NEGLECT THAT PREVENTS SALVATION

Heb. 2:3a ... "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"

      There are three truths of the most fundamental importance and ultimately of eternal consequence, which confront every person who passes through this world. The first of them is revealed in Rom. 3:23, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The second is proclaimed in II Cor. 5:10, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." And the third is presented in Rom. 5:8-9, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." Very simply put, (1) every person is a sinner, (2) God will at last judge and punish the sinner, and (3) God offers salvation from sin and its terrible penalty through His Son Jesus.

      The only reasonable response that a person can make when he learns these truths is to accept the salvation God offers him. To learn that you are a sinner and hence doomed for destruction, and turn away from the one avenue of escape God has provided, is foolish. If a wildfire is raging across the countryside, as sometimes happens in the western states during a drought, those who live in its path are immediately alerted and warned to vacate their homes. As the flames draw dangerously near, orders to flee are issued in a stronger, more urgent way. If anyone refuses to leave and perishes in the holocaust, we feel great pity for their fate. And yet, we cannot but consider them foolish to have been warned and then neglected to save themselves. This is analogous to the action of sin in the world, which rages like wildfire through human experience. Christians, speaking from the inspired revelation of God's word, sound the warning of impending destruction to all. In Jude 23 we are thus instructed, "Save others, snatching them out of the fire." There is no one whose life is not in the path of the racing, consuming path of sin. To be warned by fervent, urgent appeals to accept God's route of escape through Christ, and then disregard it, is just as foolish as to stay at home until wildfire engulfs your house with you inside. In fact, it is more foolish, because physical fire ends a human life quickly, after which the anesthesia of death obliterates all pain. But the spiritual fire consequent upon sin is never extinguished, and no relief will ever come to the soul writhing within it, (see Mark 9:47-48).

      Perhaps many who refuse to respond to the gospel of Christ reject its necessity on the basis that, having denied the Biblical concept of sin, they are not sinners. Others who decline to respond to God's offer of salvation have denied the reality of a judgment, as well as the idea that God is an avenger of sin. Such rejections, denials, and refusals indicate a severe lack of faith in the truth of Holy Scripture, which affirms these things as realities. The denial of what exists does not remove its reality, though it may indeed remove one's anxiety over its impact upon his own existence. However, the reality of God and His will for man has been sufficiently confirmed by "signs and wonders and various miracles," (Heb. 2:4), which were recorded by competent observers and preserved for the benefit of all posterity. God does not repeat these verifying phenomena to each generation, but rather accounts this testimony as enough to convince anyone whose mind is open. Therefore, if a person rejects the merciful invitation of God to be saved, how can he escape the wrath of God? Our featured text, Heb. 2:3, does not bother to answer that question, apparently because the answer is so obvious. But the answer is clearly and emphatically given in many places in the Bible. For example, "To those who are selfishly ambitious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness ... (God will will execute) wrath and indignation ... (upon) every soul of man who does evil," (Rom. 2:8-9).

      

OUR RELATION TO GOD'S CREATION

Heb. 1:10 ... "You, Lord, in the beginning did lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your Hands."

      The Bible opens in Gen. 1:1 with the proclamation that God created the universe, ("the heavens and the earth") and spoke into existence the laws by which all the countless systems and parts would be governed. To study the universe, therefore, or any subsystem of it, is to study the handiwork of God. This is the view that was always present in my mind as I taught physics and marvelled at how the laws which operate in nature can be expressed in precise mathematical formulae. The psalmist said, "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands," (Psa. 19:1). When a scientist discovers a law, he is, in reality, finally uncovering to the enlightenment of man what was set in place by God eons ago. Again we read, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host. ... For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast," (Psa. 33:6,9). Science, when it is true to its name, brings the human mind closer to the conviction that the universe was created and that the God of the Bible was its Creator. Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) was a German-born astronomer who did his work in England. He discovered the planet Uranus in 1781, proved that our solar system rotates about a center within our galaxy, and began the great task of methodically cataloging the location and identity of the myriads of stars observable in space. At the height of his illustrious career he wrote: "All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truth contained in the Sacred Scriptures."

      Hebrews 1:10 is one of many statements in the Bible which remind us that God is the Creator of the universe, usually with an exhortation that we respond to His creative act with praise, thanksgiving, and concession to His ownership of what He has made. To be thus reminded should also have an humbling, sobering effect upon us, inducing us to bring our view of reality back into the proper perspective. It should also influence us to re-order our priorities and values. Although God submitted the world to man to occupy and use it, (Gen. 1:28-30), so that it is proper for us to exercise the claim of ownership to local portions of it, we should always be reminded that, in reality, we are never more than caretakers, or stewards, of what belongs to God. In no absolute or immutable sense do we actually "own" anything! Nor do we have any ultimate, superior, or inalienable right to lay such a claim to any portion of this world or its goods. Psalm 24:1 declares that "the earth is the Lord's, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it."

      When we entered the world, none of us brought anything into it to add to what was already here; and when we leave it, none of us will be able to carry out with us one atom of its matter. "For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either," (I Tim. 6:7). The universe was created by God as a closed cosmological system, and no man can either increase or decrease the sum total of its matter and energy. Therefore, no one has any ultimate personal claim to anything in it.

      The clarification of this world view should serve to decrease our lust for material things and the concomitant concepts of ownership and selfish gratification with whatever has come into our hands. Realizing that we are but stewards of what belongs in toto to God, we should find it much easier to use it according to the principles He has revealed to us in the Bible. These principles urge us to allow our relations with material things to be governed by such ideas as non-dependence upon them, the readiness to share our excess with those who have a deficiency, our glad willingness to commit a generous part of them to God's service in His church, and a deep appreciation for these things as manifestations of God's love and concern for us in entrusting them to our continuing use and good management.

THE PROFITABLE SERVANT

Philemon 11 ... "(Onesimus) formerly was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me."

      Onesimus was a slave who belonged to Philemon, a Christian in the church at Colossae in Asia Minor. Deserting his master, he escaped and made his way the considerable distance to Rome. There, in some way, he became acquainted with the apostle Paul who taught him the gospel and converted him to Christ. It then became Paul's duty to return the runaway slave to his owner, even as it also became the duty of Onesimus, now that he had committed himself to the way of righteousness, to return willingly to Philemon. Only now he would return not just as a slave, inferior according to the human institution of servitude, but rather much more as a "beloved brother ... in the Lord," (v.16). 

      The name Onesimus came from the Greek word meaning profitable. Paul picks up on this and uses it to persuade the master not to deal harshly with his returning slave. Before this he had failed to live up to his name, having fled his owner after perhaps being rebellious, resentful, and irresponsible. But now he is returning as a Christian, ready to serve Philemon according to the letter and spirit of Col. 3:22-25, a passage which Philemon had doubtless read.

      This story of conversion and reconciliation shows us that the gospel is able to turn anyone from a worthless sinner into a profitable worker in the kingdom of God. In another passage that Philemon had surely read or heard, Col. 1:21-22, Paul emphasized this transforming power of the gospel: "Although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He (Christ) has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him (God) holy and blameless and beyond reproach." In the beginning, the Colossians had been living "engaged in evil deeds," the common state of unregenerate human activity, which is unprofitable to God and also ultimately unprofitable to the people themselves. But having been exposed to the teaching of the gospel, which they had believed and obeyed, they were reconciled to God by virtue of Jesus' death for their sins, and they also were regenerated to become God's own possession. In this new condition of Christian sanctity they were profitable to God as members of His holy family. This conversion from the useless and unprofitable to the useful and worthy is the great benefit of the Christian gospel that comes to all who will accept it in faith and subject themselves to its instruction.

      Peter expressed it in his First Epistle in these words: "You have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ," (2:3-5). During His earthly experience Jesus was rejected by men as worthless and cast aside, but God then made Him to be the chief cornerstone in His eternal spiritual house. The same God can take men and women who are indeed worthless in their sins and make them to be "living stones" in the further erection of this great "spiritual house" when they respond to His call to them through the gospel. Those who formerly were of no use to Him are then not only vital parts of His house, but also even priests who "offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God." It is a very encouraging and exciting revelation that God has given us this wonderful opportunity to be changed from worthless parasites, who feed by our sin upon the vitality of society, into profitable workers whose lives uplift, support, and nurture the general community of mankind.

READY FOR EVERY GOOD DEED

Tit. 3:1 ... "Remind them ... to be ready for every good deed."

      An opportunity combines three basic factors: an act to be done, a person to perform that act, and a time that is favorable for the act to be done. Within the context of Christian service there is so much to be done that continually awaits those who are able and will seize any available time to do it. Jesus once called attention to the great amount of work to be done and the urgency of doing it with the statement, "Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest," (John 4:35). The opportunity is always present for any Christian to perform some valuable service for the Lord, but too often it is wasted because of inattention, lack of preparation, and weak motivation. Using Jesus' analogy, the grain is allowed to remain in the field until it falls ungathered to the ground to be eaten by birds and rodents. Paul's words to Titus in 3:1 urged him to exhort the disciples in Crete to watch for any opportunity to serve, to prepare for the moment, and be ready when the time arrived. This exhortation is as applicable to Christians now as it was to those so long ago.

      The works we must do come not upon us as something expansive, vague, or categorical, but rather as distinct, specific things. We don't just "teach"; we teach individuals! And we don't just "comfort"; we go to specific individuals at definite places and personally help them carry their burdens. The Lord appointed His disciples to be those who perform these deeds of Christian service. This assignment is emphasized in the statement of Eph. 2:10, "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." These works, it should be noticed, are not divinely imposed upon "the church" or "the brotherhood" as such. "The church" cannot teach a class of Third Graders the lesson conveyed in the account of Jesus' visit to Jerusalem when He was 12 years old. And "the brotherhood" cannot visit the home of a widowed mother to console her and offer her assistance as she faces the great task of rearing her children alone. But the individual Christian can and must do these things and innumerable other such deeds like them.

      An act of Christian service can only be performed by a disciple within the framework of a suitable time. You cannot comfort a cancer patient in his physical and mental anguish after he has died. It is quite too late to try to instill convictions of purity, chastity, and respect for motherhood to a young woman after she has already conceived a child out of wedlock. That effort should have been underway before she ever reached puberty. To return to Jesus' analogy in John 4:35, these illustrations represent grain we try to gather after it has fallen to the ground and been damaged or destroyed.

      To be able to perform a good deed at the right time to the glory of the Lord, some preparation is necessary. First, you must be able to recognize the opportunity when it occurs. This requires keen perception and mental alertness, both of which are developed by diligent study of  God's word and prayer. Second, you must train yourself to have the strength, motivation, and skill to perform the deed. The maxim that "one learns by doing" certainly applies here. No matter how informed someone might be about an activity, only experience can translate this knowledge into an effective skill, and that experience comes only through sustained effort. Third, you must have the sense of urgency to arouse yourself to perform the deed during the time span in which it can be done. If Christians would truly "be ready for every good deed," we would make an astounding impression for the Lord upon our decadent and infidel society.

      

AN EXAMPLE OF GOOD DEEDS

Tit. 2:7 ... "In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds."

      Unless a person withdraws himself into a deserted place, he lives in contact with other people who are observers of his conduct. Day by day through his manner of life he communicates to them what he values, what he believes, and what he expects from his efforts. All of this elicits some kind of response from others, who may affirm or deny his beliefs, accept or reject his values, and support or oppose his expectations. This response constitutes some degree of intervention in the lives of others. Beginning in the third century there was a movement in the church that reflected great concern over a Christian's interaction with people about him. There were certain individuals who withdrew from society to live in isolated communes with those of like convictions or in solitary exclusiveness. Their effort was to free themselves from being objects of evil influence and abandoned the hope of improving their world through the good effect they might have upon it. For example, in ca. 285 BC an Egyptian Christian named Antony withdrew into the desert where he practiced an extremely austere life, living on a single meal per day of bread and water for the rest of his life. He slept as little as possible and devoted his time to prayer and to mental combat with the myriad demons he conceived to be about him. During the following century there were hundreds of Christians who followed in Anthony's footsteps in the same quest for isolation from society and freedom from the effects of human influence.

      One person's impact upon the life of another may indeed be either for good or evil, thus imposing the responsibility upon each person for his style of conduct which the early hermits and monastics sought to evade. A Christian must of course be very sensitive about the nature of his intervention in the lives of others since he has the spiritual obligation of causing it to be for good, for the Lord wills that we remain in contact with people. In isolated withdrawal we cannot exert the beneficial force upon them that might lead some of them toward God. It is the mission of each Christian in the projection of his ideas, attitudes, and opinions to produce responses of faith in God, good will toward men, peace, humility, and purity. By his speech he should encourage others to speak truthfully, peaceably, kindly, purely, and reverently. And by his conduct he must desire to influence others to behave righteously, cooperatively, decently, and justly.

      To have this kind of impact upon the minds, speech, and conduct of others, a Christian must totally surrender his own mind, speech, and behavior to the guiding power of God's word. He himself must be led by the Spirit so that his life continually exhibits "purity in doctrine," a pattern that is "dignified (and) sound in speech which is beyond reproach," (vs. 7b-8a). A life that is conducted under spiritual guidance will be an excellent example for others to behold and respond to positively, as the Lord expects. It will then produce in them the effects which Jesus anticipates in Mat. 5:16 when He says, "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." We must never underestimate the power such influence can have, as the following illustration indicates. In a French boys' school a particularly rebellious lad stabbed another student, inflicting a minor wound. He was punished with confinement in a dark room with a diet of only bread and water. Being terrified of the dark, he was in great distress. When the wounded boy, who was a Christian, heard of it, he persuaded the headmaster to let him take the offender's place. This plea was granted, but with a stipulation, the guilty boy had to bring the bread and water to his substitute each day. On the sixth day, the offender broke down and begged to take the punishment himself. When the three weeks of confinement concluded, he became a convert to Christ. The attitude and example of the Christian he had injured had been the power that persuaded him to yield his life to Christ.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MORAL PURITY

Tit. 1:15 ... "To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled."

      On the afternoon of August 4, 1971 in Cairo, Egypt, I visited the fortress of Saladin, a Moslem conqueror who lived about eight hundred years ago. In the fortress, or citadel, there is a very large and ornate mosque built by Muhammad Ali, the governor of Egypt in the early nineteenth century. Within this building and suspended by a chain about forty feet long is a gigantic chandelier about thirty feet across containing hundreds of lamps. But what impressed me most was the windows, constructed of intricate patterns of stained glass. Since the mosque faced west, these windows were illuminated by the brilliant rays of the sun beaming across the Sahara Desert. The light coming in through the stained glass turned everything inside the building the same colors as the glass. All around there were patterns of red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, and gold. Even though a bench was brown in natural light, it took on instead the shades of the variegated colors of the windows.

      It is impossible for me to picture in words the beautiful scene I witnessed that afternoon so long ago. You just had to be there and experience it in order to appreciate it. A thought occurred to me then that related what I saw to the words of Jesus in Mat. 6:22-23, "The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" In this simple illustration Jesus compares our eyes to the windows in a building which admit light. The nature of the glass in the window determines the quality of light that radiates into the room. If the window is colored, the interior of the room will be colored with the same shades and hues as the glass. If the window is distorted, objects within the room will be distorted because of the tricks played by the multiple refractions of light upon it. If the window is obscured or dirty, then a great deal less light will be admitted, and the room will be dim or dark.

      In Tit. 1:15 the writer is drawing from Jesus' imagery in Mat. 6:22-23.  The mind and conscience is like a window between one's inner life and the external world. If a person is greedy, he interprets others likewise and feels himself in competition with them for desirable things. If someone is a thief, he thinks others are fair game with respect to their possessions, neither considering nor caring that they labored for what they have. The fornicator thinks of people as sexual objects with the same lascivious urge as himself. If a person is deceitful and suspicious, he considers others to be like himself -- untrustworthy and potentially harmful.

      When people with a lust for power read the Bible, they are most attracted to the passages where men came to power and exercised it with a will. When carnal minded people open God's word, they are most fascinated with its statements and accounts about sexual activity. But when a person's mind has been purified and his conscience cleansed by submitting to the power of God's Spirit, he is enabled to see the beauty, goodness, and worth that are always present in others and in the situations of life. Even when the beauty, goodness, and apparent worth are minimal, the pure-minded person will nevertheless seek them out to the degree they exist and then be interested in how they can be increased to transform the individual.

      When Jesus came into First Century society, He was sometimes accused of being a gluttonous man, winebibber, and friend of the hated publicans and sinners, (Mat. 11:19). It is revealing that they saw Him like this, for there is evidence that these very sins prevailed in their own lives. Jesus, however, though He saw the evil in their lives and exposed it, also saw the good and tried to stimulate its growth, (Mat. 13:15; 23:37).

CHOOSE THE BEST COURSE

 II Tim. 4:7 ... "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith."

      Today's experiences are tomorrow's memories. The comfort, satisfaction, and fulfillment that future reminiscences will convey therefore depend upon what you do in life day after day. A life that is spent in the quest for pleasure and the gratification of sensual appetites will produce an end that is devoid of the same. The writer of Ecclesiastes experienced such a course in life and wrote: "I said to myself, 'Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.' And behold, it was futility," (2:1). His judgment after he had drunk long and deep of the spring of pleasure was "futility," meaning that in the end it yielded nothing of value. Likewise, a life that is consumed in the drive to become rich in worldly goods might end indeed in such coveted opulence, but there is abundant indication that the soul is left in a dissatisfied and wretched condition. In I Tim. 6:7-10 the inspired writer tells us: "We have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang." Also, a life that is devoted to the goals of power, fame, and public praise usually peak somewhere in the process and then decline into weakness, obscurity, and perhaps even ridicule by the new generation so that one reaches the end burdened with sadness and bitterness. The writer of Ecclesiastes traversed this course and then wrote: "There is no lasting remembrance of the wise man as with the fool, inasmuch as in the coming days all will be forgotten. And how the wise man and the fool alike die! So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind, " (2:16-17).

      But a life that is lived in Christ and in the service of God is one which knows no regret, no sorrow, and no failure in its earthly conclusion. It might involve more physical suffering than pleasure; it might involve more material deprivation than abundance, and it might evoke more public scorn than praise. A Christian enjoys the amenities of life as much as anyone else, but he also sees something far greater and more desirable in sacrificial devotion to his Lord, and he is quite willing to forego what unbelievers covet and struggle for in order to achieve what he perceives as better. His conviction is that of Rom. 8:18, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

      Rather than consume his life in the effort to enjoy worldly pleasures and rewards, a Christian will devote his life to the tasks of waging a good fight against evil and promoting righteousness.  Each day he will commit himself to run indefatigably the course that eventually leads to the finish line of success and the "crown of righteousness" for all who cross it. With every stride of the long race he will adhere persistently to a faith in Christ that is never shaken by doubt, weakened by temptation, or drained by carelessness or worldly distractions.

      Such a life does not usually attract public attention, win the acclaim of society or increase in wealth and power during its progress. And it does not produce the sensual pleasure that is so pursued as the essential factor in the so-called "good life." But as the course of worldly life concludes in a mood of dissatisfaction, emptiness, and regret, the Christian way ends in an aura of fulfillment, victory, and joy. And it alone can look beyond the portal of death to an eternal reward of unabated joy, peace, security, and rest.