Instead of Sanctification: The crossless gospel spirit

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discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, false gospel, false spirits, following Jesus, God, Jesus Christ, justification, pain, peace, sanctification, Satan, sin

Every gospel that focuses on man instead of focusing on Christ is anti-Christian by nature.
(Picture taken from https://thepropheticnews.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/antichrist.jpg)

I am sure there are more versions of that kind of gospel today and I presume there will pop up more and more of them in these last confusing days where Satan appears as an angel of light. However, I want to merely focus on two different manifestations of the crossless gospel I have met particularly on the internet since I began to write online comments in English on December 1, 2011. I would like to refer to these two confusing sub-categories as Spiritless Salvation of the Sinner and Spiritual Self-Salvation.

Was Jesus a nice guy?

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discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, flattery, following Jesus, Jesus Christ, knowing God, Michael Clark, people pleaser, Satan, the new self, the old self, truth

Jesus cleanses the temple…
(Source http://thinktheology.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Jesus_temple.jpg)

Wikipedia offers the following description of a nice guy. It reads,

“A nice guy is an informal term for a teenage or adult male who is gentle, compassionate, sensitive and/or vulnerable.[1] The term is used both positively and negatively.[2] When used positively, and particularly when used as a self-descriptor, it is intended to imply a male who puts the needs of others before his own, avoids confrontations, does favors, gives emotional support, tries to stay out of trouble, and generally acts nicely towards others.[3] In the context of a relationship, it may also refer to traits of honesty, loyalty, romanticism, courtesy and respect. When used negatively, a nice guy implies a male who is unassertive, does not express his true feelings…”

The Secret of How to Obey God in every situation

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chastening, controlling spirit, discerning the spirits, disciplining, evil spirits, exhortation, experience, false spirits, following Jesus, God's love, Jesus Christ, Michael Clark, obedience, prayer, sin, the fear of God, the new self, the old self

Obeying God means everything will fall into its place…
(Photo by Paul Schuberth)

Having got acquainted with being disciplined by God for a long time, I always feel a mixture of cautious compassion and silent awe when I observe that God chastens someone whom I have known personally. While the love of God draws us ever closer to His heart, the fear of God causes fear and trembling in our souls since we realize that our God truly is a consuming fire. He loves us so much that He does not accept ongoing sin in our lives. In fact, God does not take sin lightly.

A Spiritual Self Check

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ads, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, flesh, following Jesus, fruit of the Spirit, God's love, pornography, salvation, Satan, spirit, the devil, the fear of God, worldly spirits

A Biblical Self Check
(Picture taken from https://goffwilson.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/self_check.jpg)

We should be aware that the devil does not sleep. Last Thursday as I checked my blog “Entering the Promised Land” on the cell phone when I was sitting at the hairdresser, I saw four ads popping up beneath one of my articles which I normally do not see when I am logged in on WordPress. One of these ads showed a sort of pornographic picture. We who may use WordPress for free, that means, all who are logged in on WordPress as bloggers ourselves won’t see those often offensive ads other visitors might be confronted with.

How God meets man… or what does it mean to be IN Christ?

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being born again, darkness, experience, God's love, joy, light, living water, pain, the dark night of the soul, The Holy Spirit, the new self, the old self, the promised land

The River of No Return…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

I just had an interesting picture on my mind. Imagine all people in this world initially walk through barren and desolate land for the most part of their lifetime. But sometimes some of them suddenly see an oasis before their eyes. They can hardly believe that they now can leave the wilderness they were in for a very long time and sparks of hope begin to take root inside their hearts. However, alas, as they come closer and closer, they realize that what they had seen within their reach seemed to be only a Fata Morgana since it was gone as soon as they wanted to take possession of it. Grievously disappointed and discouraged they find themselves forced to continue on their journey through the desert, but they cannot forget the beauty of the place they would see before being able to arrive there.

Our True Individuality

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Alexander McLaren, experience, faith, freedom, God's love, individuality, Jesus Christ, love, new life, Oscar Wilde, true faith

Source Pinterest

If some believers are tempted to believe that they could lose their individuality when they have finally died to self with Christ on their own (spiritual) crosses, then I hope I can offer some comfort here since nothing could be further from the truth. Although the apostle Paul told us in his letter to the Galatians,          “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” (Gal 2:20 ESV) he had another idea in mind. Let’s read what Alexander MacLaren wrote in his Bible Commentary about this verse.

“Whoever is not with me is against me”

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church, false harmony, following Jesus, freedom, God's love, harmony, invisible church, Jesus Christ, living stones, peace, Satan, the devil, the new self, the old self

“And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Mt 7:26-17 ESV)
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Truth unites and truth divides. If we think we can make a compromise between following Jesus and seeking to live in (false) harmony with everyone else around us, we will make a big mistake. Our Lord clearly said,

The Pursuit of Happiness

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being born again, experience, fear of the Lord, following Jesus, God's love, happiness, obedience, refuge, spiritual blessings, the new self, the old self, troubles

Seeing the Son in the Sun 🙂
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

I never met anyone who wanted to be sad, sick, and sorrowful. We as human beings might be able to adjust ourselves to a certain kind of pain at times, but no one longs to be unhappy continuously. No, we all want to enjoy our life! Well, but that is exactly our problem since God created us to be happy eternally in His presence, yet we have fallen short of obeying Him and thus have had to face several consequences of sin, one of which is temporal unhappiness. We know that it was Jesus’ atonement and God’s grace that opened the way back into His presence through our Lord, who has become our personal way to an abundant spiritual life. But knowing about it and living to see it are two very different animals. 😉

The Crisis from Death to Life

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A.W. Tozer, darkness, death, dying to self, experience, following Jesus, John of the Cross, light, pain, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit, the new self, the old self, the valley of the shadow of death

Jesus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

This life on earth provides joys and pains for everyone, whether we believe in God or not. However, if God has chosen to adopt us as His beloved children, we will experience an additional kind of suffering this world will never know. These pains that spring from taking up our cross daily in order to die to self are by no means an end in itself. As painful as such periods are, there is a goal ahead to which God will surely bring us.
As I was sitting at the hairdresser this morning, I would read several entries on “Dying to Self” on the internet. It dawned on me that only those who experienced such a process were really inclined to write more detailed about it. Or to put if more humorously as A.W. Tozer did,

“Among the plastic saints of our times, Jesus has to do all the dying, and all we want to hear is another sermon about his dying.”

What does it mean to be spiritual?

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being born again, carnal mind, children of God, faith, Martin Luther, Oswald Chambers, sanctification, spiritual mind, the new self, the old self, true faith

Crocuses in the City Park (Stadtpark Fürth, March 2015)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

In the past I read rather often that Christians tried hard to be “more spiritual” because they had observed others who seemed to have arrived at a more mature level of spirituality than they themselves. And at that point as insecurity set in, they began to ask, “How do we get there? How to become spiritual at all or even more spiritual?”
The apostle Paul defined Christian spirituality for us. He wrote in his letter to the Romans,