Our Lord was no stranger to doctrinal controversy. He did not avoid it and often was the initiator, especially when it came to the all important issue of whom we were to place our faith and trust for salvation (John 6:35-40; John 14:6). John MacArthur book, “The Jesus You Can’t Ignore” makes the same point;
“Jesus’ interaction with the religious experts of His time was rarely even cordial. From the time Luke first introduces us to the Pharisees’ in Luke 5:17 until his final mention of the “chief priests and rulers” in Luke 24:20, every time the religious elite of Israel appear as a group in Luke’s narrative, there is conflict. Often Jesus deliberately provokes the hostilities. When He speaks to the religious leaders or about them – whether in public or in private – it is usually to condemn them as fools and hypocrites (Luke 11:40; 12:1; 13:15; 18:10-14). When He knows they are watching to accuse Him of breaking their artificial Sabbath restrictions or their manmade systems of ceremonial washing, He deliberately defies their rules (Luke 6:7-11; 11:37-44; 14:1-6). On one occasion, when He was expressly informed that His denunciations of the Pharisees were insulting to the lawyers (the leading Old Testament scholars and chief academicians of that time), Jesus immediately turned to the lawyers and fired off a salvo at them, too (Luke 11:45-54).”[1]
For our Lord there was a clear line in the sand. There were things that were non-negotiable, so important, simply because the eternal fate of men’s souls, the truth of God’s Word, and the Glory of God were at stake.
I can think of no stronger passage of Scripture from the lips of our Lord than that of Matthew 10:32-38 where our Lord clearly and definitively draws a line in the sand.
atthew 10:32-39 ( NKJV ) 32“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. 34“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. (emphasis added)
Here, confession is not just a lip service. This Greek word for confess, “homologeō” means to agree with, to assent, to openly profess or declare. The Apostle Paul uses this same Greek word in Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” In both cases the word confess carries with it the idea of agreement with God, not just a simple assent but a life changing, self denying declaration of a person’s condition in sin before a holy God and the necessity of full faith in Christ alone for the remedy. Our text in Matthew makes it clear that for our Lord this meant no “secret agent” Christians (vs.32). One must visibly and openly confess Christ. By this I mean that the life of the believer grows in conformity to Christ (Romans 8:29) by the transforming grace of God and is expressed by word and deed in day to day living.
Verses 34-36 also makes it clear that this kind of confession will no doubt result in conflict, even in one’s family. In the mind of our Lord, His message may well be a divider, not a message that brings people or even family members together. Verse 37 draws that line even more clearly with the phrase “loves father and mother more than Me…” Loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me (emphasis added). He is the one who is to be supremely loved. He is the one who is to be supremely worshiped and He is the one who is to be trusted alone for salvation, even if this means that it brings disharmony in the family. This kind of love, worship, and trust must lead a person to self denial and obedience to Christ and a faith that sees the interests and message of Christ as supreme even over life itself (vv.38-39). Could a line in the sand be more clearly drawn?
Our culture today, especially in modern American Christianity has little to no understanding of this kind of commitment. Much of the reason for this is that we have reduced the Gospel message down to, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” or “Your best life now.” It is a gospel message that looks to our self improvement and our personal happiness. It is a message that gives no thought or message of self denial or cross bearing (Matthew 16:24) or that our salvation is primarily to the glory of God (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14). The message of Jesus is about losing your life, not a man-center theology (an oxymoron) revolving around our personal needs but rather a Christ-center theology that says, I stand in judgment at the Cross of Calvary as a sinner. I repent of my sins and lay all my interests, desires, for life in Christ no matter what it costs me at the foot of the cross. It is truly “Solas Christus”, Christ Alone, “Sola Garatia Deo”, to the glory of God alone!
In Mark 10:17-22 we have the story of the encounter of the rich young ruler who came to Christ with the question of questions, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” This young rich man came in respect and honor toward Jesus as he knelt before him with his question. He was not testing Him to trap our Lord in any way. He was serious about his question. For today’s evangelical this would have been enough and no doubt he would have been asked if he would like to “accept Christ.” But Jesus went to the heart of the issue in this man’s life. Jesus quizzed him regarding the Ten Commandments with examples of five of them of which the young man felt relieved that in his mind he had kept them without sin (vs.20), while our Lord was clearly referring to all of them. Then Jesus said, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” The response of this young rich man is telling. He wanted eternal life but was unwilling to count any cost. Christ’s exposure of this man’s self-righteousness clearly points to his lack of understanding of self-denial. The lesson here is that the true repentance of sin brings a person to an end of themselves with a heart ready for the life of Christ. This is not a salvation on our terms but on the terms of Christ, not for our fulfillment, but for God’s glory (Ephesians 2:7).
A number of years ago I was watching and interview with Graham Kerr, the “Galloping Gourmet”, on the Phil Donahue show. Graham lost little time in his discussion with Phil before he shared his faith in Christ. While it was obvious that Phil Donahue was a bit uncomfortable with the subject matter, the interview continued cordially until Graham Kerr quoted John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” At that point Phil Donahue became very agitated and clearly offended with the exclusivity of the words of Christ. For Phil Donahue, Graham Kerr had drawn a line in the sand with the quote that he could not tolerate. The line was not drawn over some arcane doctrine or hobby horse but over the essential message of the Gospel, the person and work of Christ (Philippians 3:10). How could it be that Christ is the only way? And how could it be that He is the only truth? The thought of such a thing is foreign to the worldly mind. And the thought that only in Jesus there is eternal life is just too much for those who look for inclusiveness. “Now he’s done it! He’s just gone too far. How dare the Lord Jesus Christ draw such a line in the sand.” What is revealing though, is that while Jesus spoke those things to His disciples, none questioned His right to such a claim of exclusivity or His right to draw such a line in the sand.
Often when I mention that I am a former Catholic, the response I hear is that “I know some Catholics that are Christians.” The problem with that comment is that it ignores the systemic problems of Roman Catholicism and opts for antidotal evidence. Somehow it is assumed that if there are Catholics that are born again, Catholicism is in some way Biblically legitimate. The problem here is one of avocation. It avoids the real issue of what the Catholic Church believes and how that affects faith, especially faith in Christ. In effect the doctrine of the Catholic Church is not in question. We settle for a subjective testimony outside of the context of the doctrinal positions that the so called “Catholic Christian” may hold and therefore make no connection or correlation to any doctrines that would belie any true Biblical confession of faith in Christ. The reason for this is twofold. First, for the average Bible-believing Christian there has been a lack in our churches of solid exegetical study and expositional preaching and therefore a lack of understanding of Biblical doctrine. Second, there has been a lack and a disdain for any teaching of systematic doctrine as well.
The evangelical church has been so saturated with the post modern disease that we cannot know truth with any certainty, that standing firmly and graciously (2 Peter 3:15; Ephesians 6:13; Philippians 1:27; 4:1) for the truth is often seen as arrogance. Confidence in the Word of God is often characterized as simple mindedness, a spirit of contentiousness, “wild-eyed” fundamentalism, intolerance, and in the end a spirit of arrogance. To draw a line in the sand over Gospel doctrines such as total depravity, sin, judgment, repentance, and justification in Christ alone, have become passé and as a result the power of the truth of the Gospel has been neutered and been replaced with a man-centered gospel that is all about our own comfort and welfare and whose savior has little to do with the Biblical narrative.
It is no wonder that I often here Evangelicals say that when they share with their Catholic friends they find they are in agreement and conclude that while there may be disagreement over “praying to Mary” and the saints, they have come to the conclusions that those who heartily profess faith in the mass, baptism and the sacraments for salvation must be Christians because the “believe in Christ.” They overlook the implications of the myriad of Catholic doctrines that fly in the face of Biblical Christianity and Sola Fida, “By faith alone.”
-Michael Holtzinger
[1] John MacArthur, “The Jesus You Can’t Ignore”, pg. xi, Thomas Nelson, 2008