Today's readings are Song of Solomon 2.8-3.11 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Song+2.8-3.11 ) and John 5.19-29 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=John+5.19-29 ).
I confess to hearing and reading statements like the following more often than I would like. I've probably made statements like them, and not only in the context of a refutation.
How can you become a Christian? How can you be forgiven of your sins? How can you find assurance of eternal life? Believe in the Lord. Confess your sins to him. Pray this prayer (insert prayer here in which the person confesses of his sins and asks to receive eternal life). If you have prayed it sincerely and with all your heart, you can start obeying the Lord and he will give you assurance that you have eternal life because you will find a joy in serving Jesus.
There's something wrong with the theology here. Look again at John 5.24a "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life" (ESV). How radically different the focus of Jesus is from the focus that I gave above. In the first example, I the man am asking the Lord to do soemthing for me and in me. I proclaim my evil and I count on the sincerity and completeness of my confession in order to be saved. The assurance of salvation comes through what I do and what I experience. In the second example, which, we notice is the Scripture and quotes our Savior himself, all we do is hear Jesus' words of condemnation for and forgiveness of sin and believe that the Father sent the Son to atone for our sins. Not to be callous, but this is "no fuss, no muss" theology. Thanks be to God for providing us with such a salvation and for being the kind of Lord we can depend on.
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