But God commendeth His love toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God
by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled
we shall be saved by His life. And not only so,
but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom we have now received the atonement.
Romans 5:8-11
The root problem lies at the foot of faulty thinking about what is
required for a person to be an Authentic Christian, to have a
relationship with God, with Jesus Christ that is acceptable with God.
Nominal, or cultural Christians often speak about God and justification
and when listened to carefully it will be found that they hold a very
superficial and dangerous notions about Christianity. This seems so out
of place as the Bible is very clear, as the opening verses so clearly
and plainly point out that Jesus Christ paid for our sins. Yet, some
still think of God's mercy as some general principle, or that works,
even though they will not admit that what they are doing is "works,"
that they seem to think that they weigh against our bad life, our bad
habits, and that they are somehow adequate ground for fallen humanity to
be able to stand before God.
You do not have to be a Christian, even and Authentic Christian to
be a good person, or, that you have done no crime against society. Is
this enough? No! God commands us to live a certain way, to not violate
those commands. You might say: "I was tricked." Maybe you were, but that
means that once you know what was done to you and how you responded
that it was against God and His commands, you repent, that is you do not
return to such things. If a person thinks that their good works are
enough, and if the self-evaluate they will come out on the positive
side. It is not that these persons deny the existence of Jesus Christ,
they even pray in His name, and even attempt to demonstrate some measure
of conformity, a conformity that they believe to be Christian behavior.
What is wrong is that they do not seem to have an understanding as to
the meaning of what redemption in Jesus Christ actually entails.
Some people go further in their thinking that they have some sense
that what Jesus Christ has done to make us acceptable to God. Here is a
problem, this thinking stops at this point because their ideas do not
involve any personal commitment or responsibility. Those who do little,
if anything above going to Church, to some meetings, etc., see that what
Jesus Christ did on the cross makes God to be more liberal in His
treatment of sin. We see this where some Churches all homosexuality to
exist, to even hold positions in the Church, or allow abortions, to
allow adultery, divorce, etc., and this is nothing more than what the
world around them are doing, they are cultural Christians. Somehow they
think that being "Loving," "accepting," "allowing," "doing," and that if
they do not sin too much and live a reasonably good life; they will get
to heaven.
I do not speak of what goes on in the heart of a person, I cannot
know that, I only can judge by their lives and if they are in conformity
to Scripture or the world. We judge not by our thinking, but by
Scripture and its teachings and anything else is not Scriptural. Yes,
this is hard at times for cultural Christians often uses the right
language, yet, they do not rely on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ,
or God's grace as their focus is on their own accomplishments, not on
Jesus Christ and His sacrifice.
If we, or you, think this way it is almost impossible that you can
come to understand, to grips with the inadequacy of you own efforts or
the impossibility to apply fully the obligation's of God's word. What is
so often done is to create an illusion, and it is this allusion that
keeps a person from acknowledging their own guilt and helplessness. We
all must come to terms with our inability before God. We all must, that
is if we have repented of our sins and have the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, change from the inside/out, to meet the commands of God. The
problem is: All this faulty thinking is the result of holding mistaken
conceptions of the basic principles of Christianity.
For the leaders of this people cause
them to err; and they that are led
of them are destroyed. Therefore the
Lord shall have no joy in their young
men, neither shall have mercy on their
fatherless and widows: for every one
is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and
every mouth speaketh folly. For all
this His anger is not turned away, but
His hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 9:16-17
God has not given up, His hand is stretching out
Richard L. Crumb
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