Jesus Christ – Is He Your Savior or Your Judge?
We evangelicals make a really bog deal about having a “personal relationship” with Christ, as if those who have not received/accepted Him as Savior have no relationship. Consider the following:
nWhoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not obelieved in the name of the only Son of God. – John 3:18 (The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001)
The instrumental means of salvation is believing in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. But people who reject the light of the Logos are in the dark (1:5; 8:12) and are therefore already under God’s judgment. They stand condemned. They are like those sinful, dying Israelites who willfully rejected the divine remedy (Num. 21:4-9). A believer in Christ, on the other hand, is under “no condemnation” (Rom. 8:1); he “will not be condemned” (John 5:24). (Walvoord, John F. ; Zuck, Roy B. ; Dallas Theological Seminary: The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 2:282)
The above passage, words of Jesus in His dialogue with Nicodemus, speaks of two kinds of people, those who are not condemned (under judgment) because they believe in Christ, and those who are condemned already because they do not believe in Christ. The Apostle Peter, during his visit to the household of Cornelius, told his listeners:
And ahe commanded us [the Apostles]to preach to the people and to testify bthat he [Christ] is the one appointed by God to be judge cof the living and the dead. Acts 10:42 (The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001
Is it a stretch to say, from these passages, that all men do in fact, at this very moment, have a ‘personal relationship’ with Christ?
Some would say that we missed the point here – that when we evangelize and talk about ‘personal relationship’ we are speaking about a ’saving’ relationship. True, and that point was not missed. What we do often ‘miss’ in our evangelizing is the relationship of ‘already condemned’. We don’t like to mention it, or if we do, we talk about being ‘eternally separated’ or something ‘milder’ than condemnation, because that might cause people to feel badly about themselves, lose their self- esteem, and run away.
We propose that the person with whom we share the whole truth about ‘relationships’ with Christ, who has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, will be more likely to run to the Cross of Calvary!
n ch. 5:24; [Mark 16:16]
o See 1 John 5:13
a See ch. 1:2
b ch. 17:31; 24:25; John 5:22, 27; 2 Cor. 5:10; See Matt. 16:27
c 2 Tim. 4:1; 1 Pet. 4:5; [Rom. 14:9, 10; 1 Thess. 4:15, 17]
Give Your Heart to Jesus?
“One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” – Act 16:14
Why do we often hear it said in personal testimonies “I gave my heart to Jesus. . .” or “I asked Jesus into my heart. . .” ? That’s a rather rhetorical question. Probably because invitations to the Cross of Calvary are phrased the same way, asking those who might be seeking God to ‘do’ one or the other, rather than more biblical approaches that would invite them to simply repent of their sin and believe in the Son, who died in their place and rose again, that they might also be raised from the dead and live.
A few short comments about today’s popular invitations to ask Jesus into one’s heart, or give one’s heart to Jesus:
- Neither one is to be directly found, or implied in all of New Testament evangelism.
- On their own, they can dangerously imply that the individual ‘contributes’ to his/her own salvation, impugning the sovereignty of God in salvation.
- They both give rise to the ‘boasting’ prohibited by Eph 2:8-9:
” For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
And by the way, another question:
If God opens hearts to pay attention to and trust the Gospel message, wouldn’t it mean that ‘giving one’s heart to Jesus’ or ‘asking Jesus in’ are, on some level, redundant acts?
Food for thought. . .
Why Does God Save Sinners?
We would love to see a survey of professing Christians in which the above question appeared, either as a stand alone question, or with multiple choice answers.
Does these passages give us a clue to the main reason God forgives and saves sinners?
I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. (Isaiah 43:25)
For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. (Psalm 25:11)
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake! (Psalm 79:9)
Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you. (Jeremiah 14:7)
We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you. Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonor your glorious throne. (Jeremiah 14:20-21)
God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26)
Your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. (1 John 2:12)
As evangelical Christians, we are charged with spreading the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The manner in which we carry out that charge, the reasons we give for trusting in and receiving Christ as Savior and Lord, will always communicate to the hearers why God desires to save their souls. After all, we all have reasons for why we do what we do and for the decisions we make. We will always give reasons why our hearers should choose Christ.
The challenge for all of us who are carriers of the good news of Christ is to communicate the right WHY. It is even possible to determine if we in fact are communicating the right ‘why’. We can examine how we present the gospel and ask ourselves if our how communicates the why.
Food for thought. . .
Your Changed Life is Not the Gospel Message
It is a ‘given’ that a relationship with God, through the crucified and risen Christ will drastically change one’s life.
It is also a ‘given’ that a life changed life is an important part of what we share with non-believers when pointing them to the Savior.
A changed life, in and of itself, is however not the core message that we must share with those we would lead to Christ. The Apostle Paul declared:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” – Rom 1:16
Paul also declared:
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” – 1 Cor 15:1-4
No matter where Paul traveled and preached, he always centered on this core message. The only thing in question is exactly when the core message was delivered during an evangelistic encounter.
Often, we believers make a ‘changed life’ the centerpiece of our ‘gospel sharing’, followed by an invitation to Christ based on personal benefits to be obtained in this life, rather than Paul’s core message of the death and resurrection of Christ for our sin – the message that actually contains ‘the power of God for salvation!
Been there, done that!
Food for thought. . .
Gospel Definitions – R.C. Sproul
“There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the Gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the Gospel to you when they tell you, ‘you can have a purpose to your life’, or that ‘you can have meaning to your life’, or that ‘you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.’ All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the Gospel.
The Gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness – or lack of it – or the righteousness of another.
The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.
The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead – so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the Gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension.
How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith – and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him – and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.”
The names have been changed to comfort the guilty. . .
Some of us old geezers remember the popular television series “Dragnet”, especially the lead-in phrase that the upcoming story was true, but the names had been changed to protect the innocent. There’s a twist to that theme that is extremely popular in evangelical (I use the term loosely) circles these days. It’s not about changing the names of people, however, but changing the names of essential elements of the Biblical Gospel message for which we are accountable, and that we are charged to faithfully proclaim.
If you haven’t yet figured out what ‘names’ I’m talking about yet, they are repent (in all it’s forms), and sin (and all direct references to it). When Jesus announced that the Kingdom was near, He told his listeners to ‘repent and believe’ (Mark 1:15). When the Apostle Paul found it necessary to remind believers in Corinth of the contents of the Gospel message, he told them that the Gospel IS that Christ died for our sins, and was raised, according to scripture (1 Cor 15:1-4). He also reminded believers in Galatia that different messages than that were ‘another gospel’ (Gal 1:8-9).
We don’t use those terms very much these days. We tell folks Jesus died for their pain, broken heart, in order to have an abundant life, and a number of other reasons, but we don’t lay the cards on the table and tell them that Christ died for their sins. We have all sorts of ways to ‘soften’ the message and ‘short-sheet’ the Holy Spirit.
We don’t tell them they need to repent and believe the Gospel, we tell them they can come to Jesus for spiritual Band-Aids to smooth out the raw ’stuff’ of life. If we did use the ‘R’ word as we ought, we would have to explain why repentance was necessary and that would necessitate using the dreaded ‘S’ word.
People can’t/don’t ‘repent’ from a broken heart, painful experiences, or lives that aren’t as abundant as they would like them to be. Those are all things that can be understood as outside of oneself, and there is no need repent of that which you are not personally accountable. If we are somehow responsible for anything it’s a poor decision, bad judgment call, or personal misstep, but never in any way the result of ’sin’. We don’t like to use that word.
So I have to ask myself – Why don’t we tell it like it is, – define the issue using scriptural terms and definitions? Here’s my short list of why we don’t use the ‘S’ word.
- It makes people feel uncomfortable in our ’seeker friendly’ service.
- People know they are sinners already, so there’s no need.
- If I use the ‘S’ word he/she won’t like me any more.
- If he/she/they like me/our church service they will naturally like Jesus.
- People who feel guilty when they hear the ‘S’ word won’t drop a check in the offering plate or donate to our ministry.
- Talking about ’sin’ would hinder the warm ‘relationship building’ phase of my evangelism technique/method, without which I’ll never have a chance to share Christ.
- Broken hearts, and all the other painful ’stuff’ of life, resulted from the Adam’s sin (the Fall) so we can just talk about those things and see even more ‘decisions’ for Christ than making folks feel bad.
- We can always talk about sin after they have made a decision/prayed the prayer/said the right words and are already saved.
- We can just talk about sin being separated from God because of what Satan did in the Garden. We humans are just victims here.
- We’re ashamed of the Gospel.
As for me, I think the first 9 are the ways we soften/disguise the real reason, #10.
Your comments, additions, deletions, and whatever else you want to throw at me, even the occasional rotten egg or tomato. I can take it!
Evangelical Golden Calves
There is a bit of a buzz in Blogland these days that seems to have begun over a post that took issue with discernment/apologetics Web sites. Amidst the discussion, Phil Johnson over at Pyromaniacs had this to say:
“The overwhelming majority of today’s evangelical sophisticates would clearly prefer it if no one ever criticized evangelical Golden Calves. Rampant error doesn’t unsettle them in the least. They are quite happy to live with it and even actively make peace with it.”
This post is not continuing that particular discussion, but it addresses “evangelical Golden Calves”, of which there are many. Be that as it may, on this day, celebrated as Good Friday, the day Christ died for our sins, of chief concern is the unscriptural notion that God “accepts” us “just as we are”.
The reason God sent His Son to earth with the specific mission to die for OUR sins is because a Holy, Perfect and Just God CANNOT and WILL NOT “accept” us “just as we are”! It’s the theme of the entire Canon of Scripture! If God could, or would, accept us “with” our sin, Christ died in vain!
Somewhere in the history of evangelicalism, the very scriptural idea that Christ bids us “come as you are” to the Cross of Calvary, believe in and receive Christ as Savior and confess Him as Lord, morphed into God “accepts” you just as you are.
The result of that notion might be auditoriums with stadium seats filled with the legions of the falsely converted (and thus unconverted), with a few scattered genuine believers who confronted the Cross of Christ and their sin, realized their desperate condition, and dealt with their sin by repenting and believing in the One God sentenced to death because He could NOT “accept” them WITH their sin.
We hate con-artists who prey on the unsuspecting, who offer false promises and steal their hard earned savings, yet many of us (evangelicals) flock to the spiritual con-artists “selling” a false gospel!
Yes, “come” as you are to the Cross of Calvary; and standing, kneeling, or prostrate at the foot of the Cross, face your sin, and heed the words of Your Savior: “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)
In the words of the time honored hymn:
“Just as I am, without one plea
But that thy blood was shed for me
And that thou bidd’st me come to thee
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
Why Did Christ Die?
“According to some people, Christ died to give all a chance of being saved! I do not know that I hate anything more in my soul than to hear that. It makes Jesus Christ so little–that He should do so much, and after all only to get us a chance of being saved. Why, if a man is set up in business, you see how often it happens that he fails in it; and if man cannot manage the paltry things of time and sense without being insolvent, what will he do with eternal realities? And if you come a little closer, when God “made man upright” and he had no sinful nature, what did he do with his innocence? He lost it all! And yet poor presumptuous man has the vanity to think you and I could manage the chance of being saved. What an insult it is to the Lord Jesus Christ to fix the eternal honor of God upon chance, and that chance to be managed by a poor sinful creature who is tumbling into half a dozen holes every hour of his life! NO, NO. Thanks be to God for immortal realities and certainties. WHAT IS SAID CONCERNING WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE? He has “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself;” He has “finished transgression and made an end of sin;” He has “redeemed us from all iniquity;” He has “redeemed us from the curse of the law,” from destruction and from the power of the devil; He has “obtained eternal redemption for us;” He has “redeemed us to God.” To the honor of the Eternal Trinity it is said, not that the redeemed shall have a chance, but that the redeemed shall “come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” The Lord Jesus Christ has done this “great” work; and He has gone to heaven shouting “Victory,” for “God is gone up with a shout; the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.” He rose from the grave as a demonstrative proof that sin was destroyed, law satisfied, God honored, His people eternally and everlastingly saved. And the immortal honors of God unite in their salvation; therefore, He ever lives at the right hand of the Father to make intercession.” – William Gadsby (1773-1844)
The Paul Washer Project
Don’t be afraid of offending anyone with the truth.
Carpe diem, preacherdude!
That’s actually the title of a Dan Phillips post over at Pyromaniacs that begins with this:
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat in an assembly and thought this, in the past 35+ years since my conversion: Dude, this critical moment, with these assembled people, on this your one shot — and you do THAT with it?” (Emphasis mine)
Dan Phillip’s blog focused on the Apostle Paul’s charge to young Timothy. . .
“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom. . .
. . .PREACH THE WORD!”
(2 Tim 4:1-2a)
. . .and the lack of the Word in much of today’s preaching.
I had a similar moment this last Sunday morning visiting a small church in my neighborhood. The preacher however, didn’t use irrelevant humor, just have a chat, tell stories, or “weave a blurry tapestry of vague, gauzy religious sentiments”, as described in Dan’s blog. In fact he delivered a sermon based solely on scripture, a genuine exposition (rare these days) of a passage in Colossians.
My “you did WHAT” moment came near the very end of the service. After a soundly scriptural sermon, after telling us that God sent His Son to die for our sins, the preacher told us that all we need to do is “fall in love and say I Do”. At the most critical moment of the morning service, an invitation to receive come to Christ, the preacher told “these assembled people” that ALL they need to do is “. . .fall in love and say “I DO”?
I wasn’t just sad that I had just heard a lie, I just sat there, absolutely crushed. It wasn’t my place to address the Pastor, so all I could do was pick my heart up off the carpet and leave.
But this post isn’t about what was wrong with the preacher’s invitation – it’s about the solemn charge to “PREACH THE WORD!”. That’ the charge to pastors, preachers, teachers, and ordinary folks like you and me, even here in Blogland. In other words, if it’s NOT the revealed written Word, or if it’s not directly supported by the revealed written word, don’t go there!
I’m not bashing opinions here – opinions are great and they’re the meat some really great discussions. But they don’t amount to lot to God, in fact I remember a couple of passages that say man’s wisdom is pretty much foolishness to God.
Those of us who would dare call ourselves ‘teachers’ of sorts, especially if there is a genuine gifting to teach, had best heed the charge to “PREACH THE WORD!”, for we will be judged even more severely. We need to be about what has been written and revealed in scripture, not personal opinion, or fanciful ideas unsupportable by what has already been written.
We are to interpret and teach Scripture in the immediate and larger contexts in which it was written, not develop and ’share’ our own ‘”new/fresh insights” (vain imaginings) that serve no practical purpose other than to build “self-exalting structures”. In fact, we are be about the business of “casting down everything that would exalt itself above the knowledge of God” (1 Cor 10:5).
Does what I say/write/teach point people to me and my ‘coolness’ or to Christ and His Word. If it’s the former I need to shut up and shut down this blog.
As Dan Phillips fitly concluded in his post:
“Once again: it is a crucial moment. Vast ages of eternity hold their breath.
What do you do with it?
Preacherdude: best to ask yourself that question now, before it is asked of you on that Day.”
Carpe Diem!
