This is the story of Mickey Cohen, the “Christian” gangster. It contains a powerful lesson many believers desperately need to hear.
**The link to “Loving God” by Charles Colson as promised: https://amzn.to/3z1ryzd This is an affiliate link.
**“The Basics of Christianity for New Christians” from the Graham organization. Course: https://tinyurl.com/4s2m69bj and PDF: https://tinyurl.com/3nhmftyd
0:00 Mickey Cohen’s Story
4:38 Why can’t I be a “Christian” Gangster?
5:28 Jesus’ Requirement to Go to Heaven: Obedience
6:39 We Love God Because He First Loved Us
8:47 Obedience is the Measure of Our Love for God
10:02 Activation: Make Jesus the Lord of Your Life
Mickey prayed the sinner’s prayer. Then friends sent him to Billy Graham where he and his people explained Christianity to him. Upon returning to L.A. he avoided the man who led him to Christ, Bill Jones and went back to his mob friends. Jones contacted him to see what was wrong.
“Jones,” Mickey replied, “you never told me that I had to give
up my career. You never told me that I had to give up my friends.
There are Christian movie stars, Christian athletes, Christian businessmen. So what’s the matter with being a Christian gangster?
“If I have to give up all that—if that’s Christianity—count me out.”
( Direct quotes from Loving God by Charles Colson and Wikipedia.)
It’s an outrageous thought – a Christian Gangster. Obviously, Mickey Cohen had to choose – continue to be a gangster or become a Christian. Yet, many people have the same thought. They want to be a Christian, but continue to do what they used to do.
Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus said:
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Verse 21 makes Jesus’ requirement for genuine repentance and salvation clear. Obedience. There is no salvation without obedience to God.
You or someone you know may have had an encounter with the Lord. Your heart may have been moved. You may have wept. You may have genuinely asked God to forgive you. You may have prayed agreeing to make “Jesus your Lord and Savior.” But if you immediately or even eventually went back to your former lifestyle and friends.
Jesus will tell those who never really knew Him, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.”
Ephesians 1:5
God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
The saving relationship God offers is adoption as sons and daughters. Everyone in heaven will be a son or daughter of God. No one is grandfathered in. No one is there because what they did. No one is a servant. Everyone will be there for one and one one reason - their relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
1 John 4:19 NKJV We love Him because He first loved us.
As we receive God's love, love for Him swells up in our hearts. He becomes the desire of our hearts.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 NIV
For Christ’s love compels us, …15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
The love of Jesus "compels us" to no longer live for ourselves, but to live for him. That means we die to our old lives. We walk away from them to embrace the new life God offers - eternal life.
Our relationship with God, is measured by our obedience to Him. Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” John 14:15 NLT
Jesus wasn’t talking about following being religious. He said that the first and greatest of all the commandments is: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30 NIV.
The obedience God desires is obedience because we love Him and want to please Him.
If asked their religion, most Americans say they are Christians. Yet, millions of them live like Mickey Cohen. They have knowledge about God, but no real love for him. Jesus makes it clear: obedience is the yardstick which measures our love for God.
Without loving relationship, Jesus has no choice but to say: “depart from me. I never knew you.” Without loving relationship, their destiny is not heaven with God, but hell, separated forever from God.
Activation
I offer this message in love, hoping with all my heart that if that’s you, you will see the truth revealed through the tragic life of Mickey Cohen, and make Jesus the Lord of your life.
If you want to make Jesus the Lord of your life, pray the prayer on the linked video from Billy Graham. Then read “The Basics of Christianity for New Christians” from the Graham organization. It’s excellent.