Village Schools of the Bible

All or Nothing
by Monty Sholund

What is the most significant moment in a wedding? The music impresses us, if it is excellently presented. The flowers are often spectactularly beautiful, as are the gowns of the bride and the bridal-attendants. The food at the reception may be the most delicious possible and the wedding cake may be a culinary artist's masterpiece. But the most significant moment in a wedding is when the bride and the groom exchange vows..."With this ring I thee wed...to have and to hold until death do us part."

And there is a sighing and rejoicing and sometimes a singing of praise to the God who devised marriages, for it is assumed at every wedding that when the bridal party exchange vows they intend to keep them, without reservation and without exception. A wedding is a uniting, a mingling of two lives forever, for the purpose as God enables of producing children and fulfilling the mutual needs of both parties.

It is, then, marvelous to read in Scripture that when a person accepts Christ as his Savior and Lord, he is joined to Christ, forever. In fact, the Authorised Version translates Romans 7:4 as "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God." The RSV uses, instead of 'married', the word 'belongs', which also translates the Greek word correctly. There are other passages which so strongly teach the same wonderful fact, such as 2 Corinthians 11:2, "I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning our minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ."

An even more emphatic statement is found in Ephesians 5:25-28, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." Hey, this is strong stuff. This makes emphatic my relationship to Christ and to other believers. We read that the purpose of Christ's death was for the sake of His body, the church, to whom He is joyously married, whom He will love and with whom He will work for the salvation of mankind.

The mark of a healthy marriage, then, is the sincere, committed intention of the spouses to please each other and to do all in their power to be a glory to the other. There may be moments of failure, but they are never intentional. There may be moments of selfish weakness but these are never casually expected. There can never be hidden actions which would displease or grieve the other, if the marriage is to be healthy. The bride and groom have given each to the other, completely, forever and the vow taken is simply one expressing to the other, "All I am is yours, all of you is mine, we are joined together, we belong to each other, in sickness and in health, until death do us part."

In other words, the key is that simple word, "ALL." And that simple word is the key to the Christian life, without reservation or any other intention. We find this constantly emphasized throughout the Scriptures in various ways. Sometimes the warning is against 'double-mindedness'. Sometimes it is described as a lack of 'sincerity.' Sometimes it is phrased as a failure to 'obey', which means a failure to 'cooperate' with the Head of the relationship, even the Lord Jesus. It is crucially important to take these warnings seriously, in a day when people are called Christians for whom Christ is but a word used in a church building, or Jesus is a word used perhaps in a time of special need, or even when the phrase "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" is but a meaningless, routine, religious repetition.

One occasionally hears the expression, "After all, I'm only human. God can't expect me to be perfect." And this is used to excuse not only 'small' lapses of obedience but intentional, serious disobedience to what we know is the will of God. It seems to assume that no one could be expected to live a life consistently pleasing to the Lord. But if one would use the same phrase in an earthly marriage the result would be disastrous. Take, for example, a husband who is away on a business-trip and in his loneliness is drawn into a sexual relationship with a beautiful women there. Upon his return, his wife somehow discovers what he has done. Could he expect her to blithely forgive him if he, even sheepishly, says, "After all, I'm only human. You can't expect me to be perfect. I'm confessing I did the wrong thing." Will this suffice? Of course not, particularly if it should happen again.

However, there are people who consistently and intentionally disobey what they know is God's will, and somehow feel this to be the acceptable, even predictable behavior. I was startled one Sunday while visiting a liturgical church to be expected to say, "Forgive us, Lord, for we have sinned against thee in thought, word and deed." Everyone around me sort of corporately quoted this. I looked around me in a kind of astonishment. Is sinning against the Lord so inevitable that such confession is regularly necessary, becoming routine, predicted, commonplace, quoted without tears and remorse.? How can this be? Is it, perhaps, because we have come to live on such a low level of fellowship with God that it never occurs we can live a life constantly pleasing to Him?

Now these comments in no way suggest that we will live faultless lives. All throughout Scripture we are told to live blameless lives, and never faultless. Our faultlessness will only come when we arrive in heaven. And we thankfully know the Scriptures tell us that if we confess and forsake our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9). No one this side of heaven will live a constantly sinless life. The point here is not that we cannot sin, but that we need not sin. And I define sin as an intentional disobedience of what I know to be the mind and the will of God. Of course there are sins of commission and sins of omission, but these are intentional sins, reflecting intentional disobedience. I speak here of intentional disobedience, intentional, conscious denial of God's claim and right to all of my life.

This is a most important matter. So often we may brush consistent obedience aside, as something unattainable so why try. But is being faithful to ones wife so difficult that we should be expected to fail? Would it startle anyone if you said simply and sincerely that you don't sin against your wife, never intentionally doing something you know would grieve her? If it is possible for a person to live an openly faithful life with ones spouse, why on earth should it seem presumptuous to expect a person to live a blameless life before the Lord. This is what Scripture openly, logically and seriously expects. For us to have a lesser view of fellowship with God is not only serious, it comes close to misunderstanding the entire reason for becoming a Christian!

Am I saying that a disobedient Christian is no longer a Christian? Not at all. The prodigal son described in Luke 15 was still his father's son, though living in a far country and barely existing as a farmer's keeper of pigs. But what a travesty of existence, when he knew that his father would be awaiting his return, to be welcomed to enjoy the love of the father's house. We may have said the prodigal son was a fool, squandering his life on transient pleasures of a carnal existence; so can we say a Christian is a fool whose life is little more than self-pleasuring, whose life is as parody of what God expects and what one really inwardly desires.

This pierces to the very heart of the Christian life. We have confessed with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, (Owner/Manager/Master) and have believed in our hearts that God raised Him from the death, and as a result, the Scriptures declare 'we are saved. (Romans 10:9,10). If I do not declare with all my heart that Jesus is Lord, then, I am not a Christian, however religious I may be. And if He is Lord, I belong totally to Him, All of me, All the Time, All my Life!! If I have come to experience the forgiveness of all my sins and have begun to enjoy the wonder of His intimate union with me in all of my life, then I truly am able to enjoy this peace that passes understanding all the time.

Of the many key words in Colossians, the little word 'all' is frequently used. In fact, it is used thirty times in the four chapters, and eleven times in only ten verses in chapter 1, vss.9-19. This paragraph teaches us some dramatic truths...by Christ were all things created...all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that "in everything he might have the supremacy." We find another word used, 'fulness', which implies the same idea. "We have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. (Colossians 1:9)." "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. (2:9,10)."

As a result, we read so logically in Colossians 2:6-7, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness." It is, in fact, all or nothing, as far as our usefulness for the Lord is concerned. We find in James 1:5, "If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." It is startling to read in Psalm 119:113, where the Holy Spirit through the writer says, "I hate double-minded men, but I love your law."

Illustrations are numerous in Scripture of people who were warned against vacillation, against double-mindedness. In his first recorded instructions to Joshua we read the Lord saying, "Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the Law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1:7-8)".

We read that tragic story of Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived at that time, a man of vast power and spiritual insight, failing at the end of the journey. "As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God. Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely. (I Kings 22:4 and 6). It is clear that Solomon never declared defiance of God, or even a denial of God's right to his life. He just "did not follow the Lord completely." As a result, he became "unstable in all his ways" and the end of his life was tragic failure.

What a sad comentary is recorded in Numbers 32:11-12, regarding the failure of the redeemed Hebrew people to be freed from a desert existence, after being released from Egypt. The Lord says, "because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years old or more who came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath--not one except Caleb and Joshua, for they followed the Lord wholeheartedly."

Many people have wisely chosen Proverbs 3:5,6 as their life verses. No more excellent verses could be found because twice they stress the importance of "all."

5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
6. In all your ways acknowledge him (or declare that he owns you) and he will make your paths straight.

I am sure no one reading this would disagree with the obvious fact that the key to any healthy relationship is that each party is predictable, dependable and thoroughly honest. Furthermore, any infraction of this mutual trust must be so exceptional as to be startling in its occurrence and that such failure only reinforces the need for greater watchfulness and care in the future. If this is true in marriage or in other human relationships, how much more should it be true in our walk with the Lord.

A fully obedient life can never be lived in our own energy, by our own convictions or even our best intentions. This fullness comes only when we allow God the Holy Spirit to have access and control of all of our lives, body, soul and spirit. Anything contrary to His presence simply defeats the whole intention of Christ's death and resurrection and makes a mockery of the Christian life. As Major Ian Thomas has said, "All that God is is available to the man who is entirely available to all that God is."

What could possibly justify our living any other way!

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