Why do so many Christians whose souls are eternally secure fail to experience the abundant life God has promised to those who believe? Jesus promised us many things: forgiveness, rest, refreshment, comfort, hope, fruitfulness, friendship with God, and eternal life. However, few believers thoroughly enjoy these. Why?
I think it’s because most Christians fail to move past the do’s and don’ts of Christianity, or they turn salvation into a binary proposition. In the first case, they’re focusing on the wrong things, and in the second, they never grow into a fuller understanding of what God is offering. Both of these are based on bad theology.
I was raised in a religious context that focused on the don’ts almost exclusively. In a fear that people would respond inappropriately to grace, they never taught it. As you might imagine, this approach to faith leads to either fear or, in my case, a rejection of faith altogether. It wasn’t until I understood that there was nothing I could do to separate myself from the love of God that I was drawn into a life-giving relationship with my Heavenly Father that led to me enjoying all of the promises mentioned above.
I lived for so many years like everything was up to me. Much of this was related to the lousy theology described above. After all, orthopraxy (right actions) seldom flows from a lack of orthodoxy (correct belief). If you fail to understand that God has done and continues to do for you what you couldn’t do for yourself, you’ll spend the rest of your life working for something already accomplished. God set a pattern for rest in creation, and the writer of Hebrews connects the sabbath to the rest we’re called to enter into through Jesus’s work on the cross. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16, ESV).
Many American Christians have associated abundant life with the American dream rather than depending on God’s grace and provision. While I’m grateful for the abundance we experience, the truth is that it probably does more to separate us from the joy and rest that we’re promised than it provides these things.
When we begin to truly know God and his grace, we understand that there is no problem too big, no pain too great, and no need that surpasses his ability to meet.
Mark Renfroe and his wife, Amy, have been involved in field missions work for 30 years. Mark served as the area director for Assemblies of God World Missions and currently serves as the chief missions officer for World Challenge.