Don't Adhere to the Lies, for the Truth is So Much Better

During my studies of the Bible, I became confirmed of something that I had already known for some time: Church Leaders don't always tell the truth.  Many of these lies, both past and present, are taught be various pastors and laymen for numerous denominations all over the world.  In most cases, these lies are told because they fail to understand what Jesus is actually telling us.  They only read portions of the scriptures and fail to read it in its entirety, or they read the Gospels and come to the wrong conclusion about what is being said to us.  Steve McVey's books serves to illustrate to us that even to this day, Church leaders and laymen alike can often misinterpret or distort the scriptures, but the scriptures themselves remain unchanged because God's eternal Truth never changes.  The message of God is straightforward it is a message of eternal love.  

Let us take a look at a few of the lies that are we may have heard over the years: 

Lie #1: Salvation is giving your life to Christ

o   Salvation is not a matter of you giving your life to Christ.  In fact, it has nothing whatsoever to do with what you have given God.  Grace revolves around what He has given us, not what we give him.  You receive eternal life not because you gave Christ your life, you receive eternal life because He gave you His Life.  Salvation is God’s work.  Our response to Him is because He initiated the whole thing.  We love because He first loved us.  Grace means we are merely recipients of what He did through Jesus Christ.  From start to finish, it’s Him.  We contributed mothering toward our salvation, After all, we had nothing to contribute. 

o   John 3:16, 2 Corinthians 5:19, & 1 John 4:10 show that it’s not about us, it’s about Him and what he has done because of His love for us.  The gospel has nothing to do with mankind reaching up to God to give Him anything, it’s about God, moved by love, compassion, & mercy reaching down to us and providing a salvation we could never have accomplished on our own.  There’s nothing for us to do except believe and say “Thank You!”  Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9 that we don’t deserve, earn, or work for salvation, we simply come to experience it through faith.  It’s a gift of God.  God looks for sincere hearts, not perfect heads.

      Lie #2: Becoming a Christian Means Having Your Sins Forgiven 

o   Our sins have been forgiven as a result of the finished work of Christ on the cross, but that is in no way the essence of salvation.  Becoming a Christian is much more than that.  Jesus came to give us Divine Life, His Life (John 10:10).  The fact that our sins are forgiven should never be minimalized. 

o   Becoming a Christian happens when by your faith you recognize that your new life and the life of Jesus have merged into one.  The message of the Gospel must include the Cross and the Resurrection.  The forgiveness is only half the Gospel.  When He arose, we arose with Him to a new life.  Salvation means that we receive the life of Christ, we become equipped to live the life He came to give us.  God did not intend Christ’s work of salvation to simply get us to Heaven, He came to get Himself out of Heaven and into men.  

      Lie #3: You Can Go Too Far with Grace

      People worry that you can go too far with grace and worry about what might happen if we do that, but this is unfounded fear.  God is infinite in his goodness, holiness, and love.  He never goes too far with those.  People fear if you teach the pure grace of God, they’ll be tempted to go out and sin.  However, when his Grace truly takes hold of us, it leads us to do the exact opposite.  When we sin, we act is a Disgraceful Way.  God empowers us to honor our Father throughout our actions, not dishonor Him.  The truth is, most people haven’t gone far enough in their understanding of it.  We need to boldly proclaim God’s Grace.  We need an abundance of Grace, it’s only when we experience that abundance that we know the victory is ours in Jesus Christ.  

      Lie #4: Your Greatest Responsibility is to Serve God

     “Saved to serve” is wrong.  Pagan worshippers went to great lengths to appease their Gods, for angry Gods do very bad things.   To think that God is interested in what we do for Him is bizarre in light of what the Bible actually teaches.  This is almighty God, what could he possibly need us to do?  Acts 17:24-25, tells us that God does not dwell in Temples made by human hands as though he needed anything since He gives to all people.  God is a giver, he is utterly self-sufficient, the only Being who truly needs nothing.   God doesn’t need us, but He wants us!  It isn’t a drudgery to serve God, it’s all about Love.  “We Love because He first Loved Us (1 John 4:19).  It is the opposite of a job, it’s a joy!  

     Steve goes on to discuss 48 more lies that are told in churches, but the point of his work is not to tear down churches or to pick on any particular denomination.  The purpose of this is to embrace and express the pure grace of God.  Pure Grace points to Him, not us.  It declares that whatever good may come to us is all because of His goodness, not because of anything we do or don’t do. 

    Sources:

      McVey, Steve.  52 Lies Heard in Church Every Sunday: and Why the Truth is So Much Better.  Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2011.