Okay first off I want to give you a little disclosure before I go into what has been on my mind lately. I am going to get on a topic that most of you probably will question to start with. I want to be up front and say that it is okay for you to feel that way. I do want to ask that you don’t stop reading this post before you get all the way done. Please be patient and have an open mind about what I am saying.
Have we been sold half of the gospel? I want to tell you one of the biggest lies in the church in today’s time. Yes I did say “lie in the church”. I am not talking about lost people or people who claim there is no God; I am talking about Christians who go to church every time the doors are opened.
As a kid, most of us grew up with our parents telling us that whatever we wanted to be we could be. Whatever we put our minds to we can accomplish it. No offense to any parents who have told their kids that, including mine, but that is what the church is preaching now too and it is the biggest lie that could ever be taught in church!
How many of you have a consistent time alone with God everyday to read His word? How many of you have consistently been seeking God’s kingdom first and not what you want? How many of you have been the best Christian that God could ever ask for? How many of you, ever since the day you were saved, have been chasing after God and have never had any rough days where you just didn’t feel like living the Christian life? I hope that we all see that the answer to these questions is none. No one, if you would be honest, can say that you have lived a life that God could be proud of. How many of you have come to a point in your life where you told God that the last time you committed a certain sin would be your last time committing that sin? Christians have come up with a word to describe that: Rededication. You have come to the point where you want to rededicate your life to Christ and tell him that you will do better and you won’t commit that sin again and a week later you come back to God to rededicate your rededication, and the process starts all over. The statement “you can do it” does not work. You can’t do it. You’re not powerful enough, you’re not good enough, you don’t have the willingness to do what it takes to overcome those sins, but God does.
Colossians 1:25-27 reads “25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Why do I think there are so many people teaching half of the gospel? Because it says so in this passage of scripture! I will also get to another point that makes this statement a little bit clearer later. Look at verse 25. Paul said that he was commissioned by God “to present to you the word of God in its fullness”. If some were not preaching half of the gospel then why would Paul write this? Paul explains that there is a “mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.” It had been kept from Moses, Noah, Abraham, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, but now it has been made known to us. The Bible tells us that God wanted to make a mystery or secret known to us.
So what is the secret? Eric what can you tell me that will make me get to a point in my life where I can have only one rededications instead of ten or twenty? What is the secret? Let me ask you one more question before we get to that secret. How many of you right now can tell me, without looking it up in your Bible, what Romans 3:23 says? Most of you probably would say “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and you would be half right. And you are probably saying no Eric that is all of verse 23. It is but what punctuation do you see there? Most of us know this verse and we put our own period there but it is not a period it is a comma. You see most people teach that we are all sinners saved by grace. They say that everyone is a sinner and there is no way to help ourselves and not sin, and this is how the statement looks when we say it: “We are all sinners saved by grace.” People teach that we can’t help ourselves and stop ourselves from sinning so we might as well just live life and sin because “We are all sinners”…and oh we are also “saved by grace”. Our focus is always on us being sinners not on us being saved by grace.
The secret of Christianity is in verse 24 or the last part of verse 23 after the comma. The mystery and the whole gospel is after the comma. “And all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Jesus himself is the secret!! There is no, I, in your rededication prayer; there is only Jesus Christ. The secret is that it is not Jesus Christ AND you fighting against the devil and sin, it is Jesus Christ IN you that break the bonds of sin.
To understand the whole gospel, or as Paul put it the gospel “in its fullness”, you have to understand that there is no “you can do it”. You can’t do it. You can’t beat sin, you can’t overcome this world, you can’t break through the bondage, and you can’t do anything apart from God. The only way you can do anything is letting Jesus Christ be IN you. That’s the secret. Galatians 2:20 says “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Jesus Christ gave Himself for us to help us overcome every obstacle we run into, but the only way He can help is if He lives in you and through you. Grasp the whole gospel today and understand that only through Christ, and not through yourself, can you overcome the temptations of this world.
