Trusting Jesus

  • David Fairchild
  • Jan 13, 2008
  • Series: Encountering Jesus

TEXT

Luke 7:1-10: "After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. 3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.' 6 And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, ‘Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, "Go," and he goes; and to another, "Come," and he comes; and to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.' 9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, ‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.' 10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well."

INTRODUCTION

We're beginning a new series of messages called, "Encountering Jesus." The purpose of this series is fairly self-explanatory. We want to encounter Jesus as we come to see Him through various portraits as we listen in on His conversations. We want to hear from Him as we let His parables penetrate our hearts with questions and claims that move us to think about Him in new ways. Lastly, we want to be with Him as we sit in on His parties and meals with sinners throughout the New Testament. Portraits, Parables and Parties of Jesus will keep us close to Him for several months and prayerfully move our hearts to a greater apprehension of His deep, deep love for us as we respond in worshipful love towards Him and others.

There are sections of the Bible that are incredibly rich and cause us to stop and think deeply about various theological truths. They are all profitable and are important for us to hear and study so that we grow in our faith. However, when we look straight at Jesus and eavesdrop on His conversations, listen to His parables, and dine with Him at the table with fellow sinners, we are brought face to face with the most dominant figure of human history.

Who is this Man, Jesus?

I'm convinced that the most important question we can ask as believers in Jesus is, "Who is this Man, Jesus?" It may seem like a silly question since most here this morning already claim to know Him. But knowing about someone and knowing them in a deep and personal way are two totally different things. How many marriages drift apart because the couple stops learning about one another? How many times have we heard things like, "I feel like I just don't know her/him anymore?" It's heartbreaking when we fail to grow deeper in our human relationships and this truth is all the more profound when speaking about a figure like Jesus who will take eternity to learn about.

Well, who is He?

It makes no difference whether you come from educated or uneducated stock. Whether you are rich or poor, employed or unemployed, healthy or sick, old or young, tall or short or any various race or background, Jesus is hard to ignore.

More paintings have been painted of Jesus, more songs have been sung to Jesus, more books have been written about Jesus, and more opinions have been offered about Jesus than any other person our world has ever encountered.

T-shirts, movies, trinkets, bobble-heads, and bumper-stickers all bear Jesus' name, teaching or image. Debates, university classes, TV documentaries are used to discuss Him. We're even asked, "What would Jesus do, wear, drive, and eat?"

Almost two billion Christians claim to follow Him. More than one billion Muslims claim to honor Him as a prophet. The leading Jewish theologians respect Him as a great rabbi. His image can be found in Hindu temples and teachings. A host of nut-jobs have claimed to be Him. Even the academic world tips their hat at how luminous a figure He has been. Jaroslav Pelikan, professor emeritus of history at Yale writes:

Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries...It is from his birth that most of the human race dates its calendars; it is by his name that millions curse and in his name that millions pray.

Regardless of all the attention Jesus gets, most people have little idea about who He really is as a person, even those of us who worship him.

When we see Jesus in film He often looks odd and out of place. He seems to be very somber and not terribly happy. He usually comes across as being fairly constipated and not much fun to be around, and with little range of emotions. He walks slowly, talks slowly and His movements are slow. He usually doesn't blink in films, which is just weird. To see Jesus with real emotion as He smiles, laughs, speaks or cries is usually uncomfortable for us because He seems too, well, human for us. We prefer Him to be far off and so different He just barely resembles a human. We kind of like Him 150% God and 50% human.

But as we look with fresh eyes at Jesus these next few months, lets try to reorient our view of Jesus and challenge what we think we already know about Him. I want us to experience what Albert Einstein did when he read the Gospels. he said:

I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene...Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrase-mongers, however artful...No man can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word.

Going to the Gospels to get Jesus

So we go to the Gospels to encounter Jesus. We call the books Matthew, Mark, Luke and John the Gospels. Though every page whispers His name, and though Jesus teaches us in Luke 24 that the entire Bible is the Gospel, we have come to recognize these four books as the "good news" accounts of Jesus.

They each give us a unique look at Jesus through various perspectives. We take these accounts and put them together to get a rich, three-dimensional portrait of Jesus.

Every author of the various Gospels offers us a glimpse of Jesus through their eyes. Matthew, a former tax-collector is much a like a highly intelligent car salesman. He could read people really well, and so we get insights in His accounts that are penetrating. He is the best one to give us insight into Judas' betrayal since Matthew was a betrayer of the Jewish people and knew what lurked in the hearts of men and motivated them to such actions.

Mark is Peter's traveling companion and his style is like Peter, fast-paced, in-your-face, action-packed, and all about Jesus getting things done. It's written to Romans so his audience wouldn't have appreciated long genealogies, nor would they have cared. They simply wanted to know, "Can Jesus get stuff done?"

Luke, the educated doctor gathers various accounts together to put in a historical narrative that is accurate and detailed. Luke, as a doctor, cared for people and you see this as he shows Jesus' love and care for the "little people" in this world and how often the "big people" overlooked those less than them.

John was exceptionally close to Jesus and his account is up-close and personal. He offers us a glimpse of Jesus that is both incredibly tender, yet no less than God Himself.

Each of the writers calls us to come closer to Jesus. To see Him as so compelling that He's simply irresistible. Each writer calls us to encounter Him in ways that break through categories and mere speculation.

Luke's Gospel

This morning we'll begin in the Gospel of Luke, the doctor. We come to Luke asking ourselves what it is that Luke is telling us about Jesus. What is it that he wants us to know? In other words, what portrait is he painting for us to see?

One thing which is consistent in the Gospel of Luke is the idea of Jesus being a Savior. This makes perfect sense coming from Luke the physician because the word for "salvation" and "healing" is the same word, sozo in the Greek.

The idea is that Jesus' salvation brings healing to us. This doesn't mean just some topical financial fix, or even a physical healing. It means that Jesus heals us in ways that are even deeper and more significant than our financial or physical state. Jesus is looking to heal us in at the center of who we are, at our soul.

Jesus comes to heal what's wrong within us, and Jesus comes to heal what's wrong between us. He comes to deal with what keeps us from God, from each other, and from ourselves. But how?

Luke shows us that the way in which this kind of healing (salvation) comes into our lives is through faith. Faith is what Luke is calling us to have in Jesus.

But what is faith? How does it come to us if we don't have it? What do we do to get it? How does it work?

Christians have come to learn that faith is the way in which Jesus' healing power comes into our lives. But what is that? How can we be sure it's genuine?

The last chapter, chapter six, ends with Jesus giving a parable about a man who built his house upon a rock with a solid foundation, and the one who built his rock upon the ground without a good foundation and the difference between the two when the floods came. One was washed away and one was saved.

His point couldn't be clearer; it's about building on the right foundation.

So now, we immediately move into chapter seven and the teaching begins to show us what it means to have the right foundation through faith. This whole chapter is about trusting in Jesus by faith.

Jesus draws us to the point of the Centurion story by praising his great faith (v. 9). Luke is showing us in these various stories that it doesn't make a difference who you are or what you've done, faith is the key.

This story shows us what it was that Jesus was praising about His faith. It doesn't look like much here does it? Yet something was beautiful about this. So much so that Jesus marveled and praised this man's faith. I would assume we'd all want a faith which Jesus holds up and says, "Look, this is incredible! You should have faith in Me like this!"

How do we develop faith like this?

How do you get it? Where does it come from? How does it come to us? How does faith develop?

The answer is that faith already comes naturally to us, but faith in Jesus almost always comes disruptively.

Faith comes naturally

Faith is inevitable. We all have it. Of course we have to define it, but every one of us here this morning, whether a believer in Jesus or not, runs on the fuel of faith. Faith of some kind comes as naturally as breathing.

In this story the centurion, which was a Roman leader of 100 soldiers, has a servant whom he loves that is suddenly paralyzed and is about to die. The centurion probably felt since he was a Gentile that it would be best if he sent the religious leaders from his town to go and ask Jesus to heal his servant.

The elders go to Jesus, not because they believe in Jesus, but because this centurion is their patron and has built them a synagogue. We know they don't believe from Luke's Gospel. The religious leaders don't believe in Jesus, yet they go because the centurion does.

What's the difference between them? Luke shows us in verse 4.

In verse 4, the religious leaders tell Jesus that He should heal this man because he's worthy:

Verse 4: "And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘He is worthy to have you do this for him'"

They think this man, because of what he's done, is worthy to have Jesus' healing power to come into his life.

But, in verse 6, the centurion says just the opposite. He says he's not worthy of Jesus' healing power to come into his life:

Verse 6: "And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, ‘Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.'"

The religious leaders on the one hand don't believe. Well, they don't believe in Jesus. But it would be inaccurate to say they don't have faith. They have tremendous faith. The genuinely believe. They really do trust in something. It's just not Jesus.

The religious leaders don't have faith in Jesus, but they do have faith in their own moral performance. They trust and hope in the truth that they can merit God's approval in their life through their moral actions and performance.

This is the complexity of unbelief. And I might have to say this twice for us to get, though I think you'll pick it up.

You can never disbelieve in Jesus without first believing more deeply and fundamentally in something else at that moment. If you don't believe in God, if you don't trust Jesus, it's not because you don't have faith, it's because you have some other belief which is just as much faith in a foundational belief in something else.

It's very easy to say in our day that nobody can be sure about God, no one can be certain when it comes to some truth about Jesus. Really? How can you be sure? How can you be certain about that particular truth about Jesus?

How can you be so sure that you can't know about God? How can you be so sure that we can't know anything about Him? By saying you can be sure that you can't be sure, you're saying something sure about God. How can you be so sure that no one can be right about God? Are you then right about that?

The answer is troubling. Faith! Of course the person who tells us we can't be sure about God can't prove what they're saying. Since they can't prove it, it's theological statement of faith about God. It's held on to and is the basis for your destiny and it's by faith. In other words, you've taken a belief about God and are basing not only your future but your present actions on faith and holding it tightly and you're sure about it.

That's why if someone doesn't believe in Jesus, it's because they believe in something by faith that they can't prove.

It's no wonder that most who have come to faith in Jesus have come to realize that what they previously believed before coming to Jesus required just as much faith, just as much belief in that which they could not prove, that they came to trust in the person who by His sheer beauty was overwhelmingly compelling.

In other words, when you are looking at Jesus ahead of you, you see that you must trust Him by faith to know Him. But when you look behind you, you begin to see, if you're awake, that the gap to belief in some other story is just as substantial and will require tremendous faith to believe. There is no such thing as suspended belief. We are always believing something at every moment.

Even facts and evidences have to be filtered through our beliefs about reality. We are actively trusting that we can really know anything at all. We don't take in facts in abstraction since they are filtered through our belief system. There are no "bare facts" since all facts enter into our worldview and are interpreted by us. The only reason we know we're not in some Matrix program and that reality is really real, is because a God who stands outside of time, yet dwells within time, and is the very sum total of reality and is the basis for reality, teaches us that we really exist and have meaning, value, and purpose. He is the basis for reality and therefore we know what is real through knowing Him.

The point is simple; no one can reject Jesus without a great step of faith. In one sense faith is almost natural. However, we need the Holy Spirit's supernatural work to direct our faith to Jesus. But our faith was already going somewhere. It just had to be turned to Christ, it had to be redirected to Jesus. So not only is faith inevitable, faith in Jesus almost always comes disruptively.

Faith in Jesus comes disruptively

The centurion doesn't call to Jesus until there is a trauma in his life. He calls when someone very dear to him is about to die. This is often the case when it comes to faith in Jesus. We usually don't ask the big questions in life, or call for Jesus to come, unless something is happening to us where we realize that we are no longer in control and desperately need help.

We don't ask why we're here, and what our purpose is and meaning in life when we're relaxing on a beach in Hawaii drinking a Mai Tai. Those types of questions are too frightening for most of us and are easily avoidable as long as we're busy. It's only when something happens to us or to someone we love that we stop to ask questions that we should have asked all along but avoided.

The key to spiritual blandness is to keep ourselves busy from thinking. This is why our culture is perfectly suited for cheap answers to deep questions. This is why disruptions surprise us, because we are entertaining ourselves to death. We're keeping ourselves so busy that we don't have time to stop and think about what it could all mean. Those that sense something is wrong, end up fairly hopeless because they are sensitive enough to know there has to be more, but busy enough and without enough patience to actually think it through.

The question that is usually the most shocking during a time of great trauma is why we never asked such questions before. Nobody wants to ask them when life is moving along nicely. But life has a way of not always moving along nicely. And since we haven't asked these questions before, when a tough time comes, we're not prepared. The only way you can even begin to ask profound questions about Jesus and faith that is more than just simple curiosity, is when we are disrupted by something we probably don't want and we are almost forced into it.

There are many people, including myself, who struggle with those who find Jesus in a prison cell, in the hospital, or after some great tragedy. But why should this be inauthentic? For many, how else would it happen?

If there is a God that we're built for, the vague uneasiness we feel when things are good can not be ignored when things go bad. The bad times don't create the need, they just reveal it.

Every now and again lightening will strike during a clear day, but most of the time it happens when the ominous clouds hang overhead. Faith and illumination can come out of the blue, but it usually comes out of a cloudy sky or some stormy night of our soul. Faith most often comes when something is going wrong. Maybe this is the reason you're having some stormy days?

II. What is it?

How do we even define this kind of faith? If faith comes naturally and faith in Jesus usually comes disruptively, what kind of faith is it? What is it made up of? How is it different than any other kind of faith?

We learn a couple of things about the centurion's faith. Saving faith has a new direction and a new foundation.

Saving faith has a new direction

Faith has to be redirected to Jesus. Jesus is praising this man's faith and holding it up as an example to us, so we have to look at it carefully. Luke is teaching us about the kind of faith that brings Jesus' healing power into our lives.

To have faith, it has to be in the right direction.

Verses 7-8: "Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

This is really interesting. On the one hand, this man is showing great faith. He's saying that he realizes Jesus can simply speak the words from where He is and his servant will be healed. That's a great trust in Jesus.

Yet on the other hand, the man hasn't quite figured it all out. He says that Jesus is a man under authority just like him. In other words, it isn't that this man had authority, he's a centurion which means he reports to the general and the general reports to the emperor. He says he is under this authority of the emperor, but he doesn't have authority in himself. And though it is true that Christ submitted to the Father's will, the man hasn't put all the pieces together yet. Yet Jesus' divine power enters into the man's life by healing his servant.

It's the same with the story of the man in Mark 9 that came to Jesus and asked Him to heal his Son. Jesus' response is, "If you believe, anything is possible for the one that believes" (Mark 9:23). The man responds by saying, "I believe; help my unbelief!" (v. 24).

What is the man saying? He's saying he does believe, but his belief isn't all the way pure; it isn't totally, 100% certain yet. He wants to believe all the way, but he still has remaining doubts and he's asking Jesus to help him. He doesn't say to Jesus "oh, yeah, sure, I believe, so can you please do it?" He is honest with Jesus about where he is and Jesus' healing power enters into the man's life by healing his son.

What do these two stories teach us? They teach us that it isn't the strength of your faith which saves you but the object of your faith which matters.

It isn't the perfection of your faith that matters, but the direction of your faith. It is a redirection of your faith from other objects onto Jesus for your security.

In our culture we have almost entirely subjected faith. In San Diego it's common to hear people say, "It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you believe with your whole heart!"

But there are significant problems with that statement. Hitler believed with his whole heart, but he believed the wrong thing and it destroyed him and millions of others.

Two climbers

Two mountain climbers are climbing perilously close to the edge of the mountain and it gives way. They're trapped on a ledge and have to leap to one of two rocky outcroppings next to them. They're deciding which rock is stable enough to hold their weight without giving way and one of the hikers says, "I'm sure it's this one. I have no doubts at all." He leaps and the rock crumbles under him and he falls to his death. The other man isn't sure, but believes the rock will save him. He says to himself, "I think it will hold me, but I'm not totally sure, I hope it will. I can't believe I'm going to do this," and he leaps to the rock, it is stable underneath him and he's saved.

Now, who was saved? The man who was 100% sure and believed with his whole heart and had no doubts? No! It was the man who believed in the right rock! It's not the strength of your faith that saves you, but the object of your faith.

This should help you along in your faith. The man who leapt and was saved by the right rock suddenly had certainty in the rock when he came to see that it could bear his weight. It's the same with Christ. Many of us have come trembling to Jesus and have said to Him, "I believe, help my unbelief." And when we come to learn more and more about His character, His love, His grace, His consistency, His patience, and His promise that He'll never leave nor forsake us, we see that He can bear that weight of our life and we learn to trust Him even more as we come to know Him more personally.

We have to be careful when we read the Scriptures in places that say, "Your faith has saved you," because we usually read it through the lens of our own inadequacies and say to ourselves, "You see, my faith isn't like that, I still have some lingering doubts and I can't even compare. Surely he can't save me." But don't you see that you're turning your faith into the rock when you do that? He's the rock, not your faith. Your faith is simply a conduit to get you to the rock!

C.S. Lewis captures the idea of what faith initially feels like in a children's story. A schoolgirl named Jill Pole goes to a stream to drink, but at the side of the stream lies a large lion. She stops. The lion tells her, "If you're thirsty, you may drink." Jill hesitates.

"Are you not thirsty?" said the Lion.
"I'm dying of thirst," said Jill.
"Then drink," said the Lion.
"May I-could I-would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill.
The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl...
"Will you promise not to-do anything to me if I come?" said Jill.
"I make no promise," said the Lion...
"Do you eat girls?" she said.
"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.
"I dare not come and drink," said Jill.
"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.
"Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I must go and look for another stream, then."
"There is no other stream," said the Lion.

Of course, in this story, Jill represents us and the Lion represent Jesus. Like Jill, we are drawn by the fresh water, but we're afraid, we're trembling, we aren't sure yet and so we step a little more. We don't want to lose all control, yet our souls are parched and we're dying for a drink. The truth is, we're like Jill. We want the Lion to sit there politely and not change us. We want Him to promise not to do anything to us. But He makes no such promise. Not only this, He tells us that He's swallowed up many into Himself. There are no other streams.

How much faith did the man need to jump to the ledge to be saved? Who knows? It was just enough for him to jump. How much faith did the man need to have his son healed? Who knows, it doesn't say. It was just enough to come to Jesus. How much faith does the little girl need to take a drink? Just enough to come close and drink. How much faith did the centurion need to so that his servant was healed? Who knows? It was only enough to call Jesus, and Jesus' healing power entered his life.

This is why we sing the hymn we just sang called "Just as I am." It says:

Just as I am though tossed about, with many conflicts many doubts
Just as I am poor wretched blind, but all I need in thee I find
Just as I am I come, Lamb of God I come, I come to thee

Many conflicts, many doubts, yet I still come because everything I need, even help with my faith will come from the Lamb of God.

This is why we need our faith to be changed to a new direction. It has to be taken from the category of faith in general, and put upon an object, Jesus.

But it isn't just a new direction of our faith. Saving faith also has to have a new foundation.

Saving faith has a new foundation

The centurion is a pretty amazing example for us. He's already a virtuous man, so the idea that he's coming to Jesus to be a better guy, to be more moral or more virtuous really doesn't fit. Virtue isn't his problem. Look at verses 4 and 5:

Verses 4-5: "And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.'"

The religious elders said this man is worthy because he loves our nation. This man didn't have the same disdain that other Roman centurions had over conquered inhabitants. Also, he built them a synagogue out of his own money which meant he was incredibly generous and perhaps he was even a God-fearer, a Gentile who had come to worship the God of the Jews. Maybe he simply had respect for their religion because it had great morality or virtue in its sacred writings.

This man was good, just, devout, and very generous. People don't become like this unless they work hard at it. Yet something is beginning to change for this man.

What did the religious leaders say to Jesus about him? He is worthy, so do what he asks. But what does the centurion himself say? He says he's unworthy.

Now, at this point without looking any further, it would be natural to assume the next words are, "So don't do what I'm asking, don't even consider it. I'm unworthy, unclean and don't deserve your healing power. I withdraw my request."

The leaders said he's worthy, so do what he asks, but if the centurion would have said, "I'm not worthy, so don't do what I ask," he would have been thinking the same way that they did and he would never have had saving faith.

You see, in that paradigm of belief, God's power comes into the life of the worthy, the virtuous, the morally clean, the generous, and those who deserve it. To say, "He's worthy, do what he asks," or, "I'm not worthy, don't do what I ask," is really the same thing. They may disagree as to whether he's worthy or not, but both these views agree that the basis for God's favor is our worthiness.

But this isn't what the centurion said is it?

The centurion shows us what real Gospel faith looks like by getting it. He's not saying, "I'm worthy so please do it," or, "I'm not worthy, so please don't." He says "I'm not worthy, so please do what I ask!" This is an entirely different category of faith. Its foundation isn't our worthiness at all. Its foundation is the grace and favor of Jesus. It doesn't make any sense unless your foundation is completely changed. It doesn't fit any other religion. It doesn't fit any other philosophy. It simply doesn't fit until you encounter Jesus.

The centurion comes to believe, "I'm not worthy, and You, Jesus, are all worthy, but I ask you to bring your healing power into my life on some other basis than my moral virtue, which is insufficient." Jesus essentially says, "Now he's starting to get it!"

Saving faith is not simply believing in something. Saving faith is not even believing in Jesus in general (there are a whole host of people who claim to believe in Jesus). Saving faith is transferring your foundational trust from anything else, to Jesus. It's taking your fundamental life trust and moving it to Jesus. The centurion's trust was his strength, virtue, and moral performance. Now it's Jesus. This is why he says, "I'm not worthy." He knows that his virtue won't merit Jesus' favor towards him. Jesus responds and then praises his faith and says, "That's it! See?"

The religious elders didn't get it because they still were operating on the basis of performance rather than grace. They didn't want to lose control. They wanted to have a say in their salvation by holding onto their virtue. To say that they were unworthy was to say that all their hard effort had come to nothing. All their hard work was useless. They simply couldn't let that go.

There is an account of Nathan Cole's conversion experience back in 1741 and he writes what he had come to see, and what I believe we all have to come and see in order to have the kind of saving faith that Jesus would praise. He says this:

And my hearing him preach gave me a heart wound; by Gods blessing my old foundation was broken up, and I saw that my righteousness would not save me.

Has this happened to you? Have you been given a heart wound? Have you come to see, by God's blessing, that your old foundation, your old security is no longer sufficient and that your righteousness will not save you?

Does such a teaching worry you? Are you a little put off by the idea that your virtue and performance are insufficient? Then according to this story you're in the camp of the religious people that simply didn't get it.

Are you concerned that if you believe that it's all of grace, it's all what Jesus has done and nothing else, that you'll no longer have any incentive to be virtuous and work at being holy?

Are you saying to yourself, "If God's favor can never be taken away from me because it isn't about my performance, than what motivation do I have for being moral or doing any good works?"

Don't you see that if you lose all incentive for being holy and doing good deeds when your fear of losing your salvation is gone, then your motivation for doing all your deeds was never love, but fear? It's been fear all along, not joyful gratitude. Your foundation has to be moved from yourself and placed onto Jesus as your only security and until then, all deeds will be deadly and destructive.

Lay your deadly doing down, down and Jesus feet
Stand in Him, in Him alone, gloriously complete!

 

0 Comments | Login to Post Comments