Thank you very much Randy, and we go right back to our phone callers.
Next up is Peter in Vancouver, British Colombia Canada, CHRB.
Hi Peter!
Hi, how are ya?
I'm good, how are you?
Good, good.
I have a simple question that probably requires a very complex answer.
At least I haven't been able to really find anybody that's given an answer that suffices
or is satisfying in any regard.
And that is the "How can one be certain of salvation when there are so many exceptions
- or so-called exclusions to that answer."
Well I'm not sure exactly what you mean "exclusions to that answer."
Well again, "except" somebody does this or doesn't do that, when we talk about people
who backslide or whether we talk about people who-- we all sin on a daily basis if we're
honest with one another, or if we're honest with ourselves rather.
So what I'm asking is no drunkards or adulterers or all the other things will see heaven or
see the kingdom of heaven, and yet when you see somebody that has accepted Christ and
they say, "once saved, always saved."
Others say, "no it's not like that at all."
It becomes very contradictory, so what is the--
Well, it's not contradictory at all.
What you have to do is you've got to look at all the factors.
And there are various things that have to be examined.
Number one, you have to consider the fact that there are people like Judas that looked
like they were followers of Christ but in reality were not followers of Christ at all.
They were followers of what Christ had for them in terms of provisions.
In other words, they're not interested in Christ, they're interested in what was on
Christ's table - what Christ could offer them.
So we would have looked at Judas and said he was a believer.
In reality, a God who knew the heart was able to identify Judas as anything but.
So we look at people in one way; God sees the heart.
That's one of the factors that has to be taken into consideration.
There are also those who have a said faith rather than a real faith.
In other words, their faith is just transactional.
"I'm going to buy an insurance policy, I'm going to get a card that keeps me out of hell
and gets me into heaven, and then I'm going to live as a baptized secular humanist."
That's not someone who was a genuine follower of Christ, it's not a real faith.
It is a faith that may look real.
It may even be a faith that holds to a knowledge of Jesus Christ and acceptance of Jesus Christ,
an agreement of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, however there's no dependence and trust
in Jesus Christ.
In other words, a willingness to turn from sin and follow him and be a participant in
the kingdom within the context of the ground and pillar of truth, which Paul identifies
in 1 Timothy 3:15 as the church.
So all of us as Christians know that this journey is not a journey that we take in any
kind of singularity, but it's always within a context.
We take up the cross of Christ and follow him in community, partaking in communion
by which we receive the grace that enables us to continue on in our journey to union with God.
I love the quote, and I've used this over and over again - I think it's one of the most
brilliant quotes I've ever heard.
It identifies the issue.
After the fall, human history is a long shipwreck awaiting rescue.
But the port of salvation is not the goal; it is the possibility for the shipwrecked
to resume their journey, a journey whose sole goal is union with God.
In other words, it's not about a transaction, it's about a transformational relationship.
And if you are genuinely a follower of Jesus Christ, then you have some assurances.
Like in Philippians, God praises God for the confidence that he who began a good work in
you is going to carry that work on to its completion.
Or you find out through Paul in Ephesians that you're marked in Him with the seal, the
promised Holy Spirit, a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those
who are God's possession.
So genuine believers are those who are ordering their life around the divine and when that
happens, their love for Christ continues to grow!
But those who are just transactional - they may have a liver-quiver once and again, but
their relationship is not a genuine relationship of commitment and following and partaking
of the graces by which we continue on to the journey which has been graciously provided
for us as Vladimir Lasky put it, to union with God - to fellowship in the Trinity.