For years I listened to pastors re-interpret Jesus’ words to make the meaningless. I’ve had “pastors” tell me “Jesus really didn’t mean it when He commanded us to Abide in Him. Jesus didn’t mean it when He said we must continue, remain, hold fast either, ‘So stop talking about these things “you make my goats nervous.” And surely Jesus didn’t mean it when He said, “If you deny Me, I’ll deny you.”
The sloppy grace message appeals to the goats. They have no desire to obey or submit to Jesus as Lord. They what a “savior” that will deliver them from hell, not not a LORD, they need to submit to day by day. This new gospel has nothing in common with Jesus’ message. He said, “If a man does not deny himself he cannot be my disciple.” This takes an ongoing effort on our part to strive to do this. It is not done for us, but we, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, can be overcomers. Jesus said the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Jesus said, “STRIVE to enter the narrow gate.” The narrow path is a difficult one, that’s why few are one it. With the sloppy grace message even fewer will remain on it because it is difficult and their “pastor” told them no effort is need and if they do make an effort to “strive to be holy” they are just trying to earn their way to heaven. I think sometimes, those who are living a Righteous Godly life talk about it and those who are goats don’t want to be ashamed, so they must put down the Godly person, so they can feel good about their lukewarmness. They redefine Jesus words so as not to be convicted.
A W Tozer said, “May God deliver us from this easygoing, smooth, comfortable Christianity that never let’s the truth get a hold of us.”
We are raising a generation of lazy “christians” who think any effort to do the will of God is of the flesh and a lack of faith. Paul labored, and beat his body into subjection. The new false gospel of grace says, “God doesn’t care about our performance, just what Jesus did for us.”
AW Tozer said “To avoid the hard necessity of either obeying or rejecting the plain instructions of our Lord in the New Testament we take refuge in a liberal interpretation of them. We evangelicals also know how to avoid the sharp point of obedience by means of fine and intricate explanations. These are tailor-made for the flesh. They excuse disobedience, comfort carnality and make the words of Christ of none effect. And the essence of it all is that Christ simply could not have meant what He said. His teachings are accepted even theoretically only after they have been weakened by interpretation.”
