6/14 The Foundations of Jesus’ message for Christian Faith
Before we launch into further discussion we need to know more about the Foundations of the Christian message.
1. What did Jesus really teach?
From that basis, we can see where the other ‘streams’ of the Counterfeit are coming into the church.
An important part of Christian growth comes by understanding the concept of God’s Law versus God’s grace. Any striving to please Him – which can even be ‘following instructions to gain His approval’ – or the approval of others, is working under ‘law’.
2. Jesus came to bring the message: “Hey! Dad isn’t angry with us anymore! It is safe to come home!”
Out of our response of love for Him we can ‘do’ for Him. We need to see that ‘doing the business’ of being a Christian, is not earning your salvation. Doing and being are two different sets of Christian walk.
3. Grace calls us into ‘being’ because of His love
In Jesus, we begin a new covenant with blessings and responsibilities. We begin with Jesus and end with Jesus; His work is sufficient for us to find God. I can add nothing to the process of His work. My part is responding to His work – to ‘rest’ in what He has done for me, Hebrews 4:7-10. We don’t ‘do’ because we have to – to be saved and brought to heaven – but because His love so touches us that we want to. We live His will naturally as He wants us to live.
4. Avoiding a ‘sin based theology’ – Just try harder to not do it again!
We are all were born with what the Bible calls ‘the old nature’, an inherited inner heart self-centredness, following the path Adam and Eve started in the Garden of Eden. This includes an endless amount of unresolved, inherited and learned ‘baggage’ we all carry around. We live out of these inner attitudes and motives that our heart has stored away.
As Christians, the Lord wants us to deal with things that hinder our growth or block relationships with others. Sometimes confession aims at the “sin” but then pushes us into ‘….just trying harder to not do that sin again’. This then becomes a ‘sin-based theology’ with a ‘just try harder not to do it again’ attitude doesn’t touch the problem of the heart.
If we haven’t reached a heart understanding as to why we did what we did to start with, we use
self-effort to keep from committing the sin again.
We need to understand Jesus’ real Message – ‘grace versus works’.
5. Sanctification – what’s that?
We were destined to be conformed to His image. ‘Ouch! That means facing the trails and pains of this world the way He would have. It means learning to die to the self-centred old nature and choose to do things His way!
Here is a picture someone shared with me once:
The Lord showed a woman a beautiful piece of marble being carved into a statue. “Would you like to see the workman on this statue?” He asked her. When she said “Yes”, out from behind the piece of marble came her mother-in-law, her son and her niece – three of the most abrasive people in her life.
The Lord is calling your Heart, gently and patiently, to follow His path for you. We must be determined to be open enough to allow Him to ‘come into our heart’. What sort of tools is He using for you right now? How willing is your heart to be willing now?
That’s the process of ‘sanctification’, the refining of our inner heart attitudes. Pain will come to us whether we choose Jesus or not. At least being a Jesus Follower, we can use that lesson of life to:
a. Enjoy a better life not,
b. Reap the rewards of the lessons in heaven,
c. Get alone with others better when we face our own buttons,
d. Become more life Jesus in all areas of our life.
When you begin to talk inner heart attitudes and being that grain of wheat that falls in the ground …and…dies, that’s when the ‘rubber meets the road’. There is the deeper meat we need to hear from our speakers …and then see examples of our leaders doing just that!
We invite you to add your comments to the posts as we go along. Agree? …or disagree? … What do you think?
Susanne Fengler, Blog Author
www.christianfoundations.jesus-treeoflife.info
Tags: Sin-based Theology
Filed under: Challenges to the Christian Faith
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