Isaiah 53:4-6 ESV
Surely he has borne
our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him
stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for
our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the
chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have
gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid
on him
the iniquity of us all.
The Christian Culture
There are many people in the USA who claim Christianity as
their religion. Some of them do so because their parents took them to church as
children, and thus their parents claimed Christianity as their religion of
choice. And, by church here I mean the institutional church, i.e. the building,
the edifice, the business, and the organization of men and their denominations.
Others have joined “the church” and have affiliated
themselves with the Christian faith because their friends or their neighbors did,
or because it provided some socialization for them or good programs for their
children, or because it was socially acceptable in their culture or socially advantageous
to belong to a church, such as for political reasons, i.e. to get votes.
Others claim to be Christians because they were convinced that
if they prayed a prayer (repeated words after someone else) and “invited Jesus
into their hearts,” that they would now be saved, be eternally secure, and have
heaven guaranteed them, and that it could never be taken away from them no
matter what – no matter how they lived their lives from that moment forward.
For, the gospel they were presented with was one that merely taught forgiveness
of sins and of getting one’s ticket into heaven.
Yet, there are those who claim to be Christians, i.e. to be
followers of Jesus Christ, because that is what they are. They have trusted in
Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of their lives. They have been crucified
with him in death to sin, and they have been resurrected with him to newness of
life in him, born again of the Spirit of God. They have been transformed from death
to life and from the power of Satan to God, and they have been delivered from
their slavery to sin so that they can now walk in Christ’s righteousness.
Yet, some of them have wandered off from their faith, and
they are living in spiritual adultery against their Lord, and so God is calling
them back to himself to return to him as their only God, their only master. He
desires to revive their hearts and to restore them to himself if they will just
repent of their sins and allow him to truly rule over their lives (see Rev.
2-3).
The Message and
Response
The message that God is giving to all of them, which is the
same message he is giving to the whole world, is that he died on that cross in
order that we, by faith in him, might die with him to sin and that we might
live to him and to his righteousness (See 1 Pet. 2:24; Rom. 6:1-23; Eph.
4:17-24).
Jesus didn’t die on that cross, in other words, just to
forgive our sins and to give us the hope of eternal life in heaven with him
when we die. He died to put sin to death in our lives so that it would no
longer have mastery over us, and so that we would now be bond-slaves of his
righteousness. For, this is what it means to be “born again.” The old sin
nature has to be put to death so that the life of Christ can now rule supreme
in our lives, so that we submit to Christ’s Lordship over our lives, and so we
obey his teachings.
But, this message doesn’t sit too well with those who are
living in spiritual adultery against their Lord, or with those who think they
have their ticket into heaven and that they can just live their lives however
they want. It also doesn’t agree with those who desire to remain in their
fleshly lives, living to gratify the sinful cravings of their flesh. So,
although some will respond to the message with genuine faith, many do not. Many
get offended by it.
Some of these people, who do get offended by this message,
though, know it to be the truth. And, they know that they are living in sin.
And, many of them even know that the scriptures teach that those who walk in
sin, who make sin their practice, do not have eternal life with God, but a
fearful expectation of judgment. And, yet they continue to willfully and
knowingly do what is wrong, because they work at trying to convince themselves
that the truth is not the truth and that the lie they believe is the truth.
So, when they get convicted of their sin, which they
sometimes do, it will strike a chord inside them, and they will resist that
conviction, feeling as though they are being judged. And, so they convince
themselves that God no longer judges them now that they are under grace. And,
so they convince themselves that this feeling is bad and is to be rejected,
because it causes distress in them. But, it causes distress because they know
that what they are doing is wrong, and they know they are not being honest about
it.
The Chrexit
Because so many who call themselves “Christian” are now
living in sin, rejecting the Holy Spirit’s voice and his convictions of their
sin, this has led into what I am terming “The Chrexit” (a takeoff on the name “Brexit”).
And, what this is is a mass exodus (exit, departure) from
God’s moral standard in order to follow after the flesh. It is also a huge
withdrawal from the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles in favor of the
teachings of mere humans. It is also a massive retreat from the true gospel of
our salvation in favor of a cheap grace gospel which makes no demands for
holiness, righteousness, obedience, faithfulness and moral purity.
This is basically the majority of what is called “Christian”
in America divorcing themselves from Jesus Christ and his gospel of salvation so
that they can unite themselves with “another woman,” i.e. “another lover” who
will not make the same demands on them that Jesus and his gospel do.
This is them claiming their independence from Jesus Christ,
so that they can rule their own lives, and decide for themselves what is
permissible and what is not. This is so that they can create their own standard
which appeases their flesh while convincing themselves that God’s grace allows
for that.
But, this is nothing new. This has been going on a long
time. It is just now becoming more massive (on a much larger scale) and more
predominant and acceptable within the Christian community.
The Sin Nature
For this is from the sin nature which demands its own way,
and which screams and throws temper tantrums when it doesn’t get what it wants.
This is from the pride of the flesh not liking to be challenged or confronted or
to have its sins pointed out, and which gets angry when its selfish and unrealistic
expectations are not met by God or by other humans.
And, thus, when confronted, it vents to someone else, or it
medicates with addictive sinful practices, or it turns to “another lover” who
will appease and console it in its sin.
And, so all that they do, who are walking in the flesh, is
keep adding to their accumulation (pile, mound) of sins and the lies they tell
to cover them up. And, they hide all this in their hearts, along with all their
frustrations, anger, bitterness, and resentments, etc. And, they try to ignore
this internal battle going on within them, because they know they are doing
wrong and they refuse to do what is right and thus to be truly free from their
bondage.
But, they don’t want people to know what is going on inside
their hearts. And, so, if they claim to be Christians, they will keep these
things well hidden so that others will not know that they lead a double life.
They will keep secret their internal struggle, their secret sins, their
adulteries, their plots of evil against others, etc. and they will put up a façade
to try to convince others that they are following Jesus Christ with their
lives.
Or, they will admit minor offenses in order to dissuade others
from discovering much more sinister and heinous crimes they are committing
against others in secret.
Smell a Rat
But, God knows the truth. He sees everything we do in
secret. He knows all about us, what we think, what we are plotting, and the things
we think no one else knows, and so we think we can get away with.
But, many people are being convinced that God no longer sees
their sins once they pray that prayer. Or else they are convinced that he will
not judge them for their sinful lifestyles now that they believe that they are
under grace. And, so they have this false sense of security, believing they can
continue on in their secret sins, while putting on a performance that they are
leading good Christian lives, believing that nothing bad will happen to them.
But, that is either because they don’t know the scriptures
or because they are denying the truth that they do know. For, if you read the
New Testament, book by book, and chapter by chapter, it will soon become
obvious that the true gospel message is all throughout the books of the New
Testament, i.e. the gospel that says Jesus died that we might die to sin and
live to righteousness.
All throughout these scriptures Christians are warned
against returning to the ways they lived before they believed in Jesus. And,
they are warned that if they walk in sin (in lifestyle, in practice) that they
will die in their sin (Rom. 8:1-17; Lu. 9:23-25; 1 Jn. 1:5-9; Gal. 5:19-21;
Gal. 6:7-8).
And, these warnings God gives to us are for our good, and
because God loves us, not because he is a meanie who is just critical all the
time. But, he is patient with us, too, not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance. So, he has not yet brought his judgment
upon mankind and upon the earth in that destructive force of his wrath. But, he
is still reaching out, calling out, warning, instructing, and inviting all to
unite with him and to leave their “other lovers” behind them.
Not Taken Seriously
Yet, many who profess his name are not taking his warnings
seriously. They are still playing games with God. In fact, they are trying to
get God to come their way, instead. They may even try to strike a bargain with
God, asking him that if they return to him, will he come along with them where
they want to go, i.e. will he give his approval of their lifestyles. In other
words, their return to God would thus be on their terms, not on God’s terms.
For, they have this idea or they have been given this false notion
that evil is good and that good is evil. In other words, they have been
convinced that the true gospel is the false gospel and that the false gospel is
the true gospel. And, they have been warned that those who teach repentance and
obedience are legalists, judgmental, critical, and are those who are teaching
works-based salvation, which they are to avoid.
But, the real danger for them does not lie in the house of
God, i.e. in his true gospel. The true danger for them lies on the top of their
pile of sins and their lies to cover up their sins on which they have built this
false church and this false gospel which delivers no one from slavery to sin,
but which leaves them still in bondage (living in addiction), still giving way
to sexual immorality, adultery, slander, spite, bitterness, envy and the like.
There is no danger for them in coming to true faith in Jesus
Christ, and in dying to sin and self and living to God and to his righteousness
– all in his power and strength. For, if they truly do leave their lives of sin
behind them to follow Jesus Christ in obedience, they will have that burden of
sin lifted off their shoulders, and they will know true freedom and peace and
joy!
Again, the true gospel message is not to be avoided. It is
not works-based salvation. It is understanding that Jesus’ death on a cross for
our sins provided the way out for us from underneath the weight of our sin. It
is understanding that God’s grace to us is not free license to continue in sin,
but it is freedom from our yoke of sin which hangs around our necks and which
keeps us repeating the same sinful patterns over and over again.
Much
Too High A Price / Jesus Paid It All
Phil
McHugh and Greg Nelson
You paid much too high a price for me,
Your tears, Your blood, the pain –
To have my soul just stirred at times
yet never truly changed.
You deserve a fiery love that won’t
ignore your sacrifice
Because You paid much too high a price.
Saturday, March 30, 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment