Am I Really in the Faith? - Study 6/7/12
Am I Really in the Faith?
On May 29, 2012, ABC News Good Morning America reported that a “Serpent-Handling West Virginia pastor (Mark Wolford, 44) died after his rattlesnake bit him during a church ritual, just as the man had apparently watched a snake kill his father years before”. Mr. Wolford thought he had faith in God but obviously his faith was in the snake and in himself. God did not fail him the snake failed him. He had faith but in the wrong thing and place.
Many in the Church today are playing with “other kinds of snakes” and don’t know it. Many think they are in the “Faith” but are not. The Words of Jesus are so true today than ever before. “13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because[a] narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it”…..
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”(Mathew 7:14-23).
These are very sobering words of Jesus said in the context of a warning against false prophets and also saying that “by their fruits you will know them”. I believe it is in this light that Apostle Paul in ending his long letter to the Corinthian Church has asked them point blank, “5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you”? 2 Corinthians 13:5. This is the most important question for all of us and not just for the Corinthians? Am I really in the faith? Am I really a Christian? There is no more time to continue to play Church and play Christianity.
No one else can answer this question for the other. No pastor, prophet, minister or anyone else can declare for sure and pronounce you to be in the faith. The Holy Spirit is the only person who can bear witness with your spirit that you know and belong to Christ. You may know about Jesus. Does Jesus really know you? Going to Church 24/7 does not make you a Christian just as swimming in the ocean does not make you a fish.
What is the “Faith” that Paul was so concerned about for the Corinthians? The self examination God demands is two folds. First, it is a test for content and secondly a test for output. Does Jesus live in me and does Jesus Christ live through me? We are not speaking about self improvement efforts that have characterized most of today’s churches where we only learn self coping methods for handling marriage, money, work and etc. You cannot improve a dead person. Paul summed it up, “20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless” (Galatians 2:20-21). Is Christ living in me or am I living only in self efforts? If I died today, would I have answered this heaven or hell destination question? What about you? Looking for a quick test? Are you and I forgiving others as we have been forgiven by God in Christ? Lord, help me to know for sure that you are in me and help me to live accordingly not taking your grace for granted or meaningless. Amen.
Yesterday, Nigeria suffered one of its worst airplane disasters with at least 153 dead on board. The number of the dead on the ground where the plane crashed into an apartment building has not been determined. Death is an appointment established by the Creator. We don’t know the exact time but I must keep it when my time comes. Am I really in the faith if I had been on that flight? Are you really in the faith? Lord, comfort all who mourn. Amen.
2 Corinthians 13:1-10
13 This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”[a] 2 I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write[b] to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare— 3 since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. 4 For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.
7 Now I[c] pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9 For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, that you may be made complete. 10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.
Here are my observations in addition to the ones you may have:
1. Apostle Paul had great hope and faith for the Corinthians as he concludes his long letter. At the same time he had serious concerns that some in the Church were not getting the main point of life in Christ. I would say he was a little bit frustrated and now he expresses it. We can see it building up from 2 Cor. 12. “I am afraid that I will find quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly behavior. 21 Yes, I am afraid that when I come again, God will humble me in your presence. And I will be grieved because many of you have not given up your old sins. You have not repented of your impurity, sexual immorality, and eagerness for lustful pleasure”. It is on this basis that he makes the most important appeal for examining whether they are in the Faith.
2. Paul has been pleading with the Corinthians in gentleness and meekness. The Corinthians, instigated by their distracters (the false “super apostles”) were looking for power that demonstrates his apostleship and accused Paul of being weak. Remember when Paul smote Elymas the sorcerer with blindness (Acts 13)? Paul has the power. He will not use it to destroy but to build up the Corinthians vs. 10. Paul is saying, “Don’t mess with me” and when I come in person don’t force me to use the authority Christ has given me to discipline you.
3. The examination is to see if Jesus is you and me. Not an examination to see perfection but to see Christ’s atonement and provision for my completeness. The examination is not of others but of oneself. We are too quick to examine others. Let them examine themselves. “To examine yourself, in fact, is to submit to the examination and scrutiny of Jesus Christ the Lord – and this never to fix attention on sin but on Christ – and to ask Him to reveal that in you which grieves His Spirit; to ask Him to give you grace that it might be put away and cleansed in His precious blood.” Self examination “takes the chill away from your soul, it takes the hardness away from your heart, it takes the shadows away from your life, it sets the prisoner free.” (Redpath).
4. We are being asked to examine whether we are in the Faith. The Faith in what? It is “the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ”. It is “a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God”.
5. Paul explained being in the faith as he wrote “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” Ephesians 2:8-10. Being in the faith implies that I have received the gift of faith in me. In essence that God himself dwells in me. It is a favor of God that we must receive. It is not based on doing good works. However we have been created in Christ to do good works after we are saved.
6. Good works line up with what Jesus said. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Jesus also said, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” (John15: 6). Jesus was not kidding when he also said, “So why do you keep calling me 'Lord, Lord!' when you don't do what I say? Luke 6:46. We are to grow in obedience through the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. Any other life is contradictory to our confession and may indicate we are not really in the faith in the first place.
Are you in the faith? I met a Hindu friend at the gym this weekend. He mentioned he enjoys listening to Joel Osteen. He likes him because he is not “polarizing” and that even the atheist enjoys listening to his teachings on “life pleasantries” such as “Don’t look up to your problem; look down on your problems”. My Hindu friend quoted Osteen and he does not claim to be in the faith. This is where we are in today’s Church. Church has become self-help, do-it-yourself learning place. We are learning how to cope with life issues on our own and the death and life of Christ is not living through us. The sermons can hardly convict, and save the sinners and bring them to repentance and reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.
The idea of examining our faith is not asking us to see if we are a member in good standing of the First Adventist Baptist Charismatic Catholic Lutheran Methodist Pentecostal Presbyterian Evangelical Non-Denominational House/Cathedral Church. We are being asked to determine whether we are in or out. If we are in the Faith, then it is a reminder to live accordingly. “Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?” If we are not in the Faith meaning we were never in, then it is time to repent and allow Christ to become Lord and Savior of our life. Like Jesus said, “few find the gate and the way” into heaven. Jesus Christ is that Gate and the Way and unless we pass through him we cannot see God. The alternative is life without God in hell. I will never wish hell for my worst human enemy. May we never hear these words of Jesus, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” Does Jesus know you?
I am realizing that you may never read from me again. My wish for you is that you will make it into the Kingdom of heaven. Am I really in the Faith? Are you really in the Faith? Let’s find out and make immediate adjustments. May we cry for God’s grace to live daily dependent on Him. Only the grace of God is sufficient for our daily living. May we store His words in our hearts. Nothing else will suffice.
Lord, I repent of my sins today and ask that you forgive me and become my Lord and my savior. I accept your sacrifice on the Cross for the full payment for my sins. Lord, grant me your grace and your Holy Spirit to live daily in honor and gratitude to you. Help me not to take your grace for granted and let not sin have dominion over me and thus become a lifestyle for me. Lord, turn my heart toward continual obedience to your words, I pray. Amen.
On May 29, 2012, ABC News Good Morning America reported that a “Serpent-Handling West Virginia pastor (Mark Wolford, 44) died after his rattlesnake bit him during a church ritual, just as the man had apparently watched a snake kill his father years before”. Mr. Wolford thought he had faith in God but obviously his faith was in the snake and in himself. God did not fail him the snake failed him. He had faith but in the wrong thing and place.
Many in the Church today are playing with “other kinds of snakes” and don’t know it. Many think they are in the “Faith” but are not. The Words of Jesus are so true today than ever before. “13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because[a] narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it”…..
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”(Mathew 7:14-23).
These are very sobering words of Jesus said in the context of a warning against false prophets and also saying that “by their fruits you will know them”. I believe it is in this light that Apostle Paul in ending his long letter to the Corinthian Church has asked them point blank, “5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you”? 2 Corinthians 13:5. This is the most important question for all of us and not just for the Corinthians? Am I really in the faith? Am I really a Christian? There is no more time to continue to play Church and play Christianity.
No one else can answer this question for the other. No pastor, prophet, minister or anyone else can declare for sure and pronounce you to be in the faith. The Holy Spirit is the only person who can bear witness with your spirit that you know and belong to Christ. You may know about Jesus. Does Jesus really know you? Going to Church 24/7 does not make you a Christian just as swimming in the ocean does not make you a fish.
What is the “Faith” that Paul was so concerned about for the Corinthians? The self examination God demands is two folds. First, it is a test for content and secondly a test for output. Does Jesus live in me and does Jesus Christ live through me? We are not speaking about self improvement efforts that have characterized most of today’s churches where we only learn self coping methods for handling marriage, money, work and etc. You cannot improve a dead person. Paul summed it up, “20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless” (Galatians 2:20-21). Is Christ living in me or am I living only in self efforts? If I died today, would I have answered this heaven or hell destination question? What about you? Looking for a quick test? Are you and I forgiving others as we have been forgiven by God in Christ? Lord, help me to know for sure that you are in me and help me to live accordingly not taking your grace for granted or meaningless. Amen.
Yesterday, Nigeria suffered one of its worst airplane disasters with at least 153 dead on board. The number of the dead on the ground where the plane crashed into an apartment building has not been determined. Death is an appointment established by the Creator. We don’t know the exact time but I must keep it when my time comes. Am I really in the faith if I had been on that flight? Are you really in the faith? Lord, comfort all who mourn. Amen.
2 Corinthians 13:1-10
13 This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”[a] 2 I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write[b] to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare— 3 since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. 4 For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.
7 Now I[c] pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9 For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, that you may be made complete. 10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.
Here are my observations in addition to the ones you may have:
1. Apostle Paul had great hope and faith for the Corinthians as he concludes his long letter. At the same time he had serious concerns that some in the Church were not getting the main point of life in Christ. I would say he was a little bit frustrated and now he expresses it. We can see it building up from 2 Cor. 12. “I am afraid that I will find quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly behavior. 21 Yes, I am afraid that when I come again, God will humble me in your presence. And I will be grieved because many of you have not given up your old sins. You have not repented of your impurity, sexual immorality, and eagerness for lustful pleasure”. It is on this basis that he makes the most important appeal for examining whether they are in the Faith.
2. Paul has been pleading with the Corinthians in gentleness and meekness. The Corinthians, instigated by their distracters (the false “super apostles”) were looking for power that demonstrates his apostleship and accused Paul of being weak. Remember when Paul smote Elymas the sorcerer with blindness (Acts 13)? Paul has the power. He will not use it to destroy but to build up the Corinthians vs. 10. Paul is saying, “Don’t mess with me” and when I come in person don’t force me to use the authority Christ has given me to discipline you.
3. The examination is to see if Jesus is you and me. Not an examination to see perfection but to see Christ’s atonement and provision for my completeness. The examination is not of others but of oneself. We are too quick to examine others. Let them examine themselves. “To examine yourself, in fact, is to submit to the examination and scrutiny of Jesus Christ the Lord – and this never to fix attention on sin but on Christ – and to ask Him to reveal that in you which grieves His Spirit; to ask Him to give you grace that it might be put away and cleansed in His precious blood.” Self examination “takes the chill away from your soul, it takes the hardness away from your heart, it takes the shadows away from your life, it sets the prisoner free.” (Redpath).
4. We are being asked to examine whether we are in the Faith. The Faith in what? It is “the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ”. It is “a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God”.
5. Paul explained being in the faith as he wrote “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” Ephesians 2:8-10. Being in the faith implies that I have received the gift of faith in me. In essence that God himself dwells in me. It is a favor of God that we must receive. It is not based on doing good works. However we have been created in Christ to do good works after we are saved.
6. Good works line up with what Jesus said. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Jesus also said, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” (John15: 6). Jesus was not kidding when he also said, “So why do you keep calling me 'Lord, Lord!' when you don't do what I say? Luke 6:46. We are to grow in obedience through the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. Any other life is contradictory to our confession and may indicate we are not really in the faith in the first place.
Are you in the faith? I met a Hindu friend at the gym this weekend. He mentioned he enjoys listening to Joel Osteen. He likes him because he is not “polarizing” and that even the atheist enjoys listening to his teachings on “life pleasantries” such as “Don’t look up to your problem; look down on your problems”. My Hindu friend quoted Osteen and he does not claim to be in the faith. This is where we are in today’s Church. Church has become self-help, do-it-yourself learning place. We are learning how to cope with life issues on our own and the death and life of Christ is not living through us. The sermons can hardly convict, and save the sinners and bring them to repentance and reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.
The idea of examining our faith is not asking us to see if we are a member in good standing of the First Adventist Baptist Charismatic Catholic Lutheran Methodist Pentecostal Presbyterian Evangelical Non-Denominational House/Cathedral Church. We are being asked to determine whether we are in or out. If we are in the Faith, then it is a reminder to live accordingly. “Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?” If we are not in the Faith meaning we were never in, then it is time to repent and allow Christ to become Lord and Savior of our life. Like Jesus said, “few find the gate and the way” into heaven. Jesus Christ is that Gate and the Way and unless we pass through him we cannot see God. The alternative is life without God in hell. I will never wish hell for my worst human enemy. May we never hear these words of Jesus, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” Does Jesus know you?
I am realizing that you may never read from me again. My wish for you is that you will make it into the Kingdom of heaven. Am I really in the Faith? Are you really in the Faith? Let’s find out and make immediate adjustments. May we cry for God’s grace to live daily dependent on Him. Only the grace of God is sufficient for our daily living. May we store His words in our hearts. Nothing else will suffice.
Lord, I repent of my sins today and ask that you forgive me and become my Lord and my savior. I accept your sacrifice on the Cross for the full payment for my sins. Lord, grant me your grace and your Holy Spirit to live daily in honor and gratitude to you. Help me not to take your grace for granted and let not sin have dominion over me and thus become a lifestyle for me. Lord, turn my heart toward continual obedience to your words, I pray. Amen.
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