Wrong Response to His Cross

Dr. Jay Worth Allen

The nature of Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist - announcing a Savior from hell, rather than a Savior from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the "Lake of Fire", who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness.

There are a number of people whose response to the Lord is influenced, not from recognizing a personal need for Him, but because they rather dislike the circumstance they find themselves in and want God to change it. Multitudes of people call on the Lord, not because they are willing to have any loss in this life to gain Christ, but they call on Him because they are loosing in this life. They don't like the condition they find themselves in, so they call on the Lord to change their circumstance. They don’t like loosing their wife, house, car, health, freedom, etc., and they want God to change that. They want God to make them healthy, wealthy and wise. If they must accept Jesus in the process, then they’ll accept Jesus - over and over. In these cases, very often it requires such a convicting work by the Spirit of God – a complete devastation of their circumstances to bring them to the point of wanting only the Lord - even if they never get anything from this life - that only pure devastation – a complete loss in this life is the only verdict which will bring them to the Savior.

We commit a great error in the way we preach in many cases - in that we preach about the good things that are available to the individual who will come to the Lord. We preach, “He will straighten out your family, your job, your credit, etc.” All of which may be true in many cases. But, a lot of people only come to the Lord to have their family, work, etc., straightened out - they don’t come because they want redemption. Therefore, they come again the next Sunday and the next. They come over and over because they are not getting their problems addressed. Jesus offers redemption. But they are not receiving redemption - they’re not coming for redemption - they are coming for another reason.

The convicting work of the Spirit of God is the first imperative to anyone’s response to the Lord. Yet, many people come to the Lord for the wrong reason. They are not coming saying, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). Theirs is a response to His provision, not to His redemption. I wonder how many professed believers would serve the Lord if He removed everything from them and left them nothing but Himself? That’s one of the reasons Job is in the Bible - to make us understand that a man who believes God, is a man who recognizes that nothing else is important. He needs nothing else, he only needs the Lord. God did not redeem us to improve our environment, He redeemed us because He loved us even while we were lost undone sinners. The man (or woman) who comes to the Lord because he realizes he is an undone lost sinner in need of the Savior, will receive redemption. If your first need is not redemption, your needs will never be met.

“Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 18:9-14). The word used by the tax collector, "merciful," is the Greek word hilaskomai. The word is used in connection with the mercy seat (Exodus 25:17-21; Hebrews 9:5). The tax collector was not thinking of mercy alone, but of the blood sprinkled mercy seat in the temple. There is no forgiveness apart from sacrifice. There is no salvation apart from the blood of Jesus.

We, like the tax collector, must recognize that our first need is redemption, and our need will be met.

Wrong Response to His Cross
Published: 1 February 2010 on Freed In Christ! blogsite.

Link goes to A Brief History of Redemption

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