OUR AIM: To Reach the Lost
Preach the Word is published in the hope that through its pages, some will learn the truth, obey it, and be saved from their sins. We want to reach people who are lost. This includes people who mistakenly believe they are saved. It may never have occurred to you that people could believe they are saved when in fact they are lost. But Saul, who was later known as Paul, the apostle, thought he was serving God when he was persecuting the followers of Jesus (Acts 26:9-11).
Consider three postulates which may surprise you: (1) Most people in the world are lost. (2) Many professing Christians are lost. (3) Many subscribers to this paper are lost.
Most people are lost
The first of these is fairly easy to establish as fact. Jesus said,
Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth to life, and few are they that find it. Matthew 7:12-13
In other words, most people will be lost.
People make the mistake of supposing that one can count on going to heaven if he is basically a good person. However, the issue is not how much good we have done, but how do we get rid of the bad we have done. And the fact is, no matter how much good we do, we can't get rid of our sins. We're all familiar with the fact that Jesus died on the cross to take away our sins. Make careful note of the implications of this fact. If we could get rid of our sins on our own, there would have been no need for Jesus to suffer the cross. The fact that it was necessary for him to suffer the cross to take away our sins implies that we cannot get rid of our sins on our own. And that means that, apart from Jesus' sacrifice, no matter how much good we do, we cannot hope to gain fellowship with God, because he cannot have fellowship with sin.
The Bible teaches that Jesus is the way, and no one comes to the Father except by Him (John 14:6). Salvation is in no other (Acts 4:12). Then it becomes obvious that all those who seek salvation or eternal life through Mohammed, Buddha, crystals, dead ancestors, or through balancing their alleged yen and yang, rather than through Jesus, are not saved. They have sinned and need forgiveness, but aren't seeking forgiveness on the terms stipulated by the one who can give it. Add to these all those who aren't seeking salvation at all, and that's a majority of the world today.
Many Professing Christians are lost
We shall not attempt to prove this as fact. Rather let us remind you of the observation we made at the outset: People may be lost even though they believe they are saved. That and the fact that even in the first century, many professing Christians were inreality lost, should be sufficient to demonstrate the plausibility of our postulate.
In the first century, there were false teachers who went around teaching a "different gospel" (Galatians 1:6) which was a perversion of the gospel of Christ (Galatians 1:7). Those who accepted this perversion were lost (Galatians 5:4) even though they had believed in Christ (Galatians 2:16, 5:1). These particular false teachers were teaching a mixture of the gospel of Jesus Christ and Jewish law, and applying both to Gentiles. There were other false teachers who simply taught lasciviousness (2 Peter 2:18). Peter spoke of some who had come to know Jesus and had escaped sin, but were brought back into condemnation by these false teachers. (2 Peter 2:20). All these people professed Christ, but were lost. Jesus himself anticipated that many who would profess his name would be lost. He said, "Not everyone that saith unto me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).
Now do you begin to see our concern? There are many religious people, hundreds of thousands, in Rhode Island, who profess Christ. But it should be clear from the foregoing that this is no guarantee they are saved.
In the Day of Judgment, your concern will not be what percentage of professing Christians go to heaven. Your concern will be whether or not you will go to heaven. So let us challenge you to consider your own relationship to God. Read the next article to learn about two tests you can use to examine your own relationship to God.
Paul wrote, "Try your own selves whether ye are in the faith" (2 Corinthians 13:5). You can't do this on the basis of what you "feel". Many people "feel like" they are saved, but are not. Saul "felt like" he was saved, but was not.
When John assured some of their salvation, he did so by writing, calling upon his readers to compare their lives with what he had written. He said, "These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life," (1 John 5:13).
There are two tests which we will propose you take. The first might be called the "In Christ test". The second might be called the "In Christ's doctrine test," or simply, the doctrine test.
The "In Christ" test is based on the fact that salvation is only in Christ. It doesn't matter whether one speaks in terms of grace, redemption, or forgiveness, it is in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-13). Reconciliation to God is in Christ (Romans 5:10-11). Indeed, Jesus is the way to God, there is no other way (John 14:6). Therefore, if you are not in Christ, you are not reconciled to God, you are not forgiven of your sins, you do not receive God's grace, you are not saved.
Many who read these words will fail this test simply because they have not done what has to be done to get into Christ: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27). Baptism is the point at which we are joined to Christ, and symbolic of this fact is the mode of baptism. In the Bible, baptism is immersion, a burial in water. Thus when one is baptized, going down into the water and coming up out of it, he portrays a death, burial, and resurrection. It is by the death and resurrection of Jesus that one can be saved. He himself puts to death his old life of sin and is raised to walk anew in Christ.
Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:2-4)
Notice that baptism is "into Christ". Therefore, before one is baptized, he is not yet "in Christ". That's the "In Christ" test. Notice that sprinkling of infants doesn't qualify. It's not immersion, it doesn't portray a death, burial, and resurrection, and there is no old life that can be contrasted with a new life, and therefore no old life that can be put to death.
Now consider the doctrine test. Many people suppose that one can be saved if he "keeps the ten commandments" or "is basically a good person." But we can't be good enough to deserve eternal life with the One who has no sin. That is why we need Jesus. His sacrifice provides the means to remove our sin and make us righteous. But Jesus has required that we abide in his doctrine.
Doctrine and teaching mean the same thing. Both are used to translate the same Greek word. As mentioned earlier, John wrote certain things to assure his readers that they had eternal life (1 John 5:13). What did he write? "Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments," (1 John 2:3). In his second epistle, John put it a little bit differently:
Whosever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching (King James Version says "doctrine") of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son. (2 John 9)
Jesus himself taught, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love," (John 15:10).
We could call the doctrine test the "obedience test". Hebrews 5:9 tells us that Jesus "became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation." Do you obey Jesus? If not, you're not saved. It's as simple as that. Maybe you don't know whether or not you obey Jesus. Perhaps now the need to study his word becomes more clear!
There is actually a connection between the "In Christ" test and the "In Christ's doctrine" text. Read John 15:1-14 and you will see that it is necessary to keep Jesus' commandments, i.e., abide in his words, in order to abide in him. Baptism, the point at which one comes into Christ, is one of the first acts of obedience to Jesus' commands. Hence, it is necessary to abide in Christ's doctrine in order to continue abiding in Christ.But that's really what 2 John 9 said.
Well, there they are, the "In Christ" test, and the "In Christ's doctrine" test. How did you do?