{"id":2042,"date":"2019-03-22T10:11:11","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T15:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=2042"},"modified":"2019-03-22T10:11:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T15:11:11","slug":"who-is-with-jesus-and-who-is-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/2019\/03\/22\/who-is-with-jesus-and-who-is-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is With Jesus and Who is Not?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[In the March 17 sermon, we considered the seemingly contradictory sayings of Jesus: \u201cWhoever is not with Me is against Me\u201d (Matthew 12:30) and \u201cOne who is not against us is for us\u201d (Mark 9:40). We saw that in both cases Jesus is telling His listeners to serve others. The audio of the sermon will be available shortly at this link<\/a>. The following lessons for the Christian life are taken from the concluding section, and are drawn out of the analysis of the context of those passages.]<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s draw out nine principles, nine lessons for the Christian life that flow out of our examination of this seeming contradiction.<\/p>\n

First: Serve others by both elevating truth and loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This implication of the paradox is brought out well in the opening paragraph of our Statement of Faith Governing Teaching<\/a> (which is based on language from the elder affirmation of faith at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis<\/a>):<\/p>\n

A passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples is best sustained in an atmosphere of deep and joyful knowledge of the character of God. We thus aim to teach the whole counsel of God rather than aiming to discover and teach some minimum required for salvation. In affirming what we believe on these matters, we separate ourselves doctrinally from some brothers and sisters within the universal church. The cause of unity in the church, however, is best served not by finding the lowest common denominator of doctrine, but by elevating the value of truth through stating clear doctrinal parameters, and then demonstrating to the world how Christians can love each other across doctrinal boundaries, rather than by removing those boundaries. We commit ourselves to both elevating truth and loving our brothers.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t serve anyone well by downplaying the importance of truth. And that\u2019s the danger of listening only <\/em>to Jesus\u2019 statement, \u201cHe who is not against Me is for Me,\u201d or emphasizing only<\/em> God\u2019s love, or only <\/em>Jesus\u2019 prayer that all His followers might be one. We are one \u2013 in Christ. <\/em>And Jesus is both Lamb and Lion. <\/em>God is both loving and just \u2013 <\/em>indeed, it is because He is both that the cross was necessary. It is God\u2019s truth that sets us free, that unites us to Jesus, that makes us one. So there is no way we can separate truth from being in Christ. At the same time, we are genuinely to love all those who are in Christ – regardless of how we might differ on our understandings of some important truths. So we exalt truth \u2013 and we love across differences in our understanding of truth.<\/p>\n

Second: <\/strong>This lesson has to do with how we interact with those who might or might not be in Christ. There are four parts:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. We must not imply someone is in Christ who is not.<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. We must not imply someone is NOT in Christ when they are.<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. We do well to exhort others to examine themselves, to see if they are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5), using biblical criteria \u2013 without implying that they are not.<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. We do well to challenge those claiming to be in Christ who are engaging in clear, obvious sin, by stating the truth that those who do so will not inherit the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Galatians 5:19-21). <\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Third: We must never give the impression that the essence of Christianity is being part of our group by avoiding certain behaviors or advancing some cause other than the Gospel <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    It may be wise to avoid certain behaviors other than those proscribed in Scripture. And there may well be political or social causes that we strongly believe are implied by Scripture. But the moment we say, \u201cUnless you support this policy or act in this way, you are not in Christ,\u201d we are distorting the Gospel. We are taking part in the Galatian heresy. However important any cause might be, it is not the essence of the Gospel.<\/p>\n

    Fourth<\/strong>: We must distinguish between individuals and their churches or denominations.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Some denominations or churches hold to specific doctrines that distort or deny the Gospel. We could not have a joint service with such a church. But there often are individuals within such churches that God has saved, in spite of the particular teachings of their church.<\/p>\n

    Fifth: With respect to other churches, we should ask: Does this doctrinal difference fundamentally distort the Gospel, demeaning the work of the Holy Spirit and the glory of Jesus?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    This is the right question to ask, though it is often difficult to answer. For example, the Apostle Paul is absolutely clear that requiring circumcision of non-Jews who had become Christians is to distort the Gospel so thoroughly that there is no Gospel left at all (Galatians 1:6-9). On the other hand, though we believe biblical baptism should take place after profession of saving faith, we do not believe that the baptism of infants practiced in Presbyterian churches is a fundamental distortion of the Gospel.<\/p>\n

    Sixth: Realize we can and should cooperate on social and political issues without pretending our social allies are in Christ.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, Mormons, and Muslims may well agree with us on a number of social and political issues. Any successful political movement will have to be broadly based. We may choose to work together for such causes. We should love and serve those who are working with us. But we must never give the impression that our social or political agreement is more important than Christ, or that our differences in understanding how a person can be reconciled to God are insignificant.<\/p>\n

    Seventh: Beware of civil religion. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    It is tempting for those who love the United States to baptize this country, and to imply God\u2019s cause is wrapped up with the future of the US, or that what binds us as citizens is as important as what binds us in Christ. We are to pray for our political leaders and to participate in civil institutions \u2013 but Christ\u2019s church cuts across all nation states and unites those from every tribe and tongue into a oneness far more important than our citizenship.<\/p>\n

    Eighth:<\/strong> We must distinguish between loving friends and family members who are not in Christ and separating from false teachers and other religions. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    We are to serve everyone. As we saw above, that means never implying someone is in Christ when they are not. Sometimes with false teachers, that will necessitate having nothing to do with them (2 Timothy 3:5). But we can serve and love family members and friends without making that wrong implication. Love them. Enjoy them. Speak the truth to them, and live out that truth before them. Don\u2019t make your continued relationship with them dependent on their response to the truth. That is not service. They may choose to separate from you if you hold steadfastly to the truth \u2013 if so, you can\u2019t avoid the separation. But try to love across the differences.<\/p>\n

    Ninth: We must examine ourselves<\/u> to see if we are in the faith<\/em><\/strong>.
    \nAre we truly with Jesus? <\/em>If not, we are against Him. So: Is Jesus supreme in our lives \u2013 above our reputations, above all other relationships, above all that we have or own, even above life itself? In everything, is He preeminent (Colossians 1:18)? Do you believe, and do your actions show, that whoever loses his life for Jesus\u2019 sake and for the Gospel will save it? Do you believe, and do your actions show, that the Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which, finding, a man covers up, and out of his joy he goes and sells all that he has in order to buy that field (Matthew 13:44)?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    [In the March 17 sermon, we considered the seemingly contradictory sayings of Jesus: \u201cWhoever is not with Me is against Me\u201d (Matthew 12:30) and \u201cOne who is not against us…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15,24],"tags":[1906,1907,1908,426,1909,1910,657,946,1911,1904,1182,1430,1912,1498,1626],"class_list":["post-2042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions","category-sermons","tag-2-corinthians-135","tag-civil-religion","tag-cooperation","tag-doctrine","tag-examine-yourselves","tag-galatian-heresy","tag-gospel","tag-love","tag-mark-940","tag-matthew-1230","tag-political-involvement","tag-separation","tag-social-issues","tag-statement-of-faith","tag-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hi10.in\/dgcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}