All Things For the Gospel—2

The more I studied the relationship between assurance of salvation and the necessity of continuing in holiness, the more verses I discovered that speak directly to this subject.  The fact that the texts are so numerous makes the widespread ignorance of them so harmful.  1 Timothy 4 opened up with new meaning for me when I read Paul’s clearly stated purpose for the various exhortations he gives Timothy (1 Timothy 4:16).  The apostle gives Timothy a wide range of instructions, which he was to faithfully teach others.  The special emphasis of the last half of chapter 4 is the importance that is placed on teaching, so that the believers will be solidly grounded in truth.  Paul clears away a potential problem in verse 12.  Timothy might be insecure as a pastor because he was so young, and the people might not take his teaching seriously for the same reason.  If Timothy proves to be a good example of what he teaches, there will be no problem concerning his authority.  In verse 14 Paul refers to a specific spiritual gift that was given to Timothy when he was publicly recognized as a pastor.  Many theologians contend this was a special gift of teaching, to equip Timothy to fufill the teaching duties of a pastor.  Regardless, Paul is not content to leave it there.  He emphatically drives home the crucial importance of teaching God’s word in the next two verses: “Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all.  Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:15-16).  Wait a minute!  If the salvation of believers is not in doubt, why does Paul tell Timothy what he must do to make sure of his own salvation, and that of others?  This question is so important!  How we answer it is one of the most crucial issues facing the church today. 

All Things For the Gospel

Another passage we must consider is 1 Corinthians 9:23-27.  When you consider this familiar passage with an open mind, what it says will stop you dead in your tracks, demanding carefull scrutiny.  Paul sums up the context which frames these verses when he says, “I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow-partaker of it” (verse 23).  Note very carefully the reason he does all things for the gospel.  It is not in order to keep on being an apostle.  Paul is not concerned that God might take his ministry from him.  Some attempt to avoid the clear teaching of this passage by claiming that the disqualification Paul refers to (in verse 27) is concerned only with his status as a divinely-appointed apostle commissioned by God to proclaim the gospel.  But what he actually writes is that he does all things for the gospel so that other people might be saved, and that he himself might share with them in its blessings.  Does he really mean what he says here?  That his own participation and enjoyment of eternal life is contingent in some way on his faithful proclamation of the gospel?  We must deal honestly with such provocative passages, for they abound in Scripture.  Paul then uses the familiar illustrations of a race and a boxing match.  The prize that the believer is running to win is “imperishable.”  The reference is clearly to eternal salvation.  Paul preaches the gospel to save others (verse 22), and he wants to share the same blessing (verse 23).  The adversary in the boxing match is his own body, and more particulalrly the sinful desires that express themselves through our bodies.  Paul fights to master every sinful desire, that he might not be disqualified from running the race, that is, from attaining eternal life.  With that statement, he seems to be stepping over the line into salvation by works again!

God must have good reasons for letting these verses stand in a way that appears to invite controversy.  A sincere believer cannot fail to attain salvation.  Yet Paul writes as if his salvation would be in peril if he didn’t continue holding to the gospel by suppressing indwelling sin.  So why are these warnings so common in the Bible?  Part of the answer is that God prevents genuine Christians from being disqualified by giving them grace to heed these warnings.   

Fight the Good Fight—2

Now to 1 Timothy 6.  We need to see and acknowledge exactly we find in these verses, without any theological prejudice.  In verses 7-10 Paul warns us that loving material things is very dangerous.  The love of money can easily become the ruling desire of our lives.  The apostle warns of those who have “wandered away from the faith” in verse 10.  This is very sobering, especially in our time of immense prosperity.  Material things are not evil in themselves; it is the love of them that is so deadly.  It is when this love captures the heart, and drives out any desire for God, that eternal life is at peril.  Those who proclaim the “health and wealth” gospel must cut many verses from their Bibles.  We must take Paul’s warning seriously.  Loving material things destroys the heart’s desire to respond to God; it makes saving faith impossible.  Loving the world is so tempting that Paul exhorts Timothy to “flee from these things” (verse 11).  The apostle expands on that in the following verse.  Fleeing destructive desires requires us to “Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called” (verse 12).  Look at how these thoughts connect.  In order to take hold of eternal life, the believer must fight.  But if we love the world, we will not flee its destructive influences.  The result is wandering away from the faith and failing to take hold of eternal life.  Wealthy Christians especially must not ignore this or take it lightly.  Too much is at stake.  Paul continues his instruction on how to fight the good fight by solemnly charging Timothy to be diligent to obey God’s commands until Jesus Christ returns.  We must continue to pursue holiness all the days of our lives (verses 13-14).  The importance of this is seen in the way the apostle formally charges Timothy “in the presence of God, who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus.”  Paul’s unique reference to our Lord’s testimony before Pontius Pilate carries great significance.  I think the point is that nothing should keep us from obeying God, no matter how costly or painful to us.  The passage comes full circle in verses 17-19, in which the emphasis returns to those who “are rich in this present world.”  And again they are warned that in order to “take hold of that which is life indeed” their wealth must be at God’s disposal.  Paul concludes with yet another reference to those who have “gone astray from the faith” (verse 21), and a plea to Timothy to guard himself from the worldly ideas that could pull him in the same destructive direction.    

A Personal Experience of Christ—2

The knowledge of Christ that is obtained by personal experience is the only foundation for satisfying assurance and an unassailable conviction that the gospel is not only true, but that it applies to me and you.  When we experience the tangible rewards of obedience to the gospel, we have an argument that powerfully engages our hearts to press on in the Christian life.  When we believe, God gives us the Holy Spirit and “sweet foretastes of life eternal,” not only to assure us of the reality of our future hope, but also as the “first fruits,” to show us how good it will be.   Without experiential knowledge of Christ, there is no assurance of salvation.  No one can carry on the spiritual life of faith with any sincerity and delight, without genuinely knowing the Lord Jesus in a personal way.  The believer’s relationship with Him is not an empty pretence.  1 Corinthians 4:20 tells us that “the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power.”  Christianity doesn’t stand on empty discourses, pat phrases, or overused slogans.  We see its effect in the power it has to change the hearts of people.  The teaching that is from God changes, not just the outward actions, but the innermost desires of people who know in themselves they are helpless sinners.

A Personal Experience of Christ

For a few more days I want to continue looking at Paul’s great statement in Philippians 3 about the surpassing value of experiencing a genuine relationship with Christ.  The true spirit and heart of Christianity is considering all things to be rubbish compared with knowing Jesus Christ.  We see in verse 10 that a relationship with Christ involves knowing “the power of His resurrection” and “being conformed to His death” in some way.  How do we experience these things in our lives?  We experience the power of His death when we have victory over sin, putting sin to death.  We know something of resurrection power when the Spirit of God works in us a new life that step by step makes us like Christ.  Paul’s example tells us that this blessing is to be regarded as precious above all things.

The knowledge that is ours by faith is often in the Bible properly expressed by sight.  We see and understand new things by faith.  The knowledge that we obtain by experience goes beyond that of faith.  Taste perfectly expresses experiential knowledge.  When we taste the goodness of God and feel His power in our lives, then we have experiential knowledge of Christ.  We have proof of the great value of knowing our Lord in this way by the fruits of it.  The evidence of its reality is seen in what it does in our lives.  A person who has burned a finger needs no other evidence to be convinced that fire is hot.  Even so, when God’s promises are verified in our own experience, nothing will convince us that they are not true.  Those who have felt the power of the Spirit inclining their hearts to God, have unshakable evidence for the things they believe.  It is evidence that mere intellectual assent can never produce.

Do You Pass the Test?

What Paul says about himself in 2 Corinthians 13:6 is, to me, one of the most shocking statements in the New Testament.  He expresses his hope that the believers in Corinth will realize that he does not fail the test of the previous verse.  Could there be any doubt that Paul was saved?  Yet he phrases his assertion of confidence as if there might be some question of it.  This great apostle hopes they will realize that he passes the test.  There is no swaggering or boasting in his statement.  Modern Christians are often instructed to take salvation for granted after they have “prayed the prayer.”  They therefore don’t question its reality and rarely, if ever, take the command in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to heart.  Paul wasn’t playing a game.  While he knew for certain he would get to heaven, and expressed that in the most glowing statements of assurance found in the Bible, still the danger of possible failure never left him.  I think evangelicalism desperately needs to recapture this kind of “on guard” humility. 

Examine Your Faith

2 Corinthians 13:5: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!  Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”  It has been my observation that this verse, and the subject it raises, are seldom taught on or even mentioned today.  I think many Christians neglect spiritual self-examination because they have been told they should never question their salvation.  Some even go so far as to make it a sin to question your faith, once you have made a profession of it.  To do so is to question what God has done for you and can only result in needless doubts and fears.  But the kind of self-examination required of us here is not meant to create doubts, but to expose weakness and prevent self-deception.  It is wrong to question God’s love and His promise of eternal life.  But to examine whether or not we have exercised saving faith is another matter.  This is necessary to keep us from being deceived, and the most terrible deception of all is that concerning our eternal state.  It is the only way to distinguish between genuine faith and presumption.  We must honestly ask ourselves whether or not our lives display the fruits of faith.