Tag: Salvation

Did Jesus So Judge the World that He Came into the World to Condemn It?

When Jesus called us to follow him, he called us to adopt his posture toward the world.

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I am writing today about something I have written before, but I think it bears repeating. I have not stopped thinking about it since these words from Paul virtually leapt off the page when I read them a few years ago:

“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.”

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 (emphasis added)

How many times had I glossed over those words without really seeing them? Did he really mean that? We are not to judge people outside the church? Isn’t that exactly what we do?

I have kept going back to Paul’s admonition often since that day. I didn’t see it right away, but I eventually noticed that Paul echoed the very words of Jesus in that statement: Jesus said,

“If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.”

JOhn 12:47-48 (emphasis added)

Elsewhere, Jesus said, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

If Jesus bids us to follow him, should we not adopt the same posture toward the world? It is the same posture Paul admonished the Corinthians to model toward those outside the Church: Do not judge them because they have a judge! (And it isn’t us!)

Paul

1 Corinthians 5:12-13

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?

God will judge those outside

Jesus

John 12:47-48

I have not come to judge the world.

There is a judge for the one who rejects me.

When adopt the posture Jesus had toward the world and the posture Paul tells the church to adopt, we are freed up from the responsibility to judge so that we can love. Even if the world goes its own way, which it will, we can love the world. Even if the world hates us, we can still love the world.

We are free to preach good news to the poor, to give sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the favor of God to all who will receive Him. This was how Jesus characterized what he came to do when he read from the Isaiah scroll in his hometown synagogue, sat down, and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4: 21) This is our ministry also, if we will follow him.

We don’t have to be in the business of judging the world because the world has a Judge. We can leave that to God. In fact, it isn’t an option. It is God’s rightful place to judge, and it isn’t our place.

That means it isn’t up to us to make the world conform to the law of God. We are not responsible to require godly behavior and biblical morality from the world, and it isn’t our business to do that.

Rather, we are to love the world, though people in the world are yet sinners. We can do that because Jesus loved us and died for us while we were yet sinners.

“Are you not to judge those inside?” says Paul. The world has not subscribed to Jesus, but we have. Judgment begins in the house of God because Jesus counts on us to be the light and salt of the world. If we lose our flavor, we cannot be who God calls us to be.

Who among us were able to conform to the Law before Jesus? None of us! Which is why we needed him. We are saved by grace through faith, and not by anything we could do. The world, likewise, cannot conform to God’s law apart from Jesus. This is why the world needs a Savior: because it has a Judge.

Why, then, would we try to impose godly behavior and biblical morality on the world through human, legal means when the world is incapable of conforming to God’s law apart from Jesus?

Jesus sends us into the world as his ambassadors just as he came into the world: not to judge the world, because the world already has a judge. He sends us out as ambassadors not to condemn the world, but but to save it.

If we can adopt this posture toward the world that Jesus adopted and that Paul admonished, we can be unified in that purpose and calling of Jesus even in our own differences about how the world ought to operate. We can love each other as fellow ambassadors of Christ and give each other grace in the areas in which we disagree.

Our primary focus should be the purpose and focus of Jesus – not to condemn the world, but to save it by proclaiming good news to the poor, sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and the favor of God’s love toward all who will receive Him. Everything else fades in light of that purpose and calling.

Jesus said, the world will know us by our love for each other. (John 13:35) Let us so live, then, that the world knows us for our love for one another and our love for the world that Jesus loved!

God Meets Us Where We Are: But Will You Know Him When You Meet Him?

If your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body is full of darkness

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About 5 years ago, I wrote God Meets Us Where We Are. I was impressed then (and I still am) that God who created the Universe stoops to come to us. I was also impressed that finding God is not so much about our seeking, but about our opening up to God Who is ever present to us, but never overbearing.

God seems hidden to many people. If we do not really want to see Him as He is and to embrace Him for Who He is, we may never know He is “there” at all.

When we act contrary to God’s character, our sin hides God from us. (Isaiah 59:1-2) The Prophet, Micah, says God “hides his face” from people, even when they cry to Him, because of the evil, the bad, the harm we do. (Micah 3:4)

The “evil” Micah is talking about in this chapter is injustice – the way we treat other people. The “leaders of Jacob” to whom he was talking were taking advantage of their own people for their own benefit. When people do that, they will cry out to God, but God will not respond.

CS Lewis called God the Great Interferer in his autobiographical book, Surprised by Joy. He didn’t want God to exist. He didn’t want to be interfered with. “He wanted to be left alone, and unconsciously knew that if he denied the existence of some Ultimate Authority, then he himself would be that very authority in his own life. Thus, he could live his life according to his own desires.” (Christ the Great Interferer)

When we live to satisfy our own desires, often at the expense of others, we act out of character with God, and we are blinded by the thrust of our own actions from seeing God. He allows our conduct to separate us and hide us from Him because God does not reward our bad behavior.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

Matthew 6:22-23

God desires us to know Him as He is and to desire to be like Him. When we acknowledge our wrong ways (sin) and turn (repent) from them, God is quick to meet us “there”. When we confess our sins, He is just and faithful to forgive us! ( 1 John 1:9)

That is what He is waiting for, but we must come to Him honestly. He isn’t handing out “get out of jail cards” for free. He wants us to desire Him and to desire to be like Him; He isn’t interested in appeasing your conscience for the moment so you can feel better about what you have done and what you will do in the future.

God has given us each other as the testing ground. As Micah indicates, how we treat others determines whether God is hidden to us. Jesus said as much in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. “‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me,'” (Matt. 25:40) and “‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” (Matt. 25:45)

It seems to me that God designed the world as He did because God desires relationship with people who desire Him, and He provides us a testing ground for that relationship in other people. God will not force Himself on anyone who does not want to know Him – at least for the time being.

There will come a day when our lives end in the natural course or by circumstance that God does not control. Having set His universe in motion, He rarely interferes. Too much interference would frustrate His purposes.

There will also come a day when the time for human seeking is over, when this Project Earth has come to its appointed end, when the time for ultimate redemption and the perfection of God’s purposes is at hand. At that time – when all people see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27) – it will be too late for any seeking

As the Apostle Paul said, “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2) The writer of Hebrews repeats three times for us: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 3:7-8; 3:15; and 4:7)

God is with us now, and the time of His favor – to seek Him and find Him – is now. There are no guarantees for anyone. In fact, the only guaranty is that our time will end: either at our own natural or untimely death or when day of the Lord comes and the time for choosing is over. Do not harden you heart. Now is the day of your salvation.

Is Merely Believing In Jesus Enough?

Jesus said that many people will say to him on the day of judgment, “Lord, Lord”, but he will tell them that he never knew them.

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I follow a daily Bible reading plan every year. In most years I read through the Bible from beginning to end, but this year I am focusing on the New Testament only. Today, I came across this rather innocuous verse that prompts my thoughts:

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people. 

John 2:23-24 ESV‬

Though I was raised Catholic, a combination of evangelical people who shared the Gospel with me led me to a real, authentic belief in God and surrender to Jesus “as my Lord and Savior” (as the saying goes). I can’t say that I didn’t believe in God before that time (intellectually), but God didn’t mean anything to me before then. I had no relationship to God, and the existence of God carried no relevance in my life.

As a young Christian, I put great weight on simply believing in Jesus, which was what was emphasized to me. It seemed to me that believing in Jesus was all a person needed to do to be saved, and everyone who believed in Jesus was OK. I think that is still fundamentally true, but it is not the whole truth.

I was grateful, of course. Belief in Jesus changed my life! I recognized the changes deep within me, which I believe is indicative of being born again. My eyes were opened, and now I could see!

Many years later, however, it doesn’t seem quite so simple. Examples of people who go to church, and claim to be Christian, but who don’t act anything like Jesus, are legion. This hypocrisy among the people who call themselves Christian is a common reason why people say they don’t go to church any more. Many people don’t live what they believe.

Of course, we are all hypocrites to some extent. None of us live up to God’s standard. (Nor do we even live up to our own, lower standards, if we are being completely honest.)

There are differences in degrees. Some people are more like Jesus than others. The Bible acknowledges that we must all grow in our knowledge of God, and the Bible recognizes that sanctification is a process.

In my own life, I experienced some relatively instantaneous changes in me, especially in my attitudes, in what I was drawn to, and in my understanding (like a light bulb turning on). I also continued to struggle with habits of thought and action, some of which dog me still to this day.

We want simple formulas. Romans 10:9 says, “[I]f you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” ( ESV) This literally says that believing in our hearts and confessing with our mouths that Jesus is Lord is all that is necessary for salvation.

I believe in that “formula” with all my heart. BUT – at the same time – it is is not quite so simple. Jesus said, “Many will say to me, “Lord! Lord!”

We might have a tendency to view the “Romans Road” as a kind of magic formula that makes a person a Christian, but it doesn’t exactly work like that. Anyone can mouth those words with no change in their inner reality. It’s not enough to confess with your mouth, a person must believe in his/her heart.

Anyone can confess that “Jesus is Lord”. The confession must come from a real and authentic belief in the heart that results in a change to be assured it has real substance.

This change is not something we can manufacture. It occurs organically from the inside out. The change may not even be immediately noticeable. This is because the change results from God working inside us, not by our efforts to conform, but by His regenerative work in us. It may take a while to bear fruit on the outside.

People look at the outward appearance (confession), but God judges the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) People may claim to be Christian, especially in the United States where being Christian can provide social, political, or other capital, but that doesn’t mean everyone who claims to be a Christian is an authentic believer and follower of Jesus.

Jesus said that many people will say to him on the day of judgment, “Lord, Lord”, but he will tell them that he never knew them. (Matt. 7:22) Jesus said that some of these people will even prophesy, cast out demons, and perform miracles in his name, but, they are not true believers. (Matt. 7:23) (If you want to hear the personal stories of people who recognize that they were once “false converts”, I am providing a link to their stories here.)

Continue reading “Is Merely Believing In Jesus Enough?” →

The Incomparable Importance of the Salvation of Kanye West

Kanye West has come out of his cocoon with big, bright butterfly wings that have all the markings of a man who is born again

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I dare say that Kanye West will likely do more for North American Christianity than Donald Trump will. There is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who is found than over the 99, and the kingdom impact may be even more profound.

I don’t know where Donald Trump is in his spiritual walk, if he has one. The fruit isn’t apparent to me (not that I am the one to measure it). Kanye West, on the other hand, has come out of his cocoon with big, bright butterfly wings that have all the markings of a man who is born again.

He just recently announced that he will never sing his old songs (as they are) again. One Facebooker commented that Kanye West will lose millions of dollars if he does that! That is the mark of a man who has been changed by the Holy Spirt, who has traded earthly treasure for a heavenly one.

From “I am God” to “Jesus is King”

From “I am God” to “Jesus is King”, the title of his new album, the transformation is extreme. It strikes me that Kanye West is not a person to do things halfway or halfheartedly. How many of us would dare to proclaim publicly, “I am God?”

Yet everyone who refuses God’s love, who ignores that God is God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, is essentially “saying” the same thing. We might not dare to say it out loud for fear that someone will think we are nuts, but we live as if we are little gods when we do not acknowledge and honor God as God.

We have watched Kanye West live out his extravagant and extreme life in the most public of ways. He is a cultural icon, one of the biggest idols of our time, but he is just a person like you and I. God is no respecter of persons.

On the other hand, God knows the innermost thoughts and intents of Kanye West’s heart, like He knows ours. God knows us all intimately. The good and the bad.

Though he once proclaimed he is God, Kanye West was not too far gone for God to reach him, to redeem him, to wash him white as snow and to set him free from the delusions and blindness that afflict us all (though maybe not as publicly). Until the scales fall from our eyes, our hearts are softened like flesh and we humbly receive God’s gift of life that no one in this world can earn, we are just as “gone” as Kanye West was.

I do fear that Kanye West has a rough road ahead. He was doing 120 mph the other way. Every fiber of his being is in the habit of going in a different direction. The wealthy and the famous are like camels trying to thread through the eyes of needles. It won’t be easy.

But, with God, all things are possible. This was the message Jesus gave us. Though it may be that difficult, God can do in Kanye West what He has done in countless men and women who have responded to that knock on the door, opened it and invited Jesus in.

Donald Trump may be seen as the savior of Evangelical power in the American political system, but I know for a fact that the impact of one sinner saved is greater than all the political power in this country and on earth. Perhaps, CS Lewis said it best:

“… Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false.  . . .  And immortality makes this other difference….  If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual.  But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more important, for he is everlasting and the life of the state or civilisation, compared with his, is only a moment.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 74-75

The salvation of Kanye West is of incomparable importance to the kingdom of God over things like the political and cultural influence of people like Donald Trump (or Kanye West for that matter) in this present world. Such temporary influence as a presidency or all of western civilization, itself, cannot compare to the unfathomable glory of the kingdom of God filled with mortal beings changed in the twinkling of an eye fully and finally into immortal, immutable children of the Living God – you, me and Kanye West included.

The Work of Godly Grief Within Us

How we measure up in relation to the barometer of Scripture and what we do with it.

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“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10) (ESV)

When I read this, I immediately ask myself, “How do I measure up to this standard?” Have I exhibited a godly grief that produces repentance that leads to salvation? I think that’s the natural inclination.

I search myself, my past and present experiences, my behavior and my orientation toward God, and I measure myself on the scale that is presented, not just in this passage, but in any passage. Scripture is not just a prescription; it’s a barometer.

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) (ESV)

I felt that active and sharp character of the Bible when I first read it in college, and it is not any less active or sharp in its affect on me today. If I am conscious of the “interaction” of the Scripture in relation to the thoughts and intents of my heart, it provides a third person view, in effect, into my self in relation to God.

Still, I am tempted to think, “How can I measure up?” Regarding the verse above, I am tempted to consider how I can generate a godly grief that produces repentance that leads to salvation. My mindset is, “How can I do that?” or “What does it take to accomplish that?”

As I dive deeper into the verse, though, I begin to see something else. That something else gets to the heart of my relationship with God. It is the heart of the Gospel.

Continue reading “The Work of Godly Grief Within Us” →