Archive for the ‘salvation’ Category
Anyone who knows New York’s J-Train immediately understands a few key proverbs: One, the J-Train is best ridden during the day; Two, the J-Train through Brooklyn is not a very safe ride; Three, the J-Train is best avoided. In my old high school another proverb might be added to the list but it sounded more like an ancient curse: damned are those who go to school in the shadow of the J-Train.
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Tags: christ, good friday, richmond hill high school, salvation
Posted in history, personal, salvation | Comments (0)
This measure of our object of faith finds its power in the fact of the gospel. Christ became a servant in that Gospel so now, as a new humanity with new life, we can be proper God honoring servants. On behalf of God’s truth, Christ become a servant to those of the circumcision to authenticate and make real all of the promises given to the Jewish forefathers so therefore a Gentile believer can be a servant to those of the circumcision on behalf of God’s truth as well. Here’s how.
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Posted in acts, church, dispensationalism, israel, romans, salvation | Comments (0)
God’s Gospel should result in radical action and in such a manner that it will keep Christians reexamining themselves and acknowledging God’s grace and mercy. For it is at this point, right at the hinge of the book (Rom 12:1,2) that Paul illustrates the practical application of the Gospel.
Not one Christian is to think more highly of himself than he ought to think says the verse and I’ve often heard it said that it means that the individual has a proper understanding of where he or she stands. Such as: a gifted teacher is to understand where his gift is over that of other teachers yet below others so that he doesn’t think above his gift.
I’m sorry, that is way off base because it is open to a person judging themselves more highly than someone else which is completely contrary to what Paul is saying If we take it as a whole, understanding the mercies of God then we have to understand that Paul isn’t telling Christians who stand on that equal ground of mercy to up and decide who is higher and who is lower—especially of their own estimation!
The grace was given to Paul to allow him to say what he’s saying, and allows Christians to understand where they stand, with the understanding that God has given the equal measuring rule of faith to the saints.
This measure of faith is not a bit of faith here and a bit more faith there reflecting a group of people thinking “I have more faith than him” or “man, he definitely has more faith than me!” Rather it’s the Christians standing on the object of their faith and seeing how completely dependant on that object they are.
Understanding that allows a Christian to really respect his fellow believers and makes him or her completely given over to the preaching of the Gospel.
Posted in church, romans, salvation | Comments (1)
I hate that I’m embedding this video and I abhor how it’s defaming the name of Christ in what it’s doing but it has to be addressed: it’s wrong and a defamation of God’s Gospel. The video consists of a certain group of professing Christians who publicly protest funerals by raising banners and saying “This Person Has Gone To Hell” or the sort—even if the persons were professing believers like the case of the Amish girls who were killed in Lancaster County. This is the same group that raises signs like “God Hates Fags” and the sort but I think they’re actually making a blight of the Gospel and causing the name of Christ to be blasphemed.
For example, John would state that God loved the world in a specific manner. John doesn’t use world to mean the elect or even to mean the whole expansive planet and all the creatures on it but John uses world (very often) to mean the corrupt and immoral system. Yet these so-called Christians say God Hates The World because they are sinners: contrary to the words of John. Paul will add to John’s argument by showing that the sin in the world is actually God’s systematic judgment—not the cause for His supreme judgment. Then Paul will say that God demonstrated His love in the death of Jesus Christ which these professing Christians reserve solely for there elitist group.
In fact their wrong is akin to that of the Pharisee in Jesus’ illustration who prays in the public saying “Thank you God that I’m not like this filthy sinful tax collector” while the tax collector beats on his chest saying “God forgive me a sinner.” What’s so utterly wrong about this is that the Pharisee (and these professing Christians) are forgetting (or denying) that they are sinners just as bad as the Hitlers in the world and it was God’s love, mercy, and grace that offered a salvation to them as well as the Hitler’s in the world.
God’s righteous Gospel is glorious, is far-reaching, is patient, forbearing and for the worst of the worst sinners for whom Christ died. The fact that these Christians profess the exact opposite leaves me thinking that they don’t understand or really know who Christ is and what He is like. Video after the jump. Remember: I think it is evil.
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Posted in apologetics, salvation | Comments (0)
What mercies of God is he holding up as the logical progression that he can hold a “therefore” next to?
Well, chapters 9 through 11 of Romans reflect God’s right to show mercy to whoever He wills—both to the believers and to the unbelievers alike. Paul concerned about the salvation of Israel shows how Israel has been set apart so that God could show them that they are not believers and thus show mercy to the whole lot of them. God’s incomprehensible yet awesome wisdom that he would show mercy to a people—who were not His people (namely us old Gentiles) so that He could show mercy to His actual people who were being stiff necked and disobedient.
And there’s God shouting out to stubborn Israel “All the day long I have stretched out my arms to a disobedient and obstinate people!” Can you see the picture? God like a Father stretching His arms out to His stubborn child waiting to show mercy and forgiveness!
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Posted in romans, salvation, study | Comments (0)
I beseech you says some Bibles. Others say I urge you. In Greek the word can be used to earnestly appeal, invite or even summon together: but in context it is an action word set in the present pointed at a person and demanding something.
Two things here; firstly you usually don’t ask (or urge) for something that isn’t happening. For example I no one has ever told me “Rey, I urge you—I beseech you. No, I beg you—please have some pizza!” You don’t need to ask; I will eat it.
I’ve spent many a superbowl Sunday with friends with no knowledge of the game but there in thanksgiving of God for enabling men to design. And I would happily cheer for both teams raising my pizza-greasy hands: touchdown!
So Paul is urging for something that isn’t being done.
Secondly, sometimes requests questions (especially the urging ones) sound as if they’re coming from a position of weakness. Like when I kept asking my wife if I could get an iPod—I urged, I beseeched but I had no power over the situation: she wouldn’t yield.
But Paul isn’t some poor Hebrew soul, begging esteemed Roman gentiles citizens who look down their classical noses . This is not the beggarly urgings of a weaker individual—this is the strong, demanded, request of the one set apart as an apostle, the servant of Jesus Christ (Head of Creation ), to carry the Gospel of the Eternal, Omnipotent, Righteous, Merciful and Living God. Snap to attention and listen!
So therefore, by the mercies of God Paul the apostle strongly demands for this thing to be done.
Romans Series
Posted in acts, church, romans, salvation | Comments (0)
Paul in examining if the message of the Gospel has reached Israel, offered up four questions and we take up our notes now to examine the third: It’s not is it, that God has rejected His people? (Rom 11:1)
“Yes we heard and yes we understood but we couldn’t believe because God rejected us beforehand. We couldn’t believe even if we wanted to.”
Once again Paul’s answer demands the negative: of course the Jews have not been rejected. Here people are quick to point out that the seven thousand saved are the believing remnant of Israel and Paul being one of them shows that God has an Israel within Israel but Paul isn’t defending the Israel within Israel—he’s praying for the salvation of Unbelieving Israel.
Paul, speaking as a Jew shows himself as proof that the Jews have not been rejected for the gospel is available to them. God foreknew his people and just as in Elijah’s day when the man stood thinking that he was alone as he pled against Israel, God pointed out that there were seven thousand (a perfect remnant you can read it) of men who haven’t bowed the knee to Baal. Elijah wasn’t alone but there was a perfect counting of men who stood with Elijah and thus continuing to preserve the nation.
This remnant remains such by God’s grace and mercy—He has not wiped out the Jews but rather is preserving them for a specific, as of this point, unmentioned purpose. And this believing portion holds on and the rest were partially hardened so as to stumble.
Posted in israel, salvation | Comments (1)
Paul in examining if the message of the Gospel has reached Israel, offered up four questions and we take up our notes now to examine the third: It’s not is it, that they have stumbled so as to fall? (Rom 11:11)
“So fine, we were hardened so we stumbled so that we couldn’t believe and thus be ultimately cast off—is that what you’re saying Paul?”
The original question demands the negative: they did NOT stumble so as to fall. But their stumbling was to make the Gospel available to the Gentiles and then to provoke the Jews to be jealous.
Their stumbling brought riches to the world, brought salvation to a foreign people—how much more will the salvation of all of them (for that is what the full number means) bring to the rest of the world? How much greater will that be for everyone?
For you see, Paul’s point is that although they did stumble, because God had partially hardened them in unbelief, it wasn’t for the end goal of making sure they were damned to hell and cast off—but rather so that the entire world can reap the benefits of His awesome salvation.
All in all, Paul examines this as a group: Elect Israel was partially hardened so that the Gospel could go out to the entire world of UnElect Gentiles and finally in the end, Elect Israel as a Whole will believe bringing unimaginable riches (not in finances) to the entire world.
All of Israel will be saved just as it is written (11:26) and although the unbelieving Israel is currently (in regards to the gospel) enemies but according to God’s election they are loved because God’s gracious gifts are irrevocable.
Jews and Gentiles both stand on God’s mercy: both elect and unelect (categories which our Christian theologies have forced to mean unconditionally saved before the foundation of the world and unconditionally damned before the foundation of the world) stand on God’s mercy.
The truth of the matter is that God has shut everyone up as disobedient so that H could show mercy to all.
It’s no wonder that Paul can collapse into adoration and wonder at the depth of God’s riches and His unfathomable wisdom, unsearchable judgments and untraceable ways—for no one can know the mind of God who has conceived such a plan whereby all, and I mean all, can be saved.
Posted in israel, salvation | Comments (1)
Paul in examining if the message of the Gospel has reached Israel, offered up four questions and we take up our notes now to examine the second: It’s not is it, that Israel didn’t understand? (Rom 10:19)
"Well, true God we heard the message but our minds and hearts were darkened so we couldn’t possibly understand it therefore we couldn’t believe it." Is that their defense? Is that the unmentioned defense made by proponents of such a system?
Paul’s answer is once again grounded in Scripture after phrasing the question in such a way that it demands the negative.
As early as Moses, the Jewish writings taught that God would make them Jealous by means of a nation without understanding and Isaiah boldly states that God was found by those people that didn’t seek Him and He became manifest to those who didn’t ask for Him yet to Israel He says that He’s been waiting, with outstretched hands, to a disobedient and obstinate people.
In other words, the Gentiles were being converted by droves and the Israelites were witnesses of this as well. Indeed, their Bible said this was going to happen and if anyone would understand it they did because it was provoking to jealousy. These same Gentiles that were formerly pagans were now worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These same Gentiles were now calling on the name of the Living God and worshipping a Jewish Messiah as Lord.
And what were they doing? They were being disobedient while God in His longsuffering mercy and compassion stretches his hands out—look at the picture like a father with a disobedient and wayward child—all day long, waiting for them.
Oh the words of the Lord Jesus when He stood before Jerusalem and wept before entering in "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"
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Paul in examining if the message of the Gospel has reached Israel, offered up four questions and we take up our notes now to examine the first: It’s not is it, that Israel didn’t hear? (Rom 10:18)
For if Israel could state that they have never heard Christ’s Words then they might have a leg to stand on when it comes to judgment. Imagine the cosmic court room where Israel can say "No we didn’t have faith."
"Well then why not?"
"Well, we never heard anything."
"Yes, sorry, the preacher I tried to send could go so in turn you didn’t hear and thus you could never have faith. Be that as it may, you’re damned for eternity. Next."
So it’s not is it, that Israel has never heard? No, of course not—for they did hear, says Isaiah. The message has gone forth, it has gone out into all the earth. This doesn’t underscore the fact that Israel is part of the earth so they should’ve heard but rather it underscores the reach of the Gospel which the Jews were witness to.
They had the prophets before them speaking about this sort of thing, and they ignored it and denied it and railed against it: but it’s written down years before that this sort of thing was going to happen.
So they have heard.
Posted in israel, salvation | Comments (0)
Now then, if God shows mercy, and salvation is so near to everyone, and it is brought so undeniably near by the Lord God why is Israel not saved?
Well, Paul pointed out that they must call on the name of the Lord to be saved but one must realize that for someone to call they must have some prerequisites filled out. "They must be chosen before the foundation of the world" someone might say but not Paul.
A person can’t call on someone they haven’t believed. And to believe someone they must have heard them—not about them, but actually them. And for someone to hear them someone must be saying Something. And for someone to say Something they must have been given the mission to go Say.
So this preacher has the wonderful mission of preaching good news and he preaches the good news to the Jews and in that preaching they must hear the Lord speaking and from there they might believe and following that call on Him. There’s the actual steps.
The point Paul is making that for someone to be saved they must have faith and to have faith they must first have heard the word of Christ. That’s it.
Now, has the message gone awry when it comes to the Jew that they don’t believe? Is there a point where we can see the thread broken for Israel and thus find the reason they are not saved lying in some other domain?
Paul proceeds to ask four questions in a form that demands the negative.
Let me unpack that, when we ask questions we can form them in such a way that they are merely questions.
"Are there bears outside the tent?" is an open ended question that can be answered with either a Yes or a No, it’s purely informational and the answer can go either way.
But a person can ask "There aren’t bears outside, are there?" which is formed in a way that demands to be "No, there are no bears outside". Sometimes sneaky people frame their questions like this when they’re being sarcastic or some such, but that is not the case here in Paul’s argument.
- Question 1: It’s not is it, that Israel didn’t hear? (Rom 10:18)
- Question 2: It’s not is it, that Israel didn’t understand? (Rom 10:19)
- Question 3: It’s not is it, that God has rejected His people? (Rom 11:1)
- Question 4: It’s not is it, that they have stumbled so as to fall? (Rom 11:11)
Four questions all asked to demand the negative to prove that God did not falter in his offer of salvation.
Posted in calvinism, israel, salvation | Comments (1)
Interesting to note that a man who understands the Gospel like no other is one who is especially concerned with the salvation of Israelites. He has not abrogated them to some category of "vessels of wrath" nor has he tossed his hands up as "not chosen before the foundation of the world." Indeed, even in Acts where he wipes the dust off his feet he makes repeated efforts to win them for Christ and here he earnestly prays for them and bears witness of them.
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Posted in arminianism, calvinism, israel, salvation | Comments (1)
Last time I said that God’s unmerited mercy was being poured out on vessels of wrath: stupid, pagan Gentiles who weren’t even looking for God in the first place—but what about Israel, these vessels that were prepared beforehand for glory? What about their fate?
Paul’s overarching point, if you recall, is especially concerned with the salvation of unsaved Israel—a point that seems to be quickly ignored in many debates. If the argument here is that God has decided not to save Israel there is truly a problem with God’s word which will always stand yet in Paul’s day (and presently) Israel as a whole does not believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
The evidence stands against them for the prophets had spoken about God’s mercy left and right (a fact that is overwhelmingly ignored when looking at God in the Old Testament). Speaking about a cast off Israel, God through Hosea says He will take those cast off Israelites and call them His People and they will thus be called living sons of the living God. Speaking about a chastised Israel, Isaiah says that the entire Israelite nation will not be wiped out but there would be a remnant, a small shoot, that will be saved and preserve Israel for God has left them this posterity instead of wiping them out like Sodom and Gomorrah.
So God did in fact show mercy to Israel that He hasn’t wiped them out and He doesn’t intend to wipe them out but currently Israel does not believe because in the way they pursued God’s righteousness.
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Lots of people have wondered about this, sometimes long after they have believed, especially after a moment of personal weakness or a particularly rough patch in life’s walk. Sometimes the person looks back at their personal experience and holds the current crisis up as a counterpoint. For example: I sin today and think “Am I still saved? Especially in light of me trusting God to save me twenty two years ago? Especially in light of me preaching for years?”
We think about time as a series of points: anything before a certain point is not included in that time interval. My trip from New York to Florida is measured in miles from where I parked my car to where I stopped it—but it doesn’t include me dragging luggage down the stairs.
But God doesn’t look at time that way. Concerning those who are labeled the Called (that being someone who has heard the Gospel, believed it and trusted) are labeled as Predestinated, Justified, Sanctified and Glorified. Those same people we’re told that nothing can separate them from God’s love; not death, or torture or demons or even angels. We’re told that God is altogether on the side of those people: the Father who can bring the charge, justifies them; the Spirit who is in the Godhead dwells within them reworking them and helping them; the Son who can condemn intercedes on their behalf.
So God in all three persons seems to be saying He’s dedicated to this course of action for these people and He will ultimately complete it. Paul says it this way “He who has started a good work in you will ultimately complete it in the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6).
But that’s all well and good for people who are loving God and not going through an incredibly faith-shaking time or have fallen into the grossest of sin—but what about us who have messed up to the point that we are drowning in it? Are those of us unsaved: we had it but we lost it?
This is important: God alone saves. Our prayers didn’t save us. Our baptism didn’t save us. Our confession didn’t save us. Heck, our belief didn’t save us: God saved us. The fact that He specified our rather pitiful belief on His Perfect Son as the vehicle by which He would funnel salvation is altogether God’s decision in showing mercy.
So then Paul points out that those who are saved can exult, that is be firmly convinced and joyfully expectant, in our tribulations/tests/trials knowing that the goal is to bring about perseverance or endurance and that is to bring about a perfected character and that a non-disappointing hope or watchful expectancy. In other words, the believer should expect that the rough times he or she is going through are meant to keep him or her in the faith, yield results in character that prepare for further rough patches.
“But what if I mess up?”
Like David? Who was, definitely saved before he seriously messed up and slept with Bathsheba? Or like Abraham, who was definitely saved before he lied in Egypt or even again, years later, in Gerar? Or like Peter, who was definitely saved before he up and denied the Lord three times? Or like Lot whose life in Sodom left him doing horrid things but Peter describes as righteous?
We will mess up but our ultimate salvation from God’s wrath isn’t based on our mess ups or our doing alright. The Gospel was meant for Messed Up People.
Hold on to this: If God was willing to send His Son to die for you while you were still a sinner how much more is He willing to ensure your salvation now that you have believed?
That section where Paul is talking about the use of tribulations (Romans 5), Paul begins with: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Before placing trust on Jesus Christ we were enemies of God—recipients of His due wrath but after (still thinking linearly) we have an end of hostilities and all the benefits of being on the same side. That means end of hostilities as well as the overwhelming benefits from being on the same side. Hostilities ended on account of His Son Jesus Christ and hostilities not to start up again on the same grounds.
That means that although there are times where a true believer can so mess up that they can doubt their salvation they are still under God’s peace. That means that since God isn’t constrained to linear thinking He can say things like “you have an end goal, you have responded to my calling, you have been declared not-guilty, you have been made clean, you have been made gloriously perfect: the triune God is altogether on your side”.
It is important that we recognize in ourselves the capability to constantly mess up and also truly, honestly, examine if we really ever trusted the Lord to begin with. Not in such a manner that we throw away our faith (and thus prove that we never really believed Him like those in John 
but in such a manner where we soberly look at our current mistakes and really hold them up to God’s Gospel.
His Gospel is this: that God had the authority and right to pour down wrath on his rebellious creation (Rom 1-3) but He showed mercy to all of them (Rom 9: for all of them have sinned (Rom 3, Rom 11)) by sending His Son to take their punishment (Rom 3) that whoever believed on His Son (Rom 4), confessed Him as the Lord God, trusted on Him as the only means of salvation and believed that He rose from the grave God (Rom 10) would justify(Rom 5), later save from His just wrath and currently save us from the bondage to our sin(Rom 6), would continue to work in the believer(Rom 8), perfecting them (as they perfect themselves knowing that they would mess up—Romans7) so that at the end they will be presented Perfect before God (unlike their previous state). So then in this current world, the believer will struggle (Rom 7) but he stands on equal footing with all people knowing that he/she lives by God’s mercy so now they can exemplify that to other people and reflect God’s goodness, peace and mercy towards all people (Rom 13-16) not repaying evil for evil but making room for God to work (Rom 12).
So can a person that God saved become unsaved? Never—God has saved them and nothing can remove them from God’s hands. So can a person who has confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior, or responded to the altar call, or been baptized lose their salvation? Those things are not the things that saved us so it is possible for a person to never truly have believed and to rely on them for salvation. So how does a person know that they are saved? By reexamining themselves in light of God’s Gospel and understanding that what He says is true—those who rely on the power and authority of the Lord God Jesus the Christ and believe that He rose from the grave will be undeniably saved.
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Virginia Tech…32 dead: why? The question that always comes up after something like this is: how can there be a good God if there is so much evil in the world? How come he doesn’t stop it right now?
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