Good Day, Meetpastordan Readers…I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman this past week that has lingered with me. This was our first meeting, so we exchanged pleasantries. He asked where I was from, if I were a Cardinals fan, if I was married, then he asked about my line of work? When I get this question, I usually respond by telling them about my wonderful career in music for 40 years. But then I like to follow that by telling them that I am now following a different calling, and today I’m a pastor. When he heard that, it opened the flood gates for him to tell me about how much he liked to give and to help people, and believe me, he had a lot to say on the subject. “I do this”, “I do that”; “I give here”, “I give there”! But before I could tell him, “That sounds great”, he led me down another path.
“Do you know why I do that” he asked? And before I could respond, he told me. “I know that if I do good, I will be blessed. That’s what it says in the Bible, right?” So, when I want something, I tell God what I want, then I do something good. It works “a lot” of the time. Then he went on to tell me that in his profession, it looks good to be involved in a church and active in the community.” Just as I was strategizing where to start with my response, he said, “Nice talking with ya. I’ll probably see you back here (at the pool) again.
So, where would you start with your response? His premise was right. As Christians, we are called to give to and help people in need. The Bible does say that God blesses those who bless others. And no doubt, being active in the community can be a good thing, especially if you are led by the truth, God’s Truth. So, other than being a “blow hard” and in my face with his gospel, what else do you detect?
In my opinion, his thinking is rooted in the “Old Covenant”. His concern was earning God’s favor (blessings) through his works (giving, helping and being involved in the community). That’s the old covenant way of doing to get. But, thank God -and I mean that literally – we are no longer under the Old Covenant. We are now living under the New Covenant, which means we’ve already “gotten”, so we “do”. Let me explain.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of Christians who still have a hard time grasping what it really means to be in Christ. When you have chosen to make Him your identity (meaning, you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior), you are immediately grafted into God’s family; you are His child, and you are now a brother or sister of Jesus. Your sins are immediately forgiven; you now qualify for eternal life, and you have received the gift of the indwelling (meaning, living in you) Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:14 tells us, “The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give you everything He promised, and that He has purchased you to be His own. “That IS the new you!
Now that we are under the New Covenant, meaning Christ already fulfilled His reason for coming (to die in our place so our sins can be forgiven, to proclaim the Kingdom message, to destroy the works of the devil, and to save sinners) when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we NOW have favor with God. Once again, in Ephesians 1:4, we are told that “Even before He created the world (and Man), God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.” We are now worthy and acceptable in His eyes. Therefore, we don’t have to try to earn His favor, because He poured out His favor on us when we accepted His Gift of Grace. The truth is…even on our worst day, there is nothing we can do to fall out of His favor. We are covered with the blood of Jesus.
Once it dawns on us that God’s plan for our salvation was already in the works, even before He created the world, we have to ask ourselves, “Why would He do that? Surely, He must have known we were going to go astray.” And no doubt, He did! But that in itself shows His incredible love for His proudest creation. Don’t forget, He created us not only a for here and now relationship, but for an eternal relationship. But until the sin issue was overcome, none of us could even qualify to walk through the pearly gates. “And why is that” you might ask? Because God Himself proclaimed, “I am holy, therefore, you have to be holy.” (Leviticus 19:2) To be holy means to be sin free, to be set aside for a sacred purpose. In other words, if you are stained with sin, you won’t get in (to heaven). (Revelation 21:27)
Once that truth takes root in our heart, we NOW want to do the good things God planned for us long ago. But now we are not doing good things to get a blessing, we already got the blessing in Christ. Now we are doing the good work as our way of saying “Thank you, God, for your incredible plan for my salvation, and thank you, Jesus, for being willing to die in my place.” As it says in Ephesians 2:10: “We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can NOW do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, “The time is coming – indeed, it’s already here – when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The father is looking for those who will worship Him that way.” (John 4: 23) Under the New Covenant, it is all about the state of our heart, it is not about works. If our heart is right, our works (or our behavior) will be right. Remember, under the Old Covenant, we did to get. Under the New Covenant, we’ve already gotten (we’re in Christ) so we do (as our way of saying “Thank You, God for what you did for me.)
Man’s greatest challenge is to realize there is nothing he can do to make God love him more. Not being involved in God’s eternal equation challenges Man’s intellect to the max. The eternal equation is Christ + Man = Salvation. The human equation is ME + my best effort will hopefully be good enough to get me in. The error in that thinking is ME + my best effort cannot make ME holy.
The eternal paradox: The only way to win is to surrender.
Feel free to respond to this message, and please share this with other social media friends.
May God Bless You abundantly,
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a.) Pastor Dan
Dan, You’re right on target with this message. This gentleman that you spoke with is what’s wrong with todays society. To many people are “do-gooders” because of what they can get out of a situation..This is seen in the many selfish acts that are so prevelant in our “I deserve it” society., when in fact we deserve nothing but death,, because we have been born into a sin-filled world. I praise God that He sent His Son to redeem us and free us from a life of sin. I am so looking forsard to the day when I will see my Lord face to face, bow at His nail scared feet and worship Him for eternity, ever in His presence
Even so come quickly, Lord.