And you
yourselves, who were strangers to God, and, in fact, through the evil things
you had done, his spiritual enemies, he has now reconciled through the death of
his body on the cross, so that he might welcome you to his presence clean and
pure, without blame or reproach. This
reconciliation assumes, of course, that you maintain a firm position in the
faith, and do not allow yourselves to be shifted away from the hope of the
Gospel, which you have heard, and which, indeed, the whole world is now having an
opportunity of hearing. Colossians
1:21-23 (PHILLIPS)
In two lengthy sentences Paul
navigates the breadth and width of man’s eternal possibilities. On the one hand he presents the joy of a
repentant believer being reconciled to God by the grace of the cross, standing
before God, welcomed as a clean and blameless child. In the next breath he shows a conditional
alternative – faith being discarded, apostasy, a former-believer denied any
hope the Gospel holds.
Wow; talk about going from “hero”
to “zero” in a heartbeat!
There are two simple camps of
thought on how it can be that a person places trust in Christ and is saved at
some point in life, only to lose that position later.
Camp #1 – It cannot
happen! God will keep you (even against
your will). He will take you to the
woodshed and straighten you out, but you’re His no matter what.
Camp #2 – It DOES
happen! You intentionally walk away, and
God lets you do that.
There is a third camp…and it
really isn’t a camp, it’s the road between the two camps. A lot of people are on that road, somewhere
between believing apostasy can eventually lead you to an eternity in Hell, and
hoping it just ain’t so.
I know this road well; I spent
most of my life on it. And I don’t
recommend sitting on that theological fence. Frankly it is a road I’d rather avoid, even
more than Wendover Avenue and I-40 in Greensboro during rush hour.
Here’s why:
Camp #1 (it can’t happen) is kind of comfortable – you simply wall
yourself in, like a brick fortress, refusing to entertain the notion that God
would ever cancel your ticket to heaven.
Any evidence to the contrary (like Paul’s letter to the Colossian
church) is warded off with phrases we have learned, eternal security of the
believer….once saved always saved….no one can pluck them out of my hand.
But the problem with the comfort
of an “impenetrable” fortress of the mind is it can lead to lazy
discipleship. Once something is so
settled it never requires attention, there is a danger to never giving it
attention. In short, in your certainty
that you’ve got it “right” you
can become ungrateful, and that works against a worshipful heart.
Camp #2 (it can…and DOES happen) is less
comfortable; it’s something of a rocky road that won’t put up with a petulant
child – the parent being God who warns, and then follows through with
cancelling the birthday party.
It’s hard to believe God would
actually do that. However, there are far
too many examples of God’s disciplinary justice to ignore – particularly with
His children. As just one example among
many in Scripture, In Numbers 16 we read about when a group of the children of
Israel (led by Korah and family) rebelled against Moses in the wilderness,
nearly 15,000 people died at God’s judgment.
These were people who were God’s chosen; yet they were swallowed alive
by the ground for their disobedience.
Apostasy is more than a
possibility; it is at the apex of dangers for Christians who begin to
decelerate in their discipleship and wane in their walk with Jesus.
What are the signs of coming
apostasy in the life of a believer?
Worship and Bible Study begin to become humdrum, then becomes irregular,
and then non-existent. Reluctance to
serve becomes the norm. Giving may drop
from tithing to tipping, and finally spent on “necessities” like a new car or
boat. These are outward signs.
Inwardly what accompanies these signs are
rationalizations which are the result of shutting out the truth that as
loving as God may be, and as free as the grace is that saved you, God is still
a God of justice and won’t tolerate sin in the people He loves most…followers
of Jesus Christ.
There is a long list of people that will not
be in heaven (see Revelation 21:8 & 22:15).
For You Today
Be
careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you
away from the living God. Hebrews 3:12
(NLT)
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