Collision With Prophecy
Collision With Prophecy #13:
Stealing Candy From Babies
Introduction
The beast of Revelation thirteen has not been inactive. As we saw in out last meeting The Final Lie, He has been aggressive about inserting tweaked prophetic schemes to try to take the pointing finger of prophecy away from the entities through which He has worked so carefully. But the angel's warning of woe unto us, that the devil has come down to us with great wrath, is important. He's sought more than merely to adjust how we interpret prophecy. He's inserted his fingers very carefully into the theology of salvation. His most diligent work has been directed at the gospel.
Perhaps it will seem strange to you to present a topic in a prophecy series and name it "Stealing Candy From Babies." Until we look at this verse. Turn with me to a text you'll remember from our fourth meeting: 2 Corinthians 11:4.
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
In the same chapter, Paul says that "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). He was an angel of light, chose to become an angel of darkness, and now comes to us presenting himself as an angel of light. Now consider Galatians 1:6-8:
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
How is a Person Saved?
Let's be clear. Among the most fundamental questions that can be asked, really, is how is a person saved? Even more fundamental though, are the questions that logically must be resolved before asking this, like
Question: Why is salvation needed?
Answer : Because of the sin problem?
Question: What are the dimensions of the sin problem?
Answer: Humankind has been desperately impacted and depraved through the impact of sin. We are so weakened by the fall of man that unless there is an intervention from outside of ourselves, we will choose to sin and destroy ourselves.
Question: I thought this sin issue was a legal thing. God made a law. People broke it. Now they are condemned. Isn't this so?
Answer: It is true that people are legally condemned for breaking God's law. However, it is more a matter of what God is rather than what rules He makes. He is unselfish love and the government by which He purposes to run His universe is characterized by unselfish love. The matter is far more than a legal issue alone. Humankind is broken and requires fixing in order to be able to exist in the presence of a holy God. We must not only be forgiven, but we must be changed. But we've been given free choice and so God will not force change upon us. There are no shortcuts for God or for us. He can resolve the issue only through a revelation of the fruits of each system (selfishness versus unselfishness) to an on-looking universe. We call this conflict the great controversy.
Question: This may seem very different from what I've been taught. How dis it happen? How do you get from there to here?
Answer: Doubtlessly it is different. The real question is, how did most of Christendom get from here to there? There was a departure from the Scriptures. Methods of interpreting Scripture entirely alien to the Bible have been imposed upon it from outside. Our method takes all Scripture seriously-- letting all of Scripture have its proper weight, thus truly informing us of God's will. We derive our methods of interpretation from the internal witness of the Bible itself. Scripture interprets Scripture. That's how we get "here."
The Shortcut
How is a person saved? Just ask your standard Christian person. You may get the answer, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). But go further. What do they mean by these words? Behind words are ideas. What do they mean by "grace," or "faith," or "salvation," or "works." Ever think about it? Those definitions are very important to us. After all, if we were able to just fill-in our own blanks, the equation would read as follows: "For by _____ are ye _____ through _____; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of _____, lest any man should boast." How we fill-in those blanks is giant to how we understand our involvement in the salvation process. What we need, is context--the surrounding verses that undergird the ideas being expressed in these two verses. Anything less will provide a shape-shifting, jello-like definition. We do not want to venture our eternal fate upon anything that jiggles too much.
For a long time Christians have indulged themselves by taking shortcuts in understanding, shortcuts in behavior, and shortcuts in using the Bible. The Bible is the Holy Spirit's Book. We cannot use it
The Long-Cut
Since most of the assumptions people have today about salvation are built upon their conception of being saved "by grace through faith," we need to plow into this passage. We want to get past how we have filled in the blanks, or how our teachers have filled in the blanks, or how we would prefer that God had filled in the blanks, to how He has, in fact already filled in the blanks.
Before we do that though, let's take an airplane-ride through the book of Ephesians and see what Paul says all through the epistle. This will give us some context with which to compare what he says in chapter two. We won't expect him to disagree with himself.
Holiness
Turn with me to Ephesians 1:3-4. Holiness is a major theme in the book of Ephesians. The book begins with Paul's statement that God has "blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Just for starters we would have to wonder what "all" spiritual blessings could mean if it doesn't include "all" spiritual blessings, including the blessing of present victorious living over sin. Issues of sin and righteousness are spiritual issues. Victory over sin surely counts as a spiritual blessing. "All" spiritual blessings cannot be "all" spiritual blessings, unless it includes the blessing of real victory over sin now. Real, actual victory over sin now is required by the opening words of Paul.
Although he launches by saying that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, "that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love," that is really just the beginning of the riches of the gospel and holiness! Look at Ephesians 2:21. There we find this Scripture saying that when we let Christ infill us, there will be a unity between us transcending racial or ethnic divisions, so that the sum of God's people can be described as growing together into "an holy temple" in the Lord. In Ephesians 4:23-24, we again find that there is no escape from holiness in the gospel. Here stands the exhortation that we:
Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye we put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Why are we so fond of saying that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), but we aren't so fond of repeating this Scripture, which says that when we let our Creator renew us, we are recreated "in righteousness and true holiness"? It's cut-and-paste gospel to take the one and to discount the other; that's what it is. We have to take the whole of Scripture.
Again, as Paul comes to the last chapters in his letter to the Ephesians, he pauses to speak of holiness and the church. What does he say here? Turn to Ephesians 5:25-27 and see.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Christ loved His church. He gave Himself for His church. He has an unchanged purpose for His church (for He changes not. Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). He sanctifies His church. He cleanses His church. He washes His church by the water of His Word. He presents His church to Himself then, having been made by Him into a glorious church. His church will have no wrinkle. His church will have no spot
But does this sound like the church that most of Christendom says is going to heaven? They say she'll go, all defiled and confused and all crippled-up by sin. But God says she will be without blemish, without spot, holy. Who do you believe? In fact, even in Ephesians, by the Holy Spirit, Paul says, "know this: no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
Grace
The word "grace" occurs no less than a dozen times in these six brief chapters. In Ephesians 1:2 and Ephesians 6:24 we have it as Paul's characteristic greeting and closing. But even as such it is far more than a pleasant "hello." He wants his hearers to have grace in its fullness, not in a cheapened, halfway version.
In Ephesians 1:6-7 we see that grace makes us accepted in the Beloved (in Jesus), and that our present redemption and forgiveness of sins come in relation to the richness of His grace. But we must notice that this is not where he stops. Not at all. Consider these lines as he develops his theme of the power of the gospel of grace. Look at Ephesians 1:16-20.
[I] Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.
He prays that the Ephesians will be given the knowledge of Jesus
Another cluster of texts where we find "grace" in this book is in Ephesians 3:2, 7, 8. Paul there says he was given grace for sharing faith, that it was given to him "by the effectual working of His [God's] power." This is no cheap grace. It is a grace that works mightily in all who believe. It is a grace that is part of "all spiritual blessings" in Christ.
Ephesians 4:7 says that we are "given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Perhaps you will agree. The measure of the gift of Christ is a measure far beyond all we can ask or think. Again, in Ephesians 4:29 , grace is given to so that what is spoken will be uplifting to those who hear. This is a grace that is given for the up-building of the kingdom of God.
Now a Look at Ephesians Two
There is much more to dig out of Ephesians. We've only just begun to plumb its spiritual riches. But let's come back to the first part of Ephesians two, where we find this text on salvation by grace through faith that has sometimes been misused or misunderstood. Let's follow on through the passage. First, let's hear exactly what was written. Look at Ephesians 2:1-10.
And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, 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 show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it 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.
Let's notice a few things. Consider what we heard in the first five verses of this passage. Here, the talk is not at about what the Christian is now, but of what he used to be before He came to Christ. Before Christ we were "dead in trespasses and sins." There was a power working in us that worked in the "children of disobedience." The same phrase is found in other of Paul's words: Ephesians 5:6, and Colossians 3:6. Both of those passages speak of the wrath of God that comes upon those who refuse to obey. And there was a time when we refused to obey. We didn't want to obey. We didn't want to find out anything about God; we thought maybe then we would be more accountable. We used to live that way. We used to be darkness (Ephesians 5:8). But even when the whole human race were enemies to God (Romans 5:10), He intervened. He sent Jesus. He didn't send Him to change an entry on the account in heaven somewhere, but to do that which would open the way for changed hearts in His people.
Friends, we had to be dead before we could be raised from the dead. All of Paul's talk about our being saved "by grace through faith" in Ephesians 2:5, 8 is couched within the context of his emphasis on Christ's resurrection and His power to save. See, saving isn't just a legal thing. It's not just heavenly lawyer-stuff. Salvation is far, far more. It is restoration. It is resurrection, both later and now. The body is changed later, in the blink of the eye (1 Corinthians 15:52). The character is changed now, in the proving of a lifetime (1 John 3:2). And that kind of change involves a power out of and beyond our reach. It is a power that God sends "unto all and upon all" that believe (Romans 3:22) to change what's already been sent unto and upon all through the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) of this world, with our previous unfortunate co-operation.
Ephesians 2:4-7 shows us that Jesus made a bridge for a race of enemies who weren't asking for it. Through His sacrifice for them wrought out at the cross and applied through His high Priestly ministry, to "as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the Sons of God" (John 1:12). Ephesians says, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sin, 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 toward us through Christ Jesus." We had to be dead before we could be raised from the dead. Paul's inspired words of salvation ("by grace through faith"), are built upon resurrection. While were in a sense dead in the present, we are now in a sense resurrected in the present through Christ. Christ died to open the door for His people. Christ lives ever to make intercession. The intercession is not a cover up, but a recovery. Living under grace means being able to go in and out through the door of resurrection power, given to those whom Jesus says "go in and out and find pasture" (John 10:9).
Consider now Ephesians 2:8-9 with this background. Through our great high Priest Jesus (Hebrews 2:17), God changes those receiving Him. It's simple. It's the application of divine power, the making of partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4). When Paul says "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast," He is not talking salvation in a purely legal or forensic sense. The Bible knows nothing of this. Salvation is always spoken of in the Bible as life-change. Always! Salvation by grace through faith is not mere words on a page somewhere in a heavenly filing cabinet. Listen, Christ didn't just rise from the tomb on paper
It is of God.
Now before we leave this passage, we need to look at the neglected tenth verse: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Is God's workmanship just on paper? That's what the devil says. When God and Job had an argument in the first two chapters of the book of Job, Satan asserted as much. But God said "No, here's a guy who is living it. Job is My workmanship." We are created in Christ Jesus, "unto good works." So it is plain that something is expected to be evident now. Our lives are the scene of heaven's concrete demonstration of unselfishness at work. "God hath before ordained" that "we should walk in them." It was never intended that the gospel would be perceived merely as a legal thing. It was always intended that it would change those who believed, who are blessed with "all spiritual blessings." Jesus came to save His people from their sins, not in them (Matthew 1:21). Don't forget, Ephesians starts by stating that God chose us in Him (Jesus) before the foundation of the world. For what purpose? That we "should be holy and without blame before Him in love" (Ephesians 1:4).
Stealing Candy from Babies
The old-fashioned portrayal of an evil person, in the much more restrained culture of decades ago, was a picture of an adult male stealing candy from a helpless baby. That picture emphasized the heartless cruelty of an adult overpowering a helpless infant. Repeatedly the Bible warns us, in very plain terms, of shepherds who feed themselves upon the flocks they are supposedly protecting, or of false teachers making merchandise of the gospel or their congregation of hearers. Doubtless, some ministers knowingly are fleecing their flock. They may not believe in the Bible after all, but will still serve as your pastor. But there is another situation too.
Some of our pastors and ministers and priests have themselves been sold a rotten bill of goods. They have, themselves, unknowingly been taught the lie which they have gone on
Many ideas not found in the Scriptures have found their way into Christendom in the years since the Bible was given. Augustine's concept of guilt apart from personal responsibility (original sin) was tossed into the theological bucket 400 years after the apostles had died and continues to swirl red in the cup of false doctrine. Besides the ecclesiastical imposition of priests and the church between the individual and salvation through the years, at A. D. 1054 there was an additional split in the church, from which arose the cleavage of western and eastern Christianity. In the west, the Roman Catholic Church narrowed its focus more and yet more to a legal concept of salvation, while in the east, the Orthodox Church turned its focus to a healing emphasis. There, the gospel was seen as an effective agency of heaven in healing and changing people. This conception was mostly lost to the west until John Wesley, founder of the Methodists, recovered it in the 18th century.
When the Protestant Reformation came, the main theologians of its first wave, Luther and Calvin, brought with them their Augustinian understanding of sin, along with the western and legal emphasis entwined into their views of salvation. Salvation was a legal matter. Mind you, neither Luther nor Calvin were in favor of sin; it was just that their gospel didn't conceive of fullness of victory over sin. In Lutheranism especiallythinking was formatted largely according to an exaggerated contrast between "grace" and "law." These saw "law" as the problem, when, as we've come out clear on by now I hope, sin was and is the problem. Law just shows sin for what it is. Grace empowers obedience to Christ and His Ten Commandment law. It is Christ and the law. The law to reveal need, Christ to save. The law cannot save, but if the law is optional Christ needn't die. But He did die. He did (thusly) uphold His law.
That unfortunate understanding that one can be "at the same time holy and sinning" formed the foundation for today's cheap grace variants on the gospel. Inevitably, these loophole salvation plans emphasize what they call grace, but that which the Bible calls sensuality. It calls it "turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness ["unrestrained lust"], and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude 4). It must come as no surprise to us nor as something optional for us, that when we turn grace into lasciviousness, we are denying Jesus. There is no way around it.
Which gospel is it? Stolen sweets or lifechange?
Conclusion and Preview
Can I ask you a serious question? What if they sold you a house, but they had changed the furniture before you ever saw it. The furniture that you bought had been stolen and replaced with cheap substitutes. You move into the home and you think that what you have is what you had signed for, but in reality, you've been scammed. You survey the scene and you don't even realize that what you've been handed isn't what you had made arrangements for. Couldn't happen. Never. Certainly not in the spiritual realm.
But this is exactly what's happened to most of Christendom. They've been pitched a counterfeit gospel. None of us were born with a full knowledge or experience in the gospel plan. Is it any wonder then that our adversary has taken so many of us, and replaced the real thing with a counterfeit sweet
Tonight we need to choose real salvation by real grace through real faith; not the saccharine stuff. Not the cheap stuff. Not the counterfeit, the gospel that "is not another" (Galatians 1:6).
But I noticed something here tonight, friends. You aren't infants any more. If the candy has been taken from you up till' now, now it can stop. There are two systems of salvation vying for your fealty. One will save you through Christ. The other will destroy you. One will seal you, the other unscrews the lid and the demons get to have a field day ruining your soul. One is strong medicine. One is strong delusion. One is from Christ. One is from Antichrist.
Choose carefully.
In our next meeting, we'll look at an important and neglected Bible teaching for this time in which we live. It comes out of Revelation chapter seven. It's the last thing that God does to His people. It is called The Sealing. Will you be sealed, or marked? There is a giant difference. This presentation will be foundational. We hope you can make it. Now let us close in prayer . . .
Larry Kirkpatrick, Last modified 2 May 2002
Contact us at larry@collisionwithprophecy.org