Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 10 - Ephesians)

Ephesians also destroys the unbiblical notion that one can be a Christian whilst living a life characterized by unrepentant sin.

As mentioned in the very first part of this series, Paul addresses his Christian readers as "saints".  Though the Catholics are certainly wrong in their depiction of such people as being a sinless subclass of super Christians, some Protestants have overreacted in the other direction, completely emptying the Greek word (which is derived from its Hebrew ancestor) of its original meaning.

The word translated by many English versions as "saint" is hagios.  Derived from the Hebrew quadosh, the word is often used of Yahweh Himself, and carries the connotation of being "set apart".  When used for God's people, the idea becomes "set apart for special [i.e. "Yahweh's] use."  Thus, we see that often in the OT, God's people were to be "different" from the nations, because the God whom they worshiped was likewise set apart from the false gods of the nations.  In the OT world, the "god" whom one worshiped determined one's lifestyle.  This is why I am so often perplexed when I see so many 'professing' followers of Christ resembling not Him, but the world (which likely betrays the fact that despite their profession, they really worship themselves & the world, not Christ).

When Yahweh calls Israel to be "holy even as [He] is holy" (Lev. 11:44-45), the word translated "holy" both times is quadosh.  And so the full force of the word is seen when God calls His quadosh (saints) to be quadosh (holy).  Those who are called by God are to resemble Him in the world and to the world, which is ultimately for the world (see Exo. 19:5-6).

This is the background that Paul is drawing from.  Saints are simply those who have been set apart by God and for God.  The idea of someone calling themselves a Christian, yet living a life that looks no different from the world is an unfortunate & God-belittling anomaly.

Likewise in 1:2, the believers (pistoi) in Ephesus are also called "faithful" (pistoi).  Again, the notion that a believer (pistos) can live a life of unfaithfulness (apistos) to Christ is something that entirely foreign and alien to the Word of God.

A couple of verses later, Paul says that such believers were "chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in love" (1:4).  Thus, those who are not growing in holiness ought to question their calling & election (cf. 2 Pet. 1:10).

Moreover, God's people have literally received "the redemption" in Christ (1:7).  Not only have they been emancipated from the penalty of sin; in addition to this glorious truth, the cross has also dealt a severing death blow to the power of sin, the flesh, the world, and the devil.  "In Christ", believers are no longer slaves to sin, and are thus to live lives in conformity to this truth.  Therefore, believers must "no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds" (4:17).  Those who have truly "learned Christ" are to daily put off the old man, as well as put on the new man, "created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (4:21-24).

In addition to this, those who have received the monergistic gift of regeneration, evidenced by believing the gospel of our salvation (1:13), are to work out their salvation by walking in the good works which God has prepared for His people.  Not only does God predestine that we be saved; He also predestines that those who are saved will indeed live progressively holy lives (cf. 2:5-10).  Who are those who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ?  Who are "God's workmanship created in Christ"?  The answer is simple: those who "walk in good works," that is, those whose lives are characterized by grace-enabled good works (which Paul elaborates upon in chapters 4-6).

The temple that believers are incorporated into (i.e. the church) is called "holy" in 2:21. As God's elect people in the earth, they are thus called to be different from the nations (see 4:17ff.).  As God's holy temple, believers are called to be "imitators of God" (5:1), which involves positively walking in love (5:2), as well as negatively putting off things like sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthy talk, crude joking, and ungodly relationships (5:3-7).  Rather than being like the world, believers, as light, are to expose the world's darkness, rather than participate in it (5:8-13).

Believers are watch carefully how they "walk" in this world (5:15; cf. 2:10), redeeming the time (5:16).  This requires not being filled with wine or living debauched lives, but rather being filled with the Holy Spirit who enables us to live lives of obedient worship (5:17ff.).

Jesus has not only saved His bride (i.e. the church) to be saved from the penalty of sin; He has also saved her for the purpose of presenting her to Himself "in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (5:27).  He cleanses His people by the "washing of the water of the Word" (5:26).

Thus those whose lives do not evidence such cleansing have "no part" in Jesus (cf. John 13:8, 10); such people should question if they have ever been "set apart", or "sanctified" (Eph. 5:26, verbal form of hagios) by Jesus (recall the similar argument made in the beginning of this post regarding 1:2).

Of course, as I have mentioned in almost every post ad nauseum, I am not advocating or teaching perfectionism here.  1 John 1:5-10 negates that.  God's people still battle with sin because they still are bearing the weight of a fallen body, living in a fallen world (kosmos), and battling a ruthless enemy (Eph. 6:10ff.).  However, God's people will nonetheless, by the power of the gift of the Holy Spirit (1:13), live differently in this world.  That's what it means to be holy.  As God's people gaze upon Christ in the gospel, they will inevitably be transformed, or cleansed by it (2 Cor. 3:18).

Those who walk not in love to Jesus are anathema (cf. Eph. 6:24).  Those who do not walk in loving obedience to Jesus (cf. John 14:15, 21, 23-24) simply do not belong to Him.

In Christ and for His glory to the ends of the earth, through His "set apart" bride,
Pastor Ryan

Monday, February 20, 2012

A Picture of Hope

As I get older, I am beginning to notice just how many of my parents' peculiar hobbies are beginning to evidence themselves in my own life.  Things like the love of cooking and gardening, things I used to think were for old, boring people, have intruded the desires' chamber in my heart, as I now find myself getting excited over the same things I once used to think were lame.

My mom is a "plant-o-holic".  The house I grew up in literally is filled with all sorts of plants: big, small, tree, flower, common, exotic, tender, tough, pretty, ugly...you name it.

In my room, I only have two.  They were given to me by a couple that attended our church for a year or so, and then left.  In an earlier post, I mentioned that I keep them in my room, as I see in them beautiful & living illustrations of some important biblical truths for the Christian life.



This plant was once a thriving beast.  And then it got some kind of infection that began decimating all the leaves, and even the stalks.  So, in an emergency effort to save the plant, I gave her a good ol' pruning.  Though the plant does not look like much now, the disease has been removed, and the process of recovery has begun.  New shoots are appearing out of their former, apparently lifeless stalks.

This is a beautiful picture of the hope of Israel in the 7th century B.C.  Israel, because of Yahweh's sovereign grace, was a thriving nation, flourishing under God's unique blessing upon His chosen people.  However, in her prosperity she let her guard down and allowed a ruthless & cancerous contagion - sin - to enter, which left unchecked began to decimate the nation at every level.  Because Yahweh loved His people too much to let them wallow in their sin, some painful pruning was in order.  Emergency surgery was required to save the nation from self-destructing into oblivion.  And so, metaphorically speaking, He cut her down, using the foreign nations to purge & discipline her.

Inevitably such pruning would bring about despair to God's people, as they would certainly wonder if He had forsaken His covenantal promises made to Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.  And so Yahweh, Israel's intimate Savior, inspired a prophet named Isaiah to prophesy hope to Israel, even though all she saw around her was hopelessness.  In Isaiah 11:1-3, 8-9 we read:
Behold, the Sovereign LORD of Hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.  And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD...
In that day the Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples - of Him shall the nations inquire, and His resting place shall be glorious.  In that day, the Lord will extend His hand yet  second time to recover that remains of His people.
Any Jew alive at that time knew that this was explicitly referring to God's promise to send His Messiah to the earth to rescue His beaten down & broken people, and then set up the Kingdom of God among the elect remnant.

This pathetic looking plant reminds me that regardless of how hopeless and despairing things might appear to my eye, God is at work.  His promises to His people will never fail.  About 100 years after Isaiah prophesied, God raised up another prophet named Habakkuk, who reminded the people:
"The vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end - it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it: it will surely come, it will not delay" (2:3).
If God has saved you, look with eyes of faith to the fact that God's promises to His people will not return to Him void (Isaiah 55).  Even in the great pains we experience in life, He is sovereignly working all things out to conform to the end He designed, for His glory (Eph. 1:10, 13-14; cf. 1:6; Rom. 8:28).  Not only is He God.  He is good.

Pastor Ryan

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 9 - Galatians)

If the gospel that Paul preached was Jesus Christ as Lord (Rom. 10:9, 13; 2 Cor. 4:5; Col. 2:6), then we must be mindful of the eternally serious warning he gives to the churches in Galatia: "There are some who want to distort the gospel of Christ...As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed" (1:7, 9).  Herein, Paul uses extremely strong & poignant language that many ear-tickling, goat-feeding, & numbers-counting pastors should be warned of, as the Greek word (Anathema) which the ESV translates as "cursed" really means to be "condemned to Hell" (NET, CSB f/n) or "eternally condemned" (NIV).

So, if we have grown weary of this long study, let us be reminded of the stakes that are involved when the 'church' preaches another (the Greek word heteros means "different") gospel than the one that Paul and the other apostles preached (as proven in our previous studies in this series).

Let us now look a little more closely at Paul's letter to the Galatians.

Indeed, as Paul intimates, the gospel of grace does indeed save us for freedom (Gal. 5:1).  However, he equally asserts that those who are truly saved will not abuse God's grace in order that they may have an excuse for a lifestyle of unrepentant sin (cf. Rom. 6:1).  No.  God forbid!  As Paul writes, "You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another" (Gal. 5:13).  As we have seen earlier, overcoming our innate proclivity to live solely for the advancement & comfort of ourselves requires the divine gift of a heart transplant.  While the old, natural heart gratified the desires & lusts of the flesh, the new heart "from above" makes war against it, seeking to kill it (cf. Rom. 7; 8:13).

This is precisely what Paul iterates in Gal. 5:16-17, wherein we read:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (NIV, NLT = "sinful nature", NJB = "self-indulgence"). For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
Moreover, those who live in the flesh, regardless of their profession, must heed Paul's warning in the final chapter: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life" (6:7-8).  Those who bear no fruit of the Spirit should not expect eternal life, since there is no evidence that they belong to Christ.

If you have not read any of the previous posts, you might be asking, "What is the evidence, or fruit of true conversion?" May the words of Paul answer your question: "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (5:24).  Those who have not crucified their flesh still live in the flesh.  You never crucify what you love.  You crucify your enemies, not your friends.

You might further ask, "What does such a person look like, in real life?"  Again, let Paul satisfy your query:
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (5:19-21)
Those who live "according to the flesh" are not alive, but dead (cf. Rom. 8:13). Regardless of what they think, such professors of Christ's name are not possessors of Christ's kingdom.  Unless such people truly are born from above to truly see both Jesus and themselves, they will never truly repent and believe the gospel.  Despite hearing many a comforting word from pastors who are content to let them fill their pews and membership roles, they will go on this life deceiving others, having themselves been deceived, only to die one day and stand before the Lord Jesus Christ on Judgement Day.  What words will they hear? "I never knew you. Depart from Me, your who practice lawlessness."  This is sobering stuff.

This is no mere game, dear reader.  For those who belong to churches that make much of numbers, remember this: it is not the number of people who raise a hand or sign a card that matters to God, but those whom are truly saved (again, see above for the portrait Paul paints of what such people look like).  Before we confer salvation upon someone, let us remember how conversion is defined biblically, as well as what it looks like practically.  How unmerciful the evangelical church at large is to many of its unregenerate members!  How often do we, for selfish reasons, let them come to our church, and yet never confront them of their unrepenant, and thus unforgiven, sins?  We laugh with them, coddle them, encourage them, but never confront them.  And then they go to Hell.  Is this love?

Finally, let us remember that although Paul repeatedly fought to defend that salvation is freely by faith alone in the finished work of Christ (2:16, 20-21; 3:2-14, 22-26; 5:5-6; cf. Eph. 2:5, 8-9), he also reminds us that those who have been saved by faith alone also (must!) have God the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, enabling them to bear fruit as Christ's new creation.  Or, in Paul's own words:
"Neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation" (5:16)
Regardless of what anyone says, the only thing that counts is that a person is a new creation.  As we will see in our next post, those whom God has created us in Christ Jesus has created them "for good works, that they might walk in them" (Eph. 2:10).

As harsh as some of these studies may appear, I hope they are received in love.  I love people too much to lie to them.  I believe that eternal condemnation is a reality that is repeatedly set forth in the Word of God.  As a pastor, I personally feel the temptation to make people feel safe and secure even when they're not.  That way, they keep coming to 'my' church, which thus makes me look 'successful'.  But like Paul, I believe that pastors who do this are "hucksters" who "peddle" God's Word for profit.  May God remind us that those of us who teach have to give a much stricter judgment on that Day!

In Christ, and for His eternal glory,
Pastor Ryan

Picture of a Healthy Church

In my room, I have a couple of plants that my wife, Christina, keeps threatening to throw out, as they're just, well, plain ugly.  However, I've asked her to humor me, as I believe both of them are constant reminders to me of how God in Christ has seen fit to spread His glory to the ends of the earth through the body of Christ, which is the [local] church.

As the picture shows, a healthy plant sends out shoots, or copies of itself.  It expends great resources in doing so, as the entire organism will fill up one's garden much more quickly this way (the innate purpose and goal of the plant).  Though it is much easier to maintain 'control' of the plant by continually cutting off these costly suckers, which 'drain' the 'main' plant of much of its resources, it is ultimately, in the grand scheme of things, detrimental to the life cycle of the plant. 


Anyone who knows anything about strawberries knows that it is the new plants that extend from the home base that bear the largest and most juicy berries after a year of growth.  Statistics show that most church growth - that is, conversion growth (and not just the "church shuffle" of disgruntled consumers looking for a better worship band, less offensive message, or better youth 'ministry') - occurs in church plants, as they are vigorous, and have not grown comfortable in their comfy atmosphere (hip & inviting lobbies, professionals running profession ministries, coffee bars, and every other amenity available to make us forget every Christian has been called to be a front-line soldier advancing the line, with Jesus' banner of the cross, in a brutal battle).

In our consumeristic, market-driven culture where companies are 'successful' if they are large & profitable, Jesus' church needs to swim upstream & follow the NT mandate of costly-to-self church planting, rather than the comfortable-to-flesh North American model of the complacent, meet-my-needs-and-forget-the-world-of-perishing-sinners church.

I close with a verse that I think best sums up this memorable reminder to the church, and especially us as pastors, who are often prone to see ourselves as exalted CEOs rather than humble baton-passers in a gloriously rewarding marathon:
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (2 Tim. 2:1-2)
 May Christ give His church this glorious vision of what it means to make disciples of all the people groups of His world through faithful church planting.  May He give us many godly men who will be groomed as Timothy was to groom other planters.

To sum up: what then does a healthy church really look like?  To put it simply & soberly, a healthy church is one that seriously takes Jesus' command to make disciples, grow disciples, and train up godly men to plant godly, Christ-exalting, fruit-bearing, & church-planting churches.

Cover Your world with Your glory through Your church, Lord Jesus, even as the waters cover the sea!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 8 - 2 Corinthians)

As we have shown through the exegesis of key NT passages in our previous posts, a true Christian is one who not only receives Jesus Christ as the Savior of their sins, but also receives Jesus Christ as the Lord of their lives; that is, their life evidences a submissive heart to His commands, and are as James says, "Doers of the word and not merely hearers" (1:22-25).

Today we look at Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.

Consistent with the initial apostolic message preached in the book of Acts (see part 3 & 4 of this series), Paul also preached the message of Jesus (cf. Mark 8:34ff.), namely, the gospel of repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus (cf. Acts 20:21). He did not merely tell stories to tickle ears or emotionally manipulate hearts. No, he determined to preach only Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). However, the crucified Jesus, upon resurrection, was declared by the Father Himself to be Lord of lords (cf. Phil. 2:9-11), and was not merely to be believed & received, but also was to be humbly followed as Master (cf. Rom. 10:13ff). The Jesus that Paul preached was "Lord" (2 Cor. 4:5; Col. 2:6), not a reconstructed Christ "according to human traditions" (Col. 2:8).

In 2 Cor. 5:17, Paul reminded the believers who were prone to believe the false gospel of the false teachers that those who are truly "in Christ" by faith are "a new creation."  Indeed, for those who are truly regenerate, or born from above, "The old has passed away; behold the new has come." Why the stern reminder? Because Paul knew that there were many false professors lurking in the congregations who were prone to "receive the grace of God in vain" (6:2).

Paul, like the rest of the apostles, admonished his hearers not merely to make some flippant or rash decision after the preaching of a sermon (like the modern day abomination called the "altar call"), but to live lives of holiness reflecting the nature of the One whom is thrice holy and actually resides inside every true believer.  This is Paul's argument in 2 Cor. 6, where he clearly reminds believers that there ought to be a clear distinction between them and the world.  God's people, who are His new Temple wherein He dwells and makes His glory & holiness known (6:16), thus says, "Therefore go go out from their midst, and be separate from them...and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty" (6:17-18).  Paul's logical deduction: "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God" (7:1). This is precisely what our previous posts have asserted over and over again.

Finally, before we leave 2 Corinthians, we look at the final chapter, where Paul pleads with his readers to not be so trivial with the apparent professions of faith. "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you fail to meet the test?" (13:5)  Following Jesus Christ is no mere trivial 'decision'.  Making "disciples" is not some kind of game that churches are to play. How often our biblically ignorant evangelical churches pronounce salvation upon any and everyone who makes any kind of response (e.g. raising a hand, talking to the pastor after a service, praying a prayer, etc.), regardless of whether or not a changed life is evident!

Do we really believe that God's sovereign and effectual grace actually transforms people? That the gospel of Christ is actually the power of God "for salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom. 1:16)?  Let us be reminded that when we pronounce people who willfully live in unrepentant sin as "saved", we implicitly proclaim a weak gospel that can only "save" sinners from the penalty sin, but not from their love of sin, or the power of sin, or the presence of sin. Oh how this must grieve our Savior!

Dear reader, when is the last time you have examined yourself? Oh may you truly be found in Christ today!

Finally, I close with a plea to pastors. If someone comes into your office who is concerned they may not be saved, take the admonition of Dr. John MacArthur to heart: they may not be saved!  Don't be rash in comforting them if their lives bear no fruit of the divine gift of a new heart.  Take them to the book of 1 John (which we will eventually deal with).  Don't offer assurance if none is warranted.  Take them to the cross!  Point them to Jesus!  The gospel alone has the power to either save the unconverted sinner, or comfort the broken Christian who has lost his way.  Offering rash "assurance" to an unbeliever is one of the most cruel, unloving things we as pastors can do.  Take the time to assess the situation.  It will be worth it.

Lord Jesus, be glorified, even in this long, drawn out study.  We have dealt carefully with Your Word.  It is worthy to be handled this way.  Give me grace to follow You today as my sovereign Master, King, and Lord.

Pastor Ryan

What a "peculiar" person looks like in Nazi Germany



Father, in Jesus' Name, may we shine as Your lights in Your world for Your glory.

**Pictures borrowed from the DesiringGod blog.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

The Last Words of a Man Who Lived Well

These are the final words in John Paton's autobiography.  He was a Scottish missionary who went to the New Hebrides Islands (now called Vanuatu, about 1500 miles NE of Australia) in the 1800's.  As the adage goes, he who lives well, dies well. 

Well, reading these lines, my heart couldn't help but yearn to give my all for the glory of God in Christ.  I hope it inspires a red-hot passion for Jesus in anyone who reads them as well.

Oh that I had my life to begin again! I would consecrate it anew to Jesus in seeking the conversion of the remaining Cannibals on the New Hebrides. Doubtless these poor degraded savages are a part of the Redeemer's inheritance, given to Him in the Father's Eternal Covenant, and thousands of them are destined through us to sing His praise in the glory and the joy of the Heavenly World!
 And should the record of my poor and broken life lead any one to consecrate himself to Mission work at Home or Abroad that he may win souls for Jesus, or should it even deepen the Missionary spirit in those who already know and serve the Redeemer of us all - for this also, and for all through which He has led me by His loving and gracious guidance, I shall, unto the endless ages of Eternity, bless and adore my beloved Master and Savior and Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Oh Lord, give me this kind of heart, to lose my life for Jesus, that I might truly live in Him & for Him!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 7 - 1 Corinthians)

As promised, we continue our study of what is called in theological circles "Lordship salvation."  Having investigated Paul's letter to the Romans, we now proceed to survey the rest of his corpus.

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is still addressing some of the sin issues found in the Corinthian congregation that he began in chapter 5.  There, Paul rebukes the church for their boasting in a 'brother' who had been having sex with his mother-in-law, something which even the unbelieving "outsiders" were ashamed of. People guilty of such arrogant & unrepentant sin were not to be associated with the church; thus Paul commands the congregation to "purge the evil person from among you" (5:13).

In chapter 6, Paul again expresses his shame over the fact that those who had been professing the name of Christ were acting more like the world than like Jesus. To ratchet up the seriousness of his discourse, Paul drops the bomb on anyone who thinks that they can go on living & looking like the world: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (6:9-10).

What I take from this is what the rest of the Bible (especially the NT) teaches, namely that those who claim to have been made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ will inevitably begin to become more & more righteous in their conduct.  Or, as we have seen innumerable times, that the root will show fruit.  A heart that has been made righteous will bear righteous fruit. A heart that has not been regenerated will not bear righteous fruit.

Since I can already hear the accusation of legalism or works' righteousness being leveled against me, let me make it clear that Paul says that people who are characterized or identified by a life of sexual immorality, etc. are the ones who will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  In other words, it is not merely those who do the odd unrighteous act that are refused salvation; rather it is those who are unrighteous.

I know of true lovers of Christ who hate sin who have fallen prey to some or all of the sins listed in the passage above. However, rather than living in the sin, and perhaps even boasting of it (as the man of ch. 5 did), those who are truly born again will repent of it. Is this not what Paul implicitly says in the next verse? "And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (emphasis mine)

This is the exact same rationale for holy living that Paul uses in Romans 6, where he writes, "How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (vv. 2-4, emphasis mine) He continues his line of argument a few verses later: "We know that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin...So you also must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (vv. 6-7, 11).

In verse 15 he continues his barrage against any form of easy believism that eliminates the notion that those who are believers will fight for holiness, rather than live in complacent unholiness: "But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness."

Again, Paul is relentless in his attack, as he concludes the chapter the way he started it: "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life" (vv. 22).

For those who have been truly regenerated from their wicked, sin-inclined, evil-deeds-addicted hearts, "sin will have no dominion over them" (Rom. 6:14).  Those who show that they are still slaves to sin evidence that they still have a heart like Adam (see Romans 5).  Those who claim to know Jesus as Savior, but do not have any desire to live for His glory reveal that they do not truly belong to Him nor have His Spirit residing in them (Rom. 8:9). Those who show no fight against sin or desire to obey God from the heart simply are not Christians (see Romans 7). In the language of 1 Corinthians 5, such people are not to be considered "brothers", and are not to be considered those who truly belong to Christ, since those who are His sheep will indeed hear His awful words of rebuke and quickly respond in contrition and repentance (the way David did in Psalm 51).

In the penultimate chapter of the book, Paul deals with questions & confusions regarding the resurrection. However, before he begins his discourse, he prefaces it with a reminder that those who are not living lives consistent with the gospel should have no confidence that they will be partakers of this glorious hope that is for true believers only. In 1 Cor. 15:1-2 we read, "Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you are standing, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to to the message I preached to you - unless you believed in vain" (my emphasis).

Again, we see a condition clause. Simply stated, those who do not hold fast to the message Paul preached should be given no confidence that they were saved.  If there is no present salvation from present sins, then any claim that a person has been delivered from past sins is suspect at best, and blasphemous at worst. As this Scripture shows, salvation is not a mere isolated act in the past.  Salvation is continuous: it is past, present, and future.  It is not enough to say "I have been saved" (fancy theological terminology = "justification"). No, we must, with Paul, say that we are "being saved" (fancy theological terminology = "sanctification"). Those who have been justified will indeed by glorified (Rom. 8:30). However, it is only those who are being conformed increasingly into the image of Jesus Christ (8:29) who can boast of this promise.  Those who have had salvation "worked in" must "work it out" (Phil. 2:12-13).

What is the message that Paul preached to the Corinthians?  Jesus Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) and Jesus Christ as Lord (2 Cor. 4:5). Those who receive Jesus must receive Him not only as Savior, but also "as Lord" (Col. 2:6, NET [ESV mistranslates the double accusative as "Jesus Christ the Lord"]).  Anyone who has believed in a Jesus who is not Lord has, in the words of Paul, "believed in vain."  This is scary stuff.

The reason why we have so many false believers in our modern evangelical context is because so many pulpits preach "another Jesus".  Preachers should be aware that they will give an account for their ministries (see 1 Cor. 3 & 2 Cor. 5), for when they preach a message that tickles ears, they produce a whole bunch of people who call themselves sheep, but are nothing more than goats with sheep clothing & sheep vernacular.  Instead of preaching Jesus as Lord, many preach Him as friend, cheerleader, genie, 'savior', encourager.  In most pulpits, Jesus is not preached as the thrice holy God of Isaiah 6 (see John 12); no, He is preached as someone who loves us just the way we are.  Though sentimental, this is absolutely not biblical!  Jesus died to save us from our sin, not for our sin.  Oh how wicked, blasphemous, and God-hating this false gospel is!

To get back on track (people no longer can read long posts in our soundbite age), I close with Paul's closing words of 1 Corinthians: "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed!" (16:21, emphasis mine)  Let us remember that Jesus Himself said that those who truly love Him are those who keep [present tense] His commandments (John 14:15, 21, 23).  People who love - er, use - Jesus as their ticket to heaven but do not love Him as Lord of their life will be damned! As harsh as this sounds, it is what the inspired apostle says here.  A half gospel produces a half Christian, which is no Christian at all.

As expected, Paul's theology of Lordship salvation is consistent in 1 Corinthians, just as we saw in every other book of the NT so far.  Back to the sources, people, back to the sources!

In Christ Jesus the Lord,
Pastor Ryan Case

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 6)

As tedious as this may apparently be, we press on in our study of this crucially vital topic.  As James Montgomery Boice said,

[We] are not dealing with some issue that is external to the faith, but with the central issue of all, namely, What does it mean to be a Christian? I consider [this] to be the greatest weakness of contemporary evangelical Christianity in America. Did I say weakness? It is more. It is a tragic error. It is the idea - where did it ever come from? - that one can be a Christian without being a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This view promises false peace to thousands who have given verbal assent to this reductionist Christianity but are not truly in God's family.
He goes on to say,
Why is today's church so weak? Why are we able to claim many conversions and enroll many church members but have less and less impact on our culture? Why are Christians indistinguishable from the world? Is it not that many are calling people Christians who are actually unregenerate? Is it not that many are settling for a "form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:5)?
Suffice it to say, Boice reminds us that this is an issue worth toiling over. The very glory of God in Christ is at stake, as it is expressly linked by Paul to the church's witness in the world (Eph. 3:10, 21; cf. Matt. 5:13, 14-16). Moreover, the final state of eternal souls is at stake. As I've heard it preached, "How much do you have to hate someone to not tell them the truth?"  If Jesus makes demands (e.g. His oft repeated, "If anyone would be My disciple, He must deny himself, take up His cross, and follow Me"), why do we edit - and even omit - them in our 'gospel' presentations?

As we saw in our first and second posts, those who do not do the will of God should not be considered children of God. If Hell is real - and it is - then we owe it to our fellow neighbors to love them enough to tell them the truth, for one must know the truth before they can be saved (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Tim. 2:25; Tit. 1:1; cf. Rom. 10:14-17).  No one has ever been saved by believing lies! Only the truth can set us free (John 8:32). And who does Jesus say are those who have been set free? "Those who abide in His Word", that is, those who hear it and "continue to follow His teaching" (8:31, NET). Here Jesus gives us the clearest definition of what it means to be His "disciple" (8:31): a disciple is one who follows Jesus Christ as Lord and thus "remains faithful to His teachings" (NLT).

In our next post, we will continue where part 5 left off: an examination of Pauline literature.

In marathon races, there are often stations set up along the way that offer a short reprieve where sustenance is offered to enable the weary runners to press on.  I hope this well-placed reminder of the importance of our discussion will encourage us to not grow weary in our studies.

In Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
Pastor Ryan Case