Unusual as it might sound, there may be such a factor as an unsaved believer. Not a couple of individuals have come to the preaching of the Phrase, heard the Gospel, and mentioned, “I do know that’s true.” They consider that Jesus is the individual He claimed to be, that He died for sinners, and that He thus saves sinners. However, they aren’t saved.
The very fact is, in keeping with the Bible, perception alone isn’t what saves an individual (James 2:19). Assent to reality is just not the identical as belief. Somebody can have all the data, can see the fruit of the Gospel within the individuals round them, can hear many times the beneficiant invitation of the Lord Jesus, and should nonetheless give Him the chilly shoulder.
Fairly often, no less than two vital limitations stand between such an individual and Christ: misdirected non secular vitality and ethical indignation.
Misdirected Spiritual Power
In Romans 10:2, the apostle Paul praises the exemplary religion of his fellow Jews: “They’ve a zeal for God, however not in keeping with information.” These women and men would have been ready to leap up instantly and champion the trigger “For God and for nation.” They’d have been prepared, in modern phrases, to attend the prayer breakfast, vote for the ethical candidate, donate to the suitable causes, and proclaim their religion on social media. They believed in God passionately—however of their hard-heartedness, they misunderstood what God had completed and what He asks for. Their zeal was misinformed, and it was due to this fact misdirected.
Verse 3 tells us how: “Being blind to the righteousness of God, and in search of to ascertain their very own, they didn’t undergo God’s righteousness.” In different phrases, not having a grasp of God’s beneficiant goodness, they relied on their very own goodness as a substitute—which, as Scripture makes clear, is wholly insufficient (Isa. 64:4; Rom. 3:23).
Jesus Christ died for sins to offer us a righteousness that we didn’t and can’t have on our personal. In response to that actuality, we are able to both undergo God’s righteousness by receiving it as a free present via religion in Jesus, or we are able to try to ascertain our personal righteousness via good deeds and spiritual vitality. This second route is crowded with moralistic non-Christians and professing Christians alike, as a result of it appeals to a way of self-reliance.
Jesus Christ died for sins to offer us a righteousness that we didn’t and can’t have on our personal.
This effort at self-made righteousness, nevertheless, is finally a barrier—one behind which many a well-meaning soul stands, lower off from saving religion in Jesus Christ. The well-meaning moralist could have lots of the advantages and trappings of Christianity with out ever having completed probably the most important factor: to cry out in humility, “Lord Jesus, save me!”
Ethical Indignation
Whereas misdirected non secular vitality includes taking false consolation in our non secular id, ethical indignation includes deriving safety from a false sense of superiority. Those that embrace it are typically self-righteous: “I’m grateful that I’m not like that lot. There isn’t a query that these individuals need assistance.”
Who’re “that lot”? Who’re “these individuals”? Maybe they would be the kind of shamelessly immoral individuals Paul condemns within the second half of Romans 1: “gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil” (vv. 29–30), and so forth. To make certain, such sins are price avoiding! However the self-made righteous individual doesn’t see such excoriating condemnations as alternatives to replicate in humility on their very own sinfulness. As a substitute, we are able to think about them standing up and applauding: “That’s proper, Paul! You inform them!”
Self-righteous individuals can persuade themselves that they’re all proper with God, however they will’t conceal from God the sin that’s of their coronary heart.
After all, Paul then turns the tables: “Subsequently you haven’t any excuse, O man, each one in all you who judges. For in passing judgment on one other you condemn your self, since you, the decide, apply the exact same issues” (2:1). In different phrases, he says, you’ll be able to’t cowl up your crimes and misdemeanors by merely pointing to the failings of others. God sees via these smoke screens and holds each one in all us accountable for our personal deeds. Self-righteous individuals can persuade themselves that they’re all proper with God, however they will’t conceal from God the sin that’s of their coronary heart.
How ethical is ethical sufficient for us to method a holy God? How deep should the dedication to non secular orthodoxy be in order to safe the Lord’s “Properly completed” (Matt. 25:21, 23)? And if the usual by which God operates is absolute and complete perfection, how on the earth are we ever going to make the grade? Certainly, as we think about these questions, we should always see our want firstly for mercy and beauty.
What a tragedy it’s, then, when professing believers in Jesus are literally simply believers in their very own goodness, unable to resist the actual fact of their situation earlier than God! What a wierd presumption it’s to focus on the sins of different individuals whereas in search of to reduce one’s personal! Handley Moule captures the issue properly when he writes, “The harlot, the liar, the assassin, are wanting [God’s moral glory]; however so are you. Maybe they stand on the backside of a mine, and also you on the crest of an Alp; however you might be as little in a position to contact the celebs as they.”
God’s Kindness
As Paul reminded the Romans, God is gradual to punish the brazenly immoral in addition to the self-righteous as a result of “God’s kindness is supposed to guide you to repentance” (2:4). He provides us time to show from sin. That isn’t the identical as tolerating our sin. God by no means says, “That is okay.” He’s says, “That is all flawed. However I want to make you proper.”
This intermingling of kindness and wrath finds itself expressed completely within the cross of Christ. The Lord Jesus bore our punishment in His physique (1 Peter 2:24). It isn’t that God lets us off with our sins, for then He wouldn’t be simply. On the contrary, He’s utterly simply, so sin should be punished. And that’s the reason He meted out His wrath at Calvary.
Religion’s nice perform is to obtain what grace provides.
“Sure,” somebody says, “I consider all of that.” Very properly—however did you ever name upon God for salvation? We could also be drowning within the ocean, satisfied {that a} life ring will save us. We could consider it wholeheartedly and shout, “Throw it in! Assist!” However what good will it’s if we gained’t snatch the ring? What good will all our frantic swimming do us as the present pushes us away? What good, certainly, is all of the believing if we by no means abandon our personal efforts at righteousness and forged ourselves onto Christ?
That is the excellent news: God’s grace turning away His wrath, God’s Son taking the sinner’s place, God having mercy on the undeserving in order that there’s nothing left for us to contribute. Religion’s nice perform is to obtain what grace provides. It’s merely palms outstretched to take the present which God has offered in Jesus. Religion is the enabling of my vocal cords to cry out, “Lord Jesus, save me!”
Have you ever prayed these phrases, or one thing like them, but? When you’ve got, you then may be assured that every one the righteousness God requires is at your disposal within the individual of His Son. And if not, then it is best to know that no quantity of non secular fervor or self-superiority will convey you lasting peace. Don’t let your self stay as an unsaved believer! Because the psalmist writes, “When you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts” (Ps. 95:7–8). So long as you draw breath, it’s by no means too late to repent from a lifetime of self-reliance and as a substitute forged your self on the loving mercy of God, who guarantees to convey His good work in you “to completion on the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
This text was tailored from the sermon “A Name to the Unsaved Believer” by Alistair Begg.
