Has God Chosen Some To Be Saved And Some To Be Lost?

I trust what Jesus says. I find it interesting what some people say expounding on the Scriptures but when it comes down to them and Jesus' words I will always choose Jesus' words. I know a few people who have married themselves to certain doctrines that are not found in the Word, that fly in the face of what Jesus said. One of these things is that our loving Father has decided who will be saved and who won't be. This means that no matter what some people decide, salvation will never be available to them.

Can we just review here what Jesus said?

"Then everyone who has faith in the Son of Man will have eternal life. God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them! No one who has faith in God’s Son will be condemned. But everyone who doesn’t have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God’s only Son." (John 3:15-18)

Look at it again. Jesus said "everyone" who has faith in him. Other translations says "whoever believes" in him. I don't need to go any further than these words. It is the promise I rely on, where I have placed my faith and trust, because of the one who said it.

My salvation is not a thing given to me because Yahweh has considered my favoured but because I believed in the one single act where Father sent the Son to die for the salvation of the entire world. Salvation is a free gift for everyone who decides to believe. We will be judged not according to our sins but according to whether we believed or not, whether we placed our faith in the Son of God, trusted his promises and accepted the gift.

Father has chosen to love the entire world of people, even in the midst of our rebellion, in all our ugliness, in all our guilt and shame. It is when we accept the promise that the promise is applied and everything is removed. None of this was done by me; my only part is to accept it, but it is my choice. Father has not chosen some to be saved and some to be condemned. He has chosen us all to be saved but it is up to us. He has given us a choice. That is what Jesus said and that is good enough for me.

Are You Sure?

How sure are you of your salvation? I worry that in this age of shallow spirituality, people are failing to understand the assurance of their salvation and believe that they can become "unsaved" in an instant. But our salvation has never been dependent on us except for the decision to believe. I know I have been harping on this all week but if we do not understand the nature of our salvation the enemy will always be able to rob us of our peace.

Abraham is the definition of salvation by grace. This is how his righteousness (for the sake of a simple definition, a right relationship with Yahweh) is described:

He was fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised. Therefore, it was credited to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:21-22)

"Fully convinced" is the phrase we should use in examining our own faith. Are we fully convinced when Jesus said:

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. (John 3:16)

No other requirements than to believe. It is when we believe that a transformation takes place and we become a new creation. These are two different issues but salvation is a simple matter of belief. It is not dependent on our behaviour or actions or thought process. Believe. Such belief should produce faith which is to act on your belief, as Abraham did.

Paul the apostle told us that there is a direct relationship here between Abraham and us:

But the scripture that says it was credited to him wasn’t written only for Abraham’s sake. It was written also for our sake, because it is going to be credited to us too. It will be credited to those of us who have faith in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. (Romans 4:23-24)

And that is the assurance of our salvation. It is not dependent on behaviour, we can't earn it, we didn't buy it, it was a gift purchased for us by Jesus. So you aren't saved today and tomorrow you are not. This assurance is important as we grow and mature spiritually. We no longer focus on our salvation but growing strong in Jesus, of allowing the transformation to take place, to obey the conviction of the Spirit, to see Jesus become more and us become less.

Jesus said our sins are forgiven by his sacrifice. He said we only need to believe him in order to be saved. This is the assurance of our salvation. There is no other path, no other source, no other condition. We were the enemy of Yahweh and he sacrificed himself, laying down his life, so that we may be reconciled to him. You are not perfect but he is. You cannot measure up to him but by his grace he has declared that you do. C'est tout! It is finished.

What Do You Have To Do To Be Saved?

How is a person saved from the eternal damnation we are all heading toward? Is it by paying money to the church? Is it by living a good life, treating everyone kindly, doing good deeds? Is it by praying, reading your Bible, going to church? Is it by doing anything?

Salvation involves doing but not as we may first think. To start with, all the doing was done by Jesus. Everything that needed to be done was done by Jesus. There was nothing we could do so Jesus came and did it. There is a little bit of doing on our part but that doing is simply to believe. To believe Jesus is who he says he is and to believe that he did what he said he did.

He was not a good man. He was not a prophet. He was not an early version of Gandhi. He was not a wise man teaching about love. He was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, the one who could pay the price we could not pay, to do what we could not do. But it is a useless sacrifice if we do not believe.

Jesus' words:

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Not that "everyone won't perish" but "everyone who believes in him won't perish". He has done it all but we have to believe. Is this promise applied only to the Jews or a select group? The word "everyone" deals with that. Paul the apostle also made this matter clear:

God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him. There’s no distinction. (Romans 3:22)

The word "faith" is used here as a step beyond belief. Faith is belief in action. When we live by faith we live our lives in the belief that Jesus is the sacrifice that paid for all our sins and now we are saved from the eternal consequences of our sins. Salvation is not earned, cannot be bought, is found nowhere else other than through the sacrificial Lamb, who is Jesus. It is the reason this Lamb told us:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

Now everyone is left with the choice to believe or not. And that is all you need to do to be saved; believe. What happens to you after you choose to believe is another story.

The Truth About Sinners And Salvation

You may not agree with what I am about to say but I hope you will search the Scriptures first to see if it is true. If you are a Christian it is important that you have a correct view of the world, the Church and your place in it.

If a person is without Jesus Christ it does not matter what they do. It doesn't matter if they are a murderer, liar, or cheat. It doesn't matter if they are straight, homosexual or are confused about their identity. It doesn't matter if they are druggies or alcoholics. It doesn't matter if they are bank robbers, prostitutes or white collar crooks. All that matters is that they are without Jesus:

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:18)

In case you didn't know it, those are Jesus' words. He told us the judgement will be based on whether we believe or not, not based on behaviour. We are all sinners. The difference is that our sins are covered, forgiven and forgotten when we choose to believe Jesus.

The reason this matters is because this is the foundation of Christianity but we are actually preaching something different. When we spend so much time on people's behaviour we come across as if they can save themselves by changing their behaviour. It becomes about living a good life and not about the spiritual act of believing.

We can't save ourselves; only Jesus saves. It is only by the blood of the Lamb. It is all about the sacrifice on the Cross. We cannot justify ourselves by modifying our behaviour. A prostitute who stops being a prostitute is not any closer to salvation because of her changed behaviour. She still needs Jesus because:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)

We need to stop criticizing sinners for behaving like sinners, the rebellious for rebelling, and instead learn to love them as Jesus loves them. I am no liberal in my theology. Judgement Day is coming but our attitude in serving this suffering world is not going to help in the salvation of the dying masses.

The behaviour we should be concerned about are those who claim to have Jesus but act as if they don't; those who think they can still participate in the pleasures of sin while testifying to the goodness of Yahweh. They are spiritual in their talk and carnal in their thinking and behaviour. These are they people who have been deceived and are deceiving.

We speak the same truth to the world as Jesus did but we must also love as he loved. He did not concentrate on their behaviour but instead dealt with their heart condition. Behavioiur changes after encountering Jesus, not before. People need Jesus before they can stop sinning, rebelling against Father; they don't stop sinning in order to come to Jesus.

We need to stop being offended by behaviour and attitude and start telling people how they can have peace, real joy and the empty place of their heart filled with real life. We need to tell them how the burden can be lifted from them and how they can discover what real unconditional love means. Stop being shocked that sinners sin and be more amazed that Jesus died for them as he died for us. Let us stop demanding conformity and allow the Spirit to bring in real transformation.

How To Avoid Confusion About Your Walk With Jesus

Man, things are as confusing in the Church as they are in the world. As people attack the Word and decide to ignore some areas and lift up others, it become unbalanced. If you poke holes in your ship you are going to sink. If you say that God's Word is not God's Word or that there are sections we can just ignore then we have to ask ourselves, by what do I base my faith?

The first level of understanding is quite simple. Here it is:

The Father loves the Son and has given him everything. Everyone who has faith in the Son has eternal life. But no one who rejects him will ever share in that life, and God will be angry with them forever. (John 3:35-36)

So there you have it, if you believe in Jesus you have eternal life. If you don't believe, you continue on the road to your destruction. You don't get eternal life with Jesus. We know this as justification, the thing Jesus did for us that we can't do for ourselves. I think most people accept this fundamental understanding.

Where we have lots of confusion is in the actual relationship, the growing up part, the maturing. what we call sanctification. This is when we are being transformed by the Spirit into the character of Jesus, the character of a child of Yahweh. It is when we start looking like daddy. Without getting into the advanced stuff, there are a few things Jesus told us that should at least point us in the right direction. First:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, “Love others as much as you love yourself.” All the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets are based on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37-40)

This is simple in principle but the real challenge is to avoid the world's definition of love, to grasp what Jesus meant by love. Hopefully as we grow in intimacy with Jesus we are also growing in our revelation of love. What Jesus is saying here is if we follow these two commands we are fulfilling everything Father desires of us. There are tons of scriptures that act as measuring rods so we can see how we are progressing.

The second basic teaching from Jesus that points us in the right direction for spiritual growth is:

If you love me, you will do as I command. (John 14:15)

A little later on Jesus repeats himself but expands on it:

If you love me, you will do what I have said, and my Father will love you. I will also love you and show you what I am like. (John 14:21)

And this is where the most confusion comes it. We have been called to obedience, not self thought. We have been called to obedience, not self-will. He didn't tell us to do whatever we think is best. Jesus held up the authority of Scripture and said he didn't come to abolish it but to fulfill it. Our responsibility is to learn what Jesus taught and do those things.

When we try to interpret Jesus' words for ourselves or when we search the Scriptures to justify our own thinking and desires, we will always run into trouble. The trouble will always be our flesh, the part of us still anchored in this world. It will always gravitate to selfishness and that is a lot of what we are seeing in the Church today. There is out and out rebellion against the authority of the Scriptures, which means rebellion against Jesus..

Jesus told us he was giving us the Holy Spirit as our teacher, comforter, corrector, the one who brings conviction. In order to walk in obedience we need to learn to hear his voice and be determined to walk with him and not ourselves. We have to not trust our flesh and only trust what the Spirit is teaching because he is training us and transforming us for eternal glory. He does this through the Scripture so we need to know the Scripture. But as long as we want what we want we will never learn to walk in obedience to all of Jesus' instructions.

So, on paper, and in theory, it is simple because Jesus has done all the work and all we need to do is cooperate with the Spirit and grow up. It is our flesh that complicates it and requires us to put in a lot more effort than what we have been doing. However, if you are meditating on the Word day and night, learning to pray in relationship every day, and are developing a rich worship privately and corporately, everything else will fall in place. You will see a great abundance produced through you for the benefit of others because Father is glorified when much fruit is produced through you. It is his desire for you.

Throw off the confusion and walk in obedience with the Spirit, in the truth of the Word, and amazing things are going to happen.

Homophobic? I Think Not

According to my daughter and a lot of other people I am homophobic and I take issue with this. You should too, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ who understands our mission. I even have issues with the term "homophobic". What it is suppose to mean has nothing to do with a phobia but rather a hatred, but it doesn't even mean hatred any more. It has been used to label anyone who does not agree with homosexuality. It means I do not have a right to disagree, to have a different perspective from the homosexual community.

The reason this is a concern for Christians is because those who understand God's Word and stand by it are labelled as "haters" with the term homophobic. This flies in the face of what Jesus taught, what he has done for me and the transformation I have gone through. I have no desire to hate anyone and I have nothing but respect for human life, even if I disagree with what that human life is doing. I have a long list of things I disagree with:

I disagree with:
    - abortion
    - prostitution
    - domestic violence
    - child abuse
    - smoking
    - drunkenness
    - drugs
    - speeding
    - over-eating

The list goes on. Some of these things are very common and others no so much. Do I hate the people who do these things? No, I don't. I would show them compassion and grace because that is what I have received from my God. I have not walked in their shoes, I cannot judge them but neither do I support or encourage their behaviour. If they walked into my store or my church I would treat them with the same love and respect as I would anyone else; the same as I would treat a homosexual, even if I disagree with their choices.

I am not meaning this as a political statement but a spiritual one. I am not about to allow the false prince of this world to label me with something that doesn't fit. I am not a hater and by God's power never will be a hater. But I am pursuing God's righteousness, the One who has defined right and wrong for us. I cannot agree with homosexuality based on that righteousness. Because of his love for me and mine for him, I have no choice but to be obedient to his love, to what God has defined as right and wrong, and no human being can persuade we otherwise.

God's Word states, from the mouth of Jesus, "God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die." God loved us in our rebellious state so much that he sacrificed himself so we would not have to be punished. However, it does mean we have to walk away from our rebellion by the power he has given us in Jesus. But who am I not to love people in a fallen state when God sacrificed so much for these same people? But just as God does not accept the behaviour of our fallen state, either can the followers of Jesus Christ. This is at the foundation of our belief and the enemy will not rob me of this love by labeling me a "hater".

In this same Word that coneys God's love and the grace he is showing a rebellious world, we are warned that there is a limit; that there will be one day of judgement. We forget that just because we live in this age of grace and free will, does not mean there is no accountability. Remember the Words of Jesus:

Not everyone who calls me their Lord will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only the ones who obey my Father in heaven will get in. On the day of judgment many will call me their Lord. They will say, “We preached in your name, and in your name we forced out demons and worked many miracles.” But I will tell them, “I will have nothing to do with you! Get out of my sight, you evil people!” (Matthew 7:21-23)

And this is what we spend our days trying to convey to people. It is because we love them that we need to share the truth, to warn. They have the freedom to choose but we want to make sure that they understand there is a choice. If I refused to love them I would refuse to tell them the truth. It's like when someone is lost on drugs, they need to be confronted and told the truth. We don't abandon them, hate them, spit on them, call them names, but we don't withhold the truth either.

So I refuse the label of "homophobic" and any other label that our changing society wants to place on me. I am a child of God, a follower of Jesus, a bearer of the Light, a teller of the truth, a prophet of God's Word, a lover of sinners, detesting sin and longing for God's righteousness. Don't let the world bully you into anything less than what our Father has called you to be.

Enemies Of God

What do you have to do to be saved? By saved I mean saved from eternal damnation. It is a good question that should have a simple answer but in this age of "enlightenment" it is a simple answer that is getting lost in the noise. It is a good thing to refresh ourselves in what the Word says about salvation.

Jesus referred to a second type of birth. He told someone that we need to experience a new birth, into what our Father desired us to become; his children. In our current form we cannot be the children of God. Not everyone in the world is a child of our Father, but he desires them to be:

God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. (John 3:16, CEV)

It is the Father's desire that none should perish but he decided from the beginning that he would not force himself on us. The only love he wants from us is what we freely give to him. Our mistake is thinking that we are all born as his children and if we behave ourselves we will all get to go to heaven. It's not the truth. We are all born as enemies of God but he had compassion on his enemy and desired for us to be his children:

Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life. (Romans 5:10, CEV)

But to go from being the enemy of God to being his children we have to experience a new birth. Jesus said:

“I tell you for certain that you must be born from above before you can see God’s kingdom!” (John 3:3)

When asked how a man can be born a second time Jesus explained:

Humans give life to their children. Yet only God’s Spirit can change you into a child of God. Don’t be surprised when I say that you must be born from above. Only God’s Spirit gives new life. (vv. 6-8)

And this only happens through Jesus. He is the first born, who opened the way for the rest of us to follow. So this second birth comes down to this, a very simple act of trust:

Then everyone who has faith in the Son of Man will have eternal life. (John 3:15)

A voluntary act of trust; an act provoked in us as we accept that God really loves us that much, that we are sinners separated from God and that only Jesus can get us to where we need to be; with our Father. Adopted as "sons" of God; chosen to be loved; transformed by the spilled blood of the Son of God.

However, the cross where Jesus died is not the end of the matter. In fact, the cross is only the beginning; the open door to a brand new adventure.The cross is the beginning of the transformation process, as we go from what we were to the new creation God has destined us to be. We leave the old behind as we take up the new. All priorities and desires change as our destination changes. That is the road we are on now, of this new adventure.

However,new adventures can have difficulties and we can get tired, even weary. But we mustn't. We must rest on Jesus' strength. We must abide in him and he in us. We must remain intimate and vulnerable to God because going part way is not good enough. Close doesn't count. We have to go all the way with Jesus, right to the last breath.

But that is another story for another day. It is enough to know today that you are not saved unless you have made that decision to voluntarily accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, having faith that God loves you and wants you as his children. It isn't yours because your parents are Christians. It isn't yours because you go to church. It isn't yours because you do good deeds and think about God every now and them. It is only yours when you make that decision to accept Jesus, his love, his sacrifice because you know you are an enemy of God and don't want to be any more. Have faith in Jesus and he will do the rest.

How Much Do You Love God?

Our God is kind, loving, compassionate, merciful, forgiving, and full of grace. What he has done for us is incredible and we owe him all the praise and worship we can manage. He also deserves the obedience of his loving and grateful children. He deserves all of their attention, affection and eternal service. But one thing we must always remember is that he also a God of justice.

We did wrong. We rebelled against his love. We deserved death. But he did not kill us. Instead, he came up with a plan to rescue us; to give us an opportunity to escape our enslavement and disobedience. The cost of the plan was all on him but the decision was all on us. As much as he loves us; as much as he has sacrificed for us; as great as his mercy and grace is, we still have to choose. In choosing we turn our back on our rebellion and doing whatever we think is best and we embrace our God as our Father, entering into an incredible relationship of love and obedience. Jesus told us plainly:

God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them! No one who has faith in God’s Son will be condemned. But everyone who doesn’t have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God’s only Son. (John 3:17-18,CEV)

It all comes down to that decision so in essence our salvation is in our hands because God has done everything he can to rescue us from our own demise. But it isn't a one-off decision.There is the initial decision that allows our Father to adopt us through the work of Jesus, but then it becomes a daily decision to live in obedience and to shun evil. It is no different then when we were growing up in our parent's home. Every day we were presented with situations where we had to choose to either respect and honour them in our obedience or to rebel and do our own thing. Solomon told his son:

Obey the teaching
    of your parents—
21     always keep it in mind
    and never forget it.
22 Their teaching will guide you
    when you walk,
protect you when you sleep,
    and talk to you
    when you are awake. (Proverbs 6:20-22)

At the age of 49 I still live according to what I was taught in my parents' home because it was ingrained in me and as I have grown I have discovered the wisdom of my parents. As a child I obeyed (not always) simply because I was taught to obey but as I have grown I obey for a different reason. With God it is often like this.

We don't always understand why our Father has commanded certain things but if we love him we will obey, even without understanding. As we grow and mature, we begin to appreciate his wisdom and our obedience becomes a thing of maturity. Again, Solomon told his son:

The Law of the Lord is a lamp,
    and its teachings
    shine brightly.
Correction and self-control
    will lead you through life. (Proverbs 6:23, CEV)

There is a reason our Father commanded what he commanded. There are reason he has restricted what has been restricted. If we are too young spiritually to understand, then love should be enough to cause us to desire to obey without understanding. But as we mature, we will begin to see and appreciate just how much the Word is a lamp for our feet and the brilliance of the instructions of our Father.

Yet today, at this moment, you have to make that decision whether you will obey or not. Don't try changing the words and fitting it in to your agenda because that dishonours our Father. That's trying to paint him as a liar and confuses the world. No, you have to decide whether you love him enough to obey what he has instructed, whether you agree or disagree, whether you understand it or not. Obedience is not doing your thing and paying lip service to our Father. Obedience is following the instruction of our Father as he has given it. Do you love him enough to do what he has said?