This final reflection from the sessions of Passion comes largely from John Piper's session. I was expecting it to be very hard to follow him, but he was actually very clear in his session and didn't unnecessarily repeat himself (which if you know anything about him he tends to be the opposite of that).
The topic of his session was on faith in Jesus. It was so clear and simple and Biblically sound that it seemed radical for our culture, especially among professing Christians. So this post will have plenty of Bible references so you can look it up for yourself and not just take my word for it.
The seemingly radical point that Piper made was that there is no in-between ground for people in a spiritual sense; there is either dead or alive. But what our culture has done is created a comfortable gray area that people can spiritually reside, an area that says they can choose to be good or bad. He related this to the pendulum of a metronome. We've put ourselves in the middle and told ourselves that we can choose to go towards one side or another (good or evil). But the Bible makes it clear that it's not our choice to make. We all are born on the evil side of the pendulum, because we all have a sinful desire right from the start (Romans 3:23, Ephesians 2:1-3). But even worse than starting on the wrong side of the pendulum is the fact that we can't get ourselves to the other side of the pendulum on our own. We were "without hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12). We are in a hopeless estate at the start.
Yes, it's uncomfortable; yes, it goes against our culture's belief that we can better ourselves and be successful on our own, pulling ourselves up from our bootstraps; but yes, it's Biblically sound. Salvation is a gift from God (Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8). It's God's sovereign choice (Romans 9:16ff). Here is what God says to His people in Ezekiel 36:25-27:
First, Jesus makes it clear that people who truly believe in Him seek him for satisfaction. Here's John 6:35:
Second, a true follower of Jesus still struggles with sin (Romans 7:7ff), but he doesn't remain in his sin (1 John 3:6). As long as we are in this world, we will battle against sin until, at the end, our bodies are redeemed (Romans 8:19-23). But when we find ourselves in sin, we don't remain in it. The Holy Spirit is what draws us back to Jesus (John 16:8, Ezekiel 36:27). The true followers of Jesus don't remain in sin; they remain in Him (John 15:4ff).
Third, a true follower of Jesus does the will of God. Here is a true but scary verse:
So the radical part of all this is that if you see someone who talks the Christian talk but denies God by his lifestyle (Titus 1:16), he truly is not a follower of Jesus. And the uncomfortable thing about this is that that someone could be you, if you say you are a Christian. An examination of your life is imperative.
Now, I say all this from experience. I am not exempt from all this. I was once one of the fakers. I looked good on the outside. I could say the right things. I was in that comfortable gray area, thinking I could choose to follow God whenever I wanted to. But it wasn't until my senior year in high school that God opened my eyes to how I had been living. Here's my Jesus Story if you want the longer version of that. But the point is that it was a JESUS story, not a Samuel story of how I overcame my spiritual emptiness. God came into my life, and now I have a relationship with Him. So as raw as this all is, I speak as one who was in that nonexistent "gray area." But now I can relate to 1 Peter 1:3-5:
The topic of his session was on faith in Jesus. It was so clear and simple and Biblically sound that it seemed radical for our culture, especially among professing Christians. So this post will have plenty of Bible references so you can look it up for yourself and not just take my word for it.
The seemingly radical point that Piper made was that there is no in-between ground for people in a spiritual sense; there is either dead or alive. But what our culture has done is created a comfortable gray area that people can spiritually reside, an area that says they can choose to be good or bad. He related this to the pendulum of a metronome. We've put ourselves in the middle and told ourselves that we can choose to go towards one side or another (good or evil). But the Bible makes it clear that it's not our choice to make. We all are born on the evil side of the pendulum, because we all have a sinful desire right from the start (Romans 3:23, Ephesians 2:1-3). But even worse than starting on the wrong side of the pendulum is the fact that we can't get ourselves to the other side of the pendulum on our own. We were "without hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12). We are in a hopeless estate at the start.
Yes, it's uncomfortable; yes, it goes against our culture's belief that we can better ourselves and be successful on our own, pulling ourselves up from our bootstraps; but yes, it's Biblically sound. Salvation is a gift from God (Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8). It's God's sovereign choice (Romans 9:16ff). Here is what God says to His people in Ezekiel 36:25-27:
"25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."Reading this and Ephesians 2 should convince you that God is the one who establishes this relationship with Him, not us. So God puts His Spirit in us, and because the Spirit lives in us, we can live for Him instead of us (Romans 8:9ff). Or, as 2 Corinthians 5:17 puts it:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"This is good news and all (THE Good News, in fact), but is this what we see in America? More often than not, it seems that the majority of people in churches I attend are convinced that they are in that gray area of the pendulum. They say they believe in Jesus and the Good News, and that they are Christians, but they don't have a hunger for Jesus; in fact, they don't look much different from everyone else. So here's some Scripture to help you discern who is really a follower of Jesus and who is just a faker.
First, Jesus makes it clear that people who truly believe in Him seek him for satisfaction. Here's John 6:35:
"Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.'"You can see that Jesus pairs the words "comes" and "believes" together. So those who believe in Him come to Him for life, and in Him we are truly satisfied. Peter also refers to this in 1 Peter 2:2-3:
"2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."Once we get a taste of the Lord, we get a craving for more of Him. We desire Him.
Second, a true follower of Jesus still struggles with sin (Romans 7:7ff), but he doesn't remain in his sin (1 John 3:6). As long as we are in this world, we will battle against sin until, at the end, our bodies are redeemed (Romans 8:19-23). But when we find ourselves in sin, we don't remain in it. The Holy Spirit is what draws us back to Jesus (John 16:8, Ezekiel 36:27). The true followers of Jesus don't remain in sin; they remain in Him (John 15:4ff).
Third, a true follower of Jesus does the will of God. Here is a true but scary verse:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." -Matthew 7:21And again from 1 John 2:4-6:
"4 The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."The whole book of 1 John describes this difference very well. People who live in Jesus walk in the light; people who don't live for Jesus continue to walk in the darkness (1 John 1:6-7). If you don't see any fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) in a person, then the person doesn't have the Spirit living in him and therefore doesn't have a relationship with God. You can tell whether or not a person is a true follower of Jesus by the fruit of their lives (Matthew 7:17-20, 12:33-35). This is not to say that Christians have perfect lives; as I've already mentioned, we still struggle with sin, and in this world, trouble is guaranteed (John 16:33). But a person with a relationship with Jesus should be noticeable.
So the radical part of all this is that if you see someone who talks the Christian talk but denies God by his lifestyle (Titus 1:16), he truly is not a follower of Jesus. And the uncomfortable thing about this is that that someone could be you, if you say you are a Christian. An examination of your life is imperative.
Now, I say all this from experience. I am not exempt from all this. I was once one of the fakers. I looked good on the outside. I could say the right things. I was in that comfortable gray area, thinking I could choose to follow God whenever I wanted to. But it wasn't until my senior year in high school that God opened my eyes to how I had been living. Here's my Jesus Story if you want the longer version of that. But the point is that it was a JESUS story, not a Samuel story of how I overcame my spiritual emptiness. God came into my life, and now I have a relationship with Him. So as raw as this all is, I speak as one who was in that nonexistent "gray area." But now I can relate to 1 Peter 1:3-5:
"3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is read to be revealed in the last time."This is true faith, and this is true Christianity.
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