Shepherds or Wolves?

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.  John 15:13

It’s funny how things work together to grow our faith and understanding of who God is as we get into His word.  This past Sunday I heard a sermon on John 15:13 (above).  Easter is coming and this morning’s sermon helped me – and others – to look at the love of God in sending His Son to die and the love of Jesus in laying down His life so sinners can have eternal life. 

The Bible teaches that Jesus is God’s one and only Son whom God chose to send to save us from perishing in Hell because of our sin.  John 3:16 says it all, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” We are reminded that this love that God poured out was not because we deserved to be saved from Hell but because God so loved His people that He chose to provide in Jesus what we could not provide for ourselves.  Jesus provides righteousness because we don’t have it. 

The truth of the Gospel is that if we believe that Christ died for our sin when we go before God at judgment He sees the righteousness of Jesus on us and we enter heaven for eternity.  This will not apply to those who just show up in church every week but live as they wish every other day of the week.  It will not apply to those who have done many good works thinking it will help them get to heaven but who have never recognized the price Jesus paid on the cross because of their sin.  Jesus tells us that there will be many who say, “Lord, Lord,” at judgment and He will say, “I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:21)

Sometimes churches teach things that sound very good but lead people astray.  My husband and I are taking a Sunday School class on World Religions.  This morning we talked about a cult that believes that Jesus was sinless (as we do) but that He was not God.  This religion believes that He was our example to prove that we can live a sinless life.  I don’t believe that Bible teaches that we can be sinless in this life.  Even Paul, who served God wholeheartedly and wrote many of the New Testament books of the Bible said, “For I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”   Romans 7:15. 

Interestingly, this same cult believes that at the end times Satan will be punished for our sin.  Just for the record, unlike Jesus, Satan has plenty of sin of his own to be punished for.  He is doomed to the fiery furnace in spite of anything any human has ever done.  He rebelled against God before people were created.  He will suffer eternally for that rebellion. 

Jesus was truly sinless.  He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s nature according to Hebrews 1:3.  He did not have to die for sin because He had none.  He chose to lay His life down for you and me because He loved us and obeyed His heavenly Father.  In the garden before He went to the Cross Jesus prayed that the cup He was about to drink from would be taken from Him.  He then prayed, “Your will not mine, be done.”  It was God’s will that there would be a sacrifice for the sins of those who would believe that God provided it. 

This idea about Satan being punished for our sins is very subtle.  He deserves it and so it sounds reasonable.  But he is not capable of love and so what purpose would it serve for him to be punished for the sin of any human?  All that such an untruth does is take glory from the One who voluntarily laid His life down for His friends.  If a cult is willing to take any of God’s glory from Him then everything they teach is suspect. 

There were other things about this cult that sounded almost like they were from the Bible.  There was some truth in many of their beliefs.  This study reminds me again how important it is to know our Bibles.  We can easily be led astray by false teachers who – intentionally or unintentionally – are leading people to the wide road that takes them straight to Hell.  In Acts 17:11 the Bereans are described as noble because they would hear Paul preach in the synagogue and “they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”

Please – attend your church services, worship God with other believers, listen to radio preaching, and buy and read books that will help you grow in knowledge and understanding.  But, before you incorporate anything from “extra” sources into your thinking or practice – check it with the Bible. 

None of this is new, just because a denomination calls itself Christian does not mean it is.  Jeremiah the prophet who wrote at least 2500 years ago warned and warned the people of God about worshipping false gods.  He said, “My people have been lost sheep.  Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains.  From mountain to hill they have gone.  They have forgotten their fold.”  Jeremiah 50:6 

Speaking of sheep, these are Jesus’ own words, “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”  (John 10:11-15)

Check it with scripture, we are sheep, are we following the Good Shepherd or being snatched by the wolves?