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

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

Spiritually Modified People

Genetically modified foods, in which they modify the genetic material of a plant, is a controversial process. I have no intention of writing about that now. But I want to use GMO's as a way to introduce a very important truth from scripture. God is in the business of spiritually modifying people (SMP). He takes out their old, evil, stone cold hearts and inserts new hearts. Such SMP's are now drastically changed in how they think and live. This change is really the greatest miracle around and it happens all the time. Let us briefly spend some time examining what God has to say on this wonderful doctrine of regeneration.

  Wayne Grudem in his systematic theology, defines regeneration as "a secret act of God in which He imparts new spiritual life in us." Regeneration is more commonly referred to in the Bible as being born again. Being born again is an absolute necessity for salvation. " Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3. This is so because when we are born physically, we are born spiritually dead. As Paul said we "were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked" and we "were by nature children of wrath." Ephesians 2:1,2,3. After Adam sinned we all died spiritually. So it doesn't matter who you are or where we live, we all need to be born again. You could be a great moral person with a religious pedigree all the way to John Calvin or you could be the most debased sinner but you still need to be born again.

Regeneration is something we play no part in. There are no commands in the Bible that we need to regenerate ourselves. Being born again is solely an act of God. Jesus referred to regeneration as being born of the Spirit."Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." John 3:5.  See also John 1:13 and 1 John 2:29. In fact while regeneration is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit, a close study of scripture reveals that all members of the Trinity are involved in regeneration. Just as we had no part to play when we were born the first time, so we play no part in being born the second time.

 The word of God is what God uses to bring about the new life in Christ. "Since you have been born again not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God." 1 Peter 1:23.  This is also confirmed by James in James 1:18, "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures." In both these passages we learn that God uses His word, especially the gospel message, to bring about the new birth. This should make us see how important it is to communicate God's truth with accuracy in teaching and evangelism. Since God uses His word for regeneration, we should, in our evangelism, use scripture in our conversation and gospel literature.

There is a mystery in how this work of regeneration occurs in the heart of a person. "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." John 3:8. How exactly God works as He transforms a person spiritually is unknown. For some people, they will know the  precise day and moment of being born again and others may not realize all that is taking place inside them. But yet there is always a moment when God takes the old heart out and gives that person a new heart. We may not perceive it until later. While we may not know how God imparts new life in the hearts of people, we will always see the results.

The result of the work of regeneration will always be repentance, faith, justification, and sanctification. When God gives new life in the soul, the person will now see the holiness of God, the sinfulness of sin, and the beauty of Christ and the gospel. He will respond to his sins with godly sorrow and true repentance. He will lean on the finished work of Christ for his complete salvation. When he does that, then God declares that person not guilty and righteous based on the sacrifice and righteousness of Jesus Christ. The Christian is now a new creature in Christ and as such he will live differently. There will be increasing conformity to the character of Christ in a Christian's life.

 John's first letter gives some of the signs of a person who has been born of God.
1) One who is born again will not continue to live in sin. There will be true repentance and forsaking of sin. He will hate sin not love it. 1 John 3:9 and 1 John 5:18
2) The one who is born again will trust that Jesus is the only Saviour for sinners. 1 John 5:1
3) The regenerated person will desire and try to live a godly life. 1 John 2:29
4) One who is born again will love God's people, His church. 1 John 3:14
5) One truly born again will not love worldliness. 1 John 5:4

Are these signs in your life? This is an important question, for there is no other way to enter heaven. Let me finish with an illustration that I have modified from Charles Spurgeon. Suppose there was a rule in Canada that only those who were born in Canada could become citizens of this country. Now a man from Japan comes to Canada and wishes to be a Canadian citizen. He is told that is impossible. So he says that he will dress like a Canadian and eat Canadian food. Will that help him to become a citizen? No, but this man truly is willing to become a citizen so he says that he will also learn English and just to show his sincerity he will learn French too. We would admire his zeal, but the law is the law. But he continues on, "I will change my name so it is a Canadian name like Wayne or Pierre. I will study the customs and traditions of this country so that I will be able to be a typical Canadian." Sadly this man still would not be allowed to be a citizen. So it is with the heavenly country. In order to become a citizen of God's country, you must be born again. No amount of outward good deeds can get you in. Only by God's sovereign grace can you become a citizen of that country. While we cannot regenerate ourselves, God does call all of us to repent and believe in Christ.

-Brad