HOW IS IT THAT SCRIPTURE GIVES US TWO CONTRADICTORY MESSAGES – WE CAN AND CAN’T LOSE OUR SALVATION?

Scripture is deep. If it is truly God-breathed out, its depth shouldn’t surprise us, even when, at times, it is  mind-boggling. It makes statements that, on the surface, appear contradictory, but these are not contradictions. How do we know this? Because these very same “contradictions” appear throughout the Scriptures giving them the appearance that they are intentional! They are there because they were intended to be there.

Let me give you an example from the shortest book of the Bible – its first verse:

·       The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever. (2 John 1:1-2 ESV)

God is truth. To say that God “will be with us forever” is also to say that we will be in heaven with Him forever. It is also to say that we will be safe in Him for all eternity. However, a few verses later, John warned:

·       Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. (2 John 1:8-9)

John warned that we can lose it if we do “not abide in the teaching of Christ.” Puzzling? Yes! However, we find this same puzzlement throughout the Scriptures. For example, Paul had declared the same eternal assurance:

·       [God] who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:8)

However, later in this same letter, Paul didn’t express the same assurance, even about his own eternal fate:

·       Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it…But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24, 27)

Well if God will sustain us until the end, why did Paul even mention the possibility of being “disqualified?” Why does he have to “run” to “obtain” this gift of salvation? We find this same “double-message” throughout the Scriptures. One last example – Citing the New Covenant provision from Jeremiah 31:31-34, the Book of Hebrews has assured us:

·       “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” (Hebrews 10:16-17)

If God has promised to never indict us for our sins, it means that we are eternally preserved in Him, right. However, Hebrews also mentions a proviso:

·       but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope...For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.  (Hebrews 3:6, 14)

Hebrews also warns:

·       For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:26-27)

We have to continue in faith, but this means that salvation also seems to depends on us, doesn’t it? However, if salvation is a free gift so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9), then doesn’t this understanding re-introduce the danger of boasting that we have kept ourselves faithful until the end? However, we need to know whether or not we are eternally saved or whether we have to look to ourselves as our ultimate hope to stay saved.

Is there any way to resolve this apparent contradiction, which we encounter throughout the Scriptures? I think that the answer is mysterious, as mysterious as the Trinity Himself.

The first step in resolving this paradox is to return to the many assurances of the Scriptures. They assure us that, even though these warnings are real, God will walk us through the dangers and will not let go:

·       He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber…The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 121:3, 7-8)

·       I [God] will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. (Jeremiah 32:39-41)

We will not turn from God because He will give us a new heart and we will always fear the Lord. Our Savior guarantees that He will never stop doing us good:

·       For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Nevertheless, these verses are perplexing in light of the many other verses that require us to play our part to keep ourselves. How can it be both a matter of God keeping us and we keeping ourselves? Well, it is both. We are to strive, but our striving is part of the free gift of God:

·       Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13 (ESV)

We are to work out our salvation, but this is only because our Savior has us by the hand and is working out all things for our good (Romans 8:28). As strange it might seem, our work is actually God’s work:

·       But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Paul had given God the credit even for his labors. How can this be? I think that any analogy fails us, but I will offer one. Often, when my computer fails, I have called a tech-guy, who was able to remotely take over my computer. As I watched, my computer was making many adjustments. However, it wasn’t the computer but the tech-guy who had taken control of it.

However, this analogy doesn’t work. In this case, my computer wasn’t contributing anything to its repair. However, in our case, we are active participants in the salvation process. We have to continue in faith and to not permanently lapse into an intentional pattern of sinning, while we give all of the credit to God!

Admittedly, this is strange, even mentally confounding. However, this kind of participation in the plan of God shouldn’t be foreign to our understanding. Scripture is a product of both parties. While it is fully God’s Word, it is also man’s word. Each writer has his own distinctive style, vocabulary, and experiences, which their writings reflect. This suggests that our God is truly awesome. He is not like the tech-guy who works through an entirely passive computer. However, the writers of Scripture had been fully engaged, even as they quarreled and wrestled with their God.

Our God is able to work through our freewill choices. I don’t think that we have any analogy to help us to understand the Trinity. Nor do I think that we are capable of fully understanding how salvation is a perfectly free gift. It is like the gift of a house plant, which we must set in the light and water in order for it to grow. However, this analogy also fails us.

HOW IS IT THAT SCRIPTURE GIVES US TWO CONTRADICTORY MESSAGES – WE CAN AND CAN’T LOSE OUR SALVATION?

Scripture is deep. If it is truly God-breathed out, its depth shouldn’t surprise us, even when, at times, it is  mind-boggling. It makes statements that, on the surface, appear contradictory, but these are not contradictions. How do we know this? Because these very same “contradictions” appear throughout the Scriptures giving them the appearance that they are intentional! They are there because they were intended to be there.

Let me give you an example from the shortest book of the Bible – its first verse:

·       The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever. (2 John 1:1-2 ESV)

God is truth. To say that God “will be with us forever” is also to say that we will be in heaven with Him forever. It is also to say that we will be safe in Him for all eternity. However, a few verses later, John warned:

·       Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. (2 John 1:8-9)

John warned that we can lose it if we do “not abide in the teaching of Christ.” Puzzling? Yes! However, we find this same puzzlement throughout the Scriptures. For example, Paul had declared the same eternal assurance:

·       [God] who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:8)

However, later in this same letter, Paul didn’t express the same assurance, even about his own eternal fate:

·       Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it…But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24, 27)

Well if God will sustain us until the end, why did Paul even mention the possibility of being “disqualified?” Why does he have to “run” to “obtain” this gift of salvation? We find this same “double-message” throughout the Scriptures. One last example – Citing the New Covenant provision from Jeremiah 31:31-34, the Book of Hebrews has assured us:

·       “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” (Hebrews 10:16-17)

If God has promised to never indict us for our sins, it means that we are eternally preserved in Him, right. However, Hebrews also mentions a proviso:

·       but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope...For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.  (Hebrews 3:6, 14)

Hebrews also warns:

·       For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:26-27)

We have to continue in faith, but this means that salvation also seems to depends on us, doesn’t it? However, if salvation is a free gift so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9), then doesn’t this understanding re-introduce the danger of boasting that we have kept ourselves faithful until the end? However, we need to know whether or not we are eternally saved or whether we have to look to ourselves as our ultimate hope to stay saved.

Is there any way to resolve this apparent contradiction, which we encounter throughout the Scriptures? I think that the answer is mysterious, as mysterious as the Trinity Himself.

The first step in resolving this paradox is to return to the many assurances of the Scriptures. They assure us that, even though these warnings are real, God will walk us through the dangers and will not let go:

·       He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber…The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 121:3, 7-8)

·       I [God] will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. (Jeremiah 32:39-41)

We will not turn from God because He will give us a new heart and we will always fear the Lord. Our Savior guarantees that He will never stop doing us good:

·       For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Nevertheless, these verses are perplexing in light of the many other verses that require us to play our part to keep ourselves. How can it be both a matter of God keeping us and we keeping ourselves? Well, it is both. We are to strive, but our striving is part of the free gift of God:

·       Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13 (ESV)

We are to work out our salvation, but this is only because our Savior has us by the hand and is working out all things for our good (Romans 8:28). As strange it might seem, our work is actually God’s work:

·       But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Paul had given God the credit even for his labors. How can this be? I think that any analogy fails us, but I will offer one. Often, when my computer fails, I have called a tech-guy, who was able to remotely take over my computer. As I watched, my computer was making many adjustments. However, it wasn’t the computer but the tech-guy who had taken control of it.

However, this analogy doesn’t work. In this case, my computer wasn’t contributing anything to its repair. However, in our case, we are active participants in the salvation process. We have to continue in faith and to not permanently lapse into an intentional pattern of sinning, while we give all of the credit to God!

Admittedly, this is strange, even mentally confounding. However, this kind of participation in the plan of God shouldn’t be foreign to our understanding. Scripture is a product of both parties. While it is fully God’s Word, it is also man’s word. Each writer has his own distinctive style, vocabulary, and experiences, which their writings reflect. This suggests that our God is truly awesome. He is not like the tech-guy who works through an entirely passive computer. However, the writers of Scripture had been fully engaged, even as they quarreled and wrestled with their God.

Our God is able to work through our freewill choices. I don’t think that we have any analogy to help us to understand the Trinity. Nor do I think that we are capable of fully understanding how salvation is a perfectly free gift. It is like the gift of a house plant, which we must set in the light and water in order for it to grow. However, this analogy also fails us.