Central Illinois is a very agricultural area.  Corn and soybean and even pumpkin fields are everywhere and, at certain times of the year, you can see dozens of tractors and combines plowing the land between the towns.  Country music is very popular here and some of the people love to wear Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots.

So living in a community like this one has taught me a lot about farming.  Recently, I learned that there is a plant growing in the wheat fields of Central Illinois called “cheat.”1  It is called cheat because it looks exactly like a wheat plant but it is not.  It is impossible to tell it apart from a healthy wheat crop until it is time to harvest and get it out of the ground.

To give just a little background about cheat, its scientific name is “darnell” or “bearded darnell.”  Its Latin name is Lolium Temulentum. Many scholars think it is the plant that Jesus refers to in Matthew 13:24-30 as the “tares.”  It grows in Europe and North America and even in parts of the Middle East.  It can get up to as high as three feet tall and it thrives in wet or unstable climates where the temperature changes rapidly.  It is part of the grass family and, in some parts of the world, is known as ray grass or rye grass.

The only noticeable difference between wheat and cheat comes in the summer around harvest time when the wheat plant grows a head of seeds on the end of it that looks like a cone-shaped fuzzy ball.  A cheat plant will never grow that.   The reason that farmers do not get darnell out of the field until harvest time is that its roots get so intertwined with the wheat plants that, if taken out too soon, darnell will kill all the wheat around it.  So farmers let the cheat and the wheat grow together until the harvest.

Lolium Temulentum is not harmful to eat if it is mixed with wheat but, if it is eaten all by itself, it can be pretty dangerous.  It has toxins in it that give off a similar effect to being poisoned.  If consumed, it can make you drowsy and dizzy.  It can cause hallucination and intoxification, the same effects as drunkenness.  It can cause chills and induce severe diarrhea and vomiting and other serious digestive complications.  And the same effects occur in animals that occur in humans.  Cows get diarrhea from eating this stuff.  Horses get indigestion.  Stories are told of barn owls getting dizzy from accidentally ingesting this harmful plant.

“Darnell” or “bearded darnell” as some call it.  Also known as “rye grass.”  Also known as Lolium Temulentum. Also known as “cheat” because it looks just like the real thing but it is not.  It is something else entirely.  It is a poisonous, dangerous, imposter.

THE CHEAT AND THE WHEAT IN GALATIANS

One of the most common questions I hear as a pastor is “How can I tell if so-and-so is a Christian?”  “How do I know if my parents or my neighbors or my classmates are saved?”  “How can I be sure that my loved ones going to Heaven?”

According to a recent Barna poll from 2010, two out of every three Americans (67 %) claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.2  No matter where you turn in this country, there is a good chance that someone you meet will tell you that they are a Christian.  But are they?  Are two out of every three Americans really going to Heaven?  And, if so, how can you tell?  To ask this another way: Is saying that you are saved the same thing as being saved?  Is claiming to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ enough to get you into Heaven or should you do more than that?  Is professing to have eternal life the same thing as having eternal life?

These are very important questions and in Galatians 5:19-26, the Apostle Paul answers them in the following way:

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.  Let us not becomeboastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

The Book of Galatians was written to fight legalism3 in the church.  The Galatian Christians had begun to think that they could get into Heaven by their works.  They had forgotten that Jesus Christ had saved them by grace and had begun to believe that they could save themselves by keeping the Old Testament Law.4  They had started thinking that they could earn their way to God.

Legalism takes the credit for salvation away from God and gives it to man and that is exactly what the recipients of this letter had begun to do.  They had stopped believing that God was responsible for their salvation and they started believing that they were.  So Paul steps in and confronts them.5  And, after confronting them, he writes 5:19-26 to tell the Galatians what a true Christian looks like.

How can you tell who the legalists are?  How can you identify the false believers from the true believers?  How can you tell if someone is trusting in their works to save them or if they are trusting in Jesus Christ?  To say all of this another way, how can you tell the cheat from the wheat?  How can you tell if someone is really converted or not?

Those are very important questions for us to ask today because it seems like everywhere we turn, we see someone carrying a Bible or wearing a Christian t-shirt or singing some inspiring spiritual song on the radio.  A new Christian college or Christian book or Christian speaker seems to pop up every minute.  And, while some of this is good, much of it calls for discernment.  And the most important area of discernment we have before us is in telling who the true followers of Jesus Christ are.  Who is the cheat and who is the wheat?  Who is the real thing and who is the fake?  And how can we tell?

It should encourage us to know that we are not left alone in this task of discernment.  The Word of God is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good word.”6  It is “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword . . . and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”7  What was written in the Bible thousands of years ago can still help us today because it is adequate and it is alive.  The things Paul told these First Century Christians to look for to determine someone’s salvation are the same things that we should be looking for in the 21^st Century.

And, with all of that in mind, in Galatians 5:19-26, the Apostle Paul is going to give us four things to look for to tell the cheat from the wheat.

1. Look for their Motivation

When we are trying to tell if someone is a Christian or not, Paul tells us to look for their motivation.  You cannot always tell someone’s motive right away but, give it enough time, and most people will show you why they are doing what they are doing.  Paul says this in verse 19, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident . . .”  The Greek word for “deeds” is ergon, which means “work, business, employment, an act, a deed, a thing done.”8  The New International Version translates it as “acts.”  The English Standard Version has “works.”

As Paul is writing against the legalism in the church at Galatia, he says that “The deeds or the works of the flesh are obvious.”  In other words, “If you Galatians want to know what your works will get you . . . If you want to earn salvation by your deeds . . . If you want to get into Heaven by keeping the Law . . . Let me clarify something for you: Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry . . .  If you want to save yourself, this is what your work will get you, it will get you sin.  It will produce dirty things in your life: sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, stuff like that.”

But notice what Paul says in verse 22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness . . .”  Whereas Paul starts off the list of vices with “deeds,” he starts off the list of virtues with “fruit.”  Karpos in the Greek, which means “fruit, an effect, a result, that which originates or comes from something.”9  Whereas those in the first list were trying very hard to become something they were not, those in the second group were not trying to become anything at all.  They were working but their work was coming naturally to them.  It was flowing out of them like fruit flows out of a plant.

And the point that Paul is making here is that the difference between “work” and “fruit” is motivation.  The difference between the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit is that one works to become something else and one works because of what it already is.  Plants work hard but they do not work hard to become plants.  An orange tree does not work hard to become an orange tree; an orange tree works hard because it is an orange tree.  It works hard to make oranges, hence the name “orange” tree.

It is the same idea in Galatians 5:19, 22.  The Galatians were working hard at trying to earn salvation, so Paul calls their work “deeds.”  But Paul says that those who are living by the Spirit, those who are Christians already, do not have to earn anything.  When it comes to salvation, their work has already been earned for them by someone else.

Those who are saved have believed in Jesus Christ to provide forgiveness from their sins.10  They have turned away from trusting in their own efforts to save them and they have trusted in Jesus’ efforts alone11 and now they are producing fruit.  A Christian does not work to save himself; a Christian works because he has already been saved.  A Christian works12 but he does not work to become a Christian; he works because he already is a Christian.  As Martin Luther put it, “As sparks fly off a fire, so works fly off a Christian.”

That is the idea here in Galatians.  If someone is a child of God, they have realized that the only way for them to enter Heaven is for God to do everything.  There is no place for legalism in the Christian life because there is nowhere that we get credit for our salvation.13  God has to call us.14  God has to justify us.15  God has to come and die for us.16  And God has to live inside us17 and give us a new nature.18  God.  God.  God.  God.  Our salvation is all of God.

And, when we realize that, our motivation changes.  Our desires become totally different.  We no longer work to earn salvation.  Now we work to produce fruit.  Now we work to glorify Him, not ourselves.  Just like an orange tree makes oranges, Christians make the fruit of the Spirit.

2. Look for their Patterns

In Biblical counseling, instructors tell their students to look for patterns.19  When they are being trained in how to help people deal with problems Biblically, counselors are told to look for things that happen over and over again in the counselee’s life.  For instance, if a person lies once, you can overlook that because everyone has a bad day.  But, if a person lies once every ten minutes, then they have a problem that needs to be addressed.  Their sin is taking over and it needs to be dealt with.

In telling the cheat from the wheat, Paul gives the church at Galatia a similar principle.  He tells them to look for patterns to see if someone is being artificial.  One way to tell a true Christian from a false Christian is to look for repeated behavior.  At the end of his list of “the deeds of the flesh,” Paul says in verse 21 that “I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

The phrase “practice such things” employs the Greek word, prasso, which is the verb for “habitual practice.”20  It is as if the Apostle is telling the Galatians, “You will not inherit the kingdom of God if you indulge in sexual immorality over and over and over again.  You will not go to Heaven if you commit idolatry over and over and over again.  You cannot be saved if hate is a pattern in your life.”  The works of the flesh will not send you to Hell if you do them one time but they will send you to Hell if you keep doing them every day of your life.  They will send you to Hell if you never stop doing them.  In the words of Greek scholar, A. T. Robertson, “The habit of these sins is proof that one is not in the Kingdom of God and will not inherit it.”21

There are plenty of people in Heaven who have done one of the things in this list but there is nobody in Heaven who did not come to a point when they stopped.22  There came a time when the deeds of the flesh no longer characterized their life.  There came a time when they repented of their sins.23

This can be compared with what Paul says at the end of his list on the fruit of the Spirit.  In verses 24-25, he writes, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the spirit.”  Verse 25 could be translated “Let us also go on walking by the Spirit.”24  Walking by the Spirit is a constant thing for a Christian.  It is a daily event.25  Christians produce spiritual fruit and they keep producing spiritual fruit every day of their lives.  They never quit.  A day came when their deeds of the flesh became the fruit of the Spirit and, ever since that day came, they have never stopped producing fruit.

And the point that Paul is trying to get across here is that, if you want to know if someone is saved, just ask the question: What pattern does their life show?  What kind of things do they do consistently?  Do they practice the deeds of the flesh or to they practice the fruit of the Spirit?  After all, even the worst of men have good days.  Adolf Hitler prayed every once in a while.  Charles Manson had one or two righteous moments in his life but that did not change his eternal destiny.

It is very common, when you evangelize, to hear people say, “I did that.”  “I trusted in Jesus Christ for my salvation at summer camp.”  “I repented of my sins when I was five.”  While it is definitely a blessing to be able to remember the day and the hour when we first believed the Gospel,26 this kind of response raises some questions.  For one, it needs to be asked, “What do you mean when you say, ‘I did that?’  Do you mean you did that and you are still doing that?  Or do you mean you did that and you have never done that since?”  In Galatians 5, Paul says that God is more interested in what you are doing now than in what you did once when you were five.27

Not only that, but such a response goes back to what was mentioned earlier regarding legalism.  Salvation is not about what you or I did.  Salvation is about what God did and is doing through us.28  Salvation is about the pattern or the consistencies of our lives as the Holy Spirit makes us into new creatures in Christ.

So, when you are trying to determine if someone is saved or not, ask the question: Do they consistently show the deeds of the flesh or do they consistently show the fruit of the Spirit?  Are they living like a person headed for Heaven or are they living like a person headed for Hell?  Are they showing themselves to be a cheat or are they showing themselves to be a wheat?  Do not be deceived into thinking that people will live like Hell and get into Heaven.  That simply will not happen.29  That is not what the Bible says salvation looks like.

Verse 21 says that, in response to those who live like Hell, “I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  No one will inherit the kingdom of God who does the deeds of the flesh on a consistent basis.  They will only inherit the kingdom of Heaven if the pattern of their life demonstrates the fruit of the Spirit.

3. Look for their Sexual Sins, Religious Sins, and General Sins

As Paul is showing the Galatian Christians what to look for to determine someone’s spiritual state, he lists the deeds of the flesh.  Verses 19-21 say,

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

There are 15 “deeds” in this list and they can be placed into three categories: sexual sins, religious sins, and general sins.  “Immorality, impurity, [and] sensuality” fall into the category of sexual sin.  These are sins that have to do with a person’s sex life.

In the First Century, sexual morals were tremendously low, probably even lower than they are today.  Divorce was rampant.  Homosexuality and adultery were a part of every day life.  Most major cities had temples with prostitutes for the people to indulge their sexual lusts for religious purposes.  It was said that, when a traveler would come through a city, oftentimes the first place his host took him is to one of these temples.  So Paul says that one way to tell if someone is not a Christian is to determine how they view sex.30  Are they pure or are they impure?31  Are they an adulterer or are they faithful to their spouse?  Do they visit the temples?  Do they indulge in homosexual behavior?32

The second group of sins in verses 19-21 has to do with religion.  The first part of verse 20 mentions “idolatry [and] sorcery.”  An idol is “anything less than God that is given the worship due only to him.”33  Idolatry, then, is the creation of “anything less than God that is given the worship due only to him.”  In the ancient world, idols were carved statues that people bowed down and prayed to.34

In the modern world, however, idolatry comes more in the realm of ideas than in the realm of objects.  For instance, people today often say things like, “My God is too nice to send anyone to Hell.  “My God would never say that Jesus Christ is the only way to have your sins forgiven.”  “My God would never keep good muslims and good buddhists and good hindus out of Heaven.”  When people say that, they are creating an idea that is less than God and they are giving it the worship that is due Him.  They are making God in their own image.  They are too nice to send anyone to Hell.  They would never say that Jesus Christ is the only way to have your sins forgiven.  They would never keep good muslims and good buddhists and good hindus out of Heaven.  And, because they believe that, they create a god who believes that and they worship him.  That is contemporary idolatry.

“Sorcery” is the Greek word pharmeia, from which we get our English word “pharmacy.”  It referred to a kind of black magic where drugs were used to aid people in their religious services.  The drugs would induce hallucinations which gave people a “spiritual” experience.35  It goes without saying that lost people are going to have wrong ideas about God and that is what Paul is referring to with this second list of deeds of the flesh.

The third group has to do with general sins or miscellaneous sins.  This is simply a random group of wicked deeds.  The list starts off in verse 20, “enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these . . .”  The phrase “and things like these” shows that this list is not comprehensive.  There are more deeds of the flesh than these 15 but these are just the ones that Paul wanted to mention.

And there is enough sin here to convict anyone of their depravity.  Some people read the first part of the deeds of the flesh and say, “Well, I’m doing pretty good.  I mean, I haven’t committed any sexual sins and I am not into sorcery.  I am not making any idols.  So Paul is not talking about me here in this passage.  I’m off the hook.”  But that is not true because we have all been jealous.  We have all had outbursts of anger.  We have all been factious at one time or another.  And, according to this list, that is just as wicked in God’s eyes as orgies and drunkenness.36  These deeds of the flesh confront all of us.

But what Paul is saying here is that you can tell a cheat from a wheat by what they do on a consistent basis.  You can tell the real thing from the fake by the pattern of their life.  When you are wondering if someone is saved or not, ask the question: Does this list describe them?  The issue is not whether they have committed one of these sins in the list but do they do commit these sins all the time.  Could they be described as a jealous person or a factious person or an angry person?

If so, there is a good chance that they are not a Christian.  There is a good chance that the Holy Spirit does not live inside them37 and they are not going to inherit the kingdom of God.

4. Look for their Public Fruit and Private Fruit

It might be helpful to mention here that “deeds of the flesh” is plural while “fruit of the Spirit” is singular.  In other words, someone who is lost will commit some of the things in verses 19-21 but he might not commit all of them.  On the other hand, someone who is saved will do all of the things in verses 22-23.  These are fruit (singular), not deeds (plural).  They are all part of the same package.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

There are nine fruits of the Spirit that fall into two categories.  The first category is the public fruits.  Verses 22-23 state, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [and] gentleness . . .”  These are the fruits that show themselves when other people are around.  Someone who has the Holy Spirit living inside them will be loving and peaceful and patient and kind to others.

You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat other people.  Everyone acts “Godly” when they get what they want.  But what do they act like when they do not get what they want?  What does a person act like when the neighbor’s dog keeps barking or when they are fired from work or when someone slanders them?  How do they handle it when they are treated unfairly by a family member or a friend?

That is the kind of thing that Paul is talking about here in this first list.  This is public fruit that shows itself when other people are watching.

The second list of spiritual fruit is the private fruit.  This is the fruit that shows itself when no one else is watching.  It shows up when we are all alone.  And the middle of verse 23 says that this one private fruit is “self-control.”  The word in Greek is egkrateia, which refers to “the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, especially his sensual appetites.”38  This is the ability to say “No” to sinful things and “Yes” to righteous things.  Paul says in verse 23 that when no one else is around, a believer has the ability to control himself.  He has the ability to live a Godly life when he is all by himself.

Self-control refers to the ability to reject sinful things and to walk away from the deeds of the flesh when you are all alone.  It refers to the discipline to keep away from secret sins like pornography or bulimia or covetousness.  It describes the inner constitution that honors God when no one else is looking.

The famous 19^th Century Pastor Robert Murray McCheyne once wrote that “A man is what he is on his knees before God, and nothing more.”39  McCheyne was right.  Character is determined in the closet, not on the stage.  Sincerity is found when no one else is looking and Paul says here that one fruit of the Spirit is the ability to control yourself when no one else is looking.  One fruit of the Spirit is to be sincere when the only One watching is God.

If someone is a Christian, they will show it with their life.  Fruit will come out for all to see.  In Luke 6:43-45, Jesus says,

For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.  For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.  The good man out of the goodtreasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

In Matthew 7:21, He gives us a similar principle when He says,

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

The Apostle John said this himself in First John 2:3-6,

By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.  The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;  but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.  By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

John says that you can tell that someone is a Christian by their obedience to God’s commands.  Jesus says that only those who obey His Father’s will will enter Heaven and a person’s spiritual condition is determined by their fruit.  If someone produces good fruit, then they are a child of God.  If they produce bad fruit, then they are a child of the Devil.40

CONCLUSION

A friend of mine told me the story several years ago about a High School football player who lied to his town about getting a scholarship to play football at a big name university.  He was not a good High School player and he probably would not have been able to play college football.  But he wanted the attention that comes with that sort of thing, so he told his High School that he had been recruited and had signed a full scholarship to play for a major Division I school.  A press conference was held at his school and the local newspapers and television stations ran a lengthy story on the young man.  Finally, someone got wise and contacted the university to find out that, in reality, he had not been offered a scholarship and the whole thing was one big lie.

I think it is a sad reality that many people are living their Christian lives just like that young man was “playing” college football.  They are saying all the right words and they are doing some of the right things but deep down the whole thing is one big lie.  They are not born again.  Their life has never changed.  They are still the same old dead sinner that they were before their “conversion” but they want to be respected.  They want to fit in with the Christian crowd.  They want to go to Heaven their own way.

So they pretend and they put on a show and they deceive everyone around them into thinking that they are the real thing when they are not.  To say this another way, they are the cheat among the wheat.  They are the tares and the goats.  They are hypocrites who say one thing but live another.  They want to fit in with the church but they do not want to submit to Jesus Christ and live a life that pleases Him.

And one day, just like it was with the young football player, they will be found out.  One day the truth will be made know that these people were never saved at all.41  You can fool men but you cannot fool God.  He knows our hearts and He will one day judge us by them.42  He will separate the cheat from the wheat and the goats from the sheep.  He will set apart the lost from the saved and the saved will go to Heaven and the lost will go to Hell for all eternity.43

But before that great and terrible day, Galatians 5 tells us that we can have some way to identify a believer from an unbeliever.  We can look for their motivation, their patterns, their sins, and their fruit.  We can look at the evidence in their lives and, on some small level, see what is going on in their hearts.

And let this be a warning to all of us to examine our lives to make sure that we are in the faith.  Second Corinthians 13:5 says, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!  Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test.”   Second Peter 1:10 says, “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.”  Please take these words to heart.  Make every effort to be sure “about His calling and choosing you.”  Read over Galatians 5:19-26 and ask yourself: Am I working in the flesh or am I producing the fruit of the Spirit?  Am I living like the real thing or am I living like a fake?  Am I a cheat or am I wheat?

The Bible says that, if you are lost, you can know that God is gracious and that He forgives sinners if they come through His Son Jesus Christ.44  Jesus came to this earth to live a perfect life in our place and to be crucified and raised from the dead that our sins might be forgiven and that we might have eternal life.45  If you would believe that and turn from your life of sin, then your eternal destiny can change in an instant and so can your earthly life.  You can immediately begin to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit instead of the deeds of the flesh.46  And you can be transformed from a cheat into a wheat.

1. The following information was given to me in personal conversations with farmers in Central Illinois.  For a brief on-line description of this plant, visit www.herbsguide.net or www.thepoisongarden.co.uk as of 12/9/11. [↩]
2. “Americans Feel Connected to Jesus.”  Article available at www.barna.org as of 12/9/11. [↩]
3. Alan Cairns, Dictionary of Theological Terms, 3^rd Edition (Greenville, S. C.: Ambassador Emerald International, 2002).  According to Cairns, “legalism” is “The dogma of salvation by works, the heresy that man must earn a place in heaven by his personal righteousness” (262). [↩]
4. For more information about this, see Paul’s discussion in Gal 3:21-29; 5:1-6; 6:12-16. [↩]
5. See Gal 1:6-7; 3:1-5; 5:1-2 for some examples of how Paul confronted legalism among the Galatians. [↩]
6. 2 Tim 3:16-17. [↩]
7. Heb 4:12. [↩]
8. Joseph H. Thayer, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996) 248. [↩]
9. Ibid., 326. [↩]
10. Acts 10:43; Eph 1:7; Col 1:13-14. [↩]
11. Gal 2:16; Eph 2:8-9. [↩]
12. The Apostle James was so adamant about this that he wrote in James 2:17, 26, “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself . . . For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” [↩]
13. We are responsible to repent and believe the Gospel (Rom 10:9-10) but we are never given credit for the ability to do that.  Our minds are hostile to God (Rom 8:7-8) and unable to accept spiritual truth on their own apart from the help of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 2:14).  For more information about this, see the FAQ, “What Does Foreknowledge Mean?”  Also see Paul’s discussion in Ephesians 2:1-10. [↩]
14. Rom 8:28-30. [↩]
15. Rom 8:28-30. [↩]
16. 1 Jn 4:7-10 [↩]
17. 1 Cor 6:19; 2 Cor 5:5; Eph 1:13-14. [↩]
18. 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15. [↩]
19. Jay Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual: The Practice of Nouthetic Counseling (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1973) 191-194. [↩]
20. A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Volume IV (Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman Press, n. d.) 313. [↩]
21. Ibid. [↩]
22. This is the idea of 1 John 3:4, 6, “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness . . . No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.” [↩]
23. Lk 13:3; Acts 17:30; 26:20; 2 Cor 7:10. [↩]
24. Robertson, 313. [↩]
25. Lk 9:23. [↩]
26. It is not necessary to know the exact time and hour when we first believed, although it is certainly a blessing to be able to do so.  Some people in the Bible could point to a day and an hour when they were saved, such as the thief on the cross in Luke 23:39-43.  Others could not, such as the disciples.   Jesus’ closest followers made amazing professions of faith in Him at one moment (Matt 16:13-20) and in the next moment completely abandoned Him (Matt 26:47-56).  When was the exact moment of their conversion?  We do not know. [↩]
27. Someone can get saved at a young age (such as five years old) but the point here is that God is more interested in what you are doing at present than in what you did in the past.  And the reason for this is simple: assurance of salvation is not found in a past event but in a present reality.  If you truly believed in Christ when you were five years old, then you will believe in Him when you are 45.  If you did not believe in Him when you were five years old, then unless something changes, you will not believe in Him when you are 45.  The present is the key to the past when it comes to salvation.  Christians persevere (Jn 10:28) and, if you were truly converted at a young age, then you will be truly converted at an old age.  That is the point I am trying to make in this paragraph. [↩]
28. Eph 2:10. [↩]
29. It is true that people can and do repent on their deathbed (such as the thief on the cross) and, when that is the case, they will spend eternity with their Savior.  But I think it is a general principle that “Men typically die the way that they lived” (J. C. Ryle).  If someone has lived in sin for an entire lifetime, it is a sad reality that they will most likely die in sin.  But, either way, the principle here is that salvation brings repentance leading to a holy life (2 Cor 7:10; Heb 12:14).  If someone is saved, they will demonstrate their salvation with a life that honors the Lord, whether that be for a short duration on their deathbed or a long duration somewhere else. [↩]
30. Richard N. Longnecker, Galatians in Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1990) 254.  This is made even more obvious when one considers that the Greek word for “immorality” here is porneia, which could be translated “prostitution.”  Paul starts off his list of “deeds of the flesh” with a very common First Century vice: religious prostitution. [↩]
31. Titus 1:15 echoes this concept when it says, “To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.” [↩]
32. 1 Cor 6:9-10; 1 Tim 1:8-11. [↩]
33. Millard J. Erickson, The Concise Dictionary of Christian Theology (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2001 ed.) 96. [↩]
34. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Volume 2, ed. by Colin Brown (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986) 284-286. [↩]
35. Longnecker, 255. [↩]
36. James 2:10-11 explains why that is when it says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.  For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not commit murder.’  Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.” [↩]
37. 1 Cor 6:19; 2 Cor 5:5; Eph 1:13-14. [↩]
38. Thayer, 166-167. [↩]
39. Quotation borrowed from www.sermonindex.net as of 12/13/11. [↩]
40. This does not mean that Christians cannot spend a large amount of time in sin.  In fact, in Romans 7:19, Paul gives a very strong affirmation of this when he writes, “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.”  We can give into sin and live as if we are unbelievers for a reasonable duration.  But, as this entire article has argued, a Christian will produce fruit and show a life of victory over sin (1 Cor 15:57; 1 Jn 5:3-5).  As a friend of mine put it, “You can hold your breath for three minutes and still be alive but, if you hold your breath for three hours, you are dead!” [↩]
41. Matt 25:31-46. [↩]
42. Matt 12:36; Rom 14:12; Heb 9:27. [↩]
43. Matt 13:24-30, 36-43, 47-50. [↩]
44. Jn 3:16, 18, 36; Col 2:13-14; 2 Thess 2:16; Titus 3:7. [↩]
45. Rom 3:25-26; 4:25; 6:23; Acts 2:36; 2 Cor 5:21. [↩]
46. On the one hand, it does take time for a believer to change and grow in righteousness (2 Pet 3:18).  On the other hand, once someone places their faith in Christ, they change instantly.  Once the new birth occurs (Jn 3:3-8), we are new creatures in Christ and we begin to, on some level, produce the fruit of the Spirit. [↩]