Leaving Babylon, the city of confusion

Growing up, I went to church with my family each Sunday and as I grew up, I heard of the Gospel - that Jesus Christ died for my sins and that by believing I would be born again and saved unto eternal life. It was indeed good news. In fact, the greatest news! But as with most things in this world, it seemed too good to be true and so it was in my life. After receiving Jesus Christ as my Savior, I was told that now that I was saved, I was to obey and live a holy life because I was a reborn child of God. I was pressured into many activities at church and ultimately, their expectation was that I would become a missionary. If I rebelled in any way, I was led to expect curses and judgments. Church became a place where I dreaded to go because of all the expectations and demands placed on me. Instead of being a place where I was fed and nurtured, it became a place that heaped more and more burden and condemnation on me. I was completely confused. Where was the Sweet Savior that gave His all for me? In His place were a bunch of rules and expectations that I struggled to meet no matter how hard I tried. Ultimately, it drove me away from God and I left the church. Unfortunately, this may be a similar experience for many believers. With this post, my hope is to remove any confusion that some may have with the beautiful Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and our subsequent walk with Him until we see Him face to face.

I want to share on Babylon and how it precisely portrays a place that many believers may be at in their walk with the Lord. Babylon, of course, was the place of captivity for God's people, Israel. It is important to note that this is not a picture of unbelievers going into captivity. These are God's chosen people, which today would be the church - the body of Christ made up of all believers in the world. This is a picture of believers in captivity such as I was. Babylon is actually the Greek name for the Hebrew word babel (H894). This will ring a bell for some as that is the same name of the tower that man tried to build in Genesis. Babel is defined by Strong as confusion. If we dig a little deeper into the Hebrew language, we find that the root of babel is the Hebrew word balal (H1101) which means to mix, mingle, confuse, confound. From the meanings of the words, we see that the root or cause of confusion is mixing, or mingling, different things. Take a moment to think about this. It really makes perfect sense. If, as a believer, we are in a state of uncertainty or confusion, we are in Babylon. In captivity! And we are there because we have mixed different things together. God does not want His people as captives!

36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:36, NKJV)

1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1, NKJV)

2 For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2, NKJV)

Clearly, God wants His people free and He wants us free from any confusion. As we saw above, captivity is caused by confusion and confusion is caused by mixing different things. So this begs the question: What are the things that should not be mixed together when it comes to our lives as a believer of Jesus Christ?

We can go back to the history of the Tower of Babel from Genesis and take a look at the beginning of the land which would later become known as Babylon. The Babylon of ancient history originated from the land of Shinar (see Genesis 11:2) which carries the meaning "the country of two rivers." This would be the Tigris and the Euphrates. The Scripture tells of a time when man was attempting to reach the heavens in Genesis 11.

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:1-9, NIV)

This shows us that before confusion came, man's effort was involved. Verse 3 says that they used brick and tar for this tower. Just imagine attempting to build a tower that reaches the skies with brick and tar. And their reason for doing this? "To reach the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves..." This shows the inner heart and motive of every person. Even for those that want to know God. As believers, we have a desire to want to know God but along with that we have the natural inclination to "make a name for ourselves" whether it is by our serving, our piety, and our efforts. This is what the Scripture refers to as the flesh. We have a belief that we must, and that we are able to, earn God's salvation and blessings. And many are truly sincere. On paper, this looks like a noble effort. The hard work and dedication appear commendable. At least their objective seems right to the plain eye.

But the Lord saw this, and instead of permitting their ongoing efforts, the Lord caused confusion by mixing up their languages which put a stop to the completion of the tower. He stopped their efforts to reach where He was. Why? Because He knew the only way for man to be reconciled to Him was by Him coming down to man. God does not want our focus to be on our own efforts! It is futile. He wants our focus to be on what His Son has already done for us at Calvary! He does not want our effort to try and reach Him. He wants us to see that He has already reached down to us by sending us His only begotten Son!

8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9, NLT)

Our way to reach God was to build a tower with our good works, our best effort, our self-denial, our charitable acts. In essence, observing the Law. In essence, any other religion out there. This is how believing in Jesus Christ is different from every other religion out there. It is about God coming down to man. Not man trying to reach God. Praise our Savior! God's way for us is to stop our attempt at being justified by our own works and to simply put our faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. What man could ever imagine such a way? Through Isaiah, God tells us that His ways are "far beyond anything [we] could imagine." God's way is truly not the way of man's. The wisdom of God!

God's way holds true not only for salvation but it holds true for our ongoing walk with the Lord. For me, this was where I had become confused. After being saved by grace, I felt that I now had to "repay" God for all that He had done for me. Again, it sounds good on paper and to the flesh, it sounds great. But God wants our Christian life to be a life that starts by faith in Jesus Christ, continues by faith in Jesus Christ, and ends in faith in Jesus Christ with no work or self-effort involved.

17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17, NKJV)

17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” (Romans 1:17, NLT)

17 For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17, AMP)

The above are multiple translations on the well-known Romans verse about "faith to faith." See clearly that it is not "faith to works" nor "works to faith". It is only "faith to faith"! When we begin to mix our works with faith, it will result in confusion and the enemy can take us into captivity. Especially for the believer, we must be rooted deeply that our lives started by His grace and will continue by His grace.

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. (Ephesians 2:8, NLT)

13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13, NLT)

35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39, NLT)

Please let these truths settle in your heart once and forever that you can never be separated from Christ and His love for you. Believe it in your heart. Throughout your walk, there will be times when you may fail and that will be so until we have our full bodily redemption. But in those moments, it is crucial to look to Jesus as your acceptance before God and not yourself. Though your eyes may tell you that you have failed, claim in your heart by faith that you can never be separated from God's love for you. This is truly living faith to faith! This is truly walking by faith!

7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7, NKJV)

We must be careful and vigilant in ensuring that none of our good intentions, thoughts, and actions are mixed with the perfect work of Jesus Christ as our basis for being saved and being blessed. We must be careful as to not be "bewitched" as Paul puts it (see Galatians 3:1). Christ alone is our merit! But be rest assured that when your belief is solely based on His work for you, the fruits - not works! - of the Holy Spirit will abound in you effortlessly and without you even noticing and you will be a blessing to those around you.