Check Your Focus - Are You Asking Yourself Any Of These Questions?
Trusting Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins, is the essence of what the words faith and belief mean in the Bible (when used in the context of salvation). So regarding the subject of salvation, this entire list is all self-centered I, I, me, me nonsense! In fact, the word "I" can be found in every question listed. Trust in Jesus Christ is NOWHERE to be found here. Nothing on this list has anything to do with genuine faith in Christ.
Every true Christian comes to Christ with childlike faith, placing simple trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and eternal life. But sadly many Christians go on from there to fall into the hands of very bad teachers, teachers who convince them to switch from a belief in faith alone in Christ alone to a belief in faith + works = salvation. This can happen immediately where the new Christian is sucked into a bad church or it can happen some time after or even much later in life.
While such Christians remain saved (because salvation once gained cannot be lost), they become shipwrecked in their faith, run aground and unable to produce fruit. Here are some examples of the wrong kind of questions that many of these genuine Christians often ask themselves regarding salvation. Yet, due to an abundance of wildly heretical teachings circulating in professing Christian circles, the kind of questions listed above constantly pop up and plague the minds and hearts of many dear souls, causing them to doubt their rock solid salvation. This leads to fear and despair.
Self-ianity or Christianity? / Beware Self-ianity and the Popular False Gospel of Self-Reliance
This list of questions above, when applied to salvation theologically, actually indicates the presence of an entirely different religion, the religion of Self-ianity packaged as Christianity. The truth is, in order to become a Christian, you only need to trust Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, relying solely on Him for salvation and eternal life. That is the essence of Christianity.
The popular false works-gospel of personal merit is so rampant today that it essentially has people believing (trusting) in themselves and in their own personal performance, looking to themselves as the gauge and indicator of whether or not they are really saved, similar to monitoring the warning lights on a dashboard or control panel. People caught in this kind of thinking keep a close eye on things that have nothing whatsoever to do with salvation, all in a vain attempt to try to prove that they are a Christian or verify that they are still a Christian based on their personal behavior. This reveals a glaring lack of trust in the finished work of Christ.
The truth is, there is no specific prayer that you have to pray and no aisle that you have to walk down. There is no certain state of remorse or threshold of sorriness that you must attain to. There is no level of repentance of sin that you much reach in order to receive salvation (although repentance of sin is quite important for your own personal good and for the good of others who might be adversely affected by your sins). There is no level of surrender or certain strides of performance that you must meet. There are no prerequisites that you must complete or personal achievements that you must reach. As far as personal performance in general, there is absolutely no living up to any kind of standard that is necessary for you to be forgiven of your sins. You must simply trust that Jesus Christ paid the full penalty for your sins through His death, burial and resurrection according to the Scriptures, and thereby He fulfilled all the requirements of your salvation. So it is futile and blasphemous to try to achieve some level of merit so that you can feel like you have qualified for salvation. You cannot. It's impossible. None of us qualify and that's why Jesus, the sinless Son of God stood in our place and took the penalty for our sins upon Himself. And all who believe this and trust in His full payment for our sins shall be saved. All who do not believe this shall upon their death and judgement be required to pay for their own sins and that will not be a pretty sight. Did you expect anything different? Is it the fault of a Governor when a death row criminal refuses his pardon and choose to go to his death anyway? Of course not and in the same way God cannot be blamed for the rejection of the free gift of pardon that He offers every member of the human race.
[Please note that I have already covered the Scriptures related to salvation in detail in many other articles and so I have not included those here.]
A Little Common Sense Please
The above list of questions represents subjective concepts, and it is this very “subjective-ness”, that in and of itself, is a major red flag and warning sign that something is very wrong with this kind of thinking when applied to salvation. The reason is because if the type of actions listed above were truly required for salvation, then God would have had to given us very specific instructions of exactly how much of each of these things is needed and in what necessary measure, in order for us to be saved. But the Bible does not mention even one personal requirement of salvation, let alone any amounts of anything that are necessary to be saved. Not one thing from the above list is even mentioned in the Bible as a requirement of salvation. Yet endless dangerous, legalistic, heretical “churches” and “ministries” essentially claim that virtually the ENTIRE list (or a similar list) is required for salvation! It's ludicrous.
God tells us to “come let us reason together” (see Isaiah 1:18), which in proper application means to use our common sense and be logical in our thinking, most importantly to correctly interpret and apply the Scriptures. Christianity is not a blind faith. It is based on a mountain of facts and evidence. So using common sense is perfectly acceptable and is even mandated when interpreting and applying the Scriptures in order to do so correctly. This is something that cannot be done without using logic, something that legalists lack in abundance or refuse to employ. So let's do some basic thinking. To help drive the point home, ask yourself these questions: If the things in the above list were actually required for salvation, then exactly how much remorse, how much sorrow, how much repentance of sin, and how much prayer is enough? How can one know for sure or determine how much is required, or if one has fallen short? Exactly where is the line of demarcation in the sand? Specifically where is that line that must be crossed in order to guarantee that one is saved? What are the exact measures in this regard?
If we use logic, then these are the kind of questions that must be considered when controllable and measurable things (albeit sometimes difficult to measure things) are used as a gauge of salvation. And these are exactly the kind of answers that the Bible would have to supply if this were the correct thinking regarding salvation. But this is not the correct thinking and that is why no such things are even mentioned in the Scriptures!
Some Closing Thoughts
It is quite easy for Christians, being flawed people just like anyone else, to see their failings in life, doubt their salvation and ask all kinds of irrelevant introspective and exploratory questions that have nothing to do with salvation. Especially with all the bad teachings floating around, it can be very tempting to start to question and doubt and begin to look to self as the gauge of salvation. This is a very foolish road to travel. If you are a Christian, avoid this mistake and save yourself a lot of heartache and pain that can shipwreck your faith (immobilize your walk in Christ) and adversely affect your ability to produce good fruit. While this would not affect your salvation, it could affect your additional heavenly rewards.
Now of course we should carefully consider our ways in light of Scripture, with the clear intent on improving how we think and behave, but this has nothing to do with salvation and everything to do with living an effective Christian life.
ChristiansFree.com
- Have I repented enough?
- Am I remorseful and sorry enough?
- Did I really commit to Christ completely?
- Did I really renounce sin fully? Because I'm still having bad thoughts.
- Have I forsaken all?
- Have I surrendered all? Because I still see bad behavior and bad attitudes creeping up in how I treat others, not as I would like to be treated.
- Did I really make Jesus the Lord of my life? In every area of my life?
- Have I really given my heart to Jesus and have I done so fully?
- Did I hold anything back?
- Have I reserved anything, any pet sins for myself, because I'm still making mistakes in many areas?
- Did I pray that “simple prayer” correctly?
- Was I really sincere when I walked down the aisle?
- Am I producing good fruit and enough good fruit?
- Am I carrying my cross daily?
- Am I running the race properly?
- Am I fighting the good fight of faith?
- Am I really an overcomer?
- Am I enduring until the end?
Trusting Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins, is the essence of what the words faith and belief mean in the Bible (when used in the context of salvation). So regarding the subject of salvation, this entire list is all self-centered I, I, me, me nonsense! In fact, the word "I" can be found in every question listed. Trust in Jesus Christ is NOWHERE to be found here. Nothing on this list has anything to do with genuine faith in Christ.
Every true Christian comes to Christ with childlike faith, placing simple trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and eternal life. But sadly many Christians go on from there to fall into the hands of very bad teachers, teachers who convince them to switch from a belief in faith alone in Christ alone to a belief in faith + works = salvation. This can happen immediately where the new Christian is sucked into a bad church or it can happen some time after or even much later in life.
While such Christians remain saved (because salvation once gained cannot be lost), they become shipwrecked in their faith, run aground and unable to produce fruit. Here are some examples of the wrong kind of questions that many of these genuine Christians often ask themselves regarding salvation. Yet, due to an abundance of wildly heretical teachings circulating in professing Christian circles, the kind of questions listed above constantly pop up and plague the minds and hearts of many dear souls, causing them to doubt their rock solid salvation. This leads to fear and despair.
Self-ianity or Christianity? / Beware Self-ianity and the Popular False Gospel of Self-Reliance
This list of questions above, when applied to salvation theologically, actually indicates the presence of an entirely different religion, the religion of Self-ianity packaged as Christianity. The truth is, in order to become a Christian, you only need to trust Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, relying solely on Him for salvation and eternal life. That is the essence of Christianity.
The popular false works-gospel of personal merit is so rampant today that it essentially has people believing (trusting) in themselves and in their own personal performance, looking to themselves as the gauge and indicator of whether or not they are really saved, similar to monitoring the warning lights on a dashboard or control panel. People caught in this kind of thinking keep a close eye on things that have nothing whatsoever to do with salvation, all in a vain attempt to try to prove that they are a Christian or verify that they are still a Christian based on their personal behavior. This reveals a glaring lack of trust in the finished work of Christ.
The truth is, there is no specific prayer that you have to pray and no aisle that you have to walk down. There is no certain state of remorse or threshold of sorriness that you must attain to. There is no level of repentance of sin that you much reach in order to receive salvation (although repentance of sin is quite important for your own personal good and for the good of others who might be adversely affected by your sins). There is no level of surrender or certain strides of performance that you must meet. There are no prerequisites that you must complete or personal achievements that you must reach. As far as personal performance in general, there is absolutely no living up to any kind of standard that is necessary for you to be forgiven of your sins. You must simply trust that Jesus Christ paid the full penalty for your sins through His death, burial and resurrection according to the Scriptures, and thereby He fulfilled all the requirements of your salvation. So it is futile and blasphemous to try to achieve some level of merit so that you can feel like you have qualified for salvation. You cannot. It's impossible. None of us qualify and that's why Jesus, the sinless Son of God stood in our place and took the penalty for our sins upon Himself. And all who believe this and trust in His full payment for our sins shall be saved. All who do not believe this shall upon their death and judgement be required to pay for their own sins and that will not be a pretty sight. Did you expect anything different? Is it the fault of a Governor when a death row criminal refuses his pardon and choose to go to his death anyway? Of course not and in the same way God cannot be blamed for the rejection of the free gift of pardon that He offers every member of the human race.
[Please note that I have already covered the Scriptures related to salvation in detail in many other articles and so I have not included those here.]
A Little Common Sense Please
The above list of questions represents subjective concepts, and it is this very “subjective-ness”, that in and of itself, is a major red flag and warning sign that something is very wrong with this kind of thinking when applied to salvation. The reason is because if the type of actions listed above were truly required for salvation, then God would have had to given us very specific instructions of exactly how much of each of these things is needed and in what necessary measure, in order for us to be saved. But the Bible does not mention even one personal requirement of salvation, let alone any amounts of anything that are necessary to be saved. Not one thing from the above list is even mentioned in the Bible as a requirement of salvation. Yet endless dangerous, legalistic, heretical “churches” and “ministries” essentially claim that virtually the ENTIRE list (or a similar list) is required for salvation! It's ludicrous.
God tells us to “come let us reason together” (see Isaiah 1:18), which in proper application means to use our common sense and be logical in our thinking, most importantly to correctly interpret and apply the Scriptures. Christianity is not a blind faith. It is based on a mountain of facts and evidence. So using common sense is perfectly acceptable and is even mandated when interpreting and applying the Scriptures in order to do so correctly. This is something that cannot be done without using logic, something that legalists lack in abundance or refuse to employ. So let's do some basic thinking. To help drive the point home, ask yourself these questions: If the things in the above list were actually required for salvation, then exactly how much remorse, how much sorrow, how much repentance of sin, and how much prayer is enough? How can one know for sure or determine how much is required, or if one has fallen short? Exactly where is the line of demarcation in the sand? Specifically where is that line that must be crossed in order to guarantee that one is saved? What are the exact measures in this regard?
If we use logic, then these are the kind of questions that must be considered when controllable and measurable things (albeit sometimes difficult to measure things) are used as a gauge of salvation. And these are exactly the kind of answers that the Bible would have to supply if this were the correct thinking regarding salvation. But this is not the correct thinking and that is why no such things are even mentioned in the Scriptures!
Some Closing Thoughts
It is quite easy for Christians, being flawed people just like anyone else, to see their failings in life, doubt their salvation and ask all kinds of irrelevant introspective and exploratory questions that have nothing to do with salvation. Especially with all the bad teachings floating around, it can be very tempting to start to question and doubt and begin to look to self as the gauge of salvation. This is a very foolish road to travel. If you are a Christian, avoid this mistake and save yourself a lot of heartache and pain that can shipwreck your faith (immobilize your walk in Christ) and adversely affect your ability to produce good fruit. While this would not affect your salvation, it could affect your additional heavenly rewards.
Now of course we should carefully consider our ways in light of Scripture, with the clear intent on improving how we think and behave, but this has nothing to do with salvation and everything to do with living an effective Christian life.
ChristiansFree.com