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RELIGIOUS BLASPHEMY
Claiming to do what God has already done is to commit the sin of blasphemy. For instance, claiming to have created the world is blasphemy. Most professing Christians would agree with the foregoing statements and yet multitudes of times each day well-meaning religious people tell lost people to commit the sin of blasphemy. Surprisingly enough, these well-meaning folk tell people to commit the sin of blasphemy in order to be saved! What is it they tell people? Very often you will hear folk telling lost people to “believe,” or “accept the Lord,” or “make a decision for Christ,” and then add to it “and make Him Lord” or “make Him your Lord.” It is human wisdom to think that sinners can be saved by this work or that work. But the Bible is clear, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast,” (Ephesians 2:8-9). The carnal mind of the unregenerate just will not believe that Christ finished the work of providing a satisfactory payment for the sins of His people. So they add some kind of works to their so-called plan of salvation and often this supposed good work is actually sin. These folk encourage – actually they demand – that the sinner commit blasphemy by claiming to do what God has already done. If asked, I suppose each of these folk would claim to have done this thing that God has already done and so they, too, would be guilty of blasphemy. What exactly is it that they demand of the sinner that constitutes blasphemy? Why, they tell lost individuals to “make Christ Lord.” In spite of the fact that God has already done this very thing multitudes of people are told to do what God has already done! What does the Bible say? Peter said, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ,” (Acts 2:36). This is not quibbling about words! God has already made the same Jesus whom the Jews crucified “both Lord and Christ.” (Christ means Messiah or deliverer: the long-promised savior of Israel). Clearly and really God “hath made” (past tense) this Jesus to be Lord! He is Lord! You cannot make Him Lord! No man ever did make Him Lord! Claiming to do so is to claim to do what God has already done! What lost sinners ought to do is summed up in Psalm 2:12: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” Do you have “trust in him?” This is saving faith and is the work of God in those whom He saves. We counsel you, as Jesus said, “...except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,” (Luke 13:5). |
