2 Peter 1:3

In his brilliant satire The Screwtape Letters C. S. Lewis imagined this dispatch from the demon Screwtape to his apprentice, Wormwood, who was trying desperately to keep his human “patient” from practicing biblical Christianity:

That describes precisely the strategy Satan is using with maximum effectiveness against the church today.

	Lewis exposed in those few words the essence of the problem I hope to address in this book.
	When he wrote that mythical letter from Uncle Screwtape in the 1940s, Lewis was correctly diagnosing an ailment that has practically crippled the contemporary church.

The villainous Screwtape hated “mere Christianity” and desperately wanted to adorn it with worldly ideas, fads, trendy add-ons, and whatever else he could sell gullible Christians.

	Why? Because he knew those things can only water down and weaken the purity of the faith. Pure Christianity needs no embellishment: “[Christ’s] divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3, emphasis added).
	John MacArthur’s wonderful book, The Gospel According to Jesus, ended with a reference to 2 Peter 1:3.
	That book dealt with the gospel message and explored the question of what it means to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The book struck an emotional chord, which was no surprise to anyone who follows these things, but what was startling was the volume of the clamor it generated.

He soon published two more books that addressed the “lordship salvation” controversy further from a study of the apostles’ writings.

This study is based, in large part on a book of his as well, however, is not about that issue.

Here we are concerned with the current erosion of confidence in the perfect sufficiency of our spiritual resources in Christ.

It is to be anticipated that this study, too, will stir some controversy - though it shouldn’t.

	As Christians, we find complete sufficiency in Christ and His provisions for our needs.
	There’s no such thing as an incomplete or deficient Christian. Our Savior’s divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Human wisdom offers nothing to augment that.
	Every Christian receives all he or she needs at the moment of salvation.
	Each one must grow and mature, but no necessary resource is missing.
	There’s no need to search for something more.

When Jesus completed His redemptive work on Calvary, He cried out triumphantly, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

	The saving work was fulfilled, completed.
	Nothing was omitted.
	And all who are recipients of that salvation are granted everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Christ (2 Pet. 1:3).
	In Him we have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).
	His grace is sufficient for every situation (2 Cor. 12:9). We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Him (Eph. 1:3).
	By one offering He has perfected us forever (Heb. 10:14).
	We are complete in Christ (Col. 2:10).
	What can anyone add to that?

So to possess the Lord Jesus Christ is to have every spiritual resource.

	All strength, wisdom, comfort, joy, peace, meaning, value, purpose, hope, and fulfillment in life now and forever is bound up in Him.
	Christianity is an all-sufficient relationship with an all-sufficient Christ.
	There’s no reason anyone who believes God’s Word should struggle with such a self-evident truth.

But a widespread lack of confidence in Christ’s sufficiency is threatening the contemporary church.

	Too many Christians have tacitly acquiesced to the notion that our riches in Christ, including Scripture, prayer, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and all the other spiritual resources we find in Christ simply are not adequate to meet people’s real needs.
	Entire churches are committed to programs built on the presupposition that the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42) aren’t a full enough agenda for the church as it prepares to enter the complex and sophisticated world of the twenty-first century.
	How is this possible?
	How can it be that so many are so profoundly deceived concerning the nature and the extent of the finished work of Christ?

Sadly, many Christians are not aware of the truth about our Lord’s sufficiency.

	I hope that, at least in this church, we will be after this study.
	The church at large is in dire need of a renewed appreciation of what it means to be complete in Christ.

The failure of modern Christians to understand and appropriate the riches of Christ has opened the door to all kinds of aberrant influences.

	Bad doctrine, legalism, libertinism, humanism, and secularization - to name a few - are eroding the foundations of the Christian faith.
	Those satanic assaults are more subtle and therefore more dangerous than the liberalism that splintered the church at the start of this century - and they are succeeding with alarming effectiveness.

In the past two decades or so, for example, theology has become more and more humanistic.

	The focus has shifted from God to people and their problems, and “counseling” has replaced worship and evangelism as the main program of many churches.
	Most seminaries now put more energy into teaching ministerial students psychology than training them to preach.
	Evidently they believe therapists can accomplish more good in Christians’ lives than preachers and teachers.
	That mindset has taken the church by storm.
	Evangelicalism is infatuated with psychotherapy.
	Emotional and psychological disorders supposedly requiring prolonged analysis have become almost fashionable.
	An hour listening to almost any call-in talk show on Christian radio will confirm that these things are so.
	Or visit your local Christian bookstore and note the proliferation of so-called “Christian” recovery books.
	Virtually everywhere you look in the evangelical subculture, you can find evidence that Christians are becoming more and more dependent on therapists, support groups and other similar props.
	The embracing of pop psychology by the church is so very complete in this day and age that to suggest anything different is to be greeted with blank stares and incredulous looks, as if you had suggested something so foreign as to be completely out of the realm of consideration.
	Sadly, this but underscores how very, very far we have fallen from the Biblical ideal and teaching concerning the sufficiency of Christ.
	Many Christians, by default, look to psychology and secular mental and emotional ideas for solutions, rather than to the Word of God and to the Church of God as God intended.

This shift in the church’s focus did not grow out of some new insight gained from Scripture.

Rather, it has seeped into the church from the world. It is an attack at the most basic level, challenging Christians’ confidence in the sufficiency of Christ.

“My grace is sufficient for you,” the Lord said to the apostle Paul (2 Cor. 12:9).

	The average Christian in our culture cynically views that kind of counsel as simplistic, unsophisticated, and naive.
	Can you imagine one of today’s professional radio counselors simply telling a hurting caller that God’s grace is enough to meet the need?
	Contemporary opinion is more utilitarian, valuing physical comfort more than spiritual well-being, self-esteem above Christlikeness, and good feelings over holy living.
	Many Christians seeking a sense of fulfillment have turned away from the rich resources of God’s all-sufficient grace and are engrossed instead in a fruitless search for contentment in hollow human teachings.

Another evidence that many are losing confidence in Christ’s sufficiency is the church’s increasing fascination with pragmatic methodology.

	Counseling is not the only program that has supplanted teaching, fellowship, communion, and prayer as the chief activities of church life.
	Many churches have de-emphasized preaching and worship in favor of entertainment, apparently believing they must lure converts by appealing to fleshly interests.
	As if Christ Himself were in some way inadequate, many church leaders now believe they must excite people’s fancies in order to win them.
	Burlesque is evangelicalism’s latest rage, as church after church adopts the new philosophy.

This is precisely the problem that plagued Israel throughout the Old Testament.

	Again and again the Israelites put their confidence in chariots and horses, alliances with Egypt, fleshly wisdom, material wealth, military might, and other human means - anything other than the sufficiency of their God.
	Refusing to rely solely on their ample spiritual resources brought them only failure and humiliation.

Yet the church today is behaving exactly like Old Testament Israel.

	Where will it end? Will biblical Christianity completely fade from the scene before the church enters its third millennium?
	“When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

The church is foundering in a slough of worldliness and self-indulgence.

	We desperately need a generation of leaders with the courage to confront the trend.
	We need godly men and women committed to the truth that in Christ we inherit spiritual resources sufficient for every need, every problem - everything that pertains to life and godliness.

2 Corinthians 9:8

A pastor I know of was conducting a series of meetings in several churches in North and South Carolina.

	He was staying in the home of some close friends in Asheville and traveling each night to wherever he was speaking that evening.
	One night he was scheduled to speak at a church in Greenville, South Carolina, which is several hours from Asheville.
	Because he didn’t have a car, some friends from Greenville offered to transport him to and from the meeting.
	When they arrived to pick him up, he bid farewell to his hosts and told them he hoped to be back by midnight or soon afterward.
	After ministering at the Greenville church, he stayed awhile to enjoy some fellowship and then rode back to Asheville.
	Approaching the house, he saw the porch light on and assumed his hosts would be prepared for his arrival because he had discussed the time of his return with them.
	As he got out of the car, he sent his driver on his way, saying, “You must hurry.
	You have a long drive back.
	I’m sure they’re prepared for me; I’ll have no problem.”
	He felt the bitter cold of the winter night as he walked the long distance to the house.
	By the time he reached the porch, his nose and ears were already numb.
	He tapped gently on the door but no one answered.
	He tapped a little harder, and then even harder - but still no reply.
	Finally, concerned about the intense cold, he beat on the kitchen door and on a side window.
	But there was still no response.
	Frustrated and becoming colder by the moment, he decided to walk to a neighboring house so he could call and awaken his hosts.
	On the way he realized that knocking on someone’s door after midnight wasn’t a safe thing to do, so he decided to find a public telephone.
	It was as dark as it was cold, and the pastor wasn’t familiar with the area. Consequently he walked for several miles.
	At one point he slipped in the wet grass growing beside the road and slid down a bank into two feet of water.
	Soaked and nearly frozen, he crawled back up to the road and walked farther until he finally saw a blinking motel light.
	He awakened the manager, who was gracious enough to let him use the telephone.
	The bedraggled pastor made the call and said to his sleepy host, “I hate to disturb you, but I couldn’t get anyone in the house to wake up.
	I’m several miles down the road at the motel.
	Could you come get me?”
	To which his host replied, “My dear friend, you have a key in your overcoat pocket.
	Don’t you remember? I gave it to you before you left.”
	The pastor reached into his pocket.
	Sure enough, there was the key.

That true story illustrates the predicament of Christians who try to gain access to God’s blessings through human means, all the while possessing Christ, who is the key to every spiritual blessing.

	He alone fulfills the deepest longings of our hearts and supplies every spiritual resource we need.
	Believers have in Christ everything they will ever need to meet any trial, any craving, any difficulty they might ever encounter in this life.
	Even the newest convert possesses sufficient resources for every spiritual need.
	From the moment of salvation each believer is in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) and Christ is in the believer (Col. 1:27).
	The Holy Spirit abides within as well (Rom. 8:9) - the Christian is His temple (1 Cor. 6:19).
	“Of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (John 1:16).
	So every Christian is a self-contained treasury of divinely bestowed spiritual affluence.
	There is nothing more - no great transcendental secret, no ecstatic experience, no hidden spiritual wisdom - that can take Christians to some higher plane of spiritual life.
	“His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us” (2 Pet. 1:3, emphasis added).
	“The true knowledge of Him” refers to a saving knowledge.
	To seek something more is like frantically knocking on a door, seeking what is inside, not realizing you hold the key in your pocket.

Satan has always tried to beguile Christians away from the purity and simplicity of an all-sufficient Christ (2 Cor. 11:3) - and he has always found people willing to forsake the truth for almost anything new and unusual.

One of the earliest denials of Christ’s sufficiency was gnosticism, a cult that flourished in the first four centuries of church history.

Many of the pseudo-biblical writings, including The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Mary, The Apocryphon of John, The Wisdom of Jesus Christ, and The Gospel of Philip were gnostic works.

Gnostics believed matter is evil and spirit is good.

They invented heretical explanations of how Christ could be God (pure, undefiled spirit), yet take on human flesh (which they viewed as a wholly evil material substance).

Gnostics taught that there is a spark of divinity within human beings, and that the essence of spirituality is nurturing this immaterial side and denying material and physical urges.

They believed that the chief means of releasing the divine element within a person was through attaining intellectual and spiritual enlightenment.

Gnostics therefore believed they were privy to a higher level of spiritual knowledge than the average believer had access to, and this secret realm of knowledge was the key to spiritual illumination.

	In fact, the Greek word gnwsis means “knowledge.”
	The gnostic heresy caused many in the church to seek hidden knowledge beyond what God had revealed in His Word and through His Son.
	The key here is that they taught that it was beyond the knowledge of God and His Son, Jesus, meaning that the mere knowledge of the Son was not sufficient to meet the full need of spiritual living.
	This insidious error is as profound in its effect and implications as it is simple in its essence.

Gnosticism was therefore a very elite, exclusive movement that disdained “unenlightened” and “simplistic” biblical Christians for their naiveté and lack of sophistication.

	Sadly, many in the church were beguiled by those ideas and drawn away from their confidence in Christ alone.
	This conviction is now so firmly rooted in the “Christian” mind that it is a given.
	It is now “orthodox” to believe that there is much more needed than the Bible and Prayer to deal with the problems of mankind.

Gnosticism was an attack on the sufficiency of Christ.

It held out the false promise of something more, some higher or more complete spiritual resource, when the truth is that Christ is all anyone could ever need.

Most of the New Testament epistles explicitly confront incipient forms of gnosticism.

In Colossians, for example, the apostle Paul was attacking gnostic concepts when he wrote of “all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:2–3).

He warned believers against the emerging heresy’s methodology: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority” (2:8–10; see further discussion later in the study).

Gnosticism never really died. Strains of Gnostic influence have infected the church throughout history.

Now a neo-Gnostic tendency to seek hidden knowledge is gaining new influence with distressing results.

Where imprecise doctrine and careless biblical exegesis are tolerated and where biblical wisdom and discernment languish, people always tend to look for something more than the simple sufficiency God has provided in Christ.

	Today as never before the church has grown careless and hazy with regard to biblical truth, and that has led to an unprecedented quest for hidden knowledge.
	That is neo-Gnosticism, and three major trends in the church today indicate it is gaining momentum: psychology, pragmatism, and mysticism.

Nothing epitomizes neo-Gnosticism more than the church’s fascination with humanistic psychology.

	The integration of modern behavioral theory into the church has created an environment in which traditional counseling from the Bible is widely viewed as unsophisticated, naive, and even fatuous.
	The neo-Gnostics would have us believe that sharing Scripture and praying with someone who is deeply hurting emotionally is too superficial.
	Only those who are trained in psychology - those with the secret knowledge - are qualified to help people with serious spiritual and emotional problems.
	The acceptance of that attitude is misleading millions and crippling church ministry.

The word psychology is a good one.

	Literally it means “the study of the soul.” As such it originally carried a connotation that has distinctly Christian implications, for only someone who has been made complete in Christ is properly equipped to study the human soul.
	But psychology, separated as it is from the Bible and God’s wisdom, cannot really study the soul; it is limited to studying human behavior.
	There is certainly value in that, but a clear distinction must be made between the contribution behavioral studies make to the educational, industrial, and physical needs of a society and their ability to meet the spiritual needs of people.
	Outside the Word and the Spirit there are no solutions to any of the problems of the human soul.
	Only God knows the soul and only God can change it.
	Yet the widely accepted ideas of modern psychology are theories originally developed by atheists on the assumption that there is no God and the individual alone has the power to change himself into a better person through certain techniques.

Surprisingly, the church has embraced many of the popular theories of secular psychology, and their impact over the past few years has been revolutionary.

	Many in the church believe the atheistic notion that people’s “psychological problems” are distresses that are neither physical nor spiritual.
	“Christian psychologists” have become the new champions of church counseling.
	They are now heralded as the true healers of the human heart.
	Pastors and lay people are made to feel ill-equipped to counsel unless they have formal training in psychological techniques.

The clear message is that simply pointing Christians to their spiritual sufficiency in Christ is inane and maybe even dangerous.

But on the contrary, it is inane and dangerous to believe that any problem is beyond the scope of Scripture or unmet by our spiritual riches in Christ.

Does the end justify the means?

	Evangelicals like never before appear to be answering yes.
	Churches zealous to attract the unchurched have “baptized” virtually every form of amusement.
	To them, the end of getting the unchurched in the doors justifies the means of whatever is necessary to accomplish the goal.

The early Christians met to worship, pray, fellowship, and be edified - and scattered to evangelize unbelievers.

	Many today believe exactly the opposite; embracing instead that church meetings should entertain unbelievers for the purpose of creating a good experience that will make Christ more palatable to them.
	More and more churches are all but eliminating preaching from their worship services and opting instead for drama, variety shows, and the like.
	Some churches relegate Bible teaching to a midweek service; and some others have even dropped it altogether.
	Those with access to the “secret knowledge” tell us that biblical preaching by itself cannot possibly be relevant.
	They say the church must adopt new methods and innovative programs to grab people on the level where they live.

That kind of pragmatism is quickly replacing supernaturalism in many churches.

	It is little more than an attempt to achieve spiritual objectives by human methodology rather than supernatural power.
	Its primary criterion is external success.
	It will employ whatever method draws a crowd and stimulates the desired response.
	Its underlying presuppositions are that the church is able to accomplish spiritual goals by fleshly means, and that, therefore, the power of God’s Word alone is not sufficient to break through a sinner’s blindness and hardness of heart.
	I believe the idea is rooted in the concept that the sinner’s will, and not God’s is sovereign and that God cannot and will not overrule the desire of a sinner’s heart and will.
	Therefore, it is up to us to woo them and to convince them of the wisdom of choosing to “accept” Christ.
	This unbiblical concept is responsible for tremendous damage in this and other areas of theology and lies at the root of much of this thinking.
	It is so well entrenched that it is accepted as axiomatic (undisputedly true) by most Christians today.
	Sadly, the damage that it has done is profound and virtually irreversible.

I don’t believe that is an overstatement.

	The wave of pragmatism sweeping the church today seems predicated on the idea that artificial technique and human strategy are crucial to the church’s mission.
	Many appear to believe that we can capture people for Christ and the church only if our programs are imaginative enough and our sermons are persuasive enough.
	Therefore they bend their philosophy of ministry to suit whatever techniques seem to satisfy the most unbelievers.

Mysticism is the belief that spiritual reality is perceived apart from the human intellect and natural senses.

	It looks for truth internally, weighing feelings, intuition, and other internal sensations more heavily than objective, observable, external data.
	Mysticism ultimately derives its authority from a self-actualized, self-authenticated light rising from within.
	Its source of truth is spontaneous feeling rather than objective fact.
	The most extreme and complex forms of mysticism are found in Hinduism and its western reflection, New Age philosophy.
	The individual and what they “feel” is the authority on what is true and right, and nothing can contradict that idea, because the self is the ultimate authority.

Thus an irrational and anti-intellectual mysticism that is the antithesis of Christian theology has infiltrated the church.

	In many cases individual feelings and personal experience have replaced sound biblical interpretation.
	The question “What does the Bible mean to me?” has become more important than “What does the Bible mean?”
	While this may not sound dangerous, it cannot be stressed how very important that little phrase truly is.
	If the self is the authority, then the Bible is no the authority and ultimately, we can do as we please; all we need is the ability to justify and rationalize the actions sufficiently to ease our conscience.
	If we are not accountable to an outside authority, then we are accountable only to our own passions and thoughts.

That is a frightfully reckless approach to Scripture.

	It undermines biblical integrity and authority by implying that personal experience is to be sought more than an understanding of Scripture.
	It often considers private “revelations” and personal opinions equal to the eternal truth of God’s inspired Word.
	Tragically, there are vast arms of organized Christianity that are built around these very concepts - they are more concerned with the experience of Christianity than they are with being genuine Christians.
	Thus it fails to honor God and exalts man instead.
	Worst of all, it can - and usually does - lead to the deadly delusion that error is truth and frequently results in people thinking they are believers when they really are not.

Extreme varieties of mysticism have flourished in recent decades, hawked by purveyors who make a platform of the religious broadcasting media.

	Televised religious talk shows have showcased almost every conceivable theological and interpretive whim by careless and untrained people - ranging from those who claim to have traveled to heaven and back, to those who deceive their listeners with new truth supposedly revealed privately to them by God.
	This kind of mysticism has spawned several aberrations, including the signs and wonders movement and a false gospel that promises health, wealth, and prosperity.
	It is simply one more evidence of the gnostic revival that is sweeping the church and undermining faith in the sufficiency of Christ.

Given the size of the contemporary professing church, the neo-gnosticism of today poses a more far-reaching threat than its first-century predecessor.

Moreover, the leaders of the early church were united in their opposition to the gnostic heresy. Sadly, that is not true today.

What can be done?

	Paul confronted gnosticism by pointing to our sufficiency in Christ (Col. 2:10).
	That remains the answer even today.

We will look closely at each of these three gnostic influences.

We will observe how they challenge Christ and His sufficiency, and we will discuss the spiritual resources available to all believers in Christ.

As we proceed, you will note several repeated emphases: Scripture is sufficient, God’s grace is sufficient, God’s wisdom is sufficient, God Himself is sufficient, and so on.

These overlapping sufficiencies show the incredible richness of the vast inheritance that is ours in our all-sufficient Christ.