A Biblical Faith:“Jesus the Savior”

Pastor John R. Wiuff

Today we are starting a new series on what it means to have a Biblical Faith and to belong to a Biblical Church. Just because you own and maybe read a Bible does not mean you think or believe Biblically. Many new voices are being raised today and the next few years to come that will challenge the millennium old teachings of the Bible. These voices are expressing an intolerance for what the Bible tells us about God and a demand that we contemporaries our faith to something reasonable and logical. The Church and Christians are being evangelized to fit in with the rest of the world and stop believing what makes us unique and others excluded from the Christian faith.

We are going to use the Bible to test the foundations of our faith to make sure they are solid and not rotting out from beneath us. We are also going to quote popular objections in the world so you can hear the challenge that is being made. Through side by side comparison we hope to inspire a confidence and boldness of faith to stand for the ageless message of the gospel of Christ.

The first foundation we need to test is the teaching that Jesus Christ is the one and only Savior of man kind. This is a fundamental pillar of our faith and if it should fall there is no reason for the existence of a Christian church. Yet if it stands and persuades others, it could yet save millions from an eternity in hell.

You may think it odd that anyone would challenge the notion that Jesus is our one and only Savior. If you do you have probably been raised in the church and only relate to church people. Out side the church a rising objection has been made against this Biblical teaching and amazingly enough there are many leaders within the Church that are now advocating that Jesus did not die on the cross for our sins.

Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Alban's, popularized a sort of blood libel against God as an unintended consequence of a BBC radio talk before Easter of 2007, when he attacked views that made God seem like "a monster". Here is what he said:

"What sort of God was this," he asked, "getting so angry with the world and the people he created and then, to calm himself down, demanding the blood of his own son?
"And anyway, why should God forgive us through punishing someone else? It was worse than illogical, it was insane. It made God sound like a psychopath."
How did the death of Jesus save us?
By Christopher Howse
The Telegraph
14 Apr 2007

The controversy is not new. The Rev Steve Chalke, a well-known Evangelical, wrote in 2003 against the belief that the "God of love suddenly decides to vent his anger and wrath on his own Son" in a piece of "cosmic child abuse".

When the reporter Christopher Howse attempt to offer a Biblical teaching about Jesus as Savior this is one of the reactions he received:

So basically, God couldn't bear to forgive us, but due to the strange nature of God, he realized if he just slaughtered his son, then the blood would alter his own brain chemistry so he COULD forgive us. Jesus paid a blood sacrifice to God, so God would be able to change his mind about barring us from heaven, and then realize he could let us in after all. Please...give your newspaper some credibility - don't pretend religion is news.

Telling people that Jesus saves or to believe that yourself is not enough because the message is not getting through. We need to have a Biblical foundation for our faith in Christ.

Let’s see what the Bible says about Jesus and salvation. Look to Titus chapter two with me.

11. For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13. while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14. who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. 15. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
Titus 2:11-14

Just knowing what the Bible says is not enough for a Biblical faith but we must start with knowing before we can go to understanding and then believing. In verse 11 God tells us that He offers us salvation to everyone and that this is an act of grace on His part. He doesn’t have to do this. With a great deal less effort on His part, He could pass judgment on all of us and end our existence. His Holy nature and justice would seem to demand such action. For God then to offer us salvation is a act of grace requiring a great effort on His part.

The next thing that God reveals is that His “Yes” means that we must adopt a “No” if we are going to accept His offer. A life principle to remember is that for every yes there is a corresponding no. God says “Yes” I will provide away for you to be forgiven, but we need to say “No” to sin to receive that forgiveness.

Now think about this. Does it make sense to say “Yes” I want to be forgiven and then make plans to do more sin that will need more forgiving? That is the logic of an addict. They want money to buy drugs. They will say whatever they need to say to get the money they want to buy the drug they think they need. I know a good mother who has learned to say “NO” to her addicted daughter so she can learn to say “no” to the drug and yes to salvation in Christ.

If we are going to be saved from sin, we are required to say “no” to sin and “yes” to God’s will in our lives.

God goes on to tell us that Jesus Christ is the one who saves us from sin. This is not matter of brain chemistry that Jesus needed to die upon the cross for our salvation or some strange nature of God…although; God’s nature does seem foreign to our fallen nature. You see God, if He is any God worthy of worship or our loyalty, is a Holy God. He is clean, pure and without fault. He always does the right thing for the right reason. He sets the standard for what is right and what is wrong. If he was any less than perfectly good, He would not be worthy of our worship.

So when God forgives he must do something other than hold His nose when He is around us. He must remove sin and the effect of sin from us if He is going to forgive us. He can’t simply over look sin; He must remove it from us.

Christ died to pay the price for our sin which is death. Adam and Even were warned that if they sinned, rebelled against God, they would die. They rebelled and they died even though they were originally intended to live forever. We all know that when people die to day it seems like a wrong has happened. We were not meant to come to an end. This is the affect of sin. That price we are paying had to be paid by another if we are going to live. Jesus Christ willing paid that price for us. He was the only one who could because He had no sin. He did this out of love willingly because God asked Him to. No one made Him do it. He was given all kinds of reasons and ways out of dying for us, but Jesus died for you and me because God asked Him to pay the price so we could be forgiven.

Why would God ask His only Son to go through such a terrible ordeal? Because of a principal of forgiveness we have forgotten. A sin can only be forgiven by the person wronged if that person is willing to pay the price for the wrong done to them. God bore the price of our sin through His son so He could be in a position to forgive. This is the only way His Holiness and justice could be preserved while providing for away of deliverance for us as sinners.
This is what we need to understand if we are going to have a believing faith in Jesus Christ. But there is one major block that will keep us from understanding and believing the clear teachings of the Bible.

We think we aren’t so bad.

3. At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5. he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6. whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7. so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
Titus 3:1-8

If there were one problem, one block to our understanding, one objection to the logic of God’s offer of salvation…it would be the belief that we are not really all that bad, deserving death for our sins. We must face this fact that we are rebellious sinners, defiant in the way we live towards God’s holiness. Of all creation we have the strange dilemma of knowing that we are doing the wrong thing while we continue to justify our behavior. We know we should feel something while avoiding any responsibility or guilt for our actions.

When a person had a medical condition in which they can no longer feel pain when they cause harm to their bodies we suspect that they are suffering from a deadly disease called Leprosy. This condition is caused by the organism that is difficult to transmit and has a long time before symptoms appear which makes it difficult to determine where or when the disease was contracted. The disease eventually cause nerve damage in the arms and legs, which causes sensory loss in the skin and muscle weakness. People with long-term leprosy may lose the use of their hands or feet due to repeated injury resulting from lack of sensation.

When we believe that we have no sin, or that we are not has bad as deserving death, we can only do so by ignoring the facts of our lives. We must turn off the sensitive nerves of our soul that painfully warns us when we are going wrong. We kill these moral nerves by saying it’s not that bad; once isn’t going to hurt; or any number of other excuses.

Listen to what God is telling us in this passage. He tells us that we are foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. This has always been true about every person since the fall of Adam of Eve. I am sure that if Cain and Able could text each other they might have avoided the first murder in human kind, but it would have taken the murderous intent from Cain’s heart. We have adopted technologies and philosophies that have sheltered us from the full weight of sins awful affect on our lives but these have been nothing more than taking more drugs to kill the pain that tells us something is terribly wrong.

If we are going to know, understand, and believe God’s word today about Jesus Christ we must say “NO” to the drugs that keep us from feeling the pain of our sin.

We must say “no” to calling sin mistakes or psychological trauma.

We must say “no” to the god of naturalism that claims if it exists it’s good or loose all sense of danger in a dangerous world.

We must say “no” rationalizations and comparisons with other sick and dying people. We must stop assuming that sin is natural and that we have no other choice but to make peace with our sinful souls.

If we can say “no” to these morally numbing drugs then we can say feel the pain of sin in our soul. We can grieve our loss and want something better. One last principle of life comes into sharp focus: You can’t be free of something you don’t hate. We must learn to hate sin and desire righteousness as God defines it in our lives.

This is what God calls coming into our right minds, thinking straight about reality of our moral condition. If you can drop the pretending and face who you really are then God can give you want you really need, salvation from sin in Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t come to save us from poverty, sickness, war, prison or even death. He came to save us from sin that causes all these things in our lives. Each one of these terrible things in our lives and many more are the moral nerve endings of our conscience. They tell us something is horribly wrong in this world and we need to find a lasting solution in Jesus Christ.

If we could allow ourselves to feel the pain of our sin then maybe we could be open to know why we need a Savior in the first place.

We have been quick to blame God for our pain, rather admit it is us who are harming our selves and inflicting pain on our conscience. Can we find the courage to accept responsibility for our own actions rather than blame a God who gave us the gift of a conscience knowing right from wrong?

That is the choice. This is what keeps us from God, from knowing, from understanding and from believing in Jesus Christ as Savior.

68. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel! He has taken care of his people and has set them free. 69. He has raised up a mighty Savior for us from the family of his servant David, 70. just as he promised long ago through the mouth of his holy prophets
Luke 1:68-70

30. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus to life after you hung him on a tree and killed him. 31. God has exalted to his right hand this very man as our Leader and Savior in order to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.
Acts 5:30-31

3. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4. who wants all people to be saved and to come to a full knowledge of the truth. 5. There is one God. There is also one mediator between God and human beings-a human, Christ Jesus.6. He gave himself as a ransom for all, a fact that was acknowledged at the right time.
1 Timothy 2:3-6

9. He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our own works but according to his own purpose and the grace that was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. 10. Now, however, it has been revealed through the coming of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and through the gospel has brought life and release from death into full view.
2 Timothy 1:9-10

14. We have seen for ourselves and can testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
1 John 4:14

Something came over me...

He looked me in the eyes and said, "I don't know what happened. It was like something came over me. I was so angry."

As a Pastor I talk with a lot of people about struggles in their lives and they quickly trust me with issues that they would not talk about even with their closets friends. Most of the time people don't want medical, legal, or financial advice even though these are big issues in their lives. I'm no doctor, lawyer, or banker so I couldn't give advice on those issue anyways. What they really want to know is how to deal with debilitating emotions that hold them back and hinder moving forward.

First, a quick observation. It seems to me that emotions choose us. People describe it as 'something' that overcomes them. They may not want to feel a certain way or be prompted by the emotion to do a certain thing, but are often powerless to resist. All they can do is agree with what the emotion is saying, many times without any hesitation although they hate the result.

Anger, fear, depression, grief, and many others are just a few that people share as being in control of their lives. They could face death, cancer, and even loss of the most precious things in their lives if these feelings weren't so powerful.

Second, I noticed that of all these emotions that choose us, there is one response we must choose and does not over come us without invitation. It's not an emotion but it impacts the emotions in powerful and positive ways. When we choose FAITH in God for the issue we face we can keep the other emotions from running away with our lives.

It's not hard to experience a powerful emotion coming over us, especially the welcomed kind. We can fight back by realizing we have a choice and don't have to comply to the emotion choosing us. We can do this by choosing Faith in God, trusting Him to help us overcome and work out the issue we are facing today.

As soon as I say that to a person who is struggling with a powerful emotion I often get a polite chagrin and disbelief. When these powerful forces come over us and beat us up so often, it is hard to believe that anything could make a difference.

But have we considered where these forceful and aggressive emotions get their power. If we were able to break down the process that takes only a few seconds we would begin to understand what is actually happening.

The first step is not emotion but a suggestion. We see what might happen and it is usually very negative. An image, or an idea that suggests that something horrible is about to take place in our life comes as an unwelcome guest in our mind. In that moment we either decide to accept that suggestion or reject it. Most people simply accept the suggestion without question, and think that the idea is their own creation.

In the split second we make that choice we give ourselves over to the conclusion and the emotions of fear, dread, and many others begin to take over our thoughts, and our actions. Often we experience paralysis saying to our friends, "I just don't know what to do, I'm so afraid."

If this is the case then making a different choice, choosing to believe another possibility could deliver us from the powerful forces that take over our lives. Once these emotions have chosen us we feel enslaved to their power and unable to make any other choice or see any other possibilities except what the suggestion first made to our minds.

Although these emotions choose you, you can respond by choosing faith. How you use your will over these forces is by making a choice that makes a difference. The critical tool in this strengthening of our will is our voice. We must speak up verbally and act out our decision physically. If we can claim the promises God has made to us with our voice then our will is strengthened against the suggestions that were made to our mind. In the end you always have a choice to chose what you want to believe. I have found that when we choose to believe the promises of God found in the Bible, we are better able to deal with crisis then if we follow the scary visions in our minds. Such faith brings the gift of mental health, clear vision of the actual situation, and moves us to act with hope and purpose in something greater than ourselves.

When you consider the alternatives: medication, isolation, and depression, then faith sounds like a much better choice giving us more freedom in what seem impossible situations.

So why not open your Bible, and start looking up the promises He has made to you today? Start with John 3 and move to Romans 8. Don't just read, claim them with your mouth, out loud as yours in Christ Jesus.

Let me know what comes over you when you do this!

Are you a Confessional Theologian?

Wednesday nights is an informal Question and Answer time at the First Church of God, in which I try to tackle some of the tough issues that people want to deal with.

One of my favorite invitations to people who want to talk about the great mysteries about God is to join the “Confessional Theologian” community. I’m a “Confessional Theologian” which means that I confess that I am not God but only a human being trying to understand God. Therefore, anything I am about to say or conclusion I am about to draw will only be a limited understanding of God, and not God Himself.

I wish to invite you to the community of “Confessional Theologians” as well. This humble community of people who don’t think to much about what they think are primarily on a search of a functional truth that enables us to relate to God while not being to arrogant about making God conform to our agendas.

Some would be fearful about such a simple practical approach to our conversations about God, but that does not mean anything goes. A ‘confessional theologian’ is bound by reason, universal truth, and the revelation of God’s word as found in the Holy Bible. We are true to our Lord Jesus Christ and lean heavily upon the Holy Spirit to open our minds to the vastness of God’s glory.

If we are going to take God seriously, we are going to have to take ourselves less seriously. Our attempts to define Him will always fall short of His true self.

Yet I believe, even as humans, we can grasp some of the vastness of God, enough to have a personal relationship with Him.

During the Easter season I marvel that Christ could lay aside his might, power and glory to reduce Him self to a man and walk among us even to death on the cross. He was fully God and fully man. What we saw in Christ was the essence of God’s nature which does not depend on upon ultimate power for His sense of self. Christ could lay all that aside and still be fully God.

I don’t think I will ever understand what all knowing, all powerful, and all present means since I’m rather limited in these areas. But I know better what real love, hope and faith since Jesus came and revealed it in His life and death. That is good confessional theology.

Have a blessed Easter walking humbly before the Lord and led by the Holy Spirit.

Are their prophets today? What about false prophets?

At a recent session of "Ask Pastor John" the issue of prophets was discussed.

I moved to the Rogue Valley almost fifteen years ago and I have never run into so many people who think they are prophets for God. Many of them are not prophets at all, but just people wanting to be special and to impress others.

In this session I deal with the question covering issues like:
-are their prophets today?
-how can you tell who is real prophet of God?
-what does the Bible call a prophet and what is their job?
-can prophets can their predictions wrong and still be prophets?

I think you will find this one fun to listen too and as always we would love you to post your comments below after listening.

I really do try to keep our discussion to under an hour but have failed miserably as question give birth to more questions. If you listen to the real audio recording you will hear how the group just wants to keep going.

To listen to the latest editon of "Ask Pastor John" follow this link.

Keep seeking, asking and knocking.

Pastor John

Armegdon, End of the World, and Judgement Day

The History Channel has featured documentaries about the end of the world and various prophesies made by famous 'seers' in history. Such dooms day predictions and preoccupation with the end of the world results in some distorted thinking about what the Bible actually tells us about what is to come.

In our last 'Ask Pastor John' we explored these questions and about the Judgment Day that is about to come. On that last day will God forgive everyone or will there be a sorting of those who are found to be worthy and unworthy of entering into heaven?

Follow this link to hear the Real Audio recording of our question and answer session. The audio has been edited to cut some of the commentary from those participating so the audio isn't too long, not because they weren't good comments.

If you want to be apart of the next session of 'Ask Pastor John' send your questions to pastorjohn@clearwire.net or join us at the First Church of God, Medford, OR at 7 pm this coming Wednesday night. Go to www.fcog.us to find out more.

Why Pain?

Last Wednesday I was hit with three questions that are related.

1. Do some people get away with evil on this earth?
2. Why does a loving God allow suffering?
3. Why are some healed and some are not?

Any one of these questions are tough but I took them all on and try to show how they are connected in my response. It was an interesting night and we explored a variety of issues along the way. You can find a Real Audio Streaming recording of this at this link.

As always, I am interested in your comments and questions.

"Ask Pastor John" is on again tonight at 7 pm at the First Church of God in Medford. If you are in town feel free to drop in. If not you can send me an email at pastorjohn@clearwire.net and I will add it to our growing list of questions. You can log on latter and watch for your topic to come up on this blog and an audio recording of that session.

Keep asking questions, seeking the truth, and knocking on heavens gates.

Are we all saved if Christ died for all? THE ANSWER?

Dear John,

Let me take a stab at this and see if I help…

Come let us reason together….

1. There is no Arminian who could call themselves Christian who holds that God saved all people by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross whether they want it or not.
2. There is no Calvinist who could call themselves Christian who holds that people are lost or saved by pre-programming of God whether they want it or not.

These are the two extremes of both arguments and no Christian can go that far and remain Christian. So let us be reasonable. It is possible to be Arminian or Calvinist while not being a Christian.

So I begin with being a Christian. What does the Bible say about being a Christian? Please refer to my pamphlet “The Full Disclosure Gospel.”

Free will necessary for salvation.

8But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Romans 10:8-10 (New International Version)

Our assurance of salvation is the relational presence of the Holy Spirit. Give me that rather than a cold contract any day. It is written on our hearts and sealed.

Romans 4:16
Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

2 Corinthians 1:22
set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

2 Corinthians 5:5
Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Ephesians 1:14
who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

Finally I can not know if someone else is truly saved, but every person can known for themselves if they are saved or not if I really want to know.

7After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
Acts 15:7-9 (New International Version)

If you would like a more detailed description of what actually happens when we are saved I can tell you about the court case taking place in heaven right now.

For a summary of the two positions see http://www.the-highway.com/compare.html

I really differ with both when it comes to “election” because that is where the train comes off the tracks.

Pastor John