by Jacob Ninan
We can understand the in-depth meaning of spiritual truths only when we practise them in our day to day life. When we seek to put into practice what we believe, we begin to see how exactly it is to be applied, what the implications will be, etc. Also, we can see the proof of what we have believed. If there is godly fruit, we are going in the right direction. But if we don't see any fruit even after we have followed our belief, we can see that either what we believed is wrong, we have not understood it completely, or we have practised it in a wrong way (Matt.7:19,20). Without this check, we may continue with wrong ideas without finding out they are wrong.
Practically all the major religions of the world, except Christianity, teach ways by which people are supposed to make themselves acceptable to God. But Christianity stands in contrast because here salvation is based on faith in Jesus Christ as a person and as our Saviour and Lord. He gives us salvation from our sins without our having to earn it. We know sin is the root cause of all the problems we have in the world, and it was to deal with sin that Jesus came (Matt.1:21). But then many people misunderstand what it means to have faith in Christ. They may imagine they have faith and therefore they are safe, even when it does not produce Christ-like fruit in their life. True faith in Jesus Christ changes people, from living for themselves to living for Christ (2Cor.5:14,15). Living for Christ means giving up our old sinful, selfish ways and living a Christ-like life. This is the change God will produce in our heart when we place our trust in Jesus as our Saviour. It must be obvious by now that people who think they have faith in Jesus but their life is not being changed in the direction of becoming more and more like Jesus do not have the right kind of faith.
Unfortunately, when some people find that their faith is not giving them what they were looking for, they give up their faith, assuming that the Gospel does not work, the Bible can't be believed, etc. At that point it does not occur to them to check if the problem was with their kind of faith, or whether they had heard and understood it right.
Faith requires our intellectual understanding, and when it is understood it produces feelings too. Then we are expected to change our life according to the truth we have accepted. But there are two common mistakes people make here. One is to be satisfied with understanding and accepting some teaching. This is what happens many times with people who have grown up in Christian families, who have grown up with knowledge about Jesus, His death and resurrection. They have accepted these without making the connection between those events and their personal life. Then they assume they are Christians because of their faith, and they even become active in church. There are also others who understand that the Gospel of Christ is true and accept it intellectually, but they stop there and do not proceed to surrender their life to Christ and obey Him.
There is a second type of mistake also. Young people who have been exposed to what is going on in society and the media are not sometimes able to differentiate between genuine and counterfeit spirituality. Especially if they have been exposed to new age practices being adopted from eastern religions, they sometimes look for special or mystical experiences that supposedly connect them with God. They start looking for meditation, mindfulness or other practices to give them 'encounters with God'. Or when they feel moved with ecstasy from worship music or an emotional appeal from a preacher, they then assume that this is a touch from God. They also believe that now they have become children of God. There are also others who are taught to get into contemplative prayer where they imitate the ways of yoga and empty their minds, hoping to hear from God. What comes to their mind at such times makes them assume that this was from God. There are also groups where people are encouraged to 'prophesy' by speaking out what comes to their mind. Some people then assume that God has given them the gift of prophecy.
What is the mistake in these examples? They have avoided the narrow gate that opens up to the narrow path where they have to walk, and while they are still on the broad way that leads to destruction, they believe that they are on the way to life (Matt.7:13,14). In spite of this clear warning from Jesus, people are still imagining that lots of people are being saved and that most people in the church are saved. But they have not repented and turned away from their old way of sin to a life submitted to Jesus. Using another illustration, instead of entering the sheepfold through the gate, they come over the wall (Jn.10:1). Sin was the result of choices Eve made, and when now God offers us salvation, we need to make deliberate choices to turn away from sin and receive salvation.
One main reason why people get misled is that the way of salvation is not being preached clearly by a lot of preachers. People are therefore getting mixed up teachings that come from the media, new age practices, etc. Let us go back to the fundamentals.
After God had made a perfect world for Adam and Eve to live in, it was Eve who brought sin into the world. There were two special trees God had planted in the Garden of Eden called the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God told them that if they ate from the tree of knowledge they would die. But then Satan entered the scene and told Eve that even if she ate from the tree of knowledge, she would not die. He convinced her that the fruit of the tree of knowledge would give them knowledge within themselves and they would become like God without having to depend on Him. The implication Satan was passing on to her was that God was placing restrictions on them only because He did not want them to become like Him. At this point she had a choice before her. On one side there was God who had created them, provided everything for them, and whom they knew personally in their life. But now there is a newcomer in their life who appears to be their well-wisher who is trying to save them from God's manipulations! Eve's wrong choice at this time was what caused her to sin by turning away from God and disobeying Him.
Now God offers us salvation. The main goal of salvation is to restore us to Him. What stands between us and God are our sins (Isa.59:1,2). His justice and righteousness demand that our sins must be punished, but His love makes Him want to show mercy to us. He resolved this dilemma by taking the punishment on Himself by letting His Son suffer death in our place. Now He offers to us forgiveness for our sins and help to stop sinning (He.4:16).
The death of Jesus is sufficient for the forgiveness of the whole world (1Jn.2:2). But just because salvation is offered to the whole world, the whole world is not getting saved! This salvation becomes effective only for people who believe (Jn.3:16). Jesus died for the whole world, but it is only those who believe in Him who will be saved. Salvation is something we cannot earn no matter what we do, and we can receive it only as an unmerited favour from God through our faith (Eph.2:8,9). But many people imagine they are believing, but as we noted earlier, the lack of resulting fruit shows that their faith is inactive. That is because the kind of believing many people do does not cause them to make a choice for God but merely leaves them assuming that they believe.
To 'believe' in Jesus is not just to believe facts about Jesus. The Greek word 'pisteuo' which is translated as 'believe' means to 'trust in, cling to, rely on'. To believe in Jesus is to trust in Him as our Saviour and Lord, which will result in our submitting our whole life to Him. When we hear the good news about Jesus bringing us salvation, there are some choices we need to make. Without these choices we will have only intellectual agreement with facts about Jesus, and then we cannot expect our life to change.
The first choice we have to make is to admit to ourselves and God that we, as individuals, are hopeless sinners who need a Saviour. There are many who casually admit they are sinners, but without seeing that truth about themselves. But when we hear that the holy God has made a way to save us from our sins that cost Him the sacrifice of His Son Jesus, we realise we are really sinners who have hurt this loving God with our life of sin. We decide we don't want to sin against Him any more, and that we want to be pleasing to Him from now onwards. This choice to change the direction of our life is called repentance. Without making this choice in our heart, we cannot receive salvation from God. That is why both John the baptiser and Jesus called out for people to repent when they started preaching.
The second part of the choice is when we realise that there is no other way we can be saved except through Jesus. Then we make the choice to go to Jesus and ask Him to forgive our sins and to help us to follow Him now onwards. That is how we make the choice to make Him our Saviour and Lord.
At this point, God answers us by washing us with the blood of Jesus who shed His blood as the Lamb of God who takes away our sins (Jn.1:29). In God's sight we become clean, having been made white like snow (Isa.1:18). He transfers the impeccable righteousness of Jesus to our account, having transferred our sins to Him, and counts our faith as righteousness, just as in the case of Abraham (Rom.4:21-25). This 'imputed righteousness of Christ' is what enables God to see us as acceptable before Him.
Another important thing that God does for us is to give us a new heart and spirit (Ezek.36:26,27). What this does to us is to take away our old desire to live for our pleasure, and give us the desire to do all things that are pleasing to Him.
Another mistake many Christians make is to assume that once this transaction is done, they are saved. But this is just the beginning of salvation. Remember, God's plan is to restore us to Him, the place of intimacy and fellowship Adam and Eve had before they fell. So, He now begins to work in us through the Holy Spirit and help us to overcome sin and become like His Son (Rom.8:28,29). The most precious promise He gives us is to transform us and help us to become like Jesus (2Pet.1:3,4).
For that to happen, and for us to become like Jesus, there are choices that we have to make daily. Jesus describes that as taking up our cross daily, denying ourselves and following Him (Lk.9:23). Remember, with the new heart that God has given us, we who used to be living for ourselves have been made 'dead towards sin' and alive to God (Rom.6:11). With this new mindset and the new direction in front of us, we now have to choose God and deny ourselves whenever we are tempted (vv.12,13). That is how we will taste victory over sin (v.14). God warns us that after we have been born again and become children of God, if we don't put to death our fleshly desires and do His will, using the power that the Holy Spirit gives us, we will become spiritually dead again (Rom.8:13). But if we submit to the Holy Spirit and do His will, we will receive 'life', the life of Christ which is seen in the fruit of the Spirit. God has also provided for our forgiveness if we slip up and fall as we seek to walk on this narrow path (1Jn.2:1)
.So, we can see that even as God offers salvation to us as a free gift, our choices make a huge difference and decide if we will receive it or not. If we say we believe and mentally pass the responsibility to God, and passively wait for Him to transform us, we will miss salvation. At every point of salvation, both at the point of entering into the narrow gate and also as we walk along the narrow path, it is the choices we make that steer us in the right direction. God empowers us inside and gives us the new direction, but now it is for us to choose at every point to live for Him (Php.2:12,13).
May the Lord stir us up to recognise our responsibility. While we realise and acknowledge that salvation is given us to us entirely by His grace, undeserved favour towards us, and also that we are dependent entirely on the power of God to sustain us and lead us on, if we do not make the choice every time to submit to God, we cannot actually receive this salvation.