6. The Sorrow and Misery of the Redeemed not Walking Godly
Not every branch in Jesus Christ bears fruit (John 15:2). When the fruitless branches are taken away, this is not to eternal condemnation, but rather to temporal judgment, as with some believers of the church in Corinth. Not every one who has had his sins purged by Christ’s particular redemption remembers their salvation and bears fruit (2Pet 1:9). The four kinds of ground in the parable of the sower also teach us this fact, where the Lord told His disciples to take heed how they hear, because they might not bear any fruit (Luke 8:18). “We then as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain” 2Cor 6:1. Alas, this sad fact happens all too often among believers! They receive the grace of God in vain. Many children receive the benefits from their parents in vain – even so in the spiritual realm.
If a minister fails in his personal and doctrinal duties, he will cost himself and his hearers their faith and holiness (1Tim 4:16). This does not affect their eternal salvation, but it costs them their continuance in faith and holiness, ‘the love of many will grow cold,’ for their lives are compromised by the poor example of the minister’s life or his doctrinal errors in teaching. Their assurance is destroyed by inconsistent and deficient doctrines. The faith and holiness, and not the state of grace, of some were overthrown by Hymenaeus and Philetus (2Tim 2:17-18), by Jezebel the prophetess (Rev 2:20), and by the Judaizers (Gal 1:6; 3:1; 5:4,7). Yet! The Lord knew those that were His of those who had their faith overthrown (2Tim 2:19)!
King Solomon did not continue in faith and holiness. Read 1 Kings 11. Did God’s power keep him in a life of faith and holiness to the end? If your claim is true, then one is forced to conclude that God failed miserably in Solomon’s case. God did persevere to preserve him in a state of grace, though Solomon failed to live a life of faith and holiness to the end. Or just look at the nation of God’s elect people in the Old Testament as a whole? They were a nation bent on backsliding, “And my people are bent to backsliding from Me” Ho 11:7. It is hardly a picture of God’s chosen people being kept in faith and holiness by the power of God. Very far from it! But God did persevere to keep them as His elect people in the Old Testament.
Apostle Paul said to the brethren in Rome, “Therefore, brethren… if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live,” Romans 10:12-13; i.e., therefore brethren, for you to be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life and peace. These brethren are none other than “the beloved of God, called to be saints” Romans 1:7. If your claim were true, this warning and many others would become unnecessary. “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive her plague” (Rev 18:4). Some of the Lord’s people later were found in the harlot church at Rome, for Jesus called for His people to come out of her (Rev 18:4). Surely they were not continuing in faith and holiness by remaining in the Great Harlot herself.
The ‘death’ and the ‘life’ spoken of must be something other than the eternal condemnation and eternal salvation. These ‘beloved of God’ and ‘called to be saints’ have been delivered from eternal death, and have had eternal life bestowed by God’s free grace. The ‘life’ and ‘death’ are related to the temporal judgment and temporal salvation. There is a ‘life and peace’ that comes to the believers who live in faith and holiness; and there is a ‘death’ that the believers suffer who do not live in faith and holiness.
Matthew 16:25 “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Mark 8:35 “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. Luke 9:24 “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. John 12:25 “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” If your claim were true, these warnings would be unnecessary.
I believe all these words are addressed to true disciples because only a regenerated elect man would consciously lose his life for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, i.e., will suffer ‘death’ – not the physical death… but the wasting away of the redeemed life that was meant to be lived for God. Whoever loses his life for the Lord’s sake and the gospel’s will save it, i.e., will experience ‘life and peace’ – the fullness of the Lord’s blessings in this life, the abundant life here.
Compare the lives of Abraham and Lot. These two are classic examples illustrating the truth of ‘life and peace’ as a result of being spiritually minded and ‘death’ as a result of carnality. Both are equally saved in the eternal sense by the sovereign grace of God, but Abraham was certainly saved in a much greater and superior degree in the temporal sense. Spiritually minded Abraham experienced ‘life and peace’ in his earthly pilgrimage. Carnally minded Lot experienced death in his careless life.
The apostle Paul speaks of many saints of the church of Corinth: “For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.” This was certainly not a case of God keeping these believers in faith and holiness to the end. Instead, in His righteous judgment, He terminated the earthly lives of these unfaithful and ungodly saints. These believers despised the holy things of God. Some would prefer to think that these were not among the elect of God, but there is no inspired evidence at all to support this assertion. The many who slept (died), slept in the Lord Jesus.
Read the letters to the seven churches in Rev 2-3. Do those letters support the idea that God, by His omnipotent power, keeps His elect people in a life of faith and holiness? Why was Paul worried about being a castaway, if God had guaranteed his persevering in faith and holiness (1Cor 9:27)? How can the love of money cause some to err from the faith, if God had guaranteed that all would persevere in faith and holiness (1Tim 6:10)? Why did Paul warn ‘holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling’ against departing from the living God, if God had guaranteed that all would persevere in faith and holiness (Heb 3:12)?
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