Is a Gradate of Northwestern University in 1911
IT IS argued: if a saved person cannot be lost, why then all the warnings in the Bible? To ask this question is to imply that all warnings are addressed to saved persons and the only thing that God needs to warn those about, who are saved is that they do not do something to cause him to condemn them to everlasting death. Is there then nothing else for an individual that God is concerned about than the matter of eternal life or everlasting condemnation?
There are many warnings addressed to believer but, before considering some of them, it might be well to discuss briefly some warnings which are often taken to apply to Christians but really do not directly apply to them.
Some of the passages in which certain individuals are warned are addressed to other than the saved of this era. In Matthew 24:42 and Mark 13:14 are warnings to servants to watch. In both, it is clearly said that this watchfulness is in the expectation of the coming of the "Son of Man" (Matthew 24:37 and Mark 13:34). Speaking of this coming, Matthew 24:30 says: "All the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory," and according to verse 29, this will take place immediately after the great tribulation. As the Church is taken up before the tribulation, these passages cannot, in their primary sense, be applied to present-day believers.
It is to be noted also that these warnings are to "servants." Jesus in speaking to his disciples said, "I no longer call you servants ... Instead, I have called you friends" (John 15:15). Under the law, God's people in their activity for him are servants, but under grace they are "friends." Thus it is doing violence to the new relationship to say that these passages apply to Christians.
Another passage in which there is a warning that is made to apply to saved persons is Hebrews 6:1-9. This is discussed elsewhere at considerable length. This warning is directed against the possibility of Jews in the early groups of Jewish Christians trusting in the sufficiency of ceremonial worship and the kingdom teachings, but without a personal faith in the Saviour indispensable to salvation. There are large numbers in the churches today who have the form of godliness, but do not know the power of it. These, who merely profess to be Christians but are not true believers, are warned by passages such as this one. There is a special need today to warn the unsaved within the churches. By applying to Christians warnings as this one, is to rob that class of people who need so sadly the warnings of God's word to them.
Throughout the pages of the Bible are found records of the mixture of the weeds with the wheat. From the days of the mixed multitude that went with Israel out of Egypt to the false teachers of the Christian era who transform themselves into apostles of Christ (Second Corinthians 11:13; Second Peter 2:1 and First John 4:1), there has been a need for warnings to God's people to distinguish between those who are truly God's own and those who aren't. Here then is one great reason for the warnings in the Bible.
As great as the subject of eternal life is, God most certainly has much more than this for each person he has saved from the penalty of sin and, through the new birth, placed in his own kingdom. If that was all, why doesn't he take all those who are saved to himself immediately after they are saved? Certainly someone who has been purchased at so great a price as the blood of his own Son wouldn't be left on earth at the risk of being lost if he could be lost, and also without any purpose for that earthly life!
But God has a purpose for the earthly life of those who are blood bought, and it is in relation to this purpose that the warnings are addresses to believers.
THE FRUITS OF THE EARTHLY LIFE MIGHT BE LOST
It is very possible for someone who has received eternal life, whose spirit has been saved, to suffer loss of all that might have been accomplished by his earthly life. Every man's work (the sum total of his earthly life) shall be tested by fire. "If it (any man's work) is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames" (First Corinthians 3:12-15).
In line with this, the writer of the Hebrews says: Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire.'"(Hebrews 12:28, 29 [Quoting Deuteronomy 4:24]). A similar warning is found in Second Corinthians 5:10-11. Lot is the outstanding example of such a person. All the works of his life were lost in Sodom. Even upon those of the city who were nearest to him, his influence was lost. Certainly no Christian wants to be saved the way Lot was when he could be like Abraham. A first need for the warnings to saved people then is the possibility of the loss of the fruits of the earthly life.
WARNINGS AGAINST LOSS OF INFLUENCE
A second need for warnings to saved people, which is really a part of the one just men.
entioned, but important enough to justify special mention, is the ever present possibility of a Christian losing his influence in the world for God.
The possibility of salt losing its savour and being cast out and trodden under foot of man (Matthew 5:13) is used as a warning of this type. So also is the possibility of a man withering as a branch and being cast by men into the fire (John 15:6).
One of the most searching warnings of this kind is found in Revelation 2:5.
"Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place." This warning is addressed to the angel of the church at Ephesus. This church had stood as a great light bearer surrounded by dark heathenism and even at the time the warning was spoken, much good was said about this church; but it had left its "first love" and therefore the warning. How sensitive God is in the matter of letting his light shine out through those who are his own! All through the centuries of the Christian era, the pages of history are filled with records of churches and individual men that have been discarded by God as light bearers in this world of darkness. To interpret this warning as a possibility of being lost is to rob that church (or individual) which is very actively engaged in God's work and zealous for the faith delivered once to the saints, of the much needed warning that being a light bearer essentially requires a personal love for the Lord.
REWARDS MIGHT BE LOST
God will reward in eternity those who serve him faithfully during their earthly life. "If what he (any man) has built survives, he will receive his reward" (First Corinthians 3:14). But it is also possible for a man to lose that reward which God had made possible for a man to lose the reward that God had made possible for him to gain and he solemnly warns of this: "Hold on to what you have, so that no-one will take your crown" (Revelation 3:11). Crowns are rewards for faithfulness to God. They do not represent eternal life. This is perfectly clear from Revelation 4:4 to 11, which depicts the scene wherein the twenty-four elders cast their crowns before the throne saying, "Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power." There is a glory and honour for eternity that can be lost and God warns his children of the possibility of losing it.
WARNINGS TO AVOID CHASTENING
So far only warnings as to loss or gain for eternity have been considered. There are also warnings that consider the present life of the believer. While it is true that every child of God is subject to chastening, it is also true that the amount of chastening may be more or less, depending on the believer's judgment of himself for allowing sin in his life. Those who do not judge themselves are warned that God will judge and chasten them. (First Corinthians 11:27-32).
IT IS POSSIBLE NOT TO ENTER INTO REST
The Lord Jesus Christ said: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). What can be meant by this rest? It is the rest that he gives to all who have labored with the heavy burden of sin, which he through his death takes away from all who have come to him, confessing themselves as sinners. It is a rest in the finished work of salvation.
That this is a rest to be enjoyed during this earthly life is clear from the words that follow: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me."
There are many Christians who do not have this rest because they do not understand that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, God performed through him a finished work of salvation which is theirs through simply coming to him in faith. Instead of resting in the finished work of Christ, they are constantly laboring in order to be accepted by God. They are trying to be justified by their own efforts. They are always struggling to "hold out" but have no rest - no assurance - that they will see Christ in glory.
God has given a solemn warning against just this condition, but the warning has to a large extent been lost because the passage has been made to mean the possible loss of eternal life.
This warning is found in Hebrews 4:1-3. "Therefore, since the promise of entering his (God's) rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest." The interpretation that makes this passage teach that a saved person can be lost and thus fail to enter into rest in heaven overlooks the present tense of the words: "Now we who have believed enter (not 'will enter') that rest." The tenth verse makes this even more definite for there the entering into rest is already an accomplished fact. "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his" (KJV). And here it is clearly said that the rest is from one's own works.
Those who deny the eternal security of the believer and add works as a condition for salvation are responsible for the failure of many Christians to cease from their own works and to enter into that rest which comes from faith in the finished work of Christ.
While there are many other warnings in the Bible, enough has been considered to show the emptiness of the argument, "Why then the warnings, if a saved person cannot be lost?", and also the shallowness of the interpretation of the Bible which denies eternal security.
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