by Jacob Ninan
One of the hallmarks of the proclamation of the Gospel is that we can walk into God's presence 'just as I am' and receive God's cleansing, when we repent from our sins and put our trust in Jesus as our Saviour. But does God want us to continue as we are, after He has received us? Someone has said that God will accept anyone who comes to Him, in whatever condition they are in, but He will not leave us where we used to be but start changing us to become what He wants us to be. God cannot be satisfied till He has completely saved us from our sins, not only from the guilt of sin but also from the power of sin over our lives. It is a translation from the kingdom of darkness to His kingdom of light.
Unfortunately, some Christians are given the wrong impression that once they are born again, they will automatically grow spiritually, that there is nothing God wants them to do from their side. This is totally wrong. Just as they could not receive the free gift of forgiveness and regeneration from God without their repenting from their sins and receiving His grace through their faith (Eph.2:8), there is going to be no spiritual growth without their cooperation with the Spirit of God working through their heart. Now they have to get to know God and His ways by studying His word, seek His help through prayer and receive the encouragement from other disciples who are walking along the same way.
Some Christians wrongly imagine that everything concerning their salvation has already been completed by Jesus and that it was why Jesus said, "It is finished." Certainly, what Jesus said meant that everything that He had to do to procure our salvation was finished, and that there was nothing remaining to be done from His side. But that does not mean that there are no things that we ought to do from our side in order to actually experience this salvation. Even now He is working in us, both to help us to make the right decisions and to carry them out. But He expects us to actually do what He has enabled us to (Php.2:12,13). In other words, He cannot complete His work in us unless we actively cooperate with Him.
Some other Christians misquote what God told the people of Israel when they faced the Red Sea in front of them with the Egyptian army chasing them from behind. They think that all they need to do is to 'stand still and see the salvation of God' (Exo.14:13,14). But this was only a one-time instruction for Israel in the beginning of their journey with God. As time went on, the next time God told them at Jericho to walk around the city seven times, and the time after that at Ai to fight and conquer the city. As we progress in our Christian life, there are many differrent types of lessons God wants to teach us.
If we are children of God, He wants us to live in such a way as to characterise the spiritual calling He has given us — 'in a manner worthy of our calling' (Eph.4:1;Col.1:10). We cannot go on living just the way we used to before we became His children. It is the grace of God towards us that enables us to live such a life that is pleasing to God in every way, and bringing godly fruit through everything that we do. He has washed away every record of our past sins and given us a new life. Now we can live that new life. Now we can get mastery over our temper, anxiety, lust, living for pleasure, etc. That is the way we show our gratitude to Him.
"Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God" (Rom.6:11-13). We used to be dead in sin, and now He has given us a new heart that is dead to sin. In simple words, we used to have no qualms about sinning and pleasing ourselves in the past, but our new heart hates sin and does not want to yield to sin. If that is so, it is now our part is to prevent ourselves from yielding to temptations that draw us towards sin.
"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph.2:1-7). If we don't find in our heart a new desire to stop sinning and to become faithful to God in a practical sense, the chances are that our imagination of what salvation is may be too soft—simply coming to Jesus without proper repentance. In that case, we need to understand the Gospel properly, acknowledge our sins and receive Jesus as our Saviour who will save us from our sins.
A major heretical teaching that has come up in the recent days is called hyper-grace. This emphasises the love of God and His grace towards us in such away that it appears that there is nothing we need to do except to receive this and to enjoy life. They teach that God has taken away the requirement of keeping the Law and that there is no demand God places on us now. This attracts many people who have been feeling that nobody loves them and who are suffering from a poor self-esteem, because they are delighted to hear about God's total acceptance of them and His unconditional love towards them. There are at least two practical problems with this approach. If they think that God loves them no matter what, they slowly begin to be careless about sin in their lives. Secondly, when the euphoria—the initial thrill of hearing this good news—wears away, they discover that they still have many practical problems to deal with which have not disappeared!
No. God forgives our sins, accepts us as His children, and then goes on to transform our lives to make us more and more like Jesus in our character (Rom.8:29). Even though we are no longer under the law of Moses, there is a much deeper law working in our lives—the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom.8:2). This law works deeper inside our heart and mind, unlike the law of Moses which controlled our external behaviour. This is what helps us to live in a manner worthy of our calling. The more we realise what Jesus has done for us, the more we desire to be pleasing to Him in everything.
If we neglect this new life, assuming God loves us and He will be gracious to us, there is even a possibility that we may drift away from Him and lose our salvation (Heb.3:12). If we don't want to head in that direction, let us make sure that we constantly choose to be pleasing to God, denying ourselves whenever we find our will crossing His.