Are you born-again? Sometimes, enough is enough.

"Are you born-again? "
Have you heard the Good News?"
These are questions we often hear or share in the Evangelical circle, however, these questions can be strange to those whom have faith in Jesus yet didn't have a defined, born-again moment, that they are aware of (of course, they did have one).

Romans 10:11-13 is vital to the Christian identity. Here, the "minimum" knowledge of what a Christian believes is noted. In other words, if a Christian believes this, then they have already been born-again and are Christians, whether they know it or not, and no matter how ignorant of God's word or misled they are by their "church leaders."

So let us examine this truncated Gospel.

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

All those whom have called on Jesus will be saved, because, of course, they must believe He is Risen if they are calling on Him. When we are saved, we always confess our Lord with our words, because we realize He is our one hope, and we are hopeless sinners. This is faith. Many have this faith, and have no idea what we are talking about when we ask him if they have been born-again. It's important for us to understand this clearly, as it can be a terribly confusing barrier between orthodox and evangelical branches of the faith. If are to maintain salvation is by grace alone by faith alone, we must understand that those whom have faith in Jesus Christ may not realize their salvation has been credited to them by grace alone - yet for the very reason its grace alone they have been born-again and are saved, and are being sanctified just as we are. Thus, it is a theological mistake to call other believers whom are relying somehow on themselves to say they are not saved - this is an important distinction and one that needs to be readily made. We should not be re-evangelizing those that have faith.

But let us close with the last verse of this section.

Romans, 10:14-15.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

Francis of Assisi (known as "St. Francis" to some) famously said "Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words." I've come to understand that this really makes no sense at all. We have been commissioned by God to share the Gospel. We need to explain the Gospel for folks who believe they are sinners to believe upon Him, in words. Romans 10 is explicit as what confessing our Lord encompasses. If we have been born-again, even if we do not know what that means, to confess Jesus as Lord isn't reciting some creed in church. It's sharing the Gospel with your loved ones, your friends, your co-workers, and strangers.

Are you born-again?

If you trust that God sent Jesus to die for your sins, and He was risen from the dead as Lord of the Universe, and if you have called upon Him to be saved and entrusted Him, then you are saved. And if are saved, you can be assured God will keep you eternally. I think Scripture is clear on this. Even if you erroneously believe you have something to do with your salvation, and even if you believe that you are not saved, or may at some time become "unsaved." This is grace alone by faith alone. A famous evangelical writer whom wrote countless expositions on nearly every Chapter of Scripture during the course of his life, was asked towards the end of his life how he would sum up the Gospel. After thinking about it for a minute he responded, "Jesus loves me, for the BIble tells me so." This is the Gospel of Grace.

As an Evangelical Anglican recently pointed out to me, it's not our theological aptitude that is the deciding factor. "We are saved by grace alone. PERIOD. We are not saved by grace PLUS KNOWING IT'S ONLY BY GRACE. Does our sanctification depend, in part, on this knowledge? Yes. But salvation...absolutely not."

What is at stake here? For one, wasteful evangelism, not recognizing other true Christians as brothers and sisters, and, of course, immensely hurting the kingdom of God. Secondly, we can know with certainty through God's Grace that the countless Christians whom died with the erroneous (and heretical) teaching that our works play a role in our salvation, despite their theological ignorance, were as saved as me and you.

There is a joke in the Christian world about Baptists. A Christian dies and goes to heaven. As he is being shown around, at some point the guy showing him around turns to him and tells him to quiet down. He asks "Why?" The man turns to him and points to a group of Baptists they are approaching. "They think they are the only ones here."

While it is okay to be reassured that our theology is tight-knit because it is what the Bible says, it is not okay to extrapolate beyond the Bible. Scripture is clear that we are saved through the outpouring of God's Grace, through the free gift of faith. Just like we cannot qualify ourselves for the prize, we cannot disqualify ourselves either.

Influential people

If I was making a list of the three most influential people in my life, one of those people would be someone I have never met. He resides in a state I have only been to once, and is 30 years my elder. His dad died when he was young from one of the most devastating diseases certainly of the 21st century, ALS. He become a preacher in Oak Hills, Texas, and has since become one of the leading Christian voices in contemporary evangelism. He is the person whom led me to understand what everyone who is convinced that there is a Creator of the Universe needs to understand - that this Creator is intimately involved in His Creation, and always has been. And he led me to Scripture as the revelation of this Creator to His most-prized creation (on Earth at least) - human beings.

I was brought to Christ when these truths and others permeated through me; I was brought to Christ in a prayer similar to this. I thought it only appropriate to share it. I write and think about others places in God's family - and Jews, and Hindus and Buddhists. I have come to know almost as many uncoverted Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Agnostics and Atheists as I have Christians. We can speculate about the mercy and love of God for those that die uncoverted. But we can never forget that if we actually believe in a Holy Creator, which Christians and Jews do, then we can never forget about Holy justice.

This is how I was first convinced, and now am sealed with conviction, that the only way back to our Creator God is through Jesus Christ. Forget about all the religion in the world. Jesus Christ has nothing to do with ceremony and religion. Our Creator is absolutely clear in Scripture - the only way back to Him is through repentance towards Christ Jesus, a free gift from God.

This is the prayer I said (it would be of course completely useless to rehearse this prayer unless you felt similarly in your heart) that converted me to Christ after years of legalism and trying to work my way, at least in part, back to God. And i have no doubt if I outlive Mr. Lucado, He will be one of the first to greet me in Paradise.

http://www.maxlucado.com/pdf/salvation.plan.pdf