I frequently have people tell me that they are a Christian but they have no idea about what they are saying. The minute they start to understand what Jesus said and did they shudder.
This happened in Jesus’ day, too. Jesus didn’t come to start a huge movement – He wasn’t afraid to tell it like it was and lose followers by the masses.
After feeding the 5,000 with a little boy’s lunch of 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish, Jesus told the people that they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood to live forever. “When the followers of Jesus heard this, many of them said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”” (John 6:60).
Jesus explained what He meant – that it is only by the Spirit that people can live and not by what they see and touch (vv 61-63). Jesus stated that only if God calls a person can a person be saved (v65) and after He said that it is recorded that “many of his followers left him and stopped following him” (v66).
In other words, Jesus was saying that His followers must come to Him His way, the way God has directed, not the way that they would choose for themselves. People simply don’t want to hear that!
People want to hear that you can sin as much as you like as long as you repent. People want to hear a sugar-coated gospel that doesn’t call sin, sin. They want to hear that they can have their cake and eat it, too. People want to escape the authority of the church and live lives as they want to live them and have “church” as and when they like. Christian couples want to live together before they are legally married, ‘in sin’ as it used to be called, and expect God to bless them.
The bottom line is God is righteous. He doesn’t change. He is the same God who destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins. The same God who flooded the entire earth to wipe out the sinners. The same God who sent His son to DIE for our sins.
The Christian God is righteous and can’t tolerate sin. I urge you to turn to the Bible and read it through the eyes of God. Ask God for understanding so that you know what it means to be a Christian.
“If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing even to give up their lives to follow me. Those who want to save their lives will give up true life, and those who give up their lives for me will have true life. It is worthless to have the whole world if they lose their souls. They could never pay enough to buy back their souls.” (Matt. 6:24-26).
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*All quotes from NCV.