This episode addresses the purely "transactional" understanding of salvation by mercenary Christians. "Transactional" Christians are professing Christians who have made a calculated decision to "follow" Christ, not because His way is better, but because He's the only One who can satisfy their sin-debt. While elements of this perspective are also embraced by genuine believers, true Christians follow Christ because they actually see Christ's way as so much better. They reflect on their false ways by contrast, and repent. Like the Psalmist, they have two encounters with the Law of God: one challenging and convicting, the second delightful and instructive. Mercenary "believers" are likened to the wicked, lazy "servant" in the parable of the talents. That servant also had a transactional understanding of "accepting" Christ. He took care of his sin-debt problem by ostensibly trusting Christ and then went off and buried his talent in the ground. He never fell in love with Christ and never delighted with the Law of God in the inner man. The other 2 servants delighted in the gifts of the Master and invested those gifts to honor Him. A transactional, mercenary view of Christ and the salvation He offers is consequently not salvation at all, for the wicked lazy servants ends up in hell.
Are You a Worshiper of Christ or a Mercenary?
This episode bluntly calls into question the professed "salvation" of some believers, based on a transactional, even mercenary view of Christianity. This superficial acceptance of Christianity acknowledges that Christ paid our sin-debt in full so that we would not have to pay those wages in hell. So a logical response, based on self-preservation, is to "accept" Christ. Well this simplistic mercenary picture of Christianity, where one sides with Christ SINGULARLY to escape consequences, does not correspond to the whole gospel presented in Scripture. While the fear of hell, the ultimate consequence of breaking God's Law, motivates a surface "acceptance" of Christ, genuine repentance and faith in Christ is the response of those who renounce their way in favor of God's Way, Christ Himself. Fear of consequences isn't their only motivation, but a genuine disgust with themselves coupled with devotion to Christ. This is precisely the dynamic present in the Psalm 119 where the psalmist turns to the Lord in faith because he loves God and His Law, though he has in fact suffered severe consequences for breaking God's Law. True believers would follow Christ even if the ultimate destination of heaven or hell wasn't an issue.
You’re Made Worthy to Serve
This episode mostly addresses the hesitancy of many believers to engage in ministry based on a sense of unworthiness. Of course, none of us are "worthy" in and of ourselves, but we have been made worthy through the imputed righteousness of Christ. Yet even when believers have a proper understanding of the basis of righteousness, if they don't engage in ministry, the sense of unworthiness is more pronounced since sin issues are the primary focus. The answer to this skewed perspective is the half-and-half approach where believers do ministry while they address issues of sin. Interestingly, ministry itself often unlocks the grace of God, the grace to do ministry through our weaknesses.
Salvation, More than an Individual Affair
This episode addresses the hesitancy of many in engaging the rest of the body of Christ concerning personal issues with sin. Many refuse to make themselves accountable to others because of a faulty individualistic view of salvation: salvation is mostly about forgiveness of sins but is not about service to the living God. (Heb. 9:14) A natural bi-product of this incomplete understanding of salvation is a failure to see the collective impact of personal sin on the rest of the Body. For if salvation is singularly about the forgiveness of sins, without embracing a ministry dimension, then personal struggles with sin are minimized since the FAILURE to do ministry, working collectively with other, is not really a concern. People isolate and battle sin individually without aid from the rest of the Body because their basic understanding of salvation is flawed. Sanctification and ministry are collective efforts and mirror the holistic Biblical view of salvation.
Self-absorbed “salvation” and the Body of Christ
This episode concludes the 3-part application of the Nehemiah "half-and-half" strategy to the body of Christ. Ideally Christians should be working in ministry as they deal with their sin issues by being accountable to other believers and relying on their aid to build their "sanctification wall." With respect to sin issues, neglect of accountability/assistance of the body of Christ is sometimes based on an incomplete understanding of salvation. We're saved from our sins for service to God, but many see salvation principally in terms of "saved from." This attitude leads many to self-centered Christianity, in which one's own personal salvation is the objective, not the collective building of the kingdom of God. Not surprisingly, this self-absorbed salvation approach leads to maverick Christianity where sin issues are mostly about oneself and God, and sanctification becomes a "private affair," excluding involvement of the body of Christ. The natural consequence of this opportunist salvation perspective is also neglect of ministry. In essence, a faulty understanding of salvation creates few builders. Is it any wonder that in most churches 10% of the congregation does all the work?
Not Growing–Are You Blind and Short-sighted?
This episode mostly deals with the believer's response to the gift of divine power in 2 Pet. 1:5-8. Resting on God's divine power, Christians should excel in 9 moral attributes, among them are moral excellence, self-control, and love. Peter concludes that those lacking these qualities are "blind or shortsighted, having forgotten the purification from their former sins." Peter's understanding of the gospel that saves is much more than mere forgiveness of sins, so he likely had much more than mere forgiveness in mind when he refers to "purification." Peter includes the endgame of salvation in both 1 Pet. 1:2 and 1 Pet. 4:1-2, which is obedience and living for the will of God. Believers who apparently see "purification from their former sins" simply in terms of forgiveness, have missed the holistic emphasis of the gospel: God saves us FROM the penalty of sin FOR the will of God. Peter consequently assesses that Christians who only got half the message are "blind and short-sighted." Christians should therefore honestly assess whether their lack of spiritual growth is due to a misunderstanding of the constitution, how things work in the Kingdom: growth in obedience to the will of God is the clear expectation of the gospel.
Repentance and the Roadmap of Sanctification
This final episode presents the typical roadmap of sanctification in which believers typically prioritize "sin" issues in their walk, eventually leading to a crisis point in which they discover they can't live the Christian life in their own power. The options are then to double down on the power of the flesh to live the Christian life (the Galatian error), or abandon all hope in the flesh and completely depend on Christ's resurrection power to live the Christian life. Repentance from dead works should ultimately result in repentance from the old self itself.
A “milk will do” attitude might indicate a fake conversion
Based on the Scriptural description that the ultimate purpose of salvation is service to God and not merely the forgiveness of sins, this episode unpacks the "milk will do" attitude towards spiritual growth and shows how this nonchalant attitude towards growth in Christ might be a sign of false conversion. True Christians are not ultimately content with their "sins being forgiven for Christ's sake." Based on the born again experience, they have a principle within them that they long to please and serve God, irrespective of the ultimate consequences of sin in heaven or hell. So true repentance from dead works is not content will a "milk will do" attitude, resting in the forgiveness of sins. It presses on to maturity to serve God.
Christians on Welfare: when the church is the problem
Based on survey evidence, this episode posits how the majority of American evangelicals are on spiritual welfare. They haven't mastered the basics and are unemployed Christians as a result. Seeker churches are symptomatic of this "milk" approach where services are principally designed to present the basic gospel message, repackaged differently every week. The seeker model contradicts the purpose of the five-fold ministry which is the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. The endless supply of "milk" sermons in many ministries explains why the majority of evangelicals are still on spiritual welfare.
Master the “milk”…or backslide
This episode expands on the theme that Christians at a certain point should be able to teach the basics to others. If they're not, then they are on the equivalent of spiritual "welfare." Consumption of "milk" without putting the Word into practice characterizes their Christian experience, and spiritual growth is put on hold indefinitely, as they are "dull in hearing." All Christians are expected to grown in maturity into the stage of young men and women who, according to 1 John 2:12-14, have victory over the enemy because they put into practice the Word of God which abides in them. Serving the living God rests on knowledge of the Word of God and mastery of "milk," the foundational principles of the Christian faith (Hebrews 6:1-2)