P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

LIVING IN SIN AND ABIDING IN JESUS

It’s a very common dilemma for Christian pastors.  A person comes to you with a marvelous request: “Pastor, I’d like to give my heart to God and be baptized.”  Well, that’s about the happiest moment in a person’s ministry . . . so what’s the dilemma.  In this particular case, the young man in question was living with his girlfriend — without the benefit of a marriage license.

And that brings right to the front burner this most practical of questions, the very thing we’ve been discussing for about a week and a half.  Do I say to this person, according to the great Protestant creed: “Wonderful!  Let’s go down to the church right now and get in the tank, because you have the promise of ‘justification through grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone, NOTHING ELSE BEING NECESSARY’”?  Does “nothing else being necessary” mean that young people living in sin with their girlfriends don’t have to move out before the pastor will baptize them?

This “I want to be baptized, but I’ve got a pretty roommate of the opposite sex” scenario happens many, many times, but the story I’m particularly thinking of right here is painfully real.  The young man really did want to be a part of the Body of Christ.  He was attracted by Calvary.  And truth be told, he WANTED to resolve the girlfriend issue as well.  He wanted to be obedient to biblical teachings. They were actually planning to be married about a month down the road.  But for right now, they were both staying in her apartment, and he didn’t have the necessary cash to move out even for the one month.

And the question comes right up: if salvation is based on Jesus dying for us on the cross, and if all we have to do is to say yes to that gift, and if keeping God’s Law has nothing to do with earning a home in heaven, and if eternal life isn’t BASED on moving out of that apartment and into a lifestyle of sexual purity . . . then why do it?  But is that what “nothing else being necessary” is really saying?

Well, let me put two thoughts on the bulletin board here, and then I’ll tell you the rest of the story.  First of all, as we said yesterday, to accept Jesus by faith means to put EVERYTHING in His hands.  Our decisions, our lifestyle, our plans, our hopes, our dreams.  Faith isn’t just saying: “Calvary is great; thank you, Jesus, and goodbye.”  No, it’s an act of complete self-surrender.  Which means that if Jesus comes to you and says, “I want you to move out of that apartment,” you do it.  If He says, “Move to this faraway land” — like He did to Abraham — you do that too.  Real faith DOES involve trusting Him with ALL of your life.

Point #2 takes us back to a hard story we discussed last week, one which seems to unravel the entire mountain called “Nothing Else Being Necessary.”  In Matthew chapter 19 Jesus is visiting with a man we sometimes call the “Rich Young Ruler.”  And this young entrepreneur says to the Savior: “I’m interested.  What You’re saying sounds good to me.  What would it take for ME to have eternal life too?”  And we’re stunned by what Jesus tells this young man, because it’s a million miles away from “Only believe — nothing else being necessary.”  First, Jesus gives him Part One:

“If you want to enter life, obey the commandments. . . . ‘Do not murder, do not COMMIT ADULTERY, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Now friend, that’s a long ways beyond “nothing else being necessary.”  But Jesus is just getting started, because when this dot.com hotshot tells Jesus with an easy smile, “Cool!  I’m already doing all of that.  So I guess I’m in, right?”, Jesus adds one tiny P.S. 

“If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow Me.”

And right here we start to get rather light-headed, spiritually speaking.  Because this thing called obedience, which we think is supposed to be the caboose on the train, is right up front.  It’s ahead of the engine, even, and threatening to derail our whole experience with Jesus.  Sell EVERYTHING?  Unload our entire portfolio?  Give up our stock options?  Sell the house and the Porsche?  EVERYTHING?  No way can we do that.  According to this principle, salvation isn’t free; it’s the very OPPOSITE of free.  It’s impossibly expensive — and Jesus admits as much four verses later.  “With man, this is impossible.”  True, He does add that with God ALL things are possible, but that sounds like a rather foolish cliché at the moment, doesn’t it?

Well, friend, giving you a cliché myself right here is the last thing I would want to do.  Because God has never asked me to sell MY house and car and give all the proceeds to the missionaries.  But the principle of the kingdom is this: every single one of us has to be willing to do WHATEVER it takes to have an ATTITUDE of complete faith in Jesus.  As we studied yesterday, we have to put it ALL in His hands.  Our salvation, our eternal life, is based on Calvary.  But a Calvary faith experience does involve, has to involve, always WILL involve an attitude of saying to Jesus, “All I have is Yours.  Jesus, whatever it takes.  Jesus, whatever You say.  Jesus, however You lead.”

Apparently, for that rich young ruler, Jesus could look into his eyes and heart and know that money would always be in the way.  Money was the god at that man’s house.  That man’s HOUSE was the god at that man’s house.  And Jesus was simply telling him the truth: “If you want to totally and completely lean on ME . . . for YOU, the money is going to have to go.”  For other people, some money in their bank accounts is not a faith problem; for him it was.

And the fact of the matter is — for us living here 2000 years later — God tells us that an attitude of total faith in Jesus involves moving away from adulterous relationships.  That’s just fact.  “‘Cause I say so,” He tells us.  If you are completely entrusting your life to Jesus, in a way that will lead you to the kingdom, then that live-in friendship has got to be fixed.  No, sexual purity is not the up-front basis of your salvation, but it IS included in your total faith experience.  Galatians chapter five tells us in plain Greek — and now English — that sexually immoral people aren’t going to be in the kingdom.  Meaning: people who CLING to sexual immorality, who refuse to allow Jesus to take them away from it.  Clear at the end of the Bible, Revelation 22, as John the Revelator describes that holy City, we find the same thing said again.

And friend, I realize full well how this sounds like the caboose is going up front.  If I say to a struggling would-be Christian, “Sure I’ll baptize you, but not till you dump your girlfriend, and quit smoking, and start coming to church, and GIVING that church ten percent of your income, and keeping the Sabbath, etc., etc., etc.,” and it sounds like those are up-front requirements, it feels like the expression, “Nothing Else Being Necessary,” is gone.

But what if I say instead: “Bill, it’s just amazing what Jesus has done for me.  And for you.  Jesus is everything.  He’s done it all.  He’s my only hope.  My only shot is to trust Him completely, with everything.  And Bill, I’ve found that anytime He wants me to do something, HE helps me do it.  HE enables me.  HE opens up the way.  Bill . . . man . . . He’ll do the same thing for you.  Guaranteed.”?  Is it possible for you and me to come to Jesus, and to cast our SELVES at His feet in a way that obedience STAYS the caboose on the train, the FRUIT of salvation and not its root?

I believe it IS possible.  It HAS to be possible, because that’s the biblical way, the only way.  And by the way, let me finish up my story about that guy with the girlfriend.

He wanted to obey, but he didn’t see how.  And give him credit; he went to the apartment landlady and said, “I’m moving out for the next month — until the wedding.”  “How come?”  “‘Cause I’m a Christian now; I want to do what the Lord asks me to do,” he told her. 

She was impressed.  “Where are you going to live?”  “I don’t know.”  And sometimes friend, faith involves saying that:  “I don’t know.  Jesus Christ will help me to surrender, to obey, but I don’t know how.” And this secular lady with all the apartment keys thought for a minute, and then said to the kid: “Look, I like what you’re trying to do.  That apartment down at the end? 4C?  It’s empty and I can’t seem to rent it out.  Go ahead and take it until the wedding.”  Free of charge, and she even had her husband throw in some furniture, on the house.  Problem solved.  Faith rewarded.  As we sometimes say, “Jesus’ BIDDINGS are also ENABLINGS.”  If He asks you to do it, He’ll make Himself responsible to lead the way.  And the caboose on the train, that GOOD caboose . . . stays where it belongs.