Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “What Have They Seen in Your House?” This question really strikes at the bedrock of our “faith”. For some, “faith” is not a “way of life”. For some, “faith” is merely accession to a theology. Coming to a certain understanding of God. But true “faith” is not confined to intellectual agreement. True “faith” is a life-changing experience. As we are told, “Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power” (Desire of Ages pg. 347). This is not some mere acknowledgement. This is devotion! This is life! A new life where all priorities are re-aligned with God and His priorities… not your priorities. A new life lived to love others more than yourself. A “born-again” life.
Christians need to stop “play-acting”. The true gospel needs to be upheld. Not the spurious gospel peddled from so many pulpits. This spurious gospel sounds so much like a bartered business deal. A bartered business deal carried out between Father and Son where the Father accepts Christ’s life of obedience instead of your life of sin. This trivializes sin and trivializes our responsibility for our own actions. Such “business deals” are nonsense (no-sense). As much nonsense as the “indulgences” of the middle-ages. At least with the indulgences you had to sacrifice something (money) in order to be forgiven and obtain “salvation”, so-called. In today’s spurious gospel we only need to say the words, “I believe”. We do not even need to part with any money!
We are not to have faith in some legal arrangement between Father and Son. True saving faith is confiding trust in a Person, not trust in a deal or trust in the “merits” of another. But trust that leads you to surrender all, commit all to the One you trust. Commit everything. Not just money or a morning at church every 7 days. But commit everything… especially what you hold most dear. Your very life. In the popular Christian teaching of faith, where God accepts what Jesus did in your behalf and then proclaims you righteous, you commit nothing. Perhaps you henceforth try to live a “good” life… as it suits you. But this is not faith. It is nonsense. As nonsensical as the Jews of old who bartered with men over the blood sacrifice in order to obtain God’s forgiveness. Faith is trust in God. A trust that leads you to lose yourself in love to the One who loves you, and lose yourself in love to the ones He loves. Because true salvation and healing only come “through Christ only as by faith they should make His life their own” (Desire of Ages pg. 82).
Do you desire to make Christ’s “life your own” (ibid)? Is it more than just desire? Is it desire that leads you to act? To repent, to commit, to devote, to consecrate your life? For this is “faith”. And nothing else can be called such. True and abiding “faith” is a repudiation of all the self-centeredness that has gone before. Turning your back on the “old man” and being “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20) every day, every moment of every day. Being born anew every day, every moment of every day. Loving others for whom Christ died more than self every day, every moment of every day.
Let us be honest with our Father… and with ourselves. If this true faith I’ve just described is not yours, then run (don’t walk) to our Father and confess it all. Fall at His feet and tell Him your lack of such faith. Tell Him how you place so much ahead-of Him, ahead-of loving others, ahead-of making the life of His Son your own. Confess that there is even a part of you that does not want to give-up your selfishness and worldliness. Confess that you place your own eternal life ahead of love for others. Confess that He is not first in your affections, your desires, your plans, your dreams. TELL HIM THE TRUTH!! The truth He already knows, but cannot help you with until you acknowledge it yourself. Don’t “snow” our Father. Do not tell Him half-truths that you think He wants to hear. Say it! Say the truth!
This is the beginning of true faith. Faith and trust enough to confess the truth. And once you do this, God our Father can start to work with you to show you the beauty of “crucifixion with Christ”. The beauty of loving others more than self. The beauty of living a new life. He will direct you to the Scriptures to see Him and to see love in action. And create in you the burning desire for such a love as His. The burning desire to make His life your own. The journey has begun. And a new life awaits. A life that is reflected in all you do, henceforth. A changed life that will be “seen in your house” (quoted above)... and your entire life. I pray that this is the “faith” you want. Faith that commits all to make Christ’s life your own.
With brotherly love,
Jim