Thoughts on life and Scripture...

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

The Christian Test: Part 3

This will be the last post about assurance of salvation. I have been trying to show from the Bible that there are certain questions we can ask ourselves to determine if we are indeed saved and so gain an assurance of our salvation. In the last post we saw there must be repentance, faith, obedience, the work of the Spirit and answered prayer in the life of a Christian. Now without further delay, here are the next traits of a Christian.

1) Do you love other Christians?

 A true Christian loves Jesus Christ. The one born of God will love God and will love those who are His children. 1 John 5:1-2. Jesus Christ loves His church. He suffered and died for her. And so a Christian will love the church as well. "The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brothers is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." 1 John 2:9-11.  Consider also this verse, "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." 1 John 4:20.  It is not enough to say that you love your friends at church. But do you love all of those born again because God loves them and saved them and adopted them into His family; the same family that you are now part of? Do you love Christians who disagree with you on points of doctrine and practice or are not very lovable at times? Do you love the church where ever she may be found and seek to do her good? If you truly love God and have been born of God, you will seek the good of His church.

2) Are you disgusted with worldliness?

"Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves, the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15. The world is the collective mass of sin and error of the people in this world. It is the kingdom of darkness over which Satan rules. The world's values, habits, beliefs and pleasures are seen on the movie screen, on TV, on the magazine rack, in liberal churches, in Buddhists temples and so on. Can you love sin? Can you love worldly wisdom? Can you be at home among ungodly friends?  If so, then there are some serious problems in your life and you may not be a Christian. Christians reject the world. The philosophies of this world are repulsive to the believer. The humor and entertainment of the world is nauseating. The Christian will walk against the grain of society, because he loves God, and truth, and holiness, and seek after His kingdom and righteousness first of all. "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God ? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." James 4:4.

3) Are you persecuted for the sake of Christ?

   A Christian will hate the world, but the world also hates the Christian. The world loves darkness and hates the light. Since Christians are of the light, the world will hate them and persecute them. "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." 2 Timothy 3:12. Cain killed Abel. Why? "Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you." 1 John 3:13. And so this has been the case from then until now. The children of Cain hate the righteousness of the children of Abel because it bothers their consciences and condemns them. "This is the judgement, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." John 3:19-20  Have you suffered for Christ? Maybe you have not been tortured or put in prison. But have you been excluded from others because you are a Christian? Have you been mocked or insulted because you bear the name of Christ?  Have you been slandered against because you are of the Light? Have you shared in the sufferings of Christ? If you have, you can be sure that you are part of the Kingdom of Light. The more godly you will live, the more people will hate you and the more joy and assurance you will enjoy.

 This is the end of the Christian test. I know it wasn't exhaustive, but I think I covered most of the questions. If there was something I missed, let me know. A good resource is  the book 'Biblical Doctrines' edited by John Macarthur and Richard Mayhue. See pages 649-653.

  Hopefully, after looking over these questions, you will gain greater assurance. If you did, then praise God and continue to make your calling and election sure. But if you don't see these qualities in your life, then maybe you aren't a Christian. Or you could be an immature Christian who needs growth. I would advise you to talk to a mature Christian for further counsel.

Brad

Thursday, July 20, 2017

The Christian Test: Part 2

 In the last post I looked at 3 evidences of a Christian. Repentance, faith and obedience will be seen in every true Christian. In this post I will look at a number of other evidences of a Christian so that we may obtain assurance of faith or be shown to not be Christians and so turn from our sin to Christ.

  1) Do you see the work of the Spirit in your life?

 When a person is saved the Holy Spirit indwells them. "Having believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance," Eph 1:13-14.  The Holy Spirit's primary task is to sanctify us. Thus if we are Christians we will see the results of the ministry of the Spirit in holy lives. "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit." 1 John 4:13.

 The Holy Spirit will produce holiness in the life of the believer. This is not just outward action, but an inward transformation. The famous passage is Galatians 5: 22-23. There it lists the fruit of the Spirit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control; against such things there is no law." An apple tree will produce apples. An orange tree will produce oranges and a person that has the Spirit living inside them will produce the fruit of the Spirit. Are these seen in your life?

  The Holy Spirit is the teacher of truth. He reveals the glorious truths of God's word. "As for you, the anointing which you have received  from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in Him." 1 John 2:27. "But when He , the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth;" John 16:13. We need the Holy Spirit to teach us the truth of God's word. For when we are dead in our sins we can't understand or appreciate the glory of the truth. "But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them , because they are spiritually appraised." 1 Cor 2:14.  An evidence the Spirit is working in our lives is when we begin to see the truth, wisdom and greatness of the gospel and the glory of Christ. We love God's word. Our eyes are opened and it becomes clear to us. We have a hunger for the Bible which results in the daily reading and study of God's word. All this is evidence that the Spirit is at work within us.

 The Spirit also gives true believers spiritual discernment so that they hold fast to essential doctrine. Consider 2 John 9, "Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son." Or 1 John 4:6, "We are from God; he who know God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." Or "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him." 1 John 4:15. Consider also 1 John 2:20-24 and 1 John 5:1.  This doesn't mean Christians are never in doctrinal error. But the Spirit works in us so that we hold fast to those essential and major doctrines, like the divinity and humanity of Christ, the Trinity, the substitutionary atonement. Cults like the Mormons, JW's and others deny these and other essential doctrines. Thus they show by what they believe that they are not Christians. Christians will be able to discern false teachers and teaching.

  The Holy Spirit will also testify to our adoption as God's children. "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God," Rom 8:16.  In salvation we are adopted as God's children. He is now our Father. The Holman study note on this verse says this "By the Spirit we have a consciousnesses that God is our Father. It is the mark of a Christian to cry out to his Father in prayer." John Macarthur in his study Bible says this, ""God's Holy Spirit confirms the validity of our adoption, not by some inner, mystical voice, but by the fruit He produces in us and the power He provides for spiritual service."  Thus we come to God as children come to their father knowing that He will hear us through Christ.

2) Does God answer your prayers?

  "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." 1 John 5:14 and 1 John 3:22, "And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." This doesn't mean God will answer our prayers in the exact manner that we think He should. But when we pray according to His will, laid out for us in scripture, then we can be sure that God will answer those prayers. If we are Christians, we should see some of God's answers to our prayers and that will give us greater assurance of faith.

 For the last blog post in this series I will look at a few more signs to see if  we are indeed Christians.

Brad

Monday, July 17, 2017

The Christian Test: Part 1

This post continues on from the last one in which I showed from the scripture that we are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. Assurance of salvation is important and God has shown us how to obtain it in His word. The letter of First John gives us a test by which we can see if we are indeed saved. Much of the texts used here will be taken from this book.

  This is a test that you must get 100% on. All the traits will be present in a Christian. But there will be varying degrees in the life of a believer. For example, all Christians have saving faith, but some will have strong faith while others weak faith. The greater these characteristics of a believer are seen in a their life, the greater will be their assurance. The less we see these qualities, the weaker will be our assurance.

1) Do I repent of my sins and trust in the finished work of Christ?

 How a person deals with sin, reveals his true colors. We are born loving sin. We don't need to learn to sin since it comes naturally. Left to himself, man would hold on to his sin rather than let it go and gain eternal life. The natural man pursues sins and continues to live in sin. He doesn't hate it and see it for what it is; the most hateful and vile evil in all the universe. 1 John 3:8, "The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning."

 One of the first signs of new life in the soul is repentance. Repentance is a change in our attitude toward sin. It is much more than just saying sorry to God for your sins. It is more than just asking for forgiveness. With repentance there is a sorrow because we know that sins are an offence toward God. Sin doesn't seem lovely any more; it is seen as a disease, a poison, a pollutant, a rotting corpse. Then there will be confession of sin before God. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. We cry out to God as the tax collector did, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner." Luke 18:13. Real repentance also involves a breaking away or turning from sin. We don't wallow in our sins like a pig in the mud. We make an effort to leave the mire. Christians may fall into the mud, but they won't stay there. "No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" 1 John 3:9
   
   Repentance starts at the beginning of the Christian's life and continues throughout his life. We never stop confessing our sins and repenting. When we come in repentance for the first time, we come before God as judge begging Him to forgive us and give us salvation. When we come in repentance during the rest of our life, we come to God as our Father whom we have wronged so there can be reconciliation and enjoyment of that relationship.

  Faith always goes with repentance. Faith and repentance are as two wings which are both needed for the bird to fly. Both faith and repentance are needed for salvation. A Christian trusts or rests on the finished work of Christ. He knows he is bankrupt of righteousness. He knows he can do nothing to save himself. He believes that only Christ can save him. A Christian is convinced that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that he can only be saved by coming to Christ in faith. 

"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God," 1 John 5:1.

"The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony  in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son." 1 John 5:10.

"That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Rom 10:9.

 As with repentance, living by faith continues our whole lives. The just are saved by faith and the just continue by faith. A true Christian continues his whole life trusting Christ. Consider the lives of the saints in Hebrew 11. They did great deeds by faith. They courageously suffered and died by faith. They sailed through trouble and trials trusting in the unseen God who loved them. "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith." 1 John 5:4.

2) Is there a general pattern of obedience to God in my life?

 In many of these characteristics of a Christian there is some overlap. Obedience is the result of repentance and faith.

Jesus said in John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep my commandments."

and then later in verses 23-24 "If anyone loves Me, he will keep my word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love me , does not keep my words;"

 1 John 3:10 states it very plainly, "By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God,"

or consider 1 John 2:29 , "If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him."

I could go on; there are many similar verses in the Bible. A Christian will be obedient to God's commands. This doesn't mean Christians have to be perfect. No Christian will be perfect in this life. But when you look at your life, ask yourselves, "Is there a general pattern of obedience in my life?" "Do I delight to do God's will?"  "Is there growth of obedience in my life?" The more obedient we are the greater our assurance of our salvation will be.

   These first two characteristics of a Christian are foundational. You simply can't be a Christian if you never have repented of your sins and trusted Christ alone for salvation. There must be obedience to God's law in a Christian's life and that obedience must be increasing. A true Christian will find joy and will delight in God's commands. There will be a desire to repent. There will be joy in resting in Jesus alone. All these traits are products of a new heart that is given at salvation.

The next post will continue this test of a genuine Christian.

Brad

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Are You Really A Christian?

One of the reasons I write is to study and clarify different issues and subjects. In a book I was reading, a pastor was dealing with assurance of salvation in his church. There were two views that were held in this church on how one can be assured that he is a Christian. I was unsatisfied with either of these two positions. So I went to my books and Bible to study the issue for myself. I hope to write a number of posts on how we can gain this assurance of salvation.

 On an issue like this the Bible is not silent. Assurance of salvation is important. Therefore God, through His word, teaches us how we can determine if we are truly born again. In fact the book of first John's main purpose is to show how we can have assurance. Without this assurance we are like a soldier running into battle without his helmet, exposed to many attacks.Without this assurance we are like soldiers in a battle always doubting which side we are fighting for and who our enemy is. Assurance of salvation gives us courage. We know without a doubt which side we are fighting on. We know that victory is ours through Christ. We know that Jesus Christ and all His infinite resources are at our disposal. As you see, it is very important that we gain a great assurance that Jesus is our Savior.

  Assurance of salvation is not gained by man's thoughts and ideas.  Our baptism will not give us real assurance of salvation. If you were baptized as a baby or later in life it doesn't contribute one bit to your salvation and thus, neither to your assurance of salvation. Just because you said a prayer or came at an altar call or made a profession of faith, doesn't mean you will have a real assurance of salvation. Assurance doesn't come by working in the church, missionary enterprises or sacrificial giving. All these may give a false assurance, which is damning and dangerous to the soul. But only the word of God truly give a person the way to a true and lasting assurance of salvation.

  Maybe you are skeptical that God even calls us to consider whether we are true Christians. Some might say this kind of examination is unhealthy. Is there a clear command in scripture to test whether we are indeed saved from the wrath to come? Yes there is. In 2 Corinthians 13:5 we read this, "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?" After listing a number of virtues, Peter says this in 2 Peter 1:10, "Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;"  As I said John's first letter was meant to lead Christians toward assurance of salvation. Consider John's purpose statement for this letter. "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." 1 John 5:13

 These verses make it clear that God wants us to test ourselves so we are not fooled into thinking we are Christians when we are not and that God wants His people to be confident of their salvation in Christ. In further posts I want to look at the questions on the 'Am I a Christian?' test.


Brad