(If you have found this sermon helpful, please visit us at www.HeritageRestorationProject.org or www.ChristianWisdom.info)
There are certain generally accepted principles or core beliefs derived from the New Testament which are generally accepted among Christians, for example, the sinless-ness of Christ, His divinity, His all-sufficient grace on the cross, substitutionary atonement, and so on. These core beliefs constitute a body of biblical doctrine defining what it means to be a Christian. Because they are held to be the unchangeable teachings of Christ derived from the Bible, there can be no watering down to something more generally acceptable among non-believers. Doctrine matters.
But while doctrine matters, the Bible warns against doctrines which create unnecessary burdens. In Mark 7:6b-7 Jesus said, “This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me.” The writer of Hebrews advises in Hebrews 13:9, “do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be (fed) by grace, not by (doctrines) which have not benefited those devoted to them.” And in Matthew 23:4 and 23:13 Jesus criticized those who load people down with difficult doctrines: “For the bind heavy burdens grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers…. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you permit them who are entering to go in.”
Fortunately, biblical doctrines are fairly straight forward, unlike the doctrines taught by the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus time. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
If you are struggling with doubt regarding the efficacy of church doctrine, there may be a reason for it. There may be a problem with either the doctrine, or the manner in which it is being presented to you. Do not be misled by the doctrines of man. Seek God’s pure and simple doctrine found in Jesus Christ alone. If anyone is teaching doctrines which do not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, that person is “puffed up with conceit, knows nothing; has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling among men who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth…” (1 Timothy 6:4-5 RSV). Feel free to walk away from such teachers, going instead directly to the New Testament and giving the Holy Spirit a chance to illuminate your understanding. “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Now, let me ask the question. Are you saved? Don’t be confused or intimidated by this question. I am not asking if you accept every doctrine propounded by this or that ecclesiastical authority. I’m asking if you feel at one with God, reconciled, understand the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, and accept that as a free gift that has been given by God directly to you. Your only obligation is to love. Love is the primary commandment given to all disciples by Jesus. Love is not only the greatest good, it is the most central and enduring quality of who we are—it is the part of our identity which is capable of bearing all hardship, even when other things, our intellect, our reputation, our will, our confidence, even our most cherished beliefs may falter. As the Apostle Paul puts it, faith, hope and love endure, but the greatest of these, is love.
I know there are things that can cause us to doubt, times when we might even wonder if we have lost our faith. Remember, love will endure even when our faith is shaken and our hope seems lost. And, while we are saved by faithful responsiveness to the Lord’s voice, accepting His plan of salvation when it is offered, the ultimate thing by which we are sustained is God’s love for us and our love that has been quickened in us because He first loved us.
“Do you believe?” As the Apostle James points out, “even devils believe” (James 2:19). That being the case, belief in itself is not necessarily the ticket into eternal life. The ultimate question may well be, “Do you faithfully love God, and are you thankful for his gift of new life?” Can you say yes to this even though there are clouds of questions darkening your understanding of various church doctrines? If you can, this is what it means to be “saved”.
What is this love to which we aspire? To answer that question we must look to Jesus, the author of our love (see 1 John 4:19). God's most perfect example of love, and, God’s most perfect metaphor by which God reveals God’s nature to us is Jesus through whom we learn that God is love.
We say that Jesus is “the light of the world”. By this we mean that Jesus is the greatest teacher. And what Jesus taught us by example is faithfulness, hope and love. We miss something very important about the purpose and meaning of the ministry of Jesus Christ if when we make the assumption that our primary calling is to assent to doctrine (see Matthew 7:21).
Faithfulness is the gift of God’s grace that enables us to choose Him when presented with other alternatives. While I personally value intellectual understanding, as I suppose it has become quite obvious to you the reader, I realize that the value and efficacy of intellectual understanding in itself is limited. Christian love, on the other hand, leads the way toward growth into the likeness of Christ, which is our teleological end. Such growth is the result of our responsiveness, our saying “yes” to the Holy Spirit each and every day. Our love for God and for our neighbor can grow and be perfected because it is not dependent upon our effort and limited powers of understanding, but rather, merely saying “yes” to the leading of the Holy Spirit. “Faith”, in the sense of assent to doctrine, will almost certainly falter at some point because our rational knowledge is limited and our willpower is fragile. We cannot perfect our rational grasp of the ground of our being. But love, which participates in and shares the actual essence of the ground of our being (and by “ground of our being” I mean God) can be perfected. The Apostle puts it this way: where there are prophecies, they will fail.... where there is knowledge, it will vanish away, but, love never fails.
To never fail means to endure, to remain constant even if all else including our belief in church doctrine falters. For the Christian, love means imitating the one who taught us to love—Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. And, ultimately, walking in that Light as children of God is what it means to be saved. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanse us from all sin….If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:7 and 1:9).
Paul writes in Philippians Chapter 2:1-5, ”If there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look out not only for his (or her) own interest, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
This way of thinking, this way of living, this way of loving, is the example set for us by Jesus Christ our Lord. And if we have this “light” in our hearts, the doubts Satan plants in our minds will never prevail.
Faith is a wonderful gift, hope is a blessed thing, but both may, from time to time, falter. Love is unfaltering even unto death, as Christ has shown to us on the cross. Christ was humbled, beaten down physically, and, broken by his horrible execution. But he never lost his love for all of humanity, for you and for me. When we are in Christ, our Christian love is more powerful than anything Satan can do to us. Love is the extravagant fire of the divine. Hold onto this light. The love which has been placed in the heart of the born again Christian is Christ living within you and you within him. We are made new by the indwelling of Christ's love. And this love, the love of Christ living within you, hopes all things and endures all things. In the words of the Apostle Paul, “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
“Are you saved?” Let's approach this question from the perspective of love. If we totally submit to the hands of the one we love, do we do so for reward? No, we do so because of love and for no other reason. If we truly love the Lord, will we not gladly place our salvation in God’s hands! Yes, of course we will. Our whole duty, the whole duty of man, is to love the Lord our God, faithfully responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, especially in terms of loving our fellow humanity as Christ loved us. This is the ultimate meaning of Christianity—we are to imitate the one who made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and being found in the likeness of man, humbled himself and became obedient unto death (see 2 Philippians 2:5-8). None of us can do more.
The invitation to take up your cross and follow (see Matthew 16:24) is an invitation to become a caring servant of all. Are you willing to be obedient to the souls around you who hunger and thirst for the light? You are light-bearers when Christ lives within you. Feed his sheep! (see John 21:15-17). Do not worry about the doctrines of man. Do not worry about this world or the next. Rather, imitate Christ who poured out his life as your loving servant because of His great love.
What is the proper response to the question, “Are you born again?” For those whose relationship with God has been restored through regeneration by the work of the Holy Spirit, the proper answer “yes... love lifted me—my love for the one who lifted me is sufficient —it is the breath of life—all that I am, all that I hope to be is fulfilled in my love for the Lord—love is the fulfillment of my purpose and the ground of my being. My assent to doctrines may fail, but love has lifted me, and because love lives in me I know that the Lord lives and that I have indeed been raised from the dead!
I will close with a warning to pastors seeking converts to Christianity. The Apostle Paul would not in any way exaggerate or twist the truth in order to win converts. As he has written, “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just” (Romans 3:7-8). Preachers should, therefore, be very scrupulous in the manner in which they ask, “Are you saved?” Our task is not to intimidate but rather to liberate.
(If you have found this sermon to be helpful, please visit us at www.HeritageRestorationProject.org)
