DEAD TO RIGHTS

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. —Romans 5:10

Thank God that we were reconciled to God by the Blood of the Lamb: That is beyond dispute. But there is something to be desired in modern thinking if we pass over the fact that we were enemies—somebody who hates or seeks to harm somebody or something. It is a total lack of understanding of the fear of God that teaches contemporary evangelist’s to bring God’s enemies to him and "reconcile" them without any sign of brokenness, or trembling, or sorrow for sins on the part of the new “card carrying” member. These wholesale conversions amount to little more than sharing a recipe that may or may not ever be prepared by the recipient.

A present-day case in point would be the United States government running down Osama Bin Laden and offering him a full pardon of his crimes and giving him full access to our country without any change of condition on his part. “Osama, since you have been reconciled to God by grace, there is nothing required of you: no remorse, no restitution, and no repentance!

An example that I have actually witnessed goes something like the following:

“Hey Sis, do you know Jesus?”
“No.”
“Do you want to know him?”
“I guess.”
All you have to do is repeat the ‘sinners’ prayer: "Jesus, you said in your word that if any man confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus and believes in his heart that God raised him from the dead, then he would be saved. Jesus, I believe. Forgive me of my sins. In Jesus name amen!”
Praise the Lord Sis: You’re saved!!”

The sinner is the one leading the prayer.

Proverbs 1:7 teaches us that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” The fear of the Lord is the manifest presence of the Almighty—initially it is the stark terror of being exposed before him undone and unclean because of sin. It is the sudden dread brought on by an awareness of being in the hand of your sworn enemy whose power it is to destroy both soul and body. Knowledge here comes from the word that means to know intimately as Adam “knew” his wife. If there is no fear of the Lord in a salvation experience, can there be a true knowing of the Lord?

Saul is a picture of a true conversion of an enemy of God coming face to face with the Lord. As an active enemy of the Lord he was “yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples” when suddenly he came into the presence of the Lord. Jesus asked him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me—why are you my enemy? What happens next is a demonstration of the fear of the Lord that marked a brand new beginning for Paul, thus ending his old life: “And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

Jesus had Paul “dead to rights” and poured out his mercy instead of wrath! But look at Paul’s attitude: He trembled, “shaking continuously and uncontrollably from fear.” He was astonished at the mercy of God, that just as David of old spared King Saul when he could have killed him, Jesus the Son of David was sparing his life.

Paul lives the rest of his life showing the proper response of enemies pardoned by such mercy.

He was dead to rights!