Spiritual Cowardice

Jesus, the ONLY way anyone can be saved, tells us that few will choose the right path. The path is narrow, but the burden is light. What makes the path narrow? If the burden is so light, why is the path so hard to follow?

We are also told that each of us is so wicked and sinful that we can’t even muster up the will to do right? God even has to give us the will to do right. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

Mankind is not able do anything to save ourselves. Jesus became a man, like us, tempted in all things. Jesus lived a life without sin, as we are supposedly able to do, at least in theory by His power. The difference between any one of us and Jesus is not our human natures and our theoretical capacity to not sin. The difference is that only Jesus has the capacity to sacrifice His life in the place of our own loss of life, eternal life. Only Jesus could be our sacrifice, but He had to demonstrate as well that He could live a human life without sin. No man can live without sin and thereby save himself. Salvation is by the grace of Jesus alone. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)

We do not understand why in God’s universe that Jesus is the only being capable of offering His own life in exchange for sinful mankind, to be the second Adam. We do, however, know the fact that Jesus is our Savior. Evidently, it’s not possible for the almighty one true God the Father to give up His own life. It could be something about His being God that precludes Him sacrificing His own life. It could be some kind of legal technicality under the law of God that makes Him ineligible to be our sacrifice. We don’t know exactly why it is that in order for mankind to be saved that God had to be willing to allow His only begotten Son to sacrifice His own life so that we have the opportunity to be saved.

We know also that God was not required to give His Son so that we might not perish. God had declared prior to sin that the consequence of sin is the loss of the life of the sinner. All would be in harmony with God’s truth if mankind simply suffered the consequence of sin which is death. That God was desirous and willing to make a way for mankind to undeservedly receive a second chance is truly an act of sacrificial love. God’s love is demonstrated in His willingness to allow Jesus to die for us. God could not deny Jesus His choice to sacrifice Himself any more than God can deny mankind our choice to reject eternal life. Both God the Father and Jesus had to independently be willing to work out our salvation. Both have sacrificed. Both have experienced loss and pain. Only Jesus could be our sacrificial lamb.

We understand so little. What has been revealed to us is indeed precious truth.

What is our part in this story? Do we have anything to contribute to our salvation? Absolutely! We can’t earn or accomplish our own salvation, but we have the God ordained capacity to choose whether we will accept it or not. Living a sinless life will not save us, but we must do so anyway. That is the entire purpose of Jesus sacrificing His life for us, that we might overcome sin and live sinlessly. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13) Our part is to love God with all our hearts. “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38) “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2:4)

A central part of our rejecting the sacrifice of Jesus and thereby losing eternal life is to refuse to obey God. Whatever reason we choose to imagine or argue that we can’t or do not need to obey God’s commandments is simply our declaration to reject the love of God. We accept the lie that originally led to Eve eating the forbidden fruit. “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:” (Genesis 3:4) Eve believed the lie that she did not have to obey God to live. We are presented with the same lie and the same choice today. The sacrifice and grace of Jesus do not save us by themselves. Our salvation requires both the sacrifice of Jesus and our acceptance of it. Jesus died to give us personally the opportunity to choose differently than Eve chose.

One of the most detestable ways in which mankind has devised a philosophy to avoid obeying God is to do so in the name of Jesus. This is accomplished by appealing to the power of the grace of Jesus and its potential reward of eternal life while denying the transformation that real grace can and must accomplish in the heart of the recipient of the gift of grace. This was the false doctrine of the Nicolaitanes which Jesus declares that He hates. “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.” (Revelation 2:6) “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” (Revelation 2:14-16) The Nicolaitanes were those who professed to be followers of Jesus but who practiced sin anyway. "What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid." (Romans 6:15)

So, what is spiritual cowardice? Spiritual cowardice is failing by our own choice to do what we know we should do. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17) We might know that we should be obeying God, but if we lack the courage to make the choice to do what is right, we sin, we break God’s commandments. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (James 1:22) Obeying God does not save us. Obeying God is how we demonstrate that we accept the righteousness of Jesus as our sacrifice.

In addition to being our sacrifice which satisfies the legal step in our salvation, Jesus personally enters the hearts of those who submit to Him and provides the will/desire to do right and the power to do so. We simply are wretched, filthy rags on our own. Our part is to let Him transform us, to cause us to be reborn spiritually. Our battle is spiritual warfare. We must have spiritual discernment to appreciate and accept God’s Word and the sacrifice of Jesus. Our spiritual rebirth with Christ in us is the mystery of God. “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:” (Colossians 1:27) When the power and righteousness of the Holy Spirit of Jesus convicts us to do what is right and we choose not to, we grieve the Holy Spirit, we act out spiritual cowardice.

Spiritual cowardice has consequences. In short, spiritual cowards will lose eternal life. Spiritual cowards will be destroyed in the lake of burning sulfur. Spiritual cowards reject the sacrifice of Jesus by failing to do what they know is right. There are additional ways to describe a sinful, unrepentant heart, but spiritual cowardice is the first listed characterization of those God will cast into the lake of burning sulfur. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8 KJV) Note the translation in the ESV version of the Bible. “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8 ESV)

God’s love is great. God can wink at our genuine ignorance, but He will not tolerate our indolence, our refusal to do what we know we should do. God requires our repentance if we are to be saved.

“Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” (Acts 17:29-31)

Doing what’s right takes effort and can often involve expense and suffering. Not doing what’s right is spiritual cowardice. If the comforts of this life are more appealing to us than the work of the Comforter in our hearts, then we reject God and eternal life.

The path is narrow, so keep your feet in a straight line. Obey God. Without God there is no path to salvation. To someday be made new and to have eternal life, all we have to do is walk on the straight and narrow way gifted to us by the Lamb of God.

Don’t be a spiritual coward. That’s the most costly mistake you will ever make.