Lies We Believe #15: I’ll Follow God Some Day When I Get My Act Together
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.’”—John 7:37
The lie we are examining today is the belief that we have to have our life completely together before we can follow God, or before God will accept us. For some reason we believe that we are not to sin any more, must have all of our priorities in line, and be holy all before we come to Christ. But that is to misunderstand who Christ is and what He has done. As Steve Brown says, “If you are a Christian, then you are part of the only group in the world where the qualification is to realize you are unqualified.” How true. We will never be good enough for God to accept us. That’s exactly the reason God sent His Son to die for us—because we couldn’t save ourselves. We were helpless in the sight of God, lost in sin, darkness, and blind to God and His righteous requirements. The point is not that we try and be good or gain acceptance in the sight of God by any work or meritorious act (which we can’t—see Ephesians 2:8-9); rather, it is to realize that we will never be good enough, but that Christ was, and we find rest in the shade of His perfection, person and promise.
Christ came to do what we could not—perfectly obey God. We are sinners, by nature and by choice. Jesus never sinned—not once (Hebrews 4:15). He was able to pay the price that was required for our sins—death (Romans 6:23; 2 Corinthians 5:21). And by faith in Him we have been reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:19). He lived the life we could not, was crucified, died, buried, and rose from the dead. He then ascended to the Father’s side where He sits waiting for the day of consummation when He comes to rule and His enemies will be made His footstool (Hebrews 10:12-13).
The requirement to come to God is simple…faith. Faith means believing what God did for us—paying a price we could not pay, doing what we could not do, and then trusting in that fact. But this faith is not static, but active. When we trust in Christ, a transformation occurs. God gives His Holy Spirit to live within us to transform us to become more like Him (Romans 8:29). God loves us and accepts us how and where we are, but He loves us too much to leave us there. As we work out our salvation, God’s Spirit is the one who is directing us. As Paul wrote, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure”—Philippians 2:12-13.
God is the one who calls us to Himself. God is the one who gives us the faith to believe. God is the one who justifies us (makes us righteous in His sight by appropriating to us Jesus’ payment for sins and then giving us His righteousness), and it is He who also sanctifies us (makes us continually more like Christ while we are on this earth). And ultimately, it is He and He alone who will glorify us (bring us into the presence of Christ and make us perfect forever). Because of all of this, we can find rest for our souls.
Faith is the requirement necessary to come to Christ, but in our passage for today faith is exemplified by drinking. Those who have faith are the ones who thirst and drink of Christ. So, the only requirement for coming to Christ is coming thirsty! We don’t come to Christ satisfied, with our thirst quenched. No, we come thirsty—that is faith. And that is the requirement—faith in the satisfaction that comes only from who He is and what He has done. May we all have our soul’s satisfaction in drinking from the only one who is able to quench our thirst—Jesus Christ. Amen.
The lie we are examining today is the belief that we have to have our life completely together before we can follow God, or before God will accept us. For some reason we believe that we are not to sin any more, must have all of our priorities in line, and be holy all before we come to Christ. But that is to misunderstand who Christ is and what He has done. As Steve Brown says, “If you are a Christian, then you are part of the only group in the world where the qualification is to realize you are unqualified.” How true. We will never be good enough for God to accept us. That’s exactly the reason God sent His Son to die for us—because we couldn’t save ourselves. We were helpless in the sight of God, lost in sin, darkness, and blind to God and His righteous requirements. The point is not that we try and be good or gain acceptance in the sight of God by any work or meritorious act (which we can’t—see Ephesians 2:8-9); rather, it is to realize that we will never be good enough, but that Christ was, and we find rest in the shade of His perfection, person and promise.
Christ came to do what we could not—perfectly obey God. We are sinners, by nature and by choice. Jesus never sinned—not once (Hebrews 4:15). He was able to pay the price that was required for our sins—death (Romans 6:23; 2 Corinthians 5:21). And by faith in Him we have been reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:19). He lived the life we could not, was crucified, died, buried, and rose from the dead. He then ascended to the Father’s side where He sits waiting for the day of consummation when He comes to rule and His enemies will be made His footstool (Hebrews 10:12-13).
The requirement to come to God is simple…faith. Faith means believing what God did for us—paying a price we could not pay, doing what we could not do, and then trusting in that fact. But this faith is not static, but active. When we trust in Christ, a transformation occurs. God gives His Holy Spirit to live within us to transform us to become more like Him (Romans 8:29). God loves us and accepts us how and where we are, but He loves us too much to leave us there. As we work out our salvation, God’s Spirit is the one who is directing us. As Paul wrote, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure”—Philippians 2:12-13.
God is the one who calls us to Himself. God is the one who gives us the faith to believe. God is the one who justifies us (makes us righteous in His sight by appropriating to us Jesus’ payment for sins and then giving us His righteousness), and it is He who also sanctifies us (makes us continually more like Christ while we are on this earth). And ultimately, it is He and He alone who will glorify us (bring us into the presence of Christ and make us perfect forever). Because of all of this, we can find rest for our souls.
Faith is the requirement necessary to come to Christ, but in our passage for today faith is exemplified by drinking. Those who have faith are the ones who thirst and drink of Christ. So, the only requirement for coming to Christ is coming thirsty! We don’t come to Christ satisfied, with our thirst quenched. No, we come thirsty—that is faith. And that is the requirement—faith in the satisfaction that comes only from who He is and what He has done. May we all have our soul’s satisfaction in drinking from the only one who is able to quench our thirst—Jesus Christ. Amen.
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