Being Christian

Having been challenged to write a series on “How to Be a Christian,” I’ve been considering what that would look like. I confess that it is a difficult subject for me to approach. It would be easy to go down the pietistic path of “do this, don’t do that,” but a more appropriate title for that would be “How to Present a Convincing Façade of Christianity.” Certainly, there are things that Christians must do and others that we must not do. But those things are only consequential to who we are.

There are a number of passages of Scripture that more or less summarize the Christian life. You may be thinking of these words of Christ: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27, cf. Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37–39; Mark 12:30–31). You might also think of Galatians 5 (the fruit of the Spirit is . . .), or Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Those are all fitting passages to think of in defining the Christian life. However, the first passage that comes to my mind, probably because of the old Maranatha tune, and also because I’ve had my children memorize it, is Micah 6:8:

He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?

First, we see that we have no excuse for ignorance about what is good and pleasing to God, because God has told us. And what is it that is good and pleasing to him?

1. Do justice. The meaning of this is quite simple: do the right thing. Give what is deserved; take only what is earned; pay what is owed; deal honestly and impartially.
2. Love kindness (or mercy). This requirement moderates the previous. We often encounter people who, like ourselves, deserve harsh treatment. But we are to love mercy. If we love mercy, we will forego the justice that is due us in order to show mercy to an offender; and we will do so, not grudgingly, but joyfully, knowing what great mercy we have received.
3. Walk humbly with your God. This is the big one. The previous two points are really included in this one. What are the implications of walking humbly with God? What does that mean? It means that in all our thoughts of ourselves, we will see ourselves in relation to, and in comparison to, God. That comparison will cause us to see ourselves realistically in relation to him, and to act accordingly. Our humility before God will be manifest in what we know and in what we do.
   
   We will know that
   
   
   1. Whereas God is holy, we are unholy.
   2. Whereas God is love, we are unloving.
   3. Whereas God is self-sacrificial, we are self-centered.
   4. Whereas God is entirely independent and self-sufficient, we are utterly helpless and dependent on him.
   5. Whereas God is all-knowing and all-wise, we are ignorant and foolish.
   
   And the list could go on. Knowing those things, we will
   
   
   1. Confess our sin and seek his mercy.
   2. Love him and be profoundly grateful to him.
   3. Desire to know and obey his Word.
   4. Trust his wisdom rather than our own.
   5. Be entirely dependent on him in every way.
   
   Again, the list could continue. In short, if we have a realistic view of ourselves in relation to God, we will think nothing of ourselves, and everything of God. So the whole of the Christian life is neatly summarized in that one phrase — “walk humbly with your God.”

This continues the theme from last Monday which is How to Be a Christian, or more appropriately, as I have chosen to call it, Being Christian.

I think we need to step back from where I began last week and begin at the beginning. Something very important must happen before we can “be Christian”: we must be saved, or as Jesus put it, “born again” (John 3:1–3). How does that happen? Paul says it simply, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:26–31). That, of course, means more than believing in the historical existence of Jesus. It means believing the truth about him and what he has done to save you, and trusting in that truth for the salvation of your soul. Briefly, the truths that you need to believe are:

• That there is an eternal state and that you are an eternal soul (Psalm 23:6, 1 Corinthians 15:51ff). If this life is all there is, what is the point? There is really nothing to be saved from, is there?
• That God is a holy and righteous God who can, under no circumstances, tolerate sin in his presence (Leviticus 19:2; 20:7). This is why you need to be saved. God cannot accept you into his presence in your natural, sinful condition. Something must be done.
• That you are by nature sinful, and can by no means deliver yourself from your sinful condition, and therefore must die. God’s justice demands that sin be punished (Romans 3:23; 5:12: 6:23).
• That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, himself God incarnate, bore your sin on the cross, and by his death, the penalty for your sin has been paid. If you have been born again, your sin has been punished. You have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection (Galatians 2:20).
• That by faith in Christ, his righteousness is imputed to you (Romans 4:16ff). It’s not enough that your sin has been forgiven. The fact remains that you have sinned. When Christ’s righteousness is credited to you, God sees you as if you had never sinned.
• That, as a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:7), your greatest happiness can only be found in knowing God and pleasing him (Philippians 3:8–11). You will be confessing your sin and repenting of it. You will be seeking to know and do God’s will. It will be your pleasure to do so. This is not a cause or condition of your salvation; but if this is not true, you have no reason to believe that you are in Christ. Conversely, if you believe all of these things, and this is true of you, you can be assured that you have eternal life.

I expect that most of the readers of this blog are believers. If you are not, and this post has raised questions in your mind about eternity and the state of your soul, get a Bible. Read it. Seek out Christians who can help you with your questions. Email me. There is no question more important than “Am I saved.” Get it answered.

Further thoughts on Being Christian.

It’s easy to mouth the words “praise the Lord” when the going is good. We do it all the time. Sometimes we mean it, and sometimes it’s just a meaningless exclamation; but most of the time, if we are Christians, we really are sincere in our gratitude. That, I think, is because most of the time, things are going pretty well. But how do we react when circumstances work against us? I think most of us can handle a little adversity. Even unbelievers accept a certain amount of hard times as just being “part of life” without losing faith in whatever is the object of their faith. But what if everything should go bad on us? Most of us will never know. Most of us will never suffer any truly devastating loss. Some do, though. The people of New Orleans knew it in the aftermath of Katrina.

How we react to pain and loss is a great measure of our faith. How we feel in our hearts when disaster strikes is an accurate indicator of where our faith resides, whether in our physical and material circumstances, or in a God who is faithful to keep us and to work all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). How ought we to be able to respond to pain and loss? We find the answer to that question, of course, in scripture. Can we respond in the words of Habakkuk 3:17–18?

Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,

This passage doesn’t describe a little bad luck, or a minor setback. It describes the failure of every crop. This is not a dip in the stock market. This is a complete crash, the total loss of livelihood. It is the loss of everything upon which the writer would depend for living. It is possible starvation.

Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

Because he is my everything. If I lose everything else, but still have him, it is enough. This should be our attitude. But if we examine ourselves, we will no doubt find that we’re not quite there yet. What to do? Pray. Confess our sin to God — for it surely is sin — ask his forgiveness, and thank him for his longsuffering mercy and his sanctifying grace. And keep pressing on (Philippians 3:14), trusting in him to complete the work he has begun in us (Philippians 1:6).

Some time ago, I began writing a series of posts on “Being Christian.” I want to return now to that theme, considering Galatians 5:22–25. This passage will, if the Lord is willing and I follow through, serve as a segue into a few future posts on related passages.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
   25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Tangent: The filling of the Spirit, which is an on-going process throughout every Christian’s life, should not be confused with baptism of the Spirit, which is a one-time event that happens to every believer at the moment of regeneration. (See John MacArthur, The Baptism of the Holy Spirit.)

The Geneva Bible notes state succinctly:

Therefore, they are not the fruits of free will, but so far forth as our will is made free by grace.1

Matthew Henry wrote:

And here we may observe that as sin is called the work of the flesh, because the flesh, or corrupt nature, is the principle that moves and excites men to it, so grace is said to be the fruit of the Spirit, because it wholly proceeds from the Spirit, as the fruit does from the root . . .2

And John Gill:

Not of nature or man's free will, as corrupted by sin, for no good fruit springs from thence; but either of the internal principle of grace, called the Spirit, ver. 17. or rather of the Holy Spirit . . ; the graces of which are called fruit, and not works, as the actions of the flesh are; because they are owing to divine influence efficacy, and bounty, as the fruits of the earth are, to which the allusion is; and not to a man’s self, to the power and principles of nature; and because they arise from a seed, either the incorruptible seed of internal grace, which seminally contains all graces in it, or the blessed Spirit, who is the seed that remains in believers; and because they are in the exercise of them acceptable unto God through Christ, and are grateful and delightful to Christ himself, being his pleasant fruits; which as they come from him, as the author of them, they are exercised on him as the object of them, under the influence of the Spirit . . .3

Finally, John MacArthur:

   Contrasted with the deeds of the flesh is the fruit of the Spirit. Deeds of the flesh are done by a person’s own efforts, whether he is saved or unsaved. The fruit of the Spirit, on the other hand, is produced by God’s own Spirit and only in the lives of those who belong to Him through faith in Jesus Christ.4

The fruit of the Spirit is a list, then, of indications that one belongs to Christ and has therefore “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” It is a standard of measure to which we can refer when examining ourselves in the spirit of 2 Corinthians 13:5: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”

The question this passage asks us is, Are we filled with the Spirit? The filling of the Spirit is something we need continuously. D. L. Moody, when asked why this is, reportedly replied, “Because I leak.” Whether that exchange actually occurred, or is apocryphal, it certainly is true. What are we to do? We can’t fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit. Contrary to the beliefs of many, there is no one we can go to for an “anointing,” no one who can zap us with the Spirit.

Consider these two parallel passages:

Ephesians 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
   18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Can you see the parallel?

We can see that the results of being filled with the Spirit are precisely the same as those of letting “the word of Christ richly dwell within” us. The Holy Spirit fills us as we devote ourselves to “the word of Christ.” On this parallel, John MacArthur writes,

The result of being filled with the Holy Spirit is the same as the result of letting the Word dwell in one’s life richly. Therefore, the two are the same spiritual reality viewed from two sides. To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by His Word. To have the Word dwelling richly is to be controlled by His Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit is the author and power of the word, the expressions are interchangeable.5

This truth is seen also in Christ’s High Priestly Prayer (John 17), when he prayed that the Father would “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” (verse 17).

So, coming back to Galatians 5, we can conclude that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the fruit of letting the Word of Christ, which is the Holy Spirit’s voice, richly dwell within us.

1 1599 Geneva Bible, (Tolle Lege Press, 2006)

2 Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Vol. 6 (Hendrickson, 2006), 545.

3 Exposition of the Old & New Testaments: Vol. 9 (Baptist Standard Bearer, 2006), 49.

4 The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Galatians (Moody, 1987), 163.

5 The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Colossians & Philemon (Moody, 1992), 159.

As I have been meditating upon the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–25), I have been focusing especially on its manifestation of love for the past week. Scripture, it will not surprise you to hear, has a lot to say about love — so much, in fact, that I have not been able to take it all in adequately to have the intended post on the subject ready for today. However, the following passage has given me much food for thought. Take special note of verses 6–8.

Deuteronomy 7:1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, 2 and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. 3 Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you. 5 But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. 6 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
   7 “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; 10 but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. 11 Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

What stands out to me in this passage is God’s explanation for loving his people: that is, none. He says “I did not love you because . . . ,” and then, where we would expect him to say “but because you . . . ,” he skips to “but because I loved you, I . . .” In all of Scripture, God never describes his people as lovable in any way; yet he has chosen to love them. Is that not our model?

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Blessed are those who mourn . . . (Matthew 5:4)

One need not look far to find a book or sermon on joy. Joy has always been a popular topic among Christians, and why not? After all, anyone who can read the words of Psalm 32:1 — “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!” — and say, “That’s me!” certainly has the greatest of all causes for joy. And if, as Jesus, our food is to do the will of the Father (John 4:34), we will never lose our source of joy, even in the most trying circumstances. Jesus, you remember, even went to the cross “for the joy set before him” (Hebrews 12:1–3). So Christians ought to be, of all people, most joyful.

But that joy ought to be mixed with a healthy dose of sadness. Again, let us take Jesus as our example, who lamented the rebellion of the people he came to save (Matthew 23:37, cf. Luke 13:34). This sadness ought never to be far from our minds. Where there is no sadness, there must be either ignorance of, or indifference to, the human condition.

Jesus was a “man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3), and we should be, too.