Too Many Scriptures, By DS
By Paul Miller
September 1, 2020
Hello Friends. I do not like your papers. I don’t think it’s a good idea to have so many scriptures and every day happenings or a timely paper. God’s Word is sharper than a two-edged sword and it is not child’s play. I do not like your attitude of, “I know I’m saved,” or, “I know you are reborn.” Only God knows. If we are lucky enough through God’s great gift to mankind, it is total praiseworthy to Him alone.
— Thanks, DS
Thank you for your comments, Daniel. We always want to hear from our readers. What a curious comment, though! I think that if people are going to critique us for something, we would love to be noted for having so many Bible verses in The Amish Voice and for teaching that God’s Word applies to our lives today!
Certainly God’s Word is not child’s play, yet God loves for children to read His Word and learn to love Jesus. It is precisely because God’s Word is a two-edged sword that we should read it, handle it, search it, and know it. Thank you for emphasizing just how wonderful and powerful God’s Word is and how we should be reading it daily and living our lives according to God’s Word.
As for your thoughts about not liking our attitude on knowing that we are saved or reborn, how peculiar that is! I think that if people would spend more time in the Scriptures handling that sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), they would see that God does indeed desire us to know that we are born again, and He tells us that we can know.
Imagine a person not knowing if he has been born! How strange that would be! If a person has life, it follows that he knows he has been born. It is the same way spiritually. That is precisely why Jesus used the example of being born again. We do not have to wait until we die to see if we have life. If we are born again, if we have been given a new heart by God’s Holy Spirit, if we have been given a new nature, if we have been adopted into the family of God, and if we have been made a new creation in Christ Jesus, then we know that we have new life.
The Bible has many, many examples of people who have been changed, have been made new by God, and have been given new life. The blind man who was healed by Jesus could see. He did not have to wait until he died before he could see. The apostle Paul wrote that those to whom he was writing used to be dead in trespasses and sins, but now were alive, were new creations in Christ, and were forgiven. They could rejoice that they were born into the family of God. Paul did not tell them to wait and see. John wrote that we can know that we have eternal life, yet you say we cannot.
David wrote, Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee (Psalm 32:9). God’s Word tells us that we do not have to go through life without understanding—wondering if we have been forgiven, if we have done enough good to please God. What else did David write in this same psalm? Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered (Psalm 32:1)! David wrote that we can know that our sin is covered and that our transgressions have been forgiven! Therefore, if you do not know, then you are not trusting in Jesus!
Here is an example. If I owed you $100,000, I would have to work and save and hope that eventually I would have enough money to pay off the debt. Lets imagine that a billionaire heard about my story, gave you the money, told me that he paid off the debt, showed me the receipt proving that my balance was now zero, and you even contacted me personally to inform me that the debt had been paid. Wouldn’t I be foolish if I did not believe, but kept working and trying to save money for the rest of my life to pay off the debt that I no longer owed?
That is how it is with our debt of sin. We cannot work and pay it off ourselves. What a miserable time we would have if we went through life always trying and hoping, yet knowing that we could never do enough to make things right and to pay our debt!
Yet … Jesus paid it all! We owe nothing. He has paid our debt with His life, and has told us so. How ungrateful and unbelieving we would be to continue to work in order to try to pay off a debt of sin that we no longer owed. It is because of what Jesus did in paying our debt that we can believe on the name of the Son of God and know that we have eternal life (1 John 5:13).
Now, which is the correct attitude: the person who does not believe, does not trust Jesus, and who continues to work as a slave to try to please God and hopes to be “lucky” enough to pay a debt that he never can—or the person who trusts in Jesus and in what God has said, resting in Him and living for Him as a son happy to please his loving Father who has adopted him and given him all that He has?
What a peculiar comment, Daniel. You talk about God’s great gift, yet you think you have to work and strive your entire life, not ever knowing if you will be fortunate enough to receive the gift that He offers freely to you!
Believe God and take His free gift, not because of luck or because of your works, but because Jesus paid it all and has purchased you with His blood. That is a much better way to live—a life of faith and joy and trust in Him!
— Paul Miller
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