An Unbelieving Believer?

Welcome back to PBC Voice!!! After taking a much needed break to collect my thoughts, I want to talk a little bit about a new format for the blog. In an attempt to help people grow in their understanding, I'm going to use the blog as a follow up to the messages I share with the PBC Family. I hope this time of reflection will be beneficial to your life. In the message from this past Sunday, I wanted to help people overcome what I believe to be the biggest stronghold of unbelief in the church. You may be shocked to discover that our churches are filled with unbelieving believers - at least in certain areas. The biggest area of unbelief? We struggle to believe that we are really in Christ.

"What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,
'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.'" Romans 9:30-33

One of the peculiar things that I have discovered in church life is that we often struggle with the same things that the children of Israel struggled with. I'm starting to understand why Paul said that what we see at work in the Jewish people of the Old Testament happened as an example for us and was written for our instruction. When it comes to the area of faith righteousness, I have seen the church often struggle with the very same things the Jews of Paul's day struggled to understand. That is...we are declared righteous through faith.

Most people in the church believe that faith is critical in salvation, but often turn to works as a means to being justified, holy, and/or righteous. What we have failed to understand, or believe, is that in Christ all of this is made available.

According to the Bible, in Christ we are:
Accepted
Loved
Holy
Righteous
Blameless
Justified
Sanctified
etc.
There is nothing that we can add to or take away from what Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Everything that we could ever hope to be is found in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." This is the beauty of God's heart for us. Jesus bore what we could not bare, accomplished what we could not accomplish for ourselves, and has made this life available for everyone.

Romans 10:3 brings us to the heart of the matter: "For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Please hear these words: "CHRIST IS THE END OF THE LAW FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS!!!" There is no law that can make you righteous. If there was, Paul declared that God would have given it. Instead, He offered us the life of His Son. It is in Him and Him alone. We believe it, receive it, and allow His life to flow through us.

The reason that I said this is the biggest stronghold of unbelief is quite simple: Look at how people live.
Are they really secure in their salvation?
How do they respond to the Father when they sin?
What is their sense of self-worth in Christ?
Are they experiencing the grace and love of God on a continual basis?
The list could go on and on but the reality is that there are a lot of unbelieving believers in the church. They struggle on a daily basis to really see themselves in Christ. This reality has produced a ton of churches that never rise to the occasion. They never move beyond the salvation experience because they continually see themsleves as lacking in some area. They don't really believe that they have everything they need for life and godliness through His divine power inside them. Just enough faith to get saved but not enough faith to experience the abundant life in Christ.

I have spent the majority of my life in churches that believe in eternal security (the belief that when a person is genuinely saved that they are secure in that salvation). However, it is in those same churches that I was continually told to question whether or not I was genuinely saved. Does this make sense? This message is usually the result of some frustrated pastor who questions the validity of people's faith because of what they aren't doing rather than what they are doing. That may sound crazy to you, but I've done this in the past myself. Rather than understanding that the reason many people don't do what we think they should might be based upon the fact that they don't feel secure in their faith, it's much easier to question whether or not they are truly saved. This creates double-minded people who are in the words of Scripture "unstable in all their ways." What if we took the time to help people become grounded in their identity? It is my firm belief that if I can help someone become secure in who they are in Christ, the rest will take care of itself. Rather than working for something, we work from something. Viewing ourselves as righteous in Christ will allow His righteousness to flow from our lives. The change is not what we are doing but the perception that we are working from.

I will have more to say about this over the next couple of days. My encouragement to you is that you would reinforce in your heart who you really are. You are not outside of the grace of God. You are not who you used to be. You are in Christ and He is in you. Live from that place and be amazed at the peace, love, security, and hope that you find there. Your life will never be the same.