SOME ROADBLOCKS TO GOSPEL RENEWAL (#1 to #3)

 What are the Roadblocks to Gospel Renewal?

There are a number of roadblocks to gospel renewal, too many to cover here.  However, there are a few that seem to pop up quite frequently.  They are:

1.    The false assumption or belief that we have anything to do with our salvation

2.      A false understanding of just what saving faith really is

3.      Uncertainty regarding our relationship with God

1.     The false assumption or belief that we have

anything to do with our salvation

Many folks today believe that they had something to do with their salvation, or that someone else had something to do with their salvation.  That is a typical man-centered observation.  After all, like I mentioned before, most of us were raised to believe that we make our way in the world, we accomplish the things we go after, we are responsible for all that takes place in our lives.  Therefore, it follows that we made a decision for Christ, we are the ones that chose him, and we are the ones that maintain our relationship with him; further, that continuing to keep his approval is all up to us.

Without getting into the whole discussion of “man’s responsibility”—which is an important doctrine to understand—it is important to see that the fact of the matter is, there are no human fingerprints on our salvation—our salvation is all of God.  Yes, God uses people in the same way he used Paul and Apollos to plant and water, but remember, it was God who caused the growth [1 Corinthians 3].  It is God who:

·   Chose us  [Ephesians 1, Romans 9]

·   Who paid the penalty for our sin [Galatians 2, 1 Peter 3]

·   It is God who calls us  [John 6, Philippians 3]

·   It is God who brings us to life spiritually [John 3, 1 Peter 1]

·   It is God who gives us faith to exercise [Ephesians 2]

·   It is God who causes us to exercise that gift of faith [Ephesians 2]

·   It is God who justifies, sanctifies, and ultimately will glorify us. [Romans 8, Galatians 2]

Again, salvation is all of God.  We do absolutely nothing to earn it, and we do absolutely nothing to bring it about and we do absolutely nothing to maintain it.

2.     Uncertainty regarding our relationship with God

Being uncertain about our relationship with God is another roadblock to gospel renewal.  Many things can cause this uncertainty:

·   Questioning whether or not we really believe

·   An ever-increasing awareness of our own sin

·   Dependence on our own good works (more so than an awareness of a lack of good works)…wondering if our good works are “enough”

As far as questioning whether or not we believe goes, know this: 

PRESERVING THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL—PART V: RELIGION VERSUS GOSPEL

…so that the truth of the gospel might

 be preserved for you. (Galatians 2:5, ESV)

 In his dynamic letter to the Galatians, Paul makes clear that there is a distinction between “religion” and “gospel”.  Paul chastised the Galatians for accepting “religion” over gospel.  Were he here today, Paul would have been just as incensed at all of the “religion” that people are adhering to and depending upon rather than the gospel of grace. 

“Religion” is moralism, it is legalism, it is focusing on obedience to the law in order to be accepted by God.  It is avoiding God as Lord and Savior by developing one’s own moral righteousness.  It is characterized by self-salvation projects one may engage in, in order to secure God’s favor or to maintain God’s favor.  “Religion” focuses on one’s activity in the flesh, and puts great weight on the importance of that activity.

Gospel, on the other hand, is God developing and giving us—imputing to us—a righteousness through Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30 and 2 Corinthians 5:21).  It is God’s work in us.

What was the “religion” issue facing the believers in Galatia?  It had to do with accepting the false teaching that Gentiles had to become Jews before they could be Christians.  That was demonstrated in the requirement that they be circumcised—becoming Jews—before they could belong to Christ.  That was just false and Paul called it what it was.

Of course, the false teachers that had infiltrated the churches in Galatia (Galatians 2:4) presented their doctrine in opposition to what Paul had preached, necessitating Paul’s defense of his ministry, which he does at length in Chapters 1 and 2.

In Chapter 3, then, Paul lays it out for these misled believers:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:1-3, ESV)

Paul is laying out the difference between religion and gospel.  He is telling them that they, in fact, were sealed by the Holy Spirit by faith, not by works of the law.  He asks them, “so if you’ve begun your life with Christ by faith, by the Holy Spirit, are you really thinking you can be perfected by the works of the flesh?  REALLY?”

In verse 7 of Chapter 3, Paul clearly states that it is those who are “of faith” that are the true sons of Abraham.  He goes on to emphasize that it is faith, and faith alone—which is itself a gift of grace—that secures and maintains God’s favor.

So how does this play out in the church today?

PRESERVING THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL…

Introduction

The truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ is being threatened—and not by of some “outside” influence, but threatened by some within the church.  This threat, as will be seen in subsequent articles, is oftentimes not even recognized by those who engage in such activity as being a threat.  Instead, they sincerely see their “logic” as being true.  However, their logic proves to be false when scrutinized through the lens of Scripture.

This is the first in a series of articles springing from the letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian churches:

…to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. (Galatians 2:5, ESV)

and

But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”  (Galatians 2:14, ESV)

Twice, Paul talks about the truth of the gospel, which tells us that the preservation of that truth was extremely important to God.

Paul’s letter to these churches that were spread out across the region know as Galatia resulted from three things:

    1.    The activity among the believers in Galatia by the so called  Judaizers, and

    2.    The abandonment of the true gospel as a result of the work of the Judaizers, and

    3.    The false accusations made against the Apostle Paul by those who were antagonistic toward him.

Just as it was important in Paul’s day to actively stand against that which might threaten the truth of the gospel, so it is today, because nothing has changed when it comes to “the present evil age” (Galatians 1:4) in which Paul lived and in which we live.  Not only are we faced today with the non-Christian cults and their messages, but the true church is also faced with threats “from within”.  These people are variously described in Scripture as those who “troubled you with words, unsettling your minds” (Acts 15:24), those who present “danger from false brothers” (2 Corinthians 11:26), and “those who unsettle you” (Galatians 5:12).

Those who unsettle some in the church may very well be “well intentioned”, but the problem with that is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  Good intentions do not make for good theology.  Good intentions do not make for solid doctrine.

It must be recognized that part of the problem—these good intentions—result from the inability of those who present such "good intentions" to follow the logic of the Scriptures because they are derailed by emotion—emotion, for example, resulting from a sincere desire to believe loved ones are truly saved.  Those who allow themselves to be driven by emotion, those who are well-intentioned, end up providing a false assurance of salvation to people they talk to.  That is dangerous.

Then there are those who claim Christianity, who do not hold to a Biblical view of salvation, but instead allow salvation to be a very man-centered thing.  How?  They do this by adding to the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and, in doing so, completely negate the effects of the atoning sacrifice of Christ for themselves. 

Finally, there are those who advocate an “easy-believism”, saying, “all you need to do is acknowledge that Jesus died for your sins and you will be saved”.  Of course, because that statement contains some truth, many will believe it.  However, a statement that only contains “some” truth—even if that “truth” accounts for 99% of the statement—the remaining 1% that is not truth renders the entire statement false.

This series of articles will not address the attacks from without, but the dangers from within, as described above, with a view toward Preserving the Truth of the Gospel.

SDG

Who Is Controlling You?

I just finished another book called Who Will Deliver Us?  The Present Power of the Death of Christ by Paul Zahl.   Powerful.

One of the things he wrote had to do with the power we give to others, power over ourselves.  Zahl wrote:

A ministry of imputation calls for preaching and teaching a dramatic affirmation of the self.  (I had a little difficulty with that sentence, till I read the rest of what he wrote).  It is initially a question of recognizing a virtually universal negative experience (something everyone might experience) of life:  that we allow others to carry our value.  Other people have an extraordinary hold over us:  their view of us, or what we think their view is, matters more than what we think of ourselves.  Imputation (Christ's righteousness credited to us) turns this situation around, declaring that in the great transaction of the death of Christ, God has reaffirmed the priceless value he conferred on human beings in our creation.  (p. 73)

That is pretty heavy.  We all relinquish that kind of control to others every day of our lives--some of us more than others.  How?

THAT I MAY KNOW HIM… PHILIPPIANS 3:8-11

Introduction

In this passage of Scripture we see the apostle Paul explaining to the Philippian church the essential nature of really coming to know Jesus Christ in an intimate way, what is involved in that, and the why behind it all.  Paul addresses the humility involved in knowing Christ, and the absolute dependence on God that is necessary to know him.   And Paul does this without laying down one requirement for the believer.  We will see that it is something that God does in us.

We went camping about a month ago, taking our travel trailer out for the first time.  I was sufficiently nervous dragging something that big behind me on the highway, but eventually settled into it.  However, when it was time to hitch up and come home, I found that the anti-sway bar had broken on the trip up the mountain.  No, I had not noticed it when we originally arrived.  I did fine getting down to the highway, but once I got up to 55 mph, the trailer began to sway, and I don’t mean just a little.  I’m gripping the steering wheel for all I’m worth, thinking to myself, “I can do this”, “just don’t drive 55”, “I can get by without the anti-sway bar”, and “this thing isn’t going to get the best of me!”  Right.  I white knuckled it for about 30 miles before I finally pulled over, got on the Internet and found an RV dealer who had an anti-sway bar to sell me.

White knuckling—holding on so tightly to the steering wheel that our knuckles turn white—is how I initially learned what it was to live “the Christian life”.  It is how I learned what it was to get to know the Savior.  I used to think, “I can do this”, and, as I was taught, I rigorously engaged in having a quiet time, reading and memorizing Scripture, maintaining a prayer journal, evangelizing, worshipping, serving at church, fasting, giving, and being at church every time the doors were open. 

I was way too young in my walk with Christ when I was ordained as a deacon, and in the church culture of the denomination we were in, the deacons functioned as the sounding board for the pastor.  We were given any number of assignments, and mine included attending the deacon meetings, being assigned to at least two different committees, teaching adult Sunday School, and anything else that came up.  Oh, and it was clearly implied that saying “no” was not an option—the culture didn’t allow for that.  So that was how I thought—I have to be involved to be a “good Christian”, in addition to all of the spiritual disciplines I mentioned.  And to make it worse, time with my very young family was sorely missing, as well as true intimacy with Jesus Christ.  All of my “activity” took the place of real time with the Lord.

Now don’t get me wrong—there is absolutely nothing intrinsically wrong with any of these activities.  Engaging in the spiritual disciplines is very beneficial for us as believers.  The Holy Spirit has gifted all believers and those gifts are to be used for God’s glory.  But apart from the gospel—the completed work of Jesus Christ—they are all ritualistic exercises in futility.  Why?  Because of the motivation behind them, thinking we will gain favor with God by engaging in them!  Nothing we do can gain favor with God!   Too often, those of us who engage in the meticulous, ritualistic observance of the disciplines will even feel the need to double up the next day should a quiet time or prayer time be missed.  If we do this, what we are doing is we are legalistically white knuckling the spiritual steering wheel all the way.   Our deeds are as filthy rags. 

The fact of the matter is that the gospel—what Jesus did on our behalf, that is, the “work” to please God that has been already completed—must be taken into account by each of us daily.  I’ll address that in a minute.

Philippians 3:8-11  

⁸Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—¹⁰that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 

THINKING ABOUT WORKS-BASED SALVATION IN ADDITION TO "BELIEVING"

⁵Thus says the LORD:

            “Cursed is the man who trusts in man

                        and makes flesh his strength,

                        whose heart turns away from the LORD.

            ⁶He is like a shrub in the desert,

                        and shall not see any good come.

            He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,

                        in an uninhabited salt land.  (Jeremiah 17:5-6 ESV)