June 8, 2013
I've got to thinking about God's grace recently, and no matter how much you ponder it, it is unfathomable to say the least. I've recently had discussions on eternal security, and this post is not to prove anyone wrong or put down anyone who believes otherwise, but this is my own opinion from what I have gleaned from scripture. I guess the way I look at God's grace is the same way I look at his wrath, but on the opposite spectrum. The sinner is a target of God's wrath and unless redeemed, he cannot escape from it. No valley, mountain, hill, darkness or ocean can hide a man from the wrath of God. When it comes, it will consume him and destroy him. It is inescapable. The same goes for God's grace! The saint is a target of God's grace, he cannot escape from it. No valley, mountain, hill, darkness or ocean can hide a saint from the grace of God. When it comes, it will consume him and restore him. It is inescapable." For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39) So the way I see it, once we are saved, we are saved.
We cannot lose our salvation. After all, Jesus Himself said "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." (John 10:28-29) Once we are saved we are in His hands, and nothing can take us out of them, and last I checked, nothing meant, well, nothing. We cannot out sin God's grace, because God knew all our sins before we even commit them and already paid for them. When a Christian falls into unrepentant sin, God disciplines them, He doesn't take away His grace. "My son, do not scorn the Lord's discipline or give up when he corrects you. "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son he accepts." Endure your suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?" (Hebrews 12:5-7) Or when you look at Paul's letter to the Corinthians, when dealing with their sexual sins. One man took his father's wife, and they were proud, unrepentant! But Paul was still writing to them as believers. He even commanded that the man be disciplined and turned over to Satan so his soul would be saved! (1 Corinthians 1:5) I don't think this man's salvation was ever in question, I think Paul was using strong language to get them to discipline him and dis-fellowship him until he repented. But even if he was destroyed by Satan, he still would have been saved! "you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." (1 Corinthians 1:5) So not even committing unrepentant sexual sin with your father's wife which leads to destruction from Satan can separate you from God's grace! Wow! I mean seriously, wow, and you thought God's wrath was scary?
Now this obviously doesn't give us liberty to sin, (Romans 6:1-2). The true believer will eventually come to repentance by God's discipline and by a change of heart. Now what I say next is my own belief, but for the believer who falls into hard unrepentant sin, what of him? Well I believe that for him, after being disciplined and still unrepentant, God will have no other choice than to bring him home, for I think God would rather have him there in heaven with Him than on earth giving God a bad name by living a sinful lifestyle, after all, God gave us the responsibility of representing Him on earth. That is why I believe Paul used such strong language in dealing with the man sleeping with his father's wife. He commanded for him to be turned over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, to perhaps even die! Why? So that his soul would be saved! Paul would rather have this man's flesh destroyed by Satan and his soul go to heaven, than him stay on earth and give the church a bad reputation. Again, that is my own personal belief on an unrepentant believer. I guess another way to look at it is to view grace as what it is, undeserved merited favor. So how can we ever un-deserve something we didn't deserve in the first place?
I write this to give those who sometimes question their salvation at times peace, for God bought you with a price, his blood. And nothing, not even you yourself, can take yourself back from that payment once you have accepted it. You sold yourself to God, you are his. Just like if you bought a tv from a store with a no return policy. The store owner has no right to come into your home and take it back, because you bought it, and you also can't take it back to the store because it has a no return policy. Well, God's grace has a no return policy sorry! No exceptions! You were bought with the precious blood of Christ, and if you have truly accepted that in faith, then there are no returns accepted, guaranteed!