Is there more to Christianity than a prayer?

My family started to go to a Baptist church when I was three years old. I’ve been part of the church for over 40 years now. I’ve seen changes throughout the years as far as how the services have changed in styles. However, it has pretty much been a few songs that are sung for Praise and Worship and the sermon. In some churches, they’ve an altar call, where people are invited to come up front and say a prayer to receive Jesus Christ in their heart. Other churches will have people bow their heads while others raise their hands to receive Christ in their hearts. Then the people that receive Christ in their heart are encouraged to be baptized. Is this what God had in mind for the church? Is the purpose of the church to invite family, friends, and strangers to come to a building to participate in singing and listening to a “feel good” sermon? Are we called to invite them to say a prayer in order to be saved? There must be more to Christianity than a simple prayer that we call the sinner’s prayer. There must be more to just going to a building on Sunday mornings and maybe going to a house during the week what we call small groups.

In Matthew 28:19, Jesus commands the disciples, “Go and therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Jesus is telling the disciples to Go and make disciples.  What does this mean? What is a disciple? So many churches focus on having people repeat a prayer and then tell them that they are part of the family of God. Now, there is nothing wrong with saying the sinner’s prayer. God can and does use this method to call his people to repentance and salvation. However, it doesn’t stop there or shouldn’t stop there. There has to be life transformation. We cannot say a prayer and expect us to be part of the family of God.  We have to truly believe in what Jesus did for us on the cross. We have to allow the Word to transform our lives. In order to do that we have to study and meditate on the Word daily. Mulholland (2000) shares,

If we desire to read scripture in such a way that we become, through the shaping of the Word, the word God speaks us forth to be, the first thing Wesley tells us to do is, "to set a part a little time, if you can, every morning and evening for that purpose" (p.124). Furthermore, the premise of John Wesley's Entire Sanctification is to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul so that our desires will become His desires. The only way to do that is to engage the Word on a daily basis as Mulholland suggests, "Our use of scripture in spiritual formation must be a regular, consistent, daily feeding upon the Word" (p.124).  We have to be a disciple of Jesus. God has called us to go and make disciples. So, in order to go and make disciples we have to be disciples ourselves. What is a disciple?

While reading in the Gospels, we see that whenever Jesus first encountered His original disciples, his first words were “follow me”. Immediately they left everyone they knew, including family, and possessions to follow Him. Jesus states to a group of believers, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31, ESV). A true disciple of Jesus is one that Follows Jesus and stays in His Word.  A true disciple imitates Jesus in his or her daily life. Paul states, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20, ESV). When an individual surrenders their life to Jesus, then it is no longer them that live but Christ lives in them. At that point, the individual should start to live like Christ. Paul also states, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:2-3, ESV). Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person” (ESV). So as Christians, we must be a follower of Jesus and stay in His Word. We must allow the Holy Spirit to let the Word transform our lives. We just cannot stop at a prayer. We must become fully devoted followers of Jesus!

References

Mulholland, M. (2000). Shaped By The Word; The Power of Scripture in Spiritual Formation.       Nashville, TN; Upper Room Books.

          Freedom from sin and Life in the Spirit

           There are many Christians that live a life of sin because they think that is how they are. They have believed the lie that because of their sinful nature that they can continue in a life of sin or they think that because of grace they have the freedom to sin. What does God have to say about this? Paul talks about this in his letter to the churches in Roman about this topic. In Romans chapter six through eight, Paul shows the process of how sin is defeated in a person's life and how they struggle with sin and how they have a life through the Spirit.

            Paul asks in Romans 6:1 and 2, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" (NIV). This is not given a freedom to sin so God could give us more grace. Here Paul is stating the fact that we died to sin. The power of sin is broken in our lives. Osborne (2004) puts it like, "In response Paul says we died to sin, meaning that death was defeated when we died to sin at conversion. Therefore the Christian is no longer under the power of sin" (p.149). Paul goes on to say in Romans 6:6 and 7, "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--because anyone who has died has been freed from sin" (NIV). Once a Christian is justified they are no longer under the control of sin. Guzik (2002) shares, "Christians have died to sin, and they should no longer live in it. Before, we were dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1); now we are dead to sin" (p.1).

            Osborne (2004) states, "This former way of life was crucified with Christ when we were crucified with Christ and can be thought of as no longer in control of our lives" (p.153).  Then he declares, "We are now in Christ rather than in Adam and so belong to the new self, which is the realm of the new life" (p.153). Our old nature was crucified with Christ and now we have a new nature. However, even though our old nature has died, we still have a war within us between sin and our Spirit. Osborne (2004) puts it like, "We are no longer under the dominion of sin but are still at war against it" (p.154). Paul states in Romans 7:8, "But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire" (NIV). The New Living Translation states that it aroused all kinds of forbidden desires within me. We as Christians wrestle with our desire to sin. There is a war going on in us between our flesh and spirit because our sinful nature still exists.

            In Romans 7:24, Paul asks, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (NIV).  Paul states in Romans 8:2, "because through Christ Jesus the law of Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" (NIV). We are set free from the law of sin and death. He gives us the power to overcome our temptations and the power to live the Christian life. Osborne (2004), "living our lives according to the power of the indwelling Spirit" (p.192). Osborne (2004) was right to say, "Here the Spirit becomes the active force in believers' lives and enables them to defeat the flesh and live in victory" (p.192). This is why it is so important that we focus on God and give him our entire focus throughout the day and focus on Him moment by moment daily and seek Him through prayer and studying His Word so that our desires becomes His desires. When we do this then we are guided by the Holy Spirit and the Spirit becomes the force that helps us defeat our sinful nature and do the things that please our Heavenly Father. Osborne (2004) shares, “The power of sin and death are broken in the reign of the Spirit” (p.194). Christians need to let the Holy Spirit reign in their lives. We must live according to the Spirit and allow Him to guide us so that we can live a life in the Spirit and not by our old sinful mature.

            Osborne (2004) goes on to say, “Life in the Spirit brings the Christian into a new family relationship with God” (p.202). Paul tells us in Romans 8:13-14, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (ESV). If we are led by the Spirit then we are sons of God. We have been set free from the bondage of sin because the Spirit of life has set us free. According to Paul in the last part of Romans chapter eight that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 8:37-39).

References

Guzik, D. (2002). Text Commentaries: David Guzik (Blue Letter Bible: Galatians).            Retrieved from http://www.blueletterbible.org

Hansen, G.W. (1994). Galatians: The IVP New Testament commentary series. Downers Grove,    IL: InterVarsity Press.