2 Corinthians 5:15-18
Saving Religion: What it is / Do You Have It?
Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds 2 Corinthians 5:15-18, addressing the nature of 'saving religion' and challenging listeners to self-examination. He defines saving religion by its essence (union with Christ), its effect (a new creation), its fruit (a new position, purpose, and pathway), and its root (all things are of God). Martin presses the congregation to honestly assess whether these marks are evident in their lives, warning against self-deception and emphasizing God's sovereign grace in conversion.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 12 sections · 67 min
- The Danger of Deception in Spiritual Things 0:02
- The Urgency of Preparing for Eternity 1:22
- The Old Position: Under God's Wrath 30:57
- The New Position: Accepted in the Beloved 32:42
- The Old Purpose: Living Unto Self 34:10
- The New Purpose: Living Unto Christ 37:37
- The Old Pathway: Worldly Lusts and Depravity 43:35
- The New Pathway: Doing the Will of God 48:03
- Assurance and Self-Examination 50:15
- The Root of Saving Religion: All Things Are of God 51:41
- Caution Against Misapplication and the Heart's Reflex 57:17
- Final Challenge: Do You Have Saving Religion? 60:18
Key Quotes
“...much that has the semblance of reality in spiritual things is rotten to the core and will not stand the test of the last day.”
“There is no more profound description of the basic purpose of life in every person who is not joined to Christ than these three little words, live unto themselves.”
“That new purpose which is always the fruit of saving religion is nothing less, nothing more, than living unto Christ.”
“My friend, the reality or the lack of reality of your professed Christianity may pivot on an honest answer to that question.”
“There are only two kinds of religion in the world the religion of free will in which what you do makes the difference and in which what you do what you have done becomes the point of glory. The other religion is the religion of free grace in which what God has done makes the difference and in which what God has done becomes the focus of our praise and our glory.”
“I did this. I decided. I made a decision. I, I, I, I, I.”
“Have you had sufficient acquaintance with your own native corruption and defilement with your own blindness and love of sin that you know if God had not put forth his arm of power it never would have been done?”
“Is it? Children kids moms dads visitors friends church members is that your religion? If not you better scrap it tonight and cry out to that great God who's still in the holy business of making new creatures...”
Applications
All listeners
- Examine your position before God: Are you reconciled to God through Christ? Is His righteousness your possession?
- If you claim Christ's righteousness but your life shows no vital union or devotion to Him, you are deceived.
- Is consciously pleasing Christ the dominant purpose and focus of your life, shaping all your activities?
- Do not slough off the question of your life's purpose; your professed Christianity's reality may pivot on an honest answer.
- Answer honestly in the court of your own conscience, as you will be forced to answer in the day of judgment.
- Do you have the fruit of saving religion? Has the old pathway of bodily appetites, mental appetites, the world, and the devil passed, replaced by a path framed by God's Word and walked in the Spirit's power?
- If you have a new pathway, you should not have trouble with assurance, as the fruit points to the root of saving religion.
- If you claim the root (in Christ) but lack the fruit (new creation, old things passed), you have no right to believe you are in Christ.
- Do not use theological principles like a 'baseball bat' to 'clobber' others who may not phrase their testimony accurately.
- Does your professed religion have the perspective that 'all things are of God,' acknowledging His sovereign power in your salvation?
- Have you been taught in your heart that if God had not acted, you would never have been saved, due to your own corruption and love of sin?
- When you look in the mirror, are you forced to say that your life has no explanation but that 'all things are of God,' or can it be explained by human efforts?
- If your religion is not 'saving religion' as described, scrap it tonight and cry out to God for mercy, a new heart, and to subdue your rebel will.
- Be content with nothing less than genuine saving religion, for it may pass here, but it won't pass there (in eternity).
- For those in Christ, live before men so they may see the fruit of God's work in you and be made thirsty to know Him.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 158 paragraphs, roughly 67 minutes.
The Danger of Deception in Spiritual Things
...found in scriptures, plus human experience, teach us that much that has the semblance of reality in spiritual things is rotten to the core and will not stand the test of the last day.
It's because of this fact that scripture again and again warns us, admonishes us in words such as these. Be not deceived. Let no man deceive himself. Let no one deceive you.
The possibility of deception in the realm of spiritual reality is not only assumed in scripture, but it is something that is done. It is something that is dominant in the exhortations and warnings of the biblical writers. And whether it's because I contemplate six weeks away from you, that I'm particularly solicitous that none of you take for granted these great issues of your relationship to God in Christ, I've been constrained in these past two Lord's Day evenings to speak very simply and basically upon the great issues of the biblical writers.
The Urgency of Preparing for Eternity
And whether it's because I contemplate six weeks away from you, that I'm particularly solicitous that none of you take for granted these great issues of this matter of our fundamental relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. Last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You're here through no choice. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exodus, to get ready for our exit out of this life into the world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this life into the world to come. And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this life into the world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this life into the world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this life into the world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this life into the world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this life into the world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come.
The Old Position: Under God's Wrath
And in the last week, we looked into scripture to consider three very basic facts of life. You and I have one dominant responsibility, and that is to get ready for our exit out of this world to come. is that terrible position described in Scripture as under the wrath of God.
In fact, Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 that we are by nature children of wrath. We come into this world in a position which finds us exposed and liable to the judgment of a holy God.
And that position of judgment is unaltered by anything less than vital union with Jesus Christ. That's why the apostle uses the phrase in Ephesians 1.6, We are accepted in the Beloved One. And in this very passage, the latter part of chapter 5, he says, Him who knew no sin, He made to be sin on our behalf, that we may become the righteousness of God.
Where? In Him. May I ask you a very personal question tonight? What is your position before God?
The New Position: Accepted in the Beloved
Do you reconcile to God through Christ? Is the righteousness of God in Christ your possession? If you say yes, then my question to you is, you must have come to that possession. You must have come to that possession the way Paul did.
Through union with Christ. And if you've been joined to Christ, you're a new creation. Therefore, if you claim to have the imputed righteousness of Christ, and yet your life does not indicate that you are in vital union with Christ, there is no identity with His person in love and in devotion. There is no knowledge of Him as the Christ of God.
Dear friend, you're utterly deceived. There is no knowledge of Him as the Christ of God. There is no knowledge of Him as the Christ of God. If you are accepted in the Beloved, you are accepted as a new creation, one who is in Christ Jesus.
But blessed be God if we are in Christ. If we are new creation, the fruit of that relationship is that old position of condemnation, alienation, wrath has passed. If we are in Christ, if we are in Christ, if we are in Christ, if we are in Christ, if we are in Christ, all things have become new. But then the old purpose has passed away.
The Old Purpose: Living Unto Self
What was Paul's basic purpose in life before he was brought into union with Christ? What is your basic purpose if you are not in union with Christ? Well, look at verse 15.
And he died for all that they who live should no longer live unto themselves. There is no more profound description of the basic purpose of life in every person who is not joined to Christ than these three little words, live unto themselves. What does it mean to be a sinner?
It means that your purpose in life is basically this, to live unto yourself. You've made yourself the goal of your existence. Your happiness, your pleasure, are the things which you seek. Your ideas of right and wrong are the rules by which you live.
What pleases you becomes the bar of judgment between what you do and what you won't do. You live unto yourself. Self is the goal of your existence. Now, in some people, that manifests itself in a life that even worldlings call a wicked life.
Some man to please himself, if he's a, a businessman, may run roughshod over all his competitors. He may be guilty of all kinds of dishonesty and chicanery. And his basic goal is he wants to accumulate money because that pleases him and living unto himself, he openly flaunts any kind of sense of, of rightness and equity and sensitivity. And so we look at that man and say, he is a sinner.
But you see the person who is kind and gentle and sweet and loving and faithful to wife or husband a good mother, good father. There's no basic difference if they're not joined to Christ. For the reason they are loving and kind and gentle does not have reference to bringing glory to God. It does not have reference to living such a life out of regard for God's precepts unto God's glory in the strength of God's own spirit.
Simply a matter of genes which determine the temperament. Proper training and other influences in the realm of common grace, they just happen to be a nice person.
But when you dig beneath the external differences between that crooked businessman, that harlot or that lecture, and that nice sweet person who's never been joined to Christ, the substructure of life is exactly the same. Living unto themselves. And that's the height of human wickedness. You were not made to live to yourself.
You were made to live unto Him who made you. You were made to find great delight in acknowledging that He is God and that He made you. And that as God He has a right to govern you. And that as God all that you have should ultimately issue in the praise and the honor of His name.
The New Purpose: Living Unto Christ
But Paul says the fruit of saving religion is this, that old purpose, living unto self, has passed away. A new, a new purpose has been introduced. Look at it. The last part of the verse.
They should no longer henceforth live unto themselves. But unto the church? No. But unto the standards of mom and dad?
No. But unto an artificial code of conduct imposed by society? No. But unto Him who died for them?
And rose again.
That new purpose which is always the fruit of saving religion is nothing less, nothing more,
than living unto Christ. And what does that mean? Well, simply speaking it means this, that the will of Christ as found in the word of Christ becomes the governing principle of my life. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?
That's why Jesus said the mark of His sheep is they hear His voice. It means in the second place not only that you receive directions from life for life from Christ, but you carry out those directions with reference to pleasing Christ. Look at verse 9 of this very chapter. One of the things that led Paul to write this.
He says, Wherefore we make it our aim, when people are aiming at something, there's concentration. Whether it's a man aiming his bow, aiming his gun, I don't care what it is. Aiming at something is a focused, concentrated activity. Paul says, We make it our aim.
We're shooting at something in life. And what is he shooting at? Here it is. That whether at home or absent to be well pleasing unto Him.
What are you shooting at in life?
What are you aiming at? I don't mean what are you doing like the drunken cowboy going through town at three in the morning with his six guns blazing, not aiming at anything, just shooting, having a great time.
No, no. He says, We make it our aim to be pleasing unto Him. This is the new purpose that dominates the new creature who's in union with Christ. There is that precise aim to please the heart of the one who died and rose again.
May I ask you again a very simple yet pointed question. Is that the conscious focus of your life? Is that the purpose which dominates and shapes and molds your life?
Let me make the question a little more poignant. Is that the purpose which molded and dominated and shaped your lifestyle from June 21st to June, June, I'm sorry, June 13th, last Sunday, to June 20th, today, in the home, amidst all the pressures and responsibilities of being a mother and a wife or a husband and a father and earning the bread and all the rest, you kids, amidst all the things that you've done this week, some of you with school out and your playing and your interaction with brothers and sisters and your time at the table and in the playroom and in all the areas of life, has this purpose been the substructure of all that you've done? Have you been consciously
aiming at pleasing Him? I don't ask if you hit a bullseye every day.
But is this what you're aiming at?
You see, you don't aim at something unconsciously. If you're aiming at something, it is a conscious experience. And I want to press that on your conscience almost relentlessly because I fear some of you will just be tempted to slough it off as just another part of a sermon. My friend, the reality or the lack of reality of your professed Christianity may pivot on an honest answer to that question.
For if any man be in Christ, a new creation, old things are passed away. Not only the old position of condemnation and guilt giving way to the new position of acceptance and reconciliation, but an old purpose living unto oneself radically transformed. The new purpose living unto Him marked, first of all, as we've seen, by receiving directives from Him, by consciously seeking to be pleasing to Him, and thirdly, desiring that in all things He may be glorified for whatever blessing comes to us or through us.
Whether ye eat or drink the most mundane activities whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory, to the praise of God. He hath saved us, Peter says, called us out of darkness into light that we should show forth the virtues of God. The virtues of the One who has thus called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Is that the purpose of your life?
Not theoretically, but practically.
What's your answer? Don't answer me verbally. But I plead with you to answer as honestly in the court of your own conscience as you'll be forced to answer in the day of judgment.
Is that your purpose? If you're a new creature in Christ, it will be, because Paul says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. All things become new.
The Old Pathway: Worldly Lusts and Depravity
Now that purpose is not perfectly accomplished. I said you don't always hit a bullseye. Sometimes you may completely miss the target. There may be even times when you lay your gun down.
You may get that bad shape. But the overriding drift and bent of your life has been radically transformed according to verse 15. No longer henceforth living unto yourself, but living unto Him who died and rose again. So you see, on the one hand, this slays the idea that one can be in Christ by virtue of his profession of faith or by virtue of his godly nurture and have no radical difference in his life.
It's foolishness. And on the other hand, it slays the idea that you can trust in Christ and yet not be radically transformed by Christ. There will be the new purpose and then that in turn, will give birth to the new pathway. If any man be in Christ, a new creation, all things are passed away.
Not only the position and purpose, but the pathway that you walk for your purpose determines your pathway.
If your purpose is to go up into New England as some of our people did this past week on vacation, then the path, the road you choose will be governed by your purpose. And so if your purpose is to live unto Him, the path you choose will be governed by that purpose. Now what is the purpose that we all have by nature? What is the old pathway, I'm sorry, the old pathway that we walk?
Well, it's described in vivid detail in passages such as Ephesians chapter 2. Listen to Paul's description of the pathway that all of us walk before we are new creatures in Christ.
Verse 2.
He said in verse 1, He made you alive when you were dead through your trespasses and sins wherein ye once walked according to, this was your pathway, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience among whom we also once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh, and of the mind. You know what Paul says our pathway was? It was a pathway laid by the accumulation
of our natural desires, the lust of the flesh and of our mind, that is, the bodily appetites which craved for satisfaction when they cried out. We listened to their cry, even though to heed their cry meant we had to trample underfoot God's love for us. God's love for us. God's love for us.
God's love for us. God's law. God's precepts. He says that's all right.
Whatever course the passions of our flesh dictated, we fulfilled them. Then he said they were the lusts of our minds. When our minds dictated that we should think in certain directions, even though we had to, as it were, fly into the face of divine revelation, we fulfilled the desires of the mind. The mind has fallen along with the rest of man's being, and its lusts and desires have become the lusts of man's being.
And Paul said the path we walked was made up of the stuff of fleshly passion, of mental depravity. Then he says thrown into that was the overriding and the undergirding influence of the very devil and evil spirits. The prince of the powers of the air, the spirit that walketh in the sons of disobedience, thrown in some of the other constructions, the construction material, he says, is the very course or the very spirit of this age. What John says, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, that was our pathway.
And that's the pathway every one of you walks by nature. That's the pathway I walk. But if any man be in Christ, a new creation. Old things are passed away.
The New Pathway: Doing the Will of God
That pathway is gone. And there is a new pathway. And what is the new pathway? John says, John contrasted by saying, the world passeth away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
The new pathway is doing the will of God so that now I gratify my natural physical appetites. How? In subordination to the revealed will of God. I discipline my mind to function within the revealed will of God.
I refuse to think any thought that means I must contradict divine revelation just as much as I refuse to walk in paths that mean I must violate divine precepts. No longer is my pathway determined by the spirit of this world which says, be this kind of a man, be that kind of a woman, let this be your goal. No, no, Paul says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. He said the world doesn't dictate my pathway.
The world and its standards and its goals has no more power over me than a crucified man upon the cross. I don't hear him. I don't submit to him. I have no attachment to him.
The world crucified unto me.
I would ask you as you sit here tonight, do you have this fruit of saving religion? Has the old pathway passed? Can you say with judgment day honesty, thank God, my path is no longer framed by bodily appetites alone, by mental appetites, by the world and by the devil, but the path that I walk by the grace of God is framed by the word of God. And I walk it in the power of the Spirit of God.
Assurance and Self-Examination
Not perfectly, sometimes more effectively than others, but thank God, that's the path I now walk. Can you say that? If you can, some of you have had trouble with assurance. You shouldn't have trouble with assurance for you never have the fruit of saving religion without the root.
And if you have a new pathway and the old is passed, that pathway flows out of a new purpose. The old is passed. That new purpose is the fruit of your new position accepted in the Beloved and the old is passed. The only reason you have the fruit of saving religion is because you have the root.
Old things pass away only if men are new creatures and men are only new creatures if they're in Christ. So you can argue from the fruit back to the root. Some of you have troubles with assurance, but there are others of you that ought to be going to have some troubles with assurance because you claim to have the root but you don't have the fruit. You've got no right to believe that you're in Christ.
Why? Because you're not a new creation. And what's the evidence you're not a new creation? The old things have not passed.
It doesn't say they ought to pass. It's good if they pass. They will eventually pass if you're in Christ. The very virtue of that mighty work of God has caused the old to pass and the new has emerged.
The Root of Saving Religion: All Things Are of God
Then we close with just a brief consideration. The first phrase of verse 18 which is though someone says and yes Paul when saving religion comes to a man when there is this new creation when there is the effect and the fruit of this where should we look in giving the praise? And if we don't have saving religion where should we look in order to get it? And he points us in the right direction and all things and in the context the all things are the things that he's been referring to.
If any man be in Christ a new creature the old things have passed away. Things have become new and all things what things? The new things. All things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ.
And so Paul who gives us the essence of saving religion union with Christ the effect of saving religion a new creation the fruit of saving religion this new position new purpose new pathway now tells us the root of saving religion all things are of God. Someone has said and I believe wisely said there are only two kinds of religion in the world the religion of free will in which what you do makes the difference and in which what you do what you have done becomes the point of glory. The other religion is the religion of free grace
in which what God has done makes the difference and in which what God has done becomes the focus of our praise and our glory. And there's only two religions in the world free will free grace. Now you've got all kinds of different names for both but there are only two. This is not just oversimplification.
If you check into the heathen religions all the way to some of the refined so-called expressions of Christianity that fall short of the perspective that we've looked at tonight at the core you will find this error. The difference between those who have true religion and false religion according to them is what you have done and therefore the testimony focuses upon what I have done and what I have accomplished. If you want to know how tragically this has affected much of so-called evangelical Christianity just read the so-called testimonies of people who have been converted under this type
of Christianity. Listen to them talk. Ask them are you a Christian? And if they say yes say how did you become a Christian?
And then be prepared to have your ears inundated with the word I.
I did this. I decided. I made a decision. I, I, I, I, I.
That isn't the way Paul viewed his conversion or the conversion of any true child of God. His language is theocentric. God-centered. We see it in this passage.
In any man in Christ a new creation. All things passed away. All become new. And as if someone would say yes Paul but didn't.
He should have said he shuts them up before they could open their mouth. And he says all things are of God. They flow out from him in sovereign grace and in sovereign mercy. That's why when Paul describes his own conversion he uses these words when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me.
Who's doing the acting? Paul or God? When it pleased me when it pleased God who separated me who called me to reveal his Son in me he's focusing upon the activity of God. Look back to chapter 4 in this very epistle.
He's describing the conversion of himself in the Corinthians. How does he do it? Look at verse 6 of chapter 4.
Seeing it is God that said light shall shine seeing it is God who said light shall shine out of darkness who shines in our hearts to give the light to the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Why are you Christian Paul? He says because God turned the light on.
I didn't turn it on. He made the light and he flipped the switch. God the same God who spoke into the black darkness of that primeval order and said light and out of darkness light shined. No light in there.
Light shined. Why? God created it. He says that same God did something akin to that in my poor sin-darkened heart.
God did something. And so the root of saving religion all things are of God. It's what God has done. Therefore God gets the praise.
Caution Against Misapplication and the Heart's Reflex
Saving religion is marked by this principle and though men may not be accurate in what they say with their lips and we must be careful here some of you who are young and immature will take a principle like this and go on out and use it like a baseball bat and clobber the head of everyone you meet who maybe doesn't phrase his testimony accurately. Now God help you if you do that. Don't you blame that on me if you go out and leave bloody heads and say well I learned that up at the Trinity Baptist Church. You didn't learn to go around bloodying up heads with theological baseball bats.
You didn't learn that here.
No. So we must be careful and I feel constrained to give that word of caution. But even in spite of that word of caution if we view our salvation biblically then in spite of imperfect phraseology it will break through that we are what we are because God put forth the arm of His power. All things are of God that is of the sovereign activity of the Father and secondly of the saving activity of the Son.
All things are of God who hath reconciled us to Himself. And in closing may I apply that principle to your conscience tonight. Does your professed religion have this perspective? In other words is it the reflex response of your heart to say whatever I know of true religion whatever I know of Christ whatever I know of being a new creation whatever I know of my old position my old purpose my old pathway passing away and all things become new whatever I know experimentally this much I know
it is all of God. I'm not asking have you learned to say those words that's easy but have you been taught in your deep heart of hearts that this is true? Have you had sufficient acquaintance with your own native corruption and defilement with your own blindness and love of sin that you know if God had not put forth his arm of power it never would have been done? Have you been taught to say from the heart and all things are of God?
When you look in the mirror like Paul did and ask yourself the question as he did and says how can I explain you man? He says there's only one way to explain me God did something.
When you look in the mirror are you forced to say that what I see and what I know of that person has no explanation but that all things are of God?
Final Challenge: Do You Have Saving Religion?
Or can you look in the mirror and say well whatever there is there could pretty well be explained in terms of genes culture self-help resolutions that the explanation of your life? If so my dear friend you have something less than saving religion and so I close where I began saving religion what is it and do you have it? What is it? This text tells us the essence of it is union with Christ if any man be in Christ the effect of it a new creation
the fruit of it all things passed away all things become new the root of it all things are of God is that your religion?
Is it? Children kids moms dads visitors friends church members is that your religion? If not you better scrap it tonight and cry out to that great God who's still in the holy business of making new creatures and cry to him that he would for Christ's sake have mercy upon you that he would take out that heart of stone and give you a new heart that he would be pleased to subdue your rebel will and bring you captive to his dear son oh dear people whom after a couple of weeks
I'll not see for some six weeks it's been the longest time in nine years that we've been away I believe before God I have some genuine genuine concern that you have nothing less than saving religion it may pass here but it won't pass there God help you to be content with nothing less let us pray our father we thank you for this portion of your word that we've studied tonight we bless and magnify the grace that took that proud
deceived Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus and brought him to the knowledge of his sinfulness brought him to see your glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ we thank you that what you did for him though the outward circumstances are peculiar to him the inward essence of what was done is precisely what you do for everyone whom you join to your son father be pleased to speak tonight speak in a way of exposure of sham and deception
speak in a way of consolation and comfort to those who are indeed in Christ speak to us in a way of instruction that we may learn with Paul to sing the language and speak the language of free grace and say from our hearts without any reluctance all things are of God we bless you today for the mighty power of free grace to subdue the most obdurate of sinners Lord magnify your grace even this night come to that one who least suspects that you are
moving toward them in a way of mercy come to that one who perhaps came to this meeting least desirous of being dealt with by your spirit oh father in the very ones whom you touch by your grace magnify that grace in its freeness in its sovereignty and in its mighty power oh God bless this your word to every heart and magnify your dear and only begotten son as your appointed mediator your Christ your anointed one we bless you for him tonight we thank you that many of us have the confidence
that we are in him that we have been made new creatures oh we thank you for that mighty work help us now to so live before men that they may see the fruit of your work in us and may be made thirsty to know you as you have brought us to know you in Christ hear us then in this our plea and accept our thanks for your word for your salvation for your spirit for your presence with us this day take us safely to our several homes magnify your name in us and through us in the days that lie before us we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
Amen The message that you have just heard was produced by the Trinity Pulpit in Essex Fells New Jersey and distributed through the Mount Olive Presbyterian Church tape library in Bassfield Mississippi with permission permission for the reproduction of this tape for the purpose of distribution should be requested from the Trinity Pulpit the Trinity Pulpit Post Office Box 277 Essex that's E-S-S-E-X Essex L-S 0
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This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage is the foundational text, providing the framework for defining saving religion through its essence, effect, fruit, and root.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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