KEY PRINCIPLES FROM THIS MESSAGE:
Sanctification is a function of being present.
Wisdom is applied knowledge. Knowledge can exist in the absence of wisdom, but wisdom cannot exist in the absence of knowledge. Wisdom is a function of sanctification, given by God alone (Jas 1:5).
Emotional Salvation Isn’t Enough – blog 7/26/19
I know a lot of people who were abused as children. If it wasn’t abuse of the physical, psychological, or sexual sort, it was minimally some category of neglect. It’s no wonder why so many people are burdened with scars, both literal and figurative, that often seem inescapable. In many cases, this permanency proves true, even though God’s Word is our pain-relieving salve. While the truth sets us free from the bondage of our pasts (John 8:32), helping us to see the light (Ephesians 5:13), this type of salvation isn’t salvation from sin in the most critical of ways.
No matter how emotionally relieved a person is to know that God will bear their burdens, His promises of deliverance are the result of being saved, judicially, not the cause.
The above statement is an important one for several reasons. I believe it’s easy to “sell” a person on Jesus Christ if He becomes a person’s savior from emotional pain.
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It’s very important that we believers understand the subtlety being presented here in this blog. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of focusing on the pain someone is in rather than addressing the real issue, which isn’t how badly they’ve been sinned against and therefore damaged, but rather their own sin. When we speak about pain and sin in the same sentence to others, we must do so very articulately, each topic having its own purpose. Why the distinction? Because there are a lot of people out there suffering miserable lives who keep buying the lie that deliverance from pain is finding the right savior from sin borne in others.
We never escape sin in this world, that is, the sinful nature of others, or its effects. Salvation doesn’t promise such things; rather, it promises escape from the dominion of sin in our own lives.
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I fear that many people have sought deliverance from childhood pain and believe to have found it in Jesus Christ in the absence of true salvation. The demands from God never waver. A person must address their own sinfulness before His holiness. Emotional relief may come with sanctification, but sanctification must begin where it begins with every other human being who’s ever been saved, with repentance. “God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30b).
We MUSTN’T ever conflate what occurs positionally (at salvation) with what occurs progressively (after salvation), especially when evangelizing others.
A very UNWISE, though popular, thing a person can do is hide their own guilt under the guilt of someone else and use that to justify their rejection of God’s righteousness.
Wisdom applies God’s grace to life. It provides an abiding ‘grace-mindset’. A ‘grace-mindset’ sets a person totally free because they understand that all good things come from God alone.
Being present is a function of a grace-mindset.
A humble person who turns to God alone for grace receives the real-time blessing of being healed RIGHT NOW.