In the article I read, the
author discusses how the acts of Jesus Christ revealed the heart of God. Particularly
when Jesus healed the sick and comforted the lost on the day of the Sabbath, Jesus
Christ demonstrated that though the Law was given to man for his benefit, He
valued man much more than the religious laws.
Through His acts, Jesus Christ proved to man that God’s love for him was
never contingent upon his actions; therefore nothing can be done that would cause one to obtain nor lose the love of God. Knowing that we are saved by
God through Jesus Christ, we are called to develop our faith on the foundation
that our Salvation is not contingent upon what we do, but what God has already
done by offering His only Son as a sacrifice for our sins. Therefore, just as Christ had victory over Sin,
we are to live according to our belief in His victory.
How does it relate to Christian counseling?
The concept of Salvation must
be full-heartedly embraced by Christians and even more so by Christian counselors. It is important for Christian counselors to understand
“true salvation” in order to be able to help their counselees understand and
embrace it themselves. Understanding “true
salvation” entails knowing that though one falls short of God’s grace, there is
nothing that one can do to obtain favor in the sight of God, nor is there
anything one can do to lose favor in the sight of God. In turn, this will help counselors not to
place unrealistic expectations on their counselees, as if their actions can keep
them from the love and grace of God.
Although this is true,
Christian counselors should also understand that this does not mean that their
counselees can therefore act as they please, since God’s love and grace is
unconditional; but rather that in acceptance of His undeserving love and grace,
we as Christians are to demonstrate our faith in Him by living in victory over
Sin not in bondage to Sin. Christian
counselors are to revive the hope in their counselees that they too can have
victory over Sin. Romans 6:6-10
“Knowing this, that our old
self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away
with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; (7) for he who has died is
freed from sin. (8) Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with Him, (9) knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead,
is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. (10) For the death
that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives
to God.” (NASB)
Nothing can substitute the cost for Salvation; nothing can be added and
nothing can be taken away. The death of
Christ alone is sufficient. Our acts of
faith merely demonstrate our belief in Jesus’ victory over Sin. 
Lorena,
ReplyDeleteIt is so true that as Christian counselors it is imperative that we have a deep understanding of salvation. There are so many differences in theology out there that it can be easy to get caught up in grace vs. works, Armenianism vs. Calvinism, etc. Ultimately, the truth is that when we are saved, God sees the righteousness of Jesus instead of our own unrighteousness, but we are also called to be more Christ-like. Great post!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLorena,
ReplyDeleteI too want to harp on what bekah previously mentioned in the comment above, and what you mentioned in your post. You are so right when you spoke of the importance that we as Christians, as well as Christian counselors have an understanding of salvation as well as what we belive. I think this has become more real for me throughout my time in our 507 class. There are so many "perpectives" of salvation and striving to me more like Christ is exactly what we need to do! I also loved this stataement that you wrote in the above text: "Christian counselors are to revive the hope in their counselees that they too can have victory over Sin." I completely agree with this idea of reviving hope not just to our clients, but to everyone we come into contact with. Thanks so much for this post!
For individuals that have grown up in a Christian community or in the Christian "Bubble," I feel that fully-embracing a personal faith can be difficult at times. I grew up in a wonderful Christian family with parents that truly loved the Lord. I spent a lot of time at church and going to different church events. One of my biggest difficulties in cultivating and formulating my personal faith is in differentiating my faith from my parent's faith. Many times growing up, I felt as if I was living in the shadow of my parent's faith and never truly embracing a personal faith of my own.
ReplyDeleteIt was not until that I moved out of my parent's house and went to college that I started to really challenge myself and search for my own faith. As Christian counselors, I feel that we need to be careful when working with children in Christian families because they might not have fully embraced the Christian faith. It would probably be necessary to do some type of assessment of their Christian faith before starting counseling.