A young man once told me he believed the gospel of Jesus Christ to be true. When asking if he wanted to take advantage of it by surrendering his life to the Lord he declined saying, “It would mean I have to change my life.” After listening to responses containing all sorts of objections, justifications and excuses, his response was, in one sense, a breath of fresh air. Another honest reply came from a woman, “I’m not handing my life over to anyone.” Another one asked, “What’s with you, can’t you manage your own life?” He was not impressed when I responded in the negative! Why is it biblical Christianity is not popular? Those responses pretty much sum it up.
The gospel of Jesus does require willingness to change; it does require willingness to hand over one’s life; it does require willingness to admit that without divine guidance one’s life is mismanaged rather than managed. The thing to be considered in all this though, if we’re unwilling to allow God to bring this about, something and someone else will certainly do the job. In spite of what we like to kid ourselves, no one is a free agent; all of us are under influence and control. William Penn is right: “One must be governed by God or be ruled by tyrants.” Of the “something” variety, I wonder what tyrants are ruling those people today, twenty years later. Might it be tyrants of social media, social pressure, work or career status, political correctness, non-freedom of speech?
Could it be tyrants of increasing democracy loss, increasing civil liberties loss, increasing crime, increasing laws, increasing government, big business, banking controls and corruption? How about legal and judicial corruption? How about litigation scares, health scares, disease scares, food scares, climate change scares, economic scares, physical security scares, home invasion scares, anarchy scares, terrorism scares, national security scares, world war scares? When Jesus Christ is not governing a person’s life these are a sample of tyrants that do. Doctor’s surgeries and hospital wards are the living dying proof! So, people’s lives are changing, being handed over and mismanaged whether they’re aware of it or not, whether they like it or not.
Of the “someone” variety, I wonder what tyrants are ruling them today. Might it be a manipulative, intimidating wife/husband, child, friend, parent, boss, work colleague? How about an immoral, unethical, unscrupulous and unprincipled political leader, media mogul, corporate businessman/woman, banker, lawyer, judge, magistrate? How about a medical and pharmaceutical person in possession of the same characteristics? Might it be a prejudiced, fraudulent “research” scientist? Could it be a sexually perverted priest? The reality is, although Jesus Christ is totally in control of every detail existing in the world Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:3, the systems of the world or the age itself have been given over to Satan John 12:31; 2 Corinthians 4:4.
That’s why none of us are free agents; you’re either an agent of Christ or you’re an agent of the devil. That’s it in a nutshell for each human life; either Christ rules or Satan rules, but one thing is for certain – you don’t rule. The Bible shows us God has set boundaries for Satan and he dare not go beyond them, but it also shows us he can do what he likes to people as unbelievers. If he wants to fill their minds with anything or everything spewing up from the pit of hell then he’ll do it. The greatest influences people succumb to today come from hell – false religion, Marxism, Collectivism, globalism, intellectualism, pornography, sexual depravity, abortion, euthanasia, violence, anarchy, terror – all of it devil-inspired, none of it Christ-inspired!
These influences are an example of what the apostle Paul meant when he spoke of people as being trapped in the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will 2 Timothy 2:26. John Wesley spoke of them as, “not only captives, but asleep; utterly insensible of their captivity.” In addition, theologian Albert Barnes said, “They are as if under the fatal influence of some stupefying potion. They are like birds taken alive in this state, and at the mercy of the fowler. They will remain in this condition, unless they shall be roused by the mercy of God; and it is the business of the ministers of religion to carry to them that gospel call, which God is accustomed to bless in showing them their danger.” There was a time when Paul, Wesley and Barnes were in the “they” group too.
Although perhaps in captivity to a different set of tyrants than those of this time, all Bible Christians were once in the “they” group; I was in it for thirty-nine years! That’s what qualifies Bible Christians to speak out the way we do. We’ve lived under tyrants on the other side of the tracks; we don’t speak from foolish theories. Those who try that on get found out sooner or later – especially those calling themselves to church leadership roles! In fact that was a primary turn-off for another set of people I’ve spoken to about Jesus and the gospel – still is. They confuse the biblical Jesus with a “church Jesus” and they want nothing to do with him. Having spent some years sitting under a “church Jesus” I understand.
So what happens when a person becomes willing to change; becomes willing to hand over one’s life to Jesus; becomes willing to admit that without divine guidance one’s life is mismanaged? Well, spiritually speaking, the light comes on; you wake up to the reality that you’ve been sleeping in deep spiritual darkness just like the Bible says. You begin to see that the life you’ve been “living” was in fact not life, simply mere existence. The words you discover from Jesus start to make sense, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk (live) in darkness, but will have the light of life John 8:12. You awake to the fact that the life Jesus is talking about is His and He is now transforming you with it as well.
You don’t understand that reality but you do experience it, so now you’re awaking to another reality; all Jesus’ words are spirit and they are life John 6:63, as are all the words of the entire Bible. You don’t understand that either, but you know Jesus does and you are prepared to believe that if you take Him seriously He’ll take you seriously. This awakens you to another reality; Christianity is relationship with God, it is not religion with God. You understand also now that those who accuse Christians of having a blind faith are in fact, the ones who are blind. You see them as spiritually asleep just as you once were. For the first time ever in your life you begin to experience authentic peace. It’s the peace of God; it came to you when you made your peace with God.
Your peace experience surpasses all understanding Philippians 4:7; this makes it impossible for you to describe to anyone else. It came about when you handed over yourself and your God-defiance, rebellion and sin to the Savior, Jesus. As you continue to hand that stuff over to the Lord when it rises up, your peace is maintained. You fully agree that this is a good deal and you’re not going to jeopardize that for anything! For the first time in a long time you sleep better too; no more tossing and turning, no more fear and worry, no more anxiety, depression and confusion. Jesus removed all of that too when you turned to Him. As far as you’re concerned all those tyrants can go to hell! The unrepentant “someones” among them certainly will!
For the first time in your life you awaken to the reality of just how deeply the world system runs on lies, half-truths and part-truths and you are amazed at the fact that hardly anybody stops to give a thought that this might be so. You understand not everybody is a deliberate liar, half-truther or part-truther any more than you might have been, but nevertheless because they don’t stop to question what’s what and who’s who, it explains why uncountable tyrants rule the day. And, you now see they do so with a legal right because God’s universal truths, laws, practices and patterns have been rejected by peoples of all nations. What God has opened your eyes to you want others to see and it saddens you they don’t want to see.
One of the reasons you held back from turning to the Lord was your concern for what others would think of you. Now you know … they think you’re a fool! But not you; God says you’re wise and you believe Him. Better than that, it’s His wisdom you operate from which powerfully delivers you from worrying what others think. “What others think ” is simply another tyrant and you’re most grateful to your liberating Lord Jesus for sending it on its way. That’s all part of the gospel promise package, You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free John 8:32. Not only free from your rebellion, defiance, guilt and sin, but free from the opinions of others – free even from your own opinions, which is the most liberating of all!
Another thing to sadden you is the number of Christians you discern not to be free. They’re familiar with biblical language but when talking with them it appears they too are ruled by tyrants. This puzzled you at first, until you realized that rather than “get into” the Scriptures for themselves they’re accepting at face value everything preached from the pulpit. Some of the preaching is biblical, some of it is not. It took you some time to understand that when truth is mixed with error, it is error that rises to the top, not truth. This explains why when you look at some churches around the world today you see they’re so far removed from the first church revealed in New Testament Acts that they’re now little more than religious institutions.
Uncountable tyrants rule the day spiritually, mentally, physically; always have, always will until Jesus returns to sort them out! Revelation 19:11-21. But they don’t rule the born again, Holy Spirit-led, Jesus Christ-centered, Bible-grounded Christian’s day. God rules that and He’s no tyrant; He’s the greatest Liberator there is; always has been, always will be. However, just as Jesus didn’t go around flaunting His name and reputation when He was on the earth, neither does He do that today. Only those who were truth-seekers found Him back then and only those who are truth-seekers find Him today, even though He is not far from any one of us Acts 17:27. Who rules for you, given that you don’t? “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” Luke 9:24.