True Faith VS Easy Believism
True Faith VS Easy Believism
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock, The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house ; yet it did not fall, because it has its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the streams rose , and the winds blew and beat against the house and it fell with a great crash.”
Matthew 7: 24 - 27
The evidence of true saving faith is obedience to Christ. It is about taking Jesus words and instructions in the New Testament seriously. The passage above mentioned two kinds of faith . The genuine saving faith and the phony faith produced by easy-belivism.
The genuine saving faith has a proper founadation. It started with the realization of one’s sinfulness and depravity upon being pierced by the Word of God. Upon realization of his sinfulness, the sinner became broken and deeply convicted of the depth of his carnality. He then saw himself as a terrible lost hell-bound sinner without hope of being saved apart from the work of Christ on calvary. He saw his ultimate hope on the cross of JesusChrist and embraced JesusChrist as his personal savior. Being aware of his exceedingly great indebtedness to Christ , he surrender his life to the Lordship of JesusChrist. He then became a true believer and follower of the Lord. He realized that it is only by God’s mercy and grace that he was saved. At this point the sinner who was completely humbled receive God’s forgiveness and experience the mighty infilling of the Holy Spirit. He then receive a power from the Holy Spirit to live the supernatural life of a believer, to submit completely to the Lordship of Christ obeying every command of Christ as revealed in the New Testament. When trials and adversities of life come, he will remain firm on obeying Christ because he has a genuine saving faith with proper foundation.
The other kind of faith mentioned which is not built on proper foundation is a phony faith produced by easy-believism. The person with this kind of faith has not experience genuine born-again experience because he has not experienced deep conviction of his sinfulness which is marked by brokenness. The person with this faith has not undergone genuine repentance from his sins. He just came to Christ for comfort to his loneliness, healing for his sickness, or blessings for his poverty. He never came to Christ terms as stated in the Beatitudes. He came to Christ in his own terms. He did not come to Christ because he has seen his depravity and carnality. He never experienced being pierced and broken by the Word of God. He never saw himself as a hell-bound sinner without hope apart from Christ. He just came to Christ to make himself feel good. He had never been to calvary, never experienced death to his self, to sin and to the world. He never take Jesus words and instructions seriously. When trials and adversities of life came to him, he easily turn away from the faith.
Easy-believism is so prevalent in our time, that is why many churches are marked by lukewarmness, with no all-out commitment to Christ. Many evangelistic methods are shallow which will not bring true conviction of sin to the sinners. Many churches now are adapting seeker-sensitive approach in preaching and forsaking expository preaching of the Word of God. Seeker-sensitive approach to preaching is attractive to wordly and self-centered people which has no real hunger for God’s Word. Though they are comfortable to hear but will not bring sinner to deep conviction of their sinfulness and depravity. Expository preaching of the Word must be brought back to our pulpits for only the Word of God has power to pierce the darkness of men’s hearts.
We must review our evangelism methods and materials. Will they bring conviction of sin ? A sinner must experience deep conviction of sin and must see himself as hell-bound apart from the cross of Christ though it may be uncomfortable with him. Only then our evangelism will be successful..
