Is Being a Christian Easy Like Some Imply?

"When he has tried me I shall come out as Gold" (Job 23:10, ESV)

When he has tried me!

Many misleading Christian leaders preach an easy life for those that would become Christians. They are wrong. If anything it is harder to live as a Christian than not. There is no easy life that awaits the Christian. There is no "cheap grace." (Though if it were not cheap we could not afford it as Steve Brown says, but this is not what is meant here.) The cost of discipleship is high. It demands one's whole life. We belong to God to do as he sees fit to do with us.

Life is not always a bed of roses whether you are a Christian or not. But for the Christian there is much adversity to face and overcome. The world rejects us as we reject it. Satan temps us. Sin entices us. And our very own flesh which still awaits redemption turns on us at times, fighting in an inward battle against everything we aim to be in Christ. This makes life difficult at times to say the least. Considering that the whole of our lives were spent in pursuit of satisfaction of these things mentioned--such things that we abhor now, but must still wrestle with on a daily basis--it is a wonder that we can stand it.

Furthermore, contrary to what many false teachers would have us believe, God, who will not have us as we were, but must change us for the better, uses many trials in our lives as a means to this end. At times evil in the world is mysteriously used for our good and his glory. He disciplines us, tests our faith--matures us.

Though its not easy we have one advantage. Knowing that God loves us and has our best interest in view we do not loose heart and are not broken under the weight of discouragement; rather we welcome trials and temptation, counting them as joy even (James 1:2) hoping that they do not come on the one hand, but taking the occasion of faith on the other when they do come. Unlike the unbeliever who has no hope we take our new disposition to be such that we can even glory in tribulations (Rom. 5:3) For when he has tried us we come out as Gold.