Our teaching should be influenced by the Bible over any outside influence. There’s nothing deep or profound about that statement, it’s merely an idea with which we all can, and should, agree. Unfortunately that’s not always how we operate. Because there is so much false teaching in the world today we can easily get caught up in interpreting the Bible from a standpoint of refuting falsehoods rather than proclaiming truth. In that sense, what we teach is being determined by denominations, the Catholic Church, or our culture. When we look only at what the Bible doesn’t say, we miss out on so much of what it does.
Proclaim the Bible
Take, for example, the matter of grace. Because John Calvin and his followers have so distorted grace to mean simply the good luck bestowed on those whom God hand-picked to be delivered from their so-called original sin, because others have distorted it as a free pass to sin, and because still others view it as a substitute for the biblical plan of salvation, we spend much of our time fighting those falsehoods. When you hear Ephesians 2:8-9 or Romans 5:1-2, think of your first reaction or of the sermons you’ve heard on this passage – what comes to mind?
In many cases we instantly begin thinking about how this idea of grace through faith is only part of the plan of salvation and how we need to bring in other verses before someone gets too carried away with a false interpretation of “faith only” salvation. While it’s true we have to see the topic of salvation as a whole, that’s not the entire point. That interpretation limits our interpretation of the verses and the Bible’s emphasis on grace to only saying what isn’t right rather than what is. Because of our reactionary doctrine of grace, two less-than-accurate phrases can be commonly heard among Christians today, even from those who have been Christians their whole lives.
1. “We just have to do our best.”
We’ve all tried to do our best before realizing that our best leaves us marked for eternal death. Romans makes it very clear that abiding by a system of law keeping will only end in death for us, for we all have sinned. Unfortunately many still look at God’s justice as some big chalkboard in heaven with a ledger of our good deeds on the right side and our bad on the left. What we forget is that one sin is enough to separate us from God eternally, that no good deed can make the blood payment that God’s justice demands. Only Jesus Christ can do that.
The alternative to this is to say that we’ve already been covered, so we don’t have to do anything. Paul strongly rebuked that attitude in Romans 6:1 – “May it never be!” Rather, since we have died to sin and it has been put behind us, and since we are now living by faith, we live in the faith that whatever God commands us is what is best for our lives. The acts Scriptures requires of the Christian are not a checklist to make us feel like good people, but a list of things that will make us more like Him. We attend worship, study our Bibles, evangelize, fight temptation, encourage others, etc. because we believe it is what’s best for us. Because we want to, not because we have to. Anyone who is walking in faith will produce the good fruit God expects of His children because He is walking with us.
Another manifestation of this statement can be heard when someone says, “Well, I just hope that when I die the good outweighs the bad.” Trust me, it doesn’t – unless you have the blood of Christ! We do good deeds not to earn favor, but because we have been given favor by His wonderful grace!
2. “I hope I get to heaven, but I guess I won’t know until I die.”
The New Testament makes it clear that not only can we know, we should be confident in our salvation. 1 John 5:11-12 tells us that He has given us eternal life (past tense) and that whoever has the Son has His life. That’s exactly how and why we can know for certain where our eternal destination is. It’s not a matter of the good deeds that we have done. If it were, we still would have no reason to be unsure. We could be 100% confident that heaven isn’t in our future.
I encourage you to read through Romans chapters 6-8 in considering this powerful truth about grace, our works, and our sin. When we are buried with Him in baptism, we are raised in the likeness of His resurrection as well. We’ve received a new life! Just as we can be sure of what will happen to those who are outside of Christ on the day of judgment, we can be sure of what God will say to those who are washed in His blood – “Well done, good and faithful servant!