I’m doing a review on the NIV Faith & Work Bible hardcover.
First of all the construction of this Bible is phenomenal. It has a sewn binding with thick pages and the text size is like a 10 point, very easy on the eyes.
It has a centered reference column, headers for easy find (Green color) as well as the chapters. Each Book of the Bible has an introduction that’s close to a full page in length. Spread out all over the Bible it has 1. A devotional called StoryLine for 31 days, describing a topic on a particular verse like for an example: 1 of 31 (STORYLINE) “Introduction to the Sovereign King” Key verse: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Each StoryLine contains a map. 2. Core Doctrines on different topics. 3. Deeper at work, real stories pertaining to how Christians used their faith while at work.
The color of the font is pretty dark and Jesus’ words are not in red. In the back of the Bible, it has maps and articles on 1. The Gospel and Work 2.Our Need For Theology 3.Finding Our Story In God’s Story.
The only negative thing that I find in this Bible is that the theology expressed under “Core Doctrines” are all Calvinists which some of them are very unBiblical like for an example: They teach that to have faith in Jesus Christ you have to be regenerated first, be saved (the indwelling of the Holy Spirit) then you can have faith in Jesus after you are already saved. Do you see how backwards that is? That doctrine sounds so weird and contradicts Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
We are saved by faith in the work (grace) of Christ done on the cross. If you don’t want to be confused on certain doctrines than I wouldn’t recommend this Bible. If you are a follower of John Calvin then this is the Bible for you.
I received a complimentary copy of this Bible for an honest review from BookLookBloggers.com
13 When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. 14 He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.
Down payment in Greek is arrabón (ar-hrab-ohn’) is the regular term in NT times for “earnest-money,” i.e. advance-payment that guarantees the rest will be given. 728 (arrhabṓn) then represents full security backed by the purchaser who supplies sufficient proof they will fulfill the entire pledge (promise). Strong’s number 728
When a person believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, he is immediately given the Holy Spirit as a down payment, guaranteed by God Himself that the person will spend eternity with Jesus and never have a possibility of losing eternal life that is given to us by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:16
16 The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children
The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit (the inner man) that we are saved and have eternal life. The way we know that it is the Spirit of God is because the love of the truth which is found in scripture compels us to live and proclaim it to a world void of it. The Spirit of God drives us to live in the truth and love the things of God.
Romans 8:1-2
Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
The ones who are born again have been freed from the law of sin and of eternal separation (death) from God. Christians will not be condemned because we have passed from death to life through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and keeps us safe by the power of God as seen in 1 Peter 1:3-5 that says, 3 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
The Greek word for power is dunamis (doo’-nam-is), meaning: might, power, marvelous works.
Dunamis is where we get the English word for dynamite. A dynamite has great power and this power comes from God who has no limit. Who can go against such power and prevail by taking you away from saving faith in Jesus Christ, if He is the One who is holding your faith by His great and mighty power? Only a person who believes that God will not uphold His promise will think that God’s dunamis can be overpowered by a person or spiritual forces of evil in the heavens by stating that a Christian can lose their salvation.
1 Corinthians 11:32
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
One of the ways we are kept from falling away or committing apostasy is by God disciplining us to stay in His will. This is seen by a human father who sees his son straying from his commands, the father will choose from a variety of punishments to ensure that his son starts to obey him once again. Discipline is a way to keep us safe from physical or spiritual harm. How many times has a child holding his father’s hand when crossing the streets wants to pull away from him? The father holds the child’s hand even tighter and even speaks with an angry voice to put fear so that the child would not let go of his father’s hand because unknown to the child he can be struck by a car and die.
Hebrews 12 deals with God disciplining us to keep us in obedience to His Word and only those who are truly His (born again) receives discipline but not illegitimate children, only those who have the Spirit of the Living God inside of them. If a person claims to be a Christian but never receives God’s discipline, he/she was never saved in the first place and is not a child of God.
Hebrews 12:4-11
4 In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or faint when you are reproved by Him, 6 for the Lord disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He receives. 7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had natural fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but He does it for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness. 11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
What father will allow his child to be taken from his hands?
John 10:28-30
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish—ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”
The definition of eternal life is found in John 10:28 which states, “they will never perish.” The reason is given in verse 29, Jesus declares that all believers are safe in the hands of God the Father and no one is able to snatch them away from God, meaning to trick, convince to leave the truth, lure away through worldly lust and pleasures, trials, hardship and so forth. No human or fallen angel will have the strength to convince you to leave the Lord by any means.
Paul was convinced of this by the Holy Spirit, in Romans 8:33-39 it says, 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, 39 height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Here, some think that the phrase “love of God” in verse 39 is a general term that means God loves us all, believers and nonbelievers. That interpretation is incorrect in this context because it’s talking about Christians. According to Jude 1:21 which says, keep yourselves in the love of God, expecting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
“Keep yourselves” means to be obedient to the Word of God which a true believer who has the Holy Spirit will be kept in right standing with the Lord as seen in Jude 1:24 which says, 24 Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen. The phrase “love of God” refers to a person that’s born again. The word “expecting” here means that we can trust Jesus’ promises found in scripture that we can expect on the day of our death to be with Him forever.
The promises are found in these verses:
Titus 1:1-2
1 Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to build up the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, 2 in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
1 John 2:25
And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life. (Clearly, it isn’t eternal if you can lose it)
John 6:37-40
37 Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Matthew 24:13
But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Who are the ones who endure to the end? The answer is found in Philippians 1:6 that says, ” I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” The believers will endure to the end because they are empowered to do so by the Spirit of God who indwells them and keeps them safe.
1 John 3:6,9
6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
A person that’s truly born again is a changed man/woman and their desires are now for the will of God. How can a person revert back to something that they are not? It’s like vomiting and somehow you take delight in scooping that same vomit into your plate.
1 John 5:18
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
The reason we cannot abandon God is He has sealed us with the promise of His Spirit who will transform us into the image of Christ, keeping us from living a continuous sinful lifestyle and protecting us from falling away through the enticement of the evil one. The Holy Spirit lives in us to make sure we continue in the righteousness of God through various discipline and convictions to bring us to repentance.
1 John 2:19
19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.
Those who claimed to have been followers of Jesus Christ and yet apostatized were never saved in the first place as also seen in Matthew 7:22-23 which says, 22 On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’
As you can see Jesus never knew them, in other words, they never had a relationship with Jesus Christ, they were never saved as evident with fruits of unholiness. A person who claims to be a Christian but lives like the world without repenting is an unregenerated person and void of any evidence that the Spirit of God dwells in them.
Spiritual Minefield 