3 replies to this topic

[dtr98]

Do You Have to Clean Up Your Act to Become a Christian?

By Linda Jewell
Guest Writer



CBN.com – If we mean forming new habits, making amends, or doing something on our own to become good enough for God, the answer is "No." If we really mean recognizing the truth of who Jesus is and who we are, the answer is "Yes."

On the cross, Jesus hung between two thieves. When the first thief insulted Jesus, the second thief admonished him for doing so, because they deserved their punishment but Jesus had done nothing wrong. The second thief then recognized Jesus for who He was and asked Jesus to remember him when he came into His kingdom. Read it for yourself in Luke 23:39-43.

The thief had only hours to live. He had no time to change bad habits and form good ones to lead a long, productive life. He had no way of cleaning up his actions and the resulting consequences, and he had no means of forgiving or asking for forgiveness from his family, friends or victims. He had no opportunity to become good enough by his own imperfect power to come into the presence of Jesus, a perfect man and a holy God.

However, there on his own cross, he did have the time and the opportunity to take responsibility for the consequences of his destructive habits that hurt himself and others, his sins and imperfections. The second thief bowed his will to Jesus and recognized Him for who He is. In response, Jesus told the second thief the truth – that he would be with Jesus in paradise that very day.

If the second thief had been able to crawl off his cross and live longer, he would have had more time to love Jesus and face life as a different person with a changed attitude that resulted in different actions. He would have been able to ask the Holy Spirit for the strength and perseverance to battle destructive habits and to handle life situations and broken relationships that he could not handle on his own. He would never have become perfect, but he would have had the opportunity to become a better man than he was.

For a more recent example, a young man accepted Christ all alone in his living room while listening to Billy Graham on the television. At the time the young man did drugs. He plugged into a local church and began attending Bible studies. In his excitement about Jesus, he told his friends they didn't have to give up drugs to become a Christian. Yet, as the weeks and months passed, he and some of his former drug-using friends who accepted Jesus began the process of kicking their drug habits. They grew to love the comfort, excitement and freedom of trusting Jesus more than the heartaches and hassles of being dependent on drugs.

Like the second thief on the cross and every other person who ever became a Christian, you too do not have to clean up your act by forming new habits, making amends, or becoming good enough on your own strength before you accept Jesus for who He is. Jesus accepts you as you are at this very moment. And when you make the choice and say "Yes" to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have the hope of the freedom of a new life that you've never experienced before.

[dinitro]

I don't want to identify myself too closely with one faith or another--let's just say I'm a committed theist and leave it at that. Traditional Christianity has proposed that the person is changed, transformed, by their conversion experience. Paul describes it as moving from childish things to growing up, or from seeing through a glass darkly to seeing clearly, or having scales fall from one's eyes, and even being "renewed by the transforming of your mind."

All of this imagery suggests that a Christian ought to be distinguished form his/her former self, with radical changes in behavior and thinking. This was known only as "they Way" in early church history, and its followers could be recognized by their practice of "radical inclusion"--communal sharing, non-heirarchy of status, etc. Today, American Christianity in particular has veered away from that and become precisely the opposite: a corporate body of members designated by a moral "purity test" of issues positions, and opposition to communal inclusiveness in favor of "rugged individual and free market" living. (think "Purpose Driven Ayn Rand")

The personal transformation was not intended to pass a "moral purity test," or to appease God, but to reflect one's personal discovery that he is sacred, that he is redeemed. A person who sees himself as a sacred creation cannot contaminate themselves, nor can he tolerate the sight of others being abused, excluded, shamed, or enslaved. This has implications for everything from domestic violence to sobriety to the concept of anyone as "enemy," to economic politics, to sexual treatment of women.

One of the best examples of this is the experience of Brian "Head" Welch, guitarist of Korn.

I don't want to identify myself too closely with one faith or another--let's just say I'm a committed theist and leave it at that. Traditional Christianity has proposed that the person is changed, transformed, by their conversion experience. Paul describes it as moving from childish things to growing up, or from seeing through a glass darkly to seeing clearly, or having scales fall from one's eyes, and even being "renewed by the transforming of your mind."

All of this imagery suggests that a Christian ought to be distinguished form his/her former self, with radical changes in behavior and thinking. This was known only as "they Way" in early church history, and its followers could be recognized by their practice of "radical inclusion"--communal sharing, non-heirarchy of status, etc. Today, American Christianity in particular has veered away from that and become precisely the opposite: a corporate body of members designated by a moral "purity test" of issues positions, and opposition to communal inclusiveness in favor of "rugged individual and free market" living. (think "Purpose Driven Ayn Rand")

The personal transformation was not intended to pass a "moral purity test," or to appease God, but to reflect one's personal discovery that he is sacred, that he is redeemed. A person who sees himself as a sacred creation cannot contaminate themselves, nor can he tolerate the sight of others being abused, excluded, shamed, or enslaved. This has implications for everything from domestic violence to sobriety to the concept of anyone as "enemy," to economic politics, to sexual treatment of women.

One of the best examples of this is the experience of Brian "Head" Welch, guitarist of Korn.

[marx]

I don't often weigh in on matters of faith- but your thoughtful post dinitro has me thinking...

I was brought up in a tradition that believes we are what we do- not what we say, but what our actions demonstrate are what we truly are.

Folks who have faith but act unethically are lost until they act in accordance with their beliefs, making them real by living them.

Faith versus Acts is an old argument, I don't expect it to be solved on a bbing forum, even one as respected as this.

In WWII Germany a prison camp official could torture at work and go to church on his day off, his faith allowed him to seperate the official sphere of life from the personal. Obviously faith alone is not enough if it allows an individual to work within an injust overculture.

This is powerful:

The personal transformation was not intended to pass a "moral purity test," or to appease God, but to reflect one's personal discovery that he is sacred, that he is redeemed. A person who sees himself as a sacred creation cannot contaminate themselves, nor can he tolerate the sight of others being abused, excluded, shamed, or enslaved. This has implications for everything from domestic violence to sobriety to the concept of anyone as "enemy," to economic politics, to sexual treatment of women.

That reflects an actual change that is lived, that takes ongoing action to sustain. It is easy to say the words, get dunked, have the community smile with you. But to actually live the change required to lead a christlike life, a life informed by his precepts and actions, especially in our current modern culture, will cost you friends and often times your standing in the community.

The first Christians could not bear arms or swear oaths to earthly leaders. Constantine served to conflate Mithraism and Christianity in the third century, changing Roman state support from one to the other.

Early Christians were not caught up in Christs death on the cross, but on his life and the good he did on earth. The crucifiction imagery and emphasis was not pushed until the crusades, when Christians were whipped into a frenzy to kill for God and told they would go to heaven for it...

I think the robbers on the crosses near Christ are a special case. I think we regular folks leading everyday lives in the world have a very high standard of action to rise to if we say publically we are Christians. The bar is set quite high and must be risen to in all areas of a persons life, imperfect as we are...

I don't talk about faith issues much.

[dtr98]

Romans 7:15
I don't understand what I am doing. For I don't practice what I want to do, but instead do what I hate.

James 2:19
Thou believest that there is one God. That is very well, but can that alone save you?

The devils also believe, and tremble. Even the demons believe that also. See Mt 8:29. Evil spirits confessed Christ, but this confession of faith did not save them.

i am like saul/paul i don't live by the word of God but do the things Jesus tells us not to.

and i am no better than a demon, even they fear God but like me they don't obey his Word.

the day i completely surrend to God is the day i will not be the these types of boards anymore.