"You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder" (James 2:19, NIV).
"Believe in the Lord [i.e., accepting his lordship or ownership] Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31, NIV).
"...' Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matt. 22:37, NIV).
Now there is no such thing as a carnal Christian as a class of believers, though believers can become carnal or lose their fellowship, backsliding or even falling from grace. Christians do disobey God, though they do not continue in it, for God disciplines them and brings them back into the fold. If we are without discipline, we are not real children of God! Blessed are those who have learned to be rebuked by the Scripture and don't need a school of hard knocks to learn lives Reality 101. "The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all" (Psalm 34:19, NIV).
God is looking for believers with gusto, who are gung-ho for the Lord, not halfhearted! We must seek Him with our whole heart to find Him, for God regards not triflers. It was said of Joshua (cf. 14:8) that he "wholly followed the Lord." We must hold nothing back, making no compromises with the world, for if we love the world or the things of the world, we will not love God (cf. 1 John 2:15). We must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him (cf. Mark 8:34). Jesus never made it sound easy to be saved, but even discouraged halfhearted "disciples."
We, also, must not contextualize or water down the gospel message to lure or entice folks with an "acceptable" gospel they can swallow or handle without offense (but Christ is the Rock of offense and a Stone of stumbling!).
Some people merely pay lip service or go through the motions, memorizing the Dance of the Pious, in their worship--which is a fraud and a sham, not the real thing--this is Churchianity or playing games with the church, not Christianity. The Bible condemns those whose lips are near but their hearts are far from the Lord only doing their religious "duty" in church, not out of the heart. Lukewarm believers are ones who are not walking with the Lord and need Christ in their heart to be a real encounter with Him.
The only genuine test of faith is obedience and "only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes," according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Yes, there's a cost to discipleship and no one is promised a bed of roses--our reward is not in this life (cf. Psalm 17:14), for the Lord is our portion (cf. Gen. 15:1)!
Our faith is not measured by our ecstasies or encounters, even experiences such as visions and dreams, but only by our obedience (cf. Heb. 3:18-19)! Jesus will say that we are merely good and faithful servants at the Judgment Seat of Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:10). Yes, the cost is great and it's a life of sacrifice of self--not living for oneself--but the cost of rejection is greater! Soli Deo Gloria!
"Believe in the Lord [i.e., accepting his lordship or ownership] Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31, NIV).
"...' Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matt. 22:37, NIV).
A. W. Tozer wrote a book, I Call It Hersey, to debunk the false notion of easy-believism (i.e., not accepting Christ as Lord of one's life but believing in spite of it) or cheap grace (i.e., forgiveness without repentance, justifying the sin, not the sinner!), as Dietrich Bonhoeffer referred to it as. This message of domesticating and dumbing down the call to lordship is the gospel in vogue in modern, mainstream denominational churches who disregard repentance and, its flip side, faith as the only means of salvation. William Booth warned of a church offering forgiveness without repentance!
We must have a penitent faith or believing repentance as it were. Salvation is indeed free, but not cheap--it costs everything we've got (total surrender of self to His will). The propagators of the easy-believism tend to preach that we don't have to obey Christ to be saved--just believe! This is not accepting Him as our Lord. Christ will not dichotomize His offices and personhood.
We must have a penitent faith or believing repentance as it were. Salvation is indeed free, but not cheap--it costs everything we've got (total surrender of self to His will). The propagators of the easy-believism tend to preach that we don't have to obey Christ to be saved--just believe! This is not accepting Him as our Lord. Christ will not dichotomize His offices and personhood.
We must submit to Him as Lord and trust Him as Savior. We cannot accept a half-Christ. He is Lord of all, or not at all! (Cf. Rom. 10:12; Acts 10:36). We must bow to His authority (cf. Phil. 2:10-11) and ownership over our lives as the "Captain of our soul and Master of our fate" (cf. Invictus by William Ernest Henley)--we must release control of our life. In other words, our destiny is in His hands (cf. Job 23:14) and we must openly confess Him as our Lord before men to confirm our salvation (cf. Rom. 10:9-10; Matt. 10:32-33). There are no secret Christians or closet believers. There are also no Lone Ranger ones or solitary saints--we must all get connected with the body to function and grow.
Now there is no such thing as a carnal Christian as a class of believers, though believers can become carnal or lose their fellowship, backsliding or even falling from grace. Christians do disobey God, though they do not continue in it, for God disciplines them and brings them back into the fold. If we are without discipline, we are not real children of God! Blessed are those who have learned to be rebuked by the Scripture and don't need a school of hard knocks to learn lives Reality 101. "The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all" (Psalm 34:19, NIV).
God is looking for believers with gusto, who are gung-ho for the Lord, not halfhearted! We must seek Him with our whole heart to find Him, for God regards not triflers. It was said of Joshua (cf. 14:8) that he "wholly followed the Lord." We must hold nothing back, making no compromises with the world, for if we love the world or the things of the world, we will not love God (cf. 1 John 2:15). We must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him (cf. Mark 8:34). Jesus never made it sound easy to be saved, but even discouraged halfhearted "disciples."
We, also, must not contextualize or water down the gospel message to lure or entice folks with an "acceptable" gospel they can swallow or handle without offense (but Christ is the Rock of offense and a Stone of stumbling!).
Some people merely pay lip service or go through the motions, memorizing the Dance of the Pious, in their worship--which is a fraud and a sham, not the real thing--this is Churchianity or playing games with the church, not Christianity. The Bible condemns those whose lips are near but their hearts are far from the Lord only doing their religious "duty" in church, not out of the heart. Lukewarm believers are ones who are not walking with the Lord and need Christ in their heart to be a real encounter with Him.
The only genuine test of faith is obedience and "only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes," according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Yes, there's a cost to discipleship and no one is promised a bed of roses--our reward is not in this life (cf. Psalm 17:14), for the Lord is our portion (cf. Gen. 15:1)!
Our faith is not measured by our ecstasies or encounters, even experiences such as visions and dreams, but only by our obedience (cf. Heb. 3:18-19)! Jesus will say that we are merely good and faithful servants at the Judgment Seat of Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:10). Yes, the cost is great and it's a life of sacrifice of self--not living for oneself--but the cost of rejection is greater! Soli Deo Gloria!
No comments:
Post a Comment