Examine Yourself

Jesus is in the happiness business.

Sadly, not everyone really understands or believes that. In fact, many Christians aren't sure they really experience true happiness. The very first sermon ever recorded as having been preached by Jesus Christ begins with the constantly ringing theme of happiness, and its revolutionary truth hit the world like a devastating bomb exploding in the minds of those who heard it.

The truth of the Sermon on the Mount exploded in the minds of the original hearers because many of them were reluctant to have their standing before God evaluated by Jesus' strict standards. Such reluctance is present also among many professing Christians of our day. There is now an atmosphere of "easy believism" that allows people to experience an initial happiness in encountering the gospel, but not a deep, long-term joy derived from serious obedience to Christ's commands.

Our Lord recognized the potential problem of an easy believism, as indicated in John 8:30-31: "As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, 'If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.'" Jesus affirms that an easy believism is inadequate.

The concept of easy believism is contrary also to the message of the New Testament epistles regarding salvation and assurance. The life of a true believer is never portrayed as a soft, do-as-you-please existence. The believer is called to a life of obedience, in which faith is verified by conduct. A life of obedience should flow from a Christian's basic relationship to Christ. The Lord's Supper illustrates the depth of a genuine attachment to Jesus Christ.

The Lord's Supper is the most wonderful, sacred, unique act of worship the blood-bought church of Jesus Christ can ever experience. It is a sacred memory of the Cross and a time of self-examination.

The bread speaks of the body of Christ and the cup of His blood, and they point to the cross where He was crucified.

More than that, it is a communion with the living Christ. Jesus says in Luke 22:19, "Do this," so it is sacred as an act of obedience. I come to the Lord's Table as often as I can, take the most common things, and in my heart they become symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Some Christians rarely or never come to the Lord's Table, just as there are some who are never obedient in baptism. Sometimes they are just ignorant; they do not understand the importance of the Lord's Table or of baptism. Sometimes Christians are just disobedient. They are acting carnally. But it may be that people who have no desire for testimony in baptism or fellowship at the Lord's Table are not Christians at all. They may think they are, but they are not.

Do you know what's worse than never coming to the Lord's Table? Coming to His Table when you do not deserve to be there. To do that is to eat and drink unworthily and "be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord," according to 1 Corinthians 11:27. And verses 28-29 say, "A man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly."

It is a serious matter for a Christian to come to the Lord's Table when he has not repented of everything and does not desire righteousness and holiness above all. What is even more serious is to come to the Lord's Table and drink unworthily when you are not a Christian at all. Now do not quickly put this book down, telling me, yourself, and God that this does not apply to you because you have been a Christian for years. The Beatitudes call for a full self-examination. Such an approach Paul calls for in 2 Corinthians 13:5, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith." Prove it, he's saying. If it were easy to point to an experience in the past to prove your salvation, why would Paul ask you to examine yourself? There must be something else here.

You might be saying, "Well, I am a Christian. I believe. I made a decision for Christ." A lot of people point to the past to verify their salvation, but did you know that the Bible never does that? It never points to the past. It always bases proof of real salvation on your life now. Examine (test in KJV) is a present tense continuous action, "Be constantly examining yourselves."

You say, "How do I examine myself and know if I'm really a Christian?" Look with me at Matthew 5. When Jesus arrived on the scene, the Jews had already decided what right living was all about. They had already built their own code, developed their own system of what it was to be holy. It was all external self-righteousness, and based on works.

A New Standard for Living: Righteousness

Jesus shattered that when He said, "I want to give you a new standard for living, a new criteria by which you evaluate whether or not you're redeemed." He told them how a citizen of the kingdom really lives.

Do you want to prove yourself? Then let the Spirit of God compare your salvation to the facts of the Sermon on the Mount. Here is the standard, and the key to it all is one word: righteousness. Jesus was saying, "If you are a child of the King, the characteristic of your life will be righteousness."

A woman once told me of a lady in her church who said she was a Christian, but who had been living with a man who was not her husband. Is she a Christian? It is certainly a fair question. First Corinthians 6 says that fornicators do not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because fornication is unrighteousness, and true conversion is characterized by righteousness. Christians can commit fornication, but when they do, they are not distinguishable from non Christians. So it is legitimate to question the woman's salvation.

The key verse to Christ's whole sermon is in Matthew 5:20 in which He says, "I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." They went to the Temple every day, they paid tithes, they fasted, they prayed. They were religious freaks!

Yet Jesus says, "Unless your righteousness surpasses that, you will not enter My kingdom." Righteousness is the issue. Righteousness sets us apart as converted. Righteousness simply means living right, living under God's standards, by His definition. If we do not live this way, the genuineness of our salvation is open to suspicion—to others and to ourselves (usually in the form of insecurity).

Hebrews 12:14 haunts me when I meet people who claim to be Christians but whose lives do not agree: "Sanctification without which no one will see the...