Kingdom Come

I know a woman who comforts herself that when her son was a toddler she guaranteed that he would go to heaven by having him repeat the Sinner’s Prayer after her. As a teenager he joined a gang, and as an adult he deals drugs. Surely we understand that her leading a recitation as meaningless to her child as “Twinkle twinkle little star” does not cancel out his adult calculated behaviors.

The Sinner’s Prayer is nothing but a pagan transactional ritual if the reciter is imagining that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13) under Name It and Claim It / Word of Faith or salvation from whatever inconvenience or personal bother or deserved consequences of one’s own actions because the speaker is presuming personal control over the Force of Creation.

And yet, modern Christian outreach is based on the transactional higher success rate of leading children to the Lord over adults.

The current Barna study indicates that nearly half of all Americans who accept Jesus Christ as their
savior do so before reaching the age of 13 (43%). Less than one out of every four born again
Christians (23%) embraced Christ after their twenty-first birthday. “Families, churches and para-church ministries must recognize that primary window of opportunity for effectively reaching people with the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection is during the pre-teen years.”

And yet, while it may seem like an 18, 20, or 22-year-old is able to make adult decisions, they are not developmentally ready just yet. This is because the brain’s frontal lobe, especially the prefrontal cortex, isn’t fully mature until around age 25.

As detailed in preceding posts, Moses is still the primary source for Christianity. His take on judgment is where we should start.

“And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up…Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them…

• He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.
• And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
• And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
• Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” (Exodus 19:20, 21:1-25)

And so on. We can recognize that judgment is exactly as depicted in “Law and Order.”

What! That’s completely against Christian doctrine! Jesus paid the price of my sin!

Not exactly.

Jesus’ death provided the judicial absolution for what is called “original sin” passed down from Adam as a genetically inborn state of separation from God. Accepting the fact that Jesus Christ died to save us from our sinful, therefore deadly condition, is absolutely not a “get out of jail free card” to be waved to waive any and consequences of personal sin in this life or the next.

I met lots of residents at the faith-based Rescue Missions who knelt at the altar, went out back to the drug life and were hit with the medical and legal consequences as if nothing had changed. Because nothing had, in their hearts and minds. 

“Asking Jesus to come into your heart” means allowing him to take control of your desires and decisions, or the evidence proves that you were never serious about getting saved from sin – either the actions or the consequences.

The reality of salvation from hell is that it is based on becoming a son of God, i.e. acknowledging God as Father in the biblical sense – Absolute Authority, demonstrated as Judge, and deliverance from the law of sin and death is achieved through being merged with the source of life.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk / live daily life not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For the law / authority, control of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death…That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-6)

It is a privilege to be identified with Creator God. He doesn’t take it lightly when that privilege is abused.

“if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:26-31)

“I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12:36-37)

The logic that Paul uses to explain that salvation by grace is different from payment for works can only be true if the reverse is also true – we get paid for our work.

• “if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.
• But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

“Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

• If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
• If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself.” ((Romans 11:6, I Corinthians 3:13-18)

Do you really think you can get away with accepting the Son of God’s tortuous death on your behalf just to keep on sinning against God with impunity? Do you think its OK for a pedophile’s case to be dismissed at court on his witness that “I’m a Christian, I don’t have to account for my sins anymore.”? Do you really think state court standards are higher than God’s?

I don’t think so. I’ve heard of too many cases where harden criminals took the law into their own hands when a pedophile was incarcerated with them. They didn’t think a prison sentence was punishment enough.

Sinners saved by grace still need a good lawyer.

If you’ve ever had occasion to solicit the services of an attorney at law, you understand that the primary service they give is advice. What to do, what not to do, and what to stop doing. 

As our advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous doesn’t sweet talk the Father into letting us off the hook. He recounts our change of heart as demonstrated by our change of behavior.

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for…the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know / are united with him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” (I John 2:1-6)

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:21-23)