Today’s reading: Jeremiah 35; Romans 11
Salvation is a matter of faith alone, but it is not a one-time faith that ultimately saves us, but an ongoing trust in our Savior.
We have talked about this before, because it comes up quite a bit, but these passages are very often “explained away” or written off as “problem passages” by the many today who say that once you are saved, that can never change, and you are assured you will go to heaven no matter what, even if you completely turn from the faith afterward. But the Bible nowhere describes a “sinner’s prayer” that you pray one time to get your entrance ticket validated, or speaks of faith as a singular event, but rather it speaks of faith as a position of the heart that needs to be maintained if we are to continue to have assurance of salvation.
Look at what Paul says in our passage this morning, talking about how non-Jewish Christians have been grafted into the olive tree whose root is Christ:
They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.
Look at what Paul says: Many Jews, though part of God’s chosen people, were cut off. Why? Because of their unbelief. And so, following from that, Paul warns the Gentiles who have been grafted in and stand fast through faith to fear. Why should they fear? Because if God did not spare the Jews who did not have faith, but cut them off, so too will he cut us off if we do not continue in the faith. However, even for those who have been cut off, if they do not continue in their unbelief, if they instead turn to Christ in faith, they will be grafted back into the tree.
We see this kind of warning language directed at believers all over the New Testament, just as Paul tells his readers here, “So do not be proud, but fear.” If all salvation takes is having had faith one time, or having prayed a prayer one time, then why would we need to be warned to continue in our belief? What would we ever have to fear?
These warnings are not mere words, or filler because Paul was shooting for a specific word count in his letter. Paul, along with other New Testament authors, gives us these warnings so that we will take our faith seriously to preserve it. This is why we are warned so often against sin. All our sin has been paid for by Jesus on the cross, so sin will never cost us our salvation, but when we indulge sin, it has the effect of hardening or callousing our hearts toward the Lord, which can ultimately lead us to turn away from our faith. Obedience to the Lord, on the other hand, has the opposite effect, strengthening our experience of our relationship with Him and buoying our faith.
So when Paul says not to be proud, but fear, he is not saying we should be walking around, wringing our hands, worrying about whether or not we are going to get into heaven. If your faith is in Christ, you will go to be with the Lord when you die. So you can answer that for yourself and know where you stand right now. He tells us to fear though in terms of not treating our faith with flippancy or complacency. Expressly because we can be cut off, just like the original branches, we should take care to actively guard our faith from the natural drift away from the Lord that will occur when we aren’t proactively anchoring ourselves in Christ (Hebrews 2:1).
So if your faith is in Christ, there is no need to fret, but there is cause to fear. There is no need to fret because your faith means your salvation is secure, but there is cause to fear in a healthy way that leads you to continue to prioritize, pursue, and grow in your faith throughout your life.
No comments:
Post a Comment