Can you handle the truth?

Paul tried to establish one primary fact that salvation is by grace, not law. The single requirement for salvation is to believe that Jesus is lord. If you believe Jesus is lord, you are saved by grace through faith, not by work. Does this mean that we have to sin because salvation is by grace? Paul established that we are purchased by Jesus, for a price, and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, as a result, we are dead for sin and we cannot live in sin. Grace is not a blank check to sin; it is a blank check to holiness. When we are holy, the spirit of truth and comfort, the Holy Spirit, will lead us to all truth and godly ways.

 

God is Holy and cannot live in a sinful body. We, therefore, are made holy by the blood of Jesus through grace by faith, so we can be a temple of the Holy Spirit. The existence of the Holy Spirit will connect us with Jesus, as we are one spirit with the lord. The role of the lord is to lead us to all truth and to spiritually grow us to be like him. In this relationship, our role is obedience to the will of the lord. After all, our end is for us to die and to be born in the image of the lord. The will of the heavenly father is for all faithful to look like his beloved son, Jesus Christ.

 

I think most of us will agree up to this point and it would not be necessary to state it, but I did. I needed to state the above fact because I don’t want anyone to focus on debating our agreement than our disagreement. It benefits nobody if we debate our agreement, so let us focus on our disagreement. The potential source of our disagreement is not our common agreement that salvation is by grace not by law. We all agree salvation is by grace not by law. If we disagree, our disagreement is in the question of whether the faithful can die after salvation or not.

 

There is a very dominant theology that contradicts my viewpoint. They believe that if you believe Jesus is lord, you are saved by grace. Besides, they cannot accept that salvation is by work, so they conclude that if you have faith, that Jesus is lord, your work does not matter for your salvation. Yet some of them also accept that your heavenly reward may be less than the holy ones. They claim that sinners would not have a crown of the lord, but anyone who believes Jesus is lord is saved and will enter heaven by grace.

 

This point can be rejected from two sides, one mild and another stronger. Let me present the mild one first and I will focus on the strong one, then after. The mild one states that if someone backslides to sin, a faithful can spiritually die after being reborn. There is bulky evidence, written by Paul, in the New Testament stating that those who live in sin after salvation could not enter the kingdom of God. Our salvation is not for complete freedom, it is slavery to the will of the lord. We have to obey the spirit of the lord when it transforms us into better beings in the image of Jesus. What happens if we don’t obey and we keep practicing our older sins? Are we going to enter the kingdom of heaven because we say “Jesus, Jesus” without keeping his commandments? Lord is not enforcing the law with the penalty of death. Lord is training you holiness and what the lord demands is your will to follow his training. What if you keep practicing your older ways and still shout “Jesus, Jesus”?  What if you are salt but test like stone? What if you are light for those in darkness but your life is nothing but darkness? What if you say “Jesus, Jesus” but what you live is a simple sinful life? Are you granted the kingdom of heaven because you believe Jesus is lord? 

 

What is that I am trying to teach you? I am trying to teach you to grow toward the lord in holiness, after all the spirit of the lord will lead you to holy life. I am telling you to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit to the life of Jesus. Jesus will take your heavy burden and will give you a light burden. Lord is kind and his burden is light, so carry it and follow the lord. If you reject the light burden of the lord to follow the earth, the lord is a patient lord and kind lord to forgive you, but you have no guarantee of your salvation.

 

You are a branch of the lord, and through the Holy Spirit, you are connected with a vine of God, Jesus Christ. If you are fruitful, but your old ways are becoming older branches that cannot grow anymore, the lord will cut the upper top of your branches to transform you into the new green shade of vine. Even the fruitful will need the work of God to make it more fruitful. Those who are not fruitful, however, will be cut from the spirit of the lord. They will die in spirit, as it is written. They are salt who do not test salt and they have no light of lord that can shine to the world. Lord give them some with trust, those who produce more will be rewarded with more and those who fail to be fruitful will lose whatever they think they have. If the lord gives you salvation by faith and you live in sin, how fruitful you are? What do you think you have? I think you think you have your salvation by faith and I am telling you, you will lose it. It is written, after all, that a pastor who is anointed by the lord to feed the sheep of the lord, if he eats and drinks with sinners, attacks his fellow workers, and does not prepare the food of sheep on time, lord will make his fate with those who are rebels, the devils. Even those who are chosen by the lord for a higher purpose can die the worst death like devils.   

 

If you don’t think I am right, wait until I tell you what you will fear the most. The right that you will have to enter heaven starts with faith but is assured not only by being fruitful through godly living but also through spiritual growth. Many faithful can list several things that they have to attain, through the Holy Spirit, to ensure the kingdom of heaven. The list includes no music, no drinking, no smoking, charity, love, and soon. Yet our goal is to have the image of Jesus and the way to attain it is through spiritual growth. If you stop music, smoking, and drinking and then you add “Jesus… Jesus” is it enough? What about the rest of Jesus that we have to be?

 

What if we are neither cold nor hot after our salvation by grace? Does not the lord have the right to spit us? I know the lord can say I know your means are small and I don’t expect much but to hold what you have. There is a chance that the lord may not expect much from us, but our assurance is on spiritually growing toward the lord. It is not perfection that is demanded from you, but slow growth through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Why? It is the will of the heavenly father that all of us look like his son, Jesus Christ. I need to die slowly and the lord needs to take over me slowly. Just allow the Lord to lead you to perfection. Otherwise, I am telling you that you have no assurance of going to heaven. Your salvation through grace can be assured by being fruitful and this demands spiritual growth.

 

What is the last thing that Peter (Peter 2, verse 1, number 5-15) wants to remind the faithful before his expected death? He tried to remind them, what I am telling you. So here is Peter. 

“…, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity (love). For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacked these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meets, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.”

Peter demanded two things after the existence of faith. First, he demanded the existence of virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity (love) beyond faith. Second, he demanded their growth over time. To abound means to thrive, flourish, prosper, overflow, and swarm or simply to increase. When these two things are attained you will be fruitful in knowledge of Jesus Christ and you will not be barren. By doing those things you have a guarantee (assurance) that you will not fall and you can make your calling and election sure. This means after faith you have to ensure your election is granted and this will ensure that the doors of heaven are widely open to you. Peter does not say you will die, otherwise; because only lord knows our fate. After all, heaven is not for those who labor but those who are selected. Yet you can have high assurance of your salvation, beyond your faith, by developing toward the lord.

 

This is the most important message Peter was sending to remind them that they have to follow it even after his inevitable death, which is expected to happen very soon. Don’t fool yourself. This is not meant to scare you but to remind you that sleeping in sin is not a guarantee of salvation. Start by changing one behavior at a time, start from the easy one and slowly you will find yourself running faster and faster. It is not hard work or scary, it is easy. We just need to learn slowly to see inside the bright light, after decades of life in darkness. Initially, it is not easy but slowly you will see light is better than darkness. You will see love is better than hate, forgiveness is better than resentment, loving your enemy is easier than fighting your enemy, humility is more empowering than pride, and service is more honor than dominance. Simply the way of Jesus is more natural than the way of the world.