This belief seems simple, but there are so many underlying details within it all. With the belief of the gospel (not just the profession...the true belief) comes the commitment to making Christ the ultimate manager of our life. This church explains it well: Salvation "begins the moment someone commits their life to Christ, continues as God grows in us to be like him, and will be completed at Christ's return to earth." This concept seems to become more complex the more you think about it...not to mention any question starting with "Why?!"
In his Hard to Believe book, John MacArthur describes the cross as "hard truth." Many churches have conformed this message and their entire belief systems to a customer-satisfaction mentality. Many have developed a consumer mind-set. "The church service is too long, you say? We'll shorten it... Too formal? Wear your sweatsuit. Too boring? Wait'll you hear our band! And if the message is too confrontational, or too judgmental, or too exclusive, scary, unbelievable, hard to understand, or too much anything else for your taste, churches everywhere are eager to adjust that message to make you more comfortable." This is NOT GOSPEL-focused! What is it all about anyway? Not US! Correct answer: Christ! (Have I gone off on a rabbit trail?)
Society has distorted the message of salvation. In an interview regarding his book Willing to Believe, R.C. Sproul stated, "One of my great concerns is that we've got to understand the difference between a profession of faith and faith. Everyone who has faith is called to profess faith, but not everybody who professes faith has faith. We are not saved by a profession of faith. A lot of people, it seems to me, in the evangelical world, believe that if they have walked the walk, raised the hand, signed the card - that is, made some kind of methodological profession of faith - that they're saved. And that's scary! [And why is it scary?] Because salvation comes through trust in the gospel. Now, I don't think God requires that we ourselves understand how we come to faith in order to be saved... In other words, I believe that I came to faith through the pure, unvarnished, sovereign work of God, by an immediate, supernatural work of regeneration in my heart, that my heart was a heart of stone and utterly incapable of making any positive response to Christ until God the Holy Spirit changed my soul by regeneration.... Just because my doctrine is right - and I believe it is - doesn't save me. Likewise, another person, who I believe comes to faith the same way I came to faith, through the sovereign, immediate work of the Holy Spirit - they may not understand all the nuances of that, and they may be deceived about how they came to faith, but that's not the issue that's going to keep them out of heaven. The question is, "Do they have saving faith?" Not how they understood how they got there."
Seem complex? Yep. Perhaps because God is sovereign--a term we'll never fully grasp. His "greatness is unsearchable" (Psalm 145:3b); His "understanding is inscrutable" (Isaiah 40:28b). But even so, we who have that salvation are charged to allow Christ to be preeminent in our lives.
"And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, 'Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me...'" Matthew 18:2-5
Simple or complex? Or both?
There's a lot of teaching out there that seems to forget that we exist for God, not the other way around. That carries over into gospel teaching that is man-centered, instead of Christ-centered - like: making it sound like the only reason that Jesus died on the cross was so you can go to heaven instead of hell, and so you can be happy and fulfilled. And since it's all for you anyway, you can accept it on your terms and decide how much of Christ you want - "you want Him as your savior but not lord, that's up to you." That "customer-satisfaction mentality" is big. I've heard from missionaries and others who travel and teach overseas that this is more of an American issue that's not as common other places. Seeing ourselves as slaves of Christ (as the Bible teaches) is very unAmerican.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I hear frequently is that a "child-like faith" that Matthew 18 speaks of means "just a little bit of faith." But, if you really think about the faith of a child - they maybe want to try to be independent sometimes, but a child is very dependant. A young child has to depend on someone else for everything and generally, they trust their parents to protect them and give them what they need. Children have a lot of faith. It takes some time for us to learn to be skeptical, untrusting, and independent. So, I believe what Jesus meant by that isn't that just some little bit of vague belief is all that is necessary for salvation, but He means it requires a complete faith - turning away from a dependence on yourself and turning completely to Christ - being completely dependant on Him as a child is his parents.
Our Bible conference in April is going to be about evangelism and the gospel. Our speaker (Pat Abendroth from Omaha Bible Church) may hit on some of the issues you brought up. Good post!
Casey
Yes! Thanks for explaining the Matthew 18 verse. That needed to be said. Always grateful for your teaching!!
ReplyDelete