How do You Know when Someone is a Believer?
Consider this misguiding quote: "How do you know when someone is a believer? It is obvious. With heart, soul, mind, and strength they love the Lord. They willingly lovingly obey His law. They fear Him in the sense of worship. This is what salvation does. It is a massive transformation." - John MacArthur ("What's Wrong with Everybody?", March 14, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhlIynBmj-Q, retrieved August 25, 2024.)
There's a deep mistake in the church about salvation. Even though the saved have access to the outward transformation described by John MacArthur in this quote, the lack of such outward transformation doesn't indicate a lack of salvation, because salvation does not hinge on it! It's not always obvious who the Christians are. We need to get things straight about it for self and others. We know we are saved because we believe the facts about Jesus' great saving work as laid out in 1 Corinthians 15:3b-8 and we have done what Scripture demands in Romans 10:9-13 that we do to be saved.
But there's this old false idea that still lingers in the minds of Christians who fight against the notion that we have liberty to sin. It says that if we don't try to keep away from the most obvious outward sin, then we're not trying, which is an obvious indication to those who believe this falsehood that we're not making Jesus our Master, and are therefore not saved. But what does Romans 10:9-14a say? It doesn't say that the form of transformation that's easy to see outwardly makes Jesus our Master, but it says that we are saved by confessing out loud that Jesus is Master so long as we believe He did those things necessary for our salvation. Things like going to church, not yelling with unfounded hate, not being lewd, being attentive, possessing the type of frown lines formed from deep concern, etc., etc., etc., these are not what the Bible has told us we must do to be saved. It has told us what we must do, but it didn't include these conclusions which come from Christians philosophizing over the centuries about what God's Word means.
John MacArthur says it very well, and it's dead wrong! Full stop. But it's not unimaginable. We can understand why the mistake is made. Christians who are spiritual, though, as the Bible says, should help the Christian sibling recover from sin. At most, we should shun them - ban them from returning to the congregation - which John MacArthur doesn't do. I'm sure he's strong enough to be an example in this, but how can I ask him if he can also believe the point being made? I don't know him, after all. But maybe you know someone who says the same things..? We love our sinning sibling, and we know they are our sibling in Christ because they follow actual Christian salvation doctrine to be saved!
We who are saved have the ability to love, worship God, stop our sins, and be transformed. And we are - even the ones who wouldn't fit outward criteria. An error of the liberal, deserving of its own essay, is answered by seeing that this is the way God deals with us privately; actual Christians get resistance from God against sins that cannot be seen, though that doesn't mean we shouldn't help each other with sin that can be seen, which is something we've been overtly directed to do in the Bible. While some Christians flounder over salvation without sanctification, other Christians flounder of salvation because of or as proved by sanctification.
We experience these problems because we are timid in fighting our own bodies, which excuse themselves this way or that! The sin of John's expression here is worse than the sin of indulging sin to prove liberty from it, because it attacks our Master's great salvation work while the other only attacks the human soul. Both are horrible, but when it's broken down, it's impossible to deny that all sorts of sin go on in the hearts and minds of the well-churched Christian, who are indeed saved, but only because they've followed the same form of doctrine that is followed by the Christian whose liberty is twisted.
There are problems that go beyond the prime building block which is salvation, itself. These further problems include both knowledge and behavior toward both justified people and unjustified people. Knowledge of salvation differentiates between two mutually exclusive groups, and behavior toward those two groups is different. The error that mixes sanctification in with salvation doesn't just obscure salvation - that's the most important thing - but it also obscures the things we build on top of Christ's great saving work work, which is everything we do to build up our Master's Church. Christ knows whom He saves, and Christians who don't know salvation doctrine are still saved by Him, but we all suffer (and Christ's earthly body is suffering from many diseases). It's terrible that we show such a lack of love toward God and humanity. We confuse the Worldling about what salvation is, we terrify our sibling about their salvation, and we come close to denying that the actual gospel is enough to save us! Yet, He has often lovingly pulled us back from the brink by making us falter as we start to say what Holiness denominations of the past have said, and what some Baptists say, and what John is saying. Our Master Jesus pulls us back, and He is glorified in continuing to keep His sheep from such a dangerous place, and we are glad He does!
Don't get salvation doctrine wrong. Understand the ongoing dangers of mixing it with sanctification. How can we tell our sins to each other in our congregations if we don't have a concrete understanding of who we are when we might see Christians or Worldlings mixed together without the biblical standard of holiness that differentiates us? Holiness is separation - those who believe and confess Master Jesus in accordance with the Scriptures are the ones who have been separated from the World.
There's a deep mistake in the church about salvation. Even though the saved have access to the outward transformation described by John MacArthur in this quote, the lack of such outward transformation doesn't indicate a lack of salvation, because salvation does not hinge on it! It's not always obvious who the Christians are. We need to get things straight about it for self and others. We know we are saved because we believe the facts about Jesus' great saving work as laid out in 1 Corinthians 15:3b-8 and we have done what Scripture demands in Romans 10:9-13 that we do to be saved.
But there's this old false idea that still lingers in the minds of Christians who fight against the notion that we have liberty to sin. It says that if we don't try to keep away from the most obvious outward sin, then we're not trying, which is an obvious indication to those who believe this falsehood that we're not making Jesus our Master, and are therefore not saved. But what does Romans 10:9-14a say? It doesn't say that the form of transformation that's easy to see outwardly makes Jesus our Master, but it says that we are saved by confessing out loud that Jesus is Master so long as we believe He did those things necessary for our salvation. Things like going to church, not yelling with unfounded hate, not being lewd, being attentive, possessing the type of frown lines formed from deep concern, etc., etc., etc., these are not what the Bible has told us we must do to be saved. It has told us what we must do, but it didn't include these conclusions which come from Christians philosophizing over the centuries about what God's Word means.
John MacArthur says it very well, and it's dead wrong! Full stop. But it's not unimaginable. We can understand why the mistake is made. Christians who are spiritual, though, as the Bible says, should help the Christian sibling recover from sin. At most, we should shun them - ban them from returning to the congregation - which John MacArthur doesn't do. I'm sure he's strong enough to be an example in this, but how can I ask him if he can also believe the point being made? I don't know him, after all. But maybe you know someone who says the same things..? We love our sinning sibling, and we know they are our sibling in Christ because they follow actual Christian salvation doctrine to be saved!
We who are saved have the ability to love, worship God, stop our sins, and be transformed. And we are - even the ones who wouldn't fit outward criteria. An error of the liberal, deserving of its own essay, is answered by seeing that this is the way God deals with us privately; actual Christians get resistance from God against sins that cannot be seen, though that doesn't mean we shouldn't help each other with sin that can be seen, which is something we've been overtly directed to do in the Bible. While some Christians flounder over salvation without sanctification, other Christians flounder of salvation because of or as proved by sanctification.
We experience these problems because we are timid in fighting our own bodies, which excuse themselves this way or that! The sin of John's expression here is worse than the sin of indulging sin to prove liberty from it, because it attacks our Master's great salvation work while the other only attacks the human soul. Both are horrible, but when it's broken down, it's impossible to deny that all sorts of sin go on in the hearts and minds of the well-churched Christian, who are indeed saved, but only because they've followed the same form of doctrine that is followed by the Christian whose liberty is twisted.
There are problems that go beyond the prime building block which is salvation, itself. These further problems include both knowledge and behavior toward both justified people and unjustified people. Knowledge of salvation differentiates between two mutually exclusive groups, and behavior toward those two groups is different. The error that mixes sanctification in with salvation doesn't just obscure salvation - that's the most important thing - but it also obscures the things we build on top of Christ's great saving work work, which is everything we do to build up our Master's Church. Christ knows whom He saves, and Christians who don't know salvation doctrine are still saved by Him, but we all suffer (and Christ's earthly body is suffering from many diseases). It's terrible that we show such a lack of love toward God and humanity. We confuse the Worldling about what salvation is, we terrify our sibling about their salvation, and we come close to denying that the actual gospel is enough to save us! Yet, He has often lovingly pulled us back from the brink by making us falter as we start to say what Holiness denominations of the past have said, and what some Baptists say, and what John is saying. Our Master Jesus pulls us back, and He is glorified in continuing to keep His sheep from such a dangerous place, and we are glad He does!
Don't get salvation doctrine wrong. Understand the ongoing dangers of mixing it with sanctification. How can we tell our sins to each other in our congregations if we don't have a concrete understanding of who we are when we might see Christians or Worldlings mixed together without the biblical standard of holiness that differentiates us? Holiness is separation - those who believe and confess Master Jesus in accordance with the Scriptures are the ones who have been separated from the World.
Comments
Post a Comment
Tell everyone what you think. Go on, it might be useful to someone; maybe even to a dear sibling in our same Master and Savior, Jesus, God's Christ. Huh? ..may-be .