Many years ago as a youngster I attended a Bible camp not far from home. Another boy from our church attended as well. The camp was in an area that is now a state park, lots of timber and a fair amount of hiking, nature trails and the like.
Near the end of our week there, we had an evening bonfire. While everyone sat around the fire, we were encouraged to give our testimony of salvation. Some kids readily shared that they were Christians while others held back. I was one of those who held back until the other boy from our church gave testimony of having received Christ as his Saviour.
Hearing his testimony of salvation made me rather indignant. Here was a kid who was an occasional church attender saying that he was saved; that he was a Christian. I was in church every time the doors were open. I mowed the church lawn and scooped the sidewalks during the winter. I sang in the youth choir, helped clean the church and even participated in church services. If he was saved, I was more so!
Well, I gave a testimony of salvation that night at the bonfire. It was simply this: that I had prayed with my mom to become a Christian. Actually, just about every night at bedtime my mom prayed with me. My testimony was not about saving grace, but saving face. For years I believed that I was as saved as the other guy because of the things I had done.
There were some fatal flaws to my thinking. One fatal flaw was comparing myself to the other guy. I thought that because I did all these church related things that I was somehow better than the other boy. I thought that if he could be saved, then surely I had to be.
I didn’t understand that becoming a Christian has nothing to do with my deeds. Salvation has everything to do with what the Lord Jesus did: dying in my place, paying for my sins, and then rising from the dead. Salvation comes only through the merits of Christ, and not by works of righteousness which I have done.
People end up in hell not because of neglect to do or perform, but because they have not believed in Christ and His finished work as their only hope of salvation.
Another fatal flaw was thinking that a prayer could make me a Christian. Many mistakenly think because they prayed at some time in the past that they are now a Christian.
The litmus test of a true believer is not whether or not one prayed at sometime in the past but where one is spiritually now, today. Is our life, as of this moment, characterized by walking in obedience to God’s word? If not, we have to ask ourselves; why not?
Often people are told that if they have prayed the sinner’s prayer, they are now a Christian. Simply repeating a prayer does not save. The act of believing on and receiving Christ is what triggers salvation (John 1:12). Many who point to having said a prayer are often no more spiritual today than they were the day before they prayed the prayer. There has been no repentance (changing of the mind). There is no evidence of saving faith or new life in Christ. A pear tree does not produce apples, it produces pears. A believer produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit not the fruit of sin.
The Scriptures say that a believer does not commit sin. It also says that if we say we have no sin, we are liars. Is the Bible contradicting itself? If not, then what does it mean when the Scripture says a believer does not commit sin?
It means that a believer cannot practice sin. He cannot live a life that is continually characterized by sinful practice. A believer is a new creature in Christ whose life is characterized by obedience to God’s word and not by servitude to sin.
A believer is still capable of committing any sin out there, but he can never enjoy the pleasures of sin again or practice sin as a way of life. The indwelling Spirit of God will not let him. The Holy Spirit is grieved by sin, which results in godly sorrow in the believer, until the sin is confessed unto the Lord.
A lawyer practices law, a doctor practices medicine, an unbeliever practices sin, a believer practices obedience to God’s word. What is the evidence in our daily living? Have we experienced saving grace or are we just saving face?
…let the word of Christ dwell (take up its life) in you richly…