Well, if we sincerely take the Word of God at face value, we can clearly see that our persistent willingness to obey and follow thoroughly God’s commandments is extremely important. Besides, there are unimaginable rewards that await those who do God’s will, and eternal punishment that will eventually befall those who live their lives in outright rebellion to Him by rejecting His word. Truthfully, as always stated, the word of God is an extension of God Himself given to us for the sole purpose of guiding us, helping us to know His will, teaching us regarding how we can please Him, safeguarding us from errors, and most importantly showing us how we can inherit eternal life through Christ Jesus.
Therefore, the way we treat the word of God is precisely how we treat God Himself. We can’t honor God while dishonoring His own word along with the requirements found within. The Word matters so much to God to the extent that He has glorified it even above His own name (Psalm 138:2). Christ is known as “The Word” according to (John 1:1, Revelation 19:13), which means the personification of God’s divine revelation to humanity as well as God’s perfect revelation of Himself manifested in the flesh. Everything that we know about Christ is learned through the Word of God that He’s the very embodiment of. The Holy Spirit is the One who takes that Word and reveals it to us. He then enables us to understand it, and most importantly to apply it in our lives in order for authentic transformation to come about.
Because we have the Word, we don’t need God to keep telling us constantly what we ought to be doing with respect to our daily responsibilities to Him. We’re responsible to read the word just as God has commanded Joshua to do so according to (Joshua 1:8), so that it can become part of our lives. Not only that, the Word must dominate every aspect of our lives. The reason is everything that we’ll do must be in compliance with the Word. Bear in mind, the job of the enemy is too keep us ignorant about the power of the Word of God in order for us to fall easily in his trap.
In that same Word we learn that God in His incredible unconditional love for humanity has offered man an opportunity for them to be saved from their sins by accepting Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. This remarkable work has been accomplished by grace through Christ on the ground of the atonement that He has provided humanity on the cross. So we’ll take a look at two major ways that Christ can be rejected. Interestingly, both rejections occur by refusing to do what the Word has commanded us to do.
Christ is Rejected Through People’s Refusal to Believe in Him.
Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (John 3:18).
By the way, God through Christ has already made the first move by putting everything needed for salvation and to live a life pleasing to Him at our disposal. Thus, the responsibility to respond to that falls squarely on our back. We’re left with no choice but to accept Christ as Savior and Lord, if we want to escape the coming judgment that will fall upon unrepentant sinners. Evidently, we’re living in a world where unbelief has always been a serious problem. The thing that people really need to realize is that unbelief is very consequential by nature. It literally ruins generation after generation. On top of that, it’s the very sin that this wicked world is guilty of according to (John 16:8-9), which will ultimately lead to eternal damnation.
People receive the message of the gospel on an ongoing basis through a wide variety of means, but vast majorities of them refuse to accept it because they don’t want to abandon their sinful ways along with false systems they’ve been holding onto. In other words, people just don’t want to change their lives because they love their sins far more than they love their own souls. Shockingly, people are so blinded to the extent they can’t even grasp how precious their soul is to Christ. Their tendency is to keep on living the same kind of life that’s persistently driving them further away from God and closer and closer to eternal destruction. The main culprit of people’s refusal to accept Christ is sin as well as false systems. These are the exact tool Satan uses in order to keep people from ever coming to Christ.
Rejecting Christ is a very, very serious sin, and one that’s considered as an appalling offense to God. Truthfully, God is willing to save men from their sins, but He wants that to be done only through His Son. There is no way around as many falsely believe. The reason is that Christ is the only One who can cleanse us to a condition by which we can become qualified to receive God’s undeserved acceptance and favor. He is the very One that can give humanity access to a holy, perfect, and righteous God by exchanging His own righteousness for our unrighteousness. Conversely, the wrath of God remains on those who refuse to believe in Christ according to (John 3:36).
Christ can be Rejected by How we Choose to Live.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21).
It’s also extremely important to realize that rejecting Christ is not limited only to refusing to accept Him as our Savior and Lord, we can also reject Him by the way we live. The truth is that how we choose to live is a clear reflection of who is in control of our lives, or whom we’re serving. It doesn’t matter whether it’s done consciously or unconsciously. The point is that rejecting or denying Christ doesn’t only have to be expressed in a straightforward manner. He can be rejected by our sinful conducts, or our constant unwillingness to submit ourselves to His Lordship and authority.
As far as commitment is concerned, God is not that much concerned about the kind words that we’re saying with our lips when addressing Him. What truly makes the difference is our disposition to submit ourselves to His word. The Christian life is a life of total submission and surrender to God’s authority. Therefore, when God is assessing our lives, most of the emphasis is placed on the sacrifices that we’re willing to make in order to please Him. As believers, we have to strive for the sake of pleasing God in everything we do. Our job is to ensure that Christ is glorified through us by our complete willingness to live a Spirit-filled life, so that we won’t fulfill the desires of the flesh.
When we give ourselves over to sinful living, that’s tantamount to rejecting Christ. That also equates to trampling His tremendous sacrifice under our feet for the sake of pleasure of the moment. Once sin is allowed to creep in our lives, it literally threatens to destroy everything in its path. In addition, if it’s not dealt with swiftly, it will ultimately destroy our relationship with God. It will cause us to become disengaged and apathetic to God, the things of God, and His call and purpose for our lives.
Furthermore, It will cause us to become pure hypocrites because we’re just living a life that’s inconsistent to how a follower of Christ is supposed to live. Sin will also implant various types of evil tendencies within us such as selfishness, arrogance, pride, deceit, unbelief, and ingratitude. Interestingly, Christ measures our love toward Him through the means of our obedience to Him (John 14:15). Thereby, our level of obedience determines whether we love Jesus or not.
Conclusion
Men judge others based on the content of their actions, but God thoroughly examines the content of the hearts and motives behind our conducts. If we’re fake, God knows that. Interestingly, the enemy knows that too. Consequently, we’re only deceiving ourselves miserably. As Christ said, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me (Matthew 15:8). Our obedience, love, and reverence to God must come from the bottom of our hearts through our sincere appreciation to God based on the finished work of His Son Jesus Christ.