One of the main differences between Christianity and other main line religions is how it views God. Most major religions portray God as someone or something we strive to find. Christianity on the other hand is God seeking us, to save us from sin, and bring us in communion with Him. In today’s self-esteem, self-sufficiency driven world there’s a great danger that we put the emphasis of salvation on what we do… not what has been done for us. Take popular phrases about how we describe our salvation experiences. “I gave my life to Christ”; “I made a decision for Christ”; or “I invited Jesus into my heart.” I can almost promise you’ve heard someone say them. By putting the emphasis on what decision or act we chose to do don’t these statements fly in the face of how scripture describes salvation? For instance, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). We desperately want to be in control of everything in our lives, including our own salvation. But this is highly unbiblical and most assuredly keeps us from believing that the gospel “is the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16). When we surrender this prideful way of thinking to God then we will give up believing that somehow our skills or persuasion are what save us and we will see that the one and only goal is to present the message of God’s redemptive work in and through Jesus Christ alone. It’s not a popular view but it’s not our job to make scripture popular. It’s our job to be true to the text… whatever the text may say. Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord!
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 11:22:35 +0000
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