Everyone Means Everyone

What happens when man's opinions and suppositions get in the mix of God's grace? We get polluted and filtered versions of God's Word, and that is disastrous. Some believe that salvation is for a certain group of people, and in that group, the ones who teach this are always already in that group, so that negates any credibility in their message, because of their bias. There is one group of people whom God reached out to again and again, and His desire is to see them be saved. Their continued disobedience and their misunderstanding of what it took to follow God completely caused them to miss the Messiah and thus miss the mark needed. Paul writes this in Romans 10: 1 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. ² I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. ³ For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.

The mark they missed was the one provided by Jesus. They rejected the message of Jesus and crucified Him, believing the crucifixion would end the message He was preaching. They did not realize that in crucifying the Son of God did not kill the message, but only made the message of hope open for all the world. The death of Jesus and the resurrection from the dead made this salvation available for everyone who would come for it. And the way to come to this salvation is by faith, not trying to keep the law of Moses, which was impossible to keep. Jesus accomplished the purpose of the law and thus gave us the avenue to be made right with God. Romans 10: ⁴ For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

What does the word everyone mean? Well, it means EVERYONE!! This way of following God's expression of His grace sets into motion a truth that impacts lives at individual levels, and that scares some. Why? It is not religious, but very relational, and taking it out of a group setting freaks out people who don't want to deal with God and salvation on an individual level. These are the same people who hide in churches in our country every day, trying to keep God at an arm's length. Each person who comes to Jesus for salvation comes with a personal need for the forgiveness of their sin, and then they come face to face with a just God who forgives that sin and thus begins their journey and their faith walk. What was a holy priesthood for some becomes a priesthood for all who receive Jesus by faith. In this relationship, we can no longer hide behind others, like preachers, Sunday School teachers, or hypocrites in the church. God speaks to us individually, and we are accountable to listen and respond. On the other hand, we have such a great opportunity to share the message, just like Jesus, Paul, and many others did, and still do today.

Without this element of personal faith, we negate what Jesus said in John 15, and that waters down the whole thing. Jesus told them and us that He would send the Holy Spirit, as Jesus said in John 15:²⁶ “But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. ²⁷ And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry. What happens when we begin to ask the Holy Spirit to use us as Jesus said? Jesus said the following words in John 12:¹² “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. ¹³ You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.¹⁴ Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!

What does this mean when we turn loose this Holy Spirit provided for us by Jesus? Each life is a powerful weapon for the use of our wonderful, gracious Father. Yes, the church needs to reach people, but all of this works even more powerfully through each individual vessel filled with the Holy Spirit. How can ministers help promote this "surge" in sharing the gospel and making disciples? GET OUT OF THE WAY! Paul gave a blueprint for how those called can help this all happen in Ephesians 4: ¹¹ Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. ¹² Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. ¹³ This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

I once made a statement that I would rather restrain a fanatic than resurrect a corpse any day, but I was wrong because of past indoctrination. That statement is in error, and I now realize I need to fan into flame the fanatic and let them go do what God intended for each of us. Share the gospel and let the vision of God be done through His children as they follow His call. Americanized Christianity wants to make a certain few who can call all the shots, but in reality, only the Holy Spirit is worthy of calling the shots. Nuf said. If we are going to do more than Jesus did, then we all need to live the priesthood given to us by God. John wrote this in Revelation 1: All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. ⁶ He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

Salvation is for everyone who comes to Jesus and believes. Not just a certain few, who designated themselves worthy. All who come to Jesus are not worthy, just forgiven and justified by the grace of God. Everyone who is made right by God has been given a holy priesthood responsibility to share this message with their world and make disciples. He gave this responsibility to me, and He has given it to you. He has given it to everyone who calls Him lord. What can one man do who is totally sold out to Jesus? Exactly what Jesus died for, and that is the power to share the message of Jesus with EVERYONE we meet.

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren