Post 2

God is marvelous beyond description!

I ended my last post saying that he really vital news is that Jesus did die for us and God does forgive us our sins when we turn away from them and come back to him.

I need to amplify that in one more respect. The choice is all ours - that is true! The work is all God's – that is doubly true!

As I said Jesus died for us and rose again from the dead. Without that there would be no hope and no forgiveness. Our 'choice' even if we could make it would have as little effect as flicking a light switch after a storm had brought down the electricity wires!

There is yet another essential work that is totally God's. Just as Adam and Eve hid from God after that first disobedience, after so many generations of rebellion against God and after so many personal choices to go against him and all he stands for we humans are utterly incapable of doing a turn-around and choosing God. (the real God I mean – humans are very good at choosing and serving the 'gods' created by their own imagination - the very fact that we do invent 'gods' that we feel comfortable with proves the point that we cannot by ourselves face the real one!)

The second good news is that what we could never do, God again accomplished for us. God really wants to save us, and so gives us ample opportunity to choose. He will not force us to choose him, but he does everything necessary so that we CAN choose him.

OK I said God was marvellous beyond description – and here is one more instance of it!

So at the judgement we who chose God will know we did nothing to merit the joys of heaven which are before us. At the same time those who did not choose God will know with dread certainty that God made so many perfect opportunities for them to choose him that they are totally responsible for the awful fate that awaits them.

Let me say it again. God has done, does do, will do everything to save us - everything EXCEPT force us. He made us with free will and will not take it away from us. Of course he could: he just won’t. He wants us to choose to love him.

So the bottom line is that what I said about us having a choice is true. But I did need to add that we only have that choice because God has done everything else necessary. The fact that God has done all this to give us that choice leaves us totally without excuse if we don’t use it. As the Bible says in Hebrews 2.3 “³ how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?”

Back to the “do you here and now say ‘yes’ to the baptism questions”.

If you “generally” believe but have issues, read on: you might just have been brought down by a spiritual virus. A book like C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity” which explains Christian certainties much better than I can may also help.

If you say “yes” then you are a child of God. You have been born again. Your sins have been forgiven. You have been delivered from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus, God’s dear son. You have been born again into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: the sure and certain hope of resurrection from the dead and sharing Christ’s glory in heaven.

You may be, spiritually speaking a new-born baby in your faith in Jesus. That may have happened some time ago and you may now be on your journey growing to maturity in Christ. You may even be nearing the end of your travels with Christ in this life and be ready to say with Paul and countless others “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

This book is aimed at people in the first category: spiritual babies. Peter in his first letter says to his readers “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,” But in the case of physical babies, the first thing they receive after their time growing in the womb is not milk but a fluid called “colostrum”. Once they are born they are at risk of attack from bacteria and viruses. The first thing they receive from their mother’s breast, even before the nourishing milk they will need is a fluid containing antibodies manufactured by their mother’s immune system. These antibodies will give them initial disease protection until their own immune system has become practised at making its own antibodies in response to virus attack.

Just as physical babies are at risk from all the viruses floating around, so spiritual babies are at risk from virus-like false teaching. New born Christians need spiritual colostrum from the start. As James said in his letter “ ³ Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. ⁴ For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about^[a] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”

This book is intended to be spiritual colostrum, immunising new Christians against the most common “viruses” until they have grown in their understanding of the Bible and their relationship with Jesus so that they can pick false and deceptive teachings for themselves

Why You Need Antibodies

You might as well ask why we need them in a physical sense – the answer is that that is just the way the world is. From the moment we are born there are viruses all around us that will attack our bodies – without an immune reaction we would die.

You might as well ask why we install anti-virus software on our computers. The answer is that there just are humans out there devising virus like programs to attack our computers.

As you read the pages of the Old Testament you will see that God’s people were continually being led astray by false teachers and importing bits from pagan religions and ending up deserting the real God altogether.

When you come to the New Testament, Paul’s letters make it plain that almost as soon as he had travelled through a region bringing people to faith in Jesus false teachers moved in and started destroying the faith of these new believers.

Even after all the time Paul spent back and forth visiting the Christian community at Ephesus, as he said good-bye to them knowing that he would probably be imprisoned and never see them again he warned: (Acts 19.29-31) “²⁹ I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. ³⁰ Even from your own number some will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. ³¹ So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.”

It is just how this world is. From the moment you put your trust in Jesus the devil will be trying every trick to stop you. Jesus said to his followers just before he was arrested (Luke 22.31,2)  ³¹ “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. ³² But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” In 1 Peter 5.8,9 we read “⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your fellow believers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”

One of the tricks the devil uses is seeding attractive but false ideas into people and churches to weaken people’s faith, stop them growing into mature Christians and stop them being effective in God’s work. You may well be joining a church that is already infected by one or more of these spiritual viruses. If you have the “antibodies” to protect you from succumbing yourself, that is one person rescued and as you become stronger in Christ you may be able to rescue others.

Paul was so exasperated that the people he had brought to faith in Jesus in the region of Galatia had been deceived by false teachers that he wrote (Galatians 1.6,7) “⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

And then in his concern for them wrote (Galatians 3.1-4) “ ¹ You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. ² I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? ³ Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort? ⁴Have you experienced^[a] so much in vain—if it really was in vain?”

Despite all these hazards, the person who honestly wants to stick with Christ will ultimately be kept safe. As Jesus said (John 10.27-29) “²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all^[a]; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

NEXT WEEK : “3 Things every Christian needs”