We tend to tell people they have eternal life right after we
say the sinner's prayer for them, or that we make them repeat those words they
do not even understand. But, until God got me alone in the wilderness, I was
not sure if indeed I had eternal life or not. I was content to know that
someone confirmed it to me and I literally held God accountable to His
promises. So, I knew when the time came to appear before God on the day of
judgement, I honestly thought if there was any misunderstanding between God and
myself, then I was going to remind Him of His promises, for starter. I used to
see myself talking to God in the same way I was coached by those Christians whom I thought knew better. For instance, few of
the Bible verses were shown to me so that I could understand two things. One
was that Salvation was a gift of God, completely free and all that I had to do
was to put my hand out to get it, in the same way that I would do if someone I knew handed me a free gift. Secondly, nothing about me being a disgusted
sinner was ever a problem and repentance was never mentioned. As far as me not having any inward urges to call upon the name of God, was not a problem at all. The bottom line is, I did what I was led to do.
So, in my mind, I could see myself explaining things to God
in the same way it was explained to me. If He gave me some lip service, I would
have told Him that Salvation is so free with no expectations that He cemented it for us in Ephesians 2:6 “And God raised us up with Christ and seated
us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,” Furthermore,
I intended to remind Him that someone else He put in my path, confirmed things
to me. In my heart and mind, I reduced God to be someone like me. I don’t
think I need to explain my thinking process more than that because I know most
of us rationalize salvation and take His word according to our understanding
without thinking twice that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Shame
on those who are sharing the Gospel without trying to know Him personally. We learn to live with a minuscule God and we go on with our faulty interpretation of God’s word to recruit people,
like the Pharisees Jesus talked about. In Matthew 23:15 Jesus said:"What sorrow awaits you teachers of
religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make
one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you
yourselves are!”
Through the wilderness, I found out that eternal life is
not something that is passed on like a second hand pair of shoes. I found out
that I must go on with Him, knowing Him personally to get the assurance through
Him and unless this transaction takes place between Him and me directly, I have no rights to claim His promises and
demands that He honors His covenant. God
is, and will always be the same yesterday, today and forever. Here is one example among several in the Bible. In 2 Samuel 7:12-16
God made a covenant with David, "When your days are complete and you
lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will
come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom He shall build a house
for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I
will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me…..Your house and your
kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established
forever.”
The above covenant was to be fulfilled through Solomon. God
did not let Solomon in the dark because He is a JUST
God. In order to give Solomon a fighting chance He needed to make this covenant
with Solomon also, to make it personal and to hold him accountable. You see,
God knows if He does not make things personal for us, then He will not be able
to deal with us justly. In the case of Solomon he knew what was at stake when
God renewed the covenant He made with David, this time with Solomon.
1 Kings 6:12 "Concerning this Temple you are
building, if you keep all my decrees and regulations and obey all my commands,
I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father, David”.
1 Kings 9:5 “I
will establish your royal throne over Israel Israel
2 Chronicles 7: 17 "As for you, if you faithfully
follow me as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and
regulations,”
Unfortunately, Solomon walked away from God
because he was attracted to sin. He walked away knowing fully all that was at
stake.
When you read John 17:3 the word of God says: “And this is eternal life, that they know you
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Knowing Him means exactly that. Isn’t it funny, the things in the Bible that we are supposed
to take at face value, we truly neglect them and act as if those words were
never conveyed to us? Why on earth would we not focus on those words in John
17:3 and make them real in our lives? Why is it so easy for us to hold God
accountable for His word in Ephesians 2:6, completely forgetting that He could
turn around and do the same with those words we do not like focusing on? This
is where the day of judgement is going to be sweet. HE WILL TAKE AWAY OUR BLINDN ESS
and before we even open our mouths to say we did not see those words or that we
did not understand them in this manner, we will be disarmed. The only thing
that we will be left with is the knowledge that we did not fulfill our part. I
can hear some of you saying, well…. Salvation is by grace so I am not
responsible for what He did not do. Are you willing to bet your life that your
limited understanding of the full meaning of grace according to God's thoughts is the same as yours? Or are you willing to let Him open your mind and heart to see
more and understand that, we are the one refusing the work of grace He is
flaunting right in our face?
Honestly, whether you truly understand the full meaning of
Grace is not the issue. I read a lot of blogs and sermons, I can see these people are saved, they are going through the sanctification process, and they know God to some extend, yet, they do not fully grasp the full concept of the word "Grace." Sometimes I feel like everybody is repeating the same thing when it comes to define the word grace, as if they have been assimilated. However, as long as these people are growing through the process of
sanctification, they do not have stubborn hearts and they are willing to give
God His rightful place that's all that matter. An example that I could think of is Billy Graham, he doubted God's word but he was willing to let
God be in charge of his life in spite of the lack of understanding and the doubts that plagued Him. When you compare the story of Billy Graham to Charles Templeton, you
see the difference. Templeton turned away completely from the
word of God. He walked away! Many of us are still in the Church, we go there,
not because we care about God, but we enjoy the social club atmosphere and we
do not want to leave behind what we have built there. I know that because God
showed me how attached my heart was to the little life that I built for myself
around the Church people. I did not want to leave that behind and wanted to
hang onto it at all cost. Thank God He did not let me be that stupid.
"And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can
be made holy by your truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me
through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in
Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe
that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that
they may be one, just as We are one;…"
As long as you insist on your own interpretation of grace,
you will never see the beauty of His grace with your soul. You cannot capture
and comprehend with your heart and soul that “the one who does the will of
my Father who is in heaven” would have never been able to do so without God’s
grace. You and I, if we truly received His word in our hearts, we go on through
grace alone doing His will.
Without God’s grace we sit on the sideline, we defy Him, we
tempt Him, we analyze His word in our own understanding, we refuse to obey, we
take Him for granted, we are in it for ourselves, we do not give Him His
rightful place, we expect His death on the cross to “do his thing for us” and we act like a
petulant child when someone dares to contradict what we have come to accept as
truth.
DEEPEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE BIBLE. DIG DEEPER INTO THE WORD OF GOD
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