To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32
Recently, I had the opportunity to witness the joy of a person submitting their life to Christ. It's truly a joy and blessing God has given me to be witness to this transformation knowing some of the things this person was enslaved to before. Now to see that person desire to really know Christ love Him seeking to be obedient to the Lord of Life.
Something that was a little challenging for me was answering some of his questions about how to pray, how to seek out God's will, and how to know if what he was doing was right. At first, I was a little apprehensive about answering His questions the way I wanted to, which was simply with God's Word. That may sound strange but the reality is that being a disciple and follower of Jesus Christ is not an easy road. So as I started sharing scripture with him about the cost of being a disciple. Of how we are called to be like Christ sharing in his suffering. I showed him in scripture how it says that the one who loves God is the one that obeys his commands. Really just going through all these verses that I was afraid might cause him to say, "That's too hard, I don't want to follow Jesus."
I was a little surprised that after ward his response was, "Thank you." He told me that so many times in the past he'd built his life around cute cliches' and happy half quotes of scripture "Christians" had told him. People who had taken scripture out of its context to make the message more palatable reducing God to nothing more than a candy dispenser where if you do x, y, and z the sweet blessings of heaven pour out. These wolves in sheep's clothing that diminished the person of Jesus Christ so that Christianity was no longer a title claimed by those who lived under the freedom of God's grace but under the yoke of legalistic slavery. (Matt 7:13-29, 13:24-30; Rom 16:17-18; 1 Tim 6:3-10) I'm not trying to toot my horn here, but I do recognize the danger presented to both the bearer and receiver of the gospel.
John 8:31-32
Recently, I had the opportunity to witness the joy of a person submitting their life to Christ. It's truly a joy and blessing God has given me to be witness to this transformation knowing some of the things this person was enslaved to before. Now to see that person desire to really know Christ love Him seeking to be obedient to the Lord of Life.
Something that was a little challenging for me was answering some of his questions about how to pray, how to seek out God's will, and how to know if what he was doing was right. At first, I was a little apprehensive about answering His questions the way I wanted to, which was simply with God's Word. That may sound strange but the reality is that being a disciple and follower of Jesus Christ is not an easy road. So as I started sharing scripture with him about the cost of being a disciple. Of how we are called to be like Christ sharing in his suffering. I showed him in scripture how it says that the one who loves God is the one that obeys his commands. Really just going through all these verses that I was afraid might cause him to say, "That's too hard, I don't want to follow Jesus."
I was a little surprised that after ward his response was, "Thank you." He told me that so many times in the past he'd built his life around cute cliches' and happy half quotes of scripture "Christians" had told him. People who had taken scripture out of its context to make the message more palatable reducing God to nothing more than a candy dispenser where if you do x, y, and z the sweet blessings of heaven pour out. These wolves in sheep's clothing that diminished the person of Jesus Christ so that Christianity was no longer a title claimed by those who lived under the freedom of God's grace but under the yoke of legalistic slavery. (Matt 7:13-29, 13:24-30; Rom 16:17-18; 1 Tim 6:3-10) I'm not trying to toot my horn here, but I do recognize the danger presented to both the bearer and receiver of the gospel.
Dangers to the Bearer
When Christians begin to think that they need to omit parts of the gospel or change things up so that we can secure a yes or a prayer from the lost, then we have serious problems. A person with that mindset has already forgotten the nature of the gospel themselves. (Gal 1:6-8) Isn't this the mantra of Paul
throughout his letter to the Galatians? Our salvation is a work of the Spirit. (Gal 2:16, 19-21; 3:2-6) We can't earn our grace. Nothing we do entitles us to the grace of God. So that should tell us already that whether a person surrenders their life to Christ or not isn't contingent upon anything that we can do. The Spirit is the one that seeks out and calls to the lost, our only responsibility is to faithfully and truthfully present the gospel in all its fullness. (Luke 19:10, John 16:7-15; Rom 3:10-11) And why wouldn't we? Why do we feel we need to add things to it and make things more complicated? The truth is that God offers Himself in spite of the transgression of man by allowing us to have faith in Jesus Christ. This faith in Jesus Christ is only possible through the grace of God in offering up His only begotten Son to pay the debt we owed but could never pay by allowing Jesus to shed His blood on the Cross as an atonement for our sin. Now covered by the blood of Jesus, all who have faith in Him can enter into relationship with the Holy Creator of the Universe. That reality is beautiful and complete. Why would we think we need to change that?
throughout his letter to the Galatians? Our salvation is a work of the Spirit. (Gal 2:16, 19-21; 3:2-6) We can't earn our grace. Nothing we do entitles us to the grace of God. So that should tell us already that whether a person surrenders their life to Christ or not isn't contingent upon anything that we can do. The Spirit is the one that seeks out and calls to the lost, our only responsibility is to faithfully and truthfully present the gospel in all its fullness. (Luke 19:10, John 16:7-15; Rom 3:10-11) And why wouldn't we? Why do we feel we need to add things to it and make things more complicated? The truth is that God offers Himself in spite of the transgression of man by allowing us to have faith in Jesus Christ. This faith in Jesus Christ is only possible through the grace of God in offering up His only begotten Son to pay the debt we owed but could never pay by allowing Jesus to shed His blood on the Cross as an atonement for our sin. Now covered by the blood of Jesus, all who have faith in Him can enter into relationship with the Holy Creator of the Universe. That reality is beautiful and complete. Why would we think we need to change that?The bearer of the gospel who feels the need to omit or change the gospel needs to be reminded of the supernatural wonder of the gospel itself. We must also recognize that as children of God under grace we work for His glory not our own. (1 Thess 2:3-8) Most of the time when we start feeling pressure to change the gospel or omit parts of the gospel its because we've lost sight of why we are doing what we are doing. We forget that God doesn't desire people to change their behaviors and pay Him lip service. God is concerned about the nature of their hearts transforming the redeemed from the inside out.
When we begin to leave things out of scripture to make it easier to follow Jesus we do people a great disservice. If we don't teach new believers to look to Scripture as the final authority for how we should live our lives we rob them of a true relationship with Jesus.
Relationship based on Gossip and Unrealistic Infatuation
Imagine that you have two friends, one guy and one girl. You think that the guy would be great for your friend that is a girl. So whenever you're around the girl you tell her all these great things about the guy. You're very careful about what you tell her, you want to build the guy up so that you can sell the guy to the girl. You then begin to act as an intermediary of communication between the guy and girl. You tell the parts of the messages the guy has for the girl that you think the girl will like. The ones that you think will make her swoon. Or maybe you think that the stuff the guy has to say is a little lame so you're going to help him out by spicing things up a bit making it more romantic. The result of all your work is that you get the girl to accept a marriage proposal from the guy.
This example may seem a little silly, although I'm sure at some point in time we've probably been in a situation similar to the one these three fictitious people find themselves. However, when we put this situation into context it carries great relevance to Christian life. (If you're familiar with Cyrano de Bergerac 
this analogy might make a lot more sense. )
this analogy might make a lot more sense. ) In this situation, is the girl in love with the reality of the guy or the image of the guy we've created? What do you think the outcome will be when this guy and girl meet in person and begin to spend actual time with each other? The probability is that when the girl begins to experience the reality of the guy that she'll be mad because the image that she's built into her head of who he should be doesn't match with who the guy actually is. In our attempt to set up these two people we've set their relationship up for a lot of unnecessary hardship. In fact we may have even sabotaged the relationship. Wouldn't it have been better if instead of communication occurring via you, that they just talk to each other? Wouldn't it have been better if they knew the reality of each other before getting into a commitment?
The reality is that when we don't allow people to learn about the person of Jesus Christ(guy) through scripture for themselves we do the exact same things as the friend in the situation mentioned above. We rob them of having a true relationship. We think that we're doing God a favor by doing everything we can to secure a yes answer to making a commitment to follow Jesus Christ. However, because we've not allowed our friend(girl) the chance to truly discover who Jesus is by letting her hear directly from Him via Scripture, we've cheated her from truly knowing Jesus fully. Instead of allowing her to know the reality of Jesus, we've created a disillusioned view of who Jesus truly is. Unfortunately, the image that we've created of Jesus in our attempt to spice things up pales in comparison to who Jesus really is. How do we think we can make the Lord of all Creation sound better by limiting our description of Him to nothing more than a candy dispenser? How do we dare talk about a relationship with Jesus as a quid pro quo? Did we forget that the gift of grace was offered to us regardless of our merit? That Jesus gave up his life for us before we were ever conceived.
Dangers to the Receiver
When any relationship is based on myth or gossip instead of truth it sits precariously on a flimsy foundation that will fall at the first sign of struggle. (Matt 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:5-15) If a person is coerced or tricked into "making a decision" to follow Christ the truth is that the person hasn't submitted to the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ. They've submitted to the pale image that we've created. So when they do encounter struggle or suffering they don't recognize these as marks of the family of God. (1 Peter 4:12-19; Luke 9:21-26) The result is a strong dislike for the church, the body of Christ, and perhaps Christ Himself. What a shame that all this results from deception. When a person is content to know Christ through hearsay and cute turn of phrases that reveals volumes about the intent of the heart. If a person truly desire to know Christ fully and experience His person then they will seek Him whole-heartedly. (Deut 4:29, Jer 29:13) They will not be content to know Christ second-hand. They want to know Him for themselves. They seek out the person of Jesus Christ rather than simply the blessing. On the other hand, the one who seeks simply the blessings found in Jesus Christ rather than His person will be sorely disappointed. They haven't placed their faith and trust in Jesus. They've placed their faith in the temporal and uncertain instead of in the Rock; the Unchanging One. (Rom 9:33, 10:11; Isa 28:16)
The Truth
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14:6
This simple yet overlooked passage means so much more to me now after my experience with this friend. If I desire to really be a faithful ambassador of the Kingdom of God then I must grab hold of the Truth of Jesus words. Jesus is the Truth, so telling someone anything less than the Truth (which is Jesus Himself) keeps them from the True Way. It keeps them from knowing the Father. The only Way to know the Father is through the Son. (John 3:16-21; 10:14-16) If I truly desire to live real life and for those around me to experience real life then I must remember that there is no life apart from Jesus. (John 10:10)
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