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NASB | 1 Corinthians 10:5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Corinthians 10:5 Nevertheless, God was not well-pleased with most of them, for they were scattered along the ground in the wilderness [because their lack of self-control led to disobedience which led to death]. [Num 14:29, 30] |
Bible Question:
tim ok. God saved His people ... but that was before Christ gave us salvation. my understanding is that if we are truly saved, then future sins do not condemn us. so what is paul warning about? we cannot lose that salvation. we will always be sinners. that is our nature. so this can't be warning us not to sin. according to romans thats not possible. |
Bible Answer: Hi, Sandre. This is a very good topic to address on the forum, and I commend you for raising it! The best way to understand it is that God works on two levels. God chose the nation of Israel as His covenant people. Not all of them showed themselves to be His children (i.e. those God set apart as His own for redemption), but as Romans 3 puts it, the twelve tribes were entrusted with the oracles of God. Salvation until the time of Christ was almost exclusively limited to one particular nation, and those from the outside came into the covenant community for salvation. However, as I stated previously, not all of those who were in God's covenant community showed themselves to be the children of God. One only need to read books like Judges and Kings and Chronicles to see that God's covenant community as a whole was often set against the very God who called them out of Egypt. Within the nation of Israel were God's people chosen for salvation, the "true believers" if you will, but the nation of Israel and "the saved" were not precisely the same group. The Bible shows that not all of those who were among the nation of Israel were the saved: "But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel" --Romans 9:6 Paul distinguishes between a "physical" Israel made up of Jacob's descendants, and a "spiritual" Israel who are God's adopted children among the physical Israel. Jesus had the following to say when the Pharisees asserted that they were "children of Abraham": "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." --John 8:44 So we have physical children of Abraham who are the spiritual children of the devil, not heirs to the promise made by God to Abraham. The same is true of the church in the present day. There is a "visible church" that corresponds to the "physical" Israel of the Old Testament. This consists of all those who fellowship together in the name of Jesus Christ and hold to the "oracles of God" (i.e. God's revelation in the Old and New Testaments). However, all of those who find themselves in the visible church are not saved, just like every Israelite was not saved. "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'" --Matthew 7:21-23 Therefore, it is perfectly within reason for Paul to warn the church as a whole that they need to make sure that they are among the "spiritual" Israel, the heirs to the promises of God made to Abraham. We are not saved by our works in any sense, but those who possess true saving faith in Christ will be transformed gradually so that they will grwo to hate their sin more and more as Paul does in Romans 7. Peter tells us the way that we make our "calling and election sure" is by "adding" a list of virtues to our faith (2 Peter 1). Paul tells us right after that we are not saved by good works that we are saved for the purpose of good works (Epehsians 2:10). James 2 demonstrates that true saving faith is accompanied by God-honoring works. Romans 6 asks : How can those who have died to sin live in it any longer? Answer: they can't. Of course, the power to not sin comes from God, and those who are in the flesh are completely unable to please God in the slightest (Romans 8:7-9; Hebrews 11:6). But those who are truly His will be transformed in their wills to trust Him more (albeit imperfectly) and to follow Him by performing works that honor Him (albeit imperfectly) and to say "no" to sin (albeit imperfectly). It is a minister's duty to point this out to one's congregation, which is undoubtedly made up of those who are truly saved and those who think that they are Christians but really aren't. Works are not the basis of our salvation, but they are the evidence of it (Matthew 7:16-20). Therefore, I think this warning falls under the category of "live like a Christian to prove to yourselves that you are one." Just because you are a partaker in the visible church does NOT mean that you are truly a child of God. Menacing words? I think so, but we couldn't really call it a "warning" if it didn't have some unpleasantness to it, right? "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?" --2 Corinthians 13:5 --Joe! |