The Bible declares that
only God’s words are truth (John 17:17); yet truth from God 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, in His revelation. 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; nothing else or no one else in all of the created universe. 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’.” Yet the Bible reveals that God not only prepared a
kingdom from the foundation of the world, but also an eternal fire prepared at
the same time. 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).
But 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. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that
leads to life, and those who find it are
few.”)
There are two questions relative to
this eternal life that need to be answered from the Bible.
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).
As it relates to this most important subject, preaching can be in truth or
in error. 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:
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. 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 (1st 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. It
is within this revelation that man will find ‘truth’. Truth came by Jesus (John 1:17), through the
words of His teaching (John 17:17). This
truth is also called the “words of life” (John 6:63, 68; 12:50; 17:8; Acts
5:20).
In order to learn the truth surrounding this
great eternal purpose, God’s word must be ‘rightly divided’. In 2nd Timothy 2:15, we find Paul’s
statement to Timothy in regard to this. 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
There are two very good reasons for these
responsibilities. They are to ensure
that the truth will not be ‘suppressed in unrighteousness’ on his part (Rom.
1:18); and secondly, so that truth will have the ultimate effect upon the human
mind (Isa. 55:10-11; Heb. 4:12-13).
There is great benefit/growth for the disciple to
re-study definitions and concepts of words/phrases/texts in these two areas of
his responsibility. Herein is seen the
benefit of trials in the life of a child of God. James dealt with this in his epistle. We see from chapter 1:22-25, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving yourselves. For if anyone
is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at
his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once
forgets what he was like. But the one
who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no
hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
Problems, both individually and collectively,
arise when contexts are ‘handled’ aright, yet irresponsibly in the delivery and/or
the application of those contexts. If they
are not, the gospel, (i.e., God’s power to save – Romans 1:17), which God entrusted
as a talent to His stewards for the purpose of accomplishing unity/salvation; will
instead, incur the very opposite results (division/damnation). Yet, even for the sinner; there are
consequences in this realm of responsibility.
To fail to apply the relevant passages of the Bible to himself will
result in only 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” (2nd Tim. 1:13; 3:14; Titus 1:9). Every preacher must take heed in regard to
his preaching. 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)
Likewise, let all take heed “how” and “what” they
hear [taught] (Luke 8:18; Mark 4:24)
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copyright 2013
rdb
copyright 2013
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