Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Matthew 10:32 ¶ "Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 10:32 ¶ "Therefore, the one who confesses and acknowledges Me before men [as Lord and Savior, affirming a state of oneness with Me], that one I will also confess and acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven. |
Subject: Are you a follower of Jesus or a church? |
Bible Note: EdB, as I read your response I wondered how you would conclude. Your candor is great to hear, by the way. Our pastor has been preaching sequentially through Romans since early November. Since then, I've begun to question the doctrine of assurance of salvation as it was first explained to me by the one who led me to the Lord and, later, the one who began my schooling in the scriptures. As I understood it we are instantly and categorically justified by faith the moment we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths Jesus as Lord and honestly recognize our sin and ask the Lord’s forgiveness. Lately I’ve been wondering whether either the immediacy or assurance of salvation can be confirmed by scripture. Your post — a great one — asks whether a saved Christian would willfully sin after such a conversion and, if so whether that conversion was the real McCoy. Paul himself struggled with the burden of sin (Romans 7:15), saying that he often did precisely what he did not want to do. He asks, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free the body of this death?" And answers, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom 7:25). But was Paul’s sin willful? No, willful sin implies open rebellion against God, so by your definition Paul is most definitely saved. But did Paul himself ever feel assured of salvation? Or did he include himself in the admonition, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Phi 2:12) On the face of it, and if I read Paul correctly, it sounds as though our salvation is a process, a thing worked out and, therefore, a thing whose end we cannot know but must strive towards in hopes of attaining it, thus proving God’s election of us to have been be true from all eternity: “…let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, "THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED." (Rom 3:4) I think we have an example of this salvation process in the life of Abraham, who goes out in Genesis 12, and not until Genesis 15, 23 years later, is declared righteous for believing God (and the Gospel, as pointed out in Gal 3:8!). Why did 23 faithful (we presume) years elapse before his belief was credited to him as righteousness? Perhaps because Abraham had to share the burden of proof. In Genesis 22:12, the angel of the Lord saves Isaac from the knife hand of his father: "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." It’s not so much that Abraham had proven himself righteous, in itself a marvel of self-sacrificial (and scary) faith, rather that God’s election of Abraham, His righteous assessment of him, had been tested and confirmed, all to His glory, to the degree that Abraham now receives the covenant promise, to which God unconditionally obligates Himself (to the eventual point of death in Jesus) by swearing to it by Himself (Gen 22:16)! God’s election of Abraham was tried and perfected through time. Abraham had faith from the outset, but his righteousness came not instantly at all, but by degrees. Why is this process of salvation gradual? In Hebrews 12:7-8 we read, “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” It seems we are being raised as children, and as children we need discipline to grow and become good obedient citizens. Later in V14 we read, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” Sanctification, apparently, is to be pursued or we’ll never see the Lord. As children we can go astray, we can forfeit our sonship, our salvation. I think your question of whether a willful sinner was ever truly saved could be answered with, “They turned away, became illegitimate children, not sons. Adios muchachos.” As children we grow, are raised and are proven by faith through faith, “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood…” (1Pe 1:2). And, as Peter later warns, “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: (2Pe 1:10) The idea of sonship, of membership in a family, best answers the question of whether sanctification is gradual or instantaneous; effectual (not earned!) or guaranteed. I like having the assurance that I’m a son who still has to work out my salvation with the help of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God (grist for another string!). Colin |