Functions of Deity: Soteriology 4: Fighting Soteriological Syncretism

Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 06 June 2010 & 23 June 2024
Scripture quotes are either translations by Nate or the 1901 ASV contemporized by Nate. Not reading greyed-out text should keep delivery time under 45 minutes.

Introduction

We have arrived at the end of my sermon series on The Functions of Deity, where we’ve looked at four things that every human being looks to their god to provide, namely, the truth about truth, our reason for existence, what is right and wrong, and how to be safe from what is wrong. The study of being safe is called soteriology, and in the last three sermons, I showed how Jesus is the best savior. Now I want to wrap this up by encouraging you toward integrity and consistency in looking to Jesus alone as your savior.

I think you need encouragement because I know I struggle with integrity and consistency in this area. I’m a Christian; I grew up in a Christian home and I can’t even remember a time when I did not believe in Jesus. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always enjoyed reading my Bible and praying and worshiping God. But I’ve also always struggled with syncretism – trying to live partly by the Bible and partly by the world.

For instance, I have struggled with being a control freak. I believed that if I let other people get too close to me, they would mess my plans up. In college, I created weekly schedules that were organized by 15 minute increments, and I would fill every 15 minute increment with purposeful work. [Show Graphic of one of my old calendars] My roommates in college made fun of me for it and chided me that they had to make appointments with me just to hang out. But I was proud of it – how much I controlled of my life. However, when I got married and started having children and started working with other people in an office, wow, I couldn’t control everything any more, and that put me into a crisis where I had to surrender control of my time to the Lord and trust Him to keep me safe from being overwhelmed with too many demands on my time. And I can testify that He has done just that!
I have also struggled with worshipping other people instead of worshipping God. This has taken the form of thinking that other people are always right and feeling like I have to do whatever they say. It has even taken the form of staring at photographs of people for long periods of time – a form of idolatry.
And so often I have tried to find peace through reconciling myself to the people around me rather than being at peace with God and not caring what everybody else thinks about me. I still struggle with feelings of panic when I think people think ill of me.

Faith to Fight Syncretism

I suspect that all of you have had similar struggles with beliefs from non-biblical worldviews that nevertheless appeal to your flesh. How do we fight against these fleshly desires? How do we fight syncretism to keep our faith pure?
Faith is certainly the key word. Faith is not something we exercise only once to become a Christian and then quit doing. Faith in Christ is something which a Christian continuously needs to use and exercise throughout the rest of his life.
- Jesus’ command in Mark 1:15 to “repent and believe” is in the Present¹ tense (“keep on repenting and keep on believing”),
- and the participle in 1 John 5:1 is also in the present tense (“Every one who keeps on believing is born of God”).
- The scriptures instruct us to keep on believing and to keep on turning away from sin. How can we engage the fight against syncretism and keep on believing in Jesus as our Savior?

Turn Secular Security Strategies on their Head

Remember the five secular security strategies I mentioned a few sermons ago? We tend to either 1: Rely on our own power and smarts, 2: Rely on other people, 3: Rely on material wealth, 4: Rely on doing good things, or 5: Ignore problems, hoping they will go away! Each one of these worldly soteriologies provides a concrete example of how to exercise faith if we can turn that security strategy upside down and trust God in that area! Let me explain:

1. Turn Self-reliance and control into Self-denial and Pointing people to Christ.

While Jesus was dying on the cross, the thief called out to Him, “Save yourself!” Jesus could indeed have taken control of the situation. He could have called down 100,000 angels, jumped down off the cross, and made ashes of all those Jews and Romans who had put Him up there. The thief called out to Jesus, “Save yourself!” But Jesus didn’t follow that advice. As 1 Peter 2:23 puts it, He “entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly and gave Himself, setting an example for us to follow.” Jesus denied Himself, stayed on the cross, and set the example for us to follow.
We must deny ourselves – lose ourselves – to be saved. In Matthew 16:24-25 Jesus said, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake, will find it!” We must abandon trying to save ourselves, and offer our lives to do God’s will instead. That’s how we turn the first security strategy upside down!
When Martin Luther was encountering a perplexing and life-threatening situation, his mentor gave him some good advice: “Pray the words of Psalm 119:94, ‘I am Yours; save me.’” Wow, a lot of us could stand to take that advice more often! Abandon control and say with the Psalmist, “I am Yours, Lord, save me. I am not my own; I belong to You, and I will trust You to save me. I cannot save myself. I am Yours.”
Another sinful way we express self-reliance is by playing God in other people’s lives when it comes to salvation:
It’s fun to be a “Knight in shining armor,” but those of us who love to help others must be careful about our attitudes. We are only knights – not the King. King Jesus is the one who saves. If we have that firmly in mind, it’s OK to be a knight and to help people, as long as long as we take every opportunity to point them to Jesus as the Savior!
Paul describes this attitude in 2 Corinthians 5:19-20. Instead of using the word “knight” he uses the word “ambassador:” “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God!”
I read the following in one of the missions magazines I used to subscribe to. This particular article by Doug Stringer makes some enduringly-significant points:

“Between the evening news and box office movies touting the end of the world, it’s easy to become afraid. The ‘shaking’ around us causes our minds to start racing with questions. What’s going to happen? Will our economy fail? Will terrorists attack us? Will there be a war, a [tornado], an earthquake, or some other disaster that hits close to home? Will life as we know it change forever? Will we and our loved ones be safe? … Just what are we to make of all these events in our world? For starters, we can look to God’s Word and be confident that He knows what is going on. Jesus said in Luke 21:11, ‘And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.’ But why do you think the Lord told us these things would come? Was it to cause us to fear? To bring us anxiety and uncertainty? No! Perhaps the most important part of Jesus’ message is found two verses later in Luke 21:13: ‘But it will turn out for you as an occasion for your testimony.’ When we hear about wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, we don’t have to be afraid. These are our moments to rise up and share the good news of the kingdom of God….^²’”

So the first strategy of self-reliance can be turned upside down by faith to deny ourselves, say “I am yours, Lord, save me,” and when we see other people in need, by faith we can pray for them and point them to Christ as the Savior.

The second strategy of depending on other people to save can also be turned upside down by faith:

2. Turn People-Dependence into Teamwork for God

The prophet Isaiah pointed out to his people in Israel the foolishness of seeking salvation from the encroaching Assyrian army through treaties with Egypt or even pacts with Satan instead of repenting of rebellion against God and trusting Him to save. In Isaiah 28:15ff God ridicules the Jews who said, “‘We have cut a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have made an agreement, so that the overwhelming scourge will pass over; it will not get to us! For we have placed a lie for our refuge, and we are covered through deception.’ Therefore, the Lord Jehovah has spoken... I will institute justice for a measuring-line and righteousness for a plumb-line, and hail will sweep away the refuge of a lie and water will overwhelm the cover-up, thus your covenant with death will be buried and your agreement with Sheol will not stand up... For the bed is too short to stretch yourself out, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap yourself in.” (cf. Lk 11:22)
However, that does not mean that Christians have to become anti-social! On the contrary, those who have received God’s salvation are called by Him to bond together to worship and serve Him as communities. Think for a moment about the different relationships God has given us in which Biblical Christianity can be lived out with other believers:

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us work together instead of independently! Let us forsake safety in numbers and instead pursue worship and ministry in numbers!

3: Turn Reliance on Material Wealth into Using Wealth to Point Others to Salvation

Listen to these scary words: “God will destroy you for ever; He will pick you up, and yank you out of your tent, and uproot you out of the land of the living…” Do you know to whom that threat is directed? Psalm 52:5 says, “This is what will happen to the man who didn’t made God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.” If you don’t want God to pluck you out of your place and kick you out of the land of the living, then don’t trust in the abundance of riches!
In Mark 10, the encounter between Jesus and the “rich young ruler” is recorded:
Another version of relying on material wealth for salvation that combines with the strategy of trusting other people is using debt as a life-solution. If you have a problem (or even just a desire for something you don’t have), the popular American way is to borrow money from other people to solve the problem!
But isn’t money kinda important? How do we deal with the anxieties we face when we cannot rely upon money? The following quote I ran across in another old periodical puts it very well:

“Any fear associated with giving to God's kingdom is irrational. It's on a par with a farmer who, out of fear of losing his seed, refuses to plant his fields… Under the mounting weight of uncertainty, it's easy to slowly become irrational about our possessions. We lose sight of who really owns them… Fear and faith often go hand in hand. When you pursue faith, you increase your exposure to fear… When you begin to view your wealth from God's perspective, you'll see that the thing to fear isn't giving away too much, but sowing too little. Fear is not something to be avoided but something to be leveraged. When it comes to money, what should you fear most? … Not having enough, or not having the involvement of your heavenly Father? … The crowning achievement of overcoming the fear of giving is the moment you begin to experience the joy of giving.”^⁷

So INSTEAD of hoarding wealth to increase your security, use material resources as means to save others, both physically and spiritually:

Don’t let money be the god that you run to for security. Turn it around and use your wealth toward the conversion and discipleship of the world!

4: Turn Do-good-ism into Demonstrating God’s Goodness.

Most people think that they deserve heaven because they have been good people. Meaning that they haven’t robbed any banks or killed anybody or stolen lollipops from little children. And meaning that they probably have done some nice things for other people.
Jesus told a story about people like that in Luke 18:9ff. It’s known as “The Parable of the Two Men In The Temple” – the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector. The preface to the story lets us know that Jesus told this story “to those who were persuaded within themselves that they were righteous, and made the rest out to be nothing.” “The Pharisee stood and prayed…, ‘God, I thank thee, that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax-collector, standing far away, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ [Jesus said,] ‘This man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.’” What the God of the Bible wants is repentance and faith, not self-reliant people who look good and do good.
Like the Pharisee in the parable, we tend to make up our own sliding rules that make us feel that we are better than other people in some way or other, so that we can feel that we are morally O.K. And if we are acceptable to ourselves, we figure that should be good enough for God.
But this is stepping into the place of God to decide what is good enough. God, however, demands perfection (“Be perfect” Lev. 22:21; Deu. 18:13; 1Ki. 8:61; Job 9:20; Mat. 5:48). Nothing less than perfect will do. He doesn’t grade on the curve, so it’s impossible to be good enough for Jehovah-God.
In fact, God says in Isaiah 64:6 that when you try to do good things, it looks like a dirty diaper⁸ to Him! What would you do if I handed you a dirty diaper with poop sliding off of it? That’s how God feels when you try to offer up your good works to Him instead of trusting Jesus to be your righteousness.
In fact, “doing good” often ends up hurting people, as Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert point out in their book, When Helping Hurts. They make a case that many international relief projects that Westerners do for poor people in the majority world are “devastating.”^⁹ Take, for instance, the infant formula sent to African nations that got all the mothers bottle-feeding for just long enough for their natural milk supply to dry up and leave their babies starving when the foreign donations of formula got used up. We were just trying to help, but it didn’t actually help at all.

INSTEAD: Turn “do-good-ism” on its head by doing good things that God commands us to do, not for ourselves, but for God’s reputation, to validate the Gospel and demonstrate God’s goodness to others.
The Apostle Peter talks about this in his first epistle: “Maintain appropriate behavior among the Gentiles, so that, in whatever they accuse you of as evil-doers, they may glorify God in His day of visitation because of your good works which they observe” (1 Pet. 2:12). If your faith leads you to do quality workmanship, to treat people generously and fairly, and to raise the kind of kids that make good neighbors, then you are creating a good reputation for the God you serve.
Finally, the fifth secular salvation strategy that we can turn on its head is to...

5: Turn Hiding from Problems into Handing Over problems.

One of the ways we hide our problems is to deny that we have done anything wrong.
Another way we hide from problems is to withdraw out of fear.
At the heart of this hiding strategy is despair – the realization that we and our little array of gods are not powerful enough to fix the problems we see. The result is despair that anything can be done to fix the problem because we believe that nothing can change. In his article, “Praise God for Easter Monday!” Pastor Glenn Hoburg wrote the following words of hope for all who struggle with depression:

“At the deepest part of our ‘Mondayness’ is the hidden belief that nothing can change. We believe it about ourselves, one another, our jobs, and the causes to which we are devoted. It is the cloud that hangs over our relationships: ‘He’ll never change.’ ‘She always does this.’ …. Treating someone with that sort of pessimism shows that we don’t live by grace ourselves, and [it] really underestimates the resurrection power of Jesus. Here’s how it plays out: We live lives that require very little of God’s supernatural power, and so, when we find ourselves in need of it, we get depressed and give up. Christians should know that real change happens supernaturally, that the gospel is all about God doing things for us that we can’t do for ourselves… so we begin to expect newness in every area of life. This is what Paul rolls out in the latter part of Ephesians: new words, new convictions about the truth, new sex lives, new marriages, new work ethics. Did you once use the truth on people in a way that left them emotionally doubled over? Christ spoke the truth in love, and now you can. Did you once treat your marriage as a drive-through for your needs? Christ gave Himself, and now you can. Did you once work hard when the boss was looking? Now you work hard because your Lord is looking on approvingly.”
“So this is what Paul affirms: ‘I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me’ (Colossians 1:29). Toiling with expectation—because the resurrected Jesus lives in him. We need to take the fact of the Resurrection to the very area in our lives where we feel most hopeless, and ask God to display His power. Is it an addiction to alcohol, food, or pornography? Family relationships, marriage, our wayward kids, our relationship to parents? Or are your problems bigger—neighborhood, city, country, world? Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to a place of passivity. He is advancing His kingdom, and that means renewal.^¹⁰”

So, Seek the Lord!

Do you see now why the non-Christian Thessalonians said that the Christians have “turned the world upside down”? (Acts 17:6) In the light of such a great salvation as Jesus offers, you can turn your world upside-down too, if you:

Turn Self-reliance and control into Self-denial that points people to Christ!
Turn People-Dependence into Teamwork for God’s kingdom!
Turn Material Wealth into a means to point Others to salvation!
Turn Do-good-ism into Demonstrating God’s Goodness! and
Turn Hiding from Problems into Handing Over problems to Jesus the Savior!

Revelation 7:10b “…Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” Amen!