Paul Washer Explains What's Happening

Are you a Christian?

I am a Christian, that is my faith. Being a Christian, hard.

You can't get where I get if you don't love the Lord.

Because my faith is involved with, I'm a Christian and a Catholic and that's...

There are places in the world where almost everyone will say they are a Christian, such as the Bible Belt in the United States and some parts of Africa.

This is a question that I've asked many people on a number of occasions. Some of them informal, some of them formal. We had student interviews at ACU last couple of weeks. It's a question that we ask, are you a Christian?

It's amazing the kind of answers you get from people when you ask that question, are you a Christian? In a place like this, very few people will answer no. Very few people you run into in Zambia and ask, are you a Christian?

And they say no. If they do say no, it's because they have another religion. So they would be a Hindu or they would be a Muslim and they would say, no, I'm not a Christian, I'm a this. But other than that, no matter what, it's yes.

But what do most people mean when they say they are a Christian? Many people who profess to be Christians don't have an answer to that basic question.

But then it gets real serious when you ask the next question, why? Now everything gets complicated and people will look at you with anything from shock that you would ask such a question to utter despair because they have no idea what to say next.

If you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch.

And when many professing Christians give an answer to that question, we find out that their answer demonstrates that they aren't truly Christians who believe the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

And oftentimes when we begin to answer the question, we give answers that are anything but the truth concerning the doctrine of salvation.

Vodie Bauckham explains two reasons why so many people who call themselves Christians aren't truly Christians.

Tradition as a False Basis for Salvation

But there are two obstacles to us having a right understanding of the doctrine of salvation. One is tradition and the other is theology.

Many call themselves Christians simply because they were raised as Christians, because their parents are Christians, because they are part of a Christian community, or because they simply do what Christians are supposed to do.

The tradition one, I'll give you an illustration that I've used frequently. There was a woman who cooked the roast for her husband and he always enjoyed the roast that she would cook. But he asked her, why is it that you always cut the ends off of the roast when you cook the roast?

And she said, well, I do that because my mother always did that. When you cook a roast, you cut the ends off the roast. And so next time they were with the in-laws, he asked the mother-in-law, why when you cook the roast, why do you cut the ends off when you cook the roast?

And the mother-in-law, you know, she says, well, you know, my mother always did that. So finally he gets to the grandmother and he says, listen, my wife, she cooks the roast, she cuts off the ends. Your daughter, my mother-in-law, she cooks the roast, she cuts off the ends.

And they both say they do it because that's what you always did. And the grandmother looks at him and says, well, my pans were always too small. Some of you will get that on the way home. But the fact is, many of the traditions we follow, we have no idea why.

And we can't explain them. And in church, we have traditions around Christianity. So you grew up in the church. And what do you do? Well, you believe in Jesus, you get baptized, and then you stop drinking, smoking, cursing, and don't have sex outside of marriage and saved.

And so someone asks you, are you a Christian? Yes. Why are you a Christian? Well, because I followed the tradition that I saw at church. I did the things that you're supposed to do in order to become a Christian.

Good Works, the Sinner’s Prayer, and Self-Righteousness

Similarly, Paul Washer points out that countless Christians believe they are Christians because of their own good works, which, of course, is not at all what the Bible teaches.

How do we know that we are Christian? So many today claim to have a faith in Christ. And yet when I press them, press them, press them, eventually they work themselves back around to their own self-righteousness.

But the true believer... Well, let me say it this way. It would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it would be for someone to pass into heaven with a shred of self-righteousness upon them.

Hey, this is Michael.

Yeah, the real Michael. If you like these videos, would you consider subscribing? It helps YouTube spread this message to more people. I'm giving away a beautiful handcrafted leather Bible every week, and I'm trying to pass Kenneth Copeland in subscribers to show that truth wins over false teaching.

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Many others say they are Christian because they prayed the prayer that supposedly saves you and makes you a Christian.

I'll tell you, that sinner's prayer has sent more people to hell than anything on the face of the earth. The scripture does not say that Jesus Christ came to the nation of Israel and said that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Now, who would like to ask me into their heart? I see that hand. It's not what it says. He said repent and believe the gospel.

However, being part of a family tradition or a Christian community or simply doing what Christians are supposed to do does not at all make someone a Christian. And countless professing Christians will be shocked when they die to discover that they were completely self-deceived about their spiritual state because their so-called Christianity had nothing to do with biblical Christianity or with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Listen to me carefully.

Hell will be filled with people who are baptized. Hell will be filled with people who don't drink and don't smoke and don't curse and didn't have sex outside of marriage. There will be millions of people in hell who can make every one of those claims because not one of those things makes you a Christian.

Theological Barriers to Understanding Salvation

Other Christians aren't truly Christians because their theology is fundamentally distorted. They refuse to accept particular parts of the gospel because they have their own personal ideas about who God should be or what the gospel should be.

Then there's the theological barrier and they're interrelated. The theological barrier comes because it's difficult to wrap your head around the doctrine of salvation. For example, there are four main metaphors that the Bible uses when addressing the doctrine of salvation.

The metaphor of marriage and redeeming a bride. The metaphor of slavery and someone being freed from slavery. The metaphor of crime and punishment and someone being freed from or having their guilt removed from them.

And then there's the metaphor of adoption and family. All of these metaphors teach various aspects of salvation but this becomes difficult for us.

For example, many professing Christians don't accept what the Bible teaches concerning God's wrath. Listen to what Rob Bell says.

And then there is the question behind the questions. The real question, what is God like? Because millions and millions of people were taught that the primary message, the center of the gospel of Jesus is that God is going to send you to hell unless you believe in Jesus.

And so what gets subtly sort of caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God. But what kind of God is that that we would need to be rescued from this God? How could that God ever be good? How could that God ever be trusted?

And how could that ever be good news?

Other Christians don't accept the Bible's teaching that not all humans are children of God and only believers are adopted into the family of God. Listen to what Steve Harvey says about people from other religions.

No one one way to heaven. No one way to paradise. It's like television. Now it's over 800 channels of cable and they're all pretty entertaining. So I'm pretty sure man that to get to heaven, there's got to be more than one route because somebody watching another channel or taking another channel than you, they still getting entertained and they probably still getting to heaven.

I named him Ali because I knew, I knew then. That he might be different. I knew. And you have no problems with it? No, because when you come here, you understand Islam is a religion of peace.

Why you got a problem with peace? And Oprah says something very similar.

One of the mistakes that human beings make is believing that there is only one way to live and that we don't accept that there are diverse ways of being in the world, that there are millions of ways to be a human being.

And many ways, no, but many paths to what you call God. That her path might be something else. And when she gets there, she might call it the light. But her loving and her kindness and her generosity brings her.

If it brings her to the same point that it brings you, it doesn't matter whether she called it God along the way or not.

Salvation by Grace Alone in Christ Alone

So what makes a Christian a Christian? The answer is actually very simple. A complete dependence upon and trust in God and Christ alone for salvation from sin and hell.

And so back to our question, are you a Christian? Yes, I'm a Christian. Why? Why? How can we ever answer with? Because I did this because I don't do that. How can we ever answer with anything other than.

Because God in his grace has included me in the greatest love story ever known. And in love, the father gave me to the son. In love, the son died to redeem me. In love, the spirit applied that redemption to me and opened my eyes so that I could love the one who first loved me.

So that I could love God more than I love my sin. So that I could love Christ and his redeeming work. So that I could be folded in to this beautiful, all encompassing, eternal reality. That is the love of God to the glory of God through the salvation of the elect.

Why? Why me? I have no idea. Maybe God will answer that someday, but I don't have to have an answer to that.

I don't need to know why he did it.

Just that he did.

God did it. And if we've been saved through faith alone in Christ alone. We've also been born again by God and now want to obey and serve God.

This is a transforming reality. And when we become a part of this transforming reality, it transforms us. And we now live to the glory of God. Because we now want to live to the glory of God.

In light of all of this, let's consider once again, these two foundational questions. So I ask you the question again.

Are you a Christian? But I want to ask you another question. The question number two, but I'll ask it differently. Would you answer question number two the same way now that you would have answered it when we began?

Or have you come to recognize that your answer was the wrong answer? And that you would locate yourself anywhere in this narrative? Because if that's the case, then I plead with you. Repent. Believe. Turn from your self-reliance.

Shatter the image of your world where you exist at the center for your own glory. And instead, see the beauty and majesty of this truth. Flee from your sin and flee to Christ. Cling to him. Cling to him.

And beg him with everything that is in you to save you for his glory. Because it is indeed your only hope.