Do You Pass The Test?
10/29/09
In life there are all kinds of tests that we must pass. We must pass test after test to graduate from high school. Our cars must pass emission tests. We have drug tests, IQ tests, vision tests, hearing tests, allergy tests, and all kinds of tests. We are very concerned about passing these earthly tests because we know that a failure to pass them could be indicative of some serious danger and future failures. Yet we are strangely unconcerned about a future test that all mankind must pass or be sentenced to eternity in hell. There is a serious downside to failing to have our names in the Book of Life. This is one test that we absolutely must pass.
Paul exhorts the Corinthians to test themselves to see if they are indeed of the faith. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, he says, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?” Did they have Christ in them, the hope of their future glory in heaven, or not (Colossians 1:27)? This is the question that they needed to answer. Implied in the notion that we should test ourselves is the fact that we can know if we indeed pass the test or not. The purpose in testing ourselves is thus to know whether or not we are saved so that, if we are not, we can do something about it before it is too late.
We should all come to a place of certainty regarding our eternity. 1 John 5:13 says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” John’s motivation in writing the epistle of 1 John was to explain how we can know for sure if we are saved. He wanted believers to be encouraged in their hope of eternal life, and he wanted unbelievers to have the true state of their heart exposed. God’s desire is not that we wait it out and hope that we get into heaven. Knowing that we are going to be with Christ for eternity is something that we should anchor our lives upon now. If we do not know Christ, it won’t help to find that out come judgment day. We need to know now so that we can repent and receive Him into our hearts as Savior and Lord. We must test ourselves now so that we can know now.
John’s criteria for being sure of our salvation are as follows: 1) we keep His commandments (1 John 2:4, 29), 2) we love others, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ (1 John 2:9), 3) we do not love the world or the things of it (1 John 2:15), 4) we confess Jesus as Messiah and as God in the flesh (1 John 2:23-24, 4:15), 5) we are being taught by the Spirit (1 John 2:27), 6) we do not practice sin (1 John 3:9), and 7) we practice righteousness (1 John 3:9). These are very basic and black and white criteria. Either we are in Christ or not. Either we love others, or we don’t. Either we are led and taught by the Spirit, or we are not (Romans 8:14). Either we are those whose lives are characterized by sin, or we are those whose lives show patterns of righteousness. Either we keep Christ’s commandments as a general rule, or we do not. Either we are given to obedience, or we are rebels at heart. Either we love the lusts of the world, or we love Christ. Either we confess Christ as Messiah, or we deny His deity, reject His forgiveness, refuse the draw of the Holy Spirit, and do not submit to His authority. These seven criteria come as a package deal. John is cutting us to the heart to help us see whether we have a fallen heart or a heart that desires the things of God. He is trying to make the point that true saving faith has works as evidence (James 2:17). True Christians will have the fruit of good works, while those who do not truly know Christ will not have any spiritual fruit (Matthew 7:20). Rather, their lives will breed evil, destruction, sin, and hate. We must ask ourselves if we have put our faith in Christ as our Savior and Lord, and we must see evidence of repentance (Luke 13:5). Repentance is a turning from something and taking a new direction. We should ask ourselves what we have repented from and what we have turned to. There should be a clear difference.
Now Christians do stumble at times (James 3:2), and some have even made shipwreck of their faith (1 Timothy 1:18-20). We may not always love, think, or act as we ought, but there should be obvious evidence that we are not as we used to be. We need to look at the big picture of our lives. Have our lives been different since we turned to Christ? What sin patterns have stopped and what righteous deeds have begun? What do we do that is clear evidence of Christ at work in and through us? Is the love of Christ characteristic of our lives? Do we rejoice when truth prevails? Is it so obvious to others that Christ is our Lord that we end up taking some flack for it? Do our works and behavior deny Christ or affirm a love and devotion to Him? Do we really care about the welfare of others above our own? Is the fruit of the Spirit evident? These are all questions that should have obvious answers.
The point is that we can and should be confident of our salvation. What we need to do is to ask the Spirit of God to testify to our spirits that we are indeed children of God. He will do this as we go through these criteria and questions humbly and honestly if we are indeed born again (Romans 8:16). If we have doubts, we should seal the deal by asking God to forgive us of our sins once and for all and to impart to us the righteousness that can be ours through Christ. Christ bore our sins and the penalty thereof. We must thus receive Him as our Savior and confess Him as our Lord (Romans 10:9-10).
The issue is the state of our hearts. Either Christ is in us, or He is not. It is possible to be sure, one way or the other. Let’s test ourselves now so that we can be certain of passing Christ’s test come judgment time.
Paul exhorts the Corinthians to test themselves to see if they are indeed of the faith. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, he says, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?” Did they have Christ in them, the hope of their future glory in heaven, or not (Colossians 1:27)? This is the question that they needed to answer. Implied in the notion that we should test ourselves is the fact that we can know if we indeed pass the test or not. The purpose in testing ourselves is thus to know whether or not we are saved so that, if we are not, we can do something about it before it is too late.
We should all come to a place of certainty regarding our eternity. 1 John 5:13 says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” John’s motivation in writing the epistle of 1 John was to explain how we can know for sure if we are saved. He wanted believers to be encouraged in their hope of eternal life, and he wanted unbelievers to have the true state of their heart exposed. God’s desire is not that we wait it out and hope that we get into heaven. Knowing that we are going to be with Christ for eternity is something that we should anchor our lives upon now. If we do not know Christ, it won’t help to find that out come judgment day. We need to know now so that we can repent and receive Him into our hearts as Savior and Lord. We must test ourselves now so that we can know now.
John’s criteria for being sure of our salvation are as follows: 1) we keep His commandments (1 John 2:4, 29), 2) we love others, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ (1 John 2:9), 3) we do not love the world or the things of it (1 John 2:15), 4) we confess Jesus as Messiah and as God in the flesh (1 John 2:23-24, 4:15), 5) we are being taught by the Spirit (1 John 2:27), 6) we do not practice sin (1 John 3:9), and 7) we practice righteousness (1 John 3:9). These are very basic and black and white criteria. Either we are in Christ or not. Either we love others, or we don’t. Either we are led and taught by the Spirit, or we are not (Romans 8:14). Either we are those whose lives are characterized by sin, or we are those whose lives show patterns of righteousness. Either we keep Christ’s commandments as a general rule, or we do not. Either we are given to obedience, or we are rebels at heart. Either we love the lusts of the world, or we love Christ. Either we confess Christ as Messiah, or we deny His deity, reject His forgiveness, refuse the draw of the Holy Spirit, and do not submit to His authority. These seven criteria come as a package deal. John is cutting us to the heart to help us see whether we have a fallen heart or a heart that desires the things of God. He is trying to make the point that true saving faith has works as evidence (James 2:17). True Christians will have the fruit of good works, while those who do not truly know Christ will not have any spiritual fruit (Matthew 7:20). Rather, their lives will breed evil, destruction, sin, and hate. We must ask ourselves if we have put our faith in Christ as our Savior and Lord, and we must see evidence of repentance (Luke 13:5). Repentance is a turning from something and taking a new direction. We should ask ourselves what we have repented from and what we have turned to. There should be a clear difference.
Now Christians do stumble at times (James 3:2), and some have even made shipwreck of their faith (1 Timothy 1:18-20). We may not always love, think, or act as we ought, but there should be obvious evidence that we are not as we used to be. We need to look at the big picture of our lives. Have our lives been different since we turned to Christ? What sin patterns have stopped and what righteous deeds have begun? What do we do that is clear evidence of Christ at work in and through us? Is the love of Christ characteristic of our lives? Do we rejoice when truth prevails? Is it so obvious to others that Christ is our Lord that we end up taking some flack for it? Do our works and behavior deny Christ or affirm a love and devotion to Him? Do we really care about the welfare of others above our own? Is the fruit of the Spirit evident? These are all questions that should have obvious answers.
The point is that we can and should be confident of our salvation. What we need to do is to ask the Spirit of God to testify to our spirits that we are indeed children of God. He will do this as we go through these criteria and questions humbly and honestly if we are indeed born again (Romans 8:16). If we have doubts, we should seal the deal by asking God to forgive us of our sins once and for all and to impart to us the righteousness that can be ours through Christ. Christ bore our sins and the penalty thereof. We must thus receive Him as our Savior and confess Him as our Lord (Romans 10:9-10).
The issue is the state of our hearts. Either Christ is in us, or He is not. It is possible to be sure, one way or the other. Let’s test ourselves now so that we can be certain of passing Christ’s test come judgment time.
A Second Chance
10/19/09
God is the God of the second chance. If you’ve muffed your life, the God of the Bible is the God for you. The prophet Jonah needed a second chance. God charged him to go to Nineveh and cry out against the wickedness of that great city. But Nineveh belonged to the Assyrians, the bitter enemies of the Jews. How could God be serious? Jonah must have wondered. So the prophet went instead to Joppa and boarded a ship bound for the West.
When a storm arose and Jonan was tossed into the sea, God already had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah—not to punish him, but to save his life. The fish coughed Jonah up on dry land, and Jonah 3:1 says, “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time.” God gave the disobedient prophet a second chance.
And Jonah’s not alone. John Mark blew his first missionary assignment, but God gave him a second chance. Peter denied his Lord three times, but God gave him a second chance. One of the most tender verses in the Bible is Jeremiah 18:4. The potter was making something on his wheel, but the vessel was married in the potter’s hand. “So he made it again into another vessel….”
A second chance.
Do you need a second chance today? Has your life been one disappointment after another? Be encouraged.
God is the God of a second chance.
When a storm arose and Jonan was tossed into the sea, God already had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah—not to punish him, but to save his life. The fish coughed Jonah up on dry land, and Jonah 3:1 says, “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time.” God gave the disobedient prophet a second chance.
And Jonah’s not alone. John Mark blew his first missionary assignment, but God gave him a second chance. Peter denied his Lord three times, but God gave him a second chance. One of the most tender verses in the Bible is Jeremiah 18:4. The potter was making something on his wheel, but the vessel was married in the potter’s hand. “So he made it again into another vessel….”
A second chance.
Do you need a second chance today? Has your life been one disappointment after another? Be encouraged.
God is the God of a second chance.
Too Proud to Ask For Help
10/19/09
In the 2005 film Cinderella Man, struggling prizefighter James J. Braddock, played by Russell Crowe, has to make a hard choice.
It’s the heart of the Great Depression. He can’t find work, the electricity has been turned off in their cramped apartment, and his wife and three children are going hungry. Reluctantly, Braddock goes to the government relief office. A clerk hands him money to pay the bills and buy food.
We Christian men can be like that: too proud to ask for help. Except it’s not the relief office we’re afraid to go to. It’s God.
Somewhere along the way we got the idea that it’s wrong to ask for help, that it’s something no real man should do. I was raised on John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies, where tough guys made their own way. They didn’t need anybody’s help, and even if John Wayne did have to bring in his buddies, they were a bunch of hard, macho types who volunteered for the fight. He never had to humiliate himself and ask them.
You Won’t Stand a Chance
But you can’t live the Christian life that way. It’s impossible. You can’t go it alone and resist temptation, make wise decisions, and get back up when you get knocked down. If you don’t ask God for help, you won’t stand a chance.
Pride is a funny thing. Psalm 10:4 tells us: "In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God." The psalmist recognized this shortcoming in men thousands of years ago. It hasn’t gotten any better since.
Women joke that men will drive around lost for an hour rather than stop and ask directions. We’re that way in the rest of our life as well. God, the source of all wisdom, is eager to give us the direction we need, yet we’ll take one dead end after another rather than ask him for help.
Jesus was different from us. He constantly sought his Father’s leading. His character was flawless, free from the pride we display. Instead of trying to make it on his own, he depended heavily on the Father and the Holy Spirit.
If our pride weren’t bad enough, we men are also slow learners. We refuse God’s help, mess things up, then a year or five years or ten years later we do the same thing. It’s hard for us to overcome our need for independence.
How to Break the Cycle
How do we break this cycle of pride? How do we get into the habit of asking God for help, not just in big things but every single day?
First, we remember what Christ has already done for us. He saved us from our sins, something we could never do on our own. He became the pure, spotless sacrifice we could never be, the only offering that would satisfy God’s perfect justice. His willingness to die in our place proves his immense love. That kind of love will deny us no good thing.
Second, we reflect on our need for help. Every Christian man has enough failures in his past to remind him that going it alone simply hasn’t worked. We shouldn’t be embarrassed by our failures; we should be embarrassed because we were too arrogant to accept God’s help. But it’s never too late to remedy that.
Third, we should learn from other Christian men who have humbled themselves and daily rely on God for help. We can see the victories in their lives. We can marvel at their maturity, their calmness, their faith in a trustworthy God. Those same admirable qualities can become ours, too.
There’s hope for every one of us. We can live the life we’ve always dreamed of. Pride is a sin we can overcome, and we start by asking God for help.
It’s the heart of the Great Depression. He can’t find work, the electricity has been turned off in their cramped apartment, and his wife and three children are going hungry. Reluctantly, Braddock goes to the government relief office. A clerk hands him money to pay the bills and buy food.
We Christian men can be like that: too proud to ask for help. Except it’s not the relief office we’re afraid to go to. It’s God.
Somewhere along the way we got the idea that it’s wrong to ask for help, that it’s something no real man should do. I was raised on John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies, where tough guys made their own way. They didn’t need anybody’s help, and even if John Wayne did have to bring in his buddies, they were a bunch of hard, macho types who volunteered for the fight. He never had to humiliate himself and ask them.
You Won’t Stand a Chance
But you can’t live the Christian life that way. It’s impossible. You can’t go it alone and resist temptation, make wise decisions, and get back up when you get knocked down. If you don’t ask God for help, you won’t stand a chance.
Pride is a funny thing. Psalm 10:4 tells us: "In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God." The psalmist recognized this shortcoming in men thousands of years ago. It hasn’t gotten any better since.
Women joke that men will drive around lost for an hour rather than stop and ask directions. We’re that way in the rest of our life as well. God, the source of all wisdom, is eager to give us the direction we need, yet we’ll take one dead end after another rather than ask him for help.
Jesus was different from us. He constantly sought his Father’s leading. His character was flawless, free from the pride we display. Instead of trying to make it on his own, he depended heavily on the Father and the Holy Spirit.
If our pride weren’t bad enough, we men are also slow learners. We refuse God’s help, mess things up, then a year or five years or ten years later we do the same thing. It’s hard for us to overcome our need for independence.
How to Break the Cycle
How do we break this cycle of pride? How do we get into the habit of asking God for help, not just in big things but every single day?
First, we remember what Christ has already done for us. He saved us from our sins, something we could never do on our own. He became the pure, spotless sacrifice we could never be, the only offering that would satisfy God’s perfect justice. His willingness to die in our place proves his immense love. That kind of love will deny us no good thing.
Second, we reflect on our need for help. Every Christian man has enough failures in his past to remind him that going it alone simply hasn’t worked. We shouldn’t be embarrassed by our failures; we should be embarrassed because we were too arrogant to accept God’s help. But it’s never too late to remedy that.
Third, we should learn from other Christian men who have humbled themselves and daily rely on God for help. We can see the victories in their lives. We can marvel at their maturity, their calmness, their faith in a trustworthy God. Those same admirable qualities can become ours, too.
There’s hope for every one of us. We can live the life we’ve always dreamed of. Pride is a sin we can overcome, and we start by asking God for help.