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SERIES C - COMPLEX OR CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES.
EIGHT.
C8 MORE ABOUT SURE & CERTAIN HOPE.
This study is a continuation of A6 SURE AND CERTAIN HOPE. It deals with several issues not covered in that study.
C8.1. THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST.
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 gives a vividly explicit statement that Heaven’s disloyal citizens are not lost to Heaven - and in one and the same passage gives the most solemn warning of what they do lose.
The Foundation is laid already - Jesus Christ - there can be no other. On this foundation we may build gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or stubble - and the day shall arrive when everyone’s work becomes public knowledge.
It will be tested by fire to see what stuff it is made of, and if it survives the fire the builder will be rewarded. But some will see their life’s work burned up and lost. They themselves will be saved, as if from a burning building, alive, but everything gone. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)
The coming encounter with Christ, the supreme climax of life, the day to which all others have been heading - the prospect fills the thoughts of His servants on Earth and offers the highest joy they can know.
Yet it is frightening. St Paul was afraid of it, he said so.
Every one of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive what is due for what we have done, good or bad, while in the body. So, knowing what it is to be frightened of the Lord, we persuade people.
(2 Corinthians 5:10-11)
This fear is not of being rejected or of missing Heaven. There is no doubt of His loving welcome and the free ungrudging open-hearted open-handed goodwill of His reception. Those are issues long since made secure.
Even the possibility of dying with some sins unconfessed is not the greatest fear; it would mean shame, but He who has forgiven again and again along the way, will forgive once more.
No, the great fear inspired by the prospect of that day is simply the fear of arriving empty handed, of failing to complete the task given on Earth, of bringing no offering to Him, having no crown to cast before Him, no reward to share with others.
Because while we ourselves cannot be lost, we can most certainly, lose.
C8.2. PURGATORY,
Whenever theologians coin new words they corrupt old doctrines. The mediaeval belief in Purgatory is a good example of how Truth becomes distorted once non-Bible technical terms are introduced.
What happens to us between Earth and Heaven? Scripture plainly teaches that there is a Judgment Seat of Christ and that that we have to face an encounter with our Saviour. For some it will be like a fire that burns up the wood, hay and stubble we have built into our lives. There will be losses to suffer, rubbish to burn, and much to be ashamed of.
Nothing that defiles will enter Heaven and I know perfectly well that I would defile it if I entered it as I am now. So while I know that my forgiveness is secure, I also know there will have to be a clean-up process when I meet my Lord. I shall welcome it but it could be painful.
Once the term “Purgatory” was coined, however, the doctrine developed quite differently until we have Dante’s imagery and the idea of many years spent suffering for our sins. This devalues the sacrifice of God’s Son for our sins. Whatever we face on that day, it will not be punishment. That has been wholly born by Christ. And it will not take ages, we shall be changed, “In the twinkling of an eye.” (Instant Purgatory?)
Those who realised the falseness of the Dante’s Purgatory, then reacted to the other extreme and Protestant theory has tended to the unbiblical idea of skipping straight into Heaven without any accounting to God first. The issue is then expressed as the question - “Do you believe in Purgatory?” - to which Roman Catholics are expected to answer “Yes,” and Protestants, “No.” But the real answer is that The Bible does not use that term. What it says about the Judgment Seat of Christ fits some but not all aspects of the traditional teaching of Purgatory.
C8.3. THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT PARABLES.
The delayed return Luke 12:35-48
2 parables of Talents. Luke 19:11-27 and Matthew 25:14-30
10 Virgins Matthew 25:1-13
The unforgiving servant. Matthew 18:21-35
Horrible things used to happen to unfaithful servants in those days. It was not so bad in the Jewish community because the Law of Moses was much gentler than Roman law. But in general, servants had it bad.
In a Roman household there might be two hundred slaves, including their families. If one of them killed the master, they were all put to death. And Roman Patricians made speeches about how such “justice” might seem in a way unfair, and one might have some sympathy for the innocent people executed, but it was all necessary for the greater good of the community.
Such was the value put on the life of a slave.
Jesus drew His parables from real life and was not squeamish about the details. His unfaithful servants were; cut in pieces; thrown into the darkness outside; sold with family into slavery and (a much milder disaster for five foolish virgins) shut out and told, “I never knew you.”
Harshness was the order of the day, and the parables reflect it.
The question that troubles modern readers is where the stories leave off and the applications begin. Is God as harsh as the old masters, or is the point of the parable simply that unfaithful servants must face consequences.
Unfaithful service leads to consequences which can be harsh in any age. In these parables the point being made is that there are consequences of both faithfulness and unfaithfulness. What we sow we reap. The judgment seat of Christ will not be a comfortable episode, a kind of prize day when the worst that can happen is to get a third-class prize. It will be a traumatic and painful occasion for many, facing regrets for opportunities wasted, and severe reprimand from the Commanding Officer. Some will watch others being given front places at the heavenly victory parade while they themselves have to stand on the sidelines because they opted for comfort on earth. They will never have another chance.
Here is the truth behind the doctrine of purgatory, and the Roman Catholic teaching is not so far from Scripture as most Protestants would like to imagine.
But never in any of these parables are the actual consequences stated. The consequences described are what happened to the servants in the stories. These are used as a picture of consequences (unspecified) for unfaithful servants.
In none of them is the word “eternal” used, or the word “Gehenna” and without those words there can be no undoubted reference to Hell. (The Luke version of the Talents is an unusually complicated parable, possibly drawn from the current affairs of the time, and it makes a clear distinction between the loss suffered by the unfaithful servant and the punishment of the rebels. The Matthew version is harsher. The different stories were told on different occasions.)
C8.4. FURTHER COMMENT ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3:11-15.
Since writing these notes the writer has encountered an interpretation of this passage which calls for a response. The suggestion that has been made is that the different building materials refer only to service done and not to the life lived; that what is burned up will be ineffective though well-meaning service but not sin or backsliding.
This interpretation takes away the certainty of salvation given by the passage, leaving the follower of Christ facing the possibility of damnation for unfaithfulness or alternatively “loss by fire” of those good works which did not make the grade.
One immediate though incidental comment is that no service well meant is ever lost, not even a cup of cold water given.
But more essentially, the passage is about the foundation which is Christ. The whole point of it is to contrast the permanence of that foundation with the possibility of losing what is built upon it. To suggest that the foundation can ever be destructible is to contradict the main point Paul is making.
It is like saying there are three grades. “You are founded on Christ and your life’s work is the building on that foundation; if you do well you will keep it all, if you do less well you will lose the building but keep the foundation, if you do really badly you will lose the foundation too.”
This interpretation would make Christ Himself nothing more than a rather more durable building material, harder to destroy than our own but still destructible, and that is the opposite of what St Paul is saying.
C8.4.1. REASSURING BUT SOLEMN.
While insisting that the straightforward interpretation of this passage is the right one, and it does indeed guarantee absolute security for all who are have Christ as foundation, it must be re-emphasised that this “loss by fire” is no trivial matter. It is a solemn warning to build well while we have the chance.
C8.5 OLD TESTAMENT SALVATION.
C8.5.1 SALVATION BY FAITH.
Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.
Romans 4:3 (Genesis 15:6)
There is nothing new about Salvation by Faith. Abraham understood it well.
He was the chieftain of a small tribe and the day came when several hundred people were packing tents and loading camels with provender for a journey across the desert to a country they did not know. All because Abraham had heard God’s quiet insistent inner voice saying, “Go.”
It was a living lesson in the meaning of Faith - action based on what God has said.
Later, when God promised Abraham that despite his old age he would have a son and through him become the father of a great nation to bring blessing to all nations, Abraham believed God.
And God declared, “This man takes me at my word, therefore, so far as I am concerned, he is a righteous man no matter what good or ill he has done before.”
It was not what Abraham believed that saved him but whom he believed. Believing God when He speaks, opens the way for God to get into a human life - and once God is in, He saves. It is His will to save everyone and He will never miss a chance. He is Saviour by nature. Given the opportunity to save, He seizes it.
The problem is, to believe God one has to listen to Him first. And most of us go around wearing anti-God ear plugs.
C8.5.2. A VOICE THAT GETS THROUGH.
Now there is a new message; one that has the capacity to pierce defences, to be heard through the ear plugs. It brings God’s voice to the heart of the hearer and those who believe are saved, like Abraham.
Believing the doctrines of the Church will never save anybody - not even those doctrines the Church has got right.
Somewhere mixed up in the middle of the Church’s teaching, however, it is still possible to find the central facts that he commissioned His followers to take to the world. These are the defence-busting gate-crashing armour-piercing truths that can actually get through to people who are living without a thought of God in their lives. Once they get through, God speaks. Once God speaks and is heard, it is possible to, “Believe God” and be reckoned righteous.
C8.5.3 WHAT HAS NOT CHANGED.
Abel was the first human to die. He entered whatever form of Paradise was set up at the time, and must have been a bit lonely until a few more arrived.
Abel was not sinless, although he was righteous and one of God’s people. The only way a person who has sinned can be forgiven and go to heaven is because God’s Son was crucified for our sins. Timing differences, however, do not bother God much.
Romans 3:25-26 explains God’s past present and future forgiveness, all in one.
God has put Him forward publicly as the one who, by shedding His own blood, became the meeting place between God and those who trust Him.
This shows how God could be right to pass over sins in years gone by and, without compromising justice, can still be right to justify those who trust Jesus.
This is how Enoch and Methuselah and Noah were saved, likewise the Patriarchs, Job, Moses, David and Daniel. Their understanding of how God could forgive was limited. Plenty of people today form a relationship with God and have their sins forgiven without understanding what is going on any more than did the Old Testament Saints.
Understanding how God saves is wonderful. It tells us more about God’s love, His righteousness, His plan, His nature and character and a whole lot more. It opens the way for a full experience of the Holy Spirit in our lives and it brings with it “Sure and Certain Hope,” but understanding how He does it is not necessary for salvation any more now than it was then.
C8.6. SOME PEOPLE WE SHALL MEET IN HEAVEN.
No one has much difficulty in expecting to meet the Old Testament “nice guys” like Isaac and Joseph and Boaz and Ruth. Some of the heroes of faith listed in Hebrews ten were not quite such nice guys, but they certainly had faith. Rahab the prostitute had enough faith to hide enemy spies and tell lies to protect them, eventually marrying one of them or one of their colleagues. Samson had enough faith to clobber the Philistines but his private life did not bear too much scrutiny.
When Peter refers to Lot as a righteous man it really seems like stretching the facts. Granted he was weak and his sins were of cowardice rather than wilfulness, we might make excuses for him but few of us would use the word righteous of almost anything he did. In the middle of compromise with evil, however, he hated it. Righteous? God’s standards seem to be slipping.
Come to think of it though, Ezekiel had a vision in which, surrounded by a thoroughly corrupt society, God had some people marked out as His own (sealed) who “sighed and cried because of the abominations.” Perhaps that was where Lot came in (and a lot more like him).
There was an evil king Manasseh who repented at the end of a long and horrendous reign, but at least he did repent. Another king Asa ruled long and well but his last days did not match up to the godliness of his earlier reign; so according to some theologians it will be Manasseh we meet Heaven but not Asa. I’m sure God can actually manage better than that and we shall meet both.
But let us now look at the greatest anomaly of all.
C8.6.1. THE SUPREME BACKSLIDER.
If there is one supreme example in scripture of a backslider it is King Saul.
He was chosen king because of his godly character and clearly ruled well and in obedience to God for the early part of his reign. Saul was no Judas, masquerading as a disciple but never calling Jesus, “Lord.” Saul was a real saved man of God like Jacob and Moses and all other Old Testament saints.
Saul disobeyed God and forfeited his kingdom and then refused to accept God’s verdict. If he had repented he would have abdicated, leaving the kingdom to Jonathan and retiring from the scene.
He did not repent but clung to his kingdom and later allowed his jealousy of David to grow to insane proportions. He tried in a weak man’s rage to murder David (by then a seasoned warrior who had no problem evading the old king’s spear).
Saul drove David to exile and ordered the murder of the priests who had helped him. He made a pathetically weak and meaningless show of penitence on the two occasions when David spared his life. Finally he broke God’s laws and his own by consulting a medium.
The day before the battle in which he was killed, Saul went incognito to a medium at Endor and asked to be put in touch with the spirit of the prophet Samuel.
The narrative plainly tells us that it was Samuel who came, not as may happen at seances, a deceiving evil spirit but, evidently permitted by God, the prophet himself.
Samuel’s message for Saul was that defeat and death awaited him, but then came the amazing declaration, “Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.”
He did not need to say, “with me” if all he meant was “dead.” The fact was he did say it. Saul the arch backslider would be together with his faithful son Jonathan and the prophet Samuel.
Now I refuse to believe that those destined for Heaven and those destined for Hell would ever be sitting side by side comparing notes in the same waiting-room. (I do not think any interpreter has ever suggested it.)
Saul will be in Heaven!
Samuel’s “tomorrow” did not even leave time for a few years in purgatory - not that it is expiration of time that matters there. Saul’s accounting to God must surely have been one of the hardest ever. Years of bad rule, betrayal of his original trust, jealousy, murder, witchcraft, stubborn refusal to repent on earth - all had to be faced in the searching light of heaven’s purity. (The traditional idea of purgatory might have been easier to endure.) Saul must have well nigh shrivelled up in that scorching encounter.
Did Saul then get what he deserved? No way. Sinners are never big enough to get what they deserve. The Son of God took what Saul deserved on the cross. He did the same for me.
The clear lesson of the story is that once God takes hold of a person He saves them and never lets go. The undoubted reality of Saul’s early relationship with God enabled God to save him just as much as it would have done if it had come at the end of his life - as it did in the case of other evil kings like Manasseh or Nebuchadnezzar who sinned first and repented late.
C8.7. OUR THINKING IS BOUND BY TIME.
And what, after all is the difference? Time. Is God so bound by time? Saul turned to God first and later turned away to evil, but the link was established and the final result was the same as if the order had been reversed.
We are not dealing with a question of justice. Justice is satisfied at the Cross. Salvation is all about rescue, not fair play. Even human rescuers save as many as they can regardless of whether they deserve it or not. We are dealing with the existence or non-existence of a lifeline, a link that God can use to haul a person to safety. If God loves so much that He gave so much, He will not let slip an opportunity to save.
Why should we think it strange that if God can save an evil person who repents at the end, He can also pull in at the end, a lifeline that was secured in earlier years? Why should we imagine that the order of events is so significant in eternity?
C8.8 GOD’S WILL TO SAVE.
Gods love for us humans and His Will to save us despite our sin, is measured by the Cross of Christ. If He loves so much He will never let slip an opportunity of saving anyone, nor will He let slip any one whom He has saved. Only those who make a deliberate and permanent choice of evil and to reject His forgiveness, can be lost; because God will never undervalue the sacrifice of His Son.