The Bible On Trial

When you cook something that you have never cooked before it is prudent to use a recipe. The recipe tells you the ingredients, the amounts, and the procedures with which to combine these ingredients to achieve the best results. But as sometimes happens, you do all these things, and follow the directions precisely, and the finished dish ends up either being tasteless, inedible, or ruined. What happened? Some how what you did in the kitchen did not 'pan out'. In most cases this is not a life threatening result, alhough your children may think so. If this happens, all you need do is call up your favorite take out resaurant (pizza, or Chinese), and all is good.

Jesus gave His disciples the recipe for salvation; it is called the Process of Sanctification. This process combines the ingredients that when used precisely as God intended will lead to eternal life. Yet there is another cook in the kitchen, that would have you believe that you don't need the recipe that God provided in the Old Testament, and in the Words of Jesus in the New Testament; all you need is to 'believe' that Jesus will cook for you, that you don't need to do anything except to accept Him as your chef, and the recipe will turn out fine. But this is simply NOT the case. God does not cook the recipe for salvation FOR you. He shows you how to cook this meal for yourself. You must find out the ingredients; you must understand how to combine them, and in what quantities, and with the exact  weights and measures such that your food turns out to be JUST LIKE HIS. 

Don't give up if your first attempts are not perfect. Jesus is happy to show you where you have missed the mark. By watching how He did it, you will come to the understanding as to how to do it yourself, and like Him, you will sit with Jesus on His throne as He overcame and sat down with His Father on His throne (Rev.3:21).