|
Why Does God
expect the Christian to be Different?
Jesus, through His death and resurrection has given us the key to heaven.
Eternal life is freely given to all who ask by having saving faith in Him.
What is it about God and man
that requires more than that?
If we have security in our
salvation why is it necessary to live a changed life?
The first century Christians wrestled with this as well. Look at Romans
Chapters 5 and 6. Paul is responding to believers who said that if Christ
brought forgiveness for sin, why should we stop sinning. This is what Paul
says in Rom. 6:1-4.1 What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that
grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any
longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through
baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Lets start with a short look at what saving faith encompasses. Remember that
our saving faith is more than "our personal faith". Saving faith is
a combination of the exercise of our free will, the truth of Christ's
message, and the operation of the Holy Spirit in our heart. Therefore we need
not fear that this faith we speak of is beyond our ability. Already the Holy
Spirit is working to produce saving faith in all who ask. Remember that it is
not behaving differently that makes us a Christian, but being a Christian
makes us behave differently.
Saving faith will produce a change in our life now, not just on judgment day.
Let's look at some of the main elements of saving faith.
First, saving faith is believing and trusting Christ with all our heart as
our personal Lord and Savior, yielding our will to Him and committing our
total self to Him.
Second, saving faith is a repentant faith, involving true sorrow for sin.
Furthermore true repentance involves turning away from the sin that has been
committed.
Third, faith includes obedience to Christ, an "obedience that comes from
faith" (Rom. 1:5). This obedience is out of gratitude to God for saving
us and to the Holy Spirit for the continuing work of regeneration in us.
Fourth, this faith includes a heartfelt personal devotion and attachment to
Jesus Christ that expresses itself in trust, love, gratitude, and loyalty.
Faith in the ultimate sense cannot be separated from love.
This new life of faith is not a matter for only our future in heaven, but for
the here and now. In the book of Matthew the disciples asked Jesus how they
should pray. When we pray, we are asking for both God's help and direction.
In Matthew chapters 5 and 6 Jesus is speaking to a large crowd that had come
to learn from Him. He went up onto the hillside and gave us what we know as
the Sermon on the Mount. What Jesus taught in His sermon was not just the
outward characteristics of being godly, but what it means to be godly. A
Christian does not just appear to be a Christian, but truly is one. When we
look at the picture of godly living that Christ gives us in the Sermon on the
Mount we are overwhelmed, indeed we must be. We cannot of ourselves live this
way. But God has made provision for us to grow beyond our own strength and
understanding. He enables us to go beyond a computer programmed response to
our surroundings and become a child of God.
One of the things Jesus taught on the hillside was how to pray. Rather than
start by looking at the Sermon on the Mount as a whole let's look at the
"Lord's Prayer" first. After we begin to understand what our
Heavenly Father provides for us in response to our prayers, we will then look
at some of the specifics in His sermon.
As Jesus was delivering His sermon He probably faced a very depressed crowd.
They had come to Jesus not knowing quite what to expect, he was famous for
miracles, perhaps they would get to see one. Perhaps they had a personal need
that Christ would address. Often we as well come before our Lord not knowing
what to expect of Him, or what He expects of us.
Instead of seeing miracles what they learned was what it means to be holy.
They learned that they must be better than the best to get to heaven by
virtue of their own actions. Matthew 5:20 says For I tell you that unless
your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the
law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact it was worse
than that, for later in the sermon Jesus says (Matthew 5:48) Be perfect,
therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jesus then continued with what we know of as "The Lord's Prayer. This is
not only a pattern prayer for us to use, but also shows us that Jesus takes a
different approach to our relationship with God than we might.
When we pray, and think of our relationship with God, we tend to be
self-centered. We ask "What's in it for me?". The following passage
is from Mat 6:9-13. This is what Jesus tells us to ask for. After this manner
therefore pray ye: Our Father which
art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in
earth, as [it is] in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us
our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
for ever. Amen.
Matthew Henry in his commentary states "It is taken for granted that all
of the disciples of Christ pray. You may as soon find a living person who
does not breathe, as a living Christian that does not pray. If prayerless
then graceless." One of the characteristics of a Christian is that he
prays.
When we say "Our Father" we are acknowledging that we are His
adopted children. We know that God the Father loves us. Look at 1 John 3:1-2
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be
called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does
not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of
God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when
he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. "
Our hearts tell us to respond to the love God has shown us with our own love,
and that is exactly right. God has given each of us, no matter how else
gifted, the ability to love Him. All of the other changes we work in our
lives grow out of the central fact that we love God. When we ask for God's
direction we can always use love as a litmus test. Ask God if our actions
show our love for Him.
How else do we respond to our parent the Heavenly Father? What does an
earthly father expect of his child, or better yet what does God tell us?
Deuteronomy 5:16 tells us how we are to treat our parents. "Honor your
father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you
may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God
is giving you.
We should live in a way that will bring honor to our heavenly Father. This of
course means many things. To put it in simple terms we can think of how we
can honor our parents and apply those same things to our Heavenly Father. I
once heard a quote, it said that we should never say anything that we would
be ashamed to have our mother hear. How soon we forget that our Father in
heaven does indeed hear what we say, and see what we do. Are we doing things
that hurt our Heavenly Father?
"Our Father which art in heaven". We acknowledge that God is in
heaven, and that that is His rightful place. Knowing that God is in heaven
and we are here puts things into perspective.
When we say "Hallowed be thy name" we are giving glory to God. All
other things in our life must be subordinated to the worship of God. Again
this is more than a prayer, it is a statement of God first, and us after. We
need to live our lives this way.
Next, Christ tells us to ask for the coming of the kingdom of God. This means
that we must be prepared for its coming. It also means that we must be
actively helping others to be prepared. If one is not a Christian, the last
thing you want is for the kingdom of God to come. We need to be ready for
Luke 12:40 says You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at
an hour when you do not expect him.
Next comes a key point. God's will is to be done on earth, as it is in
heaven. This must start with us personally. There is no value in complaining
about the sinful state of the world while God's will is not being done by His
own children. We must submit our will to His. This means His priorities not
ours, this means building His church, not our glory.
Surrendering our will is a hard program to buy into. We are justifiably proud
that we in the western world live in freedom. This freedom is popularly
believed to be the freedom to do as we please. The proper use of the freedom
God has given us is to be free to love and obey Him. We must choose this path
of our own will. The Holy Spirit will then equip us to walk the path.
We ask for our daily bread. There are three nuggets here.
First, notice that we aren't
demanding but asking. The Christian is humble, and lives in dependence upon
his Father. Second, do not worry about the future. We live in daily
dependence on our Fathers provision. This takes trust. We must know in our
heart that God will provide each day for our needs.
Third, we don't demand cake or caviar, but are looking for the basic
resources we need. Riches or other material goods are not evil in themselves,
but they may do much mischief inside of us if we are not careful. See
Proverbs 30:7-9.
The Christian is a forgiving person. We realize that we must ask for and
accept forgiveness from God to be justified. This causes us to be humble and
forgiving in our relationship with our fellow man. We, who have needed
forgiveness ourselves, must always be ready to forgive.
We ask that God might deliver us from temptation. As a Christian we recognize
that we have not become some kind of invincible warrior. We remain weak and
ask God to deliver us from temptation. This means that we do not seek out
places where we will be tempted. There are some places where a Christian will
not be found because they are full of temptation to sin. In this visually
oriented age it means that there are magazines, TV programs, videos, and
movies that Christians will not watch lest our hearts are tempted to sin.
In addition we need to realize that each of us has unique weaknesses. If we
know that we are easily tempted by drink, stay away from the bar. The
Christian is prudent because the Holy Spirit is guiding us.
|
