01.02. Section 2

Today Jesus Christ is being dispatched as the Figurehead of a Religion, a mere example. He is that, but He is infinitely more; He is salvation itself, He is the Gospel of God.

- Oswald Chambers[Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest.]

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I once heard a prophecy that the city of Chicago was going to be leveled by an earthquake on a particular day. I thought, I’ll believe it when I see it. A couple of young Christians I worked with got excited. "What time will it hit?" one of them asked me. He was so trusting. Another one said, "I have an uncle in Chicago. I’m going to call him and tell him to get out before it’s too late." I can understand their concern, because there was a time when I would have been swayed by the gospel of sensationalism. I used to look for big signs to occur too. As a result I was easily led astray. I believed things that were not doctrinally sound.

Here’s the point: Each one of us must take responsibility before God to keep our eyes on the gospel. We can’t allow anything or anyone to distract or mislead us.

Paul gave us some strong warnings about this:

Even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ (Galatians 1:8-10, emphasis added).

How can we know for sure that we’re following the true gospel? Paul laid out for Timothy the hallmarks of the person who has embraced the true gospel. We need to see if these things are part of our lives.

Here’s the first:

It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him (2 Timothy 2:11). The heart of the gospel is that we must die with Christ in order to live with Him. But what exactly does it mean to die with Christ? To begin, it means that we are to be dead to our rights. And that means signing over to God our desires, our dreams, our hurts. All that we are or will be.

What do you think Paul meant when he said, "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3)? He wasn’t talking about a theory, or a nice metaphor. He meant that at the point of real salvation we are nailed to the cross with Jesus. We go down to the grave. And a new life - God’s life - is born in us.

What we’re talking about, at the deepest level, is an exchange of our will. I give my will over to God, and begin to pursue His will for me. A lot of people get stuck on certain behaviors - old habits, for instance. They want to clean up their flesh without becoming pure in heart first. You become pure in heart by wanting what God wants. It’s easy to give up your wrongs - but much harder to give up your rights. Have you ever heard of a dead person calling a lawyer from the grave to sue someone for violating his rights? The dead have no rights.

What about me, as a Christian? I have no rights. I have no right to run a ministry. I have no right to own a car. But in Christ, I do have a right to inherit all of God’s promises in the Bible - if I can prove to myself, to the world and to Jesus that I am dead. Here’s a promise our flesh might not like to claim: "If we died with Him, we will be raised with Him." The "if" is a crucial part. People who follow the wrong gospel want to make the "ifs" invisible. They like to think there are no conditions in the Bible. True, God’s love is not conditional - but there is a condition on experiencing the true life of Christ. It is giving over my will. That means I have stopped manipulating God’s Word for my own gain. Have you died with Christ? Or are you trying to live with Him at the same time you’re doing everything to accommodate your own fleshly desires?

Like Rees Howells, God requires each of us to make a choice. You cannot have your life and the life of Christ residing in you at the same time. The Holy Spirit doesn’t want the flesh for a roommate. The problem for most of us is that we want a spiritual crown, yet we want to avoid the cross that must come first. But as Paul says:

If we endure, we shall also reign with Him (2 Timothy 2:12, emphasis added). When people read this they think, Yes! I’m going to reign with Christ. They ignore the "if." They think God is going to endure for them. So they sit back and act as if God will do all the work. The problem is, Paul turned the spotlight on us: We are to endure. How do we do it? We endure by casting everything - hopes and cares alike - upon Him. That’s our work of faith: to identify every fleshly goal or care that draws us away from God, and cast it all over to Him. Dying to it. Faith is not just a hope - faith is a deed. It’s active, not passive. Faith is God and me in partnership. First, His will replaces mine, then His power enables me to do all that He says.

"If we endure...," Paul says. And we endure by entering into the will of God. It’s when we do His will that God blesses us. We can’t be blessed in a place where His will does not reign.

If we’re going to endure - to choose the high road of faith - then we have to be prepared for some attacks. We might as well know this from the start. Be prepared. Count the cost. So we don’t get weary and give up.

First, we’ll have to endure assaults on our soul by the devil. Peter says, Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world (1 Peter 5:8-9).

Satan is the most powerful being in the universe, apart from God. He’s like a lion on the prowl, looking for unsuspecting Christians to chew up. He’s inflamed with pride, jealousy, greed and with the power God has allowed him to keep. Our conflict is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of the darkness of this world. And to fight them, we need spiritual weapons - truth, salvation and prayer (Ephesians 6:10-20). When we choose God’s will, we’re guaranteed the power of the Holy Spirit in order to endure the assaults of the devil.

Second, we must endure false teachings, holding on to the truth even when it is not popular. In Hebrews we read,

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings (Hebrews 13:8-9). When Melody and I were new Christians, all sorts of people came to our Bible studies. I’ll never forget one guy in particular. He was a new believer, but he came with every spiritual book imaginable - including a Bible, a concordance and an "Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ." I’d begin a Bible study, and he’d take over, reading from all these other spiritual books. He spent hours telling us that eating meat was of the devil. He went on and on about weird doctrines.

I lost touch with him for a long time, and then I saw him at a convention. He told me he’d just come back from Israel where he chanted on the streets. As I listened to his experiences I thought, Here’s a brand-new believer who never got off the ground! He couldn’t discern false teaching and he wouldn’t listen to anyone who might help him. He was completely derailed. All kinds of seeds of darkness had been sown in him and he had no way to fend them off. In the end times we’re going to experience false teachings that are doctrines of demons, and smooth-sounding teachings that are really antichrist. There will be people close to becoming Christians, but who nevertheless are deceived. Do we have a safeguard? Yes, by listening only to teachers in whose lives we can see the fruit of the Spirit - those who do what they preach...

Finally, we know we’re following the right gospel if we learn to endure and overcome the lusts of the flesh - and by that, I mean, we’re learning to live free from all the things that seek to bind us to this world. John warned us against "the lust of the eyes and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). And Paul warned us to flee from immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18), and to pursue righteousness (2 Timothy 2:22). A lot of Christians know how to flee - they get out of the world - but they don’t know how to pursue righteousness - that is, they don’t know how to get the world out of them.

Paul told us to "set our affections on things above" (Colossians 3:2). Not only are we supposed to be turning away from something, we’re supposed to be turning ourselves - heart, soul, body and mind - toward something. Toward the "prize of the high calling" to be like Jesus in this world (Php 3:14). What is that high calling? Like Paul, I want to be a true disciple - one who has set his affections on the wonderful things that are above. That means letting go of all that this world offers by way of security and honor and pleasure. And that’s how we’ll know if we are following the true gospel. The true gospel challenges us at every turn. It unsettles us. It requires things of us that hurt. Our flesh will squirm. The devil will attack us in our weakest areas. Other Christians will offer us less radical ways to follow Christ. But in the end, we’ll be transformed from the inside out. We’ll be clean. We’ll be shining lights. And then everything we say will be light and grace to people lost in this dark wilderness in which we live. Then we’ll know by the fruit of the Spirit in our lives that we are His disciples.