OF THE LORD'S SERVANT
When we are "first" saved we are like "babes" in spiritual matters, having mostly a kind of unchanged "carnal" type of thinking about us, a kind of dead grasp of the word (having little understanding of how love and truth in the Spirit operate) ready to do it all ourselves "in the flesh" FOR Jesus. "Crash!" We soon find ourselves in Romans 6.
Depending on how much each of us "wants to understand in renewing the spirit of our mind and apply in our hearts, and seek to obey" what Jesus is saying: "If a man loves me he will... Deny himself... Love his enemies... Take up his cross... Do good to those who hate him... Love not his life... Sell all he owns... he cannot be My disciple unless he... Follows Me, etc.", the sooner we'll "grow up, bear fruit and be able to teach others the truth".
Some obey the Gospel right away. Some grow up "sooner", some "later", some "never" - these just wither and die off! (So much for the "Remember, there's never any need to obey Him in order to be saved", easy believism boys!) I guess they like remaining Blind to all the teachings that tell us to obey and keep on obeying in order to keep close to the Lord and thus keep one from falling away from Him.
Just as we had a "Free Choice" (upon first hearing God's word to our hearts) to come to that 'Salvation Decision' and "Repentance' we made, we also have a Free choice to cut off God's word from us (by our not wanting to hear Him any more) 'after' we are saved, (as the easy believism type OSAS people do) believing that any obedience on our part, will only nullify grace.
Of course those who do not obey the Gospel ("for whatever reason!") are "Bastard Children", not "God's children", and will be judged as such at His coming. Because "their philosophy" is that they can do whatsoever they please after they've been first saved / justified, and will even "curse" any kind of obedience to God (for the purposes of salvation) as being of the devil.
Be that as it may, the "Danger" in these spiritual matters comes in our "Waiting Too Long" - ex: Luke 13:6-9, holding onto the kind of "indecision" and heart that was in 'Lot's wife', thus not having her eyes set straight ahead on the truth, and so not firmly set on and determined to wholeheartdly obey and follow on to know the Lord! She just couldn't bear to part with her life and her old ways and LET IT ALL GO - SELL IT ALL and follow The Truth because she loved herself and old ways too much.
Her "Life" (and all it consisted of) was just too "precious" for her to "Lose it"! In other words, today, those like Lot's wife, find "Jesus and what He is offering" not to be worth the "Sacrifice" (a Sacrifice that Paul calls but "Dung" in comparison to the glory that will be ours) of their having to lay down their own lives for, take up their cross and follow Jesus!
He is not "precious" enough or "worthy" enough for them to lay it all down for! They haven't seen or understood the "Pearl of great price", for IF they had they would quickly and gladly SELL ALL in order to possess it, and in the losing of their lives, keep it unto eternal life! Here is the "Absolute Assurance" that only true faith (which also believes/does what it hears) can bring one from the hands of the Lord Himself: "My Peace I give you..."
And, regardless of what the easy believism type OSAS boys say, they "forfeit" their right to the Kingdom, never having rightly understood the Gospel in the first place, trying to separate "Obedience" from "Faith", not wanting to hear that "Faith without Obedience to that Faith is DEAD - zip - null and void!"
"Narrow is the way, and few there be that find it!!!"
WHEN AND IF we believe that Jesus IS indeed the way, the truth and the life, then we must decide once and for all (sell all and hold nothing in reserve for later on - just in case)...
for "IF" we have truly seen Him and believe that: "YOU ARE THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD", then WE are going to come to Him, Lock, Stock and Barrel...not in 10 years, not in 5 years, but Right Now!
And those who do sit down and carefully weigh those costs in who they are and what they've got against who He is and what He has and is offering to all who "DO" what He says (deciding forrever and completely, mind, heart and will, and come to Him ALL the way FOR life, and for LIFE) can be assured of a "Death to the old" and a "Life to the new" that they never even knew existed before! They will be joyfully "happy" indeed, having received POWER from on high to be "His" witnesses! He has promised to make it so!
Biff
When we're "older" (and have had some serious personal dealings with our rotten flesh, our many failures and become more familiar in understanding the "Spiritual things" along the way) we come to hold a more "renewed", living grasp of the Word working in our hearts and minds revealing to us the kind of "Heart and Mind" that the Person of our Lord had and has, and how we are to have the same heart and mind that was in Him!
(They erroneously consider "the work of Sanctification" to be a "work" a "choice" that "we" participate in: and any work "we" may do only makes God's grace void and null.) They refuse to see the ongoing "sanctifying work" of the Spirit in them helping them want to "obey" the voice of God and helping them to "work out" their salvation, and say - "SANCTIFICATION" (the ongoing work of Grace that saves us TO God) - is totally needless and unnecessary for salvation or to maintain it.
(They do not wish to know that in order for them to: "Come To Me", requires a "work" on "their part" - a "work of Repentance", a choosing to turn away FROM all sin and a holy turning TO God, through the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Saved from as well as to! You can't have one without the other! :-)
We will keep nothing in reserve! We will gladly sell all! We will tear out our sin-filled eye and our hand and anything else and cast them away from us, rather than keep them and remain whole on the outside, while letting our decision to continue in "sin" ruling over us keeping us out of the Kingdom of God!
"THAT" is how adamant about all this that Jesus is! He means it! He is NOT kidding around! Why should we?
