July 18, 2001
Reading
“Examine yourselves”
(5)
We are constantly encouraged to examine our physical body for lumps that may be malignant which, if left to run their course, will lead to cancer and death. Self-examination, whether physical or mental, is the thing to do. Many return to college to obtain further education because it has been brought to their attention that a higher degree is required if they wish to pursue their chosen field of endeavor. Paul encourages all professing Christians to perform self-examination in their spiritual life, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.”
The reason this is so important is that we are dealing with eternal matters. If upon self-examination we find we are not “in the faith”, there is still time and opportunity to do something about it. If the condition of our physical body is so important, how much more our spiritual? “Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified.” When we examine our body for lumps we hope they are absent, but when we examine our spiritual life we hope we find something, or rather some One. The proof that a person is a true Christian is when “Jesus Christ is in you”.
How many millions of people attend church to appease their conscience? Some attend on a regular basis while others attend on special occasions such as Christmas and Easter. How many take their newborn baby to the church to be ‘christened’ or ‘baptized’? Are we not a ‘Christian Country’ whose preferred venue for marriage is in a church? These activities may be classified as Christian but they do not make us a Christian. Those are Christians only when Jesus is found in them. The absence of Jesus is proof that a person is not a Christian and is still in their sins and, upon physical death, will remain in their sins and will have to face the wrath of God in judgment; eternal hell is what awaits all in whom Jesus is not found.
When writing to the Christians in Rome Paul says, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom 8:9-10). When a person repents of their sin and asks God for forgiveness, the Spirit of Christ enters them and His presence is God’s Guarantee of eternal life, “having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance” (Eph 1:13-14).
But how do we really know if we are in the faith? Christ brings change to our heart for we have been ‘Born Again’. A Christian will have a desire to get to know God better, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps: 42:1).
The difference between a “natural”
person and a “spiritual” person is that the things of God are foolish to one
who does not have the Spirit of Christ living in them, “But the natural man does
not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him;
nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:15).
Jesus promised us that the Holy Spirit will guide us into the truth, “However,
when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth” (John