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The Benefits Of A Biblical Worldview
60.
What is the foundation for your life? You are more valuable than 800 million dollars of concrete and steel. What are you building your life on?
Your thinking and the assumptions you have about God and yourself form the foundation of your life. Is the foundation made of the right stuff? The Bible says:
No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11
Jesus Christ is the only secure foundation for life.
According to Colossians 2:8, you can build your life on the basic principles of the world or on the truth of Jesus Christ. Actually, on Christ Himself. The contrast is between the basic principles of the world and Christ Himself, not just statements about Christ. Why? Because, He is truth.
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
Jesus doesn’t only say the truth or just teach the truth. He IS the truth. He certainly tells the truth, but He is more. He Himself is the truth. We know the truth by knowing Jesus Christ.
Is this an important distinction? I think so. Just ask any of the middle school students in currently in the Confirmation class. They can tell you that the Christian faith is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ, not on intellectual belief in correct teaching. Christ Himself is the response to the assumptions about God and people that you run into every day.
This is why the Evangelical Covenant Church is not a creedal church. We do not recite the Apostle’s Creed each week. This congregation has published a Statement of Faith, but we don’t recite it together every week either. As important as accurate doctrine and correct teaching are, and they are very important, they are no more important than knowing Jesus Christ himself.
As followers of Christ, we must maintain our grip on Christ and the truth that he both is holy and loving. If you loose one or the other, the foundation begins to crumble and your life is in peril.
If we forget that God is holy, then we more readily fall into moral failure. Sin is no big deal, IF your God is not holy. IF God is less than utterly pure, forever just, always the Creator and never the creation, completely blameless, then I can afford to wink at sin. Then, I can laugh at jokes that should cause me to blush. I don’t have to worry about cheating on my taxes, cheating on a test, cheating on my wife… IF God is less than utterly holy.
BUT, if God is holy, and He is, watch out!
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah 6:3
If, like Isaiah said, God is three times holier than whatever you could possibly think of when you think of holy, and He is, watch out! It is a frightful matter for a sinner to fall into the hands of a holy God… unless that God is also a God of love.
If we forget that God is love, then we are left earning our way to heaven. God certainly isn’t going to help us. You might as well be a Muslim. In Islam, God is holy, but he is a little short on love. He is the Creator, but he is a little short on compassion for His creation. In Islam, God expects his standard to be met. Recently, a prominent Muslim was interviewed in Reader’s Digest. This man was dying of Parkinson’s disease. He said, “One day God is going to judge us. If the bad outweighs the good,
What is the foundation for your life? You are more valuable than 800 million dollars of concrete and steel. What are you building your life on?
Your thinking and the assumptions you have about God and yourself form the foundation of your life. Is the foundation made of the right stuff? The Bible says:
No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11
Jesus Christ is the only secure foundation for life.
According to Colossians 2:8, you can build your life on the basic principles of the world or on the truth of Jesus Christ. Actually, on Christ Himself. The contrast is between the basic principles of the world and Christ Himself, not just statements about Christ. Why? Because, He is truth.
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
Jesus doesn’t only say the truth or just teach the truth. He IS the truth. He certainly tells the truth, but He is more. He Himself is the truth. We know the truth by knowing Jesus Christ.
Is this an important distinction? I think so. Just ask any of the middle school students in currently in the Confirmation class. They can tell you that the Christian faith is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ, not on intellectual belief in correct teaching. Christ Himself is the response to the assumptions about God and people that you run into every day.
This is why the Evangelical Covenant Church is not a creedal church. We do not recite the Apostle’s Creed each week. This congregation has published a Statement of Faith, but we don’t recite it together every week either. As important as accurate doctrine and correct teaching are, and they are very important, they are no more important than knowing Jesus Christ himself.
As followers of Christ, we must maintain our grip on Christ and the truth that he both is holy and loving. If you loose one or the other, the foundation begins to crumble and your life is in peril.
If we forget that God is holy, then we more readily fall into moral failure. Sin is no big deal, IF your God is not holy. IF God is less than utterly pure, forever just, always the Creator and never the creation, completely blameless, then I can afford to wink at sin. Then, I can laugh at jokes that should cause me to blush. I don’t have to worry about cheating on my taxes, cheating on a test, cheating on my wife… IF God is less than utterly holy.
BUT, if God is holy, and He is, watch out!
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah 6:3
If, like Isaiah said, God is three times holier than whatever you could possibly think of when you think of holy, and He is, watch out! It is a frightful matter for a sinner to fall into the hands of a holy God… unless that God is also a God of love.
If we forget that God is love, then we are left earning our way to heaven. God certainly isn’t going to help us. You might as well be a Muslim. In Islam, God is holy, but he is a little short on love. He is the Creator, but he is a little short on compassion for His creation. In Islam, God expects his standard to be met. Recently, a prominent Muslim was interviewed in Reader’s Digest. This man was dying of Parkinson’s disease. He said, “One day God is going to judge us. If the bad outweighs the good,
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