No rules attached

Ben invited me in for a chat when I introduced myself to him at his door.  He said he was in his late seventies, an ex-digger who fought in New Guinea during the Second World War, but now he was, “sick, divorced twice and happy with my lot.”  He was a lovely old bloke but I did not believe that he really was happy with his lot.  I had met numerous returned servicemen from wars and I knew many of them to be suffering in silence.  He asked me why I was, “doing this kind of work” and my reply was, “so you don’t have to die alone and go into a Christ-less eternity.”

Ben knew more than me about dying alone.  He said that during the war his mates were being blown away all around him, “and I would look up and give thanks to God.”  I then explained that the message I had for him was much better than having to “look up” and give thanks, but that, “Jesus Christ is in this room with you now, why don’t you thank Him here and invite Him to come into your life?”  He asked me why I was so sure of what I said and he laughed when I told him that there was no way I would have been invited inside to talk about God if it were not for the Lord.

Ben’s concepts of God were not biblically accurate.  He believed himself to be a Christian because his family were once church affiliated and he was a “Sunday school kid.”  He allowed me to share Christ’s gospel message of redemption with him and he also gave permission for me to pray for the Lord to make Himself real to him.  A few months later I saw Ben being carried out on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance.  His sickness was an incurable cancer and it was not expected that he would be coming home.  God showed me yet again just how faithful He is to people who are willing to humble themselves before Him, regardless of age.

Roy was also an ex-digger from the Second World War and he too fought in New Guinea.  He told me that he and his mates got very close to God in the foxholes, “but when peacetime came we moved away from Him.”  Like so many others before him, Roy told me he believed in God and he knew that one day he would have to stand before Him to give an account of his life.  Then he went on to say he hoped that God would look upon him favorably on that day, because he had tried to live his life as a good responsible citizen.  Upon hearing those latter words, I knew that Roy’s concepts of God were not biblically accurate either. 

He gave me the time to explain the true gospel of Christ, also saying that I was welcome back any time I was in the area.  Roy was one of many elderly people to give that invitation.  Old Mr Hall was another man who gave me time to share the gospel with him.  As a child his parents had sent him to Sunday school, but he said he’d, “never gone to church much.”  By making that statement, Mr Hall was implying that God looks more favorably upon church attendees than He does on non-church attendees.  He was simply another one among millions who had such faulty thinking when it came to expressing the heart of God.

So I asked him if he would consider turning to Christ if he found out that God’s gift of salvation was offered to him regardless of whether he ever went to church or not in his lifetime and he said, “I suppose so.”  I then asked if he agreed with God’s word which tells us we have all offended God and that we need Jesus Christ the Savior, if we want to enter heaven.  Again he replied, “I suppose so.”  Mr Hall had great breathing problems, so I suggested that if he would allow me to pray, all he had to do was choose to believe the words and God would honor the prayer.  He agreed.  It was mid-October when I called on this old man.  He died on Christmas day of that year.

John was full of questions about God on the day he invited me into his home.  He was a twenty-seven year old Italian man searching for God’s reality.  I asked him to share his thoughts with me as to who and what he thought God was.  In replying, it was apparent that John had been studying the writings of seminarians, mystics, cultists and new age-rs.  His theology was grossly unsound and biblically inaccurate, so I told him so, giving Jesus’ example of the price one pays who builds his house on sand Matthew 7:26-27. 

With Holy Spirit-led sensitivity, I explained to John that his concepts of God were “religious” but they were not real and that if it truly was reality he was seeking, then he would have to accept Jesus’ declarations on the matter, which were nowhere to be found other than the Bible.  Many times prior to this meeting I had made similar statements with people who claimed to be seekers of God and His reality, and it would not be long before the conversation ceased, with me being labelled a religious zealot, intolerant, fundamentalist, bigoted or whatever. 

But John did not respond that way, he listened intently as I shared the biblical Jesus.  In our nearly two-hour conversation he shared a little of his life.  As a small child he said he found himself doing favors and good works for others, a practice which he was still doing, because he’d always thought that God would be very pleased with him if he did so.  Again, like so many misguided people, John believed that when he did someone a favor, he was doing God a favor.  

He and his friend were in a car crash.  The friend, who was the driver, was killed but John, “was not even injured.”  He said he’d been asking, “Why?” ever since, but believing too, that as a result of the outcome, there was more for him in life and that it was important for him to seek that out.

Like the older men written about in this post, I explained to this young man that God extends His hand of reconciliation to us, not on the basis of how we see or don’t see ourselves, or how much we do or don’t do in the way of good works, or how much we pray and go to church or don’t pray and go to church – but rather, it is on the basis of His love and mercy towards all, regardless of who we are.  John learned that God has no favorites. 

I briefly shared with him a little of my past and when I finished, he agreed with me when I said, “if God had favorites, then I most certainly would not be among them.”  When he believed the Bible’s declaration as to why Christ came to earth and died and rose again, he also believed that he, like me, was the reason He did so.  It was then that he bowed before God, repented of (turned away from) his sin and invited Christ into his life to become his Savior and Lord.

Each one of these men had been duped to various degrees by the influences of man-made religious systems – all of which demand goodness, obedience and perfection etc, but none of them being able to provide the power necessary to achieve those goals.  No greater enemy to Christ’s gospel of liberty did/do I encounter than men and women who believe in the processes of working to achieve such demands and acceptance with God, by their own efforts.  

To such people and their leaders, if they have them, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the great enemy of all their religious systems and practices because there are no rules attached to it, other than the rule of simple faith, trust and love in the Living Lord Jesus Christ – all of which we receive by the Holy Spirit of God as we yield to His leadings and promptings. 

Biblical Christianity does have a call to obedience for all to know and obey God.  Biblical Christianity declares God’s requirements and expectations upon each one of us.  But whatever the calling, requirement and expectation from God, it is He, in the name of Jesus Christ, through the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit who grants the empowerment and the enabling for us to achieve them.  In other words, God is my Law-Giver, but when Christ comes into my being, He is my Law-Keeper.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”  Ephesians 2:8-9.  “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”  Romans 10:4.