Soulish, carnal, fleshly believers always want to have everything free, without any responsibility, without any action, any effort on their part whatsoever, just believe… and God will do everything for them. NO! They have to DO THE FAITH-LIGHT which Christ has showed them about themselves lest that faith remains dead and they remain dead to the Spirit. (Jam. 2:17,26) God had not created lazy, irresponsible, naïve, foolish and deceived human beings, the Devil did! But many believers seem to be very happy in their inaction, passivity and have no intention, no initiative to ever change their situation. Well, without their consent and their conscious cooperation with God, He will not do for them what they may believe or hope for.
Let us see, believe, register and understand another Word of God which says to us clearly:
“What does it profit my brethren, though a man say he has faith and have not works? CAN FAITH SAVE HIM?… (NO!) Ye see then how that BY WORKS (of faith) IS A MAN JUSTIFIED AND NOT BY FAITH ONLY… For as BODY WITHOUT THE SPIRIT IS DEAD SO FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD ALSO.” (Jam. 2:14,24,26)
THEREFORE, “For by grace are ye saved, through (LIVING) faith; and that (grace and faith are) not of YOURSELVES, it is the gift of God; not of works (of YOUR FLESH), lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:8,9)
The Redemption of man is indeed a free gift of God and no man can achieve it, enter into it by any works, which he may decide to do FOR the Lord or TOWARD his Salvation! But once we are redeemed and come into this free gift of God, then God demands that we cooperate with Him on our Salvation, that is, the perfection of our sinful, filthy spirit and soul (Heb. 6:1,2// 2Cor. 7:1// Tit. 1:15, etc.) and overcome it by denying our old soul life and taking up our cross and following Our Lord. (Mt. 16:24// Jam. 2:24) The Lord tied this Word to losing or gaining our soul! (Mt. 16:25) We are required to exercise our free will and unite it with the Will of Our Father! Our Salvation is definitely not a “free ride of dead faith”. It is a work of faith to follow the Lord unto OUR PERFECTION. WORKING OUT OUR SALVATION, GOING ON TO OUR PERFECTION IS OUR OVERCOMING! Unfortunately, only few believers are doing it during their earthly life.
Note that in the seven letters to His Church, the Lord gives promises ONLY TO “him that overcomes”. (Rev. 2:7,11,17,26; 3:5,12,21) To him that does not overcome, the Lord declared that He will blot out his name out of the Book of Life. THIS IS THE LOSS OF SALVATION! (Rev. 3:5 and 20:15) Or that he will be hurt by the second death. (Rev. 2:11)
There is a striking contrast and also a vast difference between the soulish and spiritual believers. Unfortunately, most of the true born-again believers are soulish and not spiritual; they are like unto spiritual “embryos” that never grow up. They possess the Eternal Life of God in their spirit, but they do not live His Life in their soul. They keep living their own natural life of flesh, which after their Redemption, becomes religious. That old life still governs their soul while God’s Life doesn’t govern their soul. They keep walking after their flesh and not after the Spirit though they are all doctrinally in Christ Jesus by the virtue of the rebirth in their spirit and by the desire of their Father. But they are not in Christ by their life or by their works of faith, neither livingly, nor experientially, hence, their life does not show it. That’s why they do not know Him, though they do not believe it.
Hence, the Word of God in Rom. 8:1 is also very badly misinterpreted. It is true that there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, BUT after the words “Christ Jesus”, the statement does not end, rather, it continues declaring that it applies to those that “DO NOT WALK AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT”. The soulish believers that KEEP WALKING AFTER THEIR FLESH are still potentially in danger of future condemnation… especially, if they are not doing it ignorantly. Why? The danger is in the fact that they may, in time, get “OUT OF CHRIST WHERE THE FATHER PUT THEM BY HIS WILL” and become condemned! Their decisions and will are at odds with the Decisions and Will of their Father! THIS IS ALSO THE LOSS OF SALVATION! And this is equally never preached and explained to the believers in the Church of Jesus Christ and they are not warned! Their leaders should read the Word in Ez. 3:17-21 and understand that they were equally made watchmen unto the House of God, the Church, and this Word of God equally applies to them!
How can believers get out of Christ? The Lord says it with His own mouth: “If a man ABIDE NOT IN ME (he gets out of Me), he is cast forth as a branch and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into THE FIRE, and they are burned.” (Jn. 15:6) TRUE? Or not true? The Lord is not talking about pagans, who could never be in Christ in order to get out of Him!
If a man – born-again believer – could not get out of Christ and break the seal of His Spirit by which he was sealed at his redemption (Eph. 1:13), if this was impossible (according to the soulish believers and preachers), then the Word of God in Jn. 15:6 could not possibly exist! The fact that soulish believers could not SEE this light and may have been blind for many years does not mean that they have to remain blind until they die. But if they insist in their pride that they see, then the LORD is giving to them another Word of His, which they may equally misinterpret or disbelieve. This Word says to them:
“And Jesus said: For judgment I am come into this world, that they which do not see might see; and that they which (insist that they) see might be made BLIND.” (Jn. 9:39) If they have a heart to understand this Word let them understand It.
* * *
To be continued next week in chapter 3 – part 11
brother Hanola
…