Kept by the power of God

Last week we considered the reality of God sustaining His creation, both physical and spiritual (the Christian and his or her faith). What we didn't necessarily consider or deal with (at least before 10pm) was what this meant in relation to the Christian's responsibility in not falling away, and the general question of "If someone can't loose their salvation, what of those who fall away?"

Thinking briefly upon the Christian's responsibility in persevering the question arises "If no one can be snatched or taken out of the hand of God and Christ (John 10.28-29), do I have any role at all then in salvation, sanctification, and perseverance?" Like so many things in scripture we can describe and explain what the scriptures say, but our fallen finite human intellect cannot adequately grasp them. I'd suggest that is the case here. It is God who saves and God who preserves, but we are commanded to work and repeatedly warned (Hebrews 6.1-8, 10.26-31 for example) against falling away as if things ultimately depended upon us.

It is a mystery to understand the way God's sovereignty works with, not against, the will of man. The entire Christian message is one that is impossible for every single person. In calling someone to believe upon Christ, we are calling them to do something they are incapable of without the working and grace of God. Going one step further, to call the Christian to persevere in the faith and to grow in holiness is to call them to do something that they are incapable of doing apart from the power and grace of God. And yet, we are to be faithful in proclaiming these messages to men and women in the midst of their inability. Paul gives us some idea of the right perspective in 1 Corinthians 15.10 where he writes: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

So, you may ask, no one can be snatched from God's hand, but what if someone wants out? Can God stop me from wiggling free from His grasp? At one level, to ask if man is more powerful than God may sound silly, but let's consider this idea as there appear to be examples that we probably all know of. What of the person who at one time made a profession of faith, was involved in church, even involved in evangelism, and now does not want anything to do with Christ or His church? Did this person slip through the cracks in God's hand? The question can really be answered at two levels, only one of which I'll consider. The one I will leave you to consider is thinking about the whole idea of salvation, redemption, and the work of Christ. Is God able to finish what He started or can man hinder and terminate the work of God? What did God intend in the death of Christ? The track I do want to go down in answering this question is to seek to answer it based upon the biblical data we have already more or less considered. What is that, well: no one can be taken out of the hand of God (John 10.28-29), it is God's power that keeps or preserves the Christian and his or her faith (1 Peter 1.5), and God will complete what He has started (Phil 1.6). With these as givens, how do we answer the question of the person we know or heard about who fell away? I think the only way we can answer it, and the way scripture answers it is to say that what this person appeared to be he or she was not. There was a profession of faith and the appearance of faith, but it was merely man's work and not God's. In John's first epistle he writes: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us (2.19). People were once a part of the church (visible) but in time the reality of their faith was shown to be empty. Now, ultimately God knows people's hearts and will judge them justly, but from a human perspective all we have to go on is the evidence we see. In Matthew 7.21-23 we are even told that some people who appear to be Christians, even to the very end, are in reality unknown to God and will have no part in heaven.

What does all of this mean or do? It magnifies the grace of God that any should be saved and that any should be kept to the end. Let me close by asking a simple question: If you are a Christian, what motivated God to save you? And in answering this be sure to distinguish between what motivated God to offer salvation to you and what motivated God to actually save you.

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.