Focus Factor

One word made Elizabeth focus: "cancer."  The doctor said it right up front.  Liz had always taken life lightly, but that was yesterday.  Her mind focuses on heaven and a question: "Am I going there?"

A friend asks her, "What do you think you have to do to go to heaven?"  Elizabeth pauses, thinks a moment, and says, "Love others and believe in Jesus."

Pretty women have a way of getting a man's attention.  Susanne was the focus of Richard's.  Rich wants to be with her, so he starts going to her church.  Rich is a Christian; he'll tell you so.  A friend asks him, "Why should you be in heaven?"  Rich isn't like Elizabeth; he doesn't hesitate.  He says, "Because I believe in Christ, live a good life, and I try to keep the Ten Commandments, you know, things like that."

Ian has undergone some serious medical tests.  They don't know if it's benign or not.  The results aren't in; he's waiting, worrying.  The roof falls in when he loses his job and he has to put the bills in the "Unpaid" box.  Creditors are starting to call.  It's time to get right with God, and when asked, "How do you do that?" he answers, "Christ is absolutely essential; so is baptism."

Sandy's been a churchgoer all her life.  She still has the attendance medals, awards, and Sunday school certificates from way back when.  But now she notices that she's slipping.  She's become forgetful, even of important things she should remember, things you shouldn't have to think about.  It scared her that time she forgot where she lived.  She's gotten lost a time or two and couldn't remember her one and only grandchild's name the other day.  She keeps forgetting other things too, important things.  These aren't isolated incidents.  They're getting more common.  Dr. Hansford thinks it may be incipient Alzheimer's, but he's not sure.  She's focused on heaven too; ask her about it and she'll tell you: "Not to worry."  Like she says, "I have a relationship with Christ."

From Liz to Sandy, they all have two things in common: serious circumstances and Jesus is part of their salvation equation.  Talk to most people today, laity or clergy and they'll breathe a sigh of salvific relief and say, "They're in; the gates of pearl will swing wide for each and every one of them."

But the thing is, the Bible would beg to differ.  It doesn't agree with any of them.

Elizabeth, Richard, and Ian believe that salvation is a partnership.  They think that believing in Christ and "loving," "keeping the 10 Commandments," "living a good life," and "that sort of thing," along with baptism are the open sesames for heaven's gates.  The Bible disagrees because it says that salvation is a "gift" (Rom. 6:23) to be received, not a partnership of our works plus believing in Christ.

All three think that God owes heaven to them for what they've done in the partnership.  But the Bible disagrees.  As the Scriptures point out, "God will be in nobody's debt" (Rom. 4:4-5).  A gift isn't a gift if I owe it to someone.  The attitude,  "God owes me heaven" mocks the word, "gift."

Listen to them and you see that their words stop grace from being grace.  They are  adding their love, their baptisms, their keeping and doing to grace and, therefore grace is stopped cold in its tracks and changed to works (Rom. 11:6).

Listen to them and what do you hear?  Blasphemy.  Blasphemy, because they're saying that when Christ shouted, "It's finished!" from the cross, He was wrong; He didn't know what He was talking about.  Liz, Richard, and Ian are making the cross their down payment, and they're adding their daily payments to His.  Grace means we don't make payments; grace means just what Christ said, "It's all paid for, finished."

They don't agree with I John 2:2 because they don't think God is satisfied with Christ's work on the cross; they think His work needs additional payments from their personal accounts to satisfy God. It's blasphemy, because they're not satisfied with what He did and their payments show they're not.

But wait a minute.  What about Sandy who says she has a relationship with Jesus?  She's in, right?  The Bible begs to differ.  Judas had a "relationship" with Jesus.  He ate with Him, went to dinner parties with Him, and traveled all over the place with Him.  But he was never persuaded that Jesus' promise of everlasting life to all those who simply believe Him for it was true.  Sandy can have a "relationship" with Jesus as her teacher (Thomas Jefferson admired Jesus' ethical teachings, but never believed His guarantee of everlasting life) and still be lost.

When John states the gospel (Jn. 3:16; 5:24; and 11:25-27) and when we examine the sermons of the apostles in the book of Acts, we don't read anywhere that they invite people to "have a relationship with Jesus."  The verses and the sermons invite people to "believe."  The focus factor of the gospel is on "believe" and the object of the belief, Christ.

Paul says there's only one gospel which saves (Gal. 1:6-9).  Liz, Ian, Richard, and Sandy are all lost.  Do you know them?

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor
County Line Church