In What Authority Do We Rejoice?

In What Authority Do We Rejoice?

By Craig M. Szwed

There are many folks with whom I've talked about the Bible, over these last 30 years, since I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior in 1984. It has been a fascinating discussion whenever that door of conversation has opened. Some people love the Bible and depend on it. Some hate it. Some claim to be neutral about it. Each person makes their response and decision based on something that they know or think they know. The $99 question is whether their decision, and the authority on which they based that decision, will stand eternal testing.

I bless God that I've had the time, interest, and opportunity to read through the Bible more than a few times, since 1984. Every time through has been a new layer of education and discovery for me. Before I ever read it as an adult, I was hard and bitter against it, and against Christ.
However, now that I've read the Bible with an open heart, mind, and spirit, I can honestly say that there is nothing else like it on this Earth. It is as true and priceless and dependable as the day that God inspired each of the pages of those sixty-six books to be jotted down, from Genesis right through Revelation. The biblical promises concerning its preservation make the writings, faith, or salvation of the Bible a unique eternal experience to which no other belief system can lay equal claim. If that sounds radical, or extremist, or politically incorrect, or chauvinistic, then I would challenge the objector to pray to Jesus Christ for guidance, clarity, and conviction about what the Bible says of itself, and further challenge the objector to then prayerfully read that Book daily and repeatedly for a year, and then come tell me there was no eternal gain nor benefit for having so invested one's self.

Recently, someone forwarded to me a video that showed alleged Christians being executed by alleged Islamic executioners. That, of course, tends to stir up a LOT of feelings in many communities around the world. For some, it evokes rejoicing, and for others, sorrow. IF those were biblical Christians being executed, then my heart both sorrows for the earthly loss of brothers and sisters in Christ, yet my spirit rejoices that they will have graduated to be with Jesus Christ because they trusted our Savior's promises about His salvation that delivers His children from sin and the world.

I make that last statement because too many people, who call themselves Christians, live in fear and doubt, dreading their own deaths, and they likewise fear to let Christ live through them. They live in such dread because they do not really understand, trust, nor fully accept the authority, teachings, and perfection of God or the Holy Scripture, as the Holy Spirit of God has kept it for us. Now, I'm not saying that I am going to jump into the path of a bus just to go kill myself to take a shortcut to heaven. That is nonsense. I've know too many people who tried to kill themselves and couldn't, and too many who wanted to live but died anyway.

Some people may want to argue the political or theological points of such a video, the execution, the political and social background for such a horrendous event, or the merits and demerits of various religious points of view pitched in that battle. Others may want to excuse all religions, claiming that God will be nice to nice people, whether they have believed His Word and salvation in Christ or not. Whatever others choose, I shall stand with the promises of the Word of God, and repeat what He says, that there is no comparison between the Bible and any other book or religious foundation. While many try to tell us that God will excuse any and all religions, yet, God tells us, repeatedly, in lesson after Bible lesson, that there are only two types of religion in this world. 

The biblical teaching of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostles, and the Prophets, is that there is only His way to eternal peace and salvation, by "repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ", because, "...by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. " As Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Even Isaiah 9, verses 6-7 speak of the Christ of God, and that was written some 750 years before the earthly birth of Jesus.

In opposition to God's way of doing things, in opposition to the Bible, the religiosity of mankind tries to earn points with God. People try to pay for their own sin, to try to 'kiss and make-up' with God on their own terms, not submitting to Him, but rather trying to placate Him. Man-made religiosity, like that, lies to itself, and to others whom it would proselytize, denying that God's salvation is only through faith in the finished work of Christ Jesus. Those who follow or subscribe to anything other than the teachings of God's Word, who try to go around Jesus Christ, are unbelievers, for that is what they make themselves to be, thinking that they either can or must somehow accomplish purifying works or points on their own, or else wholly denying any need to salvation at all. Those who pursue any path other than Jesus Christ have declared that they do not or will not trust Christ. Some proudly or arrogantly think that, by their own works, they are doing God a favor if they try to add to Christ's perfect work of salvation. Yet, by their actions and beliefs, they despise His perfect and all-sufficient blood and sacrifice. Objectors may call me names for saying these things, but God told His people to write that all down and preserve it for us, that we might learn His plan and be saved from our sins, as He desires. 

The Bible clearly states, repeatedly, from cover to cover, that all unbelief is a rejection of God's ways, and of the promised and finished work of Jesus. Remember how Jesus lambasted the religious leaders of His day for their religiosity and unbelief, despite their own proclamations that they were the true believers looking for God's Messiah. They loved religion but despised faith. They loved rules, but despised the freedom from sin that Christ offered to them. They forced others to obey the Law, but refuse salvation for themselves. And so it is, with most religion and religiosity in this world. No matter whether people call themselves Atheists, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, or whatever, IF we have NOT really trusted Christ on God's terms, by faith, but we continue to try to establish our own righteousness, then we shall have rejected the finished work of Jesus and tried to work our way into heaven and into God's good graces, contrary to what He expects of us. "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."... any time that we try to save ourselves or establish a religion that is apart from the salvation by faith that God offers us in Christ Jesus. Therefore, those who seek to go around or ignore Jesus' salvation are only working their way toward hell, as some folks put it, "they paddle their own canoe to hell". Remember the pointed lessons about salvation that Jesus used about the rich man and Lazarus, or the story of the Good Samaritan, or His example of the sheep and the goats.  

So it continues, even as Cain killed Abel… and basically for the same reason… religious substitution in place of what God expects of us. All religions are trying to work their way into God’s pleasure, except for those who admit the sin before God and accept His plan of salvation through Christ Jesus alone, even as He has told us from the beginning, that we can only be saved His Way, by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Cain didn’t want to offer the sacrifice that God ordained, but presented God with garden/orchard produce as the offering for his sin, even though God had shown what He expected when He shed innocent animal blood to clothe Adam and Eve. God has said from the beginning that “without the shedding of blood there is no remission” of sin, which is why Jesus had to offer Himself in our place. The sacrificial blood that would please God had to be untainted by human sin. Most people and religions, including many religious people who call themselves Christians, do not understand nor accept that absolute condition that God has laid down. In the case of the video, alleged religious groups twist God’s plan of salvation so that, in hate, and disregard for God’s will, they try to offer the blood of sinful humans to God. By slaying other people in the name of their religion, as alleged in the video, they reject the pre-existing perfect sacrifice of the all-cleansing blood of Jesus.

Out of these principles and godly teachings, the question arises for each of us, which shall we choose? Faith in the finished work of Christ? Or shall we go about trying to establish our own righteousness? God knows our hearts, minds, and spirits. What have we already chosen or will each of us choose this day, eternal life or eternal destruction? 

For a quick view of the biblical issues and promises, read John and Romans: a wealth of information and call to life eternal. God bless you as you seek Him in His Word! Let's remember the righteous and loving warning that Jesus Christ gave us in John 12:48.