Walk

302. Grace or Works?

What about backsliding?

There has been this age-old argument about “Once saved always saved” and “If you don’t walk the walk you won’t make it to heaven.” Which one is right? They are both wrong! Rather than take the courtroom tactics of looking up Scriptures and trying to prove who is right, we are going down a different path. We will not attempt to resolve this argument, but rather we will look at it from a different perspective. I believe that God has a different point of view. His!

How could Lot be called righteous?

2 Peter 2:7 says, “And (He) delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked.” If I had been God, I would not have taken Lot to Heaven. But we cannot judge the One who created us. Lot lived totally in the world; he had chances to repent but he did not. Yet God kept him safe and took him to Heaven. Don’t ask me why. I would never want to get that close to Hell.

We are made righteous totally by faith in what Jesus did for us. Nothing that we can do, no kind of works can get us into the family of God.

Romans 3:20-21 says, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”

Romans 4:3 says, “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’” In Romans 4:6 David is quoted as saying the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.

Now the other extreme was Esau.

He was Jacob’s twin brother. Esau, on the surface, did not seem any worse than his twin brother Jacob did. Jacob was a deceiver, yet God intervened and supernaturally gave the firstborn birthright to Jacob even though Jacob was the last one out of the womb. Esau despised his birthright, thinking that it was not that big of a deal and sold it to Jacob for a bowl of stew. Yet later in life when he tried to repent, he could not. We have a spiritual birthright when we are born of God. This is a warning to us not to despise it. We could end up as Esau, who did not make it.

Hebrews 12:16-17 says, “lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”

Proverbs 29:1 says, “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”

The Pharisees were a good example of not being saved by works. Matthew 23:33 says, “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?”

We are saved by grace (life is imparted to us). Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

We are maintained by grace, not by works.

Paul asked the Galatians who had bewitched them into believing that they could keep their salvation by works. We need to know that witchcraft will attempt to make us legalists, keeping some law and loosing our fellowship with God.

Galatians 3:1-3 says, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”

Righteousness is something that is implanted inside of us. What makes us righteous? What takes us to Heaven and makes us a child of God is simply the life and Spirit of God implanted inside of us. You have heard of a heart transplant. Well, we have received a spirit transplant. We had little to do with that except to make Jesus our Lord and accept His free gift.

But this free gift is only a seed at first. In Mark chapter 4, Jesus tells us that everything works on the seed principle. The sower sows the Word, the ground is our heart and there are four kinds of ground: hard, rocky, thorny, and good. Satan comes to steal the seed out of the first three grounds through persecution, cares, love of other things, etc. Only 50% of the seed stayed, and half of that did not bear fruit. Read Mark 4 and see the way Satan steals the Word.

We are born again by the seed of the Word of God. 1 Peter 1:23 says, “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”

Jesus said that the ENTIRE Kingdom of God works on this principle. Can a person have the born again experience and then loose the seed? What does Mark 4 say? You answer it.

Here is the key: We are in a process like a plant that is growing. The process is intended to get us ready for Heaven, but it can also be a process of backsliding.

We need to remember a few things:

1. We are only here on earth for a little while. God does not let us stay here just to bring other people into the Kingdom of God. No, He wants us to mature and get ready for Heaven.

2. We are free moral persons; the only creation of God that can make a real moral choice. When we get to Heaven, we will not lose that attribute. We will still technically be able to rebel against God. So how can God trust us enough? We must be matured while we are here.

3. We get closer to God by process, and backslide by process, not in one giant step! If you put a frog in a pot of hot water, he would jump out. But if you put him in cold water and heat it up a little at a time, he would stay in, get used to the warmth and finally boil to death. That is how Satan gets us. He will induce us to make a little bad choice, then our conscience gets a little dark, then another bad choice and a little more darkness sets in. Pretty soon the spirit of darkness blinds us and we no longer know right from wrong. What Christian would make a conscious decision to leave God? None. Instead they make a decision to love the world, or illicit sex, or money, or power. You cannot serve two masters: you will hate one and love the other (Matthew 6:24).

4. There are several types of choices we have to make daily. Depending upon our choice, we either get closer to God or further away from Him.

a. Moral choices. Yes or no to stealing, lying, cheating, illicit sex, gossip, and the list goes on. Are we obeying the Word or our flesh?

b. Trials and suffering. Yes or no to trusting in God’s Word more than our circumstances. Are we trusting the Word or our flesh?

c. Authority. Yes or no to the Lordship of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Yes or no to the authorities that God puts over us like teachers, pastors, police, parents, etc. If you cannot obey who is over you, then leave. If they are asking you to sin, then do not obey them. God will protect you from even evil authority. I was under evil authority at a time in my life for over 8 years and God blessed my submission in a mighty way!

d. The World: The “world” is a spiritual kingdom just like the Kingdom of God is also spiritual. 1 John 2:15-16 says that the craving for sensual gratification, the greedy longings of the mind and the assurance in one’s own resources are attributes of the “world” (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life). Each time we choose one of these attributes, we move away from God.

5. We are not perfect, but we can walk and live in repentance. We will blow it from time to time, but God gives us a perfect forgiveness just as we had never sinned. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It takes a long time to exhaust God’s forgiveness. He makes it easy for us as long as our heart is right. King David was one of the worst criminals in the Bible, yet he is highly prized by God as a beautiful example of repentance, having a “heart after God.”

Each choice gets us closer to the point of no return, either up or down, either toward Satan or God. Humans have been given a psychological make-up that makes them unable to change after so many choices. They become free-willed bond slaves to someone, either Satan or God. Romans 6:14-18 says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

Getting back to the seed idea in Mark chapter 4, let us look at the different results of the planted seed that Jesus spoke about.

1. Ground one. Satan stole the seed. If these people think they are once saved, they are wrong! A lot of these people went up to some altar and were baptized, and think that they are going to Heaven. They are deceived.

2. Ground two. Satan stole the seed. These people are also deceived.

3. Ground three. The seed took root and the plant grew, but it was unfruitful because of the love of the world. These people may be going to Heaven. Old Testament Lot is our example here.

4. Ground four. The seed produced plants and fruit, some more than others did.

The question is, can Ground three backslide all the way and lose its’ salvation? I don’t know. Look at Lot. It is too dangerous to play around. Would you like to go into Heaven like Lot. Jesus might say, “You know son/daughter, I suffered on the Cross and in Hell in order to set you free from the World, the Whore, the Harlot. The Prince of the Harlot is Satan, My own worst enemy. How is it that you are flirting with the Whore, the one I set you free from? I have a Bride and I am a faithful Husband. You don’t need the Whore, the World.”

One thing I do know. God’s grace and mercy are more abundant that we can imagine. If grace will not draw people to God, I don’t know what will. God wants to find every way He can to keep us from backsliding. The book of Hosea shows this! On the other hand, we should not think, “I will just live my life as I please and God will understand.” That is not Biblical. Grace is not a cover up. Grace is the power available to us to live up to what God expects from us.

Matthew 24:48-51 says, “But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The bottom-line.

Actually, both sides of the argument that we talked about in the beginning of this lesson miss the truth, while both sides have a part of the truth. The trouble is that both sides are looking at the arguments from the wrong point of view and they are asking the wrong questions.

Here is my answer: Christianity is a relationship with a Person, Jesus, God Himself. But the relationship is not a casual one saying “Hello, how are you today? I am doing fine, thank you.” NO! The relationship is:

a. Lordship. Romans 10 says that we are saved when we make Jesus LORD, that means boss, master in every way. We are bought with a very high price; we are no longer our own to live our own life. To attempt to live one’s own life after salvation is an abomination and is very dangerous. In secular slavery, the slave master would not allow his slave to live his own life. In spiritual slavery, Jesus will not impose Himself and thus violate one’s free will. So it is up to us to submit daily to His Lordship, especially by being obedient to His Word. Adam and Eve’s sin was not in drinking or smoking but in thinking that they had enough sense to discover good and evil for themselves. Remember, they ate of the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE of good and evil. That does not look like sin on the surface, but it is really arrogance, saying I can operate my life without the Lordship of the Word of God. THAT IS SIN. All the other moral sins are the RESULT of that.

b. Indwelling life. Our relationship is more than Lordship as discussed above. It is also God indwelling us by the Holy Spirit and making us His children. Galatians 2:20 (KJV) says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” In John 15 Jesus explains that He is the vine and we are the branches. The very sap of His life runs through us. His life replaces our life. It does not supplement our life, nor does it clean up our old life; it is instead of our old life. Jesus said in Matthew 6:28 that we should consider the lilies of the field, that they neither toil nor spin. Why don’t they have to? Because they are lilies by birth, they have life in them. They do not need an exterior law telling them how to be lilies. It should be the same with us. Christ lives His life in us.

Our old nature, the flesh, cannot be cleaned up, nor made right for God. Never! The only thing that God desires for our flesh is death, so that His life can live in us. This is a process, however, and it happens little by little all of our life. The old tendencies of the flesh stay with us, but they are like flowers without roots. The crucifixion of us with Christ as an historical fact killed that old nature, the old flower was cut off. However, you can put cut flowers in water and they will continue to live for a while. If you leave certain varieties in water long enough, they will produce new roots.

So we have two aspects of the relationship: the indwelling and the lordship. If a person chooses one of the above without the other, they will get into error. One will lead to new age permissiveness; the other will lead to legalism.

The problem with legalism and rules-based Christianity is that it leaves us always failing, and that leaves us with guilt and that guilt keeps us away from the very thing we need the most, the presence of God.

The problem with total permissiveness is that we never find ourselves pressing into the presence of God so that He can change us. I personally know people who have really backslidden. I also know some “Lot’s,” some people who look backslidden, but according to what God has told me, are going to Heaven.

Remember this is not for you to judge others by, but for yourself. Why get into the danger zone if you do not know where the edge of the cliff is? I heard a story of a man who lived across from a church. For 20 years he would do indecent things to the women coming out of the church. One day he called them over to pray for him. They were amazed. They thought that he had really repented! Just as they began to pray, he said, “No wait! They are coming for me, it’s too late, I’m going to Hell.” And he died.

Proverbs 29:1 says, “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”

God has some definite feelings towards the backslider. Grace is God’s power to lure us. We work and obey God because we were paid in advance. We do not work in order to be paid. The love of God leads us to repent.

What changes a person is not legalism or works. That leads you further from God. What changes you and makes you fall more in love with Jesus is getting closer to Him, even and especially if you have been bad. The love of God leads men to repentance.

God justified us and made us righteous while we were sinners, free of charge to us. He is looking for ways to keep us. He makes it easy IF we cooperate. In the Book of Hosea, He shows His emotions about backsliders. Again and again He lures them with love. If love and grace will not lure someone, nothing will. Hosea 13:14a says, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.” Hosea 14:4 says, “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from him.” Hosea 14:8a says, “Ephraim [Israel] shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’”

What has stripped the seeming beauty

from the idols of the earth?

Not a sense of right or duty,

But the sight of His matchless worth.

Not the crushing of those idols,

With its bitter void and smart:

But the beaming of His beauty,

The unveiling of His heart.

'Tis the look that melted Peter,

'Tis that face that Stephen saw,

'Tis that heart that wept with Mary,

Can alone from idols draw – Draw

and win and fill completely,

Till the cup o'erflow the brim:

What have we to do with idols

Who have companied with Him?

Anonymous

Based upon Who Jesus is, you should be head over heels in love with Him and be honored to lay your life down for His will. If you do not feel that way, please pray this simple prayer. “Oh God, I confess that I most likely do not know the depths of Your love for me. I confess that I need for You to reveal Jesus to me so that I may see Him, and seeing Him that I may have the heart to fall in love with Him. God, let me see You, let me see Jesus.”