An All-Time Salvation

I find myself astounded by the time sense of Isaiah 53 which describes the sin-bearing Messiah.

“He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” – Isaiah 53:3

This is in the present tense.  Jesus, today and for all time, is despised and rejected by men.  This will always be, adding much to the sadness and brokenness of God and Jesus Himself.  He is grieved by so many who reject His offer of life. 

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows … He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.” – Isaiah 53:4-5

This is in the past tense.  Yet, Isaiah was written before Jesus walked on the earth.  From the beginning of creation, He was present to carry our sins and offer a way of salvation.

“By His stripes we are healed.” – Isaiah 53:5

This is in the present tense.  Because of His sacrifice and suffering, we are able to repent and be healed of our sin.

“He was oppressed and He was afflicted.” – Isaiah 53:7

This is past tense.  It happened some time ago, perhaps before the foundation of the world it was set.

“He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.  By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.” – Isaiah 53:11

This is future tense.  He shall see, shall justify, shall bear.  One could also consider this to be present tense.  It is ongoing and it is to come. 

I’m sure there is much to study in this passage in the original language.  However, as it seems to be translated, it is easy to conceive that Jesus has always been the sacrifice for man’s sinfulness.  From the beginning of all that we can know, He was there to be rejected by men and to suffer.  He has always and still deeply grieves over the sin of man and man’s rejection of life offered by the one true living God.  Yet, for those who do believe in Him, they are healed of their sin because He bears their sin.

This has always been and will always be.  It isn’t an old tale from 2,000 years ago.  It is the way the world will forever be until the new heaven and earth are beholden.

Silence is Persecuting

An unfortunate turn of events has happened in American society that affects the church.  A portion of the unbelieving culture is willing to purposely put themselves in a position that causes them persecution because they believe in their “cause”.  They consider going to jail for doing so a badge of honor.  Be clear, they consider their “cause” more worthy than your belief in God, in fact, they most often consider unjustly that your belief is what has made the problem for their “cause” to have to be.

But it should be considered, that for most of the last 2,000 years, it has always been believing Christians who were persecuted because they would not stop witnessing and testifying that Jesus is the Son of the Living God and He died and rose again for the sins of the world.  There are many written testimonies all the way back to the Apostles themselves who considered it an honor to be worthy to be persecuted for believing so undeniably in Jesus. 

Yet, today it is the opposite.  Now, I do believe the church is persecuted in a very non-obvious purposeful manner today and that those efforts are becoming more and more emboldened every day and more and more purposeful.  But, the absence of a believing church boldly standing with no apology on the written Word of God and testifying in the face of an ever-changing politically correct culture is simply not found in America.  Or, where that does exist, the other denominations or sects of the same denomination, attack it.  Thus, showing how irrelevant the church really is since, from the society view, “they” can’t even all agree. 

The whole purpose of persecution is to keep believers in Jesus as the Savior from sharing their faith.  That’s it.  There is no other purpose.  Persecution exists in either prison, death, or extreme torture to hope to cause other believers not yet in prison or being tortured to stop sharing their faith.  There is no other purpose for persecution.

Consider that today, in American society, those who are non-believers and opposed to the believing church want the exact same thing that those who persecute the church want.  They want Christians to stop sharing their faith and further, to stop living in accordance to the Bible’s written standard of right and wrong, good and evil.  The American mantra is believe what you want but keep it to yourself.  It is vital for today’s church to realize that this is a non-violent (so far) persecution.  If believers in America do not share their faith or live to the Godly standard, then they are living the way those who persecute believers want them to live.

Nik Ripken says in his book The Insanity of Obedience, “Just like persecution, the refusal to share the faith denies people access to Jesus.  It was a startling thought to realize that the persecutor’s use of violence to inhibit the faith and the believer’s refusal to speak openly of Jesus yield the same result.  In both cases, people are denied access to Jesus.”  He then further calls this out in how a believing Christian actions identify them.  “When [believing Christians] witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we identify with those in chains.  When we refuse to witness, we identify with those who place the chains on followers of Jesus.”

Will you be a persecuter today or someone who could be persecuted?

Is Judging Wrong?

We live in a society that wants no judgment.  It is considered to be an act of undemocratic intolerance to judge someone’s actions.  This is the narrative of the LMNOP (or whatever the alphabet of letters it is) people and any supposedly minority group.  In today’s culture, they are very close to being correct simply because the American nation no longer has an objective standard by which to judge society.  These people who live under this notion have successfully discredited the objective standard of right and wrong so that all rules for successful society that lead to order are in question; then they fight against the actual police who work to successfully keep order in that society and discredit their ability to uphold a law; so they finally have a system that can no longer keep anyone accountable for their actions.  The result of all of this is that there is no judgment.

That is true, unless of course, you are opposed to all of that and you actually speak and act according to what is right and lawful and deem their actions as wrong for you to live by.  You are quickly judged by the very people who will scream in your face, picket your place of business, and deliberately ruin your life saying you shouldn’t judge right and wrong. 

If I take a step way back and look at all of this from 10,000 feet away, it’s a two-year-old throwing a tantrum because they can’t do what they want to do.  The only problem is, there are no adults, those in political charge joined the two-year-olds!  As a result, the two-year-olds are going to get what they want.  When that mindset rules, there will be dictators.  It will undue the very purpose of the writing in the Constitution.

Paul clearly teaches Christians that they are not to subject their affairs among one another to the judgment of the world.  But how are Christians to decide what to do with what non-believers do or with what other believers do?  Are they to judge?  Who should they hold accountable?  These should be spoken of together.  One is the law and one is the enforcement of the law.  Our society says they don’t want to be judged, but what they really don’t want is to be accountable.  They want to do what they want to do, and they demand you accept it and further demand that you think it is okay.

A Christian should know the following as it applies to judging and accountability: 1) God and God alone is good and therefore only He can decide (which He has done through His Word) what is right and what is wrong; 2) God and God alone knows the heart of any individual heart of a person; only He knows if a person believes in Jesus as His Son or doesn’t.

Let’s start with Jesus.  What did He say about judging?

Matthew 7:1-6

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

Every Christian should know that everyone will be judged.  In fact, Jesus teaches that all will come before the throne and He Himself will be that judge.  There is no exception to this.  Everyone who has ever lived or who is yet to live will have to stand before Jesus in judgment.  This means that He has all the authority to judge and only He knows each person’s heart.

This clearly means that no person, even the most righteous human on earth, has the authority or ability to judge another person or know what is in their heart regarding their belief in Jesus.  No one.  If we see the most vile person and deem that they don’t know Jesus as Savior, then we have severely overstepped our authority and knowledge.  Jesus said to us, do not judge. 

He then continued that we must look at our own sin and repent of it.  Until we do this, it is of no use to even offer to help someone else who is also in sin.  Then, don’t offer to help those in sin with that sin if they don’t repent first.  The wisdom of God’s Word is sacred, don’t expect those who have not repented to thrive in it as those who love the Lord do. 

Paul discusses believers judging one another.

Romans 14:10-13

You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister?  Or why do you treat them with contempt?  For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.  It is written:

“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’”

So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.

If a believer judges another believer as to whether they are an actual believer or not is a stumbling block or obstacle in that person’s path.  Believers, the same as non-believers, do not have the authority or knowledge to be able to judge another person’s eternity.  Every Christian should take particular heed to this as there are discussions of curses for those who are stumbling blocks to others as they journey toward God. 

More is written regarding judgment, but we will see that this no longer is judgment regarding a person’s eternal destiny, but towards their actions.

1 Corinthians 5:1-5

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.  And you are proud!  Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?  For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit.  As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this.  So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

This seems to be a contradiction.  We are not to judge, yet here the writer specifically says he has passed judgment.  How can that be?  Here the church of believers are to judge the actions of a fellow believer living in open sin without shame and remove them from the church.  He is to be given to his actions of sin and left in the care of that sin.  The hope is that when that sin takes hold as it is does to destroy man and move him away from God, then the man’s spirit will repent and he will return to God.  He will choose to follow after God rather than the sin when the sin causes destruction.  This is an amazing doctrine of accountability among God’s church that the church does not practice today. 

In the same chapter, Paul continues to write on this subject.

1 Corinthians 5:11-13

I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?  Are you not to judge those inside?  God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Can any of us imagine the controversy of expelling someone proclaiming to be saved but openly living in sin from the church?  It would be considered blasphemy today!  Yet, someone living in open sin in God’s house should be considered blasphemy!!  There is a real statement here regarding the actions of someone who is following closely to God and walking in His Spirit.  We may not like it, but there simply are actions that people will not do if they are walking in the Spirit of the Living God.  Believers are to be held accountable for those actions.  It does not matter if we like it or not.  Jesus speaks to this and Paul and John write that this is done to protect the church as a body.

James 2:12-13

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Christian, be ever mindful that you will be judged by God’s Word.  Be merciful in how you associate with others because God has been merciful in providing Jesus for you.  God’s provision of mercy in overcoming the law is victory over the judgment on you.  Walk daily in this knowledge and apply it in your daily conversations and actions with other people.

James 4:11-12

Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another.  Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it.  When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.  There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

As stated above, no one has the authority to save or destroy a soul except Jesus.  Everyone will be judged by Him.  Not only are we not to consider it internally within ourselves, but we are not to speak to one another about someone’s unknown commitment to Jesus.  This is between each person and Christ. 

In conclusion, we have no authority or ability to judge someone’s heart.  But we are expected to hold another believer accountable who refuses to live in accordance to God’s Word and we anxiously await and hope for their repentance.