Christians are generally speaking,
categorized into two groups as follows:
(1) "Roman Catholics" and "Protestants" - depending on birth.
(2) "Episcopal" (conformist) and "Free church" (non-conformist) -
depending on church-pattern.
(3) "Born again Christians" and "Nominal Christians" - depending on an
"experience";
(4) "Evangelicals" and "Liberals" - depending on doctrine.
(5) "Charismatics" and "Non-charismatics" - depending on "speaking in
tongues".
(6) "Full-time Christian workers" and "Secular workers" - depending on
profession. There could be other such categorizations too. But none of
these categorizations deal with the root of the problem that our Lord
came to solve.
Many know that "Christ
died for our sins" (1 Cor.15:3). But many do not know that the Bible
says that Christ also died "that we should no longer live for ourselves
but for Him" (2 Cor.5:15). A more Scriptural way of categorizing
Christians therefore would be as follows: "Those who live for
themselves" and "Those who live for Christ"; or Those who seek their
own" and "Those who seek the things of Christ" or "Those who seek
earthly things first" and "Those who seek the kingdom of God first"; or
"Those who love money" and "Those who love God". (Jesus said it was
impossible to love both -Lk.16:13)
But I have never heard
of such a categorization being used. This categorization deals with the
Christian's inner life and private walk with God, whereas the methods
mentioned earlier deal with the external details of his life. Yet it is
in this latter way that heaven categorizes Christians. And if that be
the case, then this is the only categorization that matters! In this
method, others cannot categorize us. We have to categorize ourselves -
for no-one but we ourselves know our inner motivations and desires. Even
our wives may not be aware what we are living for.
Our Lord did not come
primarily to give people a doctrine, or a church-pattern or to make them
speak in tongues or even to give them an experience! He came to "save us
from sin". He came to lay the axe to the root of the tree. And the root
of sin is : Being centered in ourselves, seeking our own and doing our
own will. If we do not permit the Lord to axe and uproot this "root"
from our lives, we will be Christians only superficially. Satan may
however deceive us into imagining that we belong to a higher class than
other Christians, because of our doctrine or our experience or our
church-pattern!
Satan doesn't care even
if we have the right doctrine, experience and church-pattern, so long as
we continue to "live for ourselves" (This, by the way, is just another
phrase for "living in sin"!!). Christendom today is filled with
Christians who seek their own and live for themselves, who are yet
convinced that God views them as superior to other Christians, merely
because of doctrinal differences or church-pattern or "experiences".
This shows what a great work Satan has succeeded in doing in
Christendom.
In John 6:38, our Lord
said that He came from heaven to earth :
(1) To deny His human will (that He had acquired, when He came to earth
as a Man), and (2) To do the will of His Father, as a Man. Thereby He
became our Example.
Throughout Jesus'
earthly life -- during all His 331/2; years - He denied is
own will and did His Father's will. And He told His disciples clearly
that those who wanted to be His disciples would have to go the same way.
He came to hit at the root of sin in our lives - "doing our own will" -
and to deliver us from that.
In the realm of
science, for thousands of years, man made the mistake of imagining that
the earth was the center of the universe. It looked like that to human
eyes - because the sun, moon and stars did indeed appear to be revolving
around the earth once every 24 hours. It took the courage of a man like
Copernicus to question this popular notion, just about 450 years ago,
and to show that it was utterly false and that the earth was not even
the center of the solar system, leave alone the universe. The earth he
showed was created to be centered in the sun. As long as man had the
wrong centre, his scientific calculations and deductions were wrong -
because his centre was wrong. But once man discovered the right centre,
then these calculations and deductions turned out right.
It is the same with us
when we remain "self-centered" instead of being "God-centered". Our
understanding of the Bible and of God's perfect will (our calculations
and deductions) will then be wrong. But just as men were convinced for
over 5000 years that they were right (as we saw above), we too may
imagine that we are right! But actually, we will be 100% wrong.
This is what we see
even among many "good Christians" today. They have so many different
interpretations of the same Bible - and yet each one is convinced that
his interpretation alone is right and everyone else's is wrong. The
others, they will say are "deceived". Why is this so? Because they've
got their centre wrong.
Man was created to be
centered in God and not in himself. And when Christians have got their
centre wrong, their "gospel" will be wrong too. Basically, there are
only two gospels being preached today - one man-centered and the other
God-centered.
The man-centered gospel
promises man that God will give him everything he needs to make his life
on earth comfortable and will also give him a seat in heaven at the end
of his life. Man is told that Jesus will forgive all his sins, heal all
his diseases, bless and prosper him materially, solve all his earthly
problems, etc., etc.
Self still remains at
the center of such a man's life, and God revolves around him - as his
servant - to answer his every prayer and to give him whatever he wants!!
All that he has to do is "believe" and "claim every material blessing in
Jesus' Name"!!
This is a false gospel,
because no mention is made of "repentance". Repentance is what John the
Baptist, Jesus, Paul, Peter and all the apostles preached first of all.
And repentance, unfortunately, is what is not preached today even last
of all!!
The God-centered
gospel, on the other hand, calls upon man to repent. It explains that
"repentance" means:
Turning FROM Self as
the center of one's life, from doing one's own will, from walking along
one's self-chosen way, from loving money, and from loving the world and
the things in the world (the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and
the pride of life), etc., and
Turning TO God, loving
Him with one's whole heart, making Him the Centre of one's life and
doing His will henceforth etc.,
Faith in Christ's death
on the cross can forgive a man his sins only when he has repented. Then
he can receive the power of the Holy Spirit empower him to deny himself
daily so that he can live a God-centered life. This is the gospel that
Jesus and the apostles preached.
The false gospel makes
the gate wide and the way broad (easy to walk along, because one does
not have to deny one's Self or stop living for one's own interests or
stop seeking one's own gain). Millions attend meetings where such a
false "gospel" is preached. And many enter through this gate and walk
along this way, imagining that it leads to life. But it actually leads
to destruction. The evangelists of this gospel however gloat in, and
report about the large numbers of people who "raised their hands and
made decisions for Christ" in their meetings!! But it is all a
deception. Although some are indeed genuinely converted in such
meetings, because of their sincerity, many such "converts" end up
becoming "twofold children of hell" (Matt.23:15) - deceived about their
true state.
The true gospel
however, makes the gate small and the way narrow - not smaller or
narrower than Jesus Himself made it, as some "super-spiritual" cultists
do, but just the same size as Jesus made it. Few there be that find this
way to life. There is not much for the evangelists of this gospel to
report about, and the statistics are not impressive. But this gospel
leads people to the Lord Jesus and to heaven.
"Be careful how you
listen. Whoever obeys what he has heard, to him more light and
understanding will be given. But whoever does not obey what he has
heard, even what light and understanding he thinks he has will be taken
away from him." (Paraphrase of Luke 8:18). He who has ears to hear let
him hear.
© Copyright - Zac Poonen
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