Am I secure?
A churchgoer asked,
“What I want to know is whether I am good enough for God and whether he will accept me.”
The problem
The Bible is clear, nobody is good enough for God; we all fall far short of his standards. King David confirmed what God saw in men.
“The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have altogether become corrupt; there is no-one who does good, not even one.” Psalm 14:2-3
God’s decision about his own people in Isaiah’s day (around 700 BC) was similarly damning,
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:2
The Bible teaches that sin is the fundamental problem of all mankind. Hardly a page can be read without this being stressed; it makes no difference whether a person is Jewish, religious or doesn’t subscribe to any faith. It concludes,
“There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the kingdom of God.” Romans 3:23
Few or Many?
Yesterday I was talking with some men working in our garden and mentioned this question I had been asked. One replied,
“I thought God loved everybody and that everyone will be alright eventually.”
What the Bible teaches is very different to this popular view. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, said,
“For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14
At Christmas Carol services there are several readings that can be misunderstood. The coming of Jesus is only good news for his followers. Joseph was told that his fiancée, Mary, was about to have a baby, the Messiah
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
The little word ‘is’ is important, it is only Christ’s people who will be saved.
After the shepherds, out in the fields around Bethlehem, were told about the birth of Jesus they were told that they could find him lying in an animal food trough, a manger. Subsequently a great chorus of heavenly beings praised God, saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.” Luke 2:14
The gift of God’s peace is only given to those who are accepted by God; it is not available outside of him.
One Way or Many?
However selfless, kind and loving a person is, we all still fall miserably short of God’s standard. Our only hope is to be given the status of being ‘righteous’. There is no-one who can achieve this status by themselves, by their good behaviour or by their religion but it is available as a gift. The only person who can give us this much needed gift is Jesus. He said,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
No other religion or sect can be a channel for this gift. No religious devotion can deserve it. It is only given to those who have a personal relationship with Jesus. Shortly after Jesus’ death and resurrection two of his apostles, Peter and John were arrested and brought before the highest court of Israel, the same court that had referred Jesus to be crucified. They claimed openly that the risen Jesus was God’s Messiah, adding,
“Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
Those who reject Christ reject the one way that God has provided for our salvation. One of the most famous verses in the Bible summarises the centrality of Jesus.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
This salvation is given only to ‘those who believe in him’. A little later in this same paragraph the consequences of rejecting Jesus and his offer of salvation are spelt out.
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned alreadybecause he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:18
This teaching is repeated at the end of the chapter, clearly John wants this message to be understood.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:36
Whose Righteousness saves us?
There is a general feeling throughout the world that it is the good whom God will accept. This is not the Bible’s teaching. The Pharisee, Nicodemus was undoubtedly a good man, theologically astute and well regarded in society, yet Jesus tells him that his need is to be ‘born again’; he needs Christ. We are only acceptable to God because we are covered by Christ’s righteousness, Paul explained that the gospel is this free gift of righteousness available to Christ’s people,
“For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” Romans 1:17
This means that Christians have been credited with Christ’s righteousness because we have faith in him. How we live subsequently makes no contribution to the righteousness God has given us. It is the death of Christ on that cross that is our hope of heaven. Paul wrote,
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
Grace is ‘God’s free gift of salvation and righteousness, that we do not deserve’. What we all need to do is accept it by turning to Christ. Paul continues,
“As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.” 2 Corinthians 6:1
God’s grace is on offer but only those who turn individually to Christ and allow him to be their Lord benefit. We can be churchmen and very religious but reject the gift of God. We can never make ourselves good enough for God.
Doesn’t free forgiveness open the door to abuse?
Any person who asks this question has begun to understand the Bible’s teaching of free grace, however the question also betrays a misunderstanding of what happens when a person really grasps this love of God. A true Christian is so grateful to Christ that he wants to live in a way that pleases his Saviour and Lord; after all he is going to meet him face to face after death. If he doesn’t live for his Saviour after making a profession of faith, then such a profession of faith is simply a wishful insurance, it is not true conversion to Christ. Paul fully recognised this issue and addressed it head on,
“Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:1-4
To become a Christian is to start a new life. What we did in our old selfish life has been forgotten by God, the slate has been wiped clean, we start again living for Jesus.
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is of God who reconciled us to himself through Christ . . .” 2 Corinthians 5:17
Confidence
Just as our children need to know they are loved and secure, so do the children of God. There is no place for thinking,
“I hope God will accept me. I hope I am deemed good enough.”
Many years ago a missionary was working amongst sailors in Port Chalmers in New Zealand. He was a small man. He had just finished a short service for the seamen, held in a large loft to hold the sails of ships when a young sailor, Frank Bullen approached him. Frank explained that he did believe and had prayed a prayer of commitment to Jesus as his Saviour and Lord, but no obvious change had occurred, and he had no confidence that he had been accepted by God. Mr Falconer read him one of the sayings of Jesus,
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24
“Ah! I see how it is,” exclaimed Mr Falconer, “you are waiting for the witness of your feelings to the truth of him who is himself the Truth. You dare not take him at his word unless your feelings, which are subject to a thousand changes a day, corroborate it. You must believe him in spite of your feelings and act accordingly.”
Frank Bullen recorded many years later,
“In a moment the hidden mystery was made clear to me, and I said quietly, ‘I see sir, it is the credibility of God against the witness of my feelings. Then I believe God.”
If we are committed to and following the Lord Jesus he has promised that we are safe or in other words that we are ‘saved’. To be committed to following Christ is to be ‘born again’.
Let us all be clear. Membership of a church or organisation is no substitute, they cannot save us. No priest has the power to forgive our sin against God, only Jesus can do this. Notice how, in the following passage written by John, our confidence comes from our personal relationship with Jesus himself.
“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son, has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:11- 6:1
Shortly after the end of the first World War, Bishop Taylor Smith was preaching in a large English Cathedral. He was emphasising this need of all people to make a new start with God on His terms and individually to become followers of God’s Son. He told the story of the upright Jewish leader, Nicodemus, who came to meet Jesus one night and was told:
“I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying , ‘You must be born again’ ” John 3 v. 5-7
The bishop continued,
“Even that undoubtedly good man needed to turn towards his Saviour and make a fresh start, before he could become a subject of the kingdom of God - one of God’s people. My dear people, do not substitute anything for the new birth. You may be a member of a church, but church membership is not new birth, for ‘except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God’”.
On his left sat the Archdeacon in his stall, dressed in all his official robes. Pointing directly at him, the bishop said,
“You may even be an Archdeacon, like my friend in his stall, and not be ‘born again’, for ‘except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God’ ”, and continued with his sermon.
A day or so later, the bishop received a note from the archdeacon:
“You have found me out. I have been a clergyman for over thirty years but I have never known anything of the joy that Christians speak of. I never could understand. Mine has been a hard legal service. I did not know what the matter was with me, but, when you pointed directly at me - and said, ‘You might even be an Archdeacon and not be born again, I realised in a moment what the trouble was, I had never known anything of the new birth.”
You can imagine the delight of that bishop when they met up the following day and he was able to explain to the Archdeacon the simple truths of what God has done for us and what he requires of us. It is not our attempts at righteousness nor our adherence to a code of behaviour that is sufficient, but our utter dependence on a Saviour who wants us to rely on him. The Archdeacon prayed and acknowledged his own need for a Saviour, and invited the Lord into his life to take charge.
Religions teach that active membership of their organisation should save people. They usually have an initiatory rite, such as circumcision or baptism and then set out the rules of the organisation. Adherence to these is tacitly assumed to make people acceptable to God. How different the teaching of Christ is. He is saying,
“Make me your Lord and Saviour. Enter into a submissive relationship with me and then I promise you forgiveness. Outside of this relationship with me there is no salvation. I can say this as I am the only Son of God, the only way to be given forgiveness.”
Notice how in each of the following passages, taken from John’s gospel, salvation depends on this personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. When an individual receives Christ they are given, by God, the status of being his children, of being members of his family:
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed on his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, not of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12
It doesn’t work the other way round. Joining God’s family on earth, a church, does not give a person forgiveness. It doesn’t matter whether the church is Anglican, Catholic, Reformed or Charismatic, and each has their appeal, there is no salvation without a person individually receiving Christ. A church may teach Biblical truths most carefully but unless its members have each received Christ personally as their Lord and Saviour, they are not yet saved.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“I tell you the truth, whoever believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life.” John 6:47-48
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
“My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28
“. . . the Father loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I come from God.” John 16:27
“ But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:31
Salvation starts with an individual coming to Christ; other vital means of grace such as church membership, taking communion, attending services, listening to sermons, attending Bible studies, praying, reading the Bible are no substitute for a saving relationship with Christ. These are ways of helping us grow in our relationship subsequently. It has well been said that Christianity depends on personal pronouns. Many say,
“Christ is Lord.”
But only the regenerate Christian says,
“Christ is my Lord.”
The evidence that we have this relationship will be seen in the decisions that we make in our private lives when we think no-one can see!
BVP
