Regeneration Means Perspective

Perhaps the two greatest failures in the church and in the lives of believers from my perspective as a chaplain is the lack of regeneration and the lack of discipleship. Everything comes back to the gift of salvation. We can read the parable of the sower (Matthew 13) and clearly see what happens when people respond to the gospel. Jesus even provides examples of what the lives of these people will look like or what kind of spiritual fruit they will produce. Did He provide this for us to judge people? No, He provided this information so we can see the difference between someone who superficially commits to Christ, perhaps out of emotion and remorse, and someone who genuinely responds to the gospel in faith and produces Kingdom fruit in their life. There are plenty of atheists who believe in charity work and doing good things for people, so good works alone are not sufficient to identify with Christ. There are movie stars who identify themselves as Buddhists, agnostics, and scientologists who give more and do more temporal good than many who identify themselves as Christians. That is why we are not saved by our works; we are saved by the grace of God when we placed our faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior. Paul says in Titus 3:5 that "He saved us not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit."



So what is the difference between a "good" Buddhist or a Hollywood actor who practices Christian Science and does charity work and a disciple of Christ saved by His grace and blood? Just that, we realized that we needed saved. If you don't understand how sinful you are you will never hate sin enough to ask for forgiveness from your Creator. You will never understand that your sins have separated you from His spiritual blessings and the Cross will simply become a lie and fairy tale to you. You must understand that the whole world is guilty before God, without Christ's righteousness a person will remain lost and remain as Paul described in Romans 3:9-18.

 

I come across people who identify themselves as Christians all the time who tell me they believe in Evolution. I simple explain to them that Evolution is in complete contradiction to biblical Christianity and to God. There is not one shred of evidence for Evolution and never will be, because God created man and woman in His own image. The primary issue with Evolution, other than there is no proof, is that it convinces a person that they are not accountable for their sins because they came from a monkey or primate, thus the fall of man never occurred and sin is marginalized in society and ultimately makes God out to be a liar.

 

So this Sunday in order to strengthen and build the biblical worldview of those here at South Camp I will be showing the new film: Evolution vs. God by Ray Comfort. It’s an amazing video!

 
Please come join us this Sunday if you are here at South Camp.