God loves you for who you are error PART III

The Gospel makes you tremble with fear... but it also makes you tremble with Joy!

_______________________________________________

3. It Makes The Gospel Cheap

                      How does it make the Gospel cheap?

                                     You see, people are naturally lovers of self and their money. They are boastful and proud, making a profit out of God, calling out to God only for the benefit they can get out of Him for themselves, not even thinking about how holy God is and the sacredness of truly honoring God(1Tim3:2).

                                                        Again, let us stress out, had it not been for the grace of God continually changing and transforming our hearts, we would still be lovers of ourselves only. It's only because of God's grace we are changed! In our natural state - that is, apart from God's transforming grace - there would only be love for ourselves and totally empty of true love for God. All men are haters of God, because loving the world and its pleasures is hatred toward God!(1John2:15-16) In fact, everything that takes God's place in our hearts is hatred towards God, it's called idolatry!(1John5:21,Ex20:1-3,Rom1:30,1:21,3:9-14)

                              

Now, Let's take this case...

                   Here is a natural man, naturally self-loving and God-ignoring.......

                 Then here you come.................

           

                         And you added..................

                           

                               When we come to men refusing to proclaim the message of sin, judgement and repentance, humility and brokenness will not be fostered. Much worse, it will foster selfishness and idolatry... before announcing to men "Just Believe!", make sure that they are cut to the hearts first... Announce this first with boldness "Repent or Be judged!", "Repent or Perish!"... This is the message of the apostles...

                               "Peter's words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, "brothers, what shall we do? Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins."(Acts2:37-38)

                                 From the old to the new testament, when the prophets and the apostles call people to return to God, it was said in a way that would foster humility and reverence towards God. Their messages were "Selfishness-Breaking!", it calls men to abandon self love and turn to love God instead! It calls men to forsake his mother, father, property and pleasures for the sake of the Ever-Worthy Master... It decreases man and increases God. It is man-degrading and God-exalting

                                Here are few examples of biblical messages that is unlike most modern methods... The message of Jonah: "Jonah 3:1-9",The message of John the baptist: "Luke3:18,Luke 3:7-8,Matt3:10", and the message of Jesus: "Mark 9:43-49,Luke14:25-27"...




                                All their messages were messages of Judgement... and it fostered humility and true repentance to the people they were preaching... Again, it's man-degrading and God-exalting...

___________________________________________________________________

      

           And anyway, what is true repentance?

                                             Let's quote few examples about what true repentance looks like..


      If I am to summarize the prayer of Daniel for salvation, it would go like this:(Dan9:4-19)
                               "O Lord, You are right by judging us according to your laws. You have been good to us from the beginning but we have sinned and are full of wickedness, we refused to listen to you and your servants. Oh Lord, You have the right and it's only righteous to be angry at us.
                               O our God, hear you servant's prayer! Listen as I plead! For your own sake, smile at us again O Lord, forgive, for your own sake, have mercy on the people who bear your name."




                               Oh the humility in Daniel's prayer. It exalts God and humiliates man. It says again and again, "for your own sake Lord"... not for our sake, but for the honor and glory of God's name...




       The case of the Pharisee Vs. Tax collector (Luke 18:11-13)

      "11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’"

                               The prayer of the pharisee is man-exalting, but the tax-collector is man-degrading and God-exalting. It's a humble prayer, it's not about how precious or worthy we are, but it's about how merciful God is.

         The case of the Jailer:

                               Before Paul announced "Believe! And you will be saved!" the Jailer was broken first:

1. He attempted suicide first - he first did not consider His life worth living.

2. He fell down in humility - he forgot the pride of his position.

3. He trembled before God's messengers - thus he trembled at God Himself.

4.  He felt utter helplessness - he asked how to be saved in desperation.

                               The simple but fragrant announcement "Just Believe" is announced only if the unbelieving person is BROKEN! Without brokenness, there won't be repentance, and without repentance, there's no salvation. You can't just go around telling unbelieving persons "God loves you for who you are"... if we do that, it would remove the place for holy trembling, broken repentance, utter self-helplessness and the place for desperate crying our to God for salvation : "lord! Save me! a sinner!"...

                              Many of us use this cliche' as an emotional trick to move the emotions of unconverted men and bring them to church. We use it to somehow remove the natural tendency of natural men to reject us so we say what they wanted to hear. It really fit's what the passage says: "For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own evil desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear." (2Tim4:3)

                               Honestly, this verse is scary. Our gospel must not be primarily about "saving men", it must be about "proclaiming the glory of Christ!" (Rom1:3-5). When we use appeal to the emotions of men, then their "conversion" will only be emotional. And when they don't feel it anymore, they go back to the world - where that rightly belong.

                              True conversion - unlike emotional conversion -  is lasting. We will continually and certainly be changed and be conformed to the image of Christ until our death.(Rom8:29-30,Phil1:6). It is not just emotions, it is regeneration!(Ezek36:26,Deut30:6,Jer32:40,33:8-9)


                              True conversion is not just a mere decision of men, it is God's power fulfilling His promise to His covenant. "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me."(Jer32:30)


                             Our goal is not to convert men. If that is our goal, it would turn us to use human techniques and "rockets" or tricks just to make them come to church. We would even give our motors to them just to make them decide to be converted. Our goal is to proclaim; "Repent and Believe or Perish!" and it's God's job to convert.


                              Let's take the case of Lydia:
                              "The Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying"...(Acts 16:14). As we can see, conversion of the heart comes first before decision. In simple terms, conversion is not a product of decision, rather, decision is a product of conversion. It wasn't merely our decision, but it was His plan all along before the foundation of the world He planned to convert us through the sanctifying work of the Spirit(2Th2:13).
                             It's only by God's grace that we became a Christian. It's only because of God's eternal love for us, not for who we are but because that is His identity, a God of Love! How wide and deep then is that love? How much He lavished us with His love that He calls us His children, as unworthy and undeserving as we are!(1John3:1) This is true love, not that we love God but that He loved us first!(1John4:10)


                              Love Him back beloved! Love Him back! (2Cor16:22)

__________________________________________________

TO ACCESS PART I AND PART II, CLICK ON THE IMAGE LINKS

"God-loves-us-for-who-we-are-ERROR!" Part II

"To say that He loves us IN Chirst is to say that had it not been for Christ... God would not love us...."

In PART II, we assumed that you have read PART I... It's a thread, so if you haven't read PART I, read it first before proceed.

____________________________________________________________________

2. It Makes Man the Center - Not God!

               And what's wrong with "Man-Centered" view?
                                      
                                        First let us define what is the "man-centered view"... man centered view says: "God loves me - but He does according to my definition of "God loves me" - that is, I am the 'focus' of God's love... God is for me, just like the way I want... the real purpose and end of all things is me... that is why God must not do things contrary to what I believe He can do... He created me for ME! God can't do as He pleases with ME, and when He wants to do anything in MY life, in MY body - it must be according to MY consent... I am the maker of my destiny, I am the captain of my soul".... Now, what's wrong with "man-centered" view?

                          Now, what's wrong with "man-centered" view?

                                        Let us just answer that not with human wisdom, but with what God has revealed in the scriptures... Colossians 1:16 says: "For through Him, God created everything on heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and can't see - such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was made through Him and FOR Him".(emphasis mine)

                                         Everything.... EVERYTHING!... was purposely created through and FOR Jesus Christ, the Eternal Beloved God the Son. It did not say "for US"... it was said "for HIM"... it did not say, God created us so that "we could be us"... the purpose was FOR CHRIST!... Why? because Jesus is the absolute object and focus of God's Love(Matt3:17,John17:26)... His pleasure is found IN CHRIST, His passion is found IN CHRIST, His Love is IN CHRIST... all the fullness of who God is, is IN CHRIST!(Col1:19)

                                       How shameful would it be to claim what was solely for Christ and declare it to be for us? It's like saying I AM GOD!... that is how deep man's corruption really is!.... it seems to go like this--->"I just don't want to be like God, I WANT TO BE GOD!"... Man really want to dethrone God from the center - as pathetic as the earth wanting to dethrone the sun from the center... That goes way back on the garden of eden(Gen3:4)... the same temptation again and again.... the same devil again and again... and same corrupted human error - that results to cliche' like this - again and again....

                    This cliche' is man-centered? How come?

                                         Instead of using "God loves you for who you are in Christ"... we use "God loves you for who you are".... completely throwing Christ out and replaces it with "you-and-me"... How man-centered could it be? Not even mentioning it's equal crime - It distorts the Character of God - this reason alone could be very serious cause to really inspect our methods and beliefs...

                                         It also takes us away from the real FOCUS of God's love -  "His Glory! Which is embodied and revealed in Jesus Christ"(Isa48:11,Heb1:3)<---(Yes! it's not us... it's Christ). How important would it be to focus on the thing that God focuses upon? If God Himself is so focused on His Glory Revealed in Christ, then how wonderfully-overwhelmingly-beautiful would that object of God's love really be? And how dare we as beings of "inferior beauty" claim to arrest God's focus off of that Glorious Being and turn it to us...(or should I say, "gross corruption" instead of "inferior beauty"?)

Let's take a look at this passage:

                        John 16:26-27.... "Then you will ask IN my name. I'm not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father Himself loves you dearly BECAUSE you love me and believe that I came from God" (emphasis mine)


                       This passage teaches us that the reason why God loved us is because of Christ... Had it not been for Christ, God would not love us!... As John Piper once said: " God is dangerous outside Christ!".... Now for those guys who have not followed Christ and is reading this blog... we say it again, God is DANGEROUS outside Christ!... You are in grave danger from God's upcoming judgment... and without Christ, you will not stand against God's severity... God is not for you, He is against you... you must be reconciled to Him first through Christ! Look at this passage:



"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."(Romans 5:10-11 ESV)

                      
                       The good news for us is this... though we are God's enemy, we can be reconciled through Christ! Through His death on the cross, He died for the death we deserve - thus we have died(2Cor5:14), and will not taste the second death ever again - IF WE ARE IN CHRIST!


                      We are sheltered on God's love for His One and Only Eternal Beloved Son, Jesus Christ... that means that as long as the Father loves Jesus, we are loved! Now that is a sure foundation! We can be very sure that God will love us no matter what, not for who we are, not because we are that lovable, but because His love for Christ will not fail!


                      We must find our identity IN CHRIST alone... Who you are must be found INSIDE Christ, that is - you have killed your identity outside Christ, and you are clothed by God for who Christ is(Gal2:20). You are forsaking "who-you-are-independently-outside-Christ", constantly desiring and striving to find "who-you-are-in-Christ" - to be Christlike... When you say "God loves me just as I am", then if you mean "just-as-I-am" outside Christ, then the appropriate statement would be - "God hates me "just-as-I-am""... When we seek to find who we are outside of Christ, we will only reap WRATH and FURY..


                     Pero buti na lang... God by His grace... He united us IN Christ before the foundation of the world so that we would be loved with the love the Father has for the Son!... If we are loved by the love God has for His Son, how great is that love then? Amazing Grace indeed!
                     
                    Gipa-"sampa" ra ta niya sa Iyang gugma para sa Iyang bugtong anak! Dili jud na para sa ato originally, pero tungod sa Iyang grasya.. nahimo pud ta nga partaker sa iyang gugma through CHIRST!


                      So Guys, undangon na nato na nga cliche'... ug ato na nang pulihan sa kamatuuran... GOD LOVES US FOR WHO CHRIST IS!

TO ACCESS THE FIRST PART.... CLICK THIS IMAGE LINK... 

Link To Part I and Part II - God loves you for who you are Error!