The Greatest Need in Christianity is Not World-Wide Revival, Its Reformation in The Church Itself!

Modern day reformation is the only thing that will bring revival. For true revival to come, the Church must first be the Church! And by that I mean, it must BIBLICALLY be doing what it is supposed to be doing.

Semi-pelagianism is the biggest thing I think that has ruined the church. Its not arminianism, its semi-pelagianism, or outright pelagianism even. Oh how I wish all the semi-pelagians were actually Arminians instead! Things would certainly not be as bad off in Christianity, perhaps even a few John and Charles Wesleys would rise up.

So what is semi-pelagianism? To simply cut to the point, its adding works to faith for salvation. So what examples of this heresy do I have in the church today?

Well, how about everytime an evangelist, or pastor, or anyone who tries to share the gospel says "Jesus died for you, now you must give Him your life. Will you do that, will you tell Jesus that you are going to live for Him now, will you make that all important decision to give your life to Christ, to dedicate yourself to obeying Him?" That's semi-pelagianism right there. That's a false gospel. How many times have you heard that, perhaps even at your own church? How many times have you yourself perhaps shared the gospel in this manner?

You see, whenever we tell an unbeliever that Jesus has died for them, we have already told them something that we can't prove. IF Jesus died for them, truly, on the cross, bearing God's wrath for their sins, then they WILL be saved, because their sins have been atoned for. So after you tell an unbeliever that Jesus died for them and paid for their sins, you might as well go ahead and tell them that they are going to heaven when they die anyways. Why? Because Jesus atoned for their sins! The debt has been paid, God's wrath has been satisfied, there is no more condemnation.

You may ask me, "but they have to have faith. If they don't have faith, they won't be saved, they'll still go to hell." On what grounds? ON what grounds can God send someone to hell when that someone has already been atoned for by the substitute Jesus Christ? God would be unrighteous, wicked in fact, to damn a man for sins that had already been paid for. And if you are going to tell a person that Jesus died for their sins, you are telling them that He died for their sin of unbelief too.

So that's the first problem, and it leads to the second problem. The second problem is that you told them they must do something in order to be saved and forgiven. You told them they must "give their lives to Christ." Or, you may use different terminology, like "Commit your life to following and obeying Jesus Christ" or "you must be willing to live for Jesus, this is what it means to repent, and once you have repented, Christ will forgive you and save you and the Holy Spirit will live within you." I am sorry, but that is NOT repentance.

Repentance is NOT "I will live for God, and because I have decided to live for God, God will now save me, because God promises to save all who follow and obey Him." My friends, God is not looking for "a few good men' or 'a few good women' who will make some life altering decision of self reform. If you think when the Bible tells sinners to repent it is saying to change the way you live by self-reform, you are committing the same sin of the Pharisees and are seeking to establish your own righteousness (Romans 10:1-4).

So then, what is biblical repentance? Well again, lets eliminate what repentance is not. In Acts 26:20 we see that Paul says he was told by Jesus in a vision to preach to both the Jews and Gentiles that they should "repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance." Immediately we see that repentance, in and of itself, is not turning to God, nor is it doing works. The FRUIT of repentance is good works, but repentance itself is not good works, and turning to God is not repentance itself, but when a person does truly repent they also truly turn to God. Repentance literally means "a change of mind." And again Paul says in Acts 18:21 that we should have "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." In other words, we should have a change of mind toward God. So we now see that repentance is DIRECTIONAL, and it is in a GODWARD direction. In other words, when we repent, we are having a change of mind about God and about sin in such a way that we now turn from sin and turn from self. This is quite easy to prove: If I am a sinner, and I am going to turn from sin, I am going to turn from the source of sin, the thing that produces and desires and causes the sin to come about, MYSELF.

But, we are not merely turning from sin and turning from trusting in ourselves to nothing in particular; repentance is always accompanied by faith, and faith is always accompanied by repentance. That is why Paul also says in Acts 18:21 "faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." In both faith and repentance, we are not looking towards ourselves, we are NOT looking INWARD to our own abilities and our own inward goodness, but the opposite. We now have a change of mind about ourselves, seeing that we do not have goodness and righteousness in us, and are now looking outward to Jesus in faith that what He did on the cross ACCOMPLISHED salvation for us, both by Him living the sinless life that we could not for us, providing our righteousness, and by Him paying for our sins on the cross as God poured out His wrath for our sins on Jesus, atoning for us by bearing our sin and defeating sin and sin's sting, death, allowing us to be reconciled to God because we are now clothed in CHrist's righteousness and seen as without sin.

The point I am trying to make is that repentance in a very real sense is giving up on yourself and now believing that only God can save you. Only God can give you the desire and ability to live for Him, you don't have that in yourself, being dead in your sins and loving what is evil and hating what is good. Repentance is seeing that you cannot change yourself precisely because in order to change yourself you would have to change your very nature by ceasing to be a sinner! Think about it, if Jesus says I must follow Him and obey Him, in other words, that I must live a life that does what is good and does not do what is evil, namely, SIN, then how would I go about doing this? Would I look inward to myself, me being the sinner that needs saving FROM SIN?! Or would I look to God for salvation? We sin BECAUSE we are sinners by nature, we don't suddenly become sinners the first time we sin. So if repentance actually meant "make a decision to strive to live for Jesus" you might as well be saying "stop being a sinner! Change your very nature, change what you are!"

Dear friends, the very reason we need a Savior is becasue of WHAT we are, not simply because of what we do. We do what we do (sin), because of what we are by nature (sinners). Our sinful nature, our wicked hearts, is what produces the desires that leads us to fall into temptation and ultimately to sin. The depths of our depravity do not originate in our outward actions, but in our very desires, passions, and motives. But indeed it goes beyond that, for our desires, passions and motives cannot be blamed on our surroundings and outside influences, but from our inner depravity, the very core of our being. The sickness is OURSELVES, and ultimately, Jesus died to bring salvation from our own wickedness and sinfulness, to set us free from our slavery and bondage to sin, from the source that creates our bondage and slavery to sin... OURSELVES.

It has been said that to err is human, which is certainly true. But Jesus Himself answered why it is true. It is true because, as Jesus Himself says, mankind is evil. We are a fallen race. From our very being all that emanates is evil and wickedness, ungodliness. And what must be realized is the very reason Jesus condemned the Pharisees is because they fancied themselves as having the ability to be good, to obey God, to be righteous. And today whenever a person thinks that they truly have made a decision to follow and obey Jesus Christ by making a committment to being righteous by their own ability and willpower, they do the same thing as the Pharisees, in fact if you do this you are a Pharisee, for you too fancy yourself as having the ability to do good and be righteous, when in Romans 3 it is clear that "no one does good" and "no one is righteous, no not one."

Please understand that if you decided to follow and obey Jesus Christ because you were told if you make this life altering decision you will be saved and forgiven of your sins and you will go to heaven instead of hell, you have been told a lie. It is the biggest lie in the Church today, and I believe it is the single greatest weapon of satan. Satan loves it when you look towards yourself and your own commitment for salvation, rather than to what Christ did on the cross for salvation. And that is the difference between heaven and hell. To look inward towards yourself and your own attempts and commitments at self reform is to believe that you are not a sinner, just a person who sometimes sins but, by mere willpower and effort, can overcome sin and please God so much so that He then grants you forgiveness.

In short, you are denying Jesus Christ as Savior because you are not looking towards Him and trusting in Him and His work on the cross for your salvation, but instead your own ability, your own goodness, your own commitment for salvation. And if you die believing that your own commitment caused God to somehow actually "count" the atonement that Jesus had already provided for you, then you are saying that what Jesus did on the cross DID NOT ACCOMPLISH salvation for ANYONE, it only made salvation possible for those who COMPLETE the ATONEMENT by changing their own sinful desires and simply choosing in their own ability and willpower to be good and do good. If this is you, if this is what you have done, you need to realize that you have NOT accepted/ received Christ as Savior, you have, at best, accepted Him as HELPING YOU SAVE YOURSELF!

So what will happen to someone like this, perhaps you if this is what you have done? You will be judged by God based on your works, and you will be found unjust, failing to keep God's commandments, failing to not only do what is good and right in the sight of God, but also failing to love what is good and to hate what is evil.

You will have refused Jesus Christ as your substitue, having reduced Him to only the Son of God who did NOT take away the sins of the world but only made it possible for those (like yourself) who decided they have goodness in them and will change themselves to follow God by their own ability and whenever they "slip up" and commit sin there and only there is where Jesus comes in because all He did was pay for that sin. So if you are like this, what you actually believe is Christ's righteousness on the cross, PLUS your righteousness on earth when you through willpower and your own goodness do what is good and holy and righteous, BOTH PUT TOGETHER, ATONE FOR YOUR SINS!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is faith PLUS WORKS equating to salvation at best. That is Christ's work, PLUS my work= salvation. That is saying that Christ did not actually save you by Himself, you couldn't save yourself on your own, but then again he couldn't, and didn't, either. You can take just as much credit for your salvation as Christ can. While Christ gets some glory, you get some glory too. While Christ gets some of the praise, He does not get ALL of the praise. Some of that praise goes to YOU! It is not, as John the Baptist said, 'The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world', but rather, 'The Lamb of God, who enables those who change themselves and begin living for Jesus and obeying God to be forgiven IF they will also believe that when they mess up in their commit and sin that Jesus paid for their mess-ups.' So this is actually more impossible if you will than simply being saved by works. For those who think good works save you, all you have to do is do your best, and God forgives the rest. But in this, not only do you have to strive to do your best, but you also have to believe that when you didn't do your best that Jesus died for you, and what determines if Jesus actually did this for you is whether you believe it is true or not! So in reality, Jesus atonement only counts IF/WHEN you believe it counts! Jesus died for everyone, but it didn't actually COUNT for anyone UNLESS someone both changes their very sin natures by their own (sinful) efforts AND believes that the times that they do sin (which will be always given the fact that a sinner can no more change his nature than a duck can cease to be a duck by mere effort or a human being can cease to be human be mere effort) Jesus paid for those sins on the cross. WOW!

Dear friends, IF you believe that you are saved and forgiven because you think you have made a decision in your own ability and efforts to follow and obey Jesus Christ, what you actually believe is what I just laid out above. You will be judged, you will be found guilty, and you will spend eternity in hell for your sins and for thinking that you were good. I do not want that to happen to you, I do not want you to go to hell because you trusted a false teacher, perhaps your very own pastor, that told you if you just exercise your free will rightly, and change your own heart and desires and commit your life to living for Jesus that this will somehow cause the Holy Spirit to enter your heart and forgive you of your sins. That is a lie, that will not save you, only Jesus can save you. Christ alone saves you. Men and women are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. Faith doesn't make what Jesus did on the cross a reality. It IS a reality, and Jesus DID atone and DID propitiate for all the sins of all the sinners whom God sovereignly chose to pour out on Jesus. You must realize that Jesus didn't die for everyone, but He DID die to guarantee the salvation of an incredible number of people, He DID pay for their sins, and He did accomplish salvation for them. These people are the elect. And faith isn't something that determines who the elect are. You don't determine if you are elect or not. God does. God chooses who will be saved, NOT you, NOT the one who is dead in their sins. A dead man can do nothing. We can do nothing to save ourselves. Our faith does NOT complete the atonement of Jesus Christ, it RECEIVES the atonement of Jesus Christ made for us. Read Ephesians 2, it will melt your heart. Faith is a gift of God, a grace of God. We do not conjure up faith from our spiritually dead hearts, God first gives us new hearts (Ezekiel 36:26-28) that has faith in them, all we do is exercise this God-given gift of faith and repentance. We must be born again to be saved, and when God gives us this new heart, we are born again, we are regenerated, and the first thing a regenerated person does is believe the gospel and trust in Christ's work on the cross alone for salvation.

God determines who He will save. This may be hard to swallow, but does it not make perfect sense? The sinner is the one who needs to be saved, and a person who is in need of saving can do nothing whatsoever to save himself. His only hope is that a savior will save him. Furthermore, if salvation is truly by the grace of God, which the Bible claims, then grace can only be grace if it is undeserved, for grace by definition is undeserved. And if God offers salvation as a reward for those who create faith within themselves and then change themselves by their own ability and decide to live for Jesus, then salvation is no longer by the grace of God but by the effort and works of man. So it should be made known that in order for salvation to be by God's grace and through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, faith CANNOT add to or complete the atonement, it simply is the means God has ordained for us to RECEIVE the benefits of the atonement, which is redemption and being reconciled to God.

Only by His shed blood being poured out for your sins can you be saved. And if you look to God and say to God, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner, save me from my slavery to sin, change my heart, give me your Holy Spirit, and look upon your Son, the Suffering Savior, who shed His blood and bore Your holy wrath for my sins and be satisfied with His atonement for me. Forgive me, based NOT on my vain and foolish efforts of trying to be good when I am not good but a miserable, wretched, evil sinner, but based on what Jesus did for me, living the sinless, perfect, obedient life that I could not, and also paying for MY sins on the cross and DEFEATING death which was brought on by my sin! Oh God, look to Jesus for my righteousness and for my propitation, and I will be saved!"

If you cry out to Jesus like this in sincerity and truth, you will be saved. You will know you are elect by the very fact that you have received salvation by faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, for your very belief is only possible if God has chosen you for salvation! You could not believe unless God had first regenerated you, so if you believe the gospel and trust Christ alone for your salvation, you can be assured you are saved NOT because of anything you have done/committed and not even because of your faith itself, but by the OBJECT of your faith, the ONE in whome your faith is in, and what Jesus has done for you. You can know you are saved simply because you know that Jesus saved you by atoning for you over 2,000 years ago. You know that you cannot lose this salvation because this salvation does not depend upon you but upon God who sent Jesus to die for you. You will receive the Holy SPirit which will convict you of sin righteousness and judgment, enabling you, by the Spirit, to love and do what is good and to hate what is sinful and evil and to defeat the sinful deeds of the flesh.

What is Christianity Really About?

Christians are followers of Christ. Following means learning about Christ, knowing what He said, taught, and did, so that we can then speak, teach, and do as Christ has done. Following Christ means to actively think, talk, behave, and live as Christ Himself did, and in order to do this, we must all major in theology, studying the Bible so that we can rightly know how to follow Christ. So Christianity is about how Christians pursue and achieve thinking, talking, behaving, and living like Christ. I believe it is very important to clarify what Christianity is today for two reasons: (1.) Many churches today preach a Christianity that isn’t about us being conformed to the image of Christ, living more and more like Him, behaving as God commands. Instead, they preach how God helps us have better marriages, more money, how to get over heartbreak, how to improve your self-esteem, how to live your best life now and get rich quick. So instead of preaching that Christ IS life, they preach that Christ IMPROVES your life in Adam. Instead, Christianity is about entering into the family of God where we die from our old lives in Adam and receive new life in Christ. Christianity doesn’t improve our sinful lives, it does away with it and gives us new life, and this new life is a life aiming and desiring to please God and live like Christ. And to live like Christ means to love what is good and abhor what is evil. But, in order to love what is good and abhor what is evil, we must also learn what is good and what is evil. This is also what Christianity is about as I said earlier. And the way we learn what is good and what is sin is studying God’s Word. And it must be a serious study of the Word of God, if we would pour out many hours studying for a final exam for a history test or a science test or an English test, how much more so should we study for the final exam of life and eternity? We study the Word of God so we can know God in order to live like Christ. And if we do not have a desire to study the Word of God then we do not have a desire to know God and if we do not desire to know God, we certainly do not desire to live like Christ. (2.) Many other churches preach that Christ came to bring peace on this earth here and now and save the physically oppressed rather than the spiritually oppressed. This is often called social justice, where many Christians feel that one of our main goals should be to feed the poor with perishable food rather than the imperishable Bread of God. It isn’t always hungry people that these churches are concerned for, it’s more than that. Their gospel is to help all who are unhappy with life. They want to make them happy by giving them material things, treasures and pleasures on earth in material things, wealth, health, prosperity rather than wealth, health, and prosperity in heaven. In some ways, this is just an extension of (1.). How so? Because step one is about being God making you happy, God improving your life in Adam with self-help and moralistic, therapeutic deism as Michael Horton calls it. The next step in this is helping others have the same thing, their “best life now.” Both (1.) and (2.) believe that God gave Jesus to simply make us happy in the lives that we live here on earth. In other words, God wants us to be happy, not sad, He wants us to feel like we are loved, that we are special; He doesn’t want to see us sad or depressed, or oppressed, or afflicted. He wants us to have full stomachs and a full wardrobe, and He wants us to make sure others have these pleasures too. Oh, and most of all, He doesn’t want us to feel guilty about those mistakes that we make that are sometimes known as sins. Now here is the question: Is either (1.) or (2.) really what Christianity is all about? Does Jesus really just want us to be happy in this life, having the joys of health and food and feeling loved and having high self-esteem and getting rid of the guilt of our “shortcomings?” I think not. I think this is what the devil would like us to think Christianity is, when in reality Christianity, what it means to follow and live like Jesus Christ, is something entirely different. And next time I will lay out what I believe the Bible clearly teaches us about what Christ really said, taught and preached and how we are to go about imitating and living like Christ.