Thoughts on 1 Samuel 28 & 1 Corinthians 15

Today's reading: 1 Samuel 27-28; 1 Corinthians 15

Thoughts on 1 Samuel 28

This is really just a follow-up thought to my post yesterday about whether David's policy of not killing Saul because he is the Lord's anointed is godly or misguided.

When Saul is getting no answer from the Lord he goes through a medium to call up Samuel. I know some people debate about whether this kind of divination actually works, and will point to the woman crying out as evidence that maybe this time it did but it doesn't normally, rather than her crying out because she realizes the man in front of her is the king who has banned this practice, but I don't think that's the case. Whether this is actually Samuel that is called up or some other spiritual entity pretending to be Samuel, I'm assuming the reason God forbids Israel from this practice is because it works. If this kind of divination couldn't actually contact the spiritual world, why would God be so vehement that His people not engage with it? I think this is a way of legitimately contacting the spiritual world, but it is not the legitimate way to do it. God gave Israel the Urim and Thumim as the means of divinating His will, so to turn to another practice, and to contact a spiritual entity other than Him for guidance is opening yourself up to deception, and is rebellion against His will, and so it is outlawed.

But anyway, when Samuel (it doesn't really matter whether it is actually him or not for this point, so I'll just assume it's him) is called up, he tells Saul that the Lord has done what He spoke through Samuel all the way back in the war against Amalek, and has taken the kingdom from Saul and given it to David. So while it is not explicitly saying that David should have been hunting Saul down over these past years, it almost seems like maybe he should have been. To have an imposter on the throne that God removed from the role while the true king runs around refusing to proactively remove the now-imposter king, seems like maybe David is more misguided in his refusal to take matters into his own hands (and I really shouldn't even say "take matters into his own hands" if it's been God trying to deliver Saul into David's hands all along and David just refusing to do his part and kill the man illicitly holding the throne over Yahweh's people).

I don't know that it really matters much one way or the other, and I know that there are people who like to point to David's refusal to kill Saul as a humility and faith in God's timing that we should emulate, but I'm not completely convinced that's actually the case. Maybe God was wanting David to take the throne and guide the people back to faithful worship of Him years before he actually did, and we should be taking this as a cautionary tale to pay attention to and be faithful with the opportunities the Lord is putting in front of us, rather than sitting back and waiting for Him to do everything before we're willing to step out on what He has said...

Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15

The opening sentence of 1 Corinthians 15 takes me to something I have talked about a number of times on this blog, so I'm not going to go too in-depth today, but it is the nature of our assurance of salvation.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

We are saved by faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and by nothing else. But this faith has been "replaced" in many churches today by a "sinner's prayer." It is not a question of whether your faith, today, is in the finished work of Christ on the cross for your sins, it is a question of whether or not you can point to a moment in time where you prayed something like, "God, I know that I am a sinner and cannot ever get back to you on my own, but I believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins and I want that death to apply to me." If you prayed that prayer, you're going to heaven, and if you didn't, even if your faith is firmly rooted in the cross, you should probably pray that prayer really quick because you can't be sure until you do... That's not the gospel of faith we find in the Scriptures...

Now, I'm not saying your faith is somehow invalidated if you started out your spiritual life with such a prayer, and I'm not even saying it's a bad thing for someone to pray such a prayer if/when they are making a discrete choice to believe, but what I am saying is that you will not find that anywhere in the Bible. Instead, you find statements all over like this one here in 1 Cor. 15, "by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you - unless you believed in vain." How do you have assurance of your salvation? If your faith is in Christ, you are going to heaven, if your faith is not in Christ, you are not. It's as simple as that. Did you once pray a sinner's prayer but no longer believe? Heed Paul's warning and turn back to the faith you had at first lest you die in your unbelief!

Paul warns the Corinthians to hold fast to the word he preached to them lest their former belief be in vain.  If at one point they had saving faith, but now they have turned from that faith, their former faith will not save them, and none of their works done in Jesus' name will benefit them, unless and until they return to the only faith that can ever save.

Jesus does not call us to go out into the world and sell fire-insurance, he calls us to go out and make disciples. We are called to lead people, not merely to pray a prayer, but to a life-long faith in Him that bears fruit in keeping with repentance, less their faith be in vain.