taught by Ken McGarvey
First Baptist Church of Tellico Village, Tennessee
January 7, 2018
Why do we bow our heads and look at the ground when we pray, instead of looking to heaven where God is?
Let me broaden the question: should we pray standing, sitting, kneeling, prostrate, looking up, down, around or having our eyes closed? The answer, of course, is, “Yes.” So let’s look at a few examples of the posture of prayer in the Bible:
Jonah prayed from the fish’s belly. (Jonah 2)
Isaac’s servant prayed standing beside a spring. (Genesis 24:12-14)
The Israelites sat weeping, fasting and praying. (Judges 20:26)
Hezekiah prayed lying in his bed. (2 Kings 20:2)
Peter prayed while walking on water. (Matthew 14:30)
Jesus looked upward and prayed. (John 17:1)
A tax collector looked toward the ground when he prayed. (Luke 18:13)
Paul tells Timothy he wants men everywhere to lift their hands in prayer. (1 Timothy 2:8)
Daniel knelt and faced the temple. (Daniel 6:10)
Jesus knelt while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Luke 22:41) And Matthew 26:39 says he fell with his face to the ground.
At the same time, Jesus’ disciples were likely either sitting or lying while presumably trying to pray — but unable to stay awake.
When I was a child we usually folded our hands, bowed our heads and closed our eyes. Presumably, we bowed our heads out of reverence and humility. We closed our eyes to less distractions and folded our hands together to keep them out of trouble. In Gethsamene Jesus said to his disciples, Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. (Mark 14:38)
In my 64 years of driving cars, I’ve learned that while driving is a very good time to pray, but with my eyes wide open. Sometimes, instead of talking to idiot drivers it would be good to pray for them.
If you have difficulty sleeping at night, pray. When you think of someone you want to criticize, pray for them. If you’re concerned about your children or grandchildren, pray for them. When you hear sirens from an ambulance in the village, pray for the patient — and for the EMS workers.
In the Bible on several occasions, when people were overcome by their sins they fell face down before God. Jesus also did so in Gethsemane when he was carrying the sins of the world.
The posture is not nearly as important as the attitude as we seek the face of God.
If salvation depends on faith alone, how do you explain Matthew 25:31-46?
Excellent question, one that has been discussed and debated for centuries — and may not be fully settled this morning. But let’s have a thinking and learning experience as we discuss it.
First, let’s look at Matthew 25. There are sheep and there are goats. They have not become sheep or goats because of what they did in Jesus’ description. They were already sheep or goats because they were born such. And as I see it, how they treated the poor and needy was a direct result of who they were. Jesus told the story to help his listeners and us to understand the obligation and the nature of God’s people to love beyond themselves. Indeed, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.
There is a lengthy history of theological discussions and debates on the relationship of good works to our salvation. The Catholic view was that faith plus good works bring salvation. But even in the Reformation the subject still had two sides.
In spite of its lengthy history, it first caught my serious attention when I read John MacArthur’s 1988 book, The Gospel According to Jesus. The book was prompted by preaching and writing by a number of evangelicals expressing what he called “easy believeism.” MacArthur’s view is commonly called “Lordship Salvation.” The next year Charles Ryrie published So Great Salvation, expressing a very different view, and Zane Hodges another book expressing a view similar to that of Ryrie. They call their view “Free Grace.” Both MacArthur’s and Ryrie’s books were published by Zondervan, and some Christian book stores displayed them next to each other with a sign saying, “Who is Right?”
Let me back up historically to where this apparent conflict comes from, and how it is related to the question at hand. During the Reformation, Luther and other Reformers quoted in Latin, sole scriptura, sole fide and sole gracia — by scripture alone, by faith alone and by grace alone. While the Roman Catholic Church believed the Traditions were inspired, the Reformers said we live and believe by what Scripture alone teaches. The Roman Church also believed that salvation came by faith plus works; but the Reformers said we are saved by faith alone, and that it is provided by God’s grace alone.
Everybody who has ever read the Bible knows for certain that the Bible teaches everywhere that God’s people should live holy lives, lives full of love and good works. John 3:16 says whoever believes in Jesus is saved, while 1 John 3:9 says Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. It doesn’t mean the Christian never sins, but does not live a life of sin, indicated by the tense in the original Greek. John also says if you hate your brother you cannot love God.
When a person receives Jesus Christ as his or her personal Savior, what actually happens? He receives new birth (John 3:3), becomes a child of God (John 1:12), is forgiven for all of his sins (Colossians 2:13), receives eternal life as a free gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-10), becomes part of the body of Christ (Romans 12:5), receives a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17), is sanctified (given to a single purpose — the purpose of serving God) (1 Corinthians 1:2), and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14-15). MacArthur and those who believe in Lordship Salvation emphasize the fact that all of those descriptions paint a picture of a changed life. It is not therefore unreasonable to say it may be assumed that a believer will live differently from most of the sinful world. And, while nobody earns salvation by doing good works, it is a reasonable conclusion that when one becomes “saved,” he will do good works. Lordship Salvation means that if Jesus is your Savior, he must to some degree be your Lord, the one you obey, look up to, submit to, follow, emulate. Christians often say, “God will take you as you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way.” But the free grace people suggest you shouldn’t mention that during evangelism.
On the other hand, free grace defines believing with a higher definition than many Christians seem to think. “Coming forward,” or giving mental assent to a set of truths is no guarantee of eternal life. They maintain that because of their understanding of believing, their view cannot be called easy believeism. In the New Testament, the verb believe is the Greek word pisteuo, and its root comes from the same root as the noun pistis, translated faith. To believe in is to place one’s faith in, to trust, to rely on. It is active.
Now let me ask you the question, “If a person professes faith in Jesus Christ, but never actually lives a Christian life, never reads the Bible, seldom prays, lives a life of greed and self-centeredness, seldom gives his money to the church or to charitable causes, is it possible that he’s really saved?”
Paul teaches us in Galatians and Romans that our good works count for absolutely nothing to earn us merit before God. They cannot bring us salvation, or even help bring us salvation. They cannot bring us assurance of salvation. All they can do is establish with God our obedience to him.
We are not the judge of who is or is not saved — who has been born again and has the Holy Spirit living within. And the more we try to make that distinction the further we are from the will of God, as we are called to be Christlike in our attitudes, rather than judgmental. When a person gives personal testimony to having an experience where they trusted Christ as their Savior, we must take them at their word. God knows whether they (or we, for that matter) are sheep or goats.
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