I'm a little slow to learn, but after that wonderful warm evening in the Spring of 1977 near Newport Beach ..when I repented of my wrong-doin's (sins) praying to receive Christ and His free forgiveness.. it took me a couple months to learn I shouldn't really be dating and gettin' physical with those unregenerated tan surfer-babes (2 Cor. 6:14), or be drinkin' at beach parties with em until totally drunk.. and then fleeing on foot from police who were kinda upset with all that stuff.
I loved the Lord with all my heart, didn't mind talking about Him (at least who I thought He was) or talking about what He did in my life (my personal testimony), but I was so very dense. I just started to read His book, the Bible, hadn't found a Bible teaching church led by the Lord through a saved pastor, and I sure had a lot to learn. Still do.. still do a whole lot.. so I just keep prayerfully reading the red (along with all 66 books in-between the leather) tryin' to simply understand and apply what I read.
How gracious Jesus was to put up with me for so long, with my slow-dying uber-lame-habits, and not simply full-volume-yell at me, and throw me out (of His Kingdom) on my ear.. like, "Yo Bro, You thick-headed n just ain't gettin' it. And you keep hurtin' me over an over again, so you out! God take your weird worldly habits and all your worldly self-destructive close friends and go far away, Kurt. Don't come knockin' on my door again!" No, what's so cool is that God didn't say that cuz He is love and He is long-suffering, a genuine friend of sinners like me.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." 1 Jn. 1:9-10
He'll freely forgive us, keep on forgiving us (Col. 1:14, Acts 10:43, Eph. 4:30).. and cleanse our lives from all destructive sinful habits that are not according to His righteousness.. meaning that right livin' while being in right standing with God due to faith in Christ's finished work on the Cross.
We don't have to first clean up to get saved. That's what religion tells us to do, "You clean up from the outside in, and you better do it well or you won't ever have a hope to be saved. If you clean up well, you might get into God's holy Heaven." So false. Jesus ain't religious; He catches His fish so to speak, and then cleans em.. from the inside out.. by His Spirit.. in that order. There have even been a lot of born again yet not totally sanctified sinners who have gone to heaven. Think about the thief on the cross who was forgiven (see Luke 23:32-43). Think about the promise of Jesus to Him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise." Christ never lies.
Sure, any of us can come to Him sincerely repenting, fully trusting, and simply believing in Him.. just as we are and then be accepted with open arms of love, but remember..He loves us too much to leave us the way we are..the way were were when we found Him. The Father wants us to live like, be like, walk like, smell like His dear son, Jesus.
I get asked if I believe in Lordship-salvation and my answer is "Nope." Because a baby Christian doesn't always have it all together in their mind or walk when forgiven—they just know they are totally stoked-out in and about Jesus. God's gentle process of sanctification has now started with them. He hates sin but is very patient.
But I do believe that when one is regenerated (born again spiritually) by faith alone in Christ alone.. it's kinda like God just set up a beachhead (at the high price of blood) on that island, but it could take quite a period of time for the new Possessor of the island to gain control of the entire island (and the new believer is that island if ya will, that was bought at a price). It is of course good (for the believer and the Kingdom) to encourage every believer to make Jesus Lord, today.
Paul in First Corinthians 12:3 says, "..no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." A person can not have the presence of the Holy Spirit inside their person until after they are regenerated a.k.a. "saved" (that's a Bible term). And in Romans 8:9 Paul states, "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."
In Galatians 4:6 Paul speaks to believers saying, "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." You must be born again. If you and I were born right the first time, we wouldn't need to be born twice. John 3:6 says believers are "born of the Spirit."—they are sealed by the Spirit (Eph. 4:30).
