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Posted on 12/21/2018 12:07:28 AM PST by metmom
"If the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" (Heb. 2:2-3).
There is certain judgment for everyone who does not receive Christ as Savior and Lord.
Today the majority believes that God is a God of love and grace, but not of justice. One brief look at Hebrews 2:2-3 ought to convince anyone otherwise. The writer's point is this: Since the Old Testament makes it clear that transgression and disobedience met with severe and just punishment, how much more so will equal or greater punishment be rendered under the New Testament, which was revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself?
Both the Old and New Testaments confirm that angels were instrumental in bringing the law (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:38). The law the angels spoke, primarily the Ten Commandments, was steadfast. That meant if someone broke the law, the law would break the lawbreaker. The law was inviolable; punishment for breaking it was certain.
"Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense" (v. 2). Transgression refers to stepping across a line—a willful, purposeful sin. Disobedience, however, refers to imperfect hearing—the sin of shutting one's ears to the commands, warnings, and invitations of God. It is a sin of neglect or omission, doing nothing when something should be done.
Hebrews 2:2 also puts to rest the notion that God is not fair. The writer says every sin received a "just recompense." God, by His very nature, is just. Every punishment He meted out to those who defied Him was a deterrent to the sin He wanted to stop.
God severely punished the nation of Israel because they knew better. That leads to the important principle that punishment is always related to how much truth one knows but rejects. The person who knows the gospel, who has intellectually understood it and believed it, yet drifts away will experience the severest punishment of all.
Suggestion for Prayer
Ask God to give you an even greater appreciation of the punishment He has saved you from to motivate you to pursue the lost more vigorously.
For Further Study
Read Matthew 11:20-24, 12:38-42, and Luke 12:47-48 to discover Christ's attitude toward those who know the truth yet rebel against it.
Studying God’s Word ping
Have no fear of losing the "lost" They are his! Be wary of pursuing goats thinking them sheep. There is wheat, AND there are tares.
John 10:27-29
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
Can you remember reading about "a thorn in their side"?
Nah....
It is written... “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”... Isaiah 64:6
None of your acts, deeds or obedience to those are a “ticket’ to heaven. None of them can pay or gain salvation....ever. They will always miss the mark....apart from Jesus Christ there is no salvation.
We can save no one. Only He can.
Every mote you pluck from your brothers eye only adds to the beam in your own.
John wrongly asserts:
Hebrews 2:2 also puts to rest the notion that God is not fair.Actually, even a moment's thought will disclose to you that the Bible shows that God is not fair.
The Godhead, in three Persons, is wholly righteous and just through and through, but He is not fair.
In the context of this meditation, Merriam-Webster defines the sense of "fair" as: "marked by impartiality and honesty, free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism"; "conforming with the established rules"; "consonant with merit or importance" (= that which is due one).
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines the adjective "fair" (= "right") as "treating someone in a way that is right or reasonable, or treating people equally and not allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment";". . . done according to the rules."
The Oxford Living Dictionary describes "fair" thus: "Treating people equally without favouritism or discrimination; just or appropriate in the circumstances."
Reader, I don't know about you, but summing this up, if The God were "fair," and I were to receive the just desserts due to me from Him as Judge according to my conduct in the course of this life experience, I would have long ago been burning in Hades, and slated for an eternal death in the Lake of Fire together with Satan and his lying spiritual con-men.
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,Through His mercy, I have not received the treatment due to my sins and due for the attitude to commit them, but through His grace I have and always expect to keep receiving great benefits due only to His perpetual kindness and none of my own.
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are ye saved through the* faithof Jesus Christ**; and thatthe saving*** not of yourselves: itthe salvation is the gift of God:
not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them
(Ephesians 2:4-10 AV; superscripted supplementary notes).
To God be The Glory!
========
Notes:
* = Definite noun is present in the Greek; descriptive of the body of doctrine which should be capitalized in English as "The Faith"; see Rom. 10:8 Textus Receptus
** = The Faith is the body of doctrine received of and from Jesus Christ, The Word Personified; see Rom. 3:22 TR genitive case
*** = A neuter indicative pronoun is reflective of the action of the verb to which it refers
I don’t know of any true believers, that believe one can go on sinning, after being saved. If one does that, then that individual should seriously question whether his faith is genuine. He might be a tare among the wheat. Good works are the result of faith, not the cause of it.
Retired USAF air traffic controller. Mountain Home, Bien Hoa, Laughlin, Mainz-Kastel, Travis.
. . . he that doeth the will of my Father . . .
The Will of the Father is:
"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (Jn. 6:28-29 AV).
You need to read this part of the passage that you left out:
"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Mt. 7:22-23 AV).
Can you not see that it is at the Judgment Seat that these words were spoken? That those petitioning for salvation had already been in Hell for eons, because they were trusting in their own works (supposedly done "in His Name") for their rescue, and not in Him and His works? Their terminus was/is to be in the Lake of Fire with the Devil, because they were not to be recognized by Him because of their misplaced belief.
Duh!
Are we not judged by our INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS ?
Yes, by the decisive action to be convinced in your mind that it is the works of Jesus Christ that are saving, and not those of yourself except to believe on Him. That is the only work demanded by the Father for salvation (Eph. 2:8-9, see upthread, Post #8).
Shouldn't judgement begin with US?
Only for those who are saved, believer-discple-priests and Friends of Jesus, who are not depending on works for salvation, but through their belief were already judged by death with Him on the cross. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom. 6:6 AV).
And even for them. at the Bema Seat of Christ (see Rom. 14:10) which is in Heaven, where not the believer's presence, but only the eternal value of one's works is evaluated (2 Cor. 5:10). And that will be a thousand years before the judgment described in Matthew 7 takes place for those resurrected from Hell for their judgment and final sentencing, "I never knew you!"
What I read here from you is so warped in doctrine that it sounds as if your destiny, if followed, will be at that Last Judgment and not the one at the Cross, the moment one turns completely and irreversibly toward God, whee one's only plea for mercy is the Shed Blood of His Beloved Son.
Are you born anew in the Spirit?
I'd be very grateful if you could find the Scripture passage that backs up this conclusive advice.
My impression has been that helping someone else see better is possible when you've first gotten the "mote out of you own eye" (or when someone else has performed that procedure with your permission.)
Oh NO!
Not us Christians!!
We ain't gonna be standin' at no Great White Throne!!
Which is what was quoted in my post. But thanks for the reinforcement reflex!
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I wouldn't use the name "Garner Ted Armstrong" (to which the link points) and the description of "wise" in the same sentence (which I see you did not, actually). Is that what you meant? If so, I doubt that we'll be approaching life with the same point of view.
Romans 10:9
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:10
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Gaations 2:16
“knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
I recall a great sinner who was saved who still indulged certain habits....he often told people critical of these...” you should have seen me before I was saved”.... God gives grace...and he giveth...and he giveth..and he giveth again.
I would !
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