by Jacob Ninan
We observe two serious dangers related to the faith that leads to salvation. As the Bible teaches us, our salvation is a gift from God because of His unmerited favour, and it is through our faith and not by anything we do that we can receive and experience this salvation (Eph.2:8,9). If we have mistaken ideas about this faith, should we not try to understand what true faith is, and then make sure that we do receive this salvation? This is being written to help people to check if their life is going in the right direction with regards to faith.
Many years ago, when the big churches mostly followed formal church services and customs, it was comparatively rare and very odd when somebody asked another, "Have you been born again?" The hearers usually did not understand what this meant, and would become suddenly defensive about their church and traditions. They thought that they were all Christians and that this question was superfluous. As a result, those who had actually experienced being born again began to refer to these other people as nominal Christians who were Christians only in name. As time went by, knowledge spread fast, and the teaching about being born again became common. Now that people could not simply ignore the issue, their defence moved to claiming that they too were born again. Without understanding what it really meant, and without having experienced the supernatural work of God in their heart and mind, they would quote certain verses from the Bible out of context or point out the occasion when they 'accepted Jesus', and claim that they too have been born again. But, of course, others with clearer knowledge can see that such superficial claims are not being supported with changed lives, which is the proof of being born again. This leads us to coining the name 'nominal believers'.
There is also another way in which nominal believers get formed, those who think they are believers, but not in the way that gives them salvation. A lot of modern so-called gospel preaching is about what Jesus can do for people, in terms of healing their sickness, solving their financial problems, patching up broken relationships, etc. When Jesus was on earth, He healed sick people who came to Him, and fed multitudes. But He was not satisfied with that, because those signs did not turn most of them to Him as their Saviour (Jn.6:26). He was hoping that they would see the signs, recognise who He was, and turn from their sins to salvation. But most of them were only interested in earthly gain and not in salvation (v.27). But because He healed them, etc., they 'accepted Him' and started 'believing' in Him, but they had not really become His believers. Isn't that true today also?
Here, the two dangers mentioned earlier are these. The first one is when individuals believe that they have been born again but they really have not, and they do not realise the judgment they are going to face. The second is when pastors of churches assume that people in the church are Christians because they quote some date or experience and show interest in the activities of the church. Many men of God have grieved over this and given warnings, but in general they have been met by people only defending themselves and not examining themselves. Our hope is that many will take the painful exercise of critically examining themselves to see where they stand before God, and if they find themselves lacking, take the steps of sinners and go to the Saviour.
Have you seen yourself as a hopeless sinner?
This question is very relevant these days because a lot of the preaching of the Gospel has become superficial and even false. Instead of helping people to recognise themselves as sinners before the holy God and then presenting the Saviour to them, many times Jesus is presented as if He was a like a genie waiting for our prayers to come and do whatever we ask. In this way, salvation is misrepresented as salvation from the problems of this world. Many times, it is given out that all we need to do from our side is to make a simple prayer asking Jesus to be our Saviour. Some others present the Gospel in an intellectual manner and convince people that if they agree to a few facts about Jesus, they will be saved. There are several other deviations also that are being presented as the Gospel of Jesus.
Those who have been born again and accepted as His children by God will always see themselves as sinners who have been saved merely by the grace of God. They will remember their sinful life before they came to the Saviour, and be also aware of their regular battle against temptations afterwards. They are eternally grateful to God for His love and mercy. In contrast with this, those who are only nominal believers lack this awareness about themselves. Some of them are well-pleased with themselves, thinking that now they are spiritual because of Bible knowledge, personal and family prayer, church membership, etc. Some even think that God must be very happy to have them because of the money they give to the church and their participation in different church activities. They also imagine that there is a place reserved for them in heaven, and so they feel a false sense of security even as they carry on with their nominal Christian lives. When we look at the contrast, it is so obvious to us, but these poor people are totally ignorant of their real situation.
Do you believe in Jesus as the only One to save you?
Following the insight into our hopeless condition as sinners in the sight of God, we receive hope when we hear of Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. On the other side, we realise that without Jesus we would have been totally lost, knowing that we could not have saved ourselves in any way, and that there is no saviour apart from Him. Many of the nominal believers will acknowledge Jesus as Saviour, but since they have not seen themselves as hopeless sinners, they tend to think also of their good behaviour, the religious things they carry out such as church attendance, daily Bible reading and prayer, communion, baptism, etc., as contributing towards their salvation. Some of them even carry the idea in their mind that all religions are true in essence because everyone says we must be good, because they have not understood the unique way by which Jesus has brought us salvation. This shows that they have not really understood the Gospel clearly nor the way of salvation.
Do you acknowledge Jesus as your Saviour and Lord?
It is very common that nominal believers theoretically recognise Jesus as their Saviour. It is still only nominal because they have not really seen their own need of a Saviour, and so their acceptance is superficial. This can be seen from the fact that they find it difficult to subject themselves to Jesus as their Lord, to do whatever He tells them. Their life has not basically changed, except that they have become more religious on the outside. In a true experience of conversion, we come to see not only that Jesus died in our place, but also that effectively we also died with Him so that we will no longer want to live for ourselves but for Him (2Cor.5:14,15). An un-crucified self is an indication that our conversion is not deep or complete.
Do you have a deep hunger to know God?
Just as newborn babies are hungry for milk as soon as they are born, those who are truly born again will have a hunger and thirst for God, and they will make every attempt to get to know Him. They will have an automatic desire to read the Bible, hear about the Lord through listening to messages and reading from books written by mature believers. If someone has to be 'pressurised' to come to the church meetings, Bible study, etc., no matter what excuse they might give regarding how busy they are, the chances are that they have not really been born again. If the motivation to know God and His ways does not come from within their own heart, it is an indication that the life of God has not come in; they have not yet been born again.
Do you have a deep desire to stop sinning?
If we came to the Saviour because we were convicted about sin in our life, is it possible that afterwards we will be comfortable to continue in sin? When God does a work of regeneration in our heart by giving us a new spirit and writing His laws in our heart, we no longer want to sin. But then it is not that suddenly there is no more temptation towards sin or that whenever we are tempted we just have a walkover to victory. When we see the power of sin working in our flesh, we are prompted all the more to cry out to God for grace to help us overcome. If someone claims to be a born again believer but he is not fighting against sin, it may be that he has not come to Jesus for salvation from sin. Then he would not have experienced regeneration from God.
Where is your heart set on?
When we are born again, our spiritual eyes get opened to the reality of the spiritual world, and our spiritual senses learn to identify the voice of our Shepherd as He leads us. As we grow in knowledge from the word of God, we begin to understand the things of God. As we battle with our fleshly desires as we are tempted, we see more of the futility of living for the things of this world – pleasure, fame, recognition, power, possessions, etc. Our heart gets drawn more and more to the fellowship with God and His people, and the things of this world slowly lose their charm for us.
For nominal Christians, since these things are not real to them, the present world is more tangible and real than what all the Bible describes about heavenly things. This world is all that they have known and are familiar with, and they continue to live as they used to live before, setting their goals for earthly gain. The only restraint is that since they think they are now believers and they are following religious practices, they become careful to avoid external sins that can be noticed by others. This direction of their lives is an indication that they have not come to know the reality of the kingdom of God.
Conclusion
We can see how nominal believers can imagine they are on the right road in life, but those who have begun to experience the realities of God's kingdom can understand what the others are missing. It is only God who knows us completely, and we don't even know ourselves properly. God informs us that our heart is most deceitful (Jer.17:9). One of the strong forms of this deception is to present to us a very nice picture of ourselves and also excuses for our obvious failures! Therefore it is very risky to depend on our own opinion about our life as we look at the above questions. We must ask God to let His light shine into our heart through His word and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The intention is not to find fault with ourselves, but to learn about where we may not know the truth. We want to know our true condition so that we can ensure we are right with God and walking in the right way.
As it was pointed out earlier, if the pastors assume that those who have made a profession of faith must be born again and growing in grace, it is possible that 'tares' may be mixed along with the wheat and grow together. Isn't it necessary to address these issues now and then, so that hopefully the nominal believers can also become real believers?