In a culture where mediocrity and political correctness drive "Christianity", I think it necessary to reflect on what Christ Himself said about salvation and how it come about.
John 14:6 (6) Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The universalism creeping into our faith should drive you to its defense. Believers need to wake up and realize that Christ said He is the only way to the Father, and if anyone who claims to be regenerate says otherwise, they are in direct contradiction to God Himself!
Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, etc. do not recognize Christ as He revealed Him self to us! So they are not going to be welcomed in to the Gates!
Modern Christians gravitate to this idea because it eliminates one of the most difficult aspects of their faith, the command to preach Christ and Him crucified! If everyone enters in, then there is no need to confront or contradict error or apostasy, because it wouldn't exist!
1 Timothy 2:5 (5) For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus
Salvation come from Christ alone, so the glory goes to Him alone!
Hebrews 9:11-12 (11) But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) (12) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
Christ came not only a sour mediator but as our High Priest, reconciling His sheep with the Father through His sacrifice alone.
Ephesians 2:1-8 (1) And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;(2) Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:(3) Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.(4) But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,(5) Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)(6) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:(7) That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.(8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
If in fact we as humanity are dead in our trespasses, and walk according to the ways of the world, then there is no opportunity for us to respond to the gospel, apart from Christ.
John 6:44 (44) No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Dead men are just that, DEAD. Dead men are completely unable to respond to anything, any touch, any word, any emotion. Like Lazarus, the unregenerate heart is unable to rise from its decay and decomposition unless God intervenes and makes what is dead alive.
Romans 9:15-18 (15) For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." (16) So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. (17) For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." (18) So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
The common evangelical view of synergism (the idea that the human will cooperates with Divine grace in the work of regeneration) stands against scripture. In reality, salvation is a Monergistic act, by God alone, as we looked at in the previous post"Faith: the Gift given". Not by works of righteousness or even a single act of obedience at an altar call, but solely by the sovereign choice and calling of God. It depends not on the will or exertion of the human will.
John 1:10-13 (10) He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.(11) He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.(12) But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,(13) who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Not by a blood right, nor by the willing of OUR OWN FLESH, or the will of ANY man but only by the will of God.
"Merit is defined as what is earned or deserved. Justice demands that that merit be given were it is deserved. Merit is something due a person for a performance. If it is not received, than an injustice has been committed." "The only merit we have at our disposal is the merit of Christ. The merit of Christ comes to us by grace through faith." -RC Sproul
That is what Grace is. It is the unmerited favor of God. Favor we do not deserve, and can never earn. Grace is received through faith, which we learned is a gift from God, a gift that only He can give.
It truly is Amazing Grace. If God choose only one person, or one nation to join Him in paradise, that would be grace, because in reality, ALL of humanity deserves Hell as punishment, not just for our individual sins but also for our innate sinful nature.
Eternal punishment is our due, our reward for our sins. Yet, there are those God has chosen to shower mercy upon, and draw them to Himself, regenerating and justifying them, declaring them righteous in His eyes.
Sola Fide, articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae "the doctrine by which the church stands or falls" - Martin Luther
Romans 3:23-28 (23) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;(24) Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:(25) Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;(26) To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.(27) Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.(28) Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Faith alone, brings us to justification. As Luther said, it is a pinnacle doctrine, one that determines how we understand much of what we claim to believe.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:(9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Faith alone saves, and God alone gives the gift of Faith. Through this, He is given all the glory, all the honor. There is none for us to selfishly grasp and claim, "I did this to myself", "I participated in my salvation through obedience."
Galatians 2:16 (16) Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
John 1:13 (13) Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
For obedience is a work nonetheless. Contrary to popular thought, there is no pedestal of obedience next to God's Holy throne for us to clamber atop and bask in glory of our deeds. We are justified and we believe with the faith of JESUS CHRIST. Not our faith but God's. Not of the will of man, or his flesh, or earthly inheritance, but solely and completely on the perfect Will of God.
Works, while they are the fruits of redemptive life, the evidence of the spiritual shift, they themselves hold nothing over our eternal destination.
Many Christians will say they emphatically agree with this, that their works are "filthy rags" on God's Holy altar, but is that what they truly believe? Those who adhere to the ridiculous notion of a hierarchical Heaven, where we boast our crowns of evangelism/faith/righteousness/tithing. Who look sideways at their fellow brethren and think "I am closer to God then they", who gossip and slander behind the backs of the unaware.
Isaiah 64:6-8 (6) But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.(7) And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.(8) But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
The notion that our works lead to our redemption is based on the thought that we, apart from God, can suffer our selves to do ANYTHING without selfish motive. Can man honestly do anything righteous, apart from the Father? Or is even the notion of good deeds thought with the conscious motive of self gain, or self preservation in mind?
Nay, I see no such merit in man, who according to the Holy Word, are no more righteous than the devil himself, without Christ.
No, it is by Faith in Jesus Christ, risen and alive that we are declared justified by our Holy Father in Heaven. The honor and praise are received by Him and Him alone, for He is perfect and Holy and has willed it this way.
Modern Christianity is failing due to the abandonment of Biblical Belief. Modern issues and political correctness take precedence over doctrine and truth. As we compromise our faith by softening our stance on current issues like homosexuality, abortion, the inerrancy/infallibility of the Bible we weaken our ability to continue to be “historic” Christian faith.
If our faith changes, or “adapts” its beliefs/doctrines to accommodate the culture it is surrounded by, it ceases to be a faith and becomes a narcissistic ideology. Refusing to stand on historic Christianity shows that modern “Christians” want to please themselves first, the world second, and God third. Our priority should not be making the Gospel relevant to the current culture, it should be to preserve and present the Gospel in the pure form that Christ our Lord gave it to us in.
2 Timothy 4:1-4
(1)I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
(2)Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
(3)For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
(4)And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
He says preach the Word, not logic, not humanism, not experience, or pragmatism. The content of preaching should always be only of the Word. Human methodologies are not necessary for success in the ministry, only scriptures are sufficient! Jesus will always be relevant, not because He adapts to the world, because in truth He is never changing, but because He is everything that all of humanity needs. He is the only source of true fulfillment we can experience, the only true source of life we can have, the only true source of atonement possible.
That is why the Gospel will always be 100% relevant and applicable, in its unaltered form, because it is the only thing capable of reconciling us with our heavenly Father. Once we change the Gospel, or bend it so as not to offend, we lose its truth and it ceases to be solely from God and becomes solely from man. Christ to the sinner is offensive. The main point of the Gospel is to show us that Christ came because we as sinners are completely unable to conform to God’s perfect Law, and therefore require salvation.
That fact alone puts the unrepentant heart into offense. It goes against the very ideals and thoughts we grew up with, especially here in America, that you can be anything you want if your try hard enough, that you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps. In truth though, we cannot become righteous on our own. Only through Christ’s redemptive work can we become justified in God’s holy sight. A fundamental Christian belief, at least it was until the past decade.
Everyday we see an increasing number of “seeker sensitive” churches leaving basic Christian truths behind. More and more of these “churches” have abandoned the Bible’s clear view of homosexuality, claiming it not a sin but a “disorder” or to some diluted souls a “gift”. They neglect the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis, or Christ clear rebuke of it in the 4 Gospels, all in the name of unity and open mindedness.
I urge you to listen to the Fundamentalists, F. Bettex and Emertius Stuttgart, who stated on this issue in the 1st volume of “The Fundamentals”:
"For our Biblical faith we do not need either the encomiums of men, or the approbation of a few poor sinners. We will not attempt to improve the Scriptures and adapt them to our liking, but we will believe them. We will not criticize them, but we will ourselves be directed by them. We will not exercise authority over them, but we will obey them. We will trust Him who is the way, the Truth, and the Life. His word shall make us free."
We should never alter or interpret the Scriptures to adapt them to our liking or the world’s. To do so destroys God’s perfect work and perverts it to a selfish man made invention. If we preserve its truth, if we contend for our faith and remain in orthodoxy, we can continue to genuinely change our own lives and the world around us.
Since Christ and His apostles are of models for authentic Christian living and faith, we should look to them for inspiration and guidance. In doing so we find that Jesus Himself, Peter, Timothy, Titus, and Paul all maintained and preached the Gospel, according to Christ, to all the known world. They never once changed the Message, never adapted it or compromised to “fit” the culture they entered. Yes it is true they changed the style of their ministry, but their beliefs, their faith and their doctrine never changed and never contradicted each other.
This is why Christianity prevailed, because of its authenticity. Humanity sees authenticity as strength as truth. If we adapt to the world and its ideologies, then the world is controlling or faith, and they can see it. Defending and contending for the faith, to keep it pure, is proof that we truly believe in it. By holding to a belief that is world focused, we go from being a Christ and Him crucified centered faith, to a world centered ideology.
Sadly this process started decade sago and has already done significant damage to the Body of Christ. As we abandon the battlements of our Christian faith, we forgo the ability to minister effectively. As compromise and tolerance prevail, we show those people who maintain a higher level of integrity that we are o different than the pagan and abstract religions and movements that rose and fell through out history.
The cry of our generation has become “Relevance” rather than “Repentance”. We need the never changing Christ, in our ever changing world. The same Christ that went to the “religious” Jews, and to “unclean” Gentiles, the same savior who went to the prostitutes and tax collectors is here to give repentance to us in our time.
Saying Christ message must change to remain applicable, is equivalent to saying the Christ alone is not sufficient on its own, and needs human help to maintain His salvation power. This is heretical at the least, yet we see it on marquees and websites. Churches adding what they think the Gospel needs to be relevant, “Your Best Life Now” series, “Jesus and your Sex Life” sermons, and “Prosperity” based discipleship reign supreme over God’s actual message in our depraved era.
Christ needs nothing added, His work on the cross and His resurrection are sufficient for the task we have been given in the Great Commission.
Mark 16:15-16
(15)And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
(16)He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Jesus did not command us to constantly upgrade and rework His redemptive work so new cultures can understand it and fall in line. Paul did not soften the Message to the Corinthian church when he wrote to them. He severely rebuked them due to their worldliness and refusal to abandon pagan acts and sexual deviancy. To the Judaizers in Galatia he disciplined them on their teachings that the Gentiles had to adhere to Jewish customs to be fully redeemed. Paul in his letters to Timothy encourages him to contend for the faith, to fight for it with all longsuffering, not to take careful steps to ensure his teaching was culturally relevant.
Biblical authority is a primary tenet of the Christian faith, contrary to the liberalistic view “no to Sola Scriptura”. Jesus obviously maintained a high view of the scriptures, which He quoted often not only to instruct be to rebuke and discipline. Many in the postmodern camp claim to want to follow the “lifestyle of Christ” rather than doctrinal Christianity. With short study however, we can see that following Christ “moral example” is not only not enough to enter the Kingdom, but is impossible if you abandon the infallibility of the Word. By abandoning Scripture we strip away tour foundation on which we base all our beliefs, judge current issues, and receive revelation from the Holy Spirit. Without it we cripple our ability to fulfill the Great Commission.
Romans 1 paints an accurate picture of the abomination that is man is capable of, depraved to the core mind, body and soul. How will we preserve a pure Christian faith if we decide to hold to a “Fluid” or changing orthodoxy? Our beliefs will spiral downward into the abyss that is our depravity. We as human creatures can no more maintain an unbiblical, yet Holy Christianity, than a leper can change his spots. Ideologies that are bound to human ideas or passions are destined to collapse and fail, because they are human products.
Who are we commanded to please? Man or God? Does not the abandonment of Biblical doctrine please man’s sinful nature? Is that not what a sinful and unregenerate heart would want? The destruction of the one thing that holds authority and shows the siner for what he truly is? Due to the fact that the Bible is the sole definition of God’s righteousness and the revelation that we alone can not achieve, man’s carnal nature will try to destroy and deconstruct it. Without the reality of the Law, where do we find God’s view of righteous behavior? From our hearts? Because our hearts are evil. Our minds? They are depraved.
Without a holy, unchanging standard in which our inability is revealed, a moral/righteous standard is dependant on humanity at its worst, unregenerate and dead.
