Jesus said
that God’s word was truth (John 17:17); yet truth is NOT to be found in
the partial, but the entirety of His revelation (Psalm 119:160).
God purposed eternal life for man; that purpose being termed His “eternal”
purpose. It was a gradual unfolding plan that began as a promise in the
mind of God prior to the Creation and consummated with the establishment of
Christ’s body, the church (cf. Titus 1:2; Eph. 1:9-10, 22-23; 2:16;
3:9-11).
In this great
purpose, we see God’s love for man; specifically, in the offer of eternal life
(John 3:16); as it was purposed for man ALONE. Notice, from Matt. 25:34 –
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who
are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world’.” God not only prepared a kingdom
from the foundation of the world, but
also an eternal fire. This eternal fire was not purposed for man,
but the devil and his angels (cf. Matt. 25:41, “Then he will say to those
on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels). However, the Bible reveals that most
of humanity will
suffer this eternal fire, (cf. Matt. 7:13-14 – “Enter by the narrow gate.
For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many...”)
There are two
questions relative to this eternal life that need to be answered from the
Bible.
1) WHY will
only a few inherit this eternal life? 2) How will this inheritance
come?
The key in
understanding why only a few will inherit that which was purposed for all, can
only indicate that man has some sort
of a response to God’s offer of eternal life. Therefore, the response to God’s offer is the key to the inheritance.
This is where preaching factors in, for the
role of preaching to those in the kingdom of Satan is to explain their
response to God’s grace, that they might be ‘translated into the kingdom of
“His dear Son” where there is “redemption, the forgiveness of sins”(Col.
1:13-14). This is why doctrine matters.
What is the response to God’s grace
for the alien sinner? While many passages could be set forth on
the sinner’s response, three texts will suffice to show the nature of the
response:
~ Eccl. 12:13
— “Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man”
~ Rom. 6:17-18
— “...you who were once slaves of sin have become
obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were
committed...having been set free from sin, have become slaves of
righteousness.”
~ Heb. 5:9 —
“he (Jesus) is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him”.
God
gave commands to man for this very reason. God’s love for man was seen in
this act of grace. Man, in return, responds to that love/grace by
obedience to those commands. No act of man, apart from humble submission
and obedience to God’s word, will be in faith, for faith only comes from one
source...‘what God has spoken’ (Rom. 10:17).
The Bible
declares that this eternal life is in God’s Son (1 John 5:11).
Eternal life is synonymous with salvation in Christ, (Acts 4:12; 16:17), so
therefore the matter of learning how to
get into Christ is one and the same as learning how to inherit this
eternal life that was purposed to him. The truth that came by
Jesus (John 1:17), was in His teachings (John 17:17), and elsewhere called the
“words of life” (John 6:63, 68; 12:50; 17:8; Acts 5:20)
Because truth
is in the entirety of God’s revelation, in order to learn the truth surrounding
this great eternal purpose, God’s word must be ‘rightly divided’ (2 Tim.
2:15). While the responsibility of “rightly dividing” falls upon every
person who makes an appeal to the Bible;
the disciple of Christ has multiple responsibilities in his ‘handling’ of that
‘word of truth’. For a disciple, “rightly
dividing”, involves more than just a determination of context. It
also involves:
1) the responsibility to rightly “deliver”
that word. This is to be done with ‘graceful’ speech (Col. 4:6); and
2) the responsibility to rightly “apply” that
word to himself prior to passing judgment on another (Matt. 7:5; John
7:24)
There are two
very good reasons for these responsibilities. First, to ensure that the truth will not be
‘suppressed in unrighteousness’ by the one
proclaiming the word (Rom.
1:18); and secondly, to ensure that truth
will have the intended effect upon the hearer
of the word (Isa. 55:10-11; Heb. 4:12-13).
While contexts
can be “handled” aright, problems [both individually and collectively], arise
when there is irresponsibility in the
delivery and the application of those contexts. When there is
irresponsibility in these two areas, the
gospel, (God’s power to save – Romans 1:17), which He entrusted as a talent
to His stewards for the purpose of accomplishing unity/salvation (Matt.
25:14-30); will instead, incur the very
opposite results (i.e., division/damnation).
Even for the
sinner; there are consequences in this realm of responsibility. Failure
to apply the relevant passages of the Bible to himself will only result in
a reforming of his life, NOT repentance from his sins, motivated by godly
sorrow (2 Cor. 7:9-10).
Let all who
preach, heed the inspired apostle’s warning of “following”; “continuing in”;
and “holding to” the pattern of sound words” (2 Tim. 1:13; 3:14; Titus 1:9). Two
reasons relative to God’s eternal purpose bear this out:
· The
foundation [of teaching] has been laid by the Lord; (1 Cor. 3:10-11)
· His
own salvation and of those to whom he preaches (1 Tim. 4:16)
Likewise, let
all take heed “how” and “what” they hear [taught] (Luke 8:18; Mark 4:24)
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copyright 2013
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