Assurance Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ Alone
By:
Bernie L. Gillespie © September 1, 1996. All Rights Reserved.
"You are ashamed of the Gospel!" There is no possible way that anyone could
say these words to me. If there is one thing in my ministry that I am not ashamed of it is
the Gospel. I have prided myself in being one who would die for the understanding of the
Gospel which I preached.
The ultimate insult would be for someone
to accuse me of departing from the Gospel. In my mind it was unthinkable and impossible.
Nevertheless, God, through His mercy, stopped me in the middle of my total resolution to
what I thought was right, and showed me that I was wrong about His Gospel.
When the apostle Paul was met on the road to
Damascus, the last thing he expected was a shaming from God. But, the Lord said, "Why
are you persecuting me?" It was an utter shock to him that his error was disgracing
or dishonoring the cause of God. He was more zealous than any Jew in defending what he
thought to be the truth. The greatest irony of his life was he was not the greatest
statesman of Judaism, but that he was the chief of sinners. He was working against the
will of God. The Lord said, "It hurts you to kick against the goads." The goads
were sharp sticks placed at the back of a wagon to keep the oxen from kicking it. God was
saying that Paul was actually kicking against the God’s purpose for his life. He was
absolutely sure that he was doing the very will of God. He was totally wrong!
At the time Peter was "tempted" to eat
the unclean animals let down before him in a tarp, he thought it was a test from God. He
resolutely determined that he was not going to fail the Lord as he had once before. He was
going to resist any temptation to compromise his convictions. Neither man, nor even God
would be able to accuse him of violating God’s Word. Peter would never eat any
unclean thing. However, God wanted to show him that his devotion to his tradition was his
biggest barrier to a breath-taking work which God wanted him to do.
How totally astonished he must have been when God
gave him a response he could not have expected. "Do not call unclean what I have
cleansed." Rather, that being a stalwart of unswerving conviction, he was foolish in
God’s presence. He totally mistook the meaning of the vision of unclean animals.
While he boastfully refused to do what he thought was sin, God was trying to open his
heart to a ministry to the Gentiles.
The Bible is full of examples of those who
courageously fought for what they thought was God’s will and plan, only to find that
they had misread the mind of God. At that point in their lives, these men and women of God
were ashamed. Not of their courage to stand for what they believed, but of their small
hearts which misunderstood the greater plan of God. They failed to grasp the right things
to believe. They were ashamed because they were so sure that had it all figured out.
That is how I have been ashamed. Not that I in
any way was afraid or intimidated to preach what I believe. But, I have been ashamed
before God through misunderstanding His glorious Gospel. As to my authority to represent
His Gospel correctly, I came short. It is a Gospel which I thought I had all figured out.
God let me know, in His own way, I was missing some very essential truths.
For a minister it is the greatest shame of all. I
want you to know that it is extremely difficult to confess this, especially to my friends
and fellow Christians. I know that I will shock many and turn some against and away from
me. I am sure that it will be costly for me to tell my story. Nevertheless, there is only
one thing worse than coming short of the Gospel. That is continuing to pretend that God
has not spoken to me and open my soul to His truth. To preach what you know is not
Biblical is most shameful, even if the price is great.
This newsletter is part of my sacred response to
a merciful God, to admit my short-coming and proclaim what He has so wonderfully shown to
me. I rejoice in the awesome goodness of God, that He could speak to my heart and change
me, even when I was so sure of myself and what I believed.
BACKGROUND OF ROMANS
I began a study of the book of Romans at the
beginning of this year. What I discovered was that I had not adequately or fully grasped
the Biblical teaching of the Gospel. I would like you to look with me at some important
truths from Romans.
This letter of Paul to the Roman Church has
probably had as profound an effect as any in the Bible. The lives of the greatest leaders
in Church history were remarkably changed by it. Augustine, Luther, Wesley, et. al.
Romans was written by Paul from Corinth
approximately 54 A.D. Paul had labored nearly 30 years in the ministry of the Gospel. He
was almost 60 years old. Consequently, Romans is the magnum opus (great written work) of
Paul’s life.
The church, the audience to which he was writing,
was a mixture of Gentiles and Jews. Paul had not visited Rome. They had been asking him to
come for a long time. This letter was received by them as a wonderful answer to their
prayers.
THE THEME OF ROMANS
The theme of the book of Romans is the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. This central truth guides and inform every part of Romans. How the Gospel
impacts all aspects of the Christian faith and life forms the treatise which we call
Romans.
In Romans 1:5 Paul conveys a key concept which
sets the tone for the rest of his letter: Through him and for his name's sake, we received
grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that
comes from faith.
Paul was called by God to receive grace an
apostleship. He was to preach the Gospel in order to call others, from among the Gentiles,
to the "obedience of faith."
One must be very careful with the meaning one
attaches to the phrase, "obedience of faith." Since Paul is concerned about his
readers having true obedience to God, HE DEFINES OBEDIENCE AS FAITH.
In other words, the true obedience is faith in
Jesus Christ. Rather than the teaching of some who say that true faith is obedience, Paul
is declaring that God’s message is the Gospel or good tidings of Jesus Christ. The
proper form of obedience to that message is to believe it, and by believing it, believe in
the character of God. If one does not truly understand the nature of the Gospel, one will
fall into the error of MAKING FAITH OBEDIENCE (performance) RATHER THAN OBEDIENCE FAITH
(trust in God).
WHAT DOES "NOT
ASHAMED" MEAN?
It is in verse 16 where Paul declares the kernel
of all that he will teach in the following chapters. I am not ashamed of the gospel,
because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the
Jew, then for the Gentile.
Paul is not ashamed. What does he mean by this
word? Does he mean a feeling of shame or guilt? Or a feeling of being inferior,
inadequate, or embarrassed? Or maybe he is not reluctant through fear of humiliation or
shame to make the Gospel known to them?
More probably this word in Greek is a legal term
which means to have been "shown to have acted on a false assumption or a misplaced
confidence."
When we have believed and tried to prove
something that we find is false or not possible to support or prove, we are ashamed in the
legal sense. We have NOTHING TO STAND ON TO PLEAD OUR CASE. We are shown to have had the
evidence wrong and are on the wrong side of the case. Anyone who preaches anything less
than the Gospel which Paul declared has no standing before God in their proper obedience
to the call to preach the Gospel.
Paul is not speaking about being afraid to tell
what he believes. He is speaking about the validity of what he believes in the sight of
God. One could boldly proclaim what they are sure is right with all the conviction of
their soul, but unless it is the Gospel which Paul and Scripture teaches, they are on the
"wrong side of the case" as far as God is concerned.
Paul speaks in other places about not being
ashamed:
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of
our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel
according to the power of God, (2 Ti 1:8 NKJ)
And for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am
not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able
to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. (2 Timothy 1:12 NRS)
It is the Gospel, and the character of God for
which Paul is not ashamed! It is not the courage of his convictions. It is not the
assurance in himself that is right. It is not confidence in his own tradition. It is
courage, assurance, confidence in God Himself.
For me, my shame was in finding that what I have
believed in the past about the Gospel was not supported by the clear teaching of
Scripture. I had an understanding of the Gospel that was shaped by particular
interpretations which were not evidenced by Scripture. They were taught emphatically and
forcefully by persuasive men, but when examined in the clear light of the Gospel they were
found wanting. In this tradition of teaching, many passages of Scripture about the truth
of the Gospel were either ignored, neglected or even tortuously reworked in an attempt to
conform them to preconceived doctrines.
God opened my heart to realize that my assurance
was not exclusively and totally in Him and His work for me, but that it was in compliance
with formulas which alter the simple Bible teaching about faith in the Gospel. It was
"another gospel, which is not another." I do not mean that tradition is wrong. I
do not mean that morality, character, godly behavior are not vital to the Christian life.
But, I had allowed my assurance to rest on my performance of the acceptable teachings,
rather than in the once and for all Offering of Jesus Christ.
Let me say it another way. I did not realize that
I was ashamed of what the Gospel really meant, and so I trusted in human teaching that
fell short of the Gospel. I will explain this by stating what the Gospel is.
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
It is the good tidings about Jesus. The word
gospel is a word which summarizes in one word all the important things about Jesus that
are important to the Christian faith. It is the good news or report of what God has done
in Jesus.
The Gospel is the word for what happens for us
through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. (1 Cor 15:1-3) Through Jesus’
death, burial and resurrection we died to sin and are raised to right standing with God as
a new creation. Through Jesus we die and we live eternally.
Paul labors throughout the book of Romans to give
as clear and precise a definition of the Gospel as possible. In fact his precision of
terms, language and theological articulation has caused some to avoid deep study of this
book. This may be the reason it is the "lost book" for many Pentecostals.
The tragedy is that it is in Romans where the
Gospel is so clearly declared. How can any Christian group profess to bear the "whole
Gospel" without giving thorough, frequent, and diligent instruction and exposition of
Romans in its churches, books, songs, conferences, preaching and Bible colleges?
God is incarnated and acts in Jesus to save
Humanity from the terrible calamity of sin and judgment. Jesus lived a righteous life and
offered His life on the Cross as an act of grace that He might take the world’s sin
and give those who believe in Him His righteousness.
The gift of Jesus’
righteousness is given by grace. It is received by faith. Those who believe and trust in
Jesus as their perfect sacrifice are given the righteousness of Jesus. For me, it was the
meaning of "the righteousness of God" which changed my whole life!
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IS
REVEALED
or 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 17
Paul declares that a righteousness from God is
revealed by the Gospel. It is not the righteousness by which God himself is righteous. And
it is not the righteousness which can be merited by keeping the law. It is a righteousness
which God gives us. It is a righteousness of God which comes to us through faith in Jesus
Christ.
The light of Christ’s glory blinded Paul on
his trip to Damascus. But, at that same moment a light began to blaze in the heart and
mind of Paul. He had been raised in the Jewish faith. According to this faith, obedience
to the Law was the way to salvation. This was the way to be right with God.
The revelation of Christ caused him to realize
that his trust in the Law was vain. He spent the rest of his life preaching, "For it
is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the
gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast." (Eph 2:8-9)
This same Gospel has dramatically impacted the
hearts of great persons of history. Martin Luther was a scholar and teacher of the
Catholic Church. He was troubled in his soul because he could not find peace. If God was
just and righteous how could he, Luther, ever do enough good works or confess enough to
stand before God.
He became a Doctor of Theology and was assigned
to teach Bible at Wittenberg University. As he taught through the Psalms, Galatians, and
Romans, God revealed to him the true nature and meaning of the Gospel.
As he studied the verses of Romans one (at which
we are looking) God revealed to him the meaning of "the righteousness of God."
"Night and day I pondered until I saw the
connection between the justice of God and the statement that ‘the just shall live by
faith.’ Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through
grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn
and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new
meaning, and whereas before the ‘justice of God’ had filled me with hate, now it
became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate
of heaven . .. If you have a true faith that Christ is your Savior, then at once you have
a gracious God. For faith leads you in and opens up God’s heart and will, that you
should see pure grace and overflowing love."
John Wesley as an Anglican minister was greatly
troubled in his relationship with God. It was a revelation, from Romans, of God’s
grace in the Gospel that radically turned his life.
"In the evening I went very unwillingly to a
society in Aldersgate-Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle
to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God
works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did
trust Christ, Christ alone for salvation: And an assurance was given me, that he had taken
away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
In each instance, the revelation was from the
words of the Bible. In each case, it was a greater understanding of the Gospel that
inspired them. The Gospel will do this for all who will hear it (without all the religious
trappings and layers of interpretations brushed over it) and believe it.
SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD
he Apostle Paul takes the first three chapters of
Romans to elucidate the powerlessness of human beings. He concludes with a verdict of
resounding finality: "so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held
accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing
the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." (Rom 3:19,20 - NIV)
Unfortunately, some believe when Paul says,
"no one," he means everyone who does not have the Holy Spirit . They believe
that someone can be righteous before God through their performance as done in the power of
the Holy Spirit. In other words, if you have the Spirit, you can meet the demands of the
Law, or keep all the commands of Christ and thereby meet the Holy and Righteous standard
of God. This is a fatal mis-reading of the teaching of Paul and all of Scripture.
Romans chapter seven is intended to speak
directly to this situation. Paul says in this chapter, that, even in his own life, he as a
Christian, had not attained perfection. I grant, indeed, that we can perform acts of
righteousness by the work or aid of the Spirit. We are expected to do this. However, these
acts are not the condition of our salvation. We are called to bear the fruit of the Spirit
in our life. This fruit, in essence, is the Christ-like life. It is not the condition for
our justification, but the result of our justification.
There is a very serious reason why we cannot not
be justified by our Christian living . It is because there is a mixture of God’s
righteousness (the work of the Holy Spirit in us) and our self-righteousness (the work of
our flesh or fallen nature) which will not be fully changed until the Coming of Christ. We
still have patterns of the sin nature which have not been fully transformed, and therefore
have not been removed by the Holy Spirit. It would be a tremendous Biblical error to fail
to realize this, or to teach that it is not so. This does not mean we are free to sin
(Romans 6). It means that being changed into Christ’s likeness is a process. What
keeps us in relationship with God (reconciled), so that God’s Holy Spirit can work in
our imperfect lives, is that we are right with God through faith in the righteousness of
Christ.
It is absolutely crucial that we accept
God’s verdict of our fallen condition. "All have . . . fallen short of the glory
of God." A large segment of current Christian teaching does not take sin as seriously
as God does. There are numerous forms of teaching which say, in essence, "You do what
you can and then the grace or mercy of God covers the rest." I call this
"filler" grace or "grace of the gaps." It is an understanding of grace
not found in Scripture which makes grace (God’s graciousness through Jesus)
supplemental and therefore insufficient in itself. If grace is insufficient, then by
logic, Christ is insufficient, and it follows that God is insufficient.
Our sin is falling short of the glory which God
intended for us and which most glorifies Him. If anyone dare think that they in this life
have fully achieved the glory which Christ intended for them, they have a very low
estimation of God’s glory. Even on the best day of our holiness and righteousness -
saved or unsaved - we come short of God’s glory.
If the message of God ended with Romans 3:19, 20
we would all be doomed. Thank God it does not! But now a righteousness from God, apart
from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
If we attempt to enter heaven by our own merit we
will utterly fail. The only way we could make it is by a righteousness produced OUTSIDE of
us. That is what God offers us, in and through Jesus Christ. God gives us a righteousness
apart from the Law (this includes any law). How do we get this righteousness? Paul
teaches:
23 This righteousness from God comes through faith in
Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
We are justified by grace. It is a gift or act of
graciousness. We could not merit it. God had to give it to us. Grace is not a substance.
It is not carte blanche. It is not freedom from obligation to Christ. It is not a license
to sin. It is neither freedom from everything a person does not want to do. Nor is it
emancipation to everything a person wants to do. It is a relationship with God. It is
reconciliation. It is God’s free gift of Jesus: His holy, sinless life, His atoning
death on the Cross (whereby our sins are put to death ), His Resurrection to give us
eternal life, and His Ascension to represent us before God with His righteousness. Grace
is the gift of Jesus Christ which frees us to know and serve God and others without guilt,
shame and exterior compulsion.
Why do we need to be justified? Because God does
not clear us of sin at a whim. He does not wave His justice in order to forgive us. The
justice of God must be satisfied concerning our sins. The standard for God’s justice
is His own holiness. Only Jesus Christ - God incarnate - by living righteously, kept
God’s standard of holiness. By His righteous life offered on the Cross, Jesus
satisfied the justice of God. The sentence and punishment of sin was paid.
25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through
faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he
had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to
demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies
those who have faith in Jesus.
God did not sacrifice His justice to save us. He
did not compromise. He could keep His standard of holiness while redeeming us by taking
our sin in Christ and giving us His righteousness.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I AM
JUSTIFIED?
My sins are truly transferred to Jesus: He
himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for
righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Pet 2:24 - NIV) At that exact same
time the righteousness of Jesus is counted or reckoned to us. I had no merit. If God were
to look at me in my most righteous and holy state I would still be unclean ("all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags;" Isaiah 64:6 - KJV) . But God counts me righteous
by faith in Jesus Christ.
The Roman Catholic church has historically
declared the teaching of justification by faith alone a "legal fiction." They
say that God would not declare something which was not actually true. They teach that only
when a person is truly righteous IN THEMSELVES (with the help of Christ AND the Church, of
course) can they be declared just or righteous. The reason for the unbiblical idea of
purgatory in Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox) teaching was to provide an answer for those
who died without being perfectly righteous enough to enter heaven. Those persons could
spend thousands of years being purged of their sins (unless the righteousness of saints or
the super-righteous [those who had more than enough righteousness for themselves] was
transferred to them). They would spend time in purgatory so that God could finally accept
them as righteous enough to enter heaven. This is how justification by faith works in the
Catholic system. A person is not right by faith alone. They are not right until God sees
them righteous enough in themselves (or by the help of others) to enter heaven. There is
no full assurance until the end of time (which varies with each person.)
Today, there are Protestants who have a
purgatory. It is not in the after life. It is here on earth. And those who live in this
"purgatory" live their whole life without full assurance that they are
righteous. They are told if they do more good things, attend to certain duties, pray
harder, keep ordinances, give more, show virtues, have more spiritual experiences, fast
more, and keep all of the human codes, they will (might) achieve righteousness. So they
work and they work until they "feel" they are holy enough or are judged
righteous by some human religious standard. Sadly, in most cases they never get
there. Those who believe they have, become proud, judgmental and arrogant about what they
think they have achieved. They go so far as to expect it of all others.
The horrible tragedy is that God has already
offered them a righteousness through Jesus Christ, BUT THEY DON’T REALIZE IT! Since
they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own,
they did not submit to God's righteousness. (Rom.. 10:3) By faith in Jesus, they can be
declared righteous and have full assurance of being righteous enough to enter Heaven. We
are not justified on some future uncertain date. Paul said, "Therefore, since we have
been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,"
(Rom 5:1 - NIV). WE HAVE JUSTIFICATION NOW!
How do we have assurance that we are justified?
Because God declares it. It is His word. You may question, "I know that I am not
righteous in myself. How can you say I am righteous?" Do you fully trust in Jesus as
your One and only sacrifice for sin, your way to God and your only hope in this world and
for Heaven? Then God says it. He declares (counts, reckons) you righteous.
Notice in Romans 4:3 it does not say God
"made" Abraham righteous. It says "reckoned" him righteous. When God
justifies, He COUNTS the person righteous, He does not MAKE them righteous. We are yet
imperfect and need the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to make us like Christ in
ourselves. This process of transformation is called sanctification. Sanctification is the
process whereby God’s Spirit forms Christ within us, thus making us righteous. This
process is not complete until we are glorified. We are not saved by our sanctification.
That is why we need justification by faith in Jesus alone.
What justification by grace through faith means
is justification by Christ alone. Only Jesus is the Savior. We do not contribute to that.
We can only receive it. Out of the work of justification comes the true power to live a
holy life. When we truly believe that we are accepted by God, we are freed to live our
whole lives totally in His presence.
In justification, God declares one forgiven and
acceptable. When one trusts in Jesus Christ, God looks at them and sees them clothed in
the righteousness of Christ.
SHAMING THOSE WHO BELIEVE
THE GOSPEL
Some may offer criticism of my teaching on
justification by faith alone. It is even ironic that there are those of my own fellowship
who would reject me and this teaching. Some say, "What’s the big deal. I have
always believed this." Others might say, "You’ve gone off the deep
end." Again some might say that I should be ashamed of preaching this truth of
"easy believism.". Or, I should be ashamed for "compromising,"
"leaving," or "falling short" of the "full" truth of Acts
2:38. "How can I forget the message that so many have labored and struggled to
preserve?," some may ask.
The truth of the matter is, I have not turned my
back on Acts 2:38. I believe ALL the Bible is true.In particular, I believe that baptism
is to be administered by immersion with the words "In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ" spoken. I believe in the gift (not the reward) of the Holy Ghost as
experienced in the book of Acts. I believe in the Oneness of God and that Jesus is that
one God, Incarnate. I believe that every Christian is called to live a life of holiness.
Not as a condition of their salvation but as the result of their salvation and as true
discipleship to Christ. Nonetheless, I believe that neither Acts 2:38, nor any group of
Bible passages is the Gospel itself. JESUS IS THE GOSPEL! If we properly understand what
Peter meant in Acts 2:38, then we would know that trusting in Jesus alone is the only
proper response to the Gospel.
It is Christ who is the Gospel and we are to have
faith or trust in Him. I am ashamed that I have preached that people should trust in an
interpretation of one verse of Scripture, or an ordinance, or an experience, or a body of
teaching developed by human theology, rather than in CHRIST ALONE. The saving is in the
Savior! It is faith in Christ alone which saves!!
Not only do some not trust in Christ alone for
their salvation; they shame those who do. There are those who have made a large part of
their ministry preaching what I call the "anti-gospel." This is preaching about
how certain ones are not saved. Those who are called "believe only" have been
the usual target for the anti-gospel. This preaching is not the declaration of the news or
report of what God has done to redeem. Rather, it is a message of how some have not done
ENOUGH to be redeemed. The anti-gospel focuses on shaming people for not having
"enough" when they trust only in Jesus Christ as their righteousness.
Those who preach the anti-gospel will say they do
not shame others. If not, then why not ask the thousands who have been on the receiving
end of the anti-gospel. They will tell you it is shaming and worse.
Take care! Do not ignore the words of God to
Peter, "Do not call unclean what I have cleansed." (Acts 10:15) The sin of the
anti-gospel is, "laying ANYTHING to the charge of God’s elect" - when there
is no charge! - "IT IS GOD THAT JUSTIFIETH." (Romans 8:33 - KJV)
Preaching the Gospel is not telling what
believers in Christ have not done. The Gospel is telling the world what God HAS done and
is doing for sinners and believers through Jesus Christ. When the preaching and teaching
of a ministry spends most of its time on what people either have not done or must do,
rather on what God has done and will do through Christ, that ministry is in danger of
preaching the anti-gospel.
My confidence is that Jesus is my Justifier. No
one can "unsave" me. "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God
is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave
him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34
Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-- more than that, who was raised to life--
is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." (Rom. 8:31-34)
I am ashamed that I have not preached the Gospel
in all of its power and fullness in the past. I am ashamed that I did not see what I see
now. I am ashamed that I turned aside people’s sincere questions about the
inconsistencies they saw in my preaching about the "so-called" gospel with
shallow or hedging answers. I am ashamed I have let tradition, social and political
pressure, indoctrination, defective theological thinking, and fear for my job and
professional image, cloud my mind to the truth of Scripture. It was taught to me in
sincerity and I believed it in sincerity. But, it is not salvation by sincerity that is
acceptable with God. It is only the righteousness of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
I am not saved by WHAT I believe, but WHOM I
believe in. Faith is neither a body of doctrines to which one subscribes, nor a series of
steps or experiences . It is a living trust in God alone to provide redemption. Paul did
not say, "I know WHAT I believe." He said, "I know WHOM I have
believed." It is trust in the character of God. My salvation is not in my
denominations doctrine, but it is in my Lord Jesus Christ.
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus blood and righteousness,
I dare not
trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly
lean on Jesus’ Name.
On Christ
the solid rock I stand,
all other
ground is sinking sand,
all other
ground is sinking sand.
The song writer (Edward Mote - The Solid Rock)
correctly equates "leaning on Jesus’ Name" with "trusting in
Christ’s blood and righteousness!"
There is one thing I am not ashamed of and never
will I be, and that is the Gospel. I am not ashamed of the Gospel for IT is the power of
God unto salvation. In it the righteousness of God is revealed by faith.
WE SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED
One of the things that has become forcefully
apparent to me is that a great portion of Christian people are preoccupied with everything
BUT the Gospel. Many people who have come to the church or the Christian faith, have
struggled and fallen aside because they were looking for something beside Jesus. For those
who have struggled with their faith within the church, I have witnessed that their
struggle was because Jesus was not enough. The bottom line of the Gospel is that Jesus IS
enough.
Whatever you have believed in the past I urge you
to examine very carefully what I am saying with prayer and very close attention to
Scripture. We must be willing to allow Scripture to speak to, and even against, our most
sacredly held beliefs. Only then can we be open to truth and not simply obedient to a form
of tradition.
We can become so closed in our thinking and
elevate our own interpretation so highly, that even God cannot speak His Word to us. I had
one individual say to me, "I don’t need to listen to what you’re saying,
because I am not going to change my mind anyway." This person had determined that
they did not need to listen to the words of Scripture which I was sharing with them. This
person did not see any reason for further exploration of the Bible, because they had
already settled it in their mind. In this case, this person no longer had any need for the
Bible.
But, in fact, only what is in the Bible is truth.
If we do believe the truth, then there should be no fear to examine it in the light of
every passage and verse, because truth will always win out. We cannot harm the truth of
God by examining it. Only those who are insecure and fearful will be unwilling to examine
their beliefs. We should not be ashamed to examine what we believe in the light of all of
Scripture.
Examine the Gospel, and what you believe, in your
own conscience. Don’t fear what is taught by your group, denomination, or ministerial
friends. Don’t allow the pressure of a large group, the desire to maintain your
employment, or fear of how your family would react, to outweigh your conscience before
God. Look at the Gospel. Let it be the guide for all that you are and do.
In your conscience let Scripture speak loudly.
Are you truly believing that God has forgiven you and the whole world as well? And that by
faith you can receive His righteousness and stand before the living God with exceeding
joy? Or, are you preaching and believing a formula of salvation, a set of guidelines, a
measure of performance and obedience as justification?
Are you really doing what God is telling you? Or
do you have to buttress all your denominational beliefs with eccentric and unfounded
interpretations in order to save embarrassment over having preached and believed something
not consistent with Scripture? Are you "kicking against the Goads?" Are you
calling unclean what God has made clean?
As for me, I cannot do this any longer. I did so
in sincerity and ignorance over my past ministry. But now I am not ignorant. My eyes are
open wide. My brothers and sisters - I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. IT IS
THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION - TO ALL WHO BELIEVE!!
I call to all who read this article to trust in
Jesus Christ as their sacrifice for sin and their righteousness. He will take your sins
and give you His righteousness. If we truly trust in Him we will never be ashamed of the
Gospel. And He will never be ashamed of us. Jesus spoke of not being ashamed:
For whoever is ashamed of Me and
My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His
Father's, and of the holy angels. God in Christ is not ashamed of His church: Luke 9:26
NKJ
For the one who sanctifies and
those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call
them brothers and sisters, Heb 2:11 NRS
But now they desire a better,
that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He
has prepared a city for them. Heb 11:16 NKJ
TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE
There are only two kinds of people: 1) those who
believe in Jesus Christ as their righteousness; 2) and those who do not. Those who believe
in Jesus, stand before God in Jesus’ righteousness now and forever. Those who
don’t, stand before God in their own righteousness. And there is no difference, in
God’s eyes, between standing before Him in your own righteousness or standing in your
own sins.
All those who trust in Jesus will not be
ashamed before God. And He will not be ashamed to be called their God! |
