| Throughout my study of God's Word, I
repeatedly came across an underlying contradiction.
Unconditional verses like these:
Mark 16:16
- He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does
not believe will be condemned.
John 3:16 -
For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 10:28 -
And I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and not
anyone shall pluck them out of My hand.
Ephesians 2:8,9
- For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Hebrews 13:5
- Let your way of life be without the love of money, and be content with
such things as you have, for He has said, "Not at all will I leave you,
not at all will I forsake you, never!"
Did not match up with conditional
verses like these:
Matthew 10:22
- And you will be hated of all men for My name's sake, the the
one who endures to the end shall be kept safe.
1 Corinthians 9:24
- Do you not know that those running in a race all run, but one receives
the prize? So run, that you may obtain.
2 John 1:8 -
Look to yourselves, so that we may not lose those things which we worked
out, but that we may receive a full reward.
And especially,
1 Corinthians 9:27
- But I buffet my body, and lead it captive, lest proclaiming to others
I myself might be rejected.
How could this apostle of Christ
be worried about being rejected after his personal experience with Christ
and then all the work he did for the Kingdom?
I didn't understand how these
Scriptures could illustrate such opposite outcomes. One group of
verses made it sound like our salvation was eternally secure, while
another group indicated we could somehow lose the race.
If I was truly saved, how could I
lose the reward of salvation, as some verses suggested?
If my salvation depended on
works, then how did that fit with the fundamental principles of unmerited
favor and being saved by grace alone that I was taught since I was saved
in 1986?
Was my interpretation wrong, or
did these verses mean something other than what I had been taught?
I asked the Lord to clarify this
for me. I searched the Scripture, I read books, and I prayed for
understanding on this very important principle.
I wanted to make sure I was
heading in the right direction. Eternity and judgment were becoming
the most important topics in my life. The Lord revealed bits and
pieces to me throughout years of questioning.
Finally, after 17 years of
walking with the Lord, He revealed the answer to me! The answer to
this baffling question became clear to me!
What Jesus revealed to me was
that salvation and rewards - losing or gaining them - were two separate
issues. They were two entirely different subjects!
Simply put, salvation, by
accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior as the payment for our sins, is
permanent. Rewards, however, are not automatic entitlements.
There were different meanings to those verses, and this is what the
differences were!
That meant that verses like,
John 10:28 -
And I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and not
anyone shall pluck them out of My hand.
Ephesians 2:8,9
- For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
did mean that salvation is
untouchable. We are sealed and that seal is unbreakable.
Ephesians 1:13,14
- in whom also you, hearing the Word of Truth, the gospel of our
salvation, in whom also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit
of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance, to the redemption of
the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
But verse that dealt with
rewards, prizes, and races like,
1 Corinthians 9:24
- Do you not know that those running in a race all run, but one receives
the prize? So run, that you may obtain.
1 Corinthians 9:27
- But I buffet my body, and lead it captive, lest proclaiming to others
I myself might be rejected.
were dependent upon something.
They were based on works - words, thoughts, and deeds of the believer.
I found a verse that summed it
all up,
1 Corinthians 3:15
- If anyone's work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss. But
he shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
I learned that rewards are based
on the believer's obedience to the Lord and his work while he is on earth.
They depend on how well we have completed our tasks, served with whole
heartedness, and how much we were transformed into the image of Christ.
As soon as I discovered this, I
found book after book that expounded on this. The Bible backed up
everything I was learning. Now that this question was answered, all
of these verses took on a completely new meaning!
Everything became clear and
immediately made sense to me. This explained the apparent
contradiction in these verses. There was no contradiction at all!
Salvation and rewards are two entirely separate events!
When we are born-again, the blood
of Jesus eternally changes our spirits. Our spirits can't go back to
their unsaved state.
However, everything we do from
that point forward - our words, thoughts, and deeds - will be judged and
our rewards will be based on them.
Jesus is not only our Savior, He
is also our Lord. He is our boss! Just as earthly bosses do,
He evaluates our performance. He wants to reward our earthly
performance and will do this on Judgment Day.
This helped me to understand that
there is a great price to pay for Christians who do not love the Lord with
all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and those who regularly
practice evil deeds.
The verses that said that every
word, every thought, every deed will be judged became real to me.
They were now the basis of my eternity!
Matthew 12:36
- But I say to you that every idle word, whatever men may speak, they
shall give account of it in the day of judgment.
Romans 14:12
- So then each one of us will give account concerning himself to God.
Revelation 22:12
- And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to
each according as his work is.
But, these verses seemed almost
impossible to comply with. This was serious! How can every
word be controlled? Certainly God couldn't mean EVERY one!
Yes. He does mean every one!
The Words in the Bible are real!
They are not just written for us to think about and then comply with
whatever we agree with whenever we want to. They are the
basis of everything! They are the basis of our lives, the world, and
the galaxy - for all eternity! They need to be taken seriously.
They need to be studied, understood, and applied to our lives.
Because there will be a judgment and reward for all of us who are going to
heaven.
Either positive or negative.
The good news is, the more we
grow in God's wisdom and knowledge, and conform our will to His, the more
we will be able to attain the perfect will of God in our lives. The
more we will be able to comply with what the Word expects us to do.
This revelation has changed both
my husband's and my goal in life. Our goal is now to work on getting
every thought, word, and deed lined up with God's perfect will. We
are working to discipline our tongues, our bodies, and our minds so that
we become tougher participants in the race to the finish line.
We now share the insights the
Lord has given us with others who also want to run the race in such as way
as to win the prize.
Our Mission Statement:
The mission of Perfect Will
Ministries, Inc. is to equip believers with knowledge about eternity to
motivate them to attain the perfect will of God in their lives; to
increase awareness of the impact their thoughts, words, and deeds will
have on their lives in heaven; and to teach them how to develop their
eternal life skills. |
