Examine yourself. To find out what?

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Prove

your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how

that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

(II Cor. 13:5)

Do we realize what we are being told here? God is telling us

to examine ourselves, NOT to see whether WE are righteous, but

to see whether our faith is in He who is righteous. We are NOT

to examine our works, or our spiritual condition, to see if WE

measure up. No. No. No. We are to examine ourselves to see

whether we are in the faith -- that is -- to see whether we are

putting all of that aside and placing our faith and rest in Jesus

Christ.

The Truth here is fundamental Christianity. But it has been

smothered with religiousity for two-thousand years. God is

telling us that our spiritual condition depends NOT upon what we

do, nor upon what we are. It depends upon foremost upon who

we trust. The self-examination of which Paul speaks is unto that

end: Upon WHAT is my confidence before God based? Upon

my works? Upon my spiritual condition? Or upon Jesus Christ?

Arnold's Story

The destination for the week-long teen mission trip was in a community that some would call a blight on the face of the state’s opulent tourist industry. A failing local economy, increasing drug-related violence, and growing instances of HIV/AIDS had choked the small town with an oppressive air of hopelessness.

One afternoon, the lush grass under the shade of the locust tree was a welcome, though slight, relief from the heat and humidity. Gnats and fire ants competed for the attention of the thirty or so Haitian, Jamaican, and Puerto Rican children who sat listening to the Bible lesson. Earlier that morning, Arnold, the 13 year old lad sitting next to me, had herded a number of his younger siblings and cousins out of the government housing projects to the field where we now sat.

“Hey, how d’ you git that?” interrupted Arnold with a strong Latino accent.

“Get what?” I whispered back, hinting that he lower his voice, which he didn’t.

“’ternal life—I wanna know how t’ git it.” This time he spoke with even more intensity.

I assured him we could talk afterward to avoid distracting the other children. Later, when we dismissed, Arnold shadowed me closely until we had a chance to talk.

I knew we had an hour or two before the kids were allowed to go home, so I decided to take some time to acquaint Arnold with the big picture of the Bible. I didn’t have a study guide, a Stranger book, a Lamb book, or visual aids—nothing apart from my little travel Bible. I had, however, taught a number of creation-to-cross studies, so I had a chronological framework in my mind from which to tell the story. So I began, starting in Genesis. Shortly, I came to the place where I explained that death had three parts, each a separation as a consequence of sin. To illustrate the point, I asked Arnold, who was captivated by this time, “Have you ever been to a funeral and saw someone who had died?” The young man’s face grew solemn as his gaze dropped to the grass where we sat.

“Yes,” he answered quietly, “lots of times.” Then to my growing sadness, he began to list those he had seen die, beginning with his own mother. She had been murdered right outside his bedroom door only the year before. The boy continued: an uncle, a grandmother, a friend’s dad…the list was long and wrought with sickness and violence. Then it struck me. Arnold was urgently concerned about eternal life because he had seen so much death in his short life. And in the face of such grief, he was looking for answers, looking for hope.

After that, it didn’t take much time to finish the rest of the story, arriving at the account of the empty cross and the empty tomb. We then looked together at some verses which included Romans 6:23 and John 3:16:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (ESV)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (ESV)

Arnold had known the sting of death, but now his question about eternal life was satisfied. Tears of joy and relief flowed as he expressed his trust in Jesus as his savior.