Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #48 |
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JESUS calls US to be |
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The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide. |
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Living Faith Surely WILL Save Us,
DEAD Faith -- No!(Additional comments about Viewpoint study #2)
It's taught by some that those who come to Christ in faith afterward have no choice but Heaven for eternity -- once they've chosen Jesus as Lord, they are unable to change their minds again. This mode of thinking is based on an unswerving confidence in God and His power. Since Jesus says He can keep us safe, and that no power can take us who believe out of God's hand, believers in "eternal security" feel that we no longer will ever want to, or be able to separate ourselves from God's love.
How about it? Do Christians have NO CHOICE if God selects them for salvation?
The author of Hebrews in our Bible (likely the apostle Paul) says we continue to be free not only before we're reborn into Christ but also so long as we live on this earth. Hebrews was written to Christians of Jewish background in order to clarify for them distinctions that exist between this religion and the Jewish religion from which they had come. What did Paul say about eternal security in writing to encourage these former Jews to remain faithful to Jesus Christ?
Well, first, let's be sure we know that Paul had no lack of confidence in God's power to save. Yet he thought Christians were free to change their mind and go back into the world, thereby losing their salvation. He wrote, "We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, IN ORDER TO make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through FAITH and PATIENCE inherit what has been promised" (Hebrews 6:11,12).
Paul had often taught that we CAN be saved (by grace through faith) if we turn to Jesus in repentance and choose Him as Lord of our life. He assured those who had become Christians that they HAD been baptized into Christ -- they were no longer outside of, Him, but were now added into His body of saved disciples.
But now he was reminded these Christians that they weren't saved WITHOUT faith, but BY faith, which, as James also points out, causes a faithful life style. Without continuing FAITH, we're not saved, is his clear message in the text quoted above.
In the same chapter of Hebrews, soon before the reminder you've already read (in verses 4-12), Paul says that for some who had been saved but who had turned away from Christ (instead of continuing to walk WITH Him) there will come a time when they can no longer hear God's voice calling them to return to salvation. They can no longer repent because their conscience is so hardened against God and all that's good that they have NO desire to be saved.
The faith that they ONCE had cannot now save them, is Paul's clear message in Hebrews chapter 6, for they don't WANT to be saved. They've changed their mind!
In these verses Paul speaks of the person as one who was truly saved. The person now at war with God HAD at an earlier time been enlightened, HAD tasted God's heavenly gift (the Holy Spirit is given to each person who is baptized in water seeking salvation from the Lord Jesus). God makes no promise of giving His Holy Spirit except to those who in water baptism complete the new birth of water and spirit told of in John chapter 3. But these who now hated God HAD received His Spirit within. By their faith which led them to turn to Jesus, they had received salvation, had shared in the goodness of God's Word and the powers of the age to come.
Unsaved persons do NOT "taste" of God's Spirit, for they can't fool God into giving them any gift -- God knows our hearts. Those who do NOT believe in Jesus as Lord do not share in salvation's glory and power. The person of whom Paul spoke had been saved, but now wanted nothing to do with Jesus. The once saved was now surely lost!
I once heard a brother suggest (since the brother believed in eternal security) that in this Hebrews 6 passage Paul spoke of a person who HAD fooled God into giving the person a taste of the Holy Spirit without genuine conversion, and who then turned away without actually being born again. If God is so easily fooled, how wise IS He? Who, knowing God's power, could agree that He would give His Spirit to a person who was NOT saved but was only pretending to have been saved? Men we may fool, but who can fool God?
In the same conversation, my friend compared TASTING the heavenly gift with what those ten spies did who entered the Promised Land yet lacked faith that with God's help the people of God could conquer that land. WERE the ten enlightened? They were there to spy out the land, not to possess it. Onlookers do NOT receive God's gifts which are promised to those who have turned to Christ.
The eternal security position teaches that whatever any truly-saved person later does, that person cannot be lost, but is sure to be saved. This theory is based on an earlier theory that salvation is entirely by God's choice, that people have no choice in salvation -- if God wants to save them, they'll be saved, and if God wants them NOT to be saved, they'll seek and knock and ask in vain if they WANT to be saved.
Yet Jesus says that all who WILL may come. He told His apostles to tell gospel facts to EVERYONE and to baptize ALL who believed the good news about God's love and offer of salvation. Anyone who does want to can become a Christian. And any Christian who wants to can change his/her mind and turn back from faith.
Since we're saved BY faith, only those who are trusting Jesus as Lord will be saved. The Bible warns repeatedly against turning away from the Lord, against hardening our hearts and falling out of love with the Lord of love.
In Hebrews chapter 10, the same warning is heard -- (verses 19-39) "...But we (Christians) are not of those who shrink back and ARE DESTROYED, but of those who (continue to) believe, and (therefore) are saved."
So long as a brother or sister who is aware of sin will repent and seek God's forgiveness, the Word promises that forgiveness is possible. Any person who has been baptized into Christ and later is aware he or she needs to repent, and who DOES repent, is sure to be saved by walking with Jesus.
However, when any sinner sees no advantage in repentance, when the person chooses to live outside God's love, there is no promise in God's Word that such an unrepentant sinner will be saved. Nor is there promise that every such person will surely repent prior to death.
The security every believer has is stronger than any enemy who might seek to destroy the believer. But past faith does not produce present salvation. A person who now spurns God's love, who prefers sin over salvation, will get what that person NOW wants rather than the salvation once sought so eagerly.
Why would God warn a person if there was no risk? No one who reads Hebrews and notes what is said there could deny that there are frequent warnings AGAINST falling away from faith. By FAITHful obedience, let's choose LIFE.
From: "Gerald Griffin"
To: "Ray Downen" <outreach@sofnet.com>
Date sent: Mon, 17 May 1999Ray: Your thoughts on this topic are interesting and thoughts to which I can say "Amen." I just finished the best book I have ever read on the "type" of sovereignty our Creator has decided to exercise . . . that which invites his creatures into real relationship. It takes into account the ability to change God's mind, etc. The book is "The God Who Risks" and is by John Sanders (InterVarsity Press). Good stuff! Griff
A Thought For The Day
By Brother Given O. Blakely <GivenB@aol.com>
From The Word of Truth Publication -- -- May 23, 1998There’s hope of resurrection for any dead church!
Is there really such a thing as a "dead church?" Indeed there is! Jesus told the church in Sardis, "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead" (Revelation 3:1). What a tragic thing to have the King of kings say! He would rather commend His people, and surely will commend us whenever there is cause to do so.
To the Laodicean church, Christ's word was even more scathing, "You are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”: (Revelation 3:17).
Did the Lord of glory write off these churches, declaring them unrecoverable? Emphatically, He did not!
To the dead church in Sardis Jesus said, "Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God . . . Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent" (Revelation 3:2,3).
To the miserable church in Laodicea He said, "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent" (Revelation 3:18,19).
This is a church whose members had locked Him out. Yet, He stood at their door, calling out to any Christian who would give heed to His call, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20).
To move them forward in recovery, the Lord made some marvelous promises to these churches.
To Sardis He promised, "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels" (Revelation 3:5). To Laodicea He guaranteed, "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Revelation 3:21).
Remember, the "exceeding great and precious promises" are given so we might "participate in the Divine Nature" (2 Peter 1:4). Yes, a "dead" church CAN recover – but it must do so quickly. The Word of the king must NOT be spurned or rejected.
The prophet Ezekiel once had a vision of a valley of dry bones. The bones were very numerous and very bleached. They had been in the valley for a long time, and were separated and scattered.
As Ezekiel viewed the valley, the hand of the Lord was strong upon him. He was asked, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
The prophet, unwilling to speculate on such a weighty question, replied, "O Lord, You know." The Lord then told him to "prophesy" to the bones, even giving him an exact message to deliver. The message was simple. It affirmed what the Lord was going to do. "O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD."
The Word records that as Ezekiel prophesied there was a noise in the valley, as the bones began to come together. Then sinews, flesh, and skin came upon them — but they were not yet alive.
Upon word from the Lord, Ezekiel called to the wind to breathe upon these slain. It was then that they stood up "an exceeding great army" (Ezekiel 37:1-10).
Since there was hope for Sardis, Laodicea, and a valley of dry bones, there is also hope for many "dead" churches of our day. If you are in such a church, ask the Lord to use you to sound the Word, so they may recover themselves from the snare of the devil.
Þ PRAYER POINT: Father, I lament that there are dead churches, and pray you will use me to bring the Word to them. Start the work in me, O Lord. May there be no deadness or insensitivity in me. Then, use me to get the Word of Jesus to those who stand in jeopardy, even though they have a name of being alive.
In joyful expectation of glory, Brother Given O. Blakely
For Ray's concluding remarks, click HERE.
