“Who
do you say that I am?”
Nothing
any person does in life is more important, more crucial, than answering this
question. One's response determines an
individual’s ultimate destiny,
where
that person will spend eternity after this short life on Earth is over. And it
is indeed a short life lived in our physical bodies. God’s Word, the
Bible,
speaks truth about the matter: “The days of our years [are] threescore years
and ten; and if by reason of strength [they be] fourscore years, yet
[is]
their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away”
(Psa. 90:10). Again, God’s Word says: “Whereas ye know not what shall be
on
the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a
little time, and then vanisheth away” (Jas. 4:14).
Jesus
asked that most profound question to ever confront mankind. He asked His
disciples directly: “…whom say ye that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). When Peter
answered,
“Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” (Matt. 16: 16), the Lord said,
“Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed
it
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 16:17).
Jesus
went on to declare that He would build His church upon that very foundation.
All who truly believe and confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
will
become children of the heavenly Father. This truth is confirmed by the inspired
words of Paul the apostle following Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection:
“That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”
(Rom.
10:9).
The
question posed by Jesus when He asked, “Whom say ye that I am?” is the one
every individual has to answer. It is not an option. One must either accept
that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, or reject Jesus Christ, thus
declaring that Jesus was not and is not who He claimed to be. Believing
upon
Jesus Christ and His redemptive sacrifice on the cross at Calvary for the sins
of mankind (Jn. 3:16) means a person will be saved from sin, which
separates
the souls of men and women, boys and girls, from God, Christ’s Father. Not
believing upon Christ means eternal separation from God in a place
of
torment called the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:11-14).
To
accept Christ’s sacrifice is to recognize and admit you are a sinner who needs
salvation. You must totally believe Christ died for you. You must ask
that
Jesus come into your soul and become Lord of your life. By inviting Him to come
into your life, you agree that you desire to turn from your sinful
life and depend upon the Lord to direct your
life as He deems best. Jesus instantly comes to dwell within your soul through
God the Holy Spirit. This
is
called being “born again” (Jn. 3:3). You are then a child of God, saved once
and for all –for all of eternity. The Holy Spirit dwelling within you begins
helping
you grow under new management –King Jesus, the Lord of Lords!
Your
future is secure because God holds onto you forever, not because you are
holding onto Him! This is most important to recognize and remember. Christ
does
the saving of your soul. Your part is to simply and genuinely accept the grace
gift, the sacrifice for redemption God offers through His beloved Son,
the
"Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Jn. 1:29; Rev. 13:8).
We
know with absolute certainty you are once and forever in God’s family because
of the words of the One who created all that exists. The Lord Jesus Christ
said,
“My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to
pluck [them] out of my Father's hand” (Jn.10:29). Jesus was speaking
about
all people who have lived on Planet Earth who have or will in the future accept
Him as God’s once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world.
He
was telling us, through the Mighty Word of the God of Heaven, that it is
impossible for the heavenly Father to ever let a single born-again child of
His
slip from His omnipotent grip.
The
Apostle Paul, under direct inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, nailed down
eternal security of the born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
wrote:
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height,
nor
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39). Paul said further,
“…for I know whom I have believed, and am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that day” (2 Tim. 1:12).
Many
who are true Christians today hold that the Bible teaches that people saved by
the matchless, unfathomable grace of God can lose salvation if they
backslide
to the point that sin rules their lives. They reject the Bible truth "once
saved always saved." Many of these who believe, preach, and teach
insecurity
of the believer (that one can lose salvation) declare at the same time that a Christian called “carnal” can be re-redeemed, restored
to the
family
of God upon repentance. They accept part of the truth found in Hebrews 6:4-6,
but deny the truth of the other part. That Scripture says: “For it
is
impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly
gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the
good
word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to
renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves
the
Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Jas. 6:4-6).
Those
who believe you can fall from grace (lose salvation once you are saved) often
put forth that the above Scripture proves their case. They say the words
"if
they shall fall away" teaches there is the possibility of being saved,
then falling away from salvation because of sinfulness. Yet, if the phrase, "if
they
shall fall away," proves the case that salvation can be lost through
sinfulness once one is under the grace of God through Christ's shed blood on
the
cross of Calvary, how, then, can the person who falls away be restored through
repentance? They ignore this Scripture's plain teaching that no one
could,
if he fell from grace, come back into the salvation fold.
What
Hebrews 6: 4-6 teaches, of course, is that it is impossible to lose your
salvation. The thing that must be considered here is whether one, if he then
lives
in sin, without any desire to repent, was ever a born-again believer. Paul
wrote, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may
abound?
God forbid” (Rom. 6:1-2). Eternal security is not license to sin without severe
consequences. God will discipline His children. In some cases,
the
heavenly Father will call home His disobedient children who will not heed His
corrective measures. The Bible truth about those who claim to be “Christians,”
yet
who live "like the devil" with seemingly no consequences is: they are
probably the children of another father –the Devil.
John,
the great apostle, through divine inspiration, spoke to this Bible truth: “They
went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of
us,
they would (no doubt) have continued with us: but (they went out), that they
might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (1 Jn. 2:19).
Almighty
God holds the saved within His all-powerful hand, Jesus said. It is stronger
than any lamination process that could ever be devised. God’s seal
cannot
be broken under any circumstances. Paul wrote about Jesus and those who truly
believe in Him for their salvation: “In whom ye also trusted, after
that
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which
is
the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13-14).
Paul
wrote that a believer should strive never to disappoint or grieve God. But in
the next thought he assures that the believer is eternally secure, no
matter
what: “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the
day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).
The
Lord explained, through John, the relationship of the born-again child of God
to his or her heavenly Father when it comes to the matter of sin: “If
we
say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not
the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all
sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the
truth is not in us.
If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:6-9).
Some
claim that once saved, a person can live in sinless perfection. Let’s see what
God says about this: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him
a
liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, these things write I unto
you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not
for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby
we
do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know
him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not
in
him” (1 Jn. 1:10-2:4).
When
the Lord Jesus prays, the heavenly Father ALWAYS grants His Son’s prayer. Jesus
prayed for the children of God –all children past, present, and future,
saved
through Christ’s precious shed blood: "I pray for them: I pray not for the
world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And
all
mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them…Neither pray I
for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their
word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou
hast
sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be
one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect
in
one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them,
as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given
me,
be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me:
for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
O
righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and
these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy
name,
and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them,
and I in them (Jn. 17: 9-10; 20-26).
Paul
wrote extensively about his own sinfulness –and he meant the sin he committed
after his Damascus Road experience. He was saved, yet sinned, much to
his
sorrowful remorse. Read Romans, beginning with verse 14. He then wrote the
following, telling us that we live above sin because we are seen by the
heavenly
Father through Christ Jesus, not through our flesh: “There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after
the
flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could
not
do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the
righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things
of
the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to
be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and
peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh
cannot
please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the
Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of
Christ,
he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin;
but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit
of
him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that
dwelleth
in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after
the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye
through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have
not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth
witness
with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs;
heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer
with
him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom. 8:1-17).
Jesus
is the One who makes us free. If we are free in Him, we are free indeed!
Eternally!