Purposeful

 If you are purposeful and intentional in your faith, works will be a natural byproduct of that faith. To be purposeful, intentional, and deliberate, one must come to faith of their own free will, fully aware of what they are submitting and surrendering to. If there’s never a surrender, if we never humble ourselves and submit to the authority of Scripture, then we’re fooling ourselves, believing fanciful tales with no Biblical foundation. Somebody had to say it, and everyone else seems to be busy doing something else.

Acts 3:19-21, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.”

The Christian life is not some auxiliary pursuit in our lives; it is the center, the core, the principal focus of our existence. Once we surrender and humble ourselves, our lives are forfeit and the only thing that matters preeminently is the will of God for our lives.

Accepting Jesus into our hearts, as has become the popular way of saying it, isn’t something we do just to check it off a list never to be revisited until we’re on our deathbed being reassured by family that we are going to heaven because of that one time we raised a hand in church.

Salvation is transformative. You cannot remain as you were once the indwelling of Christ in your heart occurs. It’s not me saying it; it’s the Bible, and we should maybe get back to reading it once in a while rather than believing newly tattooed octogenarians just because they said otherwise.

Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Why don’t we ever quote those words from Paul? Is it perhaps because they imply that the least we should be doing as believers is to break ties with sin and present ourselves as holy and acceptable to God? Is it perhaps because Paul explicitly says it’s the least God expects of us? Holiness isn’t for elite Christians, nor is it exclusive to pastors or evangelists; it’s the reasonable service of every believer.

That’s works! No, it’s truth. If the faith you claim to possess has not been transformative, if your mind has not been renewed, and you haven’t rejected conformity with the world, then you have not come to the knowledge of Christ, nor do you possess a salvific faith.

This is one of those issues we need to stop beating around the bush about and calling as it is. There are people who feel no need to pursue righteousness, have a relationship with Christ, grow their faith, or obey God’s commands because they were told all it took was the sinner’s prayer and the wave of a hand.

Perhaps if we’d told those people the truth, some of them might have sought discipleship, some of them might have sought holiness, and some of them might have sought a maturing of their faith and a transforming of who they were.

Just because it sounds good on a pledge drive card to say 20,000 souls came to Jesus in one afternoon, it doesn’t make what such individuals do noble or biblical. You’re telling me you’re racking up four times the Book of Acts numbers, and they all stuck the landing?

They raised their hand, didn’t they? And where is that in the Bible as a sign of true and abiding faith? Where is that in the Bible as a sign that the individual isn’t only saved, but all his future sins are expunged as a signing bonus, so go forth and revel?

But we’re not saying it’s a license to sin. Have you told them it isn’t? Why is there such an overwhelming emphasis placed on the future sins part, if the whole go and sin no more aspect of this faith of ours, was inferred?

We can gaslight, wag the dog, and play games with each other. We can call people who point to the uncomfortable bits of Scripture legalists and work salvationists, but the Word is the Word, and it is the plumb line by which all who name the name of Christ will be judged.

Simple and easy mean two different things, and we must stop conflating them. The way is simple, but it isn’t easy. It’s not me saying that; it’s Jesus. What did He know, though, am I right? Maybe He was a legalist, too. A supposed pastor in Manhattan just called him a xenophobic racist, so what’s a little legalism?

Sorry, not sorry, this is not the faith once delivered to the saints; it’s an amalgam of feel-good, easy-going, no accountability, no responsibility, no sacrifice nonsense that’s being peddled and passed off as gospel truth because it’s easier to swallow by the masses, and you can draw more bees with money than with holiness any day.  

On a more somber note, is anyone seriously going to sit there and insist that this is the generation that’s going to usher in the greatest revival in the history of the church? God may use the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, but not the heretical ones.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.