The word creed means “a system of religious
belief or faith.” An expression I learned not long after becoming a member of
the Lord’s church is that we have (or at least should have) “no creed but
Christ and no book but the Bible.” I like that. It is not only a good idea, it
is Biblical.
For two thousand years Christianity has proclaimed there is no
Savior but Jesus Christ (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), and no book but the Bible to
guide us to salvation and equip the church for worship and service that pleases
God (2 Timothy 3:15-17; 1 Timothy 3:15). God help us strive for that ideal.
But, alas, the raw, painful truth is that from time to time we all sin and fall
short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). Disagree with that statement and you find
yourself at odds with God (1 John 1:8, 10).
Sensitive
Christians recognize this truth, and that Christ is the cure for our sin
problem, and that baptism into Christ washes our sins away making us new
creatures, and that from baptism we rise to walk in newness of life – forgiven
of our sins (see Acts 22:16; Roman 3:24; 6:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:17). After
baptism, we trust the blood of Christ that initially washed our sins away to
keep us clean as we “walk in the light” and “confess our sins, trusting that
God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7, 9). Our spiritual / moral performance will never
be flawlessly perfect, but “in Christ” we are forgiven (released from the guilt
and condemnation of sin), justified, declared righteous by God, and sanctified
in Jesus Christ!
No creed but Christ and no book but the
Bible – God’s Man and God’s plan – and the plan works if we work the plan! But
not all do. Some professed Christians are comfortable with a wide gap between
their creed and their deeds, between their words and their works. Louis
Fletcher said, “History is the chronicle of divorces between creed and deed.”
Jesus addressed this problem in Matthew 23 where he mentions “hypocrites” and “hypocrisy”
at least eight times. Ever wonder what really riles Jesus up? If you read that
chapter you won’t have to wonder. “Hypocrisy” is high on the list of things
Jesus just couldn’t stomach. He bluntly asks in verse 33 how these
out, loud, and proud hypocrites can escape going to hell!
Be careful –
don’t identify yourself (or other people down at church) with these guys just
because of a struggle with sin, whether in word, thought, or deed. All
hypocrites are sinners but not all sinners are hypocrites, least of all the
forgiven ones described above! Jesus nails the problem in Matthew 23:3 where He
instructs His disciples, “Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that
observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do
not do.” Put another way, their practice was to not put into practice what they
preached, even though, in the context, what they preached was the truth! There
was a gap the size of the Grand Canyon between their creed and their deeds.
They were okay with that, but the holy Son of God clearly wasn’t!
Abraham
Lincoln said a hypocrite is a man who murdered both his parents, then pleaded
for mercy on the grounds he was an orphan. A hypocrite is not a Christian who
struggles to be holy. A hypocrite is one who puts on a big show – professing to
believe and pretending to be something they have no desire or intention of
becoming. Struggling with sin is a normative experience for Christians.
Being a
hypocrite is not. Let us strive to close the gap between our creed and our
deeds.
by Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN
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