, remind me of who you are, and then be in the word of God so you know who he is and you know what to trust. It's not about you. It's about him.
00:33:18
Speaker
All right, our last question here before we wrap up, we have so many great questions. I'm going to have to do another episode just to cover all of them. OK, let's end with this one. How often do I read the Bible or where do I start?
00:33:32
Speaker
Now we have an episode about this in the Beginner Believer series, but I want to revisit this because I think that this particularly is such an important question. It can be really intimidating to read the Bible when you're a new believer. And I understand how intimidating that can be. This is an ancient text. It's a big book. Where do I begin? If you are just starting out, I love the Gospel of John. I love the Gospel of John. It is such a fantastic resource. It is
00:34:00
Speaker
walking through the truths of the Gospel in such an accessible way. It's a book of the Bible I return to often with chapters that I just ingest to remind me of God's goodness and His love for me and His favor for me and the fact that I am never separated from Him. So I love starting in the Gospel of John first. If you want to go to the Old Testament, I really do love the book of Genesis.
00:34:28
Speaker
And the reason why is because we get a really good look at how God still loves imperfect people, which I think is so important to grasp when you're first coming to faith. This is not about becoming perfect. This is not about will-powering yourself, but that God can still work in the lives of people who fail, and that he's looking for faith, he's looking for trust, and he will redeem even the darkest story.
00:34:57
Speaker
Now, books like Genesis, the Old Testament will bring up a lot of questions and that's where we're happy to be here to help you as you have those questions and are going through a book like Genesis and feeling intimidated by the things that come up. But don't be afraid of that. This is a lifelong journey of studying the Bible. How often should you read it? I wouldn't really encourage a little bit every day. Or if you're in a super busy season, do three days a week of a deep dive.
00:35:23
Speaker
So either a little bit every day or deep dives three times a week and try to find a really great Bible study you can join through a local church. Find somebody that will disciple you or meet with you where you can learn about scripture together and really go deep because that's where things
00:35:38
Speaker
are changed. And that's where you begin to actually grow. It's very hard to grow in depth as a new believer by yourself. And so find a local church, find a Bible study or a small group, somebody to disciple you so that you can start to really grow in your understanding of Scripture. I have full confidence in you. I believe in you. I know that you will do so, so well
00:36:02
Speaker
learning to make a discipline out of your Bible reading. Now if you need help or if you want to start with something really light for the Gospel of John, our not so quiet time guide on the Gospel of John is the perfect resource. I designed this to be accessible and easy to use for those who are new to Bible study. So you'll simply read a chapter of John a day and
00:36:25
Speaker
answer five questions, and then read a poem and look at a related art piece. And I've also included a QR code to a worship song related to something that happened in the chapter. So it's very interactive, it's very engaging, and it's not intimidating for those who are just starting out. It works well for teenagers, those who have a homeschool community, or those who just want to study on their own for the first time. So if you're looking for something on the Gospel of John, that's a super great option.
00:36:54
Speaker
But we also have verse-by-verse studies on Galatians, Revelation, Leviticus, and 1-3 John. Yes, there's another bunch of John books in the Bible, too. And these are very short. They're little letters that were written by the Apostle John. So if you want something a little bit shorter and lighter, focused on the love of God, our 1-3 John verse-by-verse study might be a great choice for you. And all of these are available in our shop at FeliciaMasonHeimer.com forward slash shop.
00:37:23
Speaker
Thank you so much for submitting these awesome questions. They're phenomenal. And you guys are always welcome to email questions to us at Felicia at FeliciaMasonHeimer.com. We will take those to heart and integrate them into our plan as we create more episodes in the Beginner Believer series and as we plan the series after this.
00:37:40
Speaker
As always, thank you for listening and watching Verity Podcast. Click the button to subscribe and follow along for all of our new episodes. And we are so grateful if you are listening on iTunes, if you would leave us a review. It helps other listeners to find us. As always, dig into scripture, know what you believe, and communicate it graciously.