Are You Questioning Everyone's Profession of Faith?

Questioning Other People’s Profession of Faith

There are men who will look at people's professions of faith and question it. How can you say that you love Jesus and that you follow his teachings and yet deny the very teachings of Jesus in your actions?

Right? And that's just a fair question. And I often question my own legitimate profession of faith. You know, am I desiring to evangelize enough? Am I desiring to read my Bible enough? Am I reading my Bible enough?

Am I praying enough? Am I resisting temptation enough? There was a lot of self-examination and all of the sermons really kind of geared towards that. And as I began to grow up in my faith and begin to read the Bible more and more, I realized that a lot of what I was being taught wasn't necessarily aligning with Scripture.

Lordship Salvation and the Pressure to Prove True Faith

Lordship salvation seemed to me that's like, yeah, Jesus needs to be Lord of your life. If you're not willing to do that, then how can you truly call yourself a Christian? And that resonated with me. I really appreciated the seriousness of faith.

So I dove headfirst into it and started to read as much as I could possibly read. And I started to understand the Bible in that way. So when I read the Bible, I read it as if you truly want to be a follower of Christ, you have to be willing to take up your cross and sacrifice everything and basically leave the world behind and have this radical life that is fully just dedicated to the things of God and reading my Bible, getting up at 5 a .m. in the morning.

It was like, it's time to be real Christians. And that's how I read the Bible. And it seemed to align with what Jesus was saying. It made sense. And then life didn't go the way I thought it was going to go.

Reformation Theology, Simul Justus et Peccator, and Sanctification

I still had struggles. I still had problems. People I loved that I knew are Christians, they weren't aligning with me. And what really happened is I started to read Reformation theology. And I started to learn about things like summa justus impeccator or saint-sinner reality.

You're both a saint and a sinner at the same time. I can remember reading the confession specifically on sanctification. And this is the 1689 learn about the confession chapter 13 .2. And when we read this, it's like this makes sense to me because this is my experience.

It says this, this sanctification extends throughout the whole person, though it never completely is completed in this life. Some corruption remains in every part. From this corruption, a continual and irreconcilable war with the desires of the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, which they're just quoting for Thessalonians in Romans 7, where Paul is talking about this battle.

And not only that, the confession goes on in chapter 5 underneath the divine providence, where it says that at times believers can find themselves trapped in sin for long periods of time. And where you're not seeing the evidence of their faith.

Christ as Lord of Salvation and the Objective Ground of Assurance

That made sense to me because I had seen this not only in my own life, but in the lives of others, as I was always questioning other people's salvation based upon their intentions and motivations. And I was questioning mine.

And the what really shined a light on giving me some clarity. And I would say putting the Lordship of Christ in the right place, which I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and I obey him and I love him and I want him to be Lord.

And it's not that I don't determine if he's Lord, he is. I just need to acknowledge it. But he's Lord, not only of what I will do, but he's also Lord on my salvation. You see, if you understand Calvinism and you understand reformed theology, dead people don't make themselves alive.

The King Jesus does that through the power of the spirit. So if I've been brought to life, it's because of my King and Lord Jesus Christ came and brought me to life. This is Ephesians 2, right? You were dead in your trespasses and said he made you alive.

And then later in that chapter, he says, and he caused you to walk in the good works he had preordained for you. So, yeah, Jesus is not only Lord of my life as far as he dictates what and how I will do what I will do.

But he's also Lord of my salvation. And the realities that set in for me is what's called objective realities or outside of me, something that is completely other than myself. So salvation and the assurance that we have in Christ, it is found not in what I have done for Jesus, but what he is doing in me and for me.