scaring the hell out of us

You may not like the title of my post (I don't like it either, really) or the subject matter (I'll agree with you there, to a large extent at least), or the tone of some of my posts recently (okay, I don't either), or in the past (to some extent I'll agree there, also). But I believe this is important because it's a part of Scripture, and I believe Scripture is the word of God speaking the message and Story of God to us. Which ultimately comes to us, in Jesus, God's final word to us.

I was raised Mennonite, but after my conversion at the beginning of my senior year in high school, I was soon influenced by my uncle who taught at the school and is a pastor, and I by and by embraced a Baptist doctrine, leaving my Mennonite beliefs behind. Of course eternal security was part of that teaching, and since I felt insecure, I found it helpful and liberating for me. And indeed, it is essential to know just how important and foundational God's keeping of us in Jesus is.

At the same time, I think what I understand Scot McKnight in a recent comment at Jesus Creed, to have said, is true. Many Baptists who believe in eternal security, once saved always saved, really do not believe in perseverance, that is that true Christians will persevere faithfully in God's will till the end, not perfectly, but they'll always come back and be saved in the end. I do think most Baptists believe we're to live holy lives, and only a few think that when you are saved you don't have to concern yourself with that.

But inherent in their position is the belief that once you're saved you'll always be saved. In light of the book of Hebrews, and in light of Jesus' strong warnings to his disciples, I think such a position takes the teeth out of such passages. The idea is that no matter what you do, you can't lose your salvation. That may be true. For example I knew a good young pastor years ago, at that time a youth pastor who believed that one would forfeit their salvation if they committed suicide. There is no way I believe that. Though at the same time I wouldn't want to fall into such a sin with all the awful ramifications and no opportunity in this life to repent of it.

What sinning can do for us is harden our hearts since sin is deceitful. We can drift away from the message of Christ and the gospel. Not just for those who have yet to taste and see that the Lord is good, but for those who already have. We are told in Scripture to make our calling and election sure. There are other arguments on this side, as well as on the other side. Good Christians will disagree on it.

My plea though is to take seriously the warning passages, and not somehow skirt what they're actually saying so as to take the teeth out of them. By faith we're kept by the power of God for salvation, but though we can't earn our salvation, we can walk away from it, at first perhaps not deliberately, but in the end no longer caring, hardened in heart and devoted to other things (idols) rather than God in Christ.

So I think we need to listen to the word of God and take to heart all that is written in it. We need to continue to rest in the grace of God for us in Jesus, trusting God for his good work in us, and working that out with fear and trembling.

Just some scattered and incomplete thoughts on this, this morning. One part of Scripture which is not pleasant, but is for our good.

What would you like to add to this, or say here?

focus

Focus spiritually is a matter of the heart. While it is not just an individiual endeavor, it most certainly involves us as individuals. I focus by faith in Jesus. It must begin there. In so doing I'm actually brought into a fellowship of others in Jesus. Together we have the same faith, same Lord, same God and Father.

I speak in terms of the word: focus, because while it's a gift from God to have the capacity to do so, eyes to see the truth revealed in Jesus, it's also a matter of faith, of ongoing faith. We must exercise this faith ourselves. Yes, it's also a gift. But gifts can be rejected or set aside. Scripture to me along with many others seems to make this clear, that we can set aside this gift. I know there are arguments by people also based on Scripture to reject this idea, that we can lose the gift of eternal life, as well as those like me who believe it's true. One thing for sure that I think we can all agree on is that all of us in Jesus can lose focus.

When I lose focus, it means I'm not looking by faith. Though we're to walk by faith and not by sight, Jesus chided some in his presence for having ears but not hearing, and for having eyes but not seeing. This ends up being a faith issue. And a heart issue, as well. And ongoing.

It's not enough just to get focus, though this is a first step, and an ongoing basic in our life of faith. In the eyes of the blind man, we say of this gift, "Once I was blind, but now I can see." Beyond this first reality this faith impacts us as whole human beings, from the top of our heads to the tips of our toes, as one might say. Inside, out. It takes effort as we work out the salvation, which God works in us. If there's one simple thing this post is saying, I'll say it again, Focus takes effort on our part.

I see myself as a mind person in that I like to read and think and I learn by hearing, so my reading while silent, is usually out loud in my mind. I can say the right things and even believe them intellectually. Such is the case for me, of the Christian faith. Sure, I know I hold it hardly knowing what I'm saying, even in the most simple gospel truth, such as in John 3:16. Nevertheless I still affirm it to be true by faith. All well and good.

But I can easily end up deceiving myself, I'm afraid, if I fail to get my life in order before God by failing to focus on Jesus and God's truth revealed in Jesus and in Scripture. When this is the case, then I begin to miss out on the grace of God. God's grace in Jesus is always there for us, but we can lose out on it, if we fail to respond to this grace in Jesus with ongoing faith.

In Jesus the Elect One, all who put their faith in him through the word of the gospel become part of this election and predestination and salvation. But this new sight can be kept only by faith and through the power of God. Both God and we are involved. Faith involves our efforts to focus. I need this reminder, because it's easy for me to just slide on what I "know," yet lose out on the kind of knowing that changes our lives.

I know this is a tough one. Certainly was not an easy one for me to write, either. But what thoughts would you add here from your reading of Scripture, as well as from others' reading of which you know? Or from your own life experience?

(While I agree that it's good for me to add links of Scripture as I often do, and maybe as I especially ought to do in the controversial aside from the main point of this post, I think it's important that we don't depend so much on just this and that text. That has its place, I believe. But we need to see what we believe within the scope of the entire sweeping Story as told and elaborated on, from Genesis to Revelation.)

Tomorrow: "Clefts of the Rock - Responsibility" from L.L. Barkat, Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places