Friday, February 10, 2012
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3,4 KJV).
How does Satan, “the god of this world,” keep our gospel hidden from lost people? Does he use drugs, alcohol, fornication, and the occult? According to the context of today’s Scripture, he uses something far subtler, what you would least expect.
God’s Word exposes the heart of Satan’s policy of evil. Previously, the Apostle Paul stated that he has “renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully” (verse 2). Where was this “dishonesty” and “craftiness?” Paul explains, “nor handling the word of God deceitfully.” It was in religion! Before Paul’s salvation, he, as a Pharisee (Jewish religious leader) and participant in Satan’s religious system, had used God’s Word (of all things!) to send people to hell (Galatians 1:13,14; Philippians 3:3-7). Thankfully, Paul claimed, “Now that I am saved, I have given up that foolishness!” Sadly, today, preachers still use the Bible to guide over 100,000 people to hell every day! How?
Satan hides the Gospel of God’s Grace (what God has done for you at Calvary) by having you focus on religion (what you can do for God at church). These “ministers” (!) of Satan (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) tell you that Christ died for you, but that you need to work for salvation (Acts 15:1-5). How deceptive! They mention Christ (sounding godly), but they are totally anti-God because they exalt man’s efforts to please God (thereby ignoring the sufficiency of Christ’s finished crosswork). God warned against this “false gospel” in Galatians 1:6-9. God’s attitude toward one who preaches this heretical gospel: “Let him be accursed [removed from fellowship]!!!”
The Gospel of the Grace of God says you can do nothing, nothing, nothing to merit salvation.
Friends, either Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection are sufficient for our salvation, or He is dead for nothing (Galatians 2:16,21)!
333 Words of Grace 
Amen 😀
I agree with the previous two writers. How do works figure into the Christian’s life?
Hello Cyril, I hope you understand that God’s grace doesn’t save us on the basis of our works (Ephesians 2:8,9), but that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care how we live. The next verse explains, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Titus 2:11-14 is perhaps the best example of God’s grace teaching us how to live.
“11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
Christian good works–NOT to be confused with doing good works in an attempt to be a Christian–is simply the outward manifestation of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). Christian service is dealt with extensively in Romans chapters 12-16. The whole epistle to Titus addresses Christians doing good works. Christian good works are just Christians walking in their new identity in Christ.
But, in reality, it isn’t US doing the good works. It’s CHRIST IN US. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20). It’s Christ living His life in and through us, the Christians, as we walk by faith in an intelligent understanding of God’s Word to us. The Holy Spirit will then take that sound doctrine from His Word that we believe and He will use it to transform us from the inside out for His glory. “The word of God… which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
So, on a practical basis, should I strive with all my might to do what I think is right? Or should I say, Christ has done it all so I don’t have to worry myself–just wait till Christ makes me feel inclined to do it some time later? I’m saved, so no need to worry about something I learn that I didn’t know before or overlooked?
Again, those are wonderful questions. Let’s see what the Bible says.
“As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6,7). How did we “receive Christ Jesus the Lord?” By striving with all our might? By working for salvation? Paul asked in Galatians 3:2, “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” Did we not receive Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit by “the hearing of faith,” hearing the gospel of the grace of God, how that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and raised again the third day for our justification, and then believing/having faith in this (the Word of God) which we heard?
According to Colossians 2:6,7, our Christian lives (our “walk”) operate on the same basis as our salvation–it’s Christ’s performance, not our performance (because as sinners, we can do nothing for God). Notice the word “as”… “AS ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” Just like we got saved, our Christian service works the same way–BY FAITH IN WHAT CHRIST DID, without our works and without our performance.
Even as Christians, we can strive to perform and try to accomplish all the religious duty at church, and eventually we’ll mess it up (just like with salvation, our failure to fulfill God’s standards also happens in Christian service). The Apostle Paul “delighted in the law of God after the inward man” in Romans 7:22, so we understand Paul here is speaking of his Christian life (not the life he had when he was lost, for no lost person delights after God’s law). “For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not” (verse 18). Paul is trying to live the Christian life, and guess what, HE FAILED. Verse 24 says, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Paul concludes Romans chapter 7 in defeat. He isn’t letting Christ live His life in him, he’s trying to live Christ’s life, and that just isn’t enough (just like his working for salvation was futile, HIS living the Christian life was futile).
Romans chapter 8 is the key to the Christian life, as Paul writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (verse 1). This is not talking about salvation–the context is Christian good works. A Christian’s service will not be condemned by God if it’s the Holy Spirit working within them (link the “walk” here in Rom 8:1 with the “walk” we read about earlier in Col 2:6). The believer must “walk after the Spirit” if he or she is to live a life pleasing to God. How? By us performing? The Galatian believers thought so, and Paul had to tell them NO. Galatians 3:3, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” The “flesh” there is their performance.
If the believer’s service is to be acceptable to God, it must be the Holy Spirit working through the believer. The only way this can happen is if the believer is studying God’s Word and then, BY FAITH, letting the Spirit of God work in him or her. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). This will then motivate the believer to do good works (but notice, it didn’t originate with us, it originated with the indwelling Holy Spirit).
If it’s you living in your own resources and your own capacity, your Christian life will be in ruins (see earlier comments about Romans 7 and Galatians 5:1-6). But, if you study and believe the Bible (using dispensational Bible study), God the Holy Spirit will “renew your mind” (Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 4:23) and then you can make informed decisions as to what God would have you to do regarding an issue. In His Word, the King James Bible, God has given us instructions on what we are to do, and that’s in Paul’s epistles (we don’t have to guess what we think is right, or wonder what God wants us to do).
Hope that helps!