In the Gospel of John, we are told that the Lord Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” and that “no one comes to the Father except through Me.”^[1] By this, the Lord Jesus affirms that not only is what He tells us true, but that He Himself is the Truth.

The apostle John goes on to tell us that the Lord Jesus (the Word) “became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth”^{[2] and} that “no one has ever seen God; but the one and only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.”^[3] and that “all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.”^[4] This means that the Lord Jesus has always existed, creation came through Him, and therefore He is God.

The truth testified to by the Lord Jesus is a simple one: He came from God from eternity, being an eternal being^,[5] and He became incarnate for the purpose of revealing God and His will to us on earth.

But just as the Lord Jesus is the truth^[6] and His Word is the truth^[7], we also find in the world the opposite of truth, which comes from the evil one, who speaks according to his deceitful nature.^[8] His goal is always to destroy and corrupt the truth that God has given us, and he will do everything he can to prevent people from believing in the true Jesus or to make them believe in a Jesus imagined by the human mind.  

That is why it is necessary to examine the teachings we receive, because the Bible warns us to guard against false teachings that have been circulating from one generation to the next. Thus, the Lord Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew that we should beware of false prophets who come clothed in sheep’s clothing but are ravenous wolves on the inside.^[9] Likewise, the apostle Peter warns us that “false prophets have arisen among the people, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, will deny the Lord who redeemed them, and will bring upon themselves a terrible destruction.”^[10]

The
Apostle John, too, warns in his epistles about this danger: “Little children, it is the last hour….But you have received an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have written to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth.” ^[11]

In the church to which John addresses this epistle, it so happened that among the members there were people who had abandoned sound doctrine and embraced false teachings. But such false teachings have stood the test of time, and therefore, we must ask ourselves whether the teaching we have received is the true, biblical teaching, or whether it has been altered by human additions or the removal of true teachings from the Word of God.

The material below presents God’s truth about us and about Himself as revealed in His Word, as well as the obstacles that stand in the way of knowing Him. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will enlighten our minds so that we may understand the whole truth about God, just as He desires to communicate it to us.

 GOD’S TRUTH ABOUT HIMSELF

The Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Rome that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in their unrighteousness.”^[12] We have become accustomed to thinking of God as merely a good God who forgives us, but the Apostle Paul begins his Epistle to the believers in Rome by revealing God’s primary characteristic: that He is a righteous God, angry against sin, and whose righteousness demands our judgment.^[13]

This is the first thing we must know about God—namely, that He is a God who is angry with those who sin. One day every person will stand face to face with this God and will have to give an account of the sins they have committed. 

God wanted to show us that He is righteous and that He does not overlook sin, but judges it. All who live in sin as a way of life bring God’s wrath upon themselves. In the book of Revelation, we read how great this judgment will be that the Lord will bring upon the earth.^[14] That great day of His wrath is about to come upon this earth, and the fire of His judgment will consume all that is unrighteous and sinful.

But God is not only just, but also merciful, and He wants to save each of us from this judgment. That is why He sent His Son, who stood between us and God, and suffered on the cross all that we were to receive as punishment for our sins: “But God demonstrates His love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.^[15] Judgment fell upon the One who had never sinned so that “whoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life.”^[16]

Therefore, it is only through the Lord Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins that we can receive His forgiveness, and not on the basis of any personal merit: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”^[17]

Since the divine Law is just as holy as God Himself, only One equal to God could make atonement for its violation. No one else but Christ alone could redeem the human race from the curse of the Law.^[18] The life of an angel could not pay the debt, for only He who created man also had the power to redeem him. The Lord Jesus Himself is God who came into the world as a man, in a nature similar to ours, yet without being born under the curse of sin: “...one who in every respect was tempted as we are, yet without sin.”^[19]

Therefore, the Lord Jesus is God who saves, who lived and was born without sin.^[20] Such a birth was possible only through the work of the Holy Spirit in a virgin: “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel (God is with us).^[21]

GOD’S TRUTH ABOUT US

Because of the sin that dwells within us, our first birth—that is, our earthly nature—is not sufficient. The Word of God reveals our sinful condition to us. In His eyes, all our good deeds are like filthy rags,^[22] and because of sin, we are all deprived of His glory.^[23]

His truth reveals our lack of truth. Therefore, our standard must be His person and His holiness, not the deeds of men. We need to acknowledge our fallen state and our urgent need for redemption before Him through repentance and faith in Him. If we humble ourselves and acknowledge this fallen state before Him ^[24], He will forgive our sins and freely give us eternal life.^[25] 

Therefore, in order for us to be saved, a spiritual rebirth must take place within us through the Spirit of the Lord^[26]—one that brings about a substantial transformation of our personal lives.^[27] Without sincere repentance, consisting of a broken heart, this new birth cannot take place, and therefore we cannot be saved either.^[28]

If we are not born again of God, there is a danger that, because of our nature, we will become merely religious people rather than true worshippers in spirit and truth, as God desires of us.

The Lord Jesus tells Nicodemus, who was a respected teacher in Israel, that he must be born again—that is, start his life with God from the beginning. All those years of religion and traditions had to come to an end; he had to acknowledge that he had not been what he should have been because he lacked the essential thing that could truly transform his life: being born again. No matter how moral we may consider ourselves to be, God looks at our hearts; He knows all our hidden thoughts, all the desires and longings of our hearts. Being born again happens by renouncing everything we thought was good within us. Nicodemus understood the Lord’s words, but he realized that at his advanced age and after so many years spent in a form of religion, this was very difficult to accomplish. That is why he asks the Lord Jesus this question: “How can an old man be born? Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”^[29]

God has only one way of dealing with our fallen nature, and that is death—the death of our old nature. The old man must die so that the spiritual man may live: “For if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, all things have become new.”^[30]

A born-again person has new desires to know God more deeply, to pray, and to sing. He praises God and desires to bring His Gospel to all people. He desires only God and a life lived in His presence. Whoever does not completely transform his life is not living according to God’s truth. If a person allows known sins to continue in his life, he is not a true Christian, but is deceiving himself. There is no Christian who is not delivered from sin, for the Lord Jesus says: “For sin shall no longer have dominion over you, since you are not under the Law but under grace.”^[31]

Another example of a religious person is the apostle Paul, who, in reality, was an opponent of the Truth. When Paul found himself face down in the dust, the Lord Jesus told him that he must renounce all his former forms of piety in order to start anew through repentance.^[32] It took Paul four days to meditate on the Lord’s words, and he chose to erase from his mind everything he had known about God from his past so that he could be born again.

Religiousness saves no one; only repentance and a life transformed by the power of God do. According to the Law of Israel, no one could prove that Paul had sinned. Paul, like most of the people of Israel, was seeking his own righteousness: “Since they did not know the righteousness that God provides, they sought to establish their own righteousness and thus did not submit to the righteousness that God provides.”^[33] After his conversion to God, Paul testified that “we believe that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law.”^[34]

After being born again, the Spirit of the Lord enters the life of the one who repents and gives him the power to live a life of righteousness. Every child of God must resemble his Father. The born-again person lives for God through the power given to him by the Holy Spirit. That is why not all the paths people choose lead to God. People say that every path and every religion leads to God, but the truth is different. Proverbs states that “there are many ways that seem right to a man, but in the end they all lead to death.”^[35] There is only one path that leads to heaven, and we must ensure that we are on the right path. The narrow path leads to eternal life in God’s heaven. The broad path that most people choose leads to destruction. The Lord Jesus will say these harsh words to some who are certain they will reach heaven but who walk the broad path, fulfilling all the desires of this world: “I never knew you; depart from Me, all of you who practice lawlessness.”^[36]

Jesus says that few choose to walk this path. In His day, of all the people living on the face of the earth, only twelve followed Him, and one of them betrayed Him. This path has always been a narrow one, walked by few.

The characteristics of the person who is on the narrow path are those listed by the Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew.^[37] Whoever fulfills these words of the Lord and lives by them is on the narrow path that leads to heaven. Jesus called those who are the salt of the earth and the light of the world blessed, because they are on the narrow path. 

Those who walk the narrow path have their treasures in heaven, and on earth they face various forms of persecution, yet their hearts are set on heaven.^[38] The person who trusts in God worries about nothing but places everything in the Lord’s hands, and does not judge others but rather judges himself.^[39] The narrow path is strewn with difficulties, and it is necessary for us to deny ourselves and let Him mold and sanctify us to the very end.

But the Word of God warns us that in the last days there will be many false prophets who will deceive many and who walk the broad path of disobedience to God, sin, and misery.^[40] On the narrow path, we ascend, rising in a life of holiness and drawing ever closer to God.

 WORSHIP OF AN IMAGINARY GOD

As mentioned above, a continuous attack on the Word of God is being waged in the world by a number of false believers. Thus, they have succeeded in removing true worship in spirit and truth from the lives of believers through unbiblical traditions, which, by adding so many things to biblical truth, end up presenting a false god.

The Bible speaks of true worshippers who worship the Father in spirit and truth^[41] and of false worshippers^[42]. If we worship God as the Lord Jesus taught us, then we are true worshippers; but if we worship according to our own minds and follow human teachings that are not biblical, then we are false worshippers^[43].

According to the Bible, prayer is addressed to God through the one Mediator between God and humankind, who is Jesus Christ^[44], “for there is one God, and there is one Mediator between God and humankind: the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all—a testimony given at the proper time.”^[45] Therefore, we must not pray to creatures, whether they be angels, “saints,” or even “Mary.” Prayer is addressed exclusively to God.^[46]

Thus, if we are not to pray to them, and they are not mediators in prayer, then the icons made in their so-called “image,” “to aid in prayer,” are in reality idolatry, as people invoke them rather than the one true God.

Mary was the earthly mother of the Lord Jesus and was faithful to the mission God had given her.  However, she was in no way the “Mother of God” nor was she “immaculately” conceived; rather, she was saved, just like us, through her faith.  In her prayer, recorded in the Gospel of Luke, she says, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”  Nowhere in the Gospels is it suggested that Mary is the “Mother of God,” nor that she plays any mediatorial role in our salvation. This teaching only serves to steal from the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ as the sole mediator of our salvation.

It must also be clarified whether the worship of icons intended to represent the divine is biblical. God gave clear commandments in the Old Testament regarding worshiping Him: “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them…”^[47]. These verses clearly show us that making graven images is done to worship other gods. Carved images cannot be made to represent the God of the Bible, because “The Lord spoke to you from the mountain out of the midst of the fire; and you heard the sound of His words, but you did not see His form; you heard only His voice.”^[48] “Remember well, then, that on that day, when the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire on Mount Horeb, you saw no form.” ^[49]

Since God’s face has never been seen by human beings, neither can His image be reproduced.^[50] Therefore, icons, from the moment they are made, are idols, for God cannot be reproduced. The Apostle Paul tells the believers in Rome that “people, claiming to be wise, have become fools and have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things.”^[51]

But neither can the likeness of the Son of God be reproduced, since the early Christians had no icons during the first centuries of Christianity. Thus, if after hundreds of years an attempt had been made to paint the physical likeness of the Lord Jesus, it would have been impossible to accomplish, because all the disciples were dead by that time, and such images would have been mere human imaginings. Moreover, the very excuse that people do not worship icons but rather what they represent is a lie; this idea was borrowed from paganism, since pagans also worship wooden images that they believe to be the likeness of a god.

Even though some first-century Christians saw the Lord in the flesh, in His physical body, after His ascension into heaven, Christians no longer knew Him as a man, and they did not value this outward appearance, but rather the Lord’s qualities—His moral image, which He desires to imprint upon us, making us new creatures.

In addition to all this, the apostles, during their lifetimes, did not permit people to bow down to them, as is evident from the book of Acts.^[52] Thus, if the apostle Peter did not permit people to bow down to him but rejected such acts as idolatry, how could the worship and kissing of “icons” that depict the saints be considered proper?^[53] In fact, the Bible does not present any example of venerating icons of the saints, which makes this practice unbiblical.

The Bible tells us that people who have been forgiven through the blood of Christ by faith in Him and who live according to the promptings of the Spirit^[54] are saints.^[55] Thus, the saints are not only Mary and the twelve apostles, but all those who have been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus and who have crucified their sinful nature.

Moreover, even the teaching that has crept into the churches—that the Lord’s bread, when taken by people, becomes the body of Christ (transubstantiation)—is a distortion of God’s truth designed to prevent us from worshiping the true God. Through this teaching, we are told that the Lord Jesus must be continually sacrificed through the liturgy, where the bread and wine are literally transformed into His body and blood.  The Catechism teaches that Christ “continues to offer Himself in a bloodless manner on the altar through the ministry of His priests,” as if a mortal man could create his Creator through the liturgy.

But the Bible teaches us something different from this doctrine, namely that Christ’s sacrifice was complete and final and can never be repeated. Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, is a remembrance of that sacrifice.  On the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished,” and then “He gave up His spirit.”^[56] By this He meant that the work of redemption was complete and that no further sacrifice needed to be offered.^[57]

Likewise, God has not commanded the worship of bones (relics), even if they belong to people who did His will during their lifetime. God thus forbids the worship of creatures,^[58] because people must worship Him alone.

Since ancient times, touching a dead person was considered an impurity, and if someone touched a corpse, they became unclean according to divine law. Priests were not even allowed to touch the dead bodies of their parents, lest they become defiled.^[59]

The same unscriptural worship is represented by the practice of making the sign of the cross, because the cross should not be the object of our veneration. Nowhere in the New Testament is it mentioned that the early Christians made the sign of the cross; this sign did not become widespread until several hundred years later. On the contrary, the Bible tells us that “you were not redeemed with perishable things—such as silver or gold—from the empty way of life you inherited from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb without blemish or defect”^[60] Therefore, it is not the wood of the cross that can reconcile us to God, but the blood shed on that wood.

When the Bible speaks of the preaching of the cross^[61] or the cause of persecution for the cross, it does not refer in and of itself to the wood on which the Lord Jesus was crucified, but to the sacrifice of Christ who died on the cross^[62].

To take up the cross means to make the decision to crucify your sinful nature in your life^[63], to suffer mockery or persecution for His Name’s sake, to live a life of sacrifice, centered on God and others, following the example of the Lord Jesus, for even the Lord did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.^[64] Carrying the cross of Jesus is achieved not by worshiping an object, but by self-denial and following the Lord Jesus regardless of the sufferings or trials we go through.

Therefore, the worship of crosses, relics, and icons is idolatry because it is not worship of the true God, who is spirit; and worship of Him takes place in the spirit of man and through the Holy Spirit^[65], not through physical objects.

TRUE WORSHIP OF GOD

How, then, should we worship God? The Lord Jesus tells us that worship is in the Spirit^[66]; it does not require material things, because it takes place in the Christian’s spirit, where Christ is present.^[67] Therefore, the correct way to worship is “in spirit and in truth.”

In the Bible, the word “spirit” refers to something unseen and immaterial^[68]. Therefore, worshiping “in spirit” means that your worship can take place anywhere and at any time, since the spirit is not limited. That is why our worship does not need to be aided by material, visible things, such as images, but takes place in our spirit^[69], which is in communion with God, who is Spirit.

Christians no longer have a physical temple through which to worship God; rather, they themselves are temples of God, for His Spirit dwells within them^[70] Similarly, the church is not the building where religious services are held, but rather the believers as a group whom the Lord Jesus has brought to life through His Word and Spirit.

Therefore, for our worship to be pleasing to God, we must worship both “in truth”—that is, our worship must be sincere—and according to the Word of God, which is the truth.^[71] Any other form of worship that violates the commands of the Bible is not in truth and is therefore disapproved by God.

True worship is directed to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus, the Only One who has Power^[72], Life^[73], Love^[74], and Wisdom^[75], or directly to the Lord Jesus as our Mediator before the Father, through whom all creation came into being and finds its reason for existence^[76], under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, so that our prayer may be received before the throne of God’s grace.

Therefore, man, created by God—the fourth party in the relationship with the Triune God and the weak link in this relationship when he seeks God according to the devisations of his own mind, as we have seen above— needs to restore true fellowship with his Creator through His Word and through the work of the Holy Spirit, so that he may come to receive from God true power, life, love, and wisdom. To our God be praise, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and strength forever and ever! Amen!

^[1] John 14:6.

^[2] John 1:14–18.

^[3] John 1:14–18.

^[4] John 1:1–3.

^[5] “Jesus, knowing that the Father had put all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was returning to God...” (John 13:3).

^[6] John 14:6.

^[7] “Sanctify them by Your truth; Your word is truth.” (John 17:17).

^[8] “You belong to the Devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44).

^[9] Matthew 7:15.

^[10] 2 Peter 2:1.

^[11] 1 John 2:18–21.

^[12] Romans 1:18.

^[13] “The Lord God is a God full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, who maintains His love for thousands of generations, forgives iniquity, rebellion, and sin, but does not leave the guilty unpunished, and punishes the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generation!” (Exodus 34:6,7).

^[14] “When the Lamb broke the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake. The sun turned black as sackcloth, the moon turned entirely blood-red, and the stars fell from the sky to the earth, just as green figs fall from a tree when it is shaken by a strong wind…. The kings of the earth, the rulers, the commanders of the armies, the rich and the powerful—all the slaves and all the free people—hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:12–17).

^[15] Romans 5:8.

^[16] John 3:16.

^[17] 2 Corinthians 5:21.

^[18] “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).

^[19] Hebrews 4:15.

^[20] “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).

^[21] Isaiah 7:14.

^[22] “We are all like the unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a soiled garment. We all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.” (Isaiah 64:6).

^[23] “…but your iniquities have set a wall of separation between you and your God; your sins have hidden His face from you and prevented Him from hearing you!” (Isaiah 59:2).

^[24] For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23); Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me has eternal life (John 6:47).

^[25] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8–9).

^[26] He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But to all who did receive him—that is, to those who believe in his name—he gave the right to become children of God; born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:11–13); In reply, Jesus said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3).

^[27] He saved us, not because of any righteous deeds we had done, but because of His mercy, through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).

^[28] Therefore, put away all impurity and every form of wickedness, and receive with meekness the Word planted in you, which is able to save your souls. Be doers of the Word, not merely hearers who deceive yourselves. For if anyone hears the Word but does not put it into practice, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looked like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law—the law of liberty—and perseveres in it, not as a forgetful hearer but as a doer of the work, will be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks he is religious but does not control his tongue, but deceives his own heart, his religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion before God our Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world (James 1:21–27).

^[29] John 3:4.

^[30] 2 Corinthians 5:17.

^[31] Romans 6:14.

^[32] Acts 9:5.

^[33] Romans 10:3.

^[34] Romans 3:28.

^[35] Proverbs 14:12.

^[36] Matthew 7:23.

^[37] Matthew 5:3–12.

^[38] Matthew 6:19, 20.

^[39] “Therefore, whoever you are, O man, who judges another, you have no excuse; for in judging another, you condemn yourself, since you who judge another do the very same things. We know, in fact, that God’s judgment against those who do such things is in accordance with the truth. And do you think, O man, that you who judge those who do such things—and yet do them yourself—will escape God’s judgment? Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, forbearance, and patience? Do you not see that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:1–4).

^[40] Matthew 24:11.

^[41] “But the hour is coming—and is now here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship Him.God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23,24).

^[42] “Let no one rob you of the prize of your race by doing his own will through a pretense of humility and worship of angels, meddling in things he has not seen, puffed up with vain pride, following the thoughts of his earthly nature” (Colossians 2:18); The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they might not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. (Revelation 9:20).

^[43] “They claim to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, for they are detestable—disobedient and unfit for any good work.” (Titus 1:16).

^[44] “Truly, truly, I say to you: Whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give you.” (John 16:23); “Always giving thanks for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Ephesians 5:20). 

^[45] “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).

^[46] “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:17); “Through Him, let us always offer to God a sacrifice of praise—that is, the fruit of lips that confess His Name.” (Hebrews 13:15); “The twenty-four elders fell down before the One seated on the throne and worshiped the One who lives forever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne... ” (Revelation 4:10).

^[47] Deuteronomy 5:7–9.

^[48] Deuteronomy 4:12.

^[49] Deuteronomy 4:15.

^[50] “The Lord said, ‘You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live!’” (Exodus 33:20).

^[51] Romans 1:22–25.

^[52] “As Peter was about to enter, Cornelius, who had gone out to meet him, fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up and said, ‘Stand up; I, too, am only a man!’ (Acts 10:25, 26).

^[53] When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices and said in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form.”... “Men, why are you doing this? We, too, are human beings just like you; we bring you good news, so that you may turn from these futile things to the living God, who† made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.” (Acts 14:11, 15).

^[54] “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” (Romans 8:14).

^[55] “...how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve† the living God!” (Hebrews 9:14).

^[56] John 20:30.

^[57] Hebrews 9:28.

^[58] Romans 1:22–25.

^[59] Leviticus 21:11–12.

^[60] 1 Peter 1:18, 19.

^[61] 1 Corinthians 1:17, 18.

^[62] 1 Corinthians 1:23, 24.

^[63] Galatians 2:20; 5:24; 6:14.

^[64] Mark 10:45.

^[65] Jude 1:20.

^[66] John 4:23, 24.

^[67] “…This is why, I say, I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, and I pray that, according to the riches of His glory, He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; so that, having been rooted and grounded in love...” (Ephesians 3:14–17).

^[68] John 3:6–8.

^[69] “God, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, is my witness that I constantly remember you in my prayers.” (Romans 1:9).

^[70] Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16). “How can the temple of God be in harmony with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God has said: ‘I will dwell among them and walk among them; I will be their God, and they will be My people.’ (2 Corinthians 6:16).

^[71] John 17:17.

^[72] Judges 14:18.

^[73] Malachi 4:2.

^[74] 1 John 4:7–8.

^[75] Job 39:26–29.

^[76] John 1:1–3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:15–17; Hebrews 1:3.