Freedom Manual – Coming Out of the World

In the Garden of Eden, it was not only Adam and Eve’s rebellion at work, they were deceived by the devil who appeared in the form of a serpent.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)

He was the one who tempted them to disobey God, and because they obeyed his voice instead of God’s they came under his authority.  When you are born again, you come out from under Satan’s authority, and are completely under the power of God:

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son (Colossians 1:13)

You are no longer subject to Satan.  You are a citizen of the Kingdom of God.   This is both an event and a process.   Even though we are citizens of God’s Kingdom, we must walk out of Satan’s Kingdom and fully into God’s.

Separation
Before you were born again, you were separated from God.  Being reunited with God changes your relationship to the world:

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)

The world around us is caught up in the pursuit of material security, success, and pleasure.   For the worldly person, this is the “meaning of life.”  This is what animates their decision making process.   However, it is all a big chase after the wind, because “you can’t take it with you.” At the end of life, you will lose all of your possessions.  You will be separated from all your friends, and your pleasures will not matter.  Honestly, if there is no life after death, it makes perfect sense to live for today, but the Christian is looking forward to an eternity with God.   Even an extraordinarily long life of 100 years is short when you consider eternity, which goes on forever and never ends.  We have to live our lives in view of eternity, and the things that matter for eternity.   For this reason, we have fundamentally nothing in common with the world.

And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever. (1 John 2:17)

These things do not mean that you need to go live in monastery.  It means that you need to separate from the pleasures, pursuits, and alliances of the world.   Many Christians are confused, frustrated, and tempted because they have not understood this basic point.   You need to view your life and the lives of others in the light of eternal destiny.

Telling Others About Your New Identity
Because you have been brought out of the world, and into God’s Kingdom, the fundamental dynamics of every relationship in your life change when you are born again.  Being a Christian is not a secret, it is a public, and sometimes difficult, fact.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

Go and tell your friends and family about the change that has happened in your life.   When you do this, there will be a change.  Some will reject you right out.  Do not be ashamed.

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. (Mark 8:38)

Jesus has done something awesome for you.  What he asks in return, is that you tell others about Him.  This is because he loves them too.   You now have the keys to their eternal destiny.  Being their “friend” but keeping the truth about Jesus from them is not being friend at all.  You are denying them the only hope of salvation.   Even if they reject it, you have shown them true love.
While this can be very painful, it is part of following Christ.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)

You can be consoled by the fact that even though you are being rejected by friends and sometimes family that Jesus sees your pain and holds out a great reward for it.   This is, in fact, the exact difficulty that He faced on earth.

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  (John 15:18-19)

You are walking in the footsteps of Jesus when you are rejected or persecuted on account of your faith.   Many try to be Christians but avoid this rejection.  It does not work.  It’s pretending to be something you are not.  Eventually you will either become compromised and go back to the world, or you will be exhausted by the act of pretending to be of the world.  If you truly belong to God, according to the Scripture, the world will hate you.

Relationships with the World
Not all of your friends or family will reject you when you tell them the truth.  Some will use every effort to try to convert you back.   The devil himself will use every effort.   Do not be surprised if your old girlfriend or boyfriend calls you up right when you get saved and wants to go out again, or if the person you’ve been chasing for a year suddenly shows interest.  Be prepared to take a stand for God.  You will keep being tempted until both you, all of your friends, and the devil himself know that you are not turning back from your life with Christ.

Some may watch you, even for years, to see if what has happened to you is real or just some religious thing.  If you have rejected your former life and its pursuits, and are being open about your walk with God, and they still want to be friends, continue to hold out the words of eternal life to them, until God brings them into the Kingdom.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? (2 Corinthians 6:14-16)

What is important is that you view them with an eternal perspective.   They are lost and in fellowship with the world, which God hates.  God loves them and wants them repent just like you did.   But until they do, it is dangerous to be “yoked” together with them.  This includes business partnerships, romantic relationships, and intimate friendships.   You are now reaching out to them, not fellowshipping with them.

Relationships and Culture
Christianity is often thought of as a “Western” or a “White” religion.  Nothing could be further from the truth.   Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jew, and so were all of his followers.  Much of the Bible actually takes place in Africa, some in modern Iraq, and some in modern Iran.  Christianity is a God religion.

We are all born into a culture of some kind.   None of us can help being deeply influenced by the values and priorities of the culture we are born into.   When we accept Christ, those values must also be examined by the light of Scripture.  That which is out of line with Scripture must be left behind and reformed, even if it causes a rift with those in our culture.   The apostles were all disfellowshipped and persecuted by their Jewish brothers and sisters.   The Greeks and Romans were murdered before cheering crowds of their own culture.  Our first identification must no longer be with our culture or heritage, but it must be with the body of Christ.  Jesus Himself had to face this dilemma in a very personal way:

They said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”  (Mar 3:32-35)

Family roots are where we learn and derive our cultural identity yet, Jesus declares that he will identify himself with, and fellowship with “whoever does the will of God.”   After Jesus is raised from the dead this idea becomes even more clear:

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven… Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians–we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”  (Act 2:5,9-11)

People from every possible background were coming under a single banner.  Instead of identifying first with their heritage, they identified first with the people of God.  This does not invalidate our heritage.  On the contrary, each of us through our background brings something special to the body of Christ, especially when we have the courage to move outside of our cultural comfort zones.  The beauty of people from all walks of life and backgrounds worshipping their creator on equal footing is a unique of the Body of Christ.

For many, this is one of the hardest kinds of separation.  Giving God priority over every aspect of your cultural identity and values may cause some to see you as a traitor.  In some Islamic cultures it could get you killed.   Among immigrants, sometimes simply by not attending the ethnic church one may be considered no longer even a member of that ethnic group!  Stand firm, this is a trick of the devil to slow you down.  Even if they accuse you of losing your cultural identity, you can know in your heart that you are not losing it, but redeeming it in Christ.   As we saw in Acts, Jesus wants and loves a group of worshippers from every kind of background.

Pleasures of this world.
Many people mistakenly believe that God is against pleasure.   In fact it was God who created pleasure.   The problem is that because of our fallen nature, many of the things that we naturally desire are not good for us and those around us.   Since they are destructive, the devil tries everything possible to lure, tempt and supercharge our interest in them.

Sexual activity outside of marriage is one of the biggest temptations.  It does not matter if it is cheating on your spouse, or if you have never been married.   It doesn’t matter if it is between someone of the same sex or the opposite sex.  God has uniquely designed man and woman for one another and for sex to be part of a lifelong bonding relationship.   When we violate this design, all kinds of unintended negative consequences result.

Alcohol and substance abuse is another area of temptation.   Because the Bible does not devote much attention to these areas, people often rationalize it.   It is destructive to your physical body, your emotional health, and it is costly!

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19)

There are many other ways that people are lured away by the world.   Many of them are not innately wrong, but if done in large proportion they have a tendency to lead you away from the things of God and toward the things of the world.   This includes things like computer games, television, hobbies, and news reading.  We find ourselves with no passion for God because we are full of the interests, and distractions of the world.    If something like this keeps you from God or consumes a lot of your time, challenge yourself by laying it down for a season, and seeking God instead.   You may find like I did that, you are much happier without it altogether.

We should neither be making long lists of “dos” and “don’ts” that are not in the Bible, nor making excuses for compromise.   The soul that is in love with God desires to be as close to Him as possible, and seeks the habits that will promote that.

The ideas of the world
While most people recognize that turning to God will have an impact on relationships and personal purity, coming into the Kingdom of God also addresses the ideologies that we align ourselves with.  This is not about political affiliation, but about submission to God’s way of thinking.  For some people this is a minor area of concerns, and for others it is a major struggle.

Being a Christian means acknowledging God as the supreme creator.  The entire basis of the world’s thinking relies on evolution, which involves chance, mutation and death over incredibly long periods of time.  God did not create through chance, mutation or death.  He created spontaneously and out of nothing.  The modern scientific academy does not accept this, not because of the evidence, but because if one wants to reject God, they need a system to believe in which deletes His influence.   In fact, in many areas, there is a stunning lack of evidence for evolution.   If evolution is removed people come face to face with a creator, and that means having to face His claims on their life and behavior.

Another area where the God’s values come in direct conflict with the world is the infinitely high value He places on life.  Not only did He create us, He sent His son to die to save us.   The devaluation and ultimate destruction of life is one of the main agendas of the enemy.  He came “only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10).   This devaluation of life is seen in many areas.   Slavery and human trafficking is one of the most horrible.   Killing a baby before it is born, known as “abortion,” is another.   Some are more subtle.   Killing or “euthanizing” the elderly, or using the stem cells from aborted babies, or working people to death in sweat shops are other ways that the devil devalues human life.   Being a Christian means placing the same value for life that God himself places on it from start to finish.  Sometimes this leads to hard moral choices, but those choices must begin by placing the same esteem for human life that God does.

There are many other deceptive philosophies which can ensnare us, but the key is that we submit them to the Word of God.   The Bible speaks directly to the roots of every philosophical or political system ever created.  Being submitted to God means submitting our ideologies too and weighing them against what God teaches us in the Scripture.

Freedom Manual – Salvation

The Problem
Christianity is unique among all of the world’s religions because its portrait of the nature of man is so dim, and its remedy so dramatic. In Christianity, getting right with God is not a matter of self-improvement or even self denial. It is not a matter of offering some kind of sacrifice to God to appease Him. Christians recognize that every human problem ultimately goes back to one thing: sin.
Most people are quick to say “Nobody’s perfect,” but looking around us, and inwardly, we find that it’s not just that we are not perfect. It’s more serious. The Bible says it this way:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Rom 3:10-12)

Stated plainly, we’re evil by nature. Some people, who have been exposed to the darker side of humanity, or have seen the horrors they are capable of committing, are quick to realize this fact. Others, however, are convinced because of some good things that they have done that they are “good people.” How can you be evil if you don’t feel evil inside?

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Some people have even spent a lifetime trying to do what they believe is right, which is something to be commended, yet, nothing is able is able to change the fundamental fact of human nature. If we were good by nature, we wouldn’t have to try, it would be natural! Any one who is honest will quickly tell you that they fall short of even their own standards of good, much less God’s standards.

Where it Came From
You may be asking yourself, how could a loving God create something evil? In fact, he did not. When God created the world everything was good;

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)

But when God created the man and the woman, he gave them a choice. He placed two trees in the garden with them: The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And He only gave them one instruction:

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen 2:16-17)

He did not place any other restriction on their behavior. He simply gave them this one choice. Either they could choose to follow His way, or they could choose their own. They chose to reject His way and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they ate from the tree, they “fell” from their perfect relationship, satisfaction and peace with God to a place of separation and insecurity. The fruit they ate was corrupting and they became corrupt. Not only was this the beginning of all of the problems of mankind, it was also the pattern by which all sin is committed. We choose our own way instead of God’s. We inherited the corrupted nature they got from their sin, and have never stopped it.

Separation
Although man is evil, God on the other hand, is good by nature. He is Love. He is kind by nature. He is gentle, patient, longsuffering, and every other virtue one could use to describe Him. This creates a problem. Evil can not be in fellowship with good. In fact, because God is good, and just, He is compelled to deal with evil. When someone that people believe to be guilty is found not guilty, everyone is outraged because it is a miscarriage of justice. Deep inside we sense that a wrong must be punished in some way. If someone steals from us, they should repay us. If someone hurts us, they should go to prison.

Our evil nature and all of the sins it leads us to commit in life cannot be ignored. In fact, it is amazing how easy it is for us to ignore our own sins, but hard to ignore the sins of others! Our sins deserve justice.

For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)

In fact, sin is the reason that we all die. Had sin never entered the world through Adam and Even, and had they eaten of the Tree of Life instead, there would be no death. Yet, if there is one certainty in this life, it is death. All of the greatest kings and queens, popes and generals ultimately must face it. Our lives are fleetingly short and fragile. Only one mistake in a car, or one random act of violence, separates us from death. Life is like a young hot shot driving his car to the edge of a cliff at high speed: He will not know the cliff is there until it is too late. Everything seems fine, and then suddenly it’s all over.

Unfortunately there is nothing that we could offer which can remedy the situation. No amount of money can change us from sinners to righteous. No amount of work can change us from evil to good. We stand condemned by our sin before a holy and just God and we are unable to fix it.
All of the world’s religions have tried in some way or another to address this problem. Some deny that sin exists, some provide strict moral structures, some provide hope for a reincarnated life in which to improve, but none is able to fix the fundamental problem. The world religions and the best human efforts have failed because mankind is unable to bridge the gap. We are separated from God and without hope.

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ… having no hope and without God in the world. ( Ephesians 2:12)

Our separation from God is more than momentary. We are separated from God and deserving of death, after which we will launch out into an eternity without Him, where we will pay the due penalty for our sin forever in hell. The Bible says that “it is appointed to men once to die, and then the judgment.” The cares of this life and the emphasis that many modern preachers place on the here and now obscures this fact. Some even teach that Christians will not face a judgment, but only rewards. Jesus says, however, that “men will be made to give account for every careless word they have spoken.”

There is a final judgment, and everyone will face it. The question is what will you face. While everyone will face a review of their lives and deeds, at the end of that review, we will either find forgiveness and mercy, or we will find everlasting punishment. The hard truth is that those who have turned away from their sins and placed their trust in Jesus in this life will find mercy, and those who have not, will not. Because many pastors do not want to scare and bully people into salvation they have neglected teaching people this hard truth. Although God is not wanting anyone to go there, Hell is a real place and it is a terrible place to be. While no one knows for certain exactly what it will be like, the Bible speaks of it as the “lake of fire” and as a place where the “worm never dies.” Even more significantly it is a place where people are eternally cut off from the love of God. It is hard for me to imagine a day without love, much less an eternity.

On the other hand, heaven is a real place. Heaven is a place where all of our sins will be washed away and forgotten forever. It is a place where we will enjoy endless love and fellowship with God through Jesus. It is a place of unimaginable beauty of all kinds. Music the ear has never heard, and sights that no eye has ever seen. It is a place of endless fellowship with a God who loves us more than we could possibly imagine, and with others who love Him. This too has been lost in our quest for material success and wealth. The most important people and richest people in history all have one thing in common: they are all dead. All of the riches in the world will amount to nothing when you die. This life is so short in comparison with the vastness of eternity. We must live our lives with eternity in mind. When we face opposition and trial, if we are caught up in this life, then we will be continually frustrated, but if we live with heaven in mind, then every trial seems small in comparison to the incredible reward before us.

God’s Solution
Although the gap between evil and good has proven impossible for man to bridge, God has provided a way: He sent his Son Jesus to accept the punishment for evil that we deserved.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

How could God kill his own Son? Jesus willingly volunteered because of his surpassing love for us. It is an almost unimaginable act of heroism. Jesus took the punishment for your sin on the cross. Even though you are wicked at heart, and have no hope of your own to be reconciled to Him, God loved you enough to die for you so that you could be reconciled with Him. And not only reconciled, but be given a new, clean heart, and eternal life. Although God has provided the answer to life’s fundamental problem surprisingly few accept this answer:

For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Many people simply do not want to leave their life of sin. If being right with God means leaving their life of sin, they do not want to have anything to do with it. Christianity is offensive because it declares that everyone is a sinner and needs to repent. Those who do not want to face these hard facts create elaborate rationalizations of why the Gospel must not be true. These rationalizations may be complex theories or philosophies, or simple avoidance, but the point is the same – deny the Lord in order to enjoy the pleasures of sin.

Many others reject Jesus because believing they are good already. Sometimes within their own constructed morality, and sometimes even within Christian morality, such people are trying to essentially earn their way to heaven. They recognize right and wrong in the world, and are convinced that because they are more moral than someone else they know that they are therefore going to heaven. Or most sadly of all, they are convinced by their ability to outwardly obey the Ten Commandments that they are in right standing with God.

Jesus declares that the problem is so bad that repentance alone will not even solve the problem. The only way to a relationship with God is to believe in Jesus.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Jesus death for us gives all of us chance to fix what was broken in the Garden of Eden. Going our own way and refusing God’s solution for sin is like choosing to eat from the forbidden tree all over again. But choosing to accept Jesus as payment we deserve for our sin is eating for the Tree of Eternal Life. Rejecting human effort and placing our trust in Jesus is called faith. The person who wants to be saved must turn from their sins, submit their lives to God and believe His Son for their salvation.

Real Salvation
We live in a time where faith in Jesus is too often boiled down to simply raising your hand in a meeting. In reality, salvation is about turning your life around. Before you are saved you are headed in the direction of the world, which leads to destruction, and after you are saved, you are headed in the direction of heaven, which leads to eternal life. This does not mean that everything is fixed overnight, but it means there is a definite change of heart. It means that there is a desire to obey God regardless of the cost and what others think about it.

Many who call themselves Christian and attend church weekly are actually in a very dangerous state. Believing that salvation only consists of being a faithful member of a church, or praying a prayer one time at the altar, they continue their lives without concern. Salvation is not an “add on” to our existing life. It’s a total replacement. Real salvation involves a total examination of all of our beliefs and values to get them into line with God’s beliefs and values. Real salvation for Zaccheus meant righting all of those he had wronged and even giving half of his possessions away as a way of repudiating his former life of extorting money from people.

Real salvation means turning away from every other hope of reconciliation with God. If there were any other way to be saved, God would never have sent His only Son to die in our place. Jesus died to make a way where there was no way. A moral code, even a good one, is not a sufficient remedy for the depth of problem that mankind faces. While many people try their best to be good people, the fact that it takes so much effort to people to “try” and be good shows that something deeper is at work. It’s not just that we may have told a “little white lie” once. It’s that our hearts are inwardly corrupt. We are in need of more than a moral code, we are literally in need of a new life. Only one person can promise that, and that is Jesus.

Salvation is Now

The Holy Spirit is kind to us, not wanting anyone to perish, but wanting everyone to repent and spend eternity with God. He draws us toward Him, giving us sometimes subtle, and sometimes crystal clear opportunities to choose Him. Many reject him however. Some reject Jesus because they love selfish pleasure more than what is right. They know in their hearts that he is the true and only way to salvation but they do not want to turn away from their sin of choice. Because of this they delay and delay until it is too late.

Those who think that they can postpone getting right with God really are making a choice: a choice to reject God and play roulette with the future. None of us is promised another chance. When I was sixteen, on a sunny day in Georgia on a church trip, the driver rolled the van killing one of my friends, disfiguring another, and nearly killing me. I cannot tell you to this day how I could possibly have survived being thrown from the van onto the pavement. But I can tell you neither I nor my friends planned on dying when we got in the car that morning. If you’re not ready to die, then you’re really not ready to live.