Why do I believe?

We have discussed the event of creation, now we are introducing the next event; the event of the fall.

Question:  when working out our salvation where do we start?  The event of Creation or the event of the Fall?

Many have come to the Lord by a profession of faith.  Each week here, just prior to the morning service, we explain the means of salvation, giving anyone who had not previously done so, the opportunity within the privacy of their own soul to make a profession of faith.

Some of us in other churches have made an altar call, that which we do not practice here. Salvation is a private matter between God and the individual.  Many of us raised our hands and maybe other forms of rituals that might have been an expression of our internal decision in believing in Christ for Salvation.   

Many of us can pin point the day and time that we had made that profession of faith and then there are others that have no idea at all to where and when they first believed, to them Salvation was a no brainer.

“Of course I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ for my eternal life, what is there not to understand that Jesus is truly the son of God and that Jesus died for all of our sins and by believing in Him one finds eternal life.” 

Is it necessary to pinpoint or acknowledge that very point by which we made the decision? Is it necessary to have a glowing testimony of how you were at one point this pathetic creature and now you are no longer this or that.  There was a point in all of our lives where we were unsaved and then stepped from death to life. 

Was it necessary for any of us to understand the origins of the fall to be saved? And did we?

Is it necessary that we explain the very origins of sin when we are witnessing? 

Does ignorance of the mechanics of one’s own salvation constitute one being unsaved?

Salvation is faith alone in Christ Alone. It is not by works lest any man should boast (Eph 2:9).  God gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have ever lasting life (Jn 3:16) . 

FAITH though it would seem is quite too simple for some.  “You mean to say that on bases of a simple statement; ‘Jesus provides eternal life for those that believe in Him’ All I have to do is, believe it?”  But the argument continues. Folks, rejecting the authority of scriptures, continue in their attempt to add to the perfect plan of God for their salvation.

Think about it for a moment and ask yourself, “why did I really believe Jesus Christ for eternal life, A choice that was made totally by faith having no imperial data to base a rational decision on.”

Was it fear? 

How many of you were scared into salvation?  How many of you saw salvation as a healthy alternative that rather than going to hell, you will go ahead and make a profession of faith to cover all bases. 

You might have sat in on a fire and brimstone style evangelistic crusade.  I’m not sure that they still have tent crusades, where the evangelist describes the very depths of Hell for those who dare not come forward and give their hearts to Jesus.

Did this really work for Noah?  Noah preached for a hundred and twenty years leading up to the Flood.  Noah had no empirical data to offer.  They heard what this Noah was preaching about, that God was going to destroy all flesh on the earth, (Gen 6:8). People living in that day could travel over to Noah’s place and see this huge monstrosity that he was building, where one was to find refuge from the catastrophe that was supposedly to come.

Question: How many were scared into the ark?   

Noah and his family entered the ark positive to the plan of God, but not a single person came aboard with the attitude that, “just in case Noah knows something I don’t maybe it wouldn’t hurt to just enter the ark and hang around for awhile just in case.”   

Hebrews 11:7

So what does any of us know about the eternal lake of fire?  We have never seen it with our eyes nor felt its heat.  We have no empirical data that even one really exists.  So did we really make a profession of faith based upon the possibility that the lake of fire exist and we are going to go there if we do not make that statement? 

For many of us at the point of salvation, life was Ok.  I do not know many who went around concerned with dying let alone the life after.  Certainly the average Joe does give the possibility of a Lake of fire any thought at all. 

If it was not death that lead you to the Lord, maybe it was a sudden need to be saved from your sins, having your conscience pricked by the burden of guilt and remorse for being a “despicable sinner.”

I have known sinners in my life. I myself am a despicable sinner.  There even was a time when I and my friends were quite comfortable in our sins.  We did things that we wanted to, and there was no burden of guilt unless we got caught. 

We laugh every year and every time we see the movie, “A Christmas Story,”  It use to be a tradition to hear the “Night before Christmas,” being read, now it seems to be watching little Ralphie in his pursuit for a Red rider BB gun. 

Those who have seen remember the teacher’s interrogation as she remarked about the guilty parties who put the kid named Flick up to sticking his tongue on the frozen flag pole.

 “Those who did it know their blame and I am sure that the quilt you feel is far worse than any punishment you might receive,”  The teacher told the class as Schwartz smiled and Ralphie sat in his indignant consternation.

I was righteous teenager.  I had what you might call a comparative righteousness.  I was not as bad as the kid down the street who took drugs or the other one who was thrown into jail for arson.   So, on that scale I was classified as doing alright.

Therefore, at 17 when I made that statement of faith was it for the reason that I needed saving from my sins? 

Not that I remember. 

But again I ask, Was it fear that drove us to the Lord, was it to be saved from our sins, or was it something else.

To answer the question, let us go back to the question of origins.  But not to the origin of our personal sins or even the event of the Fall.

The fact is we do not start with ourselves but we start with God and a personal relationship with God.

 The first man did not evolve and at some point enter into God’s plan for his life.  Adam was created perfect, placed into a perfect environment; Man was created and fit perfectly into the design of God.

Man was created with a compatible righteousness of God.  He possessed no flaw, no defect, nothing that stood between him and his Holy creator.

Man and woman were naked and were not ashamed; a state of perfect harmonious rapport with God.  Guilt and Shame would come with a conscience of one that possesses the sin nature that stands in judgment. 

The first man and the first woman were at home in the righteousness of God. 

Satan through the serpent correctly implied that the woman did not know good and evil; she did not have to know the difference between good and evil.  In the perfect world there was no contrasting view.

In short Adam and Eve were at home in the righteousness of God.  The righteousness of God was their natural habitat. 

Our first parents made a cognitive choice to leave home when they chose to act independently of Gods plan for their lives. They walked right out of the design of God.  Having made the decision to sin they lost the righteousness that was the key element for a right relationship with God.

By the time they had left the Garden in exile both were redeemed, however. We know this because rather than leaving the garden naked or wearing fig leafs they wore the skins of animals.  God must have made it clear to them that their sin could not be covered by their own efforts but it would be God that would provide the atonement (covering) for their sins and that would be the image set forth; a life for a life.

With the fall of Man came the judicial imputation of sin.  Man’s immediate crisis was spiritual death which is separation from a relationship with God. Spiritual death was the judicial imputation.

Romans 6:23  the wages of sin is death

Along with the Judicial imputation, came the consequences of that decision. 

For example; take a man who has a family who depends upon him.  The man commits a felony and is sentenced to time in prison.  Though the Wife and the children did not commit the crime they have to suffer the consequences of their father’s conviction. The mother has to take on another Job, the kids are left without a father figure, and they lose the house because they cannot make ends meet and so on. 

Prior to the sin there was no sin in the world, There was no death, the ground did not produce thorns and thistles and there was harmony in the first marriage, work was not laborious, but as a consequence to having sinned, all the world changed.

Though man and woman walked out of the Garden having atonement for their sin, the world because of their decision, would suffer the devastating consequences for the rest of his saved lives and beyond. They would observe not only how the sin nature functioned within themselves but would observe the fragmentation of the world starting with the murder of their son Abel by his brother Cain.   

Adam as he suffered with the consequences of his actions must have longed for the restoration of the paradise which was lost.

Is it possible that you and I might have buried deep in some memory strand of our DNA’s some innate knowledge of that which once existed and is now lacking in each of our lives?  Not in regards to that which we can picture in our minds eye, paradise, but an intuitive knowledge that there was once a time when all was right with the world causing us to long, just as Adam had longed for the restoration of that which was lost?

If so, can we conclude at least in part that we are not so much scared into it or wanting to be saved from our sins that the flesh is so comfortable with as much as it is a matter of homesickness and wanting to return to that place that we were meant to be; longing for home.

Psalm 84

A.W. Tozer writes,

“Essentially, salvation is the restoration of a right relation between man and his creator, a bringing back to normal of the Creator-creature relation…God was our original habitat and our hearts cannot but feel at home when they enter again that ancient and beautiful abode.”[1]

Is this a place where you want to go to avoid the alternative or is this a place where you want to go because your soul desires it so?

And yet again we see the importance of understanding origins.

It was not a rational decision based on reason that we were saved,  It was not a stack of imperial data on the temperatures of Hell that would scare us into a healthy alternative, but it was faith and faith alone.

What is faith?

Hebrews 11:1

And how is faith obtained?

Romans 10:17

No, I cannot remember a single word that was spoken that night by the speaker or even who he was.  All this man did was to point out the door that I was to take to achieve that which my soul had desired.  The convicting ministry of common grace of the Holy Spirit made the words clear and I made a decision to take that door into my personal salvation.

And yes I became a new creature in Christ but that new life also had come with added responsibilities.

Though I entered into that new life through faith and not by any intellect on my part it is not for me a new believer to remain ignorant of one’s so great and precious salvation. 

The fact is that the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ  is mandated to work out their own salvation. 

Philippians 2:12

If we are to answer the question why did I choose the salvation plan, I find the answer in the origin of creation.  and after stepping into this new life if I am to work out my salvation I once again have to seek out the and begin at the starting point.

1.      The eternal creator God who created the heavens and the earth

2.      The origin and the state of man at the point that he was created

3.      The origin of the crisis which plagues everyone born of Adam. 

4.      And then we arrive as the one that will handle that crisis for all us.

What is the importance of working out our salvation?

1.      To gain a Hope

Elpij Elpis is the word for hope.  It is not a word that indicates a wishful longing but an absolute confidence.  If we fail to work out own our salvation, then at best our salvation can only be in terms of wishful desires.

“Well, I hope so, I try to live a good life, well I’m not sure.” 

It is a shame to go through life acting as a pulpier with you head hung low, when you are in actuality filthy rich, made that way from an inheritance from God.

Absolute Confidence is a security and peace of mind knowing that there is a eternal life God after we depart the body.

2.      Effective witnessing – pretty hard to sell a product when you yourself are not sure of its quality or its value, When salvation becomes precious in our minds and soul we begin to gain a zeal and a passion to share the good news with others.

3.      Appreciation for that which God has done and continues to do.

a.       God the father who loved the world so that He gave his only begotten son

b.      God the son who accomplished the work of salvation upon the cross

c.       God the Holy Spirit the power of resurrection and the revealer of that which we had believed.