The Great Divide

The Great Divide
In Defense of the Faith
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Wendy Wippel 

I think it’s fairly safe to say that the issue that divides the church the most is issue of eternal security, otherwise known as “Can you lose your salvation?" It is an extremely important question for each of us individually. But it’s also an important question for The Church as a whole. Because the question it doesn’t just divide members of the Body of Christ in this world.  It divides us for eternity. 

Each division in the Army of Christian soldiers has their own arsenal of verses. The use it or lose it bunch (largely represented by The Church of God, the Church of Christ, and the Nazarenes) like to quote verses like  Matt: 6:15: But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive  you.

And Luke 12:41-46; The parable of the two stewards.

And 1 Cor. 15:1-2: I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

And Colossians 1:21-23: And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

And Hebrews 3:6,14: but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

And Rev. 2:10, 25-36, 3:1-5: Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

And 2 Peter 2:20-22: For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

On the other side, the “permanently protected” camp, looks to a different set of verses. Obviously.

Like John 5:24: Verily, verily I say unto you, he that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

And John 6:39-40, 44: And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day... No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

And Romans 8:29-30: For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers; and whom he foreordained, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

And Ephesians 1:4,5,11: For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight, having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will...

And 1 John 3:14: We know that we have passed from death unto life.

And 1 John 5:13: These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life.

l John 5:24: Verily, verily I say unto you, he that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

John 6:39-40, 44: And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day... No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

And Romans 8:29-30: For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers; and whom he foreordained, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

And Ephesians 1:4,5,11: For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight, having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will...

And 1 John 3:14: We know that we have passed from death unto life.

And Titus 1:1-2: According to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.

I have a strange urge at this point to sing that old Kennel Ration song about my dog being better then your dog. Because the safe and secure group seem to have the edge over the use it or lose it group. At least when it comes to number of verses.
 
But numbers aren’t really what matters, is it.

I think generally the use it or lose it group use verses that center on works, not faith. And it is not about works, is it.

But there is a numbers game to play here that maybe I should mention. I Timothy 1:16 says that “those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins and have already passed from death into life. (NLT)

And this statement –that those who believe on the Christ will have everlasting life ---occurs no less than 54 times in the Gospels. 54 times!

You can almost hear the war games starting, right? The rush to dissect the Hebrew to make sure that all those “Christians” that sin all the way through their lives (as one lose your salvation proponent described "those who won’t make the cut") aren’t going to be sullying up the neighborhood inside the pearly gates.

Newsflash: that’s all of us.  We all sin our way through our lives. It’s called being human, and therefore fallen.

The Good news is that God has our backs: 

Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd…. 

The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone 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 My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.” John 10:7-16, 25-30

Did you catch that? We can’t see the state of anybody’s soul, but God certainly can. And according to John 6:47: Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.

Present tense.  Done deal. For eternity.  And one verse from this passage seals the deal and tells us how our eternal security—despite our daily defeat, comes about: My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.

What a precious promise!

All together now:

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, And to take Him at His Word;


Just to rest upon His promise, And to know, “Thus says the Lord!”

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!


How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!


O for grace to trust Him more!

O how sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to trust His cleansing blood;


And in simple faith to plunge me Neath the healing, cleansing flood!


Yes,’tis sweet to trust in Jesus, Just from sin and self to cease;

Just from Jesus simply taking Life and rest, and joy and peace.

The schism might be in the meaning of who the sheep are. When i was a child i believed. Then i became a teenager (i believed but it had no bearing on my behavior, i rarely even thought about it). Then i became an adult and i believed. Something happened and i've never been the same, nor would i care to go back.

All of those "mes" are Christians of one sort or another, thus making it a little hard to define.