2009-08-26
Check out my newest blog
While I am taking a break from blogging this week, feel free to check out my newest blog -- "2GC@PDX". The address is http://2gcatpdx.blogspot.com/. I'll be back next week with more thoughts from Luke.
2009-08-19
Absolute Essentials – Part IV
I am sure there are people reading my most recent postings and thinking I am buying into a modern easy-believism. Just believe in Jesus. That is all there is to being saved, to being a Christian. Easy-believism or not, I firmly believe it.
One day riding a long distance bus between Missouri and North Carolina, I sat next to this fellow teenager. We got to talking. I shared that I was a Christian and he said he was, too. He pulled out a cigarette – this was back before antismoking campaigns. I probed him a bit on his response, not because he was smoking, but because I wanted to make sure he understood what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.
An older woman sitting across the aisle from us suddenly went ballistic (this was the Bible Belt). A stranger to both of us, she challenged the boy: “You’ve gone down the aisle at church, right? You’ve been baptized, right?” Both to which he quickly agreed, either because he really had done so or because he was afraid to answer any other way.
“Well, then,” she said, “that settles it. You’re a Christian.” End of discussion.
This kind of thinking is what people fear in what they call easy-believism. I know, because I’ve preached against it and used this very story as Example Number 1. And I still believe that something WAS very wrong with that woman’s response.
According to James in the New Testament, even the demons believe – and tremble. Even the demons believe there is one God, he wrote. He was talking about how you can’t have faith without deeds to prove it. The demons believe and are not saved. So what do they believe? They believe that there is one God. They believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. But this is not saving faith. It is intellectual ascent, to the extent that it can be said that demons have intellects.
So don’t we run the risk of folks getting off easy if we tell them that there’s nothing more to being saved than believing in Jesus? No, because that is the heart of our very powerful Gospel. One of my favorite expressions during the Cold War years was “Just because Communists brush their teeth is no reason for us to stop (brushing our teeth).” Now having close friends who are members of the Communist Party (is McCarthy still around?), I can honestly say that they DO brush their teeth.
Just because someone else who we don’t like or who is wrong on other things also believes or acts as we do on certain things is no reason to abandon what we know to be true.
Once while listening to my car radio, I heard a very agitated discussion going on among callers who all also happened to be fellow Believers, at least as far as I knew. The animated debate was over what is known as the doctrine of “eternal security”. Opinions ranged from being able to fall out of grace like falling out of bed to being eternally secure no matter what you said or did or believed after you got saved, period. As I listened to the discussion, mostly to stay awake on a long trip, I wondered why no one posed this as the question to ask, “How is your relationship with Jesus right now?”
In China, a close friend and I would get together regularly to drink hot chocolate (on cold mornings) and act as “iron sharpens iron” with each other. Regularly he would ask me how I was doing at loving my wife. He wasn’t asking whether or not I was married or would I ever contemplate divorce. He was just asking me how I was treating my wife at that point in time.
Someone who can talk about their relationship with Jesus in the now doesn’t need to be asked if they’ve ever been saved or what they are doing to stay saved or whether they could ever become unsaved. If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, it is as easy as believing in him. And if you do already, then how are you relating to him right now?
One day riding a long distance bus between Missouri and North Carolina, I sat next to this fellow teenager. We got to talking. I shared that I was a Christian and he said he was, too. He pulled out a cigarette – this was back before antismoking campaigns. I probed him a bit on his response, not because he was smoking, but because I wanted to make sure he understood what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.
An older woman sitting across the aisle from us suddenly went ballistic (this was the Bible Belt). A stranger to both of us, she challenged the boy: “You’ve gone down the aisle at church, right? You’ve been baptized, right?” Both to which he quickly agreed, either because he really had done so or because he was afraid to answer any other way.
“Well, then,” she said, “that settles it. You’re a Christian.” End of discussion.
This kind of thinking is what people fear in what they call easy-believism. I know, because I’ve preached against it and used this very story as Example Number 1. And I still believe that something WAS very wrong with that woman’s response.
According to James in the New Testament, even the demons believe – and tremble. Even the demons believe there is one God, he wrote. He was talking about how you can’t have faith without deeds to prove it. The demons believe and are not saved. So what do they believe? They believe that there is one God. They believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. But this is not saving faith. It is intellectual ascent, to the extent that it can be said that demons have intellects.
So don’t we run the risk of folks getting off easy if we tell them that there’s nothing more to being saved than believing in Jesus? No, because that is the heart of our very powerful Gospel. One of my favorite expressions during the Cold War years was “Just because Communists brush their teeth is no reason for us to stop (brushing our teeth).” Now having close friends who are members of the Communist Party (is McCarthy still around?), I can honestly say that they DO brush their teeth.
Just because someone else who we don’t like or who is wrong on other things also believes or acts as we do on certain things is no reason to abandon what we know to be true.
Once while listening to my car radio, I heard a very agitated discussion going on among callers who all also happened to be fellow Believers, at least as far as I knew. The animated debate was over what is known as the doctrine of “eternal security”. Opinions ranged from being able to fall out of grace like falling out of bed to being eternally secure no matter what you said or did or believed after you got saved, period. As I listened to the discussion, mostly to stay awake on a long trip, I wondered why no one posed this as the question to ask, “How is your relationship with Jesus right now?”
In China, a close friend and I would get together regularly to drink hot chocolate (on cold mornings) and act as “iron sharpens iron” with each other. Regularly he would ask me how I was doing at loving my wife. He wasn’t asking whether or not I was married or would I ever contemplate divorce. He was just asking me how I was treating my wife at that point in time.
Someone who can talk about their relationship with Jesus in the now doesn’t need to be asked if they’ve ever been saved or what they are doing to stay saved or whether they could ever become unsaved. If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, it is as easy as believing in him. And if you do already, then how are you relating to him right now?
2009-08-12
Absolute Essentials – Part III
We’ve been talking about the idea that there is not much to faith – simply believing one step at a time that Jesus will save me and keep me. I may have doubts, but those doubts are not the same as unbelief. Having doubts simply means I am continuing to ask questions which implies I am seeking the truth. Unbelief is when I stop asking questions and no longer seek the truth. So becoming a Christian is believing that Jesus will save or rescue me, simply putting my trust in him.
But there are those who will say that being a Christian involves much more. What about going to church? What about doing God’s will? What about discipleship and growing in spirituality and becoming more like Christ?
Let me ask you a question. Say this friend believes in Jesus today. We say she is saved when she believes. If she starts going to church, reaching her lost friends, reading her Bible, praying, helping the poor, does she become more saved? No. She will never be more saved than she is the moment she believes. A missionary in the most remote corner of the earth is not more of a Christian than an old man who has just said yes to Jesus and then dies and goes straight to heaven.
It’s like a boy who is drowning in a lake and a lifeguard goes out to rescue him. Once the lifeguard has rescued him he is saved from drowning. Does he become more saved because later on he thanks the lifeguard or takes swimming lessons or writes a book about the experience? No. There aren’t degrees to being saved from drowning. You either are or you are not. And there are not degrees to being a Christian. The difference is whether or not you believe in Jesus.
Some people say you can’t sin and be a Christian. I don’t know any Christians who no longer sin. In fact, anyone who say they no longer sin is committing the sin of pride.
Okay then what about those who sin worse kinds of sin. What does that mean? Are you more likely to go to hell if you kill someone than if you think in your heart, “I wish that person were dead”? Jesus says one is the same as the other. What kind of sin will separate you from God? Any sin, no matter what kind or degree or how much you do it. Doesn’t matter. Any and all sin separates us from God, meaning we are lost and in need of a savior.
What about a Christian who struggles with sin? Try as they might they are still tempted. First of all, no matter how much temptation you have, that is still not sin. Sin is not the desire or temptation to do something you shouldn’t do. Jesus himself was tempted – and tempted as we are. Sin is dwelling on that desire or temptation and following through with it – either in thought or action. So temptation is not a sign that you are less spiritual, let alone less saved.
But what about the person who keeps sinning even after they are saved. They keeping failing and falling, try as they might. Sounds like an addiction. Our faith says that Jesus frees us from addictions. If I believe in Jesus and still am addicted to nicotine, for example, a very hard addiction to break, does this make me less saved than if I did break that habit or never had it in the first place? No. Believing in Jesus is not the same as achieving perfection.
Try as we might, we cannot put any more conditions on becoming a follower of Jesus than Jesus does. A Christian means so many different things these days, I prefer the appellation "Believer", though I guess some could quibble with me and say “Believer” doesn’t specify in what. Originally the word “Christian” meant someone who believes in or follows the teachings of Jesus. Such a belief does not have any direct connection with whether they are American or Thai, whether they are politically liberal or conservative, whether they smoke or don’t smoke.
The only factor is whether or not they believe in Jesus. Jesus makes it so simple, it is hard for us to accept.
But there are those who will say that being a Christian involves much more. What about going to church? What about doing God’s will? What about discipleship and growing in spirituality and becoming more like Christ?
Let me ask you a question. Say this friend believes in Jesus today. We say she is saved when she believes. If she starts going to church, reaching her lost friends, reading her Bible, praying, helping the poor, does she become more saved? No. She will never be more saved than she is the moment she believes. A missionary in the most remote corner of the earth is not more of a Christian than an old man who has just said yes to Jesus and then dies and goes straight to heaven.
It’s like a boy who is drowning in a lake and a lifeguard goes out to rescue him. Once the lifeguard has rescued him he is saved from drowning. Does he become more saved because later on he thanks the lifeguard or takes swimming lessons or writes a book about the experience? No. There aren’t degrees to being saved from drowning. You either are or you are not. And there are not degrees to being a Christian. The difference is whether or not you believe in Jesus.
Some people say you can’t sin and be a Christian. I don’t know any Christians who no longer sin. In fact, anyone who say they no longer sin is committing the sin of pride.
Okay then what about those who sin worse kinds of sin. What does that mean? Are you more likely to go to hell if you kill someone than if you think in your heart, “I wish that person were dead”? Jesus says one is the same as the other. What kind of sin will separate you from God? Any sin, no matter what kind or degree or how much you do it. Doesn’t matter. Any and all sin separates us from God, meaning we are lost and in need of a savior.
What about a Christian who struggles with sin? Try as they might they are still tempted. First of all, no matter how much temptation you have, that is still not sin. Sin is not the desire or temptation to do something you shouldn’t do. Jesus himself was tempted – and tempted as we are. Sin is dwelling on that desire or temptation and following through with it – either in thought or action. So temptation is not a sign that you are less spiritual, let alone less saved.
But what about the person who keeps sinning even after they are saved. They keeping failing and falling, try as they might. Sounds like an addiction. Our faith says that Jesus frees us from addictions. If I believe in Jesus and still am addicted to nicotine, for example, a very hard addiction to break, does this make me less saved than if I did break that habit or never had it in the first place? No. Believing in Jesus is not the same as achieving perfection.
Try as we might, we cannot put any more conditions on becoming a follower of Jesus than Jesus does. A Christian means so many different things these days, I prefer the appellation "Believer", though I guess some could quibble with me and say “Believer” doesn’t specify in what. Originally the word “Christian” meant someone who believes in or follows the teachings of Jesus. Such a belief does not have any direct connection with whether they are American or Thai, whether they are politically liberal or conservative, whether they smoke or don’t smoke.
The only factor is whether or not they believe in Jesus. Jesus makes it so simple, it is hard for us to accept.
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