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Transcript 592A — The New Life of a Believer
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hi. Could you tell me what somebody does when he becomes a Christian? What should some of his new purposes in life be?
HC: What are the new purposes in life of an individual who has become a child of God?
Before we are saved, our basic motivation in life is to please me. I want what I want. I want to make all the money I can, or I want to seek for all the fame I can find. I want to get all the pleasure out of life I can receive. Fundamentally, I want what is good for me. My whole purpose is selfish. It is self-directed. And I couldn't really care less about God or about anyone else. Oh yes, I do associate with others, and I can even say I love this one or that one. But it is ultimately so that my life will be fulfilled in some way. Ultimately all of these others are just to be used by me, to satisfy my selfish desires and pleasures.
Now when we become born again, however, we come under another authority altogether. We begin to serve Christ as our Lord. He becomes number one. Where before we were saved we were number one, now Christ is number one. And so our new motivation is that we want first of all what Christ wants, not what we want. We want always to check our will to make sure that it is subservient to Christ.
Now in order that we might know what Christ wants for us, we read the Bible. The Bible is the rule book of the Kingdom of God. And as We read the Bible, we discover what God has to say to us concerning our life. And because we love God now (that's the characteristic of a child of God), because we have made ourself subject to Him, because He is Lord of our life, whenever we read something in the Bible that comes right against our life, we say, "Oh, that's the way I am to do then. That's the way I am to live."
And this of course is what living to God's glory is all about, to live obediently before Him. If we're really a child of God, we are going to want to be obedient to anything and everything we might read in the Bible, both in areas of practice of our life as well as in areas of the doctrines that we hold concerning Christ or the return of Christ, or any other aspect of the Gospel story.
Now when we study the Bible carefully, we'll find that the chief mandate God has given to the born again believer as he lives out his life to the glory of God is to be a witness, to be an ambassador of Christ, representing Christ in this sin-cursed world, to that through us the Gospel might go out to others. Christ has given us the ministry of reconciliation. So while we have to earn a living, while we have to care for our family, while we have to do these necessary things, nevertheless we have an ongoing desire, really a burning desire, that as many of the people of the world as possible might hear the Gospel, so that they too might be saved.
Therefore we lay our lives on the altar of service, "I beseech you, brethren," Romans 12:1 says, "that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice." And we make as much of our wherewithal, as much of our time and energy and talents, and whatever else we have, available so that the Gospel can go forth. That is the prime direction that our life will go in when we are truly a child of God. We may still run our business, we may still work as a craftsman, to earn a living, or be a housewife, or whatever it is. But nevertheless, through it all, we're going to be thinking of ways that we can be more of a testimony than ever before to others, or that we might be able to provide so that others can go forth as witnesses.
CALLER: How much should a Christian be concerned about gaining material things?
HC: How much should a Christian be concerned about gaining material things? The Bible teaches that we are strangers and pilgrims here. We're just passing through. And material things really are very unimportant.
Now unfortunately, we live in a world where material things are it. They are all important, because unsaved man finds his security and his pleasure in material things, and we are in association with all of this. And so we also have these tendencies very strong in our lives. But the closer we live to Christ, the more we realize that these material things are really unimportant. Now God doesn't say that it's wrong to have nice house or a new car, or whatever. But under no circumstances must that new house or that new car, or whatever we have, stand between us and the responsibilities God has given us to be of maximum service to the Lord.
And if we find that when we are faced with a testing program, and it's the new house or standing true to Christ, or it's the new car or standing true to Christ, and we take the option of the new car or the nice big house, then it shows there is something wrong with our relationship with Christ.