I think you might be saying this because it's hard to persevere right?
Well, yes, apparently not all will.
I have heard of people say they use to believe in Christ, but they stopped believing. I don't know, but were they true Christians?
Yes, that's a very good question. Does the following apply only to "untrue Christians", those who never converted?
"I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned." John 15:5-6
"If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.” 2 Pet 2:20-22
But what's the concern? Do you feel you want to give up and stop believing? And if you don't want to give up, your question is really strange. I sometimes question the difficulties of the Christian life at times, but that's normal, and that's not giving up.
I didn't say I wanted to give up. Only that I can't predict my own perseverance. I believe I'm saved but don't take that as a given-if my fruits don't always reflect that so well, then...
So I must have
some concern,
some degree of fear and trembling as my salvation is worked out. And God, at the end of the day, is the judge, not me.
No one is saying there is no striving. The bible tells us that we suffer for Christ. Suffering is not easy, and we must resist satan at every turn sometimes. We must put off the old man, which is the flesh. That's hard. We must learn to love people who might be terrible people. That's not easy. We are never to try and exert our opinion to gain influence. That's not easy. We are to learn to be humble when we want to tell someone off, and they deserve it. No, we must strive! We must not judge people. And, there is more, and more, and more we must learn to do in Christ. This is the growing up in Christ process. Sanctification. "The furnace of fire" to bring out the Holiness in our character: the fruits fo the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. Before we accepted Christ, we produced no fruits of the Sprit because we did not have the Spirit. What kindness displayed was self, not Spirit.
Alright, and that makes sense as we consider Rom 6:22-23
"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Eternal life is ours to the extent that we're sanctified-a work of the Spirit as we cooperate with Him in that work.
Are you stuck on the word "obligation?" The King James Version uses the word, "debtors." We, as Christians, are not to live after the flesh, and we are told in Roman 8:13, that "if we live after the flesh, we shall die", but "if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live." We are debtors to Christ. We are debtors to live Holy. We are debtors to put off the old man.
Yes! And the obligation is there, made clear by vs 13 regardless of the translation of vs 12, "obligation" as used there by the NIV being a valid one anyway. Either way this demonstrates the
process aspect of salvation.
"Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." Heb 12:14
Therefore "we work out our own salvation" through the gospel. "Work out" is not saying we do the work ourselves, because this is a spiritual process. We "work out" according to the gospel message, by the Spirit of Christ. God is the husbandman, and the vine dresser if you know what that means.
Yes, I'm a vintner myself
. But the Vine Dresser in this case asks that
we contribute to our own blossoming, for own highest good, even if only in participating and not interfering in His work. Denying God His godhood in our lives is what got man into this mess to begin with.
From the bigger picture God is
still creating,
producing something here, something greater, something better than He began with as He draws us increasingly into His work and alignment with His own will. To the extent that we willingly participate, to the extent that we
are aligned in will with Him,
something is created, rather than nothing or rather than Him merely saving a portion of otherwise worthless wretches. Our justice or righteousness is all the more realized, all the more confirmed by this willingness. And that's why it's all taken so long, since Eden; God is
very patient in this work, cultivating and preparing the human vine over time.
To put all this another way, God seeks to produce beings who love as He does-and love, while a gift, is also necessarily a human choice-or else it wouldn't be love. And without love we are
nothing as Paul tells us in 1 Cor 13. And as another believer once put it, who the church quotes concerning our judgment,
"At the evening of life we shall be judged on our love."
I'm saying what the bible says, "We can do all things through Him who strengthens us" - through the Holy Spirit and God's grace.
I agree. We
can, and we
must.
