Recliner Christianity

“Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.

“Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful?  That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands? . . .

“Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works?”

The part of this that strikes me is “Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful?”

This is the point of many churches today – a verbal proclamation of faith is all that is important – this is the “Jesus as Savior” crowd, falsely claiming “believing” (without any evidence of a meaningful belief) is all that is necessary. With the result being, many complacently sitting back, puffed up and acting as if they have and are doing something wonderful. And all translations of the Bible make it clear that demons do that!

The Christian life begins solely with faith, a faith given to the believer TOTALLY by God by grace. The evidence of this faith is then certain and assured. It leads inevitably to the disciplines that make disciples. The second-born is driven to these disciplines. Not perfectly. Not without obstacles. But they are gripped by the freedom, from their current bondage, these disciplines offer. Day-to-day issues of life will, at some point, bow to these urges and drives – if born again by the Spirit. This is the heart of the Good News:

“God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored.  We see the original and intended shape of our lives there is him.  After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name.  After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself.  And then after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.”

Yes, God is sovereign.

So, for those who see (and worse, teach and lead other that) the following as a picture of the Christian life, they are as stupid as this guy obviously is!