2 Cor 13:5 “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (ESV) How do you know if “you are in the faith”? According to this rarely quoted verse, if you fail this test, you don’t really have Christ in you. And that’s really important, since (as Paul later wrote to the church in Rome), “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” (Rom 8:9) So how do we know? Am I “in” or not? The answer to this critically important question is found a number of places, including a few verses later, in that same letter to the Romans, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Rom 8:14) and in one of John’s letters, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3) In other words, you will know if “you are in the faith” if you listen to the Spirit & do as He says. Now people get really nervous about verses like this because they start worrying about how many sins it takes to lose your salvation & things like that, forgetting Jesus never said, “I remember you but then you left me”. No, He said to the ones who were lost, “I never knew you.” (Matt 7:23) The only way you’ll ever know is to put your trust in Him, not in yourself, neither the good works you do nor avoidance of sin, because it’s not your work that gets you in, nor your sin that will keep you out. It’s what Christ did & whether you’re willing to accept it or not. Then again, that’s what faith is, isn’t it? And, according to the Bible, that and God’s grace are the only things that will ever get us in. We are able to “come boldly to the throne of grace” (Heb 4:16), simply because it is the throne of grace. So, by all means, examine yourself! Do you believe you’re going to get in based on anything you can do? Do you believe, “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25)? Do you believe you’re going to get kicked out because of anything you can do? Do you believe, “Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4)? Either way, it comes down to whether it’s all about Him or all about you. It’s all about faith – who do you believe in? Jesus, we believe in You and only You. Like the father in the story, we often have to pray, “I believe! Help me in my unbelief.” We thank You that You never measure us based on how well we perform, even in our faith. You only need a mustard seed. Help us to remember that. Help us to take comfort in the promise that we can know, because You Spirit testifies to our Spirit that we are your children. Help us to look for opportunities to do Your Will. If we are yours, give us boldness & confidence in knowing You will never let us go. If we are still trusting in our own goodness/lack of badness, help us let that go & trust only in You.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 13:18:50 +0000
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