Category: Our ways and God’s ways

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How Holy Must We Live to Be Saved?

Nobody’s perfect, but how imperfect can you be and still make it through the door of heaven?

holy saved

We have focused for several posts on the crucial subject of holiness. Anyone who wants to know God and his ways can and must learn to love the awesome, exciting, joyful, and beautiful quality of holiness. At the moment of our salvation, God removes us from a polluted, foul, sewage-fed canal, places us in a perfect garden, and commands us to learn to love our new environment.

Before we move on to another topic, I need to address one more question: How holy does a person have to be in conduct to be a true Christian, to have assurance of salvation?

I noted in a previous post that in Christ we are regarded as perfectly holy in status before God even though we are never perfect in conduct. But can a person who claims to be a follower of Jesus be so unholy in conduct that their holy status is negated, that is, proven invalid?

Taking holiness seriously

Let’s begin answering this question by looking at Hebrews 12:14, which says,

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (niv).

This says we are to make every effort—or strive—to be holy. Just as we make every effort necessary to earn a living and keep a job, or get the food we need each day, we are to make every effort to be holy. Why exert such effort?

We must make every effort to be holy because “without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Does that mean what it sounds like it means? Is it saying we cannot ultimately be saved and have eternal life with God unless our conduct in this life reaches a certain standard of holiness?

Necessary holiness

To answer this crucial question we first need to see that this verse cannot be referring to the status of holiness; it must be referring to conduct because we cannot achieve the status of holiness through effort, but only through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9) (If you have not yet read my previous post on “How to Avoid Extremes in the Pursuit of Holiness,” I urge you to read it before reading this). So, striving for holiness must mean striving actually to live in a holy way.

Second, we need to see that the words “see the Lord” must refer to ultimate salvation, not merely feeling close to God or walking in communion with him. In other words, some people have the view that because we are saved by God’s grace that means we can live any way we want because if we have faith in Christ we will still be saved. They would say that “without holiness no one will see the Lord” means something like, “Without holiness we will not have an accurate understanding of God,” or “Without holiness we will not enjoy the presence of God,” or “No matter how bad we have been in this life, if we believe in Christ God will transform us after we die to be truly holy so that we can come into his holy presence.”

But that understanding does not fit the context of Hebrews 12:14. In verses 15–17 the writer warns: “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (Hebrews 12:15–17)

Notice, the writer warns about people who will fail “to obtain the grace of God” even though they want the grace of God. He warns against being like Esau, who was lost. The writer’s focus in the surrounding verses is clearly to warn Christians not to continue in sin lest they ultimately discover to their sorrow that they are lost.

This agrees with the rest of the New Testament

Does this understanding fit the larger context of the New Testament? Does the New Testament elsewhere teach that it is possible to think you are a Christian and call yourself a Christian and yet live below a minimum standard of holiness, and therefore be a false Christian? See what you think.

Jesus said:

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7:21–27)

Galatians 5:19–24 says:

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Ephesians 5:3–6 says:

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 says:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 John 3:2–10 says:

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Revelation 21:7–8 says:

The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Conclusion

How holy does a true Christian have to be?

Answer: A true Christian will not practice evil. That is, a true Christian will not keep committing evil without repentance.

A true Christian will on occasion commit an evil deed but will soon repent sincerely. A true Christian may fall again to that sin (as can happen to an addict), but he or she will again repent sincerely. (Mark 1:14–15; Luke 5:32; Acts 17:30; 26:20)

A true Christian will not be complacent about doing what the Bible plainly calls evil.

True Christians will not deceive themselves by calling good what the Bible calls evil.

Our way versus God’s way

Our way: Regard holy conduct as optional.

God’s way: Without holiness no one will see the Lord. If we rely on Christ, he can give us the ability to hate and overcome our own evil, live in purity, and delight in the joy-producing gift of holiness.

God is patient with his children and works over time to purify them of evil. But his patience has limits. See Hebrews 12:1–29 and Revelation 2:20–23 (note especially verse 21); 3:1–5; 3:14–21.

If we willfully live in ongoing disobedience to God’s commands recorded in Scripture, that is, if we knowingly continue doing evil without repentance over an extended time, we are falling short of the holiness required to be saved. We must repent of deliberate, ongoing, self-deceived evil-doing.

In our confused times and culture, this post is super important. Many people are deceived on this subject. Therefore, out of concern for others, please share this, forward it, tweet it, like it, do whatever you have to to get it before the eyes of others.

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The Sin Killer (part 2)

You can’t overcome sin, but Jesus can.

Overcome sin

In my previous post, we saw the first three ways that we rely completely on Jesus Christ to overcome sinful conduct. Let’s continue with three more ways to overcome sin.

4. Trust his promises that through him you can do what is holy.

Our holiness must stand on the strong legs of faith. Doubt brings defeat. Jesus says we can overcome sin through him, and we must believe him.

Romans 6:14 says, “Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 8:2 says, “The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” John 8:31–32 says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

5. Take up the cross and die again to self.

Christians are united with Jesus in his death on the cross, and that death enables us to be dead to sinful desires if we rely on it and regard it to be so.

Romans 6:6–7 says, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.” (Read the entire section, Romans 6:1–11, to fully understand this crucial reality.)

This is spiritually real, not just a way of thinking. I really am united with Jesus in his death, and I can draw on that reality at any time. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Galatians 6:14 says, “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Jesus died to this world, and I am crucified and dead with him. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Repeat these words until the Holy Spirit helps you believe them. Then you can live them.

6. Rely on your union with Christ in his resurrection.

This too is a spiritual reality that we can draw on at any time, not just a way of thinking. Just as surely as Jesus rose from the dead in power and lives in a resurrected body now, so you are united with him in his resurrection power.

Romans 6:4 says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Romans 6:13 says, “Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.”

This spiritual power is as real as the electricity latent in an electrical socket.

Paul prayed accordingly for the Ephesian Christians that they would know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:18–20).

So, there is resurrection power available to you if you will learn to call upon it in understanding, prayer, and faith.

Our way versus God’s way

Our way: Be holy in conduct by relying on human will power.

God’s way: Be holy in conduct by relying on Christ.

My challenge for you

Identify one sin that defeats you and focus for two weeks on overcoming it through ideas above. I hope you will send me an email and let me know how things went.

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The Sin Killer

You can’t overcome sin, but Jesus can.

overcome sin

In my previous post we saw that to think about our holiness correctly, we need to distinguish between holy status and holy conduct and rely completely on Jesus Christ for both. I want to explore more deeply how we rely completely on Jesus for our holy conduct.

In some ways, it doesn’t make sense to think we rely on Jesus for our holy conduct because our conduct is our responsibility. We choose what we do.

However, with that mentality we rely on our will power to do the right thing and be holy.

When we rely on ourselves, we will fail. We will succeed at avoiding some impurity but fail at others. We might succeed at avoiding sexual impurity but fail at ridding our souls of bitter thoughts toward someone who hurt us, or vice versa. Either way, we are not living in holiness.

Here are three ways we rely completely on Jesus to produce holy conduct in us.

1. Pray about your conduct.

This is as simple as saying, “Lord Jesus, help me have pure thoughts right now.” Prayer is the foundation of all reliance on God rather than self.

Jesus said, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

2. Confess sins and rely on Jesus’ atoning death and blood for forgiveness.

When guilt and shame are not dealt with properly, they create a spirit of defeat and weakness in the soul that only results in more sin and defilement. Satan has a foothold, and we feel far from God our strength. But Jesus gives us the way to completely overcome guilt and shame, and that of course is through his atoning death and shed blood on the cross. His atonement brings us near to God, defeats Satan, and puts us in a place of victory and spiritual strength. We are ready to face the choices ahead.

3. Quote Jesus’ commands as you make decisions and face temptation.

This is how Jesus defeated Satan in the wilderness temptation. Each time Satan offered a temptation, Jesus simply said, “It is written,” then quoted God’s commands, and that settled it.

So, for example, when we face sexual temptation, we could quote 1 Thessalonians 4:3–5: “This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.”

As you read the Scriptures, you will find commands relevant to temptations you commonly face. Write them down, memorize them, have them ready. For starters, you can find collections of commands in these sections: Ephesians 4:17–32; 5:1–21; Colossians 3; Exodus 20:1–17.

The commands of Jesus are not just the “red letter” commands, that is, the words of Jesus recorded in the four Gospels. The whole of Scripture is Jesus’ word, for all Scripture came from the Father through Jesus Christ.

Next week: Three more ways we rely completely on Jesus to produce holy conduct.

Our way versus God’s way

Our way: Be holy in conduct by relying on human will power.

God’s way: Be holy in conduct by relying on Christ.

My challenge for you

Identify one sin that defeats you and focus for two weeks on overcoming it through ideas above. I hope you will send me an email and let me know how things went. 

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How to Avoid Extremes in the Pursuit of Holiness

How the gospel affects the pursuit of holiness

We have been looking for several weeks at the necessity of holiness for anyone who wants to know God. However, it is also important to realize that people who pursue holiness can take a serious wrong turn. That is, they may try to rely on themselves instead of Jesus Christ for their holiness.

If we do this, we set ourselves up for certain defeat and utter despair, or for legalism, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy. We become either a failure or a fake.

We must distinguish between status and conduct

The reason for this is simple. No one can be perfectly holy in conduct.

But the hopeful truth is, we can be perfectly holy in status. God regards certain people as perfectly holy. That is, their status in God’s sight is that they are absolutely holy. The people who have this enviable status are those who believe in Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:30 says, “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (NIV). This verse says Jesus is our holiness. His holiness is our holiness, and his holiness is perfect.

So God does not give us holy status without any basis or reason. Our holiness is not imaginary. Our perfect holiness is the real holiness of Jesus that is ours because we are in Jesus by faith.

Your conduct still matters

The fact that we can have holy status with God even though we do not always have holy conduct can lead some people to make another mistake. They think their holy status in Christ means conduct doesn’t matter, that God doesn’t notice conduct as long as we believe in Jesus.

That too is wrong. God deals with us based on both status and conduct. If we believe in Jesus, we have holy status, and therefore God accepts us, treats us as a son or daughter, and treats us with favor and kindness. But he is not blind to our unholy conduct. He works to cleanse us of these behaviors. Jesus says, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline” (Revelation 3:19).

God resembles a father who loves and accepts his child, but in love also corrects his child. Hebrews 12:6 says, “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Hebrews 12:10 says our fathers “disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.”

So God treats us both “as if” and “as is.” Because of our faith in Jesus Christ he treats us as if we were perfectly holy by promising us salvation, eternal life, sonship, and so on even though we are not perfectly holy. And he treats us as is by addressing how we actually conduct ourselves and warning us that we reap what we sow and that our evil conduct grieves him.

Our ways versus God’s ways

Our ways: We try to be holy through our own efforts apart from Jesus Christ, imagining that holy conduct will give us holy status. We may try so hard to be holy in conduct that we despair of having holy status. Or we think the holy status we have through faith in Jesus Christ makes holy conduct unnecessary.

God’s ways: Our holiness comes through Jesus Christ alone. His perfect holiness gives us the status of perfect holiness before God. And Christ’s power and words give us the ability to grow in holy conduct. Thus for both a holy status and holy conduct, Jesus Christ is everything to us. He is our holiness. He makes us holy. We must put all our faith in him. To him be all the glory for our holiness. And thus because of him the subject of holiness is not daunting, negative, and intimidating for us, but rather it is another reason to rejoice in Christ and draw near to him. We can delight in holiness.

In order to think about our holiness correctly, we need to distinguish between holy status and holy conduct, and rely completely on Jesus Christ for both.

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Learning to Love Holiness

You cannot fully love God if you do not learn truly to love holiness.

learn to be holy

Those who truly want to know God discover that learning to love holiness is all important, because God is holy. Holiness defines him. Everything about God is pure, clean, pursuing good and opposed to evil.

Learning to love holiness depends on two actions. If you focus on only one, you will fail. Do both, and each contributes to the other in mutual strengthening. Like someone getting dressed for a big event, you must both put off dirty clothes and put on clean clothes.

Ephesians 4:22–24 says: “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

So becoming holy always requires both positive and negative, putting on and putting off, what to do and what not to do.

Putting off

To grow in holiness we need to stop doing things that pollute and corrupt our souls.

If we are honest with ourselves, we know what those things are. But because we want to do them, we often deceive ourselves so that we can go on doing them. The Scripture above talks about “deceitful desires.” If we like going to worldly parties, we tell ourselves that Jesus went to parties. If we like watching worldly shows and movies or listening to worldly music, we tell ourselves that what we watch and hear does not affect what we do. If we love money and possessions, we tell ourselves we need what we are greedily pursuing.

But our growth in holiness will go nowhere as long as we continue in such things. We must put off what defiles our mind, spirit, and body. We must ask God to help us be completely honest as we consider our conduct. And we must then ask ourselves if there is anything in our lives that is not holy, anything that influences us to be unholy and worldly rather than pure and godly. Once you settle in your mind to be completely honest and to renounce whatever God shows you is unholy, your conscience will be a reliable guide.

Putting on

But putting off worldly things is not enough. Our soul abhors a vacuum. We need to replace bad desires with good desires, bad “food” with good “food.”

To grow in holiness we need to do the things that will increase our love for holiness, God, and the things of God. The things of God are an acquired taste that increases when we feed that appetite. When we learn to love them, we will find that they are far more satisfying than our former worldly pleasures.

So holiness comes from reading and meditating on the Word of God, from worship and prayer, from full involvement in church life and fellowship with true believers, from serving and helping others.

Dabbling in relating to God and in the things of God—reading the Bible now and then, praying here and there, going to church once or twice a month—does not satisfy and does not lead to growth in holiness. That only leads to guilt and a feeling of being torn between God and the world.

So we must go all in. When we devote ourselves to the godly life, and to loving Jesus Christ, and relying completely on his gospel for acceptance with God, we will learn to love holiness. And we will come to know God and his ways better and better.

Our ways versus God’s ways

Our ways: Dress in both dirty and clean clothes.

God’s ways: Dress only in clean clothes.

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Pure Pleasure

Holiness is completely misunderstood.

holiness is exciting

In my last post I made the point that one of the greatest gulfs between our ways and God’s ways is in how we feel about holiness. God is perfectly holy and loves holiness, but apart from Christ we are perfectly unholy. Even if we are in Christ, though we are holy in God’s sight we still often are drawn more to what is worldly, profane, and carnal than what is holy.

In other words, God usually has to drag us into holiness. The Scripture “Be holy because I am holy,” sounds more like a threat than an invitation.

For example, given the choice between watching an episode of Saturday Night Live or spending an hour in prayer and worship, many Christians would choose the former. They might discipline themselves to pray instead of watch profane programming, but they would prefer the comedy. Again, given the choice between watching a three-hour football game or hearing three, excellent, one-hour Bible teachings on how to live a holy life, I suspect few American Christians would enthusiastically choose the latter. Why is that?

How to get an appetite for what is truly good and pleasurable

I say all this not to heap guilt on us but rather to bring the problem starkly into the light. We are very different from God on this. We have a problem, and it is not a small problem. It is not just a matter of whether we can clean up our act well enough to be saved. Rather, it is a matter of knowing God.

True Christians will increasingly want to know God and his ways, and as that desire increases we come face to face with the matter of how we learn to love holiness as God does. How we learn to genuinely desire holiness and dislike worldliness. To have new appetites and desires. How we become like the person who learns to truly love eating natural food and has no desire to consume store-bought, packaged foods loaded with artificial ingredients.

The deadening effect of an unholy mindset

You have gotten this far in the article, so there is hope for you! Some checked out at the first mention of the word holiness. You are still reading because you are no longer walking fully in the steps of Esau, who is the prototype of the person who has absolutely no interest in the things of God, whose life revolves exclusively around the things of this world. Therefore Esau is profane, godless, unholy, irreverent, utterly worldly.

Esau comes up in one of the important sections of the New Testament talking about holiness. Hebrews 12:14–16 says, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.”

Note the words “unholy like Esau.” Other translations say “godless like Esau.” His defining act was to sell his most valuable asset, his invisible rights as the firstborn son, to his brother. This story is so important to our subject, let’s read it:

When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.  Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.  Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.  And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.)  Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.”  Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?”  Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. (Genesis 25:27–34)

Note that Esau didn’t seem to do anything terrible here. He didn’t kill anyone, commit sexual immorality, steal anything, bow down to a statue. Hunting animals is not wrong. Esau was simply hungry, ravenously hungry. Nothing wrong with that. But he was also simply a fool, which means he made a choice against his best interest. He did not recognize the invisible things that are most valuable in life. The rest of his life confirmed this, for he showed zero interest in knowing God.

In other words, he was God-less. His god was the world, and thus the world became a profane thing to him. Everything becomes profane to the godless person. And a profane life is an increasingly deadening existence.

Holiness understood

Holiness begins with faith in Christ, and then it increasingly becomes part of our mind, desires, appetites, and actions as we see everything in life in its relationship to God. Our holiness grows as we value things as God values them. As we worship and give thanks to God for every good thing in this world. As we approve the conduct that God approves and humbly abominate the conduct that God abominates. And as we enjoy doing what Jesus would do.

Holiness is God-centered (rather than rule-centered). Holiness is love. It is pure in motive, unselfish, and humble. Holiness is without guile or deception, but fearlessly holds to the truth. Holiness is beautiful beyond words, good beyond description, desirable above every worldly pleasure. It is true, positive, clean, and lasting. Holiness is satisfying, fulfilling, and pleasing. It is energizing and zealous, burning like a fire. At the same time, it is peaceful, but not bored or apathetic. Holiness loves God and his glory above all.

Holiness is clean, pure pleasure. It is a pleasure far surpassing impure pleasure.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord! In his great love, he shares that with you through Christ.

Our way versus God’s way

Our way: Be worldly because it’s more fun. Worldliness is the good life.

God’s way: Be holy for I am holy. Holiness is the good life.

 

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How to Have a Healthy Soul

You can be pure in an evil-smudged world.

be pure

Today we look at one of God’s ways that is most not our way, but it is perfectly good and desirable once we come to our senses.

Recall again that the theme Scripture of this current series is Isaiah 55:8–9: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

What that tells us is that we cannot trust our intuitions when it comes to God and his ways. Nor can we trust what popular opinion and media culture say about God and his ways. We can only trust what God has revealed to us about himself and his ways.

What Jesus says

I believe that God has revealed the truth through Jesus and the Bible. And here is what Jesus teaches about God’s countercultural, counterintuitive ways: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13–14)

What American culture says

Turn on the television and watch for a few hours, or buy some magazines at the grocery store checkout lane and read, or check out the trailers of the top ten movies, and then answer this question: In general, is American culture and the people who drink deeply of it walking on the easy path through the wide gate, or walking on the hard path through the narrow gate?

If we were to shut ourselves off from our culture for one month and devote ourselves to reading the Bible over and over again, we would come to one conclusion: the way of life that American culture generally approves of is not God’s way.

Your big decision

This brings us to a fork in the road. Will we choose to walk in God’s way even though Jesus says it is hard and it is the way chosen by few? Or will we choose to go with the easy flow of the majority even though it is a way God rejects?

Big decision. Because the way of our world appeals to our appetites and desires, and it is smiled upon by people around us. It feels good. It is truly the easy way.

But there is one big problem. God does not approve.

And there is another big problem. In the end the way of the world leads to pain and loss. Its pleasures are temporary.

Choose the way that’s good for you!

All pleasures that God forbids resemble what meth does to an addict.

The Bible says, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:7–9)

This verse presents a contrast. The ways of the flesh lead to corruption, but the ways of the Holy Spirit lead to eternal life.

God’s ways may not at first feel like the way we want to go—just as a person accustomed to eating a high-sugar, high-salt, processed-food diet recoils from eating healthful, natural food—but eventually we find that God’s pure ways bring true, lasting life. They bring peace, joy, and love. His ways bring hope, righteousness, and strength. They bring health and true happiness to soul and body.

God’s ways versus our ways

God’s ways: “You shall be holy for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).

Our ways: You only get one life, so enjoy yourself while you can. There is no such thing as evil. Make your own rules. The dark side is entertaining. Purity is for prudes. If it feels good, do it. Explore. Decide for yourself. No one tells me what to do. Don’t judge me. Express yourself. I do it my way. Have fun. Get it on.

Based on this stark contrast, I leave you with wisdom from the apostle Peter: “Save yourselves from this crooked generation,” (Acts 2:40).

Spiritual purity is not the world’s way, but it is most definitely God’s way. If you want to know him truly, it must also become your way. Be pure!

 

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Why Jesus Always Takes Center Stage

Growing as a Christian

Knowing God and growing as a Christian always means delighting in Jesus above any created thing.

Why Jesus never becomes secondary

The apostle Paul had an impressive resume and pedigree. He talks about it in Philippians 3:4–6. But he does so only to say how little these things now mean to him. Something far better has taken over Paul’s life. He writes:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, 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 and 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—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7–11)

In your pursuit of knowing God, Jesus Christ is not only essential to beginning your knowledge of God, he is supremely important for your ongoing growth in that knowledge. We don’t start with Jesus and then move on past him to other things.

In the verses above, Paul speaks of “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Paul says knowing Jesus is so valuable that he is worth surrendering any other valuable thing in life for. Knowing Jesus is better than anything. And that is so because when we know Jesus we know the Father.

Here is the contrast between our way and God’s way:

Our way: Jesus becomes one of many things we value, but not the chief thing. Jesus is wonderful, but not everything to us. Jesus is important, but not worth sacrificing for. Our life-goals still take center stage, while Jesus is a supporting actor. We acknowledge Jesus as Lord, but our thoughts, time, money, goals, and desires center on other things.

God’s way: In the heart of every believer, Jesus becomes far more valuable than any created thing.

The change in heart that God requires for us to walk in his way is far more important for knowing God and his ways than any theological facts we can know about God. We can read 100 books about God and his ways, but if Jesus does not become our surpassing delight, then we will not know God as well as the illiterate one who loves Jesus more than any created thing.

Knowing God truly is more a matter of the heart than the mind, and therefore it is not about accumulating more knowledge about the Bible. It is about reordering our hearts around Jesus Christ. (This is not anti-mind, because we can’t do heart without mind.)

It is the Father’s will that we know him through Jesus, through loving Jesus supremely.

What supreme devotion looks like

This means that meditating worshipfully on the words and deeds of Jesus in the four Gospels is a crucial part of knowing God and his ways.

It means that means that meditating worshipfully on how the New Testament epistles explain, interpret, and apply the life of Jesus to us is crucial to knowing God and his ways.

This means it is crucial that we monitor the desires and affections of our hearts to be sure no created rivals arise to challenge our central focus on Jesus.

It means we monitor our ways to see that we love people as Jesus did.

You cannot exhaust the riches of Jesus Christ. You cannot know Jesus more without knowing God and his ways better. Jesus teaches us how to know and love the Father, and to rely completely on the Holy Spirit in all things.

Pause in prayer right now and center your life on Jesus Christ.

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The Limits of Tolerance and the Only Way to God

way to God

As intolerant as it sounds, God the Father still loves his Son Jesus and has chosen him to be the only way to God.

In the last post, we saw why God requires that we rely completely on Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. We cannot overstate the centrality of Jesus for those who want to know God and his ways, and the need to believe correctly about who he is and what he has done.

If you get this wrong, every other religious thing you do or believe leads nowhere. The Bible says, “This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11–12).

The only way to God and the limits of tolerance

Those are jarring words in our culture. In the spirit of Western culture, the non-negotiable values are tolerance, freedom, and independence. People want to do and believe what they want. They want to follow the faith that fits them.

When it comes to treating other people with respect and kindness, and the need for civil freedom to believe whatever religion people want, religious tolerance is very good. People must be free to follow their conscience.

But that is not the same as saying all religions are true. I could start a religion that believes my toothbrush is God, but it’s not true.

Our society should tolerate any religion that does not advocate crime, but not all religions will bring you acceptance with the God who is really there.

In fact, only one faith can do that. Only one faith is based on God’s actions to save us rather than our actions to try to save ourselves, which no one is good enough to pull off. Only one faith is not based in a fallible religious teacher, but rather in a divine Savior who is God’s unique Son.

According to the Bible, God’s eternal Son became a man, lived not just a good life, but rather the perfect life that only God could do, and obeyed all God’s commandments. And then as God had planned, his Son was arrested, tortured, and crucified not for any wrongs of his own, but rather as a substitute for sinful, fallen humans. At the cross, God’s Son Jesus received the just wrath of God that we deserved. Then on the third day God raised his Son from the grave to vindicate him and his words. (See the Gospel of Mark in the Bible.)

And because Jesus took our punishment, God will give eternal life to anyone who will repent of going his or her own way and believe in Jesus.

A singular Savior

Consider how Jesus differs from other religious leaders.

No other religious teacher has taken the punishment we deserved and atoned for our sins.

No other credible religious teacher claimed to be God’s unique, divine, uncreated, eternal Son.

There is no other credible religious teacher or leader who claimed to be the mediator, the go-between, the High Priest who is accepted by God and therefore can make us acceptable to God.

No other credible religious leader was supernaturally and permanently raised from the dead and promises to raise his followers permanently from the dead.

No other credible religious leader has claimed to be God.

There is no other religious leader who has received all authority from God in heaven and on earth and is now seated at God’s right hand. These are the claims of the Bible.

For all these reasons and more, Jesus was completely serious when he said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

A singular way

This means there are not many ways to God. All religions do not lead to God. Not if you believe the Bible.

In fact, any religion that ignores Jesus or downgrades him to just one of many good moral teachers is a religion that leads away—away!—from God. Through non-Christian religions people lose any hope of being accepted by God.

Several other major religions believe Jesus is good—but not necessary. They believe he is a prophet—but not God’s unique Son and not the only Savior of the world. In other words, they deny that he is The Christ, The Messiah, The Lord.

The Bible says, “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:22–23).

Make no mistake: according to the Bible it’s Jesus or nothing. The Bible says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Do you want to know God and his ways? There is no other foundation than Jesus. He is the cornerstone. The door. The good shepherd. The Christ. The Messiah. The King of kings. The Lord of lords. The bread of life. The living water. The resurrection. The teacher. The unique Son uniquely loved by the Father.

For all these reasons and more, at Jesus’s baptism, the voice of God the Father came from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). And when Jesus was transfigured in light atop a mountain, “a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him’” (Matthew 17:5).

God means it. Listen to Jesus.

Our way and God’s way

God’s way: He brings people to himself only through Jesus Christ.

Our way: We want to come to God through the way and religion we choose. We want to design our own faith or follow the religion we prefer.

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The All-importance of Jesus

God forgive me

Have you ever wondered, Will God forgive me?

To have acceptance with God, we must always depend not on trying to be good enough for God, but rather on Jesus Christ and his atoning death on the cross.

God forgive me

Recently on a ride-share I asked my driver, “May I ask you a question about your faith?” and he said, “Sure.”

I then asked him a question that I often ask: “If you were suddenly to die and stand before God, and God asked you, ‘Why should I let you into heaven?’ what would you answer?”

His response was to describe to me several of his religious activities. He said he went to mass daily. He showed me a prayer card that he keeps with him always. And he said he tries to treat people well. But he said no one can be good enough for God.

Clearly he was sincere about his religion, but what stood out to me was what he did not say. Although he is Roman Catholic, he never said anything about Jesus Christ. He has faith in God, but when asked what will make him acceptable to God and give him access to heaven, his default answer was not to mention Jesus Christ.

My driver is not alone. In all the times I have asked people that question, I don’t remember a single time that the clear, immediate answer was, “I am trusting in Jesus Christ as my Savior.” Ninety percent of the time, people do not mention him at all (even those who say they believe in him).

That’s a critical problem.

On what basis God accepts us

This is the sixth in a series of articles on the subject of what God requires of those who want to know him and walk in his ways. We need to know something all-important: God does not accept everybody. He does not accept everybody into heaven, and he does not accept everybody into a relationship with him. In fact, on our own merits, God does not accept anybody!

The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). That means we fall short of God’s holy, perfect standard.

That’s a critical problem because God does not grade on a curve. He is perfectly holy and just and does not lower his standards or requirements. Just as a dead fly in a bowl of soup spoils the whole bowl, so the presence of any sin in us pollutes us morally and spiritually and makes us unacceptable to him.

His highest requirement is expressed in these two commandments: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mark 12:30–31).

Who has perfectly obeyed either of those commandments for even one day? By nature human beings are simply not capable of that. We have a fallen nature. We are broken. That’s why we are basically selfish and must try so hard to be loving. That’s why relationships are so difficult. It’s why we resist centering our lives in God rather than in ourselves.

If we are to be accepted by God, it won’t be because we are good enough for him. No one comes close. No one can jump a mile high, and no one can meet God’s requirements.

God’s solution

Because God is loving and merciful, he decided to offer a solution to our critical problem. This is why he sent his unique Son to the world to become a man. Because Jesus is God, he was able to live a perfect life and then die a death on the cross for our sins that had divine, infinite capability to satisfy God’s just and holy requirements.

The death of Jesus atones for our failures. The death of Jesus on the cross is the only thing that enables God to forgive us without compromising his justice. He won’t ever compromise his holy justice, but he will in mercy forgive us because of what Jesus has done.

But God still does not forgive everyone or accept everyone.

The requirement of faith in Jesus Christ

The Bible says, “16 God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:16–18).

Notice in this verse the necessity of believing in Jesus Christ.

Returning to my opening story, this is why there is something deeply unsatisfactory about my driver’s answer. Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. His default confidence was not in Jesus Christ, even though he believed in him.

God’s way and our way

God’s way: We find acceptance with him only through faith in Jesus Christ.

Our way: We rely on our own efforts to be good and religious to make us acceptable to God. We try to accumulate merit in God’s sight. We want some other way than to rely fully on Jesus Christ as our only way to find approval with God.

Next week: More on the crucial role of Jesus Christ for those who want to know God.