Que's Occasional Views

by Quentin Clingerman, Calabash, NC
March 22, 2012

The BIG LIE

Accepting Christ as Savior per se does not make one a Heaven bound Christian. There must be an inward conversion, a change of heart and mind, a decision to follow Jesus. Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me." He proclaimed repentance (turning away from sin toward God). I watched a program the other evening where people who claimed to be Christians admitted to living anything but a Christlike life. The one man said outright he lived as he pleased but he was going to Heaven because he had confessed Jesus as His Savior. I believe he has a very great shock coming his way on Judgement day. Jesus said, "Not everyone who says, "Lord, Lord" will enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
St. Paul, St. Peter, St. James, St. John spell out what it means to be converted and to live a Christ -centered life.
I really am concerned that too many believe all they have to do is say they are sinners accept Jesus as their Savior and then live as they please.
Jesus paid too great a price to simply leave the sinner in his sins. And if the sinner went to Heaven he/she would feel very much out of place.
It is not for us to judge. Jesus talked of the tares and wheat growing together and that God would separate them on That Day. The same for the goats and the sheep.
It is not for us to do the separating. Just to preach and teach the message of real conversion, of the necessity of following Jesus in our daily lives. The Holy Spirit does the convicting, convincing, and converting. That is my view of the Biblical perspective.
When someone says we're all sinners, that there is no difference between those who have accepted Christ and are following Him and those who are hanger ons but not really following, I say St. Paul made a difference. He called the converted, saints, not sinners! The real question is for each of us to look in our hearts and the Bible and open our hearts to the Holy Spirit to see if we are living lives of sin or lives of holiness. It is a daily walk with the Lord, not just a one time experience.