ARE YOU REALLY A CHRISTIAN?

The Kim Davis matter has caused a fault line in the American Church.  Huge numbers of individuals and organizations who purport to be Christian have taken the position that she should have resigned.  Many of the best minds in the Christian world disagree.  Dr. John McArthur recently declared from his pulpit, "We will not bow" to homosexual bullying.  Dr. Franklin Graham has supported Davis in the strongest terms.  Dr. John Piper released a statement supporting her as did Dr. Robbie George Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton.  Her lawyers are led by former Liberty University Law School Dean Mat Staver. And yet, scores of alleged Christians refuse to see the import of this case.

There is a reason for this.  A lot of these people can't understand Kim Davis's position because they are not really Christians. There is no kinder way to say that.  Recently, Glen Beck, a Mormon, aired a searching dialogue in which he suggested that people who say the right words and lay claim to their fire insurance policy salvation may be deluded, especially when they can look the other way when evil is literally before their eyes.

The Apostle Paul was a lawyer.  Had he not converted to Christianity he was on the fast track to sit on the Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin. He wrote a third of the New Testament.  Paul described salvation this way in Roman 10:9: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

The word translated "confess" is the Greek word "homolegeo."  It is a legal term.  It means to enter into a contract or a covenant.  The word translated "Lord" is the Greek word "kurios."  It is a military or slave term.  It means literally a despot or absolute master.  It could be used for a military commander or a slave owner.  The word translated "heart" is something of a transliteration.  In the Greek culture of the time, the intellect was thought to be seated in the heart while the emotions were seated in the gut.  So, if we read this verse as it would have been understood in the Greek you come up with, "If you publicly enter into a contact or covenant agreeing that Jesus Christ is the absolute master of your life and are intellectually convinced that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved."   

Throughout the centuries that has been a costly agreement for those who actually enter into it.  Paul was beheaded and Peter was crucified by the government of their time.  Thousands of Christians died rather than bow down and sacrifice a spoon of incense declaring that Caeser was their supreme civic lord.  They understood that the agreement that they had entered into with the one true Lord would not allow them to bow the knee to any other.

Bowing has become easy in the 21st Century.  We bow to the Lord of death when we say we don't agree with abortion but won't do anything to stop it.  We bow to the Lord of perversion when we succumb to so called gay rights and gay marriage in order to keep our jobs and positions.  We bow to the Lord of power when we see the offices of government misused and justice perverted and do nothing to stop it.

Kim Davis understood this.  Kim Davis would not bow.  Kim Davis's life shows the fruits of a true salvation covenant with her Lord and Master.  Does yours?