Steps to Christ COUNTERFEIT CONVICTION
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Phil. 3:7, 8.
If the knowledge about the love of God as revealed in Jesus has been inadequate, it may send a person off the track and hinder his coming to the conviction of sin in the right sense. If the knowledge I have received has to do only with the Ten Commandments, I'll be convinced merely that I have done sinful deeds, and right there is where the sidetrack begins.
People may be divided into two classes, the strong and the weak. By virtue of heredity and environment, we are either among the strong or the weak, or somewhere between. The strong person who is convinced that he has done sinful deeds, and that's as far as his knowledge of the plan of salvation and the problem of sin goes, will change his ways, stop doing the sinful deeds, and become a "good" moral person. This may be his downfall, because morality is not Christianity. Morality has never been Christianity and never will be Christianity. You don't do what is right by not doing what is wrong. Trying to be good by trying not to be bad is not being good. Badness held in check is not goodness and never has been goodness. So the peculiar pit for the strong-willed and the backboned and the self-disciplined person is morality without Christ. Thus he deceives himself into thinking that he is a good person, and therefore a Christian--and he may be further from being a Christian than the drunk in the gutter, because he may become blind to his need of Christ. The Pharisees were good moral people. They were such good Sabbathkeepers that they hurried back from the cross to be in time for sundown worship. But that did not make them righteous before God.
If you see from a distance someone who is ten feet tall, he may not look tall to you. In fact, he may look about your size, maybe a little shorter. But when you get close to him and look up at him, suddenly you fell like a dwarf at his feet. And if you are walking along, no matter how good or bad you are, at some distance from Jesus, He may not look tall--maybe about your size. It's when you come into His immediate presence that you suddenly see yourself as you really are and are convinced of your need.
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Phil. 3:7, 8.
If the knowledge about the love of God as revealed in Jesus has been inadequate, it may send a person off the track and hinder his coming to the conviction of sin in the right sense. If the knowledge I have received has to do only with the Ten Commandments, I'll be convinced merely that I have done sinful deeds, and right there is where the sidetrack begins.
People may be divided into two classes, the strong and the weak. By virtue of heredity and environment, we are either among the strong or the weak, or somewhere between. The strong person who is convinced that he has done sinful deeds, and that's as far as his knowledge of the plan of salvation and the problem of sin goes, will change his ways, stop doing the sinful deeds, and become a "good" moral person. This may be his downfall, because morality is not Christianity. Morality has never been Christianity and never will be Christianity. You don't do what is right by not doing what is wrong. Trying to be good by trying not to be bad is not being good. Badness held in check is not goodness and never has been goodness. So the peculiar pit for the strong-willed and the backboned and the self-disciplined person is morality without Christ. Thus he deceives himself into thinking that he is a good person, and therefore a Christian--and he may be further from being a Christian than the drunk in the gutter, because he may become blind to his need of Christ. The Pharisees were good moral people. They were such good Sabbathkeepers that they hurried back from the cross to be in time for sundown worship. But that did not make them righteous before God.
If you see from a distance someone who is ten feet tall, he may not look tall to you. In fact, he may look about your size, maybe a little shorter. But when you get close to him and look up at him, suddenly you fell like a dwarf at his feet. And if you are walking along, no matter how good or bad you are, at some distance from Jesus, He may not look tall--maybe about your size. It's when you come into His immediate presence that you suddenly see yourself as you really are and are convinced of your need.
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