When your faith rests solely on Christ, you will make him known to others. You will not see this as a once in a while event but as the delight of your daily life.
A lot of tallies, polls, and percentages of “Christians” in the world today are skewed, and oxymoronic, due to the complete disconnect from God’s Word in the lives of those under review. They have likely never read the Scriptures, and are far less likely to stake their life and worldview on it.
It’s easy to fill out a questionnaire, answer some survey questions, and think a certain way about yourself, but what does your life prove? Much the same with church attendance, family heritage, baptism, giving, good deeds, a specific prayer “once upon a time,” and the likes. These things are not inherently meaningless, but they sure can be empty. Alternatively, they can be the most significant matters in all of life.
When someone truly trusts Christ, they want others to know the gospel as they have come to know it. It is because they have been brought to their knees by grace, not because they cracked any code in their own wisdom or strength. God in his kindness has showed them the futility of their ways, has brought healing in their distress, forgiveness of sin, comfort and rest and purpose the world could not offer.
The redeemed have come to know the love of God! They will be like the woman at the well who becomes an evangelist, or the demonized man who spreads the news of what the Lord has done for him, like a wildfire in a drought. His folks will undeniable hear about and see the evidence of the mercy of Christ. What has taken place is of a magnitude that the person cannot keep it to themselves.
The old life is gone and the new life has truly come; sanctification is the process where the young believer continues to grow and mature in holiness according to how God already sees them. Jesus prays to the Father, “sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” The Bible becomes more than a book-too-big, or a verse-a-day pill, or simply a morality-manual; it becomes your guide to glad-hearted, Christ-exalting life. Your eyes are opened to see that God has truly provided all that you need.
This is the reality of genuine, forgiven, sinners made saints. When someone who recognizes that justice means wrath, Hell, and death, then comes to hear of the goodness of God in the gospelāthat they are declared righteous all because of Jesusāyou cannot keep that person quiet. Every aspect of life will be altered and shaped by this truth of the cross, this regeneration which has taken place. The rescued will be renewed in mind by the Word and the direction change in their living is the proof. Christ makes clear that the fruit of the tree doesn’t lie about where it came from; so it is with a man’s heart and his ways.
Those who have received forgiveness of sin, true cleansing, and life eternal by no merit of their own, want to see that grace extend to friends and family, even strangers and enemies. This message must reach their neighbors and nation, and to all the nations on the earth, not just their tribe or party.
This is simply Christianity. This is not some extreme form of serious faith, this is simple faith, a faith lived. This is how the gospel message has spread from the time of Christ and his disciples, down through the generations, across continents and language groups, through every type of persecution, suffering, and trial.
The rescued sinner should immediately become a teller-to-others, knowing and growing in the content of the gospel and the reality of their own testimony. A true testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit will hold fast over time. If it washes away in a couple months or years, or becomes for you “old news,” what you had was an emotional or religious experience which lacked the soul-cleansing, life-changing new birth you need most. You are still dead.
Many who profess faith in Christ have nothing to show its validity by their living. That is not lackluster Christianity, it is a false profession; self-deception leads to the same destination as open rebellion. It’s possible to know a bit about Jesus and the Bible and not know Him as Savior and Lord.
You can be a lifelong church member still on the path to Hell. On judgement day there will be no confusion between the wheat and the tares. While sinners may stand in the congregation of the righteous here on earth, it will not be so in Heaven.
If Jesus be your Savior, the Spirit dwells in you, and you will serve the Lord. If your life is lived according to your own whims, patterns, and designs, this is a wakeup call that you are yet in need of Christ.
Jesus is the eternal Son, the dead-then-risen greatest sacrifice, the substitute, the atonement, the Savior and King you desperately need. Look to Christ today and confess your sins, repent of them and turn to the one true God. In his grace, he will take you as you are, where you are, and make you what he has called you to beāall for his glory and your good.
Your life was never meant to be your own. As you come to see the goodness and faithfulness of God, you will understand that you were made by him and for him. He alone saves and satisfies. You bear his image and you are called to live worthy of the gospel.
Let me know if you want to discuss! The Christian life is not a lonesome journey, though it often brings a lot of change at the onset as ties are broken with the world.
Part of Paul’s Great Commissioning is given here from Acts 26: “But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentilesāto whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
Paul was a unique instrument in the hands of the Almighty, yet we are also saved to witness and to serve, and see people brought into the fold and growing among the sanctified, as God works through his church.
If these feel like fighting words to you in any way, go read the Word and see if they hold water. See how your affections have been leading, what your works reveal, where your hope truly rests. If not on Christ alone, day in and day out, turn today. I want you to know living-faith experientially, as you stand in the grace of God, because there’s nothing better.
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