THE
TEN BASIC TRUTHS OF CHRISTIANITY
By
Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor
County Line Church
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
What you’re going to be reading is theology, a healthy, robust theology. This presupposes that we can understand it (Ps. 119:105). What settles the matter is that Jesus Himself said that truth not only exists, but also can be known. Listen in on His conversation in John 4:22 and read what He said in John 8:32. In Luke 9:27; 12:44; and 21:3, we see the same emphasis, as Jesus says, “I tell you the truth…” In John 14:6, He says, “I am the way, the truth and the life…”
In the
consistency that is the Bible, Paul agrees.
In Romans 1:18-20, he points out that we can know the truth, and that
if we don’t know, it’s a willing ignorance, like the teenager on a date
who knows he’s passed his curfew, but refuses to look at his watch.
The
Bible collides with the idea that there is no ultimate truth and that it
can’t be known.
Theology
isn’t some specialized study for cloistered academics; in fact, in one
sense, you are a theologian. Theology is thinking about God and expressing
those thoughts.
You’ll
find a study of theology expands your mind.
It takes all the intellect you’ve got, and more.
Yet, theology refuses to stay locked in our minds.
It affects our lives. For
example, take the subject of responsibility.
If you have a family, you’re responsible to that family.
Since we live in a society, we’re responsible for paying taxes and
obeying the traffic laws. We work
under supervisors to whom we’re responsible for the use of those precious
eight or more hours. Do we have a
responsibility to God?
There
is what we might call a theology of responsibility. Once we recognize such a
theology, this takes the subject out of the abstract and makes us think of our
right-now accountability, as well as our yet-to-be accountability to God in
one way or another. (I Cor. 3 for
believers of the church age, and Rev. 20 for unbelievers of all the ages.)
Theology
has fallen on hard times, almost to the point of extinction.
Sermons and Sunday school lessons entertain with their pop psychology
and
“Steps to Success” or with its “Five Ways to Gain Self-Esteem”, and
simplistic views of life so as to become ludicrous.
Paul
writes that we’re to take heed to theology (I Tim. 1:3; 4:6, II Tim. 3:10,
16; 4:2-3). Few read theology;
fewer preach it. Jesus tells us,
“Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the
mouth of God”. (Matt. 4:4.)
There’s
no substitute for theology and for knowing it.
Since we believe that God has spoken, the most important thing in the
world is to learn what He’s said. The
study of theology unfolds God, who He is, what He has said and done; it
reveals to us what He’s doing now and what He will say and do in the future.
A sound
theology is important because it keeps us from error.
Satan has his counterfeit theology (I Tim. 4:1, 7).
Without a healthy theology, the winds of false teaching will throw us
into chaos (Eph. 4:14).
No
wonder Paul says theology is important. It’s
so important, he tells us to “hold on” to the theology he’s passed on.
Sometimes it may be hard to understand (II Peter 3:15) and it can be a
challenge, but it does its practical work.
(The words “impractical” and “theology” don’t belong in the
same sentence.) Theology invades
life to the extent that it rebukes, corrects and trains us for every good work
(II Tim. 3:16). We should retire
the old saying, “He’s so heavenly minded, he’s of no earthly good,”
because Colossians 3:1-2 says we can’t be heavenly minded enough.
Failure
to know God is a horrible thing (Is 1:3).
When an emphasis on theology subsides, we’re in a dangerous position.
What you believe is important. Jesus
presented the truth to Martha and then pointedly asked her, “Do you believe
this?” (John 11:25-26).
It’s
our desire at County Line Church that you believe Jesus for forgiveness of
sin, and for eternal life (Jn. 6:40). It’s
also our desire that you come to understand the healthy and liberating
theology of grace (Jn. 8:32).
Most
expect theology to be so dull it’s to be avoided at all costs.
But since theology deals with life and death issues, how can it be
dull? If it comes across as dull,
dry and boring in this booklet, then that’s my fault, because it’s not.
(The account on pages 17-18 is a case in point about how interesting
theology can be. The story is by
Dr. Charles Ryrie and is from his book, So Great Salvation.)
So,
this is a look at the ten basic truths of Christianity, truths I hope to
present in a way that excites your interest in, your investigation of, and
your fascination with Christ and His Word.
Although it’s not one of the ten basic truths of Christianity, any believer wanting to join County Line Church should be aware of the biblical responsibilities God has given the pastor of a local church. Perhaps no other aspect of the church has been so encrusted with tradition as the office of pastor. As with everything else at County Line Church, we chisel the duties of the pastor out of the quarry of biblical marble, not from the historical swamps of the traditions of men.
The historical swamps of tradition vary from region to region. In another era across the Atlantic, tradition dictated that the pastor was to ride a bicycle higher than those of others. In some areas, he was to dress differently and when he had something important to say, he had to stand in a specific place behind a certain article of church furniture and speak in a different tone of voice.
Yet, the Bible is clear on the calling of a pastor. God calls him and gifts him to be an “equipper.” It’s a calling, not a “job;” the pastor is not a “professional.” The biblical pastor would be the first to tell you that his calling is based on God’s sovereign grace-gift of pastor-teacher, the gift mentioned in Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4:11-12 puts the spotlight on the gifts God has given to men and the men He’s given to the church. In the Greek language, “pastors and teachers” (Vs. 11) is one gift, “pastor-teacher,” so that the pastor is a teacher with a God-directed purpose.
God is specific in Ephesians 4:12: the pastor’s calling is to equip believers to do the works of service so that the body of Christ might be built up. The biblical pastor (there shouldn’t be any other kind!) is an equipper, a cultivator of believers who brings a person to be the servant God designed him (or her) to be. The cultivator moves people from being ineffective to be-coming effective servants of the Lord who build up the body of Christ. In summary, the pastor helps you to become all God designed for you to become.
At
times, the cultivation will be formal and planned (sermons); at other times,
it’s informal and incidental (in conversations, in one-on-one discussions,
in small discipleship groups, in hospital rooms).
In the formal equipping, the pastor-teacher teaches the Word of God and
what it means in your daily living. He’s
not a lecturer on antiquities, but he deals with the Bible and our lives now.
The Bible summarizes the cultivation work of the pastor with the command to “make disciples” (Matt. 28). The cultivator reproduces reproducers. He leads God’s flock by equipping them for the work of service through teach-ing them to know and live God’s truth in such a way that they become disciplemakers.
We can also capture the role of the pastor-teacher with a modern equivalent, what we call a “player coach,” one who teaches the believers to play their positions in the field, and then he turns them loose to let them play.
Ephesians 4:11-12 drains the historical swamps of the traditional, man-assigned roles of the pastor. Ephesians 4 won’t allow the pastor to keep his hands on the reigns and do it all. These verses won’t allow the pastor to use people to feed programs to get things done. He is a cultivator, not a user. The cultivator equips believers who then begin to do what God has designed them to do in line with their gift.
God has written the description of the calling: “Equip believers to do the work of the ministry.” No pastor has a right to write the description, one which would suit his preferences of performance. Pastors aren’t God’s editors; they are God-called and God-gifted cultivators given to the church. It’s a grace-gifting, neither earned nor deserved by its recipient.
Certainly there are many things in a local church that need doing. The beauty of the body is that God gifts believers with all kinds of gifts (I Cor. 12, Rom. 12, and Eph. 4) who, once equipped, mesh those gifts of administration, teaching, helps, encouraging, et. al. into a vital and functioning organism that has impact.
In the early church, one of the things that needed doing was the administration of neglected widows. In Acts 6, there was the potential of diverting the apostles (the first cultivators) from their role of making disciples and channeling their energies into administrative/delivery duties.
The apostles saw the danger and alerted the church to it. The church then chose others to enroll the widows, keep the lists, administrate, and deliver the meals on chariot wheels. This allowed the cultivators to devote themselves to their God-assigned role, saying, “We’ll devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.”
Cultivator.
Player-coach. Disciplemaker. The
three words all say the same thing and are terms that sculpt the biblical
marble into the doctrine of the biblical pastor.
“THE DIETY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST”
The librarian of the Library of Congress said that there are more books written on Jesus Christ than any other subject or person in the world. He said that the Civil War ranks second, but that Jesus is first. Why?
Two thousand years after He was last on the earth, millions and millions of men, women and children meet every seven days to talk about Him. These millions speak different languages, dress in different ways, listen to different music and eat food of their regions. They gather on every inhabitable continent to examine what Jesus had to say and to study what He did. Why?
Men and women meet in seminaries and Bible colleges in such places as America, England, Europe, India, Romania, South and Central America, as well as Australia and Canada. In the past, people established universities such as Harvard and Yale to pore over what Jesus said and did, and commissioned their students to take His message wherever they went. Scholars devote their lives to pore over the tenses of the verbs He spoke and the cases of the nouns He used.
How many millions and millions of people gather consistently every seven days to pore over Socrates, Plato or Aristotle? Do any in India or Japan? Those titans of Roman history who lived contemporaneously with Jesus—any study groups which devote their time to Emperor Tiberius? No, obviously not. Are there Pontius Pilate Study Guilds?
The question is WHY is so much time devoted by so many to this Person who was publicly known for only three short years?
We find the answer in Phil. 2:5-11. This one chapter in Philippians is the most discussed and written about of all of its four. It is this chapter that has caused church councils in the fourth century, as well as in the Reformation.
It is Phil. 2 that tells us why they’ve written and are writing so many books and held so many meetings; why they go over His words with so much meticulous study.
Philippians 2:5-11
As
is the way of the Bible, the author crams a cargo load of doctrine in a few
sentences. He begins by writing
about Jesus, “who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped” (2:6).
With one word, “being,” Paul states that Jesus pre-existed before
He came into the world and that in His pre-existence He was in His “very
nature God.” The nature that
Jesus possessed was deity; that is, He possessed the entire nature and essence
of God.
Whatever characteristics God has, Jesus has.
Since God is omniscience, so is Jesus; since God is absolute
righteousness, so is Jesus. Some
have summarized it: Jesus is just
as much God as God is God. Other
references: John 1:1-14; 20:28.
As Jesus existed eternally in eternity past, the nature He possessed was
deity, so He didn’t need to grasp deity, He always had it.
In this doctrinal cargo, Paul writes that there occurred an “emptying.”
In verse 7, we learn that Jesus “made Himself nothing.”
The Greek word (kenoo) means, “emptied.”
Jesus emptied Himself by “taking on the form of a slave.”
Jesus, voluntarily and unforced, took a lower position than He had.
In taking the form of a slave, He still retained His deity, yet in
taking the form of a slave, He became a human being.
In becoming the “likeness of men,” He became thirsty, hungry and
slept. Being a human being, He
knew such limitations by experience, yet He was different in that He was
sinless.
Had you seen Him, He appeared as a human being—He dressed like a human
being; His actions were those of a human being, all apart from sin.
He became a man without ceasing to be God, so that He could die.
He had to empty Himself of His position because a man can die, whereas
God cannot. He added humanity,
yet with deity undiminished.
He neither gave up His deity or the characteristics of deity when He was born
into the human race. All of this
is so He could die.
We call this the Doctrine of Kenosis (ken-o-sis), from the Greek word, “to
empty.” We can define the
doctrine as “Christ’s leaving His pre-existent position and taking on a
servant humanity with deity undiminished.”
In view of this, we can say that Jesus Christ is true humanity and
undiminished deity united in one Person forever.”
So this is the reason for all the books, the study and all the meetings,
because Jesus is the unique Person of the universe.
There is no one who is as He is.
So? Paul won’t let us make an
abstraction out of this doctrine and leave it lying dry and dusty in a
notebook. In Phil. 2:5, as he
introduces this doctrine, he says, “Your attitude should be the same as
Jesus’.” At County Line
Church, we want to serve to build you up in the faith, to bring you to a
growing confidence in God and to help you become a success in God’s sight.
THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURE
INTRODUCTION
The
problem is, what do we mean by the word, “inspiration?”
Because of this, it’s important to be as precise as we can.
“I believe in the inspiration of the Bible”.
This is a statement that’s too vague in view of the different ideas
about the meaning of the word.
Our ultimate reference point for understanding inspiration is the Bible
itself, that is, what it says about itself.
Here’s the Bible’s testimony about itself.
1.
II Tim. 3:16—in this verse, the Bible makes three statements about
itself.
A. The entire Bible is
inspired and profitable. This
speaks as to the extent of inspiration. It’s
not that some parts are inspired and others aren’t.
The word “Scripture” in the Bible refers to the Old Testament and
sometimes to parts of the New Testament.
(Luke 24:45; John 10:35; Luke 4:21; I Tim. 5:18 and II Peter 3:16)
B. The entire Bible is
God-breathed. This speaks of?
Of inspiration. The Bible is the result of God’s breath.
God breathed out the Scripture.
C. The entire Bible is
profitable. This tells us the
purpose of inspiration. Its
purpose is to correct, restore and train; therefore, we don’t put the Bible
in a glass case to be admired.
2.
In II Peter 1:21, we find the one verse in Scripture that tells us more
than any other about how God produced the Bible.
The Holy Spirit moved the authors along.
The word for “moved” is a word for how the wind takes control of a
ship and directs it. The human authors played their part, but their wills
didn’t direct the writing of the Bible.
The “prophecy” was not by the will of man, that is, human
initiative didn’t produce the Bible. God
is the source of the Bible.
3.
I Cor. 2:13 points out that the Bible came to us in words.
The actual words of the Bible are inspired.
So,
what is “inspiration”? God
carried men along so that what they wrote was what God wanted them to write in
the Bible. That is, God
superintended the human authors of the Bible so that they composed and
recorded without error His message to man in the words of their original
writings.
"Superintended” means God was guiding the writers so they wrote
accurately. “Composed” means
they weren’t stenographers. “Without
error” points to John 17:17. And
remember, inspiration applies and can be said only of the original writings,
not copies or translations.
CONCLUSION
There’s
no other book like the Bible. God
breathed it, men wrote it and we possess it.
SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT
INTRODUCTION
Outside
the walls of Jerusalem 2000 years ago, passersby saw three men hanging on
three crosses. What they were
seeing was one of the three most important events in world history (the Death
of Christ, the Resurrection of Christ and the Second Coming of Christ.)
What they were seeing was an event that would be recorded, explained
and remembered forever.
What they were seeing was an event that had cast its shadows long before it
occurred because what they were seeing was the complete, total and finished
solution to the problem of man’s sin and sinful state.
They were seeing world history changed before their eyes, a unique
event, something that had never happened before, something that would never
happen again.
The death of Christ on the cross is an event that God explains to us because
without His explanation, we wouldn’t know what was happening at the time.
God explains it in only one place—the Bible.
The way He explains it is by means of a system and two prepositions.
Explanation by Means of a System
By means of a system as old as Genesis 3, God inaugurated a sacrificial system
for fallen man, a system that was a picture of the One to come, a picture of
the way to get back to God. Under
the sacrificial system, later codified in the Mosaic Law at Mt. Sinai, the
sacrificer would bring the animal to the altar, lay his hands on the animal
about to be sacrificed and then the animal was put to death.
The sacrificer understood that the animal was taking his place,
functioning as his representative because he had identified with the animal by
placing his hands on it.
Explanation by Means of Two Prepositions
When the authors of Scripture wrote the preposition “anti”, they were
using a word which meant “face-to-face”, “opposite” as two objects
placed over against each other and one of those objects being taken instead of
the other one. It meant “an
exchange”. It means “instead
of”. We see this in Matt.
2:22 and Luke 11:11. Other
Scriptures show the idea of exchange in John 1:16, Rom. 12:17, I Thess. 5:15,
Heb. 12:16 and I Peter 3:9. The
most important verse which uses “anti” is Mark 10:45, which also gives us
Jesus’ interpretation of His coming death.
His words settle the matter.
The
other preposition God uses in the Bible to explain Christ’s death is the
preposition “huper”. The
original idea of this word meant to stand in the place of someone to protect
him and receive the blows on his behalf.
Romans 9:3 and Philemon 13 show us this use.
In Philemon 13, Onesimus was a newly converted slave and about to
return to his master, Philemon, in Colosse.
Paul wants to keep Onesimus with him to help him on Onesimus’ behalf.
This can only mean that someone has to be in Rome with Paul—either
Philemon or his slave, Onesimus, as his substitute.
Other Scriptures in this regard are John 11:50-51, Rom. 5:6-8, II Cor. 5:21,
Gal. 3:13, Titus 2:14 and I Peter 3:18.
CONCLUSION
Christ suffered as a substitute for us; that is, Christ suffered instead of
us, resulting in the advantage to us of paying for our sins.
This substitution was voluntary on His part (“No one takes My life
from Me; I lay it down and I take it up again.”) and it provides an eternal
satisfaction, once for all, never to be repeated.
THE RESURRECTION
INTRODUCTION
The
Bible brings a message of life and death.
Camus once said, “Death is philosophy’s only problem.”
Freud wrote, “Every person owes nature his own death and [he] must be
prepared to pay this debt. It is
natural, undeniable, and unavoidable.”
Freud also wrote that we tend to push death aside.
He pointed out that the human being can’t imagine his own death
because when he tries to imagine it, he always sees himself as surviving as a
spectator. Therefore, he wrote,
“Nobody believes in his own death.”
When someone dies, we act in a special way—we suspend criticism and we
forgive the person any wrong as the Latin motto swings into action (demortuis
nil nisi bene), “About the dead, nothing unless good.”
(Timely Thoughts on Death)
It’s interesting that at every wedding we attend, the pastor always says,
“If anyone knows any reason why these two should not be joined together in
holy matrimony, let him speak now or forever hold his peace.”
One author has said that it would be a shock if such a statement were
asked at a funeral service. What
would the shock be like if the minister described the deceased and then asked,
“If anyone disagrees with the description I’ve given of the deceased or
challenges what I’ve said about the destiny to which we’ve committed our
trust….” What if someone
raised his hand in disagreement!
The Bible brings a message of life and death.
Christ predicted that He would die and rise from the dead.
This was the most controversial of all His statements.
He told both His followers and His enemies to expect it.
His enemies put a guard at the tomb to prevent it and His followers
didn’t take Him literally.
The New Testament doesn’t present a spiritual resurrection, which would have
been easy to do. People do this
all the time. No, the disciples
preached a physical resurrection.
If Jesus did not rise from the dead:
There is no gospel. In 1 Cor. 15:3-8, Paul points out that the gospel is based on the fact that Christ died and is alive.
Jesus lied. He predicted His own death (which did not surprise Him), then he said that He would rise from the dead (Matt. 20:19) and in John 2, He predicts it as well, but not in so obvious a statement. The resurrection authenticated Jesus.
Our
faith is meaningless. Paul
calls Christians a group
most to be pitied if
Jesus did not
rise from the
dead. If there’s no
resurrection, then we can add hopelessness to our being without meaning.
How do we know that Christ
rose from the dead?
1. The Bible says that He
did.
a) This explains why
individuals, groups and large numbers of people saw Him alive after His death.
(cf. I Cor. 15)
b) This is why both the
Romans and the followers of Jesus agreed that His tomb was empty.
c) This is why the day of
Pentecost brought the Holy Spirit to indwell believers.
d) This explains why the
day of worship suddenly changed from Saturday (the Sabbath) to Sunday
because it was to commemorate the resurrection.
The
resurrection introduced a new person.
A new kind of body appeared in the universe. Jesus was raised in a body which would never die; still recognizable by those who had known Him, yet retaining the scars from the cross. In this body, Jesus could enter rooms without using doors, appearing and disappearing at will.
The resurrection introduced a new prototype. (Col. 1:8 and Rev. 1:5) The resurrection bodies of believers will be like Christ's body. (I Cor. 15:35-41 and I John 3:2) To be like Jesus will be to be pure, without sin, and righteous.
The resurrection proved
Jesus to be right. (Rom 1:4)
Why is
Christ’s resurrection important?
If He didn’t rise from the dead, then He is a liar or was deceived.
He said He would rise from the dead in Matt. 20:19.
If He didn’t rise from the dead, then His work on the cross wasn’t good
enough. Without the resurrection,
there is no gospel. (I Cor. 15:1-5) Without
the resurrection, He cannot be the Son of God as the Bible claims. (Rom. 1:4)
Without the resurrection, there are no present ministries of Christ, such as
His high priestly work, advocate (I John), and the Head of the church.
If the resurrection didn’t occur, then we Christians are to be objects of
pity. (I Cor. 15)
The most detailed revelation of the resurrected Christ is found in Revelation
1:12-16, which is how we’ll see Him one day.
What have been the effects of the resurrection?
The resurrection of Christ caused His followers’ enemies to admit His tomb
was empty (Matt. 28:11-15). It
caused the events of the day of Pentecost (Acts 2).
It caused the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1).
It caused the birth of the church (Acts 2) and the revolutionary change
of days of worship from Saturday (the Sabbath) to Sunday (Acts 20:7).
CONCLUSION
The resurrection is one of the most crucial doctrines of Christianity, so
crucial that if they discovered Christ’s body tomorrow, we would stop
meeting. Without the
resurrection, there is no Christianity.
THE REALITY OF SATAN
Philosophers,
theologians, plumbers, lawyers, bankers and mechanics have thought about the
problem of evil and where it comes from.
Is evil intrinsic to the universe?
Has there always been evil? The
Bible doesn’t think about the answer. It
reveals it.
In contrast to other statements about the origin of evil, the Bible says that
the origin of evil lies in a person. Not
an influence. Not a force.
A person. The Bible
presents Satan as a being with personality.
Literature and other arts have treated the devil in an interesting manner.
Some may remember the short story, “The Devil and Daniel Webster,”
from their high school days. Satan
has been portrayed as a lawyer and again as female, while a comedian made a
living from the phrase, “The devil made me do it.”
The moment you accept the Bible as revelation from God and not man’s
thoughts about God, you then accept the reality of Satan.
What makes the case is only one sentence—Jesus said Satan is a person
and Jesus affirmed his existence.
A person, to be a person, has three things:
intellect, emotions and a will. The
Bible says that Satan has all three (II Cor. 11:3; Rev. 12:17; Is. 14:12-14;
II Tim. 2:26).
The Book of Job refers to Satan using the personal pronoun “he”, as does
Matthew 4. In Matthew 25:41 God
holds Satan accountable, which further demonstrates that the Bible presents
him as a person. You can’t hold
an idea or a force accountable for punishment.
Just as every person has a history, so does Satan.
He is a created being (therefore, he has not always existed, nor does
he possess the characteristics God does).
Of all the verses in the Bible, only one tells us the origin of
sin—Ezekiel 28:15. God created
Satan perfect, but he sinned and fell from his high angelic rank.
I Timothy 3:6 tells us that sin was the sin of arrogance, and we see
the details of his pride in Isaiah 14:12-14 in the infamous “Five I
Wills.”
Satan becomes a premier illustration of just how sin ripples out to others.
His sin caused repercussions among angels (Rev. 12:7), among all
members of the human race (Eph. 2:2) and among all the nations. (Rev. 20:3).
Just as every person has a future, so every person has things they do.
What has Satan done and what does he do?
He tried to eliminate the cross. (Matt. 4:3-10)
He hates and opposes Christ. (Gen. 3:15; Matt. 2:16; Matt. 16:21-23; Matt. 4:1-11)
He is a counterfeiter who wants to be like God. (Gen 3:5; II Tim. 3:5; II Cor. 11:15; I Tim. 4:1-3)
He deceives nations. (Rev. 20:3) (He can promote the idea among the nations that they can bring peace to the world apart from the rule of Christ; he used governments to hinder the spread of the gospel (I Thess. 2:18). He’ll deceive the nations into accepting the Anti-Christ (Rev. 13:2-4).
He blinds the minds of men to the gospel. (II Cor. 4:4) (He does this through promotion of the idea that “there are many ways to heaven, by snatching away the Word of God that people hear (Luke. 8:12), and through his trump card, religion.)
He tempts believers to immorality (I Cor. 7:5), to conformity to the world system (I Thess. 3:5), and to cover up selfishness (Acts 5).
He opposes believers in witnessing by persecution and he accuses us before God (Rev. 12:10), but Christ defends us. (I John 2:1-2).
He
negates our usefulness and testimony.
(I Peter 5:8)
Just as
every person has a history and things he does, so every person has a future.
Martin Luther said, “The devil is God’s devil” and he said it
well. God will judge Satan at the
end of the millennial reign of Christ. The
result of that judgment will be that God will cast Satan into the lake of fire
for all of eternity. (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 20:10)
Someone said that when you get down to basic questions, there aren’t many
people left in the room. He meant
that basic questions have few options for answers.
When we come to the problem and question of evil, there aren’t many
options. One option gives us no
hope. Another option is to say
that evil doesn’t exist. But
that idea is ridiculous. Another
is to say that evil does exist, but we’re making progress on its
eradication. There’s no
evidence for that either.
There is only one answer—the Bible’s.
The Bible’s answer is that evil was not part of the original
creation, that it is an intrusion into the universe, that it came through
Satan. Then, and only then, is
there hope. God can and will hold
Satan accountable; He will judge him; He will put down evil.
Grace
is a difficult concept to understand. We
might say it is impossible to understand.
From our first conscious moment, we live and breathe in a merit system
based on our performance. A merit
system says, “Do, and I/we/the company/the school will reward you.
Performance is the basis of business.
Deserve it, and then you’ll get it.
If your performance is beneath stated expectations, then I/we/the
company/the school will punish by withholding rewards from you.
If the salesman does above the standards, then there are bonuses, but he earns
them. No one gives them.
If the company does well over the year, then they give you a Christmas
bonus, but if it didn’t do well, then there is no bonus.
So, in a sense, you have to earn the bonus.
To live is to plug into a merit system of performance.
We give names to this system. It
is a race, that is, a rat race. Our
office building where we work is a mine, a salt mine.
We compare the system to hungry animals because it’s dog-eat-dog.
Bosses are slave drivers.
Advertising highlights the merit system.
Nike said to us, “Just do it.”
Gold’s Gym said, “No pain, no gain.”
McDonald’s sang, “You deserve a break today.”
They say, “Be the best.” “Winning
isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”
“Second best isn’t good enough.”
We “try out” for the team or for cheerleading to see if we’re
“good enough.”
Enter the gospel. The gospel
deals with forgiveness and eternal life.
Sin bars us from heaven and eternal life.
Christ’s death resolves it. In
I Corinthians 15:1-3, Paul gives the gospel in a few words.
Christ has done something about sin and offers His forgiveness to us.
It’s important that Christ offers something to us; we don’t offer
anything to Him. I can’t offer
Him a pledge to do my best, because my best is imperfect.
I can’t offer Him my future years, because they’ll be imperfect.
I can’t offer Him a promise to, for instance, quit smoking because
that wouldn’t do anything about my sins.
Christ finished it all. Nothing
left to do. The gospel is believe
(be persuaded) that Christ died for your sins and rose again the third day.
We sum it up in the phrase “Faith alone in Christ alone.”
By this phrase we mean no subtle blending, no adding to the phrase.
A blend makes the gospel into a false gospel.
(Gal. 1)
The blend may sound spiritual and seem natural.
Examples of blends are commands, such as, “Believe in Christ and feel
sorry for your sins.” This
blend makes salvation depend on feeling a certain way.
This blend is based on a misunderstanding of the word “repent.”
In English, the word has come to mean, “Feel sorry for something,”
but in Greek it means, “Change your mind” (verb) or, “A change of
mind” (noun). It has nothing to
do with feeling a certain way. Sorrow for sins may accompany belief, but it is
not necessary for salvation.
Is repentance necessary for salvation?
That’s an excellent question, but before we can answer it, we have to
know, “What do you mean by ‘repentance?’” If you
mean “feel sorry for sin,” then, no, feeling sorry for sin isn’t
necessary for salvation. But if you mean, “change of
mind,” then yes, repentance is necessary for salvation.
When a person is persuaded to trust Christ alone as his savior, a
change of mind is always involved. That person has changed
his mind to see himself as a sinner, one who can’t become “good enough”
for salvation. He has changed his mind about who Christ is,
now realizing that He’s the God-Man who died for his sins, rose from the
dead, and the only one who can give him eternal life. He
has changed his mind to come to “faith alone in Christ alone.”
All blends may sound good, but they change the gospel.
Things, such as, “Believe and make Christ the Lord of your life,”
“Believe and walk the aisle,” and “Believe and turn from your sins.”
Is this “easy believism”? No.
Trusting someone isn’t easy. We
stand in line at a store longer because trusting isn’t easy.
Write a check for even two dollars and you’ll have to produce your
driver’s license, complete with picture, number, color of eyes and et
cetera. They’re trying out
fingerprinting people in Texas when they buy groceries at the Kroger store,
and with that fingerprint, the account is automatically debited.
Whatever--it still indicates that trust isn’t easy.
When we call for a person to trust Christ, we’re calling for more than
trusting for a $2 check. When you
trusted Christ, just think of what you did.
You trusted:
1.
Someone you couldn’t see.
2.
Someone you’re never seen.
3. Someone who has no living witnesses who have seen Him.
4.
Someone whose biography was written only by friends.
5.
Someone detailed in a book that’s under attack.
6.
Someone who says, “I’ll give you eternal life and
forgiveness of sins and you don’t work for them.”
CONCLUSION
Grace
is very hard for us to understand. Grace
is unmerited favor. Grace isn’t
cheap; it cost the donor. Grace
is truly good news.
GRACE
IS A DIFFICULT, perhaps impossible, concept to understand.
In seminary days, I had a job working with under- privileged junior
high and high school kids at the downtown YMCA.
On what was then the outskirts of the city was a camp we used every
Friday night, when weather permitted. We
would load a bus with forty to fifty kids, head for the camp, and enjoy an
evening cooking out and playing games. On
special occasions we would sleep there overnight and return Saturday
afternoon. Overnight camping
trips were usually rewards given to those who had successfully passed certain
requirements in our weekly Bible clubs. So
the kids, who stayed overnight after the others went home, were rather
special.
On Friday night, or, more accurately, early on Saturday morning, I awoke,
startled by some unexplained noise. Soon
I discovered that a few of my leaders had sneaked out of the dorm, gone down
to the lake, launched one of the boats, and were having a great time, far out
from shore. Not only was this
against every rule in the book, but it was dangerous.
When the kids knew I knew where they were, they came immediately in to
shore. Like dogs with tails
between their legs, they meekly went back to bed, wondering what punishment
awaited them in the morning.
For me, sleep was now impossible. The
night before, I had talked to these Christian young people about forgiving one
another. So, as I paced the
grounds in those early-morning hours, deliberating their fate, my own words
from the night before kept coming back to me, and back to me, and back to me.
“If I don’t give them some
punishment,” I argued with myself, “they will never be impressed with the
seriousness of what they did. I
have a responsibility to the Y to enforce their rules and punish the
violators.”
But the more I debated with myself, talked to the Lord, thought about a
number of relevant Bible verses (I discovered again that night that you can
prove almost anything with a Bible verse), the more Ephesians 4:32 grew larger
and larger in my thinking: “And
be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in
Christ also has forgiven you.”
“But Lord, I can’t forgive them;
they don’t deserve it.” Neither did I.
“But Lord, I have to enforce the
rules”. I’m glad, Lord,
You didn’t.
“But Lord, if I’m too kind, the
kids will think I’m weak.” I
never thought You were weak, only loving.
“But Lord, first I’ll make them
promise never to do something like this again, and I will forgive them.”
It’s a good thing You didn’t require that of me, or I never
would have been forgiven.
“…….just as God forgave me.” How
was that? No conditions or
promises ahead of time. No works
at the time. No remembrance afterward.
“But Lord, You’re God—You can do anything.”
“You’re my child,” He said, “Imitate Me.”
So, with great reluctance and with very little faith, I told the Lord I would.
And then, in the morning, I told the kids.
“You did a terrible thing. It
could have had disastrous consequences for yourselves, your families, for the
Y, and for me. But I forgive you
unconditionally and completely.”
“You’re kidding,” they said. “There’s
got to be a catch somewhere.”
“No,” I insisted, “you are fully forgiven.”
And then told them what the Lord had been saying to me that night about
His grace, and how I wanted them to have another taste of that grace.
I didn’t even make them do the cleaning up that day.
I did it myself because I didn’t want them to think they could earn
even a little bit of that forgiveness.
A HOLY LIFE
INTRODUCTION
When
the great English evangelist, George Whitefield (18th century),
entered Oxford at age 18, he came across a book by William Law entitled “A
Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.”
It was a book, which said, “Life by Rule.”
George Whitefield started organizing his life by rules.
He prayed by rule. He sang songs
by rule. He fasted by the rule.
He studied the Bible by rule. There
were a few others who were trying to live as he was.
They met together and prayed well into the night.
The other students hated them, calling them “Bible moths,” and
“Methodists” because of their methodical devotion.
Another name they called the group was the “Holy Club.”
This was the name the group adopted for itself.
The other students loathed them, even pelting them with rocks when they
walked on campus.
Whitefield, because of his shyness didn’t join the Holy Club immediately.
The leader of the club would later become famous.
His name was John Wesley, whose hymn-writing brother, Charles, was also
a club member.
Whitefield later joined the group and came to enjoy Wesley’s library, where
he ran across a book called “The Life of God in the Soul of Man.”
All this time, Whitefield was trying to find a true and holy life by
keeping prayer, fasting, and study rules.
After he read the book, and not understanding its implication at this point,
he intensified things. Where he
had fasted for days, it now became weeks.
He felt he had been filled with pride, so he told everybody that he was
a member of the Holy Club and a Methodist.
He became sloppy and unkempt. He
then started to deliberately fail classes.
He still couldn’t find peace, so he concluded that he had a demon.
He spent whole days and weeks lying on the ground praying.
He concluded that God was angry with him because he talked too much, so
he didn’t talk at all. That
didn’t help. He came to believe
that God was angry with him because he had too much comfort, so he sat for
hours in the snow.
This went on until his friends and a teacher came to believe he was crazy.
At this point, he fasted until he couldn’t walk up the stairs to his
room. The doctors sent him to bed
for seven weeks. Still his sins
loomed before him.
During this time, he spent two hours a day studying the Greek New Testament.
Then came deliverance, when he realized that Christ did it all and that there
was nothing he needed to do. He
was free. He still fasted, prayed
and read the Bible, but now it was not because he had to, but because he
wanted to. Out of a grateful
heart, he studied the Bible on his knees.
He said, “What happened was that I had come to realize the necessity
of being justified by God’s free grace and being justified in His sight by
faith only” (from “Forgotten
Founding Father” by Mansfield).
The idea dies hard because, when we become a Christian, after salvation we
have a tendency to revert back to a works-rules system to live a holy life.
What exactly is a holy life? What
does a holy life look like? How
do we live a holy life?
We find a short summary and definition of a holy life in Galatians 2:2-23.
But there seems to be much confusion about how to attain a holy life.
But let’s be sure we understand that a holy life doesn’t mean a
perfect life. We don’t reach
perfection in this life, as I John 1:8, 10 and Philippians 3:12 point out.
It’s important to note that the Christian life isn’t lived under the
Mosaic Law rules (Gal. 5:18). The
Christian is under a higher ethic than the Mosaic Law.
Nor do we build the Christian life by strenuous self-effort.
The Christian life isn’t a program of self-development and
self-improvement. (Gal. 2:20)
We have to also realize that the Christian life isn’t a religious pose,
which involves an unnatural manner of life.
We’ve all heard the prayer in which the prayer user assumes an
unnatural “holy tone,” a tone he never uses in normal speech.
We’ve all heard the use of stain-glass language of “thee’s” and
“thou’s” by which the one praying assumes the holy pronouns.
We shouldn’t come to see the Christian life as mechanical, as if we push the
button of I John 1:9 and out comes familiar forgiveness.
Spirituality doesn’t come by going through a laundry list of
religious chores to perform.
Don’t think that this life comes by imitating the experiences of other
believers, as good as they may be. George
Mueller, the famous English Christian who ran an orphanage in Bristol, is
famous for his credo of never telling anyone, even anyone who asked, what his
needs were, nor did he tell anyone what the needs of the orphanage were.
Even if the children had no food for the next day’s dinner, or even
the same day’s dinner, Mueller would never let anyone know.
It’s a testimony to God’s faithfulness that every need was
supplied, though sometimes at the last minute.
Other dedicated believers opened orphanages according to the Mueller
model and they failed.
In view of all that, just how do we live the holy life?
It’s a life of a maturing relationship with God.
It’s consistent with the salvation experience in that it’s lived by
faith and dependence (“Walk by means of the Spirit”) on the Holy Spirit.
It’s a life that depends on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to
produce the fruit of the Spirit. The
Holy Spirit produces all of the characteristics instantaneously when we walk
by means of the Spirit.
The holy life is produced as we’re in a right relationship experientially
with God through His Word and the power of the Holy Spirit.
When the relationship is right, there are no mechanical procedures to
follow, no listing of things to do mechanically.
A healthy marriage doesn’t grow out of a husband and wife going over
the rules for the day; it grows from being in the right relationship with one
another, then the “rules” take care of themselves, but the motivation for
doing the “rules” is changed.
The Holy Spirit produces the life through the believer who isn’t conscious
of an “alien” presence inside him, as the Holy Spirit works through the
dependant believer’s will, emotions and intellect.
The believer is only conscious of himself.
The result of this filling of the Holy Spirit (which comes by confession of
known sin and faith toward God) are:
Galatians 5:16-21
Galatians 5:22-23
Empowerment for service: evangelism (acts 2:4, 5:14) praise, worship, thanksgiving and submissiveness (Eph 5:19-21)
Dr. Louis Sperry Chafer
gives the following suggestions: