Where We Stand

I really am going to get back to the question from a couple days ago, but I have another thought (conviction) that is pressing on my heart….

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” -Romans 1:16-17

“For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” -1 Corinthians 1:17-18

As I have been preparing a message on the foolishness and stumbling block that the message of the cross can be – and the power that is contained within the same message (1 Cor. 1:17-31), something has really struck me personally. As much as I would say that I am saved completely by God’s grace and that the only hope of men is to be saved by Christ through the preaching of the gospel, I seem to rely a lot on a different strategy when dealing with unbelievers. Here is my strategy – I act differently and don’t usually tell them about how Christ is the One who enables me to live new life. Of course I know that by our actions we can shine a great light in a dark world, but that shining is only effective to the extent that it leads to opportunities to share the gospel.

Often I hear people say (and I have often said this myself) of their unbelieving friends, family, etc. “They know where I stand.” What does that mean? They know I am a Christian? They know I don’t smoke? They know I don’t curse? They know I read my Bible? That I go to church?

What people need to know is the gospel! We must shine as bright lights by the way we live so that we have opportunity to share the reason for the hope we have. Our hope is laid up in heaven, in Christ Himself. That hope was purchased by His blood shed on behalf of the sins of all who will believe in Him. The message we must share is the glorious good news of Jesus Christ! I think that we resist it sometimes, electing to go the safer route of discussing behavioral things, because it does appear to some as foolishness and to some as a stumbling block. But we were told that it would appear that way. And remember this, friends – to those who will believe it is the power of God for salvation. There is no other message with such power! So let’s be about preaching that good news no matter what the cost. Here is where we must stand:

“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.”

-Edward Mote