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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman The
Church's Big Problem If
I had one message to speak before I died it would be an expanded version
of this article. Failure to
understand what you're about to read is what I believe to be the number
one problem in today's western-world church.
It's a problem that not only makes church less productive, it
affects one's eternal destiny. Many
people like me who were raised within evangelical Christianity have
chosen to adopt the Christian lifestyle from an early age.
They have given mental assent to the existence of Jesus and the
reality of the cross of Christ, and that's our problem.
You ask, "How is that a problem?"
Here's my answer.
In
today's world we define the word "believe" to be a mental
acceptance of something to be true.
On July 21, 1969, for example, I believe Neil Armstrong was the
first person to step onto the surface of the moon.
Such mental acceptance of something we choose to believe to be
true is not how the New Testament defines the word "believe"
as it pertains to our salvation. The
Greek verb "pisteuo" that is translated as believe in the New
Testament means to trust. It
does not merely suggest a choice we make to adopt a Biblical lifestyle
and the reality of Jesus' existence.
When
John 3:16 and other such passages tell you to believe and you will be
saved, they're telling you to trust your very life with Jesus so the
Spirit of the Almighty Creator God can live within you.
When the Holy Spirit enters your very being, as 2 Corinthians
5:17 logically states, you become an entirely new creation, someone you
have never been. You are
saved by being born again. Without
the Holy Spirit's residency in your very being, as Romans 8:9 states,
you are not a Christian. You
are not saved, and that, despite the adoption of a Biblical lifestyle
and your mental recognition of the existence of Jesus. So
here is our present-day problem in church, as I see it.
Many people believe they are Christians when in fact they are
not. Adopting our culture's
understanding of believing to be a mere mental assent to something being
true is not Biblical belief. Mental
agreement to the existence of Jesus and the cross of Christ is the
prerequisite to true Biblical belief, which is, trusting your life with
Jesus as a newly-born spiritual creation.
Only then are you saved, and only then will church be the
community of unified, productive believers it is meant to be.
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