Essay 33 (6/4/04)

 

WHAT IS ESSENTIAL?

 

  Sincerity is the basis of acceptance with God? -- Alexander Campbell

 

While this question is appropriate, it is helpful to add a qualifier -- essential for what? In church circles we usually mean essential for salvation or essential for becoming a Christian, but there are other dimensions to the question. What is essential to be acceptable to God ? -- or to be justified, that is, to have a right relationship with him? -- is a different question.

 

  What is essential for covenant relationship with God? is a different question still.  We learned in our last essay that Rahab had a right relationship with God -- or that she was justified -- but she did not have a covenant relationship as did the Israelites. So with Abram, who was still a pagan when he was justified by faith. He was not in covenant relationship until he was circumcised.

 

  What is essential to being? is one question, while What is essential to well-being? is another.  One may have being with the scarcest of material things, while well-being implies some measure of wealth. In an affluent society such as our own, luxuries have a way of becoming necessities -- such as dental and medical care, and even microwaves! The poorest of the poor have being, but not well-being.

 

  This is true in the spiritual realm. There will be those in heaven who did not have a joyous life on earth -- such as never exulting in the grace of God. They have spiritual being, but not spiritual well-being. So, the answers are different as to what is essential for spiritual being, and what is essential to spiritual well-being.

 

  That is why we should not be satisfied that a person will go to heaven. We want him or her to have a joyous and triumphant journey? Our Lord drew a distinction between mere life and an abundant life.

 

  My mission in this essay is to answer What is essential to be acceptable to God? This is a different question from asking what is essential to become a Christian -- or born again -- or being a member of the body of Christ, the church. I will say that one may be acceptable to God -- as was Cornelius and the Ethiopian eunuch -- who is not yet a Christian or "born again" or a member of the church. And it just may be that there are those who have experienced all of these but are not acceptable to God.

 

  I agree with Alexander Campbell in the above quotation -- that sincerity of heart is the basis of acceptance with God. It is the one absolute essential for a right relationship with God. To put it another way, No one with a proud, self-willed, insincere heart is acceptable to God, and Everyone with a humble, sincere heart for God is accepted by him.

 

  Campbell was not speaking of a so-called sincerity that says "so long as I think I'm right then I'm right." He was referring to what Jesus spoke of in Mt. 5:6: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." He wasn't blessing the righteous, but those who have a heart to be righteous. Campbell had in mind what David referred to in Ps. 51:17: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and contrite heart -- These, O God, You will not despise."

 

  It could hardly be plainer than in Isa. 66:2: "But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word." Or the way Peter put it in Acts 10:34-35: "In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted to Him."

 

  The sincere heart is the seeking heart. It is on a quest, a journey. It seeks light -- truth -- from whatever source it comes. When light breaks, it accepts it. When more truth comes, it accepts it. That is what Campbell -- and I -- mean by sincerity of heart. Without this no one can be acceptable to God. A sincere heart may be ignorant, but it is unwillful ignorance and never willful ignorance. Anyone who willfully and knowingly rejects any light that comes from God becomes a disbeliever, and is under condemnation.

 

  But only disbelievers are condemned -- never unbelievers. God never condemns one for not doing and not being what he doesn't know to do or be. Again, my oft-repeated thesis: God rejects only those who reject him! One could add: God never rejects one who sincerely seeks him, however mistaken he may be at any given time!

 

  This is why we do not have to pass judgment on the so-called "lost world." Our Lord did not come to condemn the world, but to save it (Jn. 3:17). John the Baptist introduced the Christ as, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Did Jesus save the world? Did he take away the sin of the world?

 

  If yes is the answer to these questions, then we can say as did Paul in 1 Cor. 15:22: "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." The Bible does not declare Christ the potential Savior -- if certain conditions are met -- but the Savior of the world. That is good news! And that is grace -- unconditional grace!

 

  This can only mean that everyone is saved -- Jews, Muslims, Hindus, pagans, everyone -- except those that the Bible says are lost: those who are insincere and reject, and keep on rejecting, such light as they have.  We can't judge whether the lost are few, many, or most. Only God knows the heart. But this is why we are to send the light and preach the gospel. The elect -- those who are sincere and have a heart for God -- will accept it. Those who reject it -- the non-elect -- are those who are insincere and have already rejected such light as they have, and are already under condemnation. No one is ever worse off for hearing the gospel. Moreover, the gospel has the power to touch the hearts of those who have previously rejected God and such light as he gave them, and thus turn insincere hearts to sincere hearts, which is what repentance is about.

 

  What I have said here answers other questions about essentiality. Are faith, repentance, baptism necessary? Is it essential to be a member of the body of Christ? The same proposition answers these questions: It is essential for one to respond to such light as he has -- to obey such commands as he understands, and to accept such relationships as he sees to be the will of God.

 

  Now that you have Alexander Campbell's take on who is acceptable to God, you might be ready for his definition of a Christian, which of course answers a different question: "A Christian is one who believes in Christ as Savior, repents of his sins, and obeys him in all things according to his understanding."