FreshBread

Good Morning Friends,

It’s the end of the week and we have an interesting question…so let’s get right to it! This past Sunday I read a quote from C.S. Lewis that might have been confusing to some. The last line of the quote went like this: ” There are people in other religions who are being lead by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it.” I mentioned upon reading this that we could debate this forever. One thing we do not know is exactly what C.S. Lewis meant by this and so we are left to our own interpretations. Debating interpretations is never really a positive exercise between two people who think they are RIGHT… (and need to be), so I would like to start out discuss in a different direction.

Many people ask, “How do we know that Christianity is RIGHT and every other RELIGION is wrong? Some ask if the teaching of other religions are really all the same just coming from a different perspective. It has been my experience that as long as you are trying to prove your religion right and others wrong…well, that is a never ending discussion. I would rather ask the question…..what is TRUE, and leave RELIGION out of it for a second.

Whenever someone makes a blanket statement…..you have to deal with it. I went to the Bucs game last night (at least for half of it). If a guy on the way in would have been saying…..Hey follow me, I will show you the right way to live…..in fact, there is no other way to live than my way, I would have walked by him! In doing so, I am saying without saying anything, I think you are crazy and there are other ways to live. I dealt with his statement in a way.

Jesus (apart from religion now) said in John 14:6 – 6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (Important Point: I believe the Bible to be God’s Word, so it is not my job to figure out which parts are true, but it is my job to figure out how to live out all of it. If you have a different view of scripture, not much of this discussion will make sense. The truth of the Bible is a foundational question we must answer.) This is a blanket statement that a man named Jesus makes that you have to deal with. This is NOT a Christian religion statement, in fact, the Jewish people used to say that the TORAH (Old Testament) was the way, the truth and the life. So apart from Religion you must answer, is this true or not?

Jesus is saying that His WAY of Life is how we should live our lives, (read the writings of Mahatma Gandhi and you will see that, even though not a professed Christian, he believed this to be true. Jesus went on to say that HE was the TRUTH (He is the living Word of God) and that He is the LIFE (as we have seen earlier this week….He is the one who has brought us Life) Apart from any religion, you have to wrestle with – is this true?

Many people want to call others to be CHRSITIANS….if by this, they mean calling you to the Christian Religion, well the Christian Religion does NOT SAVE YOU! If by calling people to be Christians, you mean accepting the WAY of Jesus, recognizing him as the TRUTH AND LIFE, and giving and living your life to that end, I am all for it. Many people call themselves Christians cause they “practice” the Christian Religion….that does not make you a Christian. What we have seen this week is that it is the finished work of Jesus on the Cross that Saves you. Embracing that fact with your life is what Paul calls “being saved” and it is only through this “belief through faith” that we have an inheritance in the future…”will be saved”

So are Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, SAVED? …..it depends. They are NOT saved by joining the right religion,(NO ONE IS SAVED BY JOINING A RELIGON….INCLUDING A CHRISTIAN CHURCH), but they are saved like everyone else by dealing with the truth of Jesus’ statement and choosing to place their life and live their life under the reality that He paid the price for our sin and thus gives us the power (through his spirit) to live Life in His Truth, and this is the only way to experience the Father! This is not just a Christian teaching, it happens to be Universal Truth which Christians embrace.

If we want to help people find God, we must get away from the “we are right you are wrong”….but instead look at TRUTH and help people embrace it. < ?br>

Hope that helps a little. I would love to hear your thoughts, comments and questions. Write me at Scott@freshstartchurch.com. This weekend is going to be Heavy-Duty….don’t miss it! And if you do miss it, listen online cause next week’s FreshBread is going to tackle a part of scripture the Christian Church has ignored for the most part for decades. It is going to get hot in here! Have a GREAT WEEKEND. If you are traveling, be safe; if you are in town, see you Sunday!!!!!!!!!< ?br>

Good Morning Friends,

Let’s continue our discussion of Salvation. We have seen that “biblically” Salvation is something we “have been” given,(past tense) are being given (being saved-present tense) and today we want to look at a third verse Hebrews 1:14

Hebrews 1:14 – Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

In Hebrews one the writer is in a discussion of the supremacy of Christ! In it the author teaches us, in the form of a rhetorical question, that the angles are sent to minister to those who will inherit salvation. An inheritance is something that points to the future, something yet to obtain.

When I was a kid in Sunday School, this was the only teaching of Salvation that I received. If I would believe the right things about Jesus, then when I died I would receive Salvation. And as we have read this morning, THIS IS THE TEACHING OF SCRIPTURE!

However, as we have seen over the last few days, salvation (as taught in scripture) has a past-tense manifestation in the fact that Jesus Christ secured salvation by his death on Calvary, and it has a present component, in that Christ’s death has change who I am (2 Corinthians 5:17) and how I live TODAY! So, if I only focus on the future aspect of salvation, I do not have a comprehensive biblical view, and secondly it relieves me of a lot of responsibility that God calls me to on this earth.

The Bible teaches that Salvation does have to do with the future (as most of us have been taught) but it also has to do with LIFE RIGHT NOW. This was never much of a focus for me as I grew up. I wanted to go to heaven and I was just doing my best on earth till I got there (though I have never felt like I wanted to leave earth yet….even though I believe heaven would be so much better…..go figure). I was never really encouraged to see that God calls me to live the KINGDOM LIFE NOW! God’s plan all along was to colonize earth with heaven…..but sin has made that impossible! That is why Christ died and I “have been saved” and on believing he has filled me with his Holy Spirit, that by his power I would be able to experience “being saved” as I lived the Kingdom Life here on earth (by his power) waiting for the day that I will “inherit salvation”

I hope this discussion has given you much to think about. I want to say as a warning that many times people (churches) base a whole doctrine (belief) on one passage of scripture instead of searching the Word for the whole counsel of God. It is for this reason that we must stay open to learn, for we may have based a belief on one verse and someone finds something else in God’s Word. (i.e. someone says Salvation is past-tense and someone else says it is a future event). Instead of making a theological augment out of it, we need to seek the the whole counsel of God, his truth and not our understanding of it!

One final question remains….what about Hindus, Buddhist and the like, are they able to be saved or do they need to become Christians? We will dive into this one tomorrow! Have a GREAT DAY!

Scott

Dear Friends,

Yesterday we looked at the fact that Paul reminds us that “We have been Saved”. Because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary, the sin of the World has been paid for. Well, that may bring up a natural question….Does this mean everyone is saved? I believe we can find the answer to that in the second verse we looked at on Monday, 1 Corinthians 1:18 (as well as many other places in scripture) let me share it in two versions.

18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.(New Living Translation)

18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.(New International Version)

Paul clearly teaches that there are those who are perishing or headed for destruction. Many people today would like to find ways to eliminate these truths, but I for one, am a firm believer in God’s Word (even the parts that I might struggle to understand)

There are two questions that we must ask and seek to answer. First of all, if Jesus died for the sin of the World, how can some be perishing or headed for destruction? Let’s suppose that I gave each of my children $100 million dollars (you also will have to suppose that I have it to give). Two of my children grab the hundred million that I have placed in their account and live in the “freedom” of having $100 million in their account. However, the other two decided that they are NOT going to use the money….in fact, the very fact that I put the money into the account seems like foolishness to them and is not something they even believe. So they live their whole life struggling to pay bills in and out of debtors’ prison and headed for destruction in their lives. Though the money is there, they refuse to believe it (both cognitively and also they refuse to live like it) and thus they do not live in the light of what I have done for them in the past.

In the same way, the fact that Jesus died on Calvary and rose from the grave as payment for our sin and to set us free to live the Kingdom Life is foolishness to many. Though Jesus paid for their sin (it is finished), they refuse to believe it (either cognitively nor in the way they live). Paul says that this is a path of destruction.

The second question one might wrestle with is why are we “being saved”, a present tense verb, when yesterday we read “we have been saved”? To turn around and say that salvation is a process would be troublesome for two reasons, first it would discount the fact that Christ’s work was “FINISHED” for me on the cross, and secondly it would dugouts that I have to do something for my salvation, both of which are thoroughly discounted in the scripture. Yesterday we read it was a GIFT, and no one could boast. So what does “being saved” me.

On Sunday I mentioned that salvation has a future manifestation (we will look at this tomorrow) but that it was way more than that. Salvation has to do with living “useful” to the Kingdom of God here on this earth. Jesus clearly taught that many will not use the 100 million, if you will, and will not be “useful” on this plant to the Kingdom. If all we are thinking about is getting off this earth and going to Heaven (interesting George Barna asked Evangelical Christians if they were ready to go to heaven, and over 50% responded they were scared to die), then we do not see ourselves having any responsibility here on this earth as far as the Kingdom goes. By “being saved” Paul is talking about living in your Salvation now, using the 100 million for God’s Glory and his Kingdom here on this earth.

It is important to also note that 1 Corinthians 1 was written by Paul to confront the Hellenistic (humanistic today) thinking of the day. Paul is saying that Wisdom and figuring it out is not what it is about…..but living in your salvation is what’s important. Today we try to get people to accept the facts before they live like Jesus. This might make sense, but I have met people who live like Jesus and when I commend them for that, dialogue on why they live this way, it opens up doors for me to explain the facts.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Today’s FreshBread. I want to thank those of you who take the time to write, the dialogue is GOOD! Write me at Scott@freshstartchurch.com. Tomorrow we will look at the future aspect of Salvation.