“Evangelicals have, to a greater or lesser extent, sought to adapt to the modern world. But they have insisted that this process should not lead to the distortion of the biblical Gospel.”
- Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought
Author’s Note: This is the introduction in Professor Lane’s book regarding Evangelicals. And I would prefer to fail in adapting to the modern world than to distort the biblical Gospel.
“Judah, your brothers will praise you;
your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons will bow down to you.
You are a lion’s cub, Judah;
you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
- Genesis 49:8-10
But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
- 1 Samuel 15:22
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
- Matthew 6:24
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
- 2 Corinthians 6:14
“Obedience to moral law cannot be partial, in the sense that a moral agent can partly obey and partly disobey at the same time. … The only sense in which obedience to moral law can be partial is that obedience may be intermittent. That is, the subject may sometimes obey, and at other times disobey. He may at one time be selfish, or will his own gratification, because it is his own, and without regard to the well-being of God and his neighbour, and at another time will the highest well-being of God and the universe. as an end, and his own good only in proportion to its relative value. These are opposite choices, or ultimate intentions. The one is holy; the other is sinful. One is obedience, entire obedience, to the law of God; the other is disobedience, entire disobedience, to that law. These. for aught we can see, may succeed each other an indefinite number of times, but coexist they plainly cannot. (Lectures on Systematic Theology 15.1)”
- Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought
Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875) was a Presbyterian minister, but he did not hold to much of the tenets of Reformed theology. He was more of a revivalist, “The Father of Old Revivalism.” From 1825 to 1835 he preached in churches in the “burned-over” district of upstate New York. This district included western New York and a few counties of central New York. It is called “burned-over” in that during the Second Great Awakening, a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it seemed that the people who came to Christ were on fire for the Lord. Finney is credited with initiating the Second Great Awakening, but it was done through the power of the Holy Spirit. Finney moved further west and became the second president of Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, USA.
The quote above is shocking, but if we are honest, it describes each believer.
The Apostle John, in his first letter, says that if Christ is within us, we will not sin. Almost without a breath taken, he follows that with when we sin, we must confess it. Ummm. John, you cannot have it both ways, but when you see Christians who are on fire for God suddenly say a naughty word, lash out in anger, or see that no one is coming, so they drive past a STOP sign without stopping. Maybe in each case, no one was injured, but for a moment, they sinned.
When Jesus sits in the control center of our lives (as the late Bill Bright might have put it, and they still do at Cru), we cannot sin, because Jesus is in control. But then, we shove Jesus off his throne, sometimes unceremoniously, because we see something that “needs to be dealt with.” For a moment, we take the wheel and use it to do something not in God’s will for our lives.
I think that is what Rev. Finney is talking about. A person who loves God and keeps his eyes on Jesus will not sin, but since we do, we must confess that sin. We must get our gaze back on our Savior and let Him make the decisions.
The first Scripture above is the first half of the blessing of Judah at the end of the book of Genesis, and the first use of “obedience” in the NIV. And when the king was obedient to God and the people were obedient to the king, the nation flourished. It will be that way again when Jesus returns for His millennial reign.
And dig into the second Scripture for a moment. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Obviously, it is. If it were not for disobedience, there would be no need for the sacrifice. I apologized to my sister over the phone this morning. I had been deeply hurt by something within the family. My emotions were on edge. And my sister shouted loud enough for me to hear, “God is in control. We may not like what is happening, but God is in control.” I have said that many times on this blogsite, but I forgot when it was a close family member who was involved. But back to the apology. Would it not have been better if I had never raised my voice? If I had never taken my eyes off Jesus? If I had never distrusted, even for a moment, that God will work all things for the good of those that love Him and obey Him? And in my apology, I told her that it was a lot easier to say that God was in control when it was NOT someone that you loved that was involved. (No worries, the loved one was causing personal pain to themselves due to selfish and arrogant behavior. Others were only injured because they loved him. No one is going to jail.)
Yeah, obedience is a lot better than going through all that.
We cannot have two masters. Jesus said that. He was referring to money, but Rev. Finney refers to the masters of obedience and sin. Only one can sit in the big chair. Why do we wrestle like two brothers, just out of the driver’s reach, in the back seat of the car?
We may not lose salvation, for once salvation is obtained, God does not let go. But we can lose fellowship with God, that daily intimacy that lets us know that God is there. And as a result, we may miss out on a lot of Joy here in this fallen world. And, oh, do we need that Joy right now! And we need more revival also.
If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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