Saving Religion - What it Is - Do You Have It?

Q: What does the Bible say about saving religion?

The Bible teaches that saving religion is characterized by being 'in Christ' and is evidenced by a transformative new creation in the believer. According to Scripture, saving religion is fundamentally about being 'in Christ,' which signifies a vital union with the Son of God as noted in 2 Corinthians 5:17. This union results in a new creation, indicating a radical transformation whereby the old has passed away and all things have become new. The biblical authors frequently highlight the importance of this relationship, warning against deception and emphasizing the necessity of true conversion that manifests genuine faith through visible changes in a believer's life.

Q: How do we know saving faith is true?

True saving faith is evidenced by a radical change in a person's life, marked by their aim to please God and live in accordance with His will. The authenticity of saving faith is manifested through the evidence of a transformed life. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul states that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation, which implies that genuine faith leads to a significant shift in one’s position, purpose, and path. These changes are not merely external or superficial but reflect an inward transformation facilitated by the Holy Spirit, resulting in a desire to align one’s life with God's standards and to live for His glory. Therefore, the presence of a new purpose—living not for oneself but for Christ—serves as a vital indicator of true saving faith.

Q: Why is union with Christ important for Christians?

Union with Christ is essential because it is the foundation of saving religion and the source of spiritual blessings and transformation. Union with Christ is pivotal to understanding saving religion. It signifies a deep spiritual connection that transforms the believer’s identity, purpose, and life direction. As Christians are united with Christ, they receive all spiritual blessings, including forgiveness, peace, and justification, which is inherent in Ephesians 1:3. This union is not merely positional but fosters a life of new creation, where the believer's former self yields to a new life directed by the Holy Spirit. Thus, being in Christ is not just a theological concept; it is the bedrock upon which a believer's entire faith and spiritual vitality rests.

Q: What are the signs of being a new creation in Christ?

The signs of being a new creation include a change in purpose, a new way of life, and a desire to please God. Being a new creation in Christ, as described in 2 Corinthians 5:17, comes with distinctive markers that reflect a transformative work of God in a believer's heart. The old ways of living—self-centeredness, disobedience, and estrangement from God—are replaced with a divinely influenced purpose that seeks to honor and glorify Christ. A new creation is characterized by a conscious effort to live according to God’s will, seeks to fulfill the new life directive of pleasing Him, and exhibits a lifestyle that strives for obedience and godliness. This ongoing transformation serves as evidence of the genuine work of the Holy Spirit in one's life.

found in scriptures, plus human
experience, teach us that much that has the semblance of reality
and spiritual things is rotten to the core and will not stand
the test of the last day. It's because of this fact that
scripture again and again warns us, admonishes us in words such
as these, Be not deceived. Let no man deceive himself. Let no one deceive you. The possibility of deception
in the realm of spiritual reality is not only assumed in Scripture,
but it is something that is dominant in the exhortations and warnings
of the biblical writers. And whether it's because I contemplate
six weeks away from you, that I'm particularly solicitous that
none of you take for granted these great issues of your relationship
to God in Christ, I've been constrained in these past two Lord's Day
evenings to speak very simply and basically upon the great
issues of this matter of our fundamental relationship to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Last week, we looked into Scripture
to consider three very basic facts of life. You're here through
no choice. You and I have one dominant responsibility,
and that is to get ready for our exodus, to get ready for
our exit out of this life into the world to come And in the
light of that one dominant responsibility, I left you with one personal
pressing question. Are you ready for your exodus? No doubt many of you answered
yes to that question. And because you answered yes,
tonight I want to put your answer to the test. by focusing on God's
description of the kind of Christian experience, or experience in
Christ, which is evidence of a valid readiness for the Exodus. And the text that I want to consider
with you is one that I've preached on once or twice in my nine years
of ministry, and yet I want to turn to it again with no apologies,
because the Word of God is fresh and new light has come to me
in this text, or I have seen new light in the text. And one
of the advices an old sage gave to young preachers was, don't
be afraid to stay with the familiar and with those texts that God
has blessed in the history of the Church. Now the text is found
in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17. The context of this well-known
text is Paul's description of his own experience as a Christian. He is speaking on the one hand
of his confidence and expectation that when he is ushered out of
this life into the life to come, he shall be ushered into the
very presence of God. He says in verse 6, to be absent
from the body when we are present here in the body, we're absent
from the Lord, but if we're absent from the body, we are present
with the Lord. And he says, in the light of
that, I have one ambition, to be well-pleasing to my God, because
I know I must stand before Him. Verse 10, then taking the suggestion
of the thought of judgment, he says, knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, in the light of the day of judgment, we're involved
in seeking to persuade men of the truth of the gospel, And
he says, as we do so, there are times when, as far as men are
concerned, we're beside ourselves. They think we're crazy. And he
says, that's all right in the light of the facts. Let them
think that. Because I'm crazy in their eyes
because of these great spiritual realities which mold and shape
my life. then as he moves from describing
or he then moves from describing his own experience into this
great statement of verse 17 in which he makes his experience
illustrative of a general principle that is true of everyone who
is a true Christian. So he argues from his own experience
as a believer to the general principle true of all believers
and he says, wherefore, if Any man is in Christ, he is a new
creature. The old things are passed away. Behold, they are become new. You'll notice in your Bibles
that the he is in italics, indicating that those words are not in the
original. You have a very, very unique
structure of words. Most of the time, the Apostle
Paul hangs one thought to another with connecting words. But here
you have three abrupt statements. If any man is in Christ, a new
creation, old things passed away, all things become new. And in giving us this statement,
which is illustrated in his own experience, the Apostle then
generalizes and gives to us a description of what I'm calling saving religion. And so I want to title the message
tonight, Saving Religion, What It Is, and Do You Have It? Saving Religion, What It Is,
and Do You Have It? As we think our way through the
text, consider first of all the essence of saving religion. If
you boil it down to its irreducible elements, what is the thing that
makes true Christianity unique from everything else that's a
substitute? It's this, if any man be in Christ. Union with Christ is the essence
of saving religion. What then is the effect of saving
religion? a new creation. Whenever anyone
is found in Christ, the effect of that union will be a new creation. That's the effect of saving religion. What then will be the fruit of
saving religion? Well, he tells us, all things
are passed away, all things are become new. That's the fruit
of saving religion. And then someone asked the question,
well, how in the world has all this come to pass? And in verse
18, in the first phrase, he gives us the root of saving religion,
and all things are of God. So you have then, in this brief
statement of the Apostle, a beautiful digest, a symmetrical description
of the heart of saving religion. And I want to press upon your
conscience tonight saving religion, what it is, and then the question,
do you have it? First of all then, the essence
of saving religion. If any man be in Christ. This phrase, in Christ, as we've
pointed out in our studies in Ephesians, is a key phrase in
the New Testament doctrine of salvation. It occurs no fewer
than some 150 times in the New Testament, in Christ, in him,
in whom, various shades of difference in the actual phraseology, but
all of them pointing to this one pivotal doctrine that the
essence of saving religion is nothing more, nothing less, than
vital union with the Son of God as He has been manifested as
the Christ. Now, it's not without significance
that Paul says, if any man be in Christ. He doesn't say, if
any man be in Jesus. He says, if any man be in Christ. In other words, our union has
peculiar and distinct reference to the Son of God manifested
as Christ, that is, God's anointed Messiah. For the Greek word for
Christ is the New Testament counterpart of the Hebrew word for Messiah. He is Jesus, the Christ, the
Anointed One, the One appointed Mediator, who has been constituted
as a Mediator in the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and
of a king. And therefore the only Savior
whom God sets before sinful men is not the man Jesus, The only
Mediator is the Man Christ Jesus, but as a Mediator, God sets us
before Him as His Christ, as His Anointed One. And in that
office of the Anointed One, He is Prophet to teach us, He is
Priest to forgive us and to intercede for us, and He is King to rule
over us. And therefore, bound up in that
very Word, Christ, is all that God has revealed about His Son
as the pre-existent Word. John chapter 1, In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Everything revealed about Him
as the Virgin conceived Son of God, sinless, crucified, exalted
to the right hand of the Father, God's anointed one. Now it is Christ who is constituted
as a mediator, the reservoir of all spiritual blessing. Ephesians 1.3 is the classic
statement of this. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places." In what? Or in whom? In Jesus? No. In Christ. Now again, that's not without
significance. For it is as the Anointed One,
God's appointed Mediator, that all spiritual blessing is stored
up in Christ. Jesus. So then God does not parcel
out some forgiveness. God does not parcel out some
peace. God does not parcel out some
justification and parcel out some sanctification without distinct
reference to his son. Rather, having constituted Him
the reservoir of all blessing, He takes sinners and places them
into vital union with Him, and found in Him they have all those
blessings. Peace, forgiveness, justification,
sanctification. Beautiful statement of it, of
course, in 1 Corinthians 1.30, But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. So the essence of saving religion,
then, is this union with Jesus as the Christ, not Jesus as the
man of Galilee, Jesus as the healer, Jesus as the teacher. No, no. No, no, the essence of
saving religion is union with Jesus as the Christ, God's prophet,
God's priest, and God's king. Therefore, where there is ignorance
of the truth of Christ as the pre-incarnate Word, ignorance
of the truth of Christ as God incarnate, sinless, substitutionary
in His death, mighty in His resurrection, glorious in His exaltation, where
there is just some vague, nebulous, sentimental, existential movement
of the heart to some Jesus, There is no saving religion. Saving
religion must have some essential content of biblical revelation,
for faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Saving faith has this content
to it, and the content is the revelation of the Christ of God. So much then for the fact of
this union which is the essence of saving religion. What is the
nature of that union? I've used the term union with
Christ. What is the nature of that union?
Are we absorbed into the deity in some pantheistic way? No. The Bible gives us analogies. Now an analogy is not to be like
an equal sign. If you say something is like
something, you don't mean it's equal to. Not identity, but likeness. And union with Christ is set
before us in various likenesses, various analogies. The lowest
level of analogy is that which Peter gives us in 1 Peter chapter
2, where he says, you are living stones built together into Christ
to become a living temple. It's the union of one stone cemented
to another stone in a physical structure which together comprise
the whole edifice. Then the concept of that union
moves to a higher level when you move into Ephesians 5. There
you have the union of a husband and wife. where the Scripture
says, quoting from Genesis, that the two shall be one flesh. And the Apostle Paul says this
is a great mystery. The longer one is married, the
more one feels the profound insight of the Apostle's statement. This
is a mystery. The two shall be one flesh. They are still two, but they
are one. Are they one or are they two? Well, they are both.
And there is a union, you see. that rises higher than the concept
of mortar holding together two stones. Then it rises perhaps
to its highest expression in a passage like John 15 where
Jesus said, I am the vine and ye are the branches. where there
is a common life flowing through the vine and all of the parts
of that vine, the branches, and He speaks of I in you and ye
in me, and the whole concept of union then is set before us
under the figure of a vine and a branch. husband and wife, stones
cemented together in a temple. Now, what can we extract from
these analogies without pressing them to the place where we do
injustice to the truth of God? Well, obviously, certain elements
are very, very much in the forefront. First of all, there is the matter
of the permanence of this union. Even the union between stones
in a building, this is no temporary thing. Once cemented together,
they are together as long as the structure exists. And so
our union with Christ is a union of permanence. When we rise into
the concept of the vine and the branches, we come into this whole
matter of a sharing of life. The same life which flows through
the main part of the vine flows out into the branches And so
our union with Christ is union of life. When we think of the
union of a husband and wife, it is union of affection, union
of purpose, union of goal, union in the total perspective of the
outworking of life. And so by these various analogies,
the Scripture leads us to believe that the essence of saving religion
is union with Jesus Christ that brings together these various
concepts of permanence, identity of purpose, common life sharing. And so if you sit here tonight
thinking you are ready for the exodus, because sometime in the
past, whether three months, six months, six years, or twenty
years ago, You came and did something with reference to Christ. You
made some profession of faith in Him. You made a decision,
quote, for Him. And that thing that you did,
or said you did, or believed with reference to Christ, has
not brought you into vital life union with Him so that in some
measure you can say that from that point till now, for to me
to live is Christ. My friend, you don't have saving
religion. Your religion may have much of Jesus, it may have much
of Christ in it, it may have much of the Bible and much of
church, But if it falls short of vital union with Christ, it
is not saving religion. If any man be in Christ, that's
the essence of saving religion. And that union is constituted
from God's standpoint by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
1 Corinthians 6, 17. He that is joined to the Lord
is one spirit with the Lord. And then from the human standpoint,
faith is the bond that cements us unto Him. And so the essence
of saving religion is nothing less, nothing more than union
with Christ, the Christ of biblical revelation. Now, secondly, the
Apostle tells us what the effect of saving religion is. Whenever
this union with Christ is constituted, what is the effect? And it's
as though the Apostle Paul, in writing the text, for this is
the force when you look at it in the original, picked up his
pen started to write, generalizing his own experience as the experience
of all believers, and he says, if any man be in Christ, that's
the essence of saving religion. Now he begins to think, how shall
I describe it? What has occurred when someone
is in Christ? What words shall I use to describe
the effect of this vital life union with the Son of God? He
lays his pen down. His mind runs over all of the
various pictures and analogies of spiritual life in the scripture.
And the Apostle Paul says, ah, but there's one concept that
will express it. One that will bring into focus
the essential effect of saving religion. He picks up his pen,
and without any connecting words, the ink is dried. If any man
be in Christ, and he puts a dash, And then he writes the words,
a new creation exclamation point. That's the force of how this
thing reads in the original. It's as though you catch something
of the Apostle's spirit as he considers the mighty effect of
this union with Christ. And why does he use the term
creation? Well, I believe he uses it for
two reasons, one of which we'll underscore in our last point,
the roots of saving religion. He's first of all indicating
something of the magnitude of the change wrought by saving
religion, and secondly, something of the source of the change wrought
in saving religion. How great is the change when
a man receives true saving religion by union with Christ? My Paul
says it's nothing less than a creative work of God. Oh, he's the same
person. as far as his physical being
is concerned. He doesn't get a new glob of
grey matter. He doesn't get new arms, new
hands, new feet, new nose. He might like new everything
in all of those departments, but he doesn't get it. He's still
the same person, and yet Paul sits as he contemplates what
happened to him. He'd get up in the morning after
Damascus and look in the mirror. Same nose. Same eyes, same bald
head, and all the rest of what tradition tells us is true. And
yet when he looks himself in the mirror, he says, Paul, you're
not Paul. You are, but you aren't. You
aren't, but you are. In other words, he was conscious
of this change that made him the man described in 2 Corinthians
5, whose ambition is to please God, whose ambition is to be
with Him, to look upon His face, whose whole lifestyle is governed
by compassion for the souls of men, constrained by the love
of Christ. And he said, there's only one
reason I'm like this. And there's only one reason why anybody's
like this. Almighty God has put forth creative
power. And the significant thing about
any work of creation is that something is introduced from
the outside that isn't there before the creative act is performed. That's the significant part.
When God creates something, He brings something into being that
was not there before. And so the Apostle Paul says
the effect of saving religion is a new creation. God doesn't
come and take the old creation and merely refine it with a little
bit of Jesus and God and the Bible. He doesn't take the old
creation and simply redirect it into new channels. No, no. He makes a new creation, and
according to Galatians 6.15, nothing else in true religious
experience matters, for there the apostle takes some of the
most sacred religious rites of the old economy, and this is
what he says about them, for neither is circumcision anything,
nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Notice how different
is the emphasis. He didn't say circumcision is
nothing, or uncircumcision nothing, but the making of a decision.
That's the way modern evangelicals would have written the thing.
They'd say the important thing is not whether you're baptized,
but if you've made your decision for Christ. Paul isn't concerned
about your decision for Christ. He said, nothing matters. Circumcision,
uncircumcision, decision, no decision. What matters is this,
as Almighty God made you a new creature. That's what matters. For if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creation. That's what matters. That's the
essential element. And so often we hear quoted Ephesians
2, 8 and 9. But you can't understand them
if you wrench them loose from verse 10. Certainly it is by
grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now
Paul says, behind that salvation by grace through faith which
has come to you Ephesians is this, we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus. unto good works. There you have
union with Christ and the new creation fused together as we
have them in this text. And so as clearly as the text
teaches that the essence of saving religion is union with Christ,
so it teaches that the effect of saving religion is a new creation. Ah, but someone says, how can
I tell if I have union with Christ and have been made a new creation?
Well, you can tell from the fruit. And so the Apostle Paul answers
that problem for us and says, all right, if there is union
with Christ, the effect of which is a new creation, the fruit
of that new creation and of that union with Christ will follow. And he describes it in this way,
the old things have passed away And then literally speaking,
things have become new. It can't be the old things becoming
new. They've passed away. If something passes away, you
don't make it new. It's gone. And so he says, the old has passed
away. Things have become new. And I
usually don't introduce Greek lessons into our study of the
scriptures, but there is a beautiful subtlety of tenses here that
really makes the backbone of this part of the message. And
so I do want to just introduce a little something, if I may
take that liberty. The tense he uses for the old things that
passed away is the tense that has the concept, it's done once
and for all. And he says, the old has passed
away. a beautiful statement of the
radical transformation of the new creature in Christ Jesus. And then, when he says, things
have become new, he uses the tense, which means something
started at a given point and it continues until now. The old
passed away once for all. The new, it has been introduced
and abides. Ah, but you say, what about the
imperfection? The imperfection is just some of the imperfections
of the new. The old is past. And as new men
in Christ, we are not perfect new men. We are imperfect. But
he says, the fruit of saving religion is that there has been
this radical transformation. The old things have passed. Decisive breach and change. Things have become new. Now looking
in the general context, what are some of the old things that
have passed away by virtue of union with Christ and by virtue
of becoming a new creation? And remember, this is not some
extra special thing for extra special advanced saints. I remember
one time in a series of meetings years ago, I can use that term
now, I used to feel funny saying years ago, but I've got enough
seniority to be able to say it now with a good conscience. because
it was years ago, must have been about 13 years ago, 12 years
ago. I remember preaching for a whole weekend on this text
in the church down in Pennsylvania, and there was a sweet little
teenage girl sitting there listening to the messages, and it became
obvious that she was beginning to get distressed. And her distress was such that
she sought out the preacher after a service one night, and this
is her question that she asked She couldn't assail the exegesis
of the text. She couldn't fight the Bible.
But her question was this. She said, Mr. Martin, is that
kind of Christianity for everybody? You see what her problem was?
When she saw what the essence of true, saving Christianity
was, she was hoping, well, that's fine and nice, and I can't argue
with that. It's in the Bible. But maybe God will accept some
kind of secondhand experience. My friend, there is no secondhand.
If any! be in Christ, a new creation,
old things have passed away, all things have become new. Well,
what has passed away? What has become new? Well, let
me suggest just three things tonight. We could work out many
more from the context and then ranging far and wide in the rest
of Scripture. But first of all, the old position
has passed. A new has come. Secondly, the
old purpose has passed, a new has come, and the old pathway
has passed away, a new has come. So the old position, purpose,
and pathway. What is the old position? When
we are in a state of nature, we have not yet been joined to
Christ in true saving religion, what is our position before God? Well, the apostle very clearly
indicates what that position is later on in this very chapter.
For notice, after stating in verse 17, If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creation, he then goes on to say, But all things
are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ. In other words, before we are
made new creations in Christ, before we are joined to Christ,
we are in a state of alienation from God. Not reconciled face-to-face,
but alienated in our state of sin. And in that condition of
alienation, we are under the wrath and the judgment of Almighty
God. We do not have a righteousness
that is acceptable before God. And so our position is that terrible
position described in Scripture as under the wrath of God. In fact, Paul says in Ephesians
chapter 2 that we are by nature children of wrath. We come into this world in a
position which finds us exposed and liable to the judgment of
a holy God. And that position of judgment
is unaltered by anything less than vital union with Jesus Christ. That's why the Apostle uses the
phrase in Ephesians 1, 6, We are accepted in the Beloved One. And in this very passage, the
latter part of chapter 5, he says, Him who knew no sin, He
made to be sin on our behalf, that we may become the righteousness
of God. Where? In Him. May I ask you a very personal
question tonight? What is your position before
God? Are you reconciled to God through
Christ? Is the righteousness of God in
Christ your possession? If you say yes, then my question
to you is, you must have come to that possession the way Paul
did, through union with Christ. And if you've been joined to
Christ, you're a new creation. Therefore, if you claim to have
the imputed righteousness of Christ, And yet your life does
not indicate that you are in vital union with Christ. There
is no identity with His person in love and in devotion. There
is no knowledge of Him as the Christ of God. Dear friend, you
are utterly deceived as to your position before God. If you are
accepted in the Beloved, you are accepted as a new creation,
one who is in Christ Jesus. But blessed be God if we are
in Christ, if we are new creation. The fruit of that relationship
is that old position of condemnation, alienation, wrath has passed. All things have become new. But then the old purpose has
passed away. What was Paul's basic purpose
in life before he was brought into union with Christ. What
is your basic purpose if you are not in union with Christ?
Well, look at verse 15. And he died for all that they
who live should no longer live unto themselves. There is no more profound description
of the basic purpose of life in every person who is not joined
to Christ than these three little words, live unto themselves. What does it mean to be a sinner?
It means that your purpose in life is basically this, to live
unto yourself. You've made yourself the goal
of your existence, your happiness. Your pleasure are the things
which you seek. Your ideas of right and wrong
are the rules by which you live. What pleases you becomes the
bar of judgment between what you do and what you won't do.
You live unto yourself. Self is the goal of your existence. Now, in some people, that manifests
itself in a life that even worldlings call a wicked life. some man to please himself if
he's a businessman may run roughshod over all his competitors he may
be guilty of all kinds of dishonesty and chicanery and his basic goal
is he wants to accumulate money because that pleases him and
living unto himself he openly flaunts any kind of sense of
rightness and equity and sensitivity and so we look at that man and
say he's a sinner But you see, the person who is kind and gentle
and sweet and loving and faithful to wife or husband, a good mother,
good father, there's no basic difference if they're not joined
to Christ. For the reason they are loving and kind and gentle
does not have reference to bringing glory to God. It does not have
reference to living such a life out of regard for God's precepts. unto God's glory in the strength
of God's own spirit, simply a matter of genes which determine the
temperament, proper training, and other influences in the realm
of common grace, they just happen to be a nice person. But when you dig beneath the
external differences between that crooked businessman, that
harlot or that lecturer, and that nice, sweet person who has
never been joined to Christ, the substructure of life is exactly
the same, living unto themselves. And that is the height of human
wickedness. You are not made to live to yourself. You are
made to live unto Him who made you. You were made to find great
delight in acknowledging that He is God and that He made you. And that as God, He has a right
to govern you. And that as God, all that you
have should ultimately issue in the praise and the honor of
His name. But Paul says the fruit of saving
religion is this. That old purpose, living unto
self, has passed away. A new purpose has been introduced. Look at it. The last part of
the verse. They should no longer henceforth live unto themselves. But unto the church? No. But unto the standards of mom
and dad? No. But unto an artificial code
of conduct imposed by society? No. But unto Him who died for
them and rose Again, that new purpose, which is always the
fruit of saving religion, is nothing less, nothing more, than
living unto Christ. And what does that mean? Well,
simply speaking, it means this. That the will of Christ, as found
in the Word of Christ, becomes the governing principle of my
life. Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do?" That's why Jesus said, the mark of His sheep is they
hear His voice. It means in the second place,
not only that you receive directions from life for life from Christ,
but you carry out those directions with reference to pleasing Christ. Look at verse 9 of this very
chapter, one of the things that led Paul to write this. He says,
wherefore we make it our aim. When people are aiming at something,
there's concentration. Whether it's a man aiming his
bow, aiming his gun, I don't care what it is. Aiming at something
is a focused, concentrated activity. Paul says, we make it our aim. We're shooting at something in
life. And what is he shooting at? Here it is. That whether
at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him. What are you shooting
at in life? What are you aiming at? I don't mean what are you
doing like the drunken cowboy going through town at three in
the morning with his six guns blazing, not aiming at anything,
just shooting, having a great time. No, no, he says we make
it our aim to be pleasing unto him. This is the new purpose
that dominates the new creature who's in union with Christ. There
is that precise aim to please the heart of the one who died. and rose again. May I ask you
again a very simple yet pointed question? Is that the conscious
focus of your life? Is that the purpose which dominates
and shapes and molds your life? Let me make the question a little
more pointed. Is that the purpose which molded and dominated and
shaped your lifestyle? from June 21st to June 13th last
Sunday to June 20th today. In the home, amidst all the pressures
and responsibilities of being a mother and a wife or a husband
and a father and earning the bread and all the rest, you kids,
amidst all the things that you've done this week, Some of you with
school out, and you're playing, and you're interacting with brothers
and sisters, and you're time at the table, and in the playroom,
and in all the areas of life. Has this purpose been the substructure
of all that you've done? Have you been consciously aiming
at pleasing Him? I don't ask if you hit a bullseye
every day. But is this what you're aiming
at? You see, you don't aim at something
unconsciously. If you're aiming at something, it is a conscious
experience, and I want to press that on your conscience almost
relentlessly, because I fear some of you will just be tempted
to slough it off as just another part of a sermon. My friend,
the reality or the lack of reality of your professed Christianity
may pivot on an honest answer to that question. For if any
man be in Christ, a new creation, old things are passed away. Not
only the old position of condemnation and guilt giving way to the new
position of acceptance and reconciliation, but an old purpose living unto
oneself radically transformed the new purpose living unto him. Marked, first of all, as we've
seen, by receiving directives from Him, by consciously seeking
to be pleasing to Him, and thirdly, desiring that in all things He
may be glorified for whatever blessing comes to us or through
us. Whether ye eat or drink, the
most mundane activities whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory, to
the praise, of God. He has saved us, Peter says,
called us out of darkness into light that we should show forth
the virtues of the one who has thus called us out of darkness
into his marvelous light. Is that the purpose of your life?
Not theoretically, but practically. What's your answer? Don't answer
me verbally. that I plead with you to answer as honestly in
the court of your own conscience as you'll be forced to answer
in the day of judgment. Is that your purpose? If you're
a new creature in Christ, it will be, because Paul says, if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed
away. All things become new. Now, that
purpose is not perfectly accomplished. I said you don't always hit a
bullseye. Sometimes you may completely miss the target. There may be
even times when you lay your gun down. You may get that bad
shape. But the overriding drift and bent of your life has been
radically transformed according to verse 15. No longer henceforth
living unto yourself, but living unto Him who died and rose again. So you see, on the one hand,
this slays the idea that one can be in Christ by virtue of
his profession of faith, or by virtue of his godly nurture,
and have no radical difference in his life. It's foolishness. And on the other hand, it slays
the idea that you can trust in Christ, and yet not be radically
transformed by Christ. There will be the new purpose,
and then That in turn will give birth to the new pathway. If
any man be in Christ, a new creation, all things are passed away. Not
only the position and purpose, but the pathway that you walk
for your purpose determines your pathway. If your purpose is to go up into
New England, as some of our people did this past week on vacation,
then the path, the roads you choose will be governed by your
purpose. And so, if your purpose is to
live unto Him, the path you choose will be governed by that purpose.
Now, what is the purpose that we all have by nature? What is
the old pathway, I'm sorry, the old pathway that we walk? Well,
it's described in vivid detail in passages such as Ephesians
chapter 2. Listen to Paul's description
of the pathway that all of us walk before we are new creatures
in Christ. Verse 2, He said in verse 1,
He made you alive when you were dead through your trespasses
and sins, wherein ye once walked according to, this was your pathway,
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in
the sons of disobedience, among whom we also once lived in the
lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the
mind." You know what Paul says our pathway was? It was a pathway
laid by the accumulation of our natural desires, the lust of
the flesh and of our minds, That is, the bodily appetites which
craved for satisfaction when they cried out. We listened to
their cry, even though to heed their cry meant we had to trample
underfoot God's law, God's precepts. He says, that's all right. Whatever
course the passions of our flesh dictated, we fulfilled them.
Then he said there were the lusts of our minds. When our minds
dictated that we should think in certain directions, even though
we had to, as it were, fly into the face of divine revelation,
we fulfilled the desires of the mind. The mind has fallen along
with the rest of man's being, and its lusts and desires have
become inordinate. And Paul said the path we walked
was made up of the stuff of fleshly passion, of mental depravity,
And then he says, thrown into that was the overriding and the
undergirding influence of the very devil and evil spirits. The prince of the powers of the
air, the spirit that walketh in the sons of disobedience,
thrown in some of the other construction material, he says, is the very
course or the very spirit of this age. What John says, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.
That was our pathway. And that's the pathway every
one of you walks by nature. That's the pathway I walk. But
if any man be in Christ, a new creation. Old things are passed
away. That pathway is gone. And there
is a new pathway. And what is the new pathway?
John contrasted by saying, The world passeth away in the lust
thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. The new pathway is doing the
will of God, so that now I gratify my natural physical appetites,
how? In subordination to the revealed
will of God. I discipline my mind to function
within the revealed will of God. I refuse to think any thought
that means I must contradict divine revelation, just as much
as I refuse to walk in paths that mean I must violate divine
precepts. No longer is my pathway determined
by the spirit of this world, which says, be this kind of a
man, be that kind of a woman, let this be your goal. No, no,
Paul says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ by which the world is crucified unto me and
I unto the world. He said the world doesn't dictate
my pathway. The world and its standards and
its goals has no more power over me than a crucified man upon
a cross. I don't hear him. I don't submit
to him. I have no attachment to him.
The world crucified unto me. I would ask you as you sit here
tonight, do you have this fruit of saving religion? Has the old
pathway passed? Can you say with judgment day
honesty, thank God, my path is no longer framed by bodily appetites
alone, by mental appetites, by the world and by the devil. But
the path that I walk by the grace of God is framed by the Word
of God, and I walk it in the power of the Spirit of God. Not perfectly, sometimes more
effectively than others, but thank God that's the path I now
walk. Can you say that? If you can,
some of you have had trouble with assurance. You shouldn't
have trouble with assurance. For you never have the fruit
of saving religion without the root. And if you have a new pathway,
and the old is past, and that pathway flows out of a new purpose,
the old is past, and that new purpose is the fruit of your
new position accepted in the beloved, and the old is past,
the only reason you have the fruit of saving religion is because
you have the root. Old things pass away only if
men are new creatures, and men are only new creatures if they're
in Christ. So you can argue from the fruit
back to the root. Some of you have troubles with
assurance, but there are others of you that ought to have some
troubles with assurance because you claim to have the root, but
you don't have the fruit. You've got no right to believe
that you're in Christ. Why? Because you're not a new
creation. And what's the evidence you're
not a new creation? The old things have not passed! It doesn't say
they ought to pass. It's good if they pass. They
will eventually pass. If you're in Christ, the very
virtue of that mighty work of God has caused the old to pass
and the new has emerged. Then we close with just a brief
consideration of the first phrase of verse 18. It's as though someone
says, and yes, Paul, when saving religion comes to a man, when
there is this new creation, when there is the effect And the fruit
of this, where should we look in giving the praise? And if
we don't have saving religion, where should we look in order
to get it? And he points us in the right
direction. And all things, and in the context,
the all things are the things that he's been referring to.
If any man be in Christ, a new creature, the old things have
passed away, things have become new, and all things, what things? The new things. All things are
of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ. And so Paul, who gives us the
essence of saving religion, union with Christ, the effect of saving
religion, a new creation, the fruit of saving religion, this
new position, new purpose, new pathway, now tells us the root
of saving religion, all things are of God. Someone has said,
and I believe wisely said, there are only two kinds of religion
in the world, the religion of free will, in which what you
do makes the difference, and in which what you have done becomes
the point of glory. The other religion is the religion
of free grace, in which what God has done makes the difference,
and in which what God has done becomes the focus of our praise
and our glory. And there's only two religions
in the world, free will, free grace. Now, you've got all kinds
of different names for both. but there are only two. This
is not just oversimplification. If you check into the heathen
religions all the way to some of the refined so-called expressions
of Christianity that fall short of the perspective that we've
looked at tonight, at the core you will find this error. The
difference between those who have true religion and false
religion according to them is what you have done. And therefore,
the testimony focuses upon what I have done and what I have accomplished. And if you want to know how tragically
this has affected much of so-called evangelical Christianity, just
read the so-called testimonies of people who have been converted
under this type of Christianity. Listen to them talk. Ask them,
are you a Christian? And if they say yes, say, how
did you become a Christian? And then be prepared to have
your ears inundated with the word, I. I did this. I decided. I made a decision. I, I, I, I,
I. That isn't the way Paul viewed
his conversion or the conversion of any true child of God. His
language is theocentric, God-centered. We see it in this passage. In
any man, in Christ, a new creation, old things passed away, all become
new. And as if someone would say,
yes, Paul, but didn't, he shuts them up before they can open
their mouth. And he says, all things are of God. They flow
out from Him in sovereign grace and in sovereign mercy. That's
why when Paul describes his own conversion, he uses these words,
when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. Who's doing the
acting, Paul or God? When it pleased God, who separated
me, who called me to reveal His Son in me, he's focusing upon
the activity of God. Look back to chapter 4 in this
very epistle. He's describing the conversion
of himself and the Corinthians. How does he do it? Look at verse
6 of chapter 4. Seeing it is God that said light
shall shine. Seeing it is God who said, light
shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Why are you a Christian, Paul?
He says, because God turned the light on. I didn't turn it on. He made the light and he flipped
the switch. God, the same God who spoke into the black darkness
of that primeval order and said, light And out of darkness, light
shined. No light in there. Light shined. Why? God created it. He says
that same God did something akin to that. In my poor, sin-darkened
heart, God did something. And so the root of saving religion,
all things are of God. It's what God has done. Therefore,
God gets the praise. Saving religion is marked by
this principle, and though men may not be accurate in what they
say with their lips, and we must be careful here, some of you
who are young and immature will take a principle like this and
go on out and use it like a baseball bat and clobber the head of everyone
you meet who maybe doesn't phrase his testimony accurately. Now,
God help you if you do that. Don't you blame that on me if
you go out and leave bloody heads and say, well, I learned that
up at the Trinity Baptist Church. You didn't learn to go around
bloodying up heads with theological baseball bats. You didn't learn
that here. No. So we must be careful, and
I feel constrained to give that word of caution. But even in
spite of that word of caution, if we view our salvation biblically,
then in spite of imperfect phraseology, it'll break through that we are
what we are because God put forth the arm of His power. All things are of God, that is,
of the sovereign activity of the Father, and secondly, of
the saving activity of the Son. All things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to Himself. And in closing, may I apply that
principle to your conscience tonight? Does your professed
religion have this perspective? In other words, is it the reflex
response of your heart to say, whatever I know of true religion,
whatever I know of Christ, whatever I know of being a new creation,
whatever I know of my old position, My old purpose, my old pathway
passing away, and all things become new. Whatever I know experimentally,
this much I know, it is all of God. I'm not asking have you
learned to say those words, that's easy. But have you been taught
in your deep heart of hearts that this is true? Have you had
sufficient acquaintance with your own native corruption and
defilement, with your own blindness and love of sin, that you know
if God had not put forth His arm of power, it never would
have been done? Have you been taught to say from
the heart, and all things are of God? When you look in the
mirror like Paul did, And ask yourself the question as he did,
and says, how can I explain you, man? He says, only one way to
explain me. God did something. When you look
in the mirror, are you forced to say that what I see and what
I know of that person has no explanation, but that all things
are of God? Or can you look in the mirror
and say, well, whatever there is there could pretty well be
explained in terms of genes, culture, self-help, resolutions. Is that the explanation of your
life? If so, my dear friend, you have
something less than saving religion. And so I close where I began. Saving religion, what is it?
And do you have it? What is it? This text tells us.
The essence of it is union with Christ. If any man be in Christ. The effect of it? A new creation. The fruit of it? Old things passed
away. All things become new. The root
of it? All things are of God. Is that your religion? Is it? Children? Kids? Moms? Dads? Visitors? Friends? Church
members? Is that your religion? If not,
you better scrap it tonight and cry out to that great God who's
still in the holy business of making new creatures. And cry
to Him that He would, for Christ's sake, have mercy upon you. that
He would take out that heart of stone and give you a new heart,
that He would be pleased to subdue your rebel will and bring you
captive to His dear Son. O dear people, whom after a couple
of weeks I'll not see for some six weeks, the longest time in
nine years that we've been away, I believe before God I have some
genuine, genuine concern that you have nothing less than saving
religion. It may pass here, but it won't
pass there. God help you to be content with
nothing less. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
this portion of your word that we've studied tonight. We bless
and magnify the grace that took that proud, deceived Pharisee
named Saul of Tarsus and brought him to the knowledge of his sinfulness,
brought him to see your glory shining in the face of Jesus
Christ. We thank you that what you did
for him, though the outward circumstances are peculiar to him, The inward
essence of what was done is precisely what you do for everyone whom
you join to your Son. Father, be pleased to speak tonight. Speak in a way of exposure of
sham and deception. Speak in a way of consolation
and comfort to those who are indeed in Christ. Speak to us
in a way of instruction that we may learn with Paul to sing
the language and speak the language of free grace and say from our
hearts without any reluctance, all things are of God. We bless you today for the mighty
power of free grace to subdue the most obdurate of sinners.
Lord, magnify your grace Even this night, come to that one
who least suspects that you are moving toward them in a way of
mercy. Come to that one who perhaps
came to this meeting least desirous of being dealt with by your Spirit. O Father, in the very ones whom
you touch by your grace, magnify that grace in its freeness, in
its sovereignty, and in its mighty power. O God, bless this Your
Word to every heart, and magnify Your dear and only begotten Son
as Your appointed Mediator, Your Christ, Your Anointed One. We bless You for Him tonight.
We thank You that many of us have the confidence that we are
in Him, that we have been made new creatures. O, we thank You
for that mighty work Help us now to so live before men that
they may see the fruit of your work in us and may be made thirsty
to know you as you have brought us to know you in Christ. Hear
us then in this our plea and accept our thanks for your word,
for your salvation, for your spirit, for your presence with
us this day. Take us safely to our several
homes. Magnify your name in us. and
through us in the days that lie before us, we pray in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The message that you have
just heard was produced by the Trinity Pulpit in Essex Fells,
New Jersey, and distributed through the Mount Olive Presbyterian
Church Tape Library in Bass Field, Mississippi, with permission.
Permission for the reproduction of this tape for the purpose
of distribution should be requested from the Trinity Pulpit, the
Trinity Pulpit, Post Office Box 277, Essex, that's E-S-S-E-X,
Essex, Thales, F-E-L-L-S, New Jersey, 07021.

Saving Religion - What it Is - Do You Have It?

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about saving religion?

How do we know saving faith is true?

Why is union with Christ important for Christians?

What are the signs of being a new creation in Christ?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

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Saving Religion - What it Is - Do You Have It?

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about saving religion?

How do we know saving faith is true?

Why is union with Christ important for Christians?

What are the signs of being a new creation in Christ?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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