Post by Les Brewer on Feb 4, 2012 13:12:31 GMT
John Wolf
Good day and God bless you all! The conclusion of the matter from yesturday's post... There are,I suppose many sincere people who believe they are christians,yet have never committed their lives to Christ or His teachings.They are sincere in their belief that Jesus Christ was an actual historical person,who lived a... long time ago,and was put to death on an old rugged cross,but,have never really investigated the reasons as to why.Is their sincerity enough to gain them entrance into heaven? Does the sincerity of a cultist such as a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness or a Unity School of Christianity adherent gain them any merrit with the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Is sincerity the Biblical criteria for eternal life? Can an individual be sincere in helping others,giving to the poor,feeding the homeless,doing penance,saying 50 hail Mary's and twenty our Father's,sincerely trust their denominational affiliation or their religion or half a thousand other things that we find ourselves doing? The answer will no doubt anger some,but the answer is no,being sincere in your belief system,if not based firmly upon faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified,will not merrit you anything.Let's look again at the story of Cain and Abel,Genisis 4:3-4,and see what sincerity brought to both of these brothers. Verse three says that Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground.Cain worked hard at being a farmer,he was proud of what he had accomplished in his efforts to be a good farmer,he was very sincere in his work and in his effort.In verse four,Abel brought of the first-lings of his flock and of it's fat.He too,was sincere in what he was offering to the Lord.Evidently he understood the sacrificial system of atonement for sin,probably learned from Adam and Eve.Verse four also says that God respected Abel's offering and verse five says that God did not respect Cain's offering.Both men were,I believe,sincere in their approach to the Lord God Almighty.So why would God respect one's sincerity and disrepect the other's? The answer is,Truth.To cut to the chase,truth is the basis for faith in Christ and His sacrifice for us,not sincerity.And this is where so much contention arises within various religions and even in various denominations.Sincerity is a good thing,it is always a good thing,but,a person or religion or denomination can be very sincere in their belief,but they can also be very wrong in their theology.So wrong in fact,that it could cost them their soul.The criteria for the basis of faith and fellowship with God, must be through the truth of who we are as fallen,sinful creatures,with no abilities of our own to save us,and in Christ,the perfect Man and His sinless sacrifice to redeem us from ourselves and our own self effort.Herein,ladies and gentlemen,is the crux of the matter.Self is the problem of all of mankind.When man was created,he was created with a God-consciousness,he dwelled in the light of God and was accutely aware of his Creator.Satan entered the scene,and through tempting Eve through doubt in what God had said,and later Adam deliberately sinning,they lost God-consciousness and gained self-consciousness.This my friends,has been the problem ever since. Jesus said in Luke 9:23 and again in 14:26-27 that,unless we crucify our own self centeredness and and put it to death,and follow Him on a daily basis,making Him the center once again of our lives,we CAN NOT be His disciple.Reading the entire context of these references will show us that that is exactly what He is talking about.Self-effort,selfishness,self-centeredness is our problem and it must be dealt with.When the fall occurred,we became a race of sincere humans,but,sincerely wrong in our belief system. A person can believe they are christian,and be very sincere in this belief,but,can also be very wrong in their basis for their sincerity.Our sincere self-efforts will never gain us anything but damnation and destruction.It's all about Jesus Christ and His efforts to redeem us back to God.Saying we are a christian is the most serious matter we can address in our lives.Let us base our belief on the truth of God's word rather than on our sincere belief in ourselves and our works.Sincere works can never save us,but sincere faith in Christ alone can......God bless you all......JW
