(Continued).
A large number, — I might say, the largest number by far — of the texts which seem to imply the possibility of the soul being lost that has once believed unto salvation belong to a class of which 1 Corinthians 9:27,27But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1 Corinthians 9:27) furnishes the most striking example. It is thus the passage most frequently of all upon the lips of objectors. They ask commonly, the moment you speak of being safe forever, — “Was not Paul himself afraid of being a cast-away?” But the text says nothing about any fear he had. It does say this, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that, by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away.”
It would he poor work to seek in anywise to blunt or evade the force of such Scriptures. They have their use most surely, in the. Divine wisdom which inspired them. But just precisely because they have, we must inquire the more carefully what exactly they do mean. The word of God will bear the strictest and most thorough examination. Precise accuracy will only be shunned by those who either on the one hand have little faith in the perfect inspiration of every word of it, or else fear to face honestly the full light of truth.
Now it is remarkable upon looking at such passages as that before us, that they none of them put things in the way which would be simplest and easiest to put them, supposing eternal life or salvation were things that might be lost. They do not say, “lest, after I have been saved, I myself should be a cast-away,” or, “lest, after being born again,” or, “lest, after having had eternal life, I myself should be a cast-away.” Such passages are not to be found anywhere in Scripture, and surely, that is to be marked. How easy for Divine wisdom to have settled the whole question for any honest believer, by a single sentence of that sort! But there is nothing of the kind. The supposition in the text is, that one who had “preached to others” might himself be a “cast-away.” But who doubts that? And who doubts, or ought to doubt, that, as there is a way of holiness, which leads to everlasting life, on the one hand, so there is on the other, a way of sin, of unholiness, of license to the lusts of the flesh, which if a man takes, will lead him to eternal death?
If we were to question this, we should have to deny, some of the plainest passages of Scripture. Take 1 Cor. 6:9, 10,9Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9‑10) for example: what can be plainer? “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived” — and this, mark, is addressed to professing Christians, — “neither, fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers,” and so on, “shall, inherit the kingdom of God.”
This is most plain and most weighty. It makes it quite plain that the-gospel is not intended to be an allowance of sin, but salvation from it. Where really, received, it brings a man out of the things it finds him in, and sets him in the way of holiness. As the apostle goes on here: “And such were some of you; but ye, are washed, but ye are sanctified,” &c. And again, as, in Titus (2:11, 12) “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared,.... teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world.” The grace which saves, makes holy.
This is not limiting the freeness of the gospel, nor diminishing its fullness. It is only the maintaining its real character and power. It is not that we are brought under legal conditions. It is not that we are told, that we shall be saved if we walk aright; but that God has saved us, that we may walk right. In the words of Eph. 2:10,10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10) “we,” believers, “are His workmanship; created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained (or, as in the margin, prepared) that we should walk in them.”
Thus God has linked together in the simplest and most decisive way, without in the least weakening or modifying the previous assurances of His grace in the gospel, “good works” with salvation. But in this way that those created anew in Christ are at the same time created unto them. If then the loudest profession of faith in Christ be associated with an ungodly walk, Scripture teaches me how to form my judgment of that pression. It tells me that “as many as are led by The Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:1414For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Romans 8:14)). It teaches me that I am not to dishonor the precious gospel of grace by allowing that it has taken effect in the salvation of a soul, where it has not at the same time changed the heart and life.
Now this is precisely one important use of such passages as that we are considering. He who saw, even while these epistles were being written, the evil at work —and who foresaw the immense mass of false profession which has since come in, — has left these words, and such as these, on record, to test the reality of it all, and that He might not be dishonored by the ungodly lives of mere professors being taken as what His gospel might, if not produce, at least permit. “Faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone” (James 2:1717Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. (James 2:17)): so does the word of God fully teach. We must not put down others, nor must we expect to be put down by others, as true believers, truly saved ones, except as the power of that grace which saves is seen in its purifying influence upon the walk and life.
Thus there is a way which leads to life, and a way of death. No matter what your creed, “to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (Rom. 6:1616Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16)).
This is the key to the language of the apostle in 1 Col, 9:27. Addressing, as he does, “all that call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,” whether at Corinth or elsewhere (chapter 1:2), he tells them for himself that he was one who was upon this way of life. He kept under his body, and brought it into subjection, not tolerating its lusts or walking in fleshly indulgence, in order not to be a “cast-away,” i.e. one rejected or reprobate. He had no fear of being such. He took the way which led him heavenward, joyfully and confidently, “not uncertainly.” He knew the grace which had called him with a holy calling, would not fail to carry him through. He knew that God had saved him already, and given him, not the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7, 97For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
9Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, (2 Timothy 1:9)). And he yielded himself up intelligently and joyfully, to be led along the way of holiness unto “the end, everlasting life.” If any, professing faith in Christ, were doing otherwise, he meant to warn them by his example, what faith did for the soul who had it: because only “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God.”
This in no wise implies, that those who are sons of God may cease to be so by refusing to be led of the Spirit. That is mere human argument, and of the poorest kind; for not only do plain Scriptures, as we have seen, forbid the supposition, but it is in real opposition to the passage itself; for (it tells us) the sons of God are those who are led. And there is nothing said in the whole context to show that continuance is at all in question. Those who are sons are simply marked out from those that are not.
It is quite true, too, that true children of God, may, alas, be dull and careless, and poor followers of such a leader. They may fall and get bemired with the slough of sin. I dare not say, what a believer might not do, if not cleaving closely to his Guide and strength. What David did, what Peter did, are solemn earnings for all time. Still one easily discerns that these were things the result of sloth and self-confidence, fallen into, not sought out, and from which He who had them in His care recovered them. Characteristically, even of a David or a Peter, surely we could say, they were led of the Spirit of, God, and manifested to be His sons. At a particular moment, they might not manifest what they were. But it is only of what is characteristic this text in Romans speaks. It is the determining for us where the line is to be drawn between those born of God in reality and those only assuming to be so: a rule we may not in many instances be able to apply, but which has none the less immense value, because it frees the, gospel (as I have already said) from that charge of giving, license to sin, which men are always ready and eager to bring against it.
How many would object to us in that way., their own supposition, (which they have no title to make,) of believers falling into open sin, and going on, and dying in it; and then turn around on us with the question, Would such an one be saved? To all that the one sufficient answer is, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” You have no right therefore to make the supposition: the latter part of what you suppose, would (for me) make entirely untrustworthy the claim to be a believer.
These passages, then, are guards against the “turning the grace of God into lasciviousness” a thing which Jude notices as done in his, day, (verse 4,) and which certainly there is no less danger of in the present. On the other hand, legality is never a real guard of holiness, but the destruction of it. “The strength of sin is the law:” and to put the fear of falling away before a soul, in order to keep him right, is only to pervert the whole character of his life and service. Just so far as he takes lip the motive we present to him, he becomes really one living to himself, in a religious way no doubt, but none the less really, and none the less offensively to God. The love of Christ, it is assumed, will not keep me straight, except a large measure of self-love works, along with it! What a dishonor to Him, and what a lowering of the whole character of God’s work in the soul of a saint Except I am in danger of eternal damnation; I shall be sure to go wrong. Put the Lord says, “If ye love Me, keep my commandments and the apostle, “though I give my body to be burned, and have not love,” (“charity” in the common version,) it profiteth me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:33And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:3)); the apostle John again. “There is no fear in love” (1 John 4:1818There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)). How does all this agree with the advocacy of a principle essentially and necessarily a principle of fear? for if there is danger of being lost, I ought certainly to be afraid of it.
There are some other texts, nearly akin to the standard passage in Corinthians, which we may now take up. I believe we shall find, if we have got hold of what has now been before us, that we have already the key to the understanding of these also. In Colossians 1:22, 2322In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 23If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; (Colossians 1:22‑23). for, example: “to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight, if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.” Or again, in Heb. 3: 6 “Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm’ unto the end; “and verse 14: “for we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” Addressing a number of professed Christians, these “ifs” had their right and necessary place. Men were giving up faith in Christ, as this epistle to the Hebrews conclusively shows. The warning was perfectly in place. Nor could men be saved while giving up this faith. Drawing back from Christ would be drawing back unto perdition. Yet this same apostle could in the selfsame epistle put those who had believed unto salvation in a different class altogether from those who could so apostatize: “we are not of them who draw back into perdition” — not simply “who have drawn back,” which there could be no need to say, but “who draw back:” we are not the sort of people who do that — “but of them that believe unto the saving of the soul:” that is the class to which we belong, and it is a different one to the other.
Most clearly then the apostle did not mean that such believers, positively saved ones, could draw back to perdition. It was needful, on the other hand, to warn professors about it for two reasons at least. First, because the giving up of Christ put outside the possibility of salvation altogether, for none else could save. Secondly, because it was, and is, important, that men should not rest in a faith they had, or thought they had, in times past, which was not true for the present moment. Faith that I had faith once is not faith in Christ, and may be a dream of my own. Just so, the vain argument that “I was converted once, and therefore” — which is vain because it is a mere belief in what my heart may have deceived me. If I am trusting my conversion or my faith, the event may prove I had neither. If I trust Christ, He cannot deceive, and so I am safe. “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him” (Psa. 2:1212Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. (Psalm 2:12)).
There was need to guard a point like that: to prevent men putting “I trusted “for” I trust.” “I trusted,” is my own thought of what I did. “I trust,” makes Christ indeed the object of that trust. Therefore it was needful to say, your confidence must be a thing held fast, if you are to be presented blameless in His sight at last.
Belief there might have been, of a certain sort, in Christ, without its being to salvation. Such faith, never having been of Divine workmanship, had a natural tendency to wear out and come to nothing. We see many instances in every one of the (so-called) “revival” movements. Nor are they a proof necessarily of anything wrong in the preaching which produces them. The Lord gives us in Matthew 13 plain assurance that where the true seed of the gospel is sown, and He the Sower of it, such things will occur. There will be cases such as his who “heareth the word, and anon (immediately) with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word, bye and bye he is offended.” Such a man believes: he is not insincere, not a hypocrite; simply, the Word, like seed in stony ground, has no root in him: his heart, never ploughed up by conviction of sin, remains in unchanged hardness. The joy in him was too “immediate;” there was no finding out of self, no taking the place of lost, that Christ might save. He believed a doctrine; never came to Jesus. He had joy; not peace. There was no change in the man himself, and no root: mark! it was not what had root that withered, but because it had no root it withered away. It would not have withered, had it had root.
Scripture then, which teaches that there is such a thing as “believing for a while,” teaches too its character. And while we see the need of the admonition as to the necessity of continuance in the faith, we see also abundantly that those who believe to the saving of the soul belong at all times to a different class from those who draw back unto perdition.
(To be continued, if the Lord will.)