Getting to the Truth

When someone professes to believe in Christ, does this mean that they are saved? If you've tried to share your faith with even a few people, you probably have a decisive answer to that question. The Bible teaches us that any person who genuinely takes the gospel message to hearts and repents of theirs sins and believes in Jesus will be saved. I believe that is true, regardless of their religious affiliation. The really important questions for anyone who professes a belief in Jesus is, "What do you really believe?" and "Who is Jesus to you?" I could change the questions around a bit and ask, "How did you get saved?" and "What is your source of truth?" The faith that the Bible teaches us about is a faith by itself, in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone, and completely apart from any kind of religious work.

"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast." Ephesians 2 The gift of salvation is free for the asking.

If you share your faith with people, you will almost undoubtedly meet and talk with someone who readily states that they believe in the same things we hold to as believers. They believe that Jesus was a man who truly lived and walked the earth, that He lived a perfect life, that He died, and even that He rose again. The problem comes in when they add that knowledge to a "system" of works, and hold to a belief that their own works also play some part in their salvation. This serves to diminish what Jesus did for us when He bled and died for our sins on the Cross.

What they are doing is adding something to the gospel message that isn't there. This is what, for example, the religious Jews were doing when Jesus lived, and when His apostles were establishing churches. They were insisting that the rite of circumcision needed to be included for one to be saved, but to believe in Jesus of Nazareth means to trust in, cling to and rely on Him alone for our salvation. Him alone means that we must turn from what the world declares holy; our good works, our righteousness or any other thing about "us" that we hold as having some sort of glory. The only "work" that we are to rely on is the work done by Jesus. What He did on the Cross is the only possible way that we can receive forgiveness for our sins against God, and acceptance by God, as one of His children.

This is why it is so important when sharing about Jesus, to make sure the "Jesus" that people say they believe in, is the Jesus of the Bible. I was sharing with a man once in martial arts class. I steered the conversation toward things spiritual, and we finally got around to Jesus. He told me that he believed that Jesus was God's Son. Sounds okay, but that could have meant any number of things. We have to be dutiful because we serve a totally righteous and perfect God, and we need to ask the kinds of questions that clarify what people truly believe. We need to lovingly peruse these conversations until we find out what people say they believe saves them, and what they think is true or not true. To just accept pat answers that could go either way, could leave people following their own consciences.

The Bible tells us that all the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes. Unless we appeal to the truth of the conscience, a person will go right on being self-deceived, or being deceived by the world. The word, "conscience" means "with knowledge." God gave us a conscience to give us the ability to know right from wrong. It is with that knowledge that we can come to know that we need a Savior. How does that work? I can tell you that if someone stuck a sign in my face at work that said, "DO YOUR STINKING JOB OR YOU'RE FIRED!" or something like that, I would probably quit. I don't like to be intimidated into doing things. So would an unbeliever, especially one that already thinks they are going to heaven react differently if someone told them to repent, or perish? I doubt it. They would probably just quit the conversation.

Our job is to get the Word to people in a way that shows them that they can't earn a place in heaven. We do that by showing them that God is infinitely good and holy, and that we are neither one of those things. We do that by appealing to their consciences. We use the Law of God to do what it has always done, and that is to point to our need for God, because we fall so far short of keeping them. That doesn't mean that we are to thump them over the head with it.

A couple of nights ago I saw a brother who is highly skilled in communicating with people, gently take a man aside who was spouting a false doctrine to a group of other people, mostly believers. He chatted with the man away from the others, and lovingly asked him not to speak of it. The man had some things to say about it, but ultimately the situation was resolved without animosity. If my friend had simply said, "The garbage you are spouting is heresy!" the man would have instantly put up a wall, and probably would have dug his heels even deeper into his particular brand of false teaching. As it is now, he is still willing to at least discuss the issue, and he has had time to let that roll around in his noodle a bit. Who knows what will come of it? Only God does, but at least the door was not slammed shut.