When I say, “I am a Christian”, there aren’t, nor should there be, that many factors which come into play.
For the Christian blessing, power and authority, lies in its simplicity, and not in its converted form of legalistic religiosity.
We have to diligently be aware of this religious, pride-filled ritualistic legalism that has crept into Christianity.
This is costing the salvation of numerous souls not just on the outside, but also within itself. It has become a religion of works void of Grace.
The Church at large has taken on all kinds of shapes, forms, entities and organizations.
This has led to much confusion, terrible misrepresentation, innumerable denominational divisions, and hierarchy formations.
It’s all about position, power and authority and keeping it in the family today.
We need to remember that neither Moses, nor Elijah nor the great apostle Paul kept it in the family.
The mantle was passed on to Joshua, Elisha and Timothy respectively, as God ordained it.
That should give us some food for thought.
Church Created To Reach Out, Not To Build Walls
Created to reach out to a lost and hurting world, it seems to have lost itself in its own created agendas laded with confusion and chaos.
For the most part Christendom is not what it was always supposed to be. Just a tiny percentage of what it ‘should’ actually be exists today.
Entrusted with a simple, powerful and beautiful message of hope for the entire human race, it has perverted it, creating it’s own doctrine in order to control and subdue.
It’s all about “tithes and memberships”, “rules and regulations” and funding it’s own personal agenda.
It has been too busy building its own walls, instead of breaking down walls.
Therefore it is no surprise that the word “Christian” over the years has become “one of the most” if not “the most” hated and detested words.
This is both in religious and non-religious circles all over the world.
The very place a lost and hurting soul “should go to” is also the very place they turn their back on and run from.
Seeking then to find solace and peace in the endless lists of worldly spiritualism, they get enticed and entrapped in the web of what is an oxymoronic “true deception”.
This is the ‘spirit of the age’, “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” [2 Timothy 3:5]. As a result their fate gets sealed.
And the truth is that very few have broken out from these spiritual chains of bondage.
The reason they have done so is because ‘somebody’ was perseveringly faithful to their true calling.
By giving them the life giving and life saving “Gospel of their Salvation” which is the “Power Of God”, they have smashed those chains.
So Why And How Did This Happen?
Instead of exuberating a non-judgmental, uncondemning attitude saturated with grace and humility, the display has been one of puffiness, haughtiness and cockiness.
It has been an “you’re going to hell and I’m going to heaven” attitude. How many of us are prepared to admit that? Very few I guess.
This is one of the major reasons the ‘Christian’ is hated.
We who actually have and carry with us ‘the Words of life eternal’, the Gospel, which is the good news of every person’s “free salvation”, have perverted it for personal gain.
Many of us think we are above the rest of them out there, and by thinking so we are doing the devils bidding.
“These are proud and haughty people, stay way from them”, the devil whispers into their ears. And they believe that.
How very quickly we forget that, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” [Ephesians 2:8-9]. Boasting has everything to do with pride.
Theoretically speaking, if God were to remove His Hand of Grace, we ‘all’ would be heading straight to hell for all eternity.
Apart from the Grace of God that exists in our life ONLY through believing in the Gospel of our salvation, we are not better than the other person.
For “all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God” [Romans 3:23].
It would serve us well and others too to be reminded from time to time where we have come from.
What Is The Simple Truth Of The Gospel?
When Paul the apostle said in [Romans 1:16], “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” he added ‘nothing else’ to that word “believeth”.
Not repentance, nor baptism, nor Church membership, nor tithes and offerings. Nothing else was added.
That is how it was so then and it holds good today, that salvation is for “everyone that believes” + Nothing Else.
‘ONLY’ believing releases the saving power of God into any individual, irrespective of their caste, colour, creed, ethnicity or background.
The Sin Problem Taken Care Of
God having an issue with the sin problem of the world took care of it on the cross.
Sin is the real problem, and we on our own are unable to do nothing about it.
Keeping the Spiritual Law, that is the Ten Commandments, certainly could not do it. The Law had no saving power. It could only condemn us.
The Bible is very clear, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak in the flesh” [Romans 8:3].
The entire nature of man with his selfish desires without the Holy Spirit finds it impossible to keep the law. In simple terms, it is not humanly possible.
Because of this, the next part of [Romans 8:3] tells us, so “God sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin (or an offering for sin), condemned sin in the flesh:”
Now watch this carefully: Notice that God did NOT condemn man, which is you and me. HE condemned the fallen part of our humanity, which is our sin nature. NOT US.
We Were Born With It
We are born with our sin nature, although the world with its spiritual rogues will tell us that we are not, in order to deceive us.
Just think about it, it’s plain simple logic. We don’t need to have a doctorate in higher studies of philosophy or theology to know this.
We have all gone through our childhood way back as far as we can remember. Right?
Were we actually taught to get angry, or to lie or be disobedient, selfish, jealous and all those kinds of things? Do we teach our children those things? No we don’t, but they still do it.
And when we tell them to do or not do something, more often than not, they do exactly the opposite.
Why is that? That is the ‘sin nature’ in us, which we are born with. And if not controlled or nipped in the bud, it can and does eventually get just about irreversibly out of control. The evidence is there all around us to see.
So there is no such thing as being born innocent. The Bible clearly tells us that we were, “conceived in sin” [Psalms 51:5].
No one needs to teach us show to be bad. We are bad automatically.
Stop Listening To The Lies, Your Eternal Destiny Is At Stake
We need to stop listening to all these spiritual gurus of our age who are blind and who, many are blindly following.
The world is full of them especially here in India.
All these ‘SAD-GURUS’ and renegade ‘BABAS’ of this age are sadly blind and blindly sad.
With their sadly blind philosophies they are blinding everyone else from the truth of God’s great message of salvation [2 Corinthians 4:4].
Notice how a number of them have long scraggly hair and beards to take on what they think to be an outward holy appearance of Jesus Christ? They’ve fooled millions.
Now what did the apostle John have to say about these perennial deceiving prophets [1 John 2:18]?
These are the so-called wise intellectuals of the world displaying the “vanity of their imaginations and the foolishness of their darkened hearts.
Professing to be wise, they have become fools” [Romans 1:21-22].
Here’s the thing; all these people actually know the truth about the Gospel and Christ Jesus, but prefer to stay with the lies.
It works better for them for their personal gain.
The Biblical Warning
The Bible warns us to “Let them alone and disregard them; they are blind guides and teachers. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a ditch” [Matthew 15:14].
And the end result is guaranteed to be bitter, “knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end” [2 Samuel 2:26]? Another version says, “Do you not know that bitterness will be the result?”
There is an eternal place of doom and bitterness, and we DO NOT want to be there with them.
Let us all be warned that we are living in that “latter end” of history as we know it, and make sure that our end result will not be one of bitterness.
Our Sin Debt Paid In Full By His Blood
Our sin nature, which causes us to sin, demands a price which only GOD was capable of paying and which He did pay in full.
How did He do it? “BY sending His Own Son JESUS CHRIST in the likeness of sinful flesh, as an offering for our sin, He condemned this sin nature of ours by nailing it to the cross.” It was what HE came to accomplish and accomplish He did. It was a totally finished work and decreed so by Him, “It is finished” [John 19:28-30].
Because of what HE did for us, birthed the Gospel of our salvation that, “Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again for our justification” [1 Corinthians 15:1-4] and [Romans 4:25].
It is ‘ONLY’ in believing “this message” that releases the saving power of God into our lives.
And having saved us He instantly seals us with His Holy Spirit of promise as a deposit. Its God’s eternal mark of Ownership and preservation, till we get to heaven. This is a sealed and irrevocable deal [Ephesians 1:13-14] and [2 Corinthians 1:22].
So SIN is NOT the issue God is worried about anymore for He has dealt with it. PAID IN FULL BY HIS BLOOD.
“Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered” [Romans 4:7].
THE ONLY ISSUE IS THAT OF “BELIEF” OR “UNBELIEF”
After its all been said and done, “belief” or “unbelief” is all it will boil down to, when we will all have to stand before Him in judgment.
And let’s not be deceived, for, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” [Hebrews 9:27]. Nobody gets to escape it and no political or world leader can save us from it.
The men of old “could not enter in” into the promised land, “because of unbelief” [Hebrews 3:17-19].
God is still speaking to us loud and clear through His Word, “Today if you will hear His Voice, harden not your hearts,” [Hebrews 3:15].
In other words, God is telling us, “Don’t be thick headed and stubborn”.
JESUS CHRIST IS THE BRIDGE
One of the great and prominent preachers of the yesteryears gave us a very sound warning that is WORTH paying heed to, and we would be wise to do so.
“You may live without Christ now, but it will be hard work to die without Him.
You may do without this bridge here; but when you get to the river you will think yourself a fool to have laughed at the very bridge which can carry you safely over.
You may despise Christ now, but what will you do then without a Saviour?
AH! You will want Him then”.
