Lifetime Guarantee (25 page)

The method by which God
accepts
you is never performance-based, but Jesus-based, and He grades pass–fail. All who know Christ as personal Savior and Lord are accepted; all who do not are rejected. But have you discovered that He will also grade you pass–fail at the judgment seat of Christ? Understanding how to defuse our fear of this judgment is another key we all need in order to experience a victorious life, so let’s talk briefly about it.

You must understand that it’s your
works
which will be judged, not
you
who will be judged. Failing to see this results in fearing the judgment for the wrong reason. Many
feel
like God is going to subject them to public humiliation for certain sins they’ve not overcome. Come on. Has God removed your sins as far as east from west through Christ or not (Psalm 103:12)? Enough of such disbelief. That’s the wrong reason to be apprehensive about the judgment.

God only honors His own work. First Corinthians 3:6-17 reveals that only a work of the Spirit can pass His judgment and that His grading system is gold, silver, and precious stones versus wood, hay, and stubble; that’s pass–fail. It’s
how
you build that will be judged—how you lived life, totally dependently or independently. Is your method Spirit-dependent or flesh-dependent? “They will be held guilty, those whose strength is their god” (Habakkuk 1:11). If that is the way you approach life, you have good reason to be apprehensive about the judgment because your entire life’s work (even if you are a pastor) will be burned.

But you can defuse those fears right now. Just quietly bow your head and trust Christ to begin living through you to do His will. Then begin to
act
like He is doing it! By so doing, you will be producing a work of God which will merit the “Well done” in the future. “You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things” (Matthew 25:21). Talk about a profit-sharing plan! Thus, we complete Step 3.

As I continue to walk by faith and obedience, setting my mind on the reality of how things are rather than on how I
feel
or on “circumstantial evidence” that belies God’s Word, God will begin to bring my feeler’s “stuck threshold” more into line. I’ll be transformed by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2). Thus, we complete the final step.

Notice I said “sort of.” God is never going to bring your feeler
totally
into subjection so long as you remain in your earthsuit. He has deliberately designed it to vacillate so as to force you to walk by faith, not by feel, if you would experience the “peace that passes understanding.”

Remember, that peace is not a feeling, but a
knowing
—knowing that the Father has everything under control; that you are in Christ, seated in heaven, resting; and that He is in you now, living. Bow before Him right now. Praise Him for dreaming up such a fantastically innovative, glorious, gracious plan whereby you and I can face
anything
this world can throw at us, not due to
our
ability but to His ability through us.

Answers in “Answers to Questions for Further Study”.

Maybe you’re saying, “Bill, I see what you’re teaching about the sin nature’s being dead and how we now battle against the
power
of sin and the flesh. You just teach it a little differently than I do. I call the power of sin the sin nature. It’s a little different, but I believe we’re both saying the same thing. It’s just semantics.”

I’ve had Bible teachers say that to me, but it’s not correct. They and I are poles apart in our teaching. If they’re right, I’m battling against
myself.
I’m fighting a
civil
war. If I’m right, on the other hand, I’m collaborating with the Holy Spirit to fight against sin. It’s God and me against
him.
It’s two against one and I can win! I’m “more than a conqueror through Him” (see Romans 8:37).

The Bible can be interpreted as saying that salvation, security, sanctification, and all the rest of God’s blessings must be
earned
through performance. But it can also be interpreted that these are
bestowed
upon the believer solely by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ.

Discerning the correct interpretation is critical to consistent victory over your version of the flesh. Does this mean I’m going to resolve theological issues that the world’s greatest intellects have struggled to understand? Do I claim I can show you the “right” way? Well, I don’t claim to have the market cornered on truth, but I do have an opinion. Whatever truth I have is purely by the grace of God, as is the case with anyone. I believe “rightly dividing the Word of truth” on all the attainable growth plateaus for the new creation in Christ is critical to consistent victory, and I have an opinion on how to go about understanding it that I believe is biblical or I would abandon it.

This book interprets the Bible as teaching that no human being has two spiritual natures. Lost folks have one; saved folks have one. The Bible teaches that all people are spiritual creatures who temporarily dwell in earthsuits, not physical creatures who have spirits. There’s a big difference in those two views. Our eternal identity is spiritual, not physical. This is true for both the saved
and
the lost: “Therefore…we recognize no man according to the flesh” (2 Corinthians 5:16a). With this in mind, let’s compare a Christian with an unbeliever as follows:

The above list is only partial, but one can readily see that it describes two polarized identities. We can condense each column into one summary label as follows:

Now, here’s the rub. We can find verses in the Bible that appear to teach that Christians have two natures, not one. How can we deal with that? Furthermore, there are other apparent contradictions in the Word, although we know the Word is totally true. For example, how about the verses that teach you have to be baptized to be saved versus those that teach you don’t? And how about those that teach that a saved person can become unsaved versus those that teach he can’t? What do we do with these? Which is the right position to take?

Webster defines
enigma
as “a perplexing or baffling matter.” As I took this enigma to the Lord, studying His Word and striving to remain open to His Spirit, digesting the truth and discarding the error (including that in my own denomination’s teaching) by His gracious revelation, I have some things to offer to you that I believe are from the Holy Spirit.

The Lord showed me that the Christian life is like a road upon which I travel and upon which I encounter a series of forks, each of which demands that I turn either to the right or to the left (see Figure 10.1). Choosing the correct fork may or may not be accompanied by feelings of euphoria, but the feeling (or its absence) must never become the object of my faith.

A right turn on this road leads to an area I’ll label “Law.” This stands for the concept that God has people on a performance-based acceptance; the more nearly our performance measures up to God’s Law, the better He accepts us. Conversely, if we fail from time to time, His smile fades to a frown of rejection. The epitome of this condition would be to incur His ultimate rejection, eternity in hell.

Taking a left turn on this road, however, leads to “Grace,” God’s unmerited favor poured out upon undeserving humanity through Jesus Christ. After salvation, my motivation from this perspective is
not based on guilt over my failures,
but rather I am motivated
by love for Christ
to offer myself to Him, to let Him express His life through my personality and earthsuit to a hurting world. I believe correctly understanding the Word requires
separating law from grace.
Thus, a left turn is the right turn to take on this road, and hence the title of this chapter.