On one hand you've got an unevangelized Muslim whose heart is moved by the Holy Spirit even though he doesn't know to call Him that, who believes in Jesus' virgin birth, who is convicted to beg God for forgiveness of His sins, and who thinks that Jesus must have been greater than the Prophet but can't articulate a theological framework for his intuition or even say it out loud.
On the other hand you've got a member of a Christian church who doesn't really believe all that old stuff in the Bible but gets his praise on every Sunday morning even if he's just getting in from the club. He has grown up in this "Christian" nation, and heard the gospel countless times but he is mean, selfish, and obnoxious, unrepentant of his sins, unapolgetic for his un-Biblical lifestyle, and uninterested in learning the boring stuff in the Bible or in being any different than he is because he is certain that God only wants to love him and bless him with success and stuff.
Which one's got a better chance in the final Judgment?
Consider the following before you answer:
All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law,they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)
This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. (Romans 2: 12-16)
"But," I hear you asking, "aren't I better off than them because I have the true Word of God available to me."
Yes,my friend. Yes, you are. As a Christian in America you've got the same advantage the Jews had in the Roman empire.
What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God. (Romans 3: 1-2)
But.... having the Word doesn't really work out to an advantage if you don't actually live by it. In fact, if you have the Word but you violate the Word, it really kinda makes it worse --- for you.
You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself?
You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
You who boast in the law,do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles BECAUSE OF YOU." (Romans 2: 21-24)
To paraphrase the concluding verses of Romans 2: You're not a Christian just because you call yourself one in public. To be a Christian, you have to be a Christian on the inside. There has to be a change, a kind of spiritual circumcision, in your heart. The Holy Spirit makes you a Christian, not the contents of a church membership roll. True Christians care what God thinks about them in private not how you look to people in public worship. (based on Romans2: 28, 29)
In the end, verse 27 says, the one who has not physically joined a duly recognized Christian institution but from the heart and obeyed the gospel will by his life condemn you, even though you have the Bible and the traditions and the church, because you have all of that and have disobeyed it.
That's it. There's no punch line. Now read it all again.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer,
community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is
pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director
of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership development
for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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