Test yourself with all honesty, to fail at one of these points is not to say you are a false Christian...but I believe it is to the benefit of your soul to consider these questions.
"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" -2 Cor. 13:5-
1. Is Christ the Lord of your life? Would you give up all for Him and deny yourself? Would you give up your possesions, family, friends or even your life for Him? (Matt. 10:37, Luke 14:26)
Christians are to be willing to give up all if asked to do so, if Christ were to ask you to sell all and follow Him (Mark 10:21) that you would do it without a second glance back (Luke 9:62). The Christian must be willing to deny them self and take up their cross and follow after Christ with their whole heart (Mark 8:34). Self-denial is an absolute must in the Christian faith, it is a question of whether or not you are in humble reliance upon God or if you rely upon your own strength.
2. Do you cherish the commandments of God? Do you wish nothing more than to be conformed to the image of the Son and to keep the commandments which Christ has given us? (Psa. 19 and 119)
The Christian is commanded to keep the commandments (Matt. 19:17). The way in which a Christian knows that they know Christ Jesus is if he loves and keeps His commandments (1 John 2:3). Thus they will abide in the love of Christ (John 15:10).
3. Do you love sin? Is there sin in your life that you attempt to hide or make out to seem not as sinful so that you may continue to have it in your life? (Rom. 6:2, Rom. 6:11) And when you do sin, do you acknowledge and confess it to God and trust in Christ for your forgiveness? (1 John 1:6-10)
Christians are to flee all youthful lust (2 Tim. 2:22), to abstain from all forms of evil (1 Thess. 5:22), to keep from foolish and crude talk (Eph. 5:4), sexual immorality, drunkeness, fornication, etc. (Gal. 5:21, Col. 3:5), to present our members as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:13), and to cast away those things which cause us to sin (Matt. 5:29,30). Christians hate sin because God hates sin, and what God hates we must and what God loves we must love.
4. Is every single day for you a battle to deny yourself and to fight sin with all your might? Is your battle with sin non-existent? Though you do not always succeed at defeating temptation do you wage war on it and pray to God to strengthen you against it? (Rom. 6 entire chapter)
The Christian must find their pleasure and delight in Christ Jesus, they must fight sin and strive to enter the narrow gate (Luke 13:24). The Christian must run the race with endurance (Heb. 12:1), fight the fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:12, 2 Tim 4:7), and to take on the full armor of God in order to defeat the schemes of the evil one (Eph. 6:11,13). A sure sign of whether or not you are a Christian is whether or not there is a desire to fight the indwelling sin within you. If you do not wage war on sin, or think that it is no big deal because you think God doesn't care, or you think now that you are in Christ you can do what you want, you have made a deadly mistake. See point 3 as well.
5. Is your full trust in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ? Or do you rely on some righteousness of yourself, attempting to work your way into favor with God or with men or impress either? (Rom. 4:2, Eph. 2:8,9)
Whether Christian or not, the one thing that must be understood is that it is not by any works of your own. It is not your decision, your parents decision, your church's decision, its not by your works, by your deeds, even by your faith that you are saved, but by the grace of God Almighty (Eph. 2:8). You receive that grace through faith (Rom. 5:17, John 1:12) and repentance (Acts 3:19). Christian, even as a believer it is not your works that maintain your state of grace, but once again it is God who upholds you in the faith (Heb. 12:2). So then trust fully in Christ for your justification, sanctification, and glorification.
6. Is the worship of God even enjoyable to you (Psa. 99:9)? Is Church on Sunday a burden to you, do you love the brethren and love their fellowship (1 John 3:15)? Is prayer a non-essential (Rom. 12:12)? Is fellowship, communion, and meditation with God and on the work of God in your life present at any time (Psa. 77:12)? Is reading your Bible more of a duty or do you seek to know God more and cherish His word (Josh. 1:8, Psa. 119:105)?
Ask yourself something, Christian, if you cannot stand to be in the presence of God now or in the presence of His people (1 John 4:20), how then will you do it for an eternity? You may not have to worry about it.
7. Do you give all the thanks, praise and glory to God?
This is very important in a man-centered world, and even in a man-centered church, where most theology is how can man do things without God. All thanksgiving must be given to God (Col. 2:6,7), and all praise, exaltation, and worship must be given to God for who He is and what love He has shown you (Psa. 22:23).
8. Conclusion
While there may be others I could have put on here, these are some of the ones I wished to address. To fail at one of these points is not to say you are not a Christian, in fact I do not believe 2 Cor. 13:5 to be saying test yourself at how good you are doing or how bad you are doing, but to test whether or not you rely and trust in Christ Jesus for all of your righteousness, faith, hope, love, forgiveness, redemption, sanctification, perseverance, so on and so forth.
Test yourself. Trust in Jesus Christ. And pray to God to be sanctifying you daily, handing over all to Him and casting yourself at the feet of Jesus, and have faith in Him who is faithful.
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
-Romans 5:1,2-
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
Roman IX (God's Vessels)
Verses 19-24
(Bible)
If God hath absolute sovereignty over the salvation or reprobation of man such as just shown in the past verses about Pharaoh. And if God can harden a man's heart and leave the man empty of saving grace then the question from prideful, boastful, arrogant men naturally arises: "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" As I asked earlier in verse 14, where a question is similarly asked, does your doctrine of election warrant this type of response? For most, the doctrine of election is bent in order to make it more appealing and more understandable to our human minds, this great doctrine suffers greatly because of its misunderstanding. Nevertheless the matter remains in the hand of God, and so the question above arises, which Paul doesn't necessarily answer more than he just makes it very clear that we are nothing to question the wise counsel of God. "But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'Why have you made me like this?'"(cf. Isaiah 45:9).
This to Paul is absurd, for men to think they have any jurisdiction whatsoever to question God in His dealings with His own salvation. Paul declares the Lord as sovereign over all.
Paul then gives a comparison: "Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?" I think this proves the arbitrary and sovereign work of God in how He chooses to form the vessels that He does. We are all of the same lump of clay, no one more deserving than another. As the potter has the right to take a lump of clay and form one into a vessel for honor so he also has that same right to use some of the clay for dishonor.
"What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory..."
"What if..." has been taken by Calvin and most other theologians, not as a hypothetical statement, but as a more or less "so what" kind of statement. It is indeed a statement made in human terms but Paul is not giving a statement that would not be true of how it is God deals with His creation.
In order to make His power known and to show His wrath He, "endures with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction..." God is here pleased to show His righteous and great power in the destruction of the wicked. "Vessels of wrath" who are "prepared" as Henry would say, "fitted by their own sin and self-hardening...[and are made] combustible matter, fit for the flames of hell"(Henry).
Now there is a bit of a difference between the commentaries on double-predestination and God withholding saving graces. To be honest I am not going to go into any kind of differences or debate on a doctrine which really has "indirect bearing on Christian behavior"(Reformation Bible).
You'll notice here that all of this is to "His glory." The way in which He deals with those vessels fitted for wrath is to display the greatness and riches of His glory by the mercy He shows the vessels which He has chosen.
The end of all things that God has created is to display His glory. Everything from election to salvation to glorification and judgment are to display the greatness of God. Even the vessels fitted for wrath will make a display of that greatness, whether an unbeliever wishes to glorify God or not, he will do it one way or another.
"...us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles..." Simply put the God gives mercy to all different people, not of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles.
Citation:
*Matthew Henry Commentary
*Calvin Commentary
*Reformation Study Bible
(Bible)
If God hath absolute sovereignty over the salvation or reprobation of man such as just shown in the past verses about Pharaoh. And if God can harden a man's heart and leave the man empty of saving grace then the question from prideful, boastful, arrogant men naturally arises: "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" As I asked earlier in verse 14, where a question is similarly asked, does your doctrine of election warrant this type of response? For most, the doctrine of election is bent in order to make it more appealing and more understandable to our human minds, this great doctrine suffers greatly because of its misunderstanding. Nevertheless the matter remains in the hand of God, and so the question above arises, which Paul doesn't necessarily answer more than he just makes it very clear that we are nothing to question the wise counsel of God. "But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'Why have you made me like this?'"(cf. Isaiah 45:9).
This to Paul is absurd, for men to think they have any jurisdiction whatsoever to question God in His dealings with His own salvation. Paul declares the Lord as sovereign over all.
"Who art thou, thou that art so foolish, so feeble, so short-sighted, so incompetent a judge of divine counsels? Art thou able to fathom such a depth, dispute such a case, to trace that way of God which is in the sea, His path in the great waters? That repliest against God. It becomes us to submit to Him, not to reply against Him; to lie down under His hand, not to fly in His face, nor to charge Him with folly...we are the thing formed, and He is the former; and it does not become us to challenge or arraign His wisdom in ordering and disposing of us into this or that shape of figure. The rude and unformed mass of matter hath no right to this or that form, but is shaped at the pleasure of Him that formeth it." (Henry)
Paul then gives a comparison: "Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?" I think this proves the arbitrary and sovereign work of God in how He chooses to form the vessels that He does. We are all of the same lump of clay, no one more deserving than another. As the potter has the right to take a lump of clay and form one into a vessel for honor so he also has that same right to use some of the clay for dishonor.
"What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory..."
"What if..." has been taken by Calvin and most other theologians, not as a hypothetical statement, but as a more or less "so what" kind of statement. It is indeed a statement made in human terms but Paul is not giving a statement that would not be true of how it is God deals with His creation.
In order to make His power known and to show His wrath He, "endures with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction..." God is here pleased to show His righteous and great power in the destruction of the wicked. "Vessels of wrath" who are "prepared" as Henry would say, "fitted by their own sin and self-hardening...[and are made] combustible matter, fit for the flames of hell"(Henry).
Now there is a bit of a difference between the commentaries on double-predestination and God withholding saving graces. To be honest I am not going to go into any kind of differences or debate on a doctrine which really has "indirect bearing on Christian behavior"(Reformation Bible).
You'll notice here that all of this is to "His glory." The way in which He deals with those vessels fitted for wrath is to display the greatness and riches of His glory by the mercy He shows the vessels which He has chosen.
The end of all things that God has created is to display His glory. Everything from election to salvation to glorification and judgment are to display the greatness of God. Even the vessels fitted for wrath will make a display of that greatness, whether an unbeliever wishes to glorify God or not, he will do it one way or another.
"...us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles..." Simply put the God gives mercy to all different people, not of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles.
Citation:
*Matthew Henry Commentary
*Calvin Commentary
*Reformation Study Bible
Monday, March 12, 2007
Romans IX (God's Sovereignty in Electing)
Verses 14-18
(Bible)
With the two examples given, Paul has abolished all hope of a sinner working his way to God. He has now handed over all power and all sovereignty to God. Now Paul goes on in these verses to prove the absolute sovereignty of God in bringing the "children of promise" to himself.
Notice here as well as in verse 19, this is the common response by anyone who is confronted with the doctrines of election or predestination. The first objection shown here in verse 14 is that there is injustice with God. To save some and to look over others and they can do nothing, doesn't that make God unjust? "Certainly not!" is the answer Paul gives. It would be interesting to see if any other ideas of election such as that of the Arminian or a "corporate" electionist would warrant such an expression as Paul just gave. All other ideas attempt to give man some credit in his election, but this simply is not true. Men attempt to bend the scriptures to fit within our understanding, but this doctrine of election is something we must accept. As Piper has said, "it is better that our minds be broken, than that the scriptures be broken."
For an outline's sake, I'll break this into two parts. How God deals with His chosen people (v.15,16), and how He deals with the reprobate, or the ones He passes over (v.17,18).
I. Dealings With The Elect
"I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." Paul has just said that God is certainly not unjust, he now proves the denial. As Matthew Henry says on this verse, "It imports a perfect absoluteness in God's will; He will do what He will, and giveth not account of any of His matters, nor is it fit He should"(Henry). In other words, God has to give us no reason why it is He has mercy on some and not others. Charles Spurgeon once gave an example of 10 beggars on a street and a man walks by and decides to give some money to only one of the beggars, is this man unjust for not giving the others some money? Of course not, it is his money he does with it as he pleases, in fact he didn't have to give any of them money, but he did. And so it is with God. "God makes some vessels of wrath according to their merit; other vessels of mercy according to His grace"(Calvin's editor note).
"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." "That none of you may think that they who are elected are elected because they are deserving"(Calvin). Henry makes a good point,
"There seems to be something more unreasonable in this (the rejection of the ungodly), [Paul] endeavours to make it more fully evident, how God, in rejecting whom He wills, is not only irreprehensible, but also wonderful in His wisdom and justice"(Calvin).
Paul comes to how God deals with Pharoah from Exodus. God raised up Pharoah, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth"(Exodus 9:16). "Thus doth God raise up sinners, make them for himself even for the day of evil (Prov. 16:4), raise them up in outward prosperity, external privelages (Matt. 11:23), sparing mercies"(Henry). For what reason? "That I may show my power in [them], and that My name may be declared in all the earth." "God would...serve the honour of His name, and manifest His power in baffling the pride and insolence of that great tyrant, who bade defiance to Heaven itself, and trampled upon all that was just and sacred. If Pharoah has not been so high and mighty, so bold and hardy, the power of God had not been so illustrious in the ruining of him"(Henry).
III. "Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens."
Matthew Henry puts it beautifully:
*Piper Sermons
*Calvin Commentaries on Romans
*Matthew Henry Commentaries on Romans
*C.H. Spurgeon
(Bible)
With the two examples given, Paul has abolished all hope of a sinner working his way to God. He has now handed over all power and all sovereignty to God. Now Paul goes on in these verses to prove the absolute sovereignty of God in bringing the "children of promise" to himself.
Notice here as well as in verse 19, this is the common response by anyone who is confronted with the doctrines of election or predestination. The first objection shown here in verse 14 is that there is injustice with God. To save some and to look over others and they can do nothing, doesn't that make God unjust? "Certainly not!" is the answer Paul gives. It would be interesting to see if any other ideas of election such as that of the Arminian or a "corporate" electionist would warrant such an expression as Paul just gave. All other ideas attempt to give man some credit in his election, but this simply is not true. Men attempt to bend the scriptures to fit within our understanding, but this doctrine of election is something we must accept. As Piper has said, "it is better that our minds be broken, than that the scriptures be broken."
For an outline's sake, I'll break this into two parts. How God deals with His chosen people (v.15,16), and how He deals with the reprobate, or the ones He passes over (v.17,18).
I. Dealings With The Elect
"I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." Paul has just said that God is certainly not unjust, he now proves the denial. As Matthew Henry says on this verse, "It imports a perfect absoluteness in God's will; He will do what He will, and giveth not account of any of His matters, nor is it fit He should"(Henry). In other words, God has to give us no reason why it is He has mercy on some and not others. Charles Spurgeon once gave an example of 10 beggars on a street and a man walks by and decides to give some money to only one of the beggars, is this man unjust for not giving the others some money? Of course not, it is his money he does with it as he pleases, in fact he didn't have to give any of them money, but he did. And so it is with God. "God makes some vessels of wrath according to their merit; other vessels of mercy according to His grace"(Calvin's editor note).
"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." "That none of you may think that they who are elected are elected because they are deserving"(Calvin). Henry makes a good point,
"Applying this general rule to the particular case that Paul has before him, the reason why the unworthy, undeserving, ill-deserving Gentiles are called...while the greatest part of the Jews are left to perish in unbelief, is not because those Gentiles were better desrving or better disposed for such a favour, but because of God's free grace that made that difference. The Gentiles did neither will it, nor run for it, they sat in darkness...He is found of those that sought Him not (Isa. 65:1)."II. Dealings With The Reprobate
"There seems to be something more unreasonable in this (the rejection of the ungodly), [Paul] endeavours to make it more fully evident, how God, in rejecting whom He wills, is not only irreprehensible, but also wonderful in His wisdom and justice"(Calvin).
Paul comes to how God deals with Pharoah from Exodus. God raised up Pharoah, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth"(Exodus 9:16). "Thus doth God raise up sinners, make them for himself even for the day of evil (Prov. 16:4), raise them up in outward prosperity, external privelages (Matt. 11:23), sparing mercies"(Henry). For what reason? "That I may show my power in [them], and that My name may be declared in all the earth." "God would...serve the honour of His name, and manifest His power in baffling the pride and insolence of that great tyrant, who bade defiance to Heaven itself, and trampled upon all that was just and sacred. If Pharoah has not been so high and mighty, so bold and hardy, the power of God had not been so illustrious in the ruining of him"(Henry).
III. "Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens."
Matthew Henry puts it beautifully:
"The various dealings of God...must be resolved into His absolute sovereignty. He is debtor to no man, His grace is His own, and He may give it or withold it as it pleaseth Him; we have none of us deserved it, nay, we have all justly forfeited it a thousand time, so that herein the work of our salvation is admirably well ordered that those who are saved must thank God only, and those who perish must thank themselves only...God is bound no further than He has been pleased to bind Himself by His own covenant and promise, which is His revealed will; and that is that He will receive, and not cast out, those that come to Christ; but the drawing of souls in order to that coming is preventing distinguishing favour to whom He will. Had He mercy on the Gentiles? It was because He would have mercy on them. Were the Jews hardened? It was because it was His own pleasure to deny them softening grace, and to give them up to their chosen affected unbelief."Citation:
*Piper Sermons
*Calvin Commentaries on Romans
*Matthew Henry Commentaries on Romans
*C.H. Spurgeon
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Is Everyone A Christian??
Who in Oklahoma is not a Christian? Honestly, everybody believes they are.
When I first came into a church, I was engrafted into the Baptist church. Now I have respect for a lot of Baptists, believe me. But I was brought into the church-camp high, shallow praise songs, alter-calling, half-gospel, funny story telling, try and get people emotional, type of Baptist churches. I know a lot of you know what I am talking about.
I came to find out that Christianity was so much more than praying the all too infamous sinner’s prayer and walking an isle and raising my hand (while every head was bowed and every eye was closed). Matthew 7:13, 14 became very real to me, and quite disturbing, I believed myself to be on the broad way headed for nothing more than to find out that Jesus never knew who I was (Matthew 7:23).
Now, looking back I have a growing concern for those from where I came from, who still are in that type of environment. Am I saying they are not Christians? No. They may be, but their environment is a place where they will experience no growth, and become no more knowledgeable of God than when they first began.
On the other hand, I know people from my high school and hometown, who would be so quick to consider themselves Christians, yet they express absolutely no desire to know Christ, the only time they even mention something like that is if they feel it might impress someone or for some reason make them cooler (which of course in the Bible Belt if you aren’t a Christian, you probably aren’t in the “in crowd”). Or perhaps there’s an argument and they might attempt to impress people with their well versed knowledge in the Bible, yet at the same time never fellowshipping with God or praying or reading the Word of God, being completely Pharisaical in their Christianity, only memorizing key verses to defend their bias opinion or to look good on facebook (i.e. Matthew 7:1, John 3:16, Phil 4:13 or Jer 29:11), excusing all context and hermeneutics, and then going out and living their life as if there were no God, as if God cared nothing for their actions.
John MacArthur once said, “Professing Christianity is the fastest growing mission field,” I could not agree more with that statement. Questions I keep asking myself are things like:
How do you witness to a person that is so convinced that they already are a Christian?
Why is it that people wear the name “Christian” or “Saved” like it is some sort of name tag, or a plane ticket to heaven, or fire insurance?
How can you call yourself a Christian, yet in your actions you show you actually hate Christ and you hate his commandments?
The list goes on.
I want nothing more than for my friends, family, and just people on the street, to understand the saving grace and power of Jesus Christ. I want them to understand the joy and peace and comfort in laying all your sins and worries upon the cross. I want them to see God as a holy, just, loving, beautiful and gracious God, to want nothing more than to understand His word, to seek Him with all their heart, soul, and strength, to obey His commandments.
Though, most the time I feel like I am talking to myself, and while it bothers me that most of my friends wouldn’t give a second thought to their salvation, I trust in God to do His will and accomplish His purpose, and I know He will. And because of that truth, I can rest well at night.
When I first came into a church, I was engrafted into the Baptist church. Now I have respect for a lot of Baptists, believe me. But I was brought into the church-camp high, shallow praise songs, alter-calling, half-gospel, funny story telling, try and get people emotional, type of Baptist churches. I know a lot of you know what I am talking about.
I came to find out that Christianity was so much more than praying the all too infamous sinner’s prayer and walking an isle and raising my hand (while every head was bowed and every eye was closed). Matthew 7:13, 14 became very real to me, and quite disturbing, I believed myself to be on the broad way headed for nothing more than to find out that Jesus never knew who I was (Matthew 7:23).
Now, looking back I have a growing concern for those from where I came from, who still are in that type of environment. Am I saying they are not Christians? No. They may be, but their environment is a place where they will experience no growth, and become no more knowledgeable of God than when they first began.
On the other hand, I know people from my high school and hometown, who would be so quick to consider themselves Christians, yet they express absolutely no desire to know Christ, the only time they even mention something like that is if they feel it might impress someone or for some reason make them cooler (which of course in the Bible Belt if you aren’t a Christian, you probably aren’t in the “in crowd”). Or perhaps there’s an argument and they might attempt to impress people with their well versed knowledge in the Bible, yet at the same time never fellowshipping with God or praying or reading the Word of God, being completely Pharisaical in their Christianity, only memorizing key verses to defend their bias opinion or to look good on facebook (i.e. Matthew 7:1, John 3:16, Phil 4:13 or Jer 29:11), excusing all context and hermeneutics, and then going out and living their life as if there were no God, as if God cared nothing for their actions.
John MacArthur once said, “Professing Christianity is the fastest growing mission field,” I could not agree more with that statement. Questions I keep asking myself are things like:
How do you witness to a person that is so convinced that they already are a Christian?
Why is it that people wear the name “Christian” or “Saved” like it is some sort of name tag, or a plane ticket to heaven, or fire insurance?
How can you call yourself a Christian, yet in your actions you show you actually hate Christ and you hate his commandments?
The list goes on.
I want nothing more than for my friends, family, and just people on the street, to understand the saving grace and power of Jesus Christ. I want them to understand the joy and peace and comfort in laying all your sins and worries upon the cross. I want them to see God as a holy, just, loving, beautiful and gracious God, to want nothing more than to understand His word, to seek Him with all their heart, soul, and strength, to obey His commandments.
Though, most the time I feel like I am talking to myself, and while it bothers me that most of my friends wouldn’t give a second thought to their salvation, I trust in God to do His will and accomplish His purpose, and I know He will. And because of that truth, I can rest well at night.
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