Examine Yourself

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Examine Yourself

To find out what?

by David A. DePra

Examine yourself, whether ye be in the faith.

God tells us to "examine ourselves." But what exactly does He

mean by that? And how do we "examine ourselves?"

These questions are important, because for many Christians,

self-examination is the PROBLEM, not the solution. We DO

examine ourselves, but we do it to the point where we become

obsessed with our spiritual condition. Some of us even become

depressed and discouraged from this self-scrutiny.

Actually, unless you are completely deceived by your own

sense of self-righteousness, you won't come up with much that

is good if you examine yourself. What can we point to that is

good, or of any merit? Our obedience? Our works? Nope. God

already tells us that these provide us with NO merit. Ok. So

what are we left with? Our sins, failures, and personality flaws.

And being left with those doesn't provide much comfort.

Do you see where self-examination really leads us -- if we

do it with an open and honest heart? It leads us to a dead-end.

It leads us to a place where we see we don't have what we need

and have no where to get it. It makes us to realize that we are

nothing; spiritually bankrupt. In other words, it leads us to

exactly the place God wants us!

Self-examination in the light of God's holiness can bring us

to no conclusion but that we are nothing save the grace of God.

It can leave us with no possibility of escape, except for

resurrection in Christ. And that IS where God wants us to be. He

wants us to realize our utter helplessness and reliance upon Him.

Only then will we stop trying to be something we are not, and

begin believing and resting in Jesus Christ.

Actually, this becomes clear once we read the entire passage

which tells us to "examine ourselves." It says, "Examine

yourselves, to see if you are holding to --- WHAT? Good

works? No. Wonderful spiritual character? Going to church?

No. Serving? No. Bible study? No. All of those are good

things. But notice WHY God tells us to "examine ourselves." He

says, "Examine yourselves, to see if you are holding to the

FAITH."

Let's read the entire passage:

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?

Practical Christianity

Now, if you are like most of the rest of us, when you read this

you may say to yourself, "But I already know that. I already know

that my faith is not to be in myself, but in Jesus Christ." The

question, however, is not whether you know it as a teaching. The

real question is whether your faith IS in Jesus Christ, and not in

yourself.

There are ways to discover whether your faith is in Christ,

rather than yourself. So let's look at a few of them, for that is

what God is telling us to do. To start, ask yourself: How much

does fear and condemnation govern me? Does fear and

condemnation govern me when my works aren't too good? Is the

only time I have rest in Christ when I perform well before the

Lord? Then my faith is not fully in Christ. It is in my works. My

works are determining whether I believe I'm right with God.

Here is another question: Do I feel like I'm a failure, or falling

apart, when God uses my failures to expose me as "less spiritual"

than I had hoped? Then my confidence was not based upon

HIM, but upon how well I thought I was doing.

There is yet another question to ask, which touches upon one

of the more subtle areas of unbelief we may have fostered: How

does it affect me when I do succeed in obeying God? Does it

make me feel as if God owes me something? Do I feel like God

has more favor towards me than before? If doing good works

seems to "increase" my faith, then again, my works are

determining my faith. My faith may not be fully in Jesus APART

from my works.

Can you see a pattern here? If our confidence before God is

either stablized, or shaken, because of what WE do, then our

confidence is in what WE do. It is not in what HE HAS DONE.

Then we are not holding to faith in Jesus Christ the way God

intends.

The Truth is, if I really am resting in Christ, then NOTHING I do

is going to affect my faith. Does that seem incredible? To most

of us, it may, for we have been trained to think in opposite terms.

But it is nevertheless the Truth. The message of the gospel is

that nothing I do changes the fact that "It is finished." Therefore,

nothing I do need hurt my faith in that finished work.

The Real Warfare

Examining oneself to see if you are "in the faith" is a subject

closely related to spiritual warfare. How so? Well, we are to

examine ourselves to see if we are standing by faith. But that is

exactly the issue at stake in all spiritual warfare: Whether we will

stand by faith against all that the enemy might bring.

Notice the key word here: STAND. Again and again we read

in scripture that our faith is to be a STAND. (Read Ephesians

6:10-18) We wrestle, not to win ground, but to hold ground.

And if we will stand and hold that ground, we will actually come

into possession of it -- in a way that is experiential and real.

What we see here is that our warfare does not consist of trying

to win a victory over the Devil. It consists of standing by faith in

the victory Christ has already won. In other words, instead of

trying to win a victory, our lives are to be spent operating FROM

Christ's victory. The goal of the enemy is to get us to move from

our stand in Christ to a stand upon a substitute.

Now ask: What is the number one vehicle the enemy uses to

move from our stand by faith? What does he most often point to

to show us that the victory isn't really won? Easy. Our sin and

failures. The enemy simply points to US. He says, "See. You

wouldn't act like this if Christ had REALLY won the victory. Your

failures prove He hasn't. YOU must still try to win it."

Note the subtle deception. The Devil doesn't necessarily

need to try to get us to overtly sin -- although it is certain he'd

be pleased with it if we did. Rather, he simply tries to get us to

shift our confidence from uncondtional faith in Christ over to our

own performance. And having achieved that goal, he can then

endlessly torment us with our failures, for we will NEVER be able

to do enough good works to be perfect.

Do you see what is going on here? And do you see the ONLY

solution? The only hope I have of escaping the hopeless cycle of

trying to "win the victory" is to refuse to be moved from faith in

Christ's finished victory. I must refuse to allow my faith to be

either shaken, or exalted, by my performance or spiritual

condition. I must, as Romans tells us, base my whole faith upon

the righteousness of God APART from anything I do. (see Rom.

3:21) My whole focus must be away from myself unto Jesus

Christ.

If this seems an impossible task for you to do, then you can

rejoice in that admission. It IS impossible for you to do. But if

you will surrender yourself unconditionally to God, God will do a

work of reduction and depletion which will bring you to that

place. That will not be easy or enjoyable to the flesh. It will take

time and progression. But it is Christianity. It is the Cross. And it

is the only way to real resurrection life in Jesus Christ.

Faith Produces Works

Christianity is a life based in faith APART from my own works.

But it is important that we understand the place of works in the

Christian life, for from Jesus Himself to Paul, everyone who ever

preached the real gospel of grace has been accused as being a

teacher of licence. So how about it? If Christianity is a life of

faith, then where do works fit in?

Works, according to the Bible, are to be a product of our faith

in Christ. They are to be an outgrowth of believing and resting in

our Lord's finished victory. But how does faith produce works?

Real faith -- the kind the Bible talks about -- produces

works because real faith is not mental assent to Truth. It is an

uncondtional surrender to Truth. Or, to put it another way, if I

really believe, and am really standing by faith, then I'm going to

be surrendered to God in a way which will more and more

motivate me unto good works.

It is actually a moral impossibility to stand by faith and NOT

produce good works. That doesn't mean everything I do will be

perfect just because I believe. It doesn't mean I will immediately

be free of sin or the flesh in practice. But I will, because of my

stand by faith, be growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus

Christ -- unto a life which reflects it.

Good Works

We live in a time where values, terms, and understanding is

being constantly redefined. What used to have a clear meaning

is now often completely distorted. Such is the age of "relativism."

Nothing is black and white. Everything is relative.

This mentality has always afflicted Christianity. Because of

that, some Bible terms have come to be somewhat redefined

from God's original meaning. They no longer mean what God

intended.

One term which the Bible uses is "good works." What does

that term mean? Most of us would probably define "good works"

as "morally upright deeds." Or perhaps we'd say, "keeping the

ten commandments." We would not be wrong. But because we

don't go far enough with our definition, we could in time limit the

meaning of "good works," or, in fact, completely redefine it.

According to the Bible, "good works" are only "good" in the

eyes of God if they are a product of faith. Conversely, if my

works are not of faith, then it does not matter if they appear

"good." In the eyes of God, they really aren't. They are of

unbelief: "Whatever is not of faith is sin."

Notice that closely. Real good works are those I do because I

believe. False good works are those I perform because I don't

believe.

We see here that the real quality of works are determined, not

by the action they perform, but by the motivation behind them.

In other words, it is more important WHY I do than it is WHAT I

do.

But wait. How could a person do "good" works in unbelief?

Easy. We do them all the time. Anytime I do good works

because I think it will win me God's favor, or to appease His

wrath, I am doing them because I don't believe the Truth. I am

still trying to manipulate God through my works. I don't believe

that I have uncondtional forgiveness and access to God through

Jesus Christ APART from anything I do. That is legalism.

Clearly, the way God defines good and bad works differs from

the way we might define them. We usually define works based

on whether they meet a certain outward standard. But God

defines works based on whether they are "of faith." Good works

are motivated by faith. Bad works are not. The outward action,

and the outward results of our works, are secondary.

Faith Is Rest

God wants us to do good works. But He does not want us to

do them because we don't believe. He wants us to do them

because we do. We see this Truth expressed in one of the

dominating characteristics of faith: REST. Faith is REST,

not from good works -- but from trying to earn BY MY WORKS

what God has freely given me by His grace.

Herein is the fundamental point: We are to do good works.

Lots of them. We are to stop doing bad works. But we are not to

work to EARN anything. We are to believe it is already freely

given to us. And because we believe that, it should motivate us

unto good works all the more!

There are a couple of ways to illustrate this Truth. For

instance, most of us have to work for a living. We must perform a

task for a wage. If we don't work, we don't get paid. This means

that no matter how much we enjoy our work, our underlying

motivation is the wage we earn. We need it to live.

Now envision yourself inheriting so much money that you no

longer need to work. Would you still work? If you would, your

motivation for working will have changed. No longer will you be

working because you have to. You will work because you want

to. You will be at rest from all the pressure which comes with

being dependent upon your job.

It is like this spiritually. In Christ, we have freely inherited all

things. There is nothing left for us to work for. We are free from

the responsibility of earning anything from God through our good

works. But that doesn't mean we don't DO them. On the

contrary, we do them all the more. Why? Because we believe!

Because we love! Because Christ is in us! Good works cannot

help but flow from our union with Christ.

The ONLY means by which we can do God's will, indeed,

BECOME His will, is through the solid foundation of faith in

Jesus Christ. Unless that foundation is there, then what we build

on top of it will be flawed. Thus, rather than promote licence,

faith in the real gospel of grace is really the very means by which

good works are "really" good in the eyes of God.

Are We In the Faith?

All of these points are part of self-examination. We are to

examine ourselves to make sure that we are believing and resting

in Jesus Christ. We are to determine, not whether we are perfect,

but whether we are allowing our imperfections to be swallowed

up in His death and resurrection. We are to "examine ourselves"

to allow God to show us whether we are standing in the faith.

For, as Paul concludes, without Jesus, we would be reprobates.

We have nothing of ourselves. He is our only hope.

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