A great many people make the mistake of trying to live the life before they receive the life. The hardest thing I know is to try to live the Christian life when you do not have it to live. There must be a Christian life first before you can exemplify and manifest it. To try to live a Christian life when you have never been born again is just as hopeless as for a chimpanzee to try and live a human life. I have seen some chimpanzees that could copy things people do in a remarkable way. At a zoo in Philadelphia, they once said to me, “Come along and see a couple of your ancestors.” I went along; there were two trained chimpanzees who had learned to mimic human beings to a remarkable degree. They wore clothes, sat at a table, ate, and drank, and in a clumsy way handled a knife and fork. When they got all through, they settled back and put cigarettes in their mouths, and a keeper lit them, and they looked to me exactly like a lot of our own people do when smoking cigarettes. I never was in such difficulty in assuring myself that there is no truth in evolution. But although those chimps could do all those things, they did not know anything about real human life. They did not know anything of the principles controlling men and women. They were simply imitators. Many people imitate Christians and try to behave like them. They do not know anything of the power of the Christian life. They have never been born again.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. (John 3:3)
Some people are seeking holiness of life when they need to be born again. They have joined the church; they have observed certain ordinances. They hear people talk of a deeper, more wonderful life, and they say, “That is what I want. I must go on and get into this richer, more blessed life.” They try and try, and never get anywhere, because they have never begun right. They did not get in by the wicket gate. You remember in Bunyan’s immortal allegory how Christian is going along a road, and a couple of fellows come jumping over the wall. “Who are you, and where do you come from,” he asked.
“We come from the town of Carnal Security,” they say to him. “We are going to the Celestial City.”
“Well, you didn’t get in where I did,” says Christian in surprise, “I got in at the wicket gate.”
“Oh, that is the old-fashioned way,” they reply, “we have a short cut over the wall. After we are over the wall, what difference does it make? You are in the way, and we are in the way, and we are all headed for the same place. You’ll see we will come out just as well as you.”
But they didn’t have the seal on their forehead. They had never been to the Cross; they did not have the robe of righteousness. You remember one fell over the cliff, and the other was lost in the forest. They never made their way to the Celestial City.
A lot of people get over the wall and not in by the wicket gate; never born again, they go striving for holiness, purity, and higher life, but it will be all in vain until they confess their sins in the presence of God and trust the Savior for themselves. They must give up all hope of righteousness in themselves, of being able to do anything to retrieve their condition, casting themselves wholly on Divine mercy. Then they are in the way and can grow in grace.
(Excerpt from Changed By Beholding)
T. I. Miller
Cultural Christians are just that. They appear to live the culture but they do have the LIFE. They profess Christ but do not possess Christ. They are on their way to Matt. 7:21-23. They have not done the Fathers will. Without the root they can produce no genuine fruit. They will only hear, “depart from Me….I never knew you.” I know this to be true for formally I was self deceived. I know this to be true for the bible tells me so. The plain unvarnished gospel had never been fully explained to me. The day I was saved the comforter was no comfort, He made me see my sins from God’s eyes, and I was undone, shattered and broken. From true repentance comes saving grace.
Brenda
Dear LightHouse Trails, Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you all so much for your discernment in the Church & for all your great articles. I know this topic well (striving to live a life w/out first being born-again). I thought I was saved (& thereafter showed my “not quite” salvation by praying, giving, attending Church, serving); however, I hadn’t yet been born again. My new birth occurred when I pondered Heb 3:8–Heb 4:10. When I realized that God rested ** completely ** from His works on the 7th day, & that in order to enter God’s rest , I, too, must rest * completely * from my own works; well, praise God for lifting the blinders. You might say I was a “false” convert, but I prefer “pre” convert. I didn’t know, I truly thought I had it right. All that to say, Thank You, LORD! And thank you LT (& all your great authors) for all you do! PS ~~ to unsure readers, Eph 1:13 assures us that we are “sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit” the moment we hear & believe the Gospel of salvation (1 Cor 15:3,4). Praise God for beginning His work in us at that moment! God Bless you all, Brenda
CW
Re: Trying to Live the Christian Life Without Having the Christian LIFE Christ Jesus IS the Life. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He said, “Without Me, you can do nothing.” Oh, that the Lord would raise up men like Harry Ironside again! We need men like him desperately in the Body of Christ these days.
CW
Many times people are seriously deluded about salvation by false teachers and preachers. Not always, but many times. These are tares among the wheat, and Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them.” I hope all Christians are praying for these deceived people to see the truth of their sinful, lost condition and repent with godly sorrow, coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, becoming new creations in Him. Nothing else will suffice.
Ruth Allan
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Lydia
Yes, they try to ‘be good’ from the muscle of the flesh, and it never works out too well. You can’t produce the fruit of the Spirit if you have no root in the Living Waters of the Holy Spirit!