Religious Cults & False Prophets~ Discussions and DebatesNo OSAS (Revelation 22:19)I'm sorry this is going to be long, but this is not a simple topic, particularly in light of our Christian heritage and how it has avoided concepts of "life salvation.". A more and more common error made in relation to "salvation" scriptures is to interpret all of them in terms of "eternal life." What seems to have been lost is the idea that our physical lives themselves may have some purpose in God's plan. Many of the scriptures discussed here relate to exactly that idea. If we are going to take things from scripture that are clear, lets start with this: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." If we are discussing eternal salvation, it is important to understand what it is we have been saved from - condemnation under the law. If we have been set free from the law, we no longer can be condemned by it. If there were any question of this, it is answered in Galations chapter 2, where Paul writes: "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified." A couple of things I see here: 1. You are never justified by "keeping the rules" - whatever they may be. More importantly, as a believer, you are not condemned by violating them - even if you pick what Christianity seems to agree (rightly or wrongly) are the really bad ones to violate, like homosexuality. (more on this later). 2. If you have believed in Christ, you have eternal life. John 3:16 is Jesus ' clear word on this. NOW, for the hard part: Many people look at these ideas as a license to sin, and say "but if it were that way, no one would do anything good, and all would fall away." To this I respond that some people do in fact choose to live that way, and to them Paul wrote I Corinthians 3:12-15. The reality is that we as believers still have a choice - do we choose to be Followers of Christ, or do we live wasted lives that ultimately have no eternal value and are burned up, though the person with that wasted life "will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." What can be seen here is that we have a LIFE to lose other than our eternal spiritual one. What Christ has given believers is a new capacity to live a life that actually has value. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" II Corinthians 5:17. Now, with regard to the Gay Theology debate - 1. Homosexuality is generally chosen for these discussions because it has a high emotional value in Christian debate. What doesn't usually get said is that choosing a homosexual lifestyle is indistinguishable in living a valuable Christian life from choosing a lifestyle of gossip, or one of pride, or one focused on money and greed. James wrote that if we are going to subject ourselves to the law, "whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all." James 2:10. 2. This does not mean that we should defend ANY of these sinful lifestyles in Christian terms. It simply means that we might want to think really carefull before we categorically condemn people to Hell because they consistently struggle with what we have, in our wisdom, determined to be one of the really bad sins. However, defending a lifestyle of sin is a different matter entirely. Under those circumstances, a person is in danger of placing themselves in a Hebrews 6 category, which I would argue again is relating to whether your current life can have value, not eternal salvation. The writer of Hebrews says that a person who has "tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit [which would be limited to saved people in my understanding] and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame." If you defend your lifestyle of sin, you certainly put Christ to shame. Immediatley after this statement, the writer says that "For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned." Note the relation to Paul's discussion in II Corinthians quoted above: First, the life described "is worthless" and "CLOSE to being cursed." Close to being cursed is not cursed. It is simply pretty much indistiguishable from a life that is actually cursed (i.e. one without Christ), and as a life live is irredeemable. I would also point out that it is pretty apparent from Jesus' parable of the talents that irredeemable lives do not simply include those that choose to defend sin, but those that fail to act on His specific mission. (what did the master leave us to "invest" if not the message of His salvation). 3. Conclusion: Ultimately, each of us as a believer has a life to live for Christ. There are many ways to destroy the value of that life. Some are more spectacularly destructive than others, but the end result of sin remains death. If we defend our sinful lives rather than repenting and turning to Christ, who is faithful to forgive our sins, we run the risk of having the entire value of our lives destroyed, and we will end up before God with nothing to show for His investment of His Word in us. The ultimate prize for each of us should be the possiblility that we would one day stand before Jesus Christ and hear Him say "well done you good and faithful servant." Finally, concerning the "grafting in" scriptures: I think the most important thing here is to recognize that these scriptures are not addressed to individual human beings, but to categories of people: the Jews (God's original chosen people) (and as to who these are, I would point you to Romans 9:6-7 which uncategorically states that "they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel") the Saved Gentiles (God's supplemental chosen people, as it were) I believe the implication of the "grafting in" scriptures is that we Gentiles tend to take for granted our access to salvation and our mission as the "Light of the World." What we forget is that these things were once uniquely given to Israel, and those who came to God through her example. It is easy for us to look down on Israel's history and say "we as the Church would never do that." Paul warns us that we as a people can fall into the same error and lose our purpose and ultimately our mission. If one believes that the seven churches of Asia represent church ages (and I am not sure about that) or even if one does not, the message to the church at Laodicea is a cautionary statement on this issue. So why should we fear, if we individually are not in danger of being lost eternally? Those of us with children should find that answer easily. Those who don't have them should still look at the world around them in love and fear then end of hope for its people. |
🌈Pride🌈 goeth before Destruction
When 🌈Pride🌈 cometh, then cometh Shame