| March 14, 1999 |
Vol. I, No. 46
|
"And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die" (Gen. 3:2-4). And thus began the doctrine that a person can sin with immunity.
The Bible teaches that we humans are free moral agents. God has set before us a blessing and a curse -- a blessing if we obey His commands, and a curse if we choose to disobey (Deut. 11:26-28; Rom. 2:6-9).
Most religious folk in our society acknowledge that for the person who has never become a Christian, "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). But Satan has deceived many into believing that once a person has been forgiven of his past sins, he may thereafter sin with immunity.
The prophet Ezekiel made it abundantly plain that not only can a rebel repent and become a servant of God, but a servant of God can change his mind and become a rebel, if he so chooses. "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die... But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath transpassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die" (Ezek. 18:21, 24).
I grew up among a body of religious folk who insisted, "You can't fall from grace." Imagine the shock I felt the first time I ran across Gal. 5:4, where Paul plainly says some had done just that -- they had fallen from grace. Note what the Bible says in the plainest of language:
1. Jesus says that in time of temptation, some DO fall, Luke 8:13."Kept Through Faith." As I was growing up, I head much talk about "the security of the believer" and how we are "kept through faith." There is much truth in what I had heard. If, by the term "the believer" we main "the faithful," then there is indeed security for such. The faithful are not in jeopardy, Rev. 2:10; Matt. 25:21, etc. And the Bible clearly teaches that we are "kept by the power of God through faith" (1 Pet. 1:5). But in order to be kept through faith, we must keep the faith! Numbers of believers down through the ages have chosen to leave the faith, and in doing so, have sealed their own doom. Note these illustrations, all taken from Paul's first letter to Timothy:2. The Holy Spirit expressly says that some SHALL depart, 1 Tim. 4:1.
3. The Scriptures clearly indicate that some ARE in a fallen state, Gal. 5:4.
4. Paul says that on one occasion 23,000 FELL in one day, 1 Cor. 10:8.
5. The Scriptures insist that Christ will not return until there has been a FALLING AWAY, 2 Thess. 2:3.
1. Some have swerved from the faith, 1:6.All these had ceased to be faithful. They lost the security that was theirs as long as they kept the faith.2. Some have made shipwreck concerning the faith, 1:19.
3. Some shall depart from the faith, 4:1.
4. Some have denied the faith and become worse than infidels, 5:8.
5. Some have cast off their faith, 5:12.
6. Some have erred from the faith, 6:10, 21.
A Gradual Process. Jesus compared lost people to lost sheep, Luke 15:4-7. Sheep seldom if ever become lost suddenly. They carelessly, gradually drift off from the flock. A straying sheep can be reclaimed, but he must be reclaimed before he is in the clutches of the wolf. In the fold of God, we need to be watchful and helpful to each other, lest we become lost. Straying Christians need to be restored before it is too late, James 5:19-20; Gal. 6:1. If the gradual drifting continues indefinitely, there is grave danger that a hardness of heart will set in, making repentance impossible and forever sealing one's doom, Heb. 6:4-6.
--CRJ
At the time of Matthew's conversion (Matt. 9:9-13), Jesus' detractors found fault with Him for eating with tax collectors and sinners. Luke tells us that it was on that occasion that the subject of fasting came up, Luke 5:27-39. Some scholars have suggested that the feast in Matthew's house may well have been one of those days set aside by the Pharisees as a day of fasting -- that Jesus and His disciples were feasting even as John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. At any rate, both the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist were disturbed that Jesus and His disciples feasted more and fasted less than was thought proper by the religious elite of that day. Jesus answered them in the form of three parables.
1. The friends of the bridegroom do not fast while the bridegroom is with them. Jesus' disciples would fast and mourn when He was taken away from them by the crucifixion, but not while He was with them, Matt. 9:14-15.
2. "No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse."
3. "Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."
The primary lesson in these last two parables is that Jesus did not come to reform Judaism. He came, not to patch up the religion of their ancestor4s, but the replace it with a fresh, new order, a better covenant, established on better promises, Heb. 8:6. The Hebrew writer, speaking of the first or Old Testament as compared with the second or New Testament, says, "He takes away the first that He may establish the second" (Heb. 10:9).
Of course, Jesus knew human nature well enough He was not surprised that many who were satisfied with the old covenant would not be willing to accept the new. He said, "And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better'" (Luke 5:39). That, of course, was the reason Jesus met so much opposition from the devout religious people in His day, and it is also why many in our own day are not willing to consider departing from the traditions and dogmas handed down in their families from generation to generation, even when confronted with the words of the Lord Himself. It is still much as it was in the first century as John records in John 1:11-12, Jesus "came to His own and His own did not receive Him. But as many as did receive Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God."
--CRJ