Trusting in a False Hope

Romans 10:1-3 ESV

“Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.”

In context, Paul was speaking of the Jews who did not trust in Jesus Christ to be their Messiah and Lord, but who were still relying on adherence to the Mosaic law to gain them entry into heaven. But it wasn’t as though they had not heard the truth, for Jesus had spoken the truth to them over a span of about three years. But they, as a people, although not every single individual, rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah and they put him to death on a cross hoping to put an end to him and to his messages.

So, it is my belief that their ignorance was willful ignorance, which I think we would find to be true if we read some of the conversations which Jesus had with the Jews. And then in verse 21 it says that God said, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” So, it wasn’t that they didn’t hear the truth, for Jesus explained it to them over and over again. But it was that they were stubborn and unwilling to accept the truth that they had been given, and they continued to go their own way.

And that is what it is like for many people today here in America who are claiming faith in Jesus Christ, but not in truth. And it isn’t that they don’t know the truth or that they have not heard the truth, though many are not hearing the truth taught today, but that many of them are rejecting the truth when they do hear it, and they are willfully choosing to establish their own righteousness apart from God. So they make up their own version of the gospel which fits with the way they want to live their lives.

And some of these people may be very religious people who follow their particular religion or church denomination, and they appear to be doing the right things, at least on a surface level. And then there are those who just fake their Christianity in order to be more acceptable to other people, and sometimes as a coverup for secretive sinful practices. So they put on a performance of righteousness to look good in front of others while, like the Pharisees, their hearts are full of wickedness.

So, what we have today are a whole lot of people professing faith in Jesus Christ who are not submitting to God’s righteousness, but they are seeking to establish their own by creating their own version of the gospel of Christ. So, they cut the message of the gospel in half, and they take Scriptures out of their context, and they twist them to say what they do not say in context, but in order to give themselves permission to continue living in sin, only now without guilt and without remorse.

And so they have reduced the message of the gospel to some verbal profession of faith in Christ or to some emotional one time decision they make in their lives or to some intellectual assent to who Jesus was and is and to what he did for us in dying on that cross for our sins. And so they promise themselves forgiveness of all sin and heaven as their eternal destiny, but not conditional at all on how they live while they are still living their lives on the earth.

And so they ignore what Jesus said when he said that if we are going to come after him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we lose our lives, i.e. we die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, then we have eternal life in him. For Jesus also said that not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one doing the will of God the Father (Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

So, we can’t just make a profession of faith in Christ and then go on living in sin and expect that all our sins are forgiven and heaven is our eternal destiny. And we can’t build our doctrine of salvation out of Scriptures removed from their context and made to say what they do not say while ignoring the bulk of Scriptures on the subject of what constitutes genuine faith and salvation and eternal life with God. For the truth of the gospel teaches that if we walk in sin we will die in our sins, not have eternal life.

So my heart’s desire and prayer to God is for all people to be saved, although I know not all will believe, but also that all who now make a profession of faith in Christ, but not according to the truth of the gospel taught by Jesus and by his NT apostles, that they would turn from their sins and deny self and follow Jesus in obedience and in walks of holiness and righteousness in the power of God. For so many who are continuing to live in sin are counting on going to heaven, but that is a false hope.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

My Sheep  

An Original Work / June 24, 2012  

Based off John 10:1-18 NIV

My sheep hear me. They know me.

They listen to my voice and obey.

I call them and lead them.

They know my voice, so they follow me.

They will never follow strangers.

They will run away from them.

The voice of a stranger they know not;

They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that

I am the gate, so you enter in.

Whoever does enter

Will find forgiveness and will be saved.

Nonetheless whoever enters

Not by the gate; other way,

He is the thief and a robber.

Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,

Who laid his own life down for the sheep.

I know them. They know me.

They will live with me eternally.

The thief only comes to steal and

Kill and to destroy the church.

I have come to give you life that

You may have it to the full… 

They know my voice, so they follow me.

https://vimeo.com/114938263