An Urgent Call To A Serious Faith-Part Nineteen-Will Good Christian Living Save You?
Welcome to a special edition of Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call featuring Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael, thanks for tuning in. Coming up in this week’s program in our “Understanding the Scriptures” segment, Dave and Tom will continue their in-depth study of the doctrine of salvation, with verses from the book of John. In “Religion in the News,” “The Pope Blows an Exorcism”. We’ll take a look at that story, and examine the question: “Are Your Kids Lost in a Prayer Labyrinth?” We hope you can stay tuned. Our ministry, The Berean Call, offers a wide variety of teaching materials, including books, tracts, audio and video disks, and copies of our weekly broadcast on compact disk. You may also subscribe to our monthly newsletter which we offer free of charge. We’ll let you know how to order later in the program.
Now, this week’s cover article: We continue our revisit to our 2000 radio series based on Dave Hunt’s book, An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith. Today we focus on the question: Can living a good Christian life save you? Along with Dave Hunt, here is Tom McMahon:
Tom:
Thanks, Gary. Dave, last week we started discussing Chapter 9, “What is the Christian life?” which you begin by quoting Habakkuk 2:4, “The just shall live by faith.” Now that statement is repeated in the New Testament three more times in the epistles to the Romans, the Galatians and to the Hebrews. It would seem therefore that this is quite important for us to understand. So can you give us a brief review of what “the just shall live by faith” means?
Dave:
Well, I guess if you take it in the order that it comes—the just—who are the just? Well, the Bible says there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. So we’re going to have to be justified, being justified freely by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, the Bible says, whom He hath set forth to be a propitiation for our sins. So we receive this new life by faith. So now we continue to live the Christian life by the same faith. I like the way Paul puts it in Colossians 2, “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.” Well, how did I receive Him? Well, I came as a helpless, hopeless sinner, wretched, on my way to an eternal hell, separated from God forever by my sin and by my rebellion and I could not do anything to save myself, and He saved me. I just believe in Him and trust in Him. Well then that’s the way I live the Christian life, as a helpless, hopeless, person, I can’t do anything; He has to do it through me. So the just shall live by faith.
Tom:
And He does do it through us, He give us his Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, which we mentioned last week, and that enables us to live a life that’s pleasing to God.
Dave:
Well, we’ve said it many times, and other people have said it as well. The Christian life isn’t difficult, it’s impossible! No one ever lived the Christian life but Christ. Now if I am going to try to imitate Christ in my strength, in my flesh, I am going to try to live up to His standards—Some people think that. Well Buddha set high standards and Confucius set high standards, they couldn’t live up to it, but Jesus set the highest standards. Now we’re going to try to live up to His standards. Well, we would fall even farther short of Christ’s standards than we would a Buddhist or anyone else’s. In fact, sin is defined in the Bible as coming short of the glory of God. Man was made in the image of God, and we have warped and defiled and deformed that image. We have come far short of what God intended for us to be, His glory to be manifest in us as human beings. So, if that is to be restored, then Christ is going to have to do it. That’s, in fact, why He became a man. God became a man, God and man have met together in the person of Jesus Christ, and now He is the perfect man, everything that God wanted a man to be, and His Spirit comes to live within us. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, in Him dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him, Paul says in Ephesians 1. So, Christ, living in us, living in the Christian—see, a Buddhist doesn’t have that, a Muslim doesn’t have that, no one has that promise that God himself has come as a man and that He will live his life through those who put their faith in Him. So, this is wonderful, it’s fantastic, but many Christians don’t realize this, and they are struggling in their own flesh, somehow to live up to a standard that they could never meet, instead of allowing Christ to live His life through them.
Tom:
Dave, I think we find an illustration of this, which I think is a terrific metaphor for what we are talking about, Jesus walked on the water. This was, I think, an analogy for the miraculous Christian life. But somebody else did, that was Peter, and as he stepped out of the boat, walked on the water toward Jesus at Christ’s command, he began to sink. I think the reason he began to sink was he took his eyes off the Lord and began to look at his circumstances and surroundings.
Dave:
Well, and thought that somehow he was the guy who was walking on water, and it was some trick that he had learned, or whatever. And as soon as he looked at the wind the waves and realized, wait a minute, what am I doing walking on water, he began to sink.
Tom:
And I think that’s a good illustration, a good metaphor because that’s what we do a lot. Again, going back to Paul to the Galatians, “O, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?” We began in the spirit, we began trusting Christ. Sometimes I think, as a young Christian—
Dave:
Let’s take a minute for that, Tom. We began in the spirit, what does that mean? Well, God did something miraculous, it’s called, the new birth. This is not some idea that some fundamentalist group came up with, “you must be born again” that’s what Jesus said to Nicodemus, who was a very religious leader of the Jews, You must be born again. Now I can’t “born again myself, you know, born again means, not as a human being over again, as Nicodemus said, “Well, how can a man who is old enter his mother’s womb again and be born?” No, no, Jesus says, you’re going to be born into the family of God; you become a child of God. We are all the children of God, Paul writes to the Galatians, through faith in Christ Jesus. That’s how we become children of God. Until that time, Jesus said, you are of your father the devil, and his works you do. So, this, beginning in the Spirit, it is something that the Spirit of God did for us in our hearts. I can remember 63 years ago when it happened to me, believe it or not, I can remember that long ago, something happened. I was born again, a changed person, and I was a babe in Christ, and I wasn’t mature, I did not know everything, and so forth, but something happened. It is a miracle of God, and the Christian life is miraculous! It has to be because we can’t do it, only God can do it. And so instead of struggling ourselves, let’s allow Christ to live through us. And if we say, Lord, I can’t do it, but I’m willing, would You do it through me? Amazing, what He can do.
Tom:
Now Dave, some people may be listening to this saying, I like what he is saying, but I’m fearful of it because—I’m talking about Christians as well—I like what he is saying but how do I do this practically? Isn’t there a practical side where I just keep waiting to hear, or being moved spiritually, how does that work?
Dave:
Well, let’s say that, here’s a person who has a temper, and he’s always blowing up at his wife. Now you’ve got two choices. Well, I can go to my psychologist, and I can learn some anger control, techniques, and by the way, I remember the article, you probably saw that it of this man who taught anger control seminars and he blew up and killed somebody. I can learn to count to 10, or whatever, or I can say—
Tom:
Need a ventilation therapy, punch a bag.
Dave:
Yeah, work out your frustrations, and so forth ahead of time. Or I can say, Lord, I’m not going to reform, I’m not going to change who I am, I can’t do that. But Lord, I’m trusting You; You have come to live in me. The scripture said, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me, it’s no longer I but Christ.” Lord Jesus, I believe that, I know that you’ve come to live in my heart; I want to see this lived out in my life. I’m not going to try to change myself, I can’t do it. I’ve turned over so many new leaves; Lord I’m willing for you to do it.
Tom:
So his heart is there, he desires, he wants to change.
Dave:
Right. Would you, please, begin to manifest your life through me, Lord? And you would be amazed what He can do.
Tom:
The just shall live by faith, he’s taking a step of faith. I think that’s the thing that scares people, although the example that you gave, Dave, it’s a practical, reasonable example, people could apply that. But it has to be by faith, trusting that God will do what He says He will do. Again, we may stumble, we may fall, we may fall back here and there, but God is faithful, I mean, He will stand by what He says.
Dave:
Well, this is the promise of the Christian life, and this is what the Christian life is, and it is totally different that anything that Freud, or Jung, or Rogers offered, from anything from Mohammed, or Buddha or Confucius offered. This is the promise of Christ, He said because I live, you will live also, and He promised to give us a new life, resurrection life. Resurrection life of course is only for dead people. You have to be dead to qualify for it, and we are dead in sins, we are dead unto God, but you who are dead in sins, He has made alive. But it’s not something that happens apart from my faith and trust, it’s not something that just overwhelms me, and now I become a robot or something. No, it requires cooperation, requires trust and willingness on my part, and if I am willing I can say, Lord Jesus, please, I want this life, would you please live your life through me? Do it, Lord, I can’t do it, and He will do it.
Tom:
Yeah, and Dave, I think the reinforcement; the encouragement to this is getting into God’s Word. If the Christian life really is pleasing God, you have to know what pleases Him. I’m not talking about rules and regulations and laws and all of these things, but you find throughout God’s Word things that He wants us to do. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Now He wasn’t talking about the Ten Commandments per say, He was talking about everything that He wanted us to have. Jesus said, I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. So, how do we find these things? We don’t make them up on our own, we look to God’s Word, and that’s a continual encouragement to know Him and to know what He desires, what pleases Him, and also to know what He will do in our lives to transform our lives.
Dave:
Amen. So let’s put those things together. The just shall live by faith, and then the Word that you’ve been talking about. Well, that’s what God said to His people in Deuteronomy 8, and that is the verse that Christ quoted to Satan in His temptation in the wilderness: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God shall man live.” Jesus said in John 6: “I am the bread of God that came down from heaven; whosoever eateth of this bread shall live forever.” Now He’s not talking about something physical, He’s obviously talking about this spiritual life that comes by faith. So, eating Christ means believing in Him, and trusting Him, and as you said well, how do we know Christ? We’re going to try to do some research and go back and try to dig up some ancient books? Well, we have His Word, Jesus is called, the living Word, “In the beginning was the Word….” He is the one, He is the Word, and He is the truth. So, we begin to read His Word, we feed on His Word. We allow His Word to begin to transform us. It’s not going to happen instantly, there is an instant transformation in our hearts when we come to Christ, but now Peter of course, says as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. Now, if you have a baby, and you’re not feeding it anything, it’s not nursing, it’s not getting its mother’s milk, then that baby is not going to grow, obviously. And yet we have Christians who think that they can grow without feeding upon the milk of the Word of God. And then there is strong meat in the Word, too, as we mature, and they’re trying instead therapy, or some psychologist or all kinds of books out there, with techniques, if you follow these principles you can get in control of your life, you can control your anger, you can become more loving or whatever. No, no, this comes through the Word of God, comes through Christ living in us.
Tom:
Yeah, or they are not eating on their own, they’re being spoon fed by somebody and their faith becomes misplaced, it’s in that person or that individual said or this celebrity, or whatever it might be.
Dave:
They are failing to search the scriptures daily, as the Bereans did, to check everybody out.
Tom:
Well, you don’t have a discipline of eating the meals that is—going to God’s Word, taking this bread, devouring it themselves.
Dave:
So, instead of—well, it’s like processed food today, junk food we call it, that’s one of the problems in America, why we have so many, part of why—well, we won’t get into that, but so many people who are flabby, lack of exercise for one thing, we need to exercise our faith as well. But all of the vitamins have been taken out, you know, and it’s processed, and it tastes good, but it won’t sustain life very well, certainly not healthful life, healthy life, and that’s what most people are feeding on. Well, I think we could say most, much if not most of the time they are getting something that’s been watered down, that’s been made palatable, that tastes good. It’s not the sharp edge of God’s Word; it’s not the power—
Tom:
Doesn’t bring conviction.
Dave:
No, it’s not the power that there is in the Word of God, but someone now has sort of refined it and taken the bran out, made it taste a little better, made it more appealing. No, we have to get back, and I’m not criticizing that, I write books myself, but we need to get back to the Word of God, and see what God himself has said, and let God speak to us through His Word. So every book that some Christian author writes shouldn’t stand on its own, it should be based upon the Word of God, and it should point people back to the Word of God.
Tom:
Right. Dave, what’s available in the Christian life it’s called, the fruit of the Spirit. Some people, when they consider those things, and what’s not to consider that you wouldn’t be excited about, love and joy and peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. These are wonderful thing, but some people don’t view them as fruit, in which you have to—they are seeds, they grow, they develop in your life, they see it as kind of gifts, that, oh well, I’ve got that, I ought to be having this. Like a farmer who wants a great crop but doesn’t do anything to help produce that crop.
Dave:
Tom, we’ve known one another for many years, and you probably remember some of my old illustrations that I haven’t used for many years, but you just brought one to my mind here. [We’re] talking about fruit now. It’s not the fruit of therapy; it’s the fruit of the Spirit. I remember using—I used to use the illustration: here’s a crab apple tree, and it wants to become a Golden Delicious apple tree, the Cadillac of the apples, at least I think so anyway, and so what does it do? Well, it tries to strike the stance of the Golden Delicious apple tree, tries to look like one, it buys some Golden Delicious apples and has them pinned on its branches, you know, and so forth. No, it won’t work; you have to change the root to change the fruit. Now, if we know Christ, we’ve opened our hearts to Him, we’ve believed the gospel, the root has been changed, we have a new root, and Jesus calls himself the true vine, we are branches. But now, it’s not by works, living the Christian life is no more by works than being saved was by works. Now I must rely upon Christ, His life to flow through me, that’s how fruit is produced. A grape vine, or an apple tree, whatever it is, can worry and try somehow to produce fruit. It can’t do it; this is some thing that God has to do. God has built this in, of course, and He has built it into us, if we will allow that fruit to be born. And it’s exciting, it’s wonderful, it’s thrilling what God can do.
Tom:
Right, again, the fruit of the Spirit—if I were a psychotherapist out there and I had my shingle out on my door, if I could put these things on my shingle: love, joy, peace, just those three, I’d be the wealthiest individual in the world because this is what everybody wants, but that’s not the way to go about it. It comes from a life that is based upon those who have been justified by Christ and live by faith.
Dave:
It’s miraculous, Tom, we cannot escape it, the Christian life. You have theologians; you have seminaries where they try to deny the miracles that Jesus did, even denying that He was literally raised from the dead. Christianity not only is miraculous, it must be miraculous, it has to be miraculous, [and] there must be miracles involved. Now when you talk like that people think, oh well, I’m going to go to a miracle service, some healing or whatever. We’re talking about something even more wonderful, and that is the miracle that God can do in our hearts, in our lives, in our spirits in transforming an angry, frustrated, selfish person into someone who no longer thinks of themselves, who has taken up the cross, is willing to die with Christ, has died with Christ, and has a new joy, a new outlook on life, a new generosity, a new kindness and compassion and love. This is the life of Christ himself; it’s not what we can do but what He can do for us.
Tom:
Dave, we’re out of time for this segment, but next week we can talk about the other side of the Christian life. You make a statement in your book, “The Christian life is too glorious to be easy, it must involve trials and testing.” That’s what we are going to go over next week.
