These days it seems as though most people are happy with knowing the basics about Christianity, that is, the fundamentals. They often seem deliriously proud of knowing and believing what are simply the straight forward basics of a belief in Christ, and because they know it, they think that they've reached the pinnacle of what faith in Christ is all about. These people fail to recognise the fact that a new believer usually grasps such things within a few weeks of being saved, and they are simply the foundation of faith in Christ. Furthermore, because they are so contented with spiritual childishness, they reject anything that resembles something harder to understand than the cross of Christ, failing to recognise the fact that because of the cross of Christ, we have a whole New Covenant revelation of who Christ is, what He provides and desires, how worthy He is, and what our walking after Him should look like. Because of this there are also incredibly silly interpretations of scripture that are floating around, which are taken from very tiny sections of scripture and then professed to be foundational themselves. Such things come about simply because people would rather live in a spiritual fantasy land with no service and responsibility than actually have to become workmen of the word, accurately handling the Word of Truth (2 Tim 2v15). They would rather sit back and continually receive from Christ whatever they want, instead of actually doing something to help others with it. Again, these things happen because of silly doctrines which are easily undermined and disproved by many other portions of scripture, but such people, rather than desiring to come to what is true, desire to believe their own truth and refuse to be open and teachable. These people believe that Christianity is about one-liners and one-liner theological statements. So bad a thing, so negative and so dangerous is it to stay at a belief that only foundational things of Christ matter, that the writer of Hebrews gives us a very clear warning of doing just that:
Heb 6v6 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,[a] and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites,[b] the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, 3And this will we do, if God permit.4For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6If they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. 7For the earth which drinks in the rain that comes oft on it, and brings forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receives blessing from God: 8But that which bears thorns and briers is rejected, and is near to cursing; whose end is to be burned. 9But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. eternal judgment.
This scripture plainly says that if we are not growing in our doctrine, we are falling away spiritually. Think about that for a second. THAT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO RECOGNISE. To stay at only the basic foundational things of the faith is to leave ourselves wide open to the very real and probable possibility that we shall fall to the temptations of the flesh, the enemy and the world, simply because we have no theological basis by which to defend ourselves. In the wilderness, Jesus used the VERY WORD OF GOD to defend Himself, and to keep Himself following God. Nothing else would do it. And for us the same thing is true; we must know the Word of God well, otherwise we are leaving ourselves without a shield of faith (faith comes by hearing the Word of God) and without a sword of the Spirit (the Word of God). Yes, the helmet of salvation is important, but the other weapons and spiritual armour are just as important if we are to stand our ground against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Furthermore, the enemy didn't come to Jesus in the wilderness with something that required quoting the gospel message for defence, but rather very specific scriptures, pointing out very different aspects of truth; things that are actually quite complex to work out in our lives, and therefore things that need to be understood well. ]”
Just because we know about salvation, does not mean we also know about spiritual warfare, who God is, how He works, how we should serve, how we should act and worship, what is evil and what is good and how to follow and love the Lord. To remain at the basics is to remain a child spiritually: Heb 5v11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. / If we remain a child spiritually, except by the grace of God and His mercy, we will be attacked and likely destroyed by the enemy. Those that attest to loving God and living for Him without having a love for the Word of God deceive themselves, for Jesus was the living reality of the Word and the Word Himself, and you cannot love one without the other. It's always so very disturbing to me how many profess to love the Lord, and yet have very little love for His Word, a desire to know as much of it as possible and any kind of indication that they love to fellowship and be involved with it. How can we love Christ and yet not have a desire and love for the multitude of His Word which reveals all of His many characteristics and the whole scope of His wonderful image? Similarly, we cannot pick and choose what we love; we cannot love one part of scripture and not the other, for then we love one part of Christ and not the other, and that cannot be, because Christ isn't divided, He is whole, and we must love Him wholly. If we are ashamed of some parts of Christ, He too will be ashamed of us on the day which should be the day where we inherit the Kingdom which Christ has promised to those that love Him:
Luke 9v26: Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Jesus, however, is confident of better things for us, things that accompany salvation; Heb 6v9: Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case--the things that have to do with salvation. Notice that, things that ACCOMPANY SALVATION. The salvation message will always be precious, vital, foundational and praisworthy- thank God for it always! It is the cornerstone of all that is lovely about Christ, and all that we should be thankful for. But it is Christ's desire that salvation should be adorned with the rest of His Word, fruitful because of it, and the basis by which we move on to maturity in Christ by growing in the knowledge of Jesus by growing in the knowledge of His Word.
God bless!
No comments:
Post a Comment