Bait and Switch
Why do so many Christians start out enthusiastic believers
and end up merely “going through the motions”? In many cases it is because
while it is the finished work of Jesus Christ that attracted them to the Lord,
it is the “unfinished” work of legalism and religion that they are burdened
with, that steals their enthusiasm. Often times the first thing that a new
Christian is told is that they need to grow in holiness. The problem is that
they should have been told that they are already holy! The Christian life
becomes a sort of bait and switch to these new believers. A Christian is sold
on the free gift of salvation, but then persuaded into believing that they must
maintain their salvation through works. This pursuit of holiness is often
cloaked in terms like “progressive sanctification.” This leads to being
burdened by the law because if something like holiness must be achieved in some
way, then there must be rules, guidelines, procedures, doctrines, rituals and
so on to perform in order to reach that goal. That is nothing more than the law
repackaged. Law that nobody is living up to, never will live up to and God
doesn’t expect them to live up to.
“God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted
them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate
between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try
to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our
ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is
through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just
as they are (Acts 15:8-11).” Peter knew that we are saved by grace and we live
by grace. When Christians, still burdened by the law, tried to teach that
circumcision was required for Gentiles to be saved, Peter strongly rebuked them
for attempting to put Gentiles under the law. Saints do not let
anyone try to tell you that your inheritance in Christ is something you must
now find a way to keep. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish,
spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for
you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the
salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter
1:3-5).” Your inheritance is secure in heaven because of your faith in Jesus.
Stand in that truth and retain your enthusiasm.
Harbingers
I am reading
a book called The Harbinger. The book centers around how there appeared in
ancient Israel a series of specific omens and signs warning Israel of its
destruction and how these particular “harbingers” are apparently manifesting in
America. A harbinger is anything that foreshadows a future event; omen, sign.
Prophecy aside, how many people are stuck looking in their past and then
assuming that history is going to repeat itself? It is human nature to fixate
on the negative. When it comes to our Christian walk, many of us have been hurt
by fellow Christians in the past and it affects not only our relationships with
other Christians, but with Jesus Christ.
“I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him
from the dead. I want to suffer with him,
sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will
experience the resurrection from the dead! I don’t mean
to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached
perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus
first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,
but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what
lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the
race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is
calling us (Philippians 3:10-14).”
Paul talks about wanting to know Christ, but
for that to happen it starts with “forgetting the past.” We often are hindered
in our relationship with the Lord by believing that God is holding our past
against us. Therefore, we will never be able to know Him as He desires us to.
Once we realize God is not holding our past (i.e. sins) against us we can enter
into a loving relationship with Him. In time, we will then begin to let go of
the past hurts committed against us by others. It is those hurts that prevent
us from doing the next thing Paul talks about; “looking forward.” How often
does some person, place or thing in our present, remind us of a past hurt we
haven’t gotten over? We treat it like a “harbinger” of sorts and fear that
history will repeat itself. Thus, we put up a wall around ourselves which
prevents us from getting to know others and them from knowing us. So, if we can
trust God that He is not counting our sins against us, then we will have the
motivation to not count the sins of others against them. Then we can begin
looking forward to new experiences as both our relationship with God and our
brothers and sisters in Christ are free from the bondage of our past.
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