Why God is Grieved with So Many American Christians
An Informal Letter to a Christian Brother
My Friend,
Inasmuch as I often allude to so much more God would want to do in the church, I wish to put down just some of the things I ponder.
This is an informal note, and not as documented by scripture as could be, but will take for granted you already know what is true from the scriptures on various issues that have grieved me.
I dare say I believe God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are first grieved, because this is in my spirit, and I believe I have the Spirit of God.
The grieving is because what God paid the price for – a better covenant with better promises (Heb. 8) – is often taught with doctrines of men (and by extension demons) mixed in. An admixture of truth with falsehood produces the results we have.
While there are counter examples, bright spots here and there to be sure, what will be discussed are the fruits of how the faith is being lived and taught in too many instances.
The faith that once “turned the world upside down” is in many cases being watered down and compromised, and if so many who say they are part of the body of Christ think they truly are, then they are not ready for Jesus’ return, nor properly about the Master’s business.
Let’s Settle These Questions
Nobody deserves salvation. It is a gift, and part of the grand eternal purpose of our Creator. We are admonished to see the gravity and know God is not playing games, and we are to be no less serious.
Q – Why did God send Jesus to the world?
A – Several reasons could be stated, but the core reason was to establish a Bride, the Church – who walks according to the “faith once delivered to all the saints,” and not some counterfeit.
Q – What does God say of humanity including those who come to Him through Jesus?
A – We in Adam were sinners far worse than we knew, and we yet have this sin nature that must be overcome by the power of the resurrection life, the “victory” promised. (Christ in you, the hope of glory).
The Word says Jesus redeemed us as slaves to sin if we believe, and we ought not to remain slaves of sin. We were bought essentially off of death row, as it were. We were condemned criminals bound for a deserved eternity in hell.
We trade the old master – Satan and the flesh born in Adam – for the new Master, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Q – What then does God expect?
A – This New Covenant is what a lawyer would call having been given by God “in good faith.”
We may have grace to excuse our failure to walk uprightly, and our many fundamental divisions over core issues, but we who dare call ourselves Christians ought to consider this as soberly as it is in God’s estimation.
God provides grace, it is true, but He also asks us to appreciate and respond in kind to the magnitude of what He has offered us. He wants us to see Him for who He is, love Him, and come into this place of mind and spirit whereby we may live in Him, and let His life be expressed through us. We are the blood bought, the redeemed.
The righteous Man – Jesus Christ, God in human form – had to die for us the unrighteous to claim these privileges. God gave His all, and does He expect us to give less?
We are to be those as alive from the dead.
These realities are made personal and real only as we seek God in much prayer, by repentance, with faith, and let Him search us, correct us, open our eyes, and fill us with His Holy Spirit.
But that they can be made personal and real is without question, to those who give themselves fully to it in faith as God leads.
Divisive Topics
Today we have thousands of different sects in America and the world. Even in individual churches we have so much weakness and uncertainty and mere nominal adherence to the faith.
Following are a few issues that concern me greatly:
• Divorce and remarriage – if it is Jesus’ will people not remarry while the spouse is living, how many who name the name of Christ are living in adultery, and raising children of adultery?
• Christians who may be commissioned to kill fellow human beings in service of the state (military and police).
• Involvement in politics – mixed loyalty between Jesus’ kingdom and the state.
• Various moral teachings on relationships, some of which are being advocated by some who claim God’s own Spirit is leading them. (Of course they advocate lies. God does not contradict scripture.)
• Doctrinal teaching: Whether once you are saved you are always saved, and God grants irrevocable salvation or not.
• Doctrinal teaching: Whether the Gospel allows us to overcome sin or we are bound to live on a rollercoaster between fleshly actions and spiritual. (What do we dare believe God for, and what should we thus aspire to until we receive the gift? (of the Holy Spirit’s fullness enabling us to walk on resurrection ground, empowered by Him.)
• Doctrinal teaching: women’s and men’s roles. So much of the world’s teachings have seeped in.
• Doctrinal teaching: How secular our lives may be — what is a proper Christian life? What would God want if His wildest dreams (His will) — could come true? And, what does He expect us to become in our own lives, as a result of following Him?
God Doesn’t Contradict Himself
God is not multi-minded on key issues of faith and life. The idea in making choices is people are to be, and typically claim to be led of God’s Spirit and Word. Yes humans are fallible, and His Word’s interpretation has been fought over but the Holy Spirit knows the truth.
Premise: If Christians are indeed living in intimate fellowship and in covenant, God promises to lead us into all truth. He will not lead us astray, or let us maintain consent to sin or abominable practices. Christians often speak of their subjective “confirmation” or sense of “peace” on topics and make decisions that would violate another Christian’s conscience.
Is God leading His people in opposite directions, making certain life choices or beliefs OK for one person or group, but not OK to another?
The Word says “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit” and this means grieving God is possible — it is done by not following Him and letting self-will hold sway. The Word also speaks of those whose consciences are dull, or overcome by the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, desire for other things. The conscience may also be cauterized – “seared with a hot iron,” and those who think all is well are merely blinded by sin.
Only a compromised “Christianity” could create these conditions on a large scale.
But for those who meet the conditions of heart, and who truly are born again, the Spirit’s ministry is to produce Christ in the followers of Jesus; it is supernatural, and supposed to keep us from error.
Yet error persist and this is a major problem: God does not contradict Himself, but so many are divided.
Jesus says “My sheep hear my voice and they do not listen to strangers.”
Fact: It is categorically impossible for everyone to be right, therefore many people must be wrong.
If only one reality is true on various points of contention, should it not sound alarm bells to anyone who really wants all of God’s will, and not just what is convenient for selfish lives still mired in the world, the flesh, and the devil?
Hypothesis: 1) Either God is very weak, and unable, or 2) His will is to create the conditions we have today of sectarianism and division over core matters of life, faith, and practice, or 3) His people do not obey Him or want Him as much as they claim.
My belief: The answer is number 3.
All Christians Are ‘Diciples’
Every Christian, great or small, if he or she dare name the name of Christ, is by definition declaring him/herself a disciple.
Jesus did not die to produce “fans” or “enthusiasts.” This is a life covenant. His warnings were too crystal clear, and He effectively says if people want to remain worldly and part of the world system, they ought not to have ever become Christians.
We are to “hate” father, mother, brother, all — and make Jesus clearly number one. That is, anyone who loves other people or things more than Jesus is not worthy to be His disciple.
We are to put our hand to the plow and not look back, the gospel tells us. We are dead to the old way, says Romans and Paul the apostle who did not give a convenient sugar coated teaching of what it means to be a Christian and call the rest “grace.”
We are to be dead to ourselves and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. God says we already are (Rom. 6), so why is this not a common earmark lived out, and evidenced by fruits?
There ought to be no ifs, ands or buts to what the “normal Christian life” looks like – in spirit, even if individual localities have their differences.
God’s Love Should Be Overwhelmingly Obvious
One definition of love is obedience. Jesus says “if you love Me, you will keep my commandments.”
Jesus’ counsel is “learn of Me, I am meek and lowly in heart.” His counsel is “I stand knocking at the door, if anyone opens to Me, I will come in and dine with him.”
Jesus’ will is we accept no counterfeit experience and call it Christianity. He paid a dear price for us to be one with Him in covenant union – the most intimate relation of the Bride longing to be with her Husband!
That is what the Father sent His Son to establish. This is the Church Jesus desires, and nothing less; characterized by people who know God – not just know about God – and they walk according to the Spirit, and do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
John the apostle said “Eternal life is to know God.”
God says “be holy, for I am holy.”
1 John 2:6 says: “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”
If we have His Spirit, we are to be filled with His Spirit.
Yes, God came to save a Bride, and the “marriage feast of the Lamb” will not include the foolish virgins who did not have their lamps full of oil.
Q – Do you see an overwhelming number of Christians who eat, sleep, and breath these truths? Do their faces glow because they are full of the Holy Spirit?
Do people say of them, “See how they love one another! Surely they are the people of God!”
Jesus said, “This is how the world will know you are my disciples, by the love you have one for another.”
This love, this agape, is only possible by abiding in Christ, and it is supposed to be the norm, not the exception.
Question: If this is not the reality among those who profess Christ, then why not?
Grace Is To Enable God’s Purposes – Not a Lame Excuse or Cop-out
Grace is the space God affords us to come right, but there will be a judgment. We are not to abuse grace (“sin that grace may abound”). God gave us a good-will love offering in the form of His Son, and we will give an account for how we received Him, His Spirit, His truth, and commands.
For His part, God is faithful. He promises that this more-powerful New Covenant with His own Spirit indwelling Jesus’ true disciples is supposed to be all we need if we hunger and thirst, desire His will, and are willing to be honest with repentance and faith (walk in the light.)
But again, this is a good-faith agreement. God will not force us, but people need to see what is versus what God says should be!
God has done His part, but how people turn out – even whole churches, denominations, individuals after years, even decades, is the fruit of the routing of churches and individuals.
Jesus did not die so humans could claim a get-out-of-hell-free card and go on living like the world, stretching the bounds of “grace,” and stopping their ears, or not looking into the will of God.
Paul says we ought to be as a matter of course, as disciples, “finding out what the will of the Lord is.”
Summation
God gave His all, but what are Christians in the main doing about it? Is what has been produced the best God would want or does it fall woefully short of what the early Christians did in childlike obedience?
Does God not say amazing signs will follow those who will believe? Have we not heard of examples of His power to heal, save, deliver, set free from sin, change people from the inside out?
If these conditions are lacking or only infrequent, does it occur to anyone that something is wrong?
To me it does. I think something is desperately, screamingly wrong! The spiritual poverty we see all around us is more than tragic, and ought not to be.
Any church that is led of men must set as its cornerstone reason for being the will of God. These men must be right with God in their hearts, able to hear His voice, and do as He leads. They are the “shepherds” and leaders who will give an account to God for how they handled this trust given to them.
God’s will is that His Bride make herself ready! The will of God is to produce a temple of living stones!
Seeking the fullness of an abiding obedient love-marked union with Jesus Christ ought to be expected and set as a minimum qualification of full normal Christianity any where it is preached.
It is the linchpin. All valid Christian living depends on us being connected to the Head, and in living union, uncompromised, separate, un-sullied from the world.
Yes, there is a place for “babes” in Christ and the immature to find their way, but what is the goal and how long does it take to get there? (if ever, or if this is even taught at all!) This should be established with the teaching of this “better covenant” that is taught with “better promises.”
If it is true light always drives out darkness, is it doing so, or is the darkness holding its ground, even in cases closing in?
Solution:
Only God’s power can produce a living body. People need to set to praying as the Spirit leads, and let God have His way. God must turn the hearts of people. We also need proper teaching that emphasizes these core truths.
The immediate need is far more important a teaching than relatively arcane teachings and all teaching must be done in the unction of the Holy Spirit, or it ought not to be stated.
What God defines as a full and healthy church body is not what we have, and amazingly so many are not alarmed. I say they are either beaten down or lulled to sleep.
