By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

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After we began working on this issue of the Salt Lake City Messenger, war broke out in Iraq. We, of course, feel very bad that a peaceful settlement could not be obtained, but we still pray that something may be worked out to minimize the loss of lives.

As we reflect upon the casualties, sorrow and the devastating consequences of war, we are reminded of a war we are all involved in which is far more important than any earthly war. This is the battle which is taking place with regard to the eternal destiny of our own souls. Jesus explained that there is nothing more important than this matter:

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26)

Jesus saw things from a far different vantage point than we do, and because of his view of the entire human situation, he made this startling statement:

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)

The Scriptures teach that we are in the camp of the enemy until we turn our lives over to the Lord. Jesus himself said:

He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. (Matthew 12:30)

We are described as being “alienated” from God:

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: (Ephesians 4:17-18)

Many people do not really understand that they are “alienated from the life of God.” Others sense that they are estranged from God and wonder why they are not able to find him in their lives. Isaiah 59:1-2 throws important light on why we have become alienated from God:

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

J. B. Phillips observed that the “gulf between us and God is not merely an intellectual one . . . but the real gulf lies in the moral realm. You and I, through our own sins and failures, as well as by the infection of the sins of other people, are separated from God by a moral gulf” (Plain Christianity, p. 75).

Romans 3:23 makes it plain that

all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,

and Romans 3:9 states that all are “under sin.” It is because of our sinful and lost condition that we find that we have no fellowship with God.

J. B. Phillips noted:

The Diagnoses of the world’s sickness . . . is that the power to love has been wrongly directed. It has either been turned in upon itself or given to the wrong things. The outward symptoms, and the results, of this misdirection are plainly obvious (at least in other people) in what we call “sin” or “selfishness.” The drastic “conversion” which Godbecome-Man called for is the reversal of the wrong attitude, the deliberate giving of the whole power to love, first to God, and then to other people. Without this reversal He spoke quite bluntly of a world doomed to destruction. (Your God Is Too Small, page 121)

Because of our sinful condition we do not know the personal God who wishes to have fellowship with us.

Myron Augsburger claims that we have made a prison for ourselves:

When Christ came into this world as our Savior he didn’t come just to save us from the problems we have. He came to save us from the problem that we are. We are the problem. We are hostile toward God. We have walled up our lives against Him to shut Him out. By hundreds of ways we cut ourselves off from every effort of God to get through to us. . . . The wall we have built becomes our own prison. (“The Cross and Forgiveness,” a recorded message by Myron Augsburger)

Besides teaching us that we are “alienated” from God, the Scriptures also reveal that the devil has blinded our minds so that we do not realize our lost condition:

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

Because there was no hope in man, God provided a remedy.

In 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 we read:

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

In “The Cross and Forgiveness,” Myron Augsburger speaks of Jesus as a bridge between God and man:

Jesus Christ didn’t only come into the world to reveal God. He came into the world to be a bridge between God and man—to be a mediator—to put one hand in God’s and the other hand in ours and bring us together. And so it is that one comes to the cross and finds that here God’s forgiveness to overcome man’s estrangement, man’s rebellion, man’s hostility, is expressed at a cost which was carried by Jesus Christ.

In John 8:12, Jesus declares:

. . . I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Unfortunately, men “loved darkness” and did not want the light which God had sent into the world. In John 3:19-20, the following appears:

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

J. B. Phillips observed:

Let us look for a moment at Jesus Christ. He was, I believe, God in human form . . . He couldn’t help arousing a genuine sense of sin. You can’t have Light coming into a dark and dirty room without showing up the muddle and mess and dirt! The very presence of one Good Man was bound to show up the weakness and selfishness and sin of the others. (Plain Christianity, page 50)

As a burglar fears a policeman with a flashlight, so we are afraid that the righteous light of Jesus Christ will expose our sin and selfishness. Fortunately, if we will give up and surrender our lives to the Lord we will be saved:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Some people have felt that just an intellectual consent that Jesus is the Christ is sufficient for salvation. The Scriptures, however, teach that even the devils believe there is a God, but that they do not have salvation (see James 2:19). D. Shelby Corlett wrote:

Faith is more than a mere mental assent to truth. There is no more moral saving benefit in a mere mental acceptance of the truth that Jesus is the Son of God than in the mental acceptance of some scientific truth. Faith is the going out of the whole inner life toward God. We do not believe in Him unless we act on it, unless we give the whole life to Him. To believe in God is a definite attitude of the heart, a surrender, a decision, an acceptance, something active and continuous, bringing a state of confidence and trust in Him. (Christian Security, page 15)

The message given in the Scriptures seems clear: a great spiritual war is going on between the forces of truth and those of evil. If we are not “with” Jesus, we are in the wrong army. We need to flee from Satan’s army and yield ourselves to Jesus Christ. We are reminded of the people who lived in Germany at the time of Adolf Hitler. Like the devil, Hitler did not really love his people. He had his own selfish agenda, and in his lust for power he finally brought terrible destruction upon both himself and a large number of his followers. As Hitler gained power, many people could see that there was something wrong. Nevertheless, they allowed themselves to be blinded by the propaganda that was put forth. Many who wanted to stay neutral were swept into the destructive stream of wickedness.

All of us must carefully examine our own lives. Are we really on the Lord’s side? If we are trying to remain neutral we are giving comfort and aid to the enemy. If we are not fully committed to Christ, we need to yield to him before it is everlastingly too late.

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