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Are You Lost?

by Chris Simmons

Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). In prophecy, God said that when the kingdom would come “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy” (Ezekiel 34:16). To be one whom the Lord seeks to be His own, we must “come to our senses” (Luke 15:17) and admit “I am lost!”

Jesus stated that the “kingdom of heaven” belongs to those who recognize how “poor in spirit” they are because of their sin (Matthew 5:3). The Greek word for “poor” in that verse refers to a level of poverty in which one is completely unable to do anything to remedy their utterly destitute state. Marvin R. Vincent in Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament writes concerning this word, “… it is very graphic and appropriate here, as denoting the utter spiritual destitution, the consciousness of which precedes the entrance into the kingdom of God, and which cannot be relieved by one’s own efforts …” Are you poor in spirit?

In order to realize our lost and “undone” (Isaiah 6:5 ASV) condition, every man must recognize that everyone is subject to the law of Christ. While preaching in Athens to those who did not know the one true God, Paul declared, “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31). That passage teaches us every person is responsible for repenting and turning from their own sinful ways to submission to the law of Christ. Whether Jew or Gentile, in the New Testament, all were subject to the law of Christ. Paul makes the point that though Gentiles were not subject to the old law, they were subject to the law of Christ. “And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law, though not being myself under the Law, that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law” (I Corinthians 9:20-21). It is these same brethren in Corinth who were guilty of being “fornicators … idolaters … adulterers … effeminate … homosexuals … thieves … covetous … drunkards … revilers … (and) swindlers” prior to their obedience to the gospel and being “washed … sanctified … and justified … in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:9-11).

The lost must realize that sin is above all else, that which is an offense before our God and Creator in heaven. We might offend others by actions that we do, but what causes us to be lost is the fact that sin offends God. By committing adultery with Bathsheba and committing murder, David sinned against her husband Uriah. But David understood the most important consequences of his sin were against God when he confessed, “I have sinned against the Lord” (II Samuel 12:13).

The lost realize there are eternal consequences to remaining in such a condition. The lost must realize they desperately need to be saved. The lost must ask what they must do to alleviate their lost condition such as the Jews did on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:36), as the jailer in Philippi did in Acts 16:30, and such as Saul (Paul) did as we read in Acts 22:10. If there were not any consequences to being lost, there would be no reason to seek what one must do to be saved. The lost must realize that to remain in such a condition will result in “retribution” and “eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (II Thessalonians 1:7-9).

We must realize that we cannot ourselves undo our lost condition. It is not in man to direct his own steps (Jeremiah 10:23). “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 10:25). The path of reconciliation to God is not subject to the devices of man. Rather, we must turn to the “word of reconciliation” (II Corinthians 5:17-21) and the “wisdom of God” (I Corinthians 1:21-24) in order to be saved from our lost condition. Man cannot deal with his lost condition by some form of “penance” by which we “make up for” sins that we have committed, even as Paul wrote to the Ephesians that our salvation is not a “result of works, that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2:9). Rather, we are called upon to exercise an active, working, obedient faith in response to God’s love that sent His Son to shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins (cf. James 2:14-26; John 3:16; I Peter 2:21-24; Romans 6:3-4).

Jesus came that He might reconcile those who understood that their sins had separated them from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). We need preaching and teaching that convict men of their sins and of their lost condition. We need preaching and teaching that instruct men of the consequences of remaining in such a lost condition. We need preaching that inspires men to seek what they must do and gives rise to the proclamation of God’s plan of salvation that only those who are lost can respond to. Are you lost?

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