The Obedience Of Faith

"We have received grace and apostleship through Him to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations on behalf of HIs name including yourselves who also belong to Jesus Christ by calling" (Rom. 1:5-6, HCSB). 
"...[T]o advance the obedience of faith among all nations" (Rom. 16:26, HCSB).
Salvation via repentance stressed: 
 "...[T]hat he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins" (Acts 5:31, NIV).  
"...'So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life'" (Acts 11:18, NIV).
"Produce fruit in keeping with repentance..." (Luke 3:8, NIV).  "... But unless you repent you too will perish" (Luke 13:5, NIV).  
"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:32, HCSB).
".... Repent and believe in the good news!" (Mark 1:15, HCSB).
"... 'So God has granted repentance resulting in life even to the Gentiles'" (Acts 11:18, HCSB).
"God exalted this Man to His right hand as ruler and Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."  (Acts 5:31, HCSB).
"The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies but its obedience." --Oswald Chambers
NOTE:  ALL ITALICS MINE. 

The old controversy of Lordship-salvation, prevalent since days of the rise of Evangelicalism, is still unclear and unsettled in the dogma of some so-called evangelical churches.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer articulated it as far back as the Nazi era:  "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."  Hebrews 11:8 says, "By faith Abraham  ... obeyed."  The two go hand in hand and might be considered two sides of the same coin--you can only distinguish them--they are inseparable!  Jesus said that if we love Him we will obey Him--obviously, believing in Him is to be obedient:  It is vain to serve God without faith, (cf. Heb. 11:6) for this is merely dead faith that cannot save (cf. James 2:26). 

Note that a tree is known by its fruit!  God looks for fruit, not foliage!  Good soil produces fruit!   Only faith pleases God and this must be real faith that produces works and we can do nothing apart from Christ--I repeat for emphasis:  Apart from Him, we can do nothing, not believe, not repent, not bear fruit!  (Cf. Heb. 11:6; John 15:5).

We must not only come to faith in Him but be obedient to the faith and that starts with being obedient to the gospel!  That entails a penitent faith! Repentance is a gift of God along with the faith that God grants the believer (cf. Acts 18:27, 2 Pet. 1:1; Phil. 1:29 with: 2 Tim. 2:25; Acts 5:31, 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:24-25).  Those are also two mindsets that go hand in hand.  We either are saved by penitent faith or believing repentance if you will.  The two works of grace are juxtaposed in Acts 20:21, HCSB, ("I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus" ) and used interchangeably in Scripture.  Salvation is often seen as from the point of view of repentance:  "...that they should repent and turn to God, and do works worthy of repentance" (Acts 26:20, HCSB).

In essence, Israel already believed in God and needed repentance concerning Christ; while the Gentiles needed to exercise faith!  But God commands all people everywhere to repent (cf. Acts 17:30).   "[A]nd repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name..." (Luke 24:47, HCSB).  And so obedient faith produces the fruit or works of repentance and good deeds as a witness!  In repentance, we are turning from our sin, and in our act of faith, we turn from self to God.

Faith and obedience are linked and juxtaposed in Scripture:  Hebrews 3:18-19 says they didn't enter His rest due to unbelief, and also due to disobedience in parallel.  Indeed, Christ is a Lord to be obeyed from servants.  He owns us as our Master and we are the slaves--we belong to Him; we don't merely serve Him.  We must not divorce faith and obedience! They can be distinguished but not separated!  God made this Jesus, who was crucified, both Lord and Christ according to Acts 2:36 and we must accept Him for who He is!

We must bow and bend the knee!  We must submit to His Lordship over us and unashamedly own Him as Lord.  The Father has granted Him all authority and He is Lord of all (cf. Matt. 28:18; Acts 10:36; Rom. 10:12).  We cannot dichotomize His offices and only accept a Savior without denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Him in discipleship (cf. Mark 8:34).  We either accept Him for who He is or we have rejected Him--this is the mistake of easy-believism that seems to be in vogue, that wants to domesticate the gospel in order to make it palatable to the sinner and requiring no sacrifice or commitment whatsoever.

The thing that qualifies Him to be Savior is that He's Lord, but we don't make Him Lord, He IS LORD!  We must acknowledge His authority over our lives and we must get in line with God's will and present ourselves to His sovereignty and plan over our lives as we become "living sacrifices" (cf. Rom. 12:1). In short, to accept His Lordship over our lives is to commit to following Him in discipleship and to obey Him! As Hosea puts it:  "Let us follow on to know the Lord" (Hos. 6:3)!        Soli Deo Gloria!

Our Continuing Resolution

Our walk in Christ is one of faith, progressing from faith to faith (cf. Rom. 1:17) increasing in sanctification and glory (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18).  Our faith is a continuity:  of our status in the state of grace; one of faith from start to finish; of continuous repentance; of daily fellowship; of assurance of salvation; of security in our salvation; of surrender; of commitment; and finally, with daily renewal, for God is able to transform our lives into His image.  He is like a sculptor that chips away everything that doesn't look like his subject; in our case, God is the sculptor and we are the subject, and God chips away everything that doesn't resemble Christ.

It is important and noteworthy that our repentance is not a one-time deal we make with God but of a continuing, ongoing resolution, renewal, and repetition.  Likewise, our faith is not just a one-time action, but a continual walk with Christ.  For we walk by faith and not by sight! (2 Cor. 5:7).  Job said that he would wait until his renewal would come (cf. Job 14:14)--we must patiently wait for the Lord to (re-everything!) restore, reconcile, redeem, rebuild, and renew us in Christ's image and repair the tarnished one soiled by the old sin nature--final restoration will take place in glory!

Here is where Romanists beg to differ:  They don't believe in assurance nor in the security of the believer!  A believer who claims knowledge or assurance of his salvation, apart from some divine revelation to that effect, is guilty of the sin of presumption.  Au contraire!  Assurance is not only a command (cf. 2 Pet. 1:10) but a duty and a boon to our salvation and walk (cf. 1 John 5:13).  It is the expression of faith!  It is important to note that these two go hand in hand:  If one doesn't believe in security, neither can he presume assurance!  And how can one affirm assurance without some security?

Our faith is an ongoing progression of our knowledge of God.  The goal is to know God in His fellowship--this is by faith alone, but we taste and see the Lord is good!  We can rejoice in the knowledge of the permanency of our salvation (though the term "eternal security" is not biblical, "eternal redemption" is cited in Heb. 9:12 and "eternal salvation" is mentioned in Heb. 5:9).  Note that we are not saved on a provisional, probational, trial, or temporary basis, but on a permanent one!  We cannot utterly and finally fall from the state of grace, for we are assured we will persevere as God preserves and keeps us!  We don't need to do penance (the second plank of salvation for those who've made shipwreck of their faith) like Catholics when they have fallen from the state of grace by committing some mortal sin.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Do You Know Him?

"Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them" (John 13:17, NIV). 

Salvation is not achieved nor earned but received as God opens one's eyes to the true identity of who Jesus is, as Peter exclaimed:  "Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the Living God."  And the Father had revealed this to him to open his eyes to spiritual truth.  Faith is not in the acquiescence of the identity of Jesus nor of agreeing with church dogma, but in living out this faith and making it real in our hearts as we fall in love with our Lord in a lifelong relationship and experience. There is so-called story faith or head belief and then there's something a few inches lower:  heart belief or acceptance into the heart.

To know Him is to love Him is the old cliche, but this is scriptural since we must follow on to know Him in reality (cf. Hos. 6:3) and Jesus equated knowing Him with salvation. Of course, it goes without saying that to know Him is to love Him.  Not just knowing His identity but accepting its ramifications and to obey Him as He demands. If we love Him, we will obey Him--the only test of faith is obedience though (cf. Heb. 3:18-19).   There is no salvation without obedience.  Faith must be demonstrated by works or otherwise, it is suspect and empty talk.  As James did say that dead faith (without accompanying works) cannot save.  The Reformers taught it plainly: "We are saved by faith alone but not by a faith that is alone."  Faith must be authenticated by works or its spurious and suspect.

We show others that we know Him by our testimony and life witness which should never be jeopardized by sin.  We ought to freely show our faith, not privatizing it, but then again not flaunting it nor wearing it on our sleeve--let God open doors to share your story.  Once you have a story you will be surprised at the opportunities God gives to share it.  This is where faithfulness comes in and faith and faithfulness are the same words in Hebrew which is appropriate. Faith cannot be divorced from faithfulness for the "righteous shall live by their faith" (fulness)--Hab. 2:4. We prove we know Him by living out our faith and sharing it and showing it's not just pie-in-the-sky or wishful thinking but has a common application to everyday, mundane life.   So, what's the gospel according to you?   If we say we know Him and do not obey Him we are lying!

We must know Him in that He is real to us and we recognize and acknowledge His presence:  "He is there, and He is not silent,"  according to Francis Schaeffer.  When we know Him we will see Him in action as "God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform" (according to hymn writer William Cowper).  Salvation is not only knowing Him but it is an ethic of proving this to others:  We must know Him and make Him known.  The ultimate proof of knowing Him is the miracle of a transformed or changed life--this is the whole point of salvation. Changing lives is Jesus' business!   If there's no fruit there is no faith and good soil always produces fruit! Colossians 1:10 says that we grow or increase in the knowledge of God as we bear fruit in every good work!

It is important that we acknowledge that the important fact of salvation is not that we know Him but that He knows us (cf. Gal. 4:9).  He knew us before the world was even created and this is called "foreknowledge" by theologians and scholars.  For whom He knew, He predestined!  This means that God ordered and arranged the events in our life so that we would get saved!  And for whom He predestined He called (cf. Romans 8:29)!  This means that God individually reached out and wooed us to salvation.  And for whom He called He justified or saved!  And finally, the terminus of the chain of salvation:  For whom He justified He glorified.  This means God sees the whole event as one unbroken and linked chain that cannot be separated.  And it also means no one gets lost in the shuffle; there is no one who was called that didn't get justified and no one justified that didn't get glorified.  In the final analysis, this the ultimate proof of our security in Christ that our salvation is a done deal or a fait accompli.  

Knowing the Lord is more than acquired information or teachings about Him as at an academic level:  We must experience Him and relate to Him on a personal level; i.e., we convert our knowledge about God into the knowledge of God.  When we finally know Him we are not immune from knowing about Him, but we know Him on a level above that.  We are never excused from knowing about Him and becoming believers or disciples entails matriculating in the school of Christ to dedicate one's life to the lifelong pursuit of the knowledge of God and its application.  It's not enough to know; we must apply our knowledge and turn our creeds into deeds!  You can know a lot about God and still not know Him!  In the seventeenth century, it was every gentleman's hobby to be conversant in the Bible and basic holy talk.  Today even in the churches it seems like no one wants to talk about the godly or holy but only to engage in the mundane and secular.

Finally, if we want to boast we should boast in the Lord.  As Paul said, "I venture not to speak but of what  Christ has accomplished through me" (cf. Rom. 15:18).  What hath God wrought?  We praise God for who He is and thank Him for what He has done, is doing and believe He will do.  But Jeremiah 9:24 says that if a man should boast he should boast that he knows the Lord!  This is more to be braggadocious about than riches, wisdom, or strength.  Soli Deo Gloria!   

The Call To Lordship

Lordship salvation has been a matter of debate for decades even among well-meaning evangelicals.  Some maintain that requiring a lordship decision is tantamount to demanding works in exchange for salvation (which is supposed to be a gift of grace).  We can do nothing to earn, deserve, nor pay back our salvation, which is a monergistic (one-sided) enterprise of God not a synergistic or cooperative affair between us and God. Salvation is all God's work and we don't help Him or prepare ourselves for it as Jonah 2:9 says, "Salvation is of the Lord." Jesus Himself demanded the utmost loyalty and surrender in His invitation to follow Him on to know Him (the essence of salvation and its application).  We must make a one-time full surrender (as well as daily renewals) to His will for our lives and be willing to follow on to know Him wherever He leads--this was a well-nigh impossible demand that actually discouraged seekers who were not wholehearted followers but merely curious or simply admirers or wanted the fringe benefits of being a follower without paying the cost--which could be the ultimate sacrifice of laying down one's life for the sake of the Name.

In other words, we must be willing to go wherever He leads and do whatever He demands without reservation--holding naught back.  Anything less is only being a halfhearted disciple.  We must be gung-ho for the Lord and seek Him with our whole heart.  We don't do God any favors by "accepting Him" because we must accept Him for who He is without dividing His offices of Savior and Lord.  We trust as Savior and submit as Lord.   Actually, the terminology of "accepting" Him is unbiblical and only made up to domesticate the gospel call and make it more palatable to the unbeliever.  Jesus never made it easy to become a Christan or disciple (interchangeable terms in Scripture) but actually discouraged some.

We have more of a problem of false disciples with a false assurance that we do with believers who lack assurance.  Assurance is not an automatic fruit and there are degrees of certitude of one's salvation as one matures in Christ.  That's why the only way we can be sure of salvation is to realize it's a sole enterprise of God and we contribute naught. Assurance is a matter of coupling the Word of God with the internal evidence and conviction of the Holy Spirit ("The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God," cf. Rom 8:16).  If we had to do anything we'd fail!  Lordship, then, is more trusting God through thick and thin and even when the chips are down!  Knowing that if the Lord got you to it, He'll get you through it!

Jesus will not save those He cannot command according to A. W. Tozer!  The command is to repent and follow Him!  We must be obedient for that is the only measure of faith--not emotions, accomplishments, nor success! The mandate is to obey the gospel (cf. Rom. 1:5; 16:26; Acts 6:7; 2 Thess. 1:8).   As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."  The two are correlated and cannot be separated as doctrines but only distinguished--they are eternally linked and juxtaposed in Scripture.  Hebrews 3:18-19, HCSB, says, "And who did He swear to that they would not enter His rest, if not those who disobeyed?  So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief."  I want to point out that disobeying God doesn't cancel our salvation but the only ones who obey are believers.  We must obey the gospel to be saved!  But the measure and standard of our faith is its obedience, not its achievements or success, for God doesn't call us to success but to faithfulness according to Mother Teresa (Saint Teresa).

He is Lord of all (Acts 10:36; Rom. 10:12) and we don't make Him Lord, for God made Him both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).  God the Father has given Him all authority (cf. Matt. 28:18) and we must do the same and follow suit!  He is Lord and we must obey and submit like the hymn goes, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus...."  If we don't receive Him as our Lord we are rejecting Him; we know Him for who He is! We don't "try Jesus" or give Him a chance to prove Himself; we must take the leap of faith into the light!  There's no other way except by faith!   In short, we must bow to His lordship and be willing to pay the cost of discipleship (for He stressed that we must count the cost!).  He has given His Spirit to those who obey Him (cf. Acts 5:32; Heb. 5:9).  

Jesus simply cannot save us if He is not our Lord and that means Lord of all, not withholding anything back or having any reservations or hesitations to follow Him bearing our cross which pales in comparison to His.  When they ask, "Who's the boss?" we should unreservedly answer that Jesus is the master of our fate and the captain of our soul!  We have surrendered the ownership of our lives to His control and our destiny and future are in His hands!  This is not the gospel in vogue today but it is the biblical one.  It is not easy-believism which is simply an acknowledgment and it is not cheap grace which justifies the sin and not the sinner!    In sum, when we call Him Lord we are admitting that we are His slaves; the point is that everyone is a slave and we only exchange masters from being the slave of sin to being the slave of righteousness!   In fact, the more enslaved to Christ, the freer we really are.  Soli Deo Gloria!

What's The Answer?

"If a man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?  If man is made for God, why is he opposed to God?" --Blaise Pascal 
"People live lives of quiet desperation." --Henry David Thoreau
"We have found all the questions, now let's find the answers." --G. K. Chesterton
"Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none" (Psalm 69:20, KJV, italics added).
"Without the way, there is no going; without the truth, there is no knowing; and without the life, there is no living." --Thomas a Kempis

According to the Rev. Billy Graham, man is pursuing a "Great Quest" that has him searching for answers and meaning in life. Man is empty with a vacuum only God can fill according to Blaise Pascal.  Billy Graham says also that "we grasp at every passing straw and even as we clutch, it disappears." The world has little to offer by way of the reason for living, or what makes life worthwhile.  All religions and worldviews do attempt to answer man's dilemma, but they all fall short except Christianity.  Christ is not the best way, nor one of many ways, but the only way according to A. W. Tozer.  

So how does man seek fulfillment? He may think the answer is in higher education, a better standard of living, or in political power and freedom.  But note that the Germans, during the Nazi era, had this and still developed into a depraved society bent on evil such as has never been seen by any nation in modern history.  The devil will sow evil wherever his seed can take root in empty souls.

It is commonplace today for many to find crutches to lean on: humanism or self-help such as pop psychology; cynicism or an attitude of negativism; supernaturalism or into the occult; and even escapism or using drugs and artificial means to evade reality altogether.  We all have a crutch, but the Christian has a reliable and trustworthy one in the Word of God, which has stood the test of time and is relative to everyone. In the final analysis, it's good to feel so bad, empty and needy, even hurt, for then we might realize our bankruptcy before God and seek His face in salvation, who is our only Answer and Peace.

But there is hope to this lost world where the blind lead the blind:  Jesus is the Answer and the Answerer and those who follow Him see the light!  We don't need to know everything or all the answers to believe and to be content!  We know to whom to go for consolation and comfort in our time of need.  Jesus solves every dilemma of man and has a balm for every sore, a balsam for every wound.  In Christ, we can be content in any circumstance and rejoice in the Lord regardless!  The joy of the Lord is our strength in times of crisis and trial.  

If you just want to go somewhere and don't much care where, it matters not who you follow or what direction you go, eventually you'll get somewhere!  But with Christ, our past is forgiven, our present given meaning and our future and destiny assured and certain, and we have an eternal home to anticipate while we live in light of eternity.  We must attempt great things for God and expect great things from God, according to William Carey, father of modern missions.  They say, "If you aim at nothing, you'll get nowhere!"

The devil and the world have a lot to offer to get us off track from the spiritual dimension and take away from our thirst for the Word and God.  We must realize our enemy is threefold: the world, the flesh, and the devil; however, we are our own worst enemy.  We live in an enemy-occupied territory or Satan's turf and must engage in angelic warfare with God's armor.  But be of good cheer:  the battle is the Lord's!  Note that when we become believers that the battle has just begun and we get on Satan's hit list.  And so there is not a yin/yang struggle of good and evil, for evil is only a parasite and deprivation of good and cannot exist in itself apart from it.   We must grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ and learn to discern good and evil in order to fight the good fight and keep the faith.

In conclusion, the answer to life's dilemmas of sin, sorrow, and death is an on-going relationship with Jesus, not a code of conduct to follow, a creed to adhere to, or catalog of religious ideas or meditations to escape reality; for Plato was right to the point:  to know how to live in reality we must know what God is really like; and we can take comfort in the fact that God is like Jesus, whom to know is eternal life (cf. John 17:3).   In the final analysis, you'll never know all the answers and shouldn't just study to try to learn them all, but learn to grow dependent on the Great Answerer Himself in faith!         Soli Deo Gloria!

Doesn't Sincerity Matter?

Sincerity does enter into the equation of one's salvation, but it's not everything.  One must be sincere in order to secure the grace of God in order to find God with all one's heart, but one can be sincerely wrong!  The Jews of Paul's day were ever so sincere, but they had a zeal for God but not according to knowledge (cf. Prov. 19:2; Rom. 10:2).  Zeal isn't the only measure of spiritual success, for God isn't asking for our success and achievements, but our faithfulness.  He wants us, not our works. 

On the contrary, God condemns a slack attitude in serving the Lord--we are to do it with all our might.  In measuring the value of our deeds God looks at the motive, not just the means and the end result.  Today's pragmatists are only concerned with the consequences; the end justifies the means!  Today's current New Morality says that all that matters is one's motive: they mean good, or as long as it's done in love is all that matters.

God raised the bar on morality, internalizing it:  we must have pure intentions and seek God's will and do it in God's way, not our way.  The song is sung by Frank Sinatra says, "I did it my way," which is misleading at best.  Today one may be deceived by the cults and their zeal for God--but it's not according to knowledge but done in ignorance. God does hold us accountable for what we should know and had the opportunity to know but refused--ignorance is not an excuse, at least willful ignorance, and it's certainly not bliss.  God's pet peeve with man is his ignorance and this is his downfall into sin by which he is deceived by Satan the liar and deceiver; "... therefore a people without understanding shall come to ruin." (cf. Hosea 4:14). "...I do not want you to be uninformed." (cf. 1 Cor. 12:1). 

Yes, sincerity matters because of it and this excuses no one from being right. No one has an excuse before God but will give an account of himself (cf. Rom. 14:10).   But most important is not whether all our doctrines are impeccably correct but the condition of our hearts, they must be in the right place!  All of the resources, opportunities, talents, gifts, time, energy, and relationships God has given us will measure our sincerity.  God must change our heart, intellect, and volition and this is no less than a miracle of transformation from the inside out.  We must not be fooled by blind ambition or zeal!  We must focus on the big picture and see things from God's perspective because of the illumination of the Holy Spirit working in the Word.

It's not the amount of faith that saves, nor faith itself, but the object of faith which is in Christ that saves--we don't have faith in faith and are not defenders of faith per se, but defenders of the faith and must contend for it as commanded.   In the final analysis, God doesn't demand perfect faith for salvation, but sincere, unfeigned faith (cf. 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:5) not as the hypocrites who only had faith for show and to boast; in other words, nobody's faith is perfect but falls somewhere in the certitude continuum from unbelief to absolute knowledge-- there are degrees of certainty and faith.  In sum, Paul said, "I would not have you ignorant," (cf. 1 Cor. 12:1).         Soli Deo Gloria!

Easy-believism

"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).

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 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!

A Time To Repent...

"I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt [sin]" (Psalm 18:23, ESV). 
"... [A]nd be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23, ESV). 

"Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin," (cf. Ezek. 18:30). 
"... Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near [is at hand]" (Matt. 4:17, NIV).

It's always time to repent, for the first of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses was that repentance is not a one-time but a continuous and ongoing, progressive event in the believer's heart, testimony, and life.  We must come to believing repentance or penitent faith to be saved, for they go hand in hand and cannot be divorced or separated, but only distinguished.  One cannot have genuine repentance without saving faith!   We must come to the end of our rope and throw in the towel of trying to justify our sins.  If we hide our sin and don't admit it we will not prosper in God's will for our life.  He who confesses his sins and forsakes them will find mercy (cf. Prov. 28:13).

Repentance is an imperative or mandate for all in Scripture and involves a transformation by the work of God of the heart, intellect, and volition, being more than simple remorse or regret, but a desire to make things right and give up the sin. We call a spade a spade, acknowledge our sin before God, and seek renewal in the Spirit.  It is granted by grace (2 Tim. 2:25; Acts 5:31; 11:18) and proved by deed (Acts 26:20; Matt. 3:8).  Note that it means a change of mind literally (from Greek metanoia), but involves much more than a mere change of opinion--the attitudes and life must show change to be a reality. Repentance is a recurring motif in the New Testament and is often used interchangeably with believing, for they are juxtaposed and two sides of one coin. Finally, by definition, repentance is more than turning over a new leaf, making an AA pledge, making a rash vow or promise, making a New Year's resolution, or getting fire insurance; it's getting a new start in life (a clean slate) with Jesus in charge of your affairs as the owner!

We must also beware lest our sin finds us out or catch up with us by living in sin or continuing in a pet sin (which easily entangles us and trips us up) that we refuse to acknowledge or repent of--God insists we repent of all our sins!  There is indeed a time for every purpose under heaven and God will always let us know in grace when He is calling us to repentance of a sin that easily besets us; we can overcome and live in victory if we walk in the Spirit and intimately with the Lord--the key is to keep short accounts with God concerning our sins and to immediately confess and repent sincerely.  (God doesn't require perfection, but unfeigned and sincere repentance.)

Perfection is indeed the standard, progress, and direction the test--we are all works in progress and God isn't finished with us yet, chipping away at everything that doesn't resemble His Son in our lives much like a sculptor chipping away at granite to make a horse.  Cf. Psalm 119:96 saying that the psalmist had "seen the limit of all perfection" and Prov. 20:9, NIV, says, "Who can say, 'I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin'?"  The doctrine of perfectionism (or entire sanctification) is deceptive and wrong, for we never reach a state of sinless perfection on this side of glory.

Abiding in Christ (cf. John 8:31;15:7), a requisite for discipleship, and abiding in fellowship are no cakewalk but require honesty with ourselves, others, and God and to be able to be rebuked by the Word and be accountable, not a spiritual Lone Ranger.  In fact, the closer we get to God, the more aware and convicted we become of our sins and we abhor them, not love them--we have a God-given desire for holiness and to please God.  We can only repent by the grace of God, for it's a work of God in the heart just like its flip side faith and God must first convict us of our sin (we are only responsible for those that we get convicted of). We may not feel so good and even guilty and uneasy, but this may be God's wake-up call to shock us out of our comfort zone and return to fellowship.

In the final analysis, we must bring forth fruit in keeping with our repentance (cf. Luke 3:8; Acts 26:20) to prove its validity and genuineness by our good behavior.  NB:  Our conversion is more than an acceptable way to have a nervous breakdown, but a witness to the power of God to change lives, that He is alive and well in the world, and still in the miracle and resurrection business.   Soli Deo Gloria!

The Doctrine Of Christ...

"Know ye that the LORD, he is God..." (cf. Psalm 100:3).  
JESUS IS LORD!  "That rock was Christ..." (cf. 1 Cor. 10:4).     
"In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (cf. Col. 2:9).
"It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel..." (Phil. 1:7, NIV).
"He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it." (Tit. 1:9, NIV).
"You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine" (Tit. 2:1, NIV).  
"Christianity is Christ; all else is circumference." --John Stott, theologian

Christianity is all about Jesus--all else is peripheral or circumference, as John Stott says.  If you remove Christ, the faith is disemboweled--unlike Islam or Buddhism, in which the founders can be removed and the religion remains intact.  Without Christ, there's nothing left but ethics and pie-in-the-sky dreams.  2 John v. 9 says that if we "do not continue [abide] in the doctrine of Christ" we "do not have the Father"; this is to say that we must get the doctrine of the deity of Christ correct to be named by His name of Christian--Jesus said that Him being the Son of God is the Rock of the church to Peter.  Paul knew of early heresy when he wrote Corinthians in 2 Cor. 11:4 that they had fallen for "another gospel, another Spirit, another Jesus!" They're not worthy of the Name!

The cults (and they all have something nice to say of Jesus) masquerade their faith as false teachers or wolves in sheep's clothing to sound innocuous to the innocent and naive, but they are dangerous--it's just the bit of truth mixed with error that makes them dangerous.  People get enough of Christ to become immune to the real thing!  Jesus never made it easy to become a believer or disciple, but discouraged the halfhearted and insincere, not seeking shallow conversions or pseudo-conversions without any substance.  We all must count the cost and be willing to carry our crosses for His sake.

This is why JWs are so dangerous to Christianity--they parade themselves as genuine Christians and have a knowledge falsely so-called to fool the naive and unsuspecting students of the Word.  They are simply very aggressive and the believer may be fooled because he doesn't have the answers to their challenges. Just because they name the name of Jesus, don't be fooled, because inwardly they are ravenous wolves ready to devour the sheep.  The Bible warns us not to flirt with the enemy nor to welcome the false teacher who creeps in unawares or we share in his evil deeds--they are to be shunned or avoided, not fellowshipped with!

We must fight fire with fire and know how to meet them with the ammo of the Word or not try to convert them at all--they are already convinced of their heresy and may not welcome truth nor recognize it.  The Bible clearly teaches Jesus as the very incarnation and personification of God in the flesh--not sent from God, a prophet of God, a mere king, the messenger of God, spokesman or surrogate of God, part of God, only a God, inspired or anointed by God, but God Himself, co-equal, co-eternal, and co-existent in essence and glory with the eternal Father--anything less is simply heresy!

CAVEAT:  THE PERSONAGE PORTRAYED BY THE CULTS FALLS SHORT OF THE REAL JESUS, GOD THE SON, SECOND PERSON OF THE TRIUNE GODHEAD.

To assign Jesus to a label of some well-intended, but failed and misunderstood religious reformer or martyr, do-gooder, healer, miracle worker, good teacher, or anything less than the Son of God in all its glory and essence is blasphemous and belittles Him--even to call Him the greatest of all men or our best example of morals is an insult to His person in all its dignity glory, and majesty.  For to claim He was a good man or teacher would belie the claims He made and make Him out to be more a devil and deceiver than a good man--any like claim doesn't do Him justice and is merely condescending nonsense. 

Finally, we must realize they are seldom convinced by argument and we must rely on the power of the Spirit's witness and the testimony and conviction of the Word of God (cf. 1 Thess. 1:5; 2:13; Romans 10:17) as we abide in the doctrine of Christ (cf. 2 John 9).        Soli Deo Gloria!

The Greatest Miracle Of All

"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6, NASB).  
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:  The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Cor. 5:17, NIV). 
"Thou art the potter, I am the clay" (cf. Isaiah 64:8).

"Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would [not could] not believe in him," (cf. John 12:37, NIV, italics mine). 

Another word for miracle is a sign (as John calls them in his gospel), they are the same in German (Wunder), and miracles are indeed signs from the Almighty, with Whom nothing is impossible. The greatest proof or evidence of the resurrection, for instance, is the changed, even transformed and renewed, lives of the apostles, especially of Saul to Paul.  As Job said, "I will wait till my renewal comes," (cf. Job 14:14).  Miracles don't make faith though, but faith makes miracles. There is never a big enough miracle for someone who doesn't want to believe, but there is ample evidence for the willing.  Jesus refused to do any biggie miracle or miracle on demand to prove Himself but told the crowds that they would receive one sign:  the sign of Jonah. 

Miracles are events that cannot be independently explained apart from God's Finger at work and are not producible without divine intervention or interference. They are not producible by natural causes at the time of the event.  Paul didn't change himself--he was transformed.  That's the miracle of salvation--changed lives from the inside out, and not reformed, nor informed, but transformed.  We don't get merely enlightened or educated, but our spiritual eyes are opened to see God at work in His world.

God is still in the resurrection business and Jesus is still in the business of changing lives.  No one is too much of a challenge for God!  We come to Him as we are, but He makes us anew in His image.  We don't turn over a new leaf, make an AA pledge, or vow to clean up our act, but accept the grace of God at work in us.  The same miracle that happened to Paul can happen to anyone. What He's done for others, He can do for you! 

No one is too far gone or too much involved in sin to be saved, for Paul was the chief of sinners. John Bunyan wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners to reiterate this point, and in a sense, we all follow Christ to the "Celestial City" and have to avoid "Mr. Worldly Wiseman" or false theologian and seek the truth of God that transforms and sets us free, as Jesus said, "The truth shall set you free (cf. John 8:32)."  The whole point of salvation is a changed life, and if there is none then salvation is suspect--everyone needs to be set free; we don't come to God with free wills, but wills that are ready to be set free!

In Scripture, we read of the blind man who said, "I was blind, but now I see!"  You cannot argue with one's testimony like that--he knows something for sure that cannot be denied or refuted. Thomas was radicalized when Jesus let him put his finger into His side and was told to believe, not to doubt.  Another example was the wayward woman at the well in Samaria whose eyes were opened when she met Jesus and saw herself for what she was, but much more the grace of God.  We all have a testimony or story to tell and the Bible says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!" in Psalm 107:2.  Each of us is a miracle ready to happen as well as one that must be told--if you want to see a miracle, look in the mirror or remember from what you were saved!  All of us should be able to relate what God has done for us by grace and feel grateful enough to pass on the good news.

The greatest sign that Jesus gave was his resurrection to a stubborn generation, but it was given "many infallible proofs" according to Luke in Acts 1:3.  But we can expect Christ to arise in us personally and to take up residence in our hearts.  The resurrection of Christ is history, but the resurrection experience in our hearts is salvation!  The resurrection is either the biggest and cruelest hoax in history, or it's the most important event and the turning point, according to Josh MacDowell.  Has Christ risen in you?  Look in the mirror, check your fruit!  If we have experienced God through Christ we will feel compelled and constrained to pass it on!  That's how we can accomplish miracles ourselves: changing lives in Jesus' name by sharing the gospel!  We are free to come as we are, but we will not stay that way.

Even great sinners can be changed into great saints by faith, but they must realize it's God at work, and not of human achievement:  we receive, we don't achieve.  Salvation is wholly God's work in us and of divine accomplishment ("salvation is of the LORD," per Job 2:9), not human achievement.  Religion is just a do-it-yourself proposition and a way of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, but Christianity is all about Christ coming to the rescue to save us from ourselves because we are our own worst enemy!

We are consequently saved from God's wrath, sin, Satan, hell and judgment, condemnation, our old sin nature, the power of sin over us, and eventually, the presence of sin itself--this is all a miracle and not our own work or effort that we should boast. When I got saved I remember telephoning my Mom and telling her that she would like the new me; she only replied that she liked the old one--but I'm sure she sees the difference now!  It's simply God at work in me as a work in progress.

CAVEAT:  NEVER FORGET YOUR ROOTS AND FROM WHAT YOU WERE SAVED (CF. ISA. 51:1).  

In sum, the only proof we need is what happened to us and to others as a witness and cannot be denied--don't be forced to prove anything, but let them see the irrefutable proof themselves.  The gospel illustrated in shoe leather.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Knowing Your God

"If man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God? If man is made for God, why is he opposed to God?" says Blaise Pascal, this is our "dilemma." If you've ever felt that God is keeping a low profile like the psalmist in Psalm 89:46, "How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever?" "...He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him": (Heb. 11:6). Francis Schaeffer said that Christianity is "about the God who is there." If you have wondered about this, read on.

Sometimes God seems MIA or missing in action; even Job replied, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him" (Job 23:3). Also in Job: "Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night?" (Cf. Job 35:11) We all have sometimes wondered of the "whereabouts" of God, but James says, "Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto thee" (James 4:8). It is our fault if we don't find Him. Isaiah says that God conceals Himself, though He reveals Himself: "Truly You are a God who has been hiding Yourself" (Isaiah 45:15).

God will be found by those who are not even seeking Him too, according to Isaiah 65:1 which says, "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me: I was found by those who did not seek me." God doesn't take triflers seriously if you want to really know God. Your testimony must be: "I was lost, but now am found." We do not find God in reality, He finds us! No one can come close to God and remain unchanged! "Seek the LORD, and live..." (Amos 5:6).

I quote Daniel 11:32 as follows: "...but the people who know their God will display strength and take action [other translations render it: do exploits or firmly resist him, i.e., the opposition]." To know God is to love God and the highest calling we have is to know God: "...but let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows Me..." (Jeremiah. 9:24). God will authenticate Himself to you because God is no man's debtor. When we find God--and as Pascal said, "I would not have found Him, had He not first found me," We must be prepared for an encounter and reckoning. How can we know God? First, we must seek Him with our whole heart-- "Prepare to meet thy God," says Amos 4:12. This is always true; we never know when or how we will meet and confront our God.

Let us look at the wisdom of Job: "Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace!" (Job 22:21). It wasn't until Job actually acknowledged God that he was truly humbled and realized his self-righteousness. Hosea's theme is to know the Lord, even though we are backslidden: "Let us know the LORD, let us press on to know the LORD" (Hosea 6:3). God's main "pet peeve" against Israel was that there was "no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1). What is true worship? Read Hosea 6:6 which I quote: "For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."

To know God, we must seek Him with our whole heart. Jeremiah 29:13 (cf. Deut. 4:29) verifies this: "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Isaiah offers similar advice: "Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6). Hosea says "...For it is time to seek the LORD..." (Hosea 10:12). In seeking God, He wants us to acknowledge Him and His presence. One of God's names is YHWH Shammah, or "the LORD who is there, (Ezek. 48:35). Paul says to the Corinthians: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells is in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16).

Some people think that everyone is on a mad quest to find God! In reality, they are trying to get the benefits without the Benefactor! God says that there "is none that seeks Him" (Rom. 3:11). The search for God begins at salvation, according to R. C. Sproul, not before salvation, because God finds us, who are lost sheep. Jonathan Edwards proclaimed seeking God as the main business of the Christian life.

The promise that He will be found is in Matthew 7:7 said by Jesus Himself: "....seek and you shall find...." "The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him": (Lamentations 3:25). Here are two promises: "If you seek Him He will let you find Him." and "O LORD, You have not forsaken those who seek You" (Psalm 9:10b). A warning to the wise is sufficient: "He did evil because he did not set his heart on seeking the LORD" (2 Chron. 12:14). Even Hezekiah, the godliest king of Judah, sought the LORD in 2 Chronicles 20 when threatened by Assyria's armies.

If you put God in a box, you will not find Him; you are restricting Him, like saying: "I just like to think of God as the Great Spirit in the Sky or as the Heavenly Father, doting Grandfather, or the Man Upstairs--well do you see what I mean? We must be willing to acknowledge God for who He is and that means accepting the truth no matter where it leads--you will not ever find the truth if you are not willing to go where the facts lead and admit you could be wrong.

The highest calling we can have is to know God and the most rewarding relationship is our one with Him--if we pass this on to our children in passing the torch we have done our duty as a generation. Knowing God makes you strong in your faith and able "to do exploits" and not falter in faith. The ultimate goal of knowing God is to be like Him or to be sanctified. Jesus said, that He came "not to be served, but to serve" It is the same with us, in that we will have a servant's heart and realize that true greatness is not in how many people serve you, but in how many people you serve.

God is both transcendent and immanent (distant or removed and near): "'Am I a God who is near,' declares the LORD, 'And not a God far off?' 'Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?' declares the LORD. 'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares the LORD." God is not bound by the time-space continuum and confined to our dimensions.

The only relationship that fully satisfies and fully rewarding is one with our Maker (we are made for Him and can only find happiness in Him); and we are like a vacuum that only God can fill, according to Blaise Pascal, and Augustine also said that our hearts have a need that only God can satisfy [paraphrased]. Paul said to the Philippians: "... that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection..." (Phil. 3:10). The ultimate questions are: "How big is your God?" not how big your faith.   The answer is that to know Him is to love Him! The biggest challenge you can give is to live for something bigger than yourself and your concept of God affects this--don't think small, but aim high with God on your side!
Soli Deo Gloria!

Modern Terminology For Salvation

"For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Cor. 4:5, NIV).  
"For who makes you different from anyone else?  What do you have that you did not receive?  ..." (1 Cor. 4:7, NIV).

Today's evangelicals like to refer to "accepting Jesus" as if that's all there was to salvation, period.  This is a misnomer and misleading, not to mention nonbiblical in terminology.  We also hear many well-meaning evangelists talk of "making room in your heart for Jesus," "trying Jesus," or "making a decision for Jesus," but these statements can be quite misleading to the cause of lordship.  The Bible refers to "receiving Christ as Lord" and we cannot receive a divided Lord or someone for who He is not--the Lord of lords and King of kings into our hearts.

We trust Him as Savior and submit to Him as Lord, that's where it's at. By divorcing faith from faithfulness we do detriment to the biblical evangel, which is our message to the world at large.  However, there are many who preach "another Spirit," "another Jesus," or "another gospel"  (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4) who are false teachers or wolves in sheep's clothing.

The gospel message is all about what God has done for us, not what we do for God! He paid the price for a debt we owed and couldn't pay!  But the gift of salvation is free as a gift to be received by grace in faith.  We don't earn it, cannot pay it back, and don't deserve it!   Jesus is the one who accepts us the way we are and we must be willing to accept our brother the way he is, as a work in progress.  But He doesn't let us stay that way but is always at work "within us to do and to will of His good pleasure" (cf. Phil. 2:13).

Since our salvation is so great a work, what shall happen if we neglect it (cf. Heb. 2:3)?  We don't do Jesus any favor by becoming Christians, as if He needed us and couldn't get along without us, but we were chosen and predestined before the foundation of the world in an election to His glory (cf. Eph. 1:5,11), in His own way.  When we humbly realize our unworthiness and that we were accepted by grace and didn't deserve it, how shall we not accept others with the same attitude of grace and welcome them into the fellowship?

Easy-believism is rampant in the church and that means that a full surrender of lordship isn't necessary for salvation, because it's seen as a work.  Roman Catholicism sees our part as mere acquiescence or agreement with church dogma as saving faith.  We cannot dichotomize our faith and say that we can have faith without lordship, for we must receive Him as Lord (cf. Col. 2:6).  Another way of looking at this easy-believism is as "cheap grace" which justifies the sin, not the sinner!

Believers who want to justify their sin and live in sin as so-called "carnal Christians" are really not believers at all, for there is no such category of brethren.  Christians can be carnal and out of fellowship, but not as a class, permanent state, or category of spirituality.  All Christians yearn to obey the Lord and have the same love for the Lord, for if anyone loves not the Lord, let him be "anathema, Maranatha" (cf. 1 Cor. 16:22)!

The logical conclusion of believing we accept Christ is that God owes us a living or a blessing in this world, which is what "prosperity theology" espouses, and is erroneous, if not heretical and damnable.  We are not here to cash in on God at some spiritual lottery, because God never promises us a "rose garden" or "bed of roses" but a life of trial and testing as life is a trust and commitment.  Our home is not to be here and we are not to make ourselves too comfortable in this life, seeking our reward in this life. We seek a Celestial City!   Some are indeed given their portion in this life (cf. Psalm 17:14) but we seek a heavenly city and a crown that cannot fade away or perish.  God is not our "genie" or Santa Clause to grant our every desire and wish, but we are to learn to joy in doing His will and seeking His glory as our fulfillment, not an entitlement of material blessing.

When we believe we "accepted" Christ, it gives us an entitlement mentality that leads us to think we can cash in on our spiritual lottery ticket and that God owes us for us doing Him the favor of accepting Him, making it look like we did something for our salvation., and forgetting it was by grace alone. The essence of the Law is what we do for God or owe Him in obedience, the essence of the gospel is what He's done for us that we don't deserve.

In sum, we cannot say we accept Jesus for salvation, because that makes it look like we are doing God a favor when He is the one doing us a favor of accepting us and justifying us through faith all by grace, so we cannot boast--it sounds so condescending to say that we accepted Christ! Even our righteousness is not our gift to God, but His gift to us (cf. Isaiah 45:24)!   In sum, it all sounds so superficial and trivializes our commitment.     Soli Deo Gloria!

Our Universal Diagnosis: A Vacuum

"We grasp at every passing straw, and even as we clutch it disappears." --Billy Graham
"... Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matt 4:4, NIV).
"All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come" (Job 14:14, NIV).

Man without God is unfulfilled and on a universal quest for ultimate truth, meaning, and purpose.  The Dalai Lama said that "Emptiness is the ultimate truth."  Billy Graham says that man is the only creature capable of becoming bored.  "Nature abhors a vacuum," says Billy Graham.  It was Blaise Pascal who said man has a vacuum only God can fill.  Augustine of Hippo likewise wrote that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.  Man is searching for that missing ingredient and is on a frantic search for happiness.

Seek the Answerer!    This is true, we can become bored with life or of ourselves, despite the environment and entertainment opportunities.  That's why we have millions seeking psychiatric counsel and meds to solve their personal problems and unresolved issues.  Most of man's emotional problems are basically curable by the truth, and that is one reason truth sets us free.  Carl Jung, the protege of Sigmund Freud, said that " the central neurosis of our time is emptiness."  We all sense something is wrong with us, regardless of faith, and are on a Great Quest (Billy Graham's terminology) to find THE answer.

Man has been called Homo divinus and even Homo religiosus, or that man is, by nature, divine and religious, respectfully, seeking spiritual answers and fulfillment, rather than a secular solution. The anthropological proof of God is that there is a universal belief in God in some manner.   Have you ever observed an ape building a chapel?  We alone seek metaphysical answers to physical and emotional or spiritual problems--we must realize that many so-called religions seem to work and do have an element of truth, for man seeks truth by nature (enough to inoculate from the real thing), but that doesn't mean they are true.  Christianity isn't true because it works, but it works because it's true--viva la difference!

Man longs for relationships, and being in the image of God, we are personal beings seeking meaningful relationships--God is personal and wants to get personal with us!  We must reciprocate and return the favor.  We can try political freedom, education, materialism or higher standards of living, experiments with drugs or fee sex, but man only becomes worse off by seeking other means of satisfaction other than what we are meant for; ignoring design breaks faith with the Designer--for instance, we are hard-wired for work, not a life of leisure or pleasure seeking.

Christians need to preach that they have found it, the answers in the Answerer!  The proof of the pudding is in the eating, they say!  Solomon tried virtually every area of endeavor only to declare it all vanity, but his wisdom caught up with him at last and realized the only fulfillment was in doing our duty to God, obeying Him, our Maker.  A square peg cannot fit into a round hole and many people are doing that, attempting to be something or do something they were not meant to be or do.  If Einstein had been condemned to a life at the Swiss patent office, he might not have realized his full potential and would've had low self-esteem as unfulfilled.  We must pursue our passions without discouragement and realize our calling in life.

Man is not an animal in heat, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, despite protests that there is no right or wrong, only pleasure, and pain.  We must not just follow our heart, but not our whims, we must not arbitrarily seek for needles in haystacks.  Man is meant to be on a mission, full of meaning and purpose with a mind thinking the thoughts of Christ, or having a Christian worldview of the world, not to be influenced by the secularization of society, but remaining salt and light.      Soli Deo Gloria!

The Void In Man's Heart

Blaise Pascal posited there was a "vacuum in man's heart that only God can fill"; Augustine of Hippo wrote in Confessions, "Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee."  Man is on a great quest for shalom or peace of mind in manifold ways (with God, others, himself, etc.).  We all need fulfillment to feel we are important and are making a difference in the world, a mark, impression, or impact on others.  He has sought to find relief in religion, education, culture, entertainment, philosophy, a higher standard of living, political freedom, and materialism or success such as the American dream, but he is still empty, just as Dr. Carl Jung said that the "central neurosis of man is emptiness."  Man seeks to find fulfillment in many things to occupy his boredom, for "The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation," according to Henry David Thoreau.  There's the rub!

Pascal said quite paradoxically:  "If a man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?  If a man is made for God, why is he opposed to God?"  What a dilemma we're in!  We have been called Homo religious, or the religious being, our nature.  Just as we are hard-wired for work, we also are meant to worship God, and if we fail to, we will worship something even anything, but never nothing! The leading school of thought is nihilism growthwise among the intelligentsia, and they teach man has no ultimate meaning or purpose to exist--essentially faith in nothing supposedly.  But men are not capable of worshiping nothing; they will resort to worshiping something, even themselves in narcissism. 

But no man is religion or worship free, but finds substitutes for God in his life.  That is the essence of idolatry--worship of something or someone in God's place, as well as having a faulty understanding of God--either putting Him in a box or limiting Him in some other manner, all because God is a jealous God and demands worship in spirit and in truth.  We must beware lest our thoughts of God become too human!

Just like Christians are content and "happy customers" of Jesus, so the infidel seeks a life without God and will grasp at straws, though even as he clutches they disappear--to be happy apart from God in escapism.  The consequences of unbelief are a life lived in vain and a frantic search for happiness in things, or other relationships without God as the center.  We must believe in God to be happy and content, and if we don't believe in God, we will believe in anything and maybe even everything that comes our way, for God will send great delusion to believe the lie and we will become captive to the devil to do his will (cf. 2 Tim. 2:26), if perhaps God may not grant the grace of freedom.

That is why gullible and credulous people believe in anything out there like astrology, magic, UFOs, etc., because they don't believe in God and their faith is misdirected!  I mean really believe in Him with the heart in a personal relationship, not just acknowledging His existence or having a head belief.   The saying that GIGO is validated:  garbage in equals garbage out!   We need the anchor of Christ in our soul to shield us from Satan's lies and false doctrines of strange teachings (cf. Heb. 13:9).

You can't talk to some people about spiritual things because they have no interest.  Actually, if you can switch the topic to heavenly matters for only a few minutes you may save a soul!  Most have their mind on earthly matters, including believers, and are distracted or have their interests divided.  They seem to think that God is dead in the sense of not being relevant or necessary to explain reality.

But without God life makes no sense (you cannot answer life's ultimate questions and issues) and there is no purpose in living, no meaning in life and nothing to live for but to be an animal in heat, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain!  All because they are taught they are animals it isn't any wonder they want to live like them or the other way around--they believe their animals and end up acting like them as a consequence--we shouldn't be surprised.

It's been said by Dostoevsky that "if there is no God, all things are permissible."  Kant said that God must exist for ethics to be possible!  Does man just want to find out that all he can do is "eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow he may die?" (cf. Isa. 22:13; 1 Cor. 15:32).  To state his contentment, on the other hand, Paul had learned to be content in all things (cf. Phil. 4:11) and  said quite glibly, "I am what I am by the grace of God." (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10.)     Soli Deo Gloria!

A Salvation Par Excellence

"Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share..." (Jude v. 3, NIV).
HEADLINE:  HARDENED CRIMINAL PARDONED; JUDGE ADOPTS HIM AND INVITES HIM INTO HIS HOME!  
"Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray" (Isaiah 35:8, NKJV).

Our salvation is as good as it gets!  It's God's magnum opus--a miracle in its own right!  The greatest miracle is one's salvation or transformation into a new person in Christ.  No one could improve on it or imagine a better deliverance; forgiveness is just the beginning--we are justified and adopted, then sanctified and finally glorified.  Jesus saved us--He did; He keeps us--He does; He's coming for us--He will!  Our salvation is one of position (justification), condition (sanctification), and expectation (glorification).  

It began in eternity past, is realized in time, and will be completed in eternity future.  Another viewpoint shows Jesus delivering us from the ignorance and awareness of sin as our prophet, from the penalty and guilt of sin as our priest, from the power and dominion of sin as our king, and ultimately from the presence of sin itself.  Our salvation provides us peace with God, purpose in life, power over sin, and meaning and purpose in life, and pardon for our wrongdoing, restoring the image of God in us as a work in progress called sanctification, culminating in glorification or Christlikeness.

"[H]ow shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?  [God sees us as saved or lost and in need of intervention]  This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him"  (Heb. 2:3, NIV, emphasis mine).  The complete Trinity partakes, gets involved, and into the act of our salvation:  the Father purposes, authors, and plans it; the Son secures, reveals, and accomplishes it; and the Spirit applies, completes, and executes it!  If you could be the author of a new and improved plan, you would be wiser than God!  It is so great because our total depravity was so bad and our inability to work our way to heaven fell so short; if we had to do anything, we'd fail!  It took the infinite sacrifice of the God-man on our behalf to do a perfect work.

However, we are still addicted to doing something for our salvation (cf. John 6:28; Acts 16:30) because we're works-oriented.  Salvation is purely the work of God in our souls as He kindles and awakens faith within us, regenerating us--the Reformed gospel is that "salvation is of the Lord," like Jonah cried out in Jonah 2:9, meaning it's not "of man alone", nor "of man and God", but solely "of God."  It is not a cooperative or joint effort with God, but a divine work of God in us (i.e., it's not synergistic, but monergistic).  Only in the scenario of God's work alone can assurance be assured!

Just think:  Our past is forgiven; our present is given meaning; our future is secured!  Or you could say our salvation is past, present, and pending.  It's surely a done deal and there's nothing to add to it or we would be insulting God.  You could also say that we are saved, are being saved, and will be saved!  We must never lose track of the fact that our whole being is depraved (heart, mind, and will), and needs salvation.  God starts by making the unwilling willing (cf. Psa. 51:12; Phil. 2:13), and wooing the most stubborn of hearts.

If someone asks you if you are saved, ask them from what and see if they know.  We are saved from the wrath of God, the devil, and even our own old sin nature--our flesh.  We are rescued from the Lord, by the Lord!  Don't forget:  the entire subject matter of the Holy Scripture is salvation and what God has done to secure it for us, not what we are to do to try to save ourselves.  It is, therefore, given, not achieved, because it's a gift received through an act of grace, not merit.  No matter what, we don't deserve it, cannot earn it, add to it, nor can we ever pay it back.

There are four aspects of our salvation:  we are redeemed as Jesus pays the price of our salvation from the slave market of sin; we are justified when righteousness is exchanged in God's court of law; we are reconciled back to fellowship with God's family, and God is propitiated as God's wrath is averted in His temple.  There's much more than just being forgiven or getting a ticket out of hell.  Our salvation shows us the more abundant life in Christ: "Without the way, there's no going; without the truth, there's no knowing; and without the life, there's no living," (according to St. Thomas a Kempis)!

The most wonderful revelation is when one realizes he cannot lose it and its permanency as a state of grace.  Remember, God didn't have to save anyone, or it would be justice; however, He chose us when we didn't choose Him.  This divine work of God was His rescue operation extraordinaire and will be consummated in glory where our works are evaluated and rewarded at the bema of Christ.  We are transformed by the Holy Spirit from being as bad off and depraved as we possibly can be into eventual Christlikeness into being like Him as a contrast.  Our salvation makes us what we were intended to be:  complete in Christ (cf. Col. 2:10)!

The problem is twofold:  sin and sins.  Legalists only see certain sins that offend them, but the real root of the problem is our old sin nature and how sin not only enslaves us but alienates us from God and others.  Sin is defined as a virus and our birthright from Adam and our Declaration of Independence from God.  Albert Camus said, "The absurd is sin without God," and Dostoevsky said, "Without God all things are permissible."  We must realize that all sin is primarily against God and offends His holiness, and sin cannot be in God's presence. We can have our best possible life now with the abundant life or life to the full just as Jesus promised in John 10:10.

Point in fact:  God forgives all our sins:  past, present, future (cf. Psalm 103:3; Acts 3:19; Isa. 43:25)!  We can only lose fellowship, not our relationship! Salvation in toto is deliverance from what we are (our sin nature), as well as forgiveness from what we've done (our sins), thus restoring a right relationship to our Maker.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Trust And Obey!

The hymn goes to "trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." Too many believers have not learned this simple lesson and are often stubborn and recalcitrant or even rebellious against authority reminding one of the slogans to question authority. I've even heard that you should question authority, but never mother! Obeying authority was never meant to be blind and without cognizance of what we are doing, for we are responsible to be moral and legal. But we should heed authority when it is legitimate. Many youths today could never make it in the service because they insist on knowing the why behind every order and can't just follow orders. 

They wouldn't be in the service hadn't they declared allegiance to the US Consitution and to those in the chain command to obey unless it's an illegal order. I wonder if you recall poet laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem The Charge of the Light Brigade? It says, "Ours is not to wonder why ours is but to do and die!" If soldiers always demanded reasons for orders and explanations or more justification, they would never get anything done and you couldn't have a military. Those who are not ready to follow orders do not belong in the military, not even as officers.

However, a Christian can choose not to go into the military, but he still doesn't escape the issues of obedience in his life to follow Jesus. The idea of discipleship is to learn to be a follower and basically to simply trust and obey. Some believers actually go to jail before learning the lesson and must get rehabilitated in a correctional facility. By the way, do you remember the unjust judge that was tormented by the elderly lady and finally gave in to her request? We can be the same way and our questions may be answered, but we've only proved that we are not humble and meek, which are sure signs of the devoted, committed follower or disciple of Jesus. 

Even children trust their parents completely at first, then their faith wanes, then they start asking why, and finally, they rebel or go their own way. Part of submitting to one another and loving one another as Christ loved us is to live an obedient life. We should never lose track of our Exemplar who became "obedient unto death." We should all strive to become obedient Christians and not spiritual Lone Rangers doing only what's right in our own eyes as Israel did write in Judges 17:6; 21:25.

The old slogan "Just Do it!" is relevant in following Christ, for unbelievers are characterized as the "sons of disobedience" in Ephesians 2:2. Caveat from A. W. Tozer: "Jesus will not save those whom he cannot command." A disobedient follower is a contradiction in terms. Children have the opportunity to become our role models: they wonder, trust, forgive, obey, and ask questions with a teachable spirit. Final advice: be like Peter, not understanding the order, and while fishing without any luck, trusted Jesus and said, "Nevertheless, at thy Word, Lord, I will cast down my net." Soli Deo Gloria!

Contemplating Our Unworthiness

"So a man should examine himself..." (cf. 1 Cor. 11:28).


The key to grace is the right mindset toward God--true humility!  "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (cf. James 4:6).  We are never worthy of God's grace (or it wouldn't be grace, but justice!), but the one qualification for it is to reckon ourselves as unworthy and unfit--just like our salvation.   Grace always goes to the lowest bidders, as it were.

The Lord's Supper is a reminder of our fellowship and longstanding salvation, whereby we renew our commitment and dedication by remembering what it's all about and the price Christ paid on our behalf.  We must see ourselves as great sinners in need of a Great Savior.  We are exhorted by Paul to examine ourselves at communion to take personal inventory of our spiritual life and give ourselves a spiritual checkup to validate our faith and salvation by seeing Christ at work in our lives and person (Christ lives in us by an exchanged, surrendered, relinquished, substituted, inhabited, and obedient life in Christ by virtue of His power--Gal. 2:20). In 2 Cor. 13:5 it says to examine ourselves frequently to see if Christ does indwell us--i.e., whether we are in the faith.  We are to be fruit inspectors of our own fruits and must test ourselves periodically--not others!

The Eucharist (Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper) is to be given to those walking obediently with the Lord in fellowship and not have any known sin to their account, which would render them carnal.  Basically, if we are enjoying a fellowship with God through Christ and discern the body, as Christ admonished, we are ready for communion. If we have repented we are clean, but we may still need a confession to update our walk with Christ.  But this privilege doesn't mean we are qualified to partake of this grace or ordinance laid down by Christ at Maundy Thursday, or at the Last Supper in the Upper Room celebrating the Passover.  The point to ponder is that we are never worthy, but we can prepare our hearts to receive the grace of God by confession (keeping short accounts and admitting sin as soon as we are convicted, which is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit).

In partaking of the communion emblems, we are to "discern the body" and blood of Christ, reckoning that He laid down His life for us and His blood sealed a New Covenant or Testament, making the Old Covenant or Testament obsolete.  Our humility ought to be such that the more unworthy we feel we are, the more we resonate with God's grace and are in a position to receive the ordinance, just like John Bunyan wrote in his testimony Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and Paul saw himself as the "chief of sinners" likewise (cf. 1 Tim. 1:15).  It is a fact that the closer our walk with Christ, the more aware we are of shortcomings and failures.  Getting close to God makes us all the more aware of our sins, not our success and holiness.  Samuel Rutherford said to "pray for a lively sense of sin, because, the more the sense, the less sin."

We are admonished by Paul to partake of the elements in a worthy manner (that doesn't mean we are worthy per se), but by discerning the body and being in fellowship with no unconfessed, known sin, we are ready for grace.  The Lord's Supper is more than a memorial we do to proclaim the Lord's coming, but also a spiritual exercise and checkup and discipline to make us experience group fellowship and accountability--church isn't just a private affair but we are members one of another.

In the final analysis, it's comforting to know that Christ knew what we were made of before He saved us and loves us despite ourselves, and His acceptance doesn't depend upon our behavior or performance, but totally on His grace. "Salvation is of the LORD" (cf. Jonah 2:9), not from us. There's no place for merit in our salvation, but we are saved, are being saved, and will be saved all by grace alone (sola gratia in Latin), Christ alone is the worthy one and therefore is worshiped or assigned worthiness.     Soli Deo Gloria!

Are We Too Bad For Salvation?

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9, NIV).
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away" (Isa. 64:6, NIV).
"'Come now, let us settle the matter,' says the LORD. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool'" (Isaiah 1:18, NIV).
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9, KJV).
"I see better things and I approve them but I follow the worst."--Ovid

We are prone to play the "let's compare" (cf. 2 Cor. 10:12) game and suit ourselves by looking down on our fellow man as our inferior who doesn't measure up. As long as we can find someone worse than us we feel secure in our "holiness" or inherent goodness. After all, many of us believe God grades on a curve! Compared to the likes of Adolf Hitler, the paradigm of evil incarnate, we appear to be saints and godly enough to feel smug and self-satisfied in our goodness. But our goodness is from God and not our gift to Him, but His gift to us. Our goodness doesn't benefit God, but we are mere vessels being used for His greater good and glory, whether of honor or dishonor, we are manipulated and used by God's providence. This is a never-ending comparison and relativity since there's always someone we can thumb our nose at, no matter how wicked we are--even in the prisons there are self-righteous bullies who think they are the moral center of the place. We are all in jail, in a sense, but do not realize our depravity and need of a way out and salvation through a Savior. We cannot set ourselves free, and we weren't born free, but in bondage and slavery and can only be unbound by the power of the cross. "... Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (Rom. 5:21, NKJV). John Bunyan wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners to expound on this motif.

How bad are we? Metaphorically, we are as far from God as a blind person comprehending the beauty of nature and hearing a symphony, if one is deaf. God is in another dimension and we are God-conscious and feel a tug to know He's there by instinct. No one has an excuse not to believe in Him and God's knowledge is plain to all. We must realize how bad we are to be good, according to C. S. Lewis, and we don't realize how bad we are till aim to be good. It's like thinking you can quit tobacco anytime, but when you try to quit you can't because it's got more power over you than you realized. We don't have the freedom of will to cease sin on our own, but are slaves to our sin nature and need to be set free by the Son (cf. John 8:36).

According to the doctrine of total depravity, we are as bad off as we can possibly be: every part of our nature is corrupt and affected adversely by evil and sin, including our emotions, mind, will, and body--all that we are. As far as our will goes, we are stubborn and hard as a stone, and God must turn our hearts into ones of flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26). We don't think clearly because of sin and are blinded by Satan to the truth of the gospel. Our emotions are attuned to the lower nature and have lost their purity. Our bodies are dying and do not bring glory to God either apart from grace, no matter how well we treat them. In sum, we are bad, according to D. L. Moody, but not too bad to be saved! We all have feet of clay; we all are a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--we all have a dark side no one sees.

The qualification for receiving eternal life is to realize you can't qualify! "Therefore I abhor myself And repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6, NKJV). We can't earn our salvation, we cannot pay it back, and we don't deserve it either. We cannot rationalize our way back to God by philosophizing or thinking; we cannot moralize our way back by good deeds, and cannot emotionalize our way back by our feelings. We must be sincere, but sincerity is not the whole equation, we must be willing to do God's will and repent of our sin, renouncing and denouncing it, in order to follow Christ in obedience and trust. God has reckoned all to be dead in sin so that He can have mercy by grace on us all. We don't get saved because of our intelligence, morality, emotions, wisdom, or even philosophy--or any accompanying affiliation or party membership. We must not deify a person, group, or even party, for this is idolatry.

We must echo the wise words of William Jay of Bath, who said that he is a great sinner, but he has a great Savior. It is only in realizing that we are sinners and are spiritually bankrupt before God that we can value Jesus as our Savior. The closer we get to God, the more we become aware of our shortcomings and sins. Samuel Rutherford said to pray for a lively sense of sin because, the more sense of sin the less sin. Remember the words of George Whitefield: "There but for the grace of God, go I"; which he uttered upon seeing a man going to the gallows. Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:10 likewise: "I am what I am by the grace of God."

This is the point, just because someone seems like a worse sinner than you are, doesn't necessitate him being further from finding God; sometimes the prostitutes and tax collectors are closer to God than the Pharisees of the world. Just because your sins may be more civilized, polite, concealed, or refined doesn't make them less serious: better off the ignorant cannibal in the South Seas than the informed bully on Wall Street! The Greek admonition to know thyself goes hand in hand with knowing God. Why do you think the Law was given? To convince you that you cannot keep it and need a Savior! The Bible tells it like it is; how we are and how God is and how to restore the relationship. Once you've seen your nature for what it is, you'll realize it's not a pretty picture. The closer we get to the Spirit's illumination, the clearer becomes our blemishes.

Note that depravity is not what the world espouses: Secular Humanism postulates the inherent goodness of man and that he can be good without God! All goodness comes from the Source of all Goodness, God, and the definition of evil and temptation of Eve is how to be good without God in the equation, noting that evil is a parasite on good and distorts or perverts it; to find our own values, virtues, wisdom, and enjoyment without God in the picture. Humanism originates from the Greek philosopher Protagoras who said that "man is the measure of all things" ("Homo mensura"); thus exalting and deifying man, and dethroning God as irrelevant and even nonexistent--up with man; down with God, the credo. Their aim is to make a name for themselves and live for this world and life only, thus taking away the motive for reconciling with God. Their conclusion is that no deity will save them and so they must save themselves (cf. Humanist Manifesto II, 1973). Thus, the issue is whether one chooses to believe in himself, or in God for salvation.

Psychiatrists are starting to refer to "sin" again, according to Karl Menninger, MD (who penned Whatever Became of Sin?), and this means he knows right and wrong and is culpable unto Judgment Day. It only takes one sin to make a man a sinner, as violating one part of the Law is an infringement on the whole of it. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners (as theologians say). Martin Luther said that man doesn't see his sin, and it's our job to inform him. When Paul said that "all have sinned," he was putting us all in the same boat, with no grading on the curve--we all have been put under the scrutiny of God and found wanting. Caveat: "... Your sins have been your downfall" (Hosea 14:1, NIV); "...[S]in lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it" (Gen. 4:7, NKJV).

The worst sinners are those who are confident in their personal righteousness and see no sin; the self-righteous, goody-two-shoes sinners of the world. It is vital to realize our sinfulness because it implies our responsibility and helplessness before God and smashes our sense of self-righteousness and shows our rebellion. Many must first realize they're lost and need salvation as a requisite for getting saved from sin. Trusting in your own intrinsic goodness leads to death, for God is the moral center of the universe and the final Judge will meet one-on-one with everyone to give an account of themselves. In sum, let me emphasize that it's not that we are good enough to get saved, but bad enough to need salvation. There's hope for everyone. DON'T WRITE ANYONE OFF AS TOO FAR GONE! Soli Deo Gloria!

Dissertation On Salvation

"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men"  (Titus 2:11, NKJV).

"Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart, as in the rebellion" (cf. Heb. 3:15).  God authored a plan of salvation:  "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"  (cf. Heb. 2:3).  "Behold now is the day of salvation" (cf. 2 Cor. 6:2).   God has a future for His people and offers them abundant life.  "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope"  (cf. Jer. 29:11).  "...I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly"  (cf. John 10:10).   God's kindness and goodness toward you is not leniency but meant to give you space to change.  "...Not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance"  (cf. Rom. 2:4).

But we are in a predicament and cannot realize God's plan.  We are totally, but not utterly depraved, which means you are as bad off as you can be and that every part of you is corrupt, even though you are not as bad as you can be. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"  (cf. Jer. 17:9).  We are a "sinner by birth, by nature, and by choice", according to  Chuck Swindoll.   "Indeed it is the straightedge of the law that shows us how crooked we are"  (cf. Rom. 3:20, Phil.).  We are "free but not freed," says Augustine, of Hippo.  We are free agents who are culpable and blameworthy and guilty, and all we can do is sin --we're guilty as charged ("non-posse non peccare," says Augustine [literally, "unable not to sin"]) period, case closed.

We cannot please God:  "We are like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags"  (cf. Isa. 64:6).  We are in a no-win situation and cannot gain the approbation or approval of God no matter what we do--we cannot clean up our act or prepare ourselves for salvation, except admit we are unqualified.   "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).  There is a great chasm, rift, or cleavage between us and God.  "But your iniquities have separated you from your God..."  (cf. Isa. 64:6).  Jonathan Edwards preached back during the Great Awakening in 1741 that we are  "sinners in the hands of an angry God" (cf. Deut. 32:35).   Furthermore, God doesn't hear our prayers as unbelievers:  "...Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear" (cf. Isa. 59:2).  We are even blind to the truth of the gospel:  "Whose minds the god of this age has blinded..."  (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4).

We cannot clean up our act or get it together--don't get me wrong; we can come as we are to Christ, we just can't stay that way.  We are "by nature a child of wrath" and cannot reform ourselves enough to please God.   "Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?  Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil?" (cf. Jer. 13:23).   "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?"  (cf. Prov. 20:9).

There is an exit strategy:  Jesus comes to the rescue and shows a way out of our dilemma.  This is no "do-it-yourself" proposition, but God taking the initiative and paying the price we couldn't pay on our behalf.  "But God demonstrates His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (cf. Rom. 5:8).  "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, all we like sheep have gone astray, and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all"  (cf. Isa. 53:5-6).  "Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Col. 2:14). "For Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (cf. 1 Pet. 3:18).  "For He made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us..."  (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21).   This is called the propitiation, atonement, and reconciliation and is what God did for us on the cross through His Son Jesus Christ, and what was needed for our forgiveness (sort of like paying the price with His blood per Lev. 17:11).

Christ died for "whosoever will" (cf. John 3:16) and no one who will do His will be left out (God calls everyone to hear the outward call of the gospel via preachers per Titus 2:11 noted above.  However, the offer of the inner call is to ""all whom the Lord our God will call"  (cf. Acts 2:39).  God does the wooing and actually compels us to come to Him with irresistible grace and an effectual call and we refer to as efficacious in its result.  "No one can come to Him unless the Father who sent Me draws him ..."  (cf. John 6:44).  This is called one of Christ's "hard sayings."  "No one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father"  (cf. John 6:65).  I am not offering religion to you, but a relationship and way of life. It is not "do" but "done."  "The just shall live by faith"  (cf. Hab. 2:4). It's a "done deal" and we cannot add to God's work, because Jesus said, "It is finished."

But the prerequisite to salvation is repentance by the grace of God or His unmerited and undeserved favor.  "... [God[ commands all men everywhere to repent" (cf. Acts 17:30).  Repentance is an about-face, a 180-degree turn, a turnaround, a change of mind and heart and action, a turning from sin toward God.  "Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, and times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord"  (cf. Acts 3:19).  "For godly sorrow leads to repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted..."  (cf. 2 Cor. 7:10).  God gives space and time to repent and is patient:  "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (cf. 2 Pet. 3:9).  God is being good for a reason--He wants repentance.

God grants repentance, so we should ask Him (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25).  "Then God also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life" (cf. Acts 11:18; cf. 5:31).  "...If perhaps, God will grant them repentance..." (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25).   True repentance always accompanies saving faith as the flip side. The combo is called believing repentance or penitent faith.  They are seen in juxtaposition in certain passages like Acts 20:21 and used interchangeably in others like Luke 24:47.    God puts a new man in the suit, not a new suit on the man!  We're changed from the inside out!

We must be regenerated or born again, or born from above.  Irresistible grace makes us willing on the day of salvation (cf. Phil. 2:13).  "Salvation is of the Lord' (cf. Jonah 2:9).  The Spirit regenerates like the wind blows where it wills (cf. John 3:8).  "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh"  (cf. Ezek. 11:19, cf. Jer. 24:8).

We are at the mercy of God:  "...so then, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy" (cf. Rom. 9:16).  Our destiny is ultimately in God's hands and we are not the masters of our fate or captain of our souls, God is in control.   We are born "...not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (cf. John 1:13).

You must have faith to be saved, for only faith pleases God, (cf. Heb. 11:6) and it is impossible to please Him without it.  Everyone has faith, they just have to exercise what they have; everyone has faith in something or someone.  We must have a  "heart belief" and not just a "head belief" or mere assent or agreement; it must involve the intellect, knowing the fact;, the will,  being obedient;  and the heart or emotions.  Real saving faith produces good works and if no fruit is present there is no faith.  The Reformers taught that we are "saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone."  Acts 26:20 says that we must bring forth the fruits of repentance (cf. Luke 3:8).

Faith is quickened within us and comes by the hearing and by the hearing of the Word of God (cf. Rom. 10:17).  "For by grace are you saved through faith [the instrumental means], and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."  "God has dealt to each a measure of faith" (cf. Rom. 12:3).  Peters epistle was directed "to those who have obtained like precious faith" (cf. 2 Pet. 1:1).  "This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent" (cf. John 6:29; cf. Acts 14:27).

Doubt is a human problem, not just a Christian problem.  There is a doubt-faith continuum we all reside on.   Doubt is an element of faith, not its opposite and often resides with faith because no one knows all the answers or it would be knowledge.  "I believe, help thou mine unbelief." Perfect faith is nonexistent.   If left to ourselves, none of us would believe, and we are no more virtuous because we do:  "There but for the grace of God, go I," (George Whitefield).  God has poured out grace on His chosen ones:  "...as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed' (cf. Acts 13:48).  "He greatly helped those who believed through grace" (cf. Acts 18:27).

The general call is to all but God gives His invitation to whosoever will:  the poor, imprisoned, blind, and oppressed, according to Isa. 61:1.   The offer is not "swimming instructions for a drowning man, but a reprieve to a man on death row, who is guilt," ( Paul Little).  The invitation is as follows:  "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat.  Yes, come buy wine and milk, without price" (cf. Isa. 55:1). "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness, I have drawn you" (cf. Jer. 31:3).  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (cf. John 3:16).

We must respond to the good news about Christ.  That He died for sinners (they must know this), that He was buried, and that He rose again (for us personally--to know He died is history; to know for us is salvation).   There is no place for cheap grace or peace or easy-believism that thinks we can be saved without surrendering to His ownership of our lives and lordship over us and live in the flesh after its desires. We must trust in Christ as Savior and submit to Him as Lord.  We must count the cost of following Him as Lord of our life.  "Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision" (cf. Joel 3:14).

The search for God begins at salvation and we cannot find Him but that He found us:  

 "Sow for yourselves in righteousness; reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you"  (cf. Hos. 10:12).   "But you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart" (cf. Jer. 29:13).  "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near" (cf. Isa. 55:6).

The three things we must do are as follows:

(1)   Admit our need that we are a lost sinner in need of salvation and alienated, estranged, or separated from God.

(2)  Believe in the gospel message that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again all on our behalf as a substitute.  This implies that He is God in the flesh or the incarnate God of the same essence as the Father--His Deity.

(3)  Confess Him openly before men as Lord, not being ashamed of Him, that He is the Lord and your personal Lord.  "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved"  (cf. Rom. 10:9).

Man is incurably addicted to doing something for his salvation, according to Charles Swindoll, but in a works religion you can never be sure and have the assurance of heaven.  Here is a simple sinner's prayer you might want to echo: 


Lord Jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead and died on my behalf as a lost and condemned sinner.  Come into my heart and reign as Lord of my life, as I commit to following You as a disciple in the fellowship of Your church.  I hereby repent of all known sin and desire to be changed by Your power and not to look back.  Amen [So be it! Let it be!].    This is not some magic formula to say but the condition and sincerity of the heart is paramount--only God sees this.

Now, a transaction has taken place and we should not confuse fact and feeling or works and grace.  God says it in His Word, I believe it in my heart, that settles it in my mind.  There are several verses of comfort and assurance: 

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool|" (cf. Isa. 1:18).

"But as many as received Him to them gave He the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name"  (cf. John 1:12).

If you have honestly (God doesn't ask for perfect, but unfeigned or sincere faith) trusted Christ for your salvation and have stopped trying to save yourself, you have accepted the gift of life eternal that begins now and goes on forever, forgiving your sins, past, present, and future.  Your salvation began in eternity, was realized in time, and is going to be consummated or fulfilled in heaven.  God erased the tape, as it were, gave you a clean slate, and doesn't recall your sins--they are deleted permanently. Look at the following verses:


Our position before Christ:
"As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (cf. Psa. 103:12).  "I am He who blots out your transgressions and will not remember your sins" (cf. Isa. 43:25).   "I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins"  (cf. Isa. 44:22).  "....You have cast all my sins behind Your back" (cf. Isa. 38:17). "If You, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?  But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared (cf.Psa. 130:3-4).  "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more;'  (Heb. 8:12).

Assurance is up to the Holy Spirit:
 "The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God" (cf. Rom. 8:16).   But reassurance is found in Scripture, and we should stand on the promises of God and take Him at His Word.  "He fills us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (cf. Rom. 15:13).  Simply find a verse that means something to you and gives you what you need to hear and cling to it as a spiritual birth certificate.  My favorite is John 6:37 saying, "The one who comes to Me I will in no way cast out [permanent salvation or eternal redemption]."The Word of God coupled with the testimony of the Spirit is our assurance (cf. Rom. 8:16). 

Some others are as follows:  "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand..."  (cf. John 10:27).  "And this is the testimony: That this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life... These things I have written to you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life:  (cf. 1 John 5:11,13).  My favorite is what Michael Faraday quoted when he died:  "For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day"  (cf. 2 Tim. 1:12).   Soli Deo Gloria!