Sunday, December 26, 2010

Religious vs. Relationship

Rom 10:1-3 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

These are the verses an "ultra-religious" person needs to be directed to for the Truth about works righteousness. Break down these verses. First of all, Paul makes it clear that religious people need to be saved just as much as the worst pagan out there, and it is the desire of Paul's heart and all those born-again that the lost would be saved. In verse 2, Paul reminds us that he too was zealous for God, although it was misguided. He too was eager to please and serve God, although he didn't have a relationship with Him. In the same way, ultra-religious people are striving to please God and earn their way to Heaven (or whatever eternal destination their religion is ascribing), but they do not know God. As Paul says in verse 2, they have zeal, but this zeal is without true Godly knowledge, it is just futile human effort that is not led by The Spirit. In verse 3, Paul makes it very clear that they are ignorant of how true Righteousness is had, but instead the religious seek to attain their own righteousness...and right there at the end of verse 3 we see why....the have not submitted to Jesus Christ. The Righteousness of God is only found through The Blood of Jesus, and religious people are too prideful or confused to surrender to Him.
In verse 9 below, we see what is required to be saved. This verse flies in the face of those that will say Jesus can be your Savior, but He doesn't have to be your Lord. You may say, "huh, that's weird, people say that?". There is a preacher in Texas and on YouTube that has a pretty big following by the name of Steve Anderson. On the surface he sounds pretty solid, but if you hear enough of his stuff you will find out that he says this very thing. But, is that what the Word says:

Rom 10:9
(ESV) because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

(NKJV) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

I put the ESV version above as well as the NKJ. They both say the same thing, but the way we speak, "Jesus is Lord" vs. "the Lord Jesus" may seem a little clearer. In either case, you are confessing that Jesus is your Lord and as such, you are surrendered and obedient to Him. In addition, this verse makes clear that Jesus is alive, He has conquered death and we serve The Risen Christ, not a dead Jewish carpenter. Remember when Paul was blinded by The Light and heard The Voice? What did Paul say? Who are You Lord? Paul knew he was talking to God, and what did The Voice say? "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." Jesus is God. Jesus is risen. Surrender to Him and you shall be saved.

Why is all that important? Because if we know this to be true, we will recognize false religions and false teaching. All false religions will attack the Person of Jesus Christ and the work of Jesus Christ.
Case in point; Mormons, Jehovah's Witness and Islam all say that Jesus is NOT God. If you read the true catholic doctrines (which anyone can find right from their website) you will find that they teach that Jesus' finished work on The Cross was not enough, to be saved you must fullfill the rituals and works of their religion. I tend to pick on these 4 religions, but I assure you, there are MANY others.

Notice in verse 10, that it is with the heart one believes and with the mouth confession. It is not the other way around. To simply say that you are surrendered to Jesus as your Lord and Savior without the condition of your heart changed is a futile exercise:

Rom 10:10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
I love how in verse 12 Paul quickly points out that these words are not just for the Jews, even though he starts this chapter pleading with Isreal:
Rom 10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
So then, how shall ALL be saved?
Rom 10:13 For "WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED."

I want to wrap up with a personal story. The extremely shortened version is this:
I recently approached my Pastor about starting an evanglism team at our church. We discussed it over breakfast and he was VERY excited and we discussed who would be involved etc. After 6 weeks I hadn't heard back (as I was told a certain other Pastor would be in contact with me). This in itself was an effort for me (the waiting) as many of you know my personality. But, I figured The Lord was teaching me to wait on Him (as He had been doing for over a year now, hopefully it takes pretty soon). Finally after 6 weeks I emailed him an idea for the tract we would hand out which was basically a tract/invitation to the church. After another week he replied, only his enthusiasm had changed to what seemed to be regret. He basically said that the others didn't like the idea and he cited "research studies" that indicate that people don't like "aggresive evangalism". No kidding! You mean people that love their sin don't like to hear The Gospel....that's weird....did Jesus know that? He suggested I read a couple books, one of which is entitled, "Being a Contageous Christian". This is the overriding mindset of Christians today. Silly things are said like, "Preach The Gospel and if neccasary use words". We have all used "one liners" like this because we have heard preachers say them, the sounded good to us, so we started using them. This is basically what my Pastor was suggesting. Are we to follow man or God? We've seen in Acts that, that isn't how the first century disciples did it. And here again in Romans 10, Paul makes it clear:

Romans 10:14-17 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF PEACE, WHO BRING GLAD TIDINGS OF GOOD THINGS!"
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?"
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

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