Footsteps #219

“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.” NLT  (2Cor13:5)

Twice in 13:5 Paul urges the Corinthians to examine themselves. What is his point? I think clearly he would prefer not to come to the church in a spirit of judgment and discipline. Paul is clearly encouraging professing Christians to ask themselves the question: “Am I a true Christian or am I a counterfeit?” What is the test that Paul speaks of which determines whether Jesus Christ lives within us? It might be instructive to first talk about what it isn’t! The test is not a profession of faith. There are many who have claimed to believe, many who have walked an aisle and prayed a prayer but who have demonstrated no evidence of being truly born again. Jesus said of some who professed their faith vehemently, “I never knew you.” The test is not intellectual belief. James 2 scoffs at the claims of some that they are home free just because they believe in one God. He retorts, “Even the demons believe that-and shudder.” He also makes it clear in the same chapter that faith without works, without a life change, is dead–not sick, not inadequate, but dead! The test is not religious rite or ritual. The test is perhaps best expressed as being born again by faith in Christ, resulting in a changed life, and persevering in the truth. If a person has not been born again, Christ is not in them. It’s just that simple, according to John 3:3. If their experience of conversion does not result in a fundamental change at the very depths of their being, Christ is not in them and they are not in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). And if they do not persevere in the truth, Christ is not in them. (See also 2John.9) 

The Bible never promises eternal security to anyone who has not had a genuine life-changing experience of God’s grace through Jesus Christ and who does not persevere in the faith. As far as the Corinthian believers are concerned the time has come for a frank reappraisal of their walk with Christ. Let them not be presumptuous; let them be humble and introspective. NB v6.