Bob Cassell, Messenger
How may limited and imperfect individuals embrace, understand, and believe, all that is included in God’s amazing plan of Salvation? Are a high variety of human behaviors and activities to be performed in order to appropriate eternal life? If so, what are those things and how many must you know and accomplish?
The Pharisees were required to know and keep more than six hundred laws to determine if they were being sufficiently obedient. They were required to memorize many books of the bible. They prayed several times a day. They went to the temple and performed many required rituals. Many attempted valiantly, but none were consistently successful, and they knew it!
In many of today’s Churches the congregants are admonished to be sincere, attend regularly, give, care about humanity, believe in God, modify their behavior pattern, stop drinking, smoking, dancing, cursing, going to movies, and a plethora of many other overt behaviors. Many have adopted the Christian way of life and view success as the observance of all these behaviors and many more. They understand the Christian way of life to be a behavior pattern. As each of these most zealous and sincere people embrace these behaviors as a successful way of Christian living, they soon find that modifications and restarts are incessantly required, and that these legalistic expectations are impossible to observe consistently.
What is exceedingly important for a true seeker of eternal life to recognize is that God’s word says nothing whatever to the unbeliever about the issue of conduct, and that salvation is provided as a free gift apart from any consideration of conduct. God does not look at an unregenerate person and attempt to improve or reform them. Why? Because however much such a person might improve, that person simply cannot measure up to God’s demand for absolute righteousness, and by means of that righteousness secure a position before God as a person who is perfectly righteous.
This new and improved behavior pattern may be noticed by many who know this person and they may be very impressed at the improvement; however, it must be seen that this overt human behavior is reformation and not regeneration. Reformation is accomplished by human beings who do things and is on the outside, regeneration is accomplished by God who has finished things and is on the inside. It is what God does for helpless humans, and not what needy humans do for God.
If a person is lost, they have lost their way and must be found. Being lost is a horrendous condition and even the sound of the word strikes fear and uncertainty in the human heart. If you have ever been lost you know the panic, fear, desperation, and helplessness that you feel. It is one of the most terrifying feelings I have ever experienced.
I was hopelessly lost as a young 7-year-old boy, and I will never forget it! The panic that I felt was overwhelming! I screamed, but no one heard. I ran but in the wrong direction. I was near a swampy creek with thick trees and intermittent foliage. This area was known for cottonmouth moccasins and wild bob cats. I thought about these things and was afraid to move, but I had no choice. The evening shadows grew long, and the daylight was fading. I was terrified and felt helpless and vulnerable. The nearby stream was beautiful, but it muffled the outside sounds. I desperately hoped to hear any noise other than the nearby rushing stream. “What’s that”? A definite noise that was real and scary. It was the noise of broken limbs and the shuffling of leaves. “I’m going to be eaten by a wildcat or maybe a brown bear, I am helpless, O’ God help me, this is the end!” Then, I heard the familiar voice of a person… it was the welcomed voice of my ole’ Dad. He had been searching for me for an extended period of time and was exhausted. Immediately, I ran to him and was picked up by his strong and comforting arms. I felt safe again, and the relief was indescribable. I was in my dad’s strong arms; I was rescued and safe. The greatest relief I had ever experienced. It almost takes my breath to review the actuality of this scary event. Being lost was the most empty and desperate feeling I had ever experienced. But being rescued was a most wonderful and exhilarating feeling. Thank God for my faithful, loving, and caring Dad. There was no power in me to find myself or to safely return to my home base. I needed help outside of myself.
Similarly, the unbeliever needs help outside of himself.
To look inside is to look at a debt you cannot pay that keeps you longer than you want to stay, and costs you more than you want to pay.
The debt is too great and cannot be satisfied by the person who owes the debt. An individuals conduct or behavior must never be considered as an essential necessity for Salvation. To do so is to seriously confuse the true issue. After a person has received Jesus Christ as Savior, and only then, does God admonish that person in the matter of behavior. In God’s so great Salvation, he feely gives to the individual an entirely new position in Christ. Prior to salvation, the individual’s standing or position before God is that of an undone and condemned lost soul. The corrupt nature and personal sins emanating from that nature are under the condemnation of spiritual death, which is separation from God forever in an eternal lake of fire.
At the moment of redemption, the believing individual stands before God entirely upon the perfect and personal merit of Jesus Christ himself. At that very moment the believing individual becomes a member of the royal family of God and stands perfected forever in the absolute righteousness of Christ. Henceforth, nothing can be charged then or forever to alter that new position.
This prior helplessly lost individual now stands before God as the object of his perfect love and super surpassing grace. This amazing position is realized and entered into the precise moment a person relies on or receives Jesus Christ as Savior. Why is it thus? Because this righteous position depends solely upon the perfect merit of the Lord Jesus Christ and not on the conduct of the person. Thankfully, this position in Christ is identical for the most disobedient and wayward Christian as it is for the most obedient saint.
This amazing standing before a holy and righteous God is known only because it is revealed in God’s holy word. It is never known because of human experience or emotion.
Because of the Knowledge from God’s unalterable word the rescued person enters into rich, and heretofore unknown understandings. If this richness appears strange or uncertain, please know this perfect position before God is the only reliable basis for God’s admonitions to the saved in matters of human behavior.
Conduct should always be influenced by a believers position in Christ and not by their condition in self, which vacillates from good to bad continuously.
Believers are exhorted to live their lives in accord with their position in Christ, and with what they NOW and forever are in this secure and eternal state. To produce the best energy of the flesh human behavior only results, at best in wood, hay, and stubble. Any individual who is not teaching a crystal-clear gospel message is actually teaching what they should prevent.
All members of any royal family are strictly trained and exhorted to conduct themselves in accordance with the protocol expected from a royal family. These members honor the queen and king, only as long as they conduct themselves in accordance with their exalted positions. These family members realize there are many things they cannot do that are not prohibited by other citizens. Contrariwise, for those who are not born into the royal family there is no motivation to live as a child of royalty because that position is not held or available to those who are not born into the family.
Can you see the parallel to the believer in Jesus Christ? Each child of God who has been lifted to the exalted position of righteousness in Christ can go no higher. Can you contemplate, from this high position that the family member would have any incentive to live a life from a lower or compromised position? It would also be most inconsistent for the believer in Christ, who has been delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the Kingdom of the Son of God, to continue living according to the practices of their former lower position. The challenge for the believer is clear:
For you who were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord; walk as children of light…And have no fellowship with the unfruitful; works of darkness, but rather reprove them (Eph. 5:8, 11).
Why is this perspective so important? Because those who have been condemned and are under the penalty of the law have been redeemed by the payment of a ransom price by means of the efficacy of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. It follows from this redeemed position that there is every reason for godly and obedient living. It is because of His supreme sacrifice that the unbeliever has been bought out and redeemed from the salve market of Sin.
For you are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor. 6:20).
God’s gift of eternal life from his only son, to redeem humans from spiritual death, can only be realized on the basis of his eternal and far-reaching love. Therefore, it appears reasonable to expect that the one who has been redeemed and given eternal life should spend their relatively short time on earth to Glorify and serve the one who purchased the full price of their redemption. This life of service is not a compulsion from humanity but is because of the recognition of all that God has done in perfect love in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul appealed to the child of God on the basis of the mercies of God.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God (Romans 12: 1-2).
Please note, this is a specific command to reasonable service and is no casual matter; the reasonableness of it is because of the mercies of God. What are these mercies? They are all related to his justifying power by means of the redemption that is centered in Christ Jesus who is the propitiation for our sins.
And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (2 John 2:2).
Certainly, the very one whose sin has been forgiven and to whom God has freely imputed his complete righteousness should deny the things that are unseemly and seek to live according to the will of God. When far away from God, the person who has been redeemed, by means of God’s gracious provision of reconciliation, has also been made nigh to him. Far away, but suddenly made nigh! The very hearing of these words warms the soul with thankfulness to our patient and merciful God. To be lost and then found, to be far away and then made nigh, to be in darkness and then brought into the light. How amazing is his superabounding grace?
Those who have been reconciled and have chosen not to live in close fellowship with him have many hard lessons to learn. Please be advised… It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).
It is a high and blessed privilege to live in fellowship with him, and our marching orders are… to draw near with a true heart of full assurance of faith… Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering… And let us consider and admonish one another unto love and to good works (Heb.10:22-24).
The child of God has the blessed hope of seeing Jesus Christ one day and receiving a resurrection body that enables the believer to live forever. This expectation is an eternal reality, and it would be shameful to lose sight of the very hope that provides the best incentive for living an obedient life. Notice the present tense of being a son of God.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure (1 John 3:2,3).
The unconditional promise to all believers to become like the Son of God should be the greatest possible incentive for obedient living. This admonition for right living occurs because there has been a miraculous inward transformation. Only as a new believer enters into the things which flow from salvation can any admonition for godly living have any meaning at all.
This is the basis for understanding the reason conduct is not a matter to be considered until one has already been redeemed.
There is substantial confusion when the requirements of the Mosaic law are not distinguished from the God’s new law under Grace. Under the law man’s standing before God depended upon good behavior. Frequently, because of disobedience, man would lose standing before God and the blessings that were associated with it. Instead of being blessed weak and vacillating man became cursed. Under these legalistic conditions the compelling motivation for good behavior was one of fear and punishment.
Although difficult to fathom this identical motive is the controlling impetus in many Christian lives today. It naturally follows that the unbeliever would think that some degree of fear is the incentive for good conduct. However, when a believer is motivated by fear, as a prime driver for good conduct, there is great loss and confusion in the life.
Consider this: fear itself is a poor motivator. When one lives by fear the fear is perpetuated, and when fear is perpetuated the capacity to fear is increased, when the capacity for fear is increased, the power of fear enlarges, when the power of fear is enlarged one tends to live by fear, when one lives by fear that person becomes intimidated by life and surrenders to serve a phantom.
Want to step to a higher level of true motivation? Let’s look at a powerful and better source.
The Love of Christ constrains us (2 Cor. 5:14).
The love of Christ was demonstrated when he gave Himself to save those who were lost. The love of God was declared when he gave His Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). It is the love of God by which all who are redeemed are called the children of God (1 John 3:1). It is the love of God which was demonstrated at the cross that saves those who are lost and consummates the work of His so great Salvation.
Fear is not the proper motive for Christian conduct and the reason for not living under its power is clearly stated in his word,
for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Romans 8:15).
For God has not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of Love, and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:17).
A believer’s moral life is the result of that which God does in saving humanity. Love, not fear, and the application of bible truth is the true imperative for right living. Consider the contrary nature of the following statements:
There is no fear in Love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear torments. He who fears is not made mature in God’s love (1 John 4:18).
Fear not, for I am with you, be not afraid for I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness Isaiah 41:10.
His perfect righteousness can be yours, and you can be prepared for eternity by simply believing in the unique and only eternal Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name (John 1:12).
He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life (John 5:24).
Believe these eternal words and you will instantly possess everlasting life! This eternal issue is between you and a sovereign God, and he knows all about you and your need of him. It is not your commitment to him, it is believing on him, and then (not before) the commitment may be made as a Christ centered child of God. Before a person believes in Christ they are without strength and cannot help themselves; neither can they help our Lord (who needs no help) to provide the life that he promises and is so desperately needed.
