How Do I “Get Right With God” After Backsliding?

How do I get right with God after backsliding? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, it's Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open, and we would love to hear from you. You can call us for the next 25 minutes or so with your question. Here's the phone number. That's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. You can watch Adriel in the studio right now on YouTube and send him your question that way.

And of course, you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Adrian calling in from St. Louis. Adrian, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Adrian, you there? Hey.

I'm here. Hello? Hello, Adrian. Hey, I can hear you cutting out a little bit.

Maybe we should try to come back to Adrian a little bit later. Can you hear me? Are you there, brother? Go ahead.

Yes. Can you hear me? Hey, there you are. Go ahead.

Give me your question, Adrian. Okay, sorry about that. I just want to thank you guys. First of all, thank you guys both for what you do. I want to thank you because now I am a part of the CORE.

I'm a member of the CORE. Hey, we should have like a cell. There you go. Yeah. Hey, man. Appreciate your encouragement, brother.

What's your question? Okay, so I've always heard that you can be saved all the way up until your death. And then I think about how the man, the thief on the cross, how he, you know, how he was saved. But then I heard a pastor say that he only reason why he was saved because it was under the old covenant. So I'm hoping you can clarify that for me.

Okay, okay. You know, this is a great question. How were people in the Old Testament saved, really? I mean, is the heart of this question before Jesus came. How were people under the old covenant saved?

I mean, Jesus hadn't, he was dying there, but you don't have the resurrection from the dead, the ascension. So how was this guy saved? Was he saved under the old covenant? Well, look, people in the Old Testament were saved in the same way that people in the New Testament are saved, by grace through faith. Paul in Romans chapter 4 says Abraham was saved, justified by faith.

And so sometimes, you know, we can get confused about this. We can think, well, people in the Old Testament under the old covenant were saved one way, by obeying and doing works and keeping the law. And if they did a good enough job, then they would go to heaven. But then in the New Testament, it's all about grace and forgiveness and the blood of Jesus.

But the issue is, that's actually not the case. There aren't two ways of salvation throughout redemptive history. There is one way, which is through the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Now in the Old Testament, they were looking forward to the promises of God that they had in what we call types and shadows. The sacrificial system, the promises given way back in Genesis and spread throughout the Old Testament. So they were looking forward to Christ and clinging by faith to those promises.

We look back on the finished redemptive work of Christ, but it's faith and faith alone that saves. So what was the point of the old covenant then? What was the point of the law? And that's what the Apostle Paul gets into in places like Galatians chapter 3, especially verses 15 and following. In verse 19, he says, why did God give the law?

Why the law? And he says, it was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not, for if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be based on the law. But scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now, Paul says, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.

And so the law served this purpose. The Mosaic Covenant served this purpose in redemptive history. It was driving the people to Christ and to the promise that God had made even before the law was given, the promises that were given to Abraham. And so the thief on the cross, he's saved by faith as he clings to the hope of the gospel in Jesus as he looks to Jesus and says, remember me when you enter into your kingdom. He is trusting in Jesus, and so he's saved by the grace of God, even though you didn't have, you know, at that point, you know, the resurrection of Jesus hadn't taken place. And so we have to be really careful here because anybody who says, you know, in the Old Testament under the Old Covenant they were saved one way and now we're saved another way, that's not what the Bible teaches.

And I would point people to, again, that text in Romans 4 or Galatians chapter 3 or so many other passages as well. Adrian, thank you again for your support and encouragement and God bless you, brother. Adrian, thanks so much for listening to CORE Christianity.

We'd love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, feel free to call us right now. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Stephanie calling in from Indiana. Hi. My question today is, you have somebody that believes in God and knows of God, but yet they feel that God is against them, that they've been handed a bad life and feel that they've done something in a previous life that God is paying them back for in this life. How do you lead their heart back to God? Okay. Well, I mean, it sounds like there are some beliefs that this individual holds. You said, you know, things that they did in a previous life or, you know, that they feel like this is why they're suffering.

So I think a few things. One, you know, as Christians, we don't believe in reincarnation. We believe that God made us, God created us. He gives us this one life to live. After this life comes the judgment.

We stand before God. But we experience, people can experience great suffering. We live in a fallen world, a world that's full of sin. And sometimes that suffering is the result of our own sin. Sometimes it's the result of the sin of others. Sometimes it's just the result of being in a broken world. And we'd like to point to something and say, well, it was my previous life or this other person.

But sometimes we don't have those kinds of specific answers. The other thing, Stephanie, is so many people think that God being for them looks like an easy life. There are many, many godly people who love Jesus and who are loved by Jesus, but who experience great suffering. And so I think part of the issue is we're confused, and we think the way God demonstrates His love to me is by, you know, things go the way I had hoped they would have.

I'm healthy, I have money, whatever it is. But the fact of the matter is we're not promised those things. And when you look at the New Testament, and I'm not saying those things are bad either, but when you look at the New Testament, the followers of Jesus, some of the people who knew God's love intimately, like the apostle Paul, experienced great difficulty in their lives. And I think of what Paul himself writes in Romans chapter 8, verses 31 and following, and I think that this clears the air here.

He says, What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us, is praying for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. And Paul says, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now the big takeaway there, Stephanie, is that as Paul is writing to these Christians in Rome, he knows that many of them have experienced intense suffering for their faith in Jesus. They're being persecuted. Some of them have died. They're experiencing nakedness, famine, want, tribulation, persecution. This is what they're experiencing. But they're not saying, Well, God, you must not love me.

I must have done something bad in the past. No, Paul says, even through these things we're more than conquerors and nothing is going to separate us from the love of God. So they might say, Well, God, how do I know that you love me? Look at how much I'm suffering.

I'm being persecuted. And you know what Paul would say, and this is what you can say to your family member, we know God's love in that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, into the world to bear the weight of our sins so that we might be forgiven. The greatest need that we have is that need, that spiritual need of our sins being atoned for.

We're focused on all these other things. And God has said, No, I've demonstrated my love. I've exhibited my love for you in this concrete way. I sent my Son into the world to bear your sins so that you might be forgiven.

That's the most important thing. That's how God has revealed His love for us in Jesus. And so a lot of times we're looking for the love of God in the wrong places. We're saying, God, if you really loved me, I would have more money, or I wouldn't have this sickness, or that relationship wouldn't have fallen apart. And so we're basing God's love on our circumstances, not on what God has accomplished for us in the Gospel. Now, that doesn't mean that our circumstances don't matter and that God doesn't care about them.

He does. But so often it's in and through those sufferings that we experience as Christians that God is drawing us closer to Himself. And so could it be that for this family member, Stephanie, God is calling this person to recognize who He is and to know His love as exhibited in Christ in the Gospel. And so I think that's prayer. I think that's coming to understand who God is and what God has done and our own need. Those sins that we commit, that your family member feels like, I'm paying for this now, the things that I did in the past. No, here's how God has demonstrated His love.

God sent His Son to pay for those sins so that that person might be justified, so that that person might receive forgiveness. And so it's an opportunity to talk about the love of God in the Gospel. And may God help you in that, Stephanie, enable you to do that. And may God open this family member's heart, not just to know about God, but to truly know God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen. Stephanie, we'll be praying for you in that entire situation. And thank you so much for calling in today. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, the number is 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. If you're a parent or a grandparent, I want to tell you about a great free resource that we have available. It's a way to help your kids learn Scripture, God's Word, through song. Yeah, the resource is called Ten Songs to Sing as a Family, and it's a free download over at corechristianity.com forward slash radio that will introduce you to ten great songs or hymns with a little bit of devotional material information about each of the songs.

And no, it'll be encouraging for you. And what a great way to memorize good theology through song, through music. And so go over to corechristianity.com forward slash radio to get your free download of our offer, Ten Songs to Sing as a Family.

It'd be a great opportunity for you to gather together around the dinner table and sing those beautiful songs, and again, start to really write God's Word on your kids' hearts. This is Core Christianity, and we do receive voicemails here at the Core. You can call us 24 hours a day, leave your voicemail on our system. Here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Brian. My question has to do with being excellent and just what that entails and how to return to a right state with the Lord. Thank you. Okay, thank you for that question. And Brian, I mean, I am assuming that you're asking for yourself. Maybe you've gone through a period of wandering away from God and you feel distant from God.

And I know that there are people listening right now to the broadcast who, that describes them. Maybe you're listening on the radio right now and you have been backsliding, you're heading in a direction away from God, away from His Word. You're doing things that you know are contrary to the truth. How do you get back? First, what I would want to say is recognize that God is calling you back.

Right now, He's calling you back. I think of the beautiful, it's my favorite parable in the New Testament, the parable of the prodigal son, where you have the story of a son who's backsliding. I mean, he's in open rebellion against his father. He says, Father, give me my inheritance. I kind of want to go do my own thing, which is essentially to say, Dad, I wish you were dead. Because that's when you get the inheritance, when the father dies. So he says, give me my inheritance early. I don't want to wait for you to die.

You're taking too long, right? Give me my inheritance. And what does he do? He takes that inheritance, that money, and he spent everything he had. He squandered that property, that gift that he was given in reckless living.

So he's backslidden. And when he had spent everything, we're told, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. And so he went out and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. And oftentimes, I think for genuine believers, for Christians, when we backslide, when we head off to the far country in rebellion against the father, this is the experience, the pain, the shame, the sleeping with the pigs, essentially, what you have there in verse 15.

He's literally there, and he's longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. And even if your life is pretty good, just that sense of distance from God, the heavy hand of the Lord's discipline in your life, that conviction, you feel that. And so he came to himself and he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.

There's the turning point right there. So if you're backsliding, if you're wandering away from the Lord, I think it's recognizing, God, I confess my sin. I confess to you that I've been wandering. I'm tired of longing for the pig food. I'm tired of living in the muck and the mire. I want to come home. But you have also there the prodigal son feeling that shame and wondering, God, will you even accept me back as one of your children?

Maybe make me a servant. And what happens? He comes to this resolution. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. He arose, came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

And they began to celebrate. If you're backsliding like the prodigal son here, come to your senses and say, God, I've sinned. I've sinned. And when you feel like, man, will God accept me? After what I've done, after the sins that I've committed, after being in the pigsty for as long as I've been, having taken all the good gifts that God has given to me and squandered them, you feel that shame. You have that question, will God welcome me back? And listen to what Scripture says here, what Jesus says. What does the Father do?

He embraces this son, who probably still smelled like the pigsty, embraces this son and clothes him and throws a party. And that's what God does for all those who confess their sins. For you listening right now, you who have been wandering, confess your sins to the Lord and receive the welcome of the Father and the grace of Jesus Christ.

That's what you need, Brian. And so may God grant you that and give you joy in coming home. What a beautiful picture you've painted for us, Adriel. I'm really reminded that when we are talking to non-believers, and hopefully all of us feel a real urge, a real sense of responsibility to share the gospel with others, but the story of the prodigal son is such a powerful way to share the gospel. Yeah, absolutely. By the way, we've offered this book on the broadcast before, but one recommendation is Tim Keller's The Prodigal God, that short book that he wrote, which is all about that parable, which is a wonderful book, even if you've been a Christian for many years.

Maybe you don't feel like you're not backslidden, or maybe you are. In any case, that's a great book just about the grace of God, the love of the Father, and the work of Jesus for his people. Again, that's Tim Keller's book, The Prodigal God.

Great to read. We've lost Dr. Keller, but his books remain, and so many of them are so rich and so helpful in your Christian life and in also sharing the gospel, spreading the good news to others. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, we also have a YouTube channel. You can watch Adriel on YouTube, and you can send him a question that way. Here's a YouTube question that came in from one of our viewers. They want to know, what is liturgy?

Oh, I like that question. I'm kind of a liturgy nerd. I love church history, and I love the history of Christian worship. The word liturgy, a lot of people don't realize this, but it's actually in the Bible. The Greek word liturgia was used in places like the book of Hebrews in the Greek translation of the Old Testament as well, oftentimes had to do with the priestly service under the Old Covenant. So you think of the service of worship there in the Old Testament, the work of the priests.

In the ancient world, it's sometimes referred to public service, the work of a public servant. Typically today, when you say, what is liturgy, when a church talks about liturgy, some people think they're kind of allergic to that word. Liturgy, that sounds really like the more traditional churches, we're more contemporary, that kind of a thing. What I'll say is every church has a liturgy, and what I mean by that is every church has an order of worship, a way of worshiping the Lord. Some churches, you show up to church and there's a handful of announcements, maybe an introduction song or two, and then maybe a video on a big screen, or a missionary comes up and shares a few things, and then maybe a preacher will come and preach for 20 minutes or 30 minutes or 60 minutes, which I think is too long, sermons that are an hour long, I think that's too long.

And then maybe they'll take the Lord's Supper, maybe not. But there's an order, a sort of rhyme to the worship service. So every church has that, a way of worshiping. The question is, are we worshiping God according to his word? Are we being faithful to what Jesus has given to us?

So we don't have to be, I think, afraid of that word. I think it's okay to talk about liturgy and worship. In fact, I think it's really important to think about, from a biblical perspective, why do we do the things that we do in worship, and what's the focus? Is the focus entertaining people? Is the focus being, you know, attractional, trying to get people through the door?

And so we have all of these gimmicks. Or is the focus worshiping the triune God? And is our worship shaped by the word of God? And so liturgy helps to think about some of those things. And as I said, it's a biblical idea. And so it's something that I think we should concern ourselves with, especially pastors, ministers, as they lead the service of worship and as they're preaching the word of God. It's a really important thing.

So thanks for that YouTube question. You know, and I've been to your church, Adriel, and I actually love the liturgy there. It's unlike my church, which tends to be a little more contemporary. But I felt the liturgy at your church is so meaningful.

And my wife did as well. I appreciate that. You know, it's funny because we do have a traditional liturgy where we are singing hymns and psalms.

But we also have a lot of little kids, like young families. And so it feels quite lively still, even though we're singing the ancient hymns. And so I love that combination there. Hey, thank you for listening to CORE again. May the Lord bless you. And thanks. truth of God's word together.