Remnant

2 Corinthians 1:22 “And who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”

I know as a Christian of many years that the various theological differences in the Church. We can call them denominations. Tend to coalesce the opinions of believers strongly around certain positions. These positions can be moderate or they can be strongly held and extremely divisive.

This can cause Christians to become narrow, legalistic, judgemental, pious and patronising toward other Christians. It can drive people away from the Church and even quench people’s faith. Christians can even make pronouncements about the status of another's relationship with Christ Jesus. I mean here they will say that a certain person is not saved.

Bearing in mind here that in liberal Christianity there are positions that would bring the concept of a person’s salvation into question. For instance if you don’t believe in the virgin birth of Jesus; don’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah - the Son of God. Is there salvation in your faith.

When you believe that Christ Jesus bore your sins upon the Cross and confess those sins to Him as your Saviour, the only begotten Son of God. When you ask Him to come into your life then He puts His seal on you and His Spirit takes up residence in our hearts. Then you are saved.

Matthew 18:2-3 “And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

However when we get judgmental and preachy. When we make pronouncements about other people’s salvation. We need to be careful. The Christian life is not about theology. By this I mean theology is important but it can be dry and based outside of faith. The atheist will tell you that he will not believe what he cannot see. He has no interest in what cannot be proven.

Jesus said “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Children will believe what their parents tell them. They will listen to adults and friends that they trust and wholeheartedly accept what they say. They will argue that something is right because someone they love said it. Even if it is demonstrably incorrect. They are naive and have simple faith.

That is the type of faith we as believers need to develop. We need to trust Christ Jesus and believe everything He said because He said it and He is the Lord our God. We need childlike faith. Theology as wonderful as it is can interfere in our childlike faith particularly if we are putting other Christians opinions ahead of the bible and what the Spirit is telling us through God’s word. We need to listen to yet small voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and apply God’s love in our lives.

Romans 11:5 “So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.”

I truly believe that there is a remnant of saved Christians across the denominations. What am I saying here? Well I’m saying what Christ Jesus said really; Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

So not all who say they are Christians are saved but conversely not all that we think are not saved are actually lost either. It’s very much about their relationship with Jesus Christ. People we doubt gravely because of the Church they belong too and its theology may actually be repentant and humble Christian folks doing God’s will.

My belief is that there is a remnant across the denominations and we need to reach out to each other as this time becomes more severe. It will not be just Presbyterians or Methodists; Baptists or Brethren; Anglican or SDA. The remnant of this time and will become more apparent as the persecution of the Church ramps up in the years to come. So we will be able to see clearly who the remnant are. Our job as the remnant will be to cultivate childlike faith and to sow the seeds of the gospel in search of the lost. God bless the remnant.