What Makes the Christian Life Real?
A friend at my former church used to always talk about “keeping it real,” by which he meant that we should be honest and transparent. But the other day, as I read Heb. 2:3, “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?,” I started thinking about “keeping it real” in another sense. I found myself asking, what makes the Christian life real? I’d like to share those thoughts with you.
What does it mean to ignore our salvation? (Some other versions use the word neglect.) The obvious meaning of the verse is that if we don’t accept what Christ has provided for us, we’ll never be saved, we won’t escape destruction. Likewise, if we don’t continue in Him or abide in Him, we won’t escape either; we’ll be destroyed because we’ve ignored or neglected our salvation. Throughout Hebrews and the rest of the New Testament, we find an account of the many wonderful things God has provided for us through Christ. Every spiritual blessing has been provided for us in Him!
The writer of Hebrews also repeatedly warns us throughout the book that it’s possible to experience salvation, even be made a partaker of the Holy Spirit and the powers of the age to come and still fall away or lose what has been provided for us. It’s the New Testament book with the most warnings.
What really caught my interest though, was that word ignore or neglect. I found myself wondering about what that expression could mean, and how a person could do such a thing. I concluded that to ignore our salvation must mean we just don’t give it much thought. We don’t pay much attention to it. We don’t give it much time or invest any effort into it. Which raised some further questions…
We’re saved by grace, not works, right? So why do we have to do anything about our salvation? What do we have to pay attention to, invest in, put forth effort for?
I was thinking about my Christian life. I’ve been saved for forty years. (I am really old!!) I was thinking, what keeps me going as a Christian? What inspires? What strengthens? What makes it real to me, so that I enjoy and appreciate it, appreciate my relationship with God? Why do I pursue it? Why am I even working on my master’s in theology?
When I was first saved, God brought me out of drugs, alcohol, a completely useless lifestyle, and He did it by a dramatic manifestation of the Holy Spirit. There were words of knowledge, demons were cast out, I thrashed around on the floor – it was a very powerful, life transforming, unforgettable experience! But as the years roll by, even a guy who’s been saved in as dramatic a way as me can get used to things and take ‘em for granted. Even a guy like me can wonder at times if he’s even saved or if God lives within. I’m taking a course in the Holy Spirit now, which has also provoked questions and self-examination. The Holy Spirit is God, and He lives in me. I know that, but a lot of times, I don’t feel anything special at all, and I wonder, how can God be in me, yet not even be discernible? How come I don’t feel anything, if God is in me? How come sometimes I’m unloving or impatient, or don’t have much faith? How come so many prayers have seemingly gone unanswered for years? How come I don’t know about my future, and sometimes worry about it?
I guess I’m asking these questions and sharing this to say that I’m probably pretty much like all Christians. I mean, we love Jesus. We believe we’re saved. And at times, He really touches us and we feel it. But there are also times we don’t feel that much at all, or is it only me?
Well, what makes our relationship real? What keeps us believing and worshipping and seeking God? How can we tell if we’re neglecting our salvation or applying ourselves to it?
It seems to me that there are some very important things to think about relating to all this. Salvation is by grace, absolutely. But yet, to really experience it, and to really experience God, human involvement and response is required. We simply won’t be saved or experience spiritual life unless we personally receive Christ and continue in Him. Paul said we were to work out our salvation (Phil. 2:12). In the Complete Jewish Version, Ja. 1:25 says a person who looks into the perfect law of liberty must be a doer of the work it requires. So there are ways we can activate our spiritual lives and keep them vibrant. Not neglecting our salvation indicates there are things we must actively pursue and be involved with to “make it real,” and these things keep us on the track, so to speak.
Let me tell you an experience I had years ago, because to me, it is a good example of what I’m talking about. I was teaching at a Youth with a Mission discipleship school, and a young lady asked me the following. She said, “Right now, I’m in this school, hearing all this teaching about evangelism and missions, and we’re praying together, worshipping, studying, witnessing, etc., etc. It has really inspired me and fired me up for God. But when I leave here in a few weeks, how do I know this won’t all fade away and evaporate?”
Remember when Luke Skywalker, in the first Star Wars movie, told Yoda he wasn’t afraid to face Vader? Yoda said, in that gravelly voice of his, “You will be. You will be!” Remember that? I tried to imitate the voice when I answered the young lady. I said to her, “Oh, it will fade away, believe me! It will evaporate, I can promise you!” She and the other students all looked at me with shocked expressions!
But I went on to tell her why I said it. I said look, when you’re being taught things and you’re focusing on them, and when you’re in this school environment, where it’s required that you spend time every day in the Word and in prayer/intercession, and when you’re worshipping every day and going witnessing, and you’re receiving all this teaching, guess what? You’re spiritual life soars. You get really charged up and enthused, and the Christian life seems so real right now.
When you return to “normal” life, the tendency is to lose the discipline, not read your Bible or pray or worship or study, or witness, because it won’t be required, and your flesh won’t want to do it anymore, or fears will set in and you won’t share your faith, or you’ll get distracted by so many other things, maybe even sinful things, maybe innocent things, but when you do that, the fire tends to die down.
What’s the point? Those kind of exercises, efforts, spiritual investments, things like daily private or corporate prayer, study of Scripture, fellowship, church attendance, sharing your faith, giving, doing, all of that, they’re called spiritual disciplines. And guess what? We’re not saved because we do such things. We could never do enough to earn our salvation or please God. That’s why we need a Savior! Only Jesus did enough or could do enough. Only He earned what we need.
That being said however, I want you to know that the Christian life, a daily relationship with God that is real and meaningful and vibrant, still requires your attention! It requires your investment. It cannot be neglected, brothers and sisters! It cannot be ignored! Jesus died for all of us, but only those who receive Him will be saved. Jesus wants us to walk with Him day to day and live an entirely new and abundant life. But only those who make the effort to do that will really experience it.
Dallas Willard said this, and I hope you’ll always remember it. He said, “God is not opposed to effort; only to earning!” (No one can earn their salvation, but all of us must put effort into our spiritual lives.)
So here’s the secret to making the Christian life real, making it something you feel and experience. If you think of these spiritual pursuits or investments like a duty, like exercising or dieting or good works that you have to do to earn God’s favor, you’ll miss out completely on the blessing of this! Such an approach won’t work out, and countless people have proved it doesn’t work. They feel bored at the very thought of it. There is a sort of natural resistance that you and I feel deep inside that makes it hard to pursue God and easy to be diverted into another direction, any direction at all, and pass our time in something else. But doing that is exactly what ignoring or neglecting our salvation is all about. Ignoring spiritual life leads to it seeming unreal, and leads to spiritual dullness, sleepiness, apathy, and finally, to backsliding and spiritual death.
What you and I need is to see spiritual disciplines as keys to a wonderful life, keys to success, keys to make the Christian life real. When you set out to read, pray, worship, fellowship, or whatever other spiritual discipline you might think of, your flesh resists. It influences you to ignore or neglect your spiritual life. Don’t yield to that apathetic, deadly tendency or influence! Instead, give yourself to God. Ask Him to empower you. Tell Him you can’t do what it takes to be a spiritual person, but you want to. Then just give Him the time, and you’ll find that discipline turns to joy!
Read the Bible, meditate on it, study it. Read books about it and about the spiritual life. Pray alone and with others. Pray out loud. Force yourself to do it. Never give up going to church, assembling together with other believers. Give God time each day in your thoughts and in your heart. Sometimes it might seem boring or pointless. Sometimes you might not think it’s “paying off,” whatever that means. But I can promise you, if you persevere, joy and energy will come. You will be rewarded. In the 12th century, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote “the reason for loving God is God Himself; and the measure of love due to Him is immeasurable love…Nothing is more reasonable; nothing is more profitable” (than loving God.)
You and I won’t escape if we ignore or neglect our salvation, that’s guaranteed. You can’t enter into relationship with God and live eternally without receiving Christ. And if you have already been saved, it is possible to lose that salvation if you ignore it. But my point in this blog is that our Christian life won’t even feel “real” to us if we neglect it. That’s why many think it’s boring or not very significant in the day to day.
I can tell you though, very honestly, as I look back over 40 plus years of living with God, that what has kept me going and has made Jesus real to me (by His mercy and grace of course) has been the spiritual disciplines I’ve practiced over these decades. It wasn’t willpower, but it was willingness to let His power touch and fill my life. It was giving time to God each day, day after day, and year after year. I want to urge you pursue this for yourself as well. I want to encourage you today not to neglect the tremendous blessing that is within your grasp, this great salvation and relationship with God that is offered you in Christ. If you will pay attention to this and pursue it, God Himself will be your reward! (Gen. 15:1).