Perspective Matters
Maybe the “balance” many call for has been “imbalanced” all along.
Over the last few weeks, I have purposely avoided writing about grace, instead focusing on the problem of worldliness and how it confronts Christians. About a month ago, one article, in particular, drew reflection from Paul’s writing in Galatians 1:4, where the apostle says Jesus gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. The key word in the verse, I believe, is the word rescued or “delivered,” as used in the New American Standard. This highlights the divine intervention that occurred — God doing something we could not — in getting us out of Satan’s domain and being transferred to His (Colossians 1:13). We were literally delivered from evil — a rescue operation of epic proportions. By the sacrifice of Christ, God is bringing His children into a new world undefiled by sin, unfading, and eternal. To Him be the glory!
A Revealing Response
As always, I post a link on my public Facebook page when I write here. I’m used to getting all sorts of comments—positive and negative. However, as we consider this current debate over grace among our wider fellowship, the way a brother whom I have known for many years responded reveals what appears to be a significant difference in perspectives. In response to my article Delivered from the Present Evil Age he wrote:
Yep.
Unless we are like the dog that returns to its vomit.
Or if we decide not to live faithfully until death.
We can be like Esau and sell our inheritance for a bowl of stew.
I’ve read and reread his comments in light of what I wrote. And nowhere did I say anything that could be construed or twisted into the idea that a person cannot lose their salvation. Here are a few direct quotes from my article:
“The world’s allure should diminish for those saved.”
We must “reevaluate our attachments, pursuits, and how we engage with the world around us.”
“Our lives must reflect a different set of values … prioritizing the eternal over the temporal, the spiritual over the material.”
We must “live as the people of the light, embodying hope and transformation…”
No, I did not explicitly say that we will be lost if we refuse to live in obedience. But what is the implication of the four statements I pulled out of the article? It should be evident to any Christian that if they refuse to participate in the Spirit’s work of sanctification and transformation, they actually grieve the Spirit, and if they continue in that behavior, they will stifle His work altogether (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). We must not love the world, (1 John 2:15-17). The one saved by grace cannot resist His work through disobedience and expect to be saved. Our salvation is conditional based on our continued surrender to Him (faith) as Lord.
The point of the writing was to:
Stress our rescue from the world’s spiritual and moral corruption.
Point out that the allure of this world should be diminishing.
Call on Christians to live within the world in a way that glorifies God, i.e., live in obedience.
Help us look to our hope (the steadfast, secure anchor of the soul) of being at home with God “where evil has no place.”
The Cycle Repeats Itself
Last week, I wrote a two-part series of articles that I figured would be pretty benign. I posted a link to my Facebook profile. Then, the usual types of responses started to come in. And again, it simply boggles my mind. In the article, it was easy to see (at least to me) that to be confident of his or her salvation, the Christian must:
never get comfortable with sin and work to overcome it.
not become content with our sinful tendencies.
persevere in our faith.
maintain a pure heart.
reach out to God when one sins.
be careful how one walks.
be careful in what one says.
have an active prayer life.
But yet, the initial responses that came in are all very typical. We have to be diligent in our faith so that we do not abandon God. And another: our salvation is not guaranteed until our hope of heaven is realized. We are all susceptible to falling back into the world, into sin. And still another: Do you believe in the necessity of baptism? (Really? Are you kidding me?) And on and on they go.
These types of responses suggest four things to me:
People simply reacted to the Facebook post & did not read my blog post. OR
People DID read the blog post and intentionally twisted what was written to convey something I did not write or do not believe. AND/OR
People have only studied Romans/Galatians/1 John, etc., from the perspective of what Paul/John don't teach, to resist denominational error ... missing the TEACHING of apostolic writing. AND/OR
People are unfamiliar with almost 30 years of my teaching and preaching on these matters as I have never been hesitant in conveying the necessity of faithful obedience after one’s initial salvation.
Perspective Matters
So much of the current debate seems to be about how things are said. I know no preacher among us who actively teaches the doctrine of eternal security or what we commonly hear as once saved, always saved. We all believe in free will. A Christian can choose to rebel against God and be lost. We all stress that a life of faithful obedience is required after becoming a Christian. However, disagreement comes when some of us draw attention to the fact that after baptism, we stand in grace (Romans 5:1-2) and can have assurance of our salvation. When directly asked, some critics literally cannot answer they have the assurance of salvation without using the word “but.” (Paul never did that, by the way.)
In one thread last week I made the statement, on the day of your death all you will have is faith. To which I received the reply: “My hope is in Jesus and my salvation through him. But there is no guarantee that any of us have an eternal hope in heaven. We all sin and fall short of God’s glory. To say that our salvation is already guaranteed is to say we will never sin again.” The simple conclusion from this is that this person has no assurance of salvation because he is basing his salvation on his performance. I asked him how many works do you need to tip the scale the other direction? He never replied. It’s pretty clear he’s like a lot of Christians I know … they’re just gonna “cross their fingers” and hope for the best when they die.
“But what about James 2?” we hear, or “We need ‘balance,’” they say. Labels that are simply made up (by their own admission) to generate suspicion are attached. Some are even saying they’ll “stand with God.” implying those they disagree with aren’t. Last week, one person condemned me and those who follow me to hell. I didn’t know I have a movement.
And what is the impact of the so-called “balance” they call for? What they demand negates the biblical teaching of grace, makes salvation dependent on performance, and turns work for the Lord into doing things to avoid punishment. This is not how God designed our spiritual relationship to be.
No Relationship Thrives This Way
And here’s the thing. No relationship thrives this way. In my day-to-day relationship with my wife, I focus on how I can serve her because I love her. I want our marriage to be the best. I know it is going to last for the rest of our lives. We are committed to each other. We trust each other. When I think of my relationship with her, I don’t have to “balance” it by continually reminding myself that if I commit adultery, our marriage will be over. Yes, it is true that at its most basic level, the fear of being divorced keeps me faithful to my wife, just as the fear of hell keeps me loyal to God. But that is not my focus every day. Our relationship has grown far beyond that. No one would say our marriage is out of balance because of our perspective.
I have no problem serving my wife because I love her -- just as I have no problem following Jesus because I love him. And one last thing. Coming up on 30 years of marriage, I have lost count of how many times my wife has sinned against me. And I surely have forgotten how many times I have sinned against her. How many times have we been divorced? Answer: Not once. We are not “in and out” of marriage every time we sin against each other. No relationship works this way. Just as my wife does not end her relationship with me every time I sin against her, God does not end His relationship with me every time I sin. The fact of the matter is we are never “out of sin” as long as we live in a human body (1 John 1:8).
When you were baptized, you were justified (Romans 5:1). Condemnation was removed (Romans 8:1). You, because you are in Christ, stand in grace (Romans 5:2). Your sins are covered (Romans 3:21-4:8). You are continually cleansed (1 John 1:9). This is all conditioned on our faithfulness to the covenant we made. If there is no faithfulness there is no relationship and thus no basis for salvation. It is very obvious a person can walk away from God and be lost. This is the last thing most Christians intend to do.
Finally
With the continual and never-ending disclaimers that some require, there is little wonder so many Christians are anxious and afraid. They can never rest. They haven’t been taught to see God as He is and tend to relate to him more out of fear than faith, love, and as a Father. Our fear of “not wanting to give anyone the wrong idea” or “sounding like the denominations,” while rooted in good intentions and legitimate concern about the easy-to-believe gospel, has morphed into the extremism of salvation by faith + works and crushed the proper biblical understanding of salvation by grace through faith. Maybe the “balance” many call for has been “imbalanced” all along. No relationship ever thrives under fear.
We can and must do better.