Is It Sinking In Yet?

Over the years, I have written out more than a couple of truths which are important for us, as followers of Christ, to take in and make a reality within our lives.  Actually, the fact that they are truths is what makes them important.  It also makes them worth reminding of from time to time as we do tend to suffer from some short term memory loss now and again.

Let's try something together for a moment.  Read, out loud, the following (no, you do not have to read the scripture reference) and say your name where prompted:

I <Your Name> am the salt of the earth (Matt.5:13)

I <Your Name> am a child of God (John 1:12)
I <Your Name> am Christ's friend (John 15:15)
I <Your Name> am a new creation (2 Cor.5:17)
I <Your Name> am righteous and holy (Eph. 4:24)
I <Your Name> am a child of light, not of darkness (1 Thess.5:5)

So how did that feel?  Any of those give you an issue to read and say out loud?  Now here is the funny thing:  they are all true.  Every single one of them.  If you are a believer, then yes, every word you just spoke out loud is true.  To quote an author by the name of Neil Anderson, "Being Christian is not just a matter of getting something; it is a matter of being someone".  Think about that for a moment.  Who we were prior to salvation is not who we are after salvation.  We are born again.  A brand new creation.

This is important.  How we view ourselves and our God is what makes all the difference here.  After all, if you view yourself as worthless, then you will act like someone who is worthless.  But are you actually worthless?  Well, let's see now.  The God of all creation, the Alpha and Omega, stepped down from heaven, took on the form of a human being, complete with all of our feelings - that includes physical ones.  I am not female so I do not know the pain of child birth, but I have heard it said about how much pain can be involved.  Somehow I suspect that brutal flogging, beating and then crucifixion may hurt more than that again.  But He did this so that a way could be made for YOUR debt to be paid in full.  So that you may be made new and have life to the fullest, both here and after death.  I get a funny feeling He does not consider you worthless.  Sounds more like priceless to me.

Our view of Christ is also a pretty big one as well.  I do not mean view as in Him as divine or the fact that He is alive (actually alive) right now.  I mean more in the sense of where He actually is in relation to us, even as we sit and read this page.  Here is a couple of verses from scripture but they should help to get the point across.

"'I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth...you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans'" ~ John 14:17-18

"... I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” ~ Matthew 28:20

The Holy Spirit is as much God as both Father and Son are.  Matter of fact, it is He (the Spirit) whom Jesus went back to heaven to send down to us.  His Spirit is with us always.  Ponder that last word for a moment, if you will.  Always.  Not only when we are feeling down.  Not only when we are feeling happy.  Not only when we are praying.  Not only when we are in church.  Always.  Do we really get that?  Do we act like we actually believe that?  That whatever we are doing, whenever we are doing it, He is right there with us.  Whether that be something good like praying or helping out someone, or something less than good like checking out pornography on the internet or calling someone down.

The implications of actually, truly believing that tidbit of truth are massive.  Not just for how we behave when we are with others or when (think) we are alone.

Think about this.  We know that Jesus fed 5000 with about as much food as would feed 5, and fed them to the point of them being actually full.  If we truly believed He was with us right now, would we have even a hint of anxiousness about bills, or food in the cupboard or any other physical need?  Probably not.

In the book of Mark, we read how the boat Jesus was in was caught up in a massive storm.  Massive enough that men who made their living on those waters were fearful for their lives.  Did He panic?  No.  Instead, with but a word He caused the storm to suddenly (important to note that) stop.  Now since He can stop even the storm, and He is with us right now, should there be anything in this life or world which should cause us fear?  Would you be fearful or worried if you looked to your right and saw Him standing right beside you?  Again, probably not.  But He is right there, with you, right now at this very moment.  Do you understand this?  Do realize the truth in this?  Do you live it?

I pray, with all my heart, that we may know these truths and believe them even more so than we believe that the sun is going to come up in the morning.  That we may believe them and act upon them.  That our lives are not based upon our own perception of who we are, but upon who God Himself says we are.   That we do not listen to one more single lie, whether it come from the enemy or from our own minds or any voice in the world around us.

"It is for freedom, that Christ has set us free" ~ Gal.5:1

Welcome to Security

So more than once I have spelled out the truth of the Gospel in these pages.  That we cannot earn our way into God's good graces through anything we either try to do or try not to do.  That salvation comes in the form of a free gift from God Himself through faith in Jesus Christ.  Grace is what saves us.  Grace being something given that is not earned for we cannot earn salvation nor do we deserve it.  When all that we are and do is measured against a perfect and holy God, we fall so terribly short.  But what of after we have accepted that gift?  Does grace still apply?  Do we live by faith or must we perform to a certain standard in order to maintain our newly found position in Christ Jesus?

It is unfortunate that there are no few who believe the answer to that last question is "yes".

Scripture tells us that "the righteous shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17).  Since we know that we are saved by faith, how then can we come to believe that we must take over the reins after we are saved?  After all, it is not our righteousness in the first place but that of Christ which covers us after we have come to Him.  His blood, His sacrifice not our own.

Some may quote verses from the book of James to prove that we must perform in order to hold our salvation.  Verses such as “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such a faith save him” (James 2:14).  However, as we read further along we come to realize that James is addressing those people who claim to be saved yet seemingly have no problem ignoring the needs of those around them.  A far cry from Christ’s second commandment to us in Matthew 22:39 to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Another place that some may go to is found in 2 Peter 3:17 which reads "... be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position."  If you have not read the book of 2 Peter, I shall fill in some details for you.  No small portion of the book is speaking about false teachers who speak and teach things that are apart from the gospel of grace.  People such as these are spoken of by the apostle Paul in the book of Colossians:  “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8).  He speaks more on this topic a few verses later:  “Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence” (Colossians 2:23).

The secure position that we are warned we may fall from is NOT from the grace of God and/or our salvation.  It is, instead, from our knowledge of the truth.  That we may become caught up into some rule or work based philosophy that not only does us no good but even can take us captive and place us into bondage yet again.

I have a question for those who feel as though they can lose their salvation if they either do not do enough good or do too much bad:  How much is enough and/or how much is too much?  I mean really, to what standard must you maintain in order to hold onto your own salvation?  After all, we are told (quite clearly) to not compare ourselves to anyone else since we are all different and each person's relationship with God is different due to that fact.  Doing so frequently ends up with us judging everyone and anyone, including ourselves.  So if not another, and we know we cannot use ourselves as a base point to measure by, then it must be God's standard.

God's standard.  Really??

We (should know we) are not even close to being in His league.  Saved or not we are far from being God and to use Him as a base by which to measure ourselves means we will always, and I do mean always, fall massively short of the mark.

Do you believe that if you sneak a glimpse of that well built jogger running past your house one too many times that God is going to change His mind about having saved you?  "Uh, oh.  That was last time you got to check them out.  You are too much of a pervert for heaven so I have changed my mind".  Or perhaps you have not done enough good works to hang onto salvation?  You know, you could not earn or deserve salvation before, you cannot do so now.

 I heard a gentleman (John Lynch) speak on a television program a little while back and he put it this way:  We have two choices, two paths we can choose from.  We may either choose to live our lives attempting to please God or we may live our lives trusting God.  Since we are human, the first path does not tend to work out the best for us since we always fall short.  But trusting Him, on the other hand...