I encourage you NOT to confuse religion with salvation

While religion may give you the sensation of doing the right thing for God, it is in fact empty of any valve to God! It’s true that the good works of religion may puff up our spiritual ego and sense of self-righteousness, but those very works will abandon us at the grave as dead enemies of God, with rejection from heaven being certain.

Jesus told Nicodemus, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Nicodemus was possibly the highest ranking religious leader in Israel, yet he was spiritually dead, without God, and without the certain hope of eternal life. Nicodemus needed to change his thinking! Salvation, eternal life, could not be earned! Rather, it’s a one-time spiritual work of regeneration, rebirth, done totally by the Holy Spirit of God within a repentant sinner.

The apostle John records the deceitfulness of man focused religion; “Many even of the authorities believed in him (Jesus), but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God” (John 12:42-43). Even today, many love the feelings of appearing religious, more than they love Christ as Lord – this is FRAUD FAITH.

Referring to man-made acts of religious duty, the apostle Paul points out that; “these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh [sin]” (Colossians 2:23). Religious attendance is powerless against all types of sin, and indeed is not concerned when its followers live a life of double standards and hypocrisy. The fact is, religion cannot motivate us to hate sin, but will accommodate it, happily incorporating our sins into its acceptable yet incorrect religious beliefs.

In Romans 3:21-25, the apostle Paul explains that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and that God’s righteousness is acquired “through faith in Jesus Christ.” You see, sinners are “justified by his grace as a gift.” Forgiveness cannot be religiously earned or purchased by sinful people. So, “God put forward” His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross as the sinless sacrifice. He died in our place, carrying our sin, receiving God’s wrath instead of us.

God, having emptied His wrath against our sin on His Son, is now at peace, appeased by the blood sacrifice of His Son on the cross. However, the benefit of eternal forgiveness for all mortal sins which is available through Christ’s death, must personally “be received by faith” as applying to each of us as individuals. This excludes all dependency upon family traditions, church denominations, church leaders, and personal works in attempt to earn God’s favour. This means acknowledging that “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5), no other mediator exists.

Here’s a simple two-fold test of authenticity that religion won’t want you to answer, yet it will allow you to be honest with yourself.

• Do you look at yourself and “consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).
• Is your consuming desire in life to obey Jesus as Lord? “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him”(1 John 2:4).

I encourage you NOT to confuse religion with salvation.

 

I encourage you to keep eternity in focus

Eternity is real; it’s an indisputable certainty awaiting every human, irrespective of culture or belief. Living for the pleasures of the moment certainly consumes our society with no thought given to the reality of eternity. While this world wishes eternity out of existence by removing it from its thinking, the child of God not only believes in eternity, but focuses their thinking on it.

God’s Word paints a spectacular picture of God in His native environment. ”For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15). Our God is majestic in all His ways and so incredibly supernal in His infinite attributes that we struggle to grasp His holy enormity.

However, for the believer, we look back into eternity past to see that God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:4). There we discover God’s predetermined will for our lives, to be expressive of His holiness in our time and society.

Meaningful eternity in Purpose

Likewise, in the business of life, with all that is required of us, we should ensure that our driving motive is to “not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life” (John 6:27). Having a healthy eternal perspective motivates us to prioritise the activities of the present as investment for the future. Jesus taught this when He instructed the disciples; “I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). Money can and should be used with and eternal evangelistic purpose for God’s glory and man’s blessing.

As those who “have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Romans 6:22). Our present walk of growing in the likeness of Christ has a definite destination, regardless of the difficulties we may have to live through; we are conquerors in Christ with the certain outcome of eternal life.

You see, the lover of Jesus Christ as Lord, evaluates life realising that their “light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

Clarity of eternity in your vision

While the great deceiver has duped the world into thinking that the ‘here and now’ is all that exists and matters, the people of God don’t buy into it. Mankind has accepted their mortality, and ignored their spiritual and eternal souls. Sadly, disbelieving people content themselves with a meaningless ‘now’ mentality that offers zero purpose and zero security for themselves or the next generation. But not the people of God, we agree with Simon Peter, who answered Jesus “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

Today, encourage others to focus on eternity as a refreshing and meaningful expression of the reality of Jesus Christ living in you.

 

I wish to encourage you to celebrate Christmas in truth

For Christians, Christmas is one of our greatest celebrations. The angel who appeared to the shepherds said it so well; “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). We praise God every Christmas because He selflessly gave without restraint; when love entered the world in the form of a baby to fulfill an intended purpose 33 years later.

About 9 months earlier an angel foretold that “She (Mary) will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Yes, Christmas is our celebration of when God stepped into human history to do what the world said would never happen. Although God didn’t do things the way the world expected, He nevertheless “so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Worship in awe

The mind blowing wonder of the Christmas celebration is that this baby Jesus, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). No other baby has, or shall ever, be born with such an eternally supreme purpose.

If Jesus had come to lead a military revolt or bring political reform, He failed. If to lead religious revival or resolve racial tension, this He also failed. Or, if He came to establish a spiritual enlightenment program, or to lavish His followers with a life style of luxury, He definitely failed. No, baby Jesus came to do that which humanity could not do for themselves; to save them from the eternal consequences of the very sins they deny being guilty of.

Consider Jesus own words; “I have not come to abolish them (the Law of the Prophets) but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). ”Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book” (Hebrews 10:7).

Purpose fulfilled

Some 33 years after His birth, as Jesus considered the future Cross of Calvary and what that involved, He prayed; “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour” (John 12:27).

Not surprising then, that “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

While the world wants political, social, military, and financial reform, God gives us a Saviour from sins. While the world frivolously disregards baby Jesus as a fairy-tale for children, we acknowledge and worship Him as Sovereign Saviour and Lord.

 

I wish to encourage you to grow in appreciation of the greatest gift.

While the giving of presents in the world is common, there is no earthly gift to be compared with the gift of eternal life in Christ. Typically, we value little the things which cost us little. This is certainly true in the self-centered, consumer driven society in which we live. However, this is NOT true of the child of God!

The apostle Paul pointed out to the Ephesian Church that at the foundation of a believer’s relationship with God is the unmerited and humanly unattainable attribute of faith. So God, of His own initiative, gifted the required faith thus equipping us to respond; “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

God is not only a Saviour by nature but a gift giver also. While salvation in and of itself cost us nothing, it did however cost someone everything. Obviously, I’m referring to Christ; “For if, because of one man’s (Adam’s) trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).

Justice was not enough

It would have been sufficient if God had released us from the judicial consequences of our sin due to Christ’s substitutional death, but God did so much more. He didn’t simply neutralise His wrath toward we sinners, no; “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him (Christ) we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Father gave our sin, accompanied by His wrath, to Christ, while gifting us with Christ’s righteousness.

While it’s true that we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” it’s equally true that we sinners “are justified by his (God’s) grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). This undeserved gift becomes even more spectacular as we grow in our appreciation of the redemption we have in Christ. To be redeemed is to be forgiven, made holy, set free, adopted into God’s family, and reconciled (Romans 5:17; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Galatians 3:13; 4:5; Colossians 1:18-20; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:14-18). Such wonderful truths stretch our mortal comprehension to our finite limits, and simply leave us hanging in the awe of thankful faith. Praise God!

The most secure gift

As is so typical of the Lord, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). His gifts are in perfect synchromesh with the purpose of His will; therefore, we are secure in His faithfulness as the supreme and merciful gift giver (cf. 2 Timothy 2:13).

While most gifts we receive in this life don’t require any special response, other than gratitude, God’s gift does demand a response. Our only reasonable response is explained well by the apostle Paul to the Corinthians. “For the love of Christ controls (Compels) us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

Today, I encourage you to grow in appreciation of the greatest gift, and consciously surrender all that you are to the humble privilege of living for Christ instead of for self.

 

I wish to encourage you to take refuge in the Lord

Life is an array of experiences that can easily overwhelm us. The world and life, moves at such a rapid pace that few of us can truly keep up without incurring some form of fatigue or injury. However, the child of God has a safe haven; a sanctuary that cannot be quantified in physical, financial, or geographic terms. Far greater than any worldly treasure, with infinitely more resources than this world could ever imagine, we take refuge in the Lord!

The Psalmist said it well; “Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you” (Psalms 33:20-22). Throughout life, the believer lives with a spiritual faith that transcends the events of life by looking dependently to the Lord. Satisfaction comes from knowing and walking with God who surpasses our need for us to see our expectations fulfilled.

The child of God says to the Lord; “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word” (Psalms 119:114). Our assurance comes from who our God is, and it is his unchangeable holy identity that germinates within us the realisation of well-being. We Christians echo the words; “I trust in you, O LORD; I say, You are my God” (Psalms 31:14). We have come to recognise that “every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him” (Proverbs 30:5).

You see, I’m speaking here of the person who is not looking to fixate on individual events, experiences, or even blessings in order to validate their faith. No, I speak of the soul who looks “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). This is the expression of faith in the person of God through His Son Jesus Christ. This faith does not look for personal gain or advantage, rather, it draws contentment from accepting that God sovereignly works out His will in our lives to fulfill His purposes. This faith unreservedly prays “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), declaring as John the Baptist did, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

This faith doesn’t nit-pick over personal preferences, yet it does discriminate between that which is good and that which is excellent. It fails to waste it’s allegiance on frivolous fleshly endeavours, while devoting its resources to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9). This uncommon belief is quick to acknowledge that it is “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). It desires nothing for itself but only to do what the man delivered of demons did; “he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him” (Luke 8:39).

Be encouraged beloved; “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). This is the Saviour we take refuge in!