QC and SG accountability (8/3/19)
We started sharing about work situations and found encouragement in the devotion shared by MT and Selwyn about Daniel's (as in the book of Daniel) experiences in the workplace. This led to the question: "When is it right to leave a job?"
We said that it would be right to leave when:
1. The job requires us to do something against the law of God.
2. The job habitually takes so much of our time that our church attendance, ability to serve and personal devotions are made impossible.
We said that it was not wrong in itself to leave for a job with better pay, perks, position or people, but that the change of job would reveal our inner motives. A desire to leave with these things as a priority in our hearts would be wrong. Joyce shared that she would not leave a job ONLY because her boss was bad, but would look at many other factors.
I thought that it would be a good time to talk about Christian cliches!
1. "God loves us unconditionally".
This is often paired with "God accepts you as you are"
We affirm that God loves, but in many different ways. He has a beneficent love for the whole world and shows a measure of grace and blessing on all people, saved or otherwise ("He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." - Mt 5:45). This love is indeed 'unconditional".
His electing love to save us from before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4) is also unconditional, for we had done nothing either good or bad (Ro 9:11) and were saved by grace (undeserved favour - Eph 2:8-9).
The issue is that these cliches are often misused to justify a lifestyle that is not in accord with the gospel, with no concern for holiness and no desire to press on in the faith. It can encourage complacency and the false belief that salvation is assured no matter what we do. Js 2:14 clearly teaches that the faith that saves will never be content with a life that is not conformed to the image of Christ.
2. "Once saved always saved"
There are many places in the Bible that affirm the eternal security of the saints (Jn 10:28-29, Ro 8:35-39, Phil 1:6, 1 Pe 1:305).
Heb 6:4--8, however, is used to argue the reverse- that salvation can indeed be lost. We should interpret this passage in the light of Heb 3:12-14, which warns us against falling away and being hardened. The author then uses a rather odd mix of tenses to say that "we have come to share in Christ" if we persevere to the end. So genuine believers are not hardened, but demonstrate the reality of their saving faith by their perseverance.
In this light, the phrases "enlightened", "tasted the heavenly gift", "shared in the Holy Spirit", "tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come" need not then refer to true, saving belief. The reference to 2 kinds of land (vs. 7-8) distinguishes the clear difference between those who have received grace and borne fruit and those who have recieved grace and borne thorns and thistles. They are like the soil with seeds that "have no root" and fall away (Mk 4:17).
The idea that it is "impossible...to restore to repentance" those who fall away in this way seems close the door for any further return, so people who hold the view that salvation can be lost are compelled to apply Heb 6 only to hopeless cases of apostasy, because it is common experience that backsliders to often return to the faith.
My concern for us in understanding the permanence of salvation is a pastoral one. How do we know that we will be saved to the end? Is our salvation dependent on our day by day effort to keep ourselves in the faith? This does not make for assurance and security in the face of life's trials. My conviction is that the entirety of salvation - past justification, present sanctification and future glorification - is by grace, through faith, and not of ourselves. We did nothing to earn our salvation, and we can do nothing to keep it (I think Tim Keller said this)
We said that it would be right to leave when:
1. The job requires us to do something against the law of God.
2. The job habitually takes so much of our time that our church attendance, ability to serve and personal devotions are made impossible.
We said that it was not wrong in itself to leave for a job with better pay, perks, position or people, but that the change of job would reveal our inner motives. A desire to leave with these things as a priority in our hearts would be wrong. Joyce shared that she would not leave a job ONLY because her boss was bad, but would look at many other factors.
I thought that it would be a good time to talk about Christian cliches!
1. "God loves us unconditionally".
This is often paired with "God accepts you as you are"
We affirm that God loves, but in many different ways. He has a beneficent love for the whole world and shows a measure of grace and blessing on all people, saved or otherwise ("He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." - Mt 5:45). This love is indeed 'unconditional".
His electing love to save us from before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4) is also unconditional, for we had done nothing either good or bad (Ro 9:11) and were saved by grace (undeserved favour - Eph 2:8-9).
The issue is that these cliches are often misused to justify a lifestyle that is not in accord with the gospel, with no concern for holiness and no desire to press on in the faith. It can encourage complacency and the false belief that salvation is assured no matter what we do. Js 2:14 clearly teaches that the faith that saves will never be content with a life that is not conformed to the image of Christ.
2. "Once saved always saved"
There are many places in the Bible that affirm the eternal security of the saints (Jn 10:28-29, Ro 8:35-39, Phil 1:6, 1 Pe 1:305).
Heb 6:4--8, however, is used to argue the reverse- that salvation can indeed be lost. We should interpret this passage in the light of Heb 3:12-14, which warns us against falling away and being hardened. The author then uses a rather odd mix of tenses to say that "we have come to share in Christ" if we persevere to the end. So genuine believers are not hardened, but demonstrate the reality of their saving faith by their perseverance.
In this light, the phrases "enlightened", "tasted the heavenly gift", "shared in the Holy Spirit", "tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come" need not then refer to true, saving belief. The reference to 2 kinds of land (vs. 7-8) distinguishes the clear difference between those who have received grace and borne fruit and those who have recieved grace and borne thorns and thistles. They are like the soil with seeds that "have no root" and fall away (Mk 4:17).
The idea that it is "impossible...to restore to repentance" those who fall away in this way seems close the door for any further return, so people who hold the view that salvation can be lost are compelled to apply Heb 6 only to hopeless cases of apostasy, because it is common experience that backsliders to often return to the faith.
My concern for us in understanding the permanence of salvation is a pastoral one. How do we know that we will be saved to the end? Is our salvation dependent on our day by day effort to keep ourselves in the faith? This does not make for assurance and security in the face of life's trials. My conviction is that the entirety of salvation - past justification, present sanctification and future glorification - is by grace, through faith, and not of ourselves. We did nothing to earn our salvation, and we can do nothing to keep it (I think Tim Keller said this)
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