God has given some people a gift when it comes to business and the making of money. It is not a gift I have, although I'm not too bad at saving and generally careful about spending. There is however, a business venture which has crossed my mind at various times which I am sure will bring in large profits due to low overheads and minimal set up costs. It is completely legal, but utterly unethical - that is, it does not have the approval of God, and promises big things which it cannot deliver. However, it is a business many peddlers of "spirituality" are doing quite well in, having an endless stream of clients who seldom if ever complain about the undeliverable and false promises of the product they buy. Calling the retailers of this business "peddlers" is perhaps a little misleading, because it is a huge business, in multi hundreds of millions, possibly billions of dollars. As such it is a huge industry, and no one seems to mind. I know of two organisations which call themselves Christian churches, one here in Australia and the other in America, which between them have an annual income of well over one hundred million dollars. This is just an example of two, and there are many others, not to mention the Roman Catholic Church.
So, what is this business I am talking about? It is called "Fleecing the Flock". It is the sale of the promise of achieving heaven and the favour of God by doing something.
You see, before people truly come to Christ, we all feel that it is too simple. The message of the Bible from God Himself is - Repent of all your sins; Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that He is the Son of God who came into this world as a man and died and suffered all that hell could inflict on Him, so that you would not have to, and then rose to life and the presence of God again. This is all! There is a consequence to such a conversion - a new life lived to the honour of the One who saved you, but there are no requirements to buy any form of "indulgence", attend church a certain minimum number of times, buy a candle, send a donation to the charismatic evangelist, or pay some fee for services rendered to the church. Nothing else is required but faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Yet, because we find this too basic, the devil prompts an endless line of people who are prepared to encourage you to think you must do something. It usually involves an exchange of something (money perhaps), but there is this idea in every sin infected human heart that in order to gain a place of favour with God we must feel something or do something in order to secure salvation from this troubled life. The idea that all that is required is to believe in Jesus just as we are, and we will be saved, is simply too silly, or so it seems.
With such in mind, off we go to save ourselves. We'll try to do it by setting up a series of good resolutions, and very soon we find they are mere vapours with less substance than a Beijing smog, but how we try. Unfortunately, our foundations for eternity crumble before we even achieve a tiny success.
Perhaps then we can work it out another way. Let's try a little human reason and logic. Doesn't God list a series of things He forbids His people to engage in? There are those Ten Commandments. They speak of adultery and theft, murder and a few other things. Well, we reason, we've never committed those things, and suddenly we feel quite good, until someone points out that Jesus said anyone who looks with sexual desire at another person not their partner in marriage has committed adultery, and anyone who has felt any blind anger at another person has committed murder. Let's not go on, because now we find we can't even resolve salvation in this way.
If only, we sigh. If only we could keep the law of God perfectly. Surely God would not be so precise and demanding we wonder, and God replies, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the Law" (Gal 3:10). God is very particular, and very precise and completely uncompromising.
Salvation - peace with God is only secured by Christ, and the way to Christ is only revealed in Scripture. This way we are told over and over is by the merciful grace of God alone. No amount of good intention or works will achieve the smallest kindness from God, but faith in God's way and God's divine man Jesus Christ and His salvation work. Only a whole hearted acceptance of God's way of salvation brings joy and glory to God. Anything less puts the focus on us and our terminal corruption, no matter how much we may want to save ourselves.
It seems my business venture will provide many worldly goods, but provide me no good with God, and worse, will mislead and condemn many others as well.