Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord

If there was only one message that I could give to people, it would be this. 

There is a misnomer that God only comes to bless your life and give you gifts, abundance and fulfillment. In one sense people far and wide have come to adopt a “health, wealth and prosperity” gospel without realizing it. 

There is so little understanding of the cost of discipleship, the role of human responsibility in faith and salvation, and the absolute necessity of pursuing holiness. 

There is an idea of “cheap grace” and an unbiblical definition of God’s salvation which somehow excludes human agreement, participation, surrender, penitence, confession, repentance, faith or obedience. 

Sadly the wool has been pulled over our eyes to such an extent that we believe that our salvation relies solely on God and we have no responsibility aside from saying: “Thanks for heaven and all the other gifts”. We have stripped the gospel of its end goal as well as its power because we neglect any personal obligation to admit our sins, make restitution, love our neighbor, serve in Jesus’ name, sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom, deny self, and/or receive the Lord’s discipline. 

I am in no way advocating that salvation is by some other means than grace, but if we dare believe that God offers a salvation wherein people’s thoughts, attitudes, words and behaviors do not change, we are believing a false gospel. The full and complete salvation that God offers to people is a delivering from sin and unto righteousness. 

Christ died that we might be forgiven of sin and cleansed of unrighteousness and that we might be empowered to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance”. If we only have a gospel of forgiveness but no expectation to avoid sin, we are cheapening grace, trampling the blood of Jesus underfoot and believing/teaching a false gospel which really is no gospel at all! 

I thank God that the gift He has given me is by His grace, for I could never atone for my sins, undo the damage done by my actions nor somehow overcome sin and death by my own vain efforts. However I am also thankful that God does not strip me of my free will or my own full participation in His salvation. He invites (and enables me) to agree and believe in faith, confess by faith, walk by faith and pursue holiness by faith. 

Please, please, please, if you dare to call yourself a Christ-follower, don’t try and beg off God the gift of heaven whilst ignoring His holiness. 

Don’t excuse your sin, rest on your laurels and assume all is well because God is a God of love. God also is a consuming fire! God also is a God of justice. God didn’t die just so we could stay exactly the same but just with a pretty ticket to heaven in our hands. God died and rose again so that we could actually be transformed into loving people who pursue peace with all men and who pursue God’s sanctification and holiness in heart, mind, body and soul. 

May it be that you and I diligently, dare I say, importunately pursue God’s holiness, so that we may honor the Lord, see the Lord and one day be fully glorified in our eternal union and eternal life with Him.