I keep running across “Christian blogs” that talk about “losing your salvation” over a “single sin”.  Shortly after becoming a new believer in the Lord I met a man who claimed that he hadn’t sinned in months.  He held to the idea that it was possible for a Christian to be perfectly free from sin and in a state of “Sinless perfection”.  Later he came to see that his belief in sinless perfection was wrong and that he had been deceived in believing it.

On another occasion I was singing at a church.  After I’d finished singing I was approached by a boy who was in torment over his struggle with pornography.  He described how he’d repent, throw out his magazines, but at times being tempted, he would later return to retrieve them.  His church taught that if he sinned he would lose his salvation and end up in hell.  He was very afraid that he would not have another chance to get to heaven because he had “lost his salvation” and thought Jesus would possibly walk away from him and not give him another chance to be born again, again.  Many times people who are taught “sinless perfection” believe that if a person sins they lose their salvation and therefore need to be “born again” over and over each time they fall.  (If these people are honest, as this boy was, they have to admit that they struggle with sin just like everyone else.)  How do you get to heaven then if one sin is all it takes to lose your salvation?  Their solution is to believe they can be born again more than once… something the bible never teaches.

I’ve found that those who believe in sinless perfection (and many times those who believe they can lose their salvation) are often failing in 3 main points:

• A denial that the Christian life involves a very intense struggle with sin.

The bible clearly teaches that as Christians we are engaged in a struggle with sin.

“In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:4)

Anyone who tries to spiritualize this struggle away as if it doesn’t exist is only fooling themselves.  The Christian life is an ongoing battle with the world, the flesh, and spiritual forces that seek to drive us into sin.  To think that we will never fall, get wounded, succumb to temptation and sin, is the worst sort of lie and deception.  It’s even worse when we teach others this lie because it brings people into a fantasy world where they will be doomed to always fall short of the “sinless perfection” we demand of them.  We should seek to live for Christ, but when we fall we should understand we have an advocate in Him- He is on our side!

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”  (1 John 2:1)

Jesus is not against us, He is for us- and to teach that we lose our salvation as we struggle with sin is the worst sort of lie.

• The failure to see just how bad we really are.

The Word of God says we’re utterly sinful. 

As it is written:
   ”There is no one righteous, not even one;
    there is no one who understands,
      no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
      they have together become worthless;
   there is no one who does good,
      not even one.”  (Romans 3:10-12)

Those who believe in sinless perfection need to see themselves as God sees them.  In and of ourselves we are utterly sinful and without hope.  Now that is the gospel truth.  The trouble is many people have never yet seen themselves that way.  They wouldn’t be boasting of being sinless if they had!  Your idea of what is “sinless”, and God’s idea of it, are two completely different things.  If you ever truly saw yourself in the light of God’s holiness you’d shrink away like a worm and never claim to be “sinless” again!  You have no idea how bad you really are until you see yourself compared to God’s own sinless perfection.  Repent of your boasting and pride- you are far from perfect and not even close to being sinless.

• The failure to see how good God is, and how complete the sacrifice of Jesus is.

Jesus gave His life for us “while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8).  He did everything that needed to be done to wipe away your sin forever. 

“…by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Hebrews 10:14)

The goodness and love of God was clearly displayed to all when Jesus hung on the cross for us unworthy sinners- It doesn’t get any better than that!  God in His perfect holiness paid the price to bring wretched sinners like you and me back into relationship with Him.  He didn’t have to do that, but He did!  Do you see how good God is?  We had no way out of hell, no way back to Him, and He came and rescued us even though we are the guilty ones, even though we are the dirty ones, even though we deserve nothing good from Him- He gave us every good thing in Jesus!

Not only is God good to us in bringing us back to Himself, but the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was enough to satisfy His justice and righteousness.  The blood of Jesus never fails to satisfy God.  I could shout at the glory of it!  What you and I could never do, Jesus did… and did for us.  Put away your filthy rags of “righteousness” and your vain attempts at “holiness”- Jesus alone has satisfied God.  Do you want to be holy before God?  Come under the blood of Christ, hide yourself in Him, and quit boasting of your own works- He alone is your righteousness. 

“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. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

Not only is Jesus enough, not only does His sacrifice satisfy God- His sacrifice never loses it’s power!  The blood of Christ is effectual forever for all those who come to God through Him.  His sacrifice is not something that needs to be repeated over and over again, neither does it require that we add something to it. 

“Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not His own.  Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”  (Hebrews 9:25-26)

We often make much of what we do, but who will make much of what Christ has done?

The gospel is not what you can do for God, it is what God has done for you through Jesus Christ.  How dare we boast in ourselves as if we hold salvation in our hands!  Jesus has shed His blood, and the Word of God tells us THAT IS ENOUGH.  It is finished!  Christ has won the victory.  Don’t you dare try to say that you play a part in what Christ alone has accomplished!

Christ- my righteousness

There is sinless perfection for the Christian- He is called “Jesus”.  Hidden in Him I am perfect, He alone is my righteousness- there is no other.

“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”  (Galatians 2:21)

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  (2 Corinthians 5:21)

There are some who believe they can lose their salvation and talk as if their hope of heaven is hanging by a thread that can at any moment be broken by something they do.  They speak as if salvation is their work; if not to obtain it, to keep it.  I have always wondered how a person could truly know themselves and believe that their salvation was dependant on something they could do.  My 26 years of being a Christian have proved, if nothing else, that I am a “wretched man” as the scriptures would say; there is no good thing in me that would warrant heaven.  If for a moment Christ would take His hand from me, I would spiral to the depths of hell; that is not mere rhetoric, I believe that to the core.  If it were not for Christ I would never make it to heaven; I would not even have a prayer of entering that place apart from Him.

It has always amazed me, likewise, how low a view some have of Christ’s saving power.  Most will admit that they needed Christ to save them, but many have trouble believing that Christ will also keep them:

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”  (John 10:28)

More amazingly still, many seem to put more stock in their own works to keep their salvation than they do in Christ!  If Christ cannot keep you “blameless to the end” do you really believe you can?  How is that that Christ chose to save you, but is not able to keep you?  Was He not aware of what you are when He called you to be His own?  Was He taken by surprise to later discover things about you that He was unaware of when He saved you?  Christ knows the totality of who you are, yet, “…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

But let’s not stop there:

“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him!  For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”  (Romans 5:9-11)

I happen to believe His sacrifice is effectual and complete; Christ is my righteousness, I have none of my own.  He paid the whole price and bore the complete penalty for my sin- past, present and future.  (1 Corinthians 1:30, Hebrews 9:26, 10:12-13)

If Christ cannot keep you, how in the world do you think you can ever keep yourself?

Is He all your righteousness, every bit?  Then you have everything you need in Christ!

I wrote “Today’s Lyrics” in 1991, six years after being born again; I had come utterly to the end of myself.  I realized that night that I had a choice; it would either be Christ and… or Christ alone.  If it was Christ and… my works, my efforts, my righteousness etc, then I had no hope of ever getting to heaven, not even a prayer; if it depended on me at all, I would mess it up.  I saw that night what I’d seen when I first got saved… It is ALL of Christ, it is none of me; Christ is EVERYTHING.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, who are you putting your trust in when it comes to eternal life, being saved, and making it to heaven?  I pray it is not yourself!

Here’s are the lyrics I wrote that night:

Read Galatians 2:21

How precious is the blood He shed!
The only means of righteousness!
So all the praise should go to Him,
It’s nothing that I’ve done…

No works of mine deserve applause
Or make me pleasing to my God,
The Spirit points me to the cross
And to the Savior’s blood

For there the plan of God fulfilled
Ran down Calvary’s darkened hill,
His light had come into the world
His blood had touched it’s soil

His hands, His feet, His wounded side
All are there to testify-
There is no room for human pride

And shall I turn and just pretend
That I can somehow add to them?
Can one commit a greater sin
Than that?

Scripture has much to say about God and His desire for a relationship with His people.  We have a God who is steadfast in love, and a people who are prone to wander.  You would think that it would be hard to grow cold in affection when you’ve been shown the greatest love the world has ever known, and yet, though we are the very bride of Christ and loved beyond measure… we still find a way to mess things up and stray!

In my song “Whatever Happened To Jesus?” I talk about that.

In Revelation 2:4 we read, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”  My song addresses various issues, but at the bottom of it all, I suppose forsaking our first love of Him would be at the heart of the matter; it is our forsaking of our first love that leads to all the rest of our troubles.  It’s then we began to flirt with the world and look for cheap substitutes to fill the empty spaces He used to occupy.  His Word, which at one time was the joy of our hearts, becomes faint in our wandering; we no longer fear displeasing Him or worry about the consequences of our unfaithfulness.  The abundant life and living waters that used to flow so freely become but a trickle, and our life begins to look more like a desert than a well watered garden.  It’s then that we break out the “Golden Calf” and try to whip up a little life of our own.  It may even seem to work for awhile as we enjoy the party.  Hey, a lot of our friends have come too and we’re having fun!  The world and it’s lusts, it’s pleasures and sins, do seem fun for a season.  We revel in it, wallowing in the mud, blinded to the fact that God is not amused.  You are His Bride!  His heart is grieved, His jealous anger aroused.  He’s desired a pure bride and you’ve flaunted your adultery to His face.  Most suitors would have long since cast you off, but God is not like man… In His love, He is determined to have YOU!  His desire is for you only.  He will not settle for you and your lovers; He wants your whole heart.  You are the apple of His eye, and He will not rest until you only have eyes for Him.

“I will betroth you to me forever…”

Hosea 2:19 reveals God’s heart of love for us in the words, “I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion, I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.”

The book of Hosea is filled with “the vilest adultery” and rebellion against the LORD, but more than rebellion- love scorned.  And God’s heart broken.  First comes His righteous anger: “Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breast, otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born…” (Hosea 2:2-3)  In vivid description He lays out the case of Israel’s infidelity to Him and we feel His broken heart together with His anger:

“…she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the Lord. (Hosea 2:13)

And yet, the very next words out of His mouth are, “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her…” Who can fathom the love of God?

The scriptures are filled with examples of straying from the Lord, and these examples are given to warn us and turn us back to Him. “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come…” (1 Corinthians 10:11)

“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.” (Hosea 14:4)

Let us return to the LORD… His love is from everlasting!

Download “Whatever Happened To Jesus?” from iTunes.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition…”  (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

Scripture tells us that before the return of Jesus we will see a great apostasy, a great falling away.  But a falling away from what?  Some point to the large number of people leaving churches as evidence of this great falling away- “they are walking away from the faith”.  But it’s not people leaving the church that marks apostasy, it’s the church leaving Jesus!

I wrote the song “Whatever happened To Jesus?” early in my Christian walk.  I was in love with Jesus as a new believer and was grieved by what I saw happening in the church.  It almost seemed like the church was desperate to be accepted by the culture, and wanted to prove to the world that we could be just as good at anything they did, and have just as much fun.  The catch phrase at the time was, “Christians can have fun too!”  Instead of rejecting the world system, the goal seemed to be to embrace it.  That whole mentality bothered me a lot!  Hadn’t I just gotten free from the world’s pull?  Didn’t Jesus just call me out of all this mess?  Why in the world would I want to go back to what I left?  “Can this be what God has in mind for His Church?”

 Whatever happened to Jesus?

It’s been 23 years since I wrote “Whatever Happened To Jesus?”.  It’s message has been on my heart since I became a Christian and I’m releasing it now because I think it’s “for such a time as this.”  Over the last 23 years things have only gotten worse.  We have embraced the world to such a degree that in many churches one would be hard pressed to see any real difference between the surrounding culture and the church.  The word of God often takes second place to the words of men, and is often twisted to embrace that which it directly forbids!  One obvious sign of apostasy is the rejection of God’s Word:

“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”  (2 Timothy 2:2-4)

Embracing a world system which God rejects (1 John 2:15-17), and turning aside from God’s truth can only lead to a falling away from Jesus.  While His name may be invoked and retained, in actuality He has been left behind while we go to follow our own desires and ideas.  In essence we are no longer following Him however much we may say we are.

The spirit of anti-Christ works by seduction

Before the anti-Christ comes there will first be a spirit of anti-Christ that permeates the world. (1 John 4:3, 2 Thessalonians 2:3)

Christians speculate on who the anti-Christ will be and if he’s presently in the world, but the scripture tells us that before the anti-Christ makes his appearance there will be a widespread anti-Christ influence that is seen.  We tend to of think “anti-Christ” as something that’s “against Christ”, but the Greek brings out further meaning:

Greek: anticristoV, meaning “instead of Christ,” or “against Christ”

The spirit of anti-Christ is evident when “instead of Christ” we get something else in His place! And that is exactly what has happened today in many churches.  When Jesus becomes a mere figurehead in the church while we go about without Him doing our own thing, the spirit of anti-Christ has come in… the focus is taken away from Christ and replaced by something else other than Him.  The spirit of anti-Christ doesn’t come into the church with a megaphone shouting, “Hey! I’m against Christ!”; rather, it comes as a “seduction”- an enticement to something thought desirable.  This, of course, is the devil’s modus operandi:

“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.”  (2 Corinthians 11:3-4)

A pure devotion to Jesus

Paul, the apostle, wrote that he was concerned that perhaps we would drift away from a “sincere and pure devotion to Christ”, and embrace “another Jesus”.

I’m not sure I know what the terms “Christian” and “Church”  mean anymore in our present day.  Can you believe anything and practice anything, put the name “Christian” on it, and that alone makes it Christian?  Does putting a sign on the door and calling it a “church” make it one?  Is the church called to embrace the surrounding culture and resemble it?  It would seem so.  The spirit of anti-Christ has come in boldly using His name.  It may not look like anything that we see in God’s word, it may even embrace the world (and in some cases outright sin) in direct contradiction to God’s word, but as long as we call it “Christian” and use the name “Jesus” as Paul said, we “put up with it easily enough.”

We are in the midst of an anti-Christ onslaught where Jesus and His truth are being replaced with cheap substitutes, while His name is proudly attached to the very things He hates! 

It’s not people leaving the church that marks apostasy, it’s the church leaving Jesus!

Revelation 2:4 “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”

In my first post, “Whatever Happened To Jesus?” I address the relationship issue that I believe is key to our current condition.  We are the Bride of Christ and God desires us to be wholly His.  When we forsake our “first love” of Him it leads to an inevitable downhill slide and it’s not long before we’re committing adultery with the world.  We cannot be unfaithful in this way without hardening ourselves, otherwise our straying heart would constantly condemn us.  In Hosea the LORD says, “Let her remove the adulterous look from her face…”  (Hosea 2:2)  Please read my first post where I talk about God’s steadfast love for His people even though they are unfaithful to Him, but for now let’s understand that’s He’s not content to be one of a number of lovers- He desires that we be wholly His.

Loved, but told the truth…

God’s love for His people is beyond words!  And yet, God does not hesitate to tell it like it is:

“Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God.  A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the LORD…” (Hosea 5:4) 

His love is not mere sentimentality; He will not refrain from telling the truth- God expects a change in His beloved.  Things cannot go on as they have with the expectation that everything will be okay! 

“Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt.  And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me.”  (Hosea 5:15)

Repentance is not just an Old Testament concept, it runs all through the New Testament as well:

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…” (Acts 3:19)

“When God raised up His servant, he sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”  (Acts 3:26)

A final plea to return to Jesus!

We are witnessing a great “falling away”.  Now is not the time to mess around and play games! As we witness apostasy growing it is a clear sign that the end is getting near.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition…”  (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

Is this really the time to be wandering away from Jesus?

The scriptures are filled with examples of straying from the Lord and are given to warn us and turn us back to Him.  “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come…”  (1 Corinthians 10:11)  It’s time to return to Jesus before it’s too late.  As we witness the spirit of anti-Christ permeating the world and the church we should understand that this is exactly what scripture said would happen before the Lord returns for His own; the time to return to the Lord is now!

“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.”  (Hosea 14:4)

“As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says,
   ”In the time of my favor I heard you,
      and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”  (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)

“Behold!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

If He can bear the whole world’s sin
then who am I to say to Him,
that mine is just too much?

Surely such a sacrifice
is worth my very heart and life…
Look at how He bled and died,
Look at how He loves me!” 

I hardly need to say a word about my lyrics for today… God’s love is amazing!  He has power to forgive sins, but not just power… more than enough power!  When I start to believe that my sin is just too bad to forgive, or that I’ve sinned the same sin one too many times to be forgiven, I remember that Jesus’ death was powerful enough to take away the whole world’s sin! 

“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”  (1 John 2:2)

Think about it:  That’s the whole world’s sin for all time, not just my lifetime.  If He can do that, then who am I to say that mine is just too much to forgive?  There’s mercy for you in Jesus, and not just enough, but overflowing, overwhelming mercy, far exceeding any sin you have committed.  The power of what Jesus did on the cross for you, is greater than your capacity to sin.  In all ways His blood shed on the cross is enough; you cannot sin more than He is able to forgive!  That’s how powerful His sacrifice for you is!

Now, having said that, there is something you can do if you want to continue on and die in your sin… You can turn your back on Jesus and say no to His forgiveness, but why would you?

Doesn’t a love like His demand your very heart and life?  Do you really want to walk away from the One who loves you more than anyone else in all the world, whose love goes beyond the grave and promises to be there for you throughout eternity?  Look at how He loves you!  He paid the penalty for sins you committed and offers you eternal life!  He doesn’t accuse you of sins you’ve committed, but washes them away!

“Surely such a sacrifice
is worth my very heart and life…
Look at how He bled and died,
Look at how He loves me!”

“He’s God’s only forgotten Son
Pushed away by a world gone wrong,
For there’s never a thought
Of the love that He brought
And no thanks for the things that He’s done

He’s the treasure of God’s own heart
To a world living in the dark,
And if they only knew
Even had just a clue
Their denial would tear them apart…”

Do you need any more proof of the reality of sin than that God’s only begotten Son could be so easily laid aside and forgotten?  The world goes on from day to day with barely a thought that it lies under the judgment of God, oblivious to the obvious… we will all one day die and have to face Him.  What’s even more startling though is God’s made a way of escape for all of us and we ignore it:  He sent Jesus to free us from the certain judgment that awaits us, and we don’t even care!  Tell me that sin isn’t real!

Deception and blindness is at the heart of all sin; Adam and Eve succumbed to it in the garden (Genesis 3) and we’re still blinded to this day.  The serpent told Eve, “You will not surely die”.  If there was ever a one trick pony, it’s the Devil.  He hasn’t changed a word since his original lie, and we keep falling for it… hook, line and sinker.

Do you want to know if sin has actual power?  Ask yourself what sane man would willingly board a bus to hell when God is offering a ticket to heaven free of charge?  The very Creator of the universe sent His Son into the world to rescue you from an eternity in hell and you don’t even care? I don’t need anymore proof of the blinding power of sin than that!  God’s Son comes to forgive you, and wash away your sin, and you toss Him aside because you have better things to do with your life than mess around with “religion”?  I hate to say it, but you’ve been blinded to the greatest love the world has ever known!

“The god of this age (the devil) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  (2 Corinthians 4:4)

The greatest thing that’s ever happened to this world was the entry of Jesus into it.  Do you know Him?  Are you living for Him?  Is He forgotten, or loved by you?

If you’re seeking, go here.

If you’re wandering away from the truth, go here.

“Why did a Holy God
even give us another thought?
He could have held His breath
and the world have died-
Adam by Eve’s own side.
and that would have been the end.”

I heard a preacher recently thunder the wrath of God.  Actually he was very soft spoken, but His words carried the message of God’s judgment.  I’m not totally against that either.  You’ll find that I talk about these things in many of my posts.  There are biblical truths that have been largely discarded, and the message of God’s holiness, wrath, and judgment is almost completely absent in today’s church.  These are truths that need to be taught again.  Scripture teaches, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”  (Hebrews 10:31)  The NASB version puts it this way:

“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

I wonder how often you hear that preached today?  It is the truth, and it’s something we need to remember and take very seriously.  Our God is holy and we better be careful to never forget that.  I won’t mention names, but there are some who have appeared and taken up that message, and taken it up very strongly.  You can find their videos on YouTube, their messages on various blogs, and maybe you’ve even gotten an email or two from a friend who’s been shaken by the gravity of what they’ve heard, and it’s caused them to sit up and evaluate their relationship with God.  I think that’s a good thing.  If the bible is telling us that it’s a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God while we go about acting like it’s no big deal to encounter Him, we’ve got a problem!

But I would like to mention another problem:  If we get so focused on the message of God’s judgment and wrath that we forget His mercy, we have an even bigger problem!

“He could have held His breath
and the world have died-
Adam by Eve’s own side.
and that would have been the end.”

God could have ended everything with Adam and Eve.  He could have withheld His breath and their sin would have been the last human sin He ever had to deal with, but He didn’t do that.  What does that tell us about God?  It tells me that His heart of mercy is greater than His desire to send judgment.  It tells me that His love is higher on the ladder than His wrath:  God will find a way to send mercy, and remove judgment, even if it means Him paying the highest price.  He proved that to us by sending His Son as a sacrifice who would bear the penalty for our sins, taking upon Himself the wrath we deserved. 

A return to holiness preaching

Yesterday while listening to a revival preacher in a church we were visiting I heard 1 1/2 hours about God’s judgment, wrath, and displeasure with sin, but God’s answer to our sin problem was never really presented!  I was left with the feeling that God could, and would, smote me for my disobedience and that I “better get right with God”.  The way that I was “to get right with God” was by repenting of my sin.  (More on that later…)  Furthermore, I was told (along with everyone else in the room) that when I stood before Him, if I hadn’t gotten rid of all my “blots and blemishes” I wouldn’t have a prayer in the world of getting into heaven and would be cast straight into hell!  Over and over we were told of our need to be righteous and to live right.  We were reminded that God hates our secret sin.  We were reprimanded for not truly being His disciples if we failed to live correctly, and warned that we would ultimately be found to be fakes and cast out by Jesus with a word:

“Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

You could hear a pin drop!  And rightly so.  Where do you hear anything like this preached today with any kind of seriousness?  There are tons of places in the bible that warn of self deception, sin and God’s wrath, so why don’t we ever hear any of these things being preached? Many in the church are waking up to the fact that just calling oneself a Christian doesn’t cut it.  Just praying a prayer to “get saved” doesn’t cut it…  So we’re beginning to hear the other side:  God is a holy God and wants us as His children to be holy.  Preaching holiness is scriptural and we need it… but…

Working my way to heaven?

Somewhere during this preacher’s message I began to get concerned however.  Where was Jesus in all this?  The gospel was never really mentioned!  It was all about me “getting right” and I couldn’t help but think, “Man! Without Jesus, I have no righteousness.”  It was all about me repenting, all about me being a disciple, all about me getting rid of my own “blots and blemishes”, all about me “getting my robe clean”.  Hold on!  I thought Jesus was my righteousness.  I thought Jesus clothed me with His robe of righteousness.

“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.  Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”  (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

The most serious error of all!

As much as I truly believe there needs to be a return to holiness preaching and “walking as Jesus walked”, we need to be careful that we don’t fall into the most serious error of all:  Forgetting Jesus!  After everything’s said and done, the only way we can stand before a Holy God is to be hidden in Christ.  He alone is our righteousness.  The most serious error of all is to forget that fact.  Like my wife said later as we sat in the parking lot discussing this… “I could scrub and scrub my robe all day long but it still wouldn’t be clean enough.  I would still have so many stains…”  Exactly!  You can’t scrub your robe clean enough to stand before a Holy God.  If you think you can, you still don’t understand just how Holy He is, (or how sinful you are!).

Hearing this “preacher of righteousness” reminded me of a few things:

1. God’s mercy triumphs over judgment.  The fact that the human race continued after Adam and Eve proves that fact!  He could have ended the whole thing right there.  Don’t get so focused on His wrath that you forget His mercy!
2. Even so, we need to preach about God’s wrath and judgment because those things are very real too.  God sent a flood, and He tells us that the present world we live in will be destroyed by fire.  We should be telling people the whole counsel of God, and talking about God’s judgment is part of that.
3. Don’t exchange one error for an even bigger error:  God’s Word tells us over and over again that we are to live holy lives because our God is holy.  Omitting to teach and practice this truth is a serious error.  However, in our zeal to reclaim the truth of holiness we need to be careful that we don’t commit an even more serious error.  Jesus alone is our righteousness, and He alone is the reason we will be able to stand before a Holy God.  If we forget this truth we have made the most serious error of all! 

We are not saved by our works, we better very careful that we don’t give people the impression that we are!

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!  As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!”

(Galatians 1:6-9)

There’s one thing worse than not preaching holiness… it’s failing to preach that ultimately Jesus alone is that holiness for us.  No matter how hard we try, no matter how holy we get, if we don’t realize that Jesus alone is the only way to stand before a holy God, we’ve made the most serious error of all!

While out shooting a cover photo for my song, “It Shouldn’t Be Like That“, we ran across this graffiti that really spoke to me.  My song is about being a prodigal, and this just seemed to capture the attitude that overtakes us when we go astray.

So what is it?  I can’t stop, or I won’t stop?  The bible tells me that because I’m born again, sin no longer has dominion over me.  In other words, I can stop, I just won’t.  That’s the real truth isn’t it?  And until I own up to that I’m going to remain a prodigal.  “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”  (Romans 6:14)

In my previous post, “Jesus, the ultimate yes!”, I talk about how people often think of God as a great big “no” to what they’d like to do, (especially if it’s fun!)….when the truth is, He’s actually a gigantic “yes” to everything that’s good about life and the way into all the treasure that God has for us!  Satan loves to promote the lie that God is the bad guy and an enemy to us having a good time.  It should come as no surprise then that another one of Satan’s biggest lies is to have us believe that God somehow hates us, and that we are too bad for Jesus to love.

The con basically goes like this: Satan does his best to lead us into temptations that he knows we’re especially vulnerable to.  (Each of us has our own unique points of temptation and he’s especially good at finding ways to make us fall.)  The bible says his plan is to “steal, kill, and destroy.”  In a nutshell, he wants to make a total mess of your life!  One of Satan’s great tricks is especially perverse; he will lead you into something, and then turn around and accuse you of the very thing he lured you into!  His goal is to lead you into sin, blame you for the very things he suggested, then make you feel like the scum of the earth!  One of his greatest weapons is accusation, and after he’s done with you, you will have no problem believing you are the greatest low life the world has ever known!  On top of this, he will tell you your situation is hopeless… your sin was too bad, it’s grip too great for you to ever be free.  “Oh, and by the way”, he will say, “God could never love a wretch like you!”

But is this true?  The bible calls Satan a liar and, “the father of lies”.  Obviously listening to him will lead to fear, condemnation, and bondage.  But Jesus said you could know the truth, “and the truth will set you free!”  John 8:32

The truth is, Jesus is a friend of sinners!    

Yes, God is for you, not against you.  He’s not holding out a finger to accuse you of everything you’ve ever done; his heart is reaching out to forgive.  Now even religious leaders sometimes get this wrong: There were religious teachers in Jesus’ day who hated the fact that Jesus was a friend of sinners.  “Obviously”, went their reasoning, “this man could not be from God, he hangs out with prostitutes and sinners!  He eats with them and even stays in their homes.  If he was really from God, He’d never do THAT!”

“Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him.  But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  Luke 15:1-2

Are you a Christian, but thinking liking a Pharisee?  Have you forgotten that Jesus is a friend of sinners?  Have you forgotten that He’s your friend?  Maybe you’ve been listening too much to the devil and not enough to God!  Even if you have messed up, and you are the scum of the earth, the best place to go is back to Jesus.  The religious world will often skewer you for your sins, but Jesus isn’t like that, Jesus is your friend!  The best day of my life was when I found out that Jesus was for me and not against me.  The second best day was knowing that after I became a Christian, and still messed up, that Jesus was still for me and not against me.  Christian, don’t believe the lie that God once loved you, but has changed his mind after getting to know you better!

“For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life!” -Romans 5:10

If you’ve been buying into the devil’s lies, now’s the time to wake up and realize Jesus is for you, not against you.  And whatever you do, if you’re a Christian… stop being a Pharisee!  If Jesus can love a sinner like you, show a little love!  Jesus is a friend of sinners.