May 2003
As Christians, we must move beyond grace and faith to the reason
why people are saved. One of the
greatest misconceptions in the Church today is the concept that God sent his
Son so that we could go to heaven. We go
to church, midweek meeting and then live our lives totally consumed by worldly
endeavors. People who live this way
remind me of the servant who buried his talent in the ground. God saved us for a purpose:
God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life— not because of anything we have
done but because of his own purpose
and grace. (2Ti.1:9)
The reason why God gives grace is not for us to indulge in
self-gratification, like the servants who were given talents; rather it was to be
invested for the masters benefit:
God
is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all
that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2Co.9:8)
When we were saved by God, we were saved to his purpose. All God’s people are saved for a specific
purpose which no one else can fulfill.
Each persons purpose is unique:
From him the whole body, joined and
held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love,
as each part does its work. (Eph.4:16)
This becomes clear when we read of David:
"For when David had served God’s purpose in his own
generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body
decayed. (Ac.13:36)
The parable of the talents draws this point home. Each had been entrusted with resources to be
invested in such a manner that their master would receive the increase. Most Christians have a backward view on God’s
purpose for their lives. My vocation is
to do the will of God in obedience to his word; my avocation is to earn enough
money to feed my family. So what is your
purpose in life?
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal
life, which the Son
of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of
approval." (Jn.6:27)
The gospel message is that we are saved by grace through
faith to do good works
For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so
that no one can boast. For we are God’s
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to
do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph.2:8-10)
We are God’s workmanship. If God’s purpose is going to be accomplished
it will be by him working through us:
There are different kinds of gifts,
but the same Spirit. There are different
kinds of service, but the same Lord.
There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. (1Co.12:4-6)
It was God’s working within Peter’s and Paul’s ministry that
made them effective:
For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the
Jews, was also at work in my ministry
as an apostle to the Gentiles. (Ga.2:8)
One of the greatest shortcoming in
ministry is to try to attempt the purpose of God by one’s own strength. If we are going to have effective ministry, it
will be when we look to God in faith. He
is working through us:
We continually remember before our
God and Father your work produced by
faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in
our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Th.1:3)
When I witness, preach, teach etc., I do so in faith believing that God
will empower my words so to move the hearts of men. This was the secret to Paul’s ministry:
We proclaim him, admonishing and
teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in
Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so
powerfully works in me. (Co.1:28-29)
To live your life apart from God’s purpose is to live a life
that is powerless and ineffective:
Therefore, in the present case I
advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will
fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you
will only find yourselves fighting against God." (Ac.5:38-39)
The reason why the church is ineffective today is not so
much that they are not looking to Christ to empower their work,
rather the church today has forgotten they are saved for his purpose. Paul, near the end of the letter to the
Corinthians, writes:
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand
firm. Let nothing move you. Always give
yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor
in the Lord is not in vain. (1Co.15:58)
Therefore in our gospel message we must present that Christ
works in us, that we are saved by grace through faith to works.
No matter how much we attempt to
fulfill God’s purpose for our lives, if we do not have this second work of God
in our lives, all our work for the kingdom will be meaningless. The second work that God accomplished in man
is that “we were sinners saved by God through Christ to be like Christ.”
God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life— not because of anything we have
done but because of his own purpose
and grace. (2Ti 1:9)
The Christian life is not about a belief system with
traditions and rituals; it is about new birth:
Praise be
to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil
or fade— kept in heaven for you, (1Pe.1:3-4)
New birth happens when Christ’s Spirit indwells a Christian;
yet many are baptized but are not filled. The Christian does not have to become
a new creation; if we are a Christian, then we are a new creation:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creation; the old has gone, the
new has come! (2Co.5:17)
When we become a Christian, we are a new man as opposed to
the old man. This change is illustrated by Jesus’ parable of wineskins:
Neither do men pour new wine into
old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the
wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour
new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." (Mt.9:17)
The Holy Spirit is the new wine. To place him in our wicked heart would destroy
both. Therefore, he gave man a new
heart:
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your
impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a
heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and
be careful to keep my laws. (Eze.36:25-27)
Ezekial is prophesying about baptism, that
the old heart is gone and the new has come. Then why as a church we sing
longingly “Create in Me a Clean Heart”.
These songs are for the Laodicean type
Christians:
Here I am! I stand at the door and
knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with
him, and he with me. (Re
John writes this to a church where Christ does not live in
their hearts but is outside their lives knocking to come in. The truth is, if the Spirit is in you then your are a new creation because you have a new heart:
The goal of this command is love,
which comes from a pure heart and a
good conscience and a sincere faith. (1Ti 1:5; note Mt.5:8; 2Ti.2:22)
Ever hear that you are what you eat? The truth is, you
are what you believe.
He made no distinction between us
and them, for he purified their hearts
by faith. (Ac 15:9)
The problem with many in the church is that our former
experience is more real to us then what the Bible tells us we are: a new
creation.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
They answered him, "We are Abraham’s descendants and have never
been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" Jesus
replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the
family, but a son belongs to it forever.
So if the Son sets you free, you
will be free indeed. (Jn.8:32-36)
The Son sets us free only if we believe the truth. If we do not believe the truth, then our
lives will be alternating back and forth. One of the greatest lies is that the
old is not gone and Christians have free choice.
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the
sinful nature. For the sinful nature
desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit
what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. (Ga.5:16-17)
We do not have to become a new creation; we are one, that is if the Spirit lives in us.
You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you
must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander,
and filthy language from your lips. Do
not lie to each other, since you have
taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in
the image of its Creator. (Co.3:7-100
Today the false gospel teaches that there are two natures in
man, like two dogs fighting. Depending
on who wins, we either live to please the sinful nature or the Spirit. Their life alternates between the sinful
nature and the Spirit. Their experience
is summed up as, “When I live according to the sinful nature my mind is set on
what that nature desires; when I live in accordance with the Spirit, my mind is
set on what the Spirit desires.” Does
that describe your experience? Where is it
in the scripture? It isn’t, for we read:
Those who live according to the sinful
nature have their
minds set on what that nature desires; but those
who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the
Spirit desires. (Ro.8:5)
Those and those are two different types of people, for if we
are born again we will cannot be controlled by the
sinful nature. Biblically, a Christian
does not have free choice to sin; for we always were controlled:
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
You, however, are controlled not
by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.
And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
(Ro.8:8-9)
The truth is that if you live by the sinful nature, the
Spirit cannot dwell in you. For if the Spirit lives in you, you will put to death the sins of
the body.
Therefore, brothers, we have an
obligation— but it is not to the sinful
nature, to live according to it. For if
you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the
misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the
Spirit of God are sons of God. (Ro.8:12-14)
In Galatians we read that we are a new creation by the fact
that the one who sows is an either/or senerio, not a
more of one then the other:
Do not be deceived: God cannot be
mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful
nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap
eternal life. (Ga.6:7-8)
Over and over the Bible supports this concept that being
under the Lordship of Christ overcomes our nature to sin:
This is the message we have heard
from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at
all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we
lie and do not live by the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as
he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of
Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
(1Jn1:5-7)
We are either light or darkness; yet, because of many who
claim to be Christians walking in darkness, we are deceived:
With the tongue we praise our Lord
and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s
likeness. Out of the same mouth come
praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can
both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a
grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt
spring produce fresh water. (Ja.3:9-12)
Two different streams, each
maintaining not alternating its flow. The Bible also
speaks of two loaves:
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you
know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a
new batch without yeast— as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of
malice and wickedness, but with bread
without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. (1Co.5:6-8)
The whole lesson of unleavened bread served at the Passover
was to teach us the newness of life Christ would usher in.
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who
called us by his own glory and goodness.
Through these he has given us his very
great and precious promises, so that through
them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in
the world caused by evil desires. (2Pe.1:3-4)
The second work that Christ promises to do in our life is to
make us a new person, as John writes:
Dear children, do not let anyone
lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is
righteous. He who does what is sinful is
of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason
the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one
who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he
cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God
are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right
is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1Jn.3:7-10)
Therefore, there are two works which Christ promises to do
in our lives. The first is: God works in
us being saved by grace through faith to works.
The second is: God has made us a new creation, that
we were sinner saved by God through the indwelling of Christ.