I am about to touch briefly on three subjects, in a rather impromptu manner. These are things that have been on my mind in the past few days, and they are well worth talking about.
I have been reading a book by Ray Comfort entitled God has a wonderful plan for your life: The myth of the modern message. I have not yet completely read it (probably about two thirds) but allow me to tell you what I have learned thus far.
Ray Comfort speaks in the book about the disheartening statistics within evangelicalism today. Research indicates that roughly 90 percent of those who make 'decisions for Christ' at crusades and within Church denominations apostatize very quickly. Why do so few 'converts' stay true to the faith?
It is because the gospel is not being properly preached. Many preach Christ as if He will shower us with temporal blessings and make our lives better and more purposeful. With apologies to the Gaithers, the modern message often preached is aptly expressed thus: "Heartaches, broken pieces, ruined lives are why You died on Calvary". When we preach Christ in this way, we are not giving the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27).
What must we do? We must preach the law first, and use it as a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ (Gal. 3:24). When confronted with the law, people are then made aware of their need for Christ. Without it, however, the gospel will seem foolishness to them. It is surprising to see that many will consider themselves 'pretty good' people who can 'please God' enough to get into heaven, if it should happen to be that He exists. Hence, we must make them see themselves as God sees them - lost, hopeless, wretched, rebellious sinners bound for eternal torment in the fires of Hell and subject to the wrath of God almighty. When sinners thus see themselves, their souls are now receptive to the truths of the gospel.
Mr. Comfort used the illustration of a person sitting in the plane, wearing a parachute because it will make his flight better. When people in the plane start making fun of him for it, he casts it off. The parachute is not to make one's flight better. It is to bring one safely to the ground once he must make the 25,000 foot jump. So it is with the gospel - it does not promise us a prosperous life, but we are guaranteed eternal salvation, and deliverance from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10).
Which brings me to my next subject - Atonement. It is vital that we have proper understanding on this subject (and we will hopefully be hearing about it quite frequently this easter weekend).
Under the old covenant between God and the Israelites, atonement was a huge factor. Christ not yet having died for the sins of the world, sacrifices and burnt offerings were demanded. These were temporary sacrifices which had to be repeated over and over as man could not save himself from sin.
Christ has once and for all atoned for the sins of His people. As Hebrews 9:12 states, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
Jesus Christ died for the sins of all His people, and He is the one and only sacrifice. Apart from Him there is no sacrifice for sins (Heb. 10:26).
Christ died so we would not have to - He took the punishment we deserved. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).
In Christ we have redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of grace (Eph. 1:7). Forgiveness is not earned by works, but rather it is accessed by faith. And how could it be otherwise? Is a single work on our part somehow going to make us more pleasing to God? NO. We are seen as righteous because of what Christ did for us on the cross. For further reading, please consult the entire book of Hebrews and Romans chapters 1 through 5. :)
And finally, I am talking about sanctification. Sanctification is the process by which we are conformed into Christ's image. The promise of sanctification is not a promise of immediate perfection, as some have supposed. It is rather an ongoing work of God in the believer's life whereby the Spirit of God works within a person to make him more conformed to the image of God's Son. It is not entirely internal though - God ultimately uses everything to work together for the good of those that love Him (Rom. 8:28), and that includes using events and happenings of life to draw us closer to Himself.
I have been reading a book called Holiness: The true and the false by Harry Ironside. He describes his experiences within the Salvation army, in which he was a soldier in his teenage years. He spoke of his earnest desire to find a 'second work of grace' that would completely perfect and purify him of every trace of sin, outward and inherent. He sought this experience with his whole heart, and professed to have had it for a while, but he quickly realized that he was not perfect as, according to the salvation army, he should be.
His struggles in this regard are not foreign to me - I for a while sought something similar, and was very disheartened that I was not given total and immediate perfection when I 'surrendered myself completely' to God.
The truth is that sanctification is a growing experience - it is progressive, not complete and immediate. 2 Corinthians 3:18 states, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
Does this mean we should slack off rather than 'following peace and holiness'? God forbid! We are commanded to walk in the spirit, and not in the flesh (Romans 8:1). I would daresay that walking in the Spirit is the central aspect of sanctification. We are commanded, by the Spirit, to put to death the deeds of the flesh (Romans 8:13). To walk after the Spirit is to do God's will. This is in part why Jesus says that not all who say to Him, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of the Father. Paul says in Romans 8:13 "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Do you see the connection here? There are a good many who publicly call Jesus Lord, but do not live as Christians, having not the Spirit of God. To these Jesus will one day utter the solemn declaration "I never knew you; depart from me, you that work lawlessness" (Matt. 7:23).
But for those who are saved, it is at times a struggle to do God's will. We want to do what is convenient for us, but we must remember who is Lord of our lives. We are no longer serving ourselves, but we are called to serve Christ, and serve Him fully. There is a struggle between our will and God's will, and it is a struggle that will continue until the day we leave this earth. But with the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, let us press on to victory, not giving heed to the temptations we are often bombarded with. We like to make doing God's will sound as if it were very difficult, but the truth is that we are often unwilling to do it, simply because we don't want to. But to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin (James 4:17).
So there ... three subjects in a single post. God bless you all, and have a great easter!
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