LEADS TO DEATH:
When I first started blogging a friend asked me, “Why do you write that way?” I wasn’t really sure what they meant, so I asked for clarification. Their response was, “You write like nobody's good enough.” They were right. Nobody is “good enough.” That’s why we need Christ.
I was having breakfast with a friend recently, and toward the end of our discussion I asked him how I could be praying for him and his family. He proceeded to tell me about how a recent sermon had impacted his wife so profoundly that she realized she had never truly received the gift of faith. He said that he felt the sermon weighed heavy on him as well, and after they got home they prayed together and he knew that he’d been living a lie his entire pseudo-Christian life.
Both of them have pastors for dads. Both grew up in church. Both did Vacation Bible School (VBS), memorized Scripture, “invited” Jesus into their hearts, “made decisions” for Christ, gotten baptized, gone to camps and retreats, gotten married in the church, went to Sunday School (were actually in my class!), etc., etc. But neither one of them had ever been blessed by God with the gift of faith. Both of them thought that following Jesus was a “decision” or a choice to be made.
Proverbs 14:12 reads, “There is a way that seems right to us, but in the end it leads to death.”
Think about that for a moment…
See, Jesus isn’t a stock pick. He’s not an insurance policy. Jesus isn’t the college or university you like the best. He’s not a Fortune 100 employer. He’s not your favorite sports team that you can follow when things are good or swap out like a fair-weather-fan. Jesus isn’t the spouse you got tired of because they gained weighed or got injured in a car accident. He’s not a fetus you can opt to abort or put up for adoption. Jesus is the Eternal Word. He’s the Savior of the world. He’s the second person of the eternal Holy Trinity - Elohim. Jesus is God.
We make “decisions” every day about what to eat, what to wear, where to spend our vacation, what to read and post on social media. Jesus doesn’t fall into the category of one of your decisions. Christianity isn’t one of many world religions to mix-n-match or pick-n-choose from like a variety pack of kid’s cereal.
When humanity was cast out of Eden we realized the fullness of God’s explicit consequence for disobedience - death. God told Adam, in no uncertain terms, what would happen if they ate from that tree, “...you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” God wasn’t using hyperbole or metaphor. God meant they would certainly and literally DIE - and that is exactly what happened. Adam and his wife were expelled from God’s presence, and were thus removed from the exclusive source of authentic, real, genuine, true, and legitimate LIFE.
We’ve created “alternative” ways to define life (brain activity, heart beat, full term, etc.), but the Creator’s definition is the only one that matters. In His presence or out - period.
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So I asked my friend, “So what happened? How did you get there?” He said, “I didn’t. I prayed and Jesus came to me.” He went on to describe how somewhere inside he always knew that his “faith” was exactly that, HIS. It wasn’t sourced in God. He knew there had never been any authentic transformation in his life. Sure, he tried to clean up his language, tried to hang out with the “right people,” tried to do the “right things,” but inside he knew none of that stuff really mattered. He knew that all those things were his efforts and not something supernatural, not something transcendent, not something sourced in God Almighty.
My friend said that some time ago his wife caught him doing something. It nearly wrecked their marriage.
Numbers 32:23 reads, “...and be sure your sin will find you out.” Thankfully, God doesn’t allow us to be “successful” in our sin. Instead, our sin finds us out. As one of my pastors recently said, “God never wastes a hurt.” All those self-inflicted wounds are being disclosed and redeemed by God for our good - and for His eternal glory.
There is a way that seems right to us, but in the end it leads to death. But the good news is that’s not the only possible outcome. There’s another way that may not make sense. It may be beyond our capacity to understand or make sense of right now, but somewhere deep down inside us we know that we came into this world separated from God. Somewhere in our hardened hearts the glimmer of hope, sourced in God, echoes. It doesn’t seem right to us, which is exactly what makes it right; it doesn’t come from the depravity and brokenness of our vile and corrupted hearts; therefore it’s the only thing that doesn’t lead to death.
It’s not a decision for Christ. It’s not asking Jesus into your heart. It’s what the Bible refers to as the gift of faith in Christ in Ephesians 2:6-10:
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works (sacraments, ordinances, decisions, mission trips, donations, serving, etc.), so that no one can boast. For we are God’s masterpiece, created anew in Christ Jesus to the good things, which God prepared for us long ago.
God is the one doing and we are the ones receiving. So what’s our part?
Recognize: the reality that there is a way that seems right to us, but in the end it leads to death. Why is there so much suffering in the world? Because every day billions of people do what seems right to them and it perpetuates suffering, separation, and leads to death.
Repent: of the sin of autonomy, rebellion, independence, and disobedience. Repent doesn’t mean to simply feel bad or shed a few emption-driven tears; repent literally means “to turn.”
Receive: the gift of faith that Jesus made possible at the Cross. That doesn’t contradict Scripture. You don’t have to “do” anything to receive the gift of faith - you just have to stop rejecting it.
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I write this way because the greatest tragedy is for people to walk through life convinced that they’re right with God because of their “decision,” their “baptism,” or because a pastor told them, “If you prayed that prayer then you’re going to heaven.”
The Apostle Paul wrote, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?” Paul had the same concern. There is a way that seems right to us, but in the end…
Does your life line up with Scripture? Not in a legalistic sense, but in a life-giving, joyful way that flies in the face of “conventional wisdom?” Does it look like safety, security, keeping up with the Jones’, or does it look like Jesus’ friends:
The members of the Sanhedrin called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
Blessings,
-Kevin M. Kelley
aMostUnlikelyDisicple.com
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