[276 words]
Ever since the creation, man has sought to have his own way in religion. It started with Cain and continues today with people going in every direction but the right way in trying to be religious. People are being told they are saved when they “accept Jesus as your personal Savior” and say the “sinner’s prayer.” Others are being told that God has already predestined the eternity of everyone and there is nothing you can do to change it. Both are scripturally wrong! This is what man says and is found nowhere in the Bible. But the Bible says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). Man’s way leads to a spiritual death which is being eternally separated from God (Isaiah 59:2).
Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Jesus says unless one “does the will of My Father in Heaven,” he will not go to Heaven but will be eternally lost along with the vast majority of the world (Matthew 7:13-14).
We must have God’s authority in all we do. “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the LordJesus” (Col. 3:17). To do something “in the name of the Lord Jesus” is to do it by His authority. In following God’s only way as found in His word, the Bible, we must do what God says, only what God says, in the way God says, and for the reason God says. No other way will be acceptable to God.
Ron Boatwright
via Northridge church of Christ
Dayton, OH