THOUGHTS FOR BELIEVERS

Professing Christ as one’s Savior is a necessary component of saving faith. But what about professing Him as Lord of your life? Remember what Lordship implies. To have Christ as our Lord means to take up our cross and follow Him, to hear His words and do them.

Because none of us can follow Christ flawlessly, we tend to then think we’re being judged on a bell curve against our fellow sinners. And since our fellow sinners set such a low standard, it is easy for us to feel like we’re living up to God’s standards when we instead are limboing far beneath the bar. Now if there is indeed a bell curve of judgment, then perhaps you and I are in good shape. But there’s no reason to think this is the case. There’s no reason to think we are to be judged by anything but the immutable Law of God. In fact, God’s nature and His commands should force us to realize that the actual bar we are to strive for is to “be holy as I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).

So modern believers need to start by understanding that a gap exists between how we act and how we are called to act as Christians. And the gap is large. When you come before Christ, you will not be judged by modern standards, but by the standards Jesus exemplified. Think about what this means. You and I are a people called to bring “every thought captive to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5), something that may be impossible to do in our fallen state, but yet this is what we’re called to do. We can conclude that every single thought NOT captive to Christ, captive instead to our own sinful will and desires, is therefore borne of sin and subject to His wrath and judgment. Thank goodness we have One who has saved us from this judgment with His own blood!

Discipleship is a way of life. It impacts every decision you and I make. If you can agree that the Bible calls us to be disciples, then study the disciples of Jesus and see the magnitude of sacrifice, sanctification, and forbearance they were called to. You and I are flesh and blood like they; therefore you and I are similarly called.