Is a Gradate o fNorthwestern University in 1911
God's Judgments of the Sins of the Saved
GOD CANNOT ignore the sins of the unsaved. They must be judged. Neither can he ignore even the so-called smallest sin of one who is saved. Many who oppose the doctrine of the security of the believer freely consent to and teach, that God is merciful and will overlook the faults of those who are saved. This is error of the grossest kind. It means nothing less than that God compromises his own righteousness. Then he would not be God.
God always judges sin in the life of a believer. In fact he has made a double provision for judging such sin!
This judgment is double in that it is penal and corrective. The purpose of the penal judgment is to satisfy fully the demands of his righteousness. The corrective judgment is to satisfy his everlasting love (Jer. 31:3). Thus neither his righteousness nor his love is compromised.
This dual judgment of the sins of the saved is seen in the advocacy of Christ and in the chastening by the Father. If it can be shown that God has made provision to keep the saved one from being lost, when he may commit sin after he has been saved, then the case is settled; for every cause that has ever been offered as a condition by which one may be lost, is in fact sin. It is sometimes admitted that one who has been saved might sin, and still not be lost; but it is said that if he stops believing, he is lost. That is just one form of sin, for "everything that does not come from faith is sin" (Rom. 14:23). Again it is said that one can, of his own will, go away from God and be lost. Again, this is sin, for the setting up of one's will against the will of God is sin in its very essence. There is but one problem and that is SIN.
THE ADVOCACY OF CHRIST
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1, 2).The scene here is on legal ground. Sin, the violation of God's holy law is being judged. The sinner has an Advocate who is righteous in the sight of the law. The Advocate is pleading the case on the basis of atonement, that the penalty has been paid. An advocate always pleads before a judge. The Judge is he who is the Judge of the whole world, but he is also called "the Father." Therefore it is a son that is being judged. There must also be an accuser to bring the charge. Elsewhere (Rev. 2:10) it is revealed that he is Satan.
Satan is before God day and night accusing the brethren. When a saved person sins, Satan files a prompt charge and demands condemnation, ie., the full penalty of the law. He himself is under that same penalty because iniquity was found in his heart (Ezek. 28:15, 16). In the face of this accusation what is the hope of the sinning "saved one"? God cannot overlook that sin. He would compromise his own righteousness by ignoring the sin of the sinning "brother" and holding Satan responsible for his sin.
There is indeed need of an advocate! What plea has the sinning saint to offer? Do not forget that all who have been saved are in this position at some time or other - some more often than others. "If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives" (1 John 1:10).
Thank God! There is an Advocate. He is the only hope of a believer. It all depends on him. He is Jesus Christ the Righteous. Being righteous, he has never broken God's holy law. He is perfect in its sight. Furthermore, he cannot do anything that will compromise that law. Therefore, his advocacy is a righteous one, and is in harmony with the law.
What then does he plead on behalf of the sinning saint? It is the fact that he is the atonement for sins. He points to that hill outside of Jerusalem where there were three crosses. On two, hung men who were paying the penalty for their sins against human laws. On the center one, was hanging one, who was the Son of man, yes also the Son of God. He was there paying the penalty for sins of others. He was there as the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). It is he himself that he points to and, as the Advocate of the sinning saint, he pleads: "I am that Lamb without blemish or defect (1 Peter 1:19). I am that righteous one dying for the unrighteous (1 Peter 3:18). I was crushed for his iniquities (Isa. 53:5). I bore his sins in My body upon that tree (1 Peter 2:24). I have redeemed him from the curse of this law under which he is now being accused, because I was made a curse for him (Gal. 3:13). I, the Righteous, was there made sin for him, that he might be made righteous in the sight of this holy law (2 Cor. 5:21)."
That is a picture of the Advocate, and that is, in God's own words, the ground for his pleading. On the basis of that plea both the holy law and the righteousness of the Judge are held unbroken.
Paul has grasped the full glory and significance of this when he, through inspiration exclaimed: "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us" (Rom. 8:33, 34).
And then in the light of full satisfaction, both past and present, of God's righteousness, he further exclaims: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" And his answer, so full of assurance (verses 35-39) can be summed up in the one word - NOTHING.
The tremendous significance of this present work of Christ can be somewhat understood from the comparison that is made of it with his own redemptive work.
"Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" (Rom. 5:9, 10).
Is the saved one now justified? Unquestionably. "Much more" then ... he shall be saved from wrath; ie., from the penalty of God's holy law. God's "shall" is certainty, but this is a "much more" shall. The saved person can be much more certain of salvation from wrath than he can be of the already certain fact of justification! This is to the extent that life is much more than death. Reconciliation, - salvation of the past - is by his death. Salvation of the present and the future is by his resurrection life. How dare finite mind question such a declaration by God? Can the finite understand the infinite? No. But with simple God-given faith man can say, "I believe."
And still God's revelation of this unsearchable theme is not exhausted. It has pleased him to reveal clearly that there is to be no interruption to this advocacy. "But because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them" (Heb. 7:24, 25).
The altogether too common interpretation of the words, "save completely" ("save to the uttermost" KJV), is that God can take a sinner, even when sunk to the lowest depths of sin, and raise him to glory. Undoubtedly this has helped many who have seen themselves so low in sin that they have considered themselves as hopeless. Yet this is not what God intends. Such an interpretation permits degrees of sin more or less difficult for God to deal with. Scripture does not support this idea. Twice in the two verses, the ever existent nature of the Intercessor is made the condition for his ability to save to the uttermost. Furthermore, the words of the original here translated "to the uttermost" (KJV) ("completely" NIV) are in the John 13:1, translated "to the end." Therefore the essential revelation in this passage is that the salvation, which is accomplished by the resurrection life of Christ, is without interruption. It is an eternal salvation (Heb. 5:9).
The advocacy of Christ is therefore a provision to guarantee the eternal security of every believer.
GOD'S CHASTENING
God's provision in Christ's advocacy on behalf of the saved one is not all that he does for the specific purpose of keeping him from condemnation. there is a corrective judgment provided for sin which is not self-judged. This judgment of sin is chastening.
"To chasten is to purify morally and spiritually by the providential visitation of distress and affliction; to purify from errors or faults as the effect of discipline. It implies imperfection, but not guilt."
This is exactly what God does with the Christian who fails to judge himself. One purpose of God's chastening is that the one chastened shall not be "condemned with the world." In other words, this chastening is for the purpose of keeping the saved ones from becoming lost. "But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world" (1 Cor. 11:31, 32).
Chastening is a provision of God exclusively for those who are heirs; that is, saved. It is for no others and no son (heir) is excluded (Heb. 12:6-8).
If God has made a special provision for the saved person who persists in sinning, to keep him from being lost, how can he be lost? It is a case of denying the sufficiency of God's provision in chastening to say that one who has been saved is not eternally secure.
The same provision is found in the Old Testament and is stated in unmistaken able words. It is a part of God's unconditional covenant (contract agreement) with David.
"I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, ... and I will establish his kingdom... and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. ... I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love (or mercy) will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you" (2 Sam. 7:12-15).
Notice that God says very definitely that even though wrong (which is sin) is committed, his "mercy will never be taken away." As long as God deals in loving mercy it is impossible to be lost.
Someone may argue that as God took his mercy from Saul so will he take it from the saved one who sins. In the first place, this would deny God's statement that he chastens the saved one in order that he not be condemned with the world. In the second place, the case of Saul and the saved person is not the same. Corrective chastening was not a part of the mercy that God showed to Saul and that he took away from him. It is very definitely a part of God's mercy toward the saved one as it was to David's son. The unsaved are objects of God's mercy, but there is no corrective chastening in that mercy and it shall be taken away from them if they do not become saved.
But how did God dare to say that sin on the part of David's offspring would not result in his rejection? There are present-day preachers who criticize similar statements to God's children of this age. If God himself exalts his grace as being greater than the sins of one of his children, how dare anyone condemn the one who similarly glorifies God's grace in this age? It is a serious matter to criticize the exaltation of the grace of God. This is the very purpose of salvation. It is "to the praise of his glorious grace" (Eph. 1:6).
The one who fights the doctrine of security of the believer, as some are now doing, says that God will take his grace away from the sinning saint. Are they not then doing the very opposite to praising God's glorious grace? Is this not sin? If it is possible to become lost, what is their position? Are they not advocating their own condemnation?
Surely God has made ample provision by the advocacy of Christ to meet Satan's accusations and by chastening to correct the life of the saved one to keep him saved. Is it possible to accept at full value God's revelation of these provisions and still say that the believer is not eternally secure?
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