When voting in the next election, What’s the Big Deal about God’s Word being True?: Part 1

by Buddy Hanson

Grace and Law Resource Center

posts in this series (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7)

Introduction

The apostle Paul tells us to, “let God be true and every man [be] a liar.” [1] To that all true Christians say, “Amen,” and add, “Neither does God’s Word contain any contradictions!” But then what happens? As we too well know, many of us rarely consider incorporating the truths we profess to believe to everyday decisions, including selecting our civil rulers. Even though we profess to be Christians, and are faithful to regularly worship Him, and come to the aid of our neighbors through various church projects, we continue to live by man’s rules, then wonder why God isn’t blessing our efforts? Would any of us expect our employers to reward us if we showed up for work everyday and  voiced our approval for his rules, yet worked according to someone else’s rules? Why then do we imagine that God will be pleased with our service in Christ’s Kingdom if we live as though we are hypocrites, rather than as Christians? This, of course, is a positive way to ask it. The negative way is that since we are to “show [our] faith by [our] works,” [2] are we demonstrating that our profession of faith is false? I can’t answer that question for you, but I do know that since there is no neutrality with God, He is either “working in us both to will and do His good pleasure,” [3] because we are a Christian, or He is not because we are not a Christian. Like it or not, this means that our lifestyle is demonstrating that either our heart has been changed by the Holy Spirit or it hasn’t.

If you have a friend who is performing all of the external things a Christian should do, but is also continuing to live according to the way he did before he professed to be a Christian, explain that Christianity is an inside out religion, and that one’s heart is where our behaviors originate. Unless he loves God with “all his heart,” [4] he needs to either make up His mind about who his “lord” is, or else stop wasting time pretending to be a Christian by being a nice, moralistic person who loves himself with all his heart, soul and mind.

Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for? 

This seven-part series is for those who take their profession of faith seriously, and who earnestly desire to bring honor to God in all they do, [5] but have the unfortunate circumstance of being a member of a “seeker-friendly” church that has so dumbed-down the Gospel that if someone really believed what they were preaching it would be practically impossible to be a heretic. After all, how can someone be guilty of “believing in something that is contrary to the established doctrine of the church, if there is no established doctrine for the church? “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” sounds great, but what does it really mean? The next time someone tells you this, say, “I’ve got the ‘sharing the Gospel, and the going to heaven when I die part,’ but what else does God’s ‘wonderful plan’ include?” The answer, if you get one, will probably underwhelm you.

Over the next six weeks we’ll look at the following issues which Satan uses in his vain efforts to beat us into ethical submission:

• How can we be “salt and light” to our neighbors if Jesus is Culturally Irrelevant?
• Why do we say we’re a Christian, but live as though we’re a Practical Atheist?
• No one (and society) can serve two masters (sets of ethics).
• Who does your Lifestyle reveal is Your Lord? If the Lord is God follow Him, but if Baal, follow him.
• The Christian Civil Ruler’s POLICY Guide
• A Biblical Legislative Checklist

In Part Two we’ll look at why we should imagine that we could be “salt and light” to our neighbors if Jesus is culturally irrelevant.

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     [1] Romans 3.4

     [2] James 2.18

     [3] Philippians 2.12-16

     [4] Matthew 22.37

     [5] 1 Corinthians 10.31

(Scripture quotes are paraphrases)