"So what's the point of getting Saved?"
Sometimes, deep questions can come from the most unlikely of sources. And they can be so profound, one never forgets them.
Years ago, a co-worker and I were talking about spiritual things. He was one of those who prided himself in "embracing all religions". We didn't argue even though it could have easily gone that route. Knowing that I was "holding fast" to the belief that I am a Christian, he asked me a question that "rocked my world"...
"Marchel, you say you are a Christian right?" I said, "Yes, Jim, I am."
"You believe that Jesus Christ died on a cross for your sins and is 'the Saviour' for your sins, right?" I said, "Yes, I do."
"You say that you WERE a sinner and STILL ARE a sinner, right?" I said, "Yes, I was and still am."
"Then Jesus sure didn't DO MUCH for YOU, did He? So, what's the point of getting Saved then if you still sin?" I had no answer.
His question hit me between the eyes in a way I had never been challenged before. It bothered me all day long and into the night to the point I woke up from a sound sleep (after I finally was able to.)
The Lord gave me the answer to Jim's question and in doing so, I came to a deeper understanding of WHY I was saved.
The next day, I couldn't wait to get to work and have some time to visit with Jim. The Lord gave me that opportunity of which I was most grateful.
I said, "Jim, do you remember that question you asked me yesterday about 'what's the point of getting Saved?" He answered "yes."
"Well, your question really bugged me but the Lord gave me an answer that I needed to answer for myself during the early morning. Yes, it's true that I was a sinner and still am and it seems as though the Lord 'didn't DO MUCH for me' like you said, but He is ALL ABOUT LOVE and having the freedom to choose to Love Him. He gave us all a freewill. He could have made me a 'puppet on a string' where I would automatically be sinless but that wouldn't have been Love in the truest form. Because we all have the freewill to Love Him or not, it is LOVE that chooses NOT to sin even though I could! Love is never forced or coerced or manipulated."
He shook his head as if he understood. From that day, I am constantly reminded that to Love this most beautiful Saviour Who was spat on in sheer hatred, beaten beyond recognition for the sheer sake of REDEEMING me is a CHOICE that I have the privilege of freely making.
Oh, how He must DELIGHT in those times when I do! Isn't this Saviour WORTH that to us???? Isn't "THAT THE POINT" OF GETTING SAVED???? Or will we willingly choose to remain in our sins because Jesus didn't "DO MUCH" for us?
I thanked Jim that day for challenging me into a deeper walk with this Saviour I had the privilege of sharing.
When I choose to sin over Loving the Lord, I am- in essence- saying, "Jesus, You just didn't do enough for me. Could you do just a little more because my sins are much greater than You."
"There is NO GREATER LOVE than this, that a Man would willingly lay down His Life for His friends."
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Comments
Thank you for having the courage to honestly answer what can be a hard question. I've been a Christian since the time I was child, yet I have struggled with this secret sin for decades. I had to ask myself the same question recently. If we are dead to sin, why do we continue? If Jesus has paid the price and has made us a "new creation", why to we still carry all this junk from our old life, and in my case why did I enter into a life of private sin while I was a Christian?
I think in analogies, and I found an analogy that fits scripture, and makes sense to explain to me why this happens, at least to me. I posted the same thought on another thread a few days ago, but here it is again.
Living as a "slave" to sin is like being in a prison cell. This is a prison of our own sin nature as part of the "sin of humanity" but it's also a prison of our own personal sin. When we recognize that we are hopelessly locked in a prison that we built, we ask Jesus to free us. Only he has the key to our cell. Without asking anything in return, he unlocks our cell, and comes in and sits with us. He expects nothing in return and he does not wait for us to meet Him, but He comes in and says that no matter what, He will never leave us.
But as one who knows the glory of the fresh air and the sun, He tells us about what it's like outside. He implores us to trust Him and follow Him out of that cell. He waits for us, and asks us to join Him outside. It is only through His payment and His love that we are unlocked from our cell, and it is only through His power that we are able to stand and walk with Him into the light. Here's the trick, though. He won't drag us out of the cell. If we're so stubborn and stupid that we want to sit in that unlocked cell and not leave, He won't drag us out. He will just sit there with us, and He will keep reminding us that we were made to fly and that if we would trust him, He would take us somewhere new and amazing.
I've kept one foot in that cell for many, many years, believing that I was comfortable in there. I am learning that walking out of that cell can mean at times a dark corridor, and I am tempted to run back to the one light bulb of my cell. But I will continue to walk by faith, with Him at my side, because I can see the sunlight from here, and it's getting closer....
Thank you for your wonderful analogy of a prison cell. (I love analogies too.) I am always especially blessed at how the truths of nature (the physic-al world) and spiritual principles/truths corelate. In fact, it is impossible to divide the two.
In the physical realm of nature, darkness is dispelled when there is light. Since Jesus IS the Light, it is impossible to "reside in darkness" when we PUT ON the Light!
The "secret key" to rising above our sorid pasts of sexual misuse/abuse (since they are one in the same) is learn Who Jesus is- His character, His attributes, His definition of Love- for Him, Self and others. All of those are connected!
"Show me a person who nutures their own soul's well-being and I will show you a person who nutures the well-being of other souls!"
This is why looking at pornography is no longer "stimulating", whether physically or mentally, when one grasps these truths. One begins to SEE the depravity of man as God sees them and the utter disrespect for what God originally designed as Sacred, Beautiful, etc. and was meant as an actual physical/spiritual ANALOGY of marriage of HIS character, attributes and Love for every human being ever born- past, present and future- just by virtue of having been born! Is this a beautiful God or what?? Wow. He truly blows my mind.
Thank you for sharing your newly transformed MIND, Healing and for giving some women hope that there are men out there who CHOOSE to LOVE God. (Some of us have never had that privilege in the worlds we live in and it does seem to be the case that those men are fewer than the other in our day and age.) I say this because I have been the wife of a man who lived in the bondage of sexual sins and I ALWAYS felt betrayed by the women of pornography because I LOVED my husband and they didn't and yet, they are the ones who got his "interest". Sadly, the true Love I offered him did not matter in the long run.
It was the grasping of God's Love for HIMSELF that was missing (and sadly still is at this time) in his heart and mind. I personally know so many women who LONG for their own husbands to be "the one" they adore and cherish. But truly, how can one "adore" and "cherish" someone in every sense of the word who is "divided". The Lord calls that "unstable." It came to the point where I Loved his soul more than the person he was at the moment. Isn't that the way God sees each of us... not as who we are, but who He designed us to be- saved and set apart for Himself.
In the physic-al realm, (and for the sake of analogy)- a Negative (Lust) and a Positive (Love) equals a NEGATIVE. Lust must be literally CONVERTED into Love to make it a Positive- not the other way around. (Lust is the "variable", Love is the Fixed Point.)
This is EXACTLY the reason why the Lord showed me as a wife who Loved (and still does) my husband, NOT go into the darkness with him in order to "help" him out of it as is oftentimes the "popular" thinking within Christianity. From what I know of the many wives of similar situations as mine, this is what their CHRISTIAN husbands wanted. This can't work.
In fact, it is IMPOSSIBLE for that to work because it is against ALL physic-al and spiritual Laws/Truths/Principles of God. (I guess since HE is the One Who created it ALL, I guess He is the One Who knows HOW it should be done. Duh, Marchel! LOL)
Anyway, I dance and sing because He has REMOVED the shackles off my feet because I LET HIM! Amen! He wants to! Better yet, He LONGS to because there truly is a beautiful world waiting and since our Lord is of the "adventurous sort"... Well... NO WONDER He can say, "I am able to DO exceedingly above whatever one can ask or think". WWOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!! Seize the day!
If the Lord is leading you, thank you ahead of time for reaching out to other men as YOU grasp the Love of God for your Self. I am praying that my recent and precious husband will come to the end of himself SOON (since I know that is God's heart for him) and that his sexual "quest" to find other women who will "love" him the way he thinks he should be "loved" will be forever over. (I pray that the Lord protects other women from further damage.) I have been praying specifically that God will allow some true Christian man to cross his path and will encourage him to a "more excellent way", since he has not experienced that here in the town we live. Perhaps God will send someone during his period of running. Yes, our God is ABLE and willing! And... He LOVES his soul that much. (As do I.)
(You know... you might find The Mystery of Marriage book by Mike Mason extremely challenging. It is not about "human" marriage persay- it about the analogy of God's marriage to His bride- us!)